Book Review: Heroes of the Space Marines

So I finished Heroes of the Space Marines today. Thought I'd give a review on it.
All in all a decent read. Some stories were more entertaining than others.

I will say it should have been named the Heroes and Villans of the Space Marines, as there were just as many Chaos/Renegade stories as Imperial ones.

My favourite was the first. If you have read Iron Warriors and Dead Sky, Black Sun, then you at least need to go to your local book store and sit around for a half hour to read this story. The Skull Harvest follows Honsou as he prepares to take his vengence upon Ventris and the Ultra Marines. It also provides a little quirky insight into Huron Blackheart. All in all a good tale.

The rest go from good to meh.

Gauntlet Run isn't very inspiring or intriguing, but is rather entertaining. Imp Fist scout biker action. Made me want to buy some SM bikers for in game.

Renegades is lackluster and not very high on action. Avenging Sons Space Marines. They don't even look that exciting do they?

Honour Amongst Fiends is a good one, especially for the Horus Heresy fans in the crowd. It is a very interesting concept on Mr. Owen's part and I am not going to spoil it here. Imp Fists versus Black Legion.

Fires of War isn't bad, but Nick Kyme is a better editor than writer. There is nothing particularly bad about his writing, it just the story goes on a bit too long and isn't the most exciting. I hope the Salamanders book is better than their debut short story.

The Labyrinth is weird and didn't really fit into the compilation in my opinion. Not a bad story, but not a memorable one. SPOILER ALERT (THAT LINK HAS A SUMMARY OF THE STORY ON IN) Sons of Malice CSM. I guess Malice is some Daemon or Lesser Chaos God

Headhunted is probably the best Imperial story in the book. It is about a Death Watch kill team and their raid on an Ork Kroozer. Has an Exorcist and Death Spectre SM in it, which is cool.

And They Shall Know No Fear is of the standard 40k short story quality. Good but not Abnett. Black Templar action with a glimpse of Hellbrecht as an Initiate. And for once, it paints Sisters of Battle in a half decent light.

Nightfall is another outlier in the story. It was slightly confusing and a little awkward. As well, all the weird things aren't really explained. They just are. If you really want to read about the Night Lords, read Lord of Night. This was essentially an foil of that, in that some Nightlords are going down the Uberchaotic road while some old school guys are hard core long war disciplined marines.

One Hate is another standard 40k short story. Crimson Fist Chaplain action. Although it is a little lighter on action than most the stories, the plot makes up for it.

All in all I give the Compilation 3.5 out of 5 Aquillas.

Hard Boyz List Series: Blood Angels

So with the though of 'ard Boyz in the air, I thought I'd post a series containing lists of what I personally would field of each army. I'll start with Blood Angels today.

One thing of note is that 'ard Boyz Kill Points have changed. They will be using standard rule book KPs except for mission 2. (Here is the mission pack)



HQ: Dante- 200
HQ: Chaplain Lemartes- 125
HQ: Honour Guard (5)- 300- Company Champion; Tech Adept; Sanguinary Priest, Power Weapon; Standard Bearer, Blood Angels Banner, Power Fist; Melta Gun
Elites: Terminator Squad (5)- 450- 2 x Lightning Claws, 3 x TH & SS; Land Raider
Elites: Death Company (6)- 30- Jump Packs
Troops: Tactical Squad (10)- 310- Plasma Pistol, Power Weapon, Plasma Rifle, Missile Launcher; Rhino, Extra Armour
Troops: Tactical Squad (10)- 310- Plasma Pistol, Power Weapon, Melta Gun, Plasma Cannon; Rhino, Extra Armour
Troops: Assault Squad (5)- 175- Power Weapon, Melta Bomb; Plasma Pistol
Troops: Assault Squad (10)- 305- Power Fist, 2 x Plasma Pistol
Fast Attack: Assault Bike Squad- 150- 3 x Multi-Meltas
Heavy Support: Vindicator- 145- Extra Armour, Dozer Blades

Pts: 2500 Scoring Units: 4-7 KPs: 11, 25 for Mission 2

OR You swap out the Honour Guard for the following
Elites: Veteran Assault Squad (8)- 300- 2 x Power Weapon; Power Fist, Combat Shield; 1 x Melta Gun, 1 x Flamer

Which that makes the KPs for ‘ard Boyz mission 2 as follows: 27.

Tactics: So I think Blood Angels would have a rough time with mission 2. A lot of armies have alternatives to command squads, and while I provided one here in the form of the Veteran Assault Squad, ultimately it isn’t as good as the Honour Guard IMOHO as you loose the all critical Blood Angels which gives +1 Attack to the honour guard (including Dante) and lets squads within 6” re-roll failed morale and pinning tests.

