Primaris Experimentus Circumspectus

Squad of Primaris Intercessors for the Crimson Fists Chapter of Space Marines - figures from GW.

The summer has finally - finally - arrived to my corner of the world - yay! With the arrival of scorching temps and sunshine, along with what would appear to be something of a lull in the pandemic (at least around here - I know it is getting worse elsewhere), the amount of hobby time has declined somewhat. But the brushes are still going, and here is something a little different to share - a squad of new "Primaris Intercessors", plastic figures from GW, painted in the colours of the Crimson Fists Space Marine chapter.

Intercessors carrying "auto bolt rifles" - I love the drum-style magazines on the weapons.

Emobssed shoulder pads are from older kits - and they still work fine on the new "Primaris" models.

The "Primaris" models are hardly news anymore, having arrived back with the release of the 8th edition of GW's Warhammer 40k rules. For an old Rogue Trader grognard such as myself, the Primaris versions of the Space Marine did not hold a lot of immediate appeal. The narrative setting and story around the appearance of "Primaris" marines in the 40k setting was lame (subjective, of course, YMMV). The Imperium of Warhammer 40k is grounded in a certain blend of high technology and feudal superstitions..."innovation" is, at best, suspicious. A newer, tougher Space Marine with improved armour and cooler guns would properly be considered some kind of abomination. Those advocating for the adoption of such technology and "improvements" would be sent to the recycler! After all, The Emperor himself came up with the Space Marines. Anyone saying "hey, I improved the Space Marines" is claiming, somehow, to be better than The Emperor...seems like a career-limiting move to me!

If you are going to check your email, always draw your pistol first...

Just one example of many different options for poses/looks in the Intercessors box.

But of course Warhammer 40k is not just a story, but a business, and from a business perspective, an entirely new Space Marine is a big gamble for GW. But, in many ways, and I can see how it might be a sensible approach for GW to take. Space Marines are THE big product that underpins the whole 40k product line, and if you can take a central product line into new and better places, well, it's great for business, right?

Sergeant - a fun pose, again, another example of the neat poses from the kit.

No harm in sneaking a VII Legion decal on this group, is there?

So, leaving aside the turd-like narrative aspects, and just looking at the new models,  I thought I would give them a try. I purchased a pack of "Intercessors" last summer. I thought I would paint them for the most recent edition of Curt's "Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge" - and indeed I did start them in late December of 2019 - but assorted distractions and other projects left them unfinished. They never made it to the Challenge. They were about 60% done, sitting on my painting desk, until this week.

But this delay is not due to disliking the figures - it is due to a desire to focus on non-40k projects. In fact, I quite enjoyed these figures...GW is at its best when doing these multi-part plastic kits, and the Intercessors have all sorts of nice options - for weapons, for poses, for accessories. I like the notion of the "bolt rifle" and the three different types you can choose to equip the figures with. I opted for the "auto bolt rifle" for most of these Marines in this unit as I like the look of the drum-style magazine. There are a couple with "stalker bolt rifles", and two of the Marines also have auxiliary grenade launchers.

A (fuzzy) example of a "stalker bolt rifle".

There are lots of options for arms with knives, arms swapping out magazines, arms point, checking scanners etc as well as tons of little add-ons like relics or parchment seals etc. These things are familiar from previous Space Marine figure kits, but they are taken to a new level here - it is well done. I only used those sparingly here, as I wanted to get a sense for what a "basic" Primaris marine would be like. But there are tons of options for anyone who would like to try them out.

Auxiliary grenade launchers mounted on bolt rifles - with grenade rounds loaded into the slings...neat details.

A small amount of extra fire support for the squad.

