Skitarii reinforcements

Next on the build list were some skitarii reinforcements , mostly in the shape of rangers but with a couple of marshals thrown in as well. These have been a long time coming, and now means I can actually field two legal squads of Vanguards. This therefore means I can field the Questor Forgepact with a full compliment of Skitarii. The issue is still that I'm quite a few points short, but that can be filled with Imperial Agents. 

Anyway the actual models are pretty much as standard, including six standard Skitarii with Radium carbines. 

There are also two models with Arc Rifles, to compliment the two existing Plasma Caliver's already in the squads.  

Lastly we have the two new marshalls, one of which will be painted up as a Ranger and one a Vanguard, to joint the current Vanguard Marshall. 

 

As with the other Marshall, the pistols have been modified to make the standard pistols a little more fancy looking. 

Additionally, one of them has had his Alpha combat weapon modified to a control staff. 

It shows how long it's been since I even looked at the AdMech rules that I didn't realise that the different pistols and combat weapons that the all the same, gone are the days of radium pistols or arc pistols, there all just Mechanicum pistols now, same with the combat weapons. Anyway, the kitbashed Marshall weapons just add some extra character to the models, like they have been tinkering and upgrading themselves as they have fought across the years. 

Knights

 Just a very quick one this time. 11th is just over a week away and I'm still playing catch-up with the previews!

I wanted to highlight this one detachment for the Knights, as it's the only one that I actually care about. Questor Forgepact is the one detachment that allowed you to bring admech and knights together. Having just finished building some more skitarii, to boost my force to 4 squads (more on that in a later post), I now have the ability to field the full 500 points for this detachment. 

The rules have changed a bit, but not as much as you might think. While the knight ability seems to have changed completely, hey have actually just swapped to be Admech ability, which actually makes more sense. The Knights aura has changed quite a bit, although it does have basically the same affect. The models gain the +1BS all the time and heavy when you don't move (very far). In theory, this means that the skitarii guns will hitting on 2+'s. There isn't a wound modifier but I don't think that a major issue with 11th, as it's the hit modifier that's modified by cover now. 

The enhancement has changed slightly as well, although it's really only the wording that's changed, what happens and why is still the same. 

The given stratagem has changed as well. No longer do we get lethal hits but re-rolls to wound, which is still useful but not as good a lethal hits. Most of the time the unit that destroys a Knight is going to be pretty tough, so most likely we're going to be wounding on 6's. Lethal hits would definitely have been the better option here but any help is always welcome. 

Overall, the detachment hasn't really changed, the only question is how many points this detachment will be worth. I don't see it being a 3 points t detachment, 2 is more likely to me. So will I have to choose another Knights detachment or will I be able to fill it with an Agents of the Imperium detachment? I don't know how these will work yet and I don't remember seeing a faction focus for them either but I might just have missed it. 

AdMech

This weeks showcase is the AdMech, or at least some of it. Again, I haven’t shown all the units, as there isn’t much point, as it will just be a whole bunch of repetitive pictures. Is, I’ve picked a few models to show off and will, like the other units shown off, do a full army showcase at some point. 

 

Collection of AdMech

Kitbash Marshal

The two Tech-Priest  Dominus

On for the Vanguards and one for the Rangers

Arquebus

Skitarii Vanguard

Skitarii Vanguard

The AdMech are now up to around 1000 points, and once I have found 8 more Vanguard bodies, i will probably leave them here for a while. With the Knight and a few other Agents of the Imperium units, it will be well over 1500 points and a usable army. Hopefully there will be more on the Agents units soon.

AdMech and Kreig ideas

So, as with many wargamers, I have had an idea. It’s and idea that  really don’t have the time or money to carry out but I’ve been planning and researching the idea. The main idea came around as additions to my AdMech army, as my Knight has almost finished being magnetised ready for priming and painting. The army at the moment consists of 3 HQ’s, 3 squads of Skitarii and a Skorpius tank. This currently brings it to 1100 points and I would like to push it up to around 1500 points. 

