Gaming Table Update

Here are some pictures of the progress I am making on the gaming table. The size is 4 ft wide by 6-1/2 ft long. I could not find a snow grass mat at the hobby shop so I bought a desert one that is tan. Then I sprayed it with white spray paint and white textured paint, which made the whole house reek, by the way. The end result is that it looks like a cold desert with a dusting of snow, maybe like the Gobi. It is not as white and snowy as I was aiming for, but it looks kind of cool. The tan beneath the snow adds depth and realism and I like it. But it doesn't match exactly the pure white bases we have been putting on the models, although they look OK on the table, as you can see here. Let me know what you think.

Not as white as I wanted, but it looks decent. I like the texture. It definitely looks like a dry, cold, snowy desert where the snow is just a dusting getting blown away by the high winds. But my snowmobile wartrakk might look a little out of place without more snow!

I apologize for the terrible lighting. My next goal should be to get a halfway decent light in this room.

This shot is to give you some scale. I think it is plenty big for small to medium size games, maybe up to 1500 - 1800 pts per side. We might eventually need a bigger table, but not for a long time. Also, this shows you what it looks like when you step back. Looks a little whiter from this perspective. The nice thing is I can use this same technique on the bases of any terrain pieces so they will match the table exactly.

Let me know what you think!

Skorcha Sled

I mostly konverted this Skorcha many years ago, back in Houston. I just added a few bits and then painted it up. I'm pretty happy overall with the result, but I'd like feedback from you guys.

As you can see, this trakk has skis in front instead of a wheel since we are battling on snow! This little conversion has really got me thinking of how else I can incorporate the snow environment into my models. Expect more snow-themed conversions later!

Back in the old Codex Orks, there was a vehicle upgrade called Spikes 'n Blades that inflicted something like d3 S3 hits on a unit that charged the vehicle. I believe I was modeling this upgrade on this Skorcha. But since that doesn't exist in the new Codex, the extra spikes and bits don't add any value besides looking Orky.

I tried to paint some splattering snow onto the front skis, but I'm not sure if I like how it turned out. What do you think? More snow? Just mud? Leave as-is?

Also, do you think it needs more scratched paint and battle damage? I think the red paint on the sides looks a little too neat and clean still. I am happy with how the rust turned out.

The gunner makes me smile. I think he was originally from the Gorkamorka rokkit buggy and he is closing one eye so it looks like he is really aiming. I'll call him Dead-Eye Dorg, and he will take a lot of pride in being known as the ork who never misses (because he has a template weapon)!

The Next Generation

Logan loves looking at the pictures of the painted models in the new rule book. Maybe we have the start of a future wargamer and fantasy/sci-fi fan! His favorites are the winged Tyranid monstrous creatures and the Eldar.

Army Selection, Missions, Games, and Overall Impressions

Army selection and victory conditions have changed quite a bit over the years and that is definitely the case with this new edition.

Warlord: Select one model to be your Warlord. He must be a character. He gets one Warlord trait. You select from several tables (Tactical, Command, Personal, Strategic and Codex-specific) and roll a d6 to see which one you get from that table. Unique special characters normally come with a specific trait already selected.

All units are now able to hold objectives, not just Troops.


Army Selection: There are two methods you can select from, described below.

Battle Forged uses an army made up of Detachments. The basic detachment is called Combined Arms Detachment and it uses the same Force Organization Charts the game has had since 3rd edition. All units in a detachment must be the same Faction (army). There is another basic detachment called Allied Detachment and allows you to take a smaller Force Organization Chart for a different faction than your Combined Arms Detachment. Also, new Codexes now have unique detachments you can select from. You can have as many detachments as you want (or can afford). Detachments impose restrictions on your army, such as maximum of three Heavy Support units, but they provide advantages, too. For example, the basic Combined Arms Detachment lets you re-roll your Warlord Trait and gives your Troops a special rule called Objective Secured that allows them to control an objective even if an enemy scoring unit is also in range, unless that unit also has this rule. So basically, they become "denial" or "super scoring" units and can break deadlocks over objectives.

