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! 

30k Rogue Trader Battle Report

Anti-Horus terrorists strike! The travails of the Horus Heresy...

As noted in our previous posting here on the blog, our great friend Curt was in town for a short visit over the Easter long weekend.  We staged an Epic 30k game that saw Byron's newly painted Death Guard get their first taste of action on the gaming table. The game was great fun, another opportunity to enjoy a great game in a great setting with some excellent friends! But the gaming wasn't finished - Curt was back briefly on Easter Monday before he and Sarah had to return to Regina, so we had a chance to push the toy soldiers around the table one more time!

The poor Sons of Horus column has been hit by vile so-called "Loyalists"...what will happen next?

Curt and I really enjoy the 30k setting, and we also have great memories of Rogue Trader, the original rules for 28mm sci-fi skirmishing from Games Workshop. So I thought I would set up a little Rogue Trader game set in 30k for Curt and I to play that night.

Survivors of an Astrates-sized IED...probable some vile thing devised by the Mechanicum...

Sons of Horus Chaplain prepares to lead the Scribe (hidden among the Marines) to safety, no matter how pissed he is that some Loyalist dopes blew up his ride...

While the current edition of the 28mm 30k/40k game really tries to be a mass-battle game (and hey - it looks like GW will try again...let's reserve comments on that for another time...) but what is so fun about Rogue Trader is that a very small force can offer a very engaging game. That is what I hoped to set up for Curt. An extra twist - I set the game up to be cooperative, where Curt and I would play on the same side against random actions by the opponent.

The Raven Guard move out, keen to get some measure of revenge...oh, and defend the Emperor, I guess...

The scenario envisioned an ambush by Raven Guard Marines against a Sons of Horus armoured column, on an un-named, but presumably somewhat road-to-Terra-adjacent planet.  As keen followers of the setting will know, the Raven Guard were one of the Legions trapped in the "Dropsite Massacre".  But Horus couldn't kill ALL the loyalists...some Raven Guard survived, joined isolated garrison units etc. to fight on as a so-called "Shattered Legion" - fun and entertaining for a scenario, part of why I love 30k so much...

The Raven Guard move in to mop up...

Horus' own Legion goes down fighting in close assault!

So for this game, we imagined a detachment from the "Shattered Legion" of the Raven Guard landing on some planet to cause some trouble for the Sons of Horus.  The Warmaster's XVI Legion happened to be transporting a high-value persona - represented by Curt's wonderful tribute figure painted for me during the 2015-16 Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - and they are ambushed by a small force of vengeful troops from the XIX Legion, the Raven Guard.   The numbers of figures on each side were small - 20 Raven Guard tactical Marines, with a high-ranking hero to lead them (probably a bitter survivor of the, er, "incident" on Isstvan V) and 15 Sons of Horus with the Scribe, who fought only with the goal of getting the Scribe off of one of the long table edges, and dying properly for the Warmaster, humanity's last hope...overall, this would be almost nothing for a 7th edition game, but plenty of models for a Rogue Trader game.

Curt and I each took command of some Raven Guard...

The Chaplain plots the escape...

The Raven Guard have other ideas...

The game opens with all of the vehicles already knocked out by cunning IED-type devices placed by the Raven Guard force.  The Sons of Horus realize they are being attacked by pro-"Emperor" terrorists, and try to organize an escape for the Scribe (he has important information the Warmaster needs to have his dark Mechanicum allies drain from his skull, uh, "preserve"...yes, that's it) while the Raven Guard move in to capture the Scribe, get a little revenge for events on Isstvan V, and escape before the heavy reinforcements from the Sons of Horus arrive...

Meanwhile, a point-blank gun battle develops...I love Rogue Trader...+1 to hit at this range! Suck it, Warmaster!

So Curt and I played some basic Rogue Trader as the Loyalist side, with the Sons of Horus moving randomly against us.  Our goal was to capture what Dave V would have referred to as "The Potato" - the Scribe - and kill a bunch of Horus' lads in the process!

On this night the Loyalists were successful. They slaughtered the Sons of Horus down to the last Marine, and captured the Scribe for their own purposes.  They paid a high price (about 50% casualties), but given their level of motivation, I've no doubt these Sons of Corax were pleased to have delivered a small counter-blow against the followers of the Warmaster.

Loyalists...so fixated on anger...if they would just chill, this whole Heresy wouldn't have needed to kill billions...but anyway....

Things end poorly for this acolyte of Horus...

The Sons of Corax achieve a measure of revenge...but the memory of Isstvan V will endure...

