Saturday, December 27, 2008

Outnumbered! Grey Knights

Keeper of the Fortress


Alright everyone. This next installment of Outnumbered! is about The Daemonhunters codex specifically a Grey Knights army. Now I'm not talking about a radical army with daemonhosts and I'm not talking about inquisitorial armies with some grey knights in it. I mean pure Grey Knights (including dreadnoughts and Landraiders). I wont go into any fluff detail really but these guys are the elite of the elite. They fight Daemons and even though they are in desperate need of an update they are still rather good at it.


If you haven't seen many or any armies of these guys do not be surprised. They are like the Witchhunters in that the kits made for these armies are entirely metal. Pricey, heavy and in my opinion annoying to work with. I am not going to talk about the rumors of a new codex for the inquisition or anything in this either.


The Grey Knights are great I am a huge fan of them and if they get plastic models in the future I will make an army of them in a heart beat. I will do a little post about my views on metal models later on.


So onto the heart of the matter. Grey Knights have special rules including fearless, true grit for there storm bolters, and essentially a psychic hood type rule. They have other rules some of which do not matter anymore and regardless I wont be going into detail about the special rules but I will mention the ones I said.


Fearless: Being they are a small army with squad sizes that on average will be small (even though they can have average squad size) the fearless rule is great. The last thing you want to do is fail a leadership check due to shooting or something at range nor do you want to be pinned.


True Grit: its only special here because its for storm bolters and not bolters. All Grey Knights have the Storm bolter as there standard weapon which is great. True grit lets them be dangerous after the charge by giving them an extra attack each. This is handy because the Grey Knights are good assaulters.


The Aegis: This is the psychic hood like rule. Basically works the same. can resist a psychic power by rolling a d6 and adding leadership. You can also have a psychic hood in your army so you have to choose which you will use. You cannot use both. A nice little rule here.


Oh and one more important rule. The Shrouding: Its essentially a weaker version of night fight for Grey Knights. You roll 3d6 time 3 to see if you can see them squad for purposes of targeting them to shoot at. If your in a night fight scenario the night fight rules overrule this. This rule is great. As you are a small force this can be of help. It is 3d6 but still that hurts weapons with long ranges. Granted your troops effective range as a whole is 24 but this can let you close range unmolested on foot for a bit or lets you sit on an objective and force them to get close to be able to shoot you.


Alright so what are the strengths of these units then? Well aside from the special rules these units are strong in the assault. True Grit, Fearless (Which is a good special rule especially for smaller units) are part of their assault specialty. There troops are weapon skill 5 and there Close combat weapon (The Nemesis Force weapon) adds 2 to there space marine strength. So strength 6 for everyone with the weapon. This is what allows them to eek it out against larger units. They are super Space Marines essentially. They are also good at range which I will get to momentarily.


Nemesis Force Weapons: Firstly they are not Force Weapons. Only the Grandmasters counts as a force weapon. These weapons tap into the fluff of the grey knights. basically the weapon gets better in higher ranking hands. basic troops just add 2 to strength. Justicars (Vet sergeants) Terminators and Brother Captains add 2 to there strength and its a power weapon. Grand Masters have a +2 to strength force weapon.


Range combat. Grey Knights are no slouches at this either. With a Stormbolter as standard weaponry they can chew into lightly armored infantry. They can do what Deathwing shooting armies do which is to goad the enemy closer. Basically you move to get your storm bolters in range and fire. Either they stand still and fire once or try and get closer to rapid fire or get into assault. Then your next turn you move away and keep 24 inches and fire again. You basically lead assault armies where you want and this can frustrate the shooty opponents to reposition themselves. It takes some practice but this style of shooting is key. Now there troop squad can have 2 models exchange there weapons for a psycannon or incinerator. Now these are good weapons but you have to think about how you are going to play. Remember these models no longer have a nemesis weapon. The incinerator is a heavy flamer that also ignores invulnerability saves. This is a nice weapon against daemons. It also is great in 5th where cover became so much more important and easy to get. With strength 5 it means youll be wounding more often. The psycannon is an auto cannon can be fired while moving up to 18" or if you do not move it can fire 36". Now it fires 3 time either way but its strength is 6 as opposed to 7 for normal auto cannons. its ap is the same. This weapon also ignore invulnerability saves. I would suggest one squad have incinerators and that squad to be put in a land raider. Ill explain more later on.


