Warhammer Bundle Values

Games Workshop seems to have rediscovered the value in volume sales.

After being fairly roundly criticized for offering no discount whatever--and therefore no incentive to buy--on product bundles for their recent Apocalypse relaunch (especially when Forgeworld WAS doing so), their new large holiday bundles for 2013 represent notable value: the Space Marine Stormwing, for example, offers a Stormraven and two Stormtalon escorts, retail US$82.50 and $45.50 respectively for a total of $173.50, at the bundle price of $140.

There are a number of these bundles (including a couple Fantasy Battle themed); the Tempestus Firebase has my event moderator's eye: an Aquila Strongpoint ($115), an Imperial Defense Emplacement ($29.75), a Vengeance Battery ($50) and two Firestorm Redoubts ($65 each), retail $324.75, bundled for $250. That is a helluva table to battle over at a real discount.

Very welcome philosophy change, GW.
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Does the Hobby Want--or Need--Army Composition Scoring?

Scoring for an Army's Composition in organized Warhammer 40,000 (or Warhammer Fantasy) play--especially tournaments. Is it needed? Does it have a role, if not? Is there a way to do it fairly?

The answer to the first question is, simply, no: it is not necessary to the success of play. The codices for each army, a construction framework such as percentages or the Force Organization Chart--and a determined points value--are the only essential tools for composing armies. And there are numerous organized events and tournaments which do not feature any scoring for Army Composition, or otherwise address the issue beyond the requirement that a participating army be codex-legal and adhere to the indicated points value and Force Organization.

The answer to the second question is the meat of the subject, really. If Army Composition scoring is not necessary, and some events succeed quite satisfactorily without it--why add it? It is undeniably extra work for a moderator, to score and ensure compliance, and there are clearly significant portions of the player base which do not embrace it. The reason for Army Composition scoring in organized play is simply that the game is not an abstract construct, like chess; it--and the codices which allow army construction within it--attempt to do more than balance each army for competition, they also attempt to help players create a simulation on the tabletop, and tell a compelling story. Allowing army builds from codices without prejudice can be likened to allowing chess players to build their side with as many knights, rooks or queens as they choose instead of pawns (thus creating 'power armies' or 'tiered codices' or whichever descriptive phrase of your choice indicates that in the Hobby not all codices and not all entries in codices are evenly balanced, competitively): it wouldn't be 'fair' in chess so chess doesn't allow it--and providing some scoring for Army Composition in organized play attempts to address it insofar as possible, for 40K. In that light, it would seem that yes, scoring for Army Composition has a role...especially as long as there are also events available wherein it is *not* used, as well, for those who do not enjoy or appreciate such restraints.

That role can only be properly filled if the scoring for Army Composition seems to participants to accomplish its intent. Thus, the third question--can it be scored fairly? Of the two reasons players tend not to like scoring for Army Composition (the first being not liking any penalty being assessed for building an army other than how one prefers), it is experience with unfair Army Composition scoring in organized play that leaves the most distaste. We've all heard the horror stories: armies identical in build receiving different scores; armies built to a given judge's hard-and-fast notion of what is 'right' getting high scores when they seem to fly in the face of the game's background; not knowing what judges wanted in a build before--and often after--getting scored.... Army Composition was always a component of Official GW GTs in the 90s and early 2000s--and was always controversial, because they rarely told you what their build criteria were, and/or how they had applied it. You got your score, at the end of the GT--you just never knew why. Things came to a head when a particular judge answered an interview question about ideal Army Composition by saying that his perfect vision of a 1500 point army was 100 space marines on foot; while reasonable players knew what he was driving at (a representation of a company of space marines), a simple application of this Army Composition to the then-extant rules revealed there was no physical way to get a hundred marines into such a list, never mind within a Force Org chart and never mind that such a force, denied mobility or heavy/special weapons or leadership, would get pasted in almost any mission imaginable. Even as this pronouncement raised the already ire-filled argument about Army Comp to new levels, competitive players began trying to apply the philosophy in GTs--reaching the height of ridiculousness when one such was awarded 'Best Army Composition' at one Grand Tournament for a Chaos Space Marine army which featured the then-legal composition of six 50-strong infantry Chaos Cultist hordes and multiple Great Unclean Ones of Nurgle. Not a single actual Chaos Space Marine in sight.

It was in light of such antics that Army Composition went away completely in many events, or took on radical refining in others, the latter in an effort to continue to allow it to fill its role but to do so fairly. The best such--then and still--is Astronomi-Con's Army Composition: it presents players with guidelines that try to address the role indicated above, but does so completely voluntarily--so that a player can break the Army Comp guidelines for a modest scoring penalty if they think they can make up those points in battle with their higher-end performing army--and completely transparently--so that every player knows how his choices will affect his score.

Is it perfect? No--no more than the game itself is perfect, or perfectly balanced. Very often, players have to 'break' the Army Composition guidelines for a simulation- or story-based reason, as much as in an attempt to power-up their build; the best example I can think of from the recent AstroDallas was a Tyranid player whose love for that army has always been built around large monstrous creatures, especially carnifexes, and who had to take big hits to his Army Comp to get those monsters on the table even though almost no one fears Tyranid 'godzilla' builds under the current codex, *especially* the grossly neutered carnifexes. But the important thing is that 1) he knew what doing so was going to do to his Army Comp score in advance, and was able to decide if that penalty was enough that he needed to go out and start adding hordes; and 2) when he decided it wasn't and he'd rather play the army he liked, he could do it anyway.

I am on record as preferring not to have an Army Composition score in events I run. I recognize the inherent imbalance in the codices, and choose to address it by allowing actual participants to include their perception of the opposing army build as an element of their Sportsmanship scoring. This is where I have always believed it belonged, because the relative 'funness' or 'unfunness' to play of an army construction is almost always a reflection of the relative 'funness' or 'unfunness' of an opposing player to play--and on the occasions I encounter someone who has power-built an army but who is really fun and sporting to play against and has put a great deal into the simulation aspect of that army as well, I am if anything inclined to score him the higher for it, Sportsmanship wise, because that is not very common (the inverse, of someone who shows up with a very thematic army they've invested tremendously in the simulation aspect of but who winds up being a complete douche to game against happens, too--and Sportsmanship *still* seems to be a reasonable area to address that, in scoring). Is this perfect? Of course not--the most obvious flaw being, as in any player-scored aspect, that often the least Sporting players will use that very element of the overall scoring in manipulative ways. Play your buddy, who is obviously a jackass to everyone in the room with his contentiousness, and who has tweaked his army to match, and give him perfect marks for Sportsmanship including his build? Yeah--you've beaten the system. Bravo to you, a-hole...but don't think everyone doesn't know you did it, and don't be shocked when *your* Sportsmanship scoring seems lower from your opponents other than your buddy than you thought you deserve, and maybe costs you a placing.

The important thing to remember in either case is that players know this aspect of scoring will be present in advance; it at least presents the opportunity for addressing imbalance, and achieving a higher level of competitive fairness, and if it isn't their cup-of-tea, hobby-wise, there are plenty of 'harder' organized play events out there, for their investment of time, effort and expense. That is 'fairness' at its most balanced.

The Ard Boyz events come under a lot of criticism in discussions of any aspect of the Hobby other than tabletop results--but in my view they shouldn't. They are to gameplay what Golden Daemon competitions are to the painting aspect of the Hobby: an organized event narrowly focusing on that part of the overall Hobby, not a replacement for organized events which fully embrace and celebrate as many aspects of the Hobby at once as possible. Just as Golden Daemon should not diminish the accomplishments of a Best Painted or Best Army trophy winner at a broad-hobby event, Ard Boyz play should not dictate to broad-hobby play. Let them all exist, and let hobbyists decide where they are happiest participating.

And if, in a given area, there *aren't* enough events of any one type or another, and a hobbyist has a very strong feeling about it...there are always plenty of retailers looking for events, and someone with the commitment to run one. Doing so is biting off a chunk of work, to be sure, but will have a much longer-term impact that simply talking about it or posting about it. In the ongoing matter of scoring for Army Composition, as in the rest of the hobby, as in life...effort trumps opinion. I know Astronomi-Con was formed from a challenge to its moderators, after an unsatisfactory organized play experience, to 'see if you can do better'...and they have.
CEA
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Night Spinner Summary

The multipart plastic Eldar Night Spinner is now readily available on your local stockist's shelves, but the rules have thus far only been printed in White Dwarf (North American issue 365, June 2010, the same issue which published the Spearhead ruleset). Although most organized events (like tournaments) still require participants to have the in-print version of any rules in order to use a unit, and Games Workshop will doubtless have the Night Spinner rules available as a codex-legal download from their website, this summary should allow purchasers of the kit who may have missed that issue of the Dwarf to begin friendly play (and allow those facing one to begin readying, as well!):

From WDNA 365 June 2010:

Eldar Night Spinner
Vehicle, Heavy Support
115 Points

BS3 FA12 SA12 RA10 Tank, Fast, Skimmer

Twin-linked Doomweaver: R12"-72" S6 AP- Hvy1, Barrage, Large Blast, Rending, Monofilament Web (any unit hit counts as in Difficult and Dangerous Terrain next time they move)

Twin-linked shuriken catapults (may upgrade to cannon for 10 points)

May take: -Vectored engines...20 points
-Star engines...15 points
-Holofields...35 points
-Spirit stones...10 points

Deathwatch!

FFG's Free RPG Day offering was 'Final Sanction,' debuting the next (and most anticipated) offering in their 40K roleplaying line, Deathwatch (allowing play as Space Marines, finally). Though I missed getting by my local game stockist for the day because of Astronomi-Con Dallas (a trade I will happily make any day), I've finally gotten to pick through a friend's copy of 'Final Sanction,' and I like it. The system mechanics are what they are (I am not especially a fan, having dealt already with these rules via Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader), but like those previous offerings the art and production values are up to GW standard, as (most importantly) is the embrace of the Intellectual Property: this *feels* like the 40Kverse.

Using the Deathwatch as an rpg paradigm is an outstanding way to get Space Marines into play (and should allow easy cross-integration with RT and especially DH); the only thing I noticed is that the module clearly genericizes the Deathwatch into servants of any and all Ordos of the Inquisition (rather than the pure alien hunters they've always been). Wonder if this presages any changes for 40K, come the new Inquisition codex?

