Another Assault Squad

I've been finding bits of time here and there at night after farm stuff is done to paint more Raven Guard. I, like many others, have gotten a bit of a motivational jolt after seeing how 8th Edition will work.
The squad is just five Marines for now, sergeant with a power sword and two Marines with flamers.

I'd decided on the weaponry before 8th was announced, and thankfully it's still a respectable setup in the new edition.

I had a couple issues with the Raven Guard chapter decals, as I always seem to. On this batch, some of the edges near the ravens' heads flaked off and they were sealed before I noticed it. Oops.

I used the new ASM torsos for all of the models, and the legs for three of them. I really like the legs for the new kit, as they have a nice variety of poses (the old one had two, if I remember right) and the feet have a larger surface area for gluing to bases. The old ones were like trying to glue two pin heads together.

I have the flamer Marines old style standing legs and metal jump packs. The combination allowed me to use up some old bits and keep the models stable while doing so. When I'd used metal jump packs on my Ultramarines on top of running legs, they were prone to breaking and tipping.

The squad will get another five models in the future, one of which will have an eviscerator. 8th makes almost every weapon option worth taking now in one situation or another! ASM as a whole still look like fun in the new edition, which makes me happy. The only thing I'm not happy about is the cost of all the new books I'll need to run all my models (core, Imperium 1, and FW Index Imperium). I had pegged that cash for a Stormraven or some Stormtalons, but now it goes to books. That just means I'll be going back into the hoard to paint models I already have unbuilt and unpainted. 

Here's a little phone picture peek at what's next on the table:

Yeah. three more Landspeeders. Unfortunately, they're the old version with the single piece top. Total pain to assemble, but I figured out some tips (beyond "clamp heavily") that might help anyone who's still sitting on some of these. I'll share those when I've properly documented the processes. I've also got to find a trio of Typhoon Launchers, assault cannons, and heavy flamers at some point, as these old kits didn't have those options.

Raven Guard Assault Squad Cyrax, Complete

Assault Squad Cyrax is now complete. Let's jump right into photos and I'll ramble afterward.

Hopefully, I've gotten rid of the sepia tones that plagued my previous photos. I did some reading and it was suggested that to take good images of black objects, you point the camera at a neutral gray item, open the shutter (half-press the button on a digital camera), shift to the black item, and then take the shot. I used the bottom of a bottle of gray paint (you can just see the cap on the far left of the first few images). That seems to have helped.

I actually ran these guys in the FLGS's monthly tournament last weekend. They hopped around, trying to stay out of LOS until it was time to kill things or expose themselves to grab an objective. In my first game of the day they only fired once, but accounted for over twenty Guardsmen in a single shooting phase. Double flamers, frag grenade, and bolt pistol shots on grouped Guard was cruel.

I discovered that Raven Guard play MSU very well with jump troops who can stay out of line of sight until the last moment. Provide very few targets and focus heavily on grabbing objectives and maneuvering for others. I don't have any major shooting or death stars in my army other than my Leviathan (who I shoved into a drop pod to great effect), so staying disengaged as long as possible was a key factor to my tied-for-third place finish.

Now that the squad is done, I've been building a small tactical squad with plasma cannon and combi-plasma while waiting for Dreadtober to begin. I'll have my pledge post up soon. I'm going to be painting a Venerable Dreadnought.

Assault Squad WIP 2, Decals

Assault Squad Cyrax is nearly done. I'm at the decal stage, after which only basing is left. This is what the squad-side shoulder pads look like on each Marine:



Raven Guard Sergeant Fast Attack Pad

You'll notice that the pad is very shiny. That's the gloss varnish I use before applying decals to avoid air bubbles and silvering. Silvering is where the translucent decal paper around the design becomes apparent and ruins the effect of the decal. The gloss varnish, combined with Micro Sol and Micro Set, eliminates that.

I used to despise decals when I was first learning to paint my Ultramarines. I tried using an old set of Third Edition decals on my first ever Ultramarine model (a sergeant). I only used water, and the decals were so bad I had to scrub them all off and repaint the shoulders. I switched to freehand for years, up until I started Raven Guard and realized I would never be able to freehand the Chapter symbol. Ever.

