The year in review

Let's start with the most important announcement: I've reached my target and painted 365 miniatures this year!* Here's the panorama, and we'll talk other stuff later on.

Painting a commission wolf demon

I had to paint this black, werewolf-like under the moon. I opted for blue/grey highlights. I tried it once before with mixed results, but this time I did a much better job of it.

A Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game: Starks vs Lannisters

For the probably last gaming event of the year, I tried out something new. First impressions of the A Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game was a small board and barely any terrain, at least compared to Warhammer. But the board is just big enough for some heavy maneuvering, especially for cavalry. And all the terrain pieces had a big impact. The miniatures are fine, and I like their esthetic. Nothing overengineered. 

But, on to the game.

I scratch built a Lannister list without reading up on meta stuff. The theme: all 3 siblings were present, Jaime leading Halberdiers, while Tyrion and Cersei did non combat stuff. Up against me were the Starks, with Tully cavalry support.

Painting a commission chimera

A classic monster in white Reaper Bones.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Going, going guano

After a month of missed sessions, we finally got together for this year's last game. The adventurers rested, healed up, and descended once more into the maze level. First encounter: some House Freth guards setting up Christmas decorations, complaining that Halloween just passed.

Painting commission dwarves

Miniatures from Reaper Miniatures Kickstarter 5. I personally dislike their scale - they are absolutely HUGE. However, the sculpts are awesome.

Makeup

 

The Conspiracy of the Red Book: The One Ring 2E two-shot, part 1

For variety, we tried out The One Ring 2E. I only read the starter set rules, so no advanced stuff was happening here. And I only read through the first adventure in the set of 5. After a brief self-presentation, the hobbits, as in:

• Paladin Took II
• Rorimac Brandybuck
• Drogo Baggins 
• Primula Brandybuck

started on their adventure through the Shire: appropriating a map from Mathom-house and delivering it to Bilbo.

Converting and painting yet more Kriegers

After taking the Kriegers out for a couple of games, I realized that I dislike their equipment options that I got modeled. So I bought another box, and made it so my 20-man blob can be decked out the way I want. And I can also field a 10-man squad for backfield objective holding if needed.

Light brown wood

Better on highly textured surfaces due to the lighter colors which don't obfuscate details.

Note that some steps are invisible on smaller surfaces and can be skipped.

November review and December goals

This one's going to be quick.

November had some D&D one-shots and that's it. Multiple cancellations and illness did in for everything else.

Painting moved on, although with me being sick for almost two weeks, it did slow down.

However, I am really, really close to achieving my painting target by the numbers. Just finish what is in progress, and paint about 4 more miniatures.

With the winter holidays, hobby time will be limited. So that's it. That's the goal. Reach the target.

Owlbear woods: a D&D 5E one-shot

Three adventurers take up a quest to slay a man-eating bear. Yes, I know the adventure is titled "Owlbear woods" but I only have a regular bear miniature, so it's an alpha bear, I guess. Our brave heroes:

• Buut Rhaal, human barbarian
• Bloody Bob, half-orc barbarian
• Pussycat, tiefling bard 

After a short talk with the one-eyed halfling mayor of a village on the border of Neverwinter Woods, the adventurers investigated where the most recent bear attack took place. They found a roughed up clearing and a bloody hand still holding a woodcutter axe in the bushes. The barbarians, both proficient in Survival (this will be handy later on), decided to sleep for the night and start in the morning. Bob got drunk, Pussycat got laid.

In the morning, the party started on this roll-on-tables-driven adventure. With the barbarians helping each other out, they immediately penetrated the deep woods, coming upon a burned clearing. They were immediately beset upon by a smoldering earth creature and flaming spirits. They ran away.

Painting a commission tiefling bard

The sequel to the barbarian. Happy customers always come back, so here's a very colorful bard next. This time we have a molded base, a death-drum, hand painted stripes... challenge accepted!

