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So one of my plans years ago was to do a ‘tale of four gamers’ style article called ‘a tale of one tragic gamer’ but the addition of children has pushed all other stuff to the backburner. So instead I am planning on reorganising some of my older armies to work better under the current rules and new codex options. Because let’s face it, I have used miniatures that are older than some of my opponents and having to remind them that yes, RTB01 marines are still a valid choice. (although with a return to true line of sight the smaller beaky marines are at a bit of an advantage)

So where do I start? I have a huge genestealer cult invasion force needing some refining to be allowed to be taken again. There are several hybrid units that will need to be taken as ‘counts as’ troops along with deciding on the best HQ to use to lead them. But with the addition of some inquisitor scale genestealers to count as carnifex units I think it is pretty sorted.

The marines are a problem for me as several units have weapons that are no longer valid in the rules. Over the evolution of the game they have gained and lost some pretty great weapons and gear. Tactical squads with shuriken catapults and all manner of other weapon options. Auxiliary grenade launchers were a big loss and a nice return. I don’t miss graviton guns or conversion beamers but when you have devastator squads kitted out with weapons no longer an option it is time for some conversion work or some quick counts as games to help pick the best options for weapon selection.

The armies I have are mostly on foot, primarily because our games were fought over a very terrain heavy battlefield. There was always ruined buildings and the addition of necromunda terrain to help block lines of sight and deny the use of simple charges across open ground. Vehicles always found themselves flanked and destroyed all too easily in this type of terrain. Due to a desire to put together an army for games in stores and tournaments I need to upgrade to have a mechanised component to be able to have some chance in the sparsely used terrain of some tournaments.

So instead of just relying on my old standard army list I am going to start looking at my options and hope to have some adaptability when facing newer armies (or armies that have had a new codex and have evolved further than my list was designed to cope with)

So, my standard force has a Marine Captain and a Chaplain. These days it seems the requirement for a librarian outweighs the usefulness of a Captain. Now I have taken a marine officer pretty much in all my lists over the years knowing a high leadership lightly equipped commander could stay with the bulk of my troops and keep them in the battle for much longer with the higher leadership and made for a handy boost in close combat to tip the results in my favour.

The chaplain I built quite a few years back has a jump pack, plasma pistol and a two headed power axe that counts as his normal power weapon. This was the pinnacle of what I could achieve using just plastic components that were lying around in my bits box. He used to have the terminator honours and all the rest (including grenades and a master crafted plasma pistol) making him come in at a huge points cost. As a deterrent on his own he has helped clear enemy flanking and sniping units on his own. Attached to an assault squad he certainly boosts them to a much higher level.

I do have several librarian models but until the latest tyranid book, I wasn’t overly fussed by taking one. The need to nullify powers with a psychic hood has now made me want to include one to replace the battlefield role of my normal officer. In that he will stay with the troops and boost their potential and hopefully help protect them. Especially against the Blood Angels who seem to have rather powerful powers in their list.

Elites are an easy pick of a dreadnought (with close combat weapon and assault cannon) and a terminator squad. I used to run a veteran tactical squad but these days a teleporting terminator squad can really ruin an opponents day and gain a foothold in their deployment zone.

You will see a heavy push in my forces for bolters, storm bolters, heavy bolters and assault cannon simply as they are the best build for the terrain we used to game over. There will be a smattering of other weapons like flamers, melta guns and plasma guns and pistols but the close range firefights were won by the bolter choices as they had long range when required down streets and lanes. Being able to pepper an independant character at range if they strayed into a fire corridor made for some hilarious sniping incidents. Hell, I lost an Eldar warwalker to a turn of massed bolter fire when it accidentally ended up in the view of an advancing marine force.

I may sort out my deathwatch unit so I can use them as just a veteran squad. It’s one of those characterful units that people have and without valid rules get left in the display case. I like the look of them too much to let them simply sit around doing nothing. Debate with my friends has us trying to decide if I should stick to the heavy bolters I currently have or switch to heavy flamers. Need to get some games in to see which works better.

Standard troops choices are always going to be a full tactical squad along with a sniper scout squad. I normally split my tax squad into two and have a unit holding the deployment zone and the other half advancing on the enemy to consolidate any advances the other units make. They are also there to hold objectives so specialist units can continue their work. The scouts hold back and snipe targets of opportunity and act as a deterrent for opponents. I used to run them with a veteran sarge who had an auspex which meant some pre-game shooting which could on occasion leave an enemy pinned on their first turn. They have served me well over the years and are a very cheap unit to field.

