Merry Christmas my Friends!

Hey all I want to wish you all a safe and happy holiday! I will be offline until after the new year, so Happy New year as well!

Also I would like to thank Mags and and the guys over on tabletop war for the Forge Fiend present!  I would also like to thank Troy for the Heresy era marines to start my World Eaters for 30k! Thanks again guys!

In the new year you can expect to see a resurgence of posts from me, including more updates to Killzone and the first version of the Soul Reapers mini-dex for 6th edition.

Cheers,
Jim

Setting the scene: BAO narrative event part 1

Here is the first installment of the BAO narrative events Back story. 

A prelude to War

Varro the Forge Lord watched his allies’ ships burn as he stood on the command deck of the Slaughter class cruiser the Hateful Song. The reinforcements from Battlefleet Sargon had arrived and were decimating the Chaos Marine fleet. Denari would soon be firmly back under control of the Imperial forces, although the Ork threat will haunt them for generations.

He thought to himself “you served your purpose; I have what I came to Denari for, die well my twisted brothers.”

The Hateful Song was moving out-system using the systems asteroid belt to cover its exodus. Varro commanded the comms officer to contact the Warlord on the Eater of Souls immediately and relay the following message:

**Priority One Alpha: Hateful Song to the Eater of Souls

Objective captured: STC for the Ferrum pattern Teleportarium recovered

Enroute to rendezvous point

End message**

As the Hateful Song cleared the asteroid belt, Varro leaned back in the command thrown and voxed the navigator. “Set course for the Korath System; make transition to the Warp immediately.”

Sixty-four hours later the Hateful Song transitioned out of the Warp on the edge of the Korath System, the rendezvous point for all the ships Red Crusade fleet.

The Red Crusade had been organized and headed by the Warlord of the Soul Reapers, but the bulk of the participants were from other Traitor Warbands, many derived directly from the original Traitor Legions.

The previous battle on Denari was as much a distraction as it was a mission to capture the STC data for the Teleportarium. It would send the dogs of the Imperium rushing to a Sector that would be far from the actual fighting. For the Korath System is in the Seefra sector just beyond the fringes of Imperial space. The Astonomicon is very weak here making for reinforcement difficult at the best of times.

As the Hateful Song joined the armada Varro was impressed with how many of their Traitorous Brothers had answered the call. He was exceptionally pleased to see no less than twenty ships in the livery of the Iron Warriors. Their siege craft will be exceptionally helpful.

At the heart of the armada was the ancient battlebarge the Eater of Souls, flagship of Warlord Krüg the master of the Soul Reapers and Lord of this Crusade.

Surrounding the flagship in close proximity were four black ships so twisted that their original form was unrecognizable. They were daemon vessels each one carrying a herald representing each of the Dark Gods. These ships have been consecrated with the blood of thousands innocents as a means to anchor the Daemon herald’s of the gods to the material world for the duration of the campaign. 

Varro arrived on the strategium of the Eater of Souls just as the Warlords war council was ending. Krüg’s blood was pumping fast through his twin hearts at the thought of conquest and bloodshed. Varro briefed Krüg on the Danari conflict and while Krüg was not happy at his forces being repelled from the world, at least his Forge Lord retrieved the STC data.

Varro went on the explain that he could retrofit a single Teleportarium on the Eater of Worlds with stolen parts from the Adeptus Mechanicus facility he had acquired on Denari. Krüg smiled manically at the thought of making precision teleportation strikes upon the weakling Imperium. “Make it happen, Varro and failure is not an option” growled Krüg.

Krüg strode onto the bridge of the Eater of Souls commanding the comms officer to send the following message:

**Priority One Alpha: Eater of Souls to the Void Raptor

Aris, set course to the Persiet System immediately! Scout the defensive capabilities of the system, with the fifth planet as a priority target.

End message**

No reply was sent or needed as Krüg watched the Void Raptor and her escorts head for the jump point on the left of the view screen. Krüg was lost in thought “the Seeker has been set to task, now I must consult Xusia to see what the old sorcerer’s foresight has in store for us.”

2013 Bay Area Open Narrative event: Raid on Persiet V

Hey guys, it's time to announce the info for the next BAO narrative event. Tickets go on sale soon, I believe Friday, but could be wrong.

