Warhammer 40k Firebase Issue 04_r)

RISING LIKE A PHOENIX FROM THE FLAMES, FIREBASE RETURNS! 2 Great Battle Reports! The Imperial Guard Step into the Breach! Adam’s Chaos Evolution! FIREBASE goes EPIC!

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July 2007 ISSUE 04 www.warseer.com/firebasemag Editor: Ashley Curtis PR and Advertising: Brandon Vallee Graphic Designer: Steve Gagne Cover Artist: Igor Kieryluk Proofing: Gabriel Schrock Artists: Nicolas Giacondino, Brian ‘Lexington’ Solomon, Juddski, Pazshadow, Zazz, Toby Alderton, and Andrew Chang. Writers: Adam Smith, Light of The Emperor, Phil & Neil from FLAMEON, Matt Stevens, Patrick M. Cullen, Robert Reynolds, Matt Bowden, Christopher Turco, Peter Sanlon, Franklin Ginn, Linus Widner, Fredrik Landelius, Johan Westlund, Hena, and Rob ‘Orangesm’ Holland FIREBASE ispublished every three months courtesy of WarSeer.Com. All text and layout remains the copyright of FIREBASE. FIREBASE is a fully independent publication and its views are not the views of any company mentioned herein. All characters and artwork shown in this magazine remain the © and trademark of their respective owners. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the express permission of the Editor or Deputy Editor. FIREBASE can accept no responsibility for inaccuracies or complaints arising from editorial or advertising within this magazine. All letters and emails received will be considered for publication, but we cannot always provide personal replies. This fanzine is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited. FIREBASE is a nonprofit making fanzine with the aim of promoting Games Workshop games, products and hobby.

Firebase Editorial The King Is Dead! Long Live The King! When I couldn’t continue to produce FIREBASE, the fate of the wargaming world rested on one man’s shoulders. Unfortunately, he was unavailable. And so, with no heir to the FIREBASE throne, the magazine came to a close and there was great sorrow. Many eons passed (a few days) and a new magazine arose to fill the void. But then a series of epic events followed, leaving Ash, the chosen heir to the Firebase throne, in charge and with a dream to continue the tale of FIREBASE’s glory. The one mag to rule them all! With Adam, his former mentor, shackled to a desk and forced to produce article after article for the next eternity, Ash ascended to the rank of Head Monkey (or Editor if you prefer) to rule FIREBASE with an iron fist and a shiny new modeling knife! Adam Thanks Adam! FIREBASE still has the same creative team, right down to the same layout manager and templates; Adam is no longer editor but will still be making article contributions and is someone I can always turn to for advice. Now, on to some changes! With a new editor, some new ideas have been brought to the fore. Instead of the themed issues FIREBASE previously followed, from now on we are blown open wide for anything and everything you hobbyists want to throw at us. If it’s Warhammer 40,000 related, we’re interested! Not too much has changed overall; everybody should expect the same great magazine with all the stuff you love, provided for you, and by you, the hobbyists! Over and Out, Ash

Contents Editorial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Angel & the Aquila . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Addicted to chaos Adam continues to expand his army . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 The Kymrian Final Stand Lost And The Damned vs. ‘Nids Battle Report – Which Horde will triumph? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Back by Popular Demand Matt gives some tips about painting Eldar. . . . . . . . . . 24 Heavy Armour Patrick gives advice on using armoured Guard . . . . . . . 28 Blitzkrieg! Rob talks about his love for tanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Imperial Guard Air Cavalry Matt tell us how to use flyers for the Guard . . . . . . . . . 35

The Chase Sister of battle short story. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 On the Wings of an Angel We show off Leon’s great army. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Epic Basic Training Robert gives some tactical strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 The Purgin of Cervium II Epic battle report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Engines of Destruction Modelling big machines for Epic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 London Doubles Tournament 2007 Peter reports from the tournament. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 A Clash on Ylvair A conflict between Night Lords and Tau . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Next Issue Teaser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

story

Angel & the Aquila

The

Another day casts its mark into the annals of time, but it is one that would rather be forgotten, left to linger amongst hundreds of thousands of other days. It is the 41st millennium. The galaxy lies stricken in an abyss of night and eternal darkness, the shadows only breaking to allow the warm spread of light from neighboring stars. Much like light itself, hope is scarce, a vague reference that is unknown to billions. There is war in the galaxy, an age of strife and bloodshed, the soil of planets turning red with spilt life to mimic the tones of the burning suns. Billions die every minute, every day, yet the balance on which the galaxy sits does not even feel the tremors of death and decay. Amid the seas of rolling ethereal tides lies Terra, the seat of mankind and throne to their God.

mankind is held together is the Emperor, his life force extending to the furthest reaches of the galaxy in the form of the Astronomican. A thousand psykers echo their death throes every waking second as they are mentally bound to the Emperor, the ritual casting their souls into the darkness. This beacon of light pierces the galaxy, uniting all to the Imperial Creed. The Emperor, immortal in age, continues his eternal vigilance amongst the stars under a double headed golden Aquila, the Cherubium angels fluttering overhead, swinging censers that spread forth their soothing faith.

This rotating ecosystem spawned forth the race of man, releasing them on their everlasting crusade to conquer the stars. It is also the origin of the Emperor. Intertwined in earth’s endless layers of hive cities and the living flesh that inhabits them, lies the Imperial Palace, a complex that reaches kilometers into the atmosphere and that covers entire continents. Its flying buttresses and dark, dusted halls reflect eons long forgotten. The palace is a symbol that mirrors the struggle of humanity reflecting the scars of war and violence. At its center lies a massive, domed chamber displaying row upon row of standards. The weathered banners waft in the stale air, displaying the accounts of victorious armies now long gone. Among the relics and artifacts lies an even older being; the living corpse of the God-Emperor. Like a pantheon constructed in honor of ancient gods, the Emperor is encased in a Golden Throne, the epitome of human technology, capable of maintaining life so that he will never die.In this immortal casing of metal and sorcery lies the personification of hope, hope that everyone worships, but have never seen. The Emperor is venerated upon a million worlds and given reverence to by legions. Bound by which they obey, regiment after regiment of the Imperial Guard march forth to war that is now so commonplace, the mighty Adeptus Astartes lending their fighting strength to those too weak and the oratories of the Ecclesiarchy drown out entire worlds. All serve the Emperor, united in their cause, united in survival. The delicate thread with which



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modelling

Th e T a l e

ADDICTED TO CHAOS

A

Last issue you may recall my chaos army consisting of nothing but the finest Space Crusade chaos miniatures, led by a lord of disrepute. Well, it may have only been a few months, but much has changed since then. Mighty warriors have risen and fallen, powerful lords have been sacrificed, swapped, and more often than not sold on eBay for vast sums of cash!

of

E v i l Tyc ho (t h e

h a n d s om e )

Pretty though it may have been, with three chaos marine squads, three dreadnoughts, three obliterators, some havoc-like chosen and a kai gun armed lord, the initial chaos army must have been one of the dullest, most regimented forces ever constructed. The army sat, it shot, and then the dreadnoughts went crazy. While it was funny watching them blood frenzy and kick a carnifex to death, more often than not when the dreadnoughts were in trouble, the whole army was in trouble. Close combat was not something they enjoyed like good, honest chaos marines. Evil Tycho, evil and awesome as he may have looked, was about as offensive as a wet hanky.

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L or d S uav i u s (t h e

c owa r d )

The first changes began to occur under the new leadership of sissy and all-round nancy-boy Lord Suavius Mojo, armed with a dark blade and daemonic speed as a cheap and effective fighter.

dam Smith chronicles the development of his chaos rabble into a competitive force to be reckoned with.

Th e T a l e

of

Those crazy dreadnoughts were given close combat weapons in place of their missile launchers and became more infuriated than ever, but that was okay, because now close combat was something to be enjoyed. A brand spanking new defiler was added to the mix, designed to rain death down upon my doomed foes. Each chaos marine squad was given a mighty champion to lead them with powerfist and bolt pistol into glorious, bloody, combat. The real let down was Lord Suavius himself. My friends soon coined the phrase ‘daemonic slow’ whenever I rolled for my extra

movement, especially when he encountered terrain and tripped a mere 2” with regular hilarity. In fact, the only time



he did run fast was when a tzeentchian sorcerer was lobbing bolts of change his way shortly before he was gobbled up by a summoned Christmas turkey.

Th e C om i ng

of

C a r n ag e The Carnage tournament was coming up and after all my important units were blown apart by railguns against Luke’s Tau army, I was setting my sights on the highly coveted wooden spoon. A week before the tournament (why do epiphanies always come at the last minute?) I decided I would take a winged daemon prince with a dread axe, boosted strength, and boosted toughness. I chose Be’lakor of course! I always liked the model and prefer his sleek daemonliness over some bloated chaos marine daemon prince any day. How Lord Suavius was elevated to daemonhood for such cowardice one can only guess, but the chaos gods are very fickle.

I also dropped one of my three obliterators and swapped another dreadnought for a more stable heavy support choice in the form of a classic predator with autocannon turret and lascannon sponsons. Woefully ineffective I was told, but what the hell.



Here’s my final army for Carnage: Daemon Prince Suavius: Dread axe, close combat weapon, mark of chaos undivided, daemonic stature, daemonic flight, daemonic aura, daemonic resilience, daemonic strength 9 Chaos Androids (Chosen): 6 with bolters, 3 with autocannons, tank hunter skill 2 Stalker Class Dreadnoughts (Obliterators): Obliterator weapons and powerfists (X3) 8 Chaos Space Marines: Including a champion with bolt pistol and powerfist. The rest of the squad is armed with bolters, 1 plasma gun, and 1 missile launcher Predator MKI: Autocannon turret, lascannon sponsons, extra armour, smoke launchers Abomination Class Dreadnought: Twin-linked lascannon. ancient STC design (counts as mutated hull), extra armour Stalker Class Defiler: Havoc launcher, indirect fire Firebase

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A nd

h e r e ’s how i t w e n t :

Game 3 Very fast Tyranid army

Game 1 Dire Avenger themed Eldar We shot at each other until the game devolved into a massive combat in the centre of the board. The battlefield was strewn with bodies and wrecked vehicles. His army was a bloody mass, while I had only lost my daemon prince and one chaos marine unit. 17-3

The scenario was escalation and it was clear from the start I didn’t have enough firepower to put him down or enough mobility to get away and keep shooting. It didn’t help that there was so much terrain, so there was nowhere to hole up and hose him down as he advanced. There was some fine lascannon shooting that nearly killed his flying hive tyrant before a dreadnought finished him off in combat (even after being penetrated!). I just couldn’t cope with his numbers and once he got the warriors and raveners in combat, it was all over. I really needed some bikers with flamers in this one. 0-20

Game 4 Chaos M arines Our armies were quite similar, though he had a pumped up lord on a bike and some tank hunting terminators ready to summon bloodletters. I lost this one on a lack of mobility. In the last few turns I ended up running towards his deployment zone as he ran towards mine. I got a dreadnought in, while he got his terminators and bloodletters in, earning him a massive amount of points. There wasn’t much I could do in this one because of his lord keeping the daemon prince away from where he was needed most (which was killing terminators and blood letters). 3-17

Game 2 A ll infiltrating Chaos M arines and lots of daemons. It all started beautifully with me drowning him in superior firepower, even wiping out his obliterators on the first turn; then all three of his daemon units charged in, attacking one chaos marine squad near the centre. My whole army screamed “Get ‘em!” and joined the combat, wiping out the daemons, then finishing off the rest of his guys with superior numbers and great rolls from the daemon prince in combat. 20-0 Firebase

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Game 5 Thousand Sons I got to choose the mission and I chose cleanse simply because I hadn’t played it, I decided to set up a nice firebase because my opponent had no blast weapons…apart from wind of



chaos on his prince. I regularly play against a Thousand Sons army, so I knew how to hit him where it hurts! I bought him a pint afterwards. 20-0 Total score: 60/100 I was very pleased with how my army performed. My daemon prince did me proud in every game, as did the predator which was constantly overlooked due to its odd armament….until an enemy vehicle became a smoking heap of wreckage! I was concerned about having three eight-man chaos marine squads, but their numbers let them soak up a lot of damage. You can get by on just missile launchers, although lascannons would have been preferred against tyranid zoanthropes and chaos obliterators. One squad always seemed to be too far away from the action, or out of range, or just unable to get involved more. I think a unit of bikes with a powerfist and two flamers would be an ideal replacement, especially against those dire avengers, tyranids, and for general objective grabbing.

E x pa n di ng

the

Army

We’ve got a campaign coming up in my little gaming group, so having 2,000pts to field could become a necessity and opens up opportunities for those cool looking units that don’t really do that much apart from eating up lots of points and dying in droves -terminators and possessed of course!

I also purchased a couple of chaos spawn because they’re cute, great at catching krak missiles and saving precious chaos marines from being splattered. I’ve also ordered some bikers for those much needed flamers and several daemon horrors simply because I like the look of them.

Th e Pat h To R u i n I’m sure you know that it’s not long now until the release of the new Chaos Space Marines codex. So with a carry case packed with full size squads and a variety of well equipped units, I can say I’m sitting very comfortably. Veteran skills may go, daemon weapons may be toned down and you’ll probably need ten-man squads to gain access to heavy weapons, but if you have a balanced and well rounded force, there’s nothing to really worry about. Judging by the new point costs in the Dark Angels codex, I predict that my 1,500pts army list will look something like this:



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Daemon Prince Suavius: Daemon weapon, mark of chaos undivided, daemonic stature, daemonic flight, daemonic aura, daemonic strength, daemonic resilience. Abomination Class Dreadnought: Twin-linked lascannon, smoke launchers 10 Chaos Space Marines: Including a champion with bolt pistol and powerfist. The rest of the squad is armed with bolters,1 plasma gun, and 1 missile launcher

from the havocs is rather worrying if I ever face an armour 14 vehicle, but my lascannons should be able to deal with that. It’s not all bad; I did get an extra autocannon! The best news of course is that everyone comes with a bolter, bolt pistol, and chainsword as standard; this is perfect for when the whole army needs to bundle into close combat and overwhelm the foe with sheer numbers. I’m really proud of my chaos space marine army. We’ve had our good times, mowing down hapless imperial guardsmen, and our bad times, like having our heads torn off by tyranids, but every game has been awesome and I can’t wait for what the new codex has in store! In the meantime, I’ve only filled half of my mighty carry case. I wonder what I’ll fill the other half with? - ADAM SMITH

10 Chaos Space Marines: Including a champion with bolt pistol and powerfist. The rest of the squad is armed with bolters,1 plasma gun, and 1 missile launcher 5 Chaos Space Marine Bikes: Including a champion with a powerfist. The squad carries two flamers. Predator MKI: Autocannon turret, lascannon sponsons, smoke launchers 10 Chaos Androids (Havocs): 6 with bolters, 4 with autocannons 3 Stalker Dreadnoughts (obliterators): Choice of obliterator weapons and powerfists Overall, not much change. I’ve lost the defiler, gained an obliterator and some extra men in my chaos marine squads. I chose to take a squad of bikers instead of ten more marines, but I could easily take them instead. The loss of extra armour is a bit of a blow, as is mutated hull on the dreadnought. Removal of the tank hunter skill Firebase

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battle report

The

Kymrian Final Stand

S c e n a r io The self-styled Liche Priests of Kymri have in mind to create a legion of zombie-Tyranids to join the mighty hoard of the Desert of Undeath. To this end, the Tomb Kings have commanded them to raise countless corpses of long-dead Astartes to attack the aliens. Hive fleet Bonbon has sensed powerful warp energies in the desert of Kymri and is swarming onto its scorching sands to investigate. Each army is trying to take out the leaders who control the mindless minions of the enemy hoard. To reflect the background for the battle (and to make the game as fun as possible!) Phil and Neil came up with the following special rules: ·

Tyranids: Termagaunts benefit from the Sustained Assault rule.

· Chaos: At end of each turn, Aspiring Champions may attempt to resurrect D6 fallen skeletons in their unit by passing a psychic test. · Victory points are awarded for models destroyed, plus double points for destroying ‘living’ chaos models (i.e. the Aspiring Champions) and Tyranid synapse creatures.

Army

lists

Th e H oa r d of K y m r i , D e s e rt of U n de at h (Th e L o s t a n d t h e D a m n e d , P h i l ) HQ: 12

Sekhment, Tomb King of Kymri – Aspiring Champion Mark of ‘Khorne’, rage of ‘Khorne’, daemonic mutation, daemonic talons, daemonic visage, spiky bits, frag grenades (leads the yellow unit of plague zombies) Osiris, Tomb King of Kymri – Aspiring Champion Mark of ‘Khorne’, ‘axe’ of Khorne, ‘banner’ or rage, daemonic strength, daemonic visage, bolt pistol, frag grenades, meltabombs (leads the red unit of plague zombies) Nephthys, Liche Priest of Kymri – Aspiring Champion Mark of ‘Tzeentch’, bolt of change, four thrall wizards, eye of ‘Tzeentch’, warp talisman, daemonic strength, power weapon, bolt pistol, meltabombs (leads the black unit of plague zombies) Anubis, Liche Priest of Kymri – Aspiring Champion Mark of ‘Tzeentch’, gift of chaos, four thrall wizards, warp talisman, warp focus, powerfist, bolt pistol, teleport homer (leads the blue unit of plague zombies) [The Lost and the Damned can take up to three Aspiring Champions per HQ slot to lead units of mutants (zombies) or traitors. The marks of the chaos powers are less powerful than those available in Codex: Chaos Space Marines.] Firebase

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TROOPS: 15 Plague zombies Close combat weapons, frag grenades 15 Plague zombies Close combat weapons, frag grenades 15 Plague zombies Close combat weapons, frag grenades 15 Plague zombies Close combat weapons, frag grenades 10 Gibbering hoards 10 Gibbering hoards

ELITES: 5 Rubric terminators of the Thousand Sons Mark of Tzeentch, combi-bolters, power weapons Isis, aspiring champion of Tzeentch with combimelta, chainfist, wind of chaos

FAST ATTACK: 6 Chaos hounds 6 Chaos hounds

HEAVY SUPPORT: Defiler Mutated hull, indirect fire, smokes, searchlight [1749 points, 110 models]

H i v e F l e e t B on b on (Ty r a n i d s , N e i l ) HQ: Brood Lord Extended Carapace, Toxin Sacs, Flesh hooks + Genestealer Bodyguard 8 Genestealers, Extended Carapace

TROOPS: 16 Hormaguants Toxin Sacs 16 Hormaguants Toxin Sacs 16 Hormaguants Toxin Sacs 15 Termaguants Fleshborers 15 Termaguants Fleshborers 15 Termaguants Fleshborers

ELITES: 4 Tyranid Warriors Extended Carapace, Leaping, Scything Talons, Rending Claws 4 Tyranid Warriors Extended Carapace, Leaping, Scything Talons, Rending Claws 2 Lictors

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FAST ATTACK: Ravener Scything Talons, Rending Claws Ravener Scything Talons, Rending Claws

Phil deployed his defiler, Thoth the Unseen, behind a rock pillar on his far right flank. The four units of skeletons (plague zombies) with their Aspiring Champions lined up behind the two snake swarms (gibbering hoards) with the skeletal horses (chaos hounds) protecting each flank. The allied Thousand Sons rubric terminators waited in the warp, ready to deep strike.

HEAVY SUPPORT: 2 Zoanthropes Warp blast, Synapse [1749 points, 116 models]

Set

up

Phil and Neil had agreed to deploy their hoards down the opposite long table edges, 24” apart, mainly because it was the easiest way to get 226 models on the table!

Neil Deployed his horde on mass, a front line of termaguants spaced in three units across the board, each with a hormaguant brood behind. His zoanthropes both took station on his far left while both warrior broods deployed in the centre. Finally the broodlord and genestealer retinue infiltrated on Neil’s far right, on the board edge and just over 18” away from Phil’s far flank. Maybe it was just because they were pink, but there did seem to be an awful lot of Tyranids ready to charge across the desert, and the teeming undead of Kymri are

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unaccustomed to being outnumbered. Neil and Phil readied their colour-coordinated dice (that’s devotion to an army theme for you) and prepared for the clash of the two hoards. Only one thing was certain – this was going to be carnage!

bolts of change. But Nephthys was too bold with his dabbling in the immaterium and despite the protection of a warp talisman his mind was obliterated by a nameless terror of the warp!

Tu r n 1

Neil (Tyranids)

KILL COUNT: Tyranids 1, Chaos 6

Phil (Chaos) Phil won the roll for first turn and took it. The undead hoard started shambling across the shimmering sands. Plague zombies always move as if in difficult terrain, but they were obviously keen to get stuck in today as Phil rolled three 5s and a 6 for their movement. The skeletal horses on the left flank headed towards to infiltrating genestealers, hoping to tempt them into range of the skeletal hoard.

The defiler spat a shell high into the air from its battle cannon, blasting apart a Tyranid warrior, some termagaunts and a hormagaunt. Nephthys, the Aspiring Champion with the bolt of change psychic power, hurled crackling warp lightning across the desert to wound a zoanthrope. Eager to finish off one of the synapse creatures so early in the battle, he started sacrificing thrall wizards to cast more Firebase

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The pink hoard surged forward. Neil sent the genestealers ahead to assault the skeletal horses. The two that survived turned and galloped into the desert. Also on the Tyranid right flank, the hormagaunts ploughed into the snake swarm shielding the yellow and blue-armoured skeletons, ate their way through part of it and engaged the yellow skeletons behind. Things had not got off to a great start for Phil! KILL COUNT: Tyranids 12, Chaos 8

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Tu r n 2 Phil (Chaos) Again the skeletons showed zeal for battle when Phil rolled 6s for the movement of both the blue and red units. But the black unit, now leaderless, only staggered forward 2”. The defiler’s battle cannon killed one more warrior, eliminating another of the aliens’ connections with the Hive Mind. Meanwhile, Anubis laid into the hormagaunts with his gift of chaos power. Unbelievably, at the end of the psychic carnage, four gaunts had been transformed into statuesque spawns of chaos at the expense of all four thrall wizards and the sorcerer himself! The Kymrians had lost both their pyskers to the perils of the warp by the middle of turn two!

