Origin of Grey Knights according to Slaves to Darkness

Based on a conversation I was having with a friend, here is a quick snippet from Slaves to Darkness regarding the origins of the Grey Knights.

"The Grey Knights were a single chapter created during an unregistered Founding shortly after the (official) Third Founding.  Although technically Marines of the Adeptus Astartes, the Grey Knights are, to all intents and purposes, part of the Inquisition.  They are listed as a Third Founding unit and, by the Emperor's instruction, were designated Chapter number 666."

Ah, how some things change and others stay the same!

Wargames Gallery: Daemons Pincer Dark Angels Scout

After a lethal volley from horrors of Tzeentch, the lone remaining Dark Angels scout looks the objective-holding plaguebearers in the eye(s) with grim determination.  Too late he hears the playful laughter of the hand-maidens of Slaanesh race up behind him in a pincer movement.

Battle Summary: Death Guard vs. Grey Knights (1500 points)

Mission: Annihilation pitched battle.

Table: 6' x 4'.  Sparse terrain on a red desert planet with some craters and line-of-sight blocking pinnacles.  No ruins to speak of though.

Opponent -- Grey Knights:
Mordrak, 5 Ghost Knights, 5 halberds
Librarian: warp rift, teleport homer (and some other powers that I don't quite recall)
2 x 5 Terminators: Master crafted hammer, 3 halberds, 1 sword, 1 psycannon
2 x 10 interceptors: 2 psycannons, 1 hammer, psybolts

Me -- Death Guard:
Daemon prince, mark of Nurgle, wings, warptime
Dreadnought with plasma cannon
2 x 7 Plague marines; 1 champion with power fist, 1 flamer, 1 melta, rhino with havoc launcher
7 Plague Marines; 1 champion with power fist, 2 plasma guns, rhino with havoc launcher
2 vindicators with daemonic possession
1 predator with autocannon, heavy bolter sponsons, havoc launcher and dozer blade

Initial Thoughts:

I've never played against a Mordrak army list before.  This should be entertaining.  But how am I going to approach it?  Clearly my vindicators could be the key here.  If I can position them so that they can get a few nice shots off, I might be able to make some serious in-roads in to the opponent.  Coupled with the dreadnought and the plasma gun squad, I might be able to pull it off.  But its going to be tough!

Early Turns:

I decide to deploy and castle up, fully expecting a turn one deep-strike without scatter from my opponent who has reserved everything and forces me to go first.  Although this denies me any useful first turn firing, I can live with it.  My vindicators point outward ready to take some shots, with the predator ready to do some serious dakka damage on anything that come near.  I have my plague marines holed up inside their rhinos for the moment.  And just because I don't want my dreadnought anywhere near, it takes the opposite board corner ... somewhat stranded from the rest of my army, but ready to take a pot shot when needed. 

My opponent deep strikes in and starts to cause havoc immediately.  One vindicator gets completely wrecked by a warp-rifting librarian (how much do I envy that psychic power?!) whilst the other is immobilized.  The predator takes a few hits, but nothing untoward happens.  It dawns on me at this stage that I have more kill points and maybe ... just maybe ... little more firepower and lasting power.  In my turn, the immobile vindicator targets Mordrak and slays half the squad with a well placed pie blast -- S10 will instant kill almost any regular marine these days!  Horrah!  The dreadnought decides to have a fire frenzy, making me feel luck!) and splats a wound on Mordrak and scatters another one on to my daemon prince (ouch!).  

The rest of the Grey Knights come on in turn two and let rip even more.  One of the rhinos explodes, but luckily, none of the plague marines are affected. But, the rest of the shooting accounts for them with contemptible ease (sigh).  Meanwhile, the librarian throws down a second warp rift on my daemon prince.  And rolls a six.  Bye bye daemon prince.  Ouch!  The immobilized vindicator also explodes after being charged by terminators.  There goes my plan to win.

In exchange, I get my plague marines out of one of the rhinos and rapid fire the terminators.  Due to some unfortunate die rolling by my opponent, all but one of them perish!  But I'm still to cause a single kill point yet!

Middle Turns.

The other squad of terminators makes short work of the predator, whilst Mordrak wrecks another rhino.  This isn't going well for me at this stage.

