Plamo: The Big Mek Dakkarig (Armageddon Release)

 

And now for another installment of Project Legs11. Today, we focus on the only actually new thing in the Armageddon box: the Big Mek Dakkarig.

 

Ordinarily, I'd like to place a model such as this in its proper, or proppa, context, but the Dakka Rig is so new as to almost lack one. It's simply, and obviously, a gatling gun on legs. It's all about the Dakka, it's in the name. Perhaps it will gain said context with the 11th edition codex. I don’t know, I didn’t get the book until this model was done, and its only had rules in general for a matter of mere weeks. It seems to be positioned as a de-facto HQ choice for Dreadbash and Mek-centric armies, as it's the personal conveyance of a Mekboy. Other than putting a lot of bullets into something, it also carries rokkits, but unlike ever other Ork walker, it's mêlée functions are kinda minor. More importantly though, this is very much within my hyper-fixations, which is why I put off doing it until now.

As a build, this is very much in the same fixed pose style as everything else in the Armageddon box, if maybe less irritating due to the larger size. This still is a case where you're gonna need sub assemblies, some gap-filling as it turned out late in the process, most notably with the Mek whom needed painting separately. In three different parts because he's grabbing the controls with both hands. In all fairness though, that's as annoying as any of it got, because a rusty scrap robot is so massively within my comfort zone that it's like a soft cushion. I added a few extra panels, greeblies, and roughed it up, before doing all the major colours in a lazy afternoon.  I find that doing metals is so much more immediately gratifying than infantry, and this project was a gentle confirmation of that. Then came the Mek, and assorted details, before washing and basing. I had wanted to use to a transfer on the banner, but realised too late that I didn’t have a suitable one. So I freehanded a rather-bad “Kan” gylph. That’s the symbol for ork walkers that sometimes looks like a robot doing the robot. It looks more like a cheeky gremlin thing, but its fine.  A bit of whimsy. I also tried using old, dried-out mud paint to make new mud paint, which produced some nice textures. The whole thing came out quite well. And eventually, I got the codex.

As I now have the codex, and it has been collectively discussed to death, how do I feel about it? Well, I'm not fond of how this codex and indeed 11th in general have been communicated. Those data cards I got in the Armageddon box? Aged like milk. The Ork codex looked, if anything, over-tuned, but then news broke of Marines experiencing an even more extreme rebuild, loosing a bunch of units into the bargain. It follows that every faction will receive a similar revamp, but as this is being done via a codex cycle, not the index method, it's gonna take a while. As a result, game balance will be unstable for a long time, not least because marines are half the game. Furthermore, there is a trend for the initial codexs of an edition to be cautious and maybe a little awkward as the designers feel things out. So however impressive Orks look now, it may well be a different story next year. I acknowledge that there is a strong "First World Problems" feel to the above comments, but this is still a very rough transition from 10th, as it's not a clean break. More like unpicking stitches from a wound. It makes me disinclined to any deep analysis until things settle. And they took a bunch of units away too, and faffed with the Battlewagon again. That said, let's talk some positives. I do like the modularity of the detachment system. I mostly play at 1k, so having the vast majority be 1DP is good for me. I like how the designers seem to have gone out of their way to make most weapon options valid, a topic I've had a lot to say about in the past. I don't think they got it 100% right, but it's a lot harder to dislike big shootas now. The presentation is pretty solid, as is the rules language. So, generally a good first impression.

Up next: Probably some Boyz.

Plamo: Primaris Intercessors (the Armageddon ones)

And now for another installment of Project Legs11. Here, I’m trying some beakies.

It is a self-evident truth that everyone involved in 40k, will have, at some point, painted a space marine. It's just a thing that happens, like playing Ryu in the latest Street Fighter game or buying white sliced bread. I'm not gonna say I have hard numbers, but when half the game, a majority of starter sets, and the entire Horus Heresy setting prominently feature marines, it's a thing that happens. Invariably, these form the basis of somebody's first army, and/or sold on to bulk out someone-else's force, and/or sold on to start the cycle anew. And just as invariably, those marines are the basic troops choice of the time, in this case, Intercessors. AKA the unpopular and "boring ones". Marine players always seem to have a bit of resentment towards their rank and file. I suspect part of it is, is that basic marines aren't great at killing other marines, which is most of the game. Although that may be changing soon. Or everyone just runs to the cool stuff that kills other stuff best. Good thing these are a modeling project first.

As I said way back when I started Project Legs11, I was concerned about pacing and burn out. At time of writing I had been working on the Armageddon box for about a month, and had done some of the more interesting Ork stuff, but the impending Ork releases gave me pause. I had time off for TFN, so marines instead. And just the Intercessors so I get a handle on the Crimson Fists colour scheme. I had some problems though with assembly. One leg somehow vanished, another had a breakage, so I opted for a squad of five rather than ten. Lest I loose my temper and undermine any therapeutic value in this. This largely proved to be a good call, at least until I managed to glue one to the table. And then the “big real life issue” hit and my  motivation basically evaporated, my progress becoming slow and irregular. So, as a mental health maintenance exercise, this was something of a washout. I'm not a fan of how these went together, and I'm not really looking forward to the Boyz.

