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2/106

FirebaseEditorial

We are here! FIREBASE

is here! Youve waited long,

youve waited hard and all

good things come to those

that wait.

Its been a long and

arduous road, filled with peril, pitfalls and gory paint schemes,

but now a staggering 100 pages of hardcore hobby material is

in your possession; bursting with tactics, conversions, painting

guides, battle reports and some of the great old games that

make you all misty eyed and nostalgic.

Welcome citizen, to the first issue of FIREBASE magazine -

bringing you the best of Warhammer 40,000 every quarter, to

give you the fix youve been craving.

But what makes this magazine so special you may ask? Well,

much like the inspiring Wargames Journal, FIREBASE is entirely

free to download and read on Adobe Acrobat as a PDF file.

As I sit writing this, issue #2 is well underway and it goes toshow what a monster of a magazine FIREBASE has become.

Until next time!

- Adam Smith

September 2006 ISSUE 01

www.warseer.com/firebasemag

Simian Staff Listing

Head Monkey: Adam Smith

PR Monkey: Brandon Vallee

Assistant Monkey: Ashley Curtis

Specialist Monkey: Simon FisherDesign Monkey: Steve Gagn

Art Monkeys: Ben Biggs, Nicolas Giacondino,

Donald Carr

Writing Monkeys: Joel and Gerard Pitt (aka:

The Brothers Pitt), Ross Allan, Alex Kallend,

Brandon Vallee, Tony Venezia, Adam Smith,

Johan Hansson, Ashley Curtis, Saul Painter, Paul

Cook, Simon Smith, Simon Fisher, Dustin Hrenyk,

Rob Holland, Don Hornby, Andy Maddison, Jon

Wilson and Ben McLeod

FIREBASE is published every three months inassociation with Warseer.com. All text andlayout remains the copyright of FIREBASE.

FIREBASE is a fully independent publicationand its views are not the views of any companymentioned herein. All characters and artwork

shown in this magazine remain the andtrademark of their respective owners. No partof this magazine may be reproduced without

the express permission of the Editor or Deputy

Editor. FIREBASE can accept no responsibilityfor inaccuracies or complaints arising from

editorial or advertising within this magazine. Allletters and emails received will be consideredfor publication, but we cannot always provide

personal replies.

This fanzine is completely unofficial and in no

way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited.FIREBASE magazine is a non-profit makingfanzine with the aim of promoting Games

Workshop games, products and hobby.Alladverts shown are free of charge and areprovided purely in the publics interest.

Here we areBorn to be kings

Were the princes of the universe!

Queen, Princes of the Universe
http://www.warseer.com/firebasemaghttp://www.warseer.com/firebasemag


3/1063

Stikkin Da Boot In! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

Through the Valley of the City of Death . . . . . . . 60

Slumming It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

In space, Everyone can hear your WAAAAAGH! .68

The Dockyard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73

Five Admirals and a Hivefleet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Battle Over Medusa V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Welcome To the Underhive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Down With the Hood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Run Him Outta Town! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Contents

Firebase Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Converting Your Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Eternal Dam-nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Steel over Flesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Gaming Etiquette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Tactica Kult of Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Freakz and Firewarriors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

I Quit! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Fer Boyz Wiv No Teef . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

An Orks Tale Birth of a Warrior . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Nicolas R. Giacondinoillustrator

[email protected]

Gallery: http://photobucket.com/albums/d61/aerion_the_faithful/

http://n.r.g.epilogue.net

RustedEngine Comics

http://www.warseer.com/rusted_engine_studio
mailto:[email protected]://photobucket.com/albums/d61/aerion_the_faithful/http://n.r.g.epilogue.net/http://www.warseer.com/rusted_engine_studiohttp://www.warseer.com/rusted_engine_studiohttp://n.r.g.epilogue.net/http://photobucket.com/albums/d61/aerion_the_faithful/mailto:[email protected]


4/1064

ConvertingYour Home

It was many summers ago when I first assembled,painted and took Eddie the Chaos Dreadie tobattle. He looked so very fine, arrayed in all manner

of spikey bits and had been lovingly painted. Then our

pet dog crushed him underfoot. That was the day we

decided to stop playing on the floor.

Our little gaming group has moved on considerably. No

longer do we sit in the middle of the living room playing on

an old desert matt with pieces of card scenery scattered

around. Now we are real men! We drink beer and stand

around a table displaying the finest gaming boards and

terrain. We also have fully painted armies somethingwe could only dream of before. But the transition from

floor to table wasnt so simple.

After University, I split up with my girlfriend and had

to move back in with my folks. All of a sudden it was

back to the floor and all the risks that came with it.

Playing on the dinning room table was not an option,

unless I wanted an ear bashing from my folks. One singlescratch or mark would mean eternal damnation and fiery

torment at least until I got enough money together to

rent my own apartment.

The Brothers Pitt persuaded me into commissioning

them to make me a gaming board in 3 sections which I

currently store in a large cupboard. They made it nice and

scummy looking for me as well as having various rockylevels. Necromunda is my favourite game and theres

Shot 1: The dining room table, chairs and

cabinet: A place of tranquility and elegance.

Scratch the table and you die!

Shot 2: Pull the table into the middle of the

space, while pushing all the chairs up to the

available wall space, not preventing access to

the kitchen door.

Shot 3:Get an old table cloth from the kitchen

and the gaming boards from upstairs. I have a

large cupboard in my room, while other people I

know keep their boards in the attic.


5/1065

nothing quite like a rotting, disjointed town.

Fortunately I had plenty of my own scenery.

After some discussion (and bribery)

with the Parental Unit, I came up with the

following method to playing on the dinning

room table.

If youre in the same situation, show your

Parental Unit, Wife, Girlfriend, Boyfriend(?) or

Pet this article. It might just help.

- Adam Smith

Shot 4: Lay the gaming boards on the table

and add some scenery. Crack open a couple of

beers, youre ready to play.
http://myspace.com/warhammer_radiohttp://web.mac.com/finerty/iWeb/Warhammer_Radio/Podcast/Podcast.html


6/1066

EternalDam-nationThe illustrated guide by Joel and Gerard Pitt

What possesses a supposed sane human being tobuild a board like this?I dont know, but I do know that building terrain and

gaming boards is one of the most rewarding aspects

of this hobby. You can have a golden demon standard

army, but without a beautiful battle field to fight over,

you will never get the full experience of small scale

plastic warfare!

FIREBASE:What sparked

this insane project?

Gerard:We decided the ash wastes

board was getting old and we needed

a new giant board! The dam idea came

while watching a documentary (5 industrial wonders of

the world) on the construction of the Hoover dam and

decided it would make

an awesome board.

FB:How did the

bridges come about?

Gerard:We needed

better access across

the valley and felt that

the Imperium, like

the Romans, would want

to keep roads flat. It also

added an extra level to the

board and gave objectives.

FB: How did the ideas

for the other sections ofthe board come about?

I see we have some sort

of underground cavern,

a powerplant, a SAM site

and a bunker on top of

the dam.

Gerard:Well the underground cavern was

not going to be there, we had originally

planned to have that area hollow only to

save weight but when the construction

was nearly done we added a hole to look

like the water channel that was used to divert the

river during construction like the Hoover dam. The

bunker on top was an idea from someone on WarSeer

and the power generators were to make it look more

like Hoover

dam and

the crashed

spaceship

was to add

cover and

linked in with

We spent almost an

hour in the DIY shoparguing over which

pot of paint to get.


7/1067

the missile turret (it

had been shot down)

the fuel towers were

for cover overlooking

the valley and bridge.

FIREBASE: Going back tothe beginning, how did

the construction begin?

Gerard: Well we

started by drawing the map layout onto paper and

then estimated how much polystyrene we would need.

Once we had the polystyrene we cut the boards to

the right length we mapped out the board roughly.

FB: I understand that you layered up the

polystyrene and then shaped it somehow?

Gerard: After we had mapped it roughly we made

more detailed plans and began cutting the shapes

of the hills. We made identical pieces and layered

them about 4 sheets thick. Once they

had dried, we shaped the cliff.

FB: How did you prepare it

before painting and how did

you go about painting it?

Gerard: We made the cliff section

then aligned all the board with all

the cut hill pieces before shaping

them, then we glued them down

and sanded them to form realistic terrain. We then

used dental plaster in its thin form to coat the

whole board to add strength, then used the thicker

stuff to make more realistic terrain features.

