Dark Angels Chaplain on Bike – Conversion

This is a piece from a little while ago. I wanted a unique character to lead my Ravenwing/Deathwing 1000 points list (see below). The only mounted non-epic character is a chaplain on a bike, so here we go.

The Interrogator Chaplain raises his power sword over the strangely wooden battlefield.

I removed the standard chaplain weapon and swapped it for a power sword from one of the various Dark Angels upgrade sprues. The key was very carefully cutting away the original weapon hand while retaining the extended wrist guard. Some further fettling to get a reasonable pose and 90% of the work was done. The other changes were a shoulder pad swap for one with Dark Angels insignia and adding a variety of small items (bags, skulls, keys, etc.) across the model. I didn’t add the halo from the Chaplain kit – I’ll fill in the gap on the back of the helmet before he gets primed.

On to the battlefield!

A photo from one of the three games we got through that weekend.

The Chaplain’s first outing was for a series of three games against the Thousand Sons. You can see the starting positions for one of the games above.

The list:

Space Marines
Dark Angels
Incursion (1000 points)
Company of Hunters

CHARACTERS

Chaplain on Bike (75 points)
• Warlord

Ravenwing Command Squad (140 points)
• 1x Ravenwing Champion
• Enhancement: Recon Hunter
• 1x Ravenwing Apothecary
• 1x Ravenwing Ancient

BATTLELINE

Outrider Squad (140 points)
• 1x Outrider Sergeant
• 2x Outrider
• 1x Invader ATV
1x Multi-melta

Outrider Squad (140 points)
• 1x Outrider Sergeant
• 2x Outrider
• 1x Invader ATV
1x Onslaught Gatling Cannon

Outrider Squad (80 points)
• 1x Outrider Sergeant
• 2x Outrider

OTHER DATASHEETS

Deathwing Terminator Squad (360 points)
• 1x Deathwing Sergeant
• 9x Deathwing Terminator
    • 2x Assault cannon
      2x Chainfist

Invader ATV (60 points)
    1x Multi-melta

All three games resulted in crushing victories for the Dark Angels! Admittedly this was not at all a competitive Thousand Sons build. We also learned that rolling double sixes to wound with a multi-melta when the Chaplain granted it Devastating Wounds is not something even a Daemon Prince can survive.

You may have noticed in the photo that not a single Ravenwing model is painted yet (and only 50% of the terminators). That is something I hope to get around to soon.

More Plague Marines!

I’ve recently started altering the Plague Marine units in my lists to include a couple of models armed with the flail of corruption. These weapons trade the standard bolt gun for a double handed melee weapon. The flail grants d3 attack rolls per attack (so 2d3 on the charge thanks to the latest rules updates for marines of all flavours). These attacks at at high strength with decent AP and cause 2D each. Importantly any “leftover” damage isn’t wasted – like mortal wounds it carries over to the next model.

Putting two of these in my standard 7 man squads loses me two bolter shots but gives the unit something that will both clear chaff and threaten heavy infantry.

Unfortunately, the Plague Marines box only comes with one of these weapons. In addition, I seem to have a thing for converting EtB and starter set models to see what I can get out of them.

This time I converted four of the seven Plague Marines from Dark Imperium to wield flails savaged from Chaos Marauders and Empire Flagellants. One of the remaining models is most of the way to being an icon bearer and another is no a plague champion. The only model not used so far is the original champion who’s powerfist is quite difficult to remove.

The parts in green were from left over EtB Plague Marines while the icon bearers arm is from a beastmen Gor box. A little bit of greenstuff to cover joins and extend a cloak was all that was left to do.

I should also give credit to Buttscribe whose site produces the datasheet shown above from battlescribe files.

Now I have quite a large stack of painting to do (again!).

+++The blood of convertors is the blood of the Imperium+++

Fists of Flame (Vanguard Detachment)

I’m going to start with one of my favourite recent detachments for Warhammer 40000. While it’s not a full list on it’s own, this small detachment adds some serious anti-horde fire power.

Army: Dark Angels

Detachment: Vanguard (Min. 1HQ, 3 Elite) – 398 pts

HQ: Primaris Lieutenant (Master crafted auto bolt rifle) 74pts

Elites: Aggressor Squad (Aggressor Sergeant, 2 Aggressors, flamestorm gauntlets) 108 pts

Aggressor Squad (Aggressor Sergeant, 2 Aggressors, flamestorm gauntlets) 108 pts

While I’ve put Dark Angels (because I play Dark Angels) this works with any space marine force, arguably better with some chapters.

The key here is controlled aggression. I use then as a huge speed bump against hordes (Tyranids mostly in my case). I deploy the squads out at the front of my lines and dare the enemy to charge them. When the enemy do get close I move as close as possible to them to ensure they are within the 8″ range of the flame gauntlets when they charge.

The Lieutenant isn’t just a HQ tax, his reroll wounds is a bonus to units which hit automatically.

In my recent games the big problem army for my Dark Angels has been a Tyranids army with some huge units of Hormaguants. In fact the Tyranids went undefeated in our recent mini tournament. Something like the list above can help blunt the devastating massed charge that has signalled the end for Imperial Fists, Death Guard and Emperor’s Children in the above games.

***”For the Lion!”***