Last Month's Painting: Completed the Space Hulk set

Finally... the set is complete

This week I finally came to the end of my journey to completely paint my Space Hulk set. For those of you who have been following this blog for a while, you’ll know the story already: I obtained Space Hulk when I worked for Games Workshop in 2009, and even though I opened it and played it a few times with my mate Dave, I never got around to painting it. The reason for this is that I played the vast majority of war games in what was then Games Workshop, and what is now the Warhammer stores (though I’ve yet to play a game in one of those!) where there is a certain expectation for your models to be painted, or at least have some sign of progression, if you use them in the shop. The problem is that Games Workshop stopped supporting Space Hulk after the month it was released, so as I wasn’t going to play any games in the shop, it wasn’t a priority to paint them – not at the point where I perpetually had a tonne of Chaos Space Marines, Empire and Haradrim (one army from the three core game systems that it was expected I would have as a member of staff) that I needed to be painting! Dave, of course, didn’t mind the models not being painted, so even though we’ve really enjoyed playing the game in the past, the models remained unpainted for eleven years.

All the Terminators were very highly detailed...

That all changed when Lockdown began, and I found myself with a little (though surprisingly not much) more than the usual amount of spare time on my hands. I’d painted all the Chaos Space Marine Raptors I had for the Black Legion army I was working on, and while I did get some more eventually, I didn’t see any sense in going to any of the hobby shops to buy them while we were in lockdown. I had some of the old boxed sets in the loft of the flat I used to live in and decided to get the Space Hulk set down and paint them. I started with one squad of Terminators, then painted the twelve Genestealers that looked the most straightforward to paint. Both appeared in previous editions of the blog. I then painted the remaining squad of Terminators – including the dead one – and the leftover Genestealers, these didn’t make it on to the blog because I didn’t know what to say about them without repeating myself.

...and the Broodlord was a lot of fun!

Moving on, I painted the Librarian and the Broodlord. Both presented an additional challenge for me: As most folks who play 40K know, a Librarian’s armour is always blue no matter what chapter they’re attached to so that was a break from the red I’d been painting hitherto. I also went into a lot more detail with the weapons, face and armour than I did with the other models, as this was the “centrepiece” of the Terminator force in Space Hulk. With the Broodlord, this was much the same as the Genestealers I’d been painting up to that point but with an extra layer of colour on the flesh and carapace. There was also a lot more than the usual number of skulls and Terminator helmets that needed painting, and it took me a while, but I’m pleased with the result.

The finishing touches.

Finally, I painted the last little bits – the Artefact and the C.A.T. I didn’t spend a huge amount of time on these, but it was a lot of fun doing the jewels on the Artefact.

I’ve bought quite a few “build and paint” games in the last 10-12 years and this is the first time I’ve managed to do both with a complete set, so I’m pleased with that. Both factions presented a fresh challenge: The colour I painted the Blood Angels Terminators was the same as the colours I’d been painting my Word Bearers, but with more of an emphasis on the gold than the silver. The Genestealers were an altogether different experience, as I haven’t painted Tyranids many times before, and when I have, it’s never been in any significant numbers. Space Hulk is a great set, and I’m glad to have completed it.

Warhammer World Invasion: April 2013

It took a while to get there but for me, the 2013 season is now on! Last week at Warhammer World I finally got to play some full games of the new edition of Warhammer 40K. It was an Invasion event that runs there from time to time, particularly in the school holidays, and it being a doubles event I partnered up with Dave and took the Iron Scars clan to their inaugral tournament. Here's how it all went down:

Because I wanted to use a new army for this, I designed a new Chaos Space Marine army around a god that is used far too little - Slaanesh. Granted, they lack the brutality of Khorne, or the reslience of Nurgle, but having cut my teeth on Dark Eldar way back when I first started the hobby, I am very well aware of how useful that extra initiative can be. Here's my army list:

	Components	Points	Total Points	Total Army
HQ	Chaos Lord	65	120	600
	Jump Pack	15
	Lightning Claw (2)	30
	Mark of Slaanesh	10
Troops	Chaos Space Marines (6)	88	161
	Lightning Claw (2)	30
	Close Combat Weapon (5)	10
	Plasma Gun	15
	Veterans of the Long War (6)	6
	Mark of Slaanesh	12
	Chaos Space Marines (6)	88	155
	Lightning Claw (2)	30
	Close Combat Weapon (5)	10
	Plasma Gun	15
	Mark of Slaanesh	12
Fast Attack	Raptors (6)	112	164
	Meltagun (2)	20
	Plasma Pistol	15
	Melta Bombs	5
	Mark of Slaanesh (6)	12

Quite a lot going on there for a small army. What was supposed to happen was the Raptors deep-strike onto the battlefield either straight away or 1 turn in, use their Melta guns to destroy either the vehicles or whatever the enemy had sunk the most points on, and harrass the rest of the army until the end of the game, contesting objectives if at all possible. The rest of the force would support them by holding our objectives, firing plasma shots at hard targets, and in the case of the Chaos Space Marine Lord, jumping into any combat that needed supporting. Dave had taken a swarm of 75 Orks lead by a Big Mek, going on the assumption that whatever damage they took, there'd still be plenty more where they came from. We entered battle with all this in mind, and campaigned to aid the Dudley store in their victory...

A quick note about the games, as there were elements common to all of them:

• The games were all supposed to be Doubles games, with 600pts per player, using the standard force organisation chart. Now, the chart can be applied somewhat loosely in small-point games, but in this case the rules stood firm to stop people taking dirty, cheesey armies to what was supposed to be a friendly tournament.
• The games we played were all fast, dirty and scrappy, and with just the right balance between competitiveness and friendlyness; we couldn't have asked for a better set of opponents.
• Regular games of 40K can last for up to 7 turns, and more commonly 5, but because of the limited time constraints, none of our games lasted longer than 3 turns each.

Round One: Chaos/Orks vs Grey Knights/Blood Angels

When we found ourselves up against Grey Knights and Blood Angels, including some Death Company, I was convinced we were going do die a quick and horrible death. The scenario was Big Guns Never Tire (Objectives (in our case 4) with Heavy Support counting as scoring units as well as granting victory points) with Hammer and Anvil deployment, so we had a long way to go before we got into any kind of fighting. The Grey Knights, funnily enough, had a pinkish tint to them, their commander Ben attributing this to the time they spend fighting Slaanesh, and I was eager to continue the Rivalry!

They hadn't counted on the Raptors, and it was a good day for their Champion as he dispatched a Blood Angels Assualt Sergeant in Black Rage and a Grey Knight Justicar in single combat; not always a wise move to make but a necessary one since Chaos Champions have no choice in the matter. This cost our enemies the game, since the rest of the combat has no effect on the participants of the challenge, so by the end of the 3rd turn their objective was still contested as the Champion was still alive where his comrades had fallen. Elsewhere, the other objectives remained bitterly contested as the remaining forces of the Space Marines arrived via Deep Strike, but it was not enough firepower to move either the Orks or the Chaos Marines from their objectives. In the end, Dave and I won on Secondary victory points, and while it was not the decisive win we would have chosen, it was enough to get the day off to a promising start.

Final Score: Chaos/Orks win 2-0.

Round Two: Chaos/Orks vs Necrons/Tryanids

This was a battle we were dreading. The only thing worse than an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object is having to take on a combined strength of an unstoppable force (the Tryanids) AND an immovable object (the Necrons.) To make matters worse, we'd landed a 6-objective Scouring scenario (Objectives, with Fast Attack counting as scoring units and awarding victory points) and the 1 specialised unit that we had was Fast Attack (the Raptors.) This wasn't going to change my game plan, but we'd have to watch our step carefully...

Losing the first turn to a seize of initiative cost us dearly, as we found several large blast templates on top of us courtesy of the Necrons which wiped out a significant number of the Orks before we'd even got started. My Chaos Marines made an immediate grab for 2 of the objectives while we concentrated fire on the Gargoyles. We wiped the unit out, denying the enemy a fast scoring unit and earning us a couple of victory points.

Notwithstanding the arrival of the Raptors, it then became a war of attrition, which with so many guns supporting an onslaught of Tyranids was always going to be a struggle to win. However the balance of power literally came down to the last 10 minutes of the game where 1 of 3 things had to happen in order to win:

1. The skeletal wreck of one of my units of Chaos Marines needed to score a high enough Run roll to get to the objective on the left hand side of our deployment zone,
2. The Orks holding one of our objectives needed to pass a leadership test forced by the presence and attacks of a Zonathrope,
3. The Raptors needed to defeat a squad of 6 Necrons in close combat and force them to flee from the objective they were holding.

