The Albigensian Crusade

[Hawklynn]

I really need to make it out your way for a game some time.

[Honda]

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Luke 2:16-20 NIV

I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

[Honda]

And so a story begins...

Mo and I got together for a 300 Power Level game, which was about where Apocalypse started in earlier versions. This game kind of turned into a "Bataan Death March" because we started setting up and whatnot around 10.00-ish, but the first moves didn't happen until around 2.00. I guess we got all chatty Kathy.

Now, it wasn't all just useless yakking, we talked a lot about the Ordo Chronos and the thoughts Mo has for his chapter, which will help me with the story line and the campaign framework for 2018.

So all good, but we ended up taking about 11 hours of time, didn't eat except for handfuls of almonds and water, so by the end we were pretty tired.

Anyway, let's proceed shall we?

Deployment zones (special effects brought to you by MS PowerPoint):

Background:

<cue familiar Space Opera music>

If you've put the pieces together up to this point, then you know that the Templars and other allies are hunting for the Ordo Chronos (OC) forces, in particular, their chamber militant the November Warriors.There have been many clashes

in the past and the hunt continues. The OC forces have

been declared "Machina Excommunicatus"

by the Adeptus Mechanicus for

embracing non-Imperial

technologies

(i.e. Time travel).

They have also been caught consorting with Xenos,

in fact, collaborating with them on efforts

as yet unknown at this time

by Imperial forces.

Mercilessly pursued by the Templars of the Albigensian Crusade, a secret Oordo Chronos base was "accidentally(?)" exposed by a beacon producing

suspicious signals. This signal uncovered by the crusade

and led the Templars to the Ordo

Chronos base.

<vid screen displays image of empty space>

<cue sound of continuous thunder (in space?) as the screen slowly fills with the image of a Space Marine Battle Barge moving away from the observer>

Battlefield

The OC forces occupy the central strip of the battlefield (orange) while the deployment zone for the Templars are the two outer edges (green). The Templars must move onto the table.

Ordo Chronos forces

Black Templar forces

Initial Ordor Chronos deployment

To be continued...

[Honda]

+++

As was to be expected, the Templars swooped down upon the Ordo Chronos research facility in a blaze of righteous fury. However, through mechanisms unknown, the November Warriors appeared prepared to receive the surprise assault and return each blow with equal or greater measure.

But first, the Templars would strike.

+++

Turn1

I looked out at the table and Mo's deployment and realized that I had a tough nut to crack. For Mo's part, apparently he expected to see me field a lot of vehicles, so he brought a lot of anti-tank focused units only to find that I brought no vehicles other than dreadnoughts and flyers. I did bring a lot of boots so I could take advantage of all the urban terrain.

A & B - First off, I needed to whittle down Mo's air assets. Xiphon's are just brutal right now and can't be allowed to roam around the board. It took most of the firepower of four aircraft to bring one of his down due to a number of my aircraft failing the "broadside of a barn" test. Still that gave me 1st Blood. I also used my Fire Raptor to put some damage on Mo's Fire Raptor, but unfortunately I was unable to get it down a bracket, so it was wounded, but still very dangerous.

C - Another of my Storm Ravens poured fire into a twin lascannon armed dreadnought Moritat and removed it from its lofty perch, thus clearing out the Southern area from any direct AA fire.

Because Mo doesn't have any tactical squads painted up and won't lower himself to field Sternguard as such (inside joke), his ground troops were made up of devastator and assault/Vanguard squads. The jump pack troops were above in a Thunderhawk, looking for an opening (more on that later), but there were plenty of devastator squads carrying copious amounts of grav, multi-melta, and lascannon weaponry.

D & E - So they had to be dealt with as well since they were a significant threat to my ground forces. On the Northern end of my deployment line, two Crusader squads were able to eliminate one devastator squad, while a deep striking terminator squad (standard) took out another with its shooting. My intention was to reduce the squad and then get into hand to hand, but quite surprisingly, that squad failed all of its saves and left my termies out in the open. Not a good deal.

