Rogue Trader Campaign Prep 1

I am pleased to say that I am planning to run a Rogue Trader/Second Edition/Necromunda campaign for my partner and I in the near future! She loves Genestealers so inevitably they will be involved somewhere in the narrative (and my growing cult will be expanded further to facilitate this)...along with some other special models I have acquired!!

However every campaign needs it's protagonists and in this case it will be my girlfriend's alter-ego, the powerful Inquisitor Athena of the Emperor's Holy Ordos. Despite her potency an inquisitor alone would not stand much of a chance against the enemies of the Imperium, and so she will need a force of warriors to command in order to thwart the machinations of evil.

Normally Athena uses her Inquisitorial Authority to commandeer a selection of Space Marines to aid her in her purges but in this case I want the campaign to escalate progressively. After all the Astartes are the Emperor's elite force, designed and equipped to face the greatest foes of humanity...in fact there is less than one space marine for every world in the Imperium. Despite their elite and rare status they seem to be a common force that crop with amazing regularity, from suppressing mild incursions of rebels to saving Mrs Miggins kitty-cat from up a tree. With this in mind I decided that for this campaign the inquisitor should (initially) have a selection of slightly more standard troops to support her endeavours... So instead of starting a new force from scratch I dug out a squad of Imperial storm troopers that I painted over a decade ago... I then adapted their colour scheme (after all...in the intervening period Citadel have completely changed their paint range) in order to further expand the force with five unpainted storm troopers from my Bitz box:

A new squad of Inquisitorial Storm Troopers painted up for my impending campaign

I think they came out pretty well, ready to smite the foes of the Inquisition with powerful volleys of laser fire. I love these old metal Kasrkin/Storm Trooper models, they are such great sculpts and with their menacing visors they really fit the image of faceless Inquisitorial heavies. 

Fratricide...40k Second Edition

After a rather fabulous long weekend away with the other half and our friends I was lucky enough to squeeze in a quick game of second edition 40k this morning! Two games in a week....I'm spoiled! Today my opponent was my long time best mate who has been collecting 40k since we were housemates together many years ago. Unusually one of his annual leave days luckily coincided with one of mine... A rare occurrence indeed ... And so we decided to run an impromptu battle in the Dark Millennium to celebrate this monumental occasion!

This time the armies involved in the fighting were my Crimson Fists Astartes versus his Black Templars...as both these venerable Chapters descend from the Imperial Fists Legion this was set to be a very close fratricidal feud! Finally we would find out who the most resolute Sons of Rogal Dorn really are.

We drew our mission cards, the Templars being tasked with 'Take and Hold' whilst my own Crimson Fists had been given an 'Engage and Destroy' Mission. In short this meant that my opponent needed to seize and dominate an objective in the centre of the table whilst I needed to kill as many of his warriors as possible...brutal stuff!

The randomly drawn mission cards allocated to the forces in this engagement

In this battle each of the Imperial Fist's successor chapters fielded three full tactical squads, a demi-squad of assault marines and a Predator tank under the overall command of a veteran Space Marine Captain.

Strike Force Francisco - 2nd Company, Crimson Fists

St Valentine's Massacre

First off let me start with a sincere apology for my prolonged absence of late! I have embarked upon a large hobby project that is sucking out a lot of my time and the results are slow to say the least...hence the lack of recent posts! However let me assure you that when this project is done there will be a full, in-depth post and it will almost certainly be worth the wait!!

In the meantime my dedicated girlfriend has treated me to a Valentine's game of second edition 40k.... Truly there can be no greater expression of love!

I kept the game deliberately small for two reasons, firstly I was going to use a new army that I haven't fielded in second edition before (Iron Warriors from Codex Chaos) so I wanted to learn their nuances gradually...and secondly because I didn't want the game to take too long.

As per usual we drew the cards for our missions, my girlfriend drew 'Engage and Destroy' meaning she would need to kill a vast number of enemy units to gain victory points, whilst I drew 'Take and Hold' which required me to seize and defend an objective in the middle of the battlefield.

Ubiquitous Second Edition Mission Cards at a degree of randomness and purpose to each game.

My girlfriend took command of a small detachment of noble Crimson Fists with an eclectic mix of troop types:

Imperial Forces: Crimson Fists Space Marines (NB an additional 5 man combat squad was added to this force)

Whilst my force consisted of the grim forces of The Iron Warriors, let by a Chaos Lord and an Icon Bearer with the blasted standard of Tzeentch... Both of whom were clad in tactical dreadnought armour.

Chaos Forces: Iron Warriors Traitor Space Marines

Rogue Trader Devastators (Horus Heresy Salamanders)

After a busy weekend of hobby activity I have managed to finish off another heavy weapons squad for my Rogue Trader / Horus Heresy Salamanders.

These models are all the mono-pose heavy bolter marines that were released in 1988, I have tried to overcome this high level of repetition by giving each marine individual markings/heraldry for a little variation.

This squad came about due to my decision to re-structure my Salamanders in order to make a force that is legal to play in games of Horus Heresy (aka 30k). In this variation of the rules Heavy Support squads can be up to ten men strong, but everyone (that's right all ten) are required to carry the same weapon system, additionally tactical squads can only have bolters...no heavy weapons specialists! As such I have broken up my old devastator squads (who were equipped with mixed weapons) and am now gradually painting sufficient reinforcements to create a number of new five man units. You'll also notice that in these rules the squad sergeant carries the same weapon system as his troops, hence why the sergeant above (with authentic Rogue Trader rank chevrons) is also packing a heavy bolter.

Every trooper in this squad has the RT symbol for a heavy bolter operator (cross-hair in a circle) painted somewhere on their power armour, adding a sense of coherency to the unit, and tying them in nicely with their retro heritage.

In order to add a bit of variation I filed the studs off the sergeant's left shoulder pad, giving me another blank surface to add some heraldry to. I used this  new canvas to paint the old RT symbol for a devastator (the bright yellow sunburst) surmounted by the more modern broken triangle.

Overall it took me a weekend to knock up this squad and I am more than happy with the results, they will fit in nicely with my growing force of 1980s marines. Next up will be a five man missile launcher squad. Watch this space!

Second Edition 40k Battle Report

Having created a few posts recently that have been slightly more modern than my usual Oldhammer vibe I have decided to go back to basics with a proper Old School Battle Report. This was a quick game played with my usual opponent (my wonderful girlfriend) using second edition 40k rules.

In order to really bring out the 1990s feel I left my modern buildings in the terrain box and instead littered the green battle mad with 21 year old card ruins and lichen (I love lichen), the battle field was roughly 5x3 foot.