Tag: Warhammer 40k Page 4 of 5

Warhammer 40,000 Imperium – Issue 4 Battle Report

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On 29th October 2021

In Battle Reports

The second part of the Warhammer 40,000 Imperium Battle Report Series Each issue I will bring you a fully painted White Dwarf style battle report.

In this fourth episode, we see the Blood Ravens Assault Intercessors & Primaris Lieutenant attempt to prevent a Canoptek Plasmacyte from awakening more of the devastating Destroyer Cult.

But standing in thier way are a trio of rage filled Skorpekh Destroyers.

Who will prevail in this battle between the sinister Necrons and the noble warriors of the Imperium

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Warhammer 40,000 Imperium – Issue 3 Battle Report

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On 15th October 2021

In Battle Reports

The second part of the Warhammer 40,000 Imperium Battle Report Series Each issue I will bring you a fully painted White Dwarf style battle report.

In this third episode, we see the Blood Ravens Assault Intercessors attempt to defend a signal beacon from some Necron Warriors, and for the first time, the tutorials introduce charging and fighting!

Who will prevail in this battle between the sinister Necrons and the noble warriors of the Imperium

Death Guard vs Orks – Warhammer 40,000 Battle Report

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On 8th October 2021

In Battle Reports

In this battle report, me and Megan play a 500pts game between the Death Guard and the Orks.

I am refining the process of making these reports, and I think that I may have it about right now and a good work flow going on.

Let me know how you like it!

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On Crusade – Blood Ravens vs Space Wolves vs Dark Angels – Warhammer 40,000 Battle Report

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On 1st October 2021

In Battle Reports

In trying to do battle reports, I have lost sight of what I wanted to achieve, and thus I have decided to go back to basics and focus on what I want to do, which is concentrate on the narrative aspect.

So here is a report from my Crusade battle report from a game I played on Tuesday, its simple, and just looks at the game itself and not each individual dice roll.

I really should have wrote a proper script rather than just notes, but I will for next time!

Anyway hope you enjoy!

Warhammer 40,000 Imperium – Issue 2 Battle Report

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On 24th September 2021

In Battle Reports, Videos

The second part of the Warhammer 40,000 Imperium Battle Report Series

Each issue I will bring you a fully painted White Dwarf style battle report.

In this second episode, we see the Blood Ravens Primaris Lieutenant attempting to prevent the Necron Warriors from escaping and activating a Canoptek Plasmacyte which in turn can awaken the Destroyer cults.

Who will prevail in this battle between the sinister Necrons and the noble warriors of the Imperium.

Warhammer 40,000 Imperium – Issue 1 Battle Report

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On 17th September 2021

In Battle Reports, Videos

I am starting a new 80 part series covering the Warhammer 40,000 Imperium collection from Hachette Partworks and Games Workshop.

Each issue I will bring you a dully painted White Dwarf style battle report.

In this first episode, we see the Blood Ravens entering Warzone Ramasus and the valiant Primaris Lieutenant attempt to stop a Necron Royal Warden of the Sautekh Dynasty from activating a series of Repair Nodes, which will reactivate the systems that will awaken the warriors of this tomb complex deep under the moon of Megaria.

Who will prevail in this battle between the sinister Necrons and the noble warriors of the Imperium

Helsreach

By

On 1st July 2021

In Book Reviews

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Black Library Masterworks book Helsreach by Aaron Dembski-Bowden published by Black Library, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first, I am also friends with Aaron on Facebook, but I suspect that’s more about him connecting with fans rather than being a big fan of mine!

I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

What is Warhammer 40,000

Warhammer 40,000 is a miniatures Wargame set in the 41st Millennium and published by Games Workshop. It is the worlds most popular miniature Wargame.

In the 40k universe, the Imperium of Man, a stagnant human empire in which scientific and cultural progress have ceased, individuals matter very little and exist only to oil the machines of war.

The Imperium is under siege from the forces of Chaos, and various Xenos races.

The setting owes a lot to the influence of Lovecraft, Tolkien, Milton, Herbert and a lot of 2000 AD with a sprinkling of 1980s political satire.

It’s a setting in which there is little hope and is often described as being Grimdark after the marketing line, in the Grim Darkness of the Future, There Is Only War.

