Nick's News! Hobby Update

 Nick's News! Hobby Update

Greetings. It has been a while.......

Hobby Time

I have been constantly active in the hobby since my last update. Mainly in the world of Warhammer 40K. I have enjoyed two or three games a week. Mostly 'friendly' MatchPlay but some OpenWar too.

Since my last hobby update when I wrote about my Eagle Marines getting table top time, I switched soon after to give other armies a try.

My Black Legion project is ongoing (see my YouTube Channel) with the Six Companies each progressing since the last video record of the whole. As it was (still is) some time before 9th Edition Codex: Chaos Space Marines is released I decided to field the Bringers of Decay Warband using Codex: Death Guard. This was good because I got marines with two wounds, and a 9th Edition Codex to employ strategems etc. It was not perfect as my Warband does not include Codex: Death Guard specific units (e.g. Plague Burst Crawlers or Deathshroud Terminators) but I used the force in several games, won a couple, and enjoyed seeing them on the tabletop.

Following on from there I did a similar thing using Codex: Thousand Sons. My Sons of the Cyclops Warband had a few battles. Not having Exulted Sorcereres or Scarab Occult Terminators was a handicap but my 'magic marines' did ok and gave my regular opponents some things to think about.

(see below for my thoughts on Bolters!)

After the Marines of Nurgle and Marines of Tzeentch got their outings it was time for something very different. Genestealer Cult. 

I had been working on my GSC Army for a good while (since Deathwatch Overkill was released in February 2016). I had added units and built and painted them slowly over time. I did not have a battle ready force to use in 8th Edition but when 9th Edition Codex dropped in early 2022 it was time to see how they faired. Luckily my random purchases when put into BattleScribe created a fairly neat 2,000 points list. It was very character skewed and there was no room for any a purestrain unit (or two) but it fitted nicely into two detachments - one mostly Neophytes, the other Acolytes.

The GSC had several battles. Remembering all the rules for them was the hardest part. My inability to make crucial (re-rollable) charge rolls let them down terribly!! 

I had a couple of games using half the force each time against my Dark Angels opponent. Each element did ok considering they did not have the combined benefits of shooting/melee in the full list.

Next out of storage are the Adeptus Custodes. The 9th Edition Codex sees me with circa 3,000 points worth including a 500 point Sisters of Silence. 

I cut down the list to 2,000 points (no Sisters) and had my first match play game with them yesterday. It was a close game but I lost to a hard hitting Guard army that Missiled my bikes off the board in turn one!

Chaos Marines

At the time of writing the release of Codex: Chaos Space Marines has just been announced. I am looking forward to fielding the Black Legion and it's allied warbands soon......

Bolters!

The datasheet for Legionaries was released/leaked a few days ago. It included the standards stats for the Boltgun. This is a huge opportunity missed by GW. Playing with the Magic Marines and their Inferno Boltguns with -2 AP was very nice.

I recently watched a YouTube vid bemoaning the fact that a Tactical Marine with standard Bolter was now overshadowed by several Troops choices in the game. The presenter was suggesting one or more of increased Strength, Range or AP without coming to a conclusion. And saying that it would be tricky to introduce with so many Codexes including Bolters.

The solution is obvious and simple. xRef Astartes Chainswords

Imperial Bolters: Rapid Fire 1; S4; AP 0; D1

Astartes Bolters: Raid Fire 1; S4; AP -1; D1

Heretic Bolters: Rapid Fire 1; S4; AP -1; D1

Inferno Bolters: Rapid Fire 1; S4; AP -2; D1

[Inquisition Bolters: Rapid Fire 2; S5; AP -2; D2]

The last one is tongue in cheek as my next project is Sisters of Battle.......

They should all be 24" range as Bolt Rifles can be 30" Range and not upset things.

As Codex updates get released, just run out new versions.

I'd like to have had:

Bubonic Bolters: Rapid Fire 1; S5, AP 0; D1 (Plague Rounds, so re-roll wounds)

It always puzzled me that a lowly Guard Sergeant could carry a rare and revered weapon like a Bolter. Giving them lesser versions fixes the anomaly.  

Anyhow. These are my thoughts. It will be interesting to see what occurs over the next 12 months and into 10th Edition.

 

Nick's News! Hobby Update

 Nick's News! Hobby Update

Since my last blog update I have been quite busy with the hobby. Mainly with Warhammer 40K and mainly with my Eagle Marines.

The 12th Company had a couple of trial 2,000 point games and did okay against both Space Marines and Tyranid armies. This was despite me having only a loose grasp on the changes from 8th Edition to 9th Edition, and despite me not having a good working knowledge of the Stratagems available to my army and how they might synergise with my army traits and special rules. These are essential elements to being successful in Warhammer 40K right now.

As I was saying to a friend recently, one who has not really been a gamer over the years as he is more of a painter of miniatures, the old basics are still there - its a three roll system - I roll to hit, then roll to wound, and then you roll to save. However, the additional rolls for ignoring wounds and the many re-rolls and modifiers do take a lot of remembering.

