Storm Talon: 5 wrong things about it

Before you start reading this, let me assure you that I'm well aware of the fact that GW designers are not constrained by laws of physics, technical requirements or any other real-life nonsense when creating their models. They design vehicle that suppose to look COOL. Rest of it, rules, fluff, painting is irrelevant. After all, according to 40k fluff, armed forces of Imperium are designed in a way that none would be completely self-supporting and independent, but we keep getting rules where Space Marines can field almost anything from infantry to air force under same banner.  Now lets come to our subject, Storm Talon and 5 things GW got completely wrong about it.

1. Who is the "daddy"?

who's the daddy of storm talon?

Storm Talon design definitely keeps in line with GW overall approach to all Imperial fliers, aka "flying brick". Its square, has chicken wings, lots of unnecessary details to produce as much drag in the air as possible. Usually it is relatively easy to spot real life sources of inspiration for most of GW Imperial vehicles, but here i struggle to define one. The first thing which come to mind is one of those two helicopters: Apache and Comanche. But then you read into the rules and notice that this thing is supersonic as well as hovercraft. Great! Storm Talon must really versatile, you'd think until you try it in combat. There is another aircraft similar to Storm Talon - AV-8 Harrier, but unlike Talon, it has twice more combat capability and look much more elegant. But if you take a closer look to the side of Storm Talon you may notice who is  the real daddy:

Storm Talon, I'm your father! Join the fish side!

Dad! Is that you?!

Now it all fits into place. Whoever was working on the project must have had a goldfish in his office, that clearly inspired the looks of the aircraft. Otherwise, i can not possibly imagine that having such great planes as a starting point, GW released a flying fish.

2. Armament placement

The biggest problem of Storm Talon is that all its weapons are cramped in the nose for no apparent reason. You may argue that it gives you an extra inch when firing at that distant target, but have you ever asked yourself how often it make a huge difference? 48" range is more than enough to cover most of gaming boards in a straight line. But what about 360 degrees of firing ark for your assault cannon? What if i want to have a lascannon in moving nose turret? Heavy bolters or missile launchers are placed on the side, landing gear, as well as literally in-build restrictions stop assault cannon from gaining that. WHY???

Look at Apache with its .50 cal undercarriage, it can fire it at any target below. Storm Talon is stuck with its 45 degrees front ark, and because it lightly armoured, it can go to hover mode only if there is no opposition around. As a result, we are stuck to hit-n-run tactics, which does not fill the requirements of close air support. You may of coarse field Storm Raven in this role, but that thing has a different battlefield role. Number of people have kit bashed Talon with armament in extended wings, Nephilim-style, but that does not change the problem. So unless you are happy with its limited angle, there always be targets that will evade you wraith.  

3. Engines

There comes the comparison with Harrier. For those who do not know, Harrier is equipped with single vectored thrust Rolls Royce Pegasus II engine. 4 vectored thrusts keep plane both in flight and in hover modes, as well as providing short take-off options. Simplified it looks like that:

When you look underneath Storm Talon, you will find similar 4 hoses, which should imply, that it has similar system. Alternatively, it may have a engine providing vertical drag, similar to Russian Yak-38. But then in the name of what we have 2 additional engines, which can be tilted? Let me guess... So that a kid could turn them once and feel cooool about it for 5 seconds. Get yourself a transformer toy, if looking for that sort of crap.    

4. Size of wings (fins?)

It is obvious that they are too small for anything to be placed on them. Though their size make Talon much smaller target, their functionality for alternative weapon placement is out of any aesthetic question. Anything will look huge and out of place on them. Kit bashers usually change or extend wings to place bolters or missile launchers underneath, to solve that problem. Some use replacements from other kits, like Sentinel or Land Speeder. Regardless of that wings are not the best place to present iconography of the Chapter. Luckily they gave us a HUGE tail fin, the only place on the model where we could paint, place huge transfers or just leave it empty.

5. Weapons load-outs and special rules

In its infinite wisdom we have only one slot we can modify. ONE! With only four options to choose from twin-linked heavy bolter, twin-linked lascannon, Typhoon missile launcher and useless Skyhammer missile launcher (It is just another "special" weapon designed to make one particular unit a bit better, while robbing away its versatility). Am I the only one who feels robbed of options? What if I don't want the cursed assault cannon? Two twin-linked lascannons would be my preferred load out. Why not give me that? At least i can put assault cannon to Razorback, without going to Forgeworld.

Where are the guided missiles? At least give me a hunter-killer option, please? It is a standard weapon after all.  How about a special load outs like Interceptor, Ground Attacker, or Recon? I'd love to have Infiltrate and Scout on Talon, to blast the enemy before the main battle begins. No? Can i get an Interceptor rule, to kill those pesky Eldar as they fly into the board? No? Space Marines are not cool enough?    

Hover strike is probably most useless rule for Talon. With main weapons already twin-linked, and Pinning and Rending, why do you need an extra +1 to BS and additional Pinning? It may be useful sometimes, but it is a bit of overkill. Especially know that to get it, Talon becomes a bullet magnet, as it loses its Jink save. 

Ceramite Plating, which ignores melta rule, may be of use, but would it be more logical to improve Jink save for a such highly manoeuvrable aircraft, as opposite to heavy Storm Raven?

In conclusion of my prolonged winging, Storm-fish-Talon, is still a good option. But not the best.

Sincerely yours,
Mark-Paul.

P.S. Have I mentioned that putting landing gear on the turret of assault cannon is most ridiculous idea I've ever seen? Well now I'v said it. :)

Astra Militarium: short list of biggest changes

So it has arrived, new shiny 104 sheets hardback codex for Imperial Guard. Finally writers of GW made a serious push and made flluffy part of Imperial Guard more detailed by adding a version of Ministry of War. This however is not a significant change just a polishing of details. In short, entire codex (who does not have a leading author this time) have a feel of polished version of previous codex. Now lets talk about biggest changes.

