KICKSTARTER - Dice Rings

 

I now present you with another awesome KICKSTARTER. I know we're all constantly bombarded by various KICKSTARTERS, so I try to share only ones that stand out above the rest that are gaming related. So what are we looking at here? Well, Dice Rings, of course!

 

40k Mentioned in Family Circus

It looks like we 40k fans (and Dawn of War fans) got a treat for Halloween from Family Circus with a brief mention. I do have to say, of all the newspaper comics, Family Circus is the last one I'd expect to see any 40k reference in.

Special Ops: Killzone - Your Army Featured!

It's that time, again. Hot on the heels of a new addition come the updated rules for Spacial Ops: Killzone along with a chance to have your army featured! How about that? Look through the fresh rules and see your own kill team looking back at ya. I've always been a fan of the set, especially after Games Workshop chose to, in my opinion, over simplify the rules. Here's a set based on 2nd and the more recent 4th edition iterations that plays very tight and is a natural lead in to some great narrative skirmishes. So, while I've been a fan for some time, I'll allow Big Jim (its creator) to speak for those of you who are just hearing about this.

Wreck Age - Updated Stretch Goals!

With only hours left, now is the time to get in on the Wreck Age Kickstarter! They've very recently updated their stretch goals to make them stack-able and are well along the way to reaching $15,000 before the end of their pledge period.

The Mystery of the Black Templars

Hey, everyone. A short while back, I did a post on my speculations for the future of Psychic Powers and Warlord Traits. After the apparent confirmation with recent rumors, I thought it was safe to make another attempt at farseeing the future of 40k. So come along with me while we look at the mystery of the Black Templars.

More Starter Set Shenanigans - UPDATED

It must be OK because he took the picture before signing the agreement

Well, this is about as definitive as it gets. Enjoy.

A Bit of News - Shameless Plugs

I figured I'd take a moment to chime in with a bit of news and goings on that I find interesting right now. Firstly, I'm going to take a moment to plug the KICKSTARTER for Wreck Age by Hyacinth Games. It's a cool new RPG/Skirmish game that's got a Fallout/RAGE post-apocalyptic feel. As I cannot truly convey the need blends of game types and genres that come together in this upcoming symphony of fun, be sure to give them a gander, yourself. :)

Another new project worth having a peek at is the new not-Rhino model that BitsPudlo has just finished. You can find it in their store, here. They already have some great bits to convert it to a Razorback and future plans to support the model with new half-track options. It's a pretty great project.

The Bison Armoured Personnel Carrier... NOT A RHINO

And finally, DreamForge-Games, who make some pretty good resin models, are also doing a KICKSTARTER to make their popular Leviathan Crusader model in plastic. It's a popular kit because many folks use it as a Knight Titan or even a Warhound. So go ahead and check it out. Reap the rewards of investment.

Leaked Images of New Starter Box!





New Chaos Lord

These images appear to be leaked from the new White Dwarf. They're courtesy of an anonymous source, but if they're legitimate, we're in for a freakin amazing new starter box. The quality of these appears to be a drastic improvement over the Assault on Black Reach set. Dark Vengeance is coming!

Starter box on August 25

A tantalizing new trailer made a brief appearance in Games Workshop's YouTube channel last night. It was only available very briefly before it was locked down, but it's contents were seen by several people. What it contained was approximately 38 seconds of Dark Angels artwork, followed by the date you see above. And while the video is set to private now, some screen caps were still taken in the brief time it was active.

2013 Releases listed!

Amazingly, the whole release schedule for 2013 showed up today. There are many exciting new things in store. I've taken the liberty of skimming the list and providing some conjectures as to what these releases may bring along with them.

The Great FAQ Challenge!

I have for you today, an exciting proposal. We know that new FAQ's for 6th edition are on their way to us, so why not lend Games Workshop a helping hand? I'd like to use the comments section of this article to collect questions that you have about 6th edition. These can be ANYTHING you're confused about: clarifications, requests for more examples, codex questions, allies questions, anything that's on your mind!

Works in Progress

Well, I thought I'd give a brief update on my current projects. Despite being in the midst of summer break, I still feel swamped with all of the modeling and painting that must be done. First up, is the Bastion and Aegis Defense Line.

Book Review: Helsreach

Please allow me to preface this review by saying that I'm a huge fan of Aaron Dembski-Bowden's novels. He's a fantastic author and each glance into the 40k universe he provides is always a treat. That being said, Helsreach is my least favorite of his books thus far. While being better than many Black Library books, it fails to reach the quality of his other works.

6th Impressions: Warlord Traits/Psychic Powers - Update 7/23

Two of the bigger points of contention I've seen/heard about right now are Warlord Traits and Psychic Powers. After Wound Allocation (which I'm still formulating an opinion on) these seem to crop up the most in lists of complaints. I thought I'd take a moment to describe where I believe GW will be taking these and why they're awesome.

