Ingredior: Where Silence Stops

This is the second battle in the ongoing Ingredior campaign. Click [HERE] to read the previous part, 'The Sally At Ferroc Castle'

After the resolution of the first battle, I presented Chris and his command of Sons of Medusa with the choice found below... 

After careful consideration, the Sons of Medusa opted for a cautious approach toward Ingredior Magnifica's Astropathic Relay.  The area near Ferroc Castle had been cleared of the immediate threat of the Necron Assault.  But the areas stretching out from it, former Mechanicus Serf habitats and a lattice of now battle-worn city districts, were haunted by all manner of Canoptek horrors or Necron kill teams.  It would take careful planning and hard fighting to slowly retake the area and begin to build a sufficiently capable force of mortal men and women to bolster a large scale counter assault against the Xenos. In the outlands, beyond the city stretching out from Ferroc Castle, stand towering Necron constructions of engraved black stone, restricting and dampening the Astropathic Choir. 

The constructions are heavily guarded; legions of Necrons stalk the outlands, probing constantly into the city by the hour to determine the nature of their recent defeat. Speed and Stealth are the watchwords of the day. The psychic dampening pylons must be deactivated quickly and without alerting the wider Necron armies to a significant breakout attempt.  Once deactivated, an elite force of Astartes and Kingsguard must blitz through the gap in the psychic field to re-capture the Astropathic Choir, and orient it through the newly created breach.  

Lt. Laird, would lead a small strike team into the Outlands ahead of the Assault Force led by Captain Corporis and Galkraan, Eternal King of Iron. 

We would be using my 'Force Reconnaissance' Rules for Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition, the following will be a recounting recorded live as the battle was played on the club's discord channel. 

There are 3 pylons representing the network of dampeners outside the relay. There are Patrols of scarabs maintaining the pylons and a guardian canoptek wraith in the center. The Marines start out undetected. Canoptek units have a 10" detection range, and their likely movement direction is indicated by the models' facing. If they are obscured from sight by terrain, the model is removed, and a die is placed indicating their last known location.

There are three alert levels indicating the growing awareness of the necrons to the intrusion. With increasing damage to the pylons and detections, also increasing the alert level.

The Marine Infiltration force is led by Lt. Laird, a Primaris Lt. In Phobos armor, he leads 4 infiltrators and 3 reivers who have been heavily upgraded. The infiltrators and Laird advance past a few Scarab patrols up toward the northeastern pylon

Once there, the reivers arrive via deep strike with grab chutes. The force eliminates two scarab bases, and the wraith begins reacting, moving up to investigate the loss of the scarabs

After a fairly intensive battle, the wraith is defeated, and the first pylon is destroyed, raising the alert to level 1, warriors and directed scarabs enter play.

The marines continue a merciless advance, gunning down three warriors and forcing their way into the vicinity of the second pylon. The Alert level is raised to 2. A tomb blade enters play along the line of pylons from the southwest. As more warriors arrive in larger squads

With a single shot, Lt. Laird slays the Tomb Blade, the metal xenos toppling dead from its mount, which pinwheels into the dry surface of Ingredior Magnifica, shearing off metal in a great plume of dust and sparking energies.

The Infiltration force advances, as the charges on the second pylon erupt. The marines have completed their primary objective; 2 of 3 pylons have been eliminated, though who knows what benefit the aliens might derive from these structures in a pitched battle. Laird pushes his men onward to the third and final pylon. The alert is now at level 3, and sizeable Necron assets are beginning to arrive.

The Sons of Medusa are undaunted; they break through several Necron skirmish lines to secure the objective. Planning charges on the final pylon as dozens of warriors begin to arrive. As the final pylon topples, the Infiltration team goes to ground in a nearby ruin, snapping off shots at their pursuers. Laird fires a green flare into the air above their position to mark their success. A signal seen by Captain Corporis and the Mortal Hosts of Galkraan, the Eternal King of Iron, who begin to move to their aid

Notable Deeds:

Lt. Laird personally killed 2 tomb blades, a death mark, and nearly a dozen scarab swarms.