So, now to the specialists. I normally take a small assault squad to attack alongside my chaplain, normally clearing buildings and the like for the rest of the force to follow up on. Occasionally I will run the chaplain and the assault unit on different flanks and keep them back for counter charging advancing enemy units that get too close. Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be too aggressive with them. (bezerker armies I am looking at you here). The only other fast attack unit is a lone Landspeeder tornado. This has served me well as a surprise unit to support my assault elements, support terminators or even clear out small units held back by my opponent to hold objectives. I have had mixed success against light vehicles with it as normally they carry weapons quite capable of knocking it out of the sky.

Which leaves my heavy choice. It is a predator. A run of the mill autocannon and heavy bolter predator. This one unit has put more hurt on my opponents at range than any other unit on it’s own in any of my games. It is a reasonably cheap addition to an army but brings a lot of firepower. After facing plenty of horde armies and marine armies this has been well worth taking as a distraction unit for my other units.

Normally I run a simple pincers or hammer and anvil battleplan. These are probably the most adaptable plans I can run based on the normal battlefields I have had games on. It boils down to having two distinct flanking units coming around to encircle the enemy or destroy their support units in their rear before rolling up on the other units. The hammer and anvil was based on broken units being wiped out if they had to retreat into an enemy unit. This isn’t the case anymore, but it is still quite a viable tactic where you have a static heavy unit holding a position and you use advancing or deep striking units to drive them onto it. An example of this would be a devastator unit or predator holding a terrain piece and using terminators to force enemy units into the path of the units guns. In large battles I have been known to hold jump pack equipped assault squads in close reserve behind devastators, waiting for enemy forces to advance on them and either use the assault unit to preempt the enemy charge, or wait until the enemy is about to close and try and drop behind them. This was against an enemy dread so I don’t think you could pull it off against an enemy horde.

We have also used space hulk sets to build massive building complexes to fight over. Games in close cramped quarters like that let you know just what works and why terminators excel in this type of combat, just don’t let your squads get caught at the end of a long corridor by enemy heavy weapons. The best part of these games is the board tiles themselves let you know exactly how far everyone can move and fire. (pretty much every weapon ends up being able to fire further than the length they can see) of course you can’t take IG infantry forces in games like this as you just won’t be able to bring the amount of fire you have against your enemies negating your greatest strength which is big numbers of infantry.

Possible future inclusions are things like rhino transports and razorbacks to allow rapid deployment and a few heavy support units like a vindicator, land raider or two whirlwinds. (yes, I still see the artillery options of the whirlwind as being a great bang for your buck on the table) you may think I am thinking too much about mech choices but having several squads of terminators and a full third company of infantry to draw upon (once I sort out their weapon options) means I am looking at the additional units I need to purchase rather than what I currently have. I am tempted to try running a bike unit with attack bike as one of my flanking units. I don’t normally see them in games so it might be a nice change.

Allies. Okay for normal games I consider these a bit of a no-no. It detracts from your core force, but for really big games or for apocalypse games I don’t mind having a few specialists added in for some extra flavour. I have a very old vindicare assassin (bought on its month of initial release in fact) which I feel suits the feel of my army (sniper scouts and so on) and a very old inquisitor which I built in power armour and in terminator armour. The terminator one was built out of a librarian plastic terminator from the space hulk expansion and the head of a squat. (yes I did have a squat army back in the day) the inquisitor has served for years alongside my forces and I am tempted to give him a strong retinue to make him viable again.

Anyone have good tips for strong units in the marine list I should look at taking?

I am tempted by the tech marine options but I am not convinced they are more useful than a chaplain would be for my force. Building a couple of card drop pods might give me some options to try out.

Special characters.
Now this is where I probably stand apart from most people. I want a special character to allow me to have added theme to my army. Most characters just don’t cut it for my chapter. The only one that I have found that comes close is the ultramarine chaplain who is a veteran of the tyrannic wars. Mostly because my army has faced off against the genestealers in space hulks so often that he is the only one that brings anything to that theme for my force. I see the scout character as handy but i could spend the same points on other things, as the sniper unit has a pretty good chance to hit already. Yes I know about Vulkan and his awesome rules but I don’t take a lot of weapons that would benefit from his rules. So I won’t waste points on a character I don’t feel adds to my armies theme. Not that it leaves me as the weaker sibling of the armies that do take them, I think it gives a better opportunity to diversify my army whilst I work on tactics to stop those characters. (assault cannon, auto cannon and las cannon have all worked well for me in the past).

Having a quick look through some of the units that could be switched over easily are some of my old assault units with their twin bolt pistols (the units with power shields will need some conversion) but without jump packs I need to find them better transport options.

