Taking it to YouTube

Hello again (again)!

So, yes, it's been a while again. Quite a few things have happened in my hobby world since the last post but I haven't gotten around to blogging about it.

Selling half of my armies is a big one. T'au, Ad Mech, Harlequins, Aeldari, all gone. I am getting a bit of seller's remorse now, but I needed the room and the time to focus on a few armies.

The good news is that I am getting on with the Blood Angels and also the Imperial Knights at the moment.

Probably the biggest thing is my decision to give YouTube a try. I already have a (very) small gaming channel (which you can check out here) but I decided to try and combine two hobbies in one.

I know there are plenty of channels already but YouTube is so big, I figured there's room for one more at least. It's a bit of fun and we'll see where it goes.

But I want to ask you guys. What do you like watching on YouTube related to our hobby? Do you enjoy battle reports? If so do you like them short and snappy or are you quite happy to put a 2 hour extravaganza on while you paint? Do you make use of painting tutorials? Do you look for different ways to paint your armies? Do you look for rules reviews or unit analysis maybe?

Let me know what you like and help me to hit the ground running with the new channel.

You can find the channel here, although there's nothing to watch just yet. If you're reading this in the future there will be so check it out!

More blog posts coming in future regardless of what happens with YouTube.

Thanks for coming back to read this!

Codex: Blood Angels - Chapter Focus

Hello again. You find me in a heightened state of excitement. As you probably know, Codex: Blood Angels is up for pre-order on Saturday, and as you also know if you have been with me for any amount of time, Blood Angels are my guys. Games Workshop have released a few snippets of the new rules for the Baal badasses and I am going to review them here. Strap in folks, this will be a bit of a long one. Get ready for some serious positivity!

The Red Thirst

This is better than I had hoped it would be. When a unit with The Red Thirst charges, is charged, or makes a heroic intervention, they get +1 to wound in the Fight Phase. So in effect the BAs benefit from what they do best, assault, but they also benefit if the opponent charges and if a character joins the fight. Basically when they get into combat, they get pumped.

I expected this to be +1 Strength when they charge but this is far better. For regular BAs with chainswords against T3, 4 and 5, this is the same as it would have been for charging in 7th, wounding on 2s, 3s and 4s respectively. Against T6 and 7, they are still wounding on 4s which is going to prove pretty strong against medium to heavy vehicles and monsters. Against T8 they are wounding on 5s! With enough attacks, this will at least prove a headache for the toughest units, and could potentially provide a nasty reduction in wounds and therefore power.

But that's just regular strength weapons. Powerfists and Thunderhammers are wounding T8 on 3s and everything lower on 2s. Even better, if the Sanguinary Priests keep their +1 Strength aura, that's 2s on absolutely everything! Those fisticuffs Dreadnoughts are wounding absolutely everything on 2s regardless!

All this hinges on being in combat, but as you'll see below, we already have some fun toys to use to make that happen!

Stratagems

Death Visions of Sanguinius - 1 Command Point

This is going to prove a useful stratagem, if you have enough to spare. Gives a BA Captain, Chaplain or Lieutenant the Death Company keyword and the Black Rage ability for the battle. We don't know the full details of what Black Rage will mean in the codex, but it currently gives +1 Attack on the charge and a 6+ damage ignore. There is a warlord trait that will synergise well with this as you will see below. Cannot be used on Primaris models (weirdly, as Lieutenants are Primaris as far as I am aware) or named characters, which makes sense. Terminator Captain with this? Scary.

Strike of the Archangels - 2 Command Points

Gives a BA Terminator unit re-rolls to hit until the start of the next turn from when they are deployed. This is clearly more useful, and aimed at, deep striking termies. Drop those termies in 9" away, rapid fire all of the Storm bolters, re-rolling *all* of the misses, then charge and re-roll all of those misses as well. Okay so the 9" charge is a rare beast, but if you pull it off, it's going to cause havoc the turn they arrive. We're getting access to Tartaros and Cataphractii termies as well. I'll just leave that there.

Upon Wings of Fire - 1 Command Point

In your movement phase, remove a BA Jump Pack unit and redeploy it at the end of the phase 9" or more from enemy units. Easy objective grabber and a way to clear out of a hot area of the table or target a more suitable unit for a possible charge. Immensely useful in many situations I think you'll agree. Best of all, this will apply to JP Characters as well, so use it to get Dante or that Sanguinary Priest out of danger, or close to another unit for buffing or repositioning that Librarian for precision smiting!. You can also use this on a unit in combat (although I assume the same rules for charging afterward would apply). I love this one.

Psychic Powers

Wings of Sanguinius - Warp Charge 5

The Wings are back! Immediately move the Librarian upto 12" and gains Fly. On top of that, you get to re-roll failed charge rolls that turn. Just think about it for a minute. Librarian Dreadnought with a a 30" maximum range in a turn, moving over terrain and units and being able to charge Flyers, with a re-roll to charge. It's deliciously horrific. Now think of Mephiston with a 31" max range with that Sanguine Sword. As you immediately move the Librarian, this could be a handy way to position for a Smite. I can't wait to see how the other powers turn out.