So how outnumbered are these guys? Well the basic Grey Knight costs 25 points per model. And the Grey Knight Squad must have a Justicar which is 50 points and at least 4 Grey Knights. So 150 points for 5 guys at least. Keep in mind if you want grenades they cost extra. Also Justicars have access to war gear which could increase the point cost. (I wont go into there wargear. They have a decent amount and what you pick is up to you and your armies style). I will say this it appears Justicars can take targeters. I haven't found anything to refute this so that can be a big help to make sure you'll always be in range.


So for troops how large a squad? Well 5 is too small really. I think 8 man squads are a safe size. You can put 1 or two weapon upgrades per squad and be alright. These squads will cost about as much as Deathwing squads (around 250 points with upgrades). Now these troop choices can be fielded as a fast attack choice. If you do they are kept in reserve and teleport in just like terminators via deep strike. This could be an interesting tactic to think about if you had the points.


What about HQ? Well as we are talking about pure Greyknights that limits you to a Brother Captain or Grand Master. The Grand Master is more then double the brother captains points but he has 3 wounds where the brother captain only has 1. The Grand master has 4 attacks as well as opposed to 3. So who to go for? Well I like having my HQ with more then 1 wound so I personally would bite the bullet and go with a Grand Master. However I have seen viable lists with Brother Captain as an HQ just have to be careful especially if you dump upgrades on him. Now they are only in Terminator Armor and nothing else so I would always take a Land Raider Crusader to put them in. There weapons strike at initiative and are strength 6 that ignore armor saves. You want that striking at there initiative. Now both HQ units can have a retinue of Grey Knight Terminators. Here is where I suggest you get your terminator squad. Just add 4 terminators to the HQ and you have your terminator squad without taking an elite choice up. One thing to point out with Terminator squads in general with Grey Knights is that they can take a psychic power called Holocaust. These uses the ordnance template ( which should be the large template) which can be placed anywhere in contact with the Brother captain or Grand Master as they are focal point. Anyone friend or foe touched takes a str 5 hit normal saves allowed at I 1. This is done in assault phase. It doesn't say anywhere that it takes up his attacks so he can do this in addition to attacking normally. I suggest taking this upgrade as this can really help your squad out. with 2+ saves you will be pretty safe and this can help trim down large horde units. This ability can allow you to assault very large units and come out on top. It does require a psychic test. Also 1 terminator can upgrade there stormbolter to a incinerator or psycannon I would suggest the psycannon because they can always fire the heavy 3 option 36" range one because they have relentless due to the armor.
Now there are two other units for pure Grey Knights. There Dreadnought (Which is a heavy support choice for them) and The Purgation squad which is like a devastator squad. If you go with a dreadnought I would field it with a Lascannon and its CCW. The psycannon is a nice option for it but the army lacks long range anti tank punch so the twin linked Lascannon is in my opinion better.
The purgation squad is an interesting squad. it can be as small as 3 models. They are like devastators in that they can exchange there weapons for others. up to 4 grey knights can exchange there weapons for Psycannons or Incinerators. This unit I like but I do not know if I would field one. Its points heavy but can be really effective. With 4 psycannons you can lay down good covering fire and still move and shoot it if necessary. With 4 incinerators you can potentially wipe even space marine squads if they are bunched up. If you try them out Do not mix the weapons. I mean you could and that could work on a highly mobile unit but keeping it purely one or the other will maximize the weapons.