1. Points. 

Yes, majority of weapon upgrades have been changed. Most of plasma and power weapons are at least 5 pts more expensive. On the other side, majority of other weapons like lascannons, grenade launchers, flamers, are at least 5 or 10 points cheaper. Same goes for most infantry upgrades like doctrines for veterans, medi-packs, Comissars, ect. Valkyries and Vendettas are much more expensive, 125 and 170 pts respectively. Most of surviving characters are cheaper as well, Yarrick is 145 pts, for example.  

2. Tank commander.

Finally those pesky armored units can upgrade to have a character with their own Orders and tactics. This is one of the biggest changes and improvements for the Imperial Guard. Three orders give and extra move, allow to split fire and use smoke immediately after firing weapons. Good old Pask is still here and as any other Tank commander is BS4.   

3. Modified units.

Some of the Elite units have been upgraded.and improved. Long standing outcry for Stormtroopers have been heard. Now they are called Militarium Tempestus Scions, have their own command squad, improve morale of friendlies in vicinity of 18", may shout orders and may be grouped up to 10 models in the unit. Hot-shots got an extra support weapon with Strength 4, range 24" and salvo 2/4 ability.     

Ogryns got an assault version called Bullgryns, with carapace armour and 5+ invulnerable due to the huge shield they are carrying. 

Vendetta lost 6 places for passengers. Hydra is 10 points cheaper. Ratlings now have the ability to shoot and run (not like they ever needed it). Psyker battle squad now called Wyrdane psyker and follows rules for Brotherhood of Psykers with 4 disciplines under their belt. 

Minitorum Priest ever useful in close combat are even more awesome, since they can boost combat effectiveness for each fight sub-phase. In short: re-roll any save, re-roll to wound or gain Smash rule. Zealot comes handy as well.

Enginseer gained an extremely useful ability to bestow a Power of Machine Spirit to any friendly vehicle in 12" for one turn. So now we can jump around and fire at will with any heavy tank.       

4. New vehicles.

Well strictly speaking there is only two Taurox APC and Wyvern mobile mortar. Latter one is an improved version of old Griffon, without rule for accurate bombardment. Instead we get two mortar shots with Ignore cover, Shred and small blast. Yawn.

Taurox on the other hand is a new beast.  In functionality in resembles Rhino, same stats and access points, plus two firing points and ability to re-roll dangerous terrain test. The biggest downfall is that it is a HUGE target, as tall as Basilisk. 

Taurox Prime, is a version of light tank/APC for Scions has a BS 4 and a huge variety of weapons, like battle cannons, missile launchers, hot-shot volley gun, autocannon or Gatling cannon. In addition it is a fast vehicle. But then again, it is a lightly armored HUGE target. 

5. New orders.

Well there is only two new orders, "Smite at Will!" which gives a unit a Split Fire option and "Suppressive Fire!" giving infantry a Pinning option. Others are just slightly rephrased versions of previous commands.   

  

Taurox and Scions command squad

   

  

Celestine.

Sister Celestine of The Order of Ebony Chalice

Burning Skies: dogfights in Warhammer 40000

Burning Skies is official rules supplement for Warhammer 40000 found in GW book Campaign: Crusade of Fire. This 92 hard-cover full colour book have been released, as a limited edition, back in 2012 when Flyer's have returned to the game. The book itself is not a subject of this post but its worth mentioning that it gives a groundwork for any Game Master willing to create and run its 40k campaign.

As your truly keeps working on RPG campaign for Thunderbolts, I looked into this book for inspiration. So allow me to share what have been discovered: Burning Skies is a relatively simple game-inside-the-game system which could be used in most 40k games. Simply put it add a mechanics similar to challenge mode in 6th edition of rules, but with added layer of complexity. Rule set is comprised of Burning Skies section described on 3 pages, Special Manoeuvres described in 4 pages, and Fighter Aces on additional 4 pages.

What these rules are about?

Burning Skies revolves around idea of micro combat during the Shooting Phase. As players end their Movement phase, they roll d6 to see if Dogfight mode could be initiated. Result could be modified by position of the aircraft toward each other. If that succeeds, then players roll for 3 stages of dogfight on special tables. Stages of dogfight are Pursuit, Lock-on and Destroy.  Each stage imitates its description and players roll for tactics used during this micro fight.

Three avaliable tactics are assigned by roll of d6 and rolls are grouped into 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 results. Both Attacker and Defender apply rolled tactics on table with 9 possible outcomes. Each of the dogfight stages have its own unique table, where results could be quite surprising.

Uff... Tired? Me too. However if you played 40k long enough you may be adjusted to mentality of many dice and extra tables. The pay-off for all these suffering and rolling is an extra Victory Points for killing enemy aircraft, as well as promised extra VP which could be generated during dogfight.
One of the biggest reservations on my part against it, is why should I give an enemy an extra chance of survival against my Shooting attack? Or even give an enemy a chance to fire back at me? The results on some of those tables allow for that to happen. When if I play simple-stupid mechanics I manoeuvre and blast the enemy out of the sky. Period. The biggest and saddest part of it for me, that Burning Skies does not change the way models actually manoeuvre or act towards other models in the game, and all this dogfighting is happening only in your imagination.   

On a bright side, these rules are supplemented with Special Manoeuvres part. This is where things get hot and interesting. Each major faction of W40k universe gets two special manoeuvres which could be used during one of the stages of dogfight or during normal Movement, Shooting and Assault phases. To use any of these manoeuvres player must pass either Leadership, Initiative or Toughness test. Should they succeed then aircraft may either gains and extra cover save, re-roll outcomes of dog-fight stage, gains extra attack, smash and ram enemy units, give allied tanks re-rolls to hit or perform a psychic attack.

