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 Firebase Editorial
September 2006 ISSUE 01
www.warseer.com/firebasemag

“
We are here! FIREBASE
Here we are
Simian Staff Listing is here! You’ve waited long,
Head Monkey: Adam Smith you’ve waited hard and all Born to be kings

”
PR Monkey: Brandon Vallee
good things come to those We’re the princes of the universe!
Assistant Monkey: Ashley Curtis
Specialist Monkey: Simon Fisher that wait.
–Queen, Princes of the Universe
Design Monkey: Steve Gagné
Art Monkeys: Ben Biggs, Nicolas Giacondino, It’s been a long and
Donald Carr arduous road, filled with peril, pitfalls and gory paint schemes,
Writing Monkeys: Joel and Gerard Pitt (aka: but now a staggering 100 pages of hardcore hobby material is
The Brothers Pitt), Ross Allan, Alex Kallend,
Brandon Vallee, Tony Venezia, Adam Smith, in your possession; bursting with tactics, conversions, painting
Johan Hansson, Ashley Curtis, Saul Painter, Paul guides, battle reports and some of the great old games that
Cook, Simon Smith, Simon Fisher, Dustin Hrenyk,
Rob Holland, Don Hornby, Andy Maddison, Jon make you all misty eyed and nostalgic.
Wilson and Ben McLeod
Welcome citizen, to the first issue of FIREBASE magazine -
FIREBASE is published every three months in bringing you the best of Warhammer 40,000 every quarter, to
association with Warseer.com. All text and
layout remains the copyright of FIREBASE. give you the fix you’ve been craving.
FIREBASE is a fully independent publication
and its views are not the views of any company “But what makes this magazine so special” you may ask? Well,
mentioned herein. All characters and artwork
shown in this magazine remain the © and much like the inspiring Wargames Journal, FIREBASE is entirely
trademark of their respective owners. No part free to download and read on Adobe Acrobat as a PDF file.
of this magazine may be reproduced without
the express permission of the Editor or Deputy
Editor. FIREBASE can accept no responsibility As I sit writing this, issue #2 is well underway and it goes to
for inaccuracies or complaints arising from show what a monster of a magazine FIREBASE has become.
editorial or advertising within this magazine. All
letters and emails received will be considered
for publication, but we cannot always provide Until next time!
personal replies.

- Adam Smith
This fanzine is completely unofficial and in no
way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited.
FIREBASE magazine is a non-profit making
fanzine with the aim of promoting Games
Workshop games, products and hobby.All
adverts shown are free of charge and are
provided purely in the public’s interest.
 Contents
Firebase Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Stikkin’ Da Boot In! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Converting Your Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Through the Valley of the City of Death . . . . . . . 60

Eternal Dam-nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Slumming It. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Steel over Flesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 In space, Everyone can hear your WAAAAAGH! . 68

Gaming Etiquette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 The Dockyard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Tactica Kult of Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Five Admirals and a Hivefleet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Freakz and Firewarriors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Battle Over Medusa V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

I Quit! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Welcome To the Underhive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Fer Boyz Wiv No Teef . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Down With the Hood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

An Ork’s Tale Birth of a Warrior . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Run Him Outta Town! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Nicolas R. Giacondino illustrator

nicolas.giacondino@gmail.com

Gallery: http://photobucket.com/albums/d61/aerion_the_faithful/
http://n.r.g.epilogue.net

RustedEngine Comics
http://www.warseer.com/rusted_engine_studio
3
Converting Your Home floor to table wasn’t so simple.

I
t was many summers ago when I first assembled,
painted and took ‘Eddie’ the Chaos Dreadie to
battle. 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 –something
we could only dream of before. But the transition from
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 single
scratch 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 rocky
levels. Necromunda is my favourite game and there’s

Shot 1: The dining room table, chairs and Shot 2: Pull the table into the middle of the Shot 3: Get an old table cloth from the kitchen
cabinet: A place of tranquility and elegance. space, while pushing all the chairs up to the and the gaming boards from upstairs. I have a
Scratch the table and you die! available wall space, not preventing access to large cupboard in my room, while other people I
the kitchen door. know keep their boards in the attic.

4
 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 you’re 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, you’re ready to play.

5
Eternal Dam-nation the Romans, would want
to keep roads flat. It also
The illustrated guide by Joel and Gerard Pitt
added an extra level to the

W hat possesses a supposed sane human being to

build a board like this?
board and gave objectives.

FB: How did the ideas

for the other sections of
I don’t know, but I do know that building terrain and
the board come about?
gaming boards is one of the most rewarding aspects
I see we have some sort
of this hobby. You can have a golden demon standard
of underground cavern,
army, but without a beautiful battle field to fight over,
a powerplant, a SAM site
you will never get the full experience of small scale
and a bunker on top of
plastic warfare!

“
the dam.
FIREBASE: What sparked We spent almost an
Gerard: Well the underground cavern was
this insane project? hour in the DIY shop not going to be there, we had originally
Gerard: We decided the ash wastes arguing over which planned to have that area hollow only to
board was getting old and we needed
a new giant board! The dam idea came
pot of paint to get.
while watching a documentary (5 industrial wonders of
” 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
the world) on the construction of the Hoover dam and river during construction like the Hoover dam. The
decided it would make bunker on top was an idea from someone on WarSeer
an awesome board. and the power generators were to make it look more
like Hoover
FB:How did the
dam and
bridges come about?
the crashed
Gerard: We needed spaceship
better access across was to add
the valley and felt that cover and
the Imperium, like linked in with

6
 the missile turret (it
had been shot down)
the fuel towers were
for cover overlooking
the valley and bridge.
FIREBASE: Going back to
the 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.
J oel: 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
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.

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

7
FB: Where did you get dental plaster from?
Gerard: The dentist
FB: Really? You just strolled into your dentist
and said Hi...I’d 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 don’t 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.

8
FB: Thanks for taking the time for talking to us.
Gerard. One more thing – You fancy a game?

Gerard: Sure!

9
Steel over Flesh dam, each would be worth 500 victory points. As we were
playing outside, we knew the light would fade sooner or later,

I was as happy as a dog with two tails when I arrived

for my game on the fabled dam board. Now this is
what playing 40K is about! A fantastic looking army to
so the last turn of the game would be played using the Night
Fighting rules. It should be getting dark by then.

play against on some amazing terrain and I brought a H E C A N ’ T K I L L TH E M A L L !

pretty fine army of my own to do it with too.
Gerard: My tactics for this battle are fairly standard, I’m
The game was dictated by the board and our
going for the usual Tyranid idea of trying to get to the enemy
surroundings. None of this ‘rolling for mission’ and
before everything dies and then worry about capturing
objective counters malarkey! A victory points based
objectives. Simple!
game, with the objective to capture the bridges and the

1,500pts ‘Hive Fleet Pitt’ Army:

Hive Tyrant 20 Hormagaunts
with rending claws, scything talons and extended carapace
8 Hormagaunts
2 tyrant guard with toxin sacs and adrenal glands
Brood Lord 8 Spinegaunts
with extended carapace and toxin sacs
Biovore
8 genestealers retinue with bio acid spore mines
with scything talons and extended carapace
Carnifex
4 Tyranid Warriors with regenerate, toxin sacs, scything talons and a mace tale
with extended carapace, scything talons, rending claws, toxin
Carnifex
sacs and ‘leaping’. One warrior carries a barbed strangler.
with enhanced senses, scything talons and a venom cannon
4 Tyranid Warriors
with extended carapace, scything talons, rending claws, toxin
sacs and ‘leaping’. One warrior carries a Venom cannon.
Two warriors carry death spitters.

10
 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. I’ve given them all extended carapaces,
so they should survive.
H E R E TH E Y C OM 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 don’t believe in tailoring my army
selection to my opponent’s army and once I’m happy
with how my army works, I stick to it. It also saves me
writing out new army lists.
While I’d 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, I’m up
against the ‘Nids and they don’t have many guns.
1,500pts ‘Attack Force X51”
Army
Necron Lord “Lordi”
with 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
They’re fast, they’re fearless, they have lots of attacks
and I don’t have any high AP weapons to make big holes
in their monstrous creatures. However, I do have spades
of firepower! I’m going to get charged regardless of what
I do and it’s 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.
11
 enough to jump up onto the bridge at the last minute.
D E PL OY M E N T
They were also hidden from the majority of his Destroyers
TYRANID giving them much needed protection against the AP 4
gauss cannons.
Gerard: As with any
objective based game The shooting Tyranid Warriors were not needed for
deployment is crucial. I synapse as I already had the Hive Tyrant and leaping
had lots of gaunts and lots Tyranid Warriors so I placed them on the high ground on
to hide from, so placing my side of the valley near the Gaunts. That way if the
them was difficult. After leaping Tyranid Warriors died they could provide synapse
much deliberation I opted and it gives them a good field of fire.
to place them on the road
leading into the valley The Carnifexes were easier to place. One I put on the
and it would block them high ground sniping with his venom canon, the other I
off from the majority of placed in the valley floor, hoping to use the bridge struts
his force and give them as cover as it moved across the board.
easy access to his side of
The Biovore deployed high on my side of the valley
the valley. My plan was to intercept his Necron Warriors
ready to rain spores on the advancing Necrons and able
before he moved onto the bridge and charge them from
to cover the dam or bridge.
both the bridge and the valley floor. This would allow me
to pin them in combat while the Hive Tyrant made his Finally, my infiltrating Genestealers and Brood Lord
slow progress across the bridge. If they were all killed he deployed at the end of the dam, ready to sweep across
could capture the objective and stop any Necrons from his flank or capture the dam.
moving onto the bridge as well as kill some of them.
NECRON
The leaping Tyranid Warriors were more difficult to
Adam: Gerard had won the dice roll for choosing
place, with synapse in mind I decided to deploy them
table sides and grabbed the side with the most space to
in the valley floor behind the largest hill and covering
manoeuvre while I was somewhat restricted.
the main attack down the centre. They were sufficiently
close to the Gaunts to keep them inn synapse and close

12
 I set up my Necron gaunts and the Carnifex in the valley continued to lumber
Warriors around the centre on and the one on the hill prepared to fire with his venom
to protect the boundary of cannon. The Genestealers moved onto the bride and the
my little ‘island’ of hill with shooty Tyranid Warriors crawled down the slope weapons
the two bridges and dam training for targets.
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
As with most Tyranid armies my shooting phase was
TYRANIDS fairly quick and uninteresting with very few guns and
none with any degree of accuracy. My venom cannon hit
I got first turn and moved all my Gaunts directly forward
a Necron Warrior but failed to kill it and the Biovore was
toward the Necrons. My Tyranid Warriors also advanced
out of range. However I did role a 5 and 6 for all my fleet
behind the Gaunts, out of site of the Destroyers and
of claw moves which brightened up my day!
within synapse. The Hive Tyrant followed suit and along
with his Guard followed the Gaunts onto the bridge. My With nothing in combat range it was over to Adam…
45pt Spinegaunt shield blocked his fire from my enhanced

13
NECRONS and with some support from one of the Destroyer squads,
they were annihilated in a blaze of green light.
The Tyranids were close, far too close! Time to give
them a dose of green lasery death. 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 in
range to charge one of the Necron Warriors squads in
the centre next turn. I’m sure they’d be fine, but having
my firepower reduced could be a problem in slowing the
Tyranid advance.

TU R N 2
TYRANIDS
With the torture of the
Necron firepower over, I had
to re-group the remaining
Gaunts. His Destroyers had
The Destroyers moved on to the bridge on right flank,
killed 12 of the brood and
while the Necron Warriors on the dam moved back from
unless they reached his
the advancing Genestealers. The plan was to bunch the
Necron Warriors this turn
squad up, then move in for some rapid firing next turn.
they would never make it. With another lucky fleet of
I just hope I can kill enough of the Genestealers to hold
claw roll they charged the warriors on the slope.
up the Brood Lord until my Necron Lord can get there
and start cutting them down with his war scythe. My Genestealers continued to move across the dam
toward the Necron Warriors. If only they could ‘fleet of
The two Necron Warrior squads in the centre opened
claw’.
fire on the nearest squad of Hormagaunts on the bridge

14
 My shooting was a I expected 24 shots to do some damage, but was as
little more successful shocked as Gerard when he rolled 8 armour saves and
this turn. I managed to didn’t pass a single one! I then laughed maniacally, of
kill 2 Necron warriors course.
with the biovore and
The Genestealers where
venom cannon and then
wiped out, leaving the
proceeded to assault
Brood Lord sitting there
with the Hormagaunts.
by himself. He didn’t seem
After a disastrous round of combat, I failed to kill best pleased.
any Necrons and lost a Hormagaunt. With the Gaunts
Next turn, I expected the
in synapse range they stayed in combat till next turn
Brood Lord to shred the
when I hoped the Carnifex or Hive Tyrant would reach
warriors and win combat.
the combat.
I’d then spectacularly fail my leadership test (as I’m
NECRONS renown for doing) and the line would start to collapse. It
was a good thing that the Necron Lord was close by.
The Spinegaunts on the bridge were flayed down to their
last molecule by one of the Necron Warrior squads, while The Necron Warriors stuck in combat with the
the combined firepower of the Destroyers tore the combat Hormagaunts weren’t going anywhere, much to my
Carnifex apart in a salvo of intense fire power. I didn’t frustration. Fortunately, it looked as though nothing
want it to join the combat between the Necron Warriors else was going to join the combat next turn. My metallic
and Hormagaunts on minions were certain to prevail.
the slope.

On the dam itself, TU R N 3

the Necron Warriors
advanced towards TYRANIDS
the Genestealers and This was beginning to look glum, after failing all 8 4+
opened fire. saves my Genestealers on the bridge were completely

15
destroyed leaving only the Brood Lord (who was a bit dam he’d have to kill all of
pissed off) to charge the squad and with his Necron Lord them (not likely!).
moving in, things on the dam didn’t look hopeful.
My Gaunts made little
Things in the valley were going equally disastrous! progress on his side of the
My Carnifex had been ripped apart by his Destroyers valley, loosing 2 and killing
in one turn without even being able to regenerate and none but as they were still
my Gaunts had made no gains in the combat during in synapse they didn’t fall
the Necron turn. I also managed to knock down one back holding the Necron
Destroyer but the damn thing got back up using some Warriors in combat another turn while the unharmed
sort of advanced cheese-induced resurrection program! 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 casualties
across 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!

My Brood Lord charged into combat and killed 2 Necron All my Necron Warriors
Warriors with some lighting fast claw skills but the Necron moved into position to
Lord was still closing in fast and if he was to capture the target the Tyrant standing

16
triumphant on the central bridge, ready to give him a
TU R N 4
good dose of gauss flaying.
TYRANIDS
With a maniacal laugh,
I zoomed the Necron With the game now drawing to an end, it was vital that
Lord off the dam and my large creatures got into combat. Despite the Necron
across the gorge next Warriors pumping
to the Biovore, ready to everything they had
strike it down next turn. into my Hive Tyrant, he
Skimming never looked still stood and prepared
so cool! to charge the Necron
Warriors at the end
The Destroyers of the dam. With the
hovered where they Carnifex backing him
were. It’s not like they and both of them on full
needed to actually move wounds things looked
to splatter the variety hopeful.
of insectoid targets on
offer. Two of the squads The shooting phase wasn’t very successful, the
turned their guns on the only casualty being my Biovore. With the Necron Lord
Tyranid Warrior squad with the barbed strangler and well zooming in, the poor thing panicked and hilariously
and truly splattered them all. blew itself to pieces. (It fired at the lord and his bio acid
mine scattered onto himself). That’s just how scary the
The Necron Warriors rapid fired the Tyrant and his Necron Lord is!
Guards, backed up by fire from the third Destroyer
squad. They succeeded in Killing the two Tyrant Guards, In the assault phase I charged straight in with the Hive
but the Tyrant stood defiant right on the central bridge Tyrant and started slashing apart 3 Necron Warriors on
objective and ready to charge the Necron Warriors next the end of the bridge. Unfortunately, the bridge was too
turn –Not good! narrow to let the Carnifex into combat as well.

17
 Next, I charged the Destroyers with the surviving
Tyranid Warrior squad by ‘leaping’ up onto the second
bridge. They didn’t 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
wouldn’t be able to charge the nearest Destroyer squad,
but that’s what happens when you forget about ‘leaping’.
If only I hadn’t been so overconfident and had moved
the Destroyers back.
18
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. That’s 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 war
scythe!
TU R N 5
TYRANIDS
With my army diminished as usual and only my
monstrous creatures left on the board, there was very
little 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
 TU R N 6
TYRANIDS
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

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
wouldn’t be a scoring unit.
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 he’d 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.

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 always
charge 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.

19
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 wasn’t in
combat was aimed at the
Hive Tyrant and opened fire but amazingly, every single
shot ricocheted off the Hive Tyrant’s armour and after a
whole turn of firing he still stood with 2 wounds left to
claim the objective!
I didn’t charge him with the Necron Lord. It was just
too risky and I didn’t 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!
A F T E R G A M E THOUG H T S
CLOSE, BUT NO PIE
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 don’t work well together as the Gaunts get
too far forward and die before the Carnifexes can reach
combat. Equally my army doesn’t pack nearly enough fire
power! The solution? Three more Carnifex and another
Hive Tyrant, but that’s a project for the future!
TARGET PRIORITY
Adam: While the little gribblers aren’t going to hurt my
Necrons too badly, there’s 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 they’re
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 it’s all for nothing if you’re daft enough to let them
get charged and tied up in combat with Tyranid Warriors.
In future I’ll have to keep them moving. They don’t have
a firing range of 36 inches for nothing I guess.

20
Gaming Etiquette help you if you break one, especially if it’s converted. So,
all in all, best just to ask. That way, if it breaks, it’s less

O r how to more or less guarantee repeat gaming

with your opponent
of a big deal.

Well, Hello there dear chap. Welcome to Mad Doc R U L E N U M B E R TWO .