We also used it to smooth over the surface of the

dam to look like cement and blend the dam and the

crashed shuttle into the floor. Once all the terrain

looked realistic, we applied a thin layer of sand

and gravel to the board. We then pained it with a

series of sandy colors ending in bleached bone.

Joel: I cannot stress enough the importance of having a

good plan for your board, before you even purchase any

materials. You should doodle, sketch, research and repeat

until you know exactly what kind of board you want to make.

We spent several hours planning out exactly what we wanted

to do, and also went back to the plan, occasionally making

revisions, as we went along


8/1068

FB: Where did you get dental plaster from?

Gerard: The dentist

FB: Really? You just strolled into your dentist

and said Hi...Id like some plaster?

Gerard: Well, Joel wanted it for Venice -

But yes, he strolled in and said What sort

of plaster do you use? and the dentist said

This stuff and Joel asked to buy some.

FB: How much did he charge you

and how much did you get?

Gerard: I dont know but we used

about 10 margerine tubs worth

FB: How big is the board? It looks

bigger than a standard board?

Gerard: Its 5 x 6 ft. We though 4 x 6

would leave the valley too thin.


9/1069

FB: Thanks for taking the time for talking to us.

Gerard. One more thing You fancy a game?

Gerard: Sure!


10/10610

Steelover Flesh

Iwas as happy as a dog with two tails when I arrivedfor my game on the fabled dam board. Now this iswhat playing 40K is about! A fantastic looking army to

play against on some amazing terrain and I brought apretty fine army of my own to do it with too.

The game was dictated by the board and our

surroundings. None of this rolling for mission and

objective counters malarkey! A victory points based

game, with the objective to capture the bridges and the

dam, each would be worth 500 victory points. As we were

playing outside, we knew the light would fade sooner or later,

so the last turn of the game would be played using the Night

Fighting rules. It should be getting dark by then.

HECA N T KIL LTH E M AL L!

Gerard:My tactics for this battle are fairly standard, Im

going for the usual Tyranid idea of trying to get to the enemy

before everything dies and then worry about capturing

objectives. Simple!

1,500pts Hive Fleet Pitt Army:

Hive Tyrantwith rending claws, scything talons and extended carapace

2 tyrant guard

Brood Lordwith extended carapace and toxin sacs

8 genestealers retinuewith scything talons and extended carapace

4 Tyranid Warriorswith extended carapace, scything talons, rending claws, toxinsacs and leaping. One warrior carries a barbed strangler.

4 Tyranid Warriorswith extended carapace, scything talons, rending claws, toxinsacs and leaping. One warrior carries a Venom cannon.Two warriors carry death spitters.

20 Hormagaunts

8 Hormagauntswith toxin sacs and adrenal glands

8 Spinegaunts

Biovore

with bio acid spore minesCarnifex

with regenerate, toxin sacs, scything talons and a mace tale

Carnifexwith enhanced senses, scything talons and a venom cannon


11/10611

I know I will need a lot of xenos sinew to absorb all

that gauss power. I have included a couple of Carnifex

to draw the fire from the gaunts and survive to capture

the objectives. This will hopefully allow my Hormagaunts

and warriors to survive and mash up his Necrons in close

combat.

My Genestealers and Brood Lord aim to capture the

dam and hold it till the end of the game securing me 500

victory points. Ive given them all extended carapaces,

so they should survive.

HER ETH E YCOM E

Adam:Boy, that army looks exciting on paper or not!

Such is the way with the Necron army it seems.

I am the kind of guy who shows up to every game with

the same army list. I dont believe in tailoring my army

selection to my opponents army and once Im happy

with how my army works, I stick to it. It also saves me

writing out new army lists.

While Id love to take some Pariahs or Tomb Spyders,

I prefer to take as many troops as possible to absorb

lots of enemy firepower and not phase out while dishing

out plenty of firepower of my own. But for once, Im up

against the Nids and they dont have many guns.

Theyre fast, theyre fearless, they have lots of attacks

and I dont have any high AP weapons to make big holes

in their monstrous creatures. However, I do have spades

of firepower! Im going to get charged regardless of what

I do and its going to be by some of the smaller gribblies.

Hormagaunts to be precise little blighters!

The plan is to set up just out of 24 so I will get a turn

to wittle down his numbers with the Necron Warriors and

use the Destroyers for targeting and wiping out a single

unit per turn through sheer weight of firepower. Even his

monstrous creatures should go down to 36 strength 6

shots! With little return fire, I should be able to run (or

skim) amok.

1,500pts Attack Force X51Army

Necron Lord Lordiwith a destroyer body, war scythe,

phylactery and resurrection orb

12 Necron Warriors

12 Necron Warriors

12 Necron Warriors

4 Necron Destroyers

4 Necron Destroyers

4 Necron Destroyers


12/10612

DEP L OYM EN T

TYR ANID

Gerard: As with any

objective based game

deployment is crucial. I

had lots of gaunts and lots

to hide from, so placing

them was difficult. After

much deliberation I opted

to place them on the road

leading into the valley

and it would block them

off from the majority ofhis force and give them

easy access to his side of

the valley. My plan was to intercept his Necron Warriors

before he moved onto the bridge and charge them from

both the bridge and the valley floor. This would allow me

to pin them in combat while the Hive Tyrant made his

slow progress across the bridge. If they were all killed he

could capture the objective and stop any Necrons from

moving onto the bridge as well as kill some of them.

The leaping Tyranid Warriors were more difficult to

place, with synapse in mind I decided to deploy them

in the valley floor behind the largest hill and covering

the main attack down the centre. They were sufficiently

close to the Gaunts to keep them inn synapse and close

enough to jump up onto the bridge at the last minute.

They were also hidden from the majority of his Destroyers

giving them much needed protection against the AP 4

gauss cannons.

The shooting Tyranid Warriors were not needed for

synapse as I already had the Hive Tyrant and leapingTyranid Warriors so I placed them on the high ground on

my side of the valley near the Gaunts. That way if the

leaping Tyranid Warriors died they could provide synapse

and it gives them a good field of fire.

The Carnifexes were easier to place. One I put on the

high ground sniping with his venom canon, the other I

placed in the valley floor, hoping to use the bridge strutsas cover as it moved across the board.

The Biovore deployed high on my side of the valley

ready to rain spores on the advancing Necrons and able

to cover the dam or bridge.

Finally, my infiltrating Genestealers and Brood Lord

deployed at the end of the dam, ready to sweep across

his flank or capture the dam.

NECRON

Adam: Gerard had won the dice roll for choosing

table sides and grabbed the side with the most space to

manoeuvre while I was somewhat restricted.


13/10613

I set up my Necron

Warriors around the centre

to protect the boundary of

my little island of hill with

the two bridges and dam

coming in. The Necron Lord

went in the centre with the

Necron Warriors so that he

could make a counter-charge

if needed. The Destroyers

all deployed on the far right

flank where they should be

able to sweep round and roll

up the Tyranid lines. I spread my army out as best I

could to stop those damn Genestealers and their Broody

Lord from infiltrating too close.

Sit tight, wait for him to come to me

TU R N 1

TYRANIDS

I got first turn and moved all my Gaunts directly forward

toward the Necrons. My Tyranid Warriors also advanced

behind the Gaunts, out of site of the Destroyers and

within synapse. The Hive Tyrant followed suit and along

with his Guard followed the Gaunts onto the bridge. My

45pt Spinegaunt shield blocked his fire from my enhanced

gaunts and the Carnifex in the valley continued to lumber

on and the one on the hill prepared to fire with his venom

cannon. The Genestealers moved onto the bride and the

shooty Tyranid Warriors crawled down the slope weapons

training for targets.

As with most Tyranid armies my shooting phase was

fairly quick and uninteresting with very few guns andnone with any degree of accuracy. My venom cannon hit

a Necron Warrior but failed to kill it and the Biovore was

out of range. However I did role a 5 and 6 for all my fleet

of claw moves which brightened up my day!

With nothing in combat range it was over to Adam


14/10614

NECRONS

The Tyranids were close, far too close! Time to give

them a dose of green lasery death.

The Destroyers moved on to the bridge on right flank,

while the Necron Warriors on the dam moved back from

the advancing Genestealers. The plan was to bunch the

squad up, then move in for some rapid firing next turn.

I just hope I can kill enough of the Genestealers to hold

up the Brood Lord until my Necron Lord can get there

and start cutting them down with his war scythe.

The two Necron Warrior squads in the centre opened

fire on the nearest squad of Hormagaunts on the bridge

and with some support from one of the Destroyer squads,

they were annihilated in a blaze of green light.