There are two things that I would like to add to the army to achieve this, firstly there is another squad of Skitarii vanguard. I currently have 12 models, two of which I cant use as they are a second plasma gunner and a second Sgt. I would need 8 more bodies to fill out this second squad of vanguard. In addition to this I would like to add in two other squads but there is a minor catch to this part. The squads I want to add in are Secutarii Hoplites, however, given the price of these models, around £64 each at GW prices and over 50 elsewhere, they are far to expensive for me to buy outright. 

Secutarii Hoplites

So I’ve come up with a little plan. Initially I was thinking that I would just buy the bits for the Skitarii bodies and then third party bits for the shields and the power mauls, namely Anvil Industries Riot shields and Shock Staves.

Shields and Staves

 However, after some further research and pondering, i decided that this might not be the best way forward. This was for a couple of reasons. The main one being that Secutarii is that they are Forge World units and not in the main codex, meaning that rules interactions and updates may not be as easy to deal with as the other units, secondly, getting the datacards is not going to be as simple as they don’t come in the main pack. Lastly, I want these to be a sort of close combat protection for my big knight, a sort of retinue that follow the lord in the knight and are sworn to protect him and his knight, meaning that I won't them to stand out a bit and be different from the rest of the admech army. 

This initially led me to look at some of the Wargames Atlantic models, namely the WW1 french models as these would also be usable with the other project here, the kreig, however, they just didn't have the right vibe for me. Looking at other options, such as Spanish conquistadors or Roman Legionnaires and even the Digital offerings, like the Death Fields Security, future French Foreign Legion and even Trojan War Infantry, none of them really fitted what I wanted. They were either too old fashioned for a Sci-Fi setting or too Sci-Fi for a 40k feudal planet. In the end I actually came down, rather randomly on Genestealer Cult Neophyte Hybrids. 

With head and arm swaps, plus a few adjustment to the iconography on the models, I think these will make very good Secutarii stand-ins. The bodies are armoured but to to formally armoured, with a suitably space faring vibe. Combined with the Navy Breachers spare helmeted heads, I think they will not look like GSC models in disguise. The arms and shields will most likely still come from Anvil Industries, as I haven't seen anything else yet that I like the look of. The arms may well.end up being a bit of a hodge podge of arms from the GSC kits, various Wargames Atlantic kits and some other GW kits, such as Cadians. I've yet to figure that bit out. 

The last price of the puzzle was what to run them as? As I mentioned above, I don't really want to run them as a forge world unit, but there is a nother option that will fit with the army system and enable me to run them as I want, and that's the Agents of the Imperium Adeptus Arbites Subductor squads. Each is armed with a shock maul and shotpistol, and a 4+ invulnerable save, represented by the shield. This means that I can build them multiple ways, with a mix of shields and shock mauls, shields and pistols, and pistols and mauls. Giving variety and also meaning I need to buy less shields and shock mauls! Bonus! 

However, having solved this problem, I'm still left with another. Originally I was planning on using some Wargames Atlantic WW1 french bodies to pull double duty as Secutarii and Krieg, with the 35 models forming two squads of Secutarii and a command squad and standard squad of Krieg. However, with the changes to the Secutarii above, I was left with an issue for the Krieg. I did not need 35 models for the Krieg and the WW1 models were themselves not ideal anyway, they were a good compromise for the two different units. This mean that I could either get proper Krieg, as I only needed them models or I could look to get just some sprues from Wargames Atlantic to build the ten models I needed but from a different kit. Looking around the Grognards are a popular kit to use for Krieg alternatives both as original builds and kitbashes. Having built a few of these, I can see why.

The trouble here is that that come in boxes of 24,which I can pick up locally for around 20 pounds. If I look at buying just enough to build a 10 man squad,it's going to cost around 18 pound to buy the four sprues (each containing 3 bodies) I need. So it just makes sense to buy the whole box, this giving me 24 bodies. I don't know if I have enough bits to build all of them as Kriegsmen but I should be able to build at least a squad, command squad and a character with that lot. Which would fill out my options for the mechanised infantry for e they will be used as.

This is one of the few times that I'm glad GW boxes come with so many options, as it means building additional forces is quite easy with just a few extra bodies. 

With the addition of these units to my overall AdMech forces, I should be up to around 1450 points, the addition of some enhancements and an additional Skitarii Marshall, if there are any spare bodies, will push this over my 1500 target with ease. 

