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First things first. I want to say a big "Thank you" to all of you who participated in the league. It is always my pleasure to host leagues at Ordo and you guys make all the difference. I want to thank the club for allowing us to get in games night after night and have such a great environment to play in. We went 7 weeks solid with great attendance, a huge array of armies, and new faces throughout. I'm please to say my Genestealer Cult saw the table and had some stupendous games. So without further delay, I would like to say a big congrats to our League Winner - Chad (@happycamper) - with his Primaris Salamanders!! Chad is a fairly new member to the club, a newly appointed Senator AND is new to 40k. He claims "I just like to paint the models" while his army is handing out death from the business end of a bolter. He definitely brought the total package of Sportsmanship, Building, Painting, and Playing. You should check out the progress made on this army throughout the league. The main color for his marines is a great deep orange that I dont really mind. Chad will be the lucky winner of the first ever Ordo After Dark Apocalyptic Pizza Party. Chad, his invites, and league participants will be enjoying a night of fun and battle at the club on a soon to be determined evening. It will be a ton of fun and a great way to celebrate! Along with that, I'll be designing a custom forum tag to show Chad's status as reigning 40k Escalation League Champion until the next league comes around. I would like to go on to say a few words about the league participants. The league offered one point per week for a post on the forums about their experience or showing their building/painting progress. I invite everyone to click through to these threads as some great work is contained within. @Nathanvoodoo Nate started the league playing IG only as a stop gap measure until he had enough Tyranids painted up. It brings me great joy to see other hive mind brothers out there and tried to encourage his expansion as much as possible. Check out the crazy fast progress and excellent paint jobs! @evil_bryan Bryan wanted a new army and he certainly found a good one. I was on the receiving end of his new Ravenguard force and it is a bunch of fun. Check out all the new forces in his thread. The strategems are can stack up to be quite the combo! @Atomic Necrons and Orks. Marshall jumped right in to the new edition with some fun armies and recounts his games. The evil robits prove to be a tough nut to crack in this edition. @ninefinger Jeffrey started strong with some new Deathwatch and Inquisitor models to build a new army. He has since moved on to some more terrain oriented projects but he still showed up with his Orks and had a good time. @zcaust83 Chris brought the filth with his Nurgle Deathguard. So many zombies, so impossible to kill them all. Lots of cool models throughout this army. @peter.cosgrove Even Pete got into the posting on the forums for the league. Check out his detailed write up of the new Chaos Marine units. DisruptiveConduct I started somewhat strong on this thread and ended up not even finishing my awesome Rockgrinder. Soon!! @Chikin As I said before, I am always happy to see another Tyranid player in the club. Trevor's Tyranid's did pretty well and I definitely could not stand up against them for a full 5 turns. @Josiah Josiah's Space Marines rocked the house pretty much every week. I have yet to get in a game against them but there is definitely a good chance it will happen soon. @stevensonmat2 Matt S was a new face to the club. He came in and had a good time and we hope to see him again throwing down his Blood Angels. I love how the picture of my cat is what is showing for his thread! @Sugarlessllama Will's Primaris Ultramarines were no joke. They represented for the Emperor and brought his glory to the tables. Will is welcome to throw down with me any time, any day! @andozane This league brought out some of the veterans of the long wars including our very own Mike. He came out with his Grey Knights a few times and had a good time. @Dark Trainer Matt's big blocks of evil robits proved way hard to move off objectives. I hope to get another chance to take down some souless metal puppets. And finally: The club Always a great time at the club. Even when it is hotter than all get out inside. The people and the place go a long way to making for great gaming. Here's to the many more years of gaming to come!

