SNEAK PEAK: Forgeworld Model Masterclass

Pics brought to the community by Warseer's: ALF

Hi guys, on this long 3-day holiday weekend, lets have some fun light reading.

First, Forgeworld showed some shots of their upcoming Masterclass book at LA Gamesday, and an intrepid player (Warseer's ALF) was waiting and ready to go with his camera. Go check out his extensive Flickr photos here.

Secondly, head on over to the mkerr's Flywire and chime in on his two latet 2500pt 'Ardboyz tournament lists. He loves a good discussion, so let him have it :)

~This is your weekend open thread, so have at it guys. If its 40k related, you're good.

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ARMYLIST: 5th Ed. Plaguespear - 2000 pts

Its been too long since I've done an armylist post. With 5th upon us, I've been holding off on these until I had enough games to get a feel for the new system. This post is part of a series of recommended army lists. It will document an entire list, with a short tactical summary and related notes. I have had requests for an updated version of Plaguespear and here it is.

Army List

1 Typhus (HQ) @ 225 Pts

1 Summoned Greater Daemon (HQ) @ 100 Pts

8 Terminators (Elite) @ 310 Pts
-Heavy Flamer (x1); PowerFist (x2); Chainfist (x2); Combi-melta (x1); Icon of Chaos Glory

7 Plague Marines (Troops) @ 229 Pts
-Flamer (x1)
1 Plague Champion @ [63] Pts
-PowerFist (x1)


6 Plague Marines (Troops) @ 191 Pts
-Flamer (x2); Personal Icon
1 Plague Champion @[38] Pts

6 Summoned Lesser Daemons (Troops) @ 78 Pts

6 Summoned Lesser Daemons (Troops) @ 78 Pts

6 Summoned Lesser Daemons (Troops) @ 78 Pts

6 Summoned Lesser Daemons (Troops) @ 78 Pts

1 Chaos Land Raider (Heavy Support) @ 240 Pts
-Daemonic Possession

1 Chaos Land Raider (Heavy Support) @ 240 Pts
-Daemonic Possession

1 Defiler (Heavy Support) @ 150 Pts
-Dual Close Combat Arms

Models in Army: 52
Scoring Units: 6
Possible Killpoints: 12


Summary

This list is inspired by many of tactical doctrines pioneered on DeathGuard.org. It represents a "pure offense" approach to using the Death Guard. In this list, every point is dedicated to the assault role, with nothing heldback for long-range support. Even the HQ selection of the Greater Summoned Daemon and Typhus, are there to emphasize the "boat anchor" quality of the assault force...once you get this army "stuck in", it is going to be very difficult for an opponent to get "unstuck".

The army is designed to deploy with the Typhus and the 8-man unit of Plaguemarines embarked in a Land Raider, with the smaller Plaguemarine squad embarked in the 2nd Land Raider. This assault force, supported by the fleeting Defiler will use cover and smoke to hit the heart of an enemy army with all due haste, and destroy it in a single "alpha strike" consisting of the Typhus and the 3 flamers plus bolters, folowed by assault-ramping plaguemarines and Defiler in HtH. On roughly turn 2-3, you should be in assault and begin to both summon down the four lesser daemons packs, the Terminators and the Greater Daemons which should have good options with most of the first wave squads being equipped with champions or icons for accurate deeptriking and summoning.

At this point surviving landraiders will back off and become bunkers, attempting to take out enemy armor along with the terminators whose anti-vehicle assult options will make very short work of any vehicles they reach. I have been very impressed with both the Land Raider, Defiler and the Greater Summoned Daemon in 5th.

In a way, it is a "pure" army, with few complex tricks up its sleeve. The army wins through sheer shock value and numbers of high lethality units in HtH, and this army is designed to emphasize that element like a ton of bricks. In most cases, the enemy has 1 turn to deal with the smoked Land Raiders. If they are not stopped immediately, they will tend to make the enemy army and engage on turn 2. Its generally downhill for an enemy army at that point. Subtle is not the way of Grandfather Nurgle.

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Skarbrand The Exiled One, by Gentleben

Do you guys remember Gentleben? Well he didn't fall off a cliff but has been away painting and playing a variety of minis games. He just dropped by yesterday to drop off his latest creation. Check out his take on Skarbrand, the Exiled One.

He tells us he used a Bloodthrister, minotaur weapons, and the head is a highly greenstuffed skull from a Ogre Kingdoms Hunter (inset with a Chaos spawn eye). The wings were damaged with heavy use of a dremel and metal clips. I've thrown in a couple of the work-in-progress pics as well for your entertainment.




~Comments are welcome, and I'm sure Gentleben will chime in here and there if you have any questions for him. Are you guys having any success converting any of the Chaos Daemon ICs? I'm still trying to figure out how to even begin to tackle Ku'gath. Consider this a "conversion show and tell" thread, so if you have links, lets see your latest stuff!

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NEWS: Gamesday UK 2008 Mysteries

OK guys check this out,

GW recently put up their promo-site for Gamesday UK 2008. Take a look at that little Forgeworld section they snuck in, right in the middle of the article.

Another Land Raider variant?!
A secret Chaos project codnamed B.O.B.

~Interesting stuff. If anyone has anything on these lets hear it. I assume they tie into Siege of Vraks-Part 2, but maybe not.

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NEWS: THQs Rhino is Taking Shape

You know, when I saw some of the early pics from the first Rhino post, I thought it was going to be a hard road to get that British APC converted into the Astartes beloved transport. Now however, I think they have a really good shot at it.

So head on over and check out THQ's latest press release and Flickr photos. We will keeping tabs on this one as project as it works its way through to completion.

~That beast is really coming together, and I cant wait to see what they will come up with for the cupola and the stormbolter. I can only imagine what could happen if they try to drive it to Gamesday!

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BoLS Polls: Astartes Smackdown Edition

Ok guys,

Everyone else is talking about it so now its our turn. Word is Phil Kelley dropped the news in Los Angeles that much of the updated wargear and equipment changes in the new marine Codex will not be standardized across the other codices.

That means 3+ invulnerable stormshields for the boys in blue, but not the boys in red for example. While I could understand the point of not giving the Black Templars the option of 3pt upgraded stormshields for entire assault squads, it still seems strangely inconsistant across the board. Why 12 vs 10-man Land Raiders for example?

The Space Wolves apparently get off easy as their codex specifically says to refer to Codex: Space marines for much of their wargear.

~ So lets hear it guys, if this news turns out to be true, who comes out on top? Why? You know the drill, poll, right column, attack!

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Tuesday Omnibus

A few things today,

GW Space Marine Preview
First up we have GW throwing up their Codex Space Marine Preview. Go check it out, as there are a lot of nice looking spreads shown in thier "teensy-weensy cant quite read it" mode.

'Ardboys Discussion
Head on over to Mkerr's 'Ardboys discussion thread on the Flywire and see if you can help him come up with a solution to the age old "To Armored Company or not to Armored Company" debate.

Lords of Battle Casting Call
Thirdly, its Lords of Battle casting call time. I'm in dire need of some good pics of the following minis for use in the Lords of Battle 2.0 mini-dex. If anyone has a good painted shots of any of these vehicles either in Epic Scale, or even better as 40k scale vehicles (armorcast or scratchbuilt), please chime in and let me know. If you don't mind, I might just want use your pic (with proper credit of course) in the updated book. I'm looking for:

Leviathan Command Vehicle
Deathstrike Missile Launcher
Knight Paladin
Knight Lancer
Knight Warden
Hellknight of Slaanesh
Contagion Plague Engine
Tyranid Dominatrix

~Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope! Consider this an open thread guys and have at it. Any one working on cool conversions or crazy projects out there?

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RUMORS: 40k Into the Future...

We love to pass on on all the little tidbits we hear and here are some of the latest. We have recieved word that the 40k schedule is shaping up for early-to mid 2009 as follows:

2nd wave Ork
Plastic Gretchin, Stormboys, possible the plastic Battlewagon.

2nd wave Deaemons
Many Independant Characters, Plastic Daemon Prince, etc...

Apocalypse
Lots of chatter out there on this one, but common themes indicate the long-rumored Stompa and one or more Baneblade variants (Stormlord, possibly others) have gotten the green light.

Imperial Guard
These guys are coming with all the same chatter of plastic Stormtroopers, possibly Valkyrie, a new russ variant, and who knows what else.

Necrons
All the stuff reported here.

~There is uncertainty as to the exact timing of these releases, and the Apocalypse release could fit into the order anywhere, but these are all described as lining up starting in January 2009. There could definately be lots more releases towards the end of the year, but this should get us to mid-year. Standard caveats apply folks, have at it.

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NEWS: LA Gamesday

Rumors brought to the community by Warseer's: Colonel_Kreitz

Morning all,

LA Gamesday has come and gone, and the following tidbits have dribbled out. I'm sure there will be more to follow throughout the day:

Planetstrike
Phil Kelly is working on this supplement that has been rumored since last year. ~There are no timelines on it, but earlier rumors placed it sometime in 2009.

Plastic Valkyrie
This long rumored kit is still said to be a possibility, but not definite. Phil kelley said that GW has the technical know-how to produce the kit, and that there is simply a business case to be made for putting it into production. ~Earlier rumors had placed the Plastic Valkyrie alongside Plastic Stormtroopers as part of the upcoming IG release schedule.

