Of Changes, Playtesting, Army Choices, and Much Length; Part the First

So it's been a while, no? I think I last put fingers to keyboard back in January 2014, and I have to say it's been a tumultuous year or so since then.

Those of you who I know either through Facebook or in the traditional face-to-face sense will be aware that I have parted ways with Games Workshop, and moved away from Nottingham. To answer the obvious question, no it wasn't voluntary. But these things happen. It was definitely more of an opportunity than a setback, as I've been able to stop having a long-distance relationship and live with my better half again, which is awesome, and my new job is pretty cool also.

So all's well.

A while ago, I linked one of my posts to a tweet about Space Marines. Guy Haley, of BL, SFX and Writing fame, was kind enough to tweet it and I had some kind words about my writing which is always nice. So here I am again, blowing off the cobwebs with (eventually) some shiny toy soldiers (not in gold, either).

Iron Warriors. The IV Legion of the Great Crusade. Malign, paranoid, pragmatic, uncaring, masters of siegecraft... are these guys sounding familiar? Before I show you them, a brief digression...

Forge World have, of course, been releasing Horus Heresy stuff for a good while now, after slightly 'testing the water' with the hugely popular Badab War campaign books (remember that teasing newsflash assuring you it was definitely a 40k supplement?). I was kindly asked to be a playtester by everyone's favourite Dark Lord, Alan Bligh, and so my Minotaurs got rejigged and thrown into the Age of Darkness, pretending to be a Legion. In those early games, exactly which Legion was rather irrelevant, and so a lot of what I posted on here was actually being used in 30k playtest games to represent various different things.

Not like this, thankfully...

The outcome, of course, was the Legion Crusade Army List from HH1 - and then it got more involved. I often get asked how Forge World playtesting actually works, and the glib answer would be 'well, a bunch of friends get together and play a load of games, and then John French crunches numbers and creates graphs'.

In the grim darkness of the far future there is only statistical analysis

Actually, that's not even the glib answer - Alan comes up with rules, we game, we diligently record our results, John number-crunches and we collectively discuss changes which Alan makes - repeat until the end of playtesting. All this means that the early versions of the units and characters you eventually see in Imperial Armour books are often quite different.

My favourite example of this would be everyone's favourite malign badass, Asterion Moloc. Alan and I played perhaps the first Boarding Action game of the Badab War playtesting, using our respective characters (Moloc and I think Thulsa Kane, although he may not have been written/built at that stage). Alan, cackling as is his wont, charged a Dreadnought into Moloc after he strayed away from his bodyguard. There was probably a triumphant comment, I checked the stats, we determined that Moloc went first, and he stuck the Black Spear through the dreadnought and killed it in one blow, and no doubt a spray of slo-mo amniotic fluid. Cue a fist pump and an 'ah...' respectively.

So anyway, the Iron Warriors. I used my Minotaurs throughout the playtesting, standing in for most of the Legions at one time or another, and it was a blast. We averaged something like a 98% casualty rate on both sides - games were horrendously bloody massacres, with troops dying in droves, squadrons of tanks being deployed and just as swiftly taken off again - all of which you have, no doubt, experienced yourselves.

However I didn't actually build and paint any Heresy stuff - 'I have loads of Marines already,' I cried. 'I just enjoy painting gold,' and other excuses. Which were all quite plausible, I think. In the later stages of playtesting, I happily took on the Iron Warriors, because I've always quite liked them, bitterly following orders and not seeking glory - and of course when John French wrote The Crimson Fist, I was blown away (ar har) by the way he portrayed Peturabo. I also had a spare Contemptor lying around, which I painted up quickly in IV Legion colours just to see what it would look like.

Enter New York Times-bestselling novellist Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

'I'm doing a Heresy Tale of X Gamers project' says he, from beneath his hat.
'That's nice,' say I, quick with the repartee, 'But I don't think I'm going to bother with Heresy stuff. I've playtested, sure, but I just enjoy painting Minotaurs at the moment.'
'OK,' says he, adding me to the Facebook group created for the Tale, and proceeding to act like I'd already agreed. The scoundrel!

So that was that. I was working on an Iron Warriors army. I decided that, despite beginning another Space Marine army with a metallic colour scheme that could be quickly drybrushed, I wanted to try some new techniques - heat bloom on weapons, weathering, battle damage and paint chipping on vehicles.

