The first of our new wave of Space Marine releases is the devastatingly powerful Land Raider Achilles. This resin and plastic hybrid kit, designed by Stuart Williamson, boasts sponson-mounted twin Multi-Meltas and a hull-mounted Thunderfire Cannon. A line-breaker beyond compare, the Land Raider Achilles’ firepower is capable of forcing a breach in even the strongest defences at the tip of an armoured assault.

Originating in the closing years of the Great Crusade, the Achilles is perhaps the rarest and most venerable Land Raider variant still used on the battlefields of the 41st Millenium. It was originally created by the Imperial Fists Legion in response to a dire xenos threat now lost to the mists of history, and fittingly rare outside the noble Imperial Fists, their successors and the Ordo Reductor of the Adeptus Mechanus. The Achilles is perhaps most vaunted for its legendary durability – each stage of the hull’s construction incorporates layer upon layer of ancient electromagnetic algorithms and ferromantic incantations. This arcane lore is etched into the very structure of the Land Raider Achilles at a molecular level, and is one the most secret and ancient rites of the Cult Mechanicus.

The Land Raider Achilles is a complete resin and plastic kit, and is available to pre-order now for despatch in the week commencing December 6th, and is included in the Space Marine Siege Assault Vanguard army list in the forthcoming Imperial Armour Volume 10: The Badab War Part II. As an exclusive extra, we have prised the rules for the Achilles from Alan Bligh’s grasp and they are available to download for free here.

News Source: Forgeworld

The ULTRAMARINES movie booth, 1557, at the Jakob. J. Javits Centre, October 8th – 10th.

You can also try make your own, at Volvin Props blog they show you all the steps from building this gun. You can check it out more in detail here

(News Source: Volvin Props Blog)

Obviously Fantasy is almost completely different mechanically from 40K and even the most ignorant 40K player knows this. What I was more struck by was how different the game felt and had to be approached. Even just reading the rules doesn’t do it justice, as a found out when playing a few small games with my budding Goblin army. I’m by no means a Fantasy expert but the point of this article is how the game looks to fresh eyes, someone who spent absolutely no time with 7^th Edition and only had a basic grasp on how that edition of the game worked.

Welcome to Chaos

Warhammer Fantasy is one of the most random games I have ever laid eyes on. Beyond the fact that dice are used to resolve all outcomes, the game takes it to another level. Charges are randomly rolled, not a concrete number. Warmachines can and will blow up or fail to even get a shot off without enemy interference. Magic devastates armies, either your opponents or your own. Even the terrain is often unknown until you enter it and it often tries to kill you, or at least ruin your plans.

The rules themselves are a hostile environment, giving neither player a sure position or plan. This is wildly different from 40K where you know exactly what terrain does and even if your units fail, they rarely backlash and actually harm themselves or friendly units. In 40K certain laws are always present and that’s comforting, they can be relied upon even when everything’s going wrong. Fantasy gives no such crutch and momentum can change wildly from turn to turn.

The end result? Pure chaos and pure fun. I’ll admit it takes a certain personality to laugh when your carefully laid plans are just shredded but Fantasy almost requires it. Check your ego at the door because often everything is going to fall apart and when it does, it’s beautiful. The rules provide a larger range for success and failure than 40K and the game becomes about who can adjust faster than who can execute better, which results in an increasingly frenetic pace.

I really can’t do it justice, it has to be played or watched. I had a large gallery of people watching when I was playing and even people I knew had no interest in wargames were into it, cheering and laughing and the games went back and forth. I found myself not being sucked into the game tactically like 40k, but sucked into the fun and desire to see what happened next.

I’m Not Gonna Make It Sarge……..

Another massive chasm between the two systems are how casualties are dealt with. In 40K, most of the game is about limiting your opponent’s offense. Cover saves, blocking LoS, giving them bad targets or matchups and just generally taking a hammer to anything their army can do so your models can live another turn.

Fantasy has no such mindset. Your models will die and they will die in droves. This is just accepted as a fact before a game even begins, unless there is a massive disparity between players, lists or luck both armies will finish more or less in ruin. The shocking part is how little you can do to protect your toy soldiers compared to 40K. There are no cover saves, only penalties to shooting which are ignored by most magic and warmachines. Reliable armor saves are uncommon and can be reduced, causing even shock infantry to die easily.

True LoS in particular is ineffective at presenting casualties. Because Fantasy movement is much more rigid and in most cases slower compared to 40K, hiding behind friendly units can cripple your own army. Most terrain are forests, rivers, marshes and other things that don’t inhibit LoS at all, where blocking terrain is almost needed to play 40K. It gives the feeling of fantasy warfare, where you’re almost naked at range and both sides are rushing forward for the “protection” of melee or to stop the missile fire personally.

Also, everything just seems to do more. More missile troops firing, more models fighting in close combat, more spells going off for bigger effects. The rules have a more horde appeal than trying to squeeze the most potential out of elite units. Very small units simply won’t have anything left after a few turns of mass fire or magic, and then can be easily put down by a tide of cheap troops, ignoring their superior skills through attrition and numbers.

Balance Must Be Found

Personally, my favorite thing was how balanced armies need to be. No single phase of the game can be relied on to win, as opposed to 40K where some armies exist for one phase only. Nothing is reliable enough to win a game by itself, so all armies are a sum greater than their parts. Shooting and Magic support Close Combat so your units have better odds of breaking enemy units. Close Combat protects your vulnerable warmachines and shooting troops from being run down.

Even though all phases are important, Close Combat is still king. This is a fundamental change over 40k, where Shooting dominates the game for almost every army. This is because of how the mechanics work; Close Combat is the fastest and most reliable way of destroying entire units. The availability of higher Leadership character and Battle Standard potency have made units fleeing off the board from a shooting casualties much less likely, so it’s necessary to get your hands dirty.

Would You Describe You Experience as Satisfying?

Overall, the 8^th Edition of Warhammer Fantasy appears to be a phenomenal game. I would never argue if it’s better than Warhammer 40K and no one else should either, they offer different things to different people and that’s how it needs to be. The differences are larger than just mechanics; it extends to every other facet of the game. Where Fantasy was once the game of pure tactics and min-maxing, it’s now about working with controlled chaos and finding the right mixture of units for an army.

I won’t say 40K has claimed the throne of “More Tactical Game” but it’s the more reliable game. Dice are the only wild factor; very little chance exists in the rules or individual armies. The popular saying of “No plan survives contact with the enemy” never applied to wargaming because the dice got to your first but in Fantasy even the rules can throw in a cheap shot once in awhile.

A better saying would be “My plan never had a chance” but I’d be shocked if you found yourself caring. If you have the chance to demo Fantasy, you have my whole hearted recommendation to do so. You might find a welcome respite from the same old thing.

First, let’s consider your opponent’s choice of army.  Someone who fields Orks is going to have a completely different mindset than someone who plays Mech Guard.  The one is clearly set for close quarters fighting, the other for avoiding close quarters as long as possible, or at least until they have a decisive advantage.  Since a lot of armies can be fielded a multitude of ways (hey, even Blood Angels can be fielded as a shooty army), you have to pay very close attention to your opponent’s unit and wargear choices.  Most tournaments I’ve played in are open list, and I suggest taking advantage of that opportunity and at least give it a quick glance.  After all, a better informed general is one capable of making better decisions.  Is his army entirely geared for close combat?  Is his army designed to just castle and bomb the crap out of you?  Is it a mobile mech army designed to just run circles around you?  The first thing you need to establish is what sort of list your opponent is fielding, and whether or not that list has an obvious goal.  An Ork horde that’s loaded with slugga boyz and some nob bikers has an obvious goal – getting into assault and killing you.  A marine list with three vindicators, tactical marines and sternguard is obviously designed to bomb you into oblivion.  Hyrbid lists can be trickier, because different parts of the army have different goals, but these are generally obvious.  An Eldar list with war walkers, rangers and howling banshees has clearly defined parts – the first part is to sit back and shoot, the second to either advance to threaten objectives, or to stay back for the countercharge, but in either case it’s obviously for assault.

Alright, so that crap is obvious, every player should know it, but it needed to be said.  It’s amazing how lots of people will focus so heavily on their own army or parts of their opponent’s army (OMG!!! TH/SS Termies!), that they won’t consider the army as a whole.  But what does this tell you?  Obviously, a player with an all-assault army is going to be extremely aggressive.  All of his points have been spent towards close combat, and as long as his troops aren’t fighting in hand-to-hand, those points are being wasted (or lost from your shooting).  Such a player will be much more likely to get taken in by a bait unit – blinded by his own lust for violence and frustration and being unable to harm you, throwing an easy target in his way should result in the unit being gobbled up, which is just what you want.  Don’t expect to have enough time to set things up perfectly against this type of opponent.  The extreme likelihood is that they will come at you as fast as possible, so things like Reserves might not be as effective as putting everything on the table, especially if you have more ranged fire than melee power.  However, if you do have a cheap scoring unit that can Deep Strike or Outflank, definitely leave at least one in Reserve for an objective mission, as this sort of opponent is not likely to leave much back to hold and defend objectives in his deployment zone.  The best way to frustrate this sort of player is to stay out of combat for as long as possible.  The longer you stay out of combat, the more desperate he will be to get into combat, and the easier it will be for you to bait him into unfavorable assaults.

If your opponent has his points sunk into shooting, well, I think their plan is just as obvious.  Shooting units, as a rule, are not good melee units (except for Grey Hunters and Long Fangs).  But the real challenge has always been surviving long enough to drag them into melee.  Fortunately, there is an easy way to mess with a ranged player’s head – don’t give him a target.  5^th Edition is wonderful in the fact that it allows you to hold anything and everything in Reserve in every mission.  This is especially useful if your opponent goes first.  How worrisome and frustrating it must be to have many big guns, but you are required to sit there, your guns silent, as they have nothing to shoot at?  This is also a great tactical decision as well, because this means your opponent will only have four, five or six shooting phases as opposed to five, six or seven.  In addition, if you have units that Deep Strike or Outflank, do so.  Even if it may not be the most tactically sound approach, often times having the threat of enemy units popping up all over the place is enough to unnerve defensive players, and you’ll see the common tactic of castling everything in the center to guard from deep striking and outflanking.  Well now, if you have any pie plates yourself, they just served up some nice targets.  Not to mention that when you do get into assault, you might be able to assault and tie down multiple units, and when you end up out of assault, your opponent may find that his own men provide cover saves, or you’re simply too close to hit with template weapons.  Another tactic to try is to throw away cheap units by making them a target.  While the bait unit against a shooty army won’t lure the enemy into an assault (in most cases), it can work to redirect some fire.  Remember Target Priority from 4^th edition?  Some players are still stuck in that mode.  If Target A is closer than Target B, A is clearly the graver threat.  Nevermind that Target A is a Combat Squad in a Rhino, and Target B is a unit of Vanguard Vets in a Land Raider.  And, worse comes to worse, you play against someone with a good head on their shoulders who realizes that B is truly the greater threat, well, you just go ahead and drive that combat squad right up there and assault things like heavy weapons squads, dev squads and lootas.  Even if it’s an unfavorable assault for you, provided you can survive that first round of combat into the second one, you’ve just tied that unit down and prevented it from shooting.  Hell, assault multiple such units, if you can.

There’s one more psychological trick I’d like to point out.  You know that guy who spends hours and hours painting his centerpiece unit?  Or that other guy who insists he can’t win without Yarrick/Vulkan/Abaddon?  Ya know how to mess that guy up?  Blast his precious unit/character to kingdom come!  Now, at a tourney you’re likely not going to know your opponents personally (at least, at a non-local tourney).  But it is possible to at least guesstimate what their prize unit is.  If one unit clearly has hours more work put into its construction and painting, that is likely to be the unit.  Or if one unit costs three times as much as the next expensive unit, well, that unit is likely to be it.  Named characters tend to be a dead giveaway.  And if your opponent is stroking his favorite model and hissing “My precioussss,” or has a single unit that he removes from a bullet-proof, steel case that’s handcuffed to his wrist, well, that’s just obvious.  I know a guy who used to quit every game once you annihilate his money unit.  While your opponent may not quit in a tournament (I’ve rarely seen it happen), destroying that unit can really destroy their morale.  Once a player no longer cares about a game, that’s when you have them on the ropes.  I’m not a WAAC player, but I do know that this is the best possible situation in a tournament.  Once they’re down, keep them down.  Don’t be a jerk.  Don’t rub it in.  Be polite while you dismantle the rest of his army and secure yourself a Massacre with bonus points.

In short, pay close attention to your opponent.  Look at his list and figure out his goals and objectives.  Hell, listen to what he talks about.  If you’re deploying your armies, and he takes out a Land Raider and says, “This baby wins me games,” well, I think he just painted a huge bull’s eye on the side of that thing.  If you look through your opponent’s list and see Kharn, Berserkers and close-combat Defilers, that list says one thing, “KHARN IS GONNA EAT YO’ FAMILY!!!”  Unfortunately, these tricks won’t work on everyone.  More seasoned players have played many a game, lost many a prized unit and still managed a win or a draw, and thus are harder to demoralize.  Some players simply don’t care, and although they’re playing in a tournament, are just there to have a good time, meet new people and see new armies.  And there are those players that just don’t pay enough attention.  These are the types who have a battle plan and stick to it, no matter what.  This player is a whole other type, and if you’re a bit seasoned yourself, you should know exactly how to handle them.  So remember – figure out your opponent, frustrate him and let him make mistakes.  And when I say frustrate, I don’t mean upset.  Remember this game is all about having fun.  But who says messing with your opponent’s hopes and dreams can’t be fun?

Kinne out.

“Incoming: Daemons!” was sent out in the May 16^th newsletter.  Games Workshop is rewriting the Fantasy army book and 40k codex for an August release.  Being a Daemon player myself, I was shocked.  Daemons are fairly current.  Other armies like Dark Eldar, Necrons, Eldar, or even Tau were all considered to get an update first.

Dark Eldar is very out dated.  For a short while, their models were not even readily available on the Games Workshop site, or direct order.  Now, their models have been put back out on the special order list at Games Workshop.  This, of course, started more rumors of their release.

As normal, the buzz started to spread across game stores.  At my local gaming store, Daemon players were suddenly experts who knew exactly what kind of changes will be made to the Codex.  Our league nights for 40k are Monday nights.  Somehow, some of our players knew just outside of 24 hours exactly what Games Workshop was doing before they did.  Comments about ‘Without Number’, fleet, changing squad sizes, point cost, and new models were no longer rumor, but hard fact in our store.  Of course, we all know how this goes.  Games Workshop throws a proverbial wrench in the machine and hits all of us with one amazing rule.  Players complain, some threaten to quit and others just vow not to play against that army.  The rest of the rules are reworded to match up with the newest rule books (changing Killed Instantly to Instant Death, for example).

One such example is the Jaws of the World Wolf.  I played Space Wolves at their release.  This rule is amazing.  Removing any model from play just because it failed its initiative?  Amazing!  Did you want your Daemon Prince?  How about your Squadron of Eldar War Walkers?  Is your Avatar ok?

Another amazing rule was the Doom of Malentai.  You get more wounds by dealing wounds?  Is this guy really this awesome?  Absolutely.  How about spawning gaunts as much as you want, provided you don’t roll any doubles.

But of course, who can forget the flying Dreadnought that Blood Angels brought us.  I have played or teamed up with every one of these new armies recently released.  The best part is watching the faces of your opponents as their models just vanish, or their massive unit sees a dreadnought land behind it, ready to assault.

What will be the new rule this time for Daemons?  Epidemius already makes Nurgle awesome.  Is it possible that some form of troop will get without number?  Do the Daemons even need a re-write?  It is highly possible that the 40K codex just needs a re-word to catch up to the language of 5^th edition rules.  However, the fantasy army will probably need to catch up.  I have heard rumors that 8^th edition fantasy will change a good portion of its rules for regiments.  Is it possible that the rules that Games Workshop is changing for fantasy are so extreme that they break Daemons?  Could this be the reason for the shocking release?  Is this just Games Workshop’s way of finally releasing the Daemon Prince models they promised when the last codex released?  How many new models will they bring us?  Or, what models will we lose?

Think about the last time you went to your FLGS, maybe even on a local club’s gaming night.  I don’t know about where you’re from, but at my FLGS on Wednesday nights, it gets pretty crowded.  We have five 6’ x 4’ tables upstairs with two more downstairs, and a smattering of folding tables for sitting around, painting, or playing other games that don’t require a gaming table.  Usually, by 5:00 or so, you’re already waiting in line for a table.  The thing that gets me, however, is that if you look amongst the fourteen guys playing, and glance at the dozen or so armies of the guys hanging around or maybe even working on models, you’ll see lots and lots of 40k.  Sure, there’s the occasional Warhammer or Privateer Press force sprinkled in, but almost all of the gaming is 40k.  I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, or that 40k is a bad game.  I’ve been playing for over seven years and, though my army interests have changed, I still enjoy the game quite a lot (especially since 5^th edition).  My point is that it seems to be all about 40k, and nothing else.  While it is a fun game, playing the same opponents with the same armies using the same three missions is a bit repetitive for even the most avid 40k fan.

So I’m suggesting that you mix it up.  There is a wealth of games out there, ready to be explored.  Just looking to Games Workshop, where we get our 40k fix, you have a spread of specialist games: Necromunda, Battlefleet Gothic, Epic 40k.  All three of these are based in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, so you’ll already be familiar with the backdrop.

First, we have Necromunda.  For those of you not familiar, Necromunda is all about gang wars in the human cesspool that is the bowels of a great Hive City.  Most of the weapons are going to be familiar to an experienced 40k player: lasguns, bolt pistols, plasma weapons, chainswords, etc.  The rules will be quite different from the latest incarnation of 40k, as Necromunda came out over a decade ago and thus two editions of 40k ago, but most of the basic concepts are the same.  As a bonus, do you like RPGs?  Well, Necromunda is one of those great hybrids between tabletop game and role-playing game.  Your gang members gain experience, cash and special weapons, so your models actually improve (and also die forever) from game to game as well as getting better equipment.  The downside is that all of the Necromunda models are metal, older, and, in many cases, out of print.  This is a major drawback to anyone who is a fan of the 80’s cyberpunk style (think brightly colored clothes and Mohawks), but a great opportunity to anyone who has some newer, plastic models and a wealth of ideas to convert them up.  Necromunda gangs are also limited to humans, but since there’s no Necromunda competitions and you just play with friends, I’m sure you can find plenty of models in your 40k collection to represent a gang.

Next on the list, Battlefleet Gothic.  This is my favorite of the 40k specialist games.  Here you’re commanding massive fleets from every 40k race.  Battleships the size of small continents fire weapons capable of annihilating entire armies from miles away while swarms of escorts, fighters and bombers buzz back and forth, stinging the enemy with smaller but more accurate fire.  Here, the rules are a major departure from 40k.  There is no Ballistic Skill or Weapon Skill, there is no Toughness or Strength or Armor Saves.  But this does not mean the rules are overly complex.  The latest rulebook, which you can download from GW’s website for free, has simplified the rules a bit over older editions, and it’s fairly easy to pick up.  This game is a lot of fun, as you fire apocalyptic salvos at the enemy across the vast reaches of space, before closing with each other to launch boarding craft and teleport attacks.  The drawback here is that you probably don’t have the models to proxy for this game, and investing in a decent-sized fleet can be about as expensive as a 1,500 point 40k army.  Still, it’s a great game that’s a lot of fun, and gives you another avenue down which to expand your favorite army, by providing them the means to travel from planet to planet.

Tying right in to BFG is Epic 40,000.  Here we have tiny Space Marines running around and battling Imperator Titans that are only the size of 40k Dreadnoughts.  This is like playing Apocalypse, but on a massive scale.  You can field entire armies of titans, super-heavy tanks and swarms upon swarms of infantry, and finish a game in the same amount of time it takes to duke it out between a Space Marine detachment and an Ork patrol in 40k.  The best summation of this game I’ve ever been told is this, “When you get two units into close-quarters fighting, that’s a 1,000 point game of 40k.”  And you resolve that in about thirty seconds.  This game captures the true scale of battles in the 40k universe, where your Basilisks actually get to fire at the enemy for a long time before the enemy will ever assault them, and you can field squadrons of Stompas instead of just one or two.  Again, we have a departure from the 40k rules, but Epic is fairly easy to pick up, just as Battlefleet Gothic is.  Yet Epic suffers from the same weakness as BFG – cost.  An Epic army can cost you the same as a 40k army, and there really is nothing you’ll have on hand to represent the models (unless, of course, you play Flames of War).

So there you have a few alternatives for your tabletop gaming, and I heartily encourage you to try some of them.  Obviously there are many, many other games out there, including my favorite, Mordheim, and countless non-GW games.  I focused on the three above because the company and story would be familiar to all 40k players, and with the exception of Necromunda, you would have the option of playing the same army as you do in 40k.  And while all three of those games can be expensive to get in to, don’t forget that you have many options, such as trading websites and auction websites, where people are always selling or trading off those old models.

And lastly, don’t think that you have to play an entirely different game to spice things up.  Warhammer 40,000 has a plethora of alternative ways to play that will be vastly different from your typical 1,000 to 2,000 point game.  Try, for example, simply dropping the points into the 750 – 1,000 point range, shrink the table to a 4’ x 4’ area, and see how drastically different list building and strategy will be.  You also have several rules supplements to choose from, most notably Cities of Death, Planetstrike, Battle Missions and, of course, Apocalypse.  The first three offer great opportunities for unique, alternative games without requiring you to increase your model collection, as Apoc does.  While Cities of Death did come out in 4^th edition, the rules can be easily adapted and provide for a great alternative to simply playing another game of 40k inside of a ruined city.  Planetstrike is a great way to mix things up as well, and can reveal hidden strengths in armies or less-used units.  And while the Battle Missions book has a lot of one-sided scenarios, they can still be a lot of fun.  You may find yourself completely outgunned and out-maneuvered, in a totally lopsided situation.  But that’s war, and as we all know, War is Hell.  I say try out one of those scenarios and see how many of those dirty heretics you can take down with you!  Don’t be afraid to go outside of the nice, clean, three mission/three deployment box that we seem to be stuck in.  Go out and crawl through the mud.  Remember that it’s not about winning or losing, but having one heck of a time and throwing around dice, and I think you’ll have a lot more fun.

The thunder of engines and the blast of cannons heralds the advance of a new and deadly form of greenskin war machine in numbers beyond comprehension.

Armoured tracks grind inexorably onwards, driving all before them in a storm of destruction, as greenskins cackle madly at the sheer joy of their onslaught.

