Firebase Issue 05

December 2007 Issue #5
Art by Aerion the Faithful (Nicolas)
Table of Contents
IN THIS ISSUE
Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Firebase Staff go Apocalypse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Army Showcase: 11th Vostroyan . . . . . . . . . . 10 Battle Report: LatD Rats vs. Orks. . . . . . . . . . 15 Rival Species: Half Life Mod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Kill Team: The Sequel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Kroot Mercenaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Book Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Club Quest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Battle Report: New Chaos vs. Tau . . . . . . . . . 51 Conversion Workshop: Aquilla Lander . . . . . . 60 Painting Workshop: Tyranids. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Specialist Games Section. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Fiction: Thrice-Wise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Next Issue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
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Firebase Issue #5 December 2007
Editorial
EDITORIAL
A Moment of Laxity Spawns a Lifetime of Heresy Theyve nally released me out of the brig and I have been promoted to Captain! For those of you who don't know me, Im Brandon Vallee and Ive been on the FIREBASE team since the very beginning. When I heard that FIREBASE had fallen into turmoil with no one at the helm and all the content lost, I felt it was my duty to steer the mag back from the brink of annihilation and give it new life. With the start of issue #5, FIREBASE is going to take on a whole new light! Backed up by an incredible team of talented staff who contribute some of the best work I have ever seen, were going to tackle new feats and uncover new areas of the hobby. Hell, were even going to sponsor a tournament team to help spread the word! So go tell all your friends that FIREBASE is back! Bigger, stronger and a whole lot crazier! SPREAD THE WORD! -Brandon Where in the hell is my copy of FIREBASE? Admiral Smith slammed his st down on the table. B-but sir, there have beentechnical difculties. the orderly trembled. What kind of difculties? Well sir, its thethe chosen one you appointed. What about him? Well sirhe, a grin split the orderlys weasley features, hes buggered off! Buggered off!? Cavorting with foul, tentacled xenos, or so the rumour goes. Emperor damn it! Get me Captain Brandon on the double! For a moment it looked as though our beloved mag would come crashing down, destroying my faith in all things good and pure and free! To make matters worse, graphics guru Steve had a baby! (Now theres a disturbing image) Suddenly the FIREBASE fuel cells were left empty and with no captain or pilot, who would navigate her? Brandon of course! -Adam
FIREBASE STAFF
Brandon Vallee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editor Mike Glaeser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Co-Editor Adam Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Advisor Jon Mattison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Designer Brian Solomon . . . . . . . . . . . Misre Comic Artist Gabriel Schrock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Copy Editor Ben Skinner . . . . . Specialist Games Sub-Editor Lefteris Gavalas . . . . . . . . . . . . .Public Relations
FIREBASE is published every three months in association with Warseer.com. All text and layout remains the copyright of FIREBASE. FIREBASE is a fully independent publication and its views are not the views of any company mentioned herein. All characters and artwork shown in this magazine remain the and trademark of their respective owners. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the express permission of the Editor or Deputy Editor. FIREBASE can accept no responsibility for inaccuracies or complaints arising from editorial or advertising within this magazine. All letters and emails received will be considered for publication, but we cannot always provide personal replies. This fanzine is completely unofcial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited. FIREBASE is a nonprot making fanzine with the aim of promoting Games Workshop games, products and hobby.
Firebase Staff goes Apocalypse
MOVIN ON UP
The FIREBASE staff reveals their plans and preparations for apocalyptic scale conicts!
TOO MUCH ON MY HANDS!

By: Brandon Vallee So how do I plan on expanding to Apocalypse? I am all ready there the issue boils down to getting all the models I have painted *whistles*. Dont get me wrong; I do have a couple things I need to buy. My recently acquired Rapid Insertion Force needs a couple of Broadsides, or those new Ork Bikers coming out in January (Plenty of conversion ideas, I cant wait!). But I really need to crack down, get the brushes out and start painting. Especially since I have so many projects that are on the verge of being nished. My 5000 point pure Grey Knight
Brandon expands his Imperial Guard with these Work-In-Progress shots.
army (Its crazy I know!) with 2500 points of drop troop Imperial Guard inspired by the movie Aliens, my 3000 point Kroot Mercenary army (Before I start buying Great Knarlocs or some of those new Cold Ones), my 3500 point Cities of Death based mechanized Tau army (My next tournament army), and nally my 3500 points of Hells Angels Space Marines with 70 or so converted bikers are all in the queue. I have a lot of projects to nish so I might not even be able to plan anything specically for Apocalypse by the time I have everything else painted and ready to go! There are no massive expansion projects, just boring painting. I like converting models, not so much painting though!
RALLY VOSTROYA!
By: Mike Glasear There are dark forces gathering strength, ready to annihilate the Imperium with massive numbers. The Age of Apocalypse is upon us and the Emperor is calling for able-bodied men to defend the realm of mankind. The planet of Vostroya, bound by an ancient decree, continues to assemble, arm, and supply regiment after regiment of Imperial Guard. The 11th Vostroyan Imperial Artillery Regiment is no different. My 2000 point list includes 117 infantry models alongside two Leman Russ tanks. If anyone knows anything about the Guard, those numbers are not enough! I recently received some tanks from a friend, which brings my armour up to seven Leman Russ, two Exterminators, one Vanquisher, one Demolisher, two Chimeras and a Hellhound. Funny
thing is, my regiment is based around artillery so I cant just be a treadhead right? I have three Forge World Heavy Mortars ready to rain Griffon strength templates down on The Emperors enemies. Add in some Thudd Guns and two Earthshaker chassis and my opponents will be forced to deploy in neat little lines to avoid massive blasts. What about the infantry? A third platoon is in the works with autocannons and plasma guns. That is another 35 models and another important leadership bubble to ensure they do not run away as soon as a Hierophant appears. One thing Im looking forward to elding is the Imperial Guard High Command. This squad was Chapter Approved in WD 306 and allows me to eld a mighty crusading general with all his aides. I am using fantasy movement trays to create a playable scene with ofcers yelling across battle maps as they maneuver their massive armies into
position. It makes perfect sense to eld this unit both game wise and background-wise. May the Emperor be with you fellow commanders.
See the rest of Mikes army in our Showcase
I QUIT!
By: Adam Smith Generally disgusted by the new Chaos codex, I decided to sell everything! Not the best start for branching out into Apocalypse I must admit. In my latest scheme to quit this addictive hobby, I turned my attention to something new. I wanted a powerful army to kick some serious bottom in any point level of the game. I found the greater good! Destined to achieve peace through superior repower, the Tau have plenty of railguns to put down any Baneblade or titan, so its not surprising that I went a little crazy and bought over 3000 points worth of the blighters. The plan is to buy everything in the codex, allowing me to mix and match as I see t and try out a full variety of options. Best of all, Ill never have to worry about future rules revisions, especially with 5th edition poking its ugly head around the corner! With twelve battle suits, 84 infantry and twelve vehicles to paint, I have my work cut out for me. But once thats all done, I think a rail gun armed Tiger Shark will nish it off nicely and maybe Forge Worlds ShasO Rmyrs too!
Clockwise from top: Adom shows off his Battlesuits, detail painting and base coating station.
YOU CANT HANDLE THE TRUTH!

By: Brian Solomon My Word Bearers Chaos Space Marine army was started in anticipation of both the new Codex and Apocalypse, so expansion into 3000 points and onward was always a goal. Ten years in the hobby has left me with a nearly endless bits box, this has been an opportunity to try out conversions and army selections that wouldve been impractical or completely unusable before. After all, who needs two Dreadnoughts and thirty Terminators? Well, me. Now. The centerpieces of this army will be the superheavies. In addition to turning a Baneblade
into a Traitor Fellblade, and building not one, but two Brass Scorpions, Im also acquiring several old Armorcast Titans and am looking into scratch-building an Adeptus Mechanicus Traitor Thunderhawk. Eventually I plan to call down the Dark Pantheon and lead a crusade to topple the False Emperor from his Terran throne, which will be fairly convenient, seeing as were already here. Nothing pleases the Chaos Gods like skimping a bit on gas mileage.
Brian shows off a busy work bench and a decade worth of bitz.
STURM GRENADIERS, AWAY!

By: Gabriel Schrock Originally, though chilled to the bone with excitement at the prospect of fun rules and amazing new models, Apocalypses release alone could not prompt me to lay a single brush upon my collection of Imperial Guard. Only after I agreed to partake in an Apocalypse game planned for the rst Powers of the North gaming group meeting of 2008 did I feel a slight twinge of uncertainty in myself. One of the few rules for this event included fully painted armies. The simplest way to increase my armys size was to add a Baneblade. That was an easy point sink! To ll out the rest of my army I became a little more creative. With Apocalypse there is no reason why I cant use my Megasaurmounted Commissar using the Chapter Approved Creature Feature One rules or an elaborate monument turned into a turret emplacement. Finally, the centerpiece for my combined regiment of Vostroyans and blitzkrieg styled Grenadiers will take its form from a G.I. Joe Sigma 6 Dragonhawk toy. My ideal orbital lander will be able to y from one side of a massive table to another, rapidly deploying a squad of Storm Troopers and two battle tanks into the thick of battle! Apocalypse has given me a new lease on the way I look at toys, old and new, for modeling opportunities in the name of The God-Emperor. Duty and Honour!
TAU CATCH A RIDE

By: Jon Mattison Throughout my gaming career I have always favored the infantry-heavy lists regardless of army. More models means more guns. More models means more casualties I can absorb. Several years ago I bought a box of sprues for $100 US from a Blood Angels player who thought they would try out a shooty army and ended up hating it. This pile of sprues must have gained magical powers or something because before I found the bottom of the box I was able to assemble 48 Firewarriors, 20 Kroot, 16 Crisis suits, 3 Broadsides and 3 Devilsh/Hammerheads (with removable turrets) and more Drones than I care to count. I have since added 8 Pathnders, 12 Stealth suits and another 20 Kroot. When the plastic Piranhas came out I picked up 3, as well as converted up a Sniper Drone Squad. At last count I was ready for Apocalypse without any more purchases.... but who can resist! So with a mortgage looming and a sceaming child starving (not really) I snuck off and called Neal @ The Warstore for the Armoured Interdiction Force as well as the Space Marines Line Breaker Squadron. (Some bundles are just too good to pass up.) I dont really need any more Hammerheads but now I have the parts to build a Skyray if I wish but I intend to build them as Devilsh to give Mechanized Assault a try.
Army Showcase - 11th Vostroyan Imperial Artillery Regiment
ARMY SHOWCASE
Mike discusses his 11th Vostroyan Imperial Artillery Regiment and current W.I.P. projects with Firebase. Firebase: How many articles is this for you? Mike: Ive had a few. I submitted two solo articles (converting snow tables and the DH vs Necron batrep) and then added commentary and uff to a few others. Im gonna say six submissions in total so far! FB: How long have you been in this hobby? Mike: I got my rst models six years ago. I admit, they were space marines...but cool ones at that. My white primer was mislabled and actually turned
Left: Graf-General Mikhail Augusts Vladkov of the Vostroyan 11th Imperial Artillery (shown at right). Inset: The emblem and motto of the Vostroyan 11th featured on a lifesize banner.
out to be gold spray! It was all ok since it looked quite nice next to the old storm blue paint. All I have left from them is a single shoulderpad. I plan on adding it to a priest and using it as a holy relic. After the marines, I have played orks, DH and now my Vostroyans. Since I started, Ive been to four GTs in three different states, I ran my own RTT, visited Nottingham and just this year nally made it to
Gamesday. The current plan is to attack this years Baltimore GT as a member of Team Firebase! More on that later... FB: How long have you been painting at this caliber? Mike: Believe it or not, I havent been doing this long. My rst two armies were horrible. I even used those testor model airplane paints in the glass bottles *shudders*. The change slowly came
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Clockwise from top: Commanding ofcers of the regiment gather; Hardened veterans steel themselves for a Tyranid attack; Led by one of the regiments commissars, the Firstborn meet the Tyranid assault; Full army shot.
about with my daemonhunters. I started applying basic techniques which gave my models a much improved look. The Vostroyans are but the current step in the process. You can never really stop and say I have mastered it all. There is always something new to try. The painting on these Vostroyans is not at all difcult. I use two tricks on them. First, I highlight the cloaks with camo green BEFORE I drybrush them with the same color. The drybrushing blends the highlight in with the cloak which doesnt make it stand out as much. The more important trick is the ink wash. It is amazing what ink can do. Paint your metallics and wash until you receive the desired shade. Its that simple. On the heavily armored Vostroyans, the effect is fantastic. FB: Do you still have time to play after all the painting? Mike: I used to game a lot when I rst started, but now Im favoring the hobby side of the game. I still
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try to play tournaments and show up at my local shop every now and then ready to duke it out. I do have the time, but there is always something else to paint. FB: How long does it take for you to paint a model/ squad? Mike: When I rst started the Vostroyans last September, I was painting a squad a week. Most of my infantry was knocked out by January leaving me plenty of time to mess with conversions and Forgeworld stuff. Ive slowed down my painting line a bit but Im really happy that the consistency has remained the same over the better part of a year. I give a generous amount of time to character models. Even then, I usually nish them in two or three days and they are usually well received when I show them off. Converting is my favorite though. I always have time for it. The metal Vostroyan line proved a challenge since there were few models with easy conversion potential. Still, if you attack long enough, youll be successful. I was able to take a dead model (from the platoon box) and the heavy bolter gunner and turn them into prone snipers. The lascannon gunner has become a prototype rough rider with the addition of Attilan legs and my vets all have sawed off shotguns and some headswaps. FB: Are there any upcoming projects you are working on? Mike: When I need a break from all the guard and green paint, I work on my showcase army. I am building a force called The Eisenstein Grey Knights. They are based on the theory that Garro and the Eisenstein survivors become the rst members of the secretive Grey Knights chapter.
Top to Bottom, Left to Right: Graf-General Vladkov discusses battle orders on the ice world of Tarna; Cherub mortar loaders; Members of the regiments snipers race to secure an abandoned building; Battle commences on Tarna
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Each terminator and justicar has his heraldy shield which bears the color and symbol of his old legion. Garro is my grandmaster and Iacton Qruze represents the Luna Wolves as a brother captain. The biggest addition to this army is my Thunderhawk, the Eisenstein. Its currently a WIP and denately a challenge. They werent kidding when they said experienced modellers only! FB: Have you been to any events? Mike: I attended the Baltimore Gamesday and submitted a few entries. My Isildur and Vostroyan command squads made rst cut. My treebeard model received honorable mention. Ive also earned best painted in my local league and one of my Vostroyan squads earned a silver Golden Angel which is hosted by GWFanworld. I am really looking forward to the Baltimore GT because I will be teaming up with Brandon and others to represent Firebase! Move aside foes of the Imperium for the Imperial Guard ghts for Emperor and an online magazine! FB: Any tips or suggestions for aspiring artists? Mike: Start strong and nish strong. By starting strong, I mean setting up a good, ergonomic work area. Surround yourself with good lighting...either daylight, or daylight bulbs. Get a comfortable chair that has a backrest and hight adjustment. Raise or lower your table to a comfortable level. Do this and youll nd yourself painting comfortably, longer. Your back and eyes will thank you. By nishing strong I refer to touch-ups. Leaving mistakes showing has no excuse. It can really detract from a models appearance. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle! FB: Well thank you Mike for the interview and I look forward to meeting up with you at Baltimore!
Clockwise from top: WIP Veterans awaiting nal basing and gun barrels; Final Earthshaker with Crew; Early Earthshaker.
Be sure to check out further projects at http://warseer.com/forums/science-ction-project-logs/47919-duty-and-honor-an-ig-project-log.html
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Clockwise from top: Graf-General Mikhail Augusts Vladkov receives Leopard Shako before Baltimore GT; Lascannon support squad for Baltimore GT; Commisar means business with a Shovel; Early Leman Russ.
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Battle Report - Lost and the Damned Rats vs. Orks - 1500 points
BATTLE REPORT: 1500 POINTS

THE MUTANT HORDE OF SKEY-FENN
Aspiring Champion Skyre: Mark of Chaos Undivided; pair of master-crafted lightning claws; daemonic strength; daemonic mutation; frags Mutant ratmen (30): rearms, frags, 2 amers; boss has power weapon, kraks Aspiring Champion Moulder: Mark of Chaos Undivided; powerst; bolt pistol; spiky bits; daemonic mutation Mutant ratmen (30): rearms, frags, 2 amers; boss has power weapon, kraks The Obliterats (3, allied): Swiss army guns Possessed vermin marines (7): Mark of Undivided; daemonic talons; champion with daemonic visage; frags Traitor pest control ofcers (5): shotguns, amer Traitor pest control ofcers (5): shotguns, amer Gibbering hordes of rats (8) Traitor Hellhound The Hell Rat: inferno cannon, heavy bolter, pintle heavy stubber; smokes; extra armour; rough terrain modication Traitor Leman Russ The Leman Rodent: battle cannon, hull and sponson heavy bolters; smokes; extra armour; rough terrain modication (1500pt, 92 models)
Aspiring Champion Skyre
DA FIFTY FIFF BAD REDZ BRIGADE