Warlord Traits

Artisan of War

One of your Warlord's weapons adds 1 to it's Damage (not relics). Upto 8 damage with a Storm bolter? 4 damage Thunder hammer? Not a bad trait to take if you plan on getting your Warlord dishing out the hurts (which you should, they're Blood Angels!).

Gift of Foresight

Your Warlord ignores lost wounds on a 6, re-rolling ones. Pretty decent at that. If your Warlord has the Black Rage ability (see? Synergy!) this becomes a 5+ but they can't use the Black Rage ability as well, so just one, albeit improved over BR alone. Cataphractii Terminator Captain (we're getting the termies, so we'll probably get the captain) will be looking at a 2+/3++/5+ re-rolling 1s and an extra attack on the charge in that situation. That is a tough captain.

Relics

The Veritas Vitae

Quite different from 7th this one. Used to give an extra Warlord Trait back then, now returns a Command Point on a 5+ while the bearer is on the battlefield, giving the average Battalion 8 Command points for single CP stratagems. Not too bad but possibly better options for an army with expensive units and generally not as many CP.

Standard of Sacrifice

Gives an Ancient their normal banner buff, plus a 6" 5+ wound ignore bubble. Doesn't affect any unit with Black Rage (I am intrigued to see what they have done with Death Company as they seem to be avoiding giving them an extra 'Feel No Pain'). This is so powerful it's unreal. Keep it in the vicinity of your Sanguinary Guard in the hands of an SG Aincient and keep them very much alive to make use of that Red Thirst, as well as being immune to morale and re-rolling 1s to wound. So much power.

That's all we have for now, officially. I am very impressed with all of this; GW seem to be getting our BAs back to how they should be, killing things in combat. I can't wait to see what else comes out of the new Codex. Drop a comment below and let me know what you think of these snippets! Come back on Friday and read my thoughts on the Twitch live stream, where GW will be talking more about the new book.

I'm Back! (Again)

Hey folks! Here I am, back again. It's been nearly 7 months since my last post, and what a 7 months it's been! We've had the release of 8th, along with several codices and new models. I've played a fair few games of 8th now and I am having a real love/hate relationship with it; more on this below.

I've just got back last night from taking part in Never Mind The Blog Wars, Alex Brown's (From The Fang) latest event and it has left me feeling torn. Last night I knew I had had three fun games, won one of them and generally had a great day of gaming. I predicted being in the lower end of the table but I knew I was neither last or second last (those people had had their 'rewards'). I was happy yesterday, and that was that. This morning I saw the rankings. 28/30. I really didn't think I had done that badly. It really left me feeling a bit flat and torn because I had basically enjoyed being terrible at 40K.

I think this is a general indicator of how I feel about 8th so far. I love the rule set. It plays well. It's simple to pick up and yet complicated enough still with unit rules, and the new mechanics and way things work are great. I just seem to hate actually playing. I think it's because I still want to be able to mix it up and take any units I like (as opposed to the "best units") and this doesn't seem to be the case, at least for the armies I play. I am still on mostly Index armies (Blood Angels, T'au, Harlequins, Imperial Knights) and maybe this is why I am struggling. The released codices seem to allow more flexibility for their armies. Case in point is Astra Militarum who seem to be able to take just about anything and still be brutally effective (I may do a post soon about why I think the new system has turned them into a murder machine).

So I have two things I am going to do at this moment. First, I am going to carry on anxiously waiting to see how the Blood Angels codex treats us when it is released in the next weeks, while continuing to paint them up, just in case they are decent this time. Second, I am going to start trying lists that include everything that other people classify as the good units/loadouts to take.

Just to clarify, Never Mind The Blog Wars was a great event, as all of Alex' events have been. It was my own shocking performance that has disappointed me!

Angel's Blade Review Part 3: More Formations and Detachments!

Here we are again! In yesterday's post I went over the Command and Core formations from the new book. Today it's the Auxiliaries and the Detachments. Let's crack on shall we?

Auxiliary

Archangels Orbital Intervention Force

The Archangels Orbital Intervention Force or 'AOIF' (which I like to think will be the noise your opponent might make when this arrives) is a potentially powerful little (600pts minimum - not so little) formation that gives a nice special rule that benefits shooty and hitty Terminators. The formation is 3 Terminator squads in any combination you like. Assault Terminators get the same disordered charge when they arrive, like the Golden Host, but coupled with this is the ability for regular Termie units to shoot twice on the turn they arrive, and at different targets if they like. Game wise I'll wait and see how this fares, but Terminators teleporting in and going crazy with guns, or immediately charging the enemy is seriously cool. They also all arrive on a single reserve roll which is nice. They have to be kept in Deep Strike Reserve but why would you want to take this one any orther way? Another one I will try and squeeze in when I can.

10th Company Ambush Force

Basically the 10th Company Task Force from Codex: Space Marines. 3-5 squads of Scouts or Scout Bikes (which have to take mines). Infiltrating units get Stealth if they haven't already (until they do anything but shoot) and everyone gets precision shots in the first turn. Could be handy if you want to force special weapons models to have to make saves and definitely handy if you combine it with Night Fighting and sit them in ruins. Anything with Ignores Cover will just ruin this formation but then it possibly would anyway. Could be good for snatching objectives quickly at the start of the game or sitting on an objective from setup.

