No Local Store? No Problem

I've been playing Warhammer 40K since around 1992 or so... most marriages don'tlast as long as my love affair with this game. Now, for pretty much that entire period of time that has not been a FLGS around (the Gamers Sanctuary, long may she be remembered) is the only bump in that.

I often hear (Dice Like Thunder) or other podcasts that have great places to play.

I am not one of them.

I have my table, at my house, in my 40K room, which rocks, and I love it.

But it does not allow me to play other people in any semi-regular basis to test out lists against, which is sad. In addition, I tend to have to travel for tournaments, which is difficult when I am married/have my own business/and have bitten the stupid WOW crack again.

Recently we have started some local tournaments. We had one in a garage last month, and next month I will be hosting. We should have about 10 people or so with a little luck. A bunch of us throw toegether with table tops and terrain and have a good time.

Anyone out there in my shoes? What have you done to help the situation when you live this far away?

Tau vs. Dark Eldar - Guide

So I am playing the hell out of my DE these days, but in the back of my mind (and in my heart) I am always thinking of Tau.

So, with that in mind, and Tau being one of the older codexs, how do you go about handling Dark Eldar, with Tau?

Well, I am not going to talk about a Tau build. I subscribe to the mono-build of Tau at the moment with a winning list having large amounts of crisis with plasma/missiles and broadsides and a few small squads to hold score. I am assuming that you are running this or a variant of it (I run a hammerhead or two often).

Now, let's get too it.

The first problem is initive, who won? If you won set up in mid area if possible. Dark Eldar like to take advantage of Nightshields and you need to be able to respond with your entire army. Make sure that all of your fire can cover everyone else. Don't have anyone set up too far forward (do NOT infilitrate your kroot up).

Now then, if you have gone first, then the dark eldar has a problem, he can deploy, and get shot, or reserve his entire army. I think the smart play, but if not, and he sets up, move around as necessary and down every transport that has any of the following units in it 1. Wytches 2. Any Elite (Incubi, Grotesques, Wracks). After this is done, go to the Ravagers and guns in round 2 if necessary. If you fail to destroy all the vehicles you will have transports in your face on round 2, you need to kill them, and then kill the occupants. Remember your smart missiles, they will just obliterate Dark Eldar. I don't advocate shooting the warriors at first, they actually have no chance against the kroot, so are no threat in HTH, which is where you will get crushed.

Once the raiders and ravagers are down, the game should be in hand.

Now, if they reserve you have a problem. In objective based games there will be a certain desire to mill around and get closer to the objectives on round 1 and 2. DO NOT DO THIS. If you move within 27 inches of his table edge, you are asking to get in HTH. You have only one thing you can do. Stay in the center at around 30 inches away from his side. On round 2 he will scream in with 1/2 of his stuff. Still, DO NOT move toward the objective. Just kill, wipe everything that came on the table out, any way you can. On round 4 more of this stuff will come in, do the same thing again. On round 5 you need to get to the stupid objective, move 5, run, whatever. If he has anything else that is coming, you jsut have to risk it. If it is just kill points, then you shouldn't be in any problem.

If the Dark Eldar go first you have a problem. More then likely you will have 4-6 raiders or vypers full of troops that are directly in front of your army and have taken some casulties. This is the point when it is time to effect a fighting withdrawal. You need to pick a flank, right or left, and start killing one side off. Don't distribute your firepower, you need to wipe transports, and then try and make a wall of kroot to block off getting multi assaulted. Transports are key, do that first, but once their transports are done, you need to start killing troops on one side so that you can keep moving as far away while slowly feeding units to the inevitable hth.

I'm unsure that a choice to go into reserve will be successful against DE, but depending on what they are playing it may be possible... in fact that may be a better strategy if forces to go second.

Dark Eldar - Results

I would say that my 3-5th games with them at the local tournament were promising. I see problems with the list (obviously) but am contrained by a desire to paint what I have and a lack of models, although I will discuss what I think needs to change below.

I played Space Marines, Space Marines and Blood Angels.

My first game, I went first and my Wytches were caught out in the open with two bad fleet rolls (1 and a 2) and were unable to make HTH in turn 1. One squad was destroyed, but the other was able to get the job done. The incubi and lord made it to hth and did as expected, murdering bikes, and marines equally by the end of the game, and killing all the troop choices. The Archon killed a librarian in round 2 (you will see a theme here)

My second opponent went first, so I reserved my entire army. I was able to come on and get immediately into hth in round 2, with the incubi and the lord sweeping up a flank and killing everything. By the end of the game he had killed another librarian as well. The incubi finally were destroyed by thunderhammers after killed in excess of 20+ marines.

My last game is the only one that caused me real problems as I ran face first into 3 blood angel devestator squads with 12 missiles, an obvious problem, but one that I had a hart time countering. It was a mess to be honest, but a blood battle. The archon killed Memphiston and another librarian in that game, and quite a bit of other units died, however I was not aggressive enough, fearing blood angel HTH (wrongly) on turn 1. It would be interesting to play again, but this time to be more aggressive.

I definitely see a need for much more anti-infantry shooting. I see two easy places for this in the codex, that being in Venoms with their 12 poisoned shots or by running a jet fighter and taking the standard missile load out. For reasons due to survivability, the venoms appeal to me more. I made a test list up that had another 4 venoms, but I think I need to reshuffle.

I also was not impressed with the blast pistol, which will be coming out of all of the lists from now on. That is 60 pts I can better spend somewhere else. I liked the wytches with haywires quite a bit, and liked the hydra gauntlets, but was underwhelemed with the shardnets and impailers. I believe that they are best against units they never ended up being in hth with.

The Shock Prow + multiple torment grenade launchers + Aethersails worked well, allowing me to put a -3 roll on devestator squad and escort them off the table.

Dark Eldar - Garage Wars

So this weekend I am heading to a local group to throw down with the Dark Eldar all day Saturday. The wife is in the midst of finals, so it's a good time for me to get out of the house.

Now then, let's talk about what I am taking. I am not pointing this up directly until I closer to the event, so it's going to be a few points off here and there. I want to mention the units, and what I want them to do/expect and play a few games this weekend. After all, all plans come to an end when they meet the enemey... or something like that.

The Marquis of Fall
Archon - Huskblade, Shadowfield, Phantasm Grenade Launchers, Soul Trap.
This fellow is my headhunter. While he won't be useful all the time, I have never run a beatstick character, and it fits the army I think. He can potentially be devestating in some games, and will be crap in others. I've done a head swap and a few other things on the model. I have some background about him in my mind, but this isn't the place for it quite yet.

Incubi of the Temple of the Black Son
8x Incubi, Raider w Aethersails and Torment Grenade Launchers
This is the Archon's ride. I've only use these fellows one game, and they were in reserve until round 4. Still, the threat of them was enough to keep my opponent from crossing within 24 inches of my board edge. I hope for them to be better next game. I'm considering breaking the squad up to two 5 man squads in Venoms... but then where will the Marquis go?

Kabalite Warriors of The Fall
(2)Kabalite Warriors x10, Blaster, Splinter Cannon. Raider w/Aethersails, Torment Grenade Launcher.
I am still playing with the weapon load outs. Now that I realize that the blast pistol is only 6 inch range, spending 30 pts to upgrade a sergeant upgrade to have it and a venom blade for both squads hurts me. I will be trying them without them this time. The aethersails have to do with getting somewhere when I want them to be.

Wytches of the Cult of the Broken Heart
(2) Wytch Squads x10, Heckarix, Agonizer, Blast Pistol, 2x Wytch Weapons, Raider, Aethersails, Torment Grenade Launcher, Shock Prow, Haywire Grenades
I've loved these girls in both games I've played them. I want to keep playtesting them and see how I like them. I know some people don't like the haywire grenades, but here is how I have seen it play out. A vehicles comes near me, even if it moved 12+, the ladies jump it and WILL generate a glancing hit, and have a decent chance of immobilizing or stunning it. If that happens next time, they will blow it up. Also, if they hit a vehicle in hth, and it hasn't moved, due to the way that haywire grenades generate results, it's fairly hard for them the PEN "6" and blow themselves up. Most likely they will wreck it or cause so many weapon destroyed immobilzied that it will just fall apart.

Scourages of the Black Dawn
(2) Scouragesx5 with 2x Haywire Grenade Launchers in it.
They shut down vehicle shooting, it's as simple as that. With 1-2 glances a turn they should prevent vehicles from shooting long enough for me to get the knife work done. They also are fairly cheap at 130 pts for the entire squad.

Ravagers of The Fall
3x Ravagers with 3x Darklance each, Flickerfield, Nightshield.
These need no explanation.

