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September 2010 | Issue 7 inside: Seer Council f New Media f Math-Hammer f Painting Space Hulk f Brush Techniques f Soul Drinkers f Homebrew f Rumble in Richmond

Astro Mag Issue 7

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September 2010 | Issue 7

inside: Seer Councilf New Media fMath-Hammer f Painting Space Hulk f Brush Techniques f Soul DrinkersfHomebrew f Rumble in Richmond

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   E   d   i   t   o   r   s

   L   e   t   t   e   r

Astro Mag is published every three months in association with Astronomican.com. All text and layout remains the copyrightof Astro Mag. Astro Mag is a fully independant publication and its views are not the views of any company mentioned herein. All

characters and artwork shown in this magazine remain the copyright and trademark of their respective owners. No part of this

magazine may be reproduced without the express p ermission of the owner. Astro Mag can accept no liability for inaccuracies or

complaints arising from editorial or advertising within this magazine. All letters and emails received will be considered for publication,

but we cannot always provide personal replies.

 Tis fanzine is completely unocial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited. Astro Mag is a non prot making

fanzine with the aim of promoting Games Workshop games, products and hobby. For more see the disclaimer at the end of this fanzine.

Hello all,

 Tank you for downloading Issue 7 of the Astro Mag!

It is long over due, I know, but real life can really throw wrenches

into things. Te Mag is back, though, so expect future Issues to

arrive in a more timely manner.

 Tis issue is crammed full of goodies! Te able of Contents

has a more thorough listing, but my favorite articles are the Basic

Brush echniques and the Battle Report. Te former is a very 

thorough and educational article by Roman over at Massive Voodoo ( www.massivevoodoo.

blogspot.com); great for folks new to painting. Te latter is a 2,000 battle from the “Richmond

Rumble”, a meeting of four Astronomican members in Richmond, Virginia, to have a weekend

of gaming. And game we did...

 We’ve got a change for this issue in terms of the sta. LutherMax is the new Design/Layout

editor and has done some excellent work. I hope he stays onboard!

 Tank you, reader, for downloading and reading this issue of the Astro Mag. Make sure to

tell your friends about the Mag, send us some feedback... hell, write an article for us! Send in

some of your original artwork! Write some ction, send in some pictures of your pride and joy 

miniatures!

Cheers all,

Mr C

[email protected]

EDITINGSTAFF

chief editor 

Morgan “Consadine”Rimehart

staff editor 

Nomad

lead layout designer 

LutherMax

 Tank you to all of the DeviantArt

  Warhammer 40,000 artists for

the awesome artwork that made

this issue work! Check out their

art throughout the magazineand make sure to click into t heir

deviant page to see more!

cover image

 Warhammer by ~Lestare

from DeviantArt

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   I

   n   t   h

   i   s

   I   s   s   u   e Editorial

  What can the Seer Council do for you? 4

From the Void 11

Math-hammer & You 14

PaintingHow I Paint Space Hulk: erminators 17

Basic Brush echniques 22

Homebrew Loyal raitors: A Soul Drinkers Army List 26

  Te “Homebrew” 32

Fiction‘I Hate Cadia’ by Anne Marie 35

Battle ReportRumble in Richmond 36

Fom te WapBoe Commuty

ato ma uppote:

40k origins

all things 40k

Cnfssin f 40k addic

Di rci

Fr h Wr

rs Wrld

hs’s Frg

on h pining tbl

trrn Frg

jbrsing

is f Dnc

ar Fr h Wr 

br nd wn r blgincldd hr? eil s :

[email protected] ndw’ll dd righ w! all

  nd d is lin bc h asr mg Blg.

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   E   d   i   t   o   r   i   a   l

This article is going to look at one of the nastier units out

there: the Eldar Seer Council. What’s a Seer Council,

 you ask? A Seer Council is a HQ unit comprise d of the Eldar 

“sergeant” type upgrade called a Warlock; this unit is almost

always accompanied by a Farseer. ese guys have the

capability to be one of the most durable, killy and expensive

units in the codex.

 Warlock Wargear  Warlocks come with three pieces of wargear: the shuriken pistol,

the wytchblade and rune armor. Tey have a single base attack ,

and WS4, I4. Strength is irrelevant as they carry the wytchblade.

 Tey may upgrade their wytchblade to a singing spear for a mere

3 points. While it’s not wargear, this is also a ne place to note

that footslogging Warlocks have Fleet special rule.

 Why is the wytchblade so cool?I’m glad you asked. Short answer: it wounds on a xed 2+, and

it strikes at S9 versus anything with an armor value. In other

 words, Warlocks are very adept at shanking people, and they 

 will also beat down vehicles. On the charge, Warlocks throw 

three attacks: 1 base + 1 for 2 CCWs + 1 for charging.

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On the Singing Spear  Te Singing Spear gives you the ability to ‘shoot’ at vehicles. It

is a two-handed melee weapon, so Warlocks are stuck at their

base one attack. At range, the Spear is S9 with a 12” range.It is probably worth considering a Spear or two, for a couple

reasons: if on jetbikes, you can shoot the vehicle and then have

options based on damage results; wound allocation games, as

they can create another ‘group’ for allocating wounds.

 Warlock Powers

 Warlocks have access to a variety of ‘Warlock Powers.’ Tese

are technically psychic powers but do not require psychic tests.

As such, they cannot be countered by something like a psychic

hood. Te main point? Warlocks are psykers. Oooh, ahh, so

noted. Not important unless there’s something like a Culexus

Assassin nearby, and who runs those?

Destructor  Tis is the neat little thing that makes Seer councils absurdly 

killy at close range. It is eectively a heavy amer. It is 10

points for a Warlock, and deadly against troops, especially 

 when combined with Doom. AP4 means you at-out kill any 

 xenos; few are those non-marines with 3+ armor saves.

Enhance Tis is a neat melee support power. Your unit benets from

+1WS and +1I. Tis is not cumulative, so there’s no “I brought

4 Enhance so we’re all WS8, I8!” No, that ’s crap, so don’t try to

tblingws.c

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pull it. It does boost Warlocks to WS5, I5, which means they 

generally go rst/simultaneously and will they hit on 3+ most

of the time. We’ll discuss why it’s worth bringing this power

later. 15 points is on the pricier end for the powers, but it is

nonetheless worth it.

Embolden5 points for a power that lets you re-roll leadership tests. Now,

 Warlocks are Ld8, but the Farseer that might be attached to

them has Ld10. Tis makes it dicult to break, and it also is

the most eective means of boosting your Farseer’s ability to

get psychic powers o.

Conceal15 points to always carry a 5+ cover save with you for the unit.

 Warlocks have a 4++ save from Rune Armor as it is, so you can

safely skip this for the Seer Council. Tere are two weapons

that I can think of that negate invulnerable saves at range; the

Psycannon and Incinerator. If you have an armor save (and you

ought to; we’ll explain why in a moment) then you ought not

 worry about these either.

Gearing up the Seer Council Tere are eectively two ways to run a Seer Council in 5th.

 You can mount them on bikes, or you can leave them on foot

and load them into a Wave Serpent. You could theoretically 

footslog them without the transport, but you run into the Eldar

issue with elding a horde: you are an army of specialists, and

if you are on foot, it is much eas ier for the enemy to simply blow 

 you away before you get close enough to do damage.

Basics of Warlock Configuration Warlocks are close-ranged units. Tat much is apparent from

their gear and power selection: essentially nasty melee weapons

and heavy amers. Since the Farseer will be with them,

Embolden is worth far more than its 5pt price tag. (psychic

tests are leadership tests, after all). Since you will end up in

melee more often than not, Enhance is similarly worth it. You

may have to assault into cover, and there’s nothing to help with

that. Moving to WS5 will generally move your Warlocks tohitting on 3+, and still being struck back at 4+ in assault. Tis

is worth it.

  Te rest of your powers? Warlocks may select a single

power. You don’t have to take powers, but 3-4 Destructors

are usually enough to thoroughly BBQ your target unless it’s

something stupidly resilient like Plague Marines. You will, of 

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course, heap the wounds on them and any other monstrous

creature. Were you hoping your 6 would defend you? Tat’s

nice, we wound you on 2+ in melee. Still, some durable targets

CAN take the abuse you dish out.

So, for the council:

• Embolden x1

• Enhance x1

• 3-4+ Destructor

• 1-2+ Spears, to taste

  Tat means we want at least a 6-man council, ideally 

more. Te enemy (if they don’t already know) will realize that

 your council is capable of doing unspeakable acts to ANY unit

on the board they can catch.

The Biker CouncilMake no mistake: the biker Seer Council is expensive in terms

of points and cost as well; GW for some reason feels like bikes

ought to cost. Warlocks on a Jetbike and no powers comes out

to 45 points. Tis means a maxed-out 10-man council starts

at 450.

 Ten, you have to add in the Farseer to the cost. I suggest

the following Farseer for the Biker Council:

Farseer w/ Jetbike, Runes of Warding, Spirit

Stones, Fortune, Doom.

Total cost: 175.

Fortune is what gives the Biker Council its real ‘oomph.’

 Te Jetbike grants you a 3+ armor save, and the Rune Armor

grants you a 4+ invulnerable. With Fortune, therefore, you

have an 11% chance of failing an armor save, and a 25% chance

of failing an invulnerable save. Te enemy MUS devote a

massive number of shots to force enough wounds to deplete

the council. Te moral of this story? Bring a lot of jetbike

 Warlocks, as they need to be able to survive a heap of gunre

and and still be a threat.