Scenario Book
With the dearth of mission vairey inthe 5th Edition book, this one seems like a no brainer. GW is considerering a scenario book with additional missions and possibly a campaign system. No production work has begun. ~This is a very old rumor that has reared it head again after many months of silence.


40k Movie
Black Library in response to an audience question replied (paraphrasing): "Well, hypothetically, there could maybe be a direct to DVD release of some kind of CGI movie with Ultramarines next year. Maybe." The quality of said effort was described as being on the same level as the Dawn of War II cutscenes. Essentially the Black Library presenter made clear that something is in the works, while issueing no guarantees as to whether it would ever be finished, or released, much less an actual timeline.

~That is a lot of good stuff in there guys, have at it. I'm not going to jump up and down yet in regards to a 40k movie. We have all seen these efforts come and go inthe past, but I'm happy GW is still pursuing the overall concept.

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DISQUS Commenting System Added

Morning all,

BoLS has just replaced our default commenting system with DISQUS. You will now have a much more robust commenting system, which allows threaded comments, and offers a handy widget I have added to the right hand column. With it you can now easily see what topics people are talking about, and easily go back and add your thoughts without them being lost in the stream as the days go by.

Mkerr has already been testing out DISQUS for several weeks on his Flywire posts, so it should be familiar to anyone who has checked that out.

What this means for you guys is an improved ability to talk to each other, and keep track of who's who thanks to the profile system which is shared across any blogs that use this system.

You can also count on more open threads on slow days so our regulars will always have a nice place to kick back and talk about their latest exploits on the tabletop. Anonymous comments are fully supported, but feel free to set up a profile if you want your online persona to be available to your fellow BoLS readers.

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NEWS: GW Price Increase is Coming

Everyone is chattering about this one guys. There is a price increase slated for September 29th. Here is a copy of the GW letter announcing the increase:




Dear Valued Customers,

There is an old curse you might know: “May you live in interesting times “

I would be very surprised if anyone could look around our tiny world today and not ponder the truism of such a simple remark. There is very little doubt that these current days would certainly qualify as interesting.

Among many other concerns the world has been struggling with the rising cost of energy, transport, and materials. These rising costs have ultimately affected not only the price of gasoline that we put into our tanks, but the price we pay for milk, eggs and cereal. It has also, not surprisingly perhaps, greatly affected the costs for producing miniatures.

Today we are contacting all of our Trade customers globally to announce that due to these rising costs, we too will be raising some of our prices.

We do not do this lightly. We fully understand that the timing of the price rise directly conflicts with our annual July price review and for that we deeply apologize. I hope that you understand that this price rise is not something Games Workshop Global desires to do, it is something we have to do.

That being said, we wish to approach this change with the same dedication to customer service that we do for every endeavor. So for clarity and fairness I offer the following points:

We are contacting our Trade customers this week to prepare them for any questions they may have.

On Monday August 25th a message informing end hobbyists will be placed on all of our websites.

Prices will change September 29th.

A message will appear in our October White Dwarf.

The price increase will affect part of our paint and hobby ranges, as well as a large portion of our metal models and printed materials.

Even with the pressure of rising costs we are adamant that we will not at this time raise prices on any plastic model kits. Providing high quality, great value kits is fundamental to our corporate strategy and will continue to produce and distribute them at the current prices for as long as we are able.

Sincerely,

Games Workshop


Our latest info puts these increases generally in the 15-25% range (on a per item basis) and they will be focussed on paints, paper books, and metal minis. All plastic ranges are being held to their current prices.

It would seem that the global economy and commodities runup of the last 12 months has finally caught up with GW as well. While the cost of goods for the minis themselves is a tiny fraction of the overall cost, transport and distribution costs have been through the roof globally. It appears that GW as part of their slow chageover to being a plastic-focussed company has decided to keep those ranges steady and pass the increased costs on through on the hobby, codex, and more specialized metal range side of things.

~Have at it guys, but I realize this is an extremely sensitive topic. Please be reasoned and try to keep it under control. Lets all try to keep this thread from degenerating into a cesspool of hatred. In the short-term the only advice I can give is to try to pick up that special metal mini you've had your eyes on for a while before the end of September.

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NEWS: Marine Advanced Orders

Hey guys,

GW has just put up a new set of Advanced Orders for the upcoming Space Marines.

Go check them out as they have the final prices and better pics for some units than we have seen before.

The new releases are:

• Codex: Space Marines: $25
• Drop Pod: $30
• Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer: $50
• Land Speeder: $30
• Scout Bike: $12
• Thunderfire Cannon: $40 ~Includes Techmarine
• Sergeant Telion: $12
• Sergeant Chronus: $17 ~Includes both mounted and dismounted versions

~Go check out the Scout Bike to see a closeup of the grenade launcher. Its pretty cool, and it looks like the Drop Pods are indeed going to go for $30 each.

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Flywire and Jokes Open Thread

Hi guys,

Here's an oldie but a goodie that's been floating around the net for a while. Enjoy some 40k humor.


Mkerr is requesting some feedback on his upcoming Blood Angels: Army of Death minidex, so head on over to the Flywire section and jump in. The water's fine.



Cya guys soon with more stuff.

~This is an open thread, so wade on in here with all your 40k comments, concerns, triumphs, and disappointments. Have fun, and remember...no chairs!

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RUMORS: Necrons

Rumors brought to the community by Warseer's Brimstone and MoonlightSonata


Hi all, there is some Necron Scuttlebutt floating about out there.

Early word is that Necrons may be slated for the Q2-09 40k release slot. There is another codex scheduled ahead of them but there is conflicting data on what it is (currently bouncing around between IG, Space Wolves, Dark Eldar). The info reported so far is:

• Removal of the C'tan from the Codex as fieldable units (they are still in the fluff).

• The C'tan are to be moved over to Apocalypse where they will make an appearance as much more powerful single figures (possibly with attendant new oversized Forgeworld minis).

• The big new HQ replacement for them will be entirely new tiered-level Necron Lords. Read the Apocalypse Necron background page for insight into what may be coming, but there is talk of Bronze, Silver, Gold, possibly even Platinum Lords.
  Lords are said to have multiple special abilities and options, and certtain levels of Lords may re-arrange the Force Org chart for certain units, making different army builds possible. An example of an option was an advanced necrodermis, allowing the Lord to mimic his C,tan masters (and conveniently allow for the use of the existing C'Tan minis).

• There will be Necron Lord named characters.

• The rest of the army is described as getting a small number of new units, and having several existing units rearranged by Force Org category.

• In general, the Necron army is desribed as being somewhat "buffed".

~Interesting if true, and these would seem to dovetail nicely with the last set of Necron rumors we heard several months ago. A Q2 release slot seems odd unless there is some issue with mini or codex development with several of the other codices which are older (Wolves and Dark Eldar mainly). Still I would applaud the move if only to rid the game of the wonkiness and arguments that We'll Be Back can generate. As usual, Caveat emptor folks.

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NEWS: Dawn of War 2 ~ Tyranids Revealed

Hey guys, remember a few months back when Dawn Of War: 2 was announced at E3 and they threw up that cool trailer with the mysterous ending? "no, this world is theirs..." Today THQ revealed the mystery race...and its nids. Check out the New Extended Intro with it's cool Tyranid ending.



Also check out this in-game nid screenshot.



~Pretty cool stuff. Maybe not as cool as the real-life Rhino, but who's counting...

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NEWS: THQ is Building a Rhino!

You know what I really like to see? Crazed enthusiasm! And I haven't seen anything like this in a while. THQ is working on a Rhino. Not a model; but a real-life full-sized operational Rhino.

And the best part is they are letting us see their progress as they construct the beast. It is slated to make an appearance at Games Day UK 2008.

So head on over and check out their press release and Flickr photos. We will keeping tabs on this one as project as it works its way through to completion.

~I guess we will finally get to discover the answer to the ages old question of how many marines can actually fit in a Rhino. :)

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TEASER: Lords of Battle v2.0

Hi all,

The Fly Lords have been puttering right along with our 5th edition revamp project. Next up on the chopping block is Lords of Battle. Its been 8 months since we put out the last version of our Apocalypse datasheet book and in that time, lots of additional datasheets and Apocalypse books have been released.

This gives us the opportunity to create a bunch more sheets, work in feedback from you our readers, and overhaul many of our older designs with 5th edition and several dozen more Apocalypse games under our belts.

Here is a look at the cover, current table of contents, and a sample new sheet, the devastating Chaos Harbinger Heavy Bomber.




~As usual, comments and feedback are welcome, but I do want to open the designer's chair up to you guys again. As you can see in the table of contents I've putting in a set of Knight formations for the 3 major races (Imperial Knight Household, Eldar Exodite Knight Host, Ork Digga Mob). I did this because they are fairly small models and its very possible to collect or scratchbuilt a small collection of them (the formation is 3-5 knights). What I want to hear from you guys is thoughts on how you would give these 3 datasheets a related but differing set of special rules and strategic assets so they feel broadly similar on the tabletop, but reflect the unique character of their respective races. The mike is open guys, lets hear it.

