A little progress this week, and I’ve decided to stick with the rug which I’ll now paint up and get ready.
I’ve also found an original Rhino model, albeit heavily converted that I’m considering painting up fully.
Unfortunately it is missing the hand rails (as all of them eventually break off), but it’s in fairly good condition otherwise and just needs a good paint job.
I’m hoping next week I’ll have gotten a lot further with Marneus and have the diorama somewhere near finished. Still need to create the flags though…..
In my summary post of 2021 I promised that we would be posting more tactica and army lists in the coming year. What better way to start that than with a kit I received for Christmas?
So the first question is what should you build? As with all tank kits I personally feel they’re way to expensive to build as a single kit with set loadout so like with all my other kits I will be magnetising the kit to make both the Manticore and the Deathstrike – I’ll post a how to once I’ve figured it out myself! 🙂
Manticore
Courtesy of the GW 40k app and Warhammer+
The Manticore is almost a standard go to unit for competition Militarum lists, with board wide range not needing line of sight and 2D6 shots hitting at S10. You only have four rockets per game, but on average a single rocket can deliver 3 hits and will wound T5 targets on 2+. But you’re probably not going to want to expend your ammo on troops, but the enemies much loved tanks however are a different kettle of fish. This will wound most tanks on 3+ meaning out of your seven shots, two to three will wound on average, with one or two of those likely to get through the targets armour after the -2 AP. With D3 damage per hit which can be improved to a flat 3 damage if you give Tank Aces: Full Payload, this will mean you’re taking on average between two to three wounds off your target in the turn (or 6 with Full Payload).
Target Toughness/Save
Av Shots
Hits
Wounds
Unsaved
T6+ with 3+ Save
7
3.5
2.3
1.5
Up to T5 with 3+ Save
7
3.5
2.9
1.9
Now that doesn’t sound ground-breaking, but remember that’s average, if you’re rolling well and you have Full Payload equipped the tank will do a further three wounds for each unsaved hit, that’s some serious punch.
The drawback is the Militarum ballistic skill, with 4+ only half your shots may hit your targets. You can improve this, firstly with an additional five points you can purchase an Augur array which will allow you to re-roll a single failed hit roll per battle for that Manticore, well worth the points if successful.
For one CP you can also use the Direct Onslaught stratagem from Psychic Awakening: The Greater Good. This allows the Manticore to add 1 to its hit roll if it can see it’s target.
I would take two Manticores in any list where I’m looking to include them. Keep them out of sight and just use them to bombard enemy high toughness targets. You’re taking two for redundancy options as your opponent will soon destroy them once he realises what they can do.
Make sure you include the 5pt Hunter-Killer missile for the single S10 shot that’s AP-2 and can do D6 damage (or flat 6 if you have Full Payload equipped). Worth the points! I then choose the Heavy Flamer and Stubber for defensive purposes in case anyone decides to charge it.
Manticore (160 points) – Augur array – Heavy Flamer – Heavy Stubber – Hunter-Killer missile
So the results of last weeks votes are as follows:
Factions
Now we’ve got most (if not all) of the basic information in place for our game we can start getting our hands dirty with some of the nitty gritty stuff. Firstly, should we have pre-made ready to go factions or should players have options to construct their own units for their own faction? This would make the game miniature agnostic but it would also require players to take the time to build a faction from the ground up, i.e. this is a leader unit it needs this particular weapon, with this armour and these special rules.
Of course we could always have a mixture of both pre-made and create your own. But what do you think?
Turn Order
This is about how the players determine who goes first. There are many options for this, but I’ve narrowed this down to two or three, but bear 🐻 in mind these can also have vary to some extent. For example, while AoS is a UgoIgo system it also implements the turn priority in terms of a dice roll before each turn.
I Go You Go
This is the first and possibly most common option used. Players use a mechanic to determine who goes first and then play is simply alternated between the players until the end of the game.
Draw
Players use coloured dice or chips to represent their individual units on the table e.g. one players units are represented by red dice while the others are blue, when a red dice is drawn the red player chooses a unit to activate. This system will be familiar to those who have played Warlord Games Bolt Action.
Initiative
This could either be an army wide initiative rating or individual initiative ratings for units to decide what order they act in. For example, elite units may have a much higher initiative than conscripts meaning they’ll always act first.
Bidding
One of my personal favourites is using bidding systems to determine who acts first. This can take various forms such as rolling a number of orders each side can take on two or three dice then giving up a number of those orders to try and claim the priority that turn.
So which is your favourite? Perhaps there’s one I’ve not even thought of, I’d that’s the case why not add a comment below?
About a month ago, the legend that is Dave invited me to play a few games of Warhammer Fantasy with him in the coming year. I jumped at the opportunity, and what better army to play with than my old Dwarfs!
