Merry Christmas!

The forges will be hard at work this Christmas as I have just received some Apocalyptic Reinforcements!

It is also cause for a double celebration, as I have finally finished painting a squad!!! This is the first time I have ever (ever!) achieved this in my many years of wargaming. I usually get to about 7-8 models then move onto something else.

So here they are, it's a bad photo, but I haven't applied all the decals yet, so I'll take a good one once they're done and the bases are tidied up.

Have a Maleficarum-free Christmas!

Narrative Campaign.

My regular opponent is a space marine Iron Hands player, and we have played many one off battles against each other. I've decided to write a narrative campaign similar to the one in the hardback 40k rulebook to make our battles have a little more purpose and also to justify why Space Wolves and Iron Hands seem to be constantly slapping each other about on our gaming tables! The campaign will consist of five to six missions using all of the expansion books available to 40k, as well as some custom missions.

Here is a sneak peak of some fiction I have prepared for the campaign:

Iron-Captain Xosius surveyed the readouts on the command deck. Within one Terran standard cycle the Iron Hands strike force would arrive at Tarsor IV and he would be one step closer to his goal. He could not fail the task ahead of him, as it would redeem him in the eyes of the Clan Council. Xosius gripped his axe which clicked and whirred as the cog headed blade extended from the haft, snapping menacingly into position. He pondered over his fate, his anger flooding the datalinks between flesh and iron. The Iron-Captain had only narrowly avoided exile after losing a great portion of his clan in battle against the Eldar. Even though the loss of valuable Astartes had concerned the council, death could always be justified with victory. This had not been the reason he had lost their favour, in their eyes, he had done something viewed as far worse. He had chosen the illogical. The Clan leaders and Iron Fathers had not been on the moon of Belkus during the campaign against the Eldar and they believed he had acted against the will of the Chapter. Fools. They could not understand the neccersary sacrifices and tactical decisions he had made to achieve victory and because of their short-sightedness, he had been demoted from the council and tasked in retreving an ancient relic known only as the Heartshard. It was rumoured that during the great crusade, the Heartshard had been discovered by the forces of Ferrus Manus and Leman Russ, who decided to keep it a secret from their brothers. However, the two Primarchs had disagreed upon the application of the device and after stealing it away, the stubborn Wolf King had hidden it. Xosius had reason to believe the device was on Tarsor IV after his librarians had gleened information during the brutal interrogation of an Eldar witch. The planet was being watched over by mere mortals of flesh and bone, warriors guarding the planet's secret. If Xosius struck hard and fast, was sure his show of strength would convince them to hand over the device. His plan would not fail, he would recover the Heartshard and return to the Chapter with his head held high. The council would have no choice but to accept him back. It was only logical.

In other news, the Raven Guard army has been on hold for a while whilst I have been painting and gaming with my Wolves. I have managed to have a few enjoyable games against the new Necrons as well as Tyranids which I have not played against since the latest codex.

Raven Guard Squad Colours

I'm having a bit of a conundrum when it comes to choosing the shoulder trim for my raven guard. Index Astartes states that the shoulder trim colour denotes what squad type the marine is in. (Red for Assault, Green for Tactical, Yellow for Devastator).

However, GW has painted all their Raven guard with the red shoulder trim. This may be to show that they are 3rd Company led by Captain Shrike.

(Slightly off topic Imperial Armour 8, they describe Shrike as the leader of the 1st Company Veterans, and Aajz Solari as the Captain of 5th, even though in Index Astartes, which was his first appearance, he is described as leader of the 2nd.  In short nothing adds up!)

When it comes to squad markings, company formation and named heroes, I am slightly OCD and like to get as much "right" as possible. I'm finding this a bit of a headache with Raven Guard as the small pieces of background on them are contradictory.

So far I have only painted Assault marines, (with the red trim) and I don't have any tactical squads in my list, so therefore I am thinking of giving the devastators a yellow trim and sticking with tradition.

The next complication is what company to make my army and who will lead it? I'm going to have to go with one of the 5 Battle companies as I want both Assault marines and Devastors. (Raven Guard companies are supposed to be highly independent in the GW fluff, rarely fighting alongside each other. This is again contradicted by the forgeworld material, which has a strike force assembled from all of the companies)

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Raven_Guard states the following:

First Company: Unknown

Second Company: Captain Aajz Solari

Third Company: Captain Kayvaan Shrike

Fourth Company: Captain Aethon Shaan

Fifth Company: Captain Corvane Valar

(It seems to follow the GW and Black Library fluff as opposed to the forgeworld material).

If there's anyone out there with any knowledge/material that I may have overlooked then feel free to point me in the right direction!

