Helsreach by Aaron Dembski Bowden

Move over Dan Abnett and Graham McNeill, there’s a new hard hitting, heavy weight in the ranks of The Black Library and his name is Aaron Dembski Bowden.

Once again the world of Armageddon is besieged by orks and a small crusade of 100  Black Templars led by Chaplain Grimaldus are among its defenders, charged with defending Hive Helsreach.  As the war wages on and Hive Helsreach starts to fall, any hope of victory is crushed as the ork horde constructs a Great Gargant whose size dwarfs even the mighty Imperator titan, but legend tells of a secret, great and powerful weapon from the first war for Armageddon; one that the Adeptus Mechanicus would rather sacrifice the planet than awaken… it may be the very salvation they seek.

This book is… Awesome!  The writing is so eloquent and impassioned that it draws you in from the very first sentence.  Helsreach is a must read in my opinion.  If you can spare the $12.00 I highly suggest you run out and buy it before you can’t find it anymore.

Cheers!

Assault Tactica – Space Marine Captain

I’ve never posted anything about tactics before, but I’ve been mulling over how to load out my Space Marine captain and with GW’s recent post on their What’s New Today blog, I thought I’d share my thoughts and get some feedback.

The current load out I have is: Storm Bolter, Relic Blade and Artificer Armour.

The captains role as I see it, is to be an assault unit and one to be noticed no doubt.  Further more, as an Independent Character he can join other units to aid them with things such as Leadership and/or boost their effectiveness in assault.  For these reasons and after much deliberation, this is the best point for point load out I came up with and here’s why…

Storm Bolter – This was chosen over a boltgun or combi-weapon simply because a rapid fire weapon is useless in an assault unit.  A boltpistol is perfectly fine, but for 3 points you gain an additional S4 shot, can shoot up to 24” and are able to assault after using it.  The Storm Bolter was also chosen because of my next option which renders any pistol as an assault weapon useless.

Relic Blade – Yea, I know, it’s damn expensive and you’re probably thinking, Why not take a Power Fist, it’s cheaper and doubles your strength?  And you’d be absolutely right, however using a Power Fist negates that nice I5.  With a Relic Blade, I’m still increasing my S to 6, still negating armour saves, still have the same draw back of loosing +1A, but… I get to keep my I5.  With an Independent Character that can be singled out during combat as well as fall to Instant Death, striking first can mean everything.  The Relic Blade was also chosen over the other options because of that increase to S6.  Let’s face it, S4 doesn’t cut it most of the time if you’re facing-off with another Independent Character or Monstrous Creature.

Artificer Armour – Point for point this is much better than Terminator armour and obviously better than Power Armour.  It’s not a necessety, but I like to protect my investments if you catch what I mean.  Opting for Terminator armour gets you a Storm Bolter, Power Weapon and a 2+ save for 40 points.  Artificer Armour plus the cost of the Storm Bolter and Relic Blade above comes to 48 points.  So for 8 points, you get a better close combat weapon and keep your abilities to ride in a Rhino/Razorback as well as do a Sweeping Advance.  What about teleporting in?  Whose to say he’ll arrive when and where you need him.

Comments welcome and as always, thanks for stopping by.  Cheers!

 

Rynn’s World by Steve Parker

I just finished Rynn’s World by Steve Parker the other night.  A good thing too as Helsreach, the next installment of the Space Marine Battle Novel series is starting to hit bookshelves.

Rynn’s World tells the tail of an Ork invasion on the Crimson Fists home planet of Rynn’s World.  Shortly after the Orks make planet fall a great and terrible tragedy strikes the Crimson Fists as they suffer massive losses due to their fortress monastery being reduced to a pile of rubble.  The book follows the chapter master Pedro Kantor as he struggles to keep his chapter from being completely annihilated.

Overall I really enjoyed the book.  It was very captivating at times and had me eagerly flipping the pages.  There are however, times where scenes ended rather abruptly and left me wanting more.  Sadly there are also a plethora of type-o’s, but none that any average reader can’t get past.  If you’re a fan of the Crimson Fists or even just like Space Marines and their few versus many battle stories then I definitely recommend this book.