Codex: Squat Stronghold - Progress at Last

I have wisely spent the festive period (and a dull week working in Glasgow) coming up with some great ideas for my meisterwork, Codex: Squat Stronghold. I won't be revealing all my secrets here now, as I'm really hoping to get the Codex itself to a point where I can publish a first online draft in the next 6-8 weeks, but you'll find below a list of things that I have been thinking about and developing recently:

• Full Warhammer 40,000 timeline, from 9,000 B.C. to the 41st millenium
• Comprehensive description & background material for the Squat race
• Detailed history and back-stories
• Unit types
• Stats for all units
• Special rules for all units
• Style of play analysed and worked into army design & unit rules

In particular, I have made major progress with two things:

BACKGROUND

For me the most important thing to get right is to give the Squats a valid and realistic reason still to exist in the 41st millenium. We all know (and I for one personally despise) the lazy cop-out explanation that the Squats were eaten by the Tyranids. What utter bunkum! It is totally unplausible for the Tyranids - a race that exists only to consume biomass - to expend time and energy on devouring worlds that are devoid of any indiginous life, and populated solely by a relative handful of frontiersmen, miners, traders and warriors, all of whom live in inpossible-to-detect subterranean cities. 

Ok, calm. Rant over... 

One main aim of the codex is to create a more satisfying backstory for the Squats, one that doesn't ask the reader to suspend their normal, rational beliefs (such as one can when reading science fiction). One of the most important things when writing fiction is to ensure that a character's motives, decisions and emotions are realistic - so that, even though he or she may exist in a fantastical universe, their reactions to a particular set of circumstances are entirely rational and realistic. This is in fact one of my major grumbles with corporate/primetime TV, and Eastenders in particular. It is not that I object that much to soaps and dramas per se, it's just that the protagonists' reactions are usually either totally disproportionate to the severity of the given situation, or their decisions are completely at odds with what I would consider to be a rational or logical thought process. This in fact led me to deliver a ten-minute rant (on Christmas Day evening, and directed at my pregnant girlfriend and her mum, no less) on why the current kidnap & subsequent house-fire Eastenders storyline was utterly unbelieveable and why 'real' people would never make those decisions. To their credit, the girls laughed at me, told me to shut up and continued watching. So I collected my toys and placed them back in my pram. Ahem. 

Soooo.... Long story short, I have come up with several different backstories to explain the Squats' continued existence in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. They all start with the invasion of the Homeworlds by Hive Fleet Nemesis and the Imperium's abandonment of the Squats to this fate. The different variants of the story then seek to explain how the Squats survive the Tyranid scourge. Suffice to say that so far, Chaos, the Demiurg, the Ultramarines, the Warp itself, and countless others are all involved in the story!
STYLE OF PLAY

The second major aim of the codex was to develop a totally unique style of game-play for the army. Very quickly I decided that the Squats would most likely favour a stoic, break-us-down-if-you-can attitude in war, so the army is designed to be a lot like Jose Mourinho's Chelsea team - very strong defensively, but with a vicious counter-attack ready to strike on the break.

To that end, I have developed special rules for many of the specialist units to suit their defensive nature. The psychic units - Living Ancestor and  Spirit Lords - have powers which allow army units, or even scenery, to be moved around prior to the game, during deployment. The engineering units - Guild Engineers and Sappers - allow vehicles and weapons to be upgraded with either universal special rules or the ability to twin-link shots, or re-roll scatter dice for example. The Sappers also allow pieces of scenery to be rigged with mines and boobytraps, thus ensuring the Squat player has a good chance of whittling down the enemy before they reach the doughty defenders. 

TIL NEXT TIME...

Hopefully then, I've whetted your appetites with a few tasty morsals to tease you until I've fleshed out the Codex a bit more. Til then, keep watching this space!   
   

Tyranid 'Drop-Spore' Army Increase to 1850pts

I am due to attend the Caledonian Uprising at Maelstrom in Mansfield in January, and army lists need to be submitted by 22nd December - next Thursday! To say I am in a quandary would be an understatement. The list needs to be 1,850pts, with Special Characters allowed - all to suit the prevalent ETC tournament scene, it would apprear.

