Opening Salvo - Astral Claws Lieutenant and Tactical Squads; battle report

So, I have something to admit: I've actually only been on the sidelines for 8th edition, rebuilding my 40k collection for a while since I'd purged it maybe 15 years back. That means this is my first 40k fight to return to in a long time (I think I played two heavily proxied games in 7th when we were starting to test the GW waters).

The above guy is my first Lieutenant. I really like that they added this rank (though I think they should have made them a bit cheaper and worse), for a broader set of general Marine characters (and an excuse to build more who aren't just redundant captains for the same company, for those of us playing with fluffy armies).

He started out as one of my first Astral Claws minis (or maybe my first?). Either way, when he won a tiny little painting competition, he (and my site) looked very different than today.

He saw a demotion, but I think his helmet and pose look way better, and I've gotten quite a bit better at both photography and painting. I was resistant to the 32mm base increase, but think that they really do make Marines look more impressive. Hell, looking back at this, some day I might field some Primaris marines despite hating their fluff with a burning passion. (They do look nice, but their options are stupid, and I hate their rules that could have been so easily explained by a new style of armor rather than a new damn breed of supersoldier... And why the hell can't they fit in things that carry Terminators or Centurions? And Chaos just gets to be bigger scale because they feel like it. And... I should probably stop griping now.)

Under his command, some Tactical marines, that are a mix of just rebased models, some with updates, and some new ones. I decided to go with a classic (for me 2nd edition) vibe, having a Sergeant and a Marine each with a banner. The sergeants got stocky little ones, while the standard guys (do they have a name in the fluff, I forget?) got the more typical, tall cloth ones. Fitting with both my vision of CSMs and now regular Marines, beyond incorporating different marks of armor, I had fun mixing a lot of different editions of the game in building these guys.

Not a ton to add about this second squad, other than that I really like the fairly severe look I got for the storm bolter sergeant.





8th edition, first battle report

No pics because my table is still ugly. Giving the gist because I don't want to type out every detail, and it wouldn't probably be very interesting to you

The gist:


My Definitely Honorable and Loyal (?) Astral Claws (Ultramarines)
-Chapter Master (the Lieutenant above... apparently, he was really outperforming his role) with a Burning Blade

10 Tactical Marines

6(?) Tactical Marines

8(?) Sniper Scouts

Company Ancient (well, if we're sending a chapter master to command 1.5 squads and some newbs, he might as well have someone to cheer him on. Remember, guys, to forge the narrative(™).)

vs.

Dastardly and Generally Scary Night Lords
-Dark Apostle

-10 ranged Chaos Space Marines

-Raptors

-Around 30 cultists to fill in the rest of the points, split 50/50-ish into ranged and melee squads


The Fight!
We rolled up Slay and Secure, with me getting the first turn. My scouts took one flank to suppress the cultists opposite them, while the rest of my guys hunkered down in some ruins to all wad up in the re-roll and retaliation bubbles, opposite the power armored CSMs, while the Raptors were held in reserves.

This was pretty much just a matter of my greater familiarity with the game... the bulk of the Cultists got caught out in the open and mown down; the Raptors weren't able to coordinate or do enough the turn they touched down (I'm pretty sure they just weren't suited for a game this small...). The Cultists respawn* messed with the Scout flank well, but was too late.

Marine MVP was the character duo making an anchor of obnoxiousness; CSM MVP was the CSMs' Reaper Autocannon that's just really solid for its cheap cost.

I was quite happy with the general feel of the game's newer edition; I felt a lot of the clutter had been stripped out, and thought that the army special rules were a nice way of working some character in at a broader level. I liked the combo auras and new movement rules, and am very happy that splitting fire is now default. I wasn't very happy with how much extra effort it seemed was necessary for melee to work, but don't know if this is a matter of game size and/or inexperience (though the latter is still a problem, since I felt my list nearly ran on auto-pilot once deployed).

* We later realized that we'd played with the wrong command points...