40K - The Duplicity of Daemons

Over the last few days I've been delving more and more into Codex:Chaos Space Marines. Now I'm pretty sure I have developed a case of Stockholm Syndrome - in that for Traitor Legions, while it's not Gav Thorpe's bastard offspring, it's still pretty shite - there is hope with Death Guard getting their own book soon.

I've been focusing on Emperor's Children with a view to re-introducing my fun-packed warband back to the table. Now there are no Noise Terminators, Noise Bikers or Noise Havocs in the book....teah, my lack of surprise was palatable. And there is the little matter of the misprint - GW mistakenly omitted the clause from the Index where Cult Marines were Troop, but hey, I'm sure they'll fix it this weekend.

The thing that struck me was that if I took Daemonettes in my list then it suddenly wasn't Emperor's Children and I lost their Legion Trait. Bizarre but then things get strange.

Apparently any Chaos Character if we stands still can summon a daemonic incursion. So as long as I set aside points and Summon the Daemonettes - roll a 4+ on three dice - then I can have them in my army while keeping the Legion Trait. Against that, they don't count as a Force Org choice but that's not the end of the world is it.

So Emperor's Children + Summoned Daemonettes = Okay, Emperor's Children + selected Daemonettes = Not Okay.

Cracks joke about "Just like a woman to be late"

Congratulations in Order

I understand that congratulations are in order to Team New Zealand at the recent 2017 ETC in Salamanca, Spain.

Playing in The Ninth Age event they were voted by their peers as the Most Sporting Opponents.

This is the first time any of the Australasian Fantasy teams have made the podium. Great testament to the guys that they behaved so admirably in such a stressful environment. Believe me, things can get quite prickly there at times.

The NZ wargaming community should be justifiably proud of our team's efforts.

40K - Chaos Index FAQ

GW has altered the cost of the various Lesser Daemons in the Index to bring them into line with Codex:CSM.

My Plaguebearers have dropped a point which means I can get 1.5 more bases of Nurglings.

I'm liking how GW are adjusting things as books come out. Now all thy have to do is issue the Codex: CSM FAQ admitting Noise Marines are Troops in an Emperor's Children army.

40K - Cum On Feel The Noize

One of my biggest attractions to 40k is the fluff and in particular the Heretic Astartes (I never considered them Traitors). I certainly consider myself a Veteran of the Long War having played Codex:CSM as far back as 2002 when the Index Astartes series started in White Dwarf.

The two Legions I played were Death Guard and Emperor's Children - at the time Power Gamers played 4 Heavy Support Iron Warriors - building large themed armies for both.

So I was excited with the release of the new Codex:CSM even though Death Guard will be getting their own book. It meant the Emperor's Children would get some battletime.

I constructed a 1500 point list last week which I have tuned once the points values in the new codex could be seen:

• Winged Daemon Prince of Slaanesh - EC, Pair of Talons, Warp Bolter, Intoxicating Elixir, Prescience and Warlord Trait to be determined (189)

• Sorcerer in Terminator Armour - EC, Slaanesh, Force Axe, Combi- Plasma, Prescience, Warptime (171)

• 9x Terminators - EC, Slaanesh, 9x Lightning Claw, 9x Combi-Plasma, Icon of Excess (496)

• 10x Noise Marines - EC, Power Sword, 9x Chainsword, Icon of Excess (164)

• Chaos Rhino - Combi-Bolter (72)

• 6x Noise Marines - EC, Power Axe, 5x Sonic Blaster (115)

• 6x Noise Marines - EC, Power Axe, 5x Sonic Blaster (115)

• 6x Havocs - EC, Slaanesh, 4x Lascannon (178)

1500 points on the dot.

The Codex has not given me Cult Terminators or Noise Havocs so I have made my own. I may change the Lascannons to Missile Launchers after some play (modelled as Blastmasters).

Last week the army fitted nicely into a Battalion Formation but the new codex removed Noise Marines as Troops in an EC army (I'm 50/50 as to whether this was the intent but in the interim I'll play the less advantageous route). What it means is I have to play as a Vanguard which reduces Command Points by 2. It also means I go without Obsec on my units 😢

As I move to 2000 points I will look to add Daemonettes and/or Cultists in as cheap Troops as well as a second Havoc squad.

I'm building new Terminators and am using 30k Palatine Guard as my CC Noise Marines. The rest just needs some weapon swaps. Looking forward to "Bringing the Noise".

