An Inquisitor's Thoughts on 7th Edition

This is as pretty as they get.

I've had the weekend to think about the new rules, how they'll affect the game, and the quality of Games Workshop's eBook editions.

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!

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.

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.

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?

EXTERMINATUS

So, I've been talking to a few people recently over a potentially awesome new list you can field with the new Grey Knights codex. I'll start out with the basics and we'll see how long it takes to catch on to the plan.

1. Servo Skulls. Several HQs and an Elite choice can take 3 each for some minimal cost like 5 points a piece. They reduce scatter on Deepstrikes and Blast Weapons as well as limiting Scouts/Infiltrate moves within 12". They can be fielded anywhere outside the enemy deployment zone. When the enemy gets within 6" they die.

2. Orbital Strike Relay (OSR). Amazing in the new codex. Three choices: Barrage Bomb, Lance Strike, Psyk-out Bomb. UNLIMITED uses. You can fire one per turn during Shooting provided you did not move during Movement. So you can have one model firing up to 7 Orbital Strikes. You do need LOS, but the range is Unlimited!

3. Grand Masters and Brother-Captains can take OSRs. Both your HQs can have them. Awesome. For some variation, Inquisitor Lord Karamazov is particularly mean. He can use his own men as "Orbital Strike Beacons." He costs the same as a Brother-Captain with OSR.

4. Techmarines. Techmarines? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, sir. Yes. You know why? 140 point Orbital Strikes. Every Techmarine can take an OSR for an upgrade, so you can bolster some ruins and chill in them, calling down strikes. Why yes, they are the Elite choice that can take Servo Skulls.

5. Warp Quake. Strike Squads can prevent deepstriking. Ld 8 or 9 Psyker check.

Therefore I present EXTERMINATUS:

HQ
2x Brother-Captain with OSR, 3 Servo Skulls

Elites
3x Techmarine with OSR, 3 Servo Skulls

Troops
4x 10-man Grey Knight Strike Squad

Of course, I don't have the codex yet, so I don't have the exact costs, but that should fall into the 1700-1750 range depending on the upgrades chosen. Basically you take your 15 skulls and grid them out over the field. You will lose a lot to enemy movement. They're just Servo Skulls. Who cares? The point is that if they destroy one, they should be in 12" range of another. Your OSR bearers will sit back and wait for the enemy to come to you. And to stymie those efforts, you have Strike Squads to prevent Deepstriking and Skulls to prevent Scout and Infiltrates. If the enemy does make it across the board, they have to make it through Strike Squads.

Another fun trick is to spend another 25 points to make a Brother-Captain a Grand Master so you can make units Scoring. This could be your Techmarines, or it could be Interceptors if you give up a Strike Squad (or if playing sufficiently high point games not even that).

The End Result is EXTERMINATUS: Up to 35 Orbital Strikes in one game. It's probably not the most competitive list, but it's gimmicky and silly enough that it'll probably throw your opponent off-kilter. For kicks, add in a house-rule: After 6 Orbital Strikes in one game, the entire board takes a S10 AP1 hit. Obviously the armies got caught in an EXTERMINATUS attempt during the battle.

Too Busy Drooling to Post

Yeah. I know the new GKs are up for preorder. If you didn't know that too, well, now you do! I love the models. I think my favorite is the Draigo model. The helmeted variant, of course. I mean, just look at that shield! So I'm deciding on what to pick up. The crazy side of me says dump $400 and grab the codex, Draigo, 2 Dreadknights, 2 boxes of Terminators, 4 boxes of PAGKs, and a Techmarine. The Techmarine gets one of the spare Terminator heads (each box has 13 heads! They must have gotten Space Wolves fever putting it together). I'll say the Terminator box may be the best value out of them. You get a TON of options on the three sprues. You could probably even convert up a Librarian using the Warding Staff.

Of Teleporting Grey Knights

From Blood of Kittehs:

*Nemesis Ward Staff can be only bought for one Grey Knight per squad. So that means only one will be able to take one of those mean wounds.

*Unlike reported before by me and others GKT do not get Storms Shields (with very few exceptions). That means you are stuck with sucky +5 invul saves on termies. What you do get instead is all nemesis force weapons grant a +1 to all invul saves in assault. That means +4 saves in close combat.
 
*A full man unit of Paladins average around 600-800 for 10 of them. So don’t expect to spam many of them.
 
*Add to that the Paladin Captain that makes them troops is the most expensive model in the codex over the cost of a Land Raider.
 
*Sadly the Dread Knight MC thingy cannot be put in a Stormraven.
 
