IX Legion "Blood Drinkers" Apothecary

As prep for the 30K mega-game I thought it would be a good idea to paint an apothecary. I'd bought the Forgeworld backpack bit from a UK eBay seller awhile back and just needed to stick it on a figure and get it painted.

Of course I chose a metal RT Medic figure to use; it fits in well with the rest of the Blood Drinkers force and the backpack looks good on him.

Inspiration for the colour scheme came from the old "40K Compendium" that amazingly featured a Blood Drinkers medic!

A nice addition to the IX Legion even if he did get obliterated along with the rest of the Command squad in the first game...

"The Eagle Has Landed" Bolt Action Battle Report

A few weeks back, the nice chaps at Warlord Games published a promotion and scenario based on the classic '70s WW2 movie, "The Eagle Has Landed."

Pretty much every WW2 gamer over the age of 40 is well familiar with the movie, but for those who aren't, it's definitely a classic. In broad strokes, here's the story:

At the height of World War II, Nazi intelligence officer Max Radl (Robert Duvall) devises a plan to kidnap Winston Churchill while the prime minister is on vacation at an English seaside cottage. With the approval of Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler (Donald Pleasence), the scheme moves forward with German paratrooper hero Oberst Kurt Steiner (Michael Caine) leading the mission, aided on the ground by Liam Devlin (Donald Sutherland), a mercenary Irishman with a dislike of the English. The initially preposterous-seeming plan seems more and more plausibly successful with Steiner and his men arriving in England disguised as Polish paratroopers. They install themselves in the sleepy village of Studley Constable to await the arrival of Churchill, but in the meantime their plan unravels when the "Polish paratroopers" are revealed to be Germans. Enter Colonel Clarence E. Pitts (Larry Hagman), a hawkish-but-incompetent US Army officer stationed nearby with his Ranger unit... and mayhem ensues!

Conscript Curt was in for a visit and I thought we should do something a bit different for the Thursday game. Coincidentally, Warlord Games had just sent an email promoting a contest to win a DVD copy of the movie, together with a very cool scenario representing the final battle in the village, between the US Army Rangers and Steiner's disguised "Polish Paratroopers" / Fallschirmjagers.

I laid out the table terrain to the scenario specifications, representing the sleepy hamlet of Studley Constable. The church is visible at centre right, the public house at lower right, and the iconic water mill and mill pond at lower centre.

Some of Studley Constable's residents were scattered about the village as well, represented by models from the excellent Foundry "WW2 Civilians" pack.

Here's the mill - I made the wheel in an hour out of balsa, and the mill itself is represented by a couple of generic half-timbered buildings. Looks pretty decent for a bodge.

A nice policeman about to have a chat with Mrs. Grey.

On to the game! It began with the American players moving several jeeps onto the table, led by the extremely enthusiastic Col. Pitts. The objective for the Germans was for Steiner to make his way to the church and for the Germans to hold on there for several turns, allowing Steiner to discover the secret tunnel and make good his escape. The US Army Rangers come on in two waves - a first wave led by Pitts, and the second by an actual competent officer, Captain Clark (Treat Williams). Their objective is to wipe out the Germans before Steiner can escape.

In a spectacular replay of the movie events, two German paras appeared from the mill and hosed down the speeding Jeep with Sten gun fire, causing it to flip over and crash into the mill pond.

Meanwhile, another Jeep with the Colonel aboard heads for the Church, where the Germans are holed up. This doesn't go well, as the Jeep is sprayed with Sten fire from the Church and a neighbouring building, helping Col. Pitts achieve the hero's death he so richly deserved.

Americans occupy a house opposite the church.

US Army Rangers moving towards the church are intercepted by some Germans with the same idea.