Warboss Kurgan: Choppa, Power Klaw, Iron Gob, Eavy Armour, Bionik Bonce, Cybork Body Mek: Kustom Force Field, Kustom Slugga (S5,A2), Meks Tools Nobz (5): Eavy Armour, Bionik Bonce, 2x Power Klaw, 4x Kustom Slugga (S5,A2), 3x Choppa, 1x Big Shoota Boss Skabgit: Slugga & Choppa, Iron Gob Slugga Boyz (19): Slugga & Choppa, 3 Big Shootas Boss Skarfang: Power Klaw, Slugga, Iron Gob Slugga Boyz (19): Slugga & Choppa, 3 Rokkit Launchas Boss Gobthug: Choppa, Big Shoota, Big Horns, Krak Stikkbombz Slugga Boyz (13): Slugga & Choppa, 3 Big Shootas Wyrdboy Frunk Zappa: (Counts as Mekboy with Kustom Mega Blasta) Choppa Minderz (5) (Count as Burna Boyz): Slugga & Choppa Slaver Grotstompa: Rokkit Launcha, Choppa Grots (10): Grot Blaster Killer Kan: Big Shoota, Armour Plates Killer Kans (2): Big Shoota, Armour Plates Looted Leman Russ Da Stinka: Battle Cannon, 3 Heavy Bolters, Armour Plates, Red Paint Job, Grot Riggers (1496 points, 82 models)
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THE MUTANT HORDE OF SKEY-FENN
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Warfarin, Vermin Lord of Skey-Fenn was watching. Yet another infestation of off-worlders had happened across his domain. Warfarin was watching the Orks as they searched among the rubble. Little did the green-skinned parasites know that the ruined city was but the tip of Warfarins vast under-empire, an unchartable labyrinth of sewers, drains, conduits and tunnels that relentlessly changed as roofs caved in and oods constantly shifted detritus to block and unblock passageways. On many previous occasions, Warfarin had watched human vermin scout out his decaying metropolis, doomed fools attempting to reclaim the wreckage of a city they had once built. They had been watched, ambushed and exterminated. But these Orks were different. They seemed to have a real appreciation of the precious salvage that was to be found among the debris. Despite himself, Warfarin recognised a kindred spirit. But he also recognised competition. The rusting, lth-encrusted treasures of the devastated city belonged to him! No matter. He would send a few of his minions, the numberless swarms of ratmen who dwelt beneath the ruins of Skey-Fenn, to exterminate the Orks as they had done the humans. He would allow two of his aspiring undertyrants, Skyre and Moulder, to take this opportunity to prove their loyalty to him, or die. And he would lead the SkeyFenn way: from the back.
MISSION
Phil and Saul decided to play the Secure & Control scenario at alpha level. The scenario represented the Orks and rat-mutants ghting over scrap metal, second hand weapons and rubbish in the cursed city of Skey-Fenn. Alpha level is great for playing horde armies in character because when the objective is all that matters, the players can sacrice their minions without fear of the consequences in terms of victory points! They decided to allow inltration, because it t the background.
Overhead view of the battleeld. Lost and the Damned deployed on the Northern edge, Orks on the Southern.
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DEPLOYMENT
Phil deployed the mutant horde of Skey-Fenn along most of the northern edge of the battleeld. The two units of 30 ratmen (Mutants) held each ank, supported by the Hell Rat (Hellhound) on
the west and the Leman Rodent (Leman Russ) on the east. Moulder, the aspiring champion armed with the lamppost (viz. power st) led the eastern Mutant horde facing off against the two Killer Kans. Champion Skyre, with his twin lightning claws led the west ank where most of the Ork infantry was amassing. The three Obliterats made themselves
comfortable on the roof of a building in the centre from which they could cover all but one of the objectives. The rat swarm (eight Gibbering Hordes) and seven Possessed also deployed in the centre, while two squads of ve pest control ofcers (Traitors) inltrated into easy reach of the central objective.
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DEPLOYMENT
Saul deployed Skarfans Boyz: a 20-strong mob of Slugga and Rokkit Boyz on the west ank, supported by Frunk Zzappa: a Wyrdboy, and his Mindaz (using the rules for a Mek armed with a
Kustom Mega Blasta as a stand-in for psychic powers the Gets Hot rule representing the chances of the Wyrdboy overloading himself!). Just to the east of them Skabgits Boyz: another 20 Ork mob of Slugga and Big Shoota Boyz supported a by Looted Leman Russ and a single Killer Kan. In the centre of the battleeld, behind a solid block
of impassable buildings, were Skabgits Boyz: another 20 Boy mob of Slugga and Big Shoota Boyz was backed-up by 10 Grots and a Slaver with a Rokkit Launcher and a squadron of two Killer Kans. Phil (Chaos) rolled rst turn and the battle commenced
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TURN 1
The Vermin Tide of Skey-Fenn surged forward, the Possessed claiming the objective immediately before them with a view to guarding it viciously (and well out of sight of any Ork guns) for a long as it took. One unit of Traitors held their ground on the central objective, while the others headed east to seek targets for their shotguns and amer. The shooting phase didnt get off to a great start for the ratmen as the Leman Rodents battle canon shell scattered and managed to miss the Ork horde completely. The Hell Rat was out of inferno canon range, but gunned down three of the Wyrdboys minders with its heavy stubber and heavy bolter. The Wyrdboy turned to ee but immediately mobbed-up with the nearby rokkit Boyz. The Obliterats morphed heavy bolters and cut down seven Slugga Boyz approaching the south west objective. The Orks also surged forward in their turn. Rounding the impassable buildings on the east ank, the Gretchin dropped into the cover of a trench and Skarfangs Rokkit Boyz opened re on the ratmen. The Mutants on the eastern ank came under re from the Killer Kans but only two died. The Ork Slaver with the rokkit launcher had got his Grot retinue to dig him into the trench opposite the Leman Rodent but his missile failed to damage the rusting battle tank. The Obliterats came under a hail of re from the heavy bolters of the Orks Looted Leman Russ, but it took the Big Shootas of Gobthugs Boyz to kill one of the rodent-robot monstrosities
Heavy boots splashed though pools of stagnant water. Gobthugs Slugga Boyz followed the rumbling tank that was once a Leman Russ as it trundled through the muddy streets. The tank pulled up at a corner and all three of its heavy bolters let rip at some distant target. Most of Gobthugs ladz had no clue what the Looted Russ was ring at but joined in the fusillade anyway. Luckily the Boss gave the mobs Big Shootas to the most alert Boyz and they aimed at the same spot that the tank was bombarding a low building with some sort of mutant creatures lurking on the roof. Gigantic rat-like monstrosities that seemed to have weapons instead of arms!
The Obliter-rats weapon-arms twisted and transformed into energy weapons, crimson beams splashed across the looted Leman Russs dozer blade and front armour, burning paint and blistering the metal. For a moment that seemed like an hour the tank sat silent, except for the plink-pop noise of cooling metal. Then the heavy bolters started ring again and Gobthug laughed with pure joy as he pulled the trigger on his Big Shoota once more. On the west ank, neither Wyrdboy nor Rokkits could stop the Hell Rat bringing its dreaded inferno cannon into range.
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Wyrdboy Frunk twitched and shook as his Minderz hustled him forward. He was already levitating small pebbles and bits of scrap metal so he wasnt keen on getting closer to the front line. As the small group approached Skarfangs large mob of Rokkit Boyz the Wyrdboy started shouting and struggling against the vice-like grip of his guards. Saliva ran from the corner of his mouth and he gritted his teeth and twisted in agony. He tried his best to hang onto his copper staff, which was earthing the Waaagh! energy into the ground but Gronk, the biggest of the Minderz, wrenched it from his hand. Without the energy-sink draining the power from his body his eyes rolled back into his head, he sagged limply between the two beefy Orks holding his arms and rose slowly into the air! The Minders did their best to point him head-rst towards the oncoming enemy tank, but it was like struggling with an umbrella in a strong wind. Suddenly sparks sprayed from his Frunks mouth and the Minderz only just managed to get him pointed at the clanking armoured machine ahead of them when a gout of green lightning erupted from the Warheads throat. The blast ew wide and the Orks tried to correct their aim, but they were also trying not to laugh like maniacs as the psychic feed-back messed with their heads. Gronk jammed the copper staff back into frunks hand and he dropped back to the ground, feet rst with the help of the Ork Boyz. They hurried him forward, following the Rokkit Boyz in order to get another shot at full power. OBJECTIVES: Chaos: 3 ; Orks: 1
TOP: Wyrdboy Frunk advances with his guards. BOTTOM: First turn action at the center of the table.
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TURN 2
The rodent horde rushed forward again, eager to get claw-to-claw with the enemy. With thundering roar the Leman Rodents battle canon red again, scattered again, but this time did some damage one diminutive grot was blown apart! His unit didnt even notice hed gone. But the Hell Rats inferno canon was now in range and ve Rokkit Boyz met their ery doom in the southwest corner of the battleeld. The remaining two Obliterats sprouted lascannons and laid into the Orks tank, but it was too well protected behind a building for them to damage it. The Orks ran forward too the armies would soon be ghting the old-fashioned way! In the meantime, the Leman Rodent survived another Rokkit from the Ork Slaver skulking in the trench, and the Obliterats were unaffected by the combined efforts of the looted tank, western Killer Kan and ve Orks Big Shootas. The Killer Kans and slugga boys on the eastern ank took out ve rat mutants however and three Rokkits were enough to stun the Hell Rat and silence its inferno cannon for the moment at least. The two machines made a terrible noise together. Their crude hydraulic legs propelled them forward erratically while their vicious clawed hands open and closed with clanking enthusiasm. All their joints squealed and creaked in protest at the poor level of maintenance recently administered. Big Shoota shells spewed continuously at the hordes of mutated rat-men that scurried towards them in a writhing mass of pink tails and rusty looted weapons. The jolting gait of the Killer Kans was no great aid to the Orks already poor marksmanship and the heavy solid slugs rarely found a target but neither Ork Kan Pilot really cared, they felt invulnerable in the steel-bellied creations and revelled in the feeling of proppa Orkyness: Big is Better. Might is Right. OBJECTIVES: Chaos: 3 ; Orks: 1
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TURN 3
Still the rats scurried across the battleeld, wormlike tails twitching in anticipation of sinking their teeth into waxy green esh. Any minute now it was all going to go off. One of the Traitors managed a sneaky shot round the corner behind the two Killer Kans and incinerated a surprised Slugga Boy. The other Traitors took out three Slugga Boyz from the unit accompanying the Looted Leman Russ. The Obliterats red at the Leman Russ again and this time stunned it. The crew of the Leman Rodent decided to abandon their battle canon in favour of the heavy bolters and a torrent of re tore apart the top trench concealing the Rokkit-wielding Slaver. But again, the only damage was nothing more than one dead grot! At last the rats were close enough for proper ghting and vicious assaults erupted across the battleeld: To the west, the rat-mutant horde squeezed between dilapidated mine workings and a slag heap to make contact with Skarfangs Rokkit Boyz. Leading the assault, the lighting clawwielding champion Skyre cut down three Orks where they stood, and his followers, temporarily deprived of any targets, piled in around him to engage the green-skinned foe. Towards the centre of the table, the rat swarm owed past the Leman Russ to engage the Slugga Boy. 32 attacks from the rats killed ve Orks who could do no damage in return but piled in to avenge their fallen mates. Meanwhile, on the eastern ank Moulder whirled his lamppost around his head as he hurtled towards the two Killer Kans. The clanking Ork machines took out two of his squeaking minions
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their green bodies to bloody shreds even as they tried to ee the battle. Without stopping, the swarm surged forward to help their bigger cousins. Over on the eastern side of the eld the Ork Boyz attacked the ratmen who had surrounded the Killer Kans. More than 60 attacks from the Orks crude weapons killed no less than 13 of the Mutants! But Moulder was concentrating on the two Killer Kans: With a squeal of straining metal his lamppost buckled the side of one and hurled it into the other with such force that both machines exploded in a shower of rusty shrapnel. As the smoke and dust cleared, two Orks and three more mutants lay dead among the wreckage. But despite being decimated by this round of combat, the ratmen were not going anywhere and rolled snake eyes for their morale check! OBJECTIVES: Chaos: 4 ; Orks: 1
but what should have been a penetrating hit from his street furniture was deected by roughlywelded armour plates! The only Orks able to shoot now were the single Killer Kan and the persistent, trench-bound Rokkit launcher, but they missed the Obliterats and Leman Rodent respectively. The Warboss and his bodyguard of Eavy Armoured Nobz eagerly joined in the combat with the ratmen on the south west ank. Waaaghing heartily and doubling their initiative, both Ork units and the Warboss laid into the ratmen, but the furry ends attacked back viciously. Ten kills to each side spelled a very bloody drawn combat, as even more warriors piled in to the scrap. In the meantime, the rat swarm completely overwhelmed its opponents (foolishly ignored by the Big Shoota and Slugga-armed Ladz), and tore
24
TURN 4
Saul and Phil agreed that this would be the last turn because time was running out, so the Traitors moved to try and hold or contest as many objectives as possible. Although the Obliterats failed to damage the Orks tank, the Hell Rat drove forward and managed to destroy the remaining Killer Kan with a burst of aming promethium, even as it tried to hide behind a slag heap. And the Leman Rodent killed (yes youve guessed it) another grot! The western assault saw four dead Orks and a wounded Nob in exchange for 12 slaughtered Mutants! It took Skyres morale check re-roll to keep them in the ght. Meanwhile in the other combat, seven Orks and ve ratmen died leaving Moulder alone and completely surrounded by angry greenskins. In the Orks nal turn, the Looted Leman Russ trundled forward, exposing its side armour to the Obliterats, safe in the knowledge they had had their last shot of the game. But its three heavy bolters only scored one hit on the Traitors holding the central objective and that one didnt wound! However, the position of the tank meant that it was now contesting the central objective as well as holding the southwest one. The Ork Slaver in the trench tried one last shot with his Rokkit launcher. He hit, he penetrated the armour, and the Leman Rodent was immobilised. Get a move on ya gitz! Slaver Grotstompa roared at the cowering Gretchin. Further down the trench there was some scurrying and scrabbling and eventually a Rokkit was presented to the angry Ork. A single Grot raised
25
his head about the parapet and it was smashed into a red mist by the near constant thundering of three rat-mutant crewed Heavy Bolters laying down heavy suppressive re on their muddy sanctuary. The sight of another of his herd killed made, the already furious, Grotstompa incandescent with rage but this time it was directed at the strange tank that had kept them pinned down for the entire battle. With immense self-control he slowly slid the Rokkit Launcha over the upper edge of the trench and took careful aim. From his low vantage point he was sure he could hit the weaker belly-armour of the smoking beast. Heavy Bolter shells splashed him with lth as the exploded in the ground around his head as he squeezed the trigger. For a few seconds after the ery burst of its warhead the Rokkits smokey spiral vapour-trail hung in the air. The enemy vehicle couldnt be seen through the smoke but as it cleared the Ork could see that a whole section of the strange wooden drive-mechanism had be torn and shattered! Spinters of the oversized wheels and the bodies of hundreds of rats rained down around the smoking vehicle. That tank was going no-where now! The objective was now uncontested! In the nal frantic combats of the game, Skyre missed with all his attacks and six more ratmen gave their lives in exchange for two Orks, a Nob and the Wyrdboy. The rats passed their morale check even as, across the eld, Moulders lamppost toppled as he quickly disappeared under a pile of Ork warriors. As the dust cleared, Phil and Saul realised that Saul had snatched a draw from the jaws of defeat: One objective each, two contested and one uncontested. OBJECTIVES: Chaos: 1 ; Orks: 1
Warfarin, Vermin Lord of Skey-Fenn was still watching. He watched the lone Moulder succumb to the Orks even as he smashed their machinery apart with his lamppost. He watched Skyre battle on as his ratmen were cut down around him. But Warfarin was indifferent. He had watched countless millions of his rodent minions die before. The hordes beneath Skey-Fenn were numberless and their lives were cheap. Sacrices had to be made if he was to remain Lord of his colossal under-empire. Yes, Warfarin admitted to himself, he had perhaps slightly underestimated this greenskin infestation. Such was their appreciation for quality salvage that they had been determined enough to snatch some plunder, but he would soon reclaim it. Even as he watched, he could hear the pattering of a million clawed feet and the distorted echoes of the ratmens squeaking as they swarmed along the pipes and tunnels towards the surface to reinforce the mutants among the ruins above. It would not be long before these latest pests were eradicated. Warfarin, Vermin Lord of Skey-Fenn was still watching, and still leading his innumerable minions the SkeyFenn way: from the back.
26
Rival Species - Half Life Mod
RIVAL SPECIES HALF LIFE MOD

Who are we? Were gamers who spend way too much time playing video games and not enough time painting models (is there ever enough time to paint models for that grim darkness of the far future we all love?). At some point someone thought about how neat it would be to wield a bolter and frag some fools 40k style, thus the genesis of the 40k modication was born. Were not alone, many people had this idea but this is our tale. Several years ago a team of individuals got together to create their favourite universe in the rst person shooter computer game Half-Life. The outcome was Rival Species and many a bolter round was red during its lifetime. Time, technology, and players moved on. Much later on when most of the original team had gone and the modication had fallen into obscurity, the remaining team decided it was time to do it again, on a newer version of Half-life. So Exterminatus: Rival Species 2 was born. Ill bet your wondering why given the availability of Dawn of War and specically Fire Warrior, the GW licensed rst person shooter from not too long ago. Well Dawn of War is a real time strategy and thus does not have the level of direct, one-on-one, ghting as a rst person shooter brings (you control armies not individuals) and Fire Warriors multiplayer features were limited compared to what we would all like to do. We also felt that we could do more with an up to date game engine. Rival Species tended to have a lot of unnished content as the work required to put a race in from Warhammer 40,000 was large and the team was small. So we began planning what we would do.
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To begin we had to have a plan a little more concise than, lets blow up stuff with bolters!. It was at this point we decided to limit the content that would be created. One of the biggest problems with making a mod set in the 40k universe is theres too much of it, counting only main forces you have nine different races. This does not include any of the sub armies such as the different space marine chapters or eldar craftworlds. Its just too much to even attempt to do without a full development studio on board and a very large budget. So, we decided to try and do two races well. Now in order to gauge what people wanted we put up a series of polls. Space marines were always top of the polls from races people wanted to see. Everyone wants to be a space marine, come on, admit it; you know its true. Then the runners up of the polls faced off. After a very close vote, tyranids won out over the orks as the second race in Exterminatus. The one race that never got into Rival species had been the tyranids, they were just too complex to create in the Half-life 1 engine; now with the upgraded capacities of Half-Life 2s source engine we had high hopes to do them justice. Many of you are probably thinking, Why dont you use (insert your race here) as well? The decision had to be made, we wish we could do everything, but were a team of half a dozen people. There has to be limits. One of the lessons we learned from creating Rival Species 1 is that the more content you have the harder it becomes to balance everything and the greater the amount of work to simply get it all working. Its more than we can achieve in a reasonable amount of time. Next we had to gure out how the two teams would work and how we would try our best to keep them in line with the established history (A.K.A. the background). Space marines were easy; they are
your typical heavily armoured gun toting killing machines, big guns and even bigger egos, easy enough. The tyranids on the other hand were an odd problem, theyre a horde army on the table top and as such would typically need more players on there side to give the impression of overwhelming numbers. This does not work in a rst person shooter, especially a multiplayer one as no one is going to want to be the cannon fodder, unless theyre really strange. It was at that point one of the team was blowing up antlions (insectoid burrowing aliens from Half-Life 2) and wondered if we could make tyranid broods controlled in some way by AI. The RS2 Brood was born, working like the antlions in the portions of Half-Life 2 where the player uses special spores to direct them, the tyranid team would be a swarm army, controlled by the players taking the role of the larger synapse creatures. This way we get around the swarm players feeling vulnerable and frustrated by having a horde of smaller creatures
to do their bidding, aiding the players in combat as well as acting as a meat shield for their protection. Now onto the details of each team, specically our reasoning behind them and why they work they way they do. The Space Marines: Learning from Rival Species, the classes of marines were chosen from a basic tactical squad, rather than different unit types. The plan was to nd niches within the squad that each class could occupy, having their own strengths and weaknesses, encouraging a mix. Even within a single unit marines are always about the guns and gadgets. So we get bolters, knives, meltaguns, bolt pistols, grenades, heavy bolters and specialist close combat weapons for the squad leaders. Marine players need to know their equipment well enough to pick the right weapon for the occasion while at the same time remembering that the support of their teammates is critical.
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A good example of this is the heavy bolter; it is a large and powerful gun with a high rate of re, but is very heavy and not as easily carried as smaller weapons. On the tabletop its a move or re weapon and in RS2 to represent this nature, any player using it is slowed considerably by its bulk. In game terms this means your easily capable of killing a tyranid warrior from a distance in a very short space of time (recent tests clocked the kill from full health to dead in under ve seconds at long range). However, you are extremely vulnerable to attacks by lictors and zoanthropes as your lack of speed means you will be unable to get out of the way of either of these classes. A single heavy bolter marine will be easily picked off without teammates keeping an eye out for either stealthy attacks from the lictor or long range attacks from the zoanthrope. The Tyranids: Unlike the marine classes that are largely differentiated by their weapons, the tyranid classes are more intrinsically specialised, playing quite differently to each other. Tyranids never need to switch weapons as they can attack at range and in close combat using their primary and alternate re modes. The tyranid classes chosen for the initial release include hive nodes that control a brood of termagaunts: the tyranid warrior armed with talons and deathspitter, the zoanthrope who provides some long-range heavy repower at the cost of speed, the lictor as a stealth inltrator, and the carnifex as a close range heavy hitter. The tyranids rely on their speed and numbers to close the distance and engage in close combat. Apart from the zoanthrope class, tyranids are considerably faster than the marines and do considerably more damage with their claws than any projectile weapons they carry. The lictor uses only its claws as weapons. As such the ranged weapons have an area of effect on impact and tend to be more useful as covering re to force the marines to keep there heads down while the tyranids advance. Tyranids work better as a group, with several different classes supporting each other, although the option to ght solo is available in the form of the lictor, which can easily inltrate behind the enemy and pick them off at opportune moments. Brood classes that travel with their own small force of termagaunts allow them to engage small groups of marines without additional support. We expect to have Exterminatus: Rival Species 2 ready for the public by 2008, with additional map packs, weapons, brood types, biomods, game modes and classes in spring and summer 2008.
29
Kill Team
KILL-TEAM: THE SEQUEL

