The Rift Wardens

My Genestealer Cult is no more. It has been sold in order to take the girlfriend on weekend away next year to Nottingham (not for any personal reason I can think of...). Not that I was winning much with the Cult anyway. I had lost a lot of enjoyment from them in recent months. Probably the reason why my blog sort fizzled away.

 Instead I have purchased a sizable Primaris army for next to nothing from a friend and repainting them as my own chapter, the Rift Wardens - an Imperial Fists successor. The chapter is purely Primaris and fleet based. The Rift Wardens patrol the Imperial side of the Cicatrix Maledictum, responding to reports of incursions.

So far played three games with them under the new SM codex. Beat a combined Chaos Daemons army (you can read that battle report below this post) and a friends Aeldari Corsairs. Only army to beat me so far, and it was very close, was Hive Fleet Leviathan.

I can't paint very well. It's been thirty two years since I started 40K and it's not a skill I have nor do I have the patience for it. So, with that in mind firstly forgive me for my lack of painting skills (they are still very much works in progress too), and secondly, the lens on my camera phone is smashed so they aren't great quality pictures.

Chapter Master Aureilus, who wields the Crusader's Blade (Burning Blade relic). 

 

Reclusiarch Mordred. 

Uther, Master of Sanctity/Chief Librarian. 

The paint jobs on the infantry look better in person. My camera doesn't do them any justice at all. 

Although I am building the third company, the transfer sheets I have only have the II icon, so all my dreadnoughts must have been loaned out to the 3rd for the duration of their battles. 

I had thought about a silver and purple colour scheme for space marines when 8th edition first dropped but as I was focused on Death Guard at the time I didn't bother pursuing it. After giving Death Guard and Genestealer Cults ago - I think GSC were just a throwback one the army I had under Rogue Trader in the 80's - I have felt drawn to the space marines again. After three games I am enjoying playing them again after becoming disinterested with space marines in the early days of 7th edition.

The only problem I have now is getting 2000 points painted before the 2nd of November, when eight of us are going up to Nottingham for a weekend of gaming. And here's me with little silver paint left!! Help! Wish me luck.

Terror from the Rift

Rift Wardens (Imperial Fists) vs Daemons of Nurgle, Khorne and Tzeentch.
Points: 1500
Mission: Dominate and Destroy.
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil.

The first proper game for my new primaris space marine chapter, the Rift Wardens, pitted them against my friend Gary's chaos daemons army. He was playing a nice combination of Nurgle and Tzeentch.

After setting up the six objectives, they were quite heavily stacked to one end of the table. Thankfully we were playing Hammer and Anvil deployment and I got to choose which end I wanted. Naturally I picked the side with three easily accessible objectives. I set up as a traditional gunline so that the daemons had to come at me across the table.

I let my opponent have the first turn so that his forces had to run towards their doom and into my bolter fire. With no other choice, that is exactly what he did. Bloodletters and Flesh Hounds leading the charge while the Plaguebearers followed up slowly at the back. Gary had a couple Tzeentch chariots held back and his Horrors were still waiting in the Warp.

Over the first couple turns of the game, I was happily mowing down his Flesh Hounds and Bloodletters. Most lost enough casualties that in the morale phase the rest vanished back into the Warp. He passed one roll with a double one and managed to bring the unit back up again but they didn't last long. After the Flesh Hounds died, the right flank was in the hands of Karanak and once my Chapter Master and his Aggressor bodyguards got into combat, the mighty hound of Khorne was no more. This left Skulltaker, his warlord, as the remaining character.

Gary then found a spot in my back lines to deploy his horrors and they popped into existence, and starting pouring eldritch flame into my lines. Thankfully they didn't do well and I didn't lose many but it did mean that I had to turn one Intersessor unit to focus fire on them. In return I dropped my three man Inceptor squad into his deployment zone, where they gunned down the unit holding the objective there. They didn't last long themselves as Gary turned a Chariot around and over two rounds cut them down.

By turn 4 though the Bloodletters had been decimated, one chariot was in ruins and all Gary had coming at me was a handful of Plaguebearers and Skulltaker. The Plaguebearers died a death at the cannon and fist of my Redemptor Dreadnought and in an amazing roll of the dice, my Librarian charged into Skulltaker and took his head before he could fight back.