Grotsnik’s School for Gaming Etiquette. Oh come now,
When you’ve arranged your game, either in advance,
there’s really no need to look so alarmed. We’re here
or on the spot, what’s the most important thing to have
just to run you through a few basic dos and don’ts of
with you, apart from your models? Dice? No, not really,
Gaming. It’s really pretty simple you know. Here, I’ve
though it can be polite

“
broken it down into several easy steps. So easy even a
to bring your own. No? You too must have
12 year old newbie could manage it, what!
Give up? The rules! Not met an opponent who
Look, I can see your still looking rather perplexed old just your own copy of
conveniently doesn’t
bean, so I’ll start you off with a few easy ones, before your chosen game, but
we move on to the more in depth forms of etiquette. also all the rules for your have the rules for his
chosen force, whether Super Unit O’Hacky
Are you ready? Then I’ll begin. in Codex, White Dwarf
Death that just smashed
or even download. This

RU L E NU M B E R O N E .
Your opponents’ models are just that. Your opponents’.
easy provision means
any in game confusions
your entire army

can be cleared up with a minimum of fuss, and certainly

When playing against another spunky young chap, do
ask 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 he’s ever done. Besides, asking doesn’t 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
”
no bad blood. Surely, dear boy, you too must have met
an opponent who conveniently doesn’t have the rules for
his Super Unit O’Hacky Death that just smashed your
entire army! Tiny provision, big kudos!

22
 firing lines set up. All my opponent had to do was blunder
R U L E N U M B E R TH R E E .
into it, and his arse (well, hers) was mine. And then Toad-
Respect your opponent. If you’re playing a game, see Boy shows up, and blabs about my devilishly cunning
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
plan, and costs me the
game. Now, had my
opponent spotted the
“ And then Toad-Boy
shows up, and blabs

opponent to re-roll dice ‘because you didn’t see him role trap for herself, fairly about my devilishly
it’. Or, to be blunt, don’t be an arse. The games are do’s, she beats me fair cunning plan, and
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
and square. But to have
some (expletive deleted)
point it out is just unfair.
costs me the game.
”
Ladders. Or sitting in a darkened room on your own and I was playing Monica, NOT you! So, keep opinions, hands,
allowing humanity to continue without you. comments and help to yourself basically. Not a tall order,
but one several people miss!

R U L E N U M B E R F OU R . So, there we have it. The Four basic rules to the

mysterious and ancient etiquette of gaming. Although
If you are a spectator in a game, as I know many I have used the find products of Games Workshop in
of our community will be at one time or another, for my examples, these guidelines apply to any and all war
the love of God please remember that’s all you are. You games. And I can guarantee that if you follow them,
are neither player’s special coach. Nor are you there to at least in spirit if not to the letter, you will get return
provide commentary. Nothing ruins a good solid game match ups with opponents time and time again!
than outside interference from some git-faced know-it-
all who insists on aiding and abetting either side. Surely, - Ross Allan
if you’re about to fall into a cunningly laid trap, you’ll
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

23
Tactica Kult of Speed the units available with some scrutiny.

T here are many different ways to approach most

armies in the game, and the Kult of Speed is
no different; the only constants are that, whichever
H E A D QUA RT E R S
You must take one Warboss or one Big Mek. The question
direction you take the army, you’re going to be both is what role you want your HQ to have in the game.
mobile, and fragile.
BIKER WARBOSS
G E T T I NG S T UC K I N A Warboss is ok as
HQs go, but he’s no
If you’re going with an assault force, the bulk of your Daemon Prince. He’s
force should be massed up of boyz in trukks, on bikes, or going to have trouble
with rokkits strapped to their backs. Unfortunately, each against tooled-up
of these have their drawbacks. The Kult list does offer HQs from a number
some nice options in terms of shootiness. Mobile zzap of other armies.
guns and tankbusta units can put the hurt on enemy The Kult however
armour, while looted ordnance vehicles, and a multitude have an ace up
of ways to field big shootas and rokkits (often twin- their sleeve; a bike
linked) provide some decent firepower. With the move & for your Warboss.
shoot capabilities of the Kult, you can generally play the The bike gives your
range game to your advantage, closing just enough to boss an extra +1
get your shots in range, while limiting how many of their toughness that allows him to stand up to other assault
weapons are, but there are drawbacks here. Reducing HQs, and, also allows him to charge, alone, into mobs of
the number of assault units allows you to utilize terrain just about anything without powerfist backup. Your boss
more effectively to hide the loaded trukks, while offering should be flanked by a couple of buggies as he turbo-
shooty targets that the opponent cannot just ignore, boosts up the field. As an independent character, that
which effectively diverts fire away from the trukks of means your opponent cannot target him until the buggies
boyz. This hybrid element, if done right, can trap your are destroyed, and if you pick your location correctly,
opponent. With these basic ideas in mind, let’s examine

24
this is rarely a problem. Give the boss a powerklaw, BIG MEK
a choppa, ‘eavy armour, a cybork body, and a bionic
The other approach to an HQ is to go cheap with a
bonce. He weighs in at about 160 points, but can make
Big Mek. A Big Mek with big horns and a burna can add
it back easily enough. This also ensures that he has a
some decent hitting power and morale to an assault unit.
3+ invulnerable save on that all-important turn before
If you have any expensive vehicles that need protecting/
you can charge, just in case someone charges him. The
repairing, a Big Mek can take some helpers and tools, and
bike also means that he can roll from one assault to the
hang back to protect them. If the vehicle he’s protecting
next without needing to get back in a trukk and then
has decent armour itself, then a kustom force field can
get back out again. The power klaw also makes him a
aid its longevity, but avoid that if you’re trying to protect
serious threat to any vehicle on the board. Six strength
any AV10 or open-topped vehicles.
10 attacks is nothing to laugh at, and with that many
attacks, he had a good chance of pulling skimmers out HQ’S TO AVOID:
of the sky. T5 means that you can choose to use your
The Warboss in a trukk (with or without retinue) is
power klaw against most Marine and Chaos HQs without
largely a waste of points. You are paying nearly as much
being too concerned over dying. There are few characters
for the trukk as you are for the bike, without all the
that can inflict 3 wounds against T5 in a turn, and with 5
other advantages. Secondly, while the boss may be an
(6 on the charge) S10 attacks in return. There are very
independent character, his trukk isn’t. A Nob retinue can
few that will get a second turn of swinging at you.
be fluffy, but it’s ridiculously hard for a unit of Nobs to
The things you need to watch out for are models with justify their worth on the battlefield, especially when
high strength attacks that ignore armour (like powerfists, they’re probably going to spend a turn entangled in the
or nemesis force weapons), and librarians, who can wreckage of their dead transport. Same cost problems
instant kill you with their force weapons. Finally, don’t apply to Biker Nobs.
forget that having a bike makes the Boss Fearless. It’s
not likely to come up often, but it’s good to have. He’s
TH E B OY Z
also a Skilled Rider, so feel free to charge right through
terrain. Plenty of opponents won’t see that coming. 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

25
adds to the havoc you’ll 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 they’re going to
be dead before they do anything useful. Buying them
a burna and a Nob with a powerklaw and choppa gives
some all-round utility. Bosspoles are a complete waste
of points whilst Iron Gobs can be good if you have the
26
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 don’t
want to mess with, as they’ll kill a lot of your boyz before
you even get to swing. Don’t forget the Power of the
Waaagh! It’s a big reason you should take full-strength
mobs of trukkers, as you have a 92% chance of passing
the test with a full complement of boyz. You’re almost
certainly going to get the charge because you can hide
in the trukk until you’re ready to hop out.
BURNA BOYZ
You’re 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, that’s 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.
WARBIKES
Bikers are tricky to use. With a total effective firing
range of 30” and a lot of dakka, they’re a scary unit to
face, but they’re also very expensive. Always buy a Nob
with power klaw and choppa to go with them. If you
get tied up in combat, he’s going to be responsible for
dealing most of the damage. Two attacks per round at
Strength 3 just aren’t 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. It’s 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 unit’s effectiveness. Don’t forget these guys are
fearless, and that’s both good and bad.
BUGGIES
Buggies are great. They’re fast, cheap, and disposable
(just like my last girlfriend -Ed). You can afford to use
them to screen your Warboss’s 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 unit’s fire (maybe
27
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 they’re 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 doom”
runs a skorcha and Spikes & Blades. It works wonders
against any sort of assault-heavy army. If you’re 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 chuckers
on 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 doesn’t do nearly enough to bother most opponents.
Contrast that with the other two and big shoota buggies
just aren’t as cool as the other two. Against hordes,
skorchas rule. Against vehicles or marines, rokkits are
28
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 doesn’t justify itself on vehicles this cheap. You’re
better off buying another buggy than you are spending
points 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 doesn’t hurt.
ELITES
‘A RD BOYZ
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. That’s 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, you’re spending about
135 points for an expected five S5 hits/turn. If you want
to lay down the S5 fire, it’s 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. It’s more points, but the battlewagon provides
some longevity for the unit too. If you expect to face
a lot of tanks, ‘ard boyz can field as many rokkits as
F A S T A T TAC K
tankbustas.
This is kind of redundant in the Kult of Speed as the
SKARBOYZ whole army is one big fast attack choice, but you get
While they have the same weapon upgrade potential some choices that the footsloggers don’t.
as ‘ard boyz, these are recommended as an assault unit,
not a shooty unit. The lack of armour means that they FIGHTA-BOMBA R AID
suffer more when their ride is destroyed, so sitting back The more points the
and shooting from inside a trukk is inviting problems game, the more useful this
- not to mention, not taking advantage of their higher is. The breaking point is
strength. As an assault mob, go for 3 burnas and a Nob about 1500 points. Below
with a powerklaw/slugga combo. There’s not much that that, don’t take it. As your
can survive a charge from these guys. If ten isn’t enough, units are all required to
stick them in a battlewagon and take a whole mob of 20. start mounted up, you’re
This is your only opportunity to take a large mob of boyz largely protected from
in a Kult of Speed army. misfires, you risk having
some vehicles start the
STORMBOYZ game stunned. The at risk units are bikers and stormboyz,
These guys are the slowest boyz in the force, unable to who are likely to take significant casualties if they get
make a 24” move. Knowing that, use them as a second hit, so if you’re running a list that’s heavy in either of
wave, allowing them to advance behind terrain, or those choices, there is more risk to yourself from an
wrecks, and reinforce the initial charge. Use small units over-eager strafing run.
of them, because they cannot regroup, and one failed
morale test loses you a whole mob. Don’t use them like DETHKOPTAS
shock troops, and they’ll do some good. Here we have more cheap scoring units. Never take
more than one in a squadron. They’re 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

29
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 they’re 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 don’t 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.
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. It’s 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.

H E AV Y S U PP ORT
Technically, there are three choices here, but really,
there’s a lot more, as each looted vehicle fills a potentially
different role.

BATTLEWAGON
Battlewagons 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.

30
 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 won’t be firing at all until
you get the boyz into combat.

GUN TRUKKS
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 you’ll have a dedicated tankhunting
unit. These are some of the most effective anti-vehicle
enemy that sitting back and shooting at you might not be
weapons in the entire game. Kannons and lobbas in gun
the best idea. The Demolisher is like the standard Russ,
trukks are not viewed as very effective weapons overall.
but without the range, so you lose out on the sitting-
As with all vehicles, fill out your force slots before you
back-and-shooting aspect. If you’re not running a lot of
consider making squadrons of them.
choppa-armed boyz (for whatever reason), it’s your best
LOOTED VEHICLES hope against terminators. The basilisk is a good tank,
but not a great tank. It doesn’t really fit thematically in
There are only three looted vehicles worth including
a Kult of Speed army. It isn’t strong enough to withstand
in a Kult of Speed army. These are the Leman Russ,
the drawing fire role, like the Leman Russ is, so the
Demolisher and Basilisk. The marine tanks tend to rely
best place for it is hidden behind terrain. On secondary
too much on ballistic skill, which orks don’t have, and
weaponry Aavoid lascannon in the hull, as you’re unlikely
the other guard tanks do not fill any specific role any
to hit with it. A heavy bolter (and sponsons) can provide
better than one of the tanks above. The Leman Russ has
some firepower in the case that the main weapon gets
good armour, and a big gun, with lots of range. What
destroyed.
else is there for an ork to want? It serves two purposes,
to draw fire away from your boyz, and to persuade the

31

P L AY I NG K U LT - OF -S PE E D IN 4 T H E DI T ION :
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 from
a distance. If you can whittle away one or two models
a turn, without your opponent hitting you back, there’s
no real reason to risk your ultra-fragile trukks to go for
more. Let them try to adjust to what you’re already
doing. Use your mobility. You should be dominant in
the movement phase. Don’t 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 opponent’s tank
and they now have a threat that they cannot ignore.
32
Use terrain to your advantage. Move a trukk full of boyz
behind a forest, and you create a 20 inch zone where
your opponent can’t 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 don’t need to claim it until
your last move. Be aware of what can beat your boyz
in assault and avoid them. Daemonettes, Genestealers,
Bloodletters and Daemon princes all probably have your
number.
Unlike a footslogger, you don’t 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 to
take 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
Battle Report Freakz and Firewarriors
M I S S ION -
Hostage situation (from the original Tau Codex)
O V E RV I E 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 fail
their mission…
G U I DE L I N E S :
• Speed Freakz get first turn and come in via
reserves and a arrive on a random table edge
• Tau deep strike their whole entire
army 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
P R E - G A M E THOUG H T S :
BRANDON (SPEED FREAKS)
I have never played the hostage situation mission
in the original codex. It also doesn’t 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 didn’t take any burnas or power klaws
because I forgot to bring them up for this game -Mishaps
happen, even when doing battle reports for FIREBASE. I
don’t 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!
33
TONY (TAU)
I’ve never actually had the pleasure of facing off
against Orks before, but I know 2000 points can buy a
lot of green skins. Since I was going to be facing Speed
Freaks, I expected a lot of vehicles, too. I decided to
run the 2000 point list I ran in a tournament the month
before, except I’d use a team of 2 Sniper Drone squads
instead of Broadsides, since I didn’t expect to see too
many heavily armoured vehicles.
I was hoping for a nice Recon or table-quarters mission,
where I could sit back like a chump and pick away at his
Orks, then move in near the end of the game to secure
objectives. We decided on the Hostage Situation mission
instead, which looked like a very interesting scenario,
although it threw a wrench in my usual “shoot from really
far away” strategy. Right away it presented problems
– Scouts always start on the table, but the mission
requirements say “The entire army arrives by Deep
Strike first turn”. So, we’ve got two “always” clauses,
which do we use? I ended up keeping my Pathfinders in
reserves as well, just for consistency, but it could have
gone either way.
I was going to have to Deep Strike
everything very carefully, hit hard, hit
fast, and hope to survive…
34
TU R N 1
SPEED FREAKZ
Because of the mission’s special
rules, I received first turn, which
in my opinion probably isn’t the
best thing to have when you know
a whole Tau army is going to be
deep striking on you. So I rolled for
my reserves and I managed to get
a large portion of my army on the
table. I managed to get 2 squads of
‘Ard boyz, 2 squads of Truck Boyz,
a looted basilisk, a looted rhino, a
squad of outriders, and a squad of
buggies. Since there really isn’t much in the way of cover
to hide behind, I took whatever rock to sit behind so I
wouldn’t become target practice for the whole Tau army.
My two truck boyz squads zoomed there full 24 inches
straight towards the objective, followed by the rhino. The
other units of my army took flanking positions and were
spread out, so they wouldn’t be assured death when the
Tau do arrive. The ‘Ard Boyz where
on the left, while the buggies and
outriders where on the right side of
the table. The basilisk took cover
behind a large rock in an attempt
to use its indirect fire capability
against all of those My Ionhead, Pathfinders,
perfectly bunched Piranha, Devilfish, and Fire
up Tau squads, when Warriors deployed on the right-
they deep strike. hand side of the board to deal
Now, all I can hope with the trucks. The Railhead,
is prey that the dice Crisis Suits, and Sniper Teams
gods are against my deploy on the left half of the
Tau opponent and board, near the edge. I almost
everything on the lost my Sniper Team to the edge again.
table doesn’t wind up dead when they arrive.
On the right-hand
TAU flank, lots of action
was happening. The
After seeing how much Brandon already had on the
Ionhead blew up
table, I was getting very nervous, because I knew he had
one of the trucks
even more back in reserves. To top this all off, I basically
on Brandon’s edge,
got to deep strike everything and then watch Brandon
and killed an ‘ard
respond to that again. I don’t mind the occasional deep-
boy in the process.
striking Crisis Suit, but this was pushing it.
The Fire Warriors’
I nominated a point about 10 inches up from the board Devilfish missed the
edge for my Stealth Team, hoping to keep them alive other truck, but its
for a turn so they could respond to whatever Brandon former passengers turned
did. I gave a heavy sigh as I rolled an 11 with the out to be better shots,
scatter die pointing right blowing up the truck.
back at me - my Ballistic The Pathfinders’ Devilfish
Skill 4 Stealth Team just took out the truck near
teleported right off the the objective, but with
table edge. no extra casualties. The
Pathfinders themselves

35
 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 entire
Outrider unit in a turn, which
was nice, since the two Monat
Crisis Suits missed ALL targets.
TU R N 2
SPEED FREAKZ
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 buggies
and 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 wasn’t
much I can do,
but at least they
would be getting
a 4+ cover save
against further
shooting. The
other truck boyz

36
 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, let’s say they wouldn’t 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 else
managed to miss or fail to do
damage. Well, Orks aren’t sharp
shooters, so I can’t 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 couldn’t 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 intercept
the 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 it’s only my second
turn. Tau really don’t 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.
37
 The Fire Warriors on the left immobilized one buggy, Both units
and killed another. These guys meant business! The came in, perfect!
Railhead kept moving to shake enemy fire, and took I deployed my
shots at the remaining Trukk Boys as well. It missed with Warboss with
the railgun again, but managed to take out one more retinue behind a
Ork with the smart missile system. nice rock, so he
could lead the
The two Monat Crisis Suits hit once out of seven counter attack
rolls, and splattered one Ork behind the objective with on the objective,
a missile pod. Both Devilfish chewed up whatever Orks should the Tau
they could find, since their passengers were long since take it from me.
departed. The Sniper Team on the left flank took shots The last truck boy squad surged towards the objective in
at whatever buggies and bikes it could see, taking a an attempt to make sure it stays in control of the orks.
few out. The remaining fire warriors that were stuck in I figure it is best to concentrate taking to objective over
combat were finally finished off during my turn. It wasn’t killing tau, so I began to move the majority of my army
looking good! 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
TU R N 3
warrior squad in an attempt to finish them of either
SPEED FREAKZ by shooting or assault, and I also moved my buggies
to support them
Wow, now I took a beating… Those tanks and the
and hopefully the
command squad are tearing my infantry apart, which
will provide some
isn’t good. Having the sniper team in the far off side of
extra causalities
the table, and having the ability to modify cover saves,
to finish off the
now they need to be taken cared of! Having lost lots of
squad. I moved the
the Boyz that turn, I really need my last two reserves
truck boyz squad
rolls need to come in; hopefully they will be able to turn
which finished off
the game in my favor.
the remaining fire

38
warriors during Tony’s assault phase in an attempt to get they took out a buggy in
into combat with his pathfinder squad. I moved another the last shooting phase.
truck boyz squad in an attempt to get into combat with Talk about revenge! The
his command squad. I also moved one of the Truck boyz one truck boyz squad I was
squad off the objective to intercept two crisis suits which going to use to charge the
were attempting to seize it from me. command squad was out
of range, by half and inch
The shooting phase started of with another salvo from –Ugh! They would surely
the basilisk, this time at the sniper team. I figured it become target practice
would be better to shoot at them over the command next turn. However, I wiped out the two gun drones, the
squad, since the remaining fire warriors, and the pathfinders, and used
command squad was my massacre roll to move closer towards the objective.
no longer bunched Despite taking massive causalities and another Tau
up, but the sniper shooting phase on the way, I have completely contested
team was! Of course the objective with the majority of my army. I may still be
the shot scatters, able to win this one.
but I managed to
take down two of the TAU
sniper drones. The
Infantry? What infantry? I’m down to elite units and
outriders managed to
vehicles by this point. We’re both chewing up each
kill another few fire
other’s units, and this is going to come down to a bloody
warriors while the buggies completely missed them. The
finish. I moved all vehicles to the right side, to focus on
rest of my shooting was pointless, since it didn’t manage
the Orks coming
to do a single thing, everything missed... Oh well.
in. The Ionhead
As far as the assault phase is concerned, I charged the moved forward
outriders into combat against the fire warriors, charged and demolished
the pathfinders, and charged the ‘Ard boyz into the the Basilisk in
remaining gun drones for the blown up piranha, since a swath of ion
energy.

