Deathwing Assault

Hi All,

Games Workshop sent us a review copy of the new Deathwing Assault box; this was passed to me to crack open and get my teeth into. I even had a little while to get some paint on the models, but in what can only be described as a gross underestimation of the work involved (or a wild overestimation of my painting prowess!), I haven’t managed to finish any of them… so this article will involve a few WIP images!

 

What’s in the box?

In your copy of Deathwing Assault you will find a copy of the new Dark Angels supplement which has a fair bit of information about how the Unforgiven are handling the return of the Lion, and what impact this has had on the hunt for the Fallen. There are new rules for Combat Patrol (and therefore likely a new Combat Patrol box on the way for everyone’s favourite moody Space Marines), along with all the Datasheets you will need to play with your Dark Angels army in 40k. There are Data Cards covering the Dark Angels units for ease of use when you play too.

You’ll also get Belial’s new model, 5 Deathwing Knights and 10 Terminators, with two upgrade sprues which have loads of shoulder pads, helmets, weapons and ‘gubbins’ to customise your models.

Belial in particular is a massive model, he’s really putting the ‘Grand’ in the Grand Master of the Deathwing. All the kits went together beautifully, which is pretty much what you expect from modern plastic kits from GW nowadays!

 

Detachments

The Dark Angels benefit from three detachments in the book; the new ones (Deathwing and Ravenwing) have been explored in depth on the Warhammer Community website.

The Unforgiven Taskforce makes a reappearance – I can’t see too many changes from the existing one, but feel free to correct me!

The Company of Hunters is for the Ravenwing players; it allows you to take Outriders as Battleline units (hooray for more bikes!), and 5/6 of the Strategems are centred on Ravenwing units.

The Inner Circle Taskforce covers off the Deathwing side of things; sadly this detachment does not make Deathwing Terminators Battleline, so you’ll have to get your fill from the list of Deathwing units provided on page 59 to maximise your use of Strategems (as 5/6 of them are specific to Deathwing units) – it’s all the usual suspects plus Sternguard and Vanguard Veterans, along with the Repulsor and Repulsor executioner. This provides some interesting modelling decisions for Dark Angels players – all the Bladeguard units are shown in Deathwing white, whereas I think I’ll be going down the line of painting them in the Battle Company colours and running them as Company Veterans (who are sadly absent from the book!). I’ve just realised that Librarians appear to have been kicked out of the Deathwing now (other than Ezekial), but the named characters all come with the keyword, allowing you to spread the Deathwing unit type about a bit by attaching them to other units.

 

Data Sheets

We’ll rip the plaster off straight away; there have been some losses from the ranks and options for the Unforgiven. Apparently, Apothecaries have forgotten how to wear Terminator Armour, the Deathwing Champion has gotten lost somewhere in The Rock, the Deathwing Command Squad has been demoted, the Deathwing Strikemaster suffered a catastrophic Deep Strike mishap and the Ravenwing Talonmaster has misplaced the keys to his speeder. None of them appear in the Codex, but you can work around this by other means in some cases (such as just using a Terminator Captain for your Strikemaster etc.). Fingers crossed for Legends units!

The Lion is still the Lion… he’s a scary prospect in close combat and a pretty model to lead the army, but comes with a pretty price tag to match. In a pure Deathwing Army, he might struggle to find his niche.

The Inner Circle Companions seem like a very interesting bodyguard unit. While they have a Leader in the unit, everyone suffers a penalty to hit them (shooting and melee), and you get bonuses to hit with them when you’re fighting against Character units. They have a couple of different profiles on their weapons to help out with either clearing chaff, or against tougher targets. The surprise for me here is that the preview online had one of them holding a banner of some description – this is absent from the unit entry and appears to just be a cool looking part to add to your models. They lack an invulnerable save (unless you bring Azrael to the party), but almost certainly have a place in your list.

Azrael is much as he was before, still rocking that glorious new sculpt he has. For me, it feels like he’ll be most at home leading some Inner Circle Companions or some Hellblasters – sadly, the Supreme Grand Master still can’t join Terminators!

