+ inload: The Armageddon Prime campaign +

+ Ashes of Armageddon... Prime? +

+ Background to the project +

The Battle for Armageddon boardgame focussed mostly on the main continent, Armageddon Secundus, but Armageddon Prime was mentioned from the very start. It fell very quickly (as a result of the Governor's incompetence), and so wouldn't have made as close a game as the war for Secundus.

Simon Shepherd's original map, from the Battle for Armageddon rulebook – note Armagddon Prime in the north (left of the map).

A later expansion, Chaos Attack, which detailed the First War for Armageddon (Angron and his army coming to take names), also had a really fun set of additional counters that allowed you to play out various scenarios, such as 'what if the Marines had gone to Armageddon Prime, and the Squats had been in Armageddon Secundus?', 'what if different ork tribes spearheaded the Secundus campaign?' and so forth. A lot of fun, but all reliant on the original gameboard. 

A patchwork Armageddon Secundus, released by GW's Fanatic Games back in the bohemian days when they shared old games files like this for free.

I've found the past few years of hobbying have focussed more and more on the Armageddon region and that time period (with occasional other projects!), and it struck me – in that way that whims do – that it'd be fun to create a board of Armageddon Prime. I did a load of research and gathered up some maps of the region. Some date from the Third War global campaign GW ran in the early 2000s, other were fan-made...

... and it was at about this point that I suddenly realised what a giant job this would be – this wasn't just making a gameboard, it was working out regions, and what rules changes would be necessary and playtesting and all sorts... 

It was then, serendipitously, I stumbled over Board Game Geek, where a (talented and generous) user called killerkatanas had basically done all the hard work! He and his group had drawn up a rough map and created the rules tweaks to play the Armageddon Prime campaign. Back in May I got in touch, and he gave his blessing for me to work up the map and rules, giving them a polish. You can check out his excellent work through think inload link: [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] – check out the Files section at the bottom.

This project wouldn't have been possible without him, so all credit to killerkatanas for doing the heavy lifting. I hope I'm able to do justice to the facelift I'm giving the rules.

+++

+ Starting work +

Here's the map that killerkatanas' worked up as a playtesting draft. He had even got in contact with Simon Shepherd to see if he wanted to paint a professional version to match the original, but was sadly turned down.

Nice and clear and straightforward; it just needs a bit of polish. The first stage was to measure my original gameboard and make sure that everything was scaled correctly, ready for people to print and glue onto a backing (or use one of the various boardgame prototyping services to do a professional job). After all, if the turn counter doesn't fit properly on the square, or stacks don't fit, it won't function properly.

I then began redrawing the Imperial supply icon, revising all the tables and reference bits (like turn number, build points etc.) and generally bringing it up to match the original board – it was fun doing some design archaeology and finding freely available fonts to work with. I was very keen not to copy any of the material directly from GW's stuff – 'freeware' or not, I don't want to use any original material, out of respect to the original artist and designers.

I redrew this unusual Aquilla variant used in the game in Illustrator.

Here's how it's currently looking. You'll note that I've iterated a little on killerkatana's original (itself carefully constructed from various slightly varying maps down the years), mainly in turning the straight territory lines to something more akin to the Secundus board – and occasionally slightly tweaking the size to allow counter stacks to fit neatly.

I've put a neutral yellow background down to give a sense of space, but the plan is to paint and photograph a full-size version that can be overlaid with the text and icons shown below. I would quite like to give it a go myself, but if anyone knows a map artist who might be able to better emulate the original piece, I'm all ears.

The version above looks a bit abstract, so here's a version with some quickly scribbled in seas and rivers. I hope you'll agree that the 'feel' of the thing is working; and I'll run it by killerkatanas for his feedback before tightening things up.

Other than that, any creativity has been limited to artistic consistency between the two boards; adding jagged borders to the mountains, for example, and – as all the rivers in Secundus has their own names – it seemed a shame not to give them names here, too. As with Secundus, I took inspiration for the names from mythological rivers and related terms, so that they feel consistent with the original board. 