I'm not exactly sure what happened to the rest of the pictures here (where's Steiner???) but the game was pretty fun. Some of the Germans ended up holed up in the church but got whittled down by Ranger shooting. There were some Germans that didn't bother joining up in the church and I think that was likely a tactical error as the Rangers assaulted the few remaining paras and wiping them out... Steiner either ended up in the POW cages or buried in the cemetery in Studley Constable.

We'll run this game again for sure; my wife bought me a very nice laser-cut church model appropriate to the scenario from Sarissa Precision (as well as the "Steiner" figure from Warlord) so this may even be a game we take on the road to PrairieCon next year!

**LATE BREAKING** here's some more pics from Conscript Curt!

THE BIG ONE - Part One - Horus Heresy 30k Mega Game

"Dupes of the False Emperor in sight! Attack!"

It's been over a year since I started on a project initially referred to as "Legion Lunacy".  My aspirations at that time were to get enough stuff painted for a small but fun game of 30k, set on Istvaan III where the Horus Heresy erupted. "Small but fun" didn't last, especially once Dallas and Byron joined in the fun. Collection escalation kicked in - way in - and soon we had very large forces taking shape.  Dallas had visions of a huge game, set for an opportune long weekend at some point, where these forces would finally clash in a bonkers all-out game of Warhammer 30k.

The adherents of hope and change muster; this photo doesn't event include the Death Guard...

Well, I'm pleased to share that, after quite a lot of hinting here and there at different times on the blog, the game took place over the recent Thanksgiving weekend (that holiday taking place in October here in Canada).  Dallas fused a celebration of Thanksgiving and his birthday to host this long-awaited mega-smack-down! This game was so big, it needs a couple of posts, so here is part 1.

The loyalist dupes huddle in the ruins to make their stand...

The battle would be follow-on from our previous scenario, the Defence of Orask. The forces of Horus, having driven the Loyalists away from the traitor landing sites, mustered their forces for a final assault on the Orask defences.  Everything, from the Reaver Titan "Ferrum Mori", the Knight Titan "El Booze", down through to the recent last-minute additions was added in for the assault. The assault force included the Sons of Horus, the World Eaters and the Death Guard, and totaled more than 7000 points (it was hard to count it all).

The followers of Horus arrayed for battle...

For their final defence the dupes of the false emperor mustered elements of Blood Drinkers and Solar Auxilia, backed by a Reaver Titan from Legio Metallica, the "Blue Bomber" and a Stormblade super heavy tank.  I'm not sure of the total points for the defence, but it was around 5000 or so, if not more (Dallas will know better).

Armoured column set to make an assault up the road...

The battle would take place across an 8' x 4' table.  The traitor forces had 8 turns to utterly crush the loyalists.  We put some restrictions in for the Reaver Titans in the game - namely that the void shields could not regenerate (uh, even Titan Legios need to conserve energy, right?) and that the Titans would have to a) use one weapon mount for a close assault weapon and b) always use their scary "D weapon" to target the opposing Titan until that opposing Titan was knocked out.  The intent here was to make the titans a little less un-killable and also prevent them from totally dominating the tabletop.  They could still dish out the abuse form their "apocalypse launchers" on any target they wished, but the laser destroyers had to fire on the other Titan.

Solar Auxilia hunker down and return fire...likely a little concerned about the proximity to the main weapon on the Stormblade...

The game obviously took a long time with so many forces involved.  The table was crowded, and GW's 40k rules engine was strained to the max to accommodate forces of this size, particularly the massive titans.  There was no tactical flexibility here...in many ways it really resembled the crowded proto-horse-and-musket encounters described in GW books like "Horus Rising"...

The Blood Drinkers hunker down...

So while it was not a very free-flowing game, it was tremendously fun! Huge apocalypse templates, mega cannons, d-weapons, massive reserves...this game had it all!!! Entire squads disappeared from apocalyptic bombardments. Hull points and structure points melted away from terrifying 30k weapons.

