Background Check: Imperial Guard: Wake 325th

The Founding of the Wake 325th was alongside the 324th 326th 327th and 328th. The previous regiments, of the 320th 321st 322nd 323rd and 324th, after a decade of service, were all combined to form the now elite corps of the 324th. All of the NCO's and senior officers of the newly founded regiments come from those previous regiments. The latest regiments were raised to fight the Sons Of The Grave, and their mercenary allies, the Roi.

Based on their homeworld of swamps and sprawling oceans, the men of Wake grow up tough, and adapt well to the harsh and damp conditions of trench warfare, and amphibious assaults. All of the nearby planets in the system must travel to Wake for their training, as its sole export is these fine warriors. Sharp as knives, and as brave as they come the men of Wake love what they do, and they do it well. Priding accuracy above all, the worst man in these regiments is as good as the best in many other regiments.

The Wake 325th particularly faces the most challenges. They are usually the first in, and receive reinforcements from the other regiments as they inevitably take casualties. The 325th usually bears the brunt of assaults, and does the majority of the legwork as well. The 324th, while superior in equipment and training, is spread throughout the regiment, as a grenadiers, and often times small units of these will pair up with the 325th to spearhead their assaults. Otherwise the 324th spends the majority of their time filling the role of special forces.

The 326th usually finds itself caught in the middle, between a front line unit, and a reserve unit. Next to the 325th, they receive the majority of reinforcements, as they also tend to take part in the larger operations.

the 327th and 328th are rotated in after the 325th, and 326th need to be pulled out. The majority of the 325th is at this point, former 327th and 328th boys, as their casualties have mounted to such large numbers.

The 325th is now lead by the charismatic Captain Colt, following the death of Captain De Gaul. Colt is a capable leader, and one who like his mentor before him, leads from the front. Lieutenants Parry, Wal, and Fox, are the junior officers. Each one has a distinct personality, and way of fighting. Parry prefers his mastercrafted lasgun and marksmanship above all else. He's quiet, but always gets the job done. He is generally well respected, and makes little effort to control his men. Given such freedom, his men are generally more independent, and make for fantastic scouts, as well as holding vital objectives. Wal, or Wally, as he is nicknamed, is a charismatic, if over eager, officer. He cares little for the lives of his men, and will gladly throw away their lives to earn another medal. After the death of his 1st sergeant, and close friend "other" Nikolai, he particularly keeps his distance from his men. However, few can stir the men into action faster than Wally, as his great fiery tirades instill courage and pride into the men before battle. Its not that Wally enjoys watching his men die, so much as the more they die, the less likely the enemy will aim at him. Lastly we have Fox. Fox is technically even senior to Colt in years of service, but due to De Gauls favor of Colt, Colt received the promotion. Fox was brought in as a replacement for the previous Lieutenant Frie, who was executed by commissar Whyl, for heresy and cowardice in the field of battle, which ultimately led to the death of half his platoon. Fox is perhaps the most liked of all the officers, known as much for his level head as he is for his fantastic handlebar mustache. Fox is generally a great thinker, and Colt's closest adviser.

Commissars are treated with great respect throughout the regiment, and universally they respect the men. Few regiments are as indoctrinated in the imperial faith as the men of Wake. Having been designed with the imperial guard in mind, Wake has many temples and missionaries, so that each and every member of their society could firmly hold their faith in the God Emperor. Each and every man knows as many litanies and hymns as a any man in any other regiment. Such is their faith that a priest accompanies every single platoon, as well as a commissar.

The regiment of the 325th earned the nickname "Wardogs" by the populace of the forest planet Belleau. So it was that the 325th came to be called, the Wardogs of Wake, for their ferocity in combat, particularly ugly faces and leathery skin.

Favoring intense physical training, each man of the Wake is instilled with effective training in use of their KA-8412 bayonet. As well intensive hand to hand training, such that against any and all foes, they may hold their ground effectively, and to the last.

Apocalypse Strategic Assets Review

Without going over all of them, I want to discuss a few of them that I really, really, like.

First up, lets discuss the Imperial Shield Company. In essence, it's exactly what I field as my regular army. 3 platoons, with a company commander, and heavy weapons squads galore. And, it comes with 3 strategic assets! each of which, I would take on its own. But I get them freeeeeee!
Those three are scheduled bombardment, on my coordinates, and defense line. So we get 3 orbital bombardments, which are fantastic clocking in at str 8 and ap 3, only problem is, we have to place them prior to knowing when units will be there. So it could be a total waste of time, but hey, its freeeeee, for me, if it wasn't free, I'd still take it, because its awesome. Second, we get on my coordinates, which is awesome, because it's an orbital bombardment, and it never scatters :D only problem, its right over your own guys. But here's the real problem, I don't give a fuck about killing my own guys, its a boss last ditch thing to do anyways, I do care, about the fuck you over clause at the bottom. It has to be on a model with a vox caster. Now don't get me wrong, I don't hate vox casters, but I already used up my "fucking useless" slot for my command squads, on standards. So as a house rule, we just say it goes right on the officer, not on the vox caster, because lets face it, I'm not slappin down vox casters just for apocalypse. Lastly, and most usefully, we get defense line, or otherwise known as, 36 inches of 3+ terrain. thats right, mah lads have the armor of space marines, or terminators if I use veterans. Let's see how you space marine players like that!