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SNEAK PEAK: October Marines Coming in Hot

Well folks,

October is coming up quickly. As as we see in these set of publicity sheets, we will be seeing almost the entire Space Marine range updated and hitting our local FLGS shelves in just a few weeks. The release schedule has already been announced and now its just a matter of waiting out the days and preparing to raid our piggy banks.

~I've lost count of how many years I've been patiently awaiting a proper plastic drop-pod from GW, and the wait is now down to a matter of weeks. I'm betting they will be the biggest sellers of the entire new range. I'm certainly planning on giving my Pre-Heresy Death Guard about 5 of them. Which of these goodies are you guys excited about or planning on grabbing as soon as you set your eyes on them?

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NEWS: Forgeworld Siege of Vraks-2

Hi guys,

Today Forgeworld put up Siege of Vraks;Part 2 up for preorder. This book continues the story of the ten year Imperial siege of the Armoury World of Vraks from the Apostate Cardinal Xaphan. While victory seemed close at hand, the Cardinal has obtained the support of the Ruinous Powers who have sent him aid. From the pics it would seem the Imperium is sending the Death Korps some heavy titan reinforcements. As with Siege of Vraks part 1, early versions of the book will ship with a double-sided Death Korps poster shown below.

Siege of Vraks; Part 2 Pre-order

Product details (lots of cool pics)

~You can bet BoLS will be picking up this one. We are titan-crazy around here, and I really want to see what rules Forgeworld settles on for the Reaver. Some of the earlier test versions of them were pretty far out!

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VOTING: Macharian Character Challenge

Hi everybody,
Its voting time! We have a good sized group of entries to the Macharian IC Challenge here for you lavish your attention on. I've put up a poll, so feel free to select the best 3 models here. Lets see who comes out on top, and again, thank you to everyone who took the time and energy to enter the competition.

Valhallan General Vasili Cyrus
Bitz used: Yarrick, Marines

Harakoni Sky Marshal Timovich
Bitz used: IG Cadian, Tau FireWarrior, Dark Angel Accessories

Rogue Trader Matteas Wolf
Bitz used: Space marine Commander, Scout, Marine, Orks


Crimson Guard Master Kree
Bitz used: Marine Terminator, Fantasy Marauder


Fallen Aurora Brother Lucian
Bitz used: Marine and Necromunda Goliath


Kallastin Stratocracy Senator Geronimo Stauve
Bitz used: Bretonnian, Fantasy Giant, Ork, Basilisk


Inquisitor Ameh Hakim; Aide-de-Camp to Stratego Kemal
Bitz used: Arbites, Space Wolves, Inquisitor, CSM weapons


Heretic Preacher of Christos, Arkanan Zaldantis
Bitz used: Fantasy Chaos Sorceror, Flagellant, CSM weapons


General Collins, Genswick Rifles
Bitz used: Brettonian, Cadian weapons


Deathwatch Master Pizarro
Bitz used: Marine Terminator, Deathwatch, Dark Angels


Commander Sark; Adrantis Union
Bitz used: Tau battlesuit, Necron, Marine


Archon Vectux; Kabal of the Rubied Blade
Bitz used: Dire Avenger, Dark Eldar


Captain Alan Skar, 5th Army Group
Bitz used: Cadian, Empire Artillery, Catachans


~Feel free to leave whatever comments you have regarding the entries, and if you have any additional questions for BoLS or the creators, lets here them.

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Daemonhunters Logo Sheet

Did someone ask for Grey Knight logos?? You all asked (loudly) and you shall recieve.

GW does a great job with their basic decal range, but for some odd reason, the Daemon-hunters got overlooked, leading to hours of a painful work attempting to freehand some of their detailed iconography. What we have here is a set of Grey Knight swords and crests, along with a set of Inquisition symbols.

Here is the link to the PDF file for the logo sheet you can freely pull down and use:

Download Here

The sheet is designed for printout on decal printer paper which is easily available online. These decals are designed for the CLEAR decal paper. The procedure is as follows:

CLEAR PAPER: If you use the clear decals, the decals need to be applied to a light colored surface to be visible at all. The procedure for applying the "outline only" decals is to apply them to a white surface, and wait till they are fully dried. Then using the outlines as a guide, paint in the darker color around the decal if needed. It is odd, but gets the job done.

Click here for a detailed Custom Decal Tutorial

This sheet is sized for vehicles up towards the top and scales down to marine shoulderpad size towards the bottom. The very bottom has two pairs of oversized swords for use on land-raider sized models. Please make sure you run off a test sheet first on your printer to make sure.

In any case, enjoy and I wish you the best in using this set for your forces.

~Please feel free to leave comments if there is a special Chapter, Craftworld, or something else you would love to collect, but have no GW decal options, and I will see what I can do.

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RUMORS: Space Marine Master Compilation

This compilation is the combined efforts of warseer's: VariableBob, VerifiablySane, PlasticRat and Bolter and Chainsword's: Ignatius.

~Here is the most recent master compilation of the upcoming Codex Space Marine, incorporating the latest information available from a variety of internet sources. Special thanks goes out to Warseer's: VariableBob for putting it together. Here it is in its unaltered state:

HQ
Chapter Master
- Ws6 Bs5 S4 T4 W3 I5 A4 Ld10 Sv3+
- May take a Relic blade and Storm Shield.
- May take Artificer Armour.
- Has around 20 Options
- May take Terminator armour, Jump Pack or a Bike
- Gives a one shot Orbital Strike which is S10 Ap1.
- Has a Bolter, may upgrade to Storm Bolter, Combi Plasma, Combi Melta, Combi Grenade Launcher
- May replace Bolt pistol and CCW for pair of Lightning Claws or a Relic Blade

Captain
- Ws6 Bs5 S4 T4 W3 I5 A3 Ld10 Sv 3+
- May take a Relic blade and Storm Shield.
- If he takes a bike, Bikes may be taken as Troops
- Much the same options as above, does not have the orbital strike.

Chaplain
- Ws5 Bs4 S4 T4 W2 I4 A2 Ld10 Sv3+
- Price is about the same.
- Comes with Crozius and Rosarius
- Still allows rerolls to hit.
- Makes unit with him Fearless
- Can replace his bolter with storm, combi-, powerfist, plasma pistol.
- When taking terminator armour he replaces “power armour, boltgun, frag and krak grenades for Terminator armour and” one shooting weapon.

Librarian
- Ws5 Bs4 S4 T4 W2 I4 A2 Ld10 Sv3+
- Has gotten cheaper.
- Comes with Force weapon and Psychic Hood
- May have 2 powers.
- May be upgraded to an Epistolary which allows the use of two powers a turn. Apparently this is expensive.
- Psychic hood now has a range of 24" (whether it means that the power is within 24", or the Psyker I dont know)
- 9 powers:
Avenger - essentially an AP3 heavy flamer,
Force Dome - 5+ invulnerable for Librarian and squad until end of next player turn,
Gate of Infinity - Librarian and squad Deep Strike back within 24", but with minor risk...,
Machine Curse - shooting attack causing Glancing Hit on 1 vehicle within 24",
Might of the Ancients - Librarian gains strength 6 and rolls 2d6 armour penetration.
Null Zone - all enemy units within 24" re-roll successul invulnerable saves for rest of player turn ,
Smite - 12" range, assault 4 St4 AP2,
Quickening - gains Fleet and Ini.10,
Vortex of Doom - 12" St10 AP1 Heavy1 Blast...failed test = blast centred on Librarian without scatter.

Master of the Forge
- Ws4 Bs5 S4 T4 W2 In4 A2 Ld10 Sv2+
- Comes with Servo Harness
- Has Conversion beamer which gets stronger and more powerful the further away he is firing, in three stages. Maxes out at S10 Ap1 Large blast at 72"
- Allows Dreadnaughts to be taken as Elites AND heavy support if he is there.

Honour Guard (?-10)
- Ws4 Bs4 S4 T4 W1 I4 A2 Ld10 Sv2+ 30+ points as standard.
- Can only be taken if a Chapter Master is present in the army.
- Artificer Armour and power weapon as standard.
- Can take Relic Blades which are a two handed power weapon that gives St6.
- Can take Aux. Grenade launchers.
- One may take a Chapter Standard which, if it still has the same rules as now, gives them Counter attack.
- They may take a Chapter Champion, Champion is WS 5.
- Chapter Champion must direct attacks against enemy Independant characters if he can.
- May NOT take Storm Shields.

Command Squad:
- May only be taken by captains.
- 4 vets and 1 apothecary, Company Champion is an optional upgrade for one model.
- Chainsword and either bolter or pistol as standard.
- They can have bikes.
- Any can replace pistol or sword with: Storm Bolter, Flamer, Plasma gun, Meltagun, Combi-whatever, power sword or fist, lightning claw, thunder hammer.
- Pistol can be replaced with Plasma Pistol.
- Melta bombs and Storm Shields can be taken by anyone.
- Apothecary gives the unit Feel no pain
- One may take a Company Standard which, if it still has the same rules as now, gives them Counter attack.

Kor’Sarro Khan, Captain of the White Scars 3rd Company
- Ws6 Bs5 S4 T4 W3 In5 At3 Ld10 Sv3+
- Gives models in his unit hit and run and Furious Charge.
- Moondrakkan is a bike he may take. It’s a bike which can use the Run ability and can also Fleet
- Moonfang- A Power sword. Any 6’s on the to wound roll become Instant Death.
- May exchange Chapter Tactics for Outflank.

