Third Legion Tactica, Hard Lessons

First game using orbital assault. It felt good killing this knight on turn two after dropping in

I have been playing my Horus Heresy (30K) Emperor’s Children Army for many years now and have struggled with an army build that worked well for me and the group of people I usually play against. My win to loss ratio has been lackluster with this army. If I do win, it was definitely hard fought against armies that can outshoot me or tar pit me. I can certainly make a generic marine list and spam templates and basic marines, but that doesn’t seem to fit my style, nor does it match the finesse that I feel should be consistent with the 3^rd legion play style.

Playing most at 3,000 points the Maru-skara rite of war was my go to. Having the ability to outflank with three contemptor dreds could cause a lot of pain. I would also run Fulgrim in a spartan alongside a unit of phoenix guard that would act as his body guard, not to mention my required legion champion in terminator armor. One unit of 10 volkite culverin wielding marines would give cover to Lord Commander Eidolon who would join a unit of 15 assault marines. I would also have a unit of 5 Tactical Support marines with Plasma Guns inside a multi-melta Rhino looking for juicy targets. My foot sloggers included my outflanking unit of 3 contemptors and two squads of 10 basic marines with a sergeant wearing artificer armor and phoenix spear. Occasionally I would swap out a non-compulsory unit for a xiphon interceptor, but I found that the xiphon wouldn’t often cover its point cost in units destroyed.

Orbital assault tip: Using nuncio voxes can help keep your other deep striking units on target if you need them close by

The armies that I generally played against were Ultramarines using orbital assault, Thousand Sons (without Magnus) running lots of psychic termies, Custodes, and a vehicle heavy Iron Hands army. Rarely I would play against Salamanders, Death Guard, Space Wolves, and Solar Auxilia. The usual situation was that these armies all would beat me in a fire fight so I had to try and close in for assault, which I was better at (the exception being the Custodes). Often times I could make it in assault, but would not have enough strength left in the unit to make an impact. If things worked out just right I would get my contemptors close enough to assault the following turn after outflanking on turn two. Even if they were destroyed I would hope that they soaked up enough fire power to allow the rest of my army to advance unscathed; this almost never worked out however.

One of my gaming friends suggested that I might want to go orbital assault since I was often vocal about my lack of competiveness. I gave it some thought because I would have to overhaul my army and likely shelve a lot of the units I had already built. Not to mention I had bought and built way more for this army than I originally intended to. I ended going for it making the following changes. Fulgim, ditched the Spartan for a anvillus dreadclaw, which allows him to assault out of the following turn after deep striking, he also has a unit of palatine blades (3 with phoenix spears) to assist in the assault. My two basic tactical squads have drop pods. I kept the plasma tactical support and included a melta gun tactical support since I tend to struggle against vehicles. I have a 10 man tartaros terminator unit, which halve are armed with chain fists (also to mitigate vehicles), and I bumped up my phoenix guard up to 7 strong. I have an primus medicae in terminator armor to help keep one of my terminator units around and two basic apothecaries to go along with the support units. I am using the xiphon again, but I might swap it out if I pick up a dreadnought drop pod for one of my contemptors. There is an advantage now to going second by running an orbital assault army because my opponent will lose one full round of shooting since there will be no targets. I can also deploy units where they are needed (barring bad rolling). Fulgrim also can make it into melee easier since the dreadclaw is an assault skimmer after in lands. As I play this new list more I expect it to evolve slightly and I hope to have a good showing at the 2020 Golden Boys tournament in June.

Emperor's Children Master of Signal

I thought I would share a project after a long absence of posts. After seeing how effective the Master of Signals is in previous games of 30K that I've played I decided that I could really use one myself. The barrage ability can be devastating to the other side and allowing one of my heavy weapon squads to hit on 2+ is the icing on the cake.

I wanted something a little different than the Forge World kit in Mk 4 armor. I am partial to Mk 2 so I used that for the body and an officer upgrade kit for the head. I prefer the slightly raised effect of etched brass for my characters so that was a must for this marine. The plasma pistol and the lightning claw come from the Mk 3 plastic marines. The finishing touch, which really makes this mini stand out as the Master of Signals is the backpack, which comes from the 40K Cadian infantry box.

