500 visitors!

      May not seem like a huge number now, but for only being around for a few weeks its pretty decent if I say so.  Thanks to everyone who have been reading my blog, I'll to keep the posts up and replying to peoples comments.  Enjoy!

2000k Raven Guard List

            Okay to start this list off I wanted to say I really like Shrike and the Raven Guard; I have a soft spot for those beaky blokes in there black armour and wolverine claws.  They are a very tactical Army to play and you really have to use your scouts to full advantage in their army.  Can’t just play full Power Armour because it ruins the spirit of the army.  I’ve designed a 2k point list that I believe has the right stuff to be a fluff Raven army.

HQ:

Shadow Captain Shrike

Mandatory for this list seeing has he is the representative for the Raven Guard Army, and just so damn cool in what he does, and gives an entire army fleet, which in 6^th can be a life saver to say the least when hitting into assault.

Troop:

            1 Tactical Squad

I have outfitted the squad with a drop pod, plasma gun, missile launcher, and a power weapon on the sergeant.  This squad will come down via drop pod with drop pod assault and try and hurt anything in the enemies’ side of the field with plasma fire and snap fire missile.  Mostly used as a distraction unit to allow the rest of the army to move up and do what needs to be done.

            3 Scout Squads

I’ve added three ten man squads of scouts to the list; these guys are outfitted to be combat squads, four guys with sniper rifles and a guy with heavy bolter, and four guys with combat blades and pistols with the sergeant a power weapon, melta bomb.  These guys all have camo cloaks to keep them nice a stealthy.  I feel that with fleet and this load out, these scouts can cause some serious harm to most unprepared squads. The snipers picking off special weapons and characters and using the hellfire round from the heavy bolter to do blast sniping to whittle down squads.

Fast Attack:

            1 Assault Squad

This group of ten guys are what will be backing up and working with Shrike, I would have stuck him with a vanguard veteran squad however that would be very expensive and you loose what you guy from using the vets, the assault on deep strike.  These guys are very simply set up, the sergeant has a power weapon and melta bombs.  Its simple and easy and they can dish out a lot of attacks with very little worry, also the sergeant can be used for challenges to save shrike from big meanies that they might encounter.

             

            1 Vanguard Veteran Squad

These guys are setup in a five man team, and are going to take advantage of fleet and assault off the deep strike.  I’ve outfitted them as follows, sergeant has two lightening claws, and a melta bomb, the four others have melta bombs and a power weapons.  These guys are meant to be a unit that hits the biggest and meanest things on the field with a decent deep strike roll and using fleet they are more likely to entire assault and survive to do damage that they are outfitted to do.  Melta bombs are there so they can hit tanks and MC as hard as humanly possible.

            1 StormTalon

I need to add a flyer defense to the list and this seemed like the best choice, I’m not a huge fan of flyers myself but utilizing them needs to be done to survive in the current meta.  I outfitted this baby with Twin-Linked Lascannons and Typhoon Missile Launchers to give that anti-tank flavor that this list lacks.  A flyer seems to be a prefect fit to an army like the Raven Guard and I think it would do the army good.

Heavy Support:

            1 Devastator Squad

These guys are outfitted with four very expensive Lascannons, the reason I chose these was because the list lacked heavy support, and these guys are able to hang back with the scouts and ‘snipe’ tanks and change targets very easy especially if they can a center place deployment.

Fornication:

            1 Aegis Line Defense

I have added this to hang out with the Devastator squad and I added the Icarus Lascannon to the list to match the Dev squads’ lascannon outfit.  I like the wall, it helps give a tactical position to a unit that doesn’t have to cover a objective until the Big Guns Never Tire mission.

            This is has plenty of Troops to move around and take objectives, plenty of in your face units and enough holding the back field units.  A lot of movements to be made and a lot of feints to be played with the moving your troops around.  This is has a whopping 63 unit and vehicle count and its divided even between power armoured, and scout armoured.  I think it anyone likes the fluff of the Raven Guard and wants to play a list that is new and lacks the same unit setup of every other list out there then this one can, no dakka dreads, no huge spamming of units expect scouts but being only two troop choices you’ll have to go one way or the other.

            I would like to hear what you guys think of my thoughts on Raven Guard, maybe tell me what I could change to make it more Raven Guard fluffy.

Note: Blood Angels could be used with this, but I enjoy the fleet a little to much to loose it but the Vanguards would always show up d6 close to the enemy, and rolling a six is a 50/50 shot for assault.

Power Weapons, Who is king?