On the right flank the second skeletal horse unit slowly advanced towards the Tyranid line and charged head long into the termagaunt brood screening the zoanthropes. Unfortunately for Phil the termaguants suffered minimal casualties, and in return chased down and wiped out the entire skeletal horse unit in an orgy of strength 3 death. In the combat on the chaos left flank, the Tyranids sliced up two swarms of snakes and two skeletons. The skeletons and their champion answered by killing four gaunts. The chaos spawns rolled a massive 20 attacks but even after forcing Neil to take 13 armour saves, only five

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Tyranids died because of the limit of the spawns’ kill zone. After combat resolution however, the fearless hormagaunts had been wiped out. The yellow skeleton unit consolidated backwards and Sekhment succeeded in resurrecting both casualties. The blue skeletons (including the newly created spawns) prepared to face the genestealers. KILL COUNT: Tyranids 23, Chaos 25

Neil (Tyranids) Suddenly, genestealers weren’t the blue skeletons’ only concern as a lictor appeared on the rock stack behind them! Meanwhile the pink hoard continued to surge forward. Determined to silence the defiler’s battle cannon, the zoanthropes opened fire with their warp blasts. They were, however, no match for the scorpion-robot’s armour. The Firebase

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termagaunts’ fleshborers killed four bases of the snakes on Neil’s left and all but one base on his right, largely thanks to Phil’s appalling instability rolls!

no less than 11 skeletons were cut down by the combined charge of genestealers, warriors, lictor and termagaunts! The minions of undeath took no lives in return and even more of the pink aliens piled in! Things were not looking good for the forces of chaos – some help from their allies would be appreciated! KILL COUNT: Tyranids 48, Chaos 25

Tu r n 3 Phil (Chaos)

To the left of Neil’s line, the skeletons in black were assaulted by warriors, gaunts and raveners, while termagaunts made short work of the remaining swarm base. On the Tyranids’ right, three spawn and Firebase

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Right on time, the Thousand Sons terminators appeared out of the warp. The teleport homer carried by Anubis hadn’t lasted to turn three, but the rubrics arrived safely next to the zoanthropes on Phil’s beleaguered right flank. Meanwhile at the other end of the battlefield, the yellow and (as yet

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undamaged) red skeletons prepared to charge in from the left and centre of the battle line respectively. The defiler moved forward and dropped another shell on the termagaunts in front of it, and the terminators squeezed the triggers of their combi-bolters even as they stepped onto the sand. Their champion Isis also unleashed his wind of chaos to fell a zoanthrope and some more gaunts. The remaining snake swarm slithered into combat with the termagaunts near the centre of the battlefield. Both red and yellow-armoured skeletons threw themselves into the fray on Phil’s left. The reds achieved remarkably little despite vast numbers of attacks, but the yellow skeletons led by Sekhment avenged their fallen comrades by slaying seven genestealers. The snakes and termagaunts held each other in a deadlock, but the blue skeletons were dwindling, and the black ones were overwhelmed by the combined attacks of the warriors, gaunts and raveners. KILL COUNT: Tyranids 64, Chaos 41

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Neil (Tyranids) Neil’s second lictor appeared from the rock formation on the left flank of the defiler, while the terminators quickly found themselves surrounded by a sea of chittering pink. The zoanthrope’s warp blast scored a glancing hit on the defiler but the mighty Thoth shrugged off the damage. The termagaunts unleashed their fleshborers on the terminators who passed eight armour saves to remain undamaged. The victorious warriors headed off towards the redarmoured skeletons engaged in the massive melee on their right. They charged in with a scream, but Osiris and the red skeletons’ blood was now up and 12 Tyranids (including three warriors) fell. 15 skeletons were shattered in return but six were later resurrected.

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Tu r n 4 Phil (Chaos) All of Phil’s units were now engaged in combat (or immobilised or dead!). The defiler wounded the remaining zoanthrope with its reaper autocannon, so as not to risk hitting the terminators with a battle cannon blast. The rubrics themselves killed three termagaunts, suffering only a single wound themselves as the aliens’ rending claws failed to find the chinks in their ancient tactical dreadnought armour. The newly-revealed lictor charged the defiler and immobilised it, but received a wound for its trouble and sneakily jumped back 10” to its rocky hiding place. The raveners and termagaunts charged the terminators unleashing an unbelievable 85 attacks! But Thousand Sons terminators are almost indestructible and only one fell! In return they slew a ravener and two termagaunts. Meanwhile the snakes broke the deadlock against the termagaunts causing 10 wounds from their 15 attacks – one snake base died in exchange for seven gaunts. Frantic combat ensued across the desert with almost every model fighting for its (un)life and Phil started to hope that things might be looking up for the chaos hoard. KILL COUNT: Tyranids 81, Chaos 64 Firebase

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The mass of combat in the centre of the board continued with three Tyranid warriors falling to the victorious red skeletons. The aliens were rapidly running out of synapse creatures! The snakes finished off the termagaunts, but seven yellow skeletons fell (one to be raised again) while only one gaunt died and the lictor jumped back out of combat to safety. KILL COUNT: Tyranids 89, Chaos 73

Neil (Tyranids) A fresh unit of termagaunts appeared on Neil’s table edge courtesy of the Sustained Assault rules. One lictor re-charged the yellow skeletons, and the other re-charged the defiler. This time the daemon engine’s armour was penetrated and Thoth the Unseen exploded in a shower of dust and smoke.

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The zoanthrope joined in the combat with the terminators, hindering their efforts with its Toxic Miasma. Two of the rubrics died, and Isis’s chainfist finished off the last zoanthrope even as the Aspiring Champion of Tzeentch was finally torn apart by the aliens’ claws. The fearless remaining rubric was overwhelmed and wiped out by combat resolution, but there were now no synapse creatures left alive on Neil’s left flank!

the sensible move, but in the spirit of ‘having-fun-is-more-importantthan-winning’, the remnants of the chaos hoard consolidated towards the newly-arrived gaunts and resurrected some of their casualties.

On his right flank, the last genestealer finally killed the last spawn, while the broodlord brought down four yellow-armoured skeletons. The hormagaunts killed another two and only two gaunts fell in return. The Tyranids were fighting well, but the fearless minions of undeath were soaking up a lot of punishment and the broodlord was now the only synapse creature left alive. KILL COUNT: Tyranids 100, Chaos 76

KILL COUNT: Tyranids 101, Chaos 77

Neil (Tyranids)

Tu r n 5 Phil (Chaos) In Phil’s turn all that was left was combat. The remaining snakes assaulted and killed the lictor. In a flurry of attacks, Osiris the Red dispatched the broodlord, the Tyranids’ last synapse creature! The only Tyranid left in that combat was the last genestealer and, bereft of its link to the hive mind, it fled. A tactical withdraw would now have been

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Neil was now faced with a dilemma: With no synapse creatures, he had to decide whether to leave his remaining models lurking ineffectually on his left flank, or risk taking leaderships tests which would allow him to move if he passed, but make him flee if he failed. With Phil still having three units and two ‘living’ models surviving, the Tyranids were by no means victorious yet, so Neil gritted his teeth and picked up his dice…

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He then proceeded to pass two Leadership 5 tests and move his gaunts 24” and 30” (after rolling 6’s on both their fleet of claw rolls!!!!!) across table to engage both the snakes and the remaining red skeletons! The skeletons were completely taken by surprise and 32 attacks wiped them out. The snakes managed to kill one termagaunt but lost five wounds. Only moments before, it had looked like the Lost and the Damned might have snatched victory from the slavering jaws of defeat, but the swiftness of the Great Devourer should never be underestimated!

Tu r n 6

KILL COUNT: Tyranids 123, Chaos 79

Phil (Chaos) Sekhment led the last of the yellowarmoured skeletons in a final charge against the hormagaunts but lost the combat. The snakes and termagaunts drew, causing one wound each. KILL COUNT: Tyranids 137, Chaos 86

Neil (Tyranids) Finally, the ravener arrived, jumping in and finishing the snakes off. The remaining skeletons were surrounded and pulled down into the dust from whence they had come. The hoard of Kymri was wiped out, but there was only a handful of leaderless Tyranids left on the battlefield. KILL COUNT: Tyranids 142, Chaos 94

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R e su lt

automatically grab first turn given the chance, so that I can try and get to grips with the enemy a bit quicker. If I’d made Neil go first, I think I’d probably have got more charges in and those extra attacks would have been a great help against the pink hoard. Another mistake I made was to bunch my army up too closely so that Neil was able to fight through my first wave and engage the second before they got a chance to charge in. I’m not used to an enemy having enough attacks to plough through my snakes so quickly. Also, when you have to take difficult terrain tests all the time, it goes against the grain not to move the full allowance, so the skeletons’ speediness in turns one and two wasn’t so helpful this time! The skeletons’ durability (toughness 4, 4+ save and fearless) is always a pleasure to watch (and it’s much better when they die in combat than to rapid firing bolters!) although I have seen them do more damage.

Tyranids: 2158 victory points Chaos: 1906 victory points 236 Dead Models! Solid victory to Hive Fleet Bonbon [R]

Phil (Lost and the Damned) Unlike in some publications, in FIREBASE the featured army doesn’t have to win the battle report (you see – I was just loosing to making a point, honest)! I think I could have held Neil to a draw by getting out of range of his forces in turn five, but where would be the fun in that? Neil is a great guy to play against, and I knew I’d have my work cut out facing his tournament army with my background-driven one – but then I had beaten them last time! But results aside, this was a fantastic, epic battle. For me, the best thing in this hobby is to play with two well-painted armies on a nice-looking board. And with over two hundred models being fielded, it certainly was quite a spectacle! I pretty much used my standard tactics against the pink hoard, and last time I played Neil they’d served me very well. So what went wrong this time? Well, I’m not a great tactician, but on reflection I don’t think I should have taken first turn. Because I’m used to being shot at, I

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Losing both my sorcerers to Perils of the Warp attacks was gutting, but very funny too! The warp talismans give them a chance to re-roll one psychic test each per game, but it wasn’t enough. (Maybe I should go easy on the thrall wizards, but I think its well worth the risk, if only to see the panic on your opponent’s face when you unleash five bolts of change in one shooting phase!) It’s safe to say this was their worst ever performance – and this time they were giving away double victory points! In a game like this, loosing two combat monsters before they stood toe to talon with the enemy wasn’t terribly helpful! Having said that, they both went with a bang, showing some of their worth and providing great entertainment for those watching! I don’t often field Chaos Space Marine allies with this army but it was fun to have another, highly elite element in the force. And Thousand Sons terminators are just so rugged! Not only do they have the standard 2+ armour save or 5+ invulnerable save, but they’ve got 2 wounds each and they’re fearless! I was amazed at how many Tyranids it took to bring them down. Maybe it’s time to get my Thousand Sons army out again, and their sorcerers don’t have to take psychic tests…

Neil (Tyranids) Munch, munch, munch, mmm plenty of calcium for the Hive Fleet tonight! That I have to say was probably the most bloody game of 40k I have ever played, if not just for sheer amount of kills (and I have played a fair number of guard hordes as well), 236 dead models! That’s more than both armies started with (due to Phil’s resurrection and my sustained assault). Tactics wise, I don’t feel there is much I really did wrong, I have played with this army for several years now and even came close to Firebase

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winning the 40k GT with it, so its safe to say I know it inside out. What did worry me though were Phil’s skeletons. Last time we played I underestimated their resilience (T4 and a 4+ save is a good as my Warriors), which coupled with the large amount of attacks they generate meant they ploughed straight through my force. I was determined not to let this happen again so I concentrated my opening charges into single skeleton units with nearly half my army to each unit respectively! This meant I hammered both units so hard that only initiative denial in combat by Phil (removing casualties so that units lower down on the initiative step are no longer in baseto-base so therefore cannot attack) stopped them been completely annihilated by the charge. One big factor in this game had to be the resurrection rule for Phil. It meant that despite the horrific casualties he initially suffered, he slowly began to claw back in the war of attrition that the game became and took the lead once he finally brought down all my synapse creatures. Without this it would have been very one-sided and dull I believe, which is why we included it and GOD DAMN (sorry Phil!) it nearly cost me the game! Also, a special mention has to go to Phil’s terminators, truly the unit of the battle. They took 84 attacks (10 of which where rending) on my initial charge and didn’t loose a single model! They then proceeded to hold an entire flank single-handedly for three turns until finally their armour failed them; truly the stuff of legends, and testament to why terminators are among the best troops in the game. But ‘Karma’ balances everything out and in this case it was my turn 5: Faced with no synapse I had a simple choice, lurk and conserve the victory points of my three remaining broods (1 hormaguant and 2 termagaunt) and force a draw, or risk trying to pass leadership tests and be able to move them towards Phil’s remaining cluster of skeletons. I chose to go “balls out” (a Flame On term) and went for the Ld test (who wants to play for a draw when you can try and win?). I managed to pass two out of three of them despite testing on Ld 5! Then my near-mythical luck came into play and I rolled sixes for both fleet of claw tests (I am known for my uncanny ability to roll sixes when really needed) allowing the hormagaunts and termagaunts to charge up to 30” across the board and engage the remainder of Phil’s army. Needless to say without this happening it would have all been over. The final result as you know was a win to me. It just goes to show that you should never give up hope no matter how badly things end up going, and just like the SAS say: “He who dares, wins”. Firebase

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modelling

Back by Popular Demand

that’s now all changed, heaven forbid there should be an army which is capable of utterly destroying humanities finest. I’m now a scatterlaser chump instead.

Matt takes us through his new addiction and how he feeds it!

H

i, my names Matt Stevens and I managed to go straight for 3 years. I lived a normal life. I didn’t touch any solvents, glue – anything, I was totally clean. My wife and I had a normal relationship, we talked and sometimes I even listened. But then, it all started to go wrong. I made the mistake of popping into a Games Workshop I’d happened to walk past. I thought I could handle it. I thought I was strong enough. I was wrong… At some point in our lives we all give up the hobby for a bit. It’s just a fact. It doesn’t matter how long we give it up for – be it a week or a number of years, the end result is the same: we all come crawling back in the end. And so it was that two years ago I came stumbling back into the hobby and once again money began to drain out of my bank faster than I could earn it. The range which lured me back into the hobby was the Eldar. At the time, they were not a popular army to use; they were a veteran’s army. With the revision of the codex they’ve become a lot more popular thanks largely to some shiny new miniatures and some tasty new rules. I knew that I’d want to tailor the army depending on what army I was fighting. Some people call this cheesy; to be honest I call it common sense. As a result every weapon mount in the army is magnetized, and I have five or six of each Eldar weapon designation all of which are interchangeable. The beauty of magnetized weapons was that (under the old codex rules at least) I could be a total starcannon chump whilst claiming I had simply ‘optimized the weapons for the task.’ Of course

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Magnetizing your weapons fit is much easier than it sounds, and has many advantages including saving you money (because you don’t have to buy more than one or two of each model). It also means you get the most out of the new plastic kits which come with a variety of weapon fits. I used 4x3mm rare earth (sometimes called neodymium) magnets, drilling holes in the main fuselage of the grav tanks, and using the magnet as the raised mount for the weapon. These magnets are readily available on Ebay and cheaper in bulk so get your friends in on the deal and split the costs. In hindsight I thin it would have been better to use thinner magnets and these days I use either 4x1mm or 3x1mm – both of which are more than strong enough to mount plastic and metal weapons. I got a bit carried away and also magnetized the cockpit windows, Vyper chairs and grav tank Firebase

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turrets. Magnetizing also makes your army easier to transport, as many of the bits which stick out are easily removable for transport.

With so many different models in the army, I felt it was important to tie them together. One of my favourite ways of doing this is not through colour selection but through the bases. I came up with this idea of making each model a unique, greenstuff base which could look like wraithbone. I figured that fluff-wise it could represent them defending their craftworld. It also complements the dark reds and blues I’ve used elsewhere in the army. The result is that even from a distance the army draws the eye and I’m really happy with them.

Some of my favourite models in the army are the warlocks. The inspiration for the poses comes from the late David Gemmell’s Rigante series of books. If you have not read them – you really should. In these books there is an army general called Jarasey who, even under enemy attack, directs his troops with his hands behind his back as if out for an afternoon stroll. I really wanted to embody this attitude in my army, that whatever happened on the battlefield the army would fight with calm and dignity. If only I was able to always play 40k with calm and dignity….

The army has taught me a few key lessons. Firstly, if you manage to give up this hobby successfully, then do not under any circumstances ever stray into a games-workshop. They have far too many shiny toys on display and you’ll never get out alive. Secondly it taught me that advanced techniques (they were advanced to me anyway) get much easier with practice – sometimes you just need to dive in. Sculpting, Non-metallic metals and magnetization are all within your grasp. The important thing is to take the plunge, and then just keep plugging away until you’re satisfied with the results. You can do it! After looking at some of the wonderful model’s Rev has put together and painted I persuaded him to let us in on some of his painting secrets - Ed

Another of my favourite models is the Banshee Exarch. I love the master of blades mini, and thought his was perfect for the exarch role. At puny str3 however he definitely needs the strength upgrade bestowed by his executioner, so a simple arm twist conversion and voila, he’s armed with a Klingon Batleth. The rangers were a later addition, purely because I loved the models. As with many later army additions you can probably see the difference in the painting standard. I really like how they turned out, particularly the two bare headed chaps.

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3) The real painting started with the armour base coat. The main body of the Vyper was a 75/25 mixture of Vallejo Scar Red (it’s slightly less purple than its GW counterpart Scab Red) and Chaos Black. As always the complex equation; “Big brushes = fewer brushstrokes visible + more time for TV” worked a treat. 4) I used a slightly different recipe for the Eldar vehicles than the infantry, due to the aforementioned punishing large flat areas. Where at this stage with the infantry I used a 100% Vallejo Scar Red highlight (albeit thinned slightly with water) I added a stage, and made the first highlight 95% Scar Red and 5% Chaos Black. This was mainly because I was petrified of the vehicle looking terrible (and lets face it with the current prices you have to get them right first time!) so I decided to add the layer to smooth the highlight. I pushed it from the edges – 2mm inside the edge, being careful to get it smooth (but not always managing!)

R e v ’s V y pe r

r e c i pe :

I found the Eldar vehicles tested my painting skills the most. I am by no means a professional painter; I’m merely a keen gamer whose painting has improved over time. The large flat surfaces on the Vypers, Falcons and Serpents are far more punishing than say a guardian’s armour. That said, I’m pleased with how they have turned out, and here’s how I did it: 1) 2 light black undercoats of Chaos Black. I know people moan about GW sprays but used properly I’ve yet to find a better primer. Any past poor undercoats have been my fault, not shaking enough, rushing the job or doing it in the freezing cold or blistering heat. 2) As always Dry-brushing is your first port of call, as it makes a horrendous mess. I wanted to use the technique as little as possible (to push me to try more advanced methods) and as a result only a small portion of the underside was dry-brushed to pick out the ribbing on the chassis.

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5) Next was the standard 100% Scar Red highlight, which was around the entire extent of the edges of the armour plates. I followed this with a 50/50 Scar Red / Citadel Blood Red mix around the corners and extreme edges. If there were any really extreme points (like the fins on the vipers) I did a tiny 100% Blood Red highlight – but there Were not many points I used it. 6) With the main body of the armour done I moved onto the ‘wraithbone’ areas (actually, although I’m going through one colour at a time I prefer to block out all my colours to begin with as I like to watch the vehicle taking shape.) My method for ‘wraithbone’ is fairly simple, It’s a 100% Citadel Bleached Bone base (my Bleached Bone is from the old Citadel hexagonal pots though). 7) The highlights for the wraithbone are simply a case of adding a little white each time until you get to nearly pure Skull White. I used roughly 5 levels of colour on the vyper bone sections (less on infantry) including the base coats. So I’d start 100/0 Bleached Bone; 75/25 Bleached Bone, Skull Firebase

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White; 50/50, 25/50, and then 0/100 again on only the extreme points. I’ve found that Bleached Bone and Skull White are some of the easiest colours to learn how to wet blend with. They react well to water thinning and hide many errors. 8) Perhaps the most challenging part of the Eldar flyers are the glass canopies. I cannot stand clear canopies, and really wanted to paint them. The trouble was, the level of skill needed to attempt an SENMM finish was more than I had (and more than I have now!) I took ages and many attempts, but I’m happy with how they turned out. From a Chaos black undercoat I started with GW Regal Blue all over. While it was still wet I mixed a little black into the top corners of the window, much like you would when painting gems.

11) That’s about it I think. The gems were pretty standard, save for a coat of gloss varnish at the end to bring out the shine. I also tried some OSL on the pilots within the flyers – I’m still not totally happy with them but they look ok for a first try! I also made all my bare faced Eldar ‘albinos’ with red eyes which makes them look pretty xenos scary on the field. The whole army is painted in a similar way. I’d really encourage painters to step out of their comfort zones and try some new techniques, I did and it’s boosted my confidence a lot! By Matt Stevens

9) On this dark basecoat I took a pencil and drew the ‘horizon line’ along the bottom and sides of the glass canopy. I now had the task of blending up to the pencil line, from dark to a lighter blue. With my trusty ceramic tile palette I began the task of steadily layering Regal Blue up to and through Citadel Enchanted Blue mixed with a little Skull White. It was time consuming, and I had to go back time and again to repaint sections I’d gone wrong with or had rushed. That’s the sky portion of the reflection done. 10) Same again, but along the bottom sections using Citadel Scorched Brown nearly up to Bleached Bone. This bit was a real pain, as it’s a much thinner section to try and layer colours from light to dark, I had to use some pretty big leaps but got there eventually. The final stage was to paint a thin nearly black line (Scorched Brown / Chaos Black) between the sky / earth divide for definition. A little white line for the light reflection and there you have it. The canopies are possibly the most advanced technique I’ve tried, but it just goes to show if you have faith in yourself you can do anything! Firebase

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Tactica

HEAVY ARMOUR

you will have to rely on your infantry to do the job. This is not a bad or impossible thing – the leman russ, while useful, will die to one well placed shot. The infantry platoon will not even notice the loss of one man.

S

teady there, Soldier! The next 3 articles take us knee-deep into Imperial Guard territory and how to use 3 of the most difficult army builds; those of the Carapace armoured, Blitzkrieg, and flying variety!

So why take it, if it reduces your numbers? Simple, it increases survivability. With carapace armour, there is no longer a basic weapon in the game that will ignore your armour. Flak armour is ignored by bolters, pulse rifles, gauss flayers, and others besides. Now your infantrymen will shrug off bolt shells, ignore the green crackle of necron technosorcery, and laugh at the Tau’s feeble xenos weapons. In terms of percentages, your basic chance to save has leapt from 20% to 50% – an impressive increase in durability, I think you will agree. In a nutshell, that is why you should take carapace armour. It massively increases the longevity of your infantry, and more than makes up for their lack of armour support and comparatively small numbers.