Lighthouse under attack: a D&D 5E one-shot

With Legorlas' gang unable to reconvene for a session, we went for a one-shot, with a first-time DM. Time to make a new character!

• Pussycat, female tiefling bard
• Obi von Kenobi, eldritch knight (me)
• Emanon, warforged arcana cleric 
• Himawari Ranbu, kensei monk

The adventurers were having breakfast in a port side tavern. I went ahead with presenting my background first, as I put way too much thought into this. The rest of the players joined in, leading to a well-established adventuring party. 

No, I won't spare you. Obi von Kenobi spent his youth at the jedi temple, a religious enclave worshipping the Weave of Magic permeating the universe as a single entity - the Force. His first quest was to offer a helping hand to the kingdom of Naboo, threatened by the warforged/golem army of the local Trade Consortium. Obi and his master, Qui von Jinn, turned the tide by convincing a local bullywug tribe, the Gungans, to distract the warforged army, while the two jedi took care of the army's leadership. Unfortunately, Qui von Jinn died, leading to Obi questioning the tenets of his order and starting on the path of the adventurer instead. Emanon was part of the warforged army, but got shocked by a Gungan weapon and his programming misfired. He deserted and joined Obi instead. Ranbu was a jedi reject, as he was unable to grasp the philosophy. Still, he joined up. Pussycat was simply attracted by my strength of arms and huge... sword. Yes, it went on like this all evening.

Painting a commission Griffin

A low-effort commission to make this Reaper Bones griffin look like its counterpart in Heroes 3.

Painting a commission marble golem

Initially, this commission stone golem was supposed to be a quick greyscale drybrushing job. We changed our minds and made him marble instead.

Painting a commission armed golem

A low-effort commission from Reaper Bones Kickstarter 5.

Astra Militarum vs Necrons, 07.11.2023

A small demo game of 360ish points. It was my opponent's first game since several editions, so we just pretended to play kill points and went through the basics of the game.

I forgot to take pictures of the setup. We each had two units that moved a bit forward in the first turn. 

Battle round 2 

Flayed Ones arrive from reserves! I did an Overwatch to no effect.

Painting a commission Halloween golem

A low effort random commission. I decided on faded browns, as for a scarecrow, with a big orange pumpkin head and some low effort rust effect on the scythe.

Painting a commission Terror Bird

Painting instructions: make him a scavenger from Gothic 1. Also make it a low-effort commission, to remind of the low poly graphics from the game.

Painting an armored angel

This 3d printed miniature was a surprise gift by Cahir's player (see MAGUS). Little did he know, he just handed me the BBEG for our current campaign!

Note: I love this miniature. It does have some 3d printing flaws, but it is just everything I personally think miniatures should be. Very detailed, but few kinds of details, enabling a high grade paintjob without taking a lifetime.

Blue cloth (Contrast)

 

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Hungry, hungry minotaurs (halloween edition)

It's Halloween! Or, it was the day we played. So the adventurers followed the sound of the Addams' family theme song into a large cavern where ghostly minotaurs dressed in sheets were doing an evil ritual. The minotaur chief smashed a jack-o-lantern, releasing smaller ghostly minotaurs. Roll for initiative!

Painting commission characters

White metal miniatures, a welcome change from all the Bones quick jobs.

Purple cloth

 

The adventures of Legorlas Green Leaf: BUUUURN

We awakened after the last combat with two less players. We barricaded the room for a long rest, with the elves taking turns standing watch. We had some strange occurrences, with the shadows moving wave-like into the direction we were heading, and Avil dreamt of being a human wizard consecrated to be the defender of this place in ancient times. With no follow-up, we went on our merry way.[1] More visions on the way of this guy who was supposed to guard the Spellforge. What an incompetent looser! 

Painting dark leather (Contrast)

 

Painting commission skeletons

I volunteered to paint up some 3d printed skeletons for the Guild Hall's Halloween adventures. I decided on a quick color scheme (coincidentally all warm colors, blanchitsu-like), due to the complexity of the models and the looming deadline.