So what do you do? Well I suggest regardless of what HQ you take a 4 terminator retinue. Now take 2 squads of 8 Grey Knights for troop choices. Now take 2 Land Raiders one of which is a Crusader and give them smoke. This small force will run you just about 1500 points. Now this is a viable force its just much harder to use. You could drop a land Raider for another troop choice but if you do I would suggest dropping the crusader because you need those Lascannons to deal with armor. I personally would field both Land Raiders.
You would play this force conservatively with your HQ squad in or near the crusader and the incinerator squad in or near the land raider. Always move your forces. Depending on the mission keep the psycannon equipped unit on an objective or in cover near one and give cover fire. But dont be afraid to move them back if need be. Keep the Land Raiders near the Grey Knights so in a pinch you can mount up and drive away or towards an objective. In this style of play the Land Raiders also need to shoot as much as possible especially the regular land raider. That is your only source of long range anti vehicle. The key here is really to maximize your shooting and to wipe whole squads out. The assault phase is where the Knights excel but you should not rush there. This is of course not set in stone. For example against Tau you should still shoot a lot but while trying to get into assault as they out range and can quickly outgun your small force due to less targets for marker lights.
Now 1750 is becoming very popular so in this case i would add a 3rd troop squad. If you did this in 1500 then i would add the second land raider now.
This is my view on a pure Grey Knights force. Its small but if you maximize shooting and make full use of all there gear you will be able to overcome your very small size. I would say that the Grey Knights are probably one of the smallest forces you can field aside from deathwing. And I would say these two armies are essentially tied for smallest army as depending on how you build them one would be slightly smaller then the other.
Up next in this series will probably be Codex Space Marines Bike armies as they are different enough from Ravenwing to warrant some attention.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Quest for Knowledge

Greetings. I had these guys done for almost a week now just have not had time to post them. Ok sorry in advance for the poor pic quality. I will eventually get a better picture taking place then my work area. SO here it is my Mechanicus Battlefleet Gothic Exploratory fleet.








I have one more of these types of escorts but its base is broken and I still have the escorts I did a while back. But this is the Mechanicus fleet essentially. Nothing fancy just grey red and bronze. I think it turned out well. Probably the fastest army type group that I've painted. A BFG fleet can look really good with minimal effort. Enjoy.


Saturday, December 13, 2008

Outnumbered! Cult Chaos Marines

Hey all. I could not make it to a local gaming shop for a tournament so thought id do Outnumbered! Chaos cult marines now. NOTE im not going to actually go into the fluff of each legion talked about here. There fluff explains why they have certai nstats and certain limitations.

What do I mea nbut Cult armies? Well what i mean when i say that is an army devoted solely to one god and to me in order to be a "true" cult army you need to use there specific special troop choice and not just a chaos marine squad with an icon. So basically: Noise Marines, Plague Marines, Beserkers or Thousand Sons Rubric Marines. Essentially an army devoted to one of the cult legions. The army is as much a fluff army as it is specialized. So no Sorcerer with lash in a Khorne Army. Also other infantry units tend to be given the icon of that god as well. Basically the army is built to fit the fluff of that legion.

So the legions are for those of you that may not know are: Emperor's Children (devoted to Slaanesh). Deaht Guard (Devoted to Nurgle), World Eaters, Devoted to Khorne and Thousand Sons (Devoted to Tzeentch). So a cult army would pick a legion and the appropriate troop choice for that army. The question to ask now before you make your list is to go with Favored number or not.

Favored Number you say? Each God has a sacred number and they are: 6 for Slaanesh, 7 for Nurgle, 8 for Khorne and 9 for Thousand Sons. Now there is no benefit for going favored number anymore aside from being fluffy. So do you do it or not? I say it depends obviously 6 man squads are a bit on the small side. However you can also do multiples ( ie. 6 or 12 for Slaanesh) this can keep the theme of favored numbers alive for slaanesh and keep your units alive. This can become expensive however.

Ok so what do you do for an HQ? Well that is up to you. You could make it really cult like and field the appropriate special character or a generic HQ option with appropriate mark. This is up to the player. Id go wit ha special character just because I think it helps give the feel of a cult legion.

