Lord Krug the "Beheader"

This is Krug the "Beheader" Warlord of the Soul Reapers warband. He is also known as the Scourge of the eastern fringe and Terror of the Ghoul Stars.



As much as I love the look of a Chaos Lord in Terminator armor, they really aren't that great in game. He has been relegated to story driven play or large points games over 2000 points; where I can field enough Terminators and Landraiders to keep him safe.

Then I got to thinking, if I am usually fielding him in large points games why not spend the extra 110 points and use him as a counts as Abaddon.

Abaddon is a monster, his stats and special rules are befitting the vision I have for Krug.

So I am thinking a conversion may be in order. I'll replace his right lower arm with a Talon of Horus I have in my bitz box. My only trepidation is that he turned out very nice.

What do you guys think?

'Ard boys part Deux, and a Defiler

First up here is the first of two Defilers I'm working on. They will have metal tentacles coming outta the left side of the torso.



Here is what I've come up with as an alternate to the first list, outta the minis I have.

HQ
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch
Wings, Warptime, Bolt of Change
200

Elites
4 Terminators with 3 combi-melta, Heavy Flamer, 1 Chainfist, Icon of Tzeentch
Landraider transport
410


Troops
10 Chaos Space Marines with 2 meltaguns and icon of chaos glory
Aspiring Champion with power fist and combi-flamer
Rhino Havoc Launcher
280


10 Chaos Space Marines with 2 Plasma guns and icon of chaos glory
Aspiring Champion with power weapon and melta bombs
Rhino Havoc Launcher
275

7 Plague Marines with 2 meltaguns 1 with personal icon
Aspiring Champion with power fist
Rhino
261


8 Khorne Berzerkers 1 with personal icon
Aspiring Champion with power weapon and melta bomb
Rhino
243


8 Lesser Daemons
104

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


Heavy Support
2 Obliterators
150

Defiler replaces flamer with CCW
150

Defiler replaces flamer with CCW
150

Total 2491

I playtested the list twice last evening pulling out a draw against Mech Marine Raider spam and a big win over a Dual Lash Chaos. So I'm feeling confident I can do well with the list and give my opponents a good game.

Ha, ha, ‘Ard boys Chaos marine list

This is my ‘Ard boys Chaos marine list. There is no way I can afford to travel to the finals this year if I were to be lucky enough to win; so I’ve decided to just play something purely for laughs. This list is purely built to field some of my favorite miniatures.

Locally I’m known as the anti-cookie cutter list guy; I never field more than one cult unit in any of my lists, and it really depends on my mood as to which cult I use. This time I’m not using any.

For my HQ I’ve decided to pick a Sorcerer of Tzeentch. He weighs in at 200 points with a Personal Icon, Warptime and Doombolt. He will be riding either a Bike or a Disc of Tzeentch. I just need to decide which unit I want him to accompany.

For the Elite choices I decided to take two deep striking Terminator squads of four. Each squad will have an Icon of CG, 3 combi-weapons and a heavy flamer. One squad will have combi-meltas and the other will have combi-plasmas. I love the new plastic Termies and it would be a shame not to use them.

The basis of my Troop choices will be 3 squads of 10 basic chaos marines with icons of CG, including a Champion and a Rhino in each. I really like basic Chaos marines and always field 2 squads, no matter what I read on the internet. I will also be bringing 2 squads eight of Lesser Daemons. These guys get a bad rap; they are great for grabbing objectives or supporting units in assault. Besides I have some nifty Beastmen Ungors painted red to represent them; a very classic look for demons IMHO.



For Fast Attack I will be using a squad of 6 Chaos Bikers and a squad of 8 Raptors. The Bikers will have duel melta guns, an icon of CG and a Champ with a fist. The Raptors will have duel Flamers, an icon of CG and a Champ with a fist. Bikes are some of my favorite models in 40k; sure they take finesse to use and are really expensive, but sometimes you’ve gotta say what the Hell!

I’ll finish the list up with three choices from the Heavy Support section. First up a squad of 2 Obliterators, I love these guys, but refuse to spam them. Next I’m gonna take a pair of Defilers each with the flamer dropped for an extra CCW. How can you field a Chaos marine army without fielding the only uniquely Chaos vehicle in the list?

HQ
Sorcerer of Tzeentch
Bike/Disc, Warptime, Doombolt, Personal Icon
200

Elites
4 Terminators with 3 combi-melta, Heavy Flamer, 1 Chainfist
165

4 Terminators with 3 combi-plasma, Heavy Flamer, 1 Chainfist
165

Troops
10 Chaos Space Marines with 2 meltaguns and icon of chaos glory
Aspiring Champion with power fist and combi-flamer
Rhino
265

10 Chaos Space Marines with 2 meltaguns and icon of chaos glory
Aspiring Champion with power fist and combi-flamer
Rhino
265

10 Chaos Space Marines with 2 Plasma guns and icon of chaos glory
Aspiring Champion with power weapon and melta bombs
Rhino
260

8 Lesser Daemons
104

8 Lesser Daemons
104

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

8 Chaos Raptors with 2 flamers and icon of chaos glory
Aspiring Champion with power fist
220

Heavy Support
2 Obliterators
150

Defiler replaces flamer with CCW
150

Defiler replaces flamer with CCW
150

Total Points 2466

So I've got 34 points to play with, but have no good ideas of what to do with it; maybe Havoc launchers on the melta squads Rhinos.

