Deathwatch Squad Crull (Part 1)

Sgt Crull.

Squad Crull, the second squad of Deathwatch Veterans to join my Deathwatch force, comes straight from the Death Masque boxed set. I decided to build these guys exactly as they were kitted out in the Forces Of The Deathwatch section of the Death Masque booklet. Squad Crull is part of the Watch Force Artemis Formation found in that booklet. It's not that I have any desire to go back to 7th Edition to play through this scenario, but rather that I was lazy and indecisive about how to load these guys out

Basecoats.

 Sgt. Crull is interesting due to his Xenos Phase Sword.  I thought it would be pretty easy to paint  but I found it to be a bit more challenging than I assumed it would be. 

Mid-coats mostly done.

I painted the grooves white and then I applied Tesseract Glow. I added at least two layers of it to really get the day glow effect to kick. With a few minor touch-ups the sword was done, and I was happy with the results. 

Finished miniature.

I finished the model fairly quickly after that using the steps I have been using on my other Deathwatch models. Only the cables on the right arm were left unfinished as I want to them with the rest of the squad. And I hope to get the rest of Squad Crull done sooner than later! 

Sgt. Crull, ready to purge xenos scum!

The White Squat (Art Monday)

 Welcome back to Art Monday. 

This is another Squat image that was published in Inquisitor Magazine #15 for their Squat army list issue. This one was featured in the front of the article. I was fairly pleased with it. The pose of this guy is similar to the classic pose of the White Dwarf from White Dwarf #90. 

Ye Goode Olde days. 

Now, I didn't have this image as reference, as I have never owned this issue, but I remembered it fondly. If I had, the right hand on my image might've been a bit less awkward in the final execution. But I do have the plastic Heroquest Dwarf which was based off of the WD #90 cover. 

Heroquest Dwarf. (Image snatched from Redit.) 

Anyway I think I captured the vibe of it. My guy's power axe was based on the traditional Rogue Trader era design that I think is very interesting and fun to draw. Heck, all of the Squat drawings were fun to do, they are a very enjoyable range of miniatures to draw and it is a total shame that they were abandoned the way they were. 

Hearthguard with Meltagun (Art Monday)

 

It's Art Monday time again. 

This is another Squat drawn for intended use for Inquisitor Magazine's featured Squat army list that was published in issue #15. But it didn't make the cut. It's a shame because I really liked this one. It was the smallest drawing I sent in with that batch but I think I crammed a lot in this one despite that size restriction. 

Termagant fun! (Part 1)

 After painting the dead tyranids (or, um,  parts thereof) for my Deathwatch Venerable Dreadnought, I had the itch to paint a few more nids.  Maybe I just needed a break from painting black armor?

I looked at what I had here in Unicoi and found that I had a single 5 figure box of Termagants that I bought a few years ago.  If I recall correctly I was considering doing some nids for an older edition of Kill Team. But I never made it past the acquisition step.

. 

In fact I just opened the box! 

These are the "cheap" $10 ones. Actually, I am not sure if these are even produced any longer... Anyway, they are intended to be push-fit, easy build, snap-together models. On a few of them I found the pegs to be a bit problematic so I clipped them off with sprue clippers. With just a little bit of time spent on them, I was done with their assembly. 

Assembled and ready to serve the Hivemind!

Checking the rules it would seem that I need at least five more miniatures to make this a legal unit to play with. I immediately was on the look out for more but after fruitless online searches attempting to get another "cheap" set, I settled on the Termagant Brood set from my local Hobbytown U.S.A. 

How many box variations has this set had?

These are a way more interesting kit to put together in that there are gun options and you can swivel their heads. Exciting dynamics for sure. Also there are some biomorph options, however the kit doesn't explain what these are supposed to be. And neither does the box. I don't have the current Tyranid Codex so that's not a resource I have on hand either.

What are these specific biomorphs? 

It's a mystery to me. Perhaps when I find a few moments between dealing with the new baby, handling my 6 year old online schooler, working and drawing, maybe, just maybe, I can locate a spare moment to research the older Codex Tyranid editions (i suspect the answer I seek might be in the 4th edition Codex or a supporting White Dwarf article from around that time). Unless some kind reader could help a guy out and reply in the comments? 