Actually I think all my vehicles have Nightshields, not just the Ravagers. I will point it up.
I think the list does well against any other HTH army, or short range army. If it is a long range army, then I have to close asap and try and get into hth. If they beat me in shooting and in HTH, then I don't know what to tell you.

Things to consider?
1. Wracked. Math says they are pretty good for kill troops. I'm willing to paint what I have and wait for models. I will try them out later.
2. I like the figher plane actually, but now isn't the time to test it.
3. I've tried the reavers and didn't like them, I will playtest later
4. Are 5xtrueborn and 4 blasters (60 pts in guns alone) worth it in a 65 pt (minimum with splinter cannon gun) really worth it? Is anyone having any luck with them?
5. What would DE MSU look like?

Let's Talk About... Blast Pistols.

I played Tau for a long time, so when I got back into my Marines in 2008, I eagerly unpakced all of my old models and started painting. I was sure that a glorious paint job would make the models work well on the table.

I specifically had this limited edition Dark Angels sergeant with a chainsword and a plasma pistol. I cut his chainsword on and slapped a powerfist on him. He was the first sergeant that I painted. I then made my army, and scratched my head at his 15 pt plasma pistol, but then put him on the table.

During the game, he got into HTH, which of course made me realize I got no bonus attacks for the pistol, and then after I got out of hth, I killed myself shooting it. Needless to say, that particular model doesn't come out of the closen very often anymore. In fact, I am painting a new sergeant for the squad right now, he simply has a trusty combi-flamer.

In 40K, you seem to have a large amount of ubiquitus basic pistols, Shuriken Pistols, Bolt Pistols, Splinter Pistols, Sluggas, Pulse Pistol (yes, one model has the Tau pulse pistol, two points if you know the unit). These are standard, what you don't seem to see very often are the other 'upgrade' pistols that much.

The worst of the bunch seems to be the plasma pistol, it's cost, chance to kill you, and ability means that people simply don't take it. It also doesn't work with a P-fist. The fusion (inferno... whatever) pistols you see a little bit more, but not that often. Did you know harliquins can take them? Ever seen them do it? I don't see blood angels take them much easier.

All this has lead to no one taking pistols much anymore, they are an ignored option in general as the cost and range of the weapon means you often get one chance to shoot it, before you are engaged in HTH.

Well, saying that, lately I have been taking warrior squads in raiders, no biggie, right? Well a blaster is 15 pts with 18 inch range, str 8, ap 2 lance. A blast pistol is 12 inch range, same stats, and counts as a extra hth weapon. Plasma is one point lower and can kill you firing it. They are the same cost (15 pts). I'm not here to make any type of argument for the plasma pistol, it's crap.

But the blast pistol is probably going to be ignored because it is a pistol, people will overlook it. Every sergeat, every hq (just about) in the book can have a blast pistol... and I think DE like to be in HTH or near it to begin with. I wouldn't count the blast pistol out just yet.

How are you out there arming your Syberites/Heckatrix lately?

Syberites are getting blast pistols and venom blades for me, and Hecks are getting blast pistols and agonizers.

Dark Eldar - Test Model Day

I often ask my wife for her opinion about how I should paint an army.

I then generally ignore her. I don't do this in any contrarion sense of spite or anything so normal. I enjoy her opinion, but most of the armies that I have painted tend to be very... manly. Space Marines are a man's army (as manly as we can be while playing with plastic dolls that we name ourselves). My marines I wanted a split scheme and I had to deal with a Dark Angels pallet (Dark Green, Black, Bone and red highlights) and my tau I wanted to be a cityfight army (they are mixed light and dark greys, very WWII german).

My Dark Eldar however are a cross between insane super-villian and twisted dark fey. My wife is a energetic ball of lightning with a healthy dose of mescheveous glee thrown in. I've always thought that if she did play 40K, that Dark Eldar would be her army. So I am painting this army, according to my wife.

So of the models, I have airbrushed the dark purple on all of the Warriors, Wytches and my Archon. I've also darkened in some of the recesses.

Tonight I will take one lone wytch model and paint him up completely to make sure the scheme will work, but I feel confident. Here is how I am painting them.

Dark Eldar Armor
75% Liche Purple/25% chaos black mix. Base coat with airbrush
Make a light wash 5% chaos black, 5% Purple Glaze, 90 % water, put in the recess
Liche Purple, (watered down slightly, don't work with straight paint) on the highlights
Liche Purple 75%/Skull White25% Edge Highlights
Liche Purple 50%/Skull White 25% as a final Highlight

Instead of doing bronze or gold as the DE in the book are, I will be doing boltgun metal/chainmail/silver on these parts.

I will doing the GW directions in the last White Dwarf for the skin, so far it is an interesting skin tone, very palid, and skinny/gray. I will finish the model tonight and put him up tomorrow morning.

Dark Eldar Painting Plan

Each time I paint an army, I try and learn some new tricks that I can (hopefully) use later. The last army I painted was marines and I did a lot of weathering on the army. However, I don't believe that Dark Eldar should be weathered, they probably spend more time cleaning their armor, then they ever do fighting, and when they do appear, they come right out of the city to fight. It's like going to a party for them, and I'm sure they are going to want to be at their best.

So, this time I want to try and learn how to paint an army that usually takes me a year, in six months, because I would like to kick my tournament attendance to twice a year, as opposed to once a year. I'm looking at going to the GT in Dallas in April, or perhaps to the Kalm Before the Waaagh once it has a fixed date this year... and bringing the DE to one or both.

Now, to assist me, I will be picking a non complicted color scheme, and trying to work that color scheme up to a great level. My marines ended up being a split scheme, which is great, and unusual, but hard as hell to pull off.

So, first off, instead of doing a unit by unit as I did with my marines, I am doing the entire army as follows: Infantry, then Vehicles. About 50+ infantry at the moment, then focus on the 8 vehicles I want for my base army (5 raiders and 3 ravagers).

The infantry at this time are put together, based and base coated.

Step One: Over the next week I will pick a base color and use my airbrush to spray them that color.

Step Two: Go in with a darker wash and get in the recess of the armor of all the models.

Step Three: Highlight with straight Liche Purple (my base color is Liche purple and chaos black I think)

Step Three: Highlight with Liche Purple+ Something else... not sure what

Step Four: Highlight the very edges where armor meets with the second color

At this point I would figure that 60% of the model is finished. I'm not sure how I am going to handle the metal and other non purple parts, as I have not made a decision on any symbols etc.. on the army. I can tell you that I like the GW markings and intend on using those.

A few questions for anyone that reads this:

1. Do you think the Wytch Raiders would bear the symbol of their Wytch Cult? If so, would I then have an army of different marks, and would that take away from the army effect?

2. Are Incubi rather like Aspect Warriors, and the black with white helmets are their trademark look? If not, what if I painted them in inverse colors from the rest of the army. I haven't made a decision about my accent color yet, but they would be that color with purple as the accent color.

Dark Eldar Progress

So over this week I have put together the following:

20 Kabolite Warriors
20 Wytches
5 New Incubi
6 Old Incubi
1 Homoculous
1 Archon


I've also got some scourges that I have semi-put together, but until I hace made a decision regarding their weapon load outs, I'm leaving them that way.

So on Sunday/Monday I got all of the models together, and all of the old models stripped. I meant to play some 40K with Don (or watch really) on tuesday, but I was so beat after work I couldn't quite get myself to go drive 30 minutes down the road.

So instead I put together a Raider on tuesday and then did the basing on all of the above models.

Last night I did the base coating with Games Workshop Chaos Black spray paint.

I doupt I get any work done tonight, as my wife has this night off from studying. However, I might be able to get her to help me work on my base color, which I will be applying with my airbrush over the next week.

I tried at first something with Hormagaunt purple, but just didn't like it. I think Warlock purple should have just been called pink. The last purple, a nice dark one, I think I will use as part of my base, with a mixed chaos black in to give it a deeper shade. I am using a random Eldar Guardian that I have as my test model.

Dark Eldar Play Day Results

So last weekend I had the opportunity to playtest the new Dark Eldar codex. My friend Shawn Rogers had a lot of the old models, so we threw down with broken/old stuff to see how it worked now.

I was impressed, and I think so was everyone else.

I think that I may have it a bit easier, as I have never played Dark Eldar before, so I am not going in with any preconceived notions. I want to see battlefield results, and that's all that matters. Someone asked me what my theme was, my theme is that my Archon is a winner, and he surrounds himself with winners. If you aren't a winner, you will not make it into the list.

Now, the first game I played was againay Ryan Graham's tournament blood angels list. Mephiston, 2x10 Assault marines, 1x Sanquinary priest w/jump pack, 2x razorback w/assault cannons with 5 man RaS, 2x Baals, 2x Vindicators, 1x Predator, librarian dreadnought.