F - Finally, I knocked out two out of his three man squad of Devastator Centurions. Perhaps in a fit of madness, but nore likely ZEAL, the remnant Crusader squad and a squad of Assault terminators charged into combat with a Leviathan armed for close combat and did heavy, but not critical damage to it. In what would be a recurring theme for the Templars, their Chapter Tactics prevented two failed charge attempts, ensuring that the assaults were on the best terms possible.

And then there was his Fellblade, but that would have to wait.

However, all in all, not a bad turn for the Templars. Not great, but not bad.

G - In response, the November Warriors downed my Fire Raptor and heavily damaged a Storm Raven.

H - Turning to his ground units, Mo fired on the central portion of my line, wiping out both of my Devastator squads and 5 man Crusader squad.

I - Turning his attention to my lone termie squad standing out in the wind (and a very cold wind it was), focused fire from a Devastator squad, a Sicaran, a Xiphon, and a Deredo ripped into the terminators and left nothing standing.

J - Mo then moved a Landspeeder over to where my two Landspeeders were hovering in order to challenge their possession of an objective.

November Warriors 2, Black Templars 5

+++

Turn 2

This would end up being a significant turn for many reasons.

A - The two Landspeeders hovering over the objective on the far eastern edge of the battle called in a close air support mission which resulted in a damaged Storm Raven swooping out of the clouds and eliminating the oncoming enemy speeder.

B - While on CAP, the two Ghost Talons and another Storm Raven performed a scissors maneuver trapping the November Warriors Fire Raptor in lanes of fire quickly bringing the wounded ground attack aircraft down.

C - Two Crusader squads traded shots in an unequal exchange of fire with Mo's other Leviathan equipped with all manner of gravitic and melta weaponry. The Crusader squads were beginning to feel the weight of fire and became concerned as to whether additional support to tackle the roaming monster would arrive in time.

D - Meanwhile, Grimaldus, the Emperor's Champion, Nerovar (Apothecary) and a Crusader squad charged a stationary Landraider Achilles, surviving the horrendous overwatch fire (Mo had some hot dice), supplemented by a titanic explosion further South of their location. If not for the swift actions of Nerovar, three initiates would not have survived to charge the Landraider. Additionally, the BT Chapter tactics once again allowed three out of the four charging units to make contact. Although heavily damaged the Achilles remained dangerous.

E - Yes, about that titanic explosion. That occurred when the assault terminators removed the last wounds from the Leviathan. A six was promptly rolled and mortal wounds were liberally shared amongst those too close to the center of action.

F - Yeah, it was time for Mo's Fellblade to take a hit.

"Three Lucius pattern drop pods entered the atmosphere and landed near the yellow armored behemoth. The Leviathan Axios, Ironclad Apostole, and the Chaplain dreadnought Titus emerged from the smoking craters created by their transports. In unison, they charged the massive vehicle, not all reaching it immediately, drawing on the honor of their chapter to inspire them to draw additional reserves of hate and fury. Many times they drew blows against the Fellblade and great rents in it's armor could be seen, but still the mighty, mobile fortress stood."

This combat really surprised me. I thought I was going to rip the Fellblade into tiny pieces, but I struggled to get enough wounds (even with Chaplain re-rolls) and so had to settle for leaving it just over half its wounds remaining.

About then we noticed that it was around nine thirty (in the PM) and assessed the results of the battle. I had held on to another four objectives, which gave me a pretty decent lead (NW 4, BT 9).

It was then that Mo exclaimed, "Holy cow (or some other Ordo Chronos gibberish), I never deployed my jump pack troops. Now that was crazy. Both of us were so focused on the table, we lost sight of three (four?) jump pack units that would have had a significant impact on the battle, especially if it had continued.

We "learned" (again) that perhaps we have become too "venerable" to game for seven hours straight (doesn't include the four hours of chatting) without eating. We were pretty tired and I'm sure our blood sugar levels were below the basement...which we can't have in Houston.

