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FirebaseEditorial
We are here! FIREBASE
is here! Youve waited long,
youve waited hard and all
good things come to those
that wait.
Its been a long and
arduous road, filled with peril, pitfalls and gory paint schemes,
but now a staggering 100 pages of hardcore hobby material is
in your possession; bursting with tactics, conversions, painting
guides, battle reports and some of the great old games that
make you all misty eyed and nostalgic.
Welcome citizen, to the first issue of FIREBASE magazine -
bringing you the best of Warhammer 40,000 every quarter, to
give you the fix youve been craving.
But what makes this magazine so special you may ask? Well,
much like the inspiring Wargames Journal, FIREBASE is entirely
free to download and read on Adobe Acrobat as a PDF file.
As I sit writing this, issue #2 is well underway and it goes toshow what a monster of a magazine FIREBASE has become.
Until next time!
- Adam Smith
September 2006 ISSUE 01
www.warseer.com/firebasemag
Simian Staff Listing
Head Monkey: Adam Smith
PR Monkey: Brandon Vallee
Assistant Monkey: Ashley Curtis
Specialist Monkey: Simon FisherDesign Monkey: Steve Gagn
Art Monkeys: Ben Biggs, Nicolas Giacondino,
Donald Carr
Writing Monkeys: Joel and Gerard Pitt (aka:
The Brothers Pitt), Ross Allan, Alex Kallend,
Brandon Vallee, Tony Venezia, Adam Smith,
Johan Hansson, Ashley Curtis, Saul Painter, Paul
Cook, Simon Smith, Simon Fisher, Dustin Hrenyk,
Rob Holland, Don Hornby, Andy Maddison, Jon
Wilson and Ben McLeod
FIREBASE is published every three months inassociation with Warseer.com. All text andlayout remains the copyright of FIREBASE.
FIREBASE is a fully independent publicationand its views are not the views of any companymentioned herein. All characters and artwork
shown in this magazine remain the andtrademark of their respective owners. No partof this magazine may be reproduced without
the express permission of the Editor or Deputy
Editor. FIREBASE can accept no responsibilityfor inaccuracies or complaints arising from
editorial or advertising within this magazine. Allletters and emails received will be consideredfor publication, but we cannot always provide
personal replies.
This fanzine is completely unofficial and in no
way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited.FIREBASE magazine is a non-profit makingfanzine with the aim of promoting Games
Workshop games, products and hobby.Alladverts shown are free of charge and areprovided purely in the publics interest.
Here we areBorn to be kings
Were the princes of the universe!
Queen, Princes of the Universe
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Stikkin Da Boot In! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56
Through the Valley of the City of Death . . . . . . . 60
Slumming It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
In space, Everyone can hear your WAAAAAGH! .68
The Dockyard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73
Five Admirals and a Hivefleet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Battle Over Medusa V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Welcome To the Underhive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Down With the Hood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Run Him Outta Town! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Contents
Firebase Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Converting Your Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Eternal Dam-nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Steel over Flesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Gaming Etiquette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Tactica Kult of Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Freakz and Firewarriors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
I Quit! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Fer Boyz Wiv No Teef . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46
An Orks Tale Birth of a Warrior . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Nicolas R. Giacondinoillustrator
Gallery: http://photobucket.com/albums/d61/aerion_the_faithful/
http://n.r.g.epilogue.net
RustedEngine Comics
http://www.warseer.com/rusted_engine_studio
mailto:[email protected]://photobucket.com/albums/d61/aerion_the_faithful/http://n.r.g.epilogue.net/http://www.warseer.com/rusted_engine_studiohttp://www.warseer.com/rusted_engine_studiohttp://n.r.g.epilogue.net/http://photobucket.com/albums/d61/aerion_the_faithful/mailto:[email protected] -
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ConvertingYour Home
It was many summers ago when I first assembled,painted and took Eddie the Chaos Dreadie tobattle. He looked so very fine, arrayed in all manner
of spikey bits and had been lovingly painted. Then our
pet dog crushed him underfoot. That was the day we
decided to stop playing on the floor.
Our little gaming group has moved on considerably. No
longer do we sit in the middle of the living room playing on
an old desert matt with pieces of card scenery scattered
around. Now we are real men! We drink beer and stand
around a table displaying the finest gaming boards and
terrain. We also have fully painted armies somethingwe could only dream of before. But the transition from
floor to table wasnt so simple.
After University, I split up with my girlfriend and had
to move back in with my folks. All of a sudden it was
back to the floor and all the risks that came with it.
Playing on the dinning room table was not an option,
unless I wanted an ear bashing from my folks. One singlescratch or mark would mean eternal damnation and fiery
torment at least until I got enough money together to
rent my own apartment.
The Brothers Pitt persuaded me into commissioning
them to make me a gaming board in 3 sections which I
currently store in a large cupboard. They made it nice and
scummy looking for me as well as having various rockylevels. Necromunda is my favourite game and theres
Shot 1: The dining room table, chairs and
cabinet: A place of tranquility and elegance.
Scratch the table and you die!
Shot 2: Pull the table into the middle of the
space, while pushing all the chairs up to the
available wall space, not preventing access to
the kitchen door.
Shot 3:Get an old table cloth from the kitchen
and the gaming boards from upstairs. I have a
large cupboard in my room, while other people I
know keep their boards in the attic.
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nothing quite like a rotting, disjointed town.
Fortunately I had plenty of my own scenery.
After some discussion (and bribery)
with the Parental Unit, I came up with the
following method to playing on the dinning
room table.
If youre in the same situation, show your
Parental Unit, Wife, Girlfriend, Boyfriend(?) or
Pet this article. It might just help.
- Adam Smith
Shot 4: Lay the gaming boards on the table
and add some scenery. Crack open a couple of
beers, youre ready to play.
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EternalDam-nationThe illustrated guide by Joel and Gerard Pitt
What possesses a supposed sane human being tobuild a board like this?I dont know, but I do know that building terrain and
gaming boards is one of the most rewarding aspects
of this hobby. You can have a golden demon standard
army, but without a beautiful battle field to fight over,
you will never get the full experience of small scale
plastic warfare!
FIREBASE:What sparked
this insane project?
Gerard:We decided the ash wastes
board was getting old and we needed
a new giant board! The dam idea came
while watching a documentary (5 industrial wonders of
the world) on the construction of the Hoover dam and
decided it would make
an awesome board.
FB:How did the
bridges come about?
Gerard:We needed
better access across
the valley and felt that
the Imperium, like
the Romans, would want
to keep roads flat. It also
added an extra level to the
board and gave objectives.
FB: How did the ideas
for the other sections ofthe board come about?
I see we have some sort
of underground cavern,
a powerplant, a SAM site
and a bunker on top of
the dam.
Gerard:Well the underground cavern was
not going to be there, we had originally
planned to have that area hollow only to
save weight but when the construction
was nearly done we added a hole to look
like the water channel that was used to divert the
river during construction like the Hoover dam. The
bunker on top was an idea from someone on WarSeer
and the power generators were to make it look more
like Hoover
dam and
the crashed
spaceship
was to add
cover and
linked in with
We spent almost an
hour in the DIY shoparguing over which
pot of paint to get.
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the missile turret (it
had been shot down)
the fuel towers were
for cover overlooking
the valley and bridge.
FIREBASE: Going back tothe beginning, how did
the construction begin?
Gerard: Well we
started by drawing the map layout onto paper and
then estimated how much polystyrene we would need.
Once we had the polystyrene we cut the boards to
the right length we mapped out the board roughly.
FB: I understand that you layered up the
polystyrene and then shaped it somehow?
Gerard: After we had mapped it roughly we made
more detailed plans and began cutting the shapes
of the hills. We made identical pieces and layered
them about 4 sheets thick. Once they
had dried, we shaped the cliff.
FB: How did you prepare it
before painting and how did
you go about painting it?
Gerard: We made the cliff section
then aligned all the board with all
the cut hill pieces before shaping
them, then we glued them down
and sanded them to form realistic terrain. We then
used dental plaster in its thin form to coat the
whole board to add strength, then used the thicker
stuff to make more realistic terrain features.
We also used it to smooth over the surface of the
dam to look like cement and blend the dam and the
crashed shuttle into the floor. Once all the terrain
looked realistic, we applied a thin layer of sand
and gravel to the board. We then pained it with a
series of sandy colors ending in bleached bone.
