Codex Adeptus Astartes Space Marines

I'm sure you are expecting me to go thought page by page say what's good what's bad and so on but no I'm not. The reason for this is I expect every man and there dog who have a Warhammer 40k blog will be "reviewing" this codex. So my review is "It's Good, Very Good." Done. So instead of a full in-depth review I'm going to do my top ten changes to the codex's.

10. Warlord Traits

I was going to just say Vulkan (yes I'm a fan boy, deal with it), but I relised Vulken himself hasn't changed, his warlord trait did and that's what pumps me about him once again. His trait, (as well as Lysander's and Pedro's) grants a 4+ Feel No Pain. So Vulkan (and Lysander) have a 2+ or a 3++ and if they fail you well here have a 4+ fell no pain as well. Don't mind if I do. But to be fair to the Warlord Traits Table, there all good, apart from 6 that's meh at best.

9. Less Restrictions

Sounds silly but things like command squads are now an elite choice, nothing in there rules stop you from taking them if you don't take a Captain (or a named character). Also being able to take character like Sergeant Telion as a HQ choice is fantastic.

8. Scouts

You fixed them GW, well done, all you had to do was make them hit on 3's and now people want to take them.

7. Centurion Devastator Squad

Now even thought as a whole they have dropped in price, the most common load out (and the more devastating) is now the more costly of the options. I personally have used the Lascannon sit back and shot option more than the more common GravCannon version but have coming up against said GravCannon centurions it's nice to see there more points than the "nicer" version.

6. Icarus Stormcannon Array

It lost Servo-tracking (don't think I ever saw that get used), it lost a shot (now heavy 3 not 4) but gained Interceptor. I now want a stalker or 2, sounds silly how adding interceptor to a weapon changes everything about it, but means you are more likely to use that weapon and do some damge to that pesky flyer then you where before.

5. Techmarines

Not only are they now cheaper in points, they now have 2 wounds. Simple yet much much needed (epically as I'm a massive fan of the thunder fire cannon)

4. Sternguard

Now cheaper in points, and if you take the imperial fists chapter tactic you can reroll there special issue bolt gun ammo of hits of 1 unlike before.... thanks.

3. Land Raider Spearhead

First formation on the list (and I'm sure won't be the last),  this formation turns the land raider into a super heavy (more or less), letting it ignore everything on the vehicle damage table apart from the Destroyed result as long as there within 6" of another model from that formation is amazing. I love land raiders and I get very angry when I can't move them, this should help that.

2.  Taking Tanks in Squadrons

Simple and much needed fix to some tanks (like the predator and whirlwind), now I can take 3 in a unit, with bones to them if I do, more likely to want to use them now then I did in the past.

1. Gladius Strike Force

The new way to build your space marine list, and boy is it a good one.

Basically mix and match formation to create your list. The best thing about this is the special rule if you take two Battle Demi-Company's you can get dedicated transports for units that can have dedicated transports (rhinos, razorbacks and drop pods) for free. Now you can achieve this at 1500 points (not leaving much room for extras) but at the new standard of 1850 it seems you can do two with decent amount of upgrades  and about 300

points of free transports, is it game braking, no, is it fun and worth your time, yes.

So there my best bits of the new codex. I wish I could of said that terminators are better and worth there points but no, not really, I'm hoping the dark Angels codex fixes them. I will say it's fun new codex, doesn't seem as over powered as Necrons and Eldar but strong in comparison to Wolves, Guard and Grey Knights.

Tale of Seven Gamers: Chaos Space Marines

The main reason I have started this blog is for the Tale of Seven Games. In which I have decided to do Chaos Space Marines. A Tale of Gamers is where you each chose an codex, you have to build a 500 point list for the first month (or 3 months for our tale, this may change to 2 after the first 3), then every month the points increase by 250 points until you reach 1500. To win the tale you have to win points, you win points by winning games every section and by painting your army every section. Point are kinda simple, 3 points for a win, 1 for a tie and 0 for a loss. Then for painting its 9 points for completion of the painting for each round. 5 points will be awarded for more then 50% completion. The whole point of the tale is to have a 1500 point army completed by the end.

