Warhammer 40,000

I wish that that aspect made it into Armada. All we really have is that he won't stop the instant death ray if there are allies in its area of effect.

Another : Shotguns are cool and it's a damn shame they're not more ubiquitous to 40k.

What we need is a suped up shotgun for everyone to want to use. I propose the name "bolt cannon" and "super bolt cannon" in case the Doom Marine references that will follow aren't clear enough.

Assault Marines might upgrade their pistol to that if they want something even killier at a shorter range, or replace their entire loadout with the super version for pure short range dakka. Tactical Marines might do the same thing for decrease:increase range:death ratio.

Melee oriented mobs of suicidally charging guardsman will take the bolt cannon for getting stuck in, swamping a fool with their bodies. Catachans can elect to wield a sawed-off version one handed. By tradition, enginseers attached to the Catachan companies are strapped down and forced to watch as they do it, as a form of initiation right. Sororitas in power armor load their supers up with inferno rounds, because of course they do.

Shot gun shot guns shot huns

"Bolt Cannon" is already taken, courtesy of big bore bolters used by the Mechanicus and some superheavies. Shotguns are already plenty ubiquitous, with regular use by Astartes, Guard veterans and grenadiers, and being the default weapon on board ships for naval marines and armed ratings. Also the basic emergency weapon for most vehicle crews, escape pods, and the like, alongside lascarbines. Mechanicus use advanced versions like flechette blasters, and the best 'real' shotguns are the primary weapon of all arbites and security forces. 40K is downright lousy with shotguns, you just don't see them much on the battlefield for rank and file because of the ammunition cost/weight and limited range.

Space Marine Scouts also have shotguns.

Covered that, though Astartes shotguns are about of a size with naval shotcannon, a heavy weapon. Deathwatch have probably the best all rounders, with some really impressive ammunition normally only available to Inquisitors.

Ooo, shotcannon, that's what Goa likes, yes.

Need more of that, put it into everyone's hands, shotgun good.

Well, that would be one way to swing the meta back towards melee: make sure nobody can fight at long range effectively.

Kind of screws the Tau with a rusty bayonet though, and I suspect the Imperial Guard would be no greater fans.

You would have liked Necromunda, where shotguns were one of the more popular weapons for gangers due to their low cost, versatility[note]due to the variety of different ammo available such as the basic solid shot, the area effect scatter shot, the more powerful manstopper rounds and the long ranged but unreliable bolt shot (basically bolter shells modified to be fired from a shotgun[/note] and the Knockback rule that combined very well with the catwalks and high drops of the setting to cause many a Railing Kill.

For today's 2nd Edition Thursday: Eldrad Ulthran.

The only Eldar special character from 2nd Edition who wasn't a Phoenix Lord, Eldrad used to cost 202 points without his wargear, was equipped with a Laspistol and wore Rune Amour (giving him a 4+ unmodifiable save on a D6. Eldrad's statline is quite interesting and is a good example of why psykers (especially special character psykers) tended to be more One-Man Army than Squishy Wizard: M4 WS6 BS6 S4 T6 W4 I5 A3 Ld10

Eldrad could take three wargear cards, one of which was always the Staff of Ulthamar for 18 points: This ancient force staff is carried by the chief of the Farseers of Ulthwé, and forms a hyperspatial link with the infinity circuit of that Craftworld. At the end of the psychic phase unused force cards[note]the things that powered psychic powers during 2nd Edition[/note] could be stored in the staff instead of discarded. There was no maximum number of force cards that could be stored in this way. Stored cards enhanced the wielder’s Strength and could be expended in future psychic phases by adding them back to the player’s hand. In hand-to-hand combat the staff mould be used as a weapon and increased the wielder’s Strength by his mastery level plus 1 for each card stored in the staff. Stored cards were not expended when used to enhance hand-to-hand combat. In combat against daemons the wielder wounded daemons automatically with no saving throw possible.

Stratergy: Eldrad could be the commander of an Eldar army and had a Strategy Rating of 4. In addition, if he was the army commander, Eldrad allowed the Eldar player to take an extra Strategy Card[note]representing random events and special tactics used during the game[/note] at the start of the game.

