Greetings fellow gamers! It has been a long, long hiatus and I finally have something I feel like posting about!
With the new edition of 40k, I decided to start my own custom chapter, which is really a chapter I started building a decade ago, but suffered some setbacks and ultimately abandoned. The new primaris space marines have given me the inspiration to push forward and I've assembled the force. Of course in my usual fashion, I've painted very little since I started collecting them in June.
But before I get to the pics, though I want to share a little background. The army started as a Crimson Fists stand-in and was originally planned as an almost pure drop-pods and veterans force. With the advent of the primaris, things have shifted but the ear-marks are still there: stubborn veterans who strike deep into the heart of the enemy to crush it's most vital armaments. Incidentally, even though they are sons of Dorn, I use the Iron Hands chapter tactics. Hopefully you can see why below. Anyway, I'll let my little chapter blurb do the talking.
The Swordbreakers
Parent Chapter: Imperial Fists
Symbol: Sword with broken blade (white on purple).
Heraldry: Purple and black.
War Cry: "We are the shield of the Emperor! We are the hammer of Dorn!"
The Swordbreakers take the legendary stubbornness of Dorn and weaponize it. When the enemy makes siege, the Swordbreakers bring the siege to the enemy. Each marine is a walking fortress, shrugging off grievous injuries through indomitable will while laying down hails of withering firepower from which there is no escape. The Swordbreakers strike deep into the heart of enemy lines, seeking to carve out their artillery and elite troops. Each mission is near suicidal, and Swordbreakers have earned a reputation for iron-willed tenacity. Each warrior emerges from these baptisms of fire a battle-hardened veteran, thrust into the midst of dangerous combat even few other astartes see.
The heavy losses and injuries sustained by the chapter give rise to a large number of dreadnoughts, further epitomizing the impregnable fortitude of the chapter. If each marine is a walking fortress, Swordbreaker dreadnoughts are lumbering bastions of death, crashing into the foe and breaking them upon their heavily armored bodies.
Severely depleted prior to the division of the galaxy, the Primaris marines were a welcome addition to the chapter’s ranks. Merely 300 of the original chapter’s marines remain, now comprising most of the upper leadership. In addition, the chapter’s entire 1st company is entirely comprised of the chapter’s original astartes. The 10th company is also trained by original Swordbreakers, maintaining the traditions of the chapter. The rest of the battle companies are almost pure Primaris, with non-Primaris marines serving in mentorship roles at a leadership level. The Swordbreakers see the Primaris as the inheritors and future of the chapter, and as such strives to put them at the forefront of their operations.
Notable Swordbreakers:
Chapter Master Alaric Bane (non-Primaris)
Captain Ramirez Holt, 1st Company (non-Primaris)
Captain Fenral Brandt, 4th Company
Chief Librarian Heinrich Voss
Chaplain Balus Richter, 4th Company
Lieutenant Kurgos Vaughn, 4th Company
Lieutenant Godric Lang, 4th Company
Ancient Danais, 1st Company Venerable Dreadnought
Eigon the Elder, 1st Company Contemptor Dreadnought
Brogan the Honored , 4th Company Redemptor Dreadnought
So you have the background, now on to the pretty pictures. First we have Lieutenant Kurgos Vaughn, of the 4th company. Vaughn is an accomplished veteran and carries an honor-mark over his right eye to attest to his valor.
As you can see I went with a semi-half black/purple scheme. I used bright green as the highlight to make it really pop, and white for markings so they would be highly visible.
Next up we have Chief Librarian Heinrich Voss. Even though Voss is one of the less seasoned primaris marines, his prodigious abilities and deep wisdom earned him a rightful selection to head the chapter's librarius.
Specialist characters can be hard to keep the chapter identity with the alternate armor colors, so I tried to convey the purple/black with the robes. I also tried to keep the blue dark as a semi-nod to the chapter's Crimson Fists inspiration. I tried to replicate the same burning sword look from my Dark Angels librarian, but the color shift to green left it looking a little odd. I think it still works though.
So that's two models down of about 60. I wouldn't expect too much movement on this project, but if I get anything else done, I'll be sure to post. It feels good to post again.
