Okay, here's the down and dirty of it.  For those of you tuning in late, the goal here is to make 18 woods sections complete with flocked bases, 36 trees and 36 bushes... all for 39 $US.  Today I cover the construction of the trees themselves.

Start by drilling 6 small holes in a GW round base, cutting 3 lengths of floral wire, and pulling 3 sprigs of greenery off the bunch you grabbed at a discount craft store.  Take care to leave a section on the underside of the round base large enough to hold one of the magnets.  (More on that later.)

Use floral tape to bind the 3 sprigs into a bunch as shown, and loop the 3 wires through the GW round base like so.  The wires will hold the tree  firmly onto the base so that even rough handling and ill placed tanks cannot damage the tree.

Place the bundle of greenery on the base and wind the three wires around it.  I find that making one of the wires go the opposite direction from the other two adds stability to your tree, as well as forcing the smaller branches out and away from each other.  Finish the top of the tree off by wrapping 1 wire around each of the sprigs of greenery, so that you get 3 large branches at the top of the tree going out in different directions.

Now take a bit of floral tape and wrap the tree trunk.  It'll take a little practice to get the tape to go around the branches, but this too helps spread them out to make it look more tree-ish.

Tear off a bit of floral clay and cover the tree trunk.  You can leave this step off if you're pressed for time or otherwise like the look of the floral tape tree trunk, but the clay allows you to texture the trunk a bit and allows you to create "roots" to cover up the wire and the slot in the GW round base.  Give it a few days to dry so it's not sticky before you work with it further.  It will never be as hard as sculpy or Green Stuff miniature clay, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper.

Fill the bottom of the GW round base (or the large half of the bottom if it has a slot bisecting it like mine) with more clay.  Be sure to mush it in there real well, so that it flows around the wire in the base.  once it dries, the wire will hold the clay in place.  (if you find this isn't the case and your clay keeps coming out... superglue it.)  BEFORE it dries, make an indent in the clay for your rare earth magnet, then glue the magnet in place once the clay is hardened.

Behold, one tree.  And a very excited Kroot Mercenary for scale comparison.

Coming up in Part III... painting and flocking trees.

Today I talk about the Fast Attack choices in the new Guard army.  However, I first want to discuss a topic that is going to come up repeatedly from here on out – Vehicle Squadrons.

Most any player excitedly reading over the new codex probably drooled (at least at first) over the listing of all those Fast Attack and Heavy Support options that can come in squadrons.  Yup, you can take three Hellhounds or three Leman Russes for just one choice!  Pretty cool, eh?

Well, maybe not as much as you think.  In some ways vehicle squadrons are as much of a pain as a blessing.  They may give you more tanks, but at the cost of connecting all of them together at the proverbial hip.  Vehicle Squadrons have to move in formation and, much worse, have to all fire at the same target.  That’s a serious tactical limitation.

Imagine this scene for a moment – knowing that you are playing an Ork horse you bring three Hellhounds and fit each with an extra Heavy Flamer.  That’s six total templates full of greenskin roasting goodness.  You rush the trio forward and time things just right so that they get to launch all weapons at the approaching tide of ork all at once.  Only one problem – all six of those templates have to be fired at one single unit!  A squadron that could possibly lay waste to half your opponent’s army in one go must instead concentrate on one single group.  Sure, those boyz are so much barbeque, but what about the other hundred who just saw their mates burnt to ash?  Do you think they’ll be nice enough to stand still while your squadron flames each in turn?

The primary limitation of squadrons is that they can in effect tie up a lot of your firepower – instead of being able spread out the shots in the most efficient manner you have to concentrate on just one target.  Accordingly, squadrons work best when its components have little enough firepower individually so as to combine well.  For instance, a pair or trio of lascannon armed Sentinels would make for an effective vehicle killer.  By comparison, a squadron of three vanquishers armed with lascannons and multi-meltas would be a waste of points.  Sure, one target is pretty much vaporized, but under normal circumstances you could very well bag three.

The basic lesson:  The more expensive the squadron in total, the more likely you are being inefficient with your points.

Now on to the unit reviews…

Sentinels

These, um, Imperial walkers now come in two flavors – plain and extra armored.  They also get access to almost every heavy weapon in the Emperor’s arsenal, including the new choices of missile launchers and plasma cannons.

The Scout Sentinel receives scout and move through cover, but suffers from a wafer thin 10 armor rating.  They also can’t take plasma cannons.  By comparison, the Armored Sentinel loses the special abilities, but packs a front armor of 12.  Both are, of course, walkers.