The core of the army is largely fixed - I will be taking a modified version of my very own 1,750pt Drop-Spore Tyranid force which I had so much fun with at Blog Wars II which Alex of From the Fang organised and ran last month. The 1,750pt army is as follows:

HQ - Hive Tyrant with Wings & Hive Commander

ELITE - 2 x Zoanthropes in Mycetic Spore
ELITE - 2 x Zoanthropes in Mycetic Spore
ELITE - Doom of Malan'Tai in Mycetic Spore

TROOPS - Tervigon with all the trimmings
TROOPS - 10 x Termagants
TROOPS - Tervigon with all the trimmings
TROOPS - 10 x Termagants

HEAVY - Carnifex with Heavy Venom Cannon & Twin-Linked Devourers with Brain-Leech Worms in Mycetic Spore
HEAVY - Carnifex with Heavy Venom Cannon & Twin-Linked Devourers with Brain-Leech Worms in Mycetic Spore
I have tinkered with the list slightly to remove the Tervigon upgrades I didn't use (ie Onslaught), which leaves me with 120pts to spend. I really want to keep with the deepstriking modus operandi of the army (only the Tervigons start on the table, and only then in objectives-based missions) so I do not want to add any foot-slogging units. The army has a decent firebase, consisting of the 'dakka' (I hate that term!) Carnifexes and the Zoanthropes to deal with tanks, and good anti-infantry capability courtesy of the flying Tyrant and of course Doom. All in all, the army works and I'm afraid to tinker with it!

So, what are my options?

I have thought about adding 8 x Genestealers - they are my favourite model in the whole hobby after all, so they don't need any justification! However a unit of 8 is likely to be dealt with very easily, even if they arrive from reserve via a board edge using Outflank.

the other viable option I have thought of is to add 7 x bases of  tunnel-swarming Ripper Swarms, with Spinefists. They complement the deepstriking theme of the army, are multi-wound troops (ideal for objectives missions), have multiple short-range shooting attacks which may surprise a few folks, and can be used to tar-pit strong opposing units for a turn or two.

So, I need your help!

What would you suggest? Genestealers? Ripper Swarms? Or something else entirely?

All positive comments gratefully received!

Sons of Taurus Reveal 'Fandex: Lost and the Damned'

Legendary Legions

It's no secret that I am a big fan of home-grown Codexes, so I was delighted to see that the guys on the Sons of Taurus blog have written their very own Lost and the Damned book.

I've not had a chance to read it yet, but I wanted to share the news of it's release with you so that you can read and enjoy it as much as I hope to!

You'll find the Sons of Taurus blog here:

http://sonsoftaurus.blogspot.com/2011/12/codex-lost-and-damned-designers-notes.html

...And the Fandex here:

http://sonsoftaurus.blogspot.com/p/codex-lost-and-damned-wip.html

Check it out, and let me know what you think!

Query: How Effective are Psyker Battle Squads against Space Marines?

One of the units I'm thinking of including in my Squat 'counts-as' Imperial Guard army are Psyker Battle Squads, possibly two units of 6-7 each. I've seen them used to devastating effect against some armies, however I am unsure how well they perform against loyalist Marines, bearing in mind they automatically rally the following turn with their ATSKNF special rule.

Have you used Psyker Battle Squads against Marines? Or had them used against you? Opinions and thoughts gratefully received!