Sadly, none of these things happened, and Dave and I lost that battle right at the end.

Result: Necrons/Tryanids win 7-5.

Round Three: Chaos/Orks vs Dark Angels/Space Wolves

While we'd never be so arrogant as to suggest we had this one in the bag, we did approach this particular battle with a certain amount of confidence. I had the firepower to take out heavily armoured units, and Dave had the numbers to overwhelm them. So much so that, even with Vanguard deployment (imprecise and hard to strategise,) Emperor's Will objectives (1 objective each) and staring 2 Vindicators in the face right at the start of the game, we were confident that we'd do a good job with this one.

We could not have been more wrong. Due to some appalling deployment on my part, 1 of my squads of Chaos Marines was left out in the open and was shot to pieces in the first turn, giving our enemies first blood. My Chaos Lord was not long in following. Dave had mercifully granted Outflank to his leader during the Warlord Traits stage, and he seized the opportunity to wreak havoc on the left flank of the Space Marine forces, with it must be said some success. We also put up a fierce defence of our own objective. The Raptors arrived behind enemy lines as planned, but were rattled firstly by the squad of Space Wolves in a Razorback, and secondly by the Vindicator they were desperately trying to destroy blowing up in their face and wiping out the entire squad. Both sides managed to hold on to their objectives at the end of the game, but the secondary victory points meant that the Space Marines managed to win the day quite comfortably.

Result: Dark Angels/Space Wolves win 7-3.

Final Result

Well, even if there was more than 1 position of Store Champion, we were never going to get it with only 1 win out of 3, so well done to Chris and Mason for their well-deserved victories!

However, after a gruelling and even battle, the Dudley store eventually won. It was level-pegging up until the last 5 games, which swung it in Dudley's favour, so well done to those guys for covering the tracks of those who didn't do so well!

What have I learned?

Because it wouldn't be proper to write all this without taking something from it...

Given that it was the first time either me or Dave had played a full game of 6th edition 40K, we were caught out by the rules changes a surprisingly small number of times. There were occassions where we made some tactically poor decisions that we could learn from, so here's a few things that had a significant impact on what was eventually decided, and how we can learn from it:

1. Objectives give you points, Secondary Victory Points win games. What you have to do in order to collect these secondary points (be the first player/team to wipe out 1 unit, kill the enemy commander and finish the game with models in the enemy deployment zone) appear to favour aggressive tactics, and while my Raptors were conducive to this, the other squads weren't doing much more than hold on to the objectives. That's fine; everything was useful to one degree or another. Just keep in mind that the game now seems to favour agression. Use it!
2. It didn't always help but the Mark of Slaanesh was a real bonus against the Grey Knights and Blood Angels. The higher initiative gives you an edge; a way to tip the balance against two fundamentaly similar stat lines. Space Marine Armies are never going to be large, which means losing even 1 of them will hurt. If they're lost before they've even had a chance to fight back, it's worth the extra couple of points that the higher initiative will give you. You won't necessarily hit very hard - giving a Power Fist or such like to a model with the Mark of Slaanesh is meaningless - but power weapons and lightning claws should work well enough for most situations. Build on it!
3. One thing I didn't realise about my Raptors is that they cause Fear. While this doesn't cripple you in quite the same way that it does in Warhammer Fantasy, it can still be effective in reducing the weapon skill of your opponent. Given the opponents we faced, it would only really have helped in the Tyranids/Necrons battle, but it's worth remembering for the future, I think.
4. The next stage for the army is to add some more Raptors, which will come as no surprise given how much I've been banging on about them throughout this blog. I discussed my 'Tank Hunter' tactic above; it worked, but not well. I simply couldn't bring enough firepower to one squad to do enough damage to a vehicle to take it out in one turn. The solution? Another squad of Raptors. Arming them in the same way will double the firepower I can bring, and if one of them gets a mishap during Deep Strike, at least my tactic isn't totally lost. I'll also be taking their Melta Bombs away, as their firepower makes it less than necessary, and also I'm taking Veterans of the Long War away from the Chaos Space Marine squads. It's a useful rule against Space Marines, and brings your leadership up to 9/10, but it didn't make much difference in practice. I'm not saying they'll never have it again, but I want to see how the new Raptors work out first...

