Praetorian Blood Axe Kommandos?

Greetings everyone!

I've been hinting for sometime that I'v been working on something a little different for my army, something a little greener... well without further ado... a Blood Axe Kommando! 

Now before you call the Inquisition on me hear me out. Back when the Praetorians came out, part of the story of Big Toof river was that the badly led Imperial Guard had ignored the intelligence of their highly paid mercenary blood axe kommandos. In doing so they walked right into a trap fully believing the settlement to be lightly garrisoned. As you all know it did not end well for the Imperial Guard and led to Glazers Creek where the remnants of the 24th where holed up maintaining supply lines. 

Anyway, I've always loved the idea that the Blood Axes could be bribed to turn against their fellow greenskins. How far you trust their intelligence is another matter entirely. This inspired me to build a unit of kommandos to fight with my guard, either as proxies for something or simply as orks in bigger apocalypse style games where their sneaky skullduggery can be woven into the story.

Anyway enough guff about the fluff, let's talk models. This guy is one of Kromlech's fantastic Afrika Korp models. They have tonnes of character and with the uniforms I thought they would fit in a treat with my Praetorians.

This model was a lot of fun to paint and was also very straightforward. I actually painted him in parts, with the torso and legs glues together and then the arms and head separate. It was a pain when it came time to assemble him as I had to greenstuff the gaps on the arms, but it was worth it for ease of paint job.

The green for the skin is the GW method they demonstrate in their instructional video with an extra light highlight from me to make it that little better. The eyes are worked up to pure yellow in the centre too to give them a little extra interest.

The white webbing is the same as my regular guardsmen as is the uniform colour. I've changed the shorts to grey to add an extra colour or else I though it would end up far to mono colour. The gun itself is just plain silver as I was at a loss what to do with it!

Here we see the ork next to some of the Life Guards for a comparison of size and to see how the colours go together

This ork is pretty massive in comparison to the guardsman, just as it should be. I know orks are meant to be on the same size bases but I fancied they would look better on the new Space Marine bases and I think I prefer them on the bigger size.

Here we see the ork staring down the barrel of a Life Guard's flamethrower. You will see the vein on the ork arm which is painted with a slight blue hue

So there you have it, the first of a unit of 10 sneaky Blood Axes to add to the Praetorian IV.

I'd really love some feedback on this guy before I paint the best. In particular the following - the weapon, can I leave it just metal? I it needs another colour, what? What do you think of the skin, does it need to be darkeror different in another way? Does the model need more colour? 

Any feedback whatsoever would be greatly appreciated! 

Cheers!

Orks sir, fasands of 'em! - The Bad Moons of Warboss Gorblud

Hi All.

As Col. Winterborne's opponent for this rather large battle, he has given me permission to overtake his blog temporarily to showcase my army.

I've been painting this Ork army for about the last 6 years, and the painted models I'm using for this game total about 5300pts with the current rules (rather handily a very similar amount to the Colonel's army). I've always loved Orks for the amazing conversion opportunities the army offers, and I've tried to make as many of my miniatures as unique as I could.

The below two pictures show the whole army. It currently consists of over 15 vehicles and 140 infantry. The whole army is painted as part of a Bad Moons clan, because I just love how much they stand out on the battlefield.

I currently have six HQ choices in the Army (as shown in the picture below): 2 Warbosses, 2 Big Meks, a Weirdboy and a Painboy. The special rules and wargear that these boys bring to the battlefield are key to the army's success on the battlefield when used well. I've spent quite a lot of time converting and painting each of these and they're some of my favourite miniatures.

Another two key units that will help determine the outcome of the battle are my superheavies - my Skulhamma Battlefortress (Baneblade conversion) and the mighty Stompa. Again, I really love the conversion opportunities these models offer but I must sadly admit I have yet to finish painting these epic miniatures. Painting my yellow paint scheme takes a rather long time, and because I don't have that many opportunities to use them on the battlefield they haven't quite made it to the top of my painting list yet.

