40k | Blood Angels - The HQ Slot, Part One

As I said in a previous post, I'd considered writing up some reviews and tactica for the (still somewhat) new Blood Angel codex. Well, I decided that more opinions are always better, and anyone can learn a new trick or two from people sharing their experiences and strategies, so here goes!

I'm going to start off by covering all the different FOC slots in the codex, along with a few tactics and strategies that I've found to either work well or not at all. After that, I might do some list building or so on until another new codex comes out... I have heard rumours of the new Chaos codex coming out soon, and I may also have a fairly hefty pair of traitor warbands.

HQ Slots - Part One
First off we're going to start with the generic HQ slots - the unnamed and customisable characters that you can deploy to lead your glorious brothers to victory!

Captain
The Captain has undergone some serious changes from his previous incarnation, and they're all pretty awesome. For a start, his statline and base wargear remain unchanged, and he's 10 points cheaper. he's also gained Furious Charge, so you're practically being given 10 points for a very useful USR now.

Wargear changes of note:
- Terminator Armour is now 10 points cheaper.
- He now has access to Artificer Armour for 20 points.
- Storm Shields are 5 points cheaper.
- Bikes are 5 points cheaper, Jump Packs are 10 points cheaper.
- Can now buy a Relic Blade for 25 points.
- Can now buy either a combi-Grav or Grav Pistol for 10 or 15 points respectively.
- Has access to the army Relics of Baal.

This means that overall, the Captain is cheaper and much more flexible, due to both the point reductions on some wargear, and the addition of new options. A couple of builds that come to mind after a little thinking are as follows:

The Flying Terminator Captain
Captain for 90 points, with Artificer Armour, a Storm Shield, and either a Jump Pack or The Angel's Wing if you want him to come in from reserves with an Assault Squad/Jump DC Squad. Armed with pretty much any weapon of choice, he comes to between 140-175 points for an HQ that could either be a major annoyance to kill, or, if combined with a Sanguinary Priest, a nigh-on unkillable HQ choice. If he's paired up with a punchy Death Company squad and jumps in behind the enemy's line, he can wreck some serious face and most likely still be left standing afterwards.

The Bargain Basement Captain
Cap for 90 points, Artificer Armour and either a Relic Blade or an upgraded gun - maybe a Grav Pistol or Hand Flamer. Roughly 120 points nets you a very reliable HQ slot who won't just fall over and die, and can actually seriously put the hurt on if he needs to. It's worth remembering that with Furious Charge and a Relic Blade, your Captain is Str8, AP3, I5 on the charge, and with 4 attacks on the charge, he can seriously mangle Marine-equivalents on his own. Suddenly, 120 points looks very, very cheap.

Librarian
Like the Captain, the Librarian has had some serious point rebalancing. At a whopping 35 points cheaper than before, it looks like the already widely-used HQ will be seeing a lot more play time. Now weighing in at a mere 65 points base, and boasting the same statline as before, he's now in line with the other MEQ Psykers - five points more than the norm, but again scoring Furious Charge, which is a little less useful but a nice addition nonetheless.

Important wargear changes:
- Can buy a second Mastery level for 25 points, as per the 5th Edition errata.
- Bikes and Jump Packs have the same price reductions as for the Captain.
- Full access to the army Relics, and there's even one Librarian specific item.
- Terminator Armour is the exact same, except Storm Shields are now 10 points cheaper.
- The Epistolary upgrade has been fully removed. (What did it even do?)

All in all, the Librarian has seen a large, but needed, price reduction across the board. my Librarian builds probably won't change - although I'll certainly be tempted to try out a few new things - but they will certainly be cheaper, leaving me more space for more exciting stuff in lists!

The Epistolary
Librarian at 65 points, with an additional Mastery Level, Terminator Armour with a Storm Bolter, and Gallian's Staff. This is a beefy Librarian, but costing 140 points he's a tad on the steep side - the Storm Bolter and Staff Relic are both situational and I'll only take them if the points are spare and they'll be particularly important. If not, I'll usually give him a Force Axe - in my opinion the most useful and flexible Force Weapon available. Something else to consider is the Storm Shield option - now just a 10 point upgrade for Terminator Librarians, and improving his Invulnerable save by 2, which isn't something to sniff at.

