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!

The Rise of a Kingdom

The trouble with playing so many systems is that you need to make decisions as to which you favour. You can obviously play all of them at the same time, though doing so means that you cannot get used to any particular one. On the other hand, concentrating on one means that the others suffer and in addition it means that you have invested a great deal of money (and if you paint your models, time) on systems that fall by the wayside.

With such a good following for Hordes/Warmachine lately I've spent most of my time using my Trollbloods with a couple of 40k games thrown in to the exclusion of Dystopian Wars. Beccause of this I have considered shelving the Kingdom of Britannia several times, but the one thing keeping them out was that Ben was hosting a Dystopian Wars weekend last weekend meaning that they were kept in 'play'.

Going in to the weekend, I had only had one Naval Battle recently and it hadn't gone well, however having used my Armoured forces lately I was more confident with those.

Over the weekend I lost a couple, drew one and won a couple so was fairly happy and I had learned a lot on how the KoB worked and when to activate each squadron. Consequently the love is back for Her Majesty's Kingdom and I am intending to field them as much as possible.

With a growing group of players at the club I should be able to get a variety of games in.

Finally, a big thank you to Jamey and Ben for putting up with us all over the weekend!

Choosing between the pair I play with.

I've given a lot of attention lately to the new kid on the block, but it isn't just 40k that I play. One of my favourite games is Hordes/Warmachine, and as many of you know I play Trollbloods and in September I intend to take part in the Hull's Angel's Hordes/Warmachine tournement with them, so now I need to decide upon a list, and primarily upon a Warlock.

Now I'm not the greatest player, I've taken my time to get to grips with the system, and in many ways I still am, but I do enjoy the challenge. I've tried out a few of the different Warlocks in the last year and a half, starting with pDoomie (technically pMadrak, but I only had one intro game with him) and whilst I struggled to use him, I think in part that was because of the models I had at the time. I do intend to go back to him eventually, however for now he is travelling Western Immoren grumbling about the new fangled technology that the younger ones are using and how they should concentrate more on killing humans.

After Doomshaper I had a brief attempt with Grissel. Again I didn't have the best troops to make her work properly, but then I stumbled upon Borka (yes there is a kind of pun there).

I enjoy Borka, he's a blunt instrument with a couple of hidden tricks with the right backup. He's got a nice background too, so that helps and I enjoy the randomness he adds when he has a drink. I also enjoy the kind of list that he works with. Rok is probably my favourite Warbeast: what's not to love about a giant snow dwelling Dire Troll that goes crazy at the drop of a hat? I do tend to run him a bit beast heavy with a Mauler and a Winter Troll, so there is the potential to frenzy, but the hope is that won't hinder them too much anyway. I think however I may swap the Mauler for an Axer and see how that fares.

On the other hand, Jarl too has a nice background: the lone highwayman, distrusted and distrustful of even his own kin, the incursion upon his home has forced him to cooperate with the other kriels. Jarl himself plays in a direct manner that Jarl does, however his style is range although he can cope with combat to an extent. He also allows me to field the Impaler which is something that I don't tend to do any more as his Animus can really boost Jarl's pistols making them 16" range. Add to that Magic Bullet and Jarl is a real threat from turn 1! Although I tend to have three beasts in every list, with Jarl I go for two lights rather than two Dires like with Borka. At present I'm using a slag troll to help with Warjacks, though I suspect I'll favour the Storm Troll when he arrives. After that, for the Dire Troll, I've gone back to the Bomber. Again with the Impaler animus it increases his threat range and his ability to throw two bombs a turn can really help thin some numbers against single wound infantry.

The infantry for both lists revolve around the same unit: max Fennblades with the UA. A very solid unit and the models are lovely. After that, for Borka the list is in flux. I'm needing the tuffalos but i think they shall have to wait, consequently I find myself again compromising with what I take.