Eldrad was of course a level 4 psyker as well

edited 22nd Dec '16 12:12:15 AM by SebastianGray

I actually like that shotguns are reasonably rare. I mean, they're kinda cool I guess, but they're also not a very efficient battlefield weapon unless you're planning to do a lot of trench raiding or building clearing, and trench warfare kinda went out of style 38 millennia ago.

edited 22nd Dec '16 7:59:11 AM by math792d

The Imperium has entire regiments of Astra Militarum dedicated to trench and siege warfare.

More stuff about Fall of Cadia

• Yes, it's the Eye of Terror remake with Abaddon launching a second 13th Black Crusade through the Cadian Gate
• Story arc expected to continue through 2018
• New plastic characters we saw in prior leaks
  • Inqusitor Greyfax
  • Ad-Mech Magos Belisarius Cawl
  • Saint Celestine resculpt

edited 22nd Dec '16 9:26:48 AM by Deadbeatloser22

... Second 13th Black Crusade? Excuse me, but how does that even work? You can't have an "mth nth something"; that's not logical.

The previous one has rendered non-canon during 4th/5th Edition.

edited 22nd Dec '16 9:35:11 AM by SebastianGray

The 13th Black Crusade was the setting for the first Global Campaign GW ran, back in 2003.

Second 40K Global Campaign, the first was Ichar IV back in 2nd Edition and there was also a Warhammer Fantasy one before the 13th Black Crusade.

... What??? This is the first time I hear of this, and we're already in 7th/8th Edition! Heck, what you're saying contradicts what I found about Codex: Chaos Space Marines (6th Edition) mentioning said Black Crusade.

edited 22nd Dec '16 10:26:03 AM by MarqFJA

It is the details of what happened during the 13th that we are talking about, not that the 13th Crusade had begun. In the original 3rd Edition 13th Black Crusade, the Wulfen returned in the Cadian Gate not scattered around the galaxy as is happening in the current one, the Necrons joined the fight against the forces of Chaos, Eldrad Ulthran dies and much of his soul was consumed by a tainted Blackstone Fortress, the forces of Chaos destroyed a couple of planets in the Cadian system and began to overrun Cadia itself but the Imperium won the space war so much of Abaddon's forces were trapped planetside at the end of the campaign. About the only thing that I can think of that is still canon from the campaign is the excommunication of the Relictors

edited 22nd Dec '16 11:03:42 AM by SebastianGray

... The Wulfen? You mean those Space Wolves who fall under the Curse of the Wulfen, or something else?

The actual13th Great Company of the Great Crusade/Horus Heresy era Space Wolves.

... The 13th Great Company of the Space Wolves is not named "the Wulfen". They're alternately named "Wulfenkind" and "Wolf Brothers"; the Wulfen are simply the portion of them that fell to the Curse of the Wulfen that similarly afflicts the rest of the Legion/Chapter, only it seems to be more common among the 13th Great Company for some reason.

"for some reason"

Its because the Wulfen disorder protects the Space Wolves from the Warp's mutative effects iirc. Being in the Warp exacerbates the change, but otherwise, it keeps them from becoming corrupted by the Warp.

edited 22nd Dec '16 5:52:24 PM by BlackSunNocturne

Yeah Marq, Just like Storm of chaos in Fantasy, GW pull a retcon on the 13 Black crusade, they are now moving with that again but with some thing change here and there.

The Wulfenkin is a relatively recent addition to the 40K dictionary. As I was talking about the 3rd Edition fluff I was using the term most commonly used at the time (although I probably should have used 13th Great Company instead as their army also included things like 13th Great Company Long Fangs, Wolf Priests and Grey Slayers). Also the Wolf Brothers were the Second Founding Successors of the Space Wolves who were disbanded due to genetic issues.

In other news here is a Guardians of the Covenant Company Master that I painted recently that I thought I would share as he uses the old Black Templar Captain, which is going to be available as a Made to Order model this weekend, as a base.

Nice.

I'd thought about trying to spray-prime the pieces of my Ghost Ark and Scythe since we're having some warmer weather, but it's been coming a drizzly nasty rain all day and will probably be raining all weekend, so that's out.

Lucky you having warmer weather. It's been colder than than a wych's tit over here. Been too cold to even base-coat my models