40K Friday: Gathering the Dark Angels

 

So I've spent most of the mini-time over the past week building the Armageddon set minis that I want to use for the new (ish) Dark Angels force. I built the Captain, the Ancient, and half of the Intercessor squad. I also started digging through what I have floating around various marine armies in an unfinished state - which is, fortunately or unfortunately, quite a bit. I added a Lieutenant from Dark Imperium, and the solo-Rambo-dual-blades Lieutenant from Leviathan as a start on a command group. I wanted a foot chaplain for this army too so I grabbed the hooded and robed one from Dark Imperium too (I think) which was still on the sprue. I also pulled in a Primaris Librarian, the existing one with the sword, as I'm going with a theme here. 

Theme-wise I've come up with some rules for the army so far:

• No bare heads or faces - only helmets! This is both practical - as it means I wont get bogged down detailing up eyes and beards and mohawks etc. - and thematic as the Unforgiven are supposed to be mysterious - so let's leave some mystery there as to what they look like. I may have to check some of my existing figures but it shouldn't be difficult to make some updates if I need to.
• Swords! Particularly power swords! They have a knightly theme and a sword is part of their chapter so for melee options I want swords - not fists, not axes, not staves.
• Well there is also the usual "Dark Angels = Plasma" thing too but I'm not going to go plasma exclusive on the specials and heavy weapons. Just enough to keep the theme.

Digging around some more I found the Hellblaster squad I knew I had somewhere -let's see, 10 bodies with guns, 10 backpacks, and ... 8 heads. Well I do have more primaris helmets but I'll have to spray them.  Such are the dangers of leaving units unfinished for years.

I also decided to put my heretofore untouched Reivers into this army as well, along with a Reiver Lieutenant. The Unforgiven have been a somewhat Unloved army here over the years so why not make them a home for wayward-children-type units as well. Reivers are still not thought of as great but there are tricks in some of the DA detachments - mainly with chaplains I believe - that might work well with them. Plus it gives them an infiltration type unit which can be handy even if the squad itself isn't super-powered.

Going back to the intercessors for a minute it is the Armageddon set of ten which would be better as 2 sets of five. There's one possible candidate for a second sergeant, a guy holding an auspex scanner. Then I reviewed the weapon options for a (regular) intercessor sergeant and, well, they can have a power sword. Luckily I do have a spare unbuilt intercessor and some spare power sword arms so ... decision made. 

So the army is shaping up like this at the moment:

• Armageddon Captain
• Armageddon Ancient
• Dark Imperium Chaplain
• Primaris Librarian
• Primaris Apothecary (another unfinished mini) 
• Lieutenant
• Another Lieutenant
• That Other Lieutenant
• 5-man Intercessors
• 5-man Intercessors
• 10-man Hellblasters
• 10-man Reivers (have to think about this one)
• 5-man Armageddon Vanguard Vets (I mean, they all have power swords so ...)
• Armageddon Land Speeder (probably?)

That's pushing around 1000 points so not a bad core. 

I have completely forgotten the armored part of this force. I'm leaning towards a Redemptor, 2 Ballistus Dreads, a Gladiator tank, and I might commit one of my Repulsor hulls to this one - it would give me a way to transport the Hellblasters at least.

I also might add in a jump captain to run with the VVs. Not sure there yet either.

Anyway there's a very loose rambling rundown of how one of these takes shape - for me anyway. Not completely focused in yet, but getting there.

40K Friday: Hard Choices

With the coming of a new edition I have been taking stock of the armies I have - what's playable, what's fun, and what's painted.

• Howling Griffons - small but completely painted and not planning to add more now.
• Crimson Fists - lots painted, more that could be added
• Blood Angels - some painted, lots of stuff in the works, and some things I still need to get
• Imperial Fists - done, painted, no expansions planned.
• Dark Angels - planned, bought, partially worked but nothing finished.
• Imperial Guard - Still coming together. I expect this to mainly be Blaster's next army.
• Eldar - lots finished, more in the works whenever I want to expand.
• Dark Eldar - small force built and base coated but could be bigger.
• Orks - quite a bit finished but it is an ork army so there's just a ton left to paint 
• Iron Warriors - lots finished but could be bigger ...
• Death Guard - some finished but need to complete the core units to really make them usable
• Khorne Daemonkin - have gathered enough to make a playable force but still small and still mostly not painted.
• Tyranids - Did I say tyranids? Why would I do that? There's nothing to see here.

That's a lot of armies. About half of them are at the point where I could field a fully painted army of a decent size. The rest are still somewhat early in that process. I feel like I should narrow the focus a bit.

Additionally 5 of them are marine armies and 2 more are chaos marine armies and that seems like it might be overkill. To me the core of the 40K universe is Marines, Orks, Eldar, and Chaos. That's where I want to spend my time.

So I am breaking up the Dark Angels.

Yes, the army I documented over the years - like 5 years ago when I picked up the new boxed set, or when I reviewed the new codex, or when I devised a paint scheme I was happy with, or here in 2014 when I spelled out my thinking behind the army I was building and when I was making progress. The one I've probably talked about the most besides the Eldar I spent last year finishing up. They're just not sparking the enthusiasm the way I had thought they would. I still like my paint scheme for them but I am not all that interested in painted 50-100 guys in it right now when I have nothing finished for them and a bunch of other armies much farther along.

I am not selling them though - I am re-purposing them.