October review and November goals

October was way better than September. 

D&D goes ever on. We are on to the next level, with a character level-up and two huge combat encounters behind us. We did a Halloween-lite session as well.

With the MAGUS campaign over, I jumped into another group as Legorlas GreenLeaf. We're also doing one-shots when we're missing a game, so really promising.

Warhammer limps along with a single narrative game for our ongoing campaign. I leaned heavily into the RPGs, so not surprising.

Finally, painting is also moving along nicely. I finished all my projects in progress, and as of today I am actually 5 days ahead of schedule. I took on some surprise commissions, and I'm leaning into reaching my goal by painting simpler miniatures.

As for November, I have no special gaming plans (except going forwards with all of the above). I do need to paint a lot more to keep up with my 1-miniature-per-day goal - for the first time, it looks really achievable. Expect a horde of simple fantasy miniatures to be painted for the remainder of the year, including some old metal Lord of the Rings stuff and Hasslefree miniatures.

Painting green cloth

 

The adventures of Legorlas Green Leaf: Into the dungeon

I skipped two sessions right after I joined the party and I might stay an occasional visitor. Still, I'm always happy to rip and tear through enemies in bear form. Yes, this happened plenty during this session.

So anyway, after we defeated the enemies in the goblin castle, the adventurers fought some more then retreated to Phandalin, which they found devastated by the icy attacks of a dragon. Some villagers have been kidnapped and they had 2 days to rescue them. Obviously, they decided to go another way, right into a mega-dungeon. They tore through some undead and other monsters, then decided to shorten the dungeon crawl and only have the interesting encounters pop up. Enter Legorlas, just back from a ritual to save the soul of his twin brother, Legholas, killed by a mighty devil. I told them all about it during a short rest. Those who were already full played midget spinner.

On we went, right into a huge hall covered in bones. The paladin had a bad feeling about it, and soon enough red lines tore through the floor. Animated by the foul necromancy, skeletons attacked us (represented by the dice).

Painting Escher gangers/Kasrkin

With the Escher Kasrkin conversions done, I took my sweet time to paint them. I struggled coming up with a paint scheme, until I realized that if you create your own custom gang in Necromunda Underhive Wars, you can customize their clothing. This looked like a perfect father/daughter activity, so I let my 6 year old dress up the girls however she wanted. It's not very optimal to have a 12 strong gang with no equipment, but whatever. Once all done, I did my best to replicate the coloring. I often hear that I paint my minis is pastel colors, and no variety. Well, brace yourselves.

Mission #3 - Raid the excavation

The imperials drew up their heavy defenses on the outskirts of the excavation, with the main forces protecting the center structure.

Mission #3

While Castellan Mother Theresa was raiding the Ork camp, the more mobile Orkish forces, lead by the new warboss Gitstompa, were speeding through the desolate landscape. He had no time to waste. Let the old boss consolidate the boyz. He had to offer a scrap, and a good one, with propa' loot and e'rything, or he won't stay boss for long.

And lo and behold, the boss craves and Gork and Mork provide. Standing up in his saddle, prodding Missiz Muncha to leap across a crevice, Gitstompa spied humie structures in the far distance. And was that... exhaust smoke? Gitstompa whooped, swinging his choppa wildly. 

'Boyz, da humies are at it again!' he hollered, uncaring whether his boyz heard or understand. 'WAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!' Well, at least they heard that. He swung his choppa a couple more times, trusting the boyz - his boyz! - to follow his meaning. The '32.5 Minuterz' steered their deffkoptas right, with the squighog boyz going left. He wanted it the other way around, but good enough.

Soon, the unsuspecting humies were just in sight, bustling around their blocky buildings - good and strong, but not spiky enough - and strange metallic structures half-buried in the sand. Well, they'll get to that later. Time to issue the order of:

'WAAAGH! DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!'

