Hobby Night: Chaos Space Marine- Aegis Defense Line

     As I'm writing up new lists for Imperial Armour 13 it is becoming apparent that I would have to utilize an aegis defense line with communications relay to ensure my reserves, flyers, etc. come on when I need them too. I had an aegis defense line lying around with a terrible paint job. So I thought I could chaosify it and give it a grim dark paint job to make it fit my iron warriors. 

     The way I'm running my iron warriors is undivided, so I thought that each section of the defense line could have a different chaos god! I had tons of extra icon bits laying around!

Step 1: Base Coat

Mournfang brown for the areas that were going to be tarnished gold and on skulls.

Leadbelcher on all the other areas of the wall.

Step 2: Drybrush

Balthasar Gold over all areas that you want the aegis to be tarnished gold.

Ushabati Bone on the skulls, several light coats.

Step 3: Washes
Nuln oil over the entire defense line, avoid the skulls.
Note: Make sure the wash doesn't pool on the bottom, otherwise you are left darker areas, or areas that dry out and recess.

Step 4: Highlights

Runefang steel along the edges of areas you want to pop. 

Screaming skull on the raised areas of the bones. 

Step 5: How detailed do you want it to be?

If you are happy with the results, you can call it finished. If not you can do even more highlights and shading.

I went over the gold in some areas with Gehenna Gold to make it brighter, especially on some of the chaos icons. 

As you can see below, I used Runefang Steel on the eye of chaos on the communications array to make it pop.

I may go back and gently highlight all the bolts with Leadbelcher. 

Imperial Armour 13: War Machines of the Lost and the Damned- Review Part vi

     The 5th chapter of Imperial Armour 13  focuses on the chaos dreadnoughts and helbrutes of the Chaos Space Marines. Only a mere 8 pages, the three entries include the Ferrum Infernus Dreadnought, Emperor's Children Sonic Dreadnought, and the Chaos Contemptor Dreadnought.

Ferrum Infernus Dreadnought

     Coming just 15 points short of a 1.50 the ferrum is an expensive dreadnought. It is armor 12 front and side, it has 3 hull points, and constitutes an infernal relic (meaning you need a warpsmith, abaddon, or a sorceror with malefic daemonology to take more than one), and causes fear. The ferrum comes stock with a dreadnought close combat weapon and a multi-melta.    

     You can replace the multi-melta with the standard weapons and some not so standard, like a power scourge or thunder hammer. However, the only options to replace the close combat weapon is: a missile launcher, chainfist with twin-linked bolter, power scourge, or thunder hammer. Which is strange considering the ferrum is WS 5 and BS 5. At first glance I thought it could fulfill either role, close-combat or shooting. Alas, the weapon options for the close combat arm disprove that.

     Of course you can give the ferrum malefic ammunition, but why would you? You can give the ferrum a dedication to any of the chaos gods, with their typical benefits; however, what sets the ferrum apart is the final entry allowing several upgrades: Lord of the Long War, Host of Daemonic Iron, and Destroyer of Cities.

Lord of the Long War- basically allows a 33% chance that when a ferrum explodes it will turn into a spawn, just die like normal, or turns into a daemon prince...Yeah.

Host of Daemonic Iron- gives the dreadnought daemonic resilience (2+ ignores shaken/stunned), and any unit in CC that takes a hull point off the ferrum suffers a str 4 ap 3 hit per hull point lost. yawn.

Destroyer of Cities- front armor gets +1, the ferrum gets move through cover, and when playing cities of death missions you get the wrecker stratagem for free. The assault drill the ferrum acquires is x2 str ap 2 armorbane.

    The only problem I see with the ferrum is a common problem in the codex. Great stuff, but everything comes at a steep point cost. I don't really like random tables for competitive play, so if I had to take an upgrade it would be destroyer of cities, with a dedication to khorne. That only bumps the price to a steep 185. Getting it into CC would be difficult, and there are far better options for the elite slot.

Emperor's Children Sonic Dreadnought?