Th e A dva n tag e s

of

I m prov e d A r mou r

Carapace armour has a bad reputation amongst many guard players, and understandably so. It adds 20 points to the cost of every infantry unit in an army, and cuts down not only on the number of troops you can field, but the number of vehicles too. It is most likely that your carapace armoured guard will have few, if any, tanks in support, so

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Th e U s e

of

C ov e r

While your troops are better protected than normal guardsmen, it is still imperative to make the best use of cover. This not only increases the survivability of your squads, but means that the heavier weapons which punch through your armour with ease (such as heavy bolters or rail rifles) are now less dangerous. In turn, your own squads can Firebase

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fire at full effect for longer, and your own heavy weapons can have a better chance of silencing the enemy guns. Buildings, woods, walls, bunkers, trenches – if it’s cover and you can deploy in it or move to it, do so. Obvious, perhaps, but the temptation to walk through the open and rely on your carapace armour is very strong; resist it at all costs. Guardsmen, even ones in carapace, are not space marines. Finally, cover gives you a distinct advantage when the enemy finally makes it through your firepower and into combat with you.

blood on your bayonets. Again, your best assets are your numbers and your armour. Coupled with a flamer and a burst of fire from some other assault weapons before you pile in (pistols on sergeants and most special weapons), you should have enough impetus to punch through into their lines. However, it’s best not to win the combat until your next turn – this prevents the enemy from shooting you to death.

Th e M a r k IV N e c ro m u n da n Patt e r n L a s r i f l e ,

or

“M u s k e t r y ”

The majority of your army has one of the most maligned weapons in the game. The humble lasrifle’s statline is not much to write home about, and on its own it has few things going for it. Have a look at your army, however. Count the number of models with a lasgun. If it is anything like my 1,500 point list, you’ll have somewhere in the region of 60-70 lasguns. That’s a lot of firepower, and at higher point levels it gets even sillier – a 3,000 point guard list has the potential, even with carapace armour, to field upwards of 150 lasrifles alone, never mind the heavy weapons!

C l o s e A s s au lt At some point in the game the enemy will close with you and begin hitting your troops about the head with a wide variety of sharp or blunt instruments. Here, you suddenly have an advantage – yes, even over dedicated assault units. This advantage is partly down to your armour, which will keep your squads in the fight longer (barring an abundance of power weapons, of course) and partly because the ten guardsmen who’ve just been attacked have 25 others in striking distance, and it’s your turn next. If you think you can, don’t be afraid to fix bayonets and charge into a combat. Your superior numbers and decent armour save are often enough to tip the balance in your favour – particularly if you’ve been assaulted in cover. If you’re very lucky, you may even get to assault the enemy. Usually this is madness for basic guardsmen, but with the addition of a flamer to a few of your squads, and the support of an officer with a power weapon, you can give thanks to The God-Emperor and get some xenos Firebase

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Now, the key to using the lasgun effectively is to concentrate your fire on a particular target and kill it until it is dead. Your carapace armour will ensure that more of your men will survive a basic weapons duel than the enemy – yes, even against space marines or terminators – if you concentrate your fire. Ten space marines in a firefight against 30 or more guardsmen are doomed to lose. Not only do the guardsmen pump out over three times the shots, they don’t die to bolt shells thanks to the carapace. If you’re shooting at a target, shoot at it squad by squad until its no more. Designate two or three squads (whatever you think will be needed – I usually assume that it will take one platoon of 35 guardsmen to kill a single squad of space marines) and as soon as it’s destroyed, move onto the next. If you have assumed that it will take four squads’ worth of fire to kill a unit, and it takes only three, add the fourth squad’s fire to the next target. Overkill is a good tactic when it comes to planning, but don’t actually fire your entire platoon at once. Not only does it result in a sudden shortage of dice – as few wargamers have over 100 d6 at their disposal – but it may prevent you from killing your next target. So, take advantage of the extra durability given to your men by their armour, concentrate your fire by platoons, and chuckle as you out-shoot everyone else. To borrow from the great Schlock Mercenary, there is no such thing as overkill, only ‘open fire’ and ‘reload’. Winning firefights with the imperial guard boils down to putting more hot lead

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and energy beams into the enemy in a shorter time period than they can return fire.

W i n n i ng

the

F i r e f ig h t

and

L o s i ng

the

cover, and when you get to the objective you can sweep the enemy off it in a storm of fire. Rapid fire is very handy for this job – it will blast the enemy from the objective and enable you to move onto it in your next turn.

B att l e

This occurs when you kill things in the wrong order. If you’re facing a tyranid horde and you waste all your fire trying to kill the synapse creature moving at 6” a turn while the hormagaunts sprint up the board and eat your face, you’re doing the wrong thing. Prioritise your targets! You have the ability to kill them thanks to your lasrifles; now you just need to work out what order to kill them in. Are they immediately dangerous in the next turn? Are they a close combat unit – like hormagaunts – which needs to be destroyed, or are they a unit that can be ignored for the time being? Once you’ve worked out what needs to die, kill it. Concentrate your fire on it, and move onto your next most important target as soon as it’s dead. It sounds simple, it is simple; I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve forgotten and lost games as a result.

C om pl i m e n ta ry D o c t r i n e s There are a lot of doctrines to choose from in the basic codex, and even more if you include the chapter approved ones from White Dwarfs’ past. My own army, the XV Kataphraktoi, uses hardened fighters, iron discipline, rogue (sanctioned) psykers and sharpshooters in addition to their carapace armour. If you are taking an all-infantry army with carapace armour, it is important to make the most of what you have – thus, I recommend sharpshooters and iron discipline above all else. Rough riders will add some much needed close assault punch (and have the advantage that you don’t need to give them carapace armour if you want to save some points), while veterans will give you a strong firebase or assault spearhead, depending on how you equip them. Personally, I use doctrines to add background flavour and to suggest something about the world the guardsmen come from. Others use doctrines interchangeably and will happily alter doctrines between games. Both are equally valid ways of assigning doctrines to your army, and with such a wide variety to choose from it is best to experiment until you find a combination which matches your style of play.

A n d F i n a l ly Th e M o s t I m p orta n t R u l e Keep the objective in sight! I can’t stress this enough. Carapace armoured guard are not the fastest of armies, and the temptation to dig in and blast the enemy from the board is often overwhelming. Fight it. You can win the game with just a single squad left if you’ve achieved the mission objective. Conversely, you can have decimated the enemy yet lose the game if they achieve the objective. Move from cover to cover to close in on objectives, support the advance of one platoon with covering fire from another and your heavy weapons. Above all, don’t be afraid to footslog towards an objective and don’t forget what the objective is. Your armour will protect you while you move between

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While the majority of what I have said is quite general, primarily as a result of the huge variety possible with doctrines, I hope that it has been of use. Many of the tactics and tips are applicable to all armies, not just carapace armoured ones. In the end, though, no matter what I say, the best way to learn to win with your army is to play with it. Carapace armoured guard, and all-infantry guard, are armies that have a steep learning curve because even their all-comers lists are specialised. Be prepared to lose a few games, have faith in The GodEmperor (or the Four True Gods in the case of the Kataphraktoi) and eventually you will be unstoppable. Patrick M. Cullen (a.k.a. Gen.Steiner)

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Tactica

outstanding German success between 1939 and 1942.

Fast Attack: Hellhound, extra armour, smoke

R

It would be impossible to represent all these different strategic facets in a 1,500 point game of Warhammer 40,000, but I could effectively represent the armoured spearheads (leman russ, demolishers, hellhounds) the mechanized infantry (grenadiers in chimeras) and the paratroopers (drop troops).

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Battletank, hull lascannon, sponson heavy bolters, extra armour, smoke

I’ve been credited with creating the blitzkrieg style of imperial guard army, however, I’m sure its probably been done before; at least I can lay claim to its name!

This is the army I came up with (1496pts). Doctrines: Veterans Drop Troops Grenadiers Special Weapon Squads

Blitzkrieg! ob talks all things big, dirty and metallic in this tactica on how to use a blitzkrieg force to full effect with the Imperial Guard.

The inception of the blitzkrieg army started as a bit of fun. I’ve always been interested in military history and studied it at university. I also have an obsession for writing army lists (countless forests have died to feed my habit!) and it struck me as a good idea to try and create an imperial guard army based on the German Second World War blitzkrieg doctrine. In very simple terms, the blitzkrieg strategy called for a short but intense artillery and aerial bombardment of enemy positions. Paratroops would drop behind enemy lines to capture important strategic locations and disrupt enemy lines of communication and supply. Armoured forces accompanied by mechanized infantry would break through the enemy’s front line and drive deep into the rear, linking up with the paratroopers and other armoured spearheads to enclose enemy forces in what the Germans termed ‘cauldrons’. Infantry divisions would then reduce the cauldrons, annihilating all opposing enemy forces. Surrounded and cut off from supplies and reinforcements, the forces inside the cauldrons would quickly crumble. The process would then be repeated time and again. It was this strategy that led to the Firebase

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HQ: Junior Officer, 4 x plasma gun Special Weapons Squad , 3 x plasma gun Elite: Hardened Veteran squad, veteran sergeant, 4 x veterans, 3 x plasma gun Elite: Hardened Veteran squad, veteran sergeant, 4 x veterans, 3 x plasma gun Elite: Hardened Veteran squad, veteran sergeant, 4 x veterans, 3 x plasma gun Troop: 5 x Grenadiers, 2 x plasma gun - Chimera Transport, turret multilaser, hull heavy bolter, extra armour, smoke Troop: 5 x Grenadiers, 2 x melta gun - Chimera Transport, turret heavy bolter, hull heavy bolter, extra armour, smoke

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Battletank, hull lascannon, sponson heavy bolters, extra armour, smoke Heavy Support: Demolisher, hull lascannon, sponson plasma cannons, extra armour, smoke I’ve always loved tanks and I thought if nothing else the list would be a lot of fun to play with. With so much mobility compared to static guard armies and with a lot of combined arms tactics to be developed, the list proved to be exactly that. Much to my surprise, in the army’s first outing I managed to inflict a massive defeat on my good friend and long time opponent’s mechanized eldar army I had previously failed to beat with all my other imperial guard lists! Being a staunch tournament player, it was obvious the blitzkrieg army had a lot of potential; I adopted it as my new army, playtested as much as possible and developed the concept further. Here are some of the tactics and tips I’ve accumulated from lots of bloody experience with the army. Of course I can’t possibly cover everything, there are always exceptions to the rules and many tactics are enemy specific, but it’s a good general guide to playing well with a blitzkrieg army.

Fast Attack: Hellhound, extra armour, smoke

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enemy the opportunity; hide your tanks! With a lack of suitable terrain this might not be possible for all the vehicles in a blitzkrieg army but it is infinitely better to try and obscure a tank on a piece of terrain (or even another tank!) and have a chance of downgrading a penetrating hit than leaving it entirely exposed in the open. Obviously common sense dictates you should always protect the vulnerable rear and side armour of the tanks as much as possible.

D e pl oy m e n t In omega level missions deployment isn’t much of an issue, as nothing starts on the board! Sometimes this can be a disadvantage. Often you can receive the reinforcements you don’t want before those you do, not only that, but often arriving piecemeal against certain opponents can be a recipe for disaster! However, having nothing on the board can often be a major advantage. The enemy doesn’t know where or when you will be appearing. This means their deployment must be generalized and gives you an element vital to the success of the real blitzkrieg strategy – surprise! Knowing the enemy’s deployment before any of your units arrive can give you a great tactical advantage. You can bring your units to focus on a decisive point and gain overwhelming superiority on a portion of their forces, destroy them, and then move on to the next. In gamma level games everything but the drop troopers will be deployed. The first and most important thing to always remember is your tanks are not invulnerable! Sure leman russ and demolishers have excellent forward armour and the hellhound and chimera’s frontal armour is nothing to be sniffed at either, but most armies usually have at least some long range anti-tank capability, which will more often than not cut through that armour with ease. Therefore it is best not to give the

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G e n e r a l T ac t ic s Whether your units are in reserve or not, the best tactic for a blitzkrieg army is to keep the vehicles away from line of sight for the first few turns. If you can get line of sight to an isolated unit that can’t hit you back its worth going for it, otherwise, keep the tanks safe. This gives you time to allow the drop troops to arrive and do their work. The primary job of the drop troopers is to engage valuable enemy units and/or those that pose the greatest threat to the tanks. Deepstriking plasma guns is the most versatile outfit, especially on higher ballistic skill veterans! Just about any unit is going to suffer from a torrent of rapid plasma fire, plus, drop troops can target the weak rear and side armour of enemy vehicles. The only target deepstriking plasma or melta guns make little impact on are large, cheap units, like termagaunt hordes; this is what the tanks excel at killing! When deepstriking, make a target priority list and stick to it. If your first unit scatters off target put the next one down in exactly the same place. You will get a perfect drop sooner or later. Bad scatter can ruin any drop trooper’s day but you should always try and position them within range of two or three choice targets so Firebase

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that no matter where they scatter they’re likely to be in range of one of them! I always place plasma deepstrikers around 10” away from their target and meltagunners around 6”. Obviously its not desirable to drop into particularly crowded areas, as scattering into enemy units is the quickest way to lose your deepstrikers, but sometimes the risk is worth it against a high-priority target. Always remember that your drop troopers will most likely die on the enemy’s turn after they arrive. They’re expendable, and your main concern is to inflict maximum damage before they die! The drop troops pave the way for the rest of your army by weakening or destroying units that pose a threat to your tanks. This is also the ideal time to unleash the tanks on the enemy. Your opponents primary anti-tank units should be destroyed or seriously weakened; they will also have several units of drop troops to kill, therefore reducing the amount of fire directed at your tanks! I always find it best to keep your tanks together or in combined arms groups. A leman russ, hellhound, and chimera with grenadiers is a well balanced battle group that can effectively counter just about anything they come up against. Play cautiously with your tanks, don’t rush them over open ground in full view of the enemy army, attempt to limit the number of anti-tank weapons that can target them, protect your rear and side armour at all times, and use cover to gain the chance of an obscured result. Always try and overwhelm sections of the enemy’s army before moving onto the next. With its impressive mobility, the blitzkrieg army is ideally suited to grabbing objectives, and with so many tanks, is tough enough to hold them! Ironically, its not always the enemy’s lascannons or railguns that pose the greatest threat to your tanks. Often it is high strength, high rate of fire weapons mounted on fast vehicles or units that can move around your tanks to hit the weak rear and side armour that pose the greatest threat. I often target such units with deepstrikers before other units. Barring that, the best tactic is to engage them first with your tanks. If push comes to shove you can always form a ‘wagon circle’ with the rear armour pointing inwards and the side armour covered as much as possible. Otherwise its close your eyes and cross your fingers time! The best tactic against close combat tank killers is to move 12”! It sounds simple, but it is the best way to limit the amount of damage you take because the enemy then needs 6’s to hit! It is also highly effective if you scatter your tanks in all different directions away from the close combat unit threatening them. They then have to decide which tank to Firebase

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pursue, which takes them away from your other vehicles. Whether the vehicle they do chase is destroyed or not, they have been lured away from your other vehicles which can now turn around and shoot them! In a really tight spot you can always put the rear of your vehicles to a table edge to prevent rear shots and you can always pop smoke! All tanks should always have smoke. This is invaluable when moving through open ground, when you jump on an objective, or are moving away from danger.

V e h ic l e

rol e s

The leman russ is your primary anti-meq killer with the battlecannon, but the hull lascannon makes it versatile enough to engage enemy armour and elite +2 save infantry. The heavy bolters are also an excellent weapon against enemy hordes and even light vehicles. It is often better to fire the lascannon and heavy bolters at enemy targets as they are far more reliable than the battlecannon shot, which has a tendency to scatter! However, the battlecannon is a great weapon and with such long range you can effectively outrange the enemy’s anti-tank firepower! The leman russ is also one of the primary objective grabbers in the army. The demolisher is much akin to the leman russ, but it excels at engaging and killing elite enemy infantry, daemon princes, wraithlords, obliterators, vehicles, and the like. The demolisher cannon is short ranged but it has superior side and rear

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armour. Such is the fear of the demolisher it can often be a bullet magnet as your opponent desperately tries to destroy it, reducing the amount of fire directed at the rest of your tanks. The demolisher also excels at taking and holding objectives. Hellhounds are pure infantry killers. The inferno cannon has proven time and again to be one of the best weapons available to the imperial guard. With special rules to hit, strength 6, and ignoring cover, the inferno cannon is the bane of any lightly armoured enemy and is also equally as daunting for meqs. Inferno cannon shots are capable of wiping out entire enemy units, but even when they don’t, its always a great feeling to then add insult to injury by firing the hull heavy bolter as well! As soon as someone knows what helhounds can do, they often target them before the demolisher! Hellhounds also count as scoring units; this makes them ideal to aid the leman russ and demolishers in capturing objectives. The chimera borne grenadiers are the rapid reaction force of the army. Use the mobility of the chimeras to respond to any threats that get close to the tanks, or speed off from the main column to ambush isolated enemy units. The chimera is an excellent anti-infantry platform and the multilaser also gives it the versatility to engage enemy light vehicles. The grenadiers ballistic skill is also highly reliable. You should always remember however that the chimera’s side armour is very weak!

A dva n tag e s

and

D i s a dva n tag e s

The blitzkrieg army is highly mobile allowing you to outmaneuver the enemy, attack when and where you want, and create uneven engagements where the balance is firmly in your favour. With all that armour, the army is also tough and packs a lot of firepower! The biggest advantage by far is that an opponent’s anti-infantry firepower is all but useless against the tanks. Enemy close combat capabilities are also largely nullified, as there aren’t many infantry to kill! If played correctly, you can quite often lead to a situation where the blitzkrieg vehicles are all but immune to the enemy!

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But the blitzkrieg army is certainly not one for the novice or the faint hearted! Facing seven tanks is an imposing proposition and a serious test for any army’s anti-tank capabilities, but as anyone who has ever played will know, all it takes is one lucky glancing hit and your very expensive tank is a smoking wreck. Further more, with only thirtyfive infantry, twenty-five of whom deepstrike, there is little room for error in a blitzkrieg army. You can’t afford to be rash with your units. However, by the same token, you also need to know the right time to take risks in order to carry the day. Compared to other imperial guard armies, which are by and large blunt instruments with which to bludgeon the enemy to death, the blitzkrieg army is a scalpel, capable of swiftly cutting the heart out of the enemy. If the blitzkrieg army were the pinnacle of imperial guard army design we’d all be playing it! Unfortunately it is not. The army does have serious weaknesses. Against certain opponents such as iron warriors whom can field obscene numbers of anti-tank weapons (for the time being at least!) or necrons with the gauss rule, the blitzkrieg army can really suffer. In competitive games, by using deepstrikers, you are immediately handing the enemy 460+ victory points and all it takes is a few bad scatter rolls or a bit of bad luck and you’re fighting an uphill battle from the very start! Even when a game seems to be going your way, the blitzkrieg army can quickly fall apart due to a few unlucky immobilization rolls. But the blitzkrieg army is also massively enjoyable to play with and against. It is a unique variant of imperial guard and about as far away from the standard static army as you can get. If played well, it can also be highly competitive, pose a serious challenge to the generalship of the controlling player, and also brings to the fore mobile and combined arms tactics rarely seen in other armies. And if that doesn’t persuade you to give it a go, try fielding seven or more tanks at once! Robert Reynolds Firebase

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tactica

Imperial Guard

Air Cavalry

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n the Pipe, 5 By 5! Listen up soldier, Matt takes us on an in-depth tour on the inner workings of the Imperial Guard flyers from forgeworld, and how to get the best use out of them in your games of 40k! Forgeworld has introduced many new things to the game of 40k, including superheavy tank platoons, two foot tall Titans and eyewateringly expensive Imperial Guard regiments, but possibly the most interesting development has been the appearance of their range of Flyers which have introduced a (literally) whole new dimension to war gaming in the 41st millennium. Perhaps most exciting of all is the Imperial Guard range of close support aircraft, the Valkyrie Assault Transport and Vulture Gunship. Suddenly it has become possible for Guard fanatics with deep pockets or itchy conversion fingers to indulge in their deepest, darkest Vietnam and Black Hawk Down airmobile warfare fantasies. With rumours of a plastic Valkyrie kit to be released this summer, this unique style of play could well become a lot more accessible to the average gamer. Ladies and Gentlemen, man the triple A and keep a watchful eye on the skies - we are living in the age of the Imperial Guard Air Cavalry Regiment!

Va r i at ion s

on t h e

Th e m e

Before looking at your available units in detail, it’s worth briefly considering the different ways in which airmobile elements can be incorporated into an army. If you take the Drop Troop doctrine, then any Guard Infantry unit may take a Valkyrie as a transport instead of deep striking. This makes an entirely air mobile army possible, but the great cost of the flyers make this variation rather expensive to field (in terms of both points and money). More common, is mounting only a few units in Valkyries and deep striking the rest. Another alternative is a variation on the “mechadiers” army list, where Storm troopers Firebase

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and Grenadiers are chosen instead of basic infantry and are mounted in Valkyries or optionally deep strike if chosen as an elite choice. The high cost of Flyers tends to limit air cavalry to high point games, but it is entirely possible to create effective Grenadier based armies in the 1000-1500 point range. Also worth considering is a hybrid of these approaches, where Grenadiers in Valkyries occupy the troop slots with support from veterans, heavy weapons squads and perhaps an infantry platoon. Finally, it is entirely possible to field an air-mobile element alongside a conventional ground force. My own XVII Phyressian Rangers regiment consists of several units of air-mobile Grenadiers and Vulture Gun ships used alongside a core of elite light infantry. For the purposes of this article, however, I shall concentrate on armies that air either wholly or primarily airborne.

