6th ed. Blood Angels Codex Review: HQs

bloodofkittens

We'll begin the review of the Blood Angels Codex from a 6th edition standpoint with the HQ choices. Blood Angels have some funky FOC placements, and in HQs mean you can't take a Chaplain here (but a tad more expensive Reclusiarch). Not terribly bad though. After each HQ choice I'm also commenting their related special characters, if any.

The top contenders:

Librarian: The good old Libby remains to be a very solid HQ choice for many BA armies, and for a good reason. For 100 points you get 2 psychic powers from the Divination, Biomancy, Telepathy or Telekinesis branches. The Codex powers are also solid, with powers like Shield, Lance, Sword or Rage that fit well with specific army needs. Its flexibility and utility, combined with his affordable price, make him probably the best HQ option for BAs. That, of course, unless you want to take the big badass himself, ...

Mephiston: While the other special characters were essentially buffed / personalized versions of the normal HQ, Mephiston is a completely different animal from a Librarian. The best way to portrait him is as a MC in power armour. His small size means he can be easily hidden behind / inside razorbacks or any other transport. He lacks an invulnerable save but with a Priest around he can take FNP against pretty much anything as far as I know: Vindicator shells, lances, earthshaker rounds, you name it... and of course the ubiquotous plasma that is meant to be his nemesis. His sword is AP3 so be mindful of whom you're throwing him against; Mephiston is probably at his best as a beater unit of scoring units.

The situational choices:

Reclusiarch: these senior Chaplains are not very different to the normal Chaplains, that we'll cover in the Elite section. They basic usage is to provide re-rolls to wound (also to hit for the DC) and fearless to a single squad. Their statline is slighlty improved over the normal Chapain, have a good variety of options (TDA, jump pack, bike...) and come with a standard 3+/4++. They can even get a PF should you want something more scary in combat than a power maul. For 130 points they are not very pricey and cover your HQ needs.

Astorath: Astroboy comes with a peculiar set of special rules, which you pay for, and thus make him a very specific role. As a buffed Reclusiarch comes with 2+/4++ and a S6 AP2 weapon that strikes at I1 and causes to reroll any invulnerable saves passed against it. All in all he is a pretty good challenger. He also unlocks the 0-1 Death Company limit, which shouldn't matter much given they are not scoring. 220 points is a steep price though and most times there will be better options around.
Dante: The Chapter Master of the Blood Angels is still a usable character despite a somewhat rough transition to 6th. On one hand he retains his main abilities - Hit&Run is useful as always and a strange sight in Marine armies, and no dispersion when Deep Striking with arriving with his jump pack. However he now wastes his I6 by using a Power Axe, and his DS abilities won't see that much use now that Descent Of Angels style of armies are not possible. Yes you can attach him to a buffed unit and DS exactly where you want them to be, but part of your army will still be moving out of your DZ and dropping +450 points with little support... is risky.

Honor Guard: While not a proper HQ, they can be unlocked by any HQ choice so we'll cover them here. They are essentially 5 veterans with an embedded Sanguinary Priest that can be kitted for a shooty or combat role, at a hefty price tag. So you can have 4 special weapons and a priest in just one unit, or perhaps some powerfists / energy weapons / storm shiels. Either case, great versatility but the price goes up swiftly. They will be very high in the opponent's priority list so consider well if you need them, and how much can you afford to invest.

Best leave at home:

Captain: The poor captain is a bad investment even with his low price. For starters, it doesn't add anything to the army. Whether you want a combat beast, a squad booster or general utility there are other better options. At least comes with a default 4++, but with his inability to take artificer armour... better pass.

Captain Tycho: Tycho comes in 2 flavours. The golden one is a buffed captain, sporting a shiny artificer armour (yikes that's a 2+), a combimelta with special issue ammo and an armour ignoring weapon that strikes at normal Initiative (!). As normal IC he can join any unit he wants and will bring some utility. Sadly 175 points is a steep price for what he brings. His best use is probably leading Sternguard Vets.

