Thoughts on the new Tau

On a 14 hour bus ride, what else should one do but analyze the crap out of one's army. As mentioned earlier I have been creating a dangerously fiendish Tau army. The recent addition of the Tau Riptide has reinforced the true fiendish nature of my force. At first I was skeptical of the Riptide being a monstrous creature and still relatively poor in close combat (albeit Smash special rule definitely helps out). BUT, 5 wounds, a potential 3++, and the new AWESOME missile pod shield drones truly make the Riptide a mobile Great Wall of Tau'n (not quite as big as the great wall of China but can probably still be seen from space). With statistics on the Tau player side for a S9 AP2 large blast (a very versatile weapon) the Riptide does bring firepower to the table but on a more near-and-dear to my heart role, it is a fire magnet brute. By no means can it be ignored on the table and I LOVE the Riptide in the spotlight while my Hammerhead with Longstrike wreaks total Havoc on the enemy.

Longstrike: Smashing the Imperium one tank at a time

On a bit sadder note, I have lost some faith in my battle suit HQ units. I am having a harder time justifying their points when there are other (cheaper) HQs that help beef up the army, such as the Fireblade Cadre. Thus far I have never regretted taking one in a large Fire Warrior squad. Good Leadership, solid BS with markerlight and allows an additional S5 shot from the Fire Warriors if they didn't move and all for the bargain price of 60 points; what's not to love? NOTHING! I will probably always have one. I give the Fireblade Cadre the coveted Auto-Take Unit Badge (oh and also Longstrike in a Hammerhead... I mean DUH! need I say more).

The Tau army is truly a machine of 6th Edition 40k. Cheaper units, HQ's that modify the function of the army, and meaner shooting abilities. It is an exciting to be an addicted nerd in the 40k realm.

First One-On-One Game vs 6th Edition Tau

Xenos scum!

Usually my battle reports go into turn-by-turn detail. This time I don't particularly feel like doing a post mortem of last game night's slaughter other than to put down a few thoughts and comments.

Observations and Lessons Learned
Read Your List Carefully
When Bryce looked at the size of my force versus his, he actually asked if it was my entire list (i.e., 1483 points). Although I thought I did, the next morning I realized that I had forgotten to field the multi-melta Dreadnought that was on the list. My plan when I made the list earlier in the week was to drop the Dreadnought within range of Longstrike's Hammerhead and attempt to disable it while footslogging my Ironclad Dreadnought. Even if the standard Dreadnought was initially unsuccessful, its proximity would serve as a distraction and possibly buy me some time. By game night, however, I was careless in reading my list and saw only "Ironclad Dreadnought" and "drop pod", having skimmed right over the Dreadnought entry.

Sometimes Your Dice Just Hate You
That game night saw some of my worst rolling since I started using the Munitorum dice. I rolled low both when we were choosing table sides as well as when deciding who was going first. I rolled a 1 or a 2 almost every time I needed to make a 3+ save or had to hit something with a BS4 Marine. When I most needed my reserves to come in, I rolled a 2. It's frustrating to know that your dice are balanced because you tested them ad nauseam but they still roll lower than average when you can least afford it.

Be Careful with Reserves

Agemman didn't even get to play

I placed Agemman and my shooty Terminators in reserves, believing that I was protecting them for later in the game. When Bryce's 1500 points of Tau started shooting, I had only 738 points on the table, 85 points of which consisted of an Aegis Defence Line and an Icarus Lascannon (had I remembered to bring the Dreadnought and that it was supposed to be in the drop pod instead of the Ironclad, it would have been 903 points). During the first round of shooting, I lost my entire Scout Squad and the Vindicator's Demolisher Cannon. The drop pod with the Ironclad came in at the second half of the first turn, but by then Bryce had significantly pared down my forces. My first turn of shooting proved to be nearly worthless while Bryce's second turn was a lot more effective. While the Ironclad survived the Riptide's shots to the side armor, I lost it to a lucky missile hit to the rear. The Terminators failed to come in during the second half of turn two, leaving me with little more than a damaged Predator, a Razorback, and a partial Tactical Squad. By the third turn, Bryce was able to effectively sweep the table clean (the Defence Line and the lascannon can't keep you in the game) and Agemman and his Terminators never entered play.