I managed to score a full, untouched sheet of Forgeworld Raven Guard decals. I got them secondhand, as FW no longer produces this nice set. The current Legion sheet for 30K is worthless for 40K models. The Forgeworld sheet is very nice and has a ton of symbols and numbers of all sizes.

The Fast Attack squad symbols are actually straight off the regular GW Space Marine decal sheet. They applied nicely after I cut slits between each arrow. This allowed them to sit flat on the curved surface. After they had dried overnight, I glossed lightly over them. I allowed another night's drying for the varnish and today I layered the black squad numbers over top of them. Layering decals works very nicely as long as you gloss varnish between layers. I wouldn't put too many layers though, or you risk a big, thick area of varnish.

The shiny finish is easily knocked back down to matte using Testor's Dullcote.

 

I also found some time to start assembling a Harlequin Troupe. Six models in the unit. The only thing I've done so far is assemble the legs. These things are so foreign to me after working with Marines for so long.

Harlequin legs, so dainty!

After looking at the instruction sheet and assembling the legs, I felt a little disappointed that there will only ever be six poses in my entire force. But then I realized that that is actually more or the same variation than there is in most Marine armies that use the older kits. When I combine the swappable torsos, arms, and masks among the units, I think it'll be fine. I can also always try to get some of the most recent metal/Finecast models (not the ancient ones) to provide some tiny variations as well.

I think this will be a great army to build and paint.

As a final note, you'll notice that I've started adding captions, title, and alt text to my images after reading a great article over at Broken Paintbrush. I'm also loading my images directly to Blogger instead of hosting them on Photobucket. Photobucket has become nearly unusable for me due to all the ads and scripts. I opened the Photobucket page an HOUR ago and it's still not loaded properly. Does anyone know if there are any down sides to hosting images with Blogger?

Assault Squad WIP and an Army List

My half-hour-a-day plan is working quite well. I've managed to get that time in every day except the weekend and Monday. The ability to make small advances each day is great for my motivation. Assault Squad Cyrax is all done with paint, and is now waiting for decals and bases. Here's a couple of shots of Sergeant Cyrax and his lightning claw.

 

 

Once these guys are done, I'll build a troupe of Harlequins or maybe the Death Jester. I'm not sure yet if I'll paint them immediately afterward or hold off.

This past Saturday I got a three-player game in with Berman from A painted Life and Falconator from Falconator's Painting. We each brought 1750 points and had a go at beating the snot out of one another. We only got two full turns in before we had to break it up for the day, but it was a lot of fun. they were working on testing elements of their Standish Standoff lists, and we talked about various aspects of list building and such. I was lamenting my inability to keep lots of formation rules straight in my head when Berman pointed out that if what I was taking didn't get ObSec from its formation, nor from the CAD, why not take it in the formation anyways and use the rules when I remember them. For example, my Shadow Force fits inside the CAD I was planning to take, gets a lot of rules from the formation, but nothing from the CAD. Why not simply take it alongside the CAD and use the Shadow Force rules when I remember them?

With that being said, my draft Standoff list is:

Shadow Force
Captain (relic blade, power fist, Raven's Fury jump pack, artificer armor)
Vanguard Vets x5 (two with bolt+grav pistols, one with dual claws, one powerfist, and sergeant with relic blade ans storm shield, three meltabombs on the pistols and claws, jump packs)
Sternguard Vets x5 (two combigrav, sergeant with meltabomb)
Landspeeder (Typhoon Launcher, multimelta)

CAD
Techmarine (servo harness)
Servitors x4 (two with heavy bolters)
Scouts x5 (veteran sergeant with power sword and meltabomb, camo cloaks, everyone is pistol/blade except a single shotgunner)
Scouts x5 (camo cloaks, heavy bolter with hellfire rounds, everyone else with bolters)
Assault Squad x6 (jump packs, flamers x2, veteran sergeant with lightning claw)
Devestator Squad x5 (two lascannons)
Leviathan Siege Dread (claw/drill arms, armored ceramite, three hunter killer missiles)

This leaves me 270 points to play with. I want my Leviathan to be a little more threatening, so I'm going to build and paint him a Drop Pod. The current 40K rules sheet for him allows it, so long as it's a Fast Attack pod.
One of the falling down points of my list is the shortage of bodies and of anti-tank weaponry. I can expect to see a boatload of transports at the event, so I'm going to paint five Tactical Marines with a heavy weapon and possibly a combibolter on the sergeant.
With the final points, I'm going to add a Venerable Dread with a lascannon. You see, I signed up for Dreadtober. makes sense to add that Dread into the list.