About a year ago, I celebrated getting a pretty good job by buying an Imperial Knight titan. That job turned out to not be so good in the long run but hey, at least I ended up with a Knight. About a week ago, at my current job with Black Moon Games hosted a big 40k mega battle. We had 9 players with 1500+ points each. It looked a little something like this:
Of course, knowing this was coming up, I felt I had to bring something big to the table. You can see a preview of that big thing in the picture above on the left. If you haven't guessed already, that thing is my Knight titan. Seriously, if you didn't guess I am ashamed of you.
But before I get to the actual pictures, a little background...
House Feihn
Heraldry of House Feihn
House Feihn is the ruling house on the Knight World of Cullough. Only recently returned to the Imperial fold a scant 500 years ago, Cullough was rediscovered by the Dark Angels chapter of the Adeptus Astartes. Despite having lived outside of Imperial rule for so long, Cullough has become a staunchly loyal world and provides food and supplies to the Dark Angels, as well as occasional recruits. The Knight World's harsh, feudal society creates fierce warriors with unquestionable loyalty to their houses. As the ruling house, Feihn provides a fair number of these recruits as well as support from its knight titans when requested.
Most recently, Cullough found itself under attack by an ork Waaagh! that threatened to overrun the planet. Though their knights were able to defend the great bastions of the houses, aid was required to break the ork sieges. The Dark Angels' 3rd company responded, obliterating the ork forces in precise sweeps of bolter fire, driving the beasts up against the very walls they were trying to tear down. Seeing the orks boxed in, the knights sallied forth to slaughter the remnants.
Following the successful cleansing and rebuilding of the world, House Lord Kieran Feihn honored their rescuers by providing his youngest son, Aldric, and his knight titan to the chapter for permanent support attachment. Aldric is currently attached to the Dark Angels 3rd company.
The Nephilim
Aldric Feihn pilots an Imperial Knight Warden named The Nephilim, after the giants born of angels in ancient Terran legends. He is well know in his house for his combat skills and the Dark Angels are glad of the firepower and ferocity he brings to each combat. Though never possessing the necessary attributes to be recruited for Astartes training, Aldric grew up with stories of the chapter's glory in battle and aspires to the same principles as the Emperor's finest.
Attached to the Dark Angels' 3rd battle company, The Nephilim bears the company's banner on its carapace, as well as the chapter's winged sword badge on Aldric's own banner. Of course, Aldric proudly displays House Feihn's heraldry on The Nephilim's shield.
Ok, enough of that drivel, on to the pictures!
As you can see, he's covered with the requisite abundance of swords and wings, along with some Gothic numerals to spice things up. I am not super happy with the house heraldry, since I discovered it was a much harder design for me to paint than it looked at first. I am apparently terrible with U
shapes.
I am most proud of the wings on the rear of the shoulders, since when viewed from the top they sort of connect with the swords and when viewed from the rear it looks like the titan has a set of its own wings. I also really like the lettering on the scroll, even if it looks kinda crappy in close up photos.
The base was a real pain. It is a resin base from a company whose name escapes me at the moment that I found cheap on eBay. The knight has already been mounted on the base it came with and the feet didn't quite rest properly on the new texture. Of course the feet are hollow, so in order to pin it, I had to fill a couple toes with green stuff. It is held in place with wood glue around the pins, but it still feels fragile to me. Hopefully I can find a good system in the future but for now it does the job.
That's all for now and thanks for reading. Happy gaming!
Though it doesn't show up much on this blog, I am a big fan of Warhammer 40,000 and space marines. Specifically, I am a DarkAngels player specifically with a battle company's worth of (mostly unpainted) Greenwing, a reasonable chunk of Deathwing and a splash of Ravenwing. I like marines is what I'm saying.
I've never done any gaming in the Heresy Era, not because I don't like it but because it never really got big in my area and Forgeworld is expensive. Enter Games Workshop's latest board game offering, Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth:
It is a beautiful box filled to the brim with nothing but marines. As the focus of the heresy was the space marine legions fighting each other, this makes nothing but sense. The game centers around the betrayal of the Word Bearers against the Ultramarines on the world of Calth. I'll talk about the game in a minute but I do want to discuss the miniatures first.
