Anniversary Minis

Well, this past Monday was my 4th anniversary with my girlfriend, so I had to find something suitable to mark the passage of time... and what better way than with Time Lords?

 

The minis came from Heresy Miniatures, and they are quite excellently crafted. There's even an Eccleston look alike available if you want to be complete in your collection.

The girl was very pleased. :)

Tactica: Stormtrooper (Part II)

From: http://robban-o.deviantart.com/art/Imperial-Guard-Stormtrooper-109242609

Deployment

Before we get into builds, a word on deployment. As far as I'm concerned there are two optimal ways to deploy stormtroopers- as drop troops or as mechanized infantry. Drop troops allow you to get into any position very quickly and reliably thanks to the scatter die reroll, while mechanized troops grant more survivability and a ghetto Hellhound added into the mix. Infiltrating or outflanking on foot might work, but the chance of the team being slaughtered before they fulfill their mission is much too high, at least in my opinion.

I've recently come into favor of the mechanized option, as it opens up great degrees of flexibility. Thanks to the Reconnaisance special mission the STs can gain Scout, allowing them to drive the Chimera forward 12" before the game begins or outflanking it. If you get first turn set the squad up on the board inside the tank and drive it towards the enemy. You should hopefully be able to get into weapons range in the first turn or at least set up in a position where you can open fire later. Because opponents will probably deploy around this strategy I have found it useful to take two squads equipped in this manner to give the enemy fewer places to run.

If you get second turn, no big whoop- either deep strike and use the chimera to provide some extra transport/cover to the rest of your army or outflank with behind enemy lines or reconnaissance. You can even do this if you have first turn and don't feel right about the first turn rush.

I won't be talking much about using Valkyries with Stormtroopers for two reasons. First, I don't own any and would feel bad talking about a tactic that I haven't used. Second, I personally don't think that they are necessary. STs already have deep strike, so leave the Valkyrie antics to those wannabe-stormies the Veterans.

On to the killing!

Purchasing

When using Stormtroopers one can't be a generalist- the orphan sons and daughters of the Imperium are much to finicky to show up to any old dance. They must be purchased with a specific purpose in mind and then deployed in the best way to fulfill that purpose. With this in mind, here are some builds with various targets in mind:

Anti-Tank
Melta, melta, melta. If your primary concern is tanks and you have the ability to get close rapidly, melta is absolutely the way to go. Since stormtroopers can deep strike right next to vehicles with a very good chance of not scattering thanks to the reroll, two meltaguns allows the squad to take out its target on the turn it lands. I find that a min-sized squad with a plasma pistol given to the sergeant is a good build as it minimizes point expenditure, grants an additional high strength shot to hopefully penetrate the tank and minimizes the chance that one of your troopers won't be able to deploy.

Another option is to have the squad mounted in a chimera. This tactic is great as a general deployment strategy, but is taken to new heights in an anti-tank focused group.  Think of this- if you can get close enough and if you put a heavy flamer on the Chimera your meltagun team might be able to get 2 KPs on turn 1 by targeting transports!

Anti-Heavy Infantry
Plasma, plasma, plasma. While a squad could be made out of pure hotshots, plenty of high powered plasma shots are always welcome if the points are available. If marine players are a frequent site then a full squad with plasmaguns and pistols mounted in a Chimera will be hell on treads. We can still use the tactics mentioned earlier to great effect, but there is an additional caution about infiltrating here. Since hotshots have a maximum range of 18" you will not be able to get a shot off with your lasguns when infiltrating under most circumstances as you must deploy outside of 18". If you can sneak your squad closer, good, but otherwise beware.

Optimal build would either be 10 troopers deep striking or 5 in a chimera with two plasma and a plasma pistol (though feel free to add more troopers as points allow). The deep strikers allow you to have maximum impact on the turn they land as well as offering a very large headache that the enemy now has to deal with. The mechanized squad can take advantage of all of the scouting/outflanking trickiness and can use all of the squad members firing out of the fire points.

Anti-Infantry
While Stormtroopers do not excel in this area they can fill this role if need be. Flamers are naturally the way to go, and I would even hazard adding a power sword to your sgt. Why is this? It turns out that STs have pistols and close combat weapons in addition to their other armament, granting them all 3 attacks on the charge. While the rest of their stats are nothing to write home about, that plus 4+ armor can at least try and do some damage.

Deployment for this squad would almost certainly be in a Chimera equipped with a heavy flamer and outflanking. I see this squad as charging on to an objective during one of the latter turns of the game and at least contesting if not outright slaughtering whatever troops are there. With ten Stormtroopers, a power sword and two flamers the squad can do quite a bit of damage. Finally, since the squad will probably be charging into cover using the reconnaissance mission is recommended, unless you feel that the pinning granted by behind enemy lines is preferable in your situation.

Final Thoughts
 Stormtroopers are excellent tactical assets to any Guard commander's arsenal as they have the ability to be exactly where they need to be to destroy whatever threat they have been tasked with. They can strike before the rest of your army or wait to destroy their target with surgical precision. Especially for armies with little in the way of mech STs are great boons, delivering your special weapons into the heart of the enemy's forces and ripping it out.

Please leave any comments, criticisms, anything you feel that I left out, etc. Ave Imperator!