The Destroyers on the bridge raked the valley floor

with their gauss cannons, killing 12 of the Hormagaunts.

8 where left, but the synapse control of the Hive Mind

stopped them fleeing. I could see that they were inrange to charge one of the Necron Warriors squads in

the centre next turn. Im sure theyd be fine, but having

my firepower reduced could be a problem in slowing the

Tyranid advance.

TUR N 2

TYR ANIDS

With the torture of the

Necron firepower over, I had

to re-group the remaining

Gaunts. His Destroyers had

killed 12 of the brood and

unless they reached his

Necron Warriors this turn

they would never make it. With another lucky fleet of

claw roll they charged the warriors on the slope.

My Genestealers continued to move across the dam

toward the Necron Warriors. If only they could fleet of

claw.


15/10615

My shooting was a

little more successful

this turn. I managed to

kill 2 Necron warriors

with the biovore and

venom cannon and then

proceeded to assault

with the Hormagaunts.

After a disastrous round of combat, I failed to kill

any Necrons and lost a Hormagaunt. With the Gaunts

in synapse range they stayed in combat till next turn

when I hoped the Carnifex or Hive Tyrant would reach

the combat.

NECRONS

The Spinegaunts on the bridge were flayed down to their

last molecule by one of the Necron Warrior squads, while

the combined firepower of the Destroyers tore the combat

Carnifex apart in a salvo of intense fire power. I didnt

want it to join the combat between the Necron Warriors

and Hormagaunts on

the slope.

On the dam itself,

the Necron Warriors

advanced towards

the Genestealers and

opened fire.

I expected 24 shots to do some damage, but was as

shocked as Gerard when he rolled 8 armour saves and

didnt pass a single one! I then laughed maniacally, of

course.

The Genestealers where

wiped out, leaving theBrood Lord sitting there

by himself. He didnt seem

best pleased.

Next turn, I expected the

Brood Lord to shred the

warriors and win combat.

Id then spectacularly fail my leadership test (as Imrenown for doing) and the line would start to collapse. It

was a good thing that the Necron Lord was close by.

The Necron Warriors stuck in combat with the

Hormagaunts werent going anywhere, much to my

frustration. Fortunately, it looked as though nothing

else was going to join the combat next turn. My metallic

minions were certain to prevail.

TUR N 3

TYR ANIDS

This was beginning to look glum, after failing all 8 4+

saves my Genestealers on the bridge were completely


16/10616

destroyed leaving only the Brood Lord (who was a bit

pissed off) to charge the squad and with his Necron Lord

moving in, things on the dam didnt look hopeful.

Things in the valley were going equally disastrous!

My Carnifex had been ripped apart by his Destroyers

in one turn without even being able to regenerate andmy Gaunts had made no gains in the combat during

the Necron turn. I also managed to knock down one

Destroyer but the damn thing got back up using some

sort of advanced cheese-induced resurrection program!

My Brood Lord charged into combat and killed 2 Necron

Warriors with some lighting fast claw skills but the Necron

Lord was still closing in fast and if he was to capture the

dam hed have to kill all of

them (not likely!).

My Gaunts made little

progress on his side of the

valley, loosing 2 and killing

none but as they were stillin synapse they didnt fall

back holding the Necron

Warriors in combat another turn while the unharmed

Hive Tyrant and venom cannon Carnifex stomped across

the bridge.

Although all the Gaunts in front of the Hive Tyrant

had been killed and I had suffered heavy casualtiesacross the board, my plan was still working. The Gaunts

were pinning the Necron Warriors in combat while the

monsters advanced slowly and my warriors were ready

to charge next turn onto the bridge.

NECRONS

With the Tyranid rank and

file decimated, it was time

to take down the heavy

hitters -the Hive Tyrant

and Carnifex!

All my Necron Warriors

moved into position to

target the Tyrant standing


17/106


18/10618

Next, I charged the Destroyers with the surviving

Tyranid Warrior squad by leaping up onto the second

bridge. They didnt kill any of them, but tying the

Destroyers up could swing things for me by denying him

a good portion of his firepower.

NECRONS

Sausages! I could have sworn those Tyranid Warriors

wouldnt be able to charge the nearest Destroyer squad,

but thats what happens when you forget about leaping.

If only I hadnt been so overconfident and had moved

the Destroyers back.

The game had descended into a massive melee, with

one Destroyer squadron locked in combat with the Tyranid

warriors on the right flank. The Hive Tyrant continued to

munch through Necron Warriors on the central bridge.

Every blow that hit home bounced off his tough hide or

heavy armour.

It looked like the Tyrant would destroy all of my Necron

Warriors and claim the bridge. My gamble to shoot him

and finish him off in combat had not paid off. Thats what

happens when you underestimate a 2+ save.

My mobile Destroyers fired at the remaining Carnifex,

wounding it, but not enough to kill it. No worries, The

Necron Lord was rapidly approaching with his warscythe!

TUR N 5

TYR ANIDS

With my army diminished as usual and only my

monstrous creatures left on the board, there was verylittle to do this turn.

My Hive tyrant butchered the remaining Necron

Warriors, breaking them, overrunning them and

then consolidating back on to bridge. My Tyranid

Warriors on the second bridge killed 2 destroyers

and still had 3 left to contest the bridge. With both


19/106

19

combats at a stale mate it was over to the Necrons.

NECRONS

With the Tyrant alone on the bridge, my Destroyers

and the Necron Warriors up on the damn were able to

get a clear shot. The Tyrant staggered under weight of

fire, losing 2 wounds. If I could inflict just one more, he

wouldnt be a scoring unit.

The Necron Lord charged the Carnifex and separated

his torso from the abdomen with a single sweep. He then

consolidated away from the Hive Tyrant. He can alwayscharge in next turn if he really has to.

The Destroyers continued fighting the Tyranid Warriors

on the bridge with neither side inflicting any casualties. I

was really kicking myself about letting them get charged.

If the Tyranid Warriors end up claiming the bridge, it

could all be over.

TUR N 6

TYR ANIDS

This being the final turn, I had lost all hope for a draw,

so I tried to hold out for a minor loss.

With the Hive Tyrant alone on the bridge and on 2

wounds, he had to stay exactly as he was in order to

claim the objective. I was trusting in the dice to give me

some armour saves and hoping hed still be alive at the

end of the Necron turn.

Combat on the other bridge was going ok. While no

casualties were being inflicted or suffered, I was still

managing to tie up an expensive unit of his and stop him

claiming the bridge.


20/106

20

NECRONS

With my final turn all I

had to do was take a wound

off the Hive Tyrant and kill

2 of the Tyranid Warriors to

secure all the objectives.

Every gun that wasnt in

combat was aimed at the

Hive Tyrant and opened fire but amazingly, every single

shot ricocheted off the Hive Tyrants armour and after a

whole turn of firing he still stood with 2 wounds left to

claim the objective!

I didnt charge him with the Necron Lord. It was just

too risky and I didnt fancy having my 200pts Lord ripped

to shreds.

The second Bridge was contested by The Tyranid

Warriors, but the Necron Warriors had secured the dam!

Things were a draw in terms of objectives, but victory

points were another matter, with the Necrons being in

the lead by 600 VPs A crushing victory!

AFT ERGA M E THOUGHTS

CLOSE, BUTNOPIE

Gerard:Well, my entire army was wiped out. However

by looking at the order in which everything died, I can

determine the problems with the army. Firstly the Gaunts

and Carnifexs dont work well together as the Gaunts get

too far forward and die before the Carnifexes can reach

combat. Equally my army doesnt pack nearly enough fire

power! The solution? Three more Carnifex and another

Hive Tyrant, but thats a project for the future!

TARGETPRIORITY

Adam:While the little gribblers arent going to hurt my

Necrons too badly, theres a lot of the buggers and being

bogged down in combat can be disastrous. Fortunately,

the monstrous creatures are slower than a snail with a

gammy leg and a nasty limp (if snails have legs), so it

was a case of kill the fast stuff and mop up the rest

later. But while I sit here all smug and victorious, it would

have all ended in tears and entrails everywhere were it

not for my lovely Destroyers.

Destroyers are sick. Oh so sick! Whether theyre

shooting at Land Raiders, Carnifex, or small children,

they will kill it. Strength 6, 3 shots, good range, accuracy

and high mobility make them one of the best units in the

game and only for a mere 50 points each stunning! Oh,

and they get back up on a 4+.

But its all for nothing if youre daft enough to let them

get charged and tied up in combat with Tyranid Warriors.