The other army selection option is called Unbound, which allows you take any unit you own with no restrictions. Personally, I think both players should gave to agree if someone is going to use this method. I think the intent is to allow cool theme armies, like a Space Marines First Company or a famous Big Mek and his army of Dreds and Kans. The only penalty is you don't gain the advantages of the Detachments.


There are rules for various types of Allies, but I won't go into them now as none of us are playing with any.


Missions: The rule book encourages players to make up their own missions and also suggests getting additional missions from other GW publications. But they offer two tables with six missions each as a starting point. It seems like it would also be acceptable to use any of the missions from the old editions of the rule books.

Eternal War Missions: These missions are pretty straightforward. There are six. Both players can agree on one or you can roll for a random one. They are all based on victory points. In four of them, holding objectives is the Primary Objective and worth the most VPs. In one, you just try to destroy the enemy and in the last one, there is a single objective (the Relic) that you can seize and move with. They all have the same set of Secondary Objectives that are also worth VPs, such as kill the enemy commander and kill the first unit. They use various deployment zones. They all have special rules, such as the possibility of a Night a Fighting for a turn and optional Reserves.

Night Fighting, by the way, is pretty ineffectual now. Instead of limiting how far units can see or target enemies with shooting like it used to, it now just gives all units Stealth on the first turn, which just improves cover saves by 1, even in open ground, to a max of 2+.

Maelstrom of War: These six missions use a table of 36 tactical objectives (there is also a deck of cards to represent the objectives and it helps to think of them that way because you hold and then discard them). These missions are all about the flux of a battle and represent shifting objectives and priorities. Before playing, you place six Objective markers on the table (numbers 1 - 6). These relate to some of the TacticalObjectives, but not all. At the start of the game, you get some number of Tactical Objectives from the deck or table (normally three). These say things like "If you hold Objective 2 at the end if your turn, you get 1 VP." At the end of each of your turns, if you accomplished one of your Tactical Objectives, you discard it, get the listed VPs and draw a new one. This type of game will limit the effectiveness of having one master strategy and instead will reward the flexible army that can best respond to changing conditions and priorities. It sounds like it could be fun and exciting with lots if twists, but it seems the result of the game could end up being more based on the luck of the draw then even a normal game.


Overall Impressions of 7th Edition:

Without having played, it is hard to have an informed opinion, but here goes. The new edition looks really fun. The rules for handling vehicles and buildings look clearer than in past editions. There is plenty of complexity and variety in the rules, while keeping the same core game since 3rd Edition.

The new rules seem to give a slight advantage to shooting over close combat, as I already mentioned. But, at least in the case of the Orks, they have also given a "close combat" army lots of new shooting options like flyers and more big gunz. They have also made shoota boyz cost more than slugga boyz so it seems they gave taken the improved effectiveness of shooting into account.

But that is not to say that assaults have been neutered. The new Hammer of Wrath ability adds extra punch to assaults with walkers, bikes and jump packs. Assaults can still be decisive with the ability to destroy the unit that loses with a Sweeping Advance. And most infantry now have the ability to run, which they lacked in 3rd Edition, so they don't have to slog through incoming fire for quite so long anymore. More than anything else in the news rules,I think this helps assault armies the most. Also, characters better come decked out for close combat because of the new Challenges! Any leader who carries a gun instead of a sword is going to have hard time going 1-on-1 with their character opponent in a duel.

It seems they mostly wanted to limit the ability to assault on the first turn or the first turn a unit arrives from a Reserves. And I admit, a shooting army should normally get at least  one turn to shoot before they are swarmed in melee.

I think the new Psychic phase looks balanced and fun. The only downside is that it adds a lot of complexity (and probably time) to games. The nice thing is that you don't NEED psykers; you aren't defenseless without them as you can still try to Deny the other player's powers. But all the new schools and psyker powers makes me want to try a more psyker-heavy army at some point. A lot of the powers are just special shooting attacks, but many are buffs for your own troops (Blessings) or curses on your opponents (Maledictions) that open up lots of new tactical and combo opportunities.

