Hordes Day

Well, Saturday saw Ben host a Hordes day as our Women folk had decided to meet up for shopping and we didn't fancy that, and so Ben, Sam, Luke and I faced off with each of the main Hordes forces represented.

The humble Chainsword.

The humble Chainsword. This, ladies and gentleman is the preserve of those of the 41st Millennium, and for that matter, at least the preceeding ten thousand years, that have progressed within the Imperium at least to being a Sergeant.

It is a weapon, that the Black Library would have you believe is favoured by Captains over Power Swords and Power Axes, and yet in game terms it has the same killing power as a bit of snapped twig.

Almost all Imperial kits come with at least one Chainsword, it is a free weapon for most squad leaders and yet how many people take them? I can't think of the last time I even considered not trying to find points to upgrade a Tactical or Assault squad Sergeant to a better option. I think that the only Sergeant that I don't upgrade is my Devastator Sergeant, and by the same token my Retributor Sister Superior.

Sadly, for some reason Games Workshop has not given this weapon any form of boost. And yet, make the handle a bit longer and you increase the strength by 2, if you then increase the size of the blade you double the strength and somehow manage to cut through a Tank which is the same if you strap a small Chainsword to a giant fist and run an electrical current through it.

Why then is the Chainsword so poor? And why am I asking this in the first place?

I shall explain:

Aren't these nice models? The sculptor has taken a lot of care to ensure that these are strong, dynamic miniatures befitting of being Sergeants, and yet, as soon as I possibly can, I already intend to swap those Chainswords out which is a real shame.

Now, if they had perhaps even the tiniest chance of being good, then I would consider keeping them. Perhaps a rule such as this:

Biting point - Any to hit rolls of 6 have potentially found a weak point in the armour or hull of the model they are attacking. Roll any 6s separately as any further 6s result in the attack gaining the Rending special rule.

Now to me, that's still a long shot, but at least gives a bit of hope and a reason to use the weapon except where there is no choice to upgrade.

I'd appreciate your thoughts on this.

Dark Vengeance Release Day games

Well, my copy didn't arrive, not that I really expected it to as it was only shipped on Thursday, so I was lucky enough to go to the club with Matt and have a good look at his copy.

The models are beautiful, albeit some of the joins on the chosen are a little strange, so I am looking forward to assembling mine. There will be a multitude of detailed pictures accross the web of these models which will be far better than I took, so I shall leave that to them.

One of the great things about the box set that I think Games Worksop dropped the ball on with Island of Blood is the inclusion of missions. There are six within the book, at least two of which could be played by just one person.

We played Mission 5, Firefight which is basically kill points, but different points for each unit. We played ths twice so both of us managed to use each force, and I have to say that the Chaos force is up against it. Perhaps the different missions balance up so it is a fluff decision, but unless you are very tactically adept and there is literally a table full of scenery then I suspect most people will find it a tough call killing more Dark Angels than they lose from there own forces. I suspect that the Multi Melta on the Hellbrute doesn't help. If it was a TL Reaper, then maybe it would be worth shooting, but a one shot weapon means that you'd just want to run it possibly leaving him exposed and isolated.

Nonetheless, Dark Vengeance has breathed new life into my enthusiasm for 40k and I've brought down my Codexs again!

...Now to find some more time.

Say what you will about my painting...

... but Dark Vengeance is still a few hours away and already I shall be able to field a painted Dark Angels force.



Now it isn't exactly wysiwyg, the Ravenwing aren't armed as they should be, but are distinguishable enough and I never really bothered with a Librarian previously so I'm having to use a Veteran Sergeant as a proxy, but that aside it's the full and painted force.

I've not had much time for 40k since 6th edition was released, but I must admit that Dark Vengeance has captured my attention. Primarily because it contains two of my armies, so there are no redundant models.

So the plan is for me to play a couple of missions against Matt at the club tomorrow. I shall let you know how it goes, and it may be a double post tomorrow as I'll also be playing Dystopian Wars.

In Coalition Russia Dystopian Wars plays you!

So, I've played my first couple of games with the Russians now and I'm enjoying them immensely.

Firstly I played an 800 point Naval core battle against Ben's Republic of France force on Wednesday and we had a bash at actually rolling for Field orders and also in using National Fleet Commodores from the Hurricane Season campaign book. My mission was to kill 50% of his force AND destroy all mediums. For his part he had to kill all my Large/Massives (so my Borodino then).

