Combat patrol terrain

 After playing a few games with my son a few weeks ago, before I broke my let, I decided it was time to actually paint up some of my terrain. The majority of my terrain in MDF buildings and will really require spraying up with rattle cans, which I have in the garage. I think I showed a couple of test buildings a while ago. For the recent games however, I have been using some.more industrial prices, as we're only playing 500 point games and infantry models only, so no requirement to have big line of sight blocking terrain.

As you can see, I've kept most of it fairly basic. The majority of it is just black primer with various layers of silver dry brush to build up some of the details. It's all fairly quick and basic but should be more than sufficient to create a good looking battle field devoid of grey plastic.

The pipes are from two sets, the main ones, shown below, are from the GW Promethium Pipe Relay. The others, at the back of the picture above, are from a Mantic Terrain Crate, specifically the Industrial Accessories set. 

 Barrels, every battle field needs some barrels. These have been painted to give them a weathered effect, which I think works quite well. 

A crate. Now I should have a few more of these somewhere but they seem to have gone wallies. I think I should have at least 4 big and 4 small crates but this is the only one I can find right now. When I find the others they will be painted up.in a similar fashion to this one, although in different colours for some variety.

Some power generators from the terrain crate, again just dry brushed up. I spent a little extra time on the screens to give the pieces some extra detail and help them pop a little more on the table. I quite like how the screens have turned out.

The pieces are incomplete, however I painted them up anyway. They need some sort of mountings, as the two pieces top left are actually angled. I will build this as some sort of loading system and make the gap under the tracks solid to add some more line of sight blocking terrain. I've got some ideas and items in my eBay watched list to build this, so we'll see if I can get it done.

Containers, where would we be without containers. These are my two GW ones, one with a silver finish and one with a gold finish. Again there were dry brushed and it's really obvious on the pictures the bits that I've missed, such as the bolter mounts and the bits in-between the 'legs' on the bottom. Oh well, I'm sure I'll fix them at some point.

I plan on adding some more containers to the mix and have some in eBay that I'm looking at getting. If I get these, I would have 6 containers, which should be enough to give me a good amount of big blocking terrain if I need it. 

My old Aegis Defence Line is also in the box now. With them not havi g any meaningful rules in the game now, there is little.point in me taking it as an actual fortification but it works well as scatter terrain. 

The complete collection in its storage box. As you can see there is still plenty of space in there for additional terrain. The pieces in the bottom left form a small pipe network, which I may well build if I have bits left over from building the loading systems, otherwise they may just be added as features to those pieces. 

I plan on gathering enough terrain to fill this box and no more, making it easy to transport and store. I can combine this with my other terrain should I need some bigger pieces. 

Eagle knight elites

Just a quick one today. In my last battle I came up against some of the new Blade guard, who were very strong and resilient. Now the proper models are either from the Indomitus crusade box or the new multipart kit, both of which are very expensive for what they are really. Yes, they are very nice models and the multipart kit has a lot of options, but they were still very expensive. In my last match, the Blade guard I faced were actually AoS Stormcast Liberators with hammers. While these did look very cool, I just didn't feel that they fitted the role properly, I think that they need some sort of bladed weapon rather than an impact weapon like a hammer. You can get the kit with swords as well but the kit is still very expensive and you'd still need to get things like helmets and packs for them. After a quick browse around the internet I found something I was happy with, easy build sequitors.

These look pretty good and they have a proper blade type weapon, one that looks sufficiently heavy to do 2 damage. The only issue is that they come in packs of three, only two of which have shields, the third having a double handles weapon.

First two built, shields scrapped clean as well.

I managed to get two sets on eBay for lass than a tenner and planned on putting together a unit of 4 and then using the other two for characters, probably a Chaplain and Judicar. However, while I was looking I came across something else, a sprue from one of the Stormcast boxsets, the Thunderstrike Brotherhood I think. 

Anyway, this lot cost me about 20 pounds in total and with that's here I reckon I can build 5 Blade Guard, Chaplain, Judicar, Blade Guard Ancient and maybe some other characters. I would love to use the bloke with wings, so I may have a look at creating a Librarian, with Wings of Sanguinius obviously. I maybe able to build more but I will have to see. 