2013 Bay Area Open Narrative event: Raid on Persiet V

Participants will help decided the fate of an Imperial Hive world and a secret Adeptus Mechaicus base in the Persiet system on the eastern fringe of the galaxy. Will the forces of the Imperium and the allies save the system or will it be subjugated or worse destroyed by the forces of Chaos and their nefarious allies.

Keep your eyes peeled here on GiF and on the Frontline gaming blog for more background as we drive the Narrative right up to the actual event.

The Forces of Order:

Anything Imperial

Eldar

Tau

Forces of Destruction:

Anything Chaos, including traitor IG should the need arise

Dark Eldar

Necrons

Tyranids (although not present during this fight per the fluff, they will count as warp creatures from the Daemonic incursion.)

Orks are a Neutral force that will be used to balance sides if need be.

Day One: Enter the Killzone

12 Players: 6 Order/6 Disorder

This will be a day of multiple Skirmish games utilizing the Special Operations Killzone set of fan made rules. These missions could be anything like probe the enemy lines for weakness or destroy an enemy communications station.

Missions

There will be 6 missions being run simultaneously; each will have a one hour “time limit” that way every player gets to play all on the opposing team. These missions are vital and the outcome of Day one will have bonuses or consequences on Day two.

Special Operations Groups

These will be full two team special operations groups with a max of 500 points, built out of the Killzone Codex Operatives in tandem with the codex for your army of Choice. (Codex Operatives will have the 6th ed list for the Chaos Space Marines updated by 12/15.)

Killzone Downloads

Rules

Codex Operatives

Cards

Day Two: Armies Clash

24 Players: 12 Order/12 Disorder

This will be a large team run event (teams determined on the day of the event) fought over three different battle zones. Each table will be able to effect the others through the use of special mission objectives.

Allowed Armies:
Armies can be built from all current 40k codices including the White Dwarf codex for the Sisters of Battle, and may also include or be built to include units or completely using the army lists in the Imperial Armor books. Units and list may only be draw for Imperial Armor books 5-11, IA Areonautica and the IA Apoc books.

With that said all IA units and lists must use the most current listing for the unit, which includes the Errata listed on the Forgeworld site. So for example the Renegades and Heretics list from the Siege of Vraks uses the update on the forgeworld site.  

All armies are built using the following requirements:
2000 points all armies must adhere to the standard Force Organization chart, you may use the double force organization choice if you wish; You may include allies and may include one super heavy vehicle with no more than 3 structure points. You may not purchase Fortifications; some will already be present on each table. I would also appreciate if all players bring a 500 point sideboard list incase the sides end up being lopsided.

 At the beginning of the game each player will draw a strategy card from the decks that I will provide.

At the beginning of the game each player will draw a Fate card from from decks that will be provided. The Fate cards will add to the narrative of the game allowing each commander some special bonus during the game.

Each table will have a special character for each side created and provided by me. They will represent the army commanders of that theater for narrative purposes.  

Both Events are subject to the following:

WYSIWYG:
 All models are expected to be WYSIWYG as much as is reasonable. Proxies are not permitted. However, counts as armies are acceptable and encouraged. What’s the difference? That can be a tough call to make in some cases. Judges will determine what is acceptable or not and all judgments are final. If you feel your army is questionable, contact a TO in advance to clear any confusion.

Proxies: Using Necron Warriors as Lootas in an Ork army, etc.

Counts As: Using Ultra Marines colored models with Blood Angels rules. Using custom Adeptus Mechanicus converted models with Daemon rules. The key is that everything is easily identifiable and appropriately equipped.  

Painting:
Every army must be painted to a three color minimum and be based. (basing can be as simple as painting your models bases an appropriate color.) We want a great looking event filled with painted models fighting over nice looking terrain.  

2K Chaos Marines with IG allies V3

I have made a few more changes to the list after some more playtesting. I replaced the Vindicator after losing it's cannon in 3 games and replaced it with an AC/LC predator sporting a Dirge caster. Yup I got to expireince Flamers of Tzeentch in my backfield this weekend, the result was ouch!

I also ditched the Leman Russ for a reactionary unit of Terminators, they will protect the Warpsmith and can engage anything that gets in my backfield. I also used these points to give the CCW's to the Chaos Marine squads; I feel I need a leg up on those space marines I keep facing.