Cheapo Librarian
Librarian for 65 points, maybe an Auspex for 5 points. Er... that's it. He's there to join other squads and provide situational buffs, and to provide Warp Charges for your big boys to play with. Now that the Librarian is far cheaper, this is far more viable, especially in larger games with multiple FOC's, or with Unbound lists.

Next post I'll be covering the Chaplain, Sanguinary Priest, and Techmarine HQ's, with the major changes and some tactica for different builds. Until then, happy gaming!

-Mike

40k | Blood Angels - Task Force Bloodwing

Ahh, last week I finally had some real time to sit down and just assemble models. I got plenty done, perhaps more than I'd expected, and here the fruits of my labour will be displayed with pride!

Or at least, in theory.

As it is, I did get quite a lot done over the course of the week - so much so that I probably should have posted on Friday - however I ran in to a couple issues that have left me a tad disappointed with my efforts thus far. 

First of all, and although not overwhelmingly obvious in the picture, I ran out of magnets. Having totted up how many I'd used, I quickly discovered to my surprise, and chagrin, that my initial calculations weren't incorrect - I did get enough magnets to fully assemble all of my guys, and a few left over with which to build even more options for the Assault Terminators. However, at some point I must have lost at least 6 of them, meaning that I was in fact two magnets short of putting all of my Terminators together - bugger!

Secondly, I won a few bits auctions on everyone's favourite website, the plan being that with those parts, and my bitz box, I could easily assemble another Furioso dreadnought for a fraction of the kit's price. 

Wrong. 

You may notice in the image that one of the Dreadnoughts has no legs. This was a slight oversight on my part, and annoyingly, I don't have the funds to furnish him with such equipment as would make him mobile at this moment in time. So he's just going to have to float into battle. Sorry.

Behind the glorious 1st Company Veterans stands the mighty new addition to my Imperial forces - an indomitable Baneblade super-heavy tank. This is actually one of the old kits, assembleable only as a Baneblade or Hellhammer, so I chose to build it as the instantly recognisable super-heavy poster boy of 6th edition Apocalypse. It really was a dream to put together, and now I'm seriously considering in a sister for it... those Shadowswords sure are nice...

So all I have to do now is get some more magnets, a pair of Dreadnought legs, and some more Crux Terminatus shoulder pads for my Assault Terminators' other arms, and I'll be good to go! Still waiting on my bits for another project, so until then, happy gaming!

-Mike

40k - An unexpected find!

Yesterday, I ended up going to a local wargaming show called Minicon and, despite my year's resolution to not buy anything from now on, (having bought everything I'm after for quite a few big projects thus far) I did indeed end up buying things. However, they were mostly form the bring+buy section - as many of my convention purchases often are - and were all pretty good bargains, to my mind at least.

So, in reverse order, the last thing I ended up buying was a squad of Sanguinary Guard.

I always eye these guys up, and after having gotten the new Blood Angels codex, I'd finally decided that I needed a squad of them. Lo and behold, I see these guys for £13 as opposed to £20.50 new, nicely assembled with 2 swords, 2 axes, and a fist. Normally I prefer to pay a little more for new on sprue, as I get a lot out of assembling minis, but this was just too good to pass up.

Secondly, I ended up picking up a set of the crashed Aquila Lander terrain from the Battle for Macragge starter set. I sold my set off a long time ago, back when I wasn't playing any 40k at all, but later when I starting playing again I regretted selling it. So I was overjoyed when I saw this set, brand new on the sprues, for a mere five pounds - I'd sold mine for more than that anyway, so I still consider myself up on the whole deal.

Lastly of all... well, it's something that I've wanted for a seriously long time, and I thought I'd treat myself for passing my driving theory test (even though I've already treated myself, but hey) But rather than spoiling the surprise, I'll just leave a hint for you all.

