I've been frantically painting and testing my Imperial Soup list for the upcoming Midwest ConQuest and BugEater 40k GTs. I'm nearly done painting - just a handful of troops and tanks left. I'm still working on my backstory though. My buddy Kyle and I share an enthusiasm for the witch hunters in the Warhammer/40k universe so I'm crafting my fluff to be an Inquisitorial task force. Here's my list - formatted for Best Coast Pairings. Inquisition themed Astra Militarum fire their big guns! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + Player: Dusty Dean + REPORTED ARMY FACTION:  Imperium + TOTAL COMMAND POINTS: 21 + TOTAL ARMY POINTS: 1993 + POWER LEVEL: 124 + ARMY FACTIONS USED: Astra Militarum, Blood Angels, Adeptus Custodes + TOTAL REINFORCEMENT POINTS: 7 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ == Brigade Detachment == Astra Militarum, Cadian, [ 24PL, 1078pts] ...

I've just finished painting a detachment that has caused my opponents to rage quit. My new favorite Warhammer 40k detachment is a Spearhead of Astra Militarum (nay Imperial Guard) Manticores with a Master of Ordnance from the Catachan regiment. Defending my kitchen counter top, not a jungle. These guys pump out 2d6 shots of S10 AV -2 carnage. Making them Catachan allows me to re-roll one of the random d6 shots per missile used. Keeping my master of ordnance within 6" of the tanks allows me to reroll 1s to hit. Needless to say, they rain hell on my opponents and there isn't much they can do to stop it. How do? Got Mortarion? Turned to dust. Got Magnus? I don't even have to see you. Got giant bugs? Exterminated. At less than 500 points, I have a hard time finding another formation that can pump this amount of damage that has rules that buff itself as efficiently without spending any command points. It's great against hoards, monsters, Primarch...

Now that it's winter, I felt compelled to break out my Valhallan Imperial Guard army and give them some time on the table top. I put out an open challenge on the Gatekeeper 40k League page and Eric answered the call with this Dark Angel Death Wing list. In addition to lots of termies, Eric brought Ezekiel and Belial! My list was a simple, shooty-blob army with a Company command squad, two veteran squads in Chimeras, an infantry blob behind a defense line, 2 independent basilisks, a hydra (didn't need the air defense), a Vendetta and few other odds and ends. Neither of had very good dice during the game. Both my psykers periled themselves to death, but Eric lost a unit of terminators to deepstrike mishap on turn 2. After seven turns of Crusade Maelstrom missions, all Eric had left was Ezekiel.  The Crusade deployment put us basically playing the long way, which was in my favor. Also, when Belial and his terminators deepstruck behind my lines, I got Prescience of...

The Winter Warhammer 40k League at my local game shop just wrapped up today and I walked away co-champion! The league counted painting scores as well as win/loss record into the final tally and my painting and generalship was good enough to tie for first place! It was an escalation league starting at 750 points and ending at 1,500. You could play two games a week and the missions, deployment type and other special rules varied each week. You could also earn points for painting models over the league so I thought it would be a good time to buy and paint some Grey Knights. Unfortunately, painting the Knights is a lot easier than playing them.  The weeks where we played Maelstrom missions were a struggle for my GKs. I just didn't have enough boots on the ground to hold objectives and earn the precious points. A couple of times I was tabled by the hoard armies - namely Orks and 'Nids. However, I did like the GKs domination of the "magic"/psychic phase but it wa...

Of all of the miniature war games that I have played, Warzone is one of my favorites. Based on, "The Mutant Chronicles," Warzone is a skirmish level game set in the future where the nations of the world have developed into plant-spanning corporations - plus, add a religious inquisition, an unaligned technarchy, and corrupted mutant/alien horrors and you have a backdrop for a well designed mini game. Warzone used D20s and unit-by-unit activation that I really liked. For some reason, the D20s made simple math hard and we often found ourselves quickly throwing dice, then trying to add modifiers and figuring out if our role was successful. Also, due to the 20 small faces on the die, sometimes a tricky flick of the wrist could result in a long wait for the outcome of a critical roll as the die spun! I mostly played Mishima, the Japanese themed army, but I also had a slightly smaller Capital army, as well as the British themed Imperials. I'm tempted to start sorting thr...

This weekend I played in a small 1,500 tournament and went 1-1-1. I feel like I did much better than my record indicates. I brought my Imperial Guard because my White Scars and Daemons aren't ready for the table top yet. In my first match up, I faced Marshall, a guy who usually wins most of our local tourneys with his Space Wolves. Instead of his wolves, he brought Tyrnanids that he recently bought from another local gamer. Marshall's dice were hot all game, including spawning the maximum 18 termigants from his Tervigon in the first turn. Despite that, and the fact he went first, I held my own. We played Relic and he quickly swarmed over it, but the gaming time flew by and we only reached the top of turn 3. If I had a chance to take my third turn, I may have been able to pull in a draw, and perhaps even pulled a win in turn 4 or 5 if we had the time to play it out. My second round opponent was Danny and his Dark Eldar. My IG have always given him fits and today I just had h...

