Imperial Guard Veterans

Hey, folks!
It's been a while since I posted anything, and I apologize for that.
Anyway, I figure I'll try to get back into posting more commonly with an extra-long article about the best of the worst. The Imperial Guard Veterans.
In the Imperial Guard 4th edition codex, when everything died a lot and sucked horribly, there was one unit that the guard player could always count on. That unit was the Hardened Veterans. This unit stood out in the terrible 4th edition codex because not only did the Hardened Veterans have a BS of 4, but they could have up to 3 special weapons, as well as a single heavy weapon. Now, unless you are pretty darn new to 40k, you should know that 3 special weapons is no joke. That can be a very excellent amount of firepower if used correctly. Now, I can honestly say that every single guard player I knew had a squad of these boys for the extra meltas, plasma guns or flamers. However, there were several drawbacks that prevented this unit from being completely amazing. The first, is that veterans were (understandably) in the elites section. The second, and most painful drawback, is that a player could only have a single squad of Hardened Veterans. With this, the Imperial Guard codex continued to be terrible for a long while.
In May of 2009, when the 5th edition codex came out, Imperial Guard players noticed that Veterans were now a troops choice, and there was no 0-1 limit. In addition to this, Games Workshop decided not to nerf the Veterans unit in any way, but reduce the cost of each model instead. With this, veterans basically took over the Troops portion of the Imperial Guard force organization slot. After over a year, people still mostly ignore platoons of infantry and penal legions.
Now, lets go into the unit and the upgrades it can take...

-They can all take shotguns (I wouldn't. First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire! is too magical to waste.)
-One can have a vox for 5 pts (That would be a no as well. Vox casters used to be great. Now they suck. 'Nuff said.)
-Up to 3 can have special weapons (This means flamers, grenade launchers, snipers, meltaguns and plasma guns. Always spam out on special weapons. This is the most valuable part of the veteran squad.)
-Can have a heavy weapon team (Mortar, missle launcher, lascannon, heavy bolter or autocannon. Not as mandatory as the special weapons, but it can boost your firepower a bit.)
-Squad can have carapace armor for 30 pts (Too expensive. Maybe if you need to fill up points.)
-Squad can have camo-cloaks and snare mines for 30 pts (Again, too expensive. Your guardmen will die, and this won't help that much.)
-Squad can have meltabombs and a single demolition charge for 30 pts (Still expensive, but possibly worth it. If you have 30 extra points, get this.)

Now, for the final part of this article, I will go over my favorite layout for the Veteran Squad.
I always take mine like this, atleast 3 squads:

10 man Veteran Squad, 3 have meltaguns, 2 form an autocannon team. In a chimera transport with a multilaser and a heavy bolter- 165 pts

With this layout, you can sit back and blast the enemy with 8 medium strength shots per turn. Between the multilaser, the heavy bolter and the autocannon shooting from the hatch, you will be able to water down heavy infantry squads, decimate light infantry, and even destroy light transports. The best part, when the enemy begins to close in, you can roll up the chimera and blast them with your 3 meltaguns. Those 3 meltaguns will easily blow up any tank, and easily finish off a squad if it had already been weakened.
There you have it! A cheap, amazingly versatile gunboat basically.
Hope you enjoyed this article, I will be posting more from the IG and Eldar codex soon, hopefully.
Happy hunting!

Chaos Space marine psyker tactics (part 2)

For the last article in the Chaos Psychic Power tactics series, we will look at the 3 special characters in the Chaos army list that can use psychic powers. First, on Chaos spacial characters in general. They are generally pretty good in all size of games (Well, except for Abaddon the Despoiler, but I have heard that he is utterly beast in 'Ard Boyz size games, and Arhiman, which we will discuss later). So, here they are:


