New Eldar Codex: Craftworlds review part 3 - Fast, Heavy and Formations

April 27, 2015, 11:56 am

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Phew, 3rd and final part of the review is here chaps. Without further ado:

Fast Attack:

Wave Serpent: As with other books, the transports have moved to fast attack. The serpent itself is a little cheaper and mostly unchanged. The weaponry on the other hand is significantly different, meaning no more twin-linking everything with scatter lasers and firing Serpent shields every turn. Much more balanced and IMO no returns to being a transport first and gun platform second. At last something in the book that has been toned down!

Swooping Hawks: They were vastly improved in the last book and this book is no different. The grenade pack changed a bit (covered above) and swooping hawk wings changed to incorporate skyleap (yay Autarchs) as well as making them 50% faster. Herald of victory has the same rules but changed to become the Exarch ability. If all that wasn't enough, another big change here also. Intercept was a rule that disappeared last edition but is now back. These guys can now make a S4 AP4 haywire attack at the end of the movement phase against any flyer or FMC they move over. It hits (side armour) on a 4+. This is huge seeing how devastating haywire is with the hull points system. Given that there's no points increase I'd say Hawks are one of the winners of this Codex.

Warp Spiders: A great unit last edition, these chaps have also had some tweaking. Same price and a few subtle wargear changes, such as monofilament weapons no longer having bonus strength and now wounding against initiative characteristics instead - no different for your average guard or marine but better against necrons and worse against SM Heroes and other Eldar. The Warp jump generator no longer kills you as easily anymore. Here's the really nice change I like though. Flickerjump (stupid name) allows you to warp jump in the enemies shooting phase when it is first targetted, although it only moves 2D6. The firer then cannot choose another target if out of LOS or range. This then precludes the Spiders from using the WJG next turn but still, what a great and fluffy rule (makes me think of the DOW2 intro). Iron resolve has now changed to allow auto passes for pinning , fear, regroup and morale checks if you take an Exarch. All else remains the same.

Shining spears: Again, wargear changes combined with subtle rule changes. The Spears are the same price and are now always AP3 in combat not just on the charge. They retain outflank and skilled rider but in addition now have Acrobatic grace, granting them a permanent 4+ cover save when they move, meaning you don't always need to jink. Also, the Exarch gains expert hunter which allows rerolls to wound against MCs and to penetrate against vehicles. Nice.

Crimson Hunter: Now 20 points cheaper, I've always loved the Hunter and now do even more so. Mostly unchanged, except that perfect strike is now replaced with the Exarch ability Marksman's eye, which is the same as the Exarch ability from the previous book.

Vyper squadron: Got double the max squad size but otherwise the same.

Hemlock Wraithfighter: This unit stayed the same price but got a boost in the form of ML 2 for the pilot and access to Sanctic same as the other Eldar Psykers, but lost auto-terrify. Nice for consistency seeing as it is a Spiritseer pilot. The Heavy D-Scythes also got destroyer profiles and the mindshock pod changed somewhat to be -2 rather than must reroll. It has one glaring weakness still and that is it is fragile as hell and if forced to jink will be unable to fire it's scythes (plus it can't target other flyers). Auto spirit stones compensate for this somewhat in that you can likely negate stunned/shaken. Not much use to you if you're a) dead or b) have jinked though really.

Heavy Support

Dark Reapers: Another one of the books winners, Reapers got a 5 point price drop and also gained a few abilities. The reaper rangefinder and ability to upgrade to starshot (Krak) missiles remains the same, as do the options for the Exarch. The new abilities are inescapable accuracy for the squad, meaning they reroll all to hit rolls against units that zoomed, swooped, turbo-boosted or moved flat-out, and fast shot for the Exarch which is the same it has always been. Reapers are deadly against bikes it seems by rerolling to hit if they turbo-boost, having S5 AP3 and also ignoring jink. Ironically, they seem perfectly geared up to killing Windriders.

Vaul's Wrath support battery: No real changes except to the Wargear, and boy are D-cannons scary as hell! As the only gun upgrade that costs, they nearly double the cost of the unit, but a large barrage D-weapon is pretty darn terrifying and I suspect these things will be used to great effect as midfield deterrents. 

Falcons: Grav-tanks got a big change this edition which was expected last edition. They can now be taken in squadrons of 1-3. Aside from a few weapon options points, nothing has really changed except for the Cloudstrike rule. This grants the squadron the ability to grant a maximum size squadron the ability to deepstrike without scatter. Ouch! Imagine dropping 3 of them full of Fire Dragons on your opponent in turn 2.

Fire Prisms: Again, same price and no real changes except for the perk of taking more than 1 in a squadron granting linked fire. This is like the old rule where only one of them gets to fire its prism cannon but can do so at +1S and -1AP for each linked prism. So effectively you could fire a S7 AP1 large blast instead of 3 S5 AP3 ones. Not really sure it's that great unless you want to keep one out of sight - probably best used in pairs than 3s as you get down to AP1 pretty quickly regardless.

Night Spinner: I love this tank and thankfully it has changed relatively little in this book aside from the monofilament rule being less effective against tanks now. They got a power weapon cheaper too and, like their cousins, can be taken in squadrons of up to 3. Like the prism they can effectively link fire using the monofilament shroud rule, which is cumulative as with the prism and adds 1 to both the strength and shots fired. So firing 3 using this rule would result in 3 S9 shots! This is pretty good and better than the Prism version IMO. It only takes 2 Spinners to get up to S8 and start easily penetrating vehicles and instant-death marine characters.

War Walkers: No change except scatter laser price going down and no flakk option as they're standard with EMLs now.

Wraithlord: No change except for scatter laser price going down.

Lords of War

Wraithknight: Well, it's elephant in the room time. Some of the decisions that I've discussed in the book so far have been contraversial, but none so much as the Wraithknight. It was suspected that it would get Gargantuan creature status and indeed it did, making it able to stomp its way through infantry, making it resilient to poison/snipers/instant death and also granting it feel no pain (plus some other things I'm sure I've forgotten. But it did get a price rise mind to just shy of 300 points. Considering what it can do that seems on the low side already. But wait, there's more. There are 3 weapon options: suncannon and shield, which are unchanged; sword and shield, thought the shield now has Destroyer status as it rightly should at the size of a tank; and 2 heavy wraithcannons. Yes, so you can independently target two vehicles a turn and erase them from existence (assuming you hit and then don't roll a 1) and then, assuming you paid for the now useful shoulder weapons, shoot a 3rd (and 4th) target before charging and stomping it. Ouch! Compared to the pricing you get on other units in the game that is pretty insane. There's more to this story which makes it even more ridiculous but I'll cover that below. This is seemingly a unit with no drawbacks, although if I run one I will do so with the suncannon and shield to make it less ridiculous.

Avatar of Khaine: Always a favourite unit of mine, I couldn't help but feel the last few times I used him that he lacks a bit of punch compared to other MCs. Thankfully the new book has addressed this as the wailing doom now grants him +2S, making him S8 both at range and in melee. In addition to fearless, his 12" bubble now grants furious charge and rage to nearby units making him a lynchpin of an Eldar foot army. His only real downside is that he competes for the Lord of war slot with the Wraithknight, but the Warhost negates that as a problem. He can no longer purchase Exarch powers, but it's not like he really needed them in the first place.  

Formations

Guardian battlehost: The first of the formations is pretty rigid in its design. It comprises 1 Farseer, 3 Guardian defender squads, 1 Vyper squadron, 1 unit of War walkers, 1 Vaul's wrath support battery and 0-1 Warlock conclaves. Although there is flexibility of size within the individual squads, it is still quite a restricting formation. Our time of need grants free weapon platforms to the Guardian defender squads, while Vaul's might grants the Vypers, War walkers and Vaul's wrath batteries preferred enemy when shooting at units within 12" of Guardian defenders. So one rule is effectively a discount on wargear while the other is a fairly fluffy rule that represents the support units defending their bretheren. To be fair, Grav tanks, wraiths and Aspects aside this makes up a decent core for an army and encourages the use of units that wouldn't necessarily see much battlefield use otherwise. 

Windrider Host: From Ulthwe to Saimm-Hann, the Windrider host is a fast, mean and cruel thing. Take the already very powerful Windrider jetbikes x3, add in a Farseer and Warlock conclave on jetbikes and a unit of Vypers and you're left with a rapid army packed with psychic potential and S6 firepower. Tempest of blades is the perk here that once per game (if the Farseer skyrunner is still alive) allows you to add shred to all shuriken weapons in the formation. Not much use if you opted for the scatter lasers, but if you went for shuriken cannons (or even went bare bones) then it's a nifty boon. 

Guardian Stormhost: Very similar to the battlehost, except swap Guardian defenders for Storm Guardians. They also get Vaul's might, which is called close support but does exactly the same thing. Instead of our time of need they get Bring forth the torch, which is similar in principle in that you get 2 free special weapons and 2 free power swords per Storm Guardian squad, which is better value than the Defender support weapon free upgrade. It's a real shame that there wasn't simply one formation which allowed free mixing and matching of Defenders and Storm Guardians as then I would have been tempted to use it. As it stands I'll pass but if you're one of the few people out there with 3 squads of storm guardians then you might want to consider this.

 

Seer Council: This formation consists of 2 Farseers (one may be Eldrad) and a Warlock Conclave (3 minimum) and are also restricted to an all-or-nothing policy with regard to jetbike upgrades. Now for the perks. The Farseers may not leave the unit, Warlord trait may be rerolled and, crucially, psychic tests are harnessed on a 3+! This is pretty huge and will allow Eldar to dominate the psychic phase, with a max strength Seer Council having 16 warp charge (17 with Eldrad).

Aspect Host: A very powerful little formation, it is really flexible in that it allows you to pick any 3 units of aspect warriors. The only restriction is they must all have Exarchs (which to be fair you'd want anyway nowdays) and in return they all gain shrinkeepers (reroll failed morale, fear and pinning tests) and rites of battle, which grants them all either +1 to WS or BS. This is pretty huge and will reward groups of aspect warriors being clumped together, such as Banshees and Scorpions in one host, Fire Dragons, Warp spiders and Dark reapers in another. I get the feeling that those competitive players not running wraiths and jetbikes will be packing Aspect hosts as they take already good units and make them even better.

Dire Avenger Shrine: To represent the numerous Dire Avenger shrines, you can also run this Formation which is 3 units of Dire Avengers, only one of which may include an Exarch. As well as the shrinekeepers rule, they get rites of the Avenger (+1 BS) and killing strike, which allows a once per game assault 3 round of shooting rather than assault 2. A great formation to load up on the dire avengers if you like to play them and some great perks. I think I'd more likely run them as part of an aspect host as above but still worth considering.

Crimson Death: 3 Crimson Hunters (one must be an Exarch), which while excessive grants both preferred enemy against flyers and FMCs as well as granting a permanent 4+ cover save, re-rollable if the model jinks. This makes them vastly superior against other flyers in conjunction with their normal rules as they can effectively evade at will then fire back without penalty (and indeed a much better than average chance of damaging enemy flyers). 

Wraith Host: Oh dear. If you didn't think there were enough broken combos in the book yet then wait for this one. A formation consisting of a Spiritseer, Wraithlord, Wraithknight and 3 units of Wraithguard or Wraithblades. You gain not only battle focus but also get the range of wraithsight extended to 18". So you're destroyer weapons now have an even greater threat range and also can reroll to hit so long as the Spiritseer stays alive and close. Ouch! (It gets even worse below)

Eldar Warhost Detachment: Now we've talked about the contents of the book and the formations, it's time to look at the Eldar version of the Decurion. The Warhost is much less flexible within the individual formations (as you can see above), but still retains flexibility as far as what formations you want to choose. Unlike the decurion, there are 3 core detachments to choose from, which are a great way to represent either an Ulthwe (Storm host), Saimm-Hann (Windrider host) or any other Craftworld with the Defender host. You can pick 1-3 of these as your core Guardian Host detachment. Next there's the 0-3 Command, which can be either a Hero (Autarch/Eldrad/Yriel/Illic), Seer Council (2 Fareers and 1 Conclave) or Living legend (Avatar/Phoenix Lords). Again, this can be tailored to suit the particular craftworld, with Heroes from 3 of them, the Seer council being very much Ulthwe and the Legends being ubiquitous, maybe more suited to Biel-Tan.

Lastly there's the 0-12 auxiliaries, made up of the other formations mentioned above (Aspect host, Dire avenger shrine, Wraith host, Crimson death) and 3 others, namely engines of Vaul (1 unit of grav tanks), Outcasts (1 unit of rangers) and Wraith constructs (A hemlock, wraithlord or Wraithknight). So with regard to the Warhost it's pretty much all or nothing if you want wraithguard or guardians/jetbikes, but within that you can tailor everything to your craftworld. It sadly also allows you to take shedloads of Windriders and as many Wraithknights as you want. I almost forgot to mention the perks (yes, there's more), namely Matchless agility, which means all units automatically get a 6" run without the need to roll. Yes, that's it, making Wraiths (and everything for that matter) that much quicker and deadlier. Example builds:

Iyanden: Guardian battlehost, Yriel, Wraith host and several Wraith constructs.

Alaitoc: Guardian battlehost, Illic, Outcasts, Aspect Host, Engines of Vaul.

Biel-Tan: Guardian battlehost, Avatar, Aspect host, Dire Avenger Shrine, Engines of Vaul.

Saimm-Hann: Windrider host, Windrider host, Autarch Skyrunner, Aspect host, Crimson death.

Ulthwe: Guardian stormhost, Guardian Battlehost, Eldrad, Seer council, Engines of Vaul.

Conclusions:

Overall I love this release. The models are great, a lot of the unit changes are also. There are of course a couple of things that stand out as being ridiculously overpowered which is a real shame considering how much thought has been put into other areas. This is magnified exponentially when you start putting things into formations and then into the Warhost. I personally am going to avoid the Warhost and formations where possible as I think they only add to the imbalance and will make Eldar less fun to play against. The Wraith host, Aspect host and Windrider hosts particularly, though I may use the Aspect one simply to fit in as many Aspects as possible into a list. Hoping to get a game in ASAP to try things out. Cheers.

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Guest spot army showcase: Nurgle marine army by 'Old Two Eyes'

April 29, 2015, 1:01 pm

≫ Next: Imperial Knight Codex release review and overview

≪ Previous: New Eldar Codex: Craftworlds review part 3 - Fast, Heavy and Formations

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It's been a while since Dan (AKA old two eyes) last posted some of his work here and so I am thrilled to be able to once again show off his disturbing talent for all things Nurgley. His previous work can be found HERE. I'll hand over to Dan now to explain a bit more about his latest brainchild. Cheers.

'Since my last chance to post here I've been busy with plenty of plague marines- my first experience building or playing with any kind of space marines- lots of fun. They look great alongside my nurgle daemons and are the start of a project to have armies of both daemons and c:sm for all of the four chaos gods.