From my little gaming experience with Burning Skies, if used in time and skillfully those manoeuvres make a great difference. However the biggest downside is that W40k is clunky and rigid game as it is and adding an extra complexity to it does not improve gameplay at all.  

Speaking of complexity... Third part of Burning Skies called Fighter Aces brings the pain to your brain. In its essence it is an extra roll on another table, similar to your Warlord table. Luckily there is only 3 results which modify your pilots chances of engaging in dogfight, hitting the target, inspiring allies or getting a re-roll. The price you pay is 50 points for an Ace.  

To give an overall verdict to this rules supplement is difficult. If you are an experienced player looking for more micromanagement in addition to number of shots you fired, attacks generated, number of inches moved and charged, you will find these rules easy to adapt and give your games an extra level of epicness.

If you only starting to grasp the foundation of 40k, then you may want leave it for later, as it is your decisions as player will not have a significant impact on outcome of the dogfight. That area is ruled by dice and chance, though authors do insist that we should trust our pilots to make decisions, rather than take control ourselves. Then again, why should I?

Sincerely yours,
Mark-Paul Severn

Imperial Thunderbolt keeps on fighting

Some ideas just refuse to leave and die in oblivion. Thunderbolt skirmish/campaing game will be set on the planet Ashoka IV, during the jungle war against greenskin Orkz. I have no idea how and when I'm going to pull this off but I really hope it will happen soon enough. What I'm certain of is that will have three main components: aerial dogfighting, intrigue based on technology of Warhammer 40000 universe and it will have women. You may read it as much as you like, but these are an essential components for any good macho-game, especially if players are going to assume roles of fighter pilots of Imperial Navy. To make matters more difficult players will face South-Eastern peculiarities of the culture.

But SHHHH! I've not told you anything.
Now get back to work, Mark :)    

Path of the Gamer

In less than 48 hours new Space Marine Codex is going to arrive and bring its joy to the new and old fans of Warhammer 40k. Excited, yeah? By this moment in time I've spent more hours than I'd expect doing this hobby, and less hours than it is reasonable for any mundane folk with wife, kids and mortgage. (unless they are hooked on this as well). Though people who build Games Workshop's marketing strategy probably knew what they would do to the lives of their customers, we poor geeks can seen only the shiny side of this (more new shiny things, cool heroes, grand games and conversation in circle of friends). 

So how does Path of the Gamer looks from the receiving end of the bolter? 

Phase 1: The Cool stuff.   

Yep. The stuff you buy is cool. It makes you feel great, its new, its exciting and nice guy in blue (or black) T-shirt have gave you enough time to praise your painting skills. In fact you never knew you could paint at all, before that. Each of minis give you a personal attachment, as you practise your painting and stories of Heroes battles ring as promise of great victories for you, personally. 

This stage lasts from 2 days to couple of months, depending on temperament and surrounding. There are other forms of entertainment, which are more brain damaging but less demanding in terms of time, money and dedication. 

Phase 2: Tip of the curve

Oh yeah! You made it to your first big victory over another fella who had even less knowledge of the game than you. Your victorious army is still half painted but somehow after all this dice rolling and pushing models over the table something happend, and you won. Rejoice! 

The greatest danger of this stage is meeting the Professional (see below), who plays not only game,

but who  understands the game and can play your psyche for his benefit as well as executing battle plan. Result of this meeting could be quite demoralising, as opponent will mop the floor with your battle plan, laugh over army tactics and shovel your pride up your gaming bridge. Those who survive that, and still able to paint, buy and play may proceed to next phase.

Phase 3: Revelation

The rules start to make sense, numbers gain meaning and in debate over which unit is "cheesier" you can add your profound opinion. Models become just another one to paint and put in a box, but perception of the game itself changes into strategy and dice luck. What unit to choose as damage dealer, which relic or upgrade works better and how to write a winning army list. Some even go further and attempt to criticise authors of the rule book, on  a basis that player knows better. 

To drop out of hobby on this stage is difficult, but not impossible. Life commitments like work or personal life are among prime suspects. Even so, the wargaming virus has been planted deep and have left significant effect in terms of social life and mental ability to categorize and analyse combinations of probabilities and options. Useful life skill if it ever gets a chance to be used in real life. Taking decision in the heat of battle is probably useful as well.             

  

Phase 4: New shores

After a while (in some cases couple of armies and hundreds of £ later), Gamer is going for something new and even more shiny. Great! Now he has got experience, he can compare, he knows how to spend money and leave toys unpainted for many months to come. The game system is much easier to understand, especially if new shore is just a different army of the same game. This is the time when Gamer finally enjoys himself as he is just playing it, the biggest difficulty here is an opponent. If opponent is as good as you then it all comes to dice luck. If opponent is even better than you, that's where dirty tricks are coming into a play with full swing. (it's not like you didn't do that before, of coarse)

Dropping out of the habit on this stage is plausible to lack of challenge (you know game system far too well) or opponents (nobody want to play with you). All usual suspects are still here: women, booze, work, money, not bothered anymore.   

Phase 5: The Professional

You are cool. You can teach the game to those youngsters who just got their first box. Or you can finally satisfy your Dark side and beat the crap of everyone who fields the army on the table. You can quickly adjust to any new rule set, codex or update. Your army is painted to perfection, you dice love you and there few people on the planet who dare to challenge you. Wargaming is not a profession, pastime or a lifestyle - it is a part of your body.      

When you ascended on this Path so far, you may stop playing the game anytime you want. The problem is you don't want to.

Sincerely yours, 

Mark-Paul Severn 

on the eve of 7th Space Marine Codex arrival  

        

   

Aeronautica Imperialis: review

After some time of chasing and locating this rulebook I have succeeded. Despite being made in now long gone 2006 and not supported any more by GW, it still an interesting game. Aeronautica Imperialis have in many ways influenced many of following “hits” of gaming industry. X-wing is one of them. How to summarize the overall impression if this game in brief sentence?