As for when I will get around to building and painting any of these projects, I have no idea! I'm still planning on bashing some Field Ordnance Batteries from my spare parts and some extra bits plus I have a whole army of Dark Angel successors (the Dark Guardians) I need to paint up. 

Techpriest and servitors

 Following on from the AdMech post last time, I thought I would.post about my new Techpriests and attendant servitors. 

I have always wanted a techpriest to go with my Mechanised forces, namely the Hrossey Mechanised Yeomanry but I've had to wait a while to get some and so now I have two! I have gained one of these through the start collecting box, mentioned in the last post and I also gained a metal one in amongst the models donated to the wee one. 

Alongside the wish to have a techpriest, I have always wanted to have some servitors, as I always imagine them.like little worker bees following along at the heels of their master. However, with the cost of proper servitors, I have never felt that I could justify buying them and I didn't have any ideas about how to build them. With the start collecting box and coming across some Valkyrie door gunner bodies I had a bit of a brain wave. One of the things that I do not like about the proper models is the robotic arms, which always seemed far to big and chunky to be of any actual use when fixing engines or equipment. So with this in mind, I went down a different route and dug through my AdMech bits box and found some suitable arms, mostly half mechanical ones, but at least 1 full mechanical. 

I also decided to add some firepower to the unit, just for the fun of it, so I also dug out a plasma gun, to act as a plasma cannon and the melta gun from some vehicle and placed it as a multimelta. Granted they don't look the same, but they are obvious enough that people won't get confused.

So there we go, a couple of techpriests and some servitors for the collection, just in time for servitors to be completely useless! 

AdMech reinforcements

 So, I have finally got around to building my AdMech start collecting box that I brought months ago, just after they released the updated start collecting box, before they released the combat patrol box! 

This box, the original start collecting bix

I wanted this box rather than the newer box as it has the tank \ transport in it rather than the dune crawler. I had initially thought I would run it as the transport but have since decided that the tank with the more anti-infantry weapon is the better option, as I'll be running this with my two armiger warglaives, which are very much anti-armour platforms. With this box I will be able to field the Scorpius Disintegrator, two 6 man vanguard squads, two 10 man ranger squads, two techpriest Dominus and two armiger warglaives for a 1000 point army. 

I may look to add some more vanguard to boost those units up to full 10 man squads and I may also look at add some additional units, such as electro-priests or sicarians for some additional close combat ability. I don't envision this force getting above the 1500 point mark, at least not with out the addition of a knight and some more armigers.

Anyway, the new troops;

The Rangers are made up of basic troops to boost the existing squads up to 10 men and enable to multiple special weapons that exist. There is one alpha and 9 rangers.

The vanguard's are a lot limited in number, only 3 in total and are there as I had addition troops to use up. These will just be added to squads to boost the numbers up a little bit. In hind sight I maybe should have built one of these as a skitarii marshal and to be honest I'm still tempted to go back and do it, as it shouldn't take much effort to do.

The Scorpius Disintegrator, to add so longer ranged heavy anti infantry capacity, although with the design of the weapons, you can easily switch the main gun back and forth between the two options. I have also just noticed that I haven't painted the missiles at the front or the head lights! I will have to go back and paint these.

Lastly we have the two Dominus. One for each section of the army, armed (hopefully) with corresponding weapons to support their troops. 

One thing you might have notices is that all the units are different colours, not like the standard AdMech force which is all one colour defined by the forge world. I have finally settled on some lore for these guys and they are not going to be a main forge world but a knightly household detachment, once part of a forge world but now split and operate solely on the behest of the household (namely House Vandrad, the Laird's of Tunglland, loyal servants of House Krast.) The difference colours are defined by their roles in the house both by tradition and also to make it easier to identify for the Knights pilots. I'll need to write up a proper lore for the AdMech and Knights some time soon, alongside all the other lore updates I need to write!

