+ inload: Imperial Guard Rough Riders +

+ Steel Legion Rough Rider Brigades +

+ Horses, as is commonly known, are best of all the animals, and fittingly it's coming up to the Year of the Horse. So I thought I'd kick off the New Year with some thoughts on Imperial Guard Rough Riders. Tenuous link? Perhaps, but buckle in for another year of meanderings and modelling. +

+++

+ Rough Riders +

Like psykers, Ministorum priests, whiteshields, and beastmen, Rough Riders are one of those edge units that GW have brought in and dropped out of the Imperial Guard line-up over the various editions of the game – presumably when the designers are particularly enthused about the concept, or a general mandate comes from management. Who knows? 

Likewise these units tend to have enthusiasts, but are less generally popular than things like tanks. The key thing for me is that they lend a slightly archaic, gothic sci-fi feel to the Guard, which can otherwise feel a bit like a real-world army. Nothing wrong with that, of course – that's one of the key appeals to the faction – but I also like the feeling that these weirder elements are in the background.

I've had Rough Riders in various forms in most of my Guard armies, and they were something that I was keen to include in my Steel Legion force, as they appear in the Battle for Armageddon boardgame. However, there have never been Steel Legion cavalry models, and so some conversion/kitbashing would be necessary.

Happily, after a long drought, Rough Riders seem to be back in favour at GW, and there is not one but two plastic kits for horsey soldiers.

+ Theoretical +

I've written about Steel Legion Rough Rider brigades for The Ashes of Armageddon, in this noospheric node [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] about the 4th Rough Rider Brigade, 'The Forgotten Fourth'. There I've tried to elide the older background with the more modern interpretation of the Steel Legion and Armageddon. The result is that the 'Rough Rider Brigades' included horse-riding cavalry, but were effectively an honorific name, and that the Steel Legion's Rough Rider Brigades were recon forces; the bulk of which were made up of things like Sentinels, 40k-jeeps and mounted infantry.

Part of that was forced by the models I was able to get from contributors – at the time I wasn't able to find any Rough Riders specifically converted to be Steel Legion. Happily, since then some have popped up, perhaps most notably by the absurdly talented Bjarni í Dali (@bjarnidali on Instagram [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+]) – go check 'em out. 

For my take, I was torn between the two current Rough Rider units available: the Death Korps or Attilan. Each had its own advantages. The Death Korps Death Riders (of Death) might seem the more obvious choice: their steeds are clearly adapted to dangerous environments, with rebreathers and goggles, and the riders are in long coats.

However, after a bit more consideration, I decided that the Attilans were a better fit. Armageddon, while unpleasant in the extreme, isn't quite as bad a rad-blasted wasteland as Kreig. The Attilan kit is less distinctive  (and popular) than the Death Riders, it'd be less obvious where the base kit came from. 'Normal' horses also fit my image of slightly retro Steel Legion Rough Rider better.

+++

+ Practical +

Some not-so-subtle hint-dropping later, and I was the happy recipient of some Christmas goodies. After unpacking the Attilans, I was pleased to see that they'd require even less conversion work than I'd anticipated. The boots and long coats fit very nicely with the Steel Legio aesthetic, so I felt all they really needed was a head swap, change of details and some resculpting on the arms.

The Attilan arms come with fur-lined glove/gauntlets and heavy shoulder pads. These could easily be left in place (deserts can be cold, too!), but I decided they'd be relatively easy work to refashion. To do so, I used clippers to cut away the bulk of the shoulder pad (happily, on the side facing the body, you can see the outline of the pad, which makes this easier), then trimmed them to shape with a craft knife.

For the gloves, the Attilan originals are slightly pointed; longer at the bottom at the top. I drew a mark with a blade to give me a line to square them off, then carefully trimmed them back, matching the width of the forearm. The results are the same length as the Steel Legion infantry gloves.

Of course, this leaves a question hanging – what about the heads? 

As the most obvious and distinctive part of the kitbash, I was delighted to find a third party company, Tiny Legend [+noosphericexloadlink+] that makes some great proxies. They have recently started their 'Blitz Legion' line. I'm planning a proper review of their stuff in a future inload, so suffice to say here that I can thoroughly recommend them. Absolutely brilliant sculpts, lovely prints in an excellent resin, and very clever use of a different, slightly flexible resin to allow the chest-mounted rebreathers to marry up with the heads in different poses.

I've finished building a unit of five Rough Riders using bits and pieces, mainly from Tiny Legends' Blitz Legion Sergeant Retinue, which comes with lots of options for arms, heads and hands.

So, nice and quick and simple! I've based and primed these, and hope to be splashing some paint on them soon.

