Lost in the Warp?

Wow, it's been a while, hasn't it? Well, the good news is I haven't given up on gaming - in fact I've found some games that I've really been enjoying. Now for the bad news for all of you 40K fans - none of these games have anything to do with Games Workshop. 

There's been a flood of new releases coming from the studios in Nottingham, and here I am, not really caring too much one way or the other. I just couldn't get very excited about the brand new edition or the brand new Chaos Space Marines book. Starting a new army would mean I would have to sell some of my organs, so I decided to focus on only a couple of games for now. 

My first love, as far as games go, has to be D&D. Yeah, I messed around with the red box as a kid, and I LOVED those TSR choose your own adventure books. Endless Quest is what they were called, and I would love to have a complete set of those. 

You're totally lying if you never skipped back if you screwed up.

So anyways, years later I bought Baldur's Gate II, thinking it looked pretty cool. Hours were lost on that game - I ran Irenicus's dungeon so many times whenever I made new characters. Anyways, the blur that was my twenties happened, great amounts of alcohol were consumed, and I forgot all about my fascination with D&D until just recently. I took the dip into 4e, even tried running it for a while, but it felt so...off. Easy to run, and easy enough to play, but...not quite D&D for some reason. Then there was Essentials. Then there was DDI and the online only character builder fiasco. From what I've heard about Next, I think as long as WotC has the D&D rights, it's going to continue to be a mess. However, there was another company that seemed to be doing it right...

I picked up the Pathfinder Core Rulebook a little bit after it was first released in a hardcover. It was amazing. I liked the art, I liked all the ridiculously detailed rules, so I started out with play by post games, sort of learning the system from square one. A couple years later, and I'm finally running my own play by post games, and looking to put a regular tabletop group together as well. I absolutely love running games for Pathfinder - and I'm getting much better all the time at it as well. The adventure paths are excellent, the supplements have been consistently excellent, and Paizo is a good company - where else can you talk directly to staff on the message boards? 

As for miniature games, I have finally been won over by the Warmachine/Hordes game put out by Privateer Press. I'm just going to say it - it's a much better game than 40K. Less emphasis on list building, solid rules, and a good community. I even picked up the Iron Kingdoms RPG, and have been having some fun making characters and figuring out that game as well - it's similar in many respects to the Warmachine rules, at least as far as combat goes. Some of the model sculpts PP puts out are pretty cool, and they're fun to paint. Other models...well, let's just say that the Cryx collosal reminds me of something from Lost in Space. The Cygnar colossal, (Stormwall?) now that is a cool giant robot. 

Meanwhile, my thin $50 hardcover codex books for Warhammer 40,000 are sitting on my shelf. My Fantasy books are doing the same thing, and I haven't been motivated to paint my meager reboot (5 Chaos Knights and a Lord) of Warriors of Chaos either. I have all kinds of Black Crusade and Deathwatch books that I still skim through occasionally, but I just can't get excited about playing or GMing those games either. 

So yeah, for the time being, I'm just not that into 40K anymore. It's been like this for a while, at least since I last posted. I'm not sure if I want to jump back in any time soon. Probably not. Sure, the stuff GW has been putting out is pretty high quality, but they've pushed me out of the market with their prices, and kind of pushed me away from their games in general. 40K feels a lot like a grind these days, and when a game gets to feel like that, it just isn't fun anymore. 

There's always going to be some new thing that comes out, or some new game that your friends want people to try. That's great, but I'm sticking to my guns this time. Now, I might build up a Hordes army, or even a more complete army faction in Warmachine, but there is a TON of choice when it comes to miniatures games these days. I can't buy into every system. There's a sizable local community here devoted to Warmachine/Hordes, and the players I've met seem very enthusiastic and positive. 

So for now, I'm perfectly happy playing Warmachine occasionally and sticking with Pathfinder as my RPG, and my main gaming hobby. A few books, and a few models, and I feel like I'm set for a while. And you can never have enough dice, but dice are relatively cheap, right? Is this blog going to stick around? Sure, I see no reason to take it down. Will it change focus, or even the name? I don't know, but I might start a new blog. Stay tuned. 

