Guest Article - Fluffy vs not Unfluffy

Today we have a guest article courtesy of my regular gaming opponent Mike. The words are all his though I take the blame for the picture ;-)

Ok, so most of us know how to write fluffy armies (or know GMort’s email address if we need help doing so). There is a wealth of background information out there, off the top of my head we have the background section of our codex, various short stories in White Dwarf, the entire black library section (especially the Horus Heresy novels, if you haven’t read them, I recommend you do) and even various films of all descriptions that aren’t 40k (or fantasy) related but can still serve as inspiration.

So we’re not short on themes, however we are short on people theming their army well and still making it, for want of a better word, competitive. For some theme is short-hand for “tying my arm behind my back” and in many cases a theme will cause people to do that. But this needn’t be the case!

Now, hands up, how many people are thinking this is about to spiral into a “there’s nothing wrong with counts-as” article? Yeah, most of you? You at the back scratching your shoulder, either put your hand all the way up, or all the way down, don’t hover in the middle and wait for my response. Ok you’re putting it down. You and the other 4 people are correct, thank you all five of you for reading the title!

Now, I have no problem with counts-as, I think in many cases it benefits the hobby, it allows me to field an army of Custodes when currently there is no codex specifically designed to represent them (and there isn’t likely to be) but I want a Custodes army because it looks cool. But that’s a tangent, today I want to instil the virtues of not un-fluffy army list writing.

I’m seeing some blank looking faces around….and you, you look angry….is that because I used a double negative?....you’re nodding…ok I better explain.

So I think it’s obvious what a fluffy unit, but I’ll explain anyway. In a Salamanders army it is considered in theme to take lots of fire and heat based weaponry as apparently if you come from a volcano based planet then you like weaponry that does the same as what that mountain does anyway. This is actively encouraged by GW who in the space marine codex have put a salamanders special character who actively rewards you for using those self same weapons I just mentioned.

Conversely, according to their background, Salamanders don’t use a lot of jump packs or anti-grav vehicles as apparently if the ground is on fire you don’t want to jump over it, but I digest*. So a “fluffy” or “themed” Salamanders army will contain lots of melta weapons, Thunder-Hammers and Flamers of all descriptions. It will contain a minimal amount of anti-grav. But those two extremes don’t cover everything.

Bikes, Thunderfire Cannons, Dakka preds, Librarians, I could go on, but if you want a Salamanders army then you’ll own the Space Marine codex already and can go through it and make a list of stuff that isn’t a Jump Pack Marine or a Land Speeder. All these things are frequently over-looked by people in their initial haste to theme an army as they’re not particularly fluffy. But since they’re not un-fluffy why not take them? What’s un-fluffy about a Salamander bike squad armed with Melta or Flamer weaponry getting into range while they have the chance?

And although my example is limited to one flavour of the Space Marine codex, this is by no means the limit of people over-looking not un-fluffy choices.

Biel-tan aspect warrior eldar armies….Biel-tan still have guardians, vypers and wraith constructs (after all, lot of Aspect Warriors die!).

Imperial guard based on Dan Abnett’s Gaunt’s Ghost books are all infantry…but they rode in another regiments tanks on numerous occasions and even phantine aircraft in at least one book.

Ork armies themed as Bad Moonz should have lots of flash gitz and Mega-Armoured Nobz, but they’ll have their share of Lootas and Boyz too.

And Chaos Marine armies with 2 Daemon Princes with Lash of Submission would probably have a lot of Slaanesh marked troops but what’s stopping you taking an odd unit of Nurgle plague Marines? (that’s right dual lash players, an odd unit, not your entire troop contingent!)

So next time you theme an army, spare a thought for useful units which may not be the fluffiest, but are by no means un-fluffy.

*10 points for getting that reference

Thoughts and Comments are (as usual) most welcome.

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What If? - Daemon FAQ

Lets be honest the Daemon Codex has a lot of problems with it. It lacks anti-tank, is too random and has at least one match-up (Grey Knights) tailored to beat it.

Is this solvable?

Well in the world of computer games they'd have issued a 'patch' for it about an hour after it was released. Unfortunately Games Workshop don't work that way. Sure they'll clarify the odd point here and there and correct the odd spelling mistake or grammatical error with an errata/FAQ but until recently they've never actually changed anything.

