The difference good terrain makes to your games and why you need it.

Everyone at some stage, most probably a tournament (well at least here in Oz), has played a game on a table that was, well.....lacking. Terrain was sparse or not painted and the general feel of the game was...meh.

Conversely i would like to hope that gamers have at least at some stage played a game on terrain that was sooooo good and realistic that it just drew you into the fiction you were playing there right on the table. This is the reason i so adamantly believe that terrain is one of the most important parts of a 30k game (any minis game really) for those who are hobby enthusiasts. Not so much for those who play WAAC or the tournament scene as they play predominately strategy and not so much tactics and tactics can be driven very heavily by terrain.

So before this devolves into a rant....let me tell you why i think good terrain is so important.

Ancients of the Legions: Dreadnoughts in 30k

Dreadnoughts in the Legions

Pretty much every 30k (and 40k) gamer loves the story, look and effectiveness of marine dreadnoughts on the the table. These machines boast an exceptional stat line and can pack a vast array of potent weaponry making them a potential game changer when used in the right way. I'm going to give my views and experiences on some of the best ways to utilise and deploy your dreadnoughts in 30k

Leviathan Siege Dreadnought Analysis

The Leviathan Siege Dreadnought. It's new. It looks cool. But is it worthit? Macca here, and today we take a look at the Leviathan, the newest Dreadnought from Forge World. Now, I will preface this article with the fact that 'worthit' is a subjective term. Rule of Cool always trumps in-game performance, and I do think this thing looks awesome, but we are going to look at this walker from a gaming perspective.

An Introduction To 30k For 40k Players: Part 2

In Part 1, we looked at how the Force Organisation Chart and force selection in general worked. Today, we are going to look at how to actually play the missions, because it isn't quite the same as 40k, and I'm going to explain why. There are some subtle differences, but mostly the confusion lies in how units score/are able to score, and I want to shed some light on this.

Deployment Types:

First off, I want to go in to deployment types. In the Horus Heresy, the missions have 6 different deployment types. Sometimes these are specifically stated in the mission, other times they are randomly rolled for. These deployments, measurements and such are all aimed at the 2500-3000 point per side game, and as such they use the 6x4 table and corresponding measurements.

An Example Mission:

This mission is from Book V: Tempest (Word Bearers vs Ultramarines at Calth). The points of note are as follows:

-The armies selected are to use the Battles in the age of Darkness rules and FOC's. This means that you cannot bring over bizarre rules from 40k, except where stated expressly.
-The deployment type is random in this mission, selected as per the previous six options listed above.
-The terrain is placed/
-The warlord traits and psychic abilities are rolled, then the players roll off to see who will deploy first (and take first turn).

However...

You want to understand the mission prior to deployment. This mission has several special rules, namely Night Fighting and Reserves (as per 40k) but also Heavy Armour (a Heresy special rule for this mission, which makes all vehicles with the Tank type, as well as Super-Heavy Vehicles and Walkers SCORING UNITS). Now the fact that the available scoring units most likely increased for both players will change how they play the mission.

As per 40k, there are Secondary Objectives, however, these are specifically listed in the mission, in this case, Slay the Warlord and Last Man Standing. This means there is no Linebreaker, no First Blood etc. in this mission.

From here, the mission is set up and played out as per the objectives for the mission. From this point on, it will play out identically to 40k.

Notes On 40K Missions In 30k:

In 30k, only Troops and units specifically listed as scoring, are actually scoring. The Obj. secured rule only applies to these units, not to their transports, or any other units. This limits the amount of scoring, and can make some missions incredibly more difficult than for a similar 40k army. For example, a Maelstrom of War mission will severely handicap the average Heresy force, with most only averaging 3-4 scoring units below 2000 points.

As for the missions themselves, I personally prefer to ignore them in favour of the 30k missions, as they are more interesting and are designed to link together in order to form a larger narrative (for example, you can literally play from the start of the Istvaan V massacre all the way through to a skirmish level game involving the surviving loyalists tackling the traitors and all the way into the Last Stand of the Raven Guard before their rescue, needing around 18 missions to play out in full!).

Conclusion:

Although not a lengthy article, I felt it was important to demonstrate to the community how 30k deviates from 40k, and where the two systems can potentially clash. This isn't designed to demonise 40k, just to let people know the perils of cross-system gameplay. At the end of the day, play what you like, in fact, I would house-rule it so that 40k units had to score the same as a 30k army, in order to balance it out a little, but that's just me...

~Macca

An Introduction To 30k For 40k Players

G'day guys, Macca here and today we are taking a look at the key differences between 30k and 40k from a basic list construction and regulation stand point. The Horus Heresy seems to scare people away, as well as making T.O's everywhere question the right of HH to be played in their tournaments or in their Friendly Local Gaming Store (FLGS). I want to sway you over today and assure you that the Horus Heresy is indeed a well balanced game and is easy to grasp, despite the subtle differences to the parent game.

Alpha Legion Rite of War: The Coils of the Hydra

G'day guys, Macca here and today I am bringing you a look at the most complex and difficult to use Legion and Rite of War so far: The Alpha Legion and the Coils of the Hydra. The Alpha Legion is one of the few forces that aren't just a 'pick up and play' army. They require a deft touch and a sly general to get the most out of them... just like the real deal.

The Alpha Legion lacks a lot of the style that other Legions do. There are no specialist melee units, no Palantine Blades, no Gal Vorback and no Suzerin. The units they have are in fact an unorthodox combination of Recon Squads meet Veteran Tacticals on one hand, and Terminators meet Tactical Support Squads. Their units are nothing special, and in a one vs one fight they won't hold out for long, but...

Death Guard

Greetings greetings, yes the resident Dice Wizard Brado here to have a small chat about the Death Guard legion.  Going to dabble into the Special Rules they get as a legion, their Rite of War and also the special units.

Iron Warriors Rite of War: Hammer of Olympia

Macca here, and today I want to talk about the Iron Warriors and their Rite of War, The Hammer of Olympia. I will preface this by saying that this is one of the BEST Rites of War, as the negatives are almost all positives.

So, where do I begin?

Legion Special Rules

• The Bitter End: Your opponent (not you) may force full 6 game turns rather than rolling for random length. Just like the Imperial Fists.
• Wrack and Ruin: Iron Warriors do not suffer morale tests from shooting attacks and may re-roll failed Pinning tests. All grenades and melta bombs gain Wrecker.

