From StuartL - Family Issues - Historical Drama - 77 Points

Hello once more,

For my final post this week, it is off to the Historical Drama section of the studios. Well, I say Historical, but what I really mean is Future Historical Drama. 

(Warning. What follows is a fast and dirty history of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. You can skip to the pictures at the end if you aren't into SF lore.)

You see, once upon a time, a small games company in the North of England made a small SF skirmish game called Rogue Trader. Over time it evolved and became to be known as Warhammer 40,000. As the game grew, more and more of its lore and background was fleshed out. The setting as a whole is pretty grim, dark and generally a horrible dystopia. But it wasn't always like that. In the history of the setting, some 10,000 years prior to the events portrayed in the game, things weren't all that bad. Sure, it was still a grim and dark dystopia, but not quite as much as it is in the present setting. 

The story of the game really starts some time in the late 29,000's. Earth is a mess of radioactive wastelands and techno-barbarian tribes fighting over what scant resources are left. Humanity's vast interstellar empire is in ruins after all long distance travel and communication was cut off during what is known as Old Night, and things are looking pretty bad all round. However, at the turn of the millenium two things happened. Old night ended and long distance travel became possible again, and a new warlord was to emerge on Earth. Calling himself simply the Emperor, (not one for humility this one), he had created an army of genetically engineered soldiers called Thunder Warriors and set about conquering and unifying Earth. The Thunder Warriors were just the first step though, they were too unstable both mentally and genetically, so the Emperor refined his process and created the Legio Astartes, or Space Marines. To help in this process, he first created 20 Primarchs, his 'sons', each with a unique set of talents and abilities and essentially demi-gods in all but name. However, his new plans posed a threat to the denizens of the Warp (aka Space Hell), and the daemonic pantheon that ran the place decided to derail the Emperor's grand scheme to reunify humanity by stealing the Primarchs away from Earth while they were still infants and scattering them throughout the galaxy. 

This didn't really stop the Emperor so much as slow him down. With Earth under his control, his newly formed Space Marines first conquered the solar system and then began the Great Crusade. His armies would grow and swell with each new system that joined his Empire and slowly the Primarchs were found and joined as his generals. Knowing that the forces of the Warp fed on the belief of mortals, the Emperor outlawed and forbade all forms of worship. Religion gave way to logic and rationality. Each new world was rendered compliant and its churches and temples torn down and destroyed. And this is where problems began. 

One of the infant Primarchs, Lorgar, landed on a planet called Colchis. Colchis was largely a desert with scattered cities in the few areas that could sustain plant life and wandering tribes of nomads that lived in the plains. The folks of Colchis were a superstitious lot and worshipped a pantheon of gods that looked suspiciously like the daemons of the warp if you looked closely. Lorgar grew up with a preacher for his adoptive father, who taught him all the ways of worship and expected him to become a preacher himself. However, Lorgar started having visions of his real 'father' the Emperor and decided that his 'Dad' was the one true god. Using his Primarch given powers of being super persuasive and a pretty darn fine general, Lorgar conquered Colchis at the head of an army of fanatics and introduced the worship of the Emperor as the state religion. 

Once the Great Crusade arrived at Colchis, Lorgar was given command of his own legion of Space Marines known previously as the Imperial Heralds, but from hereupon as the Word Bearers, he was also told to 'Knock it off with the worshipping, I'm not a god.' by 'Dad'. Faced with this contradiction Lorgar decided that only a REAL god would deny his own divinity and set about writing a set of holy texts about how the Emperor was a god and converting any planets he conquered into massive shrines to his father's divinity. 

