Book Review: Legion of the Damned

I recently completed reading this book on my nook. I believe it will be out in paperback later this month. Firstly, this book is mostly about the Excoriator Space Marines, a second chapter founding from the Imperial Fist. The Legion of the Damned do show up at the end though so the title is not completely a misrepresentation. Once this fact is accepted, then you can relax and enjoy the book, and in my opinion, one of the better read from the Black Library.

The main character is the Scourge, equivalent to a chapter champion, who is seeking to to redeem himself for a previous failure against the Alpha Legion (they are everywhere don't you know). He is tempted to wallow in his own despair but instead is forced to duty with men who loath him. There is nice juxtaposition here not just between despair and action, but also command and service, honor to self and honor to his chapter. And only the periphery of his awareness he is watched but his own personal demon. The character development is good for the Scourge, as well as others about him. There are the Ecclesiarch he is forced to serve, and the humans who serve as his attendants. There are also Sisters of Battle and Chaos Space Marines.

The writing is crisp and well paced. The plot unfold with some nice twist and surprises; stereotypes are present (perhaps more as archetypes) but not indulged. There are no superlatives and in large part, believable, yes believable even though 40k. Though the writing is mostly from the Scourge perspective, there are sufficient little vignettes to provide a 360 view of the event.

This is the first book by Rib Sanders I have read and I am rather pleased. Along with Aaron Dembski-Bowden he is an author to read for 40k. I look forward to his next book.

Update: Rob Sander just announced he is writing a novella for the upcoming Horus Heresy compilation here. This is most excellent. One of my favorite Black Library author writing about my favorite chaos marines legion.

40k Kroots

I love these models. Their rules are ok, a bit too easy to kill, but the ability to shoot with rapid fire 2 and fight with two weapons in hand to hand at strength 4 is good.

Colors as follows:
Prime: desert yellow
Hounds: Khemri brown
Ox: Calthan brown.
Belly: Tau sept ochre
Eyes: orkhide green
Maw: red gore
Nails: orkhide shade
Spikes: bleached bone
Jewelry: dwarf bronze
Cloth: knarloc green
Cloak: dark angel green over, orkhide shade under
Fur: gretchin green
Bones: bleached bone
Leather: bestial brown
Containers: scorched brown
Guns: chaos black
Weapon grasp: scaly green
Blades: gun metal
Wash:?

40k: Strategy Battle Game

Looking at playing 40k with the following modifications

1. Turn Sequence
Player A moves, Player B moves
Player A shoots, Player B shoots
Player A assaults, Player B assaults

2. Priority
At beginning of each turn, each player rolls off to see who goes first. Ties go to the player who lost did not have priority in the last turn.

3. Tactic Points
For every 500 points of game size, each player has 1 Tactic point.

4. Use of Tactic Points
Tactical Move: one squad/unit gets to move out of turn. A player who does not currently have the priority may move one squad/unit before the player with priority. The player with priority may counter with a Tactical Move of his own. In this situation, both players roll off to determine which squad/unit will make the Tactical Move first. Each attempt costs one Tactical Point.
Tactical Shoot: one squad/unit gets to shoot out of turn. A player who does not currently have the priority may shoot with one squad/unit before the player with priority. The player with priority may counter with a Tactical Shoot of his own. In this situation, both players roll off to determine which squad/unit will make the Tactical Shoot first. Each attempt costs one Tactical Point.
Tactical Assault: one squad/unit gets to assault out of turn. A player who does not currently have the priority may move one squad/unit before the player with priority. The player with priority may counter with a Tactical Assault of his own. In this situation, both players roll off to determine which squad/unit will make the Tactical Assault first. Each attempt costs one Tactical Point.

40k: Number of Troops

I recently read a very interesting article at BoLS. Though it is about how many troops to take in 40k, i think it is germaine to any other game systems as well.

In Annihilation, Troops are just another unit that can become a kill point by dying and generate kill points for killing other units. In most cases, Troops choices are less effective at killing and as easy or easier to kill than similar Elite, Heavy, and Fast Attack units. This is obviously an overgeneralization, but it matches the game design and is more accurate than inaccurate as a general rule. So in Annihilation, fewer Troops choices are better for most armies. The exceptions include Chaos Space Marines Cult Troops - Khorne Berserkers are very killy, Plague Marines are among the most durable, Noise Marines produce significant Dakka, and Thousand Sons have great antipersonnel fire and are the best unit to take Demolisher cannon hits on. Dark Eldar should generally take a maximum number of Troops, as they are a bargain for their killing power. Imperial Guard can go with a large number of Troops, especially if they have a Platoon that collapses into a Commissariat Blob. Yes, you can mount the platoon squads in Chimeras, but blobbing 30+ in Annihilation makes the unit essentially nonviable as a kill point for most armies.

