Monday, April 30, 2012

Closure of Realms (a FLGS)

(via coffee_samurai) Realms of Legends closed their doors for good in VIC this month.  What follows is the official statement from their facebook page:

"It is with sad hearts that Ross & I along with our treasured staff announce the closing of Realm of Legends.

Sunday the 15th of April will be the last trading day for Realm of Legends.

The last 3.5 years has been an amazing rollercoaster ride. It's been a huge struggle at times, running a Bricks & Mortar store through the Global Financial Crisis, which has also seen the rise of online only businesses operating with lower overheads. And yet at other times we have been able to see the fantastic support offered to us by some members of the community. To look out across our shop and see 100+ people having an absolute blast has been among our highlights.

We have met some wonderful people through running Realm of Legends, you guys know who you are, and you have made Realm of Legends a community, a family really. Be assured we will still be around.

We appologise to those that have made it their 2nd home and to those who had yet to become part of the RoL community.

For tournaments that are booked in at the store we are working with the TO's to either help find them a new venue or organise refunds to players that have signed up
"

Their terrain (etc.) will be up for sale soon by all accounts, but we suspect that the prices will be high.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Planning a New Gaming Table

The starting point for a new gaming table is imaged below.  I have a number of basic ingredients that I intend to mix together to produce the final product:

(1) Two MDF boards that together measure 6'x4'.
(2) A slew of craters from Games Workshop.
(3) Some tyranid bits and pieces (notably the bits from the genestealers sprue).
(4) Assorted other bits, including dinosaur bones, plastic (styrene) sheets, and craft tiles.

The goal here is to create a Martian-like surface with some signs of activity a while ago.  Perhaps a planet that was sucked dry by the tyranids.  Perhaps a failed colonization.  Or simply an airless rock.  I intend to glue the craters and genestealer sprue bits to the surface, and then use polyfilla (or similar) to create a more sandy appearance.  For the dinosaur bones, I may not include them with the board, but instead create some scatter terrain from them.


Saturday, April 28, 2012

Rumours: Chaos Space Marines

By now, a large fraction of the community will be aware of the rumours about the new chaos space marines codex reported by Blood of Kittens and re-posted by Bell of Lost Souls.

In acknowledging that these ARE rumours, I wanted to share my thoughts about them.


Troops choices will be Chaos Space Marines and Cultists
=> No worries about this and nice to see a return of cultists.  I wonder if there are going to be plastic cultist models available?  These could be a good seller for Games Workshop (i.e. low points cost troops that are fielded in large numbers). 


All Cult Marines are Elites
=> Hmmmmm.  Not too sure how I feel about this. Clearly an HQ choice will "unlock" these to be troops choices, but what will the Black Legion do?  Will Abaddon "unlock" all elite choices?  What happened to a "legions codex"?


No new Special Characters 
=> Chaos space marines already have plenty of special characters, so this is not a surprise.  With customizable lords, there really isn't too much reason to add new characters to the party either.


Special Characters will unlock Cult Marines as troops (Kharn for Berserkers and so on) 
=> Predictable, yes.  But I don't want every Death Guard army to be lead by Typhus (etc.).  I hope that generic lords or daemon princes will have this "unlock" available as well, but I'm doubting it.  Again: legions please.

Typhus makes Cultists into Zombies=> Fine with me!  But will there be zombie parts supplied with the cultists?  Probably not, so I might stock up on zombie parts soon!



Chaos Dreadnaught is removed and replaced with a new unit (like how pariahs were replaced with Lychguard)=> Yikes!  What'll happen to all those glorious Forge World models that are available?


CSM now get a Flyer a Mechanical Chaos Dragon (model is done will be part of initial release)=> A flyer was predictable given all the previous rumours.  But a mechanical dragon is a bit "meh" for me.  I'll wait to see what the model looks like, and the rules.


Lesser and Greater Demons are gone=> Disappointing.  Khorne Berzerkers with Bloodletters is cool.  Separating the two (without Apocalypse, or equal) makes me sad. Perhaps there'll be some new rule in the 6th edition about mixing codexes.


