Imperial Air Superiority is the new shiznick in 6th edition

Every version of 40k seems to have its own "benchmark unit" which is a unit with per point effectiveness so high it shine above the rest and becomes corner stone for all new army list to meta against.

In my side of the world that unit in 5th edition was the chaos obliterator. There was a time here the term "9 obliz test" was coined as the standard meta QC for all new list... simply put if you got a new list, you meta it against a list with 9 obliterators; the theory is that if you do well on paper you should be fine, else expect your list to be in a world of hurt when you bring it to the table.

While 6th edition is still new and we will be expecting a lot of new codexes to appear in due time, the flyers rage have since in my opinion made Imperial guard vendetta gunship the new "benchmark unit" in town. Clocking at a mere 140pts arming with 3 twin linked lascanons and 2 heavy bolters, topped with extra armor being standard feature and squadron rule, vendettas is going to rule the unfriendly sky for some time in the dark future.

How my Warlord points was denied

So I played another 6th edition game last Sunday, all counted I believe the numbers of 6th edition game under my belt is less than my fingers can count. It was a game of pure carnage to be sure and one can read the in depth details >>HERE<< as it was blogged by my meticulous opponent.

About the most memorable incident of the whole battle can be summarised by the comic below as I was cruelly denied a Warlord point as his honor of the chapter did something which no 40k Chaplain would even contemplate to do in fluff...  but hey, fluff are for suckers.

Air Superiority in 6th Edition

Last weekend I tried for the first time considerable amount of flyers in my list, and the result speaks for itself. Flyers immunity to close combat attacks (i.e. most death stars) and their hard to hit profile made them deadly force in the hands of any capable commander. To add further insult to injury it would seems flyers are best countered with flyers themselves. It would appears the skies of 41st millennium is going to be filled with angry warplanes until most armies can get their hands on decent AAs.

Exploring into Tau at 6th Ed

Hey red here, the reason why have not been posting for so long as i have been in stasis mode since the release at 6th ed. So for now i am in semi stasis mode while exploring Tau that been curious for quite a long time. Even at 5th edition.

Although i don't really have a fix army list yet as i don't even have enough models for a full fledge 1750 force but i definitely going for a battlesuit heavy army. Lets just say i doing it to fulfill the "gundam obsession" within me.

However this are handful of unit that i most likely to field in my Tau army.

Broadside Suit : Obvious reason... (railguns) However i not getting GW standard Broadside as i be making custom made Broadside from Crisis Suit models and parts from Paulson Games (I am using Mech Underslung Missile Launcher for SMS (Smart Missile System) and Long Beam Gun for Railguns.

Crisis Suit: For all the weapon loadout i definately doing Fireknive (Plasma Rifle + Missile Pod and Multitracker). As i see as an all round loadout to knock out elites, infantry and light armor.

Stealth Suit: Thanks to 6th Ed they are buff with shrouded, stealth and acute senses. In short 3+ cover in the open with rerollable outflank. With Burst cannon and fusion blaster it can harass unit at the rear and option to take out their transports.

Firewarior: Well its obvious i need em for troops but fielding them at en mass isnt a bad thing. As they have 30" pulse rifle and 15" rapid fire. With Str 5 i can dish out wounds on infantry and supress light armor.

Things i may look into at the future

Vespids: In paper they have something going. With rerollable danger terrain, AP3 guns, Hammer of Wraith and 160 pts for a full 10 men squad. They can make handy harassment unit.

Ethereal : Reroll leadership and BS4 fearless Honor Guard.

So for the moment i am fielding a BA Vindi army with Tau allies which show some success. However i would like to get the army all painted and WYSIWYG first. I just dont feel comfortable with the unpainted and proxies on my table..

6th Edition on field experience

From the few games I had on 6th edition few things are clear:

1. Tactical marines on rhino still does not work en mass; yes they are buffed, but others got buffed much more. Things got worse if you take into consideration allies shenanigans are in.

