Still more...........

Much like they keep killing Suzie, I keep making jump pack Marines. Here are two more for the cause.

Since I have these two added, I guess I'll have to build three or four more to make another squad for them to join. Hooray!

I wanted at least one power fist, since  I like them and see too many Defilers and big gribblies in my area.

Have you seen this unit? part 12

The Fenrisian Wolf is a semi-sentient carnivore similar in appearance to the Terran dire wolf that grows in size from that of a small horse up to that of an Imperial armored vehicle. They are considered among the most intelligent and deadly of predators in the galaxy and make use of chillingly efficient pack-hunting strategies. Well at least that is what we are told. The real case is they are a fast attack option for the Space Wolves and they are nowhere to be found outside of their home world.

"Nice doggy! I think I have a milk-bone...AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

On the tabletop they are beasts, have counter attack and are armed with claws/fangs. They are WS 4, BS 0 (finally a BS 0 for a non gun-toting unit so why do Genestealers and others have a BS skill?), strength toughness and initiative 4, 1 wound, 2 attacks, leadership 5 and 6+ save. They cost just about half of a normal space wolf costs, so they are fairly cheap. They come in packs of 5-15. One of them can also be upgraded to a cyberwolf. This gives on wolf toughness 5, 3 attacks and a 4+ save. 

So why are they shunned? Well there are so many better ways to spend points in this codex.  No player with 80-100 points to spend will choose to grab a unit of Fenrisian Wolves. They’ll buy more Long Fangs, Grey Hunters, Wolf Guard or anything else.

Preparing for the 4th

This past Saturday had my clan trecking jsut down the road to grab some fireworks for the upcoming weekend. We usally he to the parental units' and make happy time explosion fun the weekend before/of July 4th. So here is our explosive hoard packaged

Grey Knight troop review, Strike Squad

Having hit the nameless Grey Knight HQ’s I think I’ll dive into the troop options. I am a lover of the troop force organization slot. This codex has two choices and both are pretty stellar, at least from my standpoint. The first choice I’ll cover is the Strike Squad.

These are the tactical squad for the Grey Knights. They run in squads of 5-10, have all the normal Grey Knight gear, rules and psy power. Their stat line is typical Astartes: all 4’s in most stats except they have1 wound and attack, leadership 8, and a 3+ save. They can also combat squad, and have the additional psy power Warpquake. They will run you a century’s worth of points for four guys and their Justicar.

So far they seem pricey, like Chaos Legion pricey. I think the points per guy are worth it considering they have Hammerhand (which is awesome), power weapon and storm bolter. A basic Marine with just a power weapon and storm bolter would run 20+ points (just basing it off the 3 point storm bolter and 15 point power weapon upgrades). See they are not as expensive as we might think, but they can get there.

My 1st Chaos Marines the Oblits

I have gotten away from this, I was once posting stuff about my 1st Chaos army. I covered the troops and HQ. Now I have my first batch of heavy support.

So here are my Obliterators. I HATE the models G.W. has for them, so I kit bashed them. I used all manner of 40K ranged weapons, Marine Terminators, jewelry chain, spikes and various heads. The heads are in various states of fleshy to skull. It is as if the suits are using the life of the wearer to power the mutable weapon options. I like to think the chains are there to lock these guuys up between battles. Since they are a bit too freakish and deadly to be walking the halls unattended.

 

This guy has developed a metal spike forehead protrusion. It seems to fit with his numerous chest spikes. He is sporting an assault cannon, melta gun and under-slung plasma gun/powerfist.

Have you seen this unit/units? Part 11

The raw recruits of the Space Wolves are known as (something) Claws. They come in the form of Blood, Swift and Sky. Unlike other Astartes, the Wolves do not place their rookies in scout squads. They go through the trouble of giving them power armor and throwing them out to learn how to fight proper. If they are brash and fool hardy, as they supposedly are, then they die. No big whoop for the Wolves. If they temper their rage and brash attitude then they are welcomed into the Fang and will eventually become something else (if they live that long). However, it seems the newest members of the Space Wolves fail to make the tabletop and will never achieve their place as warriors of the Fang.



"We look bad ass! Why are we being passed over?!?!"

The (something) Claws all have the standard Space Wolf/ Space Marine rules and come armed with frag/ krak grenades, bolt pistols or bolt pistols and close combat weapons. They all have the same stats of WS 3, BS 3, strength, toughness and initiative 4, 1 wound, leadership 8 and a 3+ save. They also have the special rules of Berserk Charge and Headstrong.

Berserk Charge- gives these blokes +2 attacks on the charge instead of the usual +1. That is fairly awesome as more attacks are always good.

Headstrong- means that without proper leadership (character, HQ or Wolf Guard) that they cannot shoot if within 6” of an enemy. They must pass the shooting phase in preparation of charging. This is not as stellar and they need a sitter if you want them to shoot instead of just standing there doing nothing in the shooting phase.

These guys come in troops as Blood Claws, and two fast attack choices; Swift Claws and Sky Claws.

Dreams of a Haemonculi Coven

With the release of the Talos/Cronos I’ve been thinking of a reason to use either of these units. The model is really creepy and just begs me to buy it. Since I have Dark Eldar already, built of the old models, I have no need of more evil space elf stuff.  After a bit of brain storming, I figured a themed list that would incorporate this model. Now it won’t win many hearts and minds, but I appeals to me. Mostly due to the fact it is full of weirdness and modeling fun. I present a Haemonculus Coven at 1500 points.

I love you giant floating squid turtle monster!



HQ has to be a pair of Haemonculus. They are cheap and are a must for a Coven army. I guess a

Haemonculus, scissorhand, venom blade and liquefier gun seems fine for the points. Let me take two just to add more flamer template/ poison weapon fun and another pain token to throw around.

Fathers Day?

Here we only really hit the high holidays. Well until this year I guess. I was greeted with various Fathers Day cards from the lady, boy, and the animals. I was also treated to my favorite pizza and received one, of if not the, best action/ X-mas movies ever on dvd, Die Hard. Yup this is one of my go to action movies and my favorite holiday Christmas movie (Christmas Story a close second). I also was invited to play video games with the boy for hours today, always a good time. Finally, we wrapped with the Game of Thrones season finalle (booooo the end, but season 2 starts filming next month) and cornettos. Great day for all involved.

Inquisition HQ review they are also in the Grey Knight codex

They are the C.I.A, K.G.B., MI6, and every other black op’s agency in the 40K universe. They are the Inquisition. They are humanity’s defense against the demon, heretic and the alien. A secret origination run by humanity to protect humanity. They have three main orders and many many sub-orders, but the Ordo Malleus, Hereticus and Xenos are the biggies. They watch over entire planetary systems and can call in insane amounts of Imperial help: guard, PDF, Arbites, the Mechanicus etc., etc. to get the task at hand complete. The Grey knights are also their Chamber Militant, if the Inquisitor and his cronies can’t get the job done they call the Grey Knights.  Lastly they tend to come in two dogmatic flavors, the puritan and the radical. The puritan is the good guy; he fights against the bad with good. The radical is bad guy and will fight the bad with the bad. Well at least this is basically what they tell you. (If you want a descent look into the Inquisition I recommend the Eisenhorn and Ravenor books they are pretty good. Read more about it moment over.)

The other HQ choices for the Grey Knights are these guys, the Inquisition. They aren’t “pure” Grey Knights so I chose them last. They are all the same, when it comes to gear, rules and stats. The only difference is in the upgrades they can take. That is what throws them into their specific Ordos.

All the Inquisitors come with WS 4, BS 4, strength toughness attacks and wounds of 3, an initiative of 4, leadership 10 and a 4+ save. They are all Independent Characters and have the Stubborn rule. They all come equipped with flak armor, bolt pistol, chain sword, frag, krak and psyk-out grenades. They will cost a mere quarter to use before upgrades. This makes them very very important if you want a throwaway HQ and more points to spend on Grey Knight penny whistles and Moon Pies. As I said before their upgrades is where you will choose what Ordo you are using.

Why I have a man crush on Sean Bean

First the dude was Boromir
Eddar Stark is awesome.
Sharpe is pretty hardcore.
Great bad guy, Sean Miller, in Patriot Games.
Emperor Maritn Septim in Elder Scrolls.
Ulrich in the Balck Death
Even the horrible Hitcher remake he was a descent badguy.

Now there is this........

Not a good week for Sean Bean to be around sharp things! The Daily Mail reports that the Game of Thrones actor, who made a painful departure from the HBO series this past Sunday, was slashed in a bar fight that same night in London. Bean was reportedly attacked while defending the honor of the Playboy model he had brought to the bar; after his assailant punched him in the face and slashed his arm with a piece of broken glass, the actor submitted to some first aid and ordered another drink. That's how they do things in Westeros North London. [Daily Mail UK]

So now I add hangin' a hot lady 1/2 his age, stabbed and goes back to bar for another drink.

These are all reasons I have a man crush on Sean Bean.

The last Grey Knight HQ, Brotherhood Champion

Alright so the Grey Knights have a version of the Black Templar Emperor’s Champion, the Brotherhood Champion. He is not quite the Black Templar version, but you can see a bit of similarity. The Grey Knights pick a single guy to become their Brotherhood Champion. His role is as a bodyguard for the Brother Captain. He is ever ready to die in place of his Brother Captain. He is this great warrior and battle tested and so on and so on.  

The Brotherhood Champion is the cheapest of the Grey Knight HQ’s as he comes in at a “Benjamin.” Yup his is regular Astartes Librarian cheap. His stats are pretty typical for Marine headquarters: WS 7, BS strength and toughness 4, initiative 5, 1 wound, * attacks (yup an * for attacks), leadership 10 and a 2+/4++ save. He has all the standard Grey Knight gear and rules. He also has an Iron Halo. He carries the Anointed Blade, is the Perfect Warrior, Titan’s Herald is an Independent Character and has the added psy power Heroic Sacrifice.

Have you seen this unit? part 10



Captain Cato Sicarius is the Second Company Captain of the Ultramarines. Among his titles are Master of the Watch, Knight Champion of Macragge, Grand Duke of Talassar, and High Suzerain of Ultramar. Sicarius's most famous battle to date stands as the Assault on Black Reach against the Ork Warlord Zanzag. The whole of the 2nd Company stood against ten thousand Orks. As their ammunition ran dry the Ultramarines fought with knife and chain sword until the last Ork fell. That is pretty hardcore, or just a regular Tuesday for the Ultramarines. He also fought a bunch of other battles and won all sorts of accolades. We get it he is a good leader and warrior. Yet, for as great as he sounds he sure doesn’t lead many Astartes into tabletop battle.

This way to the tabletop men! Seriously they're gonna use me this time!

He has the typical Marine HQ stats; WS 6, BS 5, strength and toughness 4, 3 attacks and wounds, initiative 5, leadership 10 and a 2+/4++ save. He is armed with a plasma pistol, frag / krak grenades, the Talassarian Tempest Blade, Iron Halo and the Mantle of Suzerain. He has the regular Marine rules along with Surprise Attack, Battle Forged Heroes, and Rites of Battle. He costs a double hundred in points, but is it worth it? Well let us just look and see.

Summer begins.....

I harken back to the theme song to the movie Meatballs, "Are you ready for the summer? Are you ready for the good times?".......

First we have Games Workshop. They are said to be on some sort of information lockdown. Rumor has it that nobody at the retail or customer level will receive any word on upcoming releases until a week before product hits shelves. Black Boxes are said to still be shipping, but will only be opened the day or, or immediately before the minis are publicly available. No big deal since no stores around me get them anyway. The most advanced lead time or hints as to upcoming products will be the last page teaser in White Dwarf. This is sad since I dropped that magazine, and won't be getting it again. After years of reading it I stopped since it slowly turned to drek. Probably stopped my subscription two years ago and that was two years too late. I miss the White Dwarf of the late 90's early 2000. You know the magazine that featured a fantasy and 40K battle report each issue. A magazine where the newest army didn't win every battle report. The magazine that had coverage from events aside from Games Day. I digress.
No more "coming soon" emails to customers. I'll miss this the most. Subscribing to the G.W. newsletter gets you the new model sneak peeks a day or so before their website. I really liked that as I then don't have to go to the major 40K/Fantasy web sites to see them.