Until the Dark Angels and Black Templars FAQ's that is. In these they actually changed parts of the codex or updated them I suppose. If Games Workshop don't mind changing the rules to bring them in line to more recent codices why can't they do that with the Daemon Codex.

Not the same thing?

Well, it is actually. All armies that have a Deep Strike orientated option have ways to improve its chances of survival.

Space Marines get Drop Pods that reduce their scatter so they don't land on units and mishap, Tyranids get Mycetic Spores that basically do the same thing, Blood Angels Jump Infantry only scatter D6 and can re-roll their reserve roll if it fails, etc.

And none of them end up with the wrong bit of their army 33.33% of the time.

I therefore have a few suggestions to make,

'Wishful Thinking' Chaos Daemon FAQ version V 1.1

Daemonic Assault.
The Daemonic Assault rule is modified as follows. The army is still divided into two equal waves but no roll is made to decide if the chosen first wave is received. Simply select which wave you wish to arrive first.

Have fluffy rules if you like. Daemons arrive by Deep Strike is fine if a little annoying, adding an extra stupid rule that screws them over even further is not ;-)

Additionally, when subsequent reserve rolls are made each unit rolled for may add +1 to their reserve roll should they choose to land within the 6" 'no scatter' zone of an Icon.
For example. A unit of Bloodletters with a Chaos Icon is already on the table having arrived in the first wave. The controlling player would like one of his units coming in from reserve to land by this particular Icon. He nominates a Daemon Prince that he has in reserve and rolls as normal, adding his plus one and rolls successfully. The Daemon Prince in question now must be placed within 6" of the nominated Icon.

All other 'Drop' armies get some help with accuracy and/or reserves so why shouldn't Daemons?

Chaos Icons.
Points cost is reduced from 25 points to 10.

These have always been too fucking expensive.

Changes to Daemonic Gifts.

Bolt of Tzeentch.
Gains both the Lance and Melta special rules.
In addition, the points cost for Bolt of Tzeentch is reduced by the following amounts,
Herald of Tzeentch - Reduced from 30 points to 15 points.
Pink Horrors of Tzeentch - Remains at 10 points.
Daemon Prince with Mark of Tzeentch - Reduced from 35 points to 20 points.

Lance isn't unreasonable as Daemons only have two high strength shooting attacks and only one of them (Tongue on the Soul Grinder) is higher than S8. The Melta rule turns bolt into an equivalent of a Multi-Melta and I don't recall anybody claiming that Multi-Meltas are 'broken', have you?

Master of Sorcery.
Any unit with Master of Sorcery capable of purchasing shooting attacks may purchase them multiple times. The original restriction on using the same power more than once still applies unless he has purchased a duplicate ability.
For example. A Herald of Tzeentch has purchased both the Bolt of Tzeentch and Master of Sorcery abilities. This would normally allow him to use both his Bolt of Tzeentch (purchased at 15 points) and Daemonic Gaze (a default ability) in the same shooting phase as Master of Sorcery allows him the use of an extra shooting ability in the shooting phase. He could not normally use one of these abilities twice.
However, should he purchase the Bolt of Tzeetch a 2nd time (for an additional 15 points) he may indeed use that ability twice at the same target. Should he also have the 'We Are Legion' Daemonic Gift then these may obviously be at multiple targets.

So for 90 points a Herald of Tzeentch can land and fire 'Bolt of Tzeentch' twice at something, which is (imo) entirely reasonable. For 95 he can fire at two different targets but remember he's still only BS 4. A Daemon Prince taking advantage of this ability with my revised points cost would still be 155 points which is still more expensive than pretty much everything in other codices with equivalent fire-power.

Something for the Fluff Bunnies.
Any unit taken in it's Chaos God's sacred number or multiples thereof gains the 'Instrument of Chaos' and 'Chaos Icon' Daemonic Gifts at no points cost.

Well why not?

So that's how I'd 'Patch' the Daemon codex. Armies could now be divided in a tactical way rather than a 'what-if' one. Reserves are more reliable and they might actually worry mechanised armies a bit. I'd probably reduce the points of some of the Daemon Prince upgrades and unit costs as well but that'll require a bit more thinking about. I'd seriously considered giving appropriate Daemons the 'old' Rending Rules as well...

However if anybody has any better ideas feel free to comment.

