Expanding a Death Guard Army List to 2000 points

I confess that I don't usually play at 2000 points. My usual games are all between 1000 and 1500 points for the main part. Only rarely do I get up to the lofty heights of 1750 or 1850 points. But a while ago, I was asked to play at 2000 points with my Death Guard marines.

To be fair, I don't really have a good feeling of what to do with 2000 points. I'm so used to cramming everything below 1500 points that my initial reaction was to get carried away and totally re-design the army that I was used to running.

With a sudden realization, I reckoned that that idea was a bad plan. I didn't want to play a completely new army. No. What I wanted to do was play an army that I was already used to playing (i.e. my 1500 points force) and add some extra bits and pieces to it.

Now this is not the ordinary thought process that I suspect a lot of people go through. But for a friendly game, I think it is a good way to get to grips with a higher points value than what I am used to.

Here's what I came up with:

HQ:
Daemon Prince, Mark of Nurgle, Warp Time, Wings (175 points)
Daemon Prince, Mark of Nurgle, Warp Time, Wings (175 points)
Elites:
Dreadnought, plasma cannon (105 points)
Troops:
7 Plague marines (1 plague champion with power fist), icon, melta gun, flamer, rhino with havoc launcher (271 points)
7 Plague marines (1 plague champion with power fist), icon, melta gun, flamer, rhino with havoc launcher (271 points)
7 Plague marines (1 plague champion with combi-plasma and melta bombs), icon, 2 plasma guns, rhino with havoc launcher (276 points)
7 lesser daemons (91 points)
7 lesser daemons (91 points)
7 lesser daemons (91 points)
Heavy Support:
Vindicator, daemonic possession (145 points)
Vindicator, daemonic possession (145 points)
2 Obliterators (150 points)

That comes to 1986 points and 15 kill points. A couple of dozer blades and that'll be it.

As stated, this is simply an example of how I thought about tackling going from 1500 points to 2000 points without completely re-writing my army list from scratch. In hind-sight, it worked out very well, but I doubt I'd take it to a competitive tournament without some more thought. i.e. For a start, I'd reconsider both the vindicators and the dreadnought... a remnant from 4th edition, but units that I still enjoy playing with.

Evaluating Spearhead Formations for Daemons

The Spearhead formations are now available for download from Games Workshop. Today, I wanted to take a quick look at which of these formations might or might not be any use for daemon armies. (I'll leave chaos space marines alone for now). So, in turn, let's have a look.

Armoured Spearhead: Daemons only have soul grinders, and they're walkers rather than tanks: hence this one is not applicable.

Ambush Spearhead: For 75 points, we could give our soul grinders stealth and infiltrate and set them up (assuming that the spearhead rules take precedent over daemonic assault???? - that's unclear to me at the moment). I'm a little on the fence about this one until I find out which rule takes precedent. Even if the Spearhead takes precedent, I'm still not sure I'd take it.

Mechanised Assault Spearhead: Not Applicable.

Tank Hunter Spearhead: Yes please! The soul grinders could really use this well. If there are 3 in the army, that works out at 20 points each for the tank hunter universal special rule.

Archeotech Spearhead: Cool artwork, but a little dangerous to be sure. But soul grinders will ignore shaken and stunned results which compensate for the danger somewhat. I probably won't be taking it, except in fun games where I'd be happy to blow up my own tanks ... I'll balance that viewpoint by pointing out that I run chaos dreadnoughts in my chaos marine armies ...

Outrider Spearhead: this would be useful in an army that has lots of tank options, but not really daemons. Can't see myself running it in a regular Spearhead game. Unless it's Apocalypse Spearhead.

Skyfall Spearhead: Not Applicable.

Monstrous Spearhead: This could be very good with daemon princes. Pity it cannot be taken for HQ selections. I would have liked +1 strength here, but furious charge makes up for that a little. If we have 3 Heavy Support choices of daemon princes, it works out at 20 points each - not bad. This is probably a taker for me in spearhead.

Mass Attack Spearhead: Strength 7 Krak grenades with preferred enemy Monsters - yes please. Especially given I tend to run plenty of troops in daemon armies. The re-group won't matter to daemons since they won't be running in the first place. But otherwise, all good.

Crusher Spearhead: Not Applicable.

Seek and Destroy Spearhead: Not Applicable.

Superheavy Spearhead: Here's a way to bring a superheavy to a (not-quite) standard game. Could be rather interesting!

Sons of Malice Flamer Marine

Against a background of imperial ruins, a lone Sons of Malice marine armed with a flamer cautiously scouts.I'll confess that this is my first attempt at an artistically posed shot in a long while. I'm pleased how it turned out! The ruins blend in nicely with the playing board, without detracting from the black, white and red of the chaos marine.