I haven't got the space to show close ups of all my units but here are a couple of my favourites. Firstly, my Lootas - these are some of my favourite plastic miniatures GW have made. The models look great as individuals but even better in units. And in my favourite Bad Moon yellow colour scheme I think they look just superb. And secondly, my Kommandos (the one exception to my Bad Moon colour scheme). With this unit I wanted to make the sneakiest and most devious Orks I could. They're all converted from plastic kits to create some really cool and unique models and I felt models as sneaky as these (notice the huge silencers they're all sporting) needed a suitably sneaky paint scheme.

I'll now finish this post with the newest addition to my army (and also my favourite model) - my Dakkajet. I'm fairly certain this is the first bi-plane Dakkajet converted, and I'm so happy with how it looks. I have to admit that during the epic battle (that you're shortly going to see a battle report of) it was also not quite finished, so I've added a picture of it below from a week later (at the London W40k GT) with it fully painted.

Battle Report Guard vs Orks Prologue: Regicide

"Gorblud knew it was a trap.  

It had to be. Winterborne had never made a tactical mistake like this before. After years of chasing each other across many planets, there finally seemed to be an opportunity where Gorblud could face-down the infuriating Colonel with no chance for him to escape.

Winterborne was planning something. He must know the sort of force Gorblud could bring to this battlefield, and yet he had still seemingly stranded himself there with no means of escape. Yes, he had a lot of armour at his disposal - and a lot of Orks would die in the battle - but the numbers were all in Gorblud's favour. That meant that Winterborne had some sort of hidden trick planned, to tilt the odds.
And Gorblud had no idea what it was.

There were two ways to deal with a trap: try and avoid it and get to your quarry via a route he doesn't expect - an unlikely prospect without knowledge of what the trap was - or to spring the trap while endeavouring not to get caught in it. The second option was Gorblud's favourite. It usually meant the trapper thought everything was going to plan until, the last minute. If done well it could mean a crushing defeat to the opposition.

But with it came the risk that you still get caught in the trap, and the trapper gets all that he planned..."

"Winterborne was worried.

His plan was brilliant, he'd spent months working on it and years getting everything in place.
But he was still worried. "The devil is in the detail" his father used to tell him over countless games of regicide when he was a boy. It was true, and Winterborne had spent so much of his time recently trying to ensure every detail was just right. Not 'perfect' - nothing was ever perfect. And if it looked perfect then it was probably too good to be true. No, the details needed to be just good enough to do the job, just good enough to give the outward impression he wanted, but nothing more.

Would Gorblud suspect it was a trap? Possibly. He was an extremely intelligent specimen of his species, and cunning to boot. But if he did suspect a trap, would it stop him falling in it? Winterborne suspected not. In fact his was betting his life, and that of his regiment's, on it.

The plan couldn't fail to draw Gorblud out, but would it get rid of this green menace forever?
"No plan survives the first shot". That was a saying his old Commander used to tell him. He'd surpassed his old Commander on the battlefield just as he'd surpassed his father at regicide, but they had still taught him valuable lessons. That was what he was worried about. As well as he'd planned everything he couldn't know for certain how it would play out on the battlefield. He'd just have to play the cards he had dealt and hope Gorblud didn't have any 'trumps' bigger than his..."

The Battlefield:

Primary Objectives:
Objective 1:

Winterborne and Gorblud have been bitter enemies for decades. They have met on many battlefields over the years and both gotten the better of the other at different times. However, whether through good planning, cunning or sheer luck, both have always escaped the battlefield alive.
This time neither wants this to happen. They challenge has been laid down, and both commanders intend to finish this rivalry forever!

- Slay the Warlord (4VP)
  - Gorblud wants to kill Winterborne personally (Ork player must follow this idea in the game if Gorblud is alive) only 2VP are scored if Winterborne dies via any other means and Gorblud survives
  - Winterborne wants proof that Gorblud is dead (if Gorblud is killed his body becomes a movable objective that Winterborne must claim himself to get the 4VP) only 2VP are scored if Gorblud dies but Winterborne doesn't recover the body
  - no VPs are scored if both Warlords are dead

Winterborne is given special wargear by the rogue inquisitor, Artemus Gilroy:
 - Gauntlet of Abraxis - Master-crafted Power Fist
 - Displacer Field (4+ invulnerable save. Model teleports 2D6” in a random direction after each successful save)


Objective 2 - Activate/Capture the Psychic Beacon:

Winterborne has chosen this planet in particular to stage his battle for 1 main reason - there is an ancient alien artefact on the planet that has the potential power to wipe out all the Orks on the planet.