Asmodai comes in at the bargain price of 65 points and give full re-rerolls to his unit’s melee attacks. He has some rules around intimidating other characters, and bring the all-important Deathwing keyword with him.

Belial is still one of our premier character assassins – his weapons both coming with the Precision key word to help eliminate scarier targets who might otherwise do terrible things to your units! He’s still cheap as chips and has his Strikes of Retribution rule to help out. Oddly enough, he can join units of Terminators.

Ezekial is still running his Second Edition model, so is feeling rather small compared to his Primaris-sized brothers now. I suspect we’ll be seeing some clever conversions with the Inner Circle Companion models to get him up to size before long! He can attach to a large number of units and brings the Book of Salvation which pumps up his unit’s attacks characteristic… just don’t get him killed…

No new model for Sammael, but the Master of the Ravenwing comes roaring back on to the battlefield with the ability to confer Advance and Charge on a unit he has joined. His sword also seems to be a little sharper than Belial’s, giving him an extra pip of AP.

Lazarus is still in the book – I don’t know much about him as a character, but he really seems to dislike Psykers, with rules across his wargear helping him do more damage to them and resist their attacks.

Deathwing Terminators are much as you would expect, with one major difference – you can no longer mix and match your Assault Terminator loadouts into the same squad as your Tactical Terminators. All Deathwing Squads are your traditional Storm Bolter and Power Fist load out (with the normal upgrades like Chainfists and Assault Cannons), and can take a Plasma Cannon. They’re 5-10 men. They benefit from their Watcher in the Dark ability still (as one comes on the upgrade sprue) and can ignore penalties to their ‘To Hit’ roll.

Deathwing Knights have had it a little rough for this supplement. They’re coming in at 290 points and are capped at a 5-man unit; they have the choice of D1 Power Swords, or can sacrifice one of their five attacks and a pip of AP to take Maces of Absolution for some D2 output. The Sergeant can take the best of both worlds in the form of either a Great Weapon of the Unforgiven or a Relic Weapon. They have a permanent -1 Damage rule and 4 wounds a piece, meaning they should be challenging to put down.

The Ravenwing Command Squad survived the edition change and are a 3-man Leader unit which can attach to either Outriders or Black Knights. They get the usual banner bonuses for having the Ancient, bonuses to their move and advance for having the Champion and the ability to revive one model per turn with the Apothecary – this crucially excludes ATV models (if attached to Outriders) as well as Character Models, so no reviving your Champion if he bites it at an inopportune moment.

The Black Knights are a 3-6 model unit (taking you to 9 models if you attach the Command Squad); they’re a fast-moving unit with decent output in terms of close-in shooting and close combat, with a particular focus on Monster and Vehicle hunting.

The Darkshroud and Vengeance Land Speeders are still in the book; they both come with pretty niche rules that I’m struggling to find a place for in my list. The Darkshroud provides some defensive buffs to models stood near it, and the Vengeance provides an out-of-sequence shooting attack if a Dark Angels unit close to it is destroyed.

The same applies to the Dark Talon and the Nephilim – neither one will be finding much play in my list, through the Dark Talon does have the ability to disrupt enemy movement by dropping stasis bombs on units.

 

Crusade

I’ll admit, I’m not a massive Crusade player, but this section is fully fleshed out with some very thematic agendas and missions for the Dark Angels player to follow – there’s plenty here about capturing the fallen to keep even the most die-hard Unforgiven entertained for hours at a time.

 

Is it any good?

In short – yes. This is a rather good box to either expand an exiting Dark Angels army or to dip your toe into a (heavily Deathwing themed) Dark Angels list for the first time.

The Codex in particular is impressive with the artwork throughout – there’s a lot of large pictures spanning double pages, with text above them; I find it very reminiscent of the Forgeworld Heresy Black Books. There’s a good mix of classic and new art in the books, and the expansion of their background is well done.