Turn 5 and the game ended with me in a clear victory.... 20 points to Gary's 11. Probably the best outcome that I have ever had in a game of 40K. A very good game and one where I was pleased that a reasonably static gunline was still viable for marines. I definitely prefer playing Primaris over regular marines.

In the past I would have had serious difficulty with Daemons but it shows how in the right mission with the right deployment, even someone as casual as I can do well. I look forward to the rematch.

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At the moment I only have a single static list until I get my army painted and then new options added. Here is what I presently have fielded:


++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Imperium - Space Marines) [76 PL, -4CP, 1,483pts] ++

+ No Force Org Slot +

**Chapter Selection**: Imperial Fists, Imperial Fists Successor, Inheritors of the Primarch

+ HQ [11 PL, -2CP, 206pts] +

Chapter Master in Gravis Armor [6 PL, -2CP, 108pts]: Boltstorm gauntlet [12pts], Iron Resolve, Master-crafted power sword [6pts], Stratagem: Chapter Master [-2CP], The Burning Blade, Warlord

Primaris Librarian [5 PL, 98pts]: 2) Might of Heroes, 3) Null Zone, Force sword [8pts]

+ Troops [25 PL, -2CP, 425pts] +

Intercessor Squad [5 PL, 85pts]: Bolt rifle
4x Intercessor [68pts]
Intercessor Sergeant [17pts]

Intercessor Squad [10 PL, 170pts]: Bolt rifle
9x Intercessor [153pts]
Intercessor Sergeant [17pts]

Intercessor Squad [10 PL, -2CP, 170pts]: Bolt rifle, Veteran Intercessors [-2CP]
9x Intercessor [153pts]
Intercessor Sergeant [17pts]

+ Elites [17 PL, 394pts] +

Aggressor Squad [5 PL, 111pts]: 2x Aggressor [42pts], Aggressor Sergeant [21pts]
Auto Boltstorm Gauntlets/Fragstorm Grenade Launcher [48pts]

Dreadnought [5 PL, 120pts]: Missile launcher [20pts], Twin lascannon [40pts]

Redemptor Dreadnought [7 PL, 163pts]: 2x Fragstorm Grenade Launchers [8pts], Heavy flamer [14pts], Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon [30pts], Icarus Rocket Pod [6pts]

+ Fast Attack [7 PL, 123pts] +

Inceptor Squad [7 PL, 123pts]: Assault bolter x2 [48pts], 2x Inceptor [50pts], Inceptor Sergeant [25pts]

+ Heavy Support [16 PL, 335pts] +

Hellblaster Squad [16 PL, 335pts]: Plasma incinerator [150pts]
9x Hellblaster [162pts]
Hellblaster Sergeant [23pts]: Plasma pistol [5pts]

OPtv - battle report

My friends over at OPtv have a new battle report up using the new supplements for Raven Guard and White Scars. Give it a watch and if you like their content, please consider subscribing.

Drop Site Alpha - Thule Ultima Narrative Battle 2

Points: 2000.
Mission: Retrieval Mission.
Deployment: Search and Destroy.

Finally got the second game played a few weeks ago with my friend Joel. This time we picked a basic mission from the rule book and went for it with a slightly bigger point game. Joel's army was essentially the same but with a few extra marines and bikes, while I upped some squad sizes and included a couple fortifications to round out the points.

It was quite a brutal game. Where as last time Joel was learning the rules, this time he had a much better grasp of things and it showed. His army was a lot faster going forward this time and I found myself stuck in the usual defensive posture that games with my Genestealer Cult tend to devolve into. The Dark Angels swept across my opponent's side of the table throwing out a lot of firepower although I did manage to awesome shots with both leman russ tanks that eventually brought one down but the other kept flying although crippled.

The Dark Angel bike squads supported by an apothecary were the real bane of my game this time around. Every time I managed to drop one of them, he brought it back on one wound. The marines were in my lines turn 2 and there was little I could do about it. When his terminators arrived I knew I was in trouble. Where Joel was winning initially in the shooting phase he soon started crushing me in combat. Even my genestealers and patriarch were brutally pummeled.

The game ended turn 3 and I hadn't even made it out of my deployment zone really before I was utterly devastated. I had barely any models left and I had to call it. Good game but considering Joel's new arrival into these rules I expected to have a better go of it.