In retrospect, the Terminators would have done a lot more good had they started the game on the table. It turns out that 948 points worth of 5th Edition Space Marines have very little chance against almost 1500 points of 6th Edition Tau.

Scouts Don't Do Well Against Tau:
6th Edition Tau have the infuriating ability to deny cover in a number of ways. Since they were wearing camo cloaks, each one of my Scouts cost as much as a Tactical Marine. When Bryce's marker lights denied Telion and his squad the cover they needed to survive, I lost a 163 point unit to AP4 fire in a single turn. Clearly my army is too dependent on Telion's relatively expensive squad.

They were all dead before the end of turn 1

The Wrong Army Build
Upon further reflection, I realized that my army as currently built is an anti-Ork force; it lacks long ranged anti-tank weapons and instead focuses on close range mass killing. Instead of a lascannon Dreadnought I field an Ironclad Dreadnought with dual heavy flamers (our Ork player hates the thing). I have a Destructor-Pattern Predator with twin heavy bolters to maximize the number of shots instead of a tank-killing Annihilator-Pattern Predator. The Vindicator can kill a tank easily enough, but only if it's within 24". Usually I'm trying to land a Demolisher Cannon shell on heavy or massed infantry. Instead of a plasma gun, my Tactical Squad carries a flamer. The army as a whole doesn't field enough low AP weapons to reliably take out Battlesuits. Instead of bringing Fast Attack units that can quickly cross the table and engage a long range enemy like the Tau, I have a force that hunkers down and waits for the enemy to charge.

Obviously I'm going to have to diversify my army if I want to avoid getting stomped by the Tau on a regular basis.

The Future
My drubbing resulted from a combination of things: mostly poor strategy and planning on my part, bad luck, a limited selection of models (I'm just not painting them fast enough and I hate fielding unpainted models), and the fact that Bryce is a long time, highly competitive player. I also think that the fact that I played an older 5th Edition codex against a strong 6th Edition codex may have handicapped me slightly (i.e., it may have been the difference between a thorough defeat and the slaughter it was). The general consensus I've seen on several forums is that 6th Edition codexes are reasonably well balanced against other 6th Edition codexes, but that 5th Edition codexes may be at a disadvantage. Anyway, here are my thoughts on future games against the Tau.

Sternguard
Sternguard are practically designed to kill Tau. Long range AP4 Kraken rounds slaughter Fire Warriors, AP5 Dragonfire rounds can pick out Pathfinders in cover, AP3 Vengeance rounds are pretty handy against Battlesuits, and 2+ poisoned Hellfire rounds are useful against Riptides.

A Sternguard Marine/Tyrannic War Veteran in progress

With the flexibility granted by their special ammunition, the Tyrannic War Veteran-themed Sternguard Squad may very well be the next one I work on after I finish the Close Combat Terminators. My only hope is that the 6th Edition C:SM doesn't do something silly like eliminating special ammunition. This seems unlikely, though, given how iconic the Sternguard have become for Codex-compliant Space Marine chapters.

Devastators
If Longstrike is on the table, you are practically guaranteed to start losing tanks. C:SM Devastators could help to neutralize the Tau's anti-tank capabilities. And if you have the points available, you can add an insurance policy of five additional Marines. I'm starting to think that a Devastator Squad with a number of ablative wounds and broken into two combat squads is a lot more likely to give my heavy weapons some staying power, albeit for a prohibitively steep price.

This is where I expect GW to come through with the the 6th Edition Space Marine Codex and rectify the fact that vanilla Marines have the most expensive heavy weapons squad of any of the power armor armies. Currently, a ten man Devastator Squad with two missile launchers and two lascannons will cost you a mind-boggling 270 points. If 6th Edition C:SM Marines are priced more like Dark Angels then the same squad will cost only 210 points, allowing you to bring along a lascannon Razorback for a total of 285 points.

Cheaper Troops
One of the major shifts from the 5th to the 6th Edition is a general reduction in troop costs, usually with little to no reduction in capability (Chaos Daemons being a notable exception). This tends to give 6th Edition codexes an edge over previous ones. For instance, my army has yet to receive the 2-3 point per Marine cost reduction that Chaos Space Marines and Dark Angels have received while Bryce's Fire Warriors saw a discount with their latest codex.