Nothing too flashy or technical (because as you will have gathered by now, I don't care for doing that sort of thing despite being amazed when I see it on other people's models) but enough to make the army look dirty and mid-campaign, rather than my rather pristine Minotaurs.

At the time, Alan and I were talking about the Shattered Legions, among other things which I cannot reveal, and the idea that, because the Crusade Fleets set out every which way into the galaxy, it was entirely plausible that elements of the Traitor Legions both remained loyal and never met their Primarchs, by virtue of having gone the other way or whatever - this stuck, along with the whole 'wave of Soviet infantry backed up by tanks' concept of Iron Warriors warfare. 

Building a force like this, a typical self-contained Crusade force, also neatly allows me to build in Mechanicum and Imperial Army support too, as allied forces or stand-alone armies should I decide to. So which way did they go, in order to never meet Peturabo? Well, why not have them strike out towards the enigmatic Madragorian Sector? Alan does love to seed his maps with little bits and pieces for later use, and in any case, going 'off-map' means I can do what I like! Huzzah!

So the Secondary Expedition Fleet led by my Iron Warriors would consist of several Legion capital ships, the Terran Resolve, the Carcosan Pilgrim, the Merciless and the Icarian Revenant, supplied by the great Forge-Barque Isomorphic Paradox and various other vessels. A full regiment of Imperial Army troops, the 'Bloody Glory' 87th Chonsar Dragoons accompanies the fleet.

So, this is the seed that became the Iron Warriors' CMLXXXVIth Grand Company, which voyages under the command of their proud and sinister Warsmith-General, Ieronim Mitras.

 

Shown here in 'post-assault casual' stance

Mitras commanded the fledgling 986th Grand Company from its formation during the Unification Wars, earning renown and respect for the succession of victories he won against the myrid scavenger-tribes, hereteks, and rad-barbarians who stood against the armies of the Emperor as he strove to bring order to the ravaged wastes of Terra. Of particular note are the brutal and merciless campaigns he commanded against the agri-cults of Europa and the Nordafrik Conclaves; degenerate worshippers of primal deities of fertility and harvest that refused to cast aside their beliefs and stand with the Emperor.

The campaign was long planned, and meticulously detailed. Magos-logisticians and calculus-logi defined the parameters of the deployment, calculating vectors of advance and fire, precise timings of engagement, and even the number of shots that each warrior of the IV would unleash; all under the cold and calculating gaze of Ieronim Mitras. His field commander for the campaign was Aleksandr Uborevich, and the once-numberless devotees of the agri-cults were scattered like chaff before the cold strategy of Mitras and the merciless assaults of Uborevich. Great swathes of the Europan plains were left smouldering in the wake of the 986th's advance, and after barely a month of brutal onslaught, the Emperor's banner flew over the ruin of the agri-cults in their Norafrik heartlands.

Since taking to the stars, Mitras' reputation for meticulous planning and heartless assault has grown, and many worlds have been restored to humanity by his efforts. Of late, however, the IV/986 Fleet has been slowed by the unexpected defiance of an ancient human empire, the Nozhetarushi Technomancers; heretek degenerates who hold fearsome technological secrets.

Mitras's (semi)trusted Consuls are Centurion-Marshal Aleksandr Uborevich, named 'Tauromanch', and Centurion-Artillereist Graegor Zhdanov:

The grim and implacable Centurion-Marshall Uborevich has stood at the right hand of Wasmith-General Mitras ever since the Unification Wars became the Great Crusade. Named 'Tauromanch' for his brutal pogroms against the agri-cults of Europa and the Nordafrik Conclaves during the Unification Wars, Uborevich is a merciless commander who epitomises the IV Legion’s unfeeling way of war; a front-line commander who inspires fanatical loyalty in his men by his willingness to share the line of battle with them. His great Aquila shield, it is said, was gifted to him by Constantin Valdor himself at the outset of the Great Crusade, and the mighty hammer he wields was taken as the victor’s due from the shattered fingers of the last and greatest warlord of the Europan agri-cults.