Lucifer Armoured Task Force

This guy. This. Guy. I really want to play with this one. Tech Marine, 3-5 units of Baal or Regular Predators and 1-3 Land Raiders in your favourite flavour. Everything gets Scout and all the tanks (ALL THE TANKS) get Overcharged Engines for free. Fast Land Raiders. The possibilites for this one are immense. That gives your Land Raider Redeemer an 18" move up to the first turn and can still fire both Flamestorm Cannons and the Assault Cannon at full BS (thank you Power of the Machine Spirit)! You also have the speed to get those Predators into position for for the long shots in the first turn, or get those Baal Predators into range. It has potential this one, even if it is quite pricey in points. There is even more to this one as well. All will become clearer in the Detachments part...

Stormraven Squadron

Despite the name, there is nothing that suggests the Stormravens in this formation are a squadron as we know it in the rest of the game. This is just 2-4 Stormravens that have a nice one-per-game special rule which could be useful. At the start of a turn you nominate a target and any Stormraven that is in range and has line of sight fires all of it's remaining Stormstrike missiles at the target. Each one can then move and shoot their other weapons as normal in the same turn. Could be useful for taking out a Wraithknight or at least shaving off wounds. Combine this with the rules from Death From The Skies and this could be vicious. One bone of contention (or not, really) will be when exactly you can use this strike. It says at the beginning of your turn so really they can't do this in the second turn because moving on from reserves comes first. I am pretty sure this is a 3rd turn onwards ability. What is nice is if you have used a few of your missiles you can then save this to make sure a particular vehicle/Monstrous or Gargantuan Creature at a crucial point. It does mean you are risking those ravens being blown out of the sky before they get chance to contribute, but, c'est la vie. If you are going to take a couple of ravens anyway, this is worth it for the extra shots.

Rapid Assault Force

1-3 of your fast movers: Assault Squad, Bike Squad, Attack Bike Squad or Land Speeder Squadron. No special rules for this one. Both this and the Fire Support Force are Auxiliary fillers basically but they are excellent for filling that slot for very little points, allowing you to max out the big powerful formations. I think these will come in very useful for that reason.

Fire Support Force

Similar to the above but this is your hard hitters. 1-3 Devastator Squads, Vindicator Squadrons or Whirlwind Squadrons. The Vindicators getting the big blast might mean this gets taken as the Auxiliary a fair bit by people. If I ever get 3 of them, I will be trying that.

Detachments

Moving on to the Detachments, there are 2 in Angel's Blade. Similar to codices that have come through in the last year or two, these are the Blood Angel's 'Decurion' detachments.

Angel's Blade Strike Force

The first of the detachments is for use with the mainstream of the Blood Angels. Minimum is 1 Core and 1 Auxiliary with an optional upto 5 Command formations. The Death Company Strike Force is an Auxiliary for this one. If you fill that, you get a trait re-roll (as always) and Red Thirst for the whole force. This is actually better than the Baal Strike Force etc, because it gives Red Thirst with more flexibility. The Archangels Demi-Company, for instance, never had Red Thirst. It's a shame that the Battle Demi-Company doesn't get a unique special rule but it does mean you can take it on it's own and still have Red Thirst. I actually think the lack of transports is probably a sensible choice because of the overcharged engines. Those Razorbacks and Rhinos would be even better than the C:SM and we simply can't have that! Objective Secured would have been nice but I think this book is trying to drive BAs towards what they should be doing, fluffwise. Smashing skulls. You don't need ObSec if you are doing a good job of assaulting squads off objectives. That's my theory anyway. It will need some serious hours play testing but I don't see this being up their with the best 'Decurions' available at the moment. This detachment also get's Zealot for any squads that drop below half their starting number. So you are going to want to be taking 10 man squads in that Demi-Company to make this even remotely useful.

Lost Brotherhood Strike Force

This is the second detachment and this is the Death Company focused one. It has it's own Command formation which is 1-3 of Astorath, Lemartes or a Death Company Chaplain. Not really worth mentioning in the formations yesterday, as it's just a way to get those guys into your force. The detachment has a minimum of 1 Core and 1 Command with an optional upto 5 Auxiliary which can be chosen from the Archangels Orbital Intervention Force, 10th Company Ambush Force, Lucifer Armoured Task Force, Stormraven Squadron or Rapid Assault Force. This also gives the trait re-roll and Red Thirst but also confers a free 6" move that isn't a Scout, immediately after setup. I think this is another rule that is potentially very powerful as it is now giving your Death Company with jump packs a potential of 30" in the first turn with a charge or 24" with a re-rollable charge! This is giving them the chance to do what they do best. Rip 'n' tear. But wait. There's more. That move applies to every unit in the force including, you guessed it, your scouting fast tanks! So your Land Raiders are potentially half way across the table before the first turn even begins. You now can cross the table 24" and fire 3 weapons at full BS. It's incredibly strong for a Land Raider Redeemer as you can get them where they can burn stuff in the first turn. Or your bike squads or Land Speeders or many other things. Doesn't apply to anything arriving from reserve unfortunately but there are big possibilities with this one all the same.

Well, that's all the formations and both detachments. Check out the next post when I will talk about new Warlord Traits, Relics and my general thoughts about a couple of lists I want to try.