This devastating Grotzkrieg has laid waste to Imperial, Chaos, Tau, Eldar and Tyranid forces throughout the galaxy, and it seems that no fighting force in Warhammer 40,000 can stand against this new Gretchin devilry! (That’s what the Grots believe, at least!)

It is with some trepidation at the horror that will be unleashed across gaming tables everywhere that we can announce the release of the Grot Tank Set which is available to pre-order now for despatch in the week commencing June 21st. First previewed at the Forge World Open Day earlier this year, these extremely detailed and unique models have been wildly anticipated. Forge World designer Daren Parrwood has created a set of four fantastically ramshackle war machines that are complimented by four unique tank Kommandaz sculpted by Mark Bedford. The full resin kit allows you to build three Grot Tanks and a Kommand Tank, equipped with an additional hull-mounted weapon.

These new Grot Tanks are a revolution in miniature modelling and wargaming. The set contains four different variant chassis, tracks, exhausts and turrets as well as four fantastic Grot Tank Kommandaz and 5 different, incredibly shooty, weapon options. As you may have seen at the Forge World Open Day, and on the Games Workshop Blog, Forge World designer Daren Parrwood has taken care to ensure the kit is fully modular – all of the chassis, turret, exhaust, track and weapon options are completely interchangeable. This allows more than a thousand individual tanks to be built from the kits, before even considering the possibilities that rise from a bits box or other items in the Forge World range, such as Grot Crew and the recently-released Weapons Set.

Full rules for using a Grot Tank Battle Mob can be found in the Dread Mob army list included in Imperial Armour 8: Raid on Kastorel-Novem, but Imperial Armour writer Alan Bligh was so excited about the release of the Grot Tanks that he has created a deliciously unhinged Apocalypse formation that you can download here.

Forge World Events News

Forge World will be attending Games Day Spain on July 4th, and Games Day Baltimore on August 21st. We are now taking reservation orders for both of these exciting events. Just send an email to forgeworldreservations@games-workshop.co.uk including your name and a list of everything you’d like to reserve, and title your email `Games Day Spain Reservation` or ` Games Day Baltimore Reservation`. We must receive Games Day Spain reservations by June 21st at the latest, and Games Day Baltimore reservations by July 5th at the latest.

(News Source: Forgeworld.co.uk)

My first tastes at being a gamer was in Jr. High wheb my two older brothers took me to Bear’s Cards and Comics. There I spent every other Saturday in a cluttered back room with a sheet of plywood covering the missing floor trying to save the Living City of Ravens Bluff from monsters, demons, evil sourcerers and occasionally from a fellow player.

As a little background I grew up with four brothers and several dozen male cousins. I had only one female cousin a few years younger than me. So I grew up surrounded by guys. I was quite comfortable moving into this world of gamers filled with guys because I grew up in a world of boys. In fact I was more uncomfortable when I joined the high school dance team. Fifteen girls who spent every fourth period together, plus three nights a week at practice, plus games on friday nights and some saturday shows. . . thats alot of girl time. (Not to mention they plucked off all my eyebrows because they didn’t like mine.)  I think it was the boys who were not as comfortable with me at first. Over the five years I spent at Bears I was usually only one of three girls that come to play. The reations from the guys varied from mild  intrest that a girl wanted to play to the inappropriate 45 year old sending the 14 year old flowers and love notes. . .

During the time I played Dungeons and Dragons I learned and enjoyed my role as a gamer girl. It has been several years now since I’ve activly gamed in a large setting. But now I’m working on getting back in the game. Warhammer 40K. My boyfriend has been building armies for the last three years. Chaose space marines, nurgle, ork, imperial guard. . . I’ve pretty much seen it all.

After he abandoned orks I decided to make them my own. I loved the random chaos they bring to the table, plus the shear numbers I can field seemed impressive. But getting back in the gaming society is a little different now. I’m not the tom boy I used to be and this isn’t a small town game shop. It’s a bigger town with more people and I’m more of a girly-girl then my 14 year old self would think was possible.

I played my first tournament at the Game Preserve. It was a self titled noob game. Everyone playing that day was a beginner player in this edition. I was scheduled to play along side my boyfriend but due to scheduling difficulties he was unable to make it to the game day.

I’m still not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. On one had if he had been able to come I think it would have been easier to mingle with the other players. I was the only girl of about sixteen players there that day, and everyone pretty much ignored me at first. Everyone else was talking about there armies and showing off their painting skills. It wasn’t until we started playing that anyone really tried to talk to me. It probably helped that I fed a few poor gamers the other half of my lunch.  If my boyfriend had managed to make it he would have been more accepted into the group and me by proxy. I think that would also have put me into the Girlfriend group though. The girls that only play because their boyfriends do but don’t have any real intrest in it.

I’m excited to play and hope to continue to learn to play this game. I also hope that I can continue to share my expeirences about learning the game, painting minitures, and navigating the world of gamers from a girls point of view.

The Orkqueen Jenny

Alas, when I received my copy I was, disappointed there were gaps in the story line, and holes in the rules. What I saw was the Codex: “Space Marines,” with different cover art, slightly modified rules and some unique equipment.

For an example of this take a long look at “The Red Thirst” special rule, the brief fluff before the actual rule states that every blood angel struggles against “The Red Thirst,” however take a look at your HQ units, not single one suffers from “The Red Thirst” rule. The only one this would be acceptable for would be “Mephiston.”  The one whom you would expect it from is “Tycho,” but neither his captain form, nor his Death Company forms, has this rule. Why?

If there were an explanation like – and such is the discipline of the senior blood angels they are capable of restraining “The Red Thirst” except in the most perilous situations-  this would make more sense. Perhaps Games Workshop thought that we, the players, would prefer it that way.  Not I!  I, for one, would love to see “Dante,” lose it – gain the “Furious Charge,” and run rampant across the battle field! Now, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Matthew Ward or Games Workshop, I just find it somewhat disappointing.

Story wise, the “Blood Angels,” have always been closer to “Space Wolves,” than, lets say, the “Ultramarines,” but Codex: Blood Angels gave us “Ultramarines,” the only difference is “The Red Thirst”, hand flamers, Infernus pistols, and  only a couple of specialized units. As for the story line, the time line, from pages 14 to 17, completely ignored the events of the Blood Angels Omnibus, you would think that would be important enough to include!

Perhaps there will be a FAQ on these confusing matters.  Until then on a scale of 1 (Lies & Heresy) to 10 (glory to the Emperor), I give Codex: Blood Angels a 6.5(the Inquisition is keeping a wary eye upon you)! This is solely based on the ability to construct a winning army from this Codex.

[START QUIZ]

and don’t forget to submit your own questions for the next and 3rd LO quiz here

“Ultramarines is a tense sci-fi action movie set in the grim darkness of the 41st millennium. The film employs state-of-the-art facial capture technology and CGI animation to bring to the screen the Space Marines of the Ultramarines chapter and their adversaries in deadly combat. With a voice cast including Terence Stamp, John Hurt and Sean Pertwee”

More information about London MCM Expo. & Ultramarines the Movie

“Waaagh! Garaghak has taken several key Imperial worlds across the Forsarr sector and invaded the primary Hive World in a storm of violence. Intelligence gleaned by Raven Guard scouts indicate that a twisted Ork genius known as Buzzgob lies behind the war machines of the Waaagh! and so a plan is formed to eliminate this Big Mek and disrupt or destroy his creations”

This fantastic 224 page book, written by Warwick Kinrade and Alan Bligh, details the daring raid into Ork territory planned and executed by the Space Marines of the Raven Guard chapter and the 181st Elysian Drop Regiment. The full colour book is comprehensively illustrated with over 150 illustrations, profiles, technical drawings and vehicle profiles for Elysian Drop Troops and Raven Guard as well as the Goff, Evil Sunz, and Death Skullz Ork clans. Click here to view sample page spreads of the new book.

Imperial Armour Volume 8: Raid on Kastorel-Novem also provides a complete Elysian Drop Troop army list – including rules for the Vulture Gunship, Valkyrie Sky Talon and Tauros and Tauros Venator Assault Vehicles. This army list brings the brave sons of Elysia into line with the current Imperial Guard Codex. You will also find background on the enigmatic Raven Guard Chapter as well as rules for a new special character, Shadow-Captain Korvydae. Ork players will find an entirely new Dread Mob army list that contains full rules for the entire range of Forge World Ork models (and lots of Mega-Dreads, Dreads and Kans!). There are also new Apocalypse Battle Formations and a full campaign system to re-fight the desperate conflict on Kastorel-Novem.

Click here to order the new book – it’s available for immediate despatch, and every book comes with a double-sided Ork poster, featuring fantastic art by the talented Paul Bonner, that can be ordered separately here. The first 500 copies ordered will be signed by Warwick Kinrade. Anyone who has already placed a pre-order for the new book at any of the events we have attended so far this year will also receive a highly desirable signed copy of the book.

(News Source: Forgeworld)

(Read More: Joystiq)

Here are some pictures of those models so you can judge for yourselves but there are a couple of things to remember-

1. Dry-brushing marines works well on darker chapter colors; Crimson Fists, Dark Angels etc..
2. Use a big brush/little paint approach.
3. Always start with what you think is too little paint and too thin a wash. You can always go back if it is too thin but it’s harder if you’ve used too much paint!

So, here we are: Sprayed black…

Dry-brushed with ‘Necron Abyss’

Drybrushed with ‘Regal Blue’

Pick out details (joints, bolter etc) in black or other appropriate color.

Add silver, highlight details and add any other bits of colour required.

You can finish there or go back and keep highlighting or fixing up details but this technique is superb for rapid army production. You can also slot a wash in between stages 3 and 4 if the dry-brushing got too heavy (in some cases I did this after painting the glove red, to add some shading). A squad of 10 of these guys took 5 hours to paint (ok… not including bases) and that included two veteran models with a bundle of extra detail.

Edit: I’ve since discovered that the new purple wash works well over mechrite red to give a nice crimson!

Here’s a few more pics for you.

Hello all you fans of Librarium Online. I was recently sitting in my apartment and pondering to myself “What is the next new ‘hip’ blog that could be written for LO?” My mind settled on magnetizing. Today I will show you my  methods for magnetizing a range of miniatures.

Magnetizing your miniatures is almost always beneficial. If you are a loyalist a five man Terminator Squad can have Thunder Hammer and Storm Shields one game and Storm Bolters and Power Fists the next! If you are a pawn of the Ruinous Powers a Terminator could have Lightning Claws one game and a Combi Melta and Power Weapon the next! The flexibility is worth the hassle alone, and even then, magnetizing is one of the quickest and easiest “conversions” that a hobbyist can do.

Let’s start with what tools you will need. A nice sharp hobby knife, also known as an exacto is a must for this project. Next you will need to obtain a file, preferably one that comes down to a tip, but a squared one will also work. A portable drill with drill bits! You will of course need glue, and finally magnets. The magnets you will need depends on what you are trying to magnetized.

I have three sets of magnets pictured. The first (and biggest) set is 1/4” radius by 1/8” in depth. The second is 3/16” by 1/16” and finally, the smallest pictured is 3/32” by 1/16”. Each magnet has a specific roll in modeling. The smallest (3/32 by 1/16) are going to be used on Terminators, Marines, and things of that nature. The next size up will find its home on plastic Dreadnoughts, vehicles, and any other equivalents. Finally the biggest will be used on metal Dreadnoughts and Titans. Now obviously you will need drill bits that are the same size as the magnet you are using.

Now that you have all of your materials, it’s time to get started! Let’s look at how to magnetize Terminators. Take you Terminator body, and both of the arms (I find it is easiest to put on the shoulder pads before you magnetize)

Step 1: take your drill and use a 3/32” drill bit and drill into the middle of the back about an 1/8” deep. Clean up the hole with your hobby knife and file.

Step 2: Do the same thing on the Terminators body.

Step 3: Place a dab of glue and your magnet into your Terminator body. You will not need much glue, a small dab will do!

**Step 4**: I put stars around this step because it is very important. You want to make sure that your magnet that you put in the arm has the opposite polarity as the one you put in the arm. If it doesn’t, then the magnets won’t work. They will not attract to each other.

Step 5: After making sure the magnets will be attracted to each other, place a dab of glue into the hole in the arm and place a magnet inside.

Finished Product: After letting the glue set, you will be able to put on the arms! So your Terminator will look like this.

**Note** Make sure that you make all of the pieces compatible. Otherwise you will have certain arms that won’t go on certain bodies.

Next, I will show you how to magnetize your Dreadnoughts. The steps will be almost identical for the Dreadnought from the Terminator magnetization. The main difference is the magnet size. For the Plastic Dreadnought, either the 3/16” by 1/16” magnet or the 3/32” by 1/16” (The same one used for terminators) will work. For Metal Dreadnoughts however, you will need to use the biggest magnet, the 1/4” by 1/8. The reason for this is the metal arms are too heavy and will hang down instead of being in a “battle ready” position.

Step 1: Depending on the Dreadnought you will need a 1/4″ drill bit (For metal Dreadnoughts) , and either a 3/16” or 3/32” bit depending on what size you will want to use. Drill a hole into the body of the Dreadnought, about 1/8” deep.  Clean up the hole with your hobby knife and file. (Regretfully all of my Dreadnoughts already have this step done and I can’t show a picture of it)

Step 2: Drill a hole into the arm of your Dreadnought. If you are using a Black Reach Dreadnought you can skip this step, as there is a tub that you can slip magnets into (You should see this in the picture). Clean up the hole with your hobby knife and file.

Step 3: Put a dab of glue into the hole you drilled on your Dreadnoughts body, then slip a magnet into the hole.

**Step 4**: Once again you may notice the ever so important ** next to this step. As previously stated you will need to make sure that the magnet you put into the arm’s polarity is the opposite of the one in the body. Otherwise you will have the problem of the magnets wanting to retract from each other.

Step 5: After assuring your magnets will attract to one another, put a dab of glue in the arm and place your magnet into the arm.

Finished Product:  After letting the glue set, you will be able to put on the arms! So your Dreadnought will look like this.

(From left to right: Multi-Melta, Lascannon, Assault Cannon)

**Note** Make sure that you make all of the pieces compatible. Otherwise you will have certain arms that won’t go on your Dreadnought body.

Its here, the 3rd release of Tabletop Hooligans podcast. In this episode the Hooligans will dive deep into two new army books from one of the worlds most popular tabletop games. With help from two gamers at their local store, Joe D and Greg S they will go inside and pick out the most interesting items in these books and make a discussion out of it. This episode also includes Feats of the Week, a new parody commercial. Listen to their podcast at www.tabletophooligans.com

This article is going to cover the Emperor’s finest tanks, The Space Marine Land Raider. So let’s begin with the basics of every Land Raider shall we.

All Land Raiders have an Armor 14 on all facings. That’s very nice indeed. This makes it hard to kill and makes it the heaviest standard armored vehicle in the game. Land Raider’s also have smoke launchers and spotlights as standard gear. The next big thing is, the Power of the Machine spirit rule. Also all Land Raiders that carry troops has the Assault Vehicle special rule. Land Raiders that can carry troops, can also carry Terminators, but Terminators count as 2 for every 1.

We shall now cover the Land Raiders special rules. First special rule up is Assault Vehicle. The Assault Vehicle special rule allows troops to disembarking and assault in the same round. This rule is very good for Terminator assault squads. Move, fire, and unleash heck is a beautiful thing.

Next rule up is Power of the Machine spirit.  This rule allows a Land Raider is fire 1 more weapon then normal and then you can also fire defensive weapons. You can also fire at more then 1 target. So if you move at combat speed you can fire 2 weapons. If you move at cruising speed or suffer ‘crew stunned’ or ‘crew shaken’ result, you can still fire 1 weapon.

Now let’s cover upgrades. Most Land Raiders can take a Storm Bolter for 10 points, A Hunter-Killer missile for 10 points, A Multi-Melta for 10 points, and extra armor for 15 points. We shall take time to cover which upgrades are the best for each configuration.

Warhammer 40k Land Raiders

Now on to the Land Raiders, their weapon lay-outs, and best uses. First up will be the basic Land Raider.

The Basic Land Raider comes armed with 1 set of twin heavy bolters, and 2 sets of twin Lascannons. The Land Raider is 250 for the basics. It can carry 12 models or 6 Terminators. The best upgrade for this model is the Storm Bolter. The Multi-Melta can be taken, but is not really needed. The Lascannons can handle most if not all problems.

This is a very good version for Tank hunting or taking out monstrous creatures. Big flaw is it must sit still to make the best use of it’s fire power. As an APC it works but their is better. All in all it’s a good tank but their is better.

Next is the Land Raider MK 2B. The Land Raider MK 2B counts as a Land Raider. The Land Raider MK 2B can be bought from Forge World.

The next version is the Land Raider Crusader. It is 250 points and comes armed with Twin Assault Cannons, 2 racks of Hurricane Bolters, and Frag Assault launchers. It carries 16 models or 8 terminators. This is best armed with a Storm Bolter and Multi-Melta. Why? The Storm Bolter adds to the output and the Multi-Melta is a good option for tank hunting.

This is a very mobile fire platform. Move it 12″ fire assault cannons, hurricane bolters, and storm bolter. Then open up and let some assault terminators clean up what you didn’t kill from shooting. The Frag Assault Launchers also helps out the Terminators, because they will be counted as having frag grenades.

This is second to none for line breaking. Place Assault Terminators in this beast and watch your opponent cry like a little girl. It’s not the greatest of tank hunters, but with a Multi-Melta and assault Terminators armed with thunder hammers you can fix this problem. Still, it’s  just fast moving output on tracks and every Space Marine army should have 1 in their arsenal.

The Land Raider Redeemer is next on the list. This models drops Hurricane Bolters for 2 flamestorm cannons. It can only carry 12 models or 6 terminators. The Land Raider Redeemer is also the cheapest at 240 points for stock layouts. While it doesn’t have the output of a Crusader, the Redeemer can clear out bunkers and buildings with ease.

However it still needs a Multi-Melta for tank hunting. It also is not really as mobile as the Land Raider Crusader, but it still has a useful role on the battlefield.

Next on the list is Forge world’s Land Raider Helios. It is 260 points of monster artillery. It comes armed with 2 Twin Lascannon racks and the Whirlwind Launcher. It can carry 6 models or 3 Terminators. Carrying personal is not really need for this model of Land Raider. Carrying Sternguard veterans wouldn’t be a bad thing. Move and set up with your Sternguard veterans defending this thing and then sit there and let artillery do the work.

It also can defend itself from other tanks with it’s 2 twin Lascannon racks. Then it can take out horde infantry with the Whirlwind launchers. It can not take the Multi-Melta however. All in all not the best model of Land Raider and it will be hard to justify it’s use on the battlefield. It would be better to take a Predator and a Whirlwind.

Now on to the Land Raider Prometheus. This is a Land Raider set up for command units. A Command squad, Honour guard squad, Terminator squad, and Terminator Assault squad can use one as a dedicated transport. However, it lacks on armaments. It comes armed with 4 Twin-linked Heavy Bolters. It can not have a Multi-Melta upgrade. At 270 points per model, it’s very pricey.

It lacks the ability to handle tanks, but can handle tough infantry very easily. It can carry 12 infantry or 6 Terminators. The Hunter-Killer missile is really needed as a just in case measure. Good advice is don’t really bother with the Prometheus and just take normal Land Raiders or Land Raider Crusaders. It’s price and combat capabilities make it a all out turn off.

Up next is the Land Raider Terminus Ultra. This is just 300 points of Lascannons.  It comes armed with 3 sets of Twin Lascannons and 2 side mounted Lascannons. That’s up to 5 Lascannon shots per round. However it can not carry any troops.

To be honest this is a waste of a good Land Raider unless you play Apocalypse. The Land Raider Terminus Ultra would be best used as a super heavy hunter. It can have any upgrades but the best option would be a Multi-Melta. This would boost it’s tank hunter ability to god like.

It has a special rule that no other Land Raider has. It’s the Power Overload special rule.  If you roll 4 or more one’s before re-rolls, The Land Raider Terminus Ultra suffers a penetrating hit. This happens after shooting has been resolved. This isn’t really a hurt on the user, unless the user is very unlucky.

The last Land Raider in this overview is the Land Raider Ares. It is 300 points and comes armed with 2 Twin Heavy Flamer racks, Twin Assault Cannon, and a Demolisher Cannon, and a Dozer blade. It can not carry any troops however.

The fact that it can not carry troops is not a big deal because, It is used for laying siege to cities. The only option it can take is extra armor.  It is useful for a massive city siege in Apocalypse game. Take extra armor and never sit still. Use the Demolisher cannon to level buildings and the Heavy Flamers to clear out what you didn’t level or don’t want to level.

Look back into the past

The first Land Raider was the Hellfire Land Raider or the Land Raider MK1. It came armed with 2 side mounted Lascannons and a Bolter. It could carry Infantry but not Terminators. Later in a issue of White Dwarf the Land Raider MK1 was up gunned. It’s weapon lay-out became 2 side mounted Twin Lascannons and 2 Heavy Bolters. Sense then this model of Land Raider became phased out.

The very last Land Raider in the history of Land Raiders is the Land Raider Spartan. It was the only Land Raider that could carry Terminators at the time. It also came armed with 2 Twin Lascannons and either a Heavy Bolter or Heavy Flamer. The Heavy Bolter and Heavy Flamer was not standard at the time however. The Land Raider Spartan has also been phased out for the more up to date Land Raider Mk2.

Questions

Now we would like to ask the readers a few questions.

1) What model of Land Raider do you have?

2) Which model of Land Raider is your favorite and why?

3) Did you learn something new and helpful about Land Raiders?

The people at Ultramarines movie have recently released the first look at some greyscale models of the weapons being used in the Ultramarines movie.

(News Source: Ultramarines Movie)

In the greatest betrayal the universe has ever known, the Warmaster Horus – once humanity’s greatest general, now corrupted by Chaos – has turned against the Emperor and hurled the Imperium of Man into ferocious civil war. The galactic conflict has risen to its climax. The Warmaster’s ruinous legions have assaulted Holy Terra itself, the Emperor’s seat. Here the fate of humanity hangs in the balance during the greatest military campaign ever seen…

Sparked by a betrayal of epic proportions, fierce battles unfold across the razed plains of Terra and in the frozen orbit above, while deadly fighting ranges from the Emperor’s golden Inner Palace to Horus’s flagship, the Vengeful Spirit.

