AoS has certainly improved over the past couple of editions, and some of the factions in its universe interest me, in particular Fyreslayers as you probably already know, and I would definitely take it over Horus Heresy. At least AoS has wildly different factions with their own separate lores and playstyle - Horus Heresy by contrast feels like playing Shogun or Three Kingdoms: Total War - very little faction diversity, little replay value as a consequence and of very little interest to me personally, but I can still see how it appeals to those who are avid Imperium or Chaos fans, and by all means that's fine. However personally AoS doesn't surpass my love for Warhammer Fantasy and 5th-6th era 40K, and my plans to start it have been put on the backburner for the foreseeable future.
1. Understood on Heresy. However I am totally not in agreement on Shogun 2 total war (never bought 3 kingdoms, I didn't have gold bars to buy a GPU) Shogun 2 had some excellent replayabillity, although I agree some of it could seem samey from time to time. 2. AoS has gone from "Lets mash everything together and call it high fantasy" to my personal view: "Conan the barbarian, with god powers, if the world was high on warp dust." and I absolutely love that. Yes, i don't have actual tomb kings anymore, but I can proxy if i want. I'm more involved with finishing commissions and painting hordes of chaos warriors.
Pretty much. Minor variation here or there, but short of running an Imperial or Cult Militia army there's not much you can really diverge from too much in terms of theme. The legions do play differently from one another however, despite looking the same to outsiders.
Yep. There's solar auxilia, Legio cybernetica and something else, but the choices outside marines are kinda limited.
Personally I would rather take even the least well-liked games set in historical periods with more unit diversity, such as Rome II, Empire and Thrones of Britannia, I can't understand why everyone raves over Shogun II, but to each their own. Indeed, and if you want to use them in AoS, my Nehekros Imperishables army list awaits your command! (Though it'll need revision for 3rd Edition, it's still trapped in 2nd at the moment )
if you want to play samurai, you have not that much choice. Back on topic, saturday i will play an apocalypse. 6000 vs 6000 details will follow
Model-wise, yes, at least in the context of Forgeworld minis. Imperial and Cult Militia however can be anything from feral beastmen and Warcry warbands to Necromunda gangs and pseudo-Skittari.
APOCALYPSE - GREEN INFERNO Background (short version) Mortarion and the death guard attacked a deadly world, conquered it and now are making experimentation into the deadly jungles, already ripe with diseases , toxins and poisoned beasts. The world was also a target for the Necrons, to set-up their web of Blackstone Pylons: the presence of the chaos was to be erased, to enact the Silent King's Plan. a titanic clash ensues, the two forces are fightning since months... so they paid little attention to the increasing warnings, before it was too late. A massive tyranid invasion force is upon them, and now the communications are too disturbed to be teleported away from the doomed world. Necrons and DG have just one chance: to activate the most powerful stellar transmitter on the planet, located on a mountain, and hope the signal will be strong enough to escape. So here we are: a mountain encircled by jungles, the last stand and escape route for the "allied enemies", forced do join their forces to escape annihilation (a couple of house rules: the jungle is so dense that if a line passes through 2 foressts, it blocks LoS; when a unit enters a forest there is a chance they will stumble on a deadly swarm of venomous beasts... nothing serious, just to add some fun) BATTLEFIELD SET-UP 5.000 pts vs 5.000 pts. THe tyranids are very aggressive and deploy a line of genestealers in front of our door. Vry risky... if they win the initiative the blow will be terrible but if they lose it, those 'stealers will melt away... The DG places 3 termies squads with character in reserve. almost 1000 pts
TURN 1 The big bet of the nids players paid off. They won the roll for initiative and they are free to attack before we can blast their advanced line of genestealers. We manage to hold the line: the cultists are ripped away but the poxwalkers are tougher... and the necrons warriors manage sto score an amazing overwatch fire (supported by a stratagem to autowound on 6s) and wipe a unit of stealers before they impact. The shooting by the exocrine inflicts 6 wound on Mortarion On the other side, things go even better: the shooting by the two tyrannofexes is completely ineffective, and the flyrant manages to fail a (rerolled) 6" charge! We counterattack!: hexocrine brought to 1 wound remaining, 1 tyrannofex killed, necron warriors and lichguards pass to the offensive... and Mortarion goes in combat with the flyrant!!! (both of them will survive)
TURN 2 during the nids turn, chaos ensues! the hordes swarm through our defences. Reinforcements arrive from the deep and some key units (destroyers and Mortarion) will be killed ...but 3 units of DG termies are on the way, and the lichguards plus the Seraptek enter the fray TURN 3-4 It's an ABSOLUTE CARNAGE we slowly consolidate one flank... ...but we are losing ground on the other one. We call it at the end of T4. looking at primary points, we are more or less on par, with a slightly advantage for the DG+Necrons (destined to increase) the secondary obj dedicated to the allegiances are a solid advantage for the Nids. but the secondary obj selected by each army give DG and Necrons the lead, for a final score of 60 to 49
I was rooting for the Tyranids here because I was disappointed to see the Necrons allying with the vile Death Guard. I'd much rather have seen a 3-way game between these factions Great-looking game though, and I particularly enjoyed seeing Mortarion get torn apart by an unnamed Hive Tyrant!