I fully expect Codex Marines to get a bit cheaper in the near future. Right now two bare bones 10 man Tactical Squads cost me 340 points. Soon I expect the same two Tactical Squads to cost closer to 280 points (~300 points with Veteran Sergeants).

A More Balanced Army
Many are saying that balanced armies are the way to go in 6th Edition. Bryce's army is very balanced while mine is not. Early on in in the hobby, I made several theoretical lists and bought a huge number of models thinking that my painting would get faster over time. (It turned out that I got slower as my skills improved and I started paying more attention to detail.) Last year I bought a further $300 worth of models when I found out that GW was going to increase their prices. When Death from the Skies came out, I bought a Stormraven and two Stormtalons, thinking I'd move them up in my building queue. Sadly enough, the new codex will be out before I ever build the flyers, meaning that I'll never have actually used the supplement.

I estimate that I have between 5,000 and 6,000 points of models, only 1,600 of which have been built. I'm certainly not lacking for models.

So many unbuilt models...

Some may be surprised by what I haven't built. For example, it has taken me two years to finally start painting the Close Combat Terminator Squad I bought early on. I still don't have a finished Land Raider, I only have two playable units of Troops, and I haven't assembled a single Fast Attack unit. These are glaring limitations, but I'm finally starting to work on them.

Within my collection of unbuilt models is a well balanced army, I just have to get them to the table.

Close Combat Terminators WIP, Part I

It's taken a while (I think I bought the kits nearly two years ago), but I finally started the Close Combat Terminators. After painting almost every night for a month and a half to finish the Ironclad Dreadnought and Captain Agemman, I decided to take a week off before starting another project. I started the eight man squad (i.e., the maximum capacity for a Land Raider Crusader) around June 30 and have been working pretty consistently since then.

I started with the bases, which won't be quite as ornate as Agemman's. I'll be forgoing the rocks and will stick with just the Stirland Mud texture paint:

One of eight

I'm rather fond of the new texture paints. They're easy to use and, in this case, look just like mud. The only disadvantage is that you have to glob on huge volumes of the stuff, meaning that my current bottle won't last as long as I'd like. The bases look pretty good with just the texture paint, but they'll look even better when they get a good dry brushing and some static grass.

Originally I was going to do my "ground up" build, which would normally culminate with the heads. However, I've been so intimidated by the idea of painting white Veterans' helmets that I decided just to get them over with.

I've long been dissatisfied with the shooty Terminators I finished almost two years ago. Since the Black Reach Terminators' helmets were part of the torso, they ended up getting primed black with the rest of the model. Although I tried to build up from gray, the Skull White took too many layers to fully cover the base coat. I gave up on white and used Space Wolves Grey instead, which made them a lot bluer than I wanted. I finished the helmets with a heavy wash of Asurmen Blue, not realizing that a relatively dark wash over a lighter color would look horrible. I tried to whiten the helmets and lighten the wash by dry brushing white over the helmets, but Skull White doesn't dry brush well.

But this time I have Ceramite White, better brushes, a jeweler's magnifier visor, nearly two years more experience, and a much steadier hand. Plus, I primed the helmets with Army Painter's Uniform Grey, which is a lot easier to cover with lighter pigments than black.

To further differentiate Agemman from a Terminator sergeant, I decided to give the sergeant the traditional red helmet with a white stripe. First I painted his lenses Snot Green then painted the helmet Mephiston Red. Painting the eyes is the hardest part for me since I inevitably get the helmet color onto the lenses, then I get the lens color onto the helmet while trying to fix the lenses, then... well, I can do this several times before I get it right. I finished the eyes with a couple layers of Nuln Oil, making sure that the lenses had a noticeable black border, then going back with Snot Green to lighten up the center of each lens. Mephiston Red was used to clean up the Nuln Oil that strayed too far from the eyes.

Head on a pike. I glue all my Marine heads onto bits of
sprue to make them easier to handle while painting

I painted the white stripe with Ceramite White, which was able to cover the gray primer in two to three layers. I kept the coat relatively smooth by frequently wetting the brush tip. The optics over the left eye and the respirator use my usual Leadbelchers/Nuln Oil/dry brushed Chainmail approach.

It was in finishing the helmet that I did something I'd never really done before. Instead of slathering on the Nuln Oil like I would do with the armor, I used my beloved Atlas 3/0 brush to fill in just the crevices. The crevices in the region of the white stripe were filled with Drakenhof Nightshade instead. I finished the helmet off with some Mephiston Red and Ceramite White to clean up the lines and gave most of the helmet a quick dry brushing of Blood Red.