Tactica: Stormtrooper (Part I)

I'm a fan of some of the supposedly "inefficient" choices in the IGuard codex as you may be able to tell from my first tactica on Armored Sentinels. Stormtroopers are the "glory boys" of the Imperial Guard, entrusted with missions and equipment that are not given to lesser, less reliable soldiers. Years of punishing training have honed their minds and bodies to the peak of human perfection. They are ruthless, proficient killers whose skills within the Imperial Guard are second to none.

Of course most of that is just fluff. In the codex the Stormtroopers are having role identification problems with the formerly elite choice of veterans. Both can carry quite a few special weapons, both can wear heavy armor, and both shoot like space marines. And to top it all off the veterans are scoring, cost much less and can carry an additional special and heavy weapon over the "Big Toy Soldiers." So what's a poor stormtrooper to do?

Stormtrooper is sad because nobody understands him...

Fortunately for the humble ST he (or she, the Schola Progenium doesn't discriminate!) has three important advantages over the veteran: improved basic gear, better special-weapon to point ratio, and excellent deployment options.

The improved armament is probably the bulk of the reason that storm troopers cost so much. Carapace armor alone drives the cost of a vet squad up to 10 points a pop and the ap 3 lasguns are assumedly not cheap either. Plus STs have frag and krak grenades, hotshot laspistols AND close combat weapons.

The special weapon to point ratio is also very good and reflects the higher equipment standards that the Schola Progenium graduates get. Assuming that the vets have carapace armor a vet squad with 2 melta guns costs 120 points while a 5 man stormtrooper squad costs only 105 points. Even if we take the vets' armor away the comparison is still in the same ball park, 90 vs 105, and that's leaving out the awesomeness of the hotshots.

And then there's the deployment options... for those not in the know, Stormies come equipped with the Deep Strike USR and have a choice of three different special missions that they can undertake:

Airborne Assault grants the squad a re-roll on their scatter die when deep striking, Reconnaissance gives the squad Scout and Move Through Cover, while Behind Enemy Lines allows the squad to Infiltrate and allows the first shots that they fire to cause pinning.

But the great thing about these missions is that they don't cost any points, and you can choose them at deployment, allowing you to deploy your Troopers in the most effective way possible every game.

Well, this tactica is getting a bit long, so I'll end it here for now. Stay tuned for the second part where we learn all about Stormtroopers and strategy.

Must Have Units: Stormtroopers

As many of the blogs around here have been doing, I'm participating in the FTW community post on "must have units," units that we just can't kick out of our lists. For me, it's my stormtroopers, the Black Jacks. While a lot of people have written them off as too expensive, for me they are one of the great multitools in the Guard armory.

Want to get rid of tanks? Give them meltas and Airborne Assault and go wild. Want to eliminate Marines? Max the squad out and load up on plasma. Troops in cover keep on getting you down? Flamer stormtroopers outflanking in a heavy flamer bedecked Chimera FTW! As long as you have a specific plan in mind for them, the Glory Boys can get the job done.

In fact, I like them so much, that I've been working on a tactica for the Big Toy Soldiers. Look for it to arrive over the next couple of days.

ToEMP: Tank WIP

Just some pics of the tank that I am working on for one of the old ToEMP challenges. I just need to actually put the lascannon and side panels on him, then do a bit more weathering and he should be good to go. I also need to work on a stencil for playing card suits- the sides of the tank are too bumpy to paint on, so hopefully a spray template will work.

 

 

Most Awesome/Geekiest Thing EVER

Normally I don't like to post anything non-40k related, but this was too awesome to pass up. Many of you probably read Penny Arcade and/or subscribe to Wired so you've probably heard of this before, but for those of you who don't:


Surfacescapes Demo Walkthrough from Surfacescapes on Vimeo.

Wow- and that's just with D&D. Can you imagine this tech being used with Warhammer? With a large enough table you could play remote games with ease, or simply use the board to know the rules and apply them to your game with sweet special effects! And if all of the terrain pieces are programmed into the board, applying cover saves/checking LoS would be automatic, which would definitely remove a lot of headaches around my neck of the woods.

More actual Warhammer stuff next time, but what do you guys think? Any other cool uses for this tech with our game of choice?

*edit*

Apparently there has been a version of this made for 40k! Here it is:

Belated ToEMP Challenges 4,5 and 6

Long period of no updating was brought on by me getting the Death Plague, battling through the physics GREs and starting 3 new classes at work. But now that I'm back, I have some pics of the tanks that I have been working on. I recently discovered that if I finish them all I will have completed challenges 4, 5 and 6 of the Tale of Even More Painters, so I'm going to try and do them quickly to get on to challenge number 7.

Here we go:

I painted them using masking tape and two different spray paints that I got from the hardware store. The khaki is basically the correct shade, but I may have to go over the white with bleached bone to get it the right color. So far the treads are all painted except for some wash/brown highlights for mud, and of course weathering and insignia need to painted on all of them.

Leman Russ' of the 24th Fortunan have a distinctive paint scheme. On the left track are four stripes of colors for the four suits (I'll eventually paint the suit symbols on there), as well as the regimental designation.

On the right side will be the name of the tank, which is accompanied by a varied number and color of stripes. While the majority of my tanks will be named after various Euchre slang terms (including the tank on the right- I haven't decided between the Lay Down Loner, Ace-No-Face and Farmer's Hand for it yet), the tank on the left is going by the name that I gave it when it arrived at my doorstep- the Poorly Planned Purchase.

Hopefully I can get this lot finished soon so I can move on to my Sentinels; wish me luck!