The Crater Good

One of the big things for me that really makes wargaming enjoyable is the terrain on the table top. Not only does it add to the whole spectacle but it often enhances game play and adds new tactical dimensions. In fact the whole narrative of a game can centre on a particularly important piece of terrain and the desperate struggles to control it.

Now most of my terrain is geared to Warhammer Fantasy as that is what I've played most of over the years. Happily much of it has been usable in Rogue Trader games as well - I still plan on playing an RT Siege game one day with Imperial Army units assaulting the Mighty Fortress, defended by feral and Space Orks!

Epic poses a slight problem in that you have to create a new set of scenery to cater for the much smaller scale. I've got by in the past with just plonking down the card buildings on my grass mat and getting on with it but that's always bugged me a bit - where are the streets and roads that make the presence of massive gothic sky scrapers on a grassy plain believable?

A new step forward in Green Belt development - road-less High Rise accommodation!

The Prima Incubatoria

The secrets of Titan construction are shrouded in the mists of time. There are even those who believe that they were not manufactured; that these monstrous machines are the Emperor's very will, manifested in cold plasteel and adamantium. That these ancient machines blaze with a machine life of their own is well known amongst the Adeptus Mechanicus. Indeed each Princeps' first challenge is to attempt to master the fierce spirit of his Titan, lest he be consumed and the machine run wild.

Though the knowledge of their forging is lost and though many and varied are the rituals and incantations involved in preparing a Titan for battle, fret not dear reader. I have anointed myself with the sacred unguents, lit the incense and chanted the litany of awakening, More to the point I have solved the complex mathematical algorithms involved in working out points values for different Titan builds according to the Codex Titanicus!

Many Grox were sacrificed to bring you this post.

Entropy! Entropy!

They've all got it - Entropy!

Up Close and Personal

The Imperial Guard are not exactly renowned for their ferocity at close quarters in general. However I was rather pleased, after I'd had a root around my Epic bitz box the other week, to find that somehow I had acquired enough troopers to form an Assault Company and an Ogryn support detachment!

In a war torn galaxy, full of such terrors as Daemons, Ork Nobz and all manner of Tyranid beasties, it seems there are still men out there who are willing to strap a jet pack on, holster a pair of Laspistols and get up close and personal with whatever Xeno threat they are facing - with not a scrap of power armour to be seen!

Ogryns have always been a favourite of mine and I still covet those excellent Rogue Trader Ogryns sculpted by Bob Olley. In 2nd ed. Space Marine they are pretty nasty in close combat with a big CAF of 6 and they even get a saving throw of +6. Their Ripper Guns may only have a range of 10cm but they do have a -1 save modifier. Led by their Bonehead - a relative genius by Ogryn standards thanks to the brain surgery performed on them, Ogryns make great shock troops as long as they survive long enough to get stuck in. I do like their childlike faith in the Emperor, believing that each of their orders, no matter how trivial, has been personally issued to them by the Emperor himself!

I'm looking forward to trying the Assault Company out in the next game I take the Guard to. Not sure how effective they'll be with their terrifying CAF of 1 and it's quite a small Company by Guard standards at 15 stands of troops with the usual 2 command stands and Rhino. It'll certainly make a nice change to have my infantry bounding forward at 30cm a turn on charge orders and ignoring terrain thanks to their jet packs!

Oh and the thought of 75 lunatics, plucked from the depths of some god forsaken Hive or Barbarian Feral world and given uniforms, training and rocket packs, coming screaming out of the air at the enemy is pretty cool too!

Gigantic Skeletal Death

Lexicanian Trask prayed the Rebel advance was faltering. Below him the Landraider and Predator continued fire on the Traitor Titan while the Ultramarines milled about trying to regain formation. Two Loyalist Titans raced forward on an intercept course. Trask upped the intensity of his magnoculars. Filters cut in to prevent him being blinded by plasma flare. He made out the insignia of the approaching allies: Warp Runners.

The enemy Titan loomed like gigantic skeletal death over the wasteland of twisted girders and broken buildings. Trask felt impotent and alone as far below his brother Marines fought to stave off the enemy advance.