 

First of my Lord of Nurgle, a stern character, based upon the classic warhammer kit with a few additions. Not sure if he's survived a game yet (4 goes so far) but he has killed a Wraithknight and an Ork Warboss so I've no complaints.

Next up my Sorceror, basic FW kit with the spare axe-blade from the warhammer nurgle lord. Dynamic and obese at the same time- the model is a real favourite of mine.

Four squads of five plague marines- plenty of green-stuff,  weathering, typhus corrosion, a plethora of washes and  shiny varnish. Just the way I like to paint- forgiving of mistakes but with an atmospheric end product.

Mutilators! Ogryn bodies and centurion siege drills. First saw action last week and chewed up a Morkanaut before falling under a tide of killer kans. Again a pleasure to build and paint.

Obliterators- centurion bodies with landraider flamestorm guns and zombie heads. Whilst the mutilators look grim and determined, these guys are cursed living relics and look suitably rotten and squalid.

Sneak peaks of works in progress...

 

A forgefiend (have another like this half-built), a Heldrake and my counts-as Eversor, a hyper-infectious mutant. The latter fits the assassin's rule-set like a glove- he'll barrel in spewing bile and smashing heads before probably exploding. The 'come the apocalypse' rules may be detrimental but again are supported by the fluff- his own allies know well enough not to get too close to him! I've also got 4 rhinos, 3 vindicators and a bunch of cultists on the go. Plenty to keep me busy... Thanks Jamie for posting up my stuff!'

Imperial Knight Codex release review and overview

May 9, 2015, 5:43 am

≫ Next: First Ad-mech models roll off the production line

≪ Previous: Guest spot army showcase: Nurgle marine army by 'Old Two Eyes'

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Phew, the Codex releases are just flying off the press at the moment. It seems that Admech are getting everything just shy of their own book, which I'm certain is all related to the Chapterhouse fiasco - thanks a lot chaps. I'm confident, however, that in the couple of years we'll see a unified Admech codex incorprating the Skitarii, impending cult mechanicus, Imperial Knight and probably some new units. For now, however, I'll bring myself back on track to talk about the latest GW offering: Imperial Knights. 

It's a bit of a low blow releasing a Codex so soon (16 months) after the previous one, but in their defence it is a £25 book for 120 pages and feels much more like a proper codex than the previous offering. Speaking of which, I can offer no comparison to the previous book which, thankfully, I didn't pick up. Anyway, as per usual I'll talk about the book, models and rules in order and try to offer a general overview of what this release has to offer before summing up. Cheers.

The Codex:

Now, ordinarily I don't much care for the GW approach of lots of CG pics throughout the book showing off colour schemes, but despite this the ones in this book are top notch and make up about  50% of the book itself. The first section, as always, deals with the background of the Knights complete with starchart, hierarchy and timeline. This takes us to page 19. The next 5 pages detail the individual types of Knight, which this release has increased from 2 to 5 (more on them later). The next up is the aforementioned section on heraldry, which gives us some 50 pages of beautiful Knight pics, covering Imperial, Mechanicus and Freeblade (many of which will be familiar from WD) Knights, with particular emphasis of houses Terryn and Raven. This is a glorious section and is great to flick through and immerse yourself in. The rest of the book is made up a gallery and the usual rules section at the rear. Let's not forget to mention the standard datacards which were also released. Overall I think for the price this is a great book and, while I feel for Knight players who bought the previous book, I suspect they'll be more than appeased when they get this one in hand.

The Models:

This shouldn't take too long as the only release is the Knight Warden kit, which is effectively the same as the original Knight Paladin kit +1 sprue. This extra sprue grants you the ability to do the following:

- 3 new masks to choose from.

- Admech gargoyles (to replace Imperial Eagle heads) for mechanicus aligned armies.

- a meltagun option to replace the stubber.

A power fist option alternative to the reaper.

Avenger Gatling cannon with built in heavy flamer.

Two carapace mounted weapons; an icarus autocannon array and a rocket pod mount with two different fronts for different rockets - both the pod and guns look to be independent so you can split the carapace weapons from one kit between 2 Knights using the mysterious (til now) hole on the top.

A couple of decorative bits.

There are advantages to this if you have a whole Knight army as for every Warden kit you can have a slightly cheaper Paladin kit and spread the weapons around. However, for those such as myself who own a single Knight it's a bit frustrating to not have access to the extra weapons. I hope (not holding my breath here) that GW release the extra sprue separately at some point as that's a win/win situation for them really. Overall impression, a great update to the initial kit which fills many gaps and helps to make all the mono-pose knights look more unique. I  wouldn't be surprised if in a couple of years (paired with an admech release?) we get another Knight book with another kit release utilising the same 3 core sprues but with a different 4th sprue giving yet more options and builds.  

The Rules:

Right, on to the meat of things. After the Eldar release I guess the big question is how are Imperial Knights going to stand up to wraithknights? Let's find out.

Units: (all lords of war)

Knight Errant:

Same price as before just with a few more options now. The Errant can swap out the stubber for a meltagun for the price of a meltabomb, which is more fitting given its role, and can also swap the chainsword for a thunderstike gauntlet if you're going for the classic epic look. As with all Knights it can choose to upgrade to add in one of the three carapace weapons mentioned in detail later.

Knight Paladin:

Again price unchanged, but as with all the Knights it can swap its stubber for a meltagun and  choose to upgrade to add in one of the three carapace weapons mentioned in detail later. It too can opt for the Thunderstrike Gauntlet upgrade for the price of two melta bombs.

Knight Warden:

Same cost as the Paladin, this chap has all the same options as the Errant and Paladin but sports an Avenger gatling cannon as its primary gun with an additional heavy flamer. He is essentially the middle ground between the Paladin/Errant with a penchant for killing light-medium vehicles, MEQ and even being able to take a decent pop at flyers (especially with the icarus upgrade).

Knight Gallant:

A cheaper, specialist Knight, this chap is two power fists cheaper than a Paladin/Warden and, stubber aside, comes with no ranged weaponry as standard. It does, however, pack both a Thunderstrike Gauntlet and a Reaper chainsword, allowing you to choose between them and gain an extra attack in combat. They can also swap out the stubber for a meltagun and have the same carapace options if you do choose to add some ranged potential, maybe even some anti-air.

Knight Crusader:

Another throwback to epic, where while the original packed twin lascannon and quake cannon, this new version is equipped more like the epic Castellan (suspect GW have overused this term lately with the Kastelan and Castellax) Knight, which had a multi-barrelled autocannon. Now, it packs a both a Thermal cannon and an Avenger gatling cannon, making it less deadly up close but a dedicated fire-support platform at range. The meltagun and carapace options are as for the other Knights and for the price of a meltabomb you can upgrade the thermal cannon to a rapid fire battlecannon. This chaps base-cost is, however, two power fists more than a Paladin, making him by far the more expensive of the variants. Still, one of these and a Gallant would balance costs out and give you dedicated specialist units instead of an army of generalists. I suspect a good loadout will be the battlecannon upgrade and a rocket pod.

Detachments:

There are two main detachments to choose between: the Household and Oathsworn. The Household is more for a majority or entirely Knight army and allows you to choose 3-5 Knights (all Knights are Lords of War) with the following perks. Command benefits grant a reroll for your Warlord on the Knight trait table plus allows him to reroll failed to hit rolls in a challenge - this is crucial given how devastating each of those destroyer hits can be. Added to this one of your Knights may be a Lord Baron (if this is the primary), which makes him a character (so he can be involved in challenges) and allows him to select one Knightly heirloom (relic). And there's more - he gains +1 WS and BS to make him stand out further from the other Knights. Lastly, and this is another big one, all models gain objective secured, meaning knights can rightly hold objectives from most other units (we'll ignore the solitary CAD Grot). There's not much to say about the Oathsworn detachment, except that it's geared up to be the allied detachment really, granting you 1-3 Knights with no perks and cannot be your primary detachment. I will likely be using the Oathsworn to get my single Knight into games but if you're allying at least 3 then the Household detachment (or a formation) seems more sensible for the perks of both ObSec and (if primary) the benefits the Baron will receive.

Formations:

Exalted court:

Obscenely expensive but you could squeeze one in at 2000 points with minimal upgrades (and I suspect most will try to for the perks). The court is a fixed 5 Knights of any type which grant both the Knight Commander rule (reroll traits and to hit in a challenge) as above but also grants two more perks. All Knights gain +1 WS and BS and are characters able to select Heirlooms. More-so, your Warlord (High King/Princeps) gains +2 WS/BS rather than +1 and gets +1 to its ion shield rolls, making it a beast in all regards. A hefty price, but who would fancy taking on 5 of these guys!?

Baronial Court:

A bit of a step-down from the Exalted court, but still darn powerful. This formation is 3-5 Knights and so is a viable alternative to the Household detachment as an allied army. You still benefit from the Lord Baron and Knight Commander rules as per the detachment, but also have a couple of extra rules instead of ObSec. Knightly vassals allows the Baron and Knights within 12" to gain both counter-attack and allows them to fire overwatch! Not sure how useful these will be as most Knight weapons are blast weapons and not many will be keen to charge them in the first place. The other perk is Ionic shieldwall, which grants all Knights within 6" of another Knight to add +1 to their Ion shield save on the front arc. So essentially, this formation is designed for an intimidating cluster of Knights in the midfield who gain resiliance to ranged shooting and being charged, while the detachment is more designed for objective games and having Knights spread around the battlefield. For 3 Knight games I'd go with this one and use you allies to grab the objectives, whereas for sole Knight armies in the 1750-2000 range (assuming you don't want to take the Baronial Court) the detachment seems more appropriate.

Tripartite Lance:

This is an interesting idea and consists of one of each of the new Knight variants, each of which adds a perk to the formation so long as it remains alive. They are also fielded as a single unit, though each counts individually for VP purposes. The Warden adds withering fire, granting a -1 to cover saves from this formation; the Gallant adds Wrathful onslaught, granting D3 hammer of wrath attacks rather than 1 each; the Crusader adds precision bombardment, making all blast weapons twin-linked. Now, while all these perks are pretty good, there are a couple of things to bear in mind. The benefits to blast weapons will only apply to one weapon in the detachment (Crusader) unless you upgrade any models to carry the Ironstorm pod. The D3 hammer of wrath may still only yield you 1 attack each, and let's face it, is hammer of wrath really that decisive when a Knight charges in? The -1 to cover saves is probably the most useful with all the jink saves out there nowadays, but the problem with the formation is that as you lose models you lose perks, unlike taking the Baronial Court and Detachment. As they are all one unit you can try to position to protect your Warden I guess, but a canny opponent will always be trying to manoeuvre around those Ion shields anyway.   

Gallant Lance:

Good if you like your battles up-close and nasty. This formation has 3 Knights Gallant and thus they all benefit from crusader, rage and full tilt, allowing them to re-roll failed charge distances. If Gallants are your thing then this is definitely the way to field them, but most people would, I'm guessing, prefer a mix of different Knight types. Also not to be forgotten is that, as the cheapest variant, you could field this formation for under 1000 points.

Skyreaper Lance:

The last formation is designed to plug that gap in the Knights AA potential. It consists of any 3 Knights which must all take Icarus autocannon upgrades. The Skyreapers rule allows you to reroll failed armour penetration rolls (including rerolling glances) against flyers and to wound rolls against FMCs. If anti-air is lacking in your army and you were going to take 3 knights with the autocannons anyway then this is a perfect way to ensure taking down those pesky flyers/FMCs in an army lacking any real other alternatives for anti-air.

Warlord traits:

1 - Landstrider - Warlord and all Knights in 12" add 1 to run and charge ranges.

2 - Favoured of the Omnissiah - One (non-relic) weapon master-crafted.

3 - Exemplar of the joust - reroll to hit in any assault phase in which he charged.

4 - Cunning Commnader - Warlord and up to D3 Knights gain outflank.

5 - Ion Bulwark - Warlord can reroll ++ saves of 1.

6 - Knight Seneschel - +1 attacks

Armoury:

All weapons as before with the following newbies:

Avenger gatling cannon - 36" S6 AP3 heavy 12 rending.

Ironstorm missile pod - 72" S5 AP4 heavy 1 5" barrage.

Stormspear rocket pod - 48" S8 AP3 heavy 3.

Twin Icarus autocannon - 48" S7 AP4 heavy 2 interceptor skyfire twinlinked.

Thunderstrike gauntlet - Same as reaper chainsword except it piles in and fights at initiative 1 and can hurl MCs/vehicles it kills/explodes. This grants an immediate shooting attack against an enemy unit in 12" using the toughness/half front AV of the hurled model with AP- large blast.

Heirlooms of the Knightly Houses:

Banner of Macharius triumphant (cost 2 melta-bombs) - all armies of the Imperium in 12" must reroll failed morale, pinning and fear tests.

Helm of the Nameless Warrior (cost 2 power weapons) - model rampage.

Mark of the Omnissiah (cost 2 power weapons) - It will not die.

Paragon Gauntlet (cost power weapon) - Master-crafted Thunderstrike gauntlet

Ravager (cost power fist) - Reaper chainsword that re-rolls failed to hit rolls of 1.

Sanctuary (cost power weapon) - Ion shield that also protects other 3 facings with a 6++.

Tactical Objectives:

11 - yield no ground - 1VP if no enemy units in 12" of your table edge.

12 - Duel of Honour - 1VP if one of your Knight characters issued or fought in a challenge.

13 - Assail the foe - 1 VP if made 1 successful charge (D3 if 3-4, D3+3 if 5+)

14 - Titan Killer - D3 if one gargantuan creature or super-heavy destroyed.

15 - Honour of the house - 1 VP if controlling an objective marker (D3 if 2+)

15 - A grudge to settle - opponent nominates one of their units - 1VP if you destroy it.

Conclusion:

In the final analysis this is a great little (well, big) release. The book feels like a real codex now and is gorgeous throughout. The new Knight types and rules all fulfil a specific role and the options allow you to tailor them to specific points values. The new weapons look like a lot of fun and the army now has decent AA options. Though I fully intend to stick to just the one Knight for now I hope to get ahold of a new sprue somehow (please sell them separately GW) and have the incentive to finally finish and field my Freeblade now. Cheers.