The other benefit that I did not expect was the extent to which you can still use components from earlier ranges of "classic" plastic Space Marines - or even the Horus Heresy stuff if you want. I mean, obviously the Primaris' legs are huge, so limited options there...but shoulder plates in particular, as well as many arms, the backpacks and the helmets can swap back and forth between "classic" Marine models and the new Primaris figures. That means, for example, that you can put the riveted shoulder pauldrons of a Mark III armour suit, or the cool "beakie" style helmet on the model and it will still work. You can even go the other way - using "bolt rifles" on classic plastic marines - I experimented a bit with some 30k Space Wolves (not perfect, but I still liked the results). If you want to see much, much, better examples, of how bits from the more classic kits can look great on the Primaris marines, check out the cool "Gatebreakers" over at the amazing "Death of a Rubricist" blog. 

View showing the rear packs and leg armour.

Are there downsides? Well, one familiar frustration is decals...the decals that came with the box were perfect if you were painting Ultramarines, but otherwise you were SOL. I think GW is improving on that now, and you can get kits to further customize your Marines to a number of specific, well-known chapters. In the case of these figures, I just used some spare Imperial Fist/Crimson Fist embossed shoulder pads and then used the Ultramarine decals for tactical symbols, painting over the bright white of the Ultramarine's symbols with a red that I feel is more appropriate for the Crimson First Chapter.

Another thing to be mindful of with these figures is the posing of the arms...I wouldn't call this a "flaw", per-se...or if it is a flaw, it's me, not the models. You can get some super-cool poses with the plastic Primaris Marines, but also some awkward-looking ones. The issue can stem from a very small thing, a not-quite-right pose of the arms or the head...look closely at a couple of photos here and some of Marines look a little awkward with their weapons. Just take your time, and you'll be fine.

One final negative for me is the lack of heavy weapons. Don't get me wrong - there are new-generation Space Marines with heavy-style weapons, such as the "Hellblasters", but I miss the single heavy-weapon Marine with a missile launcher or lascannon. The designers seem to be taking the Marines away from the vision of the "tactical squads" that could do a little bit of everything. Instead, there are more specialized squads, with specialized armour/weapons etc. Oh well. 

Auxiliary grenade launchers on the end of the battle line.

But overall, these were fun to experiment with. It is clear GW is intending to replace the entire Space Marine line with new "Primaris" figures. GW denies this, of course - that is one way you know it is true! But you can also see the writing on the wall in that every new Space Marine model released by GW since the arrival of the 8th edition has been a "Primaris" variant of some sort. While the grognard in me grumbles, at the end of the day, most of the new figures look neat - different, yes, in many ways, but still clearly Space Marines, neat to assemble and paint, and surely fun to put on the table where they can get run over by Orks and other xenos threats of the grim and dark future of 40k...

Thanks for reading, hope you are able to be safe and enjoy some summer and some hobby time of your own. Cheers!

 

An Old Beakie With A Big Gun

Rogue-Trader era heavy weapon marine with lascannon

We will be playing another game of Warhammer 40k's new 8th edition this week, and my dusty old Crimson Fists will be putting in another appearance on the gaming table.  The setting will shift somewhat, from the familiar nostalgia of Rynn's World and the "Battle At the Farm" to the world of Toxo IV, our sort of go-to setting for general 40k mayhem. I don't recall exactly when our use of this name started - seems to go back to at least 2009 - but we thought the name was kind whacky and did its own bit to convey the warped darkness of GW's far future.

So Toxo IV will be the setting of an encounter between Dallas' foul Chaos renegades, backed by some even fouler Nurgle types, against an Imperial task force that will feature Crimson Fist Space Marines and some Imperial Army types - this is a set-up we have used previously and it has always been fun.  We are going to scale the game up a bit more this week, and bring out some vehicles. 

The studded shoulder pauldron, a classic emblem of old Space Marine figures from Citadel/GW

The presence of tanks, and even worse, Nurgle, means my Marines will need a little bit more punch. A lascannon would sure come in handy...and then I see this guy, who has been sitting, primed, in the pending pile for like four or five years! I rushed him through the painting table late last night, as the weather has finally been nice, and the days in Winnipeg are very, very long right now, and I find myself staying up very late anyway, so it was easy to finish off.

