Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Kommando Orks Versus Adeptus Mechanicus [Necrons] 4: Live Green or Die Hard


 The game is getting close to the end now. There's blood in the water. The foot is a game. This will be the last post on this particular battle, because the battle is over after this post.

TURN 4

During the movement phase, Orks do what Orks do. They get closer, they shout, they smell funny... you know, Greenskin stuff. I forget to Screencap, probably because I'm too busy listening to Celine Dion or something equally embarassing.



The Burna on the Kommand mob goes fwoosh.taking down a Deathmark. The Shootas knock out a couple of Immortals.

 The Immortals get back up and conga to the back of the line, farther away from the impending Ork assault.


 Kommandos charge my Wraiths and inflict a casualty, making me very sad. He was only three days away from retirement! Then one of the Orks decides to get stuck as some wacky anomaly on the terrain. Vassal, like a dog who has finally caught his own tail, has no idea what the fuck to do with this Ork or his 2" coherency circle.

My turn. Both squads of Deathmarks back away from the tide of naughty green semi-consensual lovin' currently slapping the fuzzy handcuffs on my Wraiths. The Triarch Stalker clunks forward, gloriously Not Immobile thanks to my good friend the Karamazovspyder. I think about how Karamazovspyder sounds like some kind of dreary existentialist Russian novel from the early 1900s.

Despite his best efforts to get killed, Boss Snikrot fails to eat it at the hands of my Deathmarks. The Shoota Boyz, on the other hand, suck up a few casualties from tesla zaps.

The Kommandos in blue continue hacking away at my Wraiths, dealing out three Wounds and just barely failing to get out of Locked In Combat status this turn. Their inability to take out the last wound on my Wraiths has ensured that my Deathmarks, Stalker, or Annihilation Barge don't have an unfortunate accident in the parking lot next turn.

TURN 5



 Koptas and 'Ard Shoota Boyz advance. Shootas are having trouble on account of the difficult terrain.

 Everybody shoots. A single Immortal bites the dust. No reanimating.

The last Wraith finally dies, bringing this assault phase to a close and freeing up his Kommandos to get zapped. I forget to take the muzzle flashes off the Shoota Boyz, making it appear as though they just never stop shooting. Somehow this seems a fitting send-off for those gallant Boyz.

My move phase is fairly boring. Blue moves up. My Annie Barge rotates. Deathmarks stay right where they are.


With a truly outrageous amount of firepower concentrated on a very small number of foes, the Adeptus Necronichus cleans house.

At the end of this turn, we decided to call the game. The Kill Point tally is very one-sided, due in large part to the six freebie points I got by shutting down his Squadrons of Warbuggies. I'm curious to see how this battle might have panned out differently had it been played in Sixth edition, given some of the new rules in place now. Maybe that's a fight for another day.



Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Kommando Orks Versus Adeptus Mechanicus [Necrons] 3: V harder

Turn 3 of the epic battle!

Next week will be turn 4 and 5 condensed, because less stuff happened.

Ork move phase. Orks moved ahead, as Orks are wont to do. Snikkers arrived from behind and made threatening faces at me.
 DAKKADAKKADAKKA! Lost some Wraiths (I put the Morale Check banner before I remembered that they're Fearless) and some Deathmarks.
 One Deathmark gets back up. I'm the reanimator!
 Snikkers charges my 10 Warriors, with predictable results.
 Deathmarks move toward Kommandos. Annie Barge moves away.Wraiths move to blocking position. Immortals advance.
 I retaliate for the loss of my Skitarii. Also, I take down the Big Gunz battery. Immortals run for cover.
 Morale time. The grots (gun krew) lose it and flee off the board. Snikkers succeeds.
The Spyder charges the Kommandos, takes out a couple, but fails to Sweep them. He consolidates toward the enemy.

And that's turn 3.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Kommando Orks Versus Adeptus Mechanicus [Necrons] Part Le Deux.

Part 2 of the VASSAL battle between my Adeptus Necronichus and the fiendish Kommando Orkz of Warboss Dakka Pakka (he doesn't know I've given him this name yet, but it's totally gonna stick).

[Photo upload incoming when internet is a thing again. I out of town for a couple days and our hotel didn't have free WiFi  because apparently this is 1953 or something].

Turn 2 Reserves time. A mob of Boyz and a Big Mek show up.