First Ad-mech models roll off the production line

May 25, 2015, 9:18 am

≫ Next: Cult Mechanicus review part 1

≪ Previous: Imperial Knight Codex release review and overview

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The start of something potentially beautiful, my Ryza Admech have started to take shape. At the moment they only consist of a half dozen FW robots and a single box of Rangers/Vanguard (most of which are awaiting good weather and a can of black paint), but I have great plans for this amazing-looking army in future. Despite the beautiful Mars and Metalica schemes, I ultimately went with Ryza as I have no Orange armies and found the colour scheme rather striking. The initial expansion will be to add in some elements from the Cult Mechanicus, namely a Dominus and some Servitors, plus hopefully a couple more FW units. Of course they're awaiting (hopefully) the rumoured release of IA 14, which may well add in FW Admech to 40k. That and we need to get SM out of the way and have a pause for breath in the relentless 40k release schedule with some weeks of Fantasy alowing financial recuperation. Not that I'm complaining too much - the hectic release schedule has allowed me to step back, just focus on collecting the books and actually get some long-time hobby projects finished as I accepted that to keep up with the releases was impossible, both financially and time-wise. If I am able to stick to the plan of getting other projects finished and up to date this year (half my Space Marine armies still have no AA as they predate 6th!) as well as vaguely keeping up with releases, then I suspect the major winners this year will be Admech filling the rest of that void. Mainly depends what is released TBH, so here's hoping for a lot of Fantasy to pad things out a bit. Next year is the year of Chaos for me (and Sisters I pray) so I hope to get other projects finished up in time for that. Cheers.

Cult Mechanicus review part 1

June 6, 2015, 10:30 am

≫ Next: Cult Mechanicus review part 2

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Thought I should get this review in quick as there's a Space Marine Codex on the Horizon that will be demanding my complete attention in the near future. The Cult Mechanicus book is the third in the trilogy of AdMech books which, in no small part due to the Chapterhouse saga, have come as three books instead of one. So, what does this latest installment have to offer? Let's find out.

The release:

Spread over a series of weeks, the release was roughly akin to that of the Skitarii book. A £20 codex  (+ltd ed), cards, 3 boxed sets (none of which were vehicles) and a clamshell. Neat little package what with the multi-builds and all, yet one can't help but wonder if this would all have been rolled into one bigger, better book (along with the Skitarii, knights and much more) if not for the Chapterhouse case. Still, I dare say in the next 2 years a codex ad-mech will rock along with both books contained therein alongside another wave of models. Overall though a nice release that covers a faction as well as complimenting the other two recently released books nicely. Shame no tech priests/magi but you can't have it all.

The book:

Same format as per the Skitarii book. We start off with a general introduction to the faction plus info on the main Forgeworld - same ones as in Skitarii but with a slightly different spin on things. Legio cybernetica even gets a proper mention. We then move onto the colour sections detailing the individual unit entries. This is a trend that started in Grey Knights IIRC and effectively is a backtrack to the old days of a separate bestiary with fluff and art, except that now the rules are all on the datacard to save having to flit back and forth between them - a good thing if you ask me. The new trend of CGI pics to illustrate different colour schemes also continues here, shortly followed by the colour photos and eavy metal showcases we are now used to. Lastly comes the datasheets, army rules and wargear. I like the way the new codexes work TBH as they clearly delineate 3 sections of the book - fluff, hobby and gaming, with very little overlap between them.

The models:

As with most GW releases these days, the models particularly deliver with this release. The Magos Dominus may be expensive but you get multiple weapon and head options as well as him being perhaps the most awesome GW model in years. I love everything about this model and hope it is a sign of things to come with multiple weapon options in HQ clamshells. How about the troops then? Again, some of the best models in a long time come in the form of the Kataphron battle servitors. Bulky, armed to the teeth and everything you would have hoped for, these models are superb and I hope to be adding some as soon as possible.

Next up are the electro-priests, who are now subdivided into two distinct categories - in effect one clubs you to death and steals your electricity while the others go all Sith and start shooting guys with lightning bolts coming out of their fingers. Really cool models with the electoos and all, but quite a pricey kit. Lastly we have the big guys: Kastelan Robots. It took me a while to warm to these guys as they're very different from the FW take on the old Castellan robot. These guys look more like something out of a 1930s sci-fi than 40K. But they do have a certain cool factor about them, plus the datasmith is an awesome figure too. I only think it's a shame regular tech priests didn't make it into this army too.

The rules:

This section will look at the broader army rules, encompassing Warlord traits, Maelstrom mission, Special rules and wargear.

Warlord traits:

1. Reinforced exoskeleton - Eternal warrior

2. Artificer armament - one (non-relic) weapon is master-crafted

3. Masterwork bionics - can re-roll FNP rolls

4. Archeotech specialist - can choose results for mysterious objectives

5. Inside the mind of the machine - warlords CC attacks have haywire

6. Layered psalm-code - warlord and unit always benefit from the maximum canticles result.

So all of these are actually pretty good, except maybe for 4 as most people tend to ignore these. Still, even they have their place if you need a skyfire nexus or twin-linked at that moment in time.

Canticles of the Omnissiah:

Add up the total amount of units on the battlefield (excluding falling back) with this rule and choose one canticle to apply for that turn. (one use each only) The tiers are 1-3, 4-7 and 8+ (units)

	1-3	4-7	8+
Incantation of the Iron soul	Stubborn	Stubborn +re-roll failed tests	Fearless
Litany of the electromancer	1 S4 AP- I10 hit for each CotO unit in melee	2 S4 AP- I10 hits for each CotO unit in melee	3 S4 AP- I10 hits for each CotO unit in melee
Chant of the remorseless fist	Reroll 1s to hit in melee	Re-roll 1s/2s to hit in melee	Re-roll all to hit in melee
Shroudpsalm	Stealth	Shrouded	Both
Invocation of machine might	+1 strength	+2 strength	+3 strength
Benediction of omniscience	Reroll 1s to hit shooting	Re-roll 1s/2s to hit shooting	Re-roll all to hit shooting

So what should be clear from looking at these is that they're all pretty darn good and they favour larger armies made up exclusively of Cult Mechanicus units. Each also has its own place in the game, so for example you may choose to invoke Shroudpsalm early on to protect units from ranged attacks as they advance, then Benediction as you close with the enemy, where the others mostly have benefit in melee later on. Pretty awesome little ruleset which, as we'll see later, has particular implications for certain units.

Tactical Objectives:

11 - Praise the machine God - 1VP if you used Invocation or shroudpsalm

12 - Networked archeotech - Roll 2 dice - 1VP if you control either of these objectives. (D3 both)

13 - Study the machines of the foe - 1VP if you destroy a vehicle but not explode/crash and burn.

14 - Reclaim lost knowledge - 1VP if you take an objective from your opponent. (3+ = D3)

15 - The will of the Omnissiah - 1VP if you used Invocaation, Chant or Litany and destroyed one enemy unit in the assault phase.

16 - Destroy, record, rejoice - 1VP if one unit destroyed in shooting phase. Vehicle + non-vehicle = D3 (+3 if SH or gargantuan)

Wargear:

There's plenty of exotic weapons and wargear in the book so I will summarise them here, though the units they belong to will be seen in part 2 of the review.

Electrostatic gauntlets - 12" assault 2 twin-linked / S+1 melee

Eradication ray - S8 AP1 heavy 1 (0-12") or S6 AP3 heavy 1 blast (12-24")

Gamma pistol - S6 AP2 pistol with armourbane

Heavy arc rifle - 36" S6 AP5 heavy 2 haywire.

Heavy grav-cannon - 30" salvo 4/6 concussive, graviton, AP2

Cognis flamer - like a flamer but always gets 3 hits on overwatch

Incendine combustor - torrent flamer

Macrostubber - S4 AP6 pistol with 5 shots instead of 1.

Phosphor serpenta (18" S5AP4 assault 1), blaster (24" S5AP4 rapid fire) and heavy (36" S6AP3 heavy3) - all have luminogen meaning when you wound/glance/pen a unit it then gets -1 to cover and units can reroll to charge it.

Plasma culverin - 24" heavy 2 blast plasma weapon.

Torsion cannon - 24" S8AP1 heavy 1 weapon that strips 3 hull points/wounds instead of 1.

Volkite blaster (yay, FW) 24" S6AP5 heavy 3 weapon that causes additional hits for every unsaved wound.

Arc claw - S+1 Ap5 melee haywire

Dataspike - I10 attack at user strength with haywire.

Electroleech stave - S+2 AP4 2-handed and concussive melee, also causes instant death on to wound of 6.

Hydraulic claw - S+2, melee, unwieldy - can instead perform a single double strength AP2 attack.

Conversion field - 4++ and units in 6" take blind hit (friendly can reroll) for every save made,

Infoslave skull - +1Ld and acute senses.

Mechadendrite harness - can fire all weapons in shooting phase and gains a dataspike.

Refractor field - 5++

Scryerskull - can reveal a mysterious object each turn.

Stasis field - 2++ while gone to ground but WS/BS = 0.

Voltagheist field - 5++ plus a S4 HoW and no initiative penalty to charging.

Arcana Mechanicum:                                                                           

Raiment of the Technomrtyr - 2+ and all weapons gain cognis (overwatch at BS2 / auto 3 on wall of flame). A reasonable choice on the Magos seeing as he has a couple of weapons but there are better options out there for him as below.

Anzions pseudogenetor - D6 additional attacks at S4 AP5 with shred. Would add extra clout to either a Magos or Datasmith in Melee at their normal initiative.

Mask of the Alpha dominus - can instantly change the battle protocol of a robot maniple in 12", though that protocol can't be used for the rest of the game. Probably useful if situations change radically but losing the protocol is pretty bad.

Autocaduceus of Arkhan Land - IWND for bearer and unit. Very good if used in a large unit or formation of Kataphrons or (even better) Kastelans.

Uncreator Gauntlet - interesting one - roll to hit with a single attack (instead of normal CC attacks) in the assault phase Vs a single friendly or enemy vehicle. On a 1 your opponent chooses it to regain or lose 1HP, 2-3 same but you choose, 4-5 you choose and it's D3, 6 = D6. An interesting concept and pretty darn useful if allied in with some vehicles such as Knights.

The Scryerskull Perspicatus - Can reveal a single mysterious objective OR spy on a vehicle, allowing CM and Skitarii units to re-roll to pen against that vehicle for a turn. Pretty decent in acombined force.

Cult Mechanicus Battle congregation: This is the FOC for the army 1HQ and 2 troops mandatory (so a Magos Dominus and 2 squads of Kataphrons) With a further 6 troops, 4 elites and 2 Heavy (plus a fort) optional. As usual this arrangement allows you to re-roll your Warlord trait and the Divine Chorus rule allows you once per game to resuse a canticle - handy for that 7th turn or if there is a particular one granting you an advantage in that particular game (Shroudpsalm for example).

Phew, well that wraps up part 1, part 2 will be here in a day or two and will cover all the units and formations in the book. Cheers.

Cult Mechanicus review part 2

June 7, 2015, 9:48 am

≫ Next: Hobby pledges - the half year weigh-in.

≪ Previous: Cult Mechanicus review part 1

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On to the second and final part of the CM review folks. Enjoy.

The units:

Magos Dominus:

Now, as mentioned above this is possibly my favourite GW model in a long time. But how do the rules stack up? He weighs in at just over 100 points and is the only HQ with a pretty good profile: 4/5/4/4/3/3/2/9/2+. Basic weaponry is a volkite blaster, macrostubber, power axe, mechadendrite harness, scryerskull and refractor field, as well as being relentless and having feel no pain. So a pretty good all round character. Where he begins to shine even more is with the Master of Machines rule, which allows him to forego shooting ONE weapon and instead may either repair/restore a hull point to a vehicle he is in contact with or inside, or restore a wound to a model in his unit (CM or Skitarii). This is on a 2+! At a cost he can swap out his volkite for an eradication ray and/or his macrostubber for a phosphor serpenta. Plus he gets access to the relics and special issue wargear (digital weapons, infoslave, conversion and stasis fields). Heck of a lot of options for the old chap, who is effectively going to be best both bolstering a squad/vehicle loaded out with a relic or two. In a squad of Kastelans plus the IWND relic he'd be a beast.

Kataphron breachers:

At long last, the oft mentioned battle servitors have some awesome models. Plus rules to match. These chaps are troops and more suited to close combat. They're profile is 3/3/5/5/2/3/1/8/3+ and they cost half a dreadnought each. As with all units they have canticles and, as you would expect, are very bulky. The squad can be bulked out to 12 total (!) which while expensive (on the wallet too) would be a terrifying unit to face down. The heavy arc rifle and arc claw are the standard equipment, meaning these chaps are loaded out for anti-vehicle duties primarily with all that haywire. You can, however, swap out the arc for a torsion cannon and/or a hydraulic claw, which makess them a bit less vehicle specific but still most suited to anti-vehicle duties. These chaps can take a beating and, thanks to canticles, can hand it out also.  

Kataphron Destroyers:

The ranged equivalent to Breachers, destroyers are a bit pricier but have 2 ranged weapons and a 4+ armour save - other than that they have the same rules/profile/squad size. The plasma culverin comes as standard and can be swapped out for a heavy grav cannon for free. Both these weapons are nasty! The secondary armament of a phosphor blaster can be swapped out for a cognis flamer at a cost. A mixture of the two secondary weapons is probably a good bet so you can both remove cover from enemies and defend yourself from charges with wall of flame. Again, beautiful models and deadly with canticles and its perks.

Fulgurite electro-priests:

A blast from the past, electro-priests are back, and this time they have two distinct flavours in Elites. The more aggressive of the two, the fulgurites, focus more on melee and sucking the energy out of others. At a fairly costly 18 points each, you get a reasonable unit with a guardsman statline but with an extra attack, WS4 and Ld9. As well as canticles you get feel no pain and zealot. These guys can be taken in squads of 5-20. So far not sounding great right? Well, there is more. The voltagheist field gives a 5++, hammer of wrath and ignores the initiative penalty for terrain. The electroleech stave is +2S, AP4, concussive and grants ID on a 6 to wound. One last perk is the siphoned vigour rule, which means if you kill a unit with them their ++ save goes up to 3++. In combination with canticles, careful use of these chaps could make them a terribly destructive unit (S8 and a 3++) but careful play and timing will be key. Great to see them making a comeback to the tabletop.

Corpuscarii electro-priests:

The opposite of the fulgurites, these chaps favour ranged combat and administer electric shocks rather than sucking the life out of their enemies. Effectively the same cost and statline, the only difference is they have BS4 instead and wield electrostatic gauntlets, which while only providing them with +1S in melee grant them a short ranged assault 2 TL attack. The shock rule means each roll to hit of 6 (tesla effectively) grants 2 additional hits in the shooting phase. So a decent ranged anti-infantry unit but TBH I think that range is too short to make them a preferable option to their melee orientated cousins.

Kastelan Robot maniple:

Robots also make a welcome return to 40k. The Kastelan (Based on the old Castellan) comes in a unit of 2-6 accompanied by 1-3 Datasmiths. While the smiths cost the same as a Breacher, the Robots themselves are pretty pricey at about the cost of a vindicator. The robots themselves are 3/3/6/7/3/2/2/7/3+ monstrous creatures, while the Datasmith is 3/4/4/4/2/3/2/9/2+. The Kastelan comes armed with a carapace incendine combustor and 2 power fists, while the Datasmith also packs a power fist and in addition has a refractor field, dataspike and the deadly gamma pistol. Not to be let out, the repulsor grid on the Kastelans also grants them a 5++ against ranged attacks which, if they pass ANY saving throw against a ranged attack, allows them to deflect that same shot (same S/AP_ at the unit that fired. Nice!