Anyway, here is the full squad of 10 Termagants with Fleshborers. I need to flock their bases and prime them, and then I can start working out their color scheme. They're different enough from the 2nd edition miniature that I used on the Deathwatch Venerable Dreadnought that I may have to rethink how I pull that off. Regardless I want them to be close to how my old school Genestealers are schemed. Stay tuned for that post! 

Harlequin vs. Squats (Art Monday)

 Greetings, sorry about missing Art Monday these past few weeks, life* happens. Anyway, here's a piece I got kick out of creating way back in the mid '90s.  

I love a good action scene and I really wanted to show an Eldar Harlequin in action. This was submitted to Inquisitor Magazine but was not used. Despite my liking of the figures in it, I think the piece doesn't work how I hoped it would have. I blame the holofield effect I was going for and the lack of contrast on the image. If I were to take another stab at this I would probably half-tone the bricks in the background to help the foreground characters 'pop'.  I think Tim at Inquisitor Magazine saw this too when he passed it by. Or maybe he thought it was too violent? 

I started in this hobby back in '89 and the Harlequins only had the list that appeared in White Dwarf (#105?). And in that edition they were combat monsters and a single one was definitely capable of wading through a unit of Squats with little fear of them. They were nerfed in 2nd edition and marginalized in every edition after that until they became a true army in 7th Edition. But I fondly remember their formative years, and I hope this piece captures an aspect of that time. 

*My 2nd child was born on 11/28; it's been a busy past few weeks! 

Review: Harlequin

Original mass market edition.

 This is a review of the 1st edition of Ian Watson's Harlequin.  The first edition was published by Boxtree in 1994. It was republished by Black Library around 2000-2001, but with editorial changes that were not approved by the author.  I am reviewing here the original edition. This is a sequel to the more renowned Inquisitor and Space Marine novels. 

This is the book that is probably the most notorious of Ian Watson's Warhammer 40,000 novels. I will elucidate more fully in the spoilers section, but first let me sum up what this story is about. 

This picks up 100 years after the end of the previous book. It starts off with a scene showing us that the internal secret civil war between Inquisitors is indeed taking place. We see the Inquisitor Firenze is still alive and well, but remembering nothing of his previous life having been mindscrubbed to the extent that he had to be retrained to be an Inquisitor. All this was after which he was implicated for his role in the purging of Stalinvast for which Jaq Draco has been branded a renegade. 

We then discover that Jaq Draco, Meh'lindi and Google are waking up after a self imposed stasis sleep aboard their vessel which they left a drift in the middle of nowhere space. There is a brief flashback that tells us that their Squat companion Grim was separated from them as they escaped from the Imperial Palace on Holy Terra. They decided to go into stasis for awhile in the hopes that everything would blow over. 

Silly Draco, in the 41st millennium nothing just "blows over"...

SPOILERS AHEAD! 

Draco, Meh'lindi and Google are woken up in their ship, the Tormentum Malorum, and go to the first place his Emperor's Tarot directs him to go, Luxus Prime.  It's a planet that is going through a civil war with the anti-establishment side being Slaaneshi cultists. (You know, because Ian Watson). Googol Vitali,  the Navigator, during his 100 year stasis sleep apparently dreamt about Slishy the Daemonette whom they encountered in part of a ragtag renegade warband in the Eye Of Terror (in the first book) and he is not in a good place. He has become ultra-creepy. Clearly he is compromised and Jaq is eager to replace him and acquire an Astropath. He does what he does best, and that's to approach the local Governor,  a debauched creep called Lagnost,  and use his Inquisitor station to try to get one of the Governor's Astropaths and a Navigator. It turns out that the Slaaneshi Cultist have made a point of killing any Navigator and Astropath they could find so as to keep word of their uprising from reaching anyone off world.