Once word of this got back to the Emperor, he was a little bit ticked off. Heading to the biggest shrine world along with his must reliable of legions, the Ultramarines, the Emperor had the capital city of the planet eradicated by an orbital bombardment while the Word Bearers watched. After giving the entire legion a ticking off, he then departed to continue the crusade. Lorgar, finally got the hint that maybe he shouldn't be going around preaching about the Emperor being a god. But rather than take the hint and drop the religious mumbo-jumbo he instead went back to his old Colchisian beliefs and started looking for ways to get in good with the god-like entities of the Warp. Eventually he figured it out and went full on evil-cult leader. Worlds conquered by the Word Bearers were converted to daemon worship and cults sprang up everywhere. Eventually the Word Bearers started to spread their creed through their fellow legions and soon the Emperor's chosen son, Horus Lupercal, the Warmaster was convinced that it was time for a change in regime and the forces of the warp were the perfect tool to get the job done. While the civil war that broke out would later come to be known as the Horus Heresy, it was really Lorgar who did all the real work to get the ball rolling.

TL:DR Somebody in Nottingham wrote some background for a game and I painted a model.

Way back when, GW said that they were NEVER going to make models for the Horus Heresy, but the historical setting was very popular and so 3rd party companies began making their own models for the Primarchs. This figure is by Kabuki Models and is called the Preacher Knight (to avoid copyright claims from GW). Since then, GW has started making models for the Heresy and is on its second edition of Warhammer 30,000 as a separate game from Warhammer 40,000.

Sometimes referred to as the Golden One, Lorgar would have devotional script printed on his face in golden ink, which I have tried to recreate here. His armour is dripping with books and prayers to help signal his beliefs in a set of higher powers.

The model is metal and is stood upon a resin base. The sculpt has a fair bit of detail, but doesn't go as overboard as a standard GW character model might. The mace is a little bit small and unimposing unfortunately, but overall the figure looks okay.

The model is painted in the Word Bearer's traditional grey armour colour, but after the Heresy started, they switched to a deep, dark red. I actually have a second copy of this figure, so at some point I may build that and add a few more chaotic icons before painting it with red armour.

One of my reasons for painting this figure was that I actually need it for a game this week. On Sunday my friend and I will be playing a game of 30K using my Ultramarines army and my Word Bearers army. The Word Bearers will have a small allied contingent of World Eaters and the Ultramarines will have some Space Wolves as back-up. As my Space Wolf force is pretty small, I decided to add a few minis to that force for the game too.

This model will be the junior commander leading the Space Wolf contingent. It is mainly made from parts for 40K, but I think it still fits with the 30K aesthetic.

You can't have a Space Wolf commander without a fur cloak, it is an unwritten rule of the game. The model is based on an older 25mm base as it was assembled years ago.

This Tactical Support Squad brings some extra fire-power to the Space Wolves as they assault the enemy. Armed with Volkite (i.e. death-ray) weapons, their job is to pin the enemy down while the main force charges into contact with a variety of swords and axes. These figures are from the newer Age of Darkness box set and have a few Space Wolf parts added to make them look like they belong in this feral legion.

Technically speaking this Predator tank is from Warhammer 40,000, but one of the nice parts of the game is that a lot of the models can be used for both settings. There is a new 30K model of this tank that came out recently, but I haven't had a chance to assemble mine yet.

And the officer, the squad and the tank as a whole. There are 12 skulls dotted about the tank and the infantry's wargear.

And finally, a scale shot of Lorgar. I think he is going to count as a 40mm model rather than 28mm.

For scoring:

1x 40mm model = 7 Points

6x 28mm infantry = 30 Points

1x 28mm tank = 20 Points

Historical Drama = 20 Points

Total = 77 Points

Just one more location to go for the green area of the map.

My side duels:

Squirrels +1 = 19

Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Dwarves, Fire Giants, WW2 Polish, Daemons, Viridians, Vasa, Junkers, Turnips, Necrons, Tau, Genestealers, WW2 Japanese, Teutonics, Lizardmen, Gnolls, Arabs, Space Marines

Skulls +12 = 200

Turnips +0 = 85 Points

So that is what 30K is about, makes sense. Now what is 40K about? This is a great post and I love the Predator tank. Great way to end a fantastic week's output. now work harder