In future Ill have to keep them moving. They dont have

a firing range of 36 inches for nothing I guess.


21/106
http://www.drunkdwarves.com/


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GamingEtiquette

Or how to more or less guarantee repeat gamingwith your opponentWell, Hello there dear chap. Welcome to Mad Doc

Grotsniks School for Gaming Etiquette. Oh come now,theres really no need to look so alarmed. Were here

just to run you through a few basic dos and donts of

Gaming. Its really pretty simple you know. Here, Ive

broken it down into several easy steps. So easy even a

12 year old newbie could manage it, what!

Look, I can see your still looking rather perplexed old

bean, so Ill start you off with a few easy ones, beforewe move on to the more in depth forms of etiquette.

Are you ready? Then Ill begin.

RU L ENUM BERON E .

Your opponents models are just that. Your opponents.

When playing against another spunky young chap, doask his permission before you start to fondle his Nob,

or indeed, any other model in his collection. Even if the

paint job may not look like much to you, it may be the

best hes ever done. Besides, asking doesnt hurt! I

mean, how would you like it if all and sundry came along

and started to give your models a good once over? God

help you if you break one, especially if its converted. So,

all in all, best just to ask. That way, if it breaks, its less

of a big deal.

RUL ENUM BERTWO.

When youve arranged your game, either in advance,

or on the spot, whats the most important thing to have

with you, apart from your models? Dice? No, not really,

though it can be polite

to bring your own. No?

Give up? The rules! Not

just your own copy of

your chosen game, butalso all the rules for your

chosen force, whether

in Codex, White Dwarf

or even download. This

easy provision means

any in game confusions

can be cleared up with a minimum of fuss, and certainly

no bad blood. Surely, dear boy, you too must have metan opponent who conveniently doesnt have the rules for

his Super Unit OHacky Death that just smashed your

entire army! Tiny provision, big kudos!

You too must have

met an opponent who

conveniently doesnt

have the rules for his

Super Unit OHacky

Death that just smashed

your entire army


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RUL ENUM BERTH R E E .

Respect your opponent. If youre playing a game, see

it through. Do not throw a hissy fit just because you are

losing. Do not leave the table for unreasonable amounts

of time during your opponents turn. Do not ask your

opponent to re-roll dice because you didnt see him role

it. Or, to be blunt, dont be an arse. The games are

meant to be fun. They are a means of entertainment. If

you get that wound up about losing, then may I suggest

something slightly less skill dependant, like Snakes and

Ladders. Or sitting in a darkened room on your own and

allowing humanity to continue without you.

RUL ENUM BERFOUR.

If you are a spectator in a game, as I know many

of our community will be at one time or another, for

the love of God please remember thats all you are. You

are neither players special coach. Nor are you there to

provide commentary. Nothing ruins a good solid game

than outside interference from some git-faced know-it-all who insists on aiding and abetting either side. Surely,

if youre about to fall into a cunningly laid trap, youll

learn more about it than if some socially and hygienically

challenged oik decides to point out to you. This has

happened numerous times to me, and the same bloody

person has pointed all out. Cunning charges and cunning

firing lines set up. All my opponent had to do was blunder

into it, and his arse (well, hers) was mine. And then Toad-

Boy shows up, and blabs about my devilishly cunning

plan, and costs me the

game. Now, had my

opponent spotted the

trap for herself, fairlydos, she beats me fair

and square. But to have

some (expletive deleted)

point it out is just unfair.

I was playing Monica, NOT you! So, keep opinions, hands,

comments and help to yourself basically. Not a tall order,

but one several people miss!

So, there we have it. The Four basic rules to the

mysterious and ancient etiquette of gaming. Although

I have used the find products of Games Workshop in

my examples, these guidelines apply to any and all war

games. And I can guarantee that if you follow them,

at least in spirit if not to the letter, you will get return

match ups with opponents time and time again!

- Ross Allan

And then Toad-Boy

shows up, and blabs

about my devilishlycunning plan, and

costs me the game.


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TacticaKult of Speed

There are many different ways to approach mostarmies in the game, and the Kult of Speed isno different; the only constants are that, whichever

direction you take the army, youre going to be both

mobile, and fragile.

GET T IN GSTUCKIN

If youre going with an assault force, the bulk of your

force should be massed up of boyz in trukks, on bikes, or

with rokkits strapped to their backs. Unfortunately, each

of these have their drawbacks. The Kult list does offer

some nice options in terms of shootiness. Mobile zzap

guns and tankbusta units can put the hurt on enemy

armour, while looted ordnance vehicles, and a multitude

of ways to field big shootas and rokkits (often twin-

linked) provide some decent firepower. With the move &

shoot capabilities of the Kult, you can generally play the

range game to your advantage, closing just enough to

get your shots in range, while limiting how many of theirweapons are, but there are drawbacks here. Reducing

the number of assault units allows you to utilize terrain

more effectively to hide the loaded trukks, while offering

shooty targets that the opponent cannot just ignore,

which effectively diverts fire away from the trukks of

boyz. This hybrid element, if done right, can trap your

opponent. With these basic ideas in mind, lets examine

the units available with some scrutiny.

HEAD QUART ERS

You must take one Warboss or one Big Mek. The question

is what role you want your HQ to have in the game.

BIKERWARBOSS

A Warboss is ok as

HQs go, but hes no

Daemon Prince. Hes

going to have trouble

against tooled-up

HQs from a numberof other armies.

The Kult however

have an ace up

their sleeve; a bike

for your Warboss.

The bike gives your

boss an extra +1

toughness that allows him to stand up to other assaultHQs, and, also allows him to charge, alone, into mobs of

just about anything without powerfist backup. Your boss

should be flanked by a couple of buggies as he turbo-

boosts up the field. As an independent character, that

means your opponent cannot target him until the buggies

are destroyed, and if you pick your location correctly,


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this is rarely a problem. Give the boss a powerklaw,

a choppa, eavy armour, a cybork body, and a bionic

bonce. He weighs in at about 160 points, but can make

it back easily enough. This also ensures that he has a

3+ invulnerable save on that all-important turn before

you can charge, just in case someone charges him. The

bike also means that he can roll from one assault to thenext without needing to get back in a trukk and then

get back out again. The power klaw also makes him a

serious threat to any vehicle on the board. Six strength

10 attacks is nothing to laugh at, and with that many

attacks, he had a good chance of pulling skimmers out

of the sky. T5 means that you can choose to use your

power klaw against most Marine and Chaos HQs without

being too concerned over dying. There are few characters

that can inflict 3 wounds against T5 in a turn, and with 5

(6 on the charge) S10 attacks in return. There are very

few that will get a second turn of swinging at you.

The things you need to watch out for are models with

high strength attacks that ignore armour (like powerfists,

or nemesis force weapons), and librarians, who can

instant kill you with their force weapons. Finally, dont

forget that having a bike makes the Boss Fearless. Its

not likely to come up often, but its good to have. Hes

also a Skilled Rider, so feel free to charge right through

terrain. Plenty of opponents wont see that coming.

BIGMEK

The other approach to an HQ is to go cheap with a

Big Mek. A Big Mek with big horns and a burna can add

some decent hitting power and morale to an assault unit.

If you have any expensive vehicles that need protecting/

repairing, a Big Mek can take some helpers and tools, and

hang back to protect them. If the vehicle hes protecting

has decent armour itself, then a kustom force field can

aid its longevity, but avoid that if youre trying to protect

any AV10 or open-topped vehicles.

HQSTOAVOID:

The Warboss in a trukk (with or without retinue) is

largely a waste of points. You are paying nearly as muchfor the trukk as you are for the bike, without all the

other advantages. Secondly, while the boss may be an

independent character, his trukk isnt. A Nob retinue can

be fluffy, but its ridiculously hard for a unit of Nobs to

justify their worth on the battlefield, especially when

theyre probably going to spend a turn entangled in the

wreckage of their dead transport. Same cost problems

apply to Biker Nobs.

TH E BOY Z

Always use every single troop slot. A lone skorcha

buggy is a considerable threat to a lot of armies, and the

ability to put that template exactly where you want it only


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adds to the havoc youll cause. Trukk boyz are obviously

the backbone of any assault-based list. Ten boyz that

can hop out and krump someone cannot be overlooked.

Entanglement means that you have to be careful with

them, because if their trukk gets shot theyre going to

be dead before they do anything useful. Buying them

a burna and a Nob with a powerklaw and choppa givessome all-round utility. Bosspoles are a complete waste

of points whilst Iron Gobs can be good if you have the

points. Drive by burnings can be quite effective against

horde armies, although you have to get very close.

