Lex Verum Astartes I: Comprehending Scale

Hey everyone, and welcome back to Rites of Battle, and to the first official installment of my newest series, Lex Verum Astartes.  For those of you who haven't brushed up on your Latin, or are too lazy to hit up the Google Translation... this title roughly translates to "The True Warriors Project."  The goal of this series is to stop wishing that Space Marines were more like their fluff, and try my hand at making it a reality.

As one may expect, there are a lot of elements which require attention to make the shift from the currently existing Games Workshop interpretation of the Space Marine on the tabletop into that which we fans of the Space Marines want from them after reading any of the Black Library novels.  Breaking these elements down into manageable categories, the project I have in mind will focus on three major components...

4/19 Game Preserve Bloomington Tournament Report

Good day readers, and welcome to another exciting chapter in my exciting battles on the tournament scene. This past weekend, I made the monthly pilgrimage through beautiful Brown County to arrive at the Game Preserve in Bloomington, bringing two in tow for their inaugural event at the venue. Hit the break to see how things went.

Let's Be Friends! - Orks

Hello and good day readers, as we hop in the wayback machine and examine allies for the oldest codex in the game: the Orks. That's right, the Orks are the only remaining 4th edition codex, and even Sisters of Battle have been updated to 6th before these guys. Regrettably, these guys are all but absent from tournament tables, and have been for some time. So, let's see if making some new friends can put some pep back in their step and bring the greenskins forward into the top 6th edition tables.

Podcast #11: The Astra Militarum

Join Godfrey, Trooper, and our guest Ultimate Dave 469 as they discuss the release of the new Imperial Guard (or Astra Militarum if your silly and actually use that name).  The book certainly shows some signs of improvement over it's predecessor, but does fall a little short in terms of the potential it had.  Its a roller coaster ride filled with ups.... and the downs........

Coming Soon...

Something stirs in the heart of the galaxy.  Something which has not been envisioned sense a time when the Emperor of all Mankind walked among his people.  A vision of the Imperium's perfect warriors re-imagined.

They shall be the true Angels of Death.  And they shall without doubt know no fear.

Let's Be Friends! - Necrons

Greetings, salutations, and welcome, to this week's installation of Let's Be Friends! You'll notice that the above headline seems to be a bit ahead of where we'd expect to be with the series. Worry not dear readers, for I have left the allies matrices of the Imperial Guard and Knights in the extremely capable hands of our own Godfrey. He has significantly more experience with each of those armies as a primary detachment than I do, and thus I feel confident that he will be better equipped to provide the best breakdowns possible, especially in the wake of the new Astra Militarum. That said though, I missed including this blurb as a part of my Tomb World Awakens series, and so now, almost a year after the conclusion of that series, the epilogue is stapled on.

Inequality in Re-Rolls

--Please note that I've been away from the site for a few months because of school and trying to get some things together for my local group (of 2).  This was meant to be released with my last article around the new year, but it's been a long semester.--

Greetings gentlereaders,

Thinking how valuable stat points are and how this influences game design and it got me to thinking.  In a lot of places we have rules that act as artificial statistics, specifically I'd like to talk about re-rolls, how they've popped up in 40k and what that can tell us about the value of different statistics.  Broadly speaking, we can group rolls into three categories: saves, shooting attacks and melee attacks.  I'll not discuss re-rolls to wound, as they fall into one of the other categories and can vary in value much more than the other three.  This one will be much more evidence-based than statistics based, so don't be afraid to come with me.

Let's Be Friends! - Grey Knights

Ah the Grey Knights, the scourge of that final year of 5th edition. The fluff was atrocious, the rules felt overbearing, and the army was monetarily cheap to boot. But then 6th edition came in and changed all that. Suddenly, the shoebox army wasn't feasible. And thus, did the most hateful and suspicious of the Imperium decide that having friends might not be a bad idea. In fact, they decided it was such a good idea that they would work with just about anyone. Odd.

Wizard's Keep Tournament Writeup 3/29

It's been a few whirlwind weeks for me, the most recent of which culminated with a wonderful 1850 tournament hosted by our own Godfrey and Havoc. The mission designs were refreshing and unorthodox (if somewhat familiar to me due to extensive history with the T.O.s and out penchant for beer and pretzels), and on the whole, despite some lousy weather, it was a day well spent. What follows is heavy on text and light on images, so, visit the bathroom, grab a drink, and hit the break to catch the breakdown.

Let's Be Friends! - Eldar

Dear friends, it has been far too long and I have been negligent of those of you who need honor no codex. Thus does this piece herald the triumphant return of Let's Be Friends! But how many friends do the Eldar need? Read on to find out.