I’m personally a fan of the Deathwing Terminators being moved back to an upgrade kit rather than having a bespoke kit (Heresy, I know!). I think they benefit from the largely cleaner lines of the new Terminator kit, and the upgrade sprue provides plenty of gubbins for customising them.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with the box... I just need finish painting it!

 

Now, back to the painting table before Drake realises that I’m away!

Lord Castellan Ursula Creed

Morning!

Games Workshop were kind enough to send us Ursula Creed as a review item and I was asked to get her painted up and show her off for you. She was a great model to work on; there's plenty of detail between her and the base, but nothing horrifically complex. I decided to go with a classic Cadian 8th colour scheme for her rather than the box art colours.

First impressions for the kit was that she comes in a cardboard box rather than the plastic clam-packs we've seen for some characters previously. The box art is quite nice and is in keeping with the new style of 40k boxes we've seen.

On opening the box, I was expecting to find two small sprues held within a black plastic holder like we've seen for kits like some of the Space Marine characters. Instead, there's one larger sprue about half the size of a 'normal' sprue which houses all the components. She's mounted on a 32mm base.

The kit comes with a couple of options for her head and left arm. She can optionally wear a helmet, and you can swap the rod she's holding for a set of binoculars. There's a different collar for her jacket and epaulettes if you go for the binoculars.

The scenic base is about right in my opinion; I'm not a fan of massively overwrought bases which double the size of a mini and force you into one particular basing style (I've got form for removing Primarchs from scenic bases!). GW certainly got Creed's base right - It lifts her a little and gives her some presence on the table, but isn't over the top. I've kept the basing style simple for the moment, and can embellish it to match the rest of the army as they're progressed.

For ease of painting, I kept Creed off her base and also painted her head separately; this was due to the depth of her collar and the complexity of the metalwork behind her which might have limited the angles I could have accessed to paint her.

Until next time.

Cadia Stands!

Militarum Monday: Contemplating Crusade

Hi All,

As you may have seen from my previous post, I’ve been passed the Cadia Stands boxed set which was sent to the Battle Bunnies as a review item. Needless to say, I was incredibly excited to get my hands on this box and had all the best intentions to smash through the painting in short order... but alas... disaster struck, and work has taken up a lot more of my time than expected recently!

So where does this leave me? Well, I’m looking at how to grow from the boxed set into a small Astra Militarum army over time; I’ve had a look at the Crusade rules, and they intrigue me. The system seems a little complex at first glance, but I’m hoping it shouldn’t be too much to wrap my head around.

The Cadia Stands box nets you a total of 19 power level, and I’ve managed to lay my grubby mitts on some Kasrkin and a Chimera to bulk the army out a bit, giving me an extra 10 power level. Removing either the Kasrkin or the Chimera means I can squeeze the army into 25 power level or 500 points.

But where am I at in terms of building the models?! Not as far as I’d hoped would be the honest answer! I’ve assembled the Command Squad and one of the Infantry Squads, the Field Ordnance Batteries (FOB) and the Armoured Sentinel. I’m keeping the heads separate from the rest of the kits to assist with painting, and I’ll be spraying up the FOB crew separately to the guns themselves.

The Field Ordnance Batteries are great kits... just ignore the disembodied hands on the controls!

My totally-normal-and-definitely-not-creepy method of painting heads

The Command Squad along with one of the Infantry Squads doing their best Ferrus Manus impression

So, what’s next? Well, honestly – I'm just going to try and eke out the time I can between shifts and being on call to finish building the infantry and start chucking paint at these chaps to get them to the table and start throwing dice in anger with them!

Cadia Stands - First Impressions

Games Workshop were kind enough to send us a review copy of the new Cadia Stands boxed set; after falling in love the Kasrkin models previewed some time ago, I volunteered to have a look at the kits contained.

The kit comes in an impressive box; there’s a Cadia Stands slipcover with some of the new art for the Astra Militarum, featuring Cadians piling into the Orks, complete with Commissars, Rogal Dorn Battle Tanks and banners waving. The style is a lot grittier than we’ve seen from some older artwork; the Cadians seem to be portrayed as a little more fanatical than we've seen previously. It echos the piece from the cover of the 5th Edition Codex but dials the grim-dark up to 11! The back of the slipcover has a wonderful shot of everything you get in the box and some close-ups of certain models from the set.