Next up, the non shield company assets, I would love to take all of the above, even if I didn't have shield company, only because I think that that's all totally awesome. Anywho, other useful ones include, but are not limited to bunkers, obstacles, minefields, hold at all costs, tank riders, and blind barrage. Those are mostly self explanatory in use. Tank riders I think shouldn't be as costly as it is. I just don't see it competing with a slot like bunkers does, or obstacles. If you really want movement, go ahead and take the incredibly over powered, strategic redeployment. Strategic redeployment blows my mind with how over powered it is. Gotta green tide with over 300 orks in it? well guess what?! they can all instantly be within 12 inches of your opponent. Why bother running all the way across the board? just instantly and rediculously teleport all the way there. Wanna know that your waagh next turn is a good call? go ahead and make sure your ladz are twelve inches away and get a free measurement for that charge that you'll be doing. >:I sometimes I wonder why the hell they make rules like that. woah, you thought my army was this way? nope. now its totally different. Want to get that linebreaker squadron of vindicators up? go ahead. Tired of your superheavies moving a whomping 6 inches? go ahead. Want to make sure your opponent wasted his time going after your basalisks? go ahead and move them all the way away. BULL SHIT. makes no sense. Superhuman effort? instantly running miles? not buying it.

ANYWHO thats about it. I like some of the others, but the ones above are what I would take over any of the others. Except you strategic redeployment. Except you....

Horde Shooting Tactics 101

So you bought a ton of imperial guard models, good job. And you fielded them, and you went to fire that squad in the rear, and your opponent blows your mind with the fact that, your men are firing through another unit, to get to his unit. Now, when you thought you had 100 guardsmen to fire, you just had the front rank of units, which is probably around 60, yet you paid for far more, in points, money, and well, when they all died.

SO how does one fix this!? simple, be smart with your deployment. Each model has a priority, heavy weapons, they're first in line when I deploy. Sergeants, right behind em. Special weapons, right beside them. Everyone else? well, hold them off. Make sure as you deploy the rest of your army, you give those models line of sight. The sergeant doesn't need it, but he does need to be close so everyone else can be killed off, and that group can stay together. Where's the logic in this for reality? well, if you notice the guy with the biggest gun goes down, what do you do? or, what are you ordered to do? if you're a coward. You pick it up! so one could say, that cluster of more valuable units dies, and the remainder take their place.

Another trick, because, not all models will have the good fortune of being those, is to build terrain with elevation differences. Models are always happier the higher up they go. one house rule we have is that models in the upper stories don't have to include the downward angle when measuring range. though, the lads getting shot at, in order to retaliate, must include the angle. It gives height a bonus to range, but not one that is overpowered, as we don't abuse this.

Lastly, take advantage of barrage weapons, nothing makes it easier to fire through a gunline, than firing over it. If you don't want to fork out for a basalisk, or heavy weapons teams, just to make them puny 60 point mortars, one of the things I like to do is just take two regular guardsmen, and give them mortar team arms, sometimes I wont even do that, and put the mortars on pokerchips, it works, and is still legal, as some of the other armies, are sold that way, i.e. mordian iron guard heavy weapons teams.

so there we go! nothing too complicated, just the basics of firing when there isn't room for everyone to have LOS.

Small Elite Guard Armies

When I first started, everything I based my army on, was the United States Marine Corps, we were light infantry, who relied on cover, but were more than happy to get to grips with the enemy if it came down to it. With the addition of the new codex, I dramatically shifted the focus of my army, from being small and elite, to a more massive army based on the awesome scale of the imperial guard armies of the literature. Every now and again, I find myself asking why I made the shift? and the only reason I can find, is that firepower became more important than quality of troops. With the platoon system I get a whole lot more out of my points. Ranks and ranks of guardsmen do win more battles. But, it is fun to be small and elite sometimes, so lets take a look at how to go about this.

First off, HQ, since you don't have Lieutenants in an all veteran list, all the orders will be coming from your HQ, so make sure you have a good one, like straken or, in this case, creed. I prefer creed for this, as his 24 inch command radius, and 4 orders a turn really help make up for the lack of lieutenants. Also, take as many heavy weapons as you can with creed, as you will certainly have a lack of heavy weapons here. So I recommend taking two mortars and a master of ordinance here. As that will really boost your firepower.

