Editorial. 2 Let it snow! What Mike got up to over Christmas with his terrain boards. 4 Back in black A Space Cr...
Forged in evil and scribed
with the blood of heretics
4 BLOODY BATTLE REPORTS! PLUS Warhammer 40,000 Role Playing Game Legendary Lunch Times REAL Space Marines! Chronicles Of An Ork Final Chapter
100% HOBBY CONTENT
THE FINAL CLIMATIC ISSUE! FREE
March 2007 ISSUE 03 www.warseer.com/firebasemag The Head Monkey: Adam Smith PR Monkey: Brandon Valee Assistant Subbing Gibbon: Adam Parkhouse Specialist Monkey: Simon Fisher Design Monkey: Steve Gagne Cover Art: Izzy Davis Art Monkeys: Logan Lee, Robert Friis, Jonathan Ho, Loopz, Seth Bennett,Milan Dubnicky Writing Chimps: Luke Bardwell, Jason Chastain, Marc Cook, Ashley Curtis, Simon Fisher, Michael Glaesar, Sascha Glaesar, Johan Hansson, Alan Herbert, James Le Grys, Yves Marie, Stephane Montabert, Bob Ortwin, Gerard Pitt, Joel Pitt, Dan Quirk, Adam Smith, Simon Smith, Bob Syko and Brandon Valee. FIREBASE is published every three months in association with Warseer.com. All text and layout remains the copyright of FIREBASE. FIREBASE is a fully independent publication and its views are not the views of any company mentioned herein. All characters and artwork shown in this magazine remain the © and trademark of their respective owners. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the express permission of the Editor or Deputy Editor. FIREBASE can accept no responsibility for inaccuracies or complaints arising from editorial or advertising within this magazine. All letters and emails received will be considered for publication, but we cannot always provide personal replies. This fanzine is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited. FIREBASE is a nonprofit making fanzine with the aim of promoting Games Workshop games, products and hobby.
Firebase Editorial Crank up the metal, don your spiky leather and shake your long 80s hair as FIREBASE is consumed by chaos to roaring guitars and thumping drums -Issue 3 is here! A lot of people play stirring music when playing their games and my mob of bloodthirsty gamers are no exception. There’s nothing quite like charging your Khorne bezerkers across the field to a bit of Man O’ War or playing Primal Fear when your fire warriors take aim to fell the foe! Gerard played a little Daft Punk when fielding his Eldar for the first time and even that went down well. So if you’re still listening to the same old rubbish on the radio, or even (gasp!) playing in silence, get yourself over to a cheap online retailer and order a couple of cheesy power metal CDs. Marc’s become quite the convert and can now be seen racing to work with Blind Guardian blaring as he leads the commuters charge with a plastic sword held aloft from his noble petrol fuelled chariot of steel! - Adam Smith
Contents Editorial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Let
it snow!
What Mike got up to over Christmas with his terrain boards. .
Back
. . . . . . . 4
in black
A Space Crusade chaos army that’s a real blast from the past. .
Legendary Lunchtimes
How to cram a great game into just sixty minutes . .
Time
to
Die
The perilous world of customized dice . .
An Inquisitor’s Job
is
Nobody Expects
Inquisition!
. . . . . . . . . . . 12
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Never Done
Get the most from your Inquisitors and their retinues . . the
. . . . . . 7
. . . . . . . . . 18
The Daemonhunters are ambushed by a Necron raiding party. .
Real Space Marines!
Tim shows off his real life space marine suits . .
. . . . . 22
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
An Ork’s Tale Final Chapter The Ard Knucklz go to war! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 All Life Forms Great
and
Small
The Epic armies of Stephane Montabert and Yves Marie.. .
The Harlem Shuttle A great shuttle kit for your games
. . . . . . . . 54
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
A Little Less Conversation A Little More Action Role playing in the 40k universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 I’ll Be Damned!
Bob Ortwin’s Legion of the Damned army . .
Absolute Chaos The gods of chaos collide
Thank You
and
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Goodnight
Firebase bids you a fond farewell. .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
modelling
Let It Snow!
A
s winter’s rain falls to the ground, many battles take place on grassy plains surrounded by trees in their full green colors. Yes, in the grim darkness of the far future there is only summer! By the end of this article, your miniatures will be marching through snow covered battlefields trying to assault the enemy over dead trees and frozen waterways. I’m sure your troops will love you for it.
- Snow scatter: The range on this varies. From GamesWorkshop and Woodland Scenics flock, to small shredded plastic fluff, you’re bound to find something to your liking. - Winter trees: Again the range on this varies. If you have your own “summer” trees, you can simply throw snow scatter over them. - Small Styrofoam balls: For the trees which I’ll talk about later. - Transparency paper: You probably have to go to an office supplies store for this stuff. It’s the “see through” paper used on overhead projectors. 1. Prep your game table. Take a vacuum and clean off all the extra sand, chips of paint, etc to prevent them from getting stuck to your snow roll. Remove all moveable scenery as well.
The first order of business is the table top itself. I assume most of you reading this have some sort of a playing surface, be it the dinner table or an actual game table. If not, go to your nearest home improvement store and buy yourself a 6x4 ft. polystyrene panel. You know…that pink/blue/white insulation stuff. Now that you have your selected surface in place, we can begin. To limit your trips to the craft store, here’s a list of generic supplies that you will need: - Snow mat/roll: These rolls are usually made from some type of stretchable fiber cloth and sometimes have the dreaded glitter to make them extra sparkly. Remember to get enough to cover your entire table.
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2. Cover your entire table with the snow mat/roll. If you want to add hills, simply slide a few magazines or some cut polystyrene underneath. To secure the roll to your table, you can either tape or tack it to the surface. 3. Cut some oval-esque shapes out of the transparency paper to form frozen ponds, lakes etc. By cutting and combining several sheets of paper, you can even create a frozen river running through the entire table! Once you lay your frozen water on the surface, apply some snow scatter to the “banks” in order to break up the outline.
4. Apply the snow scatter over the entire surface to add texture. It is perfectly alright to sing some holiday/winter songs while doing so too. You can easily create snow banks by adding more and more scatter to certain areas. Word of advice: keep it away from the edges of the table so that a) it doesn’t fall on the floor and b) it doesn’t get on your clothes. Flock with troops and vehicles: 5. Once you have the flock down, you can add your trees. Sometimes trees will come with a flat base so that they can stand upright. Others just have a metal wire at the bottom to be “pinned”. This is where the Styrofoam balls come in. Cut one in half, stick a tree through it and you’re done! Instant flat base that matches the surroundings!
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6. If there’s anything else you’d like to add in, do it now. I actually bought a small light up Christmas tree to use as an objective. 7. And you’re done! That was easy wasn’t it? You now have a new gaming surface which was relatively cheap to make and is completely removable. - MIKE GLAESAR
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interview
BACK IN BLACK
A
shley Curtis interviews Adam Smith and Adam Parkhouse over an amazing space crusade era chaos marine army. Old skool is definitely still very cool.
space marines they were as awesome as I remembered and that sparked the idea for an entire army. FB: Hence the whole army is based on some real classic models. What did you pick up after that?
FB: So Mr Smith, what started you on this course of chaos induced madness? Smith: It all began when I picked up space crusade on eBay. I opened her up and felt all jiggly inside like I had done when I was a wee nipper (about 7) and was suddenly blown away by the quality of the chaos marines and the old dreadnought. Unlike the blobby
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Smith: Next came the nightmarish task of getting all the old chaos stuff. Over the course of 6 months I lost count of how much money I spent bidding on eBay for individual models, whole squads, dreadnoughts and sometimes complete sets to get everything I wanted. After numerous ravaged Space Crusade boxes and a whole lot of bidding I got the army together. FB: I suppose its testament to just what you can pick up on eBay. What was the inspiration for the HQ of your force? Smith: This is where the old skool element comes in. Way back in 2nd edition there were no chaos lord models apart from the special characters. I fondly remember everyone converting existing space
marine characters. I knew I wanted someone with a kai gun and that’s where Tycho came in. He had a big gun, so that did the trick. FB: Did the models come first when putting the army together, or was it a list then seeing what fitted? Smith: I came up with the list first, but it was restricted to what models came in Space Crusade. Namely dreadnoughts, small dreadnoughts, chaos marines and chaos androids. FB: How do your represent all these weird and wonderful models on the battlefield? Smith: The big dreadnoughts are chaos dreadnoughts with twin-linked lascannon and missile launcher while the little dreadnoughts represent obliterators. The chaos marines are obviously chaos marines, while the chaos androids I’m using as a chosen squad with 3 autocannons and the tank hunter skill. They can always become havocs as the army expands. FB: How effective have you found the army? Parkhouse: Have you even played with it? Smith: Umm…I must confess that I haven’t tried it out yet, but it’s packing enough low AP and anti tank weaponry to give my mate’s dark angels army a damn good kicking! Not that I’d ever tailor my army, no sir.
FB: It certainly sounds like a firepower force to be reckoned with! What were the decisions made regarding the painting of the force? Smith: After painting a handful of chaos cultists a few months back I liked their colour scheme so much that I applied it to my army. Purple, black and gold just looks great together and I fell in love with wooden stocks on my guns. I guess they’re black legion or something. But best of all, I only had to paint one of them before handing the army over to Mr Parkhouse here. FB: I was just about to ask where Mr Parkhouse fitted in to this. How did you feel taking the project over from Adam? Parkhouse: Nice model it was by the way. Smith: Cheers.
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Parkhouse: Well, originally, it all came about through me trying to start some sort of painting service online. After a couple of emails, exchanging photos and such, I felt it would be a fun challenge. At first though, I’ll admit, I thought I was getting paid.... Smith: That sounds so negative! Parkhouse: At first, it was about the money, being a student and all, but then I started to get stuck into the painting, and was keen to get cracking. I think Adam was a bit shocked at the speed I got painting after receiving the models. Smith: The man’s a painting machine! But even his enthusiasm didn’t stop him demanding payment. Parkhouse: A man’s gotta eat... Smith: I ended up bartering my lovely red necron army (see issue 1!) for his services. Yummy green transparent plastic for you!
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FB: You have both helped put together an immensely cool army. Do you usually find yourselves turning to the more classic style of 40k from previous eras than the current incarnation? Smith: You first dude. Parkhouse: Cheers! In terms of eras of 40k, I’m not so sure. I always get lost in what I actually want to get done. So it helps to be given a nice frame to work in. The scheme was fun, although after 50 models or so you can get bored of painting bone and purple. The balance is finding a scheme that is both easy to do and varied enough to not get fed up with I guess. FB: I can sympathise with that statement. Smith? Smith: Now I love the old skool stuff and go all misty eyed whenever I see even a brand new model painted in a classic scheme. There’s something special about the old models and paint schemes. I guess it’s all the mental associations with playing my first few games of space hulk and 2nd edition 40K. I sort of prefer how chaos used to be very organic and Giger-esque rather than the archaic gothic
spikiness we have today.
FB: What’s your next project Mr Parkhouse? -After the huge list that Mr Smith has in store by the sounds of it!
Parkhouse: One thing I will add t h o u g h , is that I think my detachment from 40k (primarily
Parkhouse: I know, it’s stopping me from sleeping some nights! Next on the list? Where to begin? Hopefully (awaiting the arrival of the models) I’ll be doing a large praetorian imperial guard army and all manner of blood bowl teams. Hopefully I’ll be getting back to my ork army and my own khorne army for 40k, which is serious need of some TLC, or should that be blood, sweat, and tears? Whatever khorne prefers I guess!
playing fantasy), means that I can appreciate things without the hindrance of fluff. So I can approach things from a visual point of view in painting terms, and not be held back by worrying if this chaos star is on the right backpack vent or whatever! FB: Thanks guys. Where does this army lead you to next? Smith: Well, the army is being expanded. I’ve decided to go a little chaos crazy with more squads, tanks and stuff. All in the old skool style of course. This means beastmen, cultists, leman russes, original space marine predators, converted defilers and more squads of chaos marines. It should be very impressive when it’s all done and guess who gets to paint it? *Big grin*
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FB: It certainly looks like there will be plenty to go round! Thanks for the interview guys. On a final note, with a lot of talk recently about what people would like to see in the 4th Edition chaos codex, what would be the number one thing on the top of your list? Smith: *Scratches chin in contemplation* Parkhouse: *looks over at Adam*A re-release of the older models? Smith: It won’t happen, but I’d love to see chaos androids again. That’s purely selfish though because androids are long dead in the background. Parkhouse: Are you bracing yourself for a barrage of kids asking you why you have necrons in your army? Smith: I don’t play with kids, so I’m not worried about being asked about my necron chaos droid thingies. Smith: Back to the question! -I’m not really fussed about new models, but I’d appreciate if all the chaos rules for absolutely everything were thrown into one massive pulsating book of daemonic doom like in 2nd edition. I still have my chaos codex from back then and how I love it so! It’s my...precioussssssssss. - ASHLEY CURTIS
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what should i put here mr. smith?
Legendary Lunchtimes
A
dam Smith gets all blurry eyed as we travel back in time to the old school days and the lunchtime wargames club where you had just 1 hour to get in your vital dose of daily carnage. Pimples, dice and badly painted miniatures. I’m sure we all remember playing with an assortment of half painted models that look like they were dunked in paint. We hadn’t even heard of drybrushing back then, apart from the one kid with stunning miniatures and that’s because his dad had painted them for him. I often wonder just how we managed to cram a whole game into one lunchtime and that was back in second edition when things took twice as long. I’ll never forget the great race we had where we lined all our tanks along the starting line and made a track by moving all the school desks around in a figure of eight pattern. Of course, no one actually made it to the first corner. We’d blown each other up by then, apart from the one Ravenwing land speeder that no one could ever seem to hit which zoomed off out of range early on. The biggest lunchtime success was the royal rumble tank battle. This had been organised by one of the older lads and had all the elements that everybody loved –tanks and killing! Everyone had a time limit to play their turn. Run out of time and it’s on to the next player. I believe it went a little something like this…
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L A ST TA NK STA NDING Get a large playing area, preferably 6x4 feet, assemble your players and divide 60 minutes equally over 6 turns. So if you have 10 players, to accommodate 6 turns each (it could happen) you’ll have to allocate 1 minute per turn. Get that stop clock at the ready. This will keep the action fast and furious. If a player runs out of time mid roll, or they’re about to penetrate a tank, it’s tough luck and on to the next player. There never used to be any terrain, what with playing on a couple of school desks, but how much terrain you have is entirely up to you. It does slow down playing speed though. Setting up can get a little bit tricky too. Get everyone round the table. They have 1 minute to place their tank anywhere they like and they do it all at the same time! Once a tank has touched the tabletop, that’s it, it has to go there, facing that direction. If they run out of time, that’s it, they’re not playing. If you’ve got the time (and you probably won’t) you can let the players with the lowest front armour value go first, but if you don’t, simply get everyone to roll a D6. Highest roller goes first, followed by everyone to their right. The game runs for 6 turns. If there is no winner at the end, the finalists fight it out between themselves another game. The last vehicle standing is the winner. Give that player a Mars bar or other culinary delight -They earned it.
A R E YOU R E A DY TO RUMBL E? We swept the terrain from our rather rocky looking gaming boards and hastily plonked down six vehicles for six players. Let the carnage commence!
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M eet
the
C ontenders
1: Dark A ngels L and R aider Twin linked lascannon sponsons, twin linked heavy bolter in the hull, smoke launchers, extra armour and power of the machine spirit. James: With armour 14 all round I wouldn’t have to worry about any side or rear armour shots, but at the same time, this makes me an inviting target for everyone on the table because I have the most anti tank guns and the most armour.
2: Thousand Sons Chaos Predator Twin linked lascannon turret, heavy bolter sponsons, smoke launchers and extra armour.
Phil: I wasn’t hugely confident about this one. Normally I’m able to hide my side armour while maximising the front armour 13. I’ve got a twin lascannon for the big things and heavy bolters for softer side and rear armour. Hopefully more shots will do the trick.
3: Black Legion Chaos Dreadnought Twin linked lascannon, missile launcher, smoke launchers and daemonic possession. Adam: Time to take my new shiny dreadnought out for its first dose of slaughter. Maybe it wasn’t such a great idea, because everyone will want to blow him off the board because he’s my ‘new toy’. I’ve got him tooled up for long range shooting, so all I have to do is sit tight, look vaguely non threatening and pray for ‘fire frenzy’.
4: Imperial Guard Sentinel Lascannon, hunter killer missile, smoke launchers and extra armour Luke: A little walker in a world of big tanks. With a measly armour value of 10 all round, even a slight breeze could send my walker bursting into flames. But then again, as puny and non-threatening as the sentinel may be, a lucky hit could send even the land raider into oblivion. Time to cross my fingers, hide, and pray that I’m ignored long enough to grab a last minute win.
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5: Tau Hammerhead Railgun, smart missile system, targeting array, multitracker, target lock, decoy launchers
SET UP Simon: With the biggest gun in the game all will fear me! The only downside is that they’re more likely to send my hi-tech craft crashing to the ground. I’ll just have to keep moving at full speed and try my best to keep my front armour of 13 facing all threats.
6: Imperial Guard Demolisher Demolisher cannon in the hull, two plasma cannon sponsons, lascannon turret, extra armour and smoke launchers. Joel: Land raider, I’m looking at you! Everyone knows that the guard can’t hit to save their lives (and that’s why they die in droves), but if I can get in range, sit still, fire the big strength 10 demolisher cannon and land it on the big vehicles on the board, then I could win this through sheer brutality. We’ve got the guns, we’ve got the armour, let’s go get em!
In a mad scramble all the tanks were quickly set up, oddly equidistant around the board. The land raider took bottom right, the chaos dreadnought bottom left, the sentinel bravely wound up in the centre left side opposite the chaos predator, while the demolisher took the top left corner with the hammerhead opposite, obscured by a generous helping of cliff. Everyone rolls a D6 to see who goes first!
TURN 1 The chaos dreadnought wins the roll and opens fire on the land raider opposite, but the guns bounce off its mighty 14 armour. Next it’s the land raiders turn and we all know what James is going to shoot at -Adam’s pretty new chaos dreadnought! After moving forward, the land raider hits nothing but air.
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Phil turns his chaos predator away from the sentinel, hammerhead and demolisher to take a shot at the land raider, which bounces off harmlessly. At least the hammerhead should go for the demolisher and that sentinel is too puny to do much…hopefully. Simon grins, seeing an opportune moment for multi-kill! The hammerhead swoops out from behind the rocks to hit the chaos predator in the rear armour with its smart missile system, penetrating it twice and destroying it in a fiery explosion. It then turns it rail gun on that poor helpless sentinel, but thankfully misses. The demolisher rumbles forward 12” and fires its smoke launchers,
then patiently waits for the next turn.The sentinel moves away from the demolisher, down the board while letting loose with everything it’s got at the hammerhead and misses pathetically. That’s imperial guard shooting for you!
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TURN 2 Adam rolls for his chaos dreadnought being crazy and it promptly stomps screaming torwards the sentinel. That wasn’t the best thing it could have done… The land raider targets the out of control chaos dreadnought, blowing it apart and sending it back to the hell from whence it came! The hammerhead inevitably targets the demolisher and punches right through its front armour and rolls a 6 on the glancing hit table, destroying it. Nobody can argue with the godlike firepower of the Tau Empire! It’s over to the sentinel which targets the land raider. “Time for some glory!” cries Luke, but to his disgust, the one eyed pilot misses again.
TURN 3 The land raider moves around the wreckage of the chaos predator to target the hammerhead, but the shot deflects off
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the pathetic 12 side armour! Looks like the batteries need recharging. Simon performs the coup de gras by cruising into the middle of the board and opening fire on the sentinel with its smart missile system, while targeting the land raider with its rail gun. Once the dust clears, two smoking wrecks remain, leaving the hammerhead victor of the battle. Adam: “How long did that take?” James: “About ten minutes.” Gerard: “Want to play again? I’ll be the hammerhead!”
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gaming
TIME TO DIE
S
ome might argue that this takes geekyness to horrifying new heights. I mean, what’s worse than colouring your dice to match your army scheme? But then I came across a player who changed all of that. It was my first opponent in a tournament setting and while I mopped the floor with him, he suggested that I throw a variety of coloured dice at the same time to speed up the game and spend more time in the bar. I liked the sound of this! So when my six man strong Deathwing terminator squad opened up on his plague marines (who seemed to die like imperial guardsmen), I had 4 red dice for the assault cannon, 10 white dice for the storm bolters and a single black dice for the cyclone launcher’s krak missile. Resolving what would have been three separate sets of rolling in just one session really cut down on playing time and that was when
I bought my first set of coloured dice from a role playing shop round the corner (up the highroad and then some). My little box of special ‘Deathwing Dice’ came with me to every game and oh how they served me well…when they rolled high of course.
Then another fellow decided to take his dice to the next level -the ultimate level! He gave Chessex, renowned dice makers, an email and asked about how much a set of fully customised dice would cost him. For such a small order Chessex, like any company, were ready to charge the pants off him, but that’s when David had an idea. He chose to approach all the other Deathwing players he knew and offered them in on the dice deal, thereby saving his pants and sharing his novelty dice design with everyone. I’m now the proud owner of 10 rather fetching novelty dice that replaced the gold dice I’d been using for my storm bolter shots before. I’ve also managed to cram in a couple of small blue dice to use when my Librarian casts his psychic powers. Customising your playing dice can go a long way to improving your game and speeding up the action, so the next time you’re walking past your local hobby shop, take a step inside and see what kind of dice they have on offer. You’ll be amazed when you cut your playing time in half, leaving you plenty of opportunities for that swift half down the pub. - ADAM SMITH
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tactica
An
Inquisitor’s
Job
is
Never Done
I
t’s a dirty job being an Inquisitor, but someone’s gotta do it.