I thought about this a lot over the last few months. I decided that it makes more sense to break them up and use the parts to make other armies even better rather than building Yet Another Power Armored Force. Instead:

• The Iron Warriors get 2 more Predators- this gives them 3 total, Hope they're decent in 8th.
• The Iron Warriors also get 2 more Rhinos - this takes them to 6 and should be all I will ever need for them. With 4 CSM squads, a chosen squad, and some possessed, well, now everyone has a ride.
• The Dreadnoughts go to the Crimson Fists. Hoping they're good in 8th as well.
• The Attack Bikes go to the Crimson Fists, which is where they were slated to go when i first bought them years ago.
• The speeder typhoons go to the Fists.
• The missile launcher devastator squad goes to the Fists as well.
• The assault squad goes to the Crimson Fists.
• The 2 sniper scout squads go to the Fists.
• The not-molded-in Dark Angels tactical squads go to the Fists too. This will bump me up to 5 or 6 of those as well.
• Finally the Land Raider Crusader goes to the Crimson Fists. They will put it to good use.
• The 3 Razorbacks go to the Blood Angels.  This will give me some options besides jump packs and drop pods - especially for fielding tactical squads. 
• The regular land speeders go to the Blood Angels as well.
• The HQ are being split up among all of my other marine armies, at least the guys who don't have the chapter symbols molded on.

This leaves me the Dark Vengeance tac squads, the DV leaders, the DV bikes, some terminator squads, and the Deathwing Knights. They will go in a box for now until I decide if I want to convert them, sell them, or start them up again. More likely is that I will give them to one of the boys to start their own army or trade them to someone for more orks/eldar/chaos/marines.

I really wanted to get back to the heart of the game and this change lets me do that:

• It beefs up my Crimson Fists with all of the ancillary units they should have. It'll be good to have a "normal" marine army on the table again. All I need to make them complete in my mind is some sternguard and a few drop pods.
• It lets me focus time-wise on finishing the Blood Angels who are pushing my buttons quite a bit more than the Dark Angels have been for a while now. With the Fists "mostly done" I can work on getting the BA's to the same state and not feel like there's still one more marine army waiting on my time. Plus if BA Razorbacks keep some kind of "fast" rule then these Razorbacks will be quite a bit of fun. 
• It pushes my Iron Warriors into the realm of serious tank army. Considering that I already have cargo for the rhinos and the speed with which I can paint them , it's a pretty nifty situation. Six rhinos, three predators, four helbrutes, and a heldrake make it the most mechanized marine army I have. I'd like to add a land raider to finish them out. And a Vindicator squadron ...

Preparations continue!

40K Friday - Spring Break Chaos

Among other things, the goal for the spring break staycation this year was to make some progress on the 40K armies. Originally I was thinking this was going to be my Blood Angels but the wet weather made spraying on a base coat a bad idea. So I decided to organize instead.

Guest appearance by Alessandro, Apprentice Twilight's recently acquired furry companion.

This rapidly turned into "dump a bunch of armies on the table and see what I can do and what I need with each" and soaked up most of a day's mini-time by itself. The good thing is that with the laptop right there (once it was pulled out from under the drop pods and bits boxes) it was easy to jump on ebay and order bits in rational quantities for exactly what I needed.

Not ... the ... minis ...

I now have a solid 1850 list for the Dark Angels which is very paint-able in say, a week. It just won't be this week. The Blood Angels are waiting in line behind them, and the Eldar are behind them. What did take off unexpectedly was Chaos.

Everybody likes Code Red

I have 20 more Iron Warriors CSM squads built and almost painted up. So that "ally force" is now over 1000 points on it's own. Chaos Lord, Heldrake, Helbrute, 3 CSM squads, and a sorcerer and two warpsmiths on the assembly table.

Cypher is also built and basecoated - I mean, if you have a chaos army and you have a Dark Angels army, you pretty much have to have Cypher, right?

I also built and painted 25 plague marines. Five more are waiting on parts to arrive. So that's potentially 6 squads of plague marines (2 double-melta, 3 double-plasma, 1 double-flamer). Hey, at least I'm set for troops -good troops. I also started getting the spawn onto new bases and the terminator bodyguard now has all of the parts I wanted for them gathered and basecoated. The bikes and the obliterators are the big to-do now and that's a good feeling. Force Bane is almost finished! It's around 3000 points altogether and I'm pretty pleased with it.

40K Friday - Dark Angels 2014: Progress!

Over the last month I have acquired just about all of the parts I need for my Dark Angels army. That's a new thing for me - I tend to start small, building and painting and playing as I go and building an army up over years. For this one while I sort of started out with the Dark Vengeance set in the fall of 2012 I never really had a desire or a vision of a full DA army until the end of 2013. Once I knew what I wanted to do with it, I decided to go ahead and put it together all at once.

So, a month into this, how does it look?

Well, everything is basecoated in a nice flat black. That pile includes a razorback and two rhinos. Yes I spray coat things still on the sprue - it's easier in some situations.

HQs are still in their baggy. Work on them comes later. I need to get the paint scheme completely finalized before I finish them.

Predators actually were painted with some yellow when I acquired them. I am carefully converting them to something that matches this army. Still experimenting a little here as it's going to take some false starts to get the exact mix of red and white details that I think looks good. Not there yet.

I'm still experimenting with the dreadnoughts too but they tend to be easier for me as they mostly follow the infantry paint scheme. That's one classic metal "Dark Angels Dreadnought" - first Hellfire type - and one current plastic version that's probably going for the classic assault cannon + powerfist combo.