Kill team: AdMech

Well, I've always dreamed of an AdMech army and now I have on, sort of. What I have is 20 models, split between 10 vanguard and 10 rangers. Now, I know very little of AdMech, so choosing what to do was very difficult but I just went for everything and that seems to have solved it. However, even once I had the force sorted, writing a back story for them has been very hard. Understanding what all the terms mean has taken some time, I mean, what does Mechadominus really mean? Well, it took me a while to understand it all but I think I've got there! So here is a brief backstory;

The Skitarii forces of the are lead by the Tech Priest Dominus Actus Ar Primus 961.34534 and we're once part of the Forge world of Xupra, a minor forge world located in the segmentum pacificus. However, they are now exiled from the forge world and have settled on a new world, a knightly world, where they work with the local Laird and his household but also mount expeditions to the surrounding systems to try and locate useful information, materials or any else they deem necessary. This force is one such force, expedition Omega I5KX and they are tasked with tracking down and identifying the source of rumours detailing apparent archeotech on a nearby planet.  The force is lead by the Skitarii Ranger Alpha-XXVII, one of Actus Ar's most devout followers.

The expeditions forces are split on in to two elements, the Vanguard forces and the Ranger forces and although these forces work in harmony with each other, they still maintain very distinct identities, with The Vanguard forces are commanded by Vanguard Alpha, Alpha-7.

The vanguard Skitarii are the main skirmish troops on the mission, designated for first contacts, search and retrieval and scouting duties. They will lead the way into any situation.

Alpha-7 is the leader of the Skitarii Vanguard forces. He is a seasoned warrior, with many decades of expeditions completed. In all his years, it is not only his knowledge that has grown but also his dedication to the omnissiah, so much so that he would not hesitate for a second to sacrifice his men to secure or defend the precious works of the Omnissiah.

Beta-IV is the second in charge of the Vanguard Skitarii and is very protective of his unit. Not a man to act without first calculating every posibility. And when he does act he will chanting prays to the Omnissiah through the language of the Can't Mechanicus.

Tov-XIX is forever in motion, never resting as the motive forces of the Omnissiah course through his body. Armed with his trusty Plasma Caliver in his hand, Tov can be seen striding across the battle field, constantly in motion seeking his next target or chasing down his chosen quarry.

Delpa-656 is the second member of the Vanguard that is armed with a Plasma Caliver and is quite a different character to Tov-XIX. Where Tov is constantly in motion, Delpa will slowly and carefully stalk and watch,  waiting for the perfect shot, making sure that every burst of plasma hits it target with optimum precision, never wasting the god given munitions.

Fel-110, the wielder of the omnispex and tactical databank, Fel is often at the heart of the Vanguard forces, feeding tactical data and optimal attack angles to his fellow warriors, helping to ensure a successful mission. Fel can usually be found near to Delpa or occasionally Tov, to help ensure that every shot hits home, regardless of where the enemy tries to hide.

Eq-744 is a warrior exemplar, for there is no weakness that can be hidden from his augmented vision. It is for this reason that he has been honoured with carrying the Enhanced Data-tether. As a solid and steadfast figure on the battlefield, never flinching from the enemy and constantly transmitting rallying signals to all members of the Skitarii.

Zhu-79.09\5 is a devout follower of the Omnissiah, following every tenet of the cult mechanicus. Such is his devotion and purity of soul that anything but the most pure machine spirits recoil in his presence. While this is seen as a blessing by many members of the hierarchy it can be very problematic missions in to enemy territory, where many machine spirits have been corrupted or twisted by malignant powers.

Sy-yex-745 is a devout follower of the cult mechanicus and dreams of the days when he can attain a true mechanical body and bring himself closer to the Omnissiah. When ever he goes in to battle he can be heard chanting prays to the Omnissiah, both to call on the help of the Omnissiah in completing whatever task is at hand and also to cause fear within the enemy, knowing that the the unstoppable Force of the adpetus mechanicus is coming for vengeance.

Tyba-666\2 is often looked upon with some suspicion from his fellow Vanguard for his extremely Hardline views on the cult mechanicus. He follows every part of the cult to the letter allowing no deviation, no corruption of the purity of the Omnissiah. This purity of soul is projected so strongly by his conviction that all but the purist machines will recoil and falter in his presence.

Dak-575 follows the tenets of the Omnissiah with unthinking reverence for it is all he has ever know. His belief if the power and omnipresence of the Omnissiah are unshakable and as such he will call out his devotion with every action, especially in the face of the enemy.

