Go Guard!

Using some extra Imperial Guard miniatures lying around, I decided to convert some of them to give a representation of some of the varied Imperial Guard regiments of the Arcadia Sector.

	Anacostian Light Infantry The Anacostian Light Infantry is renowned throughout the sector for their stealth and their ability to show up quickly, anywhere, anytime.
	1st Arcadian Infantry The 1st Arcadian Infantry Regiment was heavily engaged during the Cyclades Campaign, repelling an invasion of Yriel-Dyann Eldar. The Regiment lost nearly half of its number during the campaign, but largely due to the regiment’s efforts, the Eldar invasion was successfully repulsed. Since Cyclades the regiment has fought against other xeno forces, including Tyranids and Orks.
	4th Arcadian Infantry The 4th Arcadian Infantry suffered horrific casualties in their first battles against the Necrons, but since those initial defeats, their experience fighting them has begun to show through.
	5th Arcadian Infantry (Mechanized) The 5th Arcadian is renowned for innovative tactics, and is among the first regiments to make use of combined arms, integrated down to the battalion level.
	11th Arcadian Rangers The 11th Arcadian Rangers were involved during the Assault on Morkandy Beach, where they supported the beach assault by dropping behind enemy lines, disrupting the defenders’ supporting artillery and ambushing reinforcements.
	16th Arcadian Infantry The 16th Arcadian has seen action against Tau forces, but its most famous action was undoubtedly the Assault on Morkandy Beach, where the entire regiment participated in the first assaults on the beach. During the action, the first battalion alone suffered 85% casualties.
	2nd Cydonian Infantry (The Nightstalkers) Cydonia is known for mass producing high technology devices and arms. As such, like most Cydonian regiments, the Nightstalkers are extremely well equipped.
	1st Deukalion Infantry The 1st Deukalion Regiment specializes in close quarters actions, either within cities or at night. As such they tend to be well equipped with powerful, short-ranged weaponry, and specialize in military operations in urban terrain.
	Fafnir Infantry (The Ice Wolves) The Fafnir Ice Wolves specialize in combat in cold weather environments. They are renowned for their skill in setting up ambushes and then disappearing into the wilderness.
	Tantalus Desert Fighters Tantalus is a cold, dry, desolate world with a tenous atmosphere. The Tantalus Desert Fighters are skilled in conquering the environment as much as the enemy. As such they are used to dealing with hostile environments, destroying enemies who are less prepared.

A Blast from the Past

A few days ago I was talking with 73rd on his blog The Unforgiven Angels, and I mentioned the oldest White Dwarf magazine I owned, back when I first got into the hobby in 1987. Well, here's some scans of the first issue I bought, #98, from February 1988.

The next image is an ad for "Chapter Approved", containing all sorts of neat stuff:

And next, of course, is the first incarnation of someone everything is familiar with these days, Marneus Calgar, although back then he was just a cool Imperial Commander...

The issue had an article about the Mentor Legion chapter of Space Marines (now they are known as just the "Mentors"). GW hadn't settled on calling the post-Heresy Space Marines the Adeptus Astartes yet--they were still all the Legiones Astartes.

And finally there is an ad for some generic "Space Pirates", and below, some of the earliest incarnations of the Imperial Guard, then known as "Imperial Army". Back then recruitment was so small they could give each trooper individual names!



Ah, the good ol' days, when miniatures were only made out of lead, and were ridiculously cheap (compared to today's standards). Still, the quality of the miniatures has gone up tremendously. I still have my RTB-01 marines from those days, still fighting in the ranks of my Raven Guard. Hopefully they will be taking to the field in another 20 years, still fighting for the Emperor...

Vacation...what vacation?

So I took the week of Thanksgiving off, but there was no relaxation for me. Last Monday was spent building shelves in my basement, allowing me to store tons of junk that had accumulated there, while the contractors installed a safer, less slippery carpet on my stairs. Tuesday I began the sad task of emptying my erstwhile game room, moving my miniatures from their cases down two floors to the basement, where they will have to languish for the foreseeable future.