'Final Sanction' has me jazzed to run a session of Space Marine role-playing; if anyone has a friendly gaming store with a copy left, please let me know (and you get dibs on the first slot in the Kill Team!).

Thank You, Astro Dallas Sponsors

The inaugural Astronomi-Con Dallas would not have been the runaway success it was without:

• HobbytownUSA Dallas: HTUD donated the table and city ruins for 'Urban Sprawl,' and were the *only* North Texas retailer to take advantage of Astro's unique sponsor a player' program of sending one of their staff 40K experts to participate; anyone who got to play Jeff and his Howling Griffons space marines, thank HTUD! The Post-Astro Apocalypse Megabattle reward for Astro attendees will also be hosted by HTUD, as will the summer-long North Texas 40K Playoffs, beginning with Bracket One this Sunday!
• Reaper: In addition to prizes, Reaper gave *every* Astro Dallas participant a limited-edition three-pack of their quality paints (I used one of their blues as an accent colour for my Iron Hands to make them notably different from Ultras or Crimson Fists in traditional Citadel blues, and I think it worked nicely). We are fortunate to have Reaper as so supportive a North Texas-local manufacturer.
• Warlord Games: The full-colour box set of multipart plastic Roman Legion and limited resin Testudo formation donated by Warlord as prize support were admired all weekend; if such quality 28mm historical gaming pieces are something you would like to add to your miniatures-wargaming hobby, let your local retailer know: they will gladly stock what you will buy!
• Battlefront: Manufacturers of the great Flames of War WWII game, Battlefront contributed the terrain which became 'Truck Stop' and free posters which were eagerly snapped up by Astro Dallas attendees. If you would like to play Flames of War, let your local retailer know!
• Gale Force 9: GF9 is already wellknown in the hobby for their lines of game accessories and assembly/painting/basing product; they've now added top-quality pre-painted terrain, which covered the GF9-sponsored, classic-Astro 'Sink The Baneblade!' table.
• Adeptus North Texas provided pre-Astro Dallas promotion, including run-up events, and prizes for Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Lord of the Rings and Warhammer 40K to reinforce it's role as a central clearing house for information regarding all aspects of the Games Workshop hobby in North Texas, as well as the awesome Cybo-Skull accessory and a free ticket toward winning it for the first 25 Astro registerees; if your hobby friends are not on the Adeptus emailing list, get them hooked up for the latest locally.
• Games Workshop: In addition to a wealth of coveted prize support product (including rare Forge World kit!), GW contributed tickets to GamesDay, the premiere celebration of the Hobby, and by making the Astro circuit part of the official Indy GT lineup, admission to two finishers for next year's tourney final in Las Vegas!
• The Gamers Realm: In addition to their regular beautiful tables and plentiful terrain, TGR built tables exclusively to debut at Astro Dallas, provided prize support, and most importantly, *made* Astro Dallas happen by hosting the event and doing all the ferrying and logistic duty such an undertaking required. Matt, Jack and the TGR staff, there aren't sufficient thanks; hopefully, current and future purchases from TGR will convey the community's appreciation.

To all 38 players who came out--you've proven yourselves hobby champions. Though we drew from extremities of North Texas--west beyond Ft Worth and east as far as Tyler--in the end, Astro Dallas was an *all North Texas* event. That should send a message to GW about how ready the Metroplex is for future major organized hobby celebrations (GamesDay Dallas, anyone)...and bodes well for the attendance at future Astro Dallases, once attendees begin coming in from Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Lubbock and out-of-state--including, perhaps especially, the great veteran gaming community of other Astronomi-Cons. If Astro Dallas 1 was the first Astro to ever turn profit in it's inaugural iteration, the sky's the limit, going forward--thanks to the support of and confidence in it, sight-unseen, by this community.

And, most importantly, thanks to Christian Augst, Mike Major and (labouring behind the scenes and across the border--this time) Keith Grant, for the best time it is possible to have playing 40K.

Watch http://www.astronomi-con.com for information on how to participate in the circuit's remaining 2010 tournaments in Winnipeg and Vancouver, Canada (you *know* you want to) and http://www.adeptusnorthtexas.com for word on the latest hobby activities in North Texas...and on Astronomi-Con Dallas 2011!
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Rule Clarification: Descent of Angels

The new Codex: Blood Angels is somewhat unclear about which units and characters benefit from their 'Descent of Angels' Special Rule.

The Special Rule verbiage on page 23 indicates it applies to 'a Blood Angels unit with this special rule;' if interpreted to mean therefore only those units with 'Descent of Angels' listed in their individual unit Special Rules, only the HQs Dante, Astorath and the Sanguinor, the Elite Sanguinary Guard, and the Troop Assault Squads appear to benefit from 'Descent of Angels.'

However, the Equipment listing for Jump Packs on page 62 states that *any* 'Blood Angels model with a jump pack has the Descent of Angels special rule' and then specifically refers to page 23 (emphasis mine). This would extend the benefit of the Special Rule to any other character capable of purchasing a jump pack, and to jump pack equipped units which do not specifically reference 'Descent of Angels' in their unit listing. Vanguard Veterans are the unit of relevance here, because 'Descent of Angels' combined with 'Heroic Intervention' could be especially powerful (a possible negative consequence of interpreting the codex this way)...but the ability to join any BAdex character wearing a jump pack to a like-equipped squad, as this interpretation would allow, seems an equal positive.

I think the unit which best clarifies which way this rule should be interpreted is the Death Company. It's unit listing does not confer 'Descent of Angels'--but Chaplain Lemartes, who can now only be bought as an upgrade to the Death Company, does have the 'Descent of Angels' Special Rule, which would be meaningless if his mandatorily-attached squad could not benefit likewise.

As the jump pack listing confers the Special Rule and the rule explanation limits it to those *with* the Special Rule, the interpretation most consistent with both of those codex assertions would seem to be that the presence of a jump pack on a character model or unit of models in an army built using Codex: Blood Angels confers 'Descent of Angels' to that character or unit, regardless of whether the Special Rule is specified in their unit listing alone.

This has the benefit of allowing Independent Characters other than the three (very unique) special characters so identified to strap on a jump pack and run with assault marines, and clarifies the Death Company (and, yes, makes Vanguard Veterans *very* hard).

Unless errata'ed otherwise at some point by Games Workshop, this will clarify how 'Descent of Angels' will be ruled at any events I moderate, and other local retailers and referees are welcome to refer to it, for consistency.
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Wound Allocation In V5

Prefacing this with the acknowledged opinion that V5 Wound Allocation is stupid, counter intuitive, unnecessarily time-wasting and fiddly, and a change made almost certainly only so that it was something different from the system put in place by the previous Studio regime--we are nevertheless stuck with it. I understand players who simply choose to disregard it and assess casualties the old way, and frankly I tend to do so most of the time, too...but being less than diligent about enforcing proper V5 Wound Allocation has created multiple ways of playing this locally, several of which conflict--with fairly dramatic consequences. With Astronomi-Con only two months out, I have undertaken to get this right.

There seem to be two ways of interpreting the rule (and in fairness to the local gaming scene, in sorting through the forums to get the consensus correct answer on this, this is a common problem everywhere):

• You split your targeted unit into as many different (by gear, stats, whatever) types as necessary and assess each Wound, one to a model at a time, *per type*.
• You split your targeted unit into as many different (by gear, stats, whatever) types as necessary but assess each Wound one per model, only moving to specialist types when the basic type models have all received a wound.

The difference is small but meaningful, especially when only a few Wounds have been made (if there are enough inflicted Wounds to place at least one per model it doesn't matter): taking the book's five man Dev squad (page 25) as an example--what if, instead of the illustrated eleven Wounds (allotting at least two per model and three to one, pretty clear), the squad had suffered only three Wounds--two from bolters allowing a save and the third from a melta allowing no save? Do you assess the Wounds by the three types, as in 1) above, in which case a bolter armed target, a missile launcher armed target and the Sgt each must take a Wound with the melta wound being assigned by owning player's choice (probably the marine in the bolter armed group), or by model, as in 2) above, in which case one bolter armed marine is still going to get vaped, and either the sergeant or a missile launcher marine is still going to have to make a save, but the second bolter armed marine would get to take the last save, protecting one or the other (but meaning at least one type within the unit never gets allocated a wound)?

This really matters even more in larger squads with many more 'bullet shields' and fewer special and heavy weapon toters. It would matter in this example if there were a third basic type (bolter armed marine) model--as then, if 2) is correct, *none* of the other, specialist, types need face taking a save.

As it happens, 2) *is* correct. The rules specify that players must allocate one wound to each model in the target unit before a second can be allocated to the same model. They also specify that models with any differences in profile, etc, must be set out by type...but *do not* specify that this must be done first. Reading the Rules As Published, this latter requirement of setting out affected models in a target unit by type is *only* necessary if the number of wounds requiring saves exceeds the number of basic-type models in the unit, or if (for whatever reason) the owning player wished to allocate wounds to a type other than a basic model. Which would mean, for our example, 2) above is correct Wound Allocation. For an average ten marine tactical squad, six wounds could typically be taken before the owning player has to start dividing into types; for larger squads (orks being an excellent example), many, many basic type models can take an inflicted wound before needing to begin dividing into types, for Wound Allotment.

Your specialized models with better statlines or equipment, in other words, *do not* need to begin being assigned to make saves until the number of wounds inflicted on their unit exceeds the number of basic type models able to take those hits.
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Hobby Synergy

There has *never* been a better time to be starting a Warhammer 40,000 army in North Texas.

That is a pretty unqualified statement, I know--but consider how much play value is available to a hobbyist who decides to begin playing 40K right now (or start a new army for same):

1. a purchase of any basic Citadel box set (a cost of as little as under thirty bucks) from The Gamers Realm gives admission to their months-long Escalation League.
2. a minimum purchase of forty-five bucks worth of GW product from Lone Star Comics Dallas gives admission to their months-long Escalation League.
3. there was no additional cost to participate in XMax Games' Moon XM campaign, which included brand-new campaign mission designed to allow new forces onto the table in small points increments and a two-day, five round Doubles tourney Mar 20-21--and they will be starting another all-new, no-cost-to-play mapbased campaign (using Planetary Empires) April 3.
4. HobbytownUSA Dallas just completed a centerpiece modeling and painting contest.
5. Lone Star Comics Mesquite will offer a multi-player mega-battle in early June.