It was many moons ago when I found myself idly searching through the science fiction and fantasy section of my local library, only to come across a most familiar word. As an impressionable youth I wasn’t expecting to find the name of my hobby with toy soldiers on the spine of a proper book of ‘high culture’. I was looking at a hardbound edition of Harlequin by Ian Watson and there, proudly displayed, not just on the spine of the book but in big font on the cover were the words Warhammer 40,000. This being in the days before the Black Library imprint, I didn’t know any ‘real’ books had been written about our rich universe. So quickly I ferreted it down to the issues desk and hurried home to indulge myself in a world of background material I had barely been exposed to. It may be because it was the first real piece of 40K writing that I read, my love of intrigue and conspiracies, or it may be Watson’s masterful writing, but I fell in love with the concept of the Inquisition. At the time it didn’t matter to me that Harlequin was the second book in a trilogy. The lack of complete knowledge of the whole story only helped to build the mystery behind this most august of institutions. Warhammer 40,000 is an interactive universe and every time you make an army list and name a character you are adding to that universe and the conspiracy theories really exemplify this interactivity. Conspiracy and intrigue is at the heart of the 40K universe, and the Inquisition is at the heart of the conspiracies. I knew right away that I wanted my very own Inquisitor. Thus was born Inquisitor Corai. He started life as a character in a roleplaying game with a system born of a hybrid between Traveler and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Corai was a secretive Inquisitor, who disguised himself as a guardsman to spy on the rest of the
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group. This was as far as his background went and sadly was all that was necessary for our youthful, hack n’ slash approach to role-playing. There Corai stayed for a few years, appearing as a doodle in the margin of my notebook and eventually becoming my internet handle until Games Workshop released the game I thought I’d been waiting for ‘Inquisitor’. I knew the models were breath taking and immediately saw my chance to play with Corai in a miniature wargame. Much as I love to role-play, playing with toy soldiers will always be my first love. Suddenly Corai was no longer a loner. To work in an Inquisitor Campaign he was going to need allies -a whole warband. The gears in my head started turning in a vain attempt to create a warband that was anything more than a facsimile of Jaq Draco’s followers. Thankfully, by the time the models were released, I’d refined the ideas a little. Inquisitor Corai was starting to become a real force in the background of my 40K armies as well. I’d even gone so far as to make a model of the Inquisitor, using the basic rules from the 3rd edition rulebook to field him in my games. Finally, Codex: Daemonhunters was released, giving me the kick start to build a new inquisitor model and render all his 54mm allies in 28mm form. Now, a few years on, thanks to the Daemonhunters allies rules, it’s rare that I play a game of 40K without fielding Inquisitor Corai (and when I don’t, it’s usually because I’m fielding one of his nefarious enemies!) So why would you want to include an Inquisitor in your games? Their stats aren’t bad, but besides allowing you to field Assassins or used in the infamous ‘fire-team’ pattern, your average space marine player would argue there’s not a lot to offer there. But I disagree. Aside from the frankly scary amount of psycannon and heavy bolter fire they can bring to bear, the best thing about the Inquisitor character in games of Warhammer 40’000 is a way for you to include your own, home made special character in your games. Whatever your opinion of special character rules may be, who can deny the sense of gravitas their presence gives games. For this sense of character to come across, I find you need to start with the fluff and work outwards. Sure, you can use clever background to justify why the psycannon toting inquisitor is accompanied by three walking heavy bolters at all times, but I like to find models and rules for characters I have created, not the other way around. For the purposes of demonstration, I will use Inquisitor Corai as
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an example in my guide to creating a characterful inquisitor for including in your games of Warhammer 40’000.
with the Inqusition. Since then he has continued Ezekiel Guntz’s pragmatic ideals and subterfuge in his own work, although his failure to produce the damming evidence his superiors wanted has left him often out of favour with the Ordo Malleus.
S tep 1: Th e C oncept The first and most important step is to work out the background and history of your inquisitor. What Ordo does he belong to? Which belief system does he subscribe to? Is he a Thorian? A Monodominant? Is he fanatical or pragmatic? Maybe he’s a fully fledged radical! How does he like to undertake an investigation? Does he roll in throwing his weight around or slip in under the radar, only revealing his true identity when an investigation comes to a close? How old are they? Where did they grow up? All these things can greatly influence the character. Inquisitor Corai knows very little about his past. Although he appears to be little older than 40 standard, various rejuvinat treatments mask his true age even from himself. He knows for sure that at some point in his early career within the Inquisition he was mind wiped and re-educated, becoming the man he is today. His earliest memories are of being assigned to the staff of Inquisitor Ezekiel Guntz. Already a member of the Ordo Malleus, Corai was acting undercover, at the behest of his masters, to discover whether the veteran Inquisitor Guntz had become unsound. Sure enough, Corai discovered that Guntz had been treading a fine line in his crusade against chaos, not least amongst which was a daemonhost within his employ. Rather than reporting Guntz, Corai was won over to his pragmatic way of thinking. He revealed himself to Guntz and filled a false report
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S tep 2: E quip
your inquisitor
What equipment is your inquisitor likely to carry on them? Do they like to be a walking arsenal, or would they rather let their followers do the fighting? Are they psykers? If not, do they sympathize with psykers or abhor the witches? There’s no need to delineate equipping a character usefully and characterfully. After all, if your Inquisitor plays no role in a battle, you won’t remember his actions. I’m not suggesting you deliberately give your beloved character bad wargear, just that he gets appropriate and characterful wargear. Treat your Inquisitor like the special character he is. We’d all love to see Eldrad Ulthran or Commisar Yarrick striding across the battlefield in terminator armour, but it’s just not very fitting for them! Inquisitor Corai favors stealth and subterfuge over face to face confrontation. That being said, when the time comes, he is not above taking the fight the enemies of the Imperium. Corai is a spectacularly gifted marksman, but often substitutes the range of a rifle with the concealability of a pistol. Overall, Corai would describe himself as primarily a detective, not a soldier. Obviously, games of Warhammer 40,000 are representing battles, not investigations. So when Corai marches to war with one of my armies, he will take the necessary equipment. For example, whilst any form of armour bulkier than a body glove may be bad for an undercover investigation, he is not above donning protection when acting as part of a battle. Inquisitor Corai is represented in the game using the following: an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Lord with Emperors Tarot; master crafted bolt pistol with psycannon bolts and a null rod.
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S tep 3: F ollow ers It is a lonely Inquisitor indeed who exists in isolation. Even some of the most solitary inquisitors will surround themselves with someone they can trust. If not by choice, then at the behest of the Inquisition in the form of an Interrogator in need of training. What are the stories of these characters? Does your inquisitor trust them? What is his or her relationship with them? How did they meet them? With each follower you are creating another character as dense as your inquisitor, making you care about every model in his retinue. Of the many accomplices Inquisitor Corai has had through his career, there are four individuals which stand out. It is rare that you will find him working a case without at least one of these men by his side, if not all of them.
Captain Ferren Traultz Corai first met Ferren Traultz when he was investigating Ezekiel Guntz. Guntz had employed Traultz for a few years at this point. Hailing from a non-descript world on the edge of the Segmentum Solar, Ferren Traultz is a gifted pilot and it is in this capacity that he was hired by Inquisitor Guntz. When Corai revealed his true identity and left the warband of Guntz, Capatin Traultz followed him, a bond of friendship having been nurtured when he thought of them as equals. Having stuck by his side through all tribulations, Captain Traultz remains Corai’s personal pilot, even going so far as to undergo a mind
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impulse unit link up with the Inqusitor’s starship ‘The Sword of Angar’. Ferren is now an elderly man, but still insists on being on the front line of investigations, often taking the role of wealthy merchant, with Corai masquerading as his aide or bodyguard. When on a planet’s surface, Ferren’s most useful ability is his remote link with the ship, allowing direct access to long range sensors and communication equipment. In game, Ferren Traultz is represented using the following: Henchman sage. In games where Daemonhunters are the main army, Ferren will also be represented as a lance strike, representing his remote link to the Sword of Angar.
Interrogator Dante Frost: Dante Frost is dangerous. He first came to Corai’s attention as a junior Interrogator, apprenticed to Inquisitor Rosencrantz, a one time ally of Corai. Rosencrantz and his entire staff came to an unfortunate end whilst on assignment deep undercover. Frost was the only survivor. Frost was terrified of psychic interrogation by the Inquisition, believing he would be set up as a scapegoat to take the fall for his master’s death. To try and counter this, he took an overdose of the narcotic Spook. Already a sigma level psyker, the drug boosted his skills above his ability to handle. The physical effects were temporary but the mental ones were far more scarring. Frost developed an addiction to the drug, and the psychic boost it brought. Corai took the Interrogator under his wing and attempted to help him combat his addiction. Frost never truly learned to battle the addiction, it slowly eroding his sanity. Unwilling to dispose of such a valuable psychic resource, Corai hid Dante’s power and still employs his psychic might when necessary. A decision he questions every day. Now, Dante is seen walking hunched, a null rod clasped in his hands, limiting his psychic power until the time when Corai needs him at his most powerful. With a word, the null rod is deactivated, the stimm injector on his arm discharges a dose of Spook and Dante Frost’s mind sails free of his husk like form. In game, Dante Frost is represented using the following: Daemonhost. Dante takes little part in the battle until his powers are unleashed, represented by the deep strike ability. The relative unpredictability and shear psychic might of the empowered Dante is adequately represented by the Damemonhost, as is the grey knights’ refusal to work with him.
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Colonel A lbrecht Cassius Like many of the wayward souls who have crossed paths with Inquisitor Corai, Cassius’ story is one of loss and tragedy. As a Colonel of the Cyronian VII Wraiths, Cassius’ drop troop platoon was seconded to Corai when an investigation on a border world uncovered a military strength Chaos cult. At the height of the battle, the cult succeeded in summoning a daemon who cut a bloody swathe through the guardsmen. Cassius was the only survivor. Knowing the Ordo Malleus could never allow the guardsman to continue with the knowledge he had gained that day, Corai saw only execution in Cassius’ future. A lowly guardsman was not worth the considerable expenditure of mind wiping and re-training. It was easier just to sweep him under the rug. Officially there were no survivors from the Cryonnian Wraiths that day, and Cassius has continued to act as Corai’s eyes and ears on many an investigation. Colonel Cassius is represented using the following: Warrior Henchman with plasma gun. Phalanx Traultz Like his father before him, Phalanx Traultz has a gift for machinery. This gift was identified at an early age and Phalanx was taken away from Ferren to be raised by the Adeptus Mechanicus, recognizing the blessing of the Omnissiah within the child. It would be many years before father and son crossed paths again, but an investigation of Corai’s did lead his team to the feral world of Archipell VI where Phalanx was working with a team of adepts to recover some lost archeotech. At the close of the case, Corai requested Magus Traultz be allowed to accompany him as part of his staff. The Machine Cult quickly accepted, believing that it would give them a valuable spy on the Inquisition. Despite Ferren’s assurances, Corai finds himself constantly worrying about Phalanx Traultz’s divided
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loyalties. Magus Phalanx Trault is represented in game using the following: Acolyte Henchman with refractor field.
S tep 4: Th e
model
In a game where characters are represented by miniature soldiers, it’s no use having a fully developed narrative Inquisitor and warband if he doesn’t make the occasional appearance in a game! Step 2 dealt with how to equip an Inquisitor character fully, but all this needs to be translated into a model. The best thing to remember when making an inquisitor model, is that they often look like normal imperial citizens (albeit fabulously wealthy ones!) Removing the necessity to model something in power armour, or carapace armour opens up a huge range of possibilities. The Inquisitor models, as well as John Blanche’s concept work are a great place to look for inspiration. Removing those armour restrictions opens up the hundreds of human models Games Workshop has produced over the years. I hope you can see the benefit of including Inquisitors in your games of Warhammer 40,000. I can’t guarantee they’ll be game winners, but their characterful, narrative addition can really make a game. Trust me, you’ll never forget the time your opponent’s Deamon prince/Autarch/Chaplain falls to some well placed psycannon shots or a clap round the ear with an anointed weapon. When your inquisitor’s star pupil takes a shot for him and falls, you’ll be aching for revenge come the next game. Now go forth and purge in the name of the Emperor! - DAN QUIRK
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battle report
NOBODY EXPECTS THE
T
INQUISITION!
he dark, dusty fog hanging low over the ruins of Kasr Tannenberg was suddenly pierced by lights so bright that one could swear it was the sacred Astronomican itself. With a metallic growl, the rhino APC burst through the dense clouds and continued its hurried, yet cautious advance. Behind it emerged another rhino, and following that, another. A gradually louder rumble began to echo off the ruined city walls as something bigger approached within the fog. A looming black outline began to manifest itself, becoming more defined every meter that it approached. Massive squeaking treads reduced pieces of ruins to dust and the huge frontal assault ramp battered all aside. Four dark arrows emerged from the side of the beast, rotating around as if hunting some unseen foe. With the Godwynn pattern lascannons in view, the armoured form of the ancient land raider Fiat Lux made its way into the clearing. The inquisitorial armoured column continued its vigilant pace as it neared the bridgehead. Lord Inquisitor Pravus was at odds with himself. Inside the armored hull of the Fiat Lux, he poured over every data slate and papyrus in his possession, searching for proof of an answer he himself can’t explain. Pravus and his strike force of elite inquisitorial stormtroopers had just crushed one of the last known chaos
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covens within Tannenberg. Chaos runs where angels dare to tread and Pravus made sure that every single heretic’s soul would be devoured by the uncaring denizens of the warp. Resistance was light, but it was not that which concerned him. When he found the cultists, they were cluttered around a dark obelisk, bowed down in blasphemous prayer. Were they attempting to appease the dark Gods of chaos? The lights within the land raider flickered for a moment as Pravus’ eyes darted back and forth for an explanation and finding none. Once again occupying himself with his dataslates, he reviewed the symbols etched in the perfectly cut, almost marble like surface. They consisted mostly of circles, but were connected and intersected by a series of straight lines. It was a language he had never seen before, not even while studying known heretic scriptures as a young malleus inquisitor. What he did know was that the symbols bore similarities to that of adeptus mechanicus and their binary language…the code of the machine. A loud report of what sounded like a hellgun interrupted Pravus from his thoughts and the sudden halt of the land raider sent him flying to the ground. Cursing as he rose, he demanded the assault door be opened so he could execute those responsible for the delay. Upon seeing the event unfolding outside, he suddenly wished the door was bolted shut. The ruins of Tannenberg were alive with fire. Men yelled and ducked for cover, shooting blindly into the darkness. The streets were filled with smoking hulls of rhino APCs and the ground was littered with bodies. Pravus noticed with disgust that the corpses weren’t even whole…they were…flayed. To confirm his worst suspicion, one of the darkest secrets the Imperium kept emerged from the fog. The green humming energy from the strange xenos weapon outlined a skeletal figure as it walked directly towards Pravus. Behind it emerged even more and they were met overhead by larger flying constructs. Out of the corner of his eye, the inquisitor saw ghost like beings materializing in and out of buildings, hunting with an eternity of hatred. Signaling for his retinue to follow, Pravus ran with the remainder of his force into the bombed out ruins and alleyways on the far side of the grand avenue. Through the rubble, he caught a glimpse of his fellow inquisitor Octavius Barak barking out defensive orders to the men around him. And defend they would. They are the inquisition! They are malleus! But in his mind, Pravus couldn’t help but wonder: How do you kill that which does not live?
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HIS DE VOUT INQUISITION
Daemonhunter Army List
Inquisitorial Strike Force Pravus HQ: Inquisitor Lord Luthor Pravus Master crafted lightning claws, artificer armor, icon of the just
Daemonhosts Neerozeus and Hexaus Troops: Stormtroopers Squad Argentus Vet. Sgt. Dane with thunder hammer, 2 flamers, frag grenades (x10)
3 combat servitors, 2 familiars
Stormtroopers Squad Caeruleus Vet. Sgt. Kott with thunder hammer, 2 flamers, frag grenades (x10)
Landraider Fiat Lux Extra armor, smoke launchers
Stormtroopers Squad Fuscus 2 plasma guns, frag grenades (x8)
Elites: Inquisitor D’mar Seth Psycannon, artificer armor
Stormtroopers Squad Ruber 2 plasma guns, frag grenades (x8)
3 gun servitors with heavy bolters, 2 sages, 1 hierophant
Stormtroopers Squad Viridus 2 meltaguns, frag grenades (x8)
Inquisitor Barac Gravus Thunder Hammer, incinerator, artificer armor, icon of the just
Mike: Well this is interesting. My mechanized inquisitorial storm trooper army has found itself ambushed in a city and without their trusty rhinos. What’s even worse, the attacking army is a hoard of soulless Necrons bent on taking over the universe! They definitely weren’t expecting that! The mission we are playing is “Grand Assault” from the Cities of Death Codex. After the initial ambush, my troopers abandoned their transports for the ruins around them. The necrons are now trying to root them out building by building. The inquisition, having no choice, must defend at all costs. Pretty straight-forward right? After you’ve read my army list you are probably ready to hit me over the head: “Throne on earth! A Daemonhunters army with no inducted guard, allies or Grey Knights!?” Yes I admit it…there is nothing of the sorts in my theme army. My force centres around a “cell” of inquisitors who are off to purge all in the name of the
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Emperor. They are only accompanied by a small detachment of the 666th Inquisitorial Stormtrooper Regiment. With that in mind, I made my selections: 1) An Inquisitor Lord with mastercrafted lightning claws for those important re-rolls to wound against foes with a superior toughness. 3 combat servitors will help deal and absorb damage. 2) A psycannon inquisitor with a retinue including 3 heavy bolter servitors for suppressing fire. 3) Another inquisitor with a thunder hammer and incinerator to tie up enemy units 4) 6 squads of 8+ stormtroopers with all the weapon combos you’d need
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5) Yes there is a landraider. Why? Because inquisitors travel in style and it goes along with the storyline. The ‘raider does make for a good mobile bunker and is probably worth more as a road block to cut off the necron advance. Desperate times lead to desperate measures. With my remaining points, I decided to take two daemonhosts. Sure people scoff at them for being too random, but they are perfect for holding up large units of necrons…particularly when they roll reknit host wounds. Keeping the necrons busy is all I need to do and to be honest, I’d rather be excommunitcate traetoris than dead. For the Emperor!
THE SIL ENCE
Sascha: Who dares to defend themselves against the machine and the ages of time! With the flayer and scythe do we wander forth, ready to strip life from the galaxy. The Eldar will play their eventual part in the slaughter, but for now it is the human cattle that shall be removed… Being the attacker in the “Grand Assault” mission places me at a disadvantage. I need to be constantly aware of my objectives and cannot get caught up in any unnecessary dealings. Despite usually having all eternity on my side, this random game length scares me. As a necron player, I am also forced to pick a large amount of warriors to prevent the phase out rule from taking effect. Going with the storyline, I picked units that would be at the head of an ambushing force. So C’tan, pariahs, monoliths and tomb spiders will stay at home. The core of the army is, of course, the necron warriors, 30 to be exact. Thanks to the new turbo boost rule allowing all models moving as jetbikes to speed 24” ahead, I will have some hard hitting flankers. These will be scarabs, 5 destroyers and 3 wraiths. A lord with a veil of darkness and another with a destroyer body will allow me to get units into close quarters fast. Overall, I will rely on my toughness, superior saves and flanking units to get up close and personal. I will need to keep a sharp eye out for those power weapon wielding inquisitors and even those stormtroopers are never to be underestimated. Trust me, I know. My opponent may be able to hide, but he can’t run far. Let the harvest begin.
D eployment Mike: Necron Army List
Elites: Immortals (x4)
HQ:
Troops: Warriors (x10) Warriors (x10) Warriors (x10)
00101101011110010001010110
Necron Lord Staff of light, resurrection orb, veil of darkness Necron Lord Destroyer body, warscythe, phase shifter
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Fast Attack: Scarabs (x10) Wraiths (x3) Destroyers (x5)
The “Grand Assault” scenario allows me to deploy my entire army after my opponent. What is even better, I get first turn! That never happens…not even with the Emperor’s Tarot. I shall make the best of it then. I deployed my Inquisitor with psycannon and his heavy bolter squad on top of the highest building on the table: the hab-bloc. This building also happens to hold my power generator stratagem
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which will allow me to re-roll failed to wounds. Being this high up allows me to avoid close combat and see further across the table than my ground dwelling units. I deployed an 8 man plasma squad for fire support in the same building as well. I guess you can say that the hab-bloc is my firebase. I have another plasma squad in a fortified building: the arbites bunker. Next to them I have the venerable land raider Fiat Lux with Inquisitor Pravus inside and a melta squad. My opponent will be forced to pick which target he wants to attack, leaving the other two ready to fight back. The rest of my force occupies all the buildings in my deployment zone. At the same time, they are close enough to support one another should a position come under attack.
Necrons
when moving so they are hidden away for now. With a 6 inch deployment from the edge, I really didn’t have much of a choice in the placement of my models. Just imagine a long line of metal monsters with green glowing weapons. I do have one ace up my sleeve –the sewer rat stratagem. I placed three of my four markers at the corners and table edge of my opponent’s deployment zone. The other one I placed in the manufactorum as a fallback plan in case the others were covered. I then left 10 warriors in reserve that will hopefully act as a fire magnet when they arrive behind enemy lines.
Notes The mission calls for a preliminary bombardment and dusk and dawn. We both decided to leave them out in order to keep things simple and focus on the main objective: utter annihilation. Oh yeah, we’re playing 6 turns too. On with the show!
Well, knowing that my opponent gets first turn, I deployed my force with caution. My wraiths and scarabs can bypass terrain
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Turn 1 Mike With the first turn, I decided to get my squads into better positions. The first flamer squad, under orders from Vet Sgt. Kott, advanced along the sewer trench and took cover behind the bridge and out of the immortals line of sight. My firebase remained within the hab-bloc to provide that all important covering fire. Inquisitor Seth gave the psychic command to open fire and the three heavy bolter servitors attuned to his mind obeyed. Unleashing nine shots with the help of the sages, four found their mark on the skulking immortals. A cheer went up as one of the metal daemons shattered, but the celebration was cut short as the immortal pieced itself back together. In anger, the inquisitor lashed out with his psycannon, but to no avail.
remained unscathed during the initial necron ambush, rumbled down the street to block off the advancing destroyers. The tank’s lascannons pierced the thick dust clouds, illuminating their target: the necron destroyer lord. The first shot was just absorbed by the lord, defying all logic that the techpriests knew so well. The second lascannon missed, but, to quote a certain landraider crewman: “Ha! Twin linked fool!” The shot found its mark and wounded the lord. Encouraged by the result, Inquisitor Lord Pravus and his retinue emerged from the armored hull of the landraider alongside the advancing melta squad. As Pravus scanned his surroundings, he couldn’t help but notice the dust clouds taking on a green glow…
Sascha Well, that went better than expected. Only one wound on the lord and no other casualties. It’s time to change that…for my opponent,
Ok, no problem…maybe my right flank will have better luck. Showing the typical bravado and insane courage of a monodominant, Inquisitor Barac strode out from the relative safety of the ruins and into the abandoned street. Fiat Lux, having
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that is. Deeming the wound non-threatening, the destroyer lord took to the sky along with five other immortal/skimmer hybrids and landed near the Fiat Lux. Unleashing a hail of dark energies, the destroyers managed to glance the thick adamantine armor of the landraider and detonate its reactor. The explosion lit up the city block as the Fiat Lux ironically lived up to its name. With the threat of the landraider dealt with, the wraiths materialized outside of the HQ building just a short distance away from Lord Pravus. It was then that an eerie silence fell over the battlefield, leaving only one sound to break the monotony.