The battle teetered in the balance. Trask hoped the Warp Runners could stop the Deaths Head before it reached the Bromium Refinery. He knew that it would take only one unlucky hit to make the whole ammo dump go up like an out of control reactor.

Excerpt and illustration from the Adeptus Titanicus rule book.

Right then - back to the Horus Heresy and some epic scale goodness!

Firstly I want to share with you some snaps I took of the lovely old Titan models in Bryan Ansell's marvelous display cabinets that can be seen at the Foundry down in Newark. Also worth checking out is Steve Casey's excellent posts of Bryan's Titan collection.

 These were the original metal Titan prototypes that were used in the publicity pictures for Adeptus Titanicus.

Traitors and Loyalists were represented by the Deaths Heads and Fire Wasps respectively.

It was certainly a novel experience to study them in the flesh and take snaps for painting references rather than the usual casting about through Google images and peering through old rulebooks and White Dwarf magazines.

Suffice it to say that the Fire Wasps are next in the painting queue, although I'll also be painting up some Warp Runners and making a Bromium Refinery so I can make up a scenario based on the bits of narrative that appear throughout the Adeptus Titanicus rule book.

Seeing these venerable old minis has also strengthened my resolve to try and track down a MK1 metal Titan of my own although that will have to wait until my finances are in better health!

It is a shame that they didn't go with this original design in a way, as much as I like the old plastic Warlords, there's something about these MK1's that really floats my boat - the head and carapace in particular.

Anyhow, I'll have to keep dreaming for now! Here's my efforts in the mean time.

Deaths Heads Warlords advance through the ruins, supported by Sons of Horus Marines and Land Raiders.

These guys are the first in my preparations for the Adeptus Titanicus game I plan on running at BOYL 2016 - be great if I can nab one of the tables by the display cabinets and those great old MK1's who grace the Adeptus Titanicus box!

I had fun looking up some suitably moribund Latin phrases for names of these Deaths Heads.
This is Curum Perficio - My Journey Ends

I'm planning on painting up three Warlords each for three Loyalist and three Traitor Titan Legions. All these Titans will be magnetised so that weapon choices can be changed as per the players' preferences. The banners have also been magnetised but that's more to make them easier to transport!

I'm hoping to achieve a bit of balance by enforcing a points limit based on the rules for designing your own Titans that appeared in the Codex Titanicus expansion. Don't worry if you don't want to stump up the £25 or so for one on Ebay though as I'll be posting some guidelines on the process later.

For anyone wanting to bring their own Titans that are fully tooled (and glued) up it might be a case of bringing fewer models to the table to get in the points limit, or lowering the power of the weapons but more of that in another post.

Pulvis Et Umbra Sumus - We Are Dust and Shadow

I was quite pleased with how easily these were to paint up - the colour scheme is pretty simple and effective and the dazzle style camo on the carapace wasn't too onerous.

 Even the banners were pretty straight forward with a steady hand! The eagle-eyed among you might have spotted that I used skull transfers from some old Undead transfer sheets I found.

Sub Cute Calvarium - The Skull Beneath the Skin

 I also had fun finding alternatives for the Eye of Horus symbol that all Traitor forces display to show their loyalty to the rebellion.

The classic Egyptian look...

A blend of the Chaos star and the Eye of Horus...

And another variation on that theme.

Definitely glad to have the first batch of Titans under my belt - I guess it'll be the Fire Wasps next...

And in the Warp, something smiled...

On the feral world of Davin, Imperial Warmaster Horus was possessed by a creature from the Warp. He has turned against the Imperium of Humanity, and so have the thousands of bio-engineered super-warriors who follow him. War rages across the galaxy in between the loyalists and the rebels. The Emperor's palace on Terra is besieged. Rebellion and civil war flare up on millions of worlds. Brother fights brother, and Marine fights Marine. The greatest warriors Humanity has ever known turned against each other.

