8th Edition and the Horus Heresy - a gaming crossroads!

I’ve played a few games now and feel I’ve seen enough to give a view, at the least from the perspective of the Imperial Fists anyway. I used to play friends who had 40k armies at 7th no problem. My army was fairly well balanced with theirs and the difference in genres didn’t seem to affect us at all. So it was with some trepidation I tried out my army with the Horus Heresy fandex (which is too casual a description really for the great work that the guys have put into this - take a look at http://heresy30k.invisionzone.com/topic/10351-the-8ed-heresy-project-legiones-astartes/) against a Blood Angels and Imperial Guard Army. 

General thoughts on playing 8th from the Horus Heresy

- it’s got the potential to play fast, although because we were still learning the rules it wasn’t much faster than 7th, but the potential is there.

- the psychic phase seems much simpler - I’ve not used Psykers for a long time so it’s difficult for me to compare. But compared to 7th I picked up how to do psychic stuff in no time at all so it’s got to be better than before. 

- templates gone - I like this, much quicker all around both as it doesn’t mean you need to worry about bunching up squads and it’s quicker in the shooting phase to play with largely similar results (although see my comment later!). 

- no scattering for deep strike - yippee!

- turn 1 charges - yippee!

Armies on Parade 2017 - Rich's Imperial Fists

Armies on Parade - 2017

I had an ambition to try out at this in 2017 and so, I duly arrived a few weeks ago at my local store with my Imperial Fists and one of my terrain boards. 

I decided to take infantry and walkers only, and also to keep the miniatures on the Board well spaced so that the varied characters and squads could grab their own but of the limelight.

Building a Zone Mortalis Board from scratch

Dad Rich and I have played a few games of Zone Mortalis (See Imperial Fists v Flesh Tearers here) over the last 12 months. It is a fun way to play, quick and provides a very different experience from standard 40k.

With regards to a board to play on, he has been sneaky enough to purchase a Zone Mortalis set without his better half knowing and has airbrushed it up to a playable standard fairly quickly!

Rich's Zone Mortalis board

Unfortunately not all of us are lucky enough to be able to afford to get a Forge World board and also, although it looks cool I quite fancied a Zone Mortalis board that would be more unique and varied rather than grey spaceship walls. In fact a dungeon style set of ruins took my fancy so I did a bit of research online and received my inspiration from Machu Picchu with a grey, grassy style. With this in mind I set to work designing and building my own board from scratch...

Tutorial: Applying decals/transfers to your models

fourdadsoftheapocalypse.blogspot.co.uk – A blog about Warhammer 40k and the Horus Heresy by four Dads

Dad Rich gives his advice on how to get your decals looking as realistic as possible on your models...

The Rescue - Mission & Rules - Imperial Fists (Rich) vs Flesh Tearers/Astra Miltarum (James)

The Challenge
The challenge has been thrown down, a night has been arranged and the fluff has been written. Yes on Saturday evening Rich is coming over for beer and toy soldiers to my house to throw down some dice for the first time this year.

As we don't get to play too often (bloomin' kids) we love to have a bit of a story behind our games now that we are out of our 5th Ed. competitive stage. So the planning has been extensive over whatsapp deciding on mission, forces and story line. I thought that it was quite interesting and different and so here it is shared with you all.

It all starts with a map
Firstly as soon as Rich got the ok from his better half the first thing he did was draw a map...

He had this idea in his head about a rescue mission and that because we love playing Zone Mortalis he also wanted to incorporate his realm of battle and Zone Mortalis boards in the game.

Imperial Fists v Flesh Tearers - Zone Mortalis Report

The Imperial Fists were conducting a boarding action against the might Flesh Tearers...1,000 points....kill points.

The scenario sees the Flesh Tearers set up to defend a break in the ships hull made by a marauding Imperial Fist incursion force lead by the VIIth Legion hero Sigismund. The Flesh Tearers are lead by their incandescent Death Company Chaplain, furious at the VIIths attack on the sanctity of their Battle Cruiser.

