Some early lessons about Imperial Guard in 6th

So, I've now had a few games of 6th edition, and an apocalypse game, so I thought I'd take a moment to run through my general thoughts on what I've observed so far...

• 1000 points is very different to 1500 points! That should go without saying, but the balance of what you can take and what is worth taking is fundamentally very different, especially if you're dealing with a multiple objective mission.

• Feel No Pain (ie: Medi packs) is still a huge help in keeping squads alive, and the reduction to a 5+ doesn't hugely outweigh the reduction in what it protects against - although with T3 Guard, it's not super awesome.

• I'm yet to draw any useful conclusions on psykers yet.

• Ogryns can punch tanks to death. They also take a remarkable amount of fire compared to Guard infantry. Who knew?

• Ratlings are immensely useful and awesome.

• Storm Trooper deep striking has potential, but I need to get better at placing.

• I do not have enough Troops choices painted. When I put together 3,500 of Guard, with only two troop choices? Something is wrong. Troops need to move up my painting schedule!

• Don't leave space for Deep Strikes

• Demolitions Veterans remain awesome.

• Sentinels work better when you remember to take them out of the army carry case.

• Rough Riders are faster, have a greater threat range, but remain as fragile and short lived as ever. They are only as tough as infantry, and after the initial strike are very vulnerable.

• Fliers need some getting used to.

• I've not seen much benefit from anti infantry fliers so far - need to try out anti tank ones.

• I had failed to spot the rule about taking a dangerous terrain check when you jump out of a Valkyrie and scatter. It makes it riskier, but its still a hugely beneficial boost to movement.

• Hydras do not rock as hard as they used to.

• Leman Russ do die easier than before, but are still a pain to take down.

• Manticores need to work in concert with other firepower to take out enemy armour, as they are mostly trimming hull points now, not wrecking multiple tanks.

These are just my personal observations, and your own experiences may vary. All I can re-emphasise is to keep on playing games and trying things out!

Friendly fire report form

To: Segmentum Tempestus High Command
From: Captain Rafiq, Tallarn XVI
Date: 7835912.M41
Theatre: Laxus Sector
Planet: Lambum Obscurum

5th Platoon of my company was ordered to advance into no man's land with heavy support from the available armoured units. I was doing as ordered and was on schedule when my forces were engaged by an unknown force of power armoured marines. I have since been informed that the warriors in question are actually a loyalist chapter called the "Sons of Tyr".

I am afraid that I cannot give much of an account of the incident myself as the first action of the matter was a perfectly timed and executed decapitation strike by drop pod on my position. Despite the heroic efforts of my seconded medical officer (whose name I have forgotten, but I would wish to recommend for a posthumous award of some kind - can someone senior pick something appropriate?), I was rendered unconscious by a hail of bolt gun shells.

The medical recovery teams have done an excellent job, and my force only took 97% fatalities from the 100% casualties inflicted by the excellently co-ordinated assault of the Sons of Tyr. Apart from whoever was responsible for their briefing, I would commend them as an excellent force to face the vile renegades and xenos we face in this sector.

I shall forward the requisition for further secondment of troops to my company, additional armoured support and specialist troops under separate cover once I have recovered. Once again, my heartiest complements to the medical staff who tell me that I will be back on active duty shortly, with only a few more bionics.

Report ends.

Administratum additional report into loss of war materiel
To be appended to friendly fire report form
Restricted access: Not for viewing by field officers
To: Segmentum Tempestus High Command

From: Administratum Investigative Clerk, Count Karl Bolt
Date: 7836912.M41
Theatre: Laxus Sector
Planet: Lambum Obscurum

Once again, I find myself writing an investigative report into Captain Rafiq's loss of another platoon. To the dismay of many, the investigations have found that this loss is genuinely not his fault - unlike the platoons lost to his 'disagreement' with a Wolf Lord of the Space Wolves Chapter, which has led to the sector wide prohibitions about engaging in drinking games and / or insult contests with members of that Chapter for officers of the Imperial Guard, stemming from the unfortunate 'cultural exchange' incident that has led to Captain Rafiq being constantly "accidentally" attacked by members of the Space Wolves.

The Sons of Tyr, a successor chapter to the Raven Guard, with strong stylistic similarities to the Space Wolf chapter, engaged the Tallarn XVI on the mistaken belief that they were renegades. The Librarian who led their force has been exonerated as it appears that a enumerator servitor made an error in transposing the co-ordinates for both the Tallarn XVI and the Sons of Tyr's assaults into no man's land.