So back to epic scale Space Marine and my Horus Heresy project. Today, pre-mutation and freshly rebelled, we have the Sons of Horus - the Warmaster's own chapter of Space Marines.

A Veritable Khorne-ucopia...

Phew - finally finished all my Khorne stuff and boy am I glad to set aside the red and gold paint!

The followers of Khorne comprise the largest contingent in my Chaos army, mainly due to the vagaries of ebay and what survived from my old childhood collection. Thankfully I never did sell of the four Greater Daemons I bought on a whim - still remember filling in and cutting out the order form from White Dwarf magazine!

So here's the Khorne part of the army in full - as you can see it's based around three Greater Daemons as per the 2nd ed rules - more on them later.

Brought to Bay

Another quickie today and something else from the "archives" or rather stuff I never got round to photographing and forgot to post...

Before all this Horus Heresy stuff got me interested, I had visions of recreating another campaign involving Marine against Brother Marine - the Badab War. Some of you may remember the Tactical and Land Raider Companies of the Executioner Chapter that I posted some time ago - which reminds me that I never posted pics of the Thunderhawk Gunships I painted up in Executioner livery either!

Well as part of that (abortive - for now) project, I painted up my lone (at the time) Warlord Titan as one of the fighting machines of the Legio Crucius - the only Titan Legion to take part in the war as far as I could ascertain.

We'll have to see whether I ever get round to revisiting the Badab War - it is a setting that I found really interesting. Civil War without necessarily having anything much to do with the usual insinuations of Chaos.

I'm not sure what part the Legio Crucius took in the Horus Heresy, but here we see a Warlord rounding on its pursuers - four Warhounds of the Deaths Heads Legion! I can't take any credit for painting the Warhounds other than a quick ink wash over the existing paint job they came with.

Two will be getting resprays at some point so that I can even out the Titan forces across the three Loyalist and three Traitor Legions I'm planning on painting up for the Adeptus Titanicus game I'm planning for BOYL 2016.

You might notice the Vulcan Megabolter, fetching in white and gold trim, that the Warlord is sporting - I was a short of one Titan weapon so it got bolted on despite the fact that this weapon is more often seen on Reavers and Warhounds.

Back once again with the ill behaviour...

Where would the Heresy be without any renegades? Well to redress the balance I have the beginning of my Chaos horde to share with you this evening.

Ubique

"An' as their firin' dies away, the 'usky whisper runs
From lips that 'aven't drunk all day: "The Guns! Thank Gawd, the Guns!"

Rudyard Kipling

And so might any Guardsmen echo this sentiment in the far flung future of the 41st Milennium, such is the importance of the artillery to the Imperial Guard.

Tank Goodness!

What would be an Imperial Guard army without the tanks?

Sadly bereft I (and many other tread heads) would say I'm sure.

Ah, yes, mere Infantry. Poor beggars...

More Epic stuff I painted ages ago and never got round to photographing today.

This time it's the turn of my Imperial Guard and in particular the Infantry. The downtrodden, underfed, underpaid grunts whose main job it seems is to die in the mud...

Watch out for Snakes!

Any of you Misties out there should get the title of this post ;)

Anyhow we're not talking about MST3K today, despite the exciting news (if you hadn't heard already) that the Kickstarter to bring it back to our screens was a massive success!

Today we're talking Orks of the Snakebite variety. Fiercely traditional and suspicious of new fangled teknology and gubbins, these Orks like to get up close and personal with the enemy so they can introduce them to the finer points of Snakebite Kulture.

Love this illustration by Adrian Smith!

Wolves in Spaceeee!

Right! As promised - some painted Space Wolves!

This marks the start of a rather big small project - Epic scale Heresy of the Horus variety!

I've got the 6mm bug bad since I tracked copies of Adeptus Titanicus, Space Marine 1st ed and a second copy of Space Marine 2nd ed to add to the one I played the hell out of as a lad. 

As I am now the proud owner of literally hundreds of little Space Marines and seventeen Warlord Titans, I figured I was well placed to recreate and fight some of the battles of the Horus Heresy and the Loyalist's counter offensive - the Great Scouring.