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.

So after seeing the latest White Dwarf and having a couple of chats with friends we are thinking of allowing the Stormraven into our games using all the rules and points cost given in any space marine army. The discussion has been over if it should be a limited choice, like one or two maximum or if it should just be run as per the Blood Angels codex.

As an additional fast attack choice I can see my plan for a reserve force of marines and a dreadnought would make for a flexible option in reinforcing the normal gun line of tactical marines or counter attacking enemy units as they advance, or sweeping around to contest enemy held objectives or simply disrupt enemy artillery and heavy weapon units.

The problem is that I am just not that happy with the model, it looks like a slim land raider with wings bolted on and an intake slapped on the roof behind the turret. Swapping the turret for the razorback one (or landraider one) would reduce the height so I could lower the height of the intake above it.

The ability to deploy dreads like this with a supporting unit of infantry and the ability to soften up targets and knockout enemy tanks could make for a particularly useful (annoying for opponents) tactic. Having it priced in the low 200s can mean that once it has delivered the ground forces, any enemy forces it destroys helps offset it’s point cost.

I had planned on a cheap tactical squad being mounted in it with a dread, but now I am tempted to go down the assault squad path (with jump packs) as it would mean that both the dread and assault unit deepstrike together in the stormraven and the jump packs would allow the assault squad to redeploy or attack further enemy forces more easily. Upgrading the dread to be kitted for assault as well would make for a hard to beat force. But I know most forces I have played against keep their heavy artillery and heavy weapons squads near their deployment zones, so they are not the most efficient close combat troops and I can run a fairly normally armed dread with a heavy weapon and a dread close combat weapon which should be more than enough to take on anyone but the most specialised of assault units or characters.

This may seem like a crazy waste of points to some when I could just go for three vindicators with upgrades to pound enemy forces to dust. I have considered that method, but it just isn’t fun nor do I feel it is in theme for my marines. I’d go for iron warriors if I wanted to do that to be honest.

The previous reserve group I normally ran in big games was a mix of tactical and combat squads in rhinos and razorbacks, held back behind my advancing gun line of marines. Until there is a need or opportunity to push them up to engage enemy break throughs or to capitalise on openings in the enemy forces to push the reserves up to take enemy objectives or to cut off and destroy important enemy units. The plan was to drop in additional predators to roll up with the rhinos using them as cover to give a multitude of varying targets to distract the opponent from other greater threats such as a quietly manoeuvring vindicator trying to get a new firing line onto enemy units or characters.

Of course with fliers now the next flavour of the month (summer of fliers is coming up) you will see a greater need for anti aircraft solutions so it may be better to look at a couple of landspeeders than heavy artillery options. With the Imperial Guard being the only one with a dedicated anti-aircraft solution in the Hydra, here’s hoping we see the model released to aid the IG against the influx of fast moving aircraft. (I would be tempted to get one to get the weapons to use on a Mortis pattern dreadnought conversion that I have been thinking about.)

Anyone have any specific plans for changes to their current army to cope with the new additions to their opponents armies? Or do you have a plan to add in some cool new stuff to your own armies?

As I posted recently on the warseer forums, I have decided to sell off some of my pile of gaming stuff that is not used as much as others are.

As you can see from the pictures, packed into the 1st edition box of Space Hulk is not only the 1st edition components, but also the 2nd edition components, along with the two expansions for the 1st edition of Deathwing and Genestealer. There are no miniatures, and from the weight you need to be aware that it will be expensive to ship overseas. Pickup can be arranged from Sydney, or shipped if you so desire. The pieces are all in very good condition.

Make a reasonable offer.

This has now sold.