Karhedron

I think it was 8th edition. I remember deciding to pick up the DI box a couple of months after launch and being gobsmacked that it was no longer in stores. How were people supposed to actually get into the game without a consistently available start set? Just showing my age I guess.

I have just had my first game using Angelic Inheritors and I am a lot more impressed than I expected to be. My initial impression of AI was that it was over-costed and was a downgrade over its 10th edition incarnation. But actually rerolling 1s to Hit and Wound is pretty strong in a post-OOM world with the new Marine profile. I just played my first 1000 point game against Necrons and tabled them Turn 3. My list is below: Jump Captain with TH/SS leading 3 Sanguinary Guard Sanguinary Priest leading 10 Hellblasters Sanguinary Priest leading 6 BGVs Ballistus Dreadnought 5 Intercessors While the primary ability only benefits the larger squads, it is always on and is pretty good. The Detachment also has a good suite of Stratagems with "Strike Now For Glory" (Sustained Hits 1 for shooting) and Focussed Fury (Lethal Hits in melee with Lance if you have a Character) really boosting the damage output when you need it. SNFG on 10 Hellblasters with Plunging Fire was incredible! The downside is that list building options are somewhat limited. Only Death Company and Sanguinary Guard can natively use the Detachment bonus. Codex squads can be granted it by adding Dante, a Sanguinary Priest or a Blood Angels Captain on foot. This restricts the combos you achieve and also makes your units quite expensive since you are paying a Character tax for each unit you want to access the detachment bonus. Even so, I will be playing it some more and look forward to our escalation league going to 1500 points.

That is actually less than I was expecting, about 15% extra for painted. I still think it is a bit steep for me but if I was buying a new tabletop full of terrain, I would give the painted version serious consideration.

I haven't been keeping up with the discussion but has anyone worked out how much GW are charging as a painted premium? How does the painted table compare to the same stuff unpainted?

Agents made up 0.35% of players. So this is probably 1 or 2 players having a lucky streak and skewing the results.

My gut feeling is that this list doesn't really need them. All the Tacticus units can fire at maximum range as if they were standing next to the target. Most of them have Assault so can Advance and shoot with no impediment making the list fairly fast.

Intriguing. Any links to lists? Enquiring minds and all that.

That is true. Although the melta profile does enough damage to take down most large target when used en-mass. Which is its purpose.

They would be my choice I think. The 3 Damage and Devastating Wounds mean that you have a chance to make your damage stick, even against units with good invulnerable saves.

The problem is that 40K has been designated as a foreign system retrospectively. When the Spartan (and other HH vehicles) were first introduced to 40K, we had a reasonable expectation that it would remain playable in that system going forwards. I can see moving them to Legends but to actually scrap the datasheet and say to simply proxy it as a Land Raider feels like a betrayal. To continue with the code metaphor, this is not like some code being obsoleted. It is like an online library deleting a show that subscribers had previously had access to. There is no reason to do it and it feels just as bad in 40K as it does to lose access to something that you have already paid for.

The Return of the King soundtrack is great modelling music.

Don't beat yourself up too much. As a published author myself (non-fiction), part of being in print involves accepting that some people will offer criticism of your work. A long as the criticism is justified and not a personal attack, it just goes with the territory.

I played 1000 points against daemons yesterday and it was an uphill slog. In my defence I played a TAC list while my opponent brought 3 big beasts to the table. TAKE AND HOLD Assault Brethren, Tacticus Assault Force Cost Unit 75 Wolf Priest 230 6 WG Headtakers and 6 wolves 10 Furious Assault 180 Redemptor with plasma 150 Ballistus 85 5 Intercessors 80 Captain with Power Fist 180 Grey Hunters 10 Furious Assault 1000 Daemons: Take and Hold Skarbrand Shalexi Helbane Soul Grinder Twisted Epitome 10 Daemonettes 3 Flamers The final score was a 59/64 victory for the daemons. I was a bit disappointed as fighting 3 T10+ monsters effectively negated the boost from S4 to S5 on a lot of our attacks. Ironically my old Beastslayer list would have done better with free Lethal Hits all round. My opponent was rolling incredibly hot with his invulernable saves all. The Ballistus and Redemptor contributed almost nothing to the battle as he never failed a 4+ save against the Ballistus and the Redemptor only managed put a handful of wounds on Shalexi in their protracted battle. I took an early lead on Primary points and wiped out the small daemons pretty quickly but Shalexi gummed up my centre with her multiple stacked defenses while Skarbrand ran around lifting a unit a turn. I also drew poorly on secondaries for the later half of the game. Still it is easy to blame luck or dice but I actually made some simple mistakes that cost me the game. I was intimidated by the Soul Grinder and made it my Quarry target for the Headtakers which was actually a big mistake as it is really more of a fire support unit and never left his DZ. If I had made Shalexi the Quarry, the Dev Wounds would have brought her down and bypassed that annoying invulnerable save. This would have got me Assassinate as well as preventing Shalexi from scoring a Primary on the last turn meaning I would have won with the same dice. Also it was my first game with the new Detachments and I missed using Relentless Assault to grant Lethals against the big daemons. Ah well, new army rules always bring a learning curve. Having analysed my defeat, what actually worked well? Grey Hunters really are as good as everyone says. They carved through the Daemonettes without breaking a sweat and their high OC meant that I scored Primaries even when both units were on the Objective. Careful use of Armour of Contempt kept them above half-strength for the entire game, even in the face the Soul Grinder's shooting. I wish I had remembered to use Relentless Assault on them as they put some damage on the Soulgrinder at the end in melee but would have done a whole lot better with Lethal Hits. The Captain was great to keep the Command Points flowing. You want a Transhuman Strategist in every list! The boosted Intercessors were OK but I missed Objective Secured in a Take and Hold list. They would probably work better in Priority Assets where you need the action economy. At higher points, I would look to trade them out for Company Heroes as they are better all-round and have ObjSec. Wolf Priest and Headtakers with the wolves attached allow for some insane wound allocation Shenanigans. Shalexi has a bunch of 2D and 3D attacks but I was tanking these on the Wolves and then resurrecting them with the Priest in the next turn. It was only when Skarbrand waded in to tag team the Headtakers that they finally got dragged down. I would not be surprised to see this combo errated in the final codex as using the wolves as cheap ablative wounds and then healing them makes the unit unbelievably tanky. The combo of Assault Brethren and Tacticus Attack Force is really good for a melee-orientated list and I will be using it again. I haven't tried SOTGW yet but these two have a great toolbox of Enhancements and Stratagems (I just need to remember to make full use of them ).

That is surprisingly punchy! I built these guys a few years ago but have only run them a couple of times. Maybe I need to dust them off. https://bolterandchainsword.com/uploads/monthly_2025_02/large.20250227_151326.jpg.3ce68660dd0cecd1a1ae3ee3b0b80d44.jpg

Yup, I think I will be playing Space Wolves for a bit to get my power armour fix. The sons of Russ have come out much better with solid detachments and some decent datasheets. Logan is solid for 150 points and I can see him cropping up in a lot of lists (maybe I should play him before his points get nerfed ). Grey Hunters also look really good with Battleline utility but damage output that is getting close to elite territory. Headtakers have been affected by the same wet noodle syndrome as BGVs but at least their hunting wolves can now be made part of the same unit allowing for some ablative wound shenanigans.