This process threw up a couple of oddities, but nothing major. Mountain ranges are just listed with their name on the original – just 'Diablo', rather than 'Diablo Mountains', for example. I made this consistent, then realised it ended up with Volcanus Hive and the Volcanus Mountains looking identical (see below), as both hives and mountains are yellow text on black bars. I've cludged this a bit by changing the mountains to the 'Volcanus Chain' – a justifiable inconsistency with the other isolated mountains, I think, as there's also the 'Volcanus Ridge'.

And here's a version with the original draft underneath, so you can see the changes. There's a few bits and bobs still to add and tidy up, including some special two-way arrows and paths only certain units can cross, but I need some feedback from killerkatana to make sure I'm putting them in correctly.

Anyway, something a bit different from the usual – hope you enjoy, and perhaps one day we'll get to refight both campaigns!

+++

+ inload: army building in Horus Heresy 3rd edition +

+ Once more Unto the Age of Darkness +

+ Horus Heresy 3rd edition army building thoughts +

+ A new edition of Horus Heresy is on its way, and since some of the PCRC are gearing up to play, today's inload is looking at how the rumours/releases affect my army. +

Brother Eumon, Locrian

+++

A brief note at the start: For anyone hoping for opinions on Horus Heresy news in general,  I'm rather ill-qualified, as I haven't played in years! This is a discursive and rather self-indulgent article about my Ultramarines army alone, not an editorial on the rules or hoo-ha surrounding weapon options – there's quite enough sound and fury about that elsewhere on the noosphere! 

Suffice to say that I don't have particularly strong opinions on things beyond sympathy for people who feel (for whatever reason) that their armies or units feel invalidated. After many editions of 40k and related games, I've got largely inured to the idea that certain things will or won't work quite the same between editions. Sometimes models, units or whole armies go into mothballs for an edition or two – as is the case with my Ultramarines, the Praetors of Calth [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]. That's fine if you're in the lucky position of playing multiple games or having a collection that allows you to roll with the punches, but I sympathise with anyone who's finding that favourite models are no longer useable.

+++

+ Sorry, who are the Praetors of Calth? +

Turning to the matter in hand, Goonhammer published a useful article on building a Space Marine army [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], which is nicely balanced and well worth reading through if you want a bit of an overview. 

As an example of the thought process, were we'll look at what changes my army might need, what (if anything) I need to change, and so forth.

It's worth noting that the army has progressed and advanced in-universe as well as in real life. What started as a Great Crusade-themed army has grown and expanded into a Horus Heresy force, and I've had a cast of characters develop quite naturally over time. While I haven't made a particular 'thing' about that in terms of gaming, and haven't pinned things down in stone, I'm always quietly pleased when edition changes roll around and naturally help create milestones.

To give a bit of an insight into this, Holion is probably the best example [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]. Starting out as 'Holion the Young' as part of the original project, he fought as a Legionary in first edition Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness (AoD). 

 

He was always a bit of a poster boy for the army – I think because he was protecting a civilian (Cassie), which lots of people (kindly) said was a neat touch.

When 2nd edition rolled around, I thought it'd be fun to promote him, so he became Lieutenant Holion, with a new model:

Likewise, a couple of models – Cestus and Telcion – were quietly killed off-camera when they turned out to not be 'legal' in that edition and replaced with new models in their squads; but I remembered their names and used them for Dreadnought pilots.

Little narrative touches like this are all very minor, all very supplementary to the broader game, and likely only of personal interest – but it's something that entertains me, and I'm keen with 3rd edition rolling around to do some more stuff like this. 

I mention this largely because that I've got experience of the frustration of having models suddenly not useable. There's no getting around that beyond house-ruling and chatting with your mates; but if that fails, sometimes you can make the best of things. As the Ultramarines might put it, if circumstances change, you need to either devise a new theoretical and practical. If your army is affected badly by the new rules, then I hope that doesn't mean you sit it out, like I did with 2nd; and that you're able to roll with the punches and come up swinging.