 

Anyway, I eventually got over that. I'd done some research, and Crimson Fists looked to be a fairly no-fuss colour scheme, that might work with my preferred trench brown undercoat. I opted to overbrush Kantor Blue on the model, it's like dry brushing but less selective, before going in to pick out specifics like the undersuit and gun. The backpacks were kept separate until after the overbrush to simplify matters. Once the big colours were done, and some the fiddly bits, a Nuln Oil wash was applied, followed by a light drybrush of Macragge Blue, and basing. This worked well enough, I suppose. As a colour scheme test. In so far as getting a table-ready standard. When marines consist mainly as one block colour, as they do here, the main difficulties become getting that colour right, and the fiddly bits. I’m not totally happy with the blue, but its fine as first attempt. But the fiddly bits were just kind of annoying. That’s why I skipped transfers and squad markings at this stage, as in addition to the transfers being a limited resource, I didn’t want the hassle. My style is, perhaps, a bit sloppy for marines. That said, if I wanted hassle-free models in one block colour, I’d have probably chosen something from the Silver Drybrush Brigade. The point was to mix things up, after all, I can get better. I’ll hopefully come back to these at some point.

I wrapped this in mid-August, shortly after my decision to pause the blog. In between that and publication, the hype cycle for the new Ork Codex finally began, long after that leak. And then much of it leaked before the preorder. By the time this goes up, the codex will have been out for 24 hours, I got mine at closing time last night, and we’ll all have a solid idea of what’s happened, but its clear the Orks have been reworked from top to bottom. As have the marines. The implications of all this will be massive. I'll decline to comment more deeply than that just now, as I'm not able to match the news cycle, and I don't want to just parrot the opinions of other people. And I got sick of rewriting this bit. Commentary will follow once I've actually read it, but I do like what they've done with the Kans...

 

 

That said, about the modelling side. The Boyz unit got a lot more complicated, but thanks to that earlier leak I'd got a lot of the necessary gubbins together to update existing units, and expand the newer Armageddon Boyz. There is a grand kitbash tradition to draw on here. Big Shootas are pretty easy to do; if you don't have a whole Ork with one lying around, you just put a barrel extension on a regular Shoota. Rokkits are doable if you have a tube and/or suitable bead for the warhead. Think bazooka or panzer faust. For the Ammo Runts you need a grot and a sack or box of some kind. Burnas are a touch trickier, but if you have a humie flamer, some wire and an oilcan you are probably OK. Or you can just use Burnaboyz now they’ve been sadly removed. I will. What ultimately defied my bitzbox, and possibly everyone, was the Boss Nob. And indeed the dedicated Nob unit. Through a deeply curious oversight and/or suspicious marketing choice, these don't carry sluggas anymore. Only the assorted kombi-weapons and kustom shootas which had been unpopular in 10th ed because they blocked out all of the melee options. In terms of boss nobs, this would be an easy errata, or a modest inconvenience for what I already field. I tend to use boss nobs with two-handed big choppas, and that’s still a legal option. But Nobz Mobz got a complete rewrite, and so a complete rebuild there is obviously needed. I’ll do the boyz first.

 

 

Up next: The Dakka Rig, the codex, and probably some boyz.

Plamo: The Armageddon Kommand Krew (kinda)

And now for another installment of Project Legs11. After a vehicle, now for some HQ type guys.

OK, an explanation. This isn't the Kommand Krew just yet. But it will be. These models will be released separately from the Armageddon box, under that name. Which is great if you missed out, and it's a convenient way to get some character models. On the other hand, it does mean you're  locked into three specific models, with no equipment options, and you may not want all of them. Personally, these three were something I wanted, but there's one you'd obviously want over the others, the Painboy. If you're running a lot of Boyz, you probably will be wanting several of these to gain the desirable Feel No Pain rule. The other two are maybe more niche. Returning from Legends with a new name, the Bannernob seems to be competing with the Painboy for a support slot. He likewise significantly buffs the durability of the unit he joins, just differently, and has a lot of OC. The Bigboss meanwhile is something that's been missing for maybe 8 whole editions, possibly longer than many players have been alive, a lesser Warboss comparable to a Primaris Lieutenant. There used to be grades of Warboss, and this provides an inexpensive alternative.

Now, as models these are a mixed bag, if pretty. The fundamental downsides of fixed pose GW infantry are very much on show here. Admittedly nice to look at, the sculpts seem hostile to customisation, while  being so individual that fielding multiples would look odd. The Painboy was particularly irritating here, with that outlandish overarm pose, that delicate cable, and I managed to break the Grot Orderly. These all peg into the bases, and the force required caused me to snap his foot off at the ankle. I fixed this, and added a shoulder pad to the Painboy. He's kinda scrawny otherwise, with a peg leg and an ill-defined power klaw equivalent. He's the problem child of the set. The Bigboss was a touch more conventional, accepting a headswap and a new bosspole with minimal difficulty. The new head is off an old metal nob, and doesn't perfectly match the proportions or pose, but works well enough. He doesn't look flashy, and I i wonder if he's due more weapon options later, but he does look like a Warboss in waiting. Maybe he's born with it, maybe it's the tactical rock. The Bannernob almost got a headswap too, but the bandoleer complicated matters. I actually ended up removing details here instead, taking off the topknot and tassels for a simpler look. Sometimes less is more. He also has an even bigger tactical rock than the Bigboss, which would be problematic to replace as his toecaps are cast in the same piece. Also, due to a typo, my Bannernob is now called BannerBOB.

 

Painting was interrupted by real life issues and the resulting exhaustion, and was done in the same style as the rest of this project. I don't want to get into the specifics, but I've been very distracted. The main issue here was the banner, which would require either transfers or some serious free handing. There's a few glyphs sculpted in, but otherwise it's clan agnostic. That's good, otherwise I would probably discarded it, but it was a challenge requiring further research. I eventually settled for a white fabric for the purposes of contrast, where I lucked out with a pre-existing paint on the first try. It's a dirty off-white, not a good bright white, but works well enough for my style. I tend attempted a freehand logo, and some transfers, to mixed success on both. That said, all of these are fine as gaming pieces, really coming good towards the wash stage.