And those are just the events local retailers have made Adeptus North Texas aware of; I know the Grapevine and Frisco GW stores have ongoing events which would be complementary (not least of which is their excellent Academy programs), Comic Asylum and Area 51 regularly run events and contests for 40K, most of the other Lone Star locations have their own events (particularly the Plano crew), Comic Book Craze in Garland continues to build their GW presence, etc.

In terms of entertainment bang for the buck--it doesn't easily get better than this.

Supporting local stockists who make space available for play and--perhaps even more importantly--put effort into events which keep the hobby fresh and fun is the best way hobbyists can ensure such stockists remain. When they make such supporting purchases this good a value, everyone benefits. A squad or similar box from TGR, a beast from HTUD and the minimum Lone Star Dallas purchase could come in at about a hundred dollars--and produce *months* of league and campaign play, until summer. That kind of synergy didn't exist in North Texas until very recently. Let's ensure, as customers, it remains.
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Space Hulk: The Heresy

One of the (many) things Warhammer 40,000 hobbyists, designers and the keepers of Intellectual Property at Games Workshop seem perpetually of two camps about is playing the events of the 31st Millennium Horus Heresy out in miniature.

If *I* were emperor, the Horus Heresy would never have been explored in the kind of detail the recent Black Library novel series has done--precisely because it has added very little (one really strong book, a couple higher quality books, and a raft of under-par disappointments) and robbed the Warhammer 40,000 background of mystery, stature and scope in the process. Mythic events stay mythic better when we concretely *know* very little about them.

Fantasy Flight Games' new and expansive board game Horus Heresy will provide additional detail...and bring the events of the Heresy that much closer to game play (admittedly still not in miniature--though the game pieces look very much like the sorts of things we miniatures hobbyists will *have* to have...).

And GW itself has occasionally toyed with recreating the Heresy in 28mm--though usually for 'showpiece' events like the GamesDay Seige of Terra table--while steadfastly positing that there will never be official rules or models supplementing the existing forty-first millennium background with armies, characters and events from ten thousand years earlier.

That is pretty much my preference, as well; when you start statting up Leman Russ, Magnus, Horus and the Emperor for 40K play, their magic goes away (see 'destroying the mythic' above).

*If* I had the power, however, I *would* explore the Heresy in miniature, in a very specific way--a way GW themselves have recently templated for us, so successfully: I would release a self-contained game, with the draw being the specific models everyone would like to have from the Heresy, in a limited edition. In other words: Space Hulk: The Heresy. Purists would get it for the ability to possess 'official' Guileman or Dorn or Mortarion miniatures, 40K players would get it to turn the included models into their own elite, ornate Ultramarine or Imperial Fist or Death Guard characters, GW would make a short fortune...and be able to 'officially' say there still weren't 40K minis (or more importantly, statistics) for Heresy-era figures.

If such a game were successful (and does anyone think it would not be?), GW could cover the major Heresy players in supplemental releases, over a series of years.

Imagine the first limited edition game recreating Horus' battle barge in Space Hulk board tiles (compatible with existing segments, of course, and of the same extraordinary quality) and featuring the confrontation between Horus and the Emperor; perhaps in addition to those two awesome miniatures might come Sanguinius, figures of Heresy-era Blood Angels and Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus/Black Legion. I'd even find a way to put the villain Erebus from the Word Bearers in there, to balance the Blood Angel primarch. What hobbyist would not want such a game? Follow that a year later with a supplement pitting Guileman against Alpharius, with Heresy era Ultramarines and Alpha Legion, or Perturabo and Iron Warriors against Rogal Dorn and Imperial Fists. Culminate the series with the piece de resistance: Leman Russ and his Space Wolves against The Thousand Sons and Magnus the Red, all with exquisite Citadel limited-edition 28mm models--40K scale miniatures that still were not 'really' 40K Heresy-era products--and GW could bridge both Heresy camps...at a likely considerable profit, besides. Win/Win/Win.

All I ask for suggesting the idea is a copy of my own of each game--and (for purely selfish reasons) that the Mortarion sculpt look especially wicked cool :)
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Return of the Legion of the Damned. Almost.

I have a confession. I love the Legion of the Damned.

Their half-page entry in the original 2nd edition Codex: Ultramarines was the coolest thing in a very cool book, and hooked me right from the outset of my foray into the hobby. The Damned's inexplicable, supernatural origins and qualities of mystery and quasi-horror heavily influenced the conceits central to my own DIY space marine chapter, the Void Phantoms (or as they are better known--not coincidentally--The Undying). As soon as I had finished the initial basics of my own marines, I picked out the ten coolest-looking old, out-of-production models in GW's catalog to form my squad of Damned, and placed my first order from the now-gone, greatly-missed Citadel UK Archives. The holy grail of my early, pre-eBay/Internet collecting was the Legion's Sgt Centurius named character (and I can still recount where and how I finally got him). When GW released dedicated Damned miniatures some years later, I was at my stockist for a box first day. I have always had Legion of the Damned in my armies--one need only look as far as the stats and background for the 'Outrider' special character mascot for my blog to understand the depth of my attachment to the Legion--and I am on record as being very pleased both to see the Legion of the Damned returned to the 40Kverse through their Elites entry in the V5 Codex: Space Marines, and with the rules and stats therein, which suit them well. Now GW has upped their appeal even further, with gorgeous new pewter sculpts and a White Dwarf entry slighty rewriting the codex line to make them even more fun to field. The Legion of the Damned are back. Well...almost.

The White Dwarf US 360 article is very good, not only updating the Codex entry to fit the way the new sculpts are kitted out (the sergeant particularly) but also showing several sample army builds incorporating Legion, and nicely re-covering the mysterious unit's over-two-decade history. Almost.

There is a great black hole of Damned background missing in both the V5 rules and the article's history...and the Damned are diminished for that.

It is no secret that there are design philosophy differences between the current GW Studio and those who preceded them, with the former out to redo much of what the latter created, in their own image; fine--that is the nature of work-for-hire, and the right of those left standing (so long as they don't screw up something good in the doing, the consumer/hobbyist loudly qualifies). But any continuity-driven creative work is stronger when it incorporates what has gone before, rather than invalidating it. By ignoring a significant era of Legion history--and even taking veiled shots at it, in the article--GW has undermined something of what it has otherwise accomplished so admirably, in executing their return.

The article recounts well the Legion's debut, in White Dwarf 99, and subsequent V2 Codex entry. It even pictures the limited edition Sgt Centurius model released in 1996 (still possibly my favorite Citadel miniature ever). But it ignores everything done with the Damned in the subsequent V3-V3.5 years...and those were some of the most active developments for the Legion, from a gameplay perspective, in their long history.

It bears expressing that *I* did not much care for this iteration of the Damned, covered mostly in White Dwarf Chapter Approved articles. I was happy, as a fan, to see the Damned return (they went unaddressed in the first third edition Codex: Space Marines), the new entries expanded a bit further on their background and lore, and as noted the gorgeous pewter Legion of the Damned Sergeants, Marines and special- and heavy-weaponsmen, released as both a squad box set and as blisters, were welcome additions. But these rules took the Damned far past the mysterious squad they had been, adding Damned characters, vehicles, even Terminators in successive lists...in short, making the Legion a viable alternative full Space Marine army, one which was even GT Tournament legal. That wasn't consistent with what the Legion had always been--a mysterious, small band of interventionist heroes, not an entire army-gone-to-war--and sat badly with at least as many hobbyists as embraced the idea.

But it *happened.* For a period of time--and a time recent enough to be familiar to a significant percentage of the hobby community--that *was* the official conceit GW offered for the Damned. For an article as otherwise comprehensive about the Legion to willfully ignore that entire continuity--to in fact attempt a kind of textual sleight-of-hand suggesting it never occurred (through improper crediting of the previous models' provenance and through a boxed text specifically saying such larger-than-squad size appearances by the Legion were unknown) does the game's background a disservice. Would it have been so monumental a writing task instead to respectfully nod to that era by saying appearances by the Legion of the Damned in strength greater than individual squads 'are the stuff of legend, reported in past millennia of Imperial history by scribes of questionable authority, unverified; consigned to records of dubious' or 'what if' histories--but neither ever unproven.

And I could have done without the shot by one of the new-model sculptors at the first set of Damned pewters from editions ago: yes, those were largely existing Space Marine models with 'bones and flames sculpted on,' but that is exactly what the task required, and what the Damned *were,* and there are a lot of hobbyists still 'in the game' who love those models.

Finally...I would dearly love to have Sgt Centurius back. Not the specific model--as beautifully-sculpted as it is, it was a limited edition release and I think it poor form to advertise something as limited then ever make it widely available. But it would be a very cool thing to have his special character rules updated for V5...

Make no mistake: It is good to have the Legion of the Damned back--and better than ever, in many ways: as good as the previous sculpts were, these *are* even better, and the V5 rules capture the traditional atmosphere of the Damned perfectly. It would be even better if GW had not shortchanged them their full history, in the doing.

ARMY OF THE DAMNED

If one's view of the Damned permits them to exist in a more-than-a-single-fleeting-squad kind of way, the current Codex: Space Marines provides options for simulating that.

The core of such an army would be the three ELITES Legion of the Damned squads, of course: at maximum size each exceeds 300 points even before any special, heavy or sergeant gear is added. That is two-thirds of a standard 1500-point army accounted for.