Deamonhunters - Turn 2
A scuttling buzz of metallic limbs grew louder and louder as a huge swarm of scarabs burst through the windows and doors of the former HQ building and out into the street. Not wanting to be left out, the immortals advanced along their end of the sewer canal towards the bridge. The stormtroopers, from their high vantage point in the hab-bloc, could see the dust clouds around the manufactorum vanish under an ethereal wind. In a bright flash, the necron warriors they had been tracking vanished and, to their horror, reappeared in the street under them. The second necron lord raised his head and pointed a metal talon in the direction of a flamer squad hiding by the bridge. Green light engulfed the stormtroopers and four fell to the gauss flayers. The squad held their ground, too shocked to move.
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Turn 2 Mike My landraider is gone…what a surprise. Actually, when it’s not fighting an army where every model can destroy it, it does quite well. Was I right about the roadblock or what? Seeing the new threat materialize in front of them, the second flamer squad moved out of the ruins towards the necron warriors and unleashed hell. After the promethium from the two flamers dissipated, two necrons lay scorched in the rubble. The remnants of sgt. Dane’s squad marched forward and doused with necrons with even more promethium. With the combined fire of the plasma squad in the hab-block, they managed to take down four warriors. Once again the dark, ancient technologies brought three of the necrons back to life, much to the inquisition’s dismay. Inquisitor Seth surveyed the carnage bellow and had his servitor retinue open fire. With the help of the power generator stratagem, four necrons were wounded, but all withstood the damage with my opponent rolling four 6’s to save. Furious at his servitors’ incompetence, Seth
lashed out with his psycannon, completely atomizing a straggling warrior. Beyond the bridge, Inquisitor Barac brought his incinerator to bear and destroyed two scarab swarms and wounded another thanks to the weapon’s “ignore invulnerable saves”. The plasma squad in the arbites bunker shot at the scarabs as well, which resulted in one kill…that being a plasma gunner. Medic! Lord Pravus decides that retreat may be the better part of valor and moves away from the advancing destroyers. With a prayer on their lips, the melta squad charges forward into the cathedrals courtyard, right in front of the advancing destroyers. A melta disintegrates the carriage of a destroyer, yet it miraculously pieced itself back together. Wanting to lend support, Pravus gives in and reveals his deepest secret. Lightning arched across the skyline as a shadowy figure drifted down to earth. Inquisitor Barac could only look on in horror, realizing that his master has summoned a daemonhost to battle. Necrons be damned, Barac had a new enemy that he would deal with… The daemonhost, referred to as Hexaus, landed behind the destroyers and pulsed with dark energies (rolled warpstrength). With the enemy closing in, sgt. Dane orders his remaining men to charge, but they become entangled in the terrain. Inquisitor Barac stood dumbfounded at his Lord’s betrayal and failed to assault the scarabs hiding behind the sandbag bunker.
Sascha That pathetic inquisitor lord shall face the reaper in due time. For now, the inquisition’s entire flank by the cathedral is beginning to fall apart. If I can sweep the remnants away, I will control half of my opponent’s buildings. The immortals continue their march forward near the sewer trench while another warrior squad comes into view from behind the factory. Observing plasma fire from the third story of the hab-bloc, the immortals sent gauss blaster fire into the destroyed windows and were rewarded with the screams of three men. Sensing a new threat on the battlefield, the destroyer lord and the destroyers turn to face the newly arrived daemonhost. Green lightning arched across the street and into Hexaus. Even the powers of the warp could not help the entity as it blew apart. The three wraiths emerged from the shadows of the HQ building and
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Necrons - Turn 2
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assaulted the melta squad in the cathedral courtyard. Suffering no wounds themselves, the wraiths lashed out with their talon like fingers and sliced five troopers apart. Their will broken, the remaining troopers fell back just beyond the reach of the shimmering daemons. The scarabs, burnt but unbroken, float past inquisitor Barac and assault Lord Pravus. Struggling to keep them off his armour, Pravus only wounds one swarm. Around him, the scarabs engulf his two familiars and two servitors. The remaining close combat machine fought back, but the scarabs were too fast for his sensors. On the other side of the table, my other lord and squad held firm. Once again they opened fire on the flamer squad and killed four. Seeing a stormtrooper with a large hammer running straight at him, the lord leveled his staff and annihilated Dane and the last member of the squad.
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Turn 3 Deamonhunters - Turn 3
Mike My stormtroopers are dropping fast! Its time to show the might of the inquisition! Seeing the fate of their comrades, the second flamer squad broke cover and unleashed hell on the Lord and his warriors. The combined might of the flamers and hellguns took down four warriors with only one strong enough to reknit its form. The remaining four stormtroopers in the hab-bloc added more suppressive fire, killing
the last warrior and bringing the lord down to one wound. Sensing the enemy has been sufficiently weakened, Inquisitor Seth summoned all his malice into his psycannon and unleashed a screaming blast of energy that tore the lord apart. As Inquisitor Barak strode over ruins towards the scarabs, he heard a faint “Huzzah!” coming from
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the last known position of his fellow inquisitor. By the sound of it, they were having better luck than him. Seeing the necron destroyers flying over the destroyed landraider, the plasma squad in the arbites bunker decided to retreat further into their cover to avoid the deadly gauss weaponry. Lord Pravus could now sense his own desperation as he swung his lightning claws back and forth, killing seemingly endless amounts of scarabs. His entire retinue lay dead and stripped bare. Vowing not to see himself end that way, he lashed out again and again. Inquisitor Barak charged in with his hammer and the combined might of both heroes destroyed three swarms, taking no wounds themselves.
Sascha: The Inquisition is break…I can feel it. All killing blow and it came of my sewer rats. As the smell of ozone filled the air, a bright green light heralded the arrival of a fresh squad of necrons. They were deployed at the sewer entrance, right in between the enemy’s battle line. Wasting no time, they swung their gauss flayers around and killed three stormtroopers that were foolish enough to be too close to the bunker walls. The immortals advanced and targeted the enemy plasma squad that helped reduce their lord to ashes, but to no avail.
starting to I need is a in the form
Necrons - Turn 3
Seeing no targets in the immediate vicinity, the wraiths moved to occupy the second hab-bloc. With that building taken, they are now ready to roll up
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the flank. Satisfied with his wraiths, the destroyer lord turned his menacing gaze towards two figures that were immersed in a rapidly thinning sheet of scarabs. Along with his destroyer escort, he took to the sky and landed near the combat (turbo boost) only to watch his remaining scarabs torn apart by the fury of the two inquisitors. With the scarabs dead, the two men turned to see the lord’s hatred staring back at them.
Once more dark lightning flashed across the skyline. Having just finished off the scarabs, Inquisitor Barak turned towards the commotion only to see another dark figure lower itself from the hellish clouds. Daemonhost Neerozeus stopped short of the ground and pulsed with warp energies while Barak could do nothing but stare at the monstrosity. The inquisitor then turned to find Pravus assaulting the necron lord and with a curse, charged as well.
Deamonhunters - Turn 4
Turn 4 Mike Oooh, looks like its showdown time between the HQs! Watching my army doing its (usual) disappearing act before my eyes, I wouldn’t mind gaining a significant moral victory if my lord can beat the necron lord. But before any close combat happens, I have some more shooting to do.
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Sgt. Kott ordered his flamer squad to take cover behind the hab-bloc’s buttresses, just as the inquisitor a few stories above him opened fire. Heavy bolter and psycannon shots rained down on the immortals and destroyed one utterly. The four man strong plasma squad kept their wits and fired upon the immortals as well, killing two, but leaving only one truly lifeless. Across the bridge, the second plasma squad moved within the arbites bunker to get away from the advancing destroyers. They failed to notice a fresh necron squad directly behind them and wandered into rapid fire range. Realizing their folly, the squad opened up and fell three warriors only to see each one stand back up. (Note: Sascha must have made a pact with the dark gods. The dice rolls he makes are unbelievable! I think I will have the Grey Knights “question” him sometime…) Lightning claws blazing, Lord Pravus lashed out at the destroyer lord and left him with one wound remaining. The necron leader whipped his scythe around and caught Barak in the chest, sending him into a building wall. His battle was over. With the more dangerous one out of the way, the lord turned his deathly gaze upon Pravus.
wraiths used their unnatural movement abilities to occupy the arbites bunker. The destroyers moved around the close combat only to find themselves confronted by the daemonhost Neerozeus. With no regards to their own safety and the dark entity in front of them, the destroyers determined the plasma stormtroopers contesting the bunker to be of a greater threat. A solid wave of gauss fire flayed the remaining five troopers down to their atoms leaving the wraiths in full control of the bunker.
Necrons - Turn 4
Sascha Just what everybody likes, an HQ fight. With the thunder hammer inquisitor out of the way, I’ll be able to focus on the lord. The reason I attacked the other first is because a hammer wounds me on a 4+ while the lightning claws (although they allow rerolls to wound) only hurt me on a 6. With me down to one wound, the next combat will be crucial. The sewer rat warrior squad crept into the waterworks building while the
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The warriors by the factory continued their methodical advance and watched the remaining two immortals wade through the sewer trench and emerge at the other side. The immortals once again targeted the squad in the hab-bloc, but two stormtroopers managed to find cover just in time.
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The necron destroyer lord brought his attention back to Pravus whose lightning claws once again danced with flickering energies. With a brief prayer to the Emperor, the inquisitor jumped into the air and embedded both claws into the lord’s lifeless torso and sliced downwards. Pravus thought he saw a faint look of surprise on the necron’s emotionless face as green lightning engulfed its form. The remaining metallic ash scattered in a sudden wind as Pravus searched for his next target.
Turn 5 Mike Another foul foe of the Emperor is destroyed. The fight is beginning to wane…I can tell by the lack of models under my command! Yelling a prayer above the brutal noises of war, the stormtrooper squad with flamers advanced towards the immortals. In an attempt to give covering fire, the plasma squad in the building rained shots down onto the remaining constructs, but all shots failed to find their marks against the tough immortal armor. Once again Inquisitor Seth trained his servitor’s targeters down onto the metallic daemons. The heavy bolter shots lit up the immortals and thanks to the power generator stratagem, killed two.
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Daemonhost Neerozeus pulsed with unearthly energies, its form contorting into all sorts of unnatural positions. Although it was terrifying to behold, all squads within the twelve inches made their pinning checks. Realizing that the destroyers were the last major threat, Inquisitor Lord Pravus and Neerozeus charged towards them. While the Inquisitor failed to get a good jump on the necrons, his daemonhost managed to cause three wounds against the flying monstrosities. All were saved as the destroyers fought back, but Neerozeus managed to avoid the attack leaving the combat at a stalemate.
Sascha
Deamonhunters - Turn 5
In a last ditch effort to secure the last vital buildings, the wraiths turbo boosted across the waterworks towards the hab-bloc. The warriors behind them advanced into the ruins as well. The full necron squad advancing by the factory fired what shots they could into the last large stormtrooper squad and were rewarded as one soldier’s body just slid apart.
Necrons - Turn 5
The damned Inquisitor Lord regained the initiative and struck down a destroyer. Neerozeus, mustering all his skill (rolled for 6 attacks), killed two more of the flying necrons. The remaining destroyer managed to wound Neerozeus once and the combat continued.
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necron chance for victory. As another, albeit more quieter “huzzah!” rang out, the plasma squad fired once more into the warrior squad killing two. The combat near the HQ building and the bridge continued, but all combatants fought to another stalemate.
Turn 6 Mike I completely forgot about the wraiths and can now only watch as they turboboost across my deployment zone towards the last two buildings. The necrons might pull this off! Stop them! Stop them!! After seeing the brutal demise of their comrade, the flamer squad shifted their advance towards the warriors and through the combined might of hellgun and flamethrower, managed to kill five only to see them all stand right back up! Heavy bolter and psycannon fire rained down on the wraiths. It seemed as if every shot was guided by the Emperor as all found their marks and wiped out the last
Deamonhunters - Turn 6
Sascha Arghhh! With the wraiths went my last chance for victory. Nonetheless, the necrons will fight on and bring death to the living! The warriors continued their march forward and rapid fired what they could into the flamer squad killing three more troopers. The warriors in the waterworks aimed their guns towards the highest floor and a volley of gauss fire killed an inquisitorial sage. Pravus was shocked to see two destroyers with half their bodies missing reknit themselves and take to the air once more. Running forward, he plunges a claw into the chest of one while Neerozeus burns another from the inside out. They suffered no wounds in return and with that the game ended.
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PR A ISE BE TO THE EMPEROR !
DEFE AT IS DE A FENING.
Mike:
Sascha:
What a game! The inquisition managed to hold off the tide of the necrons…but just barely. The real game winner should be Sascha for a few reasons: He had a tough mission to begin with. Having to take back every building and wipe out the opponent inside is no easy task. He was really close to achieving it though! If the game went on for one or two more turns, he would have wiped me out completely because he had many more models on the table.
Argh! The Old Ones foil my carefully laid plans even now! I may have underestimated the tenacity of the humans and particularly the will of the inquisiton. I knew from the beginning this wasn’t going to be easy. While the necrons have some fast units, the rest have to slowly march across the board. I had almost two full squads of warriors left at the end of the game but they were too late to turn the tide. My flank attack did quite well, destroying the landraider and the stormtrooper units. I didn’t however anticipate those two inquisitors stopping my attack cold. If that roadblock wasn’t there, I’m sure that Mike’s firebase would have fallen.
I’m sure there are people still yelling at me for taking a landraider in dense terrain against an army where every model can kill a tank. Sure enough, Fiat Lux blew up before making a dent in the necrons. The things I do for storylines… On the other hand, I was quite pleased with my hab-bloc firebase. The inquisitor and his retinue kept harassing necron units all game long. The plasma squad on the second floor did their best as well. In the end, it was this building that remained out of the grasp of the necrons because anyone that got close was wiped out! My stormtroopers performed as usual, inflicting major damage before being annihilated. Looks like I’ll be heading back to the Schola Progenium to recruit more fresh meat…err, uh…dutiful servants of the Emperor. Overall though, it was a great game and I believe I will be seeing those necrons again…stupid we’ll be back rule…
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I did make some bad decisions during the game like not getting my teleporting lord out of combat to pick up other warriors. Those errors compounded with some bad armor saves and difficult terrain roles made me have to fight up hill the whole battle. I’ll leave the excuses for later though because it was a great game against a fun opponent. “I’ll be back!” - MIKE GLAESAR & SASCHA GLAESAR
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Got wood?
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http://www.miniaturescenery.com/
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interview
SPACE MARINES!
REAL
W
e talk to Jason Chastain about his incredible space marine suits and how all the madness began Firebase: What happened to make you want to create life sized space marine suits that people can wear? Jason : My friend Paul is an avid player. He competes in tournaments and does quite well. Normally, Paul brokers me out to do commission paint jobs and conversions every once in a while. One day we got to talking about how cool it would be to have a space marine suit that a person could wear. I told Paul that I could build one if he would finance the project. It took me 3 months to engineer the movement so that a person could move reasonably well. At that point we only had planned on building 2 suits, the Slaanesh chaos marine and the death company veteran. Just before I started to make the parts, another friend, Jon, decided to chip in funds and we added the Dark Angel suit.
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FB: What are they made of and how long does it take to cast them up? I mean, these things are massive! They must weight quite a bit too? JC: The suits are made of expanded polystyrene foam with a 2 part plastic coating. The foam is the same foam that you would find used as packing in boxes. Just basic Styrofoam. I used this as a core and cut it on a large CNC hot wire cutter. The cutter ran off Auto CAD profile files I created in the engineering portion of the process. The result was many pieces of basic cut parts. I then had to sand and carve all the compound curves and such by hand. I used wooden buttons for bolts, and plastic skulls for some of the skulls. The whole finished part was then sprayed with the plastic coating which made it very strong and durable. All of the joints I had cut from 1/4” aluminum plate. The helmets were fiberglass built up on motorcycle helmets. I moulded the lenses from clear styrene. The purity seals were carved from high density Urethane foam and the litanies were tea dyed cotton that was starched and burnt to appear as parchment. Each one has a unique story relevant to the marine. They weighed in at around 130 pounds each. FB: How much does one of these monsters cost to produce? Are they made to measure?
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many improvements over the originals. My friends and I are a little too large to be Tau or Eldar! FB: What does the missus think of all this? JC: She is used to a compulsive artist. When I told her about the next project she was not surprised. It is always something at my house! FB: How popular have they been? I understand that a few people attended conventions wearing them. JC: The response has been huge. I have received all sorts of emails and such from all over. I even made a bolter and gave it away to someone in a name drawing to show my appreciation. FB: Any long term ambitions for this project? Or is it just a bit of fun?
JC: Our cost for all three was under $1000 USD. They are made to scale with the exception of parts that would not allow a real person to wear them -mostly the legs. Everything else was made from scans of minis that I chopped up. FB: Are you planning to make any more suits? Eldar or Tau perhaps? JC: Yes I am currently engineering a terminator chaplain and grey knightterminator. These will have
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JC: No long term really, it is just fun. I would not want to go through the pain of trying to get permission to sell them or make them to sell and at that point it would be work! It is really just a labor of love. I like building motorcycles so maybe a bike would be cool. I also thought a Necron statue would be cool too. Who knows? FB: Do you have any tips or suggestions for aspiring suit builders? JC:Keep trying! Just have fun with it and make sure you can move in it.That was the hardest part for me. - ADAM SMITH
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story
An Ork’s Tale Part 3 The mud was tossed through the air as Ugluk’s crude shovel dug its way ever deeper, water was up to his ankles and his new well would be a success, once it was finished. “Orky diggin’ boss!”, Snikwort shouted from above, standing on the edge of the hole in the ground. Ugluk stuck the shovel into the mud, “Toss down da rope, will ya!”. “Orky!” The rope hit Ugluk over the head and he let out a loud obscene curse, upon which he climbed up out of the would-be well. “Sorry boss”, Snikwort said, one hand stroking the arm, the feet squirming innocently in the ground.
The huge engine with four wheels strapped on slid in onto the yard of the farm, throwing up a great cloud of dust that engulfed the entire yard. As soon as the dust settled, the smaller inhabitants of the squig farm dared to peek out from behind their hiding places. Ugluk stepped out into the open, a crude blunderbuss held at the ready by his hip, “Alright yu bleedin’ git! Hands up!”. “Not so fast yu big log! Dreg down will ya!”. The gretchin behind the steeringwheel got up on his feet and pulled the thick driving-goggles of his goblinlike face. “Gogg!!”, Ugluk roared, throwing the gun over his shoulder and walked up to the buggy. “How yu doin’ yu runt?!”, Gogg said with a grin as he jumped out of the buggy and slapped Ugluk over the thigh as the ork approached. “Fine, da squig farm rip offs orky enuff”. “Glad to hear it. Now, wuzz doz a grot have to do to gets some drink around here?”.
Engine noise caught everyone’s attention on the squig farm and all the gretchins and snotlings moved to see what it was.
Ugluk laughed, “A grod like yu dont have to do much!”, before Gogg had a chance to duck, Ugluk had picked him up and carried him off under his arm, the gretchin screaming and kicking as he tried to get free, but the strong ork simply kept up laughing, “Dats wuzz yu gets for gobin’ da boss of da farm!”.
Ugluk and Snikwort walked over to the edge of the farm, looking at the single plume of dust trailing a lone buggy heading their way at frightening speeds, bumping along in great jumps.
Heading for the main building of the farm, Ugluk noticed Wagh’Durk coming out from the outhouse, pulling his pants up with some effort.
Ugluk simply grunted and spat in the dirt.
“Aghrukk?”, Snikwort said. “Naah, da kamp is da other way. Dunno who dis is”.
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“Yu tuf git! Gets ‘em runts goin’!”. The runtherder nodded and then started shouting orders at the grots and snots, the little goblins and gremlins hardly taking notice of the old drunk.
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Two huge mugs of firewater were placed on the bolted metallic table and Gogg let out a satisfied sigh when he grabbed the mug with both hands, “I haven’t had a proper drink since I left GargGorkdur”. The gretchin drank several mouthfuls in one go, Ugluk sat down opposite the grot, grabbing the last mug with his huge hand, “Wuzz brings yer back dis far from da durslag?”. Gogg wiped his mouth with the length of his arm after having placed the mug back on the table, “I hear things ar’ gettin’ ruff over here”. “Oh?”. “Dat miffgit of a boss yu have around here wuzz all over GargGorkdur, bragin’ his git gob off about how he wuzz gunna dreg an’ duff Gaffrogg Grim’Boy an’ all of his kamp”. “Sounds like Aghrukk”. “Well, some of Gaffroggs boyz overheard dis az well”. Ugluk stopped his drinking, returning the mug to the table, “So Gaffrogg an’ his boyz will be waitin’ for a stashy grubrukk?”. “It feels like it, doesn’t it?”. “Orky, I don’t mind if dat manik snot of a nob gets his kop smashed by Gaffrogg”, Ugluk took another swipe of his drink. “Who does? But ordz of villuns an’ bad’uns will be comin’ here if a bad brawl an’ sum nosh scraps an’ teef ar’ promised”. “So?”. “So, if Gaffrogg duffs it all, he’s gunna dreg Da ‘Ard Knuckle Kamp”. “Yer barkin’ I should boot off with ‘em an’ brawl wid Gaffrogg?”. Gogg held his arms out and shrugged his shoulders, “Why not?”.