The artefact is of uncertain origin although some markings indicate it may be something to do with the Necrons. Inquisitor Artemus Gilroy, a more recent association of Winterborne's, led a research team to uncover its secrets. It has been discovered that the beacon releases powerful blasts through the warp that can be specifically attuned to the psychic wavelengths of particular species.

Gilroy and Winterborne have already prepared the machine to attack only the minds of the Orks, but they must leave it completely powered down until they intend to use it, lest the Orks detect it and destroy it from orbit.

Winterborne's teams must activate all 3 power nodes during the battle after Gorblud's presence has been confirmed in range.

- Imperial player scores 1VP for each of the Nodes in his control at the end of the game
- Ork player scores 1VP for each of the Nodes in his control at the end of the game
- each player scores 1 additional VP if it the end of any of their own player turns they are in control of all 3 Nodes

Objective 3 - Secret Vendetta:

The Praetorian 4^th have battled Gorblud’s Bad Moon tribe on many occasions and developed particular hatred for certain units in the opposition. Some scores will be settled this day...

Each army picks a single unit on the other army list (in secret)
- players score 1VP if that unit is wrecked, blown-apart, wiped-out or fallen back off the board at the end of the game

Objective 4 - Secret Loot:

The battle is taking place on an unusual planet with many interesting artifacts.  Both forces have secret targets that they wish to secure without the enemy knowing.

Each player chooses 3 of the objective markers (1 – 6) and places them in order of importance (and secretly)
- players score 3VP for their first chosen objective in their control at the end of the game, 2VP for the second and 1VP for the third

Many thanks to Matt AKA Gorblud for writing the great fluff and putting pen to paper for the scenario. 

Second Siege of Agratha - Aftermath Part 4

Gorblud awoke to a blurry image of a sky filled with dust and thick black smoke. As his vision swam in to focus he slowly sat up, noticing pangs of pain all over his body. He could hear some distant sounds of gunfire but upon looking around he didn't appear to be in any imminent danger.

Gorblud saw that he was lying at the foot of wrecked tank and a thin smile appeared on his face as he remembered tearing the turret off it and killing all the humans inside with blazes from his shoota (and a few stikkbombs for good measure). From quick observation it appeared his armour was burnt, broken and split all over - his power klaw a ruin of fused metal. It would take his meks a long while to fix it once he got it back to camp.

He pulled himself out of his armour, deciding it would be easier to drag back to his wagon than to try and walk in it without the hydraulics working. It was only then that he noticed the large crater in the side of his chest oozing dark blood. It appeared to be a mostly cauterised plasma burn - he should probably get the Docs to have a look at that.

As he strolled through the mounds of dead - some piled higher than his head, others shredded so that it was difficult to tell what body parts they had originally - he took note that both sides had taken heavy losses. Gorblud also realised he had quite a few more injuries that he hadn't initially noticed. For starters his left eye definitely wasn't working - when he reached up to check if it was still there all he could feel was a bloody crater in the side of his skull. He also appeared to have a hole straight through one of his thighs (probably a lascannon he thought) and even he was surprised he could still walk on it.

After a while of dragging his armour through rubble, corpses and miscellaneous vehicle parts he eventually reached his wagon. He was pleased to see that the grot crew were finished repairing the broken track that had made him abandon the vehicle mid-battle, however many hours ago it was now.

"What's the plan boss?" one of the crew asked in his high pitched sqeak as he entered the cabin.

"Back to the camp - we's got work to do!" Gorblud replied.

"But what about the city? Didn't we win the battle?" screeched the grot.

