Monday 27 October 2014

A little bit of history... and background.

Occasionally I have dreams and aspirations of collating and organising all the background 'stuff' that has accumulated over the years in the 'Wargaming' folders on my computer, but inevitably something a bit less daunting becomes more... pressing. 

In the late 90's/early 2000's, the Wellington Warlords ran an ongoing 40k campaign (of many years worth) set in a place of their own creation, Sector Tiberius. 

One of the things that we would do before and after any tournament or campaign weekend would be to circulate battle reports in either short story format or a report by one of the various Inquisitor's that would be carrying out all sorts of Machiavellian plots behind the scenes.

Anyway... last night I was perusing the folders (again), and I found this and thought I would share it. It's some of the background that was written up for the Liber Animus tournament in 2007.




Kithrup - a planet in Sector Tiberius. Once a civilised planet famous throughout the sector as a seat of industry, agriculture and learning, now only famous for it’s twenty year struggle for control. Cities have been shattered, seas covered in poisonous scum, and even the atmosphere rendered unbreathable by a deadly cocktail of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Humans can’t live here, not for long, not without a sealed chem resistant suit to keep them safe from toxic poisoning. Even here, even in a place where humans can’t live, the Imperium still fights.

They fight to keep what was theirs. They fight to deny it to anyone else that would try and take it. They fight to give meaning to the sacrifices made by battle brothers. But mostly they fight out of sheer bloody-minded stubbornness.

However there are those that would look to defeat the forces of the Imperium. To subvert the gains made and drive the entire sector into a defenceless rabble.

And so it falls to another kind of warrior to fight another kind of war. Once it was written that the pen is mightier than the sword. This is still true in the 41st millennium. Now it’s the information war. Divining the enemy’s intent before they know it themselves can mean the difference between victory and defeat. This hidden secret war fought by intelligence staff across the sector is also fought by the Inquisition - for who amongst men is strong enough to delve into the mind of the Xenos and emerge unscathed?




The Inquisitorial HQ, 17th floor financial district. Formerly the offices of the planetary accountants for the Adeptus Administratum. Now a burned out chem-poisoned ruin, just like the rest of the city. Inside a temporary bubble seal the Inquisitor and his staff can work in the relative luxury of being unhelmeted in their chem-suits.

A scribe enters the protective dome and removes his helmet.

“Inquisitor - here are the reports that match your search parameters. Two confirmed contacts and two possible.”

+++++++++++++++++++Begin Report+++++++++++++++++++
Commit to: Imperial Record+++
+++EST 03/8567INQUISITORIS 8353/1453+++
+++Crossfile to: Aliens/Ultima Segmentum+++
+++Xenos/text: Necron+++
+++Input Date: 998.M41+++
+++Input Clearance: Inquisitor Rathborne+++
+++Authors: Ralamine, Langstri, Obelius+++
+++Thought for the Day: Blessed are the Ignorant+++

Cannoness Teresa du Cartho led a fighting patrol of the battle sisters form the Order of the Violaceous Heart. They were patrolling through the docklands sweeping down to the river to determine the extent of the Orkish holding, however they encountered Necron forces attempting to move some kind of artefact through the ruined docks. The courageous actions of the sisters prevented the Necrons from carrying out their schemes. The sisters were able to fight the Necrons to a standstill and when it became apparent that they would not be able to complete their plans the Necrons withdrew and took their artefact with them.

Inquisitor Maplethorp’s personal transport shuttle was forced to crash land in the ruins of hab block 12 grid 17. The Inquisitor and several of his retinue survived the crash. A fighting patrol of Raptor Marines led by Captain Kirok, responded to the Inquisitor’s distress call and arrived to recover the inquisitor and his party. The Inquisitor and his party had become separated during the crash and were being hunted through the ruined habs by a force of Necrons. The marines arrived just in time to prevent the Inquisitor and his party being killed or taken. While the marines rescued the Inquisitor several of his retinue were terminated to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. When the sector was finally cleared, the bodies of the Inquisitor’s retinue were able to be recovered. The inquisitor’s Penitent Witch was not recovered and no DNA traces were able to be detected. Officially listed as missing, the strong suspicion is that she was taken by the Necrons although for what purpose cannot be imagined.

Imperial Guard regimental head quarters had been out of contact for 6 hours. A party of Nordstadt Grenadiers made their way through the ruins to the secure bunker complex. They found the complex seal intact. The airlocks were overridden and the complex entered. The command staff were found ripped to pieced by attackers that had used edged or bladed weapons. Several of the command staff had their skins removed. Identification had to be by DNA trace.  The complex was searched thoroughly. Bioscanners detected no life signs of the intruders. Somehow, the intruders were able to penetrate a bio/chem sealed complex without breaking the seals, kill the entire command staff and their security detail with edged weapons. Apparently the intruders then left the complex without breaking the complex seals or leaving behind any detectable bio signature.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

He continued,

“We also have a report from an Adeptus Mechanicus unit intercepted via the secure channel. One of their units has made it all the way through the manufactorum habs to the river.”

The Inquisitor looked up, surprised.

“That’s well in advance of projections. Our intelligence reported that quadrant was teeming with Orks.”

“Yes sir,” the scribe replied, “Apparently it was. But by the time the Mechanicus unit got there, there were no living Orks. An entire Ork Warband had been cut to pieces. In line with standing orders the Ork carcasses have all been burned to prevent the spread of spores. Analysis of the trooper video feeds suggests energy weapons were used in the attacks. The wounds are far too clean for projectile weapons. However auspex bio scanners picked up no traces of any attackers.”

The Inquisitor stood, a puzzled look on his face.