Next up, the veterans. So everyone here, if you want to play to win anyway, should have cameleoline. For the same reason real marines don't wear that much armor, 4+s don't save against much, especially when you can get a 3+ coversave, or even a 2+ if you know what you're doing. As far as what gear, well, take what you want! I think a squad of three snipers, and a mortar team, would do a fine job together, but not great enough to give to everyone so just make that like one squad. The basis, should be the autocannon, and either grenade launcher, or plasmagun. Take your pick. Shotguns, not very useful, at least not until we get str 4 like black templar :/

Heroes, I recommend taking as many as possible, leadership is key to a small army.

elites, feel free to take stormtroopers, or ratlings, ogryns are alright, but waaay to expensive.

Transports, don't need em, between move move move, and 3+ coversaves, why bother?

Tanks, one or two maybe, but use them more like bunkers, in that they should be sitting back and shooting all game long, camo netting, not a bad idea, not a bad idea at all.

Vendettas/valkyries, good, but if you take any, I don't really know what you'd use them for, I mean, anti tank should be covered by your tanks and infantry, and whats the point in being mobile? other than last minute rushes, which, lets face it, we won't be doing here.

Sentinels, take em, with camo netting, and with lascannons. Anti tank, and anti heavy infantry, and nearly indestructible if used properly. Especially worth their points.

That pretty much covers it. Using these lads is simple, set up camp, open fire, and straight up kill your enemy :D

Bereft of Boltguns

So, riddle me this folks. If humanity has the technology to make a gyrojet assault rifle, and they have the technology to equip large, large, numbers of space marines with them (one space marine to a planet my ass) and then they also have the technology to make laserbeam guns, which I imagine is only moderately easier, I mean, fuckers shoot lasers. and somehow the lasgun, is more rugged? easier to manufacture, and the Space Marines, who's whole thing is autonomous operation, get the gun that needs resupplying in the form of ammo? I mean, a lasgun can be recharged, need more ammo? go and get it recharged, or get a new clip, while the old one is "recycled". I mean, how hard is it to find the logic in all this? but that's not what this rant is about, its about, me wanting boltgun equipped guardsmen. The WORST gun in the game, hands down, the lasgun. Even the orks, the fucking orks, are better at shooting than a guardsmen, simply because his gun is better. ORKS!!!

So, all we need, is a better gun option. I mean, orks come in three flavors (Gretchin, shoota, and slugga choppa), space marines come in three flavors (scouts, tacs, and sternguard (sternguard count, cuz they can indeed score with the right army)), and tyrannid come in three flavors with their termaguants, hormaguants, and guants. WHY is it that each of those units can be differently kit, while the guard, we get three flavors too, but they are all the same thing. Conscript, guardsman, veteran. And the conscripts are overpriced, and the veterans aren't different enough to TRULY matter. If I could give my veterans hotshot lasguns, or boltguns, or ANYTHING but a lasgun (shotguns are UP too >:I ) I would. But I cannot. SO :(

One thing we can do, is confuse our enemies with how we are all the same. But I've written an article on that so hit it up here

Making the Most of it

once a year, there's that fantastic game that you and your buds will always talk about. How is it, that the models seem to come to life, and the dice roll in those strange ways? like, losing 5 terminators in a single turn, by rolling all those ones against lasguns. I think part of it is similar to the waaagh effect. See, if you make the experience more than just what it is, then the experience is so much better. You just gotta find what makes your experience better, and how to summon that on a whim. The thing is, the majority of your games, will be mediocre. And nothing worthy of noting. BUT, make things boss, and they will be boss! there is no try, only do.

fall of theorah campaign 003

With knowledge of such an assault underway the Imperials are truly face to face with the horror of losing their planet to the clutches of chaos. Sent on a planned diplomatic envoy, by the governor, a tau expeditionary force arrived, and much to the dislike of the space marines, was a wary ally. Chaos however, was in search of no such aid, and blasted half of the fleet apart before they could even land, the debris landing throughout much of the already wartorn desolate world.

Battle for the outskirts:

Mission objective:
capture and hold three ruined buildings

Deployment:
Space Marines and tau in center, chaos, control of the rest of the board

Forces:
Vykar 500
White Crescents 500
Tau Expeditionary Force 500

Sons of the Grave 500
Lost and the Damned 500
orks 500
tyranids 500

Special Rules:
Infighting: The orks, tyranids, and chaos forces are all distrusting of one another, at the begining of your turn, roll for each unit, on a roll of a one, an imperial or tau player takes control of that unit, however, they may not fire on your own army i.e. no imperial guard shooting at one another.

Victor: Chaos
Aftermath:
With the infighting rule in effect, the way we deployed negated the usefulness of it, with each army on a different table edge. and with the points advantage, we really creamed the imperials here, again, the failure of the two space marine armies to work together continued to give us an advantage.

Fall of Theorah campaign 002

With the progress of the orks and tyranids slowing down, as the infighting between the two grew, and with the recent arrival of aid, from the two nearby space marine chapters, the Vykar, and the White Crescents, Helcius made his next move. To land his warband upon the planet, and to make their presence known.

Mission:
Space marines have one objective, in their deployment zone, and whoever has it in the end wins, if no one does, chaos still wins.

