ThePenitentOne

Yeah, that terrain is sweet for Space Hulk. If I was made of money, I'd have enough of it to build multi-level 8x4 Hulks. I always played SH on a 3d board to begin with- my buddy had a 2.5x 4' board with 1.5" ceramic tiles on one side, and we just jammed corrugated cardboard in the spaces between the tiles for walls. Nowhere near as pretty as what we've got now, but super cheap and easy to make.

I like that GW continues to produce little minigames with unique combinations of models, and I like the idea of following a licensed product... But unfortunately I have no need for this one. It's too bad they didn't give the Ogryn an upgrade sprue. Who knows, maybe the next one will be a better fit for me. I was certainly ecstatic to get a second chance at an Ambull with Combat Arena.

Thanks guys- glad to know Desdaemonian doesn't sound as bad to the ears of others as it does to me- I guess there's some truth to most of us being our own worst critics. The other background piece I didn't mention is that this regiment was created from a loosely organized group of underground resistence networks that maintained faith in the Emperor during a prolonged Chaos occupation during the Age of Apostasy- so they are hive fighters and guerilla tacticians. Once Saint Katherine liberated the system, they rose up to support her armies, and once the planet had been taken back, she united them all and recognized their role in the liberation by giving them the infrastructure they needed to become a full-fledged regiment. In the present, they've grown, and now have garrisons on every planet in the system.

My guys are from a planet called Desdaemona Prime- the Desdaemona piece doesn't modify well- Desdaemonan, or Desdaemonian both sound cumbersome- so I think I want "Primal" in there- Desdaemona Prime is the only planet in-system with a prime designation, so the reference is there, but it's less obvious since Primal is already an adjective with its own (unrelated) meaning. So I could go with the First Primal Legion, for example. But I could also nounify Primal, and just call them the first Primals- which I think sounds more aggressive, but doesn't necessarily suit them; the only Guard I have ATM are Krieg models, and I'm hoping that 10th gives us more plastic Kriegers so that I can give my whole army a consistent look without going into overpriced resin. I think they're also going to be fairly Ab-Human friendly; Ogryns are used extensively as labourers throughout the system, and there is a Warren of Ratlings at the Echo Station Trade outpost.

Hey folks, I'm hoping some Guard enthusiasts may be able to help me out with a project. I'm writing background for my Iron Gauntlet Challenge, and I'm at the point where a Hive World is raising it's first Militarum force. Now I know that regiments tend to be overall organizations that span planets or even sectors. And when people name their armies, there's usually a name and a number, but I'm not sure if regiments have numbers, or if it's only smaller battle groups like companies. Do the numbers always go after the names, or can the number come first? And of course, this is the first guard force that the planet is putting together... So the number is just "The First" I would assume? I've never built a guard force before, and I don't know enough about real-world military organization, so I'm a bit out of my depth. How should I go about naming these guys?

Cool background here. I'll be working on my sisters for my own challenge, but I also got the Krootbox recently, so they're on my radar. I like that your forces are stranded in Nihilus, and I love the attention to fleet detail and alien auxiliaries. I think my favourite thing though is that they hunt scientists and engineers and such. The Nerd Eaters!