These rules are HUGE. The ability to ignore morale from shooting casualties and re-roll pinning makes the Iron Warriors formidable at holding objectives. Nothing short of their annihilation will move them off an objective. At Inferno III, one tactical squad suffered the sustained firepower of half a mechanicum force and endured for 3 turns on top of an objective in cover, scoring me precious Victory Points.

Legion Unique HQ

Warsmith: A free Praetor upgrade that forces him to be the Warlord if Perturabo isn't around and gives an extra VP if slain. In exchange, it gains Stubborn and gives up a Warlord trait for Shatter Defenses (lower a chosen terrain piece's cover save by 1). Can't use a Jump pack, Bike or Jetbike, but can be upgraded with Battlesmith + Servo-arm combo for 35 points.

Rite of War: The Hammer of Olympia - Masters of siege warfare and attrition tactics, the Iron Warriors favour the use of murderous firepower as their principal agency of war, and are renowned for their use of heavy armour and fortifications, spurning vainglorious ideals of personal combat and valour for the brutal determiation to achieve victory by any means necessary. this culminated in tactical formations such as that which became known as the Hammer of Olympia; designed to carry out an unyielding close range attack and shatter the strongest enemy defence line under a weight of armoured warriors and hurricane of fire.

• Hail Of Fire: After firing a Rapid Fire weapon, a unit with the Legiones Astartes (Iron Warriors) rule may declare an assault as long as they haven't used Fury of the Legion, counting as a Disorganized Charge. I love this tactic, you can shoot a unit, hitting them on 3's and wounding (generally) on 4+ whilst if you charged, you would only get 4's to hit. Also, 2 bolter shots is better than 1 bonus charging attack, and if you can wear your enemy down before charging them, you'll do better in the long run (especially against Raptors or Reavers who gain bonuses for outnumbering in assault). Bonus points if you rapid fire plasma guns from a tactical support squad and then charge...
• Sheathed in Steel: All Tanks and Walkers gain Extra Armor for free. Not only does this save points, but since some walkers can't take extra armour, it's even better. The best thing here is that you're getting an upgrade which is normally seen as "a good choice but maybe a waste of points", but since it's free it's excellent.
• Siege Engineers: Can take an additional Heavy Support choice, which is freaking fantastic. Seriously, 4 heavy support options? In a big game, that's a Basilisk/Medusa Squadron, a Deredeo and a pair of Sicarians, just waiting to fire ALL THE DAKKA.
  
  Restrictions:
  
• A Warsmith or Siege Breaker must be used as compulsory HQ choice - A Warsmith is awesome if the enemy is taking fortifications, and the option of a cortex controller opens up Castellax, Thallax, Vorax etc. as an optional Heavy Support option. Yes, you want to have a unit of darkfire cannon armed Castellax manning your Aegis line. Also, a Warsmith shattering enemy defences is always desireable.
  The Siege Breaker is a great option as he allows your Medusa Squadron to take phosphex shells, and he grants Wrecker and Tank Hunter to the ranged attacks of any unit he joins. I suggest attaching him to Siege Tyrants.
• Must take more Heavy Support units than Fast Attack units. As they say on 1D4Chan: "If you think this is a penalty then you shouldn't be playing Iron Warriors. Also, doesn't matter since you get 4 heavy slots. If you wanted lots of flyers remember Caestii, Fire Raptors and Kharybdii are HS too. If you took a normal Praetor, mount him in a jetbike along his Command squad (who use 0 slots), take Shrapnel Bolts and go make up for the lost Fast Attack choice."
• Must take an additional compulsory Troops choice. If you have Erasmus Golg in your force, this could be a Terminator squad, freeing up precious elite slots for more Siege Tyrants, Rapiers and Contemptors.
• Cannot take an allied SPACE MARINE LEGION detachment. Meh. You don't need them, worst case, take some Mechanicum allies, and laugh because you have cortex controllers, a Praevian and your army is now more machine than man, twisted and evil.

 

Macca's evil ideas:

So, you know you want to take an army big on firepower. Naturally, since you lack in melee, (except against buildings, seriously, melta bombs with wrecker is PLUS THREE to damage against fortifications!) you want to exploit your superior firepower to Tau like levels. I suggest using a unit of Siege Tyrants with a Siege Breaker attached, for maximum effectiveness, and two units of rapiers; one with graviton cannons and one with heavy bolters running shrapnel bolts. the idea here is simple, Grav Rapiers will screw any vehicle, and the leftover difficult/dangerous patch will bog down heavy infantry (especially Cataphractii type units who cannot run), the Tyrants will mince anything weaker than a Knight Titan, and the Heavy Bolters will fire 24 twin-linked S5 AP5 shots per turn with PINNING. You're a fool if you don't use that in an era with little pinning defence. (not good against Mechanicum or Death Guard, but, meh, chose your battles my young grasshopper, that's why you have Tyrants and 4 heavy choices...)

Which brings me to my next point... Heavy Support. I have suggestions, and they are:

-Predator Squadron with plasma exterminators, for killing heavy infantry,
-Sicarian Battle Tanks, for modest anti-air and excellent anti-skimmer and light armour destruction,
-Sicarian Venators, for when you really REALLY want to kill enemy armour (do note, don't use lascannon sponsons, since the main gun is ordnance, you're better off taking heavy bolters, which instead of two snap-fire lascannons will give you 3 separate heavy bolters if enemy infantry are too close. Bonus points for selecting Shrapnel Bolts for pinning),
-Deredeo, because there is NOTHING better for Anti-Air. (In a pinch, take one with an Atomantic Pavise and stick him with your Siege Tyrants giving them a 2+3++ invul save. Sure, you lose the missiles, which do wreck Rhinos and Fliers, but 2+3++ Tyrants is just pure evil);
-Legion Basilisk/Medusa Squadron. You only get one, so choose wisely.

I hear the voices in my head, "kill them all.."
Uh, no, not those voices, these ones: "Why no spartans for rushing Golg and Terminators up the table?"

Well, because our terminators aren't as strong as enemy terminators in many cases, and due to all the points you have spent on Heavy slots already, you won't be sending much up the battlefield. Instead, I suggest focusing on using your excellent firepower to get the job done. As for actually sending units up the table, Tactical Squads in Rhinos (with their free extra armour) are a great choice, and if the Primarch Perturabo is in the army, you can deep strike terminators anyway, and if your game is big enough, you can take the Tormentor, and you can add all that firepower plus the transport ability to the force.