In both cases the best way (as I see it) to use Sentinels is to take advantage of their particular rules.  Scout Sentinels can get in behind or to the side of the enemy force while likewise being able to cut through terrain to gain an advantageous position.  Use them to back up moving forces.  Their armored brothers are better for stabilizing the gun line.  Keep their front armor toward the enemy and you have a mobile heavy weapon that is as hard to kill as most vehicles.  Sure, it’s still kind of wimpy when compared to something like a Leman Russ, but it costs a lot less and is also a less tempting target.

Another important use for Sentinels is close-combat.  A single attack and strength 5 isn’t exactly devastating, you say?  True, but remember that unlike other vehicles in close-combat walkers use their front armor.  For an armored Sentinel that’s potentially huge – not because you can expect it to kill very much in melee, but because it can tie up entire units for perhaps the rest of the game.  For instance, drop an armored Sentinel on a group of 10 regular space marines and you get 55 points effectively negating 170+. That’s a pretty good exchange for any IG player.  A mere scout sentinel can use this trick as well, although in fewer instances and likely for fewer rounds.  Still, holding back a powerful group for a turn or two may be all you need for victory.

Finally, since they only come with a single weapon (not counting the optional HK missile) sentinels work well in squadrons.  Being cheap you’d probably want to take entire groups anyway.

Rough Riders

I’m beginning to wonder if GW has something against horses.  To my mind Rough Riders have always been a cool concept saddled to mediocre rules.  Sadly, that didn’t change with the latest codex.  In fact, the rules are hardly different from before.  You still only get one single “use-it-and-lose-it” power attack combined with the speed of cavalry and the vulnerability of a regular guardsman.  They are also twice the cost of a vanilla trooper.  No special abilities and few options. 

Much of the rest of the new codex is a breath of fresh air compared to what came before, but Rough Riders are still a comparative pile of poo.  They are fragile one-shot wonders seemingly destined to reenact the Charge of the Light Brigade when included in any battle plan.  They aren’t useless, but compared to the other possible Fast Attack choices at your disposal they are clearly disappointing.  If you ask me they should be able to get a power attack whenever they charge and scouts to boot.  That would make them a good buy.  As it is I suggest using them only because they are nifty, not because they are an integral part of your army.

Hellhound Squadron

We now return you to your regularly scheduled effective unit.  Hellhounds went out and got two new brothers, the Devil Dog and Bane Wolf.  All of them are rather nice.

The regular Hellhound is still the monster of hot, flaming death we’ve all come to love with pretty much the same rules as before.  The Devil Dog replaces the flamer with a multi-multa.  Finally, the Bane Wolf is a wonderful infantry killer – it always wounds on a 2+ and is AP3.  You can’t use it at extra range, though.  On top of all this you can now take multi-meltas as secondary weapons along with heavy bolters or heavy flamers.

I like all of these choices.  The Hellhound is just a good all-around tank that, thanks to its strength of six, can even go after light vehicles.  The Devil Dog – especially if you double up with an extra multi-melta – is a nasty anti-vehicle threat.  Yet, I may like the Bane Wolf the best.  Some are going to balk at its 1 – yes, one – strength, thus making it useless against anything with an armor value.  However, it is otherwise death incarnate for any infantry not in the equivalent of terminator armor.

Being “fast” you use these tanks when you want to get somewhere and still be effective.  Tank shock followed up with gouts of template death seems an especially good tactic.

Valkyrie/Vendetta

Admit it – Wasn’t it the Valkyrie that made you the most excited to see the new IG codex come out?  An Imperial Guard skimmer that had once upon a time been a pricey (in real $) Forge World kit now suddenly made available to the masses?  Anyone interested in Air Cavalry?  Can you look at the model and not have Wagner playing in your head?  And, they even come in squadrons!

You don’t need to be a tactical genius to realize that Valkyries/Vendettas make for great transports.  They have decent armor, are fast, and can even drop chute troops anywhere along their flight path.  Imperial Guard have never been so mobile.  The vehicles are also pretty good shooting platforms with the Valkyrie being better suited to anti-vehicle and the Vendetta to anti-tank.  Add in a good mix of possible weapons and what’s not to like?

