Evaluating Blessings of the Blood god

Is Blessings of the Blood god worthwhile?

Heralds of Khorne, bloodthirsters, flesh hounds, and daemon princes of Khorne can all select (or already have built-in in the case of flesh hounds and Skulltaker) the Blessings of the Blood god upgrade.

For a modest sum of 5 points (double that in the case of daemon princes), the blessings provide the miniature with an invulnerable save against force weapons or aggressive psykers using their warp abilities to bring down Khorne's chosen ones. And to be fair: the invulnerable save is the best in the entire game! Who else can get a 2+ invulnerable save? There's not many. It's better than a storm shield on a loyalist terminator!

The draw back is that it can only be used in very specific circumstances: when a wound is caused by such weapons or powers. Hence it is somewhat unlikely that the miniature will find itself in such a situation. Sure, against opposing chaos sorcerers and loyalist librarians, it is going to be excellent. But knowing that the miniature has such a defence in the first instance may ensure that opposing miniatures suitably armed will preferentially avoid the Khorne miniature on the gaming board. Of course, the daemons player may be well advised to go after and directly hunt down such characters themselves (particularly flesh hounds who seem well suited to this chore), but often there may be better targets.

It is the other side of the ability: the resistance to psychic and sorcerous powers that may see more use. But again, knowing the existence of the blessing in advance may mean that opponents do not use such powers against the Khorne miniature.

Hence the blessings can be more of a deterrent than of actual utility in many games (perhaps with the exception of a squad of flesh hounds or a character paired against or intentionally going for a librarian, or equivalent). Therefore, for 5 points, it may well be worth while taking as an upgrade.

The final point that I want to make about this ability is that the way it is worded directly means it targets wound-causing sources. Against powers such as the chaos space marine Gift of Chaos power (the one that turns models in to chaos spawn) it has no use! It also has no use against daemon abilities such as warpfire -- they're not psychic abilities (page 73 of the codex).

Gravestone Objective and Marker

A very simple and effective marker and/or objective can be made by taking a gravestone from the Warhammer zombies boxed set and gluing it on top of a standard w40k circular base.

This particular piece was painted up with only a small number of dry brush strokes followed by some detailed in a near-white colour on the bones of the gravestone and illegible (or alien?) writing dabbled below it. Static grass was then applied to the rest of the base to finish the job off. Overall: a very easy build and paint!

Sweeping Necrons with Daemonettes

In the small number of games I've played daemons against necrons, I've learnt that the I need to totally avoid any Monoliths that may be on the board, and any C'Tan. Instead, my tactical aim is to aim for a phase out victory by destroying all necron warrior squads present and forcing their vanishing.I attempt to do this by putting my bloodletter and daemonette squads on the front line. In particular, the daemonettes have assault grenade equivalents that are useful against the (usually) static (4th edition style) gunline warrior squads holed up in scenery.

The trick is to take enough daemonettes and bloodletters to overcome any incoming gauss weapon fire. And then charge. With any luck, the necron's leadership value will be reduced to something suitably low. When they flee, the high initiative of the daemonettes is nearly always sufficient to give a sweeping advance.

Meanwhile, if there are any C'Tan on the board, I'll aim to tie them up with plaguebearers or other Nurgle daemons. They're useful in this situation due to their poisoned weapons which always wound on 4+, and their general tar-pitting utility. Monoliths are then either completely ignored, or I will just bait them with a Great Unclean One or daemon prince as a road bump.

In many ways, this is no different to the way in which many players attempt to play against necrons. But with their deep-strike ability and high initiative, I've found daemonettes to be neat exponents of this tactic; given a reasonable deep strike on to the gaming board.

Badab War, Part 1

Forgeworld has released teasers of the first part (of two) of their Badab War series. This releases takes Forgeworld in a somewhat new direction -- exploring a war that has been documented since the early days.

More details here, including some great images. It looks awesome!

Night Fighting Note to Self

Note to self: Night fighting rules apply to game turn 1 in a Dawn of War deployment.

Secondly, a couple of strategems in Planetstrike (Darken the Skies, and Dawn Assault) can also provide night fighting rules if purchased. (Anyone out there still playing Planetstrike regularly? See the Warpstone Flux poll here)

Night fighting rules can help daemon armies on the turn they arrive survive against incoming firepower...

Poll: Which Expansions Have You Played Recently?

There are now a number of Warhammer 40,000 expansions to the core game. Cities of Death, Apocalypse, Planetstrike, Spearhead, battle missions (I'm listing both kill team and linebreaker as distinct from the core battle missions), and even Planetary Empires can all have a place in the greater context of the game.

I'm interested to know which of those you play? Do you play some expansions more than others, and some not at all?

I'm starting up a poll (right hand column) to see which of the expansions you play, and what ones are popular vs. unpopular. Please only tick the boxes for the ones that you played recently (I'll leave it up to your good selves to determine what you each mean by "recently"). If you've long since stopped playing a certain expansion despite having the capacity to play said expansion, leave a comment below and tell everyone why.

This poll will close in 2 weeks time.