Fortifications:

If you are taking Kyr Vhalen, you will WANT to take fortifications (he is also a Warsmith, so automatically fulfills two criteria for the Rite of War, as a Master of the Legion and a Warsmith). Kyr will give +1 ballistic skill to a unit of your choice and/or give you +1 to your cover save for one fortification. I suggest a Bastion, Bunker, Aegis Defence Line, or if you're a true bastard, a Plasma Obliterator or Void Shield array.

Really, fortifications are quite optional, but an Aegis line with +1 cover save in front of all your armour is going to make people weep, especially when they realise that they need to kill whole units off for them to no longer threaten objectives. Gotta love that 'no morale against shooting'.

In summary, this is how to use the Rite of War: BUCKETS OF BULLETS!!!

If you want more information on the Iron Warriors in general, check out the episode I guest appeared on of the Eye of Horus Podcast here.

~Macca

Imperial Fists Tactics Rite of War: Stone Gauntlet

Hey guys, Spraggy here to talk about the ins and outs of the Stone Gauntlet Rite of War for the imperial fists. The VIIth legion is reknown for its skill at assaulting, and defending static positions in a variety of different theaters. The Stone Gauntlet rite of war certainly provides a rules set that brings this trait of the Imperial Fists to light on the table.

Rite of War Special Rules:

Effects

• Warder squads may be taken as troops
• Resolve of Stone: Essentially any marine model with the Imperial Fists Astartes rule that is equipped with a boarding shield or Storm shield and within a squad of at least 3 similarly equipped models gains +1T so long as they do not run charge or perform a sweeping advance in that current player turn. (that means you can perform a sweeping advance in your opponents turn and still be good!! you can also run in your turn and then form up with your +1T in your opponents turn)
• Shield Charge: Essentially any marine model with the Imperial Fists Astartes rule that is equipped with a boarding shield or Storm shield and within a squad of at least 3 similarly equipped models gains the Hammer of Wrath special rule. (this isn't so much of a good thing and will only come handy if you need to charge on that last turn to get onto an objective)

Limitations:

• Compulsory troops must be breacher squads....Duh
• No deep strike whatsoever
• You may not take more Elites and Fast Attack choices combined than you have Troops choices. That means if you take 2 troops choices that means 2 elites/fast total. (In 2000 points i usually run 2 breachers squads and a support squad. Means 3 elites as i typically don't use much fast attack)
• With the exception of legion champions, you may only take a single Consul for your HQ selections

Macca on Tactica: Characters and Challenges 101

Hello, and welcome to the first true Macca on Tactica in a little while. Today I wanted to take the time to look at the assault phase in 30k, specifically where our Legion Praetors and the like, as well as where a few special characters fit in. This is a cut-down and basic look at the HQ's a rock-paper-scissors look at what each is best used for.

Auxillia/Militia, Archmagos, Praetors & Centurions

There are a LOT of HQ options in the Horus Heresy, but a few really stick out. Lets look at them now.

For the Solar Auxillia, your HQ's are really more of an arm-wide buffing unit. You cannot expect to go toe-to-toe with an Astartes, unless you are willing to pay through the teeth for the wargear. Whilst it is possible to equip a Paragon Blade, Artificer Armour and a 3++ invul save, it's still not in your best interests to fight this fight, especially against the more martial of Legions.

With the Imperial Militia, your commander fights like a sponge, but unlike a sponge, he won't absorb much. It's probably best to stay away from combat with this guy and to instead drown your enemies in the corpses of your own men. Yes, this even applies to a cultist HQ with a tainted weapon, yes, you'll kill on a 6 to wound, but you'll probably be turned to a smear or pink mist long before this happens.

Ah, the Mechanicum Archmagos. Now here is a fish out of water. The Archmagos is a force multiplier like the previous HQ's, however, he is also quite a tough combatant, with good armour, higher than average toughness, and access to excellent wargear. Whilst unlikely to be instantly killed in a combat, save to a deadly strike of some kind, I wouldn't feel confident pitting this guy against anything more solid than a Legion Centurion, even with Liquifiers or other crazy weapons.

Legion Praetors. These guys are badass. Paragon Blade, Digital Lasers, maybe even a relic from their Legion, the Praetor fears nothing less than a Special Character or a Lord of War, AND even then, a well equipped Praetor can give a special character a run for their money. If you are using these guys, feel confident when throwing them into most enemies, as you are more than likely to win.

Legion Centurions. Ok, a stock Centurion is no good for challenges, so if that's the route you want to take, go for the Champion Consul option, Forge Lord with Servo Arm, Cataphractii plate, Rad Grenades and a Cyber Familiar (for sheer badassery) or, a Librarian Consul (force axe being a must-take). Pretty much any other kind of Centurion is simply too brittle to be trusted in challenges against most enemies. As a rule of thumb, use your Consuls to buff your troops or even a better HQ, a well placed Primus Medicae can buff a Praetor into the stratosphere with Feel No Pain.

Special Characters.

If you see any of these guys set up opposite you, and you have nothing better than a Centurion, AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS. Seriously, they will light a fire under your ass so fast, it's not funny. These characters are strong, but many only get stronger in challenges. Especially Sigismund. Seriously, even if you have a Primarch, avoid Sigismund, he will actually cause a lot of damage to the weaker Primarchs, with Kurze, Corax, Lorgar (minus powers), Dorn and Alpharius all likely to win but only walk away with a wound or two left.

Kharn is a human hand grenade, if he is thrown into a unit which outnumbers him, he can get up to 9 attacks. On his own. He is a one-man army, and he will wreck most units he touches. Bonus points if you can tell me what the fuck happened to his Artificer armour and Iron Halo in 40k.

Sevetar, on the other hand, is a surprisingly weak fighter, who ONLY excels once he is in a challenge and fighting dirty. In a regular assault, his chainglaive is not as strong as many weapons, and any clown with a power fist will end him. Keep the Master of the Atramentar away from Terminators at all costs.

Eidolon is a funny character. He is quite strong on the assault with his Thunder Hammer, however, if he isn't on the assault, you won't be striking with his superior initiative, and just like with Sevetar, any clown with a Power Fist will end him. Bonus Points here if you can tell me how Skrillex's cloak isn't burned by his jump pack.

Abaddon. Powerful, but overall, not much stronger than a Centurion. Best used as a buffing unit. I thought it would be interesting to note that the most powerful character in 40k is really a mid-level special character in 30k.

Primarchs.

