Contemptor Kevin's Combat Patrol Issue #42 Review

Welcome back Combat Patrolers, as we continue into Combat Patrol Magazine's Ork-ier side. In addition to a bunch of narrative information about the Orks, we also get some hobby materials that are helpful to painting Orks - a shade paint to really intensify greenish Ork flesh and Calgar Blue to highlight defeated Space Marine trophies on your bases. As always, thank you to Goonhammer and Hachette for the opportunity to review these magazines and materials.

Narrative Materials

After several issues with relatively thin to non-existent narrative materials, Issue #42 gives us tons. We start off with Orks: The Great Green Tide. Orks have been gleefully waging war for as long as they have existed, and as soon as they finish off one foe they go looking for the next. They are "huge slabs of screaming green muscle", but they are not just massive mindless brutes. They are devious and cunning with the use of improvised technologies. We also get a discussion of the special sauce of the Orks: The Power of the WAAAGH! When more Orks gather, a mysterious power rises that builds up attraction and excitement for the Orks: the WAAAGH! A small surge of WAAAGH! can summon forth a planet-spanning army. Some Orks even speak of the ultimate WAAAGH!: one so huge that it spans the galaxy from end to end. We see a picture of a vast Ork horde, led by Ghazkull Mag Uruk Thrakka themself, facing off against the Guardians of the Covenant Space Marines. This picture helpfully illustrates which specific sectors of an Ork horde make the WAAAGH! sound. (1)

This is what it sounds like when Orks cry

The magazine then presents "Technology in the 41st Millennium", which discusses the philosophies and approaches behind various factions' technologies. Orks have improvised and ramshackle technology, while the Leagues of Votann have meticulously manufactured technology. The Imperium, of course, has forgotten how most of their technology works and so relies on the Adeptus Mechanicus to keep it going. Necron technology is "so advanced that the younger species cannot begin to father its secrets" and otherwise scary. Low tech Xenos use strength and aggression. And Tyranids use biotech.

Credit: Kevin Stillman

Finally we get Bonds of Honour Part 10, as a bunch of aspirants continue their journey into the Silver Templars' Fortress-Monastery. Sergeant Askarton and his squad manage to walk away from their crash landing, and immediately seek out the Chaos Space Marine wreck to kill any surviving heretic. While walking over to the crash site, they come across a giant streak in the ground gouged pretty clearly by vehicles. They find a crappy red bicycle, which means Orks. They find the Chaos Space Marine shuttle, where everyone inside appears to be dead. Then they hear the WAAAGH!!!!

Ork Bad Moons Choppa Boyz

Hobby Materials

This issue is our first paint issue in awhile, and we get two paints. The first is Coelia Greenshade, a Citadel shade paint that tints things green. The issue suggests using it to wash the Ork flesh, some of the Tyranid flesh (and clouds), and cloth of the Aeldari farseer. It's green!

The other paint is one that I tend to use a lot of: Calgar Blue. The "official" blue of GW's Ultramarine Edge highlights. While not as flexible as the slightly-brighter Fenrisian Grey, Calgar Blue is the paint I use for my initial edge highlights. This paint is flexible and has decent coverage. However, the magazine does not discuss the paint in this issue's paint guide.

Credit: Kevin Stillman

Gaming Materials

There's a fair amount of gaming materials in this magazine. The magazine starts off by reprinting the Core Rulebook's terrain section. It lists various examples of terrain, but quite frankly if you're here at Goonhammer, you can get a better guide on terrain, both competitive and narrative from our fearless leader and one of the main terrain freaks, Rob.

We get a list of the inventory of the Chaos Space Marine Combat Patrol, and two Combat Patrol missions from the Core Rulebook: Scorched Earth (where certain objectives can be destroyed in Battle Grounds 2-5), and Sweeping Raid (where in Rounds 2-4 the player scores 5 VP each for Hold One, Hold Two, and Hold More; and in Round 5 they score VP for holding the objectives closer to or in the opponent's deployment zone).

The Final Verdict

While not necessarily the best value if buying individual issues, Calgar Blue is a workhorse paint and the narrative elements at least continue the odyssey of Squad Ashkaton as they fight Enemy #4. Despite not being a unit that's actually present in the Combat Patrol magazine.

Until next time Combat Patrolers!

(1) It's all of them.

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