A return to the 40k

On some grim world in the 40k universe.....

Over the last few weeks I have been busy building and painting a Blood Angels army after finding myself being drawn into the world of games workshop. Now I know a few years ago myself and my dad sold off a number of 40k armies as we had just stopped enjoying the games and the rules and the pricing at games workshop left a lot to desired. However I have always kept a eye out on what was happening at Gamesworkshop and the introduction of the 8th edition 40k rules peeked my interest. When my dad kindly suggested going half on the Dark imperium starter box set I thought why not. My dad has already done the space marines before so he said he would collect the Death Guard army and I opted to use the Blood Angels chapter as my space marine army. Over the weeks I have gradually added extras to my army and although it is a work in progress I have amassed enough points for a decent 1500pt army after some late nights of painting.

Blood Angels tactical squad and primaris Captain in Gravis armour

'Come on if ya think ya hard enough' Lord of Contagious and death guard marines defend a objective

At the weekend we played our third game and (probably first proper game)after a couple of games play testing and getting to understand how our armies work (and 

It's of viewing people's games on YouTube..a massive help) First impressions are very favourable, the rules have lost all there clunkiness, gone are angles and different speeds for vehicles, template weapons , deep striking randomisation and so on and so on from the last edition my dad and I played (6th) What is left is a stripped down set of rules which once again feel fun to play. Yes it is still brutal, none more so than when my Baal predator tank almost wiped out a entire squad of cultists in one round of shooting, before the cultists could do anything to respond but that is the nature of the game, you will be on the receiving end yourself in the following turn of some serious damage somewhere, and at the end of the day we are talking about weapons of the future here, plasma guns, meltas, power fists, so you could say it is expected. 

Primaris marines move through the ruins in support of the Baal predator

Chaos terminators deep strike behind my marine lines... This is one of favourite changes to the game, the fact you just place the models where you want them to arrive(as long as it's more than 9" from an enemy model, but it can charge if it rolls the right distance on 2d6). Long gone are the days of landing in a terrain area and losing your whole squad of assault terminators before they are even placed on the table.

Pox walkers wait in the cover of the ruined building readying themselves for the wall of marine fire about to come their way if they venture out the ruins

The best way to deal with deep striking terminators, send your Gravis armoured wearing Primaris captain complete with a master crafted power sword, after deflecting the wounding hits from the terminators with his halo invulnerable save the blood Angels primaries captain bests his traitors opponents

Flying plague drones lead hordes of plague bearers towards a blood Angels held objective

An inceptor squad deeps strikes into the game opening up with a serious number of shots that hammer the plague bearers whose demonic save and disgustingly resilient save desert them before jumping into the few straggling plague bearers and fighting close combat. Another new rule I like is the fact you can fall out of a melee when it's your turn although this is the only action you can do, unless your a flier where you can still shoot, which in the case of the incestors is very handy indeed

A Deamon Prince arrives from the skies to help the plague drones over come the marine tactical squad  and claim the objective marker

My blood Angels assault terminators and captain deep strike into the heart of enemy territory, alas they failed their charge role but with their excellent invulnerable saves they weathered the physic spells launched onto them

The pox walkers despite all their attacks (40in all) were still no match for the Sanguinary guard who passed armour saves for fun, this objective in the ruins was contested for two turns, only in the final turn 5 and with a hand from the Intercessor squad did I manage to claim the victory points for it

The last Intercessor bravely fights the plague bearers in the desperate attempt to keep them away from the objective

The tactical squad are valiant in the defence of the objective but fall to the twin claws of the Deamon prince after a final blast from the heavy flames brings down yet more plague bearers 

With two of the objectives secure the Baal predator turns its attention to the daemon prince but it's twin assault cannon and heavy bolted have little effect on it.

The Assault terminators and captain in terminator armour charge into combat with the Lord of Contagious and his death guard marines eventually over coming their hated foe claiming the points for the objective.

The end of turn 5 sees my blood Angels snatch victory from my dads Nurgle host as I manage to hold three of the four objectives until the end of the turn scoring three points to mydads one point. At the end of turn four we had been deadlocked , a little more luck in my dads psychic phase during the last turn could have seen the result been in his favour but it wasn't to be and the emperors troops reigned supreme 

The final picture of the game

The game was excellent and a very tight run affair, I really enjoyed the game and using the new rules. The future looks good for 40k 👍