Sometimes, your opponent can pulverize you in hand-to-

hand combat. Genestealers, Bloodletters, Daemonettes,

and Grey Knights are among the things that you dont

want to mess with, as theyll kill a lot of your boyz before

you even get to swing. Dont forget the Power of theWaaagh! Its a big reason you should take full-strength

mobs of trukkers, as you have a 92% chance of passing


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the test with a full complement of boyz. Youre almost

certainly going to get the charge because you can hide

in the trukk until youre ready to hop out.

BURNABOYZ

Youre allowed one mob of these. While a plethora of

burnas might be nice, you can take skarboy mobs as

elites, with only a few less burnas, and higher strength

to wield them with.

TANKBUSTAS

With four rokkits (one on the Nob, three in the squad),

and three ammo grots, this unit can generally expect to

get two or three hits on the first tank it fires at. With an

effective strength 9 against armour, thats pretty good

odds to knock something out. Generally it only takes

killing one tank to make your points back. Get them out

of the trukk and into cover as soon as possible, both

because of entanglement and how many will die in a

wreck. Give them a mission, and expect them to die

after completing it.

WARBIK ES

Bikers are tricky to use. With a total effective firing

range of 30 and a lot of dakka, theyre a scary unit to

face, but theyre also very expensive. Always buy a Nob

with power klaw and choppa to go with them. If you

get tied up in combat, hes going to be responsible for

dealing most of the damage. Two attacks per round at

Strength 3 just arent going to cut it, especially without

choppas. One of the trickier parts of using this unit is

getting a good charge off. Ideally, you shoot your guns,

then charge and shoot them again. Its better to forgo

the shooting and get stuck in, because at least you can

possibly break them in assault. The resilience of bikers

comes from their higher toughness, so charging anything

higher than Strength 4 is going to hurt a lot, and each

model you lose costs a lot of points, and a chunk out of

your units effectiveness. Dont forget these guys are

fearless, and thats both good and bad.

BUGGIES

Buggies are great. Theyre fast, cheap, and disposable(just like my last girlfriend -Ed). You can afford to use

them to screen your Warbosss attack, or to block

lines of fire to your trukks, and not feel too bad about

losing them. A skorcha buggy will fry whole hordes of

T3 models, and can even be expected to kill a marine

or two. Your opponent is faced with a tough choice -

shoot the buggy, and dedicate a whole units fire (maybe


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more), or accept the damage it does. At the end of the

game, buggies are wonderful for claiming or contesting

objectives too. Rokkit Buggies are not the best anti-

armour unit at our disposal, but theyre serviceable, and

have good odds of getting flank or rear shots. Twin-linking

means they even hit sometimes when it matters. The

standard configuration for skorcha buggies of doomruns a skorcha and Spikes & Blades. It works wonders

against any sort of assault-heavy army. If youre playing

a list with a lot of 2+ or 3+ saves, feel free to use your

skorcha to screen other models.

Other people advocate putting stikkbomb chuckerson their skorcha buggies, and tank-shocking the enemy

before skorching them, forcing them to move into tighter-

packed formations. With Big Shoota shots, even twin-

linked doesnt do nearly enough to bother most opponents.

Contrast that with the other two and big shoota buggies

just arent as cool as the other two. Against hordes,

skorchas rule. Against vehicles or marines, rokkits are

the way to go. The kustom megablasta has a greater

chance of inflicting a glancing hit on yourself than you do

on your opponent, and so is rated as an especially low

option for buggies. Other than the upgrades mentioned

for skorcha buggies, the extra cost of upgrading them

just doesnt justify itself on vehicles this cheap. Youre

better off buying another buggy than you are spendingpoints on upgrades. A word on squadrons: Buggies can

be run effectively in squads of two or three. Filling your

troop slots should be the first priority, but after that,

doubling up choices doesnt hurt.

EL IT ES

ARDBOYZ

Five ard boyz in a trukk can field three big shootas, one

on the trukk, a bolt-on big shoota as well and another if

you want to buy a Nob. Thats up to 18 strength 5 shots

per turn, from within a vehicle that can move 12 and

fire. The Nob option is rather expensive for the final

three shots. Looking at five ard boyz in a trukk with a

big shoota and bolt-on big shoota, youre spending about

135 points for an expected five S5 hits/turn. If you want

to lay down the S5 fire, its more cost-effective to do

it with ard boyz. Buy them a dedicated battlewagon,

and run 3 twin-linked big shootas, and five bolt-on big

shootas. Its more points, but the battlewagon provides

some longevity for the unit too. If you expect to face


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a lot of tanks, ard boyz can field as many rokkits as

tankbustas.

SKARBOYZ

While they have the same weapon upgrade potential

as ard boyz, these are recommended as an assault unit,

not a shooty unit. The lack of armour means that they

suffer more when their ride is destroyed, so sitting back

and shooting from inside a trukk is inviting problems

- not to mention, not taking advantage of their higher

strength. As an assault mob, go for 3 burnas and a Nob

with a powerklaw/slugga combo. Theres not much that

can survive a charge from these guys. If ten isnt enough,

stick them in a battlewagon and take a whole mob of 20.

This is your only opportunity to take a large mob of boyz

in a Kult of Speed army.

STORMBOYZ

These guys are the slowest boyz in the force, unable to

make a 24 move. Knowing that, use them as a second

wave, allowing them to advance behind terrain, or

wrecks, and reinforce the initial charge. Use small unitsof them, because they cannot regroup, and one failed

morale test loses you a whole mob. Dont use them like

shock troops, and theyll do some good.

FA ST ATTACK

This is kind of redundant in the Kult of Speed as the

whole army is one big fast attack choice, but you get

some choices that the footsloggers dont.

FIGHTA-BOMBARAID

The more points the

game, the more useful this

is. The breaking point is

about 1500 points. Below

that, dont take it. As your

units are all required to

start mounted up, youre

largely protected from

misfires, you risk having

some vehicles start the

game stunned. The at risk units are bikers and stormboyz,

who are likely to take significant casualties if they get

hit, so if youre running a list thats heavy in either of

those choices, there is more risk to yourself from an

over-eager strafing run.

DETHKOPTAS

Here we have more cheap scoring units. Never take

more than one in a squadron. Theyre like buggies -there

to annoy your opponent and claim objectives. Use the

free upgrade to a Mek, and give him a burna. This is

possibly the most versatile unit in all of 40k. You can


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move 24 in a turn, even over terrain. You can take your

twin-linked big shoota shots. You can burn stuff and you

can assault tanks. Toughness 5 and a 4+ save means

that you can tie up shooty units in assault and a burna

means that you get a power weapon at S4 too.

OUTRIDERS

An interesting unit as theyre just bikers, but for 5

points more per model, you get the Scouts universal

special rule. This can enable some first turn charges,

but, if you dont get the first turn, it can also leave your

boyz isolated from the rest of the army, and exposed to

enemy fire. regular bikers are cheaper if you cannot use

the scout move wisely.

HEAV YSUPPORT

Technically, there are three choices here, but really,

theres a lot more, as each looted vehicle fills a potentially

different role.

BATTLEWAGONBattlewagons are cool and orky, but you can purchase

these as dedicated transports for either a Warboss or a

Big Mek, or for units of Skarboyz or Ardboyz. Since any

mob can ride in any vehicle in Kult of Speed, the only

thing you give up in doing so is the scoring unit status. A

dedicated battlewagon cannot claim an objective.

But, the reason for not taking a battlewagon as a

heavy-support choice is to fit other scoring units into

the list anyway. Three good approaches to battlewagons

include giving it a zzap gun, and secondary weapons,

and try to shoot enemy tanks. Its more expensive than

a gun trukk with a zzap gun, but, it has better armour to

make up for that. Another version is the Dakka Wagon.

It features lots of big shootas. This is best as a dedicated

transport for a unit of ard boyz, and sit them in it with

a lot of bolt-on big shootas, and big shootas, and just

pound the enemy from 36 away. If you use range

to your advantage in this case, you should be able to

minimize exposure to enemy anti-tank weapons. Finally

there is the delivery battlewagon, all about getting a

close-combat mob into the fight.


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Take lots of vehicle upgrades to ensure your mob

makes it to where it needs to go. Turbo-boosters on the

first turn make a second-turn disembark and assault

more likely, and red paint also speeds up the delivery.