The dark version is after Tycho's inclusion to the Death Company, so his statline is slightly altered to favor CC instead of shooting, and gains the normal DC rules (relentless, rage, furious charge, FNP). Now this would be interesting if it was because Tycho can-not-join any unit, not even the DC. What's he good for then? I haven't a clue.

The Sanguinor: He is truly a relic of the past, in all the meanings of the word. As far as 6th edition is concerned, the Sanguinor is a character killer that buffs a sergeant and has a small +1A aura. But 275 points for a 3W / T4 character, even with 2+/3++, is excessive.

Conclusion:

The Librarian is best overall pick, as brings great utility for the army at a limited cost. 100 points for 2 (good) psychic powers, Ld 10, force axe? sold. That said, different armies will benefit from other options. 

Mephiston is a great choice in hybrid armies where he can hide behind razorbacks, and is a real pain to deal with for many armies. Dante has its place in DOA heavy lists, and a Reclusiarch gives you a chaplain and fills your HQ quota, if that's what you want. The rest of options are better left at home, either because of their price tag (Sanguinor) or because they are objectively worst than others (Captain).



Stay tuned for the Elites review coming soon!

Power weapons in 6th

The days of your power weapon sergeant munching terminators are gone for good, and 6th brings a nice assortment of power weapons to choose from. The great thing is that for an affordable base price you have the flexibility to select the type that works best for you.

Some ICs like chaplains or special characters (I'm looking at you Dante!) have to suffer a predetermined PW type that don't match too well with what they're meant to do but these few exceptions aside you're pretty much free to make your choice.

Power Weapons types

First things first, these are the new power weapon profiles:

	Str	AP	USR
Power sword	User	AP3
Power axe	+1	AP2	Unwieldy
Power maul	+2	AP4	Concussive
Power lance	+1*/User	AP3*/4	*When charging

The ubiquotous Power swords are the best proxy with the 5ed PWs, with the important caveat that they don't cut 2+ anymore. But they still strike an the user initiative and have no effect on the strenght.

Power axes are now mini power fists with to their +1 strength and being AP2, and same as the PFist they are unwiedly. For MEQs this means wounding other MEQs on 3s (instead of 2s) and not being able to cause instant death.  Think of this as a poor man's PF and you can't be wrong.

Power mauls are rapidly being associated to the crozius arcanum the marine chaplains are equipped with. They give a phenomenal +2 to the strenght and swing at normal initiative, however the AP4, well sucks. What's the point of a power weapon that doesn't cut through the arguably most often used armour in the game? well at least you wound MEQs in 2+. Against GEQs and eldars the power maul is devastating, as a maul will munch their armour and instakill most ICs.

And we come to the unexpected guest. Power lances are a rare sight in the game. How often do you come across Rough Riders? hopefully not very often, and if you do, you might want to find new opponents. Power lances are not impressive when charging and are rather bad when they're not, so best leave them at home if you can.

What are they best used for

No need to spend extra points on a PF when there's a power axe at hand

There is not an inmediate winner out of that list. Each PW type suits well a different playstyle. You don't want to waste high initiaves (I5 and above) with a I1 power axe, or give a Guard sergeant a power sword as he will be swinging after marines anyway. Each army will inherently favour one or two PW types, and normally you shouldn't be deviating from that.

Something else to consider is if you want to pay for a Power Fist when a Power Axe is also AP2. Yes the axe won't instakill marines but in most cases will wound in 2+ and bypass any armour saves, which is what you really want them for: the ability to hurt all armour types. A lot of 2+ toting rivals will still strike at the same I1, and those that don't will usually be more expensive and you shouldn't be in CC with them anyway.

There are a few units blessed with energy weapons (Sanguinary Guard and Grey Knighs Strike Squads come to mind). Adding one or two power axes amongst the power swords will give you a good balance between AP3 / normal initiative attacks and a few AP2 I1 swings.

