Thursday 20 August 2015

New toys

So again today will just be a short one as I haven't really got very much 30k hobbying done this week, although I have done some. On Monday I got some new goodies in the post. Firstly another three thallax with a photon thruster. Hopefully I'll get this built and painted in the next couple of weeks.


Monday 17 August 2015

Titan Princeps/Magos

So this is a quick one today. Just thought I'd put up some photos of my limited edition reaver titan princeps that I finished on Friday. Some of you will have seen him on twitter so apologies for the multiple posts.

Thursday 13 August 2015

New Forge World Site

So I don't normally post about this sort of thing, but I thought I would give my views on it and see what people think and also the benefits/downsides to it are.


So here is the new look for any of you haven't seen it yet. They have made it like the actually GW website. So there are some pros to this :
  • Mobile - I think this is the biggest improvement to the website, it is so much easier to navigate
  • We're getting 360 views on some models so you can see 
  • The white out of weapons on the first image so you can see what you can comes in the set, like the old dreadnought arm shots
  • Age of Sigmar stuff has rules for it, they don't look to bad actually
Now my biggest gripe and I think the only major problem with the website :
      
THE NAVIGATION! - it is so difficult to find what you want, especially if it is generic. Cutting down the option to what you want is just time consuming. It isn't difficult per-say, it's just a little more difficult to do so.

So the other big thing is the special edition Praetor. I personally like the model, apart from the head (which seems to be everyones biggest gripe). It's nice to get a complete power armoured Praetor that you can then use as a legion centurion rules wise or convert to whatever you want. Now I think they missed a trick here. Very few of the characters have fancy helmets, so personally I think that they should have done a helmeted version. Well that's what I would have liked to see. 

Special edition model 
Any way that is all I have to say on the matter. What do you guys think?

Philip


Monday 10 August 2015

The Ordo Reductor or where I want to take my army

So I have decided to think through my force idea, part of this is based on speculation of what I have heard from different people that were at the open day and chatted to Alan Blithe about the new red Mechanicum book.

Thursday 6 August 2015

Starting a Horus Heresy Army: Lords of War

Hi guys it's Tom here.

Today I will discuss how lord of war choices are made in a heresy game and a rundown of the lord of war choices in the crusade army list and their strength and weaknesses.

A few disclaimers first. I will not be talking about primarchs in this article, as that will need a whole article in itself to properly analyse. Also, I will be talking about units that are specifically in the crusade army list book, and not superheavy vehicles that have been introduced after the book's release (such as the stormbird and knights).

To begin, I will outline how lord of war choices work in the Forge World Horus Heresy format.
If you play a battle in the age of darkness you need to follow a 25% rule for lord of war choices. That is that a lord of war choice cannot be more than 25% of your total points. Additionally, you cannot take a lord of war choice in games less than 2000 points. For example in a 2000 points game, you can have a lord of war choice up to 500 points.

There is an optional Leviathan force organisational chart that allows you to take additional lord of war choices, and can represent any percentage of your force, although this organisational chart has different drawbacks and restrictions to take into account. 
Another way to add more superheavy awesomeness to your force is to agree with your opponent that you are playing an unbound army as per the 40k 7th edition rulebook. This allows you to take whatever you want, but is a rather contentious issue with some players as some may think heresy is not balanced for unbound. Therefore seeking approval from an opponent is key.

Now I will discuss the various lord of war choices that are listed in the crusade army list.
·       
             Legion Stormblade:



Ø  Pro's- 2 different firing modes which adds versatility. Large blast area
Ø  Con's- Needs armoured ceramite or will be susceptible to meltas in drop pods
Ø  Summary- Overall good tank which in my opinion is worth its points. Plus who doesn't like a titan scale plasma cannon on a tank?

·         Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer:



Ø  Pro's- Multiple shots at str 10 if you roll well for the amount of shots it has. Shock pulse is great against other superheavies to stop their blast weapons for a turn if you penetrate it.
Ø  Con's- Feedback can be annoying as you could lose a hull point for not penetrating or wounding an enemy unit
Ø  Summary- Compared to the sicaran venator and the new laser destroyer vindicator this tank is not up to standard for its points. Its saving grave is that it's a superheavy and so can keep firing until all its hull points are gone.

·         Typhon Heavy Siege Tank:



Ø  Pro's- Ignores cover strength 10 is awesome! Cheap for the fire output it has
Ø  Con's- short range if you need to reposition and move the tank
Ø  Summary- One of the best lord of wars in the list. Having ignores cover with such high strength and low AP means that you will eradicate most things under the massive blast you place. Great for messing with a gun-line sat in cover

·         Legion Falchion:



Ø  Pro's- Strength D can be useful for targeting an important enemy unit, especially other superheavies
Ø  Con's- Only 1 shot
Ø  Summary- With only 1 shot the tank will struggle to get its points back unless you roll well on the D table and manage to hit with some shots

·         Malcador Assault Tank:



Ø  Pro's- Cheap and is a fast vehicle
Ø  Con's- Relatively low armour and hull points
Ø  Summary- Doesn't really fill an integral function in a heresy list. You can get more firepower for less points

·         Legion Fellblade:



Ø  Pro's- All rounder and can take on multiple enemy units. Lots of hull points. Good range on guns
Ø  Con's- Anti-armour round is only 3 inch blast
Ø  Summary- A versatile and resilient tank that can take on a range of targets. A solid choice.

·         Legion Glaive:



Ø  Pro's- Beam weapon that ignores cover and has haywire
Ø  Con's- Effectiveness dependant on enemy deployment and targets in range. Has to be on the frontline so you don't hit your own units with the beam which can lead to dangerous positions
Ø  Summary- A versatile main weapon that has the potential to destroy a lot of models, but a cleaver opponent will deploy so that you will not get the most out of the beam range. On the plus side, you can use it to alter the opponent's plans, and to potentially deploy in areas they don't want to.

·         Thunderhawk Gunship:



Ø  Pro's- Big transport capacity, including units that otherwise cannot be transported such as bikes
Ø  Con's- Has to come in on reserves, so might not have enough time on the board to be effective. Susceptible to interceptor fire, which is common in heresy armies. Expensive
Ø  Summary- You will have a lot of points of your army in reserves, so you reliant on it coming in turn 2/3 so that occupant can charge out of it and get their points back

·         Thunderhawk Transporter:



Ø  Pro's- Transports units that otherwise wouldn't be able to be transported such as land raiders
Ø  Con's- Needs to come on from reserves. Susceptible to interceptor fire, which is common in heresy armies
Ø  Summary- You will have a lot of points of your army in reserves, so you reliant on it coming in turn 2/3 for it to be effective points back.


Please let me know if you would like me to go into more detail about any of the units I have discussed in this article, or if you want me to cover a superheavy that's missing from this list.

Thank you very much for reading!


Tom

Monday 3 August 2015

Thallax Showcase

So some of you will already have seen numerous photos of my thallax but for those of you who haven't, or even those of you who have and want some more close ups I have decided to put up some more photos of them