Astra Militarum 10th Edition Plans

 

With the new Astra Militarum Codex released for 10th edition, I needed to take stock of my Guard army and work out what I'm doing. While I had a short period of considering selling them off entirely, I've enjoyed playing them in the club campaign, so decided to get them up to spec for the new edition.

Setting myself the rule of "use what you already have wherever possible", I've come up with the following starting list:

Astra Militarum - Combined Arms

Strike Force (2000 Points)

CHARACTERS

Cadian Command Squad (80 Points)

     ◦ Enhancements: Reactive Command

Commissar (40 Points)

  • Enhancements: Death Mask of Ollanius

Gaunt’s Ghosts (110 Points)

Ministorum Priest (35 Points)

Primaris Psyker (60 Points)

Sly Marbo (55 Points)

BATTLELINE

Cadian Shock Troops (65 Points)

Cadian Shock Troops (65 Points)

DEDICATED TRANSPORTS

Chimera (85 Points)

OTHER DATASHEETS

2 x Armoured Sentinels (130 Points)

Armoured Sentinels (65 Points)

Basilisk (140 Points)

Cadian Heavy Weapons Squad (65 Points)

Cadian Heavy Weapons Squad (65 Points)

Hellhound (125 Points)

Hellhound (125 Points)

Hydra (95 Points)

Leman Russ Executioner (170 Points)

Manticore (165 Points)

5 x Ratlings (60 Points)

5 x Ratlings (60 Points)

10 x Tempestus Scions (140 Points)

There's a handful of things that need fixing here. The two "Cadian" (Tallarn) squads and command squad still have heavy weapons, so they're gaining three plasma guns and three comm-links. With a mix of bits from eBay and existing stash, I've started putting the latter together. The plasma guns will be a later update...

Beyond that, I had Sly Marbo and Gaunt's Ghosts in my stash needing assembly, so I've dug those out. One of the Hellhounds and five of the Ratlings are also currently without paint, so they're going in the queue.

Quite a lot of my older tanks don't have sponsons and so on, so by and large I'm taking that as an opportunity to sell them, and buying new tanks to paint up to my new skills / standard. I'm not buying anything new for the Guard outside of fixing the squad load outs until the test list is painted. I'm pretty sure it's lacking in armour and anti-tank, and a Rogal Dorn tank is pretty high on the purchase list once this lot is done, but I reckon given the move and other projects, this is plenty to be getting on with...

Review of 2024

 

It's been a bit of a weird year, all told. Work got catastrophically stressful, I got into a TCG, and looking back at things that happened in the first half of the year feels like some kind of weird other-time where things happened to someone else.

As far as "goals for the year" went, everything kind of fizzled out. Some large Kickstarters are the bulk of the miniatures that came in. There's a few limited releases or things that were going out of production, with a bit of a slip when Imperial Agents came out.

That said, I did manage to tidy the hobby room sufficiently that my dearly beloved has a table of her own in it, so it's not a complete wash.

I managed to run a D&D game in person for some friends, which was excellent fun. One of my long term ambitions is to run a long campaign in person with miniatures and maps, but that isn't something I'm aiming to do in 2025.

I made it back to Salute, which I mostly loved for seeing a bunch of friends who run small wargaming businesses. A trade show when you're trying not to add to piles of unpainted miniatures is a bit difficult to work out how to approach.

I also made the trip to UK Games Expo. It was a lot, but I had an amazing amount of fun. I found new games, like the card game Flesh and Blood. I got some Pathfinder Society games in so I got to play rather than be a forever DM. I would go again, but I probably won't in 2025, as I have a lot of other commitments then already.

I did successfully get some games of the new edition of 40K in - both with my Deathwatch, and signing up for a small narrative campaign with my Imperial Guard. It's been great fun, despite losing all but one of my games.

A got a cheeky game of Malifaux in. Not much to say about it beyond that I did play it, and I want to get my crew painted!

I also got my first ever game of Age of Sigmar in. This is something where I'm keen to try out Skaven, but that's a painting project away from happening...

Infinity has been a bit slower than previous years, but there's still been a whole bunch of it - I've done a few tournaments and a league, but the announcement and then the delay of the new edition, N5, sort of took the wind out of the sails a bit. The new edition has engaged a lot of keen, though, so I expect that to course correct shortly... That said, I did get games of three other systems in instead, so I think it's just a question of balance.