Generally speaking, squad leaders should be left with little additional wargear, save cheap additions like melta bombs.  So as long as power weapons go, I wouldn't really give them one. On the other hand, most ICs are going to be in challenges and will need some offensive power. This is due to the challenges mechanic.

Challenges and power weapons

Runic Axe FTW

Simply put, challenges are a game of "who puts more money in the table". If you've got an EW and your opponent a chainsword, you're golden. If your opponent has a PF instead, well you're likely to get pounded. If you also have an SS, you have the edge again. Challenges are usually won by the character that has paid more points for the options. With this in mind, I'd try and be sparse with the gear. Giving 1W sergeants and regular squad leaders  a PF means they are likely to be killed before even getting to swing, unless you load them with more expensive wargear and end up with a very inefficient use of your points.

On the other hands, assault oriented HQs/Elites will require the adequate wargear to fulfill their role. Depending on their armour and initiative you might want an AP3 Power weapon (or lightning claw), or a AP2 Power Axe (or power fist).

When equipping ICs there's a third variable to be taken into account, aside of initiative and strenght: who is the IC fighting with. Take for example a wolf lord. He's got I5 and will be joining a unit. I wouldn't waste his I5 with a power axe as another unit member can carry that axe or PF instead. This means the Wolf Lord will only have an AP3 weapon, so what happens if he gets in a challenge with a 2+ toting IC? well simply don't put him. If you are charging, set up the assault so he doesn't end is movement engaged with an enemy. This means he can't be challenged and then in his initiative step can move these 3" and engage the enemy.

ICs like Mephiston on the other hand... well he's just got an AP3 weapon and can't join any unit, so just make sure he's facing the right opponents. AP3 is not bad per se, just has a different usage to AP2.

Conclusions

Power weapons are versatile and affordable CC weapons that need to selected carefully, based in what your army needs and can do. Squad leaders are typically best left with little additional wargear as they're not there to win you challenges. ICs on the other hand will likely get in a challenge and need to be prepared for it. An AP3 power sword allows to attack on initative and hurt many units, while AP2 has the I1 tax.

Ulrik von Octoberfest Showcase and tutorial

A WW2 looking badass ogryn? yes please! This is my first attempt at a Scibor miniature that I painted just as a divertimento after so many crimson power armours. It's a pretty cool figure with a large machine gun, dog face, cigar and a decent scenic base, perfect for a mini project! The name is amusing as well ;)

You might notice the right arm is not the same as in Scibor's webpage, I think they mixed components from another kit - nothing that a bit of greenstuff can't fix. I used Citadel's liquid greenstuff by the way, and worked out pretty well.

Paint tutorial:

First things first, the guy looks boss and I don't want to spoil it with a shiny look, so it's going to be primed in black. I don't really have a preference for white or black primers (or another color), just think about what I'm trying to achieve and make a selection. For my Blood Angels army for example, I prime directly with a dark red/brown primer from Vallejo, as that gives me the perfect tone to begin with. This Ulrik could have been primed grey or even white, but it would have give it a slightly shiny finish to it.

The skin is painted with a basecoat of tallarn flesh, and from then working my way to the lights with a 50/50 mix of dwarf and elf flesh, gradually increasing the elf flesh until the final highlights that are pure elf flesh. Just make sure to leave recesses with the previous color as you build up layers. Ogryn flesh (the old wash) helps to smooth the transitions.

Something to keep in mind while painting is where the attention will be directed - in this case the face is a focal group and we want to spend some time here. They say the devil is in the details ;)

This means when I was done with the flesh layers, I spent some time with very controlled, thinned strokes of different skin tones to highlight the cheeks or nose, or emphasize shadows.

The eyes are painted with a simple method: 1) paint them black. 2) add some pure white with a detail brush, making sure to leave some black around the eye for definition and 3) paint the pupil with a gentle stroke of your finest brush. I know some folks use thin ballpens, and I'm sure there's plenty of other methods. Quoting something I read from Kirk Hammett a long time ago, if you have to go from A to B, and the way other people do it just doesn't work from you, then find your own way.