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Representing the Legions - Part 4

For those of you who missed them - Parts One, Two and Three.

Okay I believe we had reached the Salamanders.....

No. 18 - Salamanders.

Handily for Salamanders players they have a special character in the Space Marine Codex (namely Vulkan) that makes both Flamer and Melta weapons better by making them twin-linked. He also improves Thunderhammers by making them 'master-crafted'. As Flamers are free in 10 man Tactical Squads (with a Meltagun being a mere 5 point upgrade) and Multi-meltas also being free in the same 10 man squad we can see that making a characterful and 'Fluffy' Salamanders army using the 'Vanilla' Marine Codex is a piece of piss cake. Obviously that's it then.....or is it.
The most distinctive feature of the Salamanders is their preference for 'heat' based weapons *...

* Which I've always found a bit odd on a planet basically made of lava. Surely a water cannon or gun that fired beams of ice would be far more of a status symbol on a planet where most of the Predators are actually made of fire or eat volcanic rock or are made out of volcanic rock and eat fire.....

...as well as their extreme strength and resilience. If only there was a way of taking elite troops with up to 5 Meltas and/or Flamers, heavy weapon teams with up to 4 Meltas and/or Flamers, Extremely tough troops that could take 2 special weapons and small elite Terminator units that could wield Combi-weapons and a Heavy Flamer.....Oh wait.....That's Chosen, Havocs, Death Guard and Chaos Terminators isn't it.....Before the 'Fluff Nazi's' start planning my brutal assassination** bear in mind that I'm just listing possible alternatives here ;-)

** again.

No. 19 - Raven Guard.

As with the Salamanders, Raven Guard have a special character in the Space Marine Codex (Shrike) that is specially designed for them. He exchanges 'combat tactics' for the ability to Fleet as well as enabling you to infiltrate the unit that he's with. This has unfortunately brought about the rather unfluffy tactic of infiltrating 10 Assault Terminators with Shrike which always seems like a good idea to idiots until an experienced player torrents them to death, feeds them sacrificial units while destroying the rest of their army or (in the case of Space Wolves) just puts a 'Chooser of the Slain' in front of his army and then looks smug. Obviously this is a perfectly legal and viable tactic so go ahead and do it if you like it's just not very 'Ravenguardy' imo.
The downside to using the Space Marine codex is that it limits you to 3 Assault Squads which are quite expensive for what they do and an Honour Guard that becomes stupidly expensive once you equip them properly.
Luckily the Blood Angels Codex helps us out here for a number of reasons. Assault Marines as troops, reliable Deep Striking, viable Vanguard Veterans are all highly in character for the Raven Guard. I'd rather give my Assault Squad Sergeants Power Fists for effectiveness but there's nothing particularly wrong with giving them Lightning Claws if it's the 'look' you want. Also due to the chapters background of genetic instability it's not unreasonable that they would have a high number of Apothecaries (Sanguinary Priests) keeping an eye on things (that can have a Lightning Claw themselves if they like). I already wrote a list for a friend of mine that can be found here if anybodies interested.

And finally,

No. 20 - Alpha Legion.

The Alpha Legion were known for their use of flexible and unorthodox strategies. Many of their victories were bought about by subterfuge, misdirection or rapid attacks from an unexpected direction. They also commonly recruited non-Astartes as agents to perform covert actions for them or simply as spies. To all intents and purposes they operated the same after the Heresy as they had before so that doesn't really factor in our choice of codex for them. In game terms the basic character of the Alpha Legion is best represented by the Infiltrate, Outflank or Scout rules or with any rule-set that allows allies.
So we need to represent a tactically viable force or one that has other people doing the work for them. One way to do this could be to use a standard Marine force that utilises the 'Combat Squads' and 'Combat Tactics' rules to represent this tactical acumen but that (though viable) is a bit boring. We could also take advantage of Kor'sarro Khan's Chapter Tactic which allows all of the units to outflank as well as giving his own unit Hit and Run as well as Furious Charge (both of which can represent superior tactics with little imagination on either players part). As Khan can be taken without a bike (if you like) you don't necessarily have to use your army as White Scars with an Alpha Legion paint job if you don't want to.
Alternatively taking the approach of having a small 'Marine' element supported by other units can be done in a number of ways.

