Honor the Codex/Critique Corner Mashup: Bikes!

It's that time again! Sparrowhawk has given me another list to review. Today's order? 2500 points of bikes, bikes and more bikes, crossing party lines to find White Scars, Dark Angels, and even a Knightly friend, as well as some timely air support. Now, before we hit the break, Sparrowhawk did clarify for me that this list is designed around the RAI argument that any DA character which you equip with a bike earns the benefits of the Raven Wing special rules. Thus, my review will act with those constraints (or lack thereof) in mind.

Honor the Codex: Building Steam, Talking Tax

For those of you have been longtime readers, you know that we here at Rites love talking about how 40k plays for different armies at different points costs. Whether we're talking about kill team, escalation leagues, tournaments, or apocalypse, it's fascinating to us to see the different dynamics that pan out based on available resources. So, that said, I'm fortunate enough that my FLGS is hosting a new 40k escalation league. After my last, very poor experience, I've decided to enroll my Ravens. They've got more options available to them, and I'm always excited to try new things with them.

Honor the Codex: Brewing up some MSU

I figure it's high time to put my money where my mouth is. This past month, I've penned around an article a week, and with the exception of the last, both revolved around the latest and greatest marine codex, including a list review for a reader's Salamanders. That in mind, those articles are linked here and here, and I'm going to consider those almost required reading for what's coming. And what is coming? A few list drafts for MSU marines, as hinted at in past articles and the title.

Critique Corner V: Salamander Gladius

The Emperor protects, noble servants of the Imperium, and today he has blessed us with a demonstration of his finest - a mustering of Space Marines, fresh and ready for combat. This force has been brought before us by Sparrowhawk, whose intel suggests will be engaging in a sizable training exercise with fellow Astartes, bearing with them some significant quantity of armor. For such a task, he has recruited none other than the Salamanders, warriors born of ash and flame, and led by the mighty Vulkan He'stan, to take the fight to the foe. What challenges might they face? Will they succeed in their efforts to maintain the honor of the Emperor? Hit the jump to see what 2500 points of Salamander Gladius can really do!

Honor the Codex: Back with a Vengeance

Greetings disciples, and welcome to the return of Honor The Codex. With the dawning of a new codex, it would make sense to reevaluate our stance on units, formations, and tactics. This won't necessarily be another full review, but more a changelog, built off my understanding of the new current Space Marine codex, and my experiences with the last one. I won't make any bones about this, I'm going to break down the codex at both the 'tier one' (tournament) and 'tier two' (casual competitive relative to my local meta) levels, with the same ruthless rating system as last time.

RoBPod #24: A Codex Honored

Rack the slides on your bolters, brace for impact, and make way for the Emperor's finest: 7th Edition Marines.

Battle Report X

Welcome everyone to the relaunching of our Battle Report Series.  Though this series has laid dormant for quite some time, I have been putting as much work into breathing some new life into the series as I could.  We hope you guys enjoy the battle, as it not only offers our usual Battle Report style, but also a bit more.  The game was meant to test the theory of how increasing the points total played could alleviate the power of certain units and increase the enjoyment of the game for both players.

This is a longer video, but the latter half could be considered more of a video cast as Corvus and I review what we found during our test.  Battle Reports in the future will be much shorter in general, but we hope you enjoy both halves of this relaunch!

Cheers!

RoBPod #19: Sentinels of Terra-bad

Hey all, join Godfrey and I in discussing some listener requested content that's more than a little underwhelming. Warning: opinion piece ahead!

LexVerum Astartes VII: The Armoury - Grenades, Special Issue, and Wargear Special Rules

After a long absence, I finally had some time to put the finishing touches on the balance and functionality of this rather arduous section of the codex, and then put the pen to the paper... or in this case, the mouse to the photoshop!  Finally I have rounded out the Armoury section for the codex, and with it, there was quite a bit left to cover.  From minor elements many of us take for granted, such as grenades, to the intricate details of the numerous weapons and wargear, it's all here.

If you have time to read it all, it was a labor of love.  Most of the items in the codex work slightly differently than what we expect when we read names like Storm Shield or Power Weapons. Things range from slight tweaks to major re-works based on the power level I think would keep the super charged Tru-Scale Marines in check.  The most fun was the final section which hits the unique special rules to the codex.  Some of them are pretty straightforward ports of rules found in the standard codex, with some tweaks to numbers here and there.  But I needed them here in order to keep the codex self-sufficient (no lazy "Consult Codex: Adeptus Astartes" here.  It's all spelled out for you, or is covered in the BRB).  The rules unique to this codex were fun, and should add some added weight to these guys, making them a real challenge, even with their extremely low model count.

In any event, here's the finishing touches to the Tru-Scale Armoury!  You may notice I have tweaked some of the format, such as title fonts.  This should make the codex easier to read, while still having some nice aesthetics.

Corvus's GenCon 2014 in Review

Hey all, I'm back, a week after the conclusion of the best four days in gaming, that's right: GenCon. I'm way late on this, as Trooper beat me to the punch, but we did have some different experiences, given that we went for different games. And to add to that, I took pictures! So, hit the break and follow me through the only thing that excites me more than Christmas.

Lex Verum Astartes VI: The Armoury - Armour

Welcome to the next installment of my Tru-Scale project.  Today we'll cover something which more or less defines a Space Marine both in aesthetic and durability.  The various types of armour which the Adeptus Astartes wear may differ in their design, color, and even shape.  But they all serve to keep them alive long enough to pass judgment on the enemies of mankind.  That said, I have always been a little underwhelmed by their staying power on today's battlefields of the grim dark.

