Forgeworld Daedalus (Fluff)

Magos Explorator ship The Seeker of the Ways, led by Magos Dellan Nayan departed from Mars in 571.M41 to follow up on a ruin found in the Western end of the galaxy. In the warp, they where caught by a violent warp storm. The navigator steered them as best he could and the managed to emerge from the storm safely. They emerged far off course, and found their way back cut by further warp storms. An ancient signal beacon began to signal that they were near an ancient Forgeworld. Forgeworld Daedalus.

Nayan ordered the ship into orbit and began to scan the planet. There where no traces of life on the planet below. The landing party was able to quickly acertain that Daedalus was abandoned sometime in M25 for reasons unknown. The inhabitants fled so quickly that while they brought much of the equipment that would truely be prized by Adeptus Mechanicus - Standard Template Constructors and their databases they where forced to leave behind bulkier machinery and military goods. The most notable: A fully constructed Titan legion.

In all, the explorators found six Emperor-class titans, twelve Warlord-class titans, twenty-one Reaver-class titans, and thirty Warhound-class titans. Nayan set his most skilled adepts to tend to the great army, while the rest of his team began working on restoring power generators and food production on the planet.

After five years the planet was easily supporting its small population of castaways, and production was beginning anew on the planet. After another three years, the warp storms surrounding their solar system abated, and contact made with the Imerpium again. First they established their location – near the Galactic South , East of the Perseus Arm. They also discovered the current year: 945.M41. They had spent nearly four hundred years in the Warp.

Contact was then sent to the Fabricator General on Mars, describing what has been found on the planet. Nayan was officially granted temporary rulership of Daedalus until reinforcements arrived. Adeptus Mechanicus sent recruits from around the Imperium to Daedalus, as well as a significant number of Collegia Titanicus. The Magos assigned rule to Daedalus, Magos Elax, took command when he arrived in 954.M41 and Nayan gratefully handed over the administrative duties of the planet and began to personally lead the exploration of the system.

To ensure the system thrived, Imperial colony ships were sent to Daedalus and the other inhabitable planets in the system. Defenses from the Imperial Guard, Imperial Fleet, and Imperial Navy where all sent and established bases as well.

The High Lords of Terra also ordered a Founding of Space Marines drawn from a classified gene seed to be established on the moon Danus, a planet chosen for the fact that it is cold but inhabitable planet, populated by numerous creatures to test the mettle of the planet's colonists and provide future recruits. A company of Iron Hands where sent with the newly created scouts to assist in the establishment of their chapter until sometime in 981.M41. The new Chapter Master known only as Ellerus, named the chapter the Lost Angels.

By 015.M42 Daedalus was in full production, and had just produced its first fleet of ships capable of carrying the Titans to other worlds. The Lost Angles have reached their full contingent of one-thousand brothers and have begun assisting in actions through out the Imperium. The newly re-colonized planets where doing well, and trade between the planets to the Forgeworld was proceeding smoothly.

In 052.M42 the defense forces saw their first full-fledged military operation as a fleet of Dark Eldar pirates raided the system. Both the Guard and the Lost Angels where forced to quickly adapt to ship-to-ship and rapid response attacks. The Guard began to focus on quick drops using grav-chutes, while the Angels focused on fast maneuvering bikes, land speeders, and teleportation via Terminator Armour. After a series of battles spanning the system, the invaders where successfully repelled by the end of 054.M42 though smaller raids continue.

Heavy Guns: Marines 1500

Thinking around today on a Heavy Guns list, at 1500. Heavy Guns, because of their reliance on a Land Raider, almost requires Marines over DA. Granted I can bring Raiders in on DA in Heavy, but I want the MM and the option to dedicate the transport on the fly.

HQ: Captain with Plasma Pistol & Chainsword on Bike

Troops 1,2, 3:
3 bikes, 2x w/flamers

Troops 4,5,6:
3 bikes, 2x w/Plamsa

Elite 1:
Terminator Squad (or assault squad, player's choice) in Dedicated Land Raider with Multi-Melta

Heavy 1:
Land Raider with Multi-Melta.

That gives me two big AV14 targets to draw fire and clog fire lanes for my bikes. In the interim I've got lots of plasma and template weapons floating around to deal with MEQ and Horde.

Fast 1000 & 500

The fast 1500 got me thinking... what would my list look like at 1000?

Master
3 bikers, 2x w/Plasma, Attack Biker w/MM
3 bikers, 2x w/Flamers Attack Biker w/MM
2x 3 bikers, 2x w/Flamers
1x 3 bikers, 2x w/Plasma

At the lower score I expect MM & plasma to be less important but hey, I'm new.