I ran.
Archon w/Husk Blade, Shadowfield, Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Sul Trap

9x Incubi w/Raider w/Aethersails

Two:
10 Warriors w/Splinter Cannon, Blaster, Upgrade Sergeant w/Venom Blade and Blast Pistol
Raider, Aeithersails, Torment Grenade Launcher, (the -6 inch range ability), Shock Prow

Two
Wytches w/Hekatrix, Agonizer, Blast Pistol. Haywire Grendades, 2x wytch weapons (one squad of Razorflails and one squad of Impalers and shardnets).
Raider, Aethersails, Torment Grenade Launcher, Shock Prow (-6 inch range ability)

Scourges, 2x Haywire blasters

2x Raiders with 3x Dark lances, -6 inch range ability, Flickerfield

1 Razorwing Fighter with 4x Monosythe Missile, Flickerfield, -6 inch range ability.

My list isn't to the letter, but that gives you a good idea.

I'm not going to go through with a complete battle report, but here are my thoughts in general.

Archon + Incubi - I hated putting them in the same unit, but I put them in reserve, and they were powerful enough to make sure that Ryan's assault marines didn't really want to even cross the board at me, or face being destroyed when they arrived. When they did arrive they blasted 33 inches onto the board, near his objective. Sadly, when the had their ride blown up, they loaded out pinned (11 on pin check). Made me wish I had taken grisly trophies on that vehicle. I didn't get a chance to see them in action, but the fear they generated in my marine opponent was worth their point value.

Warriors - I can't say they did that much actually. The Aethersails +shock prow is amazing, as is the -6 inch range ability. The raider performed better then I had anticipated throughout the game. the move 12 disembark 3 fire two darklight weapons was nice. I didn't notice not having the darklance in the squad.

Wytches - Amazing. I got outflanked by two baal's on turn two, and they jumped on them with haywires and destroyed them both almost effortlessly. They then reboarded their vehicles and dealt with some small squads of blood angels later. I've done the math though, don't take the razorflails. When you roll the re-roll wounds it will suck, go with the +2d6 attacks of the 2x hydra guntles. I liked the shardnet and impaler... but it's selectively useful. Make sure to place them in base to base with people he doesn't want to remove, or he will just remove them in combat resolution and the shardnet will not matter. So sergeants/characters/special/heavy weapons. I love taking haywire genades on them.

Scourges - I do NOT understand why no one talks about the Haywire Grenade Luncher. The math on fire suppression is amazing. The unit, for 130 pts for 5 and 2x haywire can suppress a vindicator almost every time, and any other weapon. It doesn't destroy a lot, but it's ability to suppress the most damaging vehicle is nice. They guys also have a 4+/6+ save (read GhostPlate, it has the 6+ under that). I like the unit, I will be playtesting them some more

Ravagers - No bad comments. I lost one on the second turn to a flamestorm baal, but the other was golden, able to knock vehicles out easily.

Razorwing - Needs more playtest. I didn't see anything on turn one, so I lost my firing (night fight), and his baal blew it up on turn 2 before it could shoot. I think it is a great way to deal with hoards and also longfangs (4 str6 blast templayes hurt). Problem with it is lack of model.

I played a second game with some other units and here are some other thoughts.

Beastmasters are pretty bad news. They obliterated a 30 man squad of ork boys, and while I ended up taking 4 wounds, I lost no models.

Cronos Parisite Engine - My first test game I generated a few pain tokens during the game, but I think I had one unit that got 2. In game 2 when I tested this thing, I ended up with every DE unit having 2-3. I was actually running out of units to give them to and I only had one of these. I charges a unit of Ork boys and gained 4 tokens and gave them to nearby units. My units got so charged up, that when it came to my turn again, my opponent coseded because of the math (beastslayers/2x Wytches all with FNP and Furious Charge) and the wytches had re-roll all wound rolls.

Talos - Not bad for 100 point, makes the Trygon look like crap. Sad when this thing will probably kill a trygon if it assaults, and is half the cost. I puta haywire blaster on it, I love those things.

I tried Duke Siliscus out with 20x warriors with splinter cannon, and didn't like it much. I just like the death dealing archon, and the duke for his abilities, isn't that great. I think that if I was going to go with some of the special characters, I like the Baron (attach him to 10 scourges... they get stealth, and become decent in hth), and I like Lady Malys, who I think for her abilities is appropriately priced. Drazar, to expensive, Lilith, too expensive for her failure to deal with toughness 5+ and vehicles.

I'm actually a litter interested in drying out the decabitator, I'm not sure he sucks quite as much as everyone thinks. I think he would be interesting to scare the crap out of a pack of longfangs, but his T 3 means that he will be instant killed so quickly, even if he deployes into terrain (3+).

Units I still want to playtest:

Trueborn
Mandrakes (??!!!)
Hellions
Voidraven
Razorwing(more)

While I don't have a problem with wracked or grotesques, i think that a homoculi army works very differently. I am going to focus on a army in the first list, and get it up and running and painted, and after that is completed see what other units I want to add.

Rogers game my all his banged up guys, that I have since stripped, which gave me the following (old models)

1 Old Urian Rakarth
1 Old Homoculi
1 Drahzar
6 Old Incubi
10 Old Wytches (not stripped... doubt I use)
9 Scourges
5 Hellions (will be coverted to Beastmasters)
10 Metal DE with mixed heavy weapons
2 Old Raiders (converted to Venoms?)
1 old Ravagers (Converted to Venom?)

I also have purchased the following:
20 Warriors (put together, ready for basing)
20 Wytches (put together, ready for basing)
1 Archon (put together, ready for basing)
5 Incubi (put together, ready for basing)
3 Raiders (in boxes, will put together tonight)
2 raiders (ordered, in the mail)
3 Ravagers (ordered, in the mail)

So far my assessment of the army is not that it is a steam role of epic proportions. Some people will pick this army up and not be able to get it to work. I picked it up, and I can tell you that it felt more right playing the games, then it ever did playing my marines. I was never able to make my marines do what I wanted them to in my mind. These, while playing different then my Tau, felt more like my Tau. Lots of movement, combined with firepower. These guys just have some HTH to fall back on when everything hits the fan.

I've modified the first list above now and lost the Razorwing (no model), added a Ravager, and added a homoculi with Animis Vitae, Agonizer and Crucible of Malidication to play test. I can't wait to play against a psyker and drive 5 raiders on top of him and watch as he fails a LD test at -5. That will be funny, as will tank shocking space wolf cavalry off the board doing the same thing.

Angels of Perdition - 4th Landed Company

The 4th Company is my company. I'm unsure how many people that reas this have taken a good look at my guys, but in my opinion... they are perfect. I don't mean, that painting is perfect, I'm no golden demon winner, but I meant their unit designations.

The Angels of Perdition are a Dark Angels successor chapter, which means they use different unit designations then standard codex marines. Codex marines use a color around the should to denote which company they are from. Dark Angels use a pattern on their knee. 4th Company uses a split scheme checkerboard on top, bone on the bottom of the knee. The shoulder then designates what squad they are from on the left shoulder, and the right has the chapter symbol.

I also have back banners for all the sergeants and each only leads that squad.

I don't think a single opponent has ever noticed, which is fine.

It's not for them, it's for me.

I, like Conan, like to crush my enemy, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentations of their girlfriends, but that isn't what keeps me coming back to the game.

Nope, it's my imagination. I know that Scout Sergeant Orion is a crazy bastard that is older then whoever the Chapter Master has sent lately to tell the 5th what to do. He does his own thing, and because he gets results, they let him go. I know that the 1st Squad is lucker then they have any right to be.

At tournament they rolled up and blew a rhino with berserkers up. The berserkers pile out, then the enemy blew my rhino up, and killed some guys, and I used combat tactics to tall back. I then auto rallied and ran up and shot again, the berserkers then rolleda difficult terrain test to assault me, and rolled double 1st, and didn't make it. I double tapped them again, finally they assaulted me and I wiped them out. That was some luck. Last game against Andy they got assaulted by 6 Wolf Guard, and they wiped THEM out, it was amazing. I know that Librarian Raziel is just out of the Library, and can't be trusted on the table by himself.

Anyway, I think you find, after you have hand painted your armies, and played with them, they tend to develop some Soul... and I think that spark of something is what brings me back, time after time.

Dark Angels Top Ten Wish List

I've played Dark Angels a long time, long enough to remember when we were black, and the Iron wing, when we weren't special, when we shared a codex with Blood Angels (who were better then us then as well), when we had to roll a 1 to even move our units (3rd edition), when the sword of secrets was a 40 pt str 6 power weapon and the Darksword for chaos was 20) and now I play a successor chapter of the Lion because I'm tired of GW thinking just because we wear dress they can frag us like we are wearing one.

