Colonel Schaeffer's Last Chancers.

 

Sunlight filtered into the gloomy interior of the transport through several locked viewports on each side. The soldiers restrained in the various seats facing each other glanced around nervously as the tank stopped sharply.
One of them, whom they had christened ‘Brains’ yelped at the unexpected lurch as it caused him to bite his tongue, the others stifled their laughter as the rear hatch began to crank open.
A sharp staccato rhythm paced up the grilled surface as a pair of highly polished boots marched towards them.

If they had dared to glance upwards at that point, they would have seen a tall man of a warrior’s bearing. Drab green fatigues pressed to regulation, black body armour polished and proudly displaying the winged skull symbol of the Astra Militarum. Above this was a stern, scarred face glowering at them as it chewed around the cigar clenched in it’s mouth.

If they had dared…

Colonel Schaeffer stopped with perfect drill and snapped his feet together.

“This is Ascher’s World, a farming backwater which has been invaded by Aeldari pirates” he began.

“Why should we care?” the one they had named ‘Demolition Man’ interrupted and asked.

Schaeffer turned slowly meeting the man eye to eye, he stared for a moment then lunged forwards and backhanded the Vostroyan across the face.

“Anymore and you’ll all be on half rations, well?” he asked and stared around the transport hold, “Blaker, stop smoking and get in here”

Trooper Blaker, known to the others as ‘Greasemonkey’ rounded the hatch, the manacles around his wrist and neck rattling as the chains on them swayed with his movements. Awkwardly he climbed aboard.

“Now” continued Schaeffer, “Ascher’s World has been invaded by Aeldari pirates, the regiments have been having a little trouble, so we’ve been called in. Our targets are the leaders, the so called “Seer Council”…

“Great, a damn suicide mission against freak alien psychics”
“Damn and I was getting short, just two more missions and I was out”
“You wouldn’t know what to do on the outside Fingers, hell, you don’t know what to do normally”
The soldiers began back and forth at each other accompanied by laughter, the one they nicknamed ‘Animal’ growled and snarled around his leather gag.

They shut up quickly as the sound of a swagger stick snapping echoed around the interior, all eyes were drawn to Schaeffer, his jaw muscles working as they clenched even harder around the cigar.
Once he knew that all eyes were on him, he threw the halves of the broken stick at “Animal” to shut him up.

“Do you know why you’re all here?” he asked, none replied.

He spun, pointing at ‘Shiv’, “Do you know why you are here?”

“Because I’m a serial killer?” ‘Shiv’ asked, unsure whether the question was a trick.

“No” replied Schaeffer, “You are here because you are scum, but you are the Emperor’s scum. You have skills which are useful to our immortal lord and whether you wish it or not, they will be made use of. They will be made use of until you receive absolution for your transgressions against humanity and him on earth.”

“Now, do you know how you receive absolution?” Schaeffer asked ‘Scope’.

“Down the barrel of my sniper rifle” the convicted sniper replied.

“No” cried Schaeffer as if he were lecturing in the Scholam’s back on Terrax, “I drag you here to some hellhole which you’ve never heard of. There you fight and most likely die because I am not impressed. But, if you’re lucky or you’re as good as some of you think you are, they I’ll drag you kicking and screaming to another hellhole, and another hellhole, and another. Until you earn absolution from the Emperor in death. Remember, only in death does duty end”.

He turned on his heel and marched out the ramp, beginning the closing procedure as he went.

“I’ll be back with the provost’s in twenty minutes, we gear up and move out in an hour” Schaeffer said before the ramp slammed shut, encasing the convicted soldiers in the almost darkness again…

 *****

*****

Colonel Schaeffer – The indomitable colonel leads the Last Chancer’s into battle personally, to ensure that each mission is a success.

‘Rocket Girl’ – Convicted of killing a fellow Master-Sergeant for unknown reasons.

‘Fingers’ – Convicted of Kleptomania and Black-Market profiteering.                   

‘Demolition Man’ – Convicted when caught breaking into a Colonel’s personal drink cabinet.

‘Warrior Woman’ – Convicted of belonging to a banned cult (Ref: Artemis sub-cult).

‘Greasemonkey’ – Convicted of stealing the grav vehicle belonging to Iyanden Craftworld ambassadors.

