ANZAC Cup 2014 - As the dust settles...

On the weekend saw another big 2 day event done and dusted for me, this time a charity even in support of Soldier On, organized by Ty Casey from WW40K and ADFWGA with behind the scenes support by Tamara Casey, Dave Hill, Ben Clarke, Danny Whitehead, Aven Fletcher and Cathie Cantrell. The weekend rose over $2500 which was donated to Soldier On, to help injured returned servicemen and women. The folks at Soldier On do a fantastic job so head over to their website to donate a little to make a difference.

The day saw me face a multitude of armies and lists across a variety of terrain types and styles. The terrain itself was lovingly had cratered for each table, on most occasions covering more than the ubiquitous 25% table coverage. Each table had an easy to read cheat sheet with unique terrain traits, any house rules for the table, a run order for the game & a quick handy reference guide for rules that as players we rarely remember.

So first up as this charity event was run by folks with a military background you can imagine that there was a strong adherence to time keeping with a strict dice down after 2hrs on all games with no exceptions. Although as a relatively new player who plays a horde based army this did cause me a few issues on a couple of games but as a hole the ridged format gave the even punctuality, which was appreciated as on Sunday I was driving home to Toowoomba that evening.

As this post is going to be a touch long I’ll give a rundown on how each game went later next week, but I will mention that the missions used over the weekend where 30K missions tailored to fit 40K armies. This did result in variable victory points depending on what armies and table where matched up. I'm not sure if this impacted upon how rankings where factored, but knowing how methodical Ty was on the weekend I could guarantee that there was some behind the scenes number crunching to factor this in.

In the end I placed 6th overall out of 21 players (whom 4 had to withdraw on Sunday) with 2 losses / 2 draws / 1 win. And in the Best Painted Category I place 5th, which is my highest paint placing to date and a fantastic result for my first painted army!

This event is fantastic! I would highly recommend it for any level of player even though to me it looked like there where a few tough nuts to crack, and I’m sure there where a few, the majority of armies where of moderate strength. This moderation in army strength in conjunction with the level and quality of terrain resulted in 5 tactically driven games for me over the weekend. It wasn't a case of the best list wins scenario that a few non restricted tournaments have been subjected too over the last 12 months or so. It's looking like next year will see a combined IPMS Queensland Scale Model & War Gaming Model standalone painting competition which I’m certainly looking forward too if that's the case. If time permits I’ll be there next year and probably any other even that the guys from WW40K & ADFWGA run in the Brisbane area. They also run & support events in Northern Queensland which if they are anything like the ANZAC Cup would be fantastic to attend.

 

Eldar by Ben Clarke

Dark Angels by Aven Fletcher

Eldar by Michael Harrison

Death Korps of Krieg (Imperial Guard) by Eddie Duncan
came away with 2nd place in Best Painted

Dark Eldar by John Harington

Nurgle Daemons by Peter St James
came away with 1st place in Best Painted

Nurgle Daemons by Peter St James
came away with 1st place in Best Painted

Space Wolves by Peter Marshall

 Tyranids by Simon Gojkovic

Not only was there a weekend full of War gaming, whether it was 40k, Fantasy or Flames of War, there was also a display from the fellows from IPMS Queensland. They displayed their amazingly painted scale models of real world military vehicles as well as other modelling. They were also the chief scorers when it came to paint judging and on Sunday I took the time to have a chat to them about how to apply weathering. The tips they gave me where amazing and I will certainly be trying them out when I’m back at the painting table. Here are some of the models on display from the weekend.

Next event for me is the cheese filled Force Z coming up on the 3^rd May. Please leave any comments, questions or constructive criticisms. Always on look out for things to cover here & ways to improve.

Codex: Astra Militarous – at a quick glance.

Well I’ve got my hands on the Imperial Guard Codex and this one is a double edged sword. Overall I’m impressed and excited at most of the changes, but I’m a little saddened by a few.

First off let’s talk about the quality. I’m not a big fan of these hardcover books purely from a logistical point of view. As a Guard player I have a trillion models, templates and dice to move to, from and around tournaments and I found my flexible paperback codex so much easier to stick in a bag or pouch. It would fit in tight spaces with a little encouragement! The new book is a little, well, rigid. Now is this a trade off to a gorgeous full colour book, absolutely! From cover to cover this master piece has style and pizazz. There are some new illustrations and a few of the best have been reused, which is OK by me. There is a healthy fluff section at the beginning, which I haven’t had a chance to read yet, followed by Regimental Colours the show case of the Citadel range for Astra Militarum and finished with the Hammer of the Emperor a comprehensive army list and a handy foldout quick reference guide at the back (that doesn’t get all bent up like the early hardcover books). Overall quality is there in spades. My only real criticism is that I expected it to be a little thicker for $83AUD retail, for a models company GW do charge a lot for their books.

Now let’s look at what’s missing. And there are a few omissions that will sadden people, but there always is lately.

Guardsman Marbo from the Old Codex

First up we have Guardsman Marbo. Rambo of 40K has bit the dust it appears. This doesn’t faze me too much, but I had just converted up a model for a counts as which I’ll have to shelve till I work out what to do with him. This is a interesting move on GW part as they do have a current model for his rules. So this may point to two things; Data Slate: Marbo with new model or Marbo is truly gone for good.

