Games Workshop Kingston-Upon-Hull

If you're in to soccer, you're probably talking about Hull (properly: the city of Kingston-Upon-Hull) for other reasons today.  But today, I'm posting about my mystery customer experience of the Games Workshop there following my travels around...

Physically, the store is located a short walk from the Paragon station train and bus interchange. The public transport in this region (East Riding of Yorkshire) is good and Hull seems to be the terminus of a great number of routes. Not that surprising given the geography of the city, being right on the East coast of England. In some ways, Hull is not a city that is visited by accident since it is at the end of the line. But the city itself is excellent and much under-rated by people who have never been there. Not without reason did it score "capital of culture 2017" for England.

The store itself is deep, but thin like a number of other Games Workshop stores I've visited. That's not a bad thing at all. The gaming tables and stock are up to date and the displays are excellent (but then, so are other stores).

My only grumble realistically were the opening hours. On a number of days in the week, the store does not open until waaaayyy after 9am. Although I can probably see the logic behind this (their customer base probably are not morning owls and they'd like to stay open late to conduct games and have school age children in after school rather than open early), I personally much prefer stores opening between 9 and 10am given a choice. Other than that, I was quite impressed with the store and the city itself.

Alpha Legion, Realms of Chaos style

As many of you know, the old Realms of Chaos (Slaves to Darkness and The Lost and the Damned) are a rare collectors item these day. But: they are filled with some great background materials for the chaos armies of yore, and today. 

I wanted to display a few images from the Slaves to Darkness volume with you today, for inspiration and research purposes. They are small cut-out pictures from the Slaanesh Warhammer 40,000 colour page featuring the Alpha Legion's shoulder pads and banner. The Emperor's Children are also featured on the page, along with the Iron Warriors and Alpha Legion. The implication of the Iron Warriors and Alpha Legion somehow being a part of Slaanesh worship is tenuous, but partially implied.

I found the Alpha Legion description informative though: "The fearsome contortions in the Alpha Legion's emblem is matched by the twisted minds and bodies of the Legionnaires."

I'm half tempted to paint a few of the Alpha Legion's twisted shoulder pads (see below) - they're much easier to free-hand than the chained-Alpha/Omega, or the hydra (but then again, the latter is now available through Forge World on pre-order - hurrah!). Hope this has also been inspiring to you!

Horus Heresy Review: Legion Terminator Squad

Let's state the obvious upfront: you cannot make Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield terminator squads in the Horus Heresy era. They don't exist. Further, they cannot automatically deep strike. Orbital strike barges (i.e. mission special rules) or character special rules must be invoked for this to happen.

Other than that, the terminator squads are exactly what you might expect them to be. Moreover, if you've played with Chaos Terminators to any extent, you probably know how you want to build your squads.

That said, there are two different types of terminator armour to think about. The first is the standard type (sometimes named after the forge world where they were manufactured such as: Tartaros, Saturnine, Indomitus). The second type is Cataphractii pattern terminator armour. The main difference is that the latter gives a 4+ invulnerable save at the expense of swapping relentless for slow and purposeful.

I won't go in to detail about the Land Raider option (Phobos or Spartan) as I'll review them separately later on. Suffice to note that these squads are able to take these options depending on the squad size.

So without further ado, here are some sample builds.

Legion Terminator Squad (5 members), 1 plasma blaster, sergeant with grenade harness (200 points)
This is one to place in a land raider and even have an independent along for the ride. Get them in to position and unload from the land raider. Fire off those weapons and charge in to melee to finish the job. Add some power fists to taste.

Legion Terminator Squad (10 members), 2 reaper autocannons (355 points)
There's an interesting scaling of points at work here. The larger the squad, the cheaper it can get (as opposed to fielding two 5 member squads). This squad is good as it can score in any mission that troops can. But moreover, its such an efficient use of points. Add a power fist or few for taste.

Legion Terminator Squad (5 members), 4 combi-meltas, 3 chain fists (233 points)
This is a pseudo "termicide" squad equipped with meltas.  Select only if the mission permits teleportation deep-striking. But it could still be placed in a land raider for good effect regardless. This is one squad that I suggest taking Cataphractii armour for.

Legion Terminator Squad (9 members), 8 with pairs of lightning claws, sergeant with thunder hammer, heavy flamer and grenade harness (445 points)
This isn't so funny on the points side, but is meant to be used as a personal guard for an independent character and transported on a land raider. On the turn they charge, use the flamer and grenade harness and then kill everything. Everything!  Very World Eater Legion I think! But Sons of Horus with their "merciless fighters" rule would also benefit here as well.

Legion Terminator Squad (5 members), 1 heavy flamer, 2 combi-flamers,  3 power fists (214 points)
Remember that these guys are scoring in any mission that troops are also scoring in? Yep - that's what you're doing here. Sitting on an objective. Take cataphractii armour and bunker down for the game. Flame anything that charges you and finish them off with power weapons and power fists. Try to avoid in coming AP2 fire as much as possible though. These guys are not meant to be a mobile threat, they are a "come here and take this objective from us if you think you can" kind of squad. Replace the combi-weapons with volkite chargers to taste.

Legion Terminator Squad (10 members), 10 volkite chargers (395 points)
If you are going to take volkite weaponry, you probably should go for the full lot or not at all really. With this many vokite weapons, you're looking to literally deflagrate the opposition squads in to nothing. But then there's the issue of getting the squad in to position. I think this squad is risky, but fun when it works!

Space Wolves Grey Returns!

Today, I'm giving a special shout out to my old pal Adam from Space Wolves Grey.

For the upcoming 7th edition of Warhammer 40,000 (and, of course, the Space Wolves), Adam is re-launching the Space Wolves website.

A plan of his forthcoming activities can be found on The Return of the Wolf post. If you're in to Space Wolves, or (like me) would like to simply know more and like cool conversions, and inside intel about how the army plays, then this blog is one that you cannot really go past. I know some of my old local group will certainly find some useful bits contained within it and I'd thoroughly encourage you to check it out.

Horus Heresy Review: Legion Veteran Tactical Squad

The legion veteran tactical squad is an elites option for the 30k space marine army. It blends aspects of the 40k sternguard, (or even chaos space marine chosen) with a whole slew of options available to it.

What sets these guys apart from their brothers is their vast experience. They have a rule called "Veteran tactics" to represent this. In brief, this allows the fielding player to select from fearless, sniper, furious charge, outflank and tank hunters prior to beginning the game. More than anything, this is the singular rule that sets aside these squads from the more regular tactical squads. That, and an extra base attack.

I personally can see a multitude of roles for these guys. So, fundamentally, its up to the controlling player to determine the purpose of these squads in advance and build them accordingly. The real challenge is not to sink too many points in to these squads (in my opinion) and to not waste a valuable elites slot which is dominated by a plethora of very viable and exciting choices (which I already started reviewing with the legion destroyer squads).

Here are some sample builds to whet your appetite.

Legion veteran tactical squad, 10 members, 2 missile launchers with suspensor webs, upgraded with flakk missiles, legion vexilla (270 points)
This is a tank hunters special rule squad. Sit at the back field and shoot at will. Move up (thanks to the suspensor webs) and carry on shooting as you go. Use the other marines to sacrifice in favour of the missile launchers. Take out fliers with the flakk. The legion vexilla provides a re-roll for morale tests, just in case.

Legion veteran tactical squad with 5 members, all with melta-bombs, all with power weapons, rhino (235 points)
A squad that rides up to an enemy tank, applies some melta charges and chews up any transported enemies with their power weapons. Nasty - but its a bit pricey. Terminators probably do this better, especially if equipped with combi-melta guns. Probably give the furious charge rule to these guys?

Legion veteran tactical squad with 10 members, 2 heavy bolters with suspensor webs, sergeant with a power fist, 3 other veterans with power weapons (285 points).
Give this squad fearless. Then go hunting for enemy infantry. This squad is nicely suited to countering enemy assault squads or devastator like squads. The fearless makes them great at moving around the board unhindered. But remember: they still die like every other space marine on failing a 3+ save, so be careful about their placement and deployment!

Legion veteran tactical squad with 10 members, 2 plasma guns, sergeant with combi-plasma and power fist, all with melta bombs (280 points)
Give this unit outflank (or even sniper, to be honest) and set them up to cause a little bit of back line havoc to the enemy. Add a rhino, legion vexilla, and/or nuncio vox (especially if deep striking) to taste.

Legion veteran tactical squad with 9 members, 2 melta guns, sergeant with power fist, rhino (265 points)
This might be an entertaining option to place a legion HQ choice alongside with if the Legion command squad is not doing anything for you. Hop in the rhino and drive around doing general damage and mayhem wherever is required. Take sniper for fun with the melta guns perhaps…?

Blight Drone model progress

Today, just an action shot of my blight drone's painting progress.

As can be seen, there's plenty yet to be painted, including the forward oculus (eye lens).

The background is simply a cardboard cut out positioned carefully, and I was experimenting a bit with shooting images using it to be honest. I think its turned out well and gives a sense of dynamism to the blight drone model -- particularly given its tilted propulsion fans.