+++

+ Mustering the Praetors of Calth and 190th Company +

'New' Ultramarines from the 190th Company – by this point in my narrative, Holion, the young whipper-snapper from the 15th Chapter Praetors of Calth, had been promoted to Lieutenant, and had been transferred to the 19th Chapter to help command a newly-raised Company during the Muster on Calth.

To the meat of things: in 2nd edition AoD, I wanted to differentiate my older models from newer ones (like the examples above) by making them veterans, but as they were equipped with old-style Tactical equipment (the army pre-dated AoD first edition, being built for the Tempus Fugitives campaign weekends), this was a bit awkward.

+ Glory days of the Tempus Fugitives Heresy campaigns at Warhammer World. I think this was 2010/12ish +

I ended up building some new bolter-armed individuals to replace the special/heavy weapons in those squads, but there wasn't a neat way of making them functionally different beyond using them as Seekers, which I did a couple of times, but always felt a bit 'icky' doing. In the end, I tended to leave them out of the army entirely, and rely on the new models I built almost completely – but then 2nd edition AoD never really took off in my group, so I only played a handful of times.

Secondly, I also wanted to field all my low-level characters – Lieutenant Holion, Master of Signals Pullo, Chaplain Highheart and my Herald – as I was proud of them, and wanted to show them off. The force org meant that 1 had to be left out. A very minor problem, really, but an annoyance.

The new approach seems flexible to the point of fault – the system looks a lot like Legions Imperialis' super-complicated and functionally irrelevant army building, where it takes a very long time to find out that there aren't really any limits on what you can take.

On the face of things, I think it looks slightly more polished than LI, with the Prime slots mechanic a clever reward for basic theming (and allowing me to do fluffy things like allowing Sergeant Mox to have some slightly improved stats to represent his background story of being the senior sergeant in the Company); and not having the awkward Formation break point to track.

+++

+ Good in parts +

So, I can fill out the new Detachment quite nicely:

No High Command – since it's optional, I'm not encouraged to use Praetor-level stats for my Lieutenant-level character; and can just take Holion as a Centurion (command) – and happily he can now take both his Axe of Ultramar and special shield (I forget the name).

Pullo and Highheart fill the other two Command slots, but Holion remains a little bit special as he can occupy the 'Prime' slot, so he feels more in charge (albeit with a brevet rank of Captain, following his commander's death during the initial attack on Calth).

I can then field three squads of ten Tactical Marines (Troops), each with their own Rhino; plus have one of my old squads fielded as Troops with a Prime slot... or I can take two squads of twenty Tactical Marines and my Breachers.

+++

+ Some limits +

Oh, wait... my Breachers have power swords, because that was an option for Ultramarines. So I can't take those... except that they're now a special Ultramarines-only unit (Praetorians). Those are presumably Elites, which aren't an option on the Crusade Primary Detachment, so by virtue of taking three officers I'll have to take those from an Auxiliary Detachment, right?

... Ah. Looks like there's no option for Elites here, so I have to go back to the Crusade Primary Detachment and rethink. Oh – looks like Holion's as-yet unused Prime benefit can be used to take a Logistical Benefit, which will unlock the right slot, so that's that.

For bigger games, I might want to bring in some more specialist stuff – and at that point I start running into choices. I can take Captain Aethon at this point as a High Command choice; but to me, High Command implies Tetrarch rank (i.e. there's only a handful of them, rather than being 'ordinary' Chapter Master level), so I'd rather not do that.

At this point, however, I run into a problem. As far as I can see, there's no way to get more Command slots without using the High Command slot. And I haven't yet been able to squeeze in my Herald.

