Marching from Macragge: Meh, why not Sicarius

Greetings fellow malcontents. IG here with my Sicarius model, and a short run down of what he can do in games. Yes, I know I went on about how he wasn't that great last post, but point-for-point, he's better then anything else the Ultramarines have going (except Tigurius; but he's just going to be too popular  with other UM players for my tastes).

Here's my Captain Cato Sicarius:

I'm not the best painter or photographer, but you get the idea. I'm happy with how he came out. The only thing I added was his sword. It's a Grey Knight terminator sword, so its taller then he is! One thing I've noticed; he is a good head taller then a plastic marine.

The Rules:

Sicarius has the basic captain stat line, and the normal wargear you'd expect a Marine to have: grenades, Iron Halo, and he comes with a stock standard plasma pistol. I would have preferred he come with a bolt pistol and 15 points cheaper, but oh well. A plasma pistol at BS 5 is pretty good, I guess.

He also comes with two pieces of unique wargear: The Mantle of Suzerain, and the Talassarian Tempest Blade. The mantle gives Sicarius a 2+ armor save, and Feel No Pain (5+). Pretty decent, although like his plasma pistol, I feel like your paying points for something you could choose or not choose to get from another source. He's got about as much protection as any captain can have outside of a storm shield. The Tempest Blade is really just a power sword. However, during any combat, Sicarius can exchange all his attacks to make a single attack. This attack is made at +2 strength and causes instant death. I could see this having its uses; chiefly against foes with multiple wounds that can't breach his 2+ save. Its a mighty big risk, though. I plan to always challenge and always use this ability against ANYTHING with a save of 3+ or worse. It'll be fun to see how many duels he can win.

Sicarius has a host of special rules. I won't really go through them all by name, but suffice to say he has the following abilities: if he's on the board, you get +1 to your reserve rolls and all Ultramarines can use his leadership for pinning and morale checks. He of course has the standard ATSKNF that makes Space Marines what they are, is an Independent Character, and has Chapter Tactics (Ultramarines). His Warlord trait is always The Imperium's Sword. This gives him (and any unit he has joined) a one-use Furious Charge ability. Meh. Might be useful to make his one shot super swing strength 7.

Battle-forged Heroes: This is the real reason to take Captain Sicarius. One of your Tactical Squads (they must be in Sicarius's detachment) gains one of the following USRs, chosen during deployment: Counter-attack, Infiltrate, Scout, or Tank Hunters. CA is pretty shitty. Tank Hunters is sort of wasted on a Tactical squad, theres just no real application that I can see once you see these next two. Infiltrate and Scout. Infiltrate is the clear winner, although wanting to outflank could work with Scout.

Heres the set-up I'm seeing. 10-man Tactical squad. Heavy Bolter and special weapon of choice (I'm still undecided here, probably a Plasmagun. Feel free to comment below on your opinion). Infiltrate into a ruin or other suitable terrain feature mid-field. Proceed to be a huge pain the rest of the game. Also, you could infiltrate directly onto the Relic, and sieze it turn 1. A full strength Tactical squad can be incredibly hard to shift. Another idea is load them up into a rhino or 6-strong into a razorback, and outflank. When you play Hammer and Anvil, this could be ideal.

Well, that's it Sicarius. Tune in next time for a look at Ultramarines Chapter Tactics.     

Marching From Macragge: Sicarius out, Calgar in!

IG Fanatic here, taking a break from homework to up post an update to my army progress.

While I do not yet have the codex (FedEx.com assures me it will arrive tomorrow), Nova Star has been gracious enough to forward me information from his. And I must say, the changes to Command Squads really nerfed my HQ slot idea. Initially, I had planned to run Captain Sicarius as my HQ, and run him with a Command Squad kitted out for bear with meltas and flamers, and maybe some Power weapons/fists. Add a drop pod, deploy to cause havoc. However, with Command Squads loosing the option to take Special Weapons and therefore becoming a CCW unit rather then a shooty unit that can fight in assault well (combi-weapons just aren't worth the one-shot load for their points), I'm left with the task of rethinking the whole idea. I could kit the whole unit out for pure assault, I suppose.

