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Ratputin Returns

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I was so unimpressed with the way the Bubonic Court worked last time I played, I think I’m done with it for now.  It sacrifices too much of what it doesn’t have in the name of getting too little.  Plus, if I’m going to play in Dragon Wars, it’d be nice to refresh myself as to how the rest of the army I’ll be playing is supposed to work.

I’m playing a game against Harry on Saturday.  There’s a comp tournament next weekend, so he’s prepping for that.  My list unintentionally meets all of the comp tournament’s rules, save that I’m including a Dogs of War Giant, but he’s okay with that.  (I doubt it will make a difference, anyway).

Ratputin Returns
Skaven – 2,250 points

Lords & Heroes

  • Warlord – General, Heavy Armor, Cautious Shield, Foul Pendant
  • Chieftain – BSB, Heavy Armor, Storm Banner
  • Assassin – Weeping Blade
  • Warlock Engineer – Condenser, Warp-Blades, Dispel Scroll, Storm Daemon

Core

  • Clanrats x27 – Musician, Standard, Ratling Gun
  • Clanrats x26 – Musician, Standard, Ratling Gun
  • Giant Rats x24 – Packmasters x4
  • Giant Rats x24 – Packmasters x4
  • Night Runners x10 – Throwing Stars
  • Night Runners x10 – Throwing Stars
  • Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2
  • Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2
  • Slaves x20 – Musician
  • Slaves x20 – Musician

Special

  • Gutter Runners x7 – Poisoned Hand Weapons, Poisoned Throwing Stars
  • Gutter Runners x7 – Poisoned Hand Weapons, Poisoned Throwing Stars
  • Warplock Jezzails x7

Rare

  • Giant
  • Warp-Lightning Cannon

That’s 15 drops with 205 models.

I’m trying a number of different, new things out here.

  • The Giant, for one.  This started out with a decision to include some Ogre Ironguts but transformed into a “A Giant is more likely to suck down (and survive) all of my enemy’s fire,” decision.  Plus, it looks like it’ll be goofy and fun.
  • Gutter Runners.  I’m probably making a mistake here by taking so many of them, and by making them so expensive (those poisoned weapons increase their cost by 50%), but it’s something I’m not used to using.  I really need a way to deal with enemy warmachines, and these are it.  Initially one of these was a Tunneling Team, but after rereading the rules on that… no way.
  • Similarly, I’m taking slightly larger than usual Night Runner units of 10.  In a few months, I’ll be taking blocks of 25, but for now they skirmish and I’m used to units of 5.  I hope that, with groups of 10, they’ll be better at screening.  I’ve given them Throwing Stars to eat points: this Mainstay Unit stuff makes list construction difficult: if you can’t afford to buy another unit of Clanrats, you’re sort of stuck trying to find places to spend a few more points.  It will, hopefully, make them a bit more of a threat, though.
  • I’m only taking seven Jezzails for two reasons.  Seven is the magic number for these small units: it keeps them small (and cheap) while maximizing the number of models you need to kill before they break and run away (note that I don’t say “test to see if they break and run away”).  I’d take two units of them… but I only have ten Jezzails.  I hope we see plastic ones in a few months before I buy up to fourteen (but I’m not holding my breath).
  • As it turns out, I’ve always done The Cautious Shield wrong, thinking that if I give up my attacks, I can force a model to lose an attack.  What it actually does is automatically force a model to lose an attack and, if I give up all of my attacks, it forces them to lose two attacks.  That’s twice as useful!
  • I’m probably going to get my teeth kicked in on Magic.  (Heck, I’m probably going to get my teeth kicked in anyway, since I can’t outfight, outshoot, outmagic or outmaneuver any other army right now).  Just one caster, with one scroll probably isn’t going to be enough… but I want to play with the Assassin.

Planning for the Enemy

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I’ve been doing some thinking about tuning your list for a specific opponent.   Taking advantage of your strengths as much as your opponent’s weaknesses.

Most of the games I’ve played have been with “All Comers” lists; lists intended to perform as well as one could hope against any possible opponent (I’ll come back to why that is in a bit).  It’s become clear to me that, while this is sometimes appropriate, maybe sometimes isn’t.

Warhammer 40K

I’ve spent more time playing Warhammer 40K than I have playing any other miniatures game.  Far and away, the bulk of that time has been spent playing in leagues (escalation and otherwise) in the Iron Fist League, a group that’s pretty competitive in the way it approaches the game… mostly because many of its members like to play in tournaments.  Lists are often refinements of tournament lists.