Power Weapons:
Power Spears, Power Swords, Power Axes, Power Mauls, Power whatchamacallit, which one to use, do you spam one time, is it worth it still to take them? Do you really need that guard sergeant with that power axe?

                Power spears, my favorite of the bunch, are tricky things, they really should have made it +1S and AP3 for first round of combat not just charging.  I digress; they are handy little things that give you the power mauls ability to hurt things better and a power swords ability to be ap3.  People will always know what your plan is when you field a character with a spear and, they will try to deny that option the best they can.

                Power Swords are the mainstay for most armies I believe, they are universally good at what they do and have always done it good.  Most models were already modeled this way prior to the 6^th switch, and these weapon, though no longer able to kill the best armoured units in the game, they still can kill the other 90% efficiently.

                Power Axes are that grey area that I might stay away from, what they should have done for Axes instead of making them unwieldy, should of just made then Initiative -1.  Because seriously, Dante being I6 having to go last because the axe he has fought with for a thousand years is too heavy.  Maybe GW will errata the axe to be more like this, +1S and -1I sounds like a fair trade off, and you would see more of them used.  They look cool on the modeling standpoint, just terrible on being so slow.  It killed a couple nice choices from blood angels HQ and a few other cool units.  Lets face it axes look cool, but they aren't worth anything anymore.  Lets face it, when a base necron hits faster then your high Initiative HQ, questions need to be asked.

                Power Mauls are neat things for those people who play against people who are not normally playing against Power Armoured guys, or playing a weaker Str army.  Against marines they are not very good, they wound very nicely, but breaking through the armour is tricky, but at least he grants you as many wounds as possible, and good Tank bashing weapon since AP doesn’t always matter with tanks, a glance is a glance.

                Anyone can choose what weapon they use, you have that power to say the least, be creative, or just spam all of one type, that choice is yours.  Enjoy those trails and errors, and don’t hurt the space pups too bad because they usually swing last now!

Trouble Aboard

                    The ship shuttered in explosion, rousing a mighty figure clad in highly ornate artificer armour.  The bronze laurels glinted in the red emergency lighting, his red eye visors of his Mark V deep blue helmet blazed in psychic energy, his anger flaring at the non-stop attacks his crew had suffered and the resentment he still felt from being forced to abandon his fortress monastery and from his chapter.  He was always dressed for battle, war was in his nature, and he fought an unrelenting battle of the mind and arm.  This long trip had tested his mental fortitude and was a constant fight against the voices laying in the warp.

                Chapter Master Icarus of the Angels of Silence hefted up his power spear, the Redeemer, and checking the power sword Judgment was secure on his hip, never a battle too large, never an enemy too far.   Rising slowly from his kneeling position, he stood for a moment to gather his thoughts before rushing through his quarters massive doors, designed specifically for the large bronze wings on his back, which adorned the greatest hero’s of the chapter.  He was one of the last, but he would not die now.  Glaring down the corridor, highly ornate walls surrounded him, most days it gave him comfort in the beauty of it.

                It was dark, so dark, there was a massive power loss in the ship, and this would make fighting tough for the imperial crew on this ship, which Icarus needed to keep this ship in one piece.  Sudden blasts of bolt gunfire and horrendously familiar roars, and screams, grabbed his attention, and he knew one thing; Daemons had come aboard his ship again, and they weren’t small in number.

                “Throne, these hell beast of Khorne will not leave us be,” grumbled to himself as he began his way through the dark hallways.  Scanning the corridors and hallways with his helmets built in Auspex.  It picked up no trace of life signs nor was it able to track the noises, it seemed like they were coming from every direction.

                Reaching an intersection, a burst of loud roars and screams, whipping his head around seeing he had been caught off guard by large red humanoid beasts, with several large horns protruding from their elongated skulls, swinging around disgusting large Hellblades, which looked to be posed to tear apart his armour in seconds if he did not act fast.  His hand whipped out in front of him sending a large blast of psychic energy in front of them, staggering their charge just enough for him to launch a bolt of lightning from his spear and engage a short burst from his jump pack.

                The roar of the angel, the flames of hate blasting out from the short-range burst of power, smashing right into the group knocking them back and staggering them back into the walls to regain their footing.  Icarus’s spear swiftly pierced one bloodletters through his red chest dissolving the beast into nothingness in the brutality of his spear.  Swinging around fluently jabbing the spear straight into another’s wickedly horned head cleaving it in two sending the beast crumpling onto the floor.

                 Daemons were not afraid of such a man, two of their number may be down, but three still stood, more blood for the rest of them, one skull for the skull throne.  They bashed at Icarus with their evil swords, each one either meeting his spear in a mighty block, and others glancing off his armour causing no real damage, his armour was too well made for such simple blades to pierce through.