That's two ravenwing bike squads in bags. Basecoated, saving for later. THinking about getting a command squad for them too for a more bike-heavy version of this army.

Command squad! These guys will be carrying the banner of devastation and are a key part of my infantry force. I am still trying to decide on whether I need to make one of them a medic - a few more points, but it does give the squad Feel No Pain. To keep the banner alive it's probably worth it but I may have to make him an extra figure. No special gear for these guys, just bolters. While their 2 attacks make it tempting to load them up with power weapons and stormshields it would make them stupidly expensive. That banner makes bolters pretty special and that needs to be the focus. They will be riding in the razorback.

The harassment/trolling assault squad. Five guys, two flamers, melta bombs and krak grenades - look out cheap objective holders and lonely vehicles. While I don't think of Dark Angels as an assault force, I'm not really planning to use these guys as a typical assault squad.

The all-plasma devastator squad. Yes it may be overkill, and yes, the odds are one of them will blow himself up during a typical game, but this is a plasma-themed army. Plus they make people nervous, which is good.

Tac squad number one - this is where most of my attention is going right now. The two tac squads along with the command squad make up the core of my initial force. Two rhinos and the razorback move up, dump out the troops, who then start unloading on anything in range with quadruple-normal bolter fire.

The main challenge is getting the basic paint scheme right - everything else in the army will be a variation of what goes here. The red helmet top is almost too mohawk-like but it looks alright on the table. The unit type insignia on the right is red, the chapter insignia on the left is white, the chest eagle is white, and the weapon will be largely silver. Right now I think the robes will be white/off white but I'm not sure - have to see how it looks with the rest of the scheme.

The other issue is the visually cool but tactically stupid weapon choice on the sergeants. The DA codex has sergeants starting with a bolt gun and a bolt pistol. That makes perfect sense for a squad whose main job is shooting things. In the Dark Vengeance tac squad the sergeant comes with a plasma pistol and a chain sword! To do this he has traded in both of his starting weapons for two shorter-ranged weapons and paid 15 points for the privilege! That's terrible! He's now an assault sergeant in a shooting squad - and he's not particularly effective in HTH! A power weapon I could understand, but the plasma pistol is the single most overpriced weapon upgrade in the game and all it does in close combat is open up the two-melee-weapon bonus attack - for 15 points on a one-wound model!

That configuration was just not going to work for me. Getting rid of the bolter in a squad I intend to park next to the banner of devastation is not going to happen, but it would be nice to have another special shot in the squad. So I picked up some combi-weapons and started cutting. I agonized over choices here and ended up going with "more plasma". The flamer is nice defensively but I'll take a 4-shot bolter (or specialty shots) if I get charged and I just don't see this squad making an assault, limiting the flamer's usefulness. I seriously considered melta but it's only 1 short-ranged shot, it's really only contributing against vehicles, and I don't want to rely on a single shot in those situations. I like stormbolters but they don't qualify for the banner bonus so they were out. So, comi-plasma it was and it keeps the "plasma plasma plasma" theme of the army alive too.

I went ahead and kept the chainsword - it does look cool.

That's where things stand now. I also have a land raider crusader and some deathwing knights on the way - more about those next time.

40K Friday - Dark Angels 2014: Evolution of an Army - Part 2 - Structure and Strategy

By the end of 2013 I had a nice pile of Dark Angel units, but they were largely unbuilt and unpainted and just not usable in a game. Also, I had no overarching plan for them and just picking up whatever strikes my fancy is something I have found to be a bad approach. I needed to come up with an outline so I could stop "acquiring" and start "using".

So ... what makes Dark Angels interesting?

• Well Deathwing terminators are cool, but I already have an army of those. Because they are painted up as Imperial Fists I can't really use the new heavily-iconographied DA mini's with them either. What was I thinking?
• Ravenwing is cool but I don't know that I want an all-biker army. plus both of the 'wing armies require taking a 200 point special character to make their focus unit a troops choice. that makes playing smaller games a real pain and we do that sometimes. With the Deathwing I already have to say no to pretty much anything under 1000 points. Why set myself up for that again?
• Pure Greenwing is too much like my existing marine armies. It's not dependent on characters but that means my core troops are tac marines and scouts - just like my Crimson Fists and my Howling Griffons. If that's the best I can do I might as well sell this stuff and use the money to expand the Fists!

I kept coming back to Azrael. Sure it's another 200 point character but he makes "triplewing" an option. How about a base force of Azrael and a librarian for HQ's, with 2 tactical squads, 2 Ravenwing squads, and 2 Terminator squads as troops? That's pretty flexible and for smaller battles I can still use the tacs with the librarian. For others I can bring in the full mix. I already have a Landspeeder typhoon squadron and a pair of Predators painted up in the color scheme so if I can get this core force set up I have a pretty decent army ready to go.

This is the plan:

• HQ = Azrael, librarian, and I'll probably paint up a chaplain too just because I have them. I will also be adding a command squad - a foot one for now. I will probably mount it in a Razorback for some extra firepower.
• Elites: Two dreadnoughts for now - because I have them and every marine army should have dreads. Even if they don't see a ton of action. 
• Troops: two tactical squads in rhinos, two full ravenwing attack squads, and two deathwing squads
• Fast Attack: Ravenwing support squadron of three speeders
• Heavy Support: two predators, two devastator squads - I like to have some options.

A lot of these choices are because I have them already. That's already over 2500 points built out so it's not a small army. I would like to add some options down the road. Deathwing Knights in a Land Raider Crusader sound good, some Black Knights sound good, I might add in an assault squad that was earmarked for the Blood Angels just to have the option to take it, a Darkshroud and a third Ravenwing squadron aren't bad ideas either.

