First Game with the Red Hammers

Last Sunday the Red Hammer marines got their first try on the table, and it was a great success.

To be sure I don't give the wrong impression, I was utterly crushed. My Ork opponents were being run by Mark (Markonz on the TacComm forums), a very experienced Epic player, and he took my force apart in short order. I made the mistake of trying to run the marines like a Guard list, and it simply didn't work. My attempt to fight his massed Stompas head-on quickly resulted in dead marines and me pulling the survivors back to my blitz objective. My garrison took heavy damage from his Gargant, although they only just failed to hold the Defend the Flag objective. About the only highlight for me was my Warlord (which destroyed both a Gargant and a Supa-Stompa) and in the end I lost in Turn 3. But even so it was a success because I learned some lessons about what worked and what didn't - mostly what didn't. Mark was a great source of advice, both in terms of specific army list tricks and marine strategy more generally.

My scouts about to be wiped out in a firefight with a Stompa mob

Air superiority. I tried to intercept a first wave of Fighta-Bombas, only to be shot down by a second wave.

My Titan advancing down the center, while my infantry face off with the Stompas

So armed with Mark's suggestions I resumed painting, and now have around 3000 points of pure marine units fully ready to go;

The complete ~3000 points of Red Hammer marines.

The new additions were mostly formation upgrades (Razorbacks, Hunters, and Dreadnoughts) but I also decided to paint up the bikes. With the "no shenanigans" marines done, I'm now considering what to do for my next project. Adding some shenanigans (in the form of a Thunderhawk gunship or two) is one possibility. I've also been prototyping Tyranid colour schemes - at a minimum I'll probably paint my Hierophant to use in Titanomachy battles. And I'm still thinking about some 28mm models - both Hungarians for Force on Force, and small 40K units to use with Tomorrow's War. Decisions, decisions.