Angel's Blade Review Part 2: Formations and Detachments

Hello again! Time for part 2 of the review. This time I will run through the new (and not so new) formations from between the covers of Angel's Blade. Strap yourselves in, there's a lot to get through, so this will be a two-parter!

Formations

There are 12 formations in Angel's Blade, 9 of them new. As you've no doubt come to expect, these are categorised into Command, Core and Auxiliary formations for the larger detachments (more on that later). The bias seems to be slightly towards assault, which pleases me fluffwise, but it remains to be seen whether they work out well in games. There are also one or two formations that make use of the changes to the vehicles that Blood Angels can take. Here's the list:

Command

Golden Host

This one has certainly piqued my interest and I will definitely be trying it. It consists of Dante or The Sanguinor plus between 2 and 5 squads of Sanguinary Guard. Firstly, you can choose which turn they arrive from turn 2 onwards with no rolling and you can re-roll the scatter for their Deep Strike arrival and they must arrive together. Secondly, and this could be a biggy, they can make a disordered charge after arriving. The latter is certainly going to make them a threat when combined with the former and there are actually benefits to taking The Sanguinor (at last) as well as Dante.

• If you take Dante, you can put him in a squad with the banner and negate the lost charge attack bonus. You also can use his warlord trait to reduce that re-rollable scatter to just D6" which is rather nice. Plus Dante is just an excellent character in general. Precision pain train!
• If you take The Sanguinor, you partly negate the disordered charge for the rest of the Sanguinary Guard squads in the formation, as long as you keep them fairly tight to him as he confers the +1 Attack regardless of the charge being disordered. Sadly, he still can't join squads, but he can at least help out his golden buddies.

More interestingly and possibly overlooked at first glance is the fact you can pick when your rip and tear units arrive. This, for me at least, could take them from "I hope they survive" to "Where do I need these bad asses?". I look forward to seeing if this is useful. 10/10 for cool though.

Leaders of the Angelic Host

Straightforward this one. One character, optional Command Squad, optional Stormraven. The character can be a Terminator Captain, Captain Tycho, a Librarian, Mephiston, a Sanguinary Priest or Brother Corbulo. A simple way to get HQs into your force and, as you will see, you can fit a good few in! Strangely, like every other formation, Captain Karlaen is not an option for this, despite being mentioned several times in the fluff of the book. It almost feels like they want to try and remove Karlaen as a playable character and have him as a generic Terminator Captain that you can call Karlaen. I will probably bring this point up at least 20 more times before the review is done! No special rules for this formation, it's a plain command slot filler.

Chapter Ancients

They didn't give BAs Dreadnought Squads (Squadrons?) but this formation makes up for that a bit. You can take 3 to 5 of any flavour of Dreadnought. This includes regular Dreadnoughts, Furioso and even Librarian flavoured coffin robots. Yeah, that's right, you can take 5 Librarian Dreadnoughts as a formation. Okay, so that's at least 750 points but who is going to know where to start with that? I won't be taking 5 Librarian Dreads. The special rule for this formation is situational but nice. Once per battle you can shoot or pile in and attack in the movement phase instead of moving. You then get to do your normal shooting or combat as well. Nice to add the chance of clearing up a combat or taking extra shots at that vehicle or whatever. Moreover these dreadnoughts are seperate and don't suffer from having to keep coherency or massed fire at the 'unit' so are a bit harder to kill off. Nice, but I'm not sure how useful this will be.

Core

Battle Demi-Company

The same as the Blooded  Demi-Company from Shield of Baal: Exterminatus with the exception that you can take a Bike Squad, Attack Bike Squad or unit of Land Speeders instead of the Assault Squad. Gets exactly the same special rules as the BDC as well: re-roll the warlord trait and Red Thirst which gives +1 Initiative on the charge. This is strange because the detachment also bestows Red Thirst, and as much as I would like a double Initiative boost, this does not stack. You can't be double thirsty. Seems a tad lazy but there are other benefits to taking the detachment. We're getting to that. So this is the standard Captain or Chaplain, Command Squad (if you take the Captain), 3 Tactical Squads, Assault/Bikes/Attack Bikes/Land Speeders, Devastator Squad, Dreadnought and a Furioso Dreadnought (if you take the Chaplain). No changes here.

Archangels Demi-Company

The formation of the same name from Exterminatus but you can't use the Archangels Warlord Traits (you do get a re-roll on the Codex: Blood Angels traits though) and you get to roll for reserves FROM THE FIRST TURN. Useful in Maelstrom games when you want to snatch those first few objectives or if you want to null deploy with some drop pods. Maybe a bit risky but there is only a minute chance you will fluff the roll and the re-roll for every single unit. Alpha strike is go with this one. Cheap version is to take stock Sternguard with drop pods or Razorbacks. Not sure if you can start rolling for the second half of your drop pods from turn 1. Pretty sure you would still be turn 2 for those. Let me know what you think in the comments. Expensive version you take Terminators for face smashing goodness, sprinkled with Heavy Flamers, Assault Cannons or Cyclones for shooting fun. Stubborn also included for extra relentlessness, but not Relentless (har har).

