Deathwatch are next in the Photo Booth, aka some pieces of paper on the desk. I haven’t taken pictures of all the models, there isn’t much point, as they are all the same really. I will have to get some proper army photos done at some point, once I’ve painted up the two rhinos!

 This still needs a bit of finishing, such as the base rim and flocking, but that might wait until I get around to varnishing the model, whenever that is! All in all I think this looks very good for not a massive amount of work, I kind of wish I'd done it earlier, now I just need to get on with the rest of the troops!

It's been a while since I had a bit of a sit down and ran though a kill team and my thoughts on it, so up for discussion are the deathwatch, the quintessential kill team, designed and built specifically for this type of mission. I think that I said that I would be looking at my chaos team but I'm not, I'm going to do Deathwatch, mostly due to the elites supplement.

So, I could spend many, many hours thinking carefully about the best models to bring and the perfect weapon selection, all tied in to the most appropriate specialism or I could just get one box and build every possibly combination from said box. I went for the latter version of events in case you were wondering.

Now, it's not going to be a very good list, most heavy hitting lists are full of frag cannons and inferno heavy bolters but I've just one of each. Also, I've added in some of the vanguard vets to add some extra mobility. So what have I got exactly?

I've two leader, Watch Captain Artemis and a Librarian. For kill team purposes they are playing Watch Sergeants, with Artemis playing a Sgt with Combi melta and power sword and the librarian is playing a Sgt with bolter and Xenophase blade. This is a bit away from WYSIWYG, as Artemis has a Combi flamer and the Libby has a bolt pistol, but hey, I doubt anyone up here will mind, although I don't know why I can't take a combi flamer anyway.

Next up are the Black Shields, two of them as well. One has a storm shield and maul and the other has a shield and sword. The maul will run as a combat specialist and the sword as a zealot. This is because the maul gets a bonus to strength anyway but the sword needs a little help from Zealot.

The two Deathwatch gunners are armed with the infernus heavy bolter and the frag cannon. Now, the issue I have is what to run them as, either heavy or demolitions. The issue comes from that fact that both can benefit from both specialisms. Both are either assault or heavy, so would get the bonus from the heavy specialism but both also have auto hit weapon that would benefit from the demolitions specialism as well, although I think that that bolter would benefit more due to it's lower strength but that only effects T3 or lower.

Next up are the vets, and there's a lot of them, 14 in all, made up of a mix of shooting and melee units. I'll start with the heavy hitters, the two heavy thunder hammers. These guys will also run as Zealot and Combat. Why? Well with the -1 to hit the extra attack will be useful, plus the +1 strength have a very useful but niche benefit, taking a Marine to ST and so to S10 with the hammer, useful for doubling out nurgle (death guard) units.

Following from the hammers, are the Deathwatch shotguns. These are in for several reasons. Firstly there there for some short range fire support for the hammers, effectively taking the place of a flamer but with some extra flexibility with the various ammo types available. Secondly, these guys are cheap, so they can be thrown In to a team to fill a roster.

That's all the short range vets, granted there's not many of them, two Black Shields, two hammers and two shotguns, not a great selection but good enough for basic games. I do however have a solution to this but more on that later.

The rest of the vets are made up of bolter wielding troops, the first of which has a stalker pattern bolter. I'm not to Keen on this one, in the games I've played with him, he hasn't done to well, taking 3 rounds of shooting to put 3 flesh wound on a guardsman in one game! After this we have 5 bolter troops, 4 of which also have power swords. This are the basic fill in troops and I usually always have at least 1 of these guys in a list. While a power sword is cheap at just a coupe of points, I still have one vet without one, just in case I don't have to points and I don't really want to be running a lits that's 15 points down. There's nothing much else to say about these vets, there just there to fill the list and be cannon fodder basically.

Lastly we have the combi armed vets. We have two combi plasma and two combi meltas. I didn't really have a plan for these vets when I built them, I mostly did because I could. The plasma is always useful, especially when over charged. Having the bolter as well is also useful, especially when you don't need the extra strength of plasma. The meltas were a bit overkill before Elites came out but with the inclusion of terminators and the like, they have become a lot more useful. In addition, one of the plasma is armed with a power maul and 9ne of the meltas is carrying a power swords. The other two are just with the combi's, to keep points down.

Lastly I have decided to take some vanguard vets from the Elites book. There are two reasons for this; one, they look cool and two, they add some extra combat punch, not to mention some extra mobility. I did think about adding in terminators but decided against this in the end, mostly as I don't really see terminators as being sensible for kill team style missions.

Anyway, I went with the vanguard vets for a couple of reasons, mainly the extra mobility that they offer, with a maximum move of 12 or 18 when advancing! With a board that's only 22 by 30, getting around the board is considerably easier. Also the combat ability and weapons choice is considerably better than the standard Deathwatch vet. I chose to go with 5 models, mostly to enable me to switch them across to 40k proper if I feel like it.