Peculiar dogfight.

Lets try to break it down in smaller points and elaborate on high and low point of this definitely interesting game.

1. Stand alone game.
2. Dogfight
3. Peculiar details
4. Juicy extras and balance

Stand alone game.

Aeronautica Imperialis is a Warhammer 40k spin-off specifically dedicated to aerial dogfights. Period. It ignores the huge amount of 40k inconsistencies and “holy bolter” of its game system WS and BS. It simply puts us in the sky and gives some flying lessons in style of World War 2. As it was written prior to modern Storm Talons and Sunsharks it has relatively small, but balanced amount of aircraft for each race, but our main workhorse/opponent is Imperial Navy Thunderbolt. Fighters and Bombers are the only types, but these classes have small influence on the gameplay. Flyers characteristics are much more important. Addition of Advanced rules makes for more in-depth games, but at the same time makes it even slower. Things like limited ammo, pilots skill, weather, terrain do affect combat, but if you mastered this relatively complicated game it will make it more tactically challenging.

Dogfight.

Well... put it this way, Imperium of Man is dying and backwards, just for the sake of Space Marines being cool dudes of entire setting. In case of Aeronautica Imperialis this put an emphasize onto close aerial fighting, without Space marines on a main roles. Instead Imperial players fly with Navy. On a technical side, in time of Imperium, Thunderbolt fighters can fly to the orbit of the planet but they have no radar and heat-seeking missiles have less firepower than autocannon. So pilots main activity is to get on enemy's tail and pepper it with bullets. All other missions like Bombing raids, troop insertion, Air patrols are added on top that sweet adrenaline of “dakka-dakka”.

Peculiar details.

The sweet sound of “dakka-dakka” comes at a price. Main idea of game is to predict position of enemy's aircraft, put your plane into firing range and roll 5+ or 6+ if you are higher or lower than target. To do so, you change following: Speed, Altitude, Thrust, then you play Manoeuvre cards to do Barrel rolls, High-g turns, Dives, Climbs and Turns. For each plane! Then you have 3 set ranges for weapons with variable effect on firepower. Book states that game with 2 planes may take an hour to complete and game with up to 12 planes several hours. In my small experience dogfight of 2 vs 2 planes took approximately 40 minutes.

Luckily we were not using advanced rules, but still some small things like overshooting enemy because your speed is higher than his, firing loads of shots and not scoring anything because you needed 6+, hitting but not damaging plane (similar to roll to wound), makes Aeronautica Imperialis a very detailed game. This in my opinion is both strong and weak point of it.

On a strong side: it really delivers a shot-by-shot dogfight experience.

On the other side: the very complexity of it slows it down.

Game system written by Games Workshop veteran Warwick Kindrade is as simple as it gets for a aerial combat simulator (though book insists that it is not a simulator). But to make it's gameplay faster and even more easier to grasp and master it would have to lose many of its detail which make it so rich. For example 4 vs 4 game of X-wing takes an hour to complete, Axis and Allies: Wings of Victory is similar in speed.

Juicy extras

On top of well-tested and balanced game book contains colour schemes for all aircraft, technical specifications, fluffy descriptions, in-game data sheets, “historical” missions, campaign rules (which are easy and based on 3 tables), some special rules, couple of pages dedicated to painting and terrain.

Overall book is high quality hard back with typical Forgeworld glossy paper. Currently sold together with supplement for 40k games for £30. Probably while stock lasts. Since GW discontinued its Specialist games in 2012, this book would be a collectors, not gamers buy. For now there are much faster and more competitive games on a market. But of coarse, they are not in Warhammer 40000 universe. 

Thunderbolt vs X-wing.

For almost a month I've been playing with idea of RPG / flight simulator crossbreed game. I know. It even sounds weird, but I've learnt to trust even craziest idea which came into the head of mine. This one was inspired by this particular plane:

Imperial Navy Thunderbolt

Despite the being an obvious product of Games Workshop's approach towards aerodynamics (flying brick in other words), I love that plane. It has heroic vibe, lots of guns, unique appearance and style of World War 2 dogfighter. Warhammer 40k setting easily transfers players into grim and gritty warzone, and Dark Heresy book would provide enough background and rules for detective storyline enveloping the flying missions. As a point of reference I took Korean War (1950-53). That conflict provided more than enough information on planes, combat, pilots, their living conditions, attitude to war and people. (Russians, Chinese and Koreans would be replaced by Orks, eventually :-)  

But before I began fleshing out main characters as Inquisitor, Squadron Leader, Commissar, Naval Intelligence officers, Adeptus Mechanicus Magos (somebody had to upgrade and refit the planes) I stumbled upon some serious problems.

The first one is: rules for simulating air combat.
Obviously you'd look at Aeronautica Imperialis, game produced by Forgeworld. The result was frustrating. Not only the game is discontinued along all other Specialist games of GW, the rules have a very steep learning curve and require a lot of bookkeeping. In addition games tend to be quite long and overloaded with unnecessary and irritating rules like limited ammo or fuel consumption. For example: Thunderbolt may fire only 4 times per battle hitting on 5+ or 6+. Different altitudes of planes, positions, speeds and manoeuvres add to the complexity of it. After careful consideration, this game would not do the job of quick air combat between the ground missions. Well, the greed factor is still there. Its £30 for 16 pages of rules, while rest of hundred or so pages are fluff and pretty pictures.

The second one is: absence of models.
Well, as I've mentioned before Aeronautica Imperialis, along Epic: 40k and other titles have been discontinued. Aftermarket is expensive as models become rarity and slow to offer. I completely accept my fault and responsibility for NOT buying any of those model before. Sorry, GW. Next time I will be faster and clutter all my living space with your products. In the mean time I'll learn how to scratch build the tiny plane from paper.

