I am Alpharius

I am Alpharius.

I'm not really.  Or am I double bluffing?  He's everywhere!

Well, I managed to get a good look at the special rules for the Alpha legion recently (I'm sure you can too if you scry the web hard enough) from the third book of the Horus Heresy Forge World series: "Extermination".

The rules for the Alpha Legion are just wonderful to behold to say the least.  And having read them, I think I have finally made my mind up about which 30k legion to collect and paint … I was thinking Death Guard (already got a big existing 40k collection), Raven Guard (something new entirely) or Sons of Horus (got some 40k Black Legion and old minis painted in their livery). But when I saw the Alpha Legion there, it was a winner.

Let me explain my reasons.

Firstly, there's the fact that the Alpha Legion has (mysteriously!) got hold of Corvus mark armour contained within the book. Why is this important? Because it makes collecting an Alpha Legion army much cheaper (think: plastic regular space marines versus forge world parts!).

Secondly, the Alpha Legion may take (using their unique rite of war: the Coils of the Hydra and the special rule "The Rewards of Treason") a unit from any other legion. This means that I *can* include a unit of grave warden Death Guard if I so choose. This is absolutely brilliant and means that I don't really lose anything by going with Alpha Legion. I can add to my Death Guard along the way as well(!)

But the thing that simply blew me away was all the fancy rules that the Alpha Legion is able to field. The fluidity of command means they may choose what special rule they like (tank hunters, infiltrate, etc) for each unit with the Alpha Legion Astartes rule that they like. This is awesome! They also have some nifty specialist units (Lernaean terminators, Headhunter squads) and some really interesting characters available (Dynat, Exodus, and Alpharius himself … or is it Omegon? Could be!) and a Saboteur Consul -- they're going to be awesome for just coming on the board and whacking an enemy tank with a penetrating hit … just because its the Alpha Legion. And the sudden appearance of Alpharius himself anywhere is just priceless. Preferred Enemy: everything is too cool to ignore for me as well (coupled with the replacement of reserves: Alpharius is going to annoy a lot of other players, I'm certain!).

I can't wait to see the model for some of these characters -- particularly Alpharius. Well, I think I'll hold off any purchases for a while to see what models come out of Forge World in the coming months. But in the mean time, I think I ought to consider what units might go in to a 1500 to 2000 points army for the Alpha Legion. Your thoughts are welcome as always.

Hydra Dominatus brothers.

BAO Tournament: First round, Dark Eldar vs. Grey Knights and Tau

Hi all, Eldrad Vect here, it's been a while and I've had a busy year so far but I'm back and blogging about our gaming groups latest tournament campaign thing. Its based off the Bay Area Open rules pack with a funky points handicap system that grants extra points to list comped weak by the other players. I'll be blogging my games from the campaign with some 'narrative forging' to give comprehensive battle reports on the carnage caused by my Dark Heart Kabal. I shall also be posting the standings for each round of the tournament too.

"It was cold, colder than usual upon the planet, Kazarai Dodechius. Mist hung in the morning air and thin rimes of frost clung to the Paladin's Terminator Armour as they marched behind their Grand Master. Faint rays of light began to creep along the horizon and the only sound that could be heard was the thump of boots and quite hum of Tau battlesuits. "Are you sure their were Daemons here Fireblade?" questioned the Grand Master, but before the Tau leader could respond great beams of darklight tore through the trees.
"Worse than Deamons," responded the Fireblade "denizens of the Dark City"...

Ok, the army lists.

Dark Eldar 1850 pts (with extra 50 pts)
HQ
Lelith Hesperax   175 pts
Baroness Katteryna (Baron Sathonyx)   105 pts
TROOPS
10x Wyches with Raider   250 pts
12x Hellions  237 pts
10x Kabalite Warriors with Raider  190 pts
7x Kabalite Warriors  63 pts
ELITES
4x Grotesques with Raider   260 pts
5x Hekatrix Bloodbrides with Venom   150 pts
HEAVY SUPPORT
1x Ravager  130 pts
1x Cronos Parasite Engine  110 pts
1x Voidraven Bomber   230 pts
 TOTAL: 1900 Points

Grey Knights with Tau Allies 1850 pts
HQ
Grand Master Draigo   270 pts 
Tau Fireblade 84 pts
TROOPS
10x Paladins    735 pts
5x Terminators   235 pts
12x Fire Warriors  142 pts
ELITES
1x Dreadnought  135 pts
HEAVY SUPPORT
3x Broadside Battlesuits   243 pts
TOTAL: 1849 Points

First Round, Deployment: Dawn of War, Missions: Emperor's Will and Crusade (three objectives for Crusade placed within three inches of the centre line).