The Miniatures
The box gives you 2 characters, 1 Contemptor dreadnought, 5 Cataphracti armor Terminators and 30 standard marines in MK IV "Maximus" armor. The first thing you'll notice is that, except for the characters and dreadnought, the sprues are full multi-part kits.
No static, push fit minis here. Every option is available to a unit, with plenty of parts left over. Even the dreadnought has a choice between assault cannon and multi-melta. The characters are cut up in odd fashions, but are both on the same sprue. This all fits with rumors that some of the sprues may be boxed up and sold separately later.
Now all this cutting and gluing (and painting) means that the set is a little less friendly to the casual board game player. However, I suspect GW doesn't really count those people at the target market. This box is a major boon to people who want to get into 30K gaming or who want to have a large number of older armor marks in their 40k. In fact, I added up the contents as a Chaos Space Marine army and came out to about 1300 points. That is a solid core of infantry for any army, with characters and a dread as gravy.
One issue is that the tactical marine models are functionally identical, so to actually play the game you have to find some way to identify the different side. One way to do that is to actually paint the models, but fuck that noise. I went the super simple route and just painted a ring of color around the bases. Effective and also leaves the models open for different color schemes in the future without having to strip them.
One unit of tacticals is still pending for the Word Bearers due to assembly exhaustion.
I am also a little disappointed that there is just barely not enough room for the dreadnought in the box once assembled. This is not an uncommon problem with GW games and I have developed a solution for this occurrence.
I have taken to making little stilts out of foam core and hot-gluing them into the corners. Nice and sturdy and they only have to be tall enough to make the necessary room.
The Game
I can't really describe the game mechanics better than GW themselves, so I'll let them do that:
Now, I have only played one game but I really like what I've experienced so far. In general feel, the game is a lot like a very tactical scale BattleLore or Memoir '44, with it's hexes and symbol-covered dice.
The action point system is great. Swapping back and forth with unit activation is a bit of a departure to GW's usual way of doing things. Both player sharing the turn makes sure one side doesn't wipe out the other without fear of retaliation. Sure, there is an initiative system but that just means one player gets a single chance to perform an action first and while that can be game tipping, the fact that it can switch sides from turn to turn makes it uncertain. Do you take the risk and hope for initiative or play it safe? Decisions are always good.
I am supremely happy with a hex board, since movement feels much more fluid. The art on the boards is amazing, but they also took the time to make sure those boards had plenty of well-defined cover to bounce between. Movement is much more important than just rush at the enemy and see who gets there first. Each stalagmite or piece of machinery can mean the difference between reaching your destination or getting pasted by a missile launcher.
Speaking of blowing things up, the combat is reminiscent of HeroQuest and that ain't bad. Combat resolution is simple to pick up and rolling those saves can feel tense. I love the critical effects, since this makes each combination of troops in a hex a little different and gives you a great bonus or two to choose from if you roll well. I also like that each model in a unit matters, since attack force is added for each model. This encourages creating tight knit squads supporting each other instead of just running around the board as loners.
Moreover, the decks of special cards for each side provide some great extra abilities that make each side play a little differently. Ultramarines use squads in tandem to increase effects, while Word Bearers get powerful effects for single units but sometimes at a cost.
While we are on the subject of cards, the reference cards are great as a quick way to check out your models' stats during the game. The damage deck for the dreadnought is also cool, as you never know how tough he will be when you attack, and wearing him down bit by bit makes him a scary monster instead of a one-hit wonder. My only wish is that they had put the weapons on cards as well. The reference on the back of the rulebook is great but it means closing the book and flipping it over if you need it. Weapon reference cards, maybe on half-size cards, would have been great to keep on the table next to the units.
The game comes with six different scenarios and they all look like they provide a very different experience. Scenario one, for example, is a race but scenario five requires one side to reach a destination and hold it while keeping a key model alive. The scenarios tell you which models to use, so the sides are already balanced. The scenarios are also set up well for building your models as you go along. You start with a tactical squad for each side, then add terminators and the dreadnought and so on in each scenario, so you don't have to rush to assemble and paint things all at once.
And even though the units in each scenario are set, you have choices with the unit options. Each option is free, but they are balanced by having different tactical applications on the battlefield. You can take a melta gun and wreak havoc at short range or a plasma gun for bucket loads of dice from far away and hope you don't blow yourself up.