The outcome of this sketch was discovery of very interesting set of rules by David Child-Dennis, a game designer and historical wargaming enthusiast from New Zealand.  Thanks to http://www.freewargamesrules.co.uk/ I can share this outstanding work here:

• Airwar Korea 
• Airwar Vietnam
• Typhoon (modern aircombat)

Ironically, as well as Aeronautica Imperialis I've came across another relic of long forgotten past: Crimson Skies! The incredible and crazy creation of FASA Corporation, people behind the myth of giant walking robots. In Crimson skies they managed to cross breed table-top aerial dogfighting, bravado of 30-s, zeppelins and piracy. Rules are relatively easy to grasp and free to download. See for yourself:

Crimson Skies rulebook

Last but not least, came X-wing with incredibly easy, fun and balanced rules. Which are available for download for free.

X-Wing miniatures game rulebook 

The X-wing ironically have taken my attention away from 40k. Not only this game consumed quite a bit of time and money, it inspired set of new ideas for other project I'm working on. (sci-fi of coarse :). It also showed that time of over complicated games is coming to an end.

In short time, from the moment idea of Thunderbolt campaign was born, it grew, flew on the high hopes, hit the wall of reality, died and opened the the whole new areas and approaches for future projects as well as finding some rare the jewels.

So, I guess thank you, Thunderbolt.

Sincerely yours,
Mark-Paul Severn. 
(the wanna-be-designer with megalomaniac ambitions)
     

Boarding Marines: rules overview

Boarding Marines of Imperial Fists

Boarding Marines have been around ever since Forgeworld conceived Badab War books. Their primary mission would be to board and assault enemy ships in void space. As a player of Black Templar's successor it would be a perfect unit for my style of play. I was tempted to either buy one of the books or just buy upgrade kit from Forgeworld. Both temptations were successfully resisted thanks to the price £90 for the book, content most of which was not interesting to me. You would not pay such amount for 2 pages of really useful stuff, would you? In case you would, you will need a Badab War part I book from Forgeworld. Second reason was lack of open references to the boarding marines equipment. The site states: 

Detailed resin conversion kit consisting of two lascutters, a graviton gun, and sufficient boarding shields, weapon arms and heads to build five Boarding Space Marines, as well as additional components to build a Boarding Sergeant.       

Forgeworld loves to invent old-new weapons and leave their profile buried in books and useless pictures. What type of lascutter? Is it a graviton gun from old codexes or similar to Blood Angels graviton grapple? What is the difference between boarding and combat shield? £90 is an answer. I would assume that if you live outside UK its even more expensive. So a scrapped the idea. 

However, the Emperor has answered to my prayers and gave me a chance to have a look inside of one these blessed books. I saw the pictures. I saw the rules. I saw the points. Then I closed the book and congratulated myself on saving some money. Let me explain why.

1. Profile. Boarding Marines are absolutely no different from any other codex Space Marine stats. Same stats as any Tactical squad. No bonuses, no extra skills, nothing. Extra 50 points. 
2. Really "unfluffy". Forgeworld authors describe that becoming Boarding Marine is more of death sentence from the Chapter. WTFK? These guys should have done a research on Black Templars, who fight most of their battles in space and zero gravity. Not to mention that this kind of operations would require at least some skill and training. No, in their mind Boarding Marines are just over pimped cannon fodder.
3. Questionable Equipment. With boarding shield marine gets 5+ invulnerable save. Wonderful, isn't it? But Space Marine with power armour in zero gravity CANNOT RUN WITH IT! Yes, super soldiers need to visit the gym more often. On top of that, even if Boarding Marines will assault anything they never gain bonus for extra weapon. Why???! To represent that shield is so heavy and its so difficult to fire bolter while carrying it? Or to limit us to using them as move and fire unit? Then why Captain, Veterans or even Sergeants may take storm shield with power armour? 
4. Strange lascutter. Imperial Armour 2: Project Aphelion featured lascutter in Elysian Drop troopers inventory. Range: base contact, S:10, AP:? auto hit on immobile targets except infantry; ideal for breaking doors and cooking big bugs in assault. Boarding Marines get a lascutter which adds +1 to our Initiative in assault but we lose any bonuses for charging. Auto hit in assault with S:9, AP:1, ignores armour. Why lose Strength? Why repeat that it ignores armour if in most cases it is a case of Instant Death? Poor Guardsman can charge in an wipe the 'nids face with it, and super soldier can not? Mind you, I'm paying £90 for this.

So is there a bright side for Boarding Marines? Well, yes there is. 2 models per unit may take either support weapons like multi-melta. Unit may accompanied by 2 types of Drones: Fire Wasp and Devastation drone: one with flamer other with demolition charge of 5" blast, (again, why not use normal Blast?). Graviton Gun is actually a cool weapon with Range 18" AP3 and nasty surprise to anything which will come under a blast area. But despite everything, if you really like Forgeworld resin you will enjoy the quality of the kit, don't mind the rules. Unless of coarse you would take a risk and make a conversion.

     
Sincerely yours
Mark-Paul.

New Tau Codex: biggest changes

Tau Pathfinders. Source: http://eastern-empire.com/gallery/urban-tau-cadre/

New Tau is finally here! The shiny hard-cover codex book is written by Jeremy Wetlock, who runs the column in White Dwarf and apparently been with GW for a long time. Codex itself is full-colored 100 or so pages book with easy navigation, plenty of images and background on each old and new units, heroes as well as new influx of background information on Tau Empire itself, their Septs and Heroes. Book is priced at £30 in Uk, and well worth buying just to have it on the shelf or battlefield.