Death Company Strike Force

This is both a Core choice and an Auxiliary, depending on the detachment, so I'm putting it here. This one I am excited to have a play with. The new Death Company Chaplain is joined by 3 Death Company Squads and 1-3 DC Dreads. Any DC squad or Dread with 12" of the Chaplain get's an extra attack. This is insanely good. Death Company are already good at the rip 'n' tear but this just makes them murderous. Take Bolt Pistols in your squads and you get 6 attacks per model on the charge. Even better, take Bolters and get to Rapid Fire then charge and get 5 attacks each. There are not many infantry units that won't be a pink mist after that kind of crazy rolling. The icing on that cake is that thanks to GW getting it together and giving BA Dreads the attacks they deserve, you could be looking at 9 S10 AP2 Shred attacks on the charge if you take Blood Talons (and you should). You can also take Stormravens as dedicated transports so you have a few options for delivering the black-armoured maniacs.

Right, that will do for tonight. I will cover the Auxiliaries and the Detachment in tomorrow's post.

Stay tuned!

Angel's Blade Review Part 1: Unit Updates

So Angel's Blade, the Blood Angels part of the new Black Crusade supplements was officially released today, and Blood Angels being my main army, I had to get my hands on the limited edition version. So here's a brief review of what has changed in terms of individual units. Over the next few days I will also write about formations, gear and rules changes and my initial thoughts on the updates as a whole and then a small piece about the limited edition.

Read on to see what's changed!

Vehicles

So one of the big changes to units in Angel's Blade is the changes to vehicles. Firstly is the addition of the ability to take Predators, Vindicators and Whirlwinds in squadrons as in Codex Adeptus Astartes: Space Marines (C:SM from here on out because that's a lot to type each time), and like C:SM, the vehicle squadrons gain special rules like Linebreaker Bombardment for Vindicators, Killshot for Predators etc. Along with this Baal Predators can also be taken in squadrons and get to re-roll 1s to wound which is pretty nice and Land Speeder squadrons with 3 or more Land Speeders can move an extra 6" when moving flat out.

Dreadnoughts can't be taken in squads per se, but they can be taken in a formation which means they don't have to maintain coherence and they gain a nice once per battle special rule. More on that in the formations review though.

Interesting thought about these squadrons is that they all have access to Overcharged Engines as well which potentially makes them more powerful than their C:SM counterparts. Manoeuvrability is always good to have.

Characters

There are two main changes to characters in the book. First is addition of the Terminator Captain as opposed to the Codex: Blood Angels (C:BA) Captain who can take Terminator Armour as an option. The Terminator Captain is 135pts base and comes with Storm Bolter, Thunder hammer and Iron Halo as standard which means it works out exactly the same cost as a similarly equipped Captain from the Codex. There seems to be two reasons for doing this. Firstly, there are one or two formations that call specifically for a Terminator Captain so this makes it slightly easier (maybe) to know what to drop into the formation and secondly because it gives the Terminator Captain the option to swap out the Thunder hammer for Captain Karlaen's Hammer of Baal Relic which has been added as an extra piece of wargear. Oddly, Karlaen is referenced throughout the book but at no point is there an option to take him in formations and the like which is a shame because Counter Attack can be handy from time to time.

The second change is the addition of a proper Death Company Chaplain. This is basically a jump pack Chaplain with an Inferno Pistol that costs 125pts. It's 5 pts more expensive than the C:BA equivalent but you get the Rites of Blood special rule. Guess what. Re-roll to wound is back. Him and his unit on the turn he charged. That's re-roll to hit and to wound at charge time back in the fray. You have been missed. He also gets access to new Death Company wargear if taken in certain formations but more on that in another post. Overall this guy will probably be making it into plenty of my lists and GW were helpful in releasing a lovely model a while back which was perfectly equipped to be the new DC Chaplain. Funny eh?

Other Units

Assault squads got a mildly annoying update. On the one hand they now have access to the Eviscerator for vehicle rip n' tear but they also removed the jump packs (you have to add them like C:SM), dropped the price to 70pts but took away the free transports. I'm not sure many BA players wanted this. Yes, you can now take those melta squads for 15 base points cheaper but you are paying for transports! A free Rhino/Razorback/Drop Pod was well worth the 15 point tax. Sad times in my opinion.

Devastator squads also got updated and as far as I can tell the changes were the addition of the Grav Cannon and Grav Amp and the Armorium Cherub. The Cherub is the same 5 point deal from C:SM and probably worth it for that crucial one-model twin linked at a vital point. The Grav Cannon and Amp is a big deal and moves the BAs closer to being able to deal with the pesky Monstrous and Gargantuan Creatures. Previously there was only access to Grav via the Grav Gun and Grav Pistol or the Space Marine Command Tanks if you are lucky enough to get to Warhammer World. Now we can drop pod those Grav Devastators in and do what the other Chapters do. Wreck face. It's fair to say that opinion is polarised on Grav at the moment; if you have it and use it, you love it, if you come up against it, you generally hate it; but BAs needed something to make Wraithknights and Tau suits sweat a bit more.