Hive Fleet Nemesis Drops In To Blog Wars II

This weekend saw the second running of the excellent Blog Wars tournament, perfectly organised as usual by Alex of From the Fang. This tournament is fast becoming the highpoint of my wargaming season, with it's unique blend of specially written missions and competitive-yet-fun gaming. The real draw of Blog Wars for me is the missions that Alex has come up with, coupled with the mandatory choice of at least one unique character selected from your codex. In my case, that meant fielding an almost entirely deepstriking Tyranid force, as follows:

HQ - Hive Tyrant with Wings & Hive Commander

ELITE - 2 x Zoanthropes in Mycetic Spore
ELITE - 2 x Zoanthropes in Mycetic Spore
ELITE - Doom of Malan'Tai in Mycetic Spore

TROOPS - Tervigon with all the trimmings
TROOPS - 10 x Termagants
TROOPS - Tervigon with all the trimmings
TROOPS - 10 x Termagants

HEAVY - Carnifex with Heavy Venom Cannon & Twin-Linked Devourers with Brain-Leech Worms in Mycetic Spore
HEAVY - Carnifex with Heavy Venom Cannon & Twin-Linked Devourers with Brain-Leech Worms in Mycetic Spore

The list is unashamedly designed designed to combat my particular nemesis, MSU/mech Space Marines! My regular gaming friends Mick & Gav (of Claws & Fists) & Dave Pooley all play variations of Space Wolves, and fellow Claws & Fists contributor Andy plays Blood Angels too, and I find that I really struggle to crack open their tanks with any Codex I pick from, and with Tyranids the problem is amplified massively. Therefore my Drop-Spore list is built specifically to limit the opponent's shooting opportunities, whilst bringing my forces in close enough to allow me to get quickly into the thick of the action. Everything except the Tervigons and Termagants deepstrike in, and with the Hive Commander rule, most of the units arrive on turn 2 (with a bit of luck!). Depending on the mission, the Tervigons either start on the table (objective-based games) or in reserve (kill-point games). The ultra-fragile Termagants will always start in reserve if possible!

My initial anti-tank threat is of course the two units of Zoanthropes, whose job is to crack open Rhinos, thus revealing the fleshy Marine targets inside. Deepstriking into action inside Mycetic Spores means the two units of Zoanthropes can usually draw the perfect firing angle on the rear aspect of two different transports, almost guarrenteeing wrecked or exploding tanks because of their AP1 lance!

The second anti-tank threat is the two deepstriking Carnifexes, again inside Mycetic Spores. The Carnifexes pose two threats - the first being multiple shooting attacks on their arrival (Str. 9 from the Heavy Venom Cannon and six twin-linked Str. 6  hits from the Brain-Leech Devourers), and second the obvious effects of a subsequent monstrous creature assault on the tank. What's not to like with Str.9 plus 2D6 of armour penetration?!

The rest of my army is based around spawning Termagants from the two Tervigons, which act as multiple objective-grabbing units. In kill-point missions Tervigons are an absolute liability, so must be kept in reserve for as long as possible (not so easy with the Hive Commander's plus-one to reserves rolls!). However in objectives missions, Tervigons - themselves a Troops choice - and their scuttling spawn are wonderful, and frequent game-winners.

So with this in mind, Andy and I arrived at Maelstrom on Saturday morning ready to see what the day would bring...

GAME ONE vs. BLACK TEMPLARS

The first game was a largely-traditional affair, being kill-points and pitched-battle set-up. My opponent was a top guy named Rick, who was using an all-infantry (and largely Terminator) Black Templars army. Not the multi-Rhino mech list that my Tyranids were deigned to beat, that's for sure! However, my opponent seemed wary of my nearly all-deepstriking army so the early psychological battle seemed to have been won. Unfortunately that's the only battle I did win in the first game! Rick's awesome multi-unit Terminator Squad (two special characters and 10-ish Assault Terminators) was incredibly tough to fight against, and in the end my army was whittled down because I didn't have enough AP2 shooting once the Zoanthropes had been gunned down by the Cyclone Launchers and Lascannons in Rick's supporting firebase.

Result: A fun game against a great bloke, but a disappointing thirteen-to-zero kill-point loss.

GAME TWO vs. IMPERIAL GUARD

The second mission, and opposing army, seemed ready-made for my Tyranids. The mission was to grab table-quarters and hold them uncontested with troops choices (or with your nominated Unique Character). My opponent was Commissar Dave and his Imperial Guard. Again, it was a fun game (for me, at least). I have to thank Dave for being so calm, patient and stoic as my whole day's quotient of luck arrived in two turns of shooting, where my Zoanhropes and Carnifexes wrecked every one of Dave's tanks before he had a chance of retaliating. Coupled to that, the Doom of Malan'Tai then sucked the life-force from his foot-troops.