     The reason for the question mark is because I don't really understand forgeworld's thinking on this entry. There's the ferrum, contemptor, and then the Emperor's Children sonic dreadnought. I mean, that is cool that they decided to give Slaanesh-oriented armies some love, but forgeworld also sells a variety of other legion-specific dreadnoughts. So why did they leave them out? Your guess is as good as mine. Writer's block?

     Coming in 10 points higher than a ferrum, I would be expecting a greater focus shooting, alas the Sonic is BS/WS 5 same armor and hull points. It comes with a twin-linked sonic blaster, chainfist with inbuilt storm bolter, doom siren. This fills an elite slot. I think the one build that might work is the upgrade, warp amp (allows the Sonic to forego movement in order to double it shots). So by my calculations, the sonic blaster is salvo 2/3, str 4 ap5...If it doesn't move it would have 6 total shots and ignore cover.

     You can upgrade the weapons as normal, with the addition of the blastmaster. Even that plus the warp amp upgrade would only give you 2x str 8 ap 3 large blast, ignore cover shots. So it could potentially fill the roll of skimmer killer, but it would be much better if it had an ap value of 2. It would show that the unit has a purpose. Sadly, for the point cost I think better more point-efficient alternatives could be found.

Chaos Contemptor Dreadnought

     Well you definitely see a natural progression in exceedingly high point costs. This monster is nearly 200, he has one less BS than the previous two dreadnoughts, but he comes with a front armor value of 13. Much more resilient in my opinion. The Contemptor comes with a twin-linked heavy bolter, dreadnought close combat weapon with combi-bolter. The kickers...

     Hellfire Reactor- 4+ inv against all glancing hits, and a 6+ inv against penetrating hits. Any psyker in CC takes an auto-hit of str2 ap 2 at initiative 10. If an explosion is rolled on the vehicle damage table add D3 to the radius of that blast, and count it as soul blaze.

     It has fleet and adamantium will. You can upgrade your heavy bolter to a multi-melta for free, take a twin-linked autocannon for the cost of extra armor. It has bonus options such as conversion beamer and butcher cannon. Here's where I think it starts to get better, the contemptor can trade it's dreadnought close combat weapon for a heavy bolter or multi-melta for free, a twin-linked autocannon for the price of a dozer blade...why not the same cost as above? However, it can't take two conversion beamers, which makes me sad. You can take dedications and add a havoc launcher.

     Originally I thought you could possibly take the two twin-linked autocannons and upgrade with malefic, which would be amazing in my opinion; however, the malefic ammo upgrade only works for heavy bolters. This is a really cool model with tons of options, and the hellfire reactor and front armor 13 gives it very good survivability in my opinion. Fleet will allow you to close distance to targets, but keep the Contemptor as cheap as possible if you are going to take it.

I would possibly recommend taking dedication to nurgle or tzeentch if you choose to make him CC-oriented. Nurgle bestows "it will not die" and we all know what tzeentch does, allowing invulnerable saves of 1 to be re-rolled. Since you have a 4++ on glances and a 6++ on penetrating hits (not just shooting) then that might be another possible way to kit the Contemptor out.
   

Hobby Night: Imperial Armour 13- Plague Zombies

It's hobby night and I've taken a break from writing reviews the past couple of days to organize my bits collection and focus a little on the hobby, specifically modeling.

I haven't written a review yet, but I'm loving the plague zombies that are available in the heretics army list. You can take up to 50, at 3 points a pop! While they don't have any armor to speak of, they are fearless and come with a 4+ feel no pain. To top it off, they are troops, so you'll be able to get objective secured against anything but your enemies obsec units. 

On the hobby side, you can kit bash and convert to your hearts content! I took some time and looked to see what others had done, the general theme being, Imperial Guard bits mixed with vampire counts bits. Luckily I had plenty IG torsos and legs laying around. I dug through my chaos bits, drilled holes for a gore effect later, and went about trying to customize as much as I can.