In all the game lasted about an hour-and-a-half.  It was basic, not-too-detailed, but tons of fun. I just love Rogue Trader, and I love 30k, and the two work well together.  Is Rogue Trader flawless? Well, or course not...the more narrative you can be, the better the game will be. And with Rogue Trader, less is more - in this game, everyone was carrying bolt guns other than the officers.  But it can still be a lot of fun, and I hope to run a variant of this scenario sometime for the broader Fawcett Avenue group!

It was great to have this little bit of fun with my great friend Curt. Until next time! Horus for Hope!

30k Battle Report - Drop Site Party on Istvaan V!

It's time for a change! The XII Legion readies to finish off the dupes of the false "emperor"

Over the past couple of months I have been painting up some Raven Guard for further 30k mayhem on the table.  It's not a very big force at this stage - about 40 figures, no vehicles or dreadnoughts.  Not quite enough for a game of 30k under the current rules, but I was really keen to get them out on the table for an initial bloodletting.  So we decided to play some old-school Rogue Trader instead!  Dallas was kind enough to host the game two weeks ago, and set up a table for us.

Sons of Horus heavy support squad - locked and loaded

XVI Legion moves into a blocking position

The scenario was set on Istvaan V - home to the infamous "drop site massacre".  So you already know up front how this was going to end for the Raven Guard...the scenario featured the small Raven Guard force - two 10-man tactical squads, a 5-man support squad with autocannons, and a Preator and some bodyguard and command figures.  They realize they have been betrayed, and as their Legion brothers are massacred around them, this group looking to break out and escape into the hills.  They were trapped by a mix of Sons of Horus and World Eaters.  The Raven Guard would start in the middle of the 6' x 4' table, and their objective was to exit as many Marines as possible off of either short table edge, representing survivors who would head off into the hills and begin the guerrilla campaign against Horus.

Raven Guard survivors gather around a crashed shuttle, and prepare to make a break for it

XII Legion tactical troops take up a blocking position

It would not be easy. The traitors outnumbered the Loyalists almost 2-1, and featured a number of daunting weapons, including a support squad with five heavy bolters, another support squad with five multi-meltas (!) and a support squad with 10 volkite calivers! I tried to set expectations for the Loyalist players accordingly, reminding them the battle was known as the "drop site massacre", not the "drop site stalemate" or "drop site surprise win"...

Some heavy support for the World Eaters

Raven Guard heavy support lines up on some targets

Conscripts Dave and Dallas played the Raven Guard, while Indo and Mike F. took command of the enlightened followers of Horus. And as I said, we used the trusty old Rogue Trader game engine, but I did make a few adjustments - the toughness of the marines was increased to "4" from "3", and the basic save of Marine power armour was increased to "3+" from "4+".  Basically, we were just reflecting the "current" stat values of the marines in the old game.

Praetor prepares to confront XII Legion command

Covering fire! Autocannons try and buy time for the Raven Guard escape

And so the "drop site massacre" was on! The Raven Guard opted to break en-mass towards the World Eaters, wary of the heavy bolter squad from the Sons of Horus (remember, in Rogue Trader, heavy bolters are "following fire"...). Dave and Dallas used their autocannons for covering fire. Dave's Raven Guard Praetor led his command group into a direct confrontation with Indo's World Eaters Centurion and a smash-down featuring duelling veterans, standard bearers and leaders ensued.

A pitched battle, there is no mercy...

The Centurion for the World Eaters takes a lot of wounds, too many for the medic to do anything about...

Indo's multi melta vapourized a number of Raven Guard troops, and the Sons of Horus (although pleased to let Angron's clowns bear the brunt of the fighting) picked off a number of the retreating Raven Guard.  Mike F had a bit of a rough outing with the heavy bolters, so they were not as devastating as I expected them to be, but Dave and Dallas were also careful to avoid them to the extent they could...

Dallas' tactical squads make a break for it, led by the Company Champion

The Sons of Horus mop up...ouch...

The Raven Guard commander and his entire retinue fell heroically in combat, although not without killing nearly all of the World Eaters' command (the surviving standard bearer would be in for a promotion, assuming Angron wouldn't get mad at him for some random reason and kill him too).  The Raven Guard heavy support troops also fell, although not before taking several traitors with them.

The close assault between command groups grinds on...

With only one survivor when it's all over...

Dallas lost one whole tactical squad in the fighting retreat - many to Sons of Horus bolters and heavy bolters.  But his second squad managed to (mostly) skirt the ominous multi-meltas of the World Eaters and slammed into a World Eaters tactical squad blocking their escape.  Over several turns of tough close fighting (remember, you could use your pistols in close combat with Rogue Trader), the Raven Guard punched their way through...by the time we called the game, eight Raven Guard (out of a starting force of 31) escaped.  I assured Dallas this was a decent outcome, and his survivors now represented like 20% of the Legion's active combat strength...they would head for the hills, join their surviving Primarch, and wage a dark and difficult guerrilla war against their betrayers...

