The Siege of Lychke. Pre Campaign.

A mini campaign myself and JD, played in the Angelshearth Front of our 15mm Gen Sci Fi setting, towards the beginning of August.

Belligerants:  Low Western Entertainment Corporation's "SecMass" Group.  vs. Conclave Military Initiative
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“Sir, picking up a blip on the lower left bow. Coming round Orbital pre point V-102.”

“Probably the damn commie Volocheks again. Cycle the laser reflective mirrors, and arm the railguns, get Gomez up here, we need everyone on deck.”

“Sir, the ship doesn’t match the Volo’s.  Computer bounceback is absurdly sophisticated,  i think its corporate…”

“Oh fuck… Get this goddamn bridge sealed, full alert, summon the rest of the fleet to our location. I want full reverse thrust towards pre poin….

“ Sir, computer is reading power draws on their ship.”

“Bring up my mirrors!  NOW!

A searing bolt of light ripped into the bridge of the CNI Ardent Stallion at 0600 Hours, as it was on monitor duty above one of the provincial capitals of Angelshearth,  called Lychke [Lie-Ch-K].  The Attacking force, has been identified as a vessel belonging to the LWEC corporations’ military arm, SecMass. The CNI Ardent Stallion, withdrew under 25% power, to a fleet staging area. The Reserve ships, the CNI Winged Pride ,  CNI Brutal Jackboot, and CNI-APF Celestial Fear, move at full power, to the SecMass vessels last known location.  

The Battle for Quadrant Crown.

The Reserve ships found the vessel in low orbit in a spatial quadrant of atmosphere called the “crown” as it sat in a sweet spot in Lychke’s Orbital Defense Guns, the ensuing battle was enough to dissuade the SecMass ship from continuing to launch landing craft.  but it left the CNI Brutal Jackboot critically damaged,  The SecMass ship, now, popularly being called the Gray Reaper, by the superstitious Naval Initiative men.  Distanced itself from the planet, and flotilla’s of Conclave Naval Initiative and Provisional Fleet ships formed a skirmish line to ensure that they stayed there.   

The Ground Threat to Lychke

SecMass units had landed, not in the quantity they might have liked, but certainly enough to wrestle control of the capitals defensive lasers and railguns for long enough to allow for more of their forces to land.  The SecMass units are moving quickly and rapidly to the cities outskirts, with the intent of overwhealming the CMI [Conclave Militant Initiative] and APA [Angelshearth Provisional Army] units holding the city.   

The Cities defenders,  the 5th CMI Mechanized Brigade, 10th CMI Guard Scouts Brigade,  and 3rd Provisional Infantry Regiment, make up the modest “Army Lychke”  which has fallen under the command of Magos Ruiz Polochenkov, from the 2nd Army Group’s general staff.  He is a tough dependable front commander with a history of actions during the war for Sellas.

In the morning the Conclave troops, and APA would begin a fight against indoctrinated and tough corporate soldiers, all across the sector, the mettle of raw conscripted troops and their officers would be seen.  Would they be found wanting?

Grave For Angels. (15mm Sci-fi)

Why they called this hell-hole Angelshearth was beyond him. It may have been known for its hospitality and its cuisine before the Rim Wars; But that was almost a century ago, and all that went away after those commie Volochek's took charge.

 More of a Grave than a hearth now... he thought   A place where all the goodness, and hope of a vibrant colonial age is lost.

 The Angels of this place are dead.
  We Killed them.

-Major Kemmnis  CMI 526th Shock Infantry Platoon.
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The Game Group has returned to 15mm Sci-fi with a furious vengeance.  This time the conflict flashpoint, is a world called "Angelshearth"  the sight of multiple wars between myself (The Eisenhorn Conclave) and the Volochek Respublik ( Chris McCollumn, from Fabricators Workbench) over its pivotal location in the shipping lanes, mineral assets and to prove our upstart border empire is better than the others.

Its marshy, and the sporadic mobile warfare necessitates the use of barges and naval craft by the Conclave, in order to move bodies of troops through the difficult, often waterlogged terrain, to various slum villages and cities. 

Once festive and well maintained corporate holdings, have decayed and turned into slum cities.

Under the cover of the Volo-Conclave Wars for the planet other forces, have descended to Angelshearth. The Trans-Humanist commune, (played by Chris from Sippin' on Paint Water) utilizing their advanced technology and tactics, have infiltrated the worlds underbelly. Eager to deliver their message of a universal collective.

We've tried PMC 2640, and are planning on trying Tomorrows War soon.  Other GGoP members are tooling up armies to play in the setting as well,  We have already played a few games on Angelshearth, and its been engaging as most have sizable painted and converted forces, that we have yet to see hit the tabletop more than a few times.  We have a wealth of background material and army fluff for everything, it pains me not to share it all here. but it might be unmanageable. 