A powerfist is infinitely better on a tactical sergeant than a terminator because they can count on more support but a terminator's twin lightning claws add multiple extra dice with re-rolls. It all comes down to how you expect to use the unit on the board.
Just be wary that some combinations might not necessarily be the best in 30/40K if you plan on using them outside of Calth. And if you find a truly compelling reason to use a heavy bolter over a missile launcher in the board game, I'd like to hear it. As it is, suppression is a dime-a-dozen with all those bolters running around and 5 dice with a potential of up to 3 extra dice beats a solid 6 dice in my book every time.
Hopes And Dreams
There is a lot of potential in this little game. Right now it feels like a vehicle to sell heresy models and that is probably true. But expansion is possible. Rumor has it that Betrayal at Calth is a new core game and that some units in the future will come with bonus Calth rules. I expect these will be any new plastic Heresy models released, but there's no reason to toss in the occasional timeline-appropriate xenos. The issue I think would be more in the requirement of specific units for scenarios, but that could be solved with the occasional published scenario book, with scenarios related to models released at the same time plus a few with previously released models. There is also room for command cards for different legions or races, new board tiles and even big box expansions with those things plus new models. I know I would love to see a Caliban-based box with a bunch of Dark Angels in MK2/3 armor duking it out against each other in the halls of the Tower of Angels.
There also exists a chance for a separate core rulebook with rules for stand-up fights. For example, players could take turns placing boards to create a battlefield, take X amount of units (as long as each unit is balanced correctly), etc. I would prefer keeping the scenario system, but such a rule set would open up the potential for more unit releases outside of scenario books.
Conclusion
Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase. Is the game worth the $150 price tag? Well that depends on what you want to get out of it. If you want the models, the price is a steal by GW standards and comes with a great game. If all you are looking for is a game, the price tag is a little steep, but you can find the guts of the game sans models on eBay for cheap if you don't mind proxying. I think the potential of where the game can go is worth the cost, as long as GW supports it as rumors say they will.
I bought the game as someone sort of in between, wanting the models for 40K Fallen and looking for a fun game. I have had all of my expectations met in both regards, so I am pleased. It is up to you to decide if the price is truly worth it, but I definitely recommend giving this game a try.
I know I'm a little late, but happy Independence Day! Or I suppose if you're British you would call it Treason Day. But I'm not British, so I spent my weekend eating awesome food and watching explosions. Why?
Actually all that stuff was kind of just a sideshow for me because I spent most of my time finishing up a little project that was more than appropriately timed.
A couple weeks ago, something just short of a miracle happened. My wife showed interest in space marines. Or rather, I was looking at some space marine color schemes and she happened to see some Crimson Fists and said "Those guys look cool, you should paint me one like that." I asked her why she liked them and she said she liked the red and blue, and they reminded her of Captain America. Since she is a little bit of an ol' Cap fan, I decided to do one better. A few ordered parts and a rummage through the bitz box and I came up with this fellow:
Yep, that's a Captain America marine. I'm really pleased with the result. The shield came off a HeroClix figure and even though it's a little small, I feel it fits and doesn't overpower the whole model. I even left it with the original WizKids paint job because it looks good and I had no ambition to paint concentric circles.
I'm also really happy with the freehand star on the shoulder pad. It's the first real freehand I've done in a while so it was nice to see I still had it in me.
The wife is also really happy with him, and since he's "technically" hers, that's all that really matters. I'm slowly trying to convince her that he would be good for beating me in 40k and have been hinting at having some "extra" space marines lying around she could use too, but so far she's not biting.
Anyway, that's all for now! Hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th of July! Happy gaming!
Hello again, readers. Sorry I missed May but things were hectic and I wasn't trying to rush the project I'll be showing off today. Maybe I'll get to a second post in June to make up for it. Maybe.
Anyway, a little backstory...
I started Warhammer 40k back in the halcyon days of Second Edition, when men were men, orks were orks and space marines were still barely restrained psycho-indoctrinated murderers for the good of mankind. My first choice of army was Eldar, because I loved the idea of space elves, shooting and OMG PSYCHIC POWERS. However, one day I discovered the Inquisition powers, and hatched an idea.