Uborevich is unsubtle in his approach to battle, most commonly deploying his Warsmith’s troops in staggered lines to maximise their firepower and advancing implacably on the enemy. His rival in Mitras’s favour, Centurion-Artillerist Zhdanov, is always ordered to concentrate his artillery units into a single battery, with more mobile armour committed in a flanking thrust against whatever foe the 986^th are deployed. Uborevich is notorious, too, for the creeping bombardments with which he commences his attacks, advancing his line within feet of furious shellfire without care or tolerance for errors on the part of Zhdanov’s gunners.

Accompanied in battle by the stalwart warriors of Suvorov Breacher Squad, under the command of the equally brutal Sergeant Golenischev, Uborevich anchors the centre of his line with an unyielding shield-wall, like the fabled Grekan warriors of Ancient Terra. These twenty Iron Warriors led by Uborevich were the first to engage during the Incident at Khalkhin-Gol, fighting without relief against the unrelenting Technomancers until they stood, battered shields thick with gore, unbroken atop a great mound of corpses.

 

Massed batteries of artillery and overwhelming pinpoint armoured assaults have long been a hallmark of the IV Legion in general, and of Warsmith-General Mitras’ 986^th Grand Company in particular. Centurion-Artillerist Graegor Zhdanov commanded the armour of the 986^th, renowned for the precision of his targeting and the impeccable timing and perfectly-calculated strength of his spearhead assaults.

Legionary Zhdanov displayed an affinity for machines and technology from his very earliest days with the IV Legion. Before the outset of the Great Crusade he had gleaned much knowledge of the lost secrets of mankind’s technological dominance in the Unification Wars, and under the tutelage of the Machine-Cult of red Mars. As the Crusade Fleet of the Iron Warriors’ 986^th Grand Company cut further and further into the dark of the void from Terra, Zhdanov was thrust into a tank commander’s role during the Incident at Khalkhin-Gol. The Iron Warriors fought against an ancient human kingdom, the Nozhetarushi, the Technomancers; strong in war and fiercely aggressive.

Upon their capital world, designated 15-986-07, a charge of their terrible sentient machines, thousands strong, supported by light artillery of outlandish design, threatened to overwhelm the lightly-crewed emplacements of dug-in Iron Warriors’ Medusae. Zhdanov, at the time engaged in maintenance work on the main weapon of an Executioner-pattern Predator, immediately engaged the motive-drives and targeting cogitators of the tank and surged into combat. The great plasma cannon of his commandeered Predator burned white-hot, such was his furious prosecution of the foe, and his example rallied the rest of the squadron to his advance. The attack was resisted, turned, and then crushed by the re-sited batteries, with Zhdanov calling in constant fire missions from the van of the counter-assault, in spite of his own proximity to the target locations.

Since the destruction of the Nozhetarushi, Zhdanov’s star has risen in his Warsmith’s esteem. His armoured brigades still heavily favour the Predator Executioner, while the ever-increasing isolation of the 986^th put many of the more esoteric armoured vehicles fielded by the Legiones Astartes beyond his reach. Instead, older, reliable vehicles and weapons are used alongside the trusty Medusa – Zhdanov’s only requirement being a large-bore cannon with which to bombard the foes of humanity.

These malign and somewhat grumpy heroes are joined by a reasonable horde of troops and tanks - all with their own, similar, bit of background - and I'll round off this fairly length post with a few teasers for the second instalment, coming soon...

A New Year and new models

Or at least models that were finished quite close to the start of 2014...

As you may recall from my October post (he says, blowing the cobwebs away) there was a painting challenge going on in the office, with an early December deadline. I had two-and-a-bit-nearly-three months to paint the new Space Marine Strike Force, with the penalty for failure being to buy a pint in Bugman's for anyone who successfully completed their Battle Force. Needless to say, that'd be a pricey round!

So, last time I posted Squad Alkaios of the Minotaurs' 3rd Company, called 'The Stalwarts', for Veteran Sergeant Alkaios' renowned courage and his refusal to arm himself with anything more ornate than a combi-weapon. This time I've got the rest of the Strike Force, which I did finish it time, I'm pleased to say.

Except the Drop Pod. Which I did finish (complete with scenic base) but I figured, a Drop Pod's a Drop Pod. Who cares. Also, by popular request, at the end of this string of photos you'll get to enjoy a step-by-step 'How I do my Bronze armour' photo montage. I bet you can hardly wait ;-)

So, first and foremost:
Brother-Captain Decualion, Keeper of the Labyrinth; Captain of 3rd Company; the Black Brotherhood.