My only big concern is that a lot of the missions and Tactical Objectives reward you with a VP for destroying an enemy unit, normally in a specific way, such as shooting or close combat. It seems odd that they don't take the points value of the unit into account like they used to (destroying a mob of grotz or a mob of Mega Nobz is worth the same VP?), which seems like it would penalize armies with lots of cheap units, like Orks. Maybe they are trying to kelp scoring simpler or maybe they think that an army with many smaller units has a big advantage in taking objectives so they are trying to even it out. But the best part of 40k is the ability to change the rules and the missions to fit our vision and improve the fun and balance, something you cannot do with video games. So if we find that the the VP scoring system or Tactical Objectives are not balanced and fun, we can always adjust them, if we all agree. The best part about the new rules is they give you a lot of flexibility in how to play a game.

Let me know what you guys think about the rules. I can't wait to play a few games and try them out!

7th Edition Rules: Morale and Miscellaneous

Morale works the same as it did before. Leadership check when sustaining 25% casualties in a single phase. I already covered morale in assaults.

As soon as you fail the morale check, fall back 2d6" toward your own table edge, moving sideway or at an angle around any obstructions. If the unit cannot make a full fallback move in any direction without doubling back (because of enemy models or impassable terrain) the unit is trapped and destroyed. You can go sideways or at angle to avoid obstructions, but can't move toward the enemy table edge. So there is some reward for getting units behind enemy lines. If any model reaches your table edge, the unit is destroyed (no last chances!).

One change is that units that are falling back can shoot Snap Shots in the shooting phase.

Regroup: Test just prior to Movement phase at the start of the turn. If you have 25%+ of the unit left OR an Independent Character, you just pass a Ld test to Regroup. If you have less than 25% of the unit and no Character, then you can only rally on a roll of 2 on the 2d6. If you fail, fall back another 2d6". If you pass, you get to move 3" in the Move phase. They cannot run or assault that turn. They can shoot, but only Snap Shots. So even if you rally on your first Regroup test, you basically lose most of a turn with the unit. If the unit is charged, you attempt to Regroup (with no penalty for <25%). Pass, fight as normal. Fail, you are destroyed. 

Space Marines automatically pass Fear and Regroup tests. When they Regroup, they can make a normal move (not 3"), plus they can shoot, run, or charge as normal. The only way they can be killed as a result of morale is if their initial fall back move takes them off the table or into a Trapped situation where they can't fall back.

Vehicles never take morale or Leadership tests.


Special Rules:

Here are a few notes on special rules that I thought were new, interesting, changed, relevant or widely applicable. I have already covered the Marines' No Fear rule.

Armorbane: Roll 2d6 for armor penetration instead of d6.

Deep strike: Roll to arrive from Reserves. Place one model and roll for scatter. Place the other models around that one in base contact. Difficult terrain counts as Dangerous. You cannot move in Movement phase, but can run or shoot in Shooting phase (but count as if they had moved). They cannot charge the turn they arrive. If any of the models cannot be placed other than in impassable terrain (including buildings for this purpose) or on an enemy model or on a friendly model or off the table, roll on the Deep Strike mishap table. 1: Entire unit destroyed. 2 - 3: Your opponent places your unit wherever they want with no scatter. 4 - 6: Stay in Reserves until next turn. So you better try to land in the open!

Feel No Pain: Unsaved wound is discounted on a 5+ roll.

Fleet: Re-roll one or more dice when running or charging (you can re-roll a single d6 when charging and keep the other).

Furious Charge: +1 Strength until end of turn when charging, but doesn't apply if you charge multiple enemy units with the same unit. Most Orks have this.

Hammer of Wrath: This rule represents big, heavy units slamming into their targets in a charge. It applies to bikes and walkers and some other special units. Each charging model gets an extra attack at Initiative 10 that automatically hits with their in unmodified strength and AP- (AP nil).