It is unclear whether this is due to one of Captain Rafiq's many, many enemies among the Imperium acting in a treacherous manner, hostile enemy action infiltrating the command chain, or simple technical error.

The influence of Captain Rafiq's father means that the matter will, as usual, be quietly dropped. Please fill in the usual forms and complete the necessary requisitions to get him back out onto the front line as quickly as possible, and hopefully he will be a little less lucky next time.

A productive weekend

Despite a merciless bout of light manflu that left me close to Satan in temperament, which meant I didn't go in to Darksphere for their monthly painting day on Sunday, I still got a whole bunch of stuff done!

I have been working on a test figure for an Imperial Beastman, to use the Penal Legion rules... I'm also photographing that for a step by step of what I did and how it went.

Here's a teaser for that:

I also finished cleaning up my Wicked Dolls ready for painting, started work on prepping a Vindicare for painting, done most of the green stuff work done for the Herald on Disc (wife is about to help out with a tricky bit), undercoated some cultists for a commission for the wife, and assembled a Sarissa Silo (pics to follow when I've fixed the bit I've already broken)...

Next Sunday I'll be rocking over to Darksphere for their Apocalypse game. I should really write up my list for that...

I also hope to write up a little more of the creative writing over the army background of the Tallarn XVI soon. I am rather excited about sharing the story with people, although it doesn't really enthuse folk as much as rumours or interesting models do...

More shameless attempts to gain free stuff...

Zaphod over at Masterminis is still trying to up his blog traffic by prize giveaways...

The latest one is that if you follow the instructions on his blog, you enter you (and me) in a chance to win a copy of Dark Vengeance each...

{in my best Godfather-esque accent}

"So go and talk to Zaphod, and tell him I sent you. It will be a thing that is in your interest and my interest."

Investigative Report, Draft Copy (fiction)

Inspired by the wonderful work by Colonel Scipio, Headologist, and Zzzzzz, I got inspired to write some fiction about the recent battles I've been having and the regiment I've been collecting. There is more to come! 


To: Captain Rafiq, Tallarn XVI
From: Lieutenant Yusuf
Date: 7824912.M41
Theatre: Laxus Sector
Planet: Fellminster

Upon receiving your orders to investigate the whereabouts of Lieutenant Sufyan's platoon, which had not returned from their standard clearance patrol. Investigating their expected route, we found an area in the lower east sub sector which was the scene of a conflict.

A storage building for the nearby light agriculture had taken a direct hit to its generator through one and a half feet of plascrete. The burn marks would match those caused by a close ranged shot from a melta gun. A dead guardsman from second squad was found in the lee of the building on the opposite side to the door, and the charred remains of the three Ratling auxilia seconded to Lieutenant Sufyan's expedition were a short distance to the north.

Our medical officer informs me that one of the three abhumans had suffered a broken leg, which would be explained had they jumped from the roof of the building. No other bodies were found, either of assailants nor the missing platoon.

To the west of the building, the wrecked remains of the command Chimera were found. The remains of the crew were within, but not the passengers. The APC was destroyed with a single well placed anti tank shot, probably from short range.

Given Lieutenant Sufyan's exemplary record, it is most likely that he encountered an unexpected overwhelming force. The unrecognised weapon pattern, minimal number of deceased (and all those killed were killed by explosive force) and lack of enemy dead indicates an enemy raiding force who wished to conceal their presence, probably of Xenos origin. It is unlikely that our expected renegade opponents were responsible for the losses.

Recommendations:
The records of those whose bodies were found (dog tags attached) should be updated to indicate they were killed by enemy action.
The records of Lieutenant Sufyan's platoon (appendix attached), less those known to be deceased, should be marked as MIA, with a note indicating that should they be found, further investigation be made as to their reasons for not making contact with Imperial forces sooner.

Appendix I: Platoon complement

Lieutenant Sufyan
Four guardsmen assigned to command section
Two squads of ten men each
One Chimera from the XVI infantry's motor pool (reserved primarily for officer use)
3 Ratling Auxilia, seconded from Tollo 2nd

Creeping into November

Goals from last month

• Progress in each of the "categories" I use on my tracking spreadsheet, which are; "Imperial Guard", "Malifaux", "Grey Knights", "Ad hoc projects" and "Scenery".

Failed. Progress only really in the Imperial Guard, basing the Conscripts.

• Get the Malifaux Collodi crew painted, if not based

Failed. Marionettes have started painting, but that's about it.

• My friend's Herald of Tzeentch at least undercoated and ready for paint.

