All Hail Forge World!!

I guess Forgeworld is the future for all of us chaos players.  Recently the rules for both primarchs and their legions was released for both the word bearers and the Nightlords.  When Forgeworld announced that they would be doing models and books covering the Horus Hersey, I knew that we were in store for something special. When they released rules for the first 4 legions last year as well as the models to support the book, I couldn't wait to see what they had planned for the Nightlords.   The rules that came out were pretty cool, some obvious like fear or the ability to buy trophies to cause fear to wounding easier if you outnumber your foe in any assault phase which is awesome (talent for murder).  The fact that any nightlord who fails a morale check falls back 1 inch further to being able to decide to run if they get pinned is pretty fluffy.  Night Haunter is a boss with ap2 lighting claws, throwing daggers that on a 6 causes a wound with no save allowed is just plan awesome.  And this is just the start, the fact that they also included characters from the actual black library books like Sevatar the prince of crows is what I as a nightlords player has been waiting for.   Book 2 of the horus heresy has got me motivated to convert my Nightlords army into a heresy army so over the coming months I will start to pull the trigger on several Forgeworld kits like some older marks of armor, some apothecarys, and maybe a storm eagle or 2.  The great thing is I never modeled my models with any chaos daemon bits like possessed parts, etc, they are just "evil marines with lots of trophies and the like. According to fluff, the Nightlords were using the same terror tactics since the very beginning so making the army multi-purpose should be easy.

Now that forgeworld has done something for my beloved Nightlords, what plans do GW proper have in mind for them?  The talent for murder is definitely one rule I would love to see make it in a supplement not to mention more ways to mess with leadership and cause fear checks or leadership checks at minus points.  Leadership checks would also affect marines which would be awesome since they are immune to fear.  What else could be added, stealth for all models like they had in the 3.5 codex would be a great start.  I guess in the end we will see how far GW is going to take these supplements and with the 2 marine ones coming out next month, we wont be waiting long.  Alpha Legion is rumored to be in January which hopefully is the start  of something great for chaos.  In the meantime, we shall see if anybody would mind me using the forgeworld rules for the Nightlords.  Below are my latest projects i am working on.  I am hoping to get some paint on them this week as I will be using these models in an upcoming league.

The chaos space marine dex and the coming of the hydra

Ok so i just finished reading Goatboys article proclaiming that count as armies are not dead but in fact alive and kicking with regards to the new space marine codex.   Many took the article as a power gamer again bitching about the crap that is the chaos dex and in fact a lot of the comments made reflects this idea.  His reputation as a spam artist and power gamer really doesn't help his cause but I read more than just his complaining.  He actually has a point in regards to count -as.  I for one love count-as armies if the hobbiest put in the time and effort to make sure everything is WYSIWYG or lovingly converted his/her army to play as a different army.  During the last couple of years of the old chaos dex, I built a new chaos army with some left over parts that i had and painted it in the colors of skyrar`s dark wolves which is one of the only off shoots of the space wolves that turned to chaos, per bolter and chainsword anyways.  The warband actually made it into the old chaos dex and the color scheme was available in the space marine game as a chaos skin which made me feel even more vindicated... lol.. me anyways.  I purposely built the army to play using the space wolves codex as I really wanted to run an army of cheap dogs and 3 super lords riding khorne juggernauts.  Every last detail i put into the army from wolf standards to berserkers being blood claws to equipment so that any opponent i played knew what everything was.  I even started painting up 5 drop pods for the army but got caught up in other projects that i stopped.  Whats my point, the point is this, if a player spends the time to convert an army and makes the army WYSIWYG, what is the problem?  I understand that a lot of people love to codex jump just to play the newest and most powerful dex but should we poopoo players who actually put in the time?  Who am I to tell people how to play their game,if a person I play is guilty of just codex jumping just because he is a power gamer with his half painted, missing arms, heads army I always have the right to just not play him.  The fact is I have no problem playing people who codex jump as long as I can tell what each model is supposed to represent just by looking at them.  And I guess that's my long winded point, as long as I know what I'm playing, I'm fine with it.  What about tournaments?  On this my opinion differs just slightly, at the end of the day its the TO's call.  If he/she says no to count as armies so be it, its their event and they can run it anyway they want. 