Th e A i rc r a f t The heart and soul of any Air Cavalry army is the Valkyrie troop transport. Valkyries can always be taken as a transport option for Storm troopers or Grenadiers and in an Army with the Drop troops doctrine they can also be bought for any Guard Infantry unit as defined by the codex, so as such it is theoretically possible to take an army completely mounted in them. The restriction on Valkyries becomes apparent rather quickly, however. A basic Valkyrie costs as much as a Leman Russ, and once you have piled on the equipment they quickly start reaching towards Land Raider territory – you may find your self running out of limbs with which to pay for them rather fast. On the bright side, whilst they may be a transport option, Valkyries are also highly credible gun ships in their own right. They’re equipped with a Multilaser and two heavy bolters as standard but can replace the Multilaser with a Lascannon and be upgraded to carry two Hellstrike Missiles or with Multiple Missile pods which enable it to put out effectively four frag missiles a turn, albeit only with a 24” range. By then it may cost you about 200 points but that’s a pretty impressive array of firepower whatever way you slice it. Even so, in my opinion there are really only two sensible ways of equipping a Valkyrie – either stripped down to their basic weapons to save points or packing a Multilaser and Multiple Rocket Pods for the anti-infantry role. There is the option of taking a Lascannon and Hellstrike Missiles to turn the gunship into a tank hunter, but I find this long ranged load out conflicts with the desire to get your troops into position - and besides, the Vulture makes a better tank hunter, as do your infantry squads. Speaking of Vultures, these are the other essential element of your flying steel. If the Valkyrie functions like a Blackhawk, then the Vulture is your Apache. They come with a dizzying array of possible

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weapons configurations and can be optimised to perform just about any role you want. Tank hunter? No problem, take the Twin linked Lascannon and six Hunter Killer Missiles. Need to trim a Horde down to size? How does four Multiple Rocket Pods sound? Or what about six Heavy Bombs and a twin linked Multilaser for tackling that pesky Kult of Speed? In theory you can get a Vulture for very few points but in practice they too will end up being a pretty expensive investment so it’s well worth thinking carefully about what you want them to do. Personally I use my Vultures more or less solely for Tank hunting and leave the anti-infantry work to my Valkyries. With that in mind I equip them with Twin Linked Lascannon and six Hunter Killer missiles – in the event that they need to lend their fire support elsewhere they still have a Heavy bolter mounted as standard in their chin turret. That said, if you are facing anything other than Land Raiders and Monoliths there is a lot to be said for twin linked Autocannons or Multilasers in place of the Lascannons. You can always try for the enemy’s rear armour if you’re feeling bold, and they are somewhat cheaper and more reliable

According the Imperial Armour books, a Vulture would normally be assigned to each flight of three Valkyries, and that’s fine in principle, but I think you’re better of thinking in terms of 2 Valkyries to each Vulture or even a 3:2 ratio. The more flyers you have the less vulnerable they become individually and Valkyries always cost more thanks to the squad they must carry. At this point I feel I should make mention of the Aquila Lander. At first glace it probably seems a good choice for a Command squad, but ultimately I have serious reservations about it’s usefulness. If one looks at the Aquila’s stat line, we will see that a basic Aquila armed with a Heavy Bolter costs 110 points. By contrast, a Valkyrie armed with two Heavy Bolters and a Multilaser and identical in nearly every other way costs only 140 points. So, for about 25% more points, you get 200% more firepower… What an Aquila can do is put characters into the air that do not fall into the Guard Infantry category, the main way I anticipate using one is as a way to ship around my Imperial Guard High Command when they make an appearance in Megabattles. There are, however, a few additional air support options in the guise of the Imperial Navy fighters and bombers. Of the options available, the Thunderbolt is a very solid ground attack option and relatively cheap for the amount of firepower it packs, and the Lightning is cheaper still, although it tools around with rather fewer guns. What both these aircraft lack, however, is halfway decent armour. The Valkyrie, Vulture and Aquila all enjoy armour 11 on their front and sides which makes them immune to small arms fire and relative safe from strength 5 and 6 weapons. The Lightning and Thunderbolt, on the other hand, are very much at risk from any decent multi-shot weapon and have to be handled with according caution.

against modest armour values as well as giving you a slightly greater volume of fire.

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Before I move on, I will finally turn to the Imperial Navy upgrade options available to you. There are a number of interesting pieces of war gear that you can apply to your flyers but two of them are so absolutely essential I would never leave home without them. They are the Armoured Cockpit and Chaff/Flare launcher. The first allows you to ignore shaken and stunned results on a roll of a 4+ and is well worth it’s rather hefty cost as it can enable your expensive gun ships to still get their shots off after enduring the hell storm of anti aircraft fire their appearance will inevitably provoke. Meanwhile, the Chaff/flare launcher is a very inexpensive piece of equipment that enables you to force a reroll of an immobilised result on the damage table once per game. Personally, my opponents always seem to roll another five or six, but for only five points a Chaff/Flare launcher can prevent the catastrophic Firebase

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complete loss of a 200 point flyer and the troops inside it. Sold to the man in the camouflaged jumpsuit… Also available are a couple of night Fighting upgrades, both of which are pretty neat, but of which Infrared targeting (re-roll spotting distance) is better than Illum flares (a flying searchlight without the disadvantage) and neither are of any use in daylight. The Distinctive paint scheme upgrade is kinda’ handy for the points, plus it actively encourages you to paint sharks mouths and scantily clad ladies on the noses of your aircraft so that gets a general thumbs up, leaving only Ejector Seats for consideration. Ejector Seats work rather like the escape mechanisms that used to be available to Guard tanks and can currently be taken by Tau battle suits. If the aircraft is destroyed then some of the crew may escape the crash, in which case the aircraft only counts as damaged for victory point purposes so long as the crew survive the battle. For only ten points it’s potentially a game winner, as aircraft cost an awful lot of points and only surrendering 100 victory points or so when they are destroyed makes a world of difference. However, there’s no guarantee that

Special Weapons Squads are great for pinpoint attacks

the crew will even survive to crash, much less the battle, so buyer beware…

Th e P o or B l o ody I n fa n t ry When composing your army, the first thing you need to consider is who to ship around in your Valkyries. If you are not using the drop troops doctrine your decision is simple here – Storm troopers, taken either as elites or troops using the Grenadiers doctrine are your only choices – but once you can get Guard Infantry units into Valkyries you get a lot more options. At this point you have to ask yourself what advantage does using a Valkyrie offer over deep striking? In short a Valkyrie can position a squad with much more precision than deep striking and potentially with the ability to shoot heavy weapons or assault if you disembark them instead of shooting during your opponents turn. The cost of this is the risk of being shot down and loosing the squad completely as you make an attack run. Therefore I prefer not to put very expensive units like heavily equipped Hardened Veterans into aircraft. Why give up the versatility of a unit that can both deep strike and infiltrate? Instead I get my Veterans into play as quickly as I can and have them take out the most pressing antiaircraft threats on the table. I also prefer not to deploy units like special weapons teams that have to operate really close to the enemy by Valkyrie. Flying a Valkyrie within twelve inches of the enemy in the opening turns of the game is asking to loose it to concentrated ground fire. I’d much prefer to risk loosing a cheap special weapons squad to a bad scatter than risk loosing one of my expensive aircraft to deliver them with precision. Ironically, the unit that benefits most from trucking around in a Valkyrie is the humble Guard Platoon. A command squad, two infantry squads and an armoured fist squad (who, being Guard Infantry, can take a Valkyrie in place of a Chimera as their transport option) armed with a grab bag of plasma and missile launchers in fully equipped Valkyries will set you back about 1250 points in total, will satisfy your compulsory troop choices and give you a flexible core of fire power that can be pin point positioned once the Veterans and Special Weapons teams have broken up the enemy formation by deep striking. The basic Imperial Guard infantry platoon is a powerful and flexible force when co-ordinated properly and you can deposit the entire platoon into position to either apply fire support or push and for the final assault in a moment with great precision if they’re air mobile. Another neat trick you can do with Valkyries is to drop a Heavy weapon team into position during your opponents turn and have

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them ready to fire in your next shooting phase. The possibilities for rapidly deploying a firebase in an unexpected position are certainly interesting… Returning briefly to the subject of Storm troopers, I find them to be a generally excellent choice regardless of what manner of army you’re trying to play. They’re reasonably tough, well equipped and can be armed to do most jobs pretty well. They are also about the only option for smaller Air Cavalry armies, as you don’t need to take nearly as many units as you do when using an Infantry platoon. In fact, it is entirely possible to cram two full Storm trooper squads in Valkyries, a Vulture and cheap HQ squad into 1000 points if you feel that way inclined… One final unit that is all but essential, although not strictly infantry, is the humble sentinel squadron. Sentinels are vital as they can carry the all-important Improved Comms sets, which enable you to control the arrival of your units. I generally feel you should take about one improved comms set for every two units you expect to be bringing out

Sentinels are also worthwhile as they give you - in effect - mobile heavy weapon squads which can position themselves for the perfect first turn kill shot with their “Forward Scout” move, or shoot on the turn they arrive in play by deep strike. However, you need to pay attention to keeping your comms set alive early in the game, and extra armour and can help greatly by keeping you mobile if you get hit - smoke is always a good upgrade for Sentinels too. As to weapons, I like to give my Sentinels Autocannons and Lascannons as that way they can hang back a bit from the worst of the firefight. Most of you enemies longest ranged weapons will be tied up trying to take down your flyers, so you should be able to snipe away without attracting too much return fire. Additionally, Autocannons and Lascannons are the sort of weapons I don’t imagine being thrown out the back of a plane, so it sort of makes sense to mount my allocation of them on Sentinels…

T ac t ic s Air cavalry doesn’t play much like any other Guard army. Instead of having hordes of basic infantry armed with heavy weapons backed up by rock hard tanks, you have to work with relatively limited numbers of fragile troopers and highly mobile vehicles which are good at evading fire but otherwise lack survivability. In many respects it’s rather like playing Eldar.

Few armies can concentrate fire like Air Cavalry

of reserves. Less than that and you trust a bit too much to luck. More than that gives you the advantage of redundancy, but Improved Comms sets are expensive so you have to draw the line somewhere on cost grounds if nothing else.

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The trick is to concentrate ruthlessly on the objective. Air Cavalry armies are well nigh unstoppable when required to take out objectives as in a take and hold, Bunker Assault or Sabotage. Few armies can concentrate their forces so effectively, so you can go hell for leather for the objectives and hit the enemy like a ton of bricks at the critical point, then mop up rest in the endgame. Of course, when you’re playing a game like rescue or secure and control which force your army to spread out you’ll find yourself at a disadvantage…

Taking the concept of concentration of force a step further, you should always strive to get all you flyers into play at the same time. Firebase

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Painful experience tells me that a single flyer is not too much of a challenge to shoot down if you let your opponent concentrate fire upon it, and if you allow your army to enter play in dribs and drabs it may well get shot down piecemeal. However, three or four or more flyers entering play all at the same time will overwhelm the enemies ability to tackle them, especially if you present you opponent with a number of credible threats simultaneously. If you’re playing with an airmobile Infantry platoon, I would attempt to bring them in from reserves first as it will bring at least three flyers into play on a single dice roll. If it fails to show up do not be afraid to use your re-rolls to hold back the rest of your aircraft. Further to this point, it is absolutely imperative that you eliminate as many significant Anti-aircraft threats as possible before your flyers come into play. For this reason alone Infiltrating Hardened Veterans are worth their weight in gold. You need to watch out for weapons that combine range, strength and rate of fire and get rid of them as quickly as possible. Autocannons, especially twin linked ones, are the most threatening thing you’re likely

to encounter. Their excellent combination of range and hitting power make them hard to evade and punishing if they can reach you. Chaos Havoc squads armed with four of them and the Tank Hunter skill are especially dangerous. Even more of a threat is the Tau Ion Cannon, which has even greater reach and an extra shot, but in practice they are much less common. Single shot weapons like lascannons are less of a threat, although not to the extent that you ignore them. It’s only the shorter ranged guns like Heavy Bolters and Assault cannons, which you can hang back from, that you can ignore in the opening stages of the game. Fortunately, most of the best anti-aircraft platforms are vehicles, so it’s not too difficult to stop them shooting by applying sufficient firepower to them. When you are facing many anti-aircraft threats, as a rule I would rather shake them all than concentrate fire and destroy just the one, so prioritise your targets and work your way through them as many of them as possible. Where the threat comes from infantry your best bet is to try and hit them hard then tie them up in assault with an expendable unit like a special weapons squad.

You should do a couple of Strafing runs to soften up the enemy’s firebase Firebase

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Once your Aircraft arrive from reserves, it is usually best to do a couple of attack runs strafing the enemy’s heavy weapons at first. It is only really safe to enter the VTOL mode once you have suppressed all your opponents heavy firepower, as you will become much more vulnerable to shooting in that critical moment when you transition from flight to hovering. Despite all their advantages, all flyers are fragile units when exposed to concentrated fire and flyers in VTOL doubly so. Therefore, as with all things, when you decide to do this go all out. Present your opponent with half a dozen tempting targets and dilute his firepower rather than encouraging him to concentrate his firepower on your flyers one at a time. Some armies present more of a threat to you in the shooting phase than others. Chaos and Imperial Guard, with their easy access to Autocannons, are probably the most dangerous. Space Marines, who tend to rely on single shot weapons and have their superior BS negated by Flyer special rules, are probably the least. Don’t underestimate the Orks, their shooting phase is designed around quantity making up for quality so they’ll hit you a lot more than you expect. Fortunately, heavy shooters struggle to beat Valkyrie armour, but if they hit you enough you’ll be in real trouble. Tyranids will struggle to shoot you down as most of their guns are short ranged but they have access to some dead nasty flying critters who can claw your flyers out of the air, so watch out where you park your shiny hovering death-machine. The other thing to be careful of is very mobile armies. Once you put boot to soil your guardsmen are back to being plodding groundpounders again and your VTOLS can only turn on the spot without leaving the table. While it is possible to remount your aircraft and reposition, it’s quite time consuming as you have to loose a turn while your flyer regains speed and altitude before making another attack run. Unless you pin them down good and proper a Mechanised Eldar or Tau player will simply waltz away from you, leaving you stuck out on a limb – unless, of course, you had the presence of mind to land on the objective…

A S a m pl e A r m y L i s t The following army list is themed strongly around its’ flyers - bringing no less than seven to the table – which are backed up by a handful of “pathfinder” units that can start the game in play.

Doctrines: Drop Troops, Iron Discipline, Die Hards, Special Weapon Squads, Veterans

HQ: Command Platoon: Heroic senior officer with plasma pistol, power weapon and iron discipline. Standard bearer with laspistol and close combat weapon, medic with laspistol and close combat weapon, trooper with master vox, laspistol and close combat weapon and trooper with plasma gun Transport: Valkyrie with lascannon, two heavy bolters, two hellstrike missiles, armoured cockpit and chaff launcher Special Weapons Squad: Six troopers with Die Hards, demolition charge, two flamers, frag grenades and laspistols and close combat weapons Special Weapons Squad: Six troopers with Die Hards, demolition charge, two flamers, frag grenades and laspistols and close combat weapons

Elites: Hardened Veterans: Veteran Sergeant with plasma pistol and power fist. Nine troopers with Die Hards, missile launcher, three melta guns, vox, frag grenades and shotguns Hardened Veterans: Veteran Sergeant with stormbolter, power weapon and Honorifica Imperialis. Nine troopers with Die Hards, missile launcher, three melta guns, vox, frag grenades and shotguns

Troops: Infantry Platoon HQ: Junior Officer with bolter and Iron Discipline, medic with bolter. Three Troopers with Plasma Guns Transport: Valkyrie with lascannon, two heavy bolters, two hellstrike missiles, armoured cockpit and chaff launcher Infantry Squad: Veteran Sergeant with stormbolter. Nine troopers with missile launcher, plasma gun and vox

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Transport: Valkyrie with multilaser, two heavy bolters, two multiple rocket pods, armoured cockpit and chaff launcher Infantry Squad: Veteran Sergeant with stormbolter. Nine troopers with missile launcher, plasma gun and vox Transport: Valkyrie with multilaser, two heavy bolters, two multiple rocket pods, armoured cockpit and chaff launcher Armoured Fist Squad: Veteran Sergeant with stormbolter. Nine troopers with missile launcher, plasma gun and vox Transport: Valkyrie with multilaser, two heavy bolters, two multiple rocket pods, armoured cockpit and chaff launcher

Fast Attack: Sentinel Squadron: Three Cadian Pattern Sentinels with Extra Armour and Improved Comms Sentinel Squadron: Three Cadian Pattern Sentinels with Extra Armour and Improved Comms

Heavy Support: Vulture Gunship: With heavy bolter, twin linked lascannon, six hunter killer missiles, armoured cockpit, chaff launcher and distinctive paint job Vulture Gunship: With heavy bolter, twin linked lascannon, six hunter killer missiles, armoured cockpit and chaff launcher

3000 pts The Sentinels and Veterans make up the Vanguard of this army. Both can begin the game in play and Scout or Infiltrate into good firing positions in order to take out the enemies anti-aircraft threats and both units can also Deep strike if you prefer. The Sentinels are well weighed down with Improved Comms, which will give you more than enough re-rolls to control your army’s arrival, even if you suffer some losses. The Special Weapons Squads should be dropped on the most pressing infantry threats as soon as possible and then, once you have neutralised as much of the enemies firebase as possible, you can bring in set down the rest of the Infantry to claim the ground. Three of the Valkyries have been equipped for anti-infantry work, whereas the Vultures are set up for tank hunting. The Command squads’ Valkyries are armed so that they can perform either role at a pinch. Although definitely light in Infantry by Guard s t an dar d s, you still have seventy-two men under y o u r command, plus your six Sentinels and s e v e n aircraft. You should endeavour to present as many targets at the same time as possible, holding back aircraft with your rerolls if need be, then the enemy’s ant iaircraft fire should be overwhelmed b y the number of targets, and you have sufficient redundancy in your force that you can cope with the loss of an aircraft or two without loosing too much of your force.

You should watch out for Mobile units with good firepower

Matt Bowden

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story

The Chase Oblivion was a comfort. A vast, borderless nothing that made no demand of identity, space or time, it surrounded Canoness Alsatia Du Prillon of the Adepta Sororitas in an unconscious void that released any burden of thought or recognition from her inert mind. But such peace was not to last. Not on the dying husk of the world once known as Medusa V. The warp storm was close now, very close, but the denizens of that chaotic whirlwind would need little effort to finish off the doomed world. The work of murdering the planet had fallen squarely upon the many armies that swarmed over the corpse of this once great planet, armored maggots chewing each other apart with the same violent hunger that consumed the cities and plains around them. The warp storm was just a formality, a flashing final curtain of destructive energy that was no more relevant to the planet’s cause of death now than cremation was for the average corpse. These thoughts returned to Alsatia’s mind in unrelated images and fragments, a dreamy knowing of things that pushed through the gauze of her comfortable oblivion to gnaw her quieted mind awake. Image followed image, sound followed sound, and the detritus of a sleeping mind was cast aside for those things she knew she’d known from flesh and blood experience. The figure of a tall, aging Inquisitor, feverishly urging the forces of the Inquisition to attack imperial and xeno armies alike – if the former was found guilty of making truce or cooperative plans with the latter. A Tau deception in the darkened hell of Sybilla Primus flickered past her mind’s eye. The Ultramarines were goaded into assaulting the Sisters of Battle for a time – a time that cost lives on both sides, before a truce was struck and the combined wrath of the Ultramarines and Sisters was turned on their Xeno tormentors. That proud Inquisitor, cut down trying to defend her against a jump-pack equipped Chaplain, had found his body destroyed but cybernetically rebuilt to continue his holy mission.

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An asteroid guided to Ice Station Alpha by the Tau in a further attempt to defile an imperial world; the plan hatched by her Inquisitor Lord and herself to repay the Tau in blood by sending prisoners of war there to await the impact of the rock. Every thought raised her consciousness further from nothing and quickened it towards full consciousness. The momentum of her identity was gaining speed now, pushing through the weight of blackness to rise from beneath it, a bubble of awareness floating to the surface to burst into full realization. When the bubble burst, Alsatia was wide awake, adrenalin pumping, armored hand clutching the white and gold bolter that had never left her fingers, sitting upright without regard to the wound that had pierced her side through the power armor she wore. She was in the back of a fleeing Sisters of Battle rhino. The warp storm was closing in fast. sounded.

A general retreat had been

The rescue ships had already left their zones amidst an enemy counterattack that would have cost more lives than it saved if the ships had remained. And the only way off the planet now was a ship a few miles away, through a decimated cityscape crawling with Tyranids, and their time was very, very short. Du Prillon swept aside the blonde hair that had sweat-matted against her face and ignored the wound that had knocked her down. She didn’t feel the head wound that had rendered her unconscious, and the sister Hospitaller nearby backed away in the cramped confines of the rhino, knowing her services weren’t needed now. Two armored sisters leaned out the top hatch of the rhino, one sweeping her flamer in broad arcs, the other firing a heavy bolter here and there, shell casings lost in the displaced air of the speeding vehicle. “What’s our situation?” she asked a nearby sister, who was reloading her bolter. “How long was I out?” “Only a couple of minutes, my lady.” Shining fingers locked the ammo clip in position and cocked the weapon. “We’ve lost one rhino. Four remain.” Du Prillon smashed her metal fist into the hull of the rhino, leaving the curved imprint of four fingers behind. Five sisters remained alive Firebase

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in this Rhino, not counting herself, and the Inquisitor Lord’s sister Hospitaller. “Where’s Kurlin?” Alsatia asked. “Flanking rhino, firing at whatever he can.” She shook her head. The Emperor be praised, but how much longer can we last? She hoped the answer that came wasn’t an omen. A shower of blood and torn metal rained from the hatch, and Sister Idwina collapsed, her heavy bolter going silent. It would be little use to her anyway, given the remainder of her head. Du Prillon jumped to the hatch before any other sister could react, bolter steady, leaning out to meet the oncoming hoard. Sister Galda kept her flamer sweeping the pursuing masses while the rhino jinked side to side to avoid leaping bugs. The hormagaunts kept pace with the tank effortlessly, but their leaping attacks were having little success against the occupants save for the occasional lucky slice. Du Prillon leaned beside Galda and swept her bolter fire through the mass of pursuing Tyranids. They jumped aside nimbly, leaping over ruined cars, shattered rock and warriors slain in prior battles. What her bolter missed, the flamer caught, but they occasionally focused on a single gaunt that got too close for its own good. “How much do you have left?” Du Prillon picked off a gaunt that had leapt onto a car’s dented roof and sent it splattering against the sidewalk behind it. “Not much. Another sixty second’s worth.” Galda burned four gaunts that ran hissing alongside the rhino, pre-empting the leaping attack they braced to make. Alsatia swept her bolter over three more on the other flank. She called down to the others, “Istra! Take that heavy bolter load out and get it up here now!” The rhino lurched sideways then, throwing both women’s aim off. A carnifex burst through the side of a building nearby, oblivious to the falling concrete. It screamed and sliced outward with its two sets of scything talons, a glowing burst of green energy rocketing out of its throat. Firebase

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The reflexive jink of the driver had saved them at the last moment. The bio-plasma missed wide, and the scything blades caught only the top half of sister Galda. The Canoness grabbed the flamer as it fell and turned both weapons on the approaching hoard, the thundering carnifex lost in the crowd of gaunts that followed. A blur of black snapped into her armor; the living ammunition of the termagant snipers on the third floor of a passing building had failed to cleave through her blessed armor. We’re running out of options, way too fast. She glanced around quickly, triggering another flamer/bolter burst into the oncoming hoard. The other rhinos were nowhere to be seen, but the staccato echo of bolter fire from nearby city blocks told her they were at least speeding along to her, parallel on the other streets. The flamer was going dry. One burst of orange went pale blue and parted into nothing but air. She threw it aside and fired the last of her bolter clip. The deep purr of a heavy bolter next to her disintegrated a hormagaunt leaping at her head. She ducked down into the hatch as sister Istra and sister Hangl used paired heavy bolters to hose down the fleeing bugs. “Why wasn’t that second heavy bolter up there before?” she asked the Hospitaller as she ducked down. “Jammed ammo feed. We’ve been pressed for time and those two sisters aren’t familiar with those heavy weapons.” Du Prillon nodded once and opened the metal hatch to the driver’s compartment. “Distance to objective?” “Not close enough. We’ve lost a rhino on the left flank. The carnifex wiped it out before it came for us.” No survivors, she told herself. Not with that tidal wave of gaunts right behind us. Alsatia closed the door and checked the computer terminal near the doorway. Green blips marked the rhinos over the next two blocks, swerving and speeding through the urban hell they’d found themselves in. The Tyranids were coded purple and closing in from all angles now; the desperate rhinos speeding toward any break in the enemy lines they could exploit to get away.

