Hoggers

I'll be taking the first step this week in a project to create what will hopefully be a centerpiece for my guard army: 8 rough riders on giant boars. I figure since the Tiefwalders are more of a forest/jungle theme, the big swine would be more appropriate than horses. I've gathered a selection of bits for conversions: their hunting lances will be wooden staves with combat knives and grenade packs tied on one end, and the vet sergeant will have some choice trophies - ork, genestealer, chaos marine helmet - to help him stand out. The biggest challenge will be actually mounting the men on the boars. I don't actually have any in front of me yet, but from pictures it looks like the ork rider legs seem a little too big for a catachan body, arms, and head. I may have to resort to whittling in the end.

For all the work it will take me, the value of the unit is honestly debatable. They'll be highly fragile one trick ponies (or piggies, as it were), but they only cost 94 points and they're good for a far-reaching counterassault, killing 4-5 MEQs on the charge before they get swung back on. They're basically one more finger in the leaking dam, hopefully granting a bit more time for the big guns to do their work. Overall though they're more about bringing in a unique unit and giving me some fun modelling opportunities.

To work them into my current list, I'll have to consolidate two of the sentinels into a single unit and drop one of the chimeras; no big whoop. There's no way I'm giving up that hellhound. He's just too sweet a killer and many seem to fear him more than the demolisher.

Unwitting Foes

Sergeant Ackerman and his squad crept through the silent forest, the snow dampening the sound of their progress to a muted rolling crunch. To his left, Lilienthal and Stryker carried a rocket launcher, broken down into manageable sections. The rest of his squad, including Yager and his plasma rifle, extended off to his right in a tight, even line. Tiefwalders fought shoulder to shoulder, ready to fill any gaps left by falling brethren. Suddenly, he called for a stop. The men quickly took cover behind rotten trees and snowdrifts, readied their weapons, and waited. As the snow continued to fall, their forms melded with the terrain and became indistinct. The trap was set.

Ackerman squinted to see through the fog hanging at the edge of the forest. Dawn was breaking, and he was just beginning to make out a line of figures extending as far as his eyes could see, widely spaced, approaching their woods at a slow pace. Normally the sight of Ultramarines on patrol would fill him with pride and awe; in this case, however, he had good reason to fear this awesome spectacle of arms. Ackerman just happened to be connected enough to know that the governing council of this particular planet was using his outfit for political cat-and-mouse, trying to entice a space marine chapter into breaching a contract the governors no longer wished to honor. They were pawns in the game, but there was nothing unusual about that. It was the same job it always was.

Slowly, he brought his arm over and tapped Yager’s shoulder. One traced circle and a quick tap signaled that he had acquired a target for the plasma gunner. He turned his head and beckoned the soldier to follow his gaze. One marine in particular stood out from the formation, his immense shoulder pads covered in bright gold, wearing on his back a personal jump pack capable of launching him great distances into the air in the blink of an eye. It would only be a few more moments before their position was overrun by other similarly equipped skirmishers emerging from the marines’ line. The larger mass of supermen was slowing its approach and spreading out, surrounding the woods. They had a very small chance of successfully holding out against the angels of death today, but perhaps bringing down one of their seasoned commanders would shift the momentum to their side, if only for a little while.

Ackerman raised his hand, flicking two fingers forward, and Yager tightened his grip, disengaged the trigger lock, and took careful aim at the marine officer.

Two white hot bursts issued from his weapon and exploded into the power-armored captain a short distance away. He flew backwards several meters, coal black smoke issuing from the giant holes in his chestplate. Almost immediately his battle brothers reacted; tactical marines leveled their bolters and began firing as assault troopers leapt over them and sprinted towards their position.

A short time later, a fatally wounded Sergeant Ackerman watched as the downed marine captain passed by his ruined body. The grim figure stopped briefly to administer the emperor’s mercy before engaging his jump pack and taking off through the sparse winter canopy.

Action Report: 54th Tiefwalder vs. Ultramarines 7-06-07

I played a game down at Battleforge last night against F., who I've played a couple of times before. We rolled the take and hold game type and I picked my side. The last match I played on this table I was on the other side against Thousand Sons, and it felt like too many lines of sight were blocked for me, not to mention it created a ton of ways for assault troops to approach unseen.

F. was rolling with some 82 marines, consisting of command squads, tac squads, assault squads, devastator squads, and scout squads. I switched out sharpshooters for a powerfisted, hardened fighter commissar in my command HQ squad. I would say the results of that decision were pretty even - many ones went by that I would have liked to re-roll, but the commissar finished off a lone assault squad survivor that was cutting into me, as well as inflicting the last wound on his flying lightning claw captain who was about to do the same.