Unique venting system, no backpack on this fellow! Makes it much easier to pose the heavy weapons.

This figure is old school, a pewter Space Marine heavy weapon trooper of the Rogue Trader era.  There is no finer Space Marine figure than the originals with the "beakie" helmets, and metal figures are always the best, so man, was it fun to crank out one of these classic gems. I don't have many of these left in my collection to paint, and they are getting harder to find online, so it was a real treat to relax, put on old music and put the brush to this old, old casting.

You can see the size of the contemporary decals vs. the size of these old castings...looks kind a funny, but I'll take it for now

These old figures had so much character.  One thing that stands out for me with this guy is how he has a unique venting system on his armour, so he does not wear the ubiquitous power armour backpack, leaving more room to swing that big gun around.

Ready for gaming action with his Crimson Fist battle brothers!

I tried to use some decals to mark him out, but of course the scale creep on the decal side has far outgrown the original Rogue Trader era figures - and this is particularly pronounced with Space Marines, as GW's Marine decals have always been too large, even for the later plastic figures (although I suppose they would fit nicely on those hideous Primaris Marines).  I have attempted the odd freehand Crimson Fist symbol, but wasn't up for this time. So I went a bit wacky using the decals, and put the chapter symbol on the leg greaves instead.  He's got a big cannon anyway, so he can do what he wants, right?

Lascannons always come in handy, so hopefully this fellow will be able to blast a renegade tank or Plague Marine with it! 

Battle at the Farm - 8th Edition Style

Conscript Keegan in a pensive mood over 8th edition

The Battle at the Farm... a legendary encounter! The first-ever scenario from back in the days of Rogue Trader - pitting Pedro Kantor and the survivors of the Crimson Fist chapter against Thrugg Bullneck, Sergeant Hruk, and their Space Ork warband in a scrap over a ruined farmhouse.

While we had played the scenario a few years ago using the original rules for the 25th anniversary of Rogue Trader, we wanted to try it again for the 30th anniversary and our inaugural battle report with the new 8th edition rules...

So we set up the game with the original terrain layout, but updated armies. On the Ork side, a 55 power level army - from bottom to top in the photo above: a 20-Ork unit of Boyz and Warboss Hruk, a Deff Dread, a unit of five Tankbustas, a unit of ten Stormboyz, a unit of ten Boyz, two Skorchas, and Thrugg himself, a Warboss in Mega-Armour.

On the Space Marine side, also 55 power levels in play: two tactical squads of ten Marines each, a Dreadnought, a unit of five Scouts, an Imperial Space Marine (the awesome "LE02" limited edition model from last year), an Ancient standard bearer, an Apothecary, a Librarian, and Pedro Kantor himself.

(All of the Orks are Rogue-Trader-era metal models and the Crimson Fists tactical squads are all RTB-01 "Beakies", befitting the scenario. The Stormboyz have been kitted out with jump-packs from the newer plastic kit).

The Stormboyz, a Deff Dread, and Thrugg's mob of boyz deployed in cover behind Bultha's ridge. "Hruk, you take da big mob straight for da farm. I'll meet yer at da farmhouse," Thrugg ordered. "Sneaky," he thought to himself. "If Hruk makes it, it's coz he killed all da humies in da way. An' if he don't, then his share of da loot is mine!"

The humie gunline was indeed impressive though. Boltguns remain Rapid Fire in 8th and spit out a considerable weight of fire (2 shots per model up to 12"). Plus now, units can split fire freely, so the squad's missile launcher can shoot at the Deff Dread while the bolters shoot at boyz!

Da big mob advances. Ork gunz are mostly Assault, so Orks can Advance (regular move  +d6") and still shoot, albeit at -1 to hit. As their Ballistic Skill is already 5+ this reduces the expected number of hits by half...

As Thrugg sneaks around the Rise out of shot, the mob crashes into the wall of Marines. Defending an obstacle in 8th does not give much of a bonus, however - it only really means that models within 2" (not 1") of an enemy can fight. Charging models still fight first and that's what the boyz are good at!

