Dirty little tricks

I like using obscure units. Army lists that aren't seen on the table often fascinate me. It's an underdog thing.

A year or so back, after finally making it to Static Games in Glasgow, after 8 years where i was, for the most part, reliant on the internet, and the local Games Workshop store for connection to the wider hobby, I discovered that the old Warhammer Historical had become a range of games by Warlord Games.

World War 2 has long been an uncomfortable subject in my family: on my father's side, his father was a protected trade, and so couldn't enlist, his brother, my great uncle, dodged the draft; his mother's house had a tank crash through their front garden; on my mother's side, my gran, in Northern Ireland, found the Emergency great fun, since US service men brought with them money, records and other things that were nigh unknown in isolated Catholic communities; across the border, in a Donegal cut off by partition, the Civil War was still more of a concern than anything further afield. Perhaps because of this, Bolt Action had a weird appeal, albeit my interest was in using the system for the Irish War of Independence (on and off 1916-1921), and the Irish and Spanish civil wars, both of which had large numbers of Irish soldiers. With it being a familiar scale, and a semi familiar base mechanic (thanks to decades of playing games written, to whatever degree, by Rick Priestley, or based off the resultant intellectual property), it had a definite appeal. I openly asked my regular gaming circuit which force from the anti-Fascist Wars would best suit my play style. The result, unanimously among those who replied, was "Partisans". They refused to specify whether French Resistance, Soviet Militia, the International Brigades, or any other specific. When pressed, the most common response was "All of the above, and more."

As i said at the start, any units or factions, or pretty much anything else that is rarely, or never, used is where my heart lies. To take 40k, the big, golden elephant in the corner of the room, alone:
* I stopped converting Genestealer Cult models, not when they stopped having a mainstream army list, or available models, but when they started having available models again;
* I'm actively building Renegades and Heretics, alongside numerous others, because i love the image of numberless masses of disgruntled civilians and the deliberately oppressed rising up in armed rebellion against their Fascist oppressors;
* my "Imperial" space marines include a squad, and some characters, on jetbikes, a chaplain with a storm shield, and power armoured marines and Scouts with autoguns, needle rifles, even shuriken catapults;
* my Imperial Guard contains squats, contained Tech Priests and Sanctioned Psykers, even when they had no rules, and contained Beastmen until i decided to swap them into my Renegades and Heretics, to make up numbers. They will be replaced, afresh, in time.

My point is, I like finding the things that aren't commonly used. I'm in the middle of painting a Griffon Mortar Carrier, and converting a trio of Tauros jeeps (a Venator and 2 Assault with heavy flamers). These won't be the last time I convert models to be units that are no longer in production. I have, and plan to have many more, units of Rough Riders, since, unless they somehow get addressed in an FAQ or Eratta, as they stand, with the Index, they are far more powerful than they were in any of the previous editions.

Anyway, all of this is a lead in to a nice, dirty little trick i noticed a few hours ago. I've noticed many, but this is the most recent one.

Elysian Drop Troopers detachments have a specific set of Orders for those with Voice of Command to pass on to other units. One of these is "Move and Fire!" What caught my attention was that this was antithetical to a rule on a lot of weapons from 1992's Warhammer 40,000 Battle Manual until the launch of third edition in 1998, when the Slow weapon class became "Move or Fire". This Order changes the target unit's weapons' Type, universally, to Assault.

What this means is that an Elysian detachment can Aerial Drop onto the table, turn 2, then the Heavy Weapons and Sniper squads can take the Order, and, while they count as having moved because of deployment from the air, at least as far as RAW says at present, fire their heavy bolters, missile launchers, mortars or sniper rifles without penalty (and, while that means the loader can't take advantage of the Rapid Fire rule on their rifle, i think the lack of modifier works out for the best in most cases). Turn 3 or 4, they can advance, and, so long as a model with Voice of Command is within range, they can fire from a, potentially, greatly improved position with only a -1 modifier.

For now, that is all.