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-What can the Seer Council do for you?

-From the Void: an article on 40k podcasts

-Mathhammer & You

-How to Paint: Space Hulk Terminators

-Basic Brush Techniques (this is one of my favorite articles).

-Loyal Traitors: A Soul Drinkers Army List

-The “Homebrew”

-I Hate Cadia (fiction, and not from Abbadon’s point of view!).

-Rumble In Richmond (battle report)

Don’t believe me? Well, pics or it didn’t happen…

A few years ago, shortly after 5^th edition was released in fact, I decided, along with my longtime friend and fellow blogger Alex (he goes by Dictator), that we were going to revamp the Kill Team rules.  Thus began a fun little project.  I wrote a basic set of rules up, we played them, liked them and then published them in the first issue of The Astro Mag.  I didn’t receive much response from them so I let them sit for awhile before, out of the blue, receiving a bunch of emails asking if I was planning on revamping the rules at all.  This newfound interest got me excited so I set out to redo them and turned to my Wargaming group at my college.  We play tested them a few times, found holes and patched them right up, and then published the new set in Issue 3 of The Astro Mag which received a lot more positive feedback.  Fast forward over one year later and here I am, again, looking to improve upon this little project I undertook.  This time, however, I want to go big.  I want to make a comprehensive rule-set (not too complicated though, I want a new player to be able to come by, read through the rules and get playing immediately with very few questions).  However, there is a huge part that needs looking at and they’re the potential loop-holes or problems with the rules.  This is why I am turning to you, From the Warp blogging community!  All I am asking is if you could take the time to read over the rules, offer suggestions, improvements, possibly playtest them with a buddy (the games are quite short, but are very enjoyable!) and then email me at terranforge@gmail.com.  As I said, I’m looking for suggestions and improvements or, if you think you have a good idea that could be included, shoot it by me as I’m all ears!

Now, why would you want to play Kill Team let alone help out somebody you’ve never met revise them?  Well, for one, I know many of us have friends who have looked at getting into the hobby but find it too cost or time prohibitive to play.  These Kill Team rules are a perfect remedy.  You don’t need many points for them at all (directly resulting in saved money) and the games are quick.  Alex and I have packed ten or so games into an hour, for example.  The games require little space and just a basic understating of the 40k rules but are guaranteed to be fun.  Not only that, but I have found myself wanting to paint up a mini especially for these Kill Team rules just so I could have a cool, fun looking force to play with when I’m hanging out with friends on the weekend.  And that’s the other kicker, you need little to no planning for these games whatsoever.  With a regular 40k game you need to set aside at least two hours to play, plus you need to pack up your entire army and create a list which can be an absolute pain.  With Kill Team, all you really need are a handful of models and maybe 10-20 minutes of free-time and you got yourself a fun little game to play.

Of course, as most of you probably know, Games Workshop released a great supplemental book called “Battle Missions” where rules for a Kill Team are already outlined.  However, they are much different in their play style than the rules I have created (and, as I’ve already mentioned, intend to improve upon).  The Battle Mission rules allow for a similar style of game (few units, quick gameplay) however the situations do not vary.  As you will see, the rules published in The Astro Mag have great variations on what can happen in the game and the environment plays a pretty big role.  This idea, that of bringing environmental effects into gameplay, is a very interesting one for me and is why I included them in the rules to begin with.  Instead of only having to worry whether or not your enemy can see you, you will also have to position yourself so the world you are in does not inflict any casualties on your army.  I feel it brings a new level of tactical gameplay onto the battlefield and is just one small reason my Kill Team rules differ from the ones laid out in the Battle Missions book.

That said, I would like to let you know that I will also be changing the name from “Kill Team” to something else and am entirely up for suggestions!  Two that have come up already are “Fire Team” “Strike Force” so feel free to shoot me an email with suggestions on that as well!

