God Wills it! Crusading Black Templar Terminators

MBG back with more from the mad converter, Jkin!

Well the honeymoon is officially over, Jkin has once again jumped ship to another project.  Last week I featured his Arjac Rockfist, and SW Rhino with Interior detail.

This week however he started constructing a Black Templar crusade army.

One of first projects for them is this squad of Sword Brethern Terminators.

2012 - What can we look forward to in 40k?

2012 is just around the corner... what does it hold for our favorite hobby?

2012 is rumored to be a big year for Warhammer 40,000. First, 3++con will be having it's inaugural year.... that's really it right? Moving beyond my egoistic ways though, 2012 is supposed to bring us some long awaited codex updates as well as an edition change. Two of these armies are personal favorites of mine and I will be very glad to bring them out, wipe the dust off and grab some new minis to paint! The new edition...well it could be great or it could be crap. Hell it could be somewhere in the middle, too! Let's take a look at what the rumor mill is telling us.

Email in: Idea for Black Templars

FTW

" Hello Kirby...

I have email you before about advice and have followed your site for sometime now and enjoy it alot!

The following army list below is a Black Templar Shootie with some bubble wrap concept, I was looking at the BT "Holy Thunder Bubble" and wanted some TH/SS termies to take the heat off the CML Termie squads while putting out some hurt!. I see that 3 rhinoes isn't alot but the enemy would have to focus on just them while termies advance and fire along with the rest of the armour shooting, so I am hoping for the termies to take aggro while troop can atleast get close to objectives while utilizing there two special weapons.

Anyways... let me know what you think.

PS: the Emperor champs vow is the only thing to stop physic attacks... which is alright ?

Out of the ashes...

Black Templar Space Marine by AlphaWalrus

Well, after I didn't get to NOVA I had to find a way to entertain myself this weekend. I found out about a (very) local tournament about two-three weeks ago, just before my interest in NOVA was re-ignited. The tournament is a pretty big one (50+ 40k players, 64 WFB, 30(?) WM/H etc) and is apparently a big deal locally. Well, I looked at the rules pack and if I'm completely honest, it's not what I'd run if I had my choice. But I don't and the guys that run it are pretty decent. After NOVA didn't happen (for me at least), I went to find out if there were any spaces left at the tournament, and luckily for me, a few guys have dropped-out. So I'm in.

So we have a 1750 tournament, 5 games, mixed objectives (not quite NOVA, but not straight-up rule book missions), Soft scores and... comp.

Marines - Differences Between Codices

With four 5th edition and two fourth edition Space Marine armies out there battling, players looking to invest in some poster-boys of 40k have a lot of choice. Now a lot of people think some of these choices suck such as Dark Angels or Space Marines but thanks to good codex design within the 5th edition books and some recent and decent FAQs for Black Templars and Dark Angels, this is not the case. In this post we'll do a quick breakdown of the strengths and weakness of each codex and look at generally effective builds as well as themes within the book. This will give players a better understanding of each book and where one might like to start within the Marine family. Later posts will look at general codex comparisons in a broader sense of the word and focusing on two armies and the major differences (i.e. Space Wolves and Space Marines).

Before we dig into each army we'll look at the overall similarities. Each Marine codex has a core of WS/BS/S/T/I 4, W/A1, Ld8/9, Sv3+ models all of which have And They Shall Know No Fear (ATSKNF) and wargear focused on bolt weapons. This makes them expensive but very sturdy Troops most effective at range but no push-overs in combat (generally limited by their own lack of attacks). Whilst ATSKNF isn't fearless, it can quite often be better and forces your opponent to escorting fleeing units off the board or wiping them out completely. Each army has access to cheap vehicles based on the Rhino chassis and for 35 points base, these vehicles are a steal and quite popular. Marine armies in general are very flexible and their units excel at being generalists with specific units to support them in particular roles. Overall, each Marine codex presents an army which is flexible, good at both shooting and combat and very durable.

Tyranids vs Black Templars

I went down to Parramatta Games Workshop on Sunday to meet up with some of the readers/writers on 3++ and ended up playing against Messenger of Death's Black Templars twice. The 1st game (which we got pictures of courtesy to Jason) was a white wash. Tyranids dropped four tanks in T1 (out of 14) and I had a turn where I didn't fail a single cover save. Dice work like that sometimes. It was capture & control, spearhead where I won the right to choose who went first. Que mech going before foot armies so I can actually hold objectives but in the end, the combination of excellent shooting, MCs in combat and an outflanking Tervigon made it 2-0 heading into Turn 5 and we called it there.

MoD had never really played against a proper Tyranid list so learned a lot of things in that game (i.e. Hive Guard > you). Combined with really good dice on my part he only managed to drop some Gants (which kept coming back), the Prime and a single Hive Guard. Onto game 2...