40K: Takeaways from CTA

Last weekend I played Warhammer 40k at Call to Arms. I had originally been signed up for Kings of War but bailed with the release of the "new" 40k. My thinking was that it was a good opportunity to play more games quickly.....I'd played 5 previous to the event, by the end I had doubled my experience 😎

I took my Daemons along not expecting to do particularly well given the nature of the army. In the end I had four games finish 8-7 and one 11-4. That was enough to push me into 6th overall and the top 25%.

So what did I learn?

• I need to speed up my play. I only finished my first game in the allotted time all the rest getting to either Turn 4-5. Given that was 4/5 games I need to recognise that I am part of the problem. In my defence I haven't played for so long a lot of the units in the opposing armies were totally new to me. I learned a lot about the various opposition. Given i have little shooting in the Nurgle, I need to make a conscious effort.

• My army doesn't like playing from the short edge. My last three games saw me have to come up the table with a trudging infantry horde.....no the best. In future I think I'd use a CP to re-roll the Deployment choice.

• I entertained the "Peanut Gallery". Apparently I'm really good at rolling 5s and 6s. A lot of people fail to appreciate that 5+ save followed by 5+ save means I have 55% chance of ignoring the wound. When I follow it with a further save of 6+ my chances of ignoring a wound rise to 63%. They are pretty much equivalent to a 4+ and 3+ save respectively. Yo, maths bitch!

• Following on from the second point, in the medium term I want to introduce more mobility and/or "reach" into my army. I remember back in 3rd Ed having similar problems with my Death Guard that had little long range shooting. It wasn't until I reworked my list with the late 2002 Codex that I was able to get that reach.

Overall quite a few takeaways from the first local outing in four editions. I am eagerly awaiting tomorrow's release of the new Codex:CSM. I've worked up a new list for my Emperor's Children now just a case to see where the points land.

40K - Chapter Approved

Looks like GW continues to make adjustments to "new" Warhammer 40k by preshadowing the release of "Chapter Approved" by Xmas.

This brings some major adjustments to the game:

• Boots on Ground - units picked as part of Flyer Battlefield Role can never control objectives

• Objective Secured - if Battleforged army then all Troops in faction get Obsec

• First Turn - +1 for finishing Deployment first, not "Go First"

Three pretty major changes and I think you'll see TOs adopt the changes ahead of the book's release.

40K - My Nurgle Daemons

My Nurgle Daemons picked up Best Presented Army at Call to Arms on the weekend. The army is basically part of my old Fantasy Daemons of Chaos army moved to round basis and given some painting and basing love.

Winning the award was a real surprise. I'll get some pics of the individual units up later in the week.

KOW - Call to Arms Results

Kings of War was also run at Call to Arms. Unfortunately it only attracted six participants. However this did allow a round robin to be played.

The results were as follows:

Best Painted went to Neil Williamson and Best Sport to Peter Williamson.

Congratulations to Rob (the Invader from the North) on his win. He destroyed all opposition in the first four rounds before running into Higgins' Orcs in the final round where he suffered a 1-15 loss.

Hopefully the final round of the Warlords Super Series on 16 September will attract a bigger field.

40K - CTA 40k Photos

I managed to snap some photos over the weekend. I also picked up a few of my terrain and army from Luke Forrest's blog (hope you don't mind Luke) and from Facebook.

Looking down the hall at Call to Arms

My Crashed Tau Terrain

Luke Forrest's Primaris lurking in my ruins

Michael Prince's Tau - I played him Round Two

Simon Smith's Ad Mech in my ruins

Bryn Jones' Crimson Fists - We met in Round 3

One of two nice Tyranid armies I saw

And the other one

Dave Hodgett's artillery park

Ryan Pike's Tau - Nice clean paint job

Glen Burfield's Craftworld

Luke's Primaris

My Ruined City Table

40k - Call to Arms Results

On the weekend I attended Call to Arms and played in my first 40k tournament in NZ since 2005. I was attracted back by the new edition and was keen to quickly double the number of new Warhammer of games I played.

Here are the results:

Best Sport: Cody Drake

Best Presented Army: Pete Dunn

Many thanks to Craig Stewart for giving up his weekend to run it and to Deon Adamson and Simon Smith for helping him out.

Congrats to all the prize winners especially Sean for blitzing pretty much everyone.

Also thanks to Games Workshop Lower Hutt for providing 40k art prints as prizes.