Ok a few overall pointers. These armies are specialized and with all the icons and potential upgrades being bought it can quickly become a small army. Be careful. Noise Marines do not al needsonic weapons for example (although it is cool). The troops are expensive but are general superior in one way to normal chaos marines (T5 on plague marines for example). Also all your troops are fearless remember that. This is a good thing as it keeps your dice rolling down a bit. As we all know even with Ld 10 after enoug hdie rolls we fail them eventually. Alright now it is time to get to the heart of the matter. NOTE all cult troops except for Thousand Sons can upgrade to have a champion for +15. Thousand Sons are different and ill explain in there section.

Emperor's Children: These guys are devoted to Slaanesh and as such there troops are Noise Marines. Favore number is 6. These troops are the cheapest starting out of the cult troop choices. They can quickly become one of the most expensive. Every unit can upgrade there weapon to a sonic weapon of some kind. at 20 point base with the basic sonic weapon upgrade being 5 point that means 25 points a model minimum. The other sonic wepaon cost 40 points and is for one marine only. So what are these guys good at? Well two things. One is they have initiative 5 which means they strike first against most other troops and even elites of most armies. This means that while not assault specialists they can recieve charges better then regular chaos marines and are better at charging. With there sonic weapons they are the ebst foot sloggers in this codex as the weapons are all assault weapons. Essentially a squad of storm bolters plus the basic one can be assault 2 or heavy 3. The other one has two profiles one that is an assault weapon the other is heavy. So you can Rhino push and still have decent small arms fire which is really good. You can also walk them foward and back keepign the enemy in range all the while. If you dont move you can really put the hurt on light infantry with heavy 3 shots per basic sonic weapon depending o nsquad size you can potentially wope out decent size units. So do you favored number them? My opinion is have one or two units of 12 with full sonic weapon upgrades and kit out your champion for assault and give them rhinos. Any other squads upgrade as your discretion. With two units of 12 with full sonic weapons you can whittle down horde armies rather well. This army while having high initiative is more shooty so supplement your noise marines with some anti tank punch. Shoot a lot and then steal the assault with your I5 guys. This armies weakness is all the upgrades. each marine troop choice that falls is 25 points a model if with sonci weapons. All the basic anti marine weakenss apply here as well (massed small arms fire etc etc).

Death Guard. These guys are devoted to Papa Nurgle. Favored number is 7. I think 7 is safe for these guys but if you dont want to be limited by favored number then nothing over 10 unless its an apocalypse game. These guys have toughness of 5 and feel no pain. This is huge making them have high staying power. They are tied in first for best staying power troop choice in the chaos codex. Tied with Rubric Marines (ill explain in there section). Now in 4th they were the king of staying in the chaos codex but with the changes to feel no pain they are a little bit weaker. These guys weigh in at 23 points a model. the champion can get the usual weapon upgrades. What is nice to note is they have in addiotn to frag and krak grenades the blight grenade. This is a defensive grenade and it helps them deal with ther weakness which ill explain later. Now the unit can have two marines upgrade there bolter to a special weapon (melta plasma etc) but not heavy weapons. This isgood because you can move and shoot everything albiet at a reduced range. But you can have two melta guns plus the combi melta power fist champion can make a mean anti tank squad. Combine that wiht a rhino with combi melta and you got an anti tank unit that can move. This can be done with plasma of a flamer as well. So you can have a anti terminator plasma squad and an anti horde flamer squad. Feel no pain works with gets hot so you have a bit more staying power with that. These guys are great at sitting on objectives. In cover these guys are hard to get rid of and being fearless they wont run. put in a rhino they can rush an enemy objective and with there higher toughness they can contest for longer. I would back up these troops with nurgle bikers. Toughness 6 bikes is nothing to laugh at. the Nurlge Icon is one of the better all purpose ones. T5 havocs to give some long range punch to the army for example. This is an army that can deal with massed small arms fire better then any other chaos army. This armies weakness is that plague marines are I3. Now there blight grenades help with this and of course T5 also helps with this but should a large asault army or unit hit you guys T5 and feel no pain can only help for so long. Also it is imporant to keep in mind feel no pain. Doublt strength power weapns and ap 2 or 1 (and str d in apoc), and rending will bypass your feel no pain. this means that rending wounds and plasma wound which used to not bypass I believe will now bypass. This is critical with armies that have the ability to get ap1 like Witch Hunters with that faith power. This isnt a critical weakness as its built into the rule that they have but it is important to remember. As you will be outnumbered by even regular chaos armies. However they can soak up str 4 and lower weapons better then other troops.