Failed. Not looked at. I'm a terrible friend.

I did, however, manage to finish tidying my study, leading to me earning my 40K rulebook from Sim!

Gaming and some first thoughts on 6th Edition

Also, rather than have our local youngsters demand money with menaces from us on Halloween, Sim and I popped down to Darksphere for the casual 40K night.

I did not take photos. I fail as a blogger.

While my wife had the local cheese weasel (he'll be proud for me to call him that) show her the terrible things Grey Knight Henchmen can do at 500 points, I managed to grab a nice chap called Louis when he finished his game for a quick 1,000 match up.

Louis plays Raven Guard successors, using Space Wolf codex rules. He had a Rune Priest, a couple of Grey Hunter Squads (one in a drop pod), some Long Fangs, a Dreadnought and a Speeder. Tons of lovely kit bashing, which readers will know I'm a big fan of.

I took a trimmed back version of the normal list, with a small company command squad, a psyker, infantry platoon, Veterans in a Valkyrie, a Demolisher and a Hydra.

The mission was "Big Guns Never Tire", with standard deployment on a 4 x 4 board.

I was thoroughly schooled, with the opening turn being an absolutely canon perfect decapitation strike by the Drop Pod squad, coming in behind my lines to obliterate my Warlord and wipe out his squad with brutal short ranged shooting to earn Louis both First Blood and Slay the Warlord.

I won't bother with a blow by blow, but it ended with all my models on the table dead while the Valkyrie was off turning around. I learnt some useful lessons, however!

- The Imperial Pie Plate still scares the pants off anyone in power armour.
- Tanks can be more reliably taken down this edition, but can still be useful and dangerous
- Fliers are really useful, but Valkyries with MRPs are less good given the new flying rules - should focus more on using as a transport and less as a gunship. Also, may want to consider looking back at the standard one shots it comes with
- Hydras are dead good on skimmers and fliers, but at smaller point games may not make their money back
- Plan your flier movement from the start, so you have a good idea of where you're likely to go
- My current list still suffers from power projection issues - it doesn't put enough threat across the table fast enough
- Cover is still useful, even if its a lower number - your opponent has the same issue too
- Focus on objectives - while I was still wiped, I could have put a more credible threat out earlier on

And finally . . .

I have been selling bits and pieces on ebay, and thus had a little money to spend on bits on ebay too.

I realised a short while ago that my Imperial Beastman conversion was hamstrung by a lack of left arms (cursed lack of forward planning!) but a good mate mailed me more than I needed to complete the project in exchange for a couple of Cadian torsos for him to test out one of his projects.

I also picked up a couple of sprues of Glade Guard, which still had five hooded heads on! Woo! These are hard to find cheap. The remaining bits that don't fit guard have now been passed on for my wife's bits box.

I've also bought a few Dwarf Warriors to see if an easy Squat kitbash is at all feasible. I am somewhat doubtful. I'm still waiting for these to arrive, though.

Starting to learn 6th edition (and teaching the wife)

So, I finally finished the housework which earned me my copy of the 6th edition rulebook!

I was then somewhat surprised to have my wife ask me to teach her how to play 40K, as she's going to be playing the Dark Eldar we picked up at one of the Eavy Metal painting Masterclasses at an Apocalypse game at Darksphere on 25 November.

So, a short bit of maths later, Sim had a list of 400 points of Dark Eldar. It consisted of two squads of Wyches with an assortment of upgrades, and that was the lot! She seemed happy with that, though.

I picked a quick 400 points of Guard to face her. I took an infantry platoon, with the PCS having all the melta guns, and a Chimera as a ride. The two squads got autocannons and melta guns. I threw in the recently painted conscripts because they were just finished, and rounded it off with three Ratlings.

So, this in mind, we set up the terrain!

Ah.

OK, remind me to really move "terrain building" up the priority list. Yes, we're using a passing Doomwheel as wreckage. The mobile phone box is a building, the old Necromunda card barricades are . . . barricades, the pond is a pond, and the failed sample arm warmer some difficult ground that doesn't provide cover.

I suggested using the recon mission thing from the book, but Sim said she'd far rather just have us try and kill each other first game and she could move onto such complicated things as "objectives" later...

We rolled off and I deployed first.

My Conscripts are off to the left, the two infantry squads to the right, Chimera in the centre with the command squad in it.

Sim deploys her squads opposite, with the special weapons at the back with me having explained "casualties start at the front".

She then has the opportunity to seize the initiative.

Bugger.

I get my Ratlings set up on the roof of the building, and the Dark Eldar start running towards me as fast as they can...