Assuming the mob makes it, your battlewagon will be

close to the enemy lines, so skorchas make sense for a

weapon, but realize that you wont be firing at all until

you get the boyz into combat.

GUNTRUKKS

These are slow compared to most of your other

choices, but they can pack a punch. Stick a zzap gun

in a gun trukk and youll have a dedicated tankhunting

unit. These are some of the most effective anti-vehicle

weapons in the entire game. Kannons and lobbas in gun

trukks are not viewed as very effective weapons overall.

As with all vehicles, fill out your force slots before you

consider making squadrons of them.

LOOTEDVEHICLES

There are only three looted vehicles worth including

in a Kult of Speed army. These are the Leman Russ,Demolisher and Basilisk. The marine tanks tend to rely

too much on ballistic skill, which orks dont have, and

the other guard tanks do not fill any specific role any

better than one of the tanks above. The Leman Russ has

good armour, and a big gun, with lots of range. What

else is there for an ork to want? It serves two purposes,

to draw fire away from your boyz, and to persuade the

enemy that sitting back and shooting at you might not bethe best idea. The Demolisher is like the standard Russ,

but without the range, so you lose out on the sitting-

back-and-shooting aspect. If youre not running a lot of

choppa-armed boyz (for whatever reason), its your best

hope against terminators. The basilisk is a good tank,

but not a great tank. It doesnt really fit thematically in

a Kult of Speed army. It isnt strong enough to withstand

the drawing fire role, like the Leman Russ is, so the

best place for it is hidden behind terrain. On secondary

weaponry Aavoid lascannon in the hull, as youre unlikely

to hit with it. A heavy bolter (and sponsons) can provide

some firepower in the case that the main weapon gets

destroyed.


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PL AYIN G KU LT-OF-SP EEDI N 4T H EDITION :

The best way to play the Kult is to play for objectives

and pick on targets of opportunity. Of course, helping

to create that opportunity is not a bad thing either. You

need to have a big, scary longer-range threat, with which

you can hang back and harass the enemy troops froma distance. If you can whittle away one or two models

a turn, without your opponent hitting you back, theres

no real reason to risk your ultra-fragile trukks to go for

more. Let them try to adjust to what youre already

doing. Use your mobility. You should be dominant in

the movement phase. Dont forget to use that to your

advantage. You will almost always want to go second if

there are objectives to claim, and deploy expecting your

opponent to go first. With a lot of units that can move

24, you can wait until the last turn to claim objectives,

giving your opponent no chance to react. Use decoy units

to get your opponent to move or shoot where it benefits

you. Buggies are 40 points. They are throwaway units.

Move a rokkit buggy 24 towards your opponents tank

and they now have a threat that they cannot ignore.

Use terrain to your advantage. Move a trukk full of boyz

behind a forest, and you create a 20 inch zone where

your opponent cant move troops without giving you

an assault opportunity. Pay attention to these zones. If

you can prevent your opponent from moving through an

area to an objective, then you dont need to claim it until

your last move. Be aware of what can beat your boyzin assault and avoid them. Daemonettes, Genestealers,

Bloodletters and Daemon princes all probably have your

number.

Unlike a footslogger, you dont have thirty bodies

to take wounds with, you usually only have ten. That

means that you are already below the automatic mob

check size too. While a unit of thirty boyz can afford totake five casualties per round, while their Nob pounds

away with his powerklaw, if you lose three boyz and lose

combat, you stand a pretty good chance of being cut

down. Preserving your scoring units is more important

than throwing units into assaults that they are unlikely

to win. You want to pick your battles, run away from

anything you cannot handle, and set it up where you can

whittle it down through shooting before you go back for

the kill.

In the kult of speed, you must play like a human, not

like an ork...

- Alex Kallend


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Battle ReportFreakz and Firewarriors

M ISSION -

Hostage situation (from the original Tau Codex)

OV ERV IE W

A Warboss of a band of raiding Orks intercepts pleas

from a downed Ethereal. They plan on seizing the

Ethereal as quickly as possible before the Tau have a

chance to react and take him to safety. Who knows

what may happen to the Ethereal should the Tau failtheir mission

GUID EL IN ES :

Speed Freakz get first turn and come in via

reserves and a arrive on a random table edge

Tau deep strike their whole entirearmy on their first turn

Whoever is closest to the survival

pod at the end of the game wins

The game lasts for a random amount of turns

Points - 2000 points a side

PR E-G A M E THOUGHTS :

BRANDON(SPEEDFREAKS)

I have never played the hostage situation mission

in the original codex. It also doesnt help that I have

become so accustomed to playing more elite factions

such as Grey Knights as of late, that using Orks is going

to be something I am going to have to remember how to

do quickly or die trying. I expect to see lots of vehicles

which worries me, since my speed freaks lack effective

anti-tank firepower, but who knows, I might get a couple

of lucky shots? As far as my basic army composition

is concerned, I didnt take any burnas or power klaws

because I forgot to bring them up for this game -Mishapshappen, even when doing battle reports for FIREBASE. I

dont think it will drastically put me at a disadvantage,

but knowing that I am going to be facing a bunch of

clumped up Tau, it makes me drool at the thought of

flame templates.

Even though I lack special weapons, I made up for it by

taking plenty of orks. 4 squads of Truck Boyz, 2 squads

of outriders, 2 squads of Ard boyz, a Warboss with a full

retinue of nobs mounted in a truck, a looted Basilisk, 2

looted rhinos, and 2 squads of Rocket Launcher armed

buggies. Just shy of 100 models, hopefully it will be

enough to capture the Ethereal!


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against all of those

perfectly bunched

up Tau squads, when

they deep strike.

Now, all I can hope

is prey that the dice

gods are against myTau opponent and

everything on the

table doesnt wind up dead when they arrive.

TAU

After seeing how much Brandon already had on the

table, I was getting very nervous, because I knew he had

even more back in reserves. To top this all off, I basically

got to deep strike everything and then watch Brandon

respond to that again. I dont mind the occasional deep-

striking Crisis Suit, but this was pushing it.

I nominated a point about 10 inches up from the board

edge for my Stealth Team, hoping to keep them alive

for a turn so they could respond to whatever Brandon

did. I gave a heavy sigh as I rolled an 11 with the

scatter die pointing right

back at me - my Ballistic

Skill 4 Stealth Team just

teleported right off the

table edge.

My Ionhead, Pathfinders,

Piranha, Devilfish, and Fire

Warriors deployed on the right-

hand side of the board to deal

with the trucks. The Railhead,

Crisis Suits, and Sniper Teams

deploy on the left half of theboard, near the edge. I almost

lost my Sniper Team to the edge again.

On the right-hand

flank, lots of action

was happening. The

Ionhead blew up

one of the truckson Brandons edge,

and killed an ard

boy in the process.

The Fire Warriors

Devilfish missed the

other truck, but its

former passengers turned

out to be better shots,

blowing up the truck.

The Pathfinders Devilfish

took out the truck near

the objective, but with

no extra casualties. The

Pathfinders themselves


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went on to kill a measly truck

boy from the ruins of the truck,

but ended up pinning the unit.

The Piranha managed to stun

one of the buggies it landed

behind.

On the left flank, the Railhead

missed the side of the Looted

Rhino, so the Crisis Suit HQ

had to pick up the slack and

take out the Rhino, but to my

disappointment, nothing was

inside. The Fire Warriors on

the left wiped out the entireOutrider unit in a turn, which

was nice, since the two Monat

Crisis Suits missed ALL targets.

TUR N 2

SPEEDFREAKZ

Well that could have been a

lot worse. Even though I did

lose the squad of outriders,

most of my forces remained in

tact, despite losing there buggies and a couple of men

along the way. I was really surprised how Tony deployed

his stealth team so close to the table edge so they had

a chance of going off, and they did. That really helped

me out. Personally, I would have been more aggressive

with the stealth team, but I guess the orks were a little

intimidating!

Since it is the start of a new turn, more reserves rolls!Yay! I managed to bring another squad of Truck

boyz, a looted rhino, my other buggy squad,

and my other outrider squad onto the table. I

deployed the outriders where I deployed my other

squad of them, before they where annihilated by

pulse rifles. I deployed the truck boyz unit in

assault range of a fire warrior squad that killed

one of my trucks. Finally, I deployed the buggiesand the looted rhino in the middle to support

the two squads of truck boyz by the objective. I

moved my two squads of Ard boyz out of the remains of

their former trucks and in assault range. Since the one

squad of truck

boys were pinned,

there wasnt

much I can do,

but at least they

would be getting

a 4+ cover save

against further

shooting. The

other truck boyz


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squad I moved out of the truck and

onto the rock where the objective

was. I also moved a buggy squad

to intercept the piranha before it

did any more damage. Now it was

time to compensate for the loss

of my outriders.

