Army List: 1500pt Dante/Sanguinary Guard

(Sanguinary Guard from GW.com)

So I had fun with my Death Company list below. I'll proxy that sometime just for fun and see how it goes and I'll report. Otherwise, let's get back to a real list I might field. Again, I'm not set on this being the list, this is just the first in a line of test lists to come. This list is an elite jump pack army, using the Sang Guard as troop choices, so we're talking high cost, power units that are pretty efficient. I'll come out with a regular Jump Pack list with normal troops and a Mech list to utilize more of the Fast Rhino chassis'. 

• Dante
• Librarian w/ Infernus
• 2x 5-man Sanguinary Guard w/ 1 Infernus
• 2x Priests with Jump Packs (Single Elite choice)
• 2x Baal Predators with HB Sponsons
• 1x 10-man Tactical Squad (Combat Squad)
• Las-cannon, Power Fist, Melta-gun
• Razorback with TL Assault Cannon

Edit: I found my original list and added what I was missing, which was some pistols, PF, and melta-gun. The first thing that jumps out at me after making the list, is holy crap are Priests expensive, let alone put a jump pack on em or a bike. My two guys are almost as expensive as the 5-man Sang Guard squad! I was aiming to put Carbulo in here to get his special re-roll ability, but this is a tough squeeze and had to drop him. Each squad will have an attached priest and HQ, the Baals for fire support, the first combat squad of Tacticals will be in the RZB to plug any gaps or provide cover for the other 5-man combat squad that will be in the back taking pot-shots and holding home objectives.

I did some math hammer with the squads on the charge and you're looking at about 8-12 unsaved wounds per assault phase. The trick here is to kill off anything that can insta-gib your priest like a fist or power weapon but also trying not to wipe the squad, leaving you exposed. This will be what I need to work on for the most part, well, that and getting them to the target before losing guys to ranged fire. 2+/4+FNP will keep the guard up easily, but need to watch out for certain cannons or melta fire. The goal is always to stay locked in CC until the enemy phase to wipe out the unit, freeing you to assault again on your turn, or now use Dante's Hit-and-Run ability.

Other than that, I'm not sure what abilities I want to take for the Libby. I could take the Shield which will give my guys a 5+ Cover save while we're walking around, which sounds a bit tasty. And also Unleash Rage (Preferred Enemy) would be nice, but seems to be overkill, as my Guard come with master-crafted weapons, letting me re-roll 5 "to hits" anyway. The Shackle Soul could lock down units to make sure they don't run away (shooty units) or counter me by assaulting me first. Basically since he's not an Epistolary and he's already with a CC monster unit, he doesn't need to pick up the slack and can just be a support unit to keep everyone alive long enough to deliver their payload.

So there you go, my first play test list for the new Codex. Comments/Questions/Concerns are welcome. I might test it out this weekend with my friend Seth, but we'll see. Then I'll work on my other lists and get them posted as soon as I can. On a side note, I've started building my assault marines finally! (I've been using my Necron models for all previous battles) I'll post on my progress with those and a short thing on magnetizing them for different weapon selections.

Army List: 1500pt Death Company Craziness

Chibi-Death Company 

(Found on Deviant Art)

I spent the last couple days pouring over the new codex, as seen with my last post, as well as forums to help with some new rules we'll be dealing with. I knew I wanted to generate multiple army lists to choose from and play test, instead of finding one "uber" list right away and be let down by it later. The first thing that popped into my head was a crazy DC list. The list has no real staying power; it is pure killing a.k.a. brick-to-the-face. I'd play this to have fun, not be competitive. I'll go over the caveats after the list:

• Astorath
• Lemartes
• 5-man Death Company x2
• Power Weapon x3
• Death Company Dread x2
• Heavy Flamer
• Stormraven x2
• TL-MM and TL-AC

 As you can see, this is incapable of holding an objective. This list can only win KP missions and Draw in anything else. So no need to tell me the list is retarded, I know, lol, but it is technically a legal list.You'll also notice it's a mirrored list with 2 Stormravens carrying 6 models each, all jump pack bound and two identical Dreads. The ravens could start on the table, fire off all the Blood Missiles to soften up the enemy. All the units can assault from disembarking from the ravens with FC, FNP, and re-roll to hit and to wound on the charge, many of these being power weapon strikes. The DC Dreads can focus on the big stuff with their Blood Fists. The ravens can then provide fire support. Sorry, as ridiculous as it is, it comes out to a perfect 1500 and just seems so awesome. I actually came up with a second list already that is more balanced and I hope, competitive. That one is based on jump packs as well, but not falling into the point sinks of Stormravens or the craziest HQs. Finally, I'll make a mech list with lots of 5-man squads, razorbacks, and tanks.