So, what is in my wish list, and then is 10 to 1. This is partially meant funny, and is a partial rant, if you have ever played DA's, then you will feel me on some of this.

10. Look at the Horus Heresy Art. I want guys with lion shoulder pads, with large two handed ornate two handed swords, give us +2 str but -1 I or something. We need a reason to NOT be folded into the basic codex, and if you can't come up with it, just fold them back into it. You guys did a good job of making Blood Angels different, we need to see the same thing for DA's.

9. Characters that Don't Suck - We've never ahd any special character that is been wonderful. No beatstick hammer character that people are afraid of. Azreal has never been impressive, nor has Asmodi, Bethor, Sammael.... they all suck, they've always sucked... stop that. Where is my Avenging Angel? Where is the guy that that makes

8. Stubborn - Why did you give it to us when it sucked, but take it away when it rocked... I know... the dress thing again.

7. Battle Companies - The Codex should be different then Codex Space Marines, but DA's are more then just all Terminator and Bike armies. Make the Battle Companies cool. The Lionwas Number 2 for Battles Won, and may have been the best stretegic thinker of them all. If he had a little more common sense, the Horus Heresy would have been over before it started.

6. Black Library - Can you guys write a book for the DA's to do something worth doing and be marines I WANT to play. Read Storm of Iron and tell me you don't want to play Iron Warriors/Imperial Fists, or that book with Ultramarines vs. Tyranids, or the Horus Heresy books and Black Legion/Lunar Wolves or Legion and Alpha Legion or... you get my point. Just because we are aloof and secretive doesn't mean that we are the #*@hole of the neighborhood. Yea... we wear a cool robe, and stand by ourselves in the dark, but that's because we're just cooler then you are, and we think we are better, not because we are all traitors ALL time time. They should be heroic, damn heroic in their own way, fighting the darkness from the darkness, battle fought, and sector's saved and no thanks asked for, perhaps entire campaigns fought and won without a mention to the Adeptus Terra, they sink no reward, they ask for no help, because the rest of the imperium just get's in their way. That's how the Lion did it, That's how we do it, and it's worked out pretty good so far. This all goes for the Lion as well, he is the only Primarch that is written as a dumbass jerk... stop that. Fatal flaw I understand, but Jerk...come on.

5. Fear the Darkness/Weaken Resolve - These were our powers, thanks for giving them to everyone else. And Windworm.... Windworm?! Really. How about that Terrorsight stuff from the last DA book ?

4. Mortis Pattern Dreadnought - DA special dreadnought THAT THEY CAN'T FIELD... thanks for that. I think I see a pattern, it's called give A's something, then take it away when it's good and give it to someone else.

3. Ravenwing - Give us scouting bikes, but then tell us they can't turbo-boost (a specific nurf for the DA bikes)... give us bike only army, then turn around and give it to marines, make us pay out the nose for fearlessness, but then give normal marines Combat Tactics and/or stubborn which is better.

2. Deathwing - We are supposed to have the best terminators in the galaxy.... new flash, they are the worst. They are more expensive and have worse options then every other terminator. Let's list them to be sure. Chaos terminators 13 pts cheaper and better, Normal Marine Terminators 10 man squads and TH/SS's, Space Wolves - Login Wing, Blood Angels - Furious Charge/FNP, Grey Knights - Str 6 power weapons. Give us terminators with sword/board, something... anything. And good grief, you gave the 5th ed termy army, TO SPACE WOLVES... that's just insult to injury.

1. Please love the Dark Angels, as much as the players do for change. I would like to feel a fronted, just once, when someone tells me their wolves are counts as Dark Angels.

Chapter Organization: Angels of Perdition

Inquisitor Report: Omega Alpha 049185719030

Sector: Stella Magnus

Since the close of the Ebon Star Crusade in 951.M39 the Space Marine Chapter known as the Angels of Perdition have been in occupation of the most spinword world of the Sub-Sector Damien and the end of Imperial Controlled Space. The world, Kyton IV by official registertry still of the Adeptus Mechanicus, who have refused under protest to change the name of the world, has been the homworld of the Angels.

Since that time Inquisitorial, as well as Adeptus Administratium records show a clear registry of complying with Imperial Demands of geneseed and other required acknowledgements of Imperial Power. Still, rumors have persisted that they have excerted an overmastering influence over sub-sector Damien and Fallen Sectors that saw the bulk of fighting during the Crusade. While the sub-sector has come back suprisingly well since that time period, this report has been requested due to concerns that stem from the Great Berayal the limitation of Astartes power that has become necessary since then.

First, no accurate census of the Angels of Perdition has ever been complied. At no point during the last mellinia has the entirety of the Chapter been present. Even during the Feat of Maledication that is held each year, many of the companies are not present. At any time one time, it appears that at least 40% of the Chapter is not present on Kyton IV at all, or as they call it Angelos Secundas. Specifically during the a request for aid in M40,493 only a single Company, the 4th was present at all. To this day it is unknown where the vast majority of the chapter vanished to four three years while the legetee waited for the return of the Grand Master.

Additional population problems are due to the unusual, and onorthadox way that the Angels of Perdition take on new applicants. 95% of all of the Adeptus Astartes follow the guidelines laid out by Roboute Gullimen, and operate a tenth, enthre Scout Chapter. The Angels of Perdition do not. Instead, each of the Battle Companies, or as they call them Landed Companies, operated out of a vast citadel that dot the landscape of Angelus Secundas. From there applicants from the various feudal culture hold games and tournaments and the best are given a Quest to slay one of the many mutant forms of life found on the planet. Those that return are admitted into that specific Chapter's Scout force each year. Each company therefore has between ten to fifty individuals that are being trained as scouts inside each of the citadel's. Besides this issue the Landed Companies act as standard battle companies, of which there are four in total.

The First and Second Company seem to operate as a completely seperate entities, and their structure is not a topic of this report, as all indiciations is that they operate within the required window of normalcy for a chapter of this geneseed.

Lastly, are the companies known as the Knightly Companies. There seem to be some bleed between members of the Landed Companies and Knightly Companies from time to time, but it is known under what circumstances this takes place. The Knightly Companies do not operate on Angelus Secundus and have no known permenant home, although they resupply on the orbital station of Lunas when in need. The Knightly Companies, unlike standard reserve companies, are on permenant crusade, a habit that was taken on by the close proximity of the Angels of Perdition with various crusades of the Black Templars for some mellinia. To this day the Knightly Companies range far and wide, seeking out the enemies of Mankind. I have attached a lengthy report of the various times and conflicts they have been in. Their population and numbers are currently unknown, as the Knightly Companies in some reports span lest then fifty space marine and other times number in the hundreds. I am unsure if these are anomolous records, or if the Knightly Companies have abandoned the Codex Astartes in form as well as function.

Since beginning this report I have requested records from the Administration Records from Terra, as it appears that the Angels of Perdition hail from Segmentium Pacificus at some point. The only message I have received is that all records were destroyed during the the Nova Terra Interregnum, and a copy of their original founding documentation, signed, along with eight other chapters, on the same day, by Saint Sebastian Thor.

I will continue as you have requested and seek further information. While I feel that you may be right, and it would be possible to bring charges against the Angels for their diversified approach, I feel the effect would by only to make them more secretive regarding their affairs. I am again requesting a further budget increase to bring in more potential operatives as the case warrants.

Your Eternal Servant

Inquisitor Conrad Guot

Angels of Perdition: Mopping Up

I am preparing for the coming of darkness and ruin.... also known as the Dark Eldar. To that effect I am finishing a few projects over the next two-three weeks to prepare. What does this mean? That a lot of Angels of Perdition stuff is going to go from beat up to paintinged and finished. Here is the list of what I am working on and after last weekend, where it is headed.

Land Raider Redentia - An unknown mark of land raiders that has survived since the Angels of Perdition started their Crusade at the beginning of M35. The lascannons are fully inrechangeable with flamestorm cannons and assault cannons depending on the need. This is historically been the personal transport of the Captain of the 4th Company, however currently Chapter Master Gabriel Martel is using it as he rebuilds the 4th, and hopes for the return of the rest of the chapter from the Ordeal of Retrieval of the remains of Master Angelos Orzeal. It is fully magnatized and the basecoats of black/bone were airbrushed on yesterday. It came out better then I had anticipated. I will be working on other base coats for a bit, but at this point it needs clean up more then anything else.