Putting Together a Fiend of Slaanesh - Not so Fiendish

Having completed my first metal fiend of Slaanesh, I thought I'd post a couple of words on its assembly. I'll comment separately on the painting aspect of this daemonic beast at a later point in time.

The first thing that I realized about fiends of Slaanesh is that they're not as painful as metal flamers or horrors of Tzeentch to put together. Nor are they quite as flimsy - I dropped this fiend a couple of times with no ill effect.

For the first time in a long time, I decided not to pin the metal parts to each other. Instead, I simply relied on the good old combination of super glue spread over a thin layer of green stuff. In concert, these two form a fast and quick bond between the joins. The only downside is that this approach tends to get fingers very glued up as well. Once the bond is in place (after some firm pushing), I then went around the edges of the join and wiped away and excess green stuff that leaked out from the join. On the miniature, there are a couple of obvious bits around the scruff of the neck of the fiend that can be seen to have had a little sculpting work as a result of this process. But the green stuff plus super glue process is not visible at all around the legs, arms or tail; much to my pleasure.

The only other thing that I will note about the metal fiend model is that the tail may have gotten bent out of shape (somehow) during transit. The tail can be gently bent to a new angle with a little bit of care and so long as one does not go beyond the stress limit of the metal. Additionally, you may notice that I've positioned the claw arms and head at slightly novel angles on the model -- this can be done readily with the green stuff joining method and sculpted to look natural without too much effort involved.

Battle Summary: Daemons vs. Eldar (1500 points)

A battle report against eldar from an unknown craft-world ... probably one that strayed too close to the Eye of Terror.

My opponent's list was (approximately) as follows:

1 Farseer; Doom; Fortune; Spirit Stones (130 points)
5 Fire Dragons (fusion blasters, melta bombs) with exarch (crack shot, flamer and melta bombs) in a wave serpent with twin linked shuriken cannons (207 points)
5 Fire Dragons (fusion blasters, melta bombs) with exarch (crack shot, flamer and melta bombs) in a wave serpent with twin linked shuriken cannons (207 points)
8 Striking Scorpions; Exarch; Chain Sabres; Shadowstrike; Stalker (170 points)
10 Dire avengers (120 points)
10 Dire Avengers with Exarch; 2 shuriken catapults and Bladestorm (152 points)
10 Dire Avengers with Exarch; 2 shuriken catapults and Bladestorm (152 points)
1 Falcon; Holo-Field; Missile Launcher; Shuriken Cannon; Pulse Laser (180 points)
3 War Walkers, scatter lasers (180 points)

My list on the other hand was one of my usual lists. I'll reproduce it here for completeness:

Great Unclean One of Nurgle, Cloud of flies (165 points)
Herald of Tzeentch on a Chariot, with Bolt of Tzeentch (95 points)
Herald of Khorne on Juggernaut (105 points)
11 bloodletters of Khorne (176 points)
11 plaguebearers of Nurgle, icon of chaos, instrument of chaos (195 points)
11 daemonettes of Slaanesh, transfixing gaze (159 points)
9 pink horrors of Tzeentch, chaos icon, bolt, The Changeling (195 points)
5 screamers of Tzeentch (80 points)
Daemon prince with flight and iron hide (170 points)
Soul grinder of chaos with phlegm (160 points)

The game is annihilation (I'll keep tab of this at every kill point through this summary). The board is an abandoned colony: some ruins are scattered about on an otherwise flat board (i.e. no hills to hide behind). So, although deep striking shouldn't be much of an issue for me, many of the places that I would choose to deep strike in will be nicely exposed to lines of fire.

Set up.
Deploying within 12 inches of the table edge, my opponent sets everything up; i.e. no reserves. The farseer and scorpions start in one of the ruins, the wave serpents in the corners, the dire avengers in the centre of the board, the falcon between the farseer and one of the serpents, and the walkers to the other side of the farseer's ruins.

Early Turns.
Happily, I get to go second (my opponent doesn't move a cm in his first turn) and my primary wave (Herald of Tzeentch, the plaguebearers of Nurgle, the daemonettes of Slaanesh, the soul grinder, and the screamers of Tzeentch) come in to play. The Soul grinder sets down perfectly square on to the falcon. The daemonettes look just in front of one set of dire avengers. The screamers scatter a long way and wind up behind the soul grinder. The plaguebearers scatter to sit outside of the farseer's building. Meanwhile the herald sets up on his own in the other corner to look menacingly at one of the dragon's wave serpents.

The shooting is very favourable toward me. The herald of Tzeentch vaporises the wave serpent facing him (1-0). The soul grinder wrecks the falcon (2-0). Everything else fleets. End of turn 1: 2-0 to me in killpoints.

The dire avengers shoot up the daemonettes and wipe them all out (2-1). But it takes all of the three squads to do so thanks to some unlucky die rolling! The farseer shouts doom and the scorpions leave their cozy building and charge the plaguebearers. Although 4 plaguebearers die, two scorpions also perish. The war walkers are mostly ineffective, whilst the remaining wave serpent scoots in the general direction of my soul grinder.

