New Chaos and Tau Codex covers

A Hint of Apocalypse...

I picked up the latest Apocalypse rule book and has been reading it ever since, I must admit based on my pass experience on Apocalypse games my stance on it was even though I have great appreciation such projects it was very unlikely I will get into another Apocalypse game very soon.

That assumption was soon overturned as I went deeper into the book, GW's new approach of simplicity and added benefits of being fluffy have actually tempted me again to venture into the madness of massive battles.

The way I see it Apocalypse greatest appeal is also its undoing, impressive great battles is one thing, taking over 2 hours to run a single turn is in a way a madness on to itself. So my way to go about this is to get the best of both worlds... essentially turning Apocalypse game into a controlled beast. Yes to massive battles, yes to super heavies, yes to screw the FOC but no to whole day playing, that is simply too mortifying. In fact 4 hours should be maximum time for my taste to run what is essentially a mini Apocalypse, I have seen how players became zombified after more than 7 hours of dice rolling and to be frank it was not a pretty sight nor was the game in my opinion, "ënjoyable" any more.

So how should we go about this? Well we will see...

Chaos Rising -- as cheesy as it sounds

I have since had 3 games with my WIP chaos army with one theme in mind -- hordes of angry people under the command of even angrier people. One of the game was chronicled by the meticulous Cheng in his blog.

Other than the part of needing to further thinking on figuring out how to have the opponent staying put while a sea of cultists flooded them.. I am quite happy at the army's performance. A little bit more play test and tweaking with the list and it should stand firm to all but the cheesiest list out there.

But to win is not the primary reason I started the chaos army, I started it because of the only logical reason to do so... an excuse to field tonnes of angry people, under the command of even angrier people wearing awesome ornated power armor.

There the angry lead by the angrier will charge down the field, shouting, cursing, shooting and basically  messing the whole place up... let the table burn!

Anyway lets have at look at the WIPs. With the Dark Vengeance set one have access to some of the most awesome looking power armoured guys to date, naturally I resorted to attempt using the models from there to make up my army.Following my old habit of cloning unique codex characters with kit bash model here I have a clone of Hurion, guess I will name him "Helion Dark Hearts" for simplicity sake, below is the said fella at about 80% into painting progress.

He carries this HUGE chaos symbol on his back
so no one is confused who is in charge down there. 

One difficult decision I had to face is choosing between using the standard CSM box marines for my chosen or use the converted Dark Vengeance chosen. Problem being while the DV chosen totally out leagued the standard plastic box counter parts in terms of the sheer overall power armor feel, their biggest hurdle being the dreaded single pose problem -- and I have to field 8 of these guys!

After some back and forth deciding on this, for my personal reference I would rather suffer the single pose issue than the other, so seven more clones would be on their way... 

See the blue guy? He is like totalling out of place amongst the other dudes... 
and he is the best dressed dude from his box!.

40k Cookies 1.5

As shown in the earlier post I salvaged the damaged cookies, refit, re-primed and painted them together with a batch of 3 that were made half way last time for cookies batch 1.5. 

This time taking some excellent advice on how to paint a proper crater from this excellent tutorial.  I am quite happy with the end result, let us see how long will this batch can survive in the grim dark future.

Primed and left under the brutal sun, batch 1.5 is coming along fine

No cutting corners this time,. primed and painted for consistency 

An Imperial Fist guarding a rhino wreckage, little did he know he costs more than 
1/3 of the ill fated vehicle

Cookies for the Grim Dark future

The explosion ripped the rhino  apart and exposed the Oreo cream beneath the earth

If you have ever been to Comics Mart Midvalley for a game of 40k, it is common to hear players asking for a "cookie" when yet another random vehicle exploded to the hostile war zone of the dark grim future.

The term cookie is the nickname for the DIY craters I made a long time ago when I was still fresh to the hobby and was addressing the need for craters when vehicles succumbed to hostile fire. It fact someone once said the cookies were one of the few perks of playing in Comics Mart as most other hobby outlets are ill equipped with such commodities.

The common substitute for the crater for other outlets are the infamous GW moon scape crater but these have some drawbacks in as 1) their size being uneven 2) being genuine GW item; i.e. expensive, most place does not provide them in sufficient numbers 3) Mind boggling as it is, models do not stand well on them.

As the Keeper of Cookies in Comics Mart I have noted the abusive nature of stuff being handled on the table top has literally obliterated some of the cookies over the years. While the number of cookies in the shop remained at a healthy level at the time this is posted the hobbyist in me has already been itching for the making of cookies batch 2.0 with the hobby knowledge I acquired these few years.

Megatron, the cookies were for 40k! 

Of all the hobby centers / outlets I have been to the terrain of one place stood out above the rest: Legio Malaysia. The pieces of terrains there by quality and material are made of ... "sterner stuff", as Optimus Prime would approve. I will try to emulate my batch of cookies 2.0 with that kind of standard in mind.

Emperor willing, hopefully I will have the first batch of cookies 2.0 done during the coming long CNY holidays.

New Approach to 40k 6th Edition

After a devastating recent encounter with a Dark Eldar army, I was convinced on 2 things on 6th edition: 1) Close combat is a last resort measure; the combination of overwatch, random charge distance and the added extra dimension of flyers rendered the traditional close combat death stars too rigid for the modern battlefield. 2) Multiple small units with some core elements is the way to go... and you need to pick your units very carefully. 

A sign of modern time, any unit you inducted into your list should have dual capabilities unless they are really really dirt cheap. Stagnant and underutilized resources are the great pit falls of any 40k army. A great example would be a 5 men tactical marine squad dedicated to capping objective. Just to give you an idea for the same points you could get a scout sniper team with rocket launcher who could  lend some fire support while they are capping or 10 men IG veterans with 2 melta guns who are more capable of earning back their keeps.

So there you have it, I am concluding this post with my newly finished painted storm trooper squad with dual role: 1) Strategic deep strike to take out vital target 2) If option 1 proves too suicidal or futile, go deep behind enemy line for line breaker point.

2 pistols, Yipikaye Mother f**ker!

Angry people are angry

My new parcel arrived, and out came the angry masses, for some reason I really like the idea of angry mobs rolling across table with their guns blazing, chanting blasphemous curses as they go and making a mess.

Knowing myself this pet project will take a long time before it can hit the table, but that is OK. Imperium has endured for ten thousand years, a little bit more wait wont make a difference.

Project Ultramar: Core Elements Done

It has been a long time since I posted anything.

Between the paragon wars and daily grinding, there is no denying personally the 40k hobby for me is in a low tide as do things that goes around the cycles in life as I found myself slowly drifting from a game player to a hobbyist, meaning I became more concern of WYSIWYG-ness of my army rather then how "optimised" my army list is.

Also hard lessons learned from the relentless battlefield has taught me how ridiculous was my obsessions of hoarding some minis like tactical marines, for any person who field more then 2 squads of these over glorified over cost good-for-nothing power armoured boys deserves to have their own bottoms handed to them in silver platter.

Back to the Project Ultramar, the core elements has been (finally) done after I did a threw my hat over the fence bet, it was worth it.All that is left to do are the tertiary details like gun holes.

Vanilla Goodness, did the far right grenade guy to remind myself you can throw grenade in 6th ed 

Codex sanctioned standard ride

The Hammer boys

God hammer Pattern smurf death box

Group Photo with the Grand Duke of Talassar himself

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.

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.

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.

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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…

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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

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!

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.

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.

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.