I will say it once, and once alone. Primarchs will kill anything less than a Primarch. They won't however kill Primarchs, at least not without half a dozen player turns elapsing. If you play a game of 30k, and you and your adversary send your Primarchs into each other at a hundred miles an hour, you've effectively removed both Primarchs from contributing to the game.

Primarchs are best used for two roles: to either buff their army into the stratosphere (Dorn, Alpharius, Guilliman), or to kill enemy heroes and Death Star units, especially if said Primarch is named Angron.

Conclusion.

In the end, everyone will use their characters however they feel, but it is good to know that you have limitations. None of the characters listed should be thrown into Terminators of any kind, nor should they be thrown into specialist units like Templars, Invictus etc. because you'll likely lose 150-200 points of character for probably 70-100 points of slain enemies (which is bad on any planet).

Try to keep your characters set on the path they were designed for, buff your army if that's your job, hunt weaker heroes if that's your job. But don't try and take on Sigismund. EVER.

~Macca

Getting To Know Your Graviton

Macca here, and today we are talking tactics. I recently took a battery of 3 graviton rapiers to the 2500 point Inferno III tournament. I was rolling a solid 6/10 list, as follows:

HQ
Siegebreaker
Praevian Narik Dreygur with 5 Vorax

Elite
10 Siege Tyrants
2 Contemptors with chainfist and graviton guns
3 Graviton Rapier Batteries

Troop
2x 10 man tactical squads

Heavy
Deredeo
5 Iron Havocs with Autocannons and an Augery Scanner

The list is on foot. It's slow. It has no real close combat muscle. It has no meltaguns, no plasmaguns, not a single fast attack unit. Yet for game after game the list held its own. Why?

Gravitons. (ok, and siege tyrants, but the tyrants rarely got their points back, the rapiers however killed 2 Sicarians, a Cerberus with Castraman Orth and a Spartan in one game alone.)

The trick with Graviton Rapiers is to place them in a position where they can dominate the enemy in the first 2-3 turns. The units you want to take out are their armoured assets, and damn are these good at that. I also had Gravitons on the dreadnoughts, but they are more situational, so I will be focussing on the rapiers.

The Graviton Rapier mounts a Graviton Cannon, a 36" ranged, S- AP4 Large Blast. It is haywire, always wounds a target if they fail their toughness test. Sound a bit boring? Well, it leaves an area of difficult AND dangerous terrain in play in the turn after it has fired, and this is the gold dust.

When fired at a group of tanks, it tends to scatter. Poor Nate had a carpark with 2 Sicarians and a Predator in our game in a single confined area, and the rapiers, with scatter, managed to kill both Sicarians and to punish the Predator. This is the average performance of these fearsome weapons. The best part is, if a vehicle does survive, it has to make a dangerous terrain move next turn, potentially damaging it, and this is fantastic for killing transports.

I can hear you all now, "what about flare shielded Spartans rolling a squad of Red Butchers and Angron?"

What about them? Flare shields don't affect haywire, the Spartan still has to go through the terrain patch left after firing and generally they never survive more than 2 salvos from the Gravitons, if they are lucky. What do you do however once the squad disembarks? You have no armour left to kill, and AP4 toughness test graviton won't kill terminators?

Why, little Billy, you shoot them anyway. Make their slow Cataphractii 'cannot run' asses wade through difficult terrain for 3 turns to get to you. Angron leaves the unit and runs at you solo? Even better, you can focus on just him now.

That's how you use graviton. You use it strategically.

Got trouble with the Mechanicum? Well, if they are rolling constructs, the haywire attacks cause a subsequent wound on any cortex units on a roll of a 6. It's not much, but it's a potential extra wound. You fighting Imperial Militia? Who cares, Large blast, AP 4, going to wound on 4's and leave them in dangerous terrain, what's not to love?

Against Superheavies like knights, these guns also rock. The poor player I faced in round 1 copped 3 of these and had to divert his shield to that arc. As soon as he did that, he had now opened up the other 3 arcs on the knight to my remaining firepower (which was quite considerable). When Nate took a run at these guys with his Castraman Orth pimped Cerberus Super Heavy, he found that even the Neutron laser and Lascannons combined were having trouble killing these Toughness 7 platforms in cover. Two turns was all it took for these guns to turn the pride of his army into a massive explosion. 

In summary: WHY AREN'T YOU USING GRAVITON RAPIERS? YOU ARE HERE TO TALK HOBBY AND WIN GAMES, AND RIGHT NOW YOU ARE DONE TALKING HOBBY!

Seriously, if you're Iron Hands, you're immune to bolter fire. If you're Alpha Legion... who the hell knows what you can do, something shadey that's for sure. If you're rocking these things, you can do a LOT of damage. Even if you don't take them with Grav, take them with Heavy Bolters for insane Imperial Fists accuracy, or Iron Warriors with a crapton of pinning. (Seriously tho, take grav)

~Macca

Knowing Your Rites of War.

I wrote a couple of articles a while back, on the actual units you may consider taking in a Horus Heresy list. The first two-parts can be found here:

Part 1.

Part 2.

Ok, so onto the crux of it, Rites of War. As most HH gamers should know, you should never let the Force Org Chart get in the way of a good, fun list. Rites of War are there to spice it up a little, they allow you to change how your army implements the FoC, as well as giving (and taking) rules from you. There are 4 main Rites of War listed in the HH book. These are unlocked by taking a Master of the Legion, typically a Praetor, Primarch (obviously) or some special characters.

Basic Rites of War:

Orbital Assault: This RoW basically lets you take drop pods and dreadclaws as dedicated transports instead of rhinos. The down side is, any unit that can't deep strike, or ride in a vehicle that can, can't be taken. Also, no fortification for you.

Armoured Spearhead: Rhinos become Land Raiders (for the right points..), if you tank-shock an enemy, their Ld is at -1. All infantry must be embarked on a vehicle at the start of the game. If you buy 12 marines and only brought them a rhino, I have bad news for you. If all tanks in your force are destroyed, your opponent gets a free VP. Oh, and no fortifications. Again.

Angels Wrath: All jump pack models gain hit and run. Rhinos now become Storm Eagles. Only jump units, fliers, skimmers and vehicles embarked on fliers may be taken. Oh, and a trivial side matter... no tanks at all, and no fortifications. Again.

Pride of the Legion: Veteran Marines and Terminators are troops choices, not only that, they MUST be selected to fill your compulsory troops slots. Command squads can take Land Raiders as dedicated Transports. Of course, the ever wonderful down side is if you lose all your veterans and terminators, your opponent gets an extra VP. You also can't take allies. Period.