I also dumped the cultists for 2 more IG squads that will blob with a commissar. This should be much more effective than the cultists.

While I liked lobbing those three pie plates a turn I think this list in more effective.

 Also I just want to point out the Defiler is a workhorse in this list! It really has been great; even though I still think it is about 15-20pts overcosted. That said it is really resilient now. It has only gone down in 2 of 6 games.

2000 point Chaos Marine List with Traitor Guard allies (1290pts)

HQ (125pts)

Warpsmith

Aura of Dark Glory

Total: 125pts

Elite (105pts)

Terminator Squad Crixus (3)

2 Combi-plasma’s

Total: 105pts

Troops (398pts)

Marine squad Decimus (10) 

Plasma gun, Autocannon, 8 CCW, Vets long war

Champion with Chain Axe

Total: 199pts

Marine squad Barbarus (10)

Plasma gun, Autocannon, 8 CCW, Vets long war

Champion with Chain Axe

Total: 199pts

Fast Attack (207pts)

Bike squad Agron (6)

2 Melta guns, Vets long war, Mark of Nurgle

Champion with Power weapon

Total: 207pts

Heavy Support (455pts)

Defiler

Total: 195pts

Predator

TLLC, Lascannon Sponsons

Total: 140pts

Predator

Lascannon Sponsons, dirge caster

Total: 120pts

Traitor Guard Allies (610pts)

HQ (90pts)

Lord Commissar

Power Weapon, Camo cloak

Total: 90pts

Elite (65pts)

Guardsman Marbo

Total: 65pts

Troops (325pts)

Traitor Guard Platoon

Command squad

4 Flamers

Total: 50pts

Guard squad

Grenade Launcher, Autocannon

Total: 65pts

Guard squad

Grenade Launcher, Autocannon

Total: 65pts

Guard squad

Flamer

Commissar

Total: 90pts

Guard squad

Flamer

Total: 55pts

Fast Attack (130pts)

Vendetta

Total: 130

Fortification (100pts)

Aegis Defense Line

Quad Gun

Total: 100pts

I need a little help

I have an idea for a Heldrake conversion to make it fit my idea of a daemonically possessed fighter as opposed to an actual dragon. I just cannot take the stock model seriously in my traitorous heart.

I need a few bitz from the kit pictured above.

So far I have not seen the new chaos models bitzed out. What I am looking for is someone willing to part with a spare set of the following items: Lasher Tendrils and a Ectoplasma head from a Mauler/Forge Fiend kit.

I don't have a desire to pick up or field either of the Fiends in the near future. So I'd be willing to trade or pay for the parts or accept a donation of them.

Thanks for reading my abnormal request.

Bay Area Open Narrative event question for Day 1

Here is a repost of the question I asked yesterday on the Frontline gaming site. Please vote, but only if you plan on attending event.

Hey everyone, we’re gearing up for the BAO 2013, and will have all the pertinent information up by the end of the month. Big Jim, the gentleman who runs the 40K narrative event, has a question about the structure of the event.

Hey Guys,
Jim here your friendly neighborhood narrative event organizer with a question to those interested in Day 1 of the BAO event.
The battles taking place on the first day are probing actions meant to test the enemy lines for weakness. I want to put forth two options for handling these phase of the event.
The first option would be to use the 40k skirmish game that I authored and was run at the past two Adepticons. Special Operations Killzone, is a refinement of the ideas that GW put forth in Killteams. Using Killzone will allow all players on the fist day to square off against all players from the opposing side. This event would use the 2 team format with Operation groups of 500 total points.
Links to the Killzone rules:
Rulebook: https://www.box.com/s/6rok2xkf75xneaeu9kex
Codex Operatives: https://www.box.com/s/56fuyjocojhet3vblr7r
Mission/Fate Cards: https://www.box.com/s/9ma7vknk3lmm241418f1
The second option would be to run the event as Combat patrol. Using last years Adepticon version as the basis for the rules, with the exception that the armies will have 500 point values.
Please post your preference below; we will collect votes until 18^th of this month. Now I leave the choice in your hands.

Please head over to the Frontline Gaming site and make your vice Known!

Podcasting update

Hey guys with Chris leaving Deepstrike Radio, I have had to step into a much more prominent roll for the podcast. I am taking over as the "public" face and point of contact for DSR; plus I am doing a lot more of the behind the scenes content as well.

