I figured I’d give the Drop Pod army another shot, as it can be quite an amusing little side-army (hah, side-army… Expensive little distraction, wouldn’t you say?!)

Leigh, getting wise to the drop pod situation after our last game, decided to keep most of his force in reserve – a risky gambit, but sensible nonetheless.

Opting for a split deployment, Sean’s forces held their right flank, while a small group of Leigh’s troops set up on the left. Craig deployed most of his force opposite Sean.

We were lucky enough to get turn 1, which saw my Ironclad Dreadnought land and toast a few guardsmen – I had planned to assault, but in my eagerness, I burnt away the wrong unit and so was left standing around – luckily it was within minimum range of the Basilisks and the only heavy weapons nearby were some heavy bolters.

My Sternguard landed more central on the Guard’s board-edge, and, backed up by two tactical squads which had also dropped in, they proceeded to decimate a large unit of conscripts with massed bolter-fire.

The guard players first turn was spent re-arranging their lines slightly to adapt to the new threat – although some good shooting meant that a lot of my own marines went down under heavy fire from the Medusa and Leman Russ Executioner, with the added insult of seeing my remaining Sternguard heroically dive for cover under a Siege Mortar shell (Craig’s quote of ‘Emperor’s Finest my arse’ pretty much summed it up!).

As we started our second turn, I managed to fluff up my reserve rolls, with my assault squad being the only other pod out of four to arrive. I decided to put pressure on Leigh’s side of the board and landed them near his lines. My units which had arrived in turn 1 returned fire with the guarsdmen near the centre of the board, while my Ironclad decided to bash in the Griffon, which it did in due course. Craig’s two dreadnoughts made a good account of themselves, shaking or stunning two Leman Russes on Sean’s extreme right, while his Attack Bikes yet again proved their worth by gunning down various units (aside from the near-invincible Command HQ with their blasted Medic…).

Leigh’s reserve rolls were a little better, with his Leman Russ squadron showing up, along with one unit of his Rough Riders, plus a platoon commander and two armoured fist units. Figuring out how to get them on the board, however, was another story.

As expected, my assault squad bore the brunt of the rough rider charge, but thanks to some poor dice on Leigh’s part, I was able to weather the storm and hold the horsemen at bay for a turn. The Leman Russes came on towards the centre of the board and began pummeling my Marines (who were luckily in cover for the most part, and so didn’t suffer as many casualties as I’d feared).

Sean began to pour fire in at Craig’s Tactical squads and Librarian who had slowly been advancing towards his lines, and was lucky enough to see the psyker fall under a hail of Lasgun fire. One of the Armoured Fist units which had arrived in support of the Rough Riders managed to destroy the Seismic Hammer on my Ironclad (blasted rear-armour). By the end of turn two, things weren’t looking too rosy for the Astartes.

Turn 3 began with my final 3 drop pods showing up, putting my Captain, Command Squad and two more Tactical Squads into the fight – one Tactical squad landed on the Guard’s right-flank to reinforce Craig’s units, while my Command Squad and fourth Tactical unit landed centrally to bolster my own attack. The Ironclad, angered at the audacity of the newly arrived Armoured Fist unit, decided to charge in and batter the Chimera, immobilising it and taking off both weapons, leaving the squad inside helpless as they couldn’t deploy or fire for a turn. With a lucky meltagun shot, I managed to blow the Battle Cannon off of one Leman Russ, while during the assault phase I managed to destroy two more Leman Russes and blow another weapon off. (I have the bizarre Squadron rules to thank for that…)

With time running out, we squeezed in a final turn – my Ironclad, with help from the Assault Squad, finished off the Armoured Fist unit, while over on the right flank the Marines mopped up the rest of the guard resistance. Some late arrivals in the form of snipers and a second unit of Rough Riders still weren’t enough to turn the tide, and eventually the Marines prevailed.

I do enjoy using my Drop Pod army, although I think it’ll take a back-seat and only come out in bigger games – I’m going to go back to a more traditional foot-slogging Marine list, which is what I’m more used to. Plus I have two Vindicators just sitting around collecting dust at the moment!

The last few weeks have seen me dust-off my Scouts and prepare them for a few outings on the tabletop – I also picked up five more Scout bikes and three Landspeeder Storms for them, and yesterday saw their first outing as a coherent force.

I would be facing Sean (of Lucky 88th fame), who would be using his Guard army. We were also joined by two younger club members who brought more Guard and some Tyranids.

Set-up for me was rather easy, as I kept my speeders in reserve and so only deployed my captain and command squad, who were placed in a wood for some much-needed cover from the two Leman Russ and Medusa mortar which were present.

Once Sean’s gunline had been set up, I placed my Scouts in the ruins near the centre of the board, with my Scout bikes taking up position ready to hit the right flank. Some oversights on my part meant that I didn’t get a first turn charge off with them – the beauty of the bikes having both Scout and Infiltrate means they can scoot up with their Scout move, then take their first turn move and charge, however I assumed that first turn charges weren’t allowed, which meant my bikes were left in the open and were promptly obliterated by the three tanks.

However, driving up and unloading 6 Frag templates plus a hail of twin-linked Bolter shots was more than sufficient to eliminate the infantry screen surrounding the tanks, and so when my Speeders arrived, they were able to get in close and knock out both the Russes and the Medusa in a couple of turns – Anti-tank for Marines is now pretty plentiful what with Krak Grenades being issued all-round, and vehicles getting hit in the Rear when assaulted is a definite bonus.

In the centre of the board, my standard Scout units fared very well, trading fire with Guard units, seeing them off the board bit by bit, and finally despatching a Broodlord and retinue with massed firepower.

Given that two other players were also in the mix, I can’t help but feel that I haven’t been able to properly test out the scouts yet, so another outing or two will give me a good idea of what they’re capable of on their own. I suspect they’ll struggle against tougher armies such as Orks or Marines, but I’m sure in a big game they would be a hell of a laugh to use.

Ever since I saw my friend’s Raptor Scout army (waaaaay back in my Maelstrom Crew days), I was inspired to create my own. It began with the metal scouts I had already. DDWG were having a campaign involving Space Marines so I got around to re-painting my scouts. In the beginning, they’d had this horrible blue, red and white colour scheme which really didn’t help them when it came to sneaking up on things. They then went over to Codex Grey, but I felt this was still too bright for infiltrating in. Finally, I bit the bullet and mixed my own dark grey using Codex Grey and some black ink.

Going with this vibe, i repainted all of my scouts (at this stage, only comprising of about 15 metal scouts) in more appropriate colours, whilst still remaining in keeping with the colours of my other Space Marines.

With the release of plastic scouts during the short-lived 4th edition of 40k, my plans for an entire army of scouts were realised. I picked up quite a few boxes of them and began formulating an army of scouts. Of course, the 4th Edition codex was a lot more forgiving to ‘custom’ armies such as this, and so my command squad was able to take such skills as Infiltrate, which really kept things in theme.

Alas, that’s changed now in the 5th Edition codex, although it has allowed me to bolster the ranks of the scouts by taking Scout Bikes (finally in plastic) and the new Landspeeder Storm, which, as of last night, I now own three of.

I’m planning to run a few games with the Scouts and see how they fare. Of course, I expect them to lose horribly. Watch this space.