Space Marines 7th edition codex first impressions

My Howling Griffons have only had limited attention lately, what with my Orks running rampage, but a new SM codex will definitely change that.

Last Saturday I couldn't resist the Ultramarines Limited Edition when it went up for pre-order, so I have been waiting patiently for it all week.  I had also tried to resist trawling the rumour sites for spoilers and was generally successful.  (The rumour I had heard about Devastators getting Slow and Purposeful turns out to be wrong now anyway.)  This morning I went straight to GW to pick up my order and it is lovely.  Limited Editions have seemed to me a bit of a luxury before, and of course it is, but the package is very impressive.  Mine is 41/450, so I got a top 100 prime number!  (I can be a bit OCD about these things.)  The full page artwork is very good, although the figures for the different colour schemes seem odd.

Anyway, enough of my indulgences.  What about the rules?

There have been some tweaks to Chapter Tactics.  Any SM army now has wider access to the old Ultramarines doctrines via formation rules, although UM get the widest use of these still.  Devastator doctrine has removed Relentless for Devastator squads, which was one of my favourite rules.  Salamanders now get 4+ FNP against flamer weapons instead of re-rolls to wound, although there is some debate online about Skorchas with this.  Oh, and Dreadnoughts get Chapter Tactics too now and can be fielded in units of up to 3 of the same type.  Those seem to be the main changes with Chapter Tactics.

The biggest change, by far, is the introduction of the Gladius Strike Force as an alternative to the traditional CAD.  This is similar to the chart we first saw with the Necron Decurion.  The core of this is a Demi-Company, with a Captain or Chaplain, 3 Tactical Squads, an Assault element and a Devastator element.  There is also an option for a unit of Dreads and a Command Squad.  Crucially, the whole Demi-Company gets Objective Secured and can use the Tactical Doctrine.  With 2 Demi-Companies (aka a full Battle Company) all the squads in it get free Rhinos, Razorbacks or Drop Pods, although they pay for any upgrades.  All with Obj Sec.  Wow!  I can see that being exploited by some.

As with the Decurion, the other Formations in the book can be combined to add to the Demi-Company.  I already have a Storm Wing Formation, which is now in the codex, and enough units for a 1st Company Task Force, so have more than the minimum for the Gladius.  The Strike Force Command option is interesting, as a Chaplain or a Captain can then take either a Command Squad or Honour Guard (both of which are now Elite choices).   Some formations previously seen in Apocalypse are now included in the standard rules.  One example is the Librarius Conclave of 3-5 Librarians, who can then have one model harnessing Warp Charge on a 2+.  The balance here is that they must be within 12" to unlock this, which a canny opponent will exploit.  Apart from Land Raiders, the other Heavy Support vehicles now come in squadrons of 1-3, as do Thunderfire Cannons and they all get benefits for having 3 of each on the table.

The trend of making dedicated transports separate Fast Attack choices continues, so SW and BA now have more competition in the Drop Pod rental market.  I had also expected the shenanigans of changing Bikes into Troops to end, as had happened with Ork Warbikes and BA Assault Squads, but the SM version has even improved.  Previously a Captain or Chapter Master needed to be on a bike to unlock this, but now any IC in the Detachment on a bike allows this, so this is a real buff, especially for Scars players.  This includes a Techmarine, who is a cross between the old Techmarine and Master of the Forge for a compromise cost of 65 points as a full HQ choice with 2 wounds.  In the previous book a Chapter Master, Captain and Terminator Captain were all separate entries, but they have now been consolidated under the Captain entry as upgrades.  Again, there has also been a lot of discussion about whether a Chapter Master then still counts as a Captain for the formations.  I would say he does.

Some of the points costs have been reduced a bit for some of the less popular options.  For example Assault Terminators with LCs are a PF cheaper as a unit, but to upgrade them to the TH/SS combo comes out at the old total.  Generally, special weapon options in a number of units are cheaper.  In particular Vanguard Veterans, whose Heroic Intervention rule has changed again, now re-rolling charges and ignoring disordered charges.  This makes them much more attractive, so should move more kits.  The new Assault Squad is the same price, so the Vanguards may appear even better value too.