Fluff updates and changes

 Right, there have been quite a few picture heavy posts recently and there are some more to come, this however is going to be very wordy, so put the kettle on, this one's going to take the long and winding road to nowhere.

Fluff is a major part of my enjoyment within the game of 40k. All my armies have their own lore, with home world's and noteworthy events. They all have named characters too, from the lowly guard commanders right up to the Space Marine Chapter masters and various characters in-between. The thing is that all this fluff has developed slowly over a period of time, many many years, from when I got back in to gaming, before I even started this blog. 

Granted, the fluff has changed in that time. My main army, my Imperial Guard Hjaltland Light Infantry Regiment were once called the Segedunum Legionnaires, after a Roman fort near to where we use to live, then changed to the current Hjaltland Light Infantry, with a period of namelessness in the middle. Characters have changed, either in name or disappeared entirely without reason. My Inquisitors have been through this, changing not only in name but also in gender. 

So what is the point of this post? Well, primaries marines. Now, it's not a other rant against the abomination that is the primaries lore or the model range, which is actually quite good. No, this is more of a pondering questioning of my own lore, the problems and issues that it has created and how I might go about solving them.

The main issue surrounding my lore is the time setting. As I said, i started all this a while back and firmed up the timeline when I put the information down on these pages. This was back in 2014, some six and a half years ago, some two and a half years before primaris marines we officially announced by GW. My timeline originally put the occurrences of the Hamnavoe system towards the middle of the Sabbat World's Crusade, sometime around 760-770.M41, with the trouble being caused by refugees escaping the violence and bloodshed of the crusade but bringing with them the taint of chaos. This did lead to a few problems with the setting but they were easily dealt with by making the timings more vague and moving the general timeline to the end of the crusade. Well I say end, there doesn't seem to be an exact end, some sources seem to put the end at 780 or 790, some just leave it as on going but as of the latter dates the imperium is pretty much cleaning up and is in control of vast swaths of the sector. Either way, it is highly unlikely that it will have lasted until 999.M41 and the beginning of the Indomitus crusade. There will no doubt be some trouble with the Great rift now splitting the galaxy in two, however, the system of Hamnavoe is on the very westward edge of the galaxy, far away from the Great rift and well within the Imperium Sanctus.

All this doesn't really help with the main question though, how to deal with the Primaris marines. I have moved my armies from first born to Primaris and so I do need to fix this problem but I really don't want to rewrite all the lore. I really don't want to come up with some funky plot twists to reason why my Inquisitors from around 780 are still alive and kicking in 999 and beyond. Yes, I know that rejuvenation treatments are a thing and people can live to over 200, and so it technically is possible, I'm just not sure about using that twist. Besides, from 790, towards the end of the Sabbat crusade, to 999 is 209 years, meaning that my inquisitor would have to be at least 230, although more realistically 250 years old. This is really the very upper limit of what is plausible, even in the 41st millennium, but it is technically possible. However, my Primaris marines wouldn't be in the Hamnavoe system around 999.m40 but more likely 200.m41 or even later, as, especially for the Eagle Knights, these are all first born who have crossed the Rubicon. If this happened sometime during the second century M41, then it would not be until early in the third century that they might be in the region of the Hamnavoe system at the request of an inquisitor who is now nearly 500 years old! 

In many respect I will have to come up with some sort of plot device to transfer the Inquisitors across from one era to the next but i suppose that in reality the marines are probably going to be easier. 

I guess I will effectively be playing two time zones, when (and if I ever do) play with first born again I will right as part of the first uprising, which I will write in to the system history as having been dealt with around 790 to 800.m40 and the Primaris marines will form part of the second uprising, sometime around 250.m41.  The second uprising will take the form of a continuation the first, not having been quite as quashed as it was thought. The inquisition will request the help of those who fought first time around plus some others and the fighting will be renewed. However, this then leads to issues with the guard, as these are all formed around the remnants of forces that fought in the first uprising, so would be long dead by the time the second uprising occurred. The forces would also have been rebuilt in the 300 plus years in-between the two events, which doesn't compute with what I have built. 

