Arks of Omen - Boarding Actions

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Warhammer 40,000 - Boarding Actions are really fun small scale games that take most of the rules bloat out of Warhammer 40,000. Rules as written you have to use a very specific set of terrain with fixed layouts and your force is extremely limited in what you can take.

Our group has been playing Crusade for a little over a year now and were excited to incorporate Boarding Actions into our weekly games. Of course because there was not a specific supplement printed to address Boarding Actions and Crusade we had to make things up on the fly.

What we decided was to allow any of our existing units from the crusade roster with their upgrades so long as they were “legal” in boarding actions. Using the Crusade Points give your opponents extra CP to start has been pretty good in balancing the forces. We also set the game limit at 25PL with a +/- of 2PL to allow for some flexibility with the roster so you can easily pivot between boarding actions and normal games each week.

Since many of our games are 3-4 players I set up the table with two decks. The decks are connected by ladders and stairs that function using the “Open Hatch” Action. With the ladders the action results in you “Embarking” on the ladder and you can disembark at the end of your next movement phase. So far it has worked really well keeping everyone involved in the fight.

The other change we made is that instead of buying a new terrain set we’re using the Deadbolt’s Derelict from Death Ray Designs. As long as the layouts are balanced it seems to work out making unique layouts for each game.

Wardogs for Change

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Warhammer 40000 - I think the best use of Knights (either Chaos or Imperial) is as a supplement to another force. It gives you some really tough models and heavy firepower without the drawback of a small model count force.

The Second Thousand

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Warhammer 40000 - The other Thousand Sons army I’ve been working on also continues to have more models added to it. I particularly love the spawn model.

A Cast of Thousands

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Warhammer 40,000 - Sometimes it seems like an army is never finished. This batch of Thousands Sons is the latest addition to one of the two different forces I’ve been painting for the last year or so.

Chasing the Meta - Tzeetch

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Warhammer 40,000 - Unfortunately in a game with an ever changing ruleset sometimes you get behind the changes and an idea you had just isn’t as good as it was before. Flamers while still good just aren’t as brokenly amazing as they were before the balance dataslate, hooefully these guys will still get to see the table.

Astra Militarum - Armored Calvary

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Warhammer 40,000 - Imperial Guard Calvary Force this force is now something you can do in the latest Imperial Guard (Astra Militarum) codex. I painted the core of the force ages ago as part of a Tyrant’s Legion army. This is a custom color scheme with decals.

Ultramarines Sicaran Tank

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Warhammer 30,000 - The Horus Heresy line continues to pump out cool plastic kits, which are significantly easier to work with than the previous resin versions.

Word Bearers - The Blessed or Cursed?

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Warhammer 40,000 - I really like the lore behind the Word Bearers, their role in the Horus Heresy is so well defined in the novels as the original bad guys. They show just how easily worship and faith can be twisted to evil deeds.

The newest models in the Chaos Space Marine line look so good. Possessed and Accursed Cultists really kick up the look of the line. It’s a bummer the models are single pose but with the current rules you probably aren’t taking more than a unit or two so it can be fixed with some light conversion work to get alternate poses if you want.

More Thousand Sons

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Warhammer 40,000 - I’ve been painting a ton of teal and gold lately, I have two separate Thousand Sons forces that keep getting more models added to them. The models are great but the level of detail on these puts a crimp in my process as they take forever to paint.

Maulerfiend - Word Bearers

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Warhammer 40,000 - The Maulerfied is a weird model, built right out of the kit it has a really hunched appearance that makes it hard to appreciate the model. This particular one has a bit added to the base to make it look like it’s charging forward which lets you see the details of the model.

This is painted to match an existing Word Bearers force I’ve been painting for a while now and I’m really happy with the end result.

Leagues of Votan - Short and Scary

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Warhammer 40,000 - Squats have been missing from Warhammer for so long, it’s great to see them back in the game. The new line is unique looking and shares some similarities to the style of Tau mixed with some Imperial designs and even have a bit of Van Saar from Necromunda in the mix. The result is something unique the feels like it fits in the game rather than being a total departure, I really like the overall look of the faction.

This is the first batch I’ve had to paint and they came to me already assembled so I can’t speak to the sprues yet. But the models are great and straight forward to paint. With a totally new force it’s hard to narrow down what sub-faction is going to be the best or best fit your play-style so it’s always a safe bet to come up with a unique scheme that can be whatever you might want to play. Unlike existing factions where the extensive lore might drive you to one particular force, something new has less to draw you in.

The scheme I settled on is a light gray with yellow accents and blue runes. It looks different enough from the existing schemes and was fairly simple to paint.

I’ve been playing against this force in our ongoing crusade and regularly get stomped. The Leagues are really durable and my opponent uses the +1 Toughness trait which makes them even harder to wound and maximizes the Void Armor denying re-rolls.

Space Marines and more

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Warhammer 40,000 – One of the things about playing Warhammer is that a army is never truly done. A Steady stream of releases and update each year means you’ll always have a reason to adjust your force or try out a new model. It really doesn’t matter what force you collect you’ll inevitably want to add to it,

Chaos Space Marines - New Core Unit

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Warhammer 40,000 – I’m a big fan of the new Chaos Space Marine codex, the updated rules really bring the various traitor legions to life with decent rules and a pretty expansive crusade section. One of my favorite updates is to the Legionary data sheet, getting access to a psyker in every unit and having a cool new melee weapon helps to bring new life to a pretty bland unit.

This unit is painted to match a basic level force that I painted up a few years back.

For those of you interested in the new Kill Team this unit is available as a Kill Team and in order to play the game you need to pick up these fancy measuring tools which I also painted up recently.

Horus Heresy - Ultramarines

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Warhammer 30,000 – It’s pretty amazing that Horus Heresy is now in plastic, the kits are really nice and so much easier to work with than the resin versions (real or knock-off). I imagine I’m going to be putting many of these boxes together in the future but for right now this is a simple scheme that matches up with an existing Ultramarines force.

Tau - Still Good?

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Warhammer 40,000 – The latest balance data sheet seems to have hit Tau pretty hard. So much so that right after I finished these models I was told a whole new weapon load out would be coming with the next batch. Luckily they’re all magnetized so whatever the next data slate brings they’ll be able to adjust easily.

Space Wolves - Adding to the Pack Again

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Warhammer 40,000 – Space Wolves seem to be an army I’m always getting something to add to for serveral different people. I guess it’s one of those armies that you can always tweak with a new unit or two to get a different style of game play.

Shining Spears

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Warhammer 40,000 – Shining Spears were once a nightmare for some players to face. I think they’ve been toned down well enough that you won’t get the side eye putting them on the table.