Typhus, Herald of Nurgle

Apart from having an amazing name, and a cool model, Typhus is rather awesome in game terms. He has the Manreaper, a weapon that is both a Nurgle Daemon weapon (Poisoned wounding on 4+) and a force Weapon, meaning that he will be able to kill most anything. He also has the psychic powers Nurgle's Rot and Wind of Chaos, one of which he can use, and then still use his force weapon in the Assault phase. He also does not have to take Psychic tests when using these two powers, making him even more worth his 225 points. So, how to use him. There are two things you can do with him: You can deepstrike him, with some other Chaos terminators with the Mark of Nurgle right next to a horde, and then use Nurgle's Rot to full effect. Then you have to tough out a round of shooting and assault, which shouldn't be hard, with 4 wounds, toughness 5 and feel no pain. The other way you can use him is to put him and 4 Nurgle terminators into a land raider, and then just run them towards the enemy as fast as possible. I know this sounds risky with all the meltaguns that are going around nowadays, but with a little luck, you can get into combat before the enemy has a chance to shoot.


Ahriman, Exile of the Thousand Sons

Possibly a little weaker in combat then Typhus, Ahriman is still a solid choice. The same statline as a Chaos Sorcerer, but with a bolt pistol that fires inferno bolts, and can use up to 3 psychic powers per turn. He also has all of the Chaos Psychic powers, except for Lash of Submission and Nurgle's Rot. This means that, in a game, he will be able to use 15-21 psychic powers. Of course, this means a lot of psychic tests. I have seen Ahriman's head explode countless times, and even more when facing Eldar with Runes of Warding. He's also 250 points, but arguably a little weaker than Typhus. I don't know if I would take him, although a gamer I know takes him regularly, so I guess it depends on the person.



Huron Blackheart

Arguably the most popular of the three, Huron is also the most versatile. Although his main function is not that of a Psyker, he is technically one, because he has a familiar, who allows him to use the Warptime power. He has a chaos lord's statline, but a rather cool array of weapons, with a power weapon, and a power fist with a built-in Heavy Flamer, making him very nice against hordes. Add this to warptime, and you have a problem on your hands, especially as he is only 170 points.

Chaos Space marine psyker tactics (part 1)

So, for the second installment in the Chaos psychic tactics, we will look at the first 2 of the 5 models in the Chaos army that can use them.


Chaos Sorcerer:

A very nice unit, I usually lead my army with one. They are base 100 points, have a formidable statline, and have a good amount of Psychic powers to choose from. Some of the upgrades available are:

Terminator Armor: Pretty good option.
Daemonic mount: Only if you have a supporting unit with them.
Bike: Good.
Jump Pack: If you have raptors, why not?
Mark of Slaanesh: Definitely a good option, and only 5 points!
Mark of Tzeentch: Expensive, but gives him more protection, and doubles his psychic power output.
Mark of Nurgle: Very annoying to the enemy, also allows you to take Nurgle's rot, an extremely good power.
Plasma pistol: No way.
Meltabombs: If you have 5 points, why not?
Personal icon: Only if you have deepstrikers.
Familiar: Useful, and only 5 points.

I think that the best combo you can take is as follows:

Chaos sorcerer w/ Mark of Slaanesh, Lash of Submission, Meltabombs - 130 points.

Cheaper than most psykers, and with a Force Weapon and Initiative 6, I have used one of these to annihilate characters with impunity.
Daemon Prince

Arguably the best HQ choice in the Chaos codex, the Daemon Prince comes at 110 points base, with a completely beast statline, and the option to become a psyker. Some of the options:

Wings: Take these, you must have them.
Mark of Khorne: Extra attack, but keeps you from taking psychic powers
Mark of Slaanesh: Very cheap, and enhances the Prince very well. also can take Lash of Submission.
Mark of Nurgle: Slightly more expensive, but makes him all but immune to small-arms fire.
Mark of Tzeentch: About on par with the Mark of Nurgle, and also allows you to use and take two psychic powers per turn.

Here is the optimised Daemon Prince, as I see it.

Daemon prince with Wings, mark of Slaanesh, lash of submission: 155 points.