Meanwhile one of the Skorchas used its special ability to outflank, and deployed on the Ork right table edge. It flamed out one of the Scouts and then charged into close combat. Yes, vehicles fight in close combat now - and the Skorcha was quite handy with a WS of 3+ and four attacks!

Back in the main fight things were going south for the Fists as Greg was plagued by some bad dice. The Orks were grinding away, assisted by Hruk who was pretty good himself. The Deff Dread acquitted itself well too, dispatching Marines with its mighty Klaw.

Things were looking promising as the Skorcha ground its way through the Scouts and their fey capes (!) while the second Deff Dread stomped over to finish the job. Thrugg and retinue can just be seen in the trees at top.

As noted, Greg's dice were appalling throughout most of the evening - here's the result of some Marines attempting a 2+ saving throw against Ork shooting. (Yes, the power armour save is still 3+ but instead of providing its own cover save, cover now adds 1 to a model's regular save. This is useful as "AP" now merely subtracts from the target's save rather than negates it altogether)

Thrugg can almost taste the loot as he and his retinue approach the farmhouse from the flank. Notably, difficult terrain no longer slows models' regular movement, but does subtract 2" from their Charge move.

After having several Boyz peeled off by Marine shooting the scene is set for the final showdown. Pretty much all that's left of the Fists are their characters and Dreadnought, but there's not many Orks left either. Everybody goes crashing into combat but Thrugg, who rolled snake-eyes on his Charge roll. So he's a spectator in the first round.

Things don't go so well for Team Green and it's up to Thrugg to salvage pride by taking out the hated Captain Kantor...

...which he does not... Kantor's spiffy wargear is too much for Thrugg, who whiffed his attacks. You don't often get a second chance against Space Marines and this time was no exception, Thrugg taking it on the chin.

A pretty bloody battle all around, which is just the way we like it. No survivors on the Ork side and only a handful of Space Marines left to try and relieve the holdout defenders of New Rynn City.

So that's 8th edition! Verdict... we like it. To be precise, big thumbs up for:

• variable move rates
• variable weapon damage
• saving throw modifiers
• no more universal special rules - everything's on the data card!

Enthusiasm was tempered for:

• Psychic warfare, which for the Orks (lacking a Weirdboy) was devastating
• cover saves being neutered

We're not keen at all on:

• No vehicle facings or weapon arcs. Pretty sure we'll house rule this
• Keeping track of 10 or more Wounds on models 

Looking forward to another game next week where I expect we'll try some vehicle house rules just as a bit of a tweak. Stay tuned!

40k 8th Edtion? Yes We (K)Can(tor)!

Chapter Master Pedro Kantor, ready to take on some Orks!

This week we will be getting together to try the new 8th edition of GW's Warhammer 40k a try.  As we are a bit of a nostalgic bunch at times, for our first game we will be doing a modified re-fight of "The Battle At The Farm", the scenario that was included in the original Rogue Trader rules. We played this scenario back in 2012 as part of our acknowledgement of Rogue Trader's 25th anniversary, so it seems more than appropriate that we would go back to the well of the Rynn's World story for our group's inaugural attempt at the 8th edition of the rules.

This week will be an opportunity to blow the dust (literally) off of my RTB01 plastic Crimson Fist Marines and bring them out for a little battle, which is awesome, but as there is a small sense of occasion, I did want to bring a new figure out too.  I thought the central hero for the Imperial side from the original "Battle At the Farm", Chapter Master Pedro Kantor, would be ideal, so I managed a rush order to Sentry Box and hoped it would arrive in time.

Lots of detail to paint on this lovely sculpt, sadly much of it a bit blurred thanks to my blundering with priming. F*** I hate priming figures and models. SO MUCH.