With the sergeant's helmet done, I reluctantly moved on the Veterans' helmets. I had already painted the lenses of all seven Veterans with Mephiston Red and the snouts of the helmets with Chaos Black. Now I had to bite the bullet and actually paint with white.

Did you know that Ceramite White is a miracle?

Rather than to try to mass produce the helmets, I choose to finish one completely for practice. The white was a bit difficult to work with at first-there were significant clumps and brush strokes-but after I figured out exactly how much wetting the brush needed, things went a lot smoother. With the white regions of the helmet fully painted and the lenses painted just as I did with the sergeant's helmet (except with Blood Red for the center of the lenses), I took that final leap and broke out the Drakenhof Nightshade.

The Drakenhof Nightshade (which is even darker than the Asurmen Blue that gave me problems two years ago) went into the crevices of the helmet. The lines were cleaned up with Ceramite White, and particularly dark regions were lightened with heavily watered-down Skull White.

From left to right: finished sergeant's helmet, two finished helmets, one
helmet before adding Drakenhof Nightshade, and one partially white helmet

I finished the helmet with a light dry brushing of Space Wolves Grey to give it a slight blue tinge and then a dry brushing of Ceramite White. Infinitely happier with these results than I was with my original Terminators, I moved on to a second helmet to see if I could repeat it. The second helmet was nearly identical to the first, so I went into mass production mode.

I finished the eyes on the remaining five helmets (which leaves most of the face white) then went on to painting the entirety of each helmet. As of this post, I have one finished sergeant's helmet, two finished Veterans' helmets, three Veterans' helmets that need their snouts painted and the crevices washed, and two Veterans' helmets that are only as far having finished eyes and partially painted snouts. Once the helmets are done, the rest of the Terminators should be pretty easy.

I'm sure there are experienced painters out there who will find it funny that I've just started using controlled application of washes, but until recently I didn't have the experience or the steady hand needed to make it work. Unfortunately, with improving skill comes increasing dissatisfaction with my earlier efforts.

Apocalypse Is On Its Way

One of Bryce's goals was to eventually get us to Apocalypse-sized games. As the rumors of a new edition of Apocalypse heated up, I decided to get ready:

These little items arrived from the WarStore earlier this month. While I had intended to begin the Ultramar Auxilia with a few Leman Russes and the units that come with the Battleforce, it looks like Ultramar's defense force will be starting out with a couple super-heavies instead.

It turns out that I saved a few bucks by buying them when I did; instead of each tank being sold separately for $115, the two or three sprues that are unique to the Shadowsword are now included in a new "Imperial Guard Baneblade" box that sells for $140.

Within an hour of availability, I bought the Apocalypse rule book, the Imperial Targeting Templates (Bryce is going to be annoyed that his old templates are now obsolete), the limited edition Vortex Grenade Template (I still don't get why such a simple item is limited edition), and the Strategic Asset Cards (also inexplicably limited).

I have yet to purchase the new fortifications, though, since I'll probably get them through the WarStore. What's exciting is that they can be used for both Apocalypse and 40K, with the rules for the latter being included in the box. With these fortifications, it looks like GW is serious in making gun emplacements more than just a gimmick or a minor aspect of the game. The Aquila Strongpoint is armed with vortex missiles and a macro cannon that are capable of threatening super-heavies. While I assume that the Strongpoint's weaponry will be downgraded for standard games of 40K, the Firestorm Redoubt with its 40K-appropriate lascannon batteries looks like it could be a mean addition to any army.

The Firestorm Redoubt

I'm interested to know how these fortifications will fit into the 40K limit of one fortification per Primary Detachment. It may have something to do with the fact that these new kits are designed to match up with the Wall of Martyrs sets, whose lack of rules or points values have caused a lot of confusion. I wonder if the rules will designate an assembly of fortifications linked by the Wall of Martyrs defence lines, emplacements, and/or Imperial bunkers as a single fortification with points values assigned for each segment, emplacement, bunker, etc.

Finished Model: Captain Agemman

Three months after I finally decided to do it, I finished Captain Agemman (my counts-as Lysander). He even took part in a game on the very day that he was finished. My new HQ and my squad of shooty Terminators formed a neat little Death Star that wiped out a number of Grey Knights.