I know the list overall is weak. I'm super motivated to turn it into a Talon Strike Force right now by building fifteen Tac Marines for a Demi Company. I'm going to concentrate on painting those usints I mentioned, and then if I have time do some swapping or adding. The first thing I'd like to swap out is the Techmarine, as he and his servitors aren't really all that efficient or useful. I'd likely swap in an ML2 Librarian with or without a jump pack, and then some individual models added to other squads. I have to get the pod, tacs, and Dread done first though.

I Have Time!

Yes, dear readers, I once again have free time for 40K! It's a minor miracle!

The growing season is winding down, and the farm's first year is almost behind me. It was an interesting year, but you don't really care much about that. The great news is that I now have a little bit of free time to myself to work on 40K. Granted, it's not an immense amount of time. Just a half hour or so each weekday while my son is at school, but that's a lot when compared to the last year or so. I'm specifically setting that half hour block aside each morning after the farm animals are fed, but before I work on other farm projects. Expect to see more frequent "small bite" blog posts from me. I'm hoping to take at least one picture every other day, excluding weekends. This may all fall to pieces, but it's good to have dreams.

So with all that being said, what are my immediate plans? Well, I've had a six-man Raven Guard Assault Squad in the works for what feels like ages (and probably is). Two flamers and a sergeant with a lightning claw in the squad, backed up by a trio of pistol/chainsword Marines. I know six is an unusual number for a squad, but I was working on burning up the remainder of my old Assault Marine bits. I had six torsos and legs, so I built six Marines.
Here's a shot of them as they sit right now:

 

 

 

Black-armored Marines don't photograph well. I think I may need to print up a colored gradient sheet to put behind them from now on.

I've named the unit "Assault Squad Cyrax." Sergeant Aron Cyrax is a veteran of numerous campaigns against the Greenskin filth. Yes, the name is from Mortal Kombat 3. Everyone loves robot ninja assassins! Maybe I'll have a Sektor and Smoke unit?

Once these guys are done, I'll be turning my sights to the annual Standish Standoff in November, the FLGS's annual autumn event. It's 1750 points this year, max of two Factions per army. I'll be taking my Raven Guard, and have been drafting up various lists. I've got a couple ideas kicking around revolving around a Talon Strike Force built on the back of a Battle Demi Company. The struggle I'm having is that the Battle Demi and Pinion Demi (Raven Guard version of the generic Demi Company) require a bunch of Tactical Marines. I'd need to paint fifteen, plus another HQ. I'd be paring almost every unit down to bare bones in order to fit in the rest of my RG models, because my Leviathan Siege Dreadnought is NOT sitting on the sidelines. I want to play with units I like. The formation benefits are great, but there are just so many rules!

I'm seriously thinking about going back to basics and running my Raven Guard as a CAD. ObSec on the Troops and that's it to worry about. Let the army run on the merits of its component units, not on janky and sometimes downright confusing bonuses (played against Tau formations recently?). It might help me out as a player to run my units "pure" before I try to run them "special." Is anyone else sick of the millions of special rules coming about from Formations and overarching Detachments?

Also of note is that I split the Death Masque box with another player at the FLGS...I took the Harlequin half. Yes, that's right, I own fancy schmancy Space Elves. Perhaps the fanciest and schmanciest of the bunch! I wanted something other than black power armor to paint every now and then. I put aside my anti-elf bias that dates back to my D&D days long enough to see how interesting and challenging these models will be. I will likely be assembling them as six-model troupes and then painting them in pairs or trios in between all the Raven Guard models. I've not picked a color palette yet, but I'm hoping to avoid blue and black due to the history of my Marine armies (Ultramarines and Raven Guard). I quite like the look of the Shattered Mirage (teal and white with red/white checking). I also have to think about how to base models like that. I believe many of the models have integral wraithbone base bits in order to make them stand up on a base at all.