In my turn 2, the bloodletters, Khorne herald, and daemon prince arrive and all deep-strike off the plaguebearer's icon. I fleet all of them, but still ready to help out the plaguebearers against the scorpions. In my shooting turn, the herald of Tzeentch lets rip of the fire dragons that dared survive the destruction of their transport. Remarkably, four of them perish! The remaining eldar fails his (or her?) leadership test and flees off the board, quaking in fear of the mutable form of the Herald (3-1). Meanwhile, the screamers zoom at the other wave serpent and cause it to explode as the chew down on vital parts with their warp-hot melta jaws (4-1).

Although my plaguebearers are tough, they're reduced down to one daemon soon enough by the farseer and scorpions. They do manage to inflict a pair of poisoned wounds on the farseer however (bet she didn't see that coming). 4 -1 in killpoints at this juncture.

Middle turns.
The dire avengers shoot up and bladestorm in to combat with my bloodletters and herald of Khorne. Although a good number of bloodletters die, its not enough to stop the herald and his cronies killing a large number of them in exchange. The dire avengers are wiped out as a result (5-1). Skulls for the skull throne! However, subsequent shooting reduces the herald down to a single wound and the squad down to three bloodletters.

The fire dragons whose transport was destroyed by the screamers shoot up and melt my soul grinder in to slag and dross (5-2). The remaining plaguebearer cannot hold out any longer against the psychic might of the farseer and dies (5-3). The prince takes a number of shots, but no wounds from other dire avengers. 5 - 3 in killpoints.

In my turn 3 the pink horrors come in to play. They come down without scatter near one of the remaining two dire avengers squad (after scattering a little way). I don't run them, but shoot up one of the dire avengers squad. They take a leadership test and flee off the edge of the board! What luck! (6-3)

Meanwhile the bloodletters charge the last dire avengers squad. The herald kills most of them, but dies in exchange (6-4). The picture shows the three remaining bloodletters against the single remaining dire avenger after the swirl of melee dies down. The situation looks rather grim for this chap next turn methinks.

For the hell of it, I charge my screamers in to the fire dragons. The screams die hideously... doh. (6-5).

The daemon prince charges the scorpions and the farseer. Targeting his attacks at the farseer, he does just enough to finish the farseer (7-5). But the scorpions (surprisingly) kill him in return (7-6). The walkers shoot up the pink horrors, killing a few of them. 7-6 in killpoints.

In turn 4, the bloodletters put the dire avengers skulls on to their master's throne (8-6).
The eldar only have the scorpions, one set of fire dragons, and the war walkers remaining. The war walkers kill yet more pink horrors, but not enough to finish them off. The fire dragons look around for new targets, but find none. They meander toward the scorpions listlessly. The scorpions charge my remaining bloodletters and slaughter them (8-7).

I move my pink horrors away from the walkers and shoot at them. The bolt of Tzeentch causes one of them to explode spectacularly. A second is immobilized by a rather fortunate warp fire shot. That's a good result.

Final Turn (turn 5)
The remaining eldar are not in a good position to do much more harm to me. Although a single pink horror dies to a war walker, very little else happens.

In my turn, the tardy Great Unclean One decides to finally put in an appearance. I reckon he can handle the fire dragons and so deep strike him near to them. He scatters toward them.

My bolt of Tzeentch misses and nothing else of consequence happens.

The game finishes. Result: 8-7 in killpoints in the daemons favour.

Had the game continued, I was confident the Great Unclean One could have handled the fire dragons to underscore the killpoint score line.

The scorpions were very very effective, for me they were the unit of the game. My opponent liked the bloodletters, and I've got to say, they did do reasonably well.

Horus Heresy: First Impressions

Despite a volcano getting in the way, my copy of the Horus Heresy board game finally arrived.

My first impressions of the game were largely positive. The sheer number and quality of the miniatures contained therein is impressive. However, my singular gripe was that the initial assembling of the playing pieces was tedious and not always easy. By that, I mean that inserting some of the pieces in to their bases was problematic: one or two of the bits were slightly too large for the holes they were meant to be inserted in to. I filed on of the bits down after struggling. It fit eventually! We did spend a lot of time assembling the pieces which delayed the start of our first game, but the assembling was fun in itself.

There are also so many detailed cards that come with the board game. They required little more than sorting in to their correct piles and shuffling.

The board itself is reasonably large, and comes with a three dimensional aspect as raised plastic parts are used to depict the palace region of Terra, alongside the Warmaster's Vengeful Spirit battlebarge. I like the detail around the board and was immediately taken by the initiative system that is used to drive the game.

The rulebook is a fair size and will appear complex to people who have not played similar games before. It takes a few readings to get all the main rules right, but I guess the best way to learn the rules is actually to go ahead and play the game.