Army in a box ... and some bags

The core of my force is two tactical squads in Rhinos led by Azrael and a command squad with the banner of devastation in a Razorback. I see them as moving up towards any midfield objectives. There may be a dreadnought marching along with them.  I know this isn't considered optimal in online discussions but it's where I am starting. This should make for a tough holding force as the banner makes any unit within 6" have salvo 2/4 bolters. That's a lot of bolter fire. The inherent plasma guns and plasma cannons of the tac squads should be able to deal with heavier targets and Azrael gives them some HTH punch if it comes to that. He also makes everything on the table Leadership 10 and they are already stubborn. He also gives his squad a 4+ invulnerable save.

Rhino parts!

In the backfield I have two predators and a devastator squad for heavy firepower and there may be a dreadnought in the back too. The support squadron of 3 typhoon landspeeders will also be lurking here. The librarian will likely carry a power field and stay with the devastator squad. With the banner I think I have enough anti-infantry fire so the predators will likely be AC/LC preds and the devastator squad will be either 4 plasma cannons or 4 missile launchers. Maybe both if the tanks don't seem suitable for the fight. The Hellfire Dreadnought (twin-linked lascannons and a missile launcher) originated with the Dark Angels back when dreads were still metal and I have one of those, so I think it's very "fluffy" to include one if the points allow. A triple-typhoon squadron deal out some nasty firepower and can survive pretty well due to range and jink saves. I think it will be rare that I can fit all of this in but in a mostly shooting army the heavy stuff plays a big role.

Predators are fairly far along but that yellow has got to go

For the forward assault force I have two full Ravenwing squads and (at the moment) a Deathwing squad that will likely deep strike in. The bikes can combat squad and split up, the attack bikes will be multi-melta bikes and will be tank-hunting, and the terminators will be shooter termies and will drop in on the biggest single threat as they can do some decent shooting or close and assault something big with powerfists.  With potentially 7 scoring units ( 4 bike squads, 2 attack bikes, 1 termie squad) this part of the army is 100% in the enemy's deployment zone on turn 2 and has to be dealt with, hopefully lessening the threat to the rest of my force that is holding middle and rear objectives.

Typhoons are ready to go

Down the road I'd like to add a land raider crusader with a unit of Deathwing Knights for the really nasty battles, but that will have to wait for "Phase 2". Right now I don't really have any tremendous threat unit that's going to scare an opponent other than swarming them with scoring units. The mobile knights would give me that.

I'm also going to experiment with a 5-man assault squad with 2 flamers. They are mobile enough to get around the board, small enough to not be a threat, and cheap enough (at 95 points) to be expendable. I can see a use for them though in burning things out of cover and thinning out hordes. I can also see krak and melta grenades giving me another way to take out a vehicle besides the MMAB's. So it's a really cheap mobile, dual-purpose unit.

Next time: building some individual units.

Book Review: Descent of Angels

This one has been out for a few years but I just got around to reading it. My resurgence of interest in the boys in black (no green here) has me digging through everything that's out there on them.

This is a "30K" novel meaning it is set before the current era of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The main character is a squire in a knightly order on the planet of Caliban, which will become known as the homeworld of the Dark Angels chapter of the space marines. At the time of the story it is a pre-spacelfight world, having lost contact with earth after being colonized many many years before. Technology has regressed to the point that the knights wear armor and ride horses though they do have low tech firearms. The story follows the main character and some supporting characters, including primarch Lion El'Jonson, through several years where the main character progresses to knighthood, their order fights another, and great quests are undertaken and completed. Late in the book contact is reestablished and a lot changes in a very short period of time for the characters and their world.

I notice over the years that my book reviews have gotten shorter as I don;t think a typical game-fiction paperback really needs all that detailed of an analysis. Continuing the trend, I'll keep this short: I liked it.

To expand a bit:

The Good

• It's a look at the roots of a space marine chapter before they were a chapter
• The majority of the book is a exploration of a knightly order on a world where technology has regressed and that's not something I see everyday. There's no worship of old tech, more of a "well things aren't as good as they were in the old days" type of attitude. It's refreshing as a different take on things.
• Late in the book the Imperials arrive and this leads to a nice picture of the way things were when the Emporium was at it's height. It's a tremendous contrast with the attitude of the "modern" era in 40K.
• Pacing is good, the characters are interesting enough if a bit bland.
• Lots of shades of gray in parts of the book, even in this "golden age" story. Makes it feel more real and less of a fairy tale.

The Bad

• The primarch figures fairly prominently but I would have liked more of how and why he does what he does and the effect he has on others.
• I felt the same about Luther - he is a crucial figure in the history of the Dark Angels and I felt the book barely scratched the surface of his character as well.
• The part of the book after the imperials arrive felt truncated. Most of the time I feel like writers of modern series need more editing, not less. In this case I wanted more, to the point I think this could have been two books - one about the pre-Imperial era and story, and one covering the arrival and transition to an imperial world on a war footing and the knights transition into space marines. 

Who might like this book? Well, if you play Dark Angels in 40K you should really already have this and if you do not go get it! Other fans of 40k's Imperial Space Marines in general might like reading about one chapter's transition from primitive to modern. Fans of 40K in general who want to read a novel of the old days without all of that civil war/Horus Heresy stuff will enjoy it as well.

Again, it's not a revolutionary novel but I liked it and it's worth the read if you're at all interested in the subject matter.

