Tag Archives: 40k

40k: Redcap’s Updates

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redcapsAlong with not gaming much for a couple months now, I hadn’t been out to Redcap’s Corner in basically forever. Tonight though I swung by and picked up a few updates from Adam and Benn:

  • Saturday, Jan 8th they’re holding a painting & scenery day. They didn’t have real plans yet, but most likely low key. They were talking about it mostly in terms of a group paint session to help people get/stay motivated to paint, with people bringing in anything they have in progress and just hanging out and working on it. They’re also planning on working on some more store terrain that day, with everybody pitching in as they want.
  • On that note, they’ve definitely beefed up their terrain. Even just on the two tables I saw set up downstairs, they’d done a pretty nice job with one of the Citadel plastic tables & a bunch of modular woods, and had a really nicely done blue hued take on a Planetstrike board, complete with Landing Pad, bunch of Bastions, Aegis Defense Lines, and a Fortress of Redemption (!). They also had a bunch of assembled but unpainted Fantasy terrain that looked pretty good. As I thought from checking it out on the website, the new GW Watchtower in both complete and ruined version is pretty cool.
  • The 40k league seems to be doing well. It sounded like they’ve had a regular 4 or so tables going on Thursdays. For the past couple months, they’ve even expanded it out to include a regular game league on Thursdays, and a 200pt Kill Teams league on Tuesday nights. They’ve been using the very bare bones Kill Teams rules in the Battle Missions book, but their informal, non-competitive nature is really starting to show up—unstoppable Dreadnoughts, etc. So, they’re probably going to switch to Adepticon Kill Teams rules, which adds a lot of Combat Patrol styled limitations and I think is definitely a good idea.
  • The 40k & Fantasy stock selection on hand was not tremendously beefier than in the past, but enough to be noticeable, so they continue to make progress on it as their community grows. One very notable thing though was that their selection of GW paint is now basically complete, they’ve filled out the standard display rack.

All in all, good stuff! I’m currently planning on both the painting day and at least January & February for Kill Teams, so hopefully I’ll see some other people there as well!

Imperial Guard Artillery

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Photo & model by Forge World.

Photo & model by Forge World.

Matt was pondering on artillery pieces to add to his Valhallan villains, so I thought I’d offer up my comments.

Options are:

  • Basilisk: Incredible range (240″) and great strength (9 AP3)
  • Medusa: Ok range (36″) and amazing strength (10 AP 2 or 1 depending on shell)
  • Colossus: Great range (240″), good strength (6 AP 3), ignores cover
  • Griffon: Solid range (48″), ok strength (6 AP 4), re-rolls scatter

Once you’re committed to using some artillery I’m not sure it’s possible to go really wrong with this decision, except for the Basilisk. It’s a shame, because I like the look of the Basilisk the most with its long barrel, but with a 36″ minimum range it really doesn’t make sense except on a *big* Apoc table.

I’ve seen Kiril make excellent use of the Colossus. The AP 3 with no cover saves on a Large Blast marker makes it a Marine killer par excellence. The Medusa also sounds impressive, but personally I think it’s less terrifying. It’s maybe good for working over Terminators (hint, hint), but generally the boards Matt and I play on have a good amount of terrain. Given that, I’m not sure it’s as useful as the Colossus. Certainly I fear the latter much more.

The Griffon though is probably a good safe bet. Previously I didn’t really realize it is so much cheaper than the others, and I’m generally a big fan of bodies over fancyness. The other guns don’t seem unnecessarily fancy, but the reduced cost of the Griffon yields up a whole additional full Veteran Squad, or another squad and a half of normal grunts. If you’re trying to soak up points I think the others are definitely credible, but there’s a lot to be said for simply having more guys out there soaking up wounds.

Another big point to me in Matt’s particular case is that he tends to play on his (awesome) 4×4, Warmachine styled boards rather than more traditional 6×4 40k boards. On a 4×4 the 24″ minimum range of the Colossus could really crimp your style; even on a 6×4 it’s tight, and requires parking the gun in a far corner, ripe for being outflanked. The 12″ minimum of the Griffon is a lot more reasonable for smaller boards.

In any case, remember that Ordnance Barrage weapons (so, everything here except the Medusa’s shells) cause a Pinning check with a -1 modifier to Leadership if they cause any unsaved wounds. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I think that’s actually significant. They could potentially achieve almost as much, particularly against MEQs, just by pinning units as they do by removing models. Certainly I’ve had important units held at a stand still from continual pinning wounds, with significant game effects.