Some thoughts on 8th Edition and Chaos Space Marines: In very general terms Space Marines and the Bolter are the core mechanic for both Space Marine and Chaos Space Marine armies. The 3+ armor save and the rapid fire 3+ ballistic skill. The farther an army list strays from these two core mechanics the more variable the fortunes of the army. Or at least that's the way things used to be. 8th Edition gives us two very powerful mechanics that, without which, used break both Space Marine and Chaos Space Marine armies. Split Fire and +1 to hit after moving with heavy weapons. These two mechanics are hugely significant for Chaos Space Marines. In addition, equipping a chainsword for +1 attacks, being able to assault after disembarking from a Rhino, the Rhino's 12" movement (13"-18" after advancing), the ability to fall back from combat and embarking into a Rhino/Landraider and the ability for a Rhino/Landraider to move the full distance AND shoot all of it's weapons, being able to put 2 or more different units into a Rhino/Land Raider, being able to take a short squad, the ability to shoot the rapid fire bolter/weapons AND assault, etc. really bring forward a lot of the capabilities that broke and fractured Space Marine/Chaos Space Marines in previous editions. Chaos Space Marines in 8th edition are a whole new capability of beast unseen in any previous editions. For me personally I've been gradually building my Chaos Space Marine Army since mid/late 4th edition. I have always felt that a correct or complete army list needs to contain factions from all 4 gods. Building a list that only contains one god's faction and playing against the same leaves a sour taste that makes me uncomfortable. At the point where only 1 faction is playable and the best armies for Chaos Space Marines come from one faction is a really good indication that Games Workshop broke Chaos Space Marines and rendered them unplayable. This edition they went the other way. To be fair, they empowered units that were made powerful already late in 7th edition (Early 2017), as well as making Chaos Space Marines in general very vanilla, but they added, even in the base index, faction specific mechanics that coupled with the more general 8th edition rules makes bringing a multi-god/faction army that stays with the base mechanics of the +3 armor save/+3 ballistic skill/Rapid fire bolters very solid. When they did this they didn't really change any of the units from their base modeling choices available since Chaos Space Marines were first introduced. I really like 8th edition. There are some detractions. Rhino's lost their firing ports so the process of bringing Havocs with 2 heavy weapons and sit them in a stationary Rhino as an ablative is gone. Obliterators lost both their ability to shoot to 48" and assault with power fists and have to be taken in units of 3. Chaos Icons are pointless (if you want to argue this point take it to another thread), the Vindicator currently (see the Space Marine codex for why) has been significantly reduced (The Vindicators role in previous edition was to wipe out the tarpits, it can't do that anymore). Escalation League: Spoiled for choice! The only unit I currently am lusting for is Khorne Zerkers. I had 20-30 of them but they got nerfed into oblivion so I ended up taking the rather drastic step a long time ago of stripping them and turning them into Raptors/Chosen. They are definately back, with a vengeance. What I would like to do is take 2-3 squads of 5 with 3 plasma pistols and all chainswords and put them into Rhinos with Thousand Sons (Sorry, Rubric Marines) and do a midfield Rhino Assault old school style, but I haven't put that together yet. Base 2 attacks, 3 with a chainsword, 3 plasma pistols for 21 points AND the ability to consolidate forward and force a second fight during Both YOUR turn and your OPPONENTS turn. Oldies but goodies. Thousand Sons (sorry, Rubric Marines) Staying with the core mechanic of +3 ballistic skill, rapid fire bolters with -2 AP and the +5/+4 Invuln save as well as the 1 point Smite/Deny the Witch capability of the squad sorcerer makes this unit a SOLID choice. Add in the warp flamers (AP -2 Flamers?!!) for twice the price and they become very expensive.. very deadly cannon fodder. Welcome back. Land Raider. Actually, you need a WHOLE new way of describing the 8th edition capabilities of the Chaos Landraider. In 8th edition the land raider can do things it NEVER could before. The only other vehicle that can even come close is the Stormraven and the point is arguable given the +3 armor save of the Stormraven. I could probably talk for 30 minutes about the 8th edition land raider, but I won't. The important bit is, Too expensive for the escalation league. Staying solid. Plague Marines. Not really much change. The modeling stays the same from the beginnings. The good part is combi weapons can now fire every turn so the ability for plague marines to bring 3 plasma guns/Flamers to the fight is SOLID combined with the 5 toughness/+5 FNP/reroll 1's to wound. Take a second look!. Noise Marines. On paper they look.. meh. Until you notice a couple different things. First off. Noise marines come with base TWO attacks () AND can all equip a chainsword (). This puts them into Chosen territory. Alternatively you can go shooty with them, take the Sonic Blasters for 3 attacks at 24 inches that ignores cover save bonus after advancing. This is a good unit that exemplifies the "Take 2 units of 5" because you can take 2 blastmasters which will damage a landraider AND 2 doom sirens (AP-2 