Necromunda Void War V2.2

A year ago I wrote a small ruleset for fighting in the vacuum of space. The aim was to portray Necromundan lunar colonies and space stations, as well as underwater and toxic environments where pressurised space-suits were necessary.

I’ve revisited those rules, expanded, improved format and generally made something better of them.

The new version strips away a lot of the turn-by-turn micro-management and less sensible stuff in favour of a quick and streamlined system.

The core of the rules is Suit Damage and Air-tokens.

Essentially each fighter is equipped with a personal air-supply and a sealed spacesuit of some description. Whenever that fighter takes an Injury roll, they additionally roll on a Suit Damage table. This uses an injury dice as well, but affects the suit independently of the fighter.
The three options are that the suit is punctured but able to immediately self-repair, it’s damaged and must be manually repaired with a repair-kit, or it’s been torn wide open and can’t be repaired at all.
These results can happen completely independently of the normal injuries. So for example a knife-slash that merely caused a flesh-wound on the fighter might tear the suit badly enough that it can’t be repaired. Requiring that fighter to sprint for safety.

Or perhaps the life-threatening Serious Injury caused minimal damage to the suit and the material has sealed over the hole..

The second part of this feature is the Air Tokens. Whenever the suit is damaged, the fighter loses precious air, normally recycled around and around, the suits only contain a very small volume of air and have little margin for loss. Typically a suit can take damage no more than 6 times before the suit runs out of air entirely.
These can be replenished at certain locations, you can buy expanded air-tanks and similar equipment and there are plenty of options to make the suits themselves more robust.

If a fighter finds themselves without any air and is in hard-vacuum, they go out of action at the end of the turn.
I’ve written full rules for handling airlocks and hull-breaches, unique territories and scatter-terrain for scenarios, new Trading Post items and equipment to suit the new setting and I’ve also written two new factions since using existing ones made very little sense.

The new factions are:

Clan Coronus, specialists in bio-technology and life-support equipment. They inhabit the agri-domes and live a techno-tribal lifestyle. I’ve been converting models to represent them using Escher and Idoneth Deepkin parts.

House Sirius – Mining and industrial faction, based on the Genestealer cult line of models. They are in fact intended to be infected by a Genestealer Cult, however the House at large is not, and the cult is meant as background flavour rather than providing any unique units or rules. (Really it’s just an excuse if I forget to remove a Cult sigil on any models I make for them)

Together the two houses form a duality of nature vs technology, a common theme but a strong one I think.

I’m planning to build some custom scenery specially for void-war, specifically an agri-dome (jungle scenery inside a circular building with part of a transparent dome over it) and a couple surface-outposts consisting of a few rooms and an airlock each.

Those plus some scatter terrain and I should be able to play some cool scenarios!

Necromunda_VoidWar_V2.2

Please play with them and tell me how you find them!

Solar Auxilia Charonite Ogryns

I’m happy to say, I’ve finished my Ogryns!

Beautifully sculpted, they fit together like a dream and were a joy to paint.
I love the large areas of fluorescent orange I was able to do, and I’m particularly proud of the face on the one with his mask open.

All this means is that I actually have nearly enough force to play with them!

I’m thinking next on the force will be a lasrifle squad and a Dracosan Transport

Pictures!

Back from the wilds!

Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen.
I return from the wilds.

By which I mean, I’ve spent three months moving into my new flat, enjoying christmas and then looking for the cable to plug my camera into my computer.

So I have a bunch of stuff to show off!

The New Flat

I have a new Games Room and hobby desk on which to play and work at home rather than relying on a 30 minute trek into town to do anything. It’s worked wonders on my hobby!

Once the table was set up, I immediately invited some friends to have a game with me, we wound up having a three-sided 3000 points apiece battle. Orks vs Chaos Marines vs 30k Mechanicum.
A grand success with chinese takeaway and beer! I was able to snap a fair few photos over that battle but very few were clear shots of the table without blur.. ah well.
Behold the battlefield!