Infiltrate: Deploy after both sides. Must be at least 12" away from the nearest enemy if no enemy unit can draw a line if sight to them. Or at least 18" away from the nearest enemy, even in plain sight. You cannot charge in your first turn. If you keep them in reserve, they get Outflank. This means when they arrive, roll a d6: 1-2, arrive on the left table edge; 3-4, arrive on right table edge; 5-6, you pick left or right (instead of moving on from your own edge as normal).

Melta: Roll an extra d6 for armor penetration when firing at half range or less. 

Move Through Cover: Roll extra d6 when moving through Difficult Terrain and select highest. Ignore Dangerous Terrain. Assaults not slowed by terrain. 

Pinning: If a unit suffers an unsaved wound, they must pass a morale check or Go to Ground. 

Rending: To-wound rolls of 6 automatically wound and have AP2. Against vehicles, an armor penetration roll of 6 allows an extra d3 to be added (then resolved using normal strength and AP, not AP2, which provides bonuses against vehicles).

Slow and Purposeful: Cannot run or fire Overwatch. Can fire heavy/ordnance while moving (and count as stationary) and can then still charge the same turn.

Stealth/Shrouded: Cover save is 1-better/2-better, respectively, even in the open.

There are many, many more. If you have a question on a certain one, just ask!

7th Edition Rules: Assaults

Sequence: Charge Sub-Phase: Declare Charge; Resolve Overwatch; Roll Charge Range; Move Chargers (repeat these steps for all units). Then move on to Fight Sub-Phase: Choose a Combat; Fight; determine Results (repeat these steps for each Combat).

I explained rolling charge range and Overwatch already. Overwatch is particularly powerful, in my opinion, because it applies even if the charge distance is rolled too low for the charging unit to reach combat and it can kill the closest chargers, making it harder to get into combat! A unit can only fire Overwatch once per turn and only if not in combat already (and not Pinned, Falling Back, or Gone to Ground). So I think the strategy is charge with lots of separate units in the same turn.

If you charge through Difficult Terrain, you fight at a Initiative 1 (unless you have Assault a Grenades, which let you fight at normal Initiative).

Models fight in Initiative order. Anyone in base contact or within 2" of a friendly model in base contact can fight with full attacks. I think in an older edition, you could only contribute 1 attack if you weren't in base contact.

Another change is the addition of a Pile In move at the start of each Initiative step. This can partially make up for the lead models getting blasted by Overwatch or getting a poor charge distance roll, but only if you actually have models make it into combat in the first place! Basically, when you reach your model's Initiative step, you make a 3" Pile In move to get as many into base contact or within 2" as possible. This is nice for slowpokes like Orks so that if you lose a bunch of your fighters in the front lines to a faster enemy, you can still get some boyz into combat to give back some hits.

Allocating Wounds: Closest models are hit first and even models more than 2" away can be killed (but only if all engaged models are killed first).

Determining Results: Add up all unsaved wounds. The side that caused the most us the winner. (This is a big advantage to elite units as I could easily kill more points-worth of Terminators by killing one and losing 3 or 4 boyz, but I would lose the combat.) Thankfully, Overwatch casualties don't count toward determining the winner of the actual assault.

Units that lose must check morale (with -1 for each wound they lost by!). Pass and fight on. Lose and Fall Back. If you Fall Back, the victors make a Sweeping Advance to try to catch them. Both units roll a d6 and add Initiative. If the winning unit's result is higher, the losers are caught and destroyed! If the loser's result is higher, they break off from combat and Fall Back 2d6". Winners then consolidate d6", but can't use that to charge. If a unit is still locked in combat, they cannot attempt a Sweeping Advance.

With multiple units engaged, the wound results for the entire side are added up and all the losing units must check morale with the same penalty modifier determined by the overall results. (So even if your mega-nobz don't take a single wound, but your grotz  in the same melee take lots of wounds, the nobz could be on the losing side and can be caught and killed.) If the winning unit causes multiple enemy units to Fall Back in one turn, they get to compare their Initiative roll to all the units and can Sweeping Advance (destroy) any they catch.