The tale I am taking part in is with members of the MAD Wargames club, the armies included are My Chaos Space Marines, Dark Eldar, (The New) Space Marines, Dark Angels, Deamons, Necrons and Tau (by our very own Nick from The Burning Eye you can see his progress on there). I love the range of different armies here, means people are not going to build there list to fight just one armies (however 4 armies there with 3+ saves is a factor).

Be for we started the tale I had pretty much decided on what I wanted to do for my Chaos Space Marines. So I decided to build a 1500 list (the final goal) and work from there for the 4 other lists needed to get to that list.

So here is the 500 point list for round 1.

A Level 3 Sorcerer with Force Axe and the Allure of Dark Glory. He joins a unit of Chaos Space Marines with a Melta Gun. The Champion has a Combi-Melta and a Power Sword, the marines have the Mark of Nurgle and are in a Rhino. Then the rest of the klist is Armour baby, with a Helbrute (no upgrades and a Mulerfiend (again no upgrades). (For round one we arre allowed to take only one troop choice and stay bound.)

There was a Heldrake in the first list however I decided that may be a little unfair to begin with.

So there we go an introduction into the Tale of Seven gamers, hoping to have my first match with them this week. This blog will keep you up to date with my painting along with the results of my games, hopefully including a battle report of said game.

The Fireborn Rises from the Ash

So I always find the first of something the hardest thing to do. I suppose I should start with telling you about my Table Top Gaming history and how I have gotten to here. So I guess it all started with Pokemon, sounds silly but I was massive into that game (still am into the DS Games) when I was a kid, but I was especially into the Pokemon TCG (by Wizards of the Coast at the time), never really got into it as a game but more into collecting the cards. Moving on from that I got into YuGiOh in a big way. I used to win local tournaments and top quite high in larger events. That was the turning point from collector into gamer for me. I would say around the time I started YuGiOH I did try Warhammer but being a teen at collage I could not afford the cost of that game, used to watch som
e friends play and new it was something I would love to play.

After University and noticing the YuGiOH game I used to know and love had changed way to much for me to want to keep up with it I was in a low of not really doing anything. I was shopping in Peterborough with the misses and walked pasted there Games Workshop and decided to pop in. Best decision ever. The guy was a good sells man was well to be fair but he gave me a taster game and then sold me the marine codexs and the Assault on Black Reach starter kit. That started a massive spiral of events, managed to find some local people who play, it was in a guys roof but as a group we decided to find somewhere better to play and now have our own club called MAD Wargames, of which I am proud to be a member of.

So what games do I play and collect now?
Well the main one I collect and the main theme for the blog is Warhammer 40k, and probably as you can guess from the title of the blog I play Salamanders (Space Marines). I also collect Grey Knight for 40k and Chaos Space Marines which I'll get more into soon.

As for other games, I collect Ogres for Warhammer Fantasy but been holding off on them for a little while now as changes seem to be coming for that gaming system. I also collect the Hero's for the Batman Miniatures game buy Knight Models, fun system to play but only just started playing that with two games under my belt. I also play Star Trek Attack Wing with a Nick (The Burning Eye) from the club, I collect The Federation and Romulans. Lastly the TCG world hasn't completely left me as I also play Magic the Gathering (which I started whilst at university). There is a few other that crop up (Bloodbowl, Distopian Wars) but not played often enough to really mention at the moment.

So why have I started a blog?
Well I am taking part in a tale of gamers, with some guys from the MAD Wargames club. Now my motivation for painting especially is low, I'm not the best painter in the world so after talking with Nick from the The Burning Eye I decided that bloging is something I would like to do to try and keep my motivation high for all hobbies and all parts of 40k. Main things I will be wanting to talk about in this blog will be, battle reports, the tale progress and hobby rumours, as well as talking about other gaming systems and what's happening in them (say Batman Miniatures or MTG)

I hope this wasn't too crazy for a first post and I would like to thank Nick from the The Burning Eye for mentioning me on his Blog as well as putting me on there for people to see.

I will speck to you all soon with an introduction to my Chaos Space Marines army and the plan for the tale.

Into the fires of battle!

Unto the anvil of war!