Perhaps I need to get over the idea that High Command represents genuinely exceptional individuals (like Abaddon and Sigismund), and accept that Chapter Masters (in Ultramarine terms, Captain Aethon is an equivalent) are okay to take as High Command. If I do that, then things get a little more fun as I can take an Apex Detachment.

I can now take the three squads of my old Praetors of Calth as Veteran Tactical Squads in the Army Vanguard, which are allowed exactly the equipment the models have (hooray!), and still get Mox as slightly better than Epipatros and Santiagon.

Pullo (my Master of Signals) allows me to unlock the Armoured Fist detachment and take my Land Raider; and Highheart allows me to take a Heavy Support detachment so I can field my Dreadnought Lazaron.

I think that still leaves me with the Centurion (Holion's) two Detachment choices to play with, so I can also bring to the field Techmarine Arius and my apothecary.

+++

+ Stop rambling – what's your point? +

... anyway, this is all a long detour towards a general thumbs-up on the army building. As long as I can get over the idea that Captains can be High Command, this version of Age of Darkness better fits my idea of what an army should look like, is flexible enough to fit my idea of background theme – and I get to field the force as I originally wanted it, all those years ago. 

Is it perfect? No, not at all – I feel very sad for anyone whose army doesn't fit in, or whose hard-built favourite units don't have a place. There's no getting away from the fact that it's a [SCRAPSHUNTERRORABORT] if your old army doesn't translate across or requires cludgy 'counts-as'. As noted above, I know that feeling well from 2nd edition.

Nevertheless, I found the exercise of army building in AoD 3rd edition a lot more approachable and fun than the Legions Imperialis army building experience, which (despite my keen desire to like it and a lot of patience) is about as fun as hammering nails into splintery two-by-fours.

+++

+ New theoreticals; new practicals +

In writing this, it struck me that the bolt-it-on approach of the new way of army building has got my brain fired up for expansion. In theory, I can build more Tactical Marines; or field my Salamanders or Iron Hands (or Silver Stars... or Steel Legion as Auxilia...) as Allied Detachments quick as a wink, rather than having to slog through making 1,500pts+ of them. Being able to game with those smaller forces alongside my Ultramarines is great, I think I'd struggle to have the motivation to build them otherwise.

I think the new system also lends itself to expansion better. If a model comes out that I like the look of, I'm not talking myself out of it by thinking about what I'll have to lose from a set force – and if I decide that I want to field something really weird like an Apothecary-heavy army for a scenario like defending the genebanks, I'll be able to do so without being forced to drag an important officer from the frontlines.

+++

+ inload: Basing musings and heavy weapons +

+ Imperial Guard heavy weapons +

+ Lasguns can achieve a lot, but every Guardsman appreciates a big gun at their back. +

'Imperial Guard heavy weapons are crewed by a team of two men. Generally speaking, one crewman carries and fires the weapon whilst the other carries and loads ammunition. [...] This arrangement is unique to the Imperial Guard.'

+ Codex Imperial Guard +

So says the venerable first ever Codex the Imperial Guard got – unwittingly making basing and rebasing a source of low-level psychic angst for Guard players the subsequent decades.

These new weapon teams stood aside from the older Imperial Army models, where individual soldiers had their own (generally shoulder-mounted) gun. The new models were more akin to the field artillery  pieces from Rogue Trader, like ork Hop-Splat guns and Squat Mole Mortars, with separate models for the gun and the crew. At the time of release, this was a fun way to let you play with the cool 'gun team' models the GW were releasing for the metal Regiments then being rolled out.

The lascannon and mortar were unbased models, with the crew on separate 25mm bases; while the autocannon and heavy bolters had seats for the gunners and the loaders separate. The Catachan and Cadian missile launcher gunners were on cavalry bases of all things, while the other Regiments had both team members on 25mm. Quite a mix, and typical of the 'model first' approach of the period. Lots of players opted to put the guns on bases of various sizes, or otherwise adapt to what looked best to them. The Codex went on to give a few suggestions of how this all worked in practice, and we all happily bumped along.

