To Cut Off The Head: Part Two - Unexpected Friends

Grey Knights & Sisters of Battle vs Valorax Guard & Crimson Blades | Tim v Gill | 40k | 64 | 109.997.M41 

Whatever happened now, it didn't matter. The war was lost.

Ivan Chord, planetary governor, hero of the Manticore War, was dead. Assassinated.

And all Able Standent knew - trooper first class of fourth squad, eight company of the standing Qualitat Defence Force of the Valorax Guard - was that even if his life and the lives of everyone he knew were soon to end; he would die fighting for retribution. Fighting for revenge! 

His squad had been posted in defence of the governor's headquarters when the attack hit and he and all his battle brothers had failed in their duty, fighting off the attacking Adeptus Sororitas and Grey Knights.

As he and his squad took up firing positions in one of the still smoking ruins, Able saw where their enemy were headed: a pair of empty landing pads. Their assassination mission accomplished, the Sisters of Battle had swiftly withdrawn. They were trying to get out of the city before the full force of the Valorax Guard could mobilise and trap them!

They were already in the square below the landing pads!

A column of Leman Russ Battle Tanks rolled down the street beside Abel's position as he blasted the power armoured women with his lasgun, hoping for a lucky strike, but their armour was too good, the cover provided by the ruins too complete.

There was no way to catch them before they escaped!

"Bringer of death," he whispered to his weapon as he blasted away, "speak your name, for you are my life and the foe's death."

Then from the sky came a sound of falling doom and something struck the upper landing pad like a missile.

Able thought it was the enemy retrieval boat... then he saw it crack open and his prayers to the beneficient Emperor were answered. From the smoking drop pod strode the Crimson Blades, already letting fly with bolter shells into the square below and immediately tearing apart the Adeptus Sororitas as they scrambled into cover.

The square was a shooting gallery. The Sisters were trapped. And before they could find a defensive base from the pincer they found themselves in, a second Drop pod came down on the other landing pad, blocking their escape completely.

The Valorax Guardsmen cheered and Able cheered with them. The planetary governor was lost but now the Space Marines were here, fighting alongside them against the greater Imperium. As a line trooper, Able scarce understood the ramifications of this but he knew something momentous had happened.

He knew these new allies made every difference.

But he had no time to savour this change.

The air split and tore in the ruins before them and through the gap in reality strode a towering construct Able had no name for. He saw the silver armoured Terminator strapped to the front of it and saw the weapons turn their way and suddenly knew that this new alliance would mean nothing to him if he were dead.

Morale squads through out massive amounts of fire at the Grey Knights as they appeared, as did the infantry, but as squad after squad of the elite warriors materialised their weapons fire started to falter.

With only two squads of Crimson Blades to help them, surely their was no way to defeat this new enemy!

Then Damien Gord, gigantic company captain of the Crimson Blades appeared in a snapping of reality down in the square beside the Sisters of Battle and let fire his storm bolters.The Sisters of Battle were fleeing for the bunkers next to the landing pads but the crossfire was wiping them out.

The mighty Throne of Judgement fell,m trapping Inquisitor Lord Karamazov beneath it.

And still Abel fired, dropping to his knees, pausing only long enough to rip out his lasgun's steaming power pack and reload.

All around him his squad was dying from storm bolter fire. The Grey Knights strode through the rubble, moving away from the Crimson Blades, out of their range. The Adeptus Sororitas were lost. Able was sure of that. From his position it looked like only a couple of the women still survived; but the Grey Knights were undeterred by this. They calmly hosed down the Valorax Guardsmen, consolidating their position so that they could strike back at the Crimson Blades from a position of strength.

Rocket blasts thundered overhead and Able saw a boxey landing craft blot out the sky as it swooped across the ruins. It was a Stormraven Gunship! More Grey Knights and a Dreadnought!

The magnetic docking clamp at the back released the Dreadnought in mid-swoop and it crashed into the building next to Able's where his commanding officer bellowed into his vox, directing the losing combat.

The Crimson Blades were increasingly cut off from where the battle was moving. They had defeated the Sisters of Battle but they were in no position to redeploy closer to the Grey Knights.

Able could see where this was going.

He muttered the litany of protection. "Mighty Emperor, spread Your divine light to protect me from the darkness."

Grey Knight Terminators ripped the command squad apart as the Dreadnought tore open the armour of the Battle Tanks. The Stormraven slowed and hovered, preparing to disgorge its final cargo.