DSR is running an open casting call in search of a new third chair host. If you are interested follow this Link.

Most of you will have noticed that The Codex Project site has been down for a few weeks. I have spoken with Jeff and he plans to have it back up shortly. With a new straight shooting podcast episode to follow shortly.

I will not be doing my podcasting with my friends idea anytime soon. I need to settle into my new duties at DSR before I can even start thinking about it again.

2k Chaos Marine Traitor guard list take 2

After having a long chat with my buddy Magilla Gurilla I have made the following changes to the list from yesterday.  While I hate to lose the Terminators (Cause I am a terminator freak) and Land Raider, I think the list has a lot more moxie, than the last one. 

Basically the two HQ's got some useful wargear, I added 6 Nurgle bikers with 2 melta's to replace the Termies. For the Land Raiders cost I gained 16 traitor guard bodies including Marbo, 2 autocannons and 6 flamers. I also dropped the 3rd five man marine squad for 20 cultists and upgraded to a TLLC turret on the Predator. 

In the end the list gained 31 infantry models, which are basically cannon fodder, but they should tie things up long enough for the armor and marines to do what they need too to secure victory.

Chaos Space Marines

HQ (125pts)

Warpsmith

Aura of Dark Glory

Total: 125pts

Troops (466pts)

Marine squad Decimus (10) 

Plasma gun, Autocannon, Vets long war

Champion with Chain Axe

Total: 183pts

Marine squad Barbarus (10)

Plasma gun, Autocannon, Vets long war

Champion with Chain Axe

Total: 183pts

Cultist squad Markor (20)

2 Heavy Stubbers

Total: 100pts

Fast Attack (207pts)

Bike squad Agron (6)

2 Melta guns, Vets long war, Mark of Nurgle

Champion with Power weapon

Total: 207pts

Heavy Support (465pts)

Defiler

Total: 195pts

Predator

TLLC, Lascannon Sponsons

Total: 140pts

Vindicator

Siege shield

Total 130pts

Traitor Guard Allies (635pts)

HQ (90pts)

Lord Commissar

Power Weapon, Camo cloak

Total: 90pts

Elite (65pts)

Guardsman Marbo

Total: 65pts

Troops (180pts)

Traitor Guard Platoon

Command squad

4 Flamers

Total: 50pts

Guard squad

Flamer, Autocannon

Total: 65pts

Guard squad

Flamer, Autocannon

Total: 65pts

Fast Attack (130pts)

Vendetta

Total: 130pts

Heavy Support (170pts)

Leman Russ Squadron

1 Battle tank with Heavy Bolter Sponsons

Total: 170pts

Fortification (100pts)

Aegis Defense Line

Quad Gun

Total: 100pts

2k Chaos Marines with Traitor Guard allies

I have decided to try making the Chaos Marine army focused on shooting rather than my more typical in the enemies face style of list. It is also high time I start utilizing Allies and Fortifications

Chaos Marines (1450pts)

HQ (110pts)

Warpsmith

Total: 110pts

Elite (444pts)

Terminator Squad Crixis (5)

3 Combi-plasma, Chain Fist, Heavy Flamer, Vets of long war

Champion with Power weapon

Land Raider, dozer blade

Total: 444pts

Troops (456pts)

Marine squad Decimus (10) 

Plasma gun, Autocannon, Vets long war

Champion with Chain Axe

Total: 183pts

Marine squad Barbarus (10)

Plasma gun, Autocannon, Vets long war

Champion with Chain Axe

Total: 183pts

Marine squad Ludro(5)

Melta gun, Vets long war

Total: 90pts

Heavy Support (440pts)

Defiler

Total: 195pts

Predator

Lascannon Sponsons

Total: 115pts

Vindicator

Siege shield

Total 130pts

Traitor Guard Allies (450pts)

HQ (70pts)

Lord Commissar

Total: 70pts

Troops (80pts)

Penal Legion squad

Total 80points

Fast Attack (130pts)

Vendetta

Total: 130

Heavy Support (170pts)

Leman Russ Squadron

1 Battle tank with Heavy Bolter Sponsons

Fortification (100pts)

Aegis Defense Line

Quad Gun

Total: 100pts

As you can see I have 6 armored vehicles, which most would say is suicide in 6th, but I am not so sold on the idea. Most of my armor is AV 13 or 14 on the front and since I do not plan to rush forward I won't have to worry early on about melta's doing me in. . 