"Ha! You call this winning?" Gorblud reprimanded. "Leave Braindead to celebrate his ruin - there's nothing for us here. I came here for Winterborne, and the bugger didn't even show his face on the front lines! Send word to gather the boyz and our stuff - we're leaving!"

"Erm, sir..." one of the grotz said hesitantly, "the... the Stompa... the humans sabotaged it... there's nothing left..."

Gorblud just stared at the grot - fury building behind his one remaining eye.

"Er... and it also appears that... that the Deathskulls, they... they stole your Skulhamma..."

While deep in a moment of utter fury, Gorblud still managed a tiny moment of pleasure as he saw the grot sail clear over a ruined wartrakk and land in the burning wreck of a wagon - it was definitely one of his finer kicks he thought. The moment was quickly over though, and he glared at the remaining gretchin who were now literally cowering behind whatever meagre shelter was closest to them.

"GET US BACK TO THE CAMP NOW!" he roared "we'ze got some serious building to do!"

It would be a while before his army was back to strength he thought, but he knew he had the teef and the power to recover from this. He'd build a better Stompa and a better Skulhamma. He might even build one of them flying jets the kult of speed had used - that had caused loads of chaos before the humies shot it out of the sky.

He wasn't finished. He just needed a bit of time to gather some more boyz. And maybe get some more of those force field things - those would be useful against that human artillery.

Just a little more time... then Winterborne would get what was coming to him!

Second Siege of Agratha - Aftermath Part 3

The ride was bumpy as hell, but that wasn't going stop Raknor enjoying it. He looked around the cramped compartment of the Trukk and could see the same grim enjoyment on the faces of the hulking Nobs surrounding him. They'd snuck around the Imperial lines now, and should be hitting the humie artillery emplacements any moment. He'd have to congratulate Nask for his Kommandos' work on discovering this unguarded route - the humies wouldn't know what hit 'em!

Raknor squinted as the Trukk broke through the tree-line and daylight streamed in to the cabin. This was it - time to chop up these humie wretches and make Gorblud proud.

The trukk skreetched to a bone-jarring halt, but Raknor and his squad were used to the exuberance of ork drivers and needed no time to regain their balance before leaping over the front and sides of the cabin.





Big shootas opened up to the left and right of the hulking Warboss as his boots hit the dirt and he broke immediately in to a run. Belcher, his attack squig, squeeled in annoyance as he was thrown off his perch on Raknor's shoulder guard to swing briefly on his chain before scrambling back up again.

It was only after he'd taken several steps that Raknor realised something was wrong. The Imperial lines were still a hundred yards away - the Trukks had stopped too soon! Almost as soon as this thought had gone through his head enemy fire started whipping around him. It was panicky and poorly aimed, but Raknor could already see the enemy forming more organised ranks - it would be mere moments before the ork offence would come under serious fire. Raknor sped-up, urging his fellow Orks to run alongside him.

The Imperial fire intensified and orks began to fall. A large tank straight ahead spat out round after round of large calibre ammunition, mowing down orks wherever the guns were directed. Raknor, began to get worried - there was still a lot of ground to cover and there was a lot of firepower now directed at them.





A huge roar overhead announced the arrival of Mytox and his stormboyz. Raknor looked on in dismay as he realised they had misjudged the jump distance and landed too far in front of the Imperial lines. They were almost instantly being cut to pieces by concentrated fire from a number of Imperial units. Curse those trukk boys, they'd caused this mess!

The death of the stormboyz was sorry loss, but a welcome diversion Raknor realised, as they had probably bought his squad enough time to reach the Imperial front lines. He looked left and right. The losses had been heavy, but not near enough to stop the charge - they could still win glory after all!

He took a large intake of breath and then let loose an almost ground shaking roar.

"WAAAGGGHHH!!!"

With uncontrolled enthusiasm his fellow orks joined in, bellowing and sprinting as fast as their bowed legs could carry them. He noticed with satisfaction as Durog and his bikerz hit the Imperial lines first, driving nearly full-speed into the human infantry while spraying shells and swinging choppas.