Although I will write another article on the first game that I had, I will note here that setting a game up requires time. We followed the instructions and decided to play the first scenario (brother vs brother). It took a long ten minutes to set up all the playing pieces in to their initial positions on the board, but once in place, they looked good. Both Horus and the Emperor looked like un-assailable targets holed up in their respective places. It can appear very intimidating to both players to think how they're going to get past all their personal guards and take on the other. But there are two other ways to win: both players can achieve a space port victory by holding all four ports from just about half way through the game. The third way is that the Imperial player can hold out for a reinforcement victory: the loyalists fleets are on their way to bolster the White Scars, Imperial Fists and Blood Angels.

But... there is an event card that can potentially swallow up the inbound fleets thanks to the Warp. So in some games, the Imperial player cannot aim for a hold-out victory thanks to inertia. I like this twist on events personally, even though it is not cannon. I'll post again on Horus Hersey and show how one game played out.

New Daemon Miniatures

Look what happens whilst I sleep. New daemon models have been spotted on Games Workshop's web site.

Others have already alerted the blogosphere to their existence (Warpstone Pile, Astronomican, Dark Future Games), so I briefly wanted to share my opinion on what I thought about them.

Firstly, Fateweaver looks reasonably similar to the artistic depiction found in the codex. Except for the staff, it also looks similar to what can be achieved with the Lord of Change boxed set (the one that comes with two heads). I've seen a couple of Fateweaver conversions using the Lord of Change and they do look similar. The pose of Fateweaver is, of course, different, comprising the arms and wings in different stages of animation. Whilst I like the model, it may not be the first of the second wave on my purchase list.

The new bloodcrusher was a nice surprise to see. Both the bloodletter and the juggernaut are new. The bloodletter looks like it is a herald judging by the superior horns it possesses. The juggernaut has runes carved in to its hide (rather than raised up) compared to the previous model. Moreover, it also has a new maw which looks vicious to be frank. This is the fourth juggernaut model (the other three being: standard bloodcrusher, Khorne herald, fantasy chaos lord) to be released and gives a strong variety available to the Khorne elites poses.

I suspect that some folks won't like the new pink horrors. I personally like the look of them. And more importantly to me, they look more solid and less likely to snap than the old ones. But, we've only seen two of them. I'm looking forward to seeing what the standard bearer, musician and champion model will look like. I am also hoping that we see some blue-in-pink horrors. I also worry whether they'll blend in well with the older models.

The Changeling is awesome looking. He has a feeling of a flamer of Tzeentch from the sweep of his robes and the pose of the arms looks very cool. Indeed one of the arms looks like a flamer's maw with fire coming out of it. I'm not so taken by the staff, but it does fit.

Sign me up for several boxes of Slaaneshi seekers. These are the miniatures that I've been waiting for for a long time. Although I liked the old metal models very much, these ones (providing they're plastic) will make it easy for us daemon players to field decent numbers of them. They look like the plastic daemonettes have been used as the riders, but the sculpts of the legs are clearly new and the heads are new as well. The torsos look broadly like the daemonettes, as do the arms (there's a few extra nodules on the shoulder and the icon bearer's left arm looks unique for instance compared to the infantry daemonette). The steeds themselves look lithe and very Slaanesh to me.

Finally, the daemon prince looks great. A big improvement on the old images that have bounded around the internet. Moreover, they seem to have seamlessly blended these old images with the metal daemon prince that looks like an ex-chaos marine in to an improved model. Good job methinks.

Winner of the May 2010 Army List Challenge

I'm pleased to announce that the winner of the May 2010 Army List Challenge is Folkert! Well Done to you sir!

Folkert gained 41 per cent of the overall vote, with Farmpunk coming in second place with 32 per cent.

Congratulations to all the entrants - they were great lists! There will be another competition next month.

Nurgle Daemons Kill Team

Whose idea was it to do themed daemon kill team lists? Oh yeah, I brought this on myself.

Right: Nurgle today. Let's not beat about the bush: they can choose between plaguebearers, beasts of Nurgle, and nurglings. They are not going to be able to do much tank hunting frankly. And even if they catch up to a tank (such as a rhino), they're going to have to be lucky to destroy it. Let's hope the other army is all infantry. And rolls badly for difficult terrain. Often.

Here's some lists.
13 Plaguebearers with an instrument (200 points)

5 nurgling bases, 9 plaguebearers (200 points)

3 Beasts of Nurgle, 6 plaguebearers with instrument (200 points)

Urrrrgh. Terrible! Perhaps list one (on the basis of lots of toughness 5 models) would be good, or list 2 (due to all the wounds). Take your pick! As for universal special rules? Meh. Nurgle doesn't need them (haha!).

Well this is the fourth and last in this series. Hope you enjoyed them all.

