Lord-General Rhauss Celeniar raised his eyes from the tactical occulous as his tactica advisor passed him a fresh mug of steaming recaf. He took a moment to smell the caffeinated beverage and forget the chaotic and confused fighting against the Ork hordes which had invaded Stygrad IV. It was exhausting organising a comprehensive defence across the continent he admitted, even with the aid of the large high command tactical staff aiding him he admitted to himself.
After a moment he directed his attention out through the viewing port of his tacticae-office, high above the command deck of the Leviathan transport.
Stretching away were legions of Imperial Guardsmen, the men and women who had given their lives over to defending the Emperor's Imperium. He had regiments of Cadians, Tallarns, Catachans and others scattered under his command in various warzones, the guardsmen here were forming for an attack on the Greenskin lines, a pre-emptive assault to prevent the Orks reaching the walls of the hivecity of Aster Prime.
Supporting them were the armoured columns, massed ranks of Battle tanks, the pride of the Imperial Guard, he had been voxed several times by Major-General Kendrick to be allowed to push his squadrons forwards, each time he had personally given the order to hold position.
Ancient Super-Heavy tanks had been roused to war by their crews and kicked up dust behind their heavy treads as they rolled forwards to their deployment zones to support the armoured formations.
On the tactical overview, icons blinked as units reported in as combat ready. A massed force of Elysian Drop Troops reported that they were mounting up and that their Valkyrie Transports were air worthy, as were their accompanying flights of Vulture Gunships.
The Imperial Navy squadrons registered as being in the airspace ready to attack or provide cover as needed, with three more squadrons of Thunderbolt Fighters en-route for reinforcement.
"I think we're about ready to begin the operation, what say you Cassar?" Celeniar asked as he looked towards his advisor. Pale skinned and dark haired, Cassar wore the deep maroon dress uniform of Tacticae-Command well, but the look on his face troubled the Lord-General.
When Cassar handed him a pair of magnoculars and directed him to look down the highway he understood.
A sea of Greenskin warriors greeted his magnified sight, banner poles swaying as the mobs advanced. Trophies and helmets clanged as they proclaimed the deeds of their owners in whatever barbaric language the Orks used. A vast dust cloud was kicked up by Ork armour, many of the vehicles being repurposed from other Imperial armies which had suffered defeat. Dreadnaughts, both of the large and small varieties bobbed and swayed as they marched within the horde and silhouetted at the rear was the unmistakable bulk of a Super-Heavy walker, giant guns protruding from its hull.
Even higher still, the jarring shapes of Ork fighter planes scudded through the upper atmosphere, diving and weaving as they appeared to be racing each other.
Rhauss Celeniar directed his attention to his own forces again, 'Emperor help me, I pray I have enough troops to face that'!
*****
Greetings readers, do you have a moment to talk about one of the best versions of 40k?
Well strap in folks because here we go...
A while ago, two or more years to be exact, I made a post about the latest edition of Apocalypse. I will still admit that I was really excited by the prospects of this game and everything that came with it, especially as I've been in the hobby long enough to remember Epic 40k (GW's 6mm scale game).
The problem is that GW in their infinite wisdom seemed to drop the game as quickly as they released it, moving onto 9th edition (which sucks) and not adding data sheets to the game for the newer released miniatures which came after.
For all of it's promise, GW let the game whither away without so much as a thank you, so much so that I think I haven't even pulled the box out from the shelf, since my last game which was with Fraser in January 2020...
Oh well, onwards we march (for Macragge?), but the Apocalyptic bug is still gnawing away somewhere in my hobby soul.
Talking with Dave about his Imperial Guard army, which is fantastic btw, we reminisced about how much we spent playing 5th edition, and apart from 8th at the start for me, no other edition of 40k have we enjoyed or played as much.
Idly I suggested that we should make the effort and get together for a game with my Orks against his Guard at Warhammer World (there was discussion about Element Games, but we decided against that in the end).
As often happens, something gets said and the game gets elevated, and before we knew it we had agreed to play an Apocalypse game with the 5th edition rules and Codexes and the first edition Apocalypse rules.
This was a time before Super-Heavy Vehicles were a standard part of an army, they were a special thing for the biggest of games.
These were the days before a Knight was a "miniature" let alone a standard part of an army, or even an army of Super-Heavies.
Before the modern crisp, almost comic book artwork of the current codexes, where you got inspirational, moody pieces like this:
As Dave hasn't played 40k in a long time, I said that we should backdate and use the old rules.
I'm not going to make my friend go out and have to buy £100+ worth of books for a game which might only be played a handful of times a year, depending on how often we can meet up, family lives and demanding shift work in our respective careers dictates this.
Another of those atmosphere enducing images cropped from the book.
With that laid out, I figure I had better get adding to my WAAAGH! after all, I am aiming to have the full army painted to field at Warhammer World.
You may remember these Boyz from Orktober and JanuWaaaghry:
I dragged out the big box o'stuff and like many an Ork Mekaniak before, started bashing stuff together:
I started with a Battlewagon, having a Trukk ready to go in primer. That Blackstone Fortress box is filled with Deffkoptaz by the way.
Ditching the traditional turret with the Kannon, I picked up a Zzapgun mount I had bashed together many, many moons ago for a Looted Wagon. The fit was really good ontop of the cab of the Battlewagon, so it was decided to repurpose it.
There is a fair bit of other work to do on this wagon, but the start is there.
I've got a bunch of Kanz to repaint to my new level of painting (said Kanz were painted about ten years ago...). Then there are always more Stormboyz to build up, the smoke plumes are the time consumer there.
I bought some Warbikers to add to my Speed Freekz and I want to FINALLY get the Stompa built and on the field, rather then in bits collecting dust.
So, I've got a couple of posts for the followers of Dark God's from stuff I have finished recently, but then it's going to become very, VERY Green around here for a while!
Not artwork this time, but one of the double page spread of the apocalypse forces with all the classic terrain GW used to use.
Until next time...
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