Kayvaan Shrike
- Ws6 Bs5 S4 T4 W3 In5 At3 Ld10 Sv3+
- Jump pack, Iron Halo and master crafted rending lightning claws.
- May exchange Chapter Tactics for Fleet.
- He has Infiltrate and gives it to his unit.

Pedro Cantor
- Ws6 Bs5 S4 T4 W4 In5 At4 Ld10 Sv2+
- Storm Bolter (Assault 4 and AP 4) and Powerfist
- Sternguard in his army count as Scoring units
- May exchange Chapter Tactics for Stubborn.
- All friendly units within 12” receive +1 attack.

Marneus Calgar
- Ws6 Bs5 S4 T4 W4 In5 At4 Ld10 Sv2+
- Can be fielded in either power armour or terminator armour. Has an Iron Halo with either.
- 2 Powerfists and a Stormbolter (Assault 4 AP 2)
- He has a power weapon which he is allowed to use (only when in artificer Armour?)
- Eternal warrior.
- His Chapter Tactics allows his army to choose to pass or fail any Ld tests.
- May reroll any failed to wound rolls in both shooting and hand to hand.
- May take 3 squads of Honour Guard, if they are all 10 man. These do not take up FOC slots.

Chaplain Cassius
- Ws5 Bs4 S4 T6(!) W2 In5 At3 Ld10 Sv 3+
- Feel No pain
- New background.

Chief Librarian Tigurius
- Knows all(!) the psychic powers available to the marines.
- May use 3 powers per turn.
- Allows army to reroll any reserve rolls.

Captain Lysander
- Ws6 Bs5 S4 T4 W3 In4 At4 Ld10 Sv2+
- Thunder hammer is Master Crafted and gives Lysander S10, he also adds +1 to the damage against vehicles
- Storm Shield (3+ invulnerable save for him)
- Eternal Warrior (Again?!)
- Bolter Drill- The Squad he is with is allowed to reroll misses with Bolters, bolt pistols, storm bolters and heavy bolters.
- Allows one piece of terrain to be fortified, to give +1 to its normal cover save.
- May exchange Chapter Tactics for Stubborn.

Captain Sicarius
- Ws6 Bs5 S4 T4 W3 In4 At3 Ld10 Sv3+
- 1 tactical squad gets Counterattack, Infiltrate, Scout or Tank hunters for free.
- An army led by captain Sicarius may re-roll the dice when attempting to seize the initiative.
- Blister pack allows for bare head & helmet in hand or wearing helmet with plasma pistol in hand.
- His mantle gives him Feel no pain(?)
- Is able to kill a Wraithlord in one hit with his wargear(?)

Vulkan He'stan
- Ws6 Bs5 S4 T4 W3 In4 At3 Ld10 Sv2+
- Chapter tactics allows all meltas and flamers to become twin linked and all Thunder hammers to become Master Crafted.
- 3+ invulnerable (GAH!)
- Heavy Flamer (which rerolls to wound)
- S6 Power weapon, Master Crafted

Brother Chronus
- Upgrade for a Space Marine Vehicle
- Gives it Bs5 and allows it to ignore Crew Stunned and Crew Shaken results.
- If vehicle is destroyed he can scurry away and crew another one.

Scout Sergeant Telion
- Upgrade for Scout Squad
- Can give his BS of 6 to another scout in the unit.
- Armed with a long range 'stalker' pattern boltgun with the pinning and rending special rules.

Elites
Sternguard Veterans (5-10):
- Ws4 Bs4 S4 T4 W1 I4 A2 Ld9 Sv3+
- Come with Bolters and 4 Kinds of Specialised round
- Dragonfire bolts- Normal Bolter, Ignores cover
- Hellfire Rounds- wound on a 2+.
- Kraken bolts- 30” range, S4 Ap4 Rapid Fire
- Vengeance rounds- 18” range, S4 Ap3, Rapid Fire, Gets hot
- Can Upgrade bolters to Storm Bolters (lose the specialist rounds)
- Can take Combi weapons (keep the rounds).
- Can also take from a small list of special and Heavy Weapons (Flamers, Heavy flamers and such.)
- One of the Sternguard can take a Powerfist or Power weapon
- They may choose which round to use each turn.

Dreadnaught:
Just like now, also may take twin CCW's or twin autocannons.

Venerable Dreadnaught:
WS and BS 5, with most of the Dreadnaught's basic weapons options.

Ironclad Dreadnaught:
Basic Dreadnaught Stats with front and Side armour 13.
- Probably comes with a Heavy Flamer rather than a Storm Bolter
- Can take a Hunter Killer
- Has Move through Cover.

Terminators(5-10)
- Basic Terminators just like now.
- Cyclone Now Heavy 2
- 1 Heavy weapon, 2nd may be purchased if squad has 10 models.

Assault Terminators(5-10)
- As now.

Techmarine
- Comes with a 2+ save.
- Allows one piece of Cover in his deployment zone become +1 to its cover save.
- Still has servitors. May choose to leave them.

Legion of the Damned
- WS4 BS4 S4 T4 W1 I4 A2 Ld10 Sv 3+ invulnerable
- Their Sergeant has Ws5
- They always Deep Strike, but reroll scatter if they want.


Troops
Tactical Marines(5-10):
- Start at 4 marines and a sarge for 90 points, full squad is 165.
- Sergeant is included in cost, may take powerfist, storm bolter, combi-bolter.
- Variable squad sizes are possible.
- Special and Heavy weapons are unavailable unless there are 10 marines in the unit, but then they get free Flamer and a free Multimelta or Heavy Bolter or Missile Launcher. Meltagun- 5 points, Plasmagun 10, Lascannon- 10, Plasma cannon- 5
- Bolter, Polt Pistol, Frag and Krak grenades as standard. (NB: they do NOT have a CCW)
- Sarge can take Power weapon, Power Fist, Lightning Claw, Plasma Pistol, Storm Bolter, Combi Flamer, Combi Plasma, Combi Melta (and maybe combi grenade Launcher)

Scouts
- Ws3 Bs3 S4 T4 W1 In4 A1 Ld8 Sv4+
- Sergeant is WS4, BS4.
- Sergeant may take combi-weapon, plasma pistol, power weapon or powerfist.
- Shotguns probably S4
- May be an option for Teleport Homers.
- Their Heavy bolter can take hellfire Rounds
- Squads can be equipped with camo cloaks, granting the Stealth USR.

Bikes
- Requires a Captain on a bike.
- Requires 5+ bikes. For details of bikes see Fast Attack options.

Rhino:
- Probably will drop to 35 points ala Dark Angels and Blood Angels.

Razorback:
- Comes with heavy bolter included in cost.
- May upgrade to: twin-linked heavy flamer, twin-linked assault cannon, twin-linked lascannon, lascannon and twin-linked plasmagun.

Drop Pod:
- Drop pod assault means that Half of all Drop pods come in on the First turn (GW doesnt want Deep striking armies to come on turn 2 or later...understandable)
- Drop pods in the first wave can act as guiding beacons for pods in the Second wave.
- Costed at slightly more than 2 marines.
- Holds 12 marines or 6 terminators or 1 Dreadnought or 1 thunderfire cannon.

Fast Attack
Bikes (3-8+trike):
-May combat squad, requires 8 bikes plus an attack bike. Divides into 4B/4B+1AB.

Attack Bikes (1-3):
- Must pay for Multi-Melta.

Scout Bikes (3-10):
- Can upgrade bike with a grenade launcher
- Can booby trap areas of terrain with hazardous cluster mines.
- Sergeants can be equipped with locater beacons. These function as a teleport homer for any deep-striking unit (drop pods, jum packs etc.)

Assault Marines (5-10):
- Sergeant may take a Storm Shield or combat shield.
- Only sergeant may have melta-bombs.
- Special weapons are 1 for every 5 models
- Specials include flamers and plasma pistols.
- May remove jump packs and get a free rhino or drop pod in return.

Vanguard Veterans (5-10):
- Ws4 Bs4 S4 T4 W1 I4 A2 Ld9 Sv3+
- Sergeant may take a Relic blade and Storm Shield.
- Come with Bolt Pistol and Close Combat weapon, can all take from a bunch of upgrades including: Power weapons, Power fists, Lightning claw (yes, one)
- Probably have an option to take Bolters
- May also take Combat shields and storm shields.
- Jump packs are an upgrade which gives them the Heroic Intervention rule. May take a transport instead.
- Heroic Intervention allows them to assault the turn they Deep strike.

Land Speeders (1-3):
Pretty much as now.
- Typhoon missile launchers fire as Heavy 2 missile launchers.

Land Speeder Storm:
- Has a Jammer which disrupts deep striking close by.
- Scouts charging from it -2 from the enemy Ld.
- Carries 5 scouts (and scouts only) and counts as Open Topped

Heavy Support
Thunderfire Cannon
- Has techmarine crew.
- Can fire in 3 different ways (all heavy 4): St 6 AP5 blast, St 5 AP6 blast ignores cover, St 4 AP- blast causes difficult terrain test in next turn/dangerous terrain for vehicles(inc. skimmers)
- May be mounted in a Drop Pod.
- Techmarine attendant can bolster defences, providing a 1 point bonus to the cover save of a single ruin in the Space Marine deployment area.