                Icarus would take advantage of their boldness, and deftly unsheathe Judgment from its housing, slashing quickly cutting another bloodletter in half, spilling its daemon-tainted blood across the walls and its brethren.  They howled in rage and fury of only servants of the blood god could, redoubling their efforts to bring this Angel of Silence down.

                The speed of Icarus attacks never failed, using his spear to block their strikes, and his sword slashing at the daemons, granting no quarter and giving no rest.  Stims flooded his system keeping his muscles from cramping and his vision clear.  He quickly gave a solid chop at the bloodletter to his left removing an arm, and with the follow through he stabbed Redeemer into its chest unleashing a torrent of psychic energy blasting it apart.  The remaining daemon glanced his blade off his angel winged pauldron on his right sending a shot of pain through his arm, he could tell however it had failed to break through.

 “Begone off my ship you daemon filth and pray you never see me again!”

With that, he brought both weapons back and stabbed hard into the bloodletters guts and unleashed his own brand of rage upon the soon to be dead bloodletter.  Blue flames burst from the lenses of his helmet and rolled down his arms, coiling like a snake, and leaped from his power armoured gauntlets and smashed into the bloodletter with the power of an thunderhammer, disintegrating into absolute nothingness.

“I have to find my honour guard, we need to regroup,” He touched the Vox bead on his helmet, “Bridge status report, and how big is this incursion? What is the state of the Gellar Field? Are we out of the warp finally?”

There was no rely but static, he would have to figure this out the hard way, by finding out for himself.  He gathered his wits about him and set off towards the command center, hoping to find alive troops to help reclaim this ship in the name of the Emperor…

Flame Hammers

Hey Guys,
   I was doing some thoughts over making a unique salamander like unit.  I thought having a Command Squad, equipped with both Thunder Hammers, and Flamers, coming down in a drop pod.

Team Setup:
  This is an expensive choice, however it works in most games against hordes and none hordes.  You attached Vulcan to this squad and your laughing.  (Expect the part where you have to buy a extra Captain to access it) You can equip Storm Shields to this group to raise the price and protect against the rise of the plasma gun.  The FNP granted by the Apothecary can come in handy most time, and help grant this 5 man squad some survivability.

  If you use a model like Shirke with this combo, your more guaranteed to get into combat and literally bring the hammer down.

  Beautiful part of this combo, your not going to kill an entire unit in one assault phase, it'll take two usually unless the hits are very in your favor.

  If you add Khan to this combo, you get strength 10 thunder hammers on the charge, and a IC to challange enemy HQ's with an instant death sword which wounds on 3+ on the charge to ME.  Also Hit & Run will keep your models from being bogged down in tarpits and keep them in the offensive instead of stuck in the middle of the field.

  Now adding Lyander will really suit your cause, having a 2+ save and a 3+ Invul, save definitely will keep the squad alive, and the stubborn trait will keep them strong at Leadership 10

  That's the choices for the vanilla codex, you could do the same with the blood angel codex as well, even adding jump packs and sticking a Reclusiarch in the front and enjoy the flame induced show.

Modeling:
  On the modeling side of this, I was thinking of using green stuff on some various thunder hammers you have access to through space wolves, vanilla, and blood angels kits,(All available through Spikey Bits) to give the effect that the flamer is the tip of the hammer and giving a much more visually enjoyable model frame.  I may make these models because they don't seem hard to put together and matching to the Angels of Silence army list is fairly easy since its whatever I decide it too be.

Playing on the Field:
Dropping them in a drop pod is a very effect way to get them in the center of the enemies deployment turn 1, handing out flamer templates like there was no tomorrow,(Take that Tzeentch Flamers!) Orks and Guard would have no chance against a hit that big, though they are easily bogged down in attacks, unless you have Khan.

Using Jump Pack's or Bikes can improve distance and effectiveness of this troop, but on the negative side the price goes up 90 points which as we all know could be another tactical combat squad.  Though having T5,S10 3++ save, with hit & run, might not be the worst thing in the world to have.

Whats your guys thoughts an opinions on this? Was it clear, would it work, would to flop? Deathstar much or waste of much needed points?