In the end though, the game was won by my Tervigons and Termagants. I was lucky with my spawning rolls, which meant I was able to swamp three table-quarters with at least half-a-dozen small Termagant units. The final battle came down to a duel between one of my Tervigons and Commissar Yarrick. I had to kill him twice, but he finally stayed down and the Tyranids won the game.

Result: A paper-scissors-stone victory for the Tyranids against just the sort of mechanised force the army was designed to work against.

GAME THREE vs. BLOOD ANGELS

In the final game I was paired against Matt of From the Fang (I always seem to play one of the FtF boys in the last game of a tournament!). The mission was to hold five objectives, which again is something my Tervigons & Termagants should excel at. However, Matt had something to say about this! He poured down a terrific rate of fire from his Predators and Storm Raven, and assaulted well with his Blood Talon-armed Dreadnoughts and Mephiston - a particular highlight for me was the Dreadnought/Tervigon close assault in the early turns.

Later in the game I had managed to disperse most of Matt's jump infantry, and by turn five I was claiming two objectives to Matt's one. However, I was doing this with about four models! Sadly for me the game continued to turn seven, by which time Matt's surviving forces had whittled me down to just a couple of models left, and ended with a climactic double assault between a Tervigon and a Predator, and the Doom of Malan'Tai and another Predator!

Result: A turn five win ended up being a turn seven defeat for the Tyranids in a fun and see-sawing game, where the result hinged on the final dice roll!
TOURNAMENT RESULT

In the final reckoning, my Drop-Spore Tyranids ended up a solid fifteenth out of twenty-two. Not bad for an army concept conceived at midnight only eight days ago! In addition I had a fun day and met lots of top guys, so all in all a very good event.

I will also go on record as saying I really like the Special Missions, so please keep 'em in for next year Alex!

Squats as Imperial Guard - Army List Plan

After a week away for work, I'm back home refreshed, recharged and raring to get stuck into my Squat army. Longtime readers of the Claws & Fists blog will know just how long I've been going on about doing this, but it really is the main thrust of my efforts now (especially now that I've got a serviceable Tyranid army to use at club nights and tournaments).

As well as working on my long-term project of creating my own fandex: Squat Stronghold, my medium-term plan is to get a counts-as Imperial Guard army on the table as quickly as possible. I already have a number of models scratch-built, which you can see below, along with about thirty or forty infantry models which I have freshly painted in the last few months.

Newly-painted infantry

The aim of my counts-as Imperial Guard army is to get a Squat army on the table at the earliest opportunity, and make it as competitive as possible against the power-armoured forces which the boys of Claws & Fists (Gav, Andy & Mick) and 1st Company Vets (Dave, John/McTicTac et al) regularly trounce my Tyranids with. I may even take the Squat army to a future Blog Wars tournament, run by Alex of 'From the Fang' blog fame.

The list I have come up with is as follows. I'd be really grateful for any comments you have, both from Imperial Guard players, and from Marines players who have faced off against the tanks and guns of the Imperial Army.

Scratch-built Airship
(counts as Valkyrie / Vendetta)

HQ

1 x Company Command Squad w/Creed
1 x Company Command Squad

'FREE' CHOICES

1 x Techpriest Enginseer  w/2 x Servitors

ELITES

1 x Battle Psyker Squad (Overseer & 6 x Psykers)

Scratch-built Termite
(counts as Chimera)

1 x Battle Psyker Squad (Overseer & 6 x Psykers)

TROOPS

1 x Infantry Platoon:
   - Platoon Command w/Autocannon team   
   - Infantry squad
   - Infantry squad
   - Heavy Weapons Team (3 x Autocannon)
   - Heavy Weapons Team (3 x Autocannon)
   - Heavy Weapons Team (3 x Autocannon)  

Converted Ramshackle Games
vehicle (counts as Hydra) 