Tournament lists, ideally, are all-comers.  Although there’s a certain amount of metagame involved (like the fact that you’re somewhat more likely to face an MEQ army in any particular game or that there are a lot of Ork and Guard players out there), there’s really no way to know what armies you’re going to face.  Building to completely obliterate one kind of army is generally setting yourself up to take a beating from another kind.

Additionally, 40K has random scenarios and deployment rules.  You don’t actually know what sort of game you’re going to be playing until you start playing it.  You need to build your force to handle every possible scenario.

Discussions on the IFL forum about specifically customizing your army to your opponent generally involves universal abhorrence.  Although it’d be madness to for a company of Astartes to not recognize that they’re assaulting a Tyranid warzone and equip themselves accordingly, the consensus is that it’s just bad sportsmanship and indicative of low character.

I’m not altogether sure where to draw the line between specifically customizing your force to address your opponent and simply responding to the local metagame, however.  What’s the difference between deliberately saying, “I’m about to play against orks.  Better load up on the flamers,” and just playing against a lot of orks and coming to the conclusion that flamers always end up useful?

Warhammer Fantasy

Most of my Fantasy playing has also been with the IFL… though the WHFB culture is remarkably different from that of the 40K culture.  Almost all of the Fantasy players participate in a challenge pyramid, which is all about knowing exactly who you’re going to be facing and building a list to crush them.

It feels like the magic item lists really support that approach, too.  Dwarf-Slayer doesn’t look like something I’d ever take, unless I knew I was going to be playing against Dwarfs, you know?

It also makes sense in that it truly encourages a player to learn all the ins and outs of both his army and his opponent’s.  If you don’t really understand what you might be facing, you can’t really prepare for it.

Unlike 40K, Fantasy pretty much just as the one scenario.  I’ve looked at the variant scenarios from the 6th edition rulebook, and they’re fundamentally not so much alternate scenarios as mildly different deployments.

As I’ve only played in on WHFB tournament (an escalation league tournament), I don’t really know how that scene works.  I’m not sure how the WHFB players make the transition from the specific-opponent army to the all-comers army that I’m sure a tournament requires.

What’s interesting is that, here too, I have to wonder if there is a line: one of the more recent local scandals is when a player, on seeing that his opponent had unpacked (and therefore likely would be fielding) a dragon, put a unit back in the case and pulled out more bolt throwers.  There was a great deal of outrage over this on the forum.  Is this specific act fundamentally any different from more generally deliberately building your army to defeat your opponent’s?

AT-43

I’m only just getting started with this game, so in many ways I’m talking about of my ass.

One thing that we’ve identified is that it really feels like we’re supposed to pick the scenario, look our opponent in the eye and then build our list with full knowledge of what army they’ll be playing.  Showing up with a list typed up the day before that seemed like a good idea is just asking for frustration.

The mechanics of the game seem to encourage it, as do the extremely awkwardly phrased unit costs.

Conclusion

It seems to me that, depending on the game and metagame, it’s sometimes appropriate to construct a list with a specific opponent in mind.  Given that my default setting is 40K, which discourages that, I’m likely to generally continue building all-comers lists, regardless of the game and I’m likely to continue being disappointed when I’m up against someone who hasn’t.  I think that’s probably my fault, though, for not tapping into the game better.

What do folks think?  Always all-comers?  Are things more nuanced?