Well, squadrons for one – and for reasons already mentioned.  However, the movement restrictions for squadrons also hit Valkyries/Vendettas hard.  The whole point of fast transport is to be tactically flexible, but a squad is required to stay together.  You’re either going to have to land your troops all as a mob or take the risk of a lot of drop chutes.  Likewise, although they can carry twelve models, for a force as potentially large as the Imperial Guard that’s not very much.  You’ll want to reserve seating for more elite troops that can be effective quickly and/or when cut-off from the rest of the army.

As for weapon load-outs I suggest either a Valkyrie with rocket pods to shoot up infantry or the Vendetta to act as a gunship.  Both cost the same while filling different combat niches.

More to come...

I return to my review of the new IG codex by tackling the bread and butter of any Guard army – troops!

Platoon Command Squad

This unit is really just a slightly weaker version of the Company Command Squad.  You can take the same basic components with the exception of Advisors – which you can’t take – and commissars which you can.  The second option does give you leadership 9 and another potential power weapon, but it does come with the not inconsequential liability that you’ll lose your single order giving model the first time you fail a morale check.

Beyond this the two command squads are almost the same with only a few minor differences in possible wargear.  One consideration is that the platoon standard is a poor version of its command equivalent – you only get the bonus to close combat and not the leadership advantages.  Yet, it’s the same cost.

I’d personally load up the commander and commissar with a power fist so as to provide the platoon some meaningful hand-to-hand nastiness when the time comes.  Beyond that you take advantage of the commander’s orders to give the rest of the platoon some much needed versatility.

Platoon Infantry Squad

Here is your grunt in the field, the poor sods that have to do the heavy lifting of an IG army.  At only a base of 50 points the Infantry Squad represents a pretty good buy, especially if you can successfully combine them with command orders.  There are also plenty of options to choose from.  One of them is a commissar (meaning you could have one with every squad if you wished) which is a better buy here than the command squad as he still has the 9 leadership, but you only lose a sergeant with a botched morale check.  The commissar and sarge are also the only ones who can take power weapons, but at a measly strength 3 you would probably be better off to purchase a plasma pistol instead.

Otherwise, the infantry squad isn’t much different than before – you can take one special and one heavy weapon.  You can also mount them in a chimera for easier travel.  Given their low cost you could easily field a hundred guardsmen if you wanted in your 1500 to 1850 size force, a daunting prospect for any opponent even if your ground pounders will nevertheless die in droves.

Platoon Heavy Weapon Squad

Again, this is almost a duplicate of the old squad except now they come as part of a platoon (and therefore count as scoring).  There are more downsides now, however.  For one they only have a leadership of 7 and only a Lord Commissar has leadership at range.  They also can’t take a transport, quite a bummer if you were playing a mechanized force before.

I would personally always give the squad the same basic weapons – either anti-infantry or anti-vehicle – so that they can concentrate on killing one or the other.  I would also keep them back and in cover, anything to protect them from having the make leadership checks!

Platoon Special Weapon Squad

Much as before this squad has all the disadvantages of its heavy weapon brother, but in this case that makes for an even worse situation.  Unlike heavy weapons which can always stand back and shoot many special weapon choices require one to get up close and personal.  That means exposing them to more fire which in turn means more morale checks.  With a meager 7 leadership the squad could easily end up running away before they get into position to accomplish anything.  This is complicated thanks to the squad not having access to transports or special abilities like infiltrate or stealth.

For that reason I would always try to keep them under cover, often as response troops to incursions toward the Imperial gun line.  That way they can jump out and fire without being subject to excessive amounts of firepower.  Accordingly, plasma guns, sniper rifles, and grenade launchers make the most sense while by comparison a flamer or demolition charge armed group would be expected – at best – to get one big shot off before dying. 

Platoon Conscripts

If you want bodies to throw at the enemy this is what to use.  You can only take one group per Platoon, but it can be as big as fifty grunts – and at the cost of just 200 points.  Sure, they all stink, but conscripts aren’t there to amaze with their abilities, but rather to stand and die.  With that many troopers you can certainly fatten up the Imperial gun line.  And, as Stalin was purported to have said, quantity has a quality all its own.

The main difficulty to using conscripts is their pathetic 5 leadership, but their sheer bulk of members is something of a defense against this.  With fifty troopers you have to shoot 13 to force a morale check.  However, a good combo is conscripts with a Lord Commissar.  Suddenly they have a 10 leadership and a source of close-combat muscle.  Otherwise, you use them as a wall of flesh to soak up damage and provide mass – if inaccurate – fire.