World Eaters. These guys are devoted to Khorne. There favored number is 8. While I would run a squad or two with the favored number I would suggest going 10 man for more attacks in close combat. THey are 21 points a model. These guys are close combat monsters. WS of 5 Furious Charge and base 2 attacks in there profile means many attacks and on the carge they hit harder and go before other marines and at the same time as noise marines. Keep in mind they have a pistol and close combat weapon so on the charge thats is 4 attacks a model (5 for the champion unless he has a powerfist then he has 4). So a squad of 10 wit ha champion with a powrfist has a total of 40 attacks on the charge at I5 str5. Thats huge especially againt horde armies. Remember that the powrfists are str 9 on the charge not 10. Back these guys up with some khorne raptors for fast hits or with defilers to give long range shooting with there cannon. What I would do is take Land Raiders. Armor 14 with lascannons and being an asault vehicle will get your beserkers into the fray fast. Every Beserker squad should have a transport either rhino or Land Raider. This armies Weakness is that they are devoted solely to assaulting. The troop choice only has pistols for shoting. You can give plasma pistols and I would give 1 per squad at most if at all. You have to be careful if you shoot your pistols and the unit runs at the end of the phase your unit is high and dry and will be shot to bits. Backing these troops up with transports and things that can shoot farther (Land Raiders, Defilers even predators) is critical. This style of army is harder then people think. You cannot just run foward without a plan. Being able to maximize your assaulting while utilizing shooting attacks is a delicate balancing act.

Thousand Sons. These guys are devoted to Tzeentch. There favored number is 9. I wouldnt field them in units larger then 9. Thats what you get in there box, 1 aspiring sorcere and 8 marines. By the way I dunno if this box will get an update but it needs one baaaad. Plastic tech has gotten better and im sure they could easily make these guys all plastic which would be much better then the hybrid plastic pewter they are now. Anways these guys weigh in at 23 points a model. While this is the same as plague marines these squads are probably the most expensive before upgrades. This is because unlike the rest of the troop choices they dont get a champion. They have an aspiring sorcerer that is required and costs 60 points. Also it must take 1 psychic power. These squad have a 4+ invulnerable save which is great as it makes them one of the best foot sloggers. They are Slow and purposeful which makes them relentless but slow when moving. This iswhy they arent the best foot sloggers hand down but are still really good. Keep in ind the aspiring sorcere is not slow and purposeful so if he is the last one left he can move normally. They also have inferno bolts. These make there bolters ap3 which is great against Marines and Marine like armies. This however doesnt do much againt horde armies that are used to not having asave against normal bolters. This being said we all know there are plenty of marine armies and other Marine like armies. They cannot take any upgrades and have no grenades. This is ok though because the aspiring sorcerer has a psychic power. I would suggest either doombolt or Bolt of Change. They are in my mind the best powers to give your aspiring sorcerers. Doombolt is good for increasing the number of shots and can help against horde armies. Bolt of Change is one attack at the same range as a bolter at str 8 and ap of 1 and it is an assault weapon. This is good because it allows the squad to be more versatile by allowing your sorcere to destroy vehicles. Gift of Chaos and Winds of Chaos are also good options if you wish. This is a shooting army that can walk itself across the board all the while firing there bolters at max range and denying armor save to all but 2+. With the amount of cover saves available now I would be careful and keep my distance while still shooting. They are equal to plague Marines in staying power because of there invulnerable save. Sure small arms fire hurts them just the same as normal marines but they can take a demolisher cannon and keep on coming. This is why i think they are equal because as troops are so important in fifth people will throw heavy weapons against them. The assault phase is there wekaness but they are not helpess. The sorcerer has a force weapon and the squad has a invulnerable save. This armies wekaness is that while they are good at footsloggin they are slow if you roll poorly for slow and purposeful. On average theyll move 4 inches a turn so they are slow. If you lock them in assault you can wither them down as only the sorcerer has a weapon that ignores armor. Do not count them out though as they do have a marine stat line so they can hold there own in the assault. Also another wekaness is there special rule of the sorcerer commands. This essentially means that if the aspiring sorcerer is killed the squad then only rolls 1d6 as opposed to 2d6.