The Story

This story is set during the third war for Armageddon and focuses on as the title implies, the Siege of Helsreach.

The Third War for Armageddon saw this cursed world, invaded by Orks lead by the Beast, Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka (an example of some of Games Workshops 1980s satire).

Helsreach is an important port and promethium refinery on the Tempest Sea, and is defended by forces of the Armageddon Steel Legion, the titans of Legio Invigilata, sisters of the Order of the Argent Shroud and a small force of Black Templars lead by newly promoted Reclusiarch Merek Grimaldus.

This story explores the events that lead to Grimaldus attaining the tile of Hero of Helsreach, as originally told in Codex: Armageddon back in the days of 3rd Edition in 2000.

The story is told from multiple points of view, not only Grimaldus, but also includes Zarha Mancion the Crone of Invigilata, and possibly one of the funniest and most charming characters in all of 40k, Andrej Valatok.

The story is one of defiance in the face of hopeless odds, the characters all know they will lose, they questions is how long can they last before they succumb to the endless stampede of the Orks. As plots go, it’s pretty straightforward.

Conclusion

Helsreach is a masterpiece, and I am going to be honest, I am a huge fan of Aaron, he is able to conjure up an emotional response from a book whose main focus is on Dakka.

The book was originally published under the Space Marines Battles banner, books who generally were considered to be Bolter Porn, but in reality they were often a lot more than that. This book, the second in the series, very much set the standard of being action based books, that could be well written and emotionally evocative.

There is an interaction at the end of the book, which will make you weep for the character, it’s honestly one of the best written character arcs in all of Black Library fiction, despite it being relatively short.

If you have previously dismissed fiction as action books for teenage boys, I would strongly suggest you give this novel a read, ok you need a little bit of background to 40K to understand some stuff, but only a very surface level amount, but it’s well worth a read.

Seriously Aaron has yet to write a bad book, this was only his second Black Library novels and there is a very good reason he is considered one of the greatest writers ever signed up by Games Workshop.

5 out of 5 Stars

Helsreach is available now as an eBook, MP3 Audiobook and Hardback as a Masterworks.

eBook

Audiobook

Hardback

9th Edition Inbound

By

On 27th May 2020

In Blog

So it cannot escaped the attention of those of you who care, but Games a Workshop have announced the 9th Edition of Awarhammer 40,000.

I can’t say much about because I know very little, but I do like what I hear about it.

The main thing I like is the rebalancing of Command Points because right now the prevalence of the loyal 32 and armies with multiple detachments is not good.

When I play it’s with one army and one set of rules, I hate seeing armies in which one detachment is from the Raven Guard another from White Scars and a third from Ultramarines in a situation where it seems that those with the most command points is gonna be the winner.

I am not opposed to allies but the soup situation was getting silly. I hope to see a system in which choosing one army is rewarded and you are penalised for trying to take soup or different sets of rules from one Codex.

Unless of course fluff actually permits it, like a detachment of Tempestus Scions with Cadians for example.

I do like 8th but it does have faults and I am glad the guys at GW are looking to address those.

And I have been this month thinking of making Necrons a project for next year and lo and behold, new Necron models are coming!

I am still planning on picking up Start Collecting Necrons so long as it’s still in stock when I get paid, to add to the two sets of Forgebane I have and the extra Immortals and Lychguard I have. Even think I have an Overlord in there as well.

This week I have made a few changes to the site, I started just wanting to tidy it up a little, add an Instagram widget and put up a link to Edge of Empires affiliate link with Element Games, I doubt anyone from the blog would use it, but you never know, it all goes to helping run the show.

Anyway it ended up being a full redesign with a change of theme and lots of behind the scenes stuff. I changed the SEO plugin to one that works better with social media and removed some stuff that wasn’t working too well.

I also added a security certificate, so not this site will use https instead of the not secure http. Not that it matters as I don’t have registered users in the site, nor do I sell anything but I don’t want people looking at the Not Secure bit and wondering if I am up to no good with data.

One thing I am using to motivate me is a new Goodreads sidebar, that way people who aren’t on Goodreads can pester me about my reading progress.

Goodreads is a site I need to use more to get the best out of it and hopefully this will motivate me to do so.

It’s been three years since the site had a major update so hopefully this will keep it looking good for a bit longer.