Editors Note : Both of these suggestions are going to annoy 'Fluff Bunnies', give 'Fluff Nazi's' a heart attack and possible piss of the last remaining 'Counts-as' hater who has yet to have a contract put out on me.....Fortunately I've already worked out how to defend my home should the Zombie Apocalypse ever happen so defending it from a few offended 'Fluffers' shouldn't be an issue.....

Firstly, the Grey Knights codex allows us to adopt this approach with minimal difficulty. With Inquisitors as 'Cult Leaders' and their retinues as 'Cultists' we can build an elite Marine force with a few allies. If we use Corteaz as our Cult Leader then we can have six lots of 'Cultists' and a minimal number of actual Marine units to represent their Alpha Legion masters. Taking a Grand Master enables you to even more efficiently represent the Alpha Legions unusual tactics by virtue of the 'Grand Strategy' ability. The psychic abilities of the Grey Knights can be easily explained as daemonic Gifts and as many of their anti-daemon abilities work against other things as well can be put under the 'sneaky Alpha Legion tactics' umbrella. Using these ideas it's entirely possible to have an Alpha Legion army represented with remarkable similarity to how they are portrayed in their various literary appearances.

Secondly, If only there was a way of representing an entire planetary defence force, Guard regiment or other military force under Alpha Legion control.....
Of course a large compliment of Imperial Guardsmen would be the best way to represent.....well.....a large compliment of traitor Imperial Guardsmen, but where do we get a Marine stat-line in the Imperial Guard Codex to represent the Alpha Legionnaire who has single handily corrupted them. Well he'd need decent Weapon Skill, Toughness and Strength of at least four, a 3+ save with perhaps an invulnerable save to go with it and the ability to improve the units around him.....Does such a unit exist in the Guard Codex?

Yes it bloody does. May I present to you Colonel 'Iron Hand' Straken ;-)

No, I'm serious. He has a better than Marine Stat-line, makes his unit Fearless and dishes out Counter Attack and Furious Charge to any unit within 12" as well as having access to all the Imperial Guard orders. The rest of the army would be as WYSIWYG as you like. The only explanation necessary would be what a Marine in Alpha Legion colours is doing in the middle of an Imperial Guard Command Squad and that shouldn't take long now should it?

Well that bombshell is probably the best place to end this particular series of articles. Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Editors Note : If people would like example army lists for any specific legion then let me know in the comments section and I'll see what I can do ;-)

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Representing the Legions - Part 3

The first two parts can be found here and here.

Where had we got to?

Okay, now I remember.....

No. 14 - Death Guard.

One of only two legions that can be recreated with any kind of viability using the actual Chaos Space Marine codex (the other being World Eaters) due to the fact that Plague Marines are fairly survivable and can take a pair of special weapons even at five men (or seven if were being 'fluffy' about it).
From a background (or 'fluff' if you prefer) point of view the Death Guard were a Legion who favoured the deployment of massed infantry rather than mechanised assaults even though such vehicle support was as much available to the Death Guard as they were to any other Marine Legion of the time. They also were prolific users of Terminator armour as presumably it fitted their doctrine of 'advance towards the enemy while refusing to die'. This gives us a number of options for their representation though some require a bit more flexibility of imagination than others.....

Firstly as I mentioned earlier we could use the Chaos Space Marine codex utilising Plague Marines and some support units with the Mark of Nurgle which would be borderline viable but in no way optimal due to the relatively high cost of.....well..... everything in the codex really. If we want to do a 'foot' marine army then any Marine codex is viable but as with the Chaos codex isn't exactly optimal either.

Much as it seems to be my 'solution to everything' in these articles the Space Wolf codex is a definite option. The relative cheapness of Grey Hunters makes foot armies an option with the ever useful Wolf Guard enabling us to insert Terminators pretty much anywhere we please and Wolf Lords being so customisable it makes the Chaos player in me die a little inside. It's entirely possible to fit a tooled-up Wolf Lord, 6x10 Grey Hunters with a Terminator Armour wearing Wolf Guard attached to each unit into a 1500 point army and still have change for some Long Fang units. Now some people may question it's viability in the world of mechanisation but can you stop over 70 marines of which all but a few will be scoring?

