+ inload: 9th edition Battle Report +

+ The Fall of Djaih Principal +

Member-Cardinal Naqib wept. I remember that most clearly; for seeing Astartes shed tears was utterly beyond my expectation. Every time I thought I had a handle on this Chapter, one of them would dumbfound me. 

It clearly had an effect on the stoic Primaris, too. Septimal looked discomfited; insofar as an eight-foot tall armour-clad giant could look anything other than intimidating.

Neither he, nor I, made any movement towards Naqib; but his weeping was taken up by an ululation of woe by the other Sons of Djaih that shared the shuttle. 

I turned away, horror running up and down my spine, and looked through the viewport. Built for Astartes, I was rendered doll-like; and had to stretch slightly to see, adding further to the unreal atmosphere.

Defeat. The loss of a world to the ork. 

It later became apparent that such losses were far from uncommon. Perhaps once or twice in an Astartes generation, the Gatebreakers' line – always tenuous and thin – would be broken by xenos. This was sobering to me; but not half so affecting as the grief-rituals of the Gatebreakers.

The whole journey back was accompanied by ritual wails of his brethren; but Naqib's grief was as genuine as ever I have seen. Unsurprising, perhaps, for a godling who has lost his birthworld.

Remarks – Inquisitrix Barbari Kills

+++

+ So, 9th edition, huh? – First impressions +

+ Games Workshop recently released the Core Rules for the 9th edition of Warhammer 40,000 [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] as a preview, so I gave it a try last night, with a skirmish between greenskin raiders and the freshly-painted Gatebreakers. +

+ It was a small game – 15 power level a side; but the new rules give specifics on the size of board to use. My first impression is that little has changed from 8th; but also that the subtle refinements make surprisingly large differences. I don't want to draw too many conclusions from a single small game, but it's certainly promising! +

+ The more intimate – and scaleable – table size, combined with the reduction of overwatch and new terrain rules seemed to go a long way to getting the orks into combat, which I know will be welcomed by some of my gaming buddies (and lamented by others!). +

Chopping's back on the menu, ladz!

+ The big change for the better is definitely the clarity of the rules. From the previews, I was a bit concerned that the language had become extremely stylised and formal, to the detriment of readability, but that doesn't seem to be the case overall. +

+ The addition of summary bulletpoints and general layout is a huge improvement, and the additions and clarifications over 8th were minor but useful. I wonder if the latter is a sign of being designed for tablet/screen; the rules are much more compact and stripped-down, and seemingly designed for quick comprehension – exactly as you might expect for screen reference, rather than a traditional instruction manual. +

+ But as I say, I don't want to judge too much on abstracts; how did it play? + 

+++

+ Djaih Principal +

+ Djaih Principal is – or was – a recruiting world for the Gatebreakers; one of the few under their purview which submitted candidates willingly, rather than them being taken by force. For the past centuries, this has made the planet a valuable source of manpower for the ever-overstretched Chapter, and a substantial number of the recruits from the planet – the so-called Sons of Djaih – have become officers or otherwise noteworthy members of the Chapter. +

+ The Gatebreakers rarely establish Chapter keeps, even on valuable worlds like Djaih – their numbers are too low and their area of responsibility too large and diffuse to make it practicable. As a result, their long-ranging sweeps of the sector often leaves decades between visitations. This was the fate of the planet; for the Gatebreakers' last recruitment took a substantial proportion of the world's most promising young warriors, just at the moment their presence was needed most. +

+ Of course, the few thousand individuals taken (for the Gatebreakers' harrowing implantation protocols work as much by fate as design, and failure is near-total) made little practical difference to the fighting strength of the planetary defence force, but as a symbol, they were so much more. The ork invasion found a surprised populace that quickly grew demoralised when their pleas for aid resulted in no support – all the more heartbreaking when they had seen the flower of their youth offered up to the sky-warriors. +

+ When the greenskin invasion came, it bulldozed the main cities in short order and drove the defenders into hiding in the matrix of steaming jungles and mineral deserts that make up the surface of the world. Eight long years passed, during which the enslaved populace was forced into manufacturing weapons and equipment for the ambitious and greedy ork warlord. +