But in a twist of fate, my dreadnought has yet another fire frenzy.  Mordrak is dead!  Inspired, I disembark my plasma gun plague marine squad in front of the librarian and take him down as well.  But this isn't to last.

The lone terminator charges the plasma squad and makes some rancid mince meat of the plague marines and saves the power fist wound in exchange.

I've now only got my dreadnought, 1 rhino and 1 squad of plague marines "free", whilst the remains of my other plague marines struggle to contend with terminator close combat.

Late Turns.

There is only one more highlight for me.  My dreadnought has a third (yes, you read it correctly: a third) fire frenzy.  This totally slays one of the interceptor squads. 

But, the lone terminator finishes off his rancid mince meat making job whilst the other interceptors wreck the remaining rhino.  My plague marines disembark (uninjured) and rapid fire the other terminators.

In the next turn, the terminators shoot and then assault the plague marines, finishing them off (plague marines are I=3 and hence always strike after regular marine forces - doh).  

I'm left with my dreadnought in the opposite corner.  He decides to be sane and shoots a plasma pie over at the other interceptors, but without effect (the pie plate scatters and only hits one interceptor, whom doesn't take a wound!).  

At this point, I call it game over.  My opponent would have tabled me in the next turn (I'm pretty certain) with only my dreadnought left.  I lost pitifully!

Concluding thoughts.

I think I had the right game plan by focusing on my vindicators -- and they did indeed pay off ... for one turn at least!  But my opponent saw this plan as well and reacted well.

The stars for me were the Dreadnought on my team and the Librarian on my opponent's.  That warp rift power is great, no doubt about it.  I'm left wondering what I could have done differently as I lost even with some very fortunate die rolling on my part and some dreadful die rolling on my opponents behalf.

Of Angron's Activities and the Other Daemon Primarchs

Continuing my rambling thoughts on what the primarch's are up to in the 41st millennium, today I want to briefly touch on Angron. To my mind, Angron remains somewhat active and is, overall, a very visible primarch at the terminal end of the 41st millennium.  As a daemon prince (daemon primarch) of Khorne, Angron not only has apocalypse rules for his deployment on the tabletop (unlike other primarchs), but actively revels in the destruction he can bring about.  This is in contrast to the other chaos daemon primarchs who have a less than stellar participation rate in the 41st millenium.

Take Lorgar for instance -- the canon background is that he has locked himself away on the daemon world of Sicarus to contemplate, meditate and worship the nature of chaos for a long time, whilst letting his Word Bearers, commanded by the Dark Council in his stead, launch a twisted war from both Sicarus and Ghalmek.

Mortarion meanwhile rots away on the plague planet.  Occasionally sending a plague fleet in to the Immaterium to plague (literally) the Imperium of man.  Hence Mortarion has retreated from the real world, but still acts as a conduit of Nurgle's will.

On the planet of the Sorcerers, Magnus the Red confines himself and doesn't leave; content to send out agents (in much the same way as Mortarion, curiously) and learn more about magic from afar. The only notable exception being the Battle of the Fang.

Perhaps Fulgrim was a bit more active than the Tzeentch and Nurgle primarchs (and certainly moreso than Lorgar!), but his last known action was to lay low Roboute Guilliman.  Since then, he's perfectly happy (pun?!) spending his time on a Slaaneshi daemon world and has effectively removed himself from "activity".

Meanwhile, Perturabo secured the daemon world of Medrengard (where whisps of black smoke from a dark star caresses the surface) the and built the Fortress of Hate. He hasn't partaken of any further campaigns directly as far as I can tell.

And as for the Alpha Legion, it is likely their primarch(s) are not daemons...  So who knows what Alpharius and/or Omegon are up to...

Dornian Heresy: Night Lords

"Midnight clad, and wielding fear as a weapon, the Night Lords haunt the dark places of the Imperium. They do this not to hide from the light of justice, but because that is where those who would seek to harm the Emperor’s subjects are to be found. Since the time of their Primarch, Konrad Curze, the Night Lords have been guided by visions of the darkest of futures which they are driven to avert, even at the cost of their own lives. By their blood and sacrifice the Imperium of Mankind has been kept safe from rebellions, xenos invasions and betrayals without number."

