+ inload: 3rd edition battle and Leman Russ Vanquisher lore +

 + Vanquisher – and battle against the Emperor's Hawks +

+ 707th infantry +

The benefits of batch painting reveal themselves when you dig out an army carry-box and find a load of models that are nearly finished.

These Steel Legionaries, for my 707th army, have been part-painted for ages, and with a couple of hours free I've worked them up a little more, so they're ready for the table. This involved little more than picking out the dust goggles and a little work on the various weapons/equipment, as the coats were already finished by past-me. They still need the skin and eyes to be painted, but there's so little visible that this should be swift.

You'll spot the company banner has been worked up a little more, too, though I'm still musing over some icons to add. PCRC suggestions have included a Yarrick claw and evil eye, which sound cool.

I also took the opportunity to add some detail to this comms-trooper's map. I used contrast paints to prevent the lines looking too harsh and stark.

+ Tank support +

... and likewise this half-finished Leman Russ Vanquisher got polished up a little, an so is now three-quarters-finished.

This involved working the turret up a little more and picking out some more darker/metallic details.

Background-wise, the Leman Russ Vanquisher is a variant of the Leman Russ Battle Tank. Armed with a Vanquisher cannon, it's able to shoot dedicated anti-tank shells as well as regular battle cannon shells. So powerful and reliable is its main gun that it's even a credible threat to War Engines including Titans.

The STC for its construction was lost when the Forge World of Tigrus was overrun (darn orks!), but the Imperium can still produce similar variants from a limited number of other Forge Worlds. As a result, where once entire tank companies were made up of the Vanquisher, it's now more commonly seen alongside other Leman Russ variants, either acting as a dedicated tank-hunter or as a prestigious command tank.

+++

In the real world, Forge World produced a few different variants, shown below:

+ Gryphonne IV variant +

I'm fairly sure that the Gryphonne IV version above is the oldest – and was amongst the first Forge World releases in 2001. 

If you're interested in the history of the Leman Russ Battle Tank, inload this [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], which covers all sorts of ins and outs of this storied old model. Note that things marked with an asterisk in this inload are expanded on a bit further through the noosphericinloadlink.

+ Stygies VIII variant +

This version was released soon afterwards – it's certainly in the 2003 catalogue, and I'm fairly sure it was new in 2002. It's a good reflection of the early days of Forge World, where small runs of minor variants like this were their bread and butter, rather than having full ranges of their own.

Both this and the Gryphonne IV conversion kit were created for the original 1995 plastic Leman Russ release (the Mark IV*), and were later redesigned with an adapter to let them work on the redesigned Mark VII, which had a small hole in the hull for the turret. If you're looking to get one second-hand, it's worth checking which version you're getting.

+ Ryza Vanquisher turret +

This was a slightly later variant that came out for the Death Korps of Krieg, which by this point had expanded to have a whole range of their own subtly different vehicles. I'd not like to put a solid date on it, but I think the Ryza-pattern tanks and conversion sets stated appearing in the form above around 2008–2009.

This is a bit vague, because I think the DK-specific tanks were a development of an earlier Ryza-pattern turret, which came out earlier – around 2004. 

+++

+ The lenses and headlight go a long way to adding suggested detail, even when the rest of it needs a lot of cleaning up and refinement. +

But enough of delving into the dusty murk of past releases. I'll be continuing to work on this – the paintjob needs highlighting and cleaning up – but it's in a nice place and perfectly fieldable.

+++

+ Into battle! +

And speaking of fielding it, I had a great game against PCRC droog Stuntwedge. With the Tears of the Eye of Terror event creeping up on us, we wanted to get some practice in for 3rd edition 40k (well, '3.5', as we're using the various Chapter Approved updates).

To that end I dug out my Armageddon board [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] and set up a few rocks, crops and hedges to suggest some roads.



Stuntwedge brought along a 2,000pt army of Emperor's Hawks, a Chapter he's had for decades, and has many happy memories for the whole PCRC. It was a treat to see them back on the board.

The Emperor's Hawks came along on one of the first campaign weekends we all went on, where he'd built a full Battle Company of this Codex-compliant Chapter.

The game itself was a thorough drubbing for the poor Steel Legion, with the final VP total being something like 1,500–200 to the Adeptus Astartes – more training needed for my Guardsmen, I think!

Some more glamour shots from the game.

Steel Legion lurk in the fields, the crops providing a 6+ cover save which proved considerably more useful than their armour...