There'll be more on that once it's built, and I'm hoping to have it, along with my Blood Angel Terminators, built by the weekend. And as for Secret Project:Asian, well, you'll just have to wait and see. That's it for me, so happy gaming everyone!

-Mike

40k | Blood Angels - 1st Company Reinforcements!

After a long couple of weeks of college work and driving theory, I'm back! Last week I managed to get some work done on my Blood Angel Terminators, and since then I received the rest of them in the post, along with my new codex. I'm tempted to do a review/tactica series on the codex (I'm renowned for using sub-par units to good effect in games, and can almost always see the potential in a unit), but that remains to be seen. For now - Terminators!

These are my 1st Company brothers as they stand right now. Half of them (the vanilla tacticals) are assembled with their torsos magnetised, and I've also magnetised almost all of their weapons options save for a storm bolter, power fist and chainfist, as I haven't needed to do them yet. Those guys just need a couple of heads, and most of their shoulder pads attaching, and then they're ready for basing and painting.
In a considerably less-built state are the Blood Angel Assault Terminators and the TDA Librarian, who require magnetising before they get attached to their bases. On a side note - these guys don't like standing up on their own, a couple of them are wobbly and one of them refuses to stay upright at all.
To the side stands Karlaen, along with the dead Terminator from Space Hulk and a pair of Teleport Homers, ready for basing and painting. I have a couple of ideas for more Objective Markers, but they'll have to wait for now.

I magnetised the Terminators using 2mm x 1mm Neodymium magnets, and a 1/16" drill bit in my pin vice. I've made sure that all the magnets face the same way - "outwards" on the torsos and "inwards" on the arms, meaning that all the arms are fully interchangeable, and I'll be doing the same with the rest of them. How - or if - I magnetise the BA Librarian remains to be seen, as I almost always use power axes on them, and I know I'll never give him a combi-melta... although it is a very nice weapon, so someone else might end up getting it instead.

That's it for the Blood Angels today, another update will be along when I make some more progress on them. As for other things going down - well, here's another hint on the Oriental project I have coming up;

And, with that, it's back to work for me. be sure to tune in next time for another dose of hobby, and happy gaming!

-Mike

40k | Blood Angels - A new era for the Golden Host!

Hello everyone! The topic of today's shockingly on-time post is my personal iteration of the faction I hold dearest - the proud and noble Blood Angels! Before I delve into my current BA workload, however, I feel a little background is in order.

My first foray into wargaming as a whole began when I was around 8 years old, when I was given the Warhammer 40k 2nd Edition starter set, amongst a few other things. I'll admit, my actually miniature collection started a little earlier, as my older brother had previously given me the Catachan battleforce which I had assembled and even mostly painted with a large amount of help from my dad - a long-time avid wargamer himself.

This collection was further boosted by the arrival of a 2nd edition Space Hulk, yet again featuring the Blood Angels chapter in the form of the gritty, heavily-armoured and tenacious 1st company veteran Terminators. With that, I was fully hooked, and despite them not being my first 40k models, I always regard them as my first Warhammer army and have always held a great fondness for the red-and-gold warriors.

Fast forward a decade, and I find myself watching all the new 7th edition codices being released with increasing anxiousness. I now possess a hefty Chaos warband, a stupid amount of Imperial Guardsmen that still have yet to be fielded, a small mechanised Tallarn force (minus their Chimeras, because as with most of my projects, lack of funding and other distractions drew my attention away too soon) a respectably sized Ork Mekmob, and a small Dark Eldar raiding force. 

However, by far the largest army I own is my Blood Angels force. Over the ten or so years I've been wargaming, they have always been my constant, and moreso than any other army I always find it incredibly easy to add yet more to them. At this point, I own over 12,000 points of Blood Angels in varying states of completeness, including the entire 3rd Company, along with large elements of the 1st, 4th, and 10th Companies. But I'm watching the new releases for other factions, and I'm nervously awaiting the inevitable announcement of the new BA codex. 