He's the one with the spear and the gangsta lean...

His command squad are equally nonchalant...

Except Veteran-brother Aiax who is furious at the squad's lack of being in close combat

I wanted to build a 'surveying the battlefield' commander, given that almost all my other HQ miniatures are very much in the thick of it. Next up, Vanguard squad Deucalion, 'the Strong-Greaved'. These guys will eventually be ten-strong, and brimming with gear as befits an Apocalypse-only squad that will rain from a Thunderhawk Gunship...

Look at all that bling

Everyone has lightning claws or a Thunder hammer/storm shield. Or an axe. Or a spear, obviously...

Next we have the gloriously grumpy Tactical Squad Epheus, 'the Bad Omen' - Squad Epheus invariably field flamer and melta weapons to scorch the very earth as they pass. They're also boasting a rather snazzy multi-melta conversion, and a couple of completely badass bullpup-grip bolters. There's a prize* for anyone who can identify those, actually. We also have a Dreadnought, with his decorative and completely unviable battle honours covered over. Oh and some sniper scouts... ho hum.

The multi-melta is pretty cool, I think.

That guy, front right. Where's his bolter from?

Scouts.

Yeah...

And finally, an armour step by step...

So, first basecoat with Tin Bitz. I use a large drybrush for this, but you don't want to drybrush it. Instead you overbrush, which is basically a bit of a wetter drybrush (ie you haven;t got rid of all the paint from the brush). This is purely for convenience and speed!

Stage two is basically the same, but using Dwarf Bronze or Brazen Brass. Note that I have no clue what the new Citadel paint names are for these...

I know what you're thinking...

Stage three is a slightly lighter coat of Shining Gold. You're still using a big-ass brush...

... That's G.A.F - Gold As Fuck! (Apologies for this now not being SFW...)

And at this point you may think, what is this clown telling me to do to my models. But fear not. The final stage is a drybrush of Mithril Silver - as heavy or as light as you want:

Phew...

When I first started painting these guys, I wanted to achieve a burnished, hand-beaten effect, as though their armour was made of hammered gold. Drybrushing with silver kinda mottles and tones together the three gold stages, and gives it something which (I think) is fairly representative of that pattern of hammer marks you see on hand-crafted copper bowls and suchlike.

So that's that! A heap of models, stay tuned for more. I've got Centurions to paint soon.

*There isn't really a prize.

Minotaurs Reborn, or Revisited...

So I've left the Iron Warriors on the back burner good and proper, for a while. We're doing a Battleforce Painting Challenge at work, and I've taken on the heroic effort of the new Strike Force (plus extra new bits and bobs).

So here's a bit of a return to the beasts in bronze for your enjoyment. The first chunk of stuff is finished - Tactical Squad Alkaios and their Rhino, featuring the ever-trusty plasma cannon (for all your Space Marine killing needs) and a new grav gun. At some point I'll actually play a game with them too...

Sergeant Alkaios' head is from the Sternguard kit and is officially my favourite head ever

Ignore the disembodied legs. More will come of them later...

Interestingly, I'm writing this while listening to The Independent Characters podcast (which you should check out), discussing the prospect of using a second Primary Detachment in larger games of 40k, and this squad puts me up to, what... 7 Tactical squads...? Yeah. So that's going to happen at some stage. I'd really like to play a huge 40k game using those rules that ISN'T an Apocalypse game - also as an incentive to finish off another Storm Talon, among a few other things (hello, Stalker/Hunter).

I'm also intending to build a Deathwatch kill team, just for a bit of something different; stay tuned for more on that along with a stage-by-stage for my gold armour.

Dusting off

Well it's been a silent few months, although a very busy few months (the two points being fairly interlinked...).
As you may have seen, I are mostly be painting Iron Warriors for Aaron's A Tale of 5 Heretics, but I've also just bought Space Hulk on Steam and the sight of Brother Noctis on Overwatch, mowing down Genestealers to single-handedly achieve the mission where you have to block the entry points, inspired me.

So it's a work in progress type of update. I picked up the rather tasty Hecaton Aiakos kit shortly before jumping ship to my new job in Black Library, and I've spent this morning getting the bronze done...