Spawn replaced by “Fell Beast” 
=> Interesting.  I like the convertability of the current spawn model and the extra bits available.  But a fell beast does sound cool.


Rules for Traitor Guard are in!
=> Mixed feelings -- good that they're in; but what was wrong with teaming up with the imperial guard codex?



Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Wasp Campaign: Round 2 Prologue

To determine opponents for the next round of the Wasp Campaign, the person with the lowest points from the previous round gets to pick orders first.  The narrative logic behind this is that the larger armies take longer to mobilize since they are more spread out.

So, for Round 2, the Black Templars get the first pick.  They have become suspicious of the Blood Ravens -- are they heretics as they suspect, or simply mis-understood marines?  Perhaps a sample of their gene-seed might confirm if they're descended from Magnus the Red?

The Crimson Fists, meanwhile, look to stem the rising Ork Waaaaggggh! in the West of the planet's surface (recalling the incident on Rynn's world).

That leaves the Dark Eldar and Chaos marines to fight it out.  They're probably trying to forge an unholy alliance (according to the Black Templars), but can't quite decide who should take charge!

The points values of the battles will be:

Black Templars (1200 points) vs. Blood Ravens (1150 points)
Crimson Fists (1150 points) vs. Orks (1275 points)
Dark Eldar (1100 points) vs. Chaos (1150 points)

The variable points levels are a reflection the rules, which in turn depend on the territories held by the players, the upgrades built on the territories, the spread thin rule and expenditure of empire points from the first round.  Anyone care to make any predictions?

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Wasp Campaign: Round 1 Results

In round 1, the following points were scored:

Black Templars 2 -- 8 Chaos
Blood Ravens 8 -- 3 Orks
Dark Eldar 7 -- 3 Crimson Fists

The Blood Ravens embarked on a rapid expansion phase, claiming many of the tiles around their starting position, and reinforcing their positions with manufactoria.

The forces of Chaos expanded on the Moon, capturing the Hive City called Shackleton's Landing (known to the locals as "The Shack"). The removed the Black Templars from one of their starting tiles and also reinforced with manufactoria.  The Hive City started toward its path of chaos worship...

The Dark Eldar expanded around their own tiles in the North of the main planet of Wasp and did some construction of their own, having defeated the Crimson Fists.

The Orks decided on a different approach.  Rather than capturing more tiles, they bought reinforcements for the next round -- perhaps one of the most canny moves in expending points?  Or just "da bigga mobz is best"?!

The Crimson Fists expanded a few tiles and did some reinforcements of their own around the Hive City of Cremisi, worried about the Green Tide.

Meanwhile, the Black Templars captured the spaceport on the orbiting Moon despite their loss: eager to investigate various goings-on down on the main planet of Wasp.

The image below shows the situation after the first round.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Giveaway Gain: Soul Drinkers

The local GW was giving away some of their old merchandise today with every purchase, including a raid on one of the staff's bits box.  Instead of getting bits, I got a hold of this -- the Soul Drinkers Omnibus.  

Although the stock was a little damaged (corners clearly worn, and a corner of the cover snipped away), the words are still all the same (or at least that was my logic).  I'm pumped having read Ben's introduction to the book about a chapter that rebels, falls to chaos and comes back again to a quasi-independant status.  Now, I've just got to find time to read it amongst all the other projects that I'm undertaking...

Friday, April 20, 2012

Whose WASP Campaign army list will perform the best?

With round 1 of the Wasp Campaign completed, and round 2 coming up, I thought I'd start a poll:
Whose army list for the Wasp campaign will perform the best?

Here's the competitors:

Black Templars (coffee_samurai)
Chaos (jabberjabber)
Blood Ravens (paladin84)
Orks (cosec)
Crimson Fists (Chuck Thunder)
Dark Eldar (Anthony)

The poll is up and running to the right and will remain open for a long time!  Let us know what you think!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Mordrak

The haunted knight of Mortain.  The survivor.  The avenger.  He whose psychic might creates ghost knights around him.