Agreeing to assist the Governor in eliminating the Slaaneshi Cultists Draco, Meh'lindi and Googol head back out into the warzone. Googol has really lost his marbles by this point, so much so that his yearning to find Slishy resulted in the materializatuon of a Daemonette that killed Googol by ramming her tail up and into his bowels. Eew. Also consider that this a Rogue Trader-era Daemonette too, the kind usually depicted with the feathery tails. It was a unique demise. Jaq wasn't fast enough in banishing the daemon back to the warp and Googol died in apparent bliss. 

Pretty much the next thing that happens is that a group of Squats showed up led by Grim the Squat. Jaq joins the reader in expressing his disbelief at the coincidence and convenience of this happening. They're in the middle of warzone, he and the rest of his entourage have been in stasis sleep for a hundred years, they were directed there by their tarot, and the galaxy is a seriously big place. How the heck did Grim find himself here?  Apparently Grim was hoping to reconnect with his old boss and choose the planet closest to the area of space he knew Draco was hiding out in. Crazy odds, yes?

Grim's recanting of the past one hundred years was actually fairly entertaining, particularly that he was married and had a whole life time to live before he knew he had to find Draco. Grim knows where there is a Navigator and they go and retrieve Azul Petrov before heading back to the Governor's palace. 

The Governor is now being very unfriendly at this point and Jaq sees no alternative but to kill him. It's an interesting scene, which results in Jaq taking the Governor's Astropath, Fenix, and leaving Luxus Prime to it's fate.  Fenix spends the next few weeks listening and deciphering the astropathic traffic and learns about the Inquisition's civil war between the Ordo Malleus and another unknown group whom we can surmise is the Ordo Hydra. Of particular note is that Inquisitor Firenze, Draco's old Proctor, is leading a force to stop a ritual that the Eldar are attempting to perform over the ruined world of Stalinvast.  Fenix also intercepts chatter of a renegade master of assassins,  Tarik Ziz, performing bizarre experiments on the planet Darvash. It was Tarik Ziz that performed the procedure that made it so the Meh'lindi could only turn into a Genestealer Hybrid when using polymorphine. She would very much like to kill him.

After discovering that their supply of truth serum has been disposed of, Meh'lindi and Jaq decide to interrogate Grim, because they just can't help but be suspicious of him. Turns out he has been in contact with The Harlequin Man Zephro Carnelian, who was their nemesis in the previous book. Grim goes on to inform them about the Illuminati (Inquisitors who have survived demonic possession) the divide between them and the Ordo Hydra and the crazy plot to gather up the Sensei who are the immortal sons of the Emperor in a plot to reawaken the Emperor into the Nu-Man* Grim points out the Illuminati are being assisted by the Eldar in the hopes that they can work together to defeat Chaos. Somehow Jaq buys all this and they free Grim.

They come up with a crazy plot to kill Tarik Ziz, and by the time they do reach him they discover that he is encased in a suit of Dreadnought armor. It turns out that he is more than willing to reverse Meh'lindi's augmentation, and after he does so (yeah, he performs surgery on her while in the Dreadnought suit. Honestly, I think this is the character I most want to see GW make a model of! The 30th Anniversary of this novel is a few years away, let's do it Black Library/GW!). They part on good terms, and Meh'lindi can now disguise herself as an Eldar. 

Black Library edition.

We get to see the origin of Harlequin Man, which was more interesting than I expected and, bonus, it features an appearance by Eldrad Ulthran. It's interesting to see him manipulating events as far back as this. We also see a ship to ship battle featuring Space Fleet era ships. It's a cool read and I got a big kick out of this stuff. This leads to us being introduced to Captain Lexandro d'Arquebus and the Imperial Fists who are there to back up Inquisitor Firenze** on his mad and zealous quest to kill Eldar, storm the webway, and raid The Black Library. 

The Eldar have an orbital community, sort of like a smaller version of a Craftworld, orbiting the now dead world of Stalinvast. This is what Firenze and the Imperial Fists are in the middle of sacking when Draco and his crew infiltrate the place and attempt to find the web way themselves. They are captured by the Harlequin Man and his Eldar companions. He reveals that he intends to have Jaq  possessed and then cleansed so that Jaq too can become an Illuminati, however this is all interupted by Lexandro and his Imperial Fists arriving upon the situation.  There is a very intense scene where Firenze and Draco encounter each other which results ultimately in Captain Lexandro seeing that Draco is less of a ravening madman than Firenze and he agrees to accompany Draco and his gang into the web way. 

