Ezekiel - Dark Angels Master Librarian - Completed

So say we all,

Here we are with my finished Ezekiel from HiTech miniatures. I am considering some freehand for the large open areas on his back and possibly atop his psychic hood cathedral head, but I need to do a lot of practice on some spare bits of plastic before I so much as touch those bits with a brush. Otherwise I'd just ruin the damn model with some ugly squiggly lines!

Overall I'm happy with how he turned out and I'm particularly pleased with the OSL on the ground and bushed which feels like it gives it a lot more depth. Now that Ezekiel is complete, I can actually field my Librarius Conclave should I wish!! But I only have the Bike Mounted Librarian to complete and then all 5 of them are done and they can really rock out as both a power house in a Dark Angels Army but also as an allied formation to my blood angels. 

Thoughts are, as always, welcome :)

Peace out,

Rob

Ezekiel painting begins

Hi peoples of the tubes,

I've begun painting work on my counts as Ezekiel an its been a very pleasant model to paint, a good mix of detail to paint and nice open surfaces as well, nothing too fiddly at all. Though I did find a few small bubble holes in some cables whilst painting but they aren't noticeable really. I previously showed him with both a thunder hammer and then a bolt pistol in his left hand. After all that I thought he needed more Dark Angel flavour to really make him be OK for an Ezekiel, so I used the terminator sword arm from the Dark Angel Veteran Sprue to get that across which I think has worked out nicely.

And after washes:

Comments always welcome :)

Peace out

Rob

Ezekiel - stand in model from HiTech miniatures

Hi Readers,

Still in good old Bognor, so today I'm just giving you a quick look at a model I bought from HiTech miniatures. I can't remember his name as it came of ebay as a generic space warrior, but it was still in its original packaging and what not so it was a bit of a steal for the price. I think full price he would retail around £13-15 and I picked him up for £9 so not too shabby.

Here's some pictures of him straight off the sprues. I've done zero clean up on these models except cutting them off the sprue and as you can see the detail is very nice and crisp, felt like very little weeping from the resin and virtually not a single piece of flash. After the pictures I found a tiny bit under one of his arms but really exceptional with no mould lines to speak of either.

I didn't like the staff it came with but my efforts to give him a sword as the original plan didn't look right due to the positioning of his arm, it just looked off. So I gave him a thunder hammer as it looks cool but to keep it WYSIWYG with Ezekiel having a sword, I took a cool black templar sheathed sword and cut off the Templar icons and added it to his side. I magnetised these for ease of painting.

However after undercoating I thought that he should have more Dark Angel bits and he probably shouldn't have a thunder hammer as he is a special character so I modelled a bolt pistol on him instead as he actually has one on his profile.

If it wasn't clear by the way he is on a 32mm base.

I will definitely consider ordering from HiTech miniatures again, not only was the quality of the miniatures superb in terms of detail, sculpting and casting; the model also wasn't as huge as I thought it would be from the pictures online which make them seem quite the bulky clunky affair. I thoroughly recommend trying them if you have been considering them, or have a look if you haven't!

Peace out,

Rob

Demi-Company and Librarius Conclave - Rough Tactical Ideas

Hi Readers,

Tactics day! As I've previously said I'm not master stratego but I like to at least think out my tactics and its good to get feedback from these as I often have to theory these a lot more than practice them due to generally not getting that many games in, but also an extreme reluctance to play with unpainted miniatures. Though with the Dark Angels being given more thought to being an army for tournaments I may be relaxing that rule but we shall see. Today I will chat about how I plan to combine the Battle Demi-Company and the Dark Angel's Librarius Conclave.

Battle Demi-Company

So the Demi-Company is fairly restrictive in what you can take, but fortunately there are no bad choices here. The required squads are 3 tactical squads, a devastator squad, an assault squad and a Company Master or a Chaplain. These should really be designed as shooty for the most part, with the grim resolve special rule being boosted to BS3 for overwatch in this formation, so overwatch will be hitting on a 4+ putting any charge as a real question to your opponent. In games where objectives need to be claimed and given that Dark Angels are stubborn and objective secured (all units in this formation) will make them tough to shift.