'Ard Boyz - 40k Metrics

Mark Duffield has been kind enough to do some number crunching on 'Ard Boyz using Nikephoros' 40k metrics system. His original system looked at 2000 point lists so comparing 'Ard Boyz metrics to those isn't going to give an accurate picture. So let's look at some of the lists that Mark has run and we can get a potential baseline which other lists can compare to if they wish. He's done two Space Wolves lists, an Imperial Guard, Chaos Space Marine and Black Templars list.

Purgatus! Look what you made me do!

Just a quick post to give lil' Mr Kirby a break. Purgatus has been tempting me into getting some bugs for a little while now. When you post sweet-ass models like this and this, you can't help but get people interested. When we took a recent trip to Maelstrom to play at BlogWars, Ms BroLo thoroughly enjoyed The 6th Degree's Tyranids and has been itching for me to get some. Well... when I'm attacked on 2 fronts what else am I suppose to do? That's right, you cave-in and buy some plastic. Well actually, the missus did (double win!). As I know she now reads 3++, I'll say thanks again to her! Hook, line and sinker! =D

Here are a few pics of my first 4 genestealers. I hate the standard... "RAWR I'M WAVING MY 4 ARMS AT YOU!"... look. I've gone for something more along the lines of the Space hulk genes. And who doesn't love scything talons?

Off to Blog Wars

It's 13:00 and I'm waiting for the missus as usual. Today my good friends, I'm off to Blog Wars. I've been pretty busy the last few weeks with work, weddings and weekends away, but I've been brutally dedicated to painting. Ask the missus, I'm in serious time-spent-with-the-missus debt. I've managed to completely finish about 80-90% of my models complete isn't bad. I'm a little disappointed I haven't managed to do Grimmy, but oh well, I'd prefer to spend a good amount of time on him and his unit.

The list is...

How to paint an army in... not enough time.

Howdy! Look what arrived in the post. I've been promising myself these beauties since the FAQs dropped, but haven't really purchased anything since my Dantewing. For a mere £20 + £9 for some assault cannons I'm now the proud owner of 10 more terminators that will be saying F U to Venerable at Blog Wars. That's right baby! I'm playing with foot Templars. I'm sure it will be roughly the same list as I posted here, but it may change a little depending on what I have painted.

My crusader squads ready and just need to add some finishing touches to my assault terminators. Then I need to sort out these beauties and then buy and paint Grimmie. I'll be keeping you guys updated with how things are progressing, but as my next 2 weekends are being taken up by a wedding and another (4th of the year) Stag weekend, I think it's going to be a huge struggle. Oh... did I mention I also have 4 13 hour shifts in that period too. That leaves me a grand total of about 6 nights to finish them.

If ever I needed some Rupert love... now is the time.

Wish me luck!

Blog Wars

Apologies to Kirbs for not posting for a while. I know he's busy painting little plastic men for the end of the month, so hopefully this may help. I sort of demonstrated interest in attending a tournament for bloggers in early June a little while back. I haven't been able to definitely commit yet (thanks for changing the rota at the last minute. PROTIP: never work in a hospital), but am currently about 80% confident I'm going to be attending. Well... confident enough to buy a ticket anyways.

What is Blog Wars you ask.


Blog Wars is a tournament set-up by the blog 'From the Fang' for bloggers. Yes, yes... I know I don't have a blog, but I'm representin' 3++. Blah blah blah *hand held up like a gun*.

User Army Pictures

I've been very busy I'm afraid so haven't been able to put something together for you. Instead you get to enjoy some lovely pictures from users who have kindly sent in their models for our viewing pleasure. First, some Black Templars from Greg!

Collect and paint an army in 3 weeks (Part 1). The sleeper has awakened!

Hi again folks! It’s time I did a new army!

Last year I had a pretty solid year tournament wise and ended the year ranked 18^th in the UK (more by luck then skill in my opinion) but nevertheless I’m hoping to try and emulate that level of success this year.

I have the Mayhem tournament which is in Tolworth South London/Surrey which is being held in association with Heroes and Legends Games just around the corner (3 weeks I believe). As always I’m thinking about new armies and as always I can’t decide what to take!

There’s a few options on the table, Grey Knights, Deathwing, Space Wolves and I was keen on Dark Eldar but I can’t work out a cheap way to
make venoms (I’m not poor, just don’t like the viper/raider chop shop).

This particular tournament is what is typically referred to as battlepoints, those points being awarded for controlling objectives and as such there is a heavy emphasis on scoring units, as such my 4 TWC lord, 2 troop choice wolves are out of the window, the current list options are:

Setting myself a little target...

Unfortunately, I have to say that I'm one of those guys that turns up to the FLGS week in, week out with a half painted army. Actually, I lie, I turn up far less frequently and my army is less than half painted :(. Yeah... I'm that guy.