+++

+ inload: Painting Scythian at Epic scale +

+ Scythian in the paint-chamber +

+ Theoretical +

Scythian's an exercise in building up a Titan with a bit more background and depth – you'll have spotted 

some notes on the 40k-scale version (and his crew) that's going up. (And if you haven't, you can inload it at your leisure: [+noopshericinloadlink embedded+])

Why? Well, simple enough: digging deep into a particular individual throws light on the broader setting, so by really thinking through how events – both everyday and with broader impact – affect the Titan, I'll get more of an understanding about how they work. As an example, I have a vague understanding that there must be some sort of promotion track (and likely politics) for Titan crews, so it'll be fun to play  out an example of that.

Likewise, writing stuff to develop the background will let me make up answers for what various bits of heraldry mean to the men and women of Legio Tempestus; how Titans actually work; and similar sundry interesting bits and bobs.

For the record, I don't think it's necessary (or even desirable) to do this for every Titan – apart from anything else, eventually you run out of good ideas and stories, and end up going through the motions – Scythian will be a bit of an outlier, but hopefully an entertaining one. To me, this is the essence of what a Titan of Legend (or, for that matter, a 40k Special Character) should be – an archetypical figure that tells you more about the faction, rather than having different/better rules.

+ Practical +

Anyway, I've been building up the paintwork on the Epic-scale maniple, on the basis that a big 40k-scale one is scary to start, and having a little one to make mistakes on is a good idea!

As noted, the story shouldn't compromise or direct the paintjob, but it should help if I get stuck. 

+ Base colours in place +

I worked on the Warbringer Nemesis, Warlord and Scythian all together, gradually building up the colours section by section. While there will inevitably be some real-world variation in colours, having some consistency is good to make sure they work as a group.

For quick reference, here's a snap of the paints I've used for the blue:

One of the nice things about painting big robots (or armour) is that they often fall into distinct sections, so you can work on a bit at a time, either to make things more approachable or simply to keep your interest levels up. 

Here's a detail of Scythian's head, worked up from the Colour Forge's Republic blue spray base coat:

... and a little while later, the missile launcher:

... and later still, when I got bored with painting blue, I swapped over to establishing the white areas. I actually used a slightly dirty grey mix produced by adding some of the muck on my palette to white. This'll give me some tonal space for highlights – but as you can see, it still reads as white against the deep blue.

+ Into the detail +

From here I continued building up the blue areas, then turned to a small brush and began painting lots of tiny squares.

... and I'm very glad I did. All the way through the early stage, I'd had a nagging feeling that it was looking too 'Ultramarines', even though I'd deliberately picked a cooler blue and more brassy gold than I'd use for the XIIIth. It's a good example of having to trust the process and pushing through, even when I was feeling less than confident.

Being an important part of the Legio Tempestus' livery, the chequers seemed to give the piece more of a Stormlords feel, and more so as they built up. It was at this point that I felt myself relaxing into the painting and enjoying myself – probably why there's quite a jump in painting at this point!

The big sculpted detail on the top of the carapace matches that of the 40k-scale one (as do the other sculpted details), so this was high on my list of details to play around with. The plan, after all, is to replicate all of this on the big'un.

Ultimately, there's not a great deal of creativity on display here – I've given it a fairly simple and conservative treatment; though one I hope will look good both at Epic and 40k scale. 

I didn't want to throw in lots of colours, as that would take away from the blue, white, black and silver scheme; but nor did I want to paint the whole device in the same hue, as that would look monolithic at the larger scale. In the end, I decided to use cool grey on the eagle, warm grey on the scrollwork, and kept the cog 'halo' at the top in bronze. This adds some variety without drawing the eye too much.

You'll notice the heraldic shield is thus far left blank. Partly this was simply because I needed to move on to the other Titans, as they needed to be at least base-coated for our game up at Warhammer World! 

However, before I stopped, I did want to try some slightly fancy lettering on the name; something that I hope to be able to refine and superdetail on the larger version. 

+++

For the moment, then, here's how Scythian stands. 

Certainly alright for a Walk; but lots to do to refine and improve him. 

+++

+ inload: Warlord Epic scale ECW +

+ English Civil War +

Chipping away at these has been a lovely break from the norm. About twice the size of GW's Epic figures and half the size of a 40k model, these Warlord Epic (WLE) scale models paint up quickly, fittingly using a combination of techniques picked up from painting larger and smaller figures.

