A New Day Dawns - My Angels of Absolution in 6th Edition

My recently added 2nd Squad of the 5th Company. Three of the models pictured were actually painted roughly 10 years ago and have had their squad markings or arms changed multiple times over the years.

I've been playing the same main 40K force since 2nd Edition. I had chosen Codex: Angels of Death because I thought the monastic look and the secretive background was cool, but also because I was an Undead player already, and the bone color scheme of the Angels of Absolution was something I already knew how to do. Over the years I've never been able to keep up to date with the latest edition because I paint so slowly - but maybe things have finally come full circle?

Some of my completed models. Some, like the Interrogator-Chaplain and the Rhino in the back left were painted more than a decade ago.

I've been working on the Angels of Absolution for 17 or 18 years. They began their life with 2 Tactical Squads, a Razorback, a Rhino, and an Assault Squad. That has been my backbone ever since. As time went on, the Ravenwing and Deathwing got better, and things like Vindicators and Drop Pods got added to the army books, but I'm still trudging away on the basics like it's still 2nd Edition. Now I have 6 Tactical Squads to work with, 3 Rhinos, a Devastator Combat Squad, 2 Dreadnoughts, a Whirlwind, and an Assault Squad. Anything that would have given me a competitive edge in 3rd, 4th, or 5th Edition has been conspicuously absent.

I played my first game of 6th Edition and I did remarkably well. I always loved the image of my Tactical Marines piling out their Rhinos and just pouring obscene amounts of fire power into the enemy while my Assault Squad leap in led by Interrogator-Chaplain Vitus and spread terror into an already shattered force.

I was so excited to recreate this little snapshot of Space Marine tactics from IA2.

To say I succeeded in recreating that would be an exaggeration, but in my head it came damn close. You can break a Tactical Squad into two Combat Squads before the game and deploy both halves in a Rhino. I couldn't tell you how excited I was to do this. My opponent came in like gang busters into my deployment area on turn 2 and I brought on a Rhino with two Combat Squads in it and piled out like I was carrying out Astartes training as depicted in Imperial Armour 2. My Squads disembarked and rapid fired the crap out of a foul Daemon Prince while my Devastator Squad lit him up and my Assault Squad and Chaplain jumped in to give support and hopefully mop up, not realizing I couldn't charge him while he was swooping or whatever. So we failed to hurt him or ground him, but it felt "right" somehow. Had things gone differently, Hammer of Wrath may have actually made my normally useless Assault Marines useful for the first time in two editions. Being able to fire 24" and being able to Snap Fire my heavy weapons on the move has made my Tactical Squads feel more flexible than ever before - and marine like! Maybe I'll actually win a game against someone other than Scott. ;) Most importantly, at least for a brief instant, I didn't feel like I was just going through the motions playing the game even though I didn't have any of the "competitive" options from my army book. Of course, I wasn't play against someone who spends all day contemplating game breaking combos either.

All of that being said, what's next on the painting table in light of the 6th Edition changes? Well, I've had a Librarian in progress for a while and I want to try out the new Psycher rules, so I'm going to try and finish him up in August and try him out on the table. I've always loved the idea that the Interrogator-Chaplains and Librarians work in unison to undermine the psyche of the enemy, so it'll be cool to drop them both on the table. I had tried it a couple of times right when Codex: Dark Angels came out in 4th Edition, but the Dark Angel Psychic Powers just weren't worth the points. Maybe the new powers will be? Also, I cracked out my Caestus Assault Ram that I bought last year. It'll probably take me another year to complete but I'd like to try out flyers now too. Finally I have a Tactical Marine and a Terminator on my desk because, "why not?" Completing my first squad of Terminators is one of my goals for this year I believe anyhow.

Will this Terminator see action in this edition? No one knows.

-Nick