What Blood Angels Didn't Get

So if you were expecting Centurions, Stormtalons, Stormhawks, Thunderfire Cannons, Ironclad or Venerable Dreadnoughts, Land Speeder Storm or Typhoon, Hunters or Stalkers, then you will be disappointed. Did Blood Angels need them? Competitively, yes. In the tournament scene access to some of these things would see Blood Angels on a more even footing with other Space Marine Chapters. I have lamented the lack of some of these units many times in the past, but I realised it would also lose the character of the Chapter. If you want to win tournaments then you will probably gravitate to the armies that are very good at taking all comers. I like fluff and more and more I am moving towards playing what is 'cool' rather than what is optimised. Blood Angels may not be consistently performing well in tournaments after this update but they certainly are still awesome and I look forward to testing out all the new formations and rules!

Seamless link!

Next up I will go through the new formations and detachments. Check back tomorrow to see what we got!

The Angels Are Coming!

Hello again blog readership!

It has been a long hiatus since my last post. I haven't had a great deal to post about hobby wise. Until now.

That's right. Blood Angels are getting an update! The second part of the new Black Crusade supplement, Angel's Blade, is released on Saturday and to say I am excited is an understatement. Caveat right here. I realise the rumours about the contents are already circulating and it looks as if the Sons of Sanguinius have been slightly left out in the cold again, but I couldn't care less because it's still an improvement.

There are various things rumoured (probably true) to be coming but we know for a fact is this:

• 9 new formations
• 2 new detachments
• updates to Devastator and Assault Squads
• vehicle squadrons
• new Death Company relics

This is all common knowledge from GW's website. Also there are a number of box sets and one-click bundles that suggest they may be formations from the book. I don't want to speculate any further because it's only a couple of days until we know for sure. I have the limited edition of the book on the way so expect a full review from me, along with how it will affect my lists, starting Saturday!

Until then, here's a photo of the elite of my Blood Angels mustering (being built and painted) for war!

Lemartes, Astorath, Dante and...other Chaplain standing at the head of the neatly arranged and unpainted Sanguinary Guard and Death Company

Terrain - 40K Outpost (Confessions of a 40K Addict Template)

As promised, here is the finished item. The template downloaded from Confessions of a 40K Addict (templates here) is excellent. I printed it a larger size to make a landing pad sort of affair. The only adjustment I had to make is 2 layers of foamboard for the base/floor to build it up so that Space Marines didn't have to go on tiptoes to see over the wall! Check out the photo and don't forget to head over to 40K Addict and check out Dave's excellent blog.

Fire Raptor Gunship Part 3 - Cleaning With Meaning

Hi folks, me again!

Just a quick post this morning to continue the Fire Raptor work in progress. Today: cleaning.

For those of you that don't know, Forgeworld resin models (and Finecast as well as it happens) should always be cleaned before you attempt to assemble them. The reason for this is to do with the resin casting process. When Forging these spectacular miniatures (see what I did there?), A release agent is applied to the mold before the resin is added. This acts like a lubricant so that the resin doesn't adhere to the mold and to make it easier to removed. The problem with this is that it can (and does) leave a residue on the resin which also stops paint and glue adhering to the model further down the line. So that's why we clean them.

The good news is it's very simple. Just take a bowl of cool water (remember the straightening? Don't want to undo that work) and some ordinary washing up liquid (dish soap) and an old tooth brush and give it a good scrub. Don't go at it so hard that you manage to damage the details (although I've never managed this myself) but make sure you give every little corner of the resin a thorough clean. That should ensure you have no issues with gluing or painting.

And that's it. Apologies for the lack of photos on this step (I may have some but I will have to dig for them) but it's very straight forward and doesn't really need a visual aid!

My Fire Raptor is now ready for assembly and undercoating. That post will be coming very soon (I'll let you in on a secret. I've already done those steps!)

Check backs soon!

List Writing 750pts - Blood Angels Part 2

Happy weekend everyone!

Here we go again with another 750 point Blood Angels list. This is a fairly big departure from the previous Terminator based list. This time we are running fast...

Blood Angels Combined Arms Detachment - 750pts

HQ
Sanguinary Priest - 66pts
   Blood Chalice, Narthecium, Chainsword, Frag and Krak Grenades
   +Auspex
   +Additional Weapon - Bolt Pistol

Troops
Tactical Squad - 170pts
   4x Tactical Marine
      Boltguns, Frag and Krak Grenades
      +Heavy Flamer
   Tactical Seargeant
      Bolt Pistol, Boltgun
   +Razorback - Smoke Launchers, Overcharged Engines
      +Lascannon and Twin Linked Plasma Gun
      +Stormbolter

Tactical Squad - 205pts
   4x Tactical Marine
      Boltguns, Frag and Krak Grenades
      +Grav Gun
   Tactical Seargeant
      +Grav Pistol
      +Power Sword
   +Razorback - Smoke Launchers, Overcharged Engines
      +Lascannon and Twin Linked Plasma Gun
      +Stormbolter

Fast Attack
Bike Squad - 84pts
   3x Space Marine Bike
      Twin Linked Boltgun, Frag and Krak Grenades
   Space Marine Bike Sergeant
      Bolt Pistol, Twin Linked Boltgun

Heavy Support
Fire Raptor Gunship - 225pts
   4x Stormstrike Missiles, Twin Linked Avenger Bolt Cannon, 2x Twin Linked Autocannons