Wednesday I began my painting project! Unfortunately, I wasn't painting miniatures:


Yes, my game room has begun its transformation into a future nursery, while my "game room" will for the foreseeable future be the garage (when my car isn't in it). My future daughter has begun the process of irrevocably changing my life. But there are positives: I will be indoctrinating her into wargaming and miniature painting at an early age. :)

So I apologize for the lack of updates for the past two weeks--despite the home repairs/renovations that have been going on, I have managed to work on a few things, so hopefully next week will be a "real" update of what I've been working on.

Project: Airbrushed Devilfish

For a while now I've been itching to use my airbrush, and since my Tau were in need of some additional transport, the Devilfish naturally presented itself. I wanted to try a technique that would result in an optical illusion. The intent was for the vehicle to have camouflage stripes across the hull--these stripes would be of a single color, but the color would appear to change from one shade to a different shade depending on what part of the model you were looking at. The way to achieve this is by shading the hull itself--the backdrop to the camouflage stripes--in shades of color that are darker or lighter than the shade of the stripes themselves. Just what this means will hopefully become clear as I explain it.

Step one was to assemble and prime the model.

Next I used the airbrush to basecoat the model Jade Green. Unfortunately Games Workshop doesn't make this color anymore (all the more frustrating because it's a primary color of my Tau army), but fortunately Vallejo Paints does, and it's a perfect match.

The Jade Green would become the color of the camouflage stripes. I took some blue painters tape, laid out some strips of it on a cutting board, and using an exacto knife and a ruler, cut out strips several inches long and 1.5-2mm wide. I then carefully put the tape on the model where I wanted the stripes to be. The narrow width of the tape allowed me to curve the tape over the model's edges and also to make wavy lines without the tape wrinkling. I know that the blue tape doesn't show up well against the jade green of the hull, but if you look closely, it's there.

The next step is where the optical illusion begins. I used my airbrush to paint Scaly Green (another color Games Workshop is unfortunately phasing out) over the rear half of the model. I did full coverage of the rearmost parts of the model, and moving forward along the hull, I used progressively less paint, fading it out until across the center of the model (roughly where the side doors are), I gave it the barest dusting of paint. The next step was to paint the front half of the model Vile Green (again, Games Workshop doesn't make this color anymore, but Vallejo Paints makes an identical shade: Foul Green). This time, I painted the Vile/Foul Green over the front parts of the model, completely on the foremost parts, and fading it out as I moved backwards along the hull. When I reached the midsection, I faded it out completely. The result here was to make the model look Vile/Foul Green on the front, blending gradually into the underlying Jade Green in the middle, and then blending gradually into Scaly Green in the rear.

The next step is to remove the masking tape. In some places the tape wasn't easy to remove, so I had a use an exacto knife to get it started, being careful not to scratch any of the paint off. If there was some bleed through of the airbrushed paint onto the camouflage stripes, I touched it up with some more Jade Green.

Finally I put on some black trim and other details, put on the drones, and applied a couple decals. I also attempted to use the airbrush to paint on some soot lines by the engines using black, but the result didn't come out as "sharp" as I was hoping--next time I need to use a finer airbrush nozzle. So here's the final result. Hopefully you can see the optical illusion: the camouflage stripes look dark against the front of the hull, but lighter colored on the rear of the hull--but regardless of where they are on the model, it's all Jade Green. On the midsection of the model, the color actually fades away into the background for a little bit before reappearing on each side as contrasting again with the background.

This last picture is a comparison shot: on the left is my first Devilfish, painted a couple of years ago using my old camouflage scheme, and my new Devilfish on the right.

Terrain Project: Necron Tombworld Beacon

This is a terrain piece I made for the Axis Columen Campaign--it will be the centerpiece of the fourth, and last, battle of the Campaign. Basically it represents the above-ground portion of a huge Necron tomb on the planet of Axis Columen: the tip of the iceberg, as it were. The Beacon has been transmitting a signal to a Necron fleet, which is on its way. If and when the fleet arrives in orbit, they will activate the tombworld generators, and all the Necrons will awake... The Brazen Claws Space Marines have to destroy this Beacon before this happens, or all is lost.