Turn 1
After the breach by Sigismund and his spear-tip assault, the Flesh Tearers are first to react and set up a defensive line, covering each corridor as they sweep forward through the outer corridors of the ship, racing to meet the large hangar space where the breach was detected. Sigismund leads his unit to the edge of the hanger space, keeping a watchful eye on the bulkheads for signs of the enemy.

Shattered Legions

Hello once again,

Whilst completing my hobby challenge piece, Alexis Polux, I was working on a squad of Shattered Legion marines. I wanted to do this group as a personal challenge to paint something different and try a few new techniques.

I selected the legions to include in my squad because of the challenge I thought they'd present and for fluff reasons and for gaming reasons.

We'll start with gaming. The Book 6 rules for Shattered Legions say you need a mixture of two main legions. I really wanted to base my force on the Iron Warriors, I was also painting Polux, and I was also reading Pharos, so Imperial Fists were logically my second choice.

However, I wanted to paint Shattered Legions to push myself. I wanted to paint some Emperor's Children, some World Eaters, some Salamanders. All legions with challenging colour schemes, but needing my two main legions to have a majority, I was limited. So I chose a Salamander, and Iron Hand and a Black Shield. I will have to wait until I paint another squad before I can mix in some other colours, but it will happen.

So, here is my completed squad.

 

All have a mixture of armour marks and iconography. This was a chance to really mix it up

This is the squad of 5 Iron Warriors, led by a Warsmith who goes by the name of the Iron Prophet. Perturabo never liked psychers, and although the Iron Prophet attained high rank, he never attained his Father's favour, due to his uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time. He was never tested for latent psychic ability but the cloud of suspicion never left him. When his Primarch nailed his flag to Horus' cross, the Iron Prophet didn't follow, he didn't heed to the call to muster at Isstvan. instead he fled into the warp, almost coming to blows with Polux's force as they made their way to Sotha. Fate once again shined on the Iron Prophet though and he survived and aligned himself with the forces loyal to the Emperor.

These guys are The Brothers Grym. They are part of Polux's personal bodyguard, which followed him to Sotha. They are some of the first to carry the icon of the Crimson Fist.

 

The guy on the left I modelled to look like the armour shown on the cover of False Gods. I don't know what mark it was originally meant to represent (maybe Mk2) but in reality I've used a mix of Mks 2 (helmet), 4 (arms and crest), 5 (shoulder pad and back pack) and 7 (legs).

This is my Salamander, Black Shield and Iron Hand.

 

The Salamander turned out a lot plainer than I imagined. I should have added some flames, but then I started formulating an idea that he had removed all of the flames from his armour, because he doesn't know that Vulkan is alive, so the flames have died along with his Primarch.

 

The Black Shield ended up looking a lot like a Knight Errant, but no one knows because he hasn't spoken a single word since the start of the Heresy...

 

The Iron Hand was included mainly because I had a load of cool mechanical bits in my box which didn't really look right on Space Wolves but which I wanted to use somewhere.

I tried using a white background for these photos for the first time, and I'm not impressed. The colours seem muted. Things that appear to be glowing or glossy in the flesh seem flat. Let me know what you think.

Dave

fourdadsoftheapocalypse.blogspot.com – A blog about Warhammer 40k and the Horus Heresy by four Dads

September Hobby Challenge - where we ended up

Hello!

I think it's fair to say that none of us Dads actually finished our hobby challenge by the end of September, but we all made good progress (ok, maybe not you Rich, but at least you opened the box...). That's just what happens when real life gets busy, and September is always a busy month when you're a parent; school starting, new routines, birthdays, etc. But that's why it's good to have a hobby in the first place, to escape all of that 'real life' stuff for 20 minutes here and there. And even if you get no modelling or painting time in, you might be able to read a Horus Heresy novel, plan an army list or talk to your mates about whether Leman Russ really would beat Horus in a fight... *cough* Russ *cough*...