2. Land Raiders are solid as ever.

3. Vindicators are no longer joke.

What does this means for the long delayed project Ultramar? Well we are locking down the units which are in the  "must be in" catogory. Current list as below:


-Cato Sicarious (d'oh)
-Assault Terminators, all hammers! No Sissy claws!
-Tactical marines with Rhino/drop pod
-Scout squad
-Sniper Scout squad with Telion
-Land speeder storm
-Land Raider (still determining the pattern, but probably god hammer)

The undetermined units:-
-Devastators
-Thunder Fire canon
-Techmarine
-Storm talon
-Assault marines with drop pod

================

While reading the new rule book, we noticed a few things which could fundamentally change the load up of a few key units. Basically the scope of new shenanigans are endless for the new edition, a good thing in my opinion.

The Unseen background battles

So I went down to the rabbit hole of personal demon hunting ala Diablo III, together with the massive fog of war kicked up by arrival of 6th edition -- next thing I know months have passed without a single post being posted on my little blog.

Today I went up to bells of long soul, an action which long ceased to be my daily ritual on the ending days of fifth edition and saw this little gem titled IN PRAISE OF FALLEN TITANS, and it turned out to be one of the best 40k related read I had in a long time.

Then within the gem there is another gem, on the comment section some one actually wrote a long story which IMHO really reflects the complicated relationship between 40k and its player(s) with the unseen real life battle in the background.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bjorn says:

July 14, 2012 at 12:47 pm

I took a job a the local GW store a number of years ago when i was in my mid-20s and New England still had Games Workshop stores — all are now shut down, and Holyoke 131 was one of the first to go. blah blah independent retaliers, but the fact is that GW-US got cheap and abruptly screwed their fanbase. While I worked there, though, it was a huge turning point in my life.

See, i had been in a bad rut for awhile — clinging to the friends of mine who never moved on after college, spending a lot of time with my alcoholic roommate who did everything he could to sabotage me (including trying, successfully in the worst possible instance, to date all my exes). It was then when i started playing 40K, giving me an outlet that took me to new groups of people and better quality of interactions — alcoholic roommate spouted some BS about how any game with randomization was not fun, because you could lose by luck instead of by skill, so while an ardent RPG player, he would never stoop to minis gaming. GW effectively gave me an outlet.

then, i went through a terrible portion of time — the end of which saw significant turmoil in my life, and a lot of bad decisions. the following summer came to me unemployed until school started again, with a new roommate-couple who never paid bills on time or left their room, and another one who blamed his belated lapse into depression on everyone else. Meanwhile, i had just started dating this great woman, who bought me food over the summer since all my savings went into the bills my roommates screwed me out of.

I had an interview at the GW store, and while it didn’t kick in until the fall, the new job was again GW saving me. This time, though, it came with a difference.

The lovely lady from before, now my wife of four years, sleeping in next to me on this Saturday now-afternoon, moved in to help with rent, and the hermits moved out. We worked in the same mall, and i had a day-job as an English teacher, so the only time we got to spend together was minis-related. she’d stop by on break, or come in with me on a day that she didn’t work, or we’d paint together on a night off. depressed roommate nearly got us evicted because he spent all his money on pizza and video games, but we had plenty of time together.

The only problem with this scenario was that, no matter how much i tried, this game took so much of my life with it and yet it was inaccessible to my significant other. I had been charmed and entranced by the greek-myth-esque story of the Primarchs and the war for Terra, the brief hints of Commoragh, the bravery of the first Deathwing, and the tragedy of some of the failures of great figures, such as Magnus and Ahriman. my painting was nothing special. V — my wife — was an artist, and loved the painting aspect of the game, but cared little for the fluff and nothing for the actual game. As time has gone on, and the 40k universe teeters between being an interesting, compelling world and a 15-year-old boy’s wet dream, it has lost most of what would bring many female gamers to the table in the same way that the comic book industry has.