  

In other news, further details about the new Boyz kit came to light while I was working on these, prompting a rewrite of this paragraph. Things seem to have gone a bit kill team, with a lot more unit options, and special rules. In addition to the shoota thing, a Boyz mob will now routinely feature an ammo runt, and multiple ranged weapon upgrades, without sacrificing their choppas. This obviously makes the Armageddon Boyz less desirable, and notably increases the modernization work required for my existing units. As my bitzbox is huge, and my boneyard significant, so I'm pretty sure I've got this covered. But my concerns about dull, busy work have been more than justified. Gonna need to pace myself, especially with the real life situation being uncertain just now.

Up next: Maybe Intercessors as a change of pace? 

Plamo: Ork Wartrakk (the Armageddon one)

And now for another installment of Project Legs11. Having done some grots as a warm-up, I moved on to the Kult of Speed.

Possibly the most nostalgic thing in the very nostalgic Armageddon box, the Wartrakk goes right back to 1st edition,  the original being cast in lead. It's one of those units that existed, at least partially, due to technical limitations of the time. Plastic moulding wasn't quite there yet, and a two seater half-track was about as big a vehicle they could cast in metal. Eventually, they got done in plastic for Gorkamorka, although these aged like milk, and we were stuck with them for donkey's years. The Ork fondness for kitbashing was largely mandatory. These were retired in favour for the Orktober buggies, so it's a surprise to see the unit back. Ruleswise it's surprisingly simple too, much more minimalist than say a Megatrakk Scrapjet. Where it is like an Orktober buggy though is it's crew. Said crew don't have any alternative heads or such, so doing three of this would get boring real quick.

As a model it's a fairly basic thing, a single runner segmented into three, and its the simplest of the vehicles in the Armageddon box set.  This obviously means it goes together quickly, but probably you're best off painting it in segments before final assembly. The driver is very much an integral part of affairs, although the gunner/rokkits may be left unglued for ease of transport, but I would decide against that later on. The complication here is that the orks simply have a lot of detail that just has to be done prior to final assembly, otherwise you can’t get a brush in there. The modularity and pushfit nature of the kit bodes well for future conversions though; if you can replace the gunner you're golden. He’s built like a nob BTW, maybe that’s a nod to the original version? I opted to head-swap the driver, and trimmed some extraneous bits off the gunner, and gave him a jerry can, to personalise this a touch. I will admit that some of these charges will driven by glue mishaps or gaps beings revealed at spraypaint stage. I'm still getting used to the pushfit style and I dislike the absence of simple, standardised connections. Your mileage may vary on that one though. I'd also make the observation that the Wartrakk has a notably hollow chassis, and seems to rely on it's connections to it's base for structural purposes. Just maybe file those pegs a bit? As getting this onto the base was a bit of a struggle.

I then undercoated and painted the kit in four segments. Thinking about it, this sort of thing would have annoyed me so much more in the past. So either I am doing better, or this is just less annoying than the Kustom Boosta-blasta or the (current/old?) warbikes. That’s not to say it wasn’t without its challenges,  and I ended up gluing the gunner into place. Despite my best efforts, painting had shifted a few tolerances, but nothing insurmountable. A good little kit, mind you. I’m happy with how it all turned out.

Up next: some character guys, but maybe something else first...

Plamo: Ork Gretchin (the Armageddon ones)

And now for an installment of Project Legs Eleven. As I work my way through the Armageddon box, I start with the smallest models to ease into things.

Worked into the Boyz sprue around the edges, these feature 5 main bodies, and 6 head/weapon pieces to personalise them. Each body can take two different combinations, which as far as pushfit monopose models go is quite acceptable. One segment even features what looks likes the star of the Grot Rebellion, which pleased me immensely. I did however lightly kitbash them anyway for the sake if variety and pride. Assembly was largely stress free, although you do have to be mindful of tiny gaps occurring between pieces, which caught me in a few places. Trim the pegs, and use the special plastic glue to melt things together. Comparisons to the Gretchin kit I've written about previously are kinda of a wash. There's an obvious technological improvement, but we're comparing pushfit to a "proper" release so it adds up to a sidegrade. Painting was largely an exercise remembering how to do this, trying not to melt in the June Heatwave, and not feeling happy with them until the inkwash stage. The details can be a bit fine as well as being small, and my old eyes had to squint. I also tried out some, heh, Armageddon dust, for the bases, as I'd picked it in a painting set and wanted to give it a go. Things are rough around the edges, but as a warm up this was quite useful. I did manage to do the eyes on most of them. I wonder what's going on with the runtherd there though…

As these are fairly simple models that were done as a shakedown, to find out if any paints had ran out, I don't have much more to say. So I'm gonna pivot to talk about the Summer Preview that happened as I was working on them.  It seems the Codex might be sooner than I expected, and we're seeing something of a paradigm shift with how units are equipped. Boyz have received a glow up on in pretty much all fronts; better stats, more weapon choices, with instances of (limited) Lethal Hits and Cleave being plentiful. This makes them a lot more offensive, and makes me wonder about their eventual unit costs. That said, giving the Shoota family of guns Lethal Hits against squishy targets was probably the minimum to make them functional. Orks will consistently find their opponents in cover and thus hit on a 6, and the probabilities just get depressing from there; upwards of 1/36 odds to wound a beakie and you'd need to do it twice. Lethal Hits would at least mean it feels like you are doing something each time, skipping a dice roll. Rokkits meanwhile have been totally reworked, and kombi-weapons have distinct stats again. I will be very interested to know how all this is priced and what you can actually have in each mob.