Volkite-armed World Eater marines provide covering fire

Centurion and Legion Champion of the World Eaters lead the ground assault

 Horus' forces charged out of their crowded deployment area and hammered away at the loyalists, while infantry elements charged through brutal return fire.  The loyalists sheltered in the hard cover while receiving punishing bombardments.

The Death Guard move grimly forward

They are confronted by Blood Drinker assault troops! It would not end well for the Blood Drinkers, once that Dreadnought visible in the background gets involved...

I will leave further details on the play-by-play to subsequent posts from Dallas.  For now, I'll just say, it was AWESOME!

The ground assault surging forward; the Sons of Horus are happy to let the World Eaters absorb some of the preliminary abuse...

Blood Drinker Spartan rolls forward to disgorge troops - but the World Eaters would prove surprisingly tough...

Thanks to all the guys who came out to play.  A big thank you to Dallas, for hosting the game and inspiring it in the first place.  It was Dallas that prompted the acquisition of the Reaver Titans, and he pulled together a very significant assortment of Blood Drinker Legion Marines as well as some amazing terrain pieces, from his new mat to some of Byron's awesome new buildings from SG2 Creations.  And also a big thanks to Byron for assembling an amazing Death Guard collection, designing the incredible new ruined buildings, and spurring serious collection escalation.  We have been building toward this game for a long time, and it was really great to see it all come together.

Sons of Horus Command Figures

Legion MK III Command Figures for the Sons of Horus

More bits for the 16th Legion - some command figures wearing Mk III Power Armour.  There is a Legion Centurion figure, drawing his menacing blade, and a banner bearer. 

Beautiful sculpts from Forge World

The standard looks a little funny, and that's because I managed to trip over one of the dumbest and most obvious trip lines in the hobbyist's book.  I was preparing to spray a matte seal to protect the figure, and I was in a rush, and I didn't pay enough attention.  I picked up the figure, picked up the can, and sprayed, starting with the banner...and I was surprised to see the banner turn black! I had picked up black spray primer instead of matte sealant!!  I'm such a dunce!! F**K!!!

In spite of my stupidity, I managed to save the banner

Not much on the back of the banner, of course, but just wanted to show the detail on the rear of the figures

Considering the type of f*** up I had bumbled into, it could have been worse - I only caught half the banner with the black spray - the bearer figure was unscathed, and half the banner was still OK.  So I sighed, swore, waited for the primer to dry, and set about re-painting the banner...I kind of saved it, but it does look a little weird...

Love the riveted, segmented look of the MKIII Armour

The Centurion is a wonderful sculpt - he seems to looking off into the distance, preparing to get involved more personally with something on the battlefield...

While the banner carrier is mostly a bit of fluff for the table, the Centurion is useful in rounding out my Sons of Horus force, as he provides a mandatory HQ selection for the force, one that fits in a little better than the larger, scarier, Praetor (although at least he has some Terminators to hang out with now).  I need to add a couple more individual marines to round out this command group - stay tuned for more 30k and Sons of Horus...and a REALLY BIG GAME...

30k Sons of Horus Terminators

Horus for hope - or else!!

More escalation in the continuing 30k arms race.  Here is a squad of Legion Terminator Marines, wearing "Cataphrachtii" pattern terminator armour, painted in the colours of the 16th Legion, the Sons of Horus.

"Power Fists for Change!"

Troops wearing the Terminator, or "tactical dreadnought", armour represent elite combats units in the Space Marine Legions.  And in 30k, most of the Legions take this further, sporting some kind of specialized tactical dreadnought troops.  In the case of the Sons of Horus, it is the Justaerin Terminators.  I did not care for the goofy, proto-dark-Eldar look of the Justaerin figures myself, so I went with the "generic" Cataphractii armour, reasoning that the 16th Legion was a huge formation and would mostly have access to these more "generic" units, with the Justaerin limited to just one company in the Legion (led by that warm fuzzy fellow Abbadon...)