40k saved my sanity and marked the growing-up i did in my life. But while V is quite willing to paint daemonettes, and vaguely assemble a collection of Sisters of Battle minis (to be equipped with chaos backpacks and greenstuffed out of their nun-bobs), she becomes less willing to engage with the fluff the more she reads. War is a heroic topic and setting, but the greatest war movies have complicated plots that involve people being human despite their responsibilities. 40k has genetic supersoldiers and xenophobia. women are virtually uninvolved — besides the joke that is the current incarnation of the Sisters, the bondage-themed deathcult assassins, and the uglified birdlike new daemonettes, there’s nothing explicitly feminine in the entire world. Eldar are blended together, but in a way that loses distinction instead of accentuating it.

As immature and 80s as it sounded, building-sex on a daemon planet is better than the unnecessary and inexplicable butchering of Sisters to anoint the armor of the Grey Knights. Over-the-top ridiculous, true, but that’s the appeal — better that than needlessly misogynist in the mane of gritty grimdark. Every example of the latter makes it that much more impossible to share my hobby with a majority of my friends and loved ones. Despite having saved me the better part of a decade ago, the modern GW has done wonders to complicate my life rather than make it better, by sinking into a different kind of immaturity than its relatively innocent predecessors.

There is something missing from the current embodiment, perhaps an effect of the wrong writers or the wrong understanding of audience, but it’s only gotten worse lately. Much like in the 6th ed book, the game itself stand on the edge of a great leap forward, but is threatened to be dragged down the wrong path…

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well said.

On a separate story here is a definite prove of 40k influence in Diablo III's demon hunter... a legendary suit only equipable by demon hunters named The Inquisitor, very subtle indeed.

“

"No spawn of Hell can hide from the gaze of the Inquisitor, no matter what form it takes."

Torn between Armies - Part 2

Continued from part 1

So, following from previous story, as my chapter grew... so did a constant nagging problem: the boredom to one constant colour scheme and the lost of focus.

Strike force leaving without us again... why oh why? art source

You see space marines armies in a way is like M&Ms, they come with a wide variety of colours and flavours; ask any respectable Ork war boss who collects space marine helmets and you will know better, constantly doing one chapter over and over again is like buying a pack of M&Ms only to see one color in the whole bag. While it is true my chapter can summon a lot of options to their disposal, one can't seems to shake the feeling I am not having the wholesome fun out of it. It doesn't help either when personally I like to do a lot of experiment / theme army either.

This issue continues to nag until I discover a new way of collecting a 40k army: instead of collecting a single chapter, one can instead collect... an army list. The idea of collecting an army list, in case the name itself is not implicating enough, is instead of building up a huge collection of elements of a single big chapter, one can instead collect / paint and build 40k armies based on theme / fluff and army list that works with usually very limited options.

For example I have a huge collection of tactical marines and rhinos for my main chapter, the Purgation Lords, in fact three full 10 men squads of them with different load up and respective rides. But realistically speaking 2 full size tactical squads is about the maximum one can field in a standard 1750pts (a standard in my place) before reaching the red level of combat effective noobness. So in reality one squad will always to be left out... IF I play tactical marines at all.

I also have at my disposal a number of scouts squads with same issue, one can never field that many troop choice without some repercussions -- unless you are spacewolves, but that is a complete different story.

Anyway what it implies is that I can instead separate my collection into different chapters and theme which can spice up my painting and building experience. For example I can come up with an Raven guard effective list and allocate most of my scouts and assault marines to the list/army, land speeders and bikers to a Whitescar theme list/army so on and so forth, in fact you can even used different chapters elements in the same army list if you look to the fluff reference like the Hunt of Voldorius.

Of course the main draw back of such approach is that -- it is usually only viable for veterans of the hobby itself, for only seasoned gamers can really see, experimented, and played enough to know what works in army list to deserve a permanent place that warrants the massive efforts of purchasing, assembling and painting.

To sum it up:-

Single Chapter collection
Pros:
-Huge options
-Unify looking
-Great for Apoc games - a whole company in!