With the proper paint scheme I hope they turn out grim dark! I'll be back to the Imperial Armour reviews within the next couple of days. Cheers!

Imperial Armour 13: Tactica Segment- Heretics 1850

I finally wanted to test out a list and see how it did on the tabletop, and I was lucky enough to get two games in! Here is my list, my thoughts, and the results of the two games thus far.

Hq:

 Renegade Command Squad

-Heretek Magus

-Covenant of Nurgle

-10+ disciples

-Carapace Armor

Troops:

Renegade Infantry Squad x3

Autocannon Heavy Weapon Teams x3

-Champion

-Feel No Pain (FNP)

Renegade Mutant Rabble

-10+ mutants

Plague Zombies

-+20 zombies

Renegade Veterans

-+5 veterans

-Carapace Armor

-FNP

-meltaguns x2

Heavy Support:

Squadron

2x Wyvern

-heavy flamers

2x Griffon

-heavy flamers

3x Leman Russa

-battlecannons

-heavy flamers

Lord of War:

Renegade Baneblade

Fortification:

Void Shield Generator (3 shields)

This list was designed to focus around tough troops, everything within 12" of the baneblade gets zealot, most of the blob squads have feel no pain (FNP), and the zombies automatically come with a 4+ FNP! What's not to love about those units! The baneblade has the intimidation factor but does lack  reliability, especially when most of the army is at BS 2. 

I bubble wrap the baneblade with mutants and infantry squads. I put the disciples and the warlord in the battlements holding the void shield generator, always making sure that my soft vehicles are within 12" of those lovely shields. The heavy hitters are also the softest, the squadron of wyverns and griffons. They performed far and above what could be expected. Given the barrage rules I always recommend starting off with the smaller template, since all other barrages flip off of where the original lands. 

We all know wyvern are reliable, and the same can definitely be said for griffons in any Renegade/Heretic list! The lack of flyers was intentional, as flyers don't tend to make a huge impact in the local meta in Spokane, Washington. Being at a handfull of GT's now, they don't seem to turn the tide, and unless you are taking CSM allies, the Valkyrie is woefully inadequate for the points cost. 

I played Maelstrom mission 3 in both games, and played this list. My first opponent was an 1850 Dark Eldar list, utilizing Forgeworld Reapers, vypers, and of course raiders. Night fighting turn one allowed him to get a 3+ jink against my shots and it was incredibly lopsided, but enlightening as to the inadequacy of the normal baneblade.

As mentioned previously, baleful abberation, gives units within 12" zealot, essentially making them fearless and therefore shoring up the low leadership of the army due to "uncertain worth" (d6+ 4 for a units leadership). 

The second game was much closer with an ultimate score of 9-8, a very close game. Again maelstrom mission 3; however the amount of models on the table clearly showed in my favor. In my second game the astra militarum player only had 3 wyvern, and two vendettas hovering on the board, if it went to turn 6 it would probably have been a rout. A good hard fought game, and my opponent was an incredibly good sport considering he had never dealt with a void shield generator. Clearly brought as insurance for the baneblade, it helped protect the wyvern and griffon. Definitely a must take for a fortification, and for the point cost worth it.

This particular build, while formidable lacks mobility...which clearly showed in the hammer and anvil deployment. While I'm building my iron warriors force I'll continue to experiment with lists. This is clearly a balanced list, and despite the BS 2 across the army, was still able to throw plenty of shots down range and nearly table a competitive astra militarum army. The plague zombies did what they were meant to do, hold an objective, which they did to the last two men (way to go guys!).

In my next tactica segment, I'll be looking at taking a squadron of blood slaughterers and see how they perform. Until next time!

Harvester of Souls 2014 Results!

The results are in for this past weekends Harvester 40k Tournament! With 32 attendees it was quite a turnout, with about 10 unfortunate last minute drops!

This tournament was part of the ITC circuit that Reece and Franky at Frontline Gaming created.

Congratulations to the overall winner! A good friend and Necron player, whose balanced 5th ed, battle-forged list took on two adamantium lance formations! Knights beware of the gauss.