Because I am not taking any flyers in this army I want it to be mobile where possible to let me out manoeuvre flying arcs where I can or spread my threats around the table so that they have to really pick their target priority. 

Below are the unit set up I've settled on, with wiggle room for a few alterations as discussed below.

Company Master - artificer armour, storm shield, relic blade, Lion's Roar (Review)

Company Veterans - Apothecary, 4 x meltaguns, Drop pod 

Assault Squad -10 Assault Marines, Sergeant with Power Maul, 2 x flamers, Jump Packs

Devastator Squad - 5 Devastators, Veteran Sergeant, 4 x Grav guns with Grav Amps, Drop Pod

Tactical Squad - 10 Marines with Sergeant, 1 x plasma cannon, 1 x plasma gun

Tactical Squad - 5 Marines with Sergeant with plasma pistol, 1 x plasma gun, drop pod

Tactical Squad - 5 Marines with Sergeant, plasma cannon

Now when I originally designed this force I had veteran sergeants in  all the squads when only the devastators really needed it, as they won't be accompanied by an independent character as I will discuss below. This has freed up a few points to spend on something so I need to have a bit of think on that.

Now, all I need to make this a Lion's Blade Formation is to add a squad of scouts. I haven't designed the base army to be like that, as I know that some tournaments I attend have restricted the use of "formation of formation" like the Decurion for example. They will still allow three separate formations together, but not when that grants them even more benefits for being together. Whether that's right or wrong is up to you to decide but it means I do have to factor that in to my army design.

If I do take the Lions Blade I will probably make up the points by using the veteran sergeant points that will probably be spent on upgrades plus dropping marines from the 10 man tactical squad to pay for the scouts. The scouts will be given sniper rifles and camo cloaks to camp in cover or on an objective (hopefully both) and ping at things from long range. 

Librarius Conclave

These guys are going to play a key part in how this armies gels on the tabletop and I have yet to completely decide on the optimal table to roll for my powers on so input in to that would be very useful.

Ezekiel - Review

Librarian - Level 2, bike, conversion field, Shroud of Heroes force sword

Librarian - Level 2, jump pack, conversion field, force stave

Librarian - Level 2, conversion field, force stave

Librarian Level 2, conversion field, force sword

So here we have two mobile librarians, these can get up field and make best use if their offensive powers and all of these guys will be tough to shift because of their 4++ from the conversion fields, plus the librarian on a bike is toughness 5. Ezekiel brings mega mastery levels and +1 attacks to anyone within 6 inches of him (models not units) which is great if the enemy does assault you and survives your epic overwatch, but not something you want to rely on. His warlord trait is pretty useless granting fearless to units within 12 inches. Not something stubborn space marines desperately need. The company master is going to be the Warlord most likely, with ablative wounds from the company command squad and a 2+/3++ behind it making him much more survivable.

Running the Company and Conclave together

So the key here is the buffing powers of the Librarians and the mobility of the force. Working these together should make this a fairly formidable if fairly elite force to be reckoned with. 

The mobility aspect comes in with assault marines and the drop pods. 2 pods will be coming down turn 1 and these will be the devastator unit and the company command squad. The company command squads melta guns should be able to deal with any armour that they come across, the Company Master will come with them to tank wounds and provide melee support as well as fire off his assault plasma cannon if needed. Matching him with AP1 high strength weaponry means his cannon will be able to hurt what they should be shooting at. 

The devastators with their grav amps will  be targeting whatever gribbly high save unit the enemy has out, or it also has the option of glancing some vehicles to death on 6's. These guys will be targeted early and need to make themselves count when they arrive. If I take the scouts in the Lion's Blade formation I may give them a locator beacon to make landing easier for the devs or vets. Because of my foray into magnets I am also keeping it open that the command squad can have grav guns and have a  sacred standard instead, this would give them relentless and allow them to fire their grav guns at full effect the turn they arrive. This would require points saved elsewhere however to pay for the additional 5 points a weapon. 

The drop pods for these guys are objective secured remember, so something your opponent must deal with if you can land them on objectives!

The Librarian on bike has the shroud of heroes which gives him a 2+ cover save when jinking as well as having T5 and a 4++ invulnerable, making him a tough customer. His mobility should let him be in prim position to fire off other librarians powers or his own. This guy runs solo as the shrouding doesn't work if he is in a unit.