Taking a prompt from how I tackled my Epic Salamanders [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], I worked these on the sprue. Being a little larger and single part (aside from the guns), I simply left them on the sprue rather than clipping them off and rearranging them.

You'll spot I've removed a few supports from the frames to avoid creating more tidying up later. The supports attached to the built-in 'puddle bases' are more than sturdy enough to hold them steady.

In terms of colour choices, I've used a variety, avoiding a completely uniform look, but having some common buffs and browns. I figure the firearms and leathers would be fairly similar to one another, but the men might have had a mix of their own coats together with those supplied by the Colonel of the regiment – who in those days would have paid for much of his forces' equipment from his own pocket.

I also included some brighter blues and reds to prevent everything looking drab. I've learned my lesson from painting 6mm GW Epic figures that washes can really flatten everything, and so kept the paint application fairly vibrant and layered.

For the horsemen, I started by painting the horses, then picked out the troopers on top separately. 

I enjoy painting horses at this scale; they batch up quite nicely, but there's enough freedom to play around with different colours and patterns (as you can see on the upper left) when I get bored.

+++

As outlined in the previous inload [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], this single sprue gives a bit of a mix of bits and bobs. Once clipped from the sprue and popped on group bases, here's how they look:

As an aside, it was fun to find some source material for painting ideas from some days out!

 

+ inload: War of the Three Kingdoms sprue +

 + And now for something completely different +

+ Historical miniatures? On this blog? Who would have thought? Today's inload looks at a sprue of soldiers from the Civil War, and casts a little light over historical wargaming from the point of view of a (mostly) sci-fi enthusiast. +

+++

+ Into the Civil War (with limited ambitions) +

While I've always had a love for history, that's never really translated into the urge to refight real battles. In general, beyond the usual Airfix kits and green/tan/blue army men, I've preferred to keep my gaming firmly in the realms of fantasy/sci-fi, where imagination can excuse pretty much anything.

So what's brought on this urge? In truth, sometimes you want an absolute clean fresh start; something that isn't related to anything else I'm doing, and can be self-contained.

I'm not really aiming to pick up a new game or start a huge new collection (our gaming group already have more games than we can readily play!); I've simply been reading a couple of books around the 17th century – John Aubrey's Brief Lives and The Siege of Loyalty House by Jessie Childs, and got the itch to paint up some models as a break from Titans [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+].

+++

Turns out that idle hands, enthusiasm and access to a smartphone is a dangerous combination. A cursory look online revealed an absolute smorgasboard of cool things.

I think it would be unusual to have an interest in wargaming for very long without at least being aware of historical wargaming – it is, after all, where the hobby originated – but as with a lot of subcultures, each different niche runs their own little race, and often has its own assumptions and language. Such is definitely the case here. Turns out historicals cover quite a lot of history (who would have guessed?), and so they're generally grouped into a few genres: stuff like Ancients, Napoleonics etc. 

+ A sprue of Warlord Games' English Civil War/Thirty Years War cavalry +

The English Civil War – or more commonly today 'War of the Three Kingdoms' – falls into Early Modern wargaming, where it's often referred to as ECW. Even within this little patch of history there are lots (and lots!) of options. 

What I've plumped for is a cavalry sprue from Warlord Games' Epic Pike & Shotte range – a peculiar 'not-quite-15mm' scale. Why this range, and why this scale? Well, as noted above, it doesn't need to go with anything, and since a nice cheap sprue popped up on ebay, I thought I'd snag one for a look in person. 

Much like GW's Epic-scale ranges, the sprue contains various little groups of unrelated things; presumably to minimise the number of sprues the range needs. And it's a very tight little range. For those of us spoiled by GW, where you might get three boxes of various tank patterns, each with unique sprues, the entire English Civil War range is contained within a handful of sprues and a few extra individual packs. Even then, the plastics are shared with the Thirty Years' War range, as the aesthetics overlap to a great extent.

Pictured above are a selection of horsemen. My pop culture understanding of the Civil War had me assume that the chaps with the helmets were Parliamentary 'Roundheads', and the fellows with the broadbrimmed hats the Royalist 'Cavaliers' – but turns out that both sides were pretty much interchangeable, and the sprue can quite happily represent both sides.