Predator:
Pretty much how it is in Codex: Blood Angels (i.e. expensive)

Vindicator:
- Siege Shield allows it to auto-pass terrain tests.

Devastator:
- Sergeant has a Signum, allows one Marine to fire at BS 5.

Whirlwind:
- Has BA/DA style ammo. (Including incendiary?)

Land Raider
- Machine spirit allows an extra weapon than allowed to be shot at any available target.
- Multi Melta is now a pintle option for all variants.
- Can Carry 12 models

Land Raider Crusader
- Machine spirit as above
- Frag Launchers as normal (useful too, now.)
- can carry 16 Models

Land Raider Redeemer
- Machine Spirit as normal
- Redeemer cannon: Range- Template S6 Ap3 Heavy 1
- Transport Capacity: 12 models


Not unit specific:
Decision to split in to combat squads is made at the time each unit is deployed or when a unit disembarks from its Drop Pod.
Combat Tactics – allows any unit to automatically fail any Morale Check it takes (from shooting and CC).
Combat shields now give a 6+ invulnerable save.
Storm shields now give a 3+ invulnerable save.
Aux. Grenade launchers are short range, can fire in tandem with another weapon.
All sergeants are veterans now, so are just called sergeants.

~Initial comments are that this is a huge amount of detail and units for a single codex. I would consider this set as more reliable than previous information where there are any discrepancies. It would seem that GW is really intent on pulling out the stops with Space Marines. It is difficult to find any unit what doesn't have a lot of potential and when teh codex arrives in our hands and we can see final points costing, there are going to be myriad ways of building lists coming out of this codex. There are also numerous ICs who are just phenomenal. As usual, standard caveats apply to all of this info. Thoughts guys?

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Knight Titan, Part 1

The hardest part, for me, in scratch-building a titan is the legs. It is difficult to get a pair of legs that look beefy enough to hold up all that metal, but still mechanical enough to move it around the battlefield. So, when I saw Xanthos' knight titan on DakkaDakka used modified defiler legs, I was amazed. He came up with a very simple concept and produced amazing results.
The basic idea is to take defiler legs, then insert a bit a plastic between the two halves to make them wider. Brilliant! I immediately headed to ebay to pick up the defiler leg sprue.
It really is as simple as it seems. Cut the leg at the joint (to make the leg straighter) then put some plastic between the left and right halves. I used sprue to expand the two halves. It gave perfectly straight lines and I didn't have to worry about making sure the space between both leg parts were uniform.

The top half of the model will be based on forgeworld's warhound, rather than the ancient epic scale knight paladin. It's a personal preference; I just like the boxy look better than the rounded one.
The head should be the focus of the model. To reinforce the Knight look, it will resemble a knight's helm.
For more info on the Knight Paladin titan, check out the Lords of Battle pdf.

I'll post more updates as the project unfolds.

Everything is coming together well except for the titan CCW. Any suggestions on what it should look like? chainsword? buzz-saw? frying pan of doom?

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NEWS: Upcoming GW Releases

Hi Guys,

Strange gems are to found upon the shores of the internet. Here we have a list of some of the 40k goodness that is coming down the pipe over the next couple of months, starting with next month's Assault on Black Reach.

Title	Contents	Price	Release
WARHAMMER 40,000: ASSAULT ON BLACK REACH	46 Fig Box	$60	Sept-6
ASSAULT ON BLACK REACH PAINT SET	Paint,Brush,Minis	$22	Sept-6
40K ORK BARRICADES	6 Barricades	$22	Sept-6
40K SPECIAL EDITION TAPE MEASURES: SPACE MARINES & ORKS	1 Tape Measure	$6	Sept-6
SPACE MARINE SPEARHEAD	19 Fig Box + Book	$239	Sept-20
CODEX SPACE MARINES	144 Page Book	$25	Oct.-4
SPACE MARINE LAND SPEEDER	1 Fig Box	$30	Oct.-4
SPACE MARINE DROP POD	1 Fig Box	$30	Oct.-4
SPACE MARINE SCOUT BIKE	1 Fig Box	$12	Oct.-4
SPACE MARINE LAND RAIDER CRUSADER/REDEEMER	1 Fig Box	$50	Oct.-4
SPACE MARINE THUNDERFIRE CANNON	1 Fig Box	$35	Oct.-4
SPACE MARINE SCOUT SERGEANT TELION	1 Fig Blister	$12	Oct.-4
SPACE MARINE SERGEANT CHRONUS	1 Fig Blister	$17	Oct.-4
SPACE MARINE STERNGUARD VETERAN SQUAD	5 Fig Box	$30	Oct.-18
SPACE MARINE VANGUARD VETERAN SQUAD	5 Fig Box	$30	Oct.-18
SPACE MARINE CRIMSON FISTS PEDRO KANTOR	1 Fig Blister	$12	Oct.-18
SPACE MARINE ULTRAMARINES CAPT SICARIUS	1 Fig Blister	$12	Oct.-18

~Well we have dates for the first big chunk of the Space Marine releases. It looks the new landraider kit is a dual use replacement for the current plastic/metal crusader one, and not a "build any land raider version" one. things such as the Land Speeder Storm are absent, so time will tell when those get rolled out.

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RUMORS: Librarian Powers and More

Rumors brought to the community by Warseer's: VerifiablySane

More tidbits emerge. This time we hear about Command Squads and Librarian powers...

Command Squads

• Command Squads may only be taken for Captains (one per Captain).
• There is no sergeant option as the entire squad are veterans.
• The Company Champion is an optional upgrade character. The basic squad is 4 veterans and 1 Apothecary.
• Basic weapons are chainswords and either bolters or pistols.
• Any squadmember can replace his pistol or sword with: storm bolter, flamer, plasma gun, meltagun, combi-weapon, power sword, powerfist, lightning claw, or thunder hammer. Pistol may be replaced with a plasma pistol. Melta bombs and storm shields can be taken by anyone.
• The squad may be upgraded to ride bikes.

Librarians
Nine psychic powers:

• Avenger: essentially an AP3 heavy flamer
• Force Dome: 5+ invulnerable for the librarian and squad until the end of next player turn
• Gate of Infinity: librarian and squad Deep Strike back within 24" but with a minor risk...
• Machine Curse: shooting attack causing a Glancing Hit on 1 vehicle within 24"
• Might of the Ancients: Librarian gains strength 6 and rolls 2d6 armour penetration
• Null Zone: all enemy units within 24" re-roll successul invulnerable saves for rest of player turn
• Smite: 12" range, assault 4 St4 AP2
• Quickening: gains Fleet and Initiative 10
• Vortex of Doom: 12" St10 AP1 Heavy1 Blast; failed test results in the blast being centered on the librarian without scatter.

~Those powers seem really streamlined compared to the existing ones, and are a combination of many of the old abilities along with a few new ones. As for the command squads, we have heard from other sources that the stormshields listed in an earlier post as options for honor guard are only for command squads. Thoughts guys?

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Battle Report: The Bloody Plains of Adel IV

As I was noodling around with my latest 2000pt Eldar list this week, word came through the grapevine that a gauntlet had been thrown down. This week's gamenight had been declared a 3000pt per player Imperium vs Chaos Apocalypse grudge match.

From the moment word came down, the Fly Lords each turned inwards and began to craft our nefarious creations, glancing over our shoulders only to ensure the secrecy of our armylists. As we arrived at Battleforge Games, we had no idea how may players would show, but we had estimated 6-10. If was actually 16. We had a 50,000 point game on our hands. Both teams broke up into their factions and team leaders were appointed.

I was appointed as Arch-Heretic and across from me stood Jwolf, proud Tallarn General and Supreme Commander of the Imperial forces. Jwolf is a no-nonsense IG commander with years of 40k under his belt. He knows the odds and is unflappable on the battlefield. I have personally witnessed his cool utterance of "you know if I kill every model in your army I automatially win regardless of mission" been skoffed at before. His opponents just as often as not are left stunned by the bottom of turn three as they are picking up their last mini. This game was going to be tough. Mkerr and Bulwark choosing loyalist only made things worse.

On the traitor side, it was virtually a class reunion of our 2007 Heresy League. Many of our players had been quietly expanding their pre-heresy armies over the last year and were together again. My Death Guard would be joined by Adam's World Eaters bolstered by Angron. Aventine brought a Khornate Demon army bolstered by some Alpha Legion elements, and Brandon's Emperor's Children were present.



Setup and Cunning Plan
The board was a 6'x16" setup with the six objectives spread evenly out directly across the middle of no-man's-land. Jwolf won the setup roll and choose to deploy and go first. The Imperials set up sixteen feet of armor across their deployment zone. They massed an enormous armored force on my right opposite my side's only heavily built up cover. In the center a mass of transports stood ready, loaded with Crimson Guard, Imperial Guard, and Bulwark's Arbites army. On my left flank a lighter armored force bolstered by a pair of baneblades stood ready. Chaos was outnumbered 6 to 2 on baneblades.