In related news, despite my earlier statement that I likely wouldn't need to make any more Trukks, GW has remade the trukk too. It's got more guns and more melee stuff, looking more like a mini-battlewagon. I don't thing I urgently need to replace my existing trukks, the size is about the same and I can just say it's a "counts as". But if I did? Oh. Woe is me. I'll have to scratchbuild a bunch of Ork vehicles. I am forced to do one of my absolute favourite things. How sad.

 

Up next: summat bigger.

Warhammer 40K: My Opinion of the Leman Russ Vanquisher

OK, this one started out as a comparative article on the Leman Russ tank, a unit with almost as many variants as there are space marine chapters. Then I realised that it was gonna get a bit samey, and I didn't have the experience to add much to the conversation. Then I realised that I could probably focus in on one variant, perhaps with more of a game design angle than a purely tactical one. So, the Vanquisher. A unit that is popular due to a low cost, which results from a quirk of 10^th edition 40K, but its actually kinda bad at what its supposed to be doing.

 

A Leman Russ Vanquisher, Stygies VIII pattern, sourced from Lexicanum

Let’s start with a few basics. A Leman Russ is a decently mobile, heavily armed brick of a vehicle fielded by the Astra Militarum, A.K.A Imperial Guard. They lack an invulnerable save, although all their other defences are quite formidable. The 2+ save and W13 are key breakpoints, meaning common anti-tank tools will not totally bypass its armour, and require repeated good hits to destroy. Railgun equivalents, massed meltas, and properly brutal melee combatants can and will bring them down. But most things have to try, laying on sustained effort and mortal wound effects. It is routine for such a tank to stoically tolerate melee attacks and just keep blasting, although some variants obviously do better with that, for a reason I'm getting to. While differing in their turret armament and unique rule, each russ has access to a common selection of sponson and secondary weapons. Most of the time this results in a lascannon, HK missile, heavy stubber, and either two multimeltas or two plasma cannons, the two most destructive sponson options. This keys into a wider issue, as the choice between Blast weapons and non-Blast weapons has a substantial influence on how a russ is used. The latter makes a tank more melee tolerant and a natural brawler, because it can fire pointblank, while the former is better at ranged combat and hordes. Finally, through the order system you can make any if these tanks briefly faster, more accurate, and better at holding objectives. The Vanquisher is the anti-tank variant of the Leman Russ, historically described as being very rare in fiction and hard to make. As a tank hunter its defining feature is a very powerful anti-tank gun with range of 72 inches, the heavy rule, AP-4, and a damage of 6 + d6, supported by re-rolls to wound against its preferred targets. It can cover an entire board with that range and worry any singular hard target within it. Otherwise, a Vanquisher functions much as a stock russ does, although as it not feature a blast weapon in the turret, its a brawler, happy to fight close even with its massive effective range. As of time of writing, the Vanquisher is cheapest variant at 145 points, 5 points less than the unpopular Punisher, and 40 less than the vanilla russ which famously isn’t rare. How did that happen? One attack.

 

 One of the tanks I proxy as Leman Russes...

This is an unintended implication of 10th edition design conventions. Its a quirk that makes the Vanquisher mediocre at its stated job, so therefore cheap, and then exploited by the tournament scene. Its main gun is a railgun equivalent which is massively unpleasant against its intended target of vehicles, however it is only one shot a time, and as you might gather from my comments about durability above, GW generally doesn't let you one shot vehicles. You have to wear them down usually, or get a couple of good hits in. So you have to roll to hit, roll to wound, and then your foe gets a save, which is possibly invulnerable because a lot of big things have one, (if not, then cover, or some other damage resistance,) and then there’s the damage roll. The vanquisher battlecannon is undeniably effective when it connects, but its far from reliable due to that low volume of fire, and with the damage roll you’ll still need at least two good hits to drop the kind of target this weapon demands. This includes other russes, by the way. I repeat: one attack at a time. That can make the weapon feel bad for both sides, as the user spends multiple turns trying to stop rolling ones despite whatever buffs it has from other units to make it more accurate, or the foe suddenly finds a smoking crater where their tank used to be, with little in-between. Few things disappoint or annoy like a powerful weapon that feels like a coin flip, you know? So the Vanquisher is cheap, as cheap as a russ can be, but it paradoxically has a weapon on it that traumatises people when it actually works. But… A single shot anti-tank gun simply isn't consistent enough for that task by itself, especially with guard marksmanship, you need more shots to even things out, and even at this price the Vanquisher isn't easily spammed. So you look at the other weapons on the hull, and truthfully the Vanquisher tank is no better with those than most russes, and ranks behind a couple. If you start thinking about other variants? Well, their turret guns are obviously much less destructive, but all of them have dramatically higher rates of fire so they will do *something* every turn. As an example, the Demolisher is obviously much shorter ranged, and its own issues with inconsistency, but that's looking at twice the rate of fire at worst, hits like a lascannon, and is very happy in a melee. The vanilla Russ isn't an anti-tank platform, its a generalist, but having a bunch of rerolls and the Combined Arms detachment can go a long way. Either is better a lot of the time, while not being bad at anti-tank if properly armed, and that's true for basically all of the variants.