39
 The Firestorm monat suit after one good shooting phase. I moved the buggies, the
blew up a truck on the left flank warboss with retinue, the remaining ‘Ard boyz squad,
and killed three truck boys in and the looted rhino towards the objective. I officially
the process. The other Monat had absolutely nothing in range to kill his tanks and my
took out three more with it’s turn consisted of getting to the objective with my whole
Airbursting Fragmentation army. Since all of his infantry, with the exception of the
Projector – what a fun toy command squad and the far off sniper team were non
versus the Orks! existent, my shooting did absolutely nothing. The truck
boyz squad that was still in combat with the crisis suit
The Railhead, Devilfish and HQ unit poured their fire managed to finish off the remaining independent crisis
into one of the largest remaining mobs in the middle suit and consolidated into the other one, being well below
of the table, and killed 8 Orks in the process. For good half strength, it took some
measure, the HQ unit then charged into the Orks, netting good rolling for that to
a whole two kills in the process. With my Sniper Team happen! But, alas, my turn
pinned, that about wraps pretty much accomplished
up the turn! nothing except moving
units towards the objective.
Let’s hope I can live to see
TU R N 4
another turn.
SPEED FREAKZ
TAU
I was expecting that to
By this point, I’m praying the game doesn’t go into
happen and boy did that
overtime. Both sides have taken a beating, and there’s
one hurt. Well the good
not much left for me to shoot with.
news is I still had a couple of squads on or near the
objective, since we would start rolling to see if the game The Snipers on the left killed three bikes, which is always
went on in longer, so it is imperative that I controlled good in my book. The Railhead finally hits with it’s main
the objective, especially since Tau has the advantage of weapon, and kills five ‘Ard boyz with a submunition shot.
going second and being able to seize the game from me That wasn’t too hard, now was it? The Ionhead adds to

40
the destruction by killing the when I lost the basilisk, I could no longer aim at
remaining buggies. mike’s head -Yes, I had the range.

The HQ team moved forward It was a close hard fought game, and now it is
to kill four more truck boyz in time for a rematch, now only instead of playing
a massive storm of plasma Speed Freakz, I am going to use my White Scars!
and missile fire, and then
moved onto the objective to TONY ’S TAKE
contest it. Ouch, ouch, ouch. I should have been more
aggressive with the Stealth Team, Brandon was
right. Essentially starting off the game with a 250
V IC TORY G OE S TO ?
point deficit was a pretty big morale hit.

BRANDON’S TAKE Part of me thinks I should have teleported everything

The Game ended after the 4th turn and ended up being as close to my edge as possible, and then start shooting
a draw due to Tony’s last minute move of his crisis team anything that got close to my Fire Warriors. On the
in the assault phase. Since we both held the objective, other hand, part of me thinks I should have been MORE
we decided to see who one victory points wise, and that aggressive, and consolidated everything in one pocket,
was also a tie, but Tony held the upper hand of having instead of dividing up into two flanks.
70 more points then I left on the table, but it wasn’t
I hate hand-to-hand! The Speed Freaks just do it so
enough to declare a winner. After the game, we figured
well, and so quickly, it was quite a surprise. For never
that should it have gone on longer, Tony eventually
having played Orks before, Brandon did a bang-up job.
would have won, because I could not have taken out his
I could have used some Kroot, as the monat suits were
two hammerheads (his command squad probably would
just so-so and I sure would have liked to hit with the
have been wiped out by the Warboss with his nobs and
railgun more than once in the game, but hey, that’s how
the other remaining boyz). I am really disappointed with
the dice roll.
my armour plates, I didn’t save a single truck with them,
they were a complete waste of points. Hopefully next -Brandon Vallee and Tony Venezia
time I can save at least one truck… My only regret is

41
I Quit! Yes, my army did look pretty

W
and it got a lot of attention for
hether it’s the cost of buying a new army, the its uniqueness, but when it
effort of building and painting another army, came to playing and winning,
or the fact that you’re getting your arse kicked on a it didn’t. It got its pretty arse
regular basis; lots of people throw their arms in the air spanked and once I began
and declare to the world: “That’s it. I quit the hobby!” attending Central London
Wargames Club in Euston, I was
And they do, well, some of them. The majority pick up against more competitive
up their paintbrush, play a game or two and suddenly players than my friends back
they’re back in the hobby and happy being there. In home. These guys know what
all honesty, I have lost count of the number of times they’re doing and boy did my
I have said I was quitting and never buying another army suffer.
miniature ever again. In fact, it got to the point where
Yet another disheartened gamer
my friends would expect me to announce this and laugh After a few months of off to Ebay
at the regular hilarity of it all. Now they just ask me if regularly attending and being
I’m quitting soon and smirk. slaughtered, I decided it was time for a new army. A
strong and competitive army that could stand up for
Often selling everything I owned would follow my itself and kick back. It had to be strong and tactically
announcement. All but that one precious army of course, flexible, but not a tripped-out one-trick pony.
which I’d lovingly crafted. It was always the pretty army
I kept. The one with the best paint scheme and the most After much deliberation, I chose the Necrons because
character: That was the Dark Angels Deathwing army. they’re durable, forgiving and they can take a lot of
mobile firepower. Fun had gone out of the window. This
Boldly I declared I would play with that one army time I was out to win, but this didn’t mean I’d spray the
forever more and that it didn’t matter if I was blown off army silver and just play. I came up with a good colour
the table on the first turn, hell no! My army looked good scheme, which would have taken much longer to paint
and had a great theme -that’s enough for me. had I not had help from a friend who painted the base
colour.
But then, it wasn’t.

42
 I played a few games with the Necrons at the club and heads as they had done for the past five years of quitting
they did pretty well. They weren’t as forgiving as I’d first attempts.
thought after I’d put my lord a little too far forward, “Eat
A little money started coming in and I began to expand
railgun!” Yup, he was dead and didn’t get back up. The
my Deathwing army. After all, I did say no ‘new’ armies.
army was forgiving, but not invincible, or so I thought.
My friends all groaned when I told them.
My friends back home started playing again. This
The ‘vision’ was a mighty 5,000pts of Dark Angels 1st
time I took the Necrons and that was where the fun
Company with an abundance of terminators and land
really began to wane, although not at first. First came
raiders, including my own land raider variants with plasma
psychotic laughter as the Necrons swept all before them.
cannons. However, after a few months of assembling and
Nothing could stand up to them. It was only in a four-
painting land raiders and dreadnoughts I really couldn’t
way Carnage game that they were challenged and that
be bothered to paint more terminators or the four
was because the other three armies ganged up on them.

“
extra land raiders that I’d
Even then, they decimated most of the forces on the Inspired by poverty,
bought on the spur of the
table. After a few games of maniacal butchery -Ok, after
moment. Off to Ebay they I once again declared
a lot of games of maniacal butchery- the novelty wore
went and some of them in an end to buying new
off and I planned to return to Central London Wargames
exchange for surprisingly
Club for some stronger competition. armies. My friends
large amounts of cash. I
The company I worked for went down the drain and was lucky enough to make laughed and shook their
unemployment followed. This meant fewer trips to Central all my money back. That’s heads as they had done
London Wargames Club and eventually I was looking for what you get for haggling
for the past five years of
ways to make quick cash. In a very rash move, I sold for a bulk discount with an
the Necron army for a huge sum of money. “It’s 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
independent retailer in the
first place.
quitting attempts
”
Then I began to get back in to the hobby in a way I had
journalism started.
never thought of before. My folks had been on holiday
Inspired by poverty, I once again declared an end to skiing with some friends and their son had brought along
buying new armies. My friends laughed and shook their James, a closet wargamer who had kept his obscene

43
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). James
brought his space marine army round for a game and was
massacred. Even the Deathwing didn’t 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 friend’s Tau army, which
challenged James further. At the same time I developed
my friend’s Tau army and persuaded him to buy more
fire warriors and drop some battlesuits in favour of more
hammerheads 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 friend’s Tau army because the firepower it
could lay down was simply awesome. Too bad that I’d
tailored it to my playing style and simply copying the
army would be silly.
44
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 he’d mercilessly butchered everyone
with it and was quitting the hobby -Perfect! I bought the
army back and was over the moon to find it was exactly
how I’d left it, including the green marble dice I’d 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 friend’s 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 hand
road 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 wouldn’t have purchased so
many 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.
 �����������
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 better
if you have the finances, but if you don’t it can lead �������������������������������������������
to quitting. However, competitive friends are the best
factor for embracing the hobby, whether they butcher
you or not.

Now that I’m 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 are
unpainted, 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 -It’s time to break the out the Necrons for
some Destroyer filled cheesiness!
-Adam Smith

��������������������������������
��������������������������������

���������������������������������
������������������������������������
�����������������������������������
Fer Boyz Wiv No Teef cabinet. The standard Ork trukk was half the width of
my cardboard trukk. The obvious answer to my scale

H ave you ever had an army in mind that you’ve

always wanted to build, but haven’t because it’s
either far too expensive to buy, too time consuming to
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
paint, or simply far too silly to field in a battle? I hadn’t made the space on the roof, next to the gun
turret, too narrow for him to stand on…
Well, that’s what I always thought whenever I dreamt
of my all-buggy Ork speed freak army. One weekend I The experiments made while
was idly building some sort of getaway vehicle for my building the first trukk
games of Necromunda when I realised just how Orky the paved the way for the
truck looked. That’s when a cartoon light bulb ‘pinged’ design of the vehicles
above my head. Following a simple template, I could to follow. Namely, these
rapidly build the army from cardboard, plasticard and were a sloped front with
assorted bits. low ground clearance shield,
vision slits and square turrets, as
well as spiked plates around the
B IG G E R IS BETTER edges and square hub caps.

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
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 side
pieces with more PVA. The rear piece holds the sides in
place while they dry, as PVA doesn’t grip like super glue
does. It’s best to leave this to dry overnight before going
any further, although this doesn’t mean you can’t rush
things. I tried to carry on, but the structure will either
collapse or warp under pressure. Next up, glue the roof

46
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. It’s 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. Once finished
the turret was stuck roughly centrally on the roof. There
you are; you have the basic shape of your Ork vehicle.
TH E W H E E L S ON T H E BUS
Then disaster struck. I’d used Lego wheels
for my first trukk and the big box if Lego
I’d had as a kid was at least ten years old.
After rummaging through a mountain of
Pirates, M-Tron and Medieval stuff,
I only had enough wheels for
one more truck. The Lego
website sold the kind of
wheels are was after, but
not in sufficient quantity
and in a pack of assorted
other components that I
didn’t need. The next stop? -Ebay of course.
I don’t know why or how they do it, but there are a
number of people who sell particular types of Lego wheels
in large batches on Ebay. Best of all, the bags of wheels
are far cheaper than buying them directly from Lego. I
purchased two bags of 16 small tractor wheels and 2 bags of
4 large tractor wheels. Luckily, Lego have hardly changed
their wheels over the years.
C OV E R I NG A M U LT I T U DE OF SINS
So now I had some vehicles made from cardboard, but
they need to be made to look detailed. This is where the
thick plasticard comes in.
You need to cut out a variety of squares to armour
plate up the surface of the vehicle and give it some
texture. Stick these on with a bit of PVA, then cut out
some really tiny squares and glue these on
in the corners as rivets. Cover the whole
vehicle and it’ll be looking a lot better.
I also put a rim of triangles
around the edges of the vehicles
to make them look more brutal
and Orky.
47
 However, I did start work on a battlewagon, using the
A FR IEND IN NE E D
same modelling style. It’s a good idea to reward yourself
I made a trip to a friend’s house for our weekly game with ‘cool’ models to build when you start to feel burn
of 40K and took the opportunity to loot his bitz box out. I’ll get back to making more buggies in the future.
for components to make some zap gunz, rokkitz and According to my army list, I only need to make 8 more
big shootaz. The real beauty of the Ork army is that buggies and a Leman Russ. Piece of cake!
you can make anything from virtually anything. I was -Adam Smith
able to acquire 3 lascannons, a battle cannon, an ion
cannon, 2 multilasers, assorted Tau burst cannons from
Battle Suits and Hammerheads, a telegraph pole and
an artillery cannon from a long dead WWII tank. Tau
ion cannons make brilliant zap guns. Simply cut them in
half, use the front as a gun and then use the back half
as a gun facing the other direction. Ion cannons should
be in abundance, as many Tau players prefer the much
feared rail gun.

L O OK I NG B AC K
I could have made the army entirely from thick
plasticard, which is far more durable and presentable
than cardboard. However, the plan was to build this army
the cheap and easy way.

This was a fun and rewarding project. You won’t be No one was going to win the rear of the year award.
able to assemble the whole lot in a single day, but I’m
sure someone will prove me wrong. Although I gradually
assembled these over a number of weeks, I never want
to scratch build another vehicle for as long as I live.

48
An Ork’s Tale Birth of a Warrior Rumbling like thunder. What was thunder?

T
He stepped out in full view on the trail and waited,
he light was blinding. The strong hands tore
wondering what it was that might cause this strange
down the rocks and soil, finally pulling the body
noise. There it was; it came fast around a corner, almost
out of the cocoon that was filled with thick ooze. The
flipping over as it took the sharp turn on just two of its
ork pulled himself out of the ground and rolled over
four wheels.
on his back. He spat out a thick gob of ooze and then
slowly got up on his feet, ripping of the last threads of Wheels?
umbilical cords that still stuck to his torso.
It shot towards him, bouncing along the forest-trail,
He staggered at first, but eventually gained his
the entire thing shaking like it would all come apart at
balance. He took a look around, puzzled by his
any moment. It sent dirt and grass flying as the wheels
surroundings. The ground was soft, uneven and
came to a sudden halt after having hurled the thing
with large hard solids things sticking up out of
forward at max speed. A cloud of dry dust enveloped
the ground, reaching far up towards the blue sky.
him as the strange contraption finally managed to come
Sky? Was that what that large expanse of blue was, and
to a halt a few feet away.
was it even blue?
He blinked and gazed upon the shaking and rumbling
He started walking. He had no idea where to, but he
thing like a buffoon. A small, green creature looked up at
walked anyway, his heavy feet leaving clear marks in the
him from behind the steering wheel; it had large pointed
grass.
ears and a hooked pointed nose, the eyes hidden behind
Grass? Trees? Boulders? A forest?! He did not a set of oversized goggles.
understand it, but he slowly understood what the terrain
The little thing lifted the goggles up on his head
around him was.
and studied the object that blocked his way.
He had covered a mile at least, making his way
“Wuzz yu doin’?”, the driver asked,
through the woods, when he heard a sound, a strange
raising his voice to make himself heard
sound. He continued towards it, finally coming across
over the pumping engine of his buggy.
a strange trail, the sound was growing in strength.