Joel: I cannot stress enough the importance of having a
good plan for your board, before you even purchase any
materials. You should doodle, sketch, research and repeat
until you know exactly what kind of board you want to make.
We spent several hours planning out exactly what we wanted
to do, and also went back to the plan, occasionally making
revisions, as we went along
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FB: Where did you get dental plaster from?
Gerard: The dentist
FB: Really? You just strolled into your dentist
and said Hi...Id like some plaster?
Gerard: Well, Joel wanted it for Venice -
But yes, he strolled in and said What sort
of plaster do you use? and the dentist said
This stuff and Joel asked to buy some.
FB: How much did he charge you
and how much did you get?
Gerard: I dont know but we used
about 10 margerine tubs worth
FB: How big is the board? It looks
bigger than a standard board?
Gerard: Its 5 x 6 ft. We though 4 x 6
would leave the valley too thin.
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FB: Thanks for taking the time for talking to us.
Gerard. One more thing You fancy a game?
Gerard: Sure!
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Steelover Flesh
Iwas as happy as a dog with two tails when I arrivedfor my game on the fabled dam board. Now this iswhat playing 40K is about! A fantastic looking army to
play against on some amazing terrain and I brought apretty fine army of my own to do it with too.
The game was dictated by the board and our
surroundings. None of this rolling for mission and
objective counters malarkey! A victory points based
game, with the objective to capture the bridges and the
dam, each would be worth 500 victory points. As we were
playing outside, we knew the light would fade sooner or later,
so the last turn of the game would be played using the Night
Fighting rules. It should be getting dark by then.
HECA N T KIL LTH E M AL L!
Gerard:My tactics for this battle are fairly standard, Im
going for the usual Tyranid idea of trying to get to the enemy
before everything dies and then worry about capturing
objectives. Simple!
1,500pts Hive Fleet Pitt Army:
Hive Tyrantwith rending claws, scything talons and extended carapace
2 tyrant guard
Brood Lordwith extended carapace and toxin sacs
8 genestealers retinuewith scything talons and extended carapace
4 Tyranid Warriorswith extended carapace, scything talons, rending claws, toxinsacs and leaping. One warrior carries a barbed strangler.
4 Tyranid Warriorswith extended carapace, scything talons, rending claws, toxinsacs and leaping. One warrior carries a Venom cannon.Two warriors carry death spitters.
20 Hormagaunts
8 Hormagauntswith toxin sacs and adrenal glands
8 Spinegaunts
Biovore
with bio acid spore minesCarnifex
with regenerate, toxin sacs, scything talons and a mace tale
Carnifexwith enhanced senses, scything talons and a venom cannon
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I know I will need a lot of xenos sinew to absorb all
that gauss power. I have included a couple of Carnifex
to draw the fire from the gaunts and survive to capture
the objectives. This will hopefully allow my Hormagaunts
and warriors to survive and mash up his Necrons in close
combat.
My Genestealers and Brood Lord aim to capture the
dam and hold it till the end of the game securing me 500
victory points. Ive given them all extended carapaces,
so they should survive.
HER ETH E YCOM E
Adam:Boy, that army looks exciting on paper or not!
Such is the way with the Necron army it seems.
I am the kind of guy who shows up to every game with
the same army list. I dont believe in tailoring my army
selection to my opponents army and once Im happy
with how my army works, I stick to it. It also saves me
writing out new army lists.
While Id love to take some Pariahs or Tomb Spyders,
I prefer to take as many troops as possible to absorb
lots of enemy firepower and not phase out while dishing
out plenty of firepower of my own. But for once, Im up
against the Nids and they dont have many guns.
Theyre fast, theyre fearless, they have lots of attacks
and I dont have any high AP weapons to make big holes
in their monstrous creatures. However, I do have spades
of firepower! Im going to get charged regardless of what
I do and its going to be by some of the smaller gribblies.
Hormagaunts to be precise little blighters!
The plan is to set up just out of 24 so I will get a turn
to wittle down his numbers with the Necron Warriors and
use the Destroyers for targeting and wiping out a single
unit per turn through sheer weight of firepower. Even his
monstrous creatures should go down to 36 strength 6
shots! With little return fire, I should be able to run (or
skim) amok.
1,500pts Attack Force X51Army
Necron Lord Lordiwith a destroyer body, war scythe,
phylactery and resurrection orb
12 Necron Warriors
12 Necron Warriors
12 Necron Warriors
4 Necron Destroyers
4 Necron Destroyers
4 Necron Destroyers
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DEP L OYM EN T
TYR ANID
Gerard: As with any
objective based game
deployment is crucial. I
had lots of gaunts and lots
to hide from, so placing
them was difficult. After
much deliberation I opted
to place them on the road
leading into the valley
and it would block them
off from the majority ofhis force and give them
easy access to his side of
the valley. My plan was to intercept his Necron Warriors
before he moved onto the bridge and charge them from
both the bridge and the valley floor. This would allow me
to pin them in combat while the Hive Tyrant made his
slow progress across the bridge. If they were all killed he
could capture the objective and stop any Necrons from
moving onto the bridge as well as kill some of them.
The leaping Tyranid Warriors were more difficult to
place, with synapse in mind I decided to deploy them
in the valley floor behind the largest hill and covering
the main attack down the centre. They were sufficiently
close to the Gaunts to keep them inn synapse and close
enough to jump up onto the bridge at the last minute.
They were also hidden from the majority of his Destroyers
giving them much needed protection against the AP 4
gauss cannons.
The shooting Tyranid Warriors were not needed for
synapse as I already had the Hive Tyrant and leapingTyranid Warriors so I placed them on the high ground on
my side of the valley near the Gaunts. That way if the
leaping Tyranid Warriors died they could provide synapse
and it gives them a good field of fire.
The Carnifexes were easier to place. One I put on the
high ground sniping with his venom canon, the other I
placed in the valley floor, hoping to use the bridge strutsas cover as it moved across the board.
The Biovore deployed high on my side of the valley
ready to rain spores on the advancing Necrons and able
to cover the dam or bridge.
Finally, my infiltrating Genestealers and Brood Lord
deployed at the end of the dam, ready to sweep across
his flank or capture the dam.
NECRON
Adam: Gerard had won the dice roll for choosing
table sides and grabbed the side with the most space to
manoeuvre while I was somewhat restricted.
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I set up my Necron
Warriors around the centre
to protect the boundary of
my little island of hill with
the two bridges and dam
coming in. The Necron Lord
went in the centre with the
Necron Warriors so that he
could make a counter-charge
if needed. The Destroyers
all deployed on the far right
flank where they should be
able to sweep round and roll
up the Tyranid lines. I spread my army out as best I
could to stop those damn Genestealers and their Broody
Lord from infiltrating too close.
Sit tight, wait for him to come to me
TU R N 1
TYRANIDS
I got first turn and moved all my Gaunts directly forward
toward the Necrons. My Tyranid Warriors also advanced
behind the Gaunts, out of site of the Destroyers and
within synapse. The Hive Tyrant followed suit and along
with his Guard followed the Gaunts onto the bridge. My
45pt Spinegaunt shield blocked his fire from my enhanced
gaunts and the Carnifex in the valley continued to lumber
on and the one on the hill prepared to fire with his venom
cannon. The Genestealers moved onto the bride and the
shooty Tyranid Warriors crawled down the slope weapons
training for targets.
As with most Tyranid armies my shooting phase was
fairly quick and uninteresting with very few guns andnone with any degree of accuracy. My venom cannon hit
a Necron Warrior but failed to kill it and the Biovore was
out of range. However I did role a 5 and 6 for all my fleet
of claw moves which brightened up my day!
With nothing in combat range it was over to Adam
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NECRONS
The Tyranids were close, far too close! Time to give
them a dose of green lasery death.
The Destroyers moved on to the bridge on right flank,
while the Necron Warriors on the dam moved back from
the advancing Genestealers. The plan was to bunch the
squad up, then move in for some rapid firing next turn.
I just hope I can kill enough of the Genestealers to hold
up the Brood Lord until my Necron Lord can get there
and start cutting them down with his war scythe.
The two Necron Warrior squads in the centre opened
fire on the nearest squad of Hormagaunts on the bridge
and with some support from one of the Destroyer squads,
they were annihilated in a blaze of green light.
The Destroyers on the bridge raked the valley floor
with their gauss cannons, killing 12 of the Hormagaunts.