Cons:
-Boring for painting
-Lost of focus in long run
-Lot of elements not utilized in long term


Army list collection:
Pros:
-More fun for painting / trying new scheme and colors
-Varieties of theme, which can be adjusted to fluff
-Focused approach

Cons:
-Limited tactical options
-Vulnerable to Codex update / Edition change
-Bad for Apoc games - You have only scout force?


As for me? Well as a hoarder of a huge single chapter elements I am giving the army list collection route a try, that leads to my new project -- The honour of Ultramar.

Throne's Blood... it is a fine cast!

I sure hope I know what I am doing... spending a sum that could get me a copy of Diablo III on an angry old man on a chair... anyway because of all the horror stories surrounding the suppose "fail cast" and the cost involved, I double check with Hobby forge's Alvin before I made the order -- that he will do the replacement request for me if the chair arrived in unsatisfactory condition.

As you can see that didn't happen, part of me is happy as things turned out the way it should be, part of me is sad because I could have gotten a spare chair, which might be very handy indeed, credits to Alvin for his patience on my pestering. Now comes the horror part: building and painting the chair.

Torn between Armies - Part 1

I remembered a time when my space marines collection consists of 10 humble AOTBR marines and 5 terminators, together with their captain and dreadnought they were the only member of my chapter. Searching for their identity and place in the 40k universe they quickly settled under the banner of Purgation Lords and the chapter grew... second squad tactical marines, first rhino, second rhino, third tactical squad, third rhino. Then landraider, which became landraiders, land speeder, land speeder squadron then land speeder squadrons.

In time my chapter grew and grew as of now I have one third of the first company on stand by with their multiple landraiders. Three full squads of tactical marines ( which hardly see any action these days, but that is another story...) with their rides, full spectrum devastators, land speeder squadrons and a school of dreadnoughts with all known useful configurations, and last but not least a dozen of raw recruits. 

Then heroes emerges from my chapter to lead them, first a captain, then a librarian, a chaplain, then more captains...it got until then point I almost have a Doppelgänger for every named character in Codex: SM, Sgt Chronos being one of exception not cloned into my chapter, yet.

Having such a huge arsenal of war machines, a hall full of heroes and gangs of battle brothers at your disposal is certainly fun to begin with, but then eventually I noticed another way of collecting army which might be more interesting and the apparent pros and cons of 2 main method of army collection.

-end of part 1

My Trip to Warp Space Game

'

Pics from Warp Space Game

After hearing this place from a friend. I finally paid a visit to Warp Space Game shop at Taman Desa. Over there i also meet my old friend Lexis who also keen on checking out the place. So we both meet the shop owner David. He told us that he just recently open the place and already have his own group of regulars.


So he gave us a tour of the place. It was quite a small place with roughly 2-3 tables. He stocks up with 40K, fantasy and card games. However one thing that interest me is that he sells Army Painter colour primer. This is interesting as in future i can easily spray my models to the intended colour than to have to do a white/black prime then base coat.


After that me and friend had a game at their GW table. It was a draw but although he was out of the fight for so long he could still put a nasty fight. So after one game David inform that he wanted to close so we pack up and leave.


Here are couple of pics i took during the visit.

https://picasaweb.google.com/100948508857329072314/WarpSpaceGames?authuser=0&feat=directlink

You can get futher detail at his own website and facebook page at
http://warpspacegames.com/
http://www.facebook.com/warpspacegames

Mordrak and Ghost Knights

Finally... no more proxy for Mordrak's gang of ghost knights... until the extra pops in, that is. Special thanks for Redeye donating the "extra" GKTs, for myself I might never get the to the point of painting them in ethereal form and forever locking them in the roll of being ghosts.

As of now, they can thump their chest and claims their stealth cover safe, WYSIWYG for the win!

First Day Of Warhammer 40K kid

An explanation to whoever not familiar with internet memes. This is originally call first day internet kid. His picture is associate with jokes of a naive person when he approach the internet. He easily believe on anything that said on the internet and easily falling for virus or scams.

So only different here is a funny approach of 1st timer players for 40K!