So what are the biggest changes from the old codex:

1. Hammerhead and Sky Ray are BS 4.
2. Fire Warriors and Pathfinders are Initiative 2 
3. Drones may mix and match between Shield, Markerlight and Heavy Guns in one unit.
4. Drones are Initiative 4. 
5. Snipers are BS 5 and may have up 6 Marksmen with up 3 Sniper Drones each. Oh, Their weapon is a Rapid fire AP5. Did i mentioned the markerlight and Support fire?
6. Vespid are Initiative 6 and will ignore difficult or dangerous terrain. 
7.  Support Fire special rule allows you to fire Overwatch from friendly unit in 6" as well as from unit being assaulted. With certain abilities or Heroes Support fire may be fired by vehicles!  
8. Markerlight will grant one of the following: +1 to BS, Ignore Cover saves, fire a Seeker missile without reducing the amount of weapons vehicle can use, add +1 bonus for each markerlight to Overwatch BS.
9. Kroot finally got an armor. 6+ armor is a Kroot dream come true :) 
10. Most Battlesuits pack twink-linked weapons, but majority is still BS 3. 
11. Fire Blades are nasty! Veterans of Fire Caste they almost rival Space Marine Captains. They are 50+ points upgrade for Fire Warrior and allows extra shots or re-roll 1 to hit. 3 Wounds. 
12. Rippertide Battlesuit is a Mounstrous Creature with Toughness 6 and loads of weapon choices. Main bonus Nova Reactor: allows you either extra shots with twin-linked weapons, 4d6 evasion maneuver, overload with big "kaboom", or improved AP.
13. Flyers are here. Bomber and Fighter both at BS 3, 2 HP and ability to take 4+ invulnerable save against incoming fire. 
14. Heroes: as well as Farsight, Shadowsun and Aun'Va (last one is even more useful than ever), there is a master Pathfinder, super tankman at BS 5, Tank hunter, Support fire and Overwatch, and Ethereal with WS:5, I:5 A:4. He either goes Rending or chopping, especially against the Orks. 
15. Last but not least: Warlord Traits. 6 unique Traits, with 3 out of them may be used once per battle. They demand and intelligent play and understanding of your army. Traits may give your units Skyfire rule, extra shots, extra move or morale bonus.                           

In conclusion: most of the units remained as they were, or even less hard, but the difference is army cohesion, support and firepower. Tau will demand intelligent play, careful positioning and support from each other. Only then they will be victorious.  
   

The Great and terrible Warhammer 40000

This post was intended to be a collections of criticism and general whinging about 40K and flaws, remorseless greed of Games Workshop and so on. I will probably get there, but if you have been affected by this hobby you probably know it yourself. 

However, during preparation I have made some interesting discoveries or observations if you like.
Rogue Trader, the initial first version of 40K was intended as mission-based small-scale skirmish game. Player would play narrative scenarios and Game Master would unfold coming events.That was the plan of course... :)

On the game mechanics side, 40K suffers and interesting combination of several layers of editions and visions of how game should be played. Born as small scale game, where Space Marines and other units were acting as individuals, it relies on the generally same mechanics as its fantasy brother Warhammer. Of coarse it had to drop big units movement, flanking and charging, but managed to retain bonuses for two close combat weapons or extra attacks for charging. Warhammer, ideologically looks up to D&D system, but  retains its core as a unit-based system, where individual models and heroes act as bonus to number of super cool hits and mega weapons of unit, an organized cell of army.  

40K on the other hand is trying to take Warhammer base and develop it into a fast-pacing hero-based blockbuster, where a single hero has a chance to land a war winning hit. Which is not only unrealistic, but quite slow and ridiculous when you roll hundred or so dice just to find out how many Orks managed to get close to a well defended bolter position before Guardsman woke up and started to fire. Until current 6th edition, 40K preferred close combat as main way of determining the victor.

Flames of War, despite its hugely complicated system of internal special rules, historic background ect. became popular thanks to its relatively elegant system: assault is rolled on one dice per unit, ranged is rolled in "to hit" and firepower test. That is an essence of huge, industrialized and massed warfare, where single life is irrelevant. That is what Apocalypse should have been, but none risked changing the system, and we still counting number of shots and punches in the face. All six thousands of them. Humble attempts to modify this in Epic and Warmaster games are worth mentioning, but they retain a dusty place of specialist games.     

Warhammer 40K in this matter, suffers another problem: this game is about Space Marines. All other races, where born and created as either bigger monsters to kill (Tyranids), or more clever and sneakier enemies to fight (Eldar). In its core this game is about victories of power armored, bad ass, bolter loaded and genetically engineered heroes. They need attention and war glamor.

The sales figures confirm that: so far Space Marines are bestsellers. But the threat of newcomers is looming on horison, and more and more people discover new drugs game and game systems. Some are even better than 40K. But most are definitely cheaper. 
  

-Hey Sarge, should we tell them that boat is almoust out of gas?- Nah, just smile and wave boys!

             

Talons of the Emperor: Elysian Drop Troops codex

Here it is, the book what was a pleasure to write and research for almost a year. Feel free to download Elysian Drop Troop codex from the link below. Any feedback would most welcome.  

Download: Talons of the Emperor: Elysian Drop Troops Codex

thank you

Elysian Drop Troops codex: what to expect?

Elysian Drop Troops Regiments are air mobile infantry of Imperial Guard. They do the dirty jobs Space Marines are not bothered to. They epitomize the best qualities of human warriors, but remain humble and numerous, provide ingenuity when everything else fails. Drop Troops require bold and skillful commander. If you, my friend decide to download and try my codex and make a play test of it that is what you may expect:

Combat Drop: unlike Space Marines, Drop Troops do not use drop pods, they jump from the back ramp of Valkyrie and land on the enemy gun blazing. This rule will allow you to deploy half or all of your army using Deep Strike method.

D-mode: different battle zone dictate different methods of landing.Your soldiers will be able to Deep Strike, land with heavy weapons and Sentinels, land on tight spot and disembark from hovering aircraft without scattering.    

Talon's Tactics: tired of failing orders? tired of incompetent commanders and rigid gunlines? Try new tactics! Troops will perform suppressive fire, deadly volleys, resupply damaged units and even fire Overwatch on full BS.