8 where left, but the synapse control of the Hive Mind
stopped them fleeing. I could see that they were inrange to charge one of the Necron Warriors squads in
the centre next turn. Im sure theyd be fine, but having
my firepower reduced could be a problem in slowing the
Tyranid advance.
TUR N 2
TYR ANIDS
With the torture of the
Necron firepower over, I had
to re-group the remaining
Gaunts. His Destroyers had
killed 12 of the brood and
unless they reached his
Necron Warriors this turn
they would never make it. With another lucky fleet of
claw roll they charged the warriors on the slope.
My Genestealers continued to move across the dam
toward the Necron Warriors. If only they could fleet of
claw.
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My shooting was a
little more successful
this turn. I managed to
kill 2 Necron warriors
with the biovore and
venom cannon and then
proceeded to assault
with the Hormagaunts.
After a disastrous round of combat, I failed to kill
any Necrons and lost a Hormagaunt. With the Gaunts
in synapse range they stayed in combat till next turn
when I hoped the Carnifex or Hive Tyrant would reach
the combat.
NECRONS
The Spinegaunts on the bridge were flayed down to their
last molecule by one of the Necron Warrior squads, while
the combined firepower of the Destroyers tore the combat
Carnifex apart in a salvo of intense fire power. I didnt
want it to join the combat between the Necron Warriors
and Hormagaunts on
the slope.
On the dam itself,
the Necron Warriors
advanced towards
the Genestealers and
opened fire.
I expected 24 shots to do some damage, but was as
shocked as Gerard when he rolled 8 armour saves and
didnt pass a single one! I then laughed maniacally, of
course.
The Genestealers where
wiped out, leaving theBrood Lord sitting there
by himself. He didnt seem
best pleased.
Next turn, I expected the
Brood Lord to shred the
warriors and win combat.
Id then spectacularly fail my leadership test (as Imrenown for doing) and the line would start to collapse. It
was a good thing that the Necron Lord was close by.
The Necron Warriors stuck in combat with the
Hormagaunts werent going anywhere, much to my
frustration. Fortunately, it looked as though nothing
else was going to join the combat next turn. My metallic
minions were certain to prevail.
TUR N 3
TYR ANIDS
This was beginning to look glum, after failing all 8 4+
saves my Genestealers on the bridge were completely
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destroyed leaving only the Brood Lord (who was a bit
pissed off) to charge the squad and with his Necron Lord
moving in, things on the dam didnt look hopeful.
Things in the valley were going equally disastrous!
My Carnifex had been ripped apart by his Destroyers
in one turn without even being able to regenerate andmy Gaunts had made no gains in the combat during
the Necron turn. I also managed to knock down one
Destroyer but the damn thing got back up using some
sort of advanced cheese-induced resurrection program!
My Brood Lord charged into combat and killed 2 Necron
Warriors with some lighting fast claw skills but the Necron
Lord was still closing in fast and if he was to capture the
dam hed have to kill all of
them (not likely!).
My Gaunts made little
progress on his side of the
valley, loosing 2 and killing
none but as they were stillin synapse they didnt fall
back holding the Necron
Warriors in combat another turn while the unharmed
Hive Tyrant and venom cannon Carnifex stomped across
the bridge.
Although all the Gaunts in front of the Hive Tyrant
had been killed and I had suffered heavy casualtiesacross the board, my plan was still working. The Gaunts
were pinning the Necron Warriors in combat while the
monsters advanced slowly and my warriors were ready
to charge next turn onto the bridge.
NECRONS
With the Tyranid rank and
file decimated, it was time
to take down the heavy
hitters -the Hive Tyrant
and Carnifex!
All my Necron Warriors
moved into position to
target the Tyrant standing
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Next, I charged the Destroyers with the surviving
Tyranid Warrior squad by leaping up onto the second
bridge. They didnt kill any of them, but tying the
Destroyers up could swing things for me by denying him
a good portion of his firepower.
NECRONS
Sausages! I could have sworn those Tyranid Warriors
wouldnt be able to charge the nearest Destroyer squad,
but thats what happens when you forget about leaping.
If only I hadnt been so overconfident and had moved
the Destroyers back.
The game had descended into a massive melee, with
one Destroyer squadron locked in combat with the Tyranid
warriors on the right flank. The Hive Tyrant continued to
munch through Necron Warriors on the central bridge.
Every blow that hit home bounced off his tough hide or
heavy armour.
It looked like the Tyrant would destroy all of my Necron
Warriors and claim the bridge. My gamble to shoot him
and finish him off in combat had not paid off. Thats what
happens when you underestimate a 2+ save.
My mobile Destroyers fired at the remaining Carnifex,
wounding it, but not enough to kill it. No worries, The
Necron Lord was rapidly approaching with his warscythe!
TUR N 5
TYR ANIDS
With my army diminished as usual and only my
monstrous creatures left on the board, there was verylittle to do this turn.
My Hive tyrant butchered the remaining Necron
Warriors, breaking them, overrunning them and
then consolidating back on to bridge. My Tyranid
Warriors on the second bridge killed 2 destroyers
and still had 3 left to contest the bridge. With both
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19
combats at a stale mate it was over to the Necrons.
NECRONS
With the Tyrant alone on the bridge, my Destroyers
and the Necron Warriors up on the damn were able to
get a clear shot. The Tyrant staggered under weight of
fire, losing 2 wounds. If I could inflict just one more, he
wouldnt be a scoring unit.
The Necron Lord charged the Carnifex and separated
his torso from the abdomen with a single sweep. He then
consolidated away from the Hive Tyrant. He can alwayscharge in next turn if he really has to.
The Destroyers continued fighting the Tyranid Warriors
on the bridge with neither side inflicting any casualties. I
was really kicking myself about letting them get charged.
If the Tyranid Warriors end up claiming the bridge, it
could all be over.
TUR N 6
TYR ANIDS
This being the final turn, I had lost all hope for a draw,
so I tried to hold out for a minor loss.
With the Hive Tyrant alone on the bridge and on 2
wounds, he had to stay exactly as he was in order to
claim the objective. I was trusting in the dice to give me
some armour saves and hoping hed still be alive at the
end of the Necron turn.
Combat on the other bridge was going ok. While no
casualties were being inflicted or suffered, I was still
managing to tie up an expensive unit of his and stop him
claiming the bridge.
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NECRONS
With my final turn all I
had to do was take a wound
off the Hive Tyrant and kill
2 of the Tyranid Warriors to
secure all the objectives.
Every gun that wasnt in
combat was aimed at the
Hive Tyrant and opened fire but amazingly, every single
shot ricocheted off the Hive Tyrants armour and after a
whole turn of firing he still stood with 2 wounds left to
claim the objective!
I didnt charge him with the Necron Lord. It was just
too risky and I didnt fancy having my 200pts Lord ripped
to shreds.
The second Bridge was contested by The Tyranid
Warriors, but the Necron Warriors had secured the dam!
Things were a draw in terms of objectives, but victory
points were another matter, with the Necrons being in
the lead by 600 VPs A crushing victory!
AFT ERGA M E THOUGHTS
CLOSE, BUTNOPIE
Gerard:Well, my entire army was wiped out. However
by looking at the order in which everything died, I can
determine the problems with the army. Firstly the Gaunts
and Carnifexs dont work well together as the Gaunts get
too far forward and die before the Carnifexes can reach
combat. Equally my army doesnt pack nearly enough fire
power! The solution? Three more Carnifex and another
Hive Tyrant, but thats a project for the future!
TARGETPRIORITY
Adam:While the little gribblers arent going to hurt my
Necrons too badly, theres a lot of the buggers and being
bogged down in combat can be disastrous. Fortunately,
the monstrous creatures are slower than a snail with a
gammy leg and a nasty limp (if snails have legs), so it
was a case of kill the fast stuff and mop up the rest
later. But while I sit here all smug and victorious, it would
have all ended in tears and entrails everywhere were it
not for my lovely Destroyers.
Destroyers are sick. Oh so sick! Whether theyre
shooting at Land Raiders, Carnifex, or small children,
they will kill it. Strength 6, 3 shots, good range, accuracy
and high mobility make them one of the best units in the
game and only for a mere 50 points each stunning! Oh,
and they get back up on a 4+.
But its all for nothing if youre daft enough to let them
get charged and tied up in combat with Tyranid Warriors.
In future Ill have to keep them moving. They dont have
a firing range of 36 inches for nothing I guess.