49
“Wuzz?” the large and naked ork asked.
The gretchin sighed, “Just got yerself dug up huh?”
“Dug up.”
The little gretchin nodded and mumbled a curse,
“Getz yu’r bum on den!” he waved the Ork over, who
climbed up on the vehicle, which was basically one large
engine with four wheels attached.
“Right”, the gretchin said and pulled down the goggles
over his eyes, “’Ang on den”.
The throttle was slammed down and the huge engine
roared and spat out a ball of fire before it sent the buggy
hurtling along the trail, the wheels throwing up huge
amounts of dirt behind the buggy.
The trail snaked its way through the dense forest.
Trees and boulders passed the buggy, only inches away
from sending the makeshift vehicle crashing. The wind
and the engine boomed in the ork’s ears, the woods only
a blur of colors that whizzed by. His strong hands held
on for all their worth as the buggy bounced and jumped
along at dangerous speeds.
“So wuzz yer name den?” the driver asked just before
the buggy leapt through the air after having hit a bump
in the trail.
50
“I ‘ave no name!” the ork said.
“Yu’s gotta have a name!” the gretchin wrestled the
steering wheel as he took the buggy through a curve.
The ork thought over it for a while. Did he have a
name?
“Do I ‘ave a name?!”.
“Course yoo do! Make one up!”
Make one up? The ork pondered the idea for a while.
Thirty minutes later the buggy left the woods and shot
down a hill and out on a large field. In the middle of
the field there was a settlement, the buildings looking
as makeshift as the buggy the gretchin and ork were
traveling in.
The buggy made a hard turn and skidded along its
side on two wheels, bouncing along before coming to a
complete stop.
The gretchin pulled of his goggles, his face was covered
with a thin layer of dirt except for around his eyes where
the goggles had been.
The ork stepped of the buggy and looked at
the settlement, the crude village was home to
a large number of orks, gretchin and squigs.
The gretchin got out of the driver’s seat and sat himself
down leaning against the oversized engine.
“So, have yer a name yet?”.
The ork turned to the gretchin and scratched his
head,
“No. Wuzz yers?”.
“Gogg” the gretchin answered and jumped down next
to the huge ork.
“Gogg?” the ork nodded, “Wuzz diz place Gogg?”.
“Diz?” Gogg spat a gob of snot on the ground, “Diz is
da kamp”.
DA KAMP
The naked ork trailed the gretchin, carrying two large
sacks over his shoulders.
All the orks and gretchins in the settlement glared
suspiciously at the naked newcomer and the gretchin he
followed.
The two made their way through the narrow streets of
the crude village and finally walked up to a small shop
erected in front of a wooden hut.
“Drokkrakka!” Gogg the gretchin shouted,
“Com’ on out yoo grot ripoff!”.
An Ork stepped out from the hut, wiping his hands with
a dirty towel, “Gogg, ya good for nuthin grub-squig!”.
“I have da mekstuds ya wanted”, Gogg motioned for
the naked ork to drop the bags to the ground. The ork
followed instructions and Gogg dug up a pair of proper
orky cybernetics, “Enuff to shuv ordz of gubbins, ey?”.
The ork who owned the shop walked over to Gogg
and then opened up the bags to inspect the goods. The
naked ork took a step back as to not be in the way.Gogg
seemed confident, “Yoo could shuv some bad tins an’
studs with dis lot”.
Drokkrakka sneered, “Ya tryin to rip off a ripoff Gogg?
Dis mekstuds are da biggest ordz of naff I’ve evva
seen”.
“Wuzz?”, Gogg pulled out another pair of bionik parts,
“Lookz ‘ere yoo big snot! Dis studs da baddest gubbins
around!”.
Drokkrakka gave it some thought, “Naah, not even
worth da teef in me own gob”.
“Dats cos me own teef ar’ more naz dan
yu’s bad gob”, the gretchin grunted.
“I’ll give ya three lotz of orky teef an’ one lotz of grot
teef for da two bags of mekstuds”, the ork said.
“Five lotz of orky teef”.
“Three lotz and two lotz of grot teef”.
“Four lotz of orky teef and four lotz of grot teef”.
51
“Four lotz of orky teef, my smak offer”, Drokkrakka
threw his arms out to get his point across.
“Three lotz of orky teef and one lotz of
lotz grot teef”, Gogg spat out.
“Ya naff runt! Five lotz of orky teef
and two lotz of grot teef!”.
But Gogg wouldn’t budge, “Who yoo calling naff, yu
worr wort ripoff! Two lotz of orky teef and one lotz
of lotz grot teef an’ anuvver lotz of grot teef!”.
“Dats it ya skab!”, Drokkrakka growled,
“One lotz of lotz of orky teef an’ naah grot
teef at all! An’ dats me smak offer!”
“Deal!”
“Deal!”
The fungal soup was just what the naked ork needed,
swallowing great chunks of the meal at a time. Gogg sat
opposite of the ork at the table, the tavern was far from
full, but the few orks that were present made themselves
heard. The naked ork wiped his mouth with the back of
his large hand, then he took a look around.
“Why am I da only one naked?”.
“Cos yoo just got yerself dug up”, Gogg
said, “Yu’s needs some orky nosh”.
The ork nodded, “So how doz I gets
some orky nosh den?”.
52
“Wiv teef of course”.
The ork just stared at the gretchin.
Gogg sighed, “Yoo have to punch someone’s teef out”.
“Oh!”
Gogg shook his head and continued finishing his
meal, he looked up as the naked ork headed over to
a table where three orks had a drinking contest.
“Snotpoo”, Gogg said and pushed the meal
away, “Dis naff runt is a miffgit”.
The three orks laughed and slammed their unwieldy
fists on the table, their mugs of firewater almost toppling
over. The naked ork walked up and stood opposite them.
Eventually they took notice.
“Wuzz ya want?”.
“Teef”, the naked ork said.
“Teef?” The three orks laughed.
“Why don’t ya zog off ya wurr naff grot, before
weez duff ya’z into gor”, one of the drunken orks
said and then gave the naked ork a strong push.
Taken by surprise, the naked ork lost his balance and
fell to the floor after having broken apart a table beneath
his weight, resulting in the three drunks laughing and
toasting.
 The naked ork slowly got back up on his feet, as he
did, Gogg walked up to him.
“I think it’z a good thing to do as
da boyz says an’ zog it”.
The naked ork ignored the advice and instead picked
up a primitive chair with both hands, Gogg hid his eyes
under his hand and sighed.
“Orkies”, Gogg shook his head.
The chair came apart in a dozen of pieces as it hit
the back of one of the drunken ork’s head. The force so
great that his face was slammed into the table, crushing
his mug of firewater and splitting the table in half.
Before the other two orks had time to react, the naked
ork thrust a splintered chair leg into one of the drunk’s
eyeballs, the piece of wood bursting out through the
back of the ork’s head. The last of the drunks finally
reacted and freed a huge and nasty looking cleaver from
his belt.
“WAAAAGH!”
The huge blade cut deep into the naked ork’s lower
arm and he screamed as the pain shot through his body
like lightning.
A well placed boot sent the naked ork tumbling across
the floor, sending tables and chairs and benches flying
in his wake.
“WAAAAGH!”, the last of the drunks rushed after his
naked enemy, the cleaver held high above his head.
The naked ork reached out and grabbed hold of a stool
and tossed it as hard as he could, the thing cracked
and splintered as it hit the charging ork across the face,
sending him to the floor.
The last of the drunks came to and looked around for
his ‘choppa’, but he was distracted by a shadow. Looking
up, he saw the naked ork standing above him, holding a
large bench high above him.
Gogg flinched as sticky black-green liquid hit his face.
The gretchin wiped his eyes clear of the gore and looked
at the scene before him. The last of the drunken orks
was lying on the floor with his head smashed like a melon
beneath a bench that stood high on end, securely driven
down into the floor.
The naked ork stood next to the dead one, inspecting
the deep wound on his arm that bled freely.
“Garg skar”, the ork finally said.
“Choppas tend to do dat to gutz”, Gogg said as he
walked over to the naked ork, stepping over the debris.
“Hey yoo gitz!”, the gretchin bartender
53
shouted, a blaster held at the ready, “Who’s
gonna rip off for all dis dreg?!”.
“I think I has a name for yu’z”, Gogg said.
The ork he had found in the woods was now dressed
in the clothes of the three drunks he had recently killed,
his pockets stuffed with their teeth. In his belt he had
stuck the cleaver that had been used against him plus
a heavy, large caliber revolver. The makeshift automatic
rifle that had belonged to one of the dead orks had
been enough to pay off the upset gretchin barkeep.
“Wuzz?” the ork asked.
At the same time, a huge group of gretchin and
snotlings pulled the three corpses out of the tavern with
great effort.
All the orks in the village looked with puzzled faces on
the bodies being dragged along down the street.
“Skull’Krusha”, Gogg said and looked up at the ork.
The ork gave it some thought, nodded and grinned,
“Ya, Skull’Krusha, I like dat. Sounds bossy”.
“But yoo still needs an orky name. Like Gogg”.
“Gogg is a grot name”, Skull’Krusha pointed out.
“Yu’s know wuzz I mean”.
The ork scratched his head, thinking hard.
54
“Ugluk?” he finally said, looking down on the gretchin.
Gogg answered with a shrug of his shoulders, “Sounds
orky to me”.
Skull’Krusha nodded, “Ugluk Skull’Krusha. Dat’z me”.
“Orky”, Gogg snapped his fingers and gave the thumbs
up, “May Gork and Mork bring yoo ordz of lotz of teef”,
and with that the gretchin slapped the ork over the thigh
and headed off.
“Not So Zaggy!!”.
Both Gogg and Ugluk looked over their shoulders down
the street, there a large group of mean and angry looking
orks advanced in a disorganized mob. At the head of
the mob walked an ork of immense size, his heavy feet
leaving huge tracks in the mud, he thrust a thick finger
in the direction of Ugluk and growled like an enraged
boar, “Ya naff gits won’t zog it ‘til I says so!”.
Ugluk stepped out into the middle of the muddy street,
behind him Gogg slowly tried to make as unnoticeable
exit as possible. By now orks, gretchin and snotlings
began to gather by the dozens to witness the promising
fight.
The mob and their leader came to a halt mere feet
away from Ugluk.
 “An’ who ar’ ya den?”, Ugluk asked, his red eyes scoping
the large ork that stood before him, covering his own
muscular body in shadow.
“I am Gurthak and I am da Boss!”
Tension was mounting, the entire village had gathered
to watch the showdown outside of the tavern ‘Da Wurr
Wort’. Gurthak stood leaning over Ugluk, his fangs bared
in a vicious grin, the growl from the back of his throat so
intimidating it made all the snotlings quiver.
“Wuzz do ya wunt?”, Ugluk Skull’Krusha asked.
“Wuzz I wunt?!”, as the boss spoke, spit from his huge
gaping mouth hit Ugluk in the face, “I wuntz yer ords of
teef! All in da kamp has to rip off da taxes!”.
“My teef ar’ me own”, Ugluk said and thudded his chest
with a large thumb, “No matta how bad a boss yer ar’”
“Says who?!”
Ugluk pressed his enormous revolver into the boss’s
mouth.
“Sez my slugga, dats who!”
No one could believe what they were seeing, a meager
recently ‘Dug Up’ sticking a gun into the mouth of the
village Boss himself.
Gogg slumped his head, rubbing his face with his hand,
“Oy...”, he sighed, “... Dis ork iz wun manik git.”
“Do ya have anything to say to my slugga... Boss?”
“Huh?”
Brain matter, pieces of skull and thick gooey blood
splattered all over the boss’s mob of thugs. Gurthak fell
into the thick mud of the street, the large hole in the
back of his head clearly visible for all to see.
“Dats wuzz I call bad dakka”, Ugluk said as he held the
‘slugga’ before him and inspected the gun, smoke still
spewing from the barrel.
The ruckus broke Ugluk’s trance on the huge revolver,
in front of him stood the entire mob of thugs, them all
aiming sluggas, shootas and ‘eavy stubbers of every size
and shape imaginable.
Ugluk quickly put words to his predicament, “I’m in
bad doo-doo dis time”.
One of the larger of the thugs stepped up to the
troublemaker, “Ya wants dakka? I’ll give ya dakka”.
All Ugluk saw was a huge mass of green knuckles
coming his way.
TO BE CONTINUED...
55
Stikkin’ Da Boot In!
A
look at Saul Painter’s fantastic Blood Axe Ork
Army
D A F I F T Y F I F F B A D R E DZ B R IG A DE
The Bad Redz are a Blood Axe Tribe with a taste for
desert camo (regardless of the actual environment they
fight in!), Looted armour, big gunz and massed infantry
charges. They are lead by Warboss Kurgan Ironhead,
whose Cybork Body and Bionik Bonce are not the most
reliable (are they ever?). He frequently picks up radio
transmissions and other more scary signals and is never
quite sure if they are real or imagined!
A M OM E N T W I T H S AU L
Saul took some time out of his busy schedule to answer
a few of FIREBASE’s questions on his fantastic army.
56
Firebase: So Saul, What force do you play?
Saul: Straight Codex Orks, with a
Blood Axe theme.
FB: Cool, and What
tactics do you employ
and how successful is your
army in the game?
Saul: Taktiks? “Plan A”
usually! That’s just charge!
I’m really not a very good gamer
though: I’m not competitive enough
to compete with the Flame On bunch
but I really enjoy playing so it doesn’t get me down
when things go wrong - it’s all part of the story!
FB: Nice! Your Orks look great; just how
do you go about painting them?
Saul: 20 minutes a day, every day; the time between
my Girlfriend leaving for work and when I have to
leave! You’d be surprised how much you can get done
in such a short amount of time! My problem used
to be just sitting looking at a pile of stuff trying to
decide what to start. But now I have limited myself
to a very short period of time each session I just
get on with it! It also keeps the GF a lot happier,
since I don’t ignore her when she’s home!

C A MO SCHEME
Darker areas: Scorched Brown base, dry-
brushed with Bestial Brown then Brown Inked
all over.
Lighter areas: Dark Earth, dry-brushed with
Kommando Khaki, watered-down Brown Ink into
all the cracks, edges and around rivets.
The pattern has to work from a distance so
try to think about breaking the overall shape
of the Kan into non-Kan-like shapes. After all,
camo is supposed to make things harder to see
or identify!
Damage: All the drilled bullet holes and
scalpeled chips and scrapes were repainted black
(over lapped to the surrounding areas a little). Then
painted in Tin Bitz leaving a black edge. Boltgun Metal
leaving a Tin Bitz edge and finally a slight highlight with
Mithril Silver. Some of them also got a touch of Brown Ink
to indicate grime and
oil running down
from the damage.
OR K S
Skin: Dark Angel
Saul decided that the metal Nob
models just weren’t beefy and
burly enough for the Bad Redz;
bigger is better as Orks say!
Skarfang is a typical example of
one of Saul’s converted Nobz;
extra green stuff on the head
arms and body bulk up the Ork in
comparison to the rest of his Boyz,
and then tooled
up with plenty
of gubbinz bulks
him even more
so. Of particular
note is the Power
Klaw, like a lot
of Saul’s Nobz,
Skarfang carries
a converted
Ogre Kingdoms
spiked fist.
Green base coat, mid-tone of Catachan Green, highlight
of Goblin Green in streaky lines to give texture to the
muscles. Finally an additional highlight of Rotting Flesh
to emphasise face, hands and the larger arm muscles!
Clothes: As Light Camo on vehicles
Gear: As Dark Camo on vehicles
Weapons: Just a Codex Grey dry-brush
on “edges” of gunz. Choppas are Boltgun
Metal, Brown Ink wash, Boltgun metal
streaks and Mithril Silver highlight.
57
 Red Bitz : (on vehicles and Boyz) Red Gore base, mid S K A R FA NG
tone of Red Gore and Blood Red mix. Highlight of Blood
Red. Streaky again! The lights flickered in the dim hold and the oily
bulkheads groaned and shook as the stresses of re-entry
Last but not least! Black and White checks and Daggs took their toll on the Landa. The Ork Boyz on board
everywhere ! ignored these worrying signs though, to them this was a
normal drop. They were all in a state of mild euphoria at
FB: Thanks for allowing us to showcase your army,
the prospect of the fight to come: re-checking weapons
as well as taking the time to chat with us Saul.
and ammo, tightening straps on armour, securing gear
Saul Painter is and grenades.
a regular painter
and gamer with the
Any guesses for where
Flame On gaming the inspiration for this
group located painboss came from?

in Manchester,
Extensive green stuff
England. work and a vintage
plastic powerfist really
makes this model up
from a standard ork
boy, a rusty metallic
paint job and this guy
Another all- is good to go! You will
plastic and be deleted!
green stuff conversion, a standard ork boy
carries a heavy Kustom Forcefield on his back
converted from the teleport homer from the
Space Marine Terminator boxed set and cables
from a plastic Imperial Guard Lascannon. A
sawn-off grenade launcher makes a kustom
slugga and green stuff cabling finishes this
model off beautifully.

58
 Skarfang wandered along the aisle checking
his Boyz over one final time. There were some
minor arguments between a few of them, but that
was also normal when they were not in a combat
situation. As he passed each one he either adjusted
their gear or slapped them on the head to show his
approval. The Boyz that got slapped grinned with
pride. They were Skarfang’s Boyz: The best mob
in Warboss Kurgan Ironhead’s “Fifty Fiff Bad Redz
Brigade”.

The low howling outside had built up to a loud

whining noise, the Boyz started to feel heavier, as
the air-breaks engaged, and they knew they were in
the final moments of the drop. The lights went out
for a moment and were replaced by the red glow
of the lamp above the exit ramp. There was a few
seconds of frantic activity as the Boyz unstrapped
themselves and pushed and shoved towards the
doors, laughing and jeering.