Horus Heresy, FFG’s highly anticipated board game depicting the most legendary battle in the history of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, will soon hit shelves. Prepare yourself by checking out the rules [Download pdf, 29 MB]

(News Source: Fantasy Flight Games)

This modification is better than most because it uses only ONE light as opposed to a confusing series of LEDs and resisters, and is much, much brighter. To give you an example, a fairly bright LED light puts out about 1000mcd (luminous intensity) … whereas this single tube light puts out about 40,000mcd (give or take 5000mcd). Plus, it’s pretty cheap.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Monolith (and associated modeling supplies you probably already have… clippers, hobby knife, glue, paint, etc.) $55
• 4” CCFL Kit (I got mine here)   $5
• 9volt Battery Connectors <$3
• Electrical Tape  <$3

So if you’re into the hobby already, you’ll probably end up spending around $10 in additional supplies to make this.

Let’s Get Started!

Since we have limited space to work with inside the Monolith, we’ll have to put the light in diagonally. I’ve tried other setups but found this to work the best. If it’s horizontal the inverter will block the light from either shining out of the portal, or out of the spaces we’ll cut in the bottom of the Monolith (more on this later)… so we’ll put
it in diagonally, with the light as centered as we can get it inside this beast. So first we’ll need to glue the CCFL tube to the side of the inverter. I used wood (PVA) glue for this. It takes a while to cure but is definitely worth it considering how strong it is. (You wouldn’t want anything inside here getting knocked loose after it’s all put together, right?)

Lay down a strip of glue like this:

and lay the tube on top of it.

*IMPORTANT!*
Make sure that the side with the wire coming out of the tube is on the same side as the plug for the wire on the inverter!

I had trouble with the light wanting to slowly slide off so I weighted it down with the nearest flat thing I could find…

You’ll probably want to let this sit overnight to thoroughly harden. In the mean time, let’s carve up our Monolith so all this glorious light can emanate from within. First stop, ground floor! Let’s cut out those stupid squares on the bottom that nobody’s going to see anyway. This will provide some nice, gaussy ground-effects.

I used a sharp hobby knife to outline where I wanted to cut… Then I retraced those grooves with the line again and again (each time with more pressure) until I was able to poke through and pop the whole piece out. If you can think of a better way to do this, then do it. My hands were killing me after I finished carving these up. Anyway, you’ll need to cut:

The 4 squares on the bottomThe pieces behind the 6 long gauss rods on either side panelThe pieces behind the 8 smaller gauss rods around the top of the model
Bore a hole behind where the circular gauss piece goes Saw the bottom of the area off underneath where the crystal goes.

I did all this, and then glued the 4 sides together… here’s the result:

Now if you’ve built a Monolith before you’re probably wondering why I didn’t put the gauss flux arc turrets in… Well, there’s a way to put them in afterwards, and I’d like to
prime them before the final steps of the assembly so they get a nice even coat. To pop them in afterwards, just lay the bottom piece in, and put the top piece ontop of it, but
don’t line them both up so they’re pointing the same way. Rather, have one pointing one way, and the other about 30-45 degrees off (Like a V shape) and push gently to pop it in place. You can then pinch the edges of the ‘V’ together to line them up.

The glue should probably still be drying… so let’s move on to something else. Along with the CCFL and inverter, you should find a switch on a PCI panel and some molex connectors. We won’t be needing most of this (but hang on to it). Let’s steal the switch and cut off those wires. First, start by unscrewing the switch from the PCI panel.

Give yourself a good amount of slack on the wires (better to cut them too long than too short!) and slice those bad larrys with your hobby knife or some scissors. You can keep the screws if you want to deal with it but I think I’ll just mush some greenstuff around the edges of the switch on the inside of the Monolith

Next you can either trace, or just eyeball the size of your switch hole and scratch it into the bottom panel with your knife like such:

It took a little bit of shaving down to get it just right…

And there she goes…

Don’t glue (or screw, or greenstuff…) this in place just yet! We need to finish our wiring and basecoat this thing first!

Now that the glue between your CCFL and inverter has dried, we can do some more modding. You’ll probably notice that the white wires going from your light to inverter are long.

Too long, these things are going to bunch up inside of your Monolith and probably block some of the light. We don’t want this. Let’s shorten them. This light (and everything else we’re working with here) has 2 wires: A positive (+), and a negative (-). Positive wires are typically red whereas negative wires are typically black. This CCFL has neither. Since we don’t know which is + and which is -, ONLY CUT ONE AT A TIME!!!

I left about 1-2 inches of wire on either side and threw away the rest. We’ll want to reconnect these wires, but how? We need the metal wire inside the rubber sheathing on the 2 ends to meet once again. We’ll have to cut the sheathing off. Electronics stores sell wire strippers but why pay for it? You can just as easily take some sharp scissors, open them to a V shape, put the wire down into the V (leave about 1cm or a half an inch of the wire sticking out), and VERY GENTLY squeeze the wire with the scissors while rotating the wire to slice the sheath a little bit, then bite on the end, and pull. VIOLA! a stripped wire!

You’ll take the 2 metal wire ends, twist them together, then wrap some electrical tape around the bare metal area to re-insulate them, and prevent the metal sections of your positive and negative wires from touching. This kind of touching is bad. It will result in sparks. Bad Sparks. Sparks that could burn out your inverter, light, battery, house, neighbors house, you get the idea. Don’t touch your positives and negatives together. After you re-conntect one wire, move on to the other. It will probably end up looking like this:

Remember the stuff we cut off from the end of the switch? We need some of it. There should be a small white connector which fits nicely into the other side of your inverter. We need that plug, and 1-2 inches of wire along with it. You’ll need to strip these wires (Again, about 1cm or 1/2 inch), the wires attached to the switch, and the wires on your 9volt battery connector (I find that out-of-the-bag they don’t give enough of a lead, so I took a little bit more sheathing off.

After you do this, you’ll want to take the ends of your 3 red wires (Battery wire, switch wire, and inverter wire) and twist them all together.
Then do the same for your 2 black and 1 yellow wires (I’m not sure why that one is yellow…) and you should have something that looks like this:

Wrap both of these bundles in electrical tape, attach a 9v battery, and you should have a fully functional light you can turn on and off by the switch!

This battery only has about 1/2 charge left in it. Yours will be much brighter.

The battery was getting incredibly hot regardless of the switch position. If I let it sit for a minute with the battery plugged in, and the switch off, it felt like the battery was going to burst into flames. It took a while to figure this one out but I came to the realization that GREEN STUFF IS A CONDUCTOR! Be careful with this stuff (especially around the switch) when attempting to follow this tutorial. It might be a better idea to just screw the switch into the plastic of the model.

I used green stuff to hold the switch in place on the inside of my Monolith (pics to come) and I guess it connected the + and – leads. The switch worked fine… it still turned the lights on and off… but the battery was scorching and running out of juice incredibly fast. If you attempt to follow this tutorial, make sure to test your connections by leaving the battery connected with the switch in the off position for about 5 minutes. If you can feel a noticeable heat coming from your battery, pull everything apart and start over. And BE CAREFUL WITH THAT GREEN STUFF!

Now that we have all our wiring taken care of, lets prime this sucker! I primed the inside white (kind of hard to see with the flash…) and the outside black…

I primed the inside white because I want the light to bounce off the inner surfaces of the Monolith and appear even brighter! I suppose if you were motivated enough you could pick up some of that chrome spray paint and really go nuts.

After you’ve got it all primed, lay down some PVA glue here

and put the inverter on top at this angle

You’ll want to make sure that the wires aren’t plugged in as this could cause the inverter to pivot on the glue and set incorrectly.

After the glue cures, you’ll want to connect your wire to the inverter, and make sure your switch is secured… However, DO NOT DO THIS:

See where the green stuff touches the circuit board on the switch? This caused a short for me could have eventually burned out my battery or house. GREEN STUFF IS A CONDUCTOR. be warned.

After you take care of all your wiring, glue to bottom section of the Monolith onto the top, paint it up however you like, insert your battery via one of the holes in the bottom like this

And tuck it up inside, resting on the ‘floor’ against one of the inner walls like this

Enjoy an 85% increase in the fear factor of your Monolith. (Warning: May cause loosening of bowels in opponents.)

Pictures by users following this tutorial

More Pictures

Anywho, on to business.

I have 4 Carnifex kits that I stocked up on long before the new codex release. Imagine my dismay when I found out how the carnifexes got nerfed! I had already assembled the above, and decided he was to be Old One Eye, as that character actually seemed worthwhile, though expensive. The other three shall be converted into a Tyrannofex, a Tervigon, and a Harpy.

Step 1: Basecoat

Step 2: Mix of Warlock Purple and Dheneb Stone

The ratio I used was 2 parts Warlock Purple, 1 part Dheneb Stone.

Step 3: Codex Grey Drybrush

Apply lightly to the already black carapace.

Step 4: Fortress Grey Drybrush

This was drybrushed even lighter along carapace edges.

Step 5: Heavy Leviathan Purple Wash

Cover all that “way too Slaanesh” pink.

Step 6: Dheneb Stone

Here comes that 5-step bone effect. Base in Dheneb.

Step 7: Devlan Mud Wash

Heavy wash, get it dark in all cracks/crevices.

Step 8: Bleached Bone Drybrush

We’re bringing the color back.

Step 9: Skull White Drybrush

Applied light and mostly along edges.

Step 10: Gryphonne Sepia Wash

This is the final step for the bone. Apply strategically, along the mid/deep areas of the bone. Near the roots. Leave the Skull White edges alone.

Step 11: Blood Red

Along the face.

Step 12: Fiery Orange

My bugs have bright warning signs along their carapaces. I chose Orange to play off and stand out from the current color scheme. Mine is meant to be garish and contrasting. There are other effects that are more in-line with the color scheme, yet still make a statement.

Step 13: Dheneb Stone

This is for the tongue. I’ve found that Dheneb Stone looks a lot like lifeless flesh. Applying a wash to it to give it life tends to look good.

Step 14: Baal Red

Ah, a fleshy red tongue.

Step 15: ‘Ardcoat

Again for the tongue. Makes it look slimy. Ick.

Step 16: Calthan Brown

Basecoat for the base. I’m going with my typical brown barren dirt scheme for the ‘nids.

Step 17: Basing Sand

Put down a layer of glue. Cover with Basing Sand. Allow to dry. Coat with watered down glue to seal so you don’t get those annoying bits of sand coming off later.

Step 18: Devlan Mud Wash

Done!

What do you guys think? Anything in there you found useful? Anything you’d have done differently? Lay it on me in the comments section.

Provided by Master Darksol

To start out you’ll need

Green stuff
A base within which to make the mould. I used a 25mm circle base.
The item you wish to make a mould of (in this case the skull-rune from the chaos vehicle sprue)
I also have a second base and the square 40mm one but I’ll explain them as we go along.

Mix enough green stuff to fill the recess of the base.

Smooth this out when you’re done. Then take the item you wish to make a mould of and give it a good coating in cooking oil or some such, this acts as a release agent for later on. Once it’s oiled up place it on the green stuff.

One of the key things to making a press mould is keeping everything straight when you press it in. To do this I used the flat side of another 25mm circle base (make sure to oil up this base too) pushed down by the flat of the 40mm base.

Now you’ll have to wait for the green stuff to cure.

Once it has cured you should be able to remove the item. You might need a thin bladed knife or some such to carefully lever it out if it’s a very flat object (as this was). Be careful as the knife can very easily slip as the item can sometimes be quite snug in the mould.
You should then have something that looks like this

Now to make a copy of this item you first have to cover the mould in oil, again to act as a release agent and stop everything sticking together and getting wrecked.

If you then roll out another ball of green stuff and you press this into the mould using the same method as you did with the item. Trying to keep it as flat and straight as possible. Make sure to use plenty of oil on anything that will touch the greenstuff to stop things sticking.

Leave this to cure again. Lots of waiting for this!
Once it’s cured you should be able to ‘peel’ away the green stuff from your mould and have a clone of your item.

All you have to do then is cut away the excess green stuff with a sharp blade as I’ve mostly finished doing in the pic below.

You can then repeat this as necessary. Hope that was of some use!

Provided by Elazar The Glorified

Giant Bomb have a quick look at the latest expansion for Dawn of War II. The Chaos Rising.

The first full expansion to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II. The game takes place one year after the events of Dawn of war II. Now the Blood Ravens are forced to liberate planet Aurelia from the evil grip of the Chaos Marines.

(News Source: Giant Bomb)

We hope to have limited stocks of the following brand new models to purchase at the show. This is a great opportunity to get hold of these great new models, well before their standard release date.

New Tau Battlesuits!

Our first exciting preview for the weekend are three new variant XV9 Battlesuits, which you can see below, and include a new Tau Commander. These fantastic and characterful new Tau battlesuits have been designed by Daren Parrwood. Rules for the XV9 can be found in Imperial Armour Apocalypse II.

First of a new set of resin upgrades for the plastic Stompa kit, we have a titan-killing Claw Arm, a new Ork Stompa Head complete with the baleful gaze of Mork (or possibly Gork) and fighting-platform jaw, and the devastating if dangerously erratic Lifta-Droppa! These wonderfully ramshackle looking sets have been designed by Stuart Williamson, with crew by Mark Bedford.

Ork Stompa Upgrades

Space Wolves Transfer Sheets

We also hope to have the first examples of our new Space Wolves Transfer Sheet available for sale at the Open Day. These large (A4) full colour sheets contain the symbols for each of the Space Wolves Great Companies, allowing you to customise the Sons of Fenris in any manner you choose. The sheet has over 400 symbols, including symbols sized for Terminator shoulder pads, and extensive wolf head and claw vehicle icons. The Space Wolves Transfer Sheet has been produced by Paul Rudge.

Imperial Armour Volume 8 Available for Pre-order!

As a special offer at Open Day 2010, attendees will be the first to be able to pre-order the soon-to-be-released Imperial Armour 8 -Raid on Kastorel-Novem. Copies paid for at the show will be signed by the author, and sent without any postage charge when the book is released.

Other New Models also Available at the Show

As featured in our last preview newsletter, we also expect to have Raven Guard Rhino Doors, Raven Guard Land Raider Doors, Raven Guard Terminator Land Raider Doors, Elysian Troops for the Valkyrie, the four wheeled Tauros Assault Vehicle, and our new show-only model for 2010, the Ork Runtbot with Grot available to buy in limited quantities.
Things to do at the Show

At the Forge World Open day, we’ll have all our studio staff on hand to answer your questions and show off lots of previously unseen models and other cool things we have in store for you. We’ll also have a well-stocked sales stand, participation games, a pre-production copy of our next Imperial armour book on display, and of course the facilities of Warhammer World and Bugman’s Bar will also be open.

You can also read their newsletter online here

(News Source: Forgeworld.co.uk)

GW has release a new terrain box set for Warhammer 40k. It’s the Honoured Imperium Kit. It has a section of ruined building, a broken Aquila, and a sweet looking 6” Space Marine statue. The Kit is available now for advanced order and will be ready for release on April 17. Check it out at

(News Source: Games Workshop)

This is a review about Meltaguns and other ranged Anit-tank weapons. Everything will come down to price, range, strength, ap, shots, and special abilities. We will also take time to review battlefield roles and what armies has that weapon. So you the reader can get the most out of you army and their anti-tank weapons.

Now this will cover most weapons with a strength 8 or better. We will also cover the Assault Cannon. You will see why later. This is a very good time to break out your codex. So you can follow with us. Now on too the good stuff. We shall start with the Meltagun.

Meltagun Family

• Melta and it’s cousins

Everyone has talked about the Meltagun being the ultimate anti-tank weapon sense the start of 5th edition. Let’s see why shall we? The Meltagun have a good strength at 8. That’s good for only costing around 10 points. This may vary from army to army. The Melta’s range is 12. All in all that’s bad. It only has a range of an average pistol. This is one of the best parts of the Melta. The Melta has a AP1. That cuts through all infantry if they do not have cover, or invulnerable saves. To make the AP1 even better, it grants a +1 on the vehicle damage table. Now that makes it even easier to destroy that Land Raider.

Next thing about the Melta is it only grants 1 shot per round. You will need a good number of them to get the best use out of them. You could just take 1 and hope your lucky, but that’s not the best of choices. The shots also count as Assault. So you can move, shoot, and assault if need be. Now the Meltagun has the Melta special rule. When your model is at a range of 1/2 maxium range or closer, it will grant a roll of 2d6 instead of 1d6 vs vehicle armor penetration rolls. That’s a very good rule, but what if you fail? You will most likely pay the piper.

The Melta has cousin weapons too. The Fusion Blaster from the Tau Empire. Then the Eldar has the Fusion gun and the better ranged Firepike. The Eldar also get the Fusion Pistol. It very short range at 6″ but, It has Pistol for it’s shots. So you can maybe get 2 shots, but only if you didn’t move. All Imperial Forces use the Meltagun. Chaos Space Marines also use the Meltagun.

Tau VX-8 Armed with Fusion Blaster

Eldar with Firepike

• Multi-Melta
  

Imperial Forces also can have probably the best version of the Meltagun. It’s the Multi-Melta, which has a better range. The shots are Heavy 1, which means you can not move and shot in the same round with Infantry. This really isn’t a big deal sense Multi-Meltas used mostly on Tanks.  Space Marine Devastators can carry the Multi-Melta but most of the time your not going to be moving them. Multi-melta cost more but, they are worth there weight in gold.

Space Marine Devastator with Multi-Melta

• Melta Cannon

The Melta cannon is another nasty version of the Multi-Melta. The Imperial Guard currently the only army to use this version. The Melta cannon has the same profile as the Multi-Melta but it uses the small blast template. It don’t seem like much but it will be a game changer. Right now it is only armed onto the Devildog but expect to see if mounted on other vehicles in the near future.

A Melta Cannon

• Combi-Melta

Next weapon in the Melta Family is the Combi-Melta. It’s a one shot per game Meltagun. It cost 5 points and it will come’s with a Bolter. The Combi-Melta is used by the Space Marines and their evil brothers the Chaos Space Marines. Big problem with the Combi-Melta is 1 fact. One shot wounder. It’s great when you take out a big point tank with a combi-Melta, but when you miss you use 5 points for nothing. So just for the cost of 5 more points. Get a normal Meltagun because, you can shoot that every round if need be. The only time to take a Combi-Melta is when you got 5 points to spare.

A Combi-Melta

Here we go an overview of the Melta family. Melta weapons are cheap, and very good at taking out tanks with a good shot. They have a shot range compared to other anti-tank weapon, but make it up with the Melta rule. Meltas can handle anything but mass infantry. The Melta is best used with other Meltas. If you don’t have a good amount of Melta weapons, then there use is limited. If your army has access, then take them and make them a common place within your army.

Lance Family

The Lance Family is a small Family. Used by the Eldar and their cousins the Dark Eldar. The Eldar gets the Bright Lance. The Dark Eldar gets the Dark Lance and the short range Blaster. The Bright Lance and the Dark Lance has a range of 36″, Strength 8, Ap 2, shots are Heavy 1. The blaster has a shorter range at 12″, but it’s shots are Assault 1. So moving and firing with a Blaster is good for a fast moving army like the Dark Eldar.

What makes them good? The fact that Bright Lance and Dark Lance out range even the Multi-melta. Weapons in the Lance family has the Lance special rule. When Lance weapons are shooting at a tank with a Armor value of 12 or higher counts as a 12. So this can take a better tank and turn it into wreckage.

Dark Eldar Ravager with Dark Lances

Now the Eldar has more weapons within the lance line. We shall be only talking about 1 of the 2. That is the Star Lance. It has a range of 6”, Strength of 8, an AP of 4, and shots of Assault 1. Great strength but very bad range. This should probably see very limited use. It’s AP doesn’t help much or the fact of how close you will need to be to the target. So all in all Lances are very good, but doesn’t match up to a Melta.

Eldar Bright Lance

Assault Cannons

Now on to the next weapon, the Assault Cannon. We are sure your asking why the Assault Cannon? Well even though is only has a Strength of 6 it has the Rending special rule. We will talk about more a little later. The Assault Cannon’s range is 24”. That is equal to the Multi-Melta. Then it has an AP of 4 with 4 shots per round. That’s a lot of hot lead flying down range. It’s a rare weapon, and only used with the Space Marines.

Now on to the Rending part. Rending gives an extra d3 to you Armor Penetration roll of 6. This make the Assault cannon max out at 15. Making that Strength of 6 be able to take out a Land Raider. Yes the Melta family has a better chance to take out a Land Raider but, in a bind this will help. It’s shots of 4 is  also very useful on the battlefield. For it can take out mass infantry as well as infantry with a high toughness.

Overview of the Assault Cannon. Useful for taking out infantry with it’s high amount of shots. Is it the best anti-tank weapon for taking out Land Raiders? No but, the Assault Cannon is still helpful in a bind. The Assault Cannon is useful vs light armor too.

Space Marine Terminator with Assault Cannon

Missile Launcher Family

One of the most common anti-tank weapons in the game. It has many forms. There is the Imperial version, Eldar version, and Chaos Space Marines has one. This list can just keeps going. I will break this family down by type.

• Imperial Version

The Imperial Version is the most common version. It’s use by most Imperial Forces and the Chaos Space Marines. This version fires a frag round or a krak round. This make this model very versatile. We at Librarium Online will only be talking about the Krak round.

The imperial version has a range of 48″. The Krak round has a Strength of  8 with an AP3. The Strength of 8 can not take out and Land Raider at all. The best you can do is get a glancing hit and maybe immobilize it. It is also a Heavy 1 weapon. All in all probably one of the worse anti-tank weapons. However it is versatile and can handle light armor like Rhinos and Chimeras with ease. It’s very cheap too. So cheap in fact, that a Space Marine Tactical squad can take them for free. Wowzer!!!!! So it does have a common place on the Battlefield.

Dark Angel with Missile Launcher

There is other versions for more specialized roles. Space Marine Terminators  get the Cyclone Missile Launcher for 30 points. It has the same stat line as the normal Imperial Missile Launcher, but it’s shots are heavy 2. This works well because the Terminator can move, shoot, and assault. Even though it’s a heavy weapon.

A Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher

The next model is the Typhoon model. This is generally the same thing as the cyclone, but is only mounted on the Land Speeder Typhoon. It cost 40 points plus the Land Speeder. This is a very good weapon to place on Land Speeders but, not in mass. Best way to go is 1 Typhoon with Heavy Bolter and 1 or 2 Tornadoes.

Land Speeder Typhoon.

• Ork Version

The Rokkit Launcha is different from the Imperial Missile Launcher and not just in it’s name. It has a Range 24”, Strength 8, AP 3, and shots of Assault 1. It cost around 10 points. It has the same anti-tank ability as the Imperial version but a shorter range and can not fire frag rounds. Well, what can it do? Move, shoot, and assault is the answer to that question. Orks is a non-stop army. So a Rokkit Launcha is a very important part of the Ork army. The Ork also lack in the Anti-tank area. So the Rokkit Launcha is very important part to the Orks in general.

