40k 6th Edition and 1st Edition Marines

Well White Dwarf finally confirmed what everyone seemed to know anyway, 6th Edition of Warhammer 40,000 is due out - next week in fact.

So here's a look at the new rulebook.  Turns out its the picture that's been slowly building up on the spines of White Dwarf this year.  This edition is the turn of the Dark Angels to be the cover boy.  As the first legion, its been a long time coming frankly.

With this momentous event and the recent completion of a squad of marines that have been sitting 90% finished on my table for a while, its time for some 40k ramblings.

My first real army was Space Marines.  Like so many other people RTB01 was the start of this army but I hadn't picked a chapter.  I owned the Compendium and had randomly painted a squad in desert camo - it seemed in the Badab war this was allowed (apparently this is explained in the recent Forge World books).   

In White Dwarf 130 the Space Marine strike force was advertised and there were these really cool white marines.  From this point in I was collecting Dark Angels, specifically the first company "the Death Wing" - some of whom were lucky enough to wear terminator army.  Things have changed a lot since then, but on restarting 40k a few years ago I settled on Dark Angels again - but this time I'd do them green.

The completed squad, in Rogue Trader deployment formation

So then, my first proper 40k figures post on the blog and its a real nostalgia trip for me.  I noticed very quickly in the multi-part marine sets that you got a few Mark VI (beakie or womble) pieces. Unfortunately collecting a complete tactical squad of Mark VI marines was looking like I would need to wait a really long time, so I took care to assemble the pieces on the same figure, but didn't expect to get a complete squad.

The plastic half of the squad, plus resin missile launcher

Then last year Forge World started releasing resin early Marine Mark kits and I just had to get some.  They also released some classic weapon kits, so I was able to get the old cobra style missile launcher, a retro melta gun and even a low slung flamer.

The lanky combat squad

With some trades with my brother and spares from the Dark Angels veteran kit I was able to get 5 plastic Mk VI marines together which combined with the resin 5 gave me the complete 10.

Side detail, the lovely cobra missile launcher and retro Mk VI squad markings

Mark VI armour, as well as the beaky (or corvus) helmet, has one knobbly shoulder and one smooth.  This means the squad markings have to be combined on the right shoulder so a little bit of retro research was required to make sure I got this right.

Still not true scale

An interesting feature of the resin marines is that they are noticeably taller than the plastics.  I've tried to hide this a bit by using crouching legs, the missile launcher and the raised fist on the sergeant, but as you can see above there's a definite move to taller Adeptus Astartes from Forge World.

Ready for all eventualities

One thing I was keen to try and stick to with my new Dark Angels was "What you see is what you get" (or WYSIWYG) but I couldn't afford or spend the time to paint every option as a separate figure.  Instead I've been investing in magnets.  I'll post more experiments with these in future, but here you can see my special weapons approach.  Tiny round magnets in the fist of the marine and the gun means I can swap them around but they don't fall off mid game.  The only real sad thing is the low slung flamer requires the arms to be in a very different pose to hold it, so I didn't use them in the end.

Well that's done for now.  I'm getting quite interested in what 6 ed will bring.  It sounds like allies, new rapid fire rules and vehicle changes will really help my chosen play style.  The new mission objectives sound like they shake up the slightly stale approach currently being used and defined (and interesting!) scenery will help make my growing selection more entertaining to use.  More on this when I get the book.

Follow me!

...and my PC is back!  After a hard drive 'incident' I've been without computer since pretty much my last blog post.  Some updates will be on the way later in the week but a couple of exciting blog events have happened since my last post.

I have followers!  So thanks to FeldMarshal G, Tony Maher and Gartenzing to taking the bold move in admitting you've looked at this blog.

There's little doubt in my mind this momentous event occurred because I have been accepted into my first blog network - the House of Paincakes.  Thanks to John for letting me sneak in there - the big logo is now pride of place on the right of these very words.

Ghouls - lots of them

Its been a busy few weeks so I've neglected my blog a little.  Time to catch up with a bumper post.

Diary notes:

• A few weeks ago I introduced a number of my friends to Malifaux, the session went quite well with everyone at the least interested in the way the game played (which in contrast to Song of Blades and Heroes is saying something!).
• I've joined a Warhammer fantasy battle campaign with 7 other players.  Its a larger size (2500 points) than I have been used to so its kicked off lots of mini projects.

Right on to the main post then.  When 8th edition of Warhammer was released it led to a lot of experimenting with what worked on my existing forces.  A clear winner in my Vampire counts army was ghouls, at the time they were the same price as skeletons and far, far superior undead the new core rule set (hello poison and supporting attacks).

My 6th edition skirmishing(!) ghouls

I already had around 28 ghouls, of which only 8 or so were painted.  In previous editions ghouls worked differently every time an army book was released and were never especially effective so I hadn't been too keen on them.




In the 7th edition book at least they were a ranked unit and with the right choices, a vampire could increase the unit size so I had started to build up a good sized unit.  I wasn't a fan of the GW plastic ghouls (more on these shortly) so I looked around and got some of Mantic ghouls (see my previous post on these here including some painting ideas).  I also needed a Ghast to lead the unit so I found this huge beasty from Reaper to lead them.

Don't mess with the big guy

With my gaming group we started a 500 point 'tale of gamers' type series of games to allow people to start new armies and try out Warhammer.  500 points isn't an especially balanced size game, but it was small and fast.  I decided to build an all ghoul army as an add on to my standard force (especially as experiments with skeletons resulted in consistent losses!).

My brother had some very old metal ghouls lying around he wasn't too fond of - I think these are 4th edition as there were earlier incarnations of ghouls (the "night horror" range included at least 2 ghouls) which saw use in 3rd edition and earlier.  I do like to have as many generations of figures as I can in a unit, but these chaps are tiny and pricey on ebay so I'll relax my rule.  After some brush restorer dipping, these were returned to battle ready status in the now trademark purple skin tone.

Comical, but at least they rank up

Finally there's the GW ghouls.  I had bought 20 but only built 10 at this point.  These little @#%$ are not my favourite figures.  They don't rank up and generally look silly with the crazy over the top piercings and trophies.  They do however fill up my ranks and add some variety to the unit so needs must...

Not actually genestealers, honest.

This mob is lead by the Ghoul King from the top of the Terrorgeist.  It seems unlikely to me I'll mount the big bat beastie if I take it, instead using it as a rare choice.  This sorted my second Ghast model out for me.  The real question is, if I do take a Ghoul King on foot, do I use the Reaper giant or the leaping GW model?

So having completed 54 ghouls, including movement trays my ghouls were finished and all good for battle.  I had plans as we expanded beyond 500 points to increase the size of the units so bought some of the really excellent Heresy ghouls to add to the mix.  Then, the new Vampire Count army book arrived.

Great.  Ghouls now cost 2 points more each and can't be raised beyond their starting numbers.  They also cost twice as much as a skeleton.  So for a long time, the Ghouls sat shiny and ready for battle without leaving the shelf.

Now with this big campaign I'm playing in I am considering them seriously again.  If I take a large unit (40+) they may well work for me - an experiment with 30 didn't go too well in my first game, but their size wasn't the only factor in the problems they faced so I am willing to give them a few more tries.  They are also all painted so I want to use them!

I've also finished some more undead themed scenery.  I picked up some gravestones from Mantic (actually produced by Renedra who I think mold Mantic's plastics) and added them to the small pile of bits I had from GW skeleton and zombie sprues.  I still have more left over which I may make more scenery with, but I am also trying out some regimental basing (inspired by my brother and Rob Hawkins).

My unit of skeletons (about to be raised)