Deployment:
regular 12 inch sides

armies:
1000 points Vykar
1000 points White Crescents

1000 points lost and the damned
1000 points sons of the grave

Victor: chaos
Aftermath:
Using a rather large amount of conscripts, I used my men as massive meatshields, whilst the Sons of the Grave advanced behind them, and long story short, we won, hard, as the space marine chapters did not compliment one another, at all. CC based, and terminator based, led to basically a shooting gallery for my lads, and a massive swamp of CC whilst chaos got the charges that mattered, and the space marines were left out in the open, as my men retreated, only to have a fresh wave sent in

Know Thine Enemy

Now, I've always been a good little boy, and never illegally downloaded codecies, and my friends, don't want to waste their money on one, so I never get to read their codecies, and learn up on my opponents, which is for me, very frustrating, and I have lost more than one battle due to moral conduct. So recently, I found a hobby shop that had the codecies, and I sat there in the store and read and read and read. If they had a problem with it, they didn't show it, and whatever, its not like I have to know the book cover to cover.

SO I read the chaos space marine and marine codex, and I wrote a list for each, and I'm shocked at how small the armies seem. my 1750 list outnumbers theirs 3 to one. Not that that's even a great advantage, fudgin 3+ saves. So anyway, I learned a few special rules, and I learned a few of the basics, and now I feel totally different about walking on to the field of battle against them. Instead of, what the hell? why is that unit wounding on 2+s all the time out of nowhere? now its, oh, they have special munitions ah. So I must say, even if you have to download them, read up on all the armies you can, at least all the armies you fight regularly. Do so, and you will be better prepared. And knowing, is half the battle!

background check: orks

So, if you know me, then you know I love a good background to an army. So, with the arrival in a few months of a waagh, my waaagh, it had better have some kickass background. So I wanted something viking themed, if I'm going to have a close combat related army, its just begging for an excuse to be viking related. So my waaagh, Waaaagh Baksluh, is the Axe 'ead tribe. I'll only touch up on the highlights, as I have already written 10 pages of background fluff. First and foremost, is their love of hair squigs. And in order to fit more hair squigs on, they put them, not on their head, but on their chins, basically forming giant beards. The more powerful and wealthy the ork, the more hair squigs he gets. These are almost as valuable to these orks as teef. Next up, (and to much anger from the internets) big choppas are favored above all other forms of weaponry. And (also to the chagrin of the interwebs) eavy armor. Oh, and no bikes, and no trukks, and no battlewagons, and no vehicles period. The reason?! well, besides, I just loooooove hordes too much to spend any points on anything else, my lads is obsessed with only building gargants. They say, why bother with the small stuff, none of that is useful compared to a gargant! so they naturally, make tons of gargants. But beyond that, another reason they are backward, they "grew up" on a feral world, and they, well, played the role of vikings. They build longboats, and ate fishes, but in order to make fish palatable to the ork diet, they had to let them rot first. They took slaves, burned churches, and generally made lots and lots of war. All led by, warboss Baksluh, and his pet grot, Wolly. When they were found by the orks of the Goff tribe, turns out, they were from the Goffs, and that explained their high amount of ladz, and nobz, and relatively low amount of trickery. The Goffs however, had been fairly disappointed in the way the Axe 'eads hadn't adopted some of the newer things. One thing all the Axe 'eads did take to, was making space fairing vessels. And their vessels, along with their fantastic alcohol brews, were worth almost twice as much teef as any other kind. The Axe 'eads didn't take much to looting weapons, but they love silver, and torching the treasures of others. While most orks think its a good laugh to burn some one, and watch them do the "burny dance" the Axe 'eads love the misery of a slave watching their beloved heirlooms and places of worship burn.

so there we go, sorry bout a bit of the ranting, but I really like the ideas there. as far as models go, I think I'll buy some black orcs from warhammer fantasy, and they will form my nobz, and I'll buy a fantasy warboss for his kit, and make me a warboss from that. As far as the boyz go, its ebay assault on black reach ladz all the way. And using straws, cardboard, and lots of green stuff, I'll get my storm boyz yet. Can't think of why the Axe 'eads would like storm boyz, other than they are very militarily organized, when compared to other tribes. Baksluh loves to discipline him some ladz. well, I'm sure I'll keep you all over-informed as my mind continues to churn out awesome sauce

Stormboyz

So, after trying out a few things in vassal 40k, I have decided to alter my ork army plans. And it will incorporate a TON of stormboyz. Why stormboyz? well, I like stormboyz, that's why! so how to do it, without breaking the bank? at $25 for only five models, they are just waaay too pricey for what I'm lookin' for. BUT what's the difference between a stormboy and a boy? the rokkit pack, that's all. So, the trick is less, finding money, but finding alternative rokkit packs. Can you say scratchbuild? so plan is to come up with a few designs of rokkit packs. I'll inform you all with pictures, when it happens, but, as of right now, that's a good 3 months away. The next big hurdle, is tactics. I'm never one to just, choose an army, I want to choose an army, and learn how it ticks. Whether or not it's a good army is irrelevant. Stormboyz are twice the price, of a regular boy. And they gain only a rokkit pack, which helps them travel 12 + d6 inches, in the movement phase alone. They can, in theory, go 24 inches in one turn if they get the assault down right. The other thing they get, and this is often overlooked, is stikk bombs. They get them on their profile, so its really two things they get for twice the price of a regular boy. Other than that, it's hard to justify the points. They may also deepstrike, but at the loss of assault, all that would do is shorten a turn of enemy shooting at them, and that will be later on in the game. If the opponent is imperial guard, I could see deepstrike being useful, because as the game wears on, they will have less to shoot at the stormboyz with, and all it will take is really two turns of having stormboyz down to ruin their life, and the deepstrike could eliminate the alphastrike effect on the stormboyz.

