Astra Militarum Tactics: Changes to Leadership & How it Affects Priests and OoF

With 7th edition comes a slight change to leadership that affects two units in the Imperial Guard codex in particular.  I am talking about the Officer of the Fleet and the Priest.  I will go back and edit my OoF post to bring it in line but here I will cover how the leadership changes affect these units.

Astra Militarum Tactics: Initial thoughts on Psykers in 7th

With 7th being out for almost a week now and some time to think on it, I have some ideas on what is going to be useful for our psykers.  Please note this is my initial thoughts and is not going to be a comprehensive tactical review, just general ideas that are going to need some practical testing.  Will talk about the three different psykers we can bring and different ways I think they will work.  I was unfortunately proven wrong about wrydvanes getting access to telepathy, oh sad face.

The Sandbox of 7th Edition

With the new edition it is quite clear that there is a plethora of options with little restrictions.  While this may seem like a problem, I don't believe it to be so.  While issues may be found with unbound armies, Lords of War, formations, etc, they do not break the game on their own.  What we have been given is a giant sand box, and GW has been stating and continues to state that these are the full options to play the game and that we can choose how much we want to use and incorporate.  There is no, well all of this is legal so you have to play me.  Since we are here to have fun, you have as much of a choice as your opponent on how you want to play the game.

FAQs and 7th Edition

Well the FAQs are up, and most of everything is on the black library site minus the main rule book and a few supplements.  I'll give it to GW, they are at least trying address some of the issues, though the wait has been long.  Some are just minor clarifications and others have a larger impact on the game.  Others are just fixing the lazy editing errors.  At least its been done.

Militarum Tempestus Scion Tactics: Air Assault & 7th Edition

As I have often posted, the Scions are a favorite of mine, and while mulling over 7th edition and thinking on tactics to use, I noticed something that is actually quite good.  Scions/Storm troopers are famed for their aerial assaults and this is something that they do quite well as their own army or as part of a greater Imperial Guard army and there are some rules that make this a more viable tactic.

Militarum Tempestus Storm Scions

So I usually don't plug GW directly, but in this case I think this is warranted.  Above is the new soon to be released Storm Scions bundle, and for me being a big lover of these guys, is something I am probably going to pick up.  If you are also a fan, this is a great way to add to your army and actually is one of those rare deals that GW puts out.

Hobby Post: Ork Army Showcase

Related to yesterdays battle report I am going to showcase my brothers ork army.  He has put a lot of work into them and is  great painter.  All of his orks are painted using a wash technique, where he bases them white and then uses washes only to paint them, with metallic paints only for the metal parts.  Its an awesome technique and looks great when done right.  Above and below is his big mek.

First 7th Ed Battle Report: Militarum Tempestus vs Orks 1250pts

First test game of 7th, no psykers for each us so I cannot report on that phase.  I played with my Scions against my brothers orks.  He had a shiny new aegis line and dakka jet to try out.  I will say that mos things are the same, but the few differences are important to make sure you do right.  We did not play maelstrom missions as I do not have the cards and did not feel like rolling D66s all the time.  We ended up rolling purge the alien, so kill each other.  As stated game was at 1250pts, and as far as the new set up, only thing that made use of was rerolling warlord traits, which I ended up getting leadership 10 for my scion commander and my brother got the -1 to my reserve rolls.

7th Edition Initial Thoughts on Changes

Well 7th is out and I have been perusing it and trying to find the changes and how it all seems to fit together.  Overall this is a good update and clarifies a lot of rules issues.  Still waiting for the FAQs though to see what other changes are going to be made in relation to armies.  There are a few notable changes that have not been mentioned and are important.

Podcast update

Just a quick little update to keep everyone informed.  Episode 4 of segmentum command has been recorded.  Sorry for the delay, life has gotten in the way.  We have it in the can and should have it out by this time next week, hopefully earlier but no promises.  Obvious subject is 7th edition.

Also a new site will be going up for the podcast itself, it will be a place for all of us on the podcast to post and will be a collaboration.  Our individual sites will remain and still be primary, but having a consolidated site will be easier for us to put content out.  Expect to see that go up by the time episode 4 comes around. 

Other than that, I am waiting in excitement to get my copy of 40k here in a few hours.

GG

7th Allies Changes and Others that Help the Game

 With 7th we have a new Allies chart and changes to the rules for allies.  A few things have been cleared up and there are a few big changes here.  Plus there is another change, not directly and ally change but one that has been pretty contentious to the 40k community.  The allies chart now makes a lot more sense, and a lot of the broken combos have been hit, but some can still be done, but overall the allies chart makes sense fluff wise.  This was a needed change and I like it.