... and this is a great relief to a dabbler in historicals. Whether in the pseudo-history of 40k or in historicals I very much appreciate the effort that people go into when they ensure their forces are accurate and fitting to the setting – regular inloaders will know I love following a thread and digging through details – but I always think that should be an optional thing, and that if people are happy with a looser, more freeform attitude to their hobby, then more power to them. Ultimately, I think historical accuracy is great, but it's not the be-all and end-all of enjoying your hobby. Quite apart from anything else, 'True History' has a habit of being reinterpreted as the facts are reappraised when new evidence pops up, so my aim is going to be to follow the history where I can, but not to the detriment of spectacle and painting enjoyment.

+ Shut up and show me the models +

To the uneducated eye, then, we've got some cavalry, a couple of guns and crew, and a handful of handgunners. I've seen some reviews on other Historical-themed blogs that flag up various errors or problems – good-natured grousing about details is clearly not limited to Warhammer! – but from an absolute beginner's point of view, these look fun.

In trying to dig out exactly what's what on the sprue, I'm finding that there's either a lot of assumed knowledge, or that – refreshingly to a coddled GW gamer – a lot of it is a bit freer, with certain models able to represent a couple of different things. As noted, I'm broadly familiar with the history and understand the difference between a dragoon and a pikeman, or a rifle and a handgun, but I wanted to at least know what the sculptor had intended things to be.

The excellent 'Keep Your Powder Dry' blog (KYPD) [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] has a great rundown of the contents of the sprue – which reveals quite how shallow my existing knowledge was! – so do have a delve through there. It's a fantastic resource, rich with history and well-referenced information. I'm sure I'll be coming back to the blog for guidance and ideas on colours.

+++

The sprue again. I haven't shown a picture of the base sprue, but it looks like the cavalry are intended to fit five to a base, the pegs below their feet getting them ranked up, and the guns – *quickly checks KYPD*  a saker and falconet – are intended to sit on a single base with their crew.

The guns are neatly designed in three parts, with the crew moulded as part of the wheels. You'll get repetition, but there's some variety possible with placement of the extra crew, and – being plastic – they should also be easy to convert.

The infantry appear a bit different, and I think are either intended to go in a more freeform skirmishing group together on a base (they don't appear to have pegs to fit into the bases), or perhaps to be scattered about to add character elsewhere. 

The infantrymen – 'commanded shot'; a term I take to mean a group of handgunners seconded to support a cavalry force, rather than fielded alongside protective pikemen – are fun little sculpts, with lots of character. Standing around 12–13mm tall (or half the height of a modern GW figure), there's a good variety of poses and details. I think these should be a lot of fun to paint; larger and more rewarding that my Legions Imperialis figures, but quicker and less fussy than 32mm figures.

A couple of the ones at the bottom have handgun stands. Apparently in the early part of the Civil War, handguns were quite unwieldy as a general rule, while later in the war lighter and more refined versions became available. Happily again, this is a general rule, and standardisation didn't really exist, so these figures can quite happily represent handgunners from almost any battlefield of the time.

KYPD notes that you can use these as a front line for the infantry handgunners who are on a separate sprue; so for the moment I think I'll paint them on-sprue while I work out how I want to arrange them. As noted above, I'm primarily interested in just painting some models for fun, but it'd be nice not to make any really obvious errors.

Wish me luck, and hopefully I'll have some laughing cavaliers to share with you soon!

+++

+ inload: Bloodsong V2 development +

+ Bloodsong V2 development +

+ Bloodsong, the expansion that provides rules for Eldar and Orks in Adeptus Titanicus, has been out in the wild for some months now, and with plenty of useful feedback rolling in, I thought I'd start outlining what's in the works for version 2. +

+++

+ What's brought on the enthusiasm? +

Partly notes, comments and feedback from the broader commuinty, and partly some fun Titanicus gaming with the PCRC gang at Warhammer World – Legio Tempestus in their first Walk; alongside Lucifer216's Legio Infernus and facing Stuntwedge's Legio Valorum and Omricon's Legio Sisyphus:

A defeat for the Warmaster's forces, but a good time had by all – except for my poor xenos-loving comrades, who haven't got any official rules for xenos. Bloodsong to the rescue!

+ If you've not heard of Bloodsong, this Adeptus Titanicus expansion  with rules for Orks and Eldar is available for free on Google docs here: [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] +

+++

+ What's planned for Bloodsong v2? +

With official Adeptus Titanicus and Legions Imperialis news and releases a bit thin on the ground at the moment, it's nice for the community to keep up the enthusiasm – and in that spirit, here's what's coming up for the Orks and Eldar in version 2.