Inside the slipcover, the box itself is no less decorative, with a closeup picture of a Cadian standard; I’m by no means an Astra Militarum expert, but the first thing that struck me was that the banner itself has changed. I’m used to the symbology of the old Cadian Gate image with the skull at the centre, but this new standard has the gate itself cracked and shattered, with a flame at the centre where the skull used to be. It’s a subtle shift, but it’s these little details that I really enjoy.

When you open the box, you’re greeted by a plethora of sprues; there’s enough contained to make a Command Squad, two Infantry Squads, two Field Ordnance Batteries and a Sentinel. There’s also the Codex with the Lord Solar Leontus looking all heroic on the front. The art on the Codex is a lovely piece, showcasing the adorable absurdity of the Astra Militarum... on the one hand they engage in war on a frankly industrial scale with tanks, troops and weapons uncounted, and on the other, one of their most senior officers goes into battle on a bionic horse waving a sword around.

The Command Squad comes with a bucket of options (as one would expect from a unit choice with so many upgrades in the Codex!). You get one of almost every special weapon, power swords, power fists, pistols, a regimental standard, parts for a medic, a huge number of head options, and... of course... a tactical rock for your officer to stand on! For the base-size fanatics amongst you (I include myself in this!), the Command Squad models stand on 28.5mm bases.

The infantry squads are a fantastic refresh of the old Cadian infantry sprues; you get 10 soldiers with a selection of dynamic poses and a mix of male and female head options for them. I really like this change, which brings a lot more representation to the Astra Militarum and the game in general. There are no specific torsos or legs for males and females, which makes sense. The Cadian uniform is made up of bulky flak armour across the torso and shoulders, and baggy trousers; we’re constantly told that the gender of the God Emperor’s soldiers does not matter and that’s clearly echoed in the uniform of the Cadians. The models are festooned in equipment packs, grenades, spare ammunition.

You get one of each of the special weapons (but no sniper rifle) in the kit, a Vox Caster, parts to upgrade your Sergeant, and in a nice touch, everyone gets a backpack. These regular soldiers come on 25mm bases.

The Field Ordnance Batteries are probably my favourite additions to the Astra Militarum (aside from the Kasrkin!) with this refresh. They add the option to have non-tank heavy weapons in your army, which opens several thematic and tactical choices for you... that and they’re just so pretty.

The sprues come with enough pieces to build any of the three weapon options twice over; I’ve not yet sat down and tried to figure out how easy it would be to magnetise them for multiple options, but I think it would be possible. As you get all three weapon options twice over on the same sprues, this means they’ll be sold in pairs as and when the kits are released individually. These models come on chunky 100mm bases!

The Sentinel is just big. Its base size has gone up from 60mm to 80mm and the new model fills it comfortably. Sadly, I don’t have an older Sentinel to do a side-by-side comparison, but this new one fits the range really well. It comes with all the usual heavy weapons, the choice to have either a Scout Sentinel or an Armoured Sentinel (with trade-offs between the two), and the option to mount a whopping great chainsaw to the front of it. You’ve got a good selection of stowage for the sides of it, along with smoke launchers, a Hunter Killer missile and a search light.

The main guns don’t have to be glued on, they’re push-fit with a friction locking mechanism. I decided to cut that off and magnetise the main gun so that I can figure out how I want to run Sentinels in my army. I’ve started with the Plasma Cannon as it’s uncommon in the Astra Militarum armoury, and who doesn’t like lobbing giant blobs of flaming plasma at the enemies of the God Emperor?!

All in all, I feel this is a great starter set for an Astra Militarum army; you get a good selection of all-new sculpts to kick-start a new army or expand an existing one. The plastic kits and presentation of the boxed set itself are top quality and should interest both hardened veterans and whiteshields alike!