The Landa hit the ground hard but the Boyz had
done this dozens of times and the were ready for
the impact. The lamp turned green and the hold
was suddenly filled with dazzling white light and
swirling, dusty wind as the doors opened and the
ramp dropped. With a roar, Skarfang lead the Orks
down them ramp and into battle…

Saul’s aim for this army was to use as many plastic components and models as possible,
and these two models are testament to that. Using a combination of orky weaponry and
glyphs, plasticard, and parts from Imperial Guard Sentinels he went about converting
some amazing plastic killa kans; here at FIREBASE we had to make a double-take at how
much they looked like the metal ones, but better and no doubt easier to assemble! Saul’s
Orky camo finishes the models perfectly. 59
Through the Valley of the City of Death with the set, I had a
total of 11 buildings,

S ince the Imperial City sets release, I had seen what

others had made with their sets and some fantastic
examples of what was to come. I couldn’t wait to build
and a large pile of
spare pieces which
would be very useful
a city for myself. when it comes to
building other terrain
The interesting thing is how they got the ideas for the and basing models
sets. Someone had noticed that buildings in computer to fight in the streets
games are built using tiles so they took this and created of Medusa V. Each of
a building set for tabletop gaming -a small and very these buildings were a reasonable size. When building
interesting fact for you all. them you have to remember that you have be able to
game on them, so keeping them open and accessible is
When I first looked into buying the set, the price is
a good thing to think about.
what made me unsure about whether it was a worthwhile
investment. It seemed that £100 was a lot of money When you open the set you have to resist the urge to
when it comes to scenery. When I first opened the box just start sticking bits together, that’s what I did! Stop
all of those doubts disappeared. In the Imperial City set, and think about what type of buildings you want. After
there were a total of 28 sprues, which they say you can a bit of thought I had decided to keep the buildings to
make a total a set size. The Manufactorium pieces would be used to
of 10 buildings make smaller buildings, representing communication
with. This stations and power generators, also being suitable for
surely depends use as firing platforms. The Sanctum and Basilica pieces
on how big the would be used to make bigger buildings, where there is
buildings are room for forces to fight for control.
and how you
use the pieces
in the box. After
I had finished

60

When working with the pieces I was surprised at how
easy they were to work with, everything seemed to fit
together with no problems at all and the mould lines were
easy to get rid of. I wasn’t too fussed about cleaning
them up thoroughly, as I planned to roughcoat them
when it comes to painting them. This gives them a nice
texture to drybrush and also acts as a grey undercoat.
It’s always a good idea to do a dry fit, it becomes easier
to build and get the pieces to fit together after the first
building.
Once all the larger buildings
were finished I had noticed that I
had a large pile of spare building
panels, forming a mixture from
the 3 sets. After thinking about
what I could do with these, I
decided it would be better to
make smaller, intact buildings
with a simple role, to block line
of sight and provide an obstacle
to infantry and vehicles. I hoped
that this would make games a
lot more interesting and more
thought would have to go into
movement and deployment of
forces.
When the buildings were
finished, along came the point of
clipping all the spare pieces off,
every little nook and cranny of the sprue had been filled
with a building piece. These will be perfect when it comes
to basing the buildings and making other terrain pieces
to use such as rubble piles. The set can be used to make
a fantastic city layout on which to play on. I decided to
make the buildings modular, meaning that each layout
is different, as the buildings could be moved after every
game and would the better option when it comes to
storage, as I did not have the space to store a city-
61
 fight board and the In conclusion, the new cities of death buildings are all
board is also used fantastic sets, being easy to work with and also looking
for other games. good on the battlefield, which are two important factors
when making terrain. I am also very happy now that I
I wasn’t too sure had decided to go ahead and purchase the set. It may
whether the set seem like a lot of money at first, but it turns out to be a
would cover the 6’ one off cost and the buildings certainly look and feel like
by 4’ gaming board they will last the test of time.
I had so I decided
- Paul Cook
to purchase the
smaller set, which
comes with the
book which I would
need later anyway.
It also had more
building sprues
and the obstacles
which would be an add on to the board
later. However, it turned out that the
11 buildings was more than enough to cover the board,
as each building, when set up, is set-up no closer than 6”
to the previous one, leaving roads in between.

62
Slumming It then scraped the ‘flash’ off with a
modeling knife. We should have

W hile everyone else seems busy with the Cities

of Death buildings, we thought we’d be
different and make some of Miniature Scenery’s desert
used sand paper, but what the
hell. We then went about slotting
the thing together stage by stage
buildings. and gluing it with PVA as we went.
It was a total nightmare. If all else
Adam: “What do you think we should stick
fails, read the instructions…and
these things together with? PVA?
we did.
Simon: “Or…our hopes and dreams…”

Adam: “Huh?”
PLAN B
Simon: “Let’s use some No More Nails.”
The new construction plan was to assemble the buildings
And so our morning of building began. Boy, did we in two parts; usually the top part and the bottom part.
regret not reading the instructions! One of us would hold it together while the other squirted
No More Nails along the corners and touch it up with
a little PVA here and there, mostly to fill gaps in the
G O T WO OD ?
wood.
To make these buildings you will need; a modeling
No More Nails takes about 10 minutes to become
knife, some sand paper, PVA glue, No More Nails (or
touch-dry and once it sets, there’s nothing short of a
similar high-strength general adhesive), some kitchen
nuclear missile that can shift it. The only thing is that it
roll, Wood Primer, brushes, a black spray can, dark grey
tends to look very white and very lumpy when it has set.
spray can and light grey spray can and a few beers.
PVA is a better option when an area is going to be seen
-Beer has been known to
regularly. So we used PVA to seal up the exterior and
vastly improve modeling
merrily gunked the inside with No More Nails.
and gaming ability.

The buildings are incredibly easy to slot together. The

We cut the components
only difficulty is the stair slats, which are often very tight,
from the wooden sprue and

63
or come in two sizes. It’s only when you start assembling
that you realize there are two sizes of stair slats.
Cramming the whole thing
together and gluing it afterwards
was much easier. We got through
1 building per hour. I can see it
taking a little longer for someone
assembling these on their own,
unless they grow an extra set of
hands.
We left the buildings to dry on the lawn, in the sun
while we had dinner, then stood back to admire our handy
work. These things are huge! You could comfortably fit
20 infantrymen on just one of them with a base size of
approximately 6x6 inches.
Q UA L I T Y VS Q UA N T I T Y
The obvious thing to compare these to is the Cities
of Death buildings. While the Cities of Death buildings
are fabulously detailed and very easy to assemble, the
Miniature Scenery buildings are not. They take a heck of
a lot more time. You need patience and PVA to assemble
the wood, or a friend with a No More Nails goo squirter
for rapid results.
On the other hand, they’re large, spacious and
64
accommodating for a variety of base sizes. Your models
will be able to fit on the stairs without falling down them
and chipping their paint job.
£100 will buy you 10 Cities of Death buildings, although
Paul Cook managed to
stretch this to 11 with
some careful planning
of components. £100
could instead buy you
15 desert buildings.
It’s the classic
comparison of quality
or quantity. Do you want 10 highly details plastic buildings,
or 15 large, basic buildings that take a little more time
to assemble?
I personally, lean towards the 15 basic buildings. Little
details can’t be damaged or break off over time, as there
are none, the buildings are all the same height with the
same number of levels, making them ideal for a game
of Necromunda when combined with some walkways.
They’re also a lot larger, covering more of the gaming
table.
However, I am concerned about painting them.
Once again, this comes down to a little more time and
preparation. Wood drinks paint (and spray paint) like
fat people eat pies. This means that the wood needs to
be primed before any painting can begin and with 15 a very long lifespan and seems to
buildings, that is time consuming. ‘heavily dust’ the target instead of
spitting paint at it.
I’m sure these buildings could be made to look truly
amazing if someone put a lot of time and devotion into Once the undercoat was dry, we
them. Unfortunately, I want them done and ready to sprayed the exterior with the dark
game on as soon as possible. brown spray paint, followed by
a quick spraying of a colour that
looks similar to Bubonic Brown
P RODUC T ION L I N E and a final quick ‘dusting’ with a
spray that looks quite similar to Bleached Bone.
We set up a production line to mass produce the rest
of the buildings as quickly as possible. This cut the time In the short term, the buildings are done and ready to
down to half an hour per building. Having a friend to help game on.
out makes the job infinitely easier and faster.
As time goes on, we will add
Once the buildings were dry, we hastily coated them graffiti, concert, propaganda,
with Wood Primer using a couple of old brushes. It’s wanted and imperial guard
important to cover both inside and outside of the building recruitment posters, as well
as part of the interior can be seem from outside and will as blood stains, bullet holes,
receive a spray undercoat later. shop signs, parked vehicles,
gun emplacements,
radar dishes, hazard
S PR AY AND P R AY
stripes, pet mutant
Now for the fun part! We spray rats and other assorted
undercoated the buildings both Underhive details.
inside and out, with Black Matt car -Simon Smith
body spray from Halfords. This stuff
is awesome. It covers well, never
leaves a bobbly or rippled effect, has

65
 I n this page, you
will find several
action shots of games
involving our brand new
buildings.

66
Got wood? http://www.miniaturescenery.com/

67
In space, Everyone can hear your
WAAAAAGH!
S
imon Fisher has always liked his “special” stuff.
Now he looks at the pros and cons of the Orks in
Battlefleet Gothic.
“
There’s something very gentlemanly Much like their WH40K
about Battlefleet Gothic. Whilst masses
incarnation, they’re full
of grunts and guardsmen fight tooth and
of character and are as
nail on a planets surface, it easy to forget
how they got there. The might of the
Imperial Navy ferried them from world
to world, each majestic city sized ship a
work of art. Shrines, guns the size of skyscrapers and
archaic sculptures of heroes and saints of the Imperium
adorn each and every vessel at every point. Each ship
is captained by the latest in a long bloodline of famous
Naval families, their birthright to command the vessels
that have served The Emperor longer than any living
man.
Then, there are the Orks…
‘E R E W E G O…
Indeed, if BFG was a golf club, and each race a
prestigious, respectable member, the Orks would be the
drunken wedding reception that ended in a punch up.
68
The Orks are renowned for ramshackle fleets, lack of
speed and grace, love of the simplistic and the sheer
“ugliness” of their vessels. One would imagine they
would be a push over to defeat to the superior space
faring races. Oh, how far from the truth.
You see, there’s a lot to be
said about the Orks in BFG.
Their fleet list may lack the
diversity of the Imperials and
Chaos, may not utilise the
”
speed of the Eldar and their
tough as nails!
Dark kindred, is devoid of highly
technical rules like the Necrons
and lacks the build-it-yourself
adaptability of the Tyranids. However, much like their
WH40K incarnation, they’re full of character and are as
tough as nails!
I chose Orks to play in BFG for several reasons. The
first is because I dig the models. They are fantastic
sculpts and typify the entire visage of the Ork. They are
big, heavy, well armoured and armed to the teeth. They
look brutal – just how they should do!
The second is the character of the fleet. You have
weapons that malfunction one minute, only to rival
that of a battleship the next. Your escorts mostly carry
ridiculous amounts of firepower that can only fire in one
direction. Your mad mekaniks were so busy thinking
about the ships in front of them they forgot to put armour
TO G O W E R NO O R K ‘A Z G ON E B E F U R !
on the rear of the ship. You

“ Lets be honest,
Orks don’t care
even have ships that are
specially designed to ram
things head on! If ever a
Let’s just consider the ships of the Ork fleet in BFG. For
155 points you can buy your basic Kill Krooza. It comes
with ten structure points and flank armament gunz with
who they fight!
” list personified one race’s
outlook on interstellar
warfare, this is it.
strength D6 and a range of 30cm. On top of this, you
have the ridiculously strong strength 4 heavy gunz (which
causes double damage for each hit you successfully
make) with only a 15cm range. This is fairly formidable
The final reason for my choice is the challenge. There
at close range, but surprisingly vulnerable from ships
is not much diversity in the list, with only two types of
with a long reach. However,
kroozer to choose from. These kroozers are able to carry
out several roles, which I feel adds to the strength of
the list. An Ork player can build a fleet that is ready for
the front armament is where
it’s at. They have gunz of a “ Where there’s
an Ork, there’s

all comers rather than specific foes and lets be honest,
Orks don’t care who they fight!
The Orks may have as many weaknesses as they have
strengths, but in the right hands they can be a very
challenging fleet to face. Sometimes you’ll be jumping
for joy when you roll a string of 6s for your weapons
batteries – and sometimes you’ll howl in pain when you
get 1s. That’s the charm of the green tide! You’ll be
guaranteed one thing in a game with the Orks, that there
will a lot of unexpected twists, which usually ends in lots
of explosions!
”
range of 45cm and a minimum
always a way!
strength of 3 and heavy gunz
with strength 6. This gives your
kill kroozer potentially a massive armament. Even with
poor rolling, one would be wise not to get too close to an
Ork ship. The Orks will often outnumber their opponents,
and can potentially outgun them as well!
However, this comes at a price. Although tough,
their ships have low turret values, low shielding and
slow speeds can make the Orks very vulnerable. Low
leadership values also can cause issues when trying to
go on special orders. Ordnance, especially in the form of
bombers, can wreak havoc if allowed free reign of the
field. However, where there’s an Ork, there’s always a
way!

69
 leading them to become easy pickings for any forward
GR EEN S K WODRON !
scouts.
When using Orks, and I cannot emphasise this enough,
Should your attack craft manage to survive until you
it is important to set up dominance of the surrounding
come within firing range of the enemy, they can unleash
area of your fleet as soon as possible. Due to bombers
a nasty surprise of D3 bomber attacks. This is extra
always striking the lowest armour values (being the rear
useful for hitting ships who have snuck behind the rear
armour of 4 on all Greenskin ships), on top of the lack of
of your fleet.
anti-aircraft capabilities, you must be prepared for the
enemy launching wave after wave of attack craft in your
direction. A LL AHEAD FULL!

“
Therefore, the first thing I ever put on my fleet roster Orks, although they are Being surrounded
is a Terror ship. It can put out 4 squads of fighta-bombas not usually too competent
a turn which should surround the fleet in preparation for just means you
when carrying out special
incoming ordnance. By giving this ship a warlord and an can attack in
orders, automatically pass

extra re-roll you should increase the leadership and an
extra try at any failed special order checks – useful for
reloading your launch bays and deploying 4 more squads
next turn. You should be able to get eight attack craft
markers out by the time enemy fighters reach you. I
also give this ship torpedo launchers as well, as these
can be useful to give your opponent something to think
about if they’re attempting to keep you at arms length.
”
their All Ahead Full special all directions!
order, gaining an extra 2D6
of distance on top of their
full move. This is useful to get close to the enemy as
soon as possible. However, this restricts your firing for
that turn to half strength. Also, if you want to pump out
the maximum number of ordnance markers you can your
Terror ship will be unable to utilise this special order.

These are reloaded the same time as your attack craft,
so already your first ship is capable of protecting the flock
and forcing the enemy to manoeuvre their fleet to avoid
your incoming fire. This could cause some ships to fall
out of formation attempting to avoid your torpedoes and
Therefore, split your fleet in two. One should be fast
group of vessels, consisting of a Kill Kroozer and another
kroozer with two squads of escorts with torpedoes and
gunz. This will plough ahead whilst the slower contingent
consisting of the Terror ship and the rest of the short

70
ranged escorts, including the brute ram ships. The
second fleet should follow the first
This can be just as good a psychological move as well
as a logistical one. Quite often, a fast approaching fleet
of heavily armed warships can force an opponent to
panic and not thoroughly think out their move. They may
attempt to turn into you – that’s fine, an approaching
target is easier to fire upon and if they decide to close
the distance that will also lead to a positive shift on the
gunnery table. If they try and run – they’ll be exposing
their rear to your superior prow firepower.
A clever opponent will split their force, with each side
trying to flank you. With correct timing, once they try
to surround your first fleet, the second fleet will be
approaching and will be in range to bombard anyone
crossing your first “T”. Should they attempt to surround
your slower contingent, your first fleet is in an ideal
position to outflank them – and you still have your
fighta-bombas and Brute ramships to give them a nasty
surprise.
Of course – this is an ideal scenario, and things, quite
often, go wrong – especially with the Greenskins! If it
all goes wrong, don’t be afraid to get stuck in - being
surrounded just means you can attack in all directions!
B AG G Y G O T DA BIG SH I P !
You can take a single Warlord per every 500 points.
For 40 points and a higher than average leadership,
this is a bargain and I recommend buying as many as
possible. For a slight bit more, you get all sorts of crazy
skills for you crews, including being able to re-roll your
gunnery results and torpedo salvos every time you fire
(not just once per battle). You can re-roll failed special
order checks up to 3 times (if you choose to pay for it, I
personally find I don’t make many special orders unless
absolutely necessary – I’m economic when it comes to
re-rolls and Orks!) and a warlord doubles your boarding
rating. Another under-rated skill is the extra energy fields
– this adds +1 shield to your warlord’s ship. This negates
an extra hit of damage per turn – which can add to the
survivability of the kroozer no end. Of course, be wary
when buying all these fancy upgrades, some cost the
same as an escort. It may be very cool building a range
of really hard capital ships (and so typically Orky!), but
you may find yourself lacking against faster opponents
and being easily out flanked. It’s all a matter of personal
preference.
EXTR A GU B B I N Z
In your standard 1500 point fleet, I’d include three
capital ships of kroozer size and three warlords. The
71
rest would be made up of big squadrons of escorts.
I personally believe each escort has their role in the
fleet, and take them for their diversity and character.
Depending on your rolling, you may find your escorts
are rivalling capital ships in their firepower. Personally,
however, I hold a special respect for the humble brute
ram ship.

Ok. It’s puny. However, it has something the other

escorts do not. It has a weapons battery that fires in
three arcs. It is cheaper than an Imperial Cobra classed
escort and has better armour value. A squad of 6 can
create a wall of effectively a strength 12 weapon battery
in one of three directions– nothing to be sniffed at! Two
squadrons would be quite formidable should they also
be backing up a Terror ship with aircraft support. They
are disposable and dirt cheap, yet also pack a punch
at medium range. Oh, and I have I mentioned the fact
they roll 4 times their structure value when conducting
ramming attacks? Just two of these ships, if successful,
can destroy crippled vessels. Ideal for finishing off
flagships, and is there a better, more fun, more Orky
way to do it?