+ inload: September update +

+ A whole new boardgame +

+ Slow progress on painting and modelling, but I've been teaming up with Sinan to put together an event! +

+++

+ Third War in 3rd +

Themed around the Third War for Armageddon, sixteen (or eighteen) players will be be playing two linked games. I won't share too many details here just yet, but I've excited to see so much enthusiasm for what we assumed would be a pretty niche event.

The #3rdwarin3rd tag on Instagram is up for people to share their pics.

The event happily coincides with my main 40k-era enthusiasm at the mo, which is Armageddon. Regular inloaders will remember the work I've been doing on the Armageddon Prime [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] expansion for the old Battle for Armageddon board-wargame.

I've not been idle there, as you can see below, as I've been working on creating my own set of counters:

The plan is to get these printed up on covered greyboard and match the originals as closely as I can. How does this relate to the event? Well, the plan we're currently working on is to have a 'campaign map' to provide some immersion – players will get to see how their forces are doing on a strategic scale between the games, and they'll be able to take away some custom counters of their own forces as a keepsake.

Tickets, alas, are already sold out, but if it's a success I think we're both keen to try to run another.

+++

Painting – between summer holidays, heat, work and general malaise – has been a bit spotty and intermittent. We therefore have more Steel Legion specialists nearly polished up for the 707th:

... and closer to events, my Squat killteam progresses for the PCRC campaign in just eight short weeks. I'm really enjoying these. Tempted to get some BattleBuilder nameplates for the gang – you can use my referral code and 'MournStarfall' to get 10% off, if you'd like to fancy up your forces too [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+].

And last but not least in this much-delayed update, I've also picked up some more Epic stuff. I think Epic: Legions Imperialis is in a much better place at the moment, so if you've been tempted to give it a go, I'd recommend it. More in a dedicated inload.

+++

 1,500pts Steel Legion 707th

HQ – 445pts

• Command HQ – 178pts
• Colonel (70)
• Carapace armour (5)
• Refractor field (15)
• Power weapon (10)
• Bolt pistol (3)
• Bionics (5)
• Standard Bearer (10)
• Regimental standard (20)
• Medic (10)
• Comm-link (15)
• Grenade launcher (15)
• Mortar squad – 95pts
• Anti-tank squad (35) – 115pts
• Missile launcher team (20)
• Lascannon team (30)
• Lascannon team (30)
• Commissar (40) – 57pts
• Carapace armour (5)
• Bolter (2)
• Power weapon (10)

Troops – 320pts

• Command section – 81pts
• Lieutenant (35)
• Power weapon (10)
• Bolt pistol (3)
• Carapace armour (5)
• Plasma gun (8)
• Missile launcher  (15)
• Comm-link (5)
• Infantry Squad (60) – 78pts
• Flamer (3)
• Missile launcher (15)
• Infantry Squad (60) – 78pts 
• Plasma gun (8)
• Heavy bolter (10) 
• Infantry Squad (60) – 83pts
• Melta gun (8)
• Missile launcher (15)

Troops – 320pts

• Command section – 81pts
• Lieutenant (35)
• Power weapon (10)
• Bolt pistol (3)
• Carapace armour (5)
• Plasma gun (8)
• Missile launcher  (15)
• Comm-link (5)
• Infantry Squad (60) – 78pts
• Flamer (3)
• Missile launcher (15)
• Infantry Squad (60) – 78pts 
• Plasma gun (8)
• Heavy bolter (10) 
• Infantry Squad (60) – 83pts
• Melta gun (8)
• Missile launcher (15)

Heavy support – 

• Leman Russ Vanquisher (175) – 190pts
• Hull-mounted lascannon (15)
• Leman Russ battle tank (140) – 145pts
• Hull-mounted heavy bolter (5)

+ inload: Alternative weapons for Steel Legion +

+ Resupply! Alternative sculpts for Steel Legion +

Lucky me, I have lovely friends – and a care parcel translated through the warp yesterday containing some fantastic alternative sculpts for Steel Legion from warmtamale. As you can see above, they match the originals well for size and style.

Perhaps more importantly, they add some much-needed variety to an awesome but very limited range. 

For more on the Imperial Guard ranges in this period, feel free to inload this: [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]

+++

+ What's new? +

Specialists! Figures like these now turn up as part of command squads, but were scanty or absent for most of the regiments of the period – particularly the Steel Legion, which didn't have the follow-up second wave of the earlier forces. (I had to ask my older brother – who could be trusted with a pin vice and hacksaw – to convert a banner for my Catachans.)

Vox-casters, banner bearers and medics add a lot of character to things, and also increase the variety available. The sculpts above appear to be conversions based on the existing sculpts. Both the vox-caster/comm-link chap on the left and the banner bearer are based on the sergeant with the ork head (once reviled, and now hard to get hold of!); the vox-caster having their arms replaced with those from the Death Korps of Krieg plastic set. The medic's based on the other sergeant; again with what looks like DKoK bits.