Now I'd hoped to have most or all of this set built, painted and ready to rock and roll for this post, but some last minute changes and some challenges at work have put paid to that. Instead, I'll be getting the models from this kit painted up over the next few weeks, and then starting a series of posts tracking the army's growth and progress through the 40k Crusade system.

What are your thoughts on the new kit? Will you be adding to (or starting!) an Astra Militarum force?

Index: Imperium 1

Hi all,

I wanted to share some thoughts about the Index: Imperium 1 book that I’ve been reading through. Darien has done a great write up on the Xenos 1 and 2 books, which you can read here if you missed it. Sadly I’ve not managed to get any games in with the new rule set, but Darien’s post covers most of the changes and has generated a fair amount of discussion.

The book itself is really nicely laid out, and I quite like that they’ve included both the Power Ratings and the more conventional points system that we’re all used to. The simplicity of the Power Ratings is great as it allows you to quickly build a list on the fly to get a late-notice game in against an opponent. My only concern with the Power Ratings is that they could be open to some abuse, as you only appear to pay for models in most instances, not upgrades; a 10 man Space Marine Devastator Squad has a Power Rating of 11, regardless of whether they’re equipped with Heavy Bolters or Lascannons. I think this system will come into play more often for more friendly games than anything else, as you’ll be relying on your opponent not to be “that guy” who squeezes every little bit out of the rule set he can.

I think the community will mostly make use of the more conventional points system for pickup games; this is more granular than it ever has been before and actually requires a little bit of time to wrap your head round in the first instance. The points systems for models are not with their profiles – it took me a little bit of time to find them, especially as Index: Imperium 1 is such a big book! They’re all hidden away at the back of the book in an appendix. The majot change here seems to be that you’re buying your models naked now, and then need to apply any costs of the equipment they come with. For example, I want to field a Grey Knight Strike Squad. Each model is armed with a Storm Bolter, Nemesis Force Sword, Frag, Krak and Psyk-Out Grenades. Therefore I would need to pay the points a Strike Marine (19 points), and then pay the points costs for each item of his equipment as listed in the appendix; however, if I were to equip a Strike Marine with a Psycannon, then I wouldn’t need to pay for his Storm Bolter or Nemesis Force Sword. It’s going to take a bit of getting used to, but I quite like the way they’ve approached it.

I was really pleased to see that they’ve included entries for pretty much every Space Marine model they’ve ever produced in the book… Are you the owner of a now-defunct Tyrannic War Veterans Ultramarines army? Rejoice, for come the 17^th of June, you’ll have rules for your beloved models once again! Got a Terminus Ultra you converted back in the day? Fear not, it’s back (and it’s nasty!). The Fortress of Redemption even snuck into the Dark Angels section of the book!

The biggest bit for me from reading through the book and the core rule book is the freedom that Imperium Armies will have to create some themed lists (Sorry, Xenos!). Units now have multiple Faction Keywords and all units within a detachment must have a common Keyword. For example, an Ultramarines Captain will have the Keywords Imperium, Adeptus Astartes and <Chapter> (which would be replaced with Ultramarines in this instance). From what I’m reading, that means that you could field an army with Imperium being the common Faction Keyword for a Detachment, borrowing units from different Chapters, and even the Astra Militarum, all within one Detachment. This is balanced by the fact that most characters’ abilities will only affect units of their own more specific Faction, so the Captain has an ability that only affects models from his own <Chapter>; your Ultramarine Captain will not be buffing your Blood Angels Assault Marines (Why would they listen to a jumped up Ultrasmurf anyway?!), and your Astra Militarum Commissars will not be “inspiring” your Deathwatch Killteams.

So where does this leave things for me? Well, it allows me to recreate one of the armies that I used to play way back in 3^rd Edition – Daemonhunters! I can finally put together an Inquisiiton-led strike force of Grey Knights backed up by disposable… I mean… valued… Storm Troopers, without having to carry around 4 different Codices and make use of multiple detachments! I appreciate this will not really be the most powerful army going forwards, but it’ll look cool and I’ll be able to relive the glory days of 3^rd Edition!

What are your thoughts on the new edition?