That omission is really disappointing because there's no doubt that Mo would have been able to grab at least a couple of objectives and start reducing the point spread in the next couple of turns. We just didn't have the gas to see that through.

So from a story perspective, I'll have to account for that in the story that follows.

It was still a very tense and exciting game. Lots of back and forth with plenty of tactical challenges to solve. Plus Mo is just a great guy to play a game with.

to be continued...

[Hawklynn]

Congrats on the win Brother. The Emperor's light shall always be with the Black Templars!

 

IMPERATOR VULT!

[Smoke Frog]

Wow those are amazing pictures, lots of great miniatures and battlefield terrain (that satellite dish is inspired!) You put together a really amazing battle report!

 

I really like those drop pods you have made too, how did you make them?

[Brother Talarian]

I always enjoy your bat rep presentations, brother. Congratulations on the victory, though, I expected nothing less from a zealous follower such as yourself. The emperor protects.

[NovemberIX]

Many thanks and congratulations to the esteemed Hostile Cart! I will admit part of why we had such a late start was that I didn't have my list ready by the time Honda got here, but it did allow us to discuss story matters, so it worked out well. The game itself was an enjoyable back and forth with some rather interesting dice rolls. There were a few times the Dice gods looked down in favor upon the Warriors in Yellow, and there were a few times where they were abandoned to their fate, but in all it was a a massive amount of fun. Even if neither one of us really had any food all day, and by the end of it, I couldn't do basic math anymore (not that I really could before hand...)

 

As has become tradition, I tried to focus on getting nice artsy shots of the armies in battle, but if I have one disappointment it's that the table layout wasn't conducive to the kinda pictures I like taking. Next game though I plan to remedy that, and hopefully I'll get some good shots of the Angry Lost Bakers chasing the Heroic and Noble November Warriors

 

For now though, it's picture time!

 

 

 

When Dreadnoughts Attack

 

 

 

 

First it was the Magic Whirlwind, now it's the Malal Marines someone should inquire about these things...

 

 

Bonus:

The moment a Templar punched out a Leviathans Automantic Reactor

 

 

As always, many thanks to Honda for the great game and great company, next time, I hope to have better pictures for everyone!

[Hawklynn]

Honda's Batreps with NovemberIX's pictures always make for a good read and view. Also, my wife informed me that I had been staring at all the pics for more than thirty minutes this evening looking for ideas to rip off from Honda.

[Honda]

I really like those drop pods you have made too, how did you make them?

Actually, they are pretty simple and cost effective. First off a picture of the unpainted models, which will help understand.

Before there was a kit for a drop pod, there were still rules. This was back when 40K had to be played in the snow, uphill on both sides of the table in bare feet.

Basically, what you see are two pieces of PVC pipe easily purchased at Home Depot or some other equivalent hardware store. You'll need a cap (the rounded part) and then a base. I have two types of bases, but mostly because I was trying out new things.

Then you want to attach those two pieces to a CD for a base. A CD roughly corresponds to the base of a Drop Pod model and that' where you'd do your measuring from.

Finally, the fins. This was the trickiest part because I knew that I was going to need a bunch of them and I'd need to be able to continue collecting "fins" in case I decided to build a bunch more pods for a bigger army.

What I settled on is that pop top that you can find on box containers of juice, broth, or in my case, Chai mix, which I drink every day.

From there it's just a matter of spray painting and weathering.

I used three different diameters of cap/base:

2.5" for infantry, 3" for regular and Ironclad dreads when we used to be able to do that, and 3.5 inch for my Lucius pattern dreadnought drop pods.

Now I mostly use my 2.5" and 3.5" pods.

From a cost perspective, mine were around $2.50 and now they might cost you around $6.00, which is still a great cheap way to make drop pods. Hopefully GW will stop making them so expensive in game terms and we'll see them become more popular again. I think they should allow a regular drop pod to carry dreads again as well. I think that was a huge mistake in the new codex.

The above are the smaller versions, which I use for my troops. The larger versions are the same thing, just with a bigger

Wow those are amazing pictures, lots of great miniatures and battlefield terrain (that satellite dish is inspired!)