Warlord Titan

I bought my Warlord Titan!
Previously I only had one gun and the head, the rest of the parts arrived shortly after christmas and I was delighted to be able to take some pictures…

“What have I gotten myself into?”

 

That’s a LOT of parts..

I’m going to get this thing framed…the reaver’s certificate too.

Since these pictures were taken, I’ve partially assembled the torso of the titan

To my minor annoyance, it turns out I hadn’t quite been thorough enough cleaning the parts, so I’ll be going back over these parts to make doubly sure.
That’s the trouble with such large components…
For the curious, the unpainted circle on the side of the chassis is where I had placed another model (with its round base) on the part during spraying.
That whole area is going to be under the shoulder anyway so I figured it didn’t much matter.

Amazingly, the carapace is actually large enough to drive a tank over…

 

In any case, now I’ve got my camera and photobooth set up again, I’ll be updating my blog a LOT more frequently. and with that, I’ll have a lot more impetus to work on the warlord. I’m thinking I’ll dedicate saturday entirely to it.
I won’t leave the house that day. Hoping to get a lot done!

Dark Mechanicum Acolytes

I had a LOT of fun with these, I’ve been slowly building a collection of Daemon Engines for most of the time I’ve had this blog, so long-time readers know exactly what I’m talking about…
I figured it was time I made some infantry to go with the monsters.
But not just any old cultists or marines would do, they’d have to be something dark, gribbly and John Blanchian.
So I turned to my bits box and some spare dark eldar parts…
I hope you’ll agree that the results speak for themselves!

I’m still painting the back three, but the two with their bases done are complete.

I’ve been working on tentative rules, but the basic idea is that these are a Retinue or can take the role of squad-leader for cultists and traitor-skitarii.
They’re highly upgradeable but basically not designed to stand alone. you -can- give them all plasma guns and field them as mobile special weapons teams, or attach them to the cultists as a major bonus to leadership and other bonuses depending on wargear.

Their secondary role is to be used alongside a Heretek Magos to beef out his power and provide a bodyguard.
To make them, I primarily used Dark Eldar Wracks and Skitarii Ruststalkers as parts-sources. some bits and bobs (mostly servo-skulls and the plasma gun) from other kits too.

Next up, the Magos. I’ve picked up the Everchosen Gaunt Summoner, I think I can get some interesting results by adding DEldar and Admech parts to him…

30k Mechanicum

Running alongside everything else, I went to the Horus Heresy Tournament in Nottingham a couple weeks ago. I had a fantastic time (even though I was the bottom of the league) and I’m definitely going again in june/july

However in preparation, I spent some time prepping my army, so now every single model is fully based and painted.
I built a Macrocarid Explorator using the Land Raider Proteus kit, since my existing Mechanicum Land Raider was no longer part of the army list. Happy to report that it was only destroyed once in the five games I played at the tournament.

I also built and painted a Knight Atrapos.

I’ll post pictures of both the Macrocarid and Atrapos in my next post (probably tomorrow evening)

General lessons learned in the tournament; Mechanicum are okay at melee, but benefit from using the right units for it.
I was fielding my Magos as a Malagra (melee assault specialist) with a unit of Ferrox type Thallaxii. The Rage special rule was meant to make them a lot more lethal, but in practice I never really got to take advantage of it properly.
I also learned that I really REALLY need more tech thralls and transports.
So at some stage I’ll be buying some Triaros transports.

My feeling is that the Ferrox was largely wasted, so I’ve purchased some Scyllax guardian automata to fill the role. uncertain how they’ll mesh with my army since I normally field my Magos with a jetpack. perhaps they’ll play nice with her if I remove the jetpack and replace it with something else…

Solar Auxilia

I actually got a game against the solar auxilia while I was at the tournament, my first proper encounter with them. My previous meetings were when they were attached as allies to a Sons of Horus army so I never really got a sense for what they were good at.