I'm looking forward to painting these up – a comm-link in each command squad and a banner for the Command HQ will help to make those units feel a bit more special.

+++

The missing special weapon options are likewise conversions. One meltagunner is based on a lasgun trooper sculpt and what looks like an Elysian 'Accatran-pattern' meltagun; the other on the grenade launcher sculpt with a Space Marine melta.

The flamers are likewise mixed; one a take on the 2nd edition flamer (very fitting!), and the other on a more modern Space Marine-inspired one, with a back-mounted fueltank. Both models are based on lasgun trooper sculpts.

The variety is welcome – it'll be nice to have some variety in my squads, and to swap out some of the grenade launchers that currently predominate. As for the variety of in-universe weapon patterns, that strikes me as very fitting for the 7th Army Group: they're having to make do with what they're given!

+++

And the most precious of all – variant lasgun sculpts! The leftmost one is based on a standard lasgun trooper sculpt, but with a knife added and a head with goggles up; the middle one marries up an aiming lasgunner top with kneeling legs taken from one of the various weapon crews; and the third is our good ol' grenade launcher sculpt, now bearing a lasgun. 

I've popped one of my finished Steel Legionaries next to them to give you a sense of size – and I think it's looking promising that they'll be all but indistinguishable once-painted, unless you look very closely and have read a long and fernickety article about tiny metal space soldiers(!)

+++

... and last but not least, a mortar team, adding a vital weapon to the limited range. Now apparently much-feared on the tabletop, for many editions mortars were pretty much useless unless you ran into a lightly-armoured enemy with low T and LD. 

Nevertheless, they're a welcome addition here – particularly since they've solved the biggest bugbear I had with the original sculpt by hollowing out the mortar barrel!

+++
 

+ 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: 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, 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!

+ inload: Steel Hammer of Legio Metalica +

+ Beachhead MMXXV +

+ If you've been inloading the recent datascreeds, you'll know that I've put all other hobby projects on hold to get a Titan maniple painted for Maximal Fire's annual Adeptus Titanicus tournament at Beachhead in Bournemouth. I was painting up to the deadline, but managed to take a complete maniple and accompanying themed markers down. This inload gives a very brief rundown on my experiences of my first tournament, and then we look at the models. +

+++

+ Beachhead 2025 in brief +

Not to bury the lede, I had a fantastic time. From gaming to socials to the overall event, if was really, really fun. I was a little apprehensive in going to a competitive event (my previous weekends have been narrative only), but I couldn't resist the siren call of the biggest Titanicus event in the world – and I was really pleased with how relaxed and friendly everything was. A very collegiate atmosphere with a mix of what were clearly old friends welcoming in newcomers like me; and all eased along by everyone being invited to bundle along for dinner and drinks at a pub round the corner – very much appreciated.

The event itself, smoothly run by Maximal Fire and sponsored by Battle Bling, took the form of five 1,950pt games. You can see the event pack here, if you'd like the nitty-gritty [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], but the take-away for me was how varied the forces were, and how little the expectations you might take from noospheric chat – 'tournament-pattern this', and 'such-and-such weapon is useless' – really applied to the stuff people brought. I half-expected to see the top tables populated purely with cookie-cutter lists, or very similar model choices, but things were very varied. Admittedly, I didn't scale the heady heights of the top tables – 13 was my highest placing, and with one win, one draw and three losses, I think I came 38th overall – but certainly my impression was that Adeptus Titanicus is a very varied game. 

So on top of all that, there was great prize support – lots of awesome trophies and cool prizes to be won, (including a Warbreaker Titan!) and little goodie bags provided by the organisers too. More on those in another inload.

Overall, I'd thoroughly recommend grabbing a ticket for next year – just leave one for me!

+++

+ Steel Hammer – Malleo Chalybis +

Princeps Kurtiz Mannheim – sometimes styled as 'Kurt Manneheim' in some Imperial records – was the commander of the Legio Metalica Titan Legion assigned to Armageddon during the Second War for Armageddon. 

Mannheim was obliged by his oath of loyalty to the Emperor to follow an insane order of the corrupt and incompetent Planetary Governor of Armageddon, Herman von Strab, to stem the onrushing tide of Waa-Ghazghkull, even though the Imperial forces would be outnumbered by more than three to one. 

Knowing it would be his final mission, Mannheim dressed in his best uniform, said goodbye to his wife and children and climbed aboard his Warlord Class Titan, Steel Hammer, with pride. 