Rokkit Launcha

• Eldar Version

The Eldar version is a little better then the Imperial version in one way. It fires a Strength 4 and AP 4 missile. The missile also has blast and pinning for special rules. Other wise It’s Krak missile is the same as the Imperial Version.

Eldar Missile Launcher

• Hunter-Killer Missiles and there cousins

Armies of the Imperium has a Infinite range Krak missile called a Hunter-Killer missile. It’s a good choice but only for the right units. The Hunter-Killer missile is only mounted on vehicles. The Hunter-Killer Missile is a 1 time use Krak missile. The best time to take them in your army is with vehicles that has no anti-tank weapons or very few of them. Such as a Predator with Twin Lascannons and side mounted Heavy Bolters. It’s a good back up choice for that lay out. Another good choice is a vehicle like the Hellhound as a just in case measure. Would It be good to take all the time? No probably not, there is better choices. You could take a meltagun, a Missile launcher, or maybe a commissar. All that can be said is take it if you got the 10 points and if you really need it.

Hunter-Killer Missiles for Imperial Aircraft

• Hellstrike Missiles

Currently used by the Imperial guard and the Imperial Navy, This has the same profile as the Hunter-Killer missile. It also gets ordnance as a special rule. Making this Missile a little deadlier. The Ordnance special rule will be covered later. The Hellstrike Mission also has a range of 72”. So it doesn’t have the range of a Hunter-Killer missile, but a range of 72” is still very good on the battlefield.

A Hellstrike Missile

• Seeker Missiles
  

There is another version of the Hunter-Killer missile. The Tau Empire has the Seeker missile. Now unlike the Imperial version you can take a few on one vehicle. The Vehicle also doesn’t need a line of sight, but someone with a marker light does. Please read your codex for more info about the Marker Light and the Seeker missile. Now it comes to is it worth it? Yes of course it is. The Tau Empire don’t have mobile heavy weapon like other forces do. It’s really sweet when you pop a tank with something your enemy can’t see, and at only 10 points per.

Tau Empire Seeker Missiles

• Ork Kannon

We shall place the Ork Kannon in the Missile Launcher family sense it functions the same way. You can fire Frag or Krak rounds out. The Krak rounds functions the same as the normal Imperial Missiles Launcher, but It has a range of 36″. It can be mounted on some tanks and as artillery. Read your codex for more information. It’s a good choice for an Ork army, but there is better choice’s. It’s battlefield role is the same as any other Missile Launcher.

Grots with Kannon

Overview of Missile Launchers. Missile Launchers are not the best anti-tank choice, but they are versatile and cheap. So they can be useful and remain as one of the most common anti-tank weapons on the battlefield. They are best for taking out light armor or good for side shots on heavier armor.

Lascannon Family

• Lascannon

Lascannons are a very common weapon for Imperial Forces. They can be use with heavy weapons teams, used on tanks, walkers, and even use on aircraft. It is not an uncommon sight for them to be twin linked or taken as a backup weapon for a main gun. Lascannons are used by Imperial forces and Chaos Space Marines.

They have a range of 48″, strength of 9, and an AP of 2. They can only shoot 1 time per round. This slow rate of fire is very common for anti-tank weapons. What make’s this weapon nice is the long range, high strength, and very low AP. The Lascannon can handle light tanks with ease and heavier tank with little difficulty. Even though not as good as the melta, it still has a very common place on the battlefield.

A Predator with Lascannons

• Zzap Gun

The Zzap Gun is used by the Ork. It is a less reliable version of the Lascannon. It has a range of 36”, 2d6 for the strength, and an AP of 2. The big problem is the strength of 2d6. This means the Zzap Gun is unpredictable and there is other problems with it’s unpredictability. Your Zzap Gun can explode kill the crew using it. It also doesn’t grantee that you can kill the Land Speeder, even if you hit. All in all this is a weapon not worth taking.

Zzap Gun with Grot crew

• Heavy Gauss Cannon

The next weapon we will take time to review is the Necrons Heavy Gauss Cannon. The reason it is being placed in this section is because, It is basically the Necron version of a Lascannon. It has the same strength, AP, and shots as the Lascannon. So what changes? The range is drop down to 36″ instead of 48″. The Heavy Gauss Cannon also gets the Gauss weapon special rule. The bonus of the Gauss special rules is in codex Nercons. We shall take time to talk about the Gauss special rule vs vehicles. When rolling the d6 for Armor Penetration and a 6 is scored. It will count as a Glancing hit, even if the weapon don’t have a score high enough to cause a Glancing hit. Now this don’t help a Heavy Gauss Cannon because of it having a strength of 9. So a roll of 6 will make 15, and 15 is a penetrating hit against everything. So does the Gauss special rule help the Heavy Gauss Cannon vs Tanks? Short answer is No. The Heavy Gauss Cannon has an important role for the Necrons, as it is one of the few anti-tank weapons they have.

Necron with Heavy Gauss Cannon

Railgun Family

• Railgun

This is a very powerful but very small family. Railguns are only used by the Tau Empire. They are mounted on the Hammerhead and the XV-88′s. The one mounted on the Hammerhead is capable of firing a sub-munition and a Solid shot. We will only take time to talk about the Solid shot. Railguns on the XV-88′s can only fire Solid shots, but they are twin-linked.

The Railgun firing Solid shot has a range of 72, strength of 10, AP of 1, and shots of 1. This is one of the best anit-tank weapons in the game. If not the best. Why? It can punch through a Land Raider armor like a 22 rifle through paper. It also make’s heavy tank armies nerves when there is a lot of Railgun on the table. It’s AP 1 grants a +1 on the Vehicle damage table.

Then there is the range of 72″. So it has a very chance to strike first and strike second if need be before, the target gets into it’s own range. The Railgun on the Hammerhead can also fire the Sub-munition onto incoming infantry. This ability of fire the Sub-munition make the Railgun much more versatile.

A Tau Empire Hammerhead with Railgun

So how does this rate vs the Melta? Well it’s stronger, has a better range, and on a Hammerhead it’s very deadly. The Melta family has things over the Railgun. Namely price and availability. Many more armies has access to something from the Melta family and Melta are a heck of a lot cheaper. This alone make’s the Melta family tower over the Tau Railguns.

Tau Empire XV-88′s with Twin Linked Railguns

Vanquisher Battle Cannon

The Vanquisher Battle Cannon is mounted on the Imperial Guard Leman Russ Vanquisher. It has a range of 72″, strength of 8, AP of 2, and shots of 1. What, makes this cannon so deadly is the fact it grants a 2d6 for Armor penetration rolls at any range. So is basically has the melta ability but better. Draw back is the Vanquisher Battle Cannon has an AP 2. So no bonus to vehicle damage. It also has a very limited use on the battlefield. Sense this is only mounted on the Leman Russ Vanquisher.

All in all Imperial Guard commanders should make this deadly tank as part of their main army. It has great stand off range and is a perfect choice  for Land Raider hunting. This great cannon can mount a co-axial heavy stubber for 10 points making this Cannon even deadlier. Please refer to the forgeworld site for more information.

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/pdf/IA1update28AUG.pdf

Leman Russ Vanquisher with co-axial Heavy Stubber.

Kustom Mega-Blasta

The Kustom Mega-Blasta is a very high tech weapon used mainly by Ork Meks. It is very uncommon and it is very expensive to have. It cost 20 points to upgrade a Killa Kan to have one. The range of a Kustom Mega-Blasta is 24”, the strength is 8, AP2 and shots is assault 1. It has the Gets Hot special rule. This can be bad, but it doesn’t happen a lot. So it’s not really a big deal. When it comes to hunting tank, It’s about the same as the Rokkit Launcha. You would have just a few in your Ork army.

An Ork Mek with Kustom Mega-Blasta

Prism Cannon

The Prism Cannon is a 2 setting Anti-infantry or Anti-Tank weapon. The dispersed setting is a large blast Anti-Infantry weapon. We will not really take time to talk about because it’s in the Anti-Infantry category. We at Librarium Online will be talking about the Focused setting, which if for Anti-Tank. The profile for the Prism Cannon in Focused setting is, range 60”, strength 9, AP 2, and shots are 1. It also has blast as a special bonus. It’s not precise, but is deadly. The Prism Cannon is used on the Eldar Fire Prism. It also is very deadly because, it out ranges most Anti-tank weapons.This weapon is great for use against light to heavy tanks, and even heavy infantry like Terminators.

Eldar Fire Prism

Exorcist Missile

The Exorcist missile is a missile system use by the Sister of Battle. Also Known as the Witch Hunters. It is mounted on the Exorcist tank. The Exorcist Missile has the following profile. Range 48, strength 8, AP 1, and shots are heavy d6. The shot can be deadly vs tanks because, you can roll a 6. This means you roll for 6 shots. The AP 1 also helps greatly, as it grants a +1 on the Vehicle Damage chart. To get the best use out of the Exorcist, us it like a normal missile launcher. So go after light to medium armored tanks.

Sisters of Battle Exorcist

Tyranid Anti-Tank family

We shall talk about 3 anti-tank weapons that stick out from the rest of the Tyranid new codex.

• Impaler Cannon

First weapon on the list is the Impaler Cannon. It has a range of 24”, strength of 8, an AP 4, and shots are assault 2. It’s special bonus is no line of sight. No line on sight is great because, you don’t need a line of sight. That’s a dee da dee. Next thing that makes this weapon great is the rate of fire. So you have an anti-tank weapon the can move, shoot, and assault. Plus! you don’t need a line of sight. Major flaw is the short range and AP. Other wise this is a worth while weapon.

The use is very basic. Sneak up on to the target from behind a high wall and go after weak points. Miss the first shot, well that’s not a big deal because you got 1 more. We’re sure Tyranid player’s everywhere love this thing.

Impaler Cannon

• Heavy Venom Cannon

While not the biggest or nastiest anti-tank the Tyranids have, the Heavy Venom Cannon is worth have in limited numbers. The stat profile isn’t the greatest though. It has a range 36”, strength 9, AP 4, and assault 1 for shots. Major down fall though, is the -1 to Vehicle damage. This don’t go into effect when the vehicle is open topped. So this weapon isn’t a bad choice when fighting Orks or Dark Eldar. Sense their vehicles main stay is open topped vehicles. It not a bad choice vs other armies vehicles, but it’s not as effective.

Hive Tyrant with Heavy Venom Cannon

• Rupture Cannon

This is the strongest of the Tyranid weapons. The Rupture Cannon is a range 48”, strength 10, AP4, and shoots assault 2 weapon. This is probably the fastest rate of fire, on a weapon with a strength this high. All in all this is one of the best weapons to have in the Tyranid arsenal. It is a good choice for taking out heavier armor, such as Land Raiders or Leman Russ Russ Battle Tanks, and makes minced meat out of lighter Wartrukks.

Tyrannofex armed with Rupture Cannon

Ordnance Family

Weapons of the Ordnance Family is probably the largest weapons found on the Battlefield. All ordnance weapon are a very formidable anti-tank weapon. They use the large blast template. They also get a 2d6 pick the highest for Armor penetration rolls. Downfall is the center hole of the Large blast template or pie plate must be over the hull of the tank to get a full strength hit. You also must roll the scatter dice to see if it scatters off course. You subtract the gunners BS from the scatter dice roll, sense you need a line of sight to use them.

• Battle Cannon

Probably one of the more common Ordnance weapon is the Battle Cannon. It use by Chaos Space Marines, Space Marines, and the Imperial guard. It has a range of 72”, strength of 8, AP 3, and shots are 1. It is best used like a Missile Launcher, but it also has a better chance to go after the heavier tank. It’s AP 3 make’s it a good choice for taking out Space Marines with little problem, or horde Orks for all that matters. The Battle Cannon is a very good choice in limited numbers.

A Leman Russ Battle Tank with Battle Cannon

• Medusa Siege Cannon

The Medusa cannon is used on the Imperial Guard Medusa. It has a range of 36″, strength 10, AP 2, and shots are 1 ordnance. It is a Demolisher cannon with a better range in most respects.

A Medusa

• Boomgun

Next weapon in the Ordnance family is the Boomgun. This is the Orks version of a Battle Cannon. It just has a shorter range at 36”, instead of 72”. This pretty much has the same battlefield role as the Battle Cannon.

Ork Looted wagon with Boomgun

• Demolisher Cannon

The Demolisher Cannon is next of the list of the Ordnance family. The Demolisher Cannon is the most common of all the Ordnance weapon. It’s mounted on a good number of chassis. The Imperial Guard Leman Russ Demolisher, Space Marine Vindicator, Chaos Space Marine Vindicator, and the Imperial Guard Thunderer Siege Tank. That’s just to name a few. Now on to the profile. It has a range of 24”, strength 10, AP 2, and shots of 1. The strength and ordnance special rule makes the best choice out of the ordnance family. It’s best uses are to take out heavy tanks, and level buildings.

Chaos Space Marine Vindicator

• Partical Whip

Next is the Necron Partical Whip. It’s use on the Monolith and it’s the Necrons best choice for ranged anti-tank weapons. It has a range of 24”, strength 9, an AP of 3, and shots of 1. It doesn’t have the greatest of range or strength, but is still deadly in it’s own right. The ordnance special rules make’s it a better choice for taking out Space Marines and tanks with armor 13 to 14.

Necron Monolith with Partical Whip

Ordnance Barrage Family

This is one of the smaller sections of this whole guide. The Imperial Guard is the only army currently with this family of  anti-tank weapon. Ordnance barrage weapon use all the same special rules as ordnance, but they also have other rules. Ordnance barrage doesn’t need a line of sight to fire. You can instead fire them as barrage. This allows you to fire over terrain, but you must guess the range.

You also do not subtract the BS from your scatter die roll. You also must remain stationary to fire like this. Most Ordnance barrage weapons also has a minimal range when fire like this. Scored hits from a Ordnance Barrage weapon go against a vehicles side armor. Infantry also must make a pin test with a -1 to their Ld. Ordnance barrage can also shoot like normal ordnance weapons unless notes.

• Earthshaker Cannon

First on the list is the Earthshaker Cannon. It has a range 32-240”, strength 9, AP 3, and shots are 1 ordnance blast. This is the more basic Ordnance barrage weapon.

Basilisk

• Storm Eagle Rockets

Now on to the Storm Eagle Rocket. Storm Eagle Rockets are the weapon of the Imperial Guard Manticore. They have a range of 24-120”, strength of 10, and it’s AP is 4. What makes this really stand out is it’s shots of d3. It random shot amount can be very nasty.

Manticore with Storm Eagle Rockets.

• Deathstrike Missile Launcher

This is one of the most impractical weapons and I want to hear people’s comments on the Deathstrike Missile Launcher. It’s used by the Imperial Guard on their Deathstrike. It has a range of 12-960”, strength 10, AP 1, and is a one shot per game.

I want comment on it ungodly range of 960”. Why in 40k do you need a range like this?!?! I also joke about to other players about this. I’m going to shot your table 50 miles way from my living room. Mean come on, do you really need this. I understand for fluff because it’s like the old school ICBM missile carriers.

A Soviet SS-27 Stalin

The Deathstrike also has tons of special rules. T-Minus 5 minutes to launch… and counting. This is a countdown rule and please review your codex for full information. The Deathstrike has a random blast disk size. The size is rolled when fired and it’s d3+3”. The Deathstrike’s blast disk is a strength 10 vs vehicles, not just the center hole. The Deathstrike also voids cover.  All in all this is a one trick pony and is very impractical to use.

Deathstrike

A final note

Are Meltas the best tank hunting weapons on the battlefield? No, but they are a very common place and are up there in the chain of anti-tank weapon. Also, when Meltas are use correctly with other anti-tank weapons it makes for a very deadly combo.

There are also other weapon that can be use for anit-tank that didn’t appear here. Such as the Autocannon. While not the best choice, it can still kill of light armor vehicles with ease.

A lot of people are interested in making their own characters or vehicles or respective rules for them. But what is the best way to do it? The golden rule on 40K is that you play to have fun, so whatever is the most fun is the best way. But remember you play with others so you have to keep them in mind when making up your rules. Here are some helpful steps and things to keep in mind when you begin concocting your unique characters for campaigns, fun play, or just to see what kind of damage you could unleash.

For the purposes of these explanations, we will be using two different characters and make them up as we go along. The first is the venerable Warmaster Horus, who we will construct using existing information. The second is the daft Hill Billy Bob, who we will construct from thin air. Let us begin with Hill Billy Bob.

Step 1. Concept.
The concept is the most crucial portion of the process as it determines the roads in which all other processes take place. You can’t concept an infantry unit and then give him vehicle stats now could you? The concept is simple enough; what would I like to see in the game? The answer, Hill Billy Bob. Now you have an idea brewing and begin to put your concept down on paper; perhaps even a few supporting sketches. After of which, you will have a pretty good idea of where to go from here…

Step 2. Fluff.
This is the back story of your character. Begin with the simple things first; name, look, what he does for a living, who are his closest friends, how many times he got rejected by Christy the class prom queen and other assorted fluff. You can feel free to go crazy nuts if you like, but keep in mind other players may simply roll their eyes at you and say; “Sure, whatever Bob.” It may become important later, but for now, this is simply a narrative, however long you wish, on why this character is who they are.

Our hero, Hill Billy Bob was a quiet mountain goat farmer on Ithcar 7. How he loved his goats; caring for their every waking need and desire. Most say he loved them a little too much; but no one ever cared to think about it too much, for he smelled like goat most of the time. He had a bright yellow straw hat, a trusty rusty pitchfork and was usually seen chewing on a straw of hay. When angered, he would bust out his trusty saw off shotgun and defend the honor of his goats. “Ya cana get oatz wi’out dem goatz.” He used to always say. It wasn’t until a scouting Genestealer entered his goat farm that he was introduced to the world of 40K. Luckily for him, the beast was devourering a goat when he managed to poke out his eyes with his trusty rusty pitch fork, only to finally finish the beast with his shotgun at range. Impressed by his moxie, he was enlisted in the imperial guard; but still carries his usual wears to this day.

Step 3. Basic statistical information.
The easiest thing to do is begin with a stat line of a similar concept. So what do we know about Hill Billy Bob? He’s human and a member of the imperial guard, so we can begin with that. I suggest using this vertical template for ease of view.

WS 3
BS 3
S 3
T 3
W 1
I 3
A 1
Ld 6
Sv 6+

But is there anything more special about him beyond a human? Not as far as we can tell, so there isn’t a need to adjust his basic information beyond that. He’s not a crack shot, especially tough, or even brave for that matter. He’s just a humble goat farmer in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Step 4. Special rules.
This is where everything gets a little crazy. The first thing you need to do is review the fluff of the character. What do we know about him? And then equally important; what do we want to see him do in the game? Rereading the fluff, there are a few things that stick out. As we’re having fun here, we’re going to be a little silly.

Bright Yellow Straw hat. Hill Billy Bob is always seen wearing a bright yellow straw hat. It’s so bright yellow and horribly white trash that it could be seen from outer space. Enemy units do not have to take priority test to shoot at the unit HBB is attached too, check sight against Night Fight related rules and the unit HBB is attached to decrease their cover save by 1 (4+ nor becomes 5+ and so on).

We have a very interesting special rule to start us off. But let’s keep going with some more fluff related information we have available to us…

Trusty Rusty Pitch Fork. HBB always carries his TRPF and will use it in combat over any other weapon. He is treated as always having 1 attack and may not increase it by any means other than charging. The TRPF is quite rusty and any rolls of 1 to hit will result in a self inflicted hit against HBB, rolling to wound and against armor as normal. However, the rust is also quite affective as it delivers a dangerous amount of tetanus to the victim; all wounds inflicted by the TRPF are doubled.

Sawed Off Shotgun. HBB shotgun has been slightly modified HBB style. It is treated as a normal shotgun that may reroll failed to hit rolls as it scatters wildly into the targets.

Hill Billy Moxie. HBB is renown for his moxie and plain dumb luck. He and the unit he is attached to may reroll a single dice for any morale check they are forced to make.

Now we have a few very bizarre and confusingly foolish to use in the game mechanics special rules for Hill Billy Bob. You may choose to create a rule for every single note in the fluff of your creature, or keep it simple and get a few important rules you want into his statistical information. Of course you need to keep in mind that you will need to keep in mind every single rule your character has throughout the length of your game. This can become much more confusing with each new special rule added.

Step 5. Points Values.
Using the same basic statistical information you took from a similar character concept, you should begin with the same points values they posses, and then begins increasing it based on the equipment upgrades available to that unit. For example, if your Guard costs 10pts and a shotgun upgrade costs him 2pts, HBB would start at 12pts before factoring in any special rules.

Special rules are slightly tricky to cost out. A good way to start is look at the relative point costs of another unit that possess that rule. As an example, say another IG unit has furious charge and you wanted to give that to HBB. How much more is that unit compared to the base used for HBB? Can you purchase that skill through another codex somewhere? There could easily be a cost for something similar somewhere, you just have to look for it.

But, sometimes you run across some crazy rules that you’re just not sure should cost what. A few questions should be raised to assist; how powerful is this ability? How many times could it be used in a game? What does it affectively do? Having a permanent +1 to S & Initiative is certainly more powerful than simply having furious charge, so it would naturally cost more. Use common sense here.

However, HBB rules aren’t exactly helpful to those support him in his unit. It’s practically suicide for anyone to associate with him, so that gives us an edge. Using our examples, he’s currently sitting at 12pts. His Yellow Hat rules screws the player in a few ways, since 3 rules are listed, that’s going to be 3 pts in our favor. Down to 9 pts. His pitch fork is harmful in two ways but doubles the wounds he can put out, it’s a wash really. The sawed of shotgun is nice as we can reroll failed hits for the duration of the game, easily worth 2 pts, up to 11. The moxie isn’t bad either but we only get a single roll when we have to take tests, let’s say 1 pt, back up to 12pts.

So there you have it. We just made a special character worth 12 pts that can be attached to any squad we want! I bet you’re just dying to try him out aren’t you?

Step 6. Review.
It’s always a good idea to go over your character with a fine tooth comb and insure all the necessary rules are there, point costs, descriptions, etc. Double check your point costs and adjust them as you feel necessary, fix grammar in your fluff and finally post him to be reviewed by others for feedback and approval.

Hill Billy Bob is a great addition to any IG army, and I would never raise a stink if you really wanted to use him in any game. In fact, I’m sure you wouldn’t have an issue with him either. Would anyone? I mean, this guy hurts you more than he helps you. But that’s just some of the fun you can have. Orcs anyone?

