Grotmas Calendar 2025

[Karhedron]

  

2 hours ago, Moonstalker said:

I think I'm feelin the points drops more than the detachment.  Grey Hunters getting a hefty points drop is really welcome.

 

Not hefty enough for me IMHO. They are still more expensive than Intercessors and worse. They are 5 points more than a 10-man Intercessor squad but the Intercessors get 2 AGLs as well as choice of melee weapons on the Serg. Grey Hunters get no special weapons and only Power Weapon/Fist on the pack leader. Intercessors get Sticky Objective which is always nice to have somewhere in your army.

 

The real crunch is that Hunters are fixed at 10-man squads. I almost always run my Battleline units at MSU. I can't remember the last time a saw a Marine army with a 10-man Battleline squad. Certainly no one runs them that way at tournaments.

 

Intercessors get 4 S4 Ap-1 shooting attacks and 3 S4 AP0 melee attacks. Hunters get 3 S4 AP0 shooting attacks and 4 S4 Ap-1 melee attacks. Sounds balanced on paper but it really isn't in practice. Both units can usually shoot in the first turn but the Hunters will be lucky to get into melee until T2. In practice this means that Intercessors are likely to get to use their stronger profile more often than Grey Hunters.

 

Basically, Hunters need to come down to at least 150 points before they are even worth considering. If GW actually wanted to make them good they should also be available in 5/10 squad sizes (also Blood Claws should be 10/15/20).

 

2 hours ago, Moonstalker said:

+1 to wound strat would be more interesting if it was usable in melee as well as shooting.  As-is, maybe good for Grey Hunters?

 

Battle Instincts can target any ADEPTUS ASTARTES unit, not just SPACE WOLVES. This means any shooty unit can be dialled up 11 with this Strat. Plasma Inceptors would be a really nice call with this.

 

2 hours ago, Moonstalker said:

So-so on the reactive move, maybe it saves what remains of a unit from being shot a second time/finished off, but activating after shooting has been finished and being random movement does not fill me with joy.

 

Most reliable use for this is to jump back into a Transport in your opponent's turn.

Edited Wednesday at 04:28 PM by Karhedron

[Moonstalker]

I agree that Grey Hunters need more help, but getting them down so they're at least close to Intercessor points is a start.  Making them 5/10 man is what would really make them viable.  Overall, though, what I was trying to communicate is that I'm just not feeling the detachment that much.  Competitively I'm not sure it actually bumps off Stormlance or Gladius.  I'd love to be wrong - my hot take certainly missed that Battle Instincts can target more than just SW units - but I'm just a bit underwhelmed by it.  Like it feels like it has some tools that we needed, but not always enough of them, or usable in the right places/times/combinations.

 

The terminator captain enhancement really has me frowning.  For one, it doesn't have great implications for our ability to mix SW/AA units/leaders in the future.  But it really feels like a huge point sink for some questionable utility.  115 points to Rapid Ingress a second unit on turn 2?  A free AoC use?

[SvenIronhand]

15 minutes ago, Moonstalker said:

For one, it doesn't have great implications for our ability to mix SW/AA units/leaders in the future. 

I think it indicates the opposite, actually. Why give us that option if it was going to be all SW, all the time?

[Moonstalker]

2 minutes ago, SvenIronhand said:

I think it indicates the opposite, actually. Why give us that option if it was going to be all SW, all the time?

 

Ideally we'd able to do it more freely.  Having it be an enhancement for one unit in one detachment is not great.  Says they want it to be rare and costly.

[HeadlessCross]

5 hours ago, Moonstalker said:

I agree that Grey Hunters need more help, but getting them down so they're at least close to Intercessor points is a start.  Making them 5/10 man is what would really make them viable.  Overall, though, what I was trying to communicate is that I'm just not feeling the detachment that much.  Competitively I'm not sure it actually bumps off Stormlance or Gladius.  I'd love to be wrong - my hot take certainly missed that Battle Instincts can target more than just SW units - but I'm just a bit underwhelmed by it.  Like it feels like it has some tools that we needed, but not always enough of them, or usable in the right places/times/combinations.

