Aegis Defence Line

The Kit: I was pleasantly surprised when I opened up the Aegis Defence line by the fact that apart from the gun emplacement, all the sections were just singular solid pieces of plastic, so no need for assembly and very little chance of breakage. The downside is that you only get the quad gun. If you wanted to build an icarus lascannon you'll have to carv it out of plasticard or give up and throw the kit back at your LGS manager's face while howling in dispair.

Painting: Do you have a pot of Leadbelcher silver and a big fat brush? Then you're pretty much there already. To give it a little bit more variance of colour I coated it in devlan mud (or whatever it's called now) and then splotchily dabbed red, blue and green wash over different bits of it. Finally I slapped black soot weathering powder on it and the bottom edges had muddy-brown weathering powder applied to make it look like it had got shit all over it from the battlefield.

Lastly I got various bits of green vegetation looking stuff (I think the stuff I bought is really supposed to be used for scenery on model train sets or something) and glued them into the nooks and crannies to make it look like the defence line had been sat in a warzone of a long grinding campaign and so stuff had started to grow on it.

Gaming: I measured the defence line to be slightly over 28" long when you stretch it out. It seems you'll be able to get the required 25% of an infantry model obscured by it, even from a flyer's point of view as long as the model is in base contact with it. Terminator sized models may find it problematic to get cover saves reliably from it, but from a level view they will be fine.

However, it's difficult to get a rhino sized model a cover save from it and pretty much impossible from an elevated POV (i.e. a flyer's POV). The situation is even worse for dreadnoughts, though again, still possible.

Finally, it's worth mentioning the effectiveness of the 50pt quad-gun. My shaky mathhammer tells me that if fired by a BS 4 model, it should strip around 1 hullpoint from an armour 12 flyer or around 0.8 hullpoints if the flyer takes a jink save. The chances of it getting an explodes result on such a model are less than 1 in 10.

Chaos Rumours

Quote:

–What will be Released–

We will know if GW has changed policy. This codex will reveal if GW has abandoned the wave method to model release with a new codex or if they have stopped caring and show you all the new models even if they don’t come out right away.

Finecast: Dark Apostle, Warsmith, New Lord, Oblits, All Old Special Characters not updated already

New Plastic: Dragon, Raptors, Dreadnaught, Demon Engine, Assault Oblits, Chosen

Upgrade Packs: Plague Marines, 1k Sons, Emperor’s Children

–General Changes–

Almost all of the old units are either the same point cost or have gotten cheaper. With the notable exceptions of Chosen, Terminators, Defilers getting more expensive. The notable cheaper ones being basic CSM, Oblits, Zerkers, The CSM is really an upgrade codex, while things have gotten cheaper you will be hard pressed to keep your units inexpensive with all the wargear you can add. The cheaper units doesn’t come without a cost as well, almost all units saw a LD drop. Also you will start to see a lot of the new USRs in the CSM book.

–What has stayed the Same–

The Cult units are the same in stats and basic wargear. No new Spacial Characters. Abbadon is still the only one with Eternal Warrior. Demon Weapons still can kill you. The Dreadnaught is still Crazy. The unit sizes have stayed the same as well as the wargear options found in the old codex; e.g. Chosen can still get a butt load special weapons.

Interesting points from the GW Open Day

Quote:

· 6th Edition was actually finished 6 months ago

· They thought long and hard about using a points system similar to WHFB instead of FOC’s but it would have been to difficult as there was so much emphasis on FOC's in the Codex’s. New players would have found it too confusing.

· The reason that charges are not allowed on Deep Strike is to prevent the utter predictability of mega-hard units appearing anywhere and destroying whatever they want every game. There was a possible hint about Genestealers being able to do this at some point in the future!

· The new edition nerf’s some units and provides buff’s to others. The new Codex’s will rebalance incidents where this is too extreme.

· One guy complained that the new rules were adding unnecessary complexity (e.g loads of new universal special rules). Ward argued that it’s best to keep lots of the rules universal in the main rulebook. New codex’s can then have units with a variety of the SR’s and opponents will know exactly what to expect. He did caveat this though by saying that USR’s would still apply to certain characters in Codex’s.