Just before Raknor's own unit hit the Imperial lines, a human squad in bright orange fatigues bravely sprayed them with undisciplined las fire as they closed the last few yards. Raknor signalled to his squad to take out the big tank while he dealt with this little annoyance.

The first two humans went down to a burst of fire from his gauntlet mounted shoota - their thin armour no match for his high calibre shells. The next one was cleaved in two by a mighty sweep of his huge choppa which sent the top half of the body sailing a good 15 feet in a beautiful parabola while spraying his comrades with blood.

The next imperial jumped forwards and tried to skewer Raknor with his bayonet, but his clumsy strike was easily parried by Raknor's gauntlet shortly before his head was chopped cleanly off.

Raknor knocked the next human off his feet with the head of his choppa before he could bring his lasgun to bear. Raknor then rapidly deflected the bayonet of another before slicing him from naval to collar in one easy stroke. With each blow he struck Raknor was more invigorated, the power unit of his enhanced choppa seeming to thrum with more energy the more lives it took. He vaguely noticed his squad of Nobs tearing open hatches and lobbing stikkbombs in to the tank to his left, but he was now far too deep in to the thrall of violent combat to pay it much heed.

He only paused when all around him seemed to be dead - orange clad body parts littering the ground around him. He let out a bellowing laugh at the sheer joy of combat.

As he turned to look for new foes a searing pain seared through his chest. Sharply jerking away he heard an awful crunching noise and the pain flared into a brief moment of agony. Looking down he saw the end of a chainsword buried in the armour of his chest plate and broken off at the hilt. One of the orange humans was still alive and had seized an opportunity to attack while Raknor was distracted.

While Raknor was still in shock the human tried slam the broken handle of his sword into the huge ork’s face, but pure instinct made the warboss evade enough to cause a mere glancing blow to his chin.

Raknor quickly recovered his wits, realising the injury was nothing the Doks wouldn't be able to sort out in short order. He took measure of his foe and realised he had nothing further to worry about. The fool had disarmed himself of his most dangerous weapon by stupidly stabbing his opponent with a chain weapon intended for slicing.

In one easy move Raknor knocked the human to the ground with the haft of his choppa before raising it up for the killing blow. He paused briefly to appreciate the kill, giving the human a grim smile as he lay sprawled in a small furrow of mud and dirt.

Just as Raknor started the final downward swing a blindingly bright flash appeared to his left, instantly followed by a searing pain at his neck. His vision blurred and he felt a huge wave of disorientation as the sound of the massive explosion reached his ears.

A moment later his world stopped spinning and his vision slowly came back. The pain at his neck had gone away as quickly as it had arrived, and even the pain in his chest seemed to have abated.

He could see the massive wreck that had been the heavy tank and a couple of his nobz staggering away from its recent cataclysmic explosion. Nearer he saw a human in orange fatigues struggle to his feet under the shadow of a hulking ork figure. The human gently pushed the ork and the body toppled helpless and headless to the floor.

A grim realisation came to Raknor as he recognised the armour and weaponry of the felled ork. Well, no wonder the pain in his chest had gone – his chest was now several feet from his head. As his vision blurred and he drifted in to unconsciousness all he could think was ‘I really hope there is a bluddy dok nearby . . .’

Second Siege of Agratha - Aftermath Part 2

“FIRE!”

The imperial line had overextended. In the West the Leviathan had pushed too far ahead and was now almost cut off from the main battle line. He had heard on the short wave vox that the force under Captain Caine had reached Gravis and were taking up defensive positions among the wreckage of a stompa, The Praetorian Lancers and Dragoons had also managed to reach the Leviathan and were organising themselves for a final charge headlong into the ork lines. 






“Second Rank…”

In the East the Cadian armoured might had come unstuck. The near suicidal advance of ork trukks. battlewagons and bikes had delivered Warboss Gorblud and his retinue deep into their lines. In close quarters the tanks were no match and a great many venerable Leman Russ were unceremoniously ripped apart. Where these ork reinforcements had come from nobody knew, a great many had advanced on the Imperial lines from the flanks and the rear. The cunning of the orks had seemingly been greatly underestimated.










