An eclectic mix of everything that fits nowhere else including miniatures, terrain, house rules, comics, lyrics and anything that doesn’t have a home elsewhere.

This is just a follow up to my last post about the cover art.

Below is the proper box art, and if you haven’t seen the quality of the miniatures from the game I have added an example below as well.

The highlight for me is the quality of the objective counter. (a dead marine slumped in a chair) This I am thinking will be making a big appearance in the golden demons this year.

Don’t you agree the quality of this box is well worth picking it up?

Just don’t refer to them as twilight marines.

After seeing a few army lists online, and seeing how many of them have one of three Chapter Master special characters, I wanted to do something different to get people using something other than one of the main three Chapter Masters.

Yes, I am looking at you Vulkan, Lysander and the Crimson Fist character.

So, to do something different, I am suggesting you simply add:

0-1 Chapter Master of Legend.
Points and choices as per the standard Chapter Master.

The only difference is that you can elect to swap the Orbital Strike with a Chapter Tactics trait.
You lose the Orbital strike, to allow access to the chapter traits list, of which you are allowed to pick one.

(I haven’t thought of values, or of exact traits, but some ideas are as follows)

Hunt the Xenos – Allows Preferred enemy (same as the previous codex)
Purge the Xenos – Allows the heavy weapon to be swapped for a flamer.
Death before Dishonour. – Cannot elect to fail any morale check or something similar
Praetors of Mars – Allows cybernetics to be selected by vet sarge’s and so on. Or terminator armour to be selected for sergeants.
Tactical Acumen – Can force the opponent into an extra turn if they so wish.
Purity above all – Allows sergeants to be upgraded to apothecaries.
Fight them tooth and nail – Allows true grit for all bolter armed marines.

Using the chapter traits as a basis from the last codex to generate choices.
What I am suggesting is that you build the options so that all the traits are in there, but the most relevant drawback is included with the chapter traits.

So the major traits would have an included drawback, and the minor traits would be stand alone.

So, you could have:
Trust in your brothers – Allows you the option for true grit or similar, but means you get one less heavy support slot.
Strike with the Emperors might – Allows you one extra heavy support slot, but the opponent can elect to run the game for one additional turn if they so wish
Hunt the xenos – Allows the army to be upgraded to have preferred enemy (choices as per old codex) but the models must be converted, with no drawback. (other than cost)
Purge the Witch – Gives a single 6+ save against psychic attack per turn, but means you cannot have any librarians, psykers allied to you, or inquisitors with psychic powers (or retinue with psychic powers) in your army. Could be an issue in Apocalypse.

Of course, this would require playtesting to get the correct rules and amounts.

Any comments further ideas?

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

I got to look through the shiny new book at the store recently (yay for previews) but the first thing I noticed was that the cover is already coming off. Not good. I think I will photocopy the rules and use them to protect my book from unnecessary flipping.

I noticed auspex were gone. shame, I really liked the cheap price and the fact it kept infiltrators well away from my squads. Hellfire rounds for characters is nice, my fave is the aux grenade launcher. That weapon would be an excellent addition to a terminator captain. In fact, I have an old termie capt. with one mounted on the back of a power fist… Perhaps some conversions of twin lightning claws and an aux grenade launcher for my captain are in order…

So there is no upgrade for sergeants to veteran as they are considered vets already. Fine. No real choice wargear wise for them is a shame.

But I do like the idea behind special characters and the fact that white dwarf may get more of them in the future to give other chapters their own special rules…. (and it makes it dead easy long term too)

Rumour has it that there is to be an option to automatically be pinned to take a cover save against attacks.

Our own house rules have been that anyone can claim a light cover save for being prone. The only clincher is that you have to have them modeled prone. I have a squad of space marines all crawling or lying down, and our house rules are basically that you can get the cover save if you are prone, BUT you cannot initiate close combat, nor can you sprint or make fleet moves.

It may not sound like much, but there have been games where that save has made the difference between victory and defeat.

Plus, the models look really cool, and make for an interesting conversion project. (which any army can do)

Ever get sick of the same old layout of the battlefield for your games? Well, this is the system we came up with (house rules).Simply divide the table into zones, we normally use six to eight. Then roll a dice for each of the areas.

1. 1. Open / craters / rubble / debris
2. 2. Building ruin up to one storey
3. 3. Building ruin up to two stories
4. 4. Building ruin up to three stories
5. 5. Feature terrain* / fortified building
6. 6. Special

*Can be city sign, courtyard, hab block, temple, graveyard, park with statue, etc.

Special Result

1. 1. Carpark / tip / wreckers yard
2. 2. warehouse / factory / power station
3. 3. tower / fort / police station
4. 4. landing pad / overgrown garden
5. 5. visitors choice / attacker choice**
6. 6. homeside choice / defender choice**

*Can be a terrain piece matched to their army, or anything in the terrain collection they want.The alternative is to build up a region you know, like your local shops, your street, or from pictures like StalingradFor other types of terrain, simply replace the listed items with similar things from your collection. For example:

Jungle

1. 1. open / grassland
2. 2. high grass / shrubs (6+ cover save)
3. 3. trees (copse or stand) (5+ cover save)
4. 4. Thick scrub / jungle (4+ cover save)
5. 5. Feature – swamp / venus mantrap / etc
6. 6. Special

Jungle Special

1. 1. River
2. 2. overgrown ruin
3. 3. logging station / mineworks
4. 4. quarry / tip / landing pad / plantation
5. 5. visitor choice
6. 6. homeside choice

This makes for an interesting way of randomly generating your battlefields. And also makes sure no one is setting the table to suit their own army every time. It also can be changed to add any new features that you add to your collection as you build your terrain.