Of course if we want the 'Feel no Pain' version then we could always go with Blood Angels but it requires a bit more imagination. Our provider of 'Feel no Pain' (the Sanguinary Priest) could be considered more like a 'Chaplain' encouraging the unit to keep on going despite the odds (Feel no Pain) before destroying the enemy in a devastating final assault (Furious Charge). Whether your force is Pre-Heresy or Post-Heresy makes little difference as Feel no Pain justified by a 'stubborn refusal to die' is little different from 'not noticing your arms fell off' in game terms, lol.

No. 15 - Thousand Sons.

Okay, we need to get something out of the way first. Thousand Sons from the Chaos Codex are not good.....no, they're not. A 4+ Invulnerable save is nice but I'm afraid Marines die to torrents of fire more often than not and the roll of a 1 or a 2 still equals an expensive dead Marine. Not to mention the fact that you have to take a 70 point (he's actually 60 points but he has to take at least one power and the cheapest is 10 points), single Wound Sorcerer that is effectively useless if you play against Eldar and that they're pretty shit in combat. Also their much vaunted AP 3 bolters are much less scary in a game that now gives out cover saves free with breakfast cereal. Now that's out of the way we can move on ;-)

Thousand Sons are a giant coven of Psyker/Sorcerors with access to all sorts of esoteric powers who due to mutation and mass attrition (courtesy of the Space Wolves later on and issues with geneseed early on) are extremely small in number. If only there was a codex that allowed you to field a small elite army of psykers.....

Yes, I'm suggesting using the new Grey Knights Codex to represent the Thousand Sons both for Pre and Post Heresy forces. Virtually everything has psychic powers (including the vehicles), the ability to upgrade the strength of their weapons is a fair approximation of 'Inferno Bolts', their Librarians are particularly powerful and can purchase a wide variety of powers and upgrades and Inquisitors (you'd need to make them psykers for 'fluff' reasons) can take retinues of Psykers that could easily be Thousand Sons acolytes. As long as your not thinking of painting Dreadknights in Tzeentch Colours then I see no reason why this isn't completely reasonable*

* This is the one thing I'm expecting to get Flak about which Is why I've given a fair bit of explanation about my reasoning.

Some people have suggested that the Space wolves codex is usable as well due to the ability to take 4 psykers (via Rune Priests) in an army. Though there are arguments in it's favour, imo the rest of the codex is too different to make this a good option. However Chaosgerbil may well have an opposing viewpoint.....

No. 16 - Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus*

* As far as I'm concerned this Legion ceased to exist at the moment Abaddon took control as 'The Black Legion' are a completely different animal altogether and don't really 'count' as an original Legion any-more but rather as a Warband**


** albeit a fucking massive one, lol.

A well ordered and tactically efficient legion that can be represented by any codex that you feel like if were being honest.'Vanilla' Space Marines are probably your best bet with Space Wolves an extremely close 2nd. Due to the fact that many of the original Luna Wolves were recruited from violent Hive gangs from Cthonia I suppose Blood Angels aren't unreasonable either.

Sorry if I wasn't much help there.....

No. 17 - Word Bearers.

Another tricky one here. Effectively a 'normally' organised Chapter albeit with a different set of motivations (compliance through religious conversion rather than force of arms) a truly Pre-Heresy Word Bearers army could be represented by any Marine Codex with Chaplains in it. However, once the Word Bearers discovered gods that not only allowed worship (unlike the Emperor who actively opposed being worshipped) but bloody well demanded it they became much more.....interesting.
With the ease of including Icons, the relative cheapness of Lesser Daemons and the utility of the generic Greater Daemon you could make a Word Bearer army using the Chaos Space Marine codex.....but Lesser Daemons are unreliable at best and there's little available from a HQ point of view to represent a Dark Apostle (basically a Chaos Chaplain).
My personal preference would be to use the Blood Angels codex as it enables you to take up to five Chaplains equivalents (2 Reclusiarchs and 3 Chaplains) if you wished. Sanguinary Priests could also be used to represent Chaplains/Apostles with a little imagination as Feel no Pain and Furious Charge can be a result of religious fanaticism rather than some kind of medical effect ***.

*** Which, lets be honest makes more sense as having an area effect than an apothecaries abilities. I mean what does he do throw hypodermic needles and plasters at injured guys in other units for fucks sake.....

Unfortunately it has nothing to represent Lesser Daemons but there's no rule that says Word Bearers summon Daemons wherever they go just that they can do it really easily if they so desire.


