Tales from the Soapbox: I've had it!

I am sick and tired of dealing with the douches that have been coming in the shop to play for the last three weeks. First off there is not an official points value for games of 40k. If you enjoy gimping yourself playing 1500 point games by all means do so. But keep your darned opinion to yourself when I am playing a game against my buddy. Who the hell do you think you are to tell me how to have fun in my games? If you don't like my unit choices keep it to your darned self, I don't care that Possessed Marines are not considered good. They work for me, so STHU! Oh, yeah hows your ego since my sub-par footsloggin' Blood Claws and Sky Claws kicked your teeth in?

I don't understand what goes through the minds of these guys. How the hell do these misanthropes function in the real world? How the heck did these guys procreate, I don't get it they have zero social skills. By the way you are poor roll models for you sons guys, you behavior is reprehensible.

I really hope these guys crawl back under the rock from whence they came very soon. Because if they don't I will not be playing 40k at the shop or regularly any more. As the guys in the my normal group have real life issues that have been keeping us from gaming. Let me take this opportunity to send out a prayer for my two friends who are deployed in Afghanistan. Keep you heads down boyos and make it home safe and intact.

Back to the rant, I have been neglecting my Flames of War buddies because I have been having so much fun with 40k for the last 9 months. In fact it was douches like these guys that pushed me and the rest of the guys to FOW in the first place. There is 99% less douche-baggery with the ex-40k guys who play FOW because it is a much tighter game system.

Right now my schedule only gives me time to focus and game one system right now. So if these guys persist in ruining both nights I can make it down, 40K will go on the back burner for a while and FOW will take it's place.

Now this won't kill my 40K painting, but it will slow it down. The sad thing is I am in a painting mood, but if I do head back to FOW I need to update my army for 9 months of sporadic gaming and neglecting my purchases.

Thanks for taking the time to read my rant, I'll keep you guys updated.

Wolf Guard Durfast of Mordak: Homebrew rules

Here is the second of the Heroes from Antiquity for the Space Wolves.

Mordak is now a dead world; eons ago it supported an advanced civilization. When it was discovered by the explorers of the Adeptus Terra, the Techno-magi quickly recognized the importance of the technology found on Mordak. The Space Wolves of Hurgarl Stormbrow’s Great Company had been assigned to protect the world. Mordak lay deep within Ork-dominated space and it was not long before a large force of Orks arrived. A desperate war against time began in which the Space Wolves held the scattered excavation sites from the ever expanding force of Orks.

It was during this fighting that Durfast was to earn his place in the Sagas. Durfast lead the remnants of Hurgarls Great Company into the catacombs of Betan to kill the Ork Warboss. It was savage close quarter fighting in almost total darkness. Many Space Wolves died, but in the end the Warboss was killed. Leaderless the Orks were finally driven off. Thanks to Durfast the surviving Space Wolves made it back to the surface, evacuated the complex before destroying it with its own self-destruct systems.

One of the artifacts recovered on Mordak still resides within the Fang; the Iron Priests placed the artifact in a Space Wolf helmet. It has become known as the Helm of Durfast, the artifact utilizes temporal technology to endow the wearer with an uncanny awareness of the immediate past, present and future. This enables the bearer to anticipate the actions of his opponents.



Wolf Guard Durfast of Mordak

Points Value
165

WS-5, BS-5, S-4, T-4, W-2, I-5, A-3, LD-9

Type
Unique

Wargear
Power Armor
Bolter
Bolt Pistol
Frost Blade
Frag and Krak grenades
Helm of Durfast
Wolf tooth Necklace
Wolf Tail talisman

Special Rules
ATSKNF
Acute Senses
Counter Attack
Independent Character

Helm of Durfast: This artifact gives Durfast the ability to anticipate the actions of his foes; this ability has made him a formidable warrior.

The bearers save becomes Invulnerable. He may also re-roll any failed to hit dice in both the shooting and assault phases.

Wolf Lord Kyrl Grimblood ‘Savior of Fenris’: Homebrew rules

Grimblood was a special character in the second edition Space Wolf codex. His story always inspired me to build his Great Company. Since I am rebuilding my Space Wolves to represent his Great Company, I figure I should make a homebrew set of stats for him. This will be the first of three homebrew characters for the Space Wolves that have been forgotten to hallowed antiquity.