 Turn 2 Shooting. I pop a Solar Pulse. It doesn't help.
Reanimation Protocols time. I revive a dudeman.
Move your dead bones, bones, bones!
Now it gets ugly. Assault phase.  Meganobz wipe a squad with no effort at all. Boyz inflict some harm on the Wraiths.
Splat

But, lo and behold, the REANIMATOR! Overlord gets up and walks again.

Then it's my turn. Reserve rolls. Both squads of Deathmarks come in. I drop them midfield, deciding that keeping them away from the board edge is the better part of valor.
Come on, boys and girls. Come a little closer. I'm the Reanimator!
I spend pretty much all my firepower making it happen, but I do manage to take out the Meganobz.
For my next trick, I make the Meganobz... DISAPPEAR!
And it only took every bullet I had (except the command barge). Assault phase. My second Wraith squad piles in atop the mess.
I lose the rest of the first Wraith squad, but wipe the Ork mob with a sweeping advance.

And that's turn 2 of this VASSAL battle. Tune in for turn 3 next week!

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Kommando Orkz versus Adeptus Mechanicus [Necrons]

I've begun a Vassal battle with a friend of mine. My Adeptus Necronichus versus a mob of Kommando Boyz. We're only about halfway done, but I've started screencapping the battle, so I'll be putting up screencaps and, maybe later, writing up a proper battle report.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Unannounced (and unexpected) hiatus now over. We're back in motion.

I've scheduled a Vassal game for this Friday, and it inspired me to do a counts-as list that I've been toying with for quite some time. Specifically, that of a Necron list used to represent an Adeptus Mechanicus force. Now, much of the stuff the AdMech uses on a non-Titan scale has an awful lot of room for variation within the fluff, so I'm making a lot of this stuff up on the spot, or at least fudging my estimates of what a unit is or is not able to do. Keep that in mind and we'll be golden. I tried to come up with names for all the wargear that would sound a little less heretekal than just admitting they're all using Necron tech, but frankly I wouldn't be surprised if there was at least one Magos within the AdMech that used necron gubbinz for all kinds of stuff.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

I got new toys from my FLGS for a very generous price. That's the only update I've got for this week, but it feels like a good'un. Venerable Dreadnought, Ironclad Dreadnought, five Hammernators. Wooooooo!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The Battle for Zandesh III - The Skies are Alight

Historically speaking, the fury and the suddenness of the renegade assault took the defenders of Zandesh III off guard. The Steel Revenants were forced to withdraw, leaving the crippled hulks of their tanks burning behind them. The Chaos forces siezed control of the warp beacons, but not before the loyalists managed to send an urgent distress call to the Segmentum fleet. With traitor ships and Imperial Navy vessels both en route, a clash in orbit was a foregone conclusion. This scenario represents one side seizing the initiative and attempting to land their forces planetside.

Mission Type: Planetary Assault*
* Special note - the defender does not recieve the usual d6*10 points per 500 - their advantage comes in the form of the bonus points they earned from the previous battle.
Zandesh III is a Medium-sized planet.
This battle will require a Low Orbit table as well as the standard battlezone.

Attacker: The Attacker in this scenario is actually the loser of the previous one. This represents the increased space presence of whichever force controls the warp beacons - the winner can land with relative impunity, while the latecomer must push their way through the blockade. Historically, Chaos arrived first, so the Imperium would be the attackers here.

The Attacker recieves 1000 points to spend, selecting from the Space Marine Dominion Fleet list. No ship larger than a Battleship may be taken - that is, no Ramilies Star Forts, Fortress Monasteries, Planet Killers, or the like.

Historical forces: Steel Revenants Strike Force (Space Marines Dominion Fleet)
Imperial Mars-Class Battlecruiser Aegis Kokytus (plus Space Marine captain) - 295
Imperial Vengeance-Class Grand Cruiser Ockham's Lens (plus Space Marine captain) - 255
Imperial Viper-Class Missile Destroyers [2] Uller's Arrows -90
Space Marine Strike Cruiser Spear of the Lightbringer (plus extra shields, plus Master of the Fleet) - 210
Space Marine Strike Cruiser Charon's Ferry - 145

Defender: The Defender in this scenario chooses from the Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade Fleet list. No ship larger than a Battleship may be taken, and the Planet Killer may not be taken.
Historical forces: Traitor horde of Demagogue Gorma Deska (13th Black Crusade Fleet List)
Desolator-class Battleship Burning Heart of Tzeentch (plus Chaos Warmaster) - 400
Hades-class Heavy Cruiser Maim (Plus Mark of Khorne) - 220
Murder-class Cruiser Burn (Plus Mark of Khorne) -190
Slaughter-class Cruiser Kill (Plus Mark of Khorne) - 185