I am looking forward to throwing 3 pie plates of doom a turn! Should be pretty effective since so many gamers have abandoned their armored pillboxes. 

I will be deepstriking the Terminators to cause a distraction in the enemy backfield and using the Land Raider as an AV 14 anti-tank platform. Then late in the game mount up one of the Marine squads if need be and grab an objective.

I'll be using the Warpsmith to keep my armor up and running as long as I can.

I decided not to take a Heldrake as I feel the Vendetta is much more utilitarian. Equally good against both air and ground targets.

Feedback welcomed as always!

Thoughts on the Codex Chaos Space Marines

We have had almost a month with the new Chaos Marine codex, I have been pouring over the codex and even tried out some games with it. Now it is time for me to share my honest assessment of the codex.

Let me start off by saying that I had high hopes the Phil Kelly would do the Traitorous sons of the Emperor justice. I will say that the codex has tons of options and you can build viable lists with it; with that said I think the codex is a huge missed opportunity.

It has some really glaring flaws. The Champions of Chaos special rule may extremely good from fluffy standpoint, but it totally screws up the effectiveness of squads, leading to a lot of dead aspiring champions. This rule should only be forced onto Independent Characters only, this way we could have a great fluff driven rule without screwing every unit in the codex.

I don’t understand why they stripped the teleport homers from the Icons: did I miss the memo where this was breaking the game? Also with the vast amount of ways to snipe specific models out of squads Icons are universally overpriced. Cause if you opponent wants them dead, they will usually die.

There is no free imbalanced army wide rule like ATSKNF. Hell Veterans of the Long War could have been free, and then it would at least have appeared that GW was throwing Chaos Marine players a bone. Now I am not complaining that CSM don’t have ATSKNF, I don’t think they should, but think about it, most of them live in warp anomalies and see hellish nightmares every day. So they should not easily brake from losing combat, they certainly should not be swept away by losing an assault. They could have easily made a rule that just stopped CSM units from being swept when falling back from an assault.

Two of the new “assault” units just don’t seem finished. Warp Talons and Mutilators feel very last minute, and dedicated assault units without frag grenades make them even worse, seriously.

There also should have been a more robust system for force organization shenanigans. Yes it is nice to be able to move the cult units from Elites to troops, but I think that Bike or Jump Pack Lords should move Bikes or Raptors from FA to Troops.

This codex should easily be twice as big as it is to properly represent Chaos Marines properly. Since GW seem dead set on keeping all the forces of Traitor Marines in one book. I know many with disagree with me and that’s fine, but let’s imagine if all Loyalists were represented in one codex.

Here is a list of the things that I believe should have been in the codex, but are not.

Chosen Terminators similar to GK Paladins, seriously Chaos should have a really elite yet expensive as hell Terminator unit to represent the best of the best that the traitors have to offer.

There should be a Cult terminators entry, please don’t tell me marked terminators are good enough, because they are not.

Where are the legion specific rules? How are we supposed to represent the Night Lords or Alpha Legion properly on the tabletop?

I see a severe lack of god specific Wargear and gifts, seriously each god would favor their followers in specific ways.

 

A Chaos version of the Whirlwind, it is a heresy era vehicle that does not seem all that hard to maintain since it is on a Rhino chassis.

An assault based Chaos Land Raider variant, for goodness sake most Chaos forces are assault based, you’d think they might strip out the Lascannons for some extra transport capacity since their loyalist brothers have shown that is can be done.

The codex is missing a proper Chaos Marine flyer; while the Heldrake has some great background, did it have to really look like a Fraking dragon?

A Chaos drop pod or mass integration of the Dread Claw. For Crap sake if they had just added this option the codex would have been 10 times better received than it is.

Let me wrap this up again by saying, it's not that I think the codex cannot be used to make some really diverse interesting list. It can and has the options to do so, but it still fails to properly cover the forces of Chaos in my eyes.

New 40K blogosphere Service Coming Soon

My long time buddy Adam, notably from the Space Wolves and Wahammer Tau blogs has a fantastic announcement for the 40k blogging community, but I will let Adam tell you all about it!