Blood Angels Codex: Tidbits and Oddities

 (No more White Dwarf Codex!)

So I was able to get my hands on a copy of the new codex via nefarious means like a lot of other people, but worry not, I plan to buy my own edition the day it hits stores. I've read it pretty much from start to finish, including all the fluff, battles, units, etc and this will be a quick look at some of the stuff that popped out at me. I have further posts planned to focus on army lists and the like. As far as the fluff goes, kinda got tired of the constant reminders that the BA are dying out, doomed, cursed, near-heretical, etc. It's like their actively trying to kill them off, except for the fact their new range will pump GW full of cash. I still find it odd they talk up how BA are assault oriented, have the most Jump Packers around, and all this, but they still only use 2 Assault units per Company and 6 Tac squads. Just small nitpicks, sorry, moving on.

I wanted to hit on some lesser talked about points that have changed or are different from the SM codex. The first is a new/different HQ choice in the Reclusiarch. The Ultras get a normal chaplain as an HQ, but we have this guy instead and Chaplains are an Elite. For a base difference of 30 more points this guy has an extra BS, W, I, and A. Combine that with a new Liturgies of Blood rule that states that the Chaplain and Death Company he is attached to will re-roll "to-hit" and "to-wound" on the charge. He might be a good (and cheap) secondary HQ if you plan on running Astorath with two or more DC squads. For 50 points more than a normal Chaplain you can add Lemartes (as an upgrade character) who is a DC Chaplain, combining the Special Rules of the DC (FNP, FC, etc) and the rules of a Chaplain into one (LoB, Rosarius, Master-crafted Crozius). He has the Decent of Angels rule, but I'm not sure if that is conferred to a group of JP DC he is attached to. It's a shame they lost the ability to control the DC tho. :-(

Another interesting tidbit is the dual-Tycho choice. He can be a normal Captain, or be a DC HQ for the same price. For the price, I think he makes a pretty decent Captain, as he is the only HQ with Rites of Battle, giving everyone 10 leadership. He is also an IC to hide in groups, has a combi-melta that fires Sterngaurd ammo and hits like a monstrous creature in CC. The other tempting choice is his DC form, with all the bells and whistes of FC, FNP, and Fleet and the same weapons as above plus Relentless so he can fire the bolter before charging. But, he is no longer an IC so is out in the open, and loses RoB as he is dropped to Leadership 8. They really did make both choices tempting, which is a good thing. Ok, DC Tycho taking up a HQ slot is kinda crap, he should be an upgrade at that point to the DC. Quickly, Mephiston with no Invul and the loss of FNP = fail. Will always take a normal Libby over him and buy a Dread with the points I saved and get just as much CC power. Lesson learned: Non-IC HQs without a ton of saves is worthless. And if they have saves (like Sanguinor) they are cost prohibitive in anything outside a >2000pt game. Stick to the basics here.

Another unknown item, to me at least, is the new Furioso Dread weapon: the Frag Cannon (which replaces an arm/weapon). It is a peculiar weapon as a Template, S6 AP-, 2 shots with Rending. As a template, meaning short range, I rather just charge into the enemy with S10 AP2 and an extra attack. Unless someone can tell me a situation where that weapon is better than a DCCW, that cannon will never see the light of day. Also, since for me it wasn't clear during the rumor days, the Magna-Grapple is an add-on and not a replacement for anything. Still not clear if you're still getting a normal S8 shot on the dmg chart if it pens/glances, in addition to then pulling the vehicle or not. A funny thought is being able to tank-shock an enemy infantry unit with their own tanks by hauling them around with this, haha.

A final "wtf" oddity of the codex is that smoke launchers come standard on everything, but search lights are now +1pt to add. What was the reasoning behind that one? I never used the things, but that's just really weird. My next blog post will probably cover more of the new rules, and the issue of overlapping and maximizing your list to reduce wasted potential. Finally, I'll post a couple lists I will eventually test out, instead of trying to settle on just one right now. There are many combos and I think they did a good job of not making a one-shot, obvious I-Win button army. I'll go into details later on that.

Beware the Ides of March!