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Ugluk shook his head, “Im da squigherder, wuzz orky thing could I do in a gargy brawl?”. “Do yer think dat Aghrukk is boss enuff an’ has da grubb to duff Gaffrogg or his Waa of boyz?”. Ugluk drank some more of the firewater, then gave it some thought, “Naa, not likely”. “Then wuzz choice do yer have?”, Gogg took a sip of the strong drink, “To save yer farm, yu have to join da mob”. “It would be smarter to shuv it all down an’ move to da slagdur”, Ugluk pointed out, taking another mouthful of the homemade brew. “Smarter??”, Gogg was baffled, “But yer an ork?”. “Ya... So?”. “Well... Yer like a bad brawl”. “Dunno, never been in wun”. Gogg scratched his head, blinking his eyes, he never saw this turn of events coming, “So... Uh... Wuzz do yet want to do? Zag it or brawl it?”. Ugluk stroked his chin, humming as he pondered the two options, his ork brain working hard to come up with a good decision. “Ordz of nosh if wun duffs da brawl, right?”. Gogg nodded, “Ya, lotz of ordz of nosh. An’ ordz of teef too”. “An’ at da slagdur, ordz of villuns an’ bad’uns, ey?”. “Ya, ordz of bosses”. Ugluk made up his mind and finished the drink, slamming the mug down hard on the table, “Right, wun git boss is enuff for me. Im stayin’ an’ Im brawlin’”.
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A wicked grin spread across Goggs nasty looking face, “Den I has da purfect thing for yer to use”. “Wuzz dat?”. “Ordz an’ ordz of Dakka”. Some three hundred orks, and maybe as many as eight hundred gretchin had gathered outside of the village known as Da ‘Ard Knuckles Kamp. The sound of orks growling, engines roaring and guns blasting at the sky could be heard miles around. Trukks, buggies and bikes and trikes drove around everywhere, even the odd cyboar could be seen. The promised scrap between Da ‘Ard Knuckles and Da Grim’Boys had attracted some of the meanest looking orks this part of the planet had to offer, all armed to the teeth with cleavers, homemade guns and shabby cybork mekaniks. The noise of it all was deafening. “Now dats a mob”, Snikwort said, looking up behind the shoulder of Ugluk, the gretchin hanging on to the ork as they rode on the boar. Wagh’Druk sat on his own boar next to them, “Looks orky enuff, will have no gits wid causing some garg dreg”. “Wasting wazzafluids, an’ da slugs”, Ugluk commented, seeing the vehicles constantly driving around and the guns being fired into the air. Wagh’Durk looked at the younger ork. Ugluk noticed the questioning expression of the runtherder, “Won’t they need da wazzafluid an’ da slugs in da brawl?”. “Doesn’t matter”, Wagh’Durk said, “If yer run out of slugs, just use da choppa, an’ if yer run out of wazzafluids, just stomp it”. Ugluk nodded, it seemed logical enough, but he still couldn’t help but think that it would be better to preserve all that fuel and
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ammunition to the real fight, instead of wasting it here at the village. “Ar’ yer sure about dis boss?”, Snikwort asked, a bit worried at the sight of so many angry orks waiting for a big fight. “We have to duff Gaffrogg, Snikwort. If we dont, he an’ hiz boyz will blitz out kamp an’ dreg da farm, itz da only way”. Snikwort climbed over to the runtherders boar and Ugluk was just about to ride down to the gathered mob when Wagh’Durk stopped him, “Grubstash wun thing Ugluk”. Ugluk looked over his shoulder at the old ork. “When yu blast away wid da shootas, use long an’ uncontrolled bursts for da orkiest dakka, an’ when yu swing da choppa, swing it ‘ard an’ manik for da best grimgor”. Ugluk nodded and grinned, “See ya around you grots”. The ork kicked the sides of the boar with his heels and the beast shot off in a gallop down the hill towards the mob of bloodthirsty orks. Snikwort looked down after his master from behind the runtherder’s shoulder, “Will he grim it?”. Wagh’Durk smiled, showing of his few remaining teeth, “Dat boy will duff ‘em all”. Dust obscured vision, the stench of fuel and gun smoke suppressed all other smells, the loud noise of orks and engines and guns locked out all other sounds. Orks and trukks were everywhere, grots running around, climbing trukks and buggies, shootas and sluggas firing one round after the other straight into the air. Ugluk made his way through the warthirsting mob, pulling the boar along behind him with the reins, carrying a large object in his other hand, the thing hidden from sight under a big leather canopy tied around it.
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“Yer nevva gunna keep up wid da rest of us on dat thing yu naff ork!”, an ork said from behind the two sticks that acted as steering for a massive trukk. Ugluk took a look at his boar, then turned to face the driver, “Wuzz it to yu?”. “Yu wants a badgrim zagrukk, gets yer bum up ‘ere!”, the driver shouted back at him. Ugluk took a look at the back of the trukk, it was overcrowded already with orks in shabby armor, all armed with shootas and even bigger kannons, many of them trying to shoot down the sky, all of them roaring like a thunderstorm. Gretchins climbed along the sides, trying to find the best spot where you could be safe and still take potshots at the enemy. “Well, well!”, a roaring voice was heard over the deafening noise of the gathering mob. Ugluk turned and saw Aghrukk ‘Ard Knuckle himself sitting on top of a large trike behind the ork driver, the boss holding a huge choppa in the one hand and a double-barreled shoota in the other. “If it isnt dat git of a squigherder, Ugluk!”, Aghrukk laughed, “Wuzz ar’ yu doin’ ‘ere anyways?! Dis is a mob for da boyz, not a mob for da grots an’ snots!”. Ugluk sneered and spat on the frontwheel of the trike, the gob of spit clearly upsetting the driver, “Im an ork of dis kamp aswell!”, he shouted back at the boss. Aghrukk laughed even louder, “Yu may be an ork Ugluk, but dat dont make yer wun of da boyz!”, the boss laughed even more and kicked the driver over the back of his head, a clear signal for the ork driver to get moving. The wheels spun and the trike made a quick turn where it stood and drove off in a cloud of dust, Aghrukks laughter raised over the noise of the trukks and orks.
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Ugluk growled openly, he hated the boss more than anything and wouldn’t mourn if the fool got himself killed in the up and coming fight. “Yu comin’?!”, the trukkdriver shouted down after him. Ugluk spat at the ground, turned and heaved the heavy sack in his hand up among the other orks on the trukk, then climbed up, pulling himself over the wooden fence around the flat platform of the trailer. Aghrukk’s trike left the large mob and stopped some thirty feet away from them, he stood up in his seat and looked over his shoulder at the orks that had gathered to join his party of destruction. Raising his slugga in the air, he fired a massive burst of fist like bullets at the sky, roaring in triumph at the orks under his command. “WAAAAGH!!!!” The entire mob acted as one, blasting away at the clouds with every gun in their arsenal, waving choppas above their heads, letting their bestial throats let out a ground shaking roar. “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!”. The huge mob of trukks, bikes and trikes shot off in the same direction on a broad front, every driver racing the ones next to him in a bet to get to the fighting first, leaving in their wake a torn up landscape of mud, dust and deep going wheeltracks. Ugluk felt the wind hitting his face, his ears flapping, his cheeks trembling. As the trukk hit bumps and rocks it shook violently in the great speeds it was traveling in and Ugluk held a firm grip on the construction of the vehicle. Being here, in the middle of this mob, orks roaring, engines spewing smoke and fire, guns blazing at nothing, triggers pulled for the only reason of causing as much noise as possible, Ugluk felt alive, his heart pounding, his eyes glowing, his mind vibrating,
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or maybe it vibrated because of the shaky ride, no matter, Ugluk knew that this was the proper life for an ork. He only hoped the brawl would live up to his expectations. The sixty or so vehicles moved in a disorganised teardropshaped bundle, no-one was racing each other anymore, the drivers sat lazily in their seats keeping the throttle at a decent cruising speed. The orks they carried along in their trukks and buggies and on their bikes weren’t as agitated as well like they had been some hours earlier, now they all sat slumped and sleeping, or leaned against the rides in boredom, watching the landscape rush them by. The trukk rocked as it hit an old dead log, the rotten wood splintering under the advancing machine. Ugluk woke from his slumber, he rubbed his face with a strong hand and then got up on his feet, the trukk he was riding in was located in the middle of the warband, surrounded by the rest of the crude vehicles. The terrain was that of rolling hills, snaking streams and spread out boulders and clumps of trees and bushes. ‘Not da baddest of trukk-land’, the ork thought to himself, and he was right, the orks of Aghrukk ‘Ard Knuckle soon had spread out far and wide as they avoided boulders and trees, gulleys and ditches. Ugluk leaned down over to the driver infront of him, “How much longer ‘til we reach dem naff gits Da Grim’Boyz?!”. The ork doing the driving shrugged his shoulders, “How should I know, I’m just ‘ere for da brawlin’!”. Ugluk grunted and pulled himself back up on the trailer, he surveyed the advancing mob and the landscape around them, ever changing his footing as the uneven ride constantly threatened to toss him on his back.
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He noticed something out of place further ahead. A clump of trees up on a hill some miles ahead, there was something wrong with the undergrowth, the light passing through the trees from behind was cut out in a strange way, unnatural even. Ugluk locked his eyes on the peculiar grove, trying to figure out what it was that was so wrong with it. “Looks like a trukk”, he mumbled as he scratched his bald head, then it dawned on him, “DA SKUM!!!”, all the orks on the trukk woke up from their daydreaming and focused their attention on Ugluk, the shouting ork pointing at something up ahead. KA-BOOM!!! A massive ball of black smoke rushed out from the large hill, now only a half a mile away and before any of Aghrukks orks had time to react a large explosion sent dirt, mud, rocks and a few buggies and trikes flying. “WAAAAAAAAGH!!!!” The orkish roar echoed over the roar of the engines as trukks and buggies along with traks and bikes came flying down from ridges and out of hiding behind hills and bushes. The two ambushing forces slammed in without remorse into both flanks of Aghrukk’s spread out forces, blasting away with every gun in the arsenal, turning trukks and buggies into scrap and sending orks flying through the air, riddled with bullet holes. Guns were blazing, orks yelling and roaring, engines puffing smoke and flames, wheels dug up tracks and ditches behind them, mud was tossed high into the air, dark green blood splattered all over. It was soon chaos as the orks of Aghrukk and Gaffrogg and their vehicles mixed it up in the rough terrain, blasting at everything that moved with no regards if it was friend or foe. The orks howled with furious rejoice, the gretchins shrieked out of horrid fear, everyone was spending ammunition as fast as they could.
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Ugluk kept his head down, holding on in the tight turns and hard knocks the trukk was put through, the strained engine shaking the entire structure of the trukk.
Ugluk was tossed back by the full force of the weapon, sending him falling on his rear, blood splashing as he landed in the spilled remains of the orks.
All around the orks roared and fired their sluggas and shootas, blood was flowing freely on the trailer, moving in waves with every turn made by the driver.
One of the orks on the trukk took a step over to him and gave him his hand, “Now dats wuzz I calls proper dakka!”
The ork standing next to Ugluk crashed over him, Ugluk growled and shoved him off, the ork landing in a limp pile next to him, the ork’s body torn apart by gaping fist sized holes on his torso. Bullets ricocheted around Ugluk’s head and he flinched as he heard them whizz past his head. He lost his balance and fell on his rear when the trukk collided with one of the enemy’s own trukks. ‘Enuff of dis!’, he thought, with adrenaline pumping he reached over to his bag made from a leather canopy and ripped off the ropes around it with his strong hands and arms, then he pulled off the canopy itself. The head of one of the orks next to him came apart in a fountain of green goo and the dead ork flew off the trukk, crashing violently into a waiting boulder. Ugluk adjusted his footing on the blood soaked floor, and raised his gun with both hands holding a firm grip. His quad-barreled ‘eavy shoota was about to get its baptism of fire. A red painted buggy jumped through the air, two great jet flames hissing from its rear, it landed and bounced along, the driver laughing like a madman, the ork behind him shouting obscene phrases at everyone and everything as he pumped out the large solid slugs of his twin big shoota. Ugluk took rough aim as the buggy came his way and pulled the trigger, his entire field of vision was engulfed with a wall of fire as the muzzle flash from the four barrels as they erupted with death spitting fury.
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Ugluk grabbed the friendly arm over the wrist and was pulled back up on his feet, all around the fighting continued relentlessly. “Thanks”, Ugluk said and pulled the leather strap that accompanied his gun over his shoulders. “Yu needs sum help wid dat thing?”, the ork asked. “Wuzz kind of help?”. “Unki help”. “Orky, why not”. The ork grinned, Ugluk took up another position, ready to fire. The ork that had helped him up on his feet made sure to have a good footing and then grabbed Ugluk over the shoulders. “All right!”, the ork shouted in his ear, “Give ‘em da Dakka!!”. Ugluk growled with a grin, his fangs displayed for all to see. His gun came to life once more, the ork behind Ugluk pressing for all his worth to counter the heavy recoil of the impressive and unwieldy weapon. The ‘eavy shoota made a trench in the ground where it strafed, tossing up huge amounts of dirt and mud, even grinding down a large boulder into pebbles. “Wuzz in Gorks bum ar’ yu up to back there?!”, the driver shouted as soon as Ugluk had released the trigger, the driver almost forgetting to look where he was going as he tried to get a glimpse of the monster of a gun he transported around on his trukk.
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The ork leaning against Ugluk laughed and slapped Ugluk over the shoulder, “If dats not da orkiest kannon I’ve evva seen, nuthin’ iz!”.
Behind them two bikes had come up and they were now blasting away with their bog shootas, the initial fire killing all on the trukk but Ugluk and the driver.
Thick smoke trailed from the barrels of the huge gun, and Ugluk smiled and chuckled, this was more fun than he ever had.
The driver tried to shake the bikes in the chaos of battle and in the uneven terrain, but the agile and fast vehicles stayed on him, pepper shooting with their guns, slamming a dozen or two rounds into the trukk with every burst
With a great crashing sound they all fell to the floor of the trukk, Ugluk got up on his elbows and noticed the trukk driving next to them, full of angry looking orks. The trukk made a quick turn and hit the trukk Ugluk was on a second time. Many of the orks on the same trukk as Ugluk quickly got to their feet and freed their massive cleavers from their belts, then with a deafening roaring ‘Waaaaagh!!!’ they leapt across to the other vehicle, crashing into the waiting enemy orks. The second trull veered off as carnage took place all over it, sending limbs and innards and blood spraying in its wake. Ugluk climbed back up on his feet along with the last four orks remaining on the trukk, besides the driver. Ugluk just got up in time to see a bike drive up next to a trukk, the bikedriver tossing a stikkbomb and then making a quick turn, the orkish grenade exploded and ignited the fuel tank of the trukk, which was swallowed by a ball of flame. As the flaming trukk kept going, moving out of control, burning orks and gretchins fell off one after the other, screaming out of terrifying pain, the screams ending abruptly the moment they hit the ground and their bodies got smashed by the impact. Two buggies crashed into each other head on after a chicken race where no-one budged, the two vehicles annihilated into hundreds of parts raining all over the battlefield. A hail of gunfire came Ugluk’s way and he fell to the floor, as did all of the orks on the trukk.
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Ugluk grabbed his gun and then dragged it along with him as he crawled along the floor of the trukk toward its rear, dragging his own body through the blood and guts of the dead orks around him, as the trukk turned and rocked he fought not to slide or roll around, at times not the simplest of tasks. As he reached the rear of the trukk, he pressed his monster of a gun against the frame of the trailer and then took a quick look over the edge, sure enough, the two bikes were still back there, firing away for all their guns’ worth. Ugluk ducked down and pressed with all his strength the gun against the frame of the trukk, “Kop Dis!!”. The rear of the trukk was torn to shreds as the ‘eavy shoota blasted away, the heavy bullets catching one of the bikers by complete surprise, the bike as well as the driver violently jerked back in the middle of the pursuit as the hundreds of bullets hit them with full force, both bike and driver crashing into the ground, metal and flesh twisted into scrap and pulp. The other driver was lucky and not hit by the sudden counter-fire and he quickly veered off out of harms way, instead trying to come in from the side in and angle. Ugluk crawled over towards the right wall and fence of the trukk, at the same time the bike had to evade a trak that crossed his path at full speed. Ugluk took a look over the edge, the trukk made a sharp turn just as he did and the bike swooshed out of Ugluk’s sight. The trukk rocked and jumped as it drove straight over the burning debris after a crashed vehicle, Ugluk pulled the strap of his gun over his shoulder and got back on his feet with some effort.
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Fighting was still thick all around, but sight was severely hampered, the air was thick with torn up dust and the smoke of burning wrecks.
Ugluk shook his head as he pushed himself up from the ground with his arms, he got up on his knees and took a quick look around.
The trukk made a few quick maneuvers as to not crash into a boulder and then a trukk that shot out of the fog out of nowhere. Ugluk again fell over, this time he managed to catch himself by putting down a knee.
Smoke and dust created a grayish brown fog that covered the battlefield, wrecked vehicles burned everywhere, dead orks and gretchins littered the terrain, the ground uprooted by the deep tracks of the orks vehicles.
That was when he saw a swift shadow in the corner of his eye, he wiped his head around just in time to see the bike that had chased them before coming back at them.
Very few engines could be heard working, most vehicles had been destroyed, the few that remained drove in circles as the gunners tried to gun down whatever they saw moving in the fog.
The bike hit the remains of a crashed and wrecked trukk, using the trailer as a ramp, the red painted bike leapt through the air. Ugluk could hardly believe his eyes, it all seemed to take place in slow-motion, the bike flying over his head, in over the trukk itself, the ork driver straddling the bike like some crazed grot on a mek’s experimental rokkit.
Proof of that was the passing shadow that swooshed by, spewing a hail of deadly fire into the ground mere inches from Ugluk, the ork throwing himself to the side, rolling and regaining his kneeled posture.
The roar of the airborne ork and the roar of his rushing engine mingled into the howl of a flying monster. Ugluk’s eyes widened when he saw the flying beast holding up a bundle of six stikkbombs tied together with thick layers of string. Ugluk crawled his way towards the back of the trukk, slipping in the blood and guts of the dead trukkboyz, his strong fingers finally reaching around the edge of the trukk’s rear end. The bike landed and its driver struggled not to topple over, instead he lost control and veered off straight into a large tree, the bike wrapping itself around the trunk and the ork smashing his head like a melon against the hard wood. The trukk came apart like grots shaking in the middle of a tornado, sending pieces of engine, framework, wheels and rods in every direction, the main bulk of the vehicle still intact flipping over still going at full speed, crashing some two hundred feet before coming to a halt as it smashed down into a wide ditch.
The sounds of metal struck against metal echoed more frequently, the staccato bursts of sluggas overpowering the raging shootas. Orks roared, bellowed, growled and shouted curses all around, screams of pain and death filled Ugluk’s ears, the moans of cries of the wounded mixing with the bestial outbursts of warriors refusing to die. This was battle, this was war... This was the essence of the Waaagh. And Ugluk rejoiced in it. He grinned viciously with a growl and pulled his enormous gun to him and strapped it over his shoulder, slapped it a few times to shake off the dust and dirt. He looked around, searching for a target to blast into tiny snot pieces, his adrenaline rushing through his veins, his heart pounding at his chest, his mouth filling up with drool, his eyes glowing with rage. His mind craving one thing. To kill!
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The five orks entangled in a merciless melee got torn asunder by the unforgiving hail of fire from the ‘eavy shoota in Ugluk’s hands. Ugluk didnt know how many of the orks he just transformed into piles of green pulp and goo had been on his side the hour before, but knows he couldn’t care less, now all that mattered was ‘Da Dakka’ and ‘Da Brawlin’. A bike raced by, the driver grinning, the wheels kicking up a ton of dust, the big shootas spewing death. Ugluk roared and fired a long burst after the biker into the thick fog churned by the continuing battle. Two orks came out of the fog, locked in a deadly wrestling match, elbows and knees pounding the enemy, a slugga fought over, the weapon shooting at random as both combatants tried to kill each other with the gun. They split apart like green tomatoes under a hammer when Ugluk blasted them to pieces. This Was Life!! Ugluk climbed with great strides up a small hill, dead orks lying scattered around him, abandoned and wrecked vehicles seen here and there. Mere feet away from him, stray bullets slammed into the dirt, tossing mud in his face. An ork came flying through the air, tumbling as he landed on the slope, rolling down the hill with limbs flailing, the ork clearly dead as it left a trail of green ooze behind it. Ugluk turned his attention to the top of the ridge, he could make out the burning wreck of a trak and the driver crushed beneath it, a huge shadow moved behind it, slowly moving out of the thick fog of war. The ork was huge, the two-handed choppa in his hands larger than Ugluk, the blade as broad as Ugluks jaw and smeared with ork blood.
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The ork holding the gigantic choppa was a giant, bleeding freely from a dozen bullet wounds and strikes from hostile cleavers, the gorilla-like beast roared as he moved towards Ugluk, regaining the grip on his massive cutting weapon. Ugluk didn’t waste any time and aimed his own weapon from the hip, pressing his feet into the ground so he would not fall over in the slope. A shriek and a noise, the following second Ugluk felt lightning pain in his back and roared. He reached back over his shoulder and grabbed hold of the pest gretching that had backstabbed him, the grot wriggled like a squig in his hand but no matter what he did he could not escape the orks grip. Ugluk threw the gretchin to the ground with full force and followed it up with a proper stomp over the little runts head, the brains squashing out like a smashed melon beneath his heavy boot. He saw something in the corner of his eye and looked up, there the huge ork with the massive choppa stood, the heavy cleaver coming down towards Ugluk’s skull with frightening speed. Ugluk threw himself back, feeling the wind from the cleaver as it whizzed passed his face, Ugluk landed on his back in the slope, the enemy ork’s choppa burying itself deeply into the hill. Ugluk moved to get back on his feet, but he couldn’t budge, his huge gun was lying behind him and the strap was still around his shoulders and now the massive weapon was weighing him down. The choppa was coming down towards him again, Ugluk kicked out with his legs, rolling over his big gun, the choppa sending sparks flying as it dented the casing of the ‘eavy shoot. Ugluk ripped the strap in two and got back on his feet, the huge ork took one step and he had jumped over Ugluk’s large killingmachine and placed a firm tackle that connected with Ugluk’s torso.
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Ugluk Skull’Krusha reeled and stumbled, slamming his back against a wrecked trukk, his opponent came after him, roaring like thunder, the oversized choppa held high over his head, ready for the killing blow. Ugluk ducked and threw himself on the ground, the choppa brought more destruction upon the already destroyed truck. Ugluk kicked his foe over the knee, giving him the extra second needed for him to get back up on his feet before the giant green hulk had freed his instrument of cleaving doom. The hulkster laughed mockingly, the laughter booming forth from his thick neck and throat. Ugluk reached out for a dead gretchin hanging limp amongst the wreckage and pulled the grots heavy revolver, pumping the fist like slugs into the beast that was doing its best to kill Ugluk. Unfortunately the revolver only had two rounds left, but they were enough to force the massive ork to take a few steps back and to make him growl from the pain. Even worse was that it only seemed to upset the giant even more. Ugluk pulled the dead grot free from the wreck and tossed it at his enemy, the limp corpse hitting the huge greenskin over the head, wrapping its lifeless and broken limbs around the orks face like the tentacles of a squid. While the mountain of an ork staggered as he tried to free himself of the rag that was a dead grot, Ugluk tore free one of the wheels of the wreckage with his strong arms. The gretchin was ruthlessly tossed aside at last by the green monster, he bellowed with rage but was abruptly silenced as the tyre hit him over the belly, his roar turning into a loud “PUH!!”. He staggered yet again, holding an arm over his belly, leaning against his two-handed choppa.