Israel Gonzalez is a talented man

Also, as Apocalypse has been re-launched (you may have noticed), I'm adding to and finishing off my Masters of the Chapter. Brother-Captain Lyonidaes is counted amongst their number too.

Master of Rites and Master of the Arsenal

Lord Executioner and Master of the Fleet

Master of the Marches and Master of the Watch

Why so many Space Marines?

My Minotaurs are in a cabinet in Warhammer World currently, which has led to more than a couple of 'cor, you've got a lot of Space Marines'-type comments. Handily they are accompanied with 'they look ace', which is always flattering, but in a dramatic shift away from my usual 'look at mah pictures pleez' blog post, I thought I'd mull over why, exactly, I enjoy painting Minotaurs in particular and Space Marines in general.

Obviously they are cool. The concept of a super-human, genetically enhanced warrior who is functionally immortal, armed with incredible weaponry and clad in outrageously thick armour is just ace, right?

However there's more to it than this...

I love the inherent dichotomy of tragedy and arrogance that is embodied in the background. The concept that the aspirant willingly abandons his humanity, his chance of a normal life, of love and family and so on, specifically to stand unyielding against the horrors of the galaxy in defence of that same humanity. It's not something lacking from the background per se, but it's always been implicit, I think. 

This is what makes the Adeptus Astartes heroes, in my book. Not their thin line of stubborn unyielding defence - that's heroic - but their initial, very first self-sacrifice. Imagine, you've just fought through whatever terrible contest your world holds to select those who are worthy to become Sky Warriors. You stand triumphant, proving through cunning and strength that you are the most potent example of humanity on your entire world. What's to stop you saying 'thanks, but I'd actually like to lead my clan/tribe/whatever and become rich and powerful, through whatever means I have available'?

Duty. The benefit you can be to humanity. Arguably the chance for greater honour and renown (so maybe it's a bit selfish), but actually when you think about it, your great deeds may never be known by the Imperium at large. On this point, I love the end of The Emperor's Gift where the Bell of Lost Souls is rung. It's only done when great heroes of the Imperium fall in battle, and it's heard across Terra, but in the grand scheme of things the populous of Earth know only that a hero has died, not who it was or why. 

So they are heroes, self-sacrificing, dutiful, supremely powerful heroes. They are raised beyond the common clay, remade; forged into mankind's greatest warriors. They gain incredible strength, greatly-advanced mental faculties, all the additional organs and abilities. They hold the line when all others would fall back (super-brave), attack when all others would hold (super-daring). We seem to be describing Superman. 

I dislike Superman. We'll now look at why. He's perfect, he has no flaws. Neither, too, does the Space Marine we're describing - the Codex Space Marine, if you will. The part I liked the most about the last movie was when he smashed the picture after learning that Lois Lane is dating someone else. He's spurned. He's angry. Suddenly he isn't just a 2D character!

Now, there's an established Thing that Codex background presents the facts about the army through a veneer of propaganda, which is fine. Looking at it from this view, of course every Space Marine is a flawless defender of humanity, of course they all fight tirelessly to defend the Imperium, of course the best Space Marines are Ultramarines and every Space Marine wants to be an Ultramarine…

However that’s dull. It’s Superman, again. One of my favourite things about the Imperial Armour Badab War books is the flaws they weave into the Space Marine psyche. Fundamentally, it stands to reason that if every good human attribute is massively scaled up to create a Space Marine, at least a few bad ones should be too, right?

Hubris. Arrogance. Stubbornness. Pride. All the things that determine whether or not a Chapter chooses to commit its forces to a given conflict. Why should these superhumans (less of them than there are worlds in the Imperium, remember) die in hopeless defence of however many thousand civillians on agri-world x here when all strategic sense indicates they would be best deployed to protect industrial world y over here?

The pride and hubris of Lugft Huron, for that matter. The not-all-that-hidden truth of the Badab War is that Huron was right. He’s a Peer of the Imperium; his mandate allows him to act as he sees fit to defend Mankind. Admittedly, building a Legion is perhaps the wrong side of the loyalty line, but he is still acting as he sees fit.