flamer anyone?) and gets a free shooty attack on death, even in close combat for the same price as chosen and Khorne Zerkers. Noise marines arguably suffer the most from the Rhino's lack of firing ports. Which is which? Chaos Space Marines / Chosen / Havocs / Fallen. For these units you really have to lump them all together and there is a reason why. They all got hit with the vanilla bat. If you want to make a comparison between Chosen and Khorne Zerkers then do that. Other than that specific comparison you are going to be looking at these 4 units together trying to pick and choose the best choice which will be most likely based on massed shooty and relying on the +3 armor save for the additional fight capability in units of 5, but added choices in groups of 7-10. They all can take heavy weapons. They all can take special weapons. Chaos icons don't help any of them for shooty. You have to take a Chaos Lord with them for shooty/assaulty re-rolls (or Cypher for the fallen). Abaddon has lost his special affinity for Chosen, so you can get the same effect from him with all 3 non-Fallen units. Now, here is the reason why. Chosen have to give up their bolter for a chainsword, they didn't have to do that before. Chaos Space Marines have to give up their bolter for a chainsword, they also didn't have to do that before. Havocs.. surprise surprise, have to give up their bolter for a chainsword. Fallen, have to give up their bolter for a chainsword. All 4 units can take heavy/special weapons but they have to give up their bolter for it. So. If you want shooty with 2 attacks base take either Chosen or Fallen. Fallen can't go into transports (But they can go into fortifications ) but that distinction is pointless because you can't shoot out of a rhino. If you want long range shooty you have to take havocs and either put them into a bunker or pay a LOT for the ablatives they will need on the 8th edition battlefield. Something to note, havocs don't get any shooting bonuses like Devastators/Long Fangs/Fallen. BUT with all these units you can bring a mix/match of heavy/special shooty weapons and plus up with added chainsword/pistol whippers to take the wounds and add to the assault if you bring 7-10 of them. Worth their weight in GOLD. Chaos Cultists/Plague Zombies (Sorry, Poxwalkers) Welcome back Chaos Cultists and their nurgle cousins the Plague Zombies (frak.. Poxwalkers) For the escalation league I wish I had some of these. I keep thinking of remaking a bunch of my Ork models into cultists, just haven't gotten there yet. The one problem with Chaos Space Marines currently is they are almost incapable of wiping out tarpits (see vindicator) In return the CSM can bring these cheap bastards that are definately price positive for what they do. You can also look into adding demon tarpits all of which are slightly added cost but bring shooty/assaulty/mind-zappery to the table (The Horror.. The Horrors) Ring in the NEW!. Scarab Occult Terminators. These.. Beat the stock CSM terminators out of the water. If you are going to take termies.. take these, unless you specifically want combi plasma/melta and/or power fist/chainfist/lightning claws. THEY ARE THE SAME PRICE. This is a unit that is built specifically to take in a full 10 model squad. Base 33 points plus 50 for the squad sorc, 4 points for the power sword, add 3 points for the -2AP combi bolter (4 shots ap-2 on deep strike??!!), 22 points for the AP-2 2 shot missile rack for d3 damage at 24"(compared to 25 points for the AP-2 1 shot krak missile at 48" for d6) , and either 20 points for the AP-3 4 attacks cannon or the 23 points for the AP-2 heavy flamer. Add in 1 point smite/deny the witch from the sorc. This unit exemplifies how 8th edition can work. You can put the missile rack ONTO the model with the cannon/heavy flamer, and keep them until the last because you choose where the wounds go. AND that model can fire the cannon/flamer into one target and the missiles into another target. Just.. boggles the mind. Even base you are getting 40 AP-2 bolter shots on first turn deep strike, with a below 27% chance to charge with power swords (bring Warp Time ftw). Add in the 5+/4+ invuln save. Base CSM terminators can't even compare. A list of pointless units. (8th edition, no surprises here, sorry you bought the models for the P2W 7th edition pricing scheme gamesworkshop put together, hope the so-called "waiting for the codex" works for you but given the way the Space Marines codex is built you will need a significant amount of command points and pay for multiple models to make them work) Heldrake. Not only can every unit shoot this 7th edition P2W model down, it isn't a transport. And it costs twice what a rhino costs, so 2 Rhinos can transport 20 CSM models with ALL the shooty/assaulty the pitiful heldrake fails to bring AND generally it will hit the enemy by itself leaving behind the rest of your models so it can get singled out for all the shorter range units in your enemy midfield (first turn) and backfield (second turn) that weren't going to be shooting at anything anyway. Warp Talons. No shooty.. Raptors have shooty. To assault on deep strike you have to invest some heavy resources to MAKE SURE you get an assault on deep strike. If you take the Warp Talons with the Icon of Wrath (and you would have to) AND you allocate a command point to reroll 1 of the charge dice you have a 27% chance to make the 9 inches you would need to get these guys in. If you add in a sorc with jump pack/terminator armor you have a chance to use Warp Time (once! that is deny the witchable!) These guys are 28 points per model for ONE wound. To give a comparison to, say, Occult Terminators, or even base terminators, or even raptors, 56 points for 2 wounds, 4 AP-2 attacks on the charge with a wound reroll, and can't be overwatched on the charge with a 3+ armor save . A base terminator is 38 points for 2 wounds, 4 AP- attacks shooty/2 attacks on the charge with a 2+armor save. BUT they can take lightning claws too for the wound reroll (44 points). Comparing Warp Talons to Occult terminators is even worse given the 4 shots AP-2 from the combi-bolter, the 5+/4+ invuln save etc. The comparison with Raptors is a little different. Raptors have alway been designed as a throwaway shooting surgical strike team. Cheap for 3 melta's on deep strike to take out vehicles, for example. 