Then Grey Knight Purifiers fell from its open doors, firing their incinerators into the few remaining guardsmen before them.

Able clambered down from the upper level of his ruins and ran to help but he wasn't fast enough. As the Dreadnought crashed through the remaining tanks, the Purifiers hacked his remaining battle brothers apart.

In a moment of divine panic, Able Standent realised he was the last remaining guardsmen of his company alive.

And he realised that almost four hundred yards separated him from the Crimson Blades who might otherwise have saved him.

Then the Purifiers turned their humming falchion blades on him as well and sliced his flesh and bones to pulp.

With Ivan Chord dead and the Crimson Blades laying their gauntlets in the Valorax camp, the entire planet-wide theatre of battle had shifted immensley.

But all it did was point to an escalating conflict growing further and further out of control!

Spotlight On: Squat Tarantula

Many years ago, in one of the first White Dwarfs I ever owned there was an advert for a Squat Tarantula, a heavy weapon artillery platform. I never bought one but I always remembered…

Twenty five or so years later and I have the next best thing: The Mantic Hailstorm Cannon!

I wasn’t sure about this model at first. I might not have bought it if it hadn’t come in the Mantic Warpath boxed game starter set, but it has grown on me. 

I don’t know if Mantic intended this to be used as a Tarantula in games of 40K, but the closest thing in the Squat codex I’m working from is definitely that.

 

With this complete I’ve now finished the support element of my army.

Just six Squat infantry to finish now and then I’m done!

(Grins inanely)

Spotlight On: Adeptus Mechanicus Thunderfire Battery

Now that I’m building my Squat/Adeptus Mechanicus force with more of a cohesive eye (and a better colour scheme) I thought it was time to update my Thunderfire Batter! 

The models are stripped down versions of models from Robogear and the rules I’m using are from the Tempus Fugitives Adeptus Mechanicus codex, however I’ve added Squats to the unit instead of Ballisterai. Because they are a bit better, I upped the points by twenty as well.

They were awesome in the game I played them in already so I’m looking forward to using them again. 

I’m putting all the Squats against the Zone Mortalis backdrop because that’s going to be the setting of their first proper game. Sadly that’s going to force me not to use the larger vehicles.

I’m flagging a bit on getting ready for this game actually. Maybe I’ll do some Chaos Space Marine games first. We’ll see…

Spotlight On: The Squat Walking Ancient

This beautiful thing is the Iron Ancestor from Mantic.

Which I'm purloining to be part of my Squat/Adedptus Mechanicus force: Initiative 0999XXB#14-12.In my force He'll be a Dreadnought with twin-linked Autocannons and a close combat weapon.

For colours I went for the same scheme I've been using for my Squat infantry: Khorne Red | 2 coats of Nuln Oil A Khorne Red | Wazdakka Red and then Ianden Darksun and Sunburst Yellow. The metals were black inked down then highlighted back up.

I'm going to have to be careful as my Mechanicus/Squat force is becoming a little vehicle heavy. Which makes sense background-wise I guess, but may not be so fun for my opponents.

But the look of the army is really coming together to my satisfaction. It does pay to delay painting an army until the perfect colour scheme is discovered. 

On The Painting Table: Adeptus Mechanicus Aphid

Allow me to introduce my new retooled Aphid, a fast attack choice for my new Adeptus Mechanicus/Squat army.

The original version I made for this was purely using Robogear parts and looked pretty rough as you can see.

Realising how dodgy it looked I ripped the cockpit off, tore off the guns and replaced them with missile pods from a Valkyrie. It's now a more delicate spidery robot, rather than a piloted armoured thing.

I'm going to redo the rules for this tinker, making it open topped. It's going to be a glass cannon - easy to destroy but putting out a lot of damage.

And it perfectly suits the look I'm going for with my Mechanicus force - esoteric technology gone wild!

On the Painting Table: Squats!

The Squats are here!

I had no intention of buying these little guys at first but they niggled away at me and I subconsciously started trying to come up with reasons to fit them into my campaign.

Then it hit me.

These little dudes are going to be the militant arm of my Adeptus Mechanicus force!

More on that in future but for now, let's look at the models.

Obviously these aren't Squats from Games Workshop (sigh). They're Mantic Forge Fathers!

I love Mantic Chaos Dwarfs as you may know and I've also grown to love these little blighters.

The poses and options are a little bit limited but they are cool and they're nicely sized compared to a "normal" 40k human.