King Elessar brought up an interesting point for the Seer

Council: Mind War over Doom. If you’re hitting an enemy 

squad that has a powerst or something hidden in it, and

 you want to be locked into assault, nuke the fellow with the

Powerst/klaw/what-have-you. His words are somewhere in

the middle of this post. Personally, I nd Mind War to be

highly comical when you kill a linchpin-type unit in the other

guy’s army.

An additional note with the jetseer council? If you have

the attached Farseer cast Fortune on the squad, you can get

18” in a turn: 12” move, + 6” in the assault phase as you are

Eldar jetbikes and therefore entitled to a 6” move in the assault

phase. Huzzah, space elves. Really. Your bikes are cooler than

theirs. If you have two Farseers, the non-Jetbike Farseer can

simply cast Fortune on the Jetbike squad, and then you can

turbo-boost. Note that you cannot use psychic powers ANDturbo-boost on bikes, per the rules.

A sample Jetbike Seer Council would be something like:

8 Warlocks on Jetbikes

4 Destructor 

Enhance

Embolden

3 Singing Spears

Total: 420 points.

Farseer w/ Jetbike, Runes of Warding, Spirit

Stones, Fortune, Doom.

Total cost: 175

Final points cost of the 8-man ‘minimal’ Seer Council:

604 points.

As said, this is a bloody expensive unit, but very durable,

and capable of doing damage to anything it can catch. Four

heavy amers for hordes (and even a heap of twin-linked

Shuriken Catapults, for what they’re worth. Yay, bike guns.

Really.) and then massed Wytchblades for melee against

  vehicles, walkers, etc. You can charge dreadnoughts and kill

them without fear of reprisal if you’ve got Enhance.

 Wound Allocation in the UnitFirst o, if you lose the Farseer, you lose psychic support, and a

good chunk of your durability. If you are facing an enemy that

has WS3 or lower all around, Enhance is expendable. Enhance

is a neat goody, but after you get into the enemy early on, it

becomes less important. Te ‘naked’ warlocks are obviously expendable, but while there are still enemies out there to burn,

  you want to hold onto your Destructors. Bear in mind that

 while you are 4, it’s actually 3(4); you still eat Instant Death

on the Farseer on S6+ hits. Avoid giving him those wounds if 

 you can.

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 Assault and the Farseer  Te jetbikes have a little more leeway in this because of their

speed but it goes for the foot council as well. Sometimes,

after the burning and the spearing, you’re going to assault.

Sometimes, that unit has a schmuck with a powerst or

something else capable of inicting Instant Death on your

Farseer. Now, he’s an independent character so in assault he’s

a unit unto himself (or herself, if you prefer. Call me crazy, or

maybe it’s Dawn of War’s inuence: I see Farseers as female.

Oh well.). Tis means the other guy can single out the Seer.

 Well, we look to assault rules, and nd that you have to move

 your closest unit into assault rst. Ten, the other guy has to

pile in. But, only unengaged models pile in. So, if the enemy 

has a powerst, it behooves you to see two conditions met:

1 You hit the powerst on the get-

go with your charge moves

2 Your Farseer is on the other side of this melee.

 You want the Farseer on the other side so the Powerst

isn’t within 2” of anyone engaged with the Farseer. Otherwise,

the st can still reach the Seer and turn your psychic support

into chunky spaghetti sauce. Hopefully, if you can’t avoid

engaging the rst you kill it before it swings, and failing that,

 you’re in the land of “Oh, crap, can I make the saves and keep

my Seer?”

The Joy that is the Eldar Jet BikePast the 3(4) note and the semi-interesting guns (hey, I’ll

take the twin-linked catapult over the pistol any day of the

 week if I’m shooting something), the Eldar Jet Bike DOES

have one big advantage. You’ll have to hit the main rulebook 

for it, but note that Eldar Jet Bikes may always move 6” in the

assault phase, even if they are not moving into assault.

 What does this mean to you? Versatility, that’s what.

 Well, if you only brought one Farseer, it means you canstill get Fortune on, and move 12”+6” for an 18” advance.

 Te second major advantage is you can decide what you

 want to do after your shooting phase. Let’s say you brought a

few Singing Spears. Not a hefty investment. Te enemy has a

transport nearby. Say you got within 6” of it. You throw your

spears. Well, if you blow up the vehicle and have enemies

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in assault range, you can follow up with a charge on them.

If you don’t blow up the vehicle, you can consider assaulting

the vehicle, depending on how fast it moved last turn. Or, if 

 you blow it up and the other guys are out of charge range, you

can back o 6”. Te same goes for hosing down troops with

Destructor. If you break them and they run out of range, you

can backpedal 6” and potentially get out of easy counter-charge

range. Or you can simply plunge in and nish the job.

The Foot Council

 o be honest, I see the Foot Council as second place to the

  Jetbike Council. You can still take a massive unit and try to

launch assaults out of the back of a Wave Serpent, but thereare issues (touched on here) with that. Mostly, you have to run

up, hope no one blows you up, and then get out and assault

next turn.

As such, you would be looking at something like...

8 Warlocks

4 Destructors

Enhance

Embolden3 Spears

Farseer w/ Runes of Warding, Spirit Stones,

Doom, Fortune (145)

 Wave Serpent w/ TL Shuriken Cannon,

Spirit Stones, Vectored Engines (130)

Total: 504

As you can see, dropping the bikes and pick ing up a Wave

Serpent (which, here, is optimized for troop delivery only)

saves you 100 points over the Jetbike Council. You are less

durable as Warlocks with just a 4+ re-rollable. If you lose the

Serpent early, you are on foot, and we go back to the problem

of ‘Ah, I bet I can nuke that before it gets to me.’ If you lose the

Serpent in the other guy’s face, well, if he’s smart he’ll be in a

position to hurt your Council dead.

Alternatively, you can cheapen the squad and just run it as

a heavy amer delivery system. I th ink it might look something

like:

Farseer w/ Doom, Spirit Stones, Fortune

(130)4 Warlocks (100)

4 Destructor (40)

Sub-total: 270 (before Transport)

Here, we’ve got a much smaller and more focused Warlock 

unit. Its sole purpose is to Doom a target and feed it four heavy 

amers. It will then promptly die, much like Fire Dragons.

 Why? Tis is a lot of repower focused into one package. After

it appears, anyone who can do so will kill it. I suppose thisconguration could work; though I would suggest my default

Serpent cong of Bright Lance + Shuriken Cannon at 145

points, since you may want to sit back and shoot for a bit. We

bring Fortune so we can g rant our Serpent a rerollable 4+ cover

save. Tis means the enemy must focus more re into the tank 

to drop it, which is a problem.

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Still, I can’t shake the feeling that such a minimalist use of 

the Council ignores its Witchblades and potential durability. If 

anyone uses it in such a manner, let me know how it works for

 you, as I am curious.

Final Note on the Serpent-mountedCouncil

  Tere is one glaring weakness of the mechanized council: if 

the enemy pops the transport, game over for the counci l. Wave

Serpents are durable with their energy eld but even then it’s

 just AV12. Tey are not immortal.

On the other hand, the Serpent Council has the Serpent

around it. If the enemy manages to knock the Fortune o the

 Jetbike Council (for whatever reason, be it a psychic hood, you

 just ubbed the roll, or just came in from reserves) then you

are essentially Marines in cover in terms of durability and the

enemy WILL maim/kill the unit. Alternatively, a Serpent

Council can combine a turbo-boost save of 4+ and Fortune.

Beware Hydra Flak anks, though, as they’ ll just laugh at your

turbo-boost save and blow you to hell in a hail of twin-linked

autocannon shots.

Conclusions on the Seer Council

Make no mistake: the Seer Council, in any form, is capable of being a massive threat. It wants to be in theenemy’s face, butchering their vehicles or burning their troops down before shanking the remains with psychically-

charged blades.

As such, the challenge in using the Seer Council is getting it to the eective short range. Te Biker Council

is mobile until dead, whereas the mounted council ceases to be as much of a threat i f you pop their transport early.

However, Fortune + Flat Out = a Serpent with a 4+ re-rollable save in the other guy’s face, which is usually a bit

of a pain to deal with.

Any way you look at it, a Seer Council is a massive re magnet. Tey do their best work up close, and if the

enemy can stop them before they close? Lots of points rendered ineective, but that’s something you might be used

to if you’ve rolled out the Land Raiders and such.

For durability, both Councils have access to a form of it. Te Serpent Council has a wave serpent hull for

protection, and can combine a at out 4+ cover save with Fortune. Te Jetbike Council has a 3+/4++ set of saves

but is much more reliant on Fortune to be durable. If the enemy can get you without fortune (IE: came in from

reserves, ubbed the roll, or got a psychic hood to the forebrain) then you can expect them to try to nuke your

council. On the other hand, a Jetbike Council can’t lose its mobility to a single lucky shot. In short, the durability 

and mobility are a tradeo.

In terms of assaultyness, the Jetbike Council wins out in my opinion because of the assault move; they can

back o if the situation warrants it whereas the Serpent Council commits, and if they real ly want to assault instead

of just being a amer unit, they take a couple turns to get a convincing one o.

Any way you cut it, the Seer Council is an investment; you’re looking at 500-600 points in anything beyond

a minimal burny Council. However, this unit can do some serious damage. Te only thing to watch for is stu 

 with hefty armor saves; things like erminators with 2+ saves and Plague Marines with 3+ armor and 4+ FNP

can absorb a heap of wounds.

 anks to Fritz at e Way of Saim-Hann  blog for letting us use pictures of his Seer Council in action anks to Fritz at e Way of Saim-Hann blog for letting us use pictures

of his Seer Council in action

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shows drops after this article was written but before this issue

goes out, so we can’t give a review of the new show.

