Motivational Monday

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.

Weird Wars Rome - Hardcopy!

The physical copy of Weird Wars Rome for Savage Worlds has arrived and it's very pretty. I didn't spring for the big poster map in the kickstarter but I did go for the screen, and that's it at the bottom of the picture.

Legion structure and ranks is not something you would see on a screen for most games but it makes a lot of sense here. It's the now-standard hardcover material so this screen is pretty stout, not the spiral notebook cover cardboard of the old days.

The front has a nice illustration that very effectively conveys what the game is about and I like it.

Besides the screen the main book is nice too. It's a matte finished hardcover but it's a smaller than the previous Savage Worlds hardcovers I own. It feels good in-hand though so I don't see that as a flaw.

So ... some RPG Kickstarters work out just fine - no massive delays, no drama, no broken promises. I'm pretty sure this is or will be available on store shelves too so if you're interested in the subject, take a look. My detailed thoughts on the content are here and having the physical books in hand only reinforces my positive impression.

The Thousandth Post

According to Blogger this is my 1000th post on the blog. It took me a little over 4 years to get here which averages out to around 4-5 posts per week - not bad for a run that long. I started posting with the idea that this was mainly for me - a journal of whatever I was interested in and doing right now game-wise. I've stuck to that pretty well and I don't really feel any need to change it. So expect things to continue pretty much as they have been. I'm still playing around with the look of it from time to time, but the stuff I am posting probably will not change a great deal.

As of right now, Pathfinder and Warhammer 40,000 are the most active games here, with 4th Edition D&D and D&D Next both in a holding pattern. The only other not-so-active game I'd like to get going again is some kind of supers RPG, even if it's less frequent than the "main" games.

To those of you who read and left comments - thank you! I like having a little interaction on here.

To those of you who just read it occasionally - thanks to you too.

To the "regulars" who have come and sometimes gone - thanks a bunch for keeping it lively.

I wonder where I'll be in another 1000 posts?

Motivational Monday

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.

Overreaction Wednesday - Dragon and Dungeon are Done - Again

Well the magazines are going away again. The final issues of both (in this incarnation, anyway) have now been published. Considering they announced the coming of Next in January 2012 I am a little surprised they lasted this long - Dec 2012 was my original guess for the end of online 4th Edition support. Instead they kept things going through the end of 2013, though with a fair amount of Next discussion creeping in. Considering we haven't had a new book for 4th in about 18 months that's surprisingly decent. I like the flexibility that started showing up this year too - a quote from the introduction to the final Dungeon is below:

Our theme this month is “past, present, andfuture,” so we’ve elected to publish three adventuresthat span multiple editions. “Lowdown in Highport”is a 1st Edition AD&D adventure tied to the classicSlave Lords series (it can be run as a prelude tomodule A1, Slave Pits of the Undercity), and it comeswith 4E conversion stats for the monsters. “Vainglorious”is a 4E adventure featuring the most iconic of allmonsters—a dragon—as its main villain. And finally,we have “The Battle of Emridy Meadows,” a 5th Editionadventure that harkens back to events rooted inthe World of Greyhawk campaign setting.

That's a nice way to wrap things up: 1st, 4th, and Next. The Slavers series got a lot of attention in 2013 so it makes some sense.

Weirdly, this doesn't really bother me. Maybe it's because we've had time to digest the end of 4th and the beginning of Next. I was a lot more unhappy about end of the physical magazines at the end of 3.5 since Dungeon especially was really on a roll with the Paizo team. I was all over it back then. With 4th I've dipped in and out of it but I was running my own stuff, not an adventure path, so there was less urgency around it and frankly a PDF doesn't demand my attention in the same way a magazine does. That's probably just a thing with me, but they are not perfect replacements for one another. The magazines always felt like I needed to read them as they came in, a PDF is more of a when-I-get-around-to-it thing.

I admit I have not been reading much of them this year. I had the campaign planned out and didn't really have any loose ends to fill in but it is nice to have resources available. Again, less urgency, less immediate applicability, and there's not an object sitting on a table or shelf. With the end of 4E support this is likely to be the last month I pay for DDI. I was a latecomer to it but it was useful enough as someone running an active 4E campaign. The campaign has been intermittent at best through the fall and winter and I've written up what I need to finish out Heroic Tier in a few more sessions so I think the online resource can go away for now.

As for Next, well, the online resources I use for Pathfinder are free. I don't really need combat managers or character generators for the older editions of D&D. I don't know how much Next I'm going to play or run but after this experiment with a monthly charge for 4E support it's going to have to be pretty strong to draw me back in to that - I'm not a fan of the pay-wall for an offline game. They've been paying a lot of retro-respect lately. Maybe WOTC will surprise us and go back to a paper magazine - that would interest me.

Wrath of the Righteous - Session 3

We begin at the entrance to the village of Neathholm, deep beneath the city of Kenabres, on the border of the Worldwound. Our heroes (all 1st level) are:

• Relyn Steelguard, young Paladin of Iomedae, (longsword and shield)
• Graidin Cratchet, aspiring Wizard (hand of the apprentice staff-tossing)
• Arken, newly minted Cavalier of the Order of the Lion, in service to Queen Galfrey of Mendev (longsword and shield)
• Jaren, Dragon Sorcerer (claws)
• The Cleric with No Name of Erastil (spell and bow)

(Red was busy so Jaren peels off in the village and doesn't take an active role in this session but we added a new character, a cleric of Erastil, played by one of my longtime players, Dave.)