Now we’re going to use the same ideas to create Warmaster Horus. Keep in mind the silver rule; would you play against him?

Step 1. Concept.
The worst you can get. The first son fallen from grace corrupted by the influence of pretty much every existing Chaos God at the time. One powerful primarch with a heart of pure evil.

Step 2. Fluff.
There’s so much we could go through but we’ll cover some basics; Primarch, brilliant tactician, Talon of Horus, slightly insane, Chapter Master, Warmaster of the entire Marine Legion at one point, unrivaled in combat, etc.

Step 3. Basic Statistical Information.
Primarchs are above Space Marines as they are above Humans. Plus he’s a badass in every fluff piece you could read on him.

WS 7
BS 7
S 7
T 7
W 7
I 7
A 7
Ld. 10
Sv. 2+/3+

Now why did I go with 7’s across the board? Considering SM Commanders have 2 pts in statistical values above Imperial Guard in almost all stats, it seemed a good way to start. He was also not good at just one thing, but a master of everything. He also easily beat someone able to beat a Blood Thirster with relative ease, so it would reflect well on his stat line. It’s not that he’s better at everyone in everything, but that he better in everything else you aren’t. Stat line alone, he’s strong enough to take on everything in game, even Gargantuan Creatures.

Step 4. Special Rules.
We have loads of fluff with him, so let’s start going through some of the basics we listed.

Standard Gear; Terminator Armor, Independent Character (Unless accompanied by body guard), Master Crafted Storm Bolter, Talon of Horus, Frag & Krak Grenades, Melta-Bombs, Mark of the Chaos Chosen.

Master Tactician. Horus is renown for his tactics on the battlefield, eventually leading him to oversee the entirety of the Space Marine Legions at the closing of the great crusades. The controlling player may use any and all special rules for their army regardless of the mission type being played. In addition, the controlling player may choose to redeploy D6 units after both players have deployed and may reroll to see who chooses 1st or 2nd turn.

Warmaster. Horus was the Warmaster of the Entire Imperial Forces; all of them! He may choose to ignore any unit restrictions (0-1) for his army and may take any Imperial Unit or Formation in his army; Space Marine or Imperial Guard. He may not use Sisters of Battle or The Inquisition as they were not as developed as they are now.

Chapter Master. Horus may be joined by any bodyguard of his choice, who gain his skills as long as they remain a single unit. All others in his army become fearless within 12” of Horus.

Unrivaled Martial Skill. Horus is considered to have the following skills; Fearless, Counter Attack, Furious Charge, Preferred Enemy and Hit & Run.

Talon of Horus. In addition to wielding a variety of weapons, Horus wields his deadly Talon. It is treated as a master crafted lightning claw, so may reroll failed hits and wounds. As it is used in conjunction with other weapons, he gains +1 attack at all times (not included in his profile).

The Chosen of Chaos. Horus was granted powers by all the Gods of Chaos, which provide him many benefits. The first increases his invulnerable save to 3+. The second allows him to ignore any psychic attack against him or his unit on a 2+. The third and final power allows him to ignore any ill effects the Warp may have on weary trespassers; he does not scatter when deep-striking.

I think we’ll stop there. It’s more than likely we could keep going creating rules associated to all the nifty fluff he has, but after a while it starts getting a little confusing and ridiculous. After all, he’s ridiculously strong with all of these rules anyway, does he need to be even worse?

Step 5. Points Values.
So what basics do we have to work with? Maybe a Chaos Lord rocking terminator armor, a lightning claw and some marks to start. So let’s say 200 base. With a giant boost to the stat line though, not quite 100% but enough, let’s bring him up to 300. We have 6 incredibly strong special rules, we’ll try to go through each one. The first gives us 3 awesome easily worth at least 10 pts a piece, up to 330. The 2nd gives us 2 additional abilities against worth at least 10 pts each, up to 350. The 3rd grants us 2 more abilities; up to 370. The 4th gives him 6 more abilities, up to 430. The 5th gives him 2 more abilities, up to 450. The 6th gives him 3 more abilities, up to 480.

Now I decided to use a basic 10 pts per ability as an example. Something that benefits him solely should be priced differently than something the benefits your army. As an example, allowing you to ignore unit restrictions is pretty huge, which would be priced higher than have a master crafted lightning claw. Anything that benefits others should always cost more, so paying for others to be fearless will cost more than simply paying for him to be fearless.

Using these basic point costs, you can see he should be NO LESS than 480 points. But again, we only used 10 pts per ability, some of which you should certainly have to pay more for. I certainly wouldn’t allow him to be played at 480 pts, he’s just too heinous. Realistically, he should be priced closer to 1000 pts.

Step 6. Review.
He’s Horus, he’s insane; you can’t really get much more into it. That stat line and rule set reflects that.

So there you have it. 6 fairly simple steps to use to create specialized characters, or monstrous, creature or vehicles. Some things to think about mainly and some examples of how to translate fluff into game mechanics. And if you’re really stuck on what points should cost, here is a really easy cost evaluation cheat sheet to consider (trying to work out the formula, so you math people can go nuts)… 1pt per stat or per die roll per turn.

Furious Charge gives you 2 extra stats during assaults. Average of 6 turns in a game, assuming charges in each player turn, 12 pts. Realistically, you may get 1 charge off in a single game, so you could start with 2 pts and increase as neccessary.

Rerolls wounds, affects someone with 3 base attacks. Average of 6 turns in a game, assuming wounding in each turn, 18 pts. Realistically, this is probably only in melee and you need to get there first, so maybe 4 turns total; 12 pts.

Want your SM Captain to have T 6, 2 stat points static for the average of a 6 turn game; 12 pts. This is active all the time, no realistic adjustment needed.

Simple isn’t it?

This gives your troops a slight advantage in hand to hand over regular humans and gives them an acceptable leadership value.

You are also getting the shurkien catapult for your points. This weapon itself is worth 2 points and is easily the equilivant of a bolter. The trick with this weapon is to realise that its an assult 2 weapon, and needs to be utilized as such.
Its an infantry shredder, and is great for just that purpose. It works best vs light infantry, but can be used vs tougher foes with lesser results.

You also get fleet of foot with your guardian unit. This will probably be negated by the heavy weapons platform, but it is worth note here.

For an extra 2 points you can give your squad plasma gernades. Given that defenders are not naturally troopers designed for hand to hand, that is not the best option for your troops.

The Size Matters

The first thing to consider is how big your squad will be. Many people think that you should go with a 20 man squad. This can get rather cumbersome when you add a warlock and heavy weapons squad. This means your squad is 23 souls strong, which can be a bad thing.

Large units must be spread out. This is to prevent being torn apart by blast templates. You need to try and keep your figures 2 inches apart at all times, so a blast template will only get 3 or 4 people tops.
This means thats its easy for some of your figures to not be in cover where the rest are.

Large units are easy to bog down. A guardian squad is not designed to get into hand to hand combat, but with a large until, its easier for an opponet to get his chaos space marines into contact with just one of your pieces and then tie your entire unit up in combat.

Large units cannot fully bring their firepower to bear. Remember that your shuriken catapults only have a 12 inch range. This means that if your unit is 23 souls strong, its quite possible that only 10 or 15 of them will actually be in range to use their weapons.

I have found that the best size for guardian squads are 10 guardians, 2 support weapons guardians, and one warlock, for a total of 13 souls. This keeps the squad large enough to absorb hits, but small enough to not easily get bogged down in fights.

The Purpose

Defender Guardian squads should never be just ‘filler’ in your army. If you are just looking to fill the two troop requirements, then use scout squads. Guardians are very effective but they must be used properly.

The guardian defender squads are quite flexable. They are naturally very good aginst light targets, such as imperial guard or orks and you need to consider how you are going to build and use your guardians.

Most of the time, your guardians are bullet catchers for your more valueable troops. They are designed to stand in front of your troops and absorb some of the brunt.
While moving foward and providing cover fire they will help to support your main troops. When you get in close, they will provide a large rush of fire into the enemy ranks and allow for your more heavy combat squad, such as scorpions to engage the enemy.

Again, guardians are the bullet-catchers of your army. That is why you have spent eight points on that trooper with the soul gem on his or her chest. Do not mind when they die, and smile becuase you know that they will come back as a wraithguard or wraithlord. Every time you lose a guardian, tell yourself that at least you are not losing a fire dragon.

Sometimes guardians will be used as a fire support. Now, this is a fairly expensive option, as a guardian squad designed for heavy weapons fire can be quite costly, its also one of the more resiliant units in the game.
When you compare a 13 soul guardian unit under the effects of ‘conceal’ by a warlock you have a unit that can take a great deal more hits than the vyper jetbike. As the heavy weapon and warlock are the last troops to go, the enemy has to cut through 11 untils before making the until not able to strike at the opponet.

I have found that the best results with guardians is to put an avatar and/or wraithlords mixed in with them. The wraithlords will keep the enemy from wanting to get near your guardians, and they will constantly back up as your guardians advance.
The avatar, while not as frightening as a wraithlord, will still give your troops the much needed morale bonus in hand to hand.

The Weapon Platform

How to use the heavy weapon platform is up to you. There are one of two approaches to take with your heavy weapons platform.

You can make your platform an anti-infantry platform, such as a starcannon. This choice means your squad will be geared twords anti-infantry and fits in nicely with the rest of your squads shuriken catapults.

You can make your platform a heavy weapon, such as the bright lance. This means that while approaching you can use your squad to take shots at those heavy vehicles while advancing. If you have a warlock with a shining spear, then you can also toss that as a nearby vehicle on your way into the fight.

It is important to not that the weapon platform is NOT cheap. You are paying 50 points for a weapon that fits onto a vyper for 15 points. The reason for this is because the weapon is more protected than it would be on a vyper.
The end result though is that a five man guardian unit sporting a heavy weapon in the back if your line is a poor investment of points.

The Warlock

The warlock gives some added hand to hand ability to the squad, in addition to giving the warlock power of conceal to the squad. This is often the most useful power that a warlock can give to a squad, as it gives a cover save (invulnerable) of a 5+.
This helps to bolster your troops low armor, and will help to keep them around a bit longer.

A witch blade or singing spear on your warlock is not always a good weapon choice.
As the squad is really not designed for hand to hand, it may not be adviseable to spend 15 or 18 points on your warlock.
If you were to save those 15 points on four guardian squads, thats a total of a 60 point savings overall. You can use those points more effectivly elsewhere.

The exception to this is if you want your warlock to have an extra punch vs vehicles its not a bad idea to get a witch blade. From many games of experience, however, it has been discovered that those points are best spent elsewhere.

The Book

The book itself is in the usual Forgeworld format; an A4 hardback jam-packed full of ‘action’ photos, coloured schematics and blueprint diagrams.   The book is of excellent quality, being well written, superbly illustrated and having more than enough fluff for the fluff addicts!   It’ll provide a good read (or look at the pretty pictures if you’re anything like me!) to everyone who is into 40K.  Following is an overview of the book contents:

Page 1-5: Contents, forward etc.
Page 6-18: Rules section
Page 20-33:  Squadron lists and aircraft data sheets, basically a small codex for each of the current factions available to play in AI.
Page 34-147: Fluff section, covering all the aircraft available in the game with ‘action’ photos, schematics, colour schemes and written information detailing how the aircraft operates, its role and other such information.  This section takes up most of the book and is a really great read.
Page 148-165: Scenarios, featuring reenactments of numerous important air battles that have occurred in the 40K universe.  These include some taken from the previous Imperial Armour 3 book and other 40K literature.  Also included in this section are the campaign rules, which add several things, including the use of ‘ace’ pilots in your squadron.
Page 166+: Support materials such as appendices and hreference sheets.

The Rules

The rules for AI have some similarities with those of Battlefleet Gothic.  Movement is a constant fluid affair, there are special orders you can give pilots and shooting is affected to varying degrees by range.  There are many differences between the two games however, such as the maneuvering system and the fact that in AI you can crash into the ground!  Perhaps the most striking difference between AI and most other GW games is that both players move, maneuver, shoot and do everything else in the same turn.  Every action is carried out in initiative order, which is determined by a D6 roll at the beginning of the turn.  The turn is split up into several phases as per usual, including the movement, shooting and end phases.

During the movement phase you must move all your aircraft.  The only exceptions to this are VTOL aircraft (such as vultures) and aircraft that have landed.  Movement distance can be altered by applying engine power (thrust) to change your speed.  At one point in your movement you must use a maneuver card, which will have been chosen before any movement takes place.  These maneuver cards vary from complex turns and spirals to flying straight on, and can alter you aircrafts’ altitude.  The fact you have to choose all you aircrafts’ maneuver cards before you (or your opponent) move any aircraft adds an element of forward thinking and luck to the game.  Movement is carried out in initiative order, meaning that if player A had the initiative that turn, he would move one aircraft, then player B would move one, then player A would move another and so on.  Be careful how you move your aircraft however; you don’t want to stall their engines or cause them to crash into the sides of hills!

The shooting phase proceeds in the same initiative type order that is used in the movement phase.  Each aircraft gets to unleash its weaponry, with extra shooting bonuses for successfully tailing enemy aircraft.  Range has an effect on shooting in AI, with the general rule being that the further you are from the target the less effective your shooting will be.  There are several types of shooting, such as air-to-air, air-to-ground strafing runs and high-level bombing.  Each of these types of shooting has different rules giving each a distinctive flavour.  Air-to-air shooting covers the fast paced and deadly dance of death that is a dogfight, and requires that you be fairly close to your target (in both range and altitude terms).  Strafing runs require that you be very close to the ground and expose you to lethal anti-aircraft fire from ground defences.  Alternatively you can drop bombs from high up by carrying out high-level bombing runs.  This type of attack isn’t very precise though, as bombs can drift and damage structures other than your intended target.

The end phase is where you work out things like disengaging (carried out by flying off the table edge, or up off the top of the table into orbit!) and carry out other book keeping activities.  All in all the rules provide a fast paced, enjoyable gaming experience that emphasizes forward thinking and educated guesswork for success

The Factions

There are six separate factions available to the AI player.  Each of these has different strengths and weaknesses depending on who they are.  For example the Eldar have the fastest, most maneuverable aircraft.  As might be expected the Imperial Navy and Space Marines can freely mix aircraft from each other’s squadrons.  Below are a few details on each of the separate air forces.

The Imperial Navy has the largest variety of aircraft, enabling them to deploy a force well suited to any role.  The Lightning can perform exceptional maneuvers whilst the Thunderbolt is heavily armed and durable.  Marauder bombers provide high-level saturation bombing whilst the Marauder destroyers descend for low level strafing and attack runs. The Imperium also has access to VTOL craft in the form of the Vulture and Valkyrie, a good number of ground defenses and some non-combatant craft like the Arvus Lighter.  A good all round squadron.

Space Marines make an appearance in Aeronautica Imperialis inside the venerable ceramite hulls of the Thunderhawk Gunship and the Thunderhawk Transporter.  These gunships are very powerful, with numerous hit points and multiple weapons systems – and Turbo-lasers!  Whilst they have no fighters to speak of, Space Marines can be taken with an Imperial Navy squadron and add a hard edge of pilot experience and Marine durability to the fight.  As you might expect, the Thunderhawk’s main strength is its ability to land troops through the most solid defense, and they have a strong air-to-ground capacity.

The foul servants of the dark gods take to the skies in wickedly nimble aircraft known as Hell Claws and Hell Talons.  These aircraft are fast and heavily armed, but are quite fragile.  Each craft can level an impressive display of firepower in the forward arc, and use it to good effect to claim yet more souls for their loathsome masters.  No ground defenses to speak of, but that just leaves you more points to spend on aircraft.  FOR THE DARK GODS!

Its time for WAAAGH from above!  The Orks take to the skies in the infamous Fighta and Fighta-Bomma!  Whilst they are not overly maneuverable or efficient, each can carry various payloads and pack a mighty punch in the forward arc.  To let an Ork Fighta tail you is to invite certain doom with the staccato rattle of quad ‘Eavy Shootas!  A good range of ground defenses rounds out the Ork Air WAAAGH nicely.  But what could be more deadly, brutal and utterly hilarious than a Grot Bomb?  One of the best things about the Ork air WAAAGH, grot bombs are taken as payloads on other Ork aircraft and zoom toward certain death when launched – brilliant!

The greater good have a large selection of aircraft, second only to the Imperial Navy for choice.  From the sleek Barracuda fighter through to the gargantuan Manta dropship, the Tau have an aircraft for every role.  Roughly comparable to the Imperial Navy, the Air Caste does indeed do its part for the greater good.  As well as good aircraft, the Tau have access to one of the best anti-aircraft ground defenses in the game – the Skyray Gunship.  The only things the Tau force lacks are high-level bombers, but the potent seeker missiles carried in their bomb bays compensate this for.

Insanely fast, impossibly agile, the Eldar speed into combat in aircraft hated and feared by the pilots of other races.  As you would expect, Eldar aircraft put those of other races to shame; with their largest aircraft as maneuverable as Imperial fighters.  To counterbalance this, they are rather expensive and lack any high-level ground attack capability at all.  From the lethal maneuverability of the Nighthawk to the potent grace of the Vampire Hunter, the Eldar Skyhost is a force to be feared in the dogfights of the 40k universe.

The Squadron

The ‘army’ you collect for AI is hreferred to as a squadron.  A squadron can be any size and can contain any mix of fighters, bombers, landing craft and ground defenses you wish it to.  Each faction must adhere to its own squadron list, with the sole exception of the Imperial Navy and Space Marines, who can mix into a single squadron.  Most aircraft start at around 15-20 points and can be upgraded with additional payloads, but some are far more expensive then this.  The largest one-off engagements in the book suggest playing with 200 points worth of aircraft, so you should be able to play almost every scenario after collecting around ten aircraft.  You may need more aircraft to play a campaign however.

The Models

The models themselves are highly detailed resin multi-piece sets.  As is usual, Forgeworld have done a stunning job on making these things look fantastic, but still have some trouble with their quality control.  As has been previously mentioned, the models are on the same scale are those used in Epic Armageddon, meaning transport and storage should also be a doddle!  Each model comes with a special AI base, which has fire arcs printed onto it, and speed & altitude dials built into the sides.  All in all I would say the models are very impressive, and look really nice when painted.

So ends my brief intro to AI.  I hope this article has answered any questions you had about the game and perhaps persuaded you to give AI a try.  Feel free to PM me with any further questions or post a thread in the ‘Other 40K Games’ forum on LO.  Also, be sure to head over to the Forgeworld website (www.forgeworld.co.uk) and take a peak yourself.

Cheers,
Rich.

Following the example of Games Workshop, I introduce to you “Getting Started.�? I hope you enjoy!

Hmm … what type of a game is Warhammer 40,000?

Warhammer 40,000 (or 40k, as it is popularly shortened to) is a tabletop war game that utilises models to represent units and armies. It is very much a strategy-based game, however, it is much more forgiving in this respect than its cousin, Warhammer Fantasy Battles.

Models and units are assigned specific “point�? values, with which you use to make army lists with – more on this later. Using these army lists, and the models that represent your units, you play a turn-based game against one or more opponents to decide a victor. Very similar, actually, to many video games, board games, and other strategy games, but with its own, unique feel.

The game is set in the far distant future – maybe even in a different galaxy – where battles are fought all across space by typical and not-so-typical armies. More on the armies later.

If you are intrigued by a popular, scifi-based tabletop war game with what can be lovely models, great stories, popularity, and versatility, then this is the hobby for you, and read on.

Ouch … look at that price! Do I really have to spend all that?

Ahh, the biggest turn off from Warhammer 40k – the price. Granted, Games Workshop models and books are incredibly expensive, and many skeptics will ask you the simple question, “are you getting your money’s worth?�? Many of them won’t think so, but I disagree. If you like this type of game, then you are definitely getting your money’s worth.

Look at it this way – think about your other hobbies; hobbies such as reading, video games, paintball, sports, and anything else that you enjoy doing. Don’t these hobbies cost you, sometimes a lot of money, to get what you want? Video games are approaching $50 and $60 to buy, not to mention the systems. Books cost between $5 and $20 for simply reading a few times in your life! By these standards, Warhammer 40k is by no means the most expensive hobby in the world.

If it’s going to become a hobby, doesn’t that mean that it is worth spending money on? Many people, including myself, tend to think so.

Hm … well, that makes sense. What types of armies are there?

The game of Warhammer 40k offers eleven unique armies to choose from. Keep in mind, this is not all of the customisation available to you – there are variations on each army and differences that you can make in your army lists, which will be covered later. Here, I’ll just provide a short summary of the armies available to you. Just click the name of the army to be taken to a Getting Started section of the Games Workshop website. Ready?

Space Marines: Space Marines are probably one of the most notable armies when you look at Warhammer 40k. Quite easily the most player-abundant army, Space Marines are the super-humans of the 41st century, super soldiers who defend the Imperium of Mankind from all kinds of threats. Gameplay-wise, they are a very balanced force that can be used to do pretty much anything you require of them. Many players would agree that they are a very good starting army.

Chaos Space Marines: The evil brethren of the heroic Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines are Space Marines who long ago broke away from the Imperium, either in simple rebellion or to join the forces of the evil Chaos Gods. There are four major Chaos Gods, and by playing this army you can choose to follow any of them if you so desire. Overall, they play very similar to Space Marines, with a few interesting quirks, and are quite capable of satisfying your inner evil.

Daemon Hunters: Ahh, the Paladins of the 41st century. The Daemon Hunters are an elite faction of the Inquisition (an organisation in the Imperium of Man) who … well, hunt Daemons! They despise Chaos even more than the typical good guy and hunt them whenever they can. They use exclusively a special force of ultra-elite Space Marines called the Grey Knights, who are trained to hunt and defeat Chaos. Gameplay-wise, they have similar abilities to standard Space Marines, but lack in their overall versatility. They are also, as suggested, incredibly elite – they are more often than not outnumbered on the field of battle, but make up for this lack in sheer power.

Tau Empire: The Tau are a relatively new race in the world of Warhammer 40k, but are still quite a force. While they are not super-humans (nay, they are not human at all!), they do not lack in some serious combat prowess, forging their new Empire across the galaxy in the name of the Greater Good. The Tau are a very shooty army, gameplay-wise, and rely on their big guns more so than any Space Marine variant, and less so on their close combat prowess. They excel at mobile warfare, toting around awesome firepower across the battlefield. Not for the player who likes to get their hands dirty in close combat!

