New Game Phase

It looks like we have a new phase in the 9th edition game turn, the Command Phase. We don't know what this means but I'm putting imaginary money down to say it will be like Age of Sigmar where characters have a command ability. Not a bad idea I guess but depends how it works out.

9th Edition Announced

It has been debated many times in recent years on many many forums but today the truth was revealed and it is that we are getting a new edition of Warhammer 40,000. How do I feel about this? Well, I'm in parts excited but also more than a little pissed off if the truth be known. In my opinion 40K does not need a new edition. The rules, bar those for terrain, are perfectly fine. The game play works fantastically well. Sure there is some power creep but that is a codex issue and nothing new for Games Workshop. At launch we were told, briefly, that this was to be a living system that would be updated with Chapter Approved and online FAQs/errata. There would not be a need for a new edition. So forgive me for saying this, but 9th edition smacks to me of a money grab rather than a necessary update.

So with that rant over...

That trailer is just amazing! It's 40K all wrapped up in a lovely bundle. And people say GW can't do good videos. That take animation and make a two hour film of tv series please!! Yes, I know Angels of Death is coming but we'll see.

The new models look great too. I did notice the primaris with what appears to be a volkite pistol and my army will enjoy some assault primaris. Those have been too long in coming. The nicest but hidden reveal is the model for the Silent King. The necron walker looks tops too. Can't wait to destroy one of those on the battlefield.

All in all, I'm happy and I'm not, but what I am hoping will happen is that 9th edition will bring people back to our gaming club and playing some 40K again. We have seen a lacking in 40K games over the last year I think. We shall see but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

So, what are your thoughts on this new edition from what we have seen today?

Thoughts from the Lockdown

With the UK lockdown going into effect you would think that us gamers would have more time to devote to our hobbies. For many that has been the case but not so much for myself.

Other than painting a couple cars for Gaslands and working on my T9A vampire covenants army I haven't really done anything. But I'm not complaining because to be fair, I think it has been good for me. I do normally spend a lot of time reading the rules, my codex and planning what direction I'd like (and probably fail) to take our games club in.

Under lockdown I have just avoided 40K. My books and army remain where they were left several weeks ago. I just haven't bothered to look at them. It has been a break from years of weekly playing, painting, building and focusing on the game perhaps a bit too much. When we can come back to the club, possibly in a couple months, we shall see, I'm hoping having had this time away will help me enjoy the game a bit more than perhaps I have in the last couple years.

How has the lockdown where you are affected your 40K hobbying?

The Ninth Age (T9A)

Hi all. Hope you are all keeping safe and well. Another "not a 40K post" today but it is wargaming and it might be something that could interest some of you.

I could never get into the old Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WFB) for a variety of reasons. Primarily it was just how awkward and complex the rules were. I lost many games because my opponent wasn't necessarily better than me or had a better army list, but because they could get their head around certain manoeuvres  and actions in the game. I lost many games because certain characters, options and spells were way overpowered (Purple Sun anyone?). On top of that I never got the love of the Old World setting that so many people did. I just found the whole thing rather bland. I like my fantasy fairly generic so I can decide what everything is.

WFB went the way of all things and Age of Sigmar replaced it. At first I liked AoS as it was different, a skirmish game (and back then I was sick of movement trays) and was open to a lot of interpretation. I even liked how the setting was more prog-rock album cover. But even that wasn't enough. In the end it was far far from being generic.

I let me interest in fantasy wargaming die somewhat because of that. That was until I stumbled upon Kings of War by Mantic. A simple wargaming system that although it had a setting, was nice and generic. You had a run down of the world but nothing was forced on you and you could use it as you wanted. I tried to entice some of the old WFB guys to try it but the general vibe I got back was that it wasn't "Warhammer enough" for their tastes. I did get some games in but no one was interested. It seems at my club that if it isn't Age of Sigmar, you may as well forget it.

This last week however, I have stumbled upon something new. I'm not sure how I even found it. The game is called The Ninth Age- and is basically an attempt at Warhammer Fantasy 9th edition. The design team are all long time WFB players and they have taken what made WFB good and made their own very similar (but obviously different) fantasy war game. They have their own setting and it isn't fleshed out so you can have whatever you want, or even just play it as the Old World if you wanted.

A Vampire Covenant army marches to war!

So what drew me to this if I was not all that much of a fan of the original Warhammer?