So, here we are...

Dave managed to nearly finish Polux. Just the gems and blood to add. He'll write a post covering his Shattered Legions squad some time soon with lots of pics of Polux and Co.

Steve has 'finished' Angron. He says it's finished... but also says he might add something at a later date. He's now moved on to painting some World Eaters up.

Rich has got as far as giving Polux a bath... along with a whole Zone Mortalis board set!! (I think he might have got distracted somewhat by all that close quarters fighting goodness...)

James has made some big progress on his Baneblade but it still isn't finished. It's in a much better state than it started though!

Don't forget that Dads Rich and Dave also met up for a couple of epic games (making slanderous comments about the quality of each others' painting...), Dave read the HH novel Pharos, Rich read Praetorian of Dorn, James read Luna Mendax, Scorched Earth and Corax: Soulforge and Steve ran a 40k tournament for the kids at his school. All good hobby activities!

Zone Mortalis - Battle Report

This was a fight to take control of the Imperial Fists Frigate the New Dawn. A boarding assault was conducted by Bjorn Hammerwacker (sorry Dave couldn't remember his name! Edit: that wasn't his name, but it sounds cool so I'll roll with it... Dave) and his spear-tip force of wolfy space marines!

This was our first game of Zone Mortalis and as a result of spending time chatting about how much we liked narrative gaming when we met up earlier we came up with a decent spin on one of the Blood in the Void missions from HH Book III. The mission type was called wrecker and we selected to enact an assault on the bridge of a frigate. Dave wanted to attack (not typical at all of the wolfy fellows eh?) and so I obliged by setting up in defence of an Imperial Fist bridge.

The deployment saw the Imperial Fists take one board quarter (3ft x 4ft board) and the VIth Legion take the opposite one. The game itself indicated we should be dividing our forces into reserves, but we decided we wanted to just get bloody quickly and to engage full forces in a corridor jamming frenzy! So reserves were dispensed with.

However, the game was to start tensely with 'blip counters'. Remember the colonial marines in Aliens tensely scanning and seeing 'multiple' threat signals. Well we re-enacted this (its in the rules as an option to do this) by placing poker chips with a number on them down on the board instead of our units. My units were red and Dave's were white and we set up in our opposing quarters.

The units represented by the chips would not be revealed until they came within line of sight of another poker chip. We also added another twist, only half the 'blips' were real, the others were ghost signals created by the extreme radiation of a nearby star (Edit: it wasn't a star, the leaky radiation was down to the Imperial Fists' poor maintenance regime, not that they'll admit to it! Dave).

This created a cautious and tense start to the game - it really changed the dynamic of the first couple of turns. We were both faced with the challenge of trying to sneak our forces into the best position whilst not giving away which were real and fake. It also has you constantly thinking "am i sneaking up on his tactical marines, or is that blip a bloody dreadnaught!!" As you can see in the next shot we were tip toe-ing around...

Eventually though the poker chips came into view and these two legions were enjoined in combat! The Fists burst around the corner setting up a charge into Dave's Cataphracti - its hammer time! My Breacher Squad lines up to bolter Daves Breachers...

Edit: we also added the rule that breacher shields block line of sight, so you could use a squad to block against the enemy seeing your blip counter, meaning it would remain un-revealed for a little bit longer. This sort of thing summed up the way we tend to play games, if it sounds cool and reasonable then why not do it?! Dave.

Even though the Board isn't painted (it comes black from FW) you can get some really atmospheric scenes. Here my breachers are lead by my Praetor as they hold this corridor against the onslaught ion the Wolves!

Here my terminators are making short work of the Cataphracti but Dave's units are setting up for a counter assault!

In the end...
After several turns Dave managed to kill my Warlord (Ships Captain) which was the Primary Objective, and he nearly achieved the secondary objective of getting aboard the bridge (represented by the tile below and the large dice cube) with his sneaky sneaky units creeping around the edge of the conflict.