This was an 1850 tournament, 1+1 format, with specific lords of war and fortifications allowed! More pictures to follow.

Here are the results.

Imperial Armour 13: War Machines of the Lost and the Damned- Review Part v

We are soldiering on with the same chapter, however these two entries deserve their own special review which is why I had to separate them.

What was a huge weakness of the CSM codex? Dedicated tranports! And what were we missing that the loyalists had...that CSM should have had all along? Drop pods.

Chaos Dreadclaw Drop Pod- We finally got it! For a mere hundred points you can have what the loyalist scum had the entire friggin time. So what makes this so special? It's the usual armor 12 all around, it IS NOT open topped, and counts as a flyer, so it can hover.

Special rules include: assault vehicle, deep strike, drop pod assault, heat blast, and daemonic possession.

This bad boy can hold 10 models, or a single Ferrum Infernus (you know...that bad@ss dreadnought I reviewed earlier?), an Emperor's Children dreadnought, Chaos Contemptor, or Hellbrute. It comes with a frag assault launcher too.

Heat blast allows for the drop pod to make an attack when it comes in or later on when it's a flyer, measuring a 3" radius around the model + D3 all models suffer a str 6 ap 5 hit with no cover save, while vehicles ****are hit on their weakest armour value*** WHAT?! That's pretty cool, giving you a good chance of glancing or penetrating that rear armor 10! The other type of heat blast, is when the pod passes directly over any unit, suffers D6 str 5 ap5 hits, no cover and again if the model is a vehicle, it hits the weakest armor.
Note: there is a downside, on a result of a 1, the drop pod suffers a penetrating hit.

This is a solid fast attack choice, and I could see one being used to get some metla close to a knight or other susceptibly big target. Otherwise, I don't think it's worth sacrificing those Hell Blades. Very tough choices to make for fast attack in the FOC.

Now for the dreadclaw's bigger brother.

Chaos Kharybdis Assault Claw- Coming in at the price of a landraider with 5 hullpoints, this flyer/ transport is armor 12 all around and comes with:
5x kharybdis storm launchers
1x Melta Ram
1x Frag assault launchers.
This model can transport 20 models, with the same options of taking all those dreadnoughts previously mentioned OR a single chaos rapier battery. This transport is a heavy support choice, and an excellent one to boot! The Kharybdis can target differene enemy units with EACH of it's weapons, same rules for heat blast apply. A main difference is this guy can ram other vehicles (not other flyers).    I don't like giving stats on guns, but you can lay down 10x str 6 shots twin-linked. That's a ton of firepower, and the nice thing is when you land turn 1, those initial snapshots will be twin-linked.

Amazing choice for a heavy support, and could easily drop a squad of marines with a HQ to wreak havoc in the opponent's back lines.

That's it for tonight, but stay tuned. We will eventually make it through this, and I'll get to tactica by this weekend!

Imperial Armour 13: War Machines of the Lost and the Damned - Review Part iv

In the previous reviews we looked at the heavy hitters, the Chaos super heavies and tanks. Now it's time to get to the meat and potatoes, that will catapult the CSM into the upper tiers of tournament play.

First up is the Chaos Storm Eagle- Taking up a fast attack choice, this model is armor 12 all around, with 4 hull points. In addition it has a 20 model troop capacity. That's nothing to sneeze at! It comes equipped with a twin-linked heavy bolter, vengeance launcher, and the armoured ceramite to nullify any melta shots coming your way. 15 points will get you a twin-linked multi-melta. The upgrades are incredibly expensive and I can't see anyone wasting the points for additional weapons, when they can be better spent elsewhere. In lieu of the multi-melta you can take a reaper autocannon for free...combine that with the malefic ammunition, and you got some sweet rending shots. It should be noted, that you have to pay additional points to give the heavy bolters malefic, which I find odd, since I can't find other entries like that.