Alright to wrap up ill talk briefly on the daemon weapons and steeds. The daemosn weapons vary for each god. Slaanesh causes instant death, khorne rolls 2d6 for extra attacks, nurgle always wounds on a 4+ and tzeentch rolls 1d6 for shooting and for assault. They all have there risks for if you roll a 1 you do nothing and take a wound. Khorne and Tzeetnch have the highest risks but also can do more damage. They count as power weapons. They are not essential for a lord and should only be considered if you plan to be able to use them. ALso only Chaos Lords can take them.

The Steeds are alright. I am not goign to go into them as the only one i really seen used was the disc of tzeentch which lets you move as jump infantry. They all have there uses but for this tacical read they do not change anything for being outnumbered. They can be used by Lords and Sorcerers.

Thats about it for a overview of cult armies and being outnumbered. Remember this is my opinion on the matter and the strengths and weaknesses are as I see them. In knowning these things you can develop lists and strategies for your armies.

I am not sure what I am going to talk on next. So ill keep it a secret. Until then I hope this helped.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Tactica outnumbered!


Keeper of the Fortress

Alright folks Another installment of my opinions on matters concerning tips and tactics. This installment is on being outnumbered. Now if you play horde or just large armies you can still read but this is meant for those of use who are outnumbered on a regular basis.

Now starting off people view being outnumbered as a weakness inherent in the armies that comprise this (Grey Knights, Chaos Thousand Sons, Deathwing, Ravenwing etc etc). Now while this is indeed a drawback this can also be considered a strength.

Know your Strengths

-Being small can be of help. If you win the dice roll have your opponent set up to go first. Then you set up your smaller army to be able to attack a smaller portion of the larger enemy. Of course the enemy may try to redeploy via movement but anything that makes your opponent do something they may not want to is an advantage in my eyes. Make no mistake though being outnumbered is still a fundamental drawback of these armies. Les bodies to capture and less bodies that can fall.

-Deployment is Key. As mentioned above you could make your opponent go first in turn and deployment but in the cases where you either want to go first or are made to go first. Deploying your forces effectively is always key and more so when your outnumbered.

- Play to your armies strength. This is obvious. Chaos Thousand Sons are good at shooting so maximize that. I am of the mind that unless your typical shooting range is pistols like Beserkers you should maximize your shooting. This will vary depending on how you build deathwing for example as you could have an assault heavy force or shooting heavy. This is 40k battles in the future I always say use your guns when you can. Again if your main gun is a pistol then you have to play smart to get in and assault.

-Play to the mission. Annihilation aside there are objectives to capture. Do not forget this. Its something that even veteran players can do. You get caught up in the slaughter or are just enjoying the fighting and before you know it your either too outstretched or too weakened to take objectives. NOTE: Necrons have a built in secondary objective of phase out. Sometimes going for the phase out could be better then going for objectives. Now this depends on the enemy Necron force and your own as well as the mission. Now in Annihilate the gloves are off and just make sure to utterly destroy a unit before moving to the next so you get that point.

-Don't let your opponent get into your head. What this means is that against a tyranid swarm or Ork horde army id you look upon the enemy and say "I can't kill all that" you really are weakening yourself before the game starts. You'll be more cautious. The mind war is just as important at the luck of the dice roll. If you can make your opponent wonder why our so confident you have a higher chance of them slipping up.

-Be bold. Remember tactics never truly make it to the battle. Id you can confuse or surprise your opponent in a manner that benefits you that always helps.