At the end of the turn, everyone Piles In again.

Challenges: A new rule allows a character to issue a challenge to an enemy character in the same close combat. Only one challenge per combat per turn. The player whose turn it is has the first opportunity to issue a challenge. If he does not, the other player can. You cannot challenge a specific character; you issue a challenge and any enemy character can accept. If he declines, then the challenger can nominate an enemy character from those that could have accepted and that character cannot fight at all in combat (too busy slinking away like a coward) and the unit cannot use his morale (too uninspiring). If he accepts, they basically fight one-on-one until one dies or one side loses combat (excess wounds can carry over to the general melee and vice versa). And there is another rule where a different character can try to step in for the one in the challenge. Challenges could make for some exciting combats, but again, this rule seems to favor elite models. A Marine Character with power weapon or force weapon can easily assassinate a nob before he has a chance to strike with his power klaw, whereas before, the nob could stand in the second row and let the boyz take the hits until his turn to strike. At first I thought that the other side of the coin was that this rule could be used to neutralize big characters by constantly challenging them with meks, painboyz, etc., but any excess wounds inflicted in the challenge after one combatant is killed carry over to the rest of the fight. But I'll gladly give this rule a try, as it could make for some suitably dramatic moments and that is what the game is all about!

Overall,  my impression is that close combat will be tougher to pull off effectively. Random charge distance should average out to 7", about the same as the 6" before, but it will be less predictable so harder to plan and coordinate. And yes, you might charge 10 - 12", but if you are that far away, you won't normally want to risk taking a salvo of Overwatch shots for such a slim chance of making it into combat. Thankfully, Orks have the Waaagh! And 'Ere We Go special rules to help them actually make it into combat. Assaults can be incredibly decisive with the possibility of crushing an entire unit in a Sweeping Advance, but since Marines are immune to thus due to ...And They Shall Know No Fear, it skews the risk when assaulting them. But let's play a few games to see how the rules work in practice.

7th Edition Rules: Shooting

Targeting: A unit can target any enemy they see. I think in one older edition, you had to pass a Ld test to target something other than the closest unit? I'm also pretty sure I read you can check distances and ranges prior to selecting a target (since your men are better at estimating the ranges of their guns than you are).

Sequence: You now fully resolve shooting, wounding, saving and removing casualties with each named weapon in a mixed unit before moving on to the next weapon. You pick the order. Example: Resolve all bolster fire, then all plasma gun fire, then all missile launcher fire. The whole unit shoots at the same target.

Rolling to hit and wound us the same.

Allocating Wounds and Removing Casualties: The closest models take wounds first. Models that are out of sight of the firing weapon cannot take wounds. Any model that is out of range of all the shooters cannot be given a wound. There is a special rule called Look Out, Sir that gives you a chance to have a different model in the squad take an allocated wound for a character in that squad (normally on a roll of 4+), prior to rolling the armor saving throw.

Saves: Armor works the same way as it did. If any of the shooters have their line of sight obstructed by cover to a particular target model, the model gets an invulnerable cover save against any wounds from the shooting unit. Cover saves are still invulnerable. If a model has multiple saves, they only use the best one (not multiple saves).

There is new rule called Go to Ground you can use if your unit is being shot at. After allocating hits and  wounds, you can elect to GtG before rolling saves. This gives you a cover save 1 better than your current save (or a 6+ save if you're in the open). Some terrain types like craters and fortifications improve this to 2 points better save than before, but always to a max of 2+. But you stay in GtG mode until the end of the model's next turn. During that time, you cannot move, run, or charge and can only fire Snap Shots. So you'd have to be pretty desperate to use it or just happy to hunker down and hide because you're trying to stay alive on an objective or there are no nearby enemies for you to shoot or charge anyway.