The Dornian Heresy is the alternative history background being created at Bolter and Chainsword.  In a nut-shell, all the roles are reversed (and/or generally perturbed) compared to the Horus Heresy.  A couple of weeks ago, the authors published the draft background for the Night Lords, as the good guys.

I must say, I like this take on the Night Lords.  They're very focused on keeping the law (through fear) and punish severely those who waver in the eyes of the emperor -- especially those that seek to hide in the dark places.  A few of their number also share Night Haunter's precognitive ability -- also a very nice touch.  In the revised background, Curze still dies, but this time at the hands of Dorn.  He does this to save the Emperor as he sees in his visions the calamity that will befall the Imperium without his sacrifice.  His terminal words are recorded as: "Why did I come before you only to be killed? Because your Heresy, and the act you are about to commit, proves the truth of my actions at Cheraut. I merely tried to punish one who would go on to cause so much harm – my only regret is that I did not succeed in killing you before you made war on our father, our Emperor. Death is nothing compared to vindication." which bears a striking similarity (albeit reflected / inverted) to the official cannon.  

Gotta like the Loyal Night Lords.  They still rock.

Winner of the November 2011 Army List Challenge

The results of the November 2011 Army List Challenge are in:

Spaguatyrine (Space Wolves) 14%

Torgrimm (Dark Eldar) 17%

Brninghalo (Chaos Space Marines / Worldeaters) 7%

Porky (AdMech Fandex) 28%

Quite_Thor (Grey Knights) 32%

So the winner is Quite_Thor with a slim margin over Porky.  Congratulations to Quite_Thor!  Your name is already entered in to the Hall of Fame.  And well played to all of the other entrants -- they really made me think about the challenge in new ways. 

Finally, thanks to CodyJ for supplying the idea for this challenge.  If anyone else out there wants to make a suggestion for a future challenge, please send an email or leave a comment.  The next Challenge will be up on Dec 1st!

How Many Tesla Carbine Shots Are Required to kill Plague Marines?

Nurgle's plague marines are tough; no doubt about it.  But how worried are plague marines when taking incoming fire from Tesla Carbines (as used by Necron Immortals)?  Let's look at some statistics.

An immortal will hit a plague marine on a 3+ (probability = 0.67).  

The tesla carbine will wound on a 4+ (new combined probability = 0.33).

The plague marine saves the wound on a 3+, followed by a feel no pain roll of 4+ if required.  Hence the probability of the wound being saved is 2+.  Therefore an unsaved wound has a probability of 0.056.

But the Tesla special rule will activate on a hit roll of 6.

So we'll modify the above calculation to count for only a roll to hit of 3, 4, or 5.  That yields a probability of an unsaved wound of 0.042.  

Now let's add in the roll to hit of 6 (probability of 1/6 = 0.167).  This causes an automatic 2 extra hits.

So we're taking 3 hits with a wound caused on 4+.  That's 1.5 wounds * 0.167 = 0.25 wounds.

Each wound is saved (as above) on 2+.  This gets reduced to 0.042 unsaved wounds if the necron rolls a 6.

Combining the two results (0.042 unsaved wounds on a hit roll of 3,4,5 with 0.042 unsaved wounds on a hit roll of a 6) yields 0.083 unsaved wounds per incoming tesla carbine shot.  That means 12 tesla carbine shots are required to down a plague marine, on average.  That compares to 27 bolter shots (or indeed, gauss flayer shots) to down a plague marine.  So an immortal armed with a tesla carbine is more than twice as deadly as a regular necron or space marine to my plague marines.

How Many Khorne Berzerkers does it take to Down a Necron?

Berzerkers of Khorne are (were?) noted for their close combat prowess.  So, today I wanted to look at how many berzerkers it will take to kill a necron warrior in close combat.  I am assuming that the berzerkers managed to charge and also got off a bolt pistol shot prior to charging.

The simplifying assumption here is how to deal with the necron's natural save of 4+ followed by the 5+ reanimation save.  Combining them together grants the necron an effective save of 3+ (i.e. it saves half of all regular wounds, followed by ignoring one third of those that get through).

Let's resolve the bolt pistol shot first.  It hits on 3+ and wounds on 4+.  In other words a 0.33 chance of wounding.  Using the effective save of 3+ (as above), the necron will suffer 0.11 wounds per shooting, charging Khorne berzerker.