I recently picked up a Kratos for my Salamanders in Horus Heresy, and I've been contemplating how I'll be kitting it out. Obviously going to be modularizing it for posterity's sake, but with the relative lack of long range AP in my army (my heavy support squad with missile launchers are more general purpose in their role) I need something that can support my pyromaniacs as they close the distance. Right off the bat, heavy flamer side sponsons are laughably a no-go. As much as Salamanders effectively get +1 Strength on the flame weapons they have access to, I have no intention of putting the damn thing that close to the front line. Combined with the fact that I've got a fair amount of anti-infantry already, volkite would only be marginally better than flame at the lower end of weapon loadouts. On the other hand, lascannons are damn good in Horus Heresy (48" Heavy 1, S9, AP2, Sunder) so it's tempting to consider just taking 4 on the thing (2 sponson, 2 hull). However, the better tradeoff would be to take autocannons on the hull mounts for a middle ground between anti-infantry and anti-vehicle use. Not award-winning by any means, but better chances than with the heavy bolters. And lastly for the main turret weapon. The accelerator cannon, when taken with flashburn shells, is vastly superior to both the volkite and melta alternatives in both range and utility for what I need it for. 5" blast and Pinning at Heavy 1 S8 AP4 with HE, Sunder at Heavy 2 S8 AP2 with AP (duh), and Armourbane at Heavy 1 S10 AP1 with Flashburn make it a very versatile weapon on a tank that must dedicate all of its shots at the same target.
That was my proposal as well, but it was rejected. That was fun, yes. ...and in the end, only the Necrons Lord survived.
APOCALYPSE - OCTARIUS Background (official GW) At the end of the 41st millennium, the Leviathan biofleet was threatening the Empire. The inquisitor Kryptman managed to divert the bio-fleet towards the Octarius system, home to an Ork empire. Unfortunately this has not solved the problem but has only postponed it: Orks and Nids have been waging a monstrous war for centuries and this is of no small concern for the Empire ... both contenders are simply strengthening and, whoever comes out victorious, will represent the worst threat ever faced by the Empire. the solution adopted is to wait and prepare: the inquisitor Sahansun is the inventor and the commander in charge of the "Cordon Impenetra", a kind of defense line around the Octarius system, composed of battle stations, war fleets and a series of key-planets, transformed into fortress worlds. Among the forces at Sahansun's disposal are countless Imperial Guard regiments, nearly 30 chapters of Astartes (including companies of Ultramarines and Black Templars), as well as several Orders of Sisters, entire houses of Imperial Knights, Titanic legions and incalculable resources... but no one knows if the "Cordon Impenetra" will be able to hold up when it will be put to the test ... Background for the game It is not clear whether the Tyranids arrived chased by the orcs or vice versa, but one thing is certain: the world of Veredix is undergoing the onslaught of both forces, which have interrupted their clash…. Tyranids probably need to diversify biomass, while Orks certainly need to raid material that the Tyranids obviously don't possess. Veredix's defenses are falling one by one, but the world is not doomed yet, because it is part of the Cordon Impenetra. And Sahansun has decreed that it must be held, and that is why the defenders of this world are about to receive help that, maybe, can turn the tide of battle. BATTLEFIELD
THE LISTS and SET-UP 2v2, 5000 pts each side. Xeno: nids (a swarmlord with guards, then a selection of warriors, zoantropes, hive guards, hexocrine, mawloc, trigon...), Orks (many boyz and vehicles) Imperium: my friend, 2500 pts of Black Templars, including Helbrecht and Grimaldus Me: 500 pts of guards (the defenders of the planet, tank commander, leman russ, 2x10 guards)... and a Titan Warhound. The guy that plays tyranids is terrified by the Titan's presence (that's kinda the wanted effect of my psychological warfare), despite the fact that is a model incredibly overcosted for what it really does on the table. Anyway, despite the fact that he's got the king of 40k melee (the swarmlord, that could deliver almost 30 wounds to the titan in one turn), a squad of 6 zoanthropes, an exocrine and what else, declares that he cannot deal with the Titan and ask for help to the ork player, that sends a detachment to face the warhound...