The goal was to make a model similar to Lysander
without being an exact copy with different logos

A Lysander Stand-In
One of the first things I noticed about Lysander's armor is that it isn't too different from that of a Terminator sergeant. Since I certainly didn't want to go out and buy a resin Lysander from which I would have to remove the Imperial Fist logos, I decided to emulate the model with the plastic parts I had on hand. Although I wanted my model to look enough like Lysander to indicate who he was supposed to be, I didn't need or want an exact copy. I especially didn't want to have an impossible to remove representation of the Imperial Fists' logo on my Ultramarine Captain's thunder hammer.

I set aside Agemman's bits when I started preparing the parts for an eight man close combat Terminator Squad (i.e., the largest squad size that will fit in a Land Raider Crusader). Since I wanted Agemman to stand out from the squad's sergeant, I decided against giving the sergeant the same ornate thunder hammer and large storm shield that I was going to put on the Captain. The Terminator sergeant will instead stand out from the rest of his squad with extra purity seals, the ornamentation on his back, and the red sergeant's helmet.

The cape, which seems to be standard for Space Marine captains, was a bit harder to come by. With a lot of carving I was able to remove the power armor section from the Space Marine Commander kit's torso. Using Kaldor Draigo's cape as inspiration, I shaped the top of the cape so that it could be mounted to Agemman's lower back at the corners while the middle sagged below the armor's charging port(?). Like Draigo, Agemman's cape would appear to be attached with two purity seals.

In addition to the cape, I took several other items from the Space Marine Commander kit, including a head with three service studs (just like Lysander's) and a backpack banner. Although the Terminator kit has a wreathed skull similar to the one on Lysander's back, I figured that if Sicarius' model carries a banner, Agemman should too. The banner would also further distinguish the Captain from a Terminator Sergeant.

Agemman would also be my first fully based infantry model

I made a few other modifications to reflect certain details of the Lysander model. Lysander's shield has an Imperial Fist logo on the lower portion while the large plastic Terminator shield has a skull. I removed the skull from the shield to make room for an Ultramarines-specific logo. Lysander also has a chapter logo on a small plate on his chest. Although I decided against making a similar plate, I removed the original logo from the torso bit so I could paint the inverted omega in its place.

The Marathon
I started Agemman on the very day that I finished the Ironclad Dreadnought and with less than two weeks left before our next Cabal game. I began with the base, which was going to be more ornate than any I'd ever done before (the Ironclad base doesn't count since it's already molded that way).

With the Ironclad, I finally gave up on the plain gray bases I'd used on all my other models. Thus, the rim of Agemman's base was painted with Steel Legion Drab, just like GW's models. I used Stirland Mud texture paint on the top to give it the appearance of a rocky mud or dark soil. I eventually added rocks and static grass from a kit I won during our last Cabal tournament. Although a lot of the textured paint is now hidden, I liked it quite a bit and am considering buying some Astrogranite to simulate gravel for other models' bases.

Agemman's right shoulder pad. The logo is hand painted, as usual.

Although I was bound and determined to get the model done before the next game night, I enjoy the modeling aspect of the hobby too much to skimp on the details. For example, the Captain's right shoulder pad bears a slightly more ornate form of the Ultramarines logo than my other models. Also, since I wanted to distinguish Agemman's master-crafted thunder hammer from others, I attached a crux terminatus icon to the hammer's face and decorated the weapon with a detailed purity seal from the Ironclad kit.

Agemman two days before game night

There was only one night during those two weeks that I didn't work on the model (my wife has the patience of a saint). Nevertheless, by Thursday night it looked like I might not have a new HQ ready for Saturday's game. Friday night was a brutal slog; I worked on Agemman from 7:30PM to 1:30AM and still wasn't quite done. I'm still amazed that I was able to work for that long; my eyes usually can't focus for much more than two to three hours at a stretch.

Agemman at 1:30AM, less than 24 hours before the game

My kids work me up on Saturday morning at 7:30. The mere possibility that I could finish the model prevented me from going back to sleep (and I usually don't get much more than six hours' sleep anyway), so I ended up back at my painting table. Three hours later I was done.