Bardus Tactica - Controlling Transports

Can a Rhino control an objective in 6th edition? Yes and no.

Whilst skimming the 6th edition rulebook, I came across something interesting. On page 109, we learn that Dedicated Transports count as the same branch of the Force Org. as the unit they were purchased for. So what does this mean?

Making the case for Games Workshop

Here we go again; again.

It's that time of year. The Games Workshop price increase has struck our wallets once again. While there are now a myriad of articles that explain the logistics behind what many of us consider to be price gouging, I wondered if there might be some unseen factors that affect the logic behind GW's decision. After some pondering, I came to a fascinating realization: Saturation.

It's Official!

Two weeks to go! Games Workshop posted an official announcement on their website today, announcing the release date for 6th edition!
Take a look for yourself. :)



The time is finally upon us!

Micro Update

Well, it's official. The 5th edition rulebook has been pulled from Games Workshop's website. It's my understanding that this is commonly done about 30 days before the newer version of the product is released. So we're looking at a potential release date of June 30th. How about that? That has to mean that the book has already been printed. Hopefully a PDF of it appears online at some point, as I'm flat broke and have no other way to read it. Stupid College....

News!

Super Size Update!

 

 

Well. Where to begin? It's been over 3 months since my last consistent series of updates. What have I been doing? Well, I've moved into a new place, started a new quarter of school, and been learning what the terrible-2's are all about. Mind you the latter portion is about my son and not a euphemism for heinous diarrhea. Silliness aside, that's left me quite busy! Well, I'm still swamped with school work, but I figured I'd start updating again just to preserve my sanity. I figured I'd give one massive news update to cover all the big stuff and where I'm going, then work on churning out new content when I'm able. So, onto the news...

List Preview/Review - All Foot Marines

All-foot Sternguarrd Veteran list!

 

I'm privileged to once again have a fantastic list provided by Dave at Dave40k. I love his lists. I tend to get stuck in a creative rut in my thinking and his ideas are very freeing for me. I've taken the list in the above link and tweaked it a bit. I want to be clear that it's a very good list in its own right and that my modifications are just to make it suit my play style. So, with that said, let's take a look at it.

Death From Above! Update: WD Rules Included!

New Fliers Inbound!

For those who may be unaware, there are new fliers being released next week! Codex: Space Marines receives the Stormtalon Gunship, the Necrons get the Doom Scythe/Night Scythe, and the Orks get a whopping 3 fliers from 1 kit! With all of the excitement, I thought I'd post some of the pictures I've been able to get a hold of. Anyone curious about the rules/stats of these kick ass new units can find them over at Apocalypse40k. So, without further delay, delicious photos.

Battle Report - Team Training

Imperial Fists & Space Wolves vs. Blood Angels & Grey Knights

This last weekend, Tom and I had a rare and fun opportunity to test out our new team list against a veteran player who is a tournament organizer at our local friendly game store. With our fantastic success using Land Raiders and Terminators at the last tournament, we thought we'd build upon that list for this event as well. With the split force org. required for this event, it's one of the few competitive builds we can throw out there. The force org. looks something like this:

1250 Points Per Player, 2 Players Per Team. Army List Required

Modified Army Composition
Player A:
1 HQ
1-4 Troops
0-1 Elites
0-1 Fast Attacks
0-2 Heavy

Player B:
1 HQ
1-2 Troops
0-2 Elites
0-2 Fast Attacks
0-1 Heavy
So, by taking Wolf Guard Terminators as troops with Logan, I can focus on the one thing my codex does best, Assault Terminators! Tom and I managed to concoct a way to take 3 Land Raiders while meeting the requirements, as well. So, we wanted to throw this list up against a tougher player to see how veteran opponents might take it on and here's how it unfolded....

Battle Report - Team Shenanigans Tournament

Our first opponents

Well, a couple of odd things happened that made for an awesome tournament. Firstly, I'd like to thank 'LittleSilverGuys' for his great advice on our intended list. Upon further examining our vulnerabilities, we decided to change our list entirely. So, in the spirit of the event, we tooled our lists out to field nearly 20 Terminators and 2 Land Raiders. We placed second overall in the event, so it worked out well for us. Read on for more.

