Here is what should be the final, complete list of awards for the upcoming Origins Rogue Trader Tournament:
Grand Champion -- Grand Champion trophy and a Cadian Battalion box set
Best Sportsman -- Best Sportsmanship trophy and an Assault on Black Reach box set
Best General -- Best General trophy and a Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer
Best Painting -- Best Painting trophy and a Foundation Paint Set box
Remember, the tournament is next Saturday -- June the 27th -- at Origins, which is in turn at the Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. Hope to see you there.
With Origins just a week away I am happy to state that our trophies for the RTT have arrived.
There are trophies for Best Painting, Best Sportsmanship, Best General and (with the largest award) Grand Champion.
It also turns out that we have more prize support than we originally thought. Therefore, not only will the winner be receiving a Cadian IG battalion box, but now all the winners will be receiving product. So, winning means a heafty trophy and free stuff. Hard to beat that!
Here are the final Apocalypse rules for the World’s Largest Apocalypse Game coming up on the 26th at Origins. You can consider these to be the “default” rules for any similar 40KOrigins.com Apocalypse event:
1) All Games Workshop and Forgeworld rules will be used, with later rules/updates trumping older ones. Likewise, Lords of Battle from Bell of Lost Souls will also be used.
2) No points limit.
3) Super-heavies, Titans, and fliers can all be used.
4) Every player receives one strategic asset. A player can play as many Apocalypse formations as he wishes (and therefore potentially more assets). All formations are allowed with the exception of the Chaos Conclave.
5) All starting forces for a particular player must be deployed on the same table. A table is defined as an actual physical 4 x 8 table (from 6 to 8 will be used in total). Reserves brought in after the first turn can be deployed anywhere.
6) A full turn will be two hours while each side will have one hour to complete their individual turn. When time is up the participants will have no more than five minutes to conclude close-combats or shooting that had already begun. Part of the goal of this rule is to put a practical limit on what people can effectively bring and use while allowing players to try to manage as much as possible.
7) Each side will have as much as one half hour to initially deploy their troops. Deployment for each side will be timed and the side that deploys the fastest gets the first turn.
8) There will be two objective markers per table, one each in the deployment area of each team. Each marker counts for one point.
9) In addition, each player must designate a "leader model" in his force. This leader model is worth one point if killed. However, being a "leader" endows the model with the Eternal Warrior rule even if he does not usually possess it. The leader model can likewise claim enemy (those in the opposing team's deployment zone) objective markers by himself. If he does so either alone or as part of a group he gains +1 point for his team.
10) For the sake of completing a turn players can delegate control of all or some of their models to other players.
11) Awards will be given for the Most Impressive Model, Highest Individual Objective Point Total (in case of ties the award goes to the player with the most points of models claiming objectives), and the “He Died with his Boots On” award for the player who is wiped out first (or, if no one has been completely destroyed the one with the fewest remaining points in models). Any officials associated with 40Korigins.com are not eligible for these prizes.
12) All rules questions and rulings made on site by 40kOrigins.com officials are final.
13) Although we will do everything we can to provide a safe playing environment, ultimately 40kOrigins.com and Origins are not responsible for any theft or damage to your models. So, keep an eye on them!
The Origins Game Fair here in Columbus is now only two weeks (TWO WEEKS!!!) away. We here at 40Korigins Labs are working furiously to get everything done. I thought I would give you an quick update on our progress:
1) I have completed all the rooms for 40K Space Hulk. I just need to finish painting them.
2) We have nearly completed making or arranged to borrow all the terrain we need. GBPrime is currently finishing up his flock of trees and should have another installment of his series before long.
3) The awards for the tournament winners have been approved and should arrive next week. We are offering trophies for Best Painting, Best Sportsmanship, Best General, and -- of course -- Grand Champion. You can see the proofs for the trophies here. Remember that the champion also receives a Imperial Guard Cadian Battalion box set.
4) We've ordered and just received our special "40KOrigins.com" t-shirts that all of us running our events will be wearing to Origins. So, just look out for the guys in red (and, for any of you thinking of calling us "redshirts" take a gander at this).
5) We will have a table setup next to where our events are being run (in the huge miniatures room) where you can stop by, see our games (and a few other surprises), and just chew the fat (we love to talk GW!). Look for the big red and gold 40KOrigins.com signs.
Overall, I think things are shaping up quite well. I can't wait!
Here is my last fully painted 40K army -- an Ork Speed Freak gang. The picture below doesn't include twenty painted bikes.
This is an old army I painted about ten years ago. My original theme was that the army had a band of Meks in charge who brought their boyz to complete in an orky competition called "Junkyard Waa!" (Let's see who gets the reference). I later added a unit of nobs and a warboss so that I could buff-up its close-combat potential.
I haven't played the army for a while, partially because the new Ork codex rewrote the design of a Speed Freak force and partially because I've been busy with other armies. However, after going through my models I think that one of these days I will paint up a battlewagon (or two) and the Deffkoptas I got from the Black Reach box in order to update my force. Then the boyz will return to bash some heads in!
Well, I’ve gone through all of the units in the new IG codex. Yet, each is really just a part of the larger organization that is a complete Imperial Guard army. Today I am going to go over the common basic designs out there and how well you can use them given the new codex.