8th edition kind of took away the one-shot capability of melta's, so Raptors aren't all that and a bag of chips. And in 8th edition, terminators have 2 wounds. Bottom line is, point for point, Warp talons that don't make the charge and stay in the charge (They aren't Khorn zerkers) will be wiped out wasted. Obliterators. I put these on the table ONCE. They are crap. Compared to EVERYTHING else deep strikable they are absolute garbage. And to put them on the board with their pitiful 24" inch range they become a laughable pile of fluffy clowns compared to ANYTHING that can take plasma guns. Mutilators. Worse that Obliterators, they have no shooty. (see Warp Talons) and only 3 attacks on the charge. At least Obliterators (same price) have some shooty. Just imagine throwing 195 points into a 120 point tarpit and seeing them take out 4 models per turn. Ugh Chaos Spawn. 7" movement? WTF. And you can't hide IC's in with them anymore (See Flesh Hounds) Chaos Terminators. You have to take them in units of 5 now. Very expensive for only 2 attacks base. 38 points per model including combi bolter/power axe. You can mix and match (Good!). On deep strike 20 bolter shots plus a 27% chance to charge. Add in combi plasma/melta and mix and match. Now have 2 wounds. Bad when compared with the Occult Terminators, and since you have to buy 5 instead of 3 you lose the capability to provide cheap threat dispersion by deep striking 3 or more units of 3 like you used to. Posessed. Garbage compared to Khorne Zerks. More expensive, no plasma shooty and can't carry a charge into a 2nd unit. Vindicator. Craptastic. Even in the best case scenario you might.. MIGHT kill 5 models. Your average kill count on a 5+ model unit will be 3 models. At a 24 inch range. With NO assaulty capability. With, I might add, the necessity to fire stationary for the 3+ ballistic skill. Arguably even worse than Obliterators. At least Obliterators can deep strike. Absolute waste of points. Unit's Up in the Air/On the Fence. Chaos Predator. This one is a hard one. If you compare a predator with 4 lascannon/havoc launcher/combi-flamer to a 5 man havoc squad in a bunker you have a good idea why it's not easy to choose. 100 points for the lascannon for both. 65 for the Havocs, 102 for the predator, 100 for the imperial bunker. 265 for the Havoc/Bunker, 202 for the Predator. 11 wounds for the predator, 17 wounds for the Havocs in the bunker. BUT after only 6 wounds the Predator shoots at ballistic skill 4, whereas the Havocs in the bunker have to lose 12 wounds AND move to shoot at BS 4+. Add in the Havoc Launcher/Combi Flamer for 22 points (VERY good value). The Predator, if it moves will shoot at BS4 anyway. AND it's a single target that is surgical strikeable. Havocs in a bunker, it takes a bit to wipe them out because of the special rules that fortifications/bunkers have. And you can plop the bunker down onto an objective and have the havocs camp it and pwn anything shootable in 48 inches (8th edition cover saves.. or lack therof ftw!?) Helbrute. For a mix of shooty/attacky it is very lackluster. The shining example is adding 2 heavy flamers to the 2 fists. Unfortunately, given the lack of multi-deployment capability that both 8th edition and CSM gives to it and only having 8 wounds/3+ save making it surgical strikeable it becomes kind of an anti-deep strike unit (8" movement) bait/trap that you kind of hope your enemy falls into. Not really usable in escalation for the points. Chaos Bikers. Not only did they get hit with the CSM vanilla bat (No Toughness 6 Nurgle Bikers for joo!!), they also got hit with the 8th edition OMG we went WAY too far into the whole have everyone P2W dark angels scheme of 7th edition(No Jink bull[big bad swear word] for joo!?!). They are back to being what they are. T5 dudes on bikes. You can't use them to carry biker sorcs. Price compared to Raptors for melta/plasma but w/o the ablative wounds/deep surgical strike capability. There is a small caveat. Bikers can, instead of everyone else, swap their PISTOL for a chainsword. Since they come stock with combi bolters, 4 shots at 12", who needs pistols. BECAUSE they can take an ADDITIONAL item, (not swap) from the special weapons list. This means you can take the combi bolter AND Plasma gun/Melta AND chainsword AND in 8th edition you can shoot both the combi bolter AND the plasma gun. Add in the chainsword for 2 attacks on the charge with a 14" movement you have a very powerful, cost relative, unit. 31 points though for a 1 wound model? That's Occult Terminator territory, 64 points for 2 wounds, no invuln save, no power weapons and AP-1-3 weapons you are paying for through the nose. What the CSM lacks, and desperately needs is some form of anti-tarpit capability. More on that later.