News - Blog & Rumors

White Dwarf mystery

As you've no doubt noticed, I've not been updated in quite some time. Fortunately, I've made enough headway with my other duties that I can begin to post some fresh articles. I've got 2 Battle Reports, an interesting bit on 40k Metrics, and some new and interesting list previews that I hope to have done this week. So, keep an eye out for those and do feel welcome to offer feedback on any of them. :)


In other news, there have been pictures floating about of a hidden message shown on the side of this year's White Dwarf magazines when the spines are aligned. Now, upon inspection, the image appears to be a Dark Angel. Many believe this to be a confirmation that Dark Angels will be the starter army of 6th Edition. However, I wonder if it could be a mural of the Space Marine legions. Seeing as how the Dark Angels are the 1st legion, it would follow that they'd come first in a display. Time will ultimately tell, either way, but I thought it interesting to look at it from a slightly different perspective. :)


And in other news, the little birdy who I get my own rumors from has informed me that the 'leaked' 6th Edition rules that went out in the last month are, in fact, fake. This leaves me quite crestfallen, though I've just received my Razorback Turret sets from Chapter House Studios; those should provide ample distraction from my new-rules-woes. :)

Battle Report - Team Battle

Test battle against Black Templar

So, this last Sunday, Tom and I got together to test out our Team Shenanigans list(s). Our intention was to travel to the not so local game store that the event will be held at in order to familiarize ourselves with the terrain and the meta there. Well, as our lack of luck would have it, they were closed on Sundays. So we made the long drive home to play at our regular store. We wound up fighting 2,000 points of Black Templar because Donovan's partner wasn't able to make it. We learned some pretty interesting things.

Weekend Update

Amidst a mountain of class assignments and preparations for this weekend's Team Shenanigans tournament, I don't know if I'll be able to get any articles posted, but there are several interesting ones on deck. Keep an eye out for them. :)

List Preview - Team Doubles

Time to team up!

Coming up in just one week is a team tournament at a not quite local game store. It's a Team Shenanigans tournament based on breaking lists. Being a team tournament, my interest was immediately piqued. So, Tom and I began, straight away, to look at what sort of broken shenanigans we were able to muster. With 1 HQ and 2 troops as well as only a thousand points per player, nothing we could come up with had the staying power to be promising. So, rather than trying to game the system, we decided this would be a wonderful test for our refined balanced team lists in preparation for next months events. What I'm asking of here is for any extra advice we can gain towards our lists. If there's any way to get a better edge that we've missed, then I want to know about it. Well, here they are.

Weekend Update

I've had to postpone my model review for the Stormraven due to some slight difficulties, but I do hope to have the book and game reviews up this weekend. With any luck, I might even get a battle report for Sunday up by Monday. Until then, please check out the team list I have up for review. I'm trying to iron out any weaknesses that are in it.

List Preview - Onorevoli

Onorevoli - Special Edition

Retired? Not if I can help it!

Today's list preview is something special. I've come up with a couple of list designs for Brian's Space Marine army, the Onorevoli. Now, they're a special army because they're a custom marine chapter and they're played in a fluffy manner. And I've made up not one, but two lists this time! :D

Sixth Edition Rules Leak

IT'S HERE! IT'S FINALLY HERE!

 

As you may have have heard from mumblings on the web, the rules for 6th Edition have leaked out. This stopped me in my tracks. Now, from what's been circulating around, the copy appears to be from May of 2011. Supposedly this is the file's creation date when checked with proper software. However, that does seem to correlate with Sisters of Battle and Necrons not being in the FAQ file as they weren't yet written.

Delay

I'm sorry for the delay in posts, but I'm still digesting all the new information regarding 6th edition. I hope to be back on track in a day or so. :)

Battle Report!

Gotta get them Wolves...

Through a series of unexpected and undesired circumstances in the setup of the match, this will be a much shorter report. To make up for the lack of content, however, I did manage to get some decent photos of the match as well as some photos of the tournament armies that happened to be playing as well. Now, onto the details!

News: The Lord Inquisitor

For those who haven't yet heard, The Lord Inquisitor is a fanimation short film that takes place in the Warhammer 40k universe. The trailer above was done by only a handful of dedicated fans and compiled by one person. They hope to have the full version of the movie done in another year or so, but that's not what this post is really about.


What I really wanted to bring up was that Games Workshop, in a move so kind to the fans as to seem odd, has approved the animation. Work on the remainder of the film is now beginning the slow grind back up to speed because of the news. It's really great that they've been given the go ahead to continue working on it. After the huge flop that was 'Ultramarines', it's awesome to see them endorsing something truly good and done by the fans. It gives me great hope for how interaction may occur with the jump to 6th edition this summer. Maybe we can get some FAQ's that actually pertain to real questions in the community.


Back from that tangent, there is something you can do for the animation.They are looking for help writing, modeling, animating, and with voice work. So, if you have the time and the talent, feel free to step forward. The community would be forever grateful for any efforts you can extend towards the project.