His forces didn't add up and I knew Jwolf had something up his sleeve. I had a deepstriking vortex grenade and the new Corrupt and Despoil assets up my sleeve. I took a gamble. With such a long board and the loyalists going first I needed an edge. I ordered my forces to deploy as refused flank. Our mass of traitors deployed in the center and left flank. A token harrassment force was left on our far right in heavy cover to act as a lure for the massed Imperial armor. We loaded the area of heavy cover with every indirect fire vehicle we had and a handful of dev squads. They were doomed men.

The plan was to grab the left flank and center, securing four objectives. Brandon had three squads of deepstriking Emperor's Children who were tasked with landing on and "Despoiling" one of the two abandoned objectives on our far right. His forces would not survive a single turn of fire, so he had to land exactly on target in the middle of a swarming Imperial motorpool. If it worked we could achieve a 4-1 or a 3-2 victory.

Turn 1
The game began and the Imperials lumbered forward. In the left and center their fire was relatively light but the harrassment force on the right got smacked hard. Massawyrm's (from AICN) Blood Angel forces rolled forward and blazed away. A linebreaker squadron backed up by Dante's command landraider was getting dangerously close to the Chaos position.



The bottom of turn one went better. The first of our strategic assets went off without a hitch as Arch-heretic Nick's commander deepstruck on target in a small hole in the middle of the Imperial right and hurled his vortex right into a fully loaded land-raider. On our center, we moved up and started a mutual pummeling match as lines of Vindicators fired at point blank range into a line of loaded loyalist Land Raiders. On our left our Land Raiders raced forward full of traitor terminators hoping to deal with the enemy baneblades with chainfists instead of sporatic shooting.



Turn 2
At the top of turn two, Jwolf unleashed his first cardtrick. Mkerr rolled his force of four flank marching Land Raiders loaded with ticked off Relictor terminators on my left flank behind my advancing forces. They were joined by Grand-Master Larry's Deathwing Redemption Force which deepstruck 45 Deathwing termies right beside their Relictor brothers. As Jwolf smiled and arrogantly cleaned his glasses I realized that over 60 termies were within 6" of my advancing forces in the critical left flank. If they weren't dealt with immediately the battle was lost.

The center became a bloodbath as the loyalists reached the Chaos lines and disembarked. Over 100 marines were hacking into my forward lines. On the right, the armored force split up in a panic after the vortex claimed another 2 victims including a second Land Raider. They reached the harrassment force and killed almost every man. Finally to add insult to injury a string of Dark Angel drop pods landed along the Chaos deployment zone deploying a handful of squads that had to be dealt with while a pair of Thunderbolts thundered overhead.



The bottom of turn two saw the battle in the balance. Aventine's Alpha Legion baneblade "Hydra's Claw" made a miracle bank shot right into the center of the massed Deathwing force, killing over a dozen. Worse for them, Kugath Lord of Corruption was unleashed and stampeded into the survivors, killing eleven in a single turn. Every chaos weapon which could reach the loyalist termys laid into them killing even more. It would seem the Imperial surprise might just be contained after all.



In the center, the traitor infantry struck home led by Aventine's 60 Bloodletters and vanguard of four Heralds of Khorne on Juggers. They cut into the the loyalists while the slower Death Guard and World Eaters had to pull back and deal with the Dark Angels in our rear. High overhead a pair of pink Emperor's Children Hellblades's arrived and engaged in Austin's first 40k dogfight! They blasted a Marauder from the heavens in a burst of flaming wreckage.

On the right, the loyalists were in firm control. Our harrassment force was gone, and the armored force was starting to reposition to support the center. There was little to stop them. Our first attempt at despoiling one of the far right objectives failed horribly as the Emperor's Children Lord and his 10 terminators had a deepstrike mishap that destroyed them!



A single surviving Tallarn Leman Russ that had seen its brother tanks destroyed by the nearby vortex grenades called in for instructions from Lord Jwolf. He ordered it to close to pointblank range with the vortex to gain a hulldown cover save while firing into the traitor lines over it! Lord Jwolf remarked that service in the Tallarn Armored Corps is not for the weak-willed.

Turn 3
As the top of three arrived, even more Imperial terminators arrived to reinforce the first wave of loyalists on the left flank. This time it was a force of two dozen Grey Knights. They eyed Kugath with cold fury. The assaults were bloody, but Chaos held the upper hand in the end.

In the center the traitor luck ran out. Rumbling into view a Tallarn Marauder Destroyer assault bomber appeared overhead, and dropped its heavy bomb and missile payload into the heart of our rampaging daemon forces. Over 50 fell in a rain of explosives. Our push was snuffed out.

On the right the traitors were pulling back what they could and simply trying to delay the onrush of Imperial tanks.



The bottom of three was it. With the clock running out Chaos had only one last desperate chance. On the left we consolidated our hard fought gains and cut off the Grey Knights with walls of Land Raiders. Both left objectives were ours.

In the center the brutal assaults continued. With our demons incinerated by the thrice-damned Marauder bomber, we ringed a single objective and took it by a hair. The second center objective was securely in loyalist hands.

The game came down to the right flank. One objective was covered by a parked Imperial baneblade. A force of Chaos flank marching marines hit it and charged in with 120 attacks... and only scored four guncrew stunned results. CURSES! Brandon was next up and his last two deepstriking Raptors made for the last exposed objective. Both deviated, but one landed in difficult terrain within potential assault range. If we could reach it, we would despoil it! A crowd gathered round and gasped as Brandon rolled a 1 and a 3...not enough.

~Tie Game, 3 to 3. ...And Chaos would have pulled it off if it wasn't for those damned meddling kids!!! :) Leaving our dead to the carrion birds Jwolf and I swore this would be settled another day, on another world. Adel IV was not the end, but only the beginning.

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Check out our new digs!

The site upgrade it up!

There are still some upgrades coming and a lot of tweaks are coming here and there, but overall its ready to roll.

You should find all the same stuff from the old site, but with better organization (especially for newcomers). Our most popular items are now located along the top navigation pane right below the titlebar so look there for any items you can't locate.

The search box works pretty well as well.

I hope you guys like the new layout and let me know if anything seems wonky or outright broken...

must sleep...

~Also 10 points and a personalized named character to the trusty fellow who can determine the source of the intermittant "done, but with errors on page" message.

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NEWS: Space Marine Spearhead Up for Order

Today GW put up the Space Marine Spearhead up for advance order. This would seem to be the earliest way to get your hands on the new codex as well as the new minis.

Space Marine Spearhead

"This box set contains: one 144-page Codex: Space Marines, one multi-part plastic Drop Pod, three multi-part plastic Scout Bikes, five metal Sternguard Veterans, five metal Vanguard Veterans, one metal Thunderfire Cannon, one metal Sergeant Telion, One metal Sergeant Chronus, one metal Pedro Kantor and one metal Ultramarines Captain Sicarius."

Price: $244 USD (146 Pounds Sterling)

Ships: September 6th

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Friday Odds and Ends

Hi guys,

We have had a dearth of news this week. It would seem we are in a bit of the doldrums as GW shifts over the Fantasy Dark Elves release window. Here a few little things we have going on.

Apocalypse
Yesterday we had a great 50,000pt Apocalypse Imperial vs Chaos down here in Austin and it was fantastic. Expect a battlereport coming soon.

Army of Death Minidex
On the mini-dex front, mkerr is putting the final finishing touches on his upcoming Blood Angel Army of Death list. He's been polishing it up for 5th and it is looking good. Keep an eye out as it won't be long now.

Macharian Update
You can also expect one final version of Macharian Crusade any day now. As we are really getting into the swing of things as we ramp up for the Fall 2008 Crusade, we just had to tinker with some things we have gotten a lot of feedback on. We promise this upcoming version will be the last until we have to update it for the new IG codex coming sometime next year.

Lords of Battle Update
As he is wrapping that up, I'm filling my no-news time with an update to our Lords of Battle Apocalypse book. A lot of new apocalypse items have been released along with 5th so its time to go back and update that one for you guys.

Website Upgrade
You can expect a website overhaul coming up soon. We have noticed that we now have enough archived content it is getting difficult to access a lot of it, particularly for newcomers. We are almost ready to roll out a new updated BoLS that should really help in that department.

Macharian IC Challenge Deadline Approaching
We have gotten a good amount of entries into our latest BoLS modelling challenge, so try to get you entries in by Monday if you can. I will putting all the contestants up for voting next week.

~I would be most appreciative if you would take a little time to glance at Lords of Battle and let me know if there are any major issues you have with individual units, or more importantly if there are any specific units you would like us to add from the old epic days. Consider this an open thread and play nice.

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NEWS: Codex Space Marine Dates

I thought you all would want to see these images that drifted our way through the tubes. It looks we have a solid date for Codex Space Marines now doesn't it. Tick, tock, tick tock...

~T-minus less than 2 months and counting... I can't wait for my Land Raider Redeemer, its killing me.

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BoLS Polls: Battlefield Reports Edition

Hi guys,

On this slow Thursday, lets turn the mike over to you, our trusty readers. 5th has now been out for long enough for all of us to get our feet wet. For months everyone had every kind of crazy prediction as to what the new ruleset would being and now here we are.

The question is what are you guys seeing and using to achieve success on the 5th edition battlefield? Let set aside conjecture for a moment and dive into this poll and thread based on your own hard-nosed tabletop experience.