So what do we think of ZM?
The close quarter nature of ZM turns units that are ordinary on the big open battlefields into absolute killers in the confines of battleship and the fights were very quickly bloody affairs. I have to say this was a great entrance to the world of Zone Mortals and I can't wait to get painting the board and playing some more!

We played two games, the second of which was 500points and we finished in 45mins - this is really adding the chance to play atmospheric games, using your usual 30k/40k units in quick games. As we did, its possible to play these in an evening and have them influence a bigger game the following day!

Also for you modellers our there, FW dont produce much in the way of additional scenery so if you've ever wanted to do a 'bridge' scene for a cruiser this is your chance, and you get to bring it into your game.

Happy hobbying

Battle Report - Imperial Fists vs Space Wolves

Dads Rich and Dave played a game this weekend. Rich brought the Sons of Dorn, whilst Dave brought the sons of Russ. There was no real background to the story but maybe there was a misunderstanding between these two stubborn Legions as the Space Wolves headed back to Terra after the Battle of Prospero. The Imperial Fists halted them at the border, strictly following protocol. The Wolves had little patience after completing their cursed task. Tempers frayed, things got out of hand, and here's what happened next...

The game was 3000pts per side using Mission 4: Onslaught from the Horus Heresy Book 1. We felt the mission had some interesting set up rules and victory conditions:

We set up in opposing quarters, the each placed an objective in the opposition's deployment zone. The main aim of the game was to control that objective at the end of the game, with secondary objectives (see the above photo). Dad Dave won the roll to set up and go first, Dad Rich failed to seize the initiative, ending a long run of always going first, and setting the flavour for the ensuing game.

Armies:

Space Wolves - Dad Dave

Hvarl Red-Blade: Legion Praetor with thunder hammer and volkite serpent

Arne, bearer of the torch: Master of Signal

4x 10-man Legion Assault Squads

2x 5-man Tactical Support Squads, with melt-guns and mounted in rhinos

2x Spartan Assault Tanks

Fellblade

Imperial Fists - Dad Rich

Sigismund

Herald (Centurion)

10 Terminators (half THSS, half PFSB) + Apothecary

15 Breachers (Sgt w TH) + Apothecary + Spartan to transport them with the Sigismund

10 Breachers (Sgt w PF)

10 Tac Marines

1 Contemptor Mortis

3 x Quad Mortars

Turn 1

Dave: You get an extra victory point for anything killed in the first turn, so I was determined to make sure I achieved that. To make sure I got that point, I targeted the Fist’s contemptor with my Fellblade, which spectacularly exploded, with shrapnel taking out half of the Breacher squad it was standing next too! Excellent!
Everything else moved forward, in a sort of pincer movement around the hill in the middle of the board. With everything either in vehicles or with jump packs, the aim is to get as close to the enemy as quickly as possible. I aimed one of my melta-rhinos the Fist’s Spartan, hoping I could get around the flare shield. I left one of my assault squads spread out at the back behind my Fellblade, knowing that Rich had some deep-striking terminators to come in at some point.

Rich: Dave's firepower had left me reeling, but the Fists know better than to let an opening salvo scare them off and launched forward in the Spartan to meet there line, somehow it seemed as if that poor Spartan was taking on his entire line alone! But as he rolled forward the lascannons and quad mortars opened up in support and managed to kill a few marines and a rhino. Sigismund and his squad burst from the Spartan and took on Dave's Spartan. I was about to find out that Spartan's were impossible for me to hurt and despite slapping 10 melts-bombs on it and whacking it with a TH a few times the damn thing wasn't even shaken!

Turn 2
Dave: Rich busted open one of my melt-rhinos, which was a bit annoying, but both of the rhinos managed to protect their occupants this round.