For the same points as an Eldar Avatar, you get a unit that can happily assault and enemy on turn one, by using Lash of Submission to pull them closer, and then using that 18" assault range to fly the rest of the way, and slaughter whatever is stupid enough to stand up to it. Known as the Lash Prince, an army list based around two of these monsters will go far in a tournament

Chaos Space marine Psychic powers tactics

For today's article, we will look at the Psychic powers available to the scions of the Ruinous Powers, and how best to use them in a game. To start off with, Psychic powers. Usually very powerful on the tabletop, if a little unpredictable. Many armies also have wargear that can negate the effectiveness of Psychic powers, such as Psychic Hoods, runic weapons, etc. But, if you look past all these caveats, they are quite useful, Chaos Space Marine ones more so than usual. Let's take a look:

Doombolt:

Cheap, and usually effective, Doombolt is a good option for Tzeentchians who have need of a second power, or if you know you will be going up against marines. There are, however, better powers out there, which explains why Doombolt is so rarely taken.

Warptime:

An excellent power for a mere 20-25 points. It's an especially good power for Daemon Princes, but useful for everyone. It allows you to reroll all failed rolls to hit and wound for the entire turn. A very tasty power for CC oriented character.

Gift of Chaos:

The most hilarious psychic power in the game, it has a chance of turning your enemy's most powerful character into a Chaos Spawn. This will hardly ever work, but there are several approaches to using this power. the first one is to use it again and again against the enemy's most powerful character, until you succeed in killing him. Alternatively, you can cast this on a model in a low-toughness, cheap unit, such as imperial Guardsmen, or Gretchin, and the Spawn will most likely slaughter the entire unit, or at least hold it up for a turn or two. It is a bit pricey at 30 points, but worth every one.

Wind of Chaos:

Pretty much a powered-up flamer, the Wind of Chaos can be useful. With a taemplate range, always wounding on a 4+, and allowing no armor saves or cover saves, it is a great marine-killer. In fact, I have seen this power wipe out entire marine/terminator squads in one shot. The one thing which keeps it from being more popular is the hefty 30 point price tag.

Lash of Submission:

Lash is widely considered to be the best psychic power in the game. I, personally, will not go into battle without at least one lash-wielder. It allows you to move an enemy unit 2d6 inches in whatever direction you want, potentially shoving a dangerous unit away from your army, bringing a unit into assault range, or bringing them into a tight mass, ready to be obliterated by a Vindicator or, well, Obliterator plasma cannons. All this for a mere 20 points.

Nurgle's Rot:

Another beautifully cheap and useful power, Nurgle's rot is the bane of all horde armies. Every model within 6" suffering a S3 hit? Can break the back of any horde with ease. For only 15 points, a total bargain.

Bolt of Change:

Last, but not least, comes the ever-popular Bolt of Change. Commonly seen on Thousand Son aspiring Sorcerers, this is a great transport killing power. With a moderately long range, high strength and AP 1, it will punch right thorough Rhinos, Chimeras, Trukks, you name it! A little on the high end of affordable for 25 points, still worth taking.

The next article will be on the Special Character psykers available to the forces of Chaos.

Battle report: Chaos vs. Chaos

Vs.











So, for my first battle report, I will post a Chaos vs. Chaos battle that i fought against my friend Carter. I was going to take pictures, but about a turn in, the camera burned out, so I will have to simply describe it. So, the 1000 point army lists were:

The Host of the Eternal Rot (Carter)

Chaos Lord w/ Terminator armor, Mark of Nurgle, chainfist, combi-flamer

14 Plague Marines w/ Flamer, Meltagun, Aspiring champion w/ power weapon, plasma pistol

10 Chaos Space Marines w/ Icon of Khorne, Plasma pistol, flamer, Aspiring Champion w/ plasma pistol, power weapon. Rhino w/ Combi-flamer, daemonic possession.

Predator w/ Heavy Bolter sponsons, extra armor, combi-flamer.