How low can I go & still like the list? 500 Points baby:

Master, this time in land speeder
3 bikers + Attack Bike w/Auto Cannon
3 bikers, 1 w/Flamer

And it still holds true to my Turn 3 rule :D

Fast 1500

Master of the Ravenwing on Jetbike

3 Troop units of 3 Jetbikes, 2 of each unit is upgraded with Plasma Guns, each unit as an attack bike
3 Troop units of 3 Jetbikes, 2 of each unit is upgraded with Flamer each unit as an attack bike

1 Fast Attack unit of 3 Jetbikes, Two upgraded with Plasma Guns

That would give me 12 scoring units. Not too shabby.

And yes, this is rather ripped off from Stalek at YTTH.

First Strikes: The Dark Angels Battleforce

OK - since I plan on using a great number of Bikes and Attack Bikes, it only makes good sense to invest in the Dark Angles Battle Force. But before I go there, let me digress a bit...

As I began looking towards this army, I did my research a little backwards... I went out through various other websites with army lists and made an effort to find an army list (and thus army) that matched what I wanted:

1. Marines
2. Fast
3. Lots of Bikes
4. Semi-Competitive

And from there that lead me to the Ravenwing. That all said - I was lost. Confused. I had no idea how I could do things looking at the model, such as add on flamers and plasma guns. Keep in mind I've never played any sort of Marine before, so my confusion was enhanced.

So I went to a few other Marine players I know, and their advice all centered around the same confusion I had: that the twin-linked bolter on the front of the bike was where the upgrades went. Finally, as I was speaking to an... acquaintance he began steering me away from Dark Angels and towards Codex Marines. It was there I got my answer and saw that the upgrade weapon was indeed equipped on the Marine, not the bike.

Moving on, the Dark Angles box set is surprisingly incomplete. Do not misunderstand - the models are complete, including the gorgeous upgrade sprues. But I thus far have not been able to find the bolt pistols, much less the weapons upgrades for the Bike Sergant or Bikers. Granted I've not looked the hardest, but it is an issue.

OK. Now onto modeling the bike and lessons learned:

First, assemble and paint things separately as much as you can. In my mind this should be the order:

1. Assemble and paint the wheels.
2. Prime the main body. This is the two halves and the undercarriage (where the foot pedals are).
   
3. Assemble the two halves of the main body of the bike. Roll the bike around while the glue sets to ensure you wheels spin after the glue dries :D
4. Add the undercarriage (foot pedals bit)
5. Paint the bike
6. Prime the front armor plate and the twin-lined bolters
   
7. Paint the bike and the front armor plate.
8. Glue the front armor plate and guns to the bike.
9. Prime and assemble the rider
10. Glue the bike to the base*

*Or magnetize it to the base, so when you're not playing you can zoom it around like a really expensive Hot Wheel :-D

My only other thought concerns the autocannon v. meltagun options on the landspeeder and attack bike: Looks like these things just snap on, making it very easy to change options as I want.

The Unforgiven Angels

Yeah I seem to open more blogs up than is neccessary. Today I'm starting a blog for my Ravenwing army for Warhammer 40k, which more often than not I may just model/paint Ravenwing and play as Codex Marines.

About my angels:

I'm going to be playing fairly heavy Ravenwing style: mostly bikers, play it fast and play it hard. If I'm not wiped off the board or I haven't won by turn 3, then I'm doing something wrong. I plan to run a few different vairants on the same army them, as I buy the models:

Fast
This variant will emphasisze speed over everything else. In my mind it's going to be an HQ slot plus 6 slots of three bikers and 3 fast attack slots of attack bikes for SM or for DA just do 6-9 slots of Bikes + 1 attack bike. Six bikers with Plasma, Six with Plasma. Attack bikes with Multi-Melta.

Hard, Fast, Kinda reckless. As I move up in points in this army style I'll likely end up playing DA over SM, so I can bolster each unit up to six bikes, then add on a Landspeeder which for DA would count as a scoring unit. Mech on an objective baby.

Fast & Hard
As above but this time I'm looking at scaling down some of my bikes and adding in a unit of Terminators. The bikes engage quickly and violently, but when the Termiantors come on the teleport to a hot zone around the bikers and wreak havoc.

Heavy Guns
Ahh.. this is where it can get fun. Adding in two land raiders with multi-meltas gives me three major benefits:

1. I give my opponent some big & scary AV 14 to waste time shooting at.
2. I can close off traffic lanes to enemy movement
3. I can give my bikes some nice cover.

The plan in this scenario is to park the tanks in the middle of the battle field near an objective, preferably with the objective behind the tanks! If I'm playing Codex SM two taking one of each of the terminator squads will still allow my teleport backup (as above) and still give me flexibility. As I go into the game, I simply ask if they have anything to screw up deep strike and if they do, the termies deploy in their dedicated transport. If not, then they teleport in with the transports starting on the board Turn 1, along with everything else but the terminators.

Fast, hard, and relentless. Like I said I expect no game to last beyond Turn 3.