Rogue Planet: Gamey Thansqueek

Out of the darkness a pair of red eyes gleamed, a silhouette of a short wiry skaven body, pale snout and foot long whiskers occasionally in view. His small rodent frame squeezed between building drywalls, going where most could not.

The young grey seer (28- grey seers live longer than other skaven for a range of reasons) peeked out at the Dark District. Involved in clan Pestilens and Skyre crafting and favouring hiring clan Eshin troops, Thansqueek's mind tumbled with possibilities. "Mine, Mine, mine, mine" he excitedly squeaked. Now, to find some warpstone and bring about the crashing doom of all flesh-things.

Admiring of clan eshin, his pack mother being a gutter-runner, Thansqueek is vicious with a blade in close. (he adds +1 to all CQ tests until his personal energy pool runs out, or team energy when there is no personal pool being used)

His theft of warpstone from witless humans and construction of gothic arcane devices for ratkin in has amassed him the wealth of a Stormvermin's Tribute. He shows a ruthless aggressiveness referred to by the vermin-tide as "gamey"- which is as about as respectful as skaven can be of bravery. The skaven equate brave with stupid.

Thanqueek favours high quality Eshin troops such as Deathmasters, any scummy clan rats to fire his warpstone weapons and dreams of a Screaming Bell induced Ratocalypse

0	An Empty Purse	Empty Purse
1	A Beggars Bowl	Skavenslaves’ Bowl
2	A Thief’s Horde	Clanrat’s Horde
3	A Knight’s Tribute	Stormvermin’s Tribute
4	A Baron’s Purse	Packmaster’s Purse
5	A Graff’s Riches	Chieftains’ Riches
6	A Prince’s Chest	Warlord’s Chest
7	A Grand Magister’s Treasury	Arch-Lord’s Treasury
8	An Elector Count’s Coffers	Lord of Decay’s Coffers
9	An Emperor’s Ransom	The Horned One’s Ransom
10	The Riches of the Empire	The Riches of the Under-Empire

Act 1

Amongst the scoured ruins of the Hive Primaris the acolytes find more than one foe. It appears mechanicus, xenos and a strange syndicate are involved in the disruption in this sector.

Prelude

Two groups of Acolytes, One World,

On the world of Illias two teams of acolytes with widely differing composition are sent by Inquisitor to investigate the death of previous Inquisitorial forces.
They discover not a thriving hive of 400 billion but decay and loss. But what is it's source?

Character Details

A post to describe where the characters came from, what their motivations are

Characters Group 1, Bring Minis

So luke's character is running round in some sort of aquatic-comfortable
gear and is sneaky..

but maybe going for this

Matt has got some tallarn-inquisitor // mad hunter thing going on- putting him somewhere between

And

Troy's Mechanicus has these Grievous legs, as in the general, but i reckon it's closer to a certain necron

but at the moment might be more

Ben is rocking sister's carapace and hand flamer with a metal habit... couldn't find that exactly

A few came close, but not quite

Finally I reckon Grant is going for 

but all I got is

In short, if you guys have minis you want to use as characters, feel free to bring them along, I have some approximate stand-ins...

:)

Notes on a Rogue Planet

Initial impressions here to sort and record them.

Linear terrain should be something you can fight through or over. Pipe, wire fence, shack wall.

Board should consist of a network of patches of terrain, probably 3 or 4 deep in any axis.

Must target closest unit for charge or shooting. I get why you do that from an " introduce tactics " point of view, not sure about it as a game mechanic. I would just apply a penalty to hit if it's not the closest.

Ok, despite the advert there is book-keeping (action points, energy) and measuring (FX). But not much.

Collisions was a bit, cumbersome. A 3 way example would have been good.

Space Marine Codex 7th edition Review

Frequency
First of all- I feel like I should be doing this review on twitter- because the frequency of the "new" space marine codex release is so quick you'd need a web 2.0 social media client to keep up. Seriously- how long? Under 2 years. I guess this is the release speed for the 2000-teens attention span.

Art

I don't totally dislike the new art. It's functional. It gets the job done. It's not as bad as some of the 3rd ed art, in my opinion. I'm not in the "it's totally shit" camp, but lets compare the starting point with what we have in 2015. Roll back to Rogue Trader and into 2nd edition.

Now what's the story in 2015- well it's in colour, but it doesn't quite have the same "omph"

I was actually hard pressed to find entirely new art. There are a lot of line diagrams, like Brother Alos there. And some very cluttered photographs. The best thing I can say about the photos is that they convey an idea of colour (mostly)

And there is the new "Khal Draigo"-the-ultramarine, art :p

So- lots of colour printing, not a whole lot of feeling.

Content

So I got the limited edition, mostly for the markers and cards. I got the "Successor chapters" version because it is the only one that says "Adeptus Astartes" on the side. It's a nice matt black. It covers Ultramarines, Whit Scars, Imperial Fists, Salamanders, Raven Guard, Iron Hands ..and their successor chapters, which include luminaries such as Black Templars, Legion of the Damned and Crimson Fists.

There are 111 pages of fluff, guff, art, structural charts, diagrams, maps, photos of minis and stories. Then at page 112 you get your first actual rules.

Gladius Strike Force- new decurion style detachment-containing-formations. Nice

A wargear list. 

Then 58 unit entries. Wow. That is a lot of units. Each is a page has type/ name/ cost header, a photo of the model, more fluff/guff, a listing of the rules and a listing of the options. But most of the special rules are NOT on the page, rather there is a page reference. The digital copy will be awesome, this- you need to know all your special rules for your army.

And then- 13 formations.. which is good, flexible, maybe a lot compared to some codexes.

So from a content point of view. Yikes that is a lot. And I get that they would need a double page to add the rules in. So it's a compromise. I guess I'm getting the digital enhanced as well.

Rules Balance

There are a lot of rules here and this is just a first look ..but..

Dreadnoughts. Compared to Helbrutes at exactly the same cost.. base 4 attacks and get Chapter Tactics- which are good I might add, still 100 points. Bah

Assault squads and devastators cost the same as basic marines- you just get different upgrades- jump packs for assault cost 3/pts a model. Noice.

I would say, with a few exceptions, most units get a minor buff in close combat- cheaper power weapons on vanguard, more attacks on the dread etc, but maybe not enough to bring them up to meta./Eldar

It's formations where things come unstuck. They are YIKES.

Librarian Conclave

Use one psyker to cast any of your powers as long as within 12". Make those warp charge checks on a 3+ or 2+ if 3 are within 12". Zap! 

Landraider Spearhead

Ignore everything except wrecked if within 6" of another landraider. Re-roll to wound gargantuan creatures or penetrate armour.

Demi-Company

Everything gets objective secured. Nice. Get another Tactical doctrine use. Nice. Seems balanced. 440 points in their basic equipment. Where is the problem? Take 2 of them in a gladius detachment...which of course means you are fielding a complete battle company (of 5 man squads- so really at half strength). .. and you get your razorbacks, rhinos, drop pods for free. You would also need an "Auxiliary" unit- which can be complied for about 165 point if you want 

Bah.

Anyway, that will, no doubt produce the sea of vehicles we used to see in 5th edition. Mobile cover at best. I.. I'm scratching my head. Competitive, um, maybe? Sell a lot of mins. Probably.

Ash out