Mo gets all the credit for the terrain. He is our Terrain Meister and makes all our games a cool experience. Playing with fully painted miniatures makes the experience even more enjoyable.

Thanx for the feedback!

Cheers,

[Hawklynn]

Time to hit up Home Depot and HEB.

[Honda]

Helios Septa Campaign - Year 2 - State of the Union

The puzzle grows.

As the second year of the campaign begins, we find the story becoming clearer in some areas, yet significant and very important parts still coalescing into something less tenuous.

The Albigensian Crusade entered the Helios Septa Cluster, located in the Galactic East, from the western edge as part of a determined pursuit of Ordo Chronos forces withdrawing from multiple engagements. This led to several significant battles, amongst them Murska Airbase, Helios Septa, Pyraxis, and the Seventh Exodus, against what appear to be a well established infrastructure built up over a great length of time, possibly many millennia.

Murska Airbase, Pt. I: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/253019-the-albigensian-crusade-pyraxis3-010318/?p=4687621

Murska Airbase, Pt. II: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/253019-the-albigensian-crusade-pyraxis3-010318/?p=4696057

Helios Septa: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/253019-the-albigensian-crusade-pyraxis3-010318/?p=4654515

Pyraxis: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/253019-the-albigensian-crusade-pyraxis3-010318/?p=4970849

Seventh Exodus, Pt. I: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/253019-the-albigensian-crusade-pyraxis3-010318/?p=4786052

Seventh Exodus, Pt. II: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/253019-the-albigensian-crusade-pyraxis3-010318/?p=4801583

A puzzling aspect of this campaign is how infrequently the surprise assaults bring the targets of the Crusade to battle. Often times, the joint efforts only result in securing empty facilities, sometimes hastily abandoned. Early intelligence assessments seem to indicate that there is a much more extensive infrastructure present, well supplied with intelligence on the attackers, and the impression that the Ordo Chronos forces are not constrained by geographical limitations. When battles occur, there is a purpose however obscure.

Also, in many ways, this story is not just about the forces of Black Templars, aligned with the Ordo Malleus through Inquisitorial machinations, but of the fight to exist by the Ordo Chronos and their chambers militant, the November Warriors. While sometimes unfathomable goals are pursued, there are many within the Imperium with a keen interest in the results of this crusade as there are unsettling indications that the Ordo Chronos objectives have severe consequences for the Imperium at large.

New Arrivals

VII Legion, Roma Division, "The Reborn"

There are no official records of the initial conversations between elements of the Primaris VII Legion (The Reborn) and the Command circle within the Albigensian Crusade. From an outsider's perspective, there appears to be some level of acceptance of the newcomers as evidenced by several joint operations between the two groups. There also appears to be some effort by those in the trenches to build bridges and establish rapport. A yellow or gold gauntlet featuring the text, "Brotherhood of Dorn" has been observed painted on the armor and vehicles of some line units.

To date, this heraldic device has not been observed on any armor with a rank above Sword Brother.

Knights Templar

Emissaries of the Knights Templar presented themselves to the Albigensian Crusade nearly as soon as forward elements of the crusade entered the Helios Septa Cluster. Evidence recording the existence of these warriors does not exist within the Crusade archives. That their representatives immediately swore their fealty to the Crusade in the name of the Holy Emperor, including adding Black Templar devices to their heraldry in good faith, has assuaged the immediate concerns of the Command circle. A link up of resources for future operations is underway.

Custodes Lakedaemon

Whether representatives from Terra in the form of Custodes attachments are welcome in any endeavor remains to be seen. However, none may deny the eyes of the Emperor. That the Black Templars came to the aid of Terra during the Wars of Apostasy to drive out Goge Vandire may mean that the offer of support by the Custodes is merely recognizing a debt of honor to be paid in full.

Although leadership elements for the Custodes have begun to embed themselves within the Crusade leadership councils, they have yet to manifest themselves on the field of battle.