There are six options for adding the mandatory HQ choice. None of them are perfect--but a couple get very close. To 'feel' like the Legion, such HQ choices must have the required Invulnerable Save and be able to Deep Strike. The former is conferred to any Independent Character with an Iron Halo (Chapter Masters and Captains), a Rosarius (Chaplains) or who can equip a Storm Shield or can wear Tactical Dreadnought (Terminator) Armour; Terminator Armour also confers the latter (so do Jump Packs, which expands the options slightly but--with one exception explored following--do not get addressed further in this article because to me the Damned *must* materialize as if from nowhere, rather than ride in on a plume of smoke and fire, however admittedly cool that latter imagery may be). A Damned HQ IC can therefore be built either from the generic Space Marine Chapter Master, Captain or Chaplain entries in the Codex and equipping with Terminator Armour--choosing a Storm Shield for the Chapter Master or Captain even makes the Invulnerable Save 3+, to perfectly mirror the V5 Damned (though a skull-faced Chaplain leading the Damned just *feels* more right :). Players who prefer to template an HQ from one of the Codex's special characters cannot get as perfect a match: Marneus Calgar upgraded to the Armour of Antilochus has Deep Strike but only a 4+ Invulnerable Save (though his Eternal Warrior Universal Special Rule more than makes up for it and *feels* very consistent with the lore of the Damned); the omnipresent-on-V5-battlefields Vulkan He'stan has the 3+ Invulnerable Save through Kesare's Mantle but his Artificier Armour confers no Deep Strike; and the best statistical match, Lysander (Terminator Armour, a 3+ Invulnerable through his Storm Shield, Eternal Warrior *and* one awesome melée weapon in his warhammer, the Fist of Dorn--all reasons why he is my favorite V5 template) sees the other two special bonuses he confers--Stubbornness to his army and Bolter Drill to his squad--vastly diminished in impact in a Fearless, Assault Terminator-heavy army (see following). Depending on which option the player chooses, his Damned HQ raises the army's cost by as little as 130 points (a Terminator Chaplain) to as much as 265 points (Calgar).

The only additional units in the Codex which provide for all models an Invulnerable Save and the ability to Deep Strike are Terminator Squads and Vanguard Veterans. Assault Terminator Squads kitted with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields are perfect Damned--but like all Terminators, are ELITES choices, and all three of your Army of the Damned ELITE slots are likely to be filled with squads of authentic Legion. They remain options to consider for Planetstrike! and Apocalypse games--but you could take as many squads of the Legion as you wanted in Apocalypse anyway. We will come back to them before we are done...but let us consider the Vanguard, first.

The Vanguard Veterans are a V5 codex entry which has, in my experience, been underseen on 40K battlefields...but which make interesting additions to a Damned army. One reason they are taken less frequently than their (admittedly excellent) Sternguard Veteran brethren is that there are such other excellent, effective and economical choices for Space Marine commanders amongst the Fast Attack Org chart; for a Damned force, most of those aren't thematic. And while they do enter via Jump Pack Deep Strike rather than 'materializing from thin air,' as noted above, the Vanguard differ from standard Assault Marines in two critical, Legion-worthy ways: they can all equip with Storm Shields, conferring to them a simulacrum of the Damned's supernatural invulnerability, and they possess a unique ability, the 'Heroic Intervention,' which can allow them to appear at the critical time and place and launch a battle-turning assault from deep striking, in the very best tradition of the interventionist-themed Legion of the Damned. Of course, a full squad so equipped is going to cost in the 500 point vicinity--but nothing in a Damned army comes cheaply...

And there are still no TROOPS choices which fit. This is irremediable with the current codex; there are only the two options, Tactical and Scout Squads--which, great though they are, emphatically are not suited to represent the Damned. The only table-legal solution is to create a non-Damned 'mini army' within the larger Damned framework, a two-TROOP minimum codex marine force which represents, from a background perspective, the imperiled Loyalists whom the Legion materializes to rescue. If any of the previously-suggested supplements to a Damned roster ring inauthentic, a purist could expand this component to whatever degree (though the army obviously becomes less truly a Legion of the Damned force the more this is done), and it is an easy segue toward a Damned army for any player who already has some Space Marine force, however modest (which, face it, is almost all of us).

But it isn't a complete Legion of the Damned. There is no way to get there from here, under the published codex rules.

For fun, however, there are always 'house rules'--localized alterations to standard play created to achieve just such a desired, legally-impossible effect--and here is one for anyone interested in fielding an Army of the Damned:

No Aid But Their Own: A Codex: Space Marine player desiring to field an exclusively Legion of the Damned army--defined as one in which all characters and non-vehicle units Deep Strike and possess an Invulnerable Save, are all converted and painted to visually represent the Legion of the Damned, and of which at least one ELITE choice is an actual Legion of the Damned squad--may take •two• Terminator or Terminator Assault Squads as TROOPS choices.

As mentioned above, Terminator Assault Squads equipped with Storm Shields are particularly good Damned proxies--but contest for the same Force Org slots; this house rule allows an Army of the Damned builder to maximize his three authentic Legion choices, and add two of their nearest proxies, solving the otherwise insolvable issue of the mandatory TROOPS choices, as well.

And add an appropriately evocative character to lead them, and the points tally is hovering right around 1500.

The question of vehicles alone remains. At its 'army of its own' apex, the Damned had access to all manner of typical Space Marine tanks and transports; under current edition rules, none of those could materialize alongside the Legionnaires as they walk out of inexistence. A player interested in adding any will have to justify them as arriving 'just out of sight,' then rolling to the clarion call of rescue. Land Speeder variants (excepting the Storm, which would be carrying Scouts, something the Legion conceit cannot convincingly justify) can Deep Strike in, and although they lack the invincibility of a permanent Invulnerable Save do present some interesting possibilities for conversions. The thorniest question is presented by the Dreadnought in all it's variants--which of all the additions heaped upon the Damned concept as it expanded was always the coolest: while it cannot Deep Strike, a Dreadnought can arrive via Drop Pod...and nothing says that arriving Pod itself did not shimmer into existence out of nowhere, ghostlike, in the wartorn skies above a battlefield, moments before impact...heralding yet another unlooked-for rescue by the Army of the Damned...
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Despatch: Blastscapes

The online community has reacted with startling harshness to Games Workshop's new Planetstrike!-specific hobby terrain offering, the Blastscape--so I hustled out to grab a bag for myself after the online furor. The pieces in the Blastscape bag are designed to specifically replicate on-table several of the Planetstrike! 'special effects' Attacking armies can unleash upon Defenders in games of Planetstrike!. With it in hand (and having recently painted several sets of the similar Moonscape Craters for various retailers), I can make the following definitive assessments:

1) The Terrain pieces in the Blastscape bag ARE NOT comparable to those shown in the White Dwarf battle report introducing Planetstrike!, the advertising section of the same issue, on GW's website or, in fact, on the back of the Blastscape retail bag, either in substance or detail; those painted pieces appear to be resin, whereas the Blastscape pieces offered at retail are unpainted vacuformed plastic.

2) The vacuformed Blastscapes DO have a damage-inclined area--the high point of one piece strains the bag's ability to protect it in shipping because it is such a prominence, and if it gets crumpled it--like all vacuformed plastic--will deform, stress and break. This is the prominence in one of the earliest online reviews which reportedly punctured; I can confirm mine is broken, too...but should also note that it is only that peak of that one piece that has demonstrated damage in the bag I purchased, or any others I have examined.

3) Those criticisms being acknowledged as valid--I find the quality of the five vacuformed Blastscape pieces is quite good *given the medium*, easily on par with the Moonscape Craters bag (which have seen fine service in MegaBattles and tournaments at several local retailers, now, without any ill effect). If the pre-release pictures used on the website and in the Dwarf (and, probably worst, on the Blastscape packaging itself) did not exist and had not raised false expectations, I do not believe there would be many complaints about these pieces' tabletop utility at all; and

4) The set of five retails for less than twenty bucks US. That is what vacuforming allows. These pieces rendered in more detail in resin would cost at least that APIECE, I estimate. Done in vacuform, a player can easily cover even very large tables with these terrain effects.

The Blastscape bag provides: a terrain piece with multiple close craters, representing a crash or perhaps a multiround solid-shell barrage; a piece with multiple asteroids impacted; the much-talked- about orbital strike seared-lance- of-molten- earth piece (which *is* very cool and should be a great deal of fun to paint); a terrain piece with multiple bits of craft wreckage; and the problem piece, a huge piece of impacted wreckage (which has driven up a high wedge of earth, the topmost point of which is suffering the damage in packaging).

I understand the complaints; GW--intentionally or not, and since I suspect the painted pieces used in the battle report, online and on the packaging are the resin masters for the actual vacuformed Blastscape pieces, I am willing to give them benefit of the doubt on intent here--pulled a bait-and-switch with the Planetstrike! Blastscape terrain, advertising a level of precision and detail in the painted resin sculpts the actual vacuformed plastic retail offering could never match. Given I would not have spent a hundred bucks or more on resin Planetstrike! effect terrain pieces, however, regardless of quality--nor I suspect would many hobbyists--and given the inexpensive vacuformed pieces offer customizing/converting possibilities working with solid resin would not...from my position the Blastscape is a hobby product of outstanding value and utility. If GW would like to make it up to us by offering resin castings of those terrain piece masters at a significant discount--as a gesture of good faith--on the other hand....

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Imperial Bastion Planetstrike! Terrain Kit: This is a nifty little thirty-buck model: the floors are modular, so combining kits can render very tall towers (great for Titan-cover in Apocalypse) and nice low shielded bunkers and entrenchment strongpoints (especially when combined with the new Aegis Defensive Walls) as well as the standard Bastion (which, it must be said, is the most common way this kit is likely to be configured, and is perfect for standard games of 40K and Planetstrike!, and pretty applicable for Cityfight and Apocalypse games as well).

Each kit includes considerable parts for customization and personalization, as has become GWs norm: of particular interest are the complete quad gun and lascannon turrets and the communications array, useful little subassemblies which will find their way onto lots of other terrain pieces, I suspect.

GW offers a 'Chaos Bastion' which includes Chaos sprues, and 'orkified' versions using all the bitz from the recent Trukk, Battlewagon and especially Stompa kits will be easy to convert, so the kit has plenty of application.

With a number of floor modules added my Bastion is about to become the basis for a control tower overwatching my in-progress airfield table; I suspect the variations on the basic Bastion will be endless, for terrain-oriented hobbyists. I am looking forward to battling for control of some of them on local tables soon!

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Two New IG Armies In One...

With the release of the newest edition Codex: Imperial Guard, many hobbyists will be considering how best to begin such a Warhammer 40,000 army. As it happens, GW has provided an ideal framework through a recent Datasheet for Apocalypse: following its guidelines in constructing a starter 40K IG army will conveniently provide a player with an assembled force useable in two different kinds of play, simply by adding the Datasheet's centerpiece Superheavy tank. Let's walk through the process.