Back then, each psyker had to start with at least one power from their primary discipline, but could then take as many tertiary discipline powers as their psyker level allowed. And the Inquisition powers had a power that could open a vortex in real space that would swallow up any model it hit instantly. Yum.
I had already been toying with the idea of using the 2nd edition box set marines as allies, and Librarians could get Inquisition powers as a tertiary discipline. I chose the coolest color scheme for my marines (dark green Dark Angels) and got a Librarian in terminator armor. After a couple games I was totally in love with Dark Angels and Librarians! With a level 4 psyker I had a 3 in 6 chance to pull the vortex power and I used it to great effect. And when the Angels of Death codex came out, I started using other heroes like chaplains and company masters, but a Librarian always made it in. That is, until 3rd edition hit and killed psykers, a tradition held for many editions after.
Fast forward to 7th edition. Psykers are meaningful again. They blow shit up like you wouldn't believe. Not taking a psyker is generally seen as a Bad Idea (TM). I also had access to the lovely Librarian from the Dark Vengeance starter. And here he is:
Though I stayed pretty close to the GW color scheme, I did stray a little. I have named him Codicier Bahram, and he always accompanies my Interrogator-Chaplain for that one-two punch of both physical and psychic torture for any Fallen they may find. He also has a penchant for Pyromancy powers, so I gave his force sword a hot, glowing metal effect. But enough rambling. Here are some more shots:
And a peek under the hood...
I also caught a pic of him in action (still only partially painted), challenging a hulking warboss. It's a cool picture, but it didn't end well for Bahram. But if you have to go, you might as well go in style!
That's it for now. I had a lot of fun painting this model. The detail is exquisite, and I want to paint more of the Dark Vengeance marines soon. But first I have a rather large and stompy project planned.
Last year I made the determination that I was going to get back into Warhammer 40,000. Somewhere in England, there was much rejoicing, as the chip Games Workshop long ago implanted in my brain informed them that my money would be theirs once more.
"He's back! Yachts for everyone!"
Despite the hemorrhage of money, I do love the setting dearly. It's so dark and grim, and filled with grim-darkness. And the Gothic-over-the-top-ness makes for wonderful modeling opportunities. One such opportunity was to make new wound markers for my characters.
I have always loved servo skulls. They have a morbid cuteness that can't be beat. For those that don't know, when a particularly devout Imperial servant (such as a janitor or accountant) dies, they get honored by getting turned into a servo skull. Well, not the servant himself, actually. Just his skull. The servant stays dead while a little robot floats about wearing his brain case, taking videos and reminding important Imperial dignitaries about upcoming appointments. Absolutely adorable.
So kawaii!
When I found out that the most recent Devastator sprue had some servo skulls on it, I hit up eBay for 4 of them. This only cost me six dollars, which may be the least amount of money I have ever spent on anything Games Workshop. I drilled some holes in them, mounted them on lengths of paper clip and soon had them painted up.
I only needed three, so the other will be saved for a later date. The way I use them, each character gets one for each wound beyond 1 to follow them around the table. Every time the character is wounded, a servo skull gets removed. No more skulls=one wound left.
My Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain gets the halo skull and the plain skull, but I wanted to give the Librarians single skull a little extra zing. So, I free-handed a sword and a couple of lines for wards on the skull, in oh-so-magical blue, of course.
Not great, but also not a lot of room to work in and the Librarian needed something special. Of course I can't sign off without giving you a look at some skulls with their master:
That's it for now. These were dead-simple to put together and make for a fun project to add a little flair to your army. May the Emperor protect and happy gaming!
Since I'm behind schedule on my dungeon project and taking sort of a mental day, I figured I'd dredge up a couple of pics from the past.
With rumors of Dark Angels coming soon along with 6th Edition Warhammer 40K, I figured I'd show off one of my favorite painted models, my Interrogator Chaplain. He's been the leader and centerpiece for my Dark Angels army over the years and one of my proudest achievements with paint:
I used only the Dark Angels Veteran sprue to build him and I'm particularly proud of the robes. I know he doesn't have a skull-mask or traditional crozius, but I like having a face on my army leaders and I just love that power mace!
That's it for now! Hopefully I can get some more dungeon stuff up soon!