Khorne Daemons Kill Team

I thought that this might be a tough one to think about. Khorne gets a choice between bloodletters, bloodcrushers, and flesh hounds. Fundamentally, they're going to struggle if a rhino shows up to the battle. I therefore think that bloodcrushers, and perhaps even the fury of Khorne upgrade, are going to be a necessity.

It is then a question of bloodletters or flesh hounds. Bloodletters have power weapons (ahem: hellblades), so they probably have the edge. But then again, the flesh hounds are quite rapid. And Karanak helps out there as well. They could even run a rhino down with a little luck.

Here's a few lists:
5 flesh hounds with Karanak (110 points)
2 blood crushers of Khorne with fury of Khorne (90 points)

1 blood crusher of Khorne with fury of Khorne (50 points)
9 bloodletters (144 points) (perhaps purchase an instrument upgrade as well?).

I actually like list 1 here despite the low number of models. I feel it could be themed well (Khorne on the hunt!) and effective.
As Rushputin @ Warpstone Pile suggests, Khorne's weaknesses are a lack of staying power and slowness. Hence special rules such as fleet, hit and run and feel no pain will help out the greatest.

Slaanesh Daemons Kill Team

Following Tzeentch, I think the next easiest themed daemon army to get to work is the Slaaneshi one. They get to choose between fiends, daemonettes, and seekers.

Fiends of Slaanesh are just as awesome here as in a regular game. The only question is how many to take and whether to upgrade one with unholy might. I think in a low points value game, unholy might probably doesn't need to be there in combination with rending.

Daemonettes with the fleet and rending are also a good core choice. They don't have a high toughness and get killed fast, but once they're in combat, they should be winning, and winning fast. Again, I'm not tempted by any of the upgrades in a 200 point game. Although transfixing gaze may be cool, it just isn't worth it since I'd hope the opponent won't get a chance to strike back (fingers crossed).

Seekers are plain cool as well. Mounted daemonette cavalry with an extra attack has awesome written all over it.

Here's a couple of lists I came up with.

List 1:
10 seekers of Slaanesh (170 points)
1 fiend of Slaanesh (30 points)

List 2:
2 fiends of Slaanesh (60 points)
10 daemonettes of Slaanesh (140 points)

I'd prefer the first one, but I can't afford the models! In terms of special rules, the Slaaneshi force isn't short of movement, but could do with some staying power (feel no pain) in general.

New Daemons ... The Second Wave Cometh?

Just in via email from Games Workshop:

"In August, the immortal legions of the Ruinous Powers - the Chaos Daemons - will pour forth once more from the Realm of Chaos to drown the Warhammer world and the galaxy of the 41st Millennium beneath a tide of blood and destruction. Even now, mystics are assailed by nightmarish visions of horror and death, the fractured minds of madmen echo with sibilant whispers, and the doomed clutch symbols of their weak gods closer to them.

A host of incredible new Citadel miniatures for both Warhammer 40,000 Chaos Daemons armies and Warhammer Daemons of Chaos armies will soon be released upon mortal battlefields. All will be revealed in July here on the Games Workshop website and in August's issue of White Dwarf magazine, so keep an eye out for more information."

I'm excited!

Tzeentch Daemons Kill Team

Since I'm too polite to enter my own Army List contest, I thought I'd post a series of four articles on what I might think about for a daemons kill team: one for each main chaos deity. Today, I'll start with what I consider the easy one: Tzeentch.

There are only a few options here. For 200 points, we get to choose between flamers, pink horrors, and screamers of Tzeentch.

Firstly, flamers are expensive and only have 1 wound. They do wonders in larger point value games, but tend to be a bit of a glass hammer in lower points games (i.e. if they survive long enough to do their job well, then they will get destroyed soon after no doubt). However, the real problem is that we have to purchase a minimum of three of them (at 105 points). That, coupled with the large points value for the bolt of Tzeentch upgrade that might be needed for long range anti-tank duties turns me off using them in a 200 point game. Then again, I do like the idea of lots of breath of chaos attack and them zipping around the board at high speed, so I'm not totally against using them...

The pink horrors of Tzeentch are where it is at for me. They're fabulous in a low points value game simply due to their rate of fire. Assault 3 is just amazing in a 200 points game. Sure, they've only got a toughness of 3, but they do get a 4+ invulnerable save. I would also add to that a bolt of Tzeentch upgrade to one model and I would certainly think about taking the Changeling upgrade. Both the instrument and the icon are not worth it here.

Screamers make for an interesting dilemma. They don't do much, apart from occasionally kill tanks and zoom around fast. They're not ideal in close combat, but with an unholy might upgrade, perhaps it could be fun. And they're not as expensive as flamers.