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GamingEtiquette
Or how to more or less guarantee repeat gamingwith your opponentWell, Hello there dear chap. Welcome to Mad Doc
Grotsniks School for Gaming Etiquette. Oh come now,theres really no need to look so alarmed. Were here
just to run you through a few basic dos and donts of
Gaming. Its really pretty simple you know. Here, Ive
broken it down into several easy steps. So easy even a
12 year old newbie could manage it, what!
Look, I can see your still looking rather perplexed old
bean, so Ill start you off with a few easy ones, beforewe move on to the more in depth forms of etiquette.
Are you ready? Then Ill begin.
RU L ENUM BERON E .
Your opponents models are just that. Your opponents.
When playing against another spunky young chap, doask his permission before you start to fondle his Nob,
or indeed, any other model in his collection. Even if the
paint job may not look like much to you, it may be the
best hes ever done. Besides, asking doesnt hurt! I
mean, how would you like it if all and sundry came along
and started to give your models a good once over? God
help you if you break one, especially if its converted. So,
all in all, best just to ask. That way, if it breaks, its less
of a big deal.
RUL ENUM BERTWO.
When youve arranged your game, either in advance,
or on the spot, whats the most important thing to have
with you, apart from your models? Dice? No, not really,
though it can be polite
to bring your own. No?
Give up? The rules! Not
just your own copy of
your chosen game, butalso all the rules for your
chosen force, whether
in Codex, White Dwarf
or even download. This
easy provision means
any in game confusions
can be cleared up with a minimum of fuss, and certainly
no bad blood. Surely, dear boy, you too must have metan opponent who conveniently doesnt have the rules for
his Super Unit OHacky Death that just smashed your
entire army! Tiny provision, big kudos!
You too must have
met an opponent who
conveniently doesnt
have the rules for his
Super Unit OHacky
Death that just smashed
your entire army
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RUL ENUM BERTH R E E .
Respect your opponent. If youre playing a game, see
it through. Do not throw a hissy fit just because you are
losing. Do not leave the table for unreasonable amounts
of time during your opponents turn. Do not ask your
opponent to re-roll dice because you didnt see him role
it. Or, to be blunt, dont be an arse. The games are
meant to be fun. They are a means of entertainment. If
you get that wound up about losing, then may I suggest
something slightly less skill dependant, like Snakes and
Ladders. Or sitting in a darkened room on your own and
allowing humanity to continue without you.
RUL ENUM BERFOUR.
If you are a spectator in a game, as I know many
of our community will be at one time or another, for
the love of God please remember thats all you are. You
are neither players special coach. Nor are you there to
provide commentary. Nothing ruins a good solid game
than outside interference from some git-faced know-it-all who insists on aiding and abetting either side. Surely,
if youre about to fall into a cunningly laid trap, youll
learn more about it than if some socially and hygienically
challenged oik decides to point out to you. This has
happened numerous times to me, and the same bloody
person has pointed all out. Cunning charges and cunning
firing lines set up. All my opponent had to do was blunder
into it, and his arse (well, hers) was mine. And then Toad-
Boy shows up, and blabs about my devilishly cunning
plan, and costs me the
game. Now, had my
opponent spotted the
trap for herself, fairlydos, she beats me fair
and square. But to have
some (expletive deleted)
point it out is just unfair.
I was playing Monica, NOT you! So, keep opinions, hands,
comments and help to yourself basically. Not a tall order,
but one several people miss!
So, there we have it. The Four basic rules to the
mysterious and ancient etiquette of gaming. Although
I have used the find products of Games Workshop in
my examples, these guidelines apply to any and all war
games. And I can guarantee that if you follow them,
at least in spirit if not to the letter, you will get return
match ups with opponents time and time again!
- Ross Allan
And then Toad-Boy
shows up, and blabs
about my devilishlycunning plan, and
costs me the game.
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TacticaKult of Speed
There are many different ways to approach mostarmies in the game, and the Kult of Speed isno different; the only constants are that, whichever
direction you take the army, youre going to be both
mobile, and fragile.
GET T IN GSTUCKIN
If youre going with an assault force, the bulk of your
force should be massed up of boyz in trukks, on bikes, or
with rokkits strapped to their backs. Unfortunately, each
of these have their drawbacks. The Kult list does offer
some nice options in terms of shootiness. Mobile zzap
guns and tankbusta units can put the hurt on enemy
armour, while looted ordnance vehicles, and a multitude
of ways to field big shootas and rokkits (often twin-
linked) provide some decent firepower. With the move &
shoot capabilities of the Kult, you can generally play the
range game to your advantage, closing just enough to
get your shots in range, while limiting how many of theirweapons are, but there are drawbacks here. Reducing
the number of assault units allows you to utilize terrain
more effectively to hide the loaded trukks, while offering
shooty targets that the opponent cannot just ignore,
which effectively diverts fire away from the trukks of
boyz. This hybrid element, if done right, can trap your
opponent. With these basic ideas in mind, lets examine
the units available with some scrutiny.
HEAD QUART ERS
You must take one Warboss or one Big Mek. The question
is what role you want your HQ to have in the game.
BIKERWARBOSS
A Warboss is ok as
HQs go, but hes no
Daemon Prince. Hes
going to have trouble
against tooled-up
HQs from a numberof other armies.
The Kult however
have an ace up
their sleeve; a bike
for your Warboss.
The bike gives your
boss an extra +1
toughness that allows him to stand up to other assaultHQs, and, also allows him to charge, alone, into mobs of
just about anything without powerfist backup. Your boss
should be flanked by a couple of buggies as he turbo-
boosts up the field. As an independent character, that
means your opponent cannot target him until the buggies
are destroyed, and if you pick your location correctly,
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this is rarely a problem. Give the boss a powerklaw,
a choppa, eavy armour, a cybork body, and a bionic
bonce. He weighs in at about 160 points, but can make
it back easily enough. This also ensures that he has a
3+ invulnerable save on that all-important turn before
you can charge, just in case someone charges him. The
bike also means that he can roll from one assault to thenext without needing to get back in a trukk and then
get back out again. The power klaw also makes him a
serious threat to any vehicle on the board. Six strength
10 attacks is nothing to laugh at, and with that many
attacks, he had a good chance of pulling skimmers out
of the sky. T5 means that you can choose to use your
power klaw against most Marine and Chaos HQs without
being too concerned over dying. There are few characters
that can inflict 3 wounds against T5 in a turn, and with 5
(6 on the charge) S10 attacks in return. There are very
few that will get a second turn of swinging at you.
The things you need to watch out for are models with
high strength attacks that ignore armour (like powerfists,
or nemesis force weapons), and librarians, who can
instant kill you with their force weapons. Finally, dont
forget that having a bike makes the Boss Fearless. Its
not likely to come up often, but its good to have. Hes
also a Skilled Rider, so feel free to charge right through
terrain. Plenty of opponents wont see that coming.
BIGMEK
The other approach to an HQ is to go cheap with a
Big Mek. A Big Mek with big horns and a burna can add
some decent hitting power and morale to an assault unit.
If you have any expensive vehicles that need protecting/
repairing, a Big Mek can take some helpers and tools, and
hang back to protect them. If the vehicle hes protecting
has decent armour itself, then a kustom force field can
aid its longevity, but avoid that if youre trying to protect
any AV10 or open-topped vehicles.
HQSTOAVOID:
The Warboss in a trukk (with or without retinue) is
largely a waste of points. You are paying nearly as muchfor the trukk as you are for the bike, without all the
other advantages. Secondly, while the boss may be an
independent character, his trukk isnt. A Nob retinue can
be fluffy, but its ridiculously hard for a unit of Nobs to
justify their worth on the battlefield, especially when
theyre probably going to spend a turn entangled in the
wreckage of their dead transport. Same cost problems
apply to Biker Nobs.
TH E BOY Z
Always use every single troop slot. A lone skorcha
buggy is a considerable threat to a lot of armies, and the
ability to put that template exactly where you want it only
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adds to the havoc youll cause. Trukk boyz are obviously
the backbone of any assault-based list. Ten boyz that
can hop out and krump someone cannot be overlooked.
Entanglement means that you have to be careful with
them, because if their trukk gets shot theyre going to
be dead before they do anything useful. Buying them
a burna and a Nob with a powerklaw and choppa givessome all-round utility. Bosspoles are a complete waste
of points whilst Iron Gobs can be good if you have the
points. Drive by burnings can be quite effective against
horde armies, although you have to get very close.