To my mind the main limitation to conscripts are the cost and trouble of preparing the actual models themselves.  They are only cannon fodder, yet represent a huge expenditure of effort to construct and paint.

Veterans

Want to keep playing your grenadiers or death world veterans?  This is how you do it – take the new IG veterans.  Whereas the platoon represents a huge and somewhat unwieldy mass of troops, the vet squad is a more manageable ten soldiers.  Veterans are also better skilled while having access to options – such as being able to take carapace armor or camo-cloaks – no one else can take.  Add in the ability to take a chimera and you can duplicate a lot of the old doctrines from the previous codex (the big exception is a drop troop army).  One nice advantage of Veterans is that they can take three special weapons in addition to a one heavy.  Also, the sergeant can take a power fist.

However, there are some disadvantages that come with Veterans.  A big one is that they can’t take commissars so, ironically, a squad of newbie troopers in a platoon can have better leadership than their hard-bitten veteran counterparts.  You also can’t buy platoon commanders outside a platoon, so a veteran heavy army won’t have many if any orders to throw around.  Likewise, one big omission is that vets don’t have any options to gain abilities like scout or stealth, something you’d otherwise expect.

Veterans are a good choice when you don’t want platoons at all or don’t want more than one platoon.  They are more versatile and can be better armed.  You can also give them doctrines no one else can take.  That allows them to fulfill specialty roles.  Veterans are therefore the ideal choice when constructing what would otherwise be seen as “elite” IG forces.

Penal Legion

“The Dirty Dozen” in space, penal troops are in some ways the best troops selections you can take.  Being leadership eight and stubborn you can expect them to hang around a good while.  Even better, their “Desperado” abilities all improve their close-in effectiveness, although you have to roll randomly at the start of the game to see exactly what you get.  They also get the scouts ability, so unlike most of the IG army (including, frustratingly, veterans), they can outflank.  At the very least they get to make that extra move.

That’s a good thing as penal troops otherwise get no other options – no special or heavy weapons and no transports (although you could devote a Valkyrie to the task).  This is not surprising since as far as the Imperium is concerned their only role is to die in battle.  A group of ten penal legionaries also costs 80 points meaning they are too pricey to use strictly as cannon fodder (that’s the job of conscripts).  This makes penal troops an odd sort of unit for the army in the sense they are fairly tough, yet expensive and lightly armed.  As such you are going to have to devote extra brain cycles to figuring out exactly where they fit into your tactics.  Whatever role you give them make sure it utilizes their scout ability.  Otherwise, I think there are better choices.

More to come...

Just a quick posting to inform everyone that thanks to my tax refund I was able to pick up a video camera the other day.

It's low end, but does web quality movies just fine.  So, expect to see videos here on this website from Origins documenting our events!

For the upcoming RTT at Origins, one of my tasks is coming up with enough woods sections to equip three 4x6 tables.  Since we have no trees, I need to make or buy them.  I could buy them, but each terrain base of trees would cost roughly 8 bucks if I use GW trees or a decent competitor, and that doesn't count the cost of prepping the base itself.  Since I need roughly 18 sections of woods, that's over 130 $US... and that's unacceptable.

No, for this project, I'll be doing 18 woods sections, including 36 trees and 36 bushes, for a total cost of 39 $US.

Here's what we need for the project.

 - 1 pack GW Round bases (37 count) - $8
 - 1 spool Floral Wire - $2
 - 2 spools Floral Tape - $3
 - 2 spools Floral Clay - $4
 - 2 bunches of small-leaf fake greenery, on sale 50% off - $6
 - 2 buckets modelling flock, on sale 50% off - $7
 - 1 pack 40 rare earth magnets - $5
 - 1 tube PVA glue - $4
 - assorted scrap sheet metal - free

The idea is that we cut the sheet metal and cover it in flock to provide the base of the terrain.  Then I build up trees and shrubs on the round bases, and put a magnet on the bottom of the taller trees so they won't fall over.

Stay tuned for Part 2, the basic assembly.

Fast forward to sometime in 995.M02, or 1995 if you prefer.  The Black Codex years of 2nd Ed are behind us, and while armor penetration rolls have gotten easier, everyone is still photocopying blast templates so they'll have enough blind grenade markers for a typical game.  Meanwhile, Armorcast is making fantastic vehicles that we never thought would see the light of day in our favorite 28mm wargame.  As a result, the battles are getting larger.  We're still gaming every week, but now massed battles of 10000 points or more are happening regularly.