Doctrines: the doctrines are back! Using reworked doctrines from 3rd and 4th editions of IG codex as well as completely original ones you may customize tactics, equipment and skills of your entire regiment or veteran unit. Doctrines are divided into 3 groups: Sweat saves blood, Special Equipment and Battle Scars.

Redefined Army list: units have more blood to spare, Elites units offer choice of Commando units, Medics and Combat Engineers. HQ will allow you to field Adeptus Arbites Judge, Ordo Hospitaller Sister as well as various non-comissioned officer to bolster strength of your airborne regiment. Some units are unique and will significantly improve your firepower and accuracy as well as unique special characters with background in Drop Troops regiments.

Different types of platoons: drop troops operate without tanks or heavy support, but they compensate for it using different platoons. You may choose between  
Assault infantry platoon, for all those Normandy landings,  
Fire Support platoon in case if bridge too far, or 
Mechanized platoon for daring raids and outflanking as well as landing troops in armored vehicles behind stunned opponent.  
       
 

   

Elysian Drop troops codex

Current Imperial Guard codex by Robin Cruddace is an example of really good work in my opinion. It allows player to customize layout of his forces and with certain success imitates the chaos of battle, and dependance of individual soldier on successful organization and command structure. The last one is both strong and weak point of Imperial Guard.  If opponent wipes out Company and Platoon commanders then remaining troops seriously lose their efficiency in firefight. Guardsmen are useful as close combat force only in large numbers with surplus of Commissars and Priests. 

However overall idea, fluff, structure of codex and feel of the army leaves a feel of errr... huge mamoth wasting human lives and resources for a minimal gains with no real understanding of enemy, but huge guns. Which is very true not only for Imperial Guard of Warhammer 40000 but for most armies of humanity.
 

     
But if i want to have something more heroic, more personal and effective without going vanilla smurf Space Marines? To be more specific, what if I want 82nd Airborne Division landing somewhere behind Orks lines and creating havoc amongst them?

The current legal way is simple: Veterans mounted on Valkyries and disembarking under enemy fire. Apocalypse formation: Storm Trooper Strike Force even allows you to have Special rules like Storm the Objective, Strike Force and Strategic Assets. See here for yourself.
The other way is maxing out Storm Troopers squad at the expense of other branches and pray to Emperor that they will not get chopped to pieces too quickly.

If that is not enough, Forge World has an outstanding (but expensive as always) line of Elysian Drop Troops, something which really stands out in sea of marines. What more they even get their own share in Imperial Armor books. However so far in every book Elysian's are being wasted by either incompetent command (Project Aphelion), or by combination of poor planning and enemy superiority (Operation Comet). Not a great advert for an elite force.        

However there is enough information about real life paratroopers and their successes and mishaps which may indicate couple of simple things: 
1. Airborne troops have a different, more aggressive and independent tactics and approach towards combat.
2. Due to the lack of heavy equipment airborne troops must rely on either captured equipment or lighter equivalents of army weapons. 
3. Airborne units have a higher morale and image of elite shock troops.
4. Training and structure of different airborne units may vary from task to task, and available equipment.

But real life is boring, we all know that. In addition, GW is not going to release a separate codex for IG branch which potentially may compete with their bread and butter - space marines. Freelancers and fans did not undertook any projects which involved rethinking of how this particular Imperial Guard branch would play different. (correct me if am wrong, please). So, after careful consideration and after finishing my first great project Iron Hearts Space Marine codex I've decided to try and write a codex or fandex if you like for purely drop troop regiments. It took me approximately 6 months or pure working time from idea to complete book, i started in March- April 2012 and finished in the end of September 2012. The result will be posted a bit later on my blog.  


       

Simple Soldier: Ollanius Persson

Anyone who has even remotely heard about Warhammer 40K universe has heard or read about epic duel between Emperor and his beloved (turned traitor) Horus. It was written by William King, and originally published in WHITE DWARF #131 dated November 1990. The description of this epic duel however has changed from edition to edition and as if its reflected in million broken mirror shards has been repeated and twisted in the lore. In it core it still retain pretty simple structure:

The Emperor is fighting Horus, who just managed to mortally wound Sanguinius and slaughter dozen or more marines. In a short conversation disrupted by sporadic fighting Horus is almost triumphant.  (As it it well known true evil is obliged to have a profound monologue before finishing off the good guy.) In this case the final monologue of evil incarnate is postponed by intervention loyal Emperor's soldier, who death finally forces Emperor to kill his beloved Warmaster Horus (finally). The more detailed description of this battle could be found http://www.inisfail.com/archives/emperor-vs-horus.html or in Horus Heresy books. 

I deliberately keep description of this epic event as short as possible in order to pay tribute to that unnamed soldier and how his role and description has changed. First of all he is almost never identified, he has no name, no belonging except his reckless bravery in the face of Horus. Or is it?

The Horus Heresy as pivotal point in Imperium's history was not conceived until 4th edition of the rules and i believe early 90's. According to interview of 40K "fathers" Alan Merret, Jervis Jonson and John Blanche in White Dwarf of February 2012, it was Rick Priestly who "wrote a throwaway passage of text about a civil war that had happened a ten thousand years ago. Rick has put it to simply make the background more mythic in tone, to add a texture to these great passages of time."  So the idea of what happened and who saved the sorry butt life of the Emperor have been made and remade quite often in last 12 years.  

I'm not going into great details of all the books on the subject, i'll simply name the incarnations of this heroic soldier: 

Adeptus Cutosdian, 

Marine in power armor, 

Legion Astartes Terminator, 

Marine in Terminator armor, 

unidentified bodyguard who served with Emperor for several hundreds years and saved his life on numerous occasions (Emperor cannot remember his name, oddly enough) 

and finally an Imperial Army (or Imperial Guardsman in older books) soldier - 

Ollanius Pius or Ollanius Persson. 