Sometimes, your opponent can pulverize you in hand-to-
hand combat. Genestealers, Bloodletters, Daemonettes,
and Grey Knights are among the things that you dont
want to mess with, as theyll kill a lot of your boyz before
you even get to swing. Dont forget the Power of theWaaagh! Its a big reason you should take full-strength
mobs of trukkers, as you have a 92% chance of passing
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the test with a full complement of boyz. Youre almost
certainly going to get the charge because you can hide
in the trukk until youre ready to hop out.
BURNABOYZ
Youre allowed one mob of these. While a plethora of
burnas might be nice, you can take skarboy mobs as
elites, with only a few less burnas, and higher strength
to wield them with.
TANKBUSTAS
With four rokkits (one on the Nob, three in the squad),
and three ammo grots, this unit can generally expect to
get two or three hits on the first tank it fires at. With an
effective strength 9 against armour, thats pretty good
odds to knock something out. Generally it only takes
killing one tank to make your points back. Get them out
of the trukk and into cover as soon as possible, both
because of entanglement and how many will die in a
wreck. Give them a mission, and expect them to die
after completing it.
WARBIK ES
Bikers are tricky to use. With a total effective firing
range of 30 and a lot of dakka, theyre a scary unit to
face, but theyre also very expensive. Always buy a Nob
with power klaw and choppa to go with them. If you
get tied up in combat, hes going to be responsible for
dealing most of the damage. Two attacks per round at
Strength 3 just arent going to cut it, especially without
choppas. One of the trickier parts of using this unit is
getting a good charge off. Ideally, you shoot your guns,
then charge and shoot them again. Its better to forgo
the shooting and get stuck in, because at least you can
possibly break them in assault. The resilience of bikers
comes from their higher toughness, so charging anything
higher than Strength 4 is going to hurt a lot, and each
model you lose costs a lot of points, and a chunk out of
your units effectiveness. Dont forget these guys are
fearless, and thats both good and bad.
BUGGIES
Buggies are great. Theyre fast, cheap, and disposable(just like my last girlfriend -Ed). You can afford to use
them to screen your Warbosss attack, or to block
lines of fire to your trukks, and not feel too bad about
losing them. A skorcha buggy will fry whole hordes of
T3 models, and can even be expected to kill a marine
or two. Your opponent is faced with a tough choice -
shoot the buggy, and dedicate a whole units fire (maybe
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more), or accept the damage it does. At the end of the
game, buggies are wonderful for claiming or contesting
objectives too. Rokkit Buggies are not the best anti-
armour unit at our disposal, but theyre serviceable, and
have good odds of getting flank or rear shots. Twin-linking
means they even hit sometimes when it matters. The
standard configuration for skorcha buggies of doomruns a skorcha and Spikes & Blades. It works wonders
against any sort of assault-heavy army. If youre playing
a list with a lot of 2+ or 3+ saves, feel free to use your
skorcha to screen other models.
Other people advocate putting stikkbomb chuckerson their skorcha buggies, and tank-shocking the enemy
before skorching them, forcing them to move into tighter-
packed formations. With Big Shoota shots, even twin-
linked doesnt do nearly enough to bother most opponents.
Contrast that with the other two and big shoota buggies
just arent as cool as the other two. Against hordes,
skorchas rule. Against vehicles or marines, rokkits are
the way to go. The kustom megablasta has a greater
chance of inflicting a glancing hit on yourself than you do
on your opponent, and so is rated as an especially low
option for buggies. Other than the upgrades mentioned
for skorcha buggies, the extra cost of upgrading them
just doesnt justify itself on vehicles this cheap. Youre
better off buying another buggy than you are spendingpoints on upgrades. A word on squadrons: Buggies can
be run effectively in squads of two or three. Filling your
troop slots should be the first priority, but after that,
doubling up choices doesnt hurt.
EL IT ES
ARDBOYZ
Five ard boyz in a trukk can field three big shootas, one
on the trukk, a bolt-on big shoota as well and another if
you want to buy a Nob. Thats up to 18 strength 5 shots
per turn, from within a vehicle that can move 12 and
fire. The Nob option is rather expensive for the final
three shots. Looking at five ard boyz in a trukk with a
big shoota and bolt-on big shoota, youre spending about
135 points for an expected five S5 hits/turn. If you want
to lay down the S5 fire, its more cost-effective to do
it with ard boyz. Buy them a dedicated battlewagon,
and run 3 twin-linked big shootas, and five bolt-on big
shootas. Its more points, but the battlewagon provides
some longevity for the unit too. If you expect to face
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a lot of tanks, ard boyz can field as many rokkits as
tankbustas.
SKARBOYZ
While they have the same weapon upgrade potential
as ard boyz, these are recommended as an assault unit,
not a shooty unit. The lack of armour means that they
suffer more when their ride is destroyed, so sitting back
and shooting from inside a trukk is inviting problems
- not to mention, not taking advantage of their higher
strength. As an assault mob, go for 3 burnas and a Nob
with a powerklaw/slugga combo. Theres not much that
can survive a charge from these guys. If ten isnt enough,
stick them in a battlewagon and take a whole mob of 20.
This is your only opportunity to take a large mob of boyz
in a Kult of Speed army.
STORMBOYZ
These guys are the slowest boyz in the force, unable to
make a 24 move. Knowing that, use them as a second
wave, allowing them to advance behind terrain, or
wrecks, and reinforce the initial charge. Use small unitsof them, because they cannot regroup, and one failed
morale test loses you a whole mob. Dont use them like
shock troops, and theyll do some good.
FA ST ATTACK
This is kind of redundant in the Kult of Speed as the
whole army is one big fast attack choice, but you get
some choices that the footsloggers dont.
FIGHTA-BOMBARAID
The more points the
game, the more useful this
is. The breaking point is
about 1500 points. Below
that, dont take it. As your
units are all required to
start mounted up, youre
largely protected from
misfires, you risk having
some vehicles start the
game stunned. The at risk units are bikers and stormboyz,
who are likely to take significant casualties if they get
hit, so if youre running a list thats heavy in either of
those choices, there is more risk to yourself from an
over-eager strafing run.
DETHKOPTAS
Here we have more cheap scoring units. Never take
more than one in a squadron. Theyre like buggies -there
to annoy your opponent and claim objectives. Use the
free upgrade to a Mek, and give him a burna. This is
possibly the most versatile unit in all of 40k. You can
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move 24 in a turn, even over terrain. You can take your
twin-linked big shoota shots. You can burn stuff and you
can assault tanks. Toughness 5 and a 4+ save means
that you can tie up shooty units in assault and a burna
means that you get a power weapon at S4 too.
OUTRIDERS
An interesting unit as theyre just bikers, but for 5
points more per model, you get the Scouts universal
special rule. This can enable some first turn charges,
but, if you dont get the first turn, it can also leave your
boyz isolated from the rest of the army, and exposed to
enemy fire. regular bikers are cheaper if you cannot use
the scout move wisely.
HEAV YSUPPORT
Technically, there are three choices here, but really,
theres a lot more, as each looted vehicle fills a potentially
different role.
BATTLEWAGONBattlewagons are cool and orky, but you can purchase
these as dedicated transports for either a Warboss or a
Big Mek, or for units of Skarboyz or Ardboyz. Since any
mob can ride in any vehicle in Kult of Speed, the only
thing you give up in doing so is the scoring unit status. A
dedicated battlewagon cannot claim an objective.
But, the reason for not taking a battlewagon as a
heavy-support choice is to fit other scoring units into
the list anyway. Three good approaches to battlewagons
include giving it a zzap gun, and secondary weapons,
and try to shoot enemy tanks. Its more expensive than
a gun trukk with a zzap gun, but, it has better armour to
make up for that. Another version is the Dakka Wagon.
It features lots of big shootas. This is best as a dedicated
transport for a unit of ard boyz, and sit them in it with
a lot of bolt-on big shootas, and big shootas, and just
pound the enemy from 36 away. If you use range
to your advantage in this case, you should be able to
minimize exposure to enemy anti-tank weapons. Finally
there is the delivery battlewagon, all about getting a
close-combat mob into the fight.
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Take lots of vehicle upgrades to ensure your mob
makes it to where it needs to go. Turbo-boosters on the
first turn make a second-turn disembark and assault
more likely, and red paint also speeds up the delivery.
Assuming the mob makes it, your battlewagon will be
close to the enemy lines, so skorchas make sense for a
weapon, but realize that you wont be firing at all until
you get the boyz into combat.