-Jim

Hey Warhammer 40K fans, I'd like to share some info with guys about a new website project I'm working on -and it's pretty big. Really big infact.

Now I'm a big fan of the 40K blogosphere and personally I prefer following the blogs to trawling through the forums.

Only problem is, I've found myself struggling to find the good stuff this year and it's for 2 reasons.

1) From The Warp stopped being the hub of 40K blogging
I used to be able to find loads of great stuff on From The Warp's blogrolls from really obscure little blogs, but very talented bloggers non the less.

I understand that all these blogrolls became too much for From The Warp to manage.

2) Bell of Lost Souls changed how they manage their blogrolls
One upon a time everyone and his dog could get on the BoLS blogroll.

Then after a couple of overhauls, only the small blogs that don't post very often were allowed on the blogroll, while only the big sites were allowed on the Elite Blogroll, provided you wrote content for BoLS of course.

And that kind of screws over all the medium blogs in the middle and kind of holds the bigger blogs to ransom.

It's tough for new bloggers
While there are other 40K blog hubs out there, they don't drive anywhere near as much traffic as these two sites did.

Because of FTW and BoLS not serving the community as they once did, getting 'discovered' in the blogosphere is really hard for new bloggers starting out.

Don't get me wrong, I've found some truly amazing stuff by trawling through the blogosphere, but I've had to do some major blogroll trawling, Google image searching, you name it.

It's tough for readers
I think I'm subscribed via RSS Feed to about 8 blogs, because they're the big ones that update regularly. And that's simply because it's convenient. I don't have time to trawl the blogrolls all the time.

But in an ideal world, we'd want to see all the best bits from the entire blogosphere without having to dig for it, right?

That means we'd be able to find great painting guides, conversions or battle reports from absolutely anyone. Not just the big blogs that update all the time.

"GET TO THE POINT ADAM!"
Alright, alright. You're probably thinking that I'm going to create another 40K blog hub, well, you'd be have half way right.

What's going to make this blog hub as good as From The Warp back in it's hay day and better than all the other hubs and networks that have sprung up over the past year or so?

Two things actually:

1) Readers will be able to read and filter articles from the blogosphere without blogrolls

That means any blogger's articles can be found, so your blog doesn't need to be as big as Fritz40K for people to read you.

2) The site will rank in the top 3 Google search results for Warhammer 40K, 40K and all of the Warhammer 40K races.

Yes, that is a BOLD statement. But as some of you may know, I work in Search Engine Optimisation as the Link Building & Content Manager for a leading agency in the UK. It's going to take some hard work, but it's achievable.

But what it means is that the site will get lots of exposure from all the rankings, loads of traffic and as a result the blogs will receive far more visitors, subscribers, etc.

Meanwhile, my girlfriend is incredibly technical and will be bringing my creative concepts to life in simple, fast loading functionality for you all.

CONCLUSION
This is a real top-level explanation of what we're up to. I didn't want to delve too deeply into the details and there's loads more stuff that this website will do for the online community. This is the real tip of the ice berg.

If you have any questions, I'd love to answer them! It's probably best that I explain all my reasons for creating something for the community in the Comments below rather than fill up this article with personal stuff.

But for now if you could head over to my old 40K blog and bookmark or follow it, we'll keep you up to date with all the developments right up to the big launch in January!

And I just wanted to say "thank you" for all your years of kindness and suppport.

-Adam

Soul Reapers and the New Chaos Marine Codex part 2

So here is part 2 of my series about the interaction of the new Chaos codex and the Soul Reapers. I have dropped all the the Soul Reapers entries for the Basic Chaos marine entries to slim out the codex back to a mini-dex. I am still debating dropping the Reaver squads and allowing the Reapers to take Khorne Berzerkers to represent these maniacs. 

I will not be dropping the Dreadnought entry however; I will not call my Dread a Hellbrute ever, but I will adopt the new crazed rules, which are  a total step up from every version so far. 

So lets look at some of the changes I am making the Soul Reapers special rules, additional icons and their psychic discipline. All of these changes are in the early stages and have only seen the tabletop 3 times so far.

Fear is for the Weak: The Soul Reapers have been in the service of Chaos for ten millennia and are driven by the knowledge that the Dark Gods watch over them.