So there you have it, a brief introduction to the Ork

fleets in Battlefleet Gothic. Orks provide you with a
challenge and a lot of fun in your games. Just make sure
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you bring your lucky blue die with you!
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72
The Dockyard Firebase: You’re a very good painter, is it your favourite

I
aspect of the hobby?
n each issue of Firebase the specialist games section
Dustin: I like to collect and convert models more than
will bring you the Dockyard. This area will strive to
painting. Sometimes models stay unpainted a long time.
bring you interesting modelling articles and showcase
The only time that they are painted is when I want to
the models painted and converted by actual players,
use them in a game, and when I do they get a splash of
just like you or me.
paint.
This quarter, we are proud to present, all the way from
FB: How did you
Canada, the combined fleets of Dustin Hrenyk.
achieve the unique
Dustin is 21 and has been collecting and painting scheme of your
Battlefleet Gothic for 3 years now. Since then, he has ships?
amassed a huge number of ships, with 9000 (!) points of
Dustin: My paint
Imperial Navy vessels, 5000points (!!) of Space Marines
schemes aren’t
and recently completed 6000 points of Black Legion Chaos
very complicated.
(!!!). I would like to also comment on the standard of his
The space Marine
bases, which are absolutely flawless and truly completes
and Imperial navy vessels have a black basecoat, ink to
the models. Each model has been converted slightly
cover the parts where primer never seems to go in all
which really adds character to individual ships. We were
the nooks on a battlefleet model. Then it is just one or
lucky enough to get this interview with him:
two dry brushings of ultramarine blue the guns and prow
with boltgun metal, shining gold trim and mithril silver
and tinbitz used for various highlights and other details.
Lastly Blood red marker lights, I don’t know why but you
just need red on a model somewhere.

FB: What’s your most ambitious

project?

73
 Dustin: As I Dustin: When I’m asked which model is my favourite,
mentioned before it is hard to choose, I like them all in their own ways. But
I like to convert if I had to choose I’d have to say the Imperial command
models, and I guess ship that I made, just because it is unique and I have not
mine would be very seen a similar model. Also I’m impressed how it turned
expensive if I didn’t out when I had no idea how I was going to make it.
acquire some of Now I only have to give it a respectable paint job that it
the components for deserves.
a cheap price on a
notorious auction site. Most of my larger conversions
contain more than one battleship/ship model. The biggest
so far uses one and some pieces of a planet killer, pieces
of two emperor class battleships, parts of a dauntless,
and a chaos cruiser, not mentioning lots of other stray
bits. They usually start with two rear superstructures and
then I build from there using four outside sprue pieces
from the 40k landraider box when they are put together
they are the right width a height for weapons and dorsal
plates (See the WIP Pic) simons comment -on the page
link to. It usually just comes together from there. One
thing that I learned whilst converting battlefleet models
FB: Do you ever run out of new ideas?
is to never have a detailed plan laid out, have an idea
in your head but no specifics, it comes together a lot Dustin: My preferences toward Battlefleet Gothic is
nicer in the end and you’ll be impressed with what the converting, playing, and then painting (in that order).
outcome is. It is a mystery to me but coming up with new ship
models/designs is very enjoyable. Playing occurs when
FB: Which do
ever I can. Then nothing brings new conversions/models
you think is your
together like a solid paint coat only then you see how
favourite model?

74
cool the battlefleet models are. Now all I have to do is
sit down for more than five minutes and get the rest of
them painted… all the way.

A big thank you to Dustin for his time. He has also

created numerous stunning conversions and written
rules for their use in his gaming group. Hopefully we’ll
bring you more on these in future issues of FIREBASE.

Interview carried out by Simon Fisher

75
Five Admirals and a Hivefleet
T
o write the first Battlefleet Gothic article, we
wanted someone who had an intense knowledge
of naval warfare, experience of the high seas and from
stock of a great military family. Unfortunately, the
closest we had was Simon Fisher. We’re all doomed!
When I was asked to write a few articles about
Battlefleet Gothic I realised we needed something really
bold to get people hooked.
Specialist games are special for a reason- because
they’re…special – and Battlefleet Gothic (or BFG to the
converted) is no different. They’re not widely available,
and often can be quite cost prohibited and consume a
lot of time.
So, how do I go about writing an article to convince
people that they should play more fringe games? I
mean, I could write an article saying that they’re not
that expensive or time consuming. I could get up on my
big bitz box and shout to the masses how they should
convert to the “specialist” side. Or, I could get some
gullible minions to do the work for me and show you how
easy it is, whilst I sit around drinking Tea and listening
to the Archers.
I liked the sound of that last one.
76
Alas, I needed to justify this to the big boss. After
much consideration (at least the top side of 2 minutes), I
had come up with a plan. Well, the nice folks at Warseer
helped me come up with it, while I sat at home, drinking
Tea, listening to Terry Wogan.
And here begins the story, of four Admirals and a
Hivefleet.
You see my chickadees, specialist games are not that
difficult to get into. Battlefleet Gothic only requires a few
ships and a big, flat board. You even get a shed load of
gaming markers in the beginner’s box set. The rules were
available for all fleets on the specialist games website,
so it was decided – 5 gamers of varying experience
would create their own, unique fleets. Five views in force
composition to help demonstrate how easy it is to build
a strong force for Battlefleet Gothic.
Some guidelines had to be made. Firstly, a three month
period was set as the timeframe to complete the fleets.
The fleets would be tournament legal forces worth up to
1500 points. And finally, a total spending amount of £90
(approximately $140) would be set. That’s £30 a month.
More than enough!
Hopefully this would encourage some of you gentle folks
at home to learn a little bit more about those specialist
games, what they’re about, and perhaps persuade some
of you to try them yourselves.
 In the words of my Cockney friend; “Don’t fight it, you
might like it!”
“A GOOD NAVY IS NOT A PROVOCATION TO WAR. IT IS THE
SUREST GUARANTEE OF PEACE .”
Rob Holland used the unusual tactic of using real-
life naval tactics to base his fleet upon. He made the
even more unusual choice of picking an Imperial fleet as
well!
I have recently graduated from college and am now
in the US Air Force awaiting pilot training. I have been
playing in Games Workshop hobbies for nearly a decade
and like the sense of community that it creates and the
ability to jump right into a group of gamers.
I bought Battlefleet Gothic when it was originally
released and built an Imperial Fleet. My first fleet is
attack craft heavy. To compare it to history I would say
it bore a resemblance to a World War II Pacific Fleet,
having a large number of attack craft. This time I am
taking an Imperial fleet in a different direction. More
of a turn of the 19th to 20th century style fleet, large
powerful ships with escorts along side them with a few
early aircraft carriers.
So I have to turn to history for the fleets make up. I
looked at Wikipedia.com for examples and saw that at
the Battle of Jutland, the British fleet was composed with
30% heavier ships such as Battleships, Dreadnaughts,
and Heavy Cruisers while the German fleet had 27% of
these heavier ships. So I have a target goal for the fleet,
at least a two light cruisers or escorts for every cruiser,
battlecruiser or battleship in my fleet.
In terms of background in the 41st millennium, the fleet
is from a sector near Ultramar. I am a huge Ultramarine
fan and it was my first army. All of my Imperial armies
and fleets are from the region. It is no different with this
fleet.The ships themselves or at least the vast majority
where probably constructed at the Calth shipyards. The
fleet’s primary concerns are Ork Raiding fleets, Eldar
Pirate fleets, and Tau Exploratory fleets. On occasion it
has to deal with other fleets and had to fight off a splinter
of a Tyranid fleet. That is the history of the fleet I am
going to build. Read the next issue of Firebase to read
what I settled upon for this fleet and the completion of
the fleet.
FORTIFY THE STARS !
Don Hornby is a relative newcomer to the 40K universe,
only beginning in the 4th edition. Being an Iron Warrior
player, he was coaxed into playing a game based in space
because of the rumours that the moon is in fact made
of cheese...
If there’s any real evidence of my insanity, lack of
financial restraint and addiction to Games Workshop’s
games, you’re going to see it in the next issue. I mean,
77
you have to be a true GW fanboy to start a new game
for a fanzine article.
But I digress. I’m Don from, currently, Whitehorse,
Yukon, in the northern wastes of Canada. I’ve been
wargaming for about 3 years now, and playing GW
games for the past two. I started into 40K with the
release of 4th Edition, collecting a Tau army from day
one. I’ve also, at assorted times, collected Steel Legion
and Cadian Imperial Guard armies, a Space Wolf army, a
small counts-as Iron Warriors army and a small counts-
as Death Guard army. However, all of them were sold as
I eventually just decided I wanted more Tau instead.
I’ve also since started Fantasy with a Dwarf army,
although, with a pretty complete lack of Fantasy players
in the area, it hasn’t seen the table often. And, now, I’m
starting Battlefleet Gothic, with a Chaos fleet. I originally
planned to start BFG about a year ago when several
of my friends also expressed an interest in starting.
However, that plan died. I still wanted to start - maybe I
watched too much Star Wars and Star Trek when I was
a kid. Plus, the rules are so simple and effective-BFG is,
rules-wise, one of the better games I’ve seen and I’ve
seen a lot.
A Chaos fleet is strange for me - I’ve got a permanent
obsession with playing the ‘good guys’. I’m the guy who’s
always rolling up Good characters in D&D, or at least
shifting them good. As such, my Chaos fleet is going
78
to be, fluff-wise, at least less evil-they’re going to be
Iron Warriors, who are only just Chaos because they
think the Emperor is an arse. Well, in my opinion, of
course. Plus, the whole ‘never mind the deamons, we’ve
got machines!’ is pretty cool.
I chose the Chaos fleet because of one thing - guns!
Lots of them! Big ones! Yes, I’m a firepower fanatic.
I play by the motto ‘if brute force isn’t working, then
you’re not using enough.’ And, when you’re fleet has
cruisers with 10 and 14-firepower broadsides, you don’t
get much more ‘brute’ then that. Also, it’s a pretty cheap
fleet to collect-my fleet for this article is 5 Cruisers and a
Battleship – All easy to get my hands on. Granted, I’m not
the biggest fan of them,
“
visually they are a bit I chose the Chaos fleet
too rough-looking for
because of one thing -
my tastes. But, hey, if I
get the motivation, I can
guns! Lots of them!
”
always convert them. Big ones!
I’ll be building up my
fleet to the 1,500 points mark. I’ve already got 4 Cruisers
on the way. Now all I have to do is overcome my slow
painting speed.
“WHEN SHE CROSSED OVER, SHE WAS JUST A SHIP. BUT WHEN
SHE CAME BACK... SHE WAS ALIVE !”
Andy Maddison has already participated in a similar
army building scheme for Fantasy battle. We found his
attempts and excuses for not completing it amusing, so
we thought we’d give him another chance to make a
mess here!
Hi, my name’s Andy and I’ll be collecting a BattleFleet
Gothic fleet for the upcoming Firebase magazine. Some
of you may remember my last project, collecting a
fantasy army for the ‘Tale of 8 Gamers’ on Warseer.
Unfortunately I got right to the end, and then couldn’t
attend the final tournament, due to ... err ... painting
issues.
Well, this is my attempt to make up for that! I’ve been
looking to get back into BFG for a while now, and saw
this project as a way of doing so. The major problem
being that I have just brought a house and due to this,
I have no money. No problem, because I have plenty of
Chaos bits floating around at home! Surely I can cobble
together a fleet from said bits?
There’s only one way to find out! A quick visit to the
Specialist Games website told me that the chaos list
has been updated to include Daemonships; cruisers
possessed by daemons which allow them to use the warp
to their advantage during games. This only increased my
belief that chaos was the fleet for me. The only problem
then was which God would they follow? I love themed
chaos forces, and this would be my way to get in some
good conversions. I’m not really a fan of Khorne, so
that was that one out, but where to go from there? I’ve
always loved Tzeentch, so that’s a possibility, and the
conversion potential of a Nurgle fleet can’t be ignored.
Well, I’ve been fiddling about with the fleet list for a
while to see what I could come up with, and I’ve got a
basic idea, but that will have to wait. I’ll say goodbye for
now, so tune in next time for a prototype fleet list, and
hopefully a converted ship or two...
TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO AUN HAS GONE BEFORE !
Paul Cook decided to begin a Tau fleet for his project.
He got into character by listening to copious amounts of
S Club 7. All together now: “Reach for the Stars!” (Don’t
you mean Sun? –Ed)
So, Battlefleet Gothic returns. I haven’t played
this game in years, and then out of the blue I got an
invitation to take part in Five Admirals and a Hive Fleet.
The first thing I decided upon was to look at the articles
on the Specialists games site. One fleet in particular that
caught my attention were the Tau. They didn’t have the
battleships that the Imperium own but stood out as a
good fleet. The ships seem moderately priced for what
you get, with Tau battleships being the same points cost
of an Imperium cruiser.
The main disadvantage that stood out was the lack
of shields, but with plenty of ships for the 1500 points
allowance, losing a couple to enemy fire shouldn’t be too
79
much of a problem. Another tactic would be to use the
ships speed and range in order to isolate and destroy
certain enemy ships.
The next thing I would need are some models, looking
at the Games Workshop specialist range; I wasn’t very
keen on the Games Workshop models. I then noticed
that Forgeworld had a range of Tau ships and that
they had also published their own rule set in Imperial
Armour 3. These models certainly caught my eye, so I
would definitely be picking these up when I’m next in
Nottingham along with a copy of Imperial Armour 3.
So see you next time, when my fleet should be ready.
Hopefully I’ll also have some games to report on and a
fleet to use in them.
“INVASION OF THE BITZ SNATCHERS.”
When asking Jon Wilson where his article was, he told
me it was “lost in some distant part of the universe on a
ship, a living ship, full of strange alien life forms.”
Luckily, I found this attached to his e-mail.
I started playing Tyranids during the 2nd edition and
they have been my primary army ever since despite
some diversions I’ve always returned to them.
I’m currently up to around 9,000 pts for 40K including
an almost complete set of Forgeworld beasties and
80
around 3,000 pts of Epic ‘Nids collected through ebay
(thanks for the re-release specialist games).
Recently our veteran night moved onto Battlefleet
gothic, something that has always interested me but due
to a lack of players I was never able to try. I decided to
start with Chaos as they were a good beginners fleet, I
just couldn’t bring myself to go Imperial.
After I got basics of the game down I started to plan
my Tyranid fleet and had a pleasant surprise with the
customisation element of the race being carried over
into BFG.
I’ve always been a fan of hordes, force your opponent
to roll enough dice and they will die so I will be going
for numerically large fleet with lots of launch bays and
escorts.
Now I have to plan the models for my fleet I’ve decided
to use a combination of the specialist games models and
ones I’ll create using plastic 40K sprues. I’m going to
use the colours of Hive fleet Kali so interesting times lay
ahead.
“EVERYONE IS DOING THEIR PART. A RE YOU?”
Well, after all the talk of getting people to do the
work done for him, Simon found the temptation of the
challenge to make a new fleet was just too much!
 Let me tell you just a bit about myself. I’m a 21 year
old veteran of BFG. In fact, BFG actually got me into
this hobby in the first place, 8 years ago when it was
released! I love space ships, always have and always
will.
Now, after a lot of thinking and several abortive
attempts to get started, I finally decided upon my fleet.
I wanted something challenging, a fleet that not many
people played, a fleet that unusual but with a lot of style
when being played, and, finally, I wanted a fleet with
character and a lot of versatility. A force that would be
a really fun modelling project and that would stand out
and be noticed when I set them up on the table.
Jon had already got dibs on the Tyranids. The Necrons
were a race I disliked anyway, so that counted them out.
I toyed with the Eldar, but I’ve never been a fan of them
ever since my first ever battle of BFG was against them
(oh, how I got slaughtered). So, who else?
Wait…my hatred for the Eldar…that was it!
Which fleet would take the most satisfaction from
devastating the Eldar? Their dark kindred, of course –
The Dark Eldar!
I’ve always wanted to begin a Dark Eldar army in 40K,
so this was a perfect opportunity for me. I read up on the
Dark Eldar fleet list. Hmm, they only have two types of
vessels. However, they’re very versatile and can be armed
with anything I wanted. A unique range of weapons and
abilities to use and there was very little written about
them in BFG - so pretty much a blank canvas to start my
force on. They share some aspects with their pansy Eldar
brothers (that very sexy Shadowfield - ignore ordnance
and lance hits on a 2+? Yes please!), whilst also having
some differences (capital ships swapping two movement
phases for a huge 30cm movement and slightly more
tolerable to receiving damage). Their escorts could also
take a mighty strength 5 weapons battery each whilst
also counting all targets as closing on the gunnery table
– that’s a lot of die to roll, which means a lot of ships to
roll over and die.
However, they’re quite short ranged, with their weapons
only being capable of shooing 30cm. Oh well - who said
being despicably evil was easy?
So with only two models available (at extortionate
prices as well!) I took the bold step to convert all my
ships somehow.
So I did the maths, made a rough fleet list, worked out
what models I would need and how much they fleet would
cost me. Then came the fun part – The test model!
Here’s a little teaser of my Lance armed Torture class
cruiser, the Czernobog. I’m going to have my work cut
out for me in the next 3 months – I’d better put the
kettle on…
81
Battle Over Medusa V BATTLEFIELD

M
Medusa V Counts as a
edusa V has experienced several large-scale medium planet with 15cm
fleet engagements since the encroaching Van gravity well. Due to the
Grothe’s Rapidity was discovered. By the time the Bridge numerous conflicts that have
Guard Space Marines arrived in system with fully two- occured in the last few weeks,
thirds of the chapter fleet, the planet was choked with Medusa V is surrounded by a
the debris of previous engagements. debris field (counts as right
To make matters worse, Chaos Warmaster Karanskis column shift for batteries but requires LD check to move
was leading his fleet to provide reinforcements for traitor through like an asteroid field).
forces under the direct orders of Lord Ygethmor. The
Two False Moons These are actually small warp
battle would begin as a race to Medusa V to land troops,
storm phenomena with an extremely dense centre. They
but ultimately would come down to who could wrestle
count as a small planet with a 10cm gravity well that is
control of the battlefield.
surrounded by a gas cloud.

G A ME DETA IL S :
MISSION
Both forces are attempting to land troops on the planet
while fending off enemy forces. If a ship begins or ends
its move phase touching the planet, and does not fire,
launch ordnance, or use special orders, the player lands
one point of troops. Each point of troops deployed count
as +50 VP’s for the Chaos fleet while the Space Marine
fleet receives +100 VP’s due to their special rules.
TUR NS & DEPLOY MENT:
Up to 45cm from players’ table corner. 6 turn game.
STR ATEGIE S :
CHAOS
Attempt to rapidly flank the Marine fleet, and hit
them with as many lances as possible due to full 6+
armour. After that, swing around the planet to deliver
assault forces. Try to stay out of 30 cm range to avoid
bombardment cannons.