Crash! Dallas' tactical troops look to break through...

I just love Rogue Trader, warts and all, and it was a lot of fun.  The guys approached with the proper spirit - particularly Dallas and Dave, looking to take as many traitors down as possible.  While this game would have been a very, very small game by the current standards of the rules, in Rogue Trader this was actually a very, very big game, and we managed to get it done.  Looking back, I should have increased the movement of all of the marines to 6" from 4" just to speed things up a bit.  But overall, I loved it.  I particularly like how the close combat is generally a grind, particularly between two evenly matched opponents.  Even the more heroic figures - the Preator and the Centurion - didn't just automatically kill everything they touched.  It was a great fight.

The Raven Guard overwhelm Angron's troops to make their escape...or, some of them do, at any rate

Thanks to the guys for playing - great for the Raven Guard to get their first game in! Big thanks to Dallas for hosting - and for putting the table and terrain together! I do really need to get some more vehicles painted, but one thing at a time...

The Four Horsemen

 Well they were given the grapes that go ripe in the sun
That loosen the screws at the back of the tongue
But they told no one where they had begun - the four horsemen!

 I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come and see!” I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. 

( Revelation 6:1-2)

 When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come and see!” Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword. 

( Revelation 6:3-4)

 When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”  

(Revelation 6:5-6)

When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come and see!” I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine, and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. 

 (Revelation 6:7-8)

Here's a project that sat on my painting desk for a loooong time before I finally put the boots to it and got it done.

A couple years ago (!) I was at the FLGS looking through a bits box, and found four Chaos Renegade torsos, from the old Citadel "Mounted Renegades" set. I thought these were super-cool and instantly thought "the four horsemen of the Apocalypse!"  I was also in the process of accumulating old school Chaos Space Marines for a Rogue Trader warband of some kind, and thought these would fit well.

What to use for mounts? Well, I'd been working on the Renegade Cavalry at the time and had originally bought Warhammer Fantasy Chaos Marauder horses for them. However, those horses were a bit *too* Chaos-like for the Renegade Cavalry, who after all are just supposed to be Guardsmen torqued about 30 degrees Chaos-ward, not full on raving loonies of the Chaos Gods. So those horses were set aside in favour of regular Pistolier horses. But the Marauder horses seemed to fit perfectly for this project, so I used them.

Legs were another challenge, since the Chaos riders came as torsos only and I had but one set of proper legs in the bits box. Chaos Marauder Horsemen to the rescue again; I used those legs with some mild greenstuff work to fit the metal torsos. Et voila, as they say - conversion complete.

So they sat on my desk, unpainted, for over a year, until this week. I based the paint schemes on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and incidentally, on the four Chaos Powers.

On the white horse we have Conquest/Pestilence. Nurgle, obviously. The red horse bears War, the representation of the Blood God, Khorne. Famine was tougher. But being the God of Pleasure, and therefore of starving supermodels, Slaanesh gets the nod. This leaves Death on his pale horse - Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways. Done!

Now, to get to the rest of that warband...

Painting Challenge Theme Submission - "Nostalgia"

Rogue-Trader era members of the "Imperial Army"

Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge features a very, very wide variety of participants and painting submissions.  To spice things up, Curt has also set up some "Theme Rounds", where the participants are encouraged to submit something in line with a particular theme.  You score a few bonus points, and the submissions are pretty interesting - and participants have in the past made some pretty liberal interpretations of the themes in question (a particular spider will live in infamy, but I digress...)

I have mostly ignored these Theme Rounds, not because they are bad, but because I am bad at being ready for them, and efforts on my part to try and prepare just derail what I was already trying to work on.  Best to ignore the trouble...but the first round up this year was "Nostalgia", and I had two figures that fit perfectly...

Proper lead figures, the way wargames figures are SUPPOSED to be made...

I'm in a big sci-fi groove (or "rut", perhaps) and with that in mind, "Nostalgia", to me, brings to mind Rogue Trader.  This theme rounds was a great chance to paint a couple more old timey Imperial troops for my Rogue Trader-era Imperial Guard. Or, more correctly, "Imperial Army".

Love that old flak armour...

The fellow with the "non-regulation" hair is "Trooper Brock", first seen in 1988(!).  He is carrying an autogun, the assault rifle of choice in the 40th millenium. 

The other fellow is a gun crew commander, seen with Thudd Guns, Rapiers, Mole Mortars etc.  Same era - 1988.

"Welcome to the Imperial Guard, dude..."

Both sport the distinctive "Imperial Army" flak armour of the old, early Rogue Trader era.  They were fun to paint, and should fit in well with the RT-era gang.  Although Brock is going to stand out from his more regulation oriented colleagues...at least he still has his helmet handy in case the Commissars show up...