Rich: Sigismund and the Breachers manage to wipe one of Dave's assault units and the Terminator Deep Strike arrives, they use their turn to shoot at the delta squad nearest too but only kill one dude! Dave turns the guns of the Fellblade on the Spartan and....no more Spartan!

Turn 3
Dave: I continued to target the Fist’s lascannon squad, who continued to survive and make their leadership tests! Those Fists really are the stubborn Sons of Dorn!!
The Fist’s terminator squad engaged the last of my full strength assault squads and wiped them out to a man, who subsequently fell back 19”, and then continued to fall back for the rest of the game. He’d obviously lost his nerve and will be disciplined for it later… however, his continued survival did deny the Fists a valuable VP.

Rich: The Breachers fight with the Spartan goes on, I have thrown over 35 meltabombs at it but totally failed to roll a single 6 for penetration in that time! That armoured ceratite is paying off! The terminators and Sigismund are wandering around looking for infantry to massacre, my lascannons pick off the odd target but are surprisingly ineffective, probably because up until Turn 4 I had forgotten they had Tank Hunter USR!

Turn 4

Dave: Turn 4 it suddenly occurred to me that if I parked my Fellblade on top of the objective in my quarter, there was no way Rich could get anything within 2” to contest it! Genius! With 12 hull points, nothing was going to shift it. So that’s what I did.
I fired the demolisher cannon at the Fist Terminators and killed six. Finally, I remembered where the strengths of the demolisher cannon lie…

Rich: I have decided to totally ignore his Fellblade, with 12 HPs, armoured ceramite etc I have nothing to hurt it really so the terminators (minus a few brothers thanks to the Demolisher) set off toward Dave's other Spartan and his Warlord. Sigismund starts to run across to join them. If we can't damage the Spartan we may at least be able to give the Warlord a headache as we hammer on the sides. 

Herald - I took this guy to lead my terminators and wasn't disappointed. He looks cool waving a banner and the +1 to WS he gives everyone around him makes sure my Terminators slaughter anyone they meet. Shame they didn't have any more infantry left around them by this point...

Turn 5

Dave: I finally took Sigismund down with two more lascannon shots to the face. I cannot believe how tough that man is! Rich had another go at melt-bombing my Spartan.
For the fourth turn in a row the Fists failed to take all of its hull points. I’m glad Rich told me to by that Ceramite armour now! My other Spartan took out the remainder of the Fist’s terminator squad
Rich killed off the remainder of my assault squads. They hung in well and generally did what I needed them to do. I’m glad I split them in to 4 ten man squads now rather than 2 twenty man squads.

Rich: Sigismund dies in a desperate attempt to reach Dave's Warlord who is bravely hiding on his own in a Spartan. They only know he's in there because of the smell and constant crys of "Mummy! Get me out of here"!

Im hanging on here by skin of my teeth here, my hope is to deny Dave the VPs on the obj on my side and to try and keep the unit kills equal.

Oh, rolled another 12 melta bombs on Dave's Spartan....no 6's!

Dave rolls for Turn 6.....rolls a 2! End Game, time for tea and medals!

Result
Wolves: 7VPs Fists: 5VPs

Commentary

Dave: the game was fun, and the first I’ve won in a long time. When you analyse it, it was actually closer than you think, the difference only being the +1VP in Turn 1 for destroying a unit, and +1VP for Slaying the Warlord. And Sigismund really made me work for that one!
No one got the +5VP for claiming the opponent’s objective, but that could have swung the game the other way if the Fists had managed it.

Man of the match for me is the Spartan that survived 4 rounds of melta-bombs. That just goes to prove how tough those transports are! Glad I got me two of them.

I liked the way my army worked, in a way that I have not liked my army composition for a long while. It’s a good mix of fast-moving troops and armoured might. Just the way I imagine the Wolves like to fight. Get up close and do as much damage as quickly as possible. I’ll definitely be working with variations of this force going forward. The only change might be to actually mount something in the Spartans. That was a bit of an oversight, but a happy one, and they did keep both of my HQs safe for the entire game.