2000 Point Battle

Today I played a 2000 point game against an Ork list with lots of boyz, dreadz and kanz. It lasted a good few hours and was played on a smaller 4'x4' board.

I used the following army list:

HQ 
Bjorn the Fell-Handed
      Venerable Dreadnought; Plasma Cannon

Bran Redmaw

      Wolf Lord in Terminator Armour; Storm Shield, Chain Fist, Wolftooth Necklace,

      Saga of the Bear (attached to Aesir Pack)

Jorek Stormgaze

       Rune Priest in Power Armour; Chooser of the Slain

Elite

 The Wolf Guard
      Torgarl Mjodbane; Combi-Meltagun, Power Fist (attached to Lupus Pack)
      Arjac Rockfist, The Anvil of Fenris; (attached to Jotun Pack)

      Kjel Wyrmslay; Combi-Meltagun, Chain Fist
      Alarik Icehowl; Combi-Plasmagun, Wolf Claw
      Svorlrik Thunderfang; Pair of Wolf Claws
      Hengnir Scar-eye; Storm Shield, Power Sword
      Olaf Keenblade; Assault Cannon, Chain Fist
      Drop Pod

Mjol Onn-ax
      Lone Wolf  in Terminator Armour; Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer

Troops
Aesir Pack
      8 Grey Hunters; Mark of the Wulfen, Wolf Standard, Meltagun
      Drop Pod

Lupus Pack
      8 Grey Hunters; Mark of the Wulfen, Wolf Standard, Meltagun
      Rhino

Jotun Pack
      8 Grey Hunters; Mark of the Wulfen, Wolf Standard, Meltagun
      Drop Pod

Heavy Support
Vanir Pack

      6 Long Fangs; 5 Missile Launchers

      Razorback, Twin-Linked Lascannon

Total Cost: 1996 points

Although I lost the game, it was a bloody affair. The highlight of the battle had to be when Arjac destroyed 3 Kans in one round of combat. They exploded killing another 23 orks, winning the combat!

More Redmaw

Here is the stage by stage of my take on Bran Redmaw. He will be painted as if he is part wulfen (dark skin, yellow eyes etc). The fierce broadbladed frost weapon in his hand represents a chainfist in game.

HQ
Bran Redmaw with Terminator Armour, Wolf Tooth Necklace, Chainfist, Storm Shield, Saga of the Bear.

This build has served me well as it can deal with anything that is thrown at it in combat. In my days of playing eldar, I got sick of my HQs getting squished by dreadnoughts. I have no such trouble with this wolf lord.

Raven Guard Army List

My main inspiration for collecting Raven Guard was the armour customiser on Space Marine for the Xbox 360. After playing around with it, I made a cool looking vanguard veteran and wanted to recreate this on the tabletop.

Whenever I go about building an army, I first look at the army list construction. I toyed with the idea of running a Shrike list, but I really dislike the model as he doesn't look swift and fleet, but a bit of a lumbering fool with large hands.

Next I looked at the Imperial armour list. It allowed me to take jump packs as troops (which is what I really wanted), but would require me to use an Imperial Armour book, which may not go down well with local gamers.

I settled with using the blood angels book as it allowed me to use my Storm Raven that had been gathering dust and also build a competitive jump pack army. (I'm no tournament player, but my local meta usually plays hard).

This is the list I came up with:

• Shadow-Captain (represented by the Sanguinor rules)
• 2 Apothecaries (Sanguinary priests with jump packs)
• 10 Marine Assault squad with 2x Meltaguns, Sergeant with Power Fist
• 10 Marine Assault squad with 2x Meltaguns, Sergeant with Thunder Hammer. (The sergeant will be buffed by Sanguinor, representing the company's First Sergeant).
• Furioso Dreadnought with blood talons
• Stormraven with assault cannons, multi melta
• 5 Marine Devastator Squad with 4x Missile Launchers
• Predator with TL Autocannons and Lascannon sponsons.

Comments welcomed as always!

Bran Redmaw's Great Company

Some of you may have seen the following content on my Warseer project logs. My space wolf army is based up the 12th Great Company led by Bran Redmaw. Up until very recently there was no miniature available for Bran, and very little known about him except for the rumour of him becoming wulfen and hunting under a full moon.

Here is a picture from the space wolf codex that many assumed to be Bran Redmaw as underneath the picture was a small passage / poem about the wolf lord.

However, looking carefully at the picture, the markings on his fellow Space Wolves seem to contradict this, as Bran's symbol is the bloody hunter as shown below on one of my Wolf Guard:

This has led me to believe that it is not Bran Redmaw in the picture, so I decided to make my own interpretation of Bran. One which would be practical on the tabletop, yet match up to what information we know about the Jarl.

More to come on Bran soon!!!