GUNTRUKKS
These are slow compared to most of your other
choices, but they can pack a punch. Stick a zzap gun
in a gun trukk and youll have a dedicated tankhunting
unit. These are some of the most effective anti-vehicle
weapons in the entire game. Kannons and lobbas in gun
trukks are not viewed as very effective weapons overall.
As with all vehicles, fill out your force slots before you
consider making squadrons of them.
LOOTEDVEHICLES
There are only three looted vehicles worth including
in a Kult of Speed army. These are the Leman Russ,Demolisher and Basilisk. The marine tanks tend to rely
too much on ballistic skill, which orks dont have, and
the other guard tanks do not fill any specific role any
better than one of the tanks above. The Leman Russ has
good armour, and a big gun, with lots of range. What
else is there for an ork to want? It serves two purposes,
to draw fire away from your boyz, and to persuade the
enemy that sitting back and shooting at you might not bethe best idea. The Demolisher is like the standard Russ,
but without the range, so you lose out on the sitting-
back-and-shooting aspect. If youre not running a lot of
choppa-armed boyz (for whatever reason), its your best
hope against terminators. The basilisk is a good tank,
but not a great tank. It doesnt really fit thematically in
a Kult of Speed army. It isnt strong enough to withstand
the drawing fire role, like the Leman Russ is, so the
best place for it is hidden behind terrain. On secondary
weaponry Aavoid lascannon in the hull, as youre unlikely
to hit with it. A heavy bolter (and sponsons) can provide
some firepower in the case that the main weapon gets
destroyed.
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PL AYIN G KU LT-OF-SP EEDI N 4T H EDITION :
The best way to play the Kult is to play for objectives
and pick on targets of opportunity. Of course, helping
to create that opportunity is not a bad thing either. You
need to have a big, scary longer-range threat, with which
you can hang back and harass the enemy troops froma distance. If you can whittle away one or two models
a turn, without your opponent hitting you back, theres
no real reason to risk your ultra-fragile trukks to go for
more. Let them try to adjust to what youre already
doing. Use your mobility. You should be dominant in
the movement phase. Dont forget to use that to your
advantage. You will almost always want to go second if
there are objectives to claim, and deploy expecting your
opponent to go first. With a lot of units that can move
24, you can wait until the last turn to claim objectives,
giving your opponent no chance to react. Use decoy units
to get your opponent to move or shoot where it benefits
you. Buggies are 40 points. They are throwaway units.
Move a rokkit buggy 24 towards your opponents tank
and they now have a threat that they cannot ignore.
Use terrain to your advantage. Move a trukk full of boyz
behind a forest, and you create a 20 inch zone where
your opponent cant move troops without giving you
an assault opportunity. Pay attention to these zones. If
you can prevent your opponent from moving through an
area to an objective, then you dont need to claim it until
your last move. Be aware of what can beat your boyzin assault and avoid them. Daemonettes, Genestealers,
Bloodletters and Daemon princes all probably have your
number.
Unlike a footslogger, you dont have thirty bodies
to take wounds with, you usually only have ten. That
means that you are already below the automatic mob
check size too. While a unit of thirty boyz can afford totake five casualties per round, while their Nob pounds
away with his powerklaw, if you lose three boyz and lose
combat, you stand a pretty good chance of being cut
down. Preserving your scoring units is more important
than throwing units into assaults that they are unlikely
to win. You want to pick your battles, run away from
anything you cannot handle, and set it up where you can
whittle it down through shooting before you go back for
the kill.
In the kult of speed, you must play like a human, not
like an ork...
- Alex Kallend
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Battle ReportFreakz and Firewarriors
M ISSION -
Hostage situation (from the original Tau Codex)
OV ERV IE W
A Warboss of a band of raiding Orks intercepts pleas
from a downed Ethereal. They plan on seizing the
Ethereal as quickly as possible before the Tau have a
chance to react and take him to safety. Who knows
what may happen to the Ethereal should the Tau failtheir mission
GUID EL IN ES :
Speed Freakz get first turn and come in via
reserves and a arrive on a random table edge
Tau deep strike their whole entirearmy on their first turn
Whoever is closest to the survival
pod at the end of the game wins
The game lasts for a random amount of turns
Points - 2000 points a side
PR E-G A M E THOUGHTS :
BRANDON(SPEEDFREAKS)
I have never played the hostage situation mission
in the original codex. It also doesnt help that I have
become so accustomed to playing more elite factions
such as Grey Knights as of late, that using Orks is going
to be something I am going to have to remember how to
do quickly or die trying. I expect to see lots of vehicles
which worries me, since my speed freaks lack effective
anti-tank firepower, but who knows, I might get a couple
of lucky shots? As far as my basic army composition
is concerned, I didnt take any burnas or power klaws
because I forgot to bring them up for this game -Mishapshappen, even when doing battle reports for FIREBASE. I
dont think it will drastically put me at a disadvantage,
but knowing that I am going to be facing a bunch of
clumped up Tau, it makes me drool at the thought of
flame templates.
Even though I lack special weapons, I made up for it by
taking plenty of orks. 4 squads of Truck Boyz, 2 squads
of outriders, 2 squads of Ard boyz, a Warboss with a full
retinue of nobs mounted in a truck, a looted Basilisk, 2
looted rhinos, and 2 squads of Rocket Launcher armed
buggies. Just shy of 100 models, hopefully it will be
enough to capture the Ethereal!
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against all of those
perfectly bunched
up Tau squads, when
they deep strike.
Now, all I can hope
is prey that the dice
gods are against myTau opponent and
everything on the
table doesnt wind up dead when they arrive.
TAU
After seeing how much Brandon already had on the
table, I was getting very nervous, because I knew he had
even more back in reserves. To top this all off, I basically
got to deep strike everything and then watch Brandon
respond to that again. I dont mind the occasional deep-
striking Crisis Suit, but this was pushing it.
I nominated a point about 10 inches up from the board
edge for my Stealth Team, hoping to keep them alive
for a turn so they could respond to whatever Brandon
did. I gave a heavy sigh as I rolled an 11 with the
scatter die pointing right
back at me - my Ballistic
Skill 4 Stealth Team just
teleported right off the
table edge.
My Ionhead, Pathfinders,
Piranha, Devilfish, and Fire
Warriors deployed on the right-
hand side of the board to deal
with the trucks. The Railhead,
Crisis Suits, and Sniper Teams
deploy on the left half of theboard, near the edge. I almost
lost my Sniper Team to the edge again.
On the right-hand
flank, lots of action
was happening. The
Ionhead blew up
one of the truckson Brandons edge,
and killed an ard
boy in the process.
The Fire Warriors
Devilfish missed the
other truck, but its
former passengers turned
out to be better shots,
blowing up the truck.
The Pathfinders Devilfish
took out the truck near
the objective, but with
no extra casualties. The
Pathfinders themselves
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went on to kill a measly truck
boy from the ruins of the truck,
but ended up pinning the unit.
The Piranha managed to stun
one of the buggies it landed
behind.
On the left flank, the Railhead
missed the side of the Looted
Rhino, so the Crisis Suit HQ
had to pick up the slack and
take out the Rhino, but to my
disappointment, nothing was
inside. The Fire Warriors on
the left wiped out the entireOutrider unit in a turn, which
was nice, since the two Monat
Crisis Suits missed ALL targets.
TUR N 2
SPEEDFREAKZ
Well that could have been a
lot worse. Even though I did
lose the squad of outriders,
most of my forces remained in
tact, despite losing there buggies and a couple of men
along the way. I was really surprised how Tony deployed
his stealth team so close to the table edge so they had
a chance of going off, and they did. That really helped
me out. Personally, I would have been more aggressive
with the stealth team, but I guess the orks were a little
intimidating!
Since it is the start of a new turn, more reserves rolls!Yay! I managed to bring another squad of Truck
boyz, a looted rhino, my other buggy squad,
and my other outrider squad onto the table. I
deployed the outriders where I deployed my other
squad of them, before they where annihilated by
pulse rifles. I deployed the truck boyz unit in
assault range of a fire warrior squad that killed
one of my trucks. Finally, I deployed the buggiesand the looted rhino in the middle to support
the two squads of truck boyz by the objective. I
moved my two squads of Ard boyz out of the remains of
their former trucks and in assault range. Since the one
squad of truck
boys were pinned,
there wasnt
much I can do,
but at least they
would be getting
a 4+ cover save
against further
shooting. The
other truck boyz
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squad I moved out of the truck and
onto the rock where the objective
was. I also moved a buggy squad
to intercept the piranha before it
did any more damage. Now it was
time to compensate for the loss
of my outriders.