There is another new rule called Snap Shots. This applies when units don't have time to carefully take aim. Snap Shots are taken with BS 1 (hit on a 6). Examples: If you move with a heavy weapon, you can take Snap Shots in the shooting phase (but if you shoot a heavy weapon, you still cannot charge).  They also apply to most weapons/units when shooting at Zooming flyers (unless they are specifically AA). They apply to more of a vehicle's weapons when the vehicle is moving faster. They can apply to vehicles or the occupants of vehicles/buildings when the vehicle takes heavy hits, etc. You cannot fire Ordnance, blast or template weapons this way.

Overwatch is back (but different)! Boo! When you declare a charge, the unit being charged gets to fire a salvo of Snap Shots at the chargers before anything else happens. (Like cowardly shooting units need more help against close combat units!) I'll discuss more in the Assault Phase post, but wanted to mention it under Shooting, too.

Instant Death still applies if a model suffers an unsaved wound from a weapon with strength double their toughness.

Blast weapons don't roll to hit. Place the marker and roll for scatter, but you subtract the firer's BS from the scatter distance so better shooters are still more accurate. The template determines number of hits only; casualties are removed the same way as other shooting (closest models first). If a model is even partially covered by a template, it counts as being hit, no roll of 4+. It has to touch the base or the torso, not just an arm or weapon or tail.

Grenades: Most types allow one model in the unit to make an 8" shooting attack with the grenade instead of shooting his normal weapon, as well as having other effects. Assault/frag grenades are still used when charging into combat (more on that later) and meltabombs are used in melee attacks against vehicles/buildings, for example.

Assault Weapons and Pistols are the only types of guns you can shoot and still charge (must charge the unit you shot). Rapid Fire weapons can move and then either fire once at full range or twice at half range. Heavy Weapons can fire as normal when stationary or move and fire Snap Shots. So they seem to want to allow for moving and less requirement to stand still in order to shoot effectively. A model with two pistols can fire both!

7th Edition Rules: Psychic Phase

After the move phase is the new psychic phase. I won't go through all the details, but I'll give a high-level overview of this new, old piece of the game.

The number of psychic powers a psyker knows and can use in a turn are equal to his Mastery Level. But if all his known powers come from the same discipline (even if he only has one), he gets the extra Primaris power for that discipline. So even a Mastery Level 1 psyker normally knows two powers.

Unless the psyker's powers are given in his entry list, you pick which discipline you want and roll to see what power you get. A psyker's description says which disciplines he can use. Do this before the battle starts and to determine what powers he knows for the game. Disciplines are Biomancy, Divination, Daemonology (with sub schools Sanctic and Malefic), Pyromancy, Telekinesis, and Telepathy. Some army Codexes have additional Disciplines for that army. There are different levels of powers that determine how hard they are to cast. Both players know what powers you have.

At the start of the Psychic phase, roll a d6. Each player gets a number of Warp Charge dice equal to that d6 roll plus the number of total Mastery Levels of all psykers that player controls. The Psychic Phase ends when the player whose turn it us has no more Warp Charge dice in their pool. Only the player whose turn it is can manifest powers; the other player just tries to Deny the Witch. A psyker can manifest multiple powers in the same turn, but not the same power twice.

To manifest a power, select a psyker, choose a power and a target. Make a psychic test. This involves selecting a number of Warp Charge dice from your pool and rolling them. A result of 4+ means you harnessed that charge and apply it toward casting your power. You need to harness enough charge to equal the Warp Charge level of the power you are casting (1, 2 or 3). If two or more dice roll a 6 (without modifiers), you suffer a Perils of the Warp, which is similar to before ( you can take wounds, lose a power, etc., but one result can actually supercharge your psyker for the turn).

The other player then tries to Deny the Witch. He uses his Warp Charge dice from his pool to do this, just like the other player uses them to manifest powers. For each 6 rolled, you can nullify a harnessed Warp Charge from your opponent. You have to nullify all of their Warp Charges that were successfully harnessed to nullify the power. Thus, a high-level psychic power is both harder to cast and harder to nullify once it is cast. You can get modifiers to the Deny the Witch test if the enemy psychic power targets your psyker's unit. Otherwise, you need a 6.