40K Friday - Dark Angels 2014: Evolution of an Army - Part 1

... or "How I developed a personal relationship with Lion El'Jonson"

I never had any interest in the Dark Angels in the early editions of the game. They didn't stand out to me over any other chapter and I was already making my Griffons and later my Crimson Fists. Then when the robed stuff started coming out it just did not appeal to me at all - I liked my power armor visible and shiny. I had the "Deathwing" short story collection and while I liked the main story, the idea of mixing Native American stuff in with power armor made no sense to me at all. A friend of mine chose them for his marine army and while I liked some of the "winged helmet" look the rest of the scheme did nothing for me.

During 5th edition I became aware of the possibilities of the all-terminator army and the Dark Angels were the main way to do it. I picked one up, though they were not painted as Dark Angel Deathwing terminators. I still wasn't a huge fan of their look so I actually wanted some other color scheme.

Something happened there though. To run the army I had acquired the codex and the lore started to draw me in. I liked the Deathwing already, and the Ravenwing was growing on me as I began to see the possibilities of a biker army. I also started to like the robed look as they took on a more knight-like aspect in my head. Think "Jedi" and you might begin to understand. That said I still wasn't huge on the feathered thing but I was weakening.

See? Jedi!

I really disliked the green color too - when I see a green military unit I want to pain camo on it and that doesn't work well with all the robes and hoods and feathers that are part of DA figures. As much as I was starting to like them, there was no way I was going to paint up plain green marines. That Ravenwing paint scheme though ... that was nice.

This scheme just does nothing for me

Doing a little more digging, part of it in my own materials, made me realize that the old Rogue trader Dark angels didn't use the green paint - they were black, with some red details. I can work with that.

Old School Dark Angels

Today they call it their "Pre-Heresy" scheme

Plus it fits pretty well with the Ravenwing "official colors:

Look there we have black, white, and red details

So I decided on using the Pre-Heresy/Ravenwing scheme and suddenly this got a lot more interesting. Black and White marines - who else will have that cool of a combination!

Ah ... yeah ... those guys. Well that's fine - I've liked the Black Templars since they showed up in the Armageddon codex back in 3rd edition. They will be an additional source of inspiration. Look, the only other set of robed marines in the game has exactly the color scheme I have ended up liking. Maybe I should have gone with them but I like the other aspects of the DA's too so I'm comfortable with my choice.

As I was working through all of the above the Dark Vengeance starter set for 6th edition came out and pretty much sealed the deal. Leaders, tactical marines, and a bike squad? That's a solid start! I picked up that plus extras plus I gathered some spare parts that seemed to fit. After a year of putting things together I had a nice pile of parts and a solid paint scheme, but no playable army. Part 2 will cover that side of things.

40K Friday - Angels of Darkness

This book came out about 10 years ago and for whatever reason I never read it. I have now though and the short version of my take on it is "surprisingly good".

I say surprisingly because I remember Gav Thorpe as one of those faces in White Dwarf magazine. He was usually in the battle reports and I vaguely recall him losing a lot. Anytime you have a game company staffer suddenly becoming an author, well, the results are mixed at best. That said I like this, and it is one of his first, if not his first, published novel.

It's set in the "now" of the 40K universe - the Dark Angels are one of the marine chapters fighting against the encroaching enemies of the Imperium of Man. Their big dark secret is that half the legion turned traitor during a big rebellion 10,000 years ago, and they have turned into a secretive military order that has a hidden agenda - track down and eliminate every single traitorous former member of their legion to purge the stain from their honor. This is a big deal because traitorous marine chapters are ruthlessly purged and they don't want to be purged. This is still an issue because due to the weirdness of warpspace some of those rebels are still alive and they turn up now and again, fresh from the big battle that split the legion. Additionally, it's not enough to just catch them - the chapter also tries to force them to confess their misdeeds. Some do, some don't, but torture is the main avenue for achieving this and they all end up dead in the end anyway - confession just speeds things to the inevitable conclusion.

We begin with a chaplain bringing in one of the fallen for interrogation. This proceeds as you might expect except that the fallen marine has no affiliation with chaos, the usual charge against the rebels. He is convinced that his actions have been right all through history and that the original schism is not so one-sided as the chapter history would suggest. This gets very interesting if you've been a 40K player for a longer time as this is one of the few books where we see a debate over the Emperor, the Primarchs, the history as written vs. someone who was there and just a general questioning of all the standard myths and beliefs of the 40K universe. This rebel marine comes from a time before all the mystic technology trappings and the decline, and all of the cult of the emperor stories and organizations. It's a very different take on things and it was refreshing to see it in an actual 40K novel.

This storyline is interwoven with a separate plot about the same chaplain a few years later who is still grappling with the information revealed in his interrogation as he ministers to a small group of marines in a small outpost on an imperial world. It's a much more introspective story and a more complex look at what you would expect to be the most fanatical of all marines, a chaplain. Here we find out that he has doubts and concerns about his role, what he has been told, the chapter elders, and what he should do about these feelings.

As the story moves back and forth between these two things we learn more and more about what the fallen knows and has seen over the years while at the same time the more "current" plotline has the small group of marines investigating and pursuing a threat that grows rapidly. The resolution of both storylines is very nicely done, with the most surprising insights from the traitor coming right before the final threat in the main plot is revealed, and the resolution of that plot is somewhat surprising as well, as is the nature of the confrontation between the protagonists of the story and their enemies .