As said in the past, RoW give you buffs, but they also take away options that can be quite hard. That's the penalty for fluff, and it's a fair one too.

Legion Specific Rites of War:

Here is where it gets interesting. I am not going to go into any great detail here, as they are varied, some haven't come out yet (we do only have 13 legions of 18 at the moment after all). The main thing to keep in mind when it comes to Rites of War for your specific Legion is that it's forcing you to play in a specific way.

The first example I will use in detail is my very own and beloved Raven Guard.

The long short of the Raven Guard Rite of War "Decapitation Strike" is that:

-all the models with the Legiones Astartes (Raven Guard) special rule get preferred enemies 'independent characters'.
-If this force is my Primary detachment, I may reroll for deployment and to see who goes first.
-Drop pods become dedicated transports for all the main foot-slogging units, i.e Tac Squads, Terminators etc. Deathstorm Drop Pods may also be taken as Elites, not just heavy. This probably has something to do with the limitations..

-You may only take a single Heavy Support choice.
-You may only take a single Consul as part of your HQ choice.
No Fortifications or allied Space Marines allowed. (but Mechanicum, Knights, Imperial Army etc. are A-OK)

So, what does this mean game play wise?

As you are limited in the HQ department, thanks to your single consul, and since you need a Master of the Legion to even run the Rite of War, my choice goes to Alvarex Maun. With the ability to have no-scatter deep strike and re-rolls for reserves in a force specialising in Drop Pod assaults, he comes in very handy.

Force wise, you are aiming to go for a lot of drop-pods, fliers etc. These can negate the loss of your heavy support elements by bolstering your firepower with their aerial prowess (Storm Eagles with melta/las are awesome for anti-armour whilst you machine spirit fire your missiles into infantry blobs). The key with Decap. Strike is to use it to take on characters and gain the bonuses of killing the enemy HQ. Against Mechanicum and Solar Auxillia armies, the loss of their general can be devastating, and I highly advise using a squad or two of dedicated character killers to 'off' them. A suggestion in this area might be to use Mor Dethyan snipers, and declare the marked target, for a turn of 2's to hit, 5's to REND preferred enemy sniping....

Characters and Rites.

Certain characters can have a massive influence on your Rites of War. Some restrict them, others can practically make the Rites of War redundant or allow you to essentially take two. Erasmus Golg of the Iron Warriors, for example, opens up Terminators as troops, making Pride of the Legion slightly pointless. Perturabo gives all of your Terminators deep strike without needing to take Orbital Assault as a Rite of War. It's good to know where these rules can stack, and combine. Michael from over at the Eye of Horus podcast uses the Stone Gauntlet Rite of War, which allows him to field toughness 5 breachers. Suddenly they are worthit, as opposed to being a 100 point more expensive and less effective tactical squad. By combining un-named characters into these units, he ends up with a list stronger than the sum of its parts. Keep this in the back of your mind.

Alternate Force Organisation Charts and Rites

So, you like the idea of running a Pride of the Legion force combined with an Alternate Force Org. Chart? Guess what? You cannot. Pride of the Legion only applies to lists built using the standard Force Org. Chart. I'm not going to tell you where it is written, but my challenge to you is to find it out for yourself, that way when somebody rocks up with a POTL list with 4 heavy choices you can shoot em' down.

Final Thoughts

Having a Rite of War is a great thing, it allows you a lot of options and gives you the ability to run really fluffy (and even competitive fluffy) lists, without having to proxy or make awful allied detachments. I recommend you play around with them and see what you can come up with, because there are some fantastic options.

All the photos in this post are from Inferno III, the full album is located on our Facebook page here.

~Macca

Macca's New Table + General Terrain Thoughts

G'day folks, Macca here and today I'm going to talk about my new table, as well as some of my opinions on table setup. First up, the whole table is a Games Workshop Sector Imperialis, with almost entirely GW terrain (the fuel dump is from Forge World's Anphelion Base, and the crane is a scratch build of mine).

When designing this table, I had two key considerations:
-near symmetry
-unique buildings

The idea with a good table is that the sides should be pretty balanced. There's nothing worse than what I call 'Omaha Beach' tables, where one poor sod gets placed in an open field and the other guy deploys inside a fortress. Yes, by the way, I have seen it first hand at a tournament, a marine player was set up in open ground whilst a guard player had 3(!) fortresses of redemption to set up in, needless to say, that was a bit f%&ked.

So, that in mind, each side has 3 main buildings, a pair of craters, a pair of shared central buildings designed to block LOS so that total dakka forces can't just have their way (there are plenty of open areas, but you have to work for them, you can't just rock up and play like the Tau). I also added some unique buildings.

Unique buildings? Well, the idea here is that if I want to add a little extra depth to my games, such as a narrative campaign, these buildings can have special rules and/or be objectives in their own right. I have:
-Water Plant  (a single unit inside here gains FnP 6+, does not apply to MC's)
-Chemical Plant (one infantry or MC unit occupying these ruins counts as having shroud bombs and rad grenades)
-Fuel Dump  (chance to ignite when a unit occupying the dump or using it as cover is shot by a weapon S7 or over, or a weapon with the flamer rule type, on a roll of a 5+. A large blast S4 AP4 is placed anywhere on the dump by the player who ignited the dump)
-Power Plant (add the twin-linked rule to heavy-type las or lance weapons on infantry or MC units if they hold the building uncontested)
-Crane (grants line of sight to the entire map if held for the purposes of barrage weaponry line of sight)

These buildings have some crazy rules, so you can exploit them if you like, and it makes them worth capturing if you can, as much like a real battle, they represent some great objectives. A unit of Castellax with Darkfire Lances holding the power plant? DEATH. Anyway, you don't have to use any of my rules, you can instead use the Book I and IV cityfighting rules and ruins charts.

 STREET SIDE 1

This side of the street houses two of the unique buildings, the Water Plant, as well as the Crane. Two regular buildings, a large broken aquilla and a pair of craters. The power plant is shared between the two sides, as is the large central ruins.

 STREET SIDE 2

On this side of the street, the second half of the power plant is in place, as well as the Fuel Dump and Chemical plant. Two regular buildings, a large marine statue and the last pair of quake craters finish this side.

Here is the crane and fuel dump, as well as a good overview of the large (and very symmetrical)  central building.  The water plant is directly behind the crane as shown.