So, here are three Tzeentch daemons list:

List 1:
3 screamers, unholy might upgrade (53 points)
8 pink horrors, The Changeling (141 points)

List 2:
11 pink horrors, Bolt of Tzeentch (197 points)

List 3:
3 Flamers of Tzeentch (105 points)
5 pink horrors, with bolt of Tzeentch (95 points)

This last list might be good enough to take on some of the lists posted in this month's Army List Challenge as well.

Let me say again: assault 3, AP4 warpfire is just awesome in a 200 point kill team game.
Universal special rules ... probably tank hunting on the bolt; feel no pain on the changeling... not sure about the third choice.

Poll Open for the May 2010 Army List Challenge

There have been four entrants for the May 2010 Army List Challenge. The entrant's kill teams (and their chosen codex and army list) are detailed below. Once you've read through the army lists, vote on the poll to the right hand side to choose who you think has the most effective army that also best articulates the theme. There are no prizes for these contests, only honour and kudos! Along the way, we hope that we've encouraged others to help think about how to build effective army lists that are well themed or well suited to a particular theme.

Kraggi (Imperial Guard):
I use the Imperial Guard, and have always enjoyed the novels of Guants Ghosts and how they could take down pretty much anything that was thrown at them. So with that in mind (and the Gaunts Ghosts models in mind for some of these) here is my Kill Team:

Veteran Squad with All Doctrines (Forward Sentries, Grenadiers, Demolitions)

Sergeant Ansul: Power Sword, Feel No Pain
Heavy Weapons Team Tryel: Rocket Launcher, Relentless
Specialist Nomin: Sniper Rifle, Infiltrate
Specialist Gantro: Grenade Launcher
Specialist Saldor: Flamer
Specialist Greigor: Demolition Charge
Veteran Halshan
Veteran Dopila
Veteran Tsor

Every model in this list gets a 3+ cover save while in cover from their Camo Cloaks, they all have Frag, Krak and Defensive Grenades, in addtion to Meltabombs.

Carapace Armour means that they at least get a save against the basic weapons they will be facing in the game.

They have a good spread of weapons meaning they should be able to deal with most things people throw at them.

Only 1 of them has to stay in one place to do damange, and I think I can afford to have 1 man out of my 10 hanging back to harass the enemy.


Tom (Tau):
200 points of Tau Stealth Suits would seem to fit the flavour of the mission, might not be very successful but hey ho!
Starting off with
Team Leader
Fusion Blaster, Targeting array, HW(Hard Wired)Blacksun Filter, HW Multitracker, HW Drone Controller, Shield Drone and Markerlight.
3 Stealth Suits all with Targetting array, as for the USR's
Team Leader gets Tank Hunter, with 2 of the normal guys getting Feel No Pain and Hit + Run.
I know I'm going to be making leadership tests as soon as I've taken a casualty but you'll have to get to me first and with the Stealth suits meaning you're using night fighting all the time plus the ability to Jump Shoot Jump models back out of line of sight it'll be more difficult than you think.


Folkert (Imperial Guard):
Forward Recon Teams Mavericks and Kill-Shot:

Scout Sentinel "Stalker", Autocannon 40 - Stealth
Scout Sentinel "Tread Hunter, Autocannon 40 - Tank Hunters
Scout Sentinel "Sucker-Punched", Autocannon 40

Ratling Sniper "Bulldog, 10 - relentless
7x Ratling sniper 70

Total: 200

Composed entirely of forward scout elements this was, IMO, a fluffy kill team list made for taking out their targets from concealed positions. so My choice will be the table half full of terrain, using scout and infiltrate to command the good sniping positions. the sentinels stalk the buildings and take out an mech or high toughness units out there. the ratlings focusing on the infantry systematically taking them out one at the time. the sentinels will also function as guardians for the ratlings as well as speedbumps. only bad thing about this list is it's low Ld. but having 11 models who almost all of them have an 3+ cover save will hopefully mitigate that.

If I had to face Kraggis list I'd focus on the rocket launcher first and then the grenade launcher and flamer and then demo charge. the sergeant will be left alone until there are no better targets, cause killing something with a 3+ cover save and FNP is a Pain in the Ass (which I will feel and he wont lol)


Farmpunk (Grey Knights):
Grey Knight Terminators
1Grey Knight Terminator w/Nemesis Force Weapon, Storm Bolter, Fleet of Foot
1Grey Knight Terminator w/Nemesis Force Weapon, Incinerator, Infiltrate
1Grey Knight Brother Captain w/Nemesis Force Weapon, Psycannon, Feel No Pain

small force, since these guys are pricey. It's a minimum squad, and taking a wound is bad for these guys, but at Ld10 Fearless they should be ok. Heading into cover will make them tough to get out. Since they're all in Terminator armor, they're all relentless, with Power weapons, have the option to Deepstrike, and have the Shrouding to help conceal them at long range (about 30") Their drawback is no Frag grenades for charging into cover.