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Ugluk came flying like shot out of a cannon, growling like mad boar bull, his elbow hitting hard over the huge ork’s nose, an audible ‘Crack!’ echoing as bone was crunched and skull fractured. They both landed heavily on the ground, masses of dust tossed into the air by the bulk of the giant ork. Ugluk grabbed hold of a suitably large rock and proceeded with hitting it as hard as he could over his opponent’s heads, over and over again, growling and roaring like the furious beast of war he was. When he finally came staggering back up on his feet, his arms, chest and face were covered and smeared with the blood and brains of the massive, now dead, giant of an ork. The sound of an engine approaching caught Ugluk’s attention, he looked at the top of the ridge, sure enough, it was making its way over from the other side of the hill, the recognisable rhythm of a big shoota hard at work mingled with the noise of the engine. Ugluk ran towards the sound, it grew louder and louder until it was only mere seconds away from passing him. The buggy shot out of the fog like a bumblebee out of hell, the gunner behind the driver shooting wildly in every direction without aiming, the ‘Dakka’ was payoff enough. Ugluk jumped and grabbed hold as best he could of the shaking and steaming hot engine just behind the crazed gunner. As Ugluk’s heavy mass connected with the buggy, it momentarily lost control and the gunner almost fell off. The gunner looked over his shoulder as Ugluk was climbing up on the buggy, establishing a footing. The gunner roared, “WAAAAAAAGH!!!”, swinging his big shoota around to take aim at Ugluk, as he did he hit the driver over the head with his rear end, the driver in turn lost control of the buggy. The following uneven ride made both Ugluk and the gunner hold on for their very lives as the driver struggled to regain control over the charging buggy.
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They bounced along the battlefield at reckless speed, hitting wrecked vehicles, scratching boulders and trees, crashing through bushes, bouncing off dead bodies. Every now and then mobs of fighting orks passed them by in the blink of an eye, the shadow of a still roaming trukk or buggy only seen for a brief moment in the thick fog. Ugluk crawled up to the gun emplacement, instantly receiving a punch in the face from the gunner who just managed to pull himself back up on the vehicle.
own slugga, firing blind over his shoulder hoping to hit the parasite that had infested his precious and ‘orky’ buggy. Ugluk ducked and dodged the best he could as the bullets came at him, one hitting him in the shoulder, the intense pain made him grin, enraged he grabbed hold of the big shoota and angled it straight down at the driver, the muzzle of the gun hitting the driver over the back of his head. The entire front section along with the driver was pulverised in the hail of fire.
The driver took a quick look over his shoulder and laughed like the maniac speed freak he was, then increased the speed further by igniting the ‘Speshul Mek Red-Nitro’ canister.
The buggy crashed instantly, diving straight into the ground the second after Ugluk had pressed the trigger, the driver getting smashed together with his beloved vehicle.
The buggy moved like a racecar, sending up massive clouds of dust and spraying mud and dirt everywhere in its wake.
Ugluk was sent flying, screaming and roaring as he was tossed through the air, once he touched ground he tore up a cloud of dust, he rolled and tumbled like a snotling getting kicked around in a good game of snot-ball.
In the meantime, Ugluk and the gunner exchanged punches and kicks without pause or rest, elbows and headbutts and well placed knees mingled with bonecrunching fists. Ugluk got a skullsplitting hit over his head from the gunners clenched fist, sending Ugluk rolling over on the large engine, the gunner pulled himself up proper behind the big shoota and turned it around to face the troublemaker lying across the smoking engine. Ugluk threw out it his leg, hindering the gun from aiming its crosshairs at him through the aid of his boot against the big shootas barrel. Ugluk reached down for a large wrench sticking out from a toolbox fastened along the side of the buggy, and with the mechanical implement he struck the gunner over the head, swinging the wrench back and forth repeatedly until the gunners face could no longer be recognisable, even for an ork. The gunner fell off and hit the ground, the body bouncing and tumbling as it hit the terrain. As Ugluk crawled back and took up position behind the gun, the driver noticed what was going on and growled as he pulled out his
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When he finally came to a halt, he lay still, lifeless, body bruised, face disfigured, arms and legs wrapped around him. Hardly breathing. Hardly. But still breathing Muffled echoes, visions out of focus. Echoes growing louder, beasts, growls, roars. The visions gaining shape, foggy, dark, bright. Ugluk slowly and with a great effort pushed himself off the ground, leaning heavily on his elbows, he spat out a thick gob of blood, drool and broken teeth.
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He sat himself up, holding a hand against his aching head, he finally regained his senses and picked up his suroundings.
He fired the slugga point blank into the face of a charging ork, the head pulverised.
The battle was still going on, gunfire audible all around, orks roaring and shouting, shadows moving in the thick fog of smoke and dust.
He let out a growl of pain and whipped around, when the three gretchins realised their grotblasters had only angered the ork they had ambushed they dropped everything and ran.
Ugluk came up on his unstable feet, struggling to keep his balance, he started to walk, staggering along over the battlefield, death and ruin all around.
A great bellowing curse caught Ugluk’s attention, as he turned and looked he recognised Aghrukk locked in a choppa-fight with an ork as large as the boss himself.
Two groups of orks were shooting at each other, one group taking cover behind the wreck of a trukk, the other group in cover in a deep natural trench. Sporadic slugga and choppa-fights took place everywhere, gretchins ran in small groups from cover to cover, spraying ammo as they went, throwing themselves over any corpse that came in their way in hopes of finding valuable loot. The odd buggy and trukk drove by now and then, gunners and trukkboyz shooting at everything and nothing, explosions erupted as stikkbombs and kannons were put to use. Ugluk was out of breath, no strength left in him, his brain pounding at the inside of his skull, yet, the sight of the fighting, the smell of burning vehicles, the thought of standing as he currently did with one boot in the spilled innards of an ork whom had his gut cut open with a choppa, all this filled the squigherder with energy. Just being on the battlefield was enough to fill him with renewed strength. He picked up a heavy slugga and joined in with the fighting and killing, blasting away at the orks and grots, he roared like a mad beast, firing time and time again. The rage of Gork and Mork filling every part of his mind and body. He dodged an incoming choppa with mere inches, then lashed out with his slugga and hit with such force that he crushed the jaw of his enemy.
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Ugluk knew who his boss’s foe was... Gaffrogg Grim’Boy. The two bosses fought like possessed by Gork and Mork themselves, each strike with the choppa swung with more force and more fury then the last. They both bled from a dozen cuts and gunshot wounds, but it did not stop them, the urge to rip each other to pieces kept them going, oblivious to any wounds inflicted upon them. Fists and elbows struck in between the flailing choppas, roaring obscene curses mixed with growls of furious rage. Aghrukk was sent reeling, his chest cut with a strike from Gaffrogg, the ‘Ard Knuckle boss toppled and fell, the Grim’Boy boss roared in triumph as he placed a heavy boot on his fallen enemy’s chest, raising his choppa in order to cleave the skull of his foe. “WAAAAGH!!!!”. The mighty roar caught Gaffrogg’s attention and he looked over his shoulder, he saw an ork coming right at him, a huge axe in his hands, charging for the kill. Ugluk jumped with both feet first, his boots connecting with Gaffrogg’s torso, sending the huge boss tumbling along the dirt. Ugluk quickly got up on his own feet and went after the enemy boss, swinging his recently aquired axe at the large ork, but the axe was deflected by Gaffroogs choppa and the experienced warrior kicked Ugluk over the knees, sending the young ork falling to the ground.
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They both pulled themselves off the ground and back up on their feet, Gaffrogg growled and attacked Ugluk, Ugluk ducked, dodged and parried the best he could, ever being pushed back by the relentless attacks of the boss. The axe was hit out of Ugluks grip by the sheer strength of Gaffrogg’s attack, Ugluk in turn lost his balance and fell, receiving a kick over the head from the enemy clan’s boss. Gaffrogg roared and frowned as he reached down and grabbed hold of Ugluk by the collar, the boss threw the young ork like a wet rag across the battlefield. Ugluk slammed into the side of an abandoned trukk and he landed hard on the muddy ground, he struggled to remain conscious, looking up from the ground he saw Gaffrogg coming his way, the eyes of the boss told clearly of his intentions. Ugluk was going to die. Ugluk noticed Aghrukk lying in a heap not far away and crawled on all fours as fast he could to reach the boss’s choppa, Gaffrogg Grim’Boy came closer and closer, his stride heavy and intimidating in its purpose. Ugluk grabbed hold of his boss and rolled him over to reach the choppa beneath, Aghrukk moaned and coughed, holding his hands over the deep cut across his chest, blood was pouring and soaking his entire body. For a brief second, Aghrukk and Ugluk locked eyes, both of them frowning. They were both covered in shadow, Ugluk knew what it meant. “Now yer gonna gets an orky dreggin’!!”, Gaffrogg growled behind them, his choppa held with both hands high above his green skull.
The Grim’Boy boss let out a groundshaking roar as the pain set his body on fire, he fell down on his knees, forced to catch his fall with one hand to prevent him from falling on his back. Gaffrogg pushed the pain aside and replaced it with unleashed fury and renewed his grip on his heavy cleaver. Ugluk roared in turn as the cold steel was pushed through his gut and out his back, he grabbed hold of the swordarm of Gaffrogg and grinned defiantly, green blood dripping from his mouth. Gaffrogg jerked the choppa, causing more damage on Ugluk’s entrails, Ugluk growled horribly from the tremendous pain, but at the same time it fueled him with a thirst for blood and slaughter. Holding firm on Gaffrogg’s swordarm, Ugluk raised his own over his head. Gaffrogg was intent on having the last say on the matter, “Yu Bleedin’ Pile of Snotdung!!”. The choppa split Gaffroggs’ head with ease, blood, goo and pulp of brain splattered over Ugluk’s chest and face. Boss Gaffrogg Grim’Boy slumped to the side, the choppa still in his head, the ground soaking up the blood. Ugluk was sitting on his knees, leaning forward against his arms. Gaffroggs choppa was still in his gut, impaling his body, he breathed with great effort, his body bursting with pain, he took courage and grabbed the hilt of the crude cleaving tool. As the choppa was ripped from his body by his own hand, he roared at the sky.
Ugluk lashed out with Aghrukk’s choppa in a wide arch, cutting Gaffrogg across both his thighs just above the knees.
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specialist game
All Life Forms Great and Small.
S
imon Fisher has decided to wow the crowd by introducing not just one, but two of the most unique and original epic armies in the world!
D iddly S quats Stephane Montabert lives in Switzerland, which he says is a nice place, but pricey when you consider shipping costs from the States. He was very kind to grant us an interview with him and even though English is not his first language, he’s very passionate about his Specialist Games - he even started interviewing himself! Firebase: How long have you been playing wargames? Stephane: It all started in 1990, when I was young with plenty of free time. I mainly played Warhammer Fantasy, Man O’War and Necromunda until 1995. Since then I got into Epic, Space Hulk, Warhammer 40,000 and Warmachine -that’s just for miniature wargames! FB: When did you start playing epic? Stephane: In 1995. At first, I was a fantasy player and I found that the 40K setting was too stupid for my taste: People fighting with swords and WWII tanks in the 41st millennium -come on! Yet, I was interested in the Epic scale, because of the massive
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armies involved and the impressive stance titans had in the middle of ground troops. Nothing appeared ridiculous here. This scale difference made the game very interesting visually in my taste. 28mm scale gaming appeals to painters and onlookers, but 6mm gaming has a beauty of its own. It makes you see the big picture. So, I was interested in Epic but hesitated to join. All my friends were playing one race or another so I didn’t know what to play. The release of the Tyranid army supplement in 1995 was the deciding factor, since no one had this army yet. FB: Why did you choose your army? Stephane: As I said before, because I wanted some variety. Variety is essential in a gaming group. I prefer losing with an army that’s unique than winning with the same army as everyone else. Had Tyranids not been there, I’d have played Squats out of their originality. Naturally, aesthetic is important too. Good painting goes a long way, and a painter needs to like the miniatures he’s painting to
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sustain the work involved in a full army, but at Epic scale, it’s less of a factor. So, I prefer losing with beautiful miniatures than winning with ugly ones! It looks like I’m losing all the time! But it’s not true; as long as the game system is somehow balanced, you can make a decent force of any army list. Sure, it’s harder for some races. Yet, in Epic again, the system is quite balanced. It has some flaws but I’ve never met a win-at-all-cost-type Epic player. I can’t explain why Epic games are more relaxed. Perhaps people identify themselves less with their supreme commander? FB: How long did it take you to make your army? Stephane: I don’t remember how long it took for the Tyranid army, but the irony is that the Epic line was out of print long before I finished painting my army (and I moved too!). In the end, I played my first Epic game in 2003, eight years after purchasing my first army. Since then, I created a number of Epic armies. Each of them takes up 6 months of work as I can only find time to paint in the evenings. I try to create scenery associated to each army for more interesting battlefields. When you are a defender supposed to defend your home, it’s better if the scenery actually looks like it! FB: What’s favourite model?
your
Stephane: Tough question! I’m the proud
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owner of several beautiful painted miniatures, but I can’t decide which one I prefer. When I considered my very first army, for Warhammer Fantasy, I had all the rulebooks at hand and carefully computed everything to choose the most powerful one. In 1990, it was the Skaven! Then, I walked in the store to buy them. Bad luck, they hadn’t been released yet! Then I saw the human miniatures of the Empire army -no doubt the weakest army at the time, but it made no difference, I was hooked. I knowingly fell for puny humans. I found them beautiful, no matter what they would do on the battlefield. I discussed the subject many times with my friends. In my humble opinion human or similar miniatures are better than any other exotic race. It’s easier to become identified with them. You can show them to visitors completely unaware of the Warhammer world which is harder to achieve with mutants and daemons. They are the most recognisable faction in any game. So, human miniatures are my favourites, no matter the game system, publisher, or scale. FB: So, what other projects have you got for the future?
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Stephane: All ‘veteran’ gamers are full of projects and have buckets of miniatures hidden in their closets. My project is to have all major Epic armies. So far, I’ve published several galleries on my website but more are planned in forthcoming years. It might seem a slow pace, but it’s really irrelevant. Epic is out of print anyway, so there’s no rush. FB: So how long do you plan to own your collection? Are you someone who will you sell it when a new army book is published? Stephane: Some people do that. There are even gamers buying whole painted armies on eBay and selling them a few years later - actually renting their armies from the gaming community. But not me. I’ve never been able to part from miniatures I painted. The best I can do is to try to have everything complete and game ready -all races, books, miniatures for the games I enjoy. This is the true independence. This way, I can play whatever race I want and introduce new players at will, lending them the army they want. It’s the fun factor of the game that matters, not its presence in a publisher’s catalog. FB: Do you struggle with the lack of miniature support in specialist games mainly? Stephane: Of course, availability is always an issue, but it shouldn’t be exaggerated. As I said, I’m heavily involved in Epic and found most of my stuff on eBay in a few months. Prior to that, I had nothing but several Tyranid miniatures. Everything can be found with a bit of patience. FB: Do you have any advice for other Squat players? Stephane: Sure! The first one is to be proud -proud to give life to
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people that have heard of them -contradicting GW’s attempt to erase them and pretend they never existed. Squats have a symbolic value for that, extending far beyond other older armies like Genestealer Cults for example.
a forgotten race. Squats deserve to live, for they are interesting and refreshing. They don’t belong to Games Workshop and their publishing policy. They belong to the gaming community. They have a place in 40K universe, beyond marketing decisions, simply because they have existed in a point of time with a consistent and interesting background. I’m always impressed by the number of
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My second advice to would-be Squat players is that they shouldn’t be afraid to jump in! There are plenty of Squat miniatures around, eBay sometimes features full armies. Necromunda weapon sprues and Fantasy dwarves provide plenty of material for custom conversions. Moreover, Squat players are most welcome everywhere. It’s not like someone tried to create the Super-Alien-ArmyOf-Doom from planet X. Squats are a part of the universe. The amount of work involved in such a collection always deserves respect and wonderful conversion opportunities. For example, there are an impressive number of Squat super heavies that could be translated into spectacular W40K vehicles. Who will be the first to build a 40K scale Squat Land Train? FB: I shudder to think! Thank you for your time.
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converting stuff. Part of the fun of doing this was looking for the right piece, chasing minis over Ebay and doing the conversions. Also, Corey (the Necron Army Champion) did a great job writing the rules for them in Epic. They are great fun to play with and a tactical challenge, both for the Necron player and their opponent.
M ini -C rons Yves Marie, a.k.a. Hojyn, is 28 and lives in Brest (quiet at the back you!) in Brittany, France. He’s been working as a freelance translator for almost 2 years now, mostly translating video games.
FB: How long did it take you to make your army? Yves: Over a year, although the longest part was collecting the Chaos Androids –long out of production Epic models that
FB: How long have you been playing wargames? Yves: For about 15 years. I bought the first issue of the French White Dwarf in 1991 and immediately liked it. I never really played Warhammer Fantasy, but I got into pretty much all the other games from Games Workshop including Necromunda, Space Hulk, Gorkamorka, Mordheim and of course Epic, my alltime favourite. FB: When did you start playing epic? Yves: Almost as soon as I discovered it in White Dwarf. I think it was in issue 2 or 3 and it was called Space Marine back then. I loved the idea of playing with hundreds of small miniatures and huge titans -and I still do! FB: Why did you choose your army? Yves: I’ve always liked the look and feel of the Necrons, but what really got me into collecting Necrons for Epic was the challenge. There are no official Necron minis for Epic and I love
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bear a strong resemblance to Necron Warriors. Once that was done, actually converting and
painting the army took me about 2 or 3 months and I now have roughly 6,000 points of Necrons. I sometimes spent as much as 2 hours a day on my army though, so expect 4 to 6 months if you don’t have much free time. I’d also like to add a little something on painting 6mm models. One of the first things people say when they see Epic armies is “whoa, that must be hard to paint!” So here’s the truth: No, it’s not harder than painting 28mm models and it doesn’t take much longer. Quite the contrary, actually. Most of my painting is basecoat and drybrushed and/or wash and some details. As long as you have the right tools (fine detail brushes), it’s relatively easy and even if you mess up here and there, nobody will notice and your army will still look good!
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FB: Was it expensive?
Yves: Lots! Like most gamers, I still have tons of models to paint, probably enough to last me a life or two. My painted Epic armies are: Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Eldar, Necrons and Orks. I’ve just begun painting a Chaos Space Marine army and I have thousands of points worth of models for most armies: Tyranids, Squats, Titan Legions, plus some more Orks, Space Marines and Eldar. I’ve (almost) stopped buying models and I hope to have it all painted one day, but that’s still many years down the road!
Yves: All things considered, not that much. Chaos Androids (my Necron Warriors, the biggest part of the army) were not highly sought after at the time and the rest of the army is made of converted plastic models: Ork Boyz (Immortals), Eldar Exarchs (Pariahs), 40K Scarabs (Mecarachnids), Techmarine (Necron Lords). The Aenic Orb is probably the most expensive model, since I used 8 Jackal Raiders from Battlefleet Gothic to make it. All in all, I think the total price must be around 250€ (that’s roughly $300 or £170). Not too bad for a 6,000 points army. FB: Not at all. What’s your favourite model? Yves: My Abattoir. There’s only a brief description and a sketch in the army list, so it took me a very long time to find a satisfactory way to represent this walking pyramid and even longer to find the
appropriate pieces for it. It’s made of plastic stands and Dark Eldars jetbike chains, by the way. Since I decided to hand paint all the Necron symbols, it took me ages to finish it. Once it was over, I must admit I was (and still am) quite proud of the result. FB: What other projects have you got for the future?
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FB: Finally, Do you have any advice for other potential Necron players? Yves: Well, be creative would be the main advice. With no official Necron models for Epic, you have to be imaginative or steal other people’s ideas (like I stole François Bruntz’s ideas of using Ork Boyz for my Immortals or 40K Necron torsos for my Destroyers). Oh, and be patient too! It will be long before you have enough models to make a full army, but the effort is well worth it. FB: It definitely is. Thanks for you time! - SIMON FISHER
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hobbying
The
A
Harlem Shuttle
dam Smith investigates the cheaper end of the space ship market with Revell’s Star Wars range.
On a brief trip into my local hobby store to pick up some more paints I came across the Star Wars space craft range from Revell. While my head was filled with a 40K scale chaos air force converted from Tie Fighter Interceptors, I was disappointed to see only Darth Vader’s pathetic looking craft with its piddly little twin lasers on the front.
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That was when I saw the much loved Shuttle Tiderian and who honestly doesn’t think it looks awesome? Even the Emperor has one for his ride, filled with sith babes…probably. I gave it the once over. It sort of looked right for 40K scale and for just £20 who could argue? I got back home and set upon the innocent sprues with mad converting glee. Revell’s Star Wars range comes prepainted and has been designed to click together, so that even really little kids can have a go at kit building. Although in truth, I think it makes building the space craft easier for the kid’s poor father who will be stuck at the table on Christmas day trying to
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get the together.
damn
thing
to
go
It’s incredibly easy to put together though and I glued mine for extra strength because I’d be painting it later. Once assembled I saw a massive problem -not only were the wing lasers bound to snap off at any moment, but the wings weren’t sturdy at all. Well, one of them was, but the other flopped down limply and there was nothing I could do about it. Fortunately, this shuttle would never see any 40K air action, so I glued the wings solid in the shuttle landing position and then attached the landing feet. This sparked another problem –the feet can’t support the shuttle and it tips forward onto its nose. That was when I saw in the instructions a little 10’ written on the back of the ship. Oh! This means I’m expected to supply my own little weight to put in the back on the shuttle to make it stand up properly. The whole thing was stuck firmly together, leaving me well and truly stuffed. Even if I hadn’t glued it, there was no way this shuttle was coming apart again, not without some serious breakages. I ended up sawing through some 2 pence pieces and sticking them between the details on the underside of the ship. After a quick bit of paint, they’ll never be noticed. Now it was time for the painting to begin.