The jump pack librarian will run with the assault marines giving them support with his leadership and using them as a shield while keeping pace with the bike librarian to swap powers as needs be. Again a 4++ makes him that bit harder to shift. The assault marines will score so that makes them a threat to be dealt with in an objectives game.

The other 2 librarians will run with each of the tactical squads, Ezekiel will camp with the 10 man squad and the librarians will sit themselves with the other 2 squads. One squad will come drop podding in from turn 2+ giving some tactical flexibility depending on how the games evolves. But dropping in to enemy lines will also make it easier for the jump pack and bike librarians to get within 12 and share powers. 

Power choices

I'm definitely going to give the bike librarian interromancy so that he can get good angles to fire the now 24 inch range power Mind Worm at the opponents armies nastiest model. This is the primaris so he is guaranteed to get it. 

I'm thinking I will roll on Telepathy with Ezekiel and the librarian that sits in the stationary 5 man squad. Hopefully this should give me shrouding and/or invisibility that can be cast on the units to maximise their survival chances and have psychic shriek as an offensive back up from primaris. 

That leaves the jump pack and drop podding librarians to roll. I am thinking on rolling on divination and pyromancy for each of them. Thus giving me up in your face offensive and defensive powers that can be dished out by either of them if within 12 inches of other librarians. I would really appreciate anyone's thoughts on that.

Well there are my thoughts and tactics so far on this particular force. Please do comment, I always get back to people!

Peace out,

Rob

Dark Angels Quickshoot Review - Part 1 - Special Rules, Relics Warlord Traits 2+ And Special Characters

Hi Readers,

Because I'm now getting really into painting my new Dark Angels army project (hobby butterfly!!) I've decided to do a quick whizz through review of the Dark Angels codex so that I can wrap my head round their rules better by setting them down in digital ink as it were. I'm not going to cover every unit in this book, just the unique things about it, such as relics, special characters and unique units. So without further ado lets jump on in!

Special Rules

Grim Resolve - This grants the model the ability to fire overwatch at ballistic skill 2, fantastic! Virtually every unit has this rule. Also grants stubborn (Thanks Corrm)

Deathwing - Grants fearless and hatred (chaos space marines). Both fairly redundant unless you are facing chaos space marines in which case its very useful indeed. All deathwing units have this as well as company masters. These guys can also split fire and have twin linked weapons on the turn they arrive from deep strike. Tasty. 

Ravenwing - A model with this rule can re-roll jink saves. Just ravenwing specific units and not conferred by taking a bike on an independent character sadly.

That's it really other than normal space marine rules. The real juice of this section is the grim resolve as every unit has it so you can really plan around using that ability without having to select specific units. The ravenwing re-rolling jink saves is an absolute nightmare for anyone without good amounts of high strength AP3 to take care of any sizeable squad of bikers. 

Relics of the Unforgiven

OK, so what do the Dark Angels have up their sleeves? Other than an STC for the nephilim jetfighters that they aren't sharing, oooh heresy burn!

Foe Smiter - An assault 4, shred, mastercrafted storm bolter. A very good price for what it does, especially if you are overwatching at BS2+ or more!

Lion's Roar - Foe Smiter's big brother. A mastercrafted combi-plasma where the plasma component is an assault 1 blast weapon. This will help thin out elite units before a charge to finish them off. Mastercrafted should mitigate the gets hot for a no worries plasma experience. Only 24 inch range but enough to not be worrying about back scatter onto you if you aren't going to charge them, bit touch and go if you are! Good value overall, not under priced either.

Mace of Redemption - +3 strength power weapon with blind, concussive and is AP1 against chaos space marine. Well priced for the extra strength and rules with the AP1 against chaos marines a nice little bonus if you play them. This is an excellent option for any character likely to get stuck in, obvious lack of AP2 but you aren't paying through the nose for it. 

Monster Slayer of Caliban - the worst of the bunch. Roll a D6, on a 1-2 its a regular power sword. 3-4 grants +1 strength, 5-6 grants +2 strength and instant death. More expensive than the Mace of redemption and not as good even on the best roll I feel. You will wound more often with the Mace and it will work that way in every game.