When the berzerker makes close combat, he will have furious charge (assuming that this hasn't been denied to him thanks to the adaptive tactical genius that is Nemesor Zahndrekh).  The berzerker attacks first and is hitting on 3+ and wounding on 3+.  That means 0.44 wounds per attack.  The berzerker has 4 attacks on the charge, which will lead to 1.76 wounds landing.  Of these, the necron will fail to save 0.59.

Combining this melee result with the above shooting means that a singular, regular Khorne berzerker will cause 0.7 unsaved (and non-reanimated) wound when charging.  Phew!  I was worried that that would work out a lot worse!

Perth Visit Coda

On the way home from Perth (I, II), I checked out the airport newsagents.  Unlike some other cities in Australia, they didn't sell copies of White Dwarf.

Perth Visit. 2 - "Tactics" store

This quaint looking alley is called London Court and it is located in Perth's central business district and shopping centre.  It is themed on an olde worlde style and feels a little bit like parts of York (UK) streets.

Tucked away in the basement of London Court is a friendly store known as Tactics.  They sell a wide array of roleplaying and hobby merchandise ranging from Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, board games, miniatures, and (of course!) Games Workshop merchandise.  There were M:TG tables set up near the entry as I went in and had quite a number of player engrossed in the games that were taking place at the time.  But they also host events such as Settlers of Catan nights which look like they have a wide appeal.  

The store is physically quite large and I spent a happy half-hour wandering around aimlessly checking out all their stock.  Not only did they have the most recently released items for sale (e.g. Codex: Necrons), but they had a wide array of older sale items and things that have long been out of print (for example, I saw a copy of D&D/DarkSun: Marauders of Nibenay in its original shrink wrapping for sale in there!).  

Contained inside some glass cases near the check-out there were also pre-assembled and painted (poorly for the most-part) second hand GW miniatures.  For example, there were a number of Chaos Marine Possessed miniatures retailing for six dollars each.  If I had more luggage space, I might have bought a unit of assembled Thousand Sons rubric marines as a mini-project to clean up and re-paint.

The staff were young: mostly university students working part-time jobs from what I could tell.  But that was not a bad thing: on the contrary, they were very in to their jobs and very much knew the mindsets of their customers.  

On the downside, the retail prices were the same as I would pay at GW (to explain: there are some stores such as Ace Comics in Brisbane that retail GW products at sub-recommended-retail prices).  But I would certainly visit Tactics again -- the vibe of the place was terrific and I didn't feel as hassled as I sometimes feel when I walk in to a GW store.  

Perth Visit. 1 - City GW

Perth, Western Australia.  The Swan River.  Subiaco and the WACA.  Nope - I checked out GW in Perth's city centre!

The store is physically located inside one of the shopping malls in the city centre of Perth (the Carillon City mall on Murray Street).  It is a bright, modern mall that is very accessible in comparison to other stores I've been to.

Physically, the store is small however.  It is certainly smaller than Brisbane city centre, Melbourne city centre and (of course) Sydney city centre (which is a battle bunker store for reference).  It might be only a little larger than Chadstone for instance.  This limits the number of tables and how many people can squeeze in, but in that regard, it seemed spacious to me due to a good layout.  The staff were impeccable (two thumbs up for good customer interaction) and my (short) visit was very pleasant.  

Another report from Perth tomorrow...!

Poll Open for the November 2011 Army List Challenge

There are 5 entries for this month's Army List Challenge.  Please review the lists and then vote for the one that you consider to be the most effective army that also best articulates the theme.  Good luck to the entrants!

(1) Spaguatyrine (Space Wolves)

Space Wolves have the obvious advantage with the best troops in the game for the point cost.

Rune Priest with Murderous Hurricane and Living Lightning-100 points

10 Grey Hunters with 2x melta guns, 1 power weapon, and wolf banner-180 points

6 grey Hunters with 1x melta guns, 1 power weapon, and wolf banner-120 points.