“FIRE!”

Admiral Drax was close by. That much he knew. He had expected to link up with him near the centre of the Imperial lines, attempt to re-establish communication and better coordinate the deployment of the heavier elements of the Fourth Mechanised. With the renewed ork assault and the arrival of the Green Tide, Drax, much like Gravis had been almost cut off from the main Imperial lines. An ork Skull Hamma battlefortress had been closing on the Cadian support weapons. From the reports of his own scouts, it appears that Drax had decided to see to it personally…



“First Rank…”

Colonel Winterborne was brought back into the present when the hull of a nearby chimera imploded under the impact of a crude ork rocket. The shock wave from the explosion washed over his command squad. A number of Cadians had been stood far closer and had been caught in the blast. Lord Stern strode over to them and unflinchingly administered the Emperor’s mercy.



“FIRE!”

The sergeant major continued to shout orders at the amassed Praetorian infantry. The remnants of a number of squads from the fourth foot had formed up with squads of the fourth mechanised. Two ranks deep they stood, arranged in a long line punctuated by support weapons in the form of heavy bolters and autocannons.

“Second Rank...” 

The first rank took to one knee and began reloading their lasrifles. Their comrades took aim over their heads, picking their targets from the onrushing orks.

“FIRE!”

The nearest orks absorbed the Praetorian fire, a great many falling to so many well placed hits, but many more shrugged of the lasfire, seemingly uncaring or unfeeling of the injuries sustained. The heavy weapon gunners did their best to focus on the larger orks, some shots punching clean through, others tearing off limbs. But still they came.



“First Rank...”

The Baneblade Indomitus Rex spoke with the fury of a god. It’s guns tearing huge holes in the ork advance. It advanced to the right of the Praetorian position, supported by Cadian veterans. These were the same veterans who had laid low the tyrant Warboss Gorblud. There hadn’t been time to find the body, and while these cocky veterans were prone to exaggeration, they were certain their melta fire had put too many holes in him to survive.



“FIRE!”

Combined with the armoured onslaught of the Baneblade the ork advance began to waver. It was then that the world went bright white…

Second Siege of Agratha - Aftermath Part 1

The orks emerged from the thick smoke, their guttural war cry hanging in the air. Colonel Winterborne gave a nod to the sergeant major.

“At One Hundred Yards...”

They had arrived late. Bloody late. No sooner had the Praetorian IV left Bolan flats they were engaged by ork Kults of Speed. They saw the orks off time and again, but every attack delayed the Praetorians further. By the time they got to the outskirts of Agratha the devastation was already apparent. Vast swathes of the city had been reduced to rubble, smoke billowed from countless fires and the sky was lit up with flame, explosions and tracer fire. Only the reassuring boom of the artillery companies safely ensconced behind Imperial lines confirmed that the city hadn’t already fallen. Or so they thought…

“Volley Fire Present...”

The disciplined ranks of Praetorian Infantry presented their lasrifles in unison.

Intelligence was still scarce and communication with the defenders had been a practical impossibility. Even with the powerful communications relay operated by Gravis’ command Leviathan precious little had managed to get through the trickery of the orks jamming. Not even the usually secure local vox frequencies worked. It had been suggested by Enginseer Argus that somehow the orks had acquired the Imperial vox codes and somehow decrypted the cypher, but such suggestions were dismissed with contempt for what ork could have the capability for such a complex task.

“Steady lads...”

The orks charged closer. Men in both red and khaki uniforms stood shoulder to shoulder.

The front lines had been a swirling mass of combat, death and destruction. In the East of the city Gravis had mounted a counter attack from the battlements of the Leviathan, laying waste to hordes of greenskins with every salvo from the mighty doomsday cannon. In the west however the Cadian lines had come under crippling ork attack and only the swift intervention of Drax’s armoured fist platoons and Leman Russ squadrons prevented total collapse.

“Aim…”

Still they came closer, you could almost see the whites of their eyes. Targets were picked.