Since there is not a model for Mordrak on the market yet, I decided to go with Scibor and make a Mordrak conversion.  I already bought some bases from them a while ago, but wanted a miniature that would stand out from the crowd, so decided to use one from Scibor's Roman Legionary range. 

The body of the miniature is resin and stands up well to close inspection.  There is one minor air bubble in the hair of the miniature, but it isn't noticible really.  And I think that an undercoat (perhaps slightly thick in just the one area) will actually disguise it without having to resort to greenstuff.  The arms, shoulder pads and weapons are, of course, from the grey knights terminators boxed set that I used to create some of my other ghost knights from earlier.  The overall vibe of the miniature is good -- the scibor model has just the right hint of haunted-ness about him, coupled with the agressive avenger look and ornate armour that may befit a grand master.  Alternatively, this miniature could alwyas be used as an Ordo Malleus inquisitor in terminator armour if I decide to make a Mordrak out of regular grey knight bits and pieces.

Although I could probably convert up a regular grey knight if a tournament organizer objected to this miniature, I hope that they wouldn't.  I think this guy looks pretty cool and contains approximately 50% games workshop parts by volume (and 5/6's by bits! -- hahaha!).  The only other thing that I'm considering doing is to add an iron halo just behind Mordrak's head.  I don't know whether to use bits for that or attempt a greenstuff sculpt by hand.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Battle Report: Blood Ravens vs. Orks

The space marines of the Blood Ravens chapter arrived on Wasp-987c and immediately secured an ancient brass keep. Had it not been for their subsequent action against the orks, more questions would likely have been raised about their true purpose on the planet's surface...

Battle report from paladin84.

Blood Ravens vs. Orks
Mission: Seize ground, 5 objectives
Deployment: Dawn of war.

Blood Ravens (space marine) list 1000pt:
Librarian, plasma pistol, null zone, Avenger 115pt
Tactical squad (10 man), flamer, missile launcher 170pt
Rhino, H/K missile 45pt
Tactical squad (10 man), melta, multi-melta, combi-melta 185pt
Sternguard veterans (5 man), 5x combi-plasma, power fist 175pt
Dreadnought, Heavy flamer, Assault cannon 125pt
Drop pod, Deathwind missile launcher 55pt
Predator, autocannon, las cannon sponsons, H/K missile 130pt

Orks list 1050pt:
Warboss, power claw, eavy armor 90pt
Nobz mob (10 man), power claw, big choppa, WAAAAGH banner, kombi-skorcha, pain boy 280pt
Slugga boyz mob (20 man), Nob, Power claw, bosspole 160pt
Slugga boyz mob (20 man), Nob, Power claw, bosspole 160pt
Shoota boyz mob (20 man), 2x big shootas 130pt
Deffkopta, rockets 45pt
Deffkopta, rockets 45pt
Trukk 35pt
Killa kan, grotzooka 45pt
2x zzap guns 60pt

The green tide was all too close for comfort at the beginning of this fight. The orks winning initiative found 2 large mobs of them calling for blood at the Blood Ravens' doorstep. Two combat squads of tactical marines set up their heavy weapons in some cover and braced for the tide, knowing that their brothers were behind them. A veritable horde of over 70 greenskins, outnumbering the space marines almost 3 to 1 rushed forward in their first round hoping to launch a devastating waaaaagh!, in the second turn. The ork boyz squad advancing on the dug-in tactical squads was reduced from 20 to 5 in the volleys of holy bolter fire bestowed upon them. Brother Corvus (Dreadnought) arrived via drop pod and immediately set flame to the second squad of advancing ork boys slaying 6.

The second round saw a further bold advancement by the greenskins as the warboss and his biggest and da strongest nobz moved flat out in their truck right into the U'mie’s front lines. The ork boys inspired by the presence of their warboss brought the WAAAAAAGH! With the 5 man boys squad launching an assault on the missile launcher tactical squad and the other falling short on their assault on the U'mies with the melti guns running for the shiny bauble. The rest of the horde advanced.