*The worst change that I hinted at back when I first reported the rumors last year. The whole Teleporting Grey Knight once per game thing is for the Grey Knight squads in the Fast Attack slot. That means those guys and the Stormraven are your only FA choices in the entire codex. Normal GKs will not be able to teleport in the game.

Standard disclaimer applies: These are rumors and commentary on rumors. I want the codex now, too. And pics. Gimmeh pics. Here are my thoughts on these rumors:

Rumored Kits for Grey Knights Release

So it has come down the rumor pipeline on Warseer (Thanks, Stickmonkey!) that the Grey Knights release will contain a plastic 10-man PAGK box, a plastic 5-man Terminator box, a plastic Dreadknight kit, and "about a half dozen metal blisters" for the first wave. The second wave should be by late fall and cover some inquisition models.

GK Rumour Block

More goodies. Enjoy!

Edit: And more!

Grey Knights First Pictures!

So . . . much . . . epic. Thanks to Katie Drake on Heresy Online. I'm loving the Dreadknight! It's real, people! So when do I get to pre-order 3? I think it'll be around my birthday. . . . So I also hear they're going hard-back for the book. I'm slightly torn on it. I've played D&D for years, so I'm used to carting around plenty of (relatively) thin hard-backs.

I'd love to see nice hard-back codices with all the hobby related pictures in them . . . along with Assault on Black Reach style mini-dexes with the hobby section and maybe even the intro fluff cut out. Even better would be a combo pack! That way I can have a nice pretty book at home and a "travel size" mini-dex for the gaming.

Update: It looks like I now have a model for a Warstrider.

Grey Knights Rumor Roundup

Here's a good GK and =I= rumor roundup by Canoness Celestia over on the Bolter and Chainsword. Squall Guppy got a break today due to laundry, but we'll probably see a bit more tomorrow!

And 1850 is for winners.

GK Rumors, Epic Edition

There is way too much to list out here, so I'll direct you to the Warseer post. My thoughts on this later.

Squall Guppy Modeling Thoughts

So as most are aware, the Storm Raven is up for preorder (I have 2 coming my way, thanks for asking) and they'll be out the first week of February. Someone on the Internet took a picture of the back of the box and it has the Guppy painted up nicely for the Grey Knights. I approve. So depending on how the turrets swap out (or not) between the Guppy and Razorback and how the GK codex fixes the transport issue for Grey Knights, I may grab a bunch of Razorback kits and make Rhinos for the GKs and apply the Lazorback turrets to my Guppies. Or the LR Assault Cannons might fit! Either way I think the air scoop is probably getting "forgotten."

New Squall Guppy Pics!

So Ancient God over on Warseer was kind enough to provide some pictures of an assembled Storm Raven. Enjoy!

(I played a game this weekend but I haven't mustered the energy to post the Bat Rep yet. I'll get to it.)

I'd Be Remiss to Say Nothing. . . .

. . . so I now know what I'm spending my Tax refund on. Grey Knights are confirmed for April. Without further ado:

WOOOOOOO!

Grenades

So Bell of Lost Souls has new GK rumors.

Most of it sounds pretty cool, but I have to say a couple things. First, I imagine the conversation on Grenades went like this:

Writer: "Hey, all other SMs have Frag and Krak grenades. We should give the GKs them too."
Lead Editor: "You're right. You should add them to all the GK infantry."
Writer: "All of them? Really all of them?"
Lead Editor: "Yeah. It only sounds fair."
Writer: "Even the Term--"
Lead Editor: "Sure, whatever. Look, I've got work to do. Just make it happen."

Following this the writer adds Frag and Krak grenades to every non-tank entry Copy-Pasta style.

Second, if the rumors are true, Assassins are going to be extremely expensive or perhaps extremely underpriced. I could see +d3 attacks on a charge. I could see a Space Wolves style +2 attacks. +d6? Sounds a bit far fetched.

Five Land Raiders

So occasionally I go and theory-hammer out a list for shiggles. This time I was looking at my 5 Land Raiders. Two are sitting in a box unconstructed, while the other 3 I've used before. I have a Crusader, 2 standard Godhammers, and the 2 awaiting construction are Redeemers. You can field 3 LRs with a Brother-Captain HQ. To get more you need Inquisitors. All you need to do is give a 20 point Inquisitor a 6 point Retinue and you can take a Land Raider. Add two of those to a minimal GK force and you have 5 nicely kitted LRs in 1850.

Of course you can get silly and go for 7 LRs or change out PAGKs for ISTs and get more Mech out there. I pointed up 7 LRs with tons of extras added and 4 minimal squads of ISTs in Ordo Malleus Razorbacks and Rhinos for 2500 points.