That said, regular deployment is preferable for me. And zagstruk makes stormboyz more about him, than, well, stormboyz, and I don't like that, even if they get to assault the turn they deepstrike with him. So what do I take exactly? 20 stormboyz is preferable for a single unit, two units of 20 is perfect, as they will provide a screen for your boyz, as well as be dead killy if they ever make it in cc. I don't expect them necessarily to survive, so I try to keep their kit light. The nob has a bosspole, a big choppa, and eavy armor. Thats right, I like eavy armor and big choppas! just because its not a 3+ save doesn't mean it sucks, and just because it doesn't make your attacks strength 8, also doesn't mean it sucks! its still an 84% chance to wound.

So overall strategy? if the opponent is packing heavy anti infantry, and I know I could break them if I just make it in assault, deepstrike aint bad. If they are most armies, then basic book straight up the table, is about all the tactics you'll need.

Cowards?!

So, Beasts of War just put up a video, this one. and they called out guardsmen, and called them cowards! Not just a casual, oh they flee all the time, no it was straight up, they are pussies. SO in retaliation, I am going to focus this article, on the art of standing your ground. For a very long time now, I have been shown to be a fan of commissars, there's no arguing with a .75 caliber bullet. They are pretty straight forward, slap them in a unit, they won't run, combine squads to further the effect of a single commissar. NEXT UP, we have Straken, and Chenkov. both of these characters give off the stubborn special rule, which is VERY important to weathering a morale check. Not only this, but they both have the ability to rally a unit nearby who is fleeing. Those traits alone make them worth taking, letalone combined with their other rules. SO do this, and your guardsmen won't be labeled "cowards" Take that darrel! :-)

The Art of the Flanking Maneuvre

No I'm not talking about outflank, but running your units up the side of the board. Often times this is preferable to running up the middle, simply because half the units will be fighting you. And if you made your board right, you'll be in cover the whole way there >:D

The most important thing is to do this only when the map allows this. Meaning, if there is suitable cover to keep your men in cover until they are bashing in some heads. DON'T do this, if your opponent has planned accordingly, meaning there are enough models there to stop you.

Followup cover. At some point your models, hopefully anyway, will be on the other side of the table, make sure there is cover there as well, you never want to be out in the open! imagine if the deathstar just had a 4+ invulnerable save, there's a 50% chance we'd be watching star wars episode 4, No Hope.

Very lastly, fight what your deathstar is good at fighting, if its good at fighting everything, first kill what can kill it, or if the game is already far along, kill what can lose you the game, meaning anything that can kill your troops.

Vassal 40k

Yesterday a buddy and I decided to download vassal 40k, which is a gaming system designed to play 40k from afar. It's super clunky, and we don't know how to use it very well at all. However, as far as playing warhammer with a buddy who isn't exactly in the neighborhood, this works great. And also, no models necessary, just a codex and a rulebook.

The only thing is it is really difficult to use, however we're desperate for any medium that lets us do this, so we're mostly willing to overlook any of the technical difficulties. I recommend it if you want to get into the hobby, as you can test out your models and techniques and such. Hrm... ima go do that right now. Gunna check out if 30 guardsmen can beat 60 orks if used properly, doubtful, but possible mwuahahaha

The Lost and The Damned

So, what are The Lost and The Damned? Chaos Imperial Guard :D! So what about these lads? well, for starters, they are one of the most numerous foes of mankind, yet they are one of the least popular armies. Understandably so, I mean if you want to be evil why play them? why not chaos space marines? or daemons? where is the cool in renegade guard? well for starters, I looooooove the look. I mean, the whole shebang of mutants and whatnot. The fact every guardsmen can be unique, and you wont be just "another guard army" You'll be the Lost and The Damned.

So not that I'll collect them, at least for a long time, because I already have a guard army. BUT that doesn't mean I can't dream. So I've seen some really cool TLATD armies lately, mostly on Dakkadakka, but the point of it all remains the same. A unique guard army, comprised of heavily converted models and heavily awesome stuff. My favorite idea comes from lost planet two, there was a guy in that who had iron chains for dreadlocks...that would just be so awesome.