Painting Atican city fighters (squad)

Continue with the rest of the squad. With the path now laid out, I considered doing some fancy stuff at the end.

M.A.G.U.S. - Season finale part 2

The party continued their mad dash towards the center. As the battle intensified in the distance, the lords of the armies lazily circled each other in the air and flinged spells of unimaginable power at each other. Several missed their targets, closing off areas of the cave or resulting in large fiery explosions and clouds of dust.

Note to self: if the characters are unbeatable in combat, send a few environment effects at them.

Painting Atican city fighters (characters)

I experimented with the urban camo cloaks on these 3 models which have larger cloaks than the regular infantry, taking ideas from Gaunt's Ghosts.

Dark red cloth (Contrast)

Orange plasma coils

 

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Hungry, hungry minotaurs

After some debate, the adventurers decided to skip enslaving the troglodytes (and the associated rewards), instead returning and liberating the children they bought from the dark elves. In the meantime, they also tanned (as well as they could) the skinned rune-engraved hide fragments of the behir. Then, it was on to the next level!

The stinking troglodyte warrens were quickly replaced by a creepy, fog-filled maze. Antrius deployed his mage hand to wave a cloak in front of them, at least dispersing the fog beneath their feet. Guided by a floating light, the adventurers bypassed an area of red fog in between three stalagmites painted with bloody icons[1] and soon stepped into the territory of hungry minotaurs.

Painting Fiends of Slaanesh

Time for a squad of another needlessly overdesigned, overengineered and overcomplicated GW miniatures. Now that I got that off my chest, they do look awesome after painting, though. The only problem is that painting so many details is more of a chore than fun. Doing the first step took over an hour on 3 models. So even with this boss painting scheme from the Warhipster, it took quite a long time. Anyway... 

M.A.G.U.S. - Season finale part 1

After the summer holidays, the entire crew reunited for the season finale. The adventurers reached the heart of the underground kingdom: an enormous cave with entire settlements all over, and strange suspended ball-like structures in the middle.

September review and October goals

I definitely did not round it all off in September. The start of the school year hit way harder than expected.

D&D is the one stable leg my hobby life always gets to stand on. Yay us. Still on the same level of the dungeon, though. If we don't go through this in October, I'm rage quitting.

Surprisingly, we made it to the end of our MAGUS campaign with a two-part finale. Well, not every character made it. Stay tuned. We might start something new this month.

No Warhammer this month. Sustaining one game per week for the RPGs above was enough of a struggle.

Okay, cool. How about painting? Not very good. I went on a hiatus in the first half of the month, as my eyes frequently hurt by evening. But I'm back, and I painted some commission characters, as well as some low effort monsters. 

As for October, it's really time to finish some Guard infantry (base coats laid on, time to highlight) and round off the commissions to paint more of my own stuff. I'm way behind on my 1 mini/day goal, but I primed a bunch of fantasy minis, which should go by quickly and improve the statistics.

Painting a Slaaneshi Hellflayer chariot

With the slaaneshi mortals done, time to start with the daemon side as well. I always dreaded the assembly and painting of this chariot model, and turns out it's... not quite that bad but it's pretty bad. I'm 100% sure that I put on at least some wheels in reverse. Oh well.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Behir boss fight

The adventurers got back into the middle of it, hearing the sounds of battle just around the corner. They creeped through a narrow tunnel, happening on a large confrontation between drow elves of houses Freth and Auvryndar, as well as their summoned demons.

Finishing Hellstriders of Slaanesh

After painting the steeds and riders separately, I finished the assembly.

Painting Slaaneshi Hellstrider riders

With the steeds already painted, time for the riders to get done. I pinned them all to corks for this operation.

Lord of Wintertide: a D&D 5E one-shot

Another one-shot before holiday season is finally upon us. The adventurers arrived during winter time in a village plagued by disappearing children and monsters appearing out of nowhere.