The Datasheet in question is the 'Shadowsword Domination Force,' published in White Dwarf (US issue 351). One of the first 'combined arms' Datasheets GW has released for Apocalypse play, the Domination Force assembles a 'Tank Fleet' around a single centerpiece Superheavy model, in this case the wonderful new Shadowsword Titan-killer variant from GW's recent all-plastic modular Superheavy tank release. The Shadowsword itself would be key, for Apocalypse play: these enormous games are magnitudes more fun for participants who bring Superheavies as parts of their forces--and the special rules of this Datasheet address keeping that Shadowsword alive (and thus more fun to have along) as long as possible.

The 'Fleet' the Datasheet provides guidelines for building around the Shadowsword, however, is entirely composed of traditional Imperial Guard elements straight out of the new Codex; following these guidelines through the prism of the 40K Force Organization chart will give the army builder not only an entire, coherent Apocalypse force to bring to the table but--absent the signature Superheavy--a very nice starter 40K army, as well.

The first thing the Datasheet requires (in fact, the *only* requirement other than the Superheavy--everything else is optional) is a minimum of three and a maximum of six Leman Russ Battle Tanks. These act as 'escorts' to the Shadowsword in Apocalypse games; in a 40K Imperial Guard army, they constitute Heavy Support choices, and come in a multitude of variants (seven, largely distinguished by the configuration of their main gun). A standard 40K Force Org allows up to three Heavy Support choices, easily accommodating the three-Russ- minimum the Datasheet requires--but the new Guard Codex allows such tanks to be purchased in Squadrons of up to three, each Squadron taking only one Heavy Support slot, so the Datasheet maximum of six Russes is equally feasible, as well.

The next 'Fleet' option in the Domination Force is the addition of 0-2 Hydra Flak Tanks, to protect the land task force from aerial harassment. Whether to include any Hydras in the starter 40K army needs to be considered from the outset, because they are Heavy Support choices in Codex: Imperial Guard, as well: to select even one, a player will have to devote one of his three available HS slots to it (although both could be taken with that one Force Org slot if any are, as they are available as Batteries), meaning at least one set of Russes will have to be fielded as a Squadron, as well, to get the Apocalypse minimum three on the 40K battlefield. There are advantages and disadvantages to fielding vehicles in Squadrons; for beginning IG players, it is probably most straightforward to avoid placing such 'big ticket' points-intensive models as Leman Russes in Squadrons if at all possible.

The rest of the Domination Force's components form the 'fleet's' pickets--light perimeter assets designed to scout the task force's path ahead and prevent penetration by an enemy to it's essential core. Conveniently, these forces are chosen from desirable elements of a 40K Imperial Guard army.

Every standard 40K mission requires forces composed with a minimum of two Troops slots from the Force Org chart. The Domination Force Apocalypse Datasheet calls for 0-4 Infantry Squads; in IGdex parlance, those are Troops choices. The easiest way to represent the former via the latter is to choose Veteran Squads: each Squad of a Veteran Sergeant and 9 Veteran Guardsmen is bought individually, so selecting two properly composes your 40K army with the two required minimum Troops choices, and you may select as many as two more and remain consistent with the structure maximums imposed by your Apocalypse Datasheet. Moreover, each Veteran Squad is allowed to equip with a Chimera Armoured Transport--another requirement the Datasheet imposes (in order that the infantry can keep moving with the 'fleet').

The heart of almost every Imperial Guard army since the days of the first V2 IGdex has been the Infantry Platoon...and you *can* stay within the structure imposed by the Datasheet and build from a Platoon to meet the two Troops choice requirement of a standard 40K army--but it reduces your options considerably: a Platoon consists at minimum of a Platoon Command Squad and two Infantry Squads, constituting a single Troops choice. In the new Codex each of the three can be given a Chimera, so such a minimum sized Platoon could be constructed leaving a Veteran Squad to be chosen as the second Troops choice (and fourth and final Datasheet Infantry Squad). The advantage of such a construction is the Command Squad, with its junior officer's access to Orders and wargear; the disadvantage is that the two regular Infantry Squads are inferior to the Veterans, that you aren't getting access to some of the best things a Platoon offers an IG player--the optional Heavy and Special Weapons Squads--because they cannot get Chimerae, and that you use up all four of your Datasheet 'Armoured Fist' allowances just meeting the Troops requirements: choosing Veteran Squads instead would allow up to two of those slots to go to such interesting Infantry Squads from the new Codex with Chimera access as Storm Troopers, Psyker Battle Squads and Ogryn Squads. As Company Command Squads are classified as Infantry Squads, the 40K-Mandatory HQ Force Org requirement could even be filled (but see following).

The remaining picket option for the Domination Force is 0-3 Sentinel Squadrons. The '0' means none are mandatory--but any 'fleet' commander who ventured out without at least one of (and likely as many as possible of) these fast, mobile, versatile and hard-hitting Imperial Guard walkers to scout his path and protect his flanks would deserve whatever ill befell him. Sentinels are Fast Attack choices in the 40K Force Org, come in Squadrons of 1-3 per slot, and are available in both Scout and Armoured varieties (the Armoured variant increases Front Armour from AV10 to AV12, adds the Extra Armour upgrade at the expense of the Move Through Cover and Scouts special rules, and adds the Plasma cannon as a primary weapon upgrade). Filling all three Fast Attack slots with full Squadrons of Sentinels is very tempting (especially for Apocalypse play, where the Datasheet's 'Piquets' special rule allows the fielding player to sacrifice the cheaper Walkers for Russes or Hydras--or Structure Points on the mighty Shadowsword itself!).

Unless the player opts to make a Company Command Squad one of his four Chimera-borne Armoured Fists, however, he still has the question of the 40K mandatory HQ Force Org slot to address. In the Apocalypse Formation, the Shadowsword is the command platform of the entire 'fleet,' it's commander the ranking officer of his Domination Force. The Superheavy cannot see the field in a standard 40K game-- but that does not mean said commander must be absent. Imagine the 40K version of this army is the assembled land force, enroute to pick up its designated Superheavy charge: it would not be unreasonable to picture the Shadowsword's command crew alongside them for the journey--in fact, I can picture an excellent themed tournament army being constructed around such a notion, with the battles of each tournament round representing hostile encounters along the convoy's journey, and perhaps with the Shadowsword itself present as the centerpiece of the army's display base--and that leap to provide a single additional element to the 40K version of the army over-and-above the Datasheet's minimum/maximums opens up a variety of juicy extra modeling and gameplay options.

The Shadowsword's command crew could be constructed with the Company Command Squad options in the new IGdex, as above, and given a Chimera of their own, perhaps uniquely decorated as would befit such a 'captain's skiff' (to carry the Domination Force's naval analogy further). This would not preclude the already-referenced Chimera- mounted Company Command Squad, if the player wanted a command structure for his escorting force from their own chain-of-command (and the Force Org Chart allows two). If the player just wanted to add the 'fleet admiral' himself (assuming his crew awaits his imperious arrival at the Shadowsword), he could use the Lord Commissar IGdex entry as a template to fashion a 'counts as.' Or a player looking to make his Superheavy commander and crew play more uniquely might consider building such an heroic figure and his retinue from either of the existing Inquisition Codices. He could even give such an officer a Rhino instead of a Chimera, which the Alien and Daemonhunter army lists allow, if he wanted the Shadowsword proxy to really stand out. Most interestingly, however--if the player showed some restraint in maxing out on those Fast Attack Sentinels, above--would be the option of having the command crew born aloft for the journey above their landbound battle convoy in a Valkyrie Assault Carrier: not only would this add mobility and punch to the 40K force and give the new Imperial Guard hobbyist access to the niftiest new model in the IG army in his starter force--but Valkyries come in Squadrons, too...and what high- ranking 'land admiral' would go anywhere without a couple of squads of highly trained, well-equipped bodyguard squads (Storm Trooper Elites)?

And even though these flyers would exist outside the parameters of the Datasheet for Apocalypse games--the great thing about Apocalypse is that, beyond a chosen Datasheet or Formation's specifics, there *are* no Force Org requirements: a player can add such top cover without issue!

Given the various options outlined above, then, this is one straightforward sample build of a Warhammer 40K army which, with the addition of a Shadowsword kit, would become immediately playable as a Shadowsword Domination Force in Apocalypse events, games and multiplayer megabattles:

HQ1: Shadowsword Command Crew - 110Points: Company Command Squad (Company Commander w/ Power Weapon, Veteran w/ Medi-pack, Veteran w/ Domination Force (Regimental) Standard, Veteran w/ Vox-caster, Veteran w/ Lasgun).

TROOP1: Armoured Fist Squad Starboard - 145 Points: Veteran Squad (Vet Sgt, Veteran w/ Vox-caster, Veteran w/ Plasma gun, 7 Veterans w/ Lasguns; Chimera Transport).

TROOP2: Armoured Fist Squad Port - 145 Points: Veteran Squad (Vet Sgt, Veteran w/ Vox-caster, Veteran w/ Plasma Gun, 7 Veterans w/ Lasguns; Chimera Transport).

TROOP3: Armoured Fist Reaction Squad - 200 Points: Veteran Squad (Vet Sgt w/ Power Fist, Veteran w/ Vox-caster, Veteran w/ Grenade launcher, Veteran w/ Flamer, Veteran w/ Heavy flamer, 5 Veterans w/ Lasguns, Grenadiers; Chimera Transport).

FAST ATTACK1: Sentinel Pickets - 138 Points: Scout Sentinel Squadron (3 Sentinels w/ Missile launchers, Searchlights).

FAST ATTACK2: Command Crew Shuttle - 125 Points: Valkyrie Assault Carrier (Lascannon, Sponson Heavy bolters).

HEAVY SUPPORT1: Leman Russ Vanquisher - 245 Points (Knight Commander Pask, Hull Lascannon, Sponson Multi-meltas).

HEAVY SUPPORT2: Leman Russ Battle Tank - 170 Points (Sponson Heavy bolters).

HEAVY SUPPORT3: Leman Russ Battle Tank - 170 Points (Sponson Heavy bolters).