First Company Captain Agemman
I think the final result came out pretty good:

To further distinguish Agemman's hammer from those of the close combat Terminators I'll be building next, the weapon was painted with brighter metallic paints than I would normally use. Agemman's hammer was painted with Chainmail, washed with Nuln Oil, and dry brushed with Mithril Silver. The standard Terminators will have hammers painted with Leadbelchers, washed with Nuln Oil, and dry brushed with Chainmail.

The stone effects on the shield and crux terminatus was done with a base coat of Codex Grey, a Nuln Oil wash, and a dry brushing of Fortress Grey. I tried to make the banner stand out from the armor by painting it with Altdorf Guard Blue, washing it with Drakenhof Nightshade, and dry brushing it with Altdorf Guard Blue. It turned out a bit closer in color to the armor than I had expected. The white circle in the middle was the perfect spot for the blue Ultramarines decal that I'd wanted to use for a long time.

Gold regions were base coated with Shining Gold, washed with Devlan Mud, and dry brushed with Burnished Gold. The handle of the hammer is Gore Red with a Devlan Mud wash. The handles of the Terminator Squad's thunder hammers will be painted in a much plainer brown shade.

On the original torso bit, the tassel hung from the point where the power armor's backpack passed through the cape (which was cut off when I did the conversion). I used a crux terminatus medallion to hide the fact that the tassel now seemed to come out of nowhere.

The fancy Ultramarines logo I was planning to put on the shield fell by the wayside late one night. I decided that Agemman's shield had some inspirational saying by Roboute Guilliman along with a small (and easily painted) Chapter logo instead.

This model came out a lot cleaner than some of my others. The dirty look comes from a heavy wash or two with Nuln Oil followed by a lot of dry brushing to bring out the edges and lighten up the wash. This is easy on a vehicle or basic troops where there are relatively few detailed areas. The detail I painted on the Captain before doing any washes made it difficult to dry brush the model without getting paint where I didn't want it. Thus, I used only a single, relatively light Nuln Oil wash and was a lot more conservative with the dry brushing. Given that Agemman is the Veteran Company Captain, you could expect his armor to be kept a bit cleaner than that of the rank and file.

At S10 and with +1 to the vehicle damage table, my stand-in Fist of Dorn is as destructive as the Ironclad Dreadnought's seismic hammer. I'll have to enjoy this model while I can; I can't imagine that Lysander will pack so many awesome abilities into a mere 200 points in the 6th Edition C:SM.

Finished Model: Ironclad Dreadnought

Earlier this week I finished an Ironclad Dreadnought. I'm not exactly a quick modeller so I was proud to have finished it in about a month (I started painting around May 9th and was completely done by June 10).

I literally built the whole thing from the ground up; i.e., I finished the base (weathering and all), then painted up the feet and glued them down, fully painted the legs and glued them onto the feet, etc. This method gives me a sense of progress and prevents me from becoming overwhelmed and taking too many nights off from painting. (Five Sniper Scouts plus Telion took an embarrassing three months to finish thanks to that habit.)

The Ironclad was painted in my usual vehicle style, although I used Mordian Blue as the base coat like I do with my infantry. I'm not really sure why I decided to do that early on, but it may be because I always think of Dreadnoughts as Battle Brothers rather than mere pieces of machinery. Similarly, although all my vehicles bear the black skull over the white circle logo (which I use to show that the vehicle is part of a cohesive force under a single command), my Dreadnoughts lack them. Unlike a Rhino or a Predator, a Dreadnought knows where he belongs.

Left: my first Dreadnought. Right: my partially completed Ironclad.

Earlier I was concerned that the use of Macragge Blue for the final dry brushing had given the Ironclad a significant violet tint. By the time the weathering was done, the newer Dreadnought was pretty close in color to the older one (a little Drakenhof Nightshade helped out in places). However, a side by side comparison still shows a slight difference between the two paint jobs. It's not the huge divergence seen between models in my What Color are Ultramarines? post, though, and I can easily live with the difference.

The finished Ironclad Dreadnought

Putting the Dreadnought close combat weapon on the right hand was a no-brainer given how useless a single hurricane bolter is. I went with the seismic hammer rather than the chain fist on the left hand based on a little bit of MathHammer. In all cases I assumed that the Ironclad gets the charge bonus and hits on 3s (i.e., it assaults a moving vehicle or a WS3 walker like a Soul Grinder).