My local club, Hackney Area Tabletop Enthusiasts (or HATE) has sadly had to move venue after the closure of Bethnal Green Working Men's Club. It's now running in a new venue that I haven't made the journey to yet.

When I sat down to write this I was thinking I hadn't gotten a lot done. It turns out, I have - but it's been going out and doing things rather than sitting down and painting miniatures. The review has been really helpful in a way, because it's helped me realise I've had a productive, positive year. Among a bunch of stress and distractions, looking back at the positives helps put me in a good mindset for the coming year.

Warhammer 40K vs Chaos Daemons

"Captain, you don't have the instructions."

"Oh, I read them on the way here, it's fine."

"Are you sure, sir?"

"Oh, absolutely, I just need to pull this lever here..."

The stomachs of every member of the Tallarn XVI turned in the same moment. Primaris Washdraft screamed, then threw up. Looking around, the air shimmering, they looked on in horror as swarms of strange twisted creatures stepped out into space.

Perhaps accepting a "simple routine maintenance operation" for the Necrons on their pylon technology was a little higher risk than it first appeared . . . especially when your CO thinks that reading instructions is for chumps...

Pushing forward, a hail of fire from the Guard vehicles blew away most of a Bloodletter squad.

But worryingly, swarms of demons started materialising behind the Guard lines.

The Manticore and the Guard squad opened fire on a some Bloodletters, leaving only a handful of survivors.

The Hellhound incinerated a squad of Flesh Hounds, taking some pressure off.

The daemonic cavalry charges into the Leman Russ, carving into the armour.

The bigger, slower moving daemonic troops started bearing down on the Guard.

The Guard reserves, two squads of Militarum Tempestus, grav-chuted in and opened fire on the Pink Horrors holding one of the objectives.

One squad charged in while the other failed to make the charge...

The squad who failed their charge didn't have long to regret it, as a Skull cannon shot most of them down before charging in and wiping out the remainder.

The Soul Grinder charged into the Guard squad.

It. Um. Didn't go well for the Guard.

The daemonic cavalry charged into the remaining troops, cutting them down.

It wasn't long before the handful of remaining troops from the expedition were cut down, but as they fell, the daemonic incursion started to fade. The Guard had held them off long enough for the objective points to be tied, making the game a draw.

A little aaaaaah as a treat

As I crawl out of the wreckage of a Monday, a short update for you. I got in another game in the 40K narrative campaign as some "routine maintenance" for the Tallarn's current Necron Masters resulted in a little bit of an oops that resulted in a demonic incursion... 

The weekend was the London Grand Tournament, which had Infinity running for the first time. So I've had six games of Infinity over two days. I'm surprised my brain is working as well as it is, quite frankly.

I've got a whole ton of games photoed ready to be written up for the blog, I just need to slow down playing them a little to give myself the time to write them all up. But first, an early night has been well earned.

Warhammer 40,000 Crusade Battle Report: Astra Militarum vs Adeptus Mechanicus

 

The campaign continues...

The Tallarn "Seventeenth" picked a quiet looking planet to 'invade' to try and get some level of redemption for their absolutely terrible showing in the campaign so far. Unfortunately, their efforts to find an isolated spot to set up a base were interrupted by having picked a spot a lost force of Skitarii were searching to try and find some kind of radio to communicate with their higher ups.

We were playing a custom mission, with multiple locations to search for the "real" objective with a dice roll. You could score any objective before the real objective was found, but the moment the real objective was found, that was the only point to score.

Of course, the Skitarii immediately found their radio on the objective on the furthest left flank, that was hardest for my troops to reach...

In the centre, the Leman Russ Executioner sought to take out the Skitarii transport to stop it reinforcing the main objective.

While the Hellhound put the hurt on the Skitarii holding the objectives, the Armoured Sentinels tried to take some wounds off the the Onager Dunecrawler.

In the centre, my disgraced commander managed to prove himself to his troops by holding the centre for a brief moment before being absolutely wrecked by killer servitors.

The right flank was over-run by Rust Stalkers killing everyone in sight.

While the Hellhound was attacked by a Mechanicus walker, it wasn't able to cause much damage.