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Her eyes flicked up at the nav point that arced back and forth at the top of the round radar screen, repositioning with every desperate maneuver. “Which rhino is Kurlin in?” she asked. “The one to our immediate right,” the Hospitaller answered. The radar screen showed the gaunts falling back now, a long stretch of open road giving them valuable distance. Du Prillon slid on a headset and hailed the nearby rhino. “This is Canoness Du Prillon calling for Inquisitor Kurlin,” she said calmly. A burst of static crossed the channel, before the Inquisitor’s low and gravelly voice came back. “Status, Alsatia.” “We’re only barely outrunning the Tyranids here. I’ve got casualties.” She knew better than to report her exact strength over the com. “Pull alongside my rhino at the intersection ahead. We’ll combine efforts.” “Understood.” She passed the order to her driver. An open intersection yawned wide, with toppled statues and overturned benches the only real obstacles. The surviving rhinos sped together towards the center, then shifted trajectory down the four lane freeway that led the spaceport – where the shuttles awaited to carry them home. “Exit the freeway as soon as possible,” Kurlin ordered her. “We’ll shortcut through the countryside.” The rhinos formed a column with Kurlin’s in the center, jetting onto the exit ramp and bursting through the concrete barriers that kept them from the open dirt plains beyond the road. The rhino kicked once and landed hard. The heavy bolter sisters stayed at their posts. “Gargoyles coming in,” one of them calmly reported. Alsatia and the Hospitaller reloaded the heavy bolters with the last remaining rounds in the transport. Alsatia picked up two bolters and loaded them full, sliding extra clips into her belt pouches. She rose through the hatch and watched a cloud of moving blackness coasting towards them from above at an alarming rate. They’re fast. Very fast.

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A heavy bolter braced against the top of the rhino. majestically from the transport nearest her.

Kurlin rose

He had been gravely wounded in the battle with the Ultramarines; his body mostly bionics and armor plate now. His right arm had been replaced by a large, sleek weapon that combined a bolter with a meltagun. His infamous red bloodcord whipped against his chest with the pressing wind that surrounded them both, his metallic face replacements passive, unexpressive. “Prepare for contact,” he said through his commline, and the wind distortion did little to conceal his resolve. The heavy bolter opened up first. Specks of black fell from the cloud and spiraled into the dirt below. Another few moments and the bolters of the collected rhinos opened up. A toll of butchered gargoyles fell ungracefully from the swarm, awash in blood and mangle entrails. Fleshborers fired from above. Thankfully among the weakest of the Tyranid arsenal, the weapons were thwarted with thick armor plate and clever evasion of the transports. A crackle of energy snapped out of Kurlin’s outstretched left hand. Five gargoyles cooked in mid air. He alternated between his elegant weapon arm and the Inquisitorial power known as the Scourge, accounting for more than the flamer equipped sister beside him, he covered the retreat of the vehicles with wide arcs of fire. “We’re almost there!” her driver called through the comline. The starport was in the distance now. So were three carnifexes, thundering towards their position between the rhinos and final safety. “Inquisitor!” Du Prillon called. “Three marks ahead!” The gargoyles were parting into two clouds now, racing to outflank the rhinos. “Circle them, keep them at range,” Kurlin ordered. “We dare not let them follow us to the landing pad.” The rhinos split off from each other, each facing a carnifex. Two were screamer-killer genus, and boasted two sets of scything talons each. The third carried a barbed strangler and venom cannon. So far its deadly shots missed the rhinos, the barbed strangler wiping Firebase

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out huge chunks of terrain with short-lived tentacles that whipped spastically about before withering. Kurlin’s rhino barreled straight toward the shooting carnifex. The third rhino and Alsatia’s pulled wide of the screamer killer escorts, bio-plasma screeching out of the behemoths but finding no mark. The sisters were no luckier, their bolters ricocheting harmlessly off the overgrown chitin. Kurlin’s rhino spun meters away from the gun carrying carnifex. It reared up and swung at the zooming pest of a transport, denting the side and sending it careening on one tread for a moment. Kurlin held fast to the hull with one metal hand clenching the armor, firing his meltagun into the carnifex. It burned deep into the breast of the animal. It roared but fell back enough for another shot. The venom cannons missed, the barbed strangler deflecting off the hull to explode in the distance. Alsatia’s rhino zipped towards the third rhino. The two passed each other within a couple feet, each firing violently to bring down a carnifex. The carnifex Alsatia and her crew circled was wounded now, heavy bolters chewing up tender spots of its body, purple ichors leaking thickly from the wounds. The third carnifex was untouched and closed ranks with its gunner, teaming up against Kurlin as gunfire erupted harmlessly across its back. Moments remained as the gargoyles swooped in from two sides to fnish the crew. The third rhino past in close to douse the wounded carnifex with a flamer. The carnifex lurched forward with deceptive speed and tore into the hull with four violating talons, flipping the rhino over and tearing it apart. Its burning bulk cut, stomped and bit the passengers to death before it collapsed from the flames that consumed it. The other screamer-killer staggered and collapsed from the last of the heavy bolter rounds. Spent, the two sisters ducked into the hatch. Alsatia rose up and began to fire everything she had into the gargoyle swarms that swooped down now. The storm bolter turret coughed its own death into the masses, but a wave of gargoyles was cutting in towards Kurlin totally unchallenged. Firebase

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The gunner carnifex fired and struck home with the venom cannon shot, the blast piercing the front of the rhino that carried Kurlin and slowing it to a halt. Kurlin jumped down from the hatch of the rhino as two sisters popped up from inside, and began hosing down the swooping gargoyles. The carnifex stormed towards Kurlin as the gargoyles descended with tooth and claw. Kurlin spun on one foot, firing his bolter in a wide arc into the assaulting gargoyles. Their claws glanced his armor but cut no wounds for their effort. He grabbed a gargoyle in his metal hand, crushed the neck, and used it as a flail against the others that swirled near him. The carnifex charged him, and Kurlin sidestepped easily, firing his bolter into the monster’s side as he swung the dead gargoyle club to shield against more attacks. The remaining sisters had exited the wounded rhino and joined the fray, bolters firing, chainswords slashing. The turret mounted storm bolter twitched left and right to track varied targets while a chain of flashing light erupted from Kurlin to scourge a handful of gargoyles from the sky. Alsatia’s rhino sped straight towards the gunning carnifex, shooting it from behind. Her twin bolters stitched all over the back while the storm bolter freely roamed the creature in search of a weakness. The monster turned with a roar and positioned to fire its venom cannon. Kurlin fired his bolter up under the carnifex’s chin as it fired, and the shot flew far off the mark. Flesh tore from the carnifex and purple blood leaked from a dozen wounds. The gargoyles pulled back to regroup their number. Dead sisters and gargoyles alike littered the ground. Kurlin himself had been wounded twice, the red slick against two ugly rents in his armor assuring his human vulnerability. But the Inquisitor still stood. The carnifex turned towards him, swinging its weapon arms in a blow that could cut a man in half effortlessly. Alsatia’s rhino pulled away at the last moment as Kurlin discharged a powerful burst of the scourge into the wicked beast. Energy carved into the creature and seared flesh all the way down to its pulsing brain. The animal cut off from the hive mind as cerebral meat popped and melted. Its eyes burst as electrical currents played between its teeth. It hissed and collapsed, barely missing the Inquisitor.

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Kurlin fell to one knee, dropping his makeshift club as Alsatia pulled up beside him. The Hospitaller charged out from the rear hatch of the rhino to bring the spent Inquisitor Lord to safety. One wounded sister limped toward the rhino with a hand to her side, staggered, and collapsed into the dirt. The pool of slick blood growing beneath her reflected the flashing wrath of the warp storm as it crept closer to Medusa V in the night sky. The gargoyles were coming again. Du Prillon and Kurlin braced inside the hatch of the surviving Rhino. Even if the rhino was impervious to the gargoyles’ best attacks, leading the winged terrors to the landing pad could still complicate the rescue of other, unarmored personnel. Their worries were pushed aside with the arrival of three squads of seraphim. Jet packs blasted their gleaming armor into the gargoyle swarm, flamers firing, bolt pistols kicking, swords cutting down the flying monsters. “Get to the ships!” the seraphim called. They made no attempt to join the fleeing rhino, fighting with grace and agility, their faith sustaining them through the whirlwind of tooth, claw and fleshborer, their last stand taking ten times their number from the gargoyles around them. Alsatia’s rhino launched up the ramp of the nearest armored transport. Sisters inside immediately locked it down whilst the medical teams rushed in to tend to the wounded. “A heavy toll on our numbers today,” Kurlin said to her quietly. Gloved hands and medical instruments surrounded them both in parody of the probing aliens that had swarmed them before. “The name of every sister that fell to get us here will be remembered, I promise you.” “They sit with the God Emperor now.” She felt unconsciousness returning for her, her body suddenly heavier than the armor she wore. “The purge will continue, Canoness.” Alsatia nodded once and felt her mind fall backward through the trapdoor of her own failing consciousness, once again drowned in the shadows of her own void-like sleep. by Christopher Turco

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interview

WINGS OF ANGELS

ON THE

W

ith the recent release of the new codex, FIREBASE takes a chance to showcase Leon’s wonderful Dark Angel Force. FIREBASE: How long have you been in to 40k Leon? Leon: Well I got started near the end of 2nd edition, so that’s quite a long time ago, though I did go on a hiatus for about four years and got back into it about three years ago FB:What was it that got you in to the game in the first place, and what brought you back? Leon: What got me into is was the cool models. I saw some at a friend’s house and immediately ‘fell in love, then I discovered a whole universe behind that cool model and was hooked! FB: And what was the model that sealed the deal for you? Leon: That was the Great Unclean One, and the reason I got back into the hobby was that I was bored one afternoon and decided to take my army back to my local GW store and have a game

FB: So, from the Great Unclean One, when and how did the Dark Angels grab your attention? Leon: That must have been around two years ago. I had just finished my IG army and was looking for a new challenge. I had always liked the Dark Angels background (dark and brooding heroes instead of goody two-shoes), and the new Space Marine Codex made me want to use all the shiny new rules they got. So collecting a Dark Angel army seemed a logical decision. FB: How do you approach building a new army; are you a list builder, or do you jump in to modelling and worry about a list later? Leon: Initially, I tend to go for what I think looks good, using units that appeal to me background-wise and/or model-wise. I tend to tweak my army lists as I have more games with my new army though, but the ‘coolness’ factor remains ever important. If it’s not cool, I’m not using it no matter how ‘killy’ it may be. FB: Thats a good way to play; what are your opinions on the new Dark Angel Codex; it seemed to divide the community somewhat! Leon: Well I love it! It is (in my opinion) the ‘fluffiest’ marine codex GW has ever produced. It forces you to make a list that fits with the background. Marines operate in tactical squads of 10, not 6 man las/plas squads. Also, the codex is very clear rules-wise and it strikes me as very balanced. My tournament list for example is quite fluffy (if I may say so myself) but still packs a punch. If that kind of balance between background and in-game effectiveness is how GW will be producing their rules in the future, I’ll be very happy. FB: I wholeheartedly agree; going back to the army you have now, is this a brand new force using a lot of the new plastics, or is there much conversion work and use of older models?

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I started work on them as soon as my regular DAs were finished. I will go back in the near future and make them game legal with the new codex so I use them again. A Ravenwing force is something that I do want to do someday. But I have some other projects that got put on hold by the release of the new Dark Angels, so the Ravenwing will have to wait. FB: I do love the idea of a grand dark angels force; do you have any tips on painting and modelling dark angels? Leon: Not really Dark Angel specific, but there are a couple of ‘rules’ I apply when I build an army. The first is to select a limited palette of colours and stick to it. Also, base your models the same way across your entire army. This way, your army will look like an actual army instead of a collection of units.

Leon: Well the initial force (created with the release of Codex: Space Marines) used a lot of the older metal Dark Angel models and bits. The entire army uses metal shoulder pads for example. The new Dark Angel models were too good not to use though so I got a couple of boxes of them when they came out and replaced some models with the new plastics. The sergeants (with the robes) are all new Dark Angel plastics for example. I still used the older metal shoulder pads though, because I like how they look and I wanted the new models to blend in with the older ones. FB: Nice; we can see here that you have begun an expansion in to the Deathwing; is that a grand plan, and do you also plan a Ravenwing force? Leon: Well the Deathwing are actually a finished army, made to be used with the old Dark Angel codex and Codex: Space Marines.

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FB: And any tips on the using the Dark Angels on the battlefield? Leon: With the new codex, it’s important to know when to use combat squads and when to use full squads. Combat squads offer a lot of flexibility but they’re quite small and will be destroyed easily if you’re not careful. Another cool feature in the new codex is the addition of pistols and grenades for everyone. Remember that and it’ll pay off. FB: Great stuff. As a final question, if you could have a wish granted in 40k or with Games Workshop in general, what would it be?

FB: Thanks for the interview and showing your wonderful models Leon, I wish you all the best in finding redemption by hunting down your fallen brethren! Leon: Thanks for giving me the opportunity to show them off!

(more picture on the next pages)

Leon: Tough question, that. Actually I wish they’d continue making models like they do now, and continue making army books like the most recent ones. If they do that I’ll be a very happy man.

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tactica

EPIC BASIC

W

TRAINING

ith FIREBASE turning its eyes upon the EPIC this issue, Robert takes the rookies through the basics of getting started. Ever thought that 40k does not meet the grandeur of the background? That Space Marines do not seem to play as an elite but light force? That Eldar are not the fragile, but hard hitting force that they should be? That your Imperial Guard should have more tanks? That you do not have enough Orks on the table? Ever thought to try Epic?

While Epic may not be the mainstream game that 40k is, in the opinion of its players it is the best representation of ground warfare in the 41st millennium. Thunderhawk Air Assaulting Space Marine forces, massive Ork hordes backed by Stompas, Gargants, and FightaBombas, vast Imperial Guard armies with Infantry, Tank, and Artillery Companies are styles that fit into the 2700 or 3000 point tournament armies. In Epic, armies play far differently to how they play in 40k; they play more like the background suggests they should.

But it is not a simple matter of playing 40k with smaller minis. The rules are very different and more abstract than 40k. Instead of a total IGOUGO kind of action, with the move, fire and assault phases, Epic goes by Detachments. Each detachment consists of a number of units. A detachment is given an order to do one of a variety of actions, from sustaining fire to marching to rallying. Shooting is much simpler with a single roll to hit and wound with the opposing unit possibly getting a save. Normally following your unit finishing its action, the initiative passes to the other player. This your formation, my formation back and forth continues until all the formations have been activated and then victory conditions are checked to see who has won. Oh great another rules set to learn! Fortunately these rules are not hard to learn and understand. How does one go about learning the rules? – Read the rules once through and play a few games. The rules are free for download at www.specialist-games.com as well as a set proxy counters (under player aids) for those who do not want to make any initial investment in miniatures. For now download the 1.0 Epic Game Rules and the proxy counters to get right into the rules and playing a few games. These are the basic rules and it provides you with 5 training scenarios to learn those rules and uses the proxy counters (you will need to print 2 sheets at

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least). The training scenarios are Space Marines on Space Marines, live fire exercises if you will.

game. Hopefully you liked it and are interested in playing some more games of Epic. You have very little excuse not to at least try it out.

The first scenario uses all the tactical squads you have available, 2 formations of 6 stands each - that is 60 Marines per side. Also in the center of the table is the objective, your mission is to hold it and it will be until Scenario 5. The second scenario makes the simple addition of Rhinos, increasing your tactical options and introducing armor In the third scenario, it is a tank battle with 2 formations of 4 Predators per side

So what if you want to play the Training Scenarios with minis? What will you need to get and what will it cost?

Battle tank formation The fourth scenario is no longer a mirrored game. Each side has the same 2 formations of Tactical Marines with Rhinos it did in Scenario 2, but now one player has a formation of Assault Marines and the other a formation of Devastators. The two forces thus play differently and will require each player to play differently, worth playing twice and switching sides. The fifth scenario brings it all together, adds Whirlwinds and Predator formations to the forces in the fourth scenario. Also the number of objectives increases to 3 and your goal is to hold 2 of the 3 for a full turn. Like Scenario 4, this one may be worth playing a second time switching forces and get a better handle on the rules.

A single Epic Space Marine Battle Company ($20/£12) gets you all the infantry you need. Two packs of Epic Space Marine Rhinos ($22/£10), 4 packs of Epic Space Marine Predators ($20/£9) (note that this makes 2 Destructors and 2 Annihilators), and 2 packs of Epic Space Marine Whirlwinds and Hunters ($20/£9) completes the minis for all the Training missions. The total for this all is $184 or £86. This also gives more than the beginnings of two Space Marine Armies. But that is also less than the cost of a single 40k army. However for the new player Space Marines have a steep learning curve. Unless you really want to play Space Marines, it is probably best to just keep to the proxy counters. Once you have a handle on the rules, the best starter armies are Orks or Imperial Guard which you will see more of in Epic: Beyond Training.

Once these core scenarios have been played through you should at least understand Epic and can decide whether or not you like the Firebase

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Next time I hope to bring you Epic: Advanced Training, which will cover the follow-on scenarios that are found in sections 2, 3, and 4 of the rules. Section 2 covers Specialist, Section 3 Warmachines, and Section 4 Aerospace rules and 4 more training scenarios between them. Following that I hope to do an article Epic: Beyond Training, covering sectional army construction, growing from basic 1500 forces, to 2000, then 3000 points and getting more complex and using more of the rules. If you cannot wait for the next article and must know more about Epic you can post questions in the Specialist-Games sub forum on Warseer or go to Tactical Command Forums http://www.tacticalwargames.net/cgibin/forum/ikonboard.cgi (A thank you to Tactical Command Forum for reviewing the article and giving input!) and see the latest development of your favorite army. Yes, the game is now player developed. Also there is nothing stopping you from having a go at the 4 additional training scenarios, just at the moment there are no proxies for it. So have fun and play a few games of Epic and see how war in the 41st Millennium really is. Robert

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epic battle report

PURGING CERVIUM II

THE

OF

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has’O As’au’ra looked down on the ground as she saw movement. A small beetle was scuttling around in the light grass. As’au’ra followed it with her eyes for a while and then brought her heavy boot down, squashing the bug. ‘I hate bugs’ she thought. ‘Figures that it must be me who got assigned to this planet -- a planet that’s being assaulted by tyranids. Why doesn’t the Greater Good require me to go to planet where I could deal with humans or orks?’

The planet -- a formerly Imperial world known as Cervium II by the humans – was attacked by Tyranids some time after it joined the Tau Empire. The Tau managed to destroy the splinter fleet that attacked it, but the Tyranids managed to drop some ground forces on the surface. The battles rage on as Tau troops assisted by human militia try to eradicate the Tyranid organisms. As’au’ra was concerned with a sector which included the Human city of Ericda. The entire western continent was still heavily under the influence of Tyranids and most Tau colonists and human inhabitants had already been pulled out. Ericda was one of the few places still inhabited and its evacuation was scheduled to happen in 3 days. Before that it needed protection. Suddenly the comm beebs informed the Shas’O of an incoming message. Her pathfinders had noticed a Tyranid force moving relentlessly towards the outskirts of Ericda. Smiling grimly As’au’ra went inside the comm building and gave orders to prepare the troops to move out. ‘Why does this happen when all the Orcas and most of our Devilfish are out for refit and repair. Perhaps that Gue’vesa saying about Murphys law rings true’, she thought. Within minutes the Firewarriors and Kroot under As’au’ra’s command had assembled, while a human company was still prepping their weapons and gear. The Crisis suited warriors were standing a little off Firebase

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from the rest as they were waiting for the Shas’O to join them. Drone squadrons were hovering behind the crisis teams. On a clearing to the front, the Armoured Mobile Hunter cadres’ railcannon Hammerhead tanks and the supplementary Stingray missile gunships were warming up their engines. As’au’ra walked out in her own Crisis suit, looking at the assembled troops. - We have learnt that a larger Tyranid force is moving towards the Ericda. If they reach the city, the inhabitants will not survive. We will stop the Tyranids without waiting for our transport. Our Sis’si Pathfinders are currently tracking the enemy and we estimate that they will reach the city by tomorrow noon. - We will intercept them just outside the city limits. We should reach the city by marching before nightfall. We shall rest at the southern side of the city and prepare to stop the enemy there. - Luckily we just got reinforced with multiple Drone squadrons and we shall take all of them with us. - We will move out in 30 Min. Normal marching order, 16th Gue’vesa company will lead, I will be with the second Cadre. Stay in contact with your flank guard at all times. - For the Greater Good!