 

‘Scope’ – Convicted of going AWOL, reason unconfirmed, but thought to be related to a series of assassinations.

‘Shiv’ – Convicted of killing over twenty civilians over a five-year period on Lector Prime.

  

‘Brains’ – Convicted of hacking into the regimental payroll system and changing his pay grade.

‘Animal’ – see sub-sile 84 beta, cross-reference Militarum psychologist reports regarding schizophrenia...

*****

Colonel Schaeffer’s Last Chancers are a character unit, one which I have had sitting half painted for the better part of three years now. They were released during 40k’s 3^rd edition and were meant to be a kind of “Dirty Dozen” analogue in the universe (remember they had all the different guard regiment models back then which were based off of various real world regiments and themes).

Anyway, I liked these as you could field them either as a unit of Hardened Veterans in a normal guard army, or you had the option of using them as a Suicide Squad, and facing down the enemies of the Emperor with just the twelve models in the unit. 

I love the photo's from this period of  GW, actual modelled terrain, not the same old "Sector Imperialis" boards in ever photo...

I say twelve models, but have only painted up ten. This is because with modern 40k (5^th edition onwards) you lost the ability to field these models as a unit by themselves. With their equipment loadout as well, I had to remove ‘Ox’ who carries a Heavy Bolter  and ‘Hero’ who has a power sword and lasgun, so that the rest of them I can run as a squad of Veteran Guardsmen from the Elites section. To play them narratively, I’ll just get them in way over their head and hope that they can pull their arses out of the fight, just like Colonel Schaeffer would do.

‘Ox’ and ‘Hero’ haven’t been abandoned, they been side-lined for different future projects which may occur once I gather a few more bits for them. ‘Hero’ will have a close job with the Officio Prefectus…

These were really fun models to paint and I do wish that GW would do some box sets like this again. I tried to go for a unified Military Prison look with the drab green uniforms, but then add the individual flavour of each member of the unit through their equipment and skin tones in some cases.

For example ‘Shiv’ is very Native American, so I gave him a Cadian Fleshtone base washed twice with Riekland Fleshshade, to get a richer colour, compared to Brains who is very pale skinned by using Deepkin Flesh as a base for the fleshwash.
A little spot colour of red, unifies the various models into a cohesive unit, much like the artwork for the uniforms on the cover of the latest novel to feature the penal legion guardsmen in. Must admit that I do like this cover artwork. 

Well that about wraps the post about these convicts up recently I've also been working on the Leman Russ I began renovating and a few other models for the Imperial Fists, until next time…

 

 

-          Lewis

An Upgraded Display

 The other day I finished my shift at work, looked at my phone and blinking at me was a message from the Mrs. (I can't look at my phone whilst driving obviously).

"Do you want this cabinet, for free? Need an answer urgently!"

I'd been looking for another Ikea Detlof cabinet for a while, but they always seem to be silly money and I was starting to resign myself to a trip to the dreaded Swedish furniture shop down the road in Sheffield (a nightmare to drive to and from).

Fortunately I hadn't left it too late to reply and she organised a trip to Fishlake when I got home to go pick it up, something I was thrilled about having finished a nine hour shift at work and having been up since 03.00 that morning.

But free stuff is free stuff, and it was in good nick, so off we went, a couple of hours later and...

Kaboom!

Double the storage and display space.

I even managed to get the boxes of part built projects from the bottom shelf of the old one (left cabinet) and secret them away under the bed with the rest of the plastic waiting it's time.

So, in the left hand cabinet I've got:

Test of Honour (need to finish those Bamboo pieces).

Imperials, including some newly finished Imperial Fists (more on those in another post).

My Orks, whom are slowly loosing their blueness over time. I really want to find the time to devote to them again as they are and always will be my first love in 40k. They've just fallen by the wayside at the moment.

Now, the other cabinet:

My Nighthaunt army, who may be getting reinforcements soon (Halloween is approaching!).

My Stormcast Eternals, well everything finished for them so far...again I have a ton of stuff to do for these guys.

Ignore the dragon as that's going to be it's own project.

Finally the newly finished stuff for my Blades of KHORNE force and my unit of Chaos Dwarves.