Lann leads the party past the guards to meet Chief Sull, leader of the mongrelmen village. A nice bit of roleplaying follows where the party actually treats an NPC with some respect - that's a relatively rare event here. The conversation covers a little history, a little current events, speculation on the reason for the cave-ins and the demon attack, and some personal details. The chief is impressed enough to offer the aid of the mongrelmen in the defense or retaking of the city. They are descendants of the first crusaders and they feel that they have a duty to assist. This should be good news if the group can ever get back to the surface.

Then the conversation turns to what lies between the party and their return. The nearest path to the surface is blocked by a tribe of hostile mongrelmen who have turned to evil and who have been consorting with demon cultists. Things go well enough in the discussion that the chief offers the party some healing potions and his trusty enchanted morning star from his fighting days to help the heroes clear a path through the fallen mongrels. While the party clears out the miscreants, his warriors will spread the word to the other tribes so they will be ready when the call comes. At the end of the discussion everyone shakes hands and retires to prepare for the next day.

Rested up, the party moves out, intending to wipe out the pocket of evil that lies ahead and finally -finally! - return to Kenabres. Deciding for once to scout ahead carefully, the wizard drinks an invisibility potion, moves up and casts Sleep on the two-man guard station that he has discovered. One guard drops but the other resists. Graiden is out of ideas and so calls for help and the Paladin charges in, hurdling the barricade and striking out at the remaining guard. The Cavalier is right behind him and manages to finish the mongrelman off.

The rest of the group (including NPC's Anevia the gimpy, Aravshnial the blinded, and Horgus the unpleasant) shuffles forward and while debating how to proceed Relyn the Paladin detects evil through the door, senses it, and kicks it in.

This is some kind of common room and while there is a fire pit and some bedrolls there are only two unfortunate mongrel-traitors in the room and they are clearly overmatched but they open a door and let in a large pinkish cave lizard that makes things interesting. Soon enough all 3 are down (with the help of a summoned Celestial Wolf). There are several doors in the room and the party decides to check the one to the north.

This time the Cavalier charges in but it quickly becomes apparent that the opposition knows what they are doing this time. The inhabitants of the room are a pair of armored humans, a male and a female, wielding glaives and using some actual tactics. The girl maneuvers Arken away from the door while the male steps in and blocks the doorway behind him, holding off the rest of the team. A vicious two-part battle takes shape as Arken attempts to duel his opponent (who is clearly a little better than he is) while the Paladin and Cleric attempt to fight their way in to aid him. Graiden manages to summon a Dire Rat into the room but it does little to change the circumstances of the fight.

Finally, Arken tires and the female bashes him with the butt of her glaive, dropping him to the floor. Before she can do him any further harm though, her companion goes down with a gurgling cry as  the Cleric cuts him down and the Paladin rushes in, shoving her away from Arken's unconscious form. Already battered form her duel with the Cavalier, she is in no shape to fight fresh opponents and is quickly slain.

The rest of the party moves in and checks out the room (some kind of trophy room decorated in dead animals) and get Arken back on his feet - he is more than ready to continue their crusade.

DM Notes:

 I said it before:

The NPC's the party is saddled with at the beginning are a mixed bag. It's good to have living, breathing setting hooks right there in the adventure and it's very disaster-movie-esque having a random group of strangers thrown together after a catastrophe but it's cumbersome for me as a DM to have three extra party members to manage regardless of their impairments. If this was happening later in the campaign it might be less of an issue but having it right at the beginning with higher level NPC's running alongside 1st level characters it's an odd mix of baggage and advantage and just more stuff in general to keep up with. I think one character would have been enough to convey the info with less overhead but we are past that now. For the moment they are sort of "pokeball" NPC's - they stay back out of combat until it's over then come in and impart useful information if they have anything relevant to the current area. 

...and my feelings haven't really changed. It's still not how I would handle it but I'm going with the flow.

There were really two main parts to this session:

First, the interactions at the village, mainly with the chief. This was fun and while it didn't take a whole lot of actual time it felt "right", like the kind of thing a band of good-aligned adventurers on a quest would do. I am amazed at how easily my players fall into the flow of this adventure - that's been a very iffy thing with published adventures I have run in the past but this one seems to be right on their wavelength and it's working really well.

Second was the invasion of the evil mongrelman outpost. They blew through the first 4-5 rooms in the place and once again the contrast in speed of combat with 4E is pretty strong. I like my 4E but there is no question that we are getting more done in a session with this game than with that one. 

They had been having a fairly easy time of it but the last fight with the two cultists was more challenging. I played them with a little more tactical finesse because a) they are classed opponents with two levels, trained fighters as opposed to mutant-man grunts and b) the noise of the previous fight certainly gave them a warning and time to prepare. So they did.

This was not a really long session but it was a lot of fun and got us that much closer to seeing daylight again. Hopefully the next session will get us across that particular goal line and set up the rest of "The Worldwound Incursion".

Motivational Monday