The Warhost of Vashnaar the Tormentor (me)

Chaos Sorcerer w/ MoS, Lash

6 Khorne Berzerkers w/ Skull champion w/ Powerfist

6 Thousand sons and 1 Aspiring Sorcerer w/ Meltabombs, Gift of Chaos

7 Chaos Space Marines w/ Meltagun, Icon of Khorne

(x3) Rhino w/ Daemonic Possession

Vindicator w/ Daemonic possession

The Battlefield:

We were playing on a 4' by 4' table. in each table quarter area, there was a ruin, next to the ruin to my left was a forest, and to my right, in between two ruins, was a hill with 3 trees on it. There was also a moderately-sized ruin in the center.

Mission: Annihilation

Deployment type: Pitched Battle

Deployment: He deployed first, setting up his Plague Marines tightly packed behind the ruin to his left, his Predator in the center, and the Rhino full of Marines on his right. His Lord was held in reserve. My deployment was quick, seeing as I had a completely mech army. I deployed in an "L" formation between the forest and a ruin. The sorcerer deployed with the berzerkers in their rhino, in the center of the L. The CSM's rhino went to the left of the Berzerker's rhino, the Vindicator to the right, the Thousand Son's rhino behind the CSM's. I failed to seize the initiative.

Turn 1:

In Carter's turn, the plague marines stayed where they were, the rhino advanced along the table edge to his right, while the Predator moved 12" to hide behind the center ruin. My movement was a little more aggressive, with all of the rhinos moving in a line toward his rhino, to my left, with the CSMs in front, the Thousand Sons in the middle, and the Khorne Berzerkers in the back. The Vindicator moved 6" to get a clear line of sight to the Predator. The shooting phase was slightly unsuccessful, with the Vindicator firing at the Predator, but missing widely.

Turn 2

In turn two, the Terminator Lord failed to show up. Carter's rhino moved up, and disgorged the CSMs inside behind the ruin to the left of my deployment zone. The Predator stayed right where it was, content to hide like the coward it was. In the shooting phase, the CSMs ran 6" behind the
ruin. In my turn, the Vindicator adjusted position slightly, and my CSMs disembarked from their rhino, their sights set firmly on the enemy Rhino. The other rhinos moved up. in the Shooting phase, the Vindicator took another shot at the Predator, which also scattered wildly. The CSM with the meltagun fired at Carter's rhino, immobilizing it.

Turn 3

Carter's Terminator lord showed up, teleporting in between the Khorne Berzerker's rhino and my Vindicator. His predator finally moved up, It's gun crew getting a lock on the CSM's rhino. The shots hit, one penetrated the Rhino's armor, and what did he roll for damage? A 1, which was ignored by the Daemonic possession. His Terminator lord ran 2" closer to my Vindicator. in my turn, the CSM's rhino ran away. The CSMs in question moved up to face down the Predator, and the Sorcerer and the Khorne Berzerkers disembarked from their rhino, heading towards the Terminator Lord. The Vindicator moved so that, tracing Line of Sight through several windows, it had a shot at the Plague Marines, who were still hiding behind the ruin. in the shooting phase, the Khorne Berzerkers and Sorcerer fired their pistols at the Terminator Lord, failing to harm the almighty champion of the Plague God. The Vindicator fired on the Plague Marines, getting a direct hit. The Plague marines threw themselves desperately to the ground. Even so, 2 of them were killed by the massive blast. The CSM with the meltagun missed the Predator horribly. In the Assault phase, the CSMs assaulted the Predator, and their determined grenade throwing resulted in the stunning of the crew. The Berzerkers assaulted the Terminator lord along with the Khorne Berzerkers. The Sorcerer was first to strike, failing to do anything at all, as did the rest of the Berzerkers. The Terminator lord responded by hacking apart the sorcerer with his chainfist. The Berzerker with the powerfist, known as The Butcher, avenged his master by tearing the head from the lord's shoulders.