5 Grey Hunters with flamer,and 75 pts

Wolfguard unit with: 124 points
1 WG Powerfist Combi Melta(1st pack)
1 WG Powerfist Combi Melta(2nd pack)
1 WG Bolt Pistol and frost blade(3rd pack)


25 Marines
5 Melta (2 combi)
1 flamer
3 power weapons
2 powerfists
1 str 5 power weapon
Murderous hurricane to slow down units

Living lightning to pound high strength targets

Psychic defense

2 Wolf Banners to re-roll 1's in combat. (Powerfists)

Counter assault.

599 Points! Bring it!

(2) Torgrimm (Dark Eldar)

Nobody can do it better than Dark Eldar!
Assuming we don't know what are these "pets" exactly, we need to be prepared for anything. Walkers, hordes, elite assault units, shooty units. We can only assume that arena will be largely open and small.

List, 621 points:
*Succubus with Agoniser, Blast Pistol
*9x Hekatrix Bloodbrides with Haywire Grenades, 3x Shardnet and Impaler, Syren with Agoniser and PGL.
*8x Scourges with 2x Splinter Cannons, Solarite.
*Cronos Parasite with Spirit probe and Spirit Vortex.


Succubus with BS6 you will rarely miss, 6 attacks on the charge with WS8 and Agoniser will surely hurt. All that for 100 points, a bargain.
Bloodbrides are self-explanatory highly defensive force with 3x shardnets to minimize damage done to the squad/protect Succubus, with decent offensive potential in form for high initiative and another Agoniser.
Scourges puts out 26-30 poisoned shots, and here to destroy MCs and hordes that can tie up Bloodbrides. Solarite for LD boost.
Cronos - T7 MC to forever tie up these S3 "pets", if there's any, he can shoot with both weapons and produce up to 2 pain tokens per shooting phase, and one more in assaul phase. Sounds like a good deal to me.
Obviously, you can tweak this list a little, like dropping Spirit Vortex (after all, BS3 Large Blast in arena is kind of dangerous to your own T3 models) and getting more scourges, up to 4 Shredders instead of Splinter Cannons and so on and so forth. The idea however remains the same.

(3) Brninghalo (Chaos Space Marines / Worldeaters)

HQ-Chaos Lord, Mk of Khorne, Single L/C

Elites- 3x Chaos Terminators, Icon of Khorne
1x Pwr Wpn & heavy flamer
2x Pwr Wpn & twin linked bolters

Troops- 7 Berzerkers, 1x plasma pistol, Asp Champ w/Pwr Wpn


Fast Attack- 5 Chaos Raptors, Icon of Khorne, 2x flamers, Asp Champ w/pair of L/C

This force is dedicated to Khorne. There are sixteen models total in the force which will please Khorne greatly.

This force will be able to stand up to any infantry force or beast.

Thanks,
Thomas

(4) Porky (AdMech Fandex)

The disciples of the Machine God - the mighty Adeptus Mechanicus - will relish this opportunity to strip the foe's lair from within.

The list is from Lantz's AdMech FanDex, which has some amazing vehicles of course, like the Knight, Warhound and DIY Mechanicus Construct, but more as well - here's some proof, themed around the Necrenius faction, for the Necron launch weekend. If you want all the extra detail on the upgrade, it's free to download here.


Necrenius Faction Tech Quest - Emergency Defence

HQ

1 Tech-Priest Magos
(Infantry / 3(+1) 3 3(+1) 4 3 3(+1) 2 10 4+/5(i) / Techmail Skin-Plating, Cult Bionics, Independent Character, Tech-Priest (Necrenius), Combi-Weapon (Lasgun-Plasmagun), Combat Enhancements, Refractor Field)
125 points

TROOPS

1 Machine Cult Preacher
(Infantry / 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 9 5+ / Techmail Armour, Cult Standard, Cult Bionics, Lasgun, Electoos)
20 Machine Cultists w/ Lasguns
(Infantry / 2 2 3 3 1 3 1 6 6+ / Techmail Robe, Lasgun)
99 points

1 Machine Cult Preacher
(Infantry / 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 9 5+ / Techmail Armour, Cult Standard, Cult Bionics, Lasgun, Signum)
10 Machine Cultists w/ Lasguns and Missile Launcher weapon team
(Infantry / 2 2 3 3 1 3 1 6 6+ / Techmail Robe, Lasgun)
94 points

