The Fluff of 6th Edition 2012- What I'd Like To See

I want to discuss a topic that hasn't really come up much, the evolving fluff of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. We've come along way from third edition when the stories were clearly all Imperial all the time. It was Guard crushing this and Space Marines kicking butt that. The Marcharian Crusade is the quintissential fluff event, and expansion of 1000 worlds, and the Heresy barely mentioned, Chaos was nothing more than an insidious menace (the concept of the "Long War" seemingly non-existant) and Abaddon beaten back in the Gothic War, Orks a beast to be eradicated and Tyranids a new threat to be dealt with. Then 4th edition came along and everything seemed a little more evenly matched. Tyranids were something to fear and took great sacrifices to beat, orks a Galactic Plauge, Necrons rising from the dark deep to strike unexpectantly, Chaos the main challenge to the rule of man as a constant threat and destabilizing factor, especailly with the 13th Black Crusade being a tactical draw but a strategic victory for chaos, and Tau a rising threat claiming unsuspecting worlds on man's ungaurded flank.

The the present age, 5th edition. It is the start of the Dark Times, the Imperium is stretched thinner than ever and beset on all side. In 5th edition the motto "There is only war" is embodied best. Even in game terms with expansions such as apocalypse support this. The Astronomican is weak and the days grow darker. The stage is set for an apocalypctic event. Even the BL books lead to this, with the Iron Warriors vs Ultramarines plots and Night Lords and Word Bearers series. 6th edition should be this event.

Mankind should be pushed to the brink, near what they were in the days of the Heresy and the time of Vandire. There should be great defeats and losses, with shinning beacons of heroism, sacrifice and defiance.

To me there are a few things that can do this in game and fluff

1- Primarchs- Well not loyal ones, but rather Daemon Primarchs for Apocalypse. This would also help reinvigorate Apocalypse I feel, as many people don't play it too much any more. They already did Angron some years ago in a WD (I have it someplace and need to find it). With the Horus Books growing in popularity, who wouldn't want to play with these veritable titans.

2- Abaddon gets past Cadia/Expansion of the 13th Black Crusade- This can even be supported with something not seen for a while- a summer campaign. Whether it gets to Terra or not is up to GW, but if you tie in some of the Blood Angel fluff surrounding Dante, this has a lot of potential.

3- Bring back another C'Tan- The outsider or void dragon would really mix things up and mess up humanity something good. The Void Dragon would be particularly good to coincide with a in game release of Codex: Ad Mech and open up the possibility for even more Apocalypse shenanigans

4- Eldrad Ulthuan is still alive- This guy is present at the darkest moment every time. If he comes back, we know something big is going to happen. Plus, this is a great tie in with number 3. Some Deceiver, Nightbringer and Harlequin goodness alongside in the fluff would be most excellent.

5- Another hive fleet- alot of potential here, for obvious reasons. You could though pit them against the Tau more and make a Imperium, Tau, Eldar trifecta of good. Same concepts can be applied to Ork Waaghs.

6- Just general mayhem. It is not longer the precusor of the end times. IT IS THE END TIMES. And some summer campaigns can really push this along. And then as 6th edition dies off, 7th edition can be a time of renewal again. Man can beat back the darkness and expand with crusades like Marcharius once again.

SO who else wants to see the galaxy burn? Hey, and 2012 is the PERFECT YEAR for world ending calamities to begin.

Meet Joe - Discordian

So I recently entered into a 40k 1500 tourney. 1500 points isn’t a normal point level I play so I wanted mix things up and do something little different. I settled on a list with Mordrak and full ghost buddies, two 5 man strikes with psycannons, two psyrifleman dreads, a 10 man interceptor with psybolts and cannons, and one teleporting Dreadknight.

I don’t normally play foot Grey Knights, but it seemed to on paper be able to play towards the objectives of the 3 game I had to play.

One problem....... I didn’t own a Dread Knight…… Also the model looks super dumb with the stupid baby carried Grey Knight strapped to the front.

Super Dumb

But I decided I wanted to give it a try and see what I could do in a week. I ordered the model on a Friday and it arrived on Tuesday, 4 days before the tournament. So I knew it wasn’t going to be painted in time but at least I’d have some time to convert.

Meet Joe

Guess where the cockpit came from?

The round things on the back are the turret housings

from the aegis defense line kit

I used a combination of tubes and Multi-Melta barrels to fill in the

the gap behind the cockpit

I decided to prime him because I can't stand to look at a grey grey knights.