Im sure many of you will have played Kill-team at some point in your hobby-enriched lives. I have, and Ive noticed a few things that could be improved. Some of the following rules are alterations to the core Kill-team rules, to make it more fair or clear. Most of them are just cool ideas you can use to improve your games realism and fun factor. So, without further ado, roll the opening scene for Kill-team II! Lets see if we pull a Spiderman 2 and make this better than the rst Kill-team Unit Coherency Isnt it infuriating when a team of crack specialists have to stand around doing nothing just so one of them can shoot his heavy bolter? Besides which, Ive never seen a lm where they dont split up at some point. Kill-teamers within unit coherency distance of each other (normally 2) count as a unit, but are free to move apart from each other as they wish, in any phase (as long as they can move in that phase, of course). When out of unit coherency with any friendly models, each Kill-teamer counts and acts exactly as an independent character. This applies for movement, shooting and assault. Brute squads can re upon any single Kill-team sub-unit, or take a Leadership test. If this test is passed, the Brutes can treat ALL Kill-teamers within range and line of sight as a single unit and re upon them as normal. If some are in cover, use the mixed armour rules to deal with the different cover saves. If the Leadership test is failed, the
Brutes waste all their time and ammo shooting at shadows and cannot re. The Camo Gear upgrade only comes into effect if none of the Kill-team act; Brute squads that come within spotting range of any Kill-teamers become Aware, regardless of who they spot, or how many they spot. Likewise, other Klaxon counter related rules act exactly as normal, treating the Kill-team as a unit no matter how far apart they are. For example, only one Klaxon counter is gained for shooting, even if they all re. Redshirts must be assigned to a (reluctant) Kill-teamer one per Redshirt and remain within unit coherency with that model throughout the game.
of attacking normally. The single attack is delivered at half the throwers basic Initiative (rounding fractions up). Roll to wound once. If successful, the unlucky enemy is ung from the edge to the land far below. Place it directly below the edge from which it fell. It takes D3 Strength 3 hits, with normal Saves allowed. Tyranid Kill-teamers, due to their esh hooks, get a 4+ save against being thrown off. If a thrown model lands in difcult, dangerous or impassable terrain, place it inside the terrain, as close as possible to the thrower. It takes D3 Strength 4 hits. Saves still apply. If a model lands in impassable terrain, in its next Movement phase it may exit the terrain. Place it in base contact with the edge of the terrain piece. A model that is thrown off before its turn to attack in Initiative order cannot attack back, even if it survives. For example, a Dark Eldar Warrior (I5) would attack at Initiative 3, and therefore throw an ork or necron off before it had a chance to react. But if it is thrown at the same time as it would attack, it can attack simultaneously, as usual. For example, a Space Marine (I4 becomes I2) throwing the aforementioned Ork or Necron would be attacked by his victim as he tried to throw him off. Throwing models killed before they can deliver the attack obviously cant throw anything. Multiple models can try to throw the same one off each one rolls a single D6 to wound. Brutes thrown from ledges and thus isolated from their squads count as squads (of one model) themselves. This does mean that its possible to make one squad into two or even three different ones. The Brute is, of course, Aware. Wargear In Profusion The mutable law about only one model being able to take wargear should be ignored. I mean, whats the point of a Kill-team of ten models with nine
Taking the Plunge The rulebook mentions something about bad guys falling to their deaths onto particularly nasty things, but no rule is given to reect this. Heres one to ll the gap. If a close combat is being fought on top of a Size 3 terrain feature (buildings, cliffs, etc) with at least one model within 1 of an edge, an engaged model can choose to throw an enemy model off, instead
30
Kill Team
armed in exactly the same way? And how exactly do you dene wargear anyway most basic troops can take bigger guns or grenades. Boom! Sniper Elite Kill-teams may include 0-1 weapon with the Sniper rule in addition to their single heavy/template weapon, unless the heavy weapon is also a sniper rie. The rule is meant to allow Kill-teams to have a big gun as well as a sniper both are commonly depicted in such elite squads, but both are usually heavy weapons in game terms. Out of Sight, Out of Mind How is it that chameleonic Lictors almost impossible to sense without advanced scanning devices can get spotted as easily as blundering, overenthusiastic Orks? Not to mention Kill-teamers lurking in cover or hiding behind solid walls. And what about shooting? Not all weaponry makes 150-decibel explosions, especially those used by specialist covert-ops troopers. As for assaults, Killteamers will, of course, have many ways of quickly and quietly dispatching enemies. The following rules modify how Klaxon counters are gained. The aim is to refrain even Orks from getting massive spotting distances by turn two, and introduce some sneaky theming to the game. Its just not fun when you try to sneak in and get spotted because theres almost no possible way to avoid the Brutes. Or even for them to avoid you! Now you see me, now you dont: When a Brute squad would gain a counter by spotting Killteamers, they may make a single cover save (as against shooting) in order to avoid being spotted. Kill-teams out of line of sight get a 2+ save against being spotted. Normal cover save modiers apply, for example, Lictors get a 5+ save in the open and so on. A save may never be modied above 2+. If the Night Fighting rules are in play, Kill-teamers get an additional +1 to these saves (and a 6+ save in the open). Orks (not Kommandos or Tankbustas) and multiwound models (not Lictors) suffer a 1 modier to the cover save; models in terminator/mega armour get a 2 modier. Inltrators get a +1 modier in the rst turn in which Brutes move into spotting distance, as they will have taken time to sneak in and conceal themselves. Use the worst save of all the troops within spotting distance. For example, if ve Kill-teamers are within spotting distance of a Brute squad, with one of them in open terrain and LOS and the other four behind a building, no cover save is taken. If youre worried about the possibility of Kill-teams being heard, theyre no doubt moving as quietly as possible in order to escape detection! Do you hear the people shoot?: When a Klaxon counter can be gained by Kill-team shooting, a 4+ save may be taken against it, unless one or more of the following conditions apply. The 4+ save is improved for the entire game by the Silencers upgrade (2+ for the rst turn of shooting, and 3+ thereafter). Sniper weapons count as having Silencers. Use the worst save for all situations that occurred, so if one unit of Kill-teamers wipes out a target without being spotted and another squad leaves one of its victims alive, no save is taken. The Kill-teamers that red are within spotting distance of a Brute squad. The victims are within spotting distance and line of sight of another Brute squad. Not all of the target squad is eliminated some survive.
Silent night, deadly night: When a Klaxon counter may be gained by close combats, a 4+ save also applies (permanently improved to 2+ by the Backstabbers upgrade), unless one or more of these conditions apply. As for shooting, use the worst save that occurs. The close combat happened within spotting distance and LOS of another Brute squad. Not all of the Brutes involved are eliminated. One or more models were thrown off high places, or taken hostage (see below).
Weapons of Mass Conversion To reect Kill-teams specialised nature, I was going to change the immutable law about template/ heavy weapons. However, I then came up with a less dominating rule, one that is far cooler anyway and opens up lots of lovely conversion options. After all, you dont want a Kill-team with six amers and three lascannons rampaging around the table, do you?
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Kill Team
Kill-teamers may twin-link any of their guns (apart from Template and Sniper weapons), although this requires two hands. What this really means is that a Kill-teamer with twin-linked weapon has one gun in each hand. Note that a model with twin-linked pistols also gets +1 Attack in close combat. Models with True Grit and two bolters get their bonus attack as normal its reasonable to assume that the Killteamer bears a knife or other close combat weapon and switches his second gun for it before charging. Basic weapons and pistols shuriken catapults, bolters, laspistols and the like - are twin-linked for +1pt. Other weapons are twin-linked for +5pts. This counts as weaponry specialist kit (see below). This is pretty cheap, especially considering the cost of Ork twin-linked weapons. The reasons for this are: a) Kill-teams will try their hardest to get their hands on extra guns of any stripe; b) it looks awesome. Recall The Matrix and convert away! Human Shields This next set of rules is an interesting quirk that was inspired by a couple of Kill-team models a Spinegaunt and a Genestealer in Marco Schultzes Tyranid team, and a Boss Brute in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook. Kill-teams and Brutes may take human shields! Brutes can pick up Kill-teamers after theyre dead. If a Brute kills a Kill-teamer in an assault, it can claim it as a prize. The Kill-teamer counts as a Dead Meatshield (see below). A Boss Brute can also buy a human shield, perhaps an unfortunate prisoner or a disobedient subordinate, as equipment out of its points allowance. This costs +8pts for a Living Meatshield (also see below) or +10pts for a Dead one. Kill-teamers can pick up dead Brutes as above, or take hostages. To take a hostage, a Kill-teamer simply assaults a Brute squad and chooses one model as a hostage. If the Initiative of the other Brutes is equal to or higher than that of the Killteamer, they make their Attacks against it as normal. The hostage makes its basic number of attacks at its basic Strength, ignoring any and all weapons, and allowing Armour Saves for the Kill-teamer. Should the Brute successfully wound the Killteamer, the latter does not suffer any wounds but cannot take the Brute hostage; instead it makes a normal Fall Back move, regrouping at the end of its move. Should the Brute fail to break free, the Kill-teamer drags it away, eeing as before, rolling one D6 less than normal. It now has a Living Meatshield. Brutes attempting to re at a Killteamer with a hostage must rst pass a Leadership test; if they fail, they may not re this turn. Tyranids can also capture Brutes by killing them with stranglewebs should this happen then the rer gets its claws on a Dead Meatshield, should it so wish. A model may only have one meat shield at any time, dead or alive. Living Meatshields struggle like mad, understandably at the beginning of every turn, all models with Living Meatshields should make a Strength test, with the roll modied by the models Strength minus that of the unfortunate meatshield. For example, a Leadership 8 Space Marine (S4) with a Tau hostage (S3) rolls for its test the roll is modied by (4-3) which is +1, giving the Marine an effective Strength of 5. Rolls of 6 on the test automatically fail. Any failed rolls mean that the hostage escapes it ees 2D6 regardless of its speed, towards the nearest friendly model. While still protecting a creature, a Living Meatshield grants +1 Wound for its capturer, and models must pass a Leadership test to shoot at the capturing model. Should this extra Wound be lost by any means, the meatshield becomes a dead one. The meatshield that a Boss Brute can have will probably be a prisoner of some kind should it escape, it will be shot to pieces, and so if the Boss Brute fails a Strength test for restraining a Living Meatshield, the latter is destroyed. Dead Meatshields simply grant their bearer a 4+ Cover Save. To represent a meatshield, put the corpse/hostage in base contact with its captor. Neither type of meatshield is effective in close combat. Also, while holding a meatshield, a model may not gain a +1 bonus for two weapons in an assault and strikes at 1 WS. It cant shoot a heavy weapon, either, or a sniper weapon if the meatshield is living. A model may drop a meatshield at any time remove it from the table.
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Kill Team
Only Aware Brute squads can board vehicles. Otherwise, they can only hang around outside them. Also, they can only shoot at vehicles or board ones occupied by Kill-teamers - if their total amount of Klaxon counters is four or more. Brutes can get on board vehicles already containing some of their friends, again assuming theres transport capacity, and multiple Brute squads can board a vehicle at the same time. Note that Brutes will simply assume any moving tank is occupied by their mates and will not attack it, try to board it, or gain Klaxon counters/become aware by spotting it; however, should the Kill-teams tank shoot, this benet is lost. If they board another vehicle, the benet doesnt apply again. When the Kill-team res a tank weapon, they dont get their save against the Brutes gaining a Klaxon counter,
Just Lootin Now imagine an Eldar Falcon sitting on the board just begging to be stolen Any number of non-walker vehicles can be added to a game; you could be representing a vehicle park or space port, you never know. Place them all over the board, arranged however you wish. They are not bought out of the Brutes specialist kit allowance, because they can be pinched by the Kill-team! Dont use vehicles with AV14 on any side; all vehicles chosen must have at least one side of AV10. Things like Chimeras, Trukks or Buggies, Rhinos, etc. make better Kill-team vehicles in general. If using vehicles, the Brute player can spend 10 points of specialist kit to buy all his Brutes krak grenades (this applies to all races, even Tyranids and Necrons). It takes one Kill-teamer to drive a vehicle, two for it to move and shoot, and theres enough space in the crew compartments for a further passenger. Any others pile into the back, assuming theres enough transport capacity to hold them, and can ght against potential boarders. Models can board an unoccupied vehicle simply by making a standard embarkation move. Should it be already occupied by Brutes, see below.
nor do they get cover saves against being spotted while in a tank. If the Kill-team were seen boarding a vehicle (there was an Aware Brute squad within spotting distance, ignoring cover saves) they dont get the benet either. If the Kill-team or Brutes attempt to board a vehicle occupied by the opposition, they ght a normal assault against those inside. Everybody is engaged with everybody else. Dont bother with Morale checks just count the casualties. The winner gets the tank, the losers dive out of the side hatches to safety. Place the losing models within 2 of the vehicle. When Tyranid Kill-teamers board a tank, they will make a psychic link with the vehicles Machine Spirit/innity circuit/whatever. Three Tyranids are required for this, or a single Leader (hell inevitably be a Synapse creature or hive node of some sort). This allows the tank to both move and shoot. Boss Brutes Not all Bosses will be sergeants and the like. Some will be altogether more fearsome. These rules allow the incorporation of more powerful Bosses than the norm; after all, Gaunt weapon-beasts dont even exist any more. The following models
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Kill Team
may be bought as Bosses. Note that although the Boss replaces a Brute, no points are refunded these are more powerful than the usual Boss Any races not mentioned here cant have improved Bosses. Tyranids can have a Tyranid Warrior, Genestealer or Zoanthrope as a Boss. Necrons dont have to have their extra +D3 Brutes. Instead, they may purchase one of the following as a Boss: Wraith, Tomb Spyder or Pariah. In addition, Necrons may exchange up to half of their Necron Warrior Brute squads for Flayed One Brute squads for free. Orks can use a Mek or Dok instead of a Nob. Eldar use a Warlock, an Aspect Warrior, or an Exarch (pay the Aspect Warrior base cost, +12 for the Exarch, plus upgrades). Tau can have a Crisis Suit or Stealth Shasui. Acts of Heroism Heroic Distraction: This is used at the beginning of the Nemesis players turn. A Kill-teamer distracts the Nemesis for a moment - but at the peril of his life! The distractor must be visible to, and within 18 of, the Nemesis. If the team member performs the distraction when not in base contact, then the Nemesis will move directly towards the distractor (shouldering any models that were in base contact with it out of the way), and shoot at and/or assault it. The Nemesis may not shoot or assault other models. If it can shoot and will not assault, the Nemesis will be so enraged that it may either shoot with all weapons in range, or shoot one weapon twice. If the Kill-teamer performs the Heroic Distraction when in base contact with the Nemesis, then other models in base contact automatically hit in this round, but the distractor dies without striking a blow, crushed by the Nemesis claws. Any Killteamer may perform this Act of Heroism. Pinpoint Shot: Coolly, the Kill-teamer takes aim, targets a critical location and res. The Kill-team model selected to make the shot makes a normal to-hit roll. If he succeedes, then instead of rolling to wound, the Kill-team player rolls a D6, and consults the following chart. Effects are permanent. 1 2 Head Shot. The Nemesis loses one wound, ignoring armour saves. Chest Wound. The Nemesis loses one point of Toughness.
3-4 Leg Wound. The Nemesis may only move and assault 4, regardless of special rules. 5-6 Arm Wound. The Nemesis loses one Attack (to a minimum of 1) and one weapon of the Kill-team players choice. Duel: Weapon drawn, the Kill-teamer enages the Nemesis in a match of wits, skill, and courage in a duel to the death. A Duel may be declared at the start of any assault phase, by any Kill-team model in base contact with the Nemesis. When the Duel is declared, move all other models back until they are at least 3 from the combat, even if they were in base contact with the Nemesis. Models in base contact with other enemy models do not have to move.
Acts of Heroism and Villainy This is based (in that I modied it a bit to t with my own ruleset) on something I saw on the old GW Games Development forum, originally written by JockandCharlie. Its brilliant. To make ghts more interesting, tactical, and cinematic between Kill-team and Nemesis, players can use Acts of Heroism and Villainy as long as the Nemesis is on the table. Each Act of Heroism or Villainy may only be performed once. These actions represent cinematic sequences which only true heroes (and villains) could perform. The Nemesis may perform Acts of Villainy. Kill-teamers can perform any Act of Heroism besides the Pinpoint Shot, but a single Kill-teamer may not use more than one Act of Heroism. A Sniper is the same, but can use Pinpoint Shot. A Leader can use any Act of Heroism, and can use more than one during the game.
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that it may not move further or shoot with heavy weapons. Through sheer strength, psychic ability, or arcane technology, the Nemesis generates a pulse which causes the ground to jump! All Killteamers within 12 of the Nemesis are pinned on a D6 roll of 4+ (roll separately for each one), even if theyre Fearless or otherwise immune to pinning. If the Nemesis attacks any of them (by shooting or assault), the model and any friendly Kill-teamers within 2 are immediately freed of the pinning effect. Both the Nemesis and the Kill-teamer roll a D6 and add their WS. The model with the highest score counts as hitting with a single Attack, and may then roll to wound as normal. If neither model is killed, the Kill-team player may opt to call off the Duel (in which case the Kill-teamer falls back 2D6 and regroups at the end of its move) or continue, in which case another D6+WS roll is made. The Duel is ended either with the death of one of the combatants, or the Kill-teamer falling back. No other Acts of Heroism or Villainy can be played during the Duel. Hide!: This is declared at the start of the Nemesis turn, and may only be performed by a Kill-teamer within 4 of cover. The Kill-teamer, choosing discretion as the better part of valour, dives into cover and cowers from the Nemesis. Move the Killteamer into base contact with the cover. Until the Kill-teamer shoots, moves or assaults, the Nemesis player must roll a 5+ on a D6 to charge or shoot the model. The model will also benet from cover as normal. Any Kill-teamer may perform this. Acts of Villainy Shockwave: Declare at the start of the Nemesis movement phase. The attack counts as the Nemesiss movement for that turn, meaning Toss!: The Nemesis grabs one of the Kill-teamers and throws him at another one! If the Nemesis makes at least one hit in close combat, it may eschew rolling to wound as normal for using the Toss! action. One model in base contact with the Nemesis is thrown. This is performed immediately as an out-of-phase shooting action, with the model being tossed as the weapon. This counts as having the following prole: Range: G12 Str: Special AP: - Type: Assault 1, Blast Strength: If the thrown model hits another model, then both models are wounded on a Strength value equal to the Toughness of the target + 1/2 strength of the Nemesis (rounding down), AP -. If the model hits the ground or a terrain piece, then its wounded on a Strength value equal to its Toughness + 1/2 strength of Nemesis (rounding up), AP -. Shocking Revelation: At an opportune moment, the Nemesis reveals some disturbing information to the selected target which shocks him to the core. The Nemesis player should make a suitable speech - it can be about anything (perhaps familial relationships between the Nemesis and the target, or what the Nemesis did to the targets little puppy). After the speech is made, the target counts as pinned in the next Kill-team players turn (this counts even if the target is fearless, or has other
special rules regarding pinning. The knowledge is really that scary!). Hostage Taker: Outnumbered, the Nemesis takes one of the Kill-teamers as a hostage! The Nemesis may take a Kill-teamer hostage in the same way as a Kill-teamer may take a Brute hostage. If he does so, any Leadership test taken to shoot at the Nemesis suffers a 2 Ld penalty, and if the Living Meatshield is killed by Kill-team shooting, the model that killed it will have to take a Pinning test. See the other rules for Living Meatshields, above. New Specialist Kit (and How To Use It) Some specialist kit takes the form of weaponry, some of it represents skills possessed by one or more Kill-teamers, and some of it is gadgetry. Skills and Gadgetry are bought from the specialist kit allowance as normal. Weaponry can be bought from the specialist kit allowance and/or the Killteams 160 points allowance. All of the following kit is available to Tyranids. The specialist kit in the rulebook is either Skill or Gadgetry, apart from the
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Improved ring action +5 points: The Killteamers weapon has a smoother trigger mechanism, dampened recoil and an upgraded ammo feed, enabling it to re far faster than it previously could, at the expense of sheer force. If it was a rapid re weapon, it becomes an Assault 2 weapon with a range of 18 and loses one point of AP. If it was an assault weapon, it gains one extra shot, has a range of 12 and loses one point of AP. Examples: Bolter: Range 18 Strength 4 AP 6 Assault 2 Shotgun: Range 12 Strength 3 AP - Assault 3 Pulse rie: Range 18 Strength 5 AP 6 Assault 2 Fleshborer (Gaunt): Range 12 Str 4 AP 6 Assault 2 Penetration rounds +5 points: The gun remains largely unchanged, but the ammunition tells a different story. There are many ways to boost the penetration power of a gun, from corrosive venom in Tyranids, to explosive acid gel in Space Marine guns. The gun gains -1 to its AP rating, but loses 6 of range (minimum of 12, with Rapid Fire range remaining as 12). Here are some examples: Bolter: Range 18 Strength 4 AP 4 Rapid Fire Shotgun: Range 12 Strength 3 AP 6 Assault 2 Pulse rie: Range 24 Strength 5 AP 4 Rapid Fire Fleshborer: Range 12 Strength 4 AP 4 Assault 1 Farshot +5 points: Riing, more forceful propulsion, better ammunition shapes; there are many ways to increase the range of a weapon, and you can bet that every single one has been used by Kill-teamers at some point in time. The gun gains 6 in range. Rapid Fire range remains 12. Farshot is applied after other upgrades, so for example an assault weapon with improved ring action and farshot has an 18 range. Bolter: Range 30 Strength 4 AP 5 Rapid Fire Shotgun: Range 18 Strength 3 AP - Assault 2 Pulse rie: Range 36 Strength 5 AP 5 Rapid Fire Fleshborer: Range 18 Strength 4 AP 5 Assault 1 Wide-bore +8 points: Big bullets are often more effective, especially with Tyranids (a larger ammo-creature has longer claws and more venom sacs). Orks in particular love to mess around with wide-bore guns; one captured Nob, Killskar, had a slugga with a three-inch-wide barrel that red small artillery shells! The gun gains +1 Strength. Bolter: Range 24 Strength 5 AP 5 Rapid Fire Shotgun: Range 12 Strength 4 AP - Assault 2 Pulse rie: Range 30 Strength 6 AP 5 Rapid Fire Fleshborer: Range 12 Strength 5 AP 5 Assault 1 Skill: Grenadier 20 pts Who says grenades are for close combat? Killteamers on extended missions often run out of ammunition, and have to rely on their wits to get their ranged combat capabilities back up to speed. Many have learnt to employ grenades in the same way as demo charges, hurling them into their foes midst. Grenades use ranges calculated from their throwers Strength the range will include a S which stands for Strength, and a number or two for example, 2S+4 means double the throwers Strength plus four inches. Assault 1 grenades,
Tyranid upgrades Strangleweb and Spike Rie, which are Weaponry. Weaponry: Customised Guns Most Kill-teams include someone adept with technology, whether it is a Mek, a Techpriest, or simply an operative who has the training or ability required for those roles. These techies will often customise their fellow teamers guns for them (that is, assuming that the Kill-teamers cant do it themselves!). Ork players will be familiar with this concept. The following upgrades may be bought in addition to any other customisations available to Kill-teamers via their army lists. Different Killteamers may have different customisations, and a single model may have up to two customisations in addition to what their army list allows. Only basic weapons may be customised (bolters, shuriken catapults, pulse ries, etc) and pistols of any type. Tyranids may upgrade any ranged weapon. A model may never have two of the same customisation.
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with no blasts, roll to hit using the rers BS. Other grenades are as follows. First, place the marker. Now roll a Scatter dice. If a hit is rolled, the grenade explodes at the right time and hits its target. If not, it scatters D6. Resolve hits as normal. Grenades can be thrown as barrage weapons, but dont cause pinning unless they have it as a special rule; roll 2D6 for scatter distance and pick the highest. A Grenadier can throw any grenades that he is equipped with. All Kill-teamers have frag grenades (or equivalent) as standard. A Grenadier can choose up to two types of grenades to carry, in addition to ones given for free to the Kill-team or those bought as upgrades from the army list. The two chosen types cost +5 points each. At least one of the Grenadiers grenades (not including free ones) must be available to his race; its assumed that the other, if its alien, will come from looting or being given special access to xenostech archives. Any grenade types not available to the Grenadiers race will cost +10 points each, not +5. This counts as Weaponry specialist kit. Tyranid and Necron grenades are only available to those particular races, and neither may not use other races grenades. Note that these ratings deal ONLY with thrown grenades and have absolutely no effect on the grenades anti-vehicle close combat abilities. For example, plasma grenades have S4 when thrown, but when clamped to vehicles in assaults, they have S5 as normal. Note also that grenades which cause Pinning force a test for any squad under the template. Brutes pinned by grenades halve their spotting distance. Frag: Simple explosive grenades that shatter into shrapnel upon detonation, frag grenades are normally used to ush out foes in cover. However, they make good weapons for clearing areas of ground being easy to arm and throw or for deterring pursuers. Range: 2S+4 Str: 3 AP: 6 Assault 1, Blast Plasma: Many a foe has died in storms of dazzling re from Eldar plasma grenades. Used offensively, they serve a purpose similar to frag grenades, but are far more effective. Range: 2S+4 Str: 4 AP: 4 Assault 1, Blast Photon: The Tau make good use of silent, stroboscopic stun grenades. Their Kill-teams use them to disorientate, blind and confuse sentries while they slip past. Photon grenades last a split second, but their victims will be dazzled for some time, making them ideal for covert missions. Range: 2S+4 Str: n/a AP: n/a Assault 1, Blast Any Brute squad with one or more models under the template must pass an Initiative test or have their spotting distance reduced to 1 until the end of their next turn. Squads that are Aware may not charge in the next turn if they fail the test. Melta: Melta bombs, precise fusion-based antitank charges, are rarely used for anything other than reducing vehicles to smouldering wrecks, but desperate Kill-teamers have been known to lob them at enemies! Range: 2S Str: 6 AP: 3 Assault 1
Tankbusta: For anti-armour capability, some Orks use manhole-cover-sized explosives called tankbusta bombz. Although these are normally clamped to vehicles, when push comes to shove the Orks are more than willing to throw them at anyone they see Range: 2S Str: 6 AP: 4 Assault 1, Blast Krak: Implosive grenades, nicknamed krak grenades, are used commonly by Imperial troops for anti-vehicle capacity. The more resourceful Killteam Grenadiers use modied versions as ballistic weapons, to no small effect Range: 2S+4 Str: 5 AP: 4 Assault 1 Terrorfex: Some Dark Eldar use terrorfex grenades to induce horric visions in their foes. These are usually Haemonculi, but Kill-teams have taken to using the grenades to terrify sentries into running away, to avoid detection. Range: 2S+4 Str: n/a AP: n/a Assault 1, Blast, Pinning (auto test with -1 Ld modier)
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Haywire: The Eldar employ powerful electromagnetic-pulse grenades to knock out vehicles. Slightly modied, they can blast out a huge electric charge that fries infantry as it zaps through their armour! Range: 2S+4 Str: 5 AP: - Assault 1, Blast, EMP EMP: Non-vehicle models will take wounds if they pass their armour saves, rather than fail them. Necrons count as having 2+ armour saves; Tyranids and models with no save count as 6+. Against vehicles, thrown EMP grenades work as normal, but with a 1 to the roll. Tanglefoot: These grenades ensnare enemies via a gravitic net. Eldar Kill-teamers sometimes modify them so that they can be used ballistically, catching sentries and stopping them in their tracks. Range: 2S+4 Str: - AP: - Assault 1, Large Blast, Pinning (auto test, -1 Ld modier) Demo charge: These are heavy, but powerful, small ordnance charges that are normally issued singularly to troopers. Kill-team Grenadiers tend to carry several, most of them improvised (costs +5pts more, counts as a S8 weapon for rules purposes) Range: 2S Str: 8 AP: 2 Assault 1, Large Blast EMP: Tau EMP grenades, although less powerful than haywire grenades, are nevertheless useful as ballistic weapons when the small but essential charge director is removed Range: 2S+4 Str: 4 AP: - Assault 1, Blast, EMP Super stikkbombz: Ork demo charges noisy, messy, but with BIG explosions! Range: 2S Str: 7 AP: 3 Assault 1, Large Blast If you roll a HIT on the Scatter dice and a 5+ on the other, the Kill-teamer takes a single S6 hit. Tyranid Grenades: Tyranid grenade-spores have an ability to home in on their enemies, so scatter D3 when thrown indirectly. Mutaspore: A mutaspore is lled with terrifying pathogens, which when inhaled or contacted, attack cells and mutate their DNA. Affected creatures break out in blisters, talons, even extra limbs... Range: 2S+2 Str: - AP: - Assault 1, Blast, Pinning (auto test) Roll to affect every enemy model under the template. On a 6, they are infested and will mutate immediately. On a 5 they may ght off the mutation make a Toughness test for the model, and if it fails, it mutates. On a 4 or less the mutaspores pathogens cause only minor mutations or are kept out by armour. A mutated model loses all its wargear and weapons. It counts as having two close combat weapons and has the Feel No Pain rule. It has Leadership 7. As soon as it mutates, such a model ees 2D6 from its squad in a random direction; from then on, it is controlled by the Tyranid Killteam player. A mutant must take a Pinning test at the start of each turn. It is otherwise Fearless. Nemeses are immune to mutaspores.
Frag Mine: High explosive shrapnel mines, easy for a Tyranid grenadier to synthesise, but by no means less harmful than any other type Range: 2S+4 Str: 4 AP: 5 Assault 1, Blast Bio-acid Mine: Larger than frag mines, bio-acid mines are grown by Tyranid grenadiers when antiarmour repower is required. Even power armour is easy prey to the steaming, viscous chemicals within. Range: 2S+4 Str: 3 AP: 3 Assault 1, Blast Macroswarm Spore: These are huge, misshapen mycetic spores that are birthed by some of the more mutated Tyranid grenadiers. Containing a rapidly-hatching swarm of larvae, esh-worms and other creatures, they are thrown or launched from muscular cannons, and can drown several squads in a wave of frenzied minibeasts. (Costs +2pts more) Range: 2S Str: As creature -1 AP: D6+1 Assault 1, Large Blast, Living Ammunition Roll for AP each time a macroswarm spore is used. A roll of 7 counts as AP-.
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Necron Grenades: Necrons roll to hit normally with grenades (like other ranged weapons), rather than scattering. Discord bomb: This is a palm-sized oval full of intricate circuits. When detonated by its impact fuse, the discord bomb emits a randomly-modulating EMP pulse the mass of frequencies gave this grenade its name. Range: 2S+6 Str: 6 AP: - Assault 1, Blast, EMP (counts as a S6, AP6, Assault 1 Gauss weapon against vehicles) gun is tooled for lethal silent kills, and they can conceal themselves very well. The Sniper counts as an Inltrator for purposes of anti-spotting Cover Saves. Choose one of the ranged weapons (must have at least one) to be the chosen weapon. Unless it already has the Sniper special rule, this weapon immediately gains a new prole, which replaces its normal one: Range: 36 Strength: [As normal] AP: [As normal] Heavy 1, Pinning, [any other rules except Blast/Lg.Blast]. Always hits on a 2+.
Grenade Table
Army Imperial Guard Witch/Daemon Hunters Space Marines Chaos Eldar Dark Eldar Tau Tyranids Necrons Grenades they can take Frag*, krak, melta, demo charge Frag*, krak, melta Frag*, krak, melta Frag*, krak, melta Plasma*, haywire, tanglefoot Plasma*, haywier, horrorfex Photon*, EMP Mutaspore, frag, bio-acid, macroswarm Discord, chronopod, phase
Chronopod: Crystalline orbs *These grenades are given to the Kill-team for free. comprising an array of tiny timedistortion units. Timed to detonate in herself gains +1 Ld, to a maximum of 10. If he/she the air above its target, the chronopod splits into dies, the team will be so mad that they will all gain dozens of fragments, forming a dome in which time the Preferred Enemy special rule against their slows to a crawl. foes. Tyranid Leaders can operate vehicles on their Range: 2S+2 Str: - AP: - Assault 1, Large Blast, Pinning (auto test, -1 Ld modier) Phase orb: These grenades, upon detonation, release a gauss charge stored in a power crystal, unleashing arcs of scything energy. Range: 2S+4 Str: 4 AP: 2 Assault 1, Blast, Gauss Skill: Role Many troops in a specialist team will have some sort of role. These can be applied to your Kill-team by buying them as specialist kit. You may have one of each of these in your team. PLEASE use them sensibly! A team with three Kommandos, a Nob and ve Gretchin isnt going to have a Grot for a leader! (Unless its a psychic one or something Kill-team background is pretty exible.) Leader +10 points: The trooper is naturally looked-to for orders and is probably the bravest of the lot. Any Kill-teamer within 12 of the leader can use his or her Leadership, and the leader him/ own as they will have better synapse control over things including machine spirits. A Leader can also perform any Acts of Heroism if the Nemesis is on the table. Kill-teamer Daemons within 6 of their Leader are immune to Instability tests. Assassin +5 points: This particular specialist is a master of the unexpected knife (power claw, scything talon, night reaper blade) in the back, and is stealthy enough to sneak in unnoticed. An Assassin counts as an Inltrator for purposes of anti-spotting Cover Saves, has the Preferred Enemy rule against the target in an Assassinate mission (or the Boss Brute if there is no such target), and has the Backstabbers upgrade. Note that if the Assassin is involved in an assault with a fellow Kill-teamer who lacks the Backstabbers upgrade, the +2 save does not apply, and only the Assassin gets to use his/her Preferred Enemy special rule if the target is present. Sniper +10 points: Here we have a Kill-teamer who can shoot with pinpoint, deadly accuracy. Their
This may not be given to a template or pistol weapon. If the team includes any models with weapons that have the Sniper rule, the Sniper must be one of them, if you take one. The Sniper may not have any special close combat weapons (not including close combat upgrades, like powerblades) they just dont suit the role. Finally, the Sniper can also perform the Pinpoint Shot Act of Heroism. The Snipers weapon counts as a sniper rie (as opposed to a heavy weapon) for purposes of weapon selection. Some snipers set their weapons up to be usable on the move as well. You can upgrade a Snipers weapon to Dual-mode for +10 points, counting as Weaponry specialist kit. In this case, the sniper can choose to re the weapon with the prole above (hitting on 2+) or as it originally was (hitting with his ordinary BS). Skill: Veterans These are bought and applied to any or all Killteamers, including things like Daemons. They cover such specialisations as a Kill-team may already have, may develop or pick up in the course of their missions. All skills take the form of Universal Special Rules unless otherwise noted.
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When buying them, simply pay the points cost for each model that is to have the skill. Different Killteamers can have different skills (no model can have more veteran skills than the Leader). This is an exception to the normal veteran skills present in army Codexes and such; individual team members will be specialised in their own ways and will have particular talents. If a model with a skill is joined to another who doesnt have it, treat them separately when it comes to using the skills so, for example, if a model with Acute Senses is paired to another who doesnt have it, and both wish to shoot at a target in the night and fail to see it, the re-roll for sighting applies only to the acutely sensed model assuming the re-roll passes, that model can shoot while their partner cant. Acute Senses: +1 point/model Counter-attack: +2 points/model (may be used thus: if a Kill-teamer is charged, any friends with this skill within 6 are automatically moved into the combat, leaving any unit they may be part of. They dont count as having charged themselves). Furious Charge: +3 points/model Inltrate: +1 point/model (+2 points/model for any models normally suffering an automatic 1 modier, +3 points/model for those with 2 modiers.) Move Through Cover: +1 point/model Army-Specic Special Rules Necrons Necrons have very few options inside of units, unlike, say, Space Marines whose squad leaders have an enormous range of choices to clobber/ shoot up their foes with. This makes them rather uninteresting when playing Kill-team. The mutable law about members of a Kill-team being from the same unit entry is ignored for Necron Kill-teams. Tyranids Use Phil Kellys Tyranid Kill-team/Brute rules (White Dwarf 307 or 308), plus this lot: Kill-teams automatically have frag grenades, but the Tyranid equivalent (esh hooks) allow their owners to count impassable terrain as difcult, effectively getting the Scaling Ladders & Grapnels upgrade for free. (The downside of this is that Tyranid grenadiers dont get free frag spores.) Tyranids also get other, environment-related bonuses instead, described throughout these rules. Gargoyles - or any other winged Tyranids - can move with utter silence when ying, and will only contribute a Klaxon counter to the Brutes cache on a D6 roll of 1 when moving over 6, representing the small chance of a Brute looking up at exactly the right time and seeing them. Tyranids dont give a hoot about the value of equipment, and the (cheap and basic) devourer res at least four times when given to anything other than a Gaunt. For Tyranids, the mutable law concerning weapons is changed: they can take weapons with more than two shots without breaking the rule. Tyranid Kill-teams in general can take a single Lictor for 80pts; this counts as breaking one mutable law, unless you take two, as Mr. Kelly offers. The reason for this is that it is quite likely that a lone Lictor would amass a small posse of followers Genestealers are genetically linked to Lictors, for example, and the creature could make good use of Gaunts as re support, to cover its back when required. The Lictor may not use its Secret Deployment rule. Alternatively, a Kill-team can buy a single Tyranid Warrior, again counting as breaking one mutable law. The Warrior selects biomorphs/weapons as normal, and its Synapse power is not counted as being a psychic power for rules purposes. The Warrior may buy Horror in the Dark for 10 points rather than 15. If a model is selected as a Leader, this must be the Warrior. A Kill-team may not include both a Lictor and a Warrior. Eldar Swooping Hawks with their dazzling wings contribute Klaxon counters as normal if they move over 6, but Warp Spiders only do so on a D6 roll of a 1 - apart from the psychic disturbance, a ripple on the minds of the more sensitive sentries, there is nothing to show that they have moved. Swooping Hawks cannot use their grenade packs large blasts as they dont have the option to Deep Strike. Also, the Exarchs Skyleap power takes no effect in Kill-team. Imperial Guard Guard Kill-teams can make full use of their Doctrine system. You can have specialist troop Doctrines for free, but other Doctrines (skills, equipment) must be paid for as part of the Killteams specialist kit allowance. For points costs and availability of skills/equipment, treat the entire Kill-team as a single Guard Infantry unit, regardless of whats in it. Chaos A Kill-team can bear a single Chaos icon/mark, which will affect all operatives. Marks are expensive but at least you dont have to buy one per unit you use. If youre drawing models from different units, use the cheapest Icon cost you can nd. A Kill-team with an Icon other than that of Chaos Undivided (or Glory, or whatever the new name is) can only include cult troops of the same afliation as the icon. Daemons can also be included, chosen and used as normal Kill-team operatives, but they still have to take Instability tests when required. Daemons
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Kill Team
will start the game alongside the rest of the team, and dont need to be summoned mid-mission; they will have been drawn from the warp en route to the target area and bound to the leaders will by powerful incantations. Special Conditions (and How To Predict The Weather With Two Dice) This is a system of randomised special rules and conditions, to add some more interest and variation to your games. 2d6 Result 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Condition Eruption Storm Nightfall Forewarning Fortications None Mist High Winds Daybreak Reinforcements Blizzard turn, roll a D6. On a 4+, place a large Blast marker on the central objective and roll Scatter. Use the small arrow on the sniper icon if a HIT is rolled. The marker is moved 4D6 in the direction shown. Any models under the central hole take a single Strength 7, AP2 hit, and models under the rest of the template take a S4, AP- hit each. This uses the EMP rule (see the grenade section). If the template is touching or covering terrain, move it by the shortest possible distance so the hole is over the highest section; this takes the hit models on lower levels are unaffected. If it hits a vehicle, it counts as hitting the rear armour. Nightfall: The Kill-team begin their mission as dusk falls. Before starting the game, roll a D6. From that game turn onwards, the Night Fighting scenario special rule is in play. Forewarning: The enemys sensors have detected the intrusion into their territory and the whole place is on alert. They are ready and waiting when the Kill-team arrive D3 Brute squads, chosen by the owning player before the Kill-team deploys, are Aware from the beginning of the game. No Klaxon counters are gained for this. Fortications: The Brutes paranoid masters have had them set up more traps and defences around their base. The Brute squad player gets the Lastraps upgrade for free. Mist: Fog has settled over the base and conspires to impair the vision of the combatants. When a Killteamer or Brute squad wants to shoot at a target, they must roll 3D6x3. This is the maximum range at which the enemy can be seen. Brute squads also lose 1 from their spotting distance. High Winds: A gale tears through the area, shaking the trees and hurling unfortunates from buildings. At the start of each game turn, any model on top of a Size 3 building or terrain feature must pass an Initiative test or be ung D6 in a random direction, determined by a Scatter dice. If this takes them within 1 of an edge (or over it), they fall, and take hits exactly as if they had been thrown off. Models can throw enemies off as usual, but throwing models must roll for Initiative as above, or go down with their victim! Tyranids with esh hooks get to re-roll any fall-related Initiative tests, but must accept the second result. Daybreak: The Kill-team move in at night, but the sun rises slowly as the battle wears on. Before starting, roll 2D6; the Night Fighting rules are in play until this game turn. Reinforcements: The Brutes masters call in the cavalry at the dictation of their paranoia. Before starting, roll a D6 and add 2. At the start of that Brute player turn, D3 extra Brute squads move on to the table from a random edge (roll separately for each squad). Determine the random edge however you like, but it cannot be the edge from which the Kill-team entered; if they started somewhere other than a board edge, then the new squads can come on from any edge. These squads are automatically Aware. Blizzard: Thick snow or ash carpets the ground; its still falling and shows no sign of letting up. The rules for Mist are used. Also, all models Brutes included must make Difcult Terrain tests when moving, rolling one extra D6 (so 3D6 for Imperial Guard, 4D6 for Tyranids, etc, picking the highest as usual). Un-Aware Brute squads lose -1 from their movement value (so if the roll is a 1, the Brutes dont move at all). Slow and Purposeful models roll their normal movement distance (2D6 and pick the highest).
Roll 2D6 on the Special Conditions table above. If you want multiple conditions, just roll the 2D6 more than once and take all the results you get. Duplicate results must be re-rolled. Eruption: Somethings about to blow whether its a doomsday device, a volcano, or something even more destructive. The stakes cant get much higher. At the start of each Brute squad turn after the third, roll 2D6. If the result is a double 1, the game ends. The Kill-team win if they have completed their objective before the place blows sky high! Storm: The Nightfall condition is used. Also, lightning leaps from the clouds to strike those below. At the start of the Brute squad players
41
Kroot Mercenaries
THE RISE OF THE KROOT MERCENARIES