Soul Reapers are subject to the Stubborn USR found on page 76 of the MRB. Additionally they always use their unmodified leadership even when they attempt to regroup if the squad has been reduced less than half strength through casualties.

Any squad in a Soul Reapers army may purchase Fear is for the Weak for one point per model; Independent Characters can take it for 5 points.

Icon of Perpetual War for 10 points: The Soul Reapers bear this icon have been slaughtering their enemies with ease and brutal precision for millennia.

A unit that bears this Icon gains the Crusader USR.

Note: All units in a Soul Reapers army that can take icons in the Codex Chaos Space Marines may choose to take the Icon of Perpetual War for the points listed above.

Soul Reapers Psychic Discipline

Primaris Power

Imbuement of Chaos: Any friendly squad that is affected is imbued with the raw power of the Warp; this allows them to easily shred the toughest armor as if it were paper.

This power is a Blessing.

Pick any friendly unit within 12 inches including the caster himself; all affected models gain the Rending USR on all close combat attacks until the casting players next turn.

Warp Charge 1

1-2: 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 Witchfire power with the following profile.

Range	Strength	AP	Type
12	5	-	Blast, Strikedown, Blind

Warp Charge 1

3-4: 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 Witchfire power  with the following profile.

Range	Strength	AP	Type
36	8	4	Assault D3+1

Warp Lightning will ‘Arc’ into the nearest enemy unit within 6 inches; this will only happen if all the hits scored against the target unit cause wounds (before any saves are rolled); if the target is a vehicle all the hits must either glance or penetrate to ‘Arc’.

Warp Charge 2

5-6: Daemonic Terror: The sorcerer sends unhinging visions of the warp into his foes mind that debilitate them in combat.

Daemonic Terror is a Malediction power with a range of 24 inches.

The target unit loses D3 from its leadership value, it may not conduct Overwatch fire and all of its close combat attacks become unwieldy until the Sorcerers next turn.

Warp Charge 1

Soul Reapers and the New Chaos Marine Codex part 1

I like everyone else have been waiting for the release of the new codex Chaos Space Marines for the last few months, I had really high hopes. Unlike your average chaos marine player on the planet I as y’all know, took matters into my own hands and created codex Soul Reapers to fix the problems I had with the last codex.

My hopes for the new codex were of the thought I could drop almost everything in my Soul Reapers codex and make it basically a character and a couple of special units for the Soul Reapers supplemental mini-dex.

Most of these hopes were dependent on what they did with the non-cult units in the codex and from early rumors I was really excited and thought that they finally realized that the basic Chaos Marine was over-priced compared to every other marine unit in 40k.

Well the codex is out and it seems it is business as usual at GW; the basic chaos marine is going to remain a poor cousin to every other marine in 40k. Now I am not saying that the Chaos Space Marine codex is bad, because it is full of options and that is a great thing.

On the other hand I really believe that having a large amount of options is not going to save you if you do not focus on cult troops or buying an expensive icon for Fearless that can be sniped. Without Fearless troops I honestly believe that you are going to struggle uphill in the late game.

Some of this is caused by the extremely background driven Champion of Chaos rule, but this is a case where background hurts the army in game. It also sets the sun on the Power Fist Champion, cause in a challenge you want to strike at initiative if you only have one wound.

Phil did get it right with the lowered cost on Raptors and Bikes, which is a real gem that finally makes Chaos fast attack choices worthwhile. I think we will see Bikes a bit more than Raptors because they are the clear winner choice in the codex in the points reduction department.

So with all that said I have decided to go with the minimalist approach for the Soul Reapers anyway. I will however allow any units to purchase the old Fear is for the Weak rule from the older versions of the Soul Reapers project.

Next time I will look at what will be remaining in the mini-dex, the additions to the Armory and revamped psychic powers.

2k of new Chaos Marine madness

Here is my first list using the new Chaos Marine codex, it is utilizing models that I currently have so it missing the new stuff.

With the Champions of Chaos rule, I have decided for me it spells the end of power fist champions. Having to issue and accept all challenges, I'd rather get my swings in. So enter the day of the Power Maul and Power Sword.

As for basic Chaos Marines, they did get cheaper if you wanna give up one leadership and your close combat weapon. I won't do that, I'll pay the 16 points per model to have +1 leadership and my CCW's, plus hatred Space marines.