I'm hoping to capitalize on my half-hour-a-day blocks and paint up a whole bunch of my existing Space Marine kits. I'd really like to have half my stash painted by the New Year. In fact, I think I'll do a full inventory soon, post the list here on the blog, and do a little self-imposed challenge to get half the stuff done by January. Sprinkling Harlequins in there should help break up the monotony.

Here's to having a plan and at least a little time to implement it!

Sergeant Series: The Assault Sergeant

I enjoyed writing the article about Devastator Sergeants so much, that I went back and renamed the post, and plan to write an article on sergeants for every codex unit that has options.

This second article focuses on the sergeant leading the much-maligned Assault Squad. Yes, "much-maligned." The world at large seems to hate Assault Marine squads due to their points cost and limited armament options. Everyone wants Space Marine Assault Squads to have the same armament options as Blood Angel Assault Squads. If we had that, what would make the Blood Angels special? That's a tired debate I don't care to rehash here, so on to the discussion of Assault Marine sergeants!

The very first thing we have to look at when talking about an Assault Marine sergeant is the unit's role on the battlefield. The default setup for Assault Marine squads provides the default Marine statline, power armor, a bolt pistol, a chainsword, frags and kraks, and a jump pack. You can trade in all of the jump packs in the unit for a free Rhino or Drop Pod if you want.
This wargear load makes Assault Marines into a bully unit that relies on weight of dice to bring things down. Without purchasing any sort of upgrades, a 10-man Assault Squad throws out 30 S4, WS4 attacks on the charge, and 20 when receiving one. This is the kind of unit you want smashing into units with low Toughness or poor saves, like Guardsmen or Orks. The unit also excels when charging Marine equivalent units that aren't specialized for melee (Tactical Squads, Bikes, etc).

The unit is mobile, being Jump Infantry. They can hop across the table 12" at a time or arrive by deepstrike.

So, how does a sergeant augment those abilities?
The first upgrade he has access to is a pistol swap. he can trade in the trusty bolt pistol for a plasma or grav pistol. Both cost the same number of points and they have similar primary targets. However, up to two squad members can also take plasma pistols, but none can take grav pistols. I feel the plasma pistol is slightly more useful due to the matching squad pistols. It's important to note that the sergeant only get ONE pistol upgrade. The 5th Edition codex allowed the sergeant to trade both his pistol and chainsword for a plasma pistol. That option no longer exists. Sadly, that means the model I made with two plasma pistols is no longer legal.
The plasma pistol upgrade carries the Gets Hot risk, on a single-wound model who may or may not be crucial to the unit he leads. The double-plasma sergeant I used to use was designed to make full use of deepstrike and combat squad rules. I would split the unit on arrival to contain one half with all the plasma, and the other half with all basic models. I'd then sink all those plasma shots into a Terminator unit, Monster, or other vulnerable target. This can still be done, but you'll lose 25% of the plasma shots, as well as the ability to decide to combat squad on arrival (you have to declare combat squadding before the game begins now). It's a very niche role, and not really worth the effort any more unless you're really hard up for sources of plasma, or are going for a themed list.