The only thing the Vanquisher does well at present is be a cheap Leman Russ. And that's ok, Leman Russes are good. You can get a lot from a mobile brick with two multimeltas and a lascannon on it. But the tankhunter probably shouldn't be the cheap disposable one, that’s a specialised role. This isn’t a Catachan situation, where something looks bad until you understand it. The Vanquisher is popular mainly via through min-maxing, people treating the main gun as a side bonus. To be blunt, that’s a failure of game design. I wouldn't say no to having them in my force, and I’ve fielded them before, but I’m honestly surprised that these went unchanged in the 10th ed Astra Militarum codex AND the June Dataslate.

New Year’s Special: The Chem-Dog Unit Review

So, I’ve been playing 40K again for a while now. Not something I ever really expected to do again, if I’m honest. And, inevitably this leads me to want to write about game tactics. That’s self-indulgent, I know, but I have a blog, and its added variety. Of course, I'm not a tournament player, but I suspect you aren't either. This is more of a summary of my experiences so far than The Art of War. All things considered, its been a bit of an up and down year too. Maybe I’m just getting old, but GW’s quarterly attempts to balance the game was an adjustment for me. Its much better than their historical habit of leaving a rulebook untouched for several editions, but I did start writing this way back in July, before eventually making it a new years thing. And then a huge update happened on December the 11^th, far too late for me to fully appreciate. And most likely my comments here will be invalidated by the forthcoming codex. That’s a bummer. Anyway, I’m gonna talk a bit about each unit I’ve fielded, before summing things up with some general advice at the end. I’ve even organised it into sections alphabetically. Enjoy.

HQ and Bigwigs

Commissars: An inexpensive but otherwise unimpressive character model I’ve proxied a couple of times. Whom is 30 points and thus can do mission stuff. I call him Commissar Action-Monkey. There, that’s the tone set.

Platoon Command Squads: Two topics here, the unit itself, and the whole matter of Capital O Orders. The unit itself is an adaptable support unit, providing a selection of modest but non-trivial buffs. You can certainly do worse than use one of these to add a Medpack and some guns to a battleline unit. Orders are a big picture thing, and Platoon Command Squads are competent and inexpensive and this regard. I am however trying to find the sweet spot with respects to how many orders I need and which are worth doing when. While Orders can benefit a lot of units, you can’t just spam them, Its more of a precision tool. The best one is probably Move! Move! Move! for objectives, closely followed by Take Aim! and maybe Duty & Honour! for more objective stuff. A Master Vox and Grand Strategist combo is largely mandatory here as a key link in your chain of command, although if you have several Officers you can vary things up. Yes, I am aware of Lord Solar Horse Lord, but I’m not that into special characters. I would not be surprised if this unit was retired with the new book, but honestly its not gonna be hard to make them the Cadian equivalent or whatever.

 

Tank Commander: This one was a bit of a white elephant when I started playing, and a little beyond the resources I had or the size of battle I played. It does the Order thing, and has access to all the weapons of the other variants, and thus is most commonly seen as a Leman Russ Demolisher. This struggled with some keyword oddities which meant it couldn’t order itself, or benefit from the Born Soldier rule, until the October Dataslate revamped it. If you’re going heavy on tanks, you’re gonna need at least one of these as a force multiplier, but its a quite capable fighter by itself. Its expensive though, possibly too expensive for the 1000 point games I usually play.

 

Battleline

Cadian Shock Troops: I recently fielded this unit for the purposes of this article. Yep. Nowt wrong with them, but they lack a compelling reason to take them versus the other battleline units. Hopefully the new codex will give them some spit and polish...

Catachan Jungle Fighters: OK, a theme of several units here will be how easily a change of 10 points shift dramatically the usefulness of a unit. For the vast majority of 10th edition, these guys seem to have been popular mainly for their Scout move and resulting board control shenanigans. I concur. Their melee rule doesn't seem to do much, and otherwise these found use as the most inexpensive of the battleline options. TBH, if any Guard unit is gonna get a complete rewrite, its these guys, although GW seems to have forgotten them. Guard battleline generally doesn’t do impressive things, they are disposable light infantry by and large, whose main talent is standing on objectives. Catachans stand as well as any, and their Scout move gets them to their objective faster than the other options. There’s also decent synergies with Scout Sentinels and Chimeras. These aren’t my first choice for holding the home objective, but their mobility and low cost kept them in my lists. BUT THEN: their price went up ten points, which isn’t unreasonable, but it makes them less of gimme. Sargent Harker isn’t bad either, but I’ve not used him enough to have an opinion.

Death Korps of Krieg: I’m gonna have to build more of these, aren’t I? Anyways, I came to these loonies relatively late, and I’m inclined to call these the best overall battleline unit, something that the December dataslate largely enforced. They do suffer from that “I’m a kill team with lots of awkward options” problem, but if you want to be aggressive with your armydudes, this is the way to go as they carry the most dakka. Their ability to regenerate versus their increasing lethality as the squad looses models is a very fun dynamic, and works well with big units. Downsides? Well, they still die like guardsmen, they invite the addition of characters that put their costs up, and they are rather fiddly.
 