I started the project with a simple pyramid made of foam board, surrounded by four obelisks made of posterboard, mounted on a 12" x 12" square of 1" pink insulation foam.

Next I trimmed up the pink foam, and added plasticard to the pyramid to make it look more Necron-like.

In this stage I used some plaster filler to fill in gaps wherever I found them, mainly on the wall-joins of the pyramids, and along its base.

The next step was to coat the base with sand. Ultimately the plan was to make it look a little like the Beacon raised itself out of the ground, so I painted it to look like freshly overturned earth.

The next step was to paint it and apply decals. The paint was going to match the color of my fellow gamer Badelaire's Necron army, that is, dark blue metallic with gold trim. Badelaire's Necrons are painted with boltgun metal then given a coat of blue ink. Ink wouldn't work on this model, so I did a mix of various blues (mainly Midnight Blue, Regal Blue, and a dab of Enchanted Blue, with some Boltgun Metal. The result didn't look quite metallic enough, so I put a coat of gloss varnish ('Ardcoat) on the model to make it shiny.

I painted some golden plates on the front face as placement for Necron Decals. I didn't have decals of my own, so Badelaire graciously donated some to the cause. But little did I know that the decals were gold themselves!

All was not lost, however, as the gold decals looked pretty good distributed elsewhere on the model. I put some anyway on the gold plates on the main face of the pyramid--they're hard to see unless you get close or the lighting is right, but they're there. So here's the final result:





The rules we'll be using for the Beacon is that it will essentially "count as" a Necron Pylon, but will be a fixed feature on the battlefield from the start, and have twice as many structure points. Now we just have to fight the battle!

Writing Battle Reports

Tools of the trade: Camera, notepad, and a white backdrop for pictures (if you wish)
Note: This post has also been graciously posted over at +++From the Warp+++, a great 40k blog. It's a privilege to be recognized over there, and I suggest you check out that blog if you haven't done so already.

Due to the popularity of battle report articles in White Dwarf magazine, and the natural inclination of players to share their gaming experiences with others, writing battle reports has become a mainstay of the 40k community. Having a well written report allows you to share your game with others in a more engaging way than simply "Yeah, my army totally kicked butt last night, it was awesome. You…uh…should have been there." A detailed record of the game allows others to criticize (hopefully constructively) your tactics, see the performance of armies and results of tactics that they might not have much experience with, and simply enjoy the read.

Beyond sharing it with others, having a decent record means you can share it with your future self years down the road, see have far you’ve progressed in the hobby, and relive your past victories. Or as is usual in my case, shake your head at the horrible mistakes you made that led to your crushing defeats. In this article I will go over some of the things I have learned in writing my own battle reports over the past few years.

Briefings and Army Lists
Before your battle you should give some thought to writing a briefing (and if you can, get your opponent to do one as well). Obviously with pick up games this can be difficult, but if you have any time before the battle, try to write a paragraph or two. Write why you made the army selection you did, and come up with a general plan for the battle—even if you don’t know what scenario you’ll be playing. At the very least, doing this will solidify a battle plan in your head, and make you put some thought into how you will use each unit during the battle. Going into a battle prepared will always improve your performance. As far as the battle report goes, it gives the reader something to look for when reading the report: Will your plan work? Will your super-unit perform the way you hope? If you can get your opponent to write his own briefing ahead of time, this part becomes even more interesting, as the reader will be looking to see how one player’s plan will play out against the other’s. There can even be some amusing consequences, as when a player makes a prediction about the battle in a briefing, and the results are in remarkable agreement (or disagreement) with what actually happens. If you don’t write your briefing until after the battle, you don’t get the full effect of this, but it’s still worth the effort to present your plan.

Make an effort to get a copy of your opponent's army list after the battle, even if you have to quickly scribble down the its contents. You want to avoid writing a report that describes in minute detail what wargear each and every model in your army has, only to describe your opponent’s army as "He had some guys with some stuff. And a tank, I think." As long as you have a general description of each unit in the army, that should be good enough. I usually leave out the minutiae of the wargear in my battle reports--if the wargear is important, I'll probably mention it in the description of my plan, or mention it in the meat of the report when the wargear actually sees use. Players who are more focused into precise army lists and tournament armies may decide to be super-specific here.