However, several problems arise from this choice: Sicarius is pretty average in close combat. The Command Squad isn't much better. Also, we need another transport other then the drop pod; that would leave them sitting in the open for a turn at best, or leave them chasing the enemy for a couple of turns at worst. Since they are an assault unit, their transport needs to have an assault ramp, basically. That leaves us with either the Storm Raven or the Land Raider as the only viable option. At this stage we're looking at a 600-ish point unit that can be destroyed relatively easy by enemy fire. Here's what would happen: They jump out, SMASH an opposing unit. Next turn they DIE. The transport then goes off and causes some damage. Meh...   

Really, what attracted me to Sicarius in the first place was to infiltrate or scout a FULL tactical squad. Sounds cool, right? Well, it is. But... a drop pod gives you the same effect, possibly with more flexibility. *sigh* So Sicarius is out. Really, Sternguard do the drop pod shooting-role better then a Command Squad would have anyways.

I still need a stalwart Leader to break into the enemy lines (lets face it, that's really what this codex brings to the current meta; what were you thinking, you'd outshoot Tau or Eldar? Pssshhh!).

So who will lead my Space Legionaries into the fray?

     
   Who indeed? Allowing that FedEx is on time, I will update tomorrow with something with a little more substance.

Emperor Protects. 



   

Ravenwing vs Daemons

Okay so my first battle report 

We played 500 points ( I used the exact load out from an earlier post), we rolled relic for our mission, no night fight

I won first deployment and opted to go first, I scouted my army up 12, then my opponent failed to seize the initiative.

The daemons list was iirc

Herald of Tzeentch on disc master lvl2

5-6 flamers

10 daemonetts

10 daemonetts

1 burning chariot

One daemonett squad reserved everything else on the board.

:Just to preface I did do all my moving, shooting etc in correct order but I do not explain it like that:

Turn one:  

Bike squad one moved up to shoot the flamers, I killed one, bike squad two with sammael moved up and took the relic, sammael shot his plasma cannon at the the herald and scored a direct hit and wound, the herald failed his invulnerable and his toughness 3 ass went back to the warp and scored me first blood and slay the warlord in one swoop My typhoon then shot his burning chariot doing 2 hull points and stunning the vehicle.

The daemonetts ran forward( damn they are fast) flamers domed up and killed 2 bikers from squad one. He rolled dick and peanuts for the warp storm chart ad his flamers took a wound and failed a charge on my bikes.

Turn two:

My bikes move at the daemonetts and blast 3 dead, the other bike squad moves away, sammael splits off to hunt the flamers, and my typhoon finishes off the burning chariot. Sammael scores two wounds on the flamers with his plasma cannon and kills 1 then I charge and take a wound and kill just 1, he does 1 wound back to me :(, 

My bikers in some list fueled moment of idiocy charge the daemonetts 

Tactical tip: avoid combat with daemonetts of you can unless you have invulnerable saves out your ass.... Even then it's a bad idea, these tasty crab ladies have better weapon skill then the average marine, is faster and has more attacks and the sweet cherry on top they are rending. This makes marines a SAD Panda. 

So lets just say I had rubber lance syndrome from Warhammer fantasy for my hammer of wrath attacks then my 4 bikes are quickly turned into a German snuff film.

My opponent then makes his reserve roll and lands( did not scatter) his other squad of daemonetts right by relic holding bikes and then proceeds to almost wrap around them with a run move... Remember daemonetts are fast, very fast, in hindsight he didn't need to as the other squad came in with part hats and ball gags and proceeded to show my bikers how to have a good time, ya they got hosed. Oh sammael did a wound and didn't take any back he failed his instability but just by one so he has one flamer left and I opt to hit and run, oh ya he rolled another 7 on his warpstorm

My turn: I have sammael and a typhoon I guess we could have called it but remember never give up and never surrender, so I will paraphrase next few turns I play cat and mouse with his daemons and through amazing shooting kill them all, sammael is killed by some nasty warpstorm knock to the head and in the final round his flamer takes a hull point off my speeder with his breath and charged me and got the last one 

So points were 2 v 2

I got warlord and first blood, he got warlord and line breaker, bit he tabled me in the 11th hour so got the win

Great game, but I will say if you are winning dont charge the daemons, just bite the ham and play the safe game 

Marching From Macragge: Introduction

Greetings, Fellow Wargamers! IG Fanatic here, and this is the first post of my contribution to A Tale of Four Gamers.