Infantry Squads: This is probably the unit I was most wrong about, and had to do a major rethink on. I found myself struggling to reconcile my old school view of Guard with how the rules actually work. I kinda want multiple squads of 10 arranged for defence in depth. The functions of Orders and Stratagems however reward big blobs of about 23 models, and actual play has discouraged taking too many of them. Infantry Squads also tend to be more defensive in use than the other battleline choices, as they are the only one with heavy weapons, if at the cost of reduced access to special weapons versus the Cadians or Krieg. So, yes, an Infantry Squad with a lascannon in it is going to do work and demand a (likely terminal) response from your opponent, but everything else in the squad is gonna be incidental unless you are facing comparable T3 models. I find myself most often using these squads as deployment zone objective holders, using mortars to trigger stratagems like Fields of Fire. So, not something you necessarily want to spam, but you do need a few of these in your inventory, because, well, objectives. Have one with a mortar, add a Platoon Command with a mortar & Master Vox, consider making it a double size squad in larger games. At time of writing, these currently are cheapest battleline, which makes sense, but I strongly suspect this unit will be retired in the new codex, so... we’ll see.

“Infantry” Specialists

Field Ordnance Batteries: I’ve only used the Bombast Field Gun, but it does reliable dakka. The nearby presence of an Officer is however largely mandatory, in order to trigger its Sustained Hits ability. As mentioned, there’s been substantial changes to the functions of Indirect Fire this year, which makes artillery units like this more a harassment thing than a kill button, although Guard still do artillery better than most. Telling this unit to Take Aim! maxes out the possible accuracy, adds in Sustained Hits, and presents a threat to anything likely to be hiding from your guns or parked on an objective. It won’t do much to vehicles, mind you, the heavy lascannon might be good for that, but damage 2 will help cull targets with the Feel No Pain rule. Unfortunately, my models started leaking resin, and pending new models I’ve retired the unit.
 
Heavy Weapon Squads: Definitely a bumpy ride with this one. For the most part these have suffered from being a fragile, high priority target. This is the reason why mortars are a popular choice for them, as this keeps them out of sight, but those aren’t spectacular weapons if I’m honest, especially after the changes to Indirect Fire. Their recent October price-drop made me experiment with them again, as it’s largely impossible to get more dakka for less. You either pair these with something scary to force dilemmas on your foe, or you use them as disposable blocking troops. They aren’t bad for overwatch, and its an easy way to spam lascannons, but don’t rely on these for ranged firepower. It will be interesting to see how those new Krieg versions compare.

Ogryns: These are a unit I want to like more than I do. There is an obvious appeal in a trio of beef mountains armed with automatic shotguns. But these chaps attract more attention than they can sustain. They may work better mechanised, or I just need more than 3.

Rough Riders: OK, these were the same basic experience as the Ogryns, i.e. a target. There is potential though, definitely. They are quick, have decent melee chops with lances, and actually end up as somewhat durable by guard standards. On the other hand, I’m not playing Guard to do melee. Melee is something I work around. I may come back to these, but I’m not prioritising them just now.

Tempestus Scions: A surprisingly necessary part of my forces, Scions are very useful for their deep strike rule. They are better equipped and more skilled than battleline options, but they are a precision tool. These have done solid and reliable work parachuting on to the mission objective, and are great value for 50 points. Now its 60, but that’s not bad value.

 

Vehicle Pool

Basilisk: I only started fielding one of these in November, and the initial comparison to Bombards was mixed. Basilisks do less damage overall at a higher price, but with a functionally unlimited range, the Earthshaker ability, atop a vehicle platform. Its much more of a technical/precision piece than the Bombards,as you use it slow down dangerous infantry as much as blow shit up. Its definitely worth having one along, especially in a vehicle-centric list, but I’d point to Bombards and/or Leman Russes as things you buy first. Artillery in general has a been a bit up & down with the changes to Indirect Fire, but the Basilisk is and was a classic for good reason.

Chimera: While I probably needed at least one more to get the benefit, my Chimera has proved to be reliable workhorse. Much like the Hellhound, its useful brick and HK missile caddy, with a grabbag of dakka. Its not especially durable, but its a lot more durable than the average dismount. Using one of these as a mobile bunker for a Platoon Command Squad also makes a lot of sense. Its not hard to see why the price went up. If I ever get more of these, I’d probably leave the multilasers at home in favour of two heavy bolters. This simplifies its attacks, and ties in well with the (current) Born Soldiers rule.

Hellhound: A fun modelling project that had initially struggled to find good targets in my local meta. The chassis is however sound, and there's a certain appeal to running several of these, possibly with melta weapons. Its a 2+ save brick, and you can use it to deny targets the benefits of cover. Time that right, lay a few Stratagems/Orders on, and even big nasties will suffer. Otherwise, it will happily burn things all day, acting as a de facto melee unit. It doesn’t gain much from the Born Soldiers rule if you’re gone for full arson, but that’s OK.

Leman Russ: Tanks are pretty important. Who knew? You need tanks to do the heavy killing, and take the damage. The Leman Russ is good at that sort of thing, and while obviously having the weaknesses common to tanks, the myriad variants are solid and well-priced. The vanilla russ, equipped with multimeltas, heavy stubber and HK missile, is my go-to. It benefits from Orders, but doesn’t need them. Its fairly flexible, and excels at killing foes on objective markers. There are other variants that do stuff better or cheaper, at least for now, but its hard to go wrong with this. Its self-contained in a way that a lot of guard units aren’t.

Leman Russ Demolisher: While I initially favoured the Demolisher, I find myself mainly using the basic Russ so far. The reroll-1s-sometimes-full-reroll rule the standard Russ has simply more varied applications at a lower price than the Demolisher, even if the latter is a pretty conclusive answer to most things that wander into range. And is largely unconcerned if something tries to engage it in melee. But, also counting against the Demolisher is the existence of the Tank Commander, which can have the same weapon fit.