The figure showed up in the mail Tuesday, and I managed to get it assembled, primed and gave it a very rushed paint job in time for Thursday.  Unfortunately, whether due to humidity or whatever other f***ing gremlins emerge so often to bedevil priming processes for me, the vallejo black surface primer really did a number on the figure, gooping over several spots of detail and generally softening the look on an otherwise lovely sculpt.  Oh well.  That's what I get for rushing. It still looks not too bad, and from a couple feet away it looks more than adequate for the table.

Huge back banner, in case fellow Crimson Fists have trouble finding him...

I really don't care for the Mark VII armour helmets, so I dug a proper "beakie" helmet out of the spares box for this figure, as it ties him well to the other Crimson Fist marines in his command, even though his armour is pimped to the max etc.  I was also sure to use a smaller sized base so he would fit in with the rest of the gang.

Newly painted and spoiling for a fight.  What could go wrong??

While the original "Battle At The Farm" had only a few figures per side (a measure of how much more involved the original Rogue Trader game was), we don't think an 8th edition game with only 15 to 20 models per side will last all that long, so we are bulking the forces up just a little bit.  But the thrust of the thing is still the same - Pedro Kantor and some surviving members of his command are trying to get to New Rynn City to rally the defences against an Ork invasion.  Will they survive? Or will Thrugg Bullneck find his buried treasure and gather a few more Marine skullz for his bosspole? Watch this space for a battle report soon...

GW's 30th Anniversary Space Marine

30th Anniversary Space Marine Figure from GW

So, we'll kick this off with the disclaimers. Yes, it was a rip-off.  Yes, GW still managed to make it a partially bungled experience.  Yes, it was a plastic figure.  Yes, the plastic figure was oriented in such a way as to make any conversion you might want to attempt much harder than necessary. Yes, GW is generally run by a pack of rectally-oriented clowns who give both the hobby and capitalism bad reputations...

This was not encouraging when I first tried to order online...but it all worked out in the end

So with all that fan-boy bile out of the way, I just have to say I still absolutely love the GW 30th Anniversary Space Marine figure. A testament to my enjoyment of the setting. And my stubborn idiocy, perhaps, but I'll focus more on the first part.

Odd arrangements on the sprue...

...but it comes together nicely!

GW never likes to make it easy to like or support them - this exercise was a good example of this tendency.We had been told the figures would be available in-store only.  I dreaded a fanboy mob, but hey, I was keyed up, so a group of us deployed to the local GW retail location, only to find that five minutes late might as well have been hours late. All of the figures in the store were spoken for not even minutes after opening!

But fortunately GW had apparently misled its own staff, and the figure would, in fact, be available online as well (which makes sense because it's a plastic figure, and the idea that you couldn't run enough of them to sell to every fanboy willing to pay $35 for one over a weekend is hilarious, but I digress once again).  So I set my clock to order at the appointed time.  The initial screens were not encouraging (see above), but it all worked out eventually.

Trudging to battle with a funkified combi-weapon of some kind

The sculptors killed it with this figure - great job, I love it

Bottom line is that I was able to order one online, it arrived in due course, and I finally found a break from a recent period of intense time at work to put it together and paint it. And it's a fun little model.  I generally find GW to have an, at best, tepid regard for it's own history, so I was stunned to see GW even bother to acknowledge this anniversary, much less do so with such a nice figure, with a figure that would have all of us (or maybe just a dork like me) running to our copies of Rogue Trader to find these old castings in the photos.  That was a genuine surprise.

Remember these guys from Rogue Trader??? Awesome!!

The plastic is very well done.  The model is a beauty.  I painted him up as a Crimson Fist because it just didn't seem right to paint him any other way (although I do want to do one of these for the Sons of Horus some day).  The only downside? I used the stupid oversize 32mm base (the new standard size for Space Marines).  Looking back, he would have been better on a classic base, to fit in with the rest of the lads I have painted for this Chapter.

But at the same time, this really is not a gaming figure - more of a collector's item for the shelf.  Maybe he'll join a 40k game some day, but really he's just around to guard the gaming shelf and for fun.