At this end, the board is relatively open for line of sight, that said however, it also has numerous objects which can be used as cover. (Not including my dice and templates of course.)

The central ruin straddles these twin aquillas. Good ol' Games Workshop, can only make something grimdark with skulls or eagles.

Speaking of which.... SKULLS FOR THE SKULL GOD. I uh, I mean, uh...

I chose to use dull brasses to create the reliefs, using some Thallax Gold from Forge World and some Copper from Minitaire, with several washes of the GW technical paint Nihilakha Oxide. I have a bunch of old bronze and brass floating around here thanks to work (no I'm not stealing it, I recondition it for those wondering) so I was able to do a fairly true-to-life weathering effect.

The quake craters are a very simple scheme, simply designed to suit the board. They are very subdued, and I tried to use as little colour as possible. Every manhole (personhole to any politically correct douche bags) cover is painted in a soft bronze, and heavily tarnished (these things do sit in the street corroding for years and years).

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the table, as well as my crazy ideas for it,

~Macca

Narrative Armies: Macca On Tactica

G'day folks, I'm here today with a little bit of a wordy article. I thought it would be nice to take the opportunity to discuss your phone and internet plan and how we can best optomi-

Wait. That's not this page.

Ok, so if you're here, the title interested you in some way, my opening line made you roll your eyes, yet somehow you have stayed for this long. The point today is about army structure, and how people select their forces. Several times now, we here at the blog have given advice about how to make a strong list, or how to best utilize a specific unit. Today is all about how to reconcile your chosen force with things like units, and specialisations such as Rites of War.



Selecting your force:

When you initially selected your force, something about that force appealed to you. Maybe you picked World Eaters because you have been brainwashed into how cool they are by ADB, and that's cool, that's a valid reason, I would never speak ill of the man, he writes great Heresy fluff. Maybe you're a blue-vein eating dairy powered cheese monger who wants to win every game, make kids cry and grown nerds rage, so you picked Solar Auxillia (or potentially you're THAT GUY and you keep bringing Eldar along and suggesting people play them in 30k). Maybe you just like the colour scheme of a certain army. In any case, these are all valid reasons, in my humble opinion.

At the end of the day, you have to pick something you like, and if you're not enjoying it, maybe try something different. I know quite a few guys who enjoy 30k, love the hobby, but after getting into a force, they drop it after a few tanks and infantry units and move on to something that better suits them. If you ask me, that's a very rational approach, if you can afford it.

Problem is, what comes next?



What units? What Rite of War?

This is often the first slipping point. In several articles, we have discussed the tactics that might lead you to select something, but for me, I have a few little things going on in my head, they are subjective thoughts, and by no means are they universal to any players;

-Will it be fun to use?

This is the first thing I think of, will not just me, but my opponent enjoy playing the game? I ended up at a tournament facing off against my great mate Deano a couple of years back, my Raven Guard 40k army full of storm eagles, whirlwinds and template weapons went up against an ork foot-horde with only a pair of Dakka Jets and some Kans to stop me. Long short of it was, it wasn't fun. That's something I have actively tried to avoid ever since, now I never load up on a prevalence of one weapon or unit type. (Fun fact, mid-game the power cut out in the facility. The Raven Guard vanished from the table, but the orks glowed in the dark...)

-Will the units I take represent my army the way I think it should?

When I brought Raven Guard, I didn't buy tanks. I didn't buy bulk terminators. I brought lots of tactical marines, jump infantry/jetbikes, I brought a pair of Storm Eagles first order. I brought these units because to me, that was Raven Guard. That said, to another player, they might want to take bulk terminators, reasoning that there was a cadre within the Raven Guard dedicated to doing terminator stuff. You know what? We're both right. Pick the army that suits your ideas for the force.

-Will it be competitive?

If you take a Rite of War, and select units designed for use with that Rite of War, AND your army gives buffs to those units, then you're probably going to be competitive. Not always, but in most cases. In any case, this is one of the lesser worries of mine when selecting a force, I just pick a unit, like a devestator squad for my Iron Warriors, and I know that since they don't take moral tests from shooting, they are going to be a reliable fire support option in ranged combat. I don't need to look any further into it then that, the only exception being when I want to plug the missing gaps in my army, such as a lack of AP2, or a lack of anti-tank, but even then, I apply rules 1 and 2 above to my selection.

-What is the aim of my gaming with this force?

If you're a hardcore tournament player, list tailoring will be a big factor for you. I haven't really seen a lot of it in 30k, but some people are running very nasty lists that just suck the fun out of the room like a black hole. This said, if you're a beer and pretzels gamer, hanging out in the garage and playing on a home made mdf board, you probably just want to throw together a list that just meets the points, and allow the shenanigans to happen. Either way, this is a consideration when you pick the force. If you want to go to a tournament and take a fun and fluffy army, that's fine, but I will throw a little astrix up: *If you are going to a non-comp tournament where people are knowingly running massed cheese, then you can't expect a win, nor can you expect some fun games. It's not to say you can't have fun, but rather that people take losing badly, and it is something to be aware of.

Some last thought

At the end of the day, you have to do what seems right to you. If you are a competitive player, play competitive, if you are a fluffy player, play fluffy. Sometimes you can do both. Sometimes you're Eldar. Sometimes you're Matt Ward and you can just write the fluff that suits you and GW will print your fan-dex. End of the day, this is a hobby, it's our escape from the boring day-to-day lives we lead, so it deserves to be fun, no matter how you get that fun.



This was a wordy article, I know, I'm sorry about that, but overall, I think I condensed it down to bearable levels. If you have any thoughts, or questions, or even if you'd like to point out everything wrong about me and how I ruin everything I touch, then please feel free to comment below. I love feedback and interaction, it's the only human attention I get.

~Macca

Macca on Tactica: Raven Guard

G'day, Macca here, and I want to share the good word of Corvus Corax with you. Today sees me talking about my 2nd ever Heresy passion project. You see, the Raven Guard was a Legion I chose for selfish reasons. In short, they were:
-I wanted to try a dark army (don't it sucks)
-I wanted a Legion that wasn't released yet, because people get on bandwagons (Eldar, cough, Tau, cough)
-I wanted a Legion that was less common, and so more interesting to look at.

Anyway, enough of that, here is the very quick nuts and bolts.

