Curious Constructs - The Man Behind It All

This one is just a heads up.

Check out an interview with Rob Angell, the creator of Curious Constructs, on Cheerful Meerkat’s Wargmaing site.

If you love Rob’s stuff, it is well worth the read.

DIY Hobby Desk

-AKA Colonel Ackland's Sanctuary

'The Discussion'
For many of us, Growing Up has meant that we have had to face discussions with our partners about having models and a hobby space in the house. It's one of those things that isn't really about winning or losing but is about striking the right balance so that 'life' works. 

My New Toy

A quick non hobby related post (and why my blog has been quiet lately)...

I have my own little 'count as' Titan just in time for the new apocalypse release! 

The Massacre of Omicron Peninsula and Preparations for the Battle of Iron Vale

+++The HD85512B Campaign+++

It is a dark time for the Imperial Forces on the isolated planet of HD85512B.

After The initial loss of the major Imperial outposts, Renegade Space Marines have driven the Imperial Guard from their defences and pursued them across the planet.

Evading the dreaded Marines, a ragtag party of survivors led by an unlikely partnership of Commissar-General Marwood and Primaris Azzopardi, have found refuge in the rough mountainous terrain of the Iron Rangers at Cape Sierra.

Little did they know that their prayers to the Holy Emperor for deliverance had been heard as the damaged Frigate Heidelberg limped into Praetorian space with news of the Marine attack. 

Fearing that the isolated planet would become a staging base for raids on the Praetorian transit routes to Bakka, Segmentum Command dispatched the 5^th Praetorian Battle Column with a modest Navel Patrol Fleet to retake the system…

The Defence of Complex 23

 

The Marine Commander swung his oversized Relic Blade up around his head and out in an attempt to decapitate Commissar-General Marwood. The old Commissar clumsily ducked and brought his Power Fist up to block the strike. There was a loud crack of energy discharge and the smell of ozone as the blade ricocheted off of his fist. In a fluid sweeping motion the Commander continued the flight of his blade around and down toward the Commissar. Marwood leaped backwards falling on his wrinkled rump and gasped as the sparking blade split the ground between his legs – narrowly avoiding a battlefield castration. Appearing from the blur of combat around them, Primaris Azzopardi swung his mighty Force Axe at the Commanders flank. In a display of mastery footwork and swordsmanship the Commander swiftly moved, parring the strike and followed with a series of quick slashes. As the Primaris defended with his large axe, Marwood was granted the few seconded that he needed. His hand disappeared into his coat pocket and reappeared grasping a glass vile of Fury. In a single well-practiced motion he thumbed off the cork stopper and drove the opening into the external stim port of his power fist. He instantly felt the strength, he felt the power, he felt the Fury. With agility thought to be long lost in his youth the old Commissar rolled to his feed. As the Commander swung his Relic Blade in a wide strike, Marwood, using his momentum stepped inside the swing. With unexpected speed, Marwood forcefully thrust his crackling power fist into the right side of the Commander’s back fracturing his elegant artificer armour. The Commander curled his torso like a school boy receiving his first kidney punch while his aslant continued the frenzied assault. With speed, Marwood punched high uppercutting the Commander’s helmeted chin, then across and down in a backfist, followed by an almighty forward punch square on his helmet fount. As the Commander’s head rebounded of the fist, Marwood saw parts of shattered eye lens and fragments of crushed vent explode outward from the blow. The commander’s body limply fell backwards collapsing into the dirt.

An old White Dwarf Praetorian Battle Report

(that my UK and US mates probably haven't seen before)

One thing that I really enjoy is old White Dwarf articles. I’m a sucker for the old models and as a gamer from way back I always enjoy reminiscing about a …. more complicated time. OK, the rules are way better now, but painting, terrain and other aspects of the hobby were far more basic back in the day.

Do you also enjoy 80s and 90 White Dwarfs? Did you lose/ sell/ destroy your old magazines? Or are you too lazy to go dig them out of the shed?  Well fear not my fellow commanders the good Colonel is here to take you back down memory lane! 

Welcome to Col. Ackland's Old Guard

- A new series where the old Colonel posts up his favourite White Dwarf articles from 'back in my day'.

Report lost!

In 40k, astropathy is the only means of fast interstellar communication available to the Imperium. It’s a good service but increasingly messages are often distorted, delayed, or lost altogether in transmission. It’s just that the Adeptus Astra Telepathica isn’t training astropaths like they use to!

I wrote up a battle report for the first battle of the new campaign! Yey! But somehow I deleted (or saved over it) and it is lost. Noo! Rest assured I will have a serf come up with a new report soon.

In the meantime, two messages did make it across the warp! First, a list of those that fell in the Defence of Complex 23 arrived to be craved on a memorial wall. This is situated on the top left of my blog and will record the sacrifice of the Guardsmen undertaking the Campaign on Hotel Delta Eight Fifty Five Twelve B.

An extract from the Personal Journal of Commissar-General Marwood

The new campaign rules are sorted, a new army is built, but before we go to war it would be good to find out a bit about the heros that will lead the way...

A personal chronology of events leading up to the destruction of the Imperial Navy Frigates Hansa and Hahndorf, commencing the battle on Hotel Delta Eight Fifty Five Twelve B.