I've always enjoyed the expression, "Second place is the first loser." However, yesterday I took second place in the small point Warhammer 40k tournament and I'm fairly pleased despite not taking the top slot. We had 8 players show with a wide range of players from tourney veterans to beer-and-pretzel guys, beginners, and old timers who haven't played in a while. In the first game, my IG squared off against Jason's Chaos Warriors. I got to go first and shelled him pretty hard with the Lemann Russ and Basilisk. I also didn't deviate in the first two turns and effectively took him out of the game early and I felt bad that my dice were so hot. Next I faced Michael and his Chaos Warriors with about the same results as Jason. In the third round, I took on Jessie and his nasty Eldar. His general was Illic (I think) who lets his unit deploy an inch away from his opponent. After stealing the initiative, Illic and his 10 wraithguard with flame templates mad...

In just over a week, I'll be playing a small-point Warhammer 40k tournament at the Gatekeeper. My White Scars (Sons of Chogoris) aren't ready for the tabletop yet so I'll likely bring my Russian themed Valhallans or my Praetorians. Here are the lists I'm considering for the 1k point tourney. They are just "back of envelope" calculations. 1 Lord Commissar - power sword, melta bomb 1 Veteran squad - 3 meltaguns 3 Veteran squads - 3 meltas, 1 missile launcher, Chimera 1 Basilisk 1 Aegis Defense line - quad cannon or 1 Company Command Squad - 4 grenade launchers, sword, Chimera 1 Guardsman Marbo 1 Veteran Squad -3 Meltaguns, Chimera 1 Platoon Command Squad - 4 Flamers 2 Infantry Squad -Missile Launchers 1 Vendetta 1 Leman Russ 1 Basilisk The second list was a recommendation from another player online and I'm leaning towards fielding that list. That player actually recommends plasma guns but since neither Valhallans or Praetorians come wi...

I've been list building for a 2,500 point tournament coming up in October. I'm either going to play my IG, Wolves or Blood Angels. Out of my armies that are in playable condition, the current meta suggests I should run IG with some Wolf allies but I detest allies so I'm going to play a pure list - I just haven't made up my mind which one yet.  My IG would be fairly standard, lots of mech, lots of troops with a sizable psyker unit that usually catches my opponents off guard. I haven't played them since 5th because I can't cast while in a chimera anymore. My Blood Angels dreadnought/drop pod army is a lot of fun, but I had an idea to field 30 Death Company with power weapons and power fists. I know they are expensive, but not much can stand up to that... except a lot of barrage weapons first turn. However, I think I'm going to try the Logan Wing list. Here's roughly what I've got on paper now. *Logan *Run priest - Jaws, Living Lig...

Yesterday I broke out the new Praetorians and took them to a tournament at the Gatekeeper. 1,750 points is an OK limit for the IG. I can easily get my core Troop choices in the list and still have room for the usual tricks. My Blood Angel drop pod army isn't really any good until 1,850 and I had played my Wolves in the last tourney. Plus, I just picked up my favorite flavor of IG so I was thrilled to put my moustachoed models on the table! Roughly my list: CCS with grenade launchers (I'm working on some conversions.) PCS with grenade launchers 30 Man blob with flamers 1 Heavy Weapon squad with las cannons 2 Veteran squads, meltas, chimeras 2 Hydras 2 Basilisks 1Leman Russ (stock) 1 Vendetta 1 Defense line (no gun) My first opponent was a new guy to the area and he brought his orks. We played the long ways on the table and my barrage weapons were eating him up. However, we only got to the top of turn 4 and he held two more objectives than me for the win. I feel l...

The Imperial Guard is one of my favorite armies to collect. I've had more than one in my gaming career but I've never been very good at playing them. For a time, they were (and still are) all the rage in the tourney scene but I just can't seem to get them to work. I've tried foot slogging. I've tried mech. I've tried just about every other combo but I can't seem to win consistently with them. However, I do love painting the humble Imperial trooper. These guys are just a sample of my Valhallan IG which I'm painting up as a city fight army. There's not much different about the actual list, but I am giving all of the bases some urban rubble. I'm not too keen on the final color of the wrap/bags on the Sgt. and I think I'm going to re-paint with the standard GW color scheme. I may add some more highlights to the rubble as well so it's not so dark.