Warhammer 30K Team Game and the Magnus Death Star

In my latest 30K game I teamed up with my brother who plays an Ultramarines drop assault army. We faced off against an Iron Warriors and Thousand Sons duo. The game size was 5000 points a side with each player running an Age of Darkness Legion Astartes detachment and each side had one super heavy. I had a knight errant and my opponents had a legion typhon.

Bottom of turn 2. Ultramarines and Emperor's Children flank attack

The game fluctuated back and forth between who was holding on to the most objectives and it looked like the Emperor’s Children/Ultramarines duo would come out ahead. We had pushed really hard on the right flank which had the most valuable objectives. I think the turning point for my team was when Magnus entered the fight with his 10 man Terminator bodyguard. With the right psychic powers they are able to turn into the toughest nut to crack in the history of 30K. Each terminator can achieve a re-rollable 2++ save. If Magnus gets a chance to shoot he can fire as a D weapon most of the time. This allowed him to smoke my Spartan and knight errant back to back. It didn’t take long for my army to fall apart after this and my Ultramarine ally wasn’t faring much better either.

Eidolon makes a last stand with the remainder of his assault squad

My marines hopelessly defend the objective marker against Magnus's onslaught

In the end my team lost the battle due to my team not being able to handle psychic powers very well. What is one to do? I think I need to bite the bullet and find a way to write in the Sisters of Silence into my army. I have wanted to go fluffy with my list, but I have been stomped by the Magnus Deathstar one too many times now. I think psychic power heavy lists in 30K don’t have many counters other than the sisters so I feel compelled to try an allied unit in my next game and see how it goes.

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).

The Emperor's Children Seek Allies! Enter House Seneca

Having played a fair amount of games with my EC army I’ve begun to branch out some. The main reason is due to encountering an opponent that my army is ill equipped to deal with. My latest challenge has come from a Thousand Sons player that fields all terminators usually with Magnus to lead. Being in a special Rite of War for Thousand Sons, all of these Terminators have force weapons and a 3++ save. I realized that I could really use a D weapon to cause some pain to this unit.

I decided to not only to begin including a unit of 10 Volkite Culverins, I also wanted to take an Imperial Knight Errant. Being a fan of Legio Mortis I decided that I would have this knight come from House Seneca, which has sworn fealty to Legio Mortis. Bonded houses tend to match the colors of the legion they support so that’s how I will paint my knight, in Legio Mortis colors.

My hope is that once one of the Thousand Sons Termies teleports in my knight will be able to charge in and dish out some D weapon wounds which have the best chance of knocking out 2 wound termies with one failed wound. My next game is coming up soon enough so we will see if this was effective or not.

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

Painting Harlequins for Shadow War Armageddon

Having had the new Harlequin plastics for a while I finally decided to complete a few for Shadow War Armageddon. I wanted my theme to match my other Eldar armies with darker, cooler colors. Duncan has an excellent video guide for painting Harlequins. The diamond pattern is a challenge, but I thought it was necessary to learn it because Harlequins just aren’t the same without it.

Having played one game already with this warband I am impressed with what they can do. Opponents who aren’t aware of how good their close combat ability is will have a rude awakening. One tip I have is to pick off stragglers on the periphery and still use cover as you close in because a -2 to hit can really hinder any shooting.

I’m working on filling out this warband with a Solitaire, Deathjester, and Shadowseer down the road and I hope to share them in the near future.

Growing the Army

I have been working on this Horus Heresy project for just over two years now and was at one point getting to where I would be adding in the last few units, namely a 10 marine strong Veteran unit which is about 90% done, a second chaplain, and the new FW Eidolon. Out of all my projects within the last 4 years I have had the most motivation going into this and I think it largely had to do with wanting to build a pre-heresy/heresy army for about a decade and also the quality of the models released by FW. They are some of my favorites.

Right now I’m sitting at roughly 2700 points and after I add in my final minis I should be able to field 3000 points with some options. The idea that I had going in to this project is being able to use a loyalist force of Emperor’s Children for Istvaan III scenarios or using a traitor army for later heresy gaming. I haven’t used this army in it’s entirely yet, only having played a handful of games so far. I tend to lose more than win right now so I've begun to rethink some ideas that I first had when building this army.

I'm going to try just running one chaplain with my assault marines and Eidolon to give them some much needed hitting power. I will likely drop the 2nd chaplain in favor of a Company Champion that will open up the Maru Skara. The assault marines might need to be larger than 10 since they are often the target in early game.

My footsloggers will need to be in larger squads or in a transport. The pic on the lower right is my last win and having the larger legion tac squad did help with their ability to soak up damage and hold objectives.

Phoenix Spears are almost a must have for and squad expecting close combat. Having to challenge in combat can be a liability if you don't maximized your chances of winning. Artificer armor is frequently used by my opponents and the phoenix spear can hit first on the charge and cut through at AP2.

Going into 2017 I will have more units to choose from. A land raider Spartan will be helpful for delivering Eidolon and his Phoenix Guard right to where they are needed. Some scimitar jetbikes might help on my flanks or working in concert with my assault marines. I will provide more updates as I am making progress. Stay tuned!