The lenses are painted with different shades of blue. There are two tricks here:

• Keep the angle of the transitions (you can see it has a rough 45º angle).
• Once the minitaure has been sealed with a satin varnish, add a glossy varnish to the lenses.

The coat was painted with simple brown tones, scorched and calthan if I'm not mistaken, then a devlan mud wash and working again some lights with the previous colors. I could have spent more time here but I wanted to have it painted in an evening so no more work here.

The gun was painted with boltgun metal, then badab black wash and then some deliberate washes over the barrels after Ron's tutorial at From The Warp.

The helmet was painted with catachan green, then added a wash with 50/50 badab black and thraka green. Then added the Captain marks (2 white vertical strokes).

The base is also pretty straigthforward, with some brown basecoat and codex grey for the rocks. I might add in the future some more details here, like a spent magazine or razorwire.

And that's all folks :) Painted in an evening at a decent tabletop standard. Hope you liked the tutorial, let me know if you have any questions!

2000 points Space Wolves - Grey Hunter horde!

6th edition has been out for some months now and with the recent launch of Chaos, the metagame is still evolving. We still don't know where it will end but for now there are a few clear indicators:

• Flyers can only countered by other flyers, at least until everybody (if) gets Flakk missiles. At +10 extra points each might not be worth it though.
• Rhino + going second = first blood for your opponent.
• Demons, Necrons and Grey Knights are at the top of the hill.

And what about Space Wolves? well they are certainly faring less well than they did in 5th but are still a competitive army, if yet have no ways outside of allies of dealing with Flyers. So the latest talk is about foot wolves without Logan, a pure Grey Hunters horde that floods midfield and rapid fires things to death. I've never been a big fan of foot lists but admit I wouldn't feel confortable with the 3/4 8 grey hunter in a rhino units we were used to see. Just because the Rhinos are no longer indestructible plasteel shoeboxes and outside of that there's a lot of tesla / rapid fire / barrage guns aiming at you. So with that in mind I came up with the following list:

2000 Points of Space Wolves - foot slogging hunters

Rune Priest (Living Lightning, Jaws, Melta bomb)

Rune Priest (Storm Caller, Jaws)

10 Wolf Guard
2x TDA, storm bolter and power fist
2x TDA, storm bolter, energy weapon
3x PA with combi meltas
2x PA with combiplasmas

2x Lone Wolves, CF/SS

2x 10 Grey Hunters Pack, 2 meltaguns, standard

3x 10 Grey Hunters Pack, 2 plasmaguns, standard

3x Long Fangs Pack, 5 ML

Double rune priest is a problem if you are facing farseers but that match up aside are pretty interesting for a foot army. Double jaws + 60 marines in midfield can be a real pain in the backside for many armies. A more balanced approach would be just one priest and then scrap some points elsewhere to get another 10 Grey Hunters. In my gameplan, one should be going to midfield and give 5+ cover to a couple of units/snipe things with jaws, while the other can guide the missiles with divination or try to get some other boosting spells.

The wolf guard terminators are going to be leading the grey hunters pack, soaking up firepower until they are eventually wittled down. That's the main reason they don't have additional gear save for a couple of powerfists (I had 20 spare points). The power armour guards go with the drop pod and blow something up first turn / alpha strike a monstruous creature. The army is slow and not very mobile so it's important to have something to disrupt the opponent's plan in his own DZ.

The lone wolves go in front of the packs and deal with Land Raiders, Trukkz and other nasties coming your way. They are an important anti-vehicle and anti monstruous creture (remember they repeat to hit against anything with T5 or above), and with 2+/3++, 2W, FNP and eternal warrior can take a hit in the chin and strike back.

Then comes the grey hunter horde, moving to midfield for the objectives. The rune priest goes attached to one of the packs. Grey hunters are 3+/T4 models so are going to be wittled down, what we are trying to do is to populate midfield and try that our opponent does not have time to deal with that many marines.