I started off by shooting the tau
command squad, I figured, what a better way to earn
back the points. Well, being an indirect shot, it missed.
Now if it would have hit, lets say they wouldnt be
there anymore! The two squads of Ard boyz kill 3 guys
with there sluggas. The outriders killed 5 fire warriors,
the buggies took out the piranha and everything elsemanaged to miss or fail to do
damage. Well, Orks arent sharp
shooters, so I cant blame them for
doing barely anything during this
phase. However, Orks are good at
assaulting, and there is going to be
plenty of it!
I charged the two squads of fire
warriors on my left flank with a full
squad of truck boyz and my two
squads of Ard boyz. The one fire
warrior squad was whipped out to a
man, since I couldnt reach him with
my mob, and the other fire warrior squad took heavy
causalities and forced to run away. The squad that ran
away only rolled a two to get a way, so my ork mob
consolidated into them, which would save them against
next turns shooting round. After winning combat, the
one Ard boyz squad consolidated back into cover of their
former truck, while the other consolidated to interceptthe last remaining fire warrior out of his squad, the orks
finally got into assault, and it was bloody!
TAU
Things are looking pretty grim, and its only my second
turn. Tau really dont like assaults, let alone second-
turn assaults. To make things even funnier, the units I
expected to do the best did awful, and the units I had no
expectations for did amazing things.
On the right-hand flank, the last Fire Warrior in
hand-to-hand blew away an Ork at point-blank range
before being pulled to pieces. Take that, Orks! The
gun drones from the Piranha destroyed a buggy on
the right side, and the Pathfinders marked the Trukk
Boys by the objective for fun later.
The Ionhead moved to hit the hidden Basilisk, and
missed with all three shots. Good job, guys! The HQ
team hopped forward, and killed five of the marked
Trukk Boys, negating their cover saves using the
markerlight hits.
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The Fire Warriors on the left immobilized one buggy,
and killed another. These guys meant business! The
Railhead kept moving to shake enemy fire, and took
shots at the remaining Trukk Boys as well. It missed with
the railgun again, but managed to take out one more
Ork with the smart missile system.
The two Monat Crisis Suits hit once out of seven
rolls, and splattered one Ork behind the objective with
a missile pod. Both Devilfish chewed up whatever Orks
they could find, since their passengers were long since
departed. The Sniper Team on the left flank took shots
at whatever buggies and bikes it could see, taking a
few out. The remaining fire warriors that were stuck in
combat were finally finished off during my turn. It wasntlooking good!
TUR N3
SPEEDFREAKZ
Wow, now I took a beating Those tanks and the
command squad are tearing my infantry apart, whichisnt good. Having the sniper team in the far off side of
the table, and having the ability to modify cover saves,
now they need to be taken cared of! Having lost lots of
the Boyz that turn, I really need my last two reserves
rolls need to come in; hopefully they will be able to turn
the game in my favor.
Both units
came in, perfect!
I deployed my
Warboss with
retinue behind a
nice rock, so he
could lead thecounter attack
on the objective,
should the Tau
take it from me.
The last truck boy squad surged towards the objective in
an attempt to make sure it stays in control of the orks.
I figure it is best to concentrate taking to objective over
killing tau, so I began to move the majority of my army
in an attempt to swarm the objective and make the tau
fight tooth and nail (or what ever the Tau use in combat)
for it. I moved my squad of outriders closer to the fire
warrior squad in an attempt to finish them of either
by shooting or assault, and I also moved my buggies
to support them
and hopefully the
will provide some
extra causalities
to finish off the
squad. I moved the
truck boyz squad
which finished off
the remaining fire
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warriors during Tonys assault phase in an attempt to get
into combat with his pathfinder squad. I moved another
truck boyz squad in an attempt to get into combat with
his command squad. I also moved one of the Truck boyz
squad off the objective to intercept two crisis suits which
were attempting to seize it from me.
The shooting phase started of with another salvo from
the basilisk, this time at the sniper team. I figured it
would be better to shoot at them over the command
squad, since the
command squad was
no longer bunched
up, but the sniper
team was! Of coursethe shot scatters,
but I managed to
take down two of the
sniper drones. The
outriders managed to
kill another few fire
warriors while the buggies completely missed them. The
rest of my shooting was pointless, since it didnt manage
to do a single thing, everything missed... Oh well.
As far as the assault phase is concerned, I charged the
outriders into combat against the fire warriors, charged
the pathfinders, and charged the Ard boyz into the
remaining gun drones for the blown up piranha, since
they took out a buggy in
the last shooting phase.
Talk about revenge! The
one truck boyz squad I was
going to use to charge the
command squad was out
of range, by half and inchUgh! They would surely
become target practice
next turn. However, I wiped out the two gun drones, the
remaining fire warriors, and the pathfinders, and used
my massacre roll to move closer towards the objective.
Despite taking massive causalities and another Tau
shooting phase on the way, I have completely contested
the objective with the majority of my army. I may still be
able to win this one.
TAU
Infantry? What infantry? Im down to elite units and
vehicles by this point. Were both chewing up each
others units, and this is going to come down to a bloody
finish. I moved all vehicles to the right side, to focus on
the Orks coming
in. The Ionhead
moved forward
and demolished
the Basilisk in
a swath of ion
energy.
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The Firestorm monat suit
blew up a truck on the left flank
and killed three truck boys in
the process. The other Monat
took out three more with its
Airbursting Fragmentation
Projector what a fun toyversus the Orks!
The Railhead, Devilfish and HQ unit poured their fire
into one of the largest remaining mobs in the middle
of the table, and killed 8 Orks in the process. For good
measure, the HQ unit then charged into the Orks, netting
a whole two kills in the process. With my Sniper Team
pinned, that about wrapsup the turn!
TUR N4
SPEEDFREAKZ
I was expecting that to
happen and boy did thatone hurt. Well the good
news is I still had a couple of squads on or near the
objective, since we would start rolling to see if the game
went on in longer, so it is imperative that I controlled
the objective, especially since Tau has the advantage of
going second and being able to seize the game from me
after one good shooting phase. I moved the buggies, the
warboss with retinue, the remaining Ard boyz squad,
and the looted rhino towards the objective. I officially
had absolutely nothing in range to kill his tanks and my
turn consisted of getting to the objective with my whole
army. Since all of his infantry, with the exception of the
command squad and the far off sniper team were nonexistent, my shooting did absolutely nothing. The truck
boyz squad that was still in combat with the crisis suit
managed to finish off the remaining independent crisis
suit and consolidated into the other one, being well below
half strength, it took some
good rolling for that to
happen! But, alas, my turn
pretty much accomplished
nothing except moving
units towards the objective.
Lets hope I can live to see
another turn.
TAU
By this point, Im praying the game doesnt go into
overtime. Both sides have taken a beating, and theres
not much left for me to shoot with.
The Snipers on the left killed three bikes, which is always
good in my book. The Railhead finally hits with its main
weapon, and kills five Ard boyz with a submunition shot.
That wasnt too hard, now was it? The Ionhead adds to
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the destruction by killing the
remaining buggies.
The HQ team moved forward
to kill four more truck boyz in
a massive storm of plasma
and missile fire, and thenmoved onto the objective to
contest it.
VICTORYG OESTO?
BRANDONSTAKE
The Game ended after the 4th turn and ended up being
a draw due to Tonys last minute move of his crisis team
in the assault phase. Since we both held the objective,
we decided to see who one victory points wise, and that
was also a tie, but Tony held the upper hand of having
70 more points then I left on the table, but it wasnt
enough to declare a winner. After the game, we figured
that should it have gone on longer, Tony eventually
would have won, because I could not have taken out histwo hammerheads (his command squad probably would
have been wiped out by the Warboss with his nobs and
the other remaining boyz). I am really disappointed with
my armour plates, I didnt save a single truck with them,
they were a complete waste of points. Hopefully next
time I can save at least one truck My only regret is
when I lost the basilisk, I could no longer aim at
mikes head -Yes, I had the range.
It was a close hard fought game, and now it is
time for a rematch, now only instead of playing
Speed Freakz, I am going to use my White Scars!