At 1448 Points, you may add vehicle options such a Extra Armour or alter weapons kit-out as suits, to reach a standard 1500 Point 40K army.

With the 'Knight Commander Pask' tank commander template character aboard, the Vanquisher is considered the Command tank; it, along with the Valkyrie and the Sentinels are optimized for anti-vehicle/anti-monster duty, with the two standard Leman Russes and the three Chimerae maximized for anti-personnel. The Sentinels' Missile launchers can back up anti-personnel if the opponent is of the horde variety, and the tanks' battle cannons provide additional (if imprecise) anti-armour capability should that need arise.

This force is light on 'boots on the ground' and significant hand-to-hand combat ability; if I were expanding it to 1750 or 1850 Points (or more), I would add a Commissar Lord with a Power fist to the Armoured Fist Squad tooled up for Reaction, and some Regimental Advisors to the Command Crew in their Valkyrie--particularly the two allowed Enginseers, one of which would immediately join the Lord Commissar in the Reaction force (one mechanic for the Superheavy, one for the escorts)--and probably a second Scout Sentinel Squadron; a fourth Veteran Squad Troops choice probably makes more sense than a Chimera full of Ogryn for the last Chimera picket, too...though the latter sure sounds like more fun.

I would start this army with the plastic Battle Force box of choice (either Cadian or Catachan) and one Squad box: that will provide all 35 Guardsmen needed, plus the first Sentinel, for under US$120. An Apocalypse three-tank Leman Russ Squadron box would add the essential mandatory 'fleet' tanks at a discount from buying them individually; the Chimerae, additional Sentinels and Valkyrie will need to be added a box at a time, unless relevant future Apocalypse or Squadron combination releases appear. What vehicle-heavy forces add to outlay, however, they tend to subtract in assembly and painting time; this is a compact, seven vehicle/three walker/35 infantry IG army that should be easy to use (you know what it does well and what it cannot do), especially for the starting IG commander--plus it is easy to transport, fun to start, assemble, paint, finish and play--

And, with the addition of that centerpiece Shadowsword Superheavy tank, beautifully themed...and best of all, ready to bring the might of the Imperium to the enormous amount of fun that is Apocalypse wargaming. Twice the Imperial Guard fun for the investment, by careful planning from the outset.

Good luck, 'land admiral.'

Who Shall Lead? Part Five: Space Marine Captains

The Fifth Edition Codex: Space Marines changes the way a 40K player chooses the heroic characters who will lead his army. The previous editions' multi-level Independent Character options and near-limitless choices of Wargear from the Armoury are no more; instead, the new Codex presents an unprecedented number and variety of pre-constructed Special Characters—then encourages players to pick the one whose gear or abilities most suits that player's preferences, and use him as a 'template,' over which the player can lay his own Chapter's names, colours, history and background. And amongst the Special Characters available as HQ choices, nowhere are the options more varied than amongst the HQ type the new Codex *clearly* intends as the leader-of-choice for most V5 armies -- Space Marine Captains. Where other HQ choices have had their statistic lines bumped down a bit, Captains are actually stouter than in previous editions; and the Codex presents a total of five Captain Special Character types, plus the generic-build entry--more than the other four HQ options combined.

Which Captain suits what army-build/playing-style best?

SICARIUS: The Ultramarines representative feels the most like a traditional Space Marine Captain, from previous editions--only jumped-up on steroids. He brings army-wide Leadership, confers to another squad the ability to retain one of the Veteran Skills which might have characterized them in previous editions, and is awesome in assault against the foe. Sicarius weighs in with the Mantle of the Suzerain, a suit of Artificer Armour reducing his Save statistic to 2+ *and* adding the Feel No Pain special rule to his Iron Halo 4+ Invulnerable Save--making Captain Sicarius one of the most survivable characters in the game (though he remains vulnerable to the Instant Kill *if* an opponent can fight through all those saves with a Strength 8 or higher attack, just once).

His armament of plasma pistol and Talassarian Tempest Blade complement his survivability by making him one of the most fearsome close combatants in the ranks of the Adeptus Astartes; the Blade's ability to forego all Sicarius' attacks in favour of a single strike which will Instant Kill anything it wounds is an awesome odds-evener in these days of daemonic and monstrous creatures immune to such a fate, even from Force weapons, and grabs one's attention for considering Sicarius as a monster-killer--but wielded simply as a power blade with Sicarius' Weapon Skill of 6 and four attacks (five on the charge, plus the inbound plasma shot) makes Sicarius most formidable as a rank-and-file opponent slayer...doubly so, since his own vulnerability to being Insta-Killed is lessened against most such opposition.

Sicarius adds the Surprise Attack special rule allowing his side to reroll their attempt to seize initiative, the Rites of Battle special rule conferring his Leadership to the entire army for Morale or Pinning tests, and--most significantly--Battle-forged Heroes, which allows a player fielding Sicarius to give one Tactical squad a Veteran Skill upgrade. Those missing the previous edition's Traits system should give Captain Sicarius a long look as the template choice for their army commander based on this special rule alone: granted, it affects only a single Tac squad, but being able to carry over some ability which characterized your previous era army could be a big deal, toward retaining your sense of that force's identity in this new age. Against such positives, the only downside to choosing Sicarius is his cost: at 200 points, only the Terminator-armoured Imperial Fist Lysander is as expensive as Sicarius, among the five template characters presented in the new codex. For those points, however, Captain Sicarius will provide players one of the most familiar, most potent, most threatening and most survivable leaders available to a Space Marine army--and grant them a measure of their former identity, in the doing.

LYSANDER: the Captain of the Imperial Fists is as expensive as Sicarius--and even more survivable. The only issue with choosing Darnath Lysander as a template for your own force leader is that his special rules conflict with each other, in dictating his best battlefield role--making it difficult to get maximum effect from everything he can do.

Lysander is equipped to lead from the front, in hand-to-hand combat: he has Terminator Armour and a Storm Shield for a 2+/3+ set of Saves, and the mighty Thunder Hammer Fist of Dorn--mastercrafted, striking at Strength 10, with a +1 to the result roll on the Vehicle Damage Table. Add his ability to make units in his army Stubborn and the enormously impactful Eternal Warrior, and Lysander has the special rules to increase his assault effectiveness. Much moreso than Sicarius, Darnath Lysander is a serious vehicle- and monster-killing character template.

However, perhaps his most interesting rules are best used if Lysander is held back from close combat. He can Bolster Defences like a Techmarine (an artifact of his Legion's legendary seige expertise, doubtless)--and if he joins a squad any included model may reroll 'to hit' rolls with bolt weapons, courtesy of his Bolter Drill special rule. Imagine a Heavy Bolter Devastator squad fighting from an entrenched position with Lysander amongst them: horde armies beware!

But a player choosing to field him this way is foregoing Lysander's essential assaultiness (because he wields Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield, the master of bolter discipline hasn't even a gun of his own to fire); and a player who wades into the enemy with Lysander surrenders the shooting benefit he could bring to a ranged-combat-oriented squad.

The closest thing to a happy medium, of course, would be to place Lysander in the company of his fellow Terminators, who with Storm Bolter and Power Fist as standard weapons suffer some of the same cost penalty for being good at everything that Lysander does. His Bolter Drill will make their Storm Bolters even more effective, and he will certainly increase their impact come the assault. Sadly, none of the heavies available to Terminators are Bolter weapons...leaving such a unit likely to be either shooting ineffectively with small arms fire at vehicles or monsters worthy of their Hammers and Fists, or using the latter in massive overkill assaults on hordes as follow-up to their fire volley.

One tactical use for Lysander which should see some play is as a counter-assault unit for shooting-oriented Space Marine players bedeviled by infiltrating, outflanking or other 'sneak up from behind' opposing army builds. Lysander directing fire from that aforementioned entrenched Heavy Bolter squad--then detaching to deal with Space Wolf scouts intent on ruining a gun line's day, should prove more than reasonably entertaining for the player leading with the Terminator Captain of the Imperial Fists.

And at the end of the day, Lysander is the only option, other than a generic build, for a Space Marine Captain in Tactical Dreadnought Armour. For Terminator afficionados, that alone will be reason enough to field him.

Lysander is good, make no mistake; his rules just make him so expensive it will be difficult to consistently maximize that effectiveness, for such cost.

SHRIKE: The Captain of the Raven Guard suffers no 'mission diffusion' contradictions in his equipment or special rules; Shrike is the template for the player looking to have his commander lead the proverbial mobile infantry assault--and lead from the front.

With jump pack and master-crafted, Rending twin lightning claws, Shrike is equipped to get to the fight with immediacy and to make an impact once there, with an Iron Halo Invulnerable Save to provide him staying power. His special rules confer Infiltration to himself and any unit in his squad (now doubly-useful in V5 with the outflank option), and his Chapter Tactics rule exchanges the standard Space Marine Combat Tactics for Fleet--a huge bonus for assault-oriented armies.

Shrike is expensive at 195 points--but the closest similarly equipped Captain built from the generic Codex entry is only going to be 40 points less without master-crafting, Rending or Shrike's Infiltrating and Fleet special bonuses. Using those latter two rules effectively can be tricky for some players, who might find merit in building the less-expensive version...but for most players looking for their HQ choice to be a swift and deadly combat machine, leading an elite, highly-mobile group of similarly motivated units, Kayvaan Shrike is the strongest Captain template candidate. He will not be an answer against opposing vehicles or monsters, as a choice like Lysander would be--but let Shrike get in amongst opposing infantry, with a Fleeting assault-oriented army at his heels, and he will undo many a foe.

Shrike's only real disadvantage is a codex limitation, rather than any flaw in his character entry: he cannot be backed up by the best close-combat Space Marines available. Neither the Command Squad entry nor the Honour Guard (should a player really wish to make a powerhouse unit and join Shrike to a jump-packing Chapter Master) allow for upgrading to jump packs at this time, and Vanguard Veterans give up their Heroic Intervention special rule if joined by an independent character. That leaves Shrike leading a standard Space Marine Assault squad, and said unit's lack of access to additional power weaponry has always made them an inferior choice to most opposing armies' assault specialists. They therefore will simply not provide Shrike the maximum backup effect possible (though a sergeant with a power weapon, power fist, thunder hammer or combat shield--or a pair of lightning claws of his own!--leading them will go a long way, as an equalizer...and having Shrike amongst them, granting them outflank to hit what they want and Fleet to get the charge, will still make them an effective choice).