Building a Crimson Slaughter Army with Dark Vengeance and a Chaos Battleforce

I’ve been trying to figure out just how I want to build a ‘new’ Chaos army, now that I’ve had a chance to read and analyze the new Chaos Space Marines codex. We’ve been talking about doing a slow grow campaign early next year, and I’m torn between wanting to return to my beloved traitors or expand a Dark Eldar battleforce I picked up. The biggest problem, at least from a painting perspective, with the Dark Kin is doing the small details justice. The studio paint scheme is not particularly simple, and while I’ve gotten decent results speed-painting, I just don’t see how I am going to crank out four to six skimmer vehicles with glowing lines without losing my mind.

So I’ve started looking at how I could easily build up a Chaos Space Marines force, using the models included in the Dark Vengeance starter box and the ‘new’ Chaos Space Marine Battleforce set. As far as battleforces go, the Chaos one is always a little harder to fit into a viable list. The last time around you got Berzerkers, which I usually find have limited usefulness, and have become sort of a ‘meh’ choice compared to some of the other assault units out there. I don’t remember if you got Possessed in the last one (I think so), but this is another one of those units that you either like if you enjoy the background, but hate if you’re putting together something competitive. They’re much better this time around, with a D3 table giving you more utility with them, but they’re still somewhat pricey, and you still have to get them where you need them before they get shot into tiny little daemon pieces. The new battleforce gives you the standard Rhino and ten dudes, which are always useful – even if my meltagunners have been woefully incompetent in every army I wind up playing! Finally, the new addition is a squad of Bikers. I never really used Bikers with the last codex, as I had plenty of stuff to fill up my lists without going to the dismal variety of Fast Attack choices. This time around, you get sexy new Raptor models, which can also be assembled as Warp Talons (which I want to love from  a fluff perspective, but have glaring weaknesses such as no assault grenades, for an exorbitant points cost) and now Spawn are slightly less useless and have been bumped into the Fast Attack slot. Oh, and you have a cool flier in the form of a Heldrake, which I have grown to sort of like, even though it has a gaping hole in the rear and looks like a Godzilla movie monster.

Anyways, I started looking at what I could do using all of the Chaos models in Dark Vengeance, adding all of the models in the Chaos battleforce, and then adding in some of the new and old plastic kits to fill out the Fast Attack and Heavy Support slots. This is meant as a total beginner army, it’s not tournament optimized or anything, but it gives someone the option to learn the rules for a lot of different units and models, and it keeps painting from getting boring by keeping multiple units to a minimum. The list is meant as a jumping off point once you build and paint the Dark Vengeance models and a battleforce. It’s possible that picking up the Black Crusade Tome of Blood supplement for followers of Khorne had a little bit to do with this, but the Crimson Slaughter – the invented warband for purposes of Dark Vengeance I guess – is supposed to be sort of aligned with Khorne more or less. At any rate, they’re mental, so they fit a Khorne theme well.

Starting off, we have the basic Dark Vengeance models. A Chaos Lord in power armor, a unit of Chosen with a variety of power weapons, a Helbrute/Dreadnought, and 10 cultists kitted with close combat weapons, 10 cultists with autoguns. The cultists are your troops, and the whole thing comes out to a little over 525 points or so. Maybe fun to play around with for a bit, but you’ll soon find that cultists, while very useful as fire magnets, speed bumps, and tarpit/harassment units, are actually a pretty poor choice to take and hold objectives. So the first order of business is to get some troops who can actually hold up to some punishment. Enter the battleforce, with a squad of 10 Chaos Marines.

Keeping with the Crimson Slaughter theme, I decide to keep these cheap and shooty, so I gave the champion a power sword in case he has to challenge, and gave the squad two plasma guns and called it a day. They also have a Rhino they’re going to ride around in with a Havoc Launcher, which is actually 3 points cheaper this time around – it was worth it for the points in the last codex IMO, so you want to think hard about taking this or a combi-flamer, depending on how you want to deploy the squads inside.

The Possessed are going to be a support Elite, maybe held in reserve or deployed in cover or a building to act as a surprise ambush unit. Don’t forget about your surprise ambush units you put inside buildings! I do that all the time. I gave the champion a Gift of Mutation, which is fluffy and will  probably give him something cool, and left it at that. A small base 5 model unit of just about anything is not going to last long in the open, so be wary.

Finally, I gave the bikers a power fist and 2 meltaguns. Maybe if they’re on bikes they’ll be confident enough to hit something. With the added toughness, I’m going to take the chance with the fist and use these guys as a throwaway walker/tank assault unit. The mobility can get you close, the toughness keeps you alive, and you can try to knock out stuff like dreadnoughts or monstrous creatures if you’re feeling lucky.