The name of Ollanius pops up in two version: Imperial Guard saint and Perpetual (apparently something or someone everlasting). First one is likely to be a iteration of latter, as Imperial Saints are known for their death resisting qualities. Ollanius may be a variation of the same silent soldier who gives Emperor a second of breathing space. 

During this unintended research i have decided to re-tell old story of Emperor's battle and ultimate sacrifice of his soldier. 

As the battle for Imperial palace grew desperate and bloody, as the casualties mounted on the both sides, as rage of assaulting Chaos spread on Terra the Emperor finally saw the opportunity to end the bloodshed before it was too late. As Horus clearly saw that with each passing day of Imperial Palace resistance rallied the loyalist and bought time for the reinforcements to get closer to Terra, he spread the wave of destruction upon every human soul, every piece of knowledge, on everything so dear to the heart of the Emperor.  Though in doing so he left void shields of his flagship Vengeful Spirit down. Willingly or not we may never know. What is known that the Emperor took this chance and gathered the forces he could muster to face the traitor. Primarch's Regal Dorn and Sanguinius, force of Terminators and combined force of Adeptus Custodes and loyal Army cadre followed him as they always did, to the death and beyond.

Amidst the whispering darkness of the ship Emperor and his men were scattered, fighting for the survival instead of delivering a killing blow to the enemy.    

Finally the Emperor and his few remaining men breached into the bridge of the vessel, firing and charging in. They were met by a sole, dark figure reeking with warp-twisted hatred and arrogance. Horus. He turned to face them and lazily stepped over body of an angel. Sanguinius lay dead on the floor, defeated but still defiant to the will of Chaos. I one silent gesture Emperor commanded his men to cease firing and wait for his orders.

- This fool of yours, made a wrong choice, - grunted Horus with power that shook the very reality, - he could have been my brother in the new world order. In my order! He could have been worshiped like god and truly become one.

- Horus! - replied Emperor, his voice heavy with sadness, - he was your Brother! The one who shared you victories and heritage...

- Be silent, - spat Horus, - your puny rule is over! I command the power which will lead humanity into a new era! I command the very Chaos itself! 

- You command only your delusion, my friend, - replied Emperor and single tear escaped from his eye as he finally realized how deeply fallen his son is, how hopelessly entangled in the puppet web of Chaos he is, - Stand down before it's too late, Horus, thou your are a pawn, not a master.

Horus laughed in return with echo filled with will-bending darkness.  

- This shall be your last threat, Lord of Humankind!,- roared Lupercal and attacked.                 

The battle of the Emperor and the Traitor became lighting exchange of blows in physical realm and titanic psychic storm in the Warp. Even gene-modified reactions and senses of Astartes were inadequate to capture the movements of those bitter enemies: the Lord of Humankind and Champion of Chaos, for mere conversation between them took a toll on surviving men of Emperor. Some were shattered to pieces by lashes of psychic hatred, some become disorientated and lost from Lupercal's voice domination, few were strong enough to withstand it but hesitated to break last order of the Emperor and enter the fray.

The battle was bending the reality as Lupercal lashed the bolts of daemonic powers and Emperor was throwing his might in swift lunges and parries of the sword. Traitor thruster his lighting claw with battle hardened expertise, Emperor dodged it and lunged a paralysis inflicting bolt into Horus. The room was shattering and crumbling as swing that missed target were carrying enough power to crush the columns and crack steel only by pointing at at.  Though for Emperor's men have passed a mere seconds, for fighters it was eternity as both were charging and fighting on level of gods.

As powerful Emperor was, he realized that he was losing. The unholy daemonic powers of Horus were constantly changing it nature, its resonance becoming more and more difficult to withstand and counter. What is hurting him most, is that he fighting his son, his best general and a close friend. Should he be swallowed by anger and hatred all will be lost, the darkness that possessed Horus will possess the Emperor of Mankind.

Lupercal had no such limitations, for he was consumed and empowered by the Dark Gods.  Their fury and magic gave Lupercal an upper hand, and eventually he managed to land a devastating blow crushing Emperor's armor and sending him flying to the ground.        

As Emperor fell on the shattered ground, Lupercal roared again: 

- So, who is deluded now? Who is a Master of Mankind?, - and he stepped down towards the fallen Emperor intending to prolong his torture before the final blow is struck. As he walked through devastation towards mortally wounded Emperor a single figure appears between them.  

 A figure of soldier carrying lasgun and badge of imperial Aquila on his uniform. 

- You shall not pass!, - at the top of his lungs screams soldier at approaching Traitor. Without even a glance Horus lashes a magical bolt at him as if he was annoying insect. Soldiers figure flashed with bright light and he struggles to stand on his feet, but he remains alive. 

- Strike me down Traitor and ten more will take my place! Kill them - hundreds will deny you! Then thousands and millions of us!, - shouted soldier on approaching monster and squeezed couple of shots from his lasgun.  

- We fight for the Emperor! We die for the Emperor!,- shouted soldier as Lupercal's lighting claw slashed him in half. 

- I am sure you do, - grinned Lupercal and turned to finish the Emperor.

As soldier's body fell the Emperor attacked with the power of billions souls behind him and his every move. The time he gave him enough to gather all his strength and might for one last blow. Horus must be destroyed even if it cost to Emperor his life.

In one single blow, in the one unstoppable attack, the soulwave of Emperor's might combined with billions of human lives relying on him struck Traitor.  Shocked by the unexpected power of this attack Horus fell. No armor, no trickery of Chaos, no hatred or skill would save the Traitor.

When Regal Dorn fought his way into the ships control room he found the Emperor, barely alive. Despite being mortally wounded, Emperor was holding in his arms his beloved Primarch Sanguinius and Ollanius Persson, a simple soldier.