Overview:Hosts- Spencer (ret), Philip (ret), Scott (ret),

Chris (ret), Romeo, Rik and George

 Website- www.40kradio.com

Release schedule- On the 1st and 15th of

every month

Game Systems- 40k.

Enter Chicagoland

My second 40k podcast is DiceLikeTunder [DL].

Born in Chicago, this podcast was started by Mack Martin

 who pioneered the show on his own and then gradually build

up a great team of Dan and Rich with regular local guests.

 Tey try to give an alternate look at the hobby preferring, for

example to do “Ork Hunting” segments where they discuss

anti Ork tactics rather than a actica-Orks which features in

many other places. Like 40k Radio they record a weekly show.

Unlike 40k Radio, DL has a free forum and a slew of extra-curricular material such as their Fluid 40k update system, their

reworked Forge- Star Necron codex and their Fireght small

game system. Recently there have been a bit of an upheaval for

the podcast, rst with the split to two dierent shows as Mack 

moved away from Chicago, Dice Like Tunder- Chicago and

Dice Like Tunder Cali-40k-ation, and now the news has

recently arrived that due to a new job Mack has left the podcast.

 Tere is a unique tone to DL and it can be o putting to the

new listener, they are trying to strike a ne balance and of late

their struggling to keep the poise of the shows when they were

split, which is in my opinion thei r highest quality output so far.

 Te California show is now over due to Mack moving to

Michigan for a job. Te Chicago crew diligently carries on,

producing a new show every week. Tey have recently started

doing live shows on Ustream, which typically starts broadcast

at 10:30pm CS on Fridays (that would be -6 GM).

DiceLikeTunder recorded and released their 100th

episode while this Issue was near completion. Quite an

achievement! Here’s our little shoutout from a small corner of 

the 40k community: Congrats, crew of DL, and keep themcoming!

Overview:Hosts- Mack (ret), Rich, Dan, Dave, Jon,

Chris.

Release Schedule- Every week 

Game Systems- 40k, with a few episodes

devoted to Dark Heresy and Battletech

This... Is the End

Now we reach the cream of the crop, from their rst episode

 Worlds End Radio [WER] have had a polished presentation

that some well established podcasts are still striving for. Tey 

have kept a professional, quality tone to their podcast from

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episodes one to sixty. Hosted by Australians Luke Retallack 

and JJ Layeld it comes from Perth Australia, the other end

of the country than Podhammer, literally at the end of the

 world. In their episodes they cover 40k and all other Games

  Workshop games from Lord of the Rings and WFB to

Necromunda and especially Blood Bowl. Tey have a great

balance between their sections and if you’re looking to expand

 your hobby horizons this is the podcast for you. Both of the

hosts are very experienced tournament players and organisers

hosting the WestGamer Forum Ultimate ournaments for

40k and WFB for the past few years. Teir coverage rotates

between al l of the systems depending on what’s new and what’s

interesting them this week. Tey also have bonus shows out

of their usual numerical sequence including the World’s EndMailbag where they held an entire show dedicated to listener

questions. Back in the normal sequence of things some of their

other topics are as diverse as “Working with Resin”, “How to

Participate in and Run a Gaming Club”, “Te Psychology of 

 Te Game”, Teming Armies” and Te Lore of the Hobby. All

in all Worlds End Radio is leading the Way in 40k and mixed

system podcasting, and it’s lifting the hobby up with it.

Overview:Hosts- Luke, JJ

Release Schedule- Every two weeks

Game Systems- 40k, Fantasy and the

Specialist Games (a passion for Blood Bowl)

 An Unlikely Alliance

 Within the podcasting community two groups have formed,

the Wargamer Radio Network is the old guard of seasonedpodcasts including Podhammer, 40k Radio, Worlds End

Radio and D6 Generation. It has been around for a while and

 you’ll hear regular cross promotion on all of the shows. I can

say denitely for three of these shows that they are a quality 

group and all well worth a listen.

 Te other group that has only arrived in the last month

or so is the Hobbyalk Network; made up of many younger

podcasts it includes the Warbanner Podcast, Dice Like

 Tunder and the Imperial VoxCast. Tey have brought some

fresh insights to the scene and this division is a great step

showing that the podcasting scene has a depth and variety that

 will only continue to grow over time.

Our New Media.

So all in all there are a huge variety of shows to suit every 

hobbyist’s preference. Personally I enjoy the podcasts as I paint

models and from them I have learned a lot about tactics and

other ways to enjoy the hobby.

See you in Te Void

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&  What Is Math-Hammer?

I’m going to use Math-hammer as a term to describe the

rudimentary application of statistics to 40k in an attemptto gure out the outcome of a discrete round of harming the

other guy.

Math-hammer usually takes the form of something like this:

Number of shots * chance to hit * chance to wound *

failed saves = Number of casualties.

Let’s put this neat little model into action: I re my 10

Dire Avengers into your Imperial Guardsmen that are in cover.

 Te pertinent facts are:

1 Dire Avengers are BS42 Teir guns are 2-shot, S4, AP5 jobs

3 Guardsmen have 3, and a 4+ cover save.

Let’s turn that crank with the following data:

Number of shots = (10*2) 20

Chance to hit (at BS4) = 2/3

Math-Hammer 

Rob Rivard

Chance to wound (S4 vs T3) = 2/3

Failed saves (4+ cover) = 1/2

Ergo: 20 * (2/3) * (2/3) * (1/2) =...

20*(2/3) = 13.333 hits * (2/3) = 8.8886

 wounds * (1/2) = 4.44 Casualties.

Hooray! We just killed some Guardsmen!

Except Not

So, what’s the problem with this model? Tere are a few:

namely, the dice, the laws of statistics, and template weapons.

The Dice

Dice are not necessarily impartial random-number generators.Some people suggest that Chessex dice (the default, little

rounded-corner boggarts) lean towards the 1 a little bit. Tere

are also some nasty tricks you can do to manipulate dice. My 

personal bias involves just playing with the Chessex dice, and

the hell with the bad rolls you get. Actively trying to rig your

rolls is a punk thing to do, and should realistically get you

kicked in the dice bag.

 Te bottom line is that the dice do not always behave in a

perfectly predictable manner, but we can still make some basicassumptions about how they’ll act any given time we roll them.

Laws of Statistics Tink about most the times you roll dice in 40k. Maybe it’s

an ordnance shot or blast weapon; then it’s 2d6 and the scatter

dice (...just RY running some math-hammer for scatter. It’s

 You

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1 Know the limits of the stats You need 30 rolls to get an accurate ‘sample size’; if it’s below 

that than you’re not really guaranteed an ‘average’ result

2 Know the limits of the diceDice are not perfect random-number generators, either through

manufacturing processes or human interference a la practiced

rolling.

3 It’s Still MathMath, when done right and mindful of its problems, is SILL

a reasonably reliable when you follow the steps.

-At least, math is a reliable tool given an understanding of the tool. It’s like a computer: it can only do what you tell it to

do, how you tell it to do.

4 Know what the ‘Average’ means-Te ‘average’ result is the midway point, which means that IF 

 you roll enough dice, HIS is what happens about 50% of the

time.

-What you’re really dealing with is a Normal Distr ibution

(aka bell-shaped curve)*. You’re hoping that your dice wil l landsomewhere in the middle, but it is still entirely possible to see

a given set of rolls fall way the hell away from average (hey, it’s

possible to see 5 1’s, [0.01% chance, theoretical ly] and you have

the same chance of seeing ve 6’s in a row as well)

5 Know that Things Can Still Go Wrong-Te dice are still fully capable of throwing complete outliers

at you. We call this ‘the wheels coming o’, when you re ve

bolters into a single guardsman in the open, and he still l ives, for

example. (Worse still, he k ills 2 guys on the charge, and lives.)

-In other words, you care about math, but math doesn’t

give a ip about you, and can screw either of you over, or both

of you, or neither of you. Crap happens. Deal w ith it.

6 Realize the limits of Math-Hammer  Tere are things Math-hammer simply will not do, and they are:

• ell you WHERE to move• ell you what your opponent will do

• Gauge range

• ell you how many of your infantry will

actually be in range of your target

• ell you a blessed thing about how many people you

actually will hit with a template-based weapon

Math-Hammer CAN give you an idea on:

• How much re you need to kill a target• How much re you need to force a morale check 

• Whether or not you might make assault (remember,

 you just need base-to-base with ONE guy)

• Te chances of immobilizing yourself in terrain

• Te chances of you winning/ losing an

assault, and potential morale results

Conclusion

Math-hammer is a tool. No more, no less. It’s not perfect, but

it’s a workable enough basis for making decisions about dice in

the game. As such, I suggest a working knowledge of it, since

this IS a dice game, and Math-hammer DOES tell us a little

how the dice work. It’s a more reliable basis than all the little

pre-concieved notions that your brain tends to have.

Any kind of theory makes assumptions. Te more you

know about the assumptions, the more use you can get out of 

the theory. At the end of the day, theory itself is a tool. Teory 

simplies the world, loses some resolution, and usually gives

 you a (reasonably reliable) method of making decisions and/orlearning about an aspect of life, the universe, and everything.

Math-hammer just gives you a rough idea of what can

happen when you throw the dice, and that’s better than

nothing, in my book. Tere are days where the average will

happen every single roll, there are days where the dice will roll

sub-par on a game level for you, but in the end, across enough

games, the dice wi ll roll average.**

*Disclamer: I’m being a little lazy here and linking to

 Wikipedia. Note that since Wikipedia is open to anyone who wants to edit it, anyone can (and in some cases, has) tweaked

the data in an incorrect manner. If you really, truly want solid

info, wikipedia is a good start, but then you’d better check out

the sources they’ve listed in the article, and move from there.

**Unless you’re a bloody dice cheat. Or the other guy is.

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   P   a   i   n   t   i   n

   g

Conventional painting tutorials are generally very bland

and monotonous. ey attempt to show you the method

of painting (which, of course, has its own merit) but most

fail to explain why steps were chosen and why things were

painted the way they were. Everyone has their own painting 

style and instead of just showing you how I paint my Space

Hulk Terminators, I’ll explain why I chose the paints and

techniques I did in an attempt to give you a new point of 

 view when tackling a new mini. First I must note that thistechnique was developed to be quick and conducive to bulk 

painting (thus the inks and washes). Anyways, lets begin!

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1 3

STEP 1Step one involved a simple base coat of Mechrite Red slightly 

  watered down. Watering down your paints, especially 

foundation paints, is incredibly important because otherwise

they will be very thick and ruin details on your model. Granted

my method doesn’t really make the most of the incredible

details on the models, I stil l urge you to water down your paints

slightly. I chose Mechrite because, like all the foundation

paints, it provides a very solid base color and only requires one

coat.

in some Matte Medium. I failed to do this on one of the later

steps and you’ll be able to see what happens when you don’t.

I chose a Brown Ink over, say, Black because Browns tend to

deepen Reds more whereas Blacks tend to just dull models

down.

STEP 3Step three involved a drybrush of 50/50 Mechrite Red to Blood

Red. Tis simply serves as a primary highlight.

2

STEP 2Step two I used some Brown

Caligraphy Ink and washed

it over the model. Caligraphy 

Ink, unlike normal hobby 

inks, is not water proof.

  Tis means if you get water

on the model, the ink will

begin to run. On that same

token, these inks were free because I found them sitting in my 

basement so I made the most of them. If you have Caligraphy 

inks you can counter-act the fact that it’s water-proof by mixing

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4 6

STEP 4Step four is a secondary highlight of a straight Blood Red

drybrush. At this point the brightness of the Blood Red is

meant to accentuate the edges and provide a nice contrast with

the browns in the recesses. Te armor begins to come together

at this point.

STEP 6Step six is a nal highlight and is a very light drybrush of 60/40

Blood Red to Fiery Orange. Tis nal highlight provides a

noticeable contrast between itself and not only the recesses but

the red of the armor itself. I wanted the models to be noticeable

and eye-catching on the Space Hulk board so this highlight

serves to do just that.

5

STEP 5Step ve is a Baal red Wash. I do this to to not only blend the

highlights together but also to emphasise the reds in the model.

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7 9

STEP 7Now here, step seven, is

 where I screwed up. I apply 

Red Caligraphy Ink here in

order to deepen the reds and

give the model a slight gloss.

However, I failed to mix in

any Matte Medium and as

 you will end up seeing in step

nine, the red starts to show through a bit.

little to make them more subtle (and thus increasing the appeal

of the red armor on the table). Next I drybrushed any gold

surface over with Shining Gold (for obvious reasons) and then

a very light highlight drybrush of 2:1 Shining Gold to Mithril

Silver. Tis just accentuates to ex treme edges producing a more

  vibrant gold color. Te Purity Seals were simply painted in

Bleached Bone with a highlight of 50/50 Bleached Bone toSkull White. I then used Black to draw small writing on the

seals. Finally, over all of the gold and parchment surfaces, I

applied a Gryphonne Sepia wash to them. Tis, like the Bestial

Brown undercoat, serves to tie the dierent details together

(and also adds a nice weathering eect to the parchment).

8

STEP 8Here’s where the detailing begins: step eight. I decided to paint

any metallic silver parts rst as that seemed to be the most

prominent color on the model other than red (obviously). I used

Boltgun Metal for this, but Chainmail would suce as well.

STEP 9Step nine involved base coating any gold or parchment colored

surface with Bestial Brown. I decided on Bestial as it is,

more or less, a bridge between Snakebite Leather (good for

golds) and Graveyard Earth (good for parchments). I decided

on using this middle-road color in order to maintain some

uniformity over the model and helping to blend the detai ls in a

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STEP 10 Te nal step is to highlight the gun with grey (I did a

line highlight of Codex Grey with another Fortress Grey 

highlight just to make the gun ‘pop’ a bit more) and paint thelenses. What I did (for the eyes) was base coat Dark Angels

Green, highlight 50/50 Dark Angels to Scorpion Green and

nished the highlight o with a straight Scorpion green line in

the front of the lens. o top it o I placed a small Skull White

dot in the rear of the eye to simulate a reecting eect that

optics would have.

And that’s about it. I’ll be doing a similar tutorial for

my genestealers which can be found on my blog erran Forge

(http://terranforge.blogspot.com/). Happy Gaming!

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BasicBrushTechniques

Roman ak a jar 

This article should be considered as a basic equipment

and is only concerned with the theor y and a few practical

steps of the most common techniques known to me. It is not

checked for completeness and only shows my personal view 

on the things I have learned from others.

 Tere are dierent ways to paint a gure. From brushing

to washing, inking to multi-layering, there are probably already countless dierent denitions for each technique. I am trying

to clarify a bit; I hope I manage it in a purely theoretical form.

Also, this is just an overview. Plans for talking deeper

about it are done – it will arrive in the future, like most plans

do, so please be patient :) [Check  www.massivevoodoo.

blogspot.com for more articles and helpful posts. -C]

1. Dry Brushing

 Applications: Figures, terrain, bases, etc. – especially for

applying lighter colors over a darker color.

Colors: All colors except special Inks.

 Advantage: Simple technique which is quick, can deliver

good results even in the new painter, and with a little practicecan also provide very good results. Might help painting a large

number of models in a manageable time.

Disadvantage: Often, this technique is applied in an

uncontrolled manner, which usually leads to “messy” results

and could result in the overall impression of a gure strongly 

going downwards.

 When you drybrush, a bristle brush is usually an advantage.

 You can also drybrush with a slightly larger ne hair brush, but

this usually leads to a very rapid wear of the brush.

The “brushing operation” in theory A tiny color amount is carried on the brush, then this “dried”

on a cloth or tissue to get rid from the main amount of the color

and the color left on it is “powdery”. Now then brush as desired

– from top to bottom or from left to right, etc. Te “dusty”

pigments are deposited on the highlights of the gure / model

/ terrain and allow it to stand out. Tis can be done in several

steps from dark to bright.

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Basecoated:

Dark Undercoat (would have been better to basecoat in black, haha):

 Variants: If there is a dry brush, there must be a “wet”

brush, right? It should be mentioned that there are dierent

  variants of how to start a brush session. Te dry brush is

certainly the easiest way. If the color is diluted with water, the

brush result will not be so dusty, more a fading touch of color

– also try to catch the upper parts and areas of your model as

described above – but be sure the “drying on the tissue” step

needs some more time and attention to avoid getting the color

everywhere around.

2. Washing / Inking

 Applications: Washing / Inking is usually used to

dierentiate wells quickly from higher points of the miniature.It also works well in combination with dry brushing before and

sometimes after the washing.

Colors: Special Inks / Inks by various manufacturers.

 Advantage: Fast results, gives more depth to a model,

quick and good for painting a large amount of models or to

nd a basic idea of where to go.

Disadvantage: Inks are often glossy, even after drying.

 Te colors may run if not applied in the correct areas.

The “Ink-/Washing” operation in thetheory Get some of the color up via the brush. As Inks are often very 

uid, extra ink should be drawn o on a cloth before it goes

to the miniature. Also, a dilution with water is possible to

mitigate the intensity of the ink. When you order, make sure

Drybrushed with a lighter tone:

that the ink is specically brought to the point where it should

be. Also you can put it as a thin layer over an existing basecoat

to bring dierent color over it.

It says “Not wet!”

Bright undercoat:

Leads to:

 Variants: Washing is also possible with “normal” colors.

Here one often speaks of glazing – such as glazing in the

shadows – In the end you make – through dilution with water– a color like a Ink from its way of use / one that does not shine

after drying. Glazes are also often used for more sophisticated

techniques – but this is further below.

  Washing/Inking is often used in conjunction with

metallic paints to give you a subsequent staining or a structure

by underscoring the modeled wells.

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4. Shading

 Applications: A preferred technique for sounding

subsequently stained bodies to be consu lted or more the reversestyle of Layering.

Colors: All colors available.

 Advantage: Subsequent follow-up would allow the

development of ner dierences in color.

Disadvantage: Just enjoy exercising. Strongly dependent

on the value of the painter’s experience in dealing with glazes.

So a brush is like a guitar – it is built to paint.

The Shading operation in theory: When Shading a complete character you start with a very light

foundation and pulls them through with wispy glazes and

stains in the dark. Here, you brush towards the shade sites.

It says from bright to dark:

3. Layering

 Applications: Most common method of painting.

Colors:All colors possible – use of Inks and Washes (gloss

and opacity, barely take care!)

 Advantage: Good eect – easy to learn, results in nice

looking miniatures.

Disadvantage: Hardly any! A specialized form of this,

the so-called “Blending”, or making clean color transitions

from light to dark, is the basic of high quality painting.

Highlighting operation in theory:Highlighting starts on a dark base and the process starts by the

addition of an ever-brightening tone to the distinctive features

(highlight points of a model).

It says from dark to bright:

 Variants: Trough strongly diluted paints you can also

highlight with glazes. Te transitions are softer and gentler

and form a more harmonious overall picture in the end.

 Variants: Tis technique is particularly well in my eyes

subsequently to incorporate areas of color, a certain tension

by being carefully retouched with a subtle color ow. Te

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subsequent Shading often helps me to work wild and work out

my shadow areas. Highlighting afterwards is good advice to

re-identify the points of light afterwards similar to accentuate

and shade with middle tones during the operation to make

transitions softer.

5. The “edge-accentuation”

 Applications: Similar to the accentuation while Layering

– raised edges of the gure get more attention.

Colors: All colors possible, except inks are not good for

this.

 Advantage: Emphasizes the edges; you can set nal focus

areas, or the ways the eye is moved to the focus.Disadvantage: Hardly any! It is on professional

application under inclusion of light and shadow as a basis of 

professional painting. If applied quickly and/or with no use of 

light and shadow, miniatures can often look unclean.

The “edge-accentuation” in theory  When accentuate all exist ing edges are usually tightened on the

model. Tis means that the clarity of contours of the model is

more impressive and easier to catch. Te color is added w ith thebrush and pulled over the edge. Here the fault often happens

that you might work the tip of the brush while drawing the

accent – this usually leads to shaky results. But one uses the

surface of the brush and moves it around in a 45 ° angle over

the edge so the result is – after a little practice – clean and ne.

 Variants: o use this technique at a high level, long

practice is probably necessary – I do not mean the technology 

itself, but the combination of dierent techniques and

knowledge of color and its authority can apply ha rmony (color

theory) and the knowledge and clear light situation on a gure.

Conclusion

  You can hardly call any of the above-mentioned techniquesas the way there has to be dealt with. Each technique has

its justication of existence, as they specically targeted for

specic applications and desired results. Also, dierent people

like dierent things, so it is up to you to nd out what is your

thing by practice and experience.

Striving for the most ideal one, the gap between the

dierent techniques may be combining the advantages of 

each. Tis requires practice and is for sure depending from

 your own personal experience – what i am saying here is for

sure not the holy grail. Trough experiments developed from

the above “basic techniques” and other forms, such as the

so called “Wetblending” or “Feathering” or any other words

and descriptions found out there in the WWW, remember

everything is just a matter of bravery to do experiments and

learn through them.

So far from me – I am also practicing once again ... And

remember – Te Way of the gure painter must not be dicu lt

one – just keep on Happy Painting!

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   H   o   m

   e   b   r   e

   w

Welcome to Loyal Traitors, A Soul Drinkers Army List. is home brew codex has been

designed to allow you to play a Warhammer 40,000 game or campaign as the SoulDrinkers. While it is not necessary to read the Black Library novels written by Ben Counter 

to play the Soul Drinkers, we heartily recommend it.

 We assume you are familiar with a large majority, if not all, of the rules in Warhammer

40K 5th Edition rule book and Codex: Space Marines and Codex: Chaos Space Marines. It also

is assumed, unless written otherwise, that all rules pertaining to game mechanics, game length

and force organization are used.

 Te inherent limitation for writing this home brew codex is the Movie Marine principle.

Most everything written in a novel is designed to be cinematically entertaining and we all know 

that not every game is so played. Great care has been taken to pull the essence of the SoulDrinkers from the Black Library novels and translate that into table top play.

Undoubtedly, you will have questions on how certain codex mechanics work especially 

 when drawing your force from three sources. We have attempted to iron out these diculties for

 you. Should you have any questions, feel free to email us ([email protected]) with

any of your questions. We are also open to suggestions or changes for better play.

 We hope you have as much playing the Soul Drinkers as we did writing and play testing them.

 Tanks to: C-Swizzy,

D-Skizzy, J-Nizzy, Sidetrack 

Nick, Beeny13, Dezzo

and a whole host of other

people who gave invaluable

insight and advice on this

project. Tanks also to RonSaikowski of fromthewarp.

blogspot.com for the

 wonderful image of his

Sarpedon model and Ed aka

 Tantos for the image of his

spot-on ellos model. Final

thanks to Morgan from the

Astro-Mag who graciously 

donated additional art from

his massive stock pile.

Special thanks go to BenCounter for writing the Soul

Drinker novels and to Black 

Library for publishing them.

A Dice Like Tunder

Production, 2010.

 Tis document is intended

for use with the Warhammer

40,000 5th Edition rule set

and, optionally, the Fluid

40K game system.

 You can learn more about

 Warhammer 40,000 at

 www.games-workshop.com.

Fluid 40K can be found at

 www.dicelikethunder.com.

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FORCE ORGANIZATION

 Te Soul Drinkers have the following army list options. All dedicated transports must be taken

from the codex the unit it is purchased for comes from.

HEADQUARTERS, 1-2

Unit: Reference:

0-1 Sarpedon See the following pages.

0-1 Chaplain Iktinos See the following pages.

0-1 Captain Karraidin See the following pages.

0-1 Captain Pg. 132, Codex: Space Marines

0-2 Librarian Pg. 133, Codex: Space Marines

0-1 Master of the Forge Pg. 133, Codex: Space Marines

 What you need to play:• Warhammer 40,000 5th

Edition rule book 

• Codex: Space Marines

• Codex: Chaos Space Marines

• Loyalist raitors: a Soul

Drinkers adventure

• A table 6’ x 4’ or larger (depending

on how many points you play)

• Fluid 40K (optional)

• DL Missions Book (optional)

• Dice and tape measure

ELITES, 0-2

Unit: Reference:

0-2 Sternguard Veteran Pg. 125, Codex: Space Marines

0-2 Chosen Chaos Space Marines* Pg. 94, Codex: Chaos Space Marines

0-1 Possessed Chaos Space Marines* Pg. 95, Codex: Chaos Space Marines

 TROOPS, 2-6

Unit: Reference:

2-4 actical Squad† Pg. 134, Codex: Space Marines

0-2 Chaos Space Marines* Pg. 96, Codex: Chaos Space Marines

0-1 Scout Squad Pg. 134, Codex: Space Marines

FAST ATTACK, 0-3

Unit: Reference:0-1 Chaos Space Marine Bike Squad* Pg. 99, Codex: Chaos Space Marines

0-2 Assault Squad Pg. 139, Codex: Space Marines

0-1 Chaos Raptors*† Pg. 99, Codex: Chaos Space Marines

HEAVY SUPPORT, 0-3

Unit: Reference:

0-2 Chaos Havocs Pg. 100, Codex: Chaos Space Marines

0-1 Vindicator Pg. 143, Codex: Space Marines

0-1 Whirlwind Pg. 143, Codex: Space Marines

* Tese units may not purchase the Mark of Nurgle.

† Tis unit has a character upgrade.

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SPECIAL RULES

Loyal Unto Death

By taking two of the three unique Headquarters choices listed below, your entire force becomesStubborn with the exception of those units who already are Fearless.

Cold & Fast, Soul Drinkers!Drop Pods may be purchased for 25 pts apiece (for those units who can use it as a dedicated

transport) with upgrades taken at the normal price listed in Codex: Space Marines.

 And They Shall Know No Fear As described in Codex: Space Marines and applicable to all units in your force.

Combat TacticsAs described in Codex: Space Marines and applicable to all units in your force.

 We Stand Alone Te Soul Drinkers are branded Excommunicate raitoris by the Imperium. Tey may not take

any Imperial allies but wil l ght in separate actions that benet Imperial citizens that require aid.

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SPECIAL CHARACTERS

Sarpedon, Librarian Chapter Master 180 points WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv  

5 4 5 5 3 5 2 10 3+

Composition: 1 (Unique), Infantry 

 Wargear: Power Armor, Bolt Pistol, Frag/Krak grenades, Force Sta, Psychic Hood

Special Rules: Independent Character, Psyker, Orbital Bombardment, Mutant

Mutant: As Sarpedon has been mutated by the warp to be half Space Marine and half giant

arachnid with further bionic upgrades, he has a 4+ Invulnerable save. In addition, Sarpedon may 

use two psychic powers per turn.

Powers: Machine Curse (Codex: Space Marines), Warptime (Codex: Chaos Space Marines),

 Te Hell

The Hell: Te Hell is a special psychic power that visits horrifying visions of doom and

destruction upon all who see it. Whi le fellow Soul Drinkers have seen this power in action many 

times, they are not immune to it. Tis power is used only by Sarpedon and only in the movement

phase.

 Te Hell is a psychic shooting attack that eects D6 enemy units within 18” of Sarpedon,

starting with the closest unit. Each unit eected by this power must pass a Leadership test (not

a Morale test) or be Pinned. Models in close combat are not immune and, should they fail their

Leadership test, will have their Initiative reduced by 1 instead of being pinned.

Should Sarpedon fail his psychic test, all friendly units in range must test to see if they 

succumb to Te Hell.

Should Sarpedon roll double 1s for his psychic test he suers from Perils of the Warp and

d6 enemy units within range are automatically Pinned or have their Initiative reduced by 1

regardless of special rules like Fearless or Mob Rule.

Conversion: Our Sarpedon model was graciously donated to us by Chaos Dave. According

to Dave, he took a pewter spider model and then green stued the upper torso of a 3rd edition

metal Librarian onto it. He then added ‘bionic looking stu’ to a leg. o complete it, he used a

home made Dreadnought sized base with sand ocking.

 We’re not sure what else we can use this for, but the thing looks awesome!

t Sharpdeon by Ron from From Te Warp

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Chaplain Iktinos, Master of Sanctity 160 points WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv  

5 5 4 5 3 5 3 10 3+

Composition: 1 (Unique), Infantry 

 Wargear: Power Armor, Crozius Arcanum, Rosarius, Frag/Krak grenades, Harbinger

Harbinger: A modied, heavy caliber bolt pistol with the following stat line.

Range: 12” Str: 4 AP: 4 Assault 3, Pistol

Special Rules: Independent Character, Liturgies of Battle, Honor of the Chapter

Retinue: Chaplain Iktinos is a shepherd for Soul Drinkers who no longer have a squad to

return to. Tough he has secret ambitions for the path of the chapter, he and his ock are seen

as an unmovable rock on the battleeld. As such, a purchased actical Squad or Chaos Marine

Squad may be chosen as his body guard with both Iktinos and the attached squad gaining the

Counter Attack special rule. If the retinue squad does not select a heavy weapon, it may instead

take a second assault weapon of equal or lesser point cost to one already selected, at no additional

cost.

Conversion: Our Chaplain Iktinos is a mongrel of two model kits. We took a metal Grey 

Knight model and removed the arm holding the Nemesis Force Weapon. We then added an

arm stub with a miniature neodyne magnet tip. For play with the Soul Drinkers, a hand holding

a Crozius Arcanum is magnetized into place. When Chaplain Iktinos is not going to battle as

himself, he removes his Crozius Arcanum and instead magneti zes in place a Power Fist so he candouble as Chapter Master Pedro Kantor for other games.

Captain Karraidin, Master of Initiates 180 points WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv  

6 4 4 5 3 5 3 10 2+

Composition: 1 (Unique), Infantry 

 Wargear:  erminator Armor, Storm Shield, Tunder Hammer, Storm Bolter

Master of Initiates: As the senior captain of the Soul Drinkers, Karraidin has taken

it upon himself to train the chapter’s initiates and all initiates gain from his leadership in battle.

 When a Scout Squad is taken in the same force as Karraidin, they gain +1 BS and the Stealth

special rule. Captain Karraidin may not take a Command Squad.

Conversion: Tis model lls the role of three dierent codex entries for us. Originally a

 erminator from the Assault on Black Reach set, we assured him that he would never wield a

Power Fist or Power Sword again. Instead we gave him a Storm Shield and Tunder Hammer.

 With some attention to the details on his shield, Captain Karraidin can now double for Captain

Darnath Lysander (or Anus McFearsome for Richard) or just a regular Tunder Hammer and

Storm Shield wield ing erminator.

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  Veteran Sergeant Luko 50 pointsIf two actical Squads are purchased, then you may purchase Luko to replace a Sergeant in one

of the squads.

 WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv  

5 4 4 4 1 5 2 10 3+

 Wargear: Power Armor, Frag and krak grenades, Dual Lightning Claws with built in

Storm Bolter

Special Rules: actical Formation, Chalice Standard, Fall In!

Tactical Formation: A squad with Veteran Sergeant Luko may purchase an addit ional

15 actical Marines rather than the normal 5. A Squad with 20 models may purchase an

additional Heavy and Speci al Weapon at the normal cost. A actical Squad with 20 models may 

still make use of its Combat actics speci al rule; split ting into 2 squads of 10 models instead of 5.

Chalice Standard: Any Soul Drinker unit with a model within 6” of Veteran Sergeant

Luko may reroll failed Morale and Pinning tests.

Fall In! Should the Soul Drinkers ever nd themselves without leadership on the battleeld,

Veteran Sergeant Luko is reluctantly ready to guide his battle brothers.

If all Headquarters choices in your force should be permanently removed from the table,

Luko gains one extra wound and attack to his stat line. In addition, the Chalice Standard’s range

extends to 12”.

Conversion: Veteran Sergeant Luko is a simple conversion. We took a Black emplar

pewter model with twin lightning claws and a cape then added a banner pole to his back pack.

  Assault Sergeant Tellos 65 poin(cost of Aspiring Champion upgrade included)

 Te Chaos Raptor Squad with a Mark of Khorne may instead upgrade one Raptor to ellos vice

an Aspiring Champion.

 WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv  

6 - 5 4 2 4 2+d3 9 3+

 Wargear: Power Armor, Chain Sword, Chain Blade of Blood, Jump Pack 

Chain Blade of Blood ellos suered serious wounds during an engagement with

a echpriest leaving him without hands and could not accept he would never see battle again.

As ellos sank into depression over this and was subverted to Khorne, he took to roaming the

battle barge in secret. He was eventually found with a chain swords jammed into the stump of 

his wrists.

In addition to the two chain sword attacks from his left arm, ellos makes d3 attacks with

his right arm and all close combat attacks gain Rending. Any to hit rolls of 1 instead strike his

allies in close combat and are resolved as normal.

Special Rules: Feel No Pain, Fearless, Devoted of Khorne, Blood Frenzy 

Follower of Khorne ellos has the Mark of Khorne and is already accounted for in

his prole. In addition, the Chaos Raptor Squad with ellos counts as being equipped with an

Icon of Khorne.

Blood Frenzy  ellos and his squad are so blood crazed they will do anything to get closer

to the nearest enemy. At the end of any round of shooting in which they take a wound, roll a d6moving ellos and his squad that many inches towards the closest enemy unit.

Conversion: In the various Soul Drinkers novels by Ben Counter, he is described as

having translucent skin with bulging muscles everywhere. We settled on a Possessed Chaos

Space Marine model that showed the most mutation then removed his hands and green stued

in chain swords.

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Why on Terra would someone try to write their own

“Homebrew” codex? We’ve always been told thatsuch a feat is absolute heresy and should never be attempted

  by mere mortals. After all if GW can make such horrible

codexes what makes anyone believe that a mere hobbyist can

 write a better one.

  Tat last statement isn’t completely true. GW actually 

makes very good codexes. Te “homebrew” codex could and

should never replace an existing codex but it does have its place

in the 40K game world. A minor but essential place for the

advanced wargame hobbyist.

 Tere are a few occasions when a “homebrew” codex can

and should be used as a supplement to existing codexes. Te

primary reason is when a current codex is so woefully out

of date from 3rd edition and is lled with redundant rules,

  wargear and concepts that it screams for an update. GW is

in the process of updating all of their older codex’s but until

also be so old that codex creep has left it behind and now it’s in

drastic need of a redux (like the Necron codex). Many of those

older codexes were written with 3rd edition rules and tactics in

mind and now what once was an army limitation to maintain

balance has become a crippling handicap. An example isthe Daemonhunters lack of transport vehicles. Grey Knights

are competitively priced in points compared their abilities but

to be used eectively in 5th edition they need to be mounted in

a transport. Unfortunately the only transport option for Grey 

Knights to use the Land Raider which will force a reduction

on model count in an already high model point cost army.

 Te reason for that was to deny the “Rhino Rush” tactic that

 was so popular in 3rd edition from an army with such potent

close combat ability. Te viability of that old tactic has beensignicantly reduced but the limitation on the Grey Knights

remained.

So if an aged codex is a reason for a player to rewrite a

codex and give it a “homebrew” revision, which ones should it

apply to? Te obvious answer would be any codex that hasn’t

been written with the current 5th edition rules. Te longer it’s

been out of date the more of a justication a homebrew codex

 writer has. Even the competitive Dark Elder codex should be

open to some minor revisions to bring its 3rd edition rules in

line with the current 5th edition rules.

But what about the underpowered codex that's weak and

uncompetitive? Once again the Necron codex surfaces as a

codex that screams for a revision. Other codexes such as the

Dark Angels and Daemonhunters could only be helped by a

codex revision. Tis doesn't mean that all older codexes are

The“Homebrew”

Dan Duran

they complete the process it’s inevitable that some will have to

 wait. Fluid 40K by the Dice Like Tunder Podcast was an early attempt by hobbyists to use minor revisions to certain rules to

bring the older codex up to date with the current rule set. o a

large degree it succeeded. Speaking as one of the writers, I’m

as pleased with the result as I am to see GW make it redundant

 with every newly revised codex.

 What inspired us to commit such a travesty against the

game? While some of the older codex’s may still be competitive

(Dark Eldar come to mind) many are simply too aged. Within

them you’ll nd outdated rules, wargear and codex writing

styles. Tere is also the question of codex consistency, why are

there so many dierent versions of Land Raiders and Force

 Weapons? Why does a vehicle in one codex cost a certain point

 value while in another codex the identica l vehicle is a completely 

dierent point cost? Why does Machine Spirit work dierently 

from one Space Marine codex to another? Tese codexes may 

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uncompetitive. Recent tournament results will prove that

these older underpowered codexes can and sometimes do win

tournaments against the current crop of codexes. While this

does lend argument against changing a codex is doesn't prove

it. A talented player can win with an underpowered codex vrsa poorly run newer codex. Te older codex such as Dark Eldar,

  au, Daemonhunters and Necrons tend to be run by older

more veteran players with a bit more skill than the average

player. Tey know how to win with any army. Tat alone can

more than make up for a perceived codex’s lack of power. My 

own personal counter argument is that no codex should require

an inordinate amount of player skill to have a chance of being

competitive vrs an opponent of average skill. All codex’s,

despite their age, should be balanced in relation to each other. When determining which codex’s are “underpowered” I

 would recommend avoiding any individual player’s opinion. oo

often that is based completely upon their playing ability and self 

bias and not the true capability of the codex. A website resource

I recommend for this is http://www.gosfordgamers.net/AR/

 YD_Armies.htm . Although its statistics are based upon

the tournament results in Australia the army rankings can be

applied anywhere. Te critical chart is where the armies are listed

by their Podium Ratio. Podium Ratio is a comparison of the

percentage of times an army places in the top 3 of a tournament

divided by the percentage of its appearances in tournaments. A

score of 1 would be statistically average. Of the current codex’s

only the Eldar achieved that score. Te highest scoring army 

 was the Dark Eldar who achieved a podium nish 13 times out

of 60 tournament appearances for a podium ratio of 2.49. At

the complete opposite were the Dark Angels who achieved a

podium nish only once out of 77 tournament appearances for a

podium ratio of 0.15. Does that mean that a Dark Elder army is

16+ times more likely to place in the top 3 of a tournament than

the Dark Angels? Sadly, the statistics say yes.A “homebrew” codex should never ever be used to give a

player of lesser skill an advantage because they can’t otherwise

 win. If your codex has a podium ratio that puts it in the bottom

tier of winning armies then you may have an excuse to make

a “homebrew” codex. If it’s not then you need to learn to play 

 your chosen army better. Tat statement may sound abrupt and

rude but it’s also very true.

But what if the current GW codex library doesn't fulll

a player’s individual thematic taste? With the abundanceof quality Black Library ction it’s natural that players will

attempt to build army lists based on what they’re read in the

 various novels. Any fan of the Gaunts Ghosts series by Dan

Abnett will feel the urge to build an Imperial Guard list that

accurately represents the look and feel of the army they’ve read

about. Te problem is that doing so forces a player to give up

half of what’s good in the Imperial Guard codex, vehicles. It’s

a severe restriction in mobility and repower that often times

leaves an all infantry army lacking. In addition leaving the

 vehicles on the shelf still leaves an Imperial Guard player with

an army that still doesn’t represent the feel of the anith 1st.

For the most part I say, “ough breaks buddy. Tat’s the

army you chose to run so play what you built. Your codex is

brand new.” On the other hand I do feel that a few minor

revisions could modify the codex to allow an all infantry army 

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to remain competitive and still recapture the look and feel of 

the ctional Gaunts Ghosts? Allowing Veteran Squads to be

taken in IG Infantry platoons will help. Tat would give them

access to the regiments signature camo cloaks and represent

the more accurate shooting they are known for. Te same could be said for the Dark Angels Deathwing.

  While it’s not a crippled list it does seem to fare poorly in

comparison to other Space Marine codexes. Many of the

Dark Angels wargear upgrades are completely out of date,

underpowered or overcosted when compared to the standard

Space Marine codex. Would it break the game to allow the

Dark Angels to use the wargear rules and upgrade points costs

from the Space Marine codex? In light of their tournament

results I’d say no.From a pure u perspective all Space Marine chapters have

a 1st company Deathwing. Why should the Deathwing concept

be limited it to just the Dark Angels? Why not an Ultramarine

Deathwing? Aren’t they the ones who fought the yranids in the

polar fortress during the Battle of Magragge? Tey exist in all

Space Marine Chapters so why not allow all Space Marine players

the option of running a legal Deathwing? GW set precedence

 when they established in the most recent codex that a Captain

on a bike would allow Space Marine bikes to be taken as troops.

 Wouldn’t it also be fair if a Captain in erminator armor allowed

 erminator squads to be taken as troops?

Shouldn’t a Chaos Marine who’s dedicated his life to one

of the specic Chaos gods be able to summon Daemons under

the inuence of that particular Chaos god? o many of the

 veteran Chaos Marine players the entire concept of a “generic”

daemon is absurd. Nothing is generic about chaos. When a

Chaos Marine player with an army of Noise Marines summons

daemons it just seems far more appropriate to allow him to

summon Daemonettes if he’s willing to pay the point cost.

None of these examples are game breaking. All use theestablished rules and points set out by GW. Tey shift a few 

things around a bit between similar codex’s and the FOC but

all of it is still found in a legal codex.

So now we’ve got our reason for writing a “homebrew”

codex. Te last question is, could we do it and make a respectable

result? GW is full of professional game designers with years

of experience, a budget, hordes of playtesters and background

ction to draw inspiration from. A home hobbyist can’t compete

on the same level as GW as an amateur athlete can’t compete with professional athletes in sports. Of course the inability to

compete with pro athletes doesn’t stop people from having fun

playing a game with their friends at the park. So why should it

stop you and I from making a “homebrew” codex for no other

reason than pure enjoyment of the 40K hobby.

If the primary issue for you is the fact that you play an old

and out of date codex that’s nearly as old as you are then Fluid

40K is a good start. It’s been playtested and revised numerous

times and it serves the purpose it was designed to do, update

the older codexes to 5th edition rules. We did all the work and

playtesting. It’s been updated regularly for the past year to deal

 with issues that come up and mistakes we’ve made.

Unfortunately Fluid 40K was only designed to address the

issue of out of date rules, wargear and rule consistency. It never

attempted to address over/under point costed units or wargear.

Neither did it make any changes to the force organization

chart. We didn’t believe that it was appropriate to address

those issues. Te beauty of Fluid 40K was its simplicity and

limited scope. Like I said before, old and out of date does not

mean weak and underpowered. Dark Elder tournament resultsprove that older codex’s can still be competitive.

Homebrewing a codex for army theme is dierent. It does

break the rules even when held to a minimum by the simple

and minor changes in the examples given previously. All of 

those are perfectly good ideas that are either impossible or

uncompetitive with the current codex selection.

I rmly believe that anyone with an active imagination

and an idea in mind can come up with a very good army theme

and build a balanced “homebrew” codex out of it. It is true thatoccasionally someone will fall into the trap of making an army 

  with every possible advantage and no applicable weaknesses

and label that monstrosity a “homebrew” codex. Unfortunately 

too many players believe that example is what a “homebrew”

is all about and refuse to accept an opponent who uses one.

 Whatever their reason it is their choice not to accept it. But I

 would like to encourage everyone for the fun of the game and

friendly game play to be willing to accept an opponent with a

“homebrew” codex now and then. Tey can be fun to create

and memorable to battle against.

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   F

   i   c   t   i   o

   n  raining was dicult. I wasn’t used to the food, the drills, and

 working on less sleep than usual. I didn’t know how to eld strip a

lasgun until my brother showed me, painstakingly taking the time,

ignoring the jeers and taunts thrown at me by the rest of the com-pany. He made sure I could disassemble and reassemble it blind-

folded in less than a minute.

A better teacher than the useless commissar ever was.

I think I hate myself more than Cadia. I thought I’d be watching

my brother’s back while we stormed the trenches, killed the heretics

and winning glory, right? Fecking lie. I got him killed. In the mid-

dle of a reght against Chaos marines, I was rounding a corner

blind, not bothering to check. I smacked into something, looked up,

and froze when I saw it was one of the corrupted Astartes. Te bar-rel of the marine’s bolter was staring me straight down and then…

I remember being tossed. I hit a wall, the crack of a single round

ring exploded in my ears, red mist lled the air. When I groggily 

came to, the Chaos marine was gone. I found I was still alive, and

the remains of my brother littered the ground.

I hate Cadia. I hate my commissar. I hate the Chaos taint we’re

ghting against. And I hate ghting for the God-Emperor. We

surge out of the trench as the commissar gives the order. I come

to the conclusion I’m not ghting for any of these people or theirprinciples. I’m just ghting for revenge.

I’m ghting for my brother.

 I  H A E C A D I A

 Anne  Marie

 I  hate Cadia.

 I  hate it t he same  wa y  t he commissar  hates a l l of   us

, y e l ling into eac h 

of  o ur f aces as  he stomps  up and do wn t he trenc h  li

 k e  he o wns it, e ven 

if   he didn ’t dig it.  It ’s raining, it ’s co ld, and  I  wis h  he

  wo u ld trip in t he 

m ud so  he co u ld  j ust s h ut  up.  He ’s gi ving one of   his 

 lect ures again 

a bo ut  w h y   we s ho u ld die f or t he g lor y  of  t he God-E

mperor, Man k ind,

 us  being  bra ve Cadians, and a l l t hat propaganda.  If   h

e ’s so  bra ve t hen 

 he s ho u ld  be  leading t he ne xt c harge and not  ho l leri

ng  be hind  us.

 I don ’t sa y  an y  of  t his o ut  lo ud.  I don ’t  want to die.

Cadia, t he  wor ld t hat ’s  been eaten  up and spat o ut again so man y  

times t hat e ven t he  weeds in t he par k  don ’t gro w an

 y more.  It ’s t he on l y  

p lanet t hat, co u ld  I a void it,  I  wo u ld.  Ironica l l y ,  I  wa

s  born and raised 

 here  b ut  hate m y   home  wor ld.  I can ’t  lea ve it  beca use

  I ’m part of  t he 

417t h Cadian “ He l l bringers”, and desertion is f ro wn

ed  upon, f o l lo wed 

 b y  a s hot to t he  head.

 I  hate t he  Imperia l G uard. Te on l y  reason  I  joined 

 was  beca use m y  

 brot her signed t he papers. Fo l lo wing in t he f ami l y  f o

otsteps,  he said, 

ma k ing  himse lf  a f t h generation Cadian S hoc k troo

per. I didn ’t  ha ve 

to f o l lo w  his e xamp le.  I co u ld  ha ve  j ust

 gro wn  up to  be norma l, or 

 w hat passes f or norma l on Cadia, and  he lped o ut at t he f ami l y  s hop or 

entered an administrati ve  jo b.  B ut t hen  w ho ’d  be  wa

tc hing m y   brot h-

er ’s  bac k  in t he midd le of  a g ung ht?  I co u ldn ’t tr us

t t hat to an y  gr unt, 

so  I manned  up and signed t he papers as  we l l.