In Capture and Control, most armies really only need two scoring units, as there are only two possible objectives. Reserving a unit to hold your own objective at the end of the game and sending another towards the enemy objective (often obliquely – no sense trying to hold an objective against counter attacks for 3 turns) is generally a good default behavior. If you are Eldar, you need at least two units assigned to each job, as Wave Serpents break down at the most inconvenient times, and walking Eldar Troops aren’t known for their durability. Guardsmen need more units for defense (and possibly offense, but Guard should focus on eliminating all enemy scoring units and/or contesting the far objective, in most cases) – I like 3 units in the area to hold my home objective, and I tend to devote the rest of my Guard force to immobilizing and then eliminating enemy contesting and capturing units. Space Marines often do well to Combat Squad a couple of units for home defense, working on the premise that killing two units is harder than killing one.

Seize Ground can have up to 5 objectives – so obviously you need at least 5 scoring units, right? No, not at all. In almost no cases should you be able to take more than 3 objectives – your opponent has to be really asleep for you to get to 4, and if you’re looking at 5 objectives, just go ahead and go for Wipeout instead.
Seize Ground is the mission designed for Space Marines. Combat squads mean that 6 scoring units are very likely for most Space Marine players, and each unit essentially has to be destroyed totally to be stopped. Eldar also love Seize Ground; mobility is really all they have going for them, so having a lot of objectives to hope to tank shock a Wave Serpent of Dire Avengers onto is a very good thing.

From the articles I take away the following concepts.
1. You don't need to contest all objectives, just the majority of them. If there are five objectives, you need to take 3 to win.
2. Troop choices need to be protected. They need to survive till the end of the game. There are several ways to do so. Firstly shield them in terrains. Secondly take either large units that are hard to reduce to less than half, or make them particularly resilient.
3. One to two troop choice should be mobile, held in "reserve" until toward the end of the game when they can rush forward and take an objective.
4. This means minimum of 3 troops and maximum of 4 troops.
5. Other force selections, whether it be HQ, elites, fast, or heavies should be taken to attack, and they really should focus their attacks on enemy troops as much as they can.

Book Review: Legion

I read it all in one day, yesterday. It was a great departure from the other Horus Heresy books because though it is about the Alpha Legion, it was a view of the Alpha Legion from the outside. From this outside perspective, the mysteries of the Alpha Legion remains. Even though a significant fluff/plot twist was introduced, it only increase their mysteries.

Overall, well written and better than any of the other Horus Heresy novels. I give it 8 of 10.

New Year's Plans

Last year I built an entire 3k army for GT. This year I think I will play the same army in all my tournament plays. As for building projects, I will focus on terrain. I have the City of Death kit for 40k and the Warhammer building set for Fantasy. I am really looking forward to this year's project. I need to get a digital camera for this.

the Primarche

I still maintain one of the missing primarch was female, and likely the invisible Primarche.

Because her geneseed was different from the other primarch, it was much more troublesome to implant. Her legion was thus much smaller than the other, and was primarily made up of women. After the heresy, the decision was made not to pursue this geneseed line further. After all, nearly half of the good and stable geneseed rebelled for chaos. It was decided what was left of her legion after the heresy was allowed to die out. The Primarche assented to this with a proviso, that should a way be found to stabilize the geneseed, and then her legion would be resurrected. Until then, all records of their existence would be expunged and the agreement was lost in the depths of the hall of records. Or perhaps there was never any intent to resurrect this legion and their record was expunged forever.

With her remaining legionnaires, she settled on the world of San Leon and started the martial training of women, waiting for the day the recruits could be implanted with their Primarche's geneseed. However, as the decades passed the Primarche soon became impatient and left San Leon to search for means to resurrect her legion. Being invisible, she was thus able to travel and work unseen. On San Leon, the years, decades and centuries passed until all that outward remain of those she left behind and their link to the Emperor was their name, the Daughters of the Emperor.

In the Age of Apostasy, the Daughters of the Emperor superiority was recognized and were recruited by Gore Vandire as Brides of the Emperor.

"Once more the Imperial Palace came under attack, though this time from forces loyal to the Emperor. For months, the walls of the palace withstood every assault until at last the Adeptus Custodes, the praetorian guard of the Emperor himself, sought out Alicia Dominca, the leader of the Brides of the Emperor and her most trusted companions. The Custodes took them before the Emperor, though what occurred there remains unknown. When they emerged from the bowels of the palace they renounced the name of Brides in favour of their original title of Daughters of the Emperor, and marched with barely-controlled fury to Vandire's audience chamber.
Codex: Witch Hunters

The Emperor remained in stasis, but at the foot of the Golden Throne the missing primarche revealed herself as both a Primarch and the primogenitor of the Daughters of the Emperor legion. During her travels and search, she came to understand the futility of trying to resurrect her legion using geneseed implant, for both political and scientific reasons. But she also understood that the power of the emperor lies not only in his physical prowess, manifested in his genes passed onto his primarchs. His powers also manifested themselves through faith, and this would be how she would resurrect her legion. This too was revealed to Alicia; she found this truth was undeniable both from ancient lore of the Daughters of the Emperor and from the power wielded by the Primarche.


It is believed that she has manifested herself both before and after the Age of Apostasy in the form of living saints. Though not all such manifestations are of the Primarche herself.


Also read: the Lost Legions