The weapon options are a tad limited for me because I bought a lot of the earlier sets that didn't have the tactical upgrades. As a result I have loads of basic troopers and only a few upgrades. I may have to get very sneaky when it comes to that... in time.

For now I'm happy. I'm liking the colour scheme I deliberated over for weeks and I'm building towards my first small game battling over my soon-to-be fully furnished Zone Mortalis.

I'll reveal more as I paint them but we haven't seen the back of the Squats.

Heh heh.

See what I did there?

Zone Mortalis Doors!

(Evil laughter)

My Forge World Zone Mortalis is really starting to come together now that I have bought and painted two sets of doors!

I went for subdued greens and a dull bronze for the eagle to match the dark and brooding look I am aiming for and they really add a lot to it.

Suddenly rooms start developing and you can see how much doors blocking egress will add to play.

I still really need at least one more set of the Zone before I can have a proper game and another set or more of doors but I'm thinking of having a little mini game once I've done my furniture and painted up some of my Mantic Squats.

I've been buying up mini scenery pieces to put inside the Zone at war game conventions (most recently at the Colours event in Newbury) and my next project is to complete all the furniture I've got to create much more realistic interiors. The zone is great on its own but needs some interior detail really. I just wish Forge World would release some stuff to go in it (though there's no sign of any on the way).

Here are the first two pieces of furnishings - a pair of cryopods. They're lovely but they're just the tip of the iceberg. Stay tuned for more additions over the coming days.

The Doom Spheres: Part Three - Destruction Incarnate

Doom Spheres vs Imperium | Tim v Gill | Gothic | 63 | 118.997.M41

Battlefleet Valorax was on full alert. 

Intel had been gathered; reports analysed and decisions made. The Doom Spheres had to be stopped at all costs. With such destructive might at their command their was no telling what destruction they might wreck on Valorax Prime when they reached it. One Doom Sphere had been bad enough. Two was a force that could not be ignored.

A new Battlegroup was formed with tremendous firepower, incredible levels of potential destruction that couldn't fail to bring down the approaching spheres: A Retribution class battleship, two Mars battlecruisers, a pair of Gothics and two Dominators as well as a squadron of flitting Cobra Destroyers.

 They drifted through the void, scanning for contact against the static feedback of the irradiated asteroid fields.

Of greatest fortune was the lack of Ork contacts. The invasion fleet had obviously splintered and fled but the chance that they were still lurking in-system, using the distraction of the Doom Sphere approach to sneak past the cordons couldn't be entirely ignored. 

The ships pinged out their long range scanners and when they were starting to doubt the Doom Spheres existed, they flicked into view.

Admiral Phantos on the bridge of the Battleship paled as the image focused on his screen. There weren't two Doom Spheres anymore.

There were three.

And the newest one was over twice as bigger as either one they had seen before.

It wasn't just a Doom Sphere. It was a Battle Planet.

The Retribution let fly with its torpedoes and continued to close, charging up its lance batteries, but before it was even in range the Battle Planet pounded it from the fore with its violet lightning, crushing its shields and ripping into its bulkheads.

The torpedoes impacted harmlessly against its armour and Admiral Phantos fully realised what was happening, how utterly they had underestimated this foe, even while classing them as an omega level threat. He shouted to turn about so that he could bring his weapon batteries to bear but the Battle Planet fired again and his ship was atomised beneath his feet.

The asteroids were blocking nova cannon fire so the ships were forced to weave through, coming painfully close to the Doom Spheres. The Gothics rocketed in close to one of the smaller spheres but even locked on, their lances failed to break down the enemy shields and they took tremendous damage on the return volley.

There was only one gambit that might give them a chance of success.

All three nova-armed ships remaining turned toward the asteroid field between them and the Doom Spheres and, ignoring all proximity alarms forged straight through it. Gigantic rocks impacted the ships but they emerged on the other side and let fire with all their nova cannons, bringing down the shields on one of the smaller spheres and damaging it finally. 

But it was useless.

They were now far too close for a second volley and the Doom Spheres were at their ideal firing range. There was nothing to do but disengage again.

The Doom Spheres could not be defeated.

The Cobra Destroyers put themselves between the Spheres and the capital ships and were blown apart for their sacrifice. But their sacrifice paid off. The capital ships were able to disengage, pulling away from the Doom Spheres and powering out of their limited range.

The third battle had been lost and now little stood between the Doom Spheres and Valorax Prime.

Their only chance was for a final stand to be made there with every ship they could possibly muster.

If not, there was little doubt that Valorax was doomed!