The sergeant is rather menacing - I wish I had not been in such a hurry to finish these, as I would have take time to shave those stupid skulls off...oh well - by GW standards, still pretty tame

The Terminators are equipped for the most part with combi-bolters, a precursor to the storm bolter seen on the 40k Marine terminators.  One Marine is carrying the absurd-yet-so-dumb-yet-gorgeous reaper autocannon as a special weapon - another 30k-era fixture, used prior to the assault cannon.  All also have power fists for smashing the enemies of Horus right in the face, save the Sergeant, who carries a Thunder Hammer, which also smashes the enemies of Horus, but makes it hurt even more.  The Sergeant is also sporting a "grenade harness", a small grenade launcher on the top of his armour.

"Horus just wants to talk with you..."

"Accept that change is coming..."

Terminators are great fun to have from a collecting and fluff standpoint, but function very poorly in the actual game.  GW's 40k rules engine - as has been noted here often and, much more effectively, in so many other places on the web - harbours many deep flaws, and in the case of the terminators, these flaws combine to render them close to useless.  Despite their impressive stats and armaments, getting them to contact with the enemy is very difficult, and when that enemy is a Space Marine Legion, chances are they will be shot to be pieces by sheer volume of accurate and scary fire before they can accomplish much.

Oh man - just LOOK at this gun - bonkers!

The Reaper Autocannon - a 30k favourite!!

Terminators look cool and are fun to paint, but are a waste of points in your force, looking much more impressive on paper, in contrast to actual results on the table, which are almost always disappointing.  This was certainly the case when they went into action last week (more on that soon).

One critique of the design, not much room for decals, save the top...at least Ferrum Mori will be able to recognize them and not step on them accidentally

Whatever their table attributes, the looks-cool-factor is certainly high on these sculpts.  They appear menacing, and as I said, that reaper autocannon just can't be beat for "WTF?"  I'm glad to have these as part of the battle line for the 16th Legion!

Up next, some more Sons of Horus...

Legion Rapier for the Sons of Horus

Vote Horus - or else!

 Collection escalation is a lot of fun.  I've been working on Legion 30k figures since late February in 2014, and in the time since both Byron and Dallas have jumped in too.  As a group we've been adding more and more stuff, and that's great.  Dallas has continued to add reinforcements for his Blood Drinkers, while Byron has added more vehicles for the Death Guard.  All in preparation for a very, very big game (more on that soon).  The Sons of Horus had to match (and try to exceed!) the escalation - a new Rhino barely counts. So here are a couple of posts on new additions to the 16th Legion.  Up first is this Rapier Laser Destroyer from Forge World.

16th Legion Rapier with two-man crew

Rapier commander in MKIII armour - my favourite Horus Heresy kit...

This model, like many parts of Forge World's Horus Heresy lineup, is a nice-shout out to GW's Rogue Trader history, and really screams out to nostalgia-primed dorks like me.  A tracked carrier for various heavy weapons, the Rapier was once a metal model from the late 1980s.  The model available today is a lot bigger than the original, and comes with two crew figures.

As I have said before, the embossed shoulder plates are a god-send, and an expensive addiction

This particular weapon system is a "Laser Destroyer", a scary energy weapon useful for blasting vehicles or heavily armoured bad guys. It is a twin-linked, ST 9, AP1 ordnance weapon - 30k-speak for "ouch".

The "driver", using analogue-style technology to operate the Rapier

These are very nice figures, a lot of fun to paint.  I like the comb on the officer, and the little extras like the scope and lens on the backpacks, etc.  Great work by the sculptors at Forge World.

Lots of nice details on this model, another great piece from Forge World

In keeping with the theme of excess running through the 30k Legion army lists, these things are actually meant to be deployed in batteries of three guns (!).  I'm not sure I will get that level with these guns, but I'm sure that would be a fun way to take out enemy armour...

Whoever that guy on the left is pointing at is probably in a lot of trouble...

Up next - more Sons of Horus...