Turn 4

No movement in Carters turn. All that happened was the Predator popped smoke. in my turn, the Thousand Son's rhino reversed around the forest. The Berzerkers did the same. The CSMs assaulting the Predator backed away one inch. In the shooting phase, the Vindicator fired again at the Plague marines. Another direct hit! 6 of the Plague Marines were blown apart by the massive shell. The CSM with the meltagun once again missed the Predator at point-blank range, and the Khorne Berzerkers ran 4". In the Assault Phase, the CSMs swarmed over the Predator with grenades, blowing the vehicle into its component particles.

Turn 5

Carter's CSMs finally move out from behind the ruins in my deployment zone, on a collision course with the Thousand Sons. The remaining 6 Plague Marines moved out from behind their ruin, spreading out in fear of the Vindicator's demolisher cannon. in the Shooting phase, his CSMs ran 6". In my turn, the Thousand Sons disembarked, and moved up to face off with the enemy CSMs. The Berzerkers moved up behind them. In the shooting phase, the Aspiring sorcerer in the Thousand Sons squad manipulated the warp, using Gift of Chaos to turn the CSM icon bearer into a spawn! The rest of the Thousand Sons fired into the CSMs, killing 4 more. The Vindicator fired yet another shot at the Plague Marines, which scattered wildly off the table. In fact, it scattered so far that it "hit" Kasrkar's brand new Warp Spiders. The Thousand sons assaulted the CSMs, but neither side killed anyone. The game ended there, a 2-1 victory to the Warhost of Vashnaar the Tormentor!

Final Thoughts: This was a very entertaining game. I was a little afraid when I saw that great big unit of Plague Marines, but i was confident my Vindicator could take care of it. Carter is not an opponent to underestimate, having placed second in a tournament while playing Tau Empire. All in all, a very entertaining game with a good friend. Cheers!

Chaos Chosen Tactics

Today I will be exploring a rather unusual chaos unit, the Chosen. At face value, they don't look really great, for 3 points more than a basic Chaos marine, you get infiltrate, and an extra point of LD. But when you look at their options, you see their magic. 5 special weapons? Look that up in the dictionary, and you will see "See entry on EPIC WIN." Anyway, Upgrades:

Special Weapons: Definitely take a lot of these.

Heavy weapons: Ahhh, probably not.

Icons: Useful, definitely useful.

Meltabombs: 5 points a pop, so why not?

Combi-Weapons: Same price as Special weapons, and worse, so probably not.

Aspiring Champion: I don't think so. For 10 points, extra attack? No.

Special Close combat weapons: Probably not, if you want a good CC unit, look at Termies. Much better value.

So, several units that I think are takeable:

Chosen unit 1: 5 Chosen w/ Meltabombs, 3 meltaguns - 145 points

Cheap, and versatile. With a lot of melta weapons, this is going to give any tank a very bad day, from range and assault. Deployment for this: I would say no deployment, hold them in reserve, and then outflank with them. If you want to, you could also get them near to the enemy lines, maybe blow up a tank or two, and hopefully distract the enemy for a turn, while the rest of your force moves up.

Chosen unit 2: 5 Chosen w/ 5 flamers - 115 points

Super cheap, and incredible against light infantry, this is a good unit to take if you know you're going up against a lot of IG, nids or orks, and it can even put a dent in marines.

Battle Report!

Hello, folks!

Yesterday I went down to a local gaming store with a few friends of mine, Xander and Robert. Robert also brought along a friend of his, named James. We got in a few games, but I only got pictures from one. During this battle report, keep in mind that James is sort of a noob, and this was only his 3rd game.

Anyway, we were playing 500 points per player, (Xander and James didn't have very many points to play with). It was pitched battle, annihilation, me and Xander vs. Robert and James. Xander was playing his black templars, Robert was playing as chaos space marines, and James and I were using Imperial Guard. I'm a little fuzzy on the lists and armies, but I'll put up what I remember. The minimum was 1 HQ and 1 Troops choice.