I imagine the melta-armed tactical supports squads mounted in Rhinos are a bit like the fire ships Vikings would send towards the enemy. The rhinos managed to survive long enough to get the heat to where it needed to be.

The Fellblade was as good as I hoped. I’ve wanted one of those ever since seeing one in Collected Vissions. Parking it on an objective was a stroke of genius, if somewhat dirty, and I’m ashamed to say I didn’t think of this straight off the bat. Nothing was going to shift that and it was big enough to make sure no enemy could get within the required distance to contest it.

Rich: Great game, loved seeing this huge wave of mechanised Space Wolves charging at us! But what did I learn.

Well first off I screwed up big time with the rules for melts-bombs. I assumed they had the USR melta which means that anything with armoured ceramite denies them the additional d6 for armour penetration. However, melta-bombs are armourbane which means they still get the extra d6 for penetration. Doh! Its funny as by the end of the game i must have hit that Spartan with 40-50 melts-bombs and still didn't roll a 6 to glance a single time - fate was against me whatever that time!

The 15 Breachers with Sgt TH and an Apothecary plus Sigismund are fearsome against infantry, and they are good against armour too (when you remember the armourbane rule!!).

My terminators are brutal in CC too, they decimated any units they touched and it was great to see them ruling the day, until that pesky demolisher round had me taking 6 off the table at once! (Great shot Dave!).

This was my first game with the Quad Mortars. They got off a couple of turns hammering Dave's troops. Sadly for me Dave targeted them relentlessly with the Fellblade and they didn't make it past turn three. One thing to note is that they need to be within 36" of enemy so you have to much them reasonably far forward. I must say I liked them, if they had been left unhindered I think they would have made a fantastic support weapon, as it was they got a few kills and kept Dave's big guns away from my troops for a few turns - not bad.

Lascannon team - this game was almost enough to convince me to out them in a bunker. Although they lasted throughout and killed a few things. They are super pricey and I may field less than ten in the future.

All in all v happy with my force and if I can remember the USRs that are important they will do just fine I think! Well played Space Wolves!

Will It Never End? - Hobby Challenge - Rich update 5

I have to say its been an absolute pleasure to do this conversion and paint job, the model is lovely and had that dynamic pose that allowed me to swap out the blade for a banner pole and I had an old renegade militia standard bearer flag that was just perfect to be blowing in the breeze atop the pole.

Story behind the scene...
The story behind this scene is called 'Rally Point'. I am thinking ahead to the Siege of Terra; this guy is storming to the top of a staircase above the beleaguered loyalist forces to have them rally to him and re-organise their defences.

Communications are down so he is yelling and waving the Company Banner to get his marines attention. The spent shell casings littering the stairs are testimony to the fight he has endured to make it to a point at which he will be seen.

I am going to extend the scene a little in September with the addition of a dead marine behind him on the stairs. He will be wearing White Scar armour but will have large sections weathered away to reveal Alpha Legion paint job beneath. The White Scars had been infiltrated and this guy has realised it and has found a way to work around their signal jamming....ok I know I have an overactive imagination but heh...it keeps me out of trouble!

How I painted the model:
To find out how I did the conversion check out my earlier post here...
I used my usual recipe for Imperial Fists on this guy, but here it is again for anyone who is reading for the first time...

Vallejo Primer Grey all over

Yellows:
Phalanx Yellow (FW airbrush paint)
Vallejo Game Air Hull Red
Windsor Newton Burnt Umber Oil Wash (for all the edges and creases)
I used a little Fresh Mud FW Weathering powder in a few of the darker areas to give it some more shadow too.