Hatred. Spite. Bitterness. Stibor Lazarek of the Fire Hawks conducts a planetary bombardment against a strategically unimportant world simply because it chose the wrong side. ‘Burn them all; the God-Emperor will know His own’, as he is recorded as saying. Not really the words of a super-heroic defender of humanity. Definitely the words of someone who despises the enemies of the Imperium, frankly.

This is something that isn’t really present in the Codex background, sadly, and I think it should be. Heroes need flaws, they need a ‘lessening’ of their larger-than-life awesomeness with an equally larger-than-life drawback. Even the vaunted Ultramarines, precisely because they are the vaunted Ultramarines. They are dogmatic, hidebound, devoted to the Codex Astartes, certainly arrogant judging by their press…

These are obviously specific examples, but actually the fundamental detail of them just not understanding/forgetting/exploiting human weakness is an interesting one. You’re functionally immortal, and so on. After a while, it’s difficult to even imagine being human – so much BL fiction has Space Marines being able to sense or smell or taste fear and weakness, and being disgusted by it. Humanity’s superhuman protectors are disgusted by their charges.

Maybe a slightly downer end note? Perhaps. But I love the dichotomy of the whole package, quite frankly. That’s what keeps me painting Minotaurs, what keeps me tinkering about with bits until I have models that show these details, in their face or their pose or whatever.

And finally…  stop by Aaron’s blog to see my Iron Warriors, sometime soon J

New year, new models

Hello all, happy belated new year and all that.
So I've been painting assault marines, Sanguinary Guard-based assault marines, in fact. It's all about that Adonian musculature.

These guys are, as you can tell, something of an anti-armour squad. They are Squad Actaeon, veterans of the Battle of Optera who have taken battle gear and relics from the Lamenters to restore and replace their former wargear.

Sergeant Actaeon loves his new wrist-mounted bolter...

I've also used some FW bits on here, specifically some Phobos-pattern pistols which I think look wicked

There's parts from what, three different Chapters on here... Minotaurs pads, Blood Angels torsos/legs, Black Templars helmets. I do love the bitz box :)

I've also been tinkering with the start of a couple more squads, as you can see:

The witch hunters on the shelf disapprove of all this gold.
If you're interested, their names are Matthias Hopkyns and Bultitudes Loke.

The first will be a new Tactical squad, lead by the Sergeant on the left who's converted from the Games Day model for this year. I'm not sure what the rest of the guys will have but I think that a Lascannon might be in order:

Drum mags look wicked on bolters!!

The second is either going to be a Devastator marine or a Devastator sergeant (yes I know he can't have a heavy bolter but... it looks cool):

His bionic eye lets him perceive the awesomeness of his drum mag in glorious HD

Coming soon: a Storm Talon made from a new Nephilim fighter, plus a hodload* of Terminators.

*A hod, as featured in the classic DKM song Finnegan's Wake, is the thing in which a bricklayer carries bricks.

Works In Progress

or, The Detritus of the Painting Table...

So the Storm Eagle is proceeding apace. I'm constantly struck by how cool this kit is, especially now I've got some paint on it. No real ado here, check it out:

He's rocking fully tinted glass. It's illegal, but what are the Adeptus Arbites going to do?

You can sort of see the black identification stripe pattern here

And slightly better here. Masking tape, how I do love thee!

In other news, as the title suggests, I'm trying to finish up a few of the projects I've had hanging around for a while. Up first is this Land Speeder Storm. I had some really thin brass tube that I got at IPMS a few years ago (yes those hair-thin black lines are brass tube) that I figured would probably work quite well for rappelling lines. And after a bit of swearing, some tweezer/activator shenanigans, and trimming a few silencers from Scout bolt pistols, we have this:

Heavy bolter guy out front is ruining their cover...

Spec ops, yeah!

Scout-novice Hawkeye is silently despairing at Scout-Novice Johnson

'It's my last mag... make it count!' etc

Every scout squad needs a guy so badass that he doesn't have a gun...

I should totally get that finished. I've also embarked on rebuilding my now rather venerable Assault squad with some bling stolen from the Lamenters after Optera. These guys will be a ten-man squad eventually, using Sanguinary Guard bodies primarily:

The guy on the left is in disguise...

 And finally, another Contemptor. Meanwhile, the next Imperial Armour (volume 12, the Fall of Orpheus) will be featuring the Minotaurs - I'm rather excited as to what that will be.

If it bleeds...