Spool on a few more years, and new heavy teams were released in plastic. Whatever the weapon, all the teams were now consolidated/abstracted into a single 60mm base (flat rather than raised and bevelled, for some reason) containing the gun and two crew members. As tournament-style competitive gaming became more important, this was codified, so lots of players moved their old weapon teams onto 60mm bases for a few more editions 'til now, when the current 40k rules call for 50mm bases... I've got a certain recalcitrance to rebase purely to suit a new edition. Part of that's laziness, part of it's a sense that I don't want to mess around with models I'm happy with, and part of it's that I tend to edition hop, so it's all a bit academic: I'd be robbing Peter to pay Paul.

In all truth I've never been particularly fussed about sticking to the letter of the rules on basing anyway – the look of the models has usually driven any decisions I make on things like this. My Lamb's World Guard heavy weapons, for example, have been on 50mm bases for years because they're particularly delicate models and so looked lost on bigger bases. Likewise when I originally built these Steel Legion for the Aldebaran 18th [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], I only had one heavy bolter, which I wanted to include in an infantry squad and so popped them team on an oval to fit with the squad better.

That's not a standard issue base!

However, blast markers, movement, range... all these things can (in theory) be affected by the shape and size of the base, so at gaming events where I've been playing pick-up games against new people, I've always made clear what's 'correct' and what's a change for the sake of visuals. Happily, in twenty-odd years of such gaming, I've never met anyone who's voiced any complaints, but there's part of me that does feel a little conflicted when models aren't on 'current, official' bases – I know I'd feel like a plum complaining about something so minor, so perhaps everyone's been keeping quiet out of politeness!

+++

+ Basing the Steel Legion +

All of which is really a long preamble into the topic of today's inload, in which I agonise about which bases to use for my heavy weapons teams.

Pictured here are some Steel Legion heavy weapon teams; some old, some new, and hopefully you can sympathise with my dilemma. From left to right we have a heavy bolter team on a 120 x 92mm oval; a heavy bolter team (just about balancing!) on a 50mm base; a lascannon team on a 60mm base and a lascannon mounted on a 40mm base together with two crew members.

Steel Legion missile launchers are much smaller models and so, unlike the other weapon teams, were provided with 25mm bases:

+ Consistency versus pragmatism +

To me, the oval works best for the heavy bolter: the 50mm is too small to support the gun and gunner together, while they'd be lost on a 60mm base. Conversely, the lascannon fits quite nicely on a 60mm base; and is substantial enough to sit on its own 40mm base, with the crew separate. That's much more convenient for storage and transport, but leaves the heavy bolter crew as the only ones on a combined base.

So let's try some other options for the lascannons. Here's one on a similar oval to the heavy bolter (though set at a different angle). Cool, but only possible because I've converted the crew...

Here's an example of the same team moved to a 50mm base, and here I think this works quite well. The team doesn't look so lost as the set on the 60mm base, and I suspect this'll be more practical for both storage and gaming.

However, it'd definitely agitate the brain worms to have one team on an oval and one on a 60mm round... argh!

After consulting my (very patient and indulgent) friends in the PCRC, I think I've decided on keeping the missiles on individual 25mm bases; the heavy bolters on ovals; and have lascannons on 50mm bases. But what are your thoughts – and how do you base your heavy weapon teams?

+++

Things like this are silly considerations in the grand scheme of things, but nothing halts work and kills enthusiasm for me like analysis paralysis. Having a plan in mind is useful – but for those instances where I just can't make up my mind, I sometimes find it helpful to press ahead with stuff I am sure about – in this instance, how I'm painting the coats on the infantry.

One big batch later – as noted in this inload [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], I'm aiming for a balance between effect and speed rather than a highly-polished display result – I've got the coats of all of the original figures in the army completed, so the next stage will be revisiting the guns and greys.