Well, a couple of things that this has taught me is that fully painted forces look awesome and we should all strive for that particular end goal, and that I really need to focus down on projects to actually get stuff finished! I know I wouldn't be a Wargamer if I didn't have the plastic pile of shame somewhere, but I need to actually finish a project to a game worthy level before moving on.

Until next time...

 - Lewis

The Ao'ric, Khorne Bloodbound army.

 Ancestor's Fyrd lies deep within the Drakespine mountains of Ghur, it is a bastion of civilised peoples and order amongst the rough, savage lands of the realm of beasts.
Following the road south from the township for many leagues along one of the lesser used trade routes, a traveller will come across the garrisoned hamlet of Auldsyde.

Here travellers will be greeted with the majestic vista of the Drakespine Mountains to the north and the Grasslands of the Plain of Ghyrria.

Mostly flat and stretching as far as the eye can see in most directions, these grasslands are home to herds of migrating beasts. Thousands of animals migrate around the plains each year, some the size of regular horses used by people the realms over, some are larger and a few are even larger still, the size of houses or bigger.

Auldsyde, protects one of the routes into the mountains and the more prosperous and well travelled trade routes, not from the beasts of the plains, although some of the carnivorous creatures sometimes work their way north. They stand to block the paths of the tribes of the far south jungles.

That these tribes are brutal is an understatement. True any man can fall into worship of the Dark Gods, and from the far north there are many tribes which worship that foul pantheon as a whole. Rare is it that an entire area is dominated by the worship of one of the four gods, in the southern jungles however, that is exactly the case.

The tribes of the Ao'ric were once a peaceful farming people, content to keep to their corner of the realm. The strife of the Age of Chaos reached them however as they found themselves constantly under attack from displaced tribes from the north as the armies of the Dark Gods conquered all before them.

Before long the farmers were praying for strength from a source of power none of them knew about. Harvest rights were replaced with Blood Sacrifice. Offerings to fertility gods were replaced with Skulls given to Khorne. They became more aggressive and warlike, becoming those who they had tried for so long to resist.

The Ao'ric finally became Bloodbound of Khorne, bursting from their jungle to ambush and fight anyone and anything they came across...

 

Another update and this time I have been working on a unit I began a while back but never finished. Namely a second unit of Bloodreavers for my Khornate army.

A unit of twelve models, including standard and champion. Twelve models because they fit into Dragon Rampant like this, and if I add them to the previously finished unit then they'll become a twenty four strong unit for Age of Sigmar.

I decided to experiment with skintones with this unit:

Something to break up the basic Caucasian-ness of the army as it was before. and something to try to do differently as I've never attempted it before.
I always like the Excelsior Warpriest from Silver Tower and wanted to try to emulate the dark skintoness. A painting guide on youtube (there are many so your favourite youtuber will probably have done one) was easy enough to follow, then I had to repaint the various straps and harnesses they wear as I'd done them all in brown leather and they matched the skintone now...oops.

Also, after thinking about the background for these guys and how they would fit into my corner of the Realms, I decided that they were a southern tribe who had fallen to Khorne worship and broken north. Adding other warriors who were worthy to their numbers as they went and killing most others for the glory of Khorne.

And what glory without a baner to declare it?

The Bloodsecrator from the first Age of Sigmar box set. I've had him half painted for a long time, and just never got round to finishing him. Unfortunately his banner had snapped and i'd used his head (with the spinal column dreadlocks) for a different conversion somewhere. So a dip into the bit's box trailed up a Skullhewer helmet and the banner from a unit of Bloodletters.
I've not finished the banner as yet, it's just a coat of Flesh Tearers Red contrast over a grey undercoat, but i'm hopeing inspiration will strike later on.

Finally, I decided to go back to the units of Blood Warriors I had already finished and repaint a few of those models with the darker skintone to match the growing backstory of the force.

Also today, as it has been a nice dry day (if a little breezy) I dragged some bits outside and took some photographs in the sunlight with a suitable background.

The trees nearest the models in this photo are my plastic bonsai trees I originally bought to use with Test of Honour, the further back trees are my pear tree and hedges in my garden. I think it makes a good backdrop for a photo personally.