I ended up placing 3rd in a swiss scoring system. Every game had kill points and two other random objective missions all equally scored.
My first opponent was Necrons and he won the role to go first. It was Dawn of war with 6 objectives where 1 randomly disappears on either side turn 3. He won the role and made me go first. This made me realize I was going to have trouble on my hands because my army is weirdly designed to not like that, especially when there’s nothing on the table to react to. I forced a draw on all of the objective missions but he pulled ahead by one kill point at the end of turn 5 where the game ended. I can only take solace in the fact that if it had gone on one more turn I would have gotten three more kill points. But it was a great game and we had a lot of fun playing each other. Best moment,

“I’m starting my turn” me
“Okay” opponent
“Let me START my turn then” me
“You don’t have to raise your voice man” opponent
5 mins later “You where trying to tell me to use the solar flare weren’t you” opponent
“Yep” me

The second game was against Drop pod/DOA blood angels with a single Dev squad. I said I was sorry, got first turn, got warp quake up, killed the Dev squad turn one from combined shooting, waited for his army to show up, and ended up tabling him. His army looked beautiful, but it was a really bad match up for him and it really showed. Best moment was when Dante and his body guard dropped in and tried to Melta my Dread Knight, Joe survived with one wound and proceeded to jump like a big scaredy cat 30” away.

I need to get a actual camera if I want to keep posting pictures.

My last game was against triple battle wagon rollers with a one full squad of lootas. Again thankfully I got first turn. He didn’t really deploy right and I took advantage of it (I did tell him what Mordrak did by the way). I was able to kill the lootas by turn 2 with Mordrak and by spreading out my units was able to pick off all three wagons. The game ended on turn 6 when I was able to storm bolter his last squad into dust. I wasn’t able to score on the second mission because my forces where so spread out, but I was able to get the other 2. Best moment, Mordrak taking a death roller to the face after killing all the lootas.
I didn’t get to play the two guys ahead of me, so either I was lucky or they were.

Here are two of the other armies.

Dead Company

Draigo and toys

2000 Pt Blood Angels List- Descent of Angels

Here is the 2000 pt Blood Angel list I am running of late.

HQ- Commander Dante: 225
HQ- Librarian: 125- Jump Pack, Unleash Rage, Shield of Sanguinus
Elites- Sanguinary Priests (3): 230- 3 x Jump Pack, 1 x Meltabomb
Troops- Sanguinary Guard (5): 250- Powerfist, Chapter Banner, Infernus Pistol
Troops- Assault Squad (10): 240- 2 x Melta-guns, Infernus Pistol, Power Weapon
Troops- Assault Squad (10): 235- 2 x Melta-guns, Power Fist
Troops- Assault Squad (10): 225- 2 x Flamers, Hand Flamer, Lightning Claw
Fast Attack - Baal Predator: 130- Flamestorm Cannon/Assault Cannon, Extra Armour
Fast Attack- Baal Predator: 130- Flamestorm Cannon/Assault Cannon, Extra Armour
Fast Attack- Vanguard Veterans (5): 210- Thunder Hammer, 2 x Power Weapon

Pts: 2000 Scoring Units: 4-7 KPs: 12-15

I know a lot of people have been hating on Dante, as he is kinda a dick choice against your opponents. If my opponent really feels that way, I typically don't enforce his Death Mask. I take him for 3 reasons.
1- I love his fluff and the model.
2- As a result of 1, I have ALWAYS taken Dante. I used to always take Lemartes as well, but DC just isn't as great a choice any more, though given the opportunity, I take him.
3- I can't justify taking Sanguinary Guard without having them be troops, thus Dante is a MUST.

The Librarian is a new addition. Librarians are just a must these days for psychic defense. As well, his Shield of Sanguinus really is great for DoA armies, and Unleash Rage on a BA squad on the charge is just brutal.

I magnetized my Baal Weapons to maintian tactical flexibility. Though in a tournament I would fix them, most likely as assault cannons, if I know I am going to face a horde or super power armour lists rather than mech, the flamestorms are a better choice.

As well I have fine tuned it down to 3 Priests, giving 1 a MB just to gap 5 pts at the end.