This book ended up being much better than I expected. I normally dislike that back-and-forth story structure, but it worked very well here - if it was always handled this well I would probably like it more. I kept thinking "alright In know where this is going to go" only to be surprised, and that doesn't happen very often. The supporting characters are not especially well detailed but the main character, the Chaplian Boreas, and his main opponent, the fallen captain Astelan, are nicely done and have more to them than just the standard "For the Emperor" marine attitude we usually get. It's just a well-done book all the way around.
 
So if you want something a little bit different than most 40K novels this is a good choice. I think it has more impact if you're more invested in the 40K lore but it's a good read regardless. Even with a different tone I put it right up there with the best of the marine books.

40K Friday - The 2013 Dark Angels Codex

A few years back this book would not have meant a whole lot to me because I didn't particularly care about this particular bunch of space marines. That changed around a year ago when I started looking at the possibilities of an all-terminator army. The Dark Angels first company traditionally fights in terminator armor only, and in their 2008 codex it was possible to field an army entirely composed of these troops. It's cool, and different, and fun to play, and in the fall of last year I finally acquired such an army. More on their first battle here.

The Apprentices still have no interest in fighting these guys again

Also in the fall of 2012 I picked up the new 6th edition starter set for 40K and though I was expecting to build out my chaos force, I instead was sidetracked by the possibility of a Ravenwing army. After all I already had the codex, I had extra bikes(that I had been planning to use for chaos bikers - oh well) so it made some sense. So I picked up some more starter set bikers and some more speeders and pretty soon I had quite a pile of them, but with word of the codex being updated I decided to wait and see before actually building them.

Well the codex is here and it is a vast improvement over the previous one. Don;t get me wrong, I liked the old one too, but this one has everything that one did plus a whole lot more.

First, the negatives:

• It still takes a special character as an HQ choice to unlock Deathwing or Ravenwing as a Troops choice. This can be Belial the Deathwing captain, Sammael the Ravenwing master, or Azrael the frigging chapter master.  I used to have a huge aversion to special characters and the group I played with had an agreement to never use them back in the 2nd & 3rd edition days, and we made fun of people who did. That has changed, and these days I am on board with treating the special characters as part of the army, but it would be better in my opinion to not require them for things like this. In the Space Marine codex if you select a standard captain and then mount him on a bike, it unlocks bike squads as a troops choice - something like that would have been nice here. Specials are nice and all, but sometimes the point costs and the flavor aren't quite right for what a player is thinking. It's not a huge issue as it was this way in the prior book - it's just something I was hoping would change.
• The flyers are being almost universally derided as inferior to existing choices for other armies. I haven't tried them yet myself but I'll take the internet's opinion on this. Some of the weapon combinations do seem a little pointless.
• Lots of typos - for going to a full color hardback and increasing the price significantly, I expect better editing than what we have seen here. Fortunately the FAQ is already out and corrects the known problems with missing or incorrect entries. 

Aside from these the book has:

• Tons of background and nice looking art including coverage of the history, organization, the whole "Fallen" thing, and the successor chapters
• The traditional unit by unit review of everything in the list including background, rationale, and special rules
• There is a separate armory section in this one, and it's pretty extensive
• Not surprisingly there is a whole section with pics of very nicely painted mini's

All of this does give a very strong impression of what the Dark Angels are about. The atmosphere is that of a wandering order of monastic penitent knights doing their duty while keeping a terrible secret. Compared to something like the Ork codex it's all very grim and serious. Heck, even compared to the Space Wolves it puts the grimdark in to a whole new level. I can't see these guys sitting around their mobile asteroid fortress drinking and telling tall tales - they sing hymns and chant litanies. It's darned close to a whole chapter of chaplains. If you want a "serious" marine army, this is the one for you. I am also a little concerned that the knightly thing bleeds over into Black Templars territory too much but I suppose that will be handled whenever they finally get a codex update.

After all that we get to the army list section, also known as the good stuff. I'll discuss by unit type.

HQ's:

• Azrael: slightly better statline, slightly less expensive points cost, and makes both Ravenwing and Deathwing troops. I think he's going to be very popular as he enables the Doublewing army and gives you another HQ slot for a Librarian or Chaplain if you want one.
• Ezekiel - statline unchanged, cheaper, only level 3 psyker
• Asmodai - returning from the 3rd edition codex, same statline as an interrogaor-chaplian with less flexibility but has unique gear. Seems kinda pricey to me.
• Belial - Ah yes, another heavy-hitter. Nearly a 50% increase in cost but he has a better statline, his sword is nastier and he has a few more special rules. He's still one of only two ways to make termies troops so I expect he will be very popular too. I know he leads my Deathwing ...
• Sammael - the Ravenwing boss. WS up by 1, sword is nastier, more special rules, and his cost dropped by 5 points! Also, he can still take the landspeeder option and now it's AV14 front and sides AND has a 4+ save - yes, I will be trying that out just to see the eye-bugging that will go along with it.
• Company Master, the generic leader type - good statline and has lots of wargear options but for some reason cannot take a bike! He is also quite limited in his terminator armor options which seems odd too. I don't think this will be a very popular option
• Chaplains and Interrogator Chaplains - for 20 points difference I think Interrogator is quite a bit nastier - better statline, access to relics, and access to termie armor. I'd have to be pretty pressed for points to trade down.
• Librarian - Level 1 with an option to go to 2, access to 4 disciplines, option for termie armor - he seems pretty fairly priced.
• Techmarine - doesn't take a slot but only 1 wound, he can take up to 5 servitors as a sort of mini-squad. He does have access to the special wargear which could be interesting with things like the Power Field (4+ save to all models within 3") Can;t take a jump pack but can take a bike so that's an interesting option too.
• Command Squads and Deathwing Command Squads and Ravenwing Command Squads  - another set of units that does not take a slot, but could be a serious points investment. It's 5 marines (3 for the bikerwing) and has options for standards/medics/champions as upgrades, and is fairly flexible with the gear. These are the 2-attack/leadership 9 veteran marines so it could be a fairly potent force. I have to figure out how to modify my old Belial-upgrade-command-squad from the old codex into this configuration, and whether I want to work one in with my in-progress Ravenwing army.