What I Am Painting

I started the week by painting the Raptoryx from Warcry which was the final thing to do from that box set.

I did them in a scheme influenced by Louise Sugden and I am quite pleased with how they turned out.

I then turned my attention to two squads of Blood Ravens Scouts. I got both squads from Conquest so I got two squads and saved £1.52 compared to buying them from Games Workshop.

The sculpts are very old and a bit static but they still paint up nicely. I built one squad with Bolters and one squad with Shotguns, both have a Heavy Bolter.

I had a unit of Scouts from an old Space Marines Battleforce when I first got back into the hobby, but I attempted some conversions on them and frankly they were unsalvageable, so I ended up getting rid of them.

These mean that I could fulfil the troop requirements of a Battalion detachment with just scouts for 40k, when combined with the Sniper Scouts I repainted a few years ago. I am not sure I would ever do that, but perhaps in a Vanguard themed list perhaps.

Next I moved onto my next Millitarium Tempestus squad and their Taurox Prime. These are some of my favourite models and they are always a treat to paint. I love the colour scheme of the 55th Kappic Eagles.

Whilst working on them I decided to let myself get distracted and build and paint the first Sigmarite Mausoleum for Age of Sigmar seeing as I got the first copy of Issue 25 of Mortal Realms.

So I finished that in Sunday after editing the podcast.

I finally got the Scions finished just before the 9th Edition Q&A.

I also built my Stormhawk Interceptor for the Blood Ravens and built some Swiftclaws for the Space Wolves.

I have literally just started on the Stormcast Eternals Prosecutors tonight.

So how does this leave my painting queue right now, well as you can see below, we have the first T’au units appearing on the plan, which starts on one of my resolutions for 2020.

  1. Blood Ravens Land Speeders x 3
  2. Stormcast Eternals Prosecutors and Knight-Venator
  3. Blood Ravens Intercessors x 5 & Sgt Jovan
  4. Stormcast Eternals Retributors, Knight-Heraldor and Knight- Vexilior
  5. Space Wolves Grey Hunters Pack Leaders and Iron Priest
  6. Blood Ravens Chaplains x 5
  7. Chainrasp Horde x 40
  8. Sons of Horus Contemptor Dreadnought
  9. T’au Ethereal on Hover Drone x 2
  10. Blood Ravens Intercessors x 10

What Am I Reading

I started on Valdor: Birth of the Imperium, not got a lot read but enjoying it so far.

What Am I Playing

Despite wanting to play games I haven’t played any.

What Am I Backing

I am backing Railway Ink Challenge for now, not sure if I will back it all the way but it does look really good and I do fancy having a roll and write game in my collection.

We are also looking quite favourable at Chai: High Tea which looks very pretty.

What I Am Cooking

I made some Be-Ro flapjacks which are some of my favourite baked goods.

They use cornflakes and are familiar and loved by most north eastern folk. First time I was severed a flapjack outside my home I was upset because it had no flapjacks and noting like what I had a home!

What I Am Spending

Not spent anything this week but my copies of Mortal Realms 15 from Forbidden Planet and Conquest 48 from Hachette finally arrived together on Friday.

8th Looks Good!

By

On 25th April 2017

In Blog

This evening I watched the live Q&A about the 8th edition of Warhammer 40,000. Well I watched it a bit later as I had to go to the pharmacist to pick up a prescription for Megan.

Anyway there is a lot in there to look forward to, it’s getting the Age of Sigmar treatment which is cool. Now a year ago I would have been horrified at such a thought, but now I look forward to it, why, well AoS is probably the best tabletop war game out there, ever since the Generals Handbook was released. 

The three ways to play and introduction of points was the moment that AoS went from being a bit of a mess to being an amazing game. 7th edition kind of killed my love for the game, the gap between armies was just huge, and some of the formations just made the game unplayable if you weren’t prepared to spend a small fortune. The arms race was just not fun.

And of course right now they are leaving Horus Heresy alone, so I will be able to continue to enjoy that as it is, but we will see what the future holds for that.

But right now I am really excited for what 8th edition will be, Jus at Battle Bunker is already planning a midnight launch and I am gonna be there for it!!!