Comments and criticisms are welcome as long as they are kept constructive; I know the list is not hard by any stretch of the imagination.

Feel free to manipulate the list to optimize it some more, I do have one of each cult squad at their sacred number.

I figure the army will be fast enough to get up in my opponents face quickly and start dropping the termies and daemons where they are needed most.

There is no doubt you are right a winged DP is probbly the better choice for an HQ, I'm not opposed to swaping out the Sorcerer. What do you think about giving a DP the mark of tzeentch for the 4+ invul and the second power? This way he can use Warptime and have a ranged attack.

I could easily drop the Raptors for 8 Zerkers including a champ with a P.weapon in a rhino, if I leave the Havocs off the Rhinos.

One last thing the Bikers must stay in the list, as I am finally painting them and wanna put 'em on the table.

Space Wolves Venerable Dread Completed

Let me officially introduce the Venerable Dreadnought Skeld Redmane to the denizens of the 40k Blogosphere! Painting is done and he's ready to smite the foes of the Imperium!







I'm now going to take week off from the Space Wolves to focus my work on the Soul Reapers.

Chaos Bikers

I'm thinking of entering the 'Ard Boys tourney locally, just for the heck of it. Because I know I don't have enough killer instinct to win. I gave up being overly competitive years go. So my plan is to bring at least a 3 color painted and based 2500 point Chaos marine army. So here will be a push to get a bunch of my remaining Chaos minis painted. First up will be my converted Chaos bikers. There are 6 of them in total including two with meltaguns.

Space Wolf Ven Dread update

Here is the long overdue update on the Ven Dread. If you go back and look at the test model I did for my new Space Wolves army in the Space Wolves revisited post you'll notice I was trying out striped highlighting. It looked pretty good on the marines, but looked awful on the Dread and I imagine would have looked equally bad on my tanks. I have abandoned this style as is apparent on the latest Grey Hunter.

So the Ven dread has recovered fro his stripey syndrome and is now on track to be finished in the next few days.



I have decided to vary the colors of the wolf pelts throughout the Space Wolves army; including black, grey, brown and white fur.

Advanced 40k

I’ve been digging through my Second ed 40k stuff as one of my buddies just moved back into the area. He hasn’t played since then and really likes the depth of 2nd ed over 5th. We were talking it over and he’d be willing to play 5th if we added some extra flavour back into it.

A large part of the reason I am considering doing an advanced 5th is the desire to use the current codices. Most of them are much more balanced and have new units than the 2nd ed books. Plus I don't wanna do complete rewrites for the Necrons, Dark Eldar and (damned) Tau.

Since I’m going to be working on it anyway I figured I bring it to the attention of my readers here at Galaxy in Flames and see what you guys thought of the idea.

Is there any interest out there for an advanced version of 40K?

I'll be melding the best parts of 2nd ed with 5th ed to make a more robust 40K. Adding in things like arcs of fire for infantry, throwing grenades, vehicles hit locations and damage charts, to hit modifiers from 2nd. Keeping the assault phase, weapons AP system and the balance of 5th not affected by the second ed additions.

The close combat and psychic phases were by far the worst parts of 2nd ed and must go. IMHO

I am also tossing around some ideas for keeping overwatch, but limiting it to support units like heavy weapons squads. Then adding something similar to the defensive fire rule from Flames of War; this would let the defender shoot as they are being assaulted for non-support units; this added to limited fire arcs will make flanking in assaults a viable tactic.

The main goal I'm after is to add tactical depth back into 40K without making it overcomplicated. I'd still like to keep the average 1500-2000 point game around 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

So would you guys be interested in me posting something like this up here and maybe helping out with some playtesting?

Warhammer 40k the Orwellian Angle

This will be a series of periodic looks at the 40k universe from an Orwellian perspective. Who doesn't love a good conspiracy!

The background of the 40k universe has constantly changed and evolved for just over 20 years. Every bit of background/fluff was completely official at the time it was published. So what makes the current version more important than the original version?

The problem with the background/fluff is that it is very subjective about what is considered cannon and what isn’t. There is a lot of conjecture over the Black Library fluff, is cannon or not?

What we do know is that the whole history of 40k has been written, re-imaged and rewritten again. It can be very frustrating and hard to keep track of.

Sometimes there is a complete change in the fluff, like entire races that had existed just disappear from the universe.

