Hell Riders Chaos Space Marine Cavalry: Soul Reapers unit proposal and Poll

Model courtesy B.smoove.

I have to be honest until I posted the Wargear update for the Soul Reapers, I wasn't convinced that a generic Chaos mount was a great idea. After seeing great conversions by B.smooves from a Gentleman's Ones and Tim's Centurions from Tim's Minis Blog; I knew that they would be an great looking modeling opportunity.

Then Flekkzo made a comment, and just had to bring up a thought that I had buried deep in the back of my mind. He made these comments:

Maybe even introduce a cavalry unit a la thunderwolves? Would be a fresh addition and make it possible for the IC to mingle with it's own type.

And imagine fiery demon steeds with chaos marines on them. Don't tell me you don't want a unit like that:)

A unit of Chaos Marine cavalry mounted on Daemonic steeds! Curse you Flekkzo, my gaming buddies read the blog and they think it is an awesome idea.

So after two weeks of badgering, I have decided to present a unit proposal and a poll to go with it.

Hell Riders

The Hell Steed of Chaos is one of the only indigenous creatures left on Ehdan, the home world of the Soul Reapers. They are equines that have been twisted by thousands of years of isolation and exposure within the Warp. They leave trails of fire wherever their hooves meet the ground.

A very select group of Chosen Soul Reapers ride these daemonic steeds into battle. They think of themselves as the Honor Guard of the Salmora Artifacts, riding to war like the ancient warriors of his time. The rest of the Warband refer to them as the Hell Riders.

Hell Riders

Points Value:
60pts each

WS-4, BS-4, S-4, T-5, W-2, I-5, A-3, LD-10

Unit type:
Cavalry

Unit Composition:
2-5

Wargear:
Power armor
Bolt Pistol
Close Combat Weapon
Frag and Krak grenades

Special Rules:
Fearless
5+ Invulnerable save
Honor Guard: to include a unit of Hell Riders in a Soul Reapers army, the army must contain an Exalted Champion mounted on a Hell Steed.

Options:
Any model may take Melta bombs 5pts

One model may take one of the following Icons
Personal Icon 5pts
Icon of Perpetual War 25pts

Up to two may:
replace their bolt pistol with a plasma pistol 10pts
or
replace their close combat weapons with power weapons 15pts

One may be upgraded to a Champion for 10pts (+1 attack)

The Champion may replace his close combat weapon with:
Power weapon 15pts
Power Fist 25pts

The Champion may replace his bolt pistol with a plasma pistol 10pts

Now having seen the ideas for the unit, please vote in the poll at the top of the page, and if it's not too much trouble let me know how you voted.

Comments and feedback welcome as always!

Spearhead: first impressions

After picking up my first White Dwarf in ages and having a good read of the Spearhead rules; I must say, I really like these rules as an option. I do think they could been written a bit more clearly. I wasn't sure if the models that are part of a Spearhead unit take up one of your force org slots; it was pretty clear that they do not according the battle report.

I hope that we are be seeing a glimpse at the squadron rules for 6th ed. Being as GW have been steadily increasing the amount of models in armies with each new edition. It would be great to have squadron rules that are not sucktastic.

Either way, I really like some of the formations a lot; with the Armored spearhead and Seek and Destroy being my favorites. Although Mechanized Assault gets an honorable mention too.

Time will tell, but I think we just found a great new addition to our games in the Man-cave!

Check out the download for the formations.

Rules from the Man-cave: 'Bogged Down' stuck in the mud; alternate rules for vehicles and terrain

Is anyone else less than thrilled with the way vehicles interact with terrain in 40k? As someone who has ridden in a bunch of armored vehicles I find the rules for permanently immobilizing vehicles on terrain absurd.

Here in the GiF Man-cave we have come up with this simple solution.

Bogged Down

When a vehicle enters difficult or dangerous terrain some times they become temporarily immobilized; stuck in the terrain they are attempting to cross.

Follow the normal procedure for vehicles moving in difficult or dangerous terrain; if they get immobilized place a marker next to the vehicle. Then on the next turn follow the procedure listed below.

If a vehicle gets bogged down it may un-bog its self on a D6 roll of a 4+ for difficult terrain and a 5+ for dangerous. The turn the vehicle un-bogs it cannot move but may fire as normal.