+ At this point, salvation appeared to some, for the Gatebreakers returned. Alas, the strikeforce was heavily depleted; sent only to draw a further tithe for the Chapter, and ill-equipped for deployment. Restricted to minor strikes, the Astartes launched a series of stinging raids to liberate or support regions of resistance; but could not afford to enter extended warfare. +

+ What follows is the melancholy reports of the final action taken by the strikeforce before the Gatebreakers were to admit defeat and abandon Djaih. +

+++

+ Mission and deployment +

+ We used the standard Only War mission in the pack, with the objectives (entrances to sewers occupied by the human resistance, and critical raw materials left in the ruin) spaced fairly evenly across the board. +

+ As a very simple starter game, the Gatebreakers were represented by three five-man squads of Intercessors; while the orks fielded a mob of boyz, a mighty deff dredd and a nobz mob. +

+ Early turns +

+ The Gatebreakers advanced through the ruins, their bolt rifle fire frustrated by light cover and the thick stone of the ruins. A handful of orks fell, but return fire from a large mob on the right flank took two marines out of the fight. +

+ Worse was to come – with the central squad prevented from offering fire support by intervening terrain, a clanking behemoth strode into view; blasting another of the depleted squad into smithereens! The cackling orks broke cover and charged into the Gatebreakers' hastily-made barricade. +

+ Scrambling to redeploy, the Gatebreaker's fire on the left was again frustrated, only lightly wounding one of the nobz. The central squad moved up into the ruins to claim an objective and in an attempt to lend support to the embattled and overwhelmed squad on the right, which left the left-flank squad on its own. +

+ Mid turns +

+ Mighty as the Astartes are, when faced with the cream of the greenskins (well, they're greasy and smell a bit of gone-off milk), they met their match. The nobz charged in, swinging their weapons and taking the Astartes by surprise. +

+ The fighting swung back and forth, but the orks were having the better on it. +

+ The central squad were caught in a quandry – charge their comrades in combat with the nobz, or continue to claim the objective and fire at the larger mob? Their Member-Cardinal opted for the latter, lending support fire that took down four or five orks as the two survivors of the right flank fell back. +

+ With nowhere to retreat to, the two survivors prepared to sell their lives dearly, and were swiftly overwhelmed. Their broken bodies were hefted into the air by the triumphant orks, who swiftly took to stripping the armour and looting their weapons +

+ The Deff Dread lumbered into a surprising burst of speed and managed to engage the central squad with the squeal of pistons and hiss of venting power. +

+ Closing turn +

+ Their foes downed for no loss, the nobz sneered and closed in on the Gatebreakers struggling against the Deff Dread. With a horrific tearing noise, the war engine sheared three of the Astartes into pieces. The last survivor commended his soul to the Ten Divine Princes, and voxed in a last report. +

+ Confirm: Beast Triumphant +

+++

+ After action report +

+ A fun and quick game – particularly given that the other player was a (very indulgent!) first-timer. The new edition is quick to pick up for an old hand like me, but also looks nice and accessible. +

+ Tentative mechadendrites up for 9th edition; I'm looking forward to some bigger games with some variation in missions. In the meantime, I'll need to get painting – looks like the Gatebreakers need some heavy support! +

+ inload: Anatomy of the enemy V: Goranhuwl's Guttaz +

+ Ork Raiders of M36 +

As described in the general overview [+noospheric inloadlink embedded+] Orks are rarely sedentary. Perfectly capable of constructing vessels of their own, greenskins also frequently 'hitch rides' on passing space hulks – using their precociously advanced field emitter technology both to seal in a habitable atmosphere and to direct the hulk. The main impediment, then, to ork expansion and exploration, is their own nature. Their interstellar capability requires a leader capable of motivating their followers to co-operate – or at least stop fighting – long enough for their technicians to create void-craft.

Goranhuwl is one such ork, and typical of the opportunistic commanders that plagued the borders of the Imperium during the Nova Terra Interregnum. Arising on the wartorn worlds of the Galactic Core, Goranhuwl united the forces of the local region during a series of brutal decapitation campaigns he led against his rivals. During the Nova Terra Interregnum, he and his warband, the Guttaz – named after their leader's unpleasant predilection for tortuously disembowelling his enemies – have conducted numerous raiding and reaving assaults on Imperial and non-Imperial shipping and planets alike. 