Firstly, the rules which by this time are in their well tested 2nd edition. Everything is a free download from their website. The main rule book, the spell book and the army books. The rules are simpler and better worded that WFB ever was. Even I can understand it so it must be. If you liked how WFB played, you won't be disappointed by this game and how it works. Best of all you'll find the game balanced unlike how it used to be. The design team of done a grand job of ensuring that points costs work out and no unit in the game should be considered not worth the effort.

Secondly, all your old WFB armies are here and ready to be played. The army books cover all the original armies, plus the Infernal Dwarfs (Chaos Dwarfs) and there is the addition of three new armies - Asklanders (Vikings), Makhar (Mongols) and Cultists (human cultists with demon allies all wrapped up in one). There is even a supplemental army book that adds giants to the majority of armies.

Names are obviously different so as not to infringe on GW's original IP but that isn't a problem. There are no named characters as yet but I believe that is in the works for a later date, and the Chaos Gods are not included. Instead Warriors of the Dark Gods and the Demon Legions serve seven evil deities each representing one of the seven deadly sins.

Thirdly, you can all use all your old Warhammer models. You can use any models providing they are the same scale and will fit on a suitable movement tray. If I remember right, there is an example of a giant's round base and how it works in combat, so whether you are using old WFB units, AoS models, KoW models... third party... it's your army and you can have it look how you want. I can certainly imagine an Asklander army made up of models from GW's Blades of Khorne army.

Looks like an awesome barbarian raider to me.

The magic system is much more balanced. Warhammer suffered, I think, from the magic spells being massively overpowered. T9A changes that by making magic worthwhile but it won't win you battles. Magic is much more of a support for your army than the means to decimate your foe. This is a big selling point for me.

So far, reading their forums and chatting to a few of the people on there, has reinvigorated me somewhat. Because of this find I am going to kick myself up the backside and get my Lichemaster army started. With what I have I will only be able to field 1000 points (4500 points is the usual default for an evenings play) but if I can get this game a look in at my local club then I'll be focusing a bit more on it.

In the mean time if you are a fan of the old Warhammer Fantasy Battle or you are looking for a good fantasy war game, I suggest taking a look and see what you think.

The Ninth Age main page.

The Downloads. - You only really need the slim volumes as they stick to the rules and are quicker to download.

If you check them out, let me know what you think.

Lockdown Update: Gaslands

Finally starting to get my head back in gear and with an Easter Sunday off I decided to sit down and do some modelling. While I set some AoS skeletons to glue I decided to start work (finally) on some of my Gaslands cars. I know it isn't 40K related but I figured someone might be interested and it gives me something to post about for the moment while I'm stuck in here between work hours.

I've not really tried painting toy cars before let alone make them post apocalyptic so this was a new experience. I figured that I would start with a couple intro teams so that I have something to play but I can also use to introduce new players to the game at some point.

So to start with I decided to go with a wasteland raiders team, sponsored by Slime (basically they are the typical Mad Max wasteland types). I worked out a basic fun two car team and picked two cars from the collection to work on

I wanted two cars that looked like they may have been scavenged from somewhere out there and patched up quick.  Raided my 40K bitz box for a couple bolters and some armour pieces. I wanted to start simple and learn as I go along, so I didn't try to overdo it. Some players like to strip the cars apart and get rid of the original paint jobs, but I like the look of some of the Hot Wheels cars schemes so I decided to keep them and just paint over them. Try to make them down and dirty while keeping a semi-real look.

Car 1 - "Pinball".
Somewhere out there, the raiders have located a racing car from before Mars bombed us to Heck, and put it new use. I picked this one because although racing cars are more an Idris team, I could see this being put to good use out on the highways.

From my bitz box I pulled a space marine bolter as use for a machine gun, a couple Orky plates and some points of an old tank ram for starters. The car already had a front spoiler that looked good as a makeshift ram so I figured since Slime teams benefit from bouncing off of opposing cars, that side mounted rams (no build point cost for Slime teams) would be nice and brutal.

The car design was a bit awkward for trying to apply rust. Not something I normally need to apply on my models. I may have overdone it a little bit. Oops. The idea being to use a lighter brown (some websites suggested start with yellow oddly) and then apply a darker brown. It looks alright but I'm not overly keen as it appears like poor camouflage rather than rust.

Car 2 - "Fat Man".
For my second car I wanted something that didn't look out of place among the cars you see in a Mad Max movie and with this little thing I found it. I figure the raiders found this abandoned on the highway somewhere with a little gas left in the tank.

Where "Pinball" is meant to score the hazards tokens, audience votes and demolish the opposition, "Fat Man" is there to streak ahead and win the race while everyone else is kept busy. As a smaller car than "Pinball" I didn't want to add too much to this one. So I with another space marine bolter and a couple of the old weird gold coloured metal additions from Forge World, the windows on this one got protected at least.