With the addition of Flakk missiles to the Havoc squads I am seeing a gain in 3+ boots on the ground in my list. Which is great in my opinion!

Bikes are amazing now with a base cost of 20 points per model. Holy crap! They are my go to unit for fast attack. The mark of Nurgle is only 6 points per model; so 26 points for toughness six bikers, yes please!

I see a lot of moaning about Chosen marines, I think they are better overall than before. (again in my opinion) They lost infiltrate big whoop, they gained an attack and one point in cost, but they are still rocking Bolters, Bolt Pistols and CCW's base. That for the math challenged is 3 base attacks! I feel that Chosen will shine with a mix of special shooting weapons and specialized CC weapons; making for a very versatile unit.

Chaos Lords have become amazingly cheap, but be warned it is easy to overspend on these killy monsters! I think that the average Lord is gonna run around 150 points which is pretty good for a killy character.

Be warned, all of our generic HQ's have lost their inbuilt Invulnerable saves, you must now purchase them. Another thing of note is that only the Chaos lord and Daemon Prince are Fearless.

HQ (145pts)

Chaos Lord Sevetus

The Black Mace, Sigil of Corruption, Vet of long war, Ichor of Blood

Total: 145pts

Elite (280pts)

Chosen squad Anamayus (8)       

Flamer, 2 Melta, Power Fist, Power weapon, Vets of long war

Champ with Power weapon

Rhino: dozer blade

Total: 280pts

Troops (894pts)

Marine squad Decimus (10) 

2 Melta guns, x-tra CCW, Vets long war, Icon of Vengeance

Champion with Power weapon

Rhino: dozer blade, havoc launcher

Total: 282pts

Marine squad Barbarus (10)

2 Plasma guns, x-tra CCW, Vets long war, Icon of Vengeance

Champion with Power weapon

Rhino: dozer blade, havoc launcher

Total: 292pts

Marine squad Grakus (15)

2 Plasma guns, x-tra CCW, Vets long war, Icon of Vengeance

Champion with Power weapon

Total: 320pts

Fast Attack (207pts)

Bike squad Agron (6)

2 Melta guns, Vets long war, Mark of Nurgle

Champion with Power weapon

Total: 207pts

Heavy Support (470pts)

Havoc squad Ludo (10)

3 Missile launchers with Flakk missiles, 1 Lascannon

Total: 235pts

Havoc squad Mercion (10)

3 Missile launchers with Flakk missiles, 1 Lascannon

Total: 235pts

 This list has 70 3+ save models, heck yeah! As my buddy Chase would say "Come at me Bro!"

“Plugged In” with Big Jim

I have decided to create an extremely laid back audio blog/podcast where I talk my wargaming hobby. Sometimes I will have one of my friends on with me to help cover the topic thoroughly.

Most of the time I will be covering something 40k related. With that said topics can and will cover anything wargaming from the far future, to Imperial Colonialism to gaming in the ancient world.

Each episode will be short ranging from 20 to 45 minutes at most depending on the topic at hand. If a topic would take longer to cover it will be broken up over multiple episodes.

The first episode should be up in the next couple of weeks.

Killzone new rule ideas

Here are a few rules that we have been testing, but have not added to the update yet. They may or may not make it in. I figured I would give you a glimpse at what we are cooking up behind the scenes. 

Auto-fire: Any time a stationary model with a heavy weapon that has 3 or more shots fires, the shooting player may choose to initiate an Auto-fire attack; the player lays down a 3 x 5 inch Auto-fire template down with the long edge facing the shooting model. All models under the template generate one extra to hit dice in addition to the weapons usual rate of fire. These shooting attacks are all made at -1 BS. Wounds are allocated one at a time starting with the closest model, you may not place a second hit on any model until every model under the template has been allocated a hit.

Strength in Numbers: If you out number your opponent in the assault phase your models gain +1 to hit with all close combat attacks. However if you lose combat while outnumbering your opponent you have -1 to your leadership test.

Chain Blades: 2 points

Any model armed with a close combat weapon may upgrade it to a Chain Blade. These are vicious flesh rending, armor shredding weapons. Chain Blades are AP 4. (You may not upgrade combat accessories to Chain Blades)