A platoon under the watchful eye of Captain Caine and Primaris Savant had been sent to support Gravis’ men. The primary threat of the Bad Moon stompa had already been eliminated and the orks were dying in droves. That should have been enough. The priority had been to hold the centre draw the orks in further while the advancing forces of Drax and Gravis would spring the trap. That’s why he had gone there with his strength. That should have been enough damn it.

“FIRE!”

The lead advancing orks were punched off their feet by the fire to be trampled by the onrushing horde following in their wake.

Then the guns fell silent. Somehow the orks had outflanked the Imperial lines and set upon the lightly defended artillery emplacements. The artillery support was no more. In the blink of an eye the battle changed, no longer could the Imperial forces keep the orks back, emboldened by the respite from the withering artillery barrage the orks grew bolder and set upon the imperials with renewed frenzy. At this point the Imperial advanced began to falter and one by one advanced units were being forced to fall back or risk being overrun.   

“Volley by Ranks. Front Rank...”

The slavering orks came closer still, uncaring for their grievous loses. Intent only on tearing the guardsmen limb from limb.

to be continued...

Second Siege of Agratha - Prelude

Praetorian IV Mechanised Infantry under the command of Colonel Animus Winterborne. 
Somewhere on the Mputu Ridge 50km Southwest of Bolan flats. 

+++

Colonel Winterborne - How did the greenskins manage to breach the cordon? Details man, give me bloody details. 

Lieutenant Tavistock - Seemingly they breached at the Barlon flats and made straight for Agratha. The Tallarns posted there are... gone.

Colonel Winterborne - What the Hades do you mean gone?

Lieutenant Tavistock - Dead sir, every last one, the camp now resembles a charnel house. The Tallarns were seemingly caught by surprise, our scouts couldn't find a single living soul. 

Captain Caine - 2 full regiments of Tallarns... How on earth did the greenskin filth manage to take them by surprise? Commander Al'tshan is no fool.

Colonel  Winterborne - Quite Captain, seemingly the threat has been sorely underestimated. What intelligence was recovered? We must have something on what happened. 

Enginseer Argus - I can be of assistance Colonel. While the data feeds of the base are unrecoverable I have accessed the pict and audio feeds of a number of badly damaged munition servitors. By piecing together the data and...

Lord Stern - Enough techpriest, speak plainly, what happened?

Enginseer Argus - Apologies my Lord. Somehow the orks managed to conceal their presence until they were right on top of the base, by the time the alarm was raised it was too late. It is not known precisely how this feat was achieved, but closer inspection of etheric data suggests a powerful psyker was present. 

Captain Caine - How could one primitive ork psyker manage such a deception? 

Primaris Savant - It is true ork psykers lack finesse, however the way in which they harness the warp is markedly different from ours... how can I explain... numbers my lords, numbers...

Lord Stern - Primaris I grow impatient, what are you saying? 

Primaris Savant - ...the...the psyker feeds off the orks nearby, to achieve the deception needed to fool the augurs and sentries... I don't think we've seen a horde this size since planet fall. It's beyond even the most pessimistic predictions. Even if the Tallarns hadn't been count unawares... They wouldn't have stood a chance. 

Captain Caine - Holy Throne of Terra...

Colonel Winterborne - Captain! You are Praetorian and must remember to conduct yourself as such. 

Captain Caine - Yes Sir. Apologies sir. 

Colonel Winterborne - Lieutenant, Have you managed to get through to high command yet and notify them of the breach of the cordon. 

Lieutenant Tavistock - All long range communications are still being jammed sir, we are still cut off from high command. We have had no contact from any new regiments. There remains only one other regiment that we are contact with via long wave vox, they are continuing to make best speed for Agratha.

Colonel Winterborne - Looks like it will be down to us to see to the ork menace. I almost pity the greenskins. 2 of Praetoria's finest and being outnumbered only 50 to 1 by the orks barely seems sporting does it. Captain Caine, give the orders for the regiment to form up, let the men know it is time to fight alongside our Praetorian brothers again. 

Captain Caine - Gladly sir.