   - Heavy Weapons Team (2 x Autocannon & 1 x Lascannon)
   - Heavy Weapons Team (2 x Autocannon & 1 x Lascannon)

FAST ATTACK

1 x Valkyrie

HEAVY SUPPORT

Converted Ramshackle Games
vehicle (counts as Colossus/Medusa)

Ordnance Battery with 1 x Colossus & 1 x Medusa
2 x Hydra Flak Tanks
1 x Colossus

TRANSPORTS

2 x Chimera (for Psyker Battle Squads)


The main idea behind the army is to use the Hydras and Autocannons in the Heavy Weapon Squads to take out Rhinos, leaving the large blasts from the Valkyrie, Colossi(sp.?!) and Medusa to deal with the infantry. The Psyker Battle Squads will sit back for the first turn or so, hiding in their Chimeras, until the opponent's infantry are out of their transports. Once the Marines have been extricated from their Rhinos/Razorbacks, the Battle Psykers will use their powers to reduce the Marines' leadership so that they are more likely to run away once I start killing 'em all.

That's the plan, anyway - what do you think to it?  

Perfect for Primarchs

This evening I stumbled across Scibor Monstrous Miniatures, a Polish company who seem to be making some very detailed sci-fi (and fantasy) models at the moment.

Historical Models

The ones that caught my eye most were their 'historical' sci-fi Knights. Each one is themed around a particular period of ancient military history, for example Spartan, Celtic, Egyptian, Roman Centurian and so on.

Getting a Sense of Scale

One thing I don't know (yet) is how big the models actually are! The range is 28mm, however we all know that that doesn't really stop miniatures designers from wildly exaggerating the dimensions (Space Marines would be over 8ft tall in 'real life' for instance).

Talking of Space Marines, I do think that these models could be perfect for a tabletop representation of a Primarch. The picture at the top of this article could easily be Sanguinius of the Blood Angels, and the picture shown to the right could be the Dark Angels' very own Lion El'Jonson.

Cowardly Cowardly Custodes

The other models that grabbed my attention were these 'Roman Legionary Veterans'. One of my regular gaming friends (Simo of Claws & Fists fame) recently mentioned that one of his favourite 'expanded universe' units in WH40k were Imperial Custodes, and these models struck me as being just right for them. I really like the poses, and the monk-style tabards and hoods sit right with the fluff too.

These are some of the nicer models I've come across recently.

What models have grabbed your attention recently?

Fandex: Adeptus Mechanicus - A Review

Lantz McDonald's meisterwork, Fandex: Adeptus Mechanicus, has just received a major overhaul and has been re-posted on his website here. It is of course this magnificent work that is my major inspiration for my own Codex: Squat Stronghold. If my book is even half as good, I'll have done a great job (and, probably spent more time than I really should have).

The latest version of the Codex features pictures, model photographs, a few new units and rules, but most importantly lots of background information, stories and fluff.  The previous version of the book was great, but was largely a collection of unit descriptions and army list entries. This latest release goes a step further, and the result is a fully rounded book worthy of the word Codex.

THE BIONIC MEN

In general, the army has the feel of the Imperial Guard to me, in that most of the infantry - HQ choices included - have roughly human statistics (that is, low-to-medium stats across the board) and a decent save (4+ or 5+ on infantry). However, the Ad Mech have a big surprise up their sleeves - Cult Bionics. In addition to an armour save, the vast majority of infantry models also benefit from a second save of 5+ which, if passed, ignores the wound altogether. It is not dissimilar to Feel No Pain in this respect, and observes the same limitations (ie does not count against hits from power weapons, AP1 and AP2 shots et al).

COMPLEXITY RULES 

The other major trick in the AD Mech's armoury, and my favourite invention of Lantz's, is something called Complexity Value. Every vehicle in the army has a value ranging from 1-4 (apart from the Warhound Titan, but that's a whole other kettle of fish!). Each point of complexity value allows the owning player to reduce a roll on the vehicle damage table by one, however once the complexity value points have been used up, they are gone for the remainder of the game! This makes the vehicles of the Ad Mech much hardier than a typical tank, and all but guarantees that they will survive until at least turn two.