Taking Notes
This is by far the most important part of making a battle report. You want to be able to accurately record what happens in you battle, yet not have it disrupt the flow of the game, or not take so much time that your game becomes twice as long. Taking notes will take some time however, so you should warn your opponent ahead of time out of courtesy.
Folly from my early days: a messy sketch map and overly detailed notes
If you have a friendly opponent who wants to help, this makes it far easier. I have a binder where I keep my notes and army lists from previous battles. I use the binder as a writing surface for my note paper. When it is my opponent’s turn, I take notes; when it’s my turn, I graciously ask him to take notes. This spreads the work and keeps the game moving—while one player is moving units and rolling dice, the other takes notes on what is happening. If you’re fortunate enough to have a third person around watching the game, you can ask them to take notes—at the very least it will get them more involved in the game.

So just what do you write down? In the movement phase, I usually only mention which units arrived from reserve, what units regrouped, or what units made especially interesting or bold moves. The pictures you take (see below) will usually cover everything else.

In the shooting phase I get a little more detailed. I usually jot down who fired at who, and the results, abbreviating wherever possible. If anything is remarkable about the shooting, such as an entire unit of 30 shoota boyz firing on a unit of five marines desperately holding onto an objective, I’ll go into more detail, such as listing the number of shots fired, hits, wounds, and saves. I may or may not mention these details in the final report, depending on what happens. If all the marines are killed, I might say "The shoota boyz unloaded everything they had on the tactical squad from close range, wiping out all five marines in a hail of gunfire." If, however, the results are remarkable or unexpected, I’ll go into more detail: "The shoota boyz fired on the marines with 60 shots, 25 of which hit, causing no less than 18 wounds. And yet, as the smoke cleared, all five marines were left standing!" If it shocks or surprises you during the game, then you want to mention it in the report with as much detail as possible! Unexpected, exciting occurrences like this is one of the main reasons you’re writing a report, so it behooves you to record it in detail.
Some more modern notes, annotated by section
The assault phase is where most of the decisive action happens, and so I usually pay a lot of attention to detail here, taking careful notes, and most of the time I’ll note down the number of attacks, hits, wounds, and failed saves. Again, I’ll rarely include all those details in the actual report, but the key is, the details are there if I want them. Nothing is more frustrating the day after when you are writing up the report and can’t remember what happened, and your sparse notes aren’t detailed enough to help. Writing down too much information is always better than too little. As you gain experience in note-taking you'll start using your own shorthand and abbreviations that you'll be able to decipher later on.

Taking Pictures
Pictures of your battle are important! It gives the reader an immediate sense of what the battle looked like, rather than trying to imagine it in their head. It also gives you a chance to show off the paintjobs that the players have done. You want to showcase that amazing moment when the two army commander's collide in assault, or that lone trooper managed to take out a tank all on his own, and your readers want to see it too. Try to take a least one picture per player turn--you may not end up using them all, but having too many pictures is much better than not having enough.

It's not easy to take great pictures of a game in progress, but no one expects them to look professional. But make an effort to take some decent pictures. Pictures that are blurry or dark just look sloppy.
Left: Good, Right: Bad
In some cases you'll be able to take pictures from several feet away, but depending on the amount of terrain on your table and other things in the way, most of the time you will want to get close. Practically all cameras these days have a "macro" feature that allows them to focus on objects very close to the lens. If you're going to take a pretty picture of your models, you want to use this feature. This is supposed to be an action shot, so get down to more of a model's eye view--don't take a picture from directly overhead. Get in close to the subject. Make sure it's in focus--if you're unsure if a picture you just took was in focus, take more pictures. If there's not a lot of ambient light in the room, if you can, try to get a desk lamp to illuminate the subject from above and behind so the camera flash doesn't completely wash out the subject and produce harsh shadows--these are more of a problem because you're using the camera close to the subject. Reposition the models slightly if necessary to make them look more photogenic.

In situations a where the background of the picture will show things off the battlefield, I have someone stand at the table edge and hold up a white backdrop, using either foam board or posterboard, to provide a background that is less distracting than the shelves of the local gaming store or the living room wall. Later on I paint out the background when I edit the picture (it's easier to do this when the background is a bright, uniform color) to make it look sharp. Going this far is an aesthetic choice, however.