So, there you have it! My first few games of 2013. Looking forward to seeing how the next ones go!

What's New for 6th Edition 40K

Been a while since I've posted! I burned out doing the Dungeons and Dragons blogs, and I haven't done much else in gaming for a while so I've not really had all that much to say. Today, however...

Been thinking a lot about the new edition of 40K out next week. I went in to Workshop today as it happens, and they gave me a card with the date on, I won't be going in. Not being funny, but even if I did want to go in on a day where they were releasing a new game so that you can't move for the amount of people in there, I am otherwise occupied that day! However, I have been thinking about what changes they're going to make, not necessarily with the rules, I've covered that already, but with what they're going to release, in what order, and why.

Well if they follow the pattern for the last edition, we're looking at a new rulebook next week, and sometime in September they're going to release a new boxed set for it. This leads to the inevitable speculation about what they're going to put in there. Obviously it'll include Space Marines, you can't not have Space Marines in a 40K boxed set, though the paint set that I understand has already been released is suggesting very strongly that it will be the Dark Angels who feature in the boxed set this time. Nothing wrong with that; Ultramarines have been in the last 2 boxed sets, so it won't hurt to show some love to the other chapters! (As far as I know, the boxed sets for 2nd and 3rd edition weren't based on any specific chapters of Space Marines, though the Blood Angels and Black Templars featured on their respective cover art.)

So, what's the other side going to be? Well, I'll tell you what it won't be: Imperial Guard, Grey Knights or Sisters of Battle. Thematically, the game needs to be straightforward 'Good vs Evil,' and while a lot of the rich drama in 40K includes the imperium of man fighting against itself for various different reasons, themes like this are things you can immerse yourself in when you're hooked, not when you're just getting into it. Ultimately, 40K is about Mankind's struggle for survival in a hostile galaxy, so it needs to be good guys vs bad guys, not good guys vs good guys with different ideas.

Nor will it be Chaos Space Marines. This is more to do with the rules than anything else, as Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines work in pretty much the same way. If you look at the stat line of both, the only real differences are that Space Marines have They Shall Know No Fear, whereas Chaos have a slightly higher leadership value. They still move in much the same way, they both need 3+ to hit when shooting, and will wound on 4+, they'll both get 4+ to hit and 4+ to wound in close combat and both get a save of 3+.

Contrast that with what we've got now in Assault on Black Reach, where Space Marines and Orks have substantially different stat lines and fight completely differently, and you start to see my point. If they go ahead and put Chaos in the boxed set, they'll have a situation where it actually won't matter which side you're playing because they both fight in the same way. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; Space Marines vs Chaos battles are always bloody and really good fun, but in a boxed set designed to get people into the hobby, you need that differentiation. People have got to feel a substantial difference when playing the two different sides. I would imagine they'd leave Necrons out of the boxed set as well, for much the same reason.

This leaves Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tau, Orks and Tryanids. Out of this lot we can write off Orks straight aways as they were in Assault on Black Reach; even Games Workshop wouldn't be so stupid as to release a boxed set that is so fundementally similar to the last one that their currently existing fanbase feel cheated. (Or at least, more cheated than they already do.) Tryanids and Dark Eldar have already featured in boxed sets as well; that doesn't necessarily mean they won't get featured again, but... I'd quite like to see the Eldar in there, if I'm honest. I think they're a race that's not seen a lot of light over the last few years, and are different enough from Space Marines to get a challenging experience of playing the opposite army if it comes to it.

Oh, and put some scenery in there as well, please. I've already covered this so I won't go into it too much but I still maintain that this is all that's been missing from AoBR.

So with the boxed set out of the way, what's next?

Surely any of the Space Marine chapters could use this?