So, ultimately I think a rewrite will be in order, but not a complete one, the forces will be molded into new formations from old ones but will remain the same though plot devices and things that could only make sense in the 41st millennium. I will really have to think hard on how to do it but I think I can achieve it. 

A new army?

A Xenos army in my collection? The sheer heresy of it! Luckily, it's not mine, so the commissar doesn't need to worry himself. This is actually my son's army and is the total from the two 9th edition starter sets. 

The complete force

At the moment the force is only a patrol sized force as there are only enough warriors for two squads.

The HQ's, Royal Warden and Overlord

Warriors with Gauss Reapers

Warriors with Gauss Flayers

Two squads of Scarabs.

Skorpekh Destroyers and Canoptek Plasmacyte

A close up of the Plasmacyte, as I'm quite proud of this one. I think the rubble underneath looks and contrasts nicely with the model itself. 

A couple more pictures of the HQ's, showing their extra bling. These guys got some gold treatment to make them stand out a bit more from the bill of the models.

The force is only very basically painted, with a black prime, with a heavy dry brush of Leadbelcher, followed by a lighter dry brush of Runefang Steel. The blue is a Revell gloss blue. The blue isn't actually as noticeable on the actual models, it's a lot darker in colour, which is a shame as it looks really good on the pictures, more how I would have liked it. There will have to be a couple more purchases to really get it up to a good 1000 point list. There needs an additional troops choice, most likely Immortals, some proper fast, hopefully Tomb Blades and a good heavy, probably some Destroyers or maybe a heavy destroyer. Either way,this lot should give him a decent list that can challenge any of my 1000 point lists and any that the guys down the club can bring too. 

Sisters of the Golden Orb

 While my sisters are not painted yet, they are primed and ready to paint and, as you'll see from the paint scheme below, they shouldn't take to much painting up. 

The Order of the Golden Orb

Orders founding Convent -	Convent Sanctorum (Ophelia VII)
Orders Originator -	Order of the Valorous Heart
Orders Founded purpose -	Crusade
Orders Founding -	c. M37 during the Age of Redemption
Orders flaw -	We stand alone
Orders Demeanour -	Relic Keepers
Figure of Legend -	Battle Sister Meshea
Deed of Legend -	Slayer of the Nurgle Daemon Prince Buboe the Plaguebringer
Orders Homeword -	Deathworld of Galara IV
Homeworld terrain -	Contaminated Desert
Homeworld Influence -	Minor Influence
Orders Oragnisation -	Slight Variation
Orders Doctrine -	Orbital Insertion
Orders Divergence -	Modified Vehicles
Method of Worship -	Honour Those Gone before
Order size -	Ranks complete
Alliances -	Various Space Marine Chapters, including Emperors Disciples and Brazen Hawks
Enemies -	Chaos Space Marines and the Mutants\Abominations of the Morthern Wastes
Notable Relics -	Globus Cruciger of Sister Meshea

• 
  

The order of the Golden Orb is a minor order of the Adepta Sororitas, based on the death world of Galara IV in the outer edge of the Segmentum Pacificus. The order is relatively large for a minor order although it contains only a small number of full trained battle sisters. 