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

Ok, I just had to emphasize that the next part of this summary gets nuts. Crazy nuts. Before they entered the webway Fenix was killed by an Eldar Shurikan. Upon entering the webway, Azul Petrov has a vision of Fenix who leaves a vision of a map which some how Lexandro carves onto his third eye so that the group can find the Black Library. They are harassed and hounded by Harlequins, Howling Banshees and the Howling Banshee Phoenix Lord Jain Zar. All of Lex's men are picked off and his armor is rendered useless by the time they get to the Black Library. But not before Meh'lindi is brutally slain by Jain Zar. 

Utterly distraught, Draco's quest for the book, the Rana Dandra, gains additional urgency. Initially it was so that he could undo the plot of the Ordo Hydra but now he sees how he can use it to save Meh'lindi. They obtain the book, and it's just Draco, Grim and Lexandro left alive by the story's, somewhat abrupt, end. 

• Did I like it? Yes, more so than I feared I wouldn't. It's still plagued by Watson's weird penchant to compare things in a sexual sense, but I found it less sophomoric than the previous books. Weird I felt that way considering that a supporting character was basically anal-raped to death...
• Was it hard to put down? Although the story was compelling the constant questions were a bit grating. Also the continuing use of sexual organs by Watson as description devices gets a few eye-rolls, but all-in-all it was a compelling tale. 
• Could I care about the characters? Yes, but really I only cared about Meh'lindi, Grim and Lexandro. As stated in the beginning of the first book, Draco is supposed to be writing these stories, and having 1/6 of all the  sentences in this story ending with a question mark makes me want to break his fingers...
• Did the writer truly grasp how the 'world' of the 41st millennium works in the sense that it doesn't betray or retcon previously established (as I know it) lore? Watson has stated in interviews that Games-Workshop hooked him up with all the relevant game books, notes and White Dwarf magazines he needed for reference (and that he still has it all in storage). It's clear that he drew on this material heavily as I can pin-point precise issues of White Dwarf that he drew inspiration from (WDs 139-140 were heavily drawn upon for the Space Fleet material, WDs 105-106 for the Harlequins, WD 127 was probably dog-eared to death for the Eldar material in it (it's the best resource for Eldar material besides the 2nd edition era Codex: Eldar, which was more-or-less a port of WD 127 with additional material, so it's well understood why it would be dog-eared to death.). He definitely embraced the world of Warhammer 40,000 as presented to him and did a good, and pioneering, job melding it together. Maybe a bit less adult content, and far less questions, and this stuff would be more highly regarded. His understanding of the game rules and it's special abilities seem to sometimes falter. For example: the Howling Banshees tend to be able to warp in and out of the Webway just like the Warpspider aspect warriors can. If they were that good in the game they would be an auto-include in every Eldar army list!
• Was I being talked down too? No, but I was asked a lot of questions. Seriously, I think there are more sentences ending with question marks than there are sentences ending in periods. I found it a bit... ugh. I have to say, I got used to it but what a weird way to write a book. 
• How predictable is this story? Not very. It's a bit more straight forward than Inquisitor was. And I got to say,, it's actually refreshing to read a book this cavalier about killing supporting cast so brutally.*** 
• Do I recommend this book? Well, not to everybody. If you read Inquisitor, yes, definitely continue on. I enjoyed this one a bit more than the first one despite the loss of some characters I enjoyed ...and all the questions.  

*(Que Seinfeld's voice: "Newman!") 

**It didn't hit me until I read this novel to read his name as "Frenzy".

***I think the record is still being held by Dan Abnett for his book Fell Cargo. That was a blood fest of a book! 

All images in this post are (c) Games-Workshop and are used here without permission and for review purposes and should not be regarded as challenges to the copyright.