With the proliferance of interceptor,especially among top tau-lists, I'd be concerned that the eagle would get blown away before it even has an impact on the game. It straddles the line between transport and flyer, a master of neither. What I mean by that is, while it is a sturdy fighter it lacks the offensive punch to confidently take out heavy targets or other flyers; and it's armor 12 makes it susceptible to dedicated AA and wave serpents, potentially costing NOT only the flyer, but the units inside.

Chaos Fire Raptor Gunship- Essentially the same profile as the eagle, the raptor comes for 5 points less and has no troop capacity capabilities. It comes with:

1x Hull-mounted twin linked avenger bolt cannon

2x turret-mounted quad heavy bolters

4x hellstrike missiles

It is an infernal relic and has strafing run, of course you can exchange the heavy bolters for reaper autocannon batteries, which provide it with incredible offensive potential. Add malefic ammunition, and you have 8 rending autocannon shots, twin linked...Holy Sh*t! This flyer has the potential to knock out THREE medium to soft targets per turn (armour 12 or less) and with the rends can take on knights firing at side armor.

This clearly has a dedicated role, and although this takes a heavy support slot, the amount of firepower and punishment it can lay down is formidable. 

Chaos Thunderhawk- Yes we get them. Yes it has the same profile as the loyalist version. Sadly, as a lord of war it is underwhelming with only armor 12. I'm skipping a review of this, as I can't see it worth taking, except for fluff purposes.

However, the next entry seriously takes the cake!

Chaos Hell Blade- the most cost effective model in my opinion. This model is paper thin at armour 10, but packs two reaper autocannons, that's 8 str 7 shots...but for a cheap point upgrade you get helstorm autocannons that reduce the number of shots by 2 and provide rending. Hell yes. Able to shunt d6+2 prior to the movement phase, it's like a poor man's vector dancer. The icing on the cake is that 5+ inv save it comes with. 

This is a must have for the fast attack choice, nothing else comes close.

Chaos Hell Talon- Nearly twice the cost of the Hell Blade, the talon has the same armour profile. It comes with a twin-linked lascannon, reaper autocannon, and eight pyrax incendiary bombs. For the point cost and what it does, this is underwhelming especially since it competes with the Hell Blade for a fast attack slot. I may come back and add to this, if I glean any situations where having one of these is a good idea, but it can't beat the Hell Blade!

That's it for this review, I will do a special review on the dreadclaw and kharybdis Assault Claw in the next day or so! Game on!

Imperial Armour 13: War Machines of the Lost and the Damned - Review Part iii

Having covered the first two sections of the tome, section iii leads us to the ominous Chaos Astartes Heavy Tanks; two of which are super heavy vehicles, counting as lord of war choices, while the third can still be fit in a force organization slot as heavy support.

Chaos Fellblade Super-heavy Tank- Having the same armor as a leman russ, this is a large tank near the size of a baneblade. With 12 hullpoints this thing is an absolute beast and reasonably costed, considering it comes with:

Turretmounted twin-linked fellblade accelerator cannon
2x sponson-mounted quad lascannon
hull-mounted twin-linked heavy bolter
hell-mounted demolisher cannon

Laser destroyer sponsons can be added for free! The typical chaos vehicle upgrades can be taken, and best of all malefic ammunition can be taken, turning your bolter shots into rending weapons!

I can't give the exact stats on the accelerator cannon, but it is DEFINITIVELY, one of the best tank killers out there because not only does it have high str along with a low ap value, it has ARMOURBANE! And is a blast, so you know it will at least go down range and ruin someone's day!

I think if you had a choice in your CSM force for tournaments, and could take a lord of war, you should definitely consider this!

Up next...

Chaos Typhon Heavy Seige Tank- Coming in on a landraider chasis with 6 hullpoints, this thing is a demolisher on steroids; however in order to make use of its added range you must remain stationary. So do you want it to shoot the normal range of a demolisher or have the reach of a autocannon?
The other thing I can say about the gun is it has a "massive" blast radius and ignores cover. I'm looking at you Eldar and Tau!!!