82
2,000pts Chaos 2,000pts Loyalist
Fleet Fleet
False Prophecy Adamantine Crusader
Desolation, flag ship Battlebarge, flagship
Final Apocalypse Light of Ascension
Repulsive Battlebarge
Soul Reaver Pain Incarnate of the Quintessence Vigilant
Murder Carrier Group Strike Cruiser Strike Cruiser
Hellblade Styx
Ironclad Defender
Murder Unrepentant of the Strike Cruiser Strike Cruiser
Shadowbane Carrier Group
Righteous Aurora
Slaughter Devastation
Strike Cruiser Strike Cruiser
Dark Entity Black Omen of the
Campaigner Copper & Zinc of Metal
Acheron Carrier Group
Strike Cruiser Squadron
Devastation
Gladius Escorts

M ARINES
Close with the traitor fleet as quickly as possible, using
heavy armour to absorb a large amount of enemy fire,
and hit them hard with thunderhawks and bombardment
cannons. Once enemy fleet is crippled, move in for
boarding.
TU R N 1
M ARINES
The Bridge Guard Fleet advance at full speed toward
Medusa V, powering up battle systems and boldly
advancing through a warp storm phenomena. Long
range scanners detect enemy signals, but all weapons
are currently out of range. All thunderhawks are placed
on full alert as they launch into battle, scouting ahead of
the main fleet.

83
CHAOS TU R N 2
The Final Apocalypse, under command of an overly
devout Khornate champion, rapidly accelerates in order M ARINES
to come around the dark side of the planet. With no The bulk of the fleet begins to manoeuvre to the
support, the grand cruiser will be highly vulnerable to sunward side of Medusa V to meet the traitor fleet head
interception, but it is Warmaster Karanskis’ plan to draw on in glorious battle. The Light of Ascension and the
some of the Bridge Guard fleet away. The remainder of Adamantine Crusader begin to alter their course towards
the fleet begins to bring battle stations online and form the planet to achieve orbital supremacy and begin troop
up with the Warmaster’s ship. The carrier group reduces landings. With weapons still out of range, all the Marine
to half-speed in order to remain farther back. As if a fleet can do at the moment is observe the forces of the
challenge to the thunderhawks, the Final Apocalypse and Archenemy. At this point, the Chaos boarding torpedoes
the False Prophecy are intercepted by Gamma Squadron, expending their
launch a full spread of ammunition and fuel in the process. Enemy swiftdeaths
boarding torpedoes. pounce upon the slower Delta Squadron, forcing one to
As the carrier group disengage.
puts up a fighter
screen, the Bridge CHAOS
Guard thunderhawks The carrier pack
quickly move to continues to lag
intercept and destroy behind in order to
the torpedoes. safely provide attack
craft to the rest of
OVERVIEW the fleet. As the Final
Both fleet commanders size up the enemy forces and Apocalypse enters the
attempt to guess the enemy strategy. Commands are darkside of Medusa V,
relayed throughout the battle groups and every captain her lance batteries engage and destroy the thunderhawks
readies his ship for battle. of Epsilon Squadron. As Metal Squadron comes into
view, Karanskis is overjoyed. The massive lances of the

84
False Prophecy speak their hatred, utterly disintegrating
the Copper. Shortly after, the lances of the Soul Reaver
open up on the Zinc, but due to the debris left behind
by her sister ship, the Zinc’s shields hold. The remaining
thunderhawks make excellent target practise for the
gunners on other ships, and fully half are destroyed or
sent running. Doomfires, Swiftdeaths, and the last of the
thunderhawks engage over the skies of Medusa V, with
the Bridge Guard gaining the upper hand.
OVERVIEW
Battle proper has not yet been joined, but that
will change quickly. As the Bridge Guard move into
weapon range, the traitor captains recall the effects of
bombardment cannons and quickly adopt a new plan.
TU R N 3
M ARINES
Taking the bait, the Ironclad and the Quintessence
peel away in an attempt to slow the advance of the Final
Apocalypse. As the Zinc accelerates toward the enemy
fleet in revenge, the Defender and the Campaigner
move in support, but are slowed as the debris impacts
on their shields. Warmaster Karanskis’ ship shudders
under the impacts of not less than three strike cruisers
and the vengeful Zinc, but her shields hold as if through
the intervention of the Dark Gods. The Righteous and
Vigillant, with no mercy, shoot down the last of the
doomfires with carefully placed bombardment fire. On the
darkside of Medusa V, a massive flight of thunderhawks
bear down on the Final Apocalypse, inflicting incredible
internal damage when the defence turrets fail to start
up. While trying to emulate this success on the False
Prophecy, many battle brothers of fourth company were
lost when every single one of their thunderhawks was
shot down.
CHAOS
Once again, the turret gunners of the False Prophecy
were guided by some unseen force as her momentum
carried it into a large number of thunderhawks. All but one
was destroyed or sent fleeing. Captain Gorath demanded
a damage report from the heretic tech-priests aboard
the Final Apocalypse. The news was bad: at least two
fires in C and H decks, thrusters offline, and all weapons
85
 except starboard at 30%
TU R N 4
power. Gorath went into
a Khornate rage as he M ARINES
beheaded the snivelling
Suffering severe
techs with a swipe of his
structural damage,
blade. Fear, however,
Captain Antaeus
was a bad motivator and
of the Righteous is
only one of the massive
forced to disengage,
fires was extinguished.
using the confusion
Shadowbane had better
of the battle as cover.
luck as she manoeuvred into a classic attack profile
On the darkside
and, attaining a full lock on the Righteous, crippled the
of the planet, the
loyalist ship. In a coordinated volley, Karanskis and the
thunderhawks of
carrier group plotted solutions, reducing the Defender
the Ironclad and
to a burnt out hulk, leaving the survivors to the void.
the Quintessence were unable to launch due to debris
Massive figher and boarder waves were then launched
choking up their launch bays. Instead, the strike cruiser
from the carrier group, on a beeline for the remaining
squadron moved in and targeted the main drives of the
strike cruisers.
Final Apocalypse. Despite the fierce cannon-fire, only
the shields were knocked out. Finally coming around
OVERVIEW
the planet, The Crusader and the Light of Ascension are
The Dark Entity, having done gifted with a target rich environment. Opting to open
very little so far, was subject to a fire instead of deploying forces, the two battle barges
wave of thunderhawks, resulting unleash hell on the enemy fleet. Aurora and Vigillant,
in the starboard armaments being sitting in the middle of the Chaos battlegroup, open fire
wrecked. Captain Gorath continued with all guns, failing to inflict any structural damage. One
to fume as his engineers only succeeded in containing of the torpedoes from the Adamantine Crusader, as if
the other fire rampaging throughout his ship. Captain guided by the Emperor, struck the Soul Reaver’s bridge,
Manello of the Bridge Guard attempts to formulate an killing all the command crew in less than a second.
idea. The next few minutes could get very ugly.

86
CHAOS for a stern shot. Luckily, the manoeuvre pays off as the
Aurora’s bridge is blasted straight through with a well
On board the False Prophecy, the turret gunners were
aimed lance strike. Captain Drakis of the carrier group
not as lucky as they had been, suffering a large attack
ordered a full volley toward the Campaigner, overloading
from yet another flight of thunderhawks. Significant
the shields and reducing the prow to a smoking wreck.
drive damage and two huge blazes were the result of
A final lance shot from the False Prophecy nearly sliced
the errant gunners lack of focus. The Dark Entity, a
the limping cruiser in half.

OVERVIEW
The last few minutes were extremely hectic. Most of the
strike cruisers have been destroyed or heavily damaged
but the two battlebarges are undamaged and sitting in
high orbit over Medusa V, preparing to deploy forces.
With the Final Apocalypse fully repaired, a heavy cruiser
is now in the rear lines of the Bridge Guard fleet.

TU R N 5
M ARINES
sitting duck, had been hammered by enemy fire and With barely any hull integrity left, the Campaigner is
ordnance to the point were it could only float in space forced to disengage before facing complete destruction.
and burn. However, the situation was not completely lost Once again, the Vigilant and Aurora charge into the
as some drop pods were lauched toward the planet. The enemy, moving into
Final Apocalypse’s engineers, whipped into action by the boarding range of the Pain
overseers (who were whipped in to action by Captain Incarnate. As the Aurora
Gorath), managed to repair all systems. Though the pounded her port with
Shadowbane was ordered by Karanskis to lock on to the withering battery fire,
loyalist ships, Captain Soloman he instead swung around the crew of the Vigilant

87
bravely attempted a boarding action. Their estimates planet. Nearly the entire Chaos fleet fires all weapons at
were incorrect on the enemy numbers however, and the Adamantine Crusader, but the Emperor was watching
the Pain Incarnate counter attacks left the Vigilant as a as the shields barely held.
burnt out hulk. The Dark Entity, sitting in between the
two battlebarges, found itself pulverized by combined OVERVIEW
bombardment cannons. A shell set off the plasma drives, The majority of the Chaos forces are in close range
with the end result being a spectacular light show on of Medusa V. Time is running out for the loyalist forces.
the planet surface while the shields of the battlebarges With the strike cruisers occupied or out of action, the
somehow stood firm against the massive plasma wave. job falls upon the Light of Ascension and the Adamantine
The Adamantine Crusader then launched a full spread Crusader.
of torpedoes at the carrier group, resulting in multiple
impacts throughout the squadron. Simultaneously, more
torpedoes from the Light of Ascension collided with the TU R N 6
Hellblade and Soul Reaver, resulting in a huge chain
M ARINES
reaction and knocking out the engines.
Captain Manello,
CHAOS running out of
options, made a
In a bold move,
bold move. “All
the Final Apocalypse
ahead full, ramming
changes heading, and
speed!” Plowing
heads directly toward
through the waves
the planet at top speed,
of Chaos attack
unleashing a few shots
craft that lay in her wake, the Adamantine Crusader
at the Ironclad in the
slammed into the Black Omen on its starboard side, all
process. To back it
but cutting it in half. Severing multiple plasma tubes, a
up, the Shadowbane,
huge fire flared up in the bowels of the stricken ship. The
along with the Hellblade also begin to move toward
Aurora, with her manoeuvring thrusters knocked out,
Medusa V. Lord Karanskis, already highly stressed, failed
was forced to drift helplessly. In high orbit, the Light of
to lock on to the enemy, and guides his ship toward the

88
Ascension began the process of deploying. A full company
of Bridge Guard began plummeting toward the planet
in their drop pods. Thunderhawks from the Adamantine
Crusader bombarded the Black Omen in order to finish
her off, igniting further decks and knocking out the port
weaponry. On board the Black Omen, fires ran completely
unchecked throughout the ship, with nearly all hands
succumbing to the smoke or burnt to death.
CHAOS
As the wounded carrier pack moved on, the
Shadowbane, Hellblade, and the Final Apocalypse moved
in toward the planet in preparation for troop deployment.
Once again, the False Prophecy had one of the loyalist
ships in her sights, obliterating the Aurora in a ball of
superheated plasma. In a final last ditch attempt to
slow the Adamantine Crusader, the remaining carriers
launched a massive wave of doomfires. Dodging the
defence turrets, only two of the bombers were able to
inflict any damage.
OVERVIEW
At the end of the engagement, few of the Bridge Guard
ships were operational and the traitor fleet was moving
into high orbit. Though the Space Marines were able
to land more forces, the fleet would be overwhelmed
if they were to stay any longer. As such, the Imperial
ground forces prepared to defend themselves from the
imminent Chaos troop landings. Warmaster Karanskis
was nervous and excited: if he could capitalize on the
enemy withdrawal, Lord Ygethmor would reward him
well for his actions. If not...
R E S U LT S
BRIDGE GUARD:
444 VP’s plus 200 bonus,644 VP’s total.
Adamantine Crusader, Intact, 10 hits left
Light of Ascension, Intact, 12 hits left
Quintessence, Intact, 5 hits left
Ironclad, Intact, 6 hits left
Righteous, Disengaged
Campaigner, Disengaged
Vigilant, Destroyed
Defender, Destroyed
Aurora, Destroyed
Metalgroup, Destroyed
89
CHAOS R AIDERS : draw there were some fun moments. My
favourite was being able to ram a Chaos
453 VP’s, 150 bonus,603 VP’s total.
cruiser with my flagship. Every game
False Prophecy, Intact, 8 hits left of BFG needs at least one good ram!
Final Apocalypse, Crippled, 5 hits left It was a fun game and my opponent
Pain Incarnate, Intact, 6 hits left was a worthy foe. I look forward to
Unrepentant, Intact, 7 hits left future engagements with him. I could
Black Omen, Destroyed have easily won by going all ahead full,
Dark Entity, Destroyed and then having all of my ships deploy
Soul Reaver, Intact, 5 hits left, smashed bridge troops on turn two, but that might have
Hellblade, Intact, 5 hits left been boring.
Shadowbane, Intact, 7 hits left
BEN
Fun game! I’ve never had to deal with this many Space
P L AY E R ’S THOUG H T S Marine ships at any one time. They can take a lot of
punishment, but can’t dish it out as much. Thunderhawks
DUSTIN
and bombardment cannons are really nasty! I found
This game was quite enjoyable. It took a little longer that about half of my weapons couldn’t fire because I
than expected due to having to write down all the was always getting my guns knocked out! Against the
details, but thankfully we had a third party to help with Marines, lances are your friend. Next game, I’ll try to
note taking. I treated the battle as any other, except stay out of 30cm. It was quite an interesting learning
this was my first experience, and I’m itching to play more BFG!
time playing with
a full Marine fleet.
I found I had to - Dustin Hrenyk (USABOB, Space Marine Fleet)
change many
- Ben McLeod (Spamus Eatus, Chaos Raiders)
of my tried and
tested tactics. Special Thanks to John Lintott (Decius, Notetaker Extrordirnare)

Besides being a

90
Welcome
To the Underhive
W
made
hy Necromunda is quite
simply the best game ever
It was the summer vacation of 2003
when my friends and I worked all week
in part-time jobs and had the weekends
to ourselves. That, my friends, was
the summer of Necromunda!
Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday
we played. There were only 3 of us
and that meant 3 gangs, but we made
up for the lack of competition with a
variety of characterful non-player
gangs.
The money we spent on this game
was pretty minimal. A starting gang
set us each back by around £20.
Cheapest army I’ve ever bought,
especially as the game rules are free
to download now.
Simon took his Orlock gang “The
Badland Boys”, Luke dug out his
old Van Saar gang “Mad Mick’s
Mercenaries” and that left me with
my Escher gang converted from Witch
Elves “The Sad Goths”.
W H AT ’S IN A NA ME ?
Naming your gangs and its members
is a vital part of Necromunda. “Dave”
just isn’t going to cut it against
“Dangerous Dave McDangerous” and
often the more over the top and silly
the names are, the better your gangers
will be. The most characterful gangers
always have the best names.
Over the years we’ve seen many
legends (or leg-ends) of Necromunda,
all of them with their own eccentric
names and skills like ‘Hobbling’ Nick
Nitro, the Orlock heavy with a flamer
with one leg, an iron lung, two old
battle wounds and only one hand.
Or there’s the Escher juve known as
“Bomber Betsy”. Armed with only a
frag grenade, somewhat unhinged
after a head wound and with a wealth
of leadership increases she nearly
took charge of my gang!
91
 “Mad McMad” (of the clan McMad) was a new Van
Saar ganger, recruited purely to see what slapping an
Icrotic Slime to his head would do. It took an entire
gang and a bounty hunter to bring him down in combat.
“Dead Eye Dick” quickly rose to become Simon’s gang
leader. He was converted from an old plastic Catachan
with his lasgun dragging at his side, a nasty squint and
holding a knife out in front and shouting “Have at thee!”
He spectacularly failed to hit anything for the entire
campaign. And then there was “Goggles McKenzie” who
thought he could ‘pick off’ an Ork boss in his first gang
fight, only to be torn apart by a hail of autogun fire from
twelve greenskins.

WA N N A BE IN M Y G A NG ?
WHAT TO TAKE IN A GANG ? –THAT’S THE QUESTION!
You can either buy one of the gang boxes and roll with
what you get, or you can mail order gang members to
your specific requirements or trawl ebay, grab the ones
you want, then relist the ones you don’t.
But what makes a good gang? The obvious answer isn’t
always selection. There’s a big difference in calling your
gang ‘good’ because it blows the opposition off the board,
to your gang being ‘good’ because you have a diverse
range of models with their own individual characters and
tactics.
Like many games, Necromunda can be ‘cheesed to
the max’. A horde of guys with lasguns spring to mind.
In theory they should be able to bring down anything
with sheer numbers. Similarly, I remember once fielding
a Redemptionist gang made almost entirely of novices
with autoguns and exterminator cartridges. There were
around twenty of them -All rabid and crazy to boot! Too
bad they got picked off from afar, then when they got
close the Van Saar gang that had been giving them a
good dose of lead poisoning, turned tail and fled off the
table.

92
 order to get some experience increases, he needs to hit
and wound with almost every shot he takes, otherwise
some whacked-out juve with a head wound and a frag
grenade could be vying for leadership of your gang!

It’s best to use your leader to back your gangers up

when they miss their targets in the first few games and
if you’ve got the creds to spare, a Bounty Hunter can
help with this too. Just make sure the pair of them don’t
steal all the experience points on offer.

Then there’s your heavy. The obvious choice is the

heavy stubber –Cheap, cheerful and with a pretty good
strength and a great rate of fire, you’re going to cut
someone in half with this baby!