As I’m sure my dear readers are aware, I’m aiming to build a Solar Auxilia army and currently have a command squad/legate-commander, Storm Section and an Arvus Lighter built for them.
After the tournament was over, I bought Book 4 and a pack of Ogryn Charonites to really kick off my army.

I adore the charonite models. They go together with a nice snug fit on all parts and no messing around with bending anything, even those pipes are the right shape to fit as long as you use the correct numbered parts!
They’re also big, a Lot bigger than you might think.
Guard players may be mislead about their size by comparing them to 40k era ogryns.
These are not your regular ogryn in a space suit, they’ve been gene-bulked and given augmetic surgeries. they’re a LOT scarier. They are to 40k ogryns what 40k ogryns are to guardsmen.

I mean wow, they make regular ogryns look puny!

This Ogryn isn’t finished yet, still quite a bit to do on him, but you get the idea of how I’m painting them. The vibrant orange is very striking, I’m having a great time with this army so far!
Hoping when I get to the infantry tercios I won’t get so bogged down I lose the sense of fun with them.

Imperial Assassins

Some may recall my previous posts in which I showed off my Culexus and Callidus assassins?
Well, the new models showed up and I decided I liked the look of the eversor and vindicaire more than my own rough attempts. So I went ahead and bought them.

Nothing much to say, I’ve painted them with the same style as my previous models and I’m very pleased with the results.
Special mention goes to the vindicaire’s glowing eyes and blended camoleoline suit.

 

Anyway, that’s all for now. It’s been a busy couple months!

Somewhere in there I fitted moving house and christmas…

 

Perturabo – Primarch of the Iron Warriors

October 7th was my birthday, A great time was had, I travelled to Nottingham and played a fantastic game of Horus Heresy, I ate and drank at Bugmans, toured the newer exhibits in the museum and particularly importantly (for you dear readers) I bought myself some Birthday presents!

To-wit, Perturabo and a Land Raider Proteus.

More on the Proteus later, rest assured that post is coming.
But Perturabo I’ve wanted since I first saw him.
Lots of metals, few colours, plenty of detail, Here is a model which I felt I could do justice.
A character model in a style that matches my range of techniques to a tee.

So, over the next few days, during the course of about eight hours of painting. I toiled and produced this!

I think this may qualify as the first Primarch to be painted for GW:Manchester’s Speed Freaks competition!
I didn’t win, but then I’ve never cared about winning as much as participation.

No more talk, behold his majesty!

Honest critique: I feel his tabard needs more work, and I totally didn’t notice the hip chevrons at all.
But all in all, I’m very pleased with the result.
There will be more character pieces in future!

Myrmidon Destructors – Painted!

I spent the past two evenings (really only four hours at most) painting the Myrmidon Destructors!

Rather pleased with the result, my Secutors wear red robes with white cogs. I decided that to distinguish the Destructors I’d invert the colours, perhaps these ones are from a different world, Metallica maybe.
I got halfway through painting a hem of red cogs before realising how much I hate doing cogs on Myrmidon robes. they’re all folds and really annoying to get looking good. So I elected to mix things up, every myrmidon now has different styles for the cogs and iconography on their robes.
Gives them some definite character to match their different armor.

Behold!

Lizardmen – Troglodon

A few weeks back, I bought and painted this glorious critter

I’m slowly but surely building a new Age of Sigmar Seraphon (lizardmen) army.
Eventually I’m going to make one of their Pyramid Spaceships. all glowy warpstone and gold brick 😛

 

Warlord Titan: Part 2 – The Crew

Some may be aware that I’ve long owned the seperate titan princeps and moderatii box, as well as the Titan Tech Priest. they’re technically intended for the Reaver, but since moderatii are identical in both..I figured I’d paint them appropriately for the Warlord.
The Warlord’s head comes with an extra Princeps-Alpha for tabletop use, so I figured I’d make a Thing out of painting the entire crew.

Behold!