There are many views held by us, the 40k enthusiasts. I relate them to the Inquisitorial factions, there are many shades in between the two and many viewpoints exist within even these categories.

Puritan: These people see the most recent fluff is correct. They view it as the only truth, all the other background is superseded by this. They acknowledge that GW has complete control and direction of the fluff.

Radical (this is the Orwellian view.): These people see the fluff like real life history filled with opinion, bias and propaganda built upon throughout the years. Rather than seeing the most recent fluff as cannon above and beyond previous sources, you develop theories as to why the story was changed. They see that the majority of the fluff comes from the Imperial viewpoint and thus would be subject to distortion.

I prefer a Radical view of the background for 40K it gives great depth to the universe and makes it feel more real and gritty. I think the old adage “the victor writes the history” fits in nicely here.

The first Radical view I’d like to bring up is the shadow cast around the founding of the Ultramarines. This is part one; I’ll finish this up next week.

In WD 97 the Ultramarines were introduced to 40k as a third founding chapter. Their Primarch Guilliman was a great Imperial Guard commander, he was chosen as the leader of the chapter.

Here is the text bout their founding from WD 97:
Chapter Ultra-marine of the Legiones Astartes was founding during the inter-legionary wars of the thirty-second millennium. Tradition places the date at 4001001.M32 - the very first day of the millennium. The chapter is therefore over eight thousand years old, making it a chapter of the third founding. Upon its inception, the Emperor gave the chapter the number 13 - formerly the number of one of the traitor legions now banished to the Eye of Terror 'without number and name with all honors erased'
As we know this was later changed and they are now listed as a first founding chapter.

What if it was true that the Ultramarines were a third founding chapter and Guilliman was a really great Imperial Guard Commander? Would it be so hard to understand why many of the original legions initially refused to follow High Lords of Terra recommendations? We now have the Horus Heresy Books that confirm this tension. Would it not make sense for the High Lords to create a Puppet that would promote and enforce their mandates? It makes a lot more sense when you look at the reactions of the real loyalist Legions.

Many of the Primarchs were very opposed to the splitting of their legions? Let’s take a look at the Crimson Fists who were originally a first founding legion and their brothers in the Imperial Fists. In the current fluff one begat the other, what if great treachery on the part of the High Lord forced them to hide the truth.

The Imperial Fists are attempting to destroy the Fortress of Pain. The situation is a complete stalemate with both sides suffering from huge casualties. The Crimson Fists some distance away the fighting on the Eastern Fringe. The two most vocal opponents are separated the High Lords seize their chance. The remnants of the Imperial Army fall upon the little of the Crimson Fists that remain, killing nearly all. Using the prototypes of the Assassin Temples, they succeed in laying low the Primarch, mortally poisoning him. Seeing their Primarch alive but with his life in the hands of the enemy forces the rest of the Crimson Fists to surrender. They take the Primarch's weapons as their own and they eventually find their way to Guilliman. Doesn't it make more sense for a Primarch from the Crimson Fists to wield such weapons?

The Imperial Fists have taken huge casualties at the Fortress of Pain. Now you have the two most vocal opponents incapacitated. The High Lords present an ultimatum to the remaining Astartes of those Legions. Weak and beaten, they have no choice but to accept to the demands. The Crimson Fists will be allowed to live as long as they obey the High Lords, remain silent about their founding and give up their home world. If they disobey, their Primarch will be killed. If Dorn disobeys, his brother will be destroyed.

What if this is the reason the Crimson Fists are no longer a first founding legion?

Here is some background on Orwell for those who do not know his work.
Orwellian: George Orwell
In regards to George Orwell's 1984 book where the current ruling party rewrites history to fit their needs:1984

I'd like to thank Refuse and Sigismund Himself at the Bolter and Chainsword for the inspiration for these posts.

Finished Space Wolves Grey Hunter

Here is the finished Grey Hunter. I decided to go for a forest style basing to go with all my lovely new terrain.

Chaos in the Woods

Here are some better detail shots of the terrain I recently acquired from my Father. I've placed some of my Soul Reapers Chaos marines in the pics for scale.

My new terrain and a tribute to my Father

I just inherited my Fathers LotR terrain, he's moving outta the area and doesn't feel like hauling it with him. Win for me, I can now cover 5 feet of table in forest! It needs some small fixes, but I think it is still fantastic looking stuff. Here is a sampling of the pieces.






A little back ground on my Father. He has been gaming since the mid 70's with a passion for the ancient world. During the 80's when gamers were still playing on bare tabletops with some colored felt scattered about for terrain. He undertook the task of creating 2x2 ft modular terrain using the same techniques that model railroaders use. Since that time he has won multiple awards for his fantastic layouts. Here are some scanned pics of that first terrain layout.



Happy Fathers Day Pop and thanks for all the wonderful years of gaming!