Imperial Guard Platoons

So, one of the things that often confuses people, is the massively complex unit, known as an Imperial Guard Platoon. Each platoon is an army within an army. There is one HQ that's mandatory, the Lieutenant or "platoon commander" as well as two troops, in the form of guardsmen squads. You can take more troops. You can add some heavy support in the form of heavy weapons squads. Or you can add some special weapons with special weapons teams. Oh and conscripts, while mostly avoided, are also found here. Now the key thing here. This is all ONE troops choice from the force organization chart.... ONE TROOP CHOICE can be over 100 men. Easily. So. that said. We have the potential to field the largest armies, and put down the most hurtin in one turn. No other army can say that 100 plus infantry is a single troops choice. Now on the other hand, the platoon isn't too awful effective, but here are some tips.

Take a commissar, and if you do, put him in a combined squad, so his effects travel further.

I like to take 3 squads per platoon. And I'll combine two of the squads, and give them the said commissar from above.

I find equipping a platoon with all the same kit works best. To have a platoon of all rockets and plasma guns, or all heavy bolters and grenade launchers. My lieutenants retinue will follow this as well, with the addition of a standard bearer. Or if you don't like standards, a vox caster or another special weapon will do.

Typically I don't give my lieutenants much special kit. A bolt pistol, or a plasmapistol is enough. any more than that, you're just not gunna get your points worth.

Remember, the point of a platoon, is to hold objectives, and to put it gently, die. If they aint dyin, then they aren't doin their job. Its a grunt's life.

Cover is, as always with imperial guard, if not even more so here, vital to success. Nothin in the entire game is more necessary. It takes your measly 5+ armor save (nonexistent against bolters, or most weapons for that matter) to a whomping 4+ cover save. So what's the big deal? it increases you chance of surviving against bolters, from a 44% casualty rate, to a 22% casualty rate. And that makes your guardsmen worth their weight in gold. and between the incoming order, or just plain ol' goin to ground, you can increase that how you wish.

Typically, I try not to equip my squads with lascannons. On the basis of the fact that they will never have anything to shoot at. That and one lascannon will more than likely fail to blow up a vehicle anyway. So heavy weapons squads are pretty much the way to go. They all have the same range, and are all just as good as the other guys in the heavy weapon squad. so 3 lascannons, 3 autocannons, 3 mortars, 3 heavy bolters, that's how ya do it.

Lastly, remember that platoons compliment themselves rather nicely. Between the numbers advantage, and the similarity in function, they will most likely get the job done better together than each unit within acting on its own.

Powerfist!

Why... why doesn't every single space marine sergeant have a powerfist? sure its pricey, sure they might never need it. But today. In a small battle a friend and I had, his black templar sergeant did SOOOOO much damage with just a single powerfist. Now, I've fought powerfists before. I've even used them mahself before. But this guy, just rolled soooooo well. And for the first time in all my years of warhammer, I had my ass handed to me by pretty much a single average space marine. So why powerfist crazy? well, in a small game, that's a big deal. We're talkin 500 point game. and this guy took out not just my sentinel, but a building, and all my snipers. Oh, and a squad with a commissar and a squad of stormtroopers. ALL thanks to this one guy. so yeh. never again shall I let my friends new black templar army within 12 inches of me again. EVER. and since we don't take a single step back... that means makin' them step back...aka die. lol

Using Straken In Heroic Battles

When it comes to HQ versus HQ most armies expect imperial guard to fold in like paper. Well not if we use our good friend Colonel Straken. And especially not if you kit him right. How does one kit him properly? well, depends. There are a few builds you can run with.

Anti-Space Marine Captain: A priest, the charge and a medic are all you need here. No matter what you're gettin hit first, but thats alright, you got enough lads. But when you hit, just pierce their WS with the priests reroll to hits. and take him down with your str 7 power weapon. Easy peasy.

Anti-warboss: Don't expect to just run straken up and beat a warboss. Actually, straken would just get flattened if he and his men didn't take him out in the shooting phase. The one thing you have here is initiative. The warboss most likely will have a powerclaw. If so, straken could possibly take one wound from the warboss in CC reliably. But any more than that, you're asking too much. SO if you wanna live, take Nork Deddog, or spam meltaguns. No point in a medic in CC here. Ranged combat is your best bet here.