The remainder of 1st Squad. I have a bit a of delimma regarding first squad. They double as my strenguard, as the Angels of Perdition do not have their veterans fight in anything but terminator armor (like Dark Angels). Therefore, like Dark Angels their company veterans sit at this level until they are promoted to the First Company. This means I run them either as Strenguard or I run them as DA Company Veterans, or Standard Marines.



4th Tactical Squad - Tactical squad with Brother Methias Kain w/Powerfist and combi-plasma, and the squad has a heavy plasma and plasma gun. I will soon have 30 painted tac marines so In no longer feel the need to build the perfect squads any more. Besides Plasma will be the new melta at some point again, and I will have these marine again. I'm still on my way to building a company of marines (once these are done I will have 60 painted marines... 40 tactical, 10 assault, 10 devestator). I doubt that I will bother with the other 40 marines until a new codex upgrade and/or new edition of 40K. This a total of 10 marines plus a rhino/razorback



2x Tornado Landspeeders - I bought for 16 bucks each base landspeeders from Battlewagon Bits awhile back. The heavy bolters/tornadoes I coverted over from the tons of ravenwing sprues I have.



2 Dark Angel Captains - One is the old model that I used for Captain Angelos Orzeal. The second is the new Captain model that I have been waiting to paint up.



Sooooo

1 Landraider

2 Landspeeders

1 Rhino/Razorback

15 Marines

2 Captains



2 Weeks... we will see.

Rhino vs. Raider

I play Tau and marines and have fooled around with most of the armies from one time or another, although I have not taken that many more to tournament. Tau, Grey Knights, Lysander Wing, Tau again, Codex Space Marines.

So I am not coming at this new Dark Eldar codex with any previous Dark Eldar experience, which is both good and bad. Good because I want to take a look at builds and things that other people who play it may overlook. Bad because I can't simply update an army, I am going to build it from the bottom up. I want to try and figure out what works, and what doesn't. I'm not going to put a list here as I honestly can't make an actuall assessment of numbers, I have to see that shit on the table.

So I want to talk about the Raider, and why the Raider is not the Rhino.

They aren't the same, you do understand that... right? Yes, it's obvious they have different points/costs/stats, but I believe they have two completely different uses.

No one, doesn't take a Rhino. It's 35 pts, it's ubiquitous, it's really worth it to block LOS, it's cheap and for it's point cost it's hard to remove from the table. I can't remember I saw the last tactical squad on foot that didn't have an attached transport. It was the hard candy shell that the marines needed to last on the table. It also cost 2.3 marines, and definitely was harder to kill then that.

The Raider is none of those things. The base raider is double that point value, and is easy to remove from the table. The rhino is a automatic purchase, you have to have it. The raider is different, I think that you need to make an activie decision of WTF you want to do with it. Filling it with Kabalite Warriors and driving around like some sort of future BDSM pimp simply isn't going to work. The Raider costs more then 6 warriors, and honestly, if you are in cover, I think 6 warriors in cover will last longer then a rhino.

A raider is not a hard coated shell, it is just more soft chocolate. This is at least true for warriors. The raider is made to carry large squads (10) to a certain place and then blow up. In a best case scenario they manage to make it to hand to hand combat. Then they blow up.

This is my problem with the Raider. In the old game they were required, as the basic warrior was complete trash (str 3 gun.... please). The warrior is not crap anymore, he's actually pretty awesome.

For that purpose wytches in a raider seem to make a lot of sense. It gives them an additional 14 inch charge range (ok 14.9) and may actually be a hard coated shell for them as they are more expensive and have a 6+ save vs a 5+ save. I'm actually having a hard time wrapping my mind around wytches at the moment, and need to play test them, so I don't want to talk about them.

I'm strongly considering playtesting a few warrior squads on foot right now. 20 warriors with 2 splinter cannons kicks out 30 posisoned shots a turn (18+12) 20 hits, 10 wounds. It will kill a trygon in two turns and will kill a wraithlord in 1. It will kill a C'Tan in one turn.... one turn. They sit in cover and blast away. If not the splinter cannons, throw in two dark lances and they can fire at vehicles at 36 the later in the game fire their weapon. They shoot like marines but better against toughness 4+ and cost 2/3 the cost.

Also, 20 guys in cover, except for flamers, are pretty hard to move out of it, or you could give them a feel no pain token and then let them be a little harder.

Buying Dark Eldar Smart

So by now, most people (that are interested) have seen what is in the new codex. I've read a lot of posts about potential lists, and they may be very good, or crap. I have no idea at present, as the exact word rulings and small things in the codex make a big deal. Also, I'm more of a ran of playtest then of mathhammer, although both have their place.

However, whatever they are, I'm in. I made my purchase yesterday and should receive it sometimes in the first two weeks of november.

Now, what did I buy? At this stage, I think it's important to go with bread and butter. I don't know what units I will love, and which I will not.

So I bought the codex
2x Warrior Squads
1x Witch Squad
1x Archon
1x Incubi (Just because they are that bad ass)

Also because I don't have a store near me I got it at off the internet for 20% off and free shipping... wooo! If you have a FLGS, buy from them, but if you don't tear it up!

I want to playtest while I paint my core units, then by the end of november, early december, really make an informed purchase on what it is that I want.

I strongly advise no one to just drop a ton for the entire army. You don't want to end up with a lot of a unit you hate and never use (VESPID?!).

Also, I am seriously considering making a change to the way that I apint. I have largely beena high detail hand painter, but that means that it takes me around a year to get 2000 points painted.I want to try and cut that down to six months, as I would like to take the Dark Eldar to the Kalm this year.

I have used an airbrush a lot on vehicles, and I think this is a perfect time to really use to to lay down the solid colors on the models, and perhaps do the sading on the primary armor layers. Les over at Awesome Paint Jobs has done it to marines quite a bit with amazing effect. I'm unsure with the micro detail that DE have that it will work as well, but I'm willing to take a chance.

Usually I paint a squad at a time, but this time based on the air brush, I am going to paint all 36 models silmultaneously to give a solid coat to all the models.

Base Black
Airbrush Dark Purple
Airbrush Highlight up 1
Airbrush Highlight up 2
Airbrush gloss
Ink the lines
Airbrush matt
glaze purple

At this stage put down the airbrush and move to detail work, doing faces etc... that are not purple, accent colors mostly.

I am still trying to decide how I wish to do the bases. I have some autumn leaves from Skullcraft that I have been wanting to use on an army. That theme goes with the army emerging from a warpgate on a maiden world to defend it from interlopers (and see if we can make off with any Maiden World Booty), or doing a Cantena like board with a gladiator pit as the board, with witch elves fighting in it, which would be a more eldar isnpired bases.

Last night I finished my land raider conversion to make it modular between a Godhammer or Redeemer (although I do not have the flamestorms yet). I'll post some pictures of it soon. I am going to try to get it and a few other units painted before my DE come in the mail.

Tables and Tops

Well, as promised, after a long time, here are the pictures of my table that I finished.

I have refinished the concrete floors, built the table from lumber pursuant to (more or less) the plans from TheDrunkenDwarf website. After that I painted the table, then put a polyurithane coat on it to protect it. The tabletop was built out of wall panneling that I picked up (damaged!) from lowes. I think it costs about $16 a sheet normally to find. The table top is removable and another can be put in it's place

I then went back and graveled and added a road with mud on it that can be used either as a road or just as effect.

I wanted a flat table as I do a lot of tournament and game prep, and while I could have built a huge permanant table, I think that is bad for a table you plan to use often. If I ever have the room for a second table (douptful) then Iwill add another. This will be my basic woods/hills/planetstrike table. I may well add a cityfight board one day for fun as well if cityfight is ever re-released.

Under the table is another level that is used for terrain storage. Eventually I will buy some IKEA glass cabnets for all of my finished armies (tau/marines/a few guard).

I've been working on some woods lately, I'll post some stuff this week regarding progress. The forests are actually finished (5 bases worth) and I'm working on large LOS blocking hills now.

About the only problems we have had is that the little gabs in it do catch dice from time to time, not that often, but enough so I need to build a dice rolling place. Lastly... I need a place to put the glorious dead during the game. Let me know your thoughts, and here is one last picture.

Tome of Forgiveness

These words graced the tome of Forgiveness written by Maltheas Dormock,
Last of the Crusade Grand Masters of the Angels of Perdition

I ask for no Forgiveness for my acts.

I ask for none for opening the way in the Dark Star crusade to Kyton, a world of twenty billion souls. Nor for watching, as it fell to ruination as the entirety of Warsmith's forces fell on it like a scythe. Nor do I ask for it for buring it to ash.

I watched, as in the darkness of the long night, it's face blossomed like a second star field.