Finally, we come to today. I sit in front of my computer, writing a blog post on one monitor, the other screen with the Google images tab of "Blood Angels Terminators" I was gazing at last night still open. Shield of Baal has been and gone, and I was lucky enough to pick up the Datacards and copy of Deathstorm to split with a friend, although I can still see the box of Tyranid sprues and bases denoting the fact he hasn't paid me for his half yet. I'm still excited to get my Blood Angels codex, and the new Terminators kit - perhaps even the Terminator Librarian if my funds can stretch that far. And even now, over eleven years since I first started wargaming, I still want to add even more models to my enormous Blood Angels army, even considering the possibility of one day possessing the entire chapter, model for model. 

Perhaps a little lengthy, but I could write far more on my history with this particular band of little plastic men, and my fondness for them above all others. But enough history, let's talk about the present! Here is the current state of my Deathstorm models, built as per the datasheet in the box. First up, the Death Company boys along with Cassor the Damned, the last remaining Troops Dreadnought. Clearly he didn't get the update memo, but I'm not complaining!

And here's the Shield of Baal himself, Captain Karlaen of the Blood Angels 1st Company, along with the dead Terminator from the newer Space Hulk sets, who'll become a much-needed objective marker eventually. I've become infamous for forgetting my objective markers for games, so hopefully some themed ones will help me remember them!

I still have the Terminators to build, but as I said in my previous update, I'm holding off until I've got a box of the BA Assault Termies to bash with them and make them look a little less vanilla. I'm also keeping an eagle eye pealed for a set of the Space Hulk Terminators for sale so that I can further boost my 1st Coy. collection. Did I say that I liked Terminators?

In other news, I'm hoping to pick up an SD card for my camera on the weekend (sorry for procrastinating, I've just been too busy!) And I'm still writing up the Hail Caesar Battle Report from the other week - lots of (dodgy) pictures this time! Yay!

That's all for now, so be sure to check out my next post. Until then, happy gaming!

-Mike

Update time - A new year of hobbying, and my projects for 2015!

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog! I was hoping to have my first year's post up last Friday, but various events ended up in the usual delay, so it's here today instead! In this post, I'm going to be going over my targets and projects for the coming months - with pictures!

First off, on the subject of pictures - hurrah!  I ended up getting a camera for Christmas, so once I've sorted out an SD card for it, I'll have lovely lovely pictures to show you all, rather than the usual dull blocks of text!

So, what's on my table at the moment?

Well, at this moment in time I have several different things going on, with the Terminators from Deathstorm currently awaiting their Assault Terminator brethren (so that I can split the iconography over the two squads so they don't look completely different) Next up, at the back you'll struggle to see a couple guys on one of my bitz boxes - they're scouts, but more on them later...
On the other side there are my three Deathwing Terminators - relics of a cancelled project but not yet forgotten - and three Uruk-Hai Warg riders, part of a much larger enterprise that I don't believe I've covered yet, but that's a story for another post.
Finally, there's an array of cast resin bases, bought from Daemonscape, which I purchased for an entirely new undertaking...

I've finally taken the dive! Malifaux has always been a game I've been interested in starting for a long time, drawn in by the exquisite miniatures and innovative gameplay mechanics. Over the holidays I ended up having a little more money spare than I'd anticipated, and so ended up (after consulting the Wyrd Forums and receiving tons of advice from the friendly denizens within) buying a crew, along with the rulebook and the Schemes and Strategies deck - sadly the fate deck I wanted was out of stock, so I'll be substituting a standard deck of cards until I can pick up the deck I'm after.

I'll go in to more depth on everything here, as well as wrapping up the D&D adventure I ran last year, and covering a Hail Caesar battle report from last week, in later posts. Speaking of which, this year I intend to have a much more rigid posting timetable - at the moment, I'm thinking Mondays and Fridays, but we'll see how it goes. And lastly, there is one more project on the horizon - something distinctly... Oriental...

Until then, happy gaming everyone!

-Mike