There's not much variation in the models, as three of the five models have storm Shields and either a sword, axe or hammer. They all fill the same basic role, charge up and hit stuff but it depends upon what there going to be hitting, as to which will be deployed. Of the others, one is armed with a pair of claws and one with a grav pistol and chain sword. They will all be combat or zealot specialists for extra punch as well.  Now, you'll notice the odd one out the grav pistol and chain sword. Now there is a reason for this, basically I didn't know what to do with the last one and decided that maybe some shooting would be good. Also I don't have a grav pistol anywhere else, so I thought it would be fun to include.

Wow, that was a wall of text! Hopefully I'll be able to get them painted up some time soon!

After the mammoth posts about the Astra Militarum kill team, I thought I would follow this up with a post about the rest of my kill teams or rather the work that's going on with my other kill teams. I've two main teams on the table at the moment, my Deathwatch and my Scions.

First up are my Deathwatch. Now, I've broken these down in to 5 man units to make them more manageable. The first 5 are my current go to team, with Blackshield with shield and maul, Sgt with power sword and bolter (Its a pistol on the model as it actually a librarian but i'm using it as a Sgt), vet with combi-plasma and maul, vet with shotgun and finally, gunner with Infernus heavy bolter. While this might not be the best or strongest loadout for a Deathwatch team, I still like it and its a fun list to run.




The next team up is my scions. There are a few more models pained up then shown here. I've got about 3 members almost finished and the rest have had there flesh painted up. Here we have just two models, both of which are tempestors but I was planning on using the grey figure as my inquisitor stand in. With the release of commanders, I have considered upgrading this character to a Tempestor Prime to represent the fact that they are an Inquisitor and more powerful than the rest of the team but as I don't have or want the commanders expansion, I probably wont.


There are 3 other teams on the table, all in various states. Both the AdMech and Chaos teams have been primed and are ready to paint, once the other two teams are finished. The marines are still on the drawing board to some extent. I've got a good idea about what I want to run and I've most of the models but i'm holding out until I finish assembling and painting them, as I am still hoping that they will release some special Space Wolf rules to enable the taking of Grey Hunters or Blood Claws in a kill team.

Game 2 and a change of tactic. Seeing as the deathwatch couldn't do the job, the guard would have a go. I went with my usual choices, leader, vox comms specialist, sniper with sniper rifle and grenade launcher heavy, along with a plasma gunner and a second grenade launcher, plus the required 10 guardsmen.





I did not take any more pictures for some reason but the game went very well. Now I played the objective and managed to pull out a good lead. While there wasn't much death in the first couple of rounds but it picked up later in the game. By the start of turn 4 I was well ahead on points, pretty much unassailable, however, there was a minor issue, the break test. Now, turn 4 was not a problem, however at the end of turn 5 both of us were down to less than half number. We rolled off to see if either team broke and my opponent passed and I failed. So as per the rules of the game, I lost.

So despite being comfortably ahead on points, I still lost the game, which was annoying. I still think that the mechanics of the game, including teams breaking, however, I think as a game winning mechanic it isn't very good. After playing the mission and scoring points, enough to win the game, I loose on a dice roll. I really enjoyed both games and I'm counting it as one loss and one moral victory.

Well, I've finally done it! I've played kill team, not once but twice! After all these weeks of pondering and planning and musing, I have finally been able to see what all the fuss is about.

After two games I can say that I really like kill team and can see it being my main game from now on. As I don't get down much theses days due to work and family, being able to play several games in a day is great, plus only needing to take a smallish box with everything I need, rather than a large case, box of terrain and a mat, really makes a difference. But enough about that, how did I get on? Well, won one and lost one.

Game 1: Deathwatch Vs Orks

The Orks were running a horde list, with a nob, a boy with rocket launcher and 11 or 12 boys with choppa and slugga's. The pox walker in the picture was a stand in boy as one had gone walkies somewhere. I had 5 deathwatch, a leader with xenophase sword and bolter, a shotgun, infirnus heavy bolter heavy specialist, combi-melta and power sword armed veteran specialist (modelled with two swords and combi on pack) and blackshield with sword and shield zealot. The mission was the one where you need to capture your opponent's models.

Now, I probably didn't play this very well as I spread out my guys and charged the blackshield in first turn. I was really just trying to test out the system and try and get into as many situations as possible. While this worked, it did leave me very exposed and I ended up loosing three to nothing when we finished the game at the end of turn 3.





So what did I learn from this game? Marines still suck in combat. One on one the blackshield could probably hold its own, with a good number of attacks and with zealot, there at t5 if you charge. Shooting is good, especially the heavy bolter, although you really have to be within 8 inches of your target and have a second target within 2 of that, to make maximum use out of it. Also I must remember that deathwatch have special issue ammunition, as I only remember for the last round! I don't know if it would have made a difference or not but it might have.