Me:

-Company Command Squad, 3 meltas, 1 flamer, 1 plasma pistol, 1 master of ordnance

-Chimera, multilaser/heavy flamer

-Veterans, 3 meltaguns, plasma pistol

-Chimera, multilaser/heavy flamer

-Vendetta Gunship, 3 TL lascannons, 2 heavy bolters

James:

-Company Command Squad, 1 sniper rifle, 1 plasma gun, 1 medic, 1 vox caster, 1 plasma pistol, power weapon carapace armor

-Veteran Squad, 3 flamers, grenadiers

-Veteran Squad, 2 grenade launchers, 1 meltagun, grenadiers, plasma pistol

-Heavy Weapon Team, 1 missle laucher, 1 autocannon, 1 lascannon (I told him that he had to take an infantry platoon for this, but we really didn't care since it was just a fun game.)

Robert:

-Daemon Prince, mark of slaanesh, lash of submission, wings

-6 Plague Marines, 2 meltaguns, power weapon

-6 Plague Marines, 2 meltaguns, power weapon

Xander:

-Chaplain with terminator honours, jump pack

-10 Initiates, 2 flamers, 1 power weapon

-4 Assault Marines, all have meltabombs, 1 has power weapon, 2 flamers

-Rhino

We lose the roll-off and go second.

Deployment:

I deploy in the middle to try and take care of Robert's chaos marines. Now that I look at my deployment, it was a pretty stupid idea.

Above is the other end of the table. Xander's assault marines are deepstriking, and his lone rhino prepares to run the gauntlet of James' Imperial Guardsmen. Note the heavy weapon team sitting on that structure to the left.

Top of turn 1:

Their shooting doesn't do much. The only damage is a glance to my vendetta from the heavy weapon team. It gets shaken.

Bottom of turn 1:

Vendetta zips to the right to get out of range of the heavy weapons. One of my chimeras adjusts position, the other chimera doesn't move.

Xander's rhino rolls up on the left side of the board, and he forgets to pop smoke.

A volley of multilaser fire, as well as a shell called in by my advisor kills 2 plague marines from 1 squad.

Top of turn 2:

Robert's daemon prince does not arrive. His marines are out of range. The only shooting is from James, who manages to blow up Xander's rhino and kills a templar.

Bottom of turn 2:

Xander's assault marines and chaplain arrive from reserve using deep strike. They scatter behind the heavy weapon team and deal a few wounds from shooting.

My shooting manages to completely wipe out one of the 6 man plague marine squads, as well as reduce the other to 5 men. The daemon prince in the picture shown below shows up next turn.

Xander's templars manage to get into close combat with most of James' army. He kills a lot of guard, but loses a marine. The guard hold.

Top of turn 3:

Robert's daemon prince arrives. The heavy weapons manage to kill an assault marine. Robert's plague marines wreck my veteran chimera. The guys inside are then lashed towards the plague marines and assaulted. I lose combat by 1, and the veterans hold.

Bottom of 3:

My vendetta and command squad put 3 wounds on the daemon prince. Xander's assault marines kill the heavy weapon squad in shooting.

More enemy imperial guard die to templars in the assault. I lose combat by 1 to the plague marines, and hold again.

Top of turn 4:

No shooting. The daemon prince assaults my command chimera, and stuns it. My veterans lose combat by 2 and break. The plague marines fail to chase them down.

Bottom of turn 4:

My veterans rally. Between vendetta, veteran, and command squad fire, the daemon prince dies, as well as the plague marines.

Let's take a peek at how the imperial guard are doing vs. Xander's templars...

Not so great. I shouldn't have to explain the following assault. Robert and James throw in the towel.

Victory: Grey Imperial Guard/Black Templars!

Overall, it was a good game. I got lucky with my veterans and command chimera surviving, due to Robert's relatively bad rolling. I definately made a fair ammount of mistakes. Looking back, I don't really know what I was thinking with some of that stuff. Whatevs, good game, and I look forward to more with these guys.