This car was much easier to paint. She got a quick dry brush with silver and then a dark wash before I did anything else. Then I started to apply the rust and having learnt from my first attempt I think this time I came away happier with the style. Less is more and all that.


That is my first starter team.Over the next few days I hope to have some time to pick a couple more teams and work on them. Maybe even get some solo practice games in as I haven't had a chance to try out the new rules since Refuelled was released.

Update

I don't know about you all but I was hoping that with reduced hours at work, no club for the foreseeable future and spare time on my hands that I'd be able to focus on some hobby time. Mainly building and painting my space marines, AoS undead army and painting up some cars for Gaslands. Instead I'm just finding that I can't focus on that. Been that way for a couple weeks now and I can't get motivated to do anything.

I'm guessing from what I'm seeing on other blogs that everyone else is having a whale of a time focusing on the game. So, I'm throwing this out as a cry of help. Give me some suggestions for getting motivated back into the hobby side of things right now. How are you managing it?

Hope you are all safe and well though in this difficult time. Stay safe all.

Update

Unfortunately due to the Coronavirus outbreak our club has been put on hold for the time being and the venue has closed. Just as we started the league as well.

League Details - 2020

Our 40K league starts this week with each round lasting 3 weeks so that everyone has time to fit their games in. Fingers crossed this should be fun and hopefully it might bring people back into the fold.

Our armies are as follows:

Colin :       Space Marines (Rift Wardens - Imperial Fists successor).
Adam :      Thousand Sons.
Ashleigh : Astra Militarum (Regimental Doctrines)
Brian :       Ynnari.
Chris :       Chaos Space Marines (Night Lords / Iron Warriors).
Dan :         Adeptus Custodes.
David :      Astra Militarum (Regimental Doctrines / Militarum Tempestus).
Luke :       Death Guard.
Mark :       Thousand Sons.
Jon :          Necrons (Mephrit Dynasty).

My first match is on the 19th against Luke's Death Guard. We played a practice game a couple weeks ago so this will be a return revenge match as he beat me last time!

A post to get thoughts out

I have had a fair few games with my new space marine army over the last couple months. I just haven't had time nor drive to write up many battle reports. Just another case of real life getting in the way.

I started off doing really well with them and had a higher win-lose rate which was a nice change from playing Genestealer Cults. Lately I've had more losses than wins but I put that down to playing some good players and just relaxing with the game. I have fun, win or lose, and that is the point.

Lately I had a really good battle against the new Sisters of Battle codex. The way my opponent had spoken about them and the things they could do, I was expecting to get steamrolled but it turned out to be one of the better games I have had of late. We both inflicted severe casualties upon one another but I was able to score enough victory points to give me the edge.

Other recent matches against Grey Knights and Necrons have not gone so well. I've enjoyed the games but have come away a little disjointed. Were the dice not in my favour, did my opponent have more tactical skill than me, was there anything I could have done better? I dwell on things like that a little too much when I have a losing streak. My most recent game was against Tau using tactical objectives but on a table where we didn't have a lot of LOS blocking terrain which was just playing into my opponent's favour. Good game but walked away afterwards feeling rather put out. Not by my opponent. He was a good fair player and a good sport. I felt that in some way the game had cheated me. By skill alone, my opponent was someone who I should have beaten fairly easily and it didn't turn out that way.

In other news and something else that may have put me in the current gaming funk... I've been trying to organise a new 40K league. When I set the club up nearly 15 years ago we had several players and we used to run frequent leagues. Some were just play everyone. Some were map/tile control type ones with similar rules to the old Mighty Empires. The thing is everyone enjoyed them and we had a good time. Most of those players have either now given up the game, moved to other games (Horus Heresy for one) or just don't aren't all that interested anymore. The club has grown since those days and we have a host of new members. The issue is that they aren't the same people and some of them don't want to play a league for various reasons.

In 2019 I started up a narrative campaign using the Vigilus books and initially it seemed well received. After a couple months it started to go south. It seemed some didn't want to play the narrative style missions because they weren't 100% fair (bare in mind this was a fun narrative campaign with no reward for which player or faction won at the end) and gave up. Some didn't like the little narrative rules for each round. Others felt that they couldn't commit due to obvious real life issues, which is fair enough but as each round was 4 weeks long I just felt that that response was an excuse. After five months I think I had had enough and just dropped it. That was probably when I stopped posting on here as much.