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Captain KellenGoing into the game I was worried about playing against the

Orks. Te list I was using had little to stop a horde type army 

or some sort of ‘unit of death’. I knew he had Nobs but didn’t

know how he would be delivering them exactly since I didn’t

pay attention to earlier games. Loota’s would be ring every 

turn but I felt that stopping his advance would be the key to at

least pull o the draw. If he got to my lines I was through due

to low numbers of models.

I play the Dark Angels and the older codex already puts

 you behind the power curve but I had been dealing with that for some time. wo small bike

units with dual meltaguns would be sacriced as I had all day long, a couple of attack bikes

 with multimeltas , and two speeders with multimeltas would be the units to stop the advance

of vehicle borne Orks. I gured my dreadnought would shoot at the Lootas or vehicles as they 

appeared.

Now the mission was capture and control which means it’s tough to win and usually ends

in a draw. I gured I would just camp out on my objective with my vehicles and ‘feed’ the green

machine. I set up rst and waited for the ‘seize the initiative’ roll.

Set up rst, use an outdated codex, and then… go second. Artsoldier35 (rin) won the rst

battle of the match! It did not bode well.

 Artsolider35Being fairly new to the game (a little over a year of actual

playing experience) I looked at the Rumble in Richmond as

more of a social event rather than a tournament. It was a chance

to get to know some of the other Astronomican members and

maybe glean some playing strategy/experience from them. o

date my strategy had been a plain and simple Ork way of doing

things: run everything across the board and kill as much as I

could. Tis usually left me depleted and on the losing end of 

 whatever battle I was engaged in.

 Te day had gone pretty good at the store Captain Kellen frequents, For Te Win, and the

four of us were now back at CK’s house. I had already played both Consadine and Pherion at

the store and only needed to play one last game against CK. 2K points, Capture and Control,

Spearhead. Tis type of talk wasn’t familiar enough to me to make me any more or less nervous

than I already was.

I really started to worry when I saw al l the tanks CK was putting on the board. I wondered if 

he had ANY troops at all in his l ist. I knew I had to keep control of my objective and maybe contest

his at the worst. I put my dekoptas in reserve to bring them in later in the game and maybe turbo

boost them in to contest his objective at the last moment. It was then a matter of working out how 

to use the rest of my army to my best advantage.

I had learned in my previous games with Consadine and Pherion that my Lootas would be big

threats to my enemy from turn one if I placed them right and with the board set up the way it was,

it played right into my hands. I quickly placed two squads of Lootas in buildings on either side of my objective giving them clear shooting lanes across the board over the open middle courtyard. My 

order of prioirty for them would be the Dreadnaught, then the speeders, nally the Rhinos. With

my roops in Battlewagons and rukks, I decided that I would send one each up one side of the

board and the other side of the board. Finally, I would keep one rukk loaded with Shoota Boyz 

next to my objective just in case something got through. I was ready to rumble!

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 Art

MovementArt made a very good roll, and stole the initiative

from Kellen. Te rst move was lots of trucks

barreling forward!

ShootingLootas at Dreadnaught – Cant Move or Shoot

 ruck at Bikes – 2 casualties

Humer at Bikes – 2 casualties

   T

   U   R   N

   1

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   T   U   R   N

   1    C   O   N   T .

Kellen

MovementAgain, really just tanks moving forward. Bikes even

further! Tey got a scout move, and then this turn

they got to move again.

ShootingBikes at Big Cannon Wagon (melta gun) – Weapon

Destroyed (Cannon)

Predator at Hummer – Weapon Destroyed (Big

Shoota)

Rhino at Hummer – 2 Imobile Results = Destroyed!

Predator at Lootas – No wounds

Speeder at Def Rolla Wagon – No damage

Speeder at Def Rolla Wagon – No damage

Attack Bike at Def Rolla Wagon – No damage

(starting to feel sorry for Kellen!)

Attack Bike at Def Roll a Wagon – No damage (Poor

Kellen!)

Bikes at Def Rolla Wagon – No damage ()

Sammael (further known as Sammy) at Lottas – 2

die, fail leadership, ran o board! Bout time Kellengot some luck this turn!

g | p

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 Art

MovementDef Rolla rolls through an attack bike, a squad of 

three bikes, and Sammy! Four hits on each unit, but

none die. Sammy rolled a dodge for the ram.

Bunch of orcs also disembarked from the other truck.

ShootingBattle Wagon at Attack Bike – 1 wound

Lootas at Dreadnaught – Destroyed!

Nobs at Preadator – No damage

 AssaultBasic Orcs at the Attack Bike – Bike dies, and one

orc dies.

Basic Orcs at a Land Speeder – Cant move or shoot

Nobs at the Predator – Destroyed! No wounds from

the explosion though.

   T   U   R   N

    2

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   T   U

   R   N

    2

    C   O   N   T .

Kellen

MovementLots of re power focusing on the Nobs and the Def 

Rolla this turn. Most of Kellen’s vehicles re-arranged

for good line of sight.

ShootingBikes at ruck – Weapon Destroyed

Speeder at ruck – Destroyed! Kills two orcs.

Bikes at Def Rolla – Destroyed! wo occupants killed

Bikes at ruck – Imobolized

Rhino and Disembarked Squad at Nobs – No wounds

Rhino and Squad Inside at Nobs – 3 wounds

Razorback at Nobs – 1 wound

Razorback at Nobs – 1 wound

Predator at Nobs – no wounds

Sammy at Nobs – 3 rending, but all passed invuln

 AssaultBike at Burners! – 2 burners die, and one bike dies.

Burners fail leadership and are fun down!

Orcs ght Land speeder – Wrecked

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   T   U   R   N

   3 Art

MovementReserves: De Koptas come on from Kellen’s board

edge.

ShootingDe Koptas at Razor Back – Wrecked!

Ocs at Attack Bike – No wounds

Lootas at Land Speeder – Wrecked!

 AssaultOrcs on Attack Bike – 1 orc dies, two bikes die

Orcs at Sammy – Destroyed! (poor Sammy) One orc

dies in the explosion (Sammy’s retribution!)

Nobs at Predator – Destroyed! 3 orcs from the basic

squad and two nobs take wounds!

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   T   U

   R   N

   3

    C   O   N   T .

Kellen

MovementAgain, manuvering to put los of re power into those

nobs! Also leveling some repower at those Def 

Koptas

ShootingVets at Nobs – 2 wounds

 ac Squad at Koptas – 2 wounds

 ac Squad at Koptas – 1 Wound

Razorback at Nobs – No Wounds

Vets at Nobs – No wounds

Bike at ruck – Destroyed! wo orcs die!

 AssaultVets on Basic Orcs – Six orcs die, 2 vets die – Orcs

fail leadership and are run down.

Vets on Nobs – Warboss eats 4 lightning claws. 2

more wounds. Five vets die and are run down.

Bikes on Orcs – Bike dies

|

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   T   U

   R   N

   4 Art

MovementSecond set of Koptas come in on the wrong side

of the board. WAGHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Unsucessfully....

ShootingNon signigant enough for me to remember!

 AssaultNobs on Rhino – Wrecked

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   T   U

   R   N

   4

    C   O   N   T .

Kellen

MovementAt this point I think Kellen has realized that he’s got

to at least slow down those Nobs!

ShootingRhino at Nobs – No wounds

Razorback at Nobs – No wounds

 AssaultVets on Nobs! – Pain boy falls to the pain! Seven

marines go down.

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   T   U

   R   N

   5

    C   O   N   T .

Kellen

Shooting ac Squad at Nobs – No Wounds

Razorback at Nobs – 1 Wound

Bikes at Nobs – No Wounds

 AssaultBikes at Nobs – Te assault and Pile in moved the

Nobs away from the objective, bu unfortunatly the

bikes died and the nobs were able to move back to

contest the objective.

Game Ends! Art has one objective, and the other is

contested! Great game guys.

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Captain KellenFive turns ending with the kitchen sink being thrown at… me.

I jest.

Artsoldier35 did what he had to do and I failed to slow 

his advance to my objective. One mistake of note was not

getting further out of my ‘castle’ position and stalling his

advance earlier. A second mistake was not throwing both my 

 veteran squads at the Nobs when I had the chance. Ignoring

the Loota’s wasn’t smart either.

Many times, including this one, I get frustrated because

I don’t play well and using the Dark Angel codex adds to it. Nothing Artsoldier35 did was over

the top and he was a gracious sportsman. It’s tough, really tough when you know the playing

eld isn’t even when it comes the rules, you want to play well and then ‘whamo!’, things don’t go

as planned in a hard way.

 We’ve decided that a rematch this winter is in order. A ale of a Winter Rumble is coming…

cLO Sin g

 thou GH Ts Artsolider35So, some lessons I learned from this game and the weekend

 with regards to my army. Lootas are very good in their support

role. Tey also help in that you can still put some hurt on your

opponent before your boyz can get stuck in. Diversifying your

Nobz is critical. Anyone who doesn’t is missing a very good

opportunity to get more of your Nobz across the board. I really 

need to plan how I use my troops better as I lost to Pherion

because I didn’t have any troops near an objective even though

I nearly tabled him.

 Te weekend was a blast and I am so looking forward to going back for more fun. I think I

 will be the only one bringing the same army so I will get some new experiences. Also, if you are

on the east coast and can make it to Richmond next time around, you too could get your army 

stomped by WAAAUGH ChompGobb!

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