Are you finding success with horde lists? Elite lists? Assault, gunline or a balanced blend? Are you embracing vehicles and walkers, or have you shied away from them? APCs or running infantry? Any codices in particular that are great on the tabletop or just wretchedly horrible? Whats becoming popular in your area?

~Lets hear from you. I'm actually quite curious as to how the community as a whole have adapted and what new insights you all have to enlighten us with. The thread is open Generals, lets hear it... Poll, left column, attack (you can choose multiple answers)!

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TUTORIAL: Designing a Mini-dex

Today I have something a little different. We here at BoLS really enjoy working our little creative brains to churn out our little mini-dexes and campaign books for you guys. To this day, our number one mail request is for a brief rundown of how we make these. So hey, this is your lucky day. Here is a rundown of the process we use here at BoLS to produce a campaign book or minidex. I will be going over the basic steps, and using the recent Macharian Crusade book for examples. This one goes out to all the budding designers out there, enjoy and good luck!


Core Concept
The first thing you should decide on is what your publication's goal and scope is. Are you looking for a quick mini-dex for a minor variant army, something for a handful of players to enjoy over a weekend or a massive multi-month campaign for dozens of players? Once you have your scale established, you should move onto the exact subject matter. Do you wish to include every army in the game, or focus on a subset? Do you want to cover a "historical event" which is described in the fiction, or invent your own? There is no right or wrong choice, but is it critical to get these thoughts down on paper as your guiding principles. Its always nice to have your destination laid out in black and white when you hit difficult design decisions in the future.

~For Macharian Crusade, we wanted to follow up on the heels of our Age of Heresy campaign book with something that in no way focused on marines. We wanted something Imperial-centric, historical, and involving a good amount of armies. After tossing around doing Damocles-Gulf, Age of Apostacy, First War of Armageddon, and Hivefleet Behemoth, we settled on the Macharian Crusade. We really got into the concept of a huge book focussing on the Imperial Guard. In the fluff they do 99% of the back-breaking fighting that keeps the Imperium intact but constantly get sidelined by the Astartes. Our book would be a direct attempt to showcase the true power of of the Imperium's military; the lowly guardsmen and his lasgun.



Research
Now that you have a concept, the next step is research. Your goal here is to thoroughly research your topic. This is where you need to scour every GW book going back to Rogue Trader and White Dwarf 89. The internet is a huge research tool so use it well. With almost 20 years of 40k under their belts GW has provided thousands of pages of background information for you to mine. The goal here isn't to slavishly copy every work of fluff but instead to build a framework for your creative efforts so your final product fits into the existing 40k universe like a puzzle-piece. The last thing you want to do is spend a lot of time and work only to have someone point out a glaring inconsistancy with the established fluff minutes after you release it.

~Macharian Crusade was a monumental research task. We pulled in fluff from ancient IG codices, several maps, chronologies from a variety of White Dwarfs, and myrid other locations. One of the most challenging aspects was the directly contradictory information that had been put out over the years and the evolving fluff that was occuring under our noses as 5th edition approached. In many respects the contradictory information ended up being a boon as it gave us flexibility in certain creative aspects.



Writing
Here is where a bit of the "special sauce" comes in. I can't give you any specific instructions on how to attack this, but this is the main meat of your project. You are going to have to pull together your research material, and create something that meets your initial design goal. Whether you are working on fluff or rules, be true to your guiding vision and let the muse lead you where she will.

For fluff, feel free to draw inspiration from the real world to help guide your way. 40k's fluff is heavily influenced by a myriad of sources from Golden Age sci-fi to the classics, and everything in between. If you find something that inspires, go with it.

For rules, look to the existing rules, old edition rules, and all the codices going back as far as you can access. You will need some basic background in game theory and design, and books on the subject are easily found. Remember always, that your creations are intended for a game; and thus for fun. You are ultimately creating an entertainment product. Always try to avoid the overly-complex, the cruelly one-sided, and the unbalanced.

~Macharian Crusade was directly influenced by the life of Alexander the Great. We threw ourselves into his biographies to try to better understand not only his conquests but the man himself. I borrowed heavily from the classics to give the fluff a hopefully antiquarian feel. Do a websearch for Sogdian Rock and see what you get :) When it came to rules, we strove to add detail and depth to the existing IG codex and create a set of characters who were talented but still normal men. They were to inspire and lead through their knowledge and military cunning over brute martial power. Space Marines they were not.



Layout
Layout is your next task. You have your content completed and need to get it formatted in a nice easy to access format. You can use whatever computer tools you have access to. We currently use Adobe Creative Suite, but Age of Heresy was created entirely in Microsoft Word. Whatever you choose, strive for a nice clean layout with appropriate fonts that makes it easy for your audience to read, reference, and use for play. Always ask yourself: could you use this publication easily in the middle of a 40k game? Look to the 40k universe to guide you layouts, and by all means take a look at GW's intellectual property page to find the list of no-nos to avoid.

~For Macharian Crusade, we wanted to go with a much more lavish visual layout after wrapping up Age of Heresy. The power of Adobe products allows striking layouts that we just couldn't accomplish before. We followed the organization pattern of fluff, modelling, rules, ICs, Apocalypse, then finally campaign rules. To keep the book fresh, we made sure to break up any "dry" areas with regular visual fluff content such as the Capitol Imperialis pic, spaceship pics, maps and the like.



Editing
Ok, now comes the fun part. Your first draft is complete. Its time to hand it over to your other compatriots and start some internal discussions on your content. Bring out the highlighters and let your fellow designers rip up your baby. They will often see ommissions, awkwardly phrased rules, and just silly ideas you thought were great at 2:00AM. During this phase your goal is to simply fix any glaring issues and clean up your rules and ideas, while ensuring they still meet your inital project goals.

~For Macharian Crusade most initial work was done by myself, with mkerr coming in with his dreaded pink highlighter of doom after the fact. It is one of his life's greatest pleasures to drop a manuscript in my lap that is literally covered with edits. While maddening at first, the sweeping debates that come up during this phase will keep all parties honest about your overall goals and ensure that the really hairbrained ideas get stomped out early. For example, the early drafts of the Merican Fusiliers required that you take so many mandatory doctrine upgrades that each trooper came out to well over 16pts apiece! What was I smoking?




Playtesting
Now your project is the best you can make it internally. Its time to bring forth the playtesters; those bastards :) You're ideal team will contain a mix of newcomers, grizzled old-timers, and tournament players. New players give great feedback on how easily understandable your project is. Grizzled old-timers give great comparitive analysis of your fluff versus the existing 40k universe and can provide insights into how your rules hold up compared to similar concepts they have seen over the years. Tournament players will tear your rules apart bit by bit, and give detailed and brutal feedback on what works, sucks, or is too powerful. Your job is herd all of these cats and convert all of their honest feedback into ever more balanced and improved release candidates. Eventually you will reach a place where everyone agrees that there are no more serious issues (you will of course never truly be done).

~For Macharian Crusade we relied heavily on the Austin 40k community. This large group (over 40+) are tireless testing savants, and our core of tournament ringers (you can see Abe and Brandon above) are merciless to the Fly Lords. We all spent several weeks glaring at each other and muttering about each other behind each others backs, but all for a good cause. In this phase an adversarial relationship will lead to a superior product and you always need to remember that folks fight the most for ideas they truly believe in. As one example, Masta-blasta went through at least 5 different versions before we really felt like we got him right. (in v 1.03)

Proofreading & Release
You are at the end. Have everyone look over the work looking only for typos, grammar, and incorrect rules. It is virtually impossible for this task to be done by the primary author and you really need a 3rd party to help you out. Once you have it all ready to go, export the doc as an Adobe PDF and let the world share in your invention. YOU DID IT! Now pack it away and start on the next one :)

~There you have it guys. Good luck and let us know if you any questions or comments. Happy writing and gaming!

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NEWS: AdeptiCon 2009 Dates and Location

AdeptiCon News AdeptiCon will return April 3 – 5, 2009 for its seventh year of Games Workshop miniature wargaming madness. Mark your calendars, put in for the time off work, and start making your travel plans, because AdeptiCon just keeps getting bigger and better!

This year we will be moving to the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center in Lombard, IL, just outside of Chicago. Full details concerning the new venue (including room codes & rates) will be posted within the next week.

Join the AdeptiCon 2009 Staff!

Become a part of the AdeptiCon 2009 team! With all the extra space we’re going to have in 2009, we’re looking for volunteers who are excited and passionate about the hobby to help us continue AdeptiCon’s tradition of excellence.

We are looking for volunteers in the following areas:

* Operations Staff (Setup, Registration, Tech Support, Breakdown)
* 40K Tournament/Event Staff
* Fantasy Tournament/Event Staff
* Specialist Games Tournament/Event Staff
* Hobby Seminar Instructors
* Communications
* * Terrain Building (Chicago-area residency required)

* * These groups perform the majority of their work before AdeptiCon. All other groups do their work during the AdeptiCon weekend itself.

Note that with one exception (the Terrain Group), Chicago-area residency is NOT required, so no matter where you live you can help make AdeptiCon 2009 happen!

E-mail adeptuswindycity@gmail.com today with your name, contact info, and areas in which you’d be particularly interested in volunteering. A member of the AdeptiCon Council will get in touch with you. Planning for AdeptiCon 2009 begins in earnest, so join the team today!