I spoke to Matt Ward in person after the seminar and I really must emphasise that he’s a really nice, polite and engaging fellow who doesn't deserve the flak he gets from some members of the community. He deserves praise for his role in bringing us 6th edition. He explained that rule setting is always going to be ‘a moving target’ and what works for one person is going to upset another. He said that there were many things that were out of his hands because business decisions have to be taken into account when developing game systems and rules. A couple of key points that came out of that conversation:

· Flak Missiles are currently unavailable to all armies, but we’ll soon see them filtering through into the game.

· We can expect a new FAQ before the end of the summer.

· He spoke about Tyranids being a tad difficult to work with as they have (in the past) been a little one dimensional (i.e charge everyone into CC). He made a point about there being no vehicle rules in the Tyranid army and that its monsterous creatures need to be able to kill Daemon Princes so how do you balance it out? We shall see!

I spoke to Jervis for a long time about ‘associative and disassocaitive’ rules but I think I’ve covered that off.

Next I spoke to Phil Kelly (the dude) who again is a really sound guy (and by the way - he isn't leaving GW).

Phil said that there are currently 6 ‘projects’ on the go for 40k. I think he was referring to Codex’s. I asked him about Tyranids too and he said (rather excitedly) that he has ‘some really great ideas up his sleeve’ for the Nids. Sounds encouraging! It's worth noting that everyone I spoke to in the design team understands the need for Nids to get a boost.

He also shared his personal opinion on 5th edition and said (with the greatest of respect) that Alessio Cavorte seemed to want to make the game more competitive and simplified. He thought that this made the game a little to flat and generic in its function (which I personally agreed with). His words were that it ‘lost its craziness’. 6th has therefore moved to address this and give more feel and character to the units and the game as a whole. It does seem to be a consensus amongst GW staff that 2nd was a great edition in many ways (although obviously broken in others).

One other exciting thing that he mentioned was the release of expansions. He said that one example of an idea floating around is the introduction of relic’s which could be (for example) wargear from the Horus Heresry era, usable in today's battles. Possibly a new book or expansion but still just an idea at the moment.

Phil said that the quality of the new Codex’s far surpasses the paperback’s of 5th and beyond (I wonder how many are finished!?)

Lastly I spoke to Robin Cruddace. I asked him about GW’s release schedule and to my utter amazement, he said that they were aiming for some sort of release each month. Be it a codex or some sort of expansion. I would be surprised if this were true!

He said that there would most likely need to be a larger number of expansions between now and 4 years time so that you don’t reach a point where all codex’s for 6th are released with 2 years still to go before the next cycle. Take that how you will!

So there we have it folks. A very enjoyable day indeed – and most insightful!

Deathwing Storm Eagle Kit-bash/Conversion for 6th Edition Dark Angels

My storm eagle project has been on hold for a couple of months. I think at that time, I wanted my conversion to be all encompassing filling the roles of both storm raven and storm eagle. After studying the design of the thunder hawk, I wanted my storm eagle to derive of the same design as much as possible. Obviously the hull has been extended to match the forgeworld version. Since the air intake has been moved towards the rear, I used the forgeworld Damocles pattern rhino’s top hatch/sensors to bridge in the gap. I’ve always thought the servitor mounted turret from the storm raven made the flyer appear a bit bulbous for my liking. The boom of the aircraft has been placed on top of the rear hull to connect the profile lines of the vengeance missile launcher. The main wings have also been reversed to give it a sleeker feel. The lascannons from my storm talons have been modified to fit into the missile housings from the original storm raven kit. Also, the front wings under the cockpit have been added to mimic those found on the thunder hawk predecessor. The front light housings have been left unassembled as those will be embedded with LED’s. All major structural mods have been done. I will continue to add dark angels details and bling as I paint. The storm eagle was base coated black followed by an airbrushed layer of hull red as a foundation tone. Bleached bone was then airbrushed on top as the mid-tone. Panel lines were than picked out with devlan mud wash. I will proceed with highlights, other primary colors and battle damage soon. Thanks for viewing guys!

Ravenwing Bikers

Hi again.... so before my trip to Toronto, I wanted to paint two more regular Ravenwing bikers to complete my two squadrons of six bikers + Attack Bike. The original bikers were painted in 2000 and given the cooler RW upgrade sprues and simply better technique... I'm quite proud of these dudes... hope you like!