The next theme round is "Epic Fail" - sounds perfectly named for my theme round efforts...we'll see if I manage anything for it...

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...

Horus Heresy Painting - IXth Legion "Blood Drinkers"

Command Squad

Earlier this Spring, I decided to start a 30K/Horus Heresy project to join in the big game planned for later this summer. Not that 2,000 points of Space Marines is gonna make a huge difference in a game with multiple Reaver Titans, Knight Titans, and super-heavy tanks, but there has to be some crunchies around to get plastered by "D" weapons, right? ;-)

The first thing I had to do was settle on a Legion. It had to be Loyalist - mainly to offset the massive Traitor forces that Conscripts Greg and Byron have been amassing, and to better fit in with my Legio Metalica Reaver Titan and Loyalist Imperial Knight. And it had to be a colour scheme that I hadn't done before on an "army" scale. I've discussed this more in depth in my post on the test model, but suffice to say I settled on the Blood Angels Legion (the IXth) for a colour scheme, and focused on a particular military organization within the Legion - the Blood Drinkers (later to become a successor Chapter, of course).

Anyway, I'd been accumulating more Rogue Trader-era metal Space Marines (mostly in MKVI armour that came into use toward the end of the Heresy) for an undetermined project, and it seemed like a good idea to reassign those assets to this one. I'd also picked up a lot of RTB-01 plastic "beakies" (also MKVI armour) in various states of repair, and those had their paint stripped ready for reassembly and painting.

I also picked up the MKII "Command Set" from Forgeworld. Fortunately, these new resin models scale pretty well with the old MKII metal Marines that I have in the collection. For example, in the first picture above, the middle two models are Forgeworld, and the two on the ends are old metal MKII bodies with Forgeworld resin MKII shoulderpads, backpacks, and Phobos pattern bolters. Games Workshop itself produced "Armour Variant" models in MKI-V armours, typically with metal bodies and separate arms, pads, weapons and backpacks. In fact, you can still buy Finecast versions of these models here, although they're usually readily available in metal form on eBay.

MKII Command set from Forgeworld. Banner deco is decals, except for the numerals which are hand-painted

How about this Rapier! Old-school metal with MKVI crew

I wanted to include a Rapier in the list just for fun. My preference was to use an old metal model to better suit the character of the list - plus I already had some Marines in the collection that would serve well as crew. So a model was obtained from an eBay seller, painted and weathered. It'll serve as the "laser destroyer" Rapier variant.

Heavy weapon squad - per 30K doctrine, all armed identically, in this case with conversion beamers

The heavy weapons squad is identically armed with Conversion Beamers. I like using these as the weapons because they can reasonably proxy for just about any other heavy weapon, from lascannons to plasma cannons, except maybe missile launchers. The Marines and weapons are all metal from the RT era, of course.

Veteran squad - composed entirely of Marines in MKII-V armour variants

The 10-man Veteran squad are equipped exclusively with early-mark armour variants. They're also all either one-piece metal figures or metal bodies with resin or plastic arms. They also have backpacks appropriate to the armour type, and figures with separate weapons have Phobos bolters. I obtained the bolters and backpacks as pieces from eBay sellers who specialize in that.

MKV - "Heresy" armour - distinguishable by studded plating

Another MKV suit

Converted one-piece metal MKII. Replaced sword in left hand with a bolt pistol

MKIV with metal body and plastic arms - Phobos pattern bolter

MKIV showing pauldron decoration

MKII in its original form with sword

Another view - this is one of my favorite models!

Tactical Marines

The Tactical Squads are RT metal models with a few RTB-01 plastics mixed in. I've converted a few of the metal models for variety and to suit my aesthetic.

Another conversion - hand flamer out, Umbra pattern bolter in

RTB-01 converted a bit - I used the "bolt pistol" right arm to brace the bolter in a firing pose

There's several of these Marines with Terminator honours in the group - I cut off the ridiculous blade attached to the bolter

Artificer Armour

The "army" thus far

Well, that's the Blood Drinkers as they stand right now. I also have a metal Terminator Squad in Blood Angels livery I'd painted for Space Hulk a few years ago, that can easily slot into this force. Future plans include a 10-man assault squad (just waiting on jump packs from MaxMini), a metal Landspeeder currently in primer, two Rhinos (Chapterhouse conversion bits on the way), a Land Raider (ditto), aaaaand... a massive Spartan Assault Tank now on my painting desk awaiting assembly. Heresy escalation is a thing, you know ;-)

Anyway, it's been great fun accumulating and painting these models and I'm looking forward to adding the vehicles. I hope you enjoyed reading about the army - look for them in a battle report very soon!