Craftworld Eldar: Commonly called “Space Elves�? by fans, that is exactly what they are – the Elves of the 41st century. Eldar are an ancient, dying race, their drastically reduced population the result of a cataclysmic disaster from many years before, nearly wiping out their entire race. During gameplay, Eldar have to be used carefully, as they are not quite as versatile as other armies. Each of their units specialises in a specific role or two, not able to carry out many different battlefield responsibilities. They must be used simultaneously in a very specific role in order to be most effective, but they carry many different units that specialise in both close combat and shooting.

Dark Eldar: It seems many races have dark kin, and the Eldar aren’t excluded. The Dark Eldar were once part of the empire of the Eldar, but after the disaster that nearly wiped their race out, they split from their cowardly cousins and hid deep in the Webway. They revel in pain and pleasure and seek many slaves to take their souls – not the best army for good guy lovers out there! They are a fragile, specialised army that has wicked close combat and shooting abilities. However, they cannot field as many models as some armies, and are not as durable as other armies, so therefore must be used very strategically. Typically, like Eldar, they are not suggested for brand new players. Few players as it is play them.

Orks: Everyone’s heard of Orcs – be they from Warhammer, The Lord of the Rings, or other fantasy games and books. Well, they’re in Warhammer 40k, too, with the name “Orks.�? Orks live to fight – that is their sole purpose in life. They will do anything for a good fight, and would rather die fighting than live not fighting. They are very powerful close combatants and, while their accuracy is a bit off, their shooting isn’t something to be taken lightly. These “Greenskinz�? are a very fun army to play, as many of their vehicles and models need to be converted yourself, giving you a very unique army.

Imperial Guard: The Imperial Guard is the largest (or so they say) force in the galaxy. These are your basic, run-of-the-mill, strut it out grunts. By looking at the models, you will see a striking resemblance to real-life military forces. The Imperial Guard is basically that – they are the backbone of the Imperium, but they aren’t super humans, they’re your average Joe, which is a big player-draw when faced with so many of these seemingly alien armies. The Imperial Guard are noted, both in the background of Warhammer 40k as well as in gameplay, for their high numbers of soldiers and their high numbers of tanks. They are typically a shooting army, but can be tailored somewhat to other means using the Doctrines system. Strong in numbers, but individually lacking, they can be relied upon to win the day with their awesome firepower and tough tanks.

Necrons: Remember those Terminator movies? With Arnold? You found the 40k equivalent in the Necrons. These guys look almost just like Terminators (not to be confused with the Space Marines unit), and even smell like them, too! Well, not really. Necrons are an ancient race that are ruled by the C’tan, Gods who are pretty much not the Chaos Gods. After a long period of being asleep, the C’tan have awoken and with them, the Necrons. If you like the Terminator movies, if you like armies of walking robots, then Necrons are the army for you. They are generally recommended as an army for new players because of their durability (they are hard to take down, and even when they do get taken down, they can get back up!) and their relatively easy to use army. However, their armies tend to lack a lot of variation, and can get boring quick, so beware.

Tyranids: Starcraft fans look out! It’s the Zerg! Well, no, it’s just something that’s exactly like it. The “Great Devourer,�? Tyranids are a huge swarm of bug-like creatures that came from another galaxy to eat everything in this one – they don’t care what! They are a swarm guided by the Hive Mind, and during gameplay, that’s exactly what they usually are – swarms! Capable of fielding many models, or a few giant ones, Tyranids are excellent close combat fiends, and their shooting isn’t something to laugh at, either. If you like ugly swarms of bugs set to eat the galaxy, these are the buggers for you!

Witch Hunters: Another faction of the Inquisition, similar to the Daemon Hunters, the Witch Hunters tend to seek our heretics and rebellion within the Imperium, instead of hunting Chaos without. Instead of the elite Space Marines, the Grey Knights, the Witch Hunters exclusively use the Sisters of Battle, armies entirely made up of women with only slightly worse abilities than the super human Space Marines. They excel at close-ranged shooting, and tend to lack more in long-ranged support and close combat, but are a very interesting army to use with a unique system called Faith. Their models are usually all-metal, though, so be wary of costs here.

Whew… that’s a lot of armies! But I think I have the one I want… what do I do now?

Many players, after picking an army, will impulsively buy models immediately upon coming to their decision. While not a horrible idea, especially if you like the way certain models look, I don’t suggest it, myself. I suggest you go out and buy your army’s relevant codex (this is the army book containing all of the units, stats, points costs, and even fluff, which is background material, and the books also include suggestions as to how to paint your models).

After buying your army’s relevant codex, the only other thing you have to buy is the Warhammer 40,000 core rulebook. It is a little price-heavy, but contains all the rules you need in order to play a game of Warhammer 40k with your selected army.

Once you’ve read the books and have at least a decent understanding of your army and the rules, you should make army lists. With the help of people online, such as the members of the Librarium-Online forum, you can come to make a legal list that you’re happy with.

After that, it’s time to buy some models, and start painting!

What’s the basic gameplay like?

I can’t get too in-depth here, as you really should learn this from the rulebook, but the basic game is played with a mission. Sometimes the mission is just to kill your enemy, and other times it is to take and hold an objective, while denying it to your enemy. Each game turn has two halves – one half is your’s, one half is your enemy’s. That means that it feels like two turns in one – your enemy must wait for you to finish your half, and then you must wait for your enemy to finish their’s.

This is the basic run-down of a single turn:

Turn 1A

Movement Phase: Player A may move his/her models a specific number of inches.

Shooting Phase: Player A may shoot with any eligible units.

Assault Phase: Player A may make any eligible assault moves, and fight in any close combats.

Turn 1B

Movement Phase: Player B may move his/her models a specific number of inches.

Shooting Phase: Player B may shoot with any eligible units.

Assault Phase: Player B may make any eligible assault moves, and fight in any close combats.

As you can see, each “player turn�? (one half of the whole turn, devoted to a single player) is divided up into three different phases. This helps the natural flow of the game, so you can separate all of the confusing details into easily kept-up-with phases. That’s about all I can cover with that, as you should read about the turn and gameplay in your rulebook!

Wow, this sure has helped!

That was the point!

Keep in mind, this is only provided as an extremely basic guide to brand new players – in order to really get the hang of it, you need to get your codex, get the rulebook, and play some games! There are many different things you can do in Warhammer 40,000, and only the basics were listed here. I encourage you to experiment, read through your rulebooks, study up, and do things your own way!

There are many places online, including the Games Workshop website, in which you can receive help. I highly suggest you surf the net, and make sure to check out the forums at Librarium-Online, as there are many members there who will be happy to help you get on your way!
Good luck with Warhammer 40,000!

Death Wing Veterans by Kari Christensen

“My chapter is called The Lords of Pawnage and they own. They’re totally hard and mean and even the Grey Knights say they’re the best fighters in the galaxy. And the Emperor himself got off his throne and ordered them to be better than any other chapter, and…”

Sigh. I’ve been playing and painting for a few years now, and whenever I hear something like this, I end up wanting to put my head in my hands. The Space Marines are by far the most popular army in 40k, and are often the one with which players start. It’s always a shame, then, when people do the same tired things when creating a chapter. In this article, I hope to suggest ways of approaching a new chapter, so that you end up with something that’s interesting, unusual and still has the capability to kick backside on the battlefield. I’ve divided the article in two: firstly, the more practical side of thinking up how your army will look and why, and secondly, a (very) rough guide to how to approach writing background.

Of course, these are just my opinions: feel free to ignore them as you wish. But a marine chapter is like a character from a book – just saying he’s tough won’t make him interesting. Something more is needed, preferably something original or just cool. And frankly, in a galaxy where the Dark Angels and the Legion of the Damned are on the side of mankind, a chapter whose only distinguishing feature is how grim and covered with skulls they are may not stand out that much…

Chapter Hooks

So, how should you go about designing a chapter? To my mind, it’s a lot like creating a character in a story. Like the hero of a novel, the best chapters have a personality of their own and the strengths and weaknesses that entails – there’s a lot of difference between a Space Wolf and an Ultramarine, for example. You know that, chances are, a Space Wolf is going to be rough, hearty and keen on fighting things up close (he may also have red hair and an unusual smell, but let’s not stereotype too much). The typical Ultramarine, however, will be disciplined, organised and more willing to take down the enemy from long range.

Here then are some ideas – hooks, if you like, on which you can use as a starting-point to hang the look and character of your chapter:

1) Colours. Got a favourite colour? Really like the idea of violet marines? Then why not paint them like that. You may well find that the chapter background flows from there. A reddish-orange chapter might come from a world a bit like Mars, and have painted their armour in memory of their Homeworld. Those chequered patterns on their shoulder pads might be their founder’s heraldry.

In a world of block-coloured plate armour, a chapter of well-painted, original marines will really stand out. Although not very fashionable at the moment, it seems, the brighter, more heraldic chapters like the Howling Griffons and Storm Lords look incredible when painted well.

2) Chapter philosophy/history. Some chapters are obsessed with one particular aspect of the 40k world – take the Iron Hands, for example. Their fascination with technology leads to them having large amounts of bionics. A chapter of penitents might all wear a ball and chain, or be covered in sacred texts. What would a chapter look like who particularly revered their librarians? Or their battle banners, or apothecaries, or whatever?

3) Real history. Several existing marine chapters are futuristic versions of people from history. The Black Templars are like crusading knights, whereas the Space Wolves are a lot like Vikings. More subtly, the Ultramarines use a lot of Roman symbols.

Most cultures have produced heroic warriors that could be the starting-point for a marine army: Apaches, Incas, Prussian lancers and so on. Even if they didn’t wear plate armour, their culture can be reflected in their power armour. My own chapter, the Sons of Empire, are inspired by Victorians. Their armour is polished brass and covered in bolts and scrollwork, as was much of the machinery of that time.

4) Battlefield Practicalities. A friend of mine feels that armour should be painted the same way whether it’s on a tank or a space marine. So, he airbrushed his marine chapter in the same way that historical modellers paint tanks. He painted in the details later, but left some of the ornamentation – skulls on armour and so on – painted in camo. His logic is that his marines rely on stealth to survive. It’s unusual, and although some players don’t approve, to my mind it works because it suits his chapter’s circumstances. Similarly, a chapter known for its long missions may use a lot of repaired and battered armour, perhaps with many trophies from one particular foe.
There are many more ways to do this, but these are a few of the easiest hooks on which to “hang” a chapter. Once you’ve got an idea behind your chapter, you can design their armour and background around that idea, perhaps adding some Traits from the marine codex to represent their character on the field.
The Horror that is Fluff

Now comes the tricky bit – fluff, ie background material. Note that you don’t have to write reams of the stuff, or any of it at all: it’s just nice to be able to fit your chapter into the 40k universe. Be warned, though: people vary immensely about what they’ll consider acceptable fluff or not. Some players are very defensive about the ways a marine is recruited, others get irked if a chapter starts being too “nice” and so on. It’s up to you to decide what level of criticism is fair enough and what isn’t. As a rule, the forums on L.O. are very good for sounding out what’s possible, and the help is pretty constructive.

Certain things need to be remembered when working out fluff for a chapter. Firstly, and most importantly, How do they fit into the Imperium? The Imperium is a big place, and many chapters have their own mini-empires of planets they control, just as the Ultramarines have Ultramar. Such empires can vary enormously, but they are all part of one big over-empire, and as such are all technically answerable to the Inquisition, and to Earth.

Some principles apply across the whole Imperium. Whatever planet you’re on, tithes may have to be paid to the Imperium, either as money, goods, Guardsmen, Marines, leisure facilities or whatever else you can think of. All planets run the risk of producing psykers, to different degrees, and may be obliged to export their psykers for sacrifice to the Emperor on Earth. Many marine chapters are linked to the Imperium by debts of honour – and all can be ordered to carry out work for the good of the Emperor. Of course, a wily Chapter Master may be able to negotiate his way out of this, or to reinterpret some of the orders he receives to his own benefit. But one who simply declares himself independent and doesn’t get out of Imperial space very quickly will soon have a lot of trouble coming his way.

Similarly, the marines themselves may have different ways of living – but all can be guaranteed to train hard and be tough as old boots. Marines in a codex chapter may spend their time living like warrior monks, praying and fighting all day long. More feral marines may simply walk into the wilderness and fight monsters for practice.

Most marines live together, away from the populace: the Salamanders don’t, and your chapter needn’t either. Your guys may spend their time praying, meditating or giving inspiring talks to the community – but no matter what, they’ll need to be able to fight.

(A small aside. The question of whether a marine would have a family – or whether he’s got the inclination or equipment to do so at all – is always guaranteed to get a vigorous argument going. You’re best off avoiding this issue. The average marine is celibate, whether by choice or necessity).

If your chapter’s history involves any of G.W.’s characters, be a bit wary. Raven Guard players won’t be impressed if you claim that your Chapter Master once scared Captain Shrike into running (well, flying) away. The motto here is not to do anything that treads on anyone’s toes or can’t fit alongside the existing fluff: your chapter may have tried to capture Ahriman – they may even have met him on the battlefield – but they’ve clearly not killed him because in the current edition of 40K, he’s still alive. Pretty obvious, really.

In conclusion, the galaxy is a very big place, and the further you are from Earth, the harder it gets for the Ecclesiarchy and the Ordo Hereticus to make everyone behave exactly as they want. Just keep it reasonable, and remember that there’s plenty of ways to make an interesting chapter history without your chapter master having beaten up the Emperor in a fight and waltzed off to make his own rival empire. Balance is everything: a chapter that worships Chaos is going to get splattered sooner or later, no matter what, but what about a chapter that tries to use Chaos artefacts for the good of the Imperium? Relictors, anyone?

My Own Chapter – an example

The reason I’m talking about my own chapter is not that I’m claiming it’s especially good, just that it’s the only chapter I know from the inside, so to speak. Seeing how I went about it might inspire someone else – not to follow exactly, but to use the same principles to invent something of their own.

I love the look of Victorian machinery: all the polished brass and scrollwork, the primitive levers and steam-powered technology looks really cool. When I started my marines I wanted to reflect this look in their armour. I chose a brass and Dark Angels Green colour scheme, as DA green is similar to traditional British racing green, with red chest-plates to suggest the red uniforms 1890’s soldiers used to wear. To reflect the bolted-together look of Victorian technology, I stuck bolts cut from spare Ork weapons onto the armour. I cut the backpack vents and turned them upward, so they would be spouting steam like chimneys behind the marine’s head.

To continue the theme, I painted decorative scrollwork on the armour and gave some of the marines pith helmets and large moustaches made from Green Stuff. Vehicles were fitted with new exhaust funnels, extra bolts and more ornate, primitive-looking guns taken from Orks and Chaos marines. Several have Victorian girls’ names, like WW1 tanks: the Land Raider’s kill markings show that it has destroyed some of H.G. Wells’ Martian war machines. By working out the ways I could suggest the theme, and repeating them through the army, I was able to make the same concept run through the entire force, giving them a strong visual identity.
Now that I had a painted and converted force, I decided to write the fluff. I wanted them to reflect the real Victorians: tough, confident, and eager to increase their power. Like the Ultramarines, they would have a small empire of their own, which they’re eager to enlarge by capturing more territory. They prefer putting aliens to work, rather than wiping them out – a policy which would not be much liked by the Adeptus Terra.

So, I’ve positioned them close to the galactic edge, where the Inquisition’s control is weaker, and said that frequent warp-storms have isolated them from the Imperium and encouraged their culture to develop on its own. They keenly protect their own population, but regard aliens and other chapters as foreign and not quite right – much like their historical counterparts. Their history is one of conquest and a desire to expand their own influence – reflecting the era they’re based upon.

What this means is that they won’t play a massive part in the history of the Imperium – but to my mind, that’s a small price to pay for having invented something I can be proud of and genuinely call my own.

“My chapter is called The Lords of Pawnage and they own. They’re totally hard and mean and even the Grey Knights say they’re the best fighters in the galaxy. And the Emperor himself got off his throne and ordered them to be better than any other chapter, and…”

Sigh. I’ve been playing and painting for a few years now, and whenever I hear something like this, I end up wanting to put my head in my hands. The Space Marines are by far the most popular army in 40k, and are often the one with which players start. It’s always a shame, then, when people do the same tired things when creating a chapter. In this article, I hope to suggest ways of approaching a new chapter, so that you end up with something that’s interesting, unusual and still has the capability to kick backside on the battlefield. I’ve divided the article in two: firstly, the more practical side of thinking up how your army will look and why, and secondly, a (very) rough guide to how to approach writing background.

Of course, these are just my opinions: feel free to ignore them as you wish. But a marine chapter is like a character from a book – just saying he’s tough won’t make him interesting. Something more is needed, preferably something original or just cool. And frankly, in a galaxy where the Dark Angels and the Legion of the Damned are on the side of mankind, a chapter whose only distinguishing feature is how grim and covered with skulls they are may not stand out that much.

Chapter Hooks

So, how should you go about designing a chapter? To my mind, it’s a lot like creating a character in a story. Like the hero of a novel, the best chapters have a personality of their own and the strengths and weaknesses that entails – there’s a lot of difference between a Space Wolf and an Ultramarine, for example. You know that, chances are, a Space Wolf is going to be rough, hearty and keen on fighting things up close (he may also have red hair and an unusual smell, but let’s not stereotype too much). The typical Ultramarine, however, will be disciplined, organised and more willing to take down the enemy from long range. Here then are some ideas – hooks, if you like, on which you can use as a starting-point to hang the look and character of your chapter:
1) Colours. Got a favourite colour? Really like the idea of violet marines? Then why not paint them like that. You may well find that the chapter background flows from there. A reddish-orange chapter might come from a world a bit like Mars, and have painted their armour in memory of their homeworld. Those chequered patterns on their shoulder pads might be their founder’s heraldry.

In a world of block-coloured plate armour, a chapter of well-painted, original marines will really stand out. Although not very fashionable at the moment, it seems, the brighter, more heraldic chapters like the Howling Griffons and Storm Lords look incredible when painted well.
2) Chapter philosophy/history. Some chapters are obsessed with one particular aspect of the 40k world – take the Iron Hands, for example. Their fascination with technology leads to them having large amounts of bionics. A chapter of penitents might all wear a ball and chain, or be covered in sacred texts. What would a chapter look like who particularly revered their librarians? Or their battle banners, or apothecaries, or whatever?

3) Real history. Several existing marine chapters are futuristic versions of people from history. The Black Templars are like crusading knights, whereas the Space Wolves are a lot like Vikings. More subtly, the Ultramarines use a lot of Roman symbols.
Most cultures have produced heroic warriors that could be the starting-point for a marine army: Apaches, Incas, Prussian lancers and so on. Even if they didn’t wear plate armour, their culture can be reflected in their power armour. My own chapter, the Sons of Empire, are inspired by Victorians. Their armour is polished brass and covered in bolts and scrollwork, as was much of the machinery of that time.

4) Battlefield Practicalities. A friend of mine feels that armour should be painted the same way whether it’s on a tank or a space marine. So, he airbrushed his marine chapter in the same way that historical modellers paint tanks. He painted in the details later, but left some of the ornamentation – skulls on armour and so on – painted in camo. His logic is that his marines rely on stealth to survive. It’s unusual, and although some players don’t approve, to my mind it works because it suits his chapter’s circumstances. Similarly, a chapter known for its long missions may use a lot of repaired and battered armour, perhaps with many trophies from one particular foe.
There are many more ways to do this, but these are a few of the easiest hooks on which to “hang” a chapter. Once you’ve got an idea behind your chapter, you can design their armour and background around that idea, perhaps adding some Traits from the marine codex to represent their character on the field.
The Horror that is Fluff

Now comes the tricky bit – fluff, ie background material. Note that you don’t have to write reams of the stuff, or any of it at all: it’s just nice to be able to fit your chapter into the 40k universe. Be warned, though: people vary immensely about what they’ll consider acceptable fluff or not. Some players are very defensive about the ways a marine is recruited, others get irked if a chapter starts being too “nice” and so on. It’s up to you to decide what level of criticism is fair enough and what isn’t. As a rule, the forums on L.O. are very good for sounding out what’s possible, and the help is pretty constructive.

Certain things need to be remembered when working out fluff for a chapter. Firstly, and most importantly, How do they fit into the Imperium? The Imperium is a big place, and many chapters have their own mini-empires of planets they control, just as the Ultramarines have Ultramar. Such empires can vary enormously, but they are all part of one big over-empire, and as such are all technically answerable to the Inquisition, and to Earth.
Some principles apply across the whole Imperium. Whatever planet you’re on, tithes may have to be paid to the Imperium, either as money, goods, Guardsmen, Marines, leisure facilities or whatever else you can think of. All planets run the risk of producing psykers, to different degrees, and may be obliged to export their psykers for sacrifice to the Emperor on Earth. Many marine chapters are linked to the Imperium by debts of honour – and all can be ordered to carry out work for the good of the Emperor. Of course, a wily Chapter Master may be able to negotiate his way out of this, or to reinterpret some of the orders he receives to his own benefit. But one who simply declares himself independent and doesn’t get out of Imperial space very quickly will soon have a lot of trouble coming his way.

Similarly, the marines themselves may have different ways of living – but all can be guaranteed to train hard and be tough as old boots. Marines in a codex chapter may spend their time living like warrior monks, praying and fighting all day long. More feral marines may simply walk into the wilderness and fight monsters for practice. Most marines live together, away from the populace: the Salamanders don’t, and your chapter needn’t either. Your guys may spend their time praying, meditating or giving inspiring talks to the community – but no matter what, they’ll need to be able to fight.

(A small aside. The question of whether a marine would have a family – or whether he’s got the inclination or equipment to do so at all – is always guaranteed to get a vigorous argument going. You’re best off avoiding this issue. The average marine is celibate, whether by choice or necessity).
If your chapter’s history involves any of G.W.’s characters, be a bit wary. Raven Guard players won’t be impressed if you claim that your Chapter Master once scared Captain Shrike into running (well, flying) away. The motto here is not to do anything that treads on anyone’s toes or can’t fit alongside the existing fluff: your chapter may have tried to capture Ahriman – they may even have met him on the battlefield – but they’ve clearly not killed him because in the current edition of 40K, he’s still alive. Pretty obvious, really.

In conclusion, the galaxy is a very big place, and the further you are from Earth, the harder it gets for the Ecclesiarchy and the Ordo Hereticus to make everyone behave exactly as they want. Just keep it reasonable, and remember that there’s plenty of ways to make an interesting chapter history without your chapter master having beaten up the Emperor in a fight and waltzed off to make his own rival empire. Balance is everything: a chapter that worships Chaos is going to get splattered sooner or later, no matter what, but what about a chapter that tries to use Chaos artefacts for the good of the Imperium? Relictors, anyone?