The infiltrator will set up to burninate/charge if possible (AP2 is highest priority, followed by power weapons), with the Fleet Termie advancing quickly. The FNP Psycannon should be able to give any long range shooters fits, and maybe take down some light armor.

S6 Power weapons kill stuff dead.

These guys should be able to dish out, and take hits too.

Ruined House Scenery - I. Construction with Hirst Arts

In an effort to expand my collection of scenery, I have been making use of Hirst Arts building bricks to create some unique designs. If you have not encountered Hirst Arts before, then the simplest explanation that I can give you are that they are somewhat like lego bricks. Except you cast them yourself from a mould, using plaster.

My previous efforts with Hirst Arts have included building a fieldstone bridge and a number of other structures that you can see in the background of pictures contained in articles such as my chaos space marine raptors. They are very flexible and if you've never given them a go before, then I can thoroughly recommend them (and no: Hirst Arts does not sponsor my blog). Casting them is fun once you get the knack of it, and they can be glued together with PVA glue (certainly in the case of regular plaster; although many people prefer dental plaster for their bricks).
This building contains blocks from the Wizard's Tower mould produced by Hirst Arts. It is a fairly basic set of blocks and that is what makes is so very useful for general designs. I decided to construct my building on an MDF place mat. The MDF gives the structure a good solid base on which to build these buildings and is much superior to cork (which I have used in the past for basing some minor scenery pieces such as low walls; and used for basing miniatures).

The idea for this building was to create a small to moderately sized house that is either somewhat ruined, or only half built. Since I have done (and played in) ruins to death, the latter appeals to me somewhat more than the former. So this building will be painted up as a half built house. It features three main rooms: one very large one and a pair of smaller ones to the side. The ground is made from casting the cracked tiles mould and on top of this, I've piled up the basic building blocks to form walls.The rear of the house features a window (suitable for shooting arrows out of...) which can be used as a slim line of sight for a single gunner. The walls are of a variety of heights that provide a variety of cover depending on the height of the miniatures that are hiding behind it. For instance, a space marine can completely conceal himself behind the "window" wall, but will only have his calves and some of his thighs concealed by some of the walls on the opposite side of the ruins.

At the front of the house, I've left a number of gaps between the walls to represent where doors might be built (or where they once were). There are also doorways between the various rooms that are wide enough for a standard base to fit between. I intend to flock and paint this entire structure and will post the result of it at a later date.

Planetary Empires: Ruins Tile

The ruins tile from planetary empires features a pseudo city-scape that has been razed to the ground. Around the remains of the city lie scattered bits of rubble, dross and detritus. With this tile, I've attempted to blend in the general feeling of the ruins with a more verdant surrounding (largely to match up to my other tiles which are mostly of a green planet).

Although the tile was mostly painted in a dry brush style, I tried to pay special attention to the remnants of the city walls. They have been subtly highlighted and blended with a range of grey colours to suggest they were either built or destroyed at different times, or are composed of different materials. I need to finish the tile by touching up around the edge of it in black, but otherwise its another job done.

Sons of Malice Hunter

The Sons of Malice horde grows! A while ago, I explored a few conversions to try to get some more dynamism in to otherwise semi-static looking chaos space marines. One of the results was the "hunter" model - a marine with a long hunting spear taken from the warhammer fantasy battle zombie boxed set (and a bionic thigh).

The marine has been painted in the colours of the sons of malice. There are two hard parts about this: firstly remembering which quarter should be black and which should be white; and secondly, actually painting in black and white - both of which are non-trivial colours to work with. My previous sons of malice test model helped me think through the complexities of these colours somewhat and I've tried to replicate the process here.

To solve the first issue, I always start a Sons of Malice model on the left leg. I know that has to be white in colour. The problem with painting black and white basically boils down to how to shade and highlight the colours. Grey is your friend with black, and white can also be toned down a few shades with (yet again) grey (although a pale, pastel blue may also work).
The silver trim on the model has been highlighted with white (using a steady hand and a 000 paint brush) and the eyes of the marine painted in a menacing red colour. The final steps included adding some brown dirt and grime on to the lower legs of the model to suggest recent action.

You'll notice that I've also used some boltgun silver to drybrush around the metallic joints of the marine and complete his weaponry. Overall, I'm pleased with the model and will be painting up more sons of Malice as time permits.

Reminder: May 2010 Army List Challenge

The May 2010 Army List Challenge is on. Can you design a themed and effective kill team for 200 points to charge across a 4 x 4 board to the opponent's deployment zone to win the game? Good luck!

Apocalypse: The Careful Planning Asset and Daemons

One of the assets in Apocalypse is "Careful Planning". This asset enables armies to reserve everything and be confident that half of the reserves will show up on turn 1, the other half on turn 2.

Now, for daemon armies, this is obviously going to be half wasted. If you're not familiar with daemons, this is because the daemonic assault rule with which daemon armies come on to the battlefield already specify that half of them will appear on turn 1 regardless.