Gothmog's 2012 Hobby Goals

I typically don't do the whole New Year's Resolution thing (and after a month it really isn't much of one either). It just doesn't seem like just because one digit changed (which ultimately only manages to inconvenience me for a month as I write the wrong year every time I have to date something) that I should change myself.
BUT I was reading Dave Taylor's page (the man from whom I have shamelessly stolen the concept of Genswick). Well he had a list of promises, so I thought I would shamelessly steal from him again.

I extrapolate that by the time I am 30 I will have way too many models to ever finish.

1- Finish painting/basing my 2000 pt Blood Angels Army. I should have paint here starting Monday, so this shall begin very shortly. I haven't been able to paint for over a year, so this shall be a very nice thing. I really am looking forward to it. And I shall focus on my core list. Extra stuff can come later, as of now I need dedication. And as an FYI I used to have the whole force painted, but stripped it in college and have thrown in new models as well.

2- Finish buying/building my Genswick army to accommodate all list variants. I am actually pretty close, but there are still some critical components missing. Once I am gone building and converting them, I am going to try and apply speed painting techniques to the army (without sacrificing promise number 1). Some Ork Zzap guns are on the way already to be my Lascannons and I am trying to acquire some Kannons for mortars.

3- Start posting tutorials online. I have a few in mind already. And with some quality photography equipment I think I can do this decently. I already sorta did with the Savlar Chem Dogs. But I would like to do a hand painted banner tutorial, likely utilizing the Blood Angel's 2nd Company Banner. I built the model for it last night.

4- Continue expanding my Terrain collection. Typically my group used what was available between us or at the local game store. Now that I am out on my own I need to make sure I have a substantial collection of my own to ensure that I am able to play whenever/where ever I am in the world.

5- Resume some of the old blog series I did. Biggest Bang, Power Units, Free Mission, Evolution of a List, Champions of the Game. I haven't done these in a while, I think they would be a good thing to bring back.

6- Try to write a short story for the BL summer submission window. I have some concepts floating around, and I think I can put one together.

7- Give my Specialist Games forces some love. Just a good sidetrack project when I am mind numb from painting marines or Guard. I have plenty of BFG, AE, a Necromunda squad and a Blood Bowl Team all requiring a little love.

8- Speaking of requiring a little love: My Bretonnians require alot. As here in Japan I really have no fantasy players to through down a game with and I myself only have 1 WHFB army, this is the lowest on the list, but some attention sent their way would be good. More than likely it would be repaints/touch ups of what I have. If I accomplish goals 1 and 2 in 2012, 2013 shall be the year of the Knight.

1500 Mordrak and Friends – Discordian

Playing small point games really isn’t my forte. I actually learned to play 40k through apocalypse, I also learned that Space Marines Players are jerks and will abandon you to face off against an armored company by yourself........ Moving on.

In the near future I plan to enter into a 1500 point tournament. I’m finding Storm Ravens are hard to justify at such low points, so I’ve had to figure out a different way of playing my knights. I haven’t played at this store before and have no info on the rules for the event, so I’m just trying to build well rounded lists.

So far I’ve come up with this approach.....

Mordrak
-5 Halberd Ghosts
Big turn one disruption unit that should soak up a lot of fire. Mordrak also comes with Grand Strategy which lets me adjust my army on the fly.


2X10 Grey Knight Strike Squads
-Justicar MC Hammer
-2 Psycannon, 4 Halberds, 1 Hammer, 2 Dudes
-Psybolt
I really like strikes because they are pretty versatile. Can walk across the table, deepstrike or outflank. If not an objective game I can always give re-roll 1s to wound in both shooting and combat, which would make them a far more killy threat. I can also choose to combat squad them if I see the need, either going with equal parts or combat focused and mini Purgation squads.

2 Dreadnoughts
-Twin Twin-Autocannons, Psybolt
Mobile long range support, which can be made scoring

1 Dread Knight
-Personal Teleporter, Heavy Incinerator, Great Sword
Big Scary dude that also can put pressure turn one. Has a great anti-cheap infantry weapon and can slice through armor. Moves super fast all the time and super duper fast once per game. Great choice for grand strategy shenanigans.


6-8 kill points, 2-7 scoring units

This list has a lot of odd ways of pushing my opponent, but I fear that it will suffer to pure shooting armies that overwhelm my target priority capabilities. I could drop the noughts for another knight, but I think I need the ability to kill fast movers and cheap transports. I could drop the Knight for another strike squad or another nought, but Id lose a really good target for grand strategy options as well as a big scary dude.

Any suggestions?