The (Bubonic) Court Is in Session

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Only got one game in with the Bubonic Court last night, but it was a pretty good one.
We ended up bumping things up to 2250 because of my concerns that, after dropping 575 for Nurglitch, there wouldn’t be enough left over to make a viable army; I think I was probably right.
What I ran:
An Itching, Burning Sensation
Bubonic Court of Nurglitch – 2,250 points
Lords & Heroes
  • Plague Lord Nurglitch
  • Plague Priest – BSB, Storm Banner
  • Festering Chantor – Lvl 2 Upgrade, Plague Censer, Dispell Scroll x2
Core
  • Plague Monks x24 – Full Command, Extra Hand Weapon, War Banner
  • Plague Monks x24 – Full Command, Extra Hand Weapon
  • Pusbags x20 – Musician
  • Pusbags x20 – Musician
Special
  • Frothing Giant Rats x25
  • Frothing Giant Rats x25
  • Plague Censer Bearers x10
  • Plague Censer Bearers x10
Rare
  • Rat Spawn
  • Rat Spawn
What Mike ran:
Khainite – First Cut
Dark Elves – 2,250 points
Lords & Heroes
  • Death Hag – General, Cauldron of Blood
  • Master – BSB, Heavy Armor, Sea Dragon Cloak, Dark Steed, Ring of Hotek, Crimson Death
  • Dark Elf Assassin – Extra Hand Weapon, Manbane, Rune of Khaine
  • Dark Elf Sorceress – Level 2, Dispel Scroll, Darkstar Cloak, Dark Steed
  • Dark Elf Sorceress – Level 2, Dispel Scroll x 2
Core
  • Crossbowmen x10 – Shields
  • Dark Riders x5 – Musician, Repeater Crossbows
  • Dark Riders x5 – Musician, Repeater Crossbows
  • Harpies x5
  • Harpies x5
Special
  • Cold One Chariot
  • Har Ganeth Executioners x16 – Standard, Musician
  • Witch Elves of Khaine x20 – Standard, Musician
Rare
  • Repeater Bolt Thrower
  • Repeater Bolt Thrower
  • War Hydra
I truly did start the game expecting to be wiped off the table in half an hour… in the end, though, the game had a lot of back-and-forth and was pretty close. We had to call the game at the end of the fifth turn due to the store closing, but I think I had a pretty good shot of winning had the game gone on to the sixth turn.
That said, there were three things that made the game as close as it was:
  1. Mike’s list. The list he ran was different from his usual list; including units he’d never really run before and leaving out units he’s come to rely on. He wasn’t running a deliberately bad list, but it was something new and not particularly optimized.
  2. The winds of magic hating him. Eternally hating him. His casters miscast every. single. time.
  3. His assassin was unable to drop Nurglitch. Eight hits became two wounds, neither of which were able to penetrate Nurglitch’s foul misasma of funk.
That’s not to say I played a perfect game. Far from it. I dropped the ball in a number of places.
  • I did an execrable job screening my Frenzied units (nearly all of them) with my non-Frenzied units (Pusbags). I didn’t. Instead, I deployed them the way I normally deploy my Skavenslaves: in a fat block waiting to either catch an enemy unit in the flank or flee from a charge, setting up a flank charge for another unit. What I should have done is stretched them out in two ranks of 10 Pusbags each and screened my Plague Monks from charging off.
  • Casting wasn’t great. Although I didn’t roll a bunch of 1’s, Nurglitch lost Plague to an excellent casting roll turned into a miscast by the Ring of Hotek. From that point on, I didn’t have much ability to get off Pestilent Breath due to range and dispell dice and I never really wanted to cast Death Frenzy. In an army that will never lose Frenzy, it looks very useful but it’s absolutely a death sentence.
  • This also means that Warpstone Tokens weren’t particularly useful, and it also means the Level 2 Upgrade for the Festering Chantor was a complete waste.
  • I consistently forgot that Giant Rats are M 6 and not M 5. At 12″ charge distance is very different from a 10″ charge distance. I don’t know if that would have helped (I’m sure I would have caught Mike’s Dark Riders with them) or hurt (I’m not sure that having them tied up in combat and not soaking up Bolt Thrower fire would have been a good thing), but it’s a fundamentally dumb thing to forget.
  • I also consistently forgot that I had the War Banner. +1 CR matters, damnit!
The army was well outside of my comfort zone, and played very, very differently than what I’m used to. That’s fun. It didn’t hurt that there were a number of things worked pretty well for me, either.
  • Fewer units meant that each real block of rank & file had at least one character in it. One unit of Plague Monks had, for its fronk rank, Nurglitch, a Plague Deacon, a standard bearer, and a Festering Chantor. The other had a Plague Priest and a Plague Deacon up front. That added both a leadership boost that Skaven really love to have and a great deal extra punch, which the Plague Monks really need.
  • Nurglitch is a big, tough, bastard. I don’t know that he’s worth nearly 600 points, but he threw out a number of attacks that I’m simply not used to, had an extremely high toughness and a ton of wounds. Statistically, he should be able to survive the Assassin he saw last night (but just barely): the Assassin threw out 8 attacks with Manbane (4 base attacks, extra hand weapon, bonus from the Cauldron of Blood, and 2 attacks from Rune of Khaine), 7 of which should hit, 4.6 of which should wound, only three of which should get through Nurglitch’s 5+ Ward Save.
  • Having some hard-hitting characters in the units, plus Frenzy never going away, plus the regular Skaven static combat resolution helped a lot.
  • The Rat Things did quite well. Stubborn 10 is another thing I’m not used to. Their strength could be higher, I feel, but they seemed to do quite well tying up units.
All in all, it was a fun game that was full of back-and-forth, something I’ve found lacking in WHFB. I’m going to fiddle with my list (and paint up Nurglitch) and try to fit in another game or two with the Court.