I think my article piece is at 1117 words but I haven't added to it in a while. I'm aiming for Gold, and based on where I am in the article, I think I'm right on track for 3k words. The reason for the delay is that my Order is integrated with a campaign setting, so I have to randomly generate territories for a Capital city and 8 settlements in order to determine how many churches, shrines, and convents there are. I want to document and share that process, because I'm really proud of it, but doing so delays completion. I added a post to my chronically neglected "Club" which felt really good, and that's where the documentation for territory generation would go. But I've got to get the Article done this weekend to get some lead time for challenge two, so the territory documentation may have to wait. I'm spoiled for choices about the Sisters units I need to build for challenge 2. I picked up Novitiates today, so that I had a kill team option for the Bronze level, but I have a lot of options besides. I've got Seraphim and Sacrissants, Repentia (full box + launch box), Arcos (full box + launch box), a box of Redemptionists for Missionaries and Preachers, one launch box Penitent Engine and three Pennie/Mortie dual kit boxes, a box of Paragons, two boxes of Retributors, another BSS Unit, an Immolator, a Hospitaler and Dialogus. I originally wanted to paint the Novitiates in Sacred Rose Colours, because once the Desdaemona System is rediscovered by Imperial Forces enroute to the BSF, the Convents Prioris and Sanctum both send delegations to make contact with their lost Sisters. At that point, the Sacred Rose will take over responsibility for any Schola Progenum Facilities on Orison's Wake. That fits the larger campaign story... But if I followed through, those Novitiates wouldn't actually BE Sisters of Saint Katherine's Aegis and so would not satisfy the challenge. So here's what I've decided to do: I'm going to rewind further back and play Jahalla Athabraxis from her early days as a Progena. Then she'll graduate to Sister once she's Blooded, a Dom once she's Battle Hardened, a Palatine at Heroic and a Canoness at Legendary. She'll also be my candidate for Sainthood, and I will make sure she discovers the Praesidum Protectiva between Heroic and Legendary so that I can represent her Canoness Incarnation with the Pronatus model that bears the Praesidium in the Triumph (which I'm magnetizing so I can use all six models to represent Canonesses of their respective Orders). Since this INCREASES the wait time until the Sacred Rose takeover of the Schola Progenum facilities, I'm going to bite the bullet and paint THIS novitiate unit in Saint Katherine's Aegis colours- it's worth it if I use it to tell Jahalla's full story arc- she really is the soul of the Order. That gives me my Kill Team for the Bronze. For my stretch goal, I'm going to add a Missionary to lead them, a unit of Seraphim, four Deathcult Assassins and the Grain Maiden, which might qualify me for Silver (I'd have to talk it out though, because Novitiates aren't battle line. Basically, I'm hoping that having three units and two characters is as good as HQ + Battleline +1. It doesn't really matter- that's still what I'm going to aim for because... If I succeed at the stretch goal, I'll be going into prehistory for the challenge 3 batrep. The battle will be a narrative mission that represents the Festival of the Grain Maiden. At this point, Jahalla is a mere citizen. The Missionary, assisted by the Superior of the Novitiates will oversee the ritual selection and consecration of the Grain Maiden as eight Novitiates bear witness and the Seraphim wait in reserve. By ancient tradition, the woman chosen as the Grain Maiden is inducted into the Sisters of Saint Katherine's Aegis as a Novitiate at the conclusion of the festival- hence the undersized Novitiate squad brought to bear witness. Jahalla, of course, will be selected as the Grain Maiden, and be escorted to the Altar for consecration. Little do they know, they are about to be ambushed by a rival Thresher House, bent on the assassination of the Grain Maiden before she can be consecrated... If Jahalla survives the battle, the Grain Maiden model will be will be replaced with Jahalla's Novitiate model, and she will join and complete the unit. If not, the Novitiate unit will continue to be one woman short and Jahalla will have to find another opportunity for induction, because in Crusade, "removed from play" very rarely = death.

These were my personal fave Noise Marines: I think I have 8 of them. I also have HR Giger looking chaos dread- I think it's called a Furibundus (although that's the name attached to the loyalist version, and I can't find anything about whether the chaos version has the same name or not... But I'm painting it to go with the metal Noise Marines. They'll be a small band of warriors who join a larger EC Warband made out of whatever we get for EC when the dex drops. I'll be happy to have an Index for them until then. I'll be curious to see the detachment rule, enhancements and strats- having an index guarantees they get a detachment that does its best to represent their lore specifically.

I want to push back on this, because I think it's this silly bolter-porn lore that needs to change, not the game. A character who routinely destroys entire armies without breaking a sweat a is just a boring character, and it's hard for writing that includes such a character to be anything but bad. I fully support making BL material more reflective of the game that it is supposed to be supporting. In fact, it's so bad in some cases that I don't consider BL to actually be lore- for me lore is the fiction snippets that appear in game books, because those tend to be more reflective of what the game is, and it actually support the stories we can tell on the table. I HATE reading stuff in a BL book that couldn't happen on the table- what's the point of basing a book on a game if it doesn't depict the kind of stuff that actually happens in the game?

That may be true, but I think it's also worth considering that GW doesn't actually have any competition that is their equal. Most other game companies don't have the capacity to produce and maintain such an expansive collection of miniatures. Battletech, the only non-historical miniatures game I'm aware of that goes back as far as GW, currently relies on Kickstarter to get models made. My argument here is essentially that GW and GW alone makes gigantic centerpiece models like aircraft, Knights, and Primarchs because they have the capacity to do so and they are the only company that does, so doing it helps keeps their game unique. If you want huge chunks of mystery and mystique that never see the table, there are plenty of companies that don't have the resources to create any and all of the things that appear in their lore... GW just isn't one of them.

I don't mind Primarchs so much, but I tend to use all special characters sparingly, waiting for places in the narrative where it's appropriate to use them rather than bringing them to every game and considering them part of my roster. For me, and many (though not all) of the folks I play with, named characters get cameos only.

The Anathema detachment certainly will make SoS more effective, but probably still not competitive unless they bring boys. I want 40k rules for the Acquisitor more than ever now. Even Legends would work for me.

Amen brother! Edit: Heck, I'd even take a Legends version of 40k rules for it.

If the "Your dudes" people are missing happen to be marines I imagine. If on the other hand people are missing "Their Xenos" HH has absolutely nothing to offer.

Me too. I was only ever interested in SoS... but the old CP box had just enough boys that I could use them when I needed the points or had to fight a competitive army, but it still felt like I was buying SoS. This box, though more competitive for a Custodes player, is utterly useless to me. That's okay though- I've had to really cut down my hobby dollars, so it was always going to be a while before I picked up the CP box; at least the new version will make most conventional players happier.