LegioCon 2016: Warhammer 40K Renegades vs. Vostroyans/Elysians

Two weekends ago, I assisted Conscript Greg with his outstanding Warhammer 40K game staged at LegioCon, a local tabletop gaming event that we have attended and hosted games at pretty much since it began. Above, you can see Greg's amazing desert terrain with my Imperial Bastion, LED Skyshield pad, and bunker/wall complex. It did look good!

We came up with a scenario for my Chaos Renegades and his Elysian/Vostroyan Imperial Guard loosely based on the Siege of Vraks from Forgeworld's "Imperial Armour" book series. Here is the blurb:

As an Imperial Colony is overwhelmed by a revolt, the consular guard make a final stand to protect the Imperial governor at his estate.  And they hope Elysian drop troops will arrive in time to save them? 

Longer version:

The game is set in 813 M.41, early in the 17-year siege of Vraks, an Imperial armoury world that's essentially a weapons locker and staging area for the Imperial Guard.

The Apostate Cardinal Xaphan marshalled hordes of fanatical Renegade followers on Vraks, including uncounted regiments of the Imperial Guard stationed there. Our game will depict part of the battle for the Citadel on Vraks, with loyal Guardsmen defending to the last, hoping against hope for rescue from an airmobile elite Guard unit operating in the area. Those troops have a different objective, however: rescuing the Imperial Commander-Governor of Vraks and ensuring that the arming codes for the virus bombs remaining in the armoury don't fall into Renegade hands. 

Conscripts Dave and Greg survey the bleak terrain of Vraks. The Renegade legions of Cardinal Xaphan are seen at bottom; they include a troop of Leman Russ tanks, a Medusa self-propelled howitzer, a squad of Ogryns, a large mob of workers, a penal squad, a troop of Renegade cavalry (!), and a platoon of Renegade guardsmen with a command squad in a Chimera. Their objective, the Imperial commander with the virus bomb codes, is in the Bastion at centre, defended by a couple squads of Vostroyan honour guard.

The Renegades were lined up and raring to go...

As the Death Riders surged forward, a squad of Elysian heavy bolters deep-struck into position to light them up. And they did...

 

...but while the HBs decimated the cavalry, four or five of their number survived to charge in, and their explosive-tipped hunting lances made short work of the Elysians, wiping them out to a man.

Unfortunately, after they swept over the Elysians, the surviving troopers faced this demoralizing prospect... yes, they all died :-(

Meanwhile, in the centre of the table, the Renegade guardsmen swept forward past the Skyshield defended by a Vostroyan squad.

On the left, the Vostroyan defenders of the Bastion, filled with holy fervour, leapt over the barricades and charged the penal squad! A clever move, as this bought time for the Imperial commander to flee towards the Elysians approaching from their table edge.

The donnybrook between the Vostroyans and the Renegades continued for most of the remainder of the game. But meanwhile, the Imperial commander was getting away...!

Elysian command squad awaiting the commander for extraction... they met a sticky end courtesy of a Renegade Leman Russ' Punisher autocannon.

Elysian flyers crowded the skies as they arrived from reserve, spewing death, destruction, and Elysian drop troops. You can just make out the lone surviving Ogryn Bone 'Ead on the nearside of the Bastion, just past the defence line. He will figure largely into the story later...

The Medusa in action. Jeff, a young fellow who joined us in the game, showed appropriate Renegade spirit as he insisted on dropping large templates alarmingly close to our own models...

This mostly went OK, until a Breacher shell landed on the Renegade command squad that had just deployed from its Chimera transport. The result was predictable, most of the squad died, leaving just the detachment commander and standard bearer alive, and pretty upset ;-)

A target-rich environment, to be sure. Unfortunately I'd left the Blight Drones at home and the Renegades had no anti-aircraft capability. This sounds worse than it was, though, because the mission really required boots on the ground and the flyers were just chrome.

Elysian drop-troops deploy from a Valk, ready to grab the commander.

But what's this! On the last turn the Ogryn Bone 'Ead emerged from the backfield and made a dash for the target... he needed to roll 11 or 12 to make the grab. The first die came up a six! Then the second... a three :-( So close!

So the game ended in a draw...? Yeah, that's it. The Renegades failed to capture the virus bomb codes, though, and we presume that the Imperial commander was the subject of a battlefield execution by the Elysians. Life is cheap in the 41st Millennium and as they say, no matter what happens, "you will not be missed"...

Thanks to LegioCon for inviting us to bring out our game, to Conscript Greg for putting it on, Conscript Dave for his copious 40K rules knowledge and infectious sportsman spirit, and to Gabriel and Jeff for playing it with us, we hope you had a good time.

Forgeworld Armageddon-Pattern Medusa

Legio-Con is approaching and Conscript Greg and I are putting on a couple of games for the masses. One is a Warhammer 40K game set in 813 M.41, early in the 17-year siege of Vraks, an Imperial armoury world that's essentially a weapons locker and staging area for the Imperial Guard.

