More Endless Ones: Rhino and "Obliterator"

I managed to get a little more hobby time in, so knocked out this fellow, a terminator-armored chaos lord with Kai gun that I plan to use as an obliterator - and have planned to for several editions, but he has finally seen paint!

Can Daemonology save Chaos?

It's a bit early to make sweeping generalizations of course about how 7th edition 40K will affect various armies, but the potential for the daemon-summoning and boosting abilities of the new Daemonology powers is interesting.

A moment of Drama on 7th ed in general.  It could be The Bomb or it could be Bitter Wine.  We don't really know yet until we Bite the Wax Tadpole and see the whole thing instead of the snippets we're currently getting.  To truly see the impact we Must Have More.  Despite my problems with 6th edition, a two-year release cycle is Fast and Frightening, not to mention expensive.  It sounds like they're keeping some things I don't like (such as challenges) but who knows, maybe the total package will give me a Wargasm.  But personally I think I'll pass on the initial book release and wait for the updated DV rulebook before I get back Off the Wagon and back heavily into 40K gaming.

Back to Daemonology.  My Lost and the Damned loving teeny black heart likes the idea, hearkening back to the days of more intimate working relationships between daemons and mortals on the table.  Being able to have a CSM/IG army summoning Bad Things from the Warp really helps Fuel My Fire.  I like how with the conjuration they're tied a little more closely to the summoner, similar to old icon versions.  And with the "Cursed Earth" power giving a boost to models with the Daemon rule if they're close enough to the psyker acting as a Freak Magnet, it will make guys like Warp Talons and Possessed a little more sturdy.  You might even see them on the table from time to time!  

Game-wise, the powers seem to offer a lot of flexibility, with crazy choice of what you bring in, assuming you have the models.  Imagine if a Tervigon had a choice of making Termagants, Hormagaunts or Gargoyles each turn, and when almost dead could turn itself into a full-power Hive Tyrant, Mawloc or Tyrranofex.  Crazy.  I do wonder if there will be some fluff restrictions built into the Chaos errata, like if you have a mark of chaos only being able to summon daemons from the same power, instead of seeing Tzeentchian sorcerers bring in waves of Plaguebeaers or a Herald of Khorne as a Lackey.  For that matter, what's up with sorcerers/psykers summoning Khornate daemons in the first place (for a purpose other than killing the psyker themselves)?  I guess as a Khorne player you can take an unmarked sorcerer and call him a "Blood Priest" or something instead and use him to summon whatever blood-spawned Monster suits your fancy.

 

On one level, I'm a little disappointed in seeing more "free" unit generating things in the game, which can really skew lower point games when they work. In general though I'm happy for the possibilities and look forward to seeing the forces of the dark powers Livin' Large on tabletops soon. 

Enchilada Militarum

from http://www.elpasotimes.com

With the slew of upgrades and multiple units per slot, I was curious as to how many points you could cram into an Imperial Guard army with the new book.  Here's what I found:

Listorama, part 2: Imperial Guard

Some IG lists, sans points because I just didn't want to type them with so many units!  First up just translations of my Merkans and Scythiak into the new book:

Ready for the lists! CSM+ Daemons

With my recent acquisition of the 40K Daemon codex and the new IG codex, I've been making some lists, mostly with what I already have.

First up CSM+Daemons:

Mo daemons mo problems

I got more work done on daemons to take as allies with my various CSM sub-factions.  Above is a Lord of Change I've had partially painted sitting on a shelf for years on end.  He was originally on a square base and was going to be used with my Tzeentchian Warriors of Chaos army, back when you could mix in mortals, daemons and beasts.  The split there and the split in 40K took away my motivation to finish him until now.

Here be daemons

I finally got around to doing some more work on my Great Unclean One and Nurgle daemon prince, inspired by having picked up a new 40K daemons codex.  I used to run a good many daemons in with my chaos marines back in 3rd and 4th edition, but when they became their own army I put them away, having no real interest in them as a separate force.  With allies I've been considering mixing them in again, and with the codex have fiddled around with a few lists.  Nothing extensive, just GUO and a unit of plaguebearers or Lord of Change, unit of horrors and a few screamers or Khorne DP, bloodletters and hounds.  I am still disappointed that there's little interplay between the mortals and daemons like there used to be with icons and possession, but oh well.

The sample plaguebearer above has been painted for quite some time, they and some other daemons just need rebasing to tie into the more urban bases of my CSM.  GUO (metal) and prince (finecast) I've had for some time just unpainted.  The prince especially is an amazing model, tons of work went into sculpting that guy.  A lot went into the GUO as well, but the prince stands out even from him.  There are a lot of things I missed when first looking at him but showed up once I started working with him.  I think some of the areas I have as "armor" are supposed to be skin, but I think it's OK as is.  Great figure by Seb Perbet.

IG first impressions - officers and priests and psykers oh my!

Goodbye Marbo my old friend

It's time to shelve you once again

Because an entry now deleted

Means you are fin'ly defeated

With the dreams of exploding supermen

And tank pens

I guess we'll buy some scions

So the new guard book is out, and yes the old 65-pt demo charge on demand, Guardsman Marbo is notably absent.  Fear not, I expect we'll see a Catachan supplement or dataslate at some point that will bring him back in, or a dataslate of his own where he can just drop in with your Knight/Inquisition/Legion of the Damned army to save all their bacon.

Some other things gone, some things added, some things changed - some for the better, some for the worse, some just for no discernible reason. 

I'm not going to go into a full review, but some things that stood out to me on first read-through.

Mars Attacks!  With Tank Commanders for HQs, vehicle squadrons, some APC-mounted troopers you can do a pretty good armored company.  With armies having moved away from tons of anti-tank firepower, they might do pretty well.  Tack on some cheap upgrades to repair immobilized results and some enginseers, maybe a few psykers for divination buffs and have some fun.

The Blob!  So many things with potential to stack.  Giant blob, with Orders available.  Good.  Add in psykers with divination.  Better.  Add in cheap priests to make them Fearless and give them more buffs.  Much better.  And that some of the buffs stack...wow.  Potential for giant fearless blob with 4++ rerollable invulnerable save, or with Prescienced First Rank Fire... or Prescienced ignore cover shots.  Not shabby.  You'll have layers of buffs, some of which may not work at any given time, but with so many some will, and on turns where everything falls into place you will be rocking.

Overall it isn't too different from the old book.  A lot of things end up costing and working the same.  Some big point changes, but they go both ways depending on the unit, so if you had a variety of units in your old army, it may balance out overall.  If you went all air cav...well, you may need to drop a few things.

Aside from the two above, I think a variety of builds could work, and the buffs available could help with any of them.  While disappointing that they didn't do more along the line of old doctrines or the new Space Marine Chapter Tactics to really differentiate armies, I think it's a pretty solid book that IG players will be able to get a lot of mileage out of.

And take the Backseat Driver (aka TART or Tactical Auto-Reliquary of Tyberius) if you have several order-issuing units.