On the Horizon: The AdeptiCon 2008 Retrospective The AdeptiCon Retrospective will be released in the next day or so, so stay tuned for full coverage of AdeptiCon 2008, including event featurettes, the full listing of award winners, and much more.

~You guys all know where the Fly Lords will be next April

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RUMORS: Codex Space Marines Odds and Ends

Hi guys. Here are a few more morsels from some agents in the know:

Honour Guard
Honour Guard (available to Chapter Master's only) have artificer armour, bolters, bolt pistols, grenades, and power weapons. They can replace their power weapons with relic blades (S:6, two-handed power weapons) and also have various other options such as storm shields (3+ invulnerable save against all attacks) and auxillary grenade launchers (a 12” grenade launcher that can be fired in addition to any other weapon each and every turn). Marneus Calgar allows the player to field three squads of Honour Guard instead than the standard one squad.

Tabletop Performance
Combat Tactics
Playing against this in an actual game was not bad as you can still attempt to sweep the marines (as with ATSKNF, they take wounds as if they are fearless if caught). Every time my marine opponent tried it my nasty and quick assault units caught them, and Combat Tactics only forced him to take more armour saves. If the marines had been successful more often I may have had a different opinion on Combat Tactics.

ATSKNF
This has changed a little. Marines automatically rally at the begining of their turn and can act normally (they do not count as moving, and don't get the 3" consolidate). They still can't rally if an enemy is within 6". Other than that, it's the exact same.

General Gameplay Thoughts
Overall, the game felt like I was playing a codex marine list. I'm not saying that simply because my opponent wasn't useing any of the new codex's flashy new units, but the army played like marines should. Perhaps if I get whacked by some of those new units I'll change my opinion.

FAQs
When the marine codex comes out, GW will release updated FAQs for the DA, BA and BT list making some of the changes carry over to them. ATSKNF is a good candidate for this as it is written much more cleanly in the new codex.

~As usual folks, caveat emptor. I shudder at the total cost of an Honour Guard unit kitted out with all the goodies. As for the battle report, it seems like the list may be nice and balanced after all. Our intrepid agent certainly didn't have a "sky is falling" take on the new codex after facing them on the tabletop. Your thoughts?

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PLAY-AID: Genestealer cult v2.0

Hi Everybody,

As promised, with the advent of 5th Edition, the Fly Lords are working through our older publications and updating them for the new edition. First up is the Genestealer Cult. This new version 2.0 list is ready to go! Within this 22 page mini-dex you will find:

• Background
• Modeling section
• Army List
• 4 Special Characters (including Imperial opposition characters)
• Apocalypse Datasheet
• Galactic Map

It has been an absolute blast working on this list and tweaking it for 5th. Hopefully it will get some of those old dusty cult minis off of the shelves and back onto the tabletop where they belong. The list is an updated version of both the original Rogue Trader list, and the more recent Citadel Journal list.

It is primarily a horde list that contains some of the most low quality (but dirt cheap) units you've ever laid your eyes on, mixed with some mean, nasty inner Coven units to keep an enemy on his toes. And hey, Limos...with Genestealers in them... No matter what happens Genestealer Cults always win on style points!






~I hope all you Cult fans have some fun with these. Enjoy and as usual, we love comments and feedback! What I think I enjoy most of all is the flexibility these PDFs give us. While we endeaver ot playtest the heck out of these things, a lot of the tweaks in v2.0 came directly from feedback from you, our readers. So enjoy, and by all means keep the feedback and comment coming. We really do read them!

Download Here

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PRODUCT REVIEW: Apocalypse Reload

Hi guys,

This is the first of what will hopefully become a regular review column. I have recently finished reading my copy of Apocalypse Reload and wanted to go over it in detail with you guys who may be debating whether its worth your time.

Basics
88 Pages
Full color
Oversided format (same as the Apocalypse hardcover)
Softback
Price: $25 USD

Content Breakdown
Apocalypse Datasheets: 50+
Strategic Assets: 40+
New Mission Concepts
Super-duper Battle Report

Content Review
First up, this book is an expansion for Apocalypse, so right off you will need the previous Hardcover to make use of it. As with Apocalypse, the book mainly covers large-scale units like super heavies and big formations composed of dozens and dozens of models. It is strongly aimed at large scale narrative gameplay.




Datasheets
After a brief introduction and overview of most of the 40k armies, the book dives right into the individual armies datasheets. The armies covered are:

Imperial Guard
Space Marines
Orks
Eldar
Tyranids
Tau Empire
Necrons
Chaos Space Marines
Chaos Daemons

As you wade into each of these armies, you will find a decent set of expansion datasheets. In general many of these are surprising not for their creativity, but for the fact that they are in this expansion instead of the original Apocalypse hardcover. Looking back with 20/20 hindsight it would appear that the original Apocallypse book had a certain amount of "bling factor" to it which left some bread and butter formations waiting for this book.

Things like the Imperial Guard Shield Infantry Company, Ork Green Tide, and the Space Marine Skyhammer Orbital Strike force are just so emblematic of their armies, its hard to believe we didn't have them earlier. Now its not just basics. There are a lot of flashy units here too. Things such as the Eldar Phoenix court of Khaine (an Avatar and all six Phoenix Lords), The Khornate Tower of Skulls (a daemonic super heavy that can self-repair), and the like are delights to behold and add a lot of character to their armies.

The next thing I'm really impressed with with these datasheets is the reams of new fluff that got added to them. Things like discovering there are only 64 Towers of Skulls that roam the ash wastes defending Khorne's Kingdom for eternity are really cool. Its nice to see Tyranid formations that start to carve out differences in the combat philosophy between the different hive fleets (Kraken and Behemoth are used in this book). On top of that, there are some solid apocalypse design holes that got filled in this book. So now the Orks and Tau have AAA platforms, and the Eldar can send Swooping Hawks into assault with enemy fliers (how cool is that).



Strategic Assets
After the 50+ datasheets, we move onto the Strategic Assets. These are real treasure, and possibly the most innovative part of the entire book. What we have here are sets of army-specific assets, which are a real treat. Any veteran of Apocalypse can tell you that while the games were entertaining, the missions and asset system was a little "flat". With every army having access to the same assets, there was a "sameness" that often descended on games. Well no more. Not only are the new assets army specific, but they are squarely aimed at strong narrative mission construction. So for example if you want to play a game against Tyranids during the final stages of a world's consuption, great you can now. If you want to face the horror of a Necron tomb world being awakened, no problem. Want to have a game where the IG heroicly hold the line in the face of annihilation, well now they can do it with style.




Mission rules/Mega-game
Next up a short section on ideas for putting some constraints on the default Apocalypse missions to create some very directed narrative games. Its is sure to get your creative juices flowing.

Finally we hit the obligatory crazy battle report chock full of pretty pics. Lets just say, its crazy, takes place both on a world's surface and onboard an orbiting Killkroozer, and pits the Imperium against an gigantic horde of greenskins. Pretty pics abound and its definately insipring.

Downsides
While everything is great so far, there are some defiencies. Once again, we see not a single datasheet for Witchhunters (the Sororitas do get their own Strategic asset). The Dark Eldar are also ignored. While there is a Grey Knight datasheet on the GW website, they have yet to make an appearance in either of the published Apocalypse books. Its a real shame and yet another blow to the faithful WH/DH players out there. Not so much a downside as a reality of the Apocalypse system, is the obvious focus on non-balanced narrative gaming. Its not a product for hardcore tournament players. Finally, as a very minor quibble, the oversized format is mated with the newer glossy thin paper seen in recent GW products, leading to a book prone to warping and getting folded over. You will need to take a little more care of this one compared to the standard codex sized books.

Summary
On balance, it is a great bargain for the price. If you enjoy Apocalypse games, or just giant mega-battles, narrative gaming, campaign play, and enjoy seeing the 40k universe "open up" with loads of new fluff and large-scale items you can't miss out on this product. If you live only for hardcore tourney play, and live off the adrenaline rush of crushing your opposition in regimented one-on one competitions, it might not be your cup of tea.

4 Stars (out of 5)

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NEWS: Black Reach is in the Mail

Images brought to the community by tauonline's: gareth

Word on the street is that some lucky folks have already recieved copies of the Assualt on Black Reach boxed set. It looks like the advanced orders are in the mail. Here's a look at the contents.

~That looks a mini-rulebook to me. Hey, look the red whippy-sticks are back! Oh the memories of painful hijinks from the days of yore...

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Games: Death Guard vs Emperor's Children

Hi guys, just a quick one for now, more coming tomorrow. Mkerr and I have been playing 5th a whole lot of late, but hadn't had a good chance to go after each other.

So tonight he brought his latest Emperor's Children army up against my Death Guard Triple Vindy list. After playing this list for the last 4 weeks in 5th edition I would like to revise my earlier statements.

While the Vindicator had some serious limitations in 4th, they are a heck of a lot better in 5th, and I've pulled the list out of retirement and am having a blast with it.

The battle was hardfought, but in the end, the XIVth Legion sent our perfectionist pink brothers packing. I think the pic sums it up nicely. Feel free to head on over to Mkerr's Fly Wire mini-blog for the nitty-gritty of the game (as soon as he puts it up).

~Cya guys tomorrow. Expect some of our older minidexes updated for 5th Edition coming down the pipe soon.

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