On the flip side, Jarl's list is more complete. The recent arrival of the min Scattergunner and their UA have really helped and on top of this I do love using the Pyg Burrowers. Janissa is going to make an appearence soon in an attempt to a) add a second magical attack and b) add the ability to throw down a wall if needed. A runebearer will probably be included to make the most of Jarl's fury and a Stone Scribe Chronicler to assist the Fennblades which leaves me 5 points. Initially this is being taken by Scouts, so I shall see how these go.

I think that by virtue of the required models and perhaps a slight edge on the fbackground (currently) It's going to be Jarl that I focus on, though don't tell Borka, he may try and punch me.

Popped my 6th edition cherry!

I had my first game with the new edition against Ben on Saturday night, and we had a really good game!

We decided that we would keep it fairly simple playing Purge the Alien with a Dawn of War deployment but with the use of secondary objectives.

The idea was to get used to the rules as much as focus on the victory conditions, however since we'd need to focus on the secondary objectives going forward we also followed these.

Ben used his Tau which consisted of (I think) 3 Fire Warrior squads (two with Devilfish), 1 Pathfinder squad, 1 large Kroot infiltrator unit, 2 stealth teams, two Hammerheads and was lead by a Commander and retinue with a few drones which Ben kept in reserve.

For my Part I decided to field my Chaos Marines. It has been something of a tradition for me to see in new editions with my Chaos army, so that was a big factor here.

My list consisted of:

• Lash Sorcerer
• 10 Chaos Space Marines w/ Asp Champ w/ Powerfist, Undivided Icon, Plasma gun, Heavy Bolter
• 9 Thousand Sons w/ Sorcerer w/ Doombolt
• 8 Bezerkers w/ Skull champ w/ Powerfist, 2x Plasma pistols. Mounted in a Land Raider w/ extra armour
• 4 Bikers w/ Champion w/ Powerfist, 2x Plasma guns, Icon of Nurgle
• 7 Raptors w/ Asp Champ, Lightning Claws, 2x Flamers, Icon of Slaanesh
• 2 Obliterators
• Defiler w/ extra CCW and Reaper Autocannon

I figured that a varied force would allow me to try and deal with a few different options and I hoped that the biker squad specifically would soak up a fair amount of fire being T6. The
Raptors too would probably take a bit of attention since their aim was to get in combat fast and try and hit first. The rest of the force was essentially taken to try and test possibilities. I'd not really used the cult units in the previous editions - I'd only assembled the Plague Marines prior to 6th ed preparations, so I wanted to trial the Bezerkers and the Thousand Sons.

Finally, I had 100 points left and so I decided to take an Aegis defence line with a Quad Gun. I knew that there weren't going to be any fliers in this game, but I suspected that 4 TL S7 shots would at least irritate any lighter tanks.

Ben took the first turn and I failed to seize the initiative. I shall just note the key points from the battle in order to discuss how it played.

Although there weren't too many successes by Ben in first turn (inevitably) those that he did have were particularly good for him. He immobilised the defiler which really caused me issues as that had been one of my forward forces, thus meaning that I would need to re-think my forward forces. I addition, I lost the my Plasma gun to the CSM squad due to not paying attention to wound allocation. Something that I would suffer from again as Ben took a heavy toll on my Raptors with his rapid firing Kroot meaning that as well as a couple of regular raptors I lost their aspiring champion!

I would retaliate, but first I decided to immobilise my Land Raider on a crater. Great. So the Bezerkers disembarked and got ready to find some blood to spill. The Raptors positioned to make the Kroot burn resulting in a bit of crispy space chicken and the bikes took out a Piranha that was edging Its way towards targeting my Land Raider. Meanwhile, I moved the Undivided squad a few inches out of their deployment zone towards the Aegis Defence line and Quad gun which I had deployed slightly forward so that I didn't use up space within the deployment zone - a position I would leave them in for the rest of the battle albeit that I moved squad members around to make best use of firing positions. I also detached the Sorcerer from the Undivided unit so that I could lash one of the Stealth suit squads into range of the Bezerkers so that despite their ride being stationary, they could get stuck in asap. Ben failed his Deny the Witch roll so I moved the suits a decent 8 inches nearer and between the ksons and the bezerkers I managed to destroy the Drones that Ben was using to cunningly shield his more useful troops in order for the bezerkers to wipe them out in combat, which they duly did.