After that, I'll turn my attention to the goggles, faces and leathers; leaving just the Army Group symbol (white lightning bolt on green field) to finish.

... but to finish today's inload, here's the hero of the hour, our currently nameless Primaris Psyker, who's taken on quite a character and become a favourite after the few 2nd edition games we've had.

+ inload: Armageddon Steel Legion release history +

 + Resupply: Seventh Army Group +

+ A patrol from the 7th Army Group take on a mob of Goffs. +

+ Known by those fighting it simply as 'The War', what would later be titled in Imperial histories as the Second War for Armageddon involved millions of Imperial Guardsmen and a colossal amount of kit. Some was imported from off-world, but for the most part, Armageddon's production capabilities were equal to the task. +

+ Today's inload looks at some extra equipment I've mananged to lay my hands on for my Steel Legion force. +

+++

+ History of the Steel Legion +

The Steel Legion release was a bit of a peculiarity, as was much to do with the Codex Armageddon supplement to 3rd edition 40k. The Codex was an interesting experiment from GW: rather than being focussed on a single army, it included extra units and rules allowing you to create Salamanders or Black Templars Space Marines forces; a Speed Freek specific list for the orks; and the mounted Steel Legion Regiment for Imperial Guard. In addition, it had lots of maps and background and ideas for fighting in the battlefields of this specific warzone. In many ways, it was the precursor to today's 'War Zone' campaign books.

The models were also a bit unusual, as they marked a transition between the metals of 2nd edition 40k and the plastics of 3rd edition. The full range – such as it is – can be seen here, on the Collecting Citadel Miniatures wiki [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+]. When compared with the earlier metal ranges for the Guard (Valhallans, Catachans etc.), you'll spot the available Steel Legion are a bit thin on the ground. Sculpted by the Perry Twins, the models we did get are wonderfully characterful, as this typical lasgun sculpt shows. 

In many ways the Steel Legion release was a bit of a last gasp of the metals. Unlike the previous Regiments, which were the de facto official kit for Imperial Guard, the Steel Legion were released after the plastic Catachan sprue and just a couple of years before the plastic Cadian sprue, and the way the wind was blowing, I think most contemporary gamers were beginning to see plastics as the future; so the Steel Legion always had a whiff of a stop-gap special release; a fun addition to the upcoming Cadians who would become 'the basic Guard'.

This feeling is emphasised by the small range. The earlier Regiments were (generally speaking) each released in two loose waves – an initial infantry box and officer followed up a couple of months later by a few alternative lasgun, special and heavy weapon sculpts, plus another sergeant and officer sculpt. The Steel Legion never received reinforcements of this kind, instead having a slightly larger single wave that included a couple of variant officers, a single extra special weapon and two heavy weapon teams.

In the weapons and equipment we can see this transition more clearly. The preceding metals all shared some universal equipment. The lasguns, water bottles, grenades and special/heavy weapons were shared universally across all the various ranges, from Mordian to Tallarn, as the examples of Catachan and Cadian lasguns below illustrates:

Catachan comm-link

 

The lasgun here was universal for Guard across the range.

A shot of various bits from the Cadian range – note the identical lasguns on the left; and examples of the universal  plasma, flamer, melta gun and bolt pistol models, too.

The Steel Legion (and much later, Vostroyans), differed here. They had a new unique pattern of lasrifle, which was clearly based on the then-current plastic Catachan lasgun. It had the same casing and slimmer, less cartoony barrel; but with less of the barrel exposed, and with a folding stock instead of a solid one:

The water bottle and other equipment had much the same signature as the older Perry sculpts, but were unique to the range. Little details like this make them stand out from the older Regiments, and presage what would come – though they remain a niche range. With just six lasgun sculpts, repetition is quick across an army.

More obviously, the Steel Legion got entirely new heavy and special weapons, which – to my eyes at least – were light years ahead of the clunkier old ones, and gave the Regiment a slightly more 'modern warfare' feel than the older equivalents.