So with the addition of the battleforce, depending on how you equip it, you should have about a 1000 points to start playing with at this point. Where do we go from here? Well, it’s entirely up to you, but I added a whole bunch of unique units and even some Khornate Daemon allies to build the entire thing up to 2250, which is pretty much the maximum points limit I play. Take a look, I hope it inspires you to do something similar! I added the Aspiring Champion model (which just seems to fit better aesthetically with the Chosen, and he adds another power weapon) and gave the Lord and everyone in his Chosen retinue a Mark of Khorne. It also gives me a nice number of eight I can deploy in an additional Rhino, which corresponds to the points of the Chaos star and Khorne’s ‘unholy number.’ Very fluffy. Also, you should always give your units and champions names! Well, I think its fun, at any rate. 

KRANON THE RELENTLESS, CHAOS LORD – HQ

Power Sword, Plasma Pistol, Aura of Dark Glory, Mark of Khorne

DRAZNICHT’S RAVAGERS: CHOSEN (7) – ELITE

Draznicht - Champion: Power Maul

Lightning Claws – Power Axe x 2 – Power Fist – Combi-Bolter

Mark of Khorne

CHAOS RHINO – Destroyer Blades

MORTIS METALIKUS: HELBRUTE – ELITE

Multi-Melta, Power Fist

THE WARP-TOUCHED BRETHREN: POSSESSED (5) – ELITE

Ur’kuth – Possessed Champion: Gift of Mutation

HERALDS OF SLAUGHTER: CHAOS SPACE MARINES (10) – TROOPS

Xarus - Aspiring Champion: Power Sword - Plasma Gun x 2

CHAOS RHINO - Havoc Launcher

SECT ANARKUS: CHAOS CULTISTS (10) – TROOPS

Anarkus – Champion: 2 CCW

Flamer, 8 Cultists: CCW and Autopistol

SECT TETCHVAR: CHAOS CULTISTS (10) – TROOPS

Tetchvar – Champion: Shotgun, CCW

Heavy Stubber, 8 Cultists: Autoguns

SONS OF VENGEANCE: CHAOS BIKERS (3) – FAST ATTACK

Kulrath – Biker Champion, Power Fist - Meltagun x 2

VOIDSCOURGE: HELDRAKE – FAST ATTACK

DECIMUS: DEFILER – HEAVY SUPPORT

NIHILUS: CHAOS PREDATOR Battle Tank – HEAVY SUPPORT

Autocannon, Heavy Bolter Sponsons, Havoc Launcher

BESTIUS METALIKUS: FORGEFIEND - HEAVY SUPPORT

Ectoplasma Cannons x 2, Additional Ectoplasma Cannon

ALLIED DETACHMENT - CODEX: CHAOS DAEMONS

SAR’VOHK THE UNRELENTING - HERALD OF KHORNE HQ

Blessing of the Blood God, Fury of Khorne, Death Strike, Juggernaut

BLOODLETTERS OF KHORNE (10) TROOPS

BLOODCRUSHERS OF KHORNE (3) ELITE

Wicked Wyches

So I've been painting some of a Dark Eldar battleforce I picked up for a planned slow grow type campaign thing I'm working on starting next year. 

This project is a little different, since I am sacrificing just a little bit of my attention to detail in order to get these models painted quickly and efficiently so they look pretty good on the tabletop, even if they aren't an exact match for the stuff in White Dwarf and the codex. 

The color scheme is the same though, because that glowing sick green just looks SO COOL. 

Basically, this is a quick overcoat of Incubi Darkness with Kabalite Green and Sybarite Green for the highlights. Flesh was done with Rakarth Flesh, washed with Reikland Fleshshade and then done in a quick, thin layer of Pallid Wych Flesh. No eyes, just letting the shading 'hint' at features. The Hydra Gauntlets and Agoniser were done with Sotek Green and some of the off white mixed in to lighten for highlights and drybrushing. Metals were simple one-coats of Balthasar Gold and Leadbelcher followed by quick highlights of Sycorax Bronze and Runefang Steel. No washes! Bases were done in Dawnstone painted over glued sand, washed with Nuln Oil, and drybrushed with Longbeard Grey -rims done in Steel Legion Drab. 

I'll post some pics of the Kabalite Warriors and the Raider and Jetbikes as soon as I can. Not sure if I want to airbrush the base or brush paint yet. More to come for Dark Eldar December. 