I took the opportunity to issue a challenge trusting that the other bezerkers could cope with with suits. challenge will play a big part in this edition. If you want to keep alive a character that you think will die to a fist sergeant or that would be better taking on multiple opponents (Lelith for example), then it is now possible to sacrifice a Sgt (or equivalent) of your own by issuing or accepting with him. Perhaps using a Fist armed Skull champion to challenge a Shas'ui was somewhat overkill, but at least I know how it works now.

In turn two, Ben managed to explode my Defiler, reduce the Raptors to three (two flamers and the icon), the Bezerkers down to the Skull Champion and a regular Bezerker and took a couple of models out of the Undivided squad.

In retaliation the Raptors wiped out the Pathfinders inc combat. Meanwhile the Thousand sons shot at a Fire Warrior squad reducing them enough for them to fall back thus saving them from being in charge range (note the 2d6 roll required wouldn't reach them even had I had another d6 and got 6 on all!) Also, the bikes turbo boosted to get further up the board and the Obliterators came down, took a couple of shots at the Ion Cannon Hammerhead, both of which penetrated, but Ben managed to pass both his Jink rolls. Say what you want about vehicles in this edition, but Ben is working those Jink saves! out of the approx 15 that I forced on him by the end of turn three, he failed 5, and three of those were on the Piranha's!

Speaking of Turn three, Ben's Commander appeared with his retinue and killed the Obliterators. It seems to me that the only time my Obliterators survive turn 3 or longer is when they don't deep strike, so I think I shall try that next time. The last two Bezerkers died, though it took a great deal of fire power (two squads I think, one being the re-grouped squad that fled in turn 2). In the end I like to think that they took the equivalent number of shots as Boromir and Willem Dafoe in Platoon before becoming the foundations of a giant brass throne. Finally for Ben this turn, a flamer toting Raptor died.

In retribution for the death of the Bezerkers, the two Raptors finished the recently regrouped fire warriors with flame and steel making it fish and fowl for them in a single battle!
The Bikes targeted the Commander's unit taking out most of the drones which the Thousand Sons then also fired upon removing the remaining Drones and one of the bodyguard retinue. The Bikes then charged and won the combat against the commanders unit, but the unit managed to flee, thus meaning that they would keep safely out of charge range if they regrouped, which they would do.

Turn four saw the last squad of Fire Warriors took out the last of the Raptors, though in truth they had done well. They hadn't quite earned their points back (I don't think) but they had occupied what could have been a devastating attack by the Kroot, not to mention the attention of the Fire Warriors. The bikes also died to the Ion Cannon hammerhead, and again they had soaked a lot of fire power before their demise. It's nice to find a use for these guys as I couldn't get them to work in the last edition. The Thousand Sons also took a pounding and were wiped out. They hadn't quite worked how I had planned, but I think that was misuse rather than their ability. They had helped weaken a few units allowing others to wipe out, so maybe that is the way to use them rather than rely on them being game winners.

I'll write up turn 5 and six together as they are a little hazy. Ben managed to wipe out the Undivided squad in turn 5 leaving just the Sorcerer (who was on one wound) and the Land Raider. I cannot remember now, but I think that the Sorcerer died. Luckily however I managed to kill the last of the Commander's unit including the commander himself as well as the last of the stealth suits.

In the end it was a good close game and I did like the changes to the rules that came in to effect here.

Key points to remember are:

• model placement within the unit, remember to make use of the secondary objectives,
• use your grenades at range (I didn't really cover it much here, but I did make use of throwing the odd Krak grenade at the Piranhas - stupid Jink Saves)
• move skimmers - Jink saves can be a real boon
• remember to state when particular models remain stationary in a moving unit.
• Remember overwatch

Thanks for reading, let me know if there are any questions.

Drax