In general news, I've gotten the Battle Report up today, the Onorevoli lists will be up tomorrow, and the Stormraven review will be postponed as my magnetizing expert has run into a road block. I do hope to have a the book review for Horus Rising as well as the Review for Space Marine up by the end of the week as well. Also, next week's Battle Report will be extra special. Stay tuned for more...

Model Review

Bitspudlo's Flak Cannon Platform

Hmm... When looked at upside-down, a familiar profile appears...

Now, I've had my eye on Bitspudlo ever since I came across their alternative Razorback turrets thread on Dakka Dakka some time ago. They're a small studio located in Poland and they've been churning out some amazing resin kits. Today, we're going to look at the Flak Cannon Platform.

Tentative Schedule

I decided I'd put together a tentative schedule for the week in an effort to keep myself updating with a degree of frequency and to keep me on task. So, here's a basic outline of what will hopefully make it's way to the main page this week.

• a fresh Battle Report (from Sunday 1/8/12)
• some list previews for the upcoming team tournaments
• a special list preview for the Onorevoli
• a model review for the Stormraven (pending outside efforts)
• a game review for Warhammer 40k: Space Marine
• a book review for Horus Rising

I understand it's a little ambitious, but (homework permitting) I hope to have all of these done this week. It'll be quite nice to beef out some of the other sections of the blog with some fresh content. :) Wish me luck.

YES!



Stormraven and Razorback turrets by Chapter House Studios

I was on Apocalypse 40k when I stumbled on a model preview for some new turrets Chapter House Studios is producing. The kit comes with every weapon combination that the Razorback and the Stormraven (respective to the 2 different kit options) can take. On top of that, they're magnetized. This is a dream come true. I can't wait to get my hands on one and see them across an armada of Razorbacks. I'm currently in the process of arranging a preorder. More on this to follow...

Weekend Update

Well, I've made it almost all the way through the week. I've got a great model review coming up tomorrow for Bitspudlo's Flak Cannon Platform. On Sunday, I'll make my best effort to have a new Battle Report up. Also, with a new team tournament coming up in 2 weeks, I'll probably post some new list ideas. So, keep an eye out.

List Preview Part 2

So, we've seen the fast half of what I feel to be the viable/interesting units offered for Space Marines in IA: Apocalypse Second Edition in yesterday's article. Now I'd like to take a look at some of the heavier hitting units that are available and see what they're capable of. Here's a quick list designed to capitalize on a slower moving, heavier hitting force.

List Preview

With all of the Internet hubbub about units in IA: Apocalypse 2nd Edition being approved for use in normal games of 40k, I thought I'd draw up a couple lists for testing out some of these new units. With Codex: Space Marines starting to feel a little bit behind the curve as far as it's rules and equipment, I thought it would be interesting to see how all of the new units spice up the game. So, over the next day or so, I'll be putting up a couple new lists that focus on the specific elements of the new Space Marine units that seem interesting. So, let's have a look.

List Preview

Living large...

For this list preview, I thought I'd do something a little different. I recently stumbled upon an exciting list over at Dave 40k. Seeing it there, I've decided try testing it out, but with a few of my own modifications. :) So, let me lay it on you.

An Introduction to 40k Metrics

Number muching. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.

I've put together this article as a summarized introduction to Nikephoros' 40k Metrics system. 40k Metrics is a benchmarking system designed for the evaluation of the effectiveness of lists. I'll state right now that this isn't a guaranteed method of designing winning lists. It's designed as a tool to compare lists together that are of the same army and a similar type/theme. It won't work for comparing Space Marines to Dark Eldar, for instance, as the armies function with vast differences from each other and their units serve different purposes, as well. So what does it do? It allows you to compare, let's say, two different Imperial Guard gun line lists to see if a newer list can match similar firepower to a list that has established effectiveness or something similar. Let's take a closer look.

BATTLE REPORT!

TOURNAMENT REPORT!

My first battle against Dark Eldar

Here's my long delayed tournament battle report for the tournament on 12/11/11. It was a really fun event and as luck would have it I wound up fighting Dark Eldar for the first time, and wasn't put into matches against my friends. Got to meet some great new players and had a blast. Now, onto the details.

Merry New Year!

Happy New Year! I can't wait to see what new things the year 2012 brings. Who knows what we'll see?

• Sixth Edition 40k
• Codex: Black Templars
• Codex: Tau
• Cruddace's first balanced and well received codex? (see immediately above)
• The Horus Heresy novels reaching the Siege of Terra?

Hard to say, really. But there's plenty of potential for an exciting year. :)

As my first act in the new year, I'm going to get a new article up every day for a week, time permitting. Working really hard at it this time, however. :) First one will be up later this morning, bright and early. You can look forward to a new Battle Report, the long postponed 40k Metrics introduction, a model review, and some new and exciting list ideas. Check back for these and many, many more!