So straight off you can see this is meant to be a force that is going places. Everything in this army is mobile and designed to snatch objectives or move quickly to react to threats. With the ability to Deep Strike the Fire Raptor in a pinch, and otherwise arrive spitting hot, flaming death at MEQ or worse, it is a fun include for me. I could save a few points by taking a Stormraven instead, but for 25 points I am getting an extra hull point, Strafing Run, Deep Strike and some interesting weapons. The Tactical Squads with RBs is a no-brainer for me in this kind of set up frankly. Two 24" moving Obsec transports that can then dump their squads next turn but still maintain ObSec is just good stuff for Maelstrom games. A little bit paper thin on the armour but packing the punch of a Predator. They will prove to be a headache or at worst, a decent distraction. The Sang Priest is the cheapest HQ I can take and yet serves a good function, if only for Feel No Shame and +1WS (although I hope not to see too much assault with this one, hence the Auspex and CAD rather than a Baal Strike Force. Every fibre of my sanguinary sensibilities says fisticuffs but I am fighting the urge in the current meta.)

There will be some of you who will probably be wondering why I have taken expensive Grav in one of the squads.Good question! It's purely because I am a stickler for WYSIWYG, and they are modelled with Grav. Plus you never know when Grav might come in handy. I may swap those out for a Flamer/Hand Flamer but we'll see.

The sharp-eyed amongst you may have spotted the Bike Sergeant with a Power Weapon and that one of the Razorbacks is actually a Baal Predator with a Forgeworld turret. Well spotted! Yes the Bike Sergeant is driving my O.C.D. crazy but hey ho, and I may buy another Razorback before June, but the Baal Pred makes an excellent stand in.

You may have also noticed the 'lots to paint' motif still running through these armies. Again, well spotted you clever lot! That's why I need to choose my army soon and get on with it!

Let me know what you think of this one again. Far more manoeuvrable than the the last list but also easier to kill. Also, Stormraven or Fire Raptor? (Hint, I'd really like to take the Fire Raptor!)

List Writing 750pts - Blood Angels

Good morning internet land!

It's time for a bit or list analysis. Coming up at the start of June I am taking part in Alex Brown's Double Trouble tournament (details here. Also make sure you check out the rest of Alex's blog From The Fang. It's far superior to mine!). The basis of the tournament is randomly drawn, 1500pt pairs (750pts each), so I thought it was high time I decided what to take and get it painted.

So here's my first list for your perusal. I like to call this the Deep Strike Menace.

Blood Angels Archangels Strike Force - 750pts

HQ

Terminator Chaplain - 150pts

Storm bolter, Crozius Arcanum
+Teleport Homer
+Melta Bombs
+Veritas Vitae

Elites
Furioso Dreadnought - 160pts
Power Fists, Meltagun, Stormbolter, Magna-grapple
+Drop Pod

Terminator Assault Squad - 225 pts
Thunder Hammers, Storm Shields

Terminator Squad - 215 pts
Storm Bolters, Power Fists, Power Sword (sgt)
+Chainfist
+Heavy Flamer

The theory behind this list is a semi alpha strike list. The Archangels Strike Force 'formation' (really more of a detachment) has the benefit of scattering D6" less when deep striking, and get a re-roll for reserves. This will give me a guaranteed 6" scattering pod turn one and almost guarantees 2 deep striking termies turn 2 *if I choose to deep strike*.  If my partner for a particular game brings a shooty list, this lot can deep strike and take objectives/cause confusion/split the enemy fire. Deep striking the thunder hammers will see them wasted for a turn but they should be resilient enough to weather storm and protect the chaplain before going vehicle/MC hunting in turn 3. At very least they might force units out of cover to stay away from them and into lines of fire from the other half of the team.

If my partner for a game brings their own alpha strike setup, I will deploy the termies to weather the storm if they want to null deploy or join the strike with the furioso and drop pod before mopping up with deep striking termies.

In both cases the chaplain can roll on the Archangels Warlord Traits which are not too bad as a whole, but the ObSec for Warlord and his unit could see a unit of stormshields sitting on objectives with ObSec. Nice. The chaplain also has the Veritas Vitae which gives him a roll on the Strategic table in the BRB all of which can add another nasty edge to the force. 

So this is the first choice for my 750 army for the Double Trouble tournament. I think it's low model count is balanced by it's resilience and although not hugely mobile, it has the potential to cause havoc with deep strike. There's no flier control here at all so I would have to just largely ignore the skies and push to wipe out ground forces. Let me know what you think in the comments. More lists coming soon so keep popping back and help me figure this out!

Fire Raptor Gunship Part 2 - Straight Outta Forge World

Happy Friday everyone!

Just a short update on the Fire Raptor today. I have taken the time to straighten the resin pieces that were warped. As you can see from the first photo below, some of the parts can be fairly out of shape. It's inevitable with resin, but easily fixed. I use the hot water method but a hair dryer or a heat gun can be used (but use a heat gun with extreme care as they get far hotter than a hair dryer and can melt resin and skin with ease). As with all of these dangerous maneuvers, if you are a child, please get an adult to help you. No burns please. On we go.

So with the hot water method, what I do is use a shallow dish of some description and add boiling water with some cold added. At a guess, I'd say it was around 60 degrees centigrade, but I've never measured it. It's definitely way below boiling (how dangerous would that be?). Add the offending part to the water and make sure you have something you can retrieve it with that isn't your own digits. You only really need to leave most pieces in the water for about 15-30 seconds. Thicker parts may need a little while longer to warm up. Remove it from the water and very gently test it to see if it's flexible. Don't force it as you can snap it and I won't be held responsible.