Last but certainly not least, the long fangs make things easier for the grey hunters. One pack can be guided by divination if need be (and remember that could be up to 5 missiles + 2 missiles from the cyclone + 1d6 LL from the second rune priest), or just shoot things old style. Despite all the noise with vehicles and AP3, Long Fangs are still pretty good at wounding monstruous creatures and dealing with light vehicles.

Possible changes? well as mentioned above removing the second priest and a few points elsewhere grants you a 6th Grey Hunter pack. If anything I would try some disrupting unit aside of the drop pod, for example a Thunderwolf unit without too many toys (just a fist and perhaps a shield) to distract some enemy firepower and become a threat from T2; once they are dealt with the opponent will still have these 60 marines in midfield and not many turns to take them out.

So what do you think - is it viable? would you make any changes?

GW killed the Njal star - 2000 points Space Wolves

CMON

While still a strong and competitive army, Space Wolves have arguably suffered with the transition to 6th, and after all the FAQs and changes are still trying to find solid ground. Now that GW has produced new FAQs for the codexes and 40k BRB, are our favourite space barbarians up for a fight?

After Tony Kopach's epic wins at Nova you could say "hell yes". All the eyes were on good old Njal and his storm, however GW swiflty ruled it out as an effective AA, leaving SW with, well, no decent AA options at all. Thanks GW. That aside I still think foot wolves is a valid concept in 6th, and that it can be built well outside of Logan wing or Njal. The issue with Loganwing is that it has the same issues as normal foot wolves - namely reduced mobility and some bad matchups - plus a reduced head count. Njal I've never used him so can't really say. Without further ado this is the list:

2000 SW points

HQ

Rune Priest (Jaws, Lightining), CotS

WGBL with Saga of the Hunter, 1 Fenrisian Wolf

Lone Wolf, TDA, SS/CF

Lone Wolf, TDA, SS/CF

5 Wolf Guard (5 TDA, 1 CML)

Troops

10 Grey Hunters, 2 Plasma Guns, Wolf Standard

10 Grey Hunters, 2 Plasma Guns, Wolf Standard

10 Grey Hunters, 2 Plasma Guns, Wolf Standard

10 Grey Hunters, 2 Melta Guns, Wolf Standard

5 Grey Hunters, Flamer

4 TWC, 1 TH, 1SS, 1 meltabombs.

6 Long Fangs, 5 ML

6 Long Fangs, 5 ML

6 Long Fangs, 5 ML

So the list is built around a solid core of Grey Hunters advancing to midfield, protected by 2+ save toting Wolf Guards in front and a couple of Lone Wolves. Long Fangs provide support as needed and the WGBL grants outflanking to one unit... fancy some TWC wreaking havoc in your enemy's backyard? that's a serious distraction that should bring some firepower away from your GHs. Grey Hunters are what will make you win or lose most games, so don't worry too much for the TWC... with T5 and 2W they are tough and will be a pain to deal with until they are eventually wittled down. You might also want to outflank a GH pack , perhaps to claim a far away objective, and send the TWC to soak up fire in front of the rest of your troops. What's interesting is that a character in TWC can only join TWC or fenrisian wolves units, but nowhere says that a character can't join a TWC unit. Fun times ahead.

The Lone Wolves are there to provide anti mech, and are excellent to tarpit Death Stars. This is an important  change in mindset from 5th to 6th, in 5th suicide melta in Rhinos was the norm, now CC is where you can take down enemy vehicles more reliably.

Combinations and details

The Rune Priest goes with a GH pack, providing a 24" aura of psychic protection (so you should be able to cover most of the troops), and blasting Living Lightining or Jaws as needed. You could also swap his powers for Divination and twin link 7 missiles per turn (attach the CML Guard to a LF pack). Not great but might come in handy. His Storm power could potentially give a 5+ cover save to most of your army so consider swapping Jaws or LL for it.