The Skitarii Rangers are designated as the main command and control elements on the expedition and also to act as fire support and long range "artillery" while the vanguard go about there duties.

Alpha-XXVII is the leader of the Skitarii Rangers and also in overall command of all Skitarii forces on this mission. Alpha-XXVII has proven himself a loyal follower of the Dominus and an excellent expedition leader, heading many dozens of successful missions. All this knowledge has given him an almost unparalleled databank of information on the enemies of the Omnissiah, no matter what there form, information that can be shared in seconds to the other members to ensure maximum chance of success.

Bheta-668.2 is XXVII's deputy and is often left to lead the Rangers, while XXVII's attending to his other duties as mission leader. Bheta is no less devoted to the Omnissiah than his superior but has yet to reach such levels of seniority. This is mostly due to his zealous nature and his willingness to disregard mission parameters in order to protect the precious work of the Omnissiah, even if such actions will jeopardise the units mission.

Tyba-089 is armed with the Transuranic Arquebus. Known for it's range and accuracy, Tyba uses it to maximum effect for he keeps the weapon and the sprit within as pure and untainted as can been. Through the recitals of litenaries and prayers Tyba keeps all malicious forces from corrupting the workings of his prescious rifle.

Decima-2918 is a warrior exemplar, deadly with any weapon in his hands. However, it is with the Transuranic Arquebus that he has excelled. With his augmented sight and his natural, Omnissiah given patience for the perfect shot, there is little that can escape the attentions of Decimal and his weapon.

Chu-511 strides forward on to the battlefield pronouncing his devotion to the Omnissiah and incantations to ensure his arc rifle functions at the peak of efficiency.

Sek-666\2 hordes knowledge like others horde gold. Sek uses this knowledge to wield his arc rifle with maximum precision, searching his data banks for information and reference points to identify weaknesses and flaws in the enemies armour that can be exploited for maximum impact.

Kas-111 has been gifted with the rangers enhanced Data-tether, for he has a deep reverence for the works of the Omnissiah and will do anything to ensure there protection and with the gift of the enhanced Data-tether he can ensure that all members of the mission are fully committed to the act at hand.

Tyr-2918 is Kas' counterpart and in many respects his twin. While They both have a deep reverence for the works of the Omnissiah and are prepared to do anything to ensure there survival, the both do so in different ways. Tyr believes the best way is to make sure that every shot fired by his brothers strikes home and so carries the Omnispex to identify any hidden targets and guide his fellow Skitarii on to them, so that they maybe destroyed before they can taint or damage the Omnissiah's blessed works.

Dox-744 does not strive for recognition or promotion, he only wishes to ensure the missions success. Dox can usually be seen holding back, data bank collating, sorting and processing any information gleaned from any rangers before ensuring it is passed to all the others, never leaving anyone without information that may ensure victory.

Delpha-404 seeks knowledge with a single mindedness of any tech priest, yet Delpha does not seek knowledge of machines but of flesh and blood, for knowledge is power, the power to destroy. Delpha uses this power to destroy the enemies of the Omnissiah, seeing this as the best way to gather knowledge of the forgotten Machines of the Omnissiah, for with your enemy dead, you can collect and study at your leisure.

Armiger warglaives

After the updates to the various kill teams, I thought I should post this one up, as it's been sitting in the draft folder for quite a while as well. Despite the length of time sitting in the draft folder, nothing has actually happen with these guys yet, there still exactly as you see them here, with the exception of the melta on top of the white one, that got broken off.

The two models, side by side

This one is still in component parts, as I intend to paint in sub assemblies.

This one has been built, primed and subsequently claimed by my son. He didn't want to paint in sub assemblies so it's all glued and fixed.

I'm planning on getting some contrast Pai to to finish these off, partly to give the paints a try and partly to see if it will work for my son when he comes to paint up his nids. Colour scheme is not really important here as they will go to form a small force with my AdMech units. In the long run another knight will join them, either a Castellan or a crusader. My first choice would actually be a crusader but a Castellan would also fit the bill. The force would represent a small household, with knight and a couple of squires supported by a small band of loyal guards from a local small forge world. Anyway, that's a long way off right now.

Plans........