Upon my order twenty billion died, and the Dark Star Crusade has ended. Bought in blood, sacrifice and the lives of the Imperium I have sworn to protect. Some secrets must be protected, some prices must be paid, but we must all live with the consequences of our actions. For our sin we were not punished, for to the vast machine, what is twenty billion, when a sector has been saves. We were given a boon, anything we asked.

But I ask no forgiveness.

I ask for none as I watched the survivors fight for survival on Kyton. Loyal citizens, struggling for their world... and their souls against those that had turned their back on sanity. Battles for food, fuel, and life devolve into a wasteland of destruction. At any moment I could have stopped it, but I did not.

There is no worth put on that which is not payed for, and those of Kyton must earn their right for forgiveness. It is a price that must be paid in blood and lives... theirs.

I ask none for the women and children that were killed and eaten by the Cannibal of Carax as he worked the world of Kyton under his thumb. Nor do I ask for it because I gave no aid to those that opposed him.

But I ask for no forgiveness. For of all the worlds for three thousand years that we have fought on, none has been a greater sin then this, for the reasons that lead my brothers and I always into the deeper darkness. The Lion understood, sometimes decisions must be made, unforgiveable decisions.

But I ask none, for we shall make it right. We were given a boon, and I have asked. This world, this Kyton is no more, from now on, this shall be Angelus Secundus, what we wrought we shall unmake in the time ahead. This world is our worst sin, but shall be our greatest achievement.

For this world, shall be our world. We shall re-build it in our image, and from it's peoples, those that sacrifices, and bleed, shall come the new Order of ourselves, and we shall become one with this world.

For the Lion!

Last Wargames Con Post

Then I'm on to other things. The table is finished, and I had a chance to break it in. Pictures of the table were taken and should be up tomorrow.

No, I want to talk about my favorite thing that happened at Wargames con. I wasn in... game 5 I think, playing an Eldar player that had rum up and blown up my Predator with some Snakes on Plane (5x Fire Dragons in Wave Serpent), right beside my techmarine w/survoharness and thunderfire cannon.

So I had a question. The Servo-Harness says that in addition to firing any other gun he can fire one (or maybe it's both) of his Harness guns. Can he fire the Thunderfire Cannon AND the other guns? The snakes were at point blank range, and I was interested in the answer. So I asked a Judge, and the judge looked it up for a bit, and came to the conclusion that you could.

Now, why is that so great? Because apparently the question was so good, and the way my opponent and I asked (we didn't care, and were more interested, then married to if it could or not) we won the best question for the tournament, getting both ourselves $20 in battlefoam.

That was nothing but win for me. That should be part of every tournament.

Lessons from Wargames Con

I took 2009 nine off from large scale tournament play, and as the nun can tell you, it showed. I did not do as well as I liked(and have done historically). I can blame a lot of things, but the person in the mirror is the only one to really blame.

To help work on that I have about finished my tournament table, and Andy is coming down this weekend to break it in with me. However, that being said, I made (with help from my friends) a list of things to remember before going to tournaments. Here they are:




1. Do not forget the chapstick/water. I talk more at these events then I do on a normal basis, and therefore become dehidrated, and my lips crack. Both of the things above would have gone a long way in helping me think clearly.

2. Don't forget to win. Sounds silly, but a lot of the times you concerned with things in a game and missions come second, always play to the mission.

3. Do not play generalist marines. I mean this. Vulcan is fine, he is no generalist. 70% of all armies at tournament are marines, and everyone there is bringing things to kill... you guessed it kill marines. When you play marines, you are falling into that trap. If you do bring marines, bring them focused on doing one thing:

4. Make your list to kill marines: See my above post. If 70% of all armies out there are marines, why spec out to fight that one tau player that is at the tournament.

5. Do not take an all alpha strike army. You will win some games, but if things don't go correctly, your army falls apart. Darkwyn apparently get's away with this, but he also seems to roll well to go first with those guardsmen!

6. DO take enough scoring units

7. DO Relax... it's a game. Being stressed makes you play bad.

8. Do play to the tournament. Look at the tournament rules. If painting is heavily scored, bring your best, if it's about beatstick armies, bring that. If not, you really aren't playing to win.

9. Do play regularly against ALL codexes that are out. If not, when you run into that one army you don't play about, not only will you not know how to counter it, but you can't call your opponent out when they make mistakes (Dark Eldar - Wargames Con with incubi fleeting into HTH in round 1). If I had played against Dark Eldar more, I would have known this.

That's it for today folks!

New Tau Rumors

Tau, my favorite army. This is from Warseer from dante76.

Here is what he said:

Pencilled in release date of Aug 2011

New Alien allies
All metal sets to plastic (Pathfinder, Krootox, Vespids)
Possible new tank
Changes to Hammerhead Railgun rules. Essentially draws a line across table hitting everything in line. Multiple pen through vehicles, only stopped by a glancing hit.
Changes to markerlights. Point system. 1 Markerlight point = + 1BS, 2 Markerlight points = reroll to wound/hit 3 = Difficult Terrain test (blinded by the lights?). Cannot be stacked. So cant have reroll to wound and reroll to hit at 4 points.
Battle Suits. A plug and play system. Essentially streamlined. Pick two guns and a skill or two skills a gun. New models might have interchangeable arms similar to Killa Kans....


I am not going to go into if I believe them or not. It's possible, but I am taking it with some salt.

Still, potentially great new for my favorite army. You can expect this blog to go all Tau All The Time, if this comes up (next year).

On other news, the table has gone well, better story of it soon!

What Codex's Are Coming?

I think at this point even the most hardened individual would agree that Dark Eldar are coming next. Shortly after that, the consensus seems to be Grey Knights, with good reasons. The Stormraven for instance, needs to be created.

After that however, I have been under the assumption that Necrons would be next, probably some time around March/April of 2011... i.e. around the same time that Blood Angels were released this year.

I hope that is still true, and for now, I will assume that it is. I read recently they may get a Fall 2011 release, and if that is true, then there is quite a gap till this time next year.

I believe that 40K 5th edition will be released in summer of 2012. It's always released during summers, and that would be 4 years, which is about as long as a system lasts these days. Lately, GW has been releasing codex's at a rate of about 3 a year. That's rather poor IMHO actually. Let's do a track record. This is off the top of my head, so stay with me.

Summer of 2008 - 40K 5th Edition
Fall 2008 - Space Marines
Spring 2009 - Imperial Guard
Fall 2009 - Space Wolves
Winter 2010 - Tyranids
Spring 2010 - Blood Angels
Fall 2010 - Dark Eldar

Now, who does that leave for 5th edition codexes?

Necrons
Sisters of Battle
Grey Knights
Tau
Eldar
Chaos Space Marines
Chaos Demons
Orks
Dark Angels
Black Templars

Now,we are just past the 1/2 way point into 5th edition, we have a little less then two years of this edition left. Jervis has said that every codex will get a 5th edition codex. Well... I'm not saying he is wrong, but I think there may be a break between what he consideres "5th edition" and what actually was released during 5th edition. Generally codex's released toward the end of an edition have some of the new ideas integrated into them.

For 5th Edition, I think we can assume that the following Codex's are what GW considers also 5th edition, even though they were released in 4th.

Dark Angels
Orks


This leaves 9 codex's left to be released. At 3 a year, that is simply not going to happen. So who is going to be left out?

However, we do know something else, the Space Marines will be in the boxed set, and it will be a xenos they are fighting. (2nd Edition was Orks, 3rd Edition Dark Eldar, 4th Edition tyranids, 5th Edition, Orks.

Also something I think that is interesting. Black Templars are the main race in the new 40K MMO that is expected for release in 2012. It May be that the Black Templars await their release until 6th edition, so they coincide with the release of the MMO. That is what I would do if I were GW.

That leaves no more then 4 more codex's in this edition, and that is assuming a faster creation period that we have recently gotten.

Necrons - Released 2011(?)
Sisters of Battle - No idea... but I wouldn't be surprised if they got the Blood Angels PDF treatment when the Grey Knights were released.

Grey Knights - Winter - 2011 - All but confirmed.
Tau - Unknown
Eldar - Unknown
Chaos Space Marines - Unknown
Chaos Demons - Unknown
Orks - 5th Edition Codex (effectively) will wait till 6th edition.
Dark Angels - 5th Edition Codex (Stupidly) will wait till 6th edition
Black Templars - May be the first codex in 6th edition or early into it.

So we have the following open windows
Winter 2011 - Grey Knights (?)
Spring 2011 - Necrons (?)
Summer 2011 -
Fall 2011 -
Winter - 2012
Spring - 2012
Summer - 2012 - 40K 6th Edition

So four slots... here is my predictions: Eldar, Chaos Space Marine, Tau in that order, with one more codex in there somewhere before the end of the edition.... maybe (GW may not release one).