See I told you it was simple! Comments and feedback welcome. If you try these rules out for yourself, I'd love to hear about it!

Rules from the Man-cave: Strategy and Mission Cards

Sometimes you need to spice things up on game night. Here at GiF HQ we loved the random Missions and Strategy cards from 2nd ed 40k. Here is how we modified them to fit our purposes.

Strategy cards were very similar to the strategic assets in the various 5th ed supplements.

Strategy Cards

Each player draws one Strategy Card at random for each 1,000 points or part thereof that his army consists of. I have only used the 18 cards from the Dark Millennium box.

Unfortunately I have not worked up full cards for these, so you must possess the original 18 from 2nd ed to use these. If there is enough demand I may work up a PDF of new cards.

Changes:

• Delayed - Change the effect to: Instead the delayed unit does not arrive until turn 3.
• Ambush - I changed this card completely to allow a squad to infiltrate, and get a free round of shooting.
• Forced March: Replace the rules with the following: D3+1 units in you army gain a scout move.
• Reinforcements - remove the not within 24 inches of an enemy unit stipulation.
  
• Insane Courage - Changed to; the rallying unit gets a free round of shooting counting as stationary; this is the only activity this unit has in the turn they are rallied.
• Booby Traps – Nominate one piece of terrain to be booby trapped, any enemy model that moves through or within 3 inches will trigger the traps on a 5+. It has the following profile: Strength 4, AP 5, Large Blast. The Booby Traps remain in play attacking all enemy models that move within 3 inches.
  
• Traitor - Ignore the strategy rating part of the card and replace it with the following: You may play this card at the beginning of the game to force you opponent to re-roll his dice to determine who goes first.
• Barrage: Has the same effect as an Orbital Bombardment from the Codex Space Marines.
  
• Malfunction: Nominate any enemy vehicle to suffer a weapons malfunction. The vehicle takes an automatic penetrating hit, roll for damage.
  
• Flank March: Play this card during your movement phase. Nominate a single unit that is still in reserves. The unit may choose to enter the board from any table edge, with no reserve roll required.
• Brilliant Strategy: Change text to: Play this card at the beginning of the game; The owner of the card may choose to deploy first or second; no die roll needed. Additionally he may steal the initiative from his opponent on a die roll of 5+.
  
• Virus Outbreak!: Play this card at any time. Choose an enemy unit all models that are part of the unit take a Strength 4, AP 4 hit with no cover or invulnerable saves allowed.
  
• Special Issue: Pick an Independent Character in your army. You may equip that model with any one piece of Wargear from his own or opponents Codex.

Disclaimer: most games played in the GiF Man-cave use 3 or more objectives. Each objective controlled counts as 5 Kill points towards determining a winner. If one player controls more objectives than his opponent he gains a +5 kill point bonus.

The Mission cards will be used in conjunction with the normal 5th ed missions; they will be secondary goals and objectives. So any Kill points listed below are in addition to any standard mission rules for 5th ed.

Mission Cards

If both players agree, each player draws a Mission Card before setting up. The Mission Card will detail a secondary objective for the player to accomplish—and describes how doing so will accord the player extra Victory Points. The different Mission Cards are described below:

Engage and Destroy

• For each enemy squad wiped out: +1 Kill Point
• For each enemy vehicle destroyed: +1 Kill Point
• For each enemy character slain: +1 Kill Point

Take and Hold

• Your objective is a point 24” into the table and 36” from the left hand edge (which should be in the middle of a standard table). If you have at least one model within 3” of this spot at the end of the game, and the closest model to this spot is yours: in an objective mission it counts as two objectives.

Dawn Raid

• Having at least one squad with less than 50% casualties or at least one undamaged vehicle in opponent’s Deployment Zone at the end of the game: +5 Kill Points

Guerrilla War

• For every 3 enemy models slain in hand-to-hand combat: +1 Kill Point
• For every enemy vehicle destroyed or disabled within 24” of your table edge: +1 Kill Point

Witch Hunt

• If the most powerful enemy psyker is wounded at end of game: +1 Kill Point
• If the most powerful enemy psyker is slain: +5 Kill Points
• Each enemy character worth 90 points or more slain: +1 Kill Point

The Assassins

• Enemy Commander wounded: +1 Kill Point
• Enemy Commander slain: +5 Kill Points

I love Blogging, because there are so many great minds out there. Warhammer 39,999 did a great revival of the strategy cards for Apocalypse on his blog yesterday.