This mission definitely favoured the Orks , as they were able to swamp forward in numbers and stop me from gaining prisoners. Also I really need to remember tokens, I've enough from the two sets I have, so I just need to take them with me.

Game 2: astra Militarum Vs deathguard

For this, the tables were reversed, with my opponent switching to deathguard and brining 6 models. A leader with fist and bolter, a  (heavy?) Plague marine with blight launcher, a marine with melta (veteran?) Combat marine with bolter and two marines with bolters. I on the other hand brought the hordes, with a leader with bolt pistol and chain sword, comms specialist vox caster, sniper gunner with sniper rifle, heavy gunner with grenade launcher, plasma gunner and flamer, plus eleven guardsmen. We were playing the mission where you had to hold the opjectives to gain points at the end of each turn I can't remember which one it is off the top of my head.


I didn't take many pictures sitting this game as a was busy moving all the guardsmen around and getting in to the game. We played the scouting phase again in this game and while I went for moving a few guys forward, my opponent booby trapped the centre terrain price, which really put the dampeners on things. With this objective being worth 3 points I couldn't get to it with out risking getting one of my guys blown up by booby traps, while my opponent could just wonder around at will.



This was another fun game to play and while we again finished it in turn 3, with the guard claiming a lead of something like 10 to 4, with only 2 marines left to 12 or 13 guardsmen. In the next couple of rounds I could have gone on to claim up to 5 point a turn uncontested, so there was little point in continuing. The guard were good in this game, with the highlight being taking a plague marine down with a buffed plasma gunner overcharging his weapon, with a +1 from Comms and re-roll 1's from orders, shooting at a marine in the open. My opponent was quick to shut it down by charging the guardsman with his combat specialist.

I this there were fewer mistakes in this match, a few things were done out of sequence but nothing that would have changed the game. I really like guard, there orders are still just as powerful and despite there inability to hit and wound very often, they do have the numbers to make up for it. I can see why people spam plasma, they are really good, especially when buffed but I don't really see it as fluffy and so I'll not be spamming them. Sniper rifles are good, but just as in reliable as in 40k. I was lucky this game and got a mortal wound off but apart from that it didn't impress me much. Next game I will be giving a melta gunner a go and see how that does.

Again, this mission favoured one army over the other, namely the guard, as with the number of bodies they could claim many of the objectives easily and obsorb any losses the deathguard could inflict. I wonder what the results would have been like if the Orks had faced the guard or the deathwatch, the deathguard.

I am really liking kill team and hopefully I will get a few more games in soon but life is pretty busy at the moment and will be getting busier shortly.

So what of the other forces that I use? Well, currently I run the Disciples using Imperial Fists tactics, the Stone Dragons as Wolves, Brazen Hawks as Black Templars. Plus I plan on running an Inquisitional detachment with Grey knights, deathwatch and sister. So what are my thoughts on these armies?

Well, most of my thoughts on these armies are pretty thin, hence the single post, as I run most of these for the fun of it rather than for anything serious. Ill start with the Space Marines codex, for no other reason than its the first one I thought of.


So what in the codex would I chane, either in points or options? Points wise I couldn't really say what I'd change as I think that most things are pretty well coasted, well, the bits I use anyway. I also think that there are no gaps in the units, as there are options for everything and more often than not, several options. Granted some units are better than others, think grav-centurions over grav-dev's. There really are just two things that I think need looking at, the first being said grav-Dev's.

Now I'm not against grav or anything, but I think that a devastator marine should not have an amp, a centurion has a grav and amp as well, which seems odd. A normal marine carries a lascannon, or a heavy bolter, but a centurion can carry two lascannon or two heavy bolters, but a normal marine can carry a grav and amp but a centurion can only carry a grav and amp as well? Surely it should be capable of carrying 2 gravs and amps or a marine can only carry a grav and not an amp as well? Now a centurion with two gravs would just be silly, so I think that a normal marine should lose the amp. They will still be powerful weapons, but would be more logical in my view.

The second thing I would like to see I the codex is a change to bikes. I don't mean the actual bikes or anything but the weapon loads. Surely after several thousand years, someone has thought to pull off a bolter and stick something else on there? I mean the Dark Angels managed to do it with plasma guns, but no-one else has thought of this? Not even the White Scars? I don't think that everyone should be driving around with plasma talons, I'm more thinking that one bolter is removed and you loose the twin linked, but have the option to fire both weapons. I think it would be good to have the option for a melts or Flamer on the bike. I know that the marine riding the bike can take these weapons as well, and that would prob need adjusting but I like the idea of bikes with things other than bolters.



In terms of formations, the only thing I think is lacking is a proper formation for the Black Templars, with crusader squads as part of the core instead of tactical squads. There may well be on option for this already, and I might just have missed it, but as far as I'm aware, its only the standard gladius or the ones from Angels of Death to choose from.