Blood Axe Boys (Part 4)

 It's been too long since I last paid attention to these guys, and even longer since I started them! With the release of the 2021 Ork Codex I have been itching to get back to my Orks, and these guys in particular.  I absolutely love the original Orks. Yeah, they are smaller and more crude, but the character and detail have yet to be matched. Being how immersed I've been with the other projects I have going on, I decided to paint these guys just a few at a time. To kick it off I decided to focus on just the one miniature we call Da Mad Thunka (or Bolta 5, #07051039 according to the 1991 Citadel Catalog).

I followed the exact steps that I used on the Blood Axe Mekaniak I painted back in March 2021. The weird grot face belt buckle thing...I was stumped with that. So I just painted using Gretchin Green Foundation Paint with Death Guard highlight.

...weird grot face belt buckle thing.

I love the details on these old Ork miniatures, they look like scavenging militants, with each model appearing unique. Check out the kit on this chap:

Rear view.

These guys are primarily wearing olive drab and I think it works great.

Front view.

 That's one done, nine to go with this squad. I will keep poking at these guys sporadically as I feel each one deserves a good amount of attention to pull off properly. 

Da whole mob.

I have decided to call these guys Squad Drab due to their overbearing preference for Olive Drab uniforms and equipment. Other units might be dubbed Squad Khaki, Squad Camo, etc. 

Herald of Slaanesh (Part 1)

Now this is a classic miniature!

OK, yes, actually they both are.

This pic was taken back in 2017. Since then the one on the left has  been painted.  I bought both of these miniatures at the same time to be used as either a Seductress or a Herald. I wasn't sure which would suit either role best at the time, so I just got both. Ultimately, the Epic-scale Keeper of Secrets, now named Mini-Moo, became the Seductress for my metal Daemonettes. This awesome Slaanesh Champion of Chaos is now to become a Herald.

From the original Champions Of Chaos WD ad.

And it's name shall be Sourkiss. Those brave souls who explore this blog might have seen the placeholder for this character on the Rogues page... I have been stewing on this idea for a few years now.

I haven't done anything with any of my Chaos Daemons in a long time, but Da Masta Cheef challenged me to another 750 point game and despite my desire to continue to learn how to use Space Marines in this edition, I wanted to try something radical. An army of Slaaneshi daemons seemed to fit the bill. But I wanted to add some color to my unique Herald. 

Barely battle-ready.

I used Black Templar Contrast Paint on the swords and armor, Warpfiend on the flesh with a wash of Druchii Violet to get the skin tones started and a brown for the scroll. 

A lot more battle-ready! 

Next I basecoated the leather bits in Abaddon Black and the sword using an old Citadel color called Polished Blue. 

The base will be done up before I go much further with the painting. I am getting this model battle-ready but don't want grit flaking off into my miniatures case. 

But that's as far as I can get for now (out of time), you'll likely have seen Sourkiss in it's first battle report before you see this post. I hope to finish this model soon as I would like to see it included in 2021's Year End Review.  

Termagant with Strangleweb (Art Monday)

 Welcome back to Art Monday where I show off some of the 40k themed art that I produced in the '90s. Unlike most of the art I have been showing off here, this piece was actually published. It appeared in Inquistior Magazine #14. 

This was a more straightforward interpretation of the miniatures from the time, whereas the other termagant that I drew around this time was more of a fusion between the 1st and 2nd edition concepts. Perhaps it was the  burning Ultramarine that sold this piece? 😃 

And for those of you curious onlookers who wonder about my process for spot illustrations such as this, here is the single 11" x 17" image area that these were all drawn on. 

War of Attrition

 After the success of last week's game, the stars aligned to again allow Da Masta Cheef and I to play another game at the 750 point level. Only this time I wanted to play something totally different as the marines just didn't satisfy me enough to run that same list again. After scouring my lists and miniatures for options I decided to run with a Chaos Daemons of Slaanesh army.  I hadn't played them in ages and thought that they would make for an interesting challenge against the Primaris guns. 

Siph vs. She Who Milks.

I chose three units of Daemonettes, two of these units have a banner and a musician simply due to my older models not having those options. My Fiends of Slaanesh are in a 5 critter squad. Yes they are unpainted while I try to figure out if I need to make their bases bigger or not. My Herald of Slaanesh is the old half-snake bodied Chaos Champion model whom I have named Sourkiss. And finally my original Keeper Of Secrets, She Who Milks, as... a Keeper Of Secrets. I had intended to run her as a Daemon Prince but I needed to fill the points so I figured what the heck, let's try her out. With the only "shooting" coming from the two psykers, I expected to be gunned down with ease.