The order was formed during the period known as the Age of Redemption, when the forces of the Sororitas spread amongst the stars, bringing with it the word of the Emperor. On Galara IV, a force of sisters from the Order of the Valorous Heart came across a neat of Nurgle cultists who had spread there vile beliefs across the planet. During the cleansing of the planet, the cultists brought forth a great plague of daemons, including a Daemon Prince of Nurgle, known as Buboe the Plaguebringer. The Daemon cut great swathes through the Imperial lines in an unstoppable rampage, trailing lesser daemons in his wake. All hope seemed lost as the cultists and daemons surged back across the surface of the planet. The forces of the imperium tried their hardest to protect the population, evacuating them from the approaching hordes. It was during this process that the miracle of the great gate happened. As the horde approached one of the final sanctuaries, one of the few ports on the planet and the only one still able to accommodate the ships used to evacuate the loyal population, all efforts when in to holding the walls. This effort proved lacking and the Great Gate was breached. At the news, a squad of Sisters rushed to plug the gap. Charging headlong into battle they ran straight in to the Plaguebringer, at the head of a mighty column of daemons. The sisters fought valiantly but could not hold back the tied, falling one by one, until only two stood. It was at this point that Sister Meshea, on her first mission as a fully fledged Sister stepped forward, brandishing the sister superior's power sword, and shouted a challenge to the Daemon Prince, stating that he would not pass until all were safe. The Daemon laughed and charged, swinging his great sword wildly as he did. What happened next has passed into legend, for Sister Meshea fought the Daemon, sword to sword, standing her ground against all the he could throw at her. She fought on long past the time that any mortal woman should have been able to, she was still standing, blooded and battered, when a voice, deep and resonant spoke behind her, stating simply that her duty was done and she may rest. As she dropped to her knees, a squad of Astartes, from the Brazen Hawks, stepped past and sent the foul beast back to the warp from where it came. Sister Meshea was recovered by her fellow sisters, every plate of armour buckled, every bone in her body broken and her skin broken, blistered and bloody. While many witnessed the dual, one account stood out more than most, that of the only surviving sister from the squad, Sister Chastity. Her account was the only full account of the dual, from start to finish and is backed up by the testimony of numerous other witnesses. When she watched the battle, she talked of a bright pure light emanating from Sister Meshea, of how she moved with a grace and speed that was beautiful to behold and how every blow she struck, no matter how slight, cause the beast to recoil as if struck by a battle cannon. It was not these facts that made her retelling of the event remarkable, it was the fact she survived, as she had been pulled from the melee by Sister Meshea before the dual had begun but because she had been blinded, eyes burned from their sockets by the Daemon Prince. 

Sister Meshea was laid to rest and her armour laid out in a small chapel near the Great Gate. In the years that followed many thousands of worshipers came to the chapel, which grew and grew, until it formed the largest building on Galara IV. During this time there were numerous "miracles" claimed by the various citizens that passed through, although none were ever authenticated by the Ecclesiarchy. The Chapel, now more a cathedral, also attracted a substantial population of its own, with various Imperial cults springing up, with priests, preachers, nuns and monks taking up residence within the building and surrounding area.

When the Sister went to leave, several requested permission to stay and guard the Chapel, claiming that they had had visions that required them to stay. With this, the sisters present petitioned the Canoness of the the Order of the Valorous Heart to form a new order, which was granted and so the Order of the Golden Orb was created. 

The Golden Orb, after which the order was named is a Globus Cruciger, which belonged to Sister Meshea and is the Orders most holy relic. It was also the only item on her that was untouched by the dual with the Daemon Prince. 

The Order still resides in the Chapel, which now takes over the whole of the Great Gate and the surrounding star port. It is the biggest single building and forms the biggest concentration of people on the whole planet by a considerable amount. The order itself is a minor order, with Galara IV and the Chapel being the only location that the order resides. It recruits from the surrounding systems, although the vast majority of recruits find their own way to the Chapel. The Order is large for a minor order, but is formed of only a few hundred fully trained battle sisters with over a thousand trainee's split between numerous ranks, with hopeful members moving through several stages from aspirant to initiate to novitiate to neophyte before graduating to battle sister. This is a process that takes longer than most other orders as many of those who come to the Chapel to join the ranks are afflicted with the various ailments and minor plagues that lurk within the system, even though millennia have passed since the Nurgle cultists spread their vile plagues across the lands. Healing these new aspirants can take time, and yet more time is needed for them to gain the health and strength they lack growing up in such an inhospitable environment. This not only means that there as a substantial number of aspirants but also a high number of losses or failures within those who try to become sisters. Many of these failures go on to become useful members of the wider order, joining the ranks of the orders Hospitaller and Dialogus, as well as a few joining the ranks of the Families, Primaris, Madriga, Fenetrus and Vespila orders. 

Galara IV itself is classed as a death world, for ever since the Nurgle cultists released there plagues across the world, the planet has gone from being a desert back water planet to a death world, with endless deserts broken only by disease ridden swamps, dank malformed forests or ground hugging fogs of plague ridden water. The locals have adapted and learnt to avoid these and many other dangers but the air and ground is unclean, despite the best efforts of the imperium. There are similar occurrences on many of the world's in nearby systems, and it is believed that there is still Nurgle cultists at work. As such the sisters of the order often set off on minor crusades to purge world or systems of any taint that can be found. 

