Warmachine April Steamroller Tournament Wrap-up

Hello Everyone!

Our April Steamroller is in the books! It was a quick-and-dirty affair with some great games, a downright terrible performance on the part of yours truly, and a good time had by all (except me!). Our TO runs every fourth tournament as an alternate-format event...

Tales from the Dark Side: Test Paint and Test List

Greetings C&C Readers,

PythNutD here, just finished my first round of painting my Dark Eldar and as promised I am presenting the first article of my Dark Eldar series. Read after the break to learn a little about the paint scheme I've decided to try out, a list that I'm play testing in our local gaming store, and some thoughts on Dark Eldar Tactics.

Grey Knights Week 4: Testing and Painting

Sup guys, Sand here!

We're nearing a month since the Grey Knights have warped into the 40k meta, and so far I've enjoyed them immensely. I've stuck to one list for these last four weeks in order to get a good grasp on the units I thought were competitive and the intricacies of vehicles, shooting, and deployment (playing daemons for 7 months never really allowed me to learn those necessities!). I've also been painting, so this post also includes examples of my alternate paint scheme. I'm known for playing bare metal and plastic at my FLGS, so anything I've painted usually raises eyebrows!

The Sons of Russ: Special Characters

As with all the new 5th ed codices the Space Wolf codex is home to some great, and lackluster, special characters in their HQ section.  There are 6 SW Special Characters, each has their own unique role on the battle field and interesting rules and tricks.  The 6 choices are: Logan Grimnar, Ragnar Blackmane, Njal Stormcaller, Bjorn the Fell-Handed, Canis Wolfborn, and Ulrik the Slayer.  5 of these 6 characters have been around in SW lore for a long time, the only new edition is Canis Wolfborn who was added with advent of Thunder Wolf Cavalry (TWC).  Having covered the generic HQ choices already with the article The Sons of Russ: Generic HQ Choices; in which I came to the conclusion that the only "bad" generic was the Wolf Guard Battle Leader, you may ask yourself why take any of the Special Characters if the regular SW HQ choices are already so great?  The answer to this is relatively simple so read on after the break.

New Poll: What does 6th ed 40k need?

So the title and poll pretty much say it on on this one.  With 6th edition, presumably, coming up in the next 2 years at some point what would you like to see?  I know I feel 5th is an excellent, well balanced game so I don't want much changed but I know some people feel the complete opposite.  So let us know what you think in the poll.  I know it is incomplete, putting every option would have made me go insane, so let us know in the comments on this post what you think should be changed.

40k and the March of Progress

I'll admit it: the rumors of sixth edition, early and ephemeral as they may be, have me a bit apprehensive. Why? Simple. 40k is the best game it's ever been right now.

Some of us still remember the long-lost days of second edition, where I actually had someone tell me that they wouldn't be playing 40k because "I have math homework to finish, and that's less of a headache."! The allergic reaction of third edition streamlined the game to the bone, making special characters only usable with your opponent's permission and reducing psychic powers to a faint shadow in the warp. Fourth and its revisions gave us something more to work with, but had it's own breaks and lumps; vehicles were laughable and there was so little reason to try and assault that melee armies were hung out to dry. Then, we got fifth edition...

April 40k Tournament Wrap-up

Hello everyone!

The April tournament is in the books and it was a great event. It was a little bit lighter than usual as far as turnout goes, but with the taxman breathing down one side of everyone's necks and the oilman breathing down the other, I'm not too terribly surprised that some people decided to spend the Saturday at home!

Regardless of all that, we had a field of twelve players, representing some old ideas and some new ones. And, amazingly...

The Sons of Russ: Generic HQ Choices

In the last installment of The Sons of Russ we discussed the Troops Choices from C:SW.  Today I wanted to take a look at half (more or less) of the HQ section in C:SW by dissecting the various Generic HQ choices.  By generic I mean un-named/non-special character HQ choices.  The Wolves have access to some of the best Special Characters in 40k; but I think their generic HQs are so strong, they rival most other books Special Characters, that they warrant being discussed first.  A slanted personal bias?  Maybe, but this is my blog after all!  In depth analysis of the HQs after the break...