I’ve always had a soft spot for these boys ever since I started in Warhammer way back in 93′.
This would also be the perfect opportunity for me to start rebasing them back on to their proper SQUARE bases as is only right! It also means that by the time Old World gets released I may have a fully painted and functional army from the off!
We’re starting out in Fantasy with the Grudge of Drong as Dave has previously mentioned, and for the first battle in the series I need to muster a small force of 1,500 points.
The first battle takes place in Grudge Pass as an Elven force blocks the road to advancing Dwarfs looking to topple Queen Helga from her throne whom the Elves have allied themselves with.
In this case, Dave is replacing the Elves and using his old Empire army. However, I will be using the Dwarfs. The suggested order of battle is below, but this is a 5th edition campaign box and we’re going be playing with 8th edition rules so I will need to adjust this slightly.
We’re going to be using 8th Edition rules, so my force will look something like this:
Dwarf Lord
Master Engineer
Runesmith
Battle Standard Bearer
15 Warriors
10 Warriors
10 Longbeards
10 Thunderers
10 Ironbreakers
10 Miners
10 Miners
This is by no means a competitive army , but then its not meant to be as this is a narrative campaign and we’re playing to act a story out rather than attempting to table our opponent.
Some of these models are already painted, they just need rebasing!
I’ve still a fair whack to get through as well as rebasing the above models!
So the results of last weeks votes are as follows:
So this gives us some extra direction when it comes to writing the rules, as we know that each element will represent a Battalion strength unit and that the game will be played on a four foot square area. Excellent! If we factor in that we also want the game to last no more than two hours and that all the measurements will be carried out in inches, we only have perhaps two more votes to go before we get into the nitty gritty of the rules themselves.
Base Shape
This may not seem important to some people, but the base shape can define a lot of things in regards to measuring distances as well as movement. For example a rectangular base would mean that you have to take into account that the base is wider than it is deep and so wheeling and turning become a factor in movement. A round base negates that factor as everything can be measured from the base edge without too much concern, though if you want flanking inside the game having round bases makes this difficult. Alternatively, there’s the option to have a square base, which makes turning and wheeling less of an issue, and can include flanks for the various edges IF we want that as a factor in our game.
Base Size
Our playing area is going to be 4 foot square and so this will have a slight impact on base sizing. We can’t have large bases because of fitting enough of them inside the game. But we can’t have too small either as we want enough models on the base to make it look the part.
There we have it! Next week we will start looking at factions and whether we should include the ability to construct our own or write rules for pre-made factions (or both).
Just a quick update this week, as I’ve not had a huge amount of time to get things done.
But I’ve fixed up the wall with green stuff ready for painting. I’m still in two minds about the bear rug though…..
So with all the pieces complete it’s just going to be a matter of making some posters and banners to go on the wall and then sticking the whole thing together. It’s only taken two months….
I’ve done a number of top 3’s now for Age of Sigmar, so today I thought I would branch out and cover a top three for 40k. This time we’re back in Europe and looking at the West Coast GT held in Bohus, Sweden.
Tom Ogden – Black Templars
Tom won the event with 5 wins from 5 and 491 battle points.
HQ ———- Chaplain Grimaldus (140 pts)+ – Litanies: Litany of Divine Protection, Fires of Devotion & Litanies of Hate High Marshal Helbrecht (160 pts)+ Primaris Chaplain (85 pts)++ – Litanies: Litany of Hate – Canticle of Hate – The Crusader’s Helm
Fast Attack ———- 5x Inceptor Squad (375 pts)+ – x2 Plasma Exterminator – The Crux Obsidian – Inceptor Sergeant: Champion of the Feast 3x Attack Bike Squad (180 pts)++ – 3x Multi-Melta
Heavy Support ———- 6x Eradictor Squad (270 pts)++ – 5x Eradicator: 5x Bolt Pistol – Eradicator Srgt
Detachments ———- +Patrol: Black Templars ++Patrol: Black Templars
Total Points: 1999 pts
John DeFrank – Orks
John managed 4 wins from 5 and 473 battle points.
No Force Org Slot ———- Nob on Smasha Squig (65 pts)+ – Proper Killy – Stratagem: Big Boss Nob on Smasha Squig (65 pts)+ – Headwoppa’s Killchoppa – Stratagem: Extra Gubbinz
HQ ———- Beastboss on Squigosaur (Warlord) (145 pts)+ – Big Killa Boss – Beasthide Mantle Warboss (105 pts)++ – Brutal but Kunnin – Attack Squig – Da Killa Klaw – Kombi-Scorcha, Power Klaw – Stratagem: Big Boss – Stratagem: Extra Gibbinz