Anti-IG: the only real guy you have to look out for (other than another straken) is yarrick. But you should be able to take him out pretty easily just with strakens statline alone, so a priest for good measure, just incase you come across another straken.

Anti-Demon: Nork is a must here. Against the higher strengths, his toughness, and ability to take wounds for the Colonel, combined with the Colonels own close combat strengths, you got a winning duo. But if you don't wanna fork out the points for nork, just invest in a few more lascannons throughout the army.

Anti-tyrant: well, the key here with straken, is to get the charge. Do that, and with the additions of str and initiative, you might stand a chance. Cant do that? then pray you got the right guns, or a priest by your side.

At the end of the day Straken is still hard as nails, and its only through his prowess, and unexpected strengths that he can win the day. Not to mention he makes your average guardsmen pretty decent in CC

Marauder Bomber

For those of you who don't know, Marauder Bombers are the workhorse of the imperium's bombers. They do everything from bomb shit, to bomb shit thats like 10000 miles away. SO what are they like in game? well, they carry 12 bombs, have a tailgunner that fires twinlinked heavy bolters, nose mounted twinlinked lascannons, a turret mounted twinlinked heavy bolter. and uh... none of that matters but the 12 bombs. So yeah. Basically, anywhere this bad boy flies (and it can fly anywhere) it can drop up to 12 bombs in one bombing run over where it flew. NOW that said, only 12 bombs to drop. But since you only have 3 structure points, with a flimsy armor 10. might as well drop them on entry, and when that happens, you can drop them from anywhere to where your marauder is. so how use? well, whenever it comes in from reserve, find a good large amount of enemy infantry, or tanks. And just drop trow and let loose the payload. Each bomb is a str 6 ap 4 apoc barrage template. And the blast comes from the center, so cover is hard to get. Just aim for infantry, leave the tanks up to the rest, if you can, hit a tank tho, as it hits top armor. well, that's about it on the marauder. Other than that, use the remainder of its weapons how you see fit. At the very least at this point go for an apocalyptic explosion with it. Just fly over an enemy unit that will certainly kill it, and they don't know any better than to just shoot the shit out of it. and boom, it should blow up and kill somethin else with an even bigger explosion. lol, well, have fun, and love your bombers, and they will love you too.

Fall of Theorah Campaign part 004

As winter set on the planet of Theorah, The legions of the lost and the damned suffered hundreds of casualties a day due to their lack of equipment or care from the Sons of the Grave. Helcius scoffed at their frailty. Meanwhile, the unwary alliance of Space Marine and Tau was fraying at the seams. The Commander of the Lost and The Damned, Warlord Karkan, understood the necessity of getting deeper into the city before the cold truly came on in full force, so he decided to move, even if Helcius would not.

TLatD Push against the city

Mission Objective:
apocalypse and cities of death, objectives

Forces:
TLatD
4000 points
strategic assets and stratagems:
snipers
combat engineers
plunging fire
scheduled bombardment
tank riders
on my coordinates


Tau
4000 points

strategic assets and stratagems:
combat engineers
plunging fire
power station
obstacles
minefield
bunkers

Victor: TLatD
Aftermath
when it comes down to it, snipers really do make a difference in the rubble of 40k's cities of death. See, ratlings have their uses when against Tau. Everysingle turn I had at least two units pinned, thanks to mortars and snipers. in apocalypse two units isn't a whole lot, but in the scheme of things, per turn, thats doin some damage. The real kicker here was just how effective imperial guard are in cities. The whole real point of the match was for both me and my friend who each have the largest armies to clash.