Alpha Legion

What drives a shadow? From where does an enigma draw it's inspiration? The overt presence of the Alpha Legion appears to be limited to smaller, yet sharp conflicts between the Legion and its auxiliaries and Ordo Chronos forces.

Scouring of Zircon: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/338008-the-unwinding-coil-foxglove-011818/?p=4941109

Having stolen the time dilation projector (i.e TRD.Z) only to lose it to a surprise raid by the November Warriors, seems to have triggered an increased level of manipulation of the Ordo Chronos local time space as evidenced by the events around Pyraxis.

Existing Threats

Aeldari

Who in the Imperial Realm can truly claim to understand the motives of the Aeldari? What is evident from the preliminary analysis performed by a Mechanicus Explorator fleet on several recently discovered battlegrounds (xref. \\t9021.ui3.0021) in the far southeast of the Helios Septa Cluster.

There evidence of a several massive battles, clearly involving not only the November Warriors, but also Imperial forces in the form of the Titan Brotherhood as allies. This evidence is only in circulation at the highest levels of the Titan Brotherhood. Should knowledge of this complicity be revealed to members of the Crusade leadership council, there is no telling how disastrous the consequences would be. Truly there would be no forgiveness to those found to be playing both sides of the conflict.

The Pathos Interventions:

Part I: http://www.feedyournerd.com/greggles-tabletop/guest-blog-the-short-unhappy-life-of-titus-quinctus

Part II: http://www.feedyournerd.com/greggles-tabletop/hondas-blog-assault-on-pathos-iv

Part III: http://www.feedyournerd.com/greggles-tabletop/hondas-blog-assault-on-pathos-iv-the-battle-begins

Part IV: http://www.feedyournerd.com/greggles-tabletop/hondas-blog-assault-on-pathos-iv-part-2

Part V: http://www.feedyournerd.com/greggles-tabletop/hondas-blog-pathos-iv-defense-of-the-artifact-battle-ensues

Part VI: http://www.feedyournerd.com/greggles-tabletop/hondas-blog-pathos-iv-defense-of-the-artifact-conclusion

Part VII: http://www.feedyournerd.com/greggles-tabletop/hondas-blog-a-time-of-war

Part VIII: http://www.feedyournerd.com/greggles-tabletop/hondas-blog-a-time-of-war-part-ii

T'au

The T'au Empire inadvertently became involved in the Crusade's scope of operations after being discovered surreptitiously conducting a joint technology venture with the November Warriors. Having accidentally uncovered basic time dilation principles during an unrelated research effort, the T'au Empire sought out the November Warriors and they agreed to produce and possibly weaponize this new capability.

Unknown to the T'au Empire, elements of the Farsight Enclaves had infiltrated the research effort and at a most inconvenient time, called in a Rapid Response Cadre to retrieve the device and the associated technicians. The November Warriors, unaware of the intricacies of T'au politics and faction conflicts, believed themselves compromised. Their reactions were not surprising. All the T'au Empire technical staff were lined up and executed, leaving the Farsight Enclaves with a very important device (TRD.Z), but no technical resources able to continue the research effort...

The Seventh Exodus: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/253019-the-albigensian-crusade-pyraxis3-010318/?p=4801583

...except for one individual. A November Warriors Magos Chrononaut, who confined within the TRD.Z unknowingly, was whisked away to a secret facility within the Farsight Enclaves area of influence. The device subsequently disappeared from the facility through an Alpha Legion operation.

However, the Chrononaut remains in the possession of the Farsight Enclaves.

[Honda]

Our gang got together over the weekend for some dice kinetics. Lots of fun ensued.

Since Jefe had not played a game of 8th yet, he and I were paired up in a 100 PL game. Gar and Mo matched up in what was supposed to be a 200 PL game, but since both of them are sort of "constraints impaired", it quickly floated up to a 300 PL game. Theirs was to be a story point game set within our campaign framework and the ramifications of that exchange were rather significant.

However back to Jefe's and my game.