Kyrl Grimblood became a Wolf Lord during the age of Apostacy. During this time many false prophets came to power, but none as powerful as the Apostate Cardinal Bucharis. His rampage into the heart of the Imperium was halted on Fenris. For three years the forces of Bucharis lay siege to the Fang. The Space Wolves could do nothing to break the siege. Although they tried many time to breach the attackes’ lines. Eventually it was Kyrl Grimblood who saved the Fang.

Grimblood’s Great Company had departed the Fang five years earlier, on a mission into the Eye of Terror. Now he returned as the besieging forces of Bucharis mustered for the final attack. Grimblood’s Great Company smashed into the flanks and rear of the enemy army, scattering tens of thousands into the forests of Asaheim. To finally seal their fate, the besieged Space Wolves broke out, and the battle was won. Of those that escaped the Space Wolves none would survive the wolves of Asaheim.

Grimblood had saved the day and possibly Earth itself. It was not the end of Bucharis, whose armies were as numerous as the stars in the sky, but it was a setback. Other heroes would defeat the Apostacy on other battlefields, yet the victory of Kyrl Grimblood would herald the rebirth of a unified and powerful Imperium.


Wolf Lord Kyrl Grimblood

Points Value
240

WS-6, BS-5, S-4, T-4, W-3, I-5, A-4, LD-10

Type
Unique

Wargear
Power Armor
Bolt Pistol
Frost Axe
Frag and Krak grenades
Belt of Russ
Wolf tooth Necklace
Wolf Tail talisman
Saga of Majesty

Special Rules
ATSKNF
Acute Senses
Counter Attack
Independent Character
Providence of Russ

Providence of Russ: Kyrl has a knack for amassing his forces in the right place at the right time, granting him the ability to destroy his foes by catching them off guard. Some would say that is comes from his tactical genius, but he believes it comes from Russ himself.

Any Space Wolves army that includes Kyrl Grimblood may use the Outflank rule on any unit placed in reserve. Additionally the army adds +1 to its reserve dice rolls to determine which units arrive every turn.

'Ard Boys list take two

After three games this weekend, I've made some changes to my 'Ard boys list. The Spawn are just to unreliable for my tastes outside of casual play. I have dropped the Daemon Prince for a Sorcerer. That way I can use my nifty special character conversions of Xusia and Eris the seeker.

I am running the Possessed cause I have them and love the models; plus they may be a bit pricey they are not as bad in game as everyone seems to think. The sorcerer goes in the Possessed marines Possessed Rhino.

HQ 300
Chaos Lord 145
Bike, combi-melta, power weapon

Sorcerer 155
MoT, Bolt of change

Elites 613
4 Terminators with 3 combi-melta, Heavy Flamer, Chainfist, Icon of chaos glory
165

4 Terminators with 3 combi-plasma, Reaper AC, powerfist, Icon of chaos glory
180

8 Possessed 268
Icon of chaos glory
Rhino: Daemonic Possession

Troops 920
10 Chaos Space Marines with 2 melta guns and icon of chaos glory
Aspiring Champion with power fist
Rhino, extra armor
270

10 Chaos Space Marines with 2 melta guns and icon of chaos glory
Aspiring Champion with power fist
Rhino, extra armor
270

10 Chaos Space Marines with 1 Plasma gun, Lascannon and icon of chaos glory
Aspiring Champion with power weapon and combi-plasma
Rhino, extra armor
285

7 Lesser Daemons
95

Fast attack 268
6 Chaos Bikers with 2 meltaguns and icon of chaos glory
Aspiring Champion with power fist
268

Heavy Support 395
2 Obliterators
150

Vindicator 145
Daemonic possession

Predator
HB sponsons
100

Looking ahead to the 'Ard Boys 2010

I've been hounded to participate in the 'Ard Boys tourney again. This time I will be doing something completely unconventional. I am going to take 9 Chaos Spawn, cause I love seeing a horde of them rushing cross the table!