The next battle is a Planetstrike. The winner of the previous battle becomes the attacker in a Planetfall mission. Each player gains one Orbital Bombardment for each cruiser, heavy cruiser, grand cruiser, or battlecruiser that survived the space battle without withdrawing or being crippled, and two for each Battleship. Orbital Bombardments are rolled for exactly like normal units held in Reserve and shoot with the following profile:
Strength 5 AP 2 Ordnance Blast 1

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Obviously something is amiss

So I tried rewriting what I had a few times, and I really just didn't like where it was going. So, at least for a short while, the experiment is on hold. It being almost finals time, I've been a little bit overwhelmed with homework and stuff. So my posts will, once again, be sparse of content and frequently late.

Hey lookit, I made a twin-linked autocannon for my Dreadnought.


I didn't think to take pics and make a tutorial out of it, but it was fairly simple.

Ingredients:
Reaper autocannon from Defiler kit. Second Reaper autocannon barrel (housing not needed).
Assault cannon from Ravenwing sprue
Dreadnought arm (without weapon), just the shell)
Autocannon ammo case from IG heavy weapons team (the one with the carrying handle - ht's the right shape and size).
Glue
Hobby knife
Green Stuff (optional)

Chop the barrels off the Assault Cannon
Chop the blades off the Reaper autocannons
Glue reaper barrels to assault cannon housing
Glue assault cannon housing to intact Reaper body. Find a way that it fits - it shouldn't be too hard
Glue the whole assembly - upside down - to the arm housing

If you've done it right, it will nestle pretty comfortably on the round arm socket of an AoBR dread. If it doesn't fit, GS it or glue it - depending on whether you want to be able to swap the arms out ever again.


There, my awful, hasty tutorial. It's CONTENT!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Experimenting More

Well, I decided I liked the start last week, so I'm going to put a little more work into the child soldier storyline.

     Even from twenty meters away, the blast hit me like... well, like a bomb. I expected the flash to hurt my eyes, but it was the sound that shocked me the most. It shook my entire body and made me feel like the entire world had suddenly moved beneath me. My ears hurt like someone had stabbed them. Then, an instant later, the shockwave hit. It knocked my head back and then flipped me over. I rolled down the back of the hill, rocks and broken bottle shards stabbing my back and chest. For half a second I was terrified that I had snapped my neck. Slowly, though, feeling returned to my limbs and my ears started working. That's when I heard the fighting.

     The signal! I checked my lasgun. Brod said to always check before you fire, because shooting with an empty mag was a cheap ticket to the waste heap. Then, keeping my body low to the ground, I crawled as fast as I could back to the top of the hill. Brod, Boomer, and Grendy were crouched behind the wrecked hull of an old groundcar. They were trading lasgun shots with the bigs in the house. I couldn't see them through the windows, but I fired a few bursts at the side of the house anyway. I must have done good, because Brod popped out, fired a few more shots, and then looked up at my perch on the hill and grinned at me before ducking behind the car again.


Dammit, I accidentally this tab without clicking save and lost about two pages' worth of work. Because apparently I don't learn lessons very well. I'll rewrite it tomorrow.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Experimenting with a new idea

I've been wanting to write something about child soldiers in an occupied territory. Here's the test run. If I decide I like it when I'm less out of it, I'll write more. I haven't really gotten into the characterization yet, but if there's more of this story, there will be more character. So far I've really only described the PoV character and a little bit about Brod, and that's intentional.

     We all cried sometimes. We had all lost something - nobody could join the Young Guns if they hadn't lost something - and we all cried. A very bad man had cut off Boomer's arm when he was just a kid, and he cried because it still hurt every night. Ajax cried because it was easier than smiling. Grendy cried because it drowned out the voices. I cried because I would never see my mom again. Everybody had lost something, and everybody cried. Everybody except Brod. Brod wasn't like the rest of us. He was smart. He had gone to school. He was strong and fast and he was tactical. Every time we went on a raid, Brod would get tactical, and he would promise us all that if we did what he said, we'd come back alive. Brod kept his promises. He was our captain, and he was smart, and he never cried.