Deployment Phase:
The Grey Knights had the advantage of setting up first, having already been on the planet and prepared for combat. Only one squad benefited from Draigo's Grand Strategy special rule and scouted forwards. The Dark Heart Kabal deployed as far away from the big guns of the Dreadnought and Broadsides could reach and the benefits of Night Fighting as well as the Dark Eldar vehicles Night Shields meant that in the position they were in nothing could touch them. Fire Warriors deployed entrenched is ruins whilst Terminators and Paladins deployed out in the open with all the hubris of the Grey Knights they were. Kabalites and Hellions cowered behind tall ruins. the only adventurous deployment by my Dark Eldar came with the Bloodbrides and their Venom deploying behind a large piece of terrain and thus out of sight from the Broadsides.

I do apologise for the terrible quality of the pic, but I have since then upgraded my phone with a better camera... I'm on the left and my opponent on the right, when I make references to placement of things it'll be from my perspective on the left. Emperor's Will objectives are where the Fire Warriors are and at the big piece of terrain at the top of the board where my vehicles are.

Turn 1:
Grey Knights turn.
The Grey Knights strode up the field with little regard for the enemy, the Paladins moved on an angle matching the trees and the Terminators moved into the craters with an amazing move through cover roll of 6 and then a run roll of 6 too, aiming to hold the right Crusade objective. Everyone else stayed more or less in the same spot. In the shooting phase the Broadsides took aim at the Cronos, being the only thing in range, but due to some ridiculous cover save rolls the Cronos only took a single wound.

Dark Eldar turn.
Engines screeched as the Raiders moved and with the aid of Enhanced Aethersails they covered most of the board in a single move, entering the enemy deployment zone and planning to creep up the flanks. The Cronos rolled and abysmal 4 when moving through cover and a 2 when it attempted to run. The Ravager opened fire on the Paladins but poor luck on the Ravagers part and divine intervention of the dice gods on the part of the Grey Knights meant that only a single wound was taken. The Venom had similar luck as it only managed to kill a single Shield Drone from the Broadside squad. Also the Hellions and Baroness took and held the left Crusade objective which resulted in an early lead for the Dark Eldar.

End of Turn 1. Once again, sorry it's really blurry, but the basic shapes and positions are still there...

Turn 2:
Grey Knights turn.
This was a good turn for the Knights, the Paladins moved behind cover to avoid being a target for the Ravager and the Terminators continued to march towards the objective. As you'd expect all the Tau and the Psyfleman Dread stood still the get off there maximum shooting potential. The Fire Warriors and Dreadnought torn through the Cronos with a torrent of firepower, after the terrible shooting of the Dread it was the Fire Warriors who delivered the death blow to the foul creature. The Broadsides claimed their first victim of the game by blowing up the Wych squad's Raider, luckily the resultant explosion only killed a handful of Wyches. But the most horrifying thing this turn was the Paladins and Terminators decimation of the Bloodbrides and their Venom, wiping them from the board with a hail of bolts.

Dark Eldar turn.
After the considerable losses inflicted by some great shooting from the Grey Knights and Tau, the Dark Eldar had to do something considerably epic, hence the action taken by Lelith Hesperax's personally Raider which was to penetrate the opponent's back line as fast as possible and that is just what she and her squad did. With brilliant positioning, the Ravager traced a clear line of sight to the Paladins whilst being completely hidden from the Broadsides and Dreadnought, it managed to inflict 2 wounds killing the Paladin it had failed to last turn. The remaining Wyches moved inconspicuously toward the central-most objective through cover. The Kabalite Raider followed slowly behind Lelith's laying down firepower as the Splinter Cannon wielding Kabalite slew a Fire Warrior at range. The Voidraven failed to come on this turn as well adding even more desperation to the Dark Eldar efforts.

End of Turn 2. This pic is a little clearer and boy did Lelith's raider move far...