Escalation and Why it's OK

We are all familiar with escalation, and till now it has been controversial and probably for good reasons.  I have been for accepting the additions to the game and think these should be allowed, if not forced down people's throats either.  Well a new edition is here (sorta) and escalation is in the BRB as well as stronghold.  Now I'm sure many will buck this and continue to ban lords of war, but I think with one of the changes in particular, lords of war are not the monsters they used to be.

Psychic Powers and the Astra Militarum

Well the cat is out of the bag and the tables have been leaked.  The biggest change though in my opinion is the above, the psychic table quick reference chart.  This shows what each faction can choose for powers.  For us Imperial Guard players, this is a nice change as according to this we can access all of the tables.  If you are wondering what force is, its basically the force weapon rule, just rolled into the new psychic phase for completeness.  If you want to see all the pics head on over to 40k deamons for the full pics.

Vehicles and 7th

The vehicle damage table has been leaked and I am liking what I see.  Seems vehicles will get  decent buff but will not be the power they were in 5th either.  Glancing will be an issue, but lucky one shots will be far harder to achieve and it is nice to see that some things were cleared up, it seems GW is trying to do better with rules writing.  On to the table.

Psychic Powers and 7th Edition

While I am certainly not the first to talk about the much anticipated psychic phase of the new edition, I have my two cents to put to it. Having used psykers in my recent game, there a few things that I think will improve, both for the game in general and the Imperial Guard. The consolidation of all psychic powers into a single phase is a great thing and the new changes to using powers and what you can take is going to have significant effect.

Battle Report: Astra Militarum vs Chaos Space Marines 2000pts

Got a game in today with my Imperial Guard, used an updated version of my old list to see how it would work with some of the new options.  Overall I was happy, definitely getting used to the new orders and going to a little while before I am making better decisions.  And having some more prescience would be nice, as I only brought one primaris psyker.  On to the report

Devils in the Dark: A History of Catachan

Time for a break from the seriousness of 7th edition.  For a little more fun I will continue with my "history" posts on different Guard regiments and worlds.  Up for your pleasure is the Deathworld of Catachan and its jungle fighters.  Hope you enjoy.

7th Ed and Astra Militarum Infantry

With 7th coming and the new changes, the Imperial guard are going to be getting a boost in one area and that is our troops.  Already we have some of the best in the game and IMO the most flexible, and 7th is going to make them more solid than ever.  Now I will focus on confirmed changes but will discuss some of the possibilities as well.

Militarum Tempestus and 7th Edition

With the oncoming of 7th edition, I feel there are going to be quite few armies that are going to benefit from it.  Some armies are going to work really well with Battle Forged, while others are going to be very good with Unbound.  On another note, I do not think unbound should be banned or shamed as many have seemed to proposed.  It could be abused, but the potential for fluffy armies and used to help certain weaknesses out weighs this.  Sure the all lone wolf army may surface, but I seriously doubt it will become a common place army along with the other theoretical lists being thought up.  The potential for abuse is not enough to ban or exclude something, that is why we are community to encourage the well intentioned and let them play even if we personally disagree with how they are going about it.  Back to topic.

7th Ed Rules: Battle Forged Balance

Now we have some confirmations of the rules for Battle Forged and Unbound armies and they are looking to be good.  The revealed bonuses for Battle Forged armies are actually quite good and are in my opinion going to help balance out the game a bit and help against some of the more common deathstar armies.  Now that I have seen it I am very happy with what is coming.

Preparing for a Tournament

With 7th edition or whatever edition they are going to call it just around the corner, I am going to suspend tactics articles since the new rules are going to most likely change a few things, especially in relations to psykers.  I am looking forward to seeing what comes out, but till then its hard to say how it is going to affect the imperial guard army.  Now on to the topic at hand.  I have tickets for the Golden Throne GT.  This is my first big tournament in a long while.  I have played plenty of local tournaments, but I really haven't attending anything big in many years.  With the state of flux it is frustrating in some ways in trying to prepare for it.

7th Edition: Who Needs a Force Org

More rumors and some confirmed on 7th edition have come out and it is looking to be quite interesting.  Of course the world is ending now lol.  The force org changes have been confirmed in the WD releases as well as changes to the psychic powers (though we are short on specifics).  I really find it funny how much people are complaining about them as most really don't even seem to be that bad.

Heroes of the Imperium: Colonel Straken Tactics

Colonel Straken is the last on the special character HQ list and he is another badass of the bunch.  He has gotten a significant price bump up to 130 but is still a very good choice for your warlord in your CCS.  The key here though is that he should be your warlord, you lose enough by not taking him as yours that you should reserve taking him for your warlord.  So what does he have.

Rumblings of 7th Ed

There have been a lot of rumors coming down about the new supposed edition of 40k.  Sorry for the lack of posts, I have been moving around a lot at work and its been busy and hard to focus on 40k.  With that said, 7th ed is looking interesting though there are contradictory rumors and its not clear what is going to be in the new edition.  Well here is what I think.