The Reivers, though losing two of their number, slew triple their number in Necron warriors and a canoptek wraith

The Infiltrators destroyed all three pylons and killed several Necrons

We will join Lieutenant Laird and his men, as well as the rolling spearhead of the Sons of Medusa in Part 3.

I hope you enjoyed! 

-Your Favorite Madman-

Hobby: Salamanders Combat Patrol

 

In keeping with the theme of small thematic armies or warbands, I present here my small force of Salamanders Space Marines.  This force was made from leftover 'firstborn' Space Marine models donated by Grey Mountain Gaming club members and a few models from my own collection that were made to create different factions of Marines for people to use in the club's different narratives and games days.  I'm pretty fond of this force. It reminds me of the type of army you might have seen in Codex: Armageddon or a White Dwarf from the early 2000's. It's probably the attack bike and combat squad that does it.  From a composition and development standpoint, I wanted to give some of the flavor of the Salamanders as a chapter (ie., flame weapons) and construct the force as a small rapid reaction unit or rapid incursion strike force.  I picture them being in Vahland Sector to pursue the traitors of the Centurions of Innocence [LINK] a former Successor chapter of the Salamanders turned traitor, and of course helping to contain the many flashpoints in Vahland that threaten to destabilize Southern Ultramar and the Charadon Sector.

Captain Nehr Fal'yn is the esteemed leader of this strike force. As evidenced by the fact he has traded in his helmet for a glowy sword, the mark of any true hero of the Imperium. I've never been a fan of the lore that Salamanders have black skin and red eyes. My first introduction to the chapter portrayed them with African skin tones, and I've always preferred that to the more sci-fi approach. 

The force was really rapidly painted using Vallejo's Intermediate Green thinned down for use in an airbrush.  Which made short work of the force and applied a nice even green across the full force. I added in small flame details here and there, and I had a small amount of Salamanders shoulder pads and upgrades from Forge World which were donated to the club by one of its members.  

All in all, the force is appealing to me, and its always a great feeling to have a painted force on the table. I've got a few posts queued up to show you these guys on the field working to keep Vahland Sector safe from the Mutant, Xenos and Heretic very soon. So stay tuned! 

Thank you for reading! 

-Your Favorite Madman-

Hobby: Necron Combat Patrol

 

Some time ago now, I completed a small combat patrol of Necrons for what I've been terming the 'Galthadra Dynasty'.  A lesser branch of the wider Nihilak Dynasty, the Galthadran Necrons hail from the Belt of Calces in the heart of the Vahland Sector. Their awakening has caused some issues of late for the Imperium, and for several other lesser Xenos races that call the core of Vahland sector home

I wanted to go for a different scheme than I had seen on Necrons, while still keeping on theme for them being a spooky undead force.  I settled on a rusty brown, with accents of yellow, white and brassy gold. To give the impression of a worn and weathered robot but while maintaining some of the pomp and heraldic grandeur that I think of when I think about the Necrons

Originally the force was intended to fight against the Sages of Enmity [LINK] as an introduction for an ex to Warhammer 40,000 back in 9th edition.  That obviously did not come to fruition as you can probably guess that didn't end of working out. But I still got plenty of games in of 9th and 10th. 

The wider club's collection of Necrons, which is now in the many thousands of point's is largely painted in Nihlak Codex compliant colors. But this brown little unit still remains.

This sort of mismatch doesn't bother me to much, I've always enjoyed the history that tabletop games that can communicate. I've met so many people through this hobby and my collection of miniatures reflects the changing interests, styles of moments of my life. I think that's really special.  So even though the Brown Crons represent a painful moment of personal seperation and loss in my life, painting them helped me to find resolution with that breakup.

One of the reasons this blog is still going is after all because I'm a bit of a nostalgic person that likes to wax poetic and talk about life and toy soldiers.

I hope you enjoyed! 

-Your Favorite Madman-