I know no more rumors then anyone else, just my thoughts.

Why GW Must Hate Tau

Often, jokingly, people suggest that GW likes the two legged, more familiar race in 40K, also known as Space Marines, above other cloven footed race, known as the Tau.

An example of this could be when Aaron Demski-Bowden(sp?) was asked when novels would be written about the xenos. The answer? "When they rock as hard." A perfectly legitimate (and funny as hell) answer, IMHO. The same reason I gave to a tyranid player when he asked why my psychic hood worked on people in vehicles, and his didn't.

"Tyranids just don't rock as hard", I said. Ok.... I didn't say that... but it does appear that way. I can't think of another reason that Shadow in the Warp doesn't effect things in vehicles, but Runes of Warding and Psychic Hood does...

But let's move on to Tau, who definitely, in the world of "rocking"... don't. Three fingered hands... isn't their point in 40K to be the target of slaughter, and having their things blown up?

Apparently, if you look at the Tau's own packaging, it is!

I've always noticed when I purchased Tau Pirahna's that in the background art OF THE BOX THEY COME IN one of the piraha's is blowing up. It's as if GW has said, "go ahead, but understand that one of their prime purposes, is to be destroyed." You don't see them selling land raiders with one in the background blowing up.

So today, for some reason I don't understand, I had the chance to go look at all the tau boxed sets. On the Crisis Suit box, and the Sniper Drone squadron, they also have the units that you are purchasing, being shot.

Food for thought... why do they put Tau Empire stuff blowing up, on the cover of the products they want us to purchase? I don't think this was done on any other GW products.

Void Dragon Corsairs

So I am seriously considering starting a Dark Eldar army when they are released in a few months. I still have at least a thousand points of marines to paint (perhaps closer to 1500) but I can do those when I need a break.

And right now, I need a break from Marines!

Anyway, I am waiting for the codex before I pull any type of trigger about it. You can't say I haven't learned my lesson from the great Dark Angels debacle of 2008. (When I dropped the money for the codex and the army in one go... then read the codex and wanted to weep bitters tears of anquish)

At any rate I hear at the moment that the new Dark Eldar will cause me to "nerdgasm" and be amazing, and I expect since Phil "Glorious Eldar" Kelly is writing it... they won't suck.

My next problem is that... I really don't get behind masocistic slavers. Sorry, maybe it's the Southern in me, but slavery = not cool at all. Now.... they also are raiders and... dare I say... pirates... and that is something that I CAN get behind.

So whatever direction I choose to go with them, I am sure that they will be more raider/pirate themed like the Eldar Pirates of Rogue Trader then the True Kin of the Dark Eldar. I was doing a little research and stumbled upon a Forgeworld Model for the Void Dragon airplane, which is used by the Void Dragon Corsairs, a group of eldar pirates that work with Craftworld and Dark Eldar. They also have a bitching scheme (red dragon scales?! Sign me up!). In addition to working with Dark Eldar, I may be able to do enough conversions so that the army could work as either Dark Eldar for now, then perhaps later switch it over and work with Craftworld Eldar... depending on who has supplied their equipment recently.

I even had this idea for a board where the soldiers are playing cards and drinking rum, and maybe my Autarch/Dark Eldar leader has an eyepatch. Argggggg! Where's the Rum!

I've also considered doing a purple army as well, as I have never painted an army that color. Whatever I end up doing, I can promise you that I will make HEAVY use of my airbrush.

On a small note, I should be able to pick up my paint to finish my game room tonight and get it painted. I'll take some photo's of that.

40K Table - Lumber and Building Supplies

Well I was able to make it to Lowe's this weekend to purchase what I needed for the table. I got everything that I listed in the previous post and had Lowe's cut it for me. The only problem that I had was with the 4x4 that form the legs. They couldn't cut these, so I am going to have to use a hand saw to get these cut.

Something else I noticed in the plans, was that the table called for the legs to be about 48 inches tall. I thought about that, and measured it, but that is very tall for a table. I want it to be more bar level for stools, so I think my ine will be around 36 inches or so.

The supplies all in all cost me around $96.00. I hope to get the extra piece and assemble everything by this weekend.

In other new I started the weathering on the models I didn't quite finish for Wargames con. I will post up pictures for them later this week. They are as follows:

10x Thunder Hammer Terminators
2x Landspeeders
1 Thunderfire Cannon
5 Space Marines in Robes
1 Dreadnought

After those are finished (as in, sprayed and protected finished) I will start working on terrain and stuff for the table. For now, I will soon be done with my marines for a bit as I switch over to working on my 40K table for awhile. I will be trying to get that finished before Dark Eldar come out, which I will have a strong sense I will end up playing.

Weekend Warrior

No pictures today.... sorry.

So this weekend is the first breather that we have had while getting into the new house. I wasn't able to finish my room, as the paint I was using didn't last... that's what I get for not priming... I should have known better. Now the paint I want will not be in for several days.

However, I feel that this weekend is an excellent opportunity to get my table built. I have squirreled away some cash for it, so that sounds like a wonderful project. I'm also hanging curtains (yea....) and mowing grass and what not.

In other news, recently I got some Vallejo Weathering Pigments in. I've been doing my dirt and grime with standard pastel colors for a bit, so it will be interesting to use something that is built for the purpose for which I purchased it. I will report back on everything throughout the weekend. I am going after work to purchase the lumber necessary to start my building project. Here is what I figure that I need. I picked up a drill from Hudsons for $20 a few weeks ago (black and decker too!).

The following is what the Drunken Dwarf site suggests.

- 2 4×4″x8′ posts

- 6 2×6″x10′ boards

- 2 2×4″x10′ boards

- 1 2×4″x8′ board

- 32 1/4″ - 5.5″ long Carriage bolts

- 32 1/4″ nuts

- 32 washers

- 12 90* 1″ metal angle brackets AND at least 24 1″ pan head wood screws up to 48 preferred. The more the better.

Now, I don't own a miter saw (nor do I want to purchase one at this time). They say to cut the boards down to the sizes I am going to give you, but I am just going to have Home Depot (or Lowe's... whatever) cut them for me.

- 2 4×4″x8′ posts into 4 4×4″x39.5″ posts

- 6 2×6″x10′ boards into 4 2×6″x49″ boards and 4 2×6″x100″ boards

- 2 2×4″x10′ boards and 1 2×4″x8′ board into 3 2×4″x49″ board

Now, as I have mentioned the room I have really doesn't need an 8 foot table in there so the x100 inch board (8.3 feet) will be taken back 24 total inches to 76 inches. I'm also considering making the supports (the 4x4) into 2x4. I'm not sure this bad boy really needs to be sturdy enough to hold a TON, after all.

The last change I am making is that I will be putting a storage level on the first set of boards cut on the bottom level. This will hold terrain etc... I will then be painting the table black and protecting it from battle damage as much as I can.

I'll post what all this ends up costing me, as well as how the table goes throughout the weekend. I have about $200, but I hope that it ends up somewhere under $75. Check back for more!

Go 40K Table!

Old Table

I built this table several years ago for The Gamers Sanctuary in Hattiesburg. I thought it came out quite well. The tower and trees in the back were modular, but the rest was not.

I remember modeling it at the time after the battle for skull pass. I liked the table, and it was quite nice (part of the hill in the foreground came up, and a tunnel section with dwarven xxx beer was in there as well)

However, I had a few problems with it, in the sense that when you played on it, your tacticus to some degree were static.

The next table will be different, nice, but not quite so one dimensional.

I had to postpone working on it, as the room itself isn't finished. I am taking some pictures of that as it goes as well. I ran out of wall paint, so sadly it will be till this weekend that I get it finished. Then laborday weekend I will be painting cutting and laying shoe molding for all the concrete that I stained last month. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to purchase the lumber and get to it. I've been asked to run a tournament in H'burg in October, and I would like to have the board ready by then.

Deadlines are your friend... they make you do things.

I did however start on a single terrain piece for the table. I had decided I wanted some woods for my table, and had a bunch of trees laying around. A problem developed in my mind however the more I thought of it. The world that the Angels of Perdition do their recruiting from, and the table I am building, is much more of a mad max style wasteland that is only just recently coming back to life. I imagine the people that live there life in a Dune/Fremen style meets mad max wasteland.

There just wouldn't be random trees....

What I did think however is that my marines are in general, also keenly interested in breathing life back into the world. Perhaps they have set up wind catchers and water pumps to bring water back to the surface, and the trees could be around these locations. Each one acting as a peace grounds for the people that life there, small oasis areas for them. Each block of trees therefore would also have a small amount of open water, or water pumping station that worked in conjunction with them the ensure they got proper nutrition.