ELITES

1 Cult Abomination
(Monstrous Creature / 6 3 8 5 3 5 3 9 3+/5(i) / Cult Bionics, Twin-Linked Lascannon, Cable Whips, Eternal Warrior, Extension Cables, Feral Machine Spirit)
150 points

FAST ATTACK

6 Electro-Priests
(Infantry / 3 2 4 4 1 5 3 9 5(i) / Electoos, Cult Bionics, Tech Priests (Necrenius), Fanatical Attack, Fleet of Foot, Static Lash, Strained Minds)
156 Points

624 points


It's ready for quite a lot, whether large numbers or a small elite. It deploys with a small flexible firebase, a large tactical support unit and a heavy strike force, as well as a couple of elements that can boost the backfield or the forward units depending on what comes through.

32 Lasguns, or 31 with the Missile Launcher at BS 5
6 Static Lash shocks (auto-hitting any unit within 12”, S4 AP- Assault 1)
1 Combi-Weapon (Lasgun-Plasmagun)
1 Missile Launcher
1 Twin-Linked Lascannon / Extension Cables

... and I did toy with the idea of a Vortex Grenade just in case the pets are really big.

The Electoos on the Electro-Priests ignore armour in the first round with plenty of attacks, and the Static Lash means even lighter infantry who get within 12” are in danger. The big unit of 21 Machine Cultists operates as a screen, doing some shuffling to open up the Static Lash at the right moment. The Electoos on the Cult Preacher give the Cultists a boost in combat and keep him safe from the Static Lash if there is a need for a sacrifice.

The Cult Abomination can use its Extension Cables to move precious units out of position and help the Electro-Priests get the charge, and the Cable Whips double its attacks in case the enemy is larger or lighter. There are seven Tech-Priests in the force so keeping it under control should be easy.

The smaller unit of 11 Machine Cultists sits back with the Missile Launcher, which can use the Signum to fire at BS 5, and the Twin-Linked Lascannon on the Cult Abomination is another useful high ender for a tough model.

The Tech-Priest Magos is also flexible and can either give the smaller unit more staying power and help out with the Plasmagun, or move forward and boost the assault force with the Combat Enhancements.

The models with Cult Bionics are fairly tough, most of all against light arms, which should help get the Electro-Priests get where they're going, and better yet the seven Tech-Priests get a bonus to the roll for being part of the Necrenius faction. The two Cult Standards give some psychic defence across the force to anyone with a line of sight.

It looks a lot of fun to play, with plenty for the player to do even at 624 points. More power to Lantz, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. I recommend a good look through the pdf.

(5) Quite_Thor (Grey Knights)

Inquisitor D'Eath looked at her chipped nail polish and smiled. She had come to look for a Xeno incursion, discreetly arrayed with the trinkets of a long life in service to the Emperor. Sadly, they had caught her in the tunnels, screened from contact with the Battle Barge overhead. Now the gloating fool had placed her in the open to wait for his "pets". No-one, Xeno or human, used that term in quite that tone unless the beasts were gigantic.

Her smile broadened. Justicar Hunter and his team were looking like a better choice for back-up than she could have hoped. Best to not admit anything but frightening prescience.

"Justicar, if you and your team would care to join me? Loaded for bear if you please and I will have my sword and pistol."

In fact, she strongly suspected the taint of Chaos. Could they be so foolish as to keep daemons? She rather thought they might at that!

The inquisitor started to laugh in delight as Justicar Hunter and his Terminators began to materialise behind her...

So, I bring you the Grey Knights codex. Who else but an Ordo Xenos inquisitor would be in this situation? Who else would pull her out but the Knights?

HQ - Ordo Xenos Inquisitor (118pts).
Lvl 1 Psychic power (Hammerhand)
Power armour, Rad grenades, Psychotroke grenades, Force weapon, needle pistol, Ulumeathi Plasma Syphon (What, I had points to spare!)

Troops
10 Grey Knight Terminators (495 points)
2 x pyscannons, psybolt ammo, 4 x halberds, 4 x swords, 2 x hammers, Brotherhood Banner


Why? Well, the list does not have to beat the other lists here, it needs to eat monstrous creatures and potentially assault infantry (small beasts) for breakfast. I bring you 8 rending S7 and 14 AP5 S5 at 24". I bring you 3 attacks each with a bunch of Halberds and two shots for Hammerhand. I bring you terminator armour and 4 guys with 4++ in close combat from the Nemesis Force Swords and, most of all, I bring you all the grenade shenanigans that can be brought as well as a needle pistol for some extra wounds in close.