 Turn 3:
Grey Knights turn.
Frantic, the Fire Warriors, Dreadnought and Broadsides turned all their guns on Lelith's raider. As the Paladins and Terminators continued, undeterred, up the field towards the Dark Eldar deployment zone and to get greater cover from the horrendous guns of the Ravager. The Broadsides made short work of the Raider, blowing it up and injuring one Grotesque in the resultant explosion. But it wasn't over yet for the Grotesques as the Fire Warriors and Dreadnought unloaded into them. Thanks to the Fireblade's Special Rule Volley Fire, the Fire Warrior let off an ungodly 30 shots into the Grotesque, but because of there incredible resilience only two Grotesques were slain. The Dreadnought however was not as lucky, failing three of it's to hit rolls, even with the re-rolls for Twin-Linked and the one shot that did hit home was saved by the Abberation's Feel No Pain.

I can see where this is going...

Dark Eldar Turn.
After surviving Tau firepower, Lelith and her Grotesques were keen to spill blood. The Kabalite Raider continued to creep up the flanks and the Wyches speed towards the central objective under the cover of large rocks. This was a most devastating turn for the Grey Knights as the Voidraven Bomber came in from reserve. It flew over the Paladins, dropping it's Void Mine in it's wake, vanquishing three Paladins in its blast. Not only did it slaughter Paladins, but it abolished the Broadsides with a flurry of incredibly accurate Implosion Missiles leaving only a single Broadside and a Drone standing. The bloodbath wasn't over yet, the Kabalite Raider fired its Dark Lance and with a lucky shot blew it up, that wasn't all however the blast radius of the explosion hit all but one member of the Fire Warrior squad and slew some drones and Fire Warriors. Lelith threw a Plasma Grenade into the unprotected Tau killing five of them and the Liquifer Gun wielded by a Grotesque rolled an AP of 3 with resulted in a further four Fire Warriors destroyed. Not content with crippling Lelith and her squad moved in for the kill, assaulting the remaining drones and Fireblade. Lelith ravaged the Fireblade in a challenge as did the Grotesques as they smashed drones, by the end of the turn nothing was left of them.

Lelith and Fireblade locked in a brutal (and rather one-sided) Melee.

End of Turn 3... 

Turn 4, 5 and 6.
Grey Knights turns.
Predominantly, for the next three turns the Paladins pretty much U-turned to try and get to the enemies at the other end of the board, this left them pretty much useless for a few rounds doing nothing but locking the Voidraven's velocity with Psycannon shots they also in Turn 6 finally destroyed the Ravager which had been foolishly moved too close to the Paladins. Only the Grey Knights themselves were still standing at the end. Draigo also called Lelith out for single combat which was more for fun than actual strategic advantage since I was holding two of the Crusade objectives and at the end of turn 6, both Emperor's Will ones. This combat last two rounds until of course Draigo Instant Deathed my poor Lelith Hesperax.

Lelith and Draigo's epic combat...

Dark Eldar turns.
Purely moving towards objectives and futilely trying to kill Grey Knights. The Kabalite managed to bring Draigo to one wound in a single round of shooting after he had slain Lelith and the Voidraven and Grotesque crushed the remaining Broadside and co. in turn 4. Probably the most exciting thing that happened was the objective the Hellions had been holding since Turn 1, which was also sabotaged, blew up and killed a Hellion.

Overview
All up it was a really fun game that could have really gone either way at many points of the game. I could have been a bit more brazen with the Bloodbride but lesson for next time. and my Cronos' placement was horrible too. Also my Voidraven actually did something for once, not scattering a single missile blast template and it was really effective against the Paladins, most definitely the Unit of the Match, at least on my side that is.

Tournament Standings after Round 1 (still need to find out the names of each army):
1st: Dark Heart Kabal (Dark Eldar)
2nd: Reavers (Ultramarine CT)
3rd: Tyranid
4th: Salamanders
Joint 5th: Blood Ravens (Raven Guard CT), Necrons, Grey Knights and Orks.

End of Turn 4

End of Turn 5

End of Turn 6

Dynamic Assault Marine

This is a Dark Angels assault marine. But what I want to talk about in today's post is dynamism: or making your assault marines look even better.

One of the defining features of assault marines is their bent knees. In an army that has a large number of marines with locked legs firing bolters in a pseudo-static pose, the built in dynamism of the assault marines sprue gives the modeller an unrivalled opportunity to modify and build around the movement inherent in such poses.