Making Sausage

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Mostly just thinking out loud here:

With the Bubonic Court and, according to rumors, the new Skaven book, I can take Plague Monks as Core. It’s probably ill-advised, but what the heck:
Plague Monkapalooza
Bubonic Court of Nurglitch – 2,000 points
Lords & Heroes
Plague Lord Nurglitch
Plague Priest – BSB, Storm Banner
Festering Chantor – Plague Censer, Dispell Scroll x2
Core
  • Plague Monks x25 – Full Command, Extra Hand Weapon, War Banner
  • Plague Monks x25 – Full Command, Extra Hand Weapon
  • Plague Monks x25 – Full Command, Extra Hand Weapon
Special
  • Plague Censer Bearers x10
  • Plague Censer Bearers x10
Rare
  • Rat Spawn
AT-43 is also on the top of my mind, since I’ll be playing it in a few hours. Mind you, I’m sure none of these are good and, if they are, they’ve probably been done to death at this point. This is mostly mental sausage-making as I try to process the game. Expect more!
One list I’ll be able to easily run when my final orders come in is:
Red Block – Supra
  • Dragonov Kommandos x9 – Sergeant, Sniper Gun x3, Electronic Warfare x2
  • Dragonov Groupa S
  • Krasnye Soldati x15 – Vrachov, Rocket Launcher x3, Medic x2
  • Dragomirov Kolossi – Dragomira
  • Sierp x3
Or maybe even drop the Krasnye Soldati and replace them with even more Dragonov Kommandos.
The list I plan to run this evening (at first, at least) is:
Red Block
  • Krasnye Soldati x14 – Vrachov, Rocket Launcher x3, Medic x2
  • Krasnye Soldati x12 – Tymofieva, Grenade Launcher x3, Mechanic x2
  • Dragonov Kommandos x9 – Sergeant, Sniper Gun x3, Electronic Warfare x2
  • Sierp x2 – Sergeant
  • Urod
I’d like to work up a list that lets me load up on Kolossi… but it just ain’t happening at 2,000 points. The list that gives me the most options there is Frontline and, with that, I need to ensure that I have enough AFVs to stick around… and it’s tough to find points for both those and TacArms with only 2,000 points to spend.

The Stinking Things

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I’ve been very excited since we got official confirmation of the upcoming new Skaven armybook. The loathsome ratmen are what got me into the hobby (16?) years ago and, even though I’ve ultimately found frustration with Warhammer, I still love the Skaven more than anything else Games Workshop’s produced.
I can’t quite manage enthusiasm to play them again, right now, before the new book’s come out. Every time I grind out a list, it looks remarkably like the lists I’d played with before taking a break from the game… lists that I know will take forever to play and won’t be particularly successful. I’d like to push my ratmen around… but I want something different.
Enter: The Bubonic Court of Nurglitch. I’ve got Nurglitch. I’ve got 25+ Plague Censer Bearers and over 100 Plague Monks. I can do this. I certainly thought about it when I really set into playing WHFB, so why not?
I’ll be fighting my WHFB arch-nemesis, Mike, and his Dark Elves on the fields of Killpeopleburg next week. The list I’m planning to bring is really only half-considered, but could be fun.
Stinkclaw
Bubonic Court of Nurglitch – 2,000 Points