We ght for anyone. So how much money do you have? Kroot Chicken beaked creatures which have the tendency of being over looked and eventually passed up for the big guns in a Tau army. At every chance, Kroot are tossed at a tau player and therefore many people sell them or just never use them. Well these Kroot ght for anyone willing to pay! Ah kroot I never thought I would see the day where I would actually have a full army of them. When I rst started building tau, I bought a couple battle forces and thought hey, why not save a couple bucks and I will gure out some use for the kroot in my army. So having accumulated 60 or so of them, I had to seriously consider when I was going to use these guys since they were all but phased out of my tournament list. I did a little back-logging and came across the kroot mercenary list, I gave it a once over and gured it would be a nice project to do, but I had a couple other armies I wanted to get done rst, mainly my Aliens themed imperial guard and nish my space marines. So I put the kroot in plastic bags and put them away. I started working on my original army, the Hells Angels which is a space marine chapter completely mounted on bikes and jump packs. I got them to the point where they needed to be repainted so I started stripping them down and xing; my main army out of commission for a few months, I looked towards my other armies that I hadnt been using as much, grey knights and tau, and I came across all of those kroot. I became determined to nd a use for all of these kroot, so I downloaded the codex off the internet and gured I would give them a shot.
So after buying two more boxes and kit bashing and a little proxying of models (hurray for empty bases) I made a 2000 point list having no clue how each unit would perform, since hardly anyone plays this army let alone discusses their published lists. For my rst game I faced Necrons, gured they would be a heck of a challenge and I wanted to see how my list would do against an army where they had decent saves and toughness; much to my dismay I phased him out in two turns. Now mind you he probably had bad luck in rolling for his Well Be Back, but when he doesnt get to shoot
42
Kroot Mercenaries
and I am in assault on rst turn it doesnt help his cause. Afterwards, I became hooked on kroot, and now I wanted to turn this rag tag army into one of my main armies. The list had lots of conversion opportunities and the fact that hardly anyone knew of the list or even had an army helped seal the deal for me. Whats in a list? After doing a healthy bit of researching and playing with an army that has no tacticas, lists from other players, or even recommendations, I wasnt even sure where to being. I had my rough draft but I didnt want to go on too much further since I didnt want to go on a buying spree and realize that what I bought and converted was garbage. So in a long shot effort, I began posting my proxy list on a few forums, and within a few days, I got the Flame On treatment. I began talking with several members of Flame On and they helped me rene my list to get the most out of it. Because of them, I began working off three simple principles 1) You can never have too many evicerators. 2) Its all or nothing. 3) Dont leave home without your snipers. So with those three principles in mind I began converting the rest of my army. The current variation of the army which I took to the Chicago GT only happened after months of play testing. In fact, I actually changed the nal list a week before the tournament! Even after the tournament, I am thinking of new and creative ways to change my army in the hopes that I will do better the next time the kroot take the eld. Evolving the Kindred One of the main issues in building a kroot mercenary army is converting all of the unique entries where there are no gures in current production to represent them. A lot of the work was done with a color scheme, but with the kroot trackers, they had to be made from scratch and the winged master shaper needed some conversion work as well. I also had to think of a way to represent the fact that the whole army has evolved to go faster in close combat, so I decided to use spare tyranid bits and have a hay day with my bases and my shapers, most notably the council and the master shaper. Another issue that had to be addressed was the complete lack of poses for the kroot hounds. Only coming in four different poses gets old after awhile, so they needed to be converted as well. Squad identication is another issue, which is helped out by painting, but I wanted to convert models in a way that I can nd them quickly if they get all mixed together. Finally, I needed to scratch build evicerators for the majority of the shapers, this wasnt a big issue, but it added to the to-do list. Evicerators were one of the rst projects that I did and it was as simple as combining two chain swords together to show the massive size of the evicerators. The kroot arms also have several positions in where I could mount the blades. I also used the original space marine arms on several of the models as I gured that kroot are mercenaries, so if there were wounded in combat; they would be able to afford bionic replacements! Looking online at other kroot armies, I paid special attention to the kroot hounds and noticed that very little work was done to them besides adding a couple bits, so I denitely wanted to make them truly unique. Kroot hounds were a relatively easy x to achieve the desired results. All that needed to be done is the bodies needed to be heated up and bent into a more dramatic position, but even more then that is basing. Using angled rocks make them seem like they take on new poses.
43
Kroot Mercenaries
I used tyranid bits to show the fast reexes upgrade for my army. I used genestealer skulls, arms, and in some cases whole bodies chopped in half with evicerators! I also made extensive use of rippers and warrior bodies. Going along with this, I have my master shaper and my eventual vultures using torn up gargoyle wings to show that they have evolved them by eating the remains of their tyranid foes. The kroot trackers were a bit of a challenge, as they required a lot of conversions and use of green stuff. I converted them using the guide show in the White Dwarf when the rst codex came out. Though they took a lot of hours of conversion, the nal results are very impressive. I also used resin bases to make them stand out even more.
CHICAGO GT KROOT MERCENAIRES - 1750 POINTS

Master Shaper (126 points) -Power weapon/amer -Fast Reexes -Wings -Mark of the favored child -Frag Grenade -Kroothawk Totem Shaper Council (5 models) (382 Points) -4x shapers w/ evicerators -1x shaper w/ Power Weapon & Bolt Pistol, surefoot charm, blood of the stalker -10x Kroot hounds -Hyperactive Nymune Organ -Fast Reexes Head hunter kindred (10 models) (207 points) -Hyperactive Nymune Organ -Fast Reexes -Shaper -Evicerator -Surefoot Charm -Blood of the Stalker -Slugga Kroot Carnivore Squad (10 models) (111 points) -Fast Reexes -Shaper Kroot Carnivore Squad (10 models) (111 points) -Fast Reexes -Shaper Kroot hound pack (10 models) (276 points) -Fast Reexes -Hyperactive -15x Hounds -Shaper -Evicerator -Surefoot charm -Blood of the stalker Kroot hound pack (10 models) (276 points) -Fast Reexes -Hyperactive -15x Hounds -Shaper -Evicerator -Surefoot charm -Blood of the stalker Tracker Kindred (6 models) (150 points) -Fast Reexes -Shaper -Power weapon Hunter Kindred (10 models) (111 points) -Fast Reexes -Shaper
44
Kroot Mercenaries
CHICAGO GRAND TOURNAMENT