The plastic Cadian range came out just three years later in 2003, and while the metals remained on sale, the Cadians quickly came to dominate. The Steel Legion therefore became a bit of a footnote in collecting history, but – as I hope you'll agree – the models are still lovely.

+++

+ What's new? +

Finding second-hand Steel Legion is now a challenge. Not only were they around for less time than the older metal Regiments, but their slim range of just two special weapons (grenade launcher and plasma gun) and three heavy weapons (missile launcher, lascannon and heavy bolter) was not evenly distributed – missile launchers and grenade launchers are very common, as they were packaged with the infantry squad; but the others are much rarer – and hence unfortunately tend to be prohibitively expensive.

You can still pick up some bargains, if you don't mind a bit of conversion work. The lascannon below was missing its crew, but a separate lucky find gave me one of them, and I converted a spare missile launcher gunner to act as a second member of the crew (at the back here) – a simple matter of cutting at the shoulder and wrist to have him holding a remote trigger while scanning the horizon.

The autosavant is trying to reconcile the non-standard crew – the body language says it all!

Alongside these I managed to pick up a couple of plasma gunners and a spare heavy bolter gunner. He received the leftover missile launcher arm from the conversion above – a neat way to kill two birds with one stone, creating some visual variety in the limited poses available and also making use of spare parts.

You'll spot a second standard heavy bolter team and some plasma gunners, too; alongside some 40k weirdos (old Inquisition models) that I thought fitted the vibe of the force.

The PCRC are planning an old-fashioned event, where I'm hoping to get to field some or all of my Steel Legion, so I'll get to painting. If time, budget and skill allows, I'd like to have a go at creating some Steel Legion Rough Riders to go with the army, as a nod to those from the Battle For Armageddon boardgame.

... and apropos of nothing other than I liked them, I indulged in some Steel Legion-themed dice to go with the army, and some 'sustained fire' dice for our continuing 2nd edition games.

+++

+ inload: Painting Silver Stars +

 + War of the False Primarch: Painting more Silver Stars +

+ Come and see. +

+ An inload looking at some work in progress painting on my Silver Stars for the War of the False Primarch, ahead of their not-quite Index Astartes. +

+++

+ [REDACTED] +

Are they? Aren't they? Lost or Forgotten, disguised traitors, a sinister alien artifice – or something entirely more esoteric?

The meat of the narrative in +Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten+ is, I feel, is in the five 'canon' Pentarchy Chapters, and the eleven(ish) Chapters of the Partisans, but the Silver Stars offer key background that gives the others something to shine against.

They were always intended to (and will) remain fairly anonymous and underexplored, but I thought it'd be underserving the people who have painted up some examples to not have any info, so rather than an 'Index Astartes' article, they'll instead have an 'Index Apocrypha', a bit like the Rogue Trader era-inspired Spacewolves Chapter [+noosphericinloadlinkembedded+], with the details left deliberately unresolved.

In short, you're going to get a look at the various theories surrounding them (and goodness there have been a lot!), including lots inspired by ideas that followers of the project have asked.

+++

To that end, then, I've been polishing things up. A further ten Silver Stars are nearing completion, along with the chap at the top of the inload, who is an as-yet-undiscovered character, bearing a Heat-Death Nihilation Mace and a sword, which may or may not be rainbow-hued.

The process I've been following is from my original recipe for the Pseudolegion, which you can inload here [+noosphericinloadlinkembedded+]; and they're getting to the stage that I'll need to add the markings, which you can dig through here: [+noosphericinloadlinkembedded+]

First up, three regular ol' Tactical Marines/Legionaries. As usual when building models, I aim for a couple of more interesting poses for every half-dozen 'normal' ones. That sort of proportion means that the army as a whole looks suitably military and determined, but there's interesting stuff to look at if you want to. 