Gold:
Balthazar Gold
Sycorax bronze
Windsor Newton Burnt Umber oil wash
Dry brush of leadbelcher

Face:
Calthan Brown
Tallarn Flesh
Organ Flesh Ink Wash
Watered down tallarn again in layers
Taller Flesh (with a little Scar White for highlights)

Banner:
Sandri Dust & Scar White thinned with water and three coats
Washed with Agrax Earthshade Ink Wash, this was pushed around the flag with Lahriman medium to make sure it only sat in the creases
Once all dry I used a little Fresh Mud FW weathering powder here and there

The model got a full varnish of Vallejo Satin varnish before the oil wash went on, then again before the decals went on and a final one to seal everything in!

Using Phalanx Yellow Airbrush Paint:
This was the first time I used the Phalanx Yellow, I had head some describe it as too 'lemony' and I can see what they mean once the whole model is covered in it. However, I really like the result once you have broken the yellow up with darker colours and given it a bit of a weathering. Its also a lovely consistency for airbrushing - fine work FW!

Hobby Challenge Progress:
I had five character models and three Quad Mortars (plus crews) to paint for my challenge and all that remains is the Quad Mortars. These are well underway although with just two more days left before I go on leave its looking unlikely I will get through it all in August. I'll give it a go but I am already happy with the boost that the challenge has given to my painting. I would never have done so much otherwise.

Happy hobby time!

Will It Never End?! Hobby Challenge - Rich update 4

Hi hobby fans, I've been on holiday with the family so not made huge strides in past couple of weeks but what a family break did give me (whilst I was pushing our baby around in the stroller) was lots of time to think about my challenge models, in particular the Praetor Tribune model.

Legion Praetor Tribune model
As I said in my earlier post, the model was going to be converted to be holding a banner that I was borrowing from another Forgeworld model.

It took me a while to find the right materials and approach for making the banner pole, but after some online research I stumbled across the perfect tactic.

1. Drill holes in both ends of the existing 'banner pole' i.e. the bit the Praetor is holding onto once I had cut off the blade. I then put some fine pinning rod into both ends with about 6mm protruding in each direction.
2. Drill a hole into the flag itself and fit a small pin with around 6mm protruding.
3. Purchase some copper tube 0.5mm in diameter from you local modelling store - big thanks to Chester Model Centre for this.
4. If you've got the right sized tube and pinning rod you will find they slide together perfectly, add a little glue and a skull and there you have it, the perfect banner pole!

Creating a 'Rally Point' scene...

My time away gave me a chance to dream up a bit of a scene. I was imagining this hero having fought his way to the top of a prominent battlefield feature, and finding foes surrounding his beleaguered force grabbed their banner and raised it aloft to signal a rally point and the beginnings of a fight back...told you I had a lot of thinking time!

This got me thinking about the base and I knew that a simple 40mm base wouldn't cut-it so I have borrowed a dreadnought base to help create this scene. I reckon a flight of stairs would give the impression of him heading for high ground so I have fashioned a 'turret-style' staircase for him to be climbing which is suitably ruined.

The Praetor is ascending and holding the tattered banner high for all to see, the banner is battle damaged to reflect the hell-fire they are going though, and now I have seen how much space there is on the base I am thinking of including a wounded Imperial Fist standard bearer reaching up to the banner being held by his comrade.

This is, I guess, inspired by victorian warfare paintings which were often full of the visual horror of warfare, whilst being hugely patriotic and making the greatest virtue of love for the regimental colours. I always liked the painting of the Last Stand of the 44th of Foot at Gandamack; a British Regiment completely wiped-out by Afghan warriors, the long running battle ending atop a hill where the British were overrun, starving, freezing a running out of ammo. The Regimental Colours were wrapped around a Captains' waist who hid them beneath his coat, in the end this act saved him, as the Afghans took him prisoner, thinking that his yellow waistcoat marked him out as a General!

So I need your help, what do you think of the idea of putting a mortally wounded Imperial Fist in the background reaching up for the banner with the last of his energy? Or, should I make use of the space by putting some filthy traitor with a great big wound that my Officer has just left in him?

Help please?!