This was my rst time at a grand tournament so I was really unsure what to expect. Not actually travelling with anyone I personally knew from playing made it more challenging; there was no one to cheer me on. That aside, I did meet several people who were very friendly and we all hung out. I also made a previous contact before the event and it was nice to meet him in person after discussing lists for so long beforehand. Game 1 Kroot v. Tyranids Annihilation The rst game of the competition I was lled with a little bit of anticipation and anxiousness, not to mention being tired since it was still early after a long day of travelling. My rst opponent was a gentleman by the name of Mike. He was a really easy going guy and I could tell it was going to be a great game, and we both had amazing looking armies so it should be a spectacular looking battle. So I deployed as normal, forming a decent gun line to try and thin out the nid hoard and I inltrated several units to take out some key targets. I also put my shaper council in a risky spot to completely destroy a ank if I got rst turn! Well truth be told, I didnt get rst turn even with the re-roll and the shaper council was shot, shot some more, and then assaulted by a hive tyrant and at the end of the turn only two shapers were left! They got revenge by thrashing the hive tyrant before dieing. Several of my other squads got shot up as well, and after the rst turn it didnt seem so bright, but with a couple of heroic last stands, most notably
the hunters who withstood a charge from two warriors and six genestealers, it was no where near enough and the tyranids claimed the day. What a rough way to start off the event! 3-17 Game 2 Kroot v. Dark Angels Secure & Control Going into the next game undeterred by the slaughter that was handed to me, my next opponent was Eric who had an awesome looking dark angels army with plenty of rhinos and razorbacks. Unknown at the time, I actually met him off of live journal prior to the event! After looking at the mission more closely I noticed it didnt even have inltrate. So it was denitely going to be an interesting battle. I deployed two strong anks and used the center to hide my main assaulting force and we rolled for rst turn and I won. As the game wore on the shaper council made up for the last battle by killing four rhinos, one razorback, and twenty-ve tactical marines! Needless to say, the battle became lopsided in my favor as I was in assault rather quickly. The highlight of the game was when it came to tackling the tanks, Eric and I were rooting to see how many kroot we could kill with the explosion and we werent disappointed! One tank killed fourteen by itself! I actually inicted more deaths on myself by blowing up tanks needlessly then the marines shooting and assault. It was a hilarious and memorable game, and Eric got my vote for best opponent. The massacre went to me. 20-0 Game 3 Kroot v. Ultramarines Take and Hold Having my condence revived I went into the next game thinking I would have a win. Well it didnt pan out that way. My opponent set up everything in a fashion where it would be extremely difcult to assault him or even shoot him, and he had plenty of templates and no cover for me to move through. I attempted to inltrate closer to his
45
Kroot Mercenaries
lines but he won that roll and managed to push back my inltrators leaving a two to three foot dead zone, except a small helping of cover in the middle. Hoping for rst turn, I put a unit in there, and the game began. I lost the roll to go rst and it was over. Even in cover kroot cant stand up to whirlwind after whirlwind and then assault cannon after assault cannon. It became a shooting gallery! So I got massacred. Losing those two important rolls really hurt my chances of winning and it was clear what the result was going to be; if the rolls would have been different, my opponent said he would have had no chance, funny how things work that way sometimes. 0-20 Game 4 Kroot v. Space Wolves Cleanse Well I must say, after getting plenty of rest and eating lots of free food you can forget a lot about the previous day. So I went in trying to make the best of the situation and came up against a Space Wolves player who opted to have no long ranged repower but instead have 70 or so blood claws moving in a giant Phalanx. There were quite possibly 25 power sts in his army and it was a solid build, if he got the charge off. So knowing this, I had to deny him rst blood so I used my inltrators to ank his army. I got rst turn and proceeded to move my anks around his army and in three turns his army completely surrounded with my best assault units. In this time, my hunters once again proved themselves by taking out a whole squad of space wolf scouts who managed to assault them turn two, but they beat them down with no problem! So I charged in with everything, and after 6 combat phases, all he had left were 3 marines, and I had 40 or so kroot in each corner giving me a massacre! 20-0 Game 5 Kroot v Blood Angels Recon After that last game I was really looking forward to the next game and a chance to get another win. We set up, once again I set up my army to engage his on my terms, and the roll for rst turn came and he rolls a three, I roll a one and then on the re-roll I roll a two. Even that wasnt the worse part about it, since I gathered lots of causalities from all of the baal predators; yet the worst of the worst is the four units who ran off of the table in that turn, practically handing him the game! I guess the kroot were ready to go home after all of the ghting. One highlight glimmered though; my master shaper nally got his points back by single handedly killing a whole veteran assault squad! It was the rst time he got his points back in the whole entire event. As the blood angels started to close in it was too little too late. The massacre went to him. 0-20 Conclusion I learned a lot from this event. Firstly, no matter how I arm my master shaper, he never seems to do well. I guess I just need to nd a niche for him. Secondly, though the kroot hawk totem has served me well before this tournament, it did terrible; it cant foresee the future all the time. Finally, leadership is a big issue for this army. Though they have low leadership, I always seem to fail the most important leadership tests. On the positive side, the army did what it did best. It ate your brains and became better. Next time, they will be stronger from these experiences! Ultimately, I achieved my two goals. I scored higher then 50th place, 45th place to be exact (no thanks to my battle score), but I hope to place even higher at the next Baltimore GT. As for my second goal, I managed to make it onto the Games Workshop website. Though it isnt the best of coverage, at least I can say look for the kroot and the orange shirt!
In closing, the kroot mercenary list is a great army to play. I hope to keep expanding on it as much as I can. The next great trip for this army is going to be a couple more rogue traders, the ard boyz tournament, and then the baltimore grand trournament, where I will be heading team FIREBASE. So I look forward to seeing you on the circuit! This is Madness NO, this is KROOT!!! --Brandon Vallee (aka Stillfrosty)
46
Book Reviews
NEWS FROM THE LIBRARY

Hero of the Imperium Sandy Mitchell (Ciaphas Cain Omnibus) Ciaphas Cain, the Empires unwilling hero and probably the most unusual Comissar, stumbles right into all kinds of dangers by trying to avoid them. No matter what he does, it just keeps getting worse. His will to survive makes him commit heroic deeds involuntarily, and he becomes the prestigious gure-head of the Valhallan 597th while all he wants is to be left alone. The Omnibus contains the rst three Ciaphas Cain novels, logically written in the rst person perspective since these tales are dealing with an egocentric. Comments by Inquisitor Amberley Vail of the Ordo Xenos, who comments his memoirs at times, enrich these accounts. The reader is allowed a different view of the Warhammer 40k universe through Ciaphas, since the books are more humorous than gloomy. Unfortunately, this causes the reader to feel somewhat annoyed by this in the course of three novels and three introducing short stories. Although the cycle starts off with some fresh air with For the Emperor (especially with the Kroot popping up again, who make only rare appearances in the Black Library publication), it quickly turns into a tedious read with Caves of Ice, the second and weakest novel in the serious. The third and denitely most gripping tale in this 756-page book, The Traitors Hand, is like a full reward for the patient reader. The hidden hero of the Ciaphas Cain series is and will always be Jurgen, the heroic Comissars foul-smelling, stoic aide. Without any emotion whatsoever, he follows his superior, using his favorite melter to pulverize the dangers that are threatening Cain. All in all these novels are entertaining, yet better read split apart as a comic relief amidst the sombre universe of the 41st century. Their very specic tone makes reading the Omnibus as a whole a bit dull. Rebel Winter Steve Parker After Fifteen Hours and Death World, the Black Library now releases a third novel from the desperate Imperial Armys perspective. Gone are the epic tales of Ghaunts Ghosts of the humourous viewpoint of Comissar Cain. The reality of the Warhammer 40k universe rears its ugly head here. Steve Parkers rst novel deals with Captain Sebastev, commanding ofcer of the Vostroyan Firstborn Sixty Eight Infantry Regiments Fifth Company, and the story that forced him to face a military court. The book is short, compact, and fun. It contains everything one could wish for: a brigade trapped between two fronts without supply, grunts, noble ofcers, heretics, a half-crazy father, a Comissar, trench- and city-warfare and of course the high body count that goes with the imperial army. To top it all off, the ending comes as a real surprise. As trooper Aronov would say: Like good rahzvod, sir! Fulgrim Graham McNeill And on goes the Horus Heresy. In his second Horus Heresy work, Graham McNeill brings us the fth part of this series, which is Primarch Fulgrims story. The latter is probably the most tragic of all Primarchs that joins Horus. This book also tells the tale of the third legion, the Emperors Children, and sheds light on the relationship between Fulgrim and Ferrus, the Iron Hands Primarch, whose friendship turns into bitter strife. While the last four novels moved along chronologically, Fulgrim begins before the battle on Isstvan 3, where the Emperors Children are ghting the Laer, discovering a strange temple in the course of this. From this moment on, the slowly evolving corruption takes its course. McNeills has a distinct and excellent way of describing the subtle change within the Space Marines as well as the civil remembrancers, which lead to the unstoppable decline of the third legion. Like one of remembrancer Bequa Kynskas splendid compositions, the book keeps intensifying. From the battle against the Laer, to meeting the Farseer of Ulthw, Eldrad Ulthran, to the battle respectively the massacre on Isstvan 5, the plot grips the reader and doesnt let go until the end: let alone the 60.000 Astartes in one battle make a glorious ending, if I may say! Volume 6 with the story of the Dark Angels is denitely something to look forward to.
47
Book Reviews
Brothers of the Snake Dan Abnett Hailing from Ithaca, the Brothers of the Snake are based on Greek antiquity, ghting with lance, shield, and bolter. Dan Abnett (author of Eisenhorn, Ravenor, and Gaunts Ghosts) is less concerned with the background of the order and its history; instead, he focuses on the story of Brother Priad and his Damocles Squad. Within seven episodes, Abnett constructs a story of the characters development that completes a full cycle. The mood does not only convey the 41st centurys gothic horror, it also shows its heroic deeds. In terms of heroic deeds the book has yet to meet its match. In my personal climax of this book, ve squads are bravely standing up to several thousand swinekins. With their restlessly working amourer slaves as their only support, these fty marines are switching from red-hot bolters to lances and back to cooled down bolters, creating a scene that can only be surpassed by the overwhelming imagery of the lm 300. After reading this book we remember just why the Astartes are the Emperors best warriors. Timo Lorenz (scribe servitor 1808)
For more Misre! Comics, visit www.misrecomics.net
48
Club Quest
CLUB QUEST
Five friends leave their living room to nd like minded gamers in the local area. Will they nd wargaming wonders or mutants and madness? Its Tuesday evening, the wind howls, the heavy metal plays and the dice roll. Its 40K night for a group of ve twenty-something friends! The Dark Angel chaplain and assault squad charge the Tau lines and its all over like so many times before. The autocannon totting chaos havocs mercilessly gun down vehicle after vehicle until theres nothing left and Thousand Sons plod forward into the awaiting maw of guns that lie in wait for them while individual krak missiles pick off individual troopers one at a time. 40K night suddenly isnt what it once was. So what happens when you know your opponents armies and playing style inside out? Youve swapped each others armies til the cows have come home and youve played everything from 400 point patrols to 3,000 point battles? Then you start to need something new. Weve attended many of the Carnage tournaments organized through Warseer where we all met a lot of like minded gamers and generally had a blast, so my friends and I ventured out into the local area in search of people just like us, with the same appreciation of the game in all its competitive glory while taking pride in our miniatures and being a good sport. No Points For Painting Our rst outing took us to a church hall with a plentiful supply of tables which were quickly occupied as other gamers asked what wed brought. Fourty-kay! we boldly answeredand then the horror began!
One hour later we were packed up and in the car driving home. Our games had been terrible. Not because my marines had apparently forgotten to wear their armour, or bring their bolters, but because our opponents had an army of odds and sods, not even painted, full of proxies (that amers a melta gun ok?) and were generally unpleasant to play. One had been waving a grease laden chicken leg around all game! No Points For Sportsmanship Our second outing took us to another church
hall. This time I observed as a friend played. His opponent seemed nice enough, then quickly ipped through a folder of army lists until he found the one which would kill my friends army very dead very quickly! We pretty much expected that, but what we didnt expect were the stats of his troops to change constantly -that was until I grabbed his codex! Some dodgy dice rolling and twisted rules interpretations later and he got the smug win he was after. I guess on the bright side his army was painted and as rst timers we didnt have to pay the exorbitant 5 entry fee.
49
Club Quest
No Points For Sunday Roast A few of our group had lost heart in our quest and even in the game itself! The following weekend, I took a trip by myself to a club Id attended a couple of years ago. Funny enough the same two 40K players were still there, surrounded by a horde of Warhammer Fantasy players and just like before, I had some great games against them. But then, there was an almighty rumble! The pizza Id bought from up the road didnt quite ll the hole my body had prepared for another of Mums mighty Sunday roasts. The club may only run once every fortnight, but when it runs through the middle of the day on a Sunday, you start to realize why there arent that many members. Us wargamers need our vittles dontcha know! Is Tourney Play The Way? The following Saturday we piled into my car and drove all the way to a large wargames shop on the very edge of Milton Keynes, deep in the countryside. Wed played at Wargamesworkshop for the chaos battle report in Firebase #3, so we were all looking forward to drinking our own bodyweight in coffee and playing on their many themed tables. We arrived a little late to nd the place heaving with gamers, so we quickly signed up and got playing! I faced some fantastic armies, all played by people who had clearly taken time and effort to paint their forces, but best of all, they were a pleasure to play as well and very amiable when it came to discussing rules. After four games I placed 9th and another friend came 2nd with his new Eldar army. I asked a number of people where they played and everyone answered that they game at home with a small group of friends, but annually attend tournaments around their local area. Many people had traveled just as far and wide as we had in search of a good game! There were so many stunning armies and sporting people, I wanted to play them all, but the day wasnt long enough. Maybe next time Conclusion In the end, we didnt nd ourselves a wargames club, but we have found a monthly tournament to attend, which is ideal when you dont play that often anyway.
Ill never understand why people take the game so seriously to the point of cheating in order to win, or why games clubs seem to harbor these kinds of people. I guess that people of a like mind will always band together, and after seeing the dark side of our wargaming hobby, we found the right place for us. So if youre tired of playing the same friends with the same armies with the same outcomes, get out there and start exploring. Youll nd the right place for you soon enough! - ADAM SMITH
50
Battle Report - New Chaos Undivided vs. Tau - 1500 points
ADAM: CHAOS UNDIVIDED

Having tweaked his army in the last issue of Firebase, Adam takes the new Codex Chaos Space Marines through its paces against the militaristic might of the Tau Empire Its time to take the new codex for a trial run and that means Ill probably be dissected very quickly. Lets run through a few changes. Deler loses indirect re, which isnt so good! Chaos Spawn as a unit option equals gribbly fun galour! Cheaper Daemon Prince with some awesome powers. Ten-man squads required for a heavy weapon is quite painful and more expensive champion upgrades arent good either. Havocs losing the tank hunter skill could be a real kick in the teeth and Obliterators moving to heavy support means that Ill be struggling for repower, even if the Dreadnought has been moved to Elites. Oh, and the fact that Mr. Dreadnought may go loopy, turn on the spot to shoot one of my guys and ash his armour 10 arse at the enemy is extremely concerning. Running forward screaming was a big enough gamble before, but now Im terried hes going to blow a big hole through my Predator or Deler! Im sure youre all expecting me to take the dreaded Lash of Submission power arent you? Well, Im strictly a Chaos Undivided player, so I refuse to! In fact, I take a certain pride in winning games through cunning plans and outright cowardice. Its playing to the armys character I tell you. After experiencing lack of mobility problems in previous games, I took 5 bikers for some speed, toughness and dual amey goodness. My army does look very small though and I know its going to get shot a lot. Time for some cunning tactics to see my through. The good old feinted ank has served me well recently, so lets see how Simon copes with it. CHAOS ARMY LIST Daemon Prince Suavius: Wings and warp time psychic power Dreadnought: twin linked lascannon 10 Chaos Space Marines: Champion with power st, a plasma gun and a missile launcher 10 Chaos Space Marines: Champion with power st, a plasma gun and a missile launcher 5 Chaos Bikers: Champion with power st, two amers 1 Chaos Spawn: gribble and drool 10 Chaos Havocs: Four autocannons Deler: Havoc launcher Predator: Autocannon turret, lascannon side sponsons, extra armour
51
SIMON: TAU EMPIRE

