I'm back, baby.

Hello!

I apologize for the silence over the last couple months. The holidays, in combination with a horrendous time at work, and general lethargy towards wargaming had squashed my muse entirely.

The first two excuses above are self-explanatory, the last part, however, needs to be explained a bit. Those who know my wargaming habits know that I hop around from army to army. I had gotten stuck in a rut. I had two armies: my Deathwing, and my codex marines. I've been playing my Deathwing hardcore for about a year now, and I was feeling like I needed a break from them, but I wanted something to keep me competitive. I had posted a grand article about Space Sharks using the Blood Angels codex before my hiatus, and I did try the list I proposed. I came to a conclusion after playing it - mechanized assaulting marines bore me to death. That left me with two options: my Codex Marines, or a new army. I tried going the new army route.

So, since Christmas, I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out what new army I wanted to play. I wanted a competitive army with relatively new rules. Ultimately, I ended up with a Draigowing Grey Knight army. I played it a few times, but it just didn't do it for me either. As I looked at more and more armies, I became convinced that I was just going to lose interest in 40k, and walk off into the sunset. However, as I was organizing my apartment the other day, I came across my Codex Marines book, and the cover art reminded me one of the two reasons I got into 40k. Firstly, I absolutely love the image of the heroic space marine holding the line with his bolter. Secondly, terminators are the shit, enough said. So, with that in mind, I took inventory of my collection. Terminators? Check. Space Marines with bolters? Check. My muse began to wake up.

All I've been able to tell myself the last few days is that there's no way I could make a reasonably competitive list with Codex Marines without copying every Vulkan-led netlist out there. Determined to prove myself wrong, I took a half day off work today, and spent it trying to come up with a Codex Marines list that would win me games. Here's what I came up with:

HQ:

Chapter Master Pedro Kantor - Pedro is my boy. His +1 attack aura is awesome, and I happen to like stubborn after failing one too many morale checks and fearless armor saves. More importantly, he makes Sternguard scoring.

Elites:

2 10 man Sternguard squads - 3 combi-meltas, sergeant with combi-melta and power fist, rhino. - Tank busting ability, specialty ammo, and they aren't slouches in combat. Now they are scoring.

Terminator Assault squad - 5 thunderhammer/stormshields - This unit is automatically included with any of my lists. Pedro's bodyguard.

Troops:

2 10 man Tactical squads - meltagun, missile launcher, sergeant with combi-weapon and chainsword, razorback with twin-linked assault cannons. - More tank busting ability that scores. The razorbacks will also give me a little more versatile firepower.

Heavy Support:

Land Raider Crusader - extra armor, multi-melta. - Pedro's ride.

2 Predators - autocannon, heavy bolters. - 85 points for some serious anti-infantry and light transport firepower. I'll take two, please.

Ultimately, I think the list is damn solid. I have a ton of firepower, 40 power armored scoring bodies, and some units that rock in combat. General strategy will see the Sternguard ride up with Pedro and his Terminators, taking advantage of the aura. The razorbacks will most likely hang out in midfield to lay down some fire, and to deploy the combat squads to block other units from getting to my base. The other half of the combat squads with most likely hang back with the predators and shoot people up. I'm ordering all the bits I need tonight to get my army up to WYSIWYG. I'll have to figure out how to con Robin into teaching me how to paint my models to the standard he used with the rest of my army. Good to be back, expect more posts coming soon.

- Max

Let me have it, guys. I've been quiet for a while. Poke holes in the list!