The Slaaneshi Daemons gather.

The Ultramarines gathered and they are as follows: Two Primaris Lieutenants (the painted one is the Warlord), a Primaris Ancient, Assault Intercessors (5 man unit), Intercessor Squad (10 man unit), and 5 Hellblasters. The Ancient and one of the Lieutenants hadn't even been in Cheef's possession for a full 24 hours yet, fresh from their previous owner. 

Ultramarines (just pretend they're all blue).

We selected a mission from the Open War deck and ended up with War Of Attrition for the mission, the quarted deployment zone, and Champion for the Twist. I made the Herald my Champion and his Lieutenant was the Ultramarines Champion.

Open War!

For some reason we decided to play on a smaller board than last week. This would have a crucial impact on how this game turned out and I will discuss it more at the bottom of this report 

Deployment.

Turn 1.

Cheef won the roll off and chose to go first. He immediately declared the Fiends as his Priority Target, which I think was probably wise.

It's a Ruse!

The Hellblasters unleashed hot death on the closest Daemonette unit, leaving nothing left but a steaming pink mist. I was honestly worried that the Daemonettes would be gunned down faster than WW1 soldiers leaving a trench. The Keeper of Secrets took a few wounds as well, but was still at maximum strength.

Bullets and blasts strike the daemon horde.

And the Slaaneshi horde surged forward and fast. The Fiends are incredibly quick as is the Keeper. The Keeper put the psychic power Delightful Agonies on the Fiends to give them a bit more resilience.  They smashed into the Assault Intercessors, slaughtering them. 

Fast and furious.

Both Primaris Lieutenants joined in the melee as well and despite dishing out some wounds neither survived. 

On Cheef's Turn 2 the Hellblasters all but vaporized another unit of Daemonettes leaving only the Aluress.

Turn 2 overview.

Slaanesh Turn 2, the Keeper Of Secrets and the lone Alluress charge the Hellblasters. The Fiends, who were again blessed with Delightful Agonies, charged the troops on top of the bunker. Although the Keeper did Perils 3 Wounds off of itself while casting Smite on the Hellblasters prior to the charge! The Hellblasters successful took some wounds off of the Keeper via Overwatch attacks, but even on it's second stat tier the thing was an absolute beast in close combat. When it was over, there were no Hellblasters left. 

The tide turns.

The Fiends became locked in melee with the Intercessors on top of the bunker, who held firm compared to their peers. They were joined by the other battle squad who assaulted into the the Fiends also. 

Ganging up on the Fiends, the way they like it.

The Keeper Of Secrets stormed up the field in pursuit of the Primaris Ancient while the Fiends whittled away at the two Intercessors squads.

"Bring it!"

The Alluress joined the fray, killing off the last of one of the Intercessor squads.

The final cuts.

With the fall of the Intercessors, it was down to the Primaris Ancient to hold the line against the Keeper of Secrets.

Face off!

At one point he broke away, and got a few more licks in on the Keeper. The Keeper was down to just 4 Wounds left. It wasn't even about survival at this point, it was about defeating that damned Greater Daemon. 

The final gambit...

Tenaciously, the Ultramarines made it to Turn 5, with the Primaris Ancient standing alone against the comparative horde of sex starved daemons descending upon him. But a potent Smite from the Keeper of Secrets finally brought him down. And this is how it ended. Slaanesh definitely claimed this world, may the orgy comense!

Mind blowing final stand! 