Fall of Theorah Part 001

Having single handedly slaughtered many of the citizens of Karlona, Helcius performed the rituals to sacrifice their souls and to have the eye of Nurgle upon himself so he may request his aid. His request was for the redirection of a space hulk lost in the warp, so that it would collide with the mining world Theorah, and unleash the darkness within the Space Hulks inner caverns. Granting his wish in return for the corpses of the slain, Helcius returned to his fleet, and they pulled out of the system.

50 years to the day after the ritual of Karlona, the space hulk's long journey from the warp to the planet of Theorah was complete. The Space Hulk smashed through the planets atmosphere, and the majority of it landed on the south pole of the planet, sprinkled throughout the southern hemisphere of the planet. The majority of the pieces lay dormant, but quite a few of them stirred from within, unleashing both the horrors of orks and tyranids upon the planet.

Mission 02 Rapid Response :

Forces:
Imperial Guard - PDF
120 guardsmen and officers
2 leman russ tanks
1 basalisk
2 sentinels
1 company command

Tyrannids:
50 hormagaunts
20 termagaunts
3 carnifexes
Hive Tyrant

Orks:
60 boyz
2 warbosses
6 loota boyz
5 meganobz

Objective:
PDF forces are to engage any threats encountered, and report back. (annihilation)

Deployment: Standard

Special Rules: none

Victor: orks and nids
Aftermath: fairly straight forward game, I gave the orks and tyrannids a slight points advantage, as the players were new, and I didn't want to spice the game up with too many extra rules, so I made it a standard match, just with space hulk terrain. Overall, I was overwhelmed by the massive amount of close combat troops. The Carnifexes and Warbosses were about the only reliable anti-tank on the board, so I tried not to focus on them, as I didn't want to crush the new guys, but because I didn't I paid far too dearly, and lost the match by turn four, when both my leman russes were crushed, and what little was left of my force retreated.

Fall of Theorah campaign 000

I'm going to write what happened in my most recent campaign , feel free to take from this what you want, it's less about individual battles and more about the narrative, but here's what went down:

Participating armies:
Imperial Guard (me) - lost and the damned traitors
Chaos Space marines - Sons of the grave
Tau - Expeditionary Force
Space Marines - Vykar chapter
Space Marines - White Crescent Chapter
Orks - Waaagh Gurragok
Tyranids - Hive Fleet Behemoth splinter

Alright, so as you can see, plenty of armies, plenty of narrative.

Background: Theorah, is a mountainous and barren planet, fairly devoid of life, all except for a few sparse mining colonies, each one struggling to make quota under the massive imperial tithe. It's resource is mostly Iron and Copper, but the planet is so rich with it, it bears defending. Hoping to cut off the majority of the supply line in the region, the chaos warband under chaos champion Helcius plotted the takeover of the rather unprotected planet as their opening move in taking the region. Wanting to draw out the imperials, and remain rather undetected, Helcius ventured out to gain the favor of the chaos gods, something he hoped to be rewarded for in more ways than one.

mission 000 Fortunate Son:
Helcius has traveled to a small agricultural world of Karlona segundus and alone he must initiate his plan.

Forces:
Sons of the Grave:
Helcius

PDF/local populace:
40 guardsmen
2 sentinels
40 civilians fielded in family units of 4 WS1 S2 T2 I2 LD 3 W1 A 1

Objective:
no more than 25% of the civilians may make it to the opposite board edge alive for a chaos victory, if more than 25% make it, then imperial victory is achieved.

Deployment: imperial units deploy within 12 inches of the short board edge on the left, Helcius may deploy anywhere on the board, as long as he remains one inch away from enemy units.

Special Rules:
Faster Than Thy Neighbor: when rolling to see how far a civilian unit may run roll 2 d6 and choose the highest. And also roll an additional d6 for difficult terrain.

Reign In Blood: Helcius may charge 12 inches in the assault phase, and may roll an additional d6 when consolidating from close combat.

Planetary Defense Force: all guardsmen count as conscripts for their stat profile.


Victor: Chaos Space Marine
aftermath:I really enjoyed playing this one, it was kind of an ego boost for the chaos player, but whatever, It was one of those, lets just see how many models we can kill kind of games. In the end not one civilian made it out, I think the whole charging 12 inches may have been over powered, but I dunno, I think it still fits. If you want to play a similar campaign, this is a mission you could cut out, and just say mission accomplished automatically. But it's just a kind of game to open up with, while you're waiting on the other players and you are anxious for some gaming.

Pantheon of Heroes

Great feats are necessary, and a common occurrence in warhammer 40k. So obviously we strive to field these heroes, and its an easy way to add "character" to an army. HOWEVER, I believe instead of a select few mighty heroes that are sprinkled throughout each codex, I think every fighting man is a hero. So that said, I either want the ability to field multiple of the "same" hero, or be able to make my own. Most often I just make my own, and regardless of characters, everyone in my army has a name, and unit number. If I could, I'd give them each a special rule, no matter the point cost. But this is not so, and probably I'm better off without it. BUT, the point of all this is just to ask the question, why can't we make our own heroes within the confines of the rulebook? How hard can it be? Give me a few special rules, give them a points value, and let me select the weapons, and equipment. Codex heroes could still exist, as cheaper versions of custom heroes, but they would have downsides, like for example commander chenkov is decent in leadership, but he only packs a bolt pistol and chainsword, making him pretty mediocre in CC, so he would be cheaper than a model with his same special rules, but better equipment.