Okay, I seem to have gone on a bit more than I intended so I'll just have to turn this into a 4 part series rather than a 3 part one ;-)

See you next time starting with the Salamanders Legion.....

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Painting is hard.....

My first attempt at freehand symbol painting has gone marginally better than I expected but still isn't very good.

I'm attempting to copy the symbol from my 2nd Company banner that was originally done for me by my girlfriend several years ago.

My attempt at copying that on my Long Fangs shoulder pads turned out like this,

And a 'before tidying-up' close-up.

Still needs some work but I'm assured that practice makes perfect.....apparently.....

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Representing the Legions - Part Two.

Part One can be found here.

Lets get stuck in then.

No. 8 - Night Lords.

Due to some early stereotypes and poorly written codex entries Night Lords were classified as either a bike or Raptor filled army. The story 'Lord of the Night' though having a more well rounded bit of Night Lords background than the codex had, did little to dispel the 'They're a bunch of Daemonic Jump Marines' vibe. Fortunately in recent times they've been given over to Aaron Dembski-Bowden who's books 'Soul Hunter' and the more recent 'Blood Reaver' have done a lot to help with ideas for building a 'fluffy' army.
Personally I wouldn't use the Chaos Codex as it is poorly equipped to represent them in any kind of usable form due to the Raptors in it being more expensive than Assault Marines while at the same time being worse and the fact that their basic Chaos Marines suffer from a lack of the 'And They Shall Know No Fear' rule.
The Blood Angels Codex however, gives us a number of viable options. The ability to have your whole army set-up as a precision strike force with Jump Packs allows you to represent the 'Raptor' side of their character while the fast vehicles give you the ability to make a quite scary mechanised 'Lightning Assault' force. The 'Red Thirst' rule is easily justifiable in a Legion recruited from a world full of criminals.
Of course another less used, but entirely viable option is to use the Space Wolves Codex. Obviously this option moves away from the 'Raptor Cult' aspect of the Night Lords and moves more towards the 'Warband' style of army. The wide variety of equipment options (on Wolf Guard especially) enables you to recreate the more random equipment that a bunch of renegades would have access to and the HQ's make representing a Warband leader a piece of piss cake.

No.9 - Blood Angels.

They have their own Codex which does the job just fine.

No. 10 - Iron Hands.

A Legion of Marines who like chopping bits off themselves, think being encased in a Dreadnought is a promotion and like Techmarines (a lot) leads us nicely to the standard Marine Codex. Master of the Forge and Tech Marines are freely available as 'Iron Fathers' and mass Dreadnoughts can be used if required. I personally think Games Workshop screwed us over by not giving us a named 'unique' Master of the Forge character to use to lead Iron Hand armies, but they didn't so we'll have to make do without one.
Alternatively as their companies are basically individual clans led by a revered representative, any Marine codex that has access to TechMarines or equivalents (so all of them except Chaos then) could be used. The Blood Angels Codex could represent them as the apparently brutal force they are alleged to be with Sanguinary Priests 'Feel no Pain' rule representing keeping their Bionics in order rather than their biological systems.
Space Wolves are an equally legitimate choice as they have (if anything) a more suitable Techmarine representative in the form of Iron Priests and can actually be led by a Venerable Dreadnought (Bjorn) if you so desire.

No. 11 - ???
If Primarchs themselves are forbidden to mention the 2nd and 11th Legions then I'm probably best off keeping away from the subject as well.....

No. 12 - World Eaters.

One of the few Traitor Legions that can actually be represented using the Chaos Codex, Admittedly it would be a fairly one dimensional army but I've used (almost) mono-Khorne armies with some success on multiple occasions.
Blood Angels are a better choice if you want to win games though. My own custom chapter 'The Night Reapers', 3rd Company is made almost exclusively of Khorne Berzerker models with weapon options to suit their use with either of the aforementioned rule-sets. Sanguinary Priests become 'Berzerker Surgeons', Chaplains become 'War Priests', A Blood Chalice doesn't even need to change it's name at all, lol. Librarians are a bit trickier to justify from a 'fluff' point of view but if you think of their powers as 'Gifts of Khorne' it's not much of a stretch.
I'm sure you've all seen Khorne Berzerkers on Juggernauts of Khorne 'counting-as' Thunderwolf Cavalry by now so that's an obvious option. Lone Wolves also work well as Berzerker Champions if you think that rather than them not wanting to join other Marines it's the other Marines that don't want to join them.....