Right now I have bought one box of the new Devastator kits and will get another to add options for a full squad of grav cannons and another multi-melta squad to my Howling Griffons 9th (Devastator) Company (it is a shame that is not a formation in standard 40K...).  I like the new legs and will just use the new larger bases and ignore the different sizes on the rest of the squads.  I am not that OCD.  At least you can just about make 6 figures with the new dev box, if you steal a spare back torso from an Assault Squad box and find another base.

After that I intend to start the homebrew chapter I have wanted to do for a while, so I can swap chapter tactics more easily.  I will just need to decide on a name and colour scheme, although there is some inspiration in the Successor Chapters booklet I got today with the Limited Edition.

These are interesting times for SM players again.  I don't think they will reach Eldar levels of power - perceived or otherwise - but the new codex has done a good job of updating the iconic army of 40K for 7th Edition.  I hope there will be even more variety in the range of SM armies players actually use, and not just the variations on White Scars and Iron Hands we have seen a lot lately.

For Mancora and the Emperor!

Green Tide vs 6th ed Eldar

This blog has now reached 10k views. I wonder how many of them are mine? (No I don't want to mess around with Blogger audience stats tyvm..)

On Monday night I played a 1500 pt game for Oli's new league.  My list is a Green Tide with a CAD of painboy, 2 units of grots, 2 lots of warbikes and a single killa kan.

Oli had not allowed the new Eldar codex for some reason (?), so this match was against 3 pre-nerf wave serpents, an old Wraithknight, a spiritseer, 2 sets of Wraithguard,  a crimson hunter, 10 dire avengers and 10 guardians.

We were playing a hybrid Emperor's Will / mini - maelstrom scenario.  I had almost forgotten how long my horde takes to unpack, so Tom got a drink while I deployed.

Deployment

My Orks went first but the first couple of turns were the slowest advance ever.  I kept rolling ones and twos for running and got snake eyes twice in a row when trying to charge.  I also took a bit of a beating from the serpents and the Wraithknight. With Tom focusing on my green tide and my trying to run, it took until the end of turn 3 before we had First Blood when Tom exploded my kan with his flyer.  By that point I almost called it, as I had lost well over 50 boyz.  Without FNP it would have been a lot more.  As I had had to sweep round scenery, the blob had been spilt in three with casualties in front of the buildings and it looked like I would have to spend my movement just getting back in coherency rather than running forward.

The plan is usually to aim for a Turn 2 charge, but in this game it took until Turn 4!  The tide was turning, as they say.  I finally managed a multi-charge, needing a 6 on an 'Ere we go reroll to make it through terrain. Perhaps the dice gods were not so harsh after all?  The ladz predictably chewed through the guardians and even the wraithguard, but fortunately one of the latter survived to keep the remaining boyz locked in combat for Tom's next round of shooting, before they mopped up in his assault phase.

My boyz and bikes finished off the rest of his infantry over the next couple of turns, whilst the serpents zipped across to my board edge to keep out of the way, but shooting one of my grot units off of an objective at the end.  I ignored the flyer and the WK.

The Eldar are pushed back

In the end neither of us got the 4pt Emperor's Will objectives, but I won the 3 pts in this scenario for achieving most maelstrom objectives.  We both got 2 secondaries,  so I won 5-2 with a bit of luck.  I had expected to lose some of the chaff, but most of the nobz in the tide made it into combat.

I had added the bikes and kan to the list to help me grab objectives, as the tide can only hold one.  However, with the tide advancing Tom got pushed back, so he was restricted in getting objectives too.  Even when he leapfrogged with his wave serpents, my grots still had Objective Secured.  This meant he couldn't snatch a 4 pt objective at the end.

New GW Crusade case - aka I have too many Orks!

It has been a while since my last post, but I thought I would give my thoughts on the new GW cases.

My Ork army from last year's Tale of Gamers has continued to expand beyond the single case I started with.  Including my son's old AOBR figures, I was carrying around two cases plus the Stormclaw box of unmade sprues and clippers etc.  A double case seemed the logical next step, and then GW released its new box range.  Whilst the smallest one would be very useful for storage at club, I opted for the Crusade version, which is advertised at holding 400 figures.

This morning I finally got the chance to transfer my models and it was a squeeze! Apart from my Morkanaut and Stompa (!) I got all of my own figures in and even squeezed in some of the boy's models.  However, the lid needed to be closed carefully.  See the pictures at the bottom.