In addition to the matched play games my 12th Company began a crusade. Captain Tiberius Calgar and his away team of a couple of squads went down to a planet to investigate some xenos activity...... they did not fair too well against them, also a force of Traitor Legion marines was there causing trouble too and the PDF was in open rebellion. Calgar has requisitioned additional units from his company and the support companies in-system. Hopefully, their added skills and weight of numbers will be up to task of handling the threats they face........

Chaos Space Marines: The Traitor Legions

Chaos Space Marines: The Traitor Legions

Thinking about my future plans for my own Chaos Space Marine Army got me thinking about the faction and one or two things that have puzzled me over the years.

The Horus Heresy was the single most important event in the lore. It divided the Space Marine Legions into two. Two equal halves. Nine loyal and nine traitor legions. There were twenty legions and two are totally absent from the lore. They are unlikely to have been written out of history because they were 'too loyal to mention' so, we could guess they were guilty of crimes even worse than those of the Sons of Horus. That means that more than half of the legions belong on the dark side.

Yet, the traitor legions have always been treated less equally by Games Workshop when it comes to supporting the faction.

I understand that in very simple terms, GW might consider the 40K universe to be: The Imperium versus The Others. And in 'the others' there is Chaos plus the Xenos factions. And as a company they need to try to support all factions as best they can. But I still believe that they should have played the Good versus Evil card better by giving the Chaos Legions and the Renegade Chapters an almost equal amount of support.

Now is the perfect opportunity. The Space Marines have been boosted with the concept of a main Codex plus Codex Supplements for the Loyal Legions, now chapters. And no doubt there will be new books for the non-codex Loyal Legions: I Dark Angels; VI Space Wolves; IX Blood Angels.

This is a good point in my ramblings to say that I have since Second Edition been totally puzzled and more recently annoyed that in every single Space Marine Codex the table of the twenty legions appears. Usually quite early on in the background and the story of the first founding. Yet, never once has this table appeared in a Codex Chaos. This makes zero sense. It's inclusion would have put the traitor legions into context straight away. I must caveat by saying I have every Chaos Codex up to the 2017 edition. I did not purchase the later tweaked version but I very much doubt the table is in there.

So, if Chaos were to be treated to the same amount of attention I would hope to see a main Codex: Chaos Space Marines, followed by four supplements for: IV Iron Warriors; VIII Night Lords; XVII Word Bearers; XX Alpha Legion. The five Codex to cover the four god-specific Legions: III Emperors Children (Slaanesh); XII World Eaters (Khorne); XIV Death Guard (Nurgle); XV Thousand Sons (Tzeentch); plus XVI Black Legion.

This approach would enable the main Codex Chaos to expend on options for Renegade Chapters. There are many mentioned but they only get a mention in passing. For example: The Crimson Slaughter; The Cleaved; The Company of Misery. The Red Corsairs do get more attention than others.

The god-specific Renegade Chapters could either get some attention in the main Codex Chaos Pace Marines, or be included in the Codex books for the appropriate god. The Flawless Host (Slaanesh); The Blood Disciples (Khorne); The Purge (Nurgle); The Scourged (Tzeentch)

This brings me on to Codex: Chaos Daemons. Whilst I think there might be a small demand for a dedicated |Daemon Codex, I would hazzard a guess that most Deamons are taken as allies in detachments as a part of a main Chaos Space Marine force.

The opportunity is there to treat Daemons like Genestealers. By that I mean they can appear in more than one Codex but with perhaps slightly different rules?

So, for example, let us consider Khorne. It could be that a Bloodthirster and other HQ choices are kept solely in Codex: Chaos Daemons but Bloodletters, Flesh Hounds, maybe Bloodcruhers could appear in Codex: Worldeaters. Perhaps with an ability or two less or a points change? This would be both fluffy and give greater flavour to god-specific Chaos Space Marine army.

Anyhow. As always, it will be interesting to see what the next twelve months brings.........

Chaos Space Marines: Heretic Astartes

Chaos Space Marines: Heretic Astartes

Looming on my hobby horizon is my Chaos Space Marine Army. At present it is a small force of World Eaters:

The models are a mixture of second, third and fourth editions. Some metal, some early plastics. This goes against my wish to keep my armies to a particular period but I cannot see myself wanting to divide them into viable armies. The best I can achieve will be to create a number of detachments that comprise of models from an period in time.

New models will be added. These are mainly the Chaos Marines from the Dark Imperium Box and Shadowspear Box Sets.

This is of course a problem because the Death Guard and the Daemonkin are not Word Eaters.

It has bothered me for a while that my World Eaters was very restricted in terms of units I could add. No sorcerers of havocs in particular.

However, I now have a plan to re-visit Chaos as the Black Legion. A bit of an obvious choice but one I guess that many decide upon as very few models would not feel at home in a Black Legion Army.

Luckily, the fluff is very accommodating. The World Eaters will now be: Hounds of Abaddon. The Death Guard models will become: Bringers of Decay. And any other new additions will be Black Legion. With scope to add Sons of Cyclops and Children of Torment units too.

All of this has reminded me of my thoughts on Chaos Space Marines and why, despite being the 'old enemy' and number one nemesis of loyal Space Marines they are never treated equally.

I will put down my thoughts in a follow up post.........