Power Sword or Power Fist?

Over at Jay's Workshop there's a nice analysis of the different Power Weapon choices.

Observations on Play

Stopped in the local store today to watch some games, and, because I'm the way I am, throw in rules assists. I guess I'm not really surprised, but in the few hours I watched, it was Marines. Lots of Marines. One game was Space Marines v. Space Marines, a second was Space Marines v. Chaos Space Marines (with Traitor Guard ally), and the third was Necrons v. Space Marines. There were more Terminators out there than you'd have expected if they were 5th Edition games. 6th Edition has definitely made them more valuable (that is, worth the points now).

Sixth Edition Unit Types: Flying Monstrous Creatures

Hive Tyrant courtesy of Forge World

Day seven of the unit overview: Flying Monstrous Creatures.

Sixth Edition Unit Types: Monstrous Creatures

Chaos' Avatar of Khorne courtesy of Games Workshop

Day six of the unit overview: Monstrous Creatures.

E2K: Nuke Them From Orbit

Welcome to E2K, the new 2000 point Dual-FOC EXTERMINATUS list.

You make this FOC twice:

• 1x Brother-Captain w/ OSR
• 3x Techmarines w/ OSR
• 2x 5-man Strike Squads

Add in Inquisitor Lord Karamazov as the "War Lord" to your main FOC and you'll have 1840 points . . . just enough to deny one more Techmarine w/ OSR. Oh well. That leaves you 160 points to give you a Psyfleman Dread, or a non-portered Dreadknight or maybe an Interceptor squad. Or one of those new Fortification pieces! Have fun with it!

Yes. NINE Orbit Strikes per turn. And Karamazov can nuke your own guys to not scatter! So that's why you take Interceptors. Have them zip up into Assault with an enemy unit and drop d3 Large Blasts on them the next turn. Say goodbye to them Boyz or Infantry Platoons! Do you want to take out an enemy vehicle? Get one model up close to a vehicle and keep him at the 2" distance from the rest of the squad. Lance strike your faithful Marine and hit the Vehicle with his sacrifice!

Sixth Edition Unit Types: Artillery

Thunderfire Cannon Image courtesy of GW

Day five of the unit overview: Artillery. I'll be up front here and admit I'm not a huge fan of Artillery. Too many things can go wrong with the unit. This is why despite loving the Thunderfire Cannon, I'd rather go with a Land Raider Achilles to get one despite the cost being 3 times as much. Besides, the Land Raider Achilles simply looks amazing. But I can't just go without covering the unit type if I've done the rest, so here goes.

Vehicle Overwatch House Rule

I haven't really covered Vehicles in Sixth Edition, but other than Walkers, Vehicles don't get to fire Overwatch shots (An embarked unit may do so given that Fire Points accommodate them). This is likely since they don't really interact at all in close combat. They just sit there and take the Chainfists to their rear armour. But Sons of Taurus has a good idea for a house rule.

From 6th Ed Impressions, Part Ten - Instrumental Changes:

Vehicle overwatch - Regular vehicles can't fire overwatch.  If they're having overwatch, I think it would have been cool to carry over a defensive weapons rule, and clarify certain weapons as qualifying, letting them fire overwatch.  Things like pintle-mounted storm/combi-bolters, the shuricats on eldar vehicles and other weak, maneuverable weapons.  It wouldn't help much, but it would be cool, help keep the vehicle player interested, and more reason for people to put those cool heavy stubbers on tanks.

I would take this and clarify it a little bit. Defensive weapons would of course have to be able to target the unit in their arc of fire at the beginning of the Charge. It'd really only make people consider what angle they decide to engage your vehicle from.

Sixth Edition Unit Types: Beasts & Cavalry

Bloodcrushers of Khorne Courtesy of Games Workshop

Day four of the unit overview: Beasts and Cavalry.

Finecast Techmarines Unboxing

I've opened up the Techmarine blisters and this is what they look like inside. Three sprues and the base. They were not identical, but I only took pictures of one. Some had more flash than others, and some had bits closer to the edges. I ended up cutting chunks out of the frame for each and doing my best to separate out the bits before snipping from the sprue completely. Some were a bit . . . awkward.

Sixth Edition Unit Types: Jump & Jet Pack Units

Day three of the unit overview: Jump units and Jet Pack units.

Techmarines Have Arrived

I've taken my first step down a dark road: I've gotten my first Finecast models. My three Techmarines for the EXTERMINATUS are here. If you're confused by those pics as to where the parts stop and the flash begins, you aren't alone! I'm sure they'll clean up well, and the detail so far looks good. I'm honestly surprised they survived the mailbox and didn't just melt together in the heat down here in Florida.

Sixth Edition Unit Types: Bikes

Day two of the unit overview: Bikes, Jetbikes, and (Dark) Eldar Jetbikes.

Sixth Edition Unit Types: Infantry

This week I'm going to cover the various unit types you'll find in Warhammer 40,000 6th Edition. I'll break down what they can do in each phase and how this differs from 5th Edition. Let's start this off with the most basic: Infantry.

Deep Strike House Rule

My plan to watch some 40k games this weekend got shot by a new Magic release. Instead of analysis on the state of the game, how about a house rule based on the 6th Edition test rules?

