Holbronx: prologue

While the campaign for Holbronx is hotting up we decided to play a final game in the prologue to the campaign.

After the initial occupation of the planet by the Dark Eldar, the beleaguered PDF were reduced to defending themselves from the night time terror tactics of the xenos who could at this point move around the surface of the planet pretty much unhindered, enabling them to harvest human slaves and spread misery at will.  After the desperate rescue of the astropaths by a courageous special forces group the imperials were able to send for help, and fortunately this arrived quickly in the form of a detachment from the Crimson Fists chapter.

The arrival of the Astartes provided a much needed boost to imperial morale as well as the required leadership to turn the tide.  Master Kantor however was confronted by the same problem: how to bring the highly mobile eldar into a pitched battle so he could destroy them.  Realising that the enemy would only attack where the imperials appeared weakest he assigned an Astartes detachment to wait in orbit ready to land at a few minutes notice, while keeping an apparently weak imperial patrol on the ground.

The eldar took the bait, advancing in force on a weakly held outpost they seemed poised to overwhelm the PDF defenders with their scattering of space marine allies, but the trap was sprung as drop pods came from the sky and unleashed their cargo.  The imperials inflicted grievous losses on the enemy, destroying dozens of eldar vehicles in several similar engagements the imperials had managed to break the back of the occupation.

The Dark Eldar are poised to dash forward into a deadly ambush, a taste of their own medicine!

The victory however rang hollow for some, the drop pod of Captain Jorge had scattered deep into enemy lines away from any chance of imperial fire support.  The vile leader of the Eldar, known colloquially as 'Vicious' killed the captain in single combat and was seen decamping from the battlefield, holding the severed head of the battle captain aloft while cackling in his incoherent alien tongue.

These events poised the imperials for a final victory, were it not for the arrival of the Blood Angels and their own selfish motivations.

The battle for Holbronx, preliminary map.

We're nearly ready to kick of this little campaign, and every campaign needs a map so I rustled this one up in Hexographer followed by some tweeks in GIMP.  My graphic design skills are a bit rough and ready but I think it gets the job done.  The triangular continent allows each of the three players to start in a corner and carve out some territory before the fighting begins.  I intend to back this map up with an actual planetary empires map, for which I've converted quite a few tiles, it hasn't escaped me that carting a 45 tile plastic map around isn't the easiest thing in the world so it might not happen and we stick to paper, we'll see.

The campaign kicks off with some background we came up with to tie up a few interesting games of 40k that lead to the campaign idea.  The overall aim is to keep it narrative, the Blood Angels are desperately trying to find a cure for the flaw, but it remains to be seen if they are being lead astray by a scheme of chaos.  The Dark Eldar seek to plunder and pillage as much as possible  before abandoning the planet, while the Crimson Fists and her Imperial Guard allies must secure the planet from all comers.

Campaign Introduction

The planet of Holbronx Prime is an Imperial agri/industrial world of minor note, faithfully supplying a tithe of food, machinery and soldiers to neighbouring imperial planets.  It has a population of 4.2 billion with 95% of production and habitation occurring on the principal continent of Pangea.  The Holbronx system was made compliant in the Great Crusade and has remained a relative backwater since.  Imperial Archaeologists have recorded evidence of ancient xenos activity on the planet.

Date M41.999.  In recent decades the planet has succumbed to the unwelcome attentions of xenos (species: Eldar) raids. At first these started as minor incidents, but escalated as the raiders gained confidence and started annexing larger population centres effectively using the towns and cities as labour camps.  This culminated in large swathes of territory falling into the xenos’ hands as they established a permanent presence on Holbronx and continued using human populace to their own ends (forced exportation, slave labour, sadistic entertainments, gladitorial combat, biological feedstock etc). It is estimated by the present time that 30 million imperial citizens are missing as a result of Eldar action. The local Planetary Defence Force suffered many reversals at first, losing control of their command and communication structure and having to resort to guerilla tactics on their own soil to wrest control of the communications network long enough to request aid from the wider Imperium.

Help arrived in the form of the Crimson Fists chapter, with Pedro Kantor himself marshalling the PDF to prosecute a successful campaign against the Dark Eldar.  The Imperial forces managed to push the invaders back to the coastal fringes of the continent and liberate several cities. They were poised to make the final decisive attack when matters were complicated by the arrival of the Blood Angels chapter.

The Blood Angels arrive

What truly motivates the Blood Angels is a mystery, and the arrival of a battle barge above Holbronx Prime was at first a cause for celebration for the Crimson Fists, whose Primarchs stood together against the tyrant on the walls of the Imperial Palace all those millenia ago.   That the battle barge manoeuvred into an assault stance over the capital while ignoring imperial communications struck the Crimson Fists as arrogance, what happened after was an outrage.  These most humane but aloof of Space Marines harbour the secret doom of the flaw.  One can only speculate how such a genetic flaw influences the decisions and responsibilities of the chapter, and the temptations and pressures that can arise.  It is rumoured that Dante has been forced to relent and allow a faction within the chapter to pursue every possible rumour of a cure, no matter how slim or unlikely.  If this is true then it is plausible that a faction of Blood Angels may be responsible for the massacre of loyal troops that occured in the capital city of Holbronx.  There is no doubt that the attack on the Basilica of the Martyred Angel is outside even the broad mandate of the Astartes, where brother opened fire on brother.  The imperial forces have been left reeling by this act.