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I made a trip to Halfords for a can of matt black, Rover sand, Rover beige and Rover brown. Car body spray paint works so much better than the typical miniature sprays. After undercoating black, I gave the shuttle a quick spray of brown, followed by a lighter coat of beige, which I then sprayed again in stripes and highlighted with even lighter sand spray for a semi camo effect. Once that was dry, I carefully painted the canopy with Chaos Black and some of the wing panels in Scorched Brown and hey presto, one finished shuttle that makes a great objective. Now to cross my fingers and hope that Revell releases a Tie Interceptor. -ADAM SMITH
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roleplay
Little Less Conversation A Little More Action
A
R
oleplaying in the Warhammer 40,000 universe why you should quit yapping and get hacking!
I’ll always remember my first experience of role playing games with great fondness. Many years ago I was sat round a table with several other people, all equipped with a mug of tea and a communal supply of jammy dodgers in a student house somewhere in Nottingham. Everyone had a character sheet, counters, dice and other things beyond my rather simplistic gamer understanding. Following a steady diet of hack n’ slash Warhammer Quest games throughout my teenhood, this was all very alien. Worst of all, there were no models! The highlight of the evening (for me anyway) was when the party of Victorian style adventurers were attempting to haggle with a thief for a key. Unfortunately the thief wasn’t budging from his ridiculous asking price, even after nearly half an hour of role played conversation. That was until I drew my revolver and blew the guy’s head off. “Bargaining’s easy when they’re dead!” Fast forward 3 years to the present day where James and I are playing ‘Hunter the Reckoning’ on the Playstation 2. We get talking about how this would be so great if you could have up to 4 players working together to kill zombies, mutants and other assorted hellish gribblies. That’s when James comments on how
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great 40K and Necromunda are because you have the freedom to do anything, provided you’ve got the models, which gives me a great idea -Warhammer 40,000 Quest!
Th e Party
Simon was keen and dug out his old comic book character armed with a steel baseball bat with ‘blunt’ inscribed on it, while James intended to purchase a figure similar to the Defender in the game we’d just been playing. Luke on the other hand, said he’d come up with something, while I took the opportunity to revive an old comic character from my youth. James suggested melta guns, special powers and other outlandish abilities while Simon wanted different rates of fire and gun settings for various rifles. Obviously this sort of creativity could get wildly out of control and needed someone with the perfect sense of balance and fairness – me! All the characters would have to be equal while catering for everyone’s tastes and be at least slightly consistent with the 40K universe. To get away with the random atrocities normally committed by adventurers in games of Warhammer Quest, the party would also have to be Inquisitorial henchmen or bounty hunters.
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S o You Want To H unt Z ombies ? There are so many video games, board games and wargames featuring zombies that by 2012 I’m sure that if there ever was a zombie outbreak every kid and his dog would be prepared and armed to the teeth. No one gets tired of killing zombies it seems and this included my friends who had no interest in Ork hunting like the adventuring parties of old. Bounty hunters would have no interest in zombies, but an Inquisitorial team combating the machinations of chaos would.
Rules Now this is the tricky part. I wanted to keep things familiar for everyone because it makes playing quicker, easier and I don’t have to spend a month creating a new rule book. We grabbed the Necromunda rules as they’re familiar to all of us and then came up with a slightly more detailed action system that would let characters empty a whole clip of ammo into their shambling foes, or take a single, careful shot. I also didn’t use pinning, bottle tests, downed or serious injuries from Necromunda. This may be obvious, but I thought I’d better mention it just in case.
Action Action points were the way to go. Each character gets 8 action points (AP) per turn in a similar way to the Inquisitor roleplay game, but they don’t have to roll to use them. This is loosely based on character movement. A human has a movement of 4 in Necromunda, so they can walk 4 and shoot, or run 8 and not shoot.
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Having 8 action points would let them do the latter. Similarly, Eldar have a movement of 5, so they get 10 action points and Squats have a movement of 3, so they’d get 6 action points. Due to their shambling nature; zombies and similar slow, dim witted creatures receive D6 action points rolled each turn. 1 action point per 1” of movement. 1 action point to fire a gun. 1 action points to pull a pin out of a grenade, 1 to throw the grenade. 1 action point to aim. Aiming adds +1 to your damage roll. 1 action point to open a door, stir a cup of tea, bite into food or any other random task. Like Necromunda, to go on over watch, a character must forfeit their turn, but will receive 2 action points to shoot with when their target breaks cover. Hiding always costs half of the character’s action points. Other situations may arise that will need common sense or ruling of the Games Master for the cost of action points.
Close Combat Whenever a model is in base to base contact with another, they will be engaged in hand to hand combat regardless of action points. Models fight like in Necromunda and breaking off from combat is allowed, but will result in a single automatic hit as the model lowers their defences to flee. Players will have to make the most of their action points before engaging in combat for the maximum amount of carnage.
Enemies Our heroes will face all manner of vile creatures on their travels and to keep Games Mastering simple, it’s best to play enemy characters using the regular Necromunda rules. So they can move at their normal rate and fire, or run and not fire - unless of course, there’s a suitably challenging boss character, but more on this later.
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Damage Getting hurt is never nice, but it’s going to happen sooner or later. While it would certainly be challenging to go for the old fashioned ‘one hit and you die’ approach, it could (and will) go horribly wrong. There’s the same issue with wounds. 3 wounds are the same as ‘three hits and you die.’ I found myself turning to the old Warhammer Quest damage system where each character receives between 10 and 15 wounds with a similar amount received by the baddies and damage is dealt at the strength of a weapon+D6. So a laspistol round has a strength of 3, so it inflicts 3+D6 damage. Some weapons will inflict considerably more, which is where the good old Necromunda weapon rules come in. A plasma gun on high power inflicts D3 damage in there, so that’ll be 7+D6+D3 damage. Damage can be reduced by a combination of toughness and armour. So if a model has a toughness of 3 and is hit by a lasgun round which inflicts 3+D6 damage the number of Toughness points will be removed from the damage total. So let’s say that Lucky Luke shoots Shambling Sam the zombie with his lasgun twice. Luke generates two lots of 3+D6 damage, rolls the first D6 scoring a 4 and another, scoring a 3, making of a total of 7 and 6. Shambling Sam has a Toughness of 4, so the first hit is reduced, inflicting just 3 points of damage, while the second shot causes a mere 2 points of damage. Varying levels of armour add +1 or more to your toughness. Simple! If a character’s wounds fall below 0 they collapse to the floor. But don’t worry, they’re not dead –not yet anyway. They can still be revived with medipacks, but for every turn they lie prone on the floor they lose 1 wound from their starting total. For example a 15 wound character who is lying on the floor for 5 turns without aid has his maximum wounds reduced to 10 for the rest of the chapter until he can get a good night’s rest. If that falls to 0 or below, you’re dead.
M y H ero ! Here are the 4 characters I designed to be equally balanced with an array of unique equipment.
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Daniel Ceridan
Shots Per Magazine: 8
Age: Unknown
Bastard Power Sword
Sex: Male Trade: Mercenary Quote: “If something’s worth doing, it’s worth killing for.” Murderer, madman and cut throat mercenary. Many have wondered just how Ceridan came to be part of Inquisitor Koehler’s permanent staff. While he’s not the best diplomat, what he lacks in tact he makes up for in cruel cunning and blood lust. If it’s a dirty job, Ceridan’s happy to do it. Profile
AP WS
Ceridan
8
4
BS
S
T
I
A
LD
W
4
3
3
3
2
8
15
Equipment: Shotgun with hot shot shells and a bastard power sword. Carry: Can carry up to 2 extra items. Armour: Kevlar woven into coat, shoulder and elbow armour pads (+2 Toughness) Skills: Cleave: If Ceridan loses 1 attack dice in combat he may add an additional D6 to each damage roll he makes. Shotgun Range Range 18
To Hit -1
Damage Setting 4+D6 Hot Shot Shells
Rate Of Fire 1 shot per AP
Special: Targets hit by hot shot shells catch fire and sustain 2D6 damage in their own turn, every turn until the flames are put out or the target dies.
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Range Damage Setting Combat 5+D6 one handed Combat 5+2D6 double handed
Special Parry Initiative reduced to 1
Simon Bray Age: 34 Sex: Male Trade: Bounty Hunter Quote: “Time to be blunt!” Formerly a professional bounty hunter until a fatal incident involving a young family and a scavvie suicide bomber. Bray was left with horrific facial scarring and held responsible for not fulfilling his contract to capture the perpetrator and sentenced to military service in the penal legions. Shortly after escaping from the 123rd Scum Dogs penal regiment, Bray was detained by Inquisitor Koehler who granted him a full pardon in return for his services. A well meaning warrior with a strong faith in the Imperial creed, Bray always tries to do the right thing and has a far higher sense of morality than the rest of his team. Profile Bray
AP WS 8 4
BS 4
S 4
T 4
I 3
A 2
LD 8
W 15
Equipment: Bo staff and auto rifle Carry: Can carry up to 3 extra items
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Armour: Toughness)
Kevlar
woven
into
coat,
protective
mask
(+2
Skills: Suppression: If Bray beats an enemy in combat, instead of wounding them he can choose to twist their arm behind their back and pin them to the ground, but only if there strength if equal to or less than his. Auto rifle Range Range 24 Range 24
To Hit - -1
Damage Setting 3+D6 Single Shot 3+D6 Burst Shot
Rate Of Fire 1 shot per AP 6 shots per AP
Special: It takes 1 AP to change the setting on the rifle Shots Per Magazine: 30
Damage Strength +D6 Strength +D6
Setting distance jab long double handed
Special 1 attack per AP Parry
Natasha R aine Age: 28 Sex: Female Trade: Assassin Quote: “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Imperium” Once a crazed Sister Repentia in the battle of Le Grys Pass, Natasha Raine unwittingly saved Inquisitor Koehler from a chaos cultist coven during a zealous frenzy in which she slew them all, but suffered grievous wounds.
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Profile Raine
AP WS 8 6
BS 4
S 3
T 3
I 4
A 2
LD 8
W 15
Equipment: Bolt pistol, sword Carry: Can carry up to 4 extra items Armour: Body glove (+1 Toughness) Skills: hip shooting: Can combine a move action with a pistol action. So Natasha could spend 6 action points to move 6” and fire 6 shots with her bolt pistol.
Bo Staff Range To Hit Range 2 +2 Combat n/a
The Inquisitor’s staff nursed Raine back to health and performed the rites of redemption, officially cleansing her of whatever sins she may have committed. With her zealous rage dissipated, Natasha Raine became a lone hunter in Koehler’s employ, performing quiet back-street executions. She’ll do whatever is required for the good of the Imperium.
Bolt pistol Range Range 12
To Hit -
Damage Setting 4+D6 single shot
Rate Of Fire 1 shot per AP
Special: Bolters and bolt pistols take the same ammunition. Shots Per Magazine: 8 Sword Range Combat
Damage Strength+D6
Setting Special one handed only Parry
A ramus Pitt Age: 52 Sex: Male Trade: Imperial Guard Veteran Quote: “Nothing beats a good hail of lead”
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Deserted Imperial Guardsmen turned bounty hunter, Aramus Pitt, known professionally as ‘The Pitt’ had a nasty run in with a mob of Redemptionists as a consequence of his addiction to the mind enhancing drug Spook. Apparently he can give up any time he wants. The Redemptionists were able to bring him down, but if it hadn’t been for the intervention of Inquisitor Koehler, The Pitt would have met his demise on the end of a Redemptionist witch burning pyre. Reluctant at first, The Pitt soon became a dedicated warrior in Koehler’s service in exchange for a constant supply of Spook to feed his addiction. For every completed mission, The Pitt receives a pure dose of high quality Spook. Why Inquisitor Koehler has chosen to feed The Pitt’s addiction remains a mystery. Profile The Pitt
AP WS 8 3
BS 4
S 3
T 4
I 4
A 2
LD 8
W 15
Equipment: Bolter, bolt pistol, chainsword, laspistol Carry: Can carry up to 1 extra item Armour: Leather jacket, pieces of mesh armour and bionics (+3 Toughness) Skills: Targeting Array: Due to his extensive bionics and use of gun sights, whenever The Pitt uses action points to aim, he receives +2 to his damage roll instead of the normal +1. Bolt Pistol
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Range Range 12
To Hit -
Damage Setting 4+D6 single shot
Rate Of Fire 1 shot per AP
Special: Bolters and bolt pistols take the same ammunition. Shots Per Magazine: 8 Laspistol Range Range 12
To Hit -
Damage Setting 2D6 single shot
Rate Of Fire 1 shot per AP
Special: laspistol and lasgun energy packs are fully compatible. Las-packs can be used to generate heat to cook food and keep characters warm in cold conditions. Shots Per Magazine: 100 Bolter Range Range 24 Range 24
To Hit - -1
Damage Setting 4+D6 single shot 4+D6 burst shot
Rate Of Fire 1 shot per AP 2 shots per AP
Special: Bolters and bolt pistols take the same ammunition. Shots Per Magazine: 8 Chainsword Range Damage Combat Strength+D Combat 4+D6+D3
Setting Special Off. Parry On. takes 1 action Parry points to turn on
V ile V illains Nothing makes a story quite like a good villain. Whether it’s a bearded evil alter ego of the main protagonist or a powerful megalomaniac, the ‘big baddie’ provides plenty of direction for plot and character development. The same goes for his henchmen. In James Bond, while Blofeld sat back a stroking his cat and plotting his world conquest, Odd Job and Jaws were out doing what they
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do best – giving people a damn good kicking. In fact, many people remember Jaws better than any other villain. Looking in my miniature collection, I saw twisted chaos champions with power fists (a bit nasty if anyone actually got hit), my chaos lieutenant Evil Tycho, but then I saw Fabius Bile lying in my bitz box. Normally I steer clear of special characters, but who better to be the source of a devastating zombie plague and an array of other horrifically mutated monsters? That made Fabius Bile the big baddie of the piece. All he needs now are a couple of henchmen. Evil Tycho was the first to catch my eye and with a kai gun and a jump pack, he’d prove quite troublesome for our heroes. I saw him as more of a rival than a subordinate of Fabius Bile who’d most likely been ordered by Abaddon the Despoiler to ‘look after’ the clone lord and make sure he didn’t get up to too much mischief. That’s all the villains to start with. I’m sure more will crop up of their own accord throughout the story.
No One Messes with M arines These guys are chaos space marines, meaning that they are hard as nails and incredibly tough. I wanted to stick with the background of space marines being genetically engineered perfection with a single squad of them being able to take on thousands of regular men and still win. When the adventurers cross paths with just one chaos marine they will be packing their pants and rightly so, as almost everything they throw at these guys should bounce right off. Here’s what a space marine would look like stat wise: Profile Marine
AP WS 8 4
BS 4
S 8
T 8
I 4
A 2
Equipment: Bolter, bolt pistol, combat knife Armour: power armour (+4 Toughness)
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LD W 8 40
Special: Space marine weapons are made to be bigger and better to match their bearers. Any space marine weapon inflicts +D6 damage more than normal due to its enormous size and contains five times as much ammunition. Due to this increased size, nonspace marines can never use space marine sized weapons, even if they work together or are incredibly strong.
L et ’s G et Th is S how O n
the
R oad !
Okay, enough rules, time to get on with it. I could post a long list of monsters, gribblies and weaponry, but I’m going to incorporate it all into instalment one of the adventure. For all the areas I suggest you make maps yourself to suit your terrain collection or however your gaming group likes to play. Space Hulk board sections are also a great way to illustrate the interior of buildings.
I nstalment O ne : Th e R otten R oad Briefing You’ve all been summoned to the tactical room of the Rogue Sun, an Imperial Frigate recently ‘acquired’ by Inquisitor Koehler. The Inquisitor is an impressive looking figure with a short well groomed beard who sits at the head of the lengthy table backed by a view looking out at the stars and the lush green and blue sphere that is Paramar; a great world of the Imperium. Koehler: “My spies inform me that the Paramar Secondus city is having a zombie epidemic. While the area is contained for the meantime, further outbreaks are imminent. We have a rare opportunity to locate the source of the disease and if possible, neutralise it. The area should be void of any civilians, so I found the scenario ideally suited to all of your… talents.” He sighs, almost in despair for a moment, then composes himself again.
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“I suggest you get yourselves down there, investigate the source of the disease and bring back all relevant information. Any questions?” This gives the players plenty of opportunities to ask about the game system, the scenario and anything else. Insolent comments about the Inquisitor will result in the character being telekinetically lifted out of their chair and flung against the nearest wall. Koehler: “I shan’t tolerate insolence!”
The A rbites Fort After a brief trip to the armoury to tool up and cover themselves in extra thick bite-proof clothing our heroes descend from orbit in an Inquisitorial shuttle which lands in the middle of a makeshift fort, guarded by a squad of adeptus arbites. Arbites veteran sergeant Harwich, accompanied by a floating servo skull, greets the party as they disembark and leads them into a small ramshackle office and explains the situation. Harwich: “Three days ago our precinct was overrun. There are thousands of them out there. Every man, woman and child who was bitten became another zombie in a matter of hours, even minutes. With so many people trying to get out, it was nearly impossible to separate the infected and by the time they turned, many of them were already inside the base. The precinct was compromised, so I pulled my squad out and established a base here. So far we’ve seen no one and received no contact from the precinct. Then we received the Lord Inquisitor’s signal. Thank the Emperor you’re here!” Servo Skull: “The first zombie sighting was at the Paramar Secondus Hospital. Warning, high concentration of infected citizens throughout vicinity.” Harwich: “I wish you the best of luck getting there. My men will see you clear of our gates. Take these medipacks. They may come in handy. Oh, and take this servo skull with you too. He’s bloody annoying, but he can help you with information about the area and any enemies you encounter.”
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Each character receives 1 medipack. Medipack Each medipack contains 10 health points. For every action point you use with the medipack, you replenish 1 wound. However, if your character uses their medipack on a friendly character, they replenish 2 wounds for every action point used.
Murray The adventurers are given Murray the servo skull to act as a guide on their mission. Murray is controlled by the Games Master as a means to keep the players informed, especially when confronting boss characters and similar difficult situations. Profile Murray
AP WS 8 1
BS 0
S 3
T 3
I 1
A 1
LD 7
W 10
Equipment: Bio scanner Armour: None Skills: Flies: Murray can fly at a maximum height of 2” and mostly stays out of harms way.
Out of the Gates To get out of the gates the characters must fight their way past 20 zombies. Fortunately, they’re assisted by accurate supporting fire from the 5 adeptus arbites on site. The arbites will remain stationary and use all their action points to aim and fire. Profile Arbites
AP 8
WS 4
BS 4
S 3
T 3
I 3
A 1
LD 8
W 10
Equipment: Executioner shotgun with executioner rounds, baton. Armour: Carapace armour all over (+3 toughness)
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Skills: Suppression: If an Arbites beats an enemy in combat, instead of wounding them he can choose to twist their arm behind their back and pin them to the ground, but only if there strength if equal to or less than his.
Profile Zombie
Executioner Shotgun Range Range 24
To Hit +1
Damage Setting 4+D6 single shot
Characters can choose to jump the barricades and get stuck in, or just pick off the zombies from a far. This scenario is a good way to get everyone used to the game system and any screw ups won’t be particularly punishing.
Rate Of Fire 1 shot per AP
Special: Robotic Guidance: Each time the user uses an action point to aim, they inflict +2 damage instead of the usual +1. Shots Per Magazine: 10 Baton Range Damage Setting Special Combat Strength one handed only Small. +D6 Takes no AP to draw.
AP WS D6 2
BS 1
S 3
T 3
I 1
A 1
LD W 5 30
Equipment: Teeth, clubs, rusty blades and sometimes light fire arms. Only 1 zombie in 20 should ever have a light fire arm. Armour: None Skills: Plague: Any models wounded by a zombie not wearing bite-proof clothing (like our heroes!) will turn into a zombie in D6 turns. Light Fire Arm Range Range 12
To Hit -
Damage Setting 3+D6 single shot
Rate Of Fire 1 shot per AP
Special: Lucky: Will always hit its target on the roll of a 6 Shots Per Magazine: 6 Teeth, Clubs and Rusty Blades Range Combat
Damage Strength+D6
Setting Special one handed only None
Into the Streets As expected, the streets are filled with the shambling, moaning undead seeking hot living flesh to feast on, but the hospital is in sight. There are 4 buildings either side of the street littered with wreckage and abandoned vehicles. Our heroes need to make their way down the street through 20 evenly scattered zombies. Each time a zombie is killed a new one appears from one of the nearby buildings or any table edge at the Games Master’s discretion. Characters need to escape off the opposite short board edge to enter the next area. The playing area should be 2’ x 4’.
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Special: Combat: When a character wins a round of combat with a grenade they must forfeit all their attacks for just a single attack using the grenade’s damage. Shots Per Magazine: 1 Frag Grenade Range To Hit Damage Setting StrengthX2 - 4+1D6 pull n’ throw StrengthX3 +2 4+1D6 roll Combat - 4+2D6 single hit
S ection 2: L oot
the
Rate Of Fire 1 shot per 2 AP 1 shot per 4 AP 1 attack
Special: Combat: When a character wins a round of combat with a grenade they must forfeit all their attacks for just a single attack using the grenade’s damage.
B ody
Our heroes turn the street corner to find 10 zombies hunched over a massive armoured torso, feeding desperately. There are spent bolter cases everywhere as well as a large blood splatter which then streaks off in the direction of the hospital.
Blast: Frag grenades use the small blast template, but when used in combat the blast is dampened by being placed on the target. Shots Per Magazine: 1
Place a dead chaos marine in the centre of the table, surrounded by 10 zombies. The heroes can walk on by and leave the zombies to their busy work or kill all the zombies to loot the body. If the characters choose to kill all the zombies, they will find a dead chaos marine with its chest torn wide open by something with large serrated claws. Obviously no zombie could ever do that. The dead chaos marine has 2 frag and 2 krak grenades on him. Krak Grenade Range To Hit Damage Setting StrengthX2 - 6+2D6 pull n’ throw StrengthX3 +2 6+2D6 roll Combat - 6+3D6 single hit
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Rate Of Fire 1 shot per 2 AP 1 shot per 4 AP 1 attack
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It takes 4 action points to search the body and loot its contents. If any character loots the body roll a D3. That’s how many turns they have until the dead chaos marine comes back as a zombie and attacks them! Profile AP WS Half eaten D6 3
BS 1
S 6
T 4
I 1
A 1
LD W 5 40
Zombie marine Equipment: Space Marine Combat Knife Armour: power armour (+4 Toughness) Skills: Plague: Any models wounded by a zombie not wearing bite-proof clothing (like our heroes!) will turn into a zombie in D6 turns. Space Marine Combat Knife Range Combat
Damage Strength +2D6
Setting one handed only
Special Space Marines only
I H ate H ospitals Deserted and painted with gore, the hospital isn’t the clean white it used to be. Our heroes walk through the front entrance into the reception area. The trail of blood streaks ahead of them to the elevator doors. It seems that the only way is up.