Flash forward to a couple months ago and suddenly there are posters on our club Facebook page asking about a league. A discussion started and I started to become hopeful that maybe we could get the good old days of the club back up again. But then it started to go south again. Some people were interested but only if the army lists were fixed. Some don't like the idea of fixed lists because they get bored. Some didn't want to stick to the same codex because they would get bored. Straight away my hopes of getting this off the ground felt like they were being dashed.

Thankfully, the guiding light of the Astronomicon has pulled me through this and we have several of us actually going to try it out. We are going to be playing 1500 points, fixed lists including warlord trait, artefact, psychic powers, relics and pre-spent stratagems. I've got the players giving me their lists at the moment and once I have them, I'll assign an Eternal War mission to each round before I randomly assign opponents for each round. I have hopes that the players involved will stick to it and we can have a league like the good old days of the club.

I suppose the problem is that I feel our club has become somewhat stagnant. We have some great people who I am pleased to call good friends. We just don't get much in the way of fresh blood and if we do, they don't seem to last long. We don't just play 40K. There is some small interest in Age of Sigmar. We have a fair bit of interest in Necromunda, and a few of the guys enjoy Horus Heresy and Adeptus Titanicus. In the past Bolt Action was popular among a few. I sometimes feel that these games get in the way of 40K which was our original focal point but obviously as long as people are playing I'm happy. That's the point.


I want to feel empowered again by this hobby that I love but lately, this past year or so, I'm just not feeling it. I'm sure it isn't just the club or the games, but it feels like it. I think once I set this new league in motion (I am playing in it too) than I'll step back a bit and see if I can't try and find my niche in things again.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far. :)

Battle Report - Space Marines vs Necrons

Rift Wardens (Imperial Fists) vs Necrons (Sautekh).
Points: 1500-ish
Mission: Crusade.
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil.

First game of 2020 and I challenged Marko to a game against his Necrons. Wanting to try out the new Chapter Approved 2019 missions I picked Crusade as it was the first basic mission in the book. We rolled Hammer and Anvil deployment, and I rolled myself as the Attacker. Mark tried to seize the initiative and failed.

I started the game holding two objectives and should have been in advance range of two more. Unfortunately my dice were not great on this and neither of the advance units reached range to control the central objectives. I did walk my Redemptor dreadnought forward and for the first shooting phase of the game, it gunned down and entire unit of 15 necron warriors. Marko only had three warrior squads so this was a good round for me. I also attempted lascannon fire upon one of his annihilation barges but due to their infuriating shielding I failed to do anything to it.

His turn one and he started marching forward. He did kill a couple marines but this night his dice were quite bad. He could have done better had they rolled in his favour more through the night. I think Marko was a little concerned as I play more aggressive with my Rift Wardens than I have previous ones. He isn't used to me pushing forwards and wasn't sure quite what to do.

Turn two and I managed to reach the objectives in the centre. I was able to pour a lot of bolt and plasma fire into his units but didn't manage to bring down as many as I wanted. In return Marko managed to restore some slain warriors and in his shooting phase was able to give back as good as I had dealt him in my first turn. I lost quite a few inceptors during that shooting.

Over the next two turns the game turned in Marko's favour. While I was gunning down a few warriors at a time, and my interceptors did attempt to bring down his warlord, his shooting was more then adequate to reduce my numbers right down. When he brought in his Flayed Ones and Nightbringer in turn 3 that didn't help me either. He had enough of them that once they charged in, they took me out in a couple rounds of combat.

Turn 5 and I conceded the battle. I had a handful of helblasters and my chapter master left while Marko had twice my victory points. I was not in a position from turn 4 on wards to fight back. It was a good game although I was disappointed that I couldn't do better considering how the game started off. At some point in the future we'll have to have a rematch.

---


++ Brigade Detachment +12CP (Imperium - Space Marines) [81 PL, -4CP, 1,509pts] ++

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

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

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

+ Elites [22 PL, 425pts] +

Aggressor Squad [10 PL, 148pts]: 3x Aggressor [63pts], Aggressor Sergeant [21pts]
Auto Boltstorm Gauntlets/Fragstorm Grenade Launcher [64pts]

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

Redemptor Dreadnought [7 PL, 157pts]: 2x Fragstorm Grenade Launchers [8pts], Heavy flamer [14pts], Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon [30pts]

+ Fast Attack [7 PL, 123pts] +

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

+ Heavy Support [16 PL, 330pts] +

Hellblaster Squad [16 PL, 330pts]: Plasma incinerator [150pts]
9x Hellblaster [162pts]
Hellblaster Sergeant [18pts]: Bolt pistol