The math shows that the chain fist's 2D6 armor penetration is more effective against AV13 and AV14 vehicles. The chain fist will explode AV13 81.5% of the time and AV14 74.1% of the time versus 66.7% and 44.4% respectively for the seismic hammer. However, if you want an all-around vehicle killer and don't expect to be facing Soul Grinders and Land Raiders all the time, the seismic hammer's +1 on the vehicle damage table (which becomes +2 on the table when it's combined with the fact that the weapon is AP2) gives it the advantage against AV10, 11, and 12 while still performing respectably against AV13.

And, admittedly, I think the seismic hammer looks cooler, which usually ends the debate for me.

The chain fist couldn't possibly look as cool as the seismic hammer

Given the composition of our Cabal, I went with the dual heavy flamers. Jon employs huge mobs of Orks and bikers, often with significant Loota support, making the heavy flamers the most logical option. The Ironclad will almost always enter play in a Drop Pod, allowing it to lay down two templates of S5 AP4 pain on his Greenskins early in the game.

The Ork skull on the base might be a hint as to why it's armed the way it is

I included Ironclad assault launchers thanks to 6th Edition's general unfriendliness towards walkers. The assault launchers act as both offensive and defensive grenades, ensuring that the Ironclad assaults at initiative and preventing those pesky power fists and klaws from getting that charge bonus that could put an early end to the Ironclad's fun.

An Ironclad gives you a lot of opportunities for trying out weathering effects

I had a lot of fun with weathering effects, although my techniques are still pretty simple and I rely on dry brushing like it's going out of style. The rocks on the base were painted Codex Grey, washed with Nuln Oil, and dry brushed with Fortress Grey. The sooty regions around the exhaust stacks and at the tips of the heavy flamers were produced with a light dry brushing of Tin Bitz and a heavier dry brushing of Abaddon Black. I used some Nuln Oil to smooth out the effect. Metallic regions were painted with my usual Leadbelchers under coat/Nuln Oil wash/Chainmail dry brush combination. I finished off the model by dry brushing Leadbelchers onto corners and other regions where you would expect paint to be chipped or worn off.

I placed the Ultramarines logo on the right shoulder, which is complemented by a gold Crux Terminatus on the left shoulder. The Ironclad's heavier armor and focus on close combat often remind me of the Terminators' role, so I decided that the Marine interred inside the Ironclad was a veteran trained in the use of Terminator armor at the time he was wounded. The placement of the symbols reflects their location on his Terminator armor.

What Color Are Ultramarines?

When I started my 40K army, I painted my troops with a black undercoat, a Mordian Blue base coat, and a heavy wash of Badab Black. I finished them off  by painting the highlights with Ultramarines Blue. At first I tried to replicate GW's method for painting highlights, but I soon switched to a dry brushing technique when I found that I wasn't very good with producing consistent fine lines. Dry brushing with Ultramarines Blue had the added benefit of lightening the models, which I still tend to wash a little too heavily. The final color of the models could be described as more or less cobalt blue.

My first Tactical Squad
Base Coat: Mordian Blue, Wash: Badab Black, Highlights: Ultramarines Blue

Cobalt Blue

I wanted my vehicles to look a little lighter than my troops, so I painted an Ultramarines Blue base coat over a blue undercoat. I washed the models with Badab Black and then dry brushed Ultramarines Blue over the wash to bring out the highlights and lighten the overall paint scheme.

My Third Vehicle
Base Coat: Ultramarines Blue, Wash: Badab Black, Highlights: Ultramarines Blue

By the time I had started working on Drop Pods, GW had introduced their new paint line. Since Altdorf Guard Blue was the official replacement for Ultramarines Blue, and since my early tests suggested that they were close, I tried to replicate my original technique using the new paints. While the Altdorf Guard Blue looked fine over the blue undercoat and Nuln Oil was a perfect replacement for Badab Black, to my horror I found that Altdorf Guard Blue wasn't remotely like Ultramarines Blue when I reached the dry brushing phase. Fortunately I was able to save the project by resuscitating the dregs of my bottle of Ultramarines Blue.