Hello Gamers! Tonight is the start of Fate and Fury's 40K escalation league. Come Join us in the Grim Dark Fate & Fury 40K Escalation League What: Weekly 40K custom scenario league (4 weeks) Where: Fate & Fury Games 11017 ne burton road Vancouver, Washington 98664 When: Wednesday Starting 4/5/16 Time: 6:00PM – 11:00AM Who: Anyone with a good attitude, and wants to have a fun time without being overly competitive Entry Cost $15 for the month (four weeks) Prizes will be given to the follow • First place • Second place • Last place (wooden spoon) *All paying players also receive discounts in store during league hours Rules: • Combine arms detachment • No Formations • No super heavies and gargantuan creatures until week 4 • ITC Missions Points by week 1. 500 points 2. 1000 points 3. 1500 points 4. 2000 points How to win: There are a total of 6 points you can win per league night Point break down: • 1 point for attending • 1 point if their army is painted, 3 colors min • 1 point if their army is based • 1 point if they bring a newly painted model • 1 point if they win a mission • 1 point if they bring a snack for all players

Eyeballing the Apocalypse options for my Tyranids. Most of the options downright suck, since it's clear GW has no clue how to balance the bio-titans with the regular titans. Not to mention, the Barbed and Scythed Heirodules have totally mis-sized models for normal 40k since the tyranid MC models have become much larger since they were created. So, Tyranid Harridan. I know it was legal in escalation during 6th, and that it's a hugely expensive model (in cash costs). Is it legal in non-apocalypse 40k? Is it viable? Anyone ever even seen one on the table top? In terms of cash, I could get like 13 carnifexes for the cost of this one guy. Yeah, ~$25 each (including shipping) on ebay for the old metal Carnifex (not sure there's 13 to buy...). The exchange rate on the GBP looks like ~$326 for the harridan (free shipping). Cash isn't my main concern here, but I think it helps illustrate the value the model should represent to my army. EDIT: If it matters, I would be bringing gargoyles no matter what.

It's been really hard for me to decide how I'm going to paint my Wood Elves. I've only painted Orcs and Goblins and there wasn't a whole lot of choice there - what color do I paint my banner, or what tone do I want for my leather. Here, it seems like everything is my choice. It's been hard to decide! I didn't want to do another green army, and I just haven't been taken by the look of Autumn or Winter Wood Elves. I took Thursday off and devoted much of the day (and a lot of this weekend) to painting up my most important character, my Spellweaver. I decided to go with a "night" theme - dark colors with dark blue being the most prominent. So now that she looks good to me, I'm going to stick with these colors for the rest of the army. At least I know where to start now! Below are images of my weaver. Note - Any advice would be great. I don't know what I'm doing with bases, I feel like her hair could be more black, and her eyes were so hard! Note 2 - My camera and photographry skills suck. I'll work on it.

The 2014 OFCC did not produce the same kind of burnout and frustration with WFB that the aftermath of OFCC's past have for me. Where I once found exhaustion, I have found instead inspiration. Seeing all the armies on display over that weekend only encouraged me to broaden my horizons and expand from my trustworthy, stalwart, (tricksy) elves; into something completely different. Which brings me to Rattus norvegicus. The common brown rat. I'm talking Skaven here, people! I acquired the core of the army over a year ago in a BT pickup, at a heck of a discount. 20 Stormvermin 20 Plague Monks 16ish Night Runners Somewhere between 40-80 Clanrats/Slaves (mix of HW/Spear, looks like 2/3 sets of IoB) Rat Ogres Screaming bell (in pieces) Doomwheel HPA WLC Handful of weapon teams, chieftans, warlock engineers, characters, etc. My eye has been immediately drawn to Stormvermin, the quality of the kit is light years ahead of some of the older sclupts, such as Night Runners, Plague Monks, some of the Rat Ogres. As a result, I'm driving towards the look of a heavy Infantry list, backed up by some Clan Skyre tech to even the fields. I'm flirting with low/no magic, as well. Stay tuned for more!