Sergeants can now only trade their chainsword (and/or pistol) for a melee upgrade: power weapon, lightning claw, thunder hammer or power fist. This is where the sergeant in an Assault Squad earns his paycheck and he's got a lot of options to choose from.
Because the Assault Squad is a bully unit that picks on weak or low save units, Assault Sergeants can actually get away with using a power maul. It bypasses the armor of the squad's ideal targets, and provides a bunch of S6 attacks against vehicles. However, it falls flat against 3+ armor or better.
A power lance is also useful on this sergeant because Assault Squads tend to be the aggressors in a melee because of their speed.
The power sword is the "Average Joe" of the power weapon options. It gets more attacks than its closest equivalent (lightning claw), but fewer wounds. it's the jack-of-all trades of the power weapon world.
I've never been a big fan of I1 weapons on single-wound characters due to the challenge rules. The points investment involved in equipping a sergeant with a power axe or fist is quickly flushed down the toilet when challenged by some chump Guard sergeant with a power sword, or assured mutual destruction when pitted against an Ork Nob with a power klaw. I don't like losing 40+ point models before they can swing. That being said, both weapons give added AP2 punch to the unit and in the case of the fist, the ability to peel open vehicles or cause instant death to a wide range of opponents.
The thunder hammer is similar to the powerfist in its role, but is also Concussive. It's neat, but falls into the same traps the fist and axe fall into.
A lightning claw is a nice alternative to a sword. it allows attacks at initiative (though one fewer) and wounds more often. If you really want an extra attack, you can also take a pair of claws by trading in both the pistol and the chainsword. In fact, you can get two of any of the melee weapons this way.
Fans of flexibility could take a power sword and a power axe, power maul and axe, lance and axe, and so on. Double power fists are available, as are double hammers. Those last two options are astronomical in price, so I'd skip them entirely as they both only add +1A for the crazy investment in points. Two power weapons would get you the +1A, and some flexibility for only a small number of points over the Veteran upgrade. You'd lose out on a single bolt pistol shot, which shouldn't be a consideration at all.

Deciding which melee upgrade to take depends on whether or not you upgrade the sergeant to Veteran status. As we talked about in the Devastator article, Veteran status gives +1A and +1 Ld. Assault squads will benefit from the increased Leadership early in the game because they fall back 3d6" on a failed Morale test. When you're still in your deployment zone, there's a good chance the unit will run right off the board early.
The bonus attack greatly impacts how different power weapon options perform against different targets. For example, in the hands of a non-Veteran sergeant on the charge, both a power sword and a lightning claw will cause .75 unsaved wounds to an MEQ statline. But in the hands of a Veteran sergeant in the same situation, the sword causes 1 wound, while the claw causes 1.13. 13% better.
A power maul in the same situation, which allows armor saves by the MEQ model, would result in 1.09 unsaved wounds by a Veteran, while only .82 by a non-Veteran.
Whether you take Veteran status is your choice to make, but in the majority of situations it will be a useful addition.

Assault Squad sergeants also have access to a combat shield for a marginal points cost. It gives a 6+ invulnerable save. I feel that a 6+ invulnerable isn't worth any number of points on a Space Marine model. The situations in which a sergeant would need a 6+ invulnerable are few, and the Look Out Sir! rules outshine the appeal of that long-shot save. The only time I can see it being remotely useful is in a challenge against a weaker opponent with a power sword, like that chump Guard sergeant. It fights long odds with long odds. If that's your play style and mindset, buy the shield.

Assault sergeants also have access to meltabombs, which are always a good buy. I'd rather spend points here than on a 6+ invulnerable save! Meltabombs on a front-line unit are wonderful walker repellent, as well as being threatening to just about every assaultable vehicle in the game (minus the Land Raider Achilles, but who runs that?).

So there you have it, the gamut of options available to the sergeant in an Assault Squad. Which is best? Well, if you're going hunting for weakling units, I'd stick with a pistol and lightning claw, Veteran status, and meltabombs if you feel like it. If you think you can pull off the TDA-hunter build I used to use, take the plasma pistol, skip Veteran status, and no meltabombs. The last option is to take a power fist and Veteran status to make a transport-killing unit that clamps krak grenades and punches in the back armor of those Rhinos and Chimeras.

A quick note should be added here for Chapter Tactics. Only two directly affect Assault Squad sergeants: Raven Guard and Black Templars. Raven Guard gives the sergeant an always-on Hammer of Wrath attack. HoW is nice, but it comes into its own in challenges. You still get the HoW hit when challenged, and it MUST be directed at your challenge opponent. That S4 hit can put an extra wound on an Ork Nob, allowing your power sword to finish it off at I4, or knock down the Guard sergeant before he can swing at all. Never forget to use those hits! They can save an expensive power fist sergeant.
Black Templars will give you an edge in a challenge with Rending and rerolls to hit. This gives the so-so power sword sergeant some teeth, or makes the lightning claw into a blender that can score AP2 hits. People have complained that Templars were neutered with their inclusion in the Marine codex. I think they're a little short sighted.