Sanguinary Guard

Pic From Gamesworkshop

In my personal opinion I not a fan of this unit. Despite it popularity i observe among player i have never gave this unit a chance. Its a nice looking model but i find it difficult to actually uses them. The reason why is

a) They don't do a whole lot in close combat and their survival rate is dependant to what the enemies are armed with.

b) They are expensive to be DOA into enemy lines to deal damage.

One big issue is lack on invul save. In the eyes of AP2/Ap1/power weapons they have the same survivability of an assault squad.

Their Glave Encarmine is power weapon regardless so odds wounding T:4 and above enemies are not alot. They can get powerfist but that add to already high point army and no alot of model or invul safe to keep Power Fist guy alive.

As mention of being expensive as DOA unit.their primary weapon is their Angelus Bolter which is nice taking out 4+ Sv unit but against MEQ and Elites it is another bolter. They can replace it by buying infernus or plasma pistol which can be effective but they are other unit that do more bang for their buck. From effective Assault Squad to Sternguard with Drop Pod or Honour Guard with Jump Pack

A special wargear they have is a death mask which must be purchase. It nice that any enemy in assault make Ld test and if fail cost them to be WS:1. It nice but odds are people arent gonna fail leadership that alot. Therefore feel like an expensive wargear.

Another option is to get Dante and make Sanguine Guard troops. Its nice being able to field 9 Sanguine Guard( 6 from troop and 3 from elites) squad but you aint gonna get alot of stuff with so much point going to Sanguine Guard and Dante.

Overall they are just too expensive to throw away for any drop and hard to justify their cost for a frontal assault unit.

Baal Predator Tactics part 2

Alright i am not gonna make any excuses for myself for not writing anything for a long while. So i guess it better i start typing. So before I start, a meme picture is in order.

I did a part 1 for the Baal Predator a long while back (You can read it here).Looking at it now they were more things that I didn’t consider during the time I wrote that which I explain later in the article.

During the early stage of using the Baal Predator I use them as Vindicator escorts. Which a pair of Baal Predator guards the Vindicator side armor. This restricts the Baal Predator mobility hence not using their full potential.

Nowadays set my Baals into individual tanks over the battlefield which actually performs better. Since they have scout special rule, if you are going first you can flatout during your scout move then move 12”. There high chance you already be in range of your enemies. Alternatively you can simply outflank and create this uncertainty on your enemies game plan as they fear a possibility of your Baal hitting their flanks.

The idea is that you should take advantage of this mobility to either exploit weak point in your enemy lines or simply provoke your enemy into over committing forces to take them out.

Twin Linked Assault Cannon and Heavy Bolter sponson is the way to go!!
- Pic from GW

Forget Flamestorm cannon, that weapon is just a one trick pony. Experience player will just scatter their men. After burning a small amount of model they destroy it by shooting its side armor or assault it.Assault cannon are a more practical option.Especially with heavy bolter sponson you can stay away 24”-36” and lay down like 10 shots (4 from ass can 6 from HB sponson) per turn.

You can take out infantry and Monstrous Creature. Thanks to rending from Assault Cannon you even have a shot on taking out vehicles and elites. The general discipline is to always keep moving and shooting. Especially if facing assault unit move 12” if you have to.

The Perils of "balance" list

Smurf is grim for smurf knows the odds

Some time ago I had a discussion with Redeye about the aspect of playing a "balance list", the suppose 'normal' way of fielding an army instead of the min/max approach.

The main issue is try as we might, it is hard to conjure up memory of any playing a "balance" list, kick arse and lives to tell the day when the said player stand atop of his/her enemies' smoking corpses. The main problem of being "balance" seems to be 2 folds.

1. You can do everything, but good at nothing.
2. Good at nothing is in essence meaning you hold no edge over your enemy

Meanwhile looking from the other side it will be like:

1. Edge list will focus on what they are good at and play accordingly
2. Against a "balance" list, primary threats are easily identified and resources are invested swiftly to neutralize them.