I'm also trying to put ome finishing touches off my marines. Toward that I ordered from BattleForge games some Vallejo Pigments for rust that I plan on learning how to use. I'll try to get some tutorials on that, once I figure out how they work!

40K Table - The Plans

Ok, so the room that will be my 40K room should be finished, so that will bring me to building my 40K table.

For years I have been jealous of the tables with sides so that your dice don't fall off, and storage below for extra terrain. I also want to slow paint some terrain to go with my new table.

The plans for the table itself will closely follow that of those at the Drunkendwarf website here:

Their's is eight foot by four feet, and that is a little large for (a) what I normally play and (b) my room. So I will be effectively cutting it down to a standard 6x4 tournament table. There will be a level underneath that has room for terrain and all the sides will have some fabric (probably black with a Imperial Eagle perhaps?) that goes around it. I've also considered doing my chapter colors black/bone with the red winged sword as well. At any rate, that part can come later.

Luckily a month or so ago when I was looking for home supplies at Lowe's I found a great piece of bord that is already textured to look sort of rocky. I will be painting that table, although with some changes. I used part of what they had to build my tournament display trey and it came off great I think. I modeled some tracks and mud in the stuff, and some grass and stones in other parts.

Some part of me always wants to build a board that is built to play on in one format, with all the terrain part of the table (or rivers modeled in). However I did that once for the Gamer's Sancutary and while I liked it, I found the inability to move terrain very annoying. My personal table should be about versatility.

To that effect I have about six terrain pieces that I want to work on for it.

(2) tree bases - I want to add a lot of details and not just have flat bases with trees on them. Any ideas on what I can add?

(2) hills - Ditto here

(2) ruined building of some type - These will be closer to ancient ruins of the planet that dirt and sand has partially swollowed.

Once this part is done, I plan on building some nice terrain for centerpieces. I'm definitely going to pick up the Honored Imperium set, The Fortress of Angels big thing and probably the starport and maybe a standard bastion set. In the long run I would like to pick up the Pegasus cathedral set as well.

Pictures forthcoming as the table comes together. This weekend I fill finish the room and upload photo's. By the next week I hope to have the table completed. I will probably work on terrain throughout the process.

Back

I know I've been gone since Wagmames Con... I've been busy, and I was 40K tapped out for a bit.

I also was doing home repair (three floors tained/sealed and four rooms painted) and working at my business.

At any rate my gaming room is nearing completion this week, at least the room is. I will need to work on the table, which I will be reporting on here.

Just a note on Wargames con, it was great, had a good time, that is it. I'll try to get around to posting some results later.

I, at least mentally, and especially here on the blog am going to start getting away from tournament prep articles till after christmas I think. I want to work on my table, finish my marines off, and build amazing terrain for my table as well to make it look like something out of White Dwarf.

Hopefully I will have the table built this weekend, expect pictures!

See You At WargamesCon

I am desperately trying to finish real life business before I (my wife) packs me up to leave tomorrow. This week has been rediculous work wise, thank goodness most of the work was done on my angels.

When you take a tour around the room, look for my Angels of Perdition (picture to the left) and myself and say "Hi!". I will be taking lots of photographs and what not. I am the split scheme black/bone army, and this fellow will be at the front of the board.

Hope to play you at the GT on Saturday!

And GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN!

Dark Eldar Art Sneak Peak?

I saw this today while looking at the Memphis Battle Bunker face book page. It was ducked in their picture section and titled "Dark Eldar Sneak Peak"

I may be crazy, but I think this may be the first new art we've seen for the codex. It's on a gw site.

Anyway, I like it! I hope they look this awesome, and if so, I could see myself buying them.

This is the first thing that has made me think "screw waiting on necrons, I'll get these guys, and also... insane clowns together!"

Here is hoping!

I already have thoughts regarding my airbrush if I make an army of them.

Edit: Someone at warseer said they thought it was fan-art... but if so, I can't find the image anywhere else on the internet. If you have seen it before, let me know, thanks.

Angels of Perdition - Background

Look to the Safety of the Imperium first,

And your own honor second.

Ecanus, Master of 8^th Company of Angels of Perdition

Registered officially as a member of the 20^th founding, the Angels of Perdition are an enigma. The file on them has been growing for several thousand years now when their official seal was broken by Inquisitor Mandate IM-01-X5-4519190394 by Inquisitor Conrad Guot, who recognize a disconnect from history, and their obvious methods. His personal notes reflect use of equipment from dating back to the Horus Heresy, and even reported seeing a unit of marines riding jet bikes during the Casgadian Descent. Even more odd is that much of their basic pieces of equipment do not much Munitorium records, or standard marks. Even their Battle Honors and Banners bear the marks of battles fought through the length and breadth of the Imperium and at times for which they did not even officially exist. The most odd thing however is their Chapter Charter itself, as it was signed personally by Sebastian Thor, along with five other marine chapters at the end of the Age of Apostocy.

Their official history notes that the Angels of Perdition have been on Crusade from their founding till the end of M38, traveling from Segmentium Pacificus toward their goal of Ultramar. During that time they fought besides the Black Templars for over five hundred years, adopting some of their ways, and modifying their reserve companies to Crusade Companies. In late M38 the Angels of Perdition finally arrived at Ultramar before leaving once again to participate in the Dark Star Crusade that involved the entire chapter for over a century. At the close of the crusade, Warmaster Davidian gave unto the Chapter a boon, of anything within his power. For their gift, they took the ruined and broken forgeworld of Agrathus IV, and rechristened it Caliban Secundus. Representatives from both the Cult Mechanicus and the Departmento Munitorium voiced viergous complaint the Warmaster, but his will would not be undone. The Angels of Perdition had earned themselves a homeworld, one they bought in blood. Directly at the crux of both the Dark Star Anomalies they took up the thankless job of overseeng the entrance to the Two Sectors retaken during the Dark Star Crusade. Since that time a thousand years have passed and the Angels of Perdition have slowly worked the rock that saw complete extermination of it’s primary hives and infastructure, back to the beginnings of a green new world. Great fortresses dot the landscape and forest have crept back into the world under the careful hand of the Angels. A penance they gladly pay, as it is at their hand that the entire world was scoured of life.

Each of the Battle Companies Companies occupy one of the five citadels of Caliban Secundus that oversee the world. The Second Company are the Lords of the Wastes, where their additional rapid response training gives them free rains across the ash wastes, and broken ruins of the Hive Cities. The Third company lie in the valleys of the deep woods of Traunton Pale, where their the last weirwood of the planet was saved inside their citadel. From that one tree the great forests slowly take back the valleys as each marine upon rotation, plans another. The Fourth company occupies the black plains of Aexerath, where the limitless grasses used to roam the world. Only recently have the first tuffs of grass sprouted amongst the broken wilderness of rock and stone. The Fifth company occupies the the Alsarian Mountains, at the divide between the two continents of Caliban Secundus, their wind catchers and planetshapers slowly pulling the radiation from the world, and their Apothecaries releasing birds back into the planet. Lastly, sixth companies lies at the center of the Brokerian Gulf, where over a thousand years and the rising of the waters again on the planet, their citadel now reaches deep into the ocean.

Amongst the ruin and death of the planet during the Dark Star Crusade few survivide. Blasted and runined, those that did turned to the powers that lead them to their downfall. Mutants and heretics. Only pitiful bands of those free of taint survivied in the great underground manufactories of the earth. These the Angels of Perdition found waging a losing war when they took feudal right to the planet. The angels could have swept the heritics aside in a day, but did not. Instead they took off their great armor, and bore the robes of their orders and went amongst those still loyal. As the Lion said, save a man today, and he will need saving tomorrow. Teach a man to save himself, and you have saved him for eternity. Combat tactics, drill, hand to hand fighting, all of this was taught to the survivors, and over a hundred years of conflict finally saw the last of the mutant forces obliterated, when the Angels finally took the field, landing amongst the ruins of t Hive Faerthian as a company, one hundred drop pods screaming down to crush the resistance. Since that time, the men and women of Caliban Secundas have risen to the challenge, mixing their training with traditional weapons of war. Great Orders of lesser men that pay homage to the Masters of the Companies all swear fealty through a feudal structure, sending their best each year to seek admittance to the Angelic Host of the Angels of Perdition.

Their world stands at the intersection of the systems of the Dark Star crusade, daring those that live in darkness to try again if they feel so bold. And amongst the cold night of their world they guard their secrets and speak to none of the events that transpired at their beginning, of the Horus Heresy, the Scouring, the Nova Terra Interregnum, and the buried file, deep in the records, the order that made the Angels of Perdition Excommunicate Traitorum.