Some people like to give their heavies special weapons

like flamers, melta guns or plasma guns. Like the leader,
The ‘cheese’ factor can be cut down with some careful
your heavy needs to earn lots more experience than
planning and use of terrain. In really dense scenery
your average ganger in order to get better at shooting,
the autopistol and flamer can be king, while in the
fighting or biting bullets. If he’s going to carry something
open the heavy stubber and lasgun are the real killers.
short ranged, but deadly like a melta gun or flamer, he’d
Fortunately, ‘treacherous conditions’ must be rolled for
better have a lasgun or autogun as a long range back
at the request of either player, so it’s best to take a
up. The only problem with giving your heavy a special
mix of weapons for all situations, until you have enough
weapon is that his ballistic skill isn’t as good as the
credits to give all your gangers armed with laspistol
leader.
side arms of course. Even so, there are some selections
I stick by religiously. It’s my belief that heavies are called heavies because
they really should be lugging heavy weapons around.
Always give your leader a high strength special
While the heavy stubber is a good choice, the heavy bolter
weapon, ideally a plasma gun as it gets D3 shots. In

93
is just nasty. At strength 5 and inflicting D3 wounds it
can mess your opponents up real bad. The only downside
is that it’s more likely to run out of ammo. Of course,
if you’re an unlucky fellow like me, your heavy stubber
will be out of juice after the first volley anyway, so don’t
worry about upgrading to the heavy bolter. Anything
bigger tends to be a waste unless you’re shooting at
bunkers, tanks or Tyranid monstrous creatures that
somehow appeared in the Underhive.
L IC TOR !
Nothing quite scares the living crap out of anyone in
the Underhive like a Lictor. Seriously, you don’t need a
94
Genestealer incursion or an approaching hive fleet as
an explanation to have one. The gangs are playing a
standard Scavenger mission with the typical ‘mutant’
attacks, except this time, the Lictor shreds the hapless
“
ganger before embarking
Nothing quite scares
on an orgy of destruction,
leaping between the levels the living crap
and blending into the out of anyone in
surroundings so well that
the Underhive like
no one can get a good aim
on it. a Lictor.
The worst part was that we all knew it was coming, but
”
we had to wait for it to appear. That was when Luke put
some creepy music from Silent Hill on the stereo and we
were well and truly shitting ourselves! The Lictor didn’t
even appear.
H E Y , M U S IC L OV E R !
If there’s one thing you should always have when
you’re playing Necromunda and more so than any
other game, its music. I gave in to temptation when I
was in HMV last and found “The 20 Greatest Western
Themes” for a mere £2. Score! It was worth a whirl for
so little and I was pleasantly impressed.
Think back to all the Westerns you’ve watched over
the years, even stuff like Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill. Were
it not for the music, these films wouldn’t be nearly so

“
Fortunately, Luke has an
dramatic. In fact, I recommend you pick up some of these Adeptus Arbites army, complete Unless you’re
movie soundtracks, or anything that Tarantino raves with patrol cars, riot tanks, already rich, being

about. The music oozes atmosphere and there’s nothing
like hearing “A Fistful Of Dollars” when your gang has
just burnt down a Scavvie farm, left the inhabitants for
dead and taken what few creds they had hidden away.
But if your gang keeps up this kind of unsavoury
activity, even on the less popular dregs of society, they’ll
wind up on the wrong side of the law.
I A M TH E L AW !
The bank job had been going so well before the Arbites
showed up in the riot tank and started firing smoke
grenades everywhere.
”
SWAT team and riot troops.
an outlaw sucks.
Whenever there’s a riot, a
looting spree or something
highly illegal, the arbites show up to keep the peace and
they certainly don’t do it quietly!
In Necromunda the Arbites are scary as hell. They’re
very accurate, well armoured and they never run out of
ammo. Worst of all, if the gangers kill any of them, they
will earn the ‘cop killer’ skill. Not a skill as such, but they
Arbites are more likely to show up and when they do,
they’ll know who to shoot first.
Regardless of how big, or hard your gang may be,
when you see just one squad of Arbites coming your
way, you’d better leg it!

WA N T E D : D E A D OR A LIVE
Most of the gangers got away from the bungled bank
job, even though “Gummy Pete” was hung without trial
from a lamp post and “Bolter Bob” was shipped off with
the penal legion. The trouble was just starting now thee
gangs were all wanted.

Being outlawed wasn’t so bad, seeing as the gangs

95
were pretty experienced by this point and had plenty of
credits to spend at the outlaw trading post. But unless
you’re already rich, being an outlaw sucks.
After liberating some highly dangerous underhive
scum from a prison transport and killing a couple of
Arbites, the law took it personally. That was when we
decided it was time to ‘retire’ our gangs and start a new
campaign.
G OI NG O U T I N S T Y L E
While the Necromunda rule book will tell you that your
gang can go into the wastes, fly off world or set up their
own flower arranging business like a bunch of sissies,
we’ll tell you different!
96
Following the hijacking of a prison transport and the
addition of many dangerous criminals to their ranks and
earning themselves the black mark of ‘cop killers’; the
Arbites came down hard on the gangs. Twenty arbites in
patrol cars surrounded the outlaw camp and that’s when
the massacre began. Throwing down their weapons and
pleading for the lives or trying to stand and fight did
no good. The Adeptus Arbites were accurate and well
armoured. The gangs didn’t stand a chance…
But someone managed to get away amidst the carnage.
Half brained, frag lobbing juve “Bomber Betsy” made it
off the edge of the table with the dying screams of the
gang leaders in her ears as they were bludgeoned to
mush by the Arbites’ batons.
In later campaigns the gangs were drafted into the
Imperial Guard, never to be seen again or fell back to the
Arbite’s precinct to assist in a valiant last stand against
the endless sea of zombies that had been sweeping the
under hive.
Killing everyone off brings a great sense of finality.
You will always looks back and remember your favourite
gangers with awe, knowing that they died well. Who
knows, one of them might even get away to come back
in the next campaign?
- ADAM SMITH
Necromunda Down With the Hood The Cadian torso also doesn’t sit on the skinny High
Elf waist. Get the modelling knife out; you’ve got some

W hat do you get if you mix a Wood Elf, a High

Elf and a Cadian Imperial Guardsman?
prepping to do.

A
The first thing you need to do is remove the imperial
sleek and sinister Chaos Cultist, of course! insignia from the left breastplate of the Cadian bodies
and lasguns. You can file these off, but I prefer to scrape/
I’ll admit right now that this was not my brilliant
cut them off with
vision. It was in fact the work of one of those very talented This cultist has been
a modelling knife.
people who will post a truly inspiring image somewhere armed with a tommy
It’s probably best gun style heavy
on the net, then disappear forever more, their mission of stubber, made from
to file them off,
inspiration and awe completed. a grenade launcher,
as I’ve hacked but with the end
swapped for the
You’ll only want to make these guys if you’re serious up my left thumb exhaust of an Ork war
about cultists, or just love bits. Three boxed sets in pretty good using buggy. The Cadian
communications
order to produce a sixteen-man gang means that each the other method. backpack was stripped
of your gangers are weighing in at over £3 each. To make You also need to down to form a large
ammo case, as well as
matters worse, I’ll only be using eleven of them, due to remove the collars allow for the stowage
carry case restrictions. from the Cadian of a spare lasgun.

bodies.

C L E A N I NG AND P R E PA R AT ION Next, you need to cut a new waist on the High Elf legs.
It’s best to cut just 1mm down from the current waist
Just get some of the High Elf archer legs, attach a as the component is wider here and so that the Cadian
Cadian torso and arms, then stick on a Wood Elf hooded torso can sit on top more comfortably.
head. The conversions should
be simple, but like so many Finally, remove the knobbly bit from
things, they are not. The the Wood Elf neck and you’re ready to
Wood Elf head doesn’t sit start assembling your cultists.
on the Cadian torso, even
after removing the collar.

97
 The head won’t go on particularly well, but a good
ST E P BY ST E P
dose of polystyrene cement should sort that out and
Using polystyrene cement, glue the High Elf legs to melt the plastic together to cover the gap. You can
the Cadian round bases. always strengthen it around the edges with super glue if
need be. To finish up, you can attach some of the Cadian
Next, attach the Cadian arms accessories like pouches, canteens, knives and grenades
and gun to the Cadian torso about the waists.
using polystyrene cement. Once
everything is dry, line up the Cadian
torso over the waist of the High Elf TH E L E A DE R
legs. Now you can see whether or
I have no idea what game system
not the torso sits right, if you need
this guy is from. I found him in
to do a little more trimming, or if
my local hobby shop bits box and
you need to re-cut the High Elf waist
bought him for just £1. He makes
in order to stop the model looking
an ideal cult leader. Too bad I can’t
as though he’s leaning backwards,
put a gun in his hand, so he gets
This cultist carries a or too far forwards. Usually it’s the
plasma gun from the old a lasgun strapped across his back
Ork weapons sprue. The
former. Once you’re happy with that,
instead.
Cadian laspistol arm was glue the waists together with more
trimmed around the hand
polystyrene cement. The Demagogue preaches
and the plasma gun glued You could use these guys as House
in place. to the converted
Cawdor gangers, Redemptionists,
Finally, the head goes on. I find
Chaos Cultists or any other sort of robed human, maybe
it’s best to put the head on last, as you can create the
even Genestealer brood brothers?
pose of a character largely by which way he is looking.
Whether he’s looking around, or aiming his gun is up For narrative purposes, I chose to paint mine in a
to you. Generally I prefer my guys to me aiming and neutral colourscheme so that they could take on the role
shooting, as that’s what they do most of the time during of any cult type as non-player characters in a Necromunda
the game. Actually, they lie on the ground holding their campaign as well as being a playable gang.
innards in, but let’s not talk about that.

98
 watered down Purple Ink around the eyes for that tired
PA I N T I NG
and corrupted look.
The painting was very simple for these guys. I wanted
Now to take the cult out scavenging...
them to look a little like the monks from Resident Evil 4,
so I left most of their robes Chaos Black, highlighted
along the edges with some Bleached Bone mixed with
Chaos Black. I drybrushed their weapons with Boltgun
Metal, then painted the edges with a little Mithril Silver
mixed in with Boltgun Metal. The non-metallic parts
were painted to look wooden by using a basecoat of
Scorched Brown, lines painted on with Bestial Brown
and highlighting those lines using Snakebite Leather and
Snakebite Leather mixed with some Bleached Bone.

Finally, I painted the faces and hands with Dwarf

Flesh, a layer of Elf Flesh, then a highlight of Elf Flesh
mixed with a little Skull White to get a pale skin tone.
I painted the eyes with Skull White, then painted some

99
Run Him Outta Town! a good head start, or for a flagging gang to catch up
in the rankings. The gang should be at a very low level

E verything was going so well for the infamous

bounty hunter known only as The Pitt; right up
until his pint of Green Rate ale started to levitate in
otherwise The Pitt won’t stand much of a chance.

The Applewood Boys, led by their tobacco chewing,

front of him that is. The barmen yelled “Wych!” and
put a man stopper round through his left leg. Life
was never quite the same, especially when he realised
he’d stopped off at a Redemptionist sympathisers’
settlement. Before you could say “Paraffin” the town
got themselves a posse and The Pitt was on the run.
Name M WS BS S T W I A LD SV
plasma gun totting, wych hunt leader Flint Westwood
took the duty open themselves to “Run that thar wych-
boy outta our town.” There are 11 of the Redemptionists
in total. 8 with autogun and exterminator cartridge (for
close encounters) and two novices with autopistols.
None of them have gained any skills or stat increases,
but they still ain’t pretty.

The Pitt 4 4 5 4 4 3 4 2 8 -
Age: 52 LET T H E W YC H H U N T B E G I N !
Occupation: Bounty Hunter
Equipment: Bolter, Bolt SET UP:
pistol with red dot sight,
chainsword, bionic eye, bionic
leg, rebreather
Skills: True grit, Hip
shooting, Rapid fire-bolter,
levitate (ignores terrain
movement penalties), dead
‘ard (cannot be pinned)

The wych hunters would be made up of a rookie

Redemptionist gang, although you can easily take any
other gang and modify the scenario accordingly. This
is a great scenario for getting a particular gang off to

100
 The table is 48” by 48”. We find that playing on a
board this size makes Necromunda a lot more close up
and personal and stops people from counting on their
heavy weapons too much.
The Pitt sets up anywhere 24” onto the board edge
and the Redemptionist gang is placed up to 8” onto the
board.
The Pitt’s objective is to flee off the board edge into
the wastes, never to be seen round these parts again.
The Redemptionists have to take him out of action in
order to be captured, interrogated and burned at the
stake.
In this instance, The Pitt stood behind the tank shed
in order to minimize incoming fire while The Applewood
Boys formed a line in order to cover all the angles of the
terrain as the chase progressed. The Pitt always gets the
first turn.
TURN 1: THE PITT
The Pitt runs forward, keeping out of sight as best as he
can. But it’s not going to be easy with 3 Redemptionists
coming round from the left and a whole posse of them
coming in from the centre.
TURN 1: THE A PPLEWOOD BOYS
Wych Hunter Westwood signaled to his gang “The
wych gotta burn. It’s the Emp’rers will!” Dick Dangerous,
Spittoon Sid and No Chance Nick followed behind their
charging leader, while Sneaky Pete and Crazy Dave
moved up onto the rocks to get a shot at The Pitt.
“I’m gonna bag me some citay boy!”
Sneaky Pete hollered as he let fly with his
autogun, hitting and wounding The Pitt.
Meanwhile, The Man with No Name, The Kid with No
Face and Crispy Jimmy legged it round the left of the
tank shed, leaving themselves out in the open, but they’d
be sure to nail The Pitt next turn.
Smooth James and Rooftop Rob ran up the right flank,
planning to get up onto the rocky outcrop at the far
end of the board and help to close the net later in the
game.
101
TURN 2: THE PITT
Having taken a round through the shoulder, The Pitt
wasn’t best pleased and drew his bolt pistol as he dived
behind the wreckage of an old truck. The shot sent
Flint Westwood crashing into the ground as it punched
through his chest and out his back in a show of gore.
we remembered they were all carrying exterminator
cartridges, we thought again.
TURN 2: THE A PPLEWOOD BOYS
Flint Westwood was eating dirt and leaving a rather
nasty stain too. That was when he bled out and was
removed from play.

“You killed ma’ Pa!” cried No Chance Nick. The

Applewood Boys opened fire as one, spectacularly
hitting nothing, while Crazy Dave unloaded a full clip,
then realized he was out of ammo.

TURN 3: THE PITT

Things were looking a little tricky now that the
Redemptionists were closing in and The Pitt wouldn’t be
able to make a stand from behind the cover of the old

“You made one mistake. You showed up”

said The Pitt through his rebreather.

With the plasma gun out of the game, The Pitt’s life
became much easier. It was at this point that we wondered
if The Pitt could take the Redemptionists on, but when

102
truck. He fled round the back of the Bodger’s Hut and Dick Dangerous was
hid amongst the scrap, staying out of sight, but he could up on top of the tank
draw a bead on Rooftop Rob over on the right flank. shed. Spittoon Sid and
The shot grazed him and he threw himself to the floor, No Chance Nick were
pinned. on the other side of the
Bodger’s Hut, ready to
TURN 3: THE A PPLEWOOD BOYS climb up on the roof
next turn. Meanwhile,
The Man with No
Name, The Kid with No
Face and Crispy Jimmy continued running round the left
flank.

The gang was in position; all they had to do was wait

for The Pitt to poke his ugly head out. There would be
no escape.

TURN 4: THE PITT

The wych hunters were closing in fast
and there was only one way to run –up!
Fortunately there was a small barricade.
The Pitt managed to squeeze himself just
behind it and let loose with his bolt pistol.
The Kid with No Face quickly became
“Geddup!” Smooth James gave Rooftop Rob a swift
‘The Kid with No Head’ and was soon
kick (in his own smooth way). The pinned brother got
nothing but a stain and a memory. The
back on his feet. The pair of them continued running up
Pitt marveled at his own ability. Learning
the rocky outcrop while the rest of the boys moved in.
to hipshoot was the best decision he’d ever made.

103
TURN 4: THE A PPLEWOOD BOYS
Sneaky Pete and Crazy Dave were sick of having
nothing to shoot at all this time and moved up onto the
rock bridge for a better line of sight when The Pitt makes
a break for the board edge.
Smooth James and Rooftop Rob continued jogging
round the right flank and catch the Pitt in a crossfire.
Spittoon Sid and No Chance Nick climbed up onto the
roof of the Bodger’s Hut and waited.
“Kid! He killed the kid!” The Man with No Name was
furious and opened fire on The Pitt, hitting him in the
chest. The Pitt shook and coughed blood, but it was a
long way from over. It looked like The Man with No Name
might make a name for himself yet.
104
TURN 5: THE PITT
There was nothing left to do
but make a break for it. Seven
of The Applewood boys would
be able to fill The Pitt with lead
next turn. He sprinted out from
behind the barricade to stop
within an inch of the short cliff
edge. A quick calculation meant
that the odds were slightly in his
favour. Besides, everyone knows
that a Redemptionist can’t hit a
cow’s arse with a banjo.
“Gentlemen! You will forever
remember this as the day that you almost caught-“
TURN 5: THE A PPLEWOOD BOYS
Smooth James had been waiting to get The Pitt in
his sights and now was his chance! If only his hapless
comrade Rooftop Rob didn’t screw things up…
The Applewood Boys took careful aim at The Pitt and
opened fire.
The Man with No Face missed, Crispy Jimmy missed,
Spittoon Sid was out of range, Sneaky Pete and Crazy
Dave were out of range, Dick Dangerous couldn’t quite see,
No Chance Nick spectacularly had no chance of hitting,
 while Rooftop Rob had
the perfect shot, but
failed to wound. It all
came down to Smooth
James.

The Pitt was cut

down with a loud groan
and Smooth James
waved his autogun
triumphantly.
somewhere and I’m sure he’ll be back to clean up this
“Hey, that’s smooooth!”
town…
- ADAM SMITH
TH E A F T E R M AT H
The Applewood Boys (named after a type of cheese)
had lost a new recruit, but gained a significant prize in
bounty on The Pitt and lucky for
them, Flint Westwood made a full
recovery. Everything was looking
bright and shiny for them until we
rolled for The Pitt’s serious injury.
66 – Survives against the odds.

Well, you can’t be captured if

you’ve survived against the odds
now can you? The Pitt somehow
eluded capture. He’s out there

105
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