With the greenskins over running their deployment zone the Blood ravens unleashed a tirade of fire, fury, las, plas, missile and holy bolt. When the dust settled, ancient Corvus had removed all trace of the shoota mob, the remnants of the boys mobs were going toe-to-toe with tactical marines and the war boss and his 5 remaining nobs along with their pain boy discovered what the u'mies were made from after ripping the sternguard veterans to pieces, followed by the valiant and unfortunate Librarian Zaphel.

Although the warboss was unstoppable in his close combat fury, his waaaaagh was annihilated, the remains of the ork horde were rubbed out and the warboss finally put to death. The Blood Ravens emerged victorious capturing the vital objectives for the emperor. The emperor protects!

Result: space marine massacre victory.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Deep Striking Units Land at Ground Level


Rules Check: When units are deep-striking, they materialize at ground level.  i.e. they cannot be placed in the upper levels of ruins or buildings.

Whilst this seems right for teleporters (assuming they only know the elevation of the planet and nothing about the structures present), I've always felt it odd for flying miniatures (assault marines, winged daemon princes, etc.).  But I guess that such massive things would crash through to ground level anyway, narratively speaking.  Yet tyranid flyers should be able to land on the top level of buildings, I think :)

I wonder how the next edition rules set will handle this event?

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Battle Report: Black Templars vs. Chaos Space Marines

Looking to eliminate the threat of the Chaos Space Marines from the orbiting Moon of WASP-987c, the space marines of the Black Templars Chapter form a defensive ring around the Hive City of Shackleton's Landing, readying themselves for the inevitable onslaught.

Game: 4 objectives (capture and control); pitched battle deployment.
Having control of a manufactorum, the Black Templars have 50 extra points to spend on their forces compared to chaos.  Chaos controls a power generator, giving them +1 to first turn, reserves (etc.). 

Black Templars (1050 points):
HQ
Emperor's Champion; abhor the witch (110 points)

Elites
5 Sword Brethren Terminators; Power Fists, Storm Bolters, Tank Hunter, 2 Cyclone Missile Launchers (265 points)

Troops
5 Crusader Initiates; 1 power fist, 1 flamer (101 points)
5 Crusader Initiates; 1 Lascannon, 1 Plasma Gun (101 points)
5 Crusader Initiates; 1 Lascannon, 1 Plasma Gun (101 points)

Fast Attack
Land Speeder Typhoon; typhoon missile launcher (70 points)

Heavy Support
Predator Annihilator; Turret mounted twin linked lascannon, side mounted lascannons, Power of the Machine Spirit (175 points)

Dedicated Transports
Razorback; Twin Linked Lascannon, Power of the Machine Spirit (120 points)


Chaos (1000 points):
HQ:
Daemon Prince, Mark of Nurgle, Wings, Doombolt (160 points)
Daemon Prince, Wings (130 points)

Troops:
5 plague marines, 1 flamer, 1 melta, 1 plague champion with powerfist, 1 icon (175 points)
5 plague marines, 1 flamer, 1 melta, 1 plague champion with powerfist, 1 icon (175 points)
5 plague marines, 1 plasma gun (130 points)

Dedicated Transports:
1 Rhino with Havoc Launcher (50 points)
1 Rhino with Havoc Launcher (50 points)
1 Rhino with Havoc Launcher (50 points)

Heavy Support:
1 obliterator (75 points)

TURN 1.
The Black Templars deploy along a long line in their zone.  This is a tactic which the chaos marines hope to exploit: take them on one unit at a time.  In response, chaos deploys in two chunks: the plasma gunner plague marine squad and the Nurgle daemon prince holding an objective on one flank and tucked up in a building; and the rest on the opposite side.  The plan is straight forward: the plague marines that are with the prince will stay put to control the singular objective whilst the Nurgle daemon prince races to their back lines to destroy their predator and possibly their terminators.  The rest of the army will engage from the other flank, chewing through one unit at a time in close combat as needs be and largely ignoring any objectives until nearer the end of the game.  The first image shows the left flank with the Nurgle daemon prince and one of the plague marine squads near to the objective, looking down at the black templars fire base.