VULKAN: There has been much renewed interest in the Salamanders, with the release of the new Space Marine Codex. Forgefather Vulkan He'stan is why.

If there is a reason the other outstanding Captain templates are not being universally embraced by players, it is probably because Vulkan is even better--and for several points less. Vulkan is as or even more survivable than the other Special Characters (possible save the ultimate tank Lysander), his relic weapon provides increased effectiveness against vehicles and monsters (the kind of things a Space Marine Captain *should* be destroying, in many players' minds)...and Vulkan's Chapter Tactic special rule is an absolute deal-closer: master-crafting *every* Thunder Hammer in his army, and twinlinking every flamer and melta weapon type, is just enormously combat effective.

It is difficult to find fault with Vulkan: a 2+ artificer armour Save, which he will rarely have to take because he also has a *3+* Invulnerable Save from his dragon-scaled Kesare's Mantle; a Strength 6 master-crafted power halberd as his melée weapon (with digital weapons to make *sure* when it hits, it hurts) and the equivalent of a squad heavy weapon in his Gauntlet for a sidearm; and a Chapter Tactic which is both obvious in the benefits it confers yet does not ram a specific play style down a choosing player's throat. The only real issue a player will have to address (if not playing Salamanders and using Vulkan *as* Vulkan) will be working out a background for his templated version which explains all the character's 'wonderful toys' without being boringly derivative...and frankly, that kind of challenge is part of the fun of a DIY chapter.

Vulkan being so iremediably Salamanderish *will* deter some players from choosing him, nonetheless; and the specific virtues of the various other HQ character template options will have their adherents; but barring either, Vulkan is going to find his way tocommand of many new fifth edition Space Marine armies--painted green and breathing fire or not.

He is that good.

KHAN: Kor'sarro Khan may prove to be one of the least-used Captain templates in the new Codex; that is understandable given the other options available, and given that what he specializes in is a difficult army construct for Space Marines to excel--but also unfortunate, because he does what he does with a maximum of 'cool' and a very reasonable minimum of points.

Khan can be fielded in two versions: with or without his special relic bike Moondrakkan. The bike option is the construct which seems to be what causes most players to consider Khan, and that makes sense: it is characterful (he is a White Scars special character) and at only 10 points more than the cost of an ordinary Space Marine Bike for a generically-built Captain, Moondrakkan confers to Khan extra movement (he can Run instead of Shooting) and the ability to Assault at the end of that extra movement (via Fleet). These are outstanding benefits for the cost, and anyone considering a bike-themed Space Marine army would be well-advised to lead it with Khan on Moondrakkan--but it does increase his total cost to 205 points (translating him from the most economical Special Character Space Marine Captain to the most expensive), and perhaps most importantly, it does not at present confer the ability to Run or Fleet to any squad Khan might be attached to/leading...which means, to benefit from Moondrakkan's special rule to maximum effect, Khan is going to have to ride alone. While his movement will likely be so flexible he should still be able to combine charges with other supporting units most of the time, this *is* still an extra complication for a fielding player; and more importantly, not belonging to a unit leaves Khan vulnerable to the character-assassinating machinations of one's opponent.

A more appealing option, though less obvious, is Khan on foot, without Moondrakkan. In this configuration, Khan is only 160 points, but retains all of his equipment and special rules except Fleet. That means he and any unit he joins may still Hit and Run and Furious Charge, and Khan still wields the mighty power sword Moonfang, which causes Instant Death on any To Wound roll of 6, regardless of an opponent's Toughness. All this, and under Khan's leadership all squads in his army which possessed Combat Tactics exchange them for the ability to outflank--including squads in dedicated transports! Those are exceptional, completely army-changing special rules, for 45 points more than an similarly-equipped generic-build Captain. They won't be for every player--in which case, 45 points saved is a not-inconsiderable sum--but for a mobility-based Space Marine army, Kor'sarro Khan is the Captain of choice...astride his bike, or not.

SPACE MARINE CAPTAIN: As with the other HQ options in the new Codex, there is still a place for a custom-built Captain. A player can build a Terminator-armoured or bike-riding Captain with different weapons fit-out and at a significantly-reduced cost from either Lysander or Khan, or one with a jump pack for less than Shrike; a Captain on foot with no more addition than an exchange of his chainsword for a power weapon is still frightfully effective, and only 115 points--130, if upgraded to artificer armour--and of course a player wishing to field a particularly-equipped model (twin lightning claws, as in Sicarius' previous incarnation, spring to mind) fortunately still has this route to go to. At the end of the day, a Captain built from the generic listing is going to be the choice for the player of predominantly shooty armies, both because the template characters all have a close-combat focus and because it is simply more cost-effective, as the points-saved translate to more firepower. Any player considering a 'lead from the front' kind of Space Marine Captain would do well to look at the five Special Characters, and see if any of the bonuses they bring to the table mesh with what the player intends; the bang-for-the-buck difference is considerable.

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Who Shall Lead? Part Four: Masters of the Forge

Techmarines have filled the most bewildering variety of character roles in Space Marine armies throughout the game's editions—from independent single-Wound gadabouts to Command Squad-upgrade only unit components to Elite choices improvable to HQs under certain conditions—but in 40K V5, they are more diverse than ever, available as Elite options, leading units of mechano-organic servitors, as Heavy Support choices, manning awesome Thunderfire Cannons...and as an alternate army-commanding HQ choice, in the form of the new codex's Master of the Forge (in fact, it would be possible under this codex to field *eight* Techmarines in one Force Org, an escalation of the type's versatility never before achievable...and one I expect to face on a tabletop very soon *if* I don't get there first!).

The Master of the Forge is envisioned as a Chapter's most senior representative of the Cult of the Omnissiah and the Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars. As such, he has access to gear available to no other Space Marine. A Master is similar to the other support HQ options—the Chaplain and Librarian—in points cost and limited stat line, but his options arguably make him more viable than either as a single or lead HQ character...and the conversion and design ideas which occur around the concept of a Techmarine-led army certainly inspire!

There are disadvantages to the choice, of course, and the most obvious in the context of this article series is that there is *no* Master of the Forge special character template in the codex, to give players an alternative to building one from the generic listing. It would have been interesting to have seen an Iron Hands Iron Father or Mentor Legion Forge Master special character, or to have seen Forgefather Vulkan He'Stan built from the Master of the Forge template instead of the Space Marine Captain...but absent such missed opportunities, a hobbyist seeking a Master to lead his tabletop force must turn to the generic listing.

Here there are build disadvantages, as well, some of them glaring. The Master of the Forge has no basic close combat weapon. He has no access to any kind of Invulnerable Save; he cannot even take Terminator Armour or a Storm Shield as wargear. He can be equipped with a bike, but a jump pack is not an option for him. And while his stat line is improved from the Librarian and Chaplain in two areas—a superior Ballistic Skill and an Artificer Armour Save of 2+—his Weapon Skill is reduced to Space Marine standard, in trade.

Those concerns addressed, however, the positives a Master of the Forge offers are many. His excellent base save has already been noted, courtesy of his Artificer Armour; add to that the wondrous bag of kit which is the Servo-harness (two additional power fist attacks, a flamer and the twin-linked plasma-pistol plasma-cutter, both of which he can fire in each shooting phase) and the Master of the Forge is extremely well-armed for his 100 point cost. It gets better when his special rules are considered: the Master is still a Techmarine, and so may repair damaged vehicles due to his Blessing of the Omnissiah, and is likewise able to Bolster Defenses, reinforcing the Cover Save of a single specified piece of ruin terrain by +1. Often lost because it is not mentioned in his narrative page in the front of the codex, but rather only in a small-text box in his later Army List entry, is a third Master of the Forge special ability: as Lord of the Armoury, any Master included in a Space Marine army gives the player the option of taking Dreadnoughts of *any* variant as Heavy Support choices, as well as Elite choices (intrigued by the earlier mention of an eight-Techmarine army? How about a six Dreadnought force, instead...). That is a tremendous amount of value for 100 points; investing in a power weapon (it says 'power sword' in the entry, but given how long Techmarines have been carrying power axes as their traditional weapon in the 40K universe, I don't think that needs be literal) is almost mandatory—and a good value for the 15 extra points—and adding digital weapons for another 10 will offset the reduced Weapon Skill somewhat, but a player is still getting a very versatile HQ choice for a comparative points bargain.

The only question becomes how best to use the Master, in this configuration. He is extremely potent at shooting, with that high Ballistic Skill and the ability to fire two weapons a turn, one of them twin-linked...but all of those weapons are comparatively short ranged, meaning involvement in an assault is almost inevitable, if he closes to use them most effectively. With a bolt pistol, a power weapon (or even a Thunder Hammer) and digital weapons purchased, he is not ineffective at close combat—in fact, with those two Servo-harness power fist attacks added, he is downright scary on the offensive—but should he come up against power weapon, or fist-wielding opponents (or the equivalent, like Monstrous Creatures, against which his own fists would be most effective), his lack of an Invulnerable Save will make him terribly fragile. V5 makes managing close-range firefights more possible than in previous editions, in the hands of a skilled player...but it is still a truism that once models get close enough to do the kind of shooting the Master excels at, a determined opponent will almost always be able to get to grips with them.

Fortunately, the Master's economic points price means that losing one in such a fist fight needn't be an army back breaker. It might even allow a player to afford a second HQ choice...such as Librarian, joined to a unit with the Master, and providing a measure of invulnerable protection to them all on the advance, via the Force Dome psychic discipline....

There is an alternative kit-out option for the Master of the Forge, however, which alters his focus completely, and which makes him an especially attractive HQ option for a player building a ranged-combat-intensive Space Marine army. That is the Master equipped with a Conversion Beamer.