Mechanized Infantry
The good news is that it is almost as easy to have a mechanized – that is, all mounted – army as it was in the last codex. Heck, the chimera is even a whopping 30 points (on average) cheaper in cost! The bad news is that there are now a number of units that can no longer hitch a ride. In the old rules you could, by definition, give a chimera to any unit necessary. Now, you can only do so if it’s listed as a transport option. In the new book there are a number of important exceptions. Most notably this includes heavy and special weapon squads, conscripts, and penal troop squads. The last example is unfortunate if understandable – you don’t give traitors and shirkers their own tank to ride around in – but the rest are a real pain. It means that for a platoon you can only take command and infantry squads in a fully mechanized army, thereby really limiting your strategic options. It’s a pity too as the new chimera rules allow up to five models to fire out the top hatch at a time. Imagine being able to fully use your special or heavy weapon troopers from inside the comfy confines of a chimera! Oh, well.
I suspect that this limitation is going to encourage people to use veteran infantry squads (which can also take chimeras) over platoons in their mechanized army. Units can’t take orders while embarked and the special units available from a platoon are denied you. It’s simpler just to use vets.
Carapace Armored Infantry
If you were one of those fellows who preferred to have all of your infantry fitted out in 4+ armor you are out of luck. You’ve gone from being able to have most of your men in carapace armor to only having veterans and storm troopers. Technically speaking you could still have “all” your army up-armored, but only of course if you greatly limit what you put into it. Hope you didn’t spend too much time converting all those miniatures!
Deathworld Jungle Veterans
You can sort of still play a jungle veterans army. Obviously, you will need to fill your army with infantry veterans. From there just be sure to take either the Forward Sentries or Demolitions doctrines. Either fit within the general theme of jungle fighters. However, you can’t duplicate some of your old abilities. You can no longer move through trees with ease or infiltrate. You also can only do this for veterans. Any other infantry unit is stuck using the same rules as those bumbling city dwellers who don’t know a Catachan death vine from a hole in the ground! You also can’t give sentinels extra attacks or take units of (non-short and barefoot) snipers.
All these differences aren’t that much of a pain, really. You just need to alter your concept of a “jungle force”. For instance, giving a deathworld army a few Valkyries allows you to use them as mobile infantry in the manner of American troops in Vietnam. Clearly, you won’t want to take a tank heavy force – heavy vehicles and thick jungle don’t usually go together well. The absence of a lot of jungle warfare specific rules means your “jungle” army is going to look and act a lot like any infantry heavy IG force. Still, that does also mean you can “cheat” and get in effects that you normally wouldn’t have seen in a jungle army before – such as, for instance, having 5+ armor.
In the end modern Deathworld armies are going to be more a matter of flavor than rules than in the past, although you can still have enough of the latter to make your army distinct from the typical example.
Drop Troop Army
Just say no. You just can’t take a real Drop Troop force any longer, at least in the same complete fashion you could in the old codex. Few units can now deep strike; certainly nothing like a complete organization. All those grav chutes on your infantry models just became meaningless jewelry.
A possible replacement for the Drop Troop army is an all Air Cavalry force using Valkyries and Vendettas. It is certainly possible – you can take as many as nine of them, enough to carry an entire army. However, as I have already hinted in previous posts there are a number of serious limitations. Sure, you can take nine, but only as part of as many as three squadrons. Every squadron member must move together and, worse, fire at the same target. An Air Cav army is already going to have a problem with firepower and being forced to concentrate what you do have on just three enemy units is simply horrendous. It definitely makes for a finesse force that wins through movement and position, not sheer boom.
The Horde
With prices on many units coming down it is now easier than ever run an Imperial horde. You can take 100+ models for as little as 500 points. That means that at normal game point totals you could be looking at 300+ man armies! It would certainly make for an impressive sight. It also wouldn’t necessarily be ineffective – you can include a lot of heavy weapons in the mix. Sure, you’ll lose men in droves, but what do you expect when running a horde? It would also be tactically limited if for no other reason than your army wouldn’t have much space in which to move! Still, if you are a masochist when it comes to modeling and painting the IG horde army strikes me as a viable idea. At the very least I’d love to see it played at a tournament.
The Imperial Gun Line
The arch-typical IG force, the new codex has certainly done nothing to limit its effectiveness. Quite the contrary, you now are spoiled for choice. It’s easy to take five to ten tanks of various sorts backed up with a good amount of infantry. That represents a lot of targets for the enemy to take down, many of which pack considerable firepower. Any opponent is going to be dismayed when you start dropping a dozen templates and/or roll twenty dice at a single go. The main limitation of the traditional gun line is a lack of mobility, but fortunately the new rules provide enough ways to get units moving to mitigate this fact. A few valkyries or chimera mounted veterans should be enough to grab needed objectives, especially when backed up with a veritable forest of big guns. You’ll need to be careful, however – in some scenarios the enemy could just cherry-pick his targets and leave you without the right units to win even if you otherwise pummel his force.
Nevertheless, the gun line is likely the most overall forgiving of IG army designs (even if a bit boring).
For those of you who will be following our blog off the web and onto the convention center floor at Origins this year, you'll be able to find us by THIS 4 foot tall sign I'll have up by our tables in the miniatures hall. Look for us, find us, game with us, chat our ear off with stories of the hobby!
We'll have info about our game times and other fun details attached to it. Enjoy.
