40K - Death Guard Out 9 September

Old news now but Death Guard officially released on 9 September.

Only three releases:

• Mortarion
• Plague Brethren
• Codex

I suspect the rest - two types of Terminator, new vehicle and more Plague Marines are later in month.

When I saw the prices I must admit to a strong case of Sticker Shock.

Mortarion is NZD 280 - for those of you overseas that is - USD 202 or GBP 157. The USD list price is $140 while UK RRP is GBP85.

The Plague Brethren is a webstore exclusive and is NZD 83 for three models though they are accompanied by an 8 page booklet and 3 art cards.

Guessing the delay in releases is to let your wallet recover.

40K - My "Come At Me, Bro" Emperor's Children Terminator Squad

Listening to various podcasts, I hear that Terminators are not very good. I thought I'd put that to the test with my Emperor's Children warband.

By the 41st Millenium there is little, if any, Legion structure left in the Emperor's Children. Reading the Black Library background novels - Fabius Bile, Lucius etc - it seems that the past 10,000 years haven't been good for the Phoenician's Finest and they have descended into a bunch of personality-led warbands. That has always been the basis for my EC armies which eschew heavy vehicles for Infantry-based solutions.

On that basis I made up a unit of Termies to support my power armoured marines.

They are made out of a mix of Tartaros and Catafracti armour from 30k. I've then added in various Emperor's Children, Chaos Terminator, imperial Terminator and Chaos Mutation bits. The Noise Casters are from the Chaos Vehicle sprue.

I managed too grab 3-4 Combi-plasmas from my bitz box but the rest have been made from plasma guns, boltguns and plasma pistols.

They are also carrying their "kit" with them so I have flayed skin, bags and tools on their belts. I salvaged some pieces of meat from the Ogre box and they use these to feed the daemonettes that follow them.

Next job is to clean up all the mold lines and plastic tags before filling gaps and priming

40K - The Playtesting Fallacy

One of the things that the "community" has a lot to be thankful for is the playtesting that went into the creation of the new edition of Warhammer 40k.

That is the myth that is being perpetrated by a section of commentators out there, be it on podcasts or blogs. Strangely - if you are a moron, that is - is that this is most commonly advanced by those that were "invited" into the process.

Roger and Bruce - Warhammer 40K's Top Analytical Minds At Work

I'm sorry to disappoint you guys but this is becoming a bit of a circle jerk. If you are going to say you were a playtester then you need to own responsibility for the errors that are emerging within days of release - who would have thought that Flyers with a high rate of fire were good; the ability to smite enemies off the board with 2 point Brimstone Horrors, what about RG sitting in the middle of a bubble of lascannon conveyors?

Either the playtesters involved weren't very good or they were only involved in the most cursory manner (in their role as Internet Celebrities). So which was it guys? Did they miss what were pretty apparent glitches - spam + stats = Good - or were they only really shown the finished product. I'm going to go with the latter, because if they were there for any significant part of the ride they didn't do the job.

Perhaps I'm being uncharitable? Perhaps they did find these holes and GW ignored them. Perhaps they've now been found right. I guess I'm an old fashioned cynic.

My guess is that they were flattered when GW came and asked them to "playtest". What they were actually offered was early access and the opportunity to "cheerlead" at the same time growing their own individual brand. Is that a bad thing? Does that make them bad people? Of course not. But let's not dress it up as playtesting.

Playtesting is an intense process designed to break the system to identify faults that can be corrected. I don't think that that is what happened here. Playtesting in the new Warhammer 40k context was just another form of marketing.

Well played GW, well played.

40K - Getting Down With Robby G

Over the last week I have been reading the “Dark Imperium” novel by Guy Haley. Warhammer 40k novels are generally pretty mixed – and this one is no exception. The storyline follows Roboute’s return to Ultramar to confront the Mortarian-led Nurgle incursion.

By far the most interesting character in the book is Robby G himself. I went in very negative on the guy but found the depiction of him led me warming to him as a character. This is pretty much because he pretty much confirms the whole basis of the Heresy, that the Imperium is a lie and claims to the Rotting Corpse’s divinity are false.

I particularly liked the passages where Guilimane said the whole construct of Father and Sons was a myth. The Emperor saw the Primarch as no more than tools (in the most literal sense) and allowed them to call him “Father” only so he could employ them more easily.

The biggest downer for me was Mortarian. We are used to Nurgle Daemons being portrayed as cartoon characters with little depth. However I felt that Haley’s characterisation of the Death Guard Primarch was very uneven. Just when it felt we were going to get a deeper insight, the story waded back into the shallows.

Overall, I enjoyed it but really only for Roboute. And I never thought I would say that!

40k - Because the Meek Won't Inherit the Rift

Given the victory for the Veterans of the Long War this week in their besting of the Automons of the Imperium (GW backtracking on Noise Marine Force Org status), I decided to celebrate by expanding my warband from 1500 to 2000 points.

In doing this I've decided to expand out my existing Battalion formation rather than try to game the Command Point system by shoehorning in a second formation.

The extra 500 points will be achieved by fitting in further "signature" units:

• Sonic Dreadnaught - Helbrute, 2x Blastmaster, Helbrute Fist, Mark of Slaanesh, Hereticus Astartes [Emperor's Children] - this is drawn from FW Chaos Index - (Elite) - 152 points

• Summoned Daemons - 157 points - equates to 21 Daemonettes including Daemonic Instrument

• Havoc Squad - 6 Havocs, 4 Lascannons (Heavy Support) - 178 points

This gives me a Warband  using Battalion Formation (6 Command Points) of:

• HQ x2
• Troops x3
• Elite x2
• Heavy Support x2
• Dedicated Transport x1
• Summoned Daemons (157 Points)

Pretty much all is ready to go except my Terminators and finishing off the Sonic Dread. Further expansion will be more Noise Marines, a third Havoc unit, a second Rhino and a second Dreadnaught. That should get me out to around 2700 points. 

40K - Noise Marines' Lives Matter

You can't stop the power of the people.

After two weeks of bleating and hijacking every Warhammer 40000 Facebook page thread, disciples of the World Eaters and Emperor's Children have got what they wanted....nay, demanded.

Noise Marines are now Troops in an Emperor's Children army meaning, we don't have to pay a Command Point tax and our favoured sons receive Obsec.

You can check out the FAQ here

Now GW will say they heard our calls....I'm not so sure. Given the number of mistakes/editing errors in Codex:CSM, I'm going to put the original omissions down to a competency failure (making this clearly a correction rather than reconsideration). Still, a win is a win.

So see people, if you are on the side of right your voice can be heard.....especially if you are a Noise Marine!

40K - Kitbashing Emperor's Children Terminators

I have a unit of Emperor's Children Terminators that are all armed with Sonic Weaponry - but GW took that away 😢

Getting back into Legion 40k I need to build a new unit....that "fits" the game. So the last couple of nights I've been kitbashing a new EC Termie as proof of concept.

As a base I have used the Tartaros Terminator. I have added a metal combi-plasma and an Imperial Lightning Claw. The head is from the Emperor's Children box while the kitbag is from the Ogres box. On the top of his armour I have added in a Dirge Caster from the Chaos Vehicle Sprue so he can play his Taylor Swifts "hits" of choice.

The aim was to get a Terminator that is a bit cobbled together after his fight in The Long War. I'm keen to use the odd bit of "Imperial" and "CSM" kit on the models to reflect the reliance the warband has on scavenging weapons and armour.

I've also bought a box of Cataphracti Terminators to give the squad some variation. 

Happy with the result so I'll turn some more out over the next few weeks.

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.