Well, again if GW follow the regular pattern there'll be a new Space Marines codex out not long after; it'll be 2008 all over again. There's the obvious reason for it - once again, it's Space Marines, you can't not do Space Marines - but also Space Marines have now added a lot of flyers to their roster that don't feature in the current codex. I remember when the Stormraven came out and a lot of people were thinking, 'what, so you can only use it if you collect Blood Angels?'  And while the Storm Talons look good, currently you'll only be able to use them if you've got the current edition of White Dwarf in which they're featured. Of course, this update could be done with a PDF, so what other changes will they make to the Space Marines in the next codex? Over to you...

Let's see these in their own box...

For pretty much the same reason I would expect an update for the Orks in the not too distant future; their new flyers will need some new rules printed in a codex on general release. Oh, and while we're on the subject, can we have Deffkoptas out on general release as well? I really didn't want to have to buy several copies of Black Reach in order to use more than 3 of them in the army. When you think about the extra customisation options that come with the Ork vehicle kits these days, quite frankly I'm astounded they haven't done this already, but hey - it was their own game plan and they stuck to it!

Of course with Orks, GW have the added incentive that they haven't had an update since 4th edition. Actually, if they time an Ork release for early next year, not only will they be able to use that 'Januwhaaarrggghhyyy' pun again, but also there couldn't really be a better time for a new Ork codex. I think in 5th edition 40k, the Orks worked pretty much as well as they needed to. In 6th, they might need a bit more of a going over depending on how the rules change, and as the archetypical 'bad guy' army for 40K, I don't think we'll have to wait too long for a new codex.

How long have we been wating for an update to this?

Beyond that, it's difficult to say for certain. However, if it's true that they're putting Dark Angels in the new boxed set, or even if it isn't, I don't think we're too far away from a new Dark Angels codex. GW re-released most of the other non-Ultarmarines-based Space Marine armies throughout 5th edition, Dark Angels and Black Templars missed out on that to a degree but I think an update will be on the cards, if not for this year then certainly throughout the 6th edition of 40K.

Of course, there are some Space Marine chapters that have never really had their own codex. Imperial Fists, for example, Raven Guard or Iron Hands. I can sort of see the reason for this - making an army based on these chapters is really more about who and what you have in the army rather than any special rules to apply across an entire chapter. I think that's why the current Space Marine codex relies on the Chapter Tactics special rules. What do you think? Would you like to see new codexes for these armies? Or will this open too many 'power creep' doors?

Anyone else think it's time for an update?

Then there are the other armies that haven't had an update since 4th edition; Chaos, Tau and Eldar. Well if they put any of those in the boxed set (see earlier comments) then I doubt we'll be far away from a new codex as well. Now I don't know so much about Eldar but there were definitely some rules in the Tau and Chaos codex that were designed for 4th edition and work just a little bit too well in 5th. The CSM Dreadnought, for example, and which by the way is long overdue for a new model, can have a Plasma Cannon attached to it for 10 points. (With just about everything else that can use this weapon it would be about 30/40 points depending on what you were attaching it to.) Sounds horrible, until you remember that the Chaos codex was written for 4th edition when there was still such as thing as a partial hit. I suppose it makes up for it by the fact that there's a very real possibility you'll start to fry your own men with it, and also I'm pretty sure it's the only thing in the Chaos army that can use a Plasma Cannon, but it's still pretty cheap.

But the indisputable fact is that that all 3 of those armies need an update. Apart from anything else, GW have been introducing a lot of flyers into the more recent 40K armies, and Eldar and Tau's use of Anti-Grav technology lends itself to this perfectly. If GW follow the pattern I've predicted, then updates for these armies will be part of the mid-long term plan for the new edition of 40K. I hope it happens sooner rather than later though, because Necrons and Dark Eldar were screaming for an update near enough all the way through 5th edition and only really got one in the closing stages of the iteration. I just hope these armies get done before GW feel the need to release the Tryanids codex again. And Sisters of Battle need a proper update, with some new models and a proper codex. There's not much going for them at the moment and they've been missing out!

Anything else? I'm pretty sure, once enough of the armies have got Flyers, there'll be a Cites of Death/Planetstrike style expansion for 40K using mainly flyers. And why not? Dogfighting in the 40K Universe? Hell yeah, we'll have some of that! Bombing runs across an installation? Yeah, let's blow some shit up! Wow, that could work really well, and I'll be very surprised if this doesn't happen to one degree or another.

All in all, some exciting times for 40K. But hey, we need to see if the new rules are any good first. See you soon...