I fielded one detachment, a...brigade (6 CP) using BT chapter tactics. Simulating a force from our campaign, I fielded the following:

Albigensian Crusade and elements of the VII Legion, Roma Division

Grimaldus

Emperor's Champion

Primaris Lieutenant

Apothecary (Nerovar)

2 x 10 Crusade squads (PFist, Plasma, Grav)

2 x 5 man Intercessors

2 x 5 man Hellblasters

1 x Leviathan (super choppy version)

1 x Mortis Contemptor (twin Kheres)

1 x Ghost Talon

VII Legion, Roma Division (The Reborn)

Albigensian Crusade

Nerovar, Grimaldus, and Priamus

Ghost Talon

The Brotherhood of Titan

Grandmaster Iapetus

Cool SR conversion

Let's see, here we have Draigo, 3 x Paladins, 5 x GK Terminators, 2 x 5 man knights in rhinos, and 2 x 5 man Interceptors.

Jefe won the roll off and took the corner with all the terrain and left me standing out three sheets to the wind. I took a lot of boots on the ground (for 100 PL) as I was expecting to contest various parts of the board against a smaller, more elite army. However, twas not to be.

We got the Kill Points mission and off to the races we went.

to be continued...

[Honda]

Turns 1 & 2

Note: Jefe deployed the two Rhino borne knight squads plus his Grandmaster in the Transformer. I took Grimaldus, a crusader squad, and my Leviathan.

Jefe moved over to my corner of the table while I consolidated in the large Administratum building. Then Jefe deep struck his Paladins and an Interceptor squad deep into my lines and sniped out my Apothecarion (1st Blood). I wasn't too happy about that as Nerovar has done some sterling work for me the last few games. Also, I didn't get squat in on my Turn 2 Reserves rolls. Jefe got his Storm Raven carrying the 5 man squad of terminators, which zoomed deep into my lines and started shooting. I sensed a theme developing.

Turns 3 & 4

On my Turn 3 I got a fair amount of stuff in and proceeded to bracket Jefe's Paladins and Interceptors with lots of bright sparkly fireworks. That seems to go pretty well. As a counter punch, Jefe dropped his termies and started shooting up the inside of the building, really messing up the wallpaper, while Draigo proceeded to kick the bolts out of my Leviathan. Let me just say that Draigo is a real beast, despite Jefe's best attempts to tell me how squishy he was.

I did piddly damage on the SR with my Ghost Talon and a number of my stronger units were getting whittled down pretty quick. Jefe's...not so much.

By the end of Turn 4, I had killed three units and Jefe had killed the Apothecary, but had my Ghost Talon down to 1 wound, my Leviathan down to 2 wounds, and my Contemptor down to 4 wounds. So the game was essentially a draw, so we called it.

Jefe has been playing GK through thick and thin since they came out in 3rd Edition. You know he's a "real" GK player because all his models are metal. :)

Anyway, I think he got a good idea of the ebb and flow of a game and GK are just nasty. I really suffered on the psychic front, though I used our 2 CP stratagem to deny 3 out of 4 spells during the game. But that is a problem for the Templars that I need to think about more.

My epic moment of the game:

Jefe dropped in his termies and moved in an Interceptor squad into the building.and they shot up my crusader squad pretty bad, leaving the Sword Brother with a power fist. They then charged and took no damage going in. I was then able to intervene with my Emperor's Champion who tanked all their wounds, then struck back and took down four. In my turn he one shotted the remaining Interceptor with his pistol.

If I was going to pick an epic moment for Jefe, I'd say his tanking everything I threw at Draigo with the Leviathan and then dealing back a large number of wounds to get me down to two left. I'm pretty sure he would have nailed him in the next round.

Anyway, a very fun game and I look forward to the next.

Great game Jefe!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Fine models, all.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

I love what he did with that Raven. Was that a ChapterHouse kit?

[Honda]

I love what he did with that Raven. Was that a ChapterHouse kit?

 

 

SR kit + Chapterhouse extension + Valkyrie tail end and wings.

 

It is a very cool conversion.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Damn, I wish I hadn't missed ChapterHouse.