     I never knew how Brod got to be captain. When the Young Guns found me, back when there were only thirty of them, he was already in charge. I knew he was the boss because he had a real fighting man's jacket. It was thick and warm and it had gold bars on the shoulders and he said it was a captain's jacket. I had asked him, once. We had killed some blues and one of them had a bottle of stuff that tasted like prunes and burned like medicine. It wasn't until later we found out it was alcohol. So we all drank a bunch of the stuff, because it was better than muddy puddle water, and then I got brave and asked him how he got to be captain. Brod hit me so hard I blacked out. He was gone when I came to. The next morning he came home and I never asked again.

     I didn't know much, but I did know that the blues were bad. When I was a little squirt, my parents used to talk about the bad men from across the sea. That's why Dad went off to fight. That's why they killed him. And when they came to my house four years ago and saw the flag above the door and the eagle on the mantel, they killed Mom. They made me watch. They were going to kill me too, but that was when Brod showed up. One minute they were all there, getting ready to hurt me and I was screaming and crying. The next minute they were all dead and Brod was standing over me, as tall as a blue, looking for all the world like an avenging angel. I joined the Young Guns the next day.

     Yesterday we hit the blues where they live. There were twelve of them there, squatting in some poor dead man's house. They had smashed the dishes and pissed on the furniture and their stink was everywhere. There were two of them out in the yard, smoking their foul grass and bragging about how many prisoners they'd killed. I wanted to shoot them right then, but Brod's orders were clear. Not until they started running for the house. I knew better to ask why they would start running. I just trusted Brod, because Brod was the captain, and he was the boss. So there I was, laying in the filthy mud, holding a lasgun, when the side of the house exploded.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The Battle for Zandesh III: Hostiles sighted!

This is the first mission in the Battle for Zandesh III campaign. It is a scenario that uses the core Warhammer 40k 5th Edition rules. There's a fluff section a'coming, but for tonight you mostly get the crunchy bits. The basic story is that, after months of crime and cult activity, conditions on Zandesh III have come to a head. Creatures of the Warp have been spotted in the outskirts of Zand City. The Planetary Defense Forces are struggling to send off an emergency distress call before the forces of Chaos arrive, but they are hampered by the ancient, indecipherable technology. Suddenly, the sky rips open, unfathomable howls ripple across the sky, and the Chaos forces attack the unsuspecting Imperial forces.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

The Battle for Zandesh III

First of all, apologies for the Wednesday post - I was sans internet from Friday night through Tuesday and I didn't think to schedule a post in advance.

In the search for ever-more-ambitious fluff projects to distract me from my current fluff projects, I have decided to create a campaign for Warhammer 40k that borrows from numerous different rulesets within the Warhammer 40k umbrella. The campaign would include Apocalypse, Battlefleet: Gothic, Epic 40k, Planetstrike, and core 40k games in a grand "conquer this world or burn it to cinders" style campaign - a no-holds-barred grindfest that envelops every major aspect of planetary conquest. This is the story of that battle. On one side of this grand campaign are the forces of the Imperium, driven to conquest by the greed of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the zeal of the Ecclesiarchy. On the other side, the forces of Chaos. However, I plan to make the rules flexible enough that one or both sides can be switched for other factions (although I can't promise the fluff will make the jump so easily).

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The Contemptor and You

So I slept through about 50% of yesterday and I was at school or similar the rest of the time. Life is busy, I've got things to do, and my blog unfortunately sees the lag. With luck, next week I'll not only be able to get a post up on time, but start working on some extra posts so I can have something to put up when I don't have the time/inclination/ideas required to write.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Don't be so hard on the Ultramarines

As a fan of Not The Ultramarines, I can understand why some people would be upset by the fifth edition Space Marine codex. Matt Ward made some comments in a White Dwarf interview in which he pretty much revealed himself to be a squealing Ultramarines fanboy of the highest order.
Like these.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Entombed: Prologue


So this post took a total of two weeks to get done, but I think the effort shows. It's 1500 words, which is more than I've written in one chunk for months. It's a prologue to the Entombed storyline, so now when you start reading the story you don't just get dropped straight into blackness.