The Stormboyz and any models with banners or bosspoles need to be laid down to fit and I had to turn one tray upside down to go over the vehicles.  I like the idea of the zig-zag foam, which is very flexible.  However, it is not as easy to count the models as with the old trays, where you knew exactly how many figures were in a row.  Smaller models like Gretchin or even magnetised weapon arms etc will also 'float about' a bit more, now that they are not so contained.  I think it could take longer to unpack, which could be an issue if bidding for set up time in Apoc games.  My Orks have always taken a long time to pack away after games, and I don't see that improving soon.

The case itself seems to be made with thinner plastic than the old ones and the clips are certainly smaller.  Whether they are more durable than on my last case, one of which broke off, remains to be seen.

I can also imagine that if you have a lot of the old metal figures then it could get quite heavy too.  The strap seems to be the same as before and the handle is solid enough.

Overall, I was a little disappointed I could not fit more in, but it will certainly be more convenient than carrying two cases all the time.  As for the unloading and repacking time, I suppose that will improve as I get used to it.

Bottom layer

Second layer

Third layer

Fourth layer (top)

40K New Years Doubles League

My Howling Griffons are getting a bit of attention again just now with a doubles league I am running at Newbury Gaming Club.  We had one doubles game with my Orks before Christmas which was good fun so I put the idea of a league forward and twelve players were up for my suggestion.

We drew random pairs and my partner turned out to be Paul, who also has Ork and Marine armies. He is a better convertor and painter though! He was keen to use his marines so I thought I would use mine again too.

The other army combos are Iron Hands + Tyranids, Tau + Dark Eldar, Dark Eldar + Guard, Tau + Guard and BA + Eldar.

Paul decided on his 1000pt list first, using Salamanders tactics.

Captain- artificer armour, plasma pistol, power fist, storm shield, digital weapons
Ironclad Dreadnought
3 Assault Centurions- omniscope, meltaguns
5 scouts- heavy bolter, 4 snipers
10 tacticals- heavy bolter, flamer
Stormraven- extra armour, TL lascannons, TL multimelta

I also went with an Ironclad and flyers in my list:

Chapter Master - bike, artificer, Teeth of Terra
5 Bikes - Vet Sgt PF, 2 meltaguns
Tac Squad +5 - Vet sgt, combi-melta, meltagun, multimelta, meltabombs
2 Stormtalons - Skyhammer
Ironclad - 2HKs, Ironclad assault launchers, drop pod

I have previously only ever taken a Captain,  but the Chapter Master proved his worth in the first game when his Orbital Bombardment took out George's Sicaran and a Rhino. My Ironclad came down on our right flank to block Nick's Broodlord and Genestealers from threatening our objective.  This did tie up my dread for most of the game, but Paul's Ironclad,  Captain and Assault Centurions also arrived in the Stormraven on that flank and ground down the rest of the Nids. In Turn 5 we were pretty much tied on points, but luckily we went on to Turn 6 and grabbed their objective from Luke's Tervigon for a solid 9-1 victory.

In our second match we were up against Steve's Tau and Nick's Guard. (sorry Astra Militarum. ..) I managed to drop the Ironclad behind a tank this time, which immobilised Nick's command Chimera Turn 1 before wrecking it Turn 2 and then charging the survivors.  Orbital Bombardment had given us First Blood again but then my bikes let me down a bit. First off the Sergeant with Power Fist hit Nick's Leman Russ 3 times in combat, which was fine until I rolled three ones for damage! The Chapter Master split off to charge the Broadside to stop it shooting, only to lose combat on the next turn and ride off. Luckily my Ironclad was on hand to mop up. Despite the shame of this we still managed to keep the relic for a 7-1 win.

Both games were really enjoyable against sporting opponents.  I hope that they had fun too.  The league certainly seems to have generated a fair amount of excitement and discussion, which makes it all worthwhile.

Next up for us are Wiggy's BA and Tom's Eldar. Tom has 3 Wave Serpents and a Wraithknight   Wiggy's Death Company will also be fun!

Ork finalists and Christmas goodies

My Orks made it to the final of our Tale of Gamers, where they were on the back foot from the start against Henry's White Scars list with added FW Sicaran. Once the Centurions had whittled down my Stormboyz, the Battlewagon was immobilised and I lost the Trukk things got even harder.  I almost managed to claim the D3+3 maelstrom VP card for controlling every objective, but those dev cents actually won combat against my depleted burnas and meks and consolidated onto the last objective I needed.  It was game over from then on, with the final score 9-19.