A couple of closeups with the natural light:

*****

I have another thirty or so Bloodreavers to build up and paint (I may take them to sixty eventually), including the Shadespire specific models on order which I am waiting to be delivered.
I am considering adding some marauder horsemen to the army, suitably Khorne converted to add some flanking speed and scouting to the force. Perhaps some Chaos Hounds?
I'm not entirely sure, but the force will be led by Valkia the Bloody and her bodyguard of Chaos Furies (When I can get hold of some).
I was talking to Chris about this, and we hit upon the idea of adding a coven of priests/shamans to the army to really sell home the tribal nature of the force. Obviously as Khorne hates magic they wouldn't be magic-users in the traditional sense, more brutal and sacrificial in nature. I'm considering converting some more Bloodreavers into this unit, but we'll see.

 Attention is turning back to 40k for a little while with my next painting updates, so i'll try to crank out some more models quicker.

 Until next time...

 

 - Lewis

Rolling with the Iron Gorgon's Renegades, creating a Chaos Warbands' Narrative

In a somewhat related note to some of my last postings, I received a good bit of favourable feedback about the Titan post. Obviously people likes the miniature...well, I say “miniature” but that thing is nearly two feet tall! 

The other thing people commented on was the written piece introducing the post, the story of Lord Kharakhos and the Iron Gorgon's Renegades.

Chris mentioned to me that he was eager to see both Kharakhos and his sorceress, Eliphim, in miniature form which I hadn't planned on, they were just throw away characters in the scenario to set the scene for the daemonic titan being summoned to the battlefield. 

His comment about wanting to see the characters stuck with me however, and I decided to flesh out the renegades a little more.

This is purely a written exercise for amusement at the moment, but who knows, maybe it could lead into a small force of chaos renegades in the future.

So, I googled Chaos Warband Generator (I love me some random generator tables to roll on) and was greeted with the page of the Chaos Warband Tables from Fantasy Flight Games 40k RPG "Black Crusade", these are meant to flesh out the background of who you are fighting for and why they turned against the Emperor, but they just as easily filter over to 40k.

1: What is the Warbands' Structure? Renegade Chapter. 

I chose this as I had already mentioned a few things in the previous background piece.

2: Why did the Warband fall to Chaos?
(D100, I rolled an 83).

They were stationed in an area of space with a powerful warp presence, which corrupted their minds over time. 

This could be an interesting thing to work with.

3: Who was your progenitor?
Iron Hands. 

Again I chose this, mainly because of the name and how Ferrus Manus was called 'The Gorgon', so I could easily make the jump to them being Iron Hands Successors.

4: What are the Warbands' beliefs?
(D10, I rolled a 4). 

Neutral, They believe that Chaos is a tool to be used rather then worshipped. They serve the Dark Gods when it benefits them. 

As much as I like the zealous nature of the Word Bearers, the cold pragmatism fits better with the Iron Hands theme building. This roll was a "happy accident".

5: How do these beliefs take form in the Warband?
(D100, I rolled an 83). 

Accept and and All. Thieves, Whores, Traitors and Scum alike are welcome to join the Warband's forces. Mutants, Xenos, Beastmen and even former foes can be found in their numbers. 

Interesting, this throws up a great many options which is a great thing for a Chaos Warband to be honest. I'd already included mention of them throwing cultist hordes at the enemy in the previous fiction, so this opens up the chance to include Beastmen (always some of my favourite models) and even some Xenos races...not sure how to go about that just yet.

6: What battlefield doctrines does the Warband believe in?
(I had to choose this one, you'll understand why). 
Drown them with Bodies. The Warband believes in the doctrine of overwhelming strength. Any campaigns are complemented by legions of mortal servants (or slaves) who throw themselves at the enemies.
With the above result about welcoming any and all into their forces, I had to choose this doctrine straight away. All those mortals who think they are gaining power are just really cannon fodder whilst the Astartes do the real work and gain power themselves.

7: What is the Warband's Demeanour?
(D10, I rolled a 2).
Scorched Earth. They destroy anything they do not need so that the enemy cannot use it. Even valuable items such as Fortresses and Ships are expendable.
Not what I was expecting to be honest. I like the pragmatic "Deny the Enemy" outlook, but resources for a renegade Warband would be hard to come by and held onto jealously in my opinion. But let's roll with the dice...