The Apostate Cardinal Xaphan marshalled hordes of fanatical Renegade followers on Vraks, including uncounted regiments of the Imperial Guard stationed there. Our game will depict part of the final battle for the Citadel on Vraks, with loyal Guardsmen defending to the last, hoping against hope for rescue from an airmobile elite Guard unit operating in the area. Those troops have a different objective, however: rescuing the Imperial Commander-Governor of Vraks and ensuring that the arming codes for the virus bombs remaining in the armoury don't fall into Renegade hands.
  

ANYWAY... Greg is bringing his Vostroyan Guardsmen and Elysian drop-troopers to form the Loyalist forces, and I'm supplying the Renegades, which has given me some impetus to finish a few outstanding projects for that army. Chief among these was the Forge World Armageddon-Pattern Medusa kit that I've had now for a couple years (!).

I have to say at the outset that this kit, WHICH I OBTAINED DIRECTLY FROM FORGE WORLD IN NOTTINGHAM, UK (lest there be any confusion on the point) was the absolute worst resin kit I've ever had to build. I love the design of the vehicle - it's very Wespe-like - but it was a pile of hot garbage to build. The parts weren't misshapen or warped, for the most part, but were just not well designed for assembly with the base plastic Chimera kit.

Add to this the fact that there were absolutely no instructions provided, and you have a recipe for hobby rage.

In any case, it's built now and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

While I wouldn't bother scratch-building a vehicle interior myself, the kit included some nice, albeit ill-fitting, interior details for the Chimera hull (probably, in hindsight, this is where the kit designers started to go wrong). I painted these using Citadel Rakarth Flesh and Leadbelcher, copiously sponge chipped, then sealed with a wash of Agrax Earthshade. I also had to scratch-build new hinge pieces for the rear door (the kit parts were too misshapen to use) and fitted some tiny magnets to hold the door closed.

I think "menacing" is the word for this vehicle...

Since I built the kit with the top hatch open, I needed to fit a commander... this one is built from a Renegade torso with regular plastic Guard legs and arms. I painted his tunic field grey, similar to the rest of the force, but different from the Leman Russ commander who gets a full camo oversuit. My rationale follows the example of the German army in WW2, where the tankers wore special black or camo suits and the assault gun and self-propelled artillery crews wore field grey.

In stark contrast to assembly, painting the beast was straightforward and enjoyable. I basecoated with Mechanicus Standard Grey and drew it up to a mix of MSG and Celestra Grey. After applying decals (thanks Greg), I chipped the Hell out of the paint with a sponge, followed by a Nuln Oil wash to bring it back together. Some rust streaking with pigment mixed in solvent, and a final dusting of powders finished the job. Lenses were painted and glossed.

I'm really looking forward to the game with this vehicle. Yes, it will probably get destroyed on the first turn, but seeing it on the table will be cool. And while I would paint another one in a second, I hope never to build one again.

40K Chaos Renegades Update - Ogryns, Cyclops, Mechanics

This weekend I interrupted 30K activity to finish off some 40K models. First up were the two metal Ogryns I'd converted to finish off a squad for my Renegades army.
 

 These guys actually went up fairly quickly.

I just love the sheer character in these old models. The gasmasks turned out rather well I think.

The Bone 'Ead squad leader has a bit of a different look to his mask, to accommodate his bionic eye. 

The sculpt, again, is great - I love the small tears in the undershirt.

Here's the completed squad!

Next up is a Cyclops demolition tank from Forgeworld. Since I had some spare Renegade torsos and bits around, I figured I'd convert an operator for the vehicle as well.

The vehicle was a snap to paint - just like a full size vehicle but in miniature ;-)

Hope you can get a peek at the screen I painted in on the remote.

Renegade Cyclops operator was painted in the standard Renegade uniform - camo pants and field-grey tunic.

Lastly, here's a couple of figures my wife got me for Christmas - some special-order Imperial Guard Astra Militarum vehicle mechanics.

I converted the models with MaxMini gasmask heads to fit into the Renegade force.

I love the 40K Fitbit the guy on the left is sporting. Or is it an iWatch???

One last shot of the Cyclops. That's it for tonight!

40K Chaos Renegade Ogryns WIP

A flurry of hobby activity over the past week included some greenstuff conversion work (I am hesitant to call it "sculpting") on two new acquisitions - some out-of-production metal Ogryns. I've given them gas masks to fit in with the rest of the Chaos Renegades. These two will fill out a squad of three models, joining the example I've converted and painted already.

This guy already had an augmetic eye fitted and I thought it would be a shame to lose that, so I gave him a half-mask.

The filters are done by making a small ball of greenstuff, setting it in place on the model, and pressing down on it with an appropriate-size circular or cylindrical object (in this case, I used some plastic rod I had around). Then, use a pin or dental pick to make the holes for the filter.

This model got a full over-the-head mask. Eye ports are made the same way as the filters.

Looking forward to painting these guys and having a squad of three models to use in the army.