+ conceptinload: Flight Risk +

+ conceptinload: Flight Risk +

+ Pict-capt source:

Isstvan V: South of the Urgall Depression +

Tentative ident: sinister–dexter – Brothers Phaestos and Ulc'cagni, XVIII Legion; Braar Taarlach, Iron Tenth. 

Incept-link α:serpens. Contact: Aqua.

+ These three are the first in a mini skirmish team, representing a few surviving Astartes from the Drop Site Massacres during the Horus Heresy. The intention is to allow me to scratch a few hobby itches without committing to big armies.

• Salamanders and Iron Hands – I've wanted to build some of these for a while, and this offers a great way to build two or three of each.
• Ultramarine purity – every so often, I find a cool bit that I want to use, but I really want to keep my Ultramarines much more uniform this time round. This hotch-potch group should let me use up those special bits without diluting the imagery on my Ultramarines.
• Variation – I want to play around with the background, and show that while all the Legions had certain marks of armour in common, there was also a lot of variation in the Legions. Showing Salamanders and Iron Hands next to each other will be a great opportunity to highlight both the differences and similarities.
• Storytelling – Isstvan V is a great canvas for skirmish games...

+++

+ Setting the scene +

+ These marines are going to be an example of what happened to the survivors on the day after the events at the Urgall Depression on Isstvan V. Because I want to build Salamanders and Iron Hands, I've decided that this group were separated from the rest of the Legion and isolated as the Alpha Legion and Word Bearers pushed forwards into the Depression. 

+ The map below shows the deployment and main thrusts of the various forces. Our lost marines find themselves running south, having been missed between the Word Bearer and Alpha Legion thrusts directly below the Imperial Army symbol (winged sword in the centre of the depression). This point seems sensible to me – the Alpha Legion were notoriously insular and the Word Bearers relatively undisciplined, so a point between the two seems the best place for our marines to have somehow avoided a picket or sweeps during the clash. In addition, both of the Traitor Legions would have been pushing hurriedly into the centre.


+ This spot also means that it's possible for the Salamanders to make contact with the broadest possible spread of loyalist forces, including the Iron Hands, Imperial Army and even potentially Legio Atarus, the loyalist forces of the Mechanicum. This should allow me to play around with various other models.+