Don't worry, there will still be a post for this week. It won't be a great one, because I dumped all my effort into this prologue, but it will be a thing.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Entombed: Planning for the Future

So I've come to something of a standstill on the Entombed storyline, and I think the reason is I'm not entirely sure where I want to go next. So, in order to give myself a bit of much-needed direction (and in order to give you, my teeny tiny cabal of followersm a bit of a sneak peak regarding what's coming) I've decided to try to do some kind of outline of what I'll be doing from now until the end of the book. I'm going to break it down by storyline in the hopes that I can figure out what all the characters need to do, then decide where each chapter is going to go in a bigger timeline.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

How To: White Scars Hunting Party

Even among the Adeptus Astartes, the White Scars are legendary for their tenacity and determination when hunting down foes of the Imperium. When a particular enemy catches the eye of the White Scars, their Chapter Master will organize a great hunt, tasking a force of Marines who will not rest, nor return to their home world, until that foe is slain. These great hunts are lead by the Master of the Hunt - currently Kor'Sarro Khan. The needs of a hunting party are somewhat different than those of a more traditional strike force. The strike force must move fast and travel light, but still be prepared to face heavy enemy resistance. So, for this week's installment of Ferrus Fair, I will illustrate a fluffy White Scars hunt list.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

It's only heretekal if you get caught.

Sorry it took so long to get this thing posted. I was trying to re-write what I had already written and I found myself just taking this segment in a whole new direction. I'd like to think it's better this way, and also leaves me room to write more segments about Haphastes experimenting on the creature.  Since Haphastes's model is a Techmarine with his left arm replaced by a Necron arm holding a staff, I think we know about where this is going to end.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Gorkamorka: Hunt for da Red Orktober

     Since I enjoyed writing for Boss Groinkikka so much last time, I've decided to write more Gorkamorka silliness. This segment features the grot mob of my very good friend, so I'll try to be gentle with the runt-punting. 

     The planet Gorkamorka is not a nice place. It is known for its extremes of climate, its empty wastes, and its dangerous, hostile lifeforms. Of all the hazards Gorkamorka has to offer, by far the most hazardous is not its weather or even its indigenous life. The most dangerous thing on Gorkamorka is Da Orks. Known throughout the galaxy for their dull wits, their low cunning, and their love for a good scrap or a good loot, Gorkamorka is a perfect place for Orks to live. They are at the top of their food chain, and the world is their barren, inhospitable oyster. However, there arebut one of the myriad races that make up a greenskin ecology.

     Below the Orks in the heirarchy are the ignoble Gretchin. Also known as grots, gretchin are short, scrawny, and ugly. Even more ugly are their personalities - gretchin are conniving, sneaky, and backstabbing. They lack physical strength - which permanently hampers their position in Orkoid society - so they make up for it by fighting dirty. Gretchin trust no one, but they can sometimes work together against a common enemy. So it is with the Grot Revolutionary Kommittee. A collective government of gretchin who have thrown off the shackles of Ork oppression, the GRC seeks revenge on the Orks who mistreated them for so many years. They wander the wastes, looking for salvage, and perhaps hoping to one day take to the stars in their own pint-sized WAAAAGH! Among the most fearsome of the GRC's members is the mysterious kaptain of the Red Orktober.

     You may already know of some of Boss Groinkikka's exploits. Tonight, on the Christmas edition of Ferrus Fair, we tell the story of the time Boss Groinkikka came face-to-face with the Red Orktober.

     It was winter on Gorkamorka. The red suns, which during most of the year scorched the planet with blistering heat, were cold and shrunken in the smoke-choked sky. The white sands were covered by a layer of whiter snow. Boss Groinkikka's personal wagon, the Gork (or Mork) Five, powered through the deep drifts and over the white dunes with its snowplow as torrential winds whipped snow about the cabin. Somewhere in the great drifts and snow dunes was a cache of loot. The loot had belonged, at one point, to Boss Gurgbash. Boss Gurgbash, however, was at the Dokk's tent nursing three severed limbs courtesy of Groinkikka's power klaw, and this was the perfect opportunity for Groinkikka's mob to do some lootin' - short of fighting, the orkiest thing a greenskin could hope to do.  Lugzog was behind the wheel, and Gitrench had the twelve-shoota turret, having recently bashed Orgog's nose in to get the seat. The big sixteen-cylinder engine was humming along nicely, belching fungus fumes as it went.

     Groinkikka knew something was wrong as soon as he hopped out of the Gork Five. The snow all around his dig site was trampled and melted. Wheel tracks and skids criscrossed the area. Where there should have been a mound of dirt (and, beneath, a stash of know-wots and gubbins), there was instead a deep, empty pit. He gave a wordless cry of frustration and fired his shoota in the air, venting his frustration. It was then that he heard the cackling. It was high pitched and grating, not like the deep bellow of a propa Orky laugh.