Of course I at least, will always want more special rules than they can give. But who cares?

In campaigns I always strive to give everyone involved a special character that we made up and gave a points value for. If they die, your army has to make a morale check or fall back, and there are super huge bonuses if they survive all the way to the final battle, but if they participate in a battle and win, then they get other cool rules, at the risk of them dying in the battle. Even if their model dies in battle, they are able to cling to life and are brought back after resting from one battle for 5+ determining whether they make it in the medicae facility, bio chamber or what have you. Anywho, you don't have to field your character until the final battle, but if it's their first major battle of the campaign, then they aren't going to be as skilled as a hero who has been slugging it out all campaign. Lets say that one of the characters is removed from play in the last battle, and they make their 5+ save to keep them alive for the campaign purposes, but the next battle is the final battle. At that point I let them fight, however, they only have one wound, to represent their unhealed injuries.

Finally, I just want to cover mini-heroes. When I say that I would give each of my characters a special rule if I could, I mean it. For example, 1st Sergeant Buln, he's in command of red squad (my favorite) I would give him stubborn, a shotgun, a bolt pistol, and a CC weapon, as well as carapace armor and BS 4, even though he's only a standard guardsmen sergeant. Corporal Coe I would give BS 2 but I would make his 5+ save invulnerable. Little things, complex things, but I like that, I like that alot, despite the overwhelmingness of individual characters making up a 150+ army.

Gargantuan Great Gargants

So, continuing the thought path of things that are in the future, when I get my guest army, that army being orks, I do believe I'll make them a great gargant. Why? it's cheap, it's cool, it's easy, and above all, it makes an instant apocalypse army. See, a trashcan, with some clippers or shears, instantly provides a great "dress" for the gargant. A few pieces of pipe, maybe a lightsaber toy blade or two, and we got easy good lookin cannons. Using foamboard and sprue to make all the cool little walkways. Only problem spots are the feet, the arms, and the head, but a little ingenuity works wonders. So the ultimate goal? one green tide of 100 orks and a warboss, maybe more, but that's the gist, and they'll load up in my Great Gargant. Of course it's easy to say these things, but I foresee this as an awesome thing, and very plausible.

Guest Armies

One of the things I'm going to have to tackle soon, is having a guest army. Lets start off with why have a guest army.

Basically, a guest army is an army for friends who don't want to pay for models, or people deciding whether or not they want to get into the hobby, before they buy their own army. So if you have one, you can get more people into the hobby. It will also give you another army to play with when you wanna spice up the game. It will also add much to the pictures you take, just guardsmen running firing at nothing, and manning defenses is getting a weeee bit old.

What is a good guest army to have? Space Marines, Chaos space Marines, Orks, and necrons, are great guest armies. Why those armies? space marines (and therefore chaos space marines) and orks are part of the assault on black reach box set, meaning, ebay sells these models like worms a tackle shop, its just the bread and butter of warhammer sales. That said, necrons are also cheap, due to high model points cost, and basic logic, necron warriors, plus moniliths, equals done.

Now how to buy one :D Me, I'm torn between iron warriors, and orks, but I'm going orks, because, well, I like orks a little bit more, and I love horde armies too much to not get another.

So here's plan >:D Buy orks, lots and lots of orks for cheap, I really mean, LOTS AND LOTS of orks. Upwards of 120. Then buy two warbosses. DONE. I'll periodically add more, as I go, but it's a thought. Orks also make a fine starting army tactically. See, the main objective, simple, get into CC. If they lose men, they have more. Tactical errors are few and far between, and thats always good for new guys.

Cuz if You're Not Hardcore!!!

Every gaming group has that one super hardcore guy. You can pick him out pretty easily. And in both of my groups (thats right, I have TWO groups) I'm the hardcore guy. Now it's pretty easy to become one yourself if you have the drive. But one big obstacle, is this most often means other responsibilities. Such as getting more people into the hobby, building terrain, hosting the events, writing the campaigns, and sometimes, having multiple armies, so others can play too, just to see if they want into the hobby.

Lets focus today, on recruitment. If you want to be a happy gamer, surround yourself with other gamers. It's a two or more person game, so yeah, more players the better! Now one important thing to remember when recruiting new players, is DON'T mention the cost of it all. Get the hook in their mouth, before you pull as hard as you can. Also, show you and your friends having a great game! and bend the rules while they're watching to make stuff more epic. If the person loves Close Combat, then show them what some deathstars can do. If they love firepower, show them volleys of well disciplined shots! Bend the game for the benefit of the beholder!

Don't have other friends? don't pull the needy card, that just pushes people away. However! do pull the old, I totally had a huge gaming group going in highschool, it was so boss. And regale them of battles of old!... that never really happened... but sound boss!