For the Princeps, I’ve added a Cognis-Signum badge to his base, GW went through a bout of providing them for free in every mail order when the Admech and skitarii came out, so I naturally have quite a few!
I’m still waiting on word about my new flat, so I’m unwilling to buy the rest of the titan until that’s all sorted in (hopefully) a few weeks. Plenty of time to handle my other projects!
To-Wit, my entire WIP-box, containing as it does four entire squads of various types of Admech and half a squad of Solar Auxilia…

Age of Sigmar: Lizardmen Saurus Oldblood

Like many, when Age of Sigmar came I had a lot of misgivings about what I was seeing.
Not being a fantasy player, I didn’t really feel in the position to complain or critique, but I had the misgivings anyway.
After a lengthy and well reasoned conversation with my local store manager about it, I feel a bit more settled and comfortable with the direction the game has taken.
To follow on from that conversation, I’ve decided to start a small Lizardmen (Seraphon?) force and give Age of Sigmar a try!

To start things off, I picked up a Saurus Oldblood.
I figured it’d be good to start with a single model rather than a box of a dozen!

All in all, I had fun, assembled and fully painted in a space of two hours.
I’m thinking my choice of Orange skin clashes a bit with the gold armour, I might tweak and change that for further models..
Still, Pictures!

Solar Auxilia: Storm Section

Today was a good day, I spent the morning cleaning resin and spraypainting stuff.
Then I went out to Games Workshop and assembled a bunch of things.
Then I spent a couple hours painting…this guy…

 

Total painting time: about two hours. I’m pretty happy!

The idea was to switch out for a colour palette I don’t normally use, namely flourescent orange and greys, I wound up using my usual metals and washes over most of it anyway but the orange and the moon-rock dusty basing worked out really nicely!
The photos don’t really do it justice I feel.
I also gave him pupils in his eyes..not that you can see them. Originally they were hilariously wide-eyed and staring off towards the left, like he’d just seen some Shenanigans and was determined to kill it with the pistol. I actually broke down laughing at it after realising how silly it looked, then went and narrowed his eyes with more rakarth to reduce the “kill you with my mind” stare a bit.
I think the result looks good when it’s not in a uber-high resolution photo 😛

Warhammer World!

It’s been a pretty eventful week or two!

I and a friend travelled down to Nottingham to see Warhammer World for the first time.

I’m totally blown away by the experience, it was utterly fantastic.
We did everything but play a game while we were there, I’ve literally got the T-shirt (the burgundy Mechanicum logo one)
Brought back a bunch of “souvenirs” too.
Not started working on them yet but in the bags are:
A pack of Thallaxii with a Photon Thruster to round out my existing squads
A pack of Myrmidon Secutors to expand my existing squad
And a pack of a Solar Auxilia Veletaris Storm Section. I love the look of them and decided I really wanted a squad of them!

They’ll have to wait though, because I’m working my way through a pack of Vorax Battle Automata and Kataphron Destroyers.

I have one of each done!

Amazingly, I was able to paint the Kataphron in only 25 minutes! This bodes well for getting a whole unit of them together for my Cult Mechanicus forces…

I was also able to get around to painting my Hellbrute conversion shown in my last post.
Thoroughly pleased with the results

With all the stuff on my plate, you’d think that’d be enough, but after seeing the Warlords that they have at Warhammer World, I’ve also ordered the Head of one to start me off. it should be here Today! (omg, totally forgot it was coming in all the chaos. now I’m gonna have to reorganise my plans for the weekend again :P)
I’m expecting to get the keys to my new flat in the next week or two as well as the Manchester public transport being heavily disrupted for a few months. so my hobby may be likewise disrupted. I do my best work in the store where there’s fewer distractions…

Ah well. it should all work out.
But in any case, after I’m settled into my new place, I intend to order the rest of the Warlord, I’m hoping the specific weapons I want to fit it with will have been released by the time I’m ready for them, I’m planning on the Apocalypse Missiles (confirmed as the next release for it), a volcano cannon, and the Saturnine Claw. (A hellstorm template attack with a powerful melee that re-rolls armour penetration too! picture a blowtorch for a fist, the size of a tank.)