 Lets start with being clear about something from the gate: I love competitive play, tournaments are my happy, Zen place. All the troubles of real life melt away, and there's just me and the guy across from me (okay, and my wife rooting me on via text messages). Some people like the hobby aspect of the game (building, painting, converting), some love forging a story while they play. Heck, some people just love buying every new model and stacking the boxes 12' feet high in their game room, never really touching them. I love all these aspects of the hobby as well. But... for me, its all about the Grand Tournament. I'm not a top-notch competitor, but I hold my own and have a blast doing it.  Look for more on that topic in a later post, coming soon.

Oh, and I'll just get the elitist comment out of the way now: if its not fully painted and based, I don't play with it. Period. Same goes for WYSIWYG. My army on the table is EXACTLY what it says on my Army List. It's a pride thing, I guess.

So without further digression....    

We all love Space Marines, right? They have cool armor, the models are cheap, and given enough time, they can chew their way out of a prison due to their acidic saliva. What's not to like? I own a Blood Angels and a Dark Angels army, and they preform well enough. "If you own two Power Armor armies already, why would you start a 3rd?" I hear you say. Well, I'll tell you.

My BA 'jumper' list (also known as a Descent of Angels army list; every unit reserved, and you deep striked into the midst of your opponents battleline) got nerfed due to the changes to reserves in 6th edition (you can only reserve 50% of your units now), and my DA list is very one dimensional (Azrael and friends come down in a drop pod turn 1, along with 2x units of Deathwing. Tactical squads and rifleman dreadnoughts follow behind). That's the way the armies run, that's it, that's all. I could buy new units to try and make them work, and heck, I might even do that one day. But its so much more fun to start fresh. And I'll be honest, I started DA because they were the new hotness. I could care less about their fluff, and really, the color scheme is pretty dull as well. "Oh, half your Chapter turned rebel and stabbed you in the back?" Cry me a river, you pansies.

So there it is. One army that doesn't work anymore, and another whose play style I don't really care for. With the eminent release of Codex: Space Marines (Here after known as Codex: 31 Flavors), I find myself putting my much vaunted Dark Eldar (well, I think their vaunted) on the shelf and returning to my roots: fighting for the Emperor as a super human, acid spitting, quad-lunged donkey-kicker.

(Disclaimer: I would never kick a donkey, but think about it: donkeys are pretty heavy and solidly built animals. Anyone who kicks them for a living would have to be pretty tough, right? Or at least have really cool boots. I mean, the average person would probably cause more harm to themselves, then the donkey. Or it could mean that they kick like donkeys, which the Lore says is very well. Anyways...)

So which chapter? So many choices... I could spend a whole article explaining why I didn't pick uncivilized White Scars, or the cowardly Raven Guard (mostly I just don't want to paint black or white, we'll leave it at that). So, I would like to point your attention to this Youtube video.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AP7XCCUcug&list=FLjm6_OsepA3z831_cQlcFpw&index=16

I haven't figured out how to embed the video, my apology's. When I do, I'll come back and fix it.

If you haven't clicked it, I'll just let you know here. Its the opening battle scene from the movie "Gladiator". In it, a Roman General masterminds a battle with his Roman Legion against some Germanic barbarians. Through superior tactics, equipment and discipline, he defeats them after what is alluded to as a fierce campaign. Great shots of lines of Legionnaires marching in formation towards the foe, their massed artillery covering their advance and weakening the enemy until they can close and shove their gladius's into their faces. What could be cooler, right? So there it is: Ultramarines.

I'll save the exact ideas behind the army for later posts after we have the new Codex: Space Marines in our paint-stained hands, but lets look at what they offer that my more combat role-specific marine armies lack. And that my dice-rolling brethren, is this: flexibility.

This is what allows Space Marines to hold their own against a galaxy of giant bugs, technologically advanced aliens, magic-wielding Elves and their own evil brothers. Take the humble Tactical Marine: He can shoot very well, and swing a knife fairly well. He can threaten most vehicles and Monstrous Creatures in assault (krak grenades), and can take a plethora of wargear options that help mitigate what he can't already do. To top it off, his armor allows him to shrug off damage that would cripple, if not destroy, an entire Imperial Guard Platoon. He can assault the enemy, no matter where they are hiding, and fire a shot off before he does (Frag Grenades and Bolt Pistol, respectively). True, other SM armies have these same abilities, but their more elite, chapter specific units aren't geared to versatility, or are so point-costly that their versatility is lost. Example: Death Company can theoretically be used to form a fire base. But that'd be a waste of the other abilities you spent points to acquire.   You may disagree with this, but its how I see it.