“Who can take down an entire Ork Clan without heavy artillery and still get past the Imperial forces patrolling the sector.” he wondered aloud

“Maybe we could recruit them to serve the Imperium sir?” answered the scribe

The Inquisitor frowned, paused for a moment, then laughed – a short, mirthless bark.

“I don’t think we could offer the Necrons acceptable terms of employment...”


Sunday 26 October 2014

Armies on Parade... Wellington

I made the last minute decision to enter the Armies on Parade competition at the Wellington GW store.

Imagine my surprise as I picked up a Bronze (no snazzy baseboard, just some painted models...)! The other entries were quite visually striking by using mass numbers (nids) or height (chaos) which is, I know, very important, having read the odd White Dwarf or two and seen a few images online about it all.

Here's my entry (taken shots at home as the ones I took in store were rubbish, these slightly less so)
Inquisitor Hektor van Guren

Inquisitor and retinue and Chimera

Astra Militarum Veteran Squad

Grizzled Veteran

Veterans wheels... err... tracks

Space for a lie down
Inquisitor's bully boys

Anti-air support

Hellhound.... a favourite. Loved converting this model.

Randomness and a pie plate

Yes they are Rough Riders

Yes I know they don't have horses

Still got lances though

Close up... last thing my opponent will see!

Proof



Here's the winner... Loving in particular the very doomed Imperial Fist, and the scratchbuilt Malanthrope made out of a plastic Hive Tyrant amongst other bits and bobs.


'I can still win this...'







Second place Chaos... with a very cool Kholek Suneater conversion based on a lizardmen carnosaur and a beastmen ghorgon...




Raaaaarrrrrrggghh!!!

Just so you know... my two oldest voted for the Chaos entry... the little traito.. err... umm...

Well done my wee free thinking individuals :-)

Maybe I'll try harder for next time... Deathwatch anyone?

In the end my services were not needed for Vermintide today as another person dropped out to make it even numbers again (curses... Not just because that's a pain for Peter the TO but I was also looking forward to having a couple of games with the Cold One Bus).

So Sunday has been a family day, and you never know, I might start painting a Baneblade now that I am on a roll...

Thursday 23 October 2014

The 'Scud' Deathstrike finished!

This weekend I have put my name up to be a bye-buster at the Vermintide tournament on Sunday due to a last minute drop out.

So I may not be able to play a whole day of a tournament AND enter my army into Armies on Parade (as I will be armed with three children on the Saturday)... but we will see. It all comes down to if I can just drop it in and leave it or not really.

Regardless, except for a coat of varnish (to happen tomorrow morning), here is the Breslau Sturmjaeger 'Scud' Deathstrike Missile Launcher. Enemies of the Imperium be... a bit scared of its randomness!



Monday 20 October 2014

Militarum Tempestus squad finished!

Ok I have finished the first of my Militarum Tempestus units, including Taurox transport.




The plan is, still, assuming there is a place left, to enter into the Armies on Parade at GW Wellington this weekend. 

Because of the new rules, I no longer have to prepare a baseboard (although it would help) nor do they all have to be new models or even a legal army, so I can flesh it out with some of my older models.

I am imagining I would be able to display: 

Inq + Retinue in Chimera
Militarum Tempestus squad in Taurox
Veteran Squad in Chimera
Rough Riders
Hydra
Hellhound
... and with any luck the Deathstrike. I've only got 4 nights to do it...

If I can get the Deathstrike finished that would be 4 new units in two weeks which I am happy about.

Tuesday 14 October 2014

And we're straight into Militarum Tempestus...

I have plans for two Militarum Tempestus forces - one that compliments my existing Astra Militarum force using metal Kasrkin models, the other using the spunky new plastic Militarum Tempestus plastic models, because they are... lovely. 

<cough>

Sorry, I mean Grim and Dark and stuff.

The plastic MT models will be used as an ally for my Inquisition force, so I have quickly whipped up a test model.




I can go through the colours if anyone is interested, with the proviso too that it hasn't had a coat or two of varnish yet so that will flatten out the highlights. 

And here's some with my main non-Coteaz Inquisitor and a couple of the retinue. Should fit in ok I hope. I'll probably do 5 and wish I'd painted them black or something...



Anyway - thoughts/comments/discussion appreciated!

Monday 13 October 2014

Finished Rough Riders!

Apart from a couple of coats of varnish that is... maybe tomorrow! 






They better be good.

My wife tells me a tank is next.

Saturday 11 October 2014

I have not been idle...

Yes I know there has been some radio silence... but I have actually been... busy.

I popped into GW the other day (my birthday in fact) and spied the Armies on Display competition that's on the 25th October.

2 weeks.

I still haven't finished the Rough Riders.

And now there's all this undercoated stuff on my table.
Stuff (including 60+% Rough Riders)

More stuff with infantry


I did try out my new airbrush + compressor this afternoon. Fantastic. Made basecoating the tanks so much easier.

I'll know by the end of the coming week whether I will be able to make any sort of target. But at least this is giving me a bit of a shove on the painting front!

Oh... and the models are:
1x Hellhammer/Baneblade (either or)
LR Exterminator
Converted Deathstrike
2x Taurox Prime
AM Veteran Squad with Grenadier upgrade
Militarum Tempestus HQ
Militarum Tempestus Squad

And out of shot: Leman Russ


Wednesday 1 October 2014

Rough Riders... another update

It's funny when you're out of practice painting, but in your head you're imagining - stupidly - you've still got the quickness (and steadiness) - actually just mostly the speed - that constant painting brings.


WIP... Drybrushing done... detail to come

There is a stupid amount of fiddly detail on these bikes and their riders... grr.

Glad I started now and not closer to November!