Also, I'm poring through the Chaos codex, so have no fear - next year looks like a major Chaos project is going to be in the works!

Dark Eldar December

I've been working on a campaign that we're planning on running at Gamer's Sanctuary next year, and the idea behind it originally was to do a slow growth points bump, to encourage people with some holiday cash to start up new armies. What a perfect excuse for someone like me, who can be less than enthusiastic about actually playing 40K from time to time, to get stuck in learning the ins and outs of a new army. And boy, did I pick one. 

A while back I got really excited about Dark Eldar. Gorgeous models, cool fluff, wacky rules and arcane wargear, and so on. Well, I started in on painting a bunch of stuff, and my ambition petered out after the first Raider, and I wound up selling nearly all of my models. Bad move, I guess. Because as part of the slow grow campaign, I really wanted to try something new. Or old, I guess. Don't get me wrong, I think the new Chaos codex is filled with awesome, I just don't really feel like going any further with what I already have. To be honest, I'm a little bored with 3+ saves and space marines of any stripe in general. Yes, there are some neat little tricks in there, and some units I immediately wanted to fall in love with (read: Warp Talons) that turn out to be situational at best. The Heldrake, while being a beastly model and a kick ass infantry remover, would wind up costing me as much as a battleforce for any other army if I run 2. Eh. The model has grown on me a bit though. And Daemon allies can make a nasty list. But I'm really, really sick of painting black and gold power armor. So Chaos will always be my first love, but I've found a seductive little mistress to cavort with on the side. 

I want to start a petition to have this Deviant Art artist's work included in the next Dark Eldar codex!

For our planned escalation style campaign, I based the first several missions on combat patrol rules, so we're talking about 500 points or so in some fairly straight forward missions. Which should be a great opportunity to learn the ropes. Figuring out threat bubbles for close combat squads jumping out of AV 10-11 open-topped transports has been a fun little challenge so far. I'm still trying to figure out how to strike a balance - not wiping out squads too quickly from combined fire and assault so my units are left out in the open, but not diluting my strength enough so I'm getting wiped by overwatch fire. I'm building lists with the assumption that I'm mostly going to be facing shooty MEQ armies. In fact, splinter fire is incredibly important to making the rest of the army work. I expect to lose a whole bunch at first, but I'm approaching the whole thing with good grace and humor. After all, I'm writing most of the material for the campaign, so it's rewarding enough to see how people do with the missions I come up with. 

For those of you who HATE the idea of this blog not being solely about Chaos, well...variety is the spice of life. The bannerhead change IS temporary (but it does look cool, doesn't it?) and I'll be back to worhshipping pointy looking star shaped things soon enough. Especially if I can ever get a Black Crusade game going again. But in the meantime, it's going to be Wyches, Kabalites, Wracks, and Reavers for a while. 

I'm hoping, time allowing, to do some decent painting articles, with pictures and stuff. Yes, I know I say that I would LIKE to do these kinds of articles, and then I wuss out and get lazy. But I'll try to do my best. I LOVE reading painting tutorial style posts - videos just aren't the same as hi-res photos. 

Also, I think I'm going to do the whole fluff/background thing with this army. I'm going to give my units and HQ characters names, and maybe write little stories as well. To keep the evil Chaos minions who read this interested, I think I'm going to feature the Oracles of Change as a main antagonist. 

In the next couple of weeks, I'll be posting some teaser info about the campaign as well, both here and over at Fresh Coast 40K. Hope to see you up at the Friendly Local Gaming Store!

Such a Drama Queen

Every time I proclaim on this blog "Eh, I'm taking a break" or "FUCK THIS GAME. ARRGGH!" I usually wind up regretting it several weeks later. Well, I did stop by Foodhammer last weekend, and I got to see A LOT of gamers duking it out with their armies. And I realized something. I might be a pretty mediocre gamer, but I can paint to 'Eavy Metal quality when I put my mind to it. And that's something. And as much as I want to be a 'mature' armor modeler and talk to old men about the perfect Vallejo color for Russian infantry fatigues, sometimes I want to escape into oppressive space-fantasy land. 