Kill Team

By

On 17th September 2016

In Reviews

img_8384After a summer filled with releases for Age of Signar it’s nice to get back to 40k, and following Death Masque we get the return of the popular Kill Team game.

My first forays in the 40k universe were with games of Necromunda, I had a force of Enforcers lead by the corrupt Sargent Hill who liked to go into combat with a shield and power maul. The thing I liked about the game was that it was easy to start and quick to get on the table fully painted (though in my case quite poorly) and I enjoyed some awesome games with my Enforcers, small games in which every figure counted.
Kill Team is kind of like that in that you get a small squad of 200pts, which allows you to buy, 0-2 Troops, 0-1 Elites, 0-1 Fast Attack. There are a few more selection rules, namely that you need at least four infantry models, nothing with more than 3 wounds or hull points, no vehicles with a combined AV of 33, no flyers and no 2+ saves.
img_8385With a force selected using this rules, you then can play as a small band of troops doing quite cool cinematic missions lead by your heroic leader. This is a fast easy way to try 40k and may be a cool way to try out a new faction without investing a huge ton of money on a whole army only to find out you dislike it.
The rules have been released on Black Library, fully updated for 7th edition for the low price of £6.99 as an ePub, or if you bought the 6th edition version, it’s a free update. For those on iOS there is also an enhanced version for £7.99.
img_8387The box set I am reviewing comes with these rules in a handy booklet, and you get a an excellent two player set which also includes a full copy of the 40k rules with a Raven Guard cover, along with a set of Space Marines Tactical Squad and a set of Tau Fire Warriors, and you get all of that for £40. And that is excellent value, its about the price of a decent board game these days and is perfect for starting out with 40k and you don’t fancy the Dark Angels or Chaos Space Marines offered in the Dark Vengeance box. The only things you don’t get are dice or templates, but in fairness these are easily acquired elsewhere.
So getting back to the game, when you build your army there is one thing you should bear in mind, and that is that when you add dudes to your team, although they may act as individuals in the game, you still buy them as a unit, so if you only want say 4 Space Marines, you still pay the price for 5 of them, so mixing and matching units can get quite hard.
img_8388The model with the highest leadership becomes your team leader and gets what is in effect a mini Warlord trait, which is chosen exactly the same way, by rolling a D6. You can then nominate three non-vehicle models to be specialists, and you can pick from one of five categories, Combat (melee orientated), Weapon (shooting orientated), Dirty Fighter (dirty tricks), Indomitable (making the model a bit special), or Guerrilla (movement orientated). When you pick your specialist you then get to given them a special rule from the category, for example in the Raven Guard kill team data sheet included in the rule book, a model armed with a Missile Launcher, is an Indomitable Specialist and gets the Relentless Special Rule, meaning he can fire that Missile Launcher on the move. Now you only get one of each speciality so no giving yourself multiple versions of the same specialist.
The book also contains six special Kill Team missions which are played on a 4’x4′ board. The missions do have slightly different rules to standard games, for example, transports can carry multiple units, because each model is a unit all of its own. And some codexs get a tweak too, for example, Chaos Daemons don’t use the Warp Storm or Daemonic Instability rules, but they do get fearless instead.
img_8389There is a nice mix of mission in there, objective missions, assassination missions, get into your opponents deployment zone, but they are all quite fun and short in length, so you can easily play a couple of games in a single session.
The book then looks at what the next steps in Kill Team could be, for example it suggests tournaments, linked games, and multiplayer games. So you can see Kill Team offers plenty of scope beyond whats in the box.
Finally the book contains Data Sheets fro two pre-built Kill Teams built from the kits in the box, one a Raven Guard squad, and the other, a team of Tau Fire Warriors complete with Drones. This is a cool template to use, but does somewhat take away from the fun of building your own Kill Team, but for people new to 40k, they are perfect.
So whats my final opinion on Kill Team, well its good, its very good, its an excellent kitchen table/beer and pretzels wargame, its dirty and quick to play. But, and its a big but, like with all Games Workshop wargames, it all depends on the players, in the hands of most of the players I know, it will be fine and fun, but in the hands of the WAAC players, it will be broken very easily,  for example, taking an Eldar Hornet, which is perfectly acceptable for use in Kill Team.#
Its a great game, just be wary of who you play with!

8/10

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