If you're going to make maps later on, take a snapshot of the entire battlefield. Stand on a chair if one is available to get a bird's eye view (and be careful not to slip and fall). This kind of picture doesn't have to be pretty, as you will just use it for reference later. I usually take one picture at deployment, and one at the end of each player turn (more if I can't get the entire battlefield in a single frame).

I have found that it is imperative to write down in my notes whenever I take a picture. I jot down what the picture was, e.g. "end of turn pic" for a reference picture, or "assault pic" for a pretty picture of an assault, etc., and then draw a box around it so it's easy to find later. That way, when I am writing up the report, I can look at the picture files and map them to the notes so I'm sure exactly what I'm looking at, and at what stage of the battle. Whenever I have neglected to do this, I find myself frustrated, poring over my notes and racking my brain, trying to figure out just when each picture was taken (Was that the end of turn 2, or the middle of turn 3?) even though I had thought it would be obvious.

Once the battle is over, you'll want to edit the pictures. Use your photo-editing software to crop the pictures appropriately. Look for a feature in your software called "Auto Levels" or something similar. It will automatically adjust the brightness, contrast, and color balance of the pictures, and can dramatically improve their appearance. Use this feature after you have cropped the images. If you don't like the results, you can always revert to the original image, or edit the levels manually. In many cases, changing the levels can save an otherwise unusable picture.

An unedited picture from one of my battles

The same picture, cropped, edited to balance the levels, and with the background cleaned up
Making Maps
First I will state that making maps isn't strictly necessary--frequently pictures will be sufficient to show the action. I include them because it is a style choice I have made--it's easy to see where troops have moved compared to the previous turn, it gives an unobstructed view of the battlefield, and you can mark casualties so you can see where all the action is. Personally I use a CAD program called Campaign Cartographer. Using that program, I made various symbol libraries to represent my various troops and vehicles, and my terrain pieces, which I can then reuse in all future maps. It took some work in the beginning to make them, but now I can pound out the maps for a given battle relatively quickly.

I have seen other battle reports where people have used programs like Vassal or Paint, and some battle reports where people simply take pictures of the battlefield, and use a photo editing program to draw arrows and annotations directly on to them. Each method has its own advantages, and it's up to you to choose whatever method you think works best.

One of my maps, made using Campaign Cartographer
Writing up the Report
The primary goal of the battle report is to present a clear, readable description of what happened during the game, to a wide audience. Use good grammar and punctuation, and use a spell checker! Some game specific jargon is ok, but don't overdo it. While it might be fashionable to refer to Eldar Harlequins in Wave Serpents as "clown cars", not every player in the 40k community knows what it means. If you describe your battle as a "Clown Cars vs. Daemon Bomb" battle, very quickly you'll have some readers unfamiliar with the terms either continuing to read in total confusion, or not bothering to read it at all. You want your report to be accessible to all your readers.

If my opponent is good enough to give me a briefing/debriefing, I tend not to edit it much except for punctuation and spelling. Everyone has their own style of writing, and as such their style is a view into how they think and approach the game, and so I think that their contributions should generally be kept as is.

Many players like to write fluff text for their battle reports, sometimes as teasers at the beginning and end, and sometimes interspersed with the descriptive text of the report. In my experience there are people who love reading the fluff more than the report itself, while others couldn’t care less about the fluff and just skip over it to get to the report proper. My preference in general is to keep the fluff to the minimum, but to spice up the text a little bit so it’s not totally dry . Which route you take is ultimately up to you, and you should write what you enjoy writing about. Be aware, however, that if your fluff is so dominant that you’re only peripherally recounting the game details itself, you are not writing a battle report; you are writing fan fiction.

Debriefing
Once the battle is over, you will doubtless be thinking about how well your plan did (or did not) work out, what mistakes you made, what you might have done differently. So will your opponent. It serves both the players and your readers to write down a debriefing. Like the briefing did earlier, writing down your thoughts will force you to think about the battle in specific terms, and give you concrete examples of lessons learned from the battle. You can also use this opportunity to explain your line of reasoning during the game, such as when you completely abandoned your initial plan, or what you were thinking when you tried a daring new tactic on the fly.