My own Space Marine chapter, the Distant Sons, are better defined now, and I've narrowed them down to a single paint scheme.  The Distant Sons are unusual for a marine chapter at this time, since they're fielding marines in old-fashioned squads of 10.  Better yet, I've got banners now, and they're starting to look like a proper force.

It's in the larger battles that Commander Qalsone (call-SOWN) loses his invincible aura once and for all.  There's just too much armor-defeating nastiness roaming around now, and my typical opponant is now an Imperial Guard player, so I'm learning to despise battlecannons.  It's because of all these imperial versus imperial fights and high body counts that we start to develop a storyline.

At first, Ranillon and I are just engaging in "war games".  Qalsone and his marines attack an imperial guard garrison with "low power" weapons and they see how long it takes them to repel us.  But the larger games played at the shop aren't buying that idea, so pretty soon we have our own Age of Apostacy going on, with marine fighting marine alongside IG players, and nobody is sure who is the traitor and who is the loyalist!

In the end, Ranillon's IG and my Distant Sons marines are on the winning side of the 60,000 point world-ending battle.  [The game store closed down soon after.]  Under Qalsone's leadership, the Distant Sons claimed the lives of a great multitude of loyal followers of the Emperor who had been led astray by their greedy commanders.  A price was to be paid for this "victory", and our imperial forces were exiled and sent on an indefinate crusade.  [Ranillon and I changed jobs and moved to Ohio.]

In 999.M02, Qalsone was given the opportunity to redeem his chapter's honor and return the Distant Sons to the Emperor's grace.  Preparations were made to take part in a Great Crusade [the 1999 Chicago Grand Tournament], and new marines were drafted and prepared.  Qalsone was promoted to Captain of the 3rd Company, becoming a Space Marine Captain at last.  He was given one of the chapter's relics to aid him in combat, a weapon claimed from a fallen Inquisitor.

Onward...

A couple of comments I read over at Dakkadakka the other day got me thinking about how Games Workshop might want to change their business model.  It didn’t take long for me to come to the conclusion that if they were smart GW should offer its rulebooks and codexes for free.  Here is why:

1) The Real Money Comes from Models:  People play GW games because of the models, not per se the rules.  Anything that can encourage people to buy those models is a good thing.  Hooking people on the game system and army rules encourages people to spend more on models.  This is true for both the new player and the experienced veteran.  The sticker-shock associated with miniature games is a serious limitation to greater sales.  Not having to spend money on rules would be a great way to inspire people to buy more models.  The newbie could read and get hooked while the veteran can read a codex for an army he doesn’t play and decide to branch out.  It’s amazing the amount of players who never purchase codexes they don’t play.  Once they see what the other army has to offer they might very well become tempted to purchase more models.

2) Free Rules and Codexes Allow for Quick Updates:  No more having to wait years and years for necessary improvements to your codex (<cough> Dark Angels <cough>).  All you have to do is make changes to the main file and then offer it as a PDF.  This side-steps the problems and expense of adding updates to printed versions.

3) Free Rules and Codexes Also Allow for Beta Testing:  Not sure if a rule works?  Don’t have the time to runs the nigh endless games needed to play test?  Why not get the gaming public to do your work for you?  Beta test rules wouldn’t be official, but they would give people a chance to play potential ideas early.  It also gives them the opportunity to not only give input to the process of design, but also what might sell the best.

4) You Can Still Sell Printed Versions:  Even in the era of PDF copies many of us will still want a copy of the rules we can hold in our hands (and given the cost of ink and paper printing one out won’t be much cheaper anyway).  You could even just provide the minimal basics for the free versions, leaving the fluff, pictures, and expanded explanations to the printed versions.

5) It Makes for a Great Selling Point:  Get our rules for free!  That right there is apt to catch the attention of any self-respecting gamer.  I think it would also have the secondary effect of suggesting to people that Games Workshop both cares for its players and is ahead of the curve in terms of rules and salesmanship.  Any brand is going to get stale if it always offers the same old stuff the same old way.  Free rules and/or free codexes are a way to shake things up.

Admittedly, my assumptions may be wrong and codexes are just fantastic sellers that make model purchases pale by comparison, but I seriously doubt it.  Certainly, offering free rules would require a leap of faith by GW, something they probably aren’t willing to do. 

If nothing else it would be nice to have all the rules in a virtual package.  That way all I would need is a laptop or reader to have my rules wherever I go.  Ah, well, one can dream…