+ The Guttaz' warleaders +

Goranhuwl (centre), is pictured here with two of his retinue, the one-eyed totem-bearer Skabby, and his able second-in-command Whitetusk. Typical of the Goff clan, decoration is no-nonsense, restricted to black and white. Only looted trophies provide a flash of colour. 

+ Structure and organisation +

Ork raiding tribes are rarely made up of a single clan – such monocultural warbands work against the manner in which orks breed, and rob the broader tribe of the expertise and particular skills of the orks' clan system. Goffs, for example, produce relatively few oddboyz – instead generating a larger proportion of larger nobz – and a cunning warlord will therefore promote from within other clans to fill in specialisms they feel their force is lacking.

The Guttaz have a number of fiefdoms across their small territory near the galactic Core, but draw most of their warriors from the sprawling ork townships on the planet of Breccia – known to the orks as Deepkut. Each urban centre houses hundreds of orks and countless gretchin servants, all under the gimlet eyes of one of Goranhuwl's lieutenants.

+ Goranhuwl's Bigmob +

Orks cluster in clan-based groups called households. Ruled over by an experienced Nob and his cronies, households tend to number between a dozen and three dozen bull orks – beyond this, an ambitious would-be nob will tend to challenge the incumbent. The loser will leave and form a new household, typically from a core of their closest drinking mates. 

The Warboss' household is invariably the best-equipped – and also the largest, as few are able to challenge the Warboss himself. It will also attract the more promising ork juveniles – Wildboyz – as they learn the skills of warfare, swelling its size beyond others. Such household groups are usually referred to as a variation on 'the big mob'. Acting as an adjunct to the warboss' personal retinue (each a Nob or Oddboy with his own household), the Bigmob serves to give steel to the Warboss' word, enforcing his will and leading the charge in battle.

+ Auxiliary Household group +

Orks don't suffer authority well, and mercenaries – known as freebooters – are common. Households will occasionally strike out on their own, the Nob declaring himself a pirate Kaptin (or similar title). During the Nova Terra Interregnum, many orks fought alongside increasingly desperate populations of both sides of the divided Imperium. Demanding ruinous payment – generally in the form of slaves, weapons or equipment – such mercenaries became increasingly common. 

While they were happy to fight for loot, freebooter groups were most frequently used as auxilia by the orks themselves, slotting into the battle line of a paying warboss as another (often particularly flamboyant and exotic) mob of greenskinned warriors.

+ Specialists and slaves + 

+ Ork shock troops +

Regardless of which world you pick from the multifarious cultures of the Twin Imperium, there are certain common traits to all human warfare. The same is true for greenskins, and like humanity, they are infinitely adaptable, developing technologies, strategies and tactics as new challenges arise. 

Ork power armour shares much in common with Imperial power armour. What it lacks in sophistication and reliability, it compensates for in raw protection. Many technologically-advanced ork groups utilise these 'mega-armoured' shock troops as linebreakers; as much reliant on the veteran orks within as the technology. Goranhuwl's Guttaz often field such mobs against Imperial foes, their thunderous tread and seeming invincibility calculated to break the morale of their foes. The Nova Terran stormtrooper-equivalents, the vaunted NVA were particularly badly affected by this, their elite status proving of little consequence against the orks' crude mirror to Astartes. 

Goranhuwl showed a willingness to learn, and demonstrated adaptive tactics against the Chapters Astartes. Having lost a number of battles against the indomitable Star Leopards on their fief world of Odun Stellar, where the Astartes executed layered retreats to funnel the mega-armoured mobs into deadly crossfires, Goranhuwl redeployed his elites, holding them back as counter-chargers.

While the Guttaz were successfully driven off Odun Stellar, the Gatebreakers Chapter later reported the loss with all hands of two of their frigates around Fortis Binary. Boarded by mega-armoured foes held back from warfare on the surface, the Gatebreakers were beset by the bulk of the Guttaz as the Marines struggled to disengage to scramble back to their fleet, resulting in heavy losses.