Next we have Penal Legion. These guys didn’t have current GW models to support their funky rules but I thought they were cool, I’ve fielded counts as a few time. As sad as this is on reflection it’s not surprising. With the ‘legal issues’ GW has had over the last couple of years it’s understandable that they have caned these guys as there a few third part manufacturers out there that make magnificent Penal Legion models, Victoria Miniatures is one.

Then we have the loss of almost the entire artillery entries, only leaving the Basilisk. This was a bit of a shock as even though they didn’t have GW model support, Forge World had these entries well and truly covered. People with these models will now have to rely on the AI books to run the suckers. Alternatively a couple of Guard players I know are going to run their Griffons as counts as Wyvern Batteries.

Here’s the positives; Orders! There are new orders and they are fantastic. Obviously I haven’t play tested them yet but these new orders open up some interesting possibilities that will be a thorn in the side of many a player. I especially like the look of 30 man blog of guardsman in rapid fire with precision hit! The way I run my blobs that works out to be 39 lasgun/laspistol, 6 plasma & 6 auto cannon shots all allocated to the most sensitive models. Of course the other orders have there some very interesting possibilities like being able to shoot and then run would give your heavy weapon squads some mobility while still shoot at full ballistic. Nine orders in total give some great flexibility to our Guard.

Bullgryns. Well these are ‘interesting’. Not sure if I’ll take them in a competitive lists but these as

well as Ogryns will make an appearance in my social lists from time to time. Unfortunately they are still ridiculously over points costed so they probably won’t see much lime light.

Wyvern Battery

Wyvern Batteries. These bad boys are the new ‘tank’ for the Guard and probably a replacement to all the lost artillery. Just having a glance over them they don’t look too bad, in the long run I’ll probably pick up at least one of these suckers probably 2.

Then there is all the new Militarum Tempestus stuff (better known as Strom Troopers). The only difference from the Codex: Militarum Tempestus that I could see was that they have justly been relegated to the elite slot. This will change up how I run my Storm Troopers and I will miss the Special Operations rules they had, but still looks cool.

Tank Commanders; with a side of orders. I haven’t thoroughly read these rules but at a glance it looks like you could possibly run a full Leman Russ squadron with a Tank Commander as a HQ choice and then run three full Leman Russ squadrons as Heavy Support options, that’s a total of 11 Leman Russ tanks (points permitting) in a single force org chart. And the Tank Commander gets tank specific Orders. More tanks anyone?

A few other change ups include:

Ratling now have the Shoot Sharp and Scarper rule, enabling them to shoot and then run in the shooting phase. Handy

Astropaths are now level one psykers that take a power from Telepathy.

Officer of the Ffleet can now both add +1 to your reserve roles or -1 to your opponent’s roles, after the Officer passes a leadership test.

Chimeras now only have 2 fire points but gain the Lasgun Arrays rule, basically allowing an embarked Veteran Squad to fire 2 special weapons at their ballistic skill and 6 lasguns at the chimera’s ballistic skill.

There is a tone more in the book but I haven’t gone through the codex thoroughly enough to give it justice so I’ll leave the codex there and end on a review of the new Orders Cards.

Well the Orders Cards are a waste of money in my opinion. The quality is downright dreadful. The Trimming is not even centred properly, the cards are too big to be practical they could have been two thirds the size maybe even half the size and still have room for ‘all’ the information. I got a pack on a whim and I certainly won’t be getting another pack. I recommend steering clear of these suckers.

Finally if you think I’m on track here or gone off the rails let me know. I welcome all your feedback.

Have rumours clouded my judgement?... Codex: Astra Militarum pre-release thoughts.

The coming weekend see my beloved Imperial Guard get a new Codex, and new name. Codex: Astra Militarum! First off I feelings of displeasure towards the name (I dislike saying that I hate’ anything) and from here on in I will refer to Imperial Guard as, you guessed it, Imperial Guard just how the Emperor intended!

Over the last few weeks I have been glancing over the rumours surrounding the upcoming release of their new codex. And frankly they have annoyed me. Actually all rumours annoy me. The need to speculate about things you have no control over strikes me as an exercise in pointlessness. I rarely buy into what people are ‘guessing’ about what’s coming up. But the issue I’m finding with these rumours is that they are hitting a little close to home.

Penal Guard 10 Man Resin Squad
from Victoria Miniatures

I find myself almost believing them and getting riled up at GW for ‘ruining’ my army. The latest effort was this one from Bell of Lost Souls. Apparently GW has removed a large selection of rules pertaining to models I was intending on acquiring, namely the Penal Legion Squad amongst others. Ever since I stumbled upon the Victoria Lamb Miniatures rendering of the Penal Legion I was dying to grab a set to run in my ‘fluffy’ lists that I’m known to build. Now every sinew of my anatomy is screaming out in angst for the impending doom of the poor down trodden Penal Legion, but with great resolve I’m pulling my self away from the precipice of ‘GW hate’ until these fears are confirmed on the weekend.

Never before has the bitter taste of bile threatened to extinguish the flames of enthusiasm I have nurtured for this hobby. Rumours be damned I’m still looking forward to the new Imperial Guard whatever form they appear in. If GW pulls a swifty and releases Codex: Penal Legion, I may in due course vent a little on that one.

Let me know what your feelings are on how the Imperial Guard are shaping up. I need to know if there is anything encouraging out there on the interwebs for Imperial Guard.