However, I think that in an apocalypse game, this asset would be very useful for daemons players who are keen to get stuck in at the earliest opportunities. It is not as game defining as other assets can be (Flank March, I'm looking at you) and can be readily interpreted in an on-going narrative, or when used in conjunction with a formation such as the Warp Rift.

Using this asset never really occurred to me until recently when I was playing a fun (friendly) game wherein we chose apocalypse assets, but used only a modest amount of points. I really suffered a lot of casualties with the orbital bombardments that whacked my early-arriving daemons that day...

Painted Chaos Hound

Following on from assembling the chaos hound pack yesterday, today is a picture of a completed chaos hound, fully painted.

For this beast, I decided to undercoat in white, so as to bring out a lighter tone for the skin when all was said and done. The fur was basecoated in brown, whereas the flesh was done in dheneb stone (one of my favourite base coats to use due to its neutral colour and thick, one-coat only application). The fur was inked in watered-down chaos black to give it depth, before being lightened to bring out highlights.

The skin was painted in a watered-down orange colour, before being washed with brown; and near the rib cage - with black. It was then highlighted steadily toward a pale yellow colour, suggestive of a lion (or tiger without stripes!). Final details included painting a white eye dot with a steady hand and painting the teeth, horns, spikes (at the side of the mane) and claws. The base was also given a treatment of brown basecoat, inked in black and dry-brushed in pale white to suggest rough and broken ground. Not bad for a quick paint job.

Chaos Hound Pack

I do not get to field chaos hounds much - I don't play much WFB these days and the rules for chaos hounds from the old codex: chaos space marines are no more.

None the less, chaos hounds are a great miniature and I have had a number of them hanging around for a bit. I decided to glue a number of them together to get a better feeling for them.Pictured above are three hounds on rectangular (and decorated) bases. Overall, they were very easy to put together as they only consist of a small number of pieces each. The horns are the fiddliest bits to get in, but not so bad if you have a steady hand (and smaller thumbs than me!; or a pair of tweezers).

I do like the poses of the models - some are in a leaping positions, whilst others have most feet on the ground and are bearing their teeth at whatever might be in front of them - very ferocious looking off the lead.

The one obvious way that I might get them in to my games is to use them as generic lesser daemons that are summoned off chaos space marine icons. They are sufficiently chaotic to represent such daemons, without looking like they're dedicated to any particular chaos deity (apart from the diseased looking one perhaps!).

May 2010 Army List Challenge

Welcome to the May 2010 Army List Challenge. This month's challenge is about a specific mission. And a kill team mission at that. Here's how it works.

Your kill team must move to the opponent's deployment zone (defined as 6 inches from the board edge) as best as they can. In doing so, they must stop the opposing kill team from doing the same. The winner will be the player with the most points worth of miniatures in the opposite deployment zone at the end of the game (note that the game is a random length). The points are counted on a by-miniature basis.

The dilemma is whether you choose lots of small, cheap critters in the hope that lots of them get to the other side?; or perhaps only a few strong miniatures that can weather lots of incoming fire to reach the opposite side?; or maybe some jet bikes to avoid the opponent completely and swoop in to the opposite deployment zone on turn 5, 6 or 7?; or maybe several rhinos to take your troops there; or perhaps use deep-strike and infiltrate to excess?; or just lots of firepower and counter-measures?; or maybe ignore the objective completely and aim to destroy the opposition and get an automatic win? Which tactic is best? Why?

The scenario will take place on a 4 x 4 board. The scenery on the board is part of the twist. The left hand side (as you look at it!) has a high density of buildings, ruin, and area terrain. Lots of cover saves and plenty of things to obscure the line of sight. The right hand side of the board is fairly open: barely a couple of scattered craters to run between, perhaps a low level wall, but otherwise very little to block the line of sight. Which side will be easier? Will you only choose troops for one side of the board? What will happen if your opponent optimises their army for the other side? Dilemmas abound...

Rules.
(1) Design a 200 points kill team list from any codex to take on this mission. Your unit selection must follow the standard kill team rules (see Battle Missions for more details): 0-2 troops, 0-1 fast attack, 0-1 elites. Three of your miniatures may be given a universal special rule of your choice (e.g. infiltrate, etc.). Each miniature is considered their own, individual unit for the purpose of the game.
(2) Post your army lists as a comment to this posting and suggest why they're well suited to this mission.
(3) Entries close at 01:00 GMT on May 14th.
(4) On that same day, I'll open a poll for Warpstone Flux readers to judge which army list they consider to be the "most effective army list that also best articulates the theme" (whatever readers interpret that to mean) out of all entrants.
(5) Winner will be tallied and announced on May 21st (and entered in to the hall of fame!).
(6) One entry per person please.

Remember that there are no prizes for these contests, beyond kudos, honour and entry in to the hall of fame.
Good Luck!!!