The black templars have a very bad opening turn: missing almost everything and only taking down one of my havoc launchers on a singular rhino.  In exchange, the chaos marines down the razor back, and inflict a few initial casualties on some of the squads.

TURN 2.
This is where it starts to get messy for the Black Templars.  They charge forward out of their wrecked vehicle and using their special rules for when they take casualties, generally come toward me.  But that is exactly what I wanted to happen.  The only real casualty for the chaos team is one rhino being wrecked.  In exchange, the daemon prince swiftly wrecks the predator (see image), the obliterator decimates the terminators with a solid plasma cannon shot, and two squads of plague marines that were in rhinos hop out to confront the Emperor's champion (and squad) on the other flank.

Although two plague marines die, a few well placed power fist attacks take care of the Emperor's Champion, whilst the rest of the plague marines give better than they got to the rest of the squad that the champion was with.

Meanwhile, the second winged daemon prince makes short work of another squad that was in cover, having avoided a tank shock in the movement phase: killing all but one of them from his horrendous defiler claw attack.

TURN 3.
The land speeder on the left flank gets shredded by rapid firing plague marines holding the objective (they were trying lots of frag missiles, but the feel no pain of the plague marines sees them through the incoming explosions).

Having mopped up the right flank, my remaining plague marines and the defiler clawed daemon prince take it easy and watch on as the obliterator takes another excellent plasma shot at the sole surviving terminators. With only one terminator left, the Nurgle daemon prince swoops in to finish the demolition job.

End Result: Massacre victory to chaos on turn 3.

I think I shall be taking the hive city of Shakleton's Landing in the expenditure section of round 1 of the Wasp campaign!
jabberjabber and coffee_samurai shake hands and go to get something to eat together whilst the rest of our group still seem stuck on turn 1 or 2. For fun, we switch armies when we get back and fight out a draw. Looking over to the other tables, those orks take ages to move: come on cosec and paladin84! Even Chuck Thunder vs Anthony's game is on turn 3 by now!  And we've had two games already!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Wasp Campaign: Starting Positions and Round One Draw

Displayed are the starting positions for the Wasp Campaign players.

The initial battles will be:
(a) Black Templars vs. Chaos
(b) Crimson Fists vs. Dark Eldar
(c) Blood Ravens vs. Orks

The campaign kicks off Friday evening.  Some battle reports will follow in the coming days and we'll update the map based on the points earned from the battle outcomes...

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

White Dwarf Number 122

A bit of a blast from the past today.  I'd like to feature White Dwarf volume 122 (UK; February 1990). 

On the front cover is a Death Wing Dark Angels marine (the artwork is curiously "eagle wing" -- the name of the terminator)  -- helping to support the sale of Genestealer / Space Hulk.  Also of interest is the prices in the top left: UKP1.50; USD3.95; AUD6.50; W.Germany DM 7.80.  How the exchange rates have changed!

The content features the usual round up of GW and citadel news and features a visit by Brian May (of Queen fame) to the design studio as well as a selection of works by 'eavy metal.

Konrad -- a WFRP character and series of novels -- features backgrounds and statistics of a number of characters including Anvila - a female dwarf with a hate of gobbos.  Yes -- female players and player characters were apparently rare.  Following this, the volume gives details about The Emperor Luitpold - a luxury liner in the warhammer world. 

Following up on the space hulk theme, rules are presented for traitor terminators, including rules for autocannons, missile launchers and conversion beam projectors.  Several new missions are also presented which give the traitors something to fight for.

Some blood bowl magic items appear next, followed by a series of Ork banners.  The stormboyz Khorne banners in particular are noteworthy -- those stormboyz did like Khorne a lot!

Excerpts from Realms of Chaos: Lost and the Damned follow, focusing on Tzeentch and a short advanced heroquest adventure about the "priests of pleasure".  Not sure if it is any good as I never truly got in to advanced heroquest. 