Other miniatures are standard bearers, officers of all three ranks tech marines, librarians, old attack bikes and the old assorted characterful metal marine miniatures.

So, all things considered do you have any list additions that may work or that I should try out? It would really help me out!

After having a good look at the blood angels, I am tempted to use the rules for a bezerker army. Then how do I find rules for my thousand sons characters and troops? Well I have been seeing quite a few pre-heresy armies using the blood angels rules already but as I want to include some other cult troops I am thinking of using the rules for an inquisitor and retinue as a pre-heresy option for the army to field my Thousand Sons Sorceror with his retinue or I could always just field my thousand sons troops as normal tactical squads, but that wouldn’t be as much fun.

I am more tempted by using my thousand sons terminators as grey knights, with the squads flame weapon basically being the equivalent of a psychic power on normal tzeentch aspiring champions in a squad. But with scuttlebutt being one of the chaos forces is to see some attention soon (in the next year or so) after the Inquisition forces, so I may just finish off my huge standard marine army and update my genestealer cult force to work within the latest ruleset better.

After seeing some Blood Angel Chaplain Dreads from Forgeworld I am thinking I should put together a heavy flamer dread with the redeemer flame cannon arm and leave it as a counts as weapon until future rules updates allow for it in a normal army.

With the release of the new Imperial Armour Apocalypse 2 I will have to check it out and see if I can find some interesting units to add to my collection for any big battles I play in the future.

Now that I have had a quick game or two with the BA book, I am thinking running my pre-heresy thousand sons as BA is a great option as the ability to take librarian dreads and powerful psykers along with dead hard troopers can make for some interesting games. The plan was to use the death company as a counts as chosen unit. Simply leaving out some options from the list in my pre-heresy army will allow me to run it in a way that doesn’t become too far off from the history of the Thousand Sons.

After having a good look at the blood angels, I am tempted to use the rules for a bezerker army. So how do I find rules for my thousand sons characters and troops? Well I have been seeing quite a few pre-heresy armies using the blood angels rules already but as I want to include some other cult troops I am thinking of using the rules for an inquisitor and retinue as a pre-heresy option. I could always just field my thousand sons troops as normal tactical squads, but that wouldn’t be as much fun. I am more tempted by using my thousand sons terminators as grey knights, with the squads flame weapon basically being the equivalent of a psychic power on normal tzeentch aspiring champions in a squad. But with scuttlebutt being one of the chaos forces is to see some attention soon (in the next year or so) so I may just finish off my huge standard marine army and update my genestealer cult force to work within the latest ruleset better.

So we have all heard about the new lander for the Twilight Marines, and let’s face it, wether it is the Tantalus or the Stormraven it matters little. It is going to be a nice looking space marine vehicle which considering it’s armaments is going to be very popular. Okay, so my marines can’t take them. Say hello to apocalypse and a custom datasheet for a drop pod force with landers instead of pods. Now to save up to have enough to field a force of them!

Anyone else planning on getting the new miniatures to just paint, for parts or for adding to their armies as counts as or even apocalypse only units? I am pretty much in all those camps at the moment! If the descriptions are anything to go by, I will be getting boxes to add bits to my rather huge marine collection and to add to my bits box for future conversions…

With the new tyranid release, the pending blood angels release and all the associated new models I am seriously considering cracking open the old genestealer cult army I have and giving it a makeover along with picking up some plastic veteran pieces and some deathwatch items to add some tyranid hunting units to my force. Using the bell of lost souls genestealer cult homebrew rules could be good, but I am tempted to go down the tyranid codex path and build upon my cult invasion force idea. Well I have the patriarch and magus along with hybrids and a whole host of genestealers. I can find similar unit types in the codex, and for carnifex and other huge creatures I have been thinking about the inquisitor scale purestrain genestealer as a basis. It would certainly keep in the feel of a cult invasion force of genestealers!

So what to do for the marines I have? Well until proper deathwatch rules come out again I was going to include a unit of deathwatch and simply use the sternguard veteran rules for them as they seem to be the closest to the rules they used to use. The other thing would be to add some more artillery on the form of a whirlwind or two or perhaps even a vindicator. But for my army I think I would add in a librarian to give me some chance of stopping tyranid powers and having some of my own to enhance my troops with.
My force will need more transports to cope with the new speed of the game, so rhinos look like the best bet. But I am being tempted by a reserve force of a couple of squads in razorbacks supported by a predator.

It may be time to revisit my old marine models once I get a couple of the new blood angel sprues to update the jump packs of my assault troops. (old metal jump packs don’t make for stable miniatures!)

Anyone got any ideas?