• Emanon, human sorcerer
• Famine, hexblood ranger
• Legholas, wood elf druid
• Tork, half orc barbarian

Painting a Ghoul King

I bought a bunch of sprues for bits, and the leftovers of a zombie dragon kit actually built this boy whole.  Now he could not stand on his own, so I used a a length of sprue to have something for legs at an acceptable angle, then filled out the base using putty I wasn't terribly happy with my original ghouls, so I tried something else (but equally simple) here.

Painting female Dwarf fighters/paladins

I bought the box of Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures: Dwarf Fighter Female specifically for our new D&D character, Brienne the paladin.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Combat reunion

The players reunited after a month-long hiatus, but we got surprisingly much done in-game. 

After the compulsory refresher on what happened last time, Zaaz[1] updated the adventurers on the roads to follow. Either back to the troglodytes, take the dark elves head on, or approach them from behind. The party opted for a good old fashioned ambush. Now, Zaaz explicitly mentioned that they shouldn't go near the hole in the ground. You can see where this is going.

Painting a Plagueburst Crawler using Contrast paints and drybrushing

This is probably the only miniature that I ever bought due to it being on sale.  

Okay, probably not, but the only one I explicitly remember.

Magnetizing a Plagueburst Crawler

I initially thought of putting a LED inside this tank as well, but a) the interior is compartmentalized and a lot more complicated than the IG tanks b) I couldn't find a good enough exit point for the LED c) I wanted a smoke effect instead. So here's just the magnetized options.

August review and September goals

This is a quick one, as I was off on holidays for most of August. Obviously, all games and hobby activities ceased in this period. I got in some D&D before, and we played two games of narrative Warhammer 40k. I plan to resume games as soon as possible in September.

Another contender for my time is Dragon Age Inquisition, which I played a good chunk of. Whenever real life hits hard, and my brain is overwhelmed, I turn to video games to wind down. They don't require as much of my brain power, compared to miniature painting.

Still, I painted some stuff. Publishing of articles carried on, with plenty of posts still written and prepared in advance. And now I'm back. I should finish some Guard infantry, some slaaneshi daemons, and some commissions as well. 

Let's round it all off in September.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Trolling the Troglodytes (2)

Having quickly recovered from the short battle with the troll, the adventurers were distracted by the sounds of thunder and screaming. Heading backwards, they discovered one of the dark elves on patrol hiding in magical darkness, with his comrade and their mounts ripped apart. Looks like the monster struck again! Examining the tracks and leaving, Antrius concluded that it must be a behir - a giant, many legged, magical reptile. They decided on following the direction of the tracks, running into a large cavern infested with piercers. They dropped from the ceiling one after the other...

Converting Skitarii into Catachan city fighters

I bought a set of Skitarii a long time ago a huge discount. They sat patiently in the closet until the Escher conversions sparked an idea. I want some Catachans in the army but I'm not shelling out money on GW's dated looking models. So here's the idea: use the Skitarii as city fighters, painting their cloaks in grey city camo. I also wanted them to better fit my almost-all-female nun army, so I bought some female heads for them. Besides two sets of Rangers, I also had a box of Ruststalkers - perfect for the beefier Catachan characters.

Converting Escher gangers into Kasrkin

I had some Escher sprues (3x5 gangers) since forever. Initially I envisioned them as Slaaneshi cultists, but then I got actual cultists from a Dark Vengeance box, and so in the pile of potential they stayed. Up until now. Playing Necromunda Underhive Wars sparked the idea to convert them and use them as Kasrkin. Kind of makes sense, as the kasrkin are literally 'city kin'. Who is more city dwelling than the hive gangers? Now I wanted to stick to the Escher aesthetics, so the conversions are only aimed at achieving WYSIWYG equipment, as follows: sergeant with power weapon and plasma pistol; two plasma guns; two volley guns; one pistol and melta mine; one sniper rifle; voxcaster; four lasguns.