Tests of Faith for 6th Edition

I mentioned previously that I'm dissatisfied with the current state of Faith Points. Currently (and I highly suspect this to be the case) Sisters of Battle look like they are only supposed to be Allies. Why? Because no matter how many squads you have, no matter how many points you spend, you get 1d6 Faith Points per turn. Awesome if you're running a Canoness, minimum squad of Battle Sisters and the one unit you actually want to spend the points (Faith and otherwise) on as an Allied detachment. If you're doing an Apocalypse game you're hosed. But I have some possible solutions below!

Ophanim Bike Squad

I mentioned a while back that I think the Sisters should get a Bike unit. I mentioned they should be called Ophanim, but I never put stats to them. Well here they are!

6th is Out! Rules Thoughts

6th Edition is out! Woo!

. . . .

You already knew that? I always get caught up reading codices and new books. I've been slowly going through the new rules. I've not been in much of a rush for a few reasons:

1) I haven't played in a while so there's no reason to push myself to devour them all at once, 
2) this allows me to think over what I've learned and process the new stuff properly without mucking it up, and 
3) general laziness.


Now, I'm actually thinking of visiting the local 40k haunt this weekend to observe some gaming. No matter how much you read and analyze in a book and on the Internet, nothing helps you figure out the rules better than putting models on the table. Or in this case, I'll at least find out the interpretations others are using and see how some non-Inquisitorial armies function on the plywood tableau. 


But since I'm already writing now and the weekend is still days out, I'll put down some items I found particularly noteworthy in the new rules. Before that, though, I find the book to be well done. The pages are colourful, and many of the pages have your typical "inspiring" Imperial lines on them. It's a nice touch. On to some of my analysis of 6th Edition:

Terminator Color Test Completed

So yeah. Quick and Dirty. It was less quick and also less dirty than I originally planned, but I like to think the results were decent (for my work). The belt and chest emblem I should brighten up a little bit with some more bronze, and I'm thinking the "Elite" symbol around the skull needs to be silver. Possibly the same on the belt. In an attempt to make the silver helmet brighter, I used some black wash on the armor around it to make the contrast higher. Perhaps I should make that "hood" around the helmet Blue to increase the contrast instead?

Steel Dragons Terminator Progress

I feel I kept my word since I've put together a Terminator and at least primed it and gotten a good bit of coverage on the boltgun colored portions. The next time I paint I should be able to finish the Quick-and-Dirty paint job and post pics. One thing I've decided to do on the next terminator I put together: don't put the arms on until the painting is done. Those things are obnoxious to paint around.

ZOMG 6th

So GW has a teaser up that is a thinly veiled release date for Sixth Edition.

23 - VI - 12 = 23 JUN 2012.

I'm ready.

Forge World to the Rescue

So I was wondering what I was going to do about that HQ for my Steel Dragons since I'd like it the be a Master of the Forge with a Conversion Beamer. But then I was looking through Forge World and found a guy I'd forgotten about: Valthex. Winning. Also, I'm really tempted to pick up some of the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts to use for my Dreads.

Color Test

Hey look, Space Marines!

So let's look at what I've got here for my Steel Dragons. First, I'll throw in the disclaimer: These are a rush job. We'll discuss the first two in more detail after this, so let's focus a little more on the heads.

New Steel Dragons

So, about that starting painting again, huh? Yeah. I got side-tracked. However, I painted today! To quote Sam: "OMG! WTF!?!?! Is it chilly outside in Pensacola? Because that's hell . . . and it might have frozen over." Anyhow, it wasn't that much besides a refresher hour ("This is what a brush is, and this is what a Space Marine model looks like."). I finished up a quick-and-dirty color test for a Steel Dragons Tactical Marine. I used a slightly different variation of the colors (boltgun, bronze, and blue) on the bolter and backpack from the last one I finished. Hopefully this is the start of more frequent painting for me.

Blogging from 30,000 Feet

So I'm bored. It's a 5 hour flight across the country, so of course I'm thinking about 40k. Perhaps I should mention that EXTERMINATUS is getting modified a bit. Why? Skulls, or rather Orbital Strikes, got errata/clarifications. Skulls won't reduce OSR scatter. Sucks. I'll still have a couple in the list, but not as many.

Theme

Theme, theme, theme. It's a problem I'm having at the moment coming up with a Grey Knights list I'm happy with. While I love the concept of the EXTERMINATUS list, I don't have the Techmarine models to do it. I suppose I could proxy, but I'm not feeling it at the moment. I could run Draigowing (Draigo plus all or almost all Paladins), but that feels way too unwieldy and slow. I'd like to do a Purifiers army, but I'm not sure about Castellan Crowe. Perhaps I could do a general mix of Terminators, Strike Squads, and Interceptors.

Thoughts?

I Suppose I Owe an Explanation

But I ain't got one. It seemed that right after the GK codex was released I fell out of 40k. It's sad but true. Well, it's time for me to start putting together those boxes I bought 10 months ago. Wait. It's been that long? I haven't posted here in 11 months? *gulp*

No time like the present! Time to throw together some army lists and start preparing for war!

Also, happy belated new year?