Definitely a contender for a lower cost option as a lord of war, I'd also think it would be easy to conver this up using a demolisher cannon and a landraider that was laying around. Add some plasticard panels to the front of the tank, and TA DA!

Last but not least!

Chaos Spartan Assault Tank- This is the only option in this seciton that is still a heavy support choice,  but it has 5 hullpoints on a landraider chasis! There isn't much to say about this choice, that Imperial players or others haven't already seen or heard, it's just the chaos equivalent.

A great delivery system for chaos, with it's 25 model troop capacity!

Hope you found this review enlightening, the next review will focus on Chaos Astartes Attack Craft...which has some real winners! Stay tuned.

imperial Armour 13: War Machines of the Lost and the Damned- Review part ii

Part ii will cover the Chaost Astartes Assault Vehicles

Chaos Land Raider Proteus- This land raider variant allows for a carrying capacity of 10 troops and causes fear. This land raider boasts the same upgrades as any normal chaos land raider, and carries the same armaments (twin-linked lascannon sponsoons). 

For a heavy support choice there are far more options!

Next is the formidable...

Chaos Infernal Relic Achilles- possessing a quard mortor, sponson-mounted twin-linked multi-meltas, this land raider is a beast. Sacrificing transport capacity for firepower, What really makes this landraider shine is the Fuelled by Hate rule, for every hullpoint the vehicle loses, it increase the strength of the mortar is increased +1 and the ap value is decreased by one. 

I can't put exact points, but it could turn into a duanting power armor/anti-infantry killer. At that AP value, even Tyranid monstrous creatures wouldn't stand a chance! It's slightly cheaper than a Imperial Knight, and well worth the cost in my opinion. Fills a heavy support choice!

I know it is short and sweet tonight, and I apologize for that, but there's a lot of content to dig into and I hope you continue to join me in this review! Death to the False emprah!

Imperial Armor 13: War Machines of the Lost and the Damned-Review Part i

As with previous Imperial Armors by Forgeworld, this book takes the cake. This book is broken up into 8 separate sections each covering the various war machines of the Chaos Space Marines, and one of which covers their human armies of renegades and heretics.

The artwork and fluff is top-notch as are the descriptions of each of the units. Coming in at 196 pages, this is fairly decent sized book, jam-packed with tons of units that will really boost up the competitive level of any Chaos Space Marine army.

This is part 1 of my review which will cover the first section Chaos Battle Tanks!

Chaos Infernal Relic Predator- The standard armor value as a regular space marine predator, the versaility of this unit is the ability to attach special weaponry, such as the magna-melta cannon, autocannon with inferno bolts (space marine killer ap ;)), a heavy conversion beamer, twin linked las, or plasma destroyer.

Because it is a relic, you can only take one unless you take a warpsmith, abaddon, or sorceror with daemonology; however the synergy of this model is the fact that you can attach dirge casters to assist other units in getting into the assault. Not the best unit for the points, and the fact that there are significantly better choices, but nonetheless appreciated for those fluff armies!

Next is...

Chaos Relic Sicaran Battle Tank- A reasonable point cost, good armor, and sporting an amazing weapon. This tank boasts the accelerator autocannon, which is twin-linked, ignores jink, and has rending. A truly terrifying prospect for enemy flyers and skimmers (ahem, wave serpents)!
**This is in the heavy support slot and is an abolute must-have in any competitive CSM army.

Part ii will be out Nov. 3, so stay tuned!

Quick Introduction to the Astra Militarum Heretics!

This event was an 1850 tournament. I fielded my heretics as Astra Militarum troops, with a Knight Errant ally. These pictures were taken game one.

The "cultist" models count as conscripts, here I was running a horde of 40 with priests to give them zealot. They work great as a bunker and "bubble-wrap" for my army.

Here's an overhead view of the hammer and anvil demployment.

I'm going to revitalize this blog. It will be a series of painting projects. The first is in honor of Imperial Armor 13: Renegades and Heretics.

I will be writing a review as I display my current heretic astra militarum army.

-Argentius