For example suppose you played an mix/max list of landraiders and terminators, automatically you will scan for where the serious armour/terminators threats are in the opposing army. That would mean say against another imperial army you would just want to look at where the meltas and lascanons before you reached the line and after that it will be on the look out for CC death stars and plasma guns/demolisher canon after you breached the line. Everything is clear cut, you can obvious like say ignore that landspeeder which is armed with two heavy bolters for the moment.

Where as being "balance" say you have 50% of units in your army being able to do decent AV job and 50% of them don't, it will actually be like fighting with 50% of your army the whole time.

The same seems to apply to the basic law of operation in reality, imagine going to a job interview and telling your interviewer you can do everything but aint particularly good at anything -- it will be like asking for a general worker's job.

So thought of the day? Get an edge for your army!

WIP - Getting Ready for serious Purging

What can be better than a psycanon? How about 4 psycanons which can shoot with no line of sight?

On the center, hybrid model Justicar

The On Going Daemon Hunting Business

Picture credit: The Lord Inquisitor

I have been playing a Mordrak list lately. I found the grand master to be really worthy of his points, the shenanigans you can pull with him can be endless due to the wide variety of options the codex offer.

Here are the basic plan layout:
-Attached a Librarian with Mordrak and his ghost squad
-DS the gang first turn into a cosy strategic location
-Survive one turn of shooting / abuse ( which won't be a hard thing to do, since you can stack ghost knights' stealth USR with shrouding to have 2+ cover sv)  
-Next turn, summon the rest of your army with "The summoning" spell
-Havoc ensured, purge well, brothers

Details to consider:
-Upgrade your librarian to a level 3 psyker for extra insurance getting rest of your army into position
-Get teleport homer for your librarian (D'oh)
-Have elements of rest of your embarked in vehicles equipped with warp field stabiliser so you can summon 2 units with a single spell
-The Might of Titan spell is essential for hand to hand anti vehicles operation

Grey Knight Librarian

Have the fella done on Sunday night, I decided to use blue on his "inner hood" and loincloth as it is the colour use by standard Astartes librarian to remain the link. I might add detail motifs on the loincloth in the future but that is for another time.

The big =][= on fella's back work double as an oversize deco and/or a teleport homer, just like how the Inquisition would make their war gear look like.

I also like my librarian looking closer to the illustration in the codex then the one GW suggested using, then again this is simply a matter of taste.

Hmm.. close enough!

Now DIe!

Purgation Lords Assemble!

Quoted by Cheng himself, "Not pictured: The horde of power armoured marines on the other table." The awkward moment when you realised you really have lotsa stuff and is still buying

There are few moments as hectic in the hobby as an apoc game, marines are called back from all sectors, half built dreads are hastily assembled and sent to the front, parts are located here and there or may be it is me being messy as always.

This apoc game was played sometime ago, my fellow brother in arms Cheng recently choronicled half the event in his pretty blog. If you are the type who likes to read about big battle reports (with sexy mini pictures and indicators) go check it out.

In the meantime, personally I am hoping you guys can leave comments at his blog to hasten up part 2 of the big fight.

It is hammer time, but we need more hammers!

As I am rolling on my daemon hunting business it became apparent having terminators as troops that are equipped with grenades is a bliss, it also became apparent that you will need more daemon hammers to dish out str10 punishments to any nasties you will be encountering.

This is then again GW's infinite wisdom on sly marketing come into play -- you only get ONE daemon hammer per grey night terminator box, but they left you with plenty of nemesis falchions, bless the throne. To add insult to injury, directly using a space marine terminator arm with thunder hammer will make your grey knight look a bit .. awkward, as they simply carry and configure the weapon in different ways, not to mention the arm piece look totally different.

A quick if not obvious solution to this little crisis is to cut the standard thunder hammer, using the pinning method to join with cut lower half of a nemesis halberd and vola! DIY cheap nemesis daemon hammer. Also note the blings from the new power armoured grey knight shoulder pad can be cut and glued to the hammers, providing the almost compulsory =][= on your improvised hammer if you desired it.