Sim then remembered she'd taken the chaos star from the gamer's edition of the 40K rulebook, and went and grabbed her beret.

The conscripts then let off a spectacular volley of fire at the Wyches, which even with the failed "First Rank, Fire" order left Sim's numbers looking remarkably thin!

To the right, they faired better due to the amount of cover available, and my inability to roll anything useful whatsoever!

On my left, the surviving three Wyches ran into the Chimera, blew it to pieces with Haywire grenades, then ducked behind the barricade to the left. I charged in response, with a melta gun nearly taking out the squad leader, but they "accidentally" pushed one of their colleagues in the way instead.

Surely this looks bad for the Dark Eldar, you say...

I also bravely decided to take a chance at charging on the right, hoping that weight of numbers would see me through.

This was, I think, a terrible mistake.

Yup, I was right, terrible mistake.

On the left, they hacked down two of the Lieutenant's bodyguards, causing the conscripts to panic and flee.

Now realising that being outside was very dangerous with the Imperial Guard's weight of fire, the Wyches decided to run into the building before butchering the Ratlings the following turn.

The combat on the left remained pretty much equal for now, with only ridiculously jammy rolling of saving throws saving the day for me.

"Then I rolled three sixes and a five!"

On the right, my Ratlings decided jumping off the building was safer than staying in it. One of them proceeded to break his leg jumping off the roof and passed out with pain. The remaining infantry squad ran up to the building, and the melta gunner loosed off a shot . . . causing a massive explosion. All the Dark Eldar died, both surviving Ratlings died, and two of the remaining infantry squad near the building were killed in the explosion.

So, erm, building damage tables are much scarier than they used to be!

On the left, the two surviving Wyches killed off my command squad, then charged into the conscripts on their turn!

The Wyches neatly take them to pieces (I forgot to Overwatch) - they kill one and the conscripts flee a second time, but this time their officer is not holding the killer gladiators off, and they are cut down to a man!

There's not much more to report, beyond that they proceeded to run across the table to the few surviving infantrymen, and cut them all down with no further losses, even though I remembered Overwatch by then!

Imperial Guard to the right are the casualty pile spreading out onto the table.
Chimera is wrecked. They're all dead, Dave.

Well, wife is rightly pleased with her first game of Warhammer 40K ever, and my first (completed) game of 6th edition! I may post a few thoughts on this later, but for now I shall go and wallow in my extensive and terrible defeat!

A simple experiment in basing

Historically, I suck at basing. Like, a ridiculous amount. I haven't really done any basing since the old "sand and goblin green" days, apart from just desperately gluing some sand onto my Tallarn for a tournament, and a disaster with some clan rats that I don't like to talk about.

So, I decided to experiment with some Stuff to see what I could do.

After a bit of digging around my wife's painting stash, I 'liberated' a pot of Games Workshop Astrogranite and a pot of Model Colour Sandy Paste.

The Sandy Paste smells funny.

For the purposes of my experiment, I chose my recently finished conscripts, on the grounds that I don't care particularly strongly about the cannon fodder...

It also meant they'd stop looking like they came from a very flat iceworld where there'd been some paint spillages!

As a first step, I painted a smooth coat of Iyanden Darksun onto the bases. The wife advises that this was completely unnecessary, but it gave me something smooth and neat to work on.

I then put a few daubs of Astrogranite onto each base, one or two per miniature. The idea here was that the Astrogranite texture is much thicker than the Sandy Paste, so it would break up the base a tiny amount without being obvious.

I then painted around the Astrogranite with the Sandy Paste.

Once this was done, I repainted them all with another coat of Iyanden Darksun.

After a quick comparison between a coat of Nuln Oil and a coat of Devlan Mud, I decided I liked the Devlan Mud option more, so then washed in that - and was done!

I'm quite pleased with how they've turned out. They aren't works of art, but they are functional. I'm still undecided about the "using different textured paints" thing - I should have made some with just one or the other to compare to - but I'm certainly getting over my fear and hatred of basing in the meantime!

Painting event this Sunday: London, UK

As a reminder to my UK readers, there is a painting event at Darksphere in London on Sunday (21 October). Its running from 12pm to 5pm.

Some people from Platoon Britannica have said they will be there.

My wife says she's going.

I will also be there.

There is a map to the shop here.

It will either be at the shop itself, opposite the Eye and next to the Duck Tours, or it will be at the gaming space just up the road, between Chilli Chutney and Europcar (behind the bus stop).

I will be curious to see who arrives...