[Honda]

Also, I had these five guys (no burgers or fries) with GK helmets on them. Conceptually, it seemed like it might work, but in reality it did not. So they now proudly bear Mk III helms.






Oh, and spiffy shield (technical term).



Cheers,

[Bjorn Firewalker]

 

I love what he did with that Raven. Was that a ChapterHouse kit?

 

SR kit + Chapterhouse extension + Valkyrie tail end and wings.

 

It is a very cool conversion.

I second that. I like how clear the dorsal turret's field-of-fire is, with minimal concern the gunner will accidentally shoot off the flyer's own tail as it engages an enemy at the rear (an impossible task for the vanilla Stormraven, due to that stupid air intake).

 

Please pass along my compliments to your friend's modeling skills.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the "five guys." Did you kitbash the shields from plasticard and green stuff, or are they from a third party, e.g., medieval crusaders from a different war game?

[Honda]

Did you kitbash the shields from plasticard and green stuff,

 

 

They come from old WFB "elves", that had these mono-pose spearmen with shields. I held on to them for unknown reasons, but grabbed the shields for this unit. I then covered them with GS to give it the fabric texture you see. The details are then pressed in with a sculpting tool after the GS has set up a bit.

 

The GS is kind of fun to work with in this case because you can weather it up and add cuts and whatnot to give the shields a little character.

 

The intention is to match the shields on my TH/SS terminators.

[Grand Master Iapetus]

Well, Jefe (AKA:  Grand Master Iapetus) will weigh in.

 

First - thanks to Jim (AKA:  Honda) on the great batrep, which is par for the course with him.

 

Second - thanks to all for the kind words on the StormRaven conversions. 

 

RE:  Stormraven - It still gets my vote for "most incredibly effective unit with the absolute worst looking model" award.  It took me about 3 months of conceptualizing what I wanted, buying bits, trying bits, rethinking...before I got to the final version.  The turret profile was one of the things I also liked the best about the final version...just looked "right".

 

If you can track down any of the chapterhouse kits, it's actually a really simple conversion - the parts from the tail of the Valkyrie actually fit almost perfectly with no adjustments (a little dremmel on the far forward sections where the boom connects to the fuselage).  I actually built two identical ones, and just didn't have the points in this game to bring both.

 

RE:  Draigo - what can I say.  He is an auto-include that never fails to disappoint.  Literally every game we play he provides some ridiculously fluffy incredible "no-way" moment. 

 

For my second runner up, I would submit my Paladin Paragon that withstood 1 full round of shooting, and 1.5 full rounds of assualt from the Primaris squad, Tac Squad & dreadnought.  Paladins are BACK !

 

Looking forward to kicking it up to 200 PL in the next game :)

[Sword Brother Adelard]

I tried to buy a CH Kit, thinking maybe if I provided funds and goodwill one would appear. Alas, my PayPal dispute after 6 months of waiting yielded no replies, I got my money back and I noticed that their Facebook page has also gone.

[Honda]

I tried to buy a CH Kit, thinking maybe if I provided funds and goodwill one would appear. Alas, my PayPal dispute after 6 months of waiting yielded no replies, I got my money back and I noticed that their Facebook page has also gone

 

 

I remember when the SR came out and I thought it was a ridiculous looking model. There are people who like how it looks (e.g. "our" Mo, who has too many ), but I just couldn't get there. Then CH came out with their extension and I bought three right out of the gate and then picked up three SRs.

 

Three SRs that I wouldn't have otherwise collected. I say that not to poke GW in the eye, but to point out that 3rd party parts that don't step on GW IP toes can enhance sales if done right. CH decided to go Godzilla on GW and it turned out they were only an iguana.

 

I continue to hold out hope that someone <looks over at Subtle Discord> comes out with an extension kit that provides a better looking SR profile, whether that is more FW looking or what I think is one of the best SR conversions I've ever seen, Templar Brother Christopher's, which draws a lot from the Thunderhawk.

 

Actually, at this point I just want GW to come out with the plastic Thunderhawk I've been waiting over a decade for.