I started off by shooting the tau

command squad, I figured, what a better way to earn

back the points. Well, being an indirect shot, it missed.

Now if it would have hit, lets say they wouldnt be

there anymore! The two squads of Ard boyz kill 3 guys

with there sluggas. The outriders killed 5 fire warriors,

the buggies took out the piranha and everything elsemanaged to miss or fail to do

damage. Well, Orks arent sharp

shooters, so I cant blame them for

doing barely anything during this

phase. However, Orks are good at

assaulting, and there is going to be

plenty of it!

I charged the two squads of fire

warriors on my left flank with a full

squad of truck boyz and my two

squads of Ard boyz. The one fire

warrior squad was whipped out to a

man, since I couldnt reach him with

my mob, and the other fire warrior squad took heavy

causalities and forced to run away. The squad that ran

away only rolled a two to get a way, so my ork mob

consolidated into them, which would save them against

next turns shooting round. After winning combat, the

one Ard boyz squad consolidated back into cover of their

former truck, while the other consolidated to interceptthe last remaining fire warrior out of his squad, the orks

finally got into assault, and it was bloody!

TAU

Things are looking pretty grim, and its only my second

turn. Tau really dont like assaults, let alone second-

turn assaults. To make things even funnier, the units I

expected to do the best did awful, and the units I had no

expectations for did amazing things.

On the right-hand flank, the last Fire Warrior in

hand-to-hand blew away an Ork at point-blank range

before being pulled to pieces. Take that, Orks! The

gun drones from the Piranha destroyed a buggy on

the right side, and the Pathfinders marked the Trukk

Boys by the objective for fun later.

The Ionhead moved to hit the hidden Basilisk, and

missed with all three shots. Good job, guys! The HQ

team hopped forward, and killed five of the marked

Trukk Boys, negating their cover saves using the

markerlight hits.


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The Fire Warriors on the left immobilized one buggy,

and killed another. These guys meant business! The

Railhead kept moving to shake enemy fire, and took

shots at the remaining Trukk Boys as well. It missed with

the railgun again, but managed to take out one more

Ork with the smart missile system.

The two Monat Crisis Suits hit once out of seven

rolls, and splattered one Ork behind the objective with

a missile pod. Both Devilfish chewed up whatever Orks

they could find, since their passengers were long since

departed. The Sniper Team on the left flank took shots

at whatever buggies and bikes it could see, taking a

few out. The remaining fire warriors that were stuck in

combat were finally finished off during my turn. It wasntlooking good!

TUR N3

SPEEDFREAKZ

Wow, now I took a beating Those tanks and the

command squad are tearing my infantry apart, whichisnt good. Having the sniper team in the far off side of

the table, and having the ability to modify cover saves,

now they need to be taken cared of! Having lost lots of

the Boyz that turn, I really need my last two reserves

rolls need to come in; hopefully they will be able to turn

the game in my favor.

Both units

came in, perfect!

I deployed my

Warboss with

retinue behind a

nice rock, so he

could lead thecounter attack

on the objective,

should the Tau

take it from me.

The last truck boy squad surged towards the objective in

an attempt to make sure it stays in control of the orks.

I figure it is best to concentrate taking to objective over

killing tau, so I began to move the majority of my army

in an attempt to swarm the objective and make the tau

fight tooth and nail (or what ever the Tau use in combat)

for it. I moved my squad of outriders closer to the fire

warrior squad in an attempt to finish them of either

by shooting or assault, and I also moved my buggies

to support them

and hopefully the

will provide some

extra causalities

to finish off the

squad. I moved the

truck boyz squad

which finished off

the remaining fire


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39

warriors during Tonys assault phase in an attempt to get

into combat with his pathfinder squad. I moved another

truck boyz squad in an attempt to get into combat with

his command squad. I also moved one of the Truck boyz

squad off the objective to intercept two crisis suits which

were attempting to seize it from me.

The shooting phase started of with another salvo from

the basilisk, this time at the sniper team. I figured it

would be better to shoot at them over the command

squad, since the

command squad was

no longer bunched

up, but the sniper

team was! Of coursethe shot scatters,

but I managed to

take down two of the

sniper drones. The

outriders managed to

kill another few fire

warriors while the buggies completely missed them. The

rest of my shooting was pointless, since it didnt manage

to do a single thing, everything missed... Oh well.

As far as the assault phase is concerned, I charged the

outriders into combat against the fire warriors, charged

the pathfinders, and charged the Ard boyz into the

remaining gun drones for the blown up piranha, since

they took out a buggy in

the last shooting phase.

Talk about revenge! The

one truck boyz squad I was

going to use to charge the

command squad was out

of range, by half and inchUgh! They would surely

become target practice

next turn. However, I wiped out the two gun drones, the

remaining fire warriors, and the pathfinders, and used

my massacre roll to move closer towards the objective.

Despite taking massive causalities and another Tau

shooting phase on the way, I have completely contested

the objective with the majority of my army. I may still be

able to win this one.

TAU

Infantry? What infantry? Im down to elite units and

vehicles by this point. Were both chewing up each

others units, and this is going to come down to a bloody

finish. I moved all vehicles to the right side, to focus on

the Orks coming

in. The Ionhead

moved forward

and demolished

the Basilisk in

a swath of ion

energy.


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40

The Firestorm monat suit

blew up a truck on the left flank

and killed three truck boys in

the process. The other Monat

took out three more with its

Airbursting Fragmentation

Projector what a fun toyversus the Orks!

The Railhead, Devilfish and HQ unit poured their fire

into one of the largest remaining mobs in the middle

of the table, and killed 8 Orks in the process. For good

measure, the HQ unit then charged into the Orks, netting

a whole two kills in the process. With my Sniper Team

pinned, that about wrapsup the turn!

TUR N4

SPEEDFREAKZ

I was expecting that to

happen and boy did thatone hurt. Well the good

news is I still had a couple of squads on or near the

objective, since we would start rolling to see if the game

went on in longer, so it is imperative that I controlled

the objective, especially since Tau has the advantage of

going second and being able to seize the game from me

after one good shooting phase. I moved the buggies, the

warboss with retinue, the remaining Ard boyz squad,

and the looted rhino towards the objective. I officially

had absolutely nothing in range to kill his tanks and my

turn consisted of getting to the objective with my whole

army. Since all of his infantry, with the exception of the

command squad and the far off sniper team were nonexistent, my shooting did absolutely nothing. The truck

boyz squad that was still in combat with the crisis suit

managed to finish off the remaining independent crisis

suit and consolidated into the other one, being well below

half strength, it took some

good rolling for that to

happen! But, alas, my turn

pretty much accomplished

nothing except moving

units towards the objective.

Lets hope I can live to see

another turn.

TAU

By this point, Im praying the game doesnt go into

overtime. Both sides have taken a beating, and theres

not much left for me to shoot with.

The Snipers on the left killed three bikes, which is always

good in my book. The Railhead finally hits with its main

weapon, and kills five Ard boyz with a submunition shot.

That wasnt too hard, now was it? The Ionhead adds to


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41

the destruction by killing the

remaining buggies.

The HQ team moved forward

to kill four more truck boyz in

a massive storm of plasma

and missile fire, and thenmoved onto the objective to

contest it.

VICTORYG OESTO?

BRANDONSTAKE

The Game ended after the 4th turn and ended up being

a draw due to Tonys last minute move of his crisis team

in the assault phase. Since we both held the objective,

we decided to see who one victory points wise, and that

was also a tie, but Tony held the upper hand of having

70 more points then I left on the table, but it wasnt

enough to declare a winner. After the game, we figured

that should it have gone on longer, Tony eventually

would have won, because I could not have taken out histwo hammerheads (his command squad probably would

have been wiped out by the Warboss with his nobs and

the other remaining boyz). I am really disappointed with

my armour plates, I didnt save a single truck with them,

they were a complete waste of points. Hopefully next

time I can save at least one truck My only regret is

when I lost the basilisk, I could no longer aim at

mikes head -Yes, I had the range.

It was a close hard fought game, and now it is

time for a rematch, now only instead of playing

Speed Freakz, I am going to use my White Scars!

TONYSTAKE

Ouch, ouch, ouch. I should have been more

aggressive with the Stealth Team, Brandon was

right. Essentially starting off the game with a 250

point deficit was a pretty big morale hit.