My EC army has grown quite a bit in the years since I started on them in 2012 and I am very happy with the way they look, despite not winning very much. I plan on doing some follow up articles covering some of the challenges I've had and the solutions to those.

The Return Of Squats In The 41st Millenium

These are exciting times in the hobby. With specialist games like Blood Bowl and Necromunda making a comeback, which I once thought would never see the light of day, we now have proof that one of my old 40K favorite races is also returning. Squats!

I have long felt that Squats truly belonged in the 40K universe and were never given the treatment they needed. The fantasy races into the future archetype was what originally attracted me to collect and play Warhammer 40K.

Recently previewed squat mercenary at the Forge World open day

I have to reign myself in a bit because what I want is a full on army release, but this may just be a one off. If that is all this is, then I'll just have to be satisfied with a cool looking mini that says that Squats are indeed a current part of the 40K universe again (beyond the small blurb in the rulebook). I do have my doubts that the time and money would be invested into this model if Games Workshop wasn't already thinking of what the potential could be for a larger release. This could be an expansion to a full on Squat Necromunda gang to an army list for 30K or 40K. Noted, you could have a Squat-like army in 30K if you used an Imperial Cults & Militia, but you either have to convert most of it, which some people aren't as interested in or buying the expensive RT or 2nd edition era models. 

One of my favorite scenes out of the 2nd edition rulebook.

That's right, kill that cheesy Eldar scum!

I see potential for some really cool miniatures down the road if GW proper of FW decided to move this forward. Epic had a fully fledged army for the squats back in the day and that would be a welcome move for me. 

Land Train HO! Choo Choo

 Who wouldn't like seeing a 40K scale land train on the table? I don't know of anyone that thinks this would be a bad move on the part of GW. Plus, I could add it to the growing 30K army that I have been working on for the last two years (slowly, at that).

Game Design: Revision Pain

Revisions on your game design project can be tough. I’m currently overhauling my game board to be more simplified (per playtest feedback) and the simplest, most cost effective option is to pull off labels and repaint areas of the board to fit my latest revision ideas. In hindsight I should have gone with a simpler medium instead of watercolors on cardboard.

New map in progress. Goodbye UK, India, and Brazil as playable nations!

Additionally I included some special order miniatures from Shapeways that I may end up not using. Per play tester feedback the unit options are a bit daunting. Considering this I will go with a “less is more” strategy. Sadly, I will miss some of these really cool minis!

US F16 and Russian Hind from Shapeways

Custom game cards still in use... For now

Making these choices aren’t easy, especially if you’ve already invested some money into the beta version of your game. I decided that I would rather build a game that is fun to play as opposed to looking really cool. If I could get both on target then that would be great, but I primarily want people to look forward to playing Rogue States.

On one last note, be sure to document your sessions so you have a reference of what went well and what didn’t. My friend Matty from 1000XP had these booklets made for their game design efforts.

Game Design, A Lengthy Process

Rogue States first playtest

Hello readers! Some of you may have visited this site during it's previous incarnation "Fulgrim's Stage." You may have noticed a name change. I wanted to broaden the scope of what I covered on this blog. I will still be posting miniature games articles periodically.

What I wanted to expand into was the process of game design. Most people who like to game have had an idea for their own game at one time or another. Sadly most of these ideas remain in the ether and are never realized. I'm going to share a project I'm currently working on called Rogue States: Axis of Evil. It's a strategy board game that I've had stuck in my head since 2004! I've only really begun the design process in earnest about 2 years ago. It took me a long time to get started because I really didn't know how to begin, but having some friends who have successfully kickstarted their own game and visiting a design workshop at Emerald City Comic Con I finally stopped making excuses.

Where to begin? Well, I started with a concept. I wanted a game that had some elements of Axis and Allies, but was based on modern day events. I started a word doc and wrote up a basic synopsis and what happens in a turn.

Once I got a basic game mechanic down I went on to find proxy game pieces from various board games. I made a map with pencil, pen, and water color on a basic cardboard trifold. I went a little beyond with my map so any basic drawing surface will do with pencil alone. Note: I already have to make a new map after the first playtest, so do something that is easily modify-able!

I consider this the first step. Next, find some playtesters to try it out and give candid feedback. I'll be posting some more articles about my Rogue States project so be sure to follow if you like strategy board games!

My word file "rulebook" is a living document