 

The terminator captain enhancement really has me frowning.  For one, it doesn't have great implications for our ability to mix SW/AA units/leaders in the future.  But it really feels like a huge point sink for some questionable utility.  115 points to Rapid Ingress a second unit on turn 2?  A free AoC use?

The idea is you'd combine that free Rapid Ingress along with Logan's free drop on T1 and shove a ton of Terminators to the front really quick. 

 

You can also bring them back into reserve with the one enhancement. I think this could easily be equal to Stormlance and Gladius Wolves. 

[Indy Techwisp]

Today's Grotmas offering was a Horus Heresy Traitors Painting Guide.

 

The teaser for tomorrow's article indicates it's AoS rules for the Warhammer Quest minis:

Quote

Tomorrow on the Grotmas Calendar, a band of heroes threaten to break free from the Jade Abbey…

 

[Moonstalker]

19 hours ago, HeadlessCross said:

The idea is you'd combine that free Rapid Ingress along with Logan's free drop on T1 and shove a ton of Terminators to the front really quick. 

 

You can also bring them back into reserve with the one enhancement. I think this could easily be equal to Stormlance and Gladius Wolves. 

 

Chariots of the Storm only lets you redeploy after deployment, it's not an uppy-downy.  You could try and bait some poor deployment with some exposed terminators, or use it to bypass reserves limits, but you can't use it to put your Terminators back into reserves after you deep strike them.

[HeadlessCross]

6 minutes ago, Moonstalker said:

 

Chariots of the Storm only lets you redeploy after deployment, it's not an uppy-downy.  You could try and bait some poor deployment with some exposed terminators, or use it to bypass reserves limits, but you can't use it to put your Terminators back into reserves after you deep strike them.

I worded it poorly, I know you can't bring them back into reserves after Deep Strike with that enhancement. 

[Aramis K]

15 hours ago, Indy Techwisp said:

Today's Grotmas offering was a Horus Heresy Traitors Painting Guide.

 

The teaser for tomorrow's article indicates it's AoS rules for the Warhammer Quest minis:

 

 

No simple scheme for Thousand Sons or Alpha Legion then, requires 'airbrush filter', because they don't do coloured metallics. I'd have thought Contrast colour over metallic base would be the way to go for a guide.

[Indy Techwisp]

11 minutes ago, Aramis K said:

 

No simple scheme for Thousand Sons or Alpha Legion then, requires 'airbrush filter', because they don't do coloured metallics. I'd have thought Contrast colour over metallic base would be the way to go for a guide.

 

I am fairly confident contrast over metallic was what they had in guides before

[Indy Techwisp]

Today we have Warhammer Quest Heroes for AoS, as promised yesterday.

 

For today's teaser:

Quote

The next entry on the Grotmas Calendar is Warhammer 40,000-themed, some fiction with a chill air and ferocious vibe emanating from it…

 

[ZeroWolf]

2 minutes ago, Indy Techwisp said:

Today we have Warhammer Quest Heroes for AoS, as promised yesterday.

 

For today's teaser:

 

So space wolves short story then

[Indy Techwisp]

1 minute ago, ZeroWolf said:

So space wolves short story then

 

Either Space Wolves or it's just set on an ice world and "Ferocious" is all we have to go off.

[TheMawr]

Could be a nekrosor ammetar story.. chill air symbologically could fit him, and spreading the destroyer curse definitely fills the ferocious vibe emanating. It would also fit the "something that was coming anyway wrapped up" element a couple of those have... but even for the non pessimist.. its as much a counter to the Titus story as the HH paint tutorials are counters.

[ZeroWolf]

Turns out I was right, a space wolf short...of sorts.

[Felix Antipodes]

I just hate GW’s policy of not acknowledging their talent.  I don’t care if this is written by Joe from the mailroom, ADB, or Tolstoy.  They deserve credit for work done.

[Indy Techwisp]

Tomorrow is apparently more 40k Lore and while the Sunday article does say there's rules still to be seen (no paint guides tho, so seemingly the 2 HH guides are all of those we're getting) I expect those are probably gonna be for AoS.