40k Book Review: Fall of Damnos

Greetings C&C readers,

Just finished the latest Space Marine Battles Novel "Fall of Damnos" by Nick Kyme. For those of you that are fans of the Black Library 40k novels, and the Space Marine Battles novels, you will enjoy this one. If you haven't picked up this novel already and want a brief review (both spoiler free and spoiler inclusive) then keep reading after the break. If 40k novels and over-the-top novels about Space Marines "winning" are not your thing, then move on........

New Poll: What's next for 40k?

There are a lot of rumors flying around about what is next on the docket for 40k.  The poll is just a fun way to gauge what our readers think is up next for us.  My money is on the Flyer rules, then Necrons, then the unveiling of the new Resin Miniatures.  Perhaps the new Resin Minis and Necrons are reversed but we'll see.  With the new Tau FAQ out it today it makes me believe that the Tau codex is just now getting worked on and we won't be seeing it for a while.  The other rumor is that the 6th edition box set (I know 6th ed rumors already!  I still enjoy 5th...) is going to be Sisters of Battle and Chaos Marines, but that is still very speculative!

Well have at the poll and if you have any thoughts on the matter please discuss it in the comments!

Keys to beating Grey Knights with Vanilla Marines.

I know that C:SM has been around for a while now, and all the cries of cheese, over powered, and various rabble have died out.  Now people more often than not complain about how underpowered the codex feels in comparison to the newer books.  This is the natural course of a codices life and with 6th edition approaching the 5th edition C:SM is reaching the end of it's life span.  However the book is still quite viable and in the hands of a competent player will still give any other army out there a run for there money.  This is due to the fact that, while older, the book is still a Marine codex, and all Marines are basically the same, meaning they are all basically good; but they also all share the same basic weaknesses.  This brings me to the point of this article.  The keys to beating Grey Knights with Vanilla Marines.

The Sons of Russ: Troops Choices.

In my series of articles titled "And They Shall Know No Fear" we looked at the various units in Codex: Space Marines and different ways to use them.  Today I am going to start with my analysis of Codex: Space Wolves.  While it is an uber powerful codex as many on the internet often deride it for, its "uberness" is do less to Thunderwolf Cavalry and Rune Priests, and more to the basic Troops Choice, the Grey Hunter.  And yet the Grey Hunter isn't the only choice available to the Space Wolf player, we can also choose Blood Claws which are looked down upon by most Space Wolf players, and unlock Wolf Guard using Logan Grimnar but WG are a separate article.  While other Warhammer 40k Blogs cover this topic I want to try and compile reviews of the whole codex before the end of April, we shall see.  These articles are, like the C:SM version, for both veterans and people who are new to the army but I assume you know the basic rules and Universal Special Rules.  If you are new to either Space Wolves or Warhammer 40,000 then you may want to read this with both books handy.  More on Grey Hunters and Blood Claws after the break.

Starting Grey Knights

Yo, Sand here. Having been painting the first models for my budding Grey Knights army, I've decided to take a break. Now that the book has been previewed and the first wave is in the bag, I've been writing, editing, and building lists for the army. So let's take a look.

The Models
Here’s a list of models I’ll have built and ready by the 1850 April 9th tournament at my FLGS:

30 Power Armor Knights (Purifiers)
2-3 Rhinos/Razorbacks
3 Dreadknights
1 Stormraven Gunship

Out of those, a Dreadknight, Stormraven, and Rhino have already been based and painted. I’ll proxy Castellan Crowe and find a terminator model for my Librarian/Grandmaster. You can expect to see some of the painted models soon...

GW Metal Minis Range Shakeup

The title says it all, folks. What looks to be the vast majority of the metal range of miniatures is going through a "re-packaging" process that will reformat the range, and is now available on a "while stocks last" basis. It is unknown at this time what that means, exactly, or what the long-term implications will be.

For now, though, it means that getting metals will be a little trickier. Lots of minis are still available through special order, whether through GW directly or through an FLGS that does special orders. I can confirm this personally, since I was asking about a few different models across the three main ranges and all were still available.

What does this mean for you?

Keys to beating Grey Knights with Space Wolves

And you thought Rune Priests were important before...

The new Grey Knights codex has been out for a few days now but the preview copy has been out for a while now.  I have gotten a few games in against the new codex and I have to say there are a few things that I now think are "key" to defeating Grey Knights with Space Wolves.  You can also extrapolate the lessons in this article to work with any Marine book but since I am currently playing Sons of Russ, that is the perspective I will use.  More after the break.