Leman Russ Vanquisher: I gave these a go in December, and while I used them quite badly against a vehicle-lite force, I do see the use. At present, it does most things less well than the stock Russ, but its notably cheaper, and can on occasion one-shot an opposing tank. If you just need the tank to A) be there, and B) be cheap firepower, the Vanquisher is great at that. I do however still prefer the stock Russ over this, as with the Demolisher. I may very well field these in future 2000 points lists alongside their kin, but I’m holding off to see how the codex treats them. I would not be shocked if these were overhauled so they are better at their stated job, and thus cost more...

Scout Sentinel: These do an awful lot, and were a regular feature of my lists, at least until I started experimenting with the Basilisk and Heavy Weapon Squads. Its good for buffing artillery, has a lot of keyword synergies, has a Scout move, and offers good infantry support. Its not necessarily brilliant by itself, but there’s usually something for it to do if you have the points spare. Give it a lascannon and HK missile it becomes a decent tank-hunter too. Put on the chainsaw just because.

Big Picture Stuff
If you find yourself putting together a 1000 point Astra Militarum force, possibly because you have a similar selection of brain worms to myself, I’d like to suggest a few basic tips so you don’t necessarily make the same kind of mistakes I did. New mistakes, ideally.

You need something that take objectives in the midfield: Look, the mission is gonna require you moving out from your deployment zone, and inevitably, there’s gonna be a bit of a brawl in the middle of the board. You are probably not going to be as good in that brawl as your foe, unless you are playing seriously against type with Bullgryns or Rough Riders or similar. You need to have a means to claim that objective, even if its just something like “blast them off, then run some guardsmen in.”.

You need something to take objectives in the backfield: OK, you may be sensing a theme here. A significant number of missions are gonna be about taking objectives, I.e. nearly all, and the vast majority of those aren’t gonna be on your side of the table. You need something that can cross that distance with some reliability. Deep strike units are your friend here, although anything with a scout move or a good movement characteristic can help. Remember you can put things in reserve and have then come on from other board edges...

You need something to anchor your deployment zone: While there are different styles of guard army, the overall theme is one of ranged firepower. Often, this will mean a solid wedge of something to hold your deployment zone while raining death on your opposition. Just lining up guns isn’t enough though, you aren’t a T’au player with no imagination. You need redundancy and the capability to move if you need to.

You need a lot of tanks, but not exclusively tanks, because infantry do the objective things: Given that the Guard tends towards fragile light infantry, the presence of various tanks is highly desirable. These focus the attention of the enemy, physically protecting the troops on foot, and that’s something worth having a few of. Tanks however can’t really hold objectives, tend to die in close combat, and feature diminishing returns against non-vehicles. That’s why you need infantry still.

Yes, you do still need some artillery: Yes, I keep mentioning that Indirect Fire got changed. The thing is though, the Astra Militatum is about ranged combat, and an efficient way for a foe to counter that is to simply stay out of sight. Artillery is a good answer to that problem, although this may be substituted with paradropping Scions and such if you like that better.

Wow, this was a long one. Bye for now.

Blog Status Update: So, why no Ork Codex article?

Eh, good question.

So, this post got started when an internet friend rightly called me out for not posting any Ork projects. I am, of course, currently working on Project Chem-Dogs, when I could be doing one of any number of Ork things. New Codex, new possibilities, and all that. Its a fair question to ask. Well, there's a number of reasons, and its not just because I'm working on a guard force, something which I've always kinda wanted to do. One aspect is simple budgeting, I'm trying to control my expenses, I’ve actually flogged stuff to fund my recent projects, and £35 RPP for a rulebook when I'm not actually playing just now? Its hard to justify, and I can probably wait a month or so.

More deeply, while I love my Orks, I don't feel I can take them further with my current skill level. I've done basically all the units I want to, at least twice, and I'm just not into Beast Snaggas, which is the only aspect of Orks I've not dabbled in. The new codex doesn't actually help with that. Its been massively well-received, and from a game design angle I can't fault it, but there's nowt to get my teeth into, and its possibly due a nerf in 12 weeks. There's no new modelling angle to explore, and I don't think I can add to the discourse*. On a related note, as part of their ongoing ForgeWorld cull, a number of my recent projects are no longer allowed in matched play, which is disappointing. Not that I play anyway, but I do like my models to be game legal, and nobody likes building a model only to have it invalidated by rules changes. Again.So, on balance, I've lost units and modelling options with the new codex. I don't recall using a monkey's paw. On the plus side though, I'm pretty confident that when I do eventually pick the codex up, I'll have a good time, and a Dreadmob is very much within my means.

Anyways, what does this mean going forward? Well, being an ork player is a state of mind as much as anything else, so I'm going to try to direct that energy into other projects. Orks will likely become an occasional feature of the blog, possibly as part of Gaslands and such. They will return in time for Orktober, and by then I will hopefully have a fresh angle and maybe some new skills.

So, less Orks now. More Orks once inspiration hits, and the dust has settled on the new rules.

 

* It does amuse me to see how the Adeptus Custodes codex released at the same time prompted fanboy tears because they weren't overpowered any more and now feature girls. SHOCK HORROR. I digress, but I wanted to mention that somewhere.

Scratchbuild: Killa Kans Redux

Here we go, the first major article written in 2024. If you don’t count Project Tankbustas. Got a new document open and everything. Of course, the subject of this article was started in 2023, and I have a SUBSTANTIAL number of posts awaiting publication, one of which got bumped for this one, but here we are.