• Updates, clarifications and corrections 
• Built up over the past few months from comments and emails from users, these will be folded into the text and any particularly notable ones summarised at the end of the book. 
• When using the cards and terminals, you'll be able to identify the new ones by the V2 note (currently they have v1.5, as circled in magenta below).

• Background and pictures for ork and Eldar
• To help with conversions and identifying equipment, there'll be a lore section which shows what the various weapons are – which will also help to explain why certain things work as they do mechanically.
• I'll include some sample Ork and Eldar names drawn from old background, to give some help when creating your Titans/Gargants.
• Stratagems and Princeps trait equivalents for Orks and Eldar
• These are currently missing from the rules, and will add some much-needed depth to the project, and opportunities for players.
• Rules and background for two/three War-clans and two/three Waa!-orks
• Fir Iolarion (Eagles Born of Fire)
• Lugganath
• Blue and gold
• Fir Lirithion (Hearts Armoured for Battle)
• Iyanden
• Fir Farillecassion (Watchers Over Ancient Wrongs) 
• Biel-Tann
• Fir Dinillainn (Protectors of the Gallen) 
• Saim-Hann

• Waa-Gharkhul
• The Great Crusade met a number of extremely powerful ork strongholds, including that of Overlord Urrlak Urg. Gharkhul Blackfang was eventually defeated by the Emperor himself; but his forces were on the verge of defeating the combined efforts of three Space Marine Legions.
• Waa-Morgoth (Ghaslakh Xenohold)
• Inventive and pragmatic, Morgoth Maultoof was an up-and-coming Warboss during the outbreak of the Horus Heresy. His forces were the purported reason for the deployment of both the Ultramarines and Word Bearers – even though the xenohold was not then notable. With the attack foiled from within, Morgoth's forces went on to swell in size during the Heresy period, and became a blight on the recovering Imperium during the Great Scouring and beyond.
• Waa-Shagrudd
• Rules for Supa-stompas/Mekboy Gargants/Steam-Gargants
• A new terminal and background for these.

+ Tell me more... +

+ Terminology +

I've had a few requests for Eldar Craftworld or Ork clan rules, so I wanted to flag why I'm using 'War-clans' and 'Waa-Orks' as Legio equivalents:

• I don't want to force playstyles and colour schemes together – if you want a straightforward aggressive approach for your orks, you shouldn't be forced to paint them as Goffs (for example).
• War-clans and Waa-orks have historical precedence, and I'm including as many references to 'canon' stuff as possible – which hopefully makes it more likely for people to give a 'homebrew' set of rules a go. 
• Apart from anything else, digging through old rulesets and White Dwarf issues to find one-off references is fun!
• Using different terminology helps to keep things clear and avoid confusion between background and mechanics.

Happily, while the War-clans have their own schemes and backgrounds, the original designers note that Eldar Titans (and ork Gargants) are frequently painted in Craftworld/Clan colours, so if you do prefer that approach, it'll work perfectly.

I haven't quite decided on which War-clans and Waa-Orks to concentrate on, so if you have particular favourites for one reason or another, do let me know. I'm currently erring towards just two of each on the basis that it'll be a bit more manageable for publishing and playtesting – and a similar model to that of the Adeptus Titanicus sourcebook expansions – but will reassess as I go.

+++

+ Stratagems and Princeps traits +

Currently the Bloodsong rules suggest using the Blackshields allegiance for the purposes of traits and stratagems, but this is a bit unsatisfactory. I'd prefer to have something more fitting for the xenos while still fitting within the existing rules. Creating something entirely new would be fun, but the further the project strays from the Adeptus Titanicus ruleset, the more likely something shonky will happen – and the harder players will find it to convince skeptical potential players to give it a try.

So, with that borne in mind, I'm looking to have a shortlist of between a dozen and a score of both Eldar and Ork stratagems; some of which will be tweaks to existing Imperial/Traitor ones, and others will be completely new, and aimed at reinforcing the existing design concepts.

The equivalents to Princeps traits are already mentioned in v1.5:

... so these should integrate fairly smoothly, with a couple of faction-specific twists. For example, the old background made it clear that the Boss of the Mob always had to be in command of the biggest Gargant in the Mob, while the sneaky space elves have a bit more flexibility in who's in charge.

The plan is to follow the precedent of the existing rules, so a D6 table for each faction, along with D3 tables for the individual War-clans and Waa-orks. 