No. 13 - Ultramarines.

As the Space Marine Codex might as well be subtitled 'Codex - Ultramarines' then this one should be obvious to everyone.

I think that's enough for today, I'll continue with Part 3 in a couple of days starting with Death Guard as I have my Tuesday 'House of Paincakes' post to sort out first.

As usual feel free to comment away if you wish ;-)

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Representing the Legions - Part One

After a few discussions both on-line and in the real world there seems to be a 'Fluff Nazi' conspiracy to limit what codices are used to represent which Legions/Chapters.

There is much talk along the lines of  "Codex 'A' has character 'B' in it and therefore MUST be used to represent chapter 'C' or the world will end". This is blatantly bollocks and so I'm going to list which books (imo) can be used to represent the different armies and give some reasons why and perhaps list a few alternatives that may not have occurred to people.

In the interests of keeping some semblance of order I'll do them in order of founding,

No. 1 - Dark Angels.

Obviously the Dark Angels have their own codex so it would seem to be the obvious choice. If your doing a 'Deathwing' or 'Ravenwing' army then it probably is (especially after the recent FAQ).....However.....
Dark Angel players not doing either of the above mentioned themes are somewhat stuck with an outdated rule-set. It's obvious to most people that the Dark Angels Codex was a 'test-bed' for rules that would inevitably make their way into the Space Marine Codex, therefore I see no reason why the standard Marine codex can't be used to represent them. Given their background as a knightly order using the Black Templars book is also not unreasonable ;-)

No.2 - ???.
Moving on......

No.3 - Emperors Children.

The Chaos Codex has Noise Marines in it and therefore has to be used to represent them.....Of course that's only true if you believe all Emperors Children became Noise Marines which they blatantly didn't and that having an extra point of Initiative represents worshipping excess in all its forms which it obviously doesn't.
Pre-Heresy Emperors Children (being just like normal Marines) can be represented using any book you like. Post Heresy is a bit more tricky.....Though it seems like I dismissed it as a choice the Chaos Codex can be used to create a fairly 'fluffy' pure Slaanesh force which is still usable (though not optimal) as Noise Marines only really become Noise Marines once you give them a Sonic Blaster.....
Also though Lucius the Eternal is available as a character in C:CSM he can be represented in real terms by anybody who's good with a sword and there's no shortage of those in the other Marine codices. As the EC were a chapter obsessed with perfection but with an extremely well defined command structure, the Blood Angels codex could represent them just fine as 'Feel no Pain' is entirely reasonable for Marines who actually quite enjoy pain and 'Furious Charge' and 'Red Thirst' just represent the uncontrollable craving for more of the sensations of battle.....Well it's just an idea, lol.

No.4 - Iron Warriors.

Lets cut straight to the 'Obliterator' argument and get it over with. Yes, the Chaos Codex has Obliterators in it and yes the Iron Warriors are associated with them but they're meant to be exceedingly rare so therefore 9 of them turning up to a 1500 point border skirmish isn't Fluffy.....

No, it isn't......

For a bunch of siege warfare specialists the 'Vanilla' Space Marine codex is a better fit. Masters of the Forge, Ironclad Dreadnoughts, Thunderhammer/Storm Shield Terminators, Vindicators with Siege Shields and Thunderfire Cannons could all be included in an Iron Warriors army without any stretch of the imagination being required.

No. 5 - White Scars.

Well this is one of the few ones where the intended codex fits them perfectly. Bikes as Troops and a special character that gives you 'Outflank' is ideal. Though remember that just because you can outflank with everything doesn't mean you should outflank with everything.

No.6 - Space Wolves.

They have their own codex and it does the job just fine.

Next.....

No.7 - Imperial Fists

I could just copy/paste the Iron Warriors entry above into this section, lol. The reason the Iron warriors fit so neatly into the Space Marine codex is exactly because there's plenty of Imperial Fist suitable units. Lysander doesn't have to be in an Imperial Fist army by the way.....It's not compulsory or anything.....

I think that'll do for now and I'll start the next article with the 8th Legion - The Night Lords

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

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Back to the Future.....With a Warhammer.

I was fortunate this morning to come across this article by the author of 'The First Heretic' Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

I highly recommend you all give it a read ;-)

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