Angels of Death: Fist of Medusa Strike Force

The Fist of Medusa Strike Force is available to armies of the Iron Hands and their successors. In general, it accentuates the already considerable durability of Iron Hands, and I think it will prove to be one of the strongest Space Marine detachments.

It brings 3 Command Benefits. Logical Commander allows your Warlord to take an extra Warlord Trait from the Tactical or Strategic Tables. An extra Warlord trait is always handy, and being able to take it from the very useful Strategic table is amazing. Other armies pay for Relics (such as the Finkin' Cap and Veritas Vitae) to get this benefit and consider themselves lucky. Reject the Flesh, Embrace the Machine grants any model in the Detachment +1 to their Feel No Pain rolls while within 12" of an Independent Character from the Detachment. This grants most Iron Hands a standard 5+ Feel No Pain, while a Command Squad gets a 3+ Feel No Pain and a character with the Gorgon's Chain can have a 2+ Feel No Pain. Space Marines don't get any tougher than that. Roused Machine Spirits grants Power of the Machine Spirit to vehicles in the Detachment within 12" (or while carrying) an Independent Character from the Detachment. This makes the vehicles extremely flexible, able to divide fire or maintain their firepower when shaken or stunned.

Executioners: The Black Circle

The Librarius of the Executioners is known as the Black Circle. Until now, I've only had a single Librarian, Amon Yara, but I've recently got the urge to field a Libarian Conclave. This necessitated two more Librarians, which I've built in a similar manner to Amon Yara, with most of the bits coming from Dark Angels Veterans while the helmets are from Chaos Space Marines. I'm sticking with the idea that their psychic hoods are housed in the horns of their helmets.

I wanted them to be very dark blue, fitting their sinister reputation, so I layered on Ultramarine Shadow, leaving pure black in the recesses of their armor, then highlighted with Ultramarine Blue. It came out darker than I expected, but I'm happy with it. I'm also really pleased with how their horns came out. I went for a more complicated paint style than I usually do with horns, painting striations onto the horns. 

Angels of Death: Sternhammer Strike Force

With the release of Angels of Death, Space Marines have some new options to play with. I already reviewed all of the Formations it contains here and here, except for the Skyhammer Annihilation Force. I may eventually get to writing about that specifically, but I think at this point everyone knows that it's a strong Formation. I've also already covered the Raven Guard and White Scar rules and Strike Forces, which are the same as in Kauyon.

That leaves me with the new rules for Imperial Fists, Iron Hands, and Salamanders to write about, as well as the new Anvil Strike Force. No prizes for guessing which one I'll write about first.

Mantis Warriors Captain and Sergeant

Here are the last two Mantis Warriors that I have to paint at the moment. The first is my Captain. I'll be fielding him with a relic blade, represented by the Kromlech vibro-katana.