Dungeons & Dragons: The adventures of Legorlas Green Leaf

Short introduction: I joined an ongoing adventure based on the Mines of Phandelver (or so I'm told). I quickly whipped up a level 3 character based on a class I always wanted to try. Meet Legorlas, the wood elf druid, born and raised in Neverwinter Woods. 

And so Legorlas was just setting up camp while delivering a message to a certain person of interest, when he was attacked by dragon cultists. In the woods. On his home turf. Enraged, the druid transformed into a bear and laid into the cultists. Needless to say, they fell like wheat.[1]

The party noticed the commotion while travelling nearby, and came to investigate. They were thinking of taking the humans' side against the raging bear, when the cultists turned on them, and so the decision was made for them.[2]

Painting commission Rat Swarms

Pre-primed by WizKids. 

Re-painting LOTR hunter orcs

I bought this bunch of Lord of the Rings hunter orcs second hand, assembled and basecoated. Like so many other minis, they spent their fair share in the closet. Now that I have experience doing simple glow-ups, I thought I'd give them a try.

Breaking hearts: a D&D 5E one-shot

Due to all the messed up schedules, we settled on doing a one-shot instead of our regular games. Without further ado, the adventurers arrived in a village where everyone was depressed due to young couples gone missing. Obviously, the party accepted to track them down.

• Jaskier, human bard
• Xirat'P, goblin sorcerer
• Famine, hexblood ranger
• Emanon, warforged cleric
• Chackie Jan, wood elf monk

Painting a commission giant scorpion

I got this mini loaned to be used as Muiral in Dungeon of the Mad Mage. I slapped some paint on it, in return.

Painting a resin Fiend of Slaanesh

I bought this guy off eBay some time ago, purely for a collectible value. The miniature was painted badly and thickly, but it's Finecast (For my opinion on Citadel Finecast, consult this article.) so I didn't dare strip it. I just repainted it, and it doesn't look half bad.

Mission #2 - Raid the Ork camp

The Imperials formed a battle line and assaulted the Ork camp, with the Orks haphazardly[1] deployed around the objectives. Fittingly, the Ork vehicles rolled to deploy beside the fuel dump. My objective: hold the objectives for a turn, thus razing them.

The left flank was held down by the Atican City Fighters[2], with the infiltrators - Sylvestra[3] and the Callidus Assassin in the opposing corner.

Mission #2

Castellan Mother Theresa leaned over the tactical hololith hastily set-up in the back of her command Chimera. The orks were in retreat, and her platoons were shooting down any stragglers. Sister Lucy stepped up, wiping greenish gore off her blade.

'Alright, let us consolidate-'

'You shall do no such thing.'

Smoke effect (cotton)

 

Painting Gaunt's Ghosts

After spending quite some time in the closet in a box, then some more time assemble while I mulled over basing and color schemes, time to finally paint these boys.

Note that I know that the official Tanith uniform is black, but already most of my Guard is black, so I preferred a more earthy brown/green color scheme here.

Note that I realize that their forest bases heavily diverge from the rest of the Guard's city bases. However, they are already cast with forest-y stuff on their bases (even though in the books they mostly fight in cityscapes) and I did not want to cut apart these lovely models.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Trolling the Troglodytes

We picked up the story with the adventurers going back to Vlonvelw and getting their just reward.[1] She then offered up another job: do what you do best and kill almost everything on the level below, but for a reward. House Auvryndar wished to enslave the troglodytes living below, but was thwarted by enchanted trolls, some other type of huge monster, as well as a rival drow house. The party accepted, and headed down after a long rest[2].

Painting Death Korps of Krieg (special equipment)

With the first 10 troopers painted and the color scheme vetted, time to fill out the ranks with the special equipment guys.

July review and August goals

July's over as well. Not as bad as I expected, but not great either (at least from a hobby perspective).