Highlight Reel (translation of ingame moment) (yeah that's right, I just added a segment! wanna fight about it? didn't think so!):

So basically, one of my squads had been moving up steadily along one side of the board, taking cover and such when they came to a large intersection, where two tau bunkers were, and a minefield. The Tau had so much fire pouring down onto that intersection it was halting my entire advance. We're talkin two broadsides, three hammer heads, and over 30 firewarriors, all centered around their power station. My leman russes were giving a platoon a ride to the right, they were taking the real brunt of the damage. meanwhile, my squad moving up the left, snuck up and planted a melta bomb on one of the bunkers, the resulting facepalm of my opponent, was totally worth it. Not to mention when my basalisks took out his power station and my autocannons made short work of the remaining forces. So my MVP goes to bastonne and his lads for making their fantastic little stunt possible, and creating the first crack in their defenses, for which the rest to crumble around.

Over Priced

Some units are inevitably over priced, and some of those units tug at my fluffy heart strings. Particularly Vanguard Veterans from the Space Marine Codex. I go out of my way to make guardsmen assaulty, but to make Marines assaulty, that's somethin else entirely. Why? because its semi-doable, compared to guardsmen anyway. Here's the problem, one Vanguard vet the way I like to take them, is worth 60 points a pop. yeah, 60 points per space marine. Thats one incredibly pricey unit. So why do I do it? why does anyone do it? its badass. The tournament types learned to not read what I have to say long ago, so here I am for the fluff types, and I say do it. I mean, if you want to see space marines deepstrike with thunderhammers, and assault the turn they arrive, GO FOR IT. Sure they'll die. Sure you won't get your points worth. But provide a punch your opponent wont forget. Hit him so hard with that unit, with 20 str 8 power weapon attacks, out of nowhere. and you will be on your way to killing whatever the fuck it is you want. Just make it count!

Creating Characters

One of the reasons I feel that armies like Tau and Tyrannids, and especially necrons don't make it into the most popular armies, is they just CAN'T win hearts and minds. There's no personality there. Between communists, bugs and robots, where the hell are you gunna squeeze in a little character? As Imperial Guard, I'm the most human of all the races, literally. Thats far from why I chose it, but it ended up being one of the coolest parts of the job. See, with so many men, I have quite a few leaders. Each leader being someone I have based off a friend. Most of my friends don't play warhammer, and its an interesting thing when I say, hey, wanna see your model? and all of the sudden its far more interesting. Obviously, if you play orks, its hard to get that in there, but oh well, your characters will just have to be THAT much more creative. How do you come up with a character based off a friend? First off, you have to choose a role for your friend. Are they well liked? are they leaders? are they average troops? or specialist troops? can they fulfill their role well? or are they bad at it? if so, is it funny? Sometimes I'm tasteless about it, like all my dead friends are in a squad of men that are all dying, and the most leaderly of my dead friends is the sergeant who is looking on in horror. Its tasteless, but I still find it rather funny. (yeah, I have enough dead friends to fill a squad). Next up we have their weapons loadout. Most of them will be defined by their role, but sometimes, particularly the leaders can have a lot more character in their loadout. For example, my more reserved friends get ranged, my more intense friends get close combat. I like to make characters from the game, and fill their special rules for my friends, for example, Chenkov, is replaced with Wally, and he is able to have a similar mindset, and fits well with how I field my army. Lastly, how you use them on the table is up to you, but I find making the decisions you think that they would make, makes them roll better, and makes for a better story.

Plasma or Melta?

Melta has one more and more debates than plasma has ever dreamed of winning, and with that in mind, I side with plasma. Plasma may be more expensive, it may be weaker, and it may have a slight chance of killing the user. SO? plasma is a 24 inch range weapon, that can pierce space marine armor, and wounds them on a 2+ I'm sold. Not only am I sold, but I'll effin buy it all. In fact, in each squad for two platoons I have I have a plasmagun, and a plasmapistol for a total of 12 plasma weapons, at close range, thats 18 plasma shots. Combine that with the 6 rocket launchers, and in six squads I'm gettin 24 ap 3 or lower shots, so space marines, you can suck it, no saves. Melta, you don't get that, melta you get 6 shots to my 18, and with less range. while you may be str 10, I'll stick with my plasma, and as far as points go, I don't mind, they miss 50% of the time, so more shots is worth the higher price. And as far as the dying goes, theres a 12% chance a guardsmen will die everytime they fire one of the guns, so what? they're guardsmen, there's more. so melta, have your overpowered BS :p

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! :-)