Crimson Fist decal sitting awkwardly on the shoulder plate

Nice details on the backpack/power unit, and I love the handy extra-dangerous-looking "utility blade"

Was a lot of fun to paint this fellow up

I know a couple of the other guys scored their own anniversary models, so I look forward to seeing them painted up too.  And who knows? Maybe we'll figure out a way to get this guy involved in game.

I hope everyone else out there has as much fun working on this figure as I did - despite GW's best efforts, you will really enjoy it, and whatever I think of their rollout, here's hoping they continue to explore their own history for other cool figures.

And I hope someone out there mocks up the gun this guy is carrying, because a squad of guys carrying them would be just awesome...

Big Stompy Robots - 40K Battle Report

 

 

Last Thursday we decided to roll out some new models that hadn't yet been battle-tested - the Ork Stompa I finished last week, and the Imperial Knights that Conscript Greg and I painted last summer.

 

The game would be the culmination of the Rynn's World campaign we'd been playing for some time - the final assault by Thrugg Bullneck and his warband (along with the Stompa!) on the Imperial stronghold of New Rynn City, defended by Pedro Kantor's Crimson Fist Space Marines and two mighty Imperial Knights.



 

Space Marine Devastators take up position on the city walls. The scenario was simple - six objective markers placed on the battlefield, the forces lined up on the diagonal just like a beauty shot from the old White Dwarf :-)

The Orks fielded, in no particular order: two squadrons of two and three warbuggies; two Deff Dreads, a Flakka Dakka wagon; three mobs of 15 Boyz; a unit of 5 Kommandos; a Battlewagon with Killkannon, a unit of 10 Stormboyz, and finally, Thrugg himself in mega-armor with 5 mega-armored henchmen. Oh, and the Stompa.

The Imperials came out with three squads of Marines in Rhinos, a Predator, a Devastator squad, a Terminator squad, Scouts, an Assault squad, and Pedro. Plus two Imperial Knights -

 

The Blue Bomber...

and the famous "El Booze"!

The view from the Ork lines as the Imperials take the first turn.

El Booze and the Blue Bomber anchor the Imperial line.

Rhinos move up covered by the Knight.

Crimson Fist Devastators rained a hail of missiles down on the Orks.

The Blue Bomber wielded its Thermal Cannon to wicked effect. Melta strength + large blast = many dead Ork Stormboyz...

Conscript Frederick moves up the Flakk wagon.

After whittling down the Kommandos with Devastator fire, the Marines disembark to prepare for the assault. Dreadnought has had its powerfist knocked out.

Warbuggy on a suicide run at the Knight. "Can a vehicle with no weapons do anything?" "Sure, you can ram things..."

Aaaand this goes pretty much as expected...

One pile of slag.

After lighting up the Predator with its main gun, the Stompa gets to grips with the Knight. I was actually feeling pretty good about this.

Over on the other flank, things aren't going that well. The Deff Dread charges in only to be felled by Marine krak grenades before it can swing a power klaw.

The three remaining Terminators had leapt forth from their crater to charge Thrugg and his mega-armoured ladz, who themselves had disembarked their transport to try and get some attacks in on the nearby Knight. The Crimson Fists died to a man but took down all but Thrugg and his faithful lieutenant.

Unfortunately for the Orks, their ace in hole ended up as a smoking one. The Stompa whiffed on its first hit on the Bomber (rolling a "1" on the damage table)... the next turn, El Booze charged in and between it and the Bomber they beat the Stompa's azz into a shiny red pulp :-(

Some more gratuitous Imperial propaganda shots...

So while the Stompa went the way of all newly painted models, at least the Knights scored a massive kill on their debut by putting down the Stompa. We also realized what a poor matchup my Ork army is against Space Marines. I'd need a ton more Boyz, but I don't really feel like painting more figures. The list seems to match up much better against Imperial Guard... or in Rogue Trader games :-)

Anyway, it was fun and the fight for Rynn's World has been won by the forces of the Imperium. But I'm sure the Stompa will be back!