My Own Chapter – an example

The reason I’m talking about my own chapter is not that I’m claiming it’s especially good, just that it’s the only chapter I know from the inside, so to speak. Seeing how I went about it might inspire someone else – not to follow exactly, but to use the same principles to invent something of their own.

I love the look of Victorian machinery: all the polished brass and scrollwork, the primitive levers and steam-powered technology looks really cool. When I started my marines I wanted to reflect this look in their armour. I chose a brass and Dark Angels Green colour scheme, as DA green is similar to traditional British racing green, with red chest-plates to suggest the red uniforms 1890’s soldiers used to wear. To reflect the bolted-together look of Victorian technology, I stuck bolts cut from spare Ork weapons onto the armour. I cut the backpack vents and turned them upward, so they would be spouting steam like chimneys behind the marine’s head.

To continue the theme, I painted decorative scrollwork on the armour and gave some of the marines pith helmets and large moustaches made from Green Stuff. Vehicles were fitted with new exhaust funnels, extra bolts and more ornate, primitive-looking guns taken from Orks and Chaos marines. Several have Victorian girls’ names, like WW1 tanks: the Land Raider’s kill markings show that it has destroyed some of H.G. Wells’ Martian war machines. By working out the ways I could suggest the theme, and repeating them through the army, I was able to make the same concept run through the entire force, giving them a strong visual identity.

Now that I had a painted and converted force, I decided to write the fluff. I wanted them to reflect the real Victorians: tough, confident, and eager to increase their power. Like the Ultramarines, they would have a small empire of their own, which they’re eager to enlarge by capturing more territory. They prefer putting aliens to work, rather than wiping them out – a policy which would not be much liked by the Adeptus Terra.

So, I’ve positioned them close to the galactic edge, where the Inquisition’s control is weaker, and said that frequent warp-storms have isolated them from the Imperium and encouraged their culture to develop on its own. They keenly protect their own population, but regard aliens and other chapters as foreign and not quite right – much like their historical counterparts. Their history is one of conquest and a desire to expand their own influence – reflecting the era they’re based upon.
What this means is that they won’t play a massive part in the history of the Imperium – but to my mind, that’s a small price to pay for having invented something I can be proud of and genuinely call my own.

Unique to the army:

Sisters of Battle:

Orphans raised by the Scholar Progenium, armed with unshakeable faith, this is their greatest weapon against the heretics. Each is clad in power armour and armed with a bolter, also able to call on faith points to enhance their fighting ability and they ignore effects of force weapons and nullify psychic powers (immune to minor psychic powers), this mix makes them a match for any foe, not just heretics.

Inquisitors:

Agents of the emperor with absolute power over any resources and armies of the imperium in order to help them combat the enemies of the Imperium.

Acts of Faith:

Battle sisters are armed with faith in the Emperor and this faith may encourage sisters to do heroic deeds in the face of the enemy. During the game any Adapta Sororitas unit/model may call upon this to enhance their combat efficiency, such powers such as turning their basic armour save into an invulnerable save, making them fearless etc.

Holy Rage:

A special rule that some units are special to. Allows these units to reach combat quicker. Much like fleet of foot the Eldar have but less controllable.

Using the Units:

Inquisitors:

During battle the Inquisitor may have a retinue that accompanies them, these are trusted individuals who have proved themselves to be useful in the fight against the heretics. These guys are called henchmen and each boosts the inquisitors fighting ability. As well as this some henchmen can aid the inquisitor in battle they may have access to certain weaponry.

The inquisitor himself can be armed with hefty war gear, one such is the force weapon which allows them to slay an opponent outright. One useful piece of war gear worth keeping might be Inquisitorial Mandate, which confers a +1 attack to units in close combat for the turn, quite useful when used to support a unit such as the Repentia or Arco-Flagellants.

How to use them? An inquisitors fighting ability can be rather meagre when compared with the canoness but if used correctly they can be a devastating force. Here are some examples:

Inquisitor Lord: Combi-Plasmagun
Warrior Henchman: Plasma gun
Warrior Henchman: Plasma gun
Warrior Henchman: Plasma gun
Acolyte: Combi-Plasmagun
Acolyte: Combi-Plasmagun
Acolyte: Combi-Plasmagun
Sage
Sage
Rhino Transport: Extra Armour, Smoke Launchers

The set-up above is built with the ability of powerful anti-heavy infantry rapid fire. Aided by a rhino to get them there quickly. The sage confers improved accuracy for the inquisitor and the squad. Note, such set-up may be powerful but it isn’t very points efficient.

Inquisitor: Inquisitorial mandate, Bolt pistol, Power weapon, Purity seals

The set-up above is purely supportive. Being an independent character they are able to join with squads to aid in combat. The mandate is used for this purpose. Useful when placed with Celestians or Repentia.

Canoness:

Leader of a convent of Sisters. Her skills are superior to those of her sisters and her faith is just as unmatched. My preference over the inquisitor lord as she is cheaper in points and has a better fighting ability, she also confers extra faith points to the army.

There are many ways this character can be used, such as, combat based or shooting based, supportive or pure offensive. In any role I try to limit her cost as much as possible so points may be spent else where. Normally she does not exceed 110pts, though she may be worth spending some points on her low toughness is a constant reminder that she is not invincible however much a 2+ invulnerable save may seem tempting.

A blessed weapon and cloak of St. Aspira is a popular choice and quite logical.
An alternative maybe to give her an eviserator instead of a blessed weapon. Her low initiative means she strikes at the same time or last most occasions anyways so the eviserator improves strength and ability to destroy tanks (especially when combined with “The passion” act of faith).

Jump packs allows her to team up with seraphim and put her combat ability to use there, if she is in foot moving squad then maybe a storm bolter fits the bill as she is able to move and shoot at some considerable range or maybe a combi-plasmagun to offer some more anti-heavy infantry firepower. A popular choice with a shooting canoness would be to give her either a Brazier of Holy Fire or a Combi-Flamer with her mounted in a transport. Both choices allows her to use a flamer combined with “Divine Guidance” although the Brazier is a more practical choice seen as it’s one handed so she benefits from an extra attack.

Celestians:

These act much like the regular sisters of battle but they are better in combat as they have a better weapon skill and imitative. Plus they also have the holy hatred rule that allows them to hit effectively in combat regardless of weapon skill with a few exceptions and they are faithful without the need of a faithful character. A good bodyguard choice for the canoness. See the Battle sisters for more information.

Arco-Flagellants:

These require a priest in order to include them in the army but a unit worth having on the field. An excellent unit to fulfil a close combat, with a high toughness combined with an invulnerable save they are extremely hard to kill. In addition they have the Implant Injectors rule, this makes them subject to holy rage when activated so they can move with some speed and when in combat they role a D6 to see how many attacks they have. This means that a full unit can have a total of 42 attacks that are power weapons! Not bad for only 6 models. The only downside to this unit is that they can burn out and die due to the implant special rule.

Although tough this unit would still not survive a turn of rapid fire so it’s beneficial to use every piece of terrain to their advantage or even use your own transports to shield them for a turn, however once they reach combat they are ferocious and can fight even better than Eldar Banshees. Points wise they are a cheaper investment than Sisters Repentia. It’s key that you find the right time to activate their Implant injectors.

Sisters Repentia:

Another close combat unit. The repentia wield a Eviserator each, which acts much like a chain fist, this makes them very useful against units such as Dreadnoughts and heavy infantry. The problem with this unit is that they are expensive and they die rather easily, with low toughness and poor armour save. On a plus they have Righteous Zeal, which means if they loose their mistress they will move 2D6″ forward instead of fallback if they suffer 25% casualties and they have the Holy Rage special rule that allows them to move quickly into combat. A very powerful squad, just very frail and expensive which makes Arco-Flagellants my personal choice. Beneficial for them to hug as much terrain as possible, even deploy them in a forest or behind something to prevent line of sight in the first turn.

Assassins:

Tough and strong, but each quite expensive. Each has their own abilities which make them an effective killer. As strong as they might be do not expect any of them to survive the full onslaught of an enemy squad by themselves. Best fielded when they are supporting other units.

Culexus:
A good addition to the Witch Hunter army to stick with the anti-psyker theme but that’s about it. He can do damage against regular units but his effectiveness falls short of what the other assassins can do. A good choice against Ulthwe Eldar though.

Callidus:
Useful assassin she’s armed with a weapon that ignores all saves and a neural shredder which fires like a strange flamer, but with an Ap of 1 it’s a deadly weapon. Addition abilities such as Polymorphine allows her to turn up any where on the battlefield and Jump Back which allows her to move out of combat, thus preventing the enemy from striking her for a turn. She is expensive however, although able to handle squads by herself it would be best if she supported another unit.

Eversor:
I regular favourite I’ve noticed in other imperial armies, cheaper than the rest and is capable of dealing mass damage to regular squads, getting more than the usual +1 bonus in combat and power weapon, he also charges at a longer range. He also always wounds on a 4+ which is a great add for dealing with those big beasties, wraithlords for example. And when he dies he causes a blast marker which can deal more damage to a squad.

Vindicare:
Basically a really good sniper. He wields an Ap 2 sniper rifle with three special rounds which causes various effects. Other pieces of gear he has makes him able to se the enemy better and reduces his own presence. The major plus he gets is being able to target anything within line of sight and range, very useful in dealing a wound to a character model. I personally don’t use him, an interesting model to have but I don’t think he does enough damage compared to the Eversor and Callidus. I think of it in the sense of only one kill per turn so it’s six kills at most, this can make up for his points but the eversor and callidus are capable of dealing more damage than that.

Death-Cult:
Cheapest assassin available and good for their cost. You can buy three for a single elites choice (but may be deployed separately) and each armed with a power weapon, fearless and able to infiltrate. Unfortunately they aren’t as tough as other assassins but you can expect them to hold off a squad for a turn or two and maybe even take one down, but don’t expect it to happen though unless all three are attacking the same squad. Probably more useful when aiding another squad in combat than going off by themselves to do their own thing.

Battle Sisters:

Power armour, high ballistic skill and armed with a bolter. This combination makes them hit as hard as any marine squad for cheaper the cost or even harder should you choose to go for a full squad of 20 and they can use faith points. Unfortunately an army of just these as basic troops may find that the army lacks some of the longer ranged weapons, but they may be mounted on a Rhino for speed.

I tend to use a rhino to get a squad really close up and unleash a load of short ranged weapons combined with the act of faith “Divine Guidance”. Keep in mind you can have up to three flamers per squad the chances of rolling 6s becomes a lot higher.

Other choices could be to arm three storm bolters to the squad, this keeps a constant hail of bullets while they advance at some range. Though some players underrate these weapons they are very efficient when put to correct use.

I dedicate these girls to doing most of the anti-infantry. They may be equipped to deal with tanks but there are other units in the army which are better suited for the job. Most players equip their Veteran superiors with power weapons in hope of preparing them for combat, I prefer the approach of focusing in on the sisters strength (which is short-medium range shooting) than try to amend their weakness so my superiors end up more shooting should I ever give them equipment. Remember if you choose to martyr them giving them expensive equipment would be a waste on points.

Inquisitorial Storm Troopers:

Armed with hellguns and a high ballistic skill, these guys can still give off their share of firepower. On top of this they may be given some extra weapons such as plasma guns and melta guns that regular sisters can’t get, these can add to some of the extra anti-heavy infantry fire power. These guys are only a point less than that of a battle sister, with less armour and weapons strength these are an inferior choice. Saying this I do take them as they can be transported in a chimera, which adds a good share of long range firepower which a pure sister may lack for less than 100pts its quite a deal. Plus the new kaskrin models look really cool and make excellent Inquisitorial Storm Troopers

If possible field these against lighter infantry as they won’t deal a huge amount when facing power armoured foes unless supported. Use these with purpose in the army, with the sister dealing most of the anti-infantry you can dedicate these to another task, one such is getting them close to a tank and use melta weaponry, or have them focus in on a mission objective. Best used as a support/side task unit than a force to be reckoned with on the battle field.

Seraphim:

Battle sister with jump packs, they act like an equivalent of the space marines assault marines. These however are much better I think. They have just as many attacks as assault marines but just doesn’t hit as hard or as tough. The bonus is they can also do the “Divine guidance” tactic that normal sisters can do as up to two models may upgrade their twin-pistols for twin-flame pistols. On top of this they can do hit and run, which means they can break off from combat at the end of a round of combat (presuming that one of the two sides didn’t fall back before hand). This is basically a fall back move but they regroup automatically at the end of the movement and the opponents models may only consolidate. Do this at the end of combat during the opponents turn and you will be able to shoot at them again using “Divine Guidance” and get a +1 attack for charging. An addition plus is that they give all Adapta Sororitas units within a certain get an improved leadership.

As well as anti-infantry they can take on the roll of anti-tank. Having jump packs they can put the inferno pistols into good work. In addition, they may be given melta bombs so they may deal with tanks in combat as well. If the squad does take on this roll the veteran tends to be equipped with an inferno pistol (master-crafted sometimes, depending on if it can be afforded) or an eviserator so she can still do damage in combat against normal troops as well as tanks. Indeed she may have both but keep mind of the points costs.

Big squads of seraphim work well when using them as Anti-infantry (due to faith points testing and number of shots and attacks in combat) but smaller squads work well against tanks (reason being that when they destroy a tank they will end up being in the open, this will mean they are les of a loss in small numbers and are easier to hide when advancing).

Dominion Squads:

Smaller squads of battle sisters that use a lot more special weaponry than regular squads. Up to four of these sisters may exchange their regular bolters for special weapon. That’s a possible four flamers, again combined with the “Divine Guidance” act of faith could quite easily decimate any squad. In addition, if the squad was small enough they may be mounted in a Immolator, which adds a heavy flamer for support.

The choice of using six sister per squad can open up to many more immolators than normally allowed, one could choose to use four storm bolters instead of flamers, this way they can advance and lay down a hail of bullets from long range (as they don’t have to be deployed in a transport) , the immolator can do the same with its heavy bolter.

Retributors:

Like the dominion squad but instead of being overly armed with special weapons this unit is armed with heavy weapons. No heavy flamers though for this squad though, but they may be armed with heavy bolters, which is a nice anti-infantry weapon with a boosted range which is a rarity in the army. A nice add is that they can be transported in an immolator, although not very useful to the squad itself (Unless you need to get a squad of multi-meltas somewhere) it does add another heavy flamer tank on the board without it taking up a heavy choice slot, useful for quick responses.

Immolator:

Sporting twin-heavy flamers that may shoot even though having moved max distance, may re-roll any rolls to wound or penetrate and has a transport capacity of six models. Downside is that it has light armour. Although for a few more points its weapons can be upgraded to a heavy bolter or multi-melta for more range or anti-tank potential.

Has various tactical advantages in battle:

-It can act as a quick response vehicle.
-It can move small squads around quickly as it isn’t dedicated.
-It can shield other squads from being shot at, having an armour of 11 renders any shot below strength 4 useless, being a cheap choice it’s not too costly if it is destroyed.
-It can be used as a mobile wall, blocking passages from the opponent.

These can be applied to just about any vehicle, but because it’s cheap these can be used extensively in large groups of light vehicles. This sort of use has proven itself many times to me in battles so it does work provided they are done under correct conditions, you can’t expect it to withstand a lascannon for example, but it can prevent a group of banshees from assaulting.

Exorcist:

A nice favourite for me and many other I‘m sure. Has the armour of a battle tank and has an Exorcist Launcher, this tank acts as a great anti-anything vehicle except swarm armies, though may be put to use against bigger beasties. With a low Ap it is able to take out any tank and it able to deal with those heavy infantry models such as terminators. It is quite expensive (though not as expensive as other battle tanks) so I am reluctant to abuse it the way i would do an Immolator or rhino and tend to keep it out of harms way as much as possible, though it has got the durability to withstand most blows.

Penitent Engines:

Basically a dreadnought with short ranged weapons and less armour. But in addition it has holy rage which means it moves a hell of a lot faster than a dreadnought. They also ignore all crew shaken and stunned effects. For its cheap points cost it’s a deal. Fielded in squadrons of three they are guaranteed to get to combat, provided you are smart and don’t move them in front of something like 5 lascannon for example. A very nice plus of taking these is that they qualify for the combat patrol rules.

Orbital Strike:

Only available if you have an inquisitor. The strike comes in three flavours:

Lance: A simple strength with a high strength and low AP
Melta: A lance like a meltagun, useful against tanks as well as infantry, probably more favourable since the new rules with the centre hole needing to be in contact with the tank for full strength.
Psyk-out Warheads: Doesn’t kill but can knock out a psychic power on any model it wounds, provided they had one.

These strikes target a piece of terrain but can scatter quite a long distance so it can be rather random. But slot this somewhere unexpected, like a mission objective, and it can be devastating to an opponent, note though your units can be just as easily a victim of this weapon if they got too close.

Allies:

Of course if you do not want a pure witch hunters army there are always options from the Imperial Guard and Space Marines codex’s. Imperial Guard can offer that long range hard hitting weaponry that isn’t so available in the Witch Hunters army while space marines offer that extra toughness which sisters do not have (But a witch hunter army cannot include space marines and sisters at the same time)

There’s always the option of taking Witch Hunters as an ally for another army. For imperial guard this will allow them to get something more tougher than a squad of Storm Troopers to their list and give space marines greater numbers. But this would work best for Daemon Hunters, since their troops are really expensive they do lack army size, sisters of battle can help them bulk up their numbers a bit.

During Battle:

Martyrdom:

This is when a faithful character dies. When such a model dies they add an extra faith point to the stack. Keeping this in mind it is always a good idea to keep such models cheap, but it also means if the unit is only faithful until the end of the turn if this happens.

Faith points:

It is advisable to read up and remember what faith points do as various ones can prove to be really handy for different situations. There is a summary in the codex though if you’re too lazy.

Example 1500pts Army:

HQ:

Canoness: 95pts
Blessed weapon, Cloak of St. Aspira,

Troops:

10 Sisters of battle: 200pts
Veteran Superior with bolt pistol and combat weapon
1 Flamer upgrade
1 Heavy Flamer Upgrade
Rhino Transport with Smoke launchers and Extra armour

10 Sisters of battle: 200pts
Veteran Superior with bolt pistol and combat weapon
1 Flamer upgrade
1 Heavy Flamer Upgrade
Rhino Transport with Smoke launchers and Extra armour

10 Sisters of battle: 200pts
Veteran Superior with bolt pistol and combat weapon
1 Flamer upgrade
1 Heavy Flamer Upgrade
Rhino Transport with Smoke launchers and Extra armour

Fast:

9 Seraphim Sisters: 222pts
1 Veteran Superior
2 Twin-Flame Pistol upgrades

5 Dominion Sisters: 178pts
1 superior with bolt pistol and combat weapon
4 flamer upgrades
Immolator transport with smoke launchers and Extra armour

Heavy:

Exorcist: 135pts

Exorcist: 135pts

Exorcist: 135pts

This army is based on having a short ranged army that can get to places quickly (canoness is joins the Dominion squad inside the Immolator) also armed with a large amount of faith points (A possible 13). The army is largely anti-infantry, relying totally on the Exorcist Tanks to provide any anti-tank, but with three of them and D6 shots each it is more than enough. It is also base upon using the “Divine Guidance” act of faith, combining this faith with flamers makes this army easily able to deal with small heavily armoured troops or squads of large numbers (such as tyranids). The only close combat unit in the army would be the Seraphim, although i would not pitch them against other combat specialists (especially Eldar Howling Banshees or Marine Terminators). Although not close combat specialists the dominion squad is also a squad i would charge in. Having four sisters armed with a flamer to weaken a squad first with a canoness to support them during the combat their chances of winning an assault is fairly high, of course only if the squad wasn’t destroyed by the shooting. Of course you might of noticed, this army is made to do the assaulting but that doesn’t have to be the case exactly, with the large amount of transport available they can also be used as walls to defend, then use the exorcists to harass the enemy before they get too close. I have found this works against dark Eldar and various long range armies like imperial guard.

This is only an example list, having something like 3 sisters squads all the same may be a bit boring and 3 exorcists may be a bit too much, just have a little play around with combinations and see what you get.

First, let’s look at their cost. At twice the cost of a Warrior, with no benefit of WBB, most people say that they are too costly to be used. But what do you get for the cost of 2 Warriors?

S/T 1 better than your standard Warrior.
The standard Necron Save.
I that is 1 better than Warriors/Scarabs/Destroyers/Immortals/Heavy Destroyers/Spyders. They aren’t the greased lightning that Wraiths are, but they are fast by Necron standards.
Warscythe with a GaussBlaster. Same at range as an Immortal with the benefit of ignoring saves in HtH and being able to slice through tanks as if it were wax paper (S+2D6)
Soulless. Any unit in range now has a reduced Ld of 7. Hive Tyrants, Demon Princes, Archons. No one is immune to this, save those who have Ld lower than this.
Psychic Abomination. Psykers are deathly afraid of Pariahs, and by proxy so is any unit that Psyker is attached to.
Fearless. They will never run away.

If you ask me, their cost is a steal for what it gives you.

To field Pariahs, you are going to spend between 144 and 360 points. That is a lot of points to commit to a unit that will not add to your Phase Out. 1500 is the absolute minimum game you should field them in, and I’d suggest 1850-2000 to be safe. Other things to consider is which other units the Pariahs are going to be most effective with. The two units who benefit most from Pariahs are Flayed Ones and the Deceiver. To a lesser extent, they also have a synergistic effect on any unit in HtH, as well as the Lord if he is equipped with the Gaze of Flame. Pariahs are not front line fighters. They should be behind other units, so that Target Priority checks will reduce shots coming into them. Marching up behind HtH units is where they do best. I’ll explain more below.

Now let’s look at some of these synergistic effects.

The Deciever-By far, my favorite C’Tan. Both of his offensive abilities, Dread and Deceive, are based on Ld saves from the opposing player. If Pariahs are in range, the target the C’Tan is targeting now has a 58.3% chance of making that save as opposed to whatever their % chance would have been before. Dread is especially useful, since if it works and you are assaulting with your Pariahs, those enemies are now only hitting you on 6s, where as the Pariahs are hitting normally with their Warscythes.

Flayed Ones-These are the HtH specialists of the Necron army. one of their abilities in particular is greatly increased by the presence of Pariahs, Terrifying Visage. Terrifying Visage forces the opponent to roll an Ld-1 test every round of CC. Failure means that they are hitting the Flayed Ones on 6s. With Pariahs in range, that means that 50% of the time the enemy will fail this check

Gaze of Flame-Aside from negating the charge bonus, the Gaze also lowers Ld by one. This ability can stack, so two Lords each with Gaze of Flame would stack that negative. Combine this with a unit of Scarabs or Flayed Ones with the Pariahs behind, and an assaulting unit is suddenly at a Ld of 5.