8: Common Mutations and Defects?
(D10, I rolled a 3).
No Rest For The Wicked. The Warband's Catalepsean nodes have been sent into overdrive by the Empyrean. They no longer need to sleep, but tend to hallucinate or go berserk at inopportune moments. They must meditate to keep the symptoms at bay.
This is a fun twist as everything so far has been pretty "straight and narrow". I love the idea of them being relentless as they don't need sleep, but hallucinating at times would be interesting. Perhaps they induce a state of berserker at times when battles begin?

9: Does the Warband utilise any Special Equipment?
(D100, I rolled something).
Unique Daemon Engines. The War band's Warp smiths have created unique, unseen abominations of flesh, metal and daemonic fury.
This was an unexpected result and it threw me for a short while, then I hit upon one of the lesser seen units in the Chaos space Marine codex...Mutilators!
Granted their models aren't great and I don't think that their rules are either, but its something different and not commonly seen, I also think they'd make a great conversion project our of the two plastic Obliterators which came with the Shadowspear box set.

10: What is the strength of the Warband?
(I chose for them to be slightly understrength).
I figure that they have maybe been renegade for a couple of decades, not very long. When they turned I imagine that the chapter would have had to fight a short and brutal civil war, with the survivors siding with Kharakhos and turning renegade. Perhaps there are a few loyalist Iron Gorgon's left, seeking revenge?

11a: Where is their homeworld?
(D100, I rolled a 92).
An Asteroid Belt.
11b: What terrain does their homeworld have?
(I chose Airless as this made sense).
So they are based in an asteroid belt, this throws up several questions such as Is it inhabited? Are there mining rigs present and they get resources that way? is it the remnants of a planet or a actual belt like in our own solar system?
They only bit which this contradicts is the Scorched Earth policy brought up earlier. Perhaps they have everything rigged to blow up if an enemy captures it?

12: Who are our Allies?
(D100, I rolled a 31).
A Rogue Psyker Cult.
Brilliant, that's a perfect jumping in point for Eliphim. She could have been the leader of the cult and joined the Iron Gorgon's, or she could have murdered her way into power and joined or been forced to join Kharakhos at some point. There are too many possibilities to go into here at the moment.

(Two possible ideas for Eliphim).

13: Who are our Enemies?
(D100, I rolled a 96).
Sisters of Battle.
Narratives write themselves for this one. Could the Iron Gorgon's have sacked an Imperial Cathedral at some point? Perhaps they preyed upon pilgrims on one of the many routes of Imperial Saints and massacred the Battle Sisters sent to stop them?
One nice point about this is that I have three friends who have various Sisters of Battle forces which could be drawn into the Iron Gorgon's narrative very easily.

Now onto a major character for the Warband:
1: Who is a Champion of Legend?
(I chose the Warband Leader).
It had to be Kharakhos didn't it. He's probably the single most important person in the Warband other than Eliphim at this point, simply because both of those have been mentioned a little so far.

2: What was his Deed of Legend?
(D100, I rolled a 41).
The Leader killed a renowned and mighty Imperial Hero.
When this roll came up, I had that classic "Lightbulb" moment as an idea popped. I have had a Chaos Hellbrute from the 6th edition Dark Vengeance set sitting unpainted for years. What if this was actually the former Chapter Master, whom Kharakhos defeated when he turned the chapter renegade. Instead of killing him, he had him installed in a Hellbrute with some sort of control mechanism and leaves him to be tortured until they are in battle where he is released upon the enemy as a cathartic release type of situation?


These were just rolled with a "lets see what happens" attitude. Nothing was planned even though it feels like some were coincidental in nature, the Dice Gods obviously favoured these renegades!

This first post is just the set up and showing how easy it can be to come up with some narrative and ideas for a Warband, especially in the days of Crusade campaigns ahead. This is meant to be a "you can do it too" kind of post.
In one of my next posts, I'll post some fiction based upon these choices and see what warp spawned rabbit holes that takes us down, I look forward to casting a small section of the Imperium down...or not, as the gods see fit.

Incidentally, I googled "Iron Gorgon's" and this popped up in the image search as part of a homebrew loyalist chapter:

Maybe make the cog a chaos star or leave it as is?

It's a good starting point though.

Until next time...

- Lewis