Endless Ones: Abyssal Reavers Rhino and WIP Tears of Sanguinius

I used it in the special event posted earlier, but just finished it in time for that, so hadn't posted specific pics of the finished berzerker rhino yet.  Nothing fancy, just a simple Khornate rhino, spikes to serve as a dozer blade, some insignia, and speaker to serve as dirge caster.  Red and metallic to fit with the Abyssal Reavers themselves.

Into the Unknown: Mass Hysteria! Three-in-one combo pack: special event, Endless Ones vs. Blood Angels, and revised campaign maps

Earlier the campaign the local GW store is running had a special event, with everyone who showed up putting a small force on and competing for servitors who were serving as little mind-wiped R2D2s, with important information locked in their skulls.  Getting them off the table got you bonus points for the campaign and revealed a bit more about the larger plot.  Here we see orks, necrons, two different chaos armies, Dark Angels, nids, and the GM-run inquisitorial thunderfire battery that came in to mess with everyone.  And this is just one corner of the massive scrum.

Into the Unknown: Endless Ones vs. Dark Angels

The campaign at the GW store had a bit of a reboot, as they had a much higher turnout than originally expected.  Rather than cram everyone onto one giant map, they broke it up into different worlds/continents and scattered players across them.  I'm on the fourth one down from the top, currently just me and a Dark Angels player, Patrick, though I expect we'll have some more company soon.  

Psychic Phase - beyond dice buckets and daemon factories

While a lot of the attention with the new 40K psychic phase has been focused on generating as many dice and daemons as possible, the new phase inherently brings about some important changes that I haven't seen discussed yet (it may have been, I just haven't seen it).  

Into the Unknown: Campaign prep

For the new 40K campaign I've recently joined, the organizer gave us tiles for our command center for us to paint up.  The bulk of the campaign board is shades of grey, so I wanted to largely stay with that, with some metal thrown in and some white stripes for the runways.  I also added a few bits; the chaos star replacing one of the imperial eagles, an orbital defense laser (old metal epic lascannon platform) and some other metal epic bit I don't recall (maybe an early drop pod or Titan fire control tower?), but I think it works well as a traffic control tower.  Not content with a standard teeny flag for my HQ, I also brought in a fantasy chaos banner to help spot home base on the big situation board.

Endless Ones: Into the Unknown -- Campaign Test Battle - Chaos Marines vs. Daemons

I was going to wait on 7th edition.  I wasn't sure about how the rules would turn out, so didn't pre-order it or rush out on release day.  But the more I heard it mostly sounded fine, and the local Games Workshop had a nifty summer campaign revving up that got me interested.  One gift card left over from my birthday later I had a new rulebook in hand and took a quick flip through it during lunch.  Then off to the store!

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.