NEXT TIME...

So, Lantz has certainly spent a large amount of time developing unique units for his codex, and every slot in the army list is filled with well thought-out and fully rounded choices. Tune in again tomorrow for the start of my section-by-section review of the army!

Developing Codex: Squats - Army Characteristics

The next part of my development of the Squats codex is to think about the characteristics of the army - that is, how will the army play in a typical game. After some brainstorming, I've decided on the following:

Squat 'Race' Characteristics:

• Resolute, tough, strong-minded
• Unlikely to fall back or be affected by negative psychology
• High tendancy to hold grudges ('Book of Grudges'??)
• Naturally resiliant to opponent's pychic powers
• Few psychic powers / psykers in army
• Ancestor Lord will be only psyker
• Squat psychic powers will be defensive and/or synergistic (ie upgrading troop charactistics or powers, similar to Eldar Doom & Guide powers)
• Mechanically & technologically highly adept (with particular aptitude toward plasma and energy weapons)
• Subterranean dwellers

Squat Technology:

•  Widespread use of tunnelling machines (Termite transports etc) - all transports arrive from deepstrike in a similar way to Space Marine Drop Pods (ie half arrive on turn one, rest arrive from reserve)
• Tunnellers cause hits (large blast template?) on opposing models when arriving
• Opponent's vehicles stand chance of falling into subterranean tunnels, depending on number of tunnellers in Squat army
• Use of air balloons & air-ships - slow moving but stable weapon platforms
• Reconnaisance 'Spotter' air balloon allows units out of line-of-sight to use balloon's LoS for targetting blasts & barrages
• Light infantry armour (5+)
• Unit upgrade to provide 3+ / 4+ (?) cover save (vs. ballistic shots only) from 'energy bubble generator'
•  Sappers (scouts) allow areas of terrain to be secretly nominated as difficult/dangerous and booby-trapped land

One thing I will not be doing is limiting the army's 'foot' speed. I think that would fly in the face of every other race currently in 40k. If 6th edition brings in variable movement speeds (eg Tyranids, Eldar moving possibly 8"?) then I would consider dropping the Squats down to 4", but until that time, everything (from Genestealers to Ratlings) stay at 6".

As I start developing rules and stats for individual units, I will use the above characteristics as a general guide, and flesh out some of those points in more detail to hopefully make a really unique army! 

Developing Codex: Squats - Unit Names Revealed

This week, I have been planning the unit types that will feature in my grand work, Codex: Squat Stronghold. Some of the units are traditionally associated with the Squats, and existed all the way back in the original first and second edition lists. Some units, especially the heavy vehicles, hark back to the days of the wonderful Epic Squats. Other units I've just made up cos I like the sound of the names, and the codex needs a good spread of unit types to give any potential army a proper balance.

So without further ado, here are the unit names that I will be fleshing out into proper army list entries:

HQ CHOICES

WARLORD
THANE LORDS - advisors & specialists
ANCESTOR LORD
ENGINEER GUILDMASTER
UNIQUE CHARACTER – KING XXXXXX
UNIQUE CHAR. – GUILDMASTER XXXXXXXX - will make Guild Bikers into Troops choices
UNIQUE CHAR. – XXXXXX (TYRANT-SLAYER ) - possibly make Slayers into Troops choices

ELITE CHOICES

GUILD ENGINEER
HEARTHGUARD
WYVERN GUARD (EXO-ARMOUR)
CLAN LORD - unit upgrade for Troops units
FORGEMASTER - unit upgrade for Troops, sim. to IG Priests?
SLAYERS - sim. to IG Penal Legion?
LONGBEARDS - 'veterans' Squat unit

TROOPS CHOICES

CLAN COMMAND SQUAD (LORD & ENTOURAGE)
CLAN WARRIORS
BERSERKERS - assault unit
DRAGONS - special weapons unit
THUNDERERS - heavy weapons unit

