Horus Heresy Review: Legio Custodes Agamatus Jetbike Squadron

Background.
Custodes on jetbikes? You bet. This is one of the most amazing concepts in the game to be honest. Riding their golden steeds, these bikers are simply amazing and will likely be able to turn the tide of a battle if used prudently.

Strengths.
Where to begin? They've got it all really. Ranging from a toughness that can not be instant killed, multiple wounds, through to firing once with each weapon and re-rolling of charge distances coupled with being armed with power lances, misericordia and bolt cannons. Oh, and there is the usual custodes armour in combination with a refractor field too. Seriously. They're amazing.

Weaknesses.
I can't think of many. One can argue the points cost is high. But that is justifiably high.

Builds.
I'd advocate keeping it simple here. They really don't need too many extras. Indeed, the heavy weapons that are optional here are not worth it outside of heavy support options. I'd argue they're not needed. Particularly if you think the jet bikes could get tar pitted with other units (thanks to the power lances perhaps).

3 Agamatus with melta bombs (230 points).
Keep it simple. Things will still die to them.

Horus Heresy Review: Sisters of Silence Pursuer Cadre

Background.
These sisters are the beast handlers. The ambushers. The quick and the agile. They hunt down targets at the periphery of the main force and given cyber jackals or hawks to help them along.

Strengths.
Let me be honest. I don't actually like this squad too much. Nor do I rate it particularly highly. I think it could have been actuated better than it actually is.

That said, the jackals are reasonably okay. I would take them in preference to the hawks just due to their superior utility for the squad. Although I guess that the hawks could be used as meat shields thanks to the relative high number of ablative wounds.

Other than that, they get fleet and move through cover. I'm a bit "shrug" about this to be honest.

Weaknesses.
They're still sisters of silence with a human toughness level and therefore very weak and flimsy. The beasts do little to add to this, although the jackals do have T=4 which is competitive with space marines that they might find themselves facing.

Builds.
Cadre with 3 Jackals, 1 jackal with a flamer; mistress with Charnabal Sabre (100 points).
A bit of a base line build. Take a transport. Take a different unit actually!

Cadre with 6 pursuers, 3 Steeltalon Wings, 3 jackals (140 points).
Still cheap, but with lots of wounds now. Will still fit inside an Acquisitor.

Ramblings about the Death Guard Codex and Miniatures

My long term blog readers will be away that I have various soft spots for some armies, and am an avid collector of others. The latter includes the Death Guard of the 40k era.

Thus far, I have held off purchasing any more Death Guard chaos space marine miniatures. This has been for a number of reasons. Most importantly, I felt that I had completed my Death Guard collection a number of years ago and I had almost everything that I could have wanted to have in my collection (plus or minus some concessions). Vindicators, chaos lords on bikes, predators, plaguebearers, plague marines, and their rhinos were amongst many that I own and have played extensively with over the years and generally not embarrassed myself at tournaments with either. Also, I've been working on other things of later (e.g., my 30k Alpha Legion force) which is approaching a similar level of completion.

However, now that the Death Guard Codex has been announced recently along with the other codex releases (e.g., core space marines, etc.), I am sorely tempted to get back in to the Death Guard. I think the new codex is exactly what the community has been wanting for many MANY years to be honest. Well, even just cult terminators would have made many people happy I think. Myself included. I wonder what other delights the Grandfather Nurgle might have included in that book for us?

How have other people been finding the new miniatures?
At first, I thought that they were a bit dis-proportioned and not quite up to the same quality as the Forge World upgrade set. But now I'm not so sure. I do like the look of the pox walkers to say the least. And an army of shambling plague zombies does appeal at some level. But I'm still torn and not too sure.

Anyway, those are my internal ramblings for today. More in future weeks no doubt!

A quick Vanguard Detachment for 8th

I have been thinking about how to translate some of my Space Marines forces in to 8th edition recently. So, here is a quick and dirty Vanguard detachment that I came up with. It is based on the Alpha Legion 30k miniatures that I already own and is simply an experiment to see how some of the points costs and power levels might translate across.

HQ: Captain with Thunder Hammer; Librarian with force stave

Elites: 10 Company Veterans, Sergeant with Power Fist; Contemptor with Kheres; second Contemptor with Kheres; Tartaros terminator squad with plasma blaster

Fast Attack: Assault Squad with 2 plasma pistols and sergeant with plasma pistol and thunder hammer.

Total Points = 1192.

Power Level = 72.

Okay, so this is a very quick and frankly dirty list that needs a lot more thought. However, it is a viable list that will give some pause for thought for opponents in how to deal with the multiple threats (contemptors) simultaneously whilst watching out for the faster moving assault squad backed up by both veterans and terminators.

The librarian is there for utility and the captain was originally meant to be represented by Dynat and might not be a bad approximation for the model at the time of writing. 

The points and power levels are low, so this is an army that is meant for a fast moving game and one that can be concluded in under 1.5 hours with a bit of luck. I might test it out against other people at a later date and see how it goes!

Wargames Gallery: Tau Assault the Big Guns that Never Tire

Truly, the big guns never tired in this game between the Death Korps of Krieg and Tau in our Goodbye to 7th Tournament a few weeks ago!

FAQ for 8th

Released yesterday, the FAQ for 8th Edition 40k is already out and available!:

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/07/02/warhammer-40000-faq-now-available-july2gw-homepage-post-1/

Some interesting inclusions, clarifications, and omissions:

* Units occupying upper floors of buildings still have no FAQ for them (re being charged)
* Assault squads now have access to melta and plasma guns
* The points values for Typhus vs Lord of Contagion have NOT been corrected
* More than nine inches away does mean more than 9 inches away (thank you very much!)
* You can fire your vindicator backwards. Because vehicles are always turning on the spot during a turn.
* Do Orks re roll one or two die when they charge?
* What about Warp Time and Deepstriking?