It sounds like a lot of dice rolling, but the way I read it, the end result should be that most psyker's get to successfully cast their powers on most of their turns. The only way you will see a lot of nullifying is if one player has many more Mastery Levels of psyker's than the other or if you target the enemy's psykers with your powers. If you have an overwhelming psychic advantage like 4 or 5 times as many Mastery Levels, you can neutralize the enemy psyker pretty effectively most turns, depending on the initial d6 roll for a Warp Charge, I would guess.

Strategy to Consider: You select what order you cast powers so your opponent then has to decide how hard to try to nullify it or whether they save their Warp Charge dice for a possibly bigger power coming later that turn.
You decide how many Warp Charge dice to spend on each power. Spending more means a better chance of manifesting the power, but also a better chance of Perils of the Warp. Also, if you successfully cast a Level 2 power with 4 Warp Charge points, your opponent needs to nullify all 4 to Deny the Witch so you can make a power very hard to stop by throwing all you Warp Charge into it at the expense of casting other powers. There is never any risk in attempting to Deny so you opponent can always use all of their dice to stop you. So even if you have more Warp Charge than you need to cast your power, you may want to use extra to prevent it being nullified. You don't have to use them all.
Even if you don't have a psyker, you still get the d6 Warp Charge dice on your opponent's psychic phase (d6 + 0) so you can still try to Deny ( perhaps the vagaries of the Warp, the Daemons, or just the massed willpower and psychic energy of your forces). There will be no psychic phase on your turn.

Note: There are 42 psychic powers in the core rule book alone! Plus many more army-specific powers in Codexes, I am sure. Psychic power is truly worthy of a dedicated phase now. It almost makes me want an army with more powerful psykers (or at least a Weirdboy, something I haven't considered for my army in a long time)!

7th Edition Rules: Movement

Since I am out of town on vacation with the family, I won't be painting any new models this week. But I bought the new rule book before I left and so I'll give you an update on the 7th Edition rules instead. This first post will encompass all the important aspects of moving.

Move Phase: Basic move is 6". Beasts, bikes, and jetbikes move 12". Vertical movement (in a ruin or on a hill) counts for that number of inches of movement.

Run: You can d6" run in the shooting phase, but then cannot shoot or charge that turn. Bikes can Turbo-Boost 12", jetbikes can Turbo-Boost 24", with the same rules as running..

Assault: Nominate the unit you want to charge and roll 2d6" for charge range. If you roll too low to reach the unit, the charge fails and no models are moved.

Difficult Terrain: Roll 2d6" and pick the highest number. Move that amount. Charging from/into/through difficult terrain causes you to subtract 2" from your rolled charge distance. Any model that moves through Dangerous Terrain at any time rolls a d6 and takes a wound on a 1, with normal armor save allowed. Vehicles that roll a 1 become immobilized and lose a hull point.

Jump Packs: Can be used once per turn to either move 12" in the Movement phase or to re-roll charge distance in the Assault phase, but cannot do both in the same turn.

Fleet units can re-roll one or more of the dice when rolling for run or charge distance.

Artillery moves normally as long as there is at least one crew per gun; otherwise they cannot move.

Flyers and Flying Monstrous Creatures are complicated, but basically they zoom around the battlefield in straight lines and can move off the board and then come back on from reserves the next turn.

Gargantuan Creatures and Super-Heavy Walkers move up to12" in the move phase.

Vehicles can be stationary, move at combat speed (6") or cruising speed (12"). The faster they go, the fewer weapons they can fire and the less accurate they are. They can turn all they want. They can elect can move Flat Out in the shooting phase instead of shooting to go another 6".

Fast vehicles move up to 12" when moving Flat Out. Fast Skimmers can move up to 18" when moving Flat Out.