And there's also a section on "battlelines" -- w40k tactics.  The features a good length article on the most overlooked weapon in the game: grenades.  One piece caught my eye: imagine being chased by a dreadnought, but the marines being chased lob several crack (note the spelling) grenades every turn as they flee, but the dreadnought can't respond in kind with its own grenades!  Nice.  The parting advice is to spend points on crack, fragmentation and blind grenades for all units.  Those heady days when such items were optional upgrades!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Imperial Bastion

On impulse, I picked up an Imperial Bastion a while ago to add to my growing scenery collection. Putting together this monolith took a little bit of time (more so than the arcane fulcrums which feature much less pieces) but the end result is reasonable. Pictured is the final kit fully assembled.  It is placed on top of a circular mdf board that will eventually be a modular board piece decorated to a desert theme for a board I plan on building.

The only real complaint that I have about the kit is that the sides of the finished product don't seem to come together neatly (i.e. square on). This is especially true as one progresses upward in height. The lower reaches fit together quite snugly, but the upper wall that the models will peer over the top of don't fit nicely at all. Some green stuff may be required.

And that segways in to another thought. I would like to make this bastion a little more, ummm, chaotic in nature. But I don't want to completely ruin the obvious basis of the scenic piece (i.e. I want it to still look like a bastion). So, I'm thinking of applying some select green stuff to make it a bit more nurgle-inspired. Or perhaps a paint job to indicate its chaotic travellings. I'm still a bit undecided! Opinions welcome!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Chaos Spawn Hopes

With the new chaos marine codex around the corner, I thought I would write a little missive about some hopes for chaos spawn.  You remember chaos spawn, right?  They're what most followers of chaos are likely to become if they spend too much time receiving "gifts" from the chaos gods or too much time spent in the warpier regions of space.

When the plastic chaos spawn models came out, I bought a pair of them -- although the torsos and legs of the models aren't brilliant (and don't have many choices!), the arms, heads and rest of the wibbly bits excited me!  Indeed, they're incredibly useful for creating conversions and there's still a good number of bits in my bits box from them that I have plans for.

But, I've only ever fielded them when I wanted to make an "obvious concession" (not that almost the whole of the 2007 chaos codex is not an obvious concession by now!).  The apocalypse formation that turns 10 marines in to 10 spawn was also exciting ... but somehow not good enough to tempt me in the purchasing any more.

So, what are my hopes for the new codex that could tempt me to buy more?  

Most obviously, chaos spawn need a saving throw.  Contrary to every opponent's expectations that I've ever fielded a spawn against, they don't have a save!  That change alone would be sufficient to make me consider fielding them more often.  Add in a spawn handler or two (with a good old spawn goad - much like in Realms of Chaos) and that'd make a very interesting unit that would be tempting to field.  If they are fielded in units, perhaps some kind of ranged (random?) attack might be nice to have, but not essential. Some purchasable upgrades would also be cute to have -- in particular, having access to chaos marks would make the spawn much more authentic and in line with the old background.  Although all spawn are different, a unit of them could be handled in much the same way as possessed marines -- some base line statistics and (like the old chaos marine codex) optional upgrades.  

Well, its a long shot, but that covers the base line hopes for the much over-looked and maligned chaos spawn.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Blended 40k Rules for Planetary and Mighty Empires

In running a protracted, tile-based campaign, we wanted to create a new set of rules that would blend together the rules that come with Planetary Empires and Mighty Empires.  Although we liked aspects of both, there were some other aspects we wanted to get rid of - such as the randomness in capturing a tile in Planetary Empires.  Therefore we set about creating a best-of-both-worlds approach in blending together these two rules sets. Below is the result of that blending!

Empire Points.
The tile-based campaign centres around the acquisition and spending of "Empire Points".  Players earn Empire Points for playing 40k games and the degree of their victories:

Empire Points Battle Result
7 "Massacre" victory. This means that all enemy models have been removed from the tabletop; or all objectives are held / met (not simply contested) at the end of a battle. A total victory!
6 Victory. The game was won (as defined by the mission rules, or over half of all possible mission points were obtained), but it was not a massacre result (as defined above).
4 Draw. The game was a tie by the mission definition.
2 Loss. The game was lost.
1 Secondary objective secured. If the game has a defined secondary objective (recommended!), then the player earns up to a maximum of 1 additional point for claiming the secondary objective.