     "Wot woz dat?" asked Orgog, his crushed nose dulling his voice. Gitrench saw a fleeting shadow disappear behind a dune and unloaded his twelve-shoota (which was really just two six-shootas strapped together with Mek Tape).Something squealed in pain.

     "Get 'im, boyz!" Groinkikka didn't know what "'im" was, but his policy was "get first, krump second, ask once you've pulled his teef out." Gitrench and Orgog hopped out of the trukk and began circling either side of the dune while Lugzog gunned the engine. However, the trukk's massive tires could not get any traction and it foundered in the snow.

     Orgog and Gitrench came back around the hill, each holding onto one arm of a gretchin, who was squirming desperately between them and trying to bite anything he could reach. Tucked into his belt was a familiar choppa - Gurgbash's personal Git-Stikka. "Alroight, you weedy git, where's da rest o' me loot?"

     "I'll never talk, you bush washy squig!" squeaked the struggling gretchin.

     "'Ere, wot's 'e sayin'?" asked Orgog nasally.

     "The proto-lariat will rise and crush the bush washy impressors!"

     "Dat's enough o' dat rubbish from you, runt!" shouted Groinkikka. He found that when people started using words he didn't understand, shouting usually sorted out the problem. For good measure, he also punched the gretchin in the gut.

     The snow atop the dune crunched with the sound of treads. Cresting the rise was a large masted vessel. At the prow of the landship was a gretchin in a greatcoat carrying a large, heavy shoota which he unloaded recklessly in the general direction of the Orks. "Hands off that Gretchin, you bourgeoisie squigs! Down with the oppressors!"

     As if from nowhere, a dozen other gretchin popped out of holes in the ground. Two of them had rusted, dented pistols. Several held bows or crossbows. Most were armed only with stones and knives.With a cry, they unleashed their firepower upon the unsuspecting Orks. Groinkikka, the fastest thinker and the fastest on his feet, gave his best "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" and fired back at the Gretchin, charging at the nearest one. The rest of his mob followed suit, and so began the Battle of Groinkikka's Dig.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Better Know a Chapter - Knights of Glory: Rites and Rituals

KNIGHTHOOD

The Knights of Glory place a high value on nobility and station. As such, the transition from an unranked Squire to a Knight is a significant ordeal for any member of the Chapter. Occasionally a promotion will take place on the battlefield, but most knightings are held at the chapter's castle fortress on Avalon. For three days, the people of Avalon feast and celebrate, holding contests of skill and arms (though of course the Space Marines participate in separate events). The peasantry are granted a respite from their drudgery and merchants and minstrels awe the common folk on the land beneath the Rook while the nobility and gentry are invited to the floating fortress to witness the promotion.

The Knights of Glory are almost universally drawn from the noble families of Avalon, and so a Knighting ceremony is a chance for families to reunite with their superhuman relatives. For a scion of a noble family to be inducted into the chapter is a grand honour indeed. At Knightings, the various dukes and earls will strive to bring their children to the notice of the chapter, sometimes through feats of arms during the festivities and sometimes through generous gifts to the chapter's coffers or armoury. Once a child has been inducted into the chapter, his deeds influence the prestige of his family. Thousands of years ago, during the Age of Apostasy, a full Knightly Order opposed the will of the Council of Virtues and supported the tyrant Goge Vandire. They were slain to the last man and stricken from the Chapter records, and their families shamed and stripped of titles and lands. Just as a mighty hero or virtuous leader can bring great fame and wealth to his family, so can a traitor or a coward ruin the fortunes of his entire line.

For the Squire ascending to Knighthood, the ordeal is far more solemn. While the Chapter at large feasts, drinks, and tells tales, the Sqire spends three days in fasting, meditation, and prayer. At the end of that time, he is brought out by the Master of Deeds and presented to the Masters of the Knightly Orders. There, the Squire requests admittance into an order, in which case he must engage in a combat trial with the Order's champion. The Squire is not expected to win this fight; indeed, to date only seven Squires have ever won their admittance trial, and each of them rose to become a Grand Master of Virtues. No longer a Squire, the newly-minted Knight joins his Order and takes on all the responsibilities of a Knight. He takes a vow to defend the weak, defend Mankind, to behave with honour, to never abandon his duty, and slