Chaos review #14 Raptors

A Marine codex just isn't a Marine codex without some guys wearing jetpacks and flying around kickin' ass. The Chaos Marines have these and they are called Raptors. The other Marine armies just have boring sounding assault squads.

Original look

Post game tale

This is a bit of stuff for the guys I game with. This will be meaningless to everyone else.

A robbed figure quickly walks down a dimly lit hall. Several armed guards stand to attention as he moves past them. He approaches a set of iron doors and removes a key from within his robes. He quickly works the door lock and pushed them open.

The room is large, spartan, humid, and has an eerie corspelight glow. He can see three scantily clad humanoid females washing and attending to the master around a small pool. He notices another three similarly dressed females dancing and gyrating throughout the room.

“My lord. I apologize for the interruption, but it appears they have found it!”

A large eye slowly opens and focuses on the robbed figure. “You had better be correct this time servant.” The creature hisses through a fanged and drooling maw. “I have spent too much time and too many resources searching for this. The diggers had best be right this time.” The beast slowly rises from the small pool and the female attendants scatter.

500th post!

Holy crap 500 and I am still going. First thanks to everyone who stops by to read my ramblings and second...lookie here!

Just in time for summer I received my Monarch hockey jersey. Sure it is game 7 of the Stanley Cup tonite and Venture season 5 is in full glorious swing, but 87 degrees is way to warm to be wearing this now.

Geek Hockey Jerseys has done it again and given me another bit of awesome to enjoy. Now I'll look even more the part as I release my acid magnet upon my foes, or if that fails I can jettison the lunchroom upon them.

I went with Henchman 37, as 21 and 24 would be too easy. 37 was the first henchman the Monarch killed on the show. He simply coughed and got a poison dart to the next. Classic Monarch!

This fall look for me to be running around screaming about Dr. Venture, a Death's Head Panoply!, talking of Depeche Mode and yelling Dick Move!

Man of Steel

 

Threw on my Challenge of the Superfriends Chucks and went on down to the theater to watch another Superman movie.

 

 

 

I'm not a fan of Supes as I prefer my comic book characters a bit more angsty, dark and occasionally weird. Big Blue is not any of these. That being said, I have seen all the Superman movies, and even some Smallville. I am still a comic fan boy and will go support (most) franchises, even if it comes from Krypton. Plus there is the chance for lots of destruction, which is usually entertaining.

Soul Hunter review

"Ave Dominus Nox"

Arron Dembski-Bowden is quickly becoming a favorite Black Library writer. It is easy to write 40K stories. They seem to let so many people do it. However, it is hard to write really good 40K stories, unless you are Dan Abnett, Graham Mcneil and Arron Dembski-Bowden.

Soul Hunter is a Night Lord novel and that alone have be excited to read it. Then I saw the author and was sure I would love it. I was not wrong. I am a big fan of the Night Lords in the 40K universe. A chapter that has a Primarch who was basically an evil Batman and uses fear as weapon along with bolter and blade is hard to dislike. There is just so little written about the Night Lords. It is pretty disappointing. Well it was, until now.

Dispatch Physician Advantageous

Kill Doctor Lucky is a game I have wanted to try for some time. Well I finally got the chance and...............

Quick thumb through Eldar book

Gave the Eldar codex a quick review and was pretty shocked by a few rules, guns and stuff. This is all good for Eldar, bad for opponents and some is a bit confusing.

We are all Black Guardians now!

The change to WS 4 and BS 4 for all the Eldar is big! The lowly Guardians, jetbikes, and all vehicles now fight and shoot as well as their evil counterparts and all Marines. Being hit on 4+ instead of 3+ also helps the lowly Guardian in close combat. They still are not world beaters, but this can help them survive a bit better.

The rise from 50% to 66% is a big jump for shooting. It makes Guide not such a must have power. It is still super useful, but with BS 4, it isn’t as necessary.

E3

E3 has passed by again, and this was the first year I didn’t pay it a ton of attention. It is due to G4 being non-existent. The daily 3-6 hours of E3 coverage was missed by me. There was also the new XBOX and Playstation console stuff that I’m not excited about. I will wait to see how and what comes out on the systems before I get interested. Plus there are always bugs and issues with a new system release. I also want to stay away from all of that crap.

Having to wade through the interweb for my E3 coverage was a bit annoying. Guess I’m lazy and just would like one person, place, site, channel or what have you to compound everything for me to look at. The interweb is really hit and miss with coverage, but it is what it is. At the end of the week there are a few games that have peaked my interest and a couple that make me scratch my head.

Chaos review #13 into the fast stuff

One of the bigger changes to the Chaos codex was the 60% drop in the points cost of bikes. This decrease comes with no real negative which is cool. These are the same Marine bikers we all know with just a Chaos twist.

This unit follows all the rules for motorbikes. They are also basic Marines and have all 4’s where it matters, one attack, one wound, a 3+ save and leadership 8. They are toughness 5 as they are bikers. They are armed with twin-bolters (on the bike), all the usual grenades, a bolt pistol and a close combat weapon. They start with a unit champ who has all the same stats but with 2 attacks and leadership 9. This squad starts as a unit of three for soixante-dix points. They can add up to seven more guys at slim cost of 20 points per squaddie. Yeah 20 points is dirt cheap for a Marine biker especially when compared to a basic jump pack/assault Marine and the bikers get so much more.

T.V. land

The vast wasteland of summer television is now upon me. The only thing I look forward to is the last few episodes of Breaking Bad in August and I have The Venture Brothers back after a ridiculous hiatus. Until the fall I say farewell to some shows and eagerly await the return of others.

Bates Motel

I went into this series with no expectations. After watching all the episodes I left the same way. The story of Norman Bates sounded good, but the delivery wasn’t interesting. The biggest problem was setting this tale in modern day. It bothered me to no end. Why did they not set this show in the 40’s-50 like it should have been? There was just too many questions and not enough answers. I can get behind this premise, but it needs a balance. If every week is just more events and questions that lead to more events and questions why do I care? I did like Freddie Highmore’s take on Anthony Perkins, but that is not enough to make me want to watch more of this series.

New models...ideas?

These guys don't really fit with any army I have, but they look damn neat. The undead meets cyber hound aesthetic is cool. 

The forgotten heavy weapon

The Heavy Bolter

Here is a heavy weapon that the G.W. writers cannot get priced properly, get players interested in, has replaced with better options and for some reason will not update. Why do people ignore this weapon? Why is it sometimes seen on vehicles and nowhere else? How can it me made better? Is there any hope for this all but forgotten heavy weapon?

The Heavy Bolter is a fairly basic anti-infantry weapon. At 36” S5 AP4 Heavy 3 it has great range, good strength, descent armor piercing and multiple shots. It can be a major concern for lightly armored infantry. It can even threaten some xenos vehicles. It can be taken by every Imperial and Space Marine (of whatever type) army and is a cheap heavy weapon. However, outside of the occasional vehicle sponson, why does it go unused?

Looks bad ass to me!

Chaos review#13 heavy gun guys

Every Astartes force has a group set aside just to shoot heavy weapons. These are the Devastators and Chaos has their own version. They call them Havocs.

I typed in Chaos Havoc and got this pic. Insert awful (big guns joke here).

There is nothing different between the Havoc and the basic Chaos Space Marine. The unit champion has the same +1 leadership and +1 attack. He can even take the same gear and upgrades as every other unit champion in this codex. You start with a squad of 5 for 25 points shy of 100 and can add up to five more guys at the cost of 13 points each.  There are only two differences between Havocs and regular Chaos Marines. The first is the maximum size of the squad and the second is what they can carry as weapons.

With GenCon slowly approaching

Hopefully Gale Force 9 will have some of these up for purchase. The next addition to my Star Wars tabletop universe.