So with, January coming up, and in desperate need of something to do to balance out Chrimbo, I felt it was time to revisit the idea of a Killa Kans scratchbuild. Yes, it's both predictable and pretentious to consider making scrap robots for fun. Especially in the often stressful and hazy festive period. But it is fun. Also, I've built up my skills since. I'm very proud of my original scratchbuilds, don't get me wrong, but I will admit that those are a touch oversized. So these were intended to be refinements and closer to the official kits. This resulted in me having a tape measure and a reference model to hand. I drifted a little on that, but as with Project Tonks I seem to have found methods that work for me, arising as much from the resources available as any thing. First, I'd intended to make more extensive use of water pistol innards, but these seem to be out of season, so I ended up using beads more and more as I went on. As it turned out, I did have some left, but I wouldn’t find them until base-coating the things because I don’t organise my bitz. Unconsciously, I ended up making Beadbots, the legs of the third being entirely beads and wire. The arms were based off plastic rod, with a metal sewing bar, (I never did find out the proper name for these,) with a flexible material in the middle to suggest cabling. Wire and small beads were used to create pistons, giving the arms an industrial robotics look. At least until I put the klaw or whatever on the end. I did not try to add pistons to the legs as I felt it would not be visually pleasing. While each was based off lids and such, the main bodies of the first two shared a common hip piece, based off toy cars I was no longer able to source. All this leads to three Kans with enough common design elements to suggest a shared origin, although the last I made was the most divergent from the template as I'd ran out of some bits. So, let's briefly look at each in turn.

The first "Bugeye McPinchy" is the one most reminiscent of my earlier work and the GW house style for Orks. It's legs are water pistol triggers, with the generator and exhausts coming from the same place. The initial melee arm I built for this one proved far too fragile, promoting the style of arm described above. It's Grotzooka was the same style that I'd made for the Grot Mega-Tank. Once the limbs were on, and I was confident it would stand without issue, I then dressed the model with bits, going down the ork face route. Much later on, when I viewed the trio as a group, I'd realised the size of each had subtly increased with successive kan. Nothing major, all were close enough to my reference model, but I felt Bug needed a little something to compensate, hence his bosspole made from gears.

The second, "Screwfix" was arguably better received when shared on social media. This name, and presumably it's popularity, came from the big screw fitting I'd added as a melee weapon. Too big? Maybe. Appropriate? Definitely. I mirrored it's weapons versus the first and gave it a monoeye. Due to space limitations this ended up with fewer teeth, with legs being a combination of water pistol bits, beads, toy car wheels, and cable ties. The generator also ended up sitting higher, but that proved to be a good place for a glyph and other greebling.

The third, “Wideboy” was where I went full bead mode, and radically changed the body shape. Here the legs and claw were wooden beads, and its main body was a small jar of a kind previously used as a Tonk turret. This would lead me to omit the bulky generator of the previous two, because it was bulky enough already. He's biggish for a Kan, but not to the extent of the ones I made before. The klaw also required a rethink. I'D initially went for a jcb/digger look, but it wasn't working, so I sliced if off and tried again. I also opted for the Grotzooka to be more of a gun arm rather than mounting it directly to the shoulder. Aware of how much this one was deviating from the other two, I also gave this a monoeye and teeth.

This was fun. I might not need to actually buy models any more at this rate.

Kitbash: Killa Kans Restoration

I'm not planning to go quite as hard on Orktober this year. I've done a lot of Ork projects with 10th edition being releases, so doing a month of Ork content isn't quite in me. I am however still doing something, so as I prep that, here's a quick orky post tide you over.

 

I've been modernising/cannibalising a lot of stuff of late, and these Kans are another beneficiary. I got them cheap second hand ages ago, which puts them in the same eBay rescue category as the Looted Rhino. While the main bodies where intact, several weapons were missing. This isn't totally unexpected, as while I like the plastic Kan kit, it only features one of each gun, so people get creative. I almost didn't write about these models, as I had a great many Transformers to talk about at the time, and TBH, doing up a bunch of scrap metal robots within grots inside is rather routine at this point. However, as its Orktober, and I feel I did a good job on these, here we are.

The heaviest kitbash, "Mistah Slap", required two new weapons and a completely new arm. These were mainly gunpla bits, with the hand being a salvaged piece from my original Mega-Armoured Warboss. I neglected to work in a piston for the new arm, as there wasn't really the space. The choice of a Kan Shoota was something I went back and forth on. New for the 10th edition Index, this replaces the often-underwhelming Big Shoota, thus retconing the weapon in my pre-existing kan units. It's probably inferior to the Rokkit Launcha as a default option, but it does have the Devastating Wounds ability, which has only gotten more interesting after the balance update. I eventually decided not to over-specialise and have Mistah Slap bring the dakka, while attempting a "tacticool" pose.

"Drilly Don da Dontist" was a little bit harder to work with, as he had been assembled with more of a pose, retaining much of the grotzooka arm. He also had three exhausts, which I understand, but I felt this had come at the cost of the third Kan, so I snipped one off and passed it on. Using a variety of beads and tubing, I built up a new rokkit launcha, which works well. I also built up a new jaw, as the model had a bit of a"chinless wonder" thing that would not do. 

 

"Da Dunce" was the simplist to assemble but ultimately the one I loved the most. It benefited from a metal Gorkamorka era rokkit rack for it's gun, with a bead as a new mount and reclaimed plasticard as a shoulder guard. The backpack had the donor exhaust installed, and then I remembered something I did with those Killbots, a hat made from a superglue lid. My initial thought was was to do this one up as a Smurf. No, not an Ultramarine, an actual Smurf, but then I remembered the old Dunce Hat trope. Its not often that I freehand symbols, but I love how it turned out.

Thanks for reading, and best wishes to all whom celebrate Orktober!