I designed my army to have as many guns and as many models as possible. Youll notice there isnt much AP3, but thats because the sheer volume of dice should drown most armies and I also know that Adam cant pass armour saves to save his life! Normally Adam out-shoots his opponents, but not today, so hell have to come to me. Into my waiting guns. The plan is to set up some solid ring lanes with an equal number of guns to hose him down with pulse rie re. The more mobile elements of the army like Stealth Suits, Battle Suits and Hammerheads will plug the gaps in my ring line and take on the tanks and other nasty units where needed. If only I can win the rst turn and try to take his vehicles out quickly, then nothing will stop my Hammerheads!
TAU ARMY LIST Commander Chi Ken Shasel: Fusion blaster, missile pod, multi-tracker, targeting array 6 Stealth Suits 1 Fire Rain Battle Suit: Twin linked missile pods and black sun lter 1 Fire Rain Battle Suit: Twin linked missile pods and black sun lter 10 Kroot Carnivores 12 Fire Warriors 12 Fire Warriors 12 Fire Warriors 12 Fire Warriors Hammerhead: Railgun, smart missile system, multi-tracker, target lock, decoy launchers Hammerhead: Railgun, smart missile system, multi-tracker, target lock, decoy launchers Hammerhead: Railgun, smart missile system, multi-tracker, target lock, decoy launchers
52
SET UP:
All raised areas on the board are considered to give a 5+ cover save. Simon won the roll for mission, rolling a 6 and choosing Seek & Destroy for something simple, I then proceeded to win the roll for table edge. Adam: I deployed the Havocs in the centre with a good eld of re to both sides of the table, behind the Deler sat smugly in the middle with a Chaos Marine squad either side. I then placed the predator over to the left and the unpredictable dreadnought to a similar position on the right. To throw Simon off guard, suddenly the Chaos Marine Bikers occupied the far left ank with the Daemon Prince and Chaos Spawn not too far away. With the majority of cover in this section of the board, a swift ank attack should be simple and effective. Best of all, I can pull the rest of my forces to one side and pick on just half of his army. Oh how I am evil! Simon: Adams a sneaky git, so I spread out everything evenly
to stop him in any direction. There were two good elds of re down the table and if I can dominate these, Ill be able to shot him up before he can do much damage. I put all my Hammerheads out in the open to draw re away from the rest of my units who can pulse rie him to death. Theyve got plenty of armour, so they should be alright. I put all my Battle Suits, Stealth Suits and Kroot in the middle to redeploy wherever theyre needed. Ive
just got to shoot him lots and stay out of combat. Its always easier said than done. We both rolled for rst turn, both rolling a 5, another 5 and then Simon rolled a two, followed by my three. I go rst! Time to blow those skimmers out of the sky before they become too much of a threat, although we both agreed that as they hadnt yet moved, they were still on their landing gear.
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TURN 1: CHAOS
Adam: Thank the dark gods for granting me the rst turn! I was seriously worried about those Hammerheads destroying the Deler, Dreadnought and Predator in an instant. The Chaos Bikers turbo boosted down the left ank at top speed, met by a worried expression on Simons face. Daemon Prince Suavius and his pet Spawn left the connes of the Chaos Temple, apping and shambling behind the safety of some rocks while the two Chaos Space Marine squads moved around the large cliff in the centre and round to the left ank, out of harms wayfor the most part. For once my Dreadnought was in a stable frame of mind and ambled through the terrain to take aim at
the nearest Hammerhead, but the shot bounced off harmlessly. The Predator moved around the Chaos Temple to start the shooting phase with a lascannon shot at the Hammerhead on the left ank, which bounced harmlessly off its thick front armour. Fine! It was time for the Havocs to show that Hammerhead whos boss and let lose with eight autocannon shots, inicting a single glancing hit that tore the railgun from its mounting. One Hammerhead neutralized. If I can get all three, Ill be laughing. The Deler scuttled to the left of the cliff, spying a lone Fire Warrior and unleashed its mighty battle cannon, which scattered wildly, hitting ve Fire Warriors concealed behind cover and killing four of them! Hows that for inaccuracy?
TURN 1: TAU
Simon: I swooped the now railgun-less Hammerhead down, in front of the Chaos Bikers, opening re with the smart missile system, but every shot missed or bounced off their armour. The Fire Warriors in the nearby rocks opened re, killing two of the dark riders. Theyre still going to get in close with those amers and its not going to be pretty. The other Fire Warrior squad takes aim at the advancing chaos marines, but all their shots miss or have no effect. Are the batteries on these things charged? I moved my two re rain Battle Suits to the edge of the cliff, accompanied by Chi Ken Shasel who all opened re with their missile pods at the Deler. One shot scored a glancing hit, stunning the metallic beast, but its daemonic possession negated the effects. I rushed the Kroot forward. Woot for Kroot! They will die well for the Greater Good like they always do. They may even take some of the Chaos Marines with them in close combat next turn. I moved one Fire Warrior team to reinforce the ank under attack. Hopefully their extra repower will stop the power armoured madmen marching into my guns without a care in the world. Its going to take them another turn to get there though. Nearby, I sent both Hammerheads forward to deal with the Dreadnought and the Havocs. A solid slug tore the lascannon arm form its hull, stunning the wretched walker. At least that was one less anti tank gun to worry about. Meanwhile, the other Hammerhead red a submunition shot into the Havocs, killing two of them before combining its smart missile system with the other grav tank, but the armour of the warped tank hunters was too strong.
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TURN 2: CHAOS
Adam: The Chaos Bikers revved their engines into a bestial roar as they ascended the rocks to close with the Fire Warriors, until two of the bikes ipped over, crushing the riders beneath. One remained, his nger keenly on the trigger of his amer, engulng ve on the grey skinned aliens in scorching warp ame and seeing two fall into a charred heap before screeching into glorious close combat! Of course, Simon thought it was hilarious that two of my expensive bikers had crashed and died. I was more worried about getting mugged in close combat by a bunch of Tau. The Predator pivots on the spot to shoot at the Fire Warriors behind the Kroot, but spectacularly misses with every shot! The rst Chaos Space Marines squad marches within rapid re range of the Kroot while the second squad followed from behind. The Chaos Spawn ambles forward very slowly, dribbling as he goes while Daemon Prince Suavius majestically soars into the air and over the rocks to land in front of the Kroot. No rapid ring for the Chaos Marines then! The Deler continued scuttling forward and spies the Stealth Suits with its daemonically enhanced eyes. Another wildly scattering battle cannon shot explodes, killing two team members and pinning the unit in place. The Havocs loose another volley of re from their autocannons at the advancing Hammerhead, stunning the crew inside as a lucky shot punctures the pilots viewer. Daemon Prince Suavius cast warp time upon himself, before leaping into close combat and striking perfectly with every attack (re-rolls
permitting), killing a perfect tally of ve Kroot. The avian creatures turned to ee, but were quickly cut down before the Daemon Prince vaulted into the air and swooped behind a large rock, out of harms way. Meanwhile, the lone biker mowed down a single Fire Warrior with his charge as the pulse ries rang off his armoured steed. Needing 6s to wound, the Tau were having a tough time of things, but they passed their leadership test and fought on.
railgun, opened re with its smart missile system as well, inicting a single wound. I probably wont kill it, but a single wound gives me half victory points, which will do nicely! The reinforcing Fire Warriors reach the summit of the cliff while the Battle Suits move forward again to take aim at the Deler with their missile pods, inicting yet another glancing hit that tears the battle cannon from its mounting before they jump back into cover. The Fire Warriors take aim at the Chaos Marines again, felling one of the dark warriors. The Fire Warrior squad locked in combat with the lone Chaos Biker rain down a torrent of desperate blows, overwhelming him, but the combined toughness of his bike and power armour sees him through. Meanwhile, the Stealth Suits pick themselves off the oor, pinned from the Chaos shooting phase and the crew of the Hammerhead nearest the Havocs reorganize themselves since being stunned.
TURN 2: TAU
Simon: I started the turn by cruising one Hammerhead under the bridge and through the pass between the two cliffs, trying to get the Daemon Prince within my sights, but I could only see the Chaos Spawn. The railgun hit home again, splattering the freakish Chaos thing in an explosion of ailing limbs and uid. Instant Kill!! The smart missile system locked on to the Daemon Prince, lurking behind the rock, but had no effect. Meanwhile the other Hammerhead, missing its
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TURN 3: CHAOS
Adam: Cackling madly, I moved the Dreadnought (who was still sane!) around cover a little to target the rear armour of the Hammerhead in the pass with the twin linked bolters. Typically the shot bounced off the armour, but it was worth a try! To protect my Predator from railguns punching through its armour, I drove it back into the cover of the Chaos Temple, and then rolled a 1 as it crashed and immobilized itself. Note to self: stop driving into difcult terrain. The Chaos Marines continued their advance, rapid
ring their bolters at the Fire Warriors and killing two of them. Meanwhile, Daemon Prince Suavius leapt into the sky before swooping into combat with the Fire Warriors bearing down on the lone Chaos Biker. Another perfect ve kills and the Tau ran screaming, only to be quickly cut down in a gory orgy! The Havocs were enjoying themselves, letting loose with everything theyd got at the advancing Hammerhead, but ever heavy slug harmlessly pattered off the thick front armour like rain. Having just picked themselves up from the dirt, the Stealth Suits saw the Deler scuttle to the edge
of the cliff, leap off and scoop the nearest squad member up in its mechanical claws before tearing him in half and pummeling another into pulp. The high tech warriors turned to ee, but were crushed, rent and discarded as they ed the daemon engine that then rampaged into the nearby Fire Warrior squad.
TURN 3: TAU
Simon: The ank has fallen. Time to pull everyone out of there fast! I reversed the Hammerhead in the pass back out, taking aim at the Havocs and killing two with another submunition shot, while moving the other away from the Havocs, targeting the Dreadnought with its railgun and blowing the walker apart in a massive explosion. The combined smart missile systems target the Havocs, but fail to harm any of them. Meanwhile the Hammerhead without its railgun bravely pulls alongside the Daemon Prince, unleashing another volley of smart missiles, but they impact against the creature with no effect. Maybe the tank will distract the Daemon Prince long enough to stop him munching his way through my army? The reinforcing Fire Warriors fall back from the cliff towards their ank where they started the game, followed by the Battle Suits who use their jump packs for some extra movement, but one suit crashes in the rocks. Meanwhile, the Fire Warriors locked in combat can do nothing as one of their squad is playful snipped apart by the Delers clumsy claws, but they hold their ground and ght on for the Greater Good!
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TURN 4: CHAOS
Adam: Due to Simons redeployment of the Hammerheads, I had to move the Havocs into a better position in the rocks while spreading them out some more to negate the effect of the submunition rounds coming my way. Hes got to start missing with those railguns soon! The Chaos Space Marines and lone Chaos Biker join the Deler in combat against the Tau Fire Warriors, wiping them all out in a frenzy of blood letting. The Deler then consolidated into cover while the Chaos Marines and Biker spread themselves out against incoming re. Laughing, Daemon Prince Suavius casts warp time again and charges the Hammerhead sitting in front of him, striking the skimmer twice, but spectacularly not penetrating its armoured hull. This cant be right!
TURN 4: TAU
Simon: The Fire Warriors continue to withdraw from the cliff as the Hammerheads swoop in for the kill! After surviving its encounter with the Daemon Prince, the Hammerhead without its railgun closes in on the Deler, targeting its rear armour with the smart missile system, glancing and then punching straight through the engine block, toppling the metallic monster with a powerful explosion. Suddenly Adam wasnt look so smug! The Hammerhead oating above the cliff red a submunition round into the Chaos Marines, killing one while targeting the lone Biker with its smart missiles, but they failed to inict any damage. The last Hammerhead launched a barrage of smart missiles and a submunition shot at the Havocs, but failed to harm them in their new formation.
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TURN 5: CHAOS
Adam: Just two turns left to go and its not looking good for me. All the Hammerheads are operational and while Ive eaten about half his army, my force is in tatters. The Predator is a sitting duck, the Chaos Marines are mostly ineffective and the lone Biker is a victory points liability. So that leaves me with the Havocs who dont seem to be killing much and the Daemon Prince who is too far from the action to do much in the long term. Id better kill that damaged Hammerhead then! The lone Chaos Biker turbo boosted back towards the Chaos Temple, taking cover behind a suitably large rock before the action kicked off. Both Chaos Marine squads and the Predator all took aim at the damaged Hammerhead with a combination
of lascannons and missile launchers, but all of them were pathetically useless. Sighing, Daemon Prince Suavius smashed it apart with three penetrating hits, resulting in a massive explosion, but he emerged from the ames laughing without a scratch. At the opposite end of the table the Havocs unleashed yet another volley of re at the Hammerhead, which resulted in nothing again. This wasnt looking good. Lets hope I can just hold out a little longer!
The Hammerhead on the cliff skimmed around the Deler wreckage, getting the Predator in its sights and locking on to its side armour with its railgun. Adam rolled his eyes in disgust at yet another railgun hit. The Chaos Temple provided no cover as the solid slug impacted against the side, disabling the lascannon sponson and stunning the vehicle. The other remaining Hammerhead continued its advanced towards the Havocs, unleashing its smart missiles and a submunition round again, but Adam passed am impressive stful of armour saves.
TURN 5: TAU
Simon: It looks like the Hammerheads can take it from here, so theres no sense in risking the rest of the army. The Battle Suits continued their tactical withdrawal.
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TURN 6: CHAOS
Adam: The Biker continued his turbo boosting back behind the Chaos Temple. I need to kill those Hammerheads. Ive got two krak missiles and four auto cannons to do it with! The two Chaos Marine squads red at the Hammerhead on the cliff, both hitting, but neither nding a vulnerable spot in the armour. Meanwhile the Havocs loosed another volley at the grav tank bearing down on them. Two glancing hits! Finally, some destruction! I then rolled a 1 and a 2, stunning the vehicle. At least I couldnt be shot much more.
Conclusion Chaos Undivided Adam: Overall I wasnt very pleased with my army, which is unusual after such a good game. I typically have trouble against the Tau anyway, but being unable to do anything to the Hammerheads ruined me. I think Ive become too accustomed to the Havocs armed with tank hunting auto cannons just tearing apart any vehicle they aim at. Suddenly, at strength 7, theyre glancing armour 13 vehicles on a 6, instead of glancing on a 5 with strength 7+1 for tank hunter. Its a massive difference from a 1 in 3 chance of a glance to 1 in 6. This was my biggest downfall because I had nothing that could effectively take out the Hammerheads. The Predator was alright, and so was the Dreadnought, but the Havocs provide a concentration of re thats really crucial. Firing the krak missiles from the Chaos Marine units was just sheer desperation! Getting the Daemon Prince into combat was very easy and exceptionally satisfying with the warp time power practically guaranteeing ve kills. While this is awesome because quite often on the turn he charges, no one can hit him back and they tend to ee, he cant seem to get stuck into combat for a turn and mess up my opponents turn by trapping a unit and blocking line of sight. I may drop the Dreadnought and take a ying Chaos Lord with daemon weapon to accompany him on his rampage, or maybe just another Daemon Prince? The Deler was great fun, but didnt really do that much. In theory the Chaos Spawn could have done the same job of charging the Stealth Suits. It would be a bit of a gamble though. The Deler may nd himself sacriced in favour of some Obliterators very soon. Im not hugely happy about my Chaos Marine squads. Theres a lot of them, theyre a lot of points and they dont really do that much. Im thinking of
striping them down to just ve models, one armed with a plasma gun, then using the rest of the points for some Raptors to join my Daemon Prince in rock hopping. Ive got a lot of changes to try out over the coming games and Raptors are on the list too! Conclusion Tau Empire Simon: Even after the ank folded and everything died, I had so many units that there was no way the Chaos army could cope with it all. As always, the Hammerhead performed brilliantly, making a mockery of Adams anti tank weapons and blowing great big holes in his vehicles. The smart missile systems are fantastic too. Not needing lines of sight means that they can pick off units that should otherwise be safe while keeping the tank hidden from a number of threats. The Stealth Suits had a tough time of things. I couldnt really nd anywhere suitable to deploy them. They were going to either be eaten by the Daemon Prince and Chaos Spawn on one ank, charged by the Deler in the middle with its new eet of foot ability, or just be very ineffective on the other ank with only a Dreadnought to shoot at. So I kept them back, but was unlucky to fail my pinning test. Then again, I did hit with every railgun shot from my Hammerheads, so I guess it balances out overall. The huge mobs of Fire Warriors werent hugely effective, but they never are. Theyre mostly there to scare my opponents into staying well back, which gives the Hammerheads plenty of room to cruise about. At the end I thought the game was in the bag, but it was only when we added up the points I realised just how much each of the Chaos units cost. It was an awesomely close game and Ill admit that Im not looking forward to next time, because Adam will have tweaked his army into something really nasty. - ADAM SMITH & SIMON SMITH
TURN 6: TAU
Simon: To win plenty of victory points I just need to take out that Predator. Another shot to the side should do it. The Hammerheads solid shot hit again and penetrated, but Adam was able to turn it down to a glance with his cover save from the Chaos Temple, which blew the auto cannon turret off. The smart missile system locked on to the nearby Chaos Marines, killing two and taking the squad below half strength.
RESULT: DRAW
We counted up the victory points at the end to nd a difference of just 25pts in Simons favour, making the game a draw. Whew, it was a close one!
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Conversion Workshop
THE AQUILLA LANDER PROJECT

Background One night I was at the game shop talking Warhammer with a guy named Orion, who is a pretty good converter, and someone who (like myself) has a love of scratch building things. He said something along the lines of Im building and Aquilla Lander model from the battle for Macragge terrain. Now I thought this was a brilliant idea and decided that I would one day embark upon the same quest. Needless to say a fair amount of the scratch-builders Ive meet (including myself) are easily distracted and normally have many projects going on at once, and so he quickly moved onto other bigger projects and left his Lander sitting at about the 30% nished construction stage. A few weeks later I saw a post looking for rebase submissions and after talking to AshC he decided it was a decent enough project for the E-Zine. So with that and Orions blessing to loot his idea, I went onto battle-wagon-bitz and ordered The Battle for Macragge terrain and loaded up on superglue. The Project The rst step is to rough cut out the Aquilla Lander from the terrain it is buried in. This should be done with a saw or some sort of heavy duty shears (make sure and mind your ngers and eyeballs). I believe if someone was to try to use a box cutter or exacto knife would have taken much too long. This rst step is also when you decided how much of the model you want to try to keep and how much you want to get rid of. For example, all of the pieces of the engine intake & thruster were buried half below ground. I decided rather then try to salvage spend the time scratchbuilding into it that It would be easier and look better just build those portions from scratch. After you get all the pieces cut out then you take up the exacto knife or box cutter and clean off the edges and cut off any remaining terrain left from your rough cutting. It is at this point I cut out the glass in the cockpit and removed the top hatch which I decided I would replace with a more standard style hatch. Once all your pieces are cut out and cleaned up
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said caused him trouble) is nothing more the old superglue caps. After that just add bitz and green stuff to ll the gaps, then paint as desired. Mine is painted up for my traitor guard force dedicated to slaaneshi.
you begin to assemble your yer starting with the main hull and working outward. I used .09 thick plasticard for a majority of the large sections, and anywhere from .03-.06 thick plasticard for the details. Also remember to drill some sort of hole in the bottom of the yer for the stand. I also suggest some sort of bracing to extend into the feathers of the wings, as there is little surface area to glue to. You can use basswood strips that are 3/8 thick to extend from inside the upper wind
out into the feathers. This will greatly strengthen the connection between the outside and inside wing and also serve as a spacer for when you go to put the bottom of the wing on. For my cockpit I used a cab & driver from the plastic sentinel set, however you easily build this out of plasticard or loot a seat from some other model aircraft. The other solution is to replace all the glass in the cockpit and paint over it. For the center of my jet intake (something that Orion
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If you notice that Aquilla has its fair amount of bumps and scrapes. If you want you could take the time to ll these in with green stuff. There is also a little bit of dirt that was left on the lander from when it was terrain. However I decided to leave it, because it was too much work to le/shave off in the amount of time I had. For the base I found an old block of resin that I think was from some void model that I purchased & looted some many years ago. It seamed hefty enough to hold of up the weight of the yer, so I drilled a small hole in it then added a semicircle of PVC pipe to increase the height. The rod supporting the Aquilla is 2 pieces of plasticard tubing one inside the other to make it stronger. Conclusion I decided that though I love the Aquilla Lander model, the rules are just OK. However I did come
to the revelation that the Aquilla has the save Armor value as the Vulture, and both yers have the VTOL ability. So I put 4 magnets in the wings to serve as hard-points this would allow me to add weapons and run it as ether an Aquilla Lander or Counts As Vulture.
Also I strongly suggest using hot glue gun in addition to superglue, it holds really well and can serve as gap ller if needed. I think it is a vastly underrated thing in our hobby. I really enjoyed this project; it was relatively easy scratch build as most the work was already done for you. It was also pretty cheap as anyone who has a fair amount of plasticard supplies should be able to complete it for 15-20$. Overall I have to say it is now one of my favorite models I own.
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Painting Workshop
PAINTING TYRANIDS
One of the most striking things in a tyranid scheme is something that is unique. A scheme that jumps up and instantly draws peoples eyes to your army, in a way that people remember to be yours is something you want to aim for. Whilst this guide focuses around how I painted mine, hopefully some of the techniques I mention will encourage you to try some new things and perhaps nd a thing or two that helps. Preparation: Firstly you want to assemble your model. Once you have done this, you need to ensure you remove any mould lines. A little extra time here goes a long way towards the end result. Any that are missed will show quite clearly once things like washes are applied. Finally, undercoat the model black. Step 1: Begin with the dark pink / red. Decide which areas are going to be this colour (In the case of my army, I went with the regular skin areas), and cover them in Scab Red. Once this has dried, do a second coat to make sure it is consistent. Step 2: Highlighting. To speed things up, I did only 3 stages of highlighting. The rst is roughly 25% Bleached Bone, 75% Scab Red. Paint this quite broadly on all raised areas. Next, mix in some bone, roughly 50% of each. Paint this on all of the moderately raised areas, and in slightly thinner/less broad lines than the last highlight, there should now be some less raised areas that are only highlighted with the rst mix, and most with the second. Finally, an extreme highlight of approximately 75% bone, 25% scab red. This highlight will seem a few shades too bright, and once done will not look right. This will just be on the edges and will be very thin. Step 3: To bring that last highlight back down a few shades, whilst blending the rest together and keeping it over all bright enough to pick out the edges easily, we next do a very thin wash several times. Take a very small amount of scorched brown, and add to it a bit more scab red. Then add a LOT of water to this (you want it to feel like it is almost just coloured water), and apply this over all of the red areas. Once it dries, do this again - all up 3-4 times depending on how its looking. Step 4: Next up is the carapace. Mix up the main colour, which is 50% Hawk Turquoise, and 50% Scaly Green - then for this base coat, mix in a small amount of Chaos Black. Then work out which areas you want to paint as carapace, and coat them in this base coat, again 2 coats should be necessary. Step 5: Time for some stripy fun. Take the 50% Hawk 50% Scaly mix, and water it down a little bit more than you usually would. Paint stripes going in the same direction the scale is pointing, starting about half way down it and dragging your brush towards the outside. This will take the paint with it as you go, so that the stripe will blend into the base coat and become thicker as you get closer to the end of the chitin. Do not paint these
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stripes straight, but rather on slight angles - and keep them changing angle each time - if you have any next to each other on the same angle, it just looks wrong. Repeat this process, mixing a little bit of bleached bone in, and starting further down the chitin, following the existing stripes (i.e only paint this on top of a stripe already painted). Mix a bit more bone in, youre aiming for about 50/50 now, and repeat this process once again. Finally, aim for about 75% bone, and paint just the very edge of the chitin where the stripes are. If you have done this too extremely, you may want to wash it down with a diluted mix used in the base coat, but it shouldnt be required. Step 6: Flesh-times. This colour takes me longer than any other colour, and on the carnifexes with the bigger guns, it felt like it took more time to do this than the entire rest of the model. First up, paint any area that is to be esh with Dark Flesh. Next, mix between this and Dwarf Flesh so that the transition and coat is smooth, the bigger the piece of esh, the more between coats that are required - but I normally do about 3-4. Next mix between Dwarf Flesh and Elf Flesh, again depending on the size more or less stages will be required, but on average about 3-4 stages. Finally, some highlights by mixing white in to elf esh, with the last one being about 50/50. Step 7: Time to paint the bone/talons etc. Basecoat the bone areas with Scorched Brown, then paint graveyard earth. The key difference between the method of painting this, and the esh - is you want to leave a thin line of the last colour, so that the dark line starts very thin and widens as each layer goes (please see the diagram for a better explanation of this). These will become the grooves and lines in the horn/bone. After painting Graveyard, paint desert yellow. Next comes Kommando Khaki, followed by bleached bone. From here, you want to highlight the bone itself by mixing in white, start with roughly 75% bone, 25% white. Next go 50/50 - followed by a nal highlight on the extreme edges with 25% bone, 75% white.
6b
7b
7c
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8
Step 8: For the eyes, paint a white horizontal line - followed by sunburst yellow over this, and a vertical line of chaos black. Finally, the eyes and tongues and what not. For the Green (tongue etc), paint Dark Angels Green, mix up to Snot green with usually just one stage between them, then mix 3-4 successive highlights of scorpion green into the snot green. Final Touches: Well, from there all thats left is to go over and touch up any mistakes you notice, and base it as you see t. Though I havent included how I did my bases as there are more than enough guides oating around for some great bases, I used a rocky ruins style base with snow, using codex fortress and space wolves grays for my ground, and a baking soda pva water mix to make a sort of paste for the snow. All thats left from there is to give it a good varnish. Normally I prefer my models not to shine, so use a good matt varnish. In this case however, a tiny amount of shine was okay with the tyranid look, so I settled for a light coat of GW Satin varnish. Thanks, - Charlie St Clair (proximity)
What are you wearing to the GT?

Actual Text: THEORY HAMMER rarely survives contact with the enemy
11 different designs more designs to be added Shirts and Sweatshirts available Variety of colors and styles White print on Dark shirts Black print on Light shirts Actual Text: MATH HAMMER dont make a move without knowing the odds
www.mathhammer.net
Have a design request? Submit it at [email protected]
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Advertising
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Specialist Games Section
SG CONTENTS
Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Aeronautica Imperialis Review: The FW Thunderhawk Gunship . . . . 70 Epic Tactica: Space Marine Dreadnoughts . . . . . . 71 Painting Guide: 6mm Tanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Epic Mighty Empires Campaign Rules . . . . . . 75 Epic: Advanced Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Battleeet Gothic Painting Guide: Forgeworld Escort Carrier . . 79 Necromunda Scenario: Burn the Witch! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Generalist Specialist: Games Day Report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Games Day Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Four Systems, One Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Teaser: Feature Presentation The Siege of Mossino. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
(Massive Death Korps of Krieg suppliment for Epic)
(The Siege of Mossino is available as a separate download.)
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EDITORIAL:
Ben Martyn S, Specialist Games Editor for Firebase. Weve got a nice, if small spread of different articles this issue (Although no Inquisitor-specic pieces this time, unfortunately), and rest assured that anything that doesnt get heavily featured in one issue will be prominent in the next, and I hope that well be able to have a larger selection of articles next issue. My thanks goes out to everyone whos contributed to this issue of the Specialist Games Section, especially those who contributed to our incredible Feature Presentation: The Siege of Mossino, a campaign/rules supplement for Epic, the team there included everything from a Golden Daemon winner to a genuine Cartographer, and considering its a free hobby production the nal result is stunning, even if I do say so myself! We hope to include similar feature presentations with every issue of Firebase from now on; Currently penciled in for Issue 6 is Raiders: Necrons & Dark Eldar for Epic. Personally, I cant wait to read it! So, if youve got anything to say about Firebases Specialist Games section (Positive or negative!), or you fancy contributing something of your own for the next issue, then please drop by Warseers Specialist Games subforum and throw a few of your words onto the information super-highway! Sooner or later every veteran GW gamer does one of two things: 1. He looks to pastures new, maybe a new army in his current game system, or he moves to a new game system like Battleeet. or Inquisitor. 2. He quits. So, what are you interested in doing next?
Whats in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet. Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2) Welcome to the newly-consolidated Specialist Games section of Firebase, your one-stop shop for SG hobby support! To jump straight in and set out our new mission statement, well be covering the following 40krelated Specialist Games in every issue from now on: Battleeet Gothic. (Kilometres-long spacecraft ring missiles the size of houses!) Epic (A simulation-style wargame set in the 41st millennium with Titans!) Necromunda (Hands-down GWs best ever campaign system!) Inquisitor (This rules system is so mutable, its a godsend to RPG players)
NEXT ISSUE: SNEAK PEAK

Necrons versus Dark Eldar, and in the middle, an Imperial Guard Tank Regiment.
In addition, were also going to include ForgeWorlds own Specialist Game: Aeronautica Imperialis (Quick to pick up and play with fantastic models!)
Sorry, but were not covering Gorkamorka in Firebase yet...
New Army Lists, new Stories, new Feature Presentation Epic Raiders.
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REVIEW: THE FORGEWORLD THUNDERHAWK GUNSHIP

The moment you take this model out of the box, one thing strikes you: Its really big! Its solid, massive, and packed with enormous amounts of detail on rst impressions at least it is an impressive piece just for its sheer size alone. Okay, so now weve got the my Thunderhawk is can beat up your Thunderdork boasting out of the way (The metal Specialist Games Thunderhawk is rather small after all), what else is there to know about this model? Well, the second thing I noticed is that for a ForgeWorld model it has a lot of pieces (Their aircraft models normally total 5-ish pieces, while this has 22 pieces, even including a choice of main guns for the dorsal weapon mount. The third thing I noticed was that there was a damaged component! No problem here however, a quick phone call and a long wait later and ForgeWorld had replaced the damaged item free of charge. Everyone seems to say the same thing: of all of Games-Workshops various departments and sub-companies, ForgeWorld have the worst quality control, and the best customer relations. So whats not so good about this model? Well, the Landing Skids are very fragile (Mine have snapped three times already) and although its an easy repair its certainly worth bearing in mind. Additionally, there are no pre-drilled hole for a ying stalk to poke into, despite one being included in the box. So if you want your T-Hawk to y, youll have to break out the dremel & dust mask and drill into that precious resin yourself! These are minor niggles however, and are easily worked around (In the case of the Landing Skids, you could actually cut off the bracing struts and glue the Skids on in the stowed for ight position). Overall, I rate it: Bad Average Good X X
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TACTICA: EPIC SPACE MARINE DREADNOUGHTS