The benefit Kill Team has to 5^th edition, too, is that (at least here in the US) we’re all so used to playing at high points levels.  We are forced to think about the synergetic effects of one unit with another and never get to think about the awesomeness of a single marine storming a bunker with nothing but a bolter and a grenade.  We never get to think about the heroic acts we so frequently read about in the compelling (though sometimes terrible) Black Library novels.  Kill Team addresses this.  You get to have your heroes.  You get to have your impossible situations that your small little squad is forced to overcome.  It’s a farcry from what we’re all used to and is most definitely a nice relief from the constant thought of lists and unit synergy and what have you.  Not to mention that this type of stuff, while written for the purpose of fun, can be a cool thing to have a tourney over.  Because of the short (in time) nature of this game you can have many rounds and many scenarios where you will never face the same thing twice even if the armies are exactly the same.  It’s almost RPGish, when it comes down to it.  A beautiful little sub-ruleset that adds to allure of 40k.

Now, it may not be much but it’s something, I will put the names and blog links (if applicable) to anyone who submits any suggestions or what have you in the Kill Team Rules.  This will be posted as a standalone release and it will be published in a future Issue of The Astro Mag which sees about 8000-11000 downloads an issue so you’ll get a decent amount of exposure for your blog.  Also, if you’re interested in sending in pictures of your models or artwork just send me an email so when I start the rewrite I can email you back letting you know what I’ll need.  Again, everything would be appropriately accredited.  My email is terranforge@gmail.com and I hope I can get a few of you wonderful bloggers out there to help make this little project into a great, fun set of rules for all to enjoy!  You can also follow the progress of this project at my blog, http://terranforge.blogspot.com or on my twitter account at http://twitter.com/KevinMCTF.

The current set of rules can be downloaded from this link http://www.box.net/shared/fgx77x8af7

-Kevin aka “Arkaedin”

Article list:
-Painting Bone
-Graham McNeill interview
-From the Vault-Orcs
-Gehemisnacht (story)
-A Giant Problem (tactics)
-Gaming FAQ
-Intro: japehlio and ossai
-Lores of Magic
-How to build a Grey Seer from scratch
-Battle report: VC vs Woc:Nurgle

The order is random, things will tidy up quickly.

The new deadline is ONE week later, so Sunday 11th April.

Okay folks?

Mr J

It (hopefully) wont be long now tho, w00t!

Mr J

This isn’t to say we’re out of article ideas, but it’s no good to put out content that folks aren’t interested in. Make sense? Good!

Cheers all,
Mr C

Interested?   Good, read on:

The contest is a fiction one.  Now, as the issue has a theme of “Evil”, and so Im asking that entries are kept to a similar theme; Orcs, Goblins, Dark Elves, Vampire Counts, Ogres, Skaven and Tomb Kings are all valid races for use in your stories, and we’re looking for between 1500-2000 words here.

Deadline is April 1st, and all entries must be submitted to our email, “thefantasymag@gmail.com”

And yes, there is a prize!  Two for one, in fact, as first place scores a copy of Heldenhammer and Empire, both signed by Graham McNeill!

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Get writing!

-Mr C

With Issue 6 finally kicked out of the house, it’s time to focus on getting the 7th child out into the world.  The “day of reckoning” is March 15th, and we need your articles, pictures, artwork, commentary et al to make it a smashing hit!

With Issue 7, we are going to try something new with the theme, notably in that there isn’t one!  The shock, the horror, right?  With any luck, this will not make folks feel restricted with what they can send in.

We will also be trying out two new features: Homebrew and Letters to the Editor (Nomad’s idea, not mine!). Both are rather self-explanatory, but if you insist:

-Homebrew: House rules, custom campaigns, missions, units and even an entire army list all fall under this section. I have high hopes for this addition to the Mag.

-Letters to the Editor: this is to print feedback, questions, comments, etc that we get (sadly, we have gotten nothing in these regards other than unadulterated praise).

As always, submit your articles to by emailing them to theastromag@gmail.com.

Now, how can you help in other ways than submitting an article and other content?

We’ve got some snazzy signature banners! Use them in your signatures across the Internet to spread the word about the Mag!

-The Original Astro Mag (another another one!)
-Chronicles of the Old World

Also new is some social networking!  The Mag now has a Twitter account and a Facebook fan page.  Pretty cool, huh?

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Right-o, I do believe that’s all the news.

Cheers all,

Mr C