RULES BIT Rules used Since the army lists have not been finalised, this game uses a modified version of Malefactors, Haruspexes and Hierophant. The units have following stats. Also all experimental rules stated in Specialist Games site are being used. Haruspex Speed 20cm

Save Close combat Firefight 4+ 3+ 5+

Weapons Range Firepower Notes Large Claws Close Combat + 2 Extra Attacks, Macroweapon (base contact) Notes: Reinforced Armours, Walker

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Malefactor Speed Save Close combat Firefight 20cm 4+ 4+ 4+

Tyranid Warriors (assault swarm 1) 13 Termagants and 9 Hormagaunts

Weapons Range Firepower Notes Spine Banks 20cm 2x AP4+

Tyranid Warriors (assault swarm 2) 12 Termagants, 8 Hormagaunts and 2 Gargoyles

AND (15cm) Small Arms +2 Extra Attacks Notes: Reinforced Armour, Walker

Tyranid Warriors (assault swarm 3) 6 Termagants, 6 Hormagaunts and 7 Gargoyles

Hierophant Speed Save Close combat Firefight 25c, 4+ 3+ 5+ Weapons Range Firepower Notes Huge Scything Close combat +2 Extra Attacks, Titan Killer (1) Talons (base contact)

Greater Synapse Node

Additionally, the Hierophant must select two weapons biomorphs from the Bio-Titans biomorphs list. Bio-Titan weapons biomorphs: Weapons Range Firepower Notes Bio Cannon 45cm 2x AP3+/AT4+ I gnore Cover Ripper Close d3+2 Extra Attacks Tentacles Combat (base contact) Monstrous Close +1 Extra Attacks, Titan Killer (d3) Claws Combat (base contact)

2 x Lesser Synapse Node Genestealer swarm 8 Genestealers Hierophant + Ripper Tentacles, Pyro-Acidic Spray 4 Mycetic Spores Army description Synapse: 825 points, 27.5% Independent: 450, 15% Common Brood: 990, 33% Uncommon Brood: 735, 24.5%

Pyro-Acidic Template AP4+/AT5+ Ignores Cover Spray

The game uses pre-measuring.

ARMIES Tyranid Consumption Swarm (Hena) Hive Tyrant 1 (attack swarm) 2 Haruspex, 2 Malefactor, 1 Screamer Killer, 2 Venomfex and Zoanthrope Hive Tyrant 2 (support swarm) 4 Dactylis and Zoanthrope

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My tyranid lists usually have a swarm for support and 2 larger common brood swarms. I decided to take my default support swarm with one Zoanthrope for AA fire. In addition to this I was thinking my default to take the two larger infantry swarms. However this time I decided to take three common brood swarms which were a little smaller and one with more gargoyles as well. Just want to find out how much that 6+ save (as well as 30cm move) would help. After looking the total amounts of common brood the large numbers with them is very enjoyable. In addition to this I took my usual looking AV swarm. It has Haruspexes and Malefactors as main assault troop as they are a bit faster than Carnifexes. But few fexes does allow more shield to Hive Tyrant. One Zonthrope is to give them some protection against aircrafts. This also allows me to test some of those modifications. Then I went for the Independent. Never leave home without genestealers, I say. I like ‘em even if they tend to die rather fast. Also one bio titan is added to test it out. I was thinking about trading in one of the common brood swarms to get another, but as Hydraphant isn’t painted yet, I decided not to. Lastly I took several synapse nodes. I need to try the Greater Node against Tau, even though I fear that it won’t survive if there is Tigershark AX-1-0. 2DC war engine alone with AVs and infantry doesn’t usually survive very long. As I found out against IG or more precise Shadowsword.

Alien Auxiliary 2 x Gue’vesa Auxiliary Company Kroot Kindred Air Caste Hero-class Cruiser + Gravitic Tracer Salvo I decided to experiment with an entirely ground-based Tau army. I generally use at least two Orcas, but this time the only Air caste stuff I used was the Lah’na cruiser. I never leave home without it and it’s 2 pin-point attacks -- to deal with any heavy stuff I might encounter. The other choices were pretty much dictated with the models I had available. I could have used Hammerheads instead of the second Stingray contingent, but I couldn’t resist the lure of Ignore Cover guided missiles. In hindsight, Stingrays were the right choice. I’ve grown quite fond of the auxilia. I always use at least three groups. They are dead cheap. This time I used quite a bit of independent drones. I knew I’d be facing the Tyranids and wanted to try out a drone shield to slow them down on turn 2. This worked pretty well on the left Tau flank.

This gave me quite nice look in army. 103 units ready to rip the enemy apart :)

Tau Sector Protection Force (A saura) Cadres 2 x Firewarrior Cadre Battle Suit Cadre + Shas’O and Drones Armoured Mobile Hunter Cadre Railcannon variants Contingents 2 x Pathfinder Contingents 2 x Stingray Contingents 3 x Gun Drone Squadron Firebase

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Once assembled, I had a quite big army, unit-wise. I may have had a numerical parity with the nids -- or close, at least. Hena thinks I should use the big Tau toys, like the A-X-10, Morays, Scorpionfish and Manta. I think they don’t fit my style of play. I want many activations and don’t care if they are cheap and not all that shooty.

The Tau put the blitz behind a forest in eastern side of the table. Tyranid put the blitz on western side behind a forest as well. Other objectives were on Tau end within ruins in east and just before a hill on west. Tyranid side had them near the centre little over 30cm from each other. Tau first garrisoned the first Gue’vesa company in forest near the centreline.

GAME STARTS

Tyranids responded by garrisoning the support swarm into a forest near blitz.

Deployment

Then Tau garrisoned the other Gue’vesa company within the ruins on east and Tyranid response was putting  Genestealers near the first Gue’vesa company within forest. First one of the Firewarrior cadres near Gue’vesa that were close to genestealers on overwatch in open. As the Tyranids declined to put anything else the rest of garrisons are all Taus. Second Firewarrior cadre was put behind a hill on overwatch as well. And the last garrison was Kroot Kindred behind the Gue’vesa in west going from objective to buildings. Rest of the deployment on Tau side put Crisis suits as well as one Pathfinder and Stingray contingent on east. With one Drone Squadron flanking them. Then was Hammerheads and second Pathfinder and Stingray contingents in the centre. With last two Drone Squadrons in west. Tyranids put assault swarm 1 to west. Assault swarm 2 to east and 3 to the centre of the board. Behind a hill between assaults’ 2 and 3 was attack swarm and Hierophant.

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Tu r n 1 “Long R ange Shots” Tau wins the initiative. The battle starts with Cruiser Lah’na dropping to low orbit and targeting the Hierophant with both tracer missiles and laser fire. The pin point attacks both hit but cause only 3DC damage to the beast. Then tracers are rolled of which 3 hits. However the Hierophant seems to have thin armour as all missiles penetrate and the mighty bio construct is blasted apart by the spacecraft. The Tau then retain with Hammerheads advancing them from behind the hill. The railcannons are aimed at the support swarm in forest, but it offers no protection as all six railcannons hit. Tyranids show the lack of armour as all the Dactylises saves’ fail and only Hive Tyrant and a Zoanthrope is left alive. Battle isn’t starting well for Tyranids.

shoot the warriors with rail rifles killing one of the synapse units. Then the Stingrays open fire with their missiles at the just marked targets, causing 5 Termagant and a single Hormagaunt units to be blasted apart. On east the assault swarm 3 marches to a hill in the eastern edge. Which prompts the third Drone squadron to move in front of the forming the last screen. Then, as the Tyranid have activated everything, remaining activations belong to Tau.

But the Hive Mind feels the sweet taste of revenge as the Genestealers are ordered to engage the hapless Gue’vesa in the forest. Genestealers leap into action quickly covering the ground between them and the human troops. But the Firewarriors are ready in overwatch and fire as the Genestealers are entering into forest. Showing that Fire caste trains firing 4 of the shots hit home. Still forgetting armour all the 4 saves fail and ‘stealers are killed. Remaining 4 units then assault the humans, but only 2 hits from which one saves doesn’t give quite the effect that Tyranids was hoping for. The worst come to pass when Hammerheads give supporting fire and all hit. None of the ‘stealers survive the fight with only 1 Gue’vesa stand dead... During this the Gue’vesa company in the east goes on overwatch peering out of ruins. Then the attack swarm goes into action and marches to the centre of the battlefield. This causes the Tau to sends Drone Squadron 1 to screen the tyranid armoured vehicles and they double next to them. In Tyranid end the Hive Tyrant and Zoanthrope move out of the forest to hide behind it. The though ‘Railcannon are not nice’ wonders around the Hive Mind. On west the Drone Squadron 2 moves to west near midline of the board. Tyranids reply with moving the assault swarm 1 right next to them. This causes Tau to do coordinated fire. First the Pathfinders double ahead to Firebase

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First Gue’vesa on west doubles to another forest in west of assault swarm 1 and fires into it, killing one Termagant and Hormagaunt unit. Then Kroot engage with the Drones and Humans supporting. However this time the battle doesn’t go that well for Tau. While Tyranids manage to kill 5 Kroot units, Tau manages only to kill 3

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Termagants and 3 Hormagaunt units. A resolution is +1 to Tyranids (due to twice more units) and resolution kills the rest of the Kroot. Then Stingray contingent 2 should then advance. However comm frequencies have interference and they don’t get the orders until As’au’ra uses the command net and gives it personally. So the tanks advances to front of other Stingray contingent and opens fire at assault swarm 1. However only 3 Termagant and 2 Hormagaunt stands are killed.

Next is crisis suits and they double to east in to ruins and fire at the assault swarm 2. They manage to kill one Termagant and Hormagaunt stand. On east the second Pathfinders double southwest into forest and fire at the warriors of assault swarm 3, but miss. Lastly the Firewarriors on east try to advance but hold moving eastward.

End Ph a se •

All Tau formations remove BMs.

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Assault 1 spawns 2 Hormagaunts and Termagant stands (with spore).

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Assault 3 spawns 3 Hormagaunts.

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Assault 2 spawns 1 Hormagaunt and 2 Termagant stands.

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Support swarm fails to spawn.

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Attack spawns 1 Hormagaunt and a Termagant stand.

Tu r n 2 “First wave” The attack swarm first hands off just spawned common brood to assault swarm 3. Also assault swarm 3 hands off 5 Hormagaunt, Gargoyle and Termagant units to assault swarm 2. After this the assault swarm 2 became usable formation once more to the groan of Tau commander. Next the Greater Synapse Node teleports to control both of Tyranid side ‘Take and Hold’ objectives while Lesser Node teleports to Tau Blitz. Firebase

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Tau wins the initiative.

Turn starts with Pathfinders 1 (eastern one) coordinating fire with Drone squadron 2 in front of assault swarm 2 and Gue’vesa company 1. The Pathfinders and Gue’vesa sustain while Drones advance. Drones goes first to out flank the Tyranids moving behind the target swarm and fire killing a single Gargoyle stand. Then the human company fires a devastating volley killing 2 Termagant, 4 Hormagaunt and a Tyranid Warrior stands that were caught in the crossfire from Drones. Lastly the Pathfinders shoot firing  at the warriors, but both saves as there is no crossfire. Drones advanced too little as humans wiped the western end of the swarm. Retaining the Pathfinder 2 also coordinates fire with Hammerheads and Drone squadron 1 in front of assault swarm 3 targeting it. The Pathfinders and Hammerheads advance while the Drones sustain fires. First pathfinders move forwards a bit and fire missing completely, however one of the Devilfishes kills nearby Termagant unit with burst cannons. Drones hit twice, but Gargoyles save. Lastly the AMHC moves a bit forwards and railcannons fire killing a Gargoyle, a Hormagaunt and 2 Termagant stands. Not nearly enough to stop the swarm from assaulting.

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Then it’s Tyranids turn. The very damaged assault swarm 1 decides to act before they are blasted apart and engages the Drone squadron 1 in front of assault swarn 3. Fighting is quick as the swarm overwhelms the Drones. One Hormagaunt stand is lost while all the Drones are wrecked. Tau formations around the fight (Pathfinders and Hammerheads) get a BM. Consolidate sees the gaunts moving around the last Tyranid Warrior unit creating a wall of flesh between it and Stingrays.

Then it’s Tau and Stingray missile gunships. First the Stingray 1 sustains at the assault swarm 3. Missiles arc over the hill and once again the Pathfinders earn their keep by lighting targets like christmas trees. 3 Gargoyles, 2 Hormagaunts and a Termagant units are killed in the blasts. Retaining the second Stingray contingent also fires at the same target. The swarm is filled with more blasts, but the Warriors and Gargoyles make saves and only a Hormagaunt and a Gargoyle unit dies. On west the assault 2 decides to wreck more Drones and engages squadron 3 head on. Confident they pour over and bring Crisis as well

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as one Firewarrior unit into support fire range as well (Gue’vesa was already within range). However now it’s once more Tyranids side to suffer. From 9 Hormagaunts (4+ to hit) 2 hits. From 18 other FF units (5+ to hit) another 2 are scored! 4 hits from which Tau

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Support swarm manages to spawn 1 Dactylis with spore (as well as being over 30cm from enemy).

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Greater Node spawns Gargoyle and Hormagaunt stands.

save 2! To add to the insult almost all humans hit causing total 3 Hormagaunts, 5 Termagants and Gargoyle to die in the ensuing melee and withdrawal. Hive Mind reels from this remembering old engage against whirlwinds, which it also lost. Some curses are given to dices.

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Attack spawns 2 Gargoyles stands.

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Assault 1 spawns 2 Gargoyle and 3 Hormagaunt units with spore.

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Assault 2 spawns 2 Hormagaunts.

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Lesser Node spawns 2 Hormagaunts.

In east the Firewarriors double ahead and shoot at the exposed Warriors in the assault swarm 3, killing both. Looking for revenge the attack swarm engages the Hammerheads. This time the Tyranids do what they do best. 4 Hammerheads fall in the engage while all the Tyranid beasts are unharmed. Firewarriors support fire isn’t enough to damage either. With resolution strongly on Tyranid side the last two Hammerheads are wrecked while they try to fall back from the combat. Tyranid consolidate towards Firewarriors. Again in west the Firewarriors advance to the hill top and fire into assault swarm 2. But only two hits and 2 Termagant units die. In blitz the Lesser Synapse Node goes to overwatch. Gue’vesa company 2 also tries to fry the assault 2 and using sustained fire they manage to kill 2 Hormagaunt and single Termagant units. In east the remains of assault 3 ponders what they want to do and decide to die in battle. They engage the pathfinders. This means that even if they manage to win, they still are removed as they don’t have synapse with them. Total of 7 hits is caused (by support fire as well as assault 3), but Tau saves 6 of these with 5+. Return fire sees 3 units lost from Tyranids. However the resolution is tied and another round is fought. Tyranids manage to kill another unit. In return the remains of the swarm are killed leaving 2 BMs to Pathfinders. Finally the Crisis suits fall back towards the Tau blitz on double, but miss the Node there.

End Ph a se •

Drones in west rally.

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All Tau formations removes BMs (but one remains on the Pathfinders in front).

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Tu r n 3 “Second Wave” Again the brood are given away. The Greater Synapse Node gives the 2 units to assault swarm 2. And attack gives of spawned Hormagaunts to assault 1. The second Lesser Node teleports to Tau blitz. Firebase

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Tyranids win the initiative.

Sensing some softer prey near, the attack swarm engages the intermingled Pathfinders both and Firewarriors. Again the attack swarm does what Tyranids do best and rip the Tau apart. The entire Firewarrior Cadre dies in the assault while rout wipes the Pathfinder contingent 2 and one unit from Pathfinder contingent 1. Tyranids lose 1 Haruspex in the process. The surviving Pathfinders fall back to buildings in north eastern corner and Tyranids consolidate towards the neaby objective. Then there is some pondering on what to do with assault swarm 2. It most likely is goner when those Stingrays fire. In the end the support swarm retains for sustain fire at the Firewarriors on hill, but Hive Tyrant is sulking and the swarm holds shuffling about.

The just mentioned Firewarriors near the centre decide to try the firing routine again and sustain fires at the assault swarm 2. This time the accuracy is there and brood is cut down like wheat. A Gargoyle, 3 Hormagaunts, 4 Termagants and a Tyranid Warrior units are killed by the pulse rifles and carbines. Retaining the Stingray 1 tries to sustain, but fail. And they use hold to fire at the assault swarm 2. Missiles streak and only one Tyranid Warrior unit is left alive. In the east the assault swarm 1 ponders what to do. The most important target would be the Drone squadron 1 (which prevents ‘They Shall Not Pass’ victory condition). Unfortunately they have Tau Jump Pack (which allows 10cm move before engage move) and that puts them too far for most units in the swarm. Only 4 units would reach them. So they decide to engage the humans hiding in the forest instead. Once more the Hormagaunts bound to fill available close combat slots with bodies. And once more they fail to do their thing. Not only that but the Gue’vesa certainly have the hard helmets on as most of 5+ cover saves work and only 2 human units are killed. In return the Tyranids are beaten back and lose total of 7 Hormagaunt units. They fall back towards another the forest. In retaliation the Gue’vesa hesitate a bit but with As’au’ra words of bravery they sustain fire at assault 1. This kills 2 more Hormagaunt units as well as Termagant unit. The field is littered with dead Tyranids. Once more the Hive Mind is frowning at the table.

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In west the lone Tyranid Warrior of the assault swarm 2 decide that the killing zone isn’t a fun place to be and double back to take cover behind another hill. However the Stingray contingent 2 decide not to let the aforementioned Tyranid Warrior unit to survive and advance after the warriors. Once more the missiles fly and the last of the assault swarm 2 is spread into the hill side. In Tau end the second Lesser Node take overwatch. After which the Crisis suits decide to do un-Tau like thing and engages both Nodes. Hive Mind damns itself for the idiocy of putting them within 5cm of each other. The efficiency however of Crisis suits is noticeable and both spawned Hormagaunts die to fusion fire. In the resolution, both Nodes are killed. So much for them. As all Tyranid swarms have activated the Tau again can do rest at their own leisure. Which is basically two Drone Squadrons. First Drone squadron 3 in the east marshall and move to the Tau blitz. Then Drone squadron 1 in west double ahead to buildings in the south eastern corner.

End Phase •

Pathfinders fail to rally and move to midboard into the woods. Stingray 2 fails to remove BMs but rest do so. Greater Synapse Node uses last spore and spawns a Dactylis.

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The last assault swarm spawns a Hormagaunt unit.

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Attack swarm is still enjoying the engage and fails to spawn anything.

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Support swarm (which hasn’t even fired) spawns 2 Gargoyle units.

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The victory conditions are checked and the situation is 1 - 1. With Tau having

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‘Break Their Spirit’ and Tyranids ‘Defend the Flag’. So the game continues to turn 4.

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Tu r n 4 “End game” Tyranids win initiative. The Hive Mind ponders a bit on what to do now. In the end as the attack swarms’ Malefactor is just within range of engage to Stingray 2, they decide to engage. With Stingrays having a BM and attack swarm having double the amount it should be sufficient to win the assault by that alone. However one of the Tau gunships is damaged by the spines and wrecks itself on the hill. Since the malefactor saves the hit it got the assault is pretty clear and after the resolution dice roll the contingent is wiped out. Attack swarm then consolidates a bit towards the second Stingray formation. After some more worrying about initiative modifier for retaining, Hive Mind comes to conclusion that Gue’vesa company needs to die before acting. And thus the assault swarm retains and engages the humans. This time the hard helmets are off and the Humans aren’t saved. 5 units as well as commanders’ unit are killed while the rest run behind the broken Pathfinders. Tyranids lose a Gargoyle and Hormagaunt stands. Consolidate move makes another wall of flesh between remaining Stingrays and the last Warrior stand.

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Continuing on west the Drone squadron 1 double out of the buildings and contest the blitz while firing ineffectively at the Hive Tyrants swarm there. Not wanting the constesting to stay the Tyrant engages the Drones with his swarm. Gargoyle and Tyrant goes into close combat while rest stay to fire fight. The assault is one sided and all Drones are destroyed without any damage to swarm. The Tyrant then consolidates to keep the blitz. In centre and west the Gue’vesa company were ordered to spread out and they doubled to form a cordon between objective on Tau end and Tyranid end. Some shots were fired at the Tyranid beast, but they all missed. After quick checking the Hive Mind concluded that the Dactylises single blast template could not break the humans and sustain fired at the Firewarriors on the hill top. 3 Firewarriors die but the cadre doesn’t break (1BM too little). This was the last action left for Tyranids so Tau is once more free to act.

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Assault swarm spawns 2 Gargoyle and one Termagant units.

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Greater Synapse Node spawns 4 Hormagaunts.

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Attack swarm spawns Haruspex.

Then check for victory conditions. 1 - 0 for Tau with Break Their Spirit. Lastly roll if the 5th Turn is played, no. The 5th turn requires both players to roll same number with a d6. So the game ends. Now starts the frantic counting of victory points. Numbers are counted, re-counted, checked, found errors, re-checked and recounted, made mess of and counted again. End result is 1870 for Tau and 1626 for Tyranids. In the tournaments that we’ve had the draw is 250 points or less difference. So this game was declared as draw.

First the Firewarriors double down from the hills to contest the other Take and Hold objective, firing more at the Dactylis but missing as well. Now if the Greater Node dies the Tau will get ‘Take and Hold’ victory condition. This means that the Tau will win as they have ‘Break Their Spirit’ already. But there is nothing that Hive Mind can do at this point other than watch. Next the Crisis suits double to Firewarriors and manage to blast away the Dactylis. Then comes the last activation. The remaining Stingray contingent. Best way to remove the Node is engage, even if the Node is fearless. So Stingrays engage (another completely new thing) the Greater Synapse Node. First the volley between Node and the Stingray cause two hits on Node, which are saved. Then the supporting fire. Firewarriors hit several times, but the Crisis suits all miss. More saves is done for Node and it holds. Hive Mind is rejoicing. Then the resolution roll ... equal! This time the Tau commander rejoices as the new round is done and he has a chance to kill the Node still. Again the Node misses the Stingrays while the Stingrays cause one hit, saved. Then support fire, Firewarriors hit several times and Crisis suits score one hit. Firewarriors cause 1 damage! But the crisis is saved. Then roll for critical ... no critical. Again it goes to the resolving roll and Tau win! And the turn ends with Greater Node surviving by being fearless. Hive Mind gives out a big puuh.

End Phase •

Both Tau formation fail to rally (even with supreme re-roll).