Comments and feedback welcome as always. If you try these rules out for yourself please let me know how it went.



Link suggested by WH3999, quoted text from his post.

It turns out that the guys over at Under the Couch, have already done strategy cards for us! You can download those cards from their site using this link. The only problem with using the cards as is from UTC is that I didn’t have card stock to print them out on.

Dice pool quiz

You are a d20: You are a ruthless warrior. Thinking is for idiots and nerds. Doing things is what gets things done. You are the type who stabs now, and then asks questions later. Much later. And it usually involves a priest. For you, the best defense is a good offense, and the best offense usually involves burning the whole place to the ground -- at least twice. You are a whirlwind of destruction, composed of rash decisions and reckless actions. Put briefly, you are a danger to yourself and others. Good thing nobody ever listens to you.

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

This is awesome, befitting my Chaos leanings!

Soul Reapers psychic powers: take two

Here is the update to the powers, with the feedback and suggestions taken into consideration.

Psychic Powers

All Apostles of Malevolence may use one psychic power a turn. The only exception is if they have been upgraded to a Master of Sorcery, and then the Apostle may attempt to use two powers a turn. All psychic powers are used following the rules given in the Warhammer 40,000 BRB.

Apostles of Malevolence may choose from the following Powers:

Vortex of Chaos: The Apostle conjures up a vortex of pure Warp energy and hurls it at his enemies, reeking havoc amongst their lines. This is no small task and is fraught with risk as the Warp is fickle.

The Vortex of Chaos is a shooting attack. Place the small blast touching the base of the caster, then roll 3D6 +2 for the distance traveled. If triple ones are rolled something has gone horribly wrong, place the template over the caster, he and anyone else touched by the template are hit; if triple sixes are rolled, add one more D6 to the distance, then resolve hits. Any model hit by the Vortex template takes a single Strength 7, AP 2 hit that ignores cover. Vehicles hit by the Vortex follow the normal damage procedure. LOS is only required for the first unit in the Vortex’s path.

Warp Lightning: The Apostle shoots powerful bolts of lightning from his fingertips, arcing into the enemy leaving a wake of incinerated bodies.

Warp Lightning is a shooting attack with the following profile.

Range-36, Strength- 8, AP-4, Type-Assault D3+1

If all the hits scored against the target unit cause wounds, the Warp Lightning will ‘Arc’ into the nearest enemy unit within 6 inches; this can only happen once. If the target is a vehicle all the hits must either glance or penetrate to ‘Arc’.

Storm of Chaos: The Apostle summons up a virulent hurricane of Warp energy, impeding their vision and movement on the field of battle.

The Storm of Chaos is a shooting attack with a range of 24 inches. If hit the target unit counts all terrain, even clear terrain as if it were both difficult and dangerous. In addition the target unit also confers a 4+ cover save to any unit that they shoot at in their shooting phase. These effects last until the beginning of the next Soul Reapers turn.

Possession: The Apostle summons and allows a daemon to temporarily possess him; turning him into a psychotic killing machine.

Possession is cast at the beginning of the Soul Reapers turn. If successfully cast the Apostle gains +2 Strength, +1 Toughness, +1 Initiative and +2 Attacks until the beginning of the next Soul Reapers turn.

At the start of the next Soul Reaper turn the Sorcerer must take a toughness test. If he fails he takes one wound with no saves as even his super human constitution is unable to handle the strain of the possession.


Chains of Torment: The Apostle creates small warp rifts under his foes, launching ethereal chains that rend flesh to the bone in an attempt to drag the targets into the warp.

The Chains of torment is a shooting attack that may target any non-vehicle unit, with the following profile:

Range-18, Strength-6, AP-5, Type-Assault D6+1, Pinning

Here are the preliminary points costs.

• Vortex of Chaos…………………..30pts
• Warp Lightning…………………...30pts
• Storm of Chaos…………………....10pts
• Possession………………………......25pts
• Chains of Torment……………….20pts

All thoughts and feedback welcome, please try to keep it constructive.