TONYSTAKE
Ouch, ouch, ouch. I should have been more
aggressive with the Stealth Team, Brandon was
right. Essentially starting off the game with a 250
point deficit was a pretty big morale hit.
Part of me thinks I should have teleported everything
as close to my edge as possible, and then start shooting
anything that got close to my Fire Warriors. On the
other hand, part of me thinks I should have been MORE
aggressive, and consolidated everything in one pocket,
instead of dividing up into two flanks.
I hate hand-to-hand! The Speed Freaks just do it so
well, and so quickly, it was quite a surprise. For never
having played Orks before, Brandon did a bang-up job.
I could have used some Kroot, as the monat suits were
just so-so and I sure would have liked to hit with the
railgun more than once in the game, but hey, thats how
the dice roll.
-Brandon Vallee and Tony Venezia
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I played a few games with the Necrons at the club and
they did pretty well. They werent as forgiving as Id first
thought after Id put my lord a little too far forward, Eat
railgun! Yup, he was dead and didnt get back up. The
army was forgiving, but not invincible, or so I thought.
My friends back home started playing again. Thistime I took the Necrons and that was where the fun
really began to wane, although not at first. First came
psychotic laughter as the Necrons swept all before them.
Nothing could stand up to them. It was only in a four-
way Carnage game that they were challenged and that
was because the other three armies ganged up on them.
Even then, they decimated most of the forces on the
table. After a few games of maniacal butchery -Ok, aftera lot of games of maniacal butchery- the novelty wore
off and I planned to return to Central London Wargames
Club for some stronger competition.
The company I worked for went down the drain and
unemployment followed. This meant fewer trips to Central
London Wargames Club and eventually I was looking for
ways to make quick cash. In a very rash move, I soldthe Necron army for a huge sum of money. Its fine, I
said. I had the Deathwing, my oh so pretty army and
plenty of money to get me by until my college course in
journalism started.
Inspired by poverty, I once again declared an end to
buying new armies. My friends laughed and shook their
heads as they had done for the past five years of quitting
attempts.
A little money started coming in and I began to expand
my Deathwing army. After all, I did say no new armies.
My friends all groaned when I told them.
The vision was a mighty 5,000pts of Dark Angels 1st
Company with an abundance of terminators and land
raiders, including my own land raider variants with plasma
cannons. However, after a few months of assembling and
painting land raiders and dreadnoughts I really couldnt
be bothered to paint more terminators or the four
extra land raiders that Id
bought on the spur of the
moment. Off to Ebay they
went and some of them in
exchange for surprisingly
large amounts of cash. I
was lucky enough to make
all my money back. Thats
what you get for haggling
for a bulk discount with anindependent retailer in the
first place.
Then I began to get back in to the hobby in a way I had
never thought of before. My folks had been on holiday
skiing with some friends and their son had brought along
James, a closet wargamer who had kept his obscene
Inspired by poverty,I once again declaredan end to buying new
armies. My friends
laughed and shook their
heads as they had done
for the past five years of
quitting attempts
i t t d til M th h d tt d hi
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interests under wraps until my Mother had spotted him
reading the latest issue of White Dwarf.
It turned out that James had no one to play against
since all his friends had acquired dominating girlfriends
who had forced them to discard their armies, lives,
freedom and personalities. (Such is life -Ed). Jamesbrought his space marine army round for a game and was
massacred. Even the Deathwing didnt break a sweat for
the first few games or take a casualty. Gradually he got
better, as did his army lists. Soon I had to discard the
Deathwing and began using a friends Tau army, which
challenged James further. At the same time I developed
my friends Tau army and persuaded him to buy more
fire warriors and drop some battlesuits in favour of morehammerheads with rail guns. Once again, James had to
develop his army and his tactics.
After a few games with the Tau I took the Deathwing
out again. The Dark Angels 1st Company had a rough
time of things and I realised that I had become far too
accustomed to playing with the Tau army. In fact, I
wanted my friends Tau army because the firepower itcould lay down was simply awesome. Too bad that Id
tailored it to my playing style and simply copying the
army would be silly.
I managed to get a part-time job as a waiter and
began raking in some very impressive tips. That was
when I had a random encounter online with the guy
who had bought my Necron force well over a year ago.
He remarked on how well he had done with it, but was
selling it because hed mercilessly butchered everyone
with it and was quitting the hobby -Perfect! I bought thearmy back and was over the moon to find it was exactly
how Id left it, including the green marble dice Id sold
with it. I now had my old army of arse-kickery back in
my possession.
I then spotted a Tau army just like my friends on Ebay
for 70 Buy It Now. So I bought it then, seeing as it was
so reasonable. I was then treading a rocky second handroad and acquired a Genestealer army on Bartertown for
60, a Chaos army on Ebay and began scratch building
an Ork Kult of Speed.
I had to look back at what tipped me over the edge from
being a quitter to being a lover of the hobby. It came down
to having converted my friends in to competitive players
with competitive armies. I wouldnt have purchased somany armies, had they not been so inexpensive online,
but then, I did have to trawl through pages of utter tosh
in order to find them. I was also very lucky to get the
Tau army for so little. It all comes down to being online
at the right time, in the right place.
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After my experience, I can summarise the factors
that make people in the hobby want to quit very simply.
Poverty leads to selling your armies in order to eat.
Too much to painting disheartens you into selling your
armies. A dominant girlfriend that you give in to leads to
you selling all of your armies, your friends and your soul.
Getting your arse kicked can inspire you to do betterif you have the finances, but if you dont it can lead
to quitting. However, competitive friends are the best
factor for embracing the hobby, whether they butcher
you or not.
Now that Im sitting on boxes of partially built
Ork buggies, a horde of Chaos marines, a swarm
of Genestealers and a cadre of Tau, all of which areunpainted, I should be planning to quit from having too
much to paint. The answer? -Put some of them out of
sight in the loft until later.
I played a game against James yesterday using the
Tau and to my horror, he blew me off the table. No more
Mr nice guy -Its time to break the out the Necrons for
some Destroyer filled cheesiness!-Adam Smith
F B Wi N T f cabinet The standard Ork trukk was half the width of
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Fer BoyzWiv No Teef
Have you ever had an army in mind that youvealways wanted to build, but havent because itseither far too expensive to buy, too time consuming to
paint, or simply far too silly to field in a battle?
Well, thats what I always thought whenever I dreamt
of my all-buggy Ork speed freak army. One weekend I
was idly building some sort of getaway vehicle for my
games of Necromunda when I realised just how Orky the
truck looked. Thats when a cartoon light bulb pinged
above my head. Following a simple template, I could
rapidly build the army from cardboard, plasticard and
assorted bits.
BIG G ERISBE T T E R
After standing my first creation beside a battle tank
I realised that it was far too big to be the
standard chassis for my Ork
vehicles to be based on. The
trukk was nearly the size of a
Leman Russ!
I paid a visit to my
local gaming store
and was able to measure
some of the Ork vehicles in their
cabinet. The standard Ork trukk was half the width of
my cardboard trukk. The obvious answer to my scale
issue was to halve the width of my vehicles. Fortunately,
such an impressively large wartrukk would make an ideal
transport for my Ork Warboss Kaptin Stompy. If only
I hadnt made the space on the roof, next to the gun
turret, too narrow for him to stand on
The experiments made while
building the first trukk
paved the way for the
design of the vehicles
to follow. Namely, these
were a sloped front with
low ground clearance shield,vision slits and square turrets, as
well as spiked plates around the
edges and square hub caps.
The vehicle hull template consists of six pieces. I
found it was best to stick the two side pieces on top of
the floor piece with PVA wood glue, then quickly stick
the rear piece across the back of the bottom and sidepieces with more PVA. The rear piece holds the sides in
place while they dry, as PVA doesnt grip like super glue
does. Its best to leave this to dry overnight before going
any further, although this doesnt mean you cant rush
things. I tried to carry on, but the structure will either
collapse or warp under pressure. Next up, glue the roof
on the top and trim back the overhang at the front didnt need The next stop? Ebay of course
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on the top and trim back the overhang at the front.
How far back is up to you. Finally, stick the front piece
over the slope. Leave to dry overnight again. Coat the
exposed cardboard edges PVA to seal up the gaps and
make the join look a little better. Its still going to look
pretty awful, but at least it will look less nasty. Glue on
the front shield that goes over the bottom of the slope,then put another layer of cardboard over the bottom of
the shield.
The turrets were made in a similar way, using six
identical squares of card for a blocky turret.