Conclusion
In the end, the game is about having fun, so writing a battle report should be (almost) as rewarding as playing it. In addition to your victories, don't be afraid to publish your crushing defeats. No one really cares if you win or lose—they just want to read a good battle report. So write up your losses just like your wins. All the comments you get will help make you a better player. If you put the effort into writing a good report that is presented well, other people will enjoy it too. Soon you’ll find yourself itching to fight another battle, as much for the joy of playing it as for the joy of writing it up and sharing the results with others.

Arcadia Prime: One year on...

Actually, it's one year plus on...as I totally missed my anniversary of October 8. Well, I've had 90 posts in the intervening year, which isn't so bad. A very large percentage of them were "catching up" by reformatting and posting old battle reports, so I don't know that year two will be nearly as productive. If I can manage a post or so a week, I think that will be pretty good.

Since I started making battle reports, I've done 72 of them, and they've evolved with time--from simple one page descriptions with some pictures, to now with maps, pictures, briefings and debriefings, etc. I hope to keep improving them with time.

The coming year is going to be a busy one, not the least reason being is that I'm going to be a dad for the first time... But in between diaper changes and bottle feedings, I'll hopefully be able to devote some time to gaming and painting--it'll just take more planning ahead to make it work. Already my "game room" is being dismantled to make room for a nursery, but that means I'll just have to use the garage for gaming (the upside to this is that I'll be able to break out my 9' x 5' table again!).

So in terms of the blog, what will the next year bring? I have lots of projects going on behind the scenes:

• My Brazen Claws continue to expand, in preparation for the last battle of the Axis Columen Campaign, which will be an Apocalypse battle between my Brazen Claws and Badelaire's Necrons.
  
• I'm also working on finishing up a Necron terrain piece for that battle (expect a terrain article soon)
  
• A scratch built Battlefleet Gothic ship. I've had the idea in my head for a while, and I also have all the parts/bitz needed for it, I just need the time to sit down and do it!
  
• An idea for a new mini-codex that I've been thinking about for a while, which will include rules, some background, and some conversions.
  
• More battle reports, of course! Starting with battles 3 and 4 of the Axis Columen Campaign.
  
• The most ambitious idea yet--I've been thinking about making a "sourcebook" of sorts based on the Arcadia Sector, providing background of the setting for that games my gaming group plays in, including a compilation of battle reports, campaign ideas, hobby projects, etc. This idea was inspired by the truly amazing work that the boys at Bell of Lost Souls have done with their various minidexes and campaign supplements. I can't hope to match what they've accomplished, but it will be fun to try!
  

Other possible things down the road include:

• An Epic 40k battle report. I have miniatures for this game dating back to the days of Space Marine, and both Badelaire and I have been itching to give them a try.
  
• A Lord of the Rings battle report. Yes, it's not 40k, but I've played it a few times and liked the game, so I thought it might be fun to do a battle report for it.
  

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I'll try to keep it interesting...

Battle Report: Eldar vs. Imperial Guard Capture and Control

In this battle, I would be commanding the Imperial Guard forces while Tyrant commanded the Eldar. Just before the battle we randomly determined the mission type to be Capture and Control, with deployment Spearhead, and the Eldar won the choice of deployment, and they opted to deploy and move first.

Eldar vs. Imperial Guard, 1250pts

First Impressions of Codex: Space Marines

It’s thick.

There’s a huge background section which focuses on the Ultramarines. The Ultramarines are really being pushed as THE ultimate Space Marine chapter, which, in a way, they are.