So following on from the previous post about my birthday gifts, I though I would go into more details about what I was planning on doing with my new toys. There are a couple of plans afoot at the moment. The first revolves around the forgebane box set and the other around a box of ogryn.

For the forgebane box, I will be splitting this with a mate of mine, who will be taking the necrons. I have mentioned this trade previously (here) and so I currently have 20 skitarii and two techpriest Dominus to go with my armigers. I will be forming these in to either two 10 man vanguard units or a 10 man and two 5 man vanguard units and taking 2 of the plasma calivers in one squad and 2 of the arc rifles in another squad.

These squads, whether I form 2 or 3, will be used to support the armigers as they move up the field. I also plan on trying to kit bash some skitarii rangers from the left over parts and some Cadian bodies that I have. At the moment these Cadian bodies are modelled up as standard guards men and so will need breaking down, including the 4 heavy flamer models! That part I'm not looking forward to! This will give me around 15 to 18 rangers, depending upon how they models break downs and if I can find any more floating around. I will model these guys up as at least 3 squads, one of which will be armed with the 2 remaining transuranic arcquebus and all the squads will be used to hold objectives. This will give me somewhere between 4 to 7 skitarii squads to support the Knights. At present, the knight contingent consists of just the knight armigers but I am hoping to pick up the Renegade box set for the two knights, which will finish out the force. It could be a while until I get them though, as there are other priorities right now. I am only looking to get this force to around 2000 points and won't take it any further.

The other project involves the box of ogryn\bulgryns that o got for my birthday. The plans for this one are not fully finalized yet. I will be building at least 2 as ogryn bodyguards, one armed with a shield and ripper gun and one with a maul and shield. As yet I have still to decide which shields I will use with each, but probably the slab shield with the aim of creating a visual wall to the commander\warlord with the shields. The final model will be built as a bullgryns but as a standard one with a maul and brute shield, as I intend at some point to get another box of them to form a 4 man unit as a counter charge unit.

I have never used ogryn or bullgryns but I am really excited to get these guys built and on the table to see how they perform. My original plan was to put one in each of my guard armies to accompany the warlord but now I am leaning towards putting two in the Hjaltland LI to protect the warlord there as he is far more exposed on the battle field, the Hrossey Yeomanry warlord will be in the protective environment of a chimera for a lot of the time and the Dagr Ormr warlord will be deep striking and the ogryn can't do that. Therefore the ogryn bodyguards would be of little use and a waste of points. So, at this point I will definitely build two and keep the third for another day.

I will add at this point that this is the current plan and anyone who's followed this blog for any amount of time will tell you the my plans change quite often! I will be doing a AdMech force, but whether I get knights or not is a different matter. Hopefully these plans will work out as intended but we will have to wait and see.

So this just happened........

The other day I had a quick visit from a friend, who called round to drop off some items that will form part of a trade. When I get my copy of Forgebane, the necron half of the box will be going back the other way and will form my half of the trade but in the mean time, I have already received this lot;

In there are 3 attack bikes, 11 normal bikes (9 from various DV sets), a squad of Skitarii and a Tech Preist Dominus. 

The three attack bikes, which will join the Dark Guardians, are complete, the extra bits are in the bag at the back. They are all going to be armed with multimelta's, as I think I have enough anti-infantary firepower but lack some longer ranged anti-armour firepower, plus they didn't come with heavy bolters, just multimelta's, which did make the decision a bit easier.

The bulk of the bikes, with 2 sergeants, 2 plasma and 3 normal bikers. 

Two more bikes, still to be built, one with plasma and one with bolt pistol. The chances are one of these will be converted to a librarian model, to give me some psychic powers and denials. 

The last two bikes and these are standard bikes from the MPPK bikes. These will be recieving a bit of an upgrade to make them in to an apothecary and champion, meaning the bikes need to be equipped with plasma talons rather than bolters. 

The sprues in the picture belong to the skitarii (below) and a tech priest Dominus, both from forgebane. These will be going in to storage for a while, until I get my box set and then I can start to figure out a force. I will probably get the AdMech codex at some point, so that I can field these guys properly but for the moment, they will be well down the list of builds. 

So there you have it, my latest addition to the pile of unpainted plastic. I have, as I always do, grand plans for this lot but it could be a while before they see fruition.