New Soul Reapers Wargear

Here are a few Wargear upgrades for the Soul Reapers that we have been kicking around for a while. They will be going into the 5.1 playtest min-dex.

Wargear

New upgrade options:
• Chaos Armor……………………15pts
• Chaos Rune Weapon………….25pts
• Hell Steed……………………….55pts


Chaos Rune Weapons: Some Chaos power weapons have had their powerfield infused with Warp energy, making them much more potent on the battlefield. Chaos Rune weapons count as a power weapon with +1 strength.

Chaos Armor: The bearer’s power armor has been desecrated by all manner of heretical talismans and Chaos Sigils crafted within the Warp. Models wearing Chaos Armor receive a 2+ armor save.

Hell Steed: The Dark Gods show their favor in many ways, sometimes the most favored are given powerful daemonic steeds to ride into battle. It is a gift that shows the favor of all 4 Gods, turning the champion into a living avatar of war. A Hell Steed mount makes the model move like cavalry, and adds +1 to the following stats: Toughness, Initiative, Attacks and to his invulnerable save.


The Hell Steed was the only one we were not totally sold on, while in WFB undivided heroes have a daemonic mount just like the ones dedicated to specific gods do. We were just unsure about adding the option to 40k.

Then we saw B.S.Mooves excellent Chaos Marine cavalry counts as Bikers(shown below), and we were sold on moving forward with the addition.

Picture used with permission.

BTW, if you are not following his fantastic Blog A Gentleman’s Ones you should be!

Comments and feedback welcome as always.

Two more Podcasts to check out!

I've been enjoying these two shows greatly and want to share them with my readers that may not have heard them yet.



First up is The Gamers Lounge. This is a fantastic podcast brought to us by Bill and Jay, who are both part of the 40k Bloggoshpere. They give in depth coverage to a lot of the aspects of tournament gaming that most podcasts gloss over.



Next up is Table Top Hooligans. I think these Jersey boys are fun to listen to, but I hazard a guess that they will be an acquired taste for many gamers though. TTH is a generalist podcast covering 40k, Flames of War, Warmachine, and the only podcast I know of the cover Dream Pod 9's Heavy Gear!

Soul Reapers psychic powers: take one

I've had multiple suggestions to make 5 unique powers for the Apostles of Malevolence. No being one to shy from a challenge, I decided to draft up 4 new powers to add to Chains of Torment. I have attempted to keep a real Chaos feel to them. I have drawn inspiration from as far back as the Realms of Chaos books for these powers.

Psychic Powers

All Apostles of Malevolence may use one psychic power a turn. The only exception is if they have been upgraded to a Master of Sorcery, and then the Apostle may attempt to use two powers a turn. All psychic powers are used following the rules given in the Warhammer 40,000 BRB.

Apostles of Malevolence may choose from the following Powers:

Vortex of Chaos: The Apostle conjures up a vortex of pure Warp energy and hurls it at his enemies, reeking havoc amongst their lines. This is no small task and is fraught with risk as the Warp is fickle.

The Vortex of Chaos is a shooting attack. Place the small blast touching the base of the caster, then roll 3D6 +2 for the distance traveled. If triple ones are rolled something has gone horribly wrong, place the template over the caster, he and anyone else touched by the template are hit; if triple sixes are rolled, add one more D6 to the distance, then resolve hits. Any model hit by the Vortex takes a single Strength 7, AP 2 hit.

Warp Lightning: The Apostle shoots powerful bolts of lightning from his fingertips, arcing into the enemy leaving a wake of incinerated bodies.

Warp Lightning will ‘Arc’ into the nearest enemy unit within 6 inches; this will only happen once and only if all the hits scored against the first target unit cause wounds; if the target is a vehicle all the hits must either glance or penetrate to ‘Arc’. Warp Lightning is a shooting attack with the following profile.

Range-36, Strength- 8, AP-4, Type-Assault D3+1

Storm of Chaos: The Apostle summons up a virulent hurricane of Warp energy, impeding their vision and movement on the field of battle.

The Storm of Chaos is a shooting attack with a range of 24 inches. If hit the target unit counts all terrain, even clear terrain as if it were both difficult and dangerous. In addition the target unit also confers a 4+ cover save to any unit that they shoot at in their shooting phase. These effects last until the beginning of the next Soul Reapers turn.