TRANSPORT

TERMITE

FAST ATTACK CHOICES

IRON EAGLE GYROCOPTOR - sim. to Valkyrie / Vendetta but without transport capability
IRON CLAW ‘SCOUT’ GYROCOPTOR - single-seat flyer sim. to Ork Deffkopta
‘SPOTTER / OBSERVATION’ BALLOON
STERNHAMMERS - shock attack Squat unit
SAPPERS  - demolition scouts
GUILD ENGINEER ATTACK BIKE / TRIKE
GUILD ENGINEER WAR TRIKE
‘GRENDEL’ EXO-TRIKE

HEAVY SUPPORT CHOICES

LAND TRAIN (ENGINE & BATTLECARS)
GOLIATH MEGA-CANNON
THUNDERFIRE CANNON
SKYLORD / AIRLORD AIRSHIP
SKYHAMMER FLAK-TRACK
MOLE

SUPER-HEAVY CHOICES

COLOSSUS
LEVIATHAN
CYCLOPS
OVERLORD AIRSHIP
HELLBORE

Over time, I will be detailing each of these units. First I will be writing a brief synopsis for what the unit should do, it's motivations, and it's abilities and hindrances. Then I will draw up stat-lines, weapons profiles, wargear options and points values. Phew! It'll be a long and hard task, but one I'm really relishing. I can't wait to get stuck in!

Which units do you think ought to feature in Codex: Squat Stronghold?

What abilities, special rules or features do you think they should have? 
  

Tomb Kings In Space!

Necrons! This weekend has seen the first leaked pictures of new Necron models. And I have to say, they do look fabulous! You'll find pictures here: NECRON PICS

I'm reminded of when Necrons first surfaced, as a free give-away on the cover of White Dwarf back in the mid-nineties. My thoughts then were that they were pretty poor! The model was a Terminator, pure and simple, and not even a particularly good one at that. That first impression has clouded my judgement of the army ever since. This perception has not been helped by the limited choice of models, the static poses and generally negative opinion of the army - even by Necron players!

However, the new models have changed least some of those long-held views. I'm really glad that GW have decided to inject some much-needed character into the models. Of course, you can see the Necrons' lineage immediately - the influence of the recently-released Tomb Kings is obvious for all to see. That said, it gives the army a visual theme which in the past has been sorely lacking, so I'm looking forward to seeing some good-looking armies on the table soon.

Of course, what the Necrons really need is some vehicles, and it finally looks as though they're getting some! Again, the models look stunning - to me, reminiscent of the Alien pilot from the first Alien film. Of course, nice models are only half the battle (never excuse the pun). The real validation of the Necrons as a valid army will be when we get to see new rules and the new Codex - so let's hope it's not too long a wait!

Plannng Codex: Squat Stronghold - The First Steps

This weekend (during a trip to the inlaws) I've had a chance to start planning my new project, Codex: Squat Stronghold. The stages are as follows:

- Squat racial characteristics
- Style of play
- Signature units
- Unique wargear
- Army tactics
- Unit stats, options and points values
- Background history & 'fluff'

I'll explore each of these areas in separate blog entries, starting with the racial characteristics and then style of play. Watch this space!

Welcome to Rogue Trader!

Welcome to my new blog, Rogue Trader. On this blog I will be sharing my thoughts and plans on the more creative and imaginitive ideas I have for my wargaming hobby. Whilst I will continue to post my ramblings regarding 'codex' Warhammer 40,000 on the fantastic 'Claws & Fists' blog, I will use this site to show off my modelling conversions, to review some of the great fan-written codexes (fan-dexes) and to plan and develop some fan-dexes of my own!

My first project will be to start work on an all-new Squats Codex. Some of you may already know that I did write a simple version last year, however it was very much the Imperial Guard codex with some renamed units and a few minor stat changes. This time around, I intend to create a brand new piece of work, complete with new units, unique wargear and of course a plethora of signiature Squat vehicles! I will also take the original background stories from the first and second editions of Warhammer 40,000 and revise it to suit the current 40k universe - including of course dealing with the bug infestation that supposedly rid the universe of Squats in the first place!