The order does not rule the planet of Galara IV, but merely watches over it and advises the main nomadic tribe leaders, ensuring that the interests of the order are protected.  Canoness Regina leads the order ahead of her Palatines. As the order only contains a small number of battle sisters, there are only 5 Palatines, in charge of the five missionary forces, each up to 50 sisters strong, that the order can deploy. Usually 3 of these missionary forces will be active at one time, crusading around the surrounding region, chasing the enemies of the imperium. Of the other two, one will be tasked with protecting the Chapel and one will be recovering and rearming, ready to embark on a new crusade. 

One of the tasks that the sisters have to perform is the routine cleansing of the northern wastes. This is an area of dense mountainous terrain, criss-crossed with paths, tunnels, passes and valleys, and is known for its high levels of contamination. The sisters sweep the area on a yearly basis, destroying as many of the mutants and abominations that reside there. This is also where those in their latter stages of selection, the novitiate's and neophyte's, are trained and tested. There have been many attempts to cleanse the area completely, it has always proved impossible due to the labyrinthine nature of the region. These yearly purges however keep the numbers at a level where they cannot pose a threat to the wider populous. 

Colours of the Order

Project: Stormtrooper, the PDF update

The final part of the Dagr Ormr force is now complete, kind of anyway, there are still a few headless models in there but they will have to wait until i am able to get in to my bits box and find the right parts. Here is all there glory are the Hildasay PDF regiment, along with accompanying characters.

Parade photo, HQ's to the front and the grunts at the back.

The two company commanders, neither has a name yet, however the one on the left is the senior of the two.

Power sword

The headless command squad. The two flamers, one of which is heavy, still need heads but the standard and medic are good to go.

I'm quite proud of this standard, nice bright and highly visible on the battlefield.

The "veteran" special weapons squad. These boys may get expanded in future to a full squad of vet's but for the moment there just a special weapons squad.

Priest and commissar, keeping the troops in line and fighting

Some of the details of the priests robes.

The final unit, currently a basic infantry squad. I could combine this with the special weapons squad to form a full vet's squad, although these guys have some 3rd party beret heads I got a while ago, no idea where they came from anymore.

So there it is, the Hildasay PDF soldiers. When I back up and running on my leg, I'll try and get a complete picture of the whole force together with the Dagr Ormr. I imagine it will.be quite a sight all layed out. 

Hjaltland LI update

 

With the current tournament at the club, I've been looking back over my guard models and I've decided to go back and finish painting those last few models from the Hjaltland LI.  Progress has been slower than I would have liked and has come in fits and starts but we got there in the end.

There weren't many models, a couple of heavy weapons teams, some special weapons guardsmen, some ratlings and a couple of characters, 32 in total but not all of them needed completely painting from scratch. All but 2 were primed and several had been started in one form or another. Only one model needed stripping and repainting and that was the Lord Commissar. I'll apologise for the poor photography but I'm still stuck in bed with my leg and using my phone the best I can but the light is really poor.

First up are the command squad. These guys are joining Blue Troop, the veteran troop, to form a small core of fighters to support and act as a small counter strike force for the Veterans as they go forwards. All are armed with pistols and chain swords for this purpose. While they aren't really a hardcore combat unit, they can put out a few attacks and do some damage. I do still wish that command squad had slightly better stat line, mainly 2 attacks, like a vet Sgt, as these guys are supposed to be the the best Guardsmen, so having 2 attacks base seems reasonable.

Next up is the expanded missile teams. There are 2 more teams to add to the original, to form a complete heavy weapons squad of 3 missile launchers. These we'll add a bit of extra punch, both to anti-armour and anti-infantry. If they bring the psychic awakening stratagems into the main codex then these guys are going to be even better.