I know this is all old hat to many of us but any one of us can forget these overtime or just not apply it because we are too busy thinking of other things in the game.

Know your weakness and make them your Strength

Basically if your army is weak in the assault then use that to your advantage. Aggressive shooting and smart target prioritizing can keep that assault heavy force your facing back for one more crucial turn. While it would be nice to be able to shoot down the assaulting horde before it gets to you it rarely happens. But the more shooting you get in the better.

-Sacrifice. We all know to be prepared for casualties. but sometimes sacrifice is in order.Speed bumps are less around in small armies but a transport or a whittled down squad can be used in that role. Now its not the best idea for small armies like this but if it give the rest of your army an extra hassle free turn then go for it.

Now I'm not going to go into army specific tactics here but maneuvering your army is critical. Also read up on your armies rules. For example a Thousand sons squad in a rhino is pretty nice. Give them essentially a 36" shot by moving twelve getting out and then shooting as they are relentless via slow and purposeful (last i checked that works anyway). Basically all armies have either special rulings or there own unique strengths that have to be exploited constantly.

So essentially my point of view is that unless your assault specialized only (like World Eaters) you should shoot as much as possible. My reasoning for this is that most horde style armies have bad armor saves. And even with all the cover saves now you can negate there armor with your guns. In assault you'll have usually 1 guy that can negate armor saves consistently. Now granted a 6+ is nothing but lucky dice rolls can really hamper you. Deathwing is the exception as regardless of what you give them its a power weapon. However with Deathwing they are small squads and one of the smaller armies so you have to be careful.

One final tip is don't be afraid to spend points on things if it will enhance your armies ability. With Beserkers for example they are great in the assault. And while Rhinos really help them get across the board you may want to invest in a Land Raider. Better survivability, can assault out of it and it has some heavy weaponry if it survives dropping the beserkers off. Also it'll draw fire away from the rest of your army.

Thats about it. Mostly just a reminder on things we all forget. This is just the beginning. I plan to go into detail in other installments which are based on a specific codex for each installment of: Outnumbered! So stay tuned. I think the first will be Chaos cult armies. That means for those that don't know armies that are dedicated to one chaos god and at least in my eyes the troop selections should only consist of the specific unit for that god (Plague Marines for example). I will cover each god in this next installment so it will be a bit long. Until then!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Crusade era terminator shoulders

Alright so this is a mini tutorial on how to make the terminator shoulder pads on the previous post. This really is a lesson in salvaging. Now there are plenty of tutorials on how to make them from the barrels cut in half to dreadnought leg guards to scratch building with plastic card and/or greenstuff. This is just scrounging around through bits.

These are the pads when on a terminator. A little big perhaps but I like that look. Makes it look ceremonial and that fits with the Thousand Sons.

This is the bit off the sprue. Basically you just glue thin strips of plasticard to it to make the pad. its pretty simple. Id suggest using a reasonably thin plasticard so it can bend. I also suggest attaching the plasticard to the pad then paint it up and attach to the terminator. With the thin plasticard it can bend a bit to help fit onto the terminator if the arms are a little in the way.

This is the bit on the sprue. It should be on the same sprue as the bladed prow that i used for the terminators khopesh (which has its own tutorial).
That's basically it. Not much to show. How crazy you go with the plasticard strips to simulate leather is up to you. I don't know how it works with other chariot kits. But these bits can work with other legions such as Death Guard, Ultramarines, World Eaters. It depends on which bit you use of course but it could work.
Some more stuff to come soon. Hope that was a bit helpful at last with ideas on how to use other bits you may have.

Crusade Era Terminators

Hello all. I have made some progress on my Crusade era Thousand Sons. In this case the 3 terminators i needed for my squad which is being fielded as allied Grey Knights.




I followed the same paint scheme as with my previous thousand son stuff. Those shoulder pads are actually from the Tomb King Chariot box. I will post a mini tutorial on how to create the pads. Its a little large but I like the look of it. I think it fits well.