So I'm back thinking about 40K again. I found that ignoring BoLS and a few other notable HARDCORE TOURNAMENT PLAYERS ONLY blogs was good for my gaming soul. Shit, nobody in our little 'club' is a super WAAC personality anyways, so why am I so concerned about it? Because I have deep seeded insecurities about my intellectual prowess? Uh, no, I just like to win same as anybody else. Feels good man. But like the wanna be hipster I am, I want to win with a list that nobody has heard of. Yeah brah, I play Talonwing Chaos, totally dominate. 

Seriously though, I like building lists and thinking about the game. I can't remember a lot of the rules, but that's OK. I drank a lot of alcohol at one point in my life. Alright, I drink a lot of alcohol now. But that's not the point. I forgot what the point was, but let me say this. I LIKE 40K. That includes painting, playing, and making terrain and building models. 

So now I return to thinking about armies, and lists, and strategies. Man, taking a break from everything and looking at it fresh...Space Marines are kind of cool. And guess what? I have a thousand point army SITTING ON A SHELF diddling their bolters. Well, it's time to have them make an official tabletop debut, n'est pas?

I also have a secret army idea that I don't want to reveal to anyone, since they will totally call me a noob and a fanboy, and a GW suckup whooore. Yeah, but they're going to be painted really nice, so you can suck it you internet tough guys. I dunno, there are so many army ideas I wanna do but so little time (and money - I mean, I have cash, but I should really be saving that for something...else, right?) so we'll just have to narrow it down. 

I DID get the Flames of War starter set. God damn it, I still don't like the tanks very much. I've been spoiled by precision Japanese kits that are GORGEOUS when built. Oh well, I'll build the whole thing up anyways. 

So yeah, I'm an ADHD melodrmatic nerd who likes to build little plastic men and push them around making 'pew-pew' noises. And nerd rage about stuff. But hey, that's entertainment. Who would read my blog if I was rational and boring? Wait, nobody reads this thing anyways....

Warp Talons - Work in Progress

Just thought I would throw up a quick post since I've started in building some Warp Talons. I'm trying out the Oracles of Change scheme, which is red with gold trim, and some blue details. The bonus is that these guys would probably fit right in with a World Eaters army too, if I ever decide to start one. 

The lighting is just from my desk lamp, which actually gave it kind of a cool 'dust-bowl' or dusk effect. Overall, I love the red paint scheme, but it does tend to overlap with quite a few other warbands - Red Corsairs, World Eaters, Crimson Slaughter, and so on. Red and gold is a popular choice for Chaos, I guess. Oh, and it is bugging the hell out of me, but I didn't notice the 'spray can strand' between the feet. Ever get those stringy things when you use old primer? 

At any rate, I'm working on the rest of the five models. Not sure just exactly how effective these guys are going to be on the tabletop, but at this point I'm just not that interested in playing the game when everybody just cheeses out units and lists. No, I'm never going to run plague zombie spam, or Terminator spam, or any of that stupid bullshit. 

Anyways, I'll be posting some more pics as the unit comes together. This squad is going to be the 'Predators of the Empyreal' - I'm undecided whether to build the other box I have as Talons or Raptors. 

Oracles of Change - Tzeentchian Fun with the New Codex

What I'm liking the most about having a brand new codex is the possibility of building really weird but possibly effective lists, and discovering what new combos work. I like to figure stuff out on my own, rather than copypasta lists from the forums and such. 

I'm also an unrepentant 'theme' list player. I take squads of 'cult' troops in their sacred numbers ONLY (8 for Khorne, 9 for Tzeentch, 6 for Slaanesh, 7 for Nurgle) just because it seems cool. Part of the challenge of building themed lists is also building those lists to be viable competitive lists. Not like I'm a great competitive player, playing that way seems a little boring to me. To each their own. 

I'm also looking to do something different. Black Legion has been my overall army theme for a while, and while it looks nice, black and gold is getting a little boring to paint at this point. My army has always been very mechanized, with a lot of transports and tanks included in every list. I love my tri-las Predator, but with a new edition and new codex things have changed. Vehicles can be glanced to irrelevancy with alarming frequency, so what to do? Well, why not an INFANTRY LIST? Who needs tanks when you have guys who can rip apart armor with claws and magic? Also, with meatshields, uh, I mean cultists, I have cheap disposable infantry options now. 

So maybe I was a bit too stoked about reading the FFG Black Crusade supplement devoted to Tzeentch, or I just really like the idea of nearly everything in an army having an invulnerable save! At any rate, I set out to do a list for a lesser known renegade army, the Oracles of Change. 