[+Later Heroes of the Imperium, Vol MCMXX+] 

Themed around the Second War for Armageddon – and if you'd like to read more on that, check out The Ashes of Armageddon noospheric blognode – my M41-era Maniple sneaked into the Horus Heresy-era Beachhead games. I'd have felt a bit conflicted about this at a themed or narrative weekend, but as this was more of a pure gaming event, I laid my worries to rest. 

I've written at length in the previous inloads on how I've painted, so you can divert your optics and cerebromanifold to this noospheric flow-cascade if you'd like to dig deeper into how this Legio Metalica project has unfolded. Here, then, I'll just highlight a few little bits of the finished Titans that I thought you might like to see or that I'd like to wax lyrical about, and show the finished pieces as they appeared on the day.

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+ Battle Builder Nameplates +

I've added names to models before – long time inloaders will remember by formative Blood Angels from the 90s, and more recently my Blood Bowl team, Chaunterwick Unathletic, got Blackletter freehand names and positions on their bases – but generally I prefer to treat bases quite plainly, to help frame the models.

The monolithic and highly-revered nature of Titans, however, seems to deserve something more – and so I've used Battle Builder's [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] name plates for this maniple. If you haven't tried it out, go give it a spin – the interface is very intuitive and fun to use, and certainly helped me to avoid analysis paralysis: you can see immediately exactly how the nameplates are going to look on the bases. There's even a discount code for first-time users.

In painting these, I wanted to strike a balance between the names being clear to see, but not so eye-catching that the nameplates distract from the Titan itself. I opted for a gold frame, black field, and a (necessarily!) quick and simply reflective effect, which I thought was evocative of the design style of the 90s. This was achieved by painting the letters with Balor Brown, then painting the upper and lower quarters of each letter with Averland Sunset, then the very top and bottom with Mummy Robes (Bleached Bone/Ushabti Bone).

The result then clearly stands out from the base, but since it uses very similar colours as those of the base itself, it doesn't draw the eye too much.

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The little Steel Legion troops and pillar are included to give a sense of monumental scale to the Titan through visual contrast. The paint scheme is a simplified version of that used for my 40k scale Steel Legion – you can inload the datascreed here: [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+].

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Considering how experimental and quick everything was, I was pleased with how the transfers, varnish and oils all worked together. I think all of these techniques and approaches have given a Titan maniple that both hangs together well, and doesn't look completely out of place alongside my other forces. 

The armour plates here are available from Battle Bling – you can read my thoughts on the Reaver equivalents here – and were designed by the mighty @argo_jasonm. 

Also of note in the above picture are the void shield generators, which are painted with my new favourite paint, Runelord brass, and then a touch of Nihilakh oxide to give a weird greeny glow. Very quick and simple.

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The Graviton Ruinator is based on the Armiger Gravity Pulsar from another third party designer/seller: Taro Model Maker. Very nice quality, and sufficient detail to work well on a big (albeit small scale) model like Steel Hammer.

Talking of armament, Steel Hammer benefitted from having very little existing information on him – the little blurb at the top detailing his Princeps' last command is pretty much all that exists. Except that Steel Hammer is a Warlord, there's no further info. What could have been unsatisfying for a retrohammer project like this actually proved to be a lifesaver. It allowed me complete freedom in terms of appearance and equipment, and from a gaming perspective, gave me a blank slate to load him out with guns to cover weaknesses left by the rest of the Maniple.

As things turned out, he was the only Titan of mine that survived all five games! I had lots of nice comments about the maniple, too.

As well as showing off the back view of Steel Hammer, I think this shot illustrates the dynamism of the pose. This is set off by the banners, which were made from the foil from a wine bottle capsule (and what more excuse do you need for a glass?)

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... and here he is in all his pomp and glory, ready to stride the stars and bring the wrath of the Emperor to the benighted fools that oppose Him-on-Terra.

While my gaming prowess proved lacklustre (and full credit to all my awesome opponents), Steel Hammer and the rest of my Iron Skulls maniple created stories, (mostly) survived to fight another day, and most importantly, was great fun to play with.

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+ Objective markers +

As well as sharing the finished pictures of the other Titans over the next few posts, I wanted to kick off with these objective markers I made for the event. The first picture represents the three markers you need for ‘Secure and Hold’ – doubtless critical materiel for the ongoing war.

The second picture shows an officer of the 7th Army alongside an Astropath and a Magos from Forgeworld Metalica – all critical personnel for the 'Defend and Extract' mission.

… and the final picture shows two Titan Hunting Infantry teams, so the Steel Legion can pop up and threaten any Gargants.

Thanks again to all the people I met, dined with and played against; it was an absolute pleasure from beginning to end, and thoroughly recommended.

Really reignited my passion for Titanicus, and I’m looking forward to sharing the Titans with you over the next few posts.

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