Possession: The Apostle summons and allows a daemon to temporarily possess him; turning him into a psychotic killing machine.

Possession is cast at the beginning of the Soul Reapers turn. If successfully cast the Apostle gains +1 to his Strength, Toughness, Attacks and Initiative until the beginning of the next Soul Reapers turn. If Perils of the Warp is rolled he takes the wound, and may not use his invulnerable save.

Chains of Torment: The Apostle creates small warp rifts under his foes, launching ethereal chains that rend flesh to the bone in an attempt to drag the targets into the warp.

The Chains of torment is a shooting attack that may target any non-vehicle unit, with the following profile:

Range-18, Strength-6, AP-5, Type-Assault D6+1, Pinning

Here are the preliminary points costs.

• Vortex of Chaos…………………..30pts
• Warp Lightning…………………...30pts
• Storm of Chaos…………………....10pts
• Possession………………………......15pts
• Chains of Torment……………….20pts

All thoughts and feedback welcome, please try to keep it constructive.

Personal update

Be at peace my friend, you will be missed.
Ronny G. 1972-2010

I’m flying home late this afternoon; I am well, although I have a heavy heart. I just buried my oldest and dearest friend, it is a tragedy when someone passes away so young. I feel really bad for his son, who is very young and won't get to know his father. I will do my best to make sure he knows everything he can about him.

I have two large boxes of inherited minis arriving behind me sometime this week; including 2500 points worth of Destroyers (White Scar successors) bikes and speeders. His wife doesn't want them laying about, I am not sure what I will do with them yet.

On the hobby front; I should be back to business later this week or early next. The Soul Reapers mini-dex 5.1 is almost ready. The formatting is done, the layout is complete, I am just waiting receive the background/fluff back from the ‘Fixer’, the editor of the background. He’s a fantastic guy, I greatly appreciate the help, he’s making sure that the background stuff flows and reads well.

The Warlord’s Cohort

I needed a break from all the depressing real life stuff that going on, so I headed down to Starbucks armed with my trusty laptop. I decided to bang out a sample 2000 point list for another one of the Special Characters. This time it is the Warlords forces, it's meant to be an aggressive list; get in fast and hit 'em hard!

HQ

Warlord Krüg 215pts

Sorcerer Xusia 215pts

Elite

Usurper Bodyguard 475pts
4 Terminators, 1 Powerfist, 1 pair of lightning claws, 2 single lightning claws
Chariot of the Gods (Krüg’s Land Raider)

5 Possessed Reapers 225
wings

Troops

5 Terminators 210
4 Combi-plasma, 1 Reaper AC, 1 Powerfist, Personal Icon

8 Soul Reapers Marines 253
2 melta guns, champ with fist, Icon of Perpetual War
Rhino, extra armor

8 Soul Reapers Marines 253
2 melta guns, champ with fist, Icon of Perpetual War
Rhino, extra armor

Heavy Support

2 Oblitertors 150

Heresy Blog Network

Just a quick post, before I head outta town to deal with some real life issues. I wanted to mention that I’ve just joined the newest coalition of bloggers to be established on the net. The Heresy Blog Network is a new networking group for bloggers, who have dedicated themselves to their wargaming hobbies.

This is a brand new expansion for Heresy Online, which is a fantastic forum I have been a member of for few years now; it is a great community including the talents of well known bloggers like The_King_Elessar and Old School Terminator.

If you are interested in participating in this new, and growing network; just follow this link to see what’s in it for you:

Heresy Blog Network link

The perks include a private blog network only forum, to help with brainstorming, cross-posting, feedback and promotion.

Soul Reapers Seeker Cohort list

This is the army I will be running on next Sunday night verses my buddies IG, here in the Man-cave.

We will be testing out a couple of new special rules for Eris. It is a 2250pt army meant to represent a typical force from Eris’ Cohort within the Soul Reapers.