Floor 1: R eception There are 10 zombies scattered throughout this floor, an elevator which can’t be called as someone is using it to go up and a set of adjacent stairs. In the centre of the area is a reception where a half eaten un-armoured adeptus arbite lies slumped across the front desk, clutching onto a Double barrelled shotgun with ‘Old Bessie’ engraved on the stock. 5 man stopper shells are scattered around the reception area that the characters will have to collect if they want to get the most from this gun.
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Old Bessie Range Range 24
To Hit -1
Damage Setting 4+2D6 single shot
Rate Of Fire 1 shot per AP
Special: Knockdown: Man stopper shells are so powerful that they knock down any wounded target, causing them to lose half of their action points in the next round as they pick themselves off the floor. Shots Per Magazine: 2
Floor 2: Surgery The floor is swimming in blood, entrails and other unrecognisable fleshy bits as a number of chaos mutants take it in turns to drag a groaning zombie from a number of sealed rooms, hack all their limbs off and distribute them into labelled containers: Legs, Arms, Torso and Head. There are a total of 20 mutants on this floor and 5 zombies in each of the 4 rooms. The zombies can’t get out of the rooms, unless the characters let them out, or one of the mutant next to a zombie cell passes a leadership test and uses his animal instincts to unleash the zombies on our heroes. The next set of stairs that lead up to floor 3 are across the other side of the area. Profile Mutant
AP WS 8 4
BS 2
S 3
T 4
I 3
A 2
LD W 6 20
Equipment: Axe and shield Armour: None Skills: None Axe & Shield Combo Range Damage Combat Strength +D6
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Setting one handed only
Special parry with shield
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Floor 3: Creature Containment This floor has been converted to house a variety of dangerous creatures. Warp spawned, born from genetics or resurrected from a mix of rotting limbs gathered on the floor below, you don’t know, but all of the creatures are securely held in containment cells and guarded by 5 chaos traitor marines.
Our heroes enter via the stairway. The next stairway is located around the corner. Before the characters can do anything Murray chips in: Murray: “Cell door release mechanism adjacent to exit point. Suggest diversion.” One character must run out and hit the door release and open all the cell doors on the level. Obviously, the rest of the party will want to escape as quickly as possible. There’s no way they will survive trapped between a variety of man-made monsters and genetically enhance chaos space marines. In the first enemy action after the cell doors have been opened, the creatures in the cells will leap on the chaos marines and become engaged in combat until our heroes make their escape.
Floor 4: The L ab Here the blood smear the characters have been trailing exits the elevator, travels up the hallway and turns left to a room where loud voices can be heard arguing. The stairs are at the opposite end of the hallway adjacent to the next set of stairs that lead up to the fifth floor. As soon as one of the characters gets close to turning the corner they catch a powerful odour on the air causing them to stop and hold their hand over their mouth. This is a great way of taking away action points to stop anyone from charging round the corner. Our heroes peer round the corner to see an enormous chaos marine standing in the doorway with his back to them. A pair of mechanical wings are folded across his back, in one hand he carries the biggest bolt gun you’ve ever seen and in the other he’s dragging the lifeless form of one of the abominations similar to the ones you saw downstairs. Chaos Champion: “One of your pets got out and attacked my men. See that it doesn’t happen again.” He throws the creature to the floor with an impressive splat and walks into the room. You can now see a dissection table covered by a huge slab of rotten meat with numerous rods and pieces of circuitry being pushed inside by another space marine. Over his shoulders hang
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to wither to dust engulfed in purple flame and the adventurers all begin to spasm. Everyone must take a Leadership test to resist throwing up from being in close proximity to the daemonic power. For every 2 points you fail your leadership test by (rounding up), you receive 1 wound as you cough up blood. Luckily this isn’t loud enough to alert the chaos marines in the middle of their argument. Chaos Champion: “I’ve left some extra security outside” Fabius Bile: “Who’s not safe?” Chaos Champion: “You know the answer to that. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll return after contaminating the water plant to the East.”
many mechanical arms, each ending in saws, drills, scalpels and other surgical tools busily working away while his real hands casually scribble in a notebook. The workstations behind him are covered in more large clumps of meat. Some twitching and others pulsating with half guided mechanics. The stench is dreadful! Chaos Champion: “Are you listening to me Bile?” The voice booms. Fabius Bile: “Yes, yes. Of course...” The chaos scientist groans. The conversation is interrupted as the winged chaos marine receives a call from the 5 chaos marines downstairs through his head set. He gives an irritated sigh. Chaos Champion: “We’ve terminated your little play things.” Fabius Bile: “That’s alright. As you can see, I’ve found something far more fascinating.” Chaos Champion: “Good. I’d hate for us to fall out.” He speaks pure words of chaos sorcery, causing the dead creature on the floor
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The winged chaos marine turns out of the room in the opposite direction from the characters and takes the lift up to the roof. Bile returns to his work with all his limbs and sighs. Fabius Bile: “How bothersome that young man is.” Murray: “Proximity Alert. Approaching chaos space marines.” The heavy tread of chaos marines is heard thundering up the stairs. Perhaps it’s time our heroes left this area? The lift won’t work because it’s already in use, so they will have to use the stairs at the other end to go to the next floor.
Roof You reach the roof in time to see the chaos champion launch into flight and soar into the sky, leaving a trail and thick black smoke in his wake. A young nurse is hiding behind the stairway and shivering in the cold. She seems to have gone mad from everything she’s seen and doesn’t respond to commands. She appears to be mute with
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shock. She will let the characters lead her, but she’s very slow and can barely run. More callous players may leave her behind because she’ll only slow you down. Profile Nurse
AP WS 6 2
BS 2
S 3
T 3
I 3
A 1
LD 5
W 8
Equipment: None Armour: None Skills: Medic: Doubles healing points when using a medipack. Unfortunately she’s too shaken to use her skills right now. The characters should take the lift down to the ground floor (unless they fancy taking on the chaos marines guarding Fabius Bile’s lab) and report back to Inquisitor Koehler using the shuttle’s transmitter.
S tepped U p S ecurity There’s no way out of the hospital but through the front door and the extra security the chaos champion mentioned is standing in the car park with no way around and no escape. Murray: “Chaos Defiler: Traitor legion walker carrying heavy weaponry, primarily filling a fire support and siege role. Medium armour density on front and sides. Main engine located at rear.” If the nurse is with the adventurers, the defiler will not target her as she is designated as a non combatant, unless the characters have made her carry their spare gear. Boss: Defiler The team will have to work together to distract the defiler and make it chase them between buildings and parked cars so that another character can quickly attack it from the rear. Some careful defiler ‘steering’ is required from the Games Master here to keep the battle as real as possible without butchering any of the characters. Defilers aren’t particularly smart.
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Profile Defiler
AP WS 8 2
BS 4
S 10
T 8
I 4
A 2
LD W 6 60
Equipment: Huge claws, twin linked autocannon, havoc launcher, battle cannon. Armour: Represented by toughness value. Skills: Weak At The Rear: Due to its unusual design, the Defiler has a toughness of just 4 at the rear. The defiler can also only fight from the front and sides. The defiler is considered to have WS 0 at the rear and just 1 attack to represent it moving around. Special: Defilers use action points to function like heroes to represent their versatile nature compared to the average grunts you face.
To Hit -
Damage Setting 7+2D6 standard fire
Rate Of Fire 2 shots per AP
Special: None Shots Per Magazine: 100. No reloads. Space Marine Havoc Launcher Range Range 36
To Hit -
Damage Setting 4+2D6 standard fire
Range 36-72
To Hit -
Damage Setting 8+4D6 indirect
Rate Of Fire 1 shot per 8AP
Special: Huge Blast: Place the large blast template over the target. Indirect Fire: The battle cannon has been configured to fire indirectly, giving the defiler a minimum range of 36. It will be unable to shoot at the characters during this fight. Shots Per Magazine: 6. No reloads.
H ome N ot S o S w eet H ome
Twin Linked Space Marine Autocannon Range Range 36
Indirect Firing Battle Cannon
Rate Of Fire 2 shots per AP
Special: Small Blast: Place the small blast template over the target.
After replaying Into The Streets part 1 our heroes get back to base to find the shuttle gone, a truck crashed through the barricade and bodies strewn everywhere. One hive ganger lies holding his guts in, slouched against a wall. “My gang got away, but they left me behind. They’ll be coming soon. They mostly come when it’s dark… mostly.” His eyes glaze over and he slumps, dead. He has 10 creds on him and half empty lasgun. Clear the area of 20 zombies before you can rebuild the barricades and set up camp for the night.
Shots Per Magazine: 6. No reloads.
N ig h t Watc h
Huge Claws Range Combat
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Setting Special one handed only None
The characters have taken shelter in o n e of the buildings within the complex. The fort is surrounded by zombies again and there’s no use wasting ammo on them. The barricades keep them out, except for those big spiky ones with long tongues that can climb walls –wait a second!
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Randomise which one of the characters is outside along on sentry duty. They will be at -1 BS and WS for the first round, as will all other characters when they wake up on a 4+. 2 Lickers move in from the sides of the compound and can move up and down the walls without penalty. The lickers get the first turn,
Special: Lickers use action points to function like heroes to represent their heightened intelligence over the average grunts you face. Long Tongue Range To Hit Range 8 - Range 8 -
Damage Setting 2D6 whip 3D6 spear
Rate Of Fire 1 shot per 2AP 1 shot per 4AP
Special: None Shots Per Magazine: Unlimited Rending Claws Range Combat
Damage Strength+D6
Setting Special one handed only Rending
Special: Rending: On a damage roll of 6, the hit ignores all armour bonuses. Once the two lickers have been killed our heroes finally get some shut eye. They’ve got a big day ahead of them tomorrow… followed by the character on sentry duty who can either stand and fight or run in to wake the others. The other characters wake up and come to see what the commotion is on a 4+. Roll separately for each character. It takes D6 action points to wake another member of the team. Profile Licker
AP WS 10 4
BS 4
S 5
T 4
I 5
A 2
LD W 7 30
Equipment: Rending claws, long tongue Armour: None Skills: Walk Up Walls: Lickers can climb up walls and hang form the ceiling without any trouble at all.
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END OF INSTA L MENT ONE Long Term Expansions: Shopping: During the zombie outbreak, imperial citizens fled their jobs and homes, leaving a wealth of looting opportunities. Some places however, are crewed by a staff of servitors that maintain a high level of security and order, especially in weapon and item stores. This means that characters will have to trade for weapon upgrades and items with imperial credits. Zombies were once civilians and will be carrying D6 credits and maybe even guns and ammo. Characters will have to spend 4 action points to loot a dead body. Just make sure it’s dead before you start rummaging around!
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Experience Gaining experience and improving is an integral part of any roleplaying game. Rather than improving the character’s stats, as this can cause unbalancing, I felt it was best to give the characters new skills and abilities that can be developed over time. Once again the Necromunda skills table came in very handy. I calculated experience points in a way that everyone would approve of –kills! One kill equals one point of experience. This counts for even the largest of creatures and boss characters, stopping any one character from racing ahead of the others in skill and ability. This would also promote friendly competition. I set the level ratio at 100 kills to keep the action fast, bloody and prevent characters becoming super beings when it should be the party’s ability to work together that develops. That’s 100 kills for each member of the group for everyone to progress to the next level together. So if the group as a whole kill a combined 400 baddies, they all progress to the next level.
FEEDBACK Here’s what some of the Games Masters who ran the adventure had to say: Alan Herbert: The main problem I found was trying to keep track of which zombie was which. I eventually used an Excel sheet and counted across from the top left using X for the uninjured zombies but it was still a little clunky. I think we’ll use dice next time to keep track of the wounds. The defiler wiped the group out in the first go (most of the damage was from the autocannon) so when I re-ran that encounter. I added several alleyways for the defiler to get stuck in. I had it chase the closest character in its line of sight. I used a 4’ by 4’ board with a lot of vehicles for that section, so there was plenty of room for hide and seek. I think there does need to be an ammo limit, I don’t think Bray fired the rifle on single shot all game and the only encouragement I can think of is to use limited clips, even if it is cooler to just blaze away.
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Perhaps there should be a note telling the GM not to bring zombies on directly behind the party in the first few turns of ‘into the streets’ I waited until turn 4 to try and encourage one of the characters to move (the other 3 were leaving him behind). The Beastmen were a welcome change of pace especially for me as the GM (they’re actually reliable). The zombie Marine didn’t get to stab anyone but his resilience got their attention and the defiler terrified them nicely. The distinction between the amount of damage close combat and shooting could inflict wasn’t as severe as I thought it would be. I put them up against a regular space marine after we finished to see how it would go and they killed it, but each character was down at least once during the fight. More importantly, the rules handled it well. The Lickers were a good last fight which didn’t do much damage but kept the party nervy and were good at picking off the wounding characters in combat because they’re so fast. FB: How many magazines do you think all the characters should get for their guns? Alan Herbert: I had the guys keep approximate tallies of how many reloads they used, I’ve only just got those back cos they took the character sheets with them. Ceridan used about 40 clips, Bray about 50, Raine about 45 and Pitt about 50. FB: How did the players get on with their characters? Alan Herbert: They were happy each character could fight in close combat and shoot well while being very different and fairly kickass. Ceridan used Cleave a few times to clear out zombies quicker but only on lone models and he didn’t dare use it against the defiler. Bray didn’t use suppression at all, he just wanted to bash things. Raine used Hip-Shooting frequently to kill or soften up an enemy before close combat or to make a fighting retreat. Run and gun was her main tactic. The Pitt used Targeting Array against the defiler, the zombie marine and against a Licker to stop it killing someone. The extra damage was useful and that’s where he used the single shot instead of rapid firing.
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Bob Syko: The combat works fine, as is to be expected. We didn’t really need any more first aid kits than you start with since the characters are very tough. The Pitt can’t even be hurt by zombies. FB: But he can be hurt by bigger stuff, right? Bob Syko: The defiler wasn’t too much trouble to be honest. The guys forgot about their krak grenades until the end. They were blasting away when one of them said “Hang on a second”. I thought they would never remember about them. They just ran around a lot until the thing ran out of ammo and then shot it in the back a few times, that and the krak grenades made short work of it. They used The Pitt to draw the fire of the defiler mostly due to his high armour, he’d stop every now and then in a building to heal himself.
G et P laying This isn’t a complete rule set, but we found that with a little common sense you can have a lot of fun! There’s no end to the kind of characters and settings your can create, but it’s best to base things around your existing 40K armies. This way you won’t have to buy much and there will be plenty of foes at your fingertips. I just hope that all your friends don’t play space marines, or things will be very dull indeed. - ADAM SMITH
Natasha came in quite handy because she could move and fire. Daniel Ceridan finished the defiler off with the krak grenades because his shot gun had long since ran out if ammo. We shot mostly, so I had to be quite generous with the ammo. The half a zombie marine for example had a few boltgun magazines. I also placed some ammo on the roof. The highlight was the defiler. The guys really pulled together and worked like a team. It took ages to kill but they got there eventually. FB: How many magazines do you think all the characters should get for their guns? Daniel Ceridan had 8 spare shells because the model we were using had an ammo belt on his waist. Bray had 3 magazines, but got through them very fast in the first encounter because with the -1 to hit it was taking him a whole clip to put a zombie down. With Natasha I didn’t think she would be doing much shooting because of her high WS so she only got 1 extra magazine. Buy the end of the second area she was spent, which is why the chaos marine had a few magazines. The model we were using for The Pitt looked like a member of the NRA in body armour so he got 1 magazine for his laspistol and 3 boltgun mags.
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interview
I’ll Be Damned!
B
randon Valee chats to Bob Ortwin about painting, gaming and working for charity.
FB: How long have you been in this hobby?
Bob Ortwin: I have been a fan of wargaming since I was about twelve years old. Now at the ripe old age of thirty, I can safely say that it still plays a pretty dominant part in my life. If anything, my passion has become stronger as the years have passed. All of the newer and more exciting models that are constantly being produced just serve to stoke my fire. FB: How long have you been painting? BO:I have been painting since the word go and in my eyes feel that it is definitely one of the major factors that keeps me going. Other hobbies have been and gone, whereas wargaming and painting have been constant, with newer sharper ideas grabbing my attention again and again. I’m probably hooked for life. FB: Do you still have time to play amongst all of the painting? BO: Honestly, no not really. I find that my time is pretty much consumed by the painting and when I do get the chance to play, I normally take a thrashing. The days off I do have I like to spend with my missus. FB: Besides your Legion of the Damned, are there any other armies that you work with? BO: I think I’ve painted at least a part of all the major armies both in Warhammer and Warhammer 40k, with 40k being my favorite by far. I find having a whole universe to play with is much more fun than just the one world, not so restrictive and besides, I like the big guns.
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FB: Where do you find inspiration for such great work? BO: The inspiration I get comes from seeing what other people have done. There are so many great painters out there and seeing the things that they produce get me fired up. If I see an idea or colour scheme I like then I’ll give it a go. On the whole, I think that each individual’s own mind can come up with some form of idea. The trick is translating the thought into a finished piece. FB: How long does it take you to finish a squad or tank? BO: Well I don’t really like to paint one figure at a time. I like to get a couple of armies and work on them in one big go. If I get bored painting (say an army of Legion of the Damned) I can just
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go onto an army of Iron Warriors. It’s not an exact science by any means, so if I can get through two armies in roughly six weeks I’m happy. Speed isn’t always the way forward. If I’m feeling good about what I’m doing. I can paint for weeks, but if it’s something that isn’t tickling me I can leave it for a couple of days and come back to it when I’m ready. FB: Are there any upcoming projects that you are working on? BO: I do have a few things on the go at the moment, but they are mostly for other people. Lots of people like the Legion so I’m stuck doing them for a while. Just small strike forces, nothing too big. My own little projects include trying to make the maddest looking Legion army the world has ever seen; hence all the practice runs. Now I got painting the flames down to how I want them to look on the vehicles, I just have to convert a shed load of marines. I want each one to look like some sort of battle hardened veteran kitted up with lots of funky bionics and groovy guns. I’m also starting to get the bits together for a Mars based Space Marine army with lots of guns wired into them and lots of Terminators and Dreadnoughts. I imagine a horde of relentless automatons marching across the
field of battle, totally unyielding in every way, like animated suits of armour. Scary stuff! FB: Have you ever been in any painting competitions such as Golden Demon? BO: I have had a pop at some of the more local competitions and have done well, but I fear that Golden Demon is probably out of my reach as I’m not a showcase standard painter. I prefer to paint armies and units that will be used and the level of skill I have can do them very nicely. I’ll sit in my little niche and be content with that. FB: Do you have any tips or suggestions for aspiring artists? BO: Practice and patience, also listening to other more advanced painters. You could also pick up pointers from various web sites. At the end of the day though, it’s only you and your brush and skill comes from time put in. Don’t expect too much too soon. It’s a long and slow process, but eventually as you learn more as your skills improve. Never be disappointed if you’re not banging out Demon winners constantly, not everybody has such talent. Just stick with it and you’ll get to a proficient level soon enough.
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required nearly broke us. We’re talking twelve fourteen hour work days including weekends. Like I said it was a huge effort. Keeping the pace up is the hardest. I find that working with friends is a massive boost as painting is a lonely job, so having someone to waffle to really takes the edge off. Then there’s the market to consider. If you’ve got set commissions coming in that’s great, your prices are set and that’s what you’ll get at the end. However if its just banging what you’ve painted on eBay or a similar site, you could get a lot less than you ideally want and some times even less than that. Overall it’s a good way to get in a few extra bucks on top of what you would earn in a regular job. - Brandon Valee
FB: Can you make a living of painting and selling GW miniatures? BO: Hmmm…Probably. It’s all a matter of how much work you are prepared to do. My friend and I knocked out three whole legion armies in about three weeks and made a tidy sum, but the effort
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battle report
ABSOLUTE CHAOS
F
our gods and one objective. In the realm of chaos, there can be only one victor!
It’s the kind of things spoken of once in a blue moon. A brilliant concept of a battle that few people would be able to pull off: All the chaos gods duking it out to see who’s best! Arranging this kind of thing is no simple affair and trying to round up 4 players to fight on the same day with all the right armies was nigh impossible. It took months of planning, painting and that little bit of last minute madness before the finale to bring you Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle and Slaanesh all on one board. Everything was going so smoothly until the Slaanesh player couldn’t make it, the Nurgle player was dragged off by his girlfriend and the Tzeentch player’s army was bleached after coating his models in Games Workshop’s purity seal…oh and the Khorne player called up the night before, telling me his army wasn’t painted!
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It nearly didn’t happen, but after some last minute subbing, a Keeper of Secrets bought off eBay, and a lot of team painting until half past midnight the night before, with a little more at 5am, we did it! Sick of playing on my desert board, we travelled to Wargamesworkshop on the edge of Milton Keynes to play on their city scenery and to pick up some Warmachine models while we’re there. Shop owner Carl provided each of us with a massive mug of coffee and we got straight down to business.
ETER NA L BAT TL E Deep within the eye of terror, the chaos gods play a merry game with their many pawns as each of them vies for supremacy. Plucked from battlefields throughout time and space to fight for their patron’s pleasure, each mighty warrior must prove himself by claiming the desecrated temple and slaying the most hated foes of his patron.
Th e B oard Playing on a 6x6 board, each army has a 24” square deployment zone. The 10” square objective ‘area of power’ lies in the centre of the board. We used skull piles to mark out the area, with an altar in the middle to block line of sight and make things difficult.
S et
up
Each player rolls a D6. The highest roller must place a unit first. Players take it in turns to place units in the usual way inside their deployment zone.
1,000pts per side.
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Infiltration is not allowed in this game. All players MUST field a greater daemon. No defilers are allowed, as this would totally disrupt the game.