My Drop Pods
Base Coat: Altdorf Guard Blue, Wash: Nuln Oil, Highlights: Ultramarines Blue

I've since started on an Ironclad Dreadnought. I treat Dreadnoughts like troops rather than vehicles, so I started by base coating with Mordian Blue. (I bought two bottles before the color was discontinued.) Since I no longer have Ultramarines Blue, I decided to use Macragge Blue for dry brushing over the Nuln Oil wash. (Macragge Blue is supposed to be the replacement for Mordian Blue and is GW's recommended base coat color for Ultramarines, but nearly all modelers say it's closer to Ultramarines Blue.) As I started dry brushing, I noticed something peculiar; Macragge Blue had added a slight purple tinge to the model.

All of a sudden, something I'd only vaguely noticed before became obvious: GW has pushed the paint scheme of the Ultramarines (i.e., their flagship army) towards a more violet color. It's very apparent in their image for the one-click Stormraven/Dreadnought/Tactical Squad package:

Two of these things are not like the others.

The obsessive-compulsive in me wants to scream

The Tactical Squad models have been used in promotional material for years. However, those particular Stormraven and Dreadnought models are relatively new and were presumably painted with the currently recommended colors. The end results are models whose color is between blue and violet. An Ultramarines Predator model on page 70 of the 6th Edition Rulebook also seems to have a violet hue compared to the surrounding vehicles.

After a quick search on the Internet, I found that Ultramarines models painted as GW now recommends all come out slightly purplish:

Artists' webpages here and here

Oddly enough, the shift towards a violet blue color makes the Ultramarines' armor and vehicles literally ultramarine blue. Apparently, ultramarine blue is a pigment produced by crushing (usually synthetic) lapis lazuli. The resulting color isn't anything like the 4th or 5th Edition Ultramarines colors we're used to but more like those that we've been seeing since the release of the new paint line:

GW's Mordian Blue and Ultramarines Blue

Ultramarine Blue and Violet Blue

So what colors should we Ultramarine players use on our models? Do we try to recreate our previous color schemes or do we embrace the new, official scheme?

While I still intend to use Mordian Blue as a base coat for my troops and Dreadnoughts, I don't really have a replacement for Ultramarines Blue. The fact that I'm still using Mordian Blue means that my models aren't quite as purple tinted as the models above. In fact, the difference between the dry brushed Ultramarines Blue and Macragge blue is subtle enough that I couldn't see it in photographs comparing my Black Reach Dreadnought to the in-process Ironclad. The difference is obvious enough to my unaided eye, though.

Additionally, I just don't have enough Mordian Blue to base coat all of my vehicles; I expect its replacement with Macragge Blue will give the models a definite purplish tinge. I've considered experimenting with other colors, but I have the feeling that I won't end up any happier with the results since it's unlikely that I'll ever be able to perfectly match the models I've already finished. From a practical standpoint, it would just be easier to accept the Ultramarines' new color.

The biggest problem for those of us with an obsessive-compulsive streak is trying to replicate the look of the "real" Space Marines. A glance through the model showcase of the 5th Edition C:SM shows that GW itself hasn't been consistent in its colors. While there are plenty of artists' depictions of cobalt blue Ultramarines, I've since found several of Ultramarines with actual ultramarine-colored armor:

Our choices are therefore to assume that the Ultramarines paint their armor and vehicles with a wide variety of blue pigments that range from a light azure blue to a dark violet blue, or that they have used a consistent color for the past 10,000 years and any deviations are artistic license.

I think it can be argued that a Chapter's color scheme could vary with era, company, available pigments, and even the solar spectrum of whatever world the Marines find themselves fighting on. There's precedence for something like this in the significant variety found between individual suits of armor and vehicles, which even extends to the use of multiple styles of the Ultramarines' inverted omega. If even the look of the Chapter's logo is allowed to change, then it would make sense to assume that the color of their armor and vehicles would also be allowed a reasonable degree of variation.

For that reason, I'm willing to paint future models in the new Ultramarines color scheme rather than to try to maintain consistency. I may even try a few different shades of blue just to further diversify the models. After all, what are Space Marines of the 41st Millennium but mere shadows of the Space Marine legions of 10,000 years before? Although still fearsome, the remaining Angels of Death have been reduced to nursing their ancient weapons and equipment along in a desperate fight against mankind's inevitable extinction. Trying to maintain a uniform paint scheme is probably low on the list of priorities when you're having to cannibalize 5,000 year old equipment to keep your 1,000 year old equipment functioning.