Assaults-Normal assaults also reap benefits from having Pariahs nearby. Necrons aren’t the best at HtH, but with above average S/T, low saves, and WBB, they can last quite a while. The Soulless ability is a huge boon to combat, since now outnumbering and getting an enemy unit below half are more detrimental with their Ld being reduced.

As far as Pariahs not being Necrons (not teleporting, no WBB, not counting towards Phase Out) this has drawbacks and advantages. The biggest drawback is you have a lower Phase Out number just by including Pariahs. Again, this is why they should only be used in 1500 points and up, preferably 1850 and up. They also don’t benefit from the Veil or the Monolith’s Power Matrix. This makes them a bit slow, but no slower than any other standard unit in the game. 6″ and 6″, move and assault. Getting no WBB means when they are dead, they stay dead (again, just like every other unit in the game)

Not counting towards Phase Out is, in my opinion, an advantage. On the one hand, since they don’t count as Necrons, many inexperienced players will ignore Pariahs and gun for Necrons to reach Phase Out. This is equivalent to ignoring Immortals to hunt Warriors. On the other hand, Pariahs are tough and have a low save, so any shot that is directed towards them is a shot that is not reducing your Phase Out number. It’s win-win as far as I’m concerned.

That’s about it. The Pariah is a very specialized figure. If you want shooting power, go with Immortals. If you want dominant HtH skills, go with Wraiths/Scarabs/Flayed Ones. If, however, you want a unit that can support your army at range, as well as increase the effectiveness of your HtH units, then give the Pariahs a try.

The codex entry XV8 ‘Crisis’ Battlesuit team is more like four entries, with capabilities of filling out almost every role in the game. Such a versatile choice of weaponry inspired me to take an army based around the different configurations I could give my crisis suits. It didn’t take long before I realised that the role of crisis suits was much smaller than taking on the whole battlefield.

Crisis suits, commander and elite, are essential to the Tau army. However, you can have too much of a good thing. Army lists with 6+ crisis suits start becoming inefficient. Even with multitrackers, they simply do not provide the volume of firepower needed in a tau army. Army lists are best with 2-5 crisis suits.

The importance of crisis suits arises from the fact that Tau have the most powerful basic weapon in the game as well as the most powerful weapon, but it lacks weapons in between. Crisis suits are our answer to what S5 AP5 weapons and S10 AP1 weapons aren’t designed to take out. Medium infantry, heavy infantry, light vehicles, medium vehicles. While both S5 AP5 and S10 AP1 weapons can do well against some of these unit types, it is not their speciality. They require the assistance of the XV8 ‘Crisis’ Battlesuit.

Configurations:

The fireknife: plasma rifle, missile pod, multitracker.
This configuration is very popular as it fits into the role of a crisis suit perfectly. It is useful against medium and heavy infantry and light and medium vehicles. The fireknife is in fact excellent against light and very light vehicles, and has a decent range too. The fireknife’s weakness is that it’s too versatile. It doesn’t kill or destroy medium and heavy infantry and medium vehicles with the greatest efficiency. Fireknive’s are recommended if you don’t know what army you’re playing against, but it is often a good idea to specialise a little even then.

The deathrain: twinlinked missile pod (target lock/flamer/shield generator).
This configuration is probably the second most popular, if not the most. It is useful against medium infantry and light to medium vehicles. The deathrain’s range plus its assault move keeps it safe from a lot of weaponry, and gives it a lot of choice to what scenery it can use to jump shoot jump from. The deathrain’s weakness is that it is horrible against heavy and very heavy infantry because of its high cost and low volume of shots. Deathrain’s are recommended if you are facing any medium vehicles (AV12 transports and artillery) or powerful medium infantry (tyranids, eldar).

The helios: plasma rifle, fusion blaster, multitracker.
This configuration is very popular, especially on commanders. It is useful against heavy and very heavy infantry. The helios’s weakness is that it has a very short range, relying completely on the assault move and surrounding terrain to protect it. Helios’ are recommended if you are facing heavy infantry, or as a complement to a deathrain in a balanced list.

The burning eye: twinlinked plasma rifle (target lock/flamer/shield generator).
This configuration works well in a unit lead by a helios-6 team leader. It is useful against heavy and very heavy infantry. The burning eye is just as good as a standard helios against heavy infantry within 12”, and is better between 12” and 24” for its increased accuracy. Its weakness is its low volume of shots. Burning eye’s are recommended in crisis teams if you are facing a lot of heavy infantry.

The bladestorm: plasma rifle, burst cannon, multitracker.
This configuration sees some play on the battlefield. It is useful against heavy infantry. The bladestorm is more efficient than stealths and firewarriors against heavy infantry, and can keep a safer distance than helios suits. Its weakness’ are that it’s less powerful than a helios or a burning eye against heavy infantry at short range and is inefficient against anything else. Bladestorm’s are recommended if you are facing heavy infantry and would like more range than a helios provides.

The sunforge: twinlinked fusion blaster, (target lock/flamer/shield generator).
This configuration is doesn’t belong in a general list. It is useful for heavy and very heavy vehicles. Its weakness’ are it’s very short range and extremely low volume of shots. Sunforge’s are recommended when you’re facing a couple of heavy non-skimmer tanks and can deep strike.

The firesurge: missile pod, fusion blaster, multitracker.
This configuration is taken as a tankhunter, and should only be taken if you really need it. The firesurge does not fill the role of the regular crisis suit. Its strengths and weaknesses looked at from a crisis suit perspective are irrelevant, this crisis suit effectively replaces the railgun. Not recommended in a conventional tau army.

The sunfire: plasma rifle, missile pod, fusion blaster.
This configuration is and interesting one many beginners create. It is a fireknife that can pop tanks. The sunfire is very inefficient and I recommend against it.

The stormsurge: fusion blaster, burst cannon, multitracker.
This configuration is not a good suit to take. Its weapons are for completely different targets. Its weakness’ include short range and lack of speciality. It’s an assault configuration if you’re thinking of using farsight.

The firestorm: missile pod, burst cannon, multitracker.
This configuration is popular amongst beginners for its 5 shots. It’s not a great suit because you have other units that can do its job. Crisis are for what S5 AP5 can’t do. The firestorm is the second last suit I’d recommend taking.

The last suit I’d recommend taking, a twinlinked burst cannon suit, isn’t even given a name as it makes even less sense.

Lastly, flamers on crisis are usually a no-go. They can be fun, and are very effective when used right, but their short range usually puts the suit in assault range. Flamers are put on suits often for the wrong reasons. They are for suits designed to harass, not to kill lots of gaunts or guardsmen. They are effectively 1p on deathrains, sunforges, and burning eyes, and even then I would only do it if you have that 1p to spare.

Twinlinking:
To name a twinlinked suit you give it the number of the strength of the gun you have twinlinked. The multitrackers are therefore hardwired, and the crisis suit is either a team leader or shas’vre/el/o.
I have listed the configurations I recommend to be twinlinked. Highly recommended means I would always do it. Mildly recommended means do it if you have points to spare.
Highly recommended: helios-6, firesurge-8
Mildly recommend: fireknife-6, fireknife-7

Unit options:

I have 5 rules to crisis suits.

1. Never configure crisis in the same unit for different purposes.
2. Never field them in units of three if you can avoid it.
3. Never give them gun drones.
4. Never give a shield generator to a suit with 2 weapons.
5. Never upgrade to a shas’vre.

1. Crisis suits are taken for a specialised purpose, not to take on the whole battlefield. They do not provide the volume of shots required for that. This is a common mistake I see with lots of new players, taking units similar to a sunfire, helios, and firestorm. Whatever this unit shoots at, they will be inefficient. Equip crisis suits in a team with the same configuration or one built for the same purpose.

2. The second rule isn’t as strict as it sounds. When you are fielding a large army, you need units of three because stealths take up your other elite slots. However, if you field a unit of three when it can be reduced, you should do so for the following reasons.
Three crisis with the same configuration is usually overkill. The two main exceptions to this are two fireknives with a fireknife-6/7, and two burning eyes with a helios-6.
Units of 1 and 2 save the 10p bonding upgrade that I highly recommend for units of 3. If one crisis is left from a unit of 3, or is left with one wound from a unit of 2, it is no longer a scoring unit.
Losing 1 crisis suit from shooting triggers a moral test, losing 2 means you’re taking that moral test at ld7.
A monat crisis suit never has to take last man standing moral tests.

3. The main reason for not giving crisis suits gun drones is because it takes up a hard point that could be used for another weapon or twinlinking. If it’s a hardwired option then it costs 27p, which is not worth paying for 2 gun drones. Also, if it’s hardwired you must take a multitracker on a hard point instead of hardwiring, again denying twinlinking options. If you don’t need a multitracker, then you shouldn’t be using gun drones because deathrains stay out of a gun drone’s range, and sunforges don’t target units gun drone’s can damage.
Giving crisis suits gun drones hurts you with the mixed armour and toughness rules. This is why it is also not recommended for burning eye’s.
Gun drones take away a commander’s IC status, so aren’t recommended on a commander either, even though he can have both a hardwired multitracker and hardwired drone controller.
Gun drones are bad for moral reasons. As losing drones is a lot easier than crisis suits; the unit will be taking more moral tests from losing 25% models, moral tests for last man standing for monats, and a greater chance of losing more than 50% and no longer be a scoring unit.
It is widely believed that the extra wounds the gun drones give a crisis suit, and the save shield drones give their commander are worth it. However crisis suits rarely get open fired upon where the gun drones would provide such a benefit. Often they will die when you wouldn’t have lost a wound on the crisis anyway, either because of extra toughness, extra save, or IC status.
Gun drones are highly recommended on pathfinders, and mildly recommended on static fire warriors and broadsides. Never give stealths gun drones because 2 gun drones are not worth 27p, and never give an ethereal gun drones because the extra wounds are not worth losing IC status.

4. This costs 30p, and you lose any twinlinking options. It is not worth it. A little cheaper on a commander, at 25p, it still denies him any twinlinking options.

5. Shas’vre have useless upgrades to WS and I that are never worth 5p, unless you are using farsight and wish to pay 10p for +2WS and +2I.

Follow these rules and the configuration advice above and you can’t go wrong.

An example of a Crisis Suit Heavy Army:

Shas’el 96
-twinlinked plasma rifle, fusion blaster, hardwired multitracker
Shas’el 96
-twinlinked plasma rifle, fusion blaster, hardwired multitracker
2 Crisis 148
-team leader, twinlinked plasma rifle, missile pod, hardwired multitracker
-plasma rifle, missile pod, multitracker
2 Crisis 113
-twinlinked missile pod, flamer
-twinlinked missile pod, target lock
6 Stealths 180
12 Fire Warriors 2 Gun Drones 152
12 Fire Warriors 2 Gun Drones 152
12 Fire Warriors 2 Gun Drones 152
Broadside 90
Ionhead 150
Railhead 170
1499p

Generally, crisis suit numbers range from 1-4 in 1500p armies.

This is army list tactica, as opposed to strategy. The strategy depends entirely on what the suit is equipped for.

The deathrain is the easiest to use. Using a piece of terrain in your own deployment, you can usually jump out to hit any vehicles coming your way. If those vehicles are hidden then you can fire at other targets, using the safety of the range of the suit.
The helios is a lot harder to use, as you must pick the right targets. Often a commander, it’s hard to not be the closest unit at such a small range. The helios-6 commander must use cover against the units he is shooting at, while IC protects him from the nastier heavy weaponry further away.

For the fireknife, if there’s an annoying whirlwind or basilisk, deep-strike him. If there is no reason for deep strike, sit back and fire the missile pod for a turn or two, then jump shoot jump just like the stealths do. Wait for those deep striking termies and hit them when they come.

Markerlights

Q: Against a Markerlight shot, do models get an armour save? Cover save?

A: No. The Markerlight isn’t treated as a weapon in the sense that the model gets to take an armour save or make a check to wound as it has no S/AP.

The Markerlight hit also does not allow the opponent to take a cover save, as per the Games Workshop 4th Edition FAQ.

Q: How many Markerlight shots for a Pathfinder squad do I get?

A: You get the same amount of Markerlight shots as number of Pathfinders in your squad. Each Pathfinder is equipped with a Markerlight. For example, if you take five Pathfinders you
may fire five Markerlights.

Q: What gets the benefit of a Markerlight?

A: For each Markerlight hit, you designate a single model and a single weapon that model has. For example, if you only get a single Markerlight hit, you may designate a Crisis
Battlesuit (who is equipped with a Plasma Rifle and Missile Pod in this case) and then designate the Missile Pod. Both shots get the benefit of a 2+ to hit, but the Plasma Rifle does
not get this bonus. Seeker Missiles also count as a model/weapon, and so get the 2+ to hit.

Q: What about twin-linked weapons?

A: If a weapon is twin-linked and you miss with the first 2+ hit (from the Markerlight) then you may re-roll the to-hit dice for that weapon (all shots) with the 2+ bonus from the
Markerlight. Note that this only applies to one weapon, and the model’s second weapon still doesn’t get the bonus.

Photon Grenades

Q: The codex says I may give the grenades to a team of Fire Warriors for X points/model. Can I give the grenades to only a few models?

A: No. You must either give the grenades to all models in the squad for X points/model or you cannot take them.

Rail Rifles

Q: Where can I find the rules for the Pathfinder Rail Rifle?

A: You can find these rules published in Chapter Approved 2004. There is also a rumor that you can find them published on the Deutsch (German) Games Workshop website.

Aun’Shi

Q: The codex says I can nominate a squad of Fire Warriors as Aun’Shi’s retinue. Do they count as Troops, HQ, or both?

A: Aun’shi no matter what counts as an HQ choice. However, the Fire Warrior team nominated as his retinue only count as a Troops choice, not as an HQ or both.

Hard Points

Q: Do support systems count towards the maximum of three hard points allowed on my Battlesuits?

A: Yes.

Q: What about weapons and twin-linked weapons?

A: Weapons count as a single hard point. A Twin-Linked weapon counts as a total of two hard points.

Q: What is a Hard Wired system?

A: This is a “special” system that doesn’t count towards your hard point limit. Check the Tau Armoury for available systems to hard wire, because some (such as Shield Generators) are
not able to be hard wired.

Q: How many Hard Wired systems can I take?

A: An HQ (Shas’O, Shas’el, or Ethereal) may take a total of three hard wired systems in addition to their three hard points (if Shas’O or ‘el). They don’t have to take these hard
wired systems and they are optional. Any other model allowed access to the armoury (by way of Team Leader/Shas’ui/Shas’vre upgrades when listed) are allowed to take a single hard
wired system.

Independent Characters

Q: If I give my HQ two shield/gun drones, do they still count as an Independent Character?

A: No, they are now a unit with their drones.

Q: What about Bodyguard?

A: No, they count as bodyguard and are therefore a unit. The codex states that the IC will lose his IC status if bodyguard are attached.

Q: If my drones/Bodyguard die in battle, does my HQ count as being under half strength?

A: Yes. Since they formed a unit, both drones and Bodyguard count when determining if under half strength.

Q: If drones/Bodyguard are wiped out, does my HQ have to make a Last Man Standing test?

A: No. As stated in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook, if the bodyguard then they revert back to an Independent Character.

Pathfinders

Q: The codex entry says they are equipped with Pulse Carbines and Photon grenade launchers. Can I shoot these grenades? Do they count as photon grenades like Fire Warriors have?

A: No and no. The Photon grenade launcher is simply the fluff reason that Pathfinders’ weapons cause pinning. That is all it does.

Q: Say I caused three wounds with my Pulse Carbines. Does the enemy have to take three separate pinning tests?

A: No. The enemy only takes one pinning test as long as you have scored at least one wound with the Pulse Carbines, but no more.

Q: Can I use the Devilfish for the scout move special rule?

A: Yes. The Devilfish is considered part of the unit and if they are deployed inside of the Devilfish you may use it for your Pathfinders’ free scout move before the game begins.

Note: If anything is wrong in the above FAQ please PM/email me and let me know how you found out. Thanks!

Every Orkoid, from the lowliest Squig to the Mightiest Warboss, generates Waaagh energy. As such, the larger the Ork population in a given area, the stronger the Waaagh becomes. The amount exuded by each Orkoid is not constant; it varies between the sub-species, and with the state of the individual in question. An Ork releases more when it is excited, for example during combat. Also the bigger and more important the Ork, the more Waaagh it produces. The Orks’ hierarchical system is based on this, as each Ork can subconsciously feel the Waaagh field of others, and sense who is in charge.

As well as forming a basis for their hierarchy, the Waaagh affects Orks in several other ways. Physiologically speaking, the Waaagh has a significant effect on the Orkoid race. As field strength increases, the Waaagh accelerates the Orks’ biological processes, leading to an increase in size and muscle mass. Additionally, psychological changes lead to an enhancement of the Orks’ natural aggressive qualities. These effects have been observed in both an individual and group setting. For example, a large community of Orks constantly embroiled in warfare will produce a significantly larger amount of Waaagh than a smaller, more isolated tribe. As such, Orks in the larger community will be bigger and much more aggressive than those in the smaller one. Similarly an individual Ork who fights regularly will be bigger and more aggressive then one who does not. A Greenskin who has achieved feats of Orky valour in battle, or who is preparing to challenge a superior for leadership, will likely have an inflated belief in himself. He will therefore increase in size as he is producing more Waaagh energy.

Orkoids reproduce via spores, upon which the Waaagh can have vast influence. If these spores fall near a large Ork settlement (hence near a strong psychic field) they are unlikely to develop into mature Orkoids, regardless of the suitability of the conditions. This has the effect of ensuring the Orks maintain a suitable population density. Conversely, if a spore falls in and area with a weak or non-existent psychic field, it is far more likely to enter the incubation phase of Ork reproduction.

Within each spore resides the entire Orkoid genome. As such, an individual spore, regardless of its source, can become any of the Orkoid subspecies. The developmental route each spore takes is largely determined by the Waaagh. A weak field will promote the incubation of simple Orkoids (see appendix), which pave the way for a larger Orkoid society by providing food and increasing the strength of the Waaagh field. As the field increases in strength, the ratio of complex to simple Orkoids increases. Sudden changes in the psychic field during incubation have been noted to result in a partially mature Orkoid being scrapped and a new one incubated in its place. This system ensures that by the time the Orks emerge, there is a sufficient foundation upon which they can build a community. It can be said that the Waaagh creates a balancing effect on the spore reproductive system. It encourages spore development up to a point, after which it inhibits all further incubation in order to avoid overcrowding of the Ork populace.

It should be noted that the beliefs of an Ork (or Ork community) can alter the way in which certain aspects of the Waaagh manifest themselves. One example of this involves the Clan system, in which Orks with similar ideologies group together. Members of the Bad Moons Clan display accelerated growth of their teeth, which could be caused by the Ork belief that their teeth should grow faster because they are Bad Moons. Similarly the Goff clan, in which the primary driving force is hand to hand combat, tend to be larger than other Orks. This could be a manifestation of the fact that they believe hand to hand fighting is the best form of combat, so they increase their muscle mass in order to excel at it. One area in the fluff that may cast doubt on this theory lies with the Death Skulls. These Orks daub themselves with blue paint in order to bring luck during battle and the subsequent looting. I am unaware of any fluff that actually states they benefit from this, despite the fact they believe themselves to be luckier than other Orks.

This “belief” theory also applies to Ork technology. An Imperial scholar has theorised that the Waaagh provides the Orks with a form of Telekinesis, allowing them to successfully operate mechanically unsound weapons simply by believing they will work. The theory suggests that an Ork who believes his weapon should fire causes the Waaagh to manifest itself telekinetically in order to allow the weapon to function. In the hands of a Human, Ork weapons do not work at all, yet Orks use them almost constantly with no maintenance whatsoever. The Orkish belief (regarding vehicles) that “Red wunz go fasta” lends support to this theory. Despite the fact that red paint should not affect the maximum velocity of an Ork vehicle, those with red paint schemes do indeed travel faster than comparable, yet differently coloured, vehicles. Many Imperial scholars now doubt the validity of these claims, stating that captured Ork technology is likely too badly damaged to be reliably tested, or utterly incomprehensible to anyone save its creators. As such, Humans cannot accurately test such technology, meaning conclusions drawn from previous tests are unreliable and should be disregarded. These arguments do nothing to explain the additional speed a red paint job grants an Ork vehicle however.

The Waaagh has a distinct effect on Ork migration. Occasionally an ambitious Ork Warboss will develop a desire for conquest and will attempt to increase his standing by uniting nearby Ork tribes (often through open warfare). He will therefore increase in muscle mass and generate more Waaagh. As the Warboss increases in size and importance he will attract a large band of follower thanks to the Waaagh energy he is creating. When sufficient numbers of Orks have gathered under the Warboss’ banner, they all set off on a mass migration aboard any space worthy ship they possess. These migrations, aptly named “Waaaghs” after the power from which they draw their impetus, have been know to decimate entire systems and occasionally set a mighty Warboss up as a ruler of an Ork empire.

As well as its varied effects on the Orkoid race, the Waaagh can be drawn upon by certain members of Ork Society. These Orks are known as Wyrdboyz, and are considered by many to be comparable to the psychers of other races. The Waaagh energy from which the Wyrdboyz draw their power is not inhabited by the daemonic entities of the Immaterium. As such, a Wyrdboy drawing on the power of the Waaagh is in no danger of daemonic possession, but tapping such a vast reserve of energy is hardly risk free. If a Wyrdboy loses control of the flow of he may absorb too much. The resultant release of energy has unfortunate consequences for both the Wyrdboy and any Orks nearby. Most Wyrdboyz avoid battle and its associated risks, but some become corrupted by the powers they wield and actively seek out combat. Many Warbosses consider a Wyrdboy’s abilities too useful to be left out of the fight, and will often force an unwilling Wyrdboy to accompany him to battle. As is the trend with many other subsets of the Oddboyz, Wyrdboyz are rarely seen in tribes above the “feral” level of Ork Technology.

In summary, I can say that all Orkoids create a background field of psychic energy, known as the Waaagh. This psionic field influences every part of the Ork culture, including their physiological, psychological, technological, reproductive and migratory behaviour. The Ork Wyrdboyz can draw upon this energy in order to cast devastating powers, but by doing so run the risk of triggering an explosive auto-cephalectomy. Without such an energy field, Ork civilisation as it currently exists would not be possible. The all-encompassing nature of the Waaagh supports the theory that Orks are a product of design rather than evolution.
Appendix

• Simple Orkoid – Squig (all varieties), Snotling and Gretchin
• Complex Orkoids – Orks and Squiggoths