In the end, Ben won as he tabled me, though it was a hard slog for him. I was a bit further away from my objective as he still had most of his mediums, albeit that they were limping around, but limping meant they weren't destroyed, so.

Tonight I faced Matt's Prussian Empire (Matt can't read or write so he doesn't blog) at the same level. This time we both reverted to kill 70% as we weren't keen on the options we rolled. No National Fleet Commodores this time.

I managed to pretty much cripple his battleship early on, and in addition gave most of his Frigates a big headache. Now, not sure whether it was just down to a mixture of dice luck and relative experience, but Matt was really struggling to take my boys down. I handed him the Rostovs (destroyer) squadron early and was perhaps a little over aggressive with the Saransks (medium skyships) as they took a battering as well.

I'm still awaiting a reasonable amount of RC naval and air units to arrive, but all things considered I'm happy with how things are progressing. Low activation numbers are an issue, but the storm weathering isn't as scary as I feared. My appraoch really is to view Ablative armour as a bonus rather than something to pin hopes on. Also, I'm liking the way I can target two models with the Novgorod frigates regardless of their position - the trick is to just ensure that I move tem cleverly enough to be in RB1 of the first model and far enough away to be in RB2 of the second to make the most of the lob shot. With most ships that would be a tricky prospect, but with these frigates I can dart about in any direction!

I'm happy with the Suvorov Cruisers and the Tambov Gunships alike and obviously both have Jammer generators that benefit the force against different nations, so the plan is to mix lists dependent upon who I face. An inconvenience when you consider that I was able to write an all comers list for the KoB, but I suppose that was something of a luxury!

So, the Juggernaut has begun to build up steam. Dare you stand before it?

For the Motherland!

So the day we all new would come is upon us. In a moment of weakness I have ordered a second fleet for Dystopian Wars. After long consideration I chose the Russian Coalition, though it was a tough call between them and the FSA.

In the end it came down to the fact that the Russians seem to be a different beast to the initial nations and I liked the idea of having to weather all the incoming fire before unleashing a barrage at close range. It'll be tough, but at least it'll mean a swifter game until then. The models too are very nice being a mixture of inspirations from CoA to KoB whilst still keeping its own identity.

 In what is technically the second batch of purchases I have a bought a Kostroma Battle Carrier, a squadron of Tambov Gunships, a squadron of Rostov Destroyers and a squadron of Saransk Medium Skyships. The first batch is the Naval Battle group and the Moskva Dreadnought (which is holding them up as it hasn't yet been released) and so once that arrives I shall have a substantial Naval force supported by a small Air force.

At the moment however the models I have amount to 655 which is an awkward amount, so it may be a little while before the Russian Coalition sees action, however if all goes to plan I hope to use them in the upcoming mini campaign at Hulls Angels.

Until then however, the KoB shall rule the seas!

Dystopian Wars - Hurricane Season

Yesterday saw the arrival of my copy of Spartan Games' first expansion for Dystopian: Hurricane Season.

I must say that I am very impressed with the book as when I ordered it, I had done so believing it to be softback like the rulebook, however I was delighted to find out it was hardback, as after all, despite the fact that when you were a kid you just wanted to be advanced enough to read soft backs, there is something about a hardback rulebook that sings to the very soul of the common or garden Geek.

The majority of the book is devoted to driving the story line onwards. In fact, of the 121 pages, 84 pages are taken up with the background. The story picks up with the Japanese establishing a new colony in Argentina which eventually leads to a large scale confrontation with the KoB and the FSA.

The writing is solid and cohesive and gives a good standing which players can use to develop their own background including incredibly detailed fleet structure and deployment.

Each of the major nations has inclusion within the book, however due to the timing of the book, it focuses less on the Republic of France and the Russian Coalition and more upon the Covenant of Antarctica to whom they have used this book to draw them into head on conflict rather than them using espionage tactics as they had previously. In this vein, the back of the book contains all the units for CoA in the same manner as the main rulebook does for KoB, PE, FSA and EotBS. In addition it includes the rules for all of the new small fliers as well as the Black Wold and all supporting MARs and generators not included in the rulebook.

Having had a glance over the new missions, they each look fun, and the inclusion of nation specific Commodore rules is a nice touch. I won't go too in depth as to what other rules are included, though obviously the landing barges are there and there is a nice section to support the campaign play including a simple weather chart.

So all in all, I'm very impressed with the book and am happy to pay the £20 RRP (though I paid a bit less) for this and look forward to the next book. Who knows, I may try to get an inclusion within it!