[Tastyfish]

Or for the Grotmas model.

[grailkeeper]

If they're going to give a short story they should credit the author.

 

I've always been of the view that authors should be credited. Its traditionally been a bone of contention in British Comics. Now with AI they really should do it to let us know its the work of a human.

 

Plus if I like the piece it might make me buy some of the author's other work for black library. It might help a new author get a break.

(And if its an established author I don't like, it saves me reading it)

[Lord Marshal]

Another 40k story for Day 15.

 

Sounds like it might be foreshadowing Peter Turbo? Or at least Iron Warriors.

 

Edited 9 hours ago by Lord Marshal

[Indy Techwisp]

Tomorrow's Teaser:

Quote

Next on the Grotmas Calendar, we’ve got more fiction fresh from the Garden of Nurgle.

 

That's... not clear whether it's 40k or AoS.

[Lord Marshal]

1 minute ago, Indy Techwisp said:

Tomorrow's Teaser:

 

That's... not clear whether it's 40k or AoS.

 

Probably AoS since there's the big Nurgle release, plus it coming a day after a 40k story.

 

[Indy Techwisp]

6 minutes ago, Lord Marshal said:

Probably AoS since there's the big Nurgle release, plus it coming a day after a 40k story.

 

Probably, but we do also need to see how Nurgle's Garden is looking after Bobby G set it on fire last time we saw it.

[apologist]

1 hour ago, Lord Marshal said:

Another 40k story for Day 15.

 

Sounds like it might be foreshadowing Peter Turbo? Or at least Iron Warriors.

 

Absolutely agree – some heavy foreshadowing here, I think.

 

Here's the prophecy from the story:

‘The shattered gate vomits the get of the storm… they fight beneath the staring eye… worlds blessed and worlds cursed… the defeated are yet defiant…’ 

[...]

‘The black sun burns cursed iron… and lights the furnace of vengeance… steel and flesh and blood and ichor tear and flow…  and from ruin shall rise infinite geometries of spite…’ 

[...]

‘Childer of Oleadros Delphos… faithful of Galagan… the time of whispers is ending… soon will come the time of knives… make ready, true believers… deliverance comes ironwrought and vengeful…’

 

Some speculation on specifics – some more tinfoil hat than others!

 

• The 'Shattered Gate' – the remnants of Cadia. 
• 'Staring eye' – the Eye of Terror. That's a fairly general 'Chaos' hint, but Perturabo has a particular link with the Eye, which he could see from anywhere in the galaxy – and it was he who named it.
• 'Get of the storm' – An allusion to Perturabo? Or perhaps simply Iron Warriors/Chaos Marines in general. In isolation, could also refer to Lufgt Huron (him being the child, or 'get', of the Maelstrom) or Lorgar (as the bastard child of the Primarchs) – but in context, I think this is likely Perturabo or a new Iron Warrior character. Perturabo, as noted above, has particular connections with the warpstorm, so on balance here the 'get of the storm' I think is meant to nod to him specifically.
• 'Black Sun' – Medrengard, the Iron Warriors' stronghold in the Eye, has a black sun in a white sky.
• 'Cursed iron' – Probably the clearest hint to Iron Warriors specifically.
• 'Furnace of vengeance' – A fairly vague allusion to engineering etc. Fits the Dark Mechanicus as much as Iron Warriors specifically.
• 'shall rise Infinite geometries of spite' – Spite and bitterness are key Iron Warriors themes, as are building and ruins.
• 'Oleander Delphos' – the planet the short story's set on. Delphos is an oblique reference to Ancient Greece (the Oracle of Delphi) and prophecy; and another hint to the Ancient Greek-coded Iron Warriors. Oleander's another fun joke – another name for the extremely bitter and poisonous rosebay.
• 'Galagan' – Besides the Galaga computer game, I had nothing; but a quick Google search reveals there's a Russian fitness influencer and bodybuilder of the name, known as the 'She-Cyborg of the USSR'. Might be a fun little bionics joke!

Edited 7 hours ago by apologist