Here, two carrying boltguns help to frame and set off one throwing grenades. All are in the curiously anonymous Mark II 'Crusade' power armour (or at least a very good replica).

Plumes are seemingly de rigeur this millennium for the Silver Stars; they add a little flourish, but don't seem to have particular relevance to the individual's status.

A volkite caliver-bearing Veteran here is flanked by two Pseudolegionaries with chainswords. 

... and because I can't resist setting up a shot or two in action, you can see how these will be used. If you'll forgive me showing a glimpse behind the curtain, it's surprising how few individual models you need to give the impression of a crowd.

There's about fifteen Silve Stars here, of which a substantial proportion are basecoated, as shown above, rather than finished and polished up.

+++

+ inload: 2nd edition 40k thoughts +

+ Hard Luck at Hemlock Bank +

Rutger's rebreather gave a protesting click. He was too tired to be nervous about the filter – all he wanted was for the interminable waiting to be over. The High-and-Dries had been encamped in the Hemlock valley for more than a week now, the orks sending occasional probing attacks along the line – not enough to warrant a decisive response, but more than sufficient to keep the whole line at ready status. 

Why weren't they attacking?

Little more than ten minutes later, Rutger would regret asking.

+++

A very fun little classic 40k game of Orks versus Imperial Guard, Bob Hunk fielded Og Throatchoppa's Blood Axes against my Steel Legion 707th. Commanded by General 'Asbach' Grünhold, the 707th fielded a reinforced platoon of around fifty Guardsman supported by a squad of Ogryn auxiliaries, a Leman Russ battle tank, and a Demolisher.

Besides the good General, a junior officer, two psykers and a commissar were also present.

Facing them was an intimidating sea of green – around three-score orks plus three looted Rhinos, one of which bore the infamous Og Throatchoppa and his retinue. 

A Shokk attack gun had been laboriously carried up an escarpment, and a number of shock troops, in the form of a mob of boarboyz and a dreadnought, were noted by Imperial observers.

The game was very enjoyable, with the Guard putting up a bit more resistance than last time! The line had been stiffened by swapping out the Griffon (Manticore) for a Demolisher and the addition of some Ogryns and Stormtroopers. 

The game started well for the Steel Legion, with early shots sending a mob of orks scampering for cover, and some lucky hits on the advancing Rhinos slowing the advance. The Boarboys overcame the Stormtroopers in the shuttle wreck, but a Demolisher shell completed the exchange.

We chatted afterwards and noted that it was nice that Orks and Guard weren't nearly as distinct as in later editions. The differences boil down to one better T for orks, and one better I for Guard; which meant that orks could exchange fire effectively, and Guard weren't hopelessly outclassed in every combat.

On an individual basis, Orks versus Guard is not nearly as predictable across the different phases of the game, which meant for closer exchanges and more nail-biting dice rolls.

There was plenty of fun stuff to laugh at too, with surviving tank crew frantically trying to man the right guns for the turn, and the poor ork boy pictured above being flung back and forth by the Primaris Psyker before finally making it into combat!

Lessons learned from more modern editions don't really follow – we'd forgotten quite how dead 'ard vehicles are, and as you can see from the brawl above, ork dreadnoughts versus ogryns isn't quite the death trap it later became.

Don't get me wrong, the rules are initially complex, but once you're over the learning curve, that's it. The complexity of the rules is built in and created through the decision you make on the table, so – with the notable exception of the Strategy cards and Psychic phase – there's not a great deal more that is added. As a result, it feels quite clean and clear once you're going. There aren't lots of exceptions and breaks and things to bear in mind, so there's less mental load than a lot of more modern games.

That's both a good and a bad thing. Epic: Armageddon and Adeptus Titanicus (my favourite tabletop games) both require constant engagement, which makes them very involving; while the turn-based 2nd edition 40k gives you more mental space, which is a different sort of fun.

Overall, a very enjoyable game – and it's stoked the desire to play more 2nd edition, so it's clearly doing something right!