Options wise, the Datasmith can take special issue gear and relics, while the Kastelans can upgrade both power fists to a TL heavy phosphor blaster and the incendine combustor to a further heavy phosphor blaster. This gives you a decent amount of ranged firepower which in addition to canticles and battle protocols can be made even better. Battle protocols are chosen at the end of each of your turns and become active the beginning of the following of your turns. If no Datasmith remains alive, you're stuck with the last protocol you used for the rest of the game. You start the game with aegis protocols, and may switch freely between aegis, conqueror and protector protocols throughout the game:

Aegis - feel no pain

Conqueror - Double attacks but can't shoot

Protector - can't move but can fire carapace weapons twice.

Now, while usually I would advocate a unit of mixed wargear and abilities, the above obviously favours single purpose units to make the maximum usage of the protocols. So start your melee unit in aegis then switch to conqueror when you think you're about in charge range, and your shooty unit in aegis until you're in cover/melee range. Really nice little set of rules adding a further layer of complexity to this new army and ruleset.

Formations:

Cohort Cybernetica:

This formation is a tech priest Dominus and 2 Kastelan units all bundled together into a single unit. (counts as 3 for canticles and VPs) They get Adept of the Cybernetica, which grants the Dominus the same ability as the Datasmith with regard to protocols except that you may enact the protocol immediately at the end of the turn. So in effect you can switch from destroyer to aegis and give yourself more survivability in the opponents turn for example. They also get targetting override, which means you sacrifice any number of Datasmiths/Dominus shooting in order to grant a single Robot split fire in effect.  

Elimination Maniple:

This formation is 2-3 units of Destroyers and 1-3 units of robots. The perk comes in the form of elimination volley, which means that if a robot scores 1+ wounds/glances/pens on a unit/vehicle with a phosphor weapon, destroyers gain +1BS and ignores cover that turn! Seems like overkill, but actually if you pair up destroyers with robots you can effectively destroy units trying to seek cover. After all, the destroyers weaponry is all AP2 so not much will be safe.

Numinous Conclave:

2-3 unit of each type of electro priest (equal numbers). They all gain crusader and a couple of addition rules. The Corpuscarii giveth means that Corpuscarii fire an extra shot against units if they are within 6" of Fulgurites and electrify the enemy unit. The Fulgurites taketh away means they get to re-roll to wound against electrified units in melee. Not sure it's worth buying all those priests for but this is a beautifully synergistic little rule.   

Holy Requisitioner:

A Dominus paired up with 2-3 units of Breachers, this formation boasts deep strike and a couple of other rules too. Inhuman avarice gives the Breachers counter-attack and zealot when within 6" of an objective, while apparition extremis means you make a single deep strike roll for the entire formation (which must start in deep strike reserve) The Dominus must be placed first but does not scatter when within 6" of an objective. Likewise, the Breachers do not scatter within 6" of the Dominus. Guaranteed to scare the hell out of your opponent, this would be a great way to get a lot of haywire in your opponents face very quickly and secure an objective into the bargain.  

Adeptus Mechanicus War Congregation:

This was the WD exclusive Formation which I've included here for completions sake. It effectively allows you to merge all the recent 3 codexes together and gain extra perks. You need to take the Knight Oathsworn detachment (1-3 Knights), a Skitarii Battle Maniple and a Cult Mechanicus battle congregation. While this may sound like a lot it's really not - you could run it with a single Knight, 2 units of 3 Breachers, a Dominus and two units of 5 Vanguard. That could be squeezed in for under 1000 points (hardly optimal) but here are the perks you get. The Dominus gets a Warlord trait reroll, ALL units gain Canticles and, wait for it, ALL weapons, wargear and relic options taken in this formation are free. Yes, completely free. Plus none of  your weapons get hot anymore. Wow, just wow. It's pretty insane. So your Knight can max out on weapons, as can all you Skitarii and your Dominus and it all costs nowt. When eventually I build up an Admech army, no doubt this will be the way to run things.

That's the end of this review. I'm gonna take a massive breather and gear myself up for the behemoth of a review that will be Codex Space Marines, no doubt shortly followed by Codex Dark Angels. Less than a week to go now chaps - check out my other blog for those. Cheers.

Hobby pledges - the half year weigh-in.

June 26, 2015, 3:08 pm

≫ Next: Hobby pledges - 2nd half 2015

≪ Previous: Cult Mechanicus review part 2

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Well folks, I seem to remember making some pledges to complete certain hobby projects about 10 weeks back. Now it seems the time has come to name and shame my shortcomings, but also to highlight the success stories. It's been a busy few months outside the hobby working on a new rotation in a very hectic Medical Admissions unit and getting my NHS Portfolio up to scratch to progress to the next year of my training (which I'm happy to say I did), but there's always time to squeeze in a bit of hobby somewhere. I can happily say that while I did indeed fall short on a few things I delivered on most and even threw in a few wildcards to boot. Here's a rundown:

The Good:

Orks:

Got em done, and they worked out beautifully. Lots of fun conversions in there. Now just to add paint (!). Sadly, one project I really did want to get finished didn't and that's the custom Morkanaut, who will join the list for early next quarter.

Eldar:

Ok so I couldn't resist a little bit of Eldar love and so painted up the Wraithknight in base colours for a game and have started to basecoat some striking scorpion as well as adding the beautiful new Autarch model to my army and re-jigging my 3 Autarch models as a result.  

Heroes of Badab:

Objective very much secured. All these chaps got basecoated and have finished scenic bases in 32mm no less. Vehicles are aaaallmost there, won't take long to add the final layers to get them tabletop ready. But their tale doesn't end here - my plan for them is to have them fully painted by Christmas one squad at a time. First game coming up soon too with the new Codex.

Skitarii:

Well I managed to get my small but lovable Admech force assembled and sprayed (they even got a Magos buddy) up so they're now well on the way to becoming a proper army. Really keen to expand upon them, just waiting for some time, money and an Imperial armour book!

Tyranids:

I actually achieved more than I thought I would on these guys and have basecoated most of the models that were added save for a few. Between them and rebasing some older models onto 50mm there isn't really anything outstanding for this army at present which is great news.

Horus:

Assembled and primed, the arch-traitor is sitting there on a shelf taunting me. He and the Avatar next to him are top priority painting projects for the next quarter.

Odds and ends:

Well the stormtrooper squad and Templar Honour Guard are still sat in a box but the Deredeo dreadnought for the smurfs and Captain/standard for the Imperial Fists got mostly assembled.

The Bad:

Necrons:

Well, safe to say I didn't even make a start on these chaps. It became clear halfway through something would have to give and they were it. I decided instead to push them to the top of the list for the next quarter instead.

Blood Angels:

Low on the priority list but I had hoped to start upgrading them to 32mm bases - a can of Mournfang brown spray has already done the hard work, but the main barrier at the moment is getting them all basecoated in a couple of layers of mephiston red before doing that. It'll take a while but will be worth it in the end.

The Unexpected:

The past 10 weeks have thrown up some interesting surprises which have thrown my schedule off from time to time. Execution force not only gave me some worthy additions to my Chaos horde (not long now my pretties) but 4 amazing new Assassin models. It also inspired me to finally finish my original assassins, who are almost there.

The new Marine Codex brought with it new purchases also which I've been integrating over the past few weeks. If you saw the picture I posted a few weeks back (below) then you'll know I have more than a few Marine armies. While I haven't drastically altered any of my armies despite many of them being incompatible with the new Gladius, I did adjust a few numbers here and there and added in two of the new devastator kits and an assault squad. Overall, most of the armies needed a little something doing to them, be it base-coating a few models or magnetising here and there and so while this process is well underway, I anticipate it going on into next quarter also. It's always good fun and rewarding to see things come to fruition so I look forward to it. Dark Angels will be getting a third tactical squad to bring them up to demi-company strength. Another sore point is trying to gradually update everyone to 32mm bases, meaning rebasing the power armour in many marine armies and getting edge expanders for those on scenic bases.

Well, with Fantasy right around the corner it will actually be quite nice to take a breather for a month or so and get on track with things. I'm pretty pleased with how I've done over the past 10 weeks as when time pressures from elsewhere squeeze your hobby time to lower priority I think it's important to set goals and targets to stop things from getting totally neglected. Plans for the rest of the year are, as well as keeping up with any exciting releases, to get those darn Necrons assembled and sprayed, give some love to my Luna Wolves and Imperial Guard (who will then effectively be the only 2 non-fully assembled armies) and start to build up a decent Mechanicus contingent. Great time to be in the hobby. That's all folks - I'm off for a much-needed 2 week holiday in the sun. Cheers.

Hobby pledges - 2nd half 2015

July 25, 2015, 10:30 am

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≪ Previous: Hobby pledges - the half year weigh-in.

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Hi guys, 

July is rapidly fading and my hobby output these past few weeks has been decidedly poor. I've been playing catch up with the SM/DA releases since getting back from hols and now seems an appropriate time to start thinking ahead to what the rest of this year may hold. 

New releases:

Now that the pace has slowed a little with the GW releases, it's nice to have some breathing room to actually get on top of things. That being said, there are sure to be some new codex (or even wave) releases this year with Tau being tipped to be next. As always I will try to keep up with releases finances permitting and use it as a good excuse to dust off and give some attention to said army. If a Horus Heresy set does indeed land this year that will be the signal to get Luna Wolves finished off finally.  

New purchases: 

If the new releases are a bit slow between now and the end of the year, there are a few things I'd like to invest in instead. Most of my armies are at the stage where only one or two units would finish them off and so adding the finishing touch to a couple would be great. Plus another Primarch, but not until....

Horus:

Lupercal has been sitting ready to paint on the shelf in front of me for a couple of months now and Ihope to finally give him the attention he deserves. Once he's complete it will be time to move on to the next Primarch.

Astartes:

Hot on the heels of the last releases I've added a few fellas here and there. 5 sniper scouts to the Raven Guard and a general re-shuffle in several armies to grant the Salamanders, Ultramarines and Imperial Fists a demi-company each. (courtesy of the new devsstator/assault kits). I've also added a third tactical squad to the Dark Angels for the same reason. These guys are all about halfway through assembly with painting/basecoating to follow. 

Loose ends:

A few loose ends remain from my previous pledge, most notably the final licks of paint on the Eversor/Vindicare assasins, a couple of Tyranid Items to paint and, of course, that darn Ork Naut which still isn't quite finished. They'll be living on the desk until I pull my finger out and sort them.

Heroes of Badab:

While huge progress was made on these guys this year there is still a way to go. The vehicles still need the last of their basecoating and once that's done I aim to move on to painting up individual squads fully. I was hoping for end of this year but we'll see how it goes.

Still at the top of the pile, the crons will need a bit of assembly and then spraying with chrome / brass spray to get them rapidly up to scratch. However, I'd like to take it a step further and get them on some new, larger bases (which means getting rid of the old, resin ones) with translucent green crystals on. This leads nicely onto the last pledge:

Basing:

Hopefully the next 6-12 months will be overshadowed with basing. The new round and oval bases have allowed a lot of scope for reinventing my armies, most notably the abundant Marine armies. I've already started the process of updating them and hope to continue this until ultimately they are all sorted. My criteria is pretty simple: tau/eldar/humans/scouts go on 25mm, Marines/Necrons/Nobs (undecided on boys) go on 32mm. Some of the armies (Salamanders, Iron Hands) are on resin bases, and so for the sake of uniformity I'm going to get ahold of some 25-32mm ring converters to bring them in line also. Quite the undertaking, but as I've already seen (most notably with the Heroes of Badab) it's well worth it for the effect.

While on the topic of bases, the other basing project I hope to get on top of is the flyer basing project I'd envisaged some time back. About half the flyers I own still need interesting bases to live on, and I'd like to commit a weekend sometime to sorting them out. Tau I'd like to have an Arizona-style rock formation to rest the flyer atop; Space wolves a snowdrift; Orks a swamp of dead trees and mud; Dark Angels a forest; Grey Knights some Imperial ruins; Necrons an obelisk and Imperial Guard some vehicle ruins. 

That's all for now. On the surface of things it doesn't seem that unachievable, but when you factor in exams, unpredictable releases schedules and general life bits n bobs we'll just have to see how it goes. Nice to have some targets set though. Cheers for now.

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New Dark Eldar release summary and some thoughts

October 5, 2014, 8:53 am

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Hi folks,

Hot on the trail of the Grey Knights comes yet another Codex update, this time for the dark cousins of the Crafworld Eldar. That leaves a grand total of two (well, four if you count the two digital codexes) codexes to be updated in the 6^th/7^th ed format. I’ll give a brief overview of the release and I’m sure my friend Alex at from the fang will be eager to post a more in-depth review on his blog in the near future.

Book:

The book follows the recent format and actually in parts appears more like one of the supplements using digital art of individual kabal colour schemes to fill some pages. There’s the usual background, which makes heavy reference to Lady Malys despite her absence from the book (more on that later). The Army list is laid out in the new format and it’s great to compare to the older book and see how much has been added to the range in wave releases since that initial wave way back when. There is a formation and detachment as we have come to expect, but alas no lord of war in a surprising move. Everyone and their Gran was betting on vect for LoW. I have to say the double page spreads of artwork (of which there are at least 3) are absolutely glorious in this book – my favourite to date. All in all a very solid publication. I was actually looking at the old Necron (3^rd ed) book the other day and, to be honest, it might have been 1/3 of the price but it was almost half the size and nowhere near as high quality. Books may be expensive from GW these days but you get quality for what you pay and there’s a cheaper digital alternative at least. I’ll also mention the cards here, which are basically the maelstrom deck plus combat drug cards. Most of my 7^th games have been maelstrom and there’s no doubt that the cards make life a lot easier for this. Also, being able to draw a combat drug card and leave it on the table is a nice reminder in-game.

Models:

It comes as little surprise that the special characters lacking models got the axe. What is harder to swallow is the fact that there were so many, leaving the book rather scant in terms of special characters. The actual releases were as follows. Wracks got a plastic release, which is a double edged sword really. On the one hand they’re now plastic and got a set of pilot and gunner arms as well as a new weapon, plus the price is about the same as before. On the other hand they’re nowhere near as cheap as warriors and wyches, which is sadly the way it goes thesedays. It’s a good thing that older models don’t get regular price-hikes, but when you compare the size and cost of say a stompa and a gorkanaut then things don’t really add up. The wracks themselves are pretty near identical to their finecast predecessors and I think that despite the fact you have to sacrifice yet more expensive models to make you raiders/venoms/ravagers have coven pilots, it’s great that you now at least have the option. Besides, that would leave you with enough spare weapons to tool up squads plus their acothyst with say liquifiers, making for 3/10. 