The boy is also here for the summer, so there is also bit of video gaming going on when I'm not doing adult homeowner work and stuff. Hopefully I can get him to get some 40K games in this summer. I started him on it last year, and he liked.

Destroyed by cat & rebuilt, the last two jumpers (for now)

After the destruction of my last two assault marines via cat, they have been rebuilt and repaired.

I have a possible power weapon sarge or just another squad member. I really do like the Sanguinary Guard bolt guns. They make for a nice little conversion.

I now have enough melta guns for a full ten man squad. Actually I have three melta guns and only enough jumpers for one full squad. I wonder why I have an extra gun. Yup I have 5 more jump packs, so I'm building one more five man assault squad.

Just when I think I'm done, I find a few more bits. 

Grey Knight HQ Librarian review

The Grey Knights are fighters of all things warp and psychic. It just makes sense that they bring their own big psyker to the field in the form of a Librarian. Why not fight the warp powers with the warp powers?

Hey he looks just like the other Chapter's Terminator Librarian

He hass the same silliness that the other Grey Knights have. He comes to the field like most Librarians; WS 5, BS 4, strength toughness and initiative 4, 2 wounds, 2 attacks, leadership 10 and a 2+/5++ save. He rocks Terminator armor, storm bolter, Nemesis sword, frag krak and psyk-out grenades and psychic hood. He is also has a psychic mastery of 2.  He runs the cost of a “vanilla” Marine Librarian plus the Terminator armor, or just fifty points shy of two hundred. However, he only comes with one power and must purchase any additional. So what could he get for additional powers?

Terminator Squad!

Claw 1 or the "First" are the veterans of Terik's company. These are the oldest,most grizzled and experienced warriors in the company. They are given the opportunity to go to battle in the few suits of tactical dreadnought armor that the company still maintains.

Brother Seargent Serg is the leader of the "First." He has never fallen prey to the "green" as other battle brothers have. He also insists that any member of the Claw 1, " be of pure seed." that is he wants only the best warriors. Those that have not fallen prey to the chapter's drug enhancement. It is also why most of the "First" have the best and most unaltered geneseed.

Brother Seargent Serg and his pure Night Lord genes





sadly pale skin doesn't photo well



Grey Knight Grand Master/ Brother Captain review

The Grey Knight Grand Master and the Brother Captain are almost the exact same guy. They are so similar I figured I’d cover them both in one post.

The Grand Master is the big wig Grey Knight HQ choice. He runs with WS 6, BS 6, strength and toughness 4, wounds and attacks 3, initiative 5, leadership 10 and a 2+/5++ (4++ )save.  He is armed with a stormbloter, nemesis force sword, frag, krak and pych-out grenades, terminator armor and an iron halo (4++ save). He has all the Grey Knight stuff and the Psychic Communion power as well as the special rule, Grand Strategist. All this coolness runs 25 points shy of 200, which isn’t awful for a HQ that has these stats, gear and abilities. Oh yeah…the new power/ rule.

Psychic Communion- is a psy power that is used at the movement phase start. If successful then you may add or subtract 1 from your reserve rolls that turn. You choose to add or subtract after you roll for the unit. That is incredibly helpful, unlike an army wide +1/-1 that turn. You can (dice depending) dictate what unit and when you want them coming in from reserve.

Grand Strategy-is the real reason this guy should be taken. It allows for D3 units of infantry, jump infantry, walker or monstrous creature to get one of four special rules. The roll for how many and units chosen are done pre-game. The chosen units must all have the same rule. This ability cannot be used on Inquisitional units, Ghost Knights, and Independent Characters.  These rules for the units are……

1.       Hammer of Righteousness which allows re-rolls of 1’s to wound.

2.       Shield of Blades gives the counter-attack universal rule.

3.       Spear of Light grants the unit the scout universal rule.

4.       Unyielding Anvil makes the unit troops for objective claiming purposes.

These can all be quite useful depending on the army and mission being played.  If you want a squad of guys to have some extra close combat punch on the defense grab Shield o’ Blades. Want a scoring Dreadknight? You got it. Want those Rhinos full of strike squads across the board sooner? Give them Spear o’ Light. If you are a great roller to hit, but flub the wound rolls or are afraid you will, throw Hammer on something. This ability is pretty descent and can open up some interesting options for a force.