Shameless self-post to celebrate my birthday! I'm now 26 and still play with "figurines" haha, just kidding, I'd never call them that. Plus, I don't care. I hope 40k is still going strong when I'm 40, so when I have a decent job I can actually afford a Guard army. Seriously, how can people afford alllll those infantry and then allll that armor and now allll those fliers. And it looks like the Blood Angels decided to get their own Codex as their gift to me this year. It sure has gotten me back into following 40k again after a couple month break this winter. As much as I'm ragging on the new 'dex, I think I'll keep going forward with my build with a level head. I'm not going to give into the point-sink hype machine that is the Stormraven (btw, what's the Marine's fascination with the Raven? Ravenwing, Raven Guard, Blood Ravens, Stormraven....), the glass cannons that are the HQs, DS Raiders, etc. What I plan on doing is taking the old PDF list and rehashing it with the new stats. The list that worked while gimped with high prices and out of date rules should continue to shine. Just means we can do what we did before for cheaper, allowing us to fit in more redundancy like another Baal or Tac squad for objective holding. I'll still have "play-time" and come up with some Death Company horde lists or Lander spam, raining destruction from the skies, etc. I'd also open up some lists to maybe alter my original list to include more Death Company, which currently I only took them because they were "free". And I'm still confused on how the Dreadnought upgrade tree works, so I'll hold off on a Dread list until I get my hands on the book.

At first, I was disappointed with the loss of the Dante/Carbulo bubble of doom and was about to call it quits when the Furious Charge was limited to a 1/6 chance. But then people started crying foul on the Sanguinary Priests. This made my ears perk up, "What is this now?" It looks like they are "mini-Dante/Carbulo" bubbles that walk around with squads. It's like Death Guard and Bezerkers had an unholy union and out popped the new Blood Angels. Now this is something I can get behind. I'm not even that big a fan of FNP, it's the FC I want and I want it to be on a squad I know I can assault with, not roll a 1 on my Tac squad sitting in my deployment zone for 5 turns. Some people are crying "DOOOOOM" for an entire FNP army, but as I said, "Pa-shaw." Everyone and their mother has an army that will negate FNP on a Marine (except Necron, lol). CC armies still have power weapons and fists, ranged armies still have plasma/meltas. Now, I hear they can confer this to Termie squads as well... and maybe THAT would be a bit overpowered, but still, it would still only help when they roll at 1 on an armor roll. If they are rolling for Invul, FNP can't save them anyway, so that doesn't change much of the standard engagement rules for Termies. Either way, I'm not a fan of Termies and will not be fielding them, so I won't have to hear cries of "CHEESE" from my opponents.

Finally, here are some 40k confections I found while looking for a 40k birthday cake:

Blood Angels Impressions: not the typical fauning over new codex

The latest Blood Angels update is nearing with the release of the Advanced Orders on the official GW site and they have their own army section like the Wolves got: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/landingArmy.jsp?catId=cat400002a&rootCatGameStyle=

To air out my opinions real quick of the latest "rumors" from what people have read from the codex already in shops. Firstly, that cover art looks to be drawn by a 10-year-old, sorry. 30-man Death Company units? Come on, we're not in the 30th Millenium organized into swarming Legions here. The rage isn't even that wide spread unless you want to spin your fluff to be the most cursed chapter evar. And dreads as troops? We should get specialized CC dreads that can fleet or DS and assault... in rare numbers from elite or fast attack. Not waves of troop dreads. Librarian dreads? Sure, but anyone should be able to field those. What else... still no EW Dante... bleh. And no more bubble of doom, which I will miss. Now my tacticals will be raging with furious charge and my assaulters will be chillin out, or require me to take the Astorath model and make up my own fluff for him. Speaking of, this just reeks of more Hero-hammer and the future of the game. I liked the idea of taking captains you tooled yourself to lead *your* chapter. Now it's just the established codex chapters by name that are fighting. There's no flavor of uniqueness. That's just something that sucks in general, to the game as a whole, not just the Angels.

But, this won't stop me from building my army for the moment, or basically proxy them with my Necron. There's plenty of other good things like the updated costs, new Baal Pred, fast vehicles instead of OCE, bitchin' models etc. The one thing I'm keeping my eye on: Priests. They might give me my bubble back. I'll basically be going down to my store to flip through the 'dex as soon as it's publicly available. If it is good overall, I'll pick it up and get to work play testing. If it's fail-sauce, I might hold off until Black Templars get an update... they've been my 2nd favorite Marine army, but don't have the love right now so I've never mentioned them before.

Oh and one last gripe: Joel Schumacher-Batman-nipples