My horde got a good number of reinforcements under the Christmas tree, including 30 Boyz, 5 Warbikers and 5 more Stormboyz - one box from Tim in the store as past of Matt's gift box idea.  The highlight however was a Morkanaut from an anonymous donor!  (I have a good idea who it was though.)  I was very happy with that haul, as I'm normally lucky to get one box.

I started building the Stormboyz from my daughter, so I was able to field 'Da Vulcha Skwad' from the Ghaz supplement in a doubles game yesterday.  We rolled for random pairings and my partner was George with his drop pod marines against Nick's guard and Oli's DE raiders.  My Trukk got immobilised first turn, which meant my Warboss and Nobz had to footslog across the board.  However, all of our reserves came in on time with minimal scatter, so our opponents were pretty much forced back into their corner.  They also had terrible luck with their reserve rolls, with the Valkyrie and Scions not arriving until turn 3, when the Scions mishapped and we got to place them in the corner.  Also, the Raider with 4 flamer weapons (I forget the name of the unit) on board stayed away until turn 4.

Who needs a 6x4 board anyway?

We threw everything into assault with the Talos / Cronos / Haemonculus formation, starting with a Chapter Master and Tac Squad, backed up by the Warboss and Nobz, the last few Stormboyz and Warbikers and killed the engines in combat for the first time ever.

The game ended with us holding all the objectives.  Drop pod marines seem to complement orks very well.  Although they are Come the Apocalypse allies, we ignored the allies matrix for both sides in this game.  I had been considering some Tyranid allies for my ork army, as that was always in their fluff, but I may work out my own list using an allied SM detachment in a drop pod or two to keep the opponent busy while the greenskins move up the board.  I have plenty of Howling Griffons already and wouldn't need to worry about the restrictions on deployment.

I wonder if I would be accused of abusing the allies rules...?

All of the Orks

Waagh Zogsmasha has reached the end of GW Newbury's Tale of Gamers.  There are now just some final games to play to decide the winner.

At over 100 figures at 1500 pts it certainly has the highest model count of any of the armies.  If you have never tried Orks, well you should give them a go.  I just love picking up handfuls of dice when they get into combat. It is a fun army and I find them a competitive force too.

Final Orks for Tale of Gamers

Last month threw up a bit of a surprise for me with the Tale of Gamers painting challenge.  I was aiming to enter my new bubble-chukka on a scenic oval base (from a flyer).  However, the base was stuck in the shop and took a bit longer than expected to finish, so I was behind on painting the artillery piece come judging day.  As a result I decided to put in my Warboss from month one instead, which won by one vote!

For the final instalment of the competition I decided I needed a bit more anti-tank beyond the 2 Meks with killsaws I added last month.  I am now nearly finished with 10 Tankbustas to do this job.  Boss Zagstruk makes up my last 65 points.  He gives me another character in my Stormboyz, and has the potential to remove a character with his hammer of wrath attacks.

The final challenge was to either enter Armies on Parade with the army, or enter it for a separate best painted army competition this weekend.  As I didn't have time to paint any more scenery, I have opted for the latter.  Having seen many of the entries from a number of stores this year, which seemed to be simply an army plonked on a realm of battle board, I might as well have done the same.  The lack of a national competition at Games Day this year seems to have discouraged many people from putting in much effort on terrain pieces.

I played a game with the full 1500 point army yesterday against Taff's Salamanders /  Grey Knight alliance.  This was another fun but very close affair, with the relic changing hands a couple of times, as neither of us could get away with it, although I lost it at the end of the game.  The deciding factor was his seemingly immortal biker captain, which spent most of the game on his last wound, but just would not die.  At one point I  allocated all my attacks from 13 boyz against him, but rolled just one 6 to wound, which of course he saved!  My tankbustas had a good game though, by killing the Dreadknight sat on the relic with their meltabombs.  That also got me first blood, which ended up being my only VP.

After the competition has finished I have a few more Nobz and Gretchin from Stormclaw to make, as well as 6 Killakans.  At some point I shall probably get another unit of Stormboyz, so I can field the formation from the Ghaz supplement with Zagstrukk.  1500 points is as many as I normally play anyway, but out would be good to get to 1850 or 2000, if only to give me more choice of units, instead of every greenskin I have.