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...

Death to the Daleks!

Another post dredged up from the vaults!

This was the climactic battle of the Dr Who scenario I wrote for the "Battle at the Farm" - a weekend I hosted for Ollie and Richard back in 2014 at my folks' place in the Lake District. This was made even more fun by Richard's excellent Imperial Dalek army - a fitting foe for my Renegades! Ollie took command of the Brigadier, the Doctor and the Unit forces.

Troll!

You'll be glad to hear that this isn't going to be a post about those annoying people out to ruin your day on the internets - lord knows there's enough of them so we'll just leave them under their virtual bridges and carry on merrily on our way.

Oh and if you haven't seen Trollhunter, I'd definitely recommend it - cracking film!

Actually this post is the result of a bit of housekeeping. By chance I noticed that I seemed to have quite a lot of posts languishing as drafts for some reason - some even with edited pictures already uploaded and a few words typed in.

This is one of those posts that for some reason I never got round to posting at the time - apologies if you were expecting Titans! They are nearly done. Honest!

Instead I bring you Trolls!

These guys were painted in the big mad rush to get ready for BOYL 2014 - specifically the mammoth Siege game we put on that somehow evolved from a few enthusiastic suggestions on the forum and the Engines of Avalone scenario that I wrote some time ago.

First up is the C20 Hill Troll or Wanewrong as I prefer to call him. Long wanted to own this chap and he pretty much sums up all things trollish to me as he was one of the first I saw as an impressionable young lad. Much as I like the skinny big-nosed D&D type Trolls and the later GW Stone and River Trolls, this guy is what I think of when ever Trolls are mentioned.

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.

Escape from the Evil Empire

Captain Gasma looked about her in barely disguised disgust. The spaceport on Lox was badly maintained, poorly administrated and it looked as though the Port Authority had given up the fight against the graffiti artists and fly posters. The shiny chrome of her highly polished armour glinted incongruously in the shabby hangar as her troopers formed up in the usual patrol pattern in front of the shuttle they had just arrived in. It promised to be just another routine assignment - relieve garrison, patrol the area, maintain barracks to correct Imperial standards. Another routine assignment on another backwater planet.

Just Farke-ing About

A big thanks to all concerned for an excellent game down at the Foundry on Sunday - as always it was a right laugh and a pleasure to game with a thoroughly decent bunch of chaps and great to make the acquaintance of some new faces! Without gushing too much, it was one of the most enjoyable games I've had with fair play and good humour in abundance.

This was all the brain child of James over at Realm of Chaos 80's and worked a treat - especially the timed turns! Check out his excellent article on GM'ing the game. The basic premise was that we each brought along a unit of baddies and a unit of goodies which were balanced in terms of points. I was very happy to be given command of the baddies and must congratulate my team on their assault of Far Corfe. Well done to Steve Casey and his team of goodies for a sterling defence!

In Defence of Far Corfe

Just putting the finishing touches to the unit rules cards for the big Oldhammer game today down at the Foundry.

In Defense of Far Corfe is Orlygg's brain child, continuing Warlord Paul's long running Albion Adventures games - and should prove to be a most enjoyable day's gaming! The basic premise is that players should bring along a goodie unit and a baddie unit which are both balanced - this should mean that whoever turns up on the day, we should end up with two evenly matched sides necessary for this particular scenario. Whether or not we get to command the units we bring or end up controlling someone else's will be randomly determined...

Here are my two offerings -

Katyah Bolokov's Narsty Nobblahs

These Mourngul Renegades are far from home - reviled even by their own despicable kind for their gross perversions and sadistic tendencies. Bolokov is accompanied by his faithful Hobhound, Gobblah Nutask - a fine specimen with a particularly glossy coat, perhaps due to a rather particular diet his master is often want to feed him...

Lurking amongst the ranks is his champion, Varesk Timay - a particularly unpleasant and sneaky Hobgoblin, skilled in the use of sharp bladed weapons with an almost surgical skill.

                         

Earl Farkwart Farkerie's Cleisterfuckentruppe

Farkwart (or Farkwit as his men are oft want to call him) is in fact a disgraced Earl - banished from the familial seat for being overly familiar with a stranger who was far more porcine than good taste would permit. He has since earned some notoriety as the commander of a mercenary band of pikemen. Their past exploits (most of which ended badly thanks to Farkwart's many deficiencies) have earned them the moniker, Cleisterfuckentruppe.

There are two troopers of note amongst the truppen. These are Le Grand Branler (far right of the front rank before the archers) - a grizzled Bretonnian veteran with a slight inferiority complex about the size of his chopper. On the opposite side of the unit (for good reason) and waving a similarly large weapon around is Schwanz Grossenegger - a particularly well endowed and suitably cocky Greatsword from Nuln. The rest of the troops are a mixture of pikemen and archers.

Special Rules - Le Grand Branler has an inferiority complex about the size of his chopper. He must take a WP test to overcome this for each round of combat he is engaged in. If successful he becomes so enraged that he is subject to frenzy (+1 to hit, damage and saving throw, immune to psychology and must always follow up enemy in combat) for that round. If he fails, he loses heart and suffers -1 to hit and -1 to damage for that round.

Schwanz Grossenegger is quite the opposite and is overly cocky thanks to being particularly well endowed. He must take a CL test for each round of combat he is engaged in. If he passes, his enemy is so intimidated by his alpha male aura that he suffers -1 to hit Schwanz. If Schwanz fails the test, his enemy sees through the bluster and gains +1 to hit Schwanz.

Both Schwanz Grossenegger and Le Grand Branler are subject to animosity towards each other and must test unless the enemy is within charge range. The rest of the unit are quite used to their bickering and may leave them behind if they become embroiled in a brawl. Schwanz and Branler must rejoin the unit as soon as they can.

As you can tell the puns will be flying thick and fast today and it should prove a most entertaining game. I'll endeavour to take pics and cobble together some kind of narrative for the whole thing...