Well, that didn't go the way I thought it would! The Daemons of Slaanesh were like a combine vs. a wheat field. Quite incredible to behold, but also too good. I need to add some more lower powered daemons, probably Steeds, to fill in the points and reduce She Who Milks down to a Daemon Prince. My two three most important (to me) take aways are:

• Don't take Greater Daemons in a list below 1000 points. Or even 1250 points. They are just too dominant, and yes, a points sink, but a bit too much for an opponent with just 750 points to bear. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
• Don't reduce the battlefield foot print. I get why GW decided to do this in this edition for smaller game sizes, but yeah, it speeds up the game, but the assault armies gain an unbalanced edge for it. The shooty armies will be able to shoot more on the bigger table, but I believe that they should be able to shoot more. 
• Stick with Objectives. Focusing on holding and securing objectives is a core element of the game now. Yes, you can have your "let's just kill each other" games, but the meat grinder just isn't as challenging, or as fun, without those additional focal points that Objectives give to the game.

The army played like clock work and I found them easier to run than the Space Marines. Honestly, I think the 8th edition Codex armies to be easier to operate, the 9th edition ones seem to be too bogged down. Cheef and I definitely prefer the closer, more challenging, type games. This wasn't that. I don't play games to crush my opponents soul, or sour their joy of the hobby, but to have fun, so I regret that this went this way.  I'm not saying Cheef or I didn't have fun, but we would prefer the more balanced games. 

Slann Warrior (Art Monday)

 

This is an unpublished piece drawn back in 1995. I think I drew this originally as part of a submission pack for The Dark Library fanzine who were working on their version of a Slann codex. I missed out on that somehow but I still ended up with this fun piece anyway. 

Note that he's armed with a neuro disrupter, a weapon that was very much MIA in the Warhammer 40,000 game when I drew this. It has made a return in the mid-'00s with the relaunch of the Harlequins. 

This version of the Slann were awesome and full of potential, but for some mysterious reason the 40k line was already neigh impossible to find when I started playing on 1989. And I don't think they were in the Citadel Catalogs of the early '90's either, but someone knew were to look and found this list. 

I only ever managed to acquire a single one of these miniatures, and I suspect that even that one is a bootleg. It's a shame as I think these guys are very cool and might have made for a unique option in the 40k range. I did find a pack of the fantasy Slaan when I returned here to the states around '93. I used them in a 1st edition game and that single squad, generated from the Rogue Trader list (the only official one they ever had) generated quite a formidable warband. GW has been mining the old concepts over the past decade and producing models to help secure and maintain their IP, so who knows, maybe one day they may return?

Primaris vs RTB01

 

Welcome back to another duel between myself and Da Masta Cheef. This time, in response to a comment I made somewhere that his Ultramarines ought to fight my Ultramarines. Cheef was more than willing to see that come to fruition. We decided since not only do we have the same army, but we even use the same company (3rd, the guys with the red trim) so it only makes sense that this "battle" is really a training exercise. Or is it? 

Check out Cheef's force. Leading it on this training exercise is a nefarious Inquisitor! 

748 points of Primaris. 

You might also notice that his force is also all Primaris Soace Marines! Lead by Primaris Lt. Siph Horridus (inspired by the guy who hooked us both up with that particular model, thanks again mate!), who is armed with a Master Crafted Bolt Rifle and an Astartes Chainsword. A squad of Hellblasters, a unit of Intercessors, a squad of Assault Intercessors and a smaller unit of Intercessors. 

744 points of old Marines. 

Whereas my force is comprised entirely of 1st edition models. Most of which were all painted during the years of first edition! That's two RTB01 Tactical Squads. Pretty much no frills there: bolters, bolt pistol. Frag & krak grenades, a missile launcher, a flamer and a Sergeant with a power glove power fist. That's an original Advanced Space Crusade scout squad (they have stealth bolters) and that Devestator Squad is from Space Crusade. And that Ultramarine Captain model tops it off. He was the most recent thing painted for this army and this is his first game showing off his new colors. 

And that was two small Patrols (approximately 750 points) ready to rumble in the snow. 

Open War random results.

We were joined by the illustrious Mr. Crosby (as an ex-teacher he kind of dislikes to be called that, but for he sake of online ambiguity I will default to that regardless) who assisted with the Shuffling and selection of our Open War cards as well as offered rules input during the game; as both Cheef and I haven't played the 9th ed Space Marines yet. He also provided the three Objective Markers for us. They are each an assortment of military assets. We placed old Artillery Dice on them to indicate which ones were 1, 2 and 3 for determining which would  e the 'active' objective each round. 