With a busy work life and some mild OCD I just don't have the time to get my painting stuff out to work on some models all that often. When I do have some 'hobby' time I like to catch up on some recent activity on the blog world. Unfortunately this tends to make me want to go and buy more models - Purgatus... you're just not helping me here - which reduces my painted:non-painted ratio.

Vindicators are Alright and Other Crazyness

The Vindicator is really quite underrated. Also, it’s a problem that I’ve been mulling over for quite some time.

I started out using vindicators, and they might be my favorite tank. I love the design. I love the concept. What I never really liked, however, were their rules. For what is ostensibly a siege tank, the vindicator sure seems to be equipped with paper armor, especially against canny opponents who can get those side shots off.

But I liked them. So I kept using them. Even after a brief stint running dakkapreds instead, I came back to the trusty Vindicator, and eventually mastered them. The key is in a few rules you should try to NEVER break.

It’s important to understand a few things about vindicators, before we go into their use:

Email in: Hey BroLo (BT list for Ard Boyz)

Bringer of Victory Nikephoros (more recently made even more internet famous by FNIF round 49) has sent in a list for review. Go check out his blog... Kirby, link it if you haven't already. Oh... and stop voting for yourself in the FNIF poll. Like you did?

I’ve been really in agony worrying about ‘Ard Boyz lists for BT. What I’ve linked to on my blog is a more fire power oriented list, but I’ve been also toying with the idea of just saying screw it, and bringing 30 assault terminators and just daring people to deal with it.

I know for a fact one of the better players at my store will be bringing a list with 30 TH/SS and Shrike, and I feel like the firepower list, while being a better all comers list, probably would lose to a rock list like that. This is what causes my agonizing. I’m worried about over or under metagaming. I don’t want to add 10 bubble wrap TH/SS to the above list just to beat one nasty list, if it will make me weaker against the field.

So questions…

Email in: BT/Sang Guard Lists

Hi BroLo, Hi

I have put this List together to try and maximise the number of terminators and also minimise the total number of models.... I was wondering does it still have competitive potential.

Emp Champ - AAC 140

Castellan - TA, SB, PW, SS, tankhunters 113
SB TCS - 4xTerms, SS, 2x CML, tankhunters 237

Castellan - TA, SB, PW, SS, tankhunters 113
SB TCS - 4xTerms, SS, 2x CML, tankhunters 237

Email in: Black Templars list for Analysis

Hi Kirby, ... yeah... he forwarded to me. I hope you don't mind.

This is my second time to email, but just to let you know that I love the great analysis and tacticas you guys put here, and I read the blog religiously. I too have been trying to come up with a balanced mech list for the Black Templars, as besides my SM Bike army, Black Templars has always been my favorite army. The whole renegade Crusaders thing is just the kind of Marines I can get into.

I played around with dual LR Crusader lists and then some PoTMS Vindicators lists, but I could not come up with a list that could have a reasonable chance of dealing with hordes consistently. I was also hamstringing myself with a lack of mobility. I have worked up a 2000 point fast mech list that I would appreciate you looking at. The list has a movable gunline with a small FistBubble. Only 3 small Troop squads mean I will be guarding them close, but I think the rest of the list present enough problems for most opponents. Check it out:

Email in: BT Escalation Lists

Email in from Ibris... (He's in Blue... I'm in Black if you hadn't already guessed).

Hi,

After your articles about foot armies and Black Templar FAQs I begun thinking about finally making MEQ army. That being said, before I present the list I came up with, a few notes:

1) Why Black Templars? I like the theme, more than Wolves (my second choice) and besides, save for a few... strange rules, they seem viable now.

Or simply just because Black Templars are frickin' awesome?

2) Why no vehicles? Well... for three reasons - making part of enemy weapons not mattering is tempting, I don't quite like their look, and besides, sadly, they're going to multiply the price of the army by a huge margin. So, maybe later.

I sort of agree with the last point, but I'd counter the first with the fact that this is what balanced lists are all about. Trying to tailor against balanced lists is silly. But yeah... rhinos do kinda suck!

Email in: Space Beastman (counts as marines)

Dear fester,
G'day.

Goatboy's Goat Angels!

I am not really a gamer, but have started to read 3++ somehow and really enjoy it. We have that effect on people :) For a long time now I have planed to start a 40k Beastmen army, which I imaging like a mercenary clan (like Kroot who buy themselves equipment from other races). From my first start in this hobby I learned that it is better to have a thought out list before you start a new project, to save time and money.

Sage advice :)

Now, as for Beastmen in 40k, Goatboy has done a smack-bang job of this already. Google up his Goat Angels for inspiration.

However, there is nothing stopping us bastardising his theme a little, err, lot :)