Final 40K 5th edition battle... in Toronto

Hi folks.... was back in Toronto for the last two weeks for my cousin's wedding so brought my Dark Angels for a game w/ the manager at GW Langstaff. Great guy, he fielded a very nicely painted IG army.... we played pitched battle and kill points.... managed to pull off a 7-5 win at the end of the 6th.... here's so pictures of the BR.... enjoy!

Ethrion's Thousand Sons

 

  

6th Ed, The friendly gamers edition???

So as some of you know I seem to have broken 6th ed already with my flying Necron army... sorry about that (details of the list and a tactica to follow after the tournament ;-).
However it got me thinking.  Last night I arranged a battle with a friend and the first thing he said was, "You aren't bringing any fliers right?"  I laughed, agreed and everything seems cool, but I realised that although 6th ed is in its infancy, already IG and Necron flier builds are very strong as very little else can field as many fliers as we can or mount any kind of genuinely effect form of defence against them.  That means we have to discuss the battle before we fight it.  Certainly I wouldn't bring the flying croissants of doom against a friend without warning them. 

We need to discuss limitations, list builds and strategies before we begin a fight.  I like that, its almost as though Games Workshop have built an edition that pushes you towards that communal wargamers attitude that they seem to want to cultivate in us and away from WAAC players with erectile dysfunction (a little wargamer social engineering if you will!)

Down with competitive play and hurrah for two guys hanging out and having fun together (stop sniggering at the back!)

I know it is early to make a statement like that and I'm sure some you will scream about me excusing bad balance in the game but here we are...
and I like where we are...
but then I would, I play broken Necrons :-D

What do you guys think?
Early thoughts on the edition, better or worse?  All discussion is welcome...

Bridging Painting Standards for 6th edition 40k - Dark Angels Ravenwing

A few years ago I bought some painted ravenwing from a friend. At that time, I had first really seriously gotten into warhammer and had no conceptualization of how to paint minis. After I learned a few new tricks, I decided to "update" the existing paintjob to the standard I normally do my models for a coherent look. Since these models are pre-painted to the primary colors already, its a perfect canvas to begin with! I appled hightlights to define the black contours, picked out the red weapons/casings to match my army along with the boltun metal pauldron edges also to match the existing look. I've got to say with the already great detail which emphasized on display screens and buttons. Wear and tear damage also added, I wanted these bikes to look dirtied and put to use. I think the newly added paint-job update brought out a depth of field for these models. Thanks for viewing!

40K starter set leaked

From Warseer:

Dark Angels:

Captain Balthasar: w/ Power Armour, Power sword, Combi-Plasma, Frag & Krak grenades

Librarian Termiel(?): w/ Power Armour, Bolt Pistol, Force Weapon, Frag & Krak grenades

Deathwing Squad Balachar(?): Sergeant w/ Storm Bolter & Power Sword, 1 w/ Assault Cannon & Power Fist, 1 w/ Storm Bolter & Chainfist and 2 w/ Storm Bolter & Power Fist

Tactical Squad Raphael: Sergeant w/ Plasma Pistol & Chainsword and 9 Marines, 1 w/ Plasma Cannon, 1 w/ Plasma Gun, 7 w/ Bolters. All with Bolt Pistol and Frag & Krak grenades

Ravenwing Squad Allian(?): Sergeant w/ Chainsword, 1 w/ Plasma Gun and 1 w/ Bolt Pistol. All with twin-linked bolters and Frag & Krak grenades



Chaos:

Chaos Lord: Power Armour, Power Sword, Plasma Pistol, Frag & Krak grenades

Dreadnought (Seems to be named as "Hellbeast"): Multi Melta and Power Fist

Chosen: Sergeant w/ Power Maul, Bolt Pistol & Bolter. One with a lightning claw, one with Power Axe, Bolt Pistol & Bolter, one with Power Fist, Bolt Pistol & Bolter, two with Close Combat Weapons, Bolters & Bolt Pistols. All have Power Armour, Frag & Krak grenades

Cultist squad 1: Cultist leader w/ two Close Combat Weapons and 9 Cultists, one w/ Flamer, 8 w/ Close Combat Weapons & Autopistols

Cultist squad 2: Cultist leader w/ Close Combat Weapon & (possibly) Shotgun and 9 Cultist, 1 w/ (possibly) Heavy Stubber and 8 w/ Autoguns