What did I mean about the hydra strikes in my title?  According to rumors, the next chaos codex supplement coming out is Alpha Legion. Due out in January I for one cant wait for this.  I am hoping that this will be the start of supplements with some real meat err um rules that really shake up the CSM codex.  Something that really changes how an Alpha Legion army play compared to a Black Legion army.  I really want to believe that these supplements are going somewhere.  With the new space marine one dropping this month, we shall see what we can expect from the supplements to come.  Speaking of the Black Legion army supplement, I was able to get a copy of it and its definitely not as bad as everyone is saying it is. There is definitely a lack of rules in regards to changes to the army specifically but some of the artifacts, the fact that it adds an extra slot through allying, to taking chosen as troops without the Abaddon tax is pretty good.  The internet is all abuzz about the eternal shield that the space marines get, the black legion has an artifact that also gives you eternal warrior, though not a shield its still an option which is great.

Chaos Supplements Inbound

I hope these are true.. faeit 212 posted that all of the major chaos legions would be getting full supplement support and these supplements would actually have more rules content to them.  The rumor also stated that all of these are being worked on at the same time and they should be released either at the same time or right after the other.  I don't know about you guys but this was the news I have been waiting to hear especially after seeing all of the customization that vanilla marines have now with there new book.  The rumor also stated that these books will bring the flavor back to the legions like never before.  This I certainly will take with a lot of salt as I have been let down so far by book chaos space marine books.  Don't get me wrong, the 2 books are definitely fun to play and offer some options but not to the extent that I would like too see them.   I really hope these new supplements are the real deal and bring with it the options that all csm players have been waiting for.  Some quick points on what I would like to see per my chaos armies..

Nightlords - bikes and raptors as troops at least.  New special characters.  Army wide stealth and ways to miss with leadership - terror tactics.  A way to make standard csms stubborn.

Thousand sons - better aspiring sorcerers, we are currently paying the same price for these guys as your book standard hq sorcerer.  Able to pick other spell lores other than tzeentch like chaos daemons.  Ways to increase the strength of thousand sons bolt guns.  Better psychic defense.  Actual rubric termies.

Iron Warriors/Dark mech - changes to force org.  Actual warsmiths.  Army wide Tank hunters. New dark mechanicus units.   Way to make standard csms stubborn.  New special characters

On my painting station currently im working on some screamers, and of course the required Riptide.  Let me know what you think.

Continuing with Thousand Sons talk

Hey guys.  So lately I have been thinking more on how to run a Thousand Sons list in 6th edition and not be the laughing stock of my gaming group.  Like I talked about in my last post, I love the army and feel that if played correctly, can be a viable option in today's meta.   I just recently signed up for an escalation league at the local flgs and had the pleasure of playing a fellow chaos player who is playing thousand sons in the league.  My opponent shared a lot of tips on how to play the army that I have never thought of before.  Below are some key points that he shared with me.

1.  Maximizing thousand son shooting and survivability by taking large squads - to be honest I was thinking of doing this but found the cost prohibited  but my opponent showed me some of the strengths of running a 18 man squad.  For starters, shooting 17 - 18 ap3 shots from 24 inches is a lot scarier then 8 shots coming from that range. Add in a herald of tzeentch with prescience and the squad will put out the hurt.  Lose a couple of models in a turn and the squad is still scary.  Cast prescience and the squad is re-rolling  hits.  The main weakness of course is close combat however with invisibility and forewarning the unit is going to pull through eventually especially if you are rocking one or two characters. 

2.  Take Ahriman - ok so this I would never consider due to his price tag.  He clocks in at 230 points and in an army where your average points cost per guy is 23 points, makes him a hard pill to swallow.  Lets look at what he brings to the table.  He unlocks thousand sons as troops, he is a level 4 psycher so you are going to get 3 rolls on telepathy or biomancy.  Most importantly though, he automatically gives you master of deception which my opponent used to great effect.  He rolled a 2,and was ableto infiltrate both Ahriman and the 18 man block of thousand sons 24 inches away on my left flank which forced me to have to devote a lot of army to counter it.

3.  Take Tzeentch Daemon allies - I started tinkering with this before my game with my opponent however never realized how good these allies could be.  My opponent took a herald of tzeentch at level 3 and basically maxed his rolls on divination.  He got foreboding which on the surface wouldn't make sense as thousand sons have a 4 up invulnerable but then it hit me... the mark of tzeentch gives you a plus 1 to your invul save... my opponents 18 man blob squad was now rocking a 3 up invul save now!! Imagine this as the unit makes it way up the field..  pretty crazy...The fact that heralds have access to divination open up  a lot of synergy combos that thousand sons never had before. 

I actually played a list similar to what I wrote above and it was a blast to play. I actually ended up losing the game but it was a great game...  I might have to tinker some more to get it just right.