Next on to the 3 plastic character clampacks. Again, there are pros and cons to this, as they’ve essentially replaced 3 adequate models with others when in fact these resources could have been allocated to producing plastic special characters, or vect on a dais for that matter. The Archon is in my opinion the worst of the bunch with a static pose and poorly thought out arms. Even the head is inferior to the previous sculpt IMO – glad I have the old one. The haemonculus model is lovely in a twisted kind of way but sadly now that the book is limited to one haemy per HQ slot I’ll be sticking with the older model, which was still pretty darn good. The succubus, however, is IMO one of the nicest models GW have put out in a while. Dynamic and beautifully sculpted I am very tempted to replace my old succubus (still a lovely sculpt) with the new one simply because it’s so awesome. Saving the best til last, there is of course the voidraven. Finally released, it is a gorgeous model, which is essentially a larger razorwing. I can’t wait to get my hands on this model TBH as it looks great. In conclusion, it was a humble release on par with the Space Wolves book that didn’t really add anything to the book but tidied up a few loose ends bringing the range to a tidy conclusion, for now…..

Rules:

The first thing to point out is that Dark Eldar have gained very little and lost Baron, Duke, Lady Malys, Decapitator and Vect! That’s a massive chunk of HQ lost and actually puts them on par with Grey Knights/Sororitas for least special characters per army. Although Malys can be represented fairly well using wargear/relics, sadly none of the others can. Also gone is the ability to take 1-3 haemonculi and the ancient profile in now simply the standard. FOC shifting is now also gone sadly, meaning your wracks will only ever be elites (unless of course you want a covens supplement, but more on that later). Night vision and fleet remain across the board, while there have been big shake ups on both combat drugs and power from pain. Combat drugs now are +1 stat boosts, where you roll/draw one at the beginning of the game and apply that same result to all units with combat drugs for the game. Simple, but obviously some results will be more favourable than others.

1 - adrenalight - +1 A

2 - Grave Lotus - +1 S

3 - Hypex - +1 I

4 - Painbringer - +1 T

5 - Serpentin - +1 WS

6 - Splintermind - +1 Ld

Power from pain is now a lot more straightforward and there’s a lot less bookkeeping to do. Simply apply a rule per turn. Nothing on the first, FnP 6+ on the second, FnP on the third, then add to that furious charge, fearless and rage (cumulative) as the turns progress. This way all your force are guaranteed to get more powerful as the game progresses and more pain is inflicted. Much more global and simple a system, but there are a few more pros and cons. There are several ways to advance the bonuses by a turn and they are cumulative, meaning you can bolster you units from the start of the game. More on this later. However, there is no more pain sharing to gain instant awesomeness with independent characters breaking off and rejoining other squads. I think these are both changes for the better – simpler and they work better for the army overall.

HQ:

Without going into too much detail, the archon has no access to AP2 melee weapons so should pick his fights carefully, but with access to clone and shadow fields (4++ and 2++ respectively) and a high WS and I he’s still a beast in CC. Sure he lost a few options, mainly wargear and CC weapons but other than that all is the same. Both the archon and his court can also take their own individual dedicated transports. Then there's the Haemonculus, who still has access to all kinds of nasty arcane wargear, but can no longer be taken 1-3 per slot and move wracks to troops. He is a master of pain and thus can advance his squads PfP level by one turn, making him a good bolstering unit also.  Lastly there’s the succubus, who’s a close combat monster and has access to a great weapon, the archite glaive, which has both an AP3 and AP2/+1S/2-handed mode. All 3 have access to webway portals, which now simply allow the unit to deep strike without scatter!

Of note is the fact all. The Archons court is now a bit different in that you can take 1-12 in any combo rather than 1 minimum of each. Slyth got cheaper, medusae more expensive (but also more reliable) and the others remained the same. The Lhamean now packs a blade which is poisoned 2+ and has the lethal dose rule (along with several other weapons) granting instant death on a to wound roll of 6. Not bad. The 3 special characters remaining are Urien, Lelith and Drahzar. The former is more of a super Haemonculus, where the latter are awesome in combat, especially Lelith, who still ignores armour saves and has 7 attacks on the charge with rerolls in challenges! All 3 of them got significantly cheaper too! Shame about Drahzars old model though – it’s the only remnant of the old models range and looks terrible next to the other glorious models which are arguably GWs finest.

Troops:

Still warriors and wyches, with a couple of differences. Warriors got cheaper, though splinter cannons went up and became salvo 2/4 weapons. You now need to upgrade all members of the squad to either trueborn or bloodbrides for 3 points, at which point the wargear options change somewhat. Sadly though bloodbrides no longer have access to haywire grenades universally and trueborn cannot take shardcarbines. Is this a bad thing though as both those units used to see a lot of action from what I understand and so toning them down somewhat will at least give other options a look in.

Elites:

As mentioned trueborn and bloodbrides are now upgrades to warriors/wyches which move them to elites, meaning the no loner have separate entries. Wracks remain pretty much the same except they can’t shift to troops any more and gained the ossefactor. Groteques have gotten more viable as they now all pack a flesh gauntlet as standard (same rule as for the lhamean weapon granting instant death on a 6) and can all be upgraded to pack liqifiers - nasty! Shame no 3 pack of models for them though with some more dynamic poses. Incubi got a bit cheaper and lost their onslaught/murderous assault rules, though retained ap2 making them the dark eldar premium terminator slayers.  Mandrakes got a 20% cost reduction, can now fire their baleblast from turn 1 and gained a much needed shrouded (and a token fear). Finally these chaps will start to see some action on the tabletop. No more harlequins despite a 2-page mention in the fluff part of the book. Dataslate inbound I suspect.

Fast attack:

As per the new codex formula transports have moved to fast attack and thus we have the raider and venom here with a few points changes. The venom is the only vehicle as best I can tell that gets access to flickerfields now and a 5++ save as a result. Probably worth mentioning here that shock prows allow a ram at av14 now, splinter racks give passengers twin linked and chainsnares allow the model to tank shock. The razorwing is now a fast attack choice rather than heavy. No real net change in points as some costs got redistributed, but of note is that it can only take nightshields (stealth) and no flickerfield. Scourges got a boost as they can now take 4 heavy weapons in a 5-man squad – nice! They are also the only unit (except slyth) who can take sharcarbines now that trueborn have lost access and are cheaper all around. Reavers got significantly cheaper but no longer have bladevane and caltrop attacks in the movement phase - instead these are resolved as hammer of wrath style attacks meaning you have to actually get invlolved in a combat now. Hellions got cheaper and stayed pretty much the same but now obviously have no way to move to troops without Baron. Beastmaster packs got much the same treatment as the Archons court with it now being up to 12 in any combination including the beastmasters. Although most got cheaper, razorwings went up in price and a few things changed around such as clawed fiends getting rage and Khymerae becoming daemons.

Heavy:

The ravager still resides here and there is now a point charge to upgrade disintegrators to dark lances. The voidraven also has had some points adjustments and a downgrade to av10 all round. The void mine is now a large blast though and there is a new weapon option in the form of darkscythes, effectively blast template dark lances for attacking non-aerial targets. This is a fairly lightly armoured vehicle that once you start piling on the upgrades gets very expensive very quickly (235 with missiles and night shields). Both the talos and cronos saw some tweaks. The talos now no longer has random attacks and, most notably, both can now be taken in units of 1-3, but with no mixing and matching. Costs generally went up for these chaps and some of the upgrades changes points, though they both get feel no pain as standard now.  

Formation and detachment:

The detachment first, which is pretty similar to a normal detachment except you get 6 FA slots of which one is compulsory. You get the usual reroll warlord trait and in addition get a 5+ cover save for troops and 6+ for all else in both the first turn and any night fighting turn. Hardly worth getting exciting about but the extra FA slots are handy. The formation requires lots of kabalite units and all must have transports. In addition to the above, they also get the ability to add 1 to the PfP turn so long as the warlord/archon is alive. This is cumulative with the rules for the haemonculus and one of the relics discussed below.

Relics and Warlord Traits:

Animus Vitae - s4AP2 8" one use - that turn add 1 to the PfP turn for the whole army.

Archangel of pain - one use - Ld test within 9", wound for each point failed by (no saves - fearless and ATSKNF ignore)

Armour of misery - effectively ghostplate with -2 Ld penatly for units within 6"

Djin blade - AP3 melee - user gains +2 attacks but on a roll of 1 wielder wounded

Helm of spite - all units in 12" gain admantium will and all psykers suffer a perils for any double on a psychic test

Parasites kiss - 2+ poisoned AP5 MC pistol - unsaved wounds grant a wound back to bearer.

1 - ancient evil - all units in 12" have fear

2 - Labyrinthine cunning - reroll seize, night fight and reserves! (clearly very useful!)

3 - soulthirst - warlord has rage

4 - hatred eternal - warlord has hatred

5 - blood dancer - warlord has +1 WS

6 - towering arrogance - all units in 12" have fearless

Coven supplement:

I don't know much about this TBH but from what I've read it has several formations and a detachment which allows more HQ, elite and heavy slots to be taken but no troops are compulsory. A good way of approaching the fact that all the coven units are in the HQ, elite and heavy slots. There are obviously warlord traits and a seperate list of relics both power from pain table. Here's what I found on BOLS so all credit to them and their sources. (haven't had time to digest this yet nor can I confirm their accuracy):

PFP table

1 – nothing
2 – Fearless
3 – Fear, Fearless
4 – Fear, Fearless, it will not die
5 – Fear, It will not die, zealot
6+ - Eternal Warrior, fear, it will not die, zealot

Warlord chart
1 – talos & chronos reroll FNP rolls of 1 within 12”of warlord
2 – warlord plus any grotesques he joins gain it will not die
3 – add or subtract 1 from reserve rolls
4 – If your warlord is slain by an attack/weapon with AP 1 or 2 or with the ID rule, gain D3 VP
5 – Warlord plus wracks he joins gain FNP4+
6 – Warlord gains preferred enemy

Artifacts
10pts – pick one of the following at the start of your turn which lasts until your next turn – IWND, fleet, poisoned 4+, rampage (used each turn)
10pts – fighting in a challenge – opponent suffers -5 to initiative
25pts – 8”range, S1, AP2, assault 1, blast, instant death, no effect on vehicles (used as a grenade in shooting phase)
10pts – Additional D6 attacks at S3, AP- at initiative 10, grant an additional pile in move at this step, no bonus applicable for furious charge, rending etc
20pts – IWND 4+, only wounded by poisons special rule on 6
35pts - +1 to FNP rolls, negate first wound suffered if it has the ID rule but when this happens, the item is lost

Coven Detachment
Required – 2HQ, 2 Elite
Optional – 4HQ, 6 Elite, 4 Heavy Support
Units that are available in the detachment – Urien, Haemonculus, Raider (DT only), Venom (DT only), Wracks, grotesques, talos, chronos
Benefits – if this is the primary detachment you can reroll warlord chart from this book. All enemy units within 12”of 1 or more models from this detachment suffer -1LD

Formations

1 - urien or haemy plus 2 units of grots - d6 roll at start of game for grots - +1S, +1T, fleet, shred, rage, 4+ FNP
2 - 1 haemy, 1 chronos, 2 units of wracks - all wracks gain precision strike, wracks treat turn 1 higher for pfp. if haemy is the warlord he gets trait 4 automatically
3 - 2 units of wracks in 2 venoms - if a unit in this formation scores first blood, gain D3 vp rather than 1. Wracks must start embarked an in reserve. Deployed turn 1 via deep strike
4 - unit of 5 Talos - gain scout. Score an extra vp for any non vehicle unit killed in combat
5 - 1 haemy, 1 Chronos, 1 Talos - form a single unit. Characters may not join it outside of this formation. Talos and chronos gain +1ws and init. If haemy is warlord, gain trait 1 automatically
6 - 1 haemy, 3 units of wracks with raiders. Master of pain from haemy confers to all units in this formation within 12". Warlord trait 5 if haemy is warlord
7 - all 6 formations as above in 1 formation - called the carnival of pain. Urien form formation 1 has his master of pain rule confer to whole formation. All non vehicles reroll 1's to wound in combat

Conclusions:

Well, where to start. I think the book has made a good transition to the new edition all in all. Although the model release was maybe not that spectacular in scale or adding anything new, the models are still great. It's no surprise that special characters went which is a shame but if the past few releases have shown us anything it's that this edition (and 6th) is all about consolidating armies and getting them up to spec. There's no guarantee that when the next Dark Eldar book comes along we won't see some of these chaps returning. I like that a lot of the overlooked units in the previous book are now viable options and that a lot of the no brainer units have, for one reason or another, been toned down. On the surface of things it looks like this book is fairly well balanced overall and should give Dark Eldar players some fun coming up with new ways to play, new units to use and new combinations to come up with. I get the distinct impression that the next 2 releases will be much the same as this in terms of model releases and tidying up loose ends from 5th edition.

Now I have some studio lights....ho ho ho.

October 12, 2014, 8:58 am

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Very brief update folks but look out for more on my other blog later on. Thanks to feedback from readers and my own personal frustrations I have taken the plunge and invested in a set of studio lights to go with my light tent. In concert with playing around with the camera settings, I think I have come up with a decent combo for improved photos on the site. I hope to invest in a decent tripod in the near future and who knows, one day may even buy a decent camera. For now though the studio setup (which has cost less than £50) is more than adequate to show off finished models in a lighting that does them more justice. A few pics of inquisitor Eisenhorn as a test-run will hopefully demonstrate that, though I'm still very much learning the ropes here and any further tips are very welcome. I intend to put up some more proper galleries as time passes now I have the right tools for the job. Cheers.

November mega hobby update

November 16, 2014, 5:27 am

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Hi folks,

Been a month since my last post as I've been busy at work and with painting crimson fists and deathwatch. Suffice to say I am taking a bit of a break from marines (short lived if the blood angel rumours are true) and trying to give the xenos some love.

Orks are still ongoing as I have a gorkanaut and morkanaut ALMOST finished but just needing me to crack on with them for a couple of hours. I also picked up some cheap fantasy orcs to convert to a snakebite mob and have some kans/nobs from stormclaw sitting in a box waiting for assembly. Essentially, they're on the to do list but keep getting shoved to the bottom of the pile.

Dark eldar, however, have been more in the spotlight and I've assembled 5 more wracks to make 10 total and a court of the archon. Add to that a voidraven and my de army is just about where I want it. Mankdrakes and grotesques are on the long term wish list and so the dark eldar are due a revisit sometime in the future.

 I went a bit crazy a few weeks ago and decided to fulfil some wishlist love with their craftworld cousins, however. I have assembled a fw avatar to replace my poor, tiny metal one. Also, my first fw superheavy is in the process of being put together - a revenant titan! Amazing kit!