Originally a space wolf hammer on the left and a standard thunder hammer on the right

A hobby drill in this matter is the essential tool for achieving this, without pinning the hammer simply won't hold;  if you don't have one yet but wish to venture in this hobby I would strongly recommend it.

My First Forge World Iron Clad

This was done sometime ago, I blame the massively impressive Badab War books for showing off their awesome looking FW Iron clad dreads. Roll for leadership against temptation, rolled 12, fair enough...

,

The cleaned torso and legs.

Full spectrum war gear!

Got the base done first to suit the pose of the leg

This is what I really like about FW dread over GW dread... the legs can be posed in a way to represent some motion.

After pose confirmed, priming is done

Ho ho, long nights of paintings ahead...

Only things left to do now is chapter logo and tertiary details, that is when I hit snail speeeeed...  this last picture was taken with a DSLR rather then a noob camera; as you can see, the preparation, lightning and imba gear made all the difference.

What I learned about myself from getting into 40k

Warhammer40k can be a very heavily invested hobby, the money, time, effort involved from getting started to really fielding a fully painted WYSIWYG sizable army on a gaming table can lead to surprising self discovery when you look at the pattern of events / work flow concerning the hobby.

Here are what I learned (more) of myself, thanks to my experience from involving with 40k.

1. Mostly a Dreamer, and likes to keep options open

One thing I learned about myself is that I am mostly a dreamer, as in I spend most time thinking of making stuff than actually doing them, a sub trait of this is that I like to keep options open. Say I have 2 storm ravens, when I acquire those 2 birds it was learned the new comng Grey Knight codex will have access to them too... since I have both armies I simply primed them black and wait to see which army needed them more. Problem is since both armies have mutual need for the gunships until now they are just primed black. A scheme is now on the work as to how to finish them in such a way both armies can deploy them without looking odd on either side.

2. I am a messy person

In all context -- I have tonnes of half finished projects, bits flying here and there, impulse buys sitting idle, war reports to file, life obligations to attend and minis all over the place. Yes this is one hell of a mess, and having more than 3 armies don't really help in this aspect. Atleast now it is obvious, I am working on to rectify this, I promised to the throne.


3. Glass is usually half empty for me

Call it the experience learned in life or reflex memory, whatever; when it comes to predicting dice roll or game outcome generally I will come to be prepared for the worst, or the not so good to happen at the critical moment. May it is half a life time of disappointment, or may be I am just pessimist but I always keep my fingers crossed at game deciding critical rolls... for like the famous 40k quote itself "hope is the first step to disappointment", life can be a bitch most of the time and being not having too much expectation itself can be a form of protection.

 4. I am slow at adeptation

"What must I do again?"

One thing I noticed of myself is that it would seems I was never the first to pick up a new army and run the cheese before the FAQs come putting off fire and doing damage controls. Rushing in with shinny new toys and bashing other people before they know what to do might just not be my kind of thing. Infact I was a player of the old daemon hunter codex, but it took me a couple of months after the release of new shinny grey knight codex for me to pick up steam in it.


5. and... (Thank the throne) I still aspire for greater stuff

Despite all the self beating mentioned above I still find myself aspire for better stuff, like may be one day getting an air brush for real, learning more painting methods, explore new tactics, starting yet another army with more self promises and stuff. Thank the throne I still want to get better and more from life, for that, might be the most precious gift of all.

WIP - Grey Knight Librarian

Played a few games with Grey Knight librarian as HQ choice. With his ass kicking capability confirmed, it is time to do a real model for him.

"These aren't the servitors you are looking for..."

No One expects the Inquisition, when they do, they expect rifleman dread

So I finally got around and painted my Forge world dreadnought I acquired from a fellow gamer from Game Forge. I always have been fond of dreadnoughts. Rifleman dread spam here we come.

Countless aegis defence lines have been raided for these guns.

5pts too much?

On this I am going to talk about a space marine war gear which no one in his or her right mind would use and a suggestion to fix it. Yes, we are talking about the glorious combat shield.