This incident is unfortunate, as such desperate behaviour is indicative of the lies and hubris of chaos.  It is possible that the Angels have already taken a step down this path.  It is up to the Blood Angel commander to decide the path of his angels.

Planetary Empires hive tile

Just a quick mini project this evening. I'm currently preparing a 40k for a few of us that go to the local gaming group and i decided on using the hex tiles from the Planetary Empires box.  For that i need a few hive tiles so i set about building the first one using various bits and off cuts.  Old weapons are ideal for this and this hive contains a few, see if you can spot them.

Raid on comms post upsilon theta

A couple of weeks ago I played a cool scenario from against some Dark Eldar where my Imperial Guard/ Astra Militarum were to defend a communications outpost against the raiders.  After a bloody struggle the evil xenos flew away with my astropath.  Who knows what foul tortures will befall the unfortunate psychic at the hands of the despicable aliens?  Sector command has decreed that the astropath must not be allowed to remain in the hands of the Dark Eldar.  We've agreed to play a follow up mission using kill team rules, and hopefully the astropath will be retreived and be able to send a call for help to the Astartes, although there is no guarantee that the psyker will be fit to work after being a guest of the Eldar.

Finished Manticore and Leman Russ tanks

I've gradually been working my way through the pile of tanks I acquired recently, and with the release of the new Astra Militarum Codex I've been feeling motivated to get some more stuff off my painting table.  I'm now at the half way point with some more Leman Russ, several Chimera and a Hellhound remaining to do, not to mention the trio of Valkyries that need detailing.  So without further ado, here are some pics of the finished tanks.

The basic camouflage pattern is Castellan green airbrushed over a black primer, the model is then masked with normal masking tape taking care to ensure the paint underneath has cured completely (otherwise the tape can lift the paint, although sometimes this can make for a neat paint peeling effect).  The camo pattern is then completed with P3 Hammerfall Khaki.  Once the masking tape is removed I weather the vehicle with Agrax Earthshade and also an oil paint wash made from Burnt Umber and white spirit, although I am tending toward the GW wash as it is less smelly and alsmost as good in this application.  Paint chips are sponged on where damage might occur, then edge highlights are applied using Gretchin green and Kommando Khaki to help the model pop on the gaming table.  Transfers are applied over a gloss varnish, and when they are dry I distress them with the end of a needle file or scalpel, if i didn't do this the transfers would look far too fresh compared to the rest of the vehicle.  Details are then added- lenses, skulls etcetera.  If the vehicle has a name plate I write this in using a 0.25mm Rotring Isograph technical pen with indian ink, my hand isn't all that steasy but the results look okay.  My two Manticores are named 'Inductor' and 'Perditrix' which translate loosely as 'Persuader' and 'Destroyer'

To finish the model is given a coat of Vallejo Matt Polyurethane Varnish, which is probably the best varnish I've used so far.  All of the vehicles are fully magentised with swappable weapons, it's also nice to remove to remove the manticore Missiles as there are used in a game, it beats counting!

Hydra Flak Tank

It's been a busy few months with work but I've managed to shoe-horn in a few games of X-Wing and spend some hours getting a bunch of Imperial Guard tanks up to tabletop standard.  I was going to leave them at that but the acquisition of the Forgeworld Model Masterclass books got me doing crazy experiments with white spirit, bandagaes, artists pastels and florists wire.... don't ask!  I do highly recommend these books, they've helped me raise my game and even won me a GW voucher for a 'best painted' army at a local tournament, so this hobby can pay, well kind of.

The Model Masterclass books are full of inspiring projects and lots of solid advice on techniques, materials and equipment so they are money well spent, in fact they are a bargain when you consider the cost of wargaming models and the ease with which one can wreck them with poorly executed  model making and painting, I've definitely been there.

The Hydra is 95% finished, just a few details to do and a coat of matt varnish and she's good to go, although I'm already thing I need another two thanks to the preponderance of Necron flyers at my local gaming club.  The camo paint scheme was airbrushed over a black base coat letting the black show through in the recesses, I then applied a wash of burnt umber oil paint diluted in white spirit.  This gave me the tabletop scheme as originally intended, but then I weathered further with sponged on paint chips, powdered pastels and selective line highlights to bring the model up and help it 'pop' a bit.  That said I always seem to be a bit conservative when it comes to highlights so i might apply another level.

The transfers came off Games Workshop transfer sheets, when dry I distressed them with the end of a needle file so they look worn just like the rest of the tank.

Something not 40k for a change

Even the most ardently frothing of 40k fanbeards needs to take a break from the Grimdark occasionally. So after a dig in the box of orphaned pewter bits i found this i-kore Void mini. I've heard rumours of other gaming systems, and whispers that some of them are even well balanced and reward tactical play. Huh! Heresy!

Steve at the local gaming club is running a Supersystem campaign and i painted this chap up to be my hero. The last game i witnessed looked a lot of fun with the hero players ganging up on the gm's nasties and having a good old fight, so i'm looking forward to being involved. Now i just need a back story....