Regardless, i will posting the engagements im able to record, and tell you as many stories as i possibly can!

The War for Megnara (15mm 40k)

Segmentum Tempestus

Sub Sector Novara

Imperial World.

Synopsis: Megnara is of a mixed temperate, and is covered predominantly in forests and high rocky mountain areas.  Tracts of the south western hemisphere are given over to rich agricultural facilities,  and in the entirety of the north breaks into vast tundra and immensely deep ravines (some nearly a kilometer deep) that present rich mineral veins, and hot springs.   The planetary capital , and the only hive city, is  The Glisterbrug  {ja-glis-tur-barg} which rests in the idyllic “valley of pastels”.  The Planet is governed by Primadon, Quinn Vanders,  and sustains a local PDF garrison of  15 Regiments, positioned evenly across the planet.   Its primary exports are lumber, and mineral ore,  it has a relatively low tithe rate for the Adeptus Munitorum, as the Sub-Sector has been spared much conflict.

Situation: An unidentified force of Chaos Renegades, has landed in the planets Southeastern Hemisphere, and spread heretical teachings amid the populace.   The Megnarian PDF 8th and 11th Regiments are holding the Cultists and Renegade Militia at bay at several key cities and industrial complexes.  Estimated casualties are 250,000 and are primarily civilians.   The remaining Megnarian PDF regiments are marching to the hot zone but are several weeks out, as they lack sufficient vehicle transports.  A Flotilla of Chaos vessels hangs in orbit, above the hot zone, but is under sustained pressure of the local Naval command.

Order of Battle:

Imperial Fists 5th Company.

Cadian 157th

Cadian 109th

Mordian 116th

Elter’s World 90th

Elter’s World 91st

Plan of Assault:  The Imperial Fists will deploy among the Regiments of the Imperial Guard, to supplement their forces during stage 1 of the ground operations.  Upon arriving planetside, Imperial troops will assist the 8th and 11th Megnarian in holding the line, until the rest of the PDF arrive.  Once this occurs, the fresh PDF will be subsumed into Imperial Ground Command and all forces, save for the 8th, 11th, and 1st Megnarian,  and the Elter’s World 90th, will push the frontline forward 10km to “Phaseline Alpha”.   

Once the push has properly tested the Chaos forces capabilities and located positions of Strength, the Imperial Fists will rejoin and attack en mass at these traitor fortifications.  This method of pushing, and surgical strikes will repeat until Chaos forces have been obliterated, somewhere around  Vurde {Ver-du}.  

Rules of Engagement:

Civilians within the Hot Zone are to be considered tainted,  and eliminated where discovered.

The taking of captives will be acceptable only during the stage 1 push, to analyze enemy force composition and gather Intelligence.

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I'm still thinking about what Chaos force i want to use, i think i will have it bolstered by a small contingent of Chaos Space Marines. I also don't think i want to use the Pilgrims of Rust, just to shake things up a little.

The artwork is from Rouge Trader and is used without permission.

The Story of Westarc (Part 4)

Debate raged over the merits of Planet 68 as ground teams scoured the LZ for any evidence of what had occurred in the night. No bodies had been discovered, but there was an abundance of blood, ash and bullet holes.  It was a patrol searching on the farthest limits of the facility at the edge of the ruins that discovered a broken wayteam drone, carrying a rather curious data-parcel.

Though it was garbled and difficult to understand a message spelled out an unexplained exodus from LZ Humanitie. 

And a fierce firefight against contact referred to simply as "inconnu" or unknown.  A positioning blip link to a Wayteam helmet transponder ended the message. 

Acting quickly on this new information Westarc Ground Command took control of the situation, immediately sending two mechanized units to the ground.  Named "Gothic" and "Typhoon"  these units would converge on the Wayteam with a war footing. Utilizing a small convoy of FSV34's team "Gothic" was to navigate the winding city streets and break through to the survivors, while "Typhoon"  with a medium range Gravitic mortar, would establish a temporary field outpost and triage station to the north of the transponder signal. 

The units deployed quickly at the LZ, which would be held by the initial SAR units in the event the teams would need to fall back. 

At 10:30 am, only twenty minutes after the discovery of the drone, Gothic and Typhoon set out on Operation: Inconnu

Though it was not known then,  the next few hours would decide the fate of the entire Arc, and lead to a conflict that might save the residue of mankind or lead us into damnation.

To be Continued... 