IN THE BLUE COR NER !
Victory Points
Each utterly damning verse was cast upon the rows of warriors. Every logic defying sound animated their movements as if they were nothing more than mere puppets.
In the realm of chaos, nothing is ‘normal’, so victory conditions are altered to reflect the favour of the chaos gods. For every model that’s on the objective at the end of the game wins you 1 point, that goes for vehicles and lords too. Each greater daemon in the scoring zone wins you 10 points. You also gain points in the same way for killing (or immobilising) units belonging to your patron’s rival. So if a Slaanesh player is able to kill 8 bezerkers, they will score 8 extra points. If they kill a Bloodthirster, they will gain 10 points. If The Tzeentch player kills 6 Khorne bezerkers, they gain no points, because Khorne isn’t their patron’s rival.
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“Byysa’lkkkal’diurhnda’zyyhd! Djhazy’qunkkksyzzt’akar!”
“Jalllrzkkyddtarvckk! Yatweelzarabaqquel!” The deadly game of war had its masters and time would prove that Tzeentch was above them all. The strands of fate held more power than any axe or bolter could
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and the followers of the Change Lord knew it. Chittering horrors phased in and out of material existence as screamers unleashed furious high pitched cries overhead. Warp fire flickered amongst the ranks as human souls became bound to daemonic entities. “Ha’aredvvkayzy’yrartt! Yark’dsdxxwy’araquwqe!” As the chaotic sorcerers continued their droning chants, blue smoke seeped out of the eyes and mouths of withered human husks. Bright lights snapped and popped within the smoke like miniature lighting as it was cast down onto the barren plains below.
The Path Of Fate James: Having a very slow (and purposeful) army would be a problem, as it could take me a while to get on the objective, But at the same time I can move and fire all my guns! Best of all, if Marc wants to do some damage, he’ll have to move his plague marines towards me. Who knows, maybe he’ll encounter some Khorne bezerkers or pervy Slaanesh worshippers on the way? That should thin his numbers. With the highest initiative on the board, my Lord of Change could give any of the other greater daemons an impressive fight, but I’ll mostly likely save him for leaping on the objective in the last turn, cast wind of chaos in my enemies’ faces and earn myself 10 victory points. Right, time to walk forward and shoot everything with bolts of change! Chaos Sorcerer Lord Francois Necrotauch Mark of Tzeentch, dark blade, plasma pistol, bolt of change psychic power, daemonic essence, talisman of Tzeentch and melta bombs. Lord Francois leads the Necrotauch Guard.
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Lord of Change: Nan’dohs: Wind of chaos psychic power. Le Necrotauch Guard: 9 Thousand Sons Chaos Space Marines Free sorcerer: daemonic chains (daemon vessel). Morgan’s Minions: 9 Thousand Sons Chaos Space Marines Free sorcerer: bolt of change psychic power, power weapon and daemonic strength. Sidious The Entrapped: Chaos Space Marine Dreadnought Twin linked lascannon, dreadnought close combat weapon, mutated hull, extra armour and coruscating warp flame.
IN THE R ED K HOR NER ! “Blood for the Blood God!” “Blood God!”
for
the
Blood
The chanting grew louder as every assembled warrior lent his voice to the unholy chorus. Every syllable was wrought with hatred and death…of war and of pain. The followers of Khorne cared not for the lives of their one time allies nor did they care for their own. The flow of blood was all that mattered. The raucous baying lessened as a massive
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form stepped onto the central altar, constructed only of human bones. His power armour glistened red in the light of the suns, leaving little of the original white color untarnished. Massive chains hung from his shoulder pads, outlining a gaping jaw lined with razor sharp teeth. Untouched by blood, a planet resembling early Terra was about to be swallowed whole by the daemonic maw. The bezerker champion brought hefted his axe, feeling its weight and power in his hand. With a flick of the wrist he brought the head to bear and buried it in the neck of a marine next to him. As the bloody mist drifted away from the hoard, the chant resumed even louder.
casualties, a big mob of bezerkers that would take an eternity to kill a dreadnought for some shooty back up and hopefully blood frenzy combat goodness, then, last but not least, some blood letters for their strength 5 power weapons. That will give the rest of the guys something to think about. Finally, my bloodthirster! The idea is to get him out as early on as possible and get hacking. There’s no point beating about the bush, especially when there are skulls to pile at the base of the blood god’s throne. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!
“Blood for the Blood God!” “BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!”
K ill Them A ll! Gerard: After madly painting pretty much my whole army the night before with the help of James and Adam (sorry guys!) I was ready to do what Khorne does best – run forward screaming!!! I took my trusty lord…who always dies, but not before inflicting massive
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Warlord Insanitus Squig-For-A-Head Mark of Khorne, daemonic strength, daemonic rune, bezerker glaive…and a squig for a head. Bloodthirster: M’eatlo’af Two cans of whoop-ass!
air like a fog and covered his followers who inhaled deeply. A slight breeze carried the remainder out towards the field of battle. “We will ssshow them the resssiliensse that makesss uss ssstrong!”
Borgov’s Bezerkers: 16 Khorne Bezerker Chaos Space Marines Chain axes and free champion (daemon vessel). Summoned Slaughter: 8 Blood Letters Nargrek The Enraged: Chaos Space Marine Dreadnought Twin linked lascannon, dreadnought close combat weapon, mutated hull and extra armour.
IN THE GR EEN COR NER ! The swarm of buzzing black flies accompanying the living dead managed to do the unthinkable and blotted out the twin suns. As darkness cast is ominous shadow over a corner of the battlefield, a phlegm filled voice spoke: “Gather near me my chhhhildren of the plague. You have given your bodiesss to the most beneficssent Nurgle, may he forever continue to rot our sssoulsss. In doingss so you have forsssaken death and acssepted Hisss giftsss”. The bloated Lord of Decay cast his yellowed eyes down on his followers, licking his rotting lips with a forked tongue. “Now our God seeksss a favor from you. The Grandfather fightss an eternal battle in the warp againssst his fellow Godsss. This war has now ssspilt out into the mortal plane”. Hefting his scythe into the air, the Lord opened his massive maw and spewed forth a stream of sick, yellow corruption. It hung in the
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The Pustulant Plan Marc: Kill James first and foremost. However, not being dumb enough to stray too far from the objective I was hoping to draw James forward. His army’s too fat and slow to sit back and wait for me, so he’ll have to get on the objective sooner or later and by that time I’ll have my daemon prince ready with his plague sword and its instant killing doom! The greater unclean one is a nightmare to
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The squad rides in a Rhino APC: Mutated hull, plague carrier, extra armour. The Rotten: 7 Plague Bearers The Blessed: 7 Plague Bearers Bulbous The Reaper: Chaos Space Marine Dreadnought Two dreadnought close combat weapons, two combi-bolters, mutated hull and extra armour.
get rid of and with a horde of plaguebearers I should be able to infect everyone around me and make my way onto the objective with a turn or two to spare. Time to make Grand pappy Nurgle proud! The Pustlant Lord Festus One Eye Mark of Nurgle, daemonic stature, daemonic speed, nurgle rot, plague sword and extra close combat weapon. Great Unclean One: B’ud T’eh Ch’ud Wind of chaos psychic power. Contagion Crusaders : 7 Plague Marines Plasma gun, melta gun and free champion: Power weapon and daemonic chains (daemon vessel).
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IN THE PINK COR NER ! All eyes stared blankly towards the ground, daring not to look upon the epitome of perfection that walked through the ranks. A sickly sweet musk followed in the beings wake as if to test the will of each individual. The temptation proved too great for many and their eyes burned at what they beheld, their minds too small to understand the infinite beauty granted by Slaanesh. Savouring the fear that emanated from it’s followers, the voice purred. “We are here today not to make war. We are here to create art. You will clash with uncivilized barbarians who know nothing of perfection. Their death throes will be your sensual reward, their pain will be your song. Now my pets we shall show the enemy the error of their ways”. As one the army gracefully stood with their heads still bowed, ready to follow the orders of the Unseen One. The purple hued musk danced towards the field of death.
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Trick Or Treat? Adam: The plan? Well, who can plan for this kind of madness? I was up against Khorne, which meant close combat could be a bad idea, but that didn’t stop me from taking a kick ass lord. Shooting would be the name of my game and nothing kills marines better than lascannons and missile launchers. Three dreadnoughts should do the trick and with Khorne not being a particularly shooty flavour of chaos, I shouldn’t have any problem in fielding armour 12 vehicles…unless my treacherous companions turn on me out of fear! So the plan is to deploy far forward, blast the bezerkers apart, then leap on the objective with my daemonically speedy lord and keeper of secrets. Wind of chaos should come in very handy to clear my men a path to victory.
Abominator Class 126: Chaos Space Marine Dreadnought Twin linked lascannon, missile launcher, extra armour Abominator Class 124: Chaos Space Marine Dreadnought Twin linked lascannon, missile launcher, extra armour
SET UP
Chaos Lord Elric Suavius Mojo Mark of Slaanesh, dark blade, daemonic strength, daemonic speed, daemonic essence, daemonic resilience and move through cover. Keep of Secrets: Kar’les Wis’pr Wind of chaos psychic power. Pain Bringers: 6 Noise Marines Plasma gun and free champion: daemonic chains (daemon vessel).
With only three Nurgle units on the board, Marc placed his Lord, Festus One Eye, his dreadnought and the plague marine squad in their rhino behind a large building, out of sight.
Electric Six: 6 Noise Marines Plasma gun and free champion. Abominator Class 127: Chaos Space Marine Dreadnought Twin linked lascannon, missile launcher, extra armour
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Gerard placed his bezerkers and squig headed lord pretty much in the open at the back of their deployment zone with the dreadnought further forward behind a pill box.
James followed suit by placing his thousand sons further back with his dreadnought taking point on the far flank.
TUR N 1 Gerard won the roll to go first, followed by James, Adam and Marc.
K horne The turn started with the dreadnought Nargrek The Enraged going into fire frenzy and targeting the nearest noise marine squad, resulting in one dead marine. Meanwhile the Borgov’s 16 Bezerkers moved towards the centre of the board, while Warlord Squig-For-A-Head went crazy and started sprinting for the Nurgle lord, as he was the nearest model.
Tzeentch
Going against common sense, Adam placed his noise marines, lord and three dreadnoughts further forward, with one taking cover behind the nearby house.
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The thousand sons plodded towards the objective while the dreadnought took advantage of the nearby cover, followed by Lord Francois Necrotauch and his squad. James opened fire with his dreadnought Sidious The Entrapped at the nearest Slaanesh dreadnought, much to Adam’s surprise. Luckily the shot bounced off the target’s armour.
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Slaanesh Adam moved his lusty brigade towards the centre at full march while the dreadnought hiding behind the saloon went into a blood frenzy and sprints in the direction of the thousand sons. The dreadnought in the saloon yard took aim at the advancing Khorne bezerkers, hitting two of the bloodthirsty warriors with its lascannon and missile launcher, but fails to wound either of them. What trickery is this?
Nurgle Lord Festus charges towards Warlord Squig-For-A-Head, falling just short, but safely concealed behind cover, far from any sniping lascannons. The rotten rhino sped towards the objective with its plague marine and daemon vessel cargo. Meanwhile the dreadnought Bulbous The Reaper lumbers through the building, tripping on a rock and staggering a short distance.
TUR N 2
glaive wildly and inflicting 2 wounds! In return the Nurgle Lord strikes out with his plague sword, inflicting a diseased wound “Ressseive Nurgle’s Blessssing!” But thanks to his daemonic rune, Squig-For-A-Head survives.
Tzeentch The dreadnought Sidious The Entrapped cautiously moves towards the edge of the refinery building to take careful aim at Adam’s next Slaaneshi dreadnought. Sorcerer Lord Francois leads his squad out of the building while Morgan’s Minions move towards the centre, taking aim at the Khorne dreadnought Nagrek The Enraged with the sorcerer’s bolt of change, but the power falls short. Suddenly the Slaaneshi dreadnought crumples to a heap, destroyed. Chaos Lord Suavius Mojo points his sword in the direction of the thousand sons. “You’ll pay for that Francois! This traitorous act will not go unpunished!”
Slaanesh The remaining dreadnoughts go out of control in rage! The nearest sprints into the dug out, dangerously close to Morgan’s Minions. Meanwhile the other goes into an uncontrollable fire frenzy, gunning down three of Morgan’s Minions in a torrent of hate.
K horne Borgov’s Bezerkers continue towards the objective, followed by the dreadnought. With a mighty roar, Warlord Squig-For-A-Head thunders into combat with the Plague Lord Festus One Eye, swinging his bezerker
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Meanwhile Lord Elric Suavius and the noise marines move away from the approaching Nurgle rhino and its deadly cargo. Adam: “Y’know, I don’t think this is going so well.”
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Nurgle Marc skids his rotten rhino to a halt while the plague marines disembark. The Bulbous dreadnought finally gets out of the building and Lord Festus and Warlord Squig-For-A-Head continue their battle to the death! The bezerker glaive inflicts three fatal wounds on the large Nurgle lord, but not before Festus thrusts his filthy, rotten, plague sword through Squig-For-A-Head’s abdomen. The two great champions join each other in death. Adam and James take a sigh of relief. The two most threatening characters are out of the game. Marc: “That was an awesome bit of battling that was.”
TUR N 3
The dreadnought Sidious The Entrapped gets ready to aim at the Slaaneshi dreadnought still bearing down on Morgan’s Minions, most likely to charge them next turn. Adam begins the begging, stating that there’s no way he can roll blood frenzy again. Besides, he wants to kill Khorne stuff to earn some victory points! Turning his aim towards the Nurgle rhino, the lascannon beam deflects harmlessly from its mutated armour! Meanwhile Lord Francois fires a bolt of change at the Khorne dreadnought only to miss.
K horne Eight blood letters spring from the warp, brandishing their hellblades menacingly to run alongside the mob of bezerkers as they make their way towards the altar!
Tzeentch Sorcerer Lord Francois Necrotauch leads his mighty army towards the objective, marching a little slower than he’d like, but marching all the same.
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Slaanesh Now it was time for Lord Suavius to turn his attention back to his hated foes…that was until the dreadnought standing in the bunker continues its insane rampage and charges the nearest thousand sons squad in the side. That wasn’t meant to happen! The other dreadnought takes careful aim at the Khorne dreadnought Nagrek The Enraged, decimating its legs and immobilising it with a well placed krak missile, scoring another point for Slaanesh!
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Nurgle
Tzeentch
Both packs of plague bearers emerge from the warp, coughing and spluttering, surrounded by a filthy cloud of flies. Meanwhile the rotten rhino continues forward, protecting the plague marines from incoming fire as they advance.
Now was the time to start moving on the objective, otherwise the thousand sons would never get there! Lord Francois led his followers on full march forward, firing at the Nurgle rhino as they went, but they were all out of range.
TUR N 4
Meanwhile, Sidious the dreadnought joined combat with Morgan’s Minions against Adam’s Slaaneshi dreadnought, as they couldn’t hurt it and would be stuck in combat for the rest of the game. A swift power claw stroke tore it in half, allowing both units to consolidate towards the altar.
Slaanesh “Thanks for holding those bezerkers up Marc!” laughed Adam as he rolled for his Keeper of Secrets, but he couldn’t break out of his mortal prison this turn, even with daemonic chains, so the noise marines move into rapid fire range, accompanied by their lord, followed by the last remaining dreadnought. The whole army opened fire on Borgov’s Bezerkers, killing 4 before Lord Elric Suavius Mojo takes his dark blade in hand, charging the squad and cutting down 4 more and dodging all of their clumsy attacks! Eight more points to the prince of chaos!
K horne The Khorne bloodthirster M’eatlo’af tired to break out from his human host, but couldn’t get a good footing in the material realm quite yet. “Get the rhino!” boomed Borgov the Khorne bezerker champion, forcing the unit to blood frenzy towards Marc’s mutated transport, charging it in the side, while the blood letters tried their best to keep pace. The dreadnought Nagrek went into a fire frenzy at the thousand sons, but blinded by rage, it missed completely, much to James’s relief. Fuelled by the power of the Bloodthirster’s strength, Borgov the possessed bezerker champion still failed to harm the Nurgle rhino’s rotten hull and was covered in filth for his trouble.
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Nurgle
Slaanesh
Marc pulls his army back from the bezerkers to let the ensuing combats provide cover from the Tzeentchian psychic bolts. A cloud of disease from the plague bearers and rhino engulf the surrounding area, infecting a Khorne bezerker and a Slaanesh noise marine who fall to the floor coughing up blood and lungs. Meanwhile, the Bulbous dreadnought continues its slow advance.
The daemon vessel twists, contorts and lets out a scream of pleasurable pain as the Keeper of Secrets Kar’les Wis’pr emerges to attack the Khorne blood letters, followed by the remaining two members of the Pain Bringers marine squad.
TUR N 5
K horne Gerard rolls again to possess his champion Borgov, but the Bloodthirster still doesn’t appear! The blood letters are just in range to charge the nearest noise marine squad, the Electric Six, cutting down two of them, while their attacks are knocked away. They take two more casualties from being outnumbered. Meanwhile, Lord Elric Suavius cuts down two more bezerkers, but pleasurably takes a wound in return. “Ah, the pain feels good!”
Tzeentch The army marches steadily towards the objective again, firing a torrent of psychic bolts and lascannon beams, all of which bounce off the Nurgle rhino’s rotten shell. Will nothing kill this diseased, filth ridden tank?
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The dreadnought goes crazy all of a sudden and unloads its guns into the Nurgle rhino and to everyone’s horror, every shot ricocheted off! Suddenly the Khorne bezerker’s numbers overcome Lord Suavius Mojo, pinning him down and dismembering him with their oversized chain axes in a fountain of gore! The Keeper of Secrets wildly attacks the hated blood letters, going to strike the killing blow on three of them, but her claws are flung back by their daemonic auras. The blood letters ignore the keeper of secrets and attack the noise marines instead, but they only manage to kill one of them, and lose one of their brethren in turn.
Nurgle Now that everyone is in combat, the Nurgle army sits at a safe distance and fills the numerous combats with their clouds of disease, bringing down a Khorne bezerker who lies on the ground convulsing as blood pours out of each crack in his ancient armour.
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Tzeentch
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Bursting out of its daemon vessel like a cracked egg, the Lord of Change Nan’dohs spreads its infernal wings to take perch on the chaos altar in the middle of the objective beside the Bloodthirster without any hint of fear. Sidious the dreadnought moves into the objective area while taking aim at the Nurgle rhino, cutting through it’s mutated, pustulant hull to stun its leprous crew. Lord Francois Necrotauch leads his automatons at full march towards the objective, but only two of his troopers reach their target. The Tzeentchian sorcerer fires a bolt of change in anger at the immobilised Khorne dreadnought and spectacularly misses. Morgan’s Minions move a full 6” forward to fire at the plague bearers and successfully kill one of the bloated daemons.
The Great Unclean One appears! K horne Discarding its vessel in a shower of blood and bones, the Bloodthirster spreads its wings and roars at the sky before locking blades with the Keeper of Secrets who hisses venomously as it inflicts 2 wounds, which are then both saved by the Bloodthirster’s daemonic aura of insane hate. M’eatlo’af strikes back with his mighty axe and whip, inflicting 4 wounds, but Kar’les Wis’pr can only deflect two and she squeals in ecstasy. The bezerkers charge Marc’s plague bearers to keep them off the objective, killing three of them, while the rotten daemons fell a single bezerker. Meanwhile, the blood letters receive 2 wounds from the remaining noise marines, which are saved by their daemonic auras before cutting them all down in a shower of blood and shattered armour.
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Slaanesh The combat continues between the Bloodthirster and Keeper of Secrets as she inflicts three wounds, but it’s not enough as the armoured brute strikes back, cleaving her in half as she fails 5 invulnerable saves. Once again the Slaanesh dreadnought goes crazy (Adam: “What’s wrong with these things?”) and charges the stunned Nurgle rhino and gives it a good kicking in the sides, but can’t get through its thick and oozing armour.
Nurgle
THE END Khorne 31 points Nurgle 27 points Slaanesh 14 points Tzeentch 14 points - ADAM SMITH & MARC COOK - Ficton by MIKE GLAESAR
Marc rolls to summon his Great Unclean One B’ud T’eh Ch’ud, but fails, he re-rolls using the champion’s daemonic chains and big B’ud still fails to arrive! Marc groans in despair having lost a potential 10 victory points on the objective. Bulbous the dreadnought runs across onto the objective swinging his arms wildly at the Lord of Change. Marc: “I feel like chicken tonight, like chicken tonight!” Unfortunately the Lord of Change has other ideas, ripping off his left arm and stunning the pustulant pilot within. In a wall of rotten, shambling filth the plague bearers and plague marines charge the bloodletters, cutting down all but one of the bestial daemons, but not before Gerard targets Marc’s plague marine squad, inflicting two wounds with their armour negating hell blades. Marc’s face split with an evil, sickening smile. “Here comes daddy!,” he said as he removed the daemon vessel champion, to replace it with B’ud T’eh Ch’ud, his huge and bloated Great Unclean One, then passed a daemonic instability test with flying pus filled colours. 10 more points to Grand pappy Nurgle!
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farewell
THANK YOU AND GOODNIGHT
Thanks
for reading.
Firebase bids you all a fond farewell It’s time to sharpen your modeling knives, get some rope and form a posse, because Firebase is coming to a close. I always wondered why people would get home from work and then slouch in front of the telly when there’s still so much time left in the day to write, paint or even produce a magazine to serve their war gaming community. Then I got a real full time job with high demands and realised just what it was all about. I won’t bore you with the complications of running a very fluid creative time combined with the troubles and turmoils of managing a mag, but suffice to say, it’s a full time job in itself and there are only so many hours in the day. Fill them all up with work and Jack becomes a very boring (and sickly) boy indeed.
If you enjoyed the fruits of our monkey labour please feel free to make a donation to our cause.
It helps us to pay the artists firebase
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With no suitable heir to the Firebase throne, this is the end of our legacy. The whole team would like to give a massive thank you to all 120,000+ people who read each issue of our magazine, told us what rocked, what was rubbish and still came back for more. Firebase has paved the way for others to follow. We’ve shown what can be achieved with a lot of spare time and a lot of heart. So when you’re sitting in front of your TV, waving a cold turkey leg at Big Brother, Lost or 24 with dissatisfaction, just think what great things you could be doing. Get off your arse and do them! The experience couldn’t be more rewarding. - ADAM SMITH (former editor)
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