Daphne's Dragoons

A while ago I finished up a trio of Valkyries, now I have some proper troops to put in them. I have always liked collecting forces in thematic detachments. The fluff for the stormtroopers (or whatever the High Gothic name is for them) was further improved with their mini-codex, so I had to build a airmobile platoon of them.

They are led by Commissar Lord Daphne, (one of only two female Imperial Guard figures GW made) and the HQ squad, Alpha cozy in their Valkyrie Vendetta.

Beta and Gamma squads each have a fully tricked out Valkyrie Gunship, making this detachment a nice 1125 points. Next week they shall undertake a mission in the Sanctis Reach Campaign, just them dropping in on some Orks. Should be fun.  

The Emperor Protects

"This is Romeo Foxtrot, Shall We Dance?"

Forbidden Stars

Surprise! Fantasy Flight has just pulled the curtain back on another new 40K product.
Forbidden Stars is a 2-4 player strategy game. Players are fighting over the Herakon Cluster, long lost to warp storms, now accessible.

Four races are in the box:The Ultramarines Space Marine chapter, the Eldar of Craftworld Iyanden, the Evil Sunz Ork clan, and the World Eaters Chaos Space Marines . The map is randomly generated for each game so replayability looks very high.

And lots of awesome plastic! It is not due until 3rd Quarter, so we will be keeping an eye on this one.

Go Roll Some Dice!

And Get Ready for Strategic Level Combat

Tyranid Tweaks

As a new week comes to a close, I still don't have a copy of the Harlequin codex to review. I have been told the shipment bound for my FLGS is stuck in the snow somewhere where they get snow.
It's a nice 77 degrees here with a pleasant breeze coming from the ocean.

So, let's talk about the Tyranids a bit, shall we? I know the Tyranids are not "broken" still they play differently than they used to, and frankly differently than I and a few of my fellow Warlords want them to. One of the great things about having a, um, let's say, "mature" gaming group is the willingness to try things to make the game more enjoyable for all.

Here are a few easy rules tweaks we are playing with:

ALL monstrous creatures get Feel No Pain (5+).      
Far too many high AP weapons and other shooting shenanigans (I'm looking at you Eldar!)
The big ones just die too fast and easy nowadays. By giving them Feel No Pain it puts just enough uncertainty back into fighting them. We want the big adrenaline fueled monsters being driven on by the Hive Mind to feel more like it.

Fast and Deadly: Any unit with Fleet may run and charge in the same turn.
Remember when Genestealers were scary? Ravagers were worth their points? Hormagaunts bounded across the table? This works very well now to give a bit more balance back to a close combat army.

Hive Guard are BS:4 and WS:3.
Why the hell did this get changed from last Codex? The fluff on this is great, this unit lives to shoot, and has been made to do so.

And of course our Lictor changes.
Because Lictors should be fun.

And we are thinking letting the Trygon shoot OR assault the turn it arrives. We will have to playtest that one first. Should be interesting.

The Hive Mind Hungers

And Wants More Hand to Hand to Mandible