Units can embark on a transport by moving to within 2" of an access point either before or after the vehicle moved. You can't embark and disembark in the same turn. They can disembark either before or after the vehicle moved, as long as it didn't move more than 6". The infantry unit can then make a normal move. They can shoot or run in the shooting phase, but they cannot assault the same turn they disembark unless the transport is open-topped or an Assault vehicle.

Units fall back 2d6". Bikes, jump packs, beasts and cavalry fall back 3d6".

Da Blitzdreg Boyz - My First Painted Army

Warboss Filgakk Skullsplitta' - choppa, slugga, power klaw, 'eavy armor, boss pole: 94 pts
Kreepin' Deff - 10 kommandos - 1 nob w/klaw, 1 burna: 150 pts
Da Krunkerz - 20 boyz w/ sluggas and choppas, 1 nob w/ klaw and boss pole; 2 rokkits: 170 pts
Dakka Boyz - 14 boyz w/ shootas, 1 nob, 1 big shoota: 113 pts
Nadgreb's Runtz - 15 grotz, runtherd w/ squighound: 55 pts
Bad Ork Bike Boyz - 4 bikes: 72 pts
Da Rokkit Ride - warbuggy w/ twin-linked rokkit launchas, grot riggers: 35 pts
Krip da Kan - killa kan w/ rokkit and power klaw: 50 pts

Total: 739 pts

Here it is, the first army I can field with models 100% painted by me. I'm looking forward to getting these bad boyz on the gaming table for a little action. I can't wait to paint up another 260 pts to get my force big enough for respectable games! I have 'ard boyz I converted years ago and am just waiting to paint. And I have a converted skorcha, which would be fun. After that, I'll have just about all of my existing models painted other than a few more boyz so I could actually justify buying something new. This army has plenty of Troops and Fast Attack units already so maybe some more Heavy Support would help by returning some fire at my enemies.

Da Big Boss

I finally have a general for my army. I converted him back in Houston using some Warhammer Fantasy bits from an Orc boss and an ogre. I was going for a pit fighter look. My intention is for the big left hand with the gauntlet/chainsaw to count as a power fist/power klaw. I know it doesn't look as killy as a power klaw, but I figure it looks a lot bigger and stronger than a chain fist on a terminator! Looking back, I wonder if I should have made the huge chain sword stick out the end of his fist in order to look more like a chain fist and less like a chain sword. But being an Evil Sunz boss, I wanted him to look brutal, but also quick and kunnin' in combat.

His skin is a much browner/mossier green and his teeth are browner to represent him being older and tougher than the boyz. Perhaps later I might add a blood splatter on his chain blade and the severed Hydra Legion head. Citadel has a new paint called Blood for the Blood God that is supposed to look like wet gore.

I am ecstatic to finally have an HQ to lead my army. For the first time ever, I can play a legal game of 40k using only models that I painted myself!

Shoota Boyz

With the addition of the three new ones (now based), the shoota boyz are finally starting to resemble a proppa mob. But in order to include both of the big shootas, I will need to add five more boyz to get them up to 20.

With all this dakka, a few shots are bound to hit their targets!

The only problem is that I modeled the nob a long time ago to make him look cool with a big gun, but in game terms, I don't know what I can have that gun represent besides a plain shoota. Maybe I should try to modify the model to make a kombi-skorcha or something. And there is no longer an iron gob wargear item; the boss pole is the item that helps improve morale results now. So he's not really set up to be effective in the game.

First models after a long break

First new Orks painted in many years! Three shoota boyz to bring that mob up to 15. They still need a few detail touch ups and their bases done, but I wanted to post some progress pictures to inspire myself and maybe get my brothers painting again, too. I'll work on how to post better pictures, but I'm happy with this start.

These guys ended up with a lot of red highlights between the face paint and hair. I like the one who is stabbing with his knife. Just because they have shootas doesn't mean this mob doesn't want to get stuck in! It is hard to tell from the photos, but the ork in the center has a chain strap on his shoota to add a little something unique.

Next up, I really need a Warboss. I've been putting it off, but if I am going to play, I need to finally paint one!