The default secondary objective (if no other is specified for a mission) is to kill the leader of the enemy forces (the HQ with the largest points value if there are multiple HQs). Note that this means not simply routing them off the board - the enemy HQ must perish on the battlefield by your hands (that means that if they die through "perils of the warp", the point can not be claimed!).

Empire points can be expended on any of the following after a battle (or preferably) a round of battles has taken place. The player with the highest number of unspent Empire Points has the initiative and may spend their points before the player with the next highest points. In the event of a tie, players shall randomly determine who spends next. The Empire Points may be spent as follows:

Empire Points Expenditure
3 Conquest. You take a tile off a player that is adjacent to one of your own tiles. You must have won a battle against that player in the last round of battles.
4 Long-range conquest. You take a tile off a player anywhere on the board. You must have won a battle against that player in the last round of battles.
2 Rout. You force a player the relinquish a tile that they control that is adjacent to one of your own tiles. The tile is then treated as "unoccupied". You must have won a battle against that player in the last round of battles.  You cannot rout a force from a Mountain Tile, nor can you rout a force from behind a shield generator: they must be conquered (which is more expensive!).
1 Expansion. You claim an unoccupied tile that is adjacent to one of your own tiles.
1 Reinforcements. If you lost your previous battle, you may spend 1 Empire Point to increase the points value of your army by +75 points for your next battle.
1 Veterans. If any of your units survived, then one of them can be "upgraded" through gaining a veteran ability. The veteran ability must be chosen from this list: +1WS, +1BS, +1I, furious charge, tank hunters, counter attack, hit and run, infiltrate, preferred enemy, fleet.

If the unit all dies (not simply routed!) in a subsequent battle, the upgrade is lost. A veteran squad must be the same load-out as in the battle where they gained their veteran status. This cannot be transferred.
1 Destruction. If the opponent you have just fought controls a tile upgrade (such as a manufactorum) somewhere in their empire, you may expend 1 point to destroy that upgrade.  You may not destroy any construction that has been built in the same round, or any tile that was not occupied by your enemy before the battle.
1 Construction. You may build any one of the following on any tile that you control that does not already have an upgrade: manufactorum, power station, shield generator, command bastion.

Battles.
All battles will be at a pre-arranged points value. Team games (2 vs. 2; etc.) are permissible by prior arrangement. Each member of a team earns full Empire Points (as above) according to the battle outcome. All battles use standard 40k rules and missions, or alternatively Battle Missions from the book of the same name. There are two exceptions to this. The first is when a player has no tiles left, in which case, that player may force a planetary assault (planetstrike) on a target player in the next round. That player takes the role of the attacker. The second is a game that involves all players. Such a game may use Apocalypse rules and each player should increase the points value of their army such that each side has at least 2500 points.  Players with the lowest number of points gets to choose their next opponent first.

Spread Thin Rule.
When preparing for a battle, compare the number of tiles that you and your opponent own. The player with fewer tiles is entitled to a points bonus in the coming battle as per the chart below. This is to represent the other player being more thinly spread over their territory.

Tile Difference Points Bonus
0 None.
1-2 +50 points.
3-5 +100 points.
6+ +150 points.

Tiles and Upgrades.
Certain tiles, and certain upgrades to tiles have varying effects on the battles being fought and the map-based campaign as a whole. These effects are detailed below.