This is bound to anger some of the other founding chapter players, like Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Space Wolves, etc. But there’s a reason why the Ultramarines are dominant. They came out of the Horus Heresy largely intact, which cannot be said for the other loyalist chapters. Their dominance shows in the fact that 3/5 of all Space Marine chapters are descended from the Ultramarines, and that the Codex Astartes is so prevalent. Some players may argue that the Ultramarines are "boring." Boring they might be to some players, but they make up for that with sheer power. If you want to play one of the more "characterful" chapters like Blood Angels, Dark Angels, or Space Wolves, that’s perfectly fine, but don’t complain when the Ultramarines are described as being more powerful. Those chapters are cool because of their character, not their raw power, and that’s why you wanted to play them in the first place. Still, a line like this is bound to cause some legitimate gnashing of teeth: "Some [chapters], such as the Blood Angels and their successors, strive to be worthy of Guilliman’s legacy, but their recalcitrant gene-seed drives them ever further from it." (p.24)(emphasis added) I would think that the sons of Sanguinius would want to tell the person making that statement that Guilliman’s successors should be striving to be worthy of the legacy of their angel-winged primarch, rather than the other way around. But then, Codex Space Marines is a book about the Ultramarines and their successors, so some creative license is expected.

Some of the background seems to have changed for some chapters, directly contradicting previously published works, for example:

For my beloved Raven Guard, previous background has stated that the Raven Guard never fully recovered from its decimation at Isstvan V, so they are constantly low on vehicles and other heavy equipment. Yet the new codex states that since Deliverance has the production capacity of a small forge world, the Raven Guard "rarely lacks for the materiel to prosecute its campaigns."(p.25)

For the Brazen Claws, it used to be canon that the chapter sent all 10 companies to fight in the 13th Black Crusade. Now, apparently the Brazen Claw embarked on a crusade into the Eye of Terror after their Chapter planet was destroyed by daemonic forces. (p.29) I suppose that these two statements can be reconciled, but the old canon seemed to indicate that they went on crusade along with all the other imperial forces, whereas now they seem to be on a lone crusade motivated by revenge.

In the 5th Edition 40k rulebook, it states that in 546.M32, the Halo Brethren, Imperial Fists, and Sable Swords Chapters kill the traitorous Drakan Vangorich, Granter Master of the Officio Assassinorum. (p.124) Yet in Codex: Space Marines, it states that the Sable Swords Chapter was "[f]ounded in the latter years of M41" (p.28).

Here’s a list of the things that jumped out at me while looking at how my armies would be affected by the new codex:

Assault Marines essentially get their jump packs for 2 points a model. They can forgo the jump packs as in the past, but they do not get a points credit like they used to. But since the packs are cheaper now, it doesn’t matter much.

Techmarines lose their signum, but the Devastator Sergeant gets one as standard, which is a net gain as far as I’m concerned.

Terminator Honors is gone, so my captain effectively loses an attack. But then, my captain can get Hellfire rounds for his bolter, which is very cool.

Space Marines did go up in cost, but Rhinos went down in cost, and the basic special/heavy weapon loadout (flamer/missile launcher) is free, so a standard tactical squad with transport costs less now than it used to. (205 as compared to 219 points)

Captain Shrike can get a command squad all armed with Lightning Claws, but there is NO option for them to get jump packs. I have to think that this is an oversight. (Update: As somewhat_damaged pointed out, it is possible to get Shrike's Wing by using a Vanguard Veterans Squad instead of a Command Squad, and you can always field a Command Squad separately. A little roundabout way of doing it, but it works.)

Razorbacks get the Lascannon & twin-linked plasma gun option again, which allows players to use the old school Razorback again. I don’t own one, but I know this will make some players happy.

The Landspeeder Storm looks to be really cool, and their Cerberus Launcher seems cool to supplement the scouts assaulting, but it begs the question: Why on earth would you assault anyone with a 5-man scout squad? There are very few targets that would make this worthwhile, unless they’re supporting the assault of another friendly unit, or attacking extremely weak units. It doesn’t seem like this will happen enough to make them worthwhile to get.

Scout shotguns are now S4, which makes them worth getting now.

My Brazen Claws are begging me to get them some Sternguard and a Land Raider Redeemer.

Battle Report: Tau vs. Tyranids, Capture and Control

Taking a short break in the middle of the Axis Columen Campaign, we decided to have two armies face off that have never fought each other yet in our gaming group: Tau and Tyranids. I would be commanding the Tyranid forces while Badelaire commanded the Tau.

Tau vs. Tyranids, 1500pts