Shroud of Heroes - An absolute steal at two melta bombs in price. This grants the bearer feel no pain and shrouded if they aren't in a unit. Stick it on a bike mounted character with a conversion field and watch them jink away most of their troubles. Work especially well with Librarians wielding offensive powers that have short range. 

The Eye of the Unseen - Grants the bearer fear and preferred enemy special rules. Fear is mostly redundant and preferred enemy is nice, but this isn't great value for what you get. Those points could be better spent I think.

This section has some nice trinkets in the ranged, melee and buffing roles, much better selection than many other codices army special weapons. Pick for me is the Shroud of Heroes with the Mace and Lion's Roar joint second.

Warlord Traits

The Hunt - Grants the Warlord precision shots and ignores cover. Very meh I think given the special characters that have it aren't massively geared for shooting. A bum roll. 

Courage of the First Legion - Fearless and as are all units in 12 inches. Stubborn space marines do not need this. 

For the Lion - Warlord and his unit have furious charge in an army clearly geared to shooting as a preference. Good if you have equipped your warlord for combat but you can't bank on getting this trait!

Brilliant Planning - Gives you a +/- 1 to reserve rolls. Great to get, one of the picks of these traits, again chance though if not taking Azrael (who I will discuss in a later post). 

Rapid Manoeuvre - Can add +3 inches to maximum move for flat-out, turbo boost, run and charge moves. If you want this trait, just take Sammael (below). But joint top trait with Brilliant Planning.

Hold at all Costs - Grants feel no pain when in 3 inches of an objective. Good, but nothing to write home about especially when you chance getting other bum traits rolling for this.

Special Characters

Belial - Terminator armoured with a stat line of a Captains with an extra attack (if memory serves). His unit don't scatter on deep striking and Belial re-rolls to hit rolls in a challenge. Has a mastercrafted, fleshbane power sword and a storm bolter. He can swap these for a thunder hammer and storm shield or two lightening claws. His warlord trait is the Hunt. Force the price of 190 he is not worth it in my opinion unless you are really running a deathwing themed force. He's not weak, he just cost a little bit too much for 3 wounds without eternal warrior for my taste. You can get a company master with a relic blade and artificer armour for 70 points less... thereabouts. That's a whole other squad.

Sammael - Captain stat line with an extra point in toughness and only a 3+ save. He does however have eternal warrior! Only character in the book to be so blessed actually. He's also fearless, has skilled rider, the ravenwing special rule, hit and run, hatred (chaos space marines),  and scout! He has a plasma cannon... twin linked storm bolter, iron halo and teleport homer. He has an additional special rule called Swift vengeance which allows him to fire two weapons in the shooting phase. His Raven Sword is strength user (4) and AP2 at initiative as well as master crafted. He also actually has a bolt pistol so gets the +1 attack for 2 CCW's. This guy is  steal, and I am coming round to his styling, probably because I now own one... His warlord trait is rapid manoeuvre. Well worth his points at 200.

Sableclaw - Oh yeah... Sammael can also opt to take a 14 14 10 land speeder with twin linked assault cannons and heavy bolter. I honestly don't know why you would ever take this option... also 200.

Asmodia - An interrogator chaplain that grants you D3 victory points if he slays the enemy warlord. With his power maul. Great model but the rules just do not fulfil unfortunately. Also has the Hunt as Warlord trait and preferred enemy chaos space marines. Oh and has the Blades of Reason, strength user instant death but also AP - so, ehh, mehh, naaahhh. Costs 140 points, buy a regular interrogator chaplain instead and tool as desired. 

Ezekiel - 2+ save, 3 wounds BS5 WS5 and 3 attacks. Master crafted bolt pistol and Force Sword as well as a psychic hood Mastery level 3, has usual choice of powers as well. He has the Book of Salvation which grants +1 to Dark Angel models within 6 inches, nice but not really useful. He is however excellent access to mastery level 3 on a 2+ save, but a lack of an invulnerable or eternal warrior means he needs to have meat shields to protect him! Warlord trait is Courage of the First Legion so mostly pointless. Costs 145 points, great for the extra mastery levels. 

Well that's a quick run down of these sections. Think differently? Comment below :)

Peace out,

Rob