Troops - you have two choices:

• Scouts - your scouts are now just like other marine scouts - skill 3, Troops choice - but they are significantly cheaper. Still very flexible and a missile launcher scout can now take flak missiles. Not sure that's a great idea, but it is an option.
• Tactical Squads - if you outfit them the same way, they cost the same amount as before - but you have the option not to do that. There is more flexibility here. I can see 5 man squads with just a heavy weapon being an interesting option, especially for smaller battles as objective holders. 

Flexibility is nice but I think we're going to see only a squad or two of tacs or scouts as the coolness of taking bikers or terminators as troops completely overwhelms these two choices.

Elites

• Deathwing Terminators - Basically the same as before with the option to take plasma cannons as the heavy choice and to up the squad to 10 marines. Point costs are pretty similar, they may vary by a few points depending on your configuration but it should be close. They have some more special rules than before. They can also take a Land Raider as a dedicated transport. At a ridiculous point level this could lead to the 9-land raider army (6 transports, 3 heavy support) which would be a lot of fun to see on the table. 
• Deathwing Knights - NEW!-  for when Thunderhammer/Stormshield terminators just aren't strong enough the Deathwing now goes to 11. WS5, Effective Strength of 6, (AP 4 but goes on initiative), and the option once per game to go to Strength 10. Oh and Toughness of 5 too when they are in base to base together. I nominate this unit as "most likely to be Vindicatored", but it still might be worth it.
• Dreadnoughts - They got cheaper - a venerable costs as much as a standard dread did in the last codex and can be upgraded to a Deathwing Vehicle which makes them even harder to kill. I think these will be more popular than dreads in standard marine armies, at least until the generic codex comes out  
• Company Veterans Squad - Kind of an afterthought but they do have an interesting set of options. These might be a better bet in a smaller point game or as a Razorback squad. You can get a  special and a heavy into a 5-man squad with them though which makes them more interesting than I originally thought. You can also tool them up for melee as they do have 2 attacks. 

Fast Attack

• Ravenwing Attack Squadron - up to 6 bikes, an attack bike, and a landspeeder, which for around 250-300 points can be divided up into 4 separate units, taken as troops with certain leaders, making 3 of them scoring. T5, 3+ save, multiwound units. That's pretty useful. Also, even adding a veteran  sergeant back in they are 30 points cheaper. I use them in my Deathwing army for the melta and the teleport homers so this is good news for me.
• Ravenwing Support squadron - Speeders are cheaper, Typhoon launchers are more expensive, but together they net out at the same price. I don;t know how many of these we will see as I suspect many players will take them in the attack squadron first as they are independent units there. Still, if you really like speeders you could theoretically throw 22 of them down on the board now - Sammael + 3 x 5 Fast Attack support squadrons + 6 in attack squadrons as Troop choices. Fun!
• Ravenwing Black Knights - NEW! - I don't know, they're still T5, 3+, 1 wound models and they are 50% more expensive than regular Ravenwing. Why bother? Twin-linked plasma guns, that's why! Highly mobile re-rollable AP 2 Strength 7 weapons should be very nasty. They also have hammers but I think getting these guys into melee is a mistake - those plasma shots are what you're paying for. They will be am early addition to my Ravenwing army and we will see how they do.
• Ravenwing Darkshroud - NEW! - Mobile cover save boost and a small assault boost - not sure it's worth it but I am open to being convinced.
• Assault Squad - 30 or so points cheaper but likely to be overshadowed by all this other nifty stuff. I'm guessing that the hardcore Dark Angel players who already have them painted up will keep theirs, but I don't think we will see many new units joining the force.
• Nephilim/Dark Talon Fighters - NEW! - We needed some anti-air but a lot of people seem underwhelmed with these. I'm asking myself if they're more useful than another Ravenwing squad or more terminators and I'm not sure they are. Probably a later addition for me.

Heavy Support

• Devastator Squads - cheaper all the way around: the squad is less,  the vet sgt is now optional, and the weapons are cheaper. Very nice for a more traditional marine force, not as big for Deathwing/Ravenwing forces.
• Predator - Pretty much the same, lascannon options are slightly cheaper
• Whirlwind - 20 points cheaper which may make it viable in a smaller point game as they are comparable to Razorbacks now.
• Vindicator - unchanged
• Land Raiders - We now have the full set of 3, otherwise unchanged. They do have the Deathwing vehicle option which makes them a little tougher but it is not cheap.
• Land Speeder Vengeance - NEW! - Let's see, Armor 10, 2 Hull Points ... hmmm. It does have a nasty gun as being able to drop S7 AP2 large blast is going to hurt a lot of armies - like Deathwing! It's almost as if the Ravenwing was built to fight the Deathwing! It's more expensive than a Vindicator, and while it is more mobile it is also a lot more fragile. At this point I think it is mainly for the all-out Ravenwing themed army and I don;t know that I'm there yet.

