Warhammer 40k enthusiast that can't stick to a single army to save his life. Currently playing Space Wolves, but also has Tyranids, Death Guard, Custodes and Orks...
If you live in Sydney, Australia, you should check out this event at The Combat Company.
Alexander Englezos will be running this session, and on top of being a nice guy, he ticks all the boxes to teach a bunch of stuff about 40k: he’s the current coach for the NSW Australian Team Championships, he’s played himself at NSW Masters, he’s been featured in 8 podcasts and been in Goonhammer, runs the Admech Subreddit….and the list goes on.
During the session, the following points will be covered:
1. List Building for your faction 2. Secondaries: Proactive vs Reactive secondaries 3. How to plan everything for your turn in the command phase 4. Understanding your opponents army and how to counter their plans 5. Screening tips and tricks
This will be the first of 3 sessions and it’s a great opportunity to learn from one of the best. Whether you are a competitive player, someone new to the game or someone (like me) that loves the game and wants to learn more about it, you definitely should check it out.
If you are interested, you can check out the event here.
Also, I’ve you have never been to The Combat Company, I completely recommend it. It’s an amazing place where you can find anything Hobby related, not just for 40k, but also D&D, Legion, Magic… and they have a huge selection of modelling material. The staff is really friendly, there’s tables to play and paint with lots of scenery, and overall, a great environment. You can check them out here.
And no, I haven’t been sponsored. I’m just sharing this cause I love this place 🙂
I will be posting a new entry with all my impressions and photos from the event, so stay tuned!
Hey guys. I created a custom design for Ikea Pegboards that let you hold 10 32mm paints per row, and they fit perfectly. The design is for easy display, so you can see all your paint names at first glance, and they are easily accessible. The design is 100% free at Thingiverse, so if you wanna give them a try, you can download the .stl files here. Let me know if you like them, and any feedback is welcome, as this is my first design ever! Also, if you want different sizing for other paints that are not 32mm, I can have a go.
Since I borrowed my brother in law’s 3D printer, I’ve been really invested, looking around to all kinds of posibilities for the hobby, and obviously, looking at 3rd party Sculptors that make minis that I could proxy in my games. That’s how I run into this guys at Kickstarter. The quality and details of the models is amazing, and I can see myself using lots of those models as proxies in my Chaos Army, but also as display pieces as they look incredible. Here are some of their models:
Keeper of Secrets!!!Khorne ExaltedDaemon Prince???WarlordSlanesh PrinceSkulltakersChangeling/ Sorcerer…you name it.
If you guys want to check the whole collection, you can do it here. If you want to pledge to get all the STL files, for just 75 euros you can get the whole collection and terrain!! But you have to be quick as the project closes today…
You can also check their work in Instagram here. Worth a follow!
I thought I would like to show the world, not just my miniatures, but everyone’s! And what better way than doing little Showcases of people’s work so you can show everyone your proudest work! First post, as an example, will be some of my recent painted miniatures. If you want to see the whole lot and more, you can see them @Wolfcryminis in Instagram too, and if you like what you see, give it a follow 🙂
If you would like to see your miniatures here, all you need to do is contact us here or drop a message in Instagram or Facebook, and we can discuss it further. All showcases are free or charge as we are only doing this for the love of the community and this is just a fan page with non profit. You can also tell us your Instagram, Twitter, or whatever you have, so we will display it as well and hopefully get you some followers in the process 🙂
Make sure to share with your mates and do not hesitate to contact us with any questions.
– “This looks like an industrial area of some sort. It’s hard to tell what were they manufacturing here”
– “Agreed. Most of this stuff looks primitive and worthless to us, but if our reports are right, this could be infested by scavengers. Keep your eyes open and stay alert” said Eivor in the open vox.
The contrast between his twin brother and him was borderline ridiculous. Where Floki was slim and loud, Eivor was a hulking tower of muscle and mainly introvert. Those traits took them on different paths when they joined the Vlka Fenrika but their bond was unbreakable, no matter what their paths were. They completed each other perfectly in the heat of battle, Floki being a tool of destruction while Eivor was the perfect defense. Together they had eliminated Xenos armies, took worlds to compliance and fought unimaginable horrors, but as long as they had each other, they had nothing to fear.
The idea of giving Floki command of his own company came from Eivor himself. His brother was to hasty at times and needed to learn that not every battle is won by pure brute strength and pushing forward. Standing your ground, retreat to reposition, claim and hold objectives and knowing when not to engage where some of the tactics that his brother always ignored in the past, and for a man in his position, they were key to a great leader and had to be learnt one way or another.
“Well, this is quite an unnatural darkness…and I know a thing or two about unnatural…” the young Rune Priest said. He was right. There was something about to happen on this planet and it’s like the elements knew it and were preparing for it.
Floki Ravenskull was young, yet a veteran of many battles that fought alongside the great Ragnar Blackmane from whom he learnt a great deal, a little bit too much for many of his peers’ opinion. That relentless thirst for battle and glory was inbred in him and his twin brother making them reckless at times for a man in their position and role. His mentor always told him that they were there to support their comrades, but he always rather being in the middle of battle looking for the toughest opponent to write his own saga. His eccentric and anarchic behaviour got him in trouble more than once but his results talked from themselves.
His superiors thought that putting him in charge of a small company would teach him the leadership skills that he was missing, and with the blessing of Ragnar himself they sent him to lead a scouting company to the planet Crematoria.
This planet was full of wildlife and ruins from an older civilization that somehow fascinated Floki. These are the same ruins that were showing on his visions while navigating the storms but that wasn’t the whole picture. During his visions he could see two black ravens flying over a battlefield where 2 warriors were fighting each other surrounded by countless skeletons that once were corpses. One of the warriors was getting weaker, while the other one stronger, but both of them were oblivious to an unnatural green thunderstorm that was coming their way.
Floki had had visions with those storms before and knew exactly what they meant, and that’s what they were hunting for: Orks. But what intrigued him were the 2 faceless warriors and what could they mean…
Floki stood stoically, examining the land in front of him. His force had been dropped 80 kliks to the South West of Urganth, a key city of interest to his superiors, despite looking to Floki like a smoking pile from this distance. Before getting to the city and its all important space-port, Floki knew he’d need to take control of the promethium pumping station to the North, a small ruined building surrounded by plenty of places for enemies to hide. The ground was scarred by innumerous battles and stained dark red with blood. There was no sign of life but Floki knew Orks were near, drawn by the promise of combat. He knew surveying the land for an optimal approach to the pumping station was the tactical choice, but he didn’t have the luxury of time. And despite his training and his superior’s best intentions, he lusted for battle again. He decided to make haste and move ahead. He had to take advantage now that his brother wasn’t around…
His men moved forward swiftly taking cover within the ruins while the thunderous footsteps of Bjorn Hellshammer’s suit would let any hostiles within a 5 kliks radius know that his force had arrived, and that’s exactly what he wanted. Ever alert, Floki sent his Assault Intercessors to investigate the pumping station while the rest of the force kept watch for movement. Suddenly, the sound Floki had been anticipating echoed out among the ruined buildings…
WAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Zogger Loudgob looked at his right arm. The power claw was setting up nicely. Da Boss was kind enough to give him, not just a second chance, but also an augmentation. He chopped his arm off, beat him to a pulp, but Zogger’s resilience and endurance made his boss take pity on him and spare his life. Not just that, he also made him one of his lieutenants and gave him a new shiny Power Claw to replace his lost arm. He wasn’t sure what Da Boss’ endgame was, but he knew that he always did everything for a reason.
He could smell the pinkskinz in the area, and his Kommandos reported a big metal suit walking around. Big and metal. Lots of shiny parts and extra dakka. Just what he was looking for. Da Boss had sent them to this stinking planet with one mission: collect anything that we could salvage to build a Stompa. So far, everything that he and his boyz collected was deemed useless by the Meks, which he didn’t understand because everything look sturdy enough.
This was Zogger’s first mission as a lieutenant and he didn’t want to disappoint Da Boss, so he wanted to make sure that he could smash a lot of pinkskinz and loot lots of trophies from their little corpses. He had fought pinkskinz before in their green little suits with their little lasguns and big tanks. Lots of loot. These guys smelt different but he was sure they wouldn’t be different to squeeze.
There was an unnatural fog covering the field, and between the factory ruined buildings and the fog, they could barely see anything ahead of them. But he heard it, same as all his boyz. He looked at the Deff Dread escorting them on the side and pointed to his right side. His scream was heard in miles: WAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!
All his Boyz knew what to do. Rush forward to meet the enemy face to face and teach them a little bit of Ork diplomacy. The Warbikes roar on the flank while the Deff Dread covered the opposite side. His Kommandos were scouting the area, while he advanced with all his Boyz to show the enemy some Dakka.
The first ones to unleash fire were the Warbikes. They must have met the Shiny Pinkskin Deff Dread. “Break it quickly, but don’t break it too much!” Zogger yelled while keeping his pace rushing towards an invisible enemy. But as soon as he finished his sentence, all the Warbikes blew up in a big explosion. He saw some of the drivers running away and he tried to remember his faces to smash them later. Some of his Boyz seemed to be shooting aimlessly at something that he couldn’t see while Zogger kept yelling “Ruzz towarz the walker! Daz our prize!!”
The plan in his head was solid until they had any further information. By the smell and sound of it, it looked like they were outnumbered at least 3 to 1 but Floki wouldn’t know for sure until they had visual contact with the charging Orks.
He saw Bjorn unleashing hell on something that he couldn’t see, until he saw a big explosion and parts of what look like a rudimentary vehicle. That was surprising since, unlike most Invicor pilots, Bjorn was an average shooter, but a master in close combat.
As soon as that happened, they saw some Orks with shootas coming out of the fog shooting at Bjorn. In the back of that mob, he could distinguish a much bigger Ork that the others shouting orders or threats, he couldn’t tell. Next to them, a massive walking can with blades and claws started rushing towards Bjorn’s position. “Freya, fly over. They took the bait”
The walking suit was by himself in the open. They saw him hesitating moving towards them when he saw his numbers, as if he was about to retreat, but they couldn’t let that happen. “Hurry up! Don’t let that get away!” As he screamed his order, he saw a Pinkskin coming out of some ruins with a hood covering his head and not wielding any weapons in his hands. Barely a threat, or so he thought… before he could look away, a surge of lighting came out of him, straight into his unit, instantly killing several of his Boyz, and even hurting him on his leg. As he was recovering from the shock, he could see the masked guy gathering more power, and before he could give any orders, a huge lightning Wolf appeared in the sky above them and impacted his unit. Half of his unit was gone in the blink of an eye.
He looked at his side and saw the Kommandos fighting the Suit in close combat, or at least what was left of the unit as one of the guys had all his bones shattered by a punch of that hulking thing. The rest of the Boyz were still rushing towards the Invictor suit, escorted by the Deff Dread when he realised that the Hooded stranger was charging towards them by himself with a shiny sword on his hand.
As soon as he started brazing himself for the incoming enemy, he heard a roaring noisy flying above his head. 3 armoured guys in a jet pack were flew past his unit, landing right behind them. They were carrying big weapons on them, and the last thing he saw was them unleashing them on him.
The trap couldn’t have worked any better. The green skins were dropping like flies and they haven’t had any casualties yet. Floki invoqued the storm one more time before releasing another living lightning on their enemies and charge them. At this point Bjorn had already engaged the Boyz himself and was doing what he did best. The Ork Walker attacked Bjorn spinning all its blades and weapons at him, but Bjorn evade them with ease and wrecked the charging walker before he could attack again.
The Inceptors were thinning out the ranks from the rear and stopping any fleeing Ork, while Floki charged the remaining Orks with his Runic Blade shinning like Fenris’ ice in the morning. The battle was over before they even knew it and victory was theirs.
While Freya’s Bane and the Assault intercessors were making sure that there were no more Orks in the area, Floki examined the bodies in search for any clues on why the Orks were in this wretched planet. While doing so, a vision hit his mind. A wounded raven was falling from the sky into the abyss, while the Green Storm was getting closer. “Eivor…”
“Sir, we haven’t found any trace of the Ork Leader in the field. By the looks of it, he escaped the battle wounded. We should be able to trace him, but he could be leading us to a trap”
“Gather your troops and contact base. Get the Scout squad to trace the area and follow the trail in search of an Ork encampment or base. Do not engage until you receive my orders. We need more intel in the enemy and the area. And let me know as soon as you make contact with Captain Eivor or his unit. I have a bad feeling about this”
Our first Crusade game promised to be very interesting. 10 Space Wolves vs 30 Orks sound like very bad odds against me, but I was dying to play my first game with the Space Wolves and a bunch of green skins were not going to ruin that.
The mission was Sweep and clear, from the Crusade missions. Players score points at the end of their command phases. 10 for one Objective, 10 for more objectives than your opponent and 10 for your opponent’s deployment objective to a maximum of 30 points per turn. Once an objective is held, you don’t have to sit holding it as it remains controlled unless the enemy takes it. Nice and simple.
The special rule for this scenario was Unnatural darkness, which made any shooting or targeting had to be within 18” or less.
The armies
Space Wolves
– Floki Ravenskull – Rune Priest in Phobos armour – Warlord Trait “Warrior Born” – Relic “Runic weapon” – Psykic powers “Living lightning” and “Jaws of the World Wolf”
– Odin’s Sons – 5 Assault Intercessors – Sergeant with Plasma Pistol
– Freya’s Bane – 3 Inceptors – Assault Bolters
– Bjorn Hellshammer – 1 Invictor Suit – lots of stuff plus a glorious Invictor fist
Orks
– Warboss – Relic Power Claw without penalty and lots of damage- Warlord Trait that give him T6
– 20 Boyz with shootas with a Nob
– 3 Bikes with a Nob
– 5 Kommandoz with a Nob
– 1 Deff Dread with lots of nasty stuff
Deployment
The Space Wolves army was the defender and decided to go second, with Orks going first. This was a meditated decision as I didn’t want to get in the Orks face too soon letting them charge me early game. I needed that extra space and turns, specially considering that I could barely thin out his big numbers with shooting from afar.
Both armies put a unit in reserves, Kommandoz and Inceptors.
Other than that, the rest of the army was deployed. Orks aggressively out in the open spread accross their deployment zone, while Rune Priest and Intercessors were hiding in a building in a corner, and the Invictor suit in the opposite corner or the deployment, facing the Bikes and diagonally opposite from the Deff Dread, good deployment move from the Orks if you ask me.
Turn 1
So the Orks started turn one advancing and trying to reduce as much distance as they could hoping for a turn 2 charge in the Space Wolves. The lack of targets in line of sight made hard for barely any action, other than the bikes shooting at the Invictor suit, managing to inflict just one wound. At this point, the Orks were holding just one objective, but close to hold 3.
In the Space Wolves turn only one unit moved and did something: the Invictor. He moved just 2 inches to be in range of all the bikes that were dangerously facing him or a next turn charge. He unleashed all it’s shooting on them managing to kill them all with some lucky shots and the last shooting literally killing the Mob. Turn 2 was going to be crucial for both armies.
Turn 2
The Orks kept moving forward, this time without advancing to be able to shoot, but holding 3 objectives and the whole middle table. The Kommandoz came 9” away from the Invictor Suit.
Their shooting unleashed hell on the Invictor suit, but with no luck on wounding it. The Deff Dread shoot at the assault intercessors but they managed to save all wounds.
In the charge phase, the Kommandoz pulled out a charge in the Invictor suit. In the fight phase they manage to wound it twice with a few lucky saves in the Invictor. In retaliation, he managed to wipe they whole Kommandoz squad after a command re roll in the 5th wound. 5 attacks and 5 kills was some lucky rolling that could prove decisive in the coming rounds, as it was leaving the suit out of combat and able to shoot.
The Space Wolves turn was nothing but devastating. Floki and the Intercessors moved out of the building to face the incoming Boyz and Deff dread, putting Floki within 18” range of the Boyz. Bjorn moved towards the Boyz and Deff Dread looking for a glorious combat. At the end of the movement phase the Inceptors dropped from the sky in the back line of the Orks, taking away their objective and leaving them with the Warboss exposed to their shooting.
The psykic phase proved to be CRAZY. Floki unleashed his Living lightning in the Boyz causing 3 mortal wounds on them, and 2 in the Warboss. After that, he casted Jaws of the World Wolf with a 10, rolling a dice for each model in the unit and causing a mortal wound on each 5+. 7 out of 17 bite the dust… 12 mortal wounds out of 2 spells was insane.
The shooting from the Invictor on the other hand was quite uneventful managing to only kill 1 or 2 Boyz and not wounding the Deff Dread at all. But the Inceptors, dropping right behind the enemy line, dropped their 18 shots in the Warboss, managing to kill him with some very lucky rolling, and unlucky saving rolls from 3 Colours.
In the charging phase, the Invictor pulled a YOLO and charged the Boyz, managing to kill another 3 and getting wounded enough to bring him down to 7 wounds. But I had the Boyz locked…
Turn 3
The Orks took a devastating blow in the face, but that Deff Dread was still running around loose, and the Score was 40 to 10 in favour of the Orks. The next tactical decisions would prove crucial.
In the Orks movement phase the Deff Dread moved towards the Invictor Suit to be able to charge him. The Boyz were still locked in combat, so no further movement.
In the shooting phase, the Deff Dread shoot at Floki, managing to wound him once. In the charging phase, the game changing event happened. The Deff Dread successfully charged the Invictor Suit. 4 attacks. Hitting on 3s. Wounding on 3s. 1 re roll from his Detachment, 1 command re roll. 0 wounds. The Invictor hit back and destroyed him inflicting 12 wounds. The Boyz hit and brought him down to 4 wounds. Only the Boyz were left.
The Space Wolves hadn’t lost a single model and had this in the bag. After some psykic powers and a charge, Floki killed all the remaining Boyz in combat by himself. The Space Wolves took the victory home putting the final score 90 to 40 in their favour.
After match
Some incredible lucky rolls at the most crucial moments made the Space Wolves take a major victory over their opponent, and it was time to spread the Marks for Greatness in each army, and see if there were any battle scars. The Space Wolves would select 2 units to mark for greatness, since that was the victory reward.
Luckily for 3 Colours, he didn’t roll a single 1, so his army was just a little bit bruised but no permanent damage, other than their ego and pride. In the Mark for Greatness, he decided to give those 3 experience points to the Boyz squad, as, in his words, they were the only ones that did something in the whole game!
The Space Wolves on the other hand had no Battle scars rolls.
Bjorn Hellshammer fullfilled the agenda by killing the Deff Dread in close combat, scoring 3 experience points. Having killed 3 units himself and scoring an extra experience point from the game would brought him already to 5 Experience, and make him Bloodied with a Battle honour, but not giving him also Mark for Greatness after the numbers he pulled in the game was crazy! The second option was a tough decision between the Inceptors and Floki. The first ones slain the Warboss, but Floki defeated almost a whole squad of 20 Boyz by himself… in the end I went with the Inceptors, since they also captured the enemies objective and did exactly what I had planned for them.
Our next game will be the “other” 25 points in our army, with a narrative as well designed around these units.
Talking about narratives, I will be posting the whole story of this first chapter of the Crusade soon, so stay tuned!!
Friday morning did not disappoint. Surprise post from GW with lots of incoming changes that were being rumored and others that no one could’ve guessed. Let’s list them for a quick view:
More Crusade rules specific per Faction.
Datasheets and rules review
Heavy Bolters become Damage 2
Flamers and Heavy flamers will have range 12″
Multi Meltas will be Heavy 2, and their damage will be 2+d6 at short range!
Power Swords will give +1 Strength
Astartes chainswords will get AP-1(I’m assuming they meant Chainswords in general…)
Supercharged Plasma weapons will only explode on unmodified rolls of 1
“Vanilla” Space Marines and Chaos equivalents will have 2 W each.
Terminators will have 3 W each.
Deathmarks will change their weapon to:
Triarch Praetorians will do 2 Damage in both ranged and melee.
What do you guys think about these changes? Remember this is not even half of the picture so don’t be too harsh on the analysis until we see what everyone is getting. Personally, I think it’s a good step making them more lore accurate. But we shall see…
Yeah. Finally we are getting Mortal Realms down under. And I love it! When I got into the world of miniature painting and gaming, was back in 1998 or so, when I was 14 and I traveled for the first time to UK. I was in Wales when I saw for the first time a Games Workshop shop. I remember being amazed with all the figures and I convinced my roommate to go halves on the starter box of Warhammer Fantasy, me taking the Orks and him taking the High Elves. Oh memories…
After playing for a few years I gave up the hobby for a while and it wasn’t until I came to live in Australia that I took the hobby again, but this time with 40k instead. But a part of me always wanted to go back to the origins and play some “Fantasy” aka Age of Sigmar. That’s why when I saw the article about Mortal Realms I didn’t think about it twice and subscribed straight away 🙂
Now, what is Mortal Realms?
It’s a subscription to collect 2 different armies from Age of Sigmar, with books, paints, terrain, etc…If you subscribe you get 4 issues per month for AUS$20 each except the first and second issue that are AUS$5.99 and $13.99.
If you want to check what the first issue has for just AUS$5.99 here it is:
I mean, even if you don’t play it, for $5.99 is totally worth it, and you can get a copy in your Newsagent or local GW shop.
Issues 1-4 include the below:
And if you wanna see what the whole collection is:
I’m quite excited about this whole project and even if I don’t like it or I can’t afford it, I can end my subscription at any time.
If you want more information about it, you can check it here.
Looks like the first round of updates is coming through for both Android and iOS with some bug fixes and a new interface and search capability for the Core Rules and FAQ.
This was a change that the community kept asking for since the app was released, and a move from GW towards improving their app to great standards, where unfortunately, it’s not at the moment. That said, this first few changes are looking promising and they are showing the great potential that the app could have.
The way you can navigate through the rules right now is so much more dynamic and easy. You have a table of contents for quick access, or a search button. I found that with the Table of contents you can access your desired information within seconds. These are some examples of how it is now:
As you can see, the navigation is much simpler and you can jump between sections very fast without having to go back and forth. I’ve been testing this in an older model (iPhone 8) and I haven’t had any performance issues at all. The app runs fast and smooth and it doesn’t seem to use data anymore.
The only thing I couldn’t find in the Core Rules section, but I could be wrong, was Detachments. That’s a very important part of the rules for army creation, and it helps to have quick access to them. Please let me know if you found them somewhere!
Other than that, I think it was a great improvement and definitely a step forward towards reaching the app’s full potential. Power levels should be included soon and I can’t wait for the Battle Forge option. I will keep you updated with whatever changes they bring 😉
Please let us know what you think and like us on Facebook if you wanna follow our updates and articles.
40K WarZone 