Colonel Winterborne - One more thing, Lord Stern, ensure the men desist with this Drax's last stand nonsense. He may not be Praetorian but he is no fool and decorum must be maintained. I won't be a bloody footnote in someone else's last stand, the emperor has far grander plans for this glorious regiment. See to it. 

Lord Stern - Consider it done Colonel.

Colonel Winterborne - Lieutenant, update the fourth on our latest intelligence and inform them that we will now make best speed for Agratha. Also, get me Gravis on the Vox, I intend to find out if he is a betting man... 

+++

The Praetorian IV Blog Goes Green...

Hi, and thanks to Col. Winterborne for letting me steal his blog again (as I still never seem to find the time to create my own).

If you follow this blog, then you’ll have seen my army of Bad Moonz battle against the glorious Praetorian IV Mechanised on a number of occasions. Now that we’re planning another big “Guard vs. Orks” battle we thought it time to show some of the new additions you can expect to see in the Ork Waaagh!

My work has taken me abroad for the last 6 months, and while I couldn’t pack anything too bulky, I did manage to pack a load of infantry that has been in need of painting for a long time. Here are the models what I’ve been working on in the warm evenings of Kuala Lumpur:

(please note: I didn’t bring my hobby drill with my to KL, so I number of the gun barrels still need to be “drilled out” – this will be remedied before they hit the tabletop!)

Firstly, we have 3 Big Shoota boyz. I never feel a normal Big Shoota stands out enough amongst a big unit of boyz so I always like to convert them to make them even bigger and more unique. These are painted in my standard scheme to reinforce squads of boyz.

Second are my unit of Tankbustas. These guys were converted from normal plastic boyz models quite a few years ago - partly because I love converting and partly because I dislike metal miniatures (which were the only other option for Tankbustas at the time). I wanted to add a new colour to my standard Bad Moon palette for these guys so that they’d be easily identifiable as a special unit amongst the whole army, but still looking very much a part of it. I settled on the idea of painting the hoses and part of the rokkits purple, while keeping the rest of the model my standard Bad Moon tones. I’m quite happy with how the scheme has turned out, though I’m yet to see them sat amongst the rest of the army for the full test (as most of my Orks are still nicely boxed up in London).







Third we have the most sneaky of Ork units – the Kommandos. I loved converting this unit (again mostly from normal boyz models) because it was so easy to do some fun things with them. From the massive silencers, through to the crawling Kommando I heavily modified most of the standard minis. Although (mostly due to rule changes since 5th ed.) these guys aren’t the best of units these days, I still felt they deserved special attention when it came to painting them. With a perfect chance to divert away from my normal yellow, I set about giving the Kommandos a much darker scheme (including darkened blades and guns for extra sneakiness), with some interesting camo patterns thrown in. Both these guys and the above Tankbustas have Power Klaw wielding Nobz back in the UK waiting to join the units.







Next we have 5 Stormboyz. These guys are just a set of the normal plastic Stormboyz with a couple of small mods for the Nob. I have another 8 Stormboyz converted from the old plastic/metal Stormboyz pack, converted in to poses to match the new plastic ones, but I thought them too fragile to survive the flights intact. These are painted similar to my standard scheme, but with extra armour damage on the front surface of the packs and shoulder guards to emphasize their speed.





And finally we have the newest addition to my army – a Weirdboy (made from the Warhammer ‘Wurrzagg’ model). With 7th ed. I feel like Psykers are becoming more of a ‘must have’ for W40K armies, so I really wanted to add a Weirdboy to my force (especially now you don’t have to rely on an Ork’s crappy leadership for passing a psychic test anymore). I think this model is way cooler than the W40K Weirdboy model and so had to go for him to reinforce my army. Like the Kommandos, the Weirdboy was a good chance to get away from my normal painting scheme and do something a bit different and I think he’s come out pretty well.





Well, that’s it for this post in terms of pictures. I still have some new plastic Meganobz, a unit of Lootas, 3 Trukks, a Dakkajet and hopefully a Stompa to paint before the next game (that now looks scheduled for the end of May), so hopefully the good Colonel will let me hijack his blog again with some of these at some point :-)