An Introduction to my 40k history

I started playing 40k in about 2003 or 2004, I can’t remember exactly but it was something like that. I have been a Chaos Space Marines player from the start. My 40k experience has been limited to a group of friends that range from about 6 players to 3 at different times. For this reason my playing experience is a bit different from others. Designing and customising lists to best defeat my friends is a big part of the game for us, it isn’t considered bad for us as we all do it. Trying to predict our opponent’s list and prepare while surprising them with our own choice is great fun.

The Early Years

I don’t remember much of the early years, I started with a Khorne army built from the CSM battle force box. I remember fighting against Orks in battles with Daemonettes (back when they were one codex). I also remember epic battles between my Berserkers and Craig’s Death Company, back in the day when they were actually evenly matched. (No more, for the same points Death Company now slaughter Berserkers with ease). Unfortunately I don’t have any more details.

5^th ed: the reign of Tzeentch.

When 5^th ed came out and the new Chaos Space Marines codex, like so many of my ruinous brothers and sisters, I turned to Nurgle and the mighty Plague Marines. This turned out to be disastrous, as my friend Mike was expecting them and brought as many plasma cannons and guns as he could, destroying my Plague Marines with ease; as in 5^th Feel No Pain on Plague Marines could not be used against AP2. The result was 2 very easy victories by Mike (as in I only killed about 20% of his army while I lost 80%+).

Disappointed by the complete failure of my CSM I decided to redesign my army, and bolster it with some shiny new toys…

My answer came in the form of Tzeentch Thousand Sons, they quickly got supported by a Daemon Prince, Defiler and Obliterators. For some reason we kept playing ‘Purge The Alien’ missions (or whatever it was called back then) so my Thousand Sons gun lines proved unstoppable. With the range of the Defiler battle cannon, the tank busting power of the Obliterators and the destruction of the Daemon Prince my mighty force won or drew 7 battles in a row! Defeating Mike’s Orks, Dark Angels and Necrons and my friend Craig’s Blood Angels. They went up against Deathwing terminator armies, hordes of Death Company with deep striking Sanguinary Guard, Necron C’Tans and legions of Orks.

6^th ed; and the new Chaos Codex.

6^th ed has seen a major restructuring of the CSM codex and overall rules. Defilers are now 50% more expensive and much, much easier to kill (new grenade/melta bomb rules, hull points etc). Daemon Princes are also much more expensive and easier to kill. However, in all fairness I think the changes have balanced things out better. It has, however, forced me to redesign my army completely. All those ‘must have’ power fists on champions are now not the best choice (power sword for duels and melta bombs for walkers), Plague Marines are once again awesome and now bikes rock!

What has happened with my army now, is that I have a vast range of options to pick from and instead of settling on a particular build, I use the range of choices to keep my friends guessing; what will I bring next game?

Daemons

Recently I made the decision, finally, to build a Daemon army. This has proven to be the best decision as it has reinvigorated my interest in the game (I love playing them) and given me a much bigger range of tactics available; particularly when you factor in allies. I timed my Daemon army with my Friend Mike’s desire to get back into Orks and the two of us have had a series of great games. As Mike and I lack lots of terrain, we used piles of Ork buggies and other Ork pieces as terrain. This has created the series of battles for ‘Snotrot Supply Depot’, 5 in total, and a number of ‘nearby’ battles. This has become central to the continuing narrative of my Daemons.

Battle Reports

I have been recording detailed battle reports since November 2013. My early reports are a little basic, but they become much more sophisticated and detailed as they go; including full army lists, pre and post battle comments discussing tactics, and detailed deployment. Prior to my first battle report I wrote up a ‘battle analysis’ to review the performance of the units and tactics I used, but I only started these after 6^th ed came out.