Tyranids I am trying to ignore the existence of as there are so many great kits out there I would love to get ahold of and by the time I've done that my army (which is fully tabletop painted at present) would double in size! However, I may not be able to resist a small purchase in the new year.

Necrons I am also ignoring until they get their update. That being said, I am painting a small group of them up for Matt and Alex to take to a tournament end of this month and so it will be nice to have some units already done in advance of a Codex release.

As for other projects, I have no plans in the near future. Tau i consider finished and chaos is a project so vast in the undertaking that I want everything else done and dusted before even attempting to tackle them.

My knight is assembled and sisters of battle will never even be attempted without plastics. I do at some point need to assemble my imperial guard infantry who are well overdue some love. Inquisition forces gained a new ally in the form of a Gideon lorr model I picked up for a bargain and are awaiting the construction of a third stormtrooper squad to complete them. And I still haven't found that pesky eversor assassin to finish my assassin formation.

And so that's about it then. Busy busy busy and all over the place as usual but I've made some solid progress in what has been a solid 18 months of releases. Aside from the above there is talk of myself and Dan starting up a joint mechanicum army after Easter time and soiI am aiming to be on top of all other projects by then. Cheers.

Revenant titan assembled!

November 19, 2014, 2:45 pm

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Hi folks,

As I'm wading through photography as well as hobby stuff at the moment I'm trying to share as many pics as possible. Newly assembled is my first FW super heavy kit in the form of a Revenant titan. She's in need of some basing and needed waist pins to hold together but I'm really pleased with the pose and scale of the kit. The Knight/Titan base is an MDF one from Ebay by the way.

Well that's about it for now but hopefully there should be a fair few more updates before Christmas as I'm getting through things at a fair pace at the moment. Cheers.

Eldar army gallery

November 23, 2014, 6:42 am

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Hi chaps,

Finally got around to getting some decent photos of the Eldar contingent I painted up for Blog Wars 6 last year. It represents about 1/3 of my Eldar so there's a fair way to go in terms of finishing the army but obviously some of the units are pretty core to the army, such as Wave serpents, and so are likely to see action more frequently. Without further ado here's the photos. Fingers crossed I'll have some necron to add in about a weeks time. Cheers.

Necron painting session.

January 4, 2015, 11:40 am

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Hi folks and a happy New year to all.

Who knows what this year will bring in terms of mini releases, but suffice to say necrons (as the only non hardback codex remaining) will be getting an update soon.

Back in November I painted up a few of my collection for Matt to take to a tournament. I saw this as an opportunity both to do Matt a favour and also to get a head start on crons. Sadly I ran out of time to paint the annihilation barge entirely so that will have to wait for another day. Except for varnishing tho I got a unit of warriors, overlord, Lord and 4 crypteks painted up. O haven't photographed them properly yet but here's some snippets:

Necron Codex review part 1 of 3

February 26, 2015, 9:33 am

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Hi folks,

Has been far too long but finally I've got the chance to hammer out some thoughts on the new Necron codex and release. This will be far from comprehensive and there are much more thorough looks at the dex out there but I always like to do these reviews if only to get my head around what's changed and what hasn't. I'll also give brief mention to the rules found within WD and Exterminatus for the Mephrit dynasty. Due to the sheers amount of formations, I'll split the review up into three parts; one for them and another two for everything else. Any wargear that has changed will be covered in the most appropriate entry. 

Overall release impressions:

As has become the norm now, necrons came with both a codex and set of datacards. Both I have to say are very nice and fit in line with what we are used to by now. The codex has the added benefit of being larger than all other codexes save for the Space Marine one, but alas many of the extra pages are taken up by rather low quality CG schematics of infantry and their markings. A lot of this seems rather superfluous and not really that interesting or aesthetically pleasing to look at. A shame as I think it detracts from an otherwise lovely book. The only model release (let's face it, they didn't really need any) is a new Lord with a rather scythe-like warscythe. Much nicer than the FC Lord and the model represents one of the relics nicely.

Army special rules

Reanimation protocols is now different and works a bit like feel no pain in that it is an additional roll made after a failed save. Only destroyer and remove from play rules invalidate it. Roll a D6 and on a 5+ the model survives (subtract 1 if it was an instant death wound). The roll can never be better than 4+ and if the model/unit has feel no pain the you must choose which roll to use, not both. This seems a much better way of doing reanimation as it saves any confusion with models laid on their side with the old version. Ever living has also been moved to a formation perk. Living metal now not only ignores crew shaken, but also has the chance to reclaim a single hull point on a roll of 6 every turn for the heavy/super heavy vehicles. Note that the Phaeron rule has disappeared.

Warlord traits are as follows:

1 - Enduring will - Warlord has eternal warrior USR.

2 - Eternal madness - Warlord has zealot USR.

3 - Immortal hubris - Warlord and friendly Necron units in 12" can reroll morale, pinning and fear tests.

4 - Hyperlogical strategist - May +/- 1 from seize the initiative and reserve rolls.

5 - Implacable conqueror - Warlord and all friendly Necron units within 12" have relentless and crusader USRs.

6 - Honourable combatant - Warlord must always issue/accept a challenge. Can then reroll failed to hit rolls in challenge. No-one may intervene save for Obyron. If enemy refuses challenge then Warlord gains hatred for the rest of the game.

Artefacts of the aeons (relics) - a lot of these are formerly cryptek upgrades:

Gauntlet of the conflagrator - S7 AP2 template - one use only

Solar Staff - 12" S5 AP3 assault 3, blind, solar pulse (once per game can cancel out night fight and only snap shots can be made against the bearer and his unit)

Nightmare shroud -  2+ armour save and fear USR. Once per game can choose an enemy within 18" and make them take a morale check.

Veil of darkness - bearer has deep strike and can also relocate once per game via deep strike even if in combat.

Orb of eternity - after a reanimation protocol roll is failed, can activate this item (once per game). The failed roll can be rerolled as can any failed reanimation protocol rolls in that unit for the rest of the phase. Also, all rolls get a +1 bonus.

Voidreaper - a master crafted, fleshbane warscythe.(especially cool if you use this chap)

Tactical objectives:

11 - thrall of the Silent King - generate an additional objective - if it is achieved you score that plus D3.

12 - Dust and ashes - Nominate one Necron character - score 1 VP if still alive at the end of the turn.

13 - Reclaim and recapture - roll a D6 - if odd numbered you score D3 if controlling all 3 odd numbered objectives. If even, then same for even numbered objectives.

14 - Age of the machine - Score 1 VP if an enemy gun emplacement, vehicle or building destroyed (or D3 if at least 3). If super-heavy or mighty bulwark, score an additional 3.

15 - Slaughter the living - 1 VP if an enemy unit was destroyed.

16 -Code of combat - 1 VP if you issued a challenge.  

Units

Overlord - Now a bit cheaper and with 1 point extra of WS/BS but otherwise unchanged. Ever living is now gone as it has been made redundant by the changes to reanimation protocols. Sempiternal weave and tesseract labyrinths are now gone and much of the wargear has changed. I'll cover the melee weapons under elites but save to say the all got cheaper except the warscythe which doubled in cost. Phylactery now grants it will not die, a resurrection orb works as for the orb of eternity except that you don't gain the +1 bonus and mindshackle scarabs have been changed (thank goodness) so that in a challenge the model causes fear which tests on 3D6. Gauntlet of fire and tachyon arrow are mostly unchanged, with the arrow now having a 120" range. Phase shifters are now a 4+ invulnerable save which does NOT confer to chariots. Overall, the wargear seems much more balanced now so that Overlords are not overpowered.

Lord - now a cheaper alternative HQ choice rather than part of a court, Lords got a bit more pricey but gained a wound. They are otherwise identical to overlords in terms of options and rules. 

Cryptek - These chaps got a lot more pricey and also gained a wound. They are also a separate HQ choice now and no longer part of a court. No longer do they have so much variety and flavour with their wargear choices sadly and so have to make do with the relics and regular wargear. They do however bolster your reanimation protocols by +1 for the whole unit as well as having sole access to the chronometron, granting the Cryptek and his unit a 5++ against shooting attacks. A useful bolstering model but no longer the must take of old. 

Destroyer Lord - not much to say here. Bit cheaper, otherwise unchanged. The big difference is that he's now jet pack infantry (I will discuss later). 

Nemessor Zahndrek - a fair bit cheaper now and one of the few models to retain access to a 2+ save. He lost phased reinforcements and his resurrection orb, both of which are a shame. Instead of granting special rules for units, adaptive tactics now allows him to change his warlord trait every turn but he may not duplicate. Counter tactics has also changed and now allows you to mirror special rules from other nearby enemy units  - as long as they're on the list and within 24" there doesn't seem to be a limit to how many per turn. Overall he seems different but not really better or worse for the points. He's quite a tricky character to use effectively, but with the right squad and against the right enemy I can see him being effective. 

 

Varguard Obyron - Again, a fair bit cheaper in this edition. Obyron retains the ghostwalk mantle and a 2+ save, but has lost a wound. Varguard's duty now auto passes glorious intervention tests. The mantle can no longer be used if he is locked in combat and is a one use only piece of wargear. He doesn't scatter if he arrives within 12" of Zahndrek. Cleaving counterblow is much the same. Overall I would say Obyron hasnt really changed as the loss of a wound evens out the points drop.

Illuminor Szeras - A bit more expensive than before, Szeras retains the same stat-line and is now the only Cryptek with access to an eldritch lance. Mechanical augmentation is the same and he also benefits from a better version of technomancer, enhancing not just his squads reanimation rolls but that of other squads within 6". He did lose gaze of flame, but on the bright side now causes fear! Overall, pretty good and worth considering now ordinary Crypteks are more limited.

 

Orikan the diviner - significantly cheaper than before, though he did lose the transdimensional beamer and temporal snares. His two profiles remain the same as in the previous book as does the manner in which he upgrades, except that it is now a permanent change. The staff of tomorrow is pretty much the same except that the AP2 is now clarified. Master chronomancer is an another better version of the standard cryptek rule, which means not only does his squad add +1 to reanimation rolls but also that they can re-roll saving throws of 1. I think this chap is again worth considering as an alternative to a Cryptek if you have the points spare. 

 

Anrakyr the traveller - About the same points as before and pretty much fulfils the same role as a pimped warscythe overlord. He still has his tachyon arrow, counter attack and furious charge, plus retains his two special rules. Mind in the machine is slightly different in that he must select a vehicle within 12" now and it only works on a 4+. If shaken/stunned it must fire snap shots and it can only be one of the vehicles weapons, not all as before. He's been toned down a little but is pretty much the same as before and still worth it IMO. 

Trazyn the infinite - yet another character to see a significant points drop (spotting a pattern here?). Trazyn has lost his mindshackle scarabs and, due to the changes to scoring in this edition, also lost his 'another piece for the collection' rule. The empathic obliterator is pretty much the same (fairly lame) and his surrogate hosts rule is similar, in that on a 2+ he replaces a character model (non-unique) when he dies. Given that the necron army isn't replete with characters I think it's a rather limited rule and given that Trazyn isn't actually that great would you really want to replace your destroyer lord with him, assuming you bothered to take him in the first place. IMO the weakest of the Overlord characters. 

Catacomb Command Barge - now a seperate entry rather than dedicated transport, these guys have changed a fair bit. They are overall a lot cheaper now and obviously the chariot rules now govern things such as sweep attacks and the passenger. Phase shifters have been clarified and symbiotic repair now no longer exists, again due to the chariot rule changes. A new rule exists in the form of command wave, which either grants the same benefits as the immortal hubris warlord trait, or stacks with hubris to extend to 18". Also, it's a big change in that now it can no longer be taken as a dedicated transport for named HQ characters.

 Part two will look at the other codex datasheets for individual units. Cheers.

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Necron Codex review part 2 of 3

February 27, 2015, 9:30 am

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Welcome to part 2 folks, which covers all the non-HQ datasheets save for formations. These are brief reviews basically looking at what's changed rather than how to use the units and so don't expect an in depth analysis. The more I've read through the book, however, the more Necrons have turned from the army I love to hate into the army I want to love.

Warriors - completely unchanged save for a limit of 10-20 per squad rather than 5-20.

Immortals - again, completely unchanged.

Lychguard - got a massive and much needed points drop. The stats, wargear options and special rules are unchanged, but the wargear itself changed somewhat. Hyperphase swords remain the same as AP3 melee weapons, warscythes are clarified as S+2, AP2, 2-handed, armourbane and the biggest change is that dispersion shields now grant a flat 3++ save. So you can either go for a very tough unit that can dice through 3+ armour easily, or a unit capable of ripping apart vehicles and 2+ armour that is a bit cheaper but more vulnerable to AP3 and below weaponry.

Deathmarks - 1 pt cheaper per head. Hunters from hyperspace changed very slightly in that no nomination of units is needed now in order to wound on a 2+. Ethereal interception also changed in that now it is clarified that you can make a shooting attack when you arrive but cannot shoot in your following turn.

Flayed ones - a much needed improvement. For the most part everything remained the same (save for gaining fear - whoo!) except that these chaps now come armed with 2 flayer claws each, granting an extra attack, AP5 and shred. A much needed boost in melee but may still not make them that desirable.

Triarch Praetorians - like the Lychguard, they also got a lot cheaper. They gained an extra attack and access to a night scythe as a dedicated transport. Rods of covenant are S5 AP2 weapons in melee and gained an extra 6" on their ranged attack also. Particle casters are the same and voidblades are now AP4 base with the new rules for entropic strike (covered under scarabs). Now a much more attractive choice.

Triarch Stalkers - a power fist cheaper and now in squadrons or 3. All else is much the same except the targetting relay now changed so that all Necrons within 6" add +1 to their BS except if firing snap shots.

C'Tan Shard of the Nightbringer - Shards are now separate entities rather than build your own. Probably an IP protecting move but sadly I think it takes away from the uniqueness of the unit. Whereas before you could build a C'Tan to suit your fluff, now you're limited to the 3 that have models. Nightbringer has a slightly different profile to before with WS6/BS4 and retains the eternal warrior, immune to natural law and necrodermis rules. He also gains fleshbane and has gaze of death as standard. This works differently now and rather than being a melee attack is now a shooting attack. A single unit takes 3D6 -Ld AP2 wounds that ignore cover. If 1+ wounds are inflicted Nightbringer regains a wound. Probably a bit cheaper now that his rules are incorporated and not upgrades but still not a great choice for the points - T7 4++ just aint that tough thesedays. Add to that the randomness of the C'Tan powers which I'll cover under the transcendent C'Tan. 

C'Tan Shard of the Deceiver - Same cost as Nightbringer, just shy of a land raider. This chap retains his stats from before and gains a few new rules. Grand illusion is pretty much the same but now he can also hit and run and has dread, meaning models within 12" -2 from their Ld. Less of a beatstick than the Nightbringer and much more of a strategic model to outmanoeuvre and rout the enemy - probably better against slow, low Ld armies.