We were also assisted by Josh of Hobbytown U.S.A. of Johnson City, whose encyclopedic knowledge of the current 40k rules is pretty much second to none. 

Battle Squad takes the bunker.

During my deployment I chose to split one of the Tac Squads into two separate teams leaving the other squad at full strength. 

Ultra Neverness deployment.

Ultra Masta Cheef deployment.

I played my Ruse card as soon as possible to immediately take advantage of being Dug In to my deployment zone. It really did help a lot! 

A clever Ruse! 

Turn One and we both moved our forces towards the objectives. Some fire was traded back and forth but we each only managed to score a single casualty against each other and maybe inflicted a few non-lethal wounds here and there. 

Moving up to the goal.

I did make my first critical mistake of the game by not advancing my 10 man Tactical squad towards the objective closest to them. In the end, neither of us scored any points on Tunr One.

End of Turn One. 

On Turn Two Cheef's dice heated up and his Hellblasters were too. They vaporized half of the remaining Tactical Squad!  "This is a training exercise, right?" Asked one Devestator to another upon watching the boiling fleshy blue pool that was once Brother Marcus. 

Meanwhile my scouts were hounding the Primaris boys from their own deployment zone. Returning the attention one scout was eliminated.

Old but still effective.

The Devestators took stock of the situation and set their weapons to lethal mode, annihilating the Hellblasters! As a point of retaliation however Cheef played the Stratagem 'Avenge The Fallen' (a card I hope to play on a Dark Angel unit some day, just for the cheekiness of it!)

Marked for vengeance!

The Tactical Squad lost another marine in the Morale Phase of Cheef's turn 2. But the Sgt was determined to get to that objective! They advanced on to it and claimed in on my Turn 2.

"There's four of us, we can do this lads!"

On the otherside of the ruins I had the Scouts and both battle squads pour all their fire into the Squad that was on an objective. Unfortunately, for me Cheef was making his saves like a champ, and whittling away at those two-Wound Primaris Marines was proving to be an uphill battle indeed. After a failed charge attempt, that effort seemed even more futile.

The tally for Turn had Cheef with 2 points and Neverness with 1 point. 

Turn 3 was the deciding one. The Inquisitor moved onto the objective in the middle. The Primaris goons shot up and killed the Tactical Squad except for the Sergeant. But they charged and slaughtered him in the assault phase, but what a glorious way to go down! 

"I'll take you young punks!"

On the otherside, my Tactical squad stood firm to the onslaught of shooting and in fact killed a guy with Overwatch! It was a fairly balanced fight really with both sides standing firm for the most part. 

My turn came, and my Captain moved upon the the middle objective where he came across this sneaky Inquisitor skulking about the place. Despite a strong showing by the Captain weilding his Soldiers Blade, the Inquisitor survived this assault. 

"Avast!"

My Devestators tried to blast the Primaris Intercessors off of their objective but the dice were against me on this it seems as they missed  a lot more than they hit! Same goes with the other side of the field, I tore that squad up but I could shake them off of that objective. At the end of turn 3 Cheef scored 3 more points and Neverness scored 0. This brought the Tally 5 to Cheef and 1 to Neverness.

By the end of Turn 3, looking at the points tally it was clear that I could not possibly recoup my points. I felt that I had to concede to the inevitable and accept defeat.

These two held firm! 

What was this guy's goal?

Laughing in the faces of the Devestators. 

Well, that was a fun one! One thing we learned was that we need to not only play more, but play Marines more. Trying to keep up with all the army rules, remembering Warlord Traits, (we both had Paragon of War), Doctrines, etc. made us wish we had a dry erase board available.  But we got by with the help from our friends. I am impressed with how well the old First Born have held up compared to the Primaris, and, had Cheef's rolls not be more amazing than not, I think it would have been a bit more even.  

However the one advantage that was apparent was the range difference between the Bolt Rifles and the traditional Bolter. It forced me to push some of the units I had held back for support to move closer, otherwise he could reach my units and I could not reach his. Duly noted for the future. I wish we could have played longer but it was still fun regardless. 

..and the Inquisitor slips away...