Raven Guard Special Rules

So, you decided you want a Raven Guard Horus Heresy force, and I must say, you made a good choice. The Raven Guard are amongst the best forces in 30k, even if they don't have the badass terminator units or close combat monsters of other armies. This is ok, because you don't play an army like Raven Guard and expect to punch Kharn or Sigismund in the face in combat, instead, you are going to strike hard and fast from the shadows. Very fluffy.

When selecting your army, you need to take into consideration two things: your Raven Guard specific rules and restrictions, and your Rite of War. Whilst most Rites of War are neat but not overly effective, the Raven Guard one is excellent.

Specific rules: Infantry (not terminators) gain fleet of foot and infiltrate. Jump Infantry and Bikes get Furious Assault. The down side of this is that you can't have more vehicles then you have units with the rule 'Legiones Astartes Raven Guard'. That's no real drama however, as your force works best around infantry.

Rite of War: Decapitation Strike. Preferred enemy independent characters (target a unit with a character and let the re-rolls begin), you get to re-roll to seize the initiative and to deploy, you can take drop pods as dedicated transports across the army, as well as Deathstorm pods becoming elites. The downer is that you only get 1 Consul, can't take allies or fortifications, and only get 1 heavy support choice. Which is fine, because you're limited on tank models anyway, so just take a Sicarian or Fire Raptor and watch your opponent get pissed off at your air superiority.

Playing With The Raven Guard

Ok, lets start at the top: Corax. When it comes to Primarchs, on the surface he looks a bit dull, lower weapon skill, worse armour, but when you look at his special rules, holy shit! Your whole army will get automatic 6" run moves, and acute senses. On top of that, the big man himself is actually a close combat beast, able to tear apart Angron and even put a dint in the Warmaster himself. All the regular toys for killing Primarchs don't work here, because guess what? You wanna shoot him? Cool, snap fire, BITCH. Yes, if he isn't the closest model in the Raven Guard to your firing unit, you may only take snap shots at him. That means you can't use your Felblades, Typhons, even a Vortex Missile, because none of them can snap shoot. Corax will 99% of the time make it into your lines, and when he does, it's bye bye. On that note, twin archaeotech pistols (making him essentially a jump-pack Moriat on top of being a badass), +1 strength and initiative on the charge, and 3 combat modes which you get to pick each turn, being an extra D3 attacks, -1 to hit penalty to every model striking at him, and all attacks by Corax of a 5+ always wound, regardless of toughness. Yes, he will wound Toughness 10 on a 5+. Deal with it.

What the fuck man, Alan Bligh injected him with freaking hero steroids!

As far as special characters go, it plays like this: Alvarex Maun, yes, Kaedus Nex, maybe against Mechanicum.

Alvarex is simple: run him as the warlord, get re-rolls on all reserves, and you gain no-scatter deep strikes within 18". You can also use him for line of sight for any barrage weapons fired by friendly units. Yes, that means Death Strike Missiles fired from the UK will get reduced scatter here in Australia. Deal with it.

Kaedus guns suck. His infiltrate within 6" is handy, but the fact his guns are s4 ap4, albeit with rending, means he can't reliably kill power armour. That said, I was trying to find a use and decided that he would (after I tested the theory) wipe a 6 man Thallax unit in one turn. How? Shoot and assault my friend.

The Darkwing Storm Eagle is costly, but blind and concussive missiles are handy, the nose gun only being a heavy bolter is fucking shit, so I just go to regular Storm Eagles.

Dark Fury Assault Squads are shit. Too expensive for what they do, which is kill power armour in CC. Guess what, in 30k, AP3 grows on trees, you can buy a Whirlwind Scorpius for cheaper then this unit AND it will do s8 ap3 at 48". (and you'll use Alverax for LOS. What, problem?)

When selecting your actual troops you need to take into account your special rules. Infiltrating devestators for example is a fine choice. Using infiltrate across a wide amount of your army can force your opponent to really defensively deploy, lest you get an alpha-strike off that ruins their entire game plan. (Cat has had me do this to him about 15 times now and it still gives me a chuckle to see him lose his shit, which is probably why I do it 90% of the time haha.)

Jump troops and bikes are good choices to go alongside the infantry in the Raven Guard. This is because they gain the furious charge bonus, plus, they are rapid support elements that can be alongside the infiltrated units in turn one. Further, if you play like me, it gives you deep strike options, and you can really have some fun with this.

So, What's The Play Style?

Hit hard and hit fast. Seriously. You will lack heavy armour and heavy infantry 90% of the time, so you have to kill your enemy heavy shit asap. Personally, I run Alvarex in nearly all of my lists, and that's because he is a force multiplier. By this, I mean he increases my whole army effectiveness. Reliable reserves thanks to his warlord trait, (re-roll reserve rolls) as well as his special jukebox which allows no-scatter deep strike.

The way it works is simple: I infiltrate him with a squad, such as recon marines, and hide him as best as possible. In turn 2, my moriat and destroyers will drop in, safely exactly where I want them, and then I open up the whoop ass. On top of that, I know my air support is almost certain to arrive and help back the push.

When using the infantry, you have no more killing power then any other legion, but you are faster, you can run around the battlefield all day long, moving to objectives, or watching a squad of World Eaters try and charge you but never making it. Your troops are a great speed bump for your enemies, allowing you to concentrate on killing what matters.

Special note: My FUCK YOU list to Mechanicum players in 1500 points is as follows: Moriat with plasma, 2x 10 destroyers with Rad missiles, Master of Signals, 2x tac squads, 1x dev squad. If you play it right, you can kill TWO castellax units a turn. How? Destroyers fire rad missiles, which will hit 2 maybe 3 castellax with each shot. You get 4 shots a turn. Each wound is on a 2. You also get to re-roll it. It's also ap3. If they take a wound, their toughness drops by the amount of wounds caused. IF you can hit two castellax from two slightly different directions, you can drop them to toughness 4 or 5 with some savvy shooting. Then, you riddle them with bolter fire from the tacticals, and if close enough, charge them with furious charge toting destroyers. The moriat and master of signals will deal with Thallax and Tech Thralls with ease, and the devs can deal with any armour.

In the end....

That's it, that's how they roll. Simple, sweet. You don't rely on plasma, melta and all that to do your killing, just good old fashioned bolter fire, speed of manoeuvre, and destroyers coming out of every orifice. But that's fluffy, and the Raven Guard are a great example of a fun fluffy force that is also very competitive.