Night scythe - much needed points increase to make it more balanced, the scythe now has the invasion beam rule clarifying unit disembarkation. Also, the change to tesla is much needed and now clarifies that snap shots do not generate more tesla hits.

Ghost Ark - a bit cheaper and some changes to repair barge meaning you can no longer damage yourself and simply roll D3 to restore models to a unit of warriors. It retains quantum shielding, which is now a fixed 13 for front and side until a penetrating hit is scored. The Gauss flayer arrays are now salvo 5/10 and have independent targetting making them more useful. Speaking of gauss, in addition to auto-penetrating on 6's they now auto-wound on 6's also. Nasty.

Canoptek wraiths - in almost any codex there will always be one unit that stands out above the rest. Already a strong contender in the previous book, the canoptek wraith has gone from good to amazing. A straight 3++ now, plus all the same stats as before including an upgrade to T5, making it much more durable. It is also now a beast unit rather than jump infantry but retains wratihflight in order to bypass intervening terrain. All for a very modest points increase. Whip coils now add 3 to initiative rather than affecting the enemy's initiative value. The transdimensional beamer changed to a S4 AP2 heavy 1 weapons which causes auto-wound/instant death on a 6 and auto-penetrates vehicles on a 6 also.

Canoptek Scarabs - these chaps mostly retain the same stats but have gone up in price a bit and had their save reduced from 5+ to 6+. Also, entropic strike has changed dramatically so that now it is just effectively the same as gauss but in melee. Not as good as before obviously but many would argue they were too good then. 

Tomb Blades - stats remained the same but they got slightly cheaper and all the upgrades got significantly cheaper. What's more, all the upgrades are now useful. Shield vanes remained the same upgrading the blade to a 3+ (so now for the same cost as the old model you get a 3+ save), nebuloscopes now grant ignores cover instead of a pretty redundant (on a TL weapon) BS5 and the shadowloom grants +1 cover save rather than stealth, so presumably it can be stacked with stealth. Several subtle but needed changes mean they're likely to be more commonly seen, especially now they're a compulsory choice in a decurion detachment (more on that later).

Destroyers - Now jet pack infantry which is great as they can use the old Tau tactic of move-shoot-move. The cost remains the same, but now destroyers are a much needed 2 wounds rather than 1. The unit size maximum is now 6 and only a single model may be upgraded to a heavy destroyer for half the points cost of before. But.....

Heavy destroyers - ...they now have their own unit to compensate in the heavy support slot. A 1-3 unit and each is effectively 10 points cheaper than before and, as above, has jet pack and an extra wound. Destroyers are looking like an attractive option this edition.

Canoptek Spyders - Same points as before but with cheaper upgrades. The Particle cannon and fabricator claw are the same, whereas the gloom prism now grants admantium will to all units in 12". The scarab hive is pretty much the same except that the scarab base is automatically generated now regardless of whether you roll a 1 and wound the spyder. Slightly better due to the points adjustments, though the scarab nerf may make them less desirable overall.

Doom scythe - Slightly cheaper than before, the doom scythe has had the same tesla-snap-shot nerf as other units, but has also seen changes to the death ray. Instead of drawing a line 3D6 long, you now simply fire with a 24" range. It is still S10 AP1 but now has blast and lance, making it even more deadly for a single vehicle or heavy infantry unit.

Monolith - This unit may have gotten a little worse. It's the same points cost and has the same weapon profiles but is now officially counted as a heavy vehicle, meaning pretty much the same as before and it can attempt to regenerate thanks to living metal. The eternity gate can be used to transport friendlies still but not to kill enemies anymore.

Annihilation Barge - this chappy saw a much needed tone-down in the new book. Not only did tesla get changed to not apply its special rule to snap shots, but the points cost for this unit shot up 33%. Much more balanced this way.

Doomsday Ark - never a particularly popular choice in the old book, the Ark has only gone down in cost marginally and has had a few tweaks to its doomsday cannon. It's main fire mode still needs the Ark to remain stationary, but is now a S10 AP1 large blast which has the primary weapon rule for the penetration bonus. It's secondary fire mode is also improved somewhat, being S8 AP3 blast now. These slight adjustments may make it a bit more popular now. 

Transcendent C'Tan - This chap is now a heavy support choice and is markedly toned down from his previous incarnation - a good thing IMO as he was overpowered before and cropping up regularly at tournaments as a result. He has the same base rules as the other C'Tan (fearless, eternal warrior, necrodermis and immune to natural law) and a better stat-line than the other two, with 5 wounds and S8. Writhing worldscape is incorporated into his rules now and makes open ground within 6" of the C'Tan difficult. He also has deep strike for when you want to ruin your opponents day. The C'Tan powers now have a very random mechanic to them. You roll a D6/pick a card AFTER choosing a target each turn and then apply that power. This is pretty poor IMO and would work much better if you got to choose the power and then designate a target, as some powers are good against certain units and terrible against others. All these powers are available for all 3 C'Tan and have a range of 24". Here's a rundown:

1 - Antimatter meteor - S8 AP3 large blast

2 - cosmic fire - S6 AP4 large blast ignores cover

3 - Seismic assault - S6 AP4 assault 10 strikedown

4 - Sky of falling stars - S7 AP4 assault 3 large blast barrage

5 - Times arrow - SD AP1 precision shots

6 - Transdimensional thunderbolt - S9 AP1 tesla

Obelisk - A monolith with 2 more hull points that is also a skimmer and packs 4 tesla spheres. It's 50% more expensive than a monolith and can either deep strike or lay dormant, the latter of which gives it a 3++ until you decide to activate it. Tesla spheres are reasonably potent, each being S7 heavy 5. The other perk of an Obelisk is that it has a gravity pulse, which makes all non-ground based units take a dangerous terrain test if within 18". I'm not really sure how effective an Obelisk would be in-game by looking at the stats. It would be tough to shift and an annoyance for your opponent  but not really a game changer unless you came up against say a Saimm-Hann list.

Tesseract Vault - A lord of war and the most expensive unit in the book. Effectively an upgraded Obelisk with 4 Tesla spheres, 50% more hull points and, most importantly, the ability to use the coalescent powers of the C'Tan. These are all BS5 and fired from the C'Tan itself using better profiles than the regular C'Tan with twice the range. Antimatter meteor and cosmic fire are apocalyptic blast, Seismic assault is 20 shots, Sky of falling stars is assault 6 apocalyptic barrage, Times arrow and Transdimensional Thunderbolt are assault 2 instead of 1. It's intimidating for sure, but when the powers are so random it's a lot of points to invest. If it ever gets to the point of exploding though beware as it always blows up big!

Imotekh the Stormlord - Now a Lord of War, Imotekh is essentially an Overlord with a badass staff of light (S6 AP2 assault 3). He also packs a phase shifter, gauntlet of fire and has it will not die. Bloodswarm nanoscarabs allow more accurate deep striking for flayed ones, whereas his lord of the storm rule grants both auto night fighting on the first turn and can hit every unit within 48" with D6 S6 hits on a 5+ once per game. He retains his 2+ save and is a bit cheaper than before but note that he lost some other rules as well as not being able to access a Command barge. He's not bad, but not great either.

That's all for part 2, part 3 will cover formations, the decurion and supplemental material. Cheers. 

Necron Codex review - part 3 of 3

February 28, 2015, 9:30 am

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On to part 3, the final part of the codex review which will look at the detachments, formations and supplemental material.

Decurion detachment:

A new and interesting concept introduced here is the decurion detachment. What this allows is for the Necron player to have an additional way of organising their army in addition to the methods found in the main rulebook. (unbound, combined arms, allied). Effectively, you make up a detachment comprising formations (more on them below). This has the benefit of you being able to keep both the detachment benefits and in addition you get the individual formation benefits. There are restrictions within the detachment and, of course, the usual restrictions within the individual formations. The core formation here is the reclamation legion, which allows you to in turn take 0-1 royal court and 1-10 of any of the other detachments. For every legion you take, you can then add in the same. It's a really nice concept and obviously those who don't like it don't have to use it. The other added benefit is a shedload of formations added into the book.  The command benefit gained from taking a decurion is ever-living, granting a +1 to reanimation protocols and allowing models with living metal to ignore stunned and shaken - this is across the whole army and so is of great benefit if you can organise your army this way. Note that the Star God, Flayed ones and Deathmarks entries are simply chosen from the datasheets and are not a formation in themselves.

 

Reclamation Legion:

The core of the Decurion, the Legion formation grants the models within it move through cover and relentless, as well as allowing the Overlord and units within 12" of him to reroll reanimation protocol rolls of 1. The formation consists of 1 Overlord (or Zahndrekh, Trazyn, Anrakyr or a Command barge), 0-2 Lychguard, 1-4 Immortals, 2-8 Warriors, 1-3 Tomb blades and 0-3 Monoliths. This is a great flexible core to any army and a seemingly obvious sales plug for tomb blades by making them 1-3, though with the new rules chances are you'll want some anyway.

Royal Court:

No Longer a standard option in the army list, the court is now a formation consisting of a single Overlord (or one of the alternatives mentioned above), 1-3 Lords (Or Obyron) and 1-3 Crypteks (or Orikan/Szeras) as a single unit, and as independent characters they may split off and join other squads. They gain move through cover and relentless as with the Reclamation legion, but in addition the Overlord may reroll warlod traits if it is the Warlord.

Judicator Battalion:

Consisting of one unit of stalkers and 2 units of Praetorians, the battalion not only grants move through cover to the units but also target designated, which allows the player to nominate a single unit in line of sight to a stalker. All units in the formation can then reroll to hit, wound or penetrate vs this target until the end of the shooting phase. Potentially devastating if a priority target presents itself.

Destroyer Cult:

One destroyer Lord, 3 units of destroyers (3+ models each) and 0-1 heavy destroyer units. They gain move through cover and also can reroll warlord traits if chosen as a primary detachment. In addition to their preferred enemy, extermination protocols allows all models in the formation to re-roll failed to wound and armour penetration rolls in the shooting phase. Nice.

Deathbringer flight:

A formation of 2-4 doom scythes which allows you to add 2 to your BS when firing death rays at the same target for each preceding death ray shot. Also, enemy units within 12" or 2+ doom scythes have -1 leadership.

Living Tomb:

Consisting of an obelisk and 0-2 monoliths, the tomb requires all units to start in deep strike reserve. The Obelisk automatically arrives on the second turn and allows any monoliths arriving to not scatter if placed within 12". The tomb nexus rule grants monoliths the ability to immediately relocate a single infantry unit from reserves to disermbark at the same time the monolith arrives. A good way of getting an additional Lord of war onto the table and also stopping your monoliths from mishapping as well as getting units in from reserve fairly reliably. 

Annihilation Nexus:

A doomsday ark and 2 annihilation barges make up the nexus. The quantum deflection rule allows you to sacrifice a barges quantum shielding to reactivate the doomsday arks. Not that great to be honest as the barges are themselves an asset not to be easily sacrificed.

Canoptek Harvest:

This formation is composed of a single canoptek spyder, 1 unit of wraiths and one unit of scarabs. They all gain move through cover and relentless, but also get adaptive subroutines. This allows you to give the spyder and any units from the formation within 12" one of the following rules per turn: shred, fleet and reanimation protocols. Certainly the last one will be useful in keeping already durable units alive that extra bit longer to make it into combat.

Mephrit Dynasty Warlord traits and relics of the war in heaven:

Not technically a formation but I thought I would mention these items here while going over the Mephrit Dynasty (hate the paint scheme) formations from WD and exterminatus.

1 - Eternal will - warlord has eternal warrior

2 - Override protocols - warlords melee weapons have haywire USR

3 - Immortal arrogance - warlord and friendly necrons in 12" can reroll failed morale, pinning and fear tests.

4 - Mental Subroutines - Warlord has admantium will.

5 - Scorn of the ages - Warlord and his unit have hatred.

6 - Repair nanoscarabs - Warlord has it will not die USR.

The God shackle (cryptek only) - as long as the Cryptek remains alive a nominated C'tan shard gains +1 S/T.

Edge of eternity (Overlord only) - a warscythe with precision strikes.

Solar thermasite - (Overlord/Cryptek) - can reroll failed saves of 1 and gains +1S to ranged/melee.

Mephrit Dynasty Cohort

Effectively a Necron detachment if you wanted one as an alternative to the decurion. Essentially the same as a combined arms detachment just with 3-8 troops. Perks include rerolling for Mephrit Warlord traits and rerolling reanimation protocol rolls of 1 for troops. Note that you cannot take tesseract vaults.

Conclave of the burning one

This chap is the C'tan shard mentioned in Exterminatus and the formation consists of a C'tan Shard with 2 Crypteks which form a unit together - they can't be joined by any other characters but benefit from using the Shards toughness. While the Crypteks are alive the Shard gets feel no pain 5+, 6+ if only one is alive. This would seem to work well with the God Shackle, but as these rules were released before the Codex it's not quite clear if you have to take a Shard (Nightbringer/Deceiver) or if you can take a transcendent C'tan - the Burning one is clearly the Transcendent C'tan model just with the old Shard rules, but now the Shards all have disinct rules it's a bit unclear.

Zarathusa's Royal Decurion

The first of 3 mini-decurions, this one grants one of the following rules to the non-vehicle units in the formation: crusader, counter-attack, fearless, monster hunters. The overlord must be alive to benefit from it and you can change the rule at the beginning of each turn to suit the situation. The requirements are rather specific though, consisting of 1 overlord / immortals / ghost ark / stalker / deathmarks / doom scythe / praetorians and 2 units of warriors / wraiths.  

Anrakyr's strategic decurion

The benefits of this formation are rerolling to seize the initiative and being able to re-roll reserves as long as Anrakyr is alive. It consists of Anrakyr, 2 units of warriors and one of each immortals, ghost ark, doom scythe and deathmarks. 

The Guardians of Perdita

One of the formations made up of formations found in Exterminatus, this one is basically all 3 of the above formations combined (for larger games obviously) which in addition to their individual perks all benefit from Zarathusa's command benefits so long as he is still alive.

Mephrit Dynasty resurgence decurion

This mini WD formation is 2 units of warriors, 2 units of immortals and a monolith, which has the locus of resurrection rule. This allows the monolith to repair fallen models from the formation at the beginning of the movement phase. All units of warriors within 6"roll a D6 and all units of immortals a D3. Add this many models to the unit so long as it doesn't exceed starting size. This is a great formation if you aren't using a decurion as it allows a solid firebase which will continue to resurrect itself so long as the monolith remains alive.

Conclusion

Overall I think the Necron Codex is a very good effort on GWs parts. The book itself is extensive and packed full of pictures and datasheets. They've done a very good job of balancing out a controversial codex and as a result have made it so that while the army is still strong, it doesn't have so many auto-include units any more. Highlights include the decurion detachment style of organisation, while areas which fell a bit short of the mark include the simplistic squad markings section, loss of variety amongst Crypteks and the random nature of the C'Tan powers. Overall though very impressed with this release. Cheers. 