+ Mine clearance +

Orks are never found without gretchin. This slave species has a commensual relationship with their larger greenskins, and ape their larger masters. Their small stature belies their inventive cruelty. Despite their physical similarities, gretchin are undifferentiated, generating neither individual nor clan specialism. They are however often swift learners, and many become valued and capable (if ultimately disposable) servants to the warband's orks, particularly the Oddboyz. 

While there are no physical differences between Goff or Snakebite or Bad Moon gretchin, their scavenging and creative nature often sees them scraping together patchwork cloth and leftover equipment from the orks with which they associate. As a result, their allegiance is often clear.

+ Ork Dreadnought +

Orks may not demonstrate much in the way of artistic talent – indeed their banners and trophy-poles are almost invariably rendered by gretchin or slaves who are able to successfully translate the boss' gruff instructions in a way that pleases the master – but they are both excellent mimics and inventive engineers. On seeing a particularly impressive war machine, ork bosses will order their Oddboyz to replicate it – a challenge that usually sees results. Ork mekaniaks rarely back-engineer a creation, and instead rely on their abilities to create a functional – and sometimes superior – copy. 

Dreadnoughts of many species, from Eldar Wraithlords to Q'orl Warforms and even including Astartes Dreadnoughts, function in dual roles. They are both warmachine and spiritual demonstration of service beyond death. In all cases, its form is drawn from the physical structure of the biological being: it seems that some from of physical familiarity is a near-universal psychological requirement for the pilots of such engines. Not so with the orks. 

Resilient both in mind and body, orks frequently practise body modification, and seem peculiarly well-suited to adaptation. Being encased in a dreadnought holds no fear or trepidation for an ork – he will quickly regard it not as an external suit, but an integral part of himself. Indeed, he will almost certainly become convinced of his new giant metal body's prowess as a sensible upgrade. For similar reasons, ork dreadnoughts are varied, and nearly always include more than two arms – an ork will quickly adapt.

+++

+ inload: Family gaming +

+ Stentorous wailings of the warhorn +

+ Another annual cycle – and time for me to say thanks again for reading this little noospheric node. Long-form blogs have been on the wane as people pick up podcasts and videos or switch over to social media, but I think there's always going to be a little place for some longer or more considered reading. + 

+ With that in mind, I hope you'll keep the autodial attuned to this signal, and send back a pip in the commentary exload form at the bottom occasionally – it's always much appreciated. +

[NAVEL-GAZING CACHE: FULL]

[SELF-CONGRATULATION CYCLE: COMPLETE]

[COMMENCE PURGE]

+++

+ Cycles +

+ In the exploratory and discursive spirit of the blog, let's crash on into the new year. Hobbying, as for many over Christmas and New Year, has been scanty, but the year did kick off with an awesome game. My brother and nephew popped over for a scrap, so I set up the boards and was treated to a fantastic looking match between Waa-Zodwort and the forces of the Ultramarines. +

+ I had intended to do a proper battle report, but sadly had my hands full doing rules-running, so you'll have to make do with a few hasty notes! +

+ Always a big fan of scratch-building and creative junk modelling, he also brought along some great barricades, including these pallets and barrels, which we mixed and matched with my scenery. The mission was a variation on The Raid, with three mysterious archeotech droids (played by tinboyz) the object of interest – ork mek Ghibtsun wanting to use the droids to stage gladiatorial combats between the tribe and the ancient silver droid corpses that dot the surface of the planet, Wintermute. Conversely, Captain Jansen of the Ultramarines needed to capture them to study – and destroy. +

+ Seeing these gits back on the table was a real treat for me, and brought back lots of cool memories. The warboss with spiked helmet here is Zodwort himself, accompanied by his retinue of oddboyz, and Jippy the squig. +

+ Much of Waa-Zodwort dates back to when we'd play orks vs. guard in the early nineties – and I'm pleased to see that Aliss Koopa here has finally allowed the rest of his band to get painted up in a classic vibrant scheme. +

+ These mobs of grots and boyz show some of the variety on display; and I think go to show that orks – perhaps more than any other army – just look better and better the older and wider the range of models you use. +