Beyond this their special rules are a mixed bag: Inner Circle gives fearless and Preferred Enemy CSM - makes sense. Grim Resolve makes them Stubborn and replaces Combat Tactics, ensuring they will never run from a fight, even when it makes sense to do so. Warlord Traits are fine and flavorful. There's one that gives the Warlord and his unit Furious Charge which could be nasty but other than that I see nothing especially powerful.

Overall I think it's a really good Codex and is a good model for how these things should be for an established army at this point - nothing revolutionary in background or mechanics, just more options and more flavor. I don't know that it approaches Grey Knights in power but I think it's in the Space Wolf/Blood Angel power range. I also think it's going to be very popular as the first codex with real all-bike or all-terminator options. Considering I have two armies that use this book it has a ton of impact on me and I am very happy with it.

I was thinking that Apprentice Who might start his 40K days with this army but he seems more interested in "big monsters" so we may be leaning towards Chaos Marines or Chaos Daemons for him. Luckily one of those is already out and one is due out in a month or two so we will be taking a look at those in the near future.

Dark Vengeance - The Marines

I thought I'd take some time and go through the new 40K boxed set since it's the Project of the Week around here. For tonight we'll look at the set as a whole and the marine figures in particular.

We start with 4 sprues of plastic which will end up making 48 miniature figures. Considering the price is right around $100, you're getting them for around $2 each, which is as cheap as you're ever going to find new 40K figures. Two of the sprues are the same which is what makes up the bulk of your marine squad and your chaos cultists. It breaks down to 20 marines vs. 28 chaos figures.

But wait there's more! You get the bases for all those figures, some dice, and those nifty neon green templates for playing some of the more fun weapons in the game. Also, if you act now and find one of the Limited Edition intro sets you get an additional special character mini, bringing the total to 49!

There's also the info card for said character, an introductory booklet, 2 quick reference sheets, and an assembly guide. Plus a rulebook! Which I did not think to include in this picture!

Ah, there it is. This one is about the size of the Savage Worlds Explorer Edition rulebook. Considering the Big Daddy version goes for $75, weighs about 10 lbs, and counts as a tactical vest, I like this one for ease of transportation.

So if you spend an hour or so working on the sprues you can get this:

That's with just a knife and some quiet time. They're "push-fit" or as we used to call it "snap-together" and they are perfectly playable like this. I didn't do the bikers yet because I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them. I like bike troops and they are stronger with the rule changes in 6th Edition, but I was planning to use bikes in my chaos force, so they may turn traitor...

The tactical squad is nice, including a plasma gun and a plasma cannon (heavy plasma gun for us old-timers) and a sergeant with a plasma pistol - hey, did you known the Dark Angel marines are known for (among other things) their love of plasma weapons? Subtle! It even includes a pair of beakie helmeted marines, another nice touch.

The terminator squad is really nice - I love that winged helmet/shoulder thing - and it comes with a decent weapon loadout. Sergeant with a power sword, 3 termies with powerfists, and one with a chain fist, and the assault cannon as the heavy weapon - that's just about perfect. The poses are nice too, being a little more dynamic and a little less "hulking brute looking straight ahead".

For regular troops these things are covered in detail, which is awesome if you're playing Dark Angels but a huge disadvantage if you're not. It's difficult to even use them as a successor chapter as the winged dagger icon is molded into the shoulder pads of every model, and it shows up in a lot of other places too, from jewelry to backpacks. It seriously compromises the flexibility of this starter set, the components of which tend to become very common for that edition as a lot of people buy them. They get parted out on ebay too which is nice if you are playing an army that can use them. I'm not sure that's going to be as popular this time.

On the left is the captain and he has a seriously cool helmet, along with the giant power sword. I may steal that head (it's a separate piece) for my Howling Griffons- hey, Griffons have wings too.

On the right is the Librarian, which is 40K's confusing name for psyker marines. One of the other things DA's are known for is wearing robes, especially hooded robes, over power armor. I think it lends them a bit of a Jedi look and I think with a few changes this guy could easily find a home in a Star Wars campaign too. That outstretched hand just screams "Force Lightning" to me.

Yes, both of these guys are covered in detail which is nice but does have it's downsides, though I expect it on the leader figures so it's less of a downside here. Painted up they should look pretty good. It's easily the most detailed set of mini's that's ever been in the starter box...

...although the boyz from the Second Edition boxed set apparently do not agree. Roll for initiative! Wait, wrong game! Draw cards! Check reaction speed! Darn! How did that work again?

(And yes, there's an example of how ubiquitous these things can be - twenty years after its release you can buy unpainted ork boys from the 2E set on ebay for dirt cheap. I doubt this one will be quite as common but the newer mini's are quite fancy in comparison.)

The final take? It's a solid force, giving you 2 (3 right now) HQ units, a troop squad which can be broken down into 2 Troops, an Elite squad, and a Fast Attack choice which can be easily expanded. Trading the chaos figures for a buddy's DA figures would net you two full tac squads, two termie squads, and a 6-man bike squad, plus a bevy of HQ options, which is a pretty strong starting force too. If you like Dark Angels over your other space marine options - or if you like Chaos - , it's a great deal. If not, well, it's less clear that this is a good idea. If you're just starting out it's still good for the other things in the box, but even then if you don't plan to play either army then it might be better to go rulebook + separate templates, ebay for small rulebook + non-mini contents, or trade with a buddy who has an army you do like.

Next up: The spiky stuff!