I separated my main battle tanks and he was able to keep them running or shaken for most of the game. The regular leman russ in particular had some shite shooting. The hellhound got in one round of shooting before assault marines busted him up. The basilisk also went out fairly early. For some reason I decided to get cute and deep strike my sentinels, when I should have just started them on the board from the beginning. Only one of them got off a decent shot, finishing off the last member of one of his two devastator squads. The veterans, on the other hand, performed like fucking champs and burned four or five assault marines with plasma and melta fire. God love that BS4! Everyone else did about average, wiping out two whole assault squads, one each of his dev and tac squads, and a big squad of assault scouts. It was a victory for him, no doubt, but we didn't calculate the margin (it was fairly large, I'd say).

Chaos Postulatin'

More thinking about Toggog's Marauders transitioning in September...

The demon prince stats sound good, but I don't know if you can give him a demon weapon. That khorne demon weapon (blooddrinker?) sounds totally retarded! 2d6 extra attacks is ridiculous, but for a one third chance of catching a wound? Yeesh. At least he'll come with 4 wounds automatically now. Strength 7, possibility of 17 attacks charging (can that be right?), he'll still be rocking pretty hard (even with only a 3+ regular save).

I'm crossing my fingers that LCs will be available for terminator champions, in which case Gazak the Merciless (my former terminator champion with the old chaos termie skull face) will be able to rejoin his colleagues as a simple (cheap) terminator champion. Otherwise I'll have to pay to make him a lord, but I guess that wouldn't be the end of the world. I will have to scrounge up two of the (will be) old chaos terminators to make a squad of 10, as it will be necessary to keep my second reaper autocannon.

I'll get another box of berzerkers, which will provide me with enough extra models to have 2 squads of 8 berzerkers. I'll have to scour ebay for another old-model rhino for the second berzerker unit. Transporting them will be a breeze because they'll behave now without blood fury (plus plasma pistols will be "hot" again!). Then I'll use the berzerker leftovers to add 2 more "khorne" raptors to make 8 total, and get two more chaos bikes to make a squad of 6 "khorne" bikers. Sure, now those units just count as "having an icon" but there's no reason they couldn't be dressing the part.

Depending on how the points shake out, I might be able to fit the dreadnought back in (Old Man Ephaedrel). That would be nice. Also I'll probably expand the havocs to have a squad size of 10. The demons will be cheaper so I should be able to fit 2 more of those in for 10, no problem. I don't really get why they made them generic, given that they have such a varied model range, but oh well. 10 MEQs bouncing around in the killzone definitely won't hurt and it looks like they'll be almost 1/3 the price. Still, I'll no doubt long for the days of their S5 power weapons and 3+ save. I read that Jervis mentioned a demon army codex might come out in another year; maybe I'll go for that nurgle ork army I've been wanting to make ever since I saw the artwork in the Demonhunters codex.

So all in all, a box of berzerkers here, a couple of arms and jetpacks there, and I should be able to fix 'er up fairly easy to give everyone greater numbers, even if their powers will be somewhat diluted. Bah, who cares! Teleport homers for everyone!

Waldering

Me and c2 got in a game today, 2000 pts, loot, chaos vs. imperial guard, using the two armies I posted recently. We didn't calculate the margin of victory but it was a sure thing that I had won. The collapsible infantry line worked well, with my anchors of armor surviving to do pretty good damage to the chaos units. There were several close calls, however, and c2's terminators were poised to smash my army's core to pieces, but my command HQ junior officer survived just long enough to leave them stranded out of assault in my turn for heavy and special weapons to wipe them out. I might have inflicted a few assault kills myself if I had a hidden-pf commissar embedded in my line. I'm considering switching him in for sharpshooters. Bah, I'm so fickle about that damn doctrine! Both the basilisk and leman russ had to beat a hasty retreat in the face of the demon prince but he himself fell back to chase a hellhound threatening to take an objective. As regards the elements I had changed up in my guard list recently, the sentinel autocannons weren't particularly effective but I did like them in the fire support squad. The veterans performed brilliantly, with some good plasma rolls. I came close to discarding one of their shooting hits - almost forgot the BS4! They wiped out the 5 remaining possessed to a man, who was then finished off by indirect fire from the basilisk. Unfortunately they were soon charged by two berzerkers and they got mopped up pretty handily. A power weapon in this case wouldn't have made a difference but I'm thinking about giving the vet sergeant one with a bolt pistol instead of his bolter - only 5 points after all, and a bolt pistol might get one fewer shot but 4 buried power weapon attacks might help them earn even more points back. I might even work in hardened fighters for them somehow as well. All in all, a good, fun game.

I did look over a summary of chaos codex "rumors," and I'm not as enthusiastic as I was before about my army making the transition to the new edition. To make an effective conversion, it will probably involve more buying and painting, and that pisses me off.