HQ
Chaos Lord 150
Bike, combi-melta, power weapon, melta bomb

Daemon Prince 175
Wings, MoT, Warptime

Elites
4 Terminators with 3 combi-melta, Heavy Flamer, Chainfist, Icon of chaos glory
165

4 Terminators with 3 combi-plasma, Reaper AC, powerfist, Icon of chaos glory
180

Troops
10 Chaos Space Marines with 2 melta guns and icon of chaos glory
Aspiring Champion with power fist
Rhino, extra armor
270

10 Chaos Space Marines with 2 melta guns and icon of chaos glory
Aspiring Champion with power fist
Rhino, extra armor
270

10 Chaos Space Marines with 1 Plasma gun, Lascannon and icon of chaos glory
Aspiring Champion with power weapon and combi-plasma
Rhino, extra armor
285

7 Lesser Daemons
91

Fast attack
6 Chaos Bikers with 2 meltaguns and icon of chaos glory
Aspiring Champion with power fist
268

9 Spawn of Chaos
360

Heavy Support
2 Obliterators
150

Predator
LC sponsons
130

Chaos Combi-Plasma Tutorial

Here is the method I use to make Combi-Plasmas for my Chaos Terminators.

Start off with a twin linked bolter arm.



Carefully shave off one of the bolter barrels and cut out the portion of the bolter shown in the red section. It should look like this when done.




Then take a standard space marine Plasma pistol and cut it at the area marked in red. It's about three plasma coils back.



Once this cut is made you must carefully sand away about a third of the width of the pistol from the back. I use an emery board for this part. when you are finished it should look like this.




The test fit the pieces and file more if needed.

Once you have a good fit glue the two parts together and fill the cracks with greenstuff when dry.

Dark Eldar are coming in October!?!

An inside source tells the guys at Dice Like Thunder that Dark Eldar will be released round October this year. They talk about this in their current episode.

This also strengthens the words of everyone's favorite Pie Man, Harry on Warseer who has implied a Games Day UK release may be in the cards.

A few tidbits from the episode:

The Dark Eldar are very fast and make great use of the deep strike rules.

Haemonculi will be able to take control of opponents run down from assault.

Jet bikes may make hit and run moves, when leaving close combat an enemy model must make a save, if failed the models is removed from the table. (being drug away by the chains attached to the bikes) On the following movement phase the DE Bikes may make a 24 inch move in a strait line and use the captured model to bomb a unit with Str 4 small blast.

The Talos is now a Walker of some sort.

Standard Salt Disclaimer applies: while interesting they my be wrong, so view it with a grain of salt.

I cannot wait to see the Dark Eldar miniatures and Codex; I say bring on October!

Picture yoinked without permission from Mybattllion.com

Beware the Ides of March, and Big Jim throwing out new unit ideas!

Heed the warning signs, don't be caught off guard like Caesar.

Now that that is out of the way, lets get to the real reason for this post. New unit ideas for the Soul Reapers.

I will be adding Drop pods to the next playtest min-dex, they will basically be clones of the loyalist versions with a Chaos twist.

There will be two ways to field them. The fist is as a normal transport, the second will be a Planetary assault. To gain access to the planetary assault rule the list must contain no units that may not deep strike or take a pod, the only exception is bikes if Eris the Seeker is in the army.

The next thing I am debating adding is a new type of Predator.

Soul Reapers Predator Exterminator

Base cost 90 points

The Exterminator has twin-linked Exterminator Autocannons mounted in the turret. With the same stats as the exterminator AC from the codex IG.

Range-48, Str-7, AP-4, Heavy-4, twin-linked

It may have heavy bolter sponsons as listed in the Pred entry in the CSM codex; or autocannon sponsons for 45 points.

The upgrade options are as listed in the Pred entry also.

I may also be adding a Pintle mounted Heavy Bolter upgrade for 15 points to all Soul Reapers Rhinos. First off I think it will look awesome, secondly it makes for a more realistic support weapon for a battle taxi.

I have one more unit idea brewing in my head but it still needs fleshing out before I present it.

Cheers,
Jim

Terminator Squad Crixis and a tourney challenge list

Here is my converted Combi-plasma Terminator squad; as with all the rest of my Chaos Marines the horns had to go. So I decided to go with a Grey Knight style conversion.

I have been issued a challenge by a few of the local gamers to take an unmarked Chaos Marine force to a tourney. I walked in on a discussion about the uselessness of the non-cult choices from the codex CSM in the competitive scene. While I agree a non-cult army is not optimized toward winning, they can be competitive if run correctly.

So here is the 2000 point list I came up with. It is kind of an all or nothing list, it will probably win big or lose big. The walking terminators relying on DS is a big gamble, but it can be mitigated with the icons; the bikes can also help get them in a good location.