Part of me thinks I should have teleported everything

as close to my edge as possible, and then start shooting

anything that got close to my Fire Warriors. On the

other hand, part of me thinks I should have been MORE

aggressive, and consolidated everything in one pocket,

instead of dividing up into two flanks.

I hate hand-to-hand! The Speed Freaks just do it so

well, and so quickly, it was quite a surprise. For never

having played Orks before, Brandon did a bang-up job.

I could have used some Kroot, as the monat suits were

just so-so and I sure would have liked to hit with the

railgun more than once in the game, but hey, thats how

the dice roll.

-Brandon Vallee and Tony Venezia


42/106

h d h h d d f h fi f i i


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43

I played a few games with the Necrons at the club and

they did pretty well. They werent as forgiving as Id first

thought after Id put my lord a little too far forward, Eat

railgun! Yup, he was dead and didnt get back up. The

army was forgiving, but not invincible, or so I thought.

My friends back home started playing again. Thistime I took the Necrons and that was where the fun

really began to wane, although not at first. First came

psychotic laughter as the Necrons swept all before them.

Nothing could stand up to them. It was only in a four-

way Carnage game that they were challenged and that

was because the other three armies ganged up on them.

Even then, they decimated most of the forces on the

table. After a few games of maniacal butchery -Ok, aftera lot of games of maniacal butchery- the novelty wore

off and I planned to return to Central London Wargames

Club for some stronger competition.

The company I worked for went down the drain and

unemployment followed. This meant fewer trips to Central

London Wargames Club and eventually I was looking for

ways to make quick cash. In a very rash move, I soldthe Necron army for a huge sum of money. Its fine, I

said. I had the Deathwing, my oh so pretty army and

plenty of money to get me by until my college course in

journalism started.

Inspired by poverty, I once again declared an end to

buying new armies. My friends laughed and shook their

heads as they had done for the past five years of quitting

attempts.

A little money started coming in and I began to expand

my Deathwing army. After all, I did say no new armies.

My friends all groaned when I told them.

The vision was a mighty 5,000pts of Dark Angels 1st

Company with an abundance of terminators and land

raiders, including my own land raider variants with plasma

cannons. However, after a few months of assembling and

painting land raiders and dreadnoughts I really couldnt

be bothered to paint more terminators or the four

extra land raiders that Id

bought on the spur of the

moment. Off to Ebay they

went and some of them in

exchange for surprisingly

large amounts of cash. I

was lucky enough to make

all my money back. Thats

what you get for haggling

for a bulk discount with anindependent retailer in the

first place.

Then I began to get back in to the hobby in a way I had

never thought of before. My folks had been on holiday

skiing with some friends and their son had brought along

James, a closet wargamer who had kept his obscene

Inspired by poverty,I once again declaredan end to buying new

armies. My friends

laughed and shook their

heads as they had done

for the past five years of

quitting attempts

i t t d til M th h d tt d hi


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44

interests under wraps until my Mother had spotted him

reading the latest issue of White Dwarf.

It turned out that James had no one to play against

since all his friends had acquired dominating girlfriends

who had forced them to discard their armies, lives,

freedom and personalities. (Such is life -Ed). Jamesbrought his space marine army round for a game and was

massacred. Even the Deathwing didnt break a sweat for

the first few games or take a casualty. Gradually he got

better, as did his army lists. Soon I had to discard the

Deathwing and began using a friends Tau army, which

challenged James further. At the same time I developed

my friends Tau army and persuaded him to buy more

fire warriors and drop some battlesuits in favour of morehammerheads with rail guns. Once again, James had to

develop his army and his tactics.

After a few games with the Tau I took the Deathwing

out again. The Dark Angels 1st Company had a rough

time of things and I realised that I had become far too

accustomed to playing with the Tau army. In fact, I

wanted my friends Tau army because the firepower itcould lay down was simply awesome. Too bad that Id

tailored it to my playing style and simply copying the

army would be silly.

I managed to get a part-time job as a waiter and

began raking in some very impressive tips. That was

when I had a random encounter online with the guy

who had bought my Necron force well over a year ago.

He remarked on how well he had done with it, but was

selling it because hed mercilessly butchered everyone

with it and was quitting the hobby -Perfect! I bought thearmy back and was over the moon to find it was exactly

how Id left it, including the green marble dice Id sold

with it. I now had my old army of arse-kickery back in

my possession.

I then spotted a Tau army just like my friends on Ebay

for 70 Buy It Now. So I bought it then, seeing as it was

so reasonable. I was then treading a rocky second handroad and acquired a Genestealer army on Bartertown for

60, a Chaos army on Ebay and began scratch building

an Ork Kult of Speed.

I had to look back at what tipped me over the edge from

being a quitter to being a lover of the hobby. It came down

to having converted my friends in to competitive players

with competitive armies. I wouldnt have purchased somany armies, had they not been so inexpensive online,

but then, I did have to trawl through pages of utter tosh

in order to find them. I was also very lucky to get the

Tau army for so little. It all comes down to being online

at the right time, in the right place.


45/106

After my experience, I can summarise the factors

that make people in the hobby want to quit very simply.

Poverty leads to selling your armies in order to eat.

Too much to painting disheartens you into selling your

armies. A dominant girlfriend that you give in to leads to

you selling all of your armies, your friends and your soul.

Getting your arse kicked can inspire you to do betterif you have the finances, but if you dont it can lead

to quitting. However, competitive friends are the best

factor for embracing the hobby, whether they butcher

you or not.

Now that Im sitting on boxes of partially built

Ork buggies, a horde of Chaos marines, a swarm

of Genestealers and a cadre of Tau, all of which areunpainted, I should be planning to quit from having too

much to paint. The answer? -Put some of them out of

sight in the loft until later.

I played a game against James yesterday using the

Tau and to my horror, he blew me off the table. No more

Mr nice guy -Its time to break the out the Necrons for

some Destroyer filled cheesiness!-Adam Smith

F B Wi N T f cabinet The standard Ork trukk was half the width of
mailto:[email protected]


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46

Fer BoyzWiv No Teef

Have you ever had an army in mind that youvealways wanted to build, but havent because itseither far too expensive to buy, too time consuming to

paint, or simply far too silly to field in a battle?

Well, thats what I always thought whenever I dreamt

of my all-buggy Ork speed freak army. One weekend I

was idly building some sort of getaway vehicle for my

games of Necromunda when I realised just how Orky the

truck looked. Thats when a cartoon light bulb pinged

above my head. Following a simple template, I could

rapidly build the army from cardboard, plasticard and

assorted bits.

BIG G ERISBE T T E R

After standing my first creation beside a battle tank

I realised that it was far too big to be the

standard chassis for my Ork

vehicles to be based on. The

trukk was nearly the size of a

Leman Russ!

I paid a visit to my

local gaming store

and was able to measure

some of the Ork vehicles in their

cabinet. The standard Ork trukk was half the width of

my cardboard trukk. The obvious answer to my scale

issue was to halve the width of my vehicles. Fortunately,

such an impressively large wartrukk would make an ideal

transport for my Ork Warboss Kaptin Stompy. If only

I hadnt made the space on the roof, next to the gun

turret, too narrow for him to stand on

The experiments made while

building the first trukk

paved the way for the

design of the vehicles

to follow. Namely, these

were a sloped front with

low ground clearance shield,vision slits and square turrets, as

well as spiked plates around the

edges and square hub caps.

The vehicle hull template consists of six pieces. I

found it was best to stick the two side pieces on top of

the floor piece with PVA wood glue, then quickly stick

the rear piece across the back of the bottom and sidepieces with more PVA. The rear piece holds the sides in

place while they dry, as PVA doesnt grip like super glue

does. Its best to leave this to dry overnight before going

any further, although this doesnt mean you cant rush

things. I tried to carry on, but the structure will either

collapse or warp under pressure. Next up, glue the roof

on the top and trim back the overhang at the front didnt need The next stop? Ebay of course


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on the top and trim back the overhang at the front.

How far back is up to you. Finally, stick the front piece

over the slope. Leave to dry overnight again. Coat the

exposed cardboard edges PVA to seal up the gaps and

make the join look a little better. Its still going to look

pretty awful, but at least it will look less nasty. Glue on

the front shield that goes over the bottom of the slope,then put another layer of cardboard over the bottom of

the shield.

The turrets were made in a similar way, using six

identical squares of card for a blocky turret.

warhammer 40k firebase issue 01(r)

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