+ What's not included? +

I've had some requests for Knights, Stompas, squiggoths etc., but they're a lower priority for me – partly for the reasons of time and scope outlined above, but also because the Knights rules in general are rather awkward for Adeptus Titanicus, and they add a further layer of playtesting complexity. Knight-equivalents may come in a future version, but for the moment, don't hold your multi-lung on that account. If you're desperate to field some cool Eldar Knight models or Ork Stompas, I suggest you use counts-as rules with Imperial Knights.

Similarly, I've had questions about, or toyed with rules for, Necrons, Squats, Tau, Tyranids etc.; but want Bloodsong to remain a tighter, cleaner and self-enclosed project – for the sake of time as much as anything. 

Expanding things would just make everything take longer and become exponentially more complex, so it will remain just the classic 40k xenos twosome for the moment. However, I'd encourage anyone who fancies developing a project like this to go ahead with their take on different factions, too!

+++

+ More Gargants +

With that out of the way, I do want to include as much variety as possible for Xenos, and the smallest War Engines for the orks are notable in their absence in v1.5, so I thought I'd pop a brief explanation of why, and what the plan is. 

The smallest Gargants first appeared in White Dwarf 152 as Mekboy Gargants – the personal ride of the Mekboy(s) who realised the Boss was going to take the field in the 'proper' Gargant – during Epic: Space Marine second edition (SM2) and included some fun options. 

Mekboy Gargants disappeared in the streamlined Epic: 40,000 (E40k) and Epic: Armageddon (E:A) which included Supa-Stompas – described as a half-way house between Gargants and Stompas. These models were roughly the same size as the old Mekboy Gargant, and my suspicion is that they were Jervis Johnson's way of letting players field their Mekboy Gargant models in the streamlined E:A – just check out the colour text at the top.

As you can see, the rules here have a lot more in common with a Gargant (power fields, multiple damage capacity) than the tank-sized Stompas do, so I think they'll fit more smoothly into the AT ruleset.

(As an aside, this was all then made even more complicated by the appearance of Stompas and Gorkanaut/Morkanauts in 40k – as the 40k Stompa is much closer to the Supa-Stompa, while the 'Nauts are pretty close to what Epic had as Stompas.)

... and to round off the collection, here's the Steam Gargant from the Feral Ork list – the biggest and nastiest and steam-poweriest thing that the Feral Orks could produce:

This was in Gav Thorpe's Swordwind supplement for E:A, which provided no small inspiration for the approach I've taken in Bloodsong. Compare the Steam Gargant to the Supa-Stompa, and you'll see that the two are very similar in terms of stats.

So what? Well, trying to squeeze all three into the earler version of Bloodsong as separate entities seemed daft. Not only would you end up with three near-identical Terminals, I wasn't sure at the time whether they'd be best treated as equivalents to Knights or Titans. Since we're leaving Knights out, and  the rules on inspection lean towards them being Titans (albeit little ones) it then seemed fitting to spend the time to work out how to incorporate them into the modern game.

+ Brainstorming the new unit +

Having decided to fold these various stompa/gargants into one entry, I wanted to make sure that I'm leaving it flexible enough that you can have a unit that best matches your preference, whatever your vintage – this follows the same logic as the Eldar Phantom being subdivided into the old Spectre and Shade types, so there'll probably be a similar Designer's note to explain this..

I'm leaning towards rationalising the background to explain that these smaller Gargants are created when either time, materials or technology are lacking; and taking a leaf in terms of game mechanics from the Kustom Jobs that are used by the Mega Gargant. These are extra spaces on the Terminal, a little like the Warmaster's Ancillary Subreactor though the ork ones are optional. For the Mega-Gargant and potentially this new Gargant, the Kustom Jobs allow the player to add extras from past versions of the game that otherwise don't fit, like the kustom forcefield or Gaze of Gork/Mork.

Having these as purely optional means that you can take a plain Gargant with two weapon systems – i.e. like the Supa-Stompa; add an extra system like the Steam Gargant's Fist of Gork; or do something more unusual, opening up the space for the Mekboy Gargant.

Mechanically, I think this should be fairly straightforward and add some more character to the Orks. These will be around Warhound scale, but rather than being faster, their battlefield role will be more varied. There's potential for fun with squadrons – I can see that being a good angle for  giving Supa-stompas some character beyond 'cheap' – while the Mekboy Gargant can be support-oriented.

The big question, really, is the name – and I'd very much like to hear what term you would use for these mini-Gargants/Supa-Stompas. I'm leaning toward Supa-Stompas

+++