The last of "Blue" platoon are the sniper special weapons squad. These guys are a bit, well pointless really. Sniper rifles are not great and 3 on guardsmen are  even worse. However, I have the models, 2 of which are old metal models, so why not. I've spent quite a bit of time on the paint job for these guys, just to make the "stand out".  I doubt these guys will see the table much but they will look cool

The last squad is Yellow platoons grenade special weapons squad. This squad is just to provide some additional counter punch fire power and some light anti-armour capability to the Yellow (Assault) Platoon. I know grenade launchers aren't the most powerful weapons but they are still better than flamers. 

Next up are the Psykers or rather they would be, if I could remember where I put them! While I already have 2 and don't actually need any more that that. I decided that this was a good opportunity to add a few more, just because.... Anyway, blue and green will join black and red to form the psychic quartet (when I find them).

Lastly we have the Lord Commissar. This model is a great old model, probably o e of my favorite metal models. While a lot of the models now looks very clunky and are posed rather silly, some, like this one, are full of character and have a very dynamic pose. You can just tell this guy is exalting the name of the Emperor to the troops, either that or reminding them what he'll do if they fail!

In addition I have painted up some Ratings, although I'm not sure these will be joining the Hjaltland LI or one of the other forces.

Dagr Ormr future plans

So, with the completion of the Dagr Ormr and the Hildasay PDF on the paint table, I have been thinking ahead a bit and how I can improve this list, as it's one of the few lists that can actually be improved. This is because most of the squads are short of men, with most of them being only 9 men strong and with only 2 special weapons each. Also, there are only 2 commanders and 2 command squads out of a max of three of each. The key question was, how do I expand the squads when Dreamforge Games stopped producing figures? Well, salvation came in the form of Wargames Atlantic and the re-release of the Dreamforge line

The only box currently available.

At present only the Eisenkern Stormtroopers are available, however, they have announced that the Eisenkern Panzerjagers (female warriors) are in the pipe line for release this year. As the boxes are 20 man boxes, just one box will be enough to expand our the special weapons, with 12 required, create a third command squad, with 4 models, and a commander, for a total of 17 models. The other 3 models can be used to add extra options for special weapons. Well I say 3 models but each 5 Man sprue in the stotroopers box, actually comes with 7 pairs of legs, so a total 28 legs. This means that I will need to find 8 bodies and packs, although at least 1 will be a vox caster, and I will have 11 spare bodies. Now currently there are no other options for the Militarum Tempestus in the Guard codex but I'm hopeful.we may get some extra options in the new version, maybe special weapons squads or maybe even sniper rifles. I would love heavy weapons and maybe even a fast option but I've gone over all that in other posts. So when the Panzerjagers are released, I will be getting a box to bulk out the force.

Another item I want to add to the force is transport and o don't really want the Taurox, not because I don't like it, even if it's is a bit of an odd design, it's more because I do t feel.that it fits the theme of my force. I have been looking around all.over the place to find a suitable replacement vehicle and I though I had found one with the Anvil Industries Taipan APC, but that project seems to have disappeared, and try as i.might, I can't find anything on it post 2017. So this has lead to a continued search that that lead to a few options but none have been either sensible in price, ie less than GW prices, and fit the aesthetic that I'm looking for. However, I came across this the other day and I think it has the potential to fit quite nicely, the Mantic Games Warpath Mule;

GCPS Mule 

 One addition benefit is that it comes in two forms, the GCPS Mule and also the Plague Mule, which is almost the same just a bit more battered and beaten on the front.

The plague mule version

The only issues are that it is open backed and armed with just a heavy weapon on top. In terms of size, well it's a pretty good fit for the Taurox, being a good fit in pretty much every direction. 

The open rear can be dealt with easily enough, such as mini void shields or repulser fields. With scions having a 4+ save and Taurox having 3+ saves, it's not a stretch to think of the vehicle having something extra to boost the save of the passengers. I could form some sort of structure to the back with plastic but my modelling skill are not that good. In terms of turrets, there are several around on eBay and the like, so that's not a problem. The issue comes with mounting it to the vehicle, I think it could mount on the top, just in front of where the weapon mount is now. This will probably mean cutting in to the chassis or similar, either way I don't think it should be a problem. There are several options on eBay for mountings, so that's another option. 

Either way I want to add 3 or 4 transports to the force for some mobile firepower. Ultimately I'm really waiting for the new codex to see what shiny new toys the codex brings.