Teri-bad against mechanised infantry, the absolute bomb against high toughness assault beasts.

Also, if those are daemons on the other side of that door, the Grey Knight fluff is going to start looking plausible!

codex: chaos legions / rumour comment

Bell of Lost Souls posted a small set of codex: chaos legions rumours from ghost21.  Whilst its very early days in the rumour cycle to say what is true or false, this one caught my eye:

"khornate chrono gladiators"

...What The?  Where does "chrono" come in to things?  Khornate gladiators, sure.  But why are they associated with "time" specifically?

Other highlights for me included "minor chaos powers" being in there and dark mechanicus.  But to be honest, all of the rumours presented sound juicy to me!  Exciting times.

Necrons of Verdus Prime revisited

A long time ago, I purchased a box of necrons with the explicit purpose of using the parts for conversion work. Although my conversions with them have been limited (see: 1, 2), I did end up assembling a whole squad (or perhaps killteam) of them and painted them up in Verdus Prime colours.

The idea for Verdus Prime originally came from the Dawn of War computer game wherein that faction of necrons appealed to me due to their colours and ease of identification on the battlefield. I still like the colour scheme, but painting white still holds problems for many people; including myself. I recently had a go at doing white properly for a long-barrelled marine miniature and was happy with the outcome.  But for the necron, the white is pretty solid and makes for a stark contrast with the darker, silvered parts.  Moreover, the oily streaks that I've added to all of these Verdus Prime necrons accentuates and, indeed, feeds off the sharp white colour of the necron's colours.  For the eyes, I tried to use blood red to give them a grim-determination terminator style look.  In a number of my images, this feature is lost as the colour gets washed out by the brilliance of the white in the colour balance.  The necron symbol / rune in the centre of the chest is picked out with a goblin green colour.

For the Gauss barrel, I wanted for something a little more original than gluing the green plastic in to place.  So, I painted dark green in erratic strokes along its length to give the impression of energy coursing through it and ready to erupt at the terminal end.  Since the barrel is transparent, it is easy to see the strokes on the opposite side and therefore the adage of "less is more" applied to this process. Moreover, the barrel has the benefit of looking different depending on the angle that the observer views it from -- this aspect appealed to me greatly in the final result. 

But should I turn my small killteam of necrons in to a full-blown army now that the new codex: necrons have come out?  Hmmmmmmm.

Do Blight Drones Work with Epidemius?

Blight drones are produced by Forge World with rules published separately.  They are supposed to be created in the image of, and possessed by Nurgle.  Significantly, they're about the only viable fast attack choice for an Epidemius Army and add some much needed firepower to it.

But here is the twist.  Codex: chaos daemons states that the Tally of Pestilence that fuels an Epidemius Army only works for models "killed by followers of Nurgle (i.e. any daemon of Nurgle, or model with the Mark of Nurgle)".  Nowhere in the rules for the Blight Drone does it state that is has the Mark of Nurgle, or is explicitly a Nurgle Daemon.  So: do blight drone kills count toward Epidemius' tally?

On the other hand, nowhere in codex: chaos daemons do they explicitly define what models belong to "daemons of Nurgle".  The blight drone could well fall under that category given it is (clearly) possessed by a Nurgle entity.  Comments welcome!

Reminder: November 2011 Army List Challenge

The November Army List Challenge is still open for entries.  In particular, there are no new codex: necrons entries yet ;)

Can you come up with a themed list to take on the challenge and win the kudos, honour and votes of your peers?  Good luck!

Mindshackle Scarabs and Kharn the Betrayer

Here's a question for you.  I'm running Kharn the Betrayer as one of my HQ choices.  He's a nasty Khorne guy who really doesn't mind from where the blood flows -- just so long as it flows.  In close combat there's a chance he'll hit his own allies.

Mindshackle scarabs in the new necron rules are an interesting entry.  Fail a Ld test on 3d6 and the enemy strikes their own allies.  How does this interact with "the Betrayer" rule?  It is stated that the scarabs can use all the "bonuses" the model already has -- is "the Betrayer" rule a bonus?  