The Story of Westarc (pt 2)

For 6 months, the Western Arc slipped through the darkness of the cold void of space. Stopping at every new star system to look for a new home and harvest fuel, and minerals from countless barren systems.  After a year of absence from the comfort of terra-firma, many within the Arc's population began to grow apathetic and depressed.  It became doubtful that there was any hope of success, a wave of suicides began to take hold, as people simply lost hope.  But in the midst of despair, the Arc sailed ever onward.

One day, 2 weeks, 9 months and a year since departure.  The Arc slipped from Voidspace, into system "DVS-231" for routine search,  of the 1.5 million citizens, around 1.2 million remained alive.  These 1.2 million souls would find "planet 68",  which appeared as a gleaming green and brown jewel in a system of lifeless gas giants.    The first of its kind in the Arc's history. 

The Arc's populace was abuzz with joy at the find and a ground analysis team was quickly formed.  Built from French and Belgian light infantry and science staff, the "étoiles Explorateur" were the first humans to set foot on Planet 68.   It quickly became clear that there was more at work planetside than anyone could have imagined...

What Orbital Scanners and Rendering equipment had mapped as Rock spires, and trees, appeared in fact to be vast, advanced cities, and infrastucture, overgrown by thick alien foilage.

The drop craft of the étoiles Explorateur, landed with robotic support assets in a clearing, named  "LZ humanité."  Immediately they set about testing the atmosphere and creating rough camp.  

Teams of étoiles Explorateur, roved outwards from LZ humanité, eager to explore the vast continental cities of this mysterious world. 

But in the hollow shells, across shattered alien vistas, phantoms.. shades from a bygone era.. began to stir. 

To be Continued...

Sources:  Planet picture is from NASA.   Landscape is conceptual art from Wes Ball. 

Black Templar Chapter Serf

Hello everyone.
The local gaming group is holding a bit of a campaign that i'm participating in, with a Black Templar's army, as a change of pace from my chaos troops.  Anyway, i'm using the unpainted Equinox Protectorate guys from the Pilgrims of Rust that i've never gotten around to finishing, and turned them into some Serf's to supplement the Marines in the field.

Very simple, but i think it will look good on the whole, as it will contrast from the Black Templars' themselves who are heavily ornamented.


-You Favorite Madman-

Mephiston, (Blood Angels Commission.)

Yes, another post about Blood Angels.

Here we have the only special character model i've ever painted. Mephiston.  The scary god of marine psykers, outside of grey armor.   The picture does absolutely zero justice to the paint job which makes me sad because he came out really quite well.  Regardless you can see that he's painted and thats enough for me.

Next i think i'll try and post something that i'll be holding on to, maybe some 15mm, or start on the Rouge Trader guys, that ought to be the next post.  Following that i'll give you two more entries on the Pilgrims Fandex and that's as far as i plan ahead.  

Cheers Everyone!  

-Your Favorite Madman- 

Blood Angels Painting Commission.

Hey all, i thought i'd post up a pic of the test mini for a paint commission i got for generic Blood Angels. I think he turned out pretty well, since i was told to do "Tabletop Quality" this is what I've settled on.  In addition to this commission this week is the big conclusion to my "Senior Project" in high school, so I've been preoccupied getting ready for my boards presentation this Thursday.   I hope to have much, much more hobby goodness to provide to you all after that is said and done.   I plan on working on the Rouge Trader crew members and the Nurgle Bikers, as soon as I've finished with these Blood Angels.

Without further ado...

That's all for now.  Hope to get some shots of a local club's charity gamesday, thats happening on Saturday, as well as some more Blood Angels and Pilgrims Fandex stuff, with perhaps a smattering of misc. hobby junk thrown in over the course of the next couple weeks leading up to Yule, Hanukkah, Christmas etc... etc..


                                                              - Your Favorite Madman-

The Plague Riders of Rodentia.

Hey all,  I've broken down and decided to actual add a unit to one of my existing real 40k armies!   who'd have thought it eh ?     Anyway, we have below a CSM Nurgle Biker Unit for addition into my "Knights of Decay"     they come from a group of Renegade White Scar's  who have made their home on a daemon infested void whale/ space hulk called Rodentia.  The unfortunate creature seems to have been fused to the ship as part of warp energies and its organs now serve as part of the ships internal structure.  It's a disturbing and vile thing, swarming with Nurgle daemons, plague zombies, and other servants of the god of plagues.

Without any further ado...

why yes, that champion IS fused to his bike and YES those rats are coming from inside his body... why?

Now i've got a decent amount of stuff to Prime so that will be happening probably tomorrow afternoon. and i'll sit down to start painting the Rouge Trader Crew and these "wonderful"  little tykes and their bikes.


That's all for now folks !


                                                         -Your Favorite Madman-