Day 31:

Sitting in my cabin on the Barbarossa – I managed a minute to myself.  Finally, this is the last leg of my trip. All I have to do now is rendezvous with the three frigates; the Hansa, Heidelberg and Hahndorf, as they prepare to leave the Reductus Sector, conduct one last DPPR whilst on board the Hansa, and then enjoy the ride to Praetoria. From there, it is a short jump back to Bakka, back to comfort, back to my glum desk – just the way I like it. This trip hasn’t been particularly rotten; I only had to administrate the ‘cleansing’ of two Psykers. Cleansing. After all these years I’m prepared to say it; I murder people. It’s my job. ‘Commissar-General’? What they really mean is ‘Chief Executioner’.

7th Razor-Winged Hussar, Prutenian Iron Horse

Revitalising my hobby: Part 2, A New Army

For my upcoming campaign I wanted to build an army that I had been thinking about for a while. I first played around with these guys back in October last year but didn't get too far. Well this month I got the first lot built and even finished one tank!

Revitalising my hobby: Part 1 Rules for a Campaign

The thing about having regular gaming buddies is that they requires you to game with them regularly.  It is very easy to keep putting other things first and continuously put games off. If you keep doing this eventually you find yourself with no gaming partners. Of course you can pop down to your local GW or club and try and get a game in, but A) there is no certainty that you will find someone and B) that someone may or may not be a person that will give you the sort of fun game that you are looking for. So I have decided that even though things are very busy right now, I will specifically put time aside to game and seek out other gamers like me who like fluffy battles and fun games rather then tournament uber-list building and two dimensional battles.

Exercise Hell Storm; Krieg v. Praetoria - 2500p

Early in the game

"Ahoy matey! As you may have heard I'm coming back to Oz soon (tomorrow in fact), I was thinking that we should have a proper game of 40k, my Krieg v. your Praetorians. What do you think?"

 -Alistär Ian von Cämpbell

And so the stage was set for the ultimate smack down.   Krieg v. Praetoria.  2500p. We rolled a 'Dawn of War Deployment' and 'Purge the Alien' mission - so no objectives to seize, just Kill Points to earn.

... a battle to definitively end all debate on who are the best Imperial Guardsmen in the Imperium.

Too busy!

I haven't been around the bloggosphere all that much lately, so, sorry to all the fantastic bloggers that I follow! Looks like Life is getting in the way again!

Major-General Margrave Chretzo Sigenandus

I finally got around to finishing a few more miniatures!  This is Major-General Margrave Chretzo Sigenandus and his body guards and staff. He is a Margrave from Praetoria who has brought a commission in the Imperial Guard. Some of his back story has been explored in a previous fluffy post.

Andy Hoare Writes For Victoria Lamb

I popped on to facebook this morning and saw that an hour ago Vic posted up some background fluff about her main regiments, written by (ex-GW) Andy Hoare!

Check these out:
Galaxy’s Finest by Andy Hoare.

The Tannenberg Fusiliers

The Highland Guard

The Victorian Guard

The Cthood

A message from The Lord Governor of Praetoria - New command is imminent

He placed the Dataslate on his desk and blankly looked off into the distance. His dead eyes were dry and scratchy from the lack of sleep. He imagined that any other man might sob given the tempest of feelings he had inside, but no - Margrave Chretzo Sigenandus had not been brought up to cry. Men of his breeding never cried, they were bread for action. 

The Ruins of Medusa V: The Issue of Inquisitor Sasppenny.

Prologue

The situation was tense. Fifty of the Emperors beloved Blood Angel Space Marines surrounded the mixed Praetorian Guard force. Neither side had moved as they waited. Fifteen, twenty, then thirty minutes passed. The two ranking officers, Major Holtman and Colonel Ackland, exchanged knowing glances. Finally Ackland offered, 

“I say, this is getting rather ridiculous. Hmm, Stand fast old boy, I’ll see to it.”

With that, Ackland marched out to a Blood Angel shielded in gleaming gold armour. After saluting he said 

“My Lord Captain, Do you have orders?” 

The Blood Angel Captain blankly stared down at the Colonel from his ornate battle mask. There was silence for a moment, then in a booming yet softly rounded voice the golden marine spoke, 

“We are here, as are you, at the bidding of Inquisitor Virgil Sasppenny. We await His holy orders.”

“Yes Lord, but may I respectfully point out that the storm will soon descend on the planet again. If the Inquisitor has been waylaid we cannot stay here indefinitely. We engaged a traitor force on our journey here; it would be unfortunate if some ill fate had befallen the Inquisitor.”

There was silence, until finally the Blood Angel spoke again, 

“Noted.”

Ackland tuned to march back to his fellow Praetorians, a sea of scarlet girt by blood red. He whispered to himself

“Sorry my good chap, but old Sasppenny won’t be giving out any execution orders today.”

 Inquisitor Virgil Sasppenny, Missing In Action on Medusa V, presumed dead.
Search attempts withdrawn due to warp storms. 

Introducing a new 40k Guard army!

After receiving some pickelhaube heads from Curious Constructs I have started on a new small regiment. 

Full fluff to follow but to give you an idea...

“The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood.”

"Where some states have an army, the Prutenian Army has a state!”

“The less people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they'll sleep at night”

New officers for the meat works!

Having decided to kill off my officers in the style of Colonel Scipio's army I have made up various new officers to lead my men. As I fight battles I’ll give these guys names and background stories. I have only just started their painting but here is where I'm at:

Armored WIP

As sighted in my previous battle post, I pulled some of my tanks out of the shed. The first 2 were a Demolisher and converted Hydra.

Some Finished Men!! (and some WIP)

A few weeks ago I finally finished off some of my red coats and a few Lascannons. The hardest part was commandeering the camera to get some shots of them...