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Support swarm spawns Dactylis.

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Luckily some of the Devilfish have been repaired and supply lines will be established to the city. She switched to command net - All units prepare to fall back to picket line Kel’Ta. - Shas’la will stay behind to mark any enemy that could try to harass the deployment and the remaining Stingray contingent will give covering fire if needed. Protect the Gue’vesa while they carry the wounded back. - Gue’vesa. Help the wounded and carry them with you. Firewarriors will cover you. Fall out to the city and take position there. Alert level red, but be prepared to stay in there for several days. We have supply coming in later tonight. - I have ordered Gun Drones to work as a tripwire during the night. - We have done well. The enemy has been halted for now and this will buy time for emergency evacuation. Lah’na will be orbiting nearby to scan the area for any new enemy build up and make low orbit passes to destroy targets of opportunity. - Carry on.

END FLUFF As’au’ra fired some more plasma rifle shots towards the Greater Synapse Node. ‘It had started so well.’ she thought. - First Lah’na had blasted the bio titan to bits and then the AMHC had dealt with the artillery beasts. - Damn those “things” that had erupted from below the ground! The smaller burrowers were easy, but the larger -- it had withstood so much fire. - At least the bug advance had been brought to halt. Hopefully the Air Caste can get some Tigersharks to destroy the remaining thing before it attracts too many forces.

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As’au’ra shrugged. The Tau losses were great. But the Greater Good lay in protecting the evacuation. She turned to join the others.

END BRIEFING T YRANIDS I had a terrible start in the game. First the Hero shoots my Hierophant before it even moves. Then due to mistake of deployment (should have had the Dactylises behind the forest) the Hammerheads manage to kill the support beasts. Usually the forest is a good idea as it protects from planes. But as Asaura didn’t have aircraft I should have kept them behind the forest. That support swarm played the weirdest game so far. It fired only once furing 4 turns and had one assault which it won. Then there was the genestealers charge into forest only to get butchered. I lost 750 points in three activations from which one was mine. That gave me a very bad feeling. Luckily I didn’t give up. Just needed to bite it down and get on with the game. Firebase

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The break came with the Kroot failing to assault me. There I had luck. Asaura failed to hit properly and I scored several times. That and good roll in resolution gave me nice taste for victory to continue with. The 2nd turn came with the nasty part of Tau. Coordinated fire. It allows up to 3 formation to fire against one target within one activation. That removed most of my 1st assault swarm. Luckily the retaining coord wasn’t that bad. I was enjoying the fact that Stingrays couldn’t join that fun. They are very nasty against Tyranids. The second coord also game me a fat target for attack swarm as the Hammerheads advance forwards. I would have thought that they would have advanced backwards away from the attack swarm. But I paid for that with the massive failure in eastern side with assault swarm 2. That got decimated by the Tau support fire. I got too careless as I wanted to give BM to those formations. I should have just taken it carefully and not run too far. 3rd Turn gave some help as well as I won the initiative. This allowed my attack swarm to press on and break the Taus western flank. If only the assault swarm 1 had not failed in it’s assault. Then I would have been able to use that flank breaking. As it was it was too late to take any advantage of it. And since I used the first activation to break that I sacrificed my assault swarm 2 to Stingrays. Although it was Firewarriors that made the biggest hole. I had planned to fire the Dactylises template there, but retain works only on 3+ so ... The need for supreme commander is evident if I want to retain. Too bad it’s very expensive for Tyranids. Also the third bigger mistake that I made was teleportation of 2nd Lesser Node. I should have put outside of that 5cm range to prevent intermingling. I don’t know what I was thinking (or most likely I wasn’t).

END BRIEFING TAU Once again, my precious fishmen were saved by the expendable auxiliaries. Both Human formations fought brilliantly. In retrospect, the Kroot assault on Turn 1 was too risky and wouldn’t have achieved all that much even if I’d have won it. I’d have been in better shape on Turn 2 if I had kept the Kroot in reserve until that. My method of placing the Pathfinders, the western Fire Warriors and the Hammerheads up front on turns 1 and 2 so that they could fire with max effect was high-stakes gambling, but I hoped good initiative rolls would save me. It worked until turn 3, when I finally lost the initiative roll. Chalk it up as a statistical loss -- most games against Tyranids I should win on turns 2 and 3. I gave up maintaining real intermingling discipline, since the Pathfinders are so damn hard to position with their 10 cm intermingling range. I got a shot at ending the game on turn 4 in a 2-0 victory due to some blunders by Hena. First, he teleported both the lesser nodes so close to each other that I could assault them both at the same time to clear my Blitz objective. Second, he diverted the centrally positioned brood to the west on turn 4. Had he moved toward the eastern T&H objectives, I would not have had a chance to capture them in the final assault. My assault failed, but it did have a chance. As always seems to happen when I play Hena, the ended up being close, even after all the good luck I had the early game.

game in

In the end it came down to survival ability of Greater Node. If it had been killed (as I really expected it to with those MW Crisis suits there) I would have lost 0 - 2. Man these cliffhangers are tough. Another thing that is good to remember with Tyranids, is the importance of 1BM. In all 3 assaults with attack swarm, I got +2 to resolution with that 1 BM. One was from support fire BM (Hammerheads). Other was from sacrifice of assault swarm 3s’ remains (Pathfinders). And last was from hold (Stingrays). Those are very important to have. I usually use the Dactylises for that ... but not this time. The game was a blast though. That is what a good game should be. Teetering from back and forth between victory and defeat. There were several moments of where the game felt ended and yet it always came back with a feeling that ‘Hey I might still win this’.

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modelling

Engines of Destruction

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this article I will give you the lowdown on how to make two of the legions of Chaos’ most dreaded War Engines. But me, I like converting, to paraphrase one Phil Kelly, I do get a strange thrill out of welding parts from several models that have no right to be together, that and just to say “That’s unique. Nobody else in the world probably has a figure like this.” Hopefully, after reading this article, that second statement will hopefully be false. On with the miniatures….

rimtuff is our resident Epic Lost and the Damned player, and has kindly agreed to talk us through some of his more crazy conversions. He also confirmed my suspicions that anything can be made chaotic by turning it upside down.

P l agu e Tow e r s

One of the main gripes about Specialist Games is the lack of miniatures. For Epic, this is mainly down to the fact that many of them are simply out of production, this means the average Epic player has to spend time converting and modelling these units. For some this is a royal pain in the backside, due to needing to find the relevant components and the possibility of the dreaded greenstuffing. So with

Parts needed:

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This conversion was not planned in any way; it was just a case of seeing what fitted where. Then suddenly having that flash of inspiration complete with cartoon light bulb and “ding” sound when I turned the Ork Dreadnought body upside down (yes there is one in there!)

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1 Ork Dreadnought front and back

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1 Ork Power Plant

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2 Ork Warbike Cat. Tracks (though any like this will do)

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1 Man ‘o’ War Black Ark prow. (this piece is OOP, but any skull will do)

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1 Ork Dreadnought Leg

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Plastic Tubing

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Warhammer Castle walls (once again, any stone bits will do, I just had these lying around)

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Green Stuff

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Stage 1 Glue the Ork Dreadnought body together and attach the Caterpillar tracks to the “shoulder” part just above the arms. Then cut out some rough square shapes from the Castle walls and stick around the parts where the Dread’s legs would go, don’t worry about being too neat, as you can cover it up with Green Stuff.

Stage 2

also have to cut a small ring to go around the ankle part of the Leg to complete the Mortar.

Stage 4 Finally add bits of Green Stuff here and there, making it look like lesions, rents of Daemonic flesh or just general disgustingness, add a light sprinkling of modelling sand to these areas and you’re done!

L or d s

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B att l e :

More random acquisitions, more war Engines needed. I’ll probably say this many times, but most conversion inspiration comes from just

Glue the power pant onto the back (the fit may a little tight as it is designed to go the other way around) and put the Black Ark skull on the front (it shouldn’t

be flush, try and make it so the bottom juts out a little.) finally put the Ork Dreadnought Leg in the middle of the castle section, you may have to create a small base for it depending on how big you built the tower.

Stage 3 Cut some small lengths of Plastic Tubing and place one on the forehead of the MOW Skull and the other level with the vision slit of the Ork Dread. You will holding a piece in a way it is not “normal” for it to be, in this case, the Juggernaut body. Firebase

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them. Attach these to the Battlewagons, and then to the Juggernaught body (you’ll need to get rid of the neck joint) in the slot where the front legs go, obviously they were not intended to go there, so you’ll have to “fudge it” a little.

Stage 2 Cut the Ork Dreadnought arms so there is only one elbow joint on them and attach the claw and gun to the part that would normally be the “shoulder” (i.e. the arm is upside down) Then add the Stompa’s Chain blade to the claw. Glue the arms into the holes where the Juggernaut’s back legs go.

Stage 3 Cut off the front from the Warmaster Bolt Thrower then bend the horns to shape, glue the back of the same Bolt Thrower into the Saddle part of the Juggernaut body and add a little Green Stuff done as Daemonic flesh.

Parts needed: •

1 Juggernaut Body

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2 Juggernaut back legs

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2 Ork Dreadnought arms

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1 Ork Dreadnought power claw

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1 Stompa body (for the chain blade, though any will do)

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1 old, old Ork Battlewagons (I think these came from the original Space Marine set)

Finally, add the Void shoulder pads to the top of the Ork Dreadnought arms (a little Green Stuff will be needed to make them fit) and add the turrets to the shoulders of the beast and we have one Lord of Battle!

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1 Warmaster Skellie Bolt thrower

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2 Void Viridian Interdict Marine shoulder pads

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1 Assault Cannon esq. looking weapon (the ones on these models actually came off a toy)

Hopefully we’ll be including more of Grimtuff’s armies in a future issue of Firebase!

Stage 1 Take the turrets off the Battlewagons and put them somewhere safe (you’ll need them later) then cut the feet off the Juggernaut legs leaving just the shoulder pad like part with the Chaos star on

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on field report

London Doubles Tournament 2007

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eter Sanlon & Franklin Ginn command ‘The Dark Guard’ on doubles tournament weekend.

Azrael, supreme commander of the dark angels launched a mighty attack at Alexandria Palace, London Doubles Tournament, on the third of June 2007. His force was composed of space marines and imperial guard. The tactical reports on the following three engagements are recorded for your enjoyment.

A z r a e l’s F orc e : Th e D a r k G ua r d The idea behind the force was to utilise Azrael’s skill of conferring an invulnerable 4+ save on any squad he leads, by letting him command a squad of 50 conscripts! The full army list is as follows: Type HQ Fast Troops

Squad Azrael Speeder 10 Marines

Wargear See Dark Angels codex Assault Cannon, H. Bolter 1 Missile launcher

HQ Troops Troops

Commissar Conscripts Command Infantry Infantry Infantry

x50 Junior Officer Missile launcher Missile launcher Plasma Gun

This army list aims to intimidate with the sheer weight of numbers in the army; 98 models in total, with a heavy bolter, assault cannon, plasma gun and 3 missile launchers. The huge block of conscripts with a 4+ invulnerable save would challenge opponents to make a difficult decision – ignore it or try and shoot up a hoard of models that cost Firebase

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only 4 points each, but have a terrific save? The first person to set up his army looked nervous, and was greatly relieved to be told by staff to move to a different table. The psychology was working before the competition began, but could the army win on the table?

Ga me One Versus witch hunters and space marines Mission: Seek and Destroy This was a formidable opponent; a well-balanced army with two exorcist tanks which took commanding positions on each wing of the army. They then proceeded to roll excellently every turn. As a result each tank managed to pour five or six rounds of shooting per turn into our forces. The hail of bullets caused us to fear for the safety of our fragile speeder. We foolishly gave in to fear and kept the speeder hiding the whole game. The speeder survived but killed nothing. Lesson learned; have more faith and courage! The conscripts and Azrael performed well for the first three turns. They did exactly what we hoped; caused confusion and fear. The opponent was unsure whether to waste shots on them. As the conscripts advanced closer, our opponent began to panic and turned guns on them. Frustration ensued as the 4+ saves reduced the effectiveness of the shooting dramatically. Our opponents then staged an admirable ploy. A squad of five space marine scouts had deployed in the middle of the board, armed with a power fist. This squad engaged the conscripts in close combat and effectively delayed the conscripts from reaching other enemies. Meanwhile, seraphim sisters swooped in

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This opponent tried shooting the conscripts with as much arms as they could muster. As a result they finished the game just under half strength – giving away 100 victory points. From our point of view, an acceptable price to pay for absorbing a huge amount of firepower that could have been used to destroy our missile launcher squads. The enemy made the error of lining their troops along one wing of the board. We ignored the guard and shot the more valuable marines to pieces with missile launchers and plasma gun. Meanwhile, our speeder used line of sight to ensure that when he shot his heavy bolter at the bike squad, the only model he could see was the chaplain. This resulted in one dead chaplain and a very unhappy opponent. The Emperor continued to bless our battle. When the bike squad attacked our guard squad, the guard fought first (due to being in cover). One guardsmen commander rolled sixes to hit and wound; the bike marine rolled double one to save! It was a great relief to see him removed from play; the event was so against the odds that it made us feel guilty. Only a small bit though! to launch hit and run attacks. The marine commander powered up his jump pack and in turn four engaged Azrael in close combat. A mighty battle between commanders followed – a few pathetic saving rolls later and Azrael was dead. Before fleeing off the board, a conscript avenged his leader by stabbing the weakened enemy commander through with a bayonet. With the centre-piece of our army dead, our plans were shattered and we accepted that the Dark Guard had been defeated in game one. We retired to lick our wounds and consider what we had learned from defeat.

As the previous battle raged on, the conscripts marched up the centre of the board in a huge block, absorbing fire and looking intimidating.

The highlight of the first match was when an imperial guard missile launcher immobilised the enemy venerable dreadnought, tooled up with a twin-linked las-cannon and extra armour. Such an upgraded veteran was worth a good few points!

G a m e Two Versus space marines & imperial guard Mission: R econ The enemy space marine army consisted of several ten men squads and a chaplain on bike with cohort brandishing a power fist. Fast close combat attack death!

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The game ended in victory for us, and was a model of how we hoped the tournament games to go. The conscripts in the centre of the board causing confusion and intimidation; the rest of our forces advancing on the wings. We realised that the defeat of the bike squad was lucky, but they had been softened up through strategic use of line of sight by the speeder’s gunner.

speeder could move to draw line of sight with an assault cannon. Even then it took two rounds of shooting to send the warp entity back where it belongs. Thus the final game of the day ended in victory to the Dark Guard, but they resolved in their next outing to be wary of daemons!

C onc lu di ng R e f l e c t ion s : G a m e Th r e e Versus imperial guard and daemonhunters Mission: Take and Hold Our opponent fielded a beautifully painted imperial guard army with daemonhunters. Unfortunately for them, they placed too much faith in their tanks. On the left flank they advanced a rhino with their daemonhunter command in it; in the centre a squad of storm troopers advanced in a chimera. By the end of the first turn both tanks were destroyed by our three missile launchers. The troops stumbled out to a harsh battlefield. Our speeder sat exactly 36 inches away from the storm troopers, and began to mow them down with the heavy bolter. Out of range, or hidden from the rest of the enemy weapons, the speeder had a good two rounds of shooting. The storm troopers fell to the withering hail of fire. Our conscripts were advancing en masse to the objective in the table centre. Enemy troops were engulfed in close combat, overcome by weight of numbers. The game looked all but over – then in turn three a bound daemon screamed from the warp and began munching through our marines! Ten of The Emperor’s finest had fallen before the Firebase

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The linchpin of our game plan had been to cause confusion and fear with the huge squad of conscripts led by Azrael. In the two games we won, this had indeed been a success. Indeed it had worked for several turns of the first game also. Enemy commanders were undecided whether to pour firepower into the conscripts or to ignore them. Those who tried to ignore them were shocked to find their troops absorbed into a huge close combat melee. There was indecision and confusion caused by the 425 point block of conscripts and supermarine commander! It is good practice to give your opponent difficult decisions to make. If this can be done in a surprising or intimidating way – so much the better! However, there is no foolproof plan. In the first game Azrael was killed, and our entire force collapsed. We had put all our eggs in one basket – it was an intimidating basket – but when broken it was all over. We were pleased to see the team that killed Azrael finished in the top four rankings. Due to the imbalance of our army list, when we lost a game we had barely a model left on the table, when we won games however, the opponent had hardly any models left. The core skills of range and line of sight stood firmly our minds by the end of the day. In both the second and third game, the speeder made crucial kills by positioning itself precisely, picking off a commander in game two and to shoot safely from the limit of its fire range in game three. In the heat of battle it is too easy to forget the value of range and line of sight. Commanders who want to win should drill their forces so that they know exactly when the enemy will be in range. Finally, it has to be emphasised that tournaments like this are huge amounts of fun. This year was better organised than last year – there was enough time to complete a game, as only three were played (as opposed to four the previous year). Playing against people who enjoy the game, know the rules, and want to fight for victory – it is tough to beat the adrenalin rush of strategy provided in dice, ranged fire, models and the forces of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Peter Sanlon

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battle report

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Clash on Ylvair

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n the deserted Maiden World of Ylvair, a host of Night Lords batte with the Tau for possession of the planet. Who will claim the alien treasures which may lie beneath the planet’s surface? We had decided to play a standard Swedish Tournament scenario, using normal Tournament armies. The Swedish tournament climate is rather different from some. Most of all, you’ll see competative, but not min-maxed units on the tables. The players: Linus Widner (Serpent) is playing his Night Lords, and Fredrik Landelius is using his much-feared Tau army. Fredrik is a wellknown tournament player in Sweden, and has placed himself in the top three in Sweden’s biggest 40K tournament, GothCon, for two years in a row (and before that as well, just not with Tau...). Linus may not be a top tournament player, but do OK in tournaments. He is also responsible for the idea for the Eldar table, built for GothCon 2006.

I n t roduc t ion Fredrik - Tau My name is Fredrik Landelius and I am the 40K champion of the world. At least that is what my girlfriend assures me when she tucks me in at night. Anyway, I have played 40K for most of my life, 16 years or four editions of the rules to be more precise. Not sure whether I should be proud or see a doctor but one thing is certain, 40K is a hobby that have brought me more good times than I can count. I have never once regretted, as a twelve year old, spending all my savings on the Rogue Trader book. The one thing that has been missing though, is writing a battle report. I remember a time when the White Dwarf battle reports were actually worth reading, when they were the highlight of the month. So when Linus asked me to do a report with him for the

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magazine that has brought back the spirit of the hobby to a written form, I was thrilled. So, one good old battle report coming up!

Linus – Night Lords Who am I? My name is Linus Widner, and although not the Champion of the World, as mr. Modest above, I know how to find my way around a 40K table. In the real world, I’m a Drama teacher. I began playing GW games in WH40K 2nd Edition, although it was Blood Bowl which first snared me into the gaming universe. I’ve always enjoyed the Battle Reports of old times (there are some which can be read over and over), and I was very happy to be allowed to do this Battle Report for Firebase. From the very start I wanted to use our newest table, the Eldar-themed one. Let’s hope this battle will be something enjoyable for everyone. A much-needed thanks to Johan Westlund (Bulonicus), who was kind enough to be our battle-recorder and photographer, even though he really didn’t have time to do it (we managed to persuade him in the end, though). Johan is also responsible for the special-effects on the photos. Thanks, Johan. I owe you.

Th e M i s s ion GothConian Cleanse GothConian Cleanse is a variant of the standard Cleanse Scenario. Special Rules: Infiltrate, Deep Strike, Concealment, Victory Points. Deployment: Long table edges, 12” deployment, 24” away from any enemy unit. Objective: Capture table quarters. Each table quarter is worth 425 Victory Points. To claim the quarter you have to be entirely inside it. Straggling units are rolled for to see which quarter they occupy.

N ig h t L or d s Choosing the army

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Linus: Choosing the army was fairly easy. I refuse to tailor my list to counter my opponent, and therefore used the tournament list I’ve played for a bit more than six months. This also has the advantage of not having to paint up a whole new squad to a deadline (although it would have been tasty to get those converted plastic Raptors done) and, more importantly, it is an army that I’m familiar with and know how to play. Note: Most of my units don’t have a Mark of Chaos. I’ve done this because of background reasons, with Night Lords being egoistic and not very fond of deities. Three units are Marked, so that I can actually get my Furies in. (Also, Night Lords get Night Vision for free, so no, there’s hopefully no rules broken in the list.)

Lord, here’s where the heavy points land, and with two large Raptor Squads and two packs of furies, it sums up to a massive 895 points! The Raptors have a specific role, with one being anti-infantry, with a Flamer and a Lightning Claw-armed Aspiring Champion, and one for taking out tanks, coming with a Meltagun and an Aspiring champion with a Power Fist.

HQ: Daemon Prince Kharbets’nahmn Daemonic Flight, Daemonic Stature, Daemonic Strength, Daemonic Visage, Daemonic Aura, Daemonic Essence, Daemonic Resilience, 2 Close Combat Weapons, Spiky Bits, Frag Grenades, Night Vision

First up is my Daemon Prince, Kh’arbetsna’hmn. Big and scary, and perhaps a bit on the expensive side, but still my HQ of choice. In this game I hoped to find some cosy forest to hide behind and then try to slam him head-first into anything that didn’t have time to get out of the way.

Elites:

The Troops section is a bit small, but is there to provide firepower. Two six-man squads with a heavy weapon each for tankbusting and a larger Infiltrating squad with an Aspiring Champion and an Icon. Their Autocannon have also proved deadly in previous games.

Squad Harbets 6 Chaos Marines, Stealth Adept, Night Vision, Missile Launcher.

On to my Heavy Support. As a Night Lords player, I’m only allowed one choice from this section. Sticking to my idea of warm bodies over tanks, I’ve got eight Havocs, armed with two Missile Launchers and two Autocannons. Tank Hunter and Stealth Adept would keep them standing, hopefully. As my only Elite choice, I took a single Obliterator. With his large array of weapons, he’ll be able to take down both tanks and infantry. I also like the model, having replaced all the metal weapons and spikes with plastics. Not as easy to chip the paint. And finally, my Fast Attack section. As a Night Firebase

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Squad Tyrini; 1 Obliterator

Troops:

Squad Kyusan 6 Chaos Marines, Stealth Adept, Night Vision, Lascannon. Squad Talorek

8 Chaos Marines, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Infiltrate, Night Vision, 5 Marines w. Bolt Pistol & CCW, 1 w. Autocannon, 1 w. Plasma gun, Aspiring Champion Talorek w. Power Fist and Bolt Pistol.