Lex Verum Astartes V: The Armoury - Melee Weapons

Welcome back folks.  As promised, this time around we're hitting the armoury for the melee weapons of the Tru-Scale Space Marines.  While there isn't nearly as much here as our previous installment in terms of quantity, it does help us establish just how powerful the Space Marines will be in close quarters fighting.

I tried to make a very clear distinction between basic weaponry, chain weaponry, and power weapons.  The Energy Field rule will be revealed at the end of the armoury, but it does promise to make the high price point for purchasing them worth the investment.  Next up in the armoury will be the amour section.  While in the current incarnation of the Space Marine codex it's more or less a brush-over, armour in this book does more than offer a save.  But, that's another installment.  For now, Enjoy!

Ready to Brew: Blood Ravens

Having thus been largely unsuccessful thus far in finding a list for my beloved Ravens, I thought I'd open the door a bit into my process and look at the three lists I've been toying with. Likewise, I'm very much looking for community participation in the process, hoping to see if there's blind corners I've led myself down, or plays/units/combos I'm missing. So, without further ado, let's get started. There's so little to do and so much time to do it in. Wait. Strike that. Reverse it. (Internet cookie after the break for the reference!)

Lex Verum Astartes IV: The Armoury - Ranged Weapons

Welcome back everyone.  It has been a long and fairly arduous process to get to this point, but finally after some long bouts of play-testing and some adjustments, the first installment of the new section is complete.  There were a lot of details that needed to be honed in on before this post was able to be made, and these details govern the entirety of the codex from basic principles to specific unit statistics.  Many of the project's finer points were worked out to a rough point and tested using a few starting points.  This allowed me to tweak some of the specific points such as weapon ranges, S and AP values, the basics of unit stat lines, and even how to balance certain pieces of special wargear.  I'm excited to add in some pieces of wargear which are a little under-represented in the current incarnation of the book.

Alongside this, I have a few cosmetic changes that will be implemented in the next set of data slates, but for now are left as the previous versions have been.  The main element to this is altering the font used for titles throughout the codex.  Currently the gothic-style font looks nice, but is a little cumbersome to read at times.  I plan to reel that back and use a font which is easier to read, while still keeping the current font for major section headers.  the body font seems to be working aright, so for now I'll keep it.  Additionally, I have never really be happy with the "Verum Astartes" label for the codex.  I feel it just doesn't really convey immediately what the codex is.  So I will keep the title for this series, but as it now reads in this set of data-slates, the new self-identifier will be Codex: Tru-Scale Astartes.

But there will be more updates for the codex and the project as a whole soon.  For now I'll give you the first to come of The Armoury, chosen by popular and unanimous demand.  Next up will be the Melee weaponry.  Hopefully I should be able to get to them sooner with much of the core balance worked out.

Lex Verum Astartes III: Chapter Tactics & Warlord Traits

Hello again everyone, and welcome back.  Last time we got started looking at the Army Special rules for my Tru-Scale Space Marines project.  I am most assuredly pleased with how the army's structure is working out, and though I still have many more months of work before I can complete this fan-made codex and it's supplementary installments, I am excited to keep working on it.  With each finished section I find myself getting ideas and making plans for future installments.  This may be one of the larger single entries of the series, as in order to complete this one, I had to delve into a lot of finer details for many a Chapter.

While I didn't quite make it to the Allies Matrix, I am very pleased with what I finished for you this time.  The army now has a complete set of Chapter Tactics as well as a Warlord Table (which players gets to choose from instead of rolling on... Go Marines!)  While the Chapter Tactics share the same name as the normal Space Marines, the effects are often different.  I had a lot of fun working to get these to fit the flavor of each Chapter.  As for the ally rules, I may simply use the same ones as Games Workshop Marines, since it seems a little more restrictive on Imperial / Non-Imperial alliances.  But without further delay, here's the rest of the Army Special Rules for Codex: Verum Astartes.

Lex Verum Astartes II: Army Special Rules

Hi Everyone, and welcome back.  Today we're going to start taking a look at some of the rules for the Verum Astartes project, and what better place to start than the Special Rules for the army.  This is the first installment of a few which revolve around the army's special rules, as there are quite a few that need to be detailed in here.

With the changes to the Allies Matrix shaking that all up, I'll be working to incorporate those in the next installment, as well as getting a list of the chapter tactics made up.  But, regardless of your Chapter lineage or the friends you bring with you to the fight, these data slates apply to all Space Marines from my project codex.

Enjoy!

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...

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.

Catching up with Corvus

Greetings all! It has been far too long since I've had the opportunity to post here at Rites of Battle, and I'm here hoping to rectify that with this, a peek into the Raven's nest. There's a list here, and more than a couple photos of my recent hobby workings, and a few musings about the road before me. So, strap in for an article that has more soul than science. For readers who loved my HtC series, this will feel very very different.

Heresy in the Library - Mortarion's Heart

Greetings good people and welcome back! Trooper here with another installment of "Heresy in the Library", where I review Black Library publications and let you, the reader at the other end of the data-slate, know how it is! Up this time we have the latest Black Library audio production "Mortarion's Heart". Kaldor Draigo gets some audio drama love, Mortarion gets to be his creepy psyker hating self, and the Grey Knights get just a biiiiit of redemption after being "warded". Huehuehue. So sit back, grab some amasec, and enjoy my review of Morarion's Heart!