+ To give an epic flavour to proceedings, we added thirty of my orks [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] and two squads of my own Ultramarines [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] – I always feel games are improved by having more 'basic dudes'; firstly because it looks good, and secondly it gives your super-killy tanks and heroes/villains some mooks to mulch through. +

+ Note my nephew's awesome Land Raider – scratchbuilt from cork and with some really creative use of bits – the forward vision slit is from the most recent Space Hulk – it's a door base. +

+ Waa-ork! Goffs iz best! The lads bundle forward towards the beekees. I'm hoping my brother with do a guestinload at some point, so we can get some better shots of his brilliant conversions and scratchbuilds, like the Bonebreaka in the full table image, and the Lungbursta here. +

+ Orks that survive the Ultramarines hail of fire hunker down behind some crates, counting on the kans clanking and stomping up the avenue to break the deadlock. +

+ But the Ultramarines hold firm! The game finished with the ork horde heavily thinned out and the Ultramarines all but untouched – but nevertheless the mission-critical targets were still split. +

+ Again, a great way to start the new year, and a delight to host. +

+++

+ The Augustine Crusade +

+ After a fallow period over Christmas, I'm ramping back up with this. If you missed the overview of the Ynwirm Campaign going up over the break, here's the link: [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] +

+ Enthusiasm is high, and I've got some exciting bits from the inimitable Victoria Miniatures to buoy me along. +

+ Happy annual cycle, and best wishes for your hobby. +

+ inload: Lorgob, Goff skarboy +

+inload: Lorgob, Goff skarboy+

+ 'Aven't 'ad dis much fun since... well, yesterday, when Odgrub got 'is new kustom foot bitten off by dat squig we stuck in 'is hut. Hur hur hur. 
Anyway, last one to scrag a beekee is a runt – WAAAGH!+

+ Orks are my Imperial guardsmen's perennial enemy. My brother played them when we were runts, and my gaming group has a number of notorious Warbosses amongst its number. However, aside from some Space Crusade games, I've never painted much of the greenskins. That's set to change, as our gaming group's campaign next year revolves around an Imperial invasion into the Scallop Stars, a grizzly den of ork space. Since I've got guardsmen and marines, I thought it'd be a fun excuse to build a little ork warband.

+ We've got lots of Bad Moons, a ded kunnin' Blood Axe warboss, and rumours of Snakebites in the group. I decided I'd go for a classic Goff warboss, but use the old tribe system from Waaagh! the Orks, 'Ere we Go and Freebooters as my inspiration, with a core clan and the potential for other clans from the tribe to supply some household lads. 

+ On that basis, I've rustled up a random army generator to see what I end up with, but the core of my army has to be some Skarboyz. After all, Goffs are bigger an' 'arder than uvver orks, so some orks that can put some muscle on marines are a must. Plus, it's a classic orks vs. marines fight. Win-win!

+ I've put him on a 30mm base to match my marines. I think the 25mm bases are a bit unstable for these models (based on ork nobs), and 40mm is too big; they start to look a bit lost.

+ He's a very simple model, built almost completely from stock, as I find these Brian Nelson-inspired models fantastic. The head may be from a Fantasy kit – a lot of the models for the army were sourced from second-hand bits boxes and the like. I have added a little greenstuff work to the arms, wrapping some fine tubes of greenstuff around the bicep/tricep area to represent rolled-up sleeves. These Goffs are inspired by '80s bovver boys and skinheads as much as Germanic tribes, though the overall feeling I'd like to emphasise is the black threat of the greenskin menace.

+ That's not to say there's no space for a bit of humour, but I'll be concentrating on the black humour of cruelty rather than wacky hi-jinks.

+This rear shot shows the core scheme of white and black. As usual with my palette, both extremes are muted – the white is a beige made from paints like Kommando Khaki and Dheneb Stone, while the black is muted with the addition of brown. 

+ I think it's important to show that ork clothing and equipment is all kustom made; so while the core colours are there, they'll be painted differently on each ork – some blacks will be grey-based, others brown, blue or green. Similarly, the base for the whites will vary from greeny-tinged Rotting Flesh to blue Space Wolves Grey to yellowy beiges.+

+ A final shot of Lorgob. I've added lots of classic chequer effects. Hopefully the Goff vibe is coming over.