Army List So Far

  This is what I have done so far, and I'm working on at the current moment

HQ - Captain(Chapter Master Icarus) - Artificer Armour, Jump Pack, Melta Bomb, Power Spear, Power Sword, Auxiliary Grenade Launcher

HQ - Captain(Honour Guard Galan) - Artificer Armour, Jump Pack, Storm Shield, Power Spear

Troop - Scout Squad Archanus - Power Sword, Melta Bomb - 5 Models

Troop - Tactical Squad Tyranus - Power Spear, Melta Bomb, Flamer, Heavy Bolter - 10 Models


Planning on getting a land speeder storm for the scouts, and a drop pod for the tactical squad, my heavy support is still up in the air a little and I'm debating between getting the flyer, or getting a wall.  Flyer would fit the "angels" theme, a wall would give them protection.  However, I plan to have all models on the move.  Now that we can snap fire shots.  Will debate on doing combat squads, never really had much success with it before.

Blog Roll Call

First this week on the blog roll call, is the blog for my local FLGS I've started to go to with my new army I have been building.

Imaginary Wars Blog

http://imaginarywars.wordpress.com/


Next on the blog roll this week, is a blog I regularly frequent and also by any of my bits I need to add that something extra to a model

Spikey Bits

http://blog.spikeybits.com/ 


The last one for this week is a blog I enjoy for much of the artwork and with the FAQ they normally look into and get peoples opinion

IDICBeer 40k

http://idicbeer.blogspot.com/


If you want an enjoyable read and a lot of neat ideas on terrain and modeling 

Aurelius Legion

http://aureliuslegion.blogspot.com/


And from the Fang! Comes

From the Fang

http://fromthefang.blogspot.com/

Unit Builds - Wolf Guard Battle Leader

Not a mighty Wolf Lord, doesn’t have any special abilities that give preferred enemy, or grant psychic defense.  He is the underdog of the Space Wolf HQ section (No pun intended).  However, they hold special place in my heart because of their access to Saga of the Hunter.

Different load outs can change the personality of this unit in a various ways, from stealthy shooter to outright a close combat monster.  I have designed a few potential uses for them, some more exciting than others have, some more tactical then others.

Option 1: Silent Prowler-160 Points: Thunderwolf Mount, Saga of the Hunter, two Fenrisian Wolves, and a Power Weapon.  For only decent amount of points, you get a unit, which can get you into combat quickly, but also absorb many of those nasty plasma weapons that hang around now a day.  The Thunderwolf grants that extra little toughness to take less wounds, but also gives you Rending to deal with those 2+ armour saves when a situation arrives for the need.  This one is all about cover and speed, not much else.

Option 2: Plasma Jet-135 Points: Jump Pack, Two Plasma Pistols, and Saga of the Beastslayer.  This one is more of a fun unit, jumping around with Plasma Pistols, taking on the biggest and toughest things on the field.  Yeah he might blow himself up.  Yeah he might get shot up before getting a shot off.  That is not the point, it is the fact you could deep strike this guy wherever you felt like it and get two BS5 S7 AP2 Shots off that on a roll of 6 get to choose who he hits, and rerolls to hit against Walkers, Monstrous Creatures, and the like.  He if fun, that is what I really care about.

Option 3: The Watcher-83 Points: Storm Bolter, Saga of the Hunter.  This is the setup I personally am going to use when I start my space wolf ally.  He is nothing special on his own, but with his ability to grant stealth to the unit, he makes a perfect candidate for Sternguard Vets and other shooty units.  He is the leader of a squad; he keeps units in the game when the shot should have killed him instantly.  He can move to nearly any rear squad can grant them so much.  Attach him to sniper scouts who already have camo cloaks and give them a 5+ cover in the open!  Stick him with your long fangs and devastator squad and watch them survive that extra turn.  He is cheap, simple, and brings so much too any unit he is added too.

Option 4: Fanged Wall-145 Points: Terminator Armour, Storm Shield, Frost Axe.  This guy is built to take the hits, and dish them back.  He usually always gets 4 attacks charging or not, thanks to Counter-attack.  He is cheap for what he brings, and can be easily backed up by a group of three wolf guards.  They can be dropped in a pod, or driven up in a raider, or just foot slog it over to the enemies end to claim a victory point.  He is not to be messed with, and he would easily make a mess of anyone who tried.

I like the wolf guard battle leader, mostly because you don’t have to put much points in him to enjoy him.  In the age of challenges and plasma, deposable HQ’s can be nice.  I say make units to be fun, especially if it’s a space wolf, they have such unique personalities to the army you can pull off nearly any unit combo and it fits the theme.

I challenge anyone who reads this, to make a unit that sounds fun, and can be a one off’er.  It does not have to be a space wolf, does not have to make sense, it just has to be FUN! It is like your guard ten man squad, assaulting a deathwing knight squad, you do not do it because it makes sense, you do it because it would be cool to see if they could actually do something!