Dreadnoughts Are Rubbish! Thats one of the rst things a new Epic Space Marine player will learn; Experienced gamers will tell you: Theyre too slow, they never kill anything, and theyre incredibly vulnerable!. So, how true is this? Well, in order to analyse how useful Dreadnoughts can be, we must rst look at the negatives. The Downsides 1. Dreadnoughts are the slowest Armoured Vehicle in the Space Marine army (15cm per move, as opposed to a Rhinos 30cm). 2. In practice, Dreadnoughts will often be the only Armoured Vehicle target type in a formation that will be otherwise composed of infantry (Meaning that Anti-Tank type hits will often be allocated to the Dreadnought in a seemingly disproportionate manner). 3. Dreadnoughts cannot be taken as a formation in their own right, but must join either a Tactical, Devastator or Terminator formation. This means that: 1. When elding Dreadnoughts, you have to nd a way to overcome their limited ground speed. 2. You have to be aware of your enemys capabilities and keep your Dreadnoughts in cover or out of line of sight of enemy Anti-Tank weapons. 3. When writing your army list, you must pick a suitable formation to attach your Dreadnought(s) to (Theres no point attaching a close-combat congured Dreadnought to a formation that you intend never to risk in
An Assault Dreadnought of the Ultramarines Chapter with Power st & Assault Cannon
an Engagement, or attaching a ranged-re congured Dreadnought to a formation that you intend to use only for close Engagements!). Bearing those points in mind, lets examine the two Dreadnought congurations found in the Codex Marine army list, and ponder how best to make use of them.
1. Put your Dreadnoughts in a Thunderhawk Gunship! 2. Put your Dreadnoughts into Drop Pods! 3. Put your Dreadnoughts into a Landing Craft! Now, after reading that list, most newbies to Epic will ask; I know about Thunderhawk Gunships and Drop Pods, but what on Terra is a Landing Craft?!?! Well, this is a Landing Craft:
The Assault Dreadnought This conguration of Dreadnought has one main battleeld role; The Assault Dreadnoughts strength is in Engaging the enemy, getting into base-to-base contact and tearing them apart! This type of Dreadnought is almost as good at close combat as a unit of Terminators (Remember, in Epic a unit refers to a base of 5 men), but it costs only 50pts per Dreadnought as compared to the Terminator formations 80pts per unit. Ah, but Terminators have the ability to Teleport, I hear you say, allowing them to appear at any point on the tabletop in a similar manner to 40Ks Deep Strike rule. Well, thats true, but Dreadnoughts have three options available to them that will provide similar results. If youve been reading the Horus Heresy series of books and have been wondering where all the large Stormbird assault ships went post- Heresy, then heres your answer; Theyre too big for 40K gaming, but theyre just right for Epic... Ruleswise, theyre like Thunderhawk Gunships with twice the hit points, 50% more infantry capacity, two Predator Annihilator lascannon turrets, three twin heavy bolters and the ability to carry four Land Raiders or six Rhino hulls. But, the Landing Craft is a rubbish choice for an Assault Dreadnought, heres why: The biggest advantage of a Landing Craft is in its ability to drop several formations into position at one time, complete with transport or re support vehicles.
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In my opinion, this ability gels perfectly with the role of the Fire Support Dreadnought (Which Ill get to later), but if youre using a Landing Craft to transport units directly into Engagements, I think youre missing out on the best use of a Landing Craft, that of carrying various different re support units like Devastators, Predators and Land Raiders into ring range unscathed (Although they hit incredibly hard at close range in Epic, Marines lack long range repower). Using a Landing Craft in this circumstance is not an optimum choice then; This leaves us with Thunderhawk Gunships and Drop Pods. Both of these methods will get our Assault Dreadnought into close combat pretty reliably. If your enemy has a lot of anti-aircraft repower, Drop Pods will be the best choice, at least until you can soften up your opponents AA defenses a little. If your enemy lacks AA, then use a Thunderhawk, as its a bit more reliable (Drop Pods scatter in Epic just like they do in 40K, and its never nice being left out of Engagement range due to Drop Pod Drift). An Assault Dreadnought complements the following formations in the following manner: Tactical Marine Formation - An Assault Dreadnought will provide a respectable combat punch to an otherwise average CC formation. Best deployed from: A Thunderhawk Gunship or Drop Pods. Devastator Marine Formation - An Assault Dreadnought will provide a superb close combat reinforcement to a formation that is otherwise very lacking in CC ability (For a Marine formation at any rate). Best deployed from: A Thunderhawk Gunship. Terminator Formation - An Assault Dreadnought will increase the already powerful CC punch of a Terminator formation to extreme levels. Can only be deployed from: A Landing Craft (Terminators cannot currently use Drop Pods in the Codex Marine army list, whilst even a minimum sized Terminator/Dreadnought combined formation will not t inside a Thunderhawk Gunship). Overall, I tend to use Assault Dreadnoughts with Tactical and especially Devastator formations, and regrettably eld Terminator formations without them. and gains +1 to hit when shooting). Due to its mixed weapon types (The twin lascannon can only target vehicles in Epic, whilst the Missile Launcher is best when targeting infantry), the Fire Support Dreadnought is at its best when shooting at enemy Formations which include both Infantry and Vehicle-type targets, or at light vehicles like Land Speeders which can be damaged by both types of weapon. Fire Support Dreadnoughts will not work well when being deployed by Drop Pod as they need to be able to take cover in buildings or terrain features as soon as they hit the ground and set up a rebase (Pun not intended!), relying on the random scattering of Drop Pods to put your Dreadnought into a position with both cover and a good eld of re is not going to cut it. So if Drop Pods arent up to the task, that leaves Thunderhawk Gunships and Landing Craft. Either option is a suitable choice for your Fire Support Dreadnoughts. A Fire Support Dreadnought complements the following formations in the following manner: Tactical Marine Formation - A Fire Support Dreadnought provides this average shooting formation with an extra anti-tank punch. Best deployed from: Thunderhawk Gunship, for a small, independent task force. Devestator Marine Formation - A Fire Support Dreadnought provides a serious extra amount of repower to this formation and complements its habitual behaviour perfectly (Devestator formations will very often want to Sustain Fire, which gels nicely with the stats of the Fire Support Dreadnought).
A Fire Support Dreadnought of the Ultramarines Chapter with Twin Lascannon & Missile Launcher.
The Fire Support Dreadnought The Fire Support Dreadnought also has a specialized battleeld role; Where the Assault Dreadnought longs to Engage the enemy in Close Combat, the Fire Support Dreadnoughts best use is in standing off at medium range and pouring repower at the enemy. This type of Dreadnought packs a similar amount of repower to a unit of Devestators (60pts) for a cheaper price (50pts). Unlike the Assault Dreadnought (Where if you get your tactics right, youll never have to re its assault cannon at all), this Dreadnought is at its best when placed within range of an enemy formation and told to Sustain Fire with its ranged weapons (Sustain Fire means that a formation stays still for a turn,
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Best deployed from: Landing Craft (Land the big transporter, disembark several formations, then all Sustain Fire at a nearby target goodbye target!) Terminator Formations - Not a particularly suitable choice to be honest. Terminators are at their best in Close Combat, so if you want to take a Dreadnought with your Terminators, bring one with a power st! Best deployed from: Nowhere. Overall, Fire Support Dreadnoughts are a conguration that works best in concert with Devastator Marines, deployed by Landing Craft (Or by Thunderhawk Gunship if you cant nd the points in your army list). Unit References Here are the ofcial rules for the two Dreadnought congurations discussed in this tactica article. House Rules When you buy a set of Epic Dreadnoughts from Specialist Games, you are given two Assault Dreadnoughts, two Fire Support Dreadnoughts, and two Multi-Melta Dreadnoughts. However, only the rst two congurations have ofcial rules. Here is a house rules datafax for a Melta Dreadnought:
Space Marine Dreadnought (Melta conguration) Type Speed Armoured Vehicle 15cm Weapon Power Fist Multi-Melta Range (Base Contact) 15cm Armour 4+ Close Combat 4+ Fireght 4+
Firepower Notes Assault Weapon Macro-Weapon, Extra Attacks +1 Macro-Weapon 5+
Notes: Walker (May re-roll dangerous terrain tests).
Space Marine Dreadnought (Assault conguration) Type Speed Armoured Vehicle 15cm Weapon Power Fist Assault Cannon Range (Base Contact) 30cm Armour 4+ Firepower Assault Weapon Anti Personnel 5+ Anti Tank 5+ Close Combat 4+ Fireght 4+
Another common house rule is the Iron Wing formation, a group of four or more Dreadnoughts which operate as a formation in its own right. If you wish to use the Ironwing formation in your games, add the following entry to the Space Marine Detachments section on Page 131 of the Epic Armageddon rulebook:
Ironwing Formation Detachment Dreadnoughts Units 4 Dreadnoughts Upgrades Commander, Vindicator, Dreadnought. Points Cost 175 points
Notes Macro-Weapon, Extra Attacks +1
Space Marine Dreadnought (Fire Support conguration) Type Speed Armoured Vehicle 15cm Weapon Twin Lascannon Missile Launcher Range 45cm 45cm Armour 4+ Firepower Anti Tank 4+ Anti Personnel 5+ Anti Tank 6+ Close Combat 4+ Notes Fireght 4+
Crusading armies consisting of several allied Chapters will occasionally form temporary Ironwing formations of multiple Dreadnoughts, tasked with a goal unachievable through other means.
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PAINTING GUIDE: 6MM ARMOURED VEHICLES

If you ever wanted to try out a desert-themed armoured force then look no further, for presented here is a simple 6-step painting guide which results in a striking look. This scheme is also easily transferable to other model types, so you could try desert-themed aircraft for Aeronautica Imperialis, Ash Wastes themed Necromunda vehicles, or you could even paint a 40k scale tank with these colours! Undercoat your vehicle in black (Black normally looks best as the undercoat for armour, due to the way light interacts with it for the same reason, White is perfect for organics). Basecoat the entire vehicle in Scorched Brown.
Paint the armoured areas with Desert Yellow.
Mix a little Bleached Bone with your Desert Yellow, and apply a highlight layer.
A selection of desert-themed Epic armoured vehicles.
Work your way up to pure Bleached Bone for the nal highlights (Use as many stages of highlight in between as you like. In this example I only used one) Once youve applied pure Bleached Bone as a highlight layer, Drybrush Boltgun Metal onto the metal areas of the vehicle (Be careful not to ruin your previous highlighting!). And were done. Not bad for a 6mm tank!
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EPIC MIGHTY EMPIRES CAMPAIGN RULES

Presented here are some simple rules for running a simulation style map campaign for Epic. By simulation I mean that armies move about the map, claiming resources, scouting land, engaging enemy armies etc. as opposed to the ofcial Mighty Empires more abstract rules for use with Warhammer Fantasy (Where armies dont exist per se, instead we have a oating pool of points totals and bonuses). The disadvantage of a simulation style map campaign is that not every player will get to ght a battle for each map turn, and because of this I would recommend no more than 4 players for this campaign type. The advantage of a simulation style campaign is that your armies may feel more personal to you. The Rules 1 2 Create your map. Make it any shape you like. Take the amount indicated of each of the following markers and randomly place them on the map (We used a scatter & artillery dice). 3 Towns for each participating player. 3 Mines for each participating player. 1 Factory for every two players. 2 Fortication markers. (Dont scatter the Fortications, but place them somewhere interesting. We used the two tiles sticking off either side of the map) 3 4 Select your lists, 6000 points per player. Divide your lists into armies. Starting armies may be no smaller than 2000pts, and may be no larger than 3000pts. 6. For every map turn, you may attempt to move all your armies. Armies move in strategy rating order (Highest rst), in the case of equal strategy ratings, roll off at the beginning of the campaign and keep whatever order is generated thenceforth. 7. Armies roll to enter terrain tiles, and require the following D6 results in order to enter these terrain types: 1+ 2+ 3+ 4+ 5+ Fortication tiles (Automatic) Open tiles with little or no features Tiles with a river Tiles with marshland / many lava pools Mountainous terrain 11. If two or more armies ever enter the same tile, there will be a battle (This a battle game, not a farming system!). The defending player can choose which table side he wants after some suitable terrain relating to the tile in question has been set up. The winner of the battle gets
8. Whenever an army moves over a tile, leave a marker there to show which player has claimed that tile. 9. On every twelfth map turn (i.e.: At the end of each year), players receive resources corresponding to the tiles they own. Featureless tiles 25pts River/swampland/lava pools 50pts Farmland 100pts Mountains 200pts Towns +100pts to that tiles value Mines Double that tiles value Factories +200pts to that tiles value Fortications 400pts (Replaces tiles value) 10. Players may spend their points on adding to existing armies or creating new ones. You cannot start any new armies until all your existing armies are at least 2000pts or more. New armies enter the map from your starting corner, and must total at least 1000pts. Points may be saved indenitely and spent on any new year.
A Mighty Empires map-based campaign in progress. Each players army and territory is marked with a suitable token. Armies involved in this campaign are the Tau, the Imperial Guard, Space Marines and a combined Black Legion/ Lost & the Damned force. Find out who claims victory in our next issue!
to claim the tile, and the loser must withdraw his army. If there is no space on the map for the loser to withdraw (Perhaps he is surrounded or in one of our peninsulitic Fortress tiles) then the winner must withdraw instead. In case of a draw (Weve had one in our campaign, right down to the last victory point!) then the attacker must withdraw. 12. After each battle, roll a D6 for each formation that was completely destroyed. On a roll of a 1 or a 2, that formation is permanently lost! 13. Repeat steps 6-12 a few times and Have Fun!
5. Place your armies into randomly-chosen corners of the map.
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EPIC: ADVANCED TRAINING

Last time, I introduced the practice/ introductory scenarios and discussed how each works. Once a player has gotten a good handle on the rules from those scenarios, you will want to know how to use those units that are not normally found in 40k. I am talking about Super-Heavy Tanks, Titans, Gargants, and Aircraft, along with characters and specialist units. Starting out, there is another Space Marine on Space Marine training missions that involves a variety of units on both sides including character units and some heavy tanks. Once players have a good understanding of how to apply the various specialist units and weapons, it is time to move on to introducing those Super-Heavy Tanks, Titans, and Aircraft. The scenarios for learning the war engines and aircraft rules go beyond the Space Marine on Space Marine training missions. The rst mission is a battle between a Space Marine holding force and a lone Gargant. The next training scenario could almost be an Aeronautica Imperialis game, but it is an Epic battle as two ights of Ork FightaBommers roll in to attack an Imperial Command Bunker and Basilisk Battery, defended by a ight of Thunderbolts and a pair of Hydras. The last mission is an insertion and evacuation mission with a unit of Terminators and a Thunderhawk with a ight of Thunderbolt escort attacking Ork controlled command bunkers defended by traitor Hydras and two ights of Fighta-Bommers. Before getting into War Engine and Aerospace rules lets cover some of things the unit rules that can apply to Infantry, Light Vehicles, and Armored Vehicles. The Specialist Training scenario (Epic 2.3) introduces just a few of the specialist rules. The specialist rules come in two forms. The rst form is rules governing units. These rules have bearing on the actions how a unit may move, how the unit rallies, or how hard the unit may be. The second form is rules governing weapons. These rules govern how fast a weapon may re, what kind of save is allowed against the weapon, and what the weapon may target. The scenario to learn these rules is another Space Marine on Space Marine. The two forces for the scenario are again identical each having two Tactical formations with Rhinos, one with a Commander the other with a Dreadnaught; a Lander Raider formation (4 Land Raiders); and a formation of Land Speeders (5 Land Speeders) The rules that are introduced with these units include, Macro-Weapons, Characters, Leaders, Reinforced Armour, Walkers, and Skimmers. Not all the specialist rules are introduced, rules like Mounted, Slow-Firing, Scouts, and Disrupt. It is important to understand the variety that these rules bring to units before introducing war engines and aircraft because many of these specialist rules are part of most war engines or aircraft or are what allow you to actually kill them.
Epic includes large vehicles, both land and air that can take much more damage than your average tank or aircraft. These are war engines. They carry large destructive weapons capable of destroying a whole company of infantry in a single salvo or capable of transporting platoons of infantry or even light vehicles safely or rapidly across the table. The training scenario for the war engines is found at the end of the war engines rules section (Epic 3.4). The scenario is the last stand of the Gargant Korps Grinda II against a force of Space Marines. At a Y road intersection the Space Marines must halt the advancing Gargant. The Space Marine force consists of a Tactical Formation with Commander and 3 Rhinos, a Devastator Formation with a Commander, and a formation of Land Raiders.
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The Marines have to defend 2 bunkers against the Gargant and destroy the Gargant. Once the Gargant has either destroyed the bunkers it wins. If it has been destroyed itself the Space Marines achieve victory. A Gargant is not any easy War Engine to take down even when you have a full list open to you. Space Marines will nd it difcult to take down a Titan even if it is the only target. Luckily for the Marines a Gargants Power Fields cannot be repaired like Imperial Void Shields. Basic AT weapons, like the Tactical Formations, are good for knocking down Power Fields. The Land Raiders and Devastators are what is going to eventually take the Gargant down. Soopaguns conguration is the most effective, but probably the least fun. In a larger Ork force, I would go with the Suppa-Zzap-Gun or Mega-choppa to kill other War-Engines. Once an understanding of how Epic works using all the different ground units, it is time to introduce air power into the equation. Epic is not dened by the use of aircraft, because to win most Epic games you have to take and hold a ground objective and most aircraft cannot do this. Epic allows the players to eld a very combined arms force; in some cases this is the most effective and uffy force, like Space Marine Air Assault forces or Tau Airborne Hunter Cadres, but that is the next article. Now you have to learn how aircraft work in Epic before using armies that rely on it (Note: some parts of the air rules may change in the near future, for now the rulebook and faq are ofcial). To learn the Aerospace rules there are two scenarios. The rst scenario (Epic 4.5.1) is an Ork Air attack against Imperial Command bunkers and a Basilisk Battery. The Imperial player has a Hydra at each objective and a ight of 3 Thunderbolts to defend them. The Ork player has two ights of four Fighta-Bommas to attack the
objectives. The scenario will be rather quick with no ground movement and very few formations. It will be difcult for the Ork player to destroy the objectives as each hydra has the opportunity to re on each formation. The Imperial player is on the defensive and will stick to putting the Thunderbolts on Intercept orders, while the Orks will be using Ground Attack and possibly Intercept orders. So that both player learn the rules, I suggest playing this scenario twice, swapping sides. The second scenario expands the forces, The Orks are the defensive this time with 2 formations of 3 Ork Fightas defending two formations of Hydras (traitor) and Command Bunker. The Imperial force is a Thunderhawk transporting 4 stands of Terminators and a formation of 3 Thunderbolts. This scenario lets players learn how Air Assault
The Gargant is the only unit in these training scenarios that has a selection of weapons to choose from. The pictured Gargant has 1 of the possibly congurations, 2 x Soopaguns and 1 x Mega-choppa. This Gargant is good at getting in close to kill other War Engines. Another option is to have 3 Soopaguns, making the Gargant a deadly direct artillery platform. The last variant of the Gargant is the long range Titan Killer, sporting 2 x Soopaguns and a Suppa-Zzap-Gun! For ghting the basic Marine force in the training scenario the 3
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rules and Air Transport rules work. Again it is probably best to play the scenario twice swapping sides so that both players can practice how Air Assaults and Air Transports work. Once all these scenarios have been played both players should have an understanding of most of the Epic Rules. There are a few things, like Spacecraft, that are not covered in the scenarios, but a quick re-read of the appropriate rules and they can be added to a game. Once you have a good understanding of the rules it is time to design your rst Epic Force. There are 10 ofcial Army List for Epic and many more in development. Next article I will discuss building an army, focusing on Grand Tournament style games and the two easiest to learn on forces Orks and Imperial Guard. Missing from last article and still a good link for any Epic player was the URL for the Epic site. Here you will have links to the ofcial rules under Rulebook, past articles for Epic, player aids, and experimental rules. The URL is: http:// www.specialist-games. com/epic/default.asp By: Orangesm/Rob Holland
NEXT ISSUE EPIC BATTLE REPORT: CHAOS MARINES VS LOYALIST MARINES!
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PAINTING GUIDE: ESCORT CARRIER

Battleeet is a brilliant game that we hope to feature more in the pages of Firebase from now on. For this article, were looking at basic painting techniques for painting Battleeet ships which can be applied to almost any eet (Okay, Tyranids are a somewhat different story, but well get to them in the future is that a hint of whats to come in the next issue? Well, maybe...). This particular Escort Carrier is painted in Ultramarine colours, and has been seconded to a Red Scorpions Astartes Battleeet. Undercoat and basecoat black. Highlight amidships with Fortress Grey.
Paint the armoured areas with Regal Blue.
Paint the raised ribs with Tinz Bitz.
Highlight the armoured areas with Ultramarine Blue.
Highlight the raised areas with Shining Gold.
A selection of BFG Imperial ships, with the Capio Quinque taking pride of place amongst them.
Further highlight with Ultramarine Blue mixed with Bleached Bone.
Paint the guns and engines with Boltgun Metal.
Paint the admidships area with Codex Grey.
Smash a bottle of alcoholic grapes on her ank, and give her a name!
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BURN THE WITCH!