Lords & Heroes
  • Plague Lord Nurglitch
  • Plague Priest – BSB, Stormbanner
  • Festering Chantor – Plague Censer, Dispell Scroll x2
Core
  • Plague Monks x24 – Full Command, Extra Hand Weapons, War Banner
  • Plague Monks x10 – Full Command, Extra Hand Weapons
  • Rotten Rodents x25 – Full Command
  • Pusbags x20
  • Pusbags x20
Special
  • Plague Censer Bearers x10
  • Plague Censer Bearers x10
Rare
  • Rat Spawn
  • Rat Spawn
The Censer Bearers are in larger units than they need to be, but why not? Plus, I’d like to stick Nurglitch in one of them, so bigger means more survivable means better.
Two Rat Spawns should be fun: I’ve got bits for a Chaos Spawn and I don’t know how many Rat Ogres floating around, so I should be able to construct one without any trouble (and will likely have a good time doing it) and will use a Carnifex conversion I got in a bulk trade a couple of years back for the other.
The Plague Priest will go in with the Rotten Rodents; the Stormbanner will buy me at least one turn to close on the enemy; if it persists, I lose nothing, however, since I don’t have a single bit of shooting. The Festering Chantor will go in with the large Plague Monk unit.
We’ll have to see if a block of Plague Monks can survive. Normally, they can’t: T 4 is nice, but it can’t make up for the total lack of armor save, and they’re simply not good enough at killing to offset how easily they die. Since Rotten Rodents, the Clanrat replacement, are pretty much in the same predicament (they’re fundamentally Plague Monks who’ve traded Frenzy for Light Armor), I figure I might as well give it a shot. Might be worth it to try juicing up their damage output by replacing War Banner with Banner of Burning Hatred.
Ultimately, it’s sure to play very, very differently than what I’m used to.

Red Block List – First Cut

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Got the big shipment of Red Blok stuff in the mail yesterday. I was suprised by the quality of the army box; you could bludgeon someone unconscious with the box alone. It’ll also be nice to have a spare Odin & Manon to experiment touching up.

Also, I had a total brainfart and, in thinking I was ordering three Dragomirov Kolossi, I ended up ordering three boxes of Dragomirov Kolossi. It was a stupid mistake, and I’m really not sure how I made it: I was probably focusing on Lt. Dragomira O-3, who’s pretty much the same thing and comes one figure to the box. Given how much it would cost to return the extra two to the War Store… I’d only end up saving about $10 anyway. So, I’ll keep them (unless anyone local wants some, in which case let me know!).
I’ve started playing around with lists for the game. For fun, I made one that uses all of the Dragomirov Kolossi. It’s probably a wildly bad list… but what the heck?
Red Blok – Frontline
  • Kozni
  • Hetman
  • Dragomirov Kolossi x3 – Lt. Dragomira
  • Dragomirov Kolossi x3 – Sergeant
  • Dragomirov Kolossi x3 – Sergeant
I could just use the list from the Army Box… but I’m leery of putting the Dotch Yaga into a 2,000 point game, for the same I reason I don’t like running Land Raiders: too many points!

Instead, the list I plan on running initially will be a mite heavy on infantry and a bit light on striders… but I think it’ll be alright.

Red Blok
  • Urod
  • Kraznye Soldati x12 – Captain Vrachov, Medic x2, Grenade Launcher x3
  • RPG Soldati x12 – Sergeant, Medic x2, MGauss x1
  • Dragonov Kommandos x9 – Sergeant, Electronic Warfare x2, Sniper x3
  • Dragomirov Kolossus x4 – Lt. Dragomira

I could take three MGauss weapons in the RPG Soldati… but I don’t have the models and I’m unlikely to buy another two attachment boxes simply for the the MGauss bearers. Without much headache, I could replace the four Dragomirovs with three Strielitz and use the left over points to turn the MGauss into three rocket launchers, which I do have the models for. This is a start, though.