The battlefield is perfectly symmetric, 2 obj in each deployment zone and 3 in the center. No attacker / defender. the nids players places 10 genestealers and a broodlord at 9" from us, hoping to seize the iniziative... a thing the xeno are able to do! now, since the very beginning, things begin to go downhill for the xeno. On paper its all nice: the detachment of orks take control of a central obj and starts to put pressure on our right, while the dakkajet position itself to hurt the templars... Harpies take control of the obj on the platform, genestealers wipe a guard unit threatening one or our main obj and the ork bikes take the third central obj However, lots of errors were made, mostly by nids the genestealers could have charged a unit of obliterators, instead they picked 10 guardsmen. the exocrine, despite its superior range, moved into the range of a unit of eradicators... wthout even shooting at them. The swarmlord, placed far in the backline, moved without still knowing where to point at. All in all, a weak start. we obviously counterattack. My punisher tank commander wipes the genestealers, my 2nd tank and the 2 eradicators squads exact a toll on orks and nids (killed the exocrine), the titan and a dreddy push to the right, black templars go angainst the orks on the left. My titan goes with full weapons (8d6 shots by inferno guns) on the Zoanthropes... 19 saves 4++, my opponent manages to roll 13 of them, and so only 3 bugs are killed. The second turn sees again poor tactical choices. nids push toward our right flank, however the targets for the following successful triple charges are secondary troops and primaris "screens". The zoanthropes cast their supersmite on the black templars... dudes with a 50% chance of negating the effect and that anyway can count on a 5+ ward vs MWs. The Swarmlord, despite its move 9", due to a bad placement and shy movement, does nothing. the orks manage to bring the titan to 38 wounds, missing it's braket by a single wound, but he finds himself in inferiority on our left side.... and the failed deep strike + charge didn't helped. in our 2nd turn and in the 3rd, with all of our forces basically incact, we simply devastate the xenos. Our antitank units are fully operational and demolish the orks machines. Our BT meleers take full control of the left side and of the center, my titan takes one of their rear obj. my commander and the BT heroes in the rear deal with anything there was in our backlines It's a landslide. At the end of the 3rd round we control 6 objectives on 7. the nids (with the secondary obj of kill'em all) managed to score 42 wounds... and 10 were on guards and 20 on intercessors. THe nids scored 6 points for their secondary objective, orks only 4. The guards + titan alone scored 20 points of secondary, and the BT 22. It was embarassingly one-sided... the orks army was unable to face the BT and the Nids player did a crapton of tactical mistakes. The swarmlord in 3 turns did NOTHING. he just failed a 8" charge in the 3rd round, and against 2 dudes with no importance. A pity, because with some awareness it could have been a victory for the xeno, as the battlefield was large, they had the numbers and the speed, while we were stuck with few elite models and few key units with inferior shooting range IMPERIUM VICTORY! THE CORDON IMPENETRA HOLDS!
Yep, me. Another solution to a Rumour Engine! But I am far more excited about the MESBG reveal upcoming Sunday, though Hope it will be good! Grrr, Imrahil
Pretty much Votann Slayers... again, not enough Dwarf symbols, but if one has a big Dwarf bitz box as I have, that can be changed...