Next up don't, and I mean DON'T mention space marines. Let them find out how boss they are on their own. It's the difference between watching District 9 with low expectations and falling in love with it, and watching District 9 with high expectations, and wondering what all the hubub was about. (I know, that's no longer mainstream. - but it still applies!) If they figure out how cool space marines are in their own mind, then they're more likely to get into it, because it was "their" decision. There is a reason space marines are the poster boys, they get people into the hobby.

Lastly, if you can get people to want to play in waves of two, that's better. Two new players create the group mentality, without sacrificing valuable tutelage.

When is a gaming group at perfection? 8 players. Not 8 regular players, but if you needed to, you could definitely get all 8 together within a week. 4 hardcore players is also a good goal. 4 hardcore players that are always up for a game is just about perfect.

Apocalypse Plans

Alright, so let me start off by saying, I do not have these models, nor do I plan on getting them any time soon. BUT it is the dream army, which I plan to have before I die.

3 Companies outfitted like my current army, i.e. 3 platoons of 3 squads, 2 platoons with rockets/plasma 1platoon with grenadelauncher/heavy bolters, complete with 30 conscripts as well. and 9 heavy weapons teams, 3 per platoon.

for a total model count at that point of 176 x 3 which would be 528 men so far.

2 stormlord superheavies

Next up, I'd want 2 batteries of 3 basalisks
one battery of 3 manticores.

maybe 5 gorgons, most gorgons I'd go with would be 9, but that's really pushing it. (my current goal is to get three)

one full leman russ tank platoon, of 10 leman russ tanks.

3 vendettas, with 30 stormtroopers

and lastly 2 marauder destroyers.

Alrighty, there we go! Dream army complete. The goal here is to simply be a well balanced, and down right awesome, force. A battalion of guardsmen, complete with batteries and support units. My plan to purchase all of these items is simple. buy it over time. I'll fill you guys in as it comes along, just don't expect any massive build up any time soon. :/

Oh and cost of all this? $

$1200 for the infantry (roughly, I'm not gunna do the math for spreading out the heavy weapons)
$200 for the stormlords
$750 for the gorgons
$500 for the russes
$360 for the basalisks
$130 for the manticores
$500 for stormtrooper vendetta combo
$400 for the marauder destroyers.

Total = $4000
SHEESH... good thing I already have a drop in the bucket :/ but hey, this is dreaming here! Just gotta take out a loan to make it happen, and only use it all once a year. Oh, and this doesn't even cover all the storage this army would take. At least 5 large tackle boxes, easy.

Custom Uniforms, Equipment and Vehicles of the Wake 325th

In a perfect world, my army would look an awful lot like the 90's guardsmen. Rolled up sleeves, slightly less covering helmets, cigars for sergeants, and caps all around. But I would add leg Gators (the weird shin wrap things that Marines would wear in WWII, so prevent bugs from crawlin up and water from gettin in your boots), I'd also like to throw in campaign covers for a few of my sergeants, campaign covers, also known as smokeys, are what smokey the bear wears, but Marines did it first, in world war one. Next uniform change I'd make, less armor. See, the cadian stuff is cool and all, but the shoulder pads are unnecessary, they don't exactly stop much, and they restrict movement, a lot. I wouldn't mind forearm armor though, that'd be kinda cool for like sergeants and stuff. Why the smaller helmets? well, you can't really get a unique face on the current ones, or add facial hair. and again, it's not like their stopping alot of harm from befalling guardsmen. Also, flak jackets, I like what the catachans have going there, but I want them a little more bulky, and a little more, I dunno, protective looking, not just a vest, but a flack jacket.

Rifles would be longer than most other regiments, and black synthetic material, favoring bayonets and underslung grenade launchers. The occasional rifle scope, nothing major though. The rifle would also taper as it got closer towards the barrel. Pistols would all be bolt pistols, no laspistols, and only a select few plasma pistols. Our heavy bolters would all be handheld, like the spacemarines, none of that tripod stuff, bipods at best. Our rocket launchers would be smaller than most, and the ammo would be similar to the space marines again. Grenade launchers would be like the Vietnam era thumper, but synthetic materials.

Lastly our vehicles would consist of Gorgons, painted a dark green, would be the favored transport, though Chimeras are also somewhat prevalent, though rarely seen after initial landings. Tanks would be more akin to the malcador than the russ, but still slightly different than the malcador, in that it's also built for swamps, and would have to be amphibious. Instead of the standard Valkyrie, Wake uses the phased out Star Knight transport, it's only got one ramp, and thats in the back, and it's armament only consists of two heavy bolter sponsons, and multilaser front cannon. Wake does make decent use of sentinels, but they prefer the heavier armored sentinels over the scouts, despite the dense terrain, as the pilots prefer the fear factor of the armored sentinel against lighter units, as well as its better effectiveness.

Well, there's what I would have if I could have an all custom army, someday I might actually make a few of these, but there's the dream anyway.