As the Onager's super death ray thing picked off one tank at a time, the walker fled fighting the Hellhound to charge into the Sentinels that were bullying the surviving Skitarii, and managed to swing the fight in favour of the Mechanicus.

With few Guard survivors, but honour restored to a couple of disgraced units, the Astra Militarum withdrew from the field, leaving the Skitarii delighted to have finally recovered a working radio...

Warhammer 40,000 Crusade Battle Report: Astra Militarum vs Dark Angels (Watchers of the Fall)

 

The Tallarn XVI, concerned their Necron 'landlords' might be a bit upset about them losing a whole bunch of Necron territory, decided to go on the offensive, while staying on the Necron home planet. Unfortunately for the Tallarn, they ended up running into a bunch of angry looking Dark Angels ?Successors? coming the other way...

This mission was all about seizing some objectives, and the Dark Angel bikes were quick and effective at doing so, with the Guard on the defensive.

They also had a Vindicator for close support, which ended up covering one of the objectives and heavily damaging the Tallarn Chimera.

The Hellhound swept up to counter attack, causing a chunk of damage but not really finishing anything off.

Near the Hellhound, the Deathwatch arrived to counter its advance.

While the Infantry squad piled out of the Chimera to take the objective.

The counter-attack from the assault squad was swift and merciless...

Bikes poured onto the Guard squad holding the central objective...

The Terminators neutralised the Hellhound...

And it wasn't long before the Guard positions were over-whelmed, with the Manticore getting charged and taken out by the bike squad. In the end, while I'd scored a few points holding objectives (my best result so far) it was a 100-30 loss, with every Guard unit lost. I took three Battle Scars, paying for one to be removed immediately to prevent it wrecking a unit, but leaving the others on for the next game...

Wherein a rambly post happens because I'm not blogging the housework...

 

Please find this picture of an awkward adolescent waterfowl learning to forage, which is as good a representation of me trying to tidy my flat as I can find. I've not got any painting or assembly done while I've been either tidying, LARPing, or feeling under the weather. But, plenty has been going on, so here's a bit of an update as to what's been going on...

I have managed to get a bunch of sorting done of my Flesh and Blood cards. A kind member of the UK community sends out a whole pile of common cards for the cost of postage to new players, and I've supplemented this by buying a few singles of rarer cards that are particularly useful for the hero I'm playing. Once the last of them arrive, I'll likely pop down to Dark Sphere for an "Armory Night".

The new competitive "season" for 40K has come out. I picked up the cards and markers for it as I really enjoyed the game of the current edition I had so far. I've got another Crusade game coming up soon, too. I need to line up my Astra Militarum clear out, followed by painting up some models for the new edition.

My copy of Tome of Tombs by James Holloway arrived! James is an old friend from LARP who also creates one of my favourite podcasts. This is a system-neutral zine for creating tombs and so on for fantasy RPGs. If you're regularly running fantasy RPGs, this is definitely worth a look.

Bangarang in the Gutterlands is a little skirmish game by Bill Making Stuff. It turned up recently and I haven't had a chance to nose through it. It's definitely got a home made vibe to it, which seems to be a more and more common aesthetic people are going for at the moment.

Also arriving this week was the Marauder Giant "Made to Order" from Games Workshop. I remember seeing this miniature in my old White Dwarfs, and when I saw that it was being re-released for a limited window, I absolutely had to get one. I doesn't go with my current Bretonnian Old World force, but I'm going to hang onto him until a suitable project shows up.

On an impulse, I ordered the White Dwarf anniversary figure at the same time as the Marauder Giant. I didn't have a particular reason I can remember.

What really impressed me about it was the assembly. It's a monopose model, which is fine on a character you won't want multiples of, but the way it fits together is really quite simple, with pretty large pieces and nothing super fiddly. This sort of kit is pretty accessible to a less experienced modeller, but is still going to look amazing at the end of it.

And finally, the Vampire Queen by Ana Polanšćak and Meridian Miniatures. It's a big monster model with optional wings and tail and two head options. Ana is the creative mind behind Gardens of Hecate. This is definitely an excellent final monster for some kind of folk horror campaign - I'm still having a think about how I might eventually paint it.

Beyond that, I've had a game of Malifaux that I need to write up, and next weekend I'll be grabbing a game of 40K for the campaign that I need to prep for. The points have been updated and I have a few more points I can spend so I need to work out what I'm going to get...