Okay, so generally this follows the typical BA Ball of Death Strategy. Dante and HG and Lemartes with the DC are potent assault squads. These guys can hit hard and bring the hurt. Eliminate scoring units and high KP targets. The DC can go after those nasty Daemon Princes even with Furious Assault, Litanies of Hate, and Rending. That means that on the charge they should stand a chance of dealing several wounds, as each guy pumps out 4 attacks. Feel No Pain should generally keep them alive to reach those critical combats.

While the Terminators aren’t as good as normal SM terminators, they should not be written off. Because BA do not get the 3+ inv. save SS then it is still worth it to take lightning claws. These guys should get in some wounds before you start taking wounds. When you take wounds, allocate to them first so that your TH can still attack. The Land Raider is a dedicated transport here to save some KP’s (0 in standards and 1 in mission 2, saving you 1 either way).

The Tactical Squads are to be versatile, but mostly fire support. You can combat squad them up as well if you want to engage multiple targets. BA rhinos with extra armour are the best rhinos there are for making that push to contest/control that final objective. 13-18” move.

One Assault Squad is just for standard use. The melta-bomb is incase they find a vehicle that needs popping. Put the Plasma Pistol on a Marine other than the Sergeant so that if you fail a get hot, you still have the power weapon.

The second Assault Squad is a little larger and for good reason. Against armies with high T models, such as monstrous creatures, you want more of a buffer on your power fist. If your opponent doesn’t have such things, combat squad the squad with a plasma pistol in each squad. Once again, don’t give one to the Sergeant.

The Assault Bike Squad should be able to kill a vehicle or two before dying. T5 with 6 wounds in the squad is nice, and they have to get allocated round robin before you lose a bike. Take out transports first, as your assault troops can’t hit the scoring units inside as long as they are mounted up.

The Vindicator is a nice piece of artillery. Nurgle units beware. I don’t think I have to go into it’s uses really. Though I did spend my last 5 points on a dozer blade so it could get through difficult terrain easier to makes its shots, since it does have limited range.

The Land Raider is for the Terminators, but it is also a part of your anti-mech/MC forces. Use it as such.

While I like to deploy on table, this army has plenty of Deep Striking Options. 2 Assault Squads, Lemartes and DC, Dante and HG, Terminator Squad. Against Chaos Daemons with Flamer heavy lists, I’d choose to Deep Strike the assault squads. Anything not in transports is highly vulnerable to the Flamers when they land. I lost my whole HG, DC and one Assault squad to 3 units of Deep Striking Flamers this last weekend 1st turn when none of his deep strikes scattered and he landed 2 inches away from each squad (I still won the battle though but it was quite ugly). So hold them in reserves so that you don’t have to worry as much.

There you go. My Blood Angels ‘ard Boyz list. Look out for more. Your Army may be next.

Scibor Miniatures: Models for 40k

So looking around today, I found some cool minis for 40k at Scibor's Monstrous.

Check these out.

Thousand Sons Terminator Lord
Inquisition Retinue 1
Inquisition Retinue 2
Inquisition Retinue 3
Inquisition Retinue 4
Inquisition Retinue 5
Inquisition Retinue 6
Inquisition Retinue 7
Great Unclean One

Check out his gallery here. Alot of those are commissions. He has some great work.

100th Post: 6 Months of Awesome

Poll related post.

So this is my 100th Post. YIPEE! Six great months of fun blogging.

I want to first thank all the people who read my site regularly, especially my Chapter Serfs (followers). Without you there would be no point to this venture.

Next I'd like to thank Ron at From the Warp for providing the From the Warp Network for bloggers like me. As well I would like to give a shout out to the boys at BoLS for making the Alliance. Traffic is good (over 2000 in less than a month since I added google analytics).

I also want to thank all the other blogs who have me on their blogroll. If I am on yours and you are not on mine, let me know and you will be added.

Last but not least, I'd like to thank the Wargamers @ Georgia Tech for giving me ideas and an outlet which to enjoy my hobby. That links to Facebook, so it you don't have one, sorry. Just contact me if you are interested. Or check this out.

I'd like to remind everyone that you can contact me in several ways
Twitter: GothmogBalrog
Aim: GothmogBlog
Skype: gothmog.lord.of.balrogs
Gmail chat/email: sepulchreofheroes@gmail.com

So to not just have a worthless post here is a short story for download that I have written. It is about the remaining Celestial Lions and an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor.

The Price to Pay

I had posted a small segment of a linked story some time ago. I suggest reading Price first though.

I appreciate any feedback. Comments especially. There is a poll over there -> though for the Anons.

Once again, thanks to all you make this possible!

A Request: Character names from Blood Angel Books/Fluff

I am trying to put together some fluff for my Blood Angels Army.

What I need is the name and position of pretty much any Blood Angel in the fluff, especially the books by James Swallow. I unfortunately don't have the books avaliable to me at the time. So if you could break out the books (or anything blood angel related you have) and post Names, Titles, and Ranks/Positions in the comments, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I don't need codex characters or anything from the old supplement codex.

PLEASE Be specific with things like Company, Squad, and whether they are alive or not.