And here's the clincher: he's your basic Troop Choice. Now expand those abilities to the entire army. What makes Vanilla SM powerful is the very thing that steers many players away from the army.

I plan to copy the template given on page 18-19 of the 5th edition Space Marine codex for the 2nd Battle Company of the Ultramarines. I've built my own chapter with their own unique color scheme, and named my own characters, all that jazz. Blah-blah-blah. I want to take something that's already in the fluff, and bring it to life. Note: there are 3 different Captains leading the Ultramarines 2nd company in the 'fluff'. Cato Sicarius in the codex's. That dude from the video game (I won't respect that garbage by properly citing his name), and that weak-ass Captain from the Ultramarines movie (which was a classic, mind you; but it'd be blasphemy to mention that daemon-prince-turning traitor by name). The one true lord of the 2nd is Sicarius. End of story. 

Over the coming months, as I buy, build, and paint the army and take it to tournaments, all the while posting entries and photos about the armies construction, its victories and its defeats. Along the way, hofefully, we'll examine the new codex.

So far I have:
-1x each: New Sternguard, Vanguard, and Tactical squad on pre-order from GW.
- Sicarius and an Apothecary built and painted (that article will be up in a day or two, as school work allows).
- An Ironclad Dreadnought from my aborted attempt to convert my BA list into a Vanilla Army.
-A metric feth-ton of spare SM bitz from my previous 2x SM armies.

To wrap this up, I'd like to make a vow to kick this project off in true Adeptus Astartes fashion. Each Marine will have a different head. I will use NO duplicates. It'll just be cool, you know?

Thanks for reading and see you next time!   

Sammael conversion

So I did I minor conversion of sammael, I cut off his head and carved out the excess finecast and replaced it with the winged helm from the black knight kit. The ravensword sadly looks like a weedy bread slicer compared to the new plastic power swords and if yours is like mine the finecast version bends and looks like a limp noodle. So I replaced it with the sord of caliban, also from the black knight kit.

The head was very simple just some cutting and carving, the sword was more problematic but again fairly simply. So after snipping of the sword I drilled a small hole into the hand with a hand crank pin drill and then I cut a piece of a paper clip to the size I needed. It acts as sort of a skelaton, I then proceeded to find the right angle I want the sword to attach so it matches with the hilt on the lower hand. Then I made a small hole by useing my hobby knife and lined up the sword and put it on. There are some gaps but when I get home I'll fill those with some green stuff.

Now the reason the sword was such a pain is because I drilled a little off center with hand and had to compensate with the hilt on the sword and it still took me about 10 minutes of lining up to get it looking right

What I did today

So today I built my first ravenwing land speeder typhoon, I built him with a heavy bolter. I chose this configuration because a typhoon can pop off two S8 Ap3 missiles into you opponents face at 48 inches, plus a 12 inch move gives you a 60 inch range on those bad boys, land speeders are great for mobile fire power but will fall out of the sky if anything but guardsmen sneezes at them.

So I built the speeder in sections and yes when you put the 2 halves of the chassis together it's a good Idea to use a thick rubber band to tie the the hood of the speeder down, I kept my gunner and pilot separate for ease of painting, I promise to put up some pics soon 

 

My 500 ravenwing

Okay so taking a crack at this with my ravenwing, and yes I realize this list won't be super " competitive" but sure should be fun

HQ: 

Sammael....200 pts

TROOPS:

4 man ravenwing attack squad

Serg has melta-bombs... 112 pts

4 man ravenwing attack squad

Serg has melta-bombs... 112 pts

Raven support squad

Land speeder w/ typhoon missile.. 75 pts 

So this takes me to 499 just under the start goal. Okay my main strengths with this army is very tough/resilient and super mobile. The bikes and sammael will move up and take the fight to my opponent and my speeder will hang back and rain krak/frag missile confetti like its New Years. Okay it's off to finish building my squads then time to paint.

Tactical tip guys always try and squeeze melta bombs onto you sergeants, for measly amount of points it buys you protection from walkers and MCs and allows you to make charges on vehicles and be able to take them out.