This assault marine has been built on top of a battle scarred rhino door (a left over from a predator build). This was done in several parts. The first was to battle damage the rhino door and glue it on to the circular base at an angle. This was tough to do, but one thing that can help is to etch a groove in to the circular base by scoring with a modelling knife in a straight line. This helps position the edge of the door and the glue largely does the rest. The key (and I mean it!) is to let the door dry on the circular base before doing anything else.

I dry-fitted the legs of the assault marine in advance to be sure that the pose would be good. Gluing them on to the door of the rhino was done without the torso or the assault pack in place on the hips (i.e. just the legs!). Whilst that was happening, I built the torso and attached the flight pack. Both were allowed to dry before connecting the torso to the legs at the waist. The final bits were the arms, shoulder pads, accessories and the helmet. The helmet in particular is important to get right. In any dynamic pose, it is critical that the marine is looking in the right direction - in this case along the direction that he's pointing with his power fist.

And for more inspiration, here's an old Wargames Gallery picture from yesteryear.  Enjoy!

Order of Primarch Rediscovery

A while ago on the First Expedition Forums, the Black Library released the "official" rediscovery order of the Primarchs. I'm reproducing it here for reference:

1) Horus Lupercal
2) Leman Russ
3) DELETED FROM IMPERIAL RECORDS
4) Ferrus Manus
5) Fulgrim
6) Vulkan
7) Rogal Dorn
8) Roboute Guilliman
9) Magnus
10) Sanguinius
11) Lion El'Johnson
12) Perturabo
13) Mortarion
14) Lorgar Aurelian
15) Jaghatai Khan
16) Konrad Curze
17) Angron
18) Corvus Corax
19) DELETED FROM IMPERIAL RECORDS
20) Alpharius

Hence the only primarchs whose discovery order is the same as their legion number are:
Rogal Dorn and Alpharius

I kind of like this order, but there are clear conflicts, of cousre. But as the OP on the forums stated, there's a wibbly wobbly timey wimey thing at play rather than any canon error…..!

Horus!

I think I'm too super excited about the Horus model being released by Forge World! Seriously, I think that the sculpt is absolutely gorgeous!

But the price tag -- GBP60 -- is really rather up there - but equally so is much of Forge World's kit.

In the interview that Simon Egan gives about the sculpting process there is also a really interesting. In it, he gives almost a throw away line about the thing he's learnt - including embossed plate armour for a future project. So: who else in the 30k series has amazingly embossed plate armour… hmmmmm…!

Everything bleeds, Lorgar (Review: Aurelian)

In the Black Library book, Aurelian, we learn of Lorgar's journey and (very willing) fall to chaos as the only true deities worthy of his worship. 

Told as a tale that flicks back and forth between the past and present, Lorgar has a candid exchange with Magnus. In doing so, he informs Magnus of all the preceding events that lead him up to the position that he is currently in. This includes a tour with Ingethel of various future realities - some are going to turn out to be true, but others are not (Argel Tal's death for instance). Lorgar is tested by the gods, including Khorne who sends his champion to take his skull as part of the test.

The pacing of the novella is good and includes many action scenes surrounding Lorgar and how his whole demeanour and attitude has changed in the present - so much so that even Horus has become somewhat wary of him.

On the negative side, I didn't care much for how Khorne was reported to break the "pact" - there were no consequences for this ultimately, so how come Khorne broke it and Slaanesh, Tzeentch and Nurgle thought that that was all okay? Could the others have teamed up and said "Oi, Khorne! I really respect your rage, but leave Lorgar alone - he's like totally critical to all our plans so don't stuff it all up!".

The audio book of Aurelian contains voice acting by the reader. Most of it is good, but the one character that really irritated me was Fateweaver. His audio characterisation and lines might as well have been right out of Dungeons and Dragons at its worst. He lies, or does he? He tells the truth now. But never again.  Or does he? At least Angron's advice that everything bleeds can be well heeded, even if Angron's characterisation of distilled rage was somewhat weak (perhaps he had a clear head day for once?).

Overall, I'd happily give Aurelian 3 stars out of 5 - a very enjoyable novella if one ignores some of the lines and allows the action and deep backstory to wash over!