Going to the Library

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The Dark Angels don’t have it so hot when it comes to Librarians.
There’s the basic, unnamed Librarian. He’s got a number of wargear options, including the ability to take Terminator armor. He’s got two powers: a random flamer template (S 2d6-2 , AP d6) and the ability to save a single wound with a Leadership test.
Then there’s Ezekiel, Grand Master of Librarians. He has no wargear options, and cannot Terminator armor. He’s got the same powers as the other Unforgiven Librarians, plus the ability to remove a model from the game if it fails a Leadership test (which sounds cool, but very unlikely to happen).
Note that “can take Terminator armor” is something I’m particularly concerned about; my Dark Angels are (especially since the new Space Marine codex came out) primarily Deathwing. So a Librarian not wearing Tactical Dreadnought armor is pretty useless to me, which means that Ezekiel is pretty useless to me. (Also, the lack of an Invulnerable save hurts, and that he makes all units within a foot of him Fearless does nothing whatsoever for me.)
The problem is: Ezekiel is much better at doing what I need a Librarian to do: wear a Psychic Hood and shut down enemy psykers. That, more than anything else, is why I want a Librarian in my list.
Ld 9 (generic Librarian) is not nearly as good as Ld 10 (Ezekiel). Chaos Sorcerers and Eldrad, the guys I’m most likely to see doing naughty things with Warp-born powers are Leadership 10, which means I need to beat their roll by 2 instead of just 1. Ick.
So, what to do? Outsource?
I’m looking at replacing my generic Dark Angels Terminator Librarian with a Daemonhunters choice.
For a five points less than Ezekiel, I can buy a Grand-Master with a Psychic Hood. I’m swapping a master-crafted force weapon for a +2 S one, a master-crafted bolt pistol for a stormbolter, losing the Fearless bubble (that I have no use for) and gaining +1 A. I also don’t get any psychic powers, but I’m very much okay with that. That said “five points less than Ezekiel” is still a hefty chunk of change, and is more than I’d like to spend on a single model.
For over sixty points less than a generic Terminator Librarian, I can buy a Brother-Captain with a Psychic Hood. In this case, I’m replacing the force weapon with a +2 S power weapon (which is kind of a bummer), and taking -1 BS, -1 W, -1 I and +1 Ld. This is a tougher choice. The +1 Ld makes him much, much better at doing what he does, but the loss of the Force Weapon is a great one and dropping down to one wound makes him considerably more fragile. Still, he costs nearly half of what I’m paying for a Terminator Librarian!
I’m supposed to play some Planetstrike tomorrow; I’m going to replace my Librarian with a Brother-Captain and see how that goes.

Space Hulk

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Well, I’ve ordered my copy of Space Hulk.

I’m a little suprised (and by”surprised”, I mean “disappointed”) by a couple of things about it, though. The “limited” thing is really probably a mistake. The pricetag is also… very high.
I’m also trying to figure out what’s up with the bases on the minis. It looks like they’re all on cavalry bases, which is odd. More than anything, I’d like to be able to use my Deathwing Terminators in the game (40mm bases are too large for the previous edition), and I think that if the pictured miniatures are on cav bases, I might be able to do that… but it still strikes me as an odd choice.
The genestealer sculpts are amazing. The terminator sculpts also look really, really good… though perhaps a smidge too Blood Angel-y for my tastes. I suppose I’ll have to decide whether to just keep them and use them as is, convert them slightly to replace the winged chalices with winged broken swords, or trade them off for multi-part terminators. That will have to wait until later, though.

Hell Dorado

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Just got a text from Chris S., who’s at GenCon right now. He wanted me to know that, at the Hell Dorado tournament, they’re using a cheatsheet I threw together about this time in 2007. That’s pretty cool!

I’m excited about the most recent news about the game, and hope it works out. I’m not holding my breath, though, and my minis will probably stay in the foam trays until we see some sort of Anglophonic love for the game.

Mid-August Update

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The past two weeks have been busy, first with a trip to visit Mrs. Rushputin’s family in South Texas and then busy with catching up at work from having missed a week. So, understandably, Painting Progress has been slow.

I’ve finished the one Bastion (which I need to photograph), and have gotten most of the way through the second, larger Bastion.

I’d started working on assembling some Bloodcrushers, but that’s been put on hold until a magnet order shows up (possibly today). I’m going to do some experiments with magnetizing the Bloodletters riding the Bloodcrushers because, as someone else has pointed out, there’s really not much in the way of contact points for them. Hopefully some teeny-tiny magnets will help with that.
I’m going to have to figure out how to convert the Bloodletters, too. They all have Hellblades in their right hands, and grip the collar of the Juggernaut with their left. I’ve got to work in a horn on one and an Icon on another.
Something else I plan to fiddle with in the next couple of weeks is assembling some boltgun-toting Dark Angel Veterans. Currently, the only unit of veterans I have are configured for assault; they’re pretty much the only viable non-terminator assault unit in the Dark Angel codex. I’m looking into using the vanilla Space Marine codex, though, for more variety and because I’d like to step back from playing Deathwing and return to playing with Battle Company marines. I’m absolutely going to need some Sternguard veterans when I do that, so it’s time to make some.
I also expect I’ll want to run a Predator. I’ve got one assembled, but unpainted. Of course, I’ve got a half-painted Land Raider I should probably finish first…
On the gaming front, I’m still having a wagonload of fun with my Khornate Daemons. I’ve lost hard and had my teeth kicked in only the once. I’ve walked away from every other game I’ve played feeling like I’ve won… even though I’ve probably drawn twice as many times as I’ve won. That’s entirely because I’ve put up a good fight and have had the draws be extremely close.