Old disciples of the hobby, who have seen bits of marginal lore and arguably goofball equipment come and go throughout the game's five (plus) iterations, love it when something ancient and seemingly long-forgotten reappears in a new edition. So it is with the Rogue Trader era Conversion Beamer, an 'arcane mechanical relic' which certain Masters of the Forge will draw from their army to unleash hell upon the foe, if the circumstances ever become sufficiently dire. The addition of the Conversion Beamer option to the Master's list allows a player to drop all of his other shooting weapons in favor of manning one of these pre-Heresy artifacts—and very nicely streamlines the Master of the Forge's tabletop play focus, in the doing. A Master with a Conversion Beamer is most effective at distance; he will therefore be deployed well back from the assault front, ideally in cover (where his Bolster Defenses special rule will become doubly important) but with good fields of fire. And his mission will be to shoot; if he is doing anything else through the 5-7 turns of the game, things are probably not going well for his army. That means that, other than the extra 20 points it costs to switch out his Servo-harness and side- or shoulder-arm for the Beamer, a player need consider investing no more points in his Master of the Forge, not even for a close combat implement—as noted, if he is fighting, things have gone pear-shaped for the plan. The place such a 120 point HQ character would have in a shooting-oriented army is obvious, and especially as it leaves that many more points to devote to more guns, should become a very common choice to lead such a design. It bears consideration for other army builds, as well, however: such a Master could provide the core of a very effective fire base for a hammer-and-anvil style movement-themed army, especially as a secondary HQ behind a combat-monster dropping the hammer, and might prove economical enough to lead a small cover-fire/counter-fire element in a mostly assault-oriented force. In terms of efficiency and effectiveness, it is one of the most narrowly-focused Independent Character options in the game.

(I should address the one mini-controversy about this Master of the Forge build which has [as of this writing] not been officially errata'd by the Studio, and that is whether or not a Master which switches his Servo-harness for a Conversion Beamer is left with nothing, or is—as the Techmarine on which he is based would be—reduced to the default Servo-arm, which would leave him with one power fist equivalent close combat attack while he manned the Beamer: from a background standpoint, I cannot imagine any Techmarine, especially the highest-ranking, leaving for the field without some version of his tools of office; and he does retain the Blessing of the Omnissiah special rule even if he kits with the Beamer. So for friendly games, and in fact any game in which an opponent asks me, I allow him to default to the Servo-arm...but for competitive or tournament games, including any I neutrally adjudicate, I would have to rule in favor of any opponent who objects presently, as nowhere in the relevant listings does it specify subtracting the Servo-harness from the Master defaults to a Servo-arm. I suspect we will know for sure when the Conversion Beamer-armed miniature is released :)
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Who Shall Lead? Part Three: Librarians

Of all the Hero choices available to a Space Marine player to lead his Chapter into tabletop combat, none have changed so much, through five editions of the game, as their dedicated psykers, the Space Marine Librarians. In V2, the avowed era of the 'super character,' arguably no Hero rivaled the Librarian, whose statistics at the ultimate level of Chief Librarian were the equal of any in the game, whose choices of Wargear cards included some of the best of all possible options, and who had an entire game play phase—the long-gone Psychic phase&mdashentirely to themselves; V3 shattered that, reducing Librarians to under-statted, over-costed HQ lightweights with almost-nonexistent Psychic powers whose wargear was even more overpriced than they were—you never saw Librarians in V3 Space Marine armies unless the player was simply an inveterate aficionado from a background standpoint, and even then their most characterful gear stayed in the Armoury. V4 attempted to remedy this vivisection with some success, returning some psychic disciplines, making essential gear like Psychic Hoods and Force Weapons standard equipment (at a more reasonable price break) and generally restoring the Librarian's battlefield puissance sufficiently to see their occasional return as an HQ choice in some armies.

Librarians in V5 represent both a further advance in such improvements *and* a step back toward previous diminishments.

On the positive front, Librarians continue to have both essential, characterful bits of wargear standard—the Psychic Hood and the Force Weapon—and even more positively, now have the best selection of psychic powers available since the halcyon days of Second Edition.

Unfortunately, both the Psychic Hood and Force Weapon are less worthwhile in V5 than they have ever been, and Librarians are more vulnerable to self-inflicted damage from using those multiple power options than they have been since V2's days of the dreaded Daemonic Attack card draw. *And* they suffer the same reduced stat line which afflicts Chaplains (see part two).

One wonders why the evident pervasive distaste for psykers in the Design Studio: Psychic Hoods now only defend out to 24" away from the possessing Librarian—a real problem against back-of-the-table-behind-terrain lurking Eldar, especially given the Librarian's increased vulnerability should he choose to lead from the front (about which more below)—and Librarians who suffer a Perils of the Warp wound are now the *only* instance in the game I can think of where a protective Invulnerable Save must be rolled *twice* to be effective (when a Librarian has access to an Invulnerable Save at all, which is more limited than it used to be). Worst of all is the fate of the Force Weapon: this once-great equalizer, which could throw fear into any opponent with its ability to summon the ferocity of the Warp into a Librarian's hands and potentially defeat even the mightiest multi-Wound enemy, was chiefly and specifically designed to battle the monstrous manifestations of that same Warp: Chaos Daemons. Now, any model which is immune to Instant Death from high strength weapons is also immune to Force Weapons...and of course that includes *all* Daemons, courtesy of their new Codex.

Without digressing into a rant about any or all of this, which given my passion for Librarians I could pretty obviously do :), a player considering taking a Librarian as an HQ choice needs to recognize these inherent limitations to one's effectiveness. They mean that, for all their increased psychic options, in V5 as the two editions previous to it Librarians will appear on tabletops far less often than the other choices available, except in three circumstances: as a secondary supporting HQ for a dominant army commander (like a Chapter Master, see part one), as a multitasking HQ option for a very experienced player who likes to win by making other aspects of his army perform to maximum effectiveness...and, as always, because some players simply like them, and the aspects of the 40K background they represent, too much not to use them.

CHIEF LIBRARIAN VARRO TIGURIUS

As with Chaplains, the new Codex: Space Marines provides only one Special Character template for Librarians. Tigurius is a character with a long history in the game; he is a good choice for inclusion not just because of that nod to his long history, and not just because of the Codex's intentional Ultramarine emphasis, but because the Librarians' downrated statistics do not measurably impact him as he has never been an over-the-top combat machine. In fact Tigurius has stats identical to those of a generic Librarian, offering no variety there—but he has always had two of the potentially coolest pieces of wargear in the game, and both are well-represented by this new incarnation: the Hood of Hellfire is a Psychic Hood allowing Tigurius to use an extra third power each turn, and the Rod of Tigurius is a mastercrafted Force Rod. Tigurius adds two special rules: Master Psyker means he knows *all* the V5 psychic powers (uprating the Hellfire Hood's special rule significantly, as knowing them all means there will be a high likelihood of getting three good opportunities to do something psychically each turn) and Gift of Prescience allows a player fielding Tigurius to re-roll any Reserve rolls each turn—including, if he chooses, successful ones.

All of which means for 80 points more than the closest similarly equipped generic Epistolary, you get access to all powers, the use of one extra each turn, re-rolls on your Reserves, and a single rerolled missed 'to hit' roll.

Is templating your Librarian from Tigurius worth that? Although it is less a no-brainer than choosing virtually any of the other Special Character templates for their obvious advantages, I think it *could* be worth doing—depending on the kind of player you are, and how you intend to use him.

Tigurius will appeal to the player of 'jack of all trades' type Space Marine armies. His Reserve re-rolls will allow such a player to always have the unit he needs available when and where he wants it, and his multiple-times-a-turn access to every kind of psychic power will give such a player the most possible movement, shooting and close combat options. Tigurius will improve the on-table efficiency of highly mobile, Terminator-heavy, or Tactical Squad dominated Space Marine armies...and will confound opponents confident of beating Space Marines because they've seen every trick in the Codex Astartes.

The problem with using Tigurius effectively in this manner is threefold:

1. Most simply, a player intending this approach has to know his rules, and be able to both think multiple turns ahead and stay focused on the given mission's objectives
2. Tigurius' 230 point cost is a chunk, and will take some of the assets the player intends to use with the Chief Librarian's abilities away—the classic catch-22
3. Tigurius' limited statline, lack of Invulnerable Save and 2—and only 2—Wounds means he cannot wade into the opponent's costliest unit and swing his way to earning his points back, as most Space Marine characters (certainly those costing over 200 points!) are generally expected to do

Especially in an era where many secondary missions award extra victory points for assassinating an opposing army commander, Tigurius is a precarious HQ choice, his cost not even considered.

Tigurius' optimal role is probably as a second HQ choice, acting as an adviser to a more 'lead from the front' sort of character who could take on the role of army commander; that would allow his fielding player to avoid exposing him to the hazards of the front line, and use his supporting abilities to maximum effectiveness. Unfortunately, Tigurius' cost is so prohibitive he is only likely to see such use in Apocalypse-scale battles...but a player of Space Marines emphasizing shooting or movement would do well to weigh how he might fit into their scheme, even at lower points totals.

LIBRARIAN

Even moreso than in the case of the Chaplain, building an HQ choice from the basic Librarian option is attractive. The current codex clearly envisions Librarians as support options for another, primary HQ choice, and in such case economy of points matters; choosing the generic Librarian without any upgrades provides everything a hobbyist might seek in such a role, as the Psychic Hood and Force Weapon come standard, including access to one psyker power, for 100 points. The only 'essential' missing is any kind of Invulnerable Save...but the only way any Librarian *can* add that is to switch to Terminator armour (not an unreasonable investment at 25 points, or 40 with a Storm Shield, but with all the limitations inherent in opting for Tactical Dreadnought Armour, and still a significant points upgrade) or use the psychic power slot on Force Dome. That *isn't* a bad power...but for a basic Codicier-level Librarian, it becomes his only one—and upgrading to an Epistolary to get a second is 50 more points. I don't anticipate seeing a lot of Epistolaries on tables, unless a player opts to make a Librarian their primary HQ choice...and in such case, even if they tool him up with Terminator Armour and Storm Shield and devote his two psychic power slots to other purposes, they will be facing some of the same limitations using Tigurius presents—a lot of points wrapped up in a limited stat line—at nearly the same cost but without Tigurius' myriad special effects (though at least you could afford him the Invulnerable Save through wargear which Tigurius lacks).

Fortunately, for those of us with longstanding respect for aspects of the 40Kverse Librarians replicate on the tabletop battlefield better than any other, some will still try...
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