When it's pliant enough, carefully bend it back in to the shape it should be. Some pieces will naturally start to straighten when they've been heated, Once you are happy, you can either use some cool water or just hold the part until it's cooled. Hey presto, you should have a resin part that's back to how it should be.

You can see below that I have done a dry fit of the main fuselage to make sure it will glue correctly. It's only held together with weak elastic bands so I'm pretty confident it will glue quite well.

Next up is the cleaning (even though I said that was next last time)

Fire Raptor Gunship Part 1 - Turkey With All The Trimmings

Hello again! As promised, here is the first part of the Fire Raptor series. In this post I will quickly go over the trimming process. There's plenty of it on this one.

First up, the tools I am using.

Very straight forward really. A selection of knives in varying sizes. I don't have a modelling saw (and I am not patient enough to get hold of one) so I have a large knife for the larger trimming tasks, and a couple of smaller ones for a bit more finesse. For the love of the Emprah, if you are a child or a particularly clumsy person, get someone slightly more adult to help you with sharp knives. Ten fingers are much easier to work with than nine. Along with the knives I am just using the two pairs of clippers. The red handled ones are not very delicate but perfect for the big resin parts. There's also a pair of Citadel clippers for accurate clipping.

And here's the mass of resin you will have to work through.

It doesn't take too long really, but take your time so you don't mess it up. Using knives, I have had to shave away extra resin carefully to get it nice and flat while not gouging into the model. You can see this in the two photos below.

Here's the resin clipped and tidied, back in the bags ready to be cleaned.

Next it's on to the plastic parts.

The plastic sections of the Fire Raptor are basically quarter of the Stormraven kit. I've got a small problem with the canopy bars being miscast but I've e-mailed Forge World and no doubt they will sort that out for me. Here's the clipped plastic parts of the Gunship.

And finally, below are the left over resin bits and the mess I swiftly cleaned up. I should be able to make some tank trap scenery and the like from these. After all, there's enough of it!

Next up is the cleaning of the resin. Stay tuned for part 2!

New Project - Blood Angels Fire Raptor Gunship

Hey folks.

So yesterday we both went off to Warhammer World for (half) a visit (thanks M6). While there I may have picked up this little project to add to the list (probably quite near the top of the list.)

As you can see, it's half a Stormraven and about 3 metric tonnes of resin.

I intend to do a fairly detailed walk through of the build and painting, with the hope that it might help a few people out. It has a reputation for being an absolute sod to build and yet there doesn't seem to be much help out there in internetville. I will go through everything from trimming, straightening and washing the resin to building, priming and painting, complete with any pitfalls I come across.

I am far too excited about getting started on this so expect the next post soon!

The Armies Part 1: Ian's Blood Angels

So, as promised I am going to start running through all of the hobby projects I've got on the go and first up is my Sons of Sanguinius; The Blood Angels.

I've been a Blood Angels collector/player ever since I started in the hobby, WAY back in the 90's, in the days of second edition 40K. No matter where I've strayed I always have BAs on the go. They are my favourite Spess Muhreens, plain and simple.

Above is most of my current collection. Everything on the left is still in various stages of nearly painted, partly painted or barely started. The few models on the right are the ones I consider done. As you can see, I have plenty to get on with.

1 - Obviously the main man himself, the head honcho, the grand fromage himself, Dante, complete with a retinue of 10 Sanguinary Guard.

2 - Here we have a Gamesday Blood Angels Captain, Mephiston and Corbulo. This Mephiston is Finecast but I also have a metal version from way back in the 90s (my own original one), but for some reason it refuses to hold on to paint so I had to pick up the second one to use in games.

3 - Captain Karlaen and Squad Alphaeus from the Deathstorm box along with 5 Assault Termintors with Stormshields and Thunderhammers. Just a small part of the First Company. I may add few bits more because invuls are severely lacking from this force.

4 - 15 Death Company; 10 with jump packs, 5 without. I also have 5 more unbuilt which will likely be regular foot troops with bolters as well. 5 of the jump packs are assembled as Raphen's Death Company from Deathstorm because they are the BAD-ASSEST and MOST EXPENSIVE troop choice ever, but perfect for those DC themed armies.

5 - Command Tanks, straight outta Wammer World. These things are a wild card to say the least. I've customised them with some Forge World BA doors and a few extra BA bits I had lying around. They've been vamped. Get it? VAMPED. Never mind.

6 -  The small collection of painted models. Stormraven, optimistically magnetised despite the fact 9 times out of 8 I take the same load out. There is also a Sanguinary Priest (absolute auto include for any BA force because you will take one at some point), a single Tactical marine from the squad to the left and the obligatory Terminator Librarian for throwing various BLOOD related magicks around. I am quite proud of that paint job. I'll share some photos of it at some point.

I also have a couple of squads of second ed marines in various stages of stripping to be painted. I mostly keep them for nostalgia. I doubt they will see table time now but they are classics and will be getting some love. Again, pictures in future hopefully.

So that's my Blood Angels. Still to come are my Skitarii, Imperial Knight and a small contingent of Crimson Fists and of course, the new project: Tau!