That's right, they're RED Tzeentch marines. Image created with the CSM Painter over at Bolter and Chainsword. 

Sorceror Kul Xasian

‘Esteemed Magus of the Fatebringer’ - Mark of Tzeentch

Terminator Armor - Force Weapon – Combi-Bolter

Mastery Level 2 – Dimensional Key

‘The Peerless’

Chaos Terminators x 3 - Mark of Tzeentch

Champion Del Rakur - Gift of Mutation

Combi-Flamer x 2

‘Children of Ku’zanath’ Possessed x 5 Champion Rulguth - Gift of Mutation	‘Progeny of Tel’Occu’ Possessed x 5 Champion Urzen - Gift of Mutation
‘Hunters of the Abyss’ Warp Talons x 5 Champion Nar’guzath Gift of Mutation	‘Predators of the Empyreal’ Warp Talons x 5 Champion Sav’ohk Gift of Mutation
‘Harbingers of Change’ Chaos Space Marines x 10 Mark of Tzeentch – Icon of Flame Aspiring Champion Traxis - Power Sword, Plasma Pistol - Plasma Gun x 2 Rhino – Daemonic Possession	‘Deliverers of Fate’ Chaos Space Marines x 10 Mark of Tzeentch – Icon of Flame Aspiring Champion Erasmus - Power Fist Melta Gun x 2 Rhino – Daemonic Possession
Cultists x 20 Champion Jareth Heavy Stubber, Flamer	Cultists x 20 Champion Tyrell Heavy Stubber, Flamer

THE DAEMONIC HOST

Tzen’toroth the Duplicitous

Herald of Tzeentch

We Are Legion

‘The Everchanging’ Pink Horrors x 5 – Bolt of Change

‘The Formless’ Pink Horrors x 5 – Bolt of Change

It winds up to be about 2000 points (1995 to be exact, but I'll double check - add some melta bombs!) So here's my thinking on this army. Include as few vehicles as possible. I've given the Chaos Marine squads Rhinos, to increase their mobility - they're going to be used as objective holders and fire support. Giving a squad Mark of Tzeentch gives them an invulnerable save. Giving a unit with 'Daemon' increases the invulnerable save...to 4+. More on that later. 

I also went with the Icon of Flame on squads. What does this do, exactly? It makes bolters, and anything that fires bolter ammo (bolts, I guess) BETTER. All bolter weapons have the Soul Blaze special rule - which effectively gives a 50% chance with hits inflicting additional hits and wounds. Might be a bit of a record-keeping nightmare though!

Cultists were taken in big hordes of 20. I want these guys to die, either from shooting target denial or by getting into tarpit assaults, giving me time to deploy my ambushers (possessed) and jump troops (warp talons). The problem is that they might die too quickly! 

The Possessed and Warp Talons are going along with the theme of 'change'. Possessed are better - fleet is standard, and you now have d3 options, which improve the unit. Add gift of mutation, and you have a fragile but punchy unit. Add Mark of Tzeentch, and gift of mutation, and make sure you use these guys in conjunction with other units. 

The HQ is of course a Sorcerer, with some nifty powers. But the most important thing is the Dimensional Key. Warp Talons are a very lackluster unit - at first glance. Give them Mark of Tzeentch, and activate the 'key' - you can drop jump infantry with lightning claws ANYWHERE YOU WANT. That's right, they can deep strike without scattering. REMEMBER - Dimensional key activates when you kill an enemy model in the Fight subphase, so you have to have you HQ in assault early for the whole deep striking strategy to work right. Tricky maybe, but it seems like it's worth a try! Especially with the limited assault vehicle choices (Land Raiders) and their cost.

The Terminators can either be used as a body guard or swapped for combi-melta suicide squads. With vehicles less survivable anyways, I'm going to use them as a body guard for my Sorcerer. 

And finally, I'm using Daemon allies. Tzeentchian of course. Pink Horrors are arguably one of the best choices to squeeze in some Bolts of Change, and to keep it cheap I took a Herald. 

The drawbacks: small units of elite troops can spell trouble. No cheap vehicle mounted guns either. This list relies on deployment, smart use of cover, and smart use of sacrificial troops - as well as some luck and some invulnerable saves. Will it work? Maybe. I'm willing to try it out just to do something a little different. If any of you tournament meta-gamer types can give me some feedback on how this list could work, or why it is absolutely terrible, please let me know in the comments section!