Tile / Upgrade Effect
Spaceport Tile The player controlling a spaceport tile is considered to be adjacent to all other spaceport tiles (NB: see above for conquest costs!).
Hive City Tile A Hive City counts as a spaceport tile, a power station, a command bastion, a shield generator, and a manufactorum all in one. The latter four may be destroyed by expenditure of Empire Points as above, but the Hive City Tile and its Spaceport status may not.
Mountain Tile It costs 1 extra Empire Point to conquer a mountain tile.
Manufactorum upgrade A manufactorum grants a bonus +50 points to every battle that you fight. This can stack, up to a maximum of a +150 points bonus.
Command Bastion upgrade Each command bastion in your territory allows you to assign a veteran rule to one of your units. This can stack up to three times (i.e. three units being upgraded). These upgrades disappear after a battle (unlike the expenditure of Empire Points veterans as above).
Power Station upgrade A power station gives the controlling player a +1 roll for selecting deployment zones, seeing who goes first, and all reserve rolls. The can stack three times, up to a maximum of +3 for each power station in your territory.
Shield Generator upgrade It costs 1 extra Empire Point to conquer a tile that has a shield generator upgrade, or any adjacent tile to the shield generator that is owned by the same player.




For the Wasp Campaign, all battles will be at 1000 points, unless by prior arrangement.

All players must supply a 1500 points army list from which they may choose 1000 points for any given battle. Bonus points (due to tile upgrades, the spread thin rule, or Empire Points expenditure) can be spent on either the remainder of the 1500 points list that they've supplied, or an allied codex that is undeclared. The latter option is to give extra flexibility in building multiple armies (so that players can get a feel for units from another codex that they don't usually use) and represents the arrival of recruited mercenaries, or other allies and slaves. 


If campaigns are at a higher points value than our Wasp Campaign, then bonus points values may require modification throughout these rules.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Mighty Empires: Gork Effigy

An effigy to Gork (or is it Mork?!) amidst a lush fertile tile from Mighty Empires.  This will be the starting point/tile in the Wasp Campaign for cosec's Orks, but will otherwise serve no real in-game / in-campaign function (other than annoying cosec if and when enemies capture it, no doubt!).

Monday, April 2, 2012

Blood Ravens army list for the Wasp Campaign

The sixth and final army list for the Wasp Campaign are from the Blood Ravens space marine chapter   (comments and criticism welcome!)


Presenting Paladin84's Blood Ravens Space Marines (1500 points):

HQ:
Librarian; plasma pistol, (Avenger and Null Zone) (115 points)
Captain; artificer armour, relic blade, storm bolter (148 points)

Elites:
5 assault terminators (200 points)
5 sternguard veterans; 5 combi-plasmas, 1 power fist (175 points)
Dreadnought; heavy flamer, power fist, assault cannon (125 points)

Troops:
10 tactical marines; 1 multi-melta, 1 combi-melta, melta bombs (190 points)
10 tactical marines; 1 missile launcher, 1 flamer (170 points)
5 scouts; camo cloaks, 1 missile launcher (100 points)

Heavy Support:
Predator; autocannon, las cannon sponsons, hunter-killer missile (130 points)

Dedicated transports:
Drop pod; deathwind missile launcher (55 points)
Rhino; hunter-killer missile (45 points)
Razorback; dozer blade, twin-linked heavy bolters (45 points)

TOTAL = 1498 points

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Dark Eldar Army List for the Wasp Campaign

The fifth army list for the Wasp Campaign are from the dark realm of Commorragh (comments and criticism welcome!)


Anthony's Dark Eldar Army List (1500 points):

HQ:
Succubus; agoniser (85 points)
Haemonculous; scissor hand, liquefier gun (80 points)

Elites:
7 incibi; klaivex, demiglaive, bloodstone, murderous assault (214 points)
1 raider (60 points)

Troops:
10 kabalites; shredder, dark lance (120 points)
10 kabalites; sybarite, blaster, splinter cannon, poison weapon (130 points)
9 wyches; shardnet and impaler, syren, agoniser (130 points)
1 raider (60 points)
1 radier (60 points)

Fast Attack:
10 scourges; 2 haywire blasters, 2 heat lances (270 points)
6 jetbikes; 2 cluster caltrops (172 points)

Heavy Support:
Ravager gunship; night shields (115 points)

TOTAL = 1496 points
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