D&D went swimmingly, the adventurers progressed to the next level of the Undermountain. We'll miss some sessions now that holiday season is upon us, but that's life.

MAGUS totally floundered, we missed some sessions and August will be dry as well. We'll have a go at a season finale in September, and maybe try something else in the meantime.

Surprisingly, my Warhammer morale got a boost with the first narrative game I played, in an up-and-coming series against Orks. Expect this to continue instead of matched play games.

On the hobby side, July was... OK, I guess. I did not start on anything new, however I did finish a bunch of stuff. I'm now doing the final stages of my converted Imperial Guard infantry unit, and eyeing some slaaneshi daemons instead. I still wasn't able to get in a game of Sigmar with them, but hopefully it will still come up this year.

For August, my primary goals are finishing what I started (as always). In the unlikely event that I'll get everything done, I have more slaaneshi stuff and more guard stuff primed, and more guard stuff to assemble and work on, in the pipeline. 

An unexpected help for all this comes from a Youtube channel I've discovered, called Warhipster. This guy really leverages Contrast paints, which is right up my alley. I already used some of his tutorials, more or less 1-to-1, on Kriegers and slaaneshi models.

Finally, honorable mention goes to the fact that today I am exactly on target with the "1 miniature painted per day" thing, with modifiers of course. Low effort commissions and repainting second hand minis helped a lot, but I'll take the win and try to keep it up. August might break even as well, and we'll see after that.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Showdown

We picked up the adventure mid-chase, as the adventurers were stopped by a large cloud of magical darkness. Of course they managed to dispel it on the spot, laying eyes on an evil statue. Ireth was stunned by the shear malefic influence, but Groin successfully restored her. Onwards!

Dark skin (Contrast)

  

Painting Commissar Severina Raine

Introduction

Any Guard army needs a commissar, especially now that they are actually useful. Here's my Commissar Severina Raine model, which I assembled and primed some time ago. I dug her out, did a minor conversion, and painted her up to serve.

The Atican campaign

It has been some time - several years, all of 9th edition, in fact - since I did narrative games of Warhammer. Well, we thought to rectify that. The edition is still young (I played two matched play games beforehand, and my opponent, none) but why not start in force. Our original idea was a crusade, but as we have not yet seen the crusade rules for 10th, we settled on a full-on narrative scenario (of my own devising) for our first game.

And so the orks invade the Atican system, home of my own guard regiment. Clashes in space and the lucky landing of a single rok on an outlying world provides justification for a low-point game. Can Castellan Mother Theresa and Sister Lucy defeat the orks, while also playing to the whims of Inquisitor Caecilia and her faithful Interrogator Clotilde? Or will Warboss Edkrakka and his retinue, Beastboss Gitstompa (and his faithful squigosaur Missiz Muncha), Grokkit Scrapfinda (riding Ed Buttacup) and Da Surgion, gather enough of a Waaagh! to overwhelm the imperial world?

Stay tuned to find out!

• Mission #1 Story
  
• Mission #1 - Delaying action
  
• Mission #2 Story
  
• Mission #2 - Raid the Ork camp
  
• Mission #3 Story
  
• Mission #3 - Raid the excavation
  
• Mission #4 Story
  
• Mission #4 - Necron beacons
  
• Atican campaign summary
  

Mission #1 - Delaying action

The Guard forces dug in in the ruins of an abandoned imperial watchpost, right in the path of the orkish advance. Heavy weapons teams took up positions in the ruins, while infantry squads took cover below. Empty Chimaeras, having ferried their cargo here, were used as further roadblocks. Interrogator Clotilde joined her krieger retainers, keeping a tight leash on the Eversor Assassin.

Not much later, the first fume belching contingent of xenos appeared on the horizon, with many more of the aliens trailing behind on foot. Their singular goal: get to grips with the enemy and swamp the imperial zone.