Fast Attack: Squad Charnan 8 Raptors, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Furious Charge, Night Vision, 1 Flamer, Aspiring Champion Charnan w. Master-Crafted Lightning Claws, Daemonic Strength & Meltabombs.

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Squad Anothis 8 Raptors, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Furious Charge, Night Vision, 1 Meltagun, Aspiring Champion Anothis w. Bolt Pistol, Master-Crafted Power Fist, Bionics & Daemonic Strength.

Starting at the top I never do battle without my Shas’O, Commander Land’O and his trusty bodyguards. That is a unit with loads of weapons and potential for devastating fire. A unit I can trust to decimate any target I choose for them.

Daemon Pack Trakhan (red streaks in the hair) 8 Furies.

All commanders needs troops to order around and I prefer to have a core of Fire Warriors in every game a play, today that core will consist of four units of ten Fire Warriors each. To complement them I took a big unit of Kroots with a Shaper and some Kroot Hounds. Hopefully they will have the numbers to take a beating and still be able to strike back with a decent amount of attacks. To fill my last Troops slot I took a Forge World Sensor Turret, basicly just a markerlight but cheap and many opponents overlook it.

Daemon Pack Sicivies (blue streaks in the hair) 8 Furies.

Heavy Support: Havoc Squad Durnis 8 Havocs, 2 Autocannons, 2 Missile Launchers, Stealth Adept, Night Vision, TankHunters.

T au Choosing the army Fredrik: Facing Night Lords, an army with a lot of fast-moving and hard-hitting close combat units, is not a Tau commander’s idea of a walk in the park. I have never been one to choose my army to counter an opponent’s army though, meaning that I will try to put together a well balanced army to counter anything my opponent throws at me.

The Elite slots were quickly filled up with a two-man Crisis Team, a single Crisis Suit and four Stealth Suits. As big guns I chose a Hammerhead with an Ioncannon, two Broadsides and two Sniper Drone Teams. The Hammerhead and Snipers will be invaluable against lots of power armoured lunatics while the Broadsides will hunt down any Daemon Princes trying to close with my troops. The last points were spent on a Forge World Tetra, another small markerlight-toting vehicle.

HQ: Commander Land’O: Plasma rifle, Missile pod, Cyclic Ion Blaster, H-W multitracker, H-W Drone controller, 1 x Shield drone. Bodyguard (2): #1: Plasma rifle, Missile pod, Targeting array, H-W Multi-tracker. #2: Twin missile pod, Target lock.

Elites: Stealth (4): 4 x Burst cannons. Crisis (1): #1: Twin missile pod, Blacksun filter. Crisis (2): #1: Plasma rifle, Fusion blaster, Multitracker, leader, targeting array. #2: Twin missile pod, Target lock.

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Troops: Fire Warriors (10): Pulse rifles. Fire Warriors (10): Pulse rifles. Fire Warriors (10): Pulse rifles. Fire Warriors (10): Pulse rifles. Sensor Turret: Kroot (19+1+6): 1 x Shaper, 6 x Kroot Hounds.

Fast: Tetra (1): Markerlight, Targeting array, Disruption pod.

Heavy: 2 x Sniper Drone Teams

of the board, although the impassible Titan’s wreck make them seem to lean a little towards the left flank. My Crisis Suits and HQ deployed on the right side of the battlefield with a plan to quickly overcome that flank and trap my opponent in some sort of pincer-maneuver. My Tetra deployed on the left flank with the intension to scout ahead and markerlight one of the Raptor squads for my Broadsides. Finally my Stealth Suits set up to counter Linus’ infiltrators in the river while the Kroots sneaked up on the far left flank to bolster the defense against the Raptors.

Night Lords I wanted to box the Tau in, and keep them away from the centre of the table. The Havocs ended up in the forest in the middle of my deployment zone, with their support units on either flank. I then placed my my Prince on my left, far away from the Broadsides, and then my fast-moving choices on my right flank. Hopefully, the Prince could advance together with the Infiltrating squad, which I placed in the river to be able to get in a shot or two at the Ionhead. The assault units would then wait for the cavalry (well, Furies) to arrive, and assault the Tau battle line.

Hammerhead: 2x Burst cannons, Multi-tracker, Decoy launchers, Target lock. Broadsides (2): Twin Railguns, Smart missile system, Advanced stabilization system, Team leader, HW Drone Controller, 2 x Shield drones. 1748p

D e pl oy m e n t Tau I got to choose sides and started with deploying my Broadsides behind some woods where they will have a good view of most of the battlefield. The Sniper Drones ended up in the center, close to the table edge to get the most out of their stealth field generators. The Hammerhead was deployed on the right flank, out of sight from Linus’ Havocs. My Troops were deployed to cover most Firebase

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Tu r n 1. Tau I won the roll for the first turn and chose to take it myself for three reasons, to get my Hammerhead moving, to get an extra turn without daemons and to try and wipe out the infiltrating squad on the right flank and thereby removing the only icon on that flank. On the left flank I held back both the Kroots and the Fire Warriors behind the Webway portal. No point in giving the Raptors an opportunity to charge me during the first turn. The Fire Warriors in the woods also stayed concealed while the two remaining units of Fire Warriors moved forward to apply some pressure on the infiltrators and the Raptors in the center. The Tetra moved forward to a position between the Raptor squads and tried to markerlight the Raptors in the center for the benefit of the advancing Broadsides. However the Tetra’s crew was obviously spooked by the wicked Marines and missed, leaving the Broadsides unable to spot their intended target. On the right flank all my Suits jumped forward with intent to annihilate that threatening icon bearer in the river. A devastating volley of fire from the Crisis Team, Stealth Suits and Hammerhead cleared the river of every single infiltrating Night Lord. That exceptional result left my HQ with a clear shot at the Daemon Prince, which resulted in two wounds. The right flank was turning out just as good as the left was turning out bad. During the assault phase all my Suits jumped back to their original positions.

flew forward, although Squad Charnan only moved aproximately 5”, in order to coax the Kroots out. I had to hope my armour saves got better, but at least I wouldn’t be assaulted by the Kroot. Squad Anothis jumped forward to take cover behind the small forest in the centre, in order to summon the daemons in turn 2. In my shooting phase, the Lascannon of Squad Kyusan missed the Ionhead, but my Obliterator managed to stun the skimmer. On the right flank, both my Raptor units fired at the Tetra, but only managing to stun it. My Havocs, having nothing else to shoot at, targeted the Sensor Turret and, unsurprisingly, blew it up. The missile squad hit their chosen target, the advancing Fire Warriors, but not a single Tau fell, thanks to combination of bad rolls to wound and good rolls to save from Fredrik.

Night Lords I am unable to roll armour saves. At least that what it seemed like after the first turn. With my infiltrators dead and my Prince severely wounded I decided to concentrate on my right flank. I therefore moved the Prince towards the centre, knowing that he would probably face two Railgun shots, but decided to take my chances there instead of just storming head first into Tau rapid fire range. Both Raptor squads

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Tu r n 2. Tau With very little real damage done to my units during the first turn, this looked like it could be a really nice battle after all. My main concerns where still to clear the right flank and to deal with the now very threatening Raptors and their potential of delivering daemons straight into my lines. With that in mind I spread out my Fire Warriors in the center to prevent the Raptors from jumping over them into the juicier targets behind them. They had to be sacrificed for the Greater Good. On the far left I took a chance and tried to have the Kroots climb the Webway portal and rapid fire on the Raptors hiding behind. I should have known that Kroots only could climb trees, no damage was done by the few Kroots who actually got to shoot. The Fire Warriors behind the Kroots had a clear shot at the Raptors in the center but the four outmost Warriors thought that the unit of Raptors only they could see was more frightening and decided to shoot at them instead. Fortunately they managed to take one of them down. My unit of Fire Warriors in the woods shot at the same unit and managed to do a single wound, which was of course saved. My last unit of Fire Warriors was supposed to target the Lascannon wielding squad aiming at my Hammerhead but they too found an odd Raptor to target. Again fortunate, they brought Firebase

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one of them down. The Broadsides found themselves with a prime target and sent two solid slugs smashing into the Daemon Prince’s chest. One of them was made of paper but the second one went through unsaved and I watched with relief when the Prince was taken off the board. On the right flank things did not improve much, although my HQ took out three marines I still had a Lascannon and an Obliterator facing my stunned Hammerhead. Luckily the Lascannon-armed squad fled of the table and I moved my Suits forward behind the fallen titan, presenting the lone Obliterator with a lot of different targets, hoping to save the Hammerhead. I really want to keep that Ioncannon. Unfortunately my commander couldn’t swim and took a wound from landing in the river. Even though my shooting didn’t do much damage I was still in a good position. Except for the Obliterator, I owned the right side of the board and now all I have to do was to wait for the charge on the left flank.

Night Lords Alright, that’s the end of my left flank. With the Prince predictably gone, and Squad Kyusan being a bunch of swiftfooted cowards (12” fallback move, thanks guys...), it now fell to my Obliterator to take on the entire Tau forces on my left. But first, Daemons! Both Daemon packs arrived promptly, and I put my first pack in the centre, where they would have a pretty good chance of getting into combat anwhere, even if they scattered. They didn’t scatter at all, and I therefore chose to place the second pack with my rightmost Raptor Squad, so that I would

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not risk losing parts of the pack. This pack scattred 12” backwards to the left, but after their first move, it was evident that the Fire Warrior Squad in the midle would be in for some hurt. The left pack moved up to engage the single Crisis Suit, but I had to land two of the Furies in the wood in order to keep them 1” away from the Fire Warriors. With the words: ”Two 1’s”, I rolled the dice, and both Furies speared themselves on some treebranch. This wasn’t all bad, as it meant that I would assault the Suit without having to take a Difficult Terrain test.

wounds from the Kroots, but I managed to save everyone (my saves were definitely getting better!). In return, seven Kroots were killed, leaving the Raptors unable to catch them as they fled. Squad Charnan consolidated back behind the Webway Portal in order to shield them from most of the return fire.

Squad Anothis stayed put, as involving them would just make sure the Fire Warriors were wiped out, and my expensive squads left out in the open in front of a Tau gunline. Squad Charnan had a very good target, and surged forward towards the Kroot. The Obliterator managed to even out the score a bit on my left flank by destroying the Ionhead, catching a single Fire Warrior in the explosion. On the right flank, the Tetra was blown out of the sky by Squad Anothis but exploded with a 6” radius, catching the Daemons of Pack Sicivies. A few Daemon saves later, only one Daemon had been killed. The Havocs shot down a few Kroots and the Raptors killed a whopping ten Kroots with their Bolt Pistols and the Flamer. Thankfully, the Kroots held, giving my Raptors something to charge. In the assault phase, both Daemon packs and Squad Charnan crashed into the Tau and Kroot line. Pack Trakhan struck a wound on the suit, after some great saves by Fredrik. The suit then kicked a Daemon back to the warp, leaving the combat tied. Just as I wanted it. Squad Sicivies mangled their target with five kills, but the remaining few Tau stayed put. The Raptors took five

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Tu r n 3. Tau Things are not looking good on the left flank. I have two units locked in close combat in the middle of my battle line and my Kroots are falling back. That calls for drastic measures. The Fire Warriors in the woods had to move forward to counter charge the Furies in combat with their fellow Warriors, hoping to keep them locked there another turn. On far left the Fire warriors once again aimed at the center Raptors. This time there is no distractions and they took one down. The twoman Crisis team also targeted the Raptors but did no damage. The Broadsides used their Smart missile systems to target the same unit of Raptors and although inflicting six wounds only one fell. The Sniper Drones, which I thought would be real killers in this game, accounted Firebase

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for their meager second kill by taking out a single Havoc. Another Havoc fell to Burst cannon fire from the Stealth Suits and the Obliterator was laid low by my HQ, leaving my HQ, Crisis team and Stealth Suit behind the titan’s wreck in complete possession of the right flank. On to some very important close combat fighting. I charged the Fire Warriors into the existing melee and I naturally lost the combat but both my units held their ground against the Furies. My lone Suit miraculously drew his fight with the other unit of Furies, for the second time! I didn’t do very much damage this turn either but a least the two units of Furies are not free to assault new units, which hopefully gives me one more chance to decimate them with concentrated fire. If I have enough units left to shoot with, that is.

In the assault phase, my Daemons finally realised their purpose (a little late, methinks), and killed the lone Crisis Suit, just to find themselves standing in front of two Sniper Drone teams. I tried to consolidate out of harms way, but only managed to get out of sight from most of the left Tau forces. On the right flank, things went a bit too well. The Furies and Raptors predictably killed one entire Fire Warrior squad. With the other one running off, this left my Raptors and Furies standing in the open, looking a bit nervous. In order to get Fredrik to fire at my cheaper Daemons (who’re also better at facing low-AP fire than my Raptors), I moved Pack Sicivies towards the Broadsides. Perhaps they would manage to spook him... Squad Charnan killed the remaining Fire Warriors and caught the Kroots in their flight. The Kroots managed to rally, and at least everything was going to plan in one place...

Night Lords Time to get something done. I couldn’t trust in my armour saves to get me victory, even though they weren’t as bad as usual. With my Obliterator gone (two 1’s out of three for armour saves - sounds about normal), I only had my Havocs to control the left flank. This was not going to work. What the heck, over to the flank where stuff were going my way. My Daemons of Pack Sicivies looked like they could hold their own, but I took a chance that I might be able to consolidate into the Broadsides if I rolled well enough. Squad Charnan had the exact same idea, moving up to the Fire Warriors on my right flank, and hoping to consolidate into the fleeing Kroot, saving the expensive Raptors from return fire. Both my remaining firepower units fired at the Fire Warriors on my left flank. With Squad Harbet missing again, and the Havocs managing to kill only a single one with their autocannons and missiles, things weren’t going exactly as planned. The Raptors of Squad Charnan killed a few Tau with their flamer and Bolt Pistols before charging into the squad.

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Tu r n 4. Tau Time to clear out those daemons. My remaining unit of Fire Warriors advanced towards the closest Furies, not so much to fire at them as to keep the inevitable close combat as far away from my Suits behind the titan as possible. A few of them were in range and their fire sent one Fury back to the warp. My Snipers and Broadsides are now doomed, at least they get one last chance to redeem themselves. The Broadsides moved towards the Furies, preparing to assault them if that is what it takes to bring them down. The snipers fired their markerlights at the right unit of Furies but aimed their Rail rifles at the left unit. One markerlight hit and one causality is the disappointing result of the two team’s combined fire. But boosted by markerlights the Broadsides’ Smart missile systems wiped out the other squad of Furies, with a little help from my remaining Crisis team though. My HQ took out three Havocs and thereby reduced them to below half starting strength. That is at least one less scoring unit.

With only three remaining squad members, my Havocs had to make a run for it. It seems like the word ”run” was a bit much to demand, as they only managed to move 2” in the wood, leaving two inside it, and woefully in sight of the Tau killer-HQ. With my remaining three Daemons, I decided that combat was the safest place for them, and therefore flew towards the Fire Warriors on my left. Squad Harbet fired at the Broadsides, but Fredrik’s 2+ save was solid. No other units even wanted to shoot (had they had the chance). My assault on the Sniper Team went swimmingly. The Sniper Drones were cut down to the last little gadget, and the victorious Raptors swept into the Broadsides. Unfortunately, they would not have everything their way. Even though Aspiring Champion Anothis decided to use his Bolt Pistol to bludgeon the Broadsides instead of his Power Fist, he and his squad managed to score a wound on the massive suits. The Broadsides did nothing in return, and were run down. Now, my Raptors were out in the open again. Curses. The Daemons ripped into the Fire Warriors. Well, patted is a more accurate description. Only two Tau were killed, and they dragged down a Daemon in return. I chose to remove the one furthest away from me, which later proved to be a very bad move. The Tau fled, got caught by the Furies and my following consolidation roll would have taken my Daemons into the Sniper Drones, had I removed another model as casualty. A decision I didn’t think would have an impact proved to be very decisive (at least for the poor Daemons).

In the assault phase, my Suits once again jumped back behind the fallen titan. Lastly, my Kroots finally did some good and brought two Raptors with them to the grave.

Night Lords Well, it almost worked. The Daemons of Pack Sicivies had done their job, and now it was time for my Raptors to finish everything off. Squad Charnan jumped in between the Sniper Team and the Broadsides on my right and Squad Anothis flew closer to the Broadsides. My plan was to kill off the Snipers with Squad Charnan and then consolidate them into the Broadsides. I had to keep my other unit alive as well, and therefore decided to play it safe and assault the Broadsides with Squad Anothis as well. If it worked out, I could always ”hit n’ run” them towards the other Tau units afterwards.

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Tu r n 5. Tau My last few units better make themselves count this turn. My HQ gunned down the two Havocs still inside the woods, hoping that the last one would miss his morale test. The Stealth Suits blasted the last of the Furies to shreds. My Crisis Team succeeded in taking out one of the few Raptors in sight. With my last Sniper Team I tried to decimate the Raptor unit furthest away from my own units to prevent them from hiding for the last turns and thereby securing a quarter. However, I failed my target priority test and had to fire at the nearest Raptors. With a change of luck all three shots were kill shots and that unit was suddenly below half strength instead. Not a perfect result, because now that unit can assault my lines without any thought of objectives but still not all that bad. Although there was no close combat, the assault phase spelled disaster for my chances of coming out on top when I realized that I could no longer reach the two left quarters of the board. A minor loss of focus on the objective last turn when I backed my HQ back behind the titan instead of moving up towards the Havocs would cost me over 400 VP’s.

Night Lords Not much left to do but hold on to whatever I had left. Thankfully, the last member of Squad Durnis passed his All Alone-test (on a result of nine, no big margins in this game). Squad Anothis were too far away from any cover to be safe, unless I charged the Sniper Drones. Charnan led his men into safety behind the big forest on my right, claiming the quarter. Then, I realised something. When positioning his Crisis team on my left, Fredrik had perhaps made a mistake. I could draw line of sight to it with my Missile Launcher in Squad Harbet. If I could kill one, perhaps the other one would flee? Well, you can guess what happened. A miss, of course. Darn. Squad Anothis crashed into the Sniper drones, killed three and ran down the last one, luckily. (Fredrik has a nasty surprise in his sleeve with his Sniper Drones. If the Controller is removed, the Drones are removed in the end of the phase, which means that they can effectively take away your chance of consolidation. The remaining Drone or Drones become locked in combat, is then removed and your guys sit and wait for the Tau execution detail to arrive...) Unfortunately, they only manage to consolidate 2”, leaving the Champion out in the open...

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Tu r n 6. Tau Time to tie up any loose ends. First the Stealth Suits backed away to secure that quarter of the board. My HQ jumped as far forward as they could and two of them could draw line of sight to one of the last two raptors, the aspiring champion. Three wounds, two unsaved but miraculously both shots hit some bionic part and bounced off. Curses. My last Crisis Team tried to play a gamble and jumped into the woods, hoping to catch a glimpse of the raptors on the other side. Unfortunately they couldn’t see far enough through the woods, a quarter of an inch further into the woods and things would have been brighter. To really rub it in, one of them bumped his head on a tree and took a wound from landing in difficult terrain.

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During the assault phase the Stealth Suits and HQ hid and secured their respective quarter, while the Crisis Team stayed in cover to at least be able to strike back at all in the coming close combat.

Night Lords Oh, thank you, dices! That’s the first time in six months that my Bionics have worked! The dice continued to behave, as my lone Havoc once again passed his All Alone-test (on a result of nine again, thank you). My small, but deadly, unit of Raptors sped towards the Crisis team in the woods. This could be it. If I could take out the Crisis team, things would look brighter. As we both controlled two quarters each, I was after some more points (and payback, more importantly). The shots against the Crisis Team failed to make any damage, however. My Raptors managed to get into combat with the Crisis suits. I chose to use the Fist on the Champion to really be able to kill off the entire team. My other Raptor managed to score a wound on one of the suits with his attacks, removing one suit. Fredrik’s suits then struck back (well, at the same time, really) and scored three hits, which then became two wounds. I prayed my dice would behave. They didn’t. Two 1’s out of three, and this time the Bionics wouldn’t work. It was over, and my final gamble didn’t pay off. Now, we had to be separated by points...

R e su lt Tau: 1204 points. 2 quarters. Chaos: 1302 points. 2 quarters. Difference: 98 points. Result: Draw!

C onc lu s ion : Tau That was a close fought game. Less than 100 VPs separated the two sides when it was all over. That is pretty close considering that one could get a maximum of 3500 VPs. It was also a mighty entertaining game with a lot of ups and downs, heroic performances countered by utterly crappy ones and an uncertain outcome. I tried to hold the left flank as long as possible while being more offensive on the right flank. Unfortunately that didn’t work flawlessly and I ended up being too defensive on the right flank while my left flank fell to easily. My HQ was probably my best performing unit, always doing its job to an outstanding degree. The highlight of the game was definitely the Raptor champion’s two bionic saves followed by being beaten in close combat by my Crisis Team. A great game and I am really looking forward to a rematch. The Night Lords has to be shown the true strength of the Greater Good.

Night Lords What a close one! With only 98 points in between, this is my closest game with Fredrik ever. As my sixth turn began, I honestly thought I was well behind on points, much because I really have no idea what Tau units cost. And I’m used to losing to Fredrik. This might be subject to change..? In hindsight, perhaps I should have placed my Havocs better. In the whole game, all they took out was some infantry and a sensory turret. Their disadvantage is that they’re not a mobile unit at all, and that they will almost always be the first unit I place in deployment, leaving me guessing where the opponent will end up. Also, the infiltrating Squad Talorek has had better days. Also, the Prince could have been used much better. Had I rolled a bit better armour saves in the first turn,

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he might have been able to do something. On the other hand, his death meant that the Broadsides didn’t shoot at my Raptors, which could have proved fatal. What went right? Well, my idea of getting the Tau gunline tied up in close combat worked, even though it wasn’t without fault. I managed to bounce between the Tau units with one of my Raptor squads, and that probably saved it from a lot of causalties. I also managed to get my flanking manouvre to work properly. My ”man of the match” is most certainly Anothis. Too bad he bit the dust in the final turn... Summing up, it was a close-fought game, hanging on key decisions and dice rolling. And a game like that is always enjoyable! A Battle Report by Linus Widner, Fredrik Landelius and Johan Westlund.

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