HQ

Eris the Seeker
Xusia

Elites

6 Possessed Reapers
wings

Troops

8 Bikers squad
2 melta guns, champ with fist, Infernal Bike, Icon of Perpetual War

8 Soul Reapers Marines
2 melta guns, champ with fist, Icon of Perpetual War
Rhino, extra armor

8 Soul Reapers Marines
2 plasma guns, champ with fist, Icon of Perpetual War
Rhino, extra armor

Fast Attack

8 Bikers squad
2 melta guns, champ with fist, Icon of Perpetual War

3 Chaos Speeders
3 with multi-melta and heavy flamer

Heavy Support

Predator Mauler
Dozerblade

Soul Reapers Update 5/07

With regret I am making this post to inform you that I have temporarily removed the Playtest mini-dex as a download. I have contemplated this really hard, it just feels like the right move at this point and time.

I have had some great feedback offline on the project, and I would like to thank everyone who has sent me feedback; good or bad. I really do appreciate it.

There has been some outcry that the available Soul Reapers background does not justify some of the unit entries in the Mini-dex. Fair enough, but as has always been stated, this isn't a finished project. I still need to add the background/fluff and smooth out the rough edges in the formatting.

In this version there were also some minor errors in the formatting and a few missing items that make some units unplayable.

So I had left the background/fluff out for that reason, apparently we are now at the point that it needs to be added. I do agree, and was planning an update at the end of the month; I will move that update up as far as I can.

I am not a great story writer, I can convey the main points, but have trouble at times creating a flowing story.

I have enlisted some help smoothing the background out, so it is fit for public consumption. It will probably take a few weeks to get the more complete version of the min-dex back, but it will get you more understandings into what the Soul Reapers are all about and why I have added the units that are inside.

So look for the Soul Reapers reboot in the next few weeks. Thanks for your continued support of the project.

-Big Jim

Soul Reapers mini-dex update version 5

Hello to the loyal followers of the Soul Reapers mini-dex project. I've finished updating the mini-dex earlier than I expected and Playtest version 5 is ready for download!

The Soul Reapers Mini-dex Version 5
Download Here

Lots and lots of new goodness inside, including:

- New layout and Formatting
- New Artwork
- Background on the Artifacts of Salmora
- new Special Rules
- 9 new unit entries for:
* Exalted Champion of Chaos
* Harbinger of Malice
* Soul Reapers Possessed
* Soul Reapers Marine Squad
* Soul Reapers Biker Squad
* Onslaught Dreadnoughts
* Predator Mauler
* Testudo pattern Rhino
* Chaos Drop Pods added as a transport
* Forge Lords

This update should shake things up a bit, I decided it was time to be bit more ambitious! Now please remember to keep in mind this is still an uncompleted Playtest list; so it is still missing the background and unit fluff entries.

((I'd love your thoughts and feedback! Fire away guys!))

***I just updated the file @11:00 AM pacific time to fix a few formatting and spelling errors.***

TKE takes Possessed Marines to the next level!

Hey guys the Heresy Online Blog went live today and The King Elessar has a post for his Homebrew rules for Possessed.

All I have to say is wow, his make the ones I posted recently look like Chumps! He has definitely given them the panache they had in the last codex.

I think it is high time I stop playing it quite so safe with my homebrew units. Then let playtesting find the proper balance. So it's back to the drawing board for the Possessed.

In other news, I am about 80% finished with the reformatting of the mini-dex and am right on schedule with my deadline. I am going to add a bit of the background/fluff to this release, so it will have plenty of new stuff to read and try out.

Cheers,
Big Jim

Whirlwind Retribution Missiles: homebrew upgrade

This is something the gaming group at the GiF Man-cave has been kicking around for ages. We all love the look of the Space Marine Whirlwind, but it really is rather lackluster on the gaming table. Especially against MEQ’s, they are something that on any given week will make up a third to half of the armies on game night.

So this weekend we have decided to try out our latest brainstorming idea. We will be adding Retribution missile upgrades for all Whirlwinds. Located in the warhead of a Retribution missile is a cluster of plasma accelerators. On impact they create a superheated ball of plasma burning through all but the most armored foe.

Any Whirlwind may be upgraded to carry a payload of Retribution missiles for an additional 35 points. This upgrade replaces all other missile payloads. The Retribution upgrade has a limited payload of missiles; because of this a Whirlwind with this upgrade may only fire 4 times in a game.

Range= 12-48
Strength= 7
AP= 3
Type= Ordinance 1, Large blast, Barrage, limited payload 4


((I'd love your thoughts and feedback! If you actually play a game with Retribution Missiles, please let me know what happened.))