The rules as written and common sense say that all of Kharn's attacks go against his allies if he's affected by the scarabs.  But ... could "the Betrayer" rule simply get inverted?

Note to Self: True Cost of Summoned Greater Daemons

This topic has already been talked about extensively elsewhere, but I wanted to briefly add my own notes-to-self on this blog for my own purposes in listbuilding (at least prior to Codex: Chaos Legions). 

Since Greater Daemons require a champion of chaos in order to be able to come on to the board (summoned), the true cost of a greater daemon is not simply the (frankly attractive looking) 100 points, but 100 plus at least 30 (1xCSM, upgraded to champion).  In all likelihood, the champion(s) will be equipped with something a bit more effective than harsh language, such as a power fist.  Hence the greater daemon might "cost" something more like 155+ points.

In my Death Guard armies, I employ plague champions with power fists regularly (63 points).  This really bumps up the points cost of the greater daemon to something more comparable to those found in codex: daemons (but without the cool rules associated with them).  But by employing multiple champions, the chance of getting a greater daemon to where its most needed is increased.

When I use summoned greater daemons, I now think of them as being chaos champions that change form at some point during the game.  This helps me visualize them a bit better and their capabilities.  Doing this for a starting player is hard though -- I used to find myself getting locked-in on thinking of them as champions only and seeing the greater daemon as something separate entirely.

Long Barrel Marine

Following on from the earlier long-barrelled bolter conversion, this is a standard space marine painted up in white (bone?) armour with purple trim carrying the aforementioned long-barrelled bolter.  The painting scheme doesn't follow any particular marine chapter that I'm aware of -- I simply wanted to test out how well (or not) purple went with white.

To paint the white, I followed a prescription inspired by Ron at From the Warp (cf. Death Wing).  Much of my painting style is sloppy -- largely a result of too many Nurglesque miniatures.  Whilst I feel competent with greens, blues and reds (and various shades therein), white (and indeed, yellow) has always been a problem for me.  So, why not try a bit of white painting for a change and see if I can't develop it along a little bit?  This miniature features a dheneb stone basecoat followed by a series of washes on top of steadily more diluted layers.  In adding the layers on top of each other, I've left a black gap around the white to accentuate the feeling of the white.  The purple is not an easy colour for me either -- the highlighting inparticular is not terrific here, but I gave it a go.  Although I've not added any weathering to the miniature, I did have a small dab at adding some battle-damage to the mix in a few places -- particularly around joints.  The bolter is the simplistic part of this painting, being a pair of silver colours.  The overall effect is pleasing and serves as a nice proof-of-concept for such long-barrelled marines.

November 2011 Army List Challenge

This month's Army List Challenge is a guest-issued challenge from an idea provided by CodyJ.

You represent the HQ choice of your army, but you've been captured by a Xenos race and thrown in to an arena.  The Xenos scum are going to watch you be butchered by many of their "pets".  Luckily for you, you have a teleport homing device / amulet of chaos / pocket webway portal (delete as appropriate) which will allow a small number of your comrades to come to your aid.  You do not know what "pets" will be coming through the Xenos' gates though.  Should you bring 60 of the Boyz, or just a few elite terminators?

Rules.

(1) Design a 625 point army list to take on this challenge.  You may only spend 125 points on your (singular) HQ choice (representing YOU in the arena...!) and 500 points on everything else (NB you do not need to purchase a teleport homer or equivalent -- you are assumed to have that).  You may not take vehicles (anything with an armour value) or special characters (including unit upgrades such as the Changeling).  You are further limited to a maximum of one slot in the Force Organization Chart for every type of unit apart from Troops selections.

(2) Post your army lists as a comment to this posting and explain why the army list is effective and is themed to the scenario.

(3) Entries close at 01:00 GMT on November 14th.
(4) On that same day, I'll open a poll for Warpstone Flux readers to judge which army list they consider to be the "most effective army list that also best articulates the theme" (whatever readers interpret that to mean) out of all entrants.
(5) The winner will be tallied and announced on November 21st (and entered in to the hall of fame!).
(6) One entry per person please.

Good luck!