Wolf Guard are pretty straightforward - stick them in front of the GH packs to soak up as much firepower as they can until they eventually die. If they make it to CC they can help with their 2+ and EW, and can also challenge nasty ICs to let the Grey Hunters deal with the rest of the unit. The Wolf Standard shines here! As for the CML Wolf Guard, he can either go with a LF pack, or to midfield and look to hit vehicles in the side.

The small 5 Grey Hunters units are there to claim the home objective. Cheap and reliable for this job. And should have a Long Fangs pack close anyway in case they need help... Long Fangs might be old and venerable but are still Wolves, with power armour, counterattack, and a sergeant that dishes 4 attacks. How many times have they taken down Orks, Scouts and the like assaulting them? more than I can remember.

Possible changes? well getting some allies (perhaps some IG blob with a couple of Vendettas) would do well to SW, giving some decent AA and AT ability, and a solid scoring base with some firepower. I believe this will be the norm for 6th edition and certainly, I wouldn't take SW solo to a tournament if you hold any expectations to win anything. Comments / thoughts?

About Dark Vengeance LE, Wayland, customer commitments and greedy people

A long title for a rather simple issue. The inability of many fans to get their copies of the Dark Vengeance LE.

This begins with GW not producing enough Limited Editions to cover for the demand, which says a lot about how bad they are at product launches. They should know their player base well enough to know that they would buy the new box as soon as it was out, and should have a pretty accurate idea of the player base size. After all, they know how many hobby stores they have, how many units they have sold in the past, how many different customers buying online... you need to be really bad to get this forecast wrong.

Advice #1 for GW: hire someone who can do a decent forecast.

Failing at correctly estimating the demand is bad for GW mainly because those (like me, you guessed it) who couldn't get their copy will buy the normal box, therefore spending less. It doesn't mean they won't get the LE chaplain with time, but that's a different story.

Advice #2 for GW: you usually want to lift the average order value and average customer value. Limited Editions help here, as long as you produce enough.

Advice #3 for GW: for 7th edition, be rather aggressive than conservative with the prevision because you will sell all the copies anyway.

Then let's talk about Wayland. I'm a regular buyer and a satisfied one, even with the issues that regularly pop (like terrible long times to get my orders, confusion about stock availability...). Their wonderful, efficient customer support more than makes up for it.

Problem is, you can't sell something you won't be able to fulfill. If they knew they had say 100 units for the first week and probably 100 more for the next one, the right thing to do is to tell customer #101 that they cannot guarantee their orders. This is something they did in the end but not when I purchased.

Worst than that, they told me 2 days ago that they had stock for me, so have the boxes suddently vanished?

That said, I really like how they have handled this, giving customers different options to choose from.

Last but not least, I'm going to talk about some of the people in the community. I lost count on how many times I read "I'm going to buy 2 boxes of the LE", or even more. That's your freedom of course but considering it is a limited edition and the fan base is rather big, well I would have certainly never bought more than 1, even if I wanted the minis to build a new DA or Chaos army. That any extra box that I was getting means that someone would not get it. It does not hurt to think about other people from time to time. Now I know some of you will not agree with this view but please give it a thought. Feel free to comment away, but let's keep it civil!

Games Day 2012 Space Marine Captain Showcase

Howdy! this is the Games Day 2012 Space Marine Captain limited edition. A fine sculpt by Juan Díaz, who unsurprisingly was there (GD Spain) ready to talk to all the fans who attended - a rather large mob I have to say!

As most of you know this is a homage to the 2nd edition of 40k that featured this audacious fella in the box cover. 2nd was the very first edition that I have (and still unpainted lol) so it felt good that now 6th edition is a go, we remember the good ol' days.

So with this in mind I painted the mini as a bog standard BA captain, although decided to pass on most of the yellow areas (bar one knee cap) as it would not really fit well with the rest of the army. This is also a fine figure should you want to use Tycho in games - that mini is pretty old and you only need to add a combimelta. Of course I magnetized the backpack and bolter arm.

Enjoy the pics and feel free to post your comments / questions!