Tyranid army expansion including Tyranid Prime conversion

March 9, 2015, 3:25 pm

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The main reason for this small update to my nids was that I effectively got a load of the models for next to nothing with Deathstorm. This worked out pretty well TBH as I needed a Broodlord and wanted to add in more Carnifexes to my brood of one. I also added a second warrior unit more tooled up for close combat than my deathspitter squad. As a token gesture I added a small box of termagants to make my squad up from 25 to 30. Last but not least comes a Tyranid Prime conversion.

I originally used an old hive guard model to represent the Prime, although it looks totally out of place. With all the spare parts included in the warrior kits, I decided to try and kitbash a bigger, badder Prime. After messing around with loadouts I finally settled on a rounded 150pts for lash whip and bonesword with a deathspitter, which also made the model look pretty nifty too. I used the old Hive Guard model and removed the arms. After painstakingly sawing off the head I added the Prime head from the warrior kit and using greenstuff I added the Prime Shoulder pads. As the left deathspitter arm wouldn't stretch I used a rending claw and filled the hole in the deathspitter. I chopped off the spore chimneys and used greenstuff to attach them to the carapace. Lastly, I underwired the stumpy tail and formed a new greenstuff tail which I attached the pincer to. He stands about a head taller than a regular warrior and I'm really pleased how he turned out.

My grand plan for nids is to do small wave expansions which I won't progress onto until the army is up to speed and basecoated to tabletop standard which, until this update they all were. Long term I reckon 4 small waves with a couple of boxes each should complete the army. It'll be a couple of years but worth it. Cheers.

Harlequins - a brief overview

April 5, 2015, 9:16 am

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It's a bit late in the day for me to talk about Harlequins but I couldn't just let their appearance on the 40k scene as a separate entity go unmentioned. Alex over on From the Fang has done a much better job of analyzing them than I could hope to and so where I'll simply skim the release I highly recommend reading his articles. Codex: Harlequins starts a brave new era in the 40k universe which was slightly foreshadowed by the Imperial Knight, Tempestus and multitude of codex supplements. That is, an era that doesn't solely rely on updating existing codexes and throwing in the occasional campaign, but instead fleshes out minor races with their own rules and expanded model ranges. This is precisely what the 40k Universe needs now that all the regular codexes are up to date if it is to prevent itself stagnating. Now that the Skitarii codex is on the horizon I hope these will be but the first.

The codex itself is slightly smaller than a regular codex but is replete with the same gorgeous artwork we are used to by now. I find it a bit of a shame that the otherwise diversely coloured Harlequins have now been subdivided into different masques with fairly uniform colour schemes, but they have to fill the pages somehow.

The units have been greatly expanded to not only encompass the classic troupe but also beefing up the Troupe Master as a 2-wound character which is primed to be your Warlord. The death jester and Shadowseer are now individual elite choices and are joined by the all new revamped Solitaire. Speaking of classics, Harlequin jetbikes are also as 2-seaters with melee options in the form of Skyweavers. But that's not all. Also joining the show is a transport vehicle in the form of the Starweaver and a gunboat in the form of the Voidweaver.

We are introduced to new weaponry in the forms of a new neuro pistol, changed rules for the harlequins kiss and new weapons in the form of the caress and embrace. But this is only the start, as not only do the death jester and Shadowseer have new weapon profiles but also a host of new weapons are introduced with the sky/star and voidweavers, including haywire weaponry, mirage launchers and a baby prism cannon.

Rules wise, the harlequins retain much of their former flavour but now have a psychic discipline all of their own in the form of phantasmancy, of which the primaris is the much needed veil of tears. Points-wise there are some increases and decreases across the board and also stat changes as the characters are now all 2 wound minimum. The Warlord traits are really interesting and flavourful and I like that there are 3 tables to choose from with several mutual options - also making only half the options available to other characters makes the troupe master an appealing choice. And of course there is the Masque detachment and the now familiar formations and relics to choose from.  

The models are the real stars of the show though, and they need to be as the existing metals were already of a high standard. The new Troupe retains most elements of the old models just with a few new weapons and masks. The individual characters have beautiful and dynamic updates posed on scenery and the new solitaire is gorgeous, though I was a bit put off by the mask at first. The skyweavers are a nice version of jetbikes that meet craftworld and dark eldar in the middle and put an unique spin on things with the passenger. Likewise, the star/voidweaver is a larger cousin to the venom with elements of the vyper included. In one fell swoop the harlequins have all the models they'll ever need and they're beauties.

Overall a great little release that I was sorely tempted by but ultimately chose to pass on in order to pursue other projects first. Suffice to say though that I fully intend to revisit them at a later date. Let's hope this is the first of many mini-dex releases as it's a great way of smashing out a whole army in just a few weeks worth of releases and breathing fresh life into the game and hobby.

Codex: Khorne Daemonkin review

April 7, 2015, 12:24 pm

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Well well well, here's a nice surprise. I've lost track of how many comments I've read over the years from people yearning for a mono-God book and now finally it's here. Although I don't plan on moving onto chaos worshipping until next year I couldn't help but pick up the book just to get a feel for what they're doing with things. I'll go over things in some detail but seeing as there are few new units included in the book I won't dwell on them too much and will instead focus on the other aspects to the book.

The Overall look of the book is the same high standard we are now used to. The pages are replete with colour artwork both old and new and detail the Daemonkin hosts of Khorne while giving us the usual timeline and force disposition pages. I found the new fluff on Khornes 8 hosts and how each type of Bloodthirster comes from a specific one particularly interesting. What's also nice (and a throwback to the codexes of old) is a section giving a one-page description and artwork of each unit (the Heldrake is oddly missing). A few pages focus on the markings and colour schemes of the hosts before we are treated to the colour gallery (with a few 'eavy metal spotlights) and then on to the datasheets and rules.

As the title suggests, this book is dedicated to all things Khorne, namely various CSM units and the Khorne Daemons from their respective books, plus a few new entries (Bloodthirsters) and notable absences (Kharn, Karanak, Skarbrand, Oblit/muties). Skarbrand I can understand as he has no model but the muties/oblits are odd as they have the MoK option in the CSM book and both Kharn and Karanak are so quintessentially Khorne that their absence is baffling. Both the predator and vindicator are also absent, as are havocs and chosen. The mark and daemon of Khorne rules are the same as their parent codexes which provides nice continuity and from what I can see most point costs are also uniform in that, for example, a Chaos Marine costs the same as in the CSM book plus the cost of MoK. Difference is that the following rules replace the rules found in the parent Codex. Skulls for the skull throne is effectively the same chaos champion rule regarding challenges. Blood for the Blood God is the real big difference here though and allows you to generate Blood tithe points for each unit you destroy or is destroyed with the BftBG rule, plus the same for characters in challenges. You tally these points to a max of 8 then expend them by picking one reward off the following table - the points are then zeroed and we begin again.

1 - Infernal contempt - all BftBG units have admantium will this turn.

2 - Insatiable bloodlust - all BftBG units have furious charge and rage this turn.

3 - Unstoppable ferocity - all BftBG units have FnP this turn.

4 - Apocalyptic fury - all BftBG units have +1 attacks this turn.

5 - Daemontide - 8 Bloodletters/5 fleshounds are summoned within 12" of a BftBG unit.

6 - Harbingers of blood and brass - 3 bloodcrushers/skullcannon are summoned within 12" of a BftBG unit.

7 - Dark apotheosis - a non-daemon BftBG character must take a Ld test - if failed, a spawn is summoned in 6", if passed a daemon Prince with daemonic flight and warp-forged armour is instead. The character is removed but slay the warlord is not awarded and a warlord trait / relic is retained.

8 - Fury unbound - as for 7 but a Bloodthirster of unfettered fury is summoned instead.

Before I go any further just a note to say that both the warp storm table and daemonic instability are gone from this codex. Not only that, but the chaos boon table is gone also. This removes some flavour but also is adequately replaced by the above table to provide the player with bonuses and ways for psychic-hating Khorne to summon in reinforcements. For the most part the armoury is a streamlined amalgam of the two books with new relics and an absence of chaos rewards. A collar of Khorne can be taken as can ichor blood. The axe of khorne, normally reserved for bloodthirsters, is a welcome addition to the melee weapons section, granting ap2 at initiative and instant death on a 6 to wound. Chaos Lords seem to have the least restricted access to wargear on the list. Unless specifically mentioned assume all the units below have the Blood for the Blood God rule and either mark of Khorne or Daemon of Khorne.  

Let's take a look at the HQ choices as there are plenty. The Chaos Lord, Daemon Prince, Herald, Blood Throne, Skulltaker and all 3 Bloodthristers are in there. Things to note include the lack of rewards for the Herald and the FOC changes in that he takes up a single slot and doesn't need to upgrade to a Blood throne any more - it's a separate entry. Also, though loci are still in the daemonic gifts are gone though the relics compensate for this. The Bloodthirster of unfettered fury is verbatim the regular Bloodthirster we know and love. The Slightly more costly BT of insensate rage is the chap with the D strength AP2 mega-axe (piles in and fights at I1) who also has the rage USR. Lastly, the slightly more expensive Wrath of Khan, I mean Khorne, BT has Admantium will, hatred (characters) a bloodflail and hellfire as well as an axe of Khorne. These provide a 12" s7 Ap2 assault 3 and a S5 ap4 soul blaze template respectively.

Troops consist of cultists, Chaos Space Marines, Beserkers and Bloodletters, though note that the starting size of all these units is 8 (upgradable to standard maximums) and that the Bloodreaper can't take rewards as per the Herald. A small elites section only contains Terminators, possessed and Bloodcrushers, again oddly lacking chosen who are, after all, the chosen of the Chaos Gods after all. Fast attack is pretty crowded with rhinos, Heldrakes, Bikers, Raptors, Warp Talons, Flesh hounds and spawn. Heavy support contains Land raiders (also a DT for terminators), Forgefiends, Maulerfiends, Defilers, Soulgrinders, Helbrutes and Skull cannons. Finally, we couldn't go without mentioning the big guy. Indeedy, the Lord of Skulls is in there as a Lord of War.

Now we've looked at the FOC it's time to look at another new feature first introduced to us in the Necron codex. Rather than a simple detachment with an alternative FOC this book packs a Blood Host detachment, which works in much the same way as a Necron decurion. The core element is a Slaughtercult (covered momentarily) for which each entitles you to a Lord of Slaughter - either one of the 3 Bloodthirsters or a Lord of Skulls. You can then choose 1-8 formations (again, detailed below) per Slaughtercult. One of these 5 isn't actually a formation and is a war engine, entitling you to a Helbrute, Defiler, Soulgrinder, Forgefiend, Maulerfiend or Lord of Skulls. While I think these new style detachments have their place, I'm not so sure this one works very well due to the limited units available and the points costs involved. The perks (as well as the individual formation perks) are that you get to reroll warlord traits and you get a bonus blood tithe point at the start of each turn.

The Slaughtercult is your core detachment and is effectively one HQ chosen from all the options except the BTs, 2-8 troops (except cultists), 1-4 possessed (sales pitch? at least tomb blades were good!), 0-2 cultists and 0-2 spawn. This actually has some good perks in that as well as the Warlord reroll you also get to auto-remove cultists who fail morale checks to bolster that blood tithe and you can choose a second reward on the Blood tithe table as long as it has a lower value that the first to a maximum of 3. I can see this being particularly useful to really milk all you can from that tithe table.

The Brazen onslaught is 1-4 Terminators and 2-4 Bloodcrushers, who benefit from +1A if outnumbered in combat. Khorne's bloodstorm is 2-4 Raptors, 1-4 Warp Talons and 0-1 Heldrakes, allowing +1S to any hammer of wrath or vector strikes they make - nice! The Gorepack is 2-4 bikers and 1-4 Flesh hounds, who gain move through cover, preferred enemy (psykers) and the Fleshounds gain HoW, while the bikers HoW attacks gain shred. Lastly, the charnel cohort is a Daemon-exclusive formation granting counter-attack, rerolls to warlord trait, -2 to fear tests and the ability to reroll deep strike for the HQ and use him to stop other units in 6" from this formation scattering. Overall they're pretty nice if you happen to have the right quantity of models to arrange in this specific way.

Warlord Traits:

1 - Icon of War - reroll failed charge rolls for warlord and all BftBG units in 12" - nice!

2 - Disciple of Khorne - Warlord has zealot.

3 - Arch-slaughterer - Warlord has +1A.

4 - Favoured of Khorne (Skulltaker) - Warlord generates one extra blood tithe point if wins a challenge.

5 - Butcher King - Warlord has preferred enemy.

6 - Destined for Glory - automatically passes LD rolls on results 7/8 on the blood tithe table.

Tactical objectives

11 - Khorne cares not - 1vp if a unit, friend or foe, was destroyed. 3-5 = D3, 6+ = D3+3.

12 - Altar of gore - 1 Vp if an enemy that was controlling an objective is destroyed (D3 if you now control)

13 - Blood and skulls for Khorne - 1VP if an enemy character killed during a challenge (D3 if an IC).

14 - Unfettered butchery - 1 VP if an enemy unit killed during assault phase.

15 - Murder-call - 1VP if a daemon unit summoned or deep struck.

16 - Blood God's scorn - 1VP if 1+ enemy units falling back or if a psyker destroyed.

Artefacts of Slaughter

Goredrinker - S+1, AP2, unwieldy. Blood feast rule means it gets stronger the more it kills. 1-2 wounds = +1 strength, 3-4 =rampage, 5-7 = double strength, 8+ = instant death.

Blood-forged armour - 3+ armour save, eternal warrior and FnP.

Brazen rune - Admantium will and once per game can cause any psyker in 24" to perils on any double, though the bearer loses admantium will after.

Blade of endless bloodshed - AP3 - generates an additional blood tithe point if caused any casualties in melee.

Skull helm of Khorne - bearer has fear and also gains additional attacks for every 6 he rolls to hit in melee.

Kor'Lath, the axe of ruin - AP2 specialist weapon with deapitating blow (instant death on to wound roll of 6) and caged fury, which means a Bloodthirster of unfettered fury will be summoned in 6" if the bearer dies! It suffers D3 wounds per turn (++ saves allowed) however.

In conclusion this is a pretty good release that has done well to piggy-back onto the Bloodthirster release and also helps to make playing a mono-God Chaos list a lot easier through needing only one book, working synergistically within a God-specific ruleset and also eliminating more complicated rules like the warp storm and boon tables. I think enthusiasts may feel that it fell short of the mark (pun intended) with Kharn being left out and therefore even if allied in being unable to add to the BftBG tally. However, that aside let's hope that this book is the first of the four to be released and not a one-off.