That's all from me, if you have Raven Guard, or have played against them, let me know what you think, Macca

Raven Guard vs Alpha Legion 30k battle report

G'day, Macca here with a quick battle report between the Alpha Legion and Raven Guard. This is an over 2000 point game, and was incredibly fun and funny. Be warned, it's a long one because it's full of pics. So, lets get on with is shall we?

The Forces:

 The Alpha Legion force is a veteran one, with a Praetor, Exodus, 3 squads of veterans in rhinos with havok launchers, a Legion Recon Squad in carapace, a Land Speeder squadron with havoks and multi-meltas, a Sicarian and a Sicarian Venator. To cap off the force, an Imperial Knight Paladin took to the field.

The Raven Guard force is a high-speed army. The force contained Strike Captain Alvarex Maun, a Praetor with jump pack and lighting claws backed by a command squad, Apothecary, a Tactical Squad, a Tactical Support Squad with Volkites in a drop pod, a Breacher squad with two graviton guns, a full Legion Destroyer squad with Rad missile launchers, a jetbike squad, lascannon devestator squad and a pair of Storm Eagles. Of course, an Errant Knight backs the powerful force.

The deployment was simple, the mission played was Legendary Mission: Deliverance from Book III. The mission revolves around the Raven Guard extraction from Istvaan V. The special rules involved victory points for killing named characters, bonus points for killing units in close combat, and killing primarchs. This rule was modified for Imperial Knights. For the traitors, any unit wiped out immediately goes into ongoing reserves! Yes, that's right, infinite traitors, or in this case, closet loyalists. From turn two, the Raven Guard roll a D6. on a roll equal to the turn number or less, the random length begins, and the opponent makes a secret D3 dice roll. This determines the remaining game turns, and keeps the loyalist on edge.

Cat deployed conservatively, with the Alpha Legion grouped together in case of my infiltrating shenanigans (Raven Guard lolz). For the Raven Guard, I chose to infiltrate very little, namely the breachers with Alvarex Maun. Keeping in mind my stealth rule on all my foot troops, I tried to use the large areas of cover to block line of sight where possible.

Turn 1:

The closet loyalist force moved forward, the sicarians providing a wall of mobile cover with their tough av13 hulls. Cat quickly used Exodus (the Alpha Legion special sniper) to wipe most of my lascannons (3 failed saves on 7 sniper shots ><) followed by firing the Rapid Fire Battle Cannon from his knight into my jetbikes. To add to the pain, the Sicarian Venator pummled the Errant Knight, half killing it with the first shot!

The Raven Guard response was simple, strike hard, rinse and repeat. I dropped my drop pod using it to block the armour from clear shots at my tac support squad, who opened up with thousands of volkite shots. When the smoke had cleared, Exodus was down two wounds and pissed off. My knight moved into the center, and working with the graviton guns of the breachers managed to kill a rhino and strip some hull points as well as shake the sicarians.

Turn 2:
Carnage. The Alpha Legion moved up, with the marines piling out of their rhinos and devestating the volkite squad. The knight then charged into Alvarex's squad, killing most of them, whilst the rest of the army moved for vantage points.

Conversely, the Raven Guard reinforcements arrived. Two storm eagles, the destroyers and the praetor and command squad came in. Thanks to Alvarex's special rules, I do not scatter deep strikers within 18" AND get to reroll failed reserves. The destroyers and Command squad landed bang on, and combined with the storm eagles managed to devastate armour and infantry alike. To finish my turn, the Errant Knight charged, and thanks to some very lucky rolls, saved Alvarex and co. from eing squashed as well as getting me a well needed VP.

As the turn ended, the Raven Guard were strong, however, with infinite reserves of manpower, the Alpha Legion would be no push over.

Turn 3:

The Alpha Legion turned the fight again, with charges from the veterans crippling the already depleted volkites. The destroyers also felt the combined wrath of the remaining speeder and the Alpha Legion Praetor (Alpha Legionaire No.7. Alpharius). Whilst the Raven Guard were dominant, the next turn would see a flood of reserves.

Keeping the momentum, the Raven Guard pushed further forward. At this point my strategy was simple: dominate the Alpha Legion deployment zone. By doing this, I was hopeful that I could easily deal with the reserves coming in. The Command squad cleaned up the veterans, saving the Apothecary who high tailed it out, and the storm eagles pushed forward.

Turn 4:

The Alpha Legion reinforcements hit hard. The Destroyers were exposed and riddled with fire, whilst the incoming Sicarian pumped a storm eagle, narrowly not killing it with the first salvo. The main reinforcements were just a wave away.

For the Raven Guard, the crippled storm eagle flew into ongoing reserves, and the other vectored for the sole surviving marine  from the veterans who had assaulted the volkites (easy kill point). The destroyers fired at and charged the veterans on the hill, however, the overwatch slew two of the 5 before the assault even commenced. The command squad targeted a rhino that drove on behind the church, easily smashing it. Importantly, I rolled a 2, so the game would soon end, based on Cat's super secret D3 roll.

Turn 5:

With a roar of engines, the Alpha Legion renewed the fight. Firstly, a rhino outflanked, firing and taking down a breacher. The Land Speeders flew in, throwing their firepower into the knight, who managed to make invulnerables  against both melta shots. The Venator added its fury into the unshielded side, but luckily for the knight, managed to only strip a hull point, leaving it on 1. The veterans on the hill wound up finishing off the destroyers for another VP.

This turn for the Raven Guard was all about threat elimination. The Command squad leaped over the church and assaulted into the Venator (killing it and losing one of their own in the explosion, the knight queefed against the marines on the hill, whilst the incoming half-dead storm eagle managed to pop the Alpha Legion Rhino. The unfortunate occupants were then riddled with fury of the Legion, killing all but two.


Then, it was all over. Cat informed me that he had rolled a 2 for his D3, meaning that the Raven Guard had been successfully saved. The final score was a mighty 21 VP's to the Raven Guard, and 6 to the closet loyalists. The outcome I can attribute to two things: my Knight killing his and surviving, and the always dominating performance of the storm eagles.

The game overall was fantastic, the mission is actually quite well designed, with just a few key rolls swinging it heavily toward the Raven Guard. The stratagem of dealing with Alpha Legion units on arrival aggressively rather then hanging back and allowing Cat to mass his forces probably helped me along. At the rate of attrition, I would have lasted to maybe turn 7 or 8, but in a potentially 9 turn game, if I lost all my models on the table, it would be game over.

 Power knife: stab stab hack hack stab stab

 Die closet loyalists!

So that's it, hope you enjoyed it, because we sure did!