HQ
Chaos Lord 150
Bike, combi-melta, power weapon, melta bomb

Daemon Prince 130
Wings

Elites
4 Terminators with 3 combi-melta, Reaper AC, Chainfist, Icon of chaos glory
185

4 Terminators with 3 combi-plasma, Heavy Flamer, powerfist, Icon of chaos glory
160

Troops
10 Chaos Space Marines with 2 melta guns and icon of chaos glory
Aspiring Champion with power fist
Rhino, extra armor
270

10 Chaos Space Marines with 2 melta guns and icon of chaos glory
Aspiring Champion with power fist
Rhino, extra armor
270

10 Chaos Space Marines with 1 Plasma gun, Lascannon and icon of chaos glory
Aspiring Champion with power weapon and combi-plasma
Rhino, extra armor
285

Fast attack
6 Chaos Bikers with 2 meltaguns and icon of chaos glory
Aspiring Champion with power fist
268

Heavy Support
2 Obliterators
150

Predator
LC sponsons
130

Ultramarine movie cast announced!

Wow, this cast gives me hope for the movie. I am now looking very forward to updates!

ultramarinesthemovie.com

To pod or not to pod?!?

The topic of adding drop pods to the Soul Reapers has been brought up many times. Most recently by Magilla Gurilla and Derina, while I agree with the sentiment, I have never really tackled the concept.

There are many things in 40k that baffle the mind when it comes to the differences in wargear between Chaos and Imperial Space Marines. Currently it seems that the second a Space Marine turns traitor he forgets how to maintain his wargear; so he discards drop pods, land speeders, storm bolters, landraider variants and the list goes on. Lets not forget he forgets basic doctrines like combat squads and tactics; plus he forgets that he knows no fear.

I understand that GW are trying to make both armies different, but there comes a time where the suspension of disbelief doesn't quite cut it any more. Especially with the current regurgitation that is the Chaos Space Marine codex, that swaps the focus to more recent renegades over the original traitor legions.

So my original choice was to forgo this issue in an effort to no be overly ambitious. I am now at a point where everything else in the mini-dex seems pretty well balanced and maybe trying something ambitious is needed.

There are a couple of ways I could add drop pods to the Soul Reapers; I could add a special Planetary Assault rule, that would force all units to deploy by drop pod or deep strike forgoing any sort of tanks in the army. Or I could just add them as a transport option just like in the codex SM.

Then I have to decide if I want to use the FW IA rules for the Dreadclaw or just use the SM rules for a drop pod. I am leaning toward the latter option as the FW IA rules seem a bit clunky in game terms.

So what do you guys think?

More thoughts on adding a few more options tomorrow.

Soul Reapers Version 4 is ready

Ok guys and gals here is the 4th update to the Soul Reapers mini-dex.

The Soul Reapers Mini-dex Version 4
Download Here


The main changes made are as follows:

The range on the Demo-charge should red as 6 inches.

The Gore Daemons have their strength lowered to 4, but they retain the rending which has so far been awesome for me in game. I didn't want to raise the points value, so lowered the strength, it just made sense as they were too good for the points.

There are also various minor formatting changes, too.

Thanks for you patients and Playtesting.

Remember to send your feedback to me at galaxynflamesblog at gmail.com before the end of March for the next update.

Thanks,
Jim

Soul Reapers update delayed

Sorry guys the new version of PDF creator on this crappy laptop keeps screwing up the Fonts in the Document. So I have sent the Doc to my Pop for him to render it, I should have it back tonight or tomorrow.

The main changes made are as follows:

The range on the Demo-charge should red as 6 inches.

The Gore Daemons have their strength lowered to 4, but they retain the rending which has so far been awesome for me in game. I didn't want to raise the points value, so lowered the strength, it just made sense as they were too good for the points.

Cheers,
Jim

New Podcast to check out!

The 11th company is a new podcast out of South Carolina. They discuss strategy and tactics. Their grasp of the aforementioned topics is really good.

The podcast is built around a regular gaming club with many years of 40k gaming experience.

I have really been enjoying the podcast a lot. Another perk is that it's great to hear about 40k gaming from a females perspective, and there are two regular female commentators on the show.

So check them out, the 11th Company. They have great forums too, you can find me there posting as BDJV. If you join let 'em know that I sent you!