Combat shield is a space marine war gear costing 5pts on current codex, granting the user 6+ invul save and retaining the user's side arm. 5pts getting you a 6+ invul save sounds ridiculous to begin with, because investing a further 10pts will get a a proper 3+ invul save in the form of storm shield, not mentioning the Sergeant is usually the dude having the precious power fist / thunder hammer and hence naturally the last guy you would ever want to assign a wound when the squad is in close combat with real nasties, it doesn't require long to figure out 83.3333% of the time buying a combat shield is just a waste of points. Basically, it is a piece of junk.

But... but... they look so cool!

Solution:
Very simple, in the next codex, whenever a ASM sergeant buys a power fist, he should be able to get the combat shield for FREE! Not thunder hammer, not power sword but only power fist... since GW seems to tailor their modern army to model range anyway. I would say this is the best solution. Personally I really like the looks of combat shield, but at 5 pts they will never make it into my army list... unless my army is making a fashion statement.

Seriously, when was the last time any of you see a combat shield in a game?

This Blog is still alive... but things are still Grim and Dark, just like 40k

Between hectic day job, my near demise some months ago due to minor cerebrovascular accident, daily grim and darkness with another "unprospective" year went by and losing a Titan to a fellow hobbyist ( "I will bring it back after Apoc, I swear" By the Throne Bro, the Apoc was on last June!! Not cool Rxxxl, you know who you are ). All is calm and well in the 40k front. And yes, this blog is alive, By the way if you are local (my side) you should by now know Alvin the man has also revived his blog, so check it out.

Rise of the Librarians

"You are looking for our Captain? Well I have not seen a brother Captain for a long time, Brother Librarian is in charge now..."  -Communication log with unknown Blood Angel Chapter successor.

For the longest of time typically a space marine strike force is always lead by a brother captain, but it seems that has became a thing of the past. Recently a dark trend envelopes the sons of Sanguine, slowly but surely it seems their captains are disappearing from their ranks.

The curious trend was first discovered during a massive sub sector campaign where no less half a dozen of Blood angels successor chapters took part. Segmentum command reported almost all of the Sons of Sanguine they have came into contact were void of Captains, sometimes a Reclusiarch was in charge but most often then not a Librarian is in command of their strike force, a Captain was no where to be seen.

This curious trend of abnormal number of Librarians in power of a particular Astartes genus has caught the attention of Ordo Hereticus, a report was made to the highest authority of the order and a subtle "enquire" came into action.

What they found out was a disturbing under trend going inside most Sons of Sanguine chapters. It seems some newly discovered psychic ability weldable only by Librarians of Blood Angels origin has propelled them into very powerful position within their chapters.

The emergence of psychic powers like Sword of Sanguinius, Shield of Sanguinius and Unleash rage has amplified their prowess in any battlefield to the point a Captain or Chaplain would seem redundant or even obsolete in most combat scenario. A Librarian in a Blood Angels successor chapter is now crucial to the success of most sizable operation by increasing the survivability of their gunships, denying hostile psychic powers, increasing the battle prowess of their battle brothers or cutting down monstrous creatures and walkers alike themselves. It is said within the chapters a battle not participated by a Captain is unfortunate, but a battle not participated by a Librarian is disastrous.

Slowly and surely the Captains of such chapters found themselves sidelined from the Chapter's core of power as they now serves no more than over glorified swords man in a battlefield filled with hostile psykers, monstrous creatures and column of tanks -- all which the Librarians are better equipped to deal with. To add insult to injury, it is said a Librarian cost considerably less resources to be fielded than a Captain.

It would seem the Librarius was gaining so much power it eroded the authority of their Captains to a point they longer have access to artificer armor nor relic blade like standard Astartes chapter do.

While this trend is in no way violating any Imperial decree, the Inquisition is keeping a close eye on the development. In the meantime, seeing a Space Marine Captain from the Blood Angels line in combat is as rare as a space marine getting killed by a grot in close combat.