For Space Wolves, my knowledge is even weaker but I do think that some of the recent rules and units are a little bit too strong, mainly the Wolfen. The Thunder Wolves are pretty strong as well, and possibly a little cheap for what they are. The only real question I see is with the various Claw units, blood, sky and swift, and the fact that they are still BS3. With all the other scout units being BS4 now, leaving these units as BS3 seems odd, but increasing them would change the whole setup of the codex. In truth I don't know what the answer to this problem is, lucky its not something that's going to affect me, as I don't really play SW and neither do any of my opponents.

The only other codex that maybe affected by the arrival of 8th is my Imperial Allies codex, one I dont actually have yet (birthday present sitting in the cupboard). Will this codex cease to exist? Or will it continue on? I hope it will continue on, as it solves a lot of problems for me, enabling me to field units and armies without having to buy multiple whole codices. Hopefully the new sisters codex (if there is one) won't be to much of a change as to affect the sisters units in the book, not that ill be using many of them and hopefully the same can be said for Grey knights and deathwatch. At the end of the day, I could always just sub units, like for like.

As for the other codices in the GW universe, in afraid in completely clueless, whilst I know of many units and some formations from other books, points costs and rules are beyond me. Yes there are certain units (wraithknight) and formations (Tau Stealth  Cadre I think its called) are either under costed or over powered, but then everybody knows these things and their are lots of people more informed than I am and able to make better arguments for fixing them. For me, the main thing I want to see from the other codices is a leveling of power and universal (and sensible) formations.

At the end of the day, its pretty much anyone guess what 8th will bring.

I'm going to sneak this post in here, as I think the next few weeks are going to be taken up with Northern Invasion battle reports and the likes. I'm down at the in-laws for a few days so hopefully ill get it all written up while the mother in-law is spoiling the bairns!

So I'm going to run through my list and explain my thinking a little bit further than the last Deathwatch post. As this is going to essentially be an extension of my Inquisition list (here) I though that I would just do a quick recap of the forces;

Xenos Inquisitor w/Power armour,  Power Sword, Rad grenades, Psykotroke grenades

So, he we are, jumping on the band wagon. The new deathwatch codex has been it and about for a few weeks and while I have the latest Battlescribe files and have eeen the codex, I have yet to get a, er, "copy" to look at. As talked about in a previous post, Battlescribe is not perfect and at present I can't see how to take a vet with boltgun and bolt pistol, in fact I dint see a bolt pistol listed at all. This seems a bit strange as boltgun and bolt pistol are the mainstay of a marine, and its pointless arming a marine with a ccw unless he has a pistol of some sorts. Anyway, hopefully I can get eyes on a codex and see what's right.

Ill post up a full list later, in another post and ill post up the fluff for it as well, again in another post. But I though I would put down some initial thoughts here.

The deathwatch will be fielded with my inquisitional force, to makes 2000 point list, as all my lists are. The current inquisition list is around 650 points, so I'm looking at around 1350 points, which should be easy to hit. In terms of setup, the inquisition list currently is heated towards taking out men's, with hotshot lasguns and power sword wielding death cult assassins and crusaders. The deathwatch will continue this theme, not only with the special issue ammo but in terms of wargear. None of my armies are particularly good, usually lacking in one area or another, such as the Hjaltland lacking any anti heavy armour, and the deathwatch will no doubt suffer the same fate, although there are a few chain fists and a dread ccw in there which will help.

In terms of teams, ill be going for a range to cover all the bases, using the Black Spear Strike Force, for universal deep strike, and then the Watch Company, to gain the additional reroll benefits, and finally ill be taking an Aquila killteam for general stuff, a Dominates killteam, a Furor kill team and a Purgatus killteam all for their special target types, (HQ, Elite and Troop). I haven bothered with heavy support or fast attack, as I figured the Aquila team can deal with fast attack and heavy support doesn't go far usually and can be dealt with by the the chain fisted termies in the Furor team.

I've got most of the bits I need to make this lot, as I'll be using the Betrayal at Calth boxset for the marines and the termies will come from my left over stock of metal bodies with BaC arms. I have pretty much got all the arms and weapons I need from the boxset and my bits box, the only questions are whether I have enough flamers to make the 3 Infurnus Heavy Bolters I want and whether I need jump packs for the vanguard vets, who are listed as jump troops but apparently don have jump packs listed in their wargear. I'm assuming this is an oversite and I'll need jump packs but it would be good if I could drop the packs, as I don't need them.

This army may well be on the drawing board for quite sometime as my priorities right now are to finish the Hjaltland LI, which only has a handful of models to paint including a Valkryie, and paint the rest of my Dagr Ormr MT force and that doesn't include the Eagle Knights, which are also on the list!