There is nothing more hated to the Redemption than those cursed with psychic powers. The brethren will go to any lengths to cleanse them, and if they hear that a Wyrd has been hired by a local gang, they will descend in a vengeful fury SCENARIO SELECTION: This scenario can only be selected when one of the gangs (but not both) are Redemptionists. The Redemptionist gang is always the attacker in this scenario. TERRAIN: Starting with the Redemptionist player, each player takes it in turn to place a piece of terrain, either a ruined building structure, a connecting walkway or a barricade.
by Barny Skinner
GANGS: Before setting up, the defending player must place a model representing the Wyrd (see The Wyrd rules below) in the open within 6 of the centre of the board. The defender then splits his gang into one or more groups each comprising two or three models. The defender then places the group containing his leader within 6 of the Wyrd. The Redemptionist player then chooses 2D6 of his gang members, and deploys them on the board, at least 16 away from the Wyrd, and in cover. Once the attackers are set up, roll a D6 for each of the defending groups on the table below: D6 Result 1-3 The group is not set up at the start of the game. Roll a D6 for the group at the start of each defenders turn (including the rst); on a 6 they may enter on a random table edge, determined in the same way as in the Hit & Run scenario 4-5 The group must be set up more than 12 away from either the attackers or the Wyrd. 6 The group must be set up within 6 of the Wyrd. Alternate methods of deployment, such as vents, tunnels and inltration may not be used in this scenario. STARTING THE GAME: Redemptionists are noisy maniacs, and certainly not experts in the subtle art of ambush. The Defender automatically gets the rst turn. ENDING THE GAME: If the Wyrd goes out of action or the defending player bottles out, the game ends immediately with a victory for the attackers.
The defending player will not need to take bottle tests until he has more than 50% of his gang down or out of action. If the Wyrd leaves the table by any edge, or the Redemptions bottle out, the game ends immediately with a victory to the defenders. The Redemptionists are determined to kill the Wyrd, so may not voluntarily bottle. SCENARIO SPECIAL RULES: This scenario has the following special rules: The Wyrd: This scenario represents the Redemptionist gang bursting in on a deal being done to hire a Wyrd into the defending gang. Before the game, the defender must roll up a Wyrd, using the normal Wyrd & Wonderful rules. The defender may choose which type of Wyrd to hire as normal. There is no hiring fee. For the purposes of this battle, the Wyrd will act entirely under the control of the defending player, who must endeavour to get the Wyrd alive off any table edge. If the attackers win, either by putting the Wyrd out of action or by the defending player bottling out, the Wyrd is considered slain, burnt for his sins. If the defenders win, either by getting the Wyrd off a table edge or by the attackers bottling out, the Wyrd joins the defending gang, with no hire fee necessary. Saving his life from the religious zealots is considered payment enough! If the Wyrd is down at the end of the battle and the defenders win, roll a 4+ as normal to see whether he requires an injury roll.
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EXPERIENCE: Fighters who take part in the scenario earn experience points as noted below: +D6 Survives: If a ghter survives the battle then D6 experience points are earned. Even ghters who are wounded and taken out-ofaction receive experience for taking part in the scenario. +5 Per Wounding Hit: A ghter earns 5 points for each wounding hit he inicts during the battle. Make a note on the gang roster every time a ghter scores a hit and wounds his target. Though you can score multiple wounds from one shot using some weapons only 5 points are earned when this happens, not 5 per wound.
+10 Winning Gang Leader: The winning Gang Leader earns an extra 10 experience points. +5 Kill The Witch: An attacking ghter earns 5 extra points for taking the Wyrd out of action. Note that the ghter will still get this bonus if the Wyrd is downed by a wounding hit from the ghter and later goes out of action as a result of a recovery test. Burn The Witch: An attacking ghter earns 10 extra points for managing to take the Wyrd out of action with a amer, hand amer or exterminator. Note that the ghter will still get this bonus if the Wyrd is downed by a wounding hit from the ghter and later goes out of action as a result of a recovery test. These bonus points are in addition to the Kill The Witch bonus points.
REPENT, OR YOU WILL BE REDEEMED!
+5
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Barny has been playing Necromunda for about 2 years, and recently started a Redemptionist gang, hence the inspiration for this scenario.
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GAMES DAY: SPECIALIST GAMES REPORT

the queues were never less than 8-deep for the entire day!), but amidst all the chaos and evilness, Firebase had a group of intrepid reporters, scouting for news and views of our favourite game systems. Specialist Games The biggest nugget of news that came out of Games Day in reference to Specialist Games came from The Last Fanatic, head of the SG department, Andy Hall himself.
Another year, another Games Day!
GAMES DAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! *Ahem* Another year has come and gone, the Golden Daemons have been taken home and the NEC Arena in Birmingham has fallen silent. Games Day this year was full of insanely huge Apocalypse demos (Forget 40K in 40 minutes, this was 40K in 40,000pts!), and the usual scrum around the ForgeWorld sales stand (Were told that
The Battleeet Mars ships.
As has been widely discussed on Warseer, Andy conrmed that the recently released Adeptus Mechanicus Battleeet Mars ships will be the last Specialist Games new releases for a while most probably the next couple of years. Theres been plenty of scuttlebutt about how the Specialist Games range is about to be withdrawn or massively reduced, but according to Andy those worries are unfounded; The Specialist Games range is here to stay, but until the company as a whole is doing better, new investment into the SG ranges isnt practical. So, unless the SG ranges suddenly become more popular (Thus justifying a bit more investment) there will be no new releases for a year or two. Oh, and theres a Blood Bowl computer game in development, but you already knew that didnt you Forge World The future looks a lot busier for ForgeWorld however! They had preview copies of their Aeronautica Imperialis expansion book on display (Tactica Imperialis), as well as many of their latest 6mm
Top: ForgeWorlds 6mm terrain goes from strength to strength! Bottom: Aeronautica Ork Bommerz.
scale models available for viewing. It seems probable that the awesomely skilled Phil Stutchinskas will be continuing his work on 6mm scale terrain pieces; He was heard ruminating about the possibility of doing some larger terrain pieces like the Imperial Fortress in 6mm. Here at Firebases SG-HQ were certainly looking forward to everything that emerges from the ForgeWorld team for Aeonautica or Epic If only theyd do some 54mm pieces too
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GAMES DAY: SPECIALIST DAEMON AWARDS

Since there isnt an ofcial Specialist Games Golden Daemon trophy, weve taken it upon ourselves to pick the best, judging from the entire Specialist Games range (Not just the 40k-set ones). So, heres the rst Firebase Specialist Daemon awards!
3rd Place This grim and dark Necromunda gang really caught our eyes.
2nd Place This cliff-top Epic fortication looks like itd be great fun as a piece of scenery for Aeronautica Imperialis.
1st Place A small photo cant do justice to the amount of detail crammed into this Greenskin horde.
If one of these entries is yours, drop by the Specialist Games section on Warseer and say hi!
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GAMES DAY: MINI-GALLERY

(Yes we know thats a terrible pun) A random collection of the cool things we saw at Games Day, both Specialist and Generalist. Enjoy!
Now thats what I call a Drop Pod!
Interesting fact: Firebase photographers are in fact eight foot tall superhumans who wear Power Armour and Know No Fear.
Eds Golden Daemon entry. It was disqualied from Golden Daemon because the models were too big. Inquisitor models playing a game of 40K with Epic models; Winner of the Best Diorama prize at Golden Daemon 2007.
Nestled amongst some far more recent sculpts on the Studio tables, some Epic 5-up sculpts.
Imperator Titans: Still pretty big!
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FOUR SYSTEMS, ONE MISSION.

Sometimes, the citizens of the Imperium will turn from the Emperors light; Though we do not possess the power to bring these deluded fools back to the path of righteousness, we do possess the power to minimize the consequent damage their treachery inevitably causes. Whenever a world turns, we will penetrate their darkness, and whatsoever holy artefact has fallen into shadow, we will return to the light. - Chapter Master Ishmael IX of the Archivists Chapter. Our setting is the world of Trantor, a Hive World of fty-nine billion inhabitants that has recently fallen to Chaotic treachery. Too busy elsewhere, the Imperium does will not have the resources necessary to recover this SCENARIO ONE : BATTLEFLEET GOTHIC In this scenario, the Space Marine forces must reach the planet of Trantor and overcome local traitor defence forces in order to land Adeptus Astartes forces on the planet. This scenario is played according to the rules found in Scenario Seven of the Battleeet Gothic rulebook (Page 76) with the following forces: Space Marine Ships: 2x Strike Cruiser 3x Nova class Frigates Trantor Ships: 1x Dauntless Light Cruiser 1x Defence Monitor 3x Cobra Class Destroyers The victory conditions are unchanged from the normal conditions found on page 76. troublesome planet for at least twenty years. Instead, an Astartes Chapter known as the Archivists has been tasked to recover certain holy relics from the fallen world and keep them safe until such time as the planet can be recovered, and the artifacts restored to their rightful places. Presented here are four scenarios that allow you to replay the story of the Trantonian Intervention. Scenario One: Battleeld Gothic In order to carry out their mission, the Achivists had to sweep away the local picket eet, which had rebelled along with the planet. After the space battle was won, a landing in force was made; The Archivists found that their target area was well defended by anti-aircraft guns, so it was felt nessesary to degrade this capability before the main landings could begin. Luckily, a small Imperial Navy squadron had been seconded to the Astartes intervention force to deal with this very eventuality. After making planetfall, Imperial transport craft set up a single-use airbase in an isolated area of the planet and launched a strike wing. Scenario Two: Aeronautica Imperialis They had to succeed; If the strike wing didnt destroy the anti-aircraft battery, then sending in the main Astartes strike force would be tantamount to suicide, and the vital mission of rescuing the Holy Relics would be a failure. One by one, the anti-aircraft guns were silenced, and the main Imperial intervention force was dispatched from orbit to secure the ancient treasures of Trantor.
SCENARIO TWO : AERONAUTICA IMPERIALIS In this scenario, the Imperial forces must sufciently degrade the traitor anti-aircraft forces to enable the landing of the main intervention force. Imperial Aircraft: 2x Lightning Fighters 2x Marauder Bombers 1x Thunderhawk Gunship Trantor Aircraft & Emplacements: 4x Thunderbolt Fighters 3x Heavy AA Guns If the loyalist forces won the previous game, add 2x Lightning Fighters to their roster. Victory Conditions: The game is an Imperial victory if they destroy all three AA guns, regardless of other casualties.Our setting is the world of Trantor, a
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Scenario Three: Epic The battle that was to follow would be a full-scale Astartes deployment; A hundred battle brothers of the First, Eighth and Ninth companies were sent to clear the target area of treacherous resistance. See Scenario Three. Before the enemy had a chance to respond, Chapter Master Ishmael dispatched teams of his warriors to the various reliquaries and mausoleums which held the holy items they had come to save. Scenario Four: Inquisitor Battle brothers Ancio and Cabzun found themselves ambushed whilst recovering a six thousand year-old gurine of the Emperor from a ruined chapel, and were forced to ght their way free. The battle was won, and many of the precious relics had been safely recovered; With heavy hearts, the Adeptus Astartes boarded their landing craft and returned to their Strike Cruisers in orbit, reluctantly abandoning the world of Trantor to twenty years of chaos and strife.
SCENARIO FOUR: INQUISITOR In this scenario, two Space Marines must rescue a holy sculpture of the Emperor (Represented by an Epic scale Space Marine Captain model). Space Marines: Brother Ancio WS BS S T 80 80 200 145 I 89 Wp 79 Sg 75 Nv 99 Ld 78
SCENARIO THREE : EPIC In this scenario, the Space Marines must secure their landing zone against local Chaos traitor forces. This scenario is played according to the grand tournament scenario on page 124 of the Epic: Armageddon rulebook. Space Marine Army: Thunderhawk Gunship Terminator formation with Supreme Commander Upgrade. Thunderhawk Gunship Devastator formation with Librarian. Assault Marine formation with Chaplain. Landing Craft Devastator formation with two Fire Support Dreadnoughts and two Land Raiders Devastator formation with two Land Raiders. Strike Cruiser for bombardment and planetfalling. Trantor Army (Taken from Steel Legion army list): Mechanised Infantry Company with 1x Commander unit, 12x Infantry units, 7x Chimeras & 1x Hydra. Tank Company with 9x Leman Russ, 1x Vanquisher & 3x Leman Russ Demolishers & 1x Hydra. Super-Heavy Tank Platoon with 1x Baneblade. Super-Heavy Tank Platoon with 1x Shadowsword. Infantry Company with 1x Commander unit, 12x Infantry units. Sentinel Squadron with 4x Sentinels.
Power Armour, re-breather, de-tox injector with ve doses, mark IV Boltgun with range nder, two bolt gun reloads, four frag grenades, two smoke grenades, Bolt Pistol, motion tracker, average bionic left leg. Brother Cabzun WS BS S T 90 68 210 155 I 78 Wp 85 Sg 65 Nv 102 Ld 58
Power Armour, re-breather, de-tox injector with ve doses, four frag grenades, two smoke grenades, Bolt Pistol, short sword, amer. Victory Conditions: The Marines must enter a Chapel, recover the holy gurine (Without allowing it to be damaged!), and escape off of the board edge they entered from. Every 6 turns, roll on this hostiles table: 1 D3 Mutants 2-3 D3 Imperial Guardsman 4-5 D3 veteran Imperial Guardsman 6 An activated Arco-Flagellant If the traitors won the previous game, roll on the table every 4 turns instead.
Victory Conditions: The Victory conditions are unchanged from the normal rules found on page 125 of the Epic Armageddon rulebook. If the traitors won the previous game, replace the Supreme Commander in the Terminator formation with a normal Commander.
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The siege of Mossino v1.01 is an Unofcial EPIC Supplement available as a separate download at warseer.com/rebasemag Firebase Issue #5 December 2007
87
Fiction
THRICE-WISE
By Christopher Allen "A Dreadnought," Senekal said, blinking. The librarian nodded, his arms folded impassively behind his back. He continued to stare distractedly at the night sky. Senekal glanced past the Space Marine to the nearly unclimbable rock face of the mountain they stood astride, then back again to the enormous silhouette of 'Lucien', blocking out a sizable chunk of the starlit night. A Dreadnought." Senekal repeated. "You've observed that.", the librarian conrmed. The young Guards ofcer's green-grey eyes unfocussed as he wrestled with the math. "He wants to know how I got here." the dreadnought told the librarian in a stage whisper. The librarian looked as though he were stifing a grin, with effort. "Colonel," he said after a moment, "although it is not something I would want to attempt in the heat of combat, psychically teleporting even so massive a frame as Lucien's is not beyond my capacity." Senekal mouthed a silent 'oh.' "Moreover...it was important to me he join us, here, tonight." The librarian raised a dark eyebrow signicantly. "It is important that there be three of us." The Colonel nodded, silently chiding himself for not expecting something weird, when meeting this librarian again. Weirdness followed him around like a stray.... He stepped past the outcropping, out onto the at ledge at the edge of the peak, and delivered a crisp salute. "Arcturan Senekal, Colonel, 4th Danikan Imperial Guard." He acknowledged the dreadnought's 'wave,' then turned to the ancient librarian. "And it is...interesting to see you again, Lord Liche," he said with a sardonic grin. "As always." The Chief Librarian of The Undying, the Emperor's space marine chapter more formally known as the Void Phantoms, met the Colonel's eyes. "You are wondering why you are here." Senekal shrugged. "Although I've no doubt you've a reason for dragging me and several tons of Cleansing Flames hardware to the roof of this desert, I wouldn't mind knowing what it is, actually." "I know no more than you, Colonel." Lucien told him. The librarian paused for effect. "It is a matter of faith." Colonel glanced at dreadnought, and vice versa. Liche's posture relaxed. "You both know I am not only the master psyker of my chapter; with the title 'librarian' come responsibilities, as well. We are as well the preservers of history, codicers of legendry, and tellers of the tales of our past." His black eyes met Senekal's. "Tell me, Colonel: what is the one thing you hope most for, in this galaxy riven by ceaseless, unending war?" Senekal smiled ever so slightly. "To be out of a job." Liche nodded, and glanced at Lucien's massive The Guard Colonel elbowed aside the hilt of his sword as he reached the crest of the peak, planting a boot heel against an outcropping of pitted rock with napoleonic exaggeration to mask the effort of his breathing. "Why is it I always nd you on top of mountains?" he said, resting an elbow on his knee in feigned exasperation. One saturnine brow elevated on the ancient librarian's forehead, but he did not rise to the bait. "It is good to see you again, also, Colonel Senekal." "This is the youngster we've been waiting for?" boomed a synthetically-augmented voice from the other side of the outcropping, just beyond Senekal's view--so loudly, in the thin air of the mountaintop, the Guardsman nearly leapt back off it. The marine librarian, unmoved, inclined his head marginally. "Lucien," he said, with patience, "...the volume control, please." "Oh." There was a rattle of adjustment to isolinear harmonics, and the synthesized voice assumed more conversational parameters. "That's hell to keep modulated without a techmarine handy..." The gure moved into view--carefully, on the precipitious footing of the mountain top--and rotated at the waist toward Colonel Senekal. "I am Dreadnought Four, of the Second Company, His Emperor's Cleansing Flames Chapter of Space Marines." The servos of its powerst hummed as the enormous weapon cycled in something like a wave. "But I prefer 'Lucien'."
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Fiction
frame. "Would that sit well with you, Ancient One? For peace to break out across the galaxy? Have you surrendered enough of yourself, even unto your very humanity, on the altar of battle, that you dream of an end to it?" The dreadnought seemed to draw inward upon himself; it was a long moment before he answered, and his voice was quiet when he did. "You know what things I dream of." Liche nodded. "I know both of you, a little. Enough to know the reasons you do what you do. Enough to count you both wise in the real matters of consequence which elude the grasp of so many classroom-bound philosophers." He raised an eyebrow at them signicantly. "Which is why you must stand this vigil with me." Senekal nodded. "You know I'll stand watch with you when- and wherever you ask." He gestured at the vast emptiness around them, the wind-whistled rock of the mountaintop, the enormity of the sky above. "But what are we watching for here?" Liche turned his eyes slowly up to the sky. "A star." Lucien's servos hummed as he increased the inclination of his sarcophagus 23 degrees to simulate looking into the heavens. He waited a beat before asking, "And none of these billion or so will do?" Liche studiously ignored the dreadnought. "The star we watch for, this night, will behave in a most uncatalogueable manner." "You've watched for this star before?" Senekal speculated. The ancient Librarian nodded. "Every year on this date, for--" He stopped abruptly, glancing briey at the Guard Colonel. "For a very long time." "And always with two other 'wise' men?" Liche nodded. "Whenever possible, I have stood on the roof of the Fang, in howling winds which would ense the esh from an unarmoured man-with Lord Whitewind and Thorn the Wise at my side. I have stood on the battlements of the Convent Prioris along with Canonness Evangeline and Inquisitor Nathanael. I have stood high above the great Forges in the mountains of Mars with a gifted tech priest of the Adeptus Mechanicus and a marksman of the Vindicare temple of the Ofcio Assassinorum and I have stood on Titan with two Grey Knights older than good Lucien here by several centuries--and countless more vigils have I sat, always with two I could count upon, who value wisdom in a grim universe." Lucien voiced the obvious conclusion. "And if you are still looking, you haven't seen it yet." Senekal placed a hand on the aged psyker's shoulder. "Tell us what." A smile ghosted across Liche's aged face, the smile of a storyteller who has hooked his audience. "It is a story from Old Terra. From before the Trouble, before the Great Crusade--older even than the Age of Strife. There was a time when Terra was a microcosm of our galaxy: many creeds, many beliefs...many conicts. Despite their differences, however, a great many of these factions came to hold a certain time of year in great value. Though the specics of their celebrations oft differed, for them all, that time was considered Holy. A time to try to see themselves-and each other--at their best. "In one of the strongest traditions, this time of year was chosen to represent a promise. A promise that there was something better than the mean existence they knew. "A promise of Peace. Goodwill among men." Liche lifted an eyebrow heavenward. "And that promise was signied by an event in the cosmos, inexplicable by science or magic. The appearance of a celestial body which did not act in accordance with known law, neither the physical of astronomy nor the arcane of astrology. In those ancient days, only a select few understood the workings of the Heavens with sufcient wisdom to recognize this signifer, and be guided by it: magi. "In that ancient tradition, three such sage-kings watched the Heavens, and saw the sign, and possessed the wisdom to be guided by it." Liche turned to each of the other two in turn. "As then, so now, in these times, are we in need of Peace. "I have worked out how the Imperial calendar corresponds to the ancient Holy days which celebrated this tradition of Goodwill toward Men. The eve in question is this night." The ancient librarian turned his eyes back to the deep midnight blue of the heavens. "If the Providence which those ancient Terran traditions celebrated should choose to ignite another Star of Peace in our unquiet time, I have vowed there will be men of wisdom ready--and watching--to be guided by it." "A bit presumptuous to appoint ourselves 'wise men' for an entire galaxy, battlebrother," the ancient dreadnought said. Liche crossed his arms behind his back and continued to stare placidly into the heavens. "I ask only that you watch with me, battlebrother." Whether they did so because they believed what the ancient librarian had told them, or whether simply out of loyalty to him, both Colonel Senekal and the dreadnought Lucien chose to wait the cold vigil through the night, and watched the sky with
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Lord Liche for portents. But no star acted out of turn for them, and no sign blazed Truth across the darkness before the rst dusty rose hint of dawn coloured the planet's far horizon. "Disappointed?" Colonel Senekal asked the librarian, who still stood straightbacked as a stone statue, black eyes still xed on the cold sky. After a long moment, the librarian exhaled, shaking himself; and when he turned to look at the Guard ofcer, there was a hint of joy in his face, quite unlike anything Senekal had ever seen there, before. "Not at all," Liche told him. "It is the promise of Peace that matters." "And there will always be that promise--so long as wise men still seek." He clapped Senekal on the shoulder, and gave Lucien a rap on the side of his adamantine frame. He angled an eyebrow at the dreadnought. "Wisdom, you see, is not something one possesses. It is something one seeks." The last, most brilliant stars of the night glittered above them before surrendering to the dawn, as the three wise men moved off to the east, down toward the desert they must cross to reach Bethel Secundus.
TEAM FIREBASE HOPES YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY

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February 2007 Issue #6

A Junior Command Squad checks in with HQ through the Vox network whilst on patrol.
APOCALYPSE!
DARK ELDAR ORKS ELDAR GUARD EVERYTHING BIGGER BETTER SERIOUSLY BY LIKE 50 PAGES! ALSO CODEX: ELYSIANS
SPECIALIST GAMES: SNEAK PEAK
Necrons versus Dark Eldar, and in the middle, an Imperial Guard Tank Regiment. New Army Lists, new Stories, new Feature Presentation Epic Raiders. Epic Battle Report: Chaos Marines vs Loyalist Marines!
91

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December 2007 Issue #5

Art by Aerion the Faithful (Nicolas)

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Staff goes Apocalypse

TOO MUCH ON MY HANDS!

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Staff goes Apocalypse

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Staff goes Apocalypse

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Staff goes Apocalypse

YOU CANT HANDLE THE TRUTH!

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Staff goes Apocalypse

STURM GRENADIERS, AWAY!

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Staff goes Apocalypse

TAU CATCH A RIDE

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Army Showcase - 11th Vostroyan Imperial Artillery Regiment

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Army Showcase - 11th Vostroyan Imperial Artillery Regiment

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Army Showcase - 11th Vostroyan Imperial Artillery Regiment

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Army Showcase - 11th Vostroyan Imperial Artillery Regiment

Be sure to check out further projects at http://warseer.com/forums/science-ction-project-logs/47919-duty-and-honor-an-ig-project-log.html

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Army Showcase - 11th Vostroyan Imperial Artillery Regiment

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

BATTLE REPORT: 1500 POINTS

Aspiring Champion Skyre

DA FIFTY FIFF BAD REDZ BRIGADE

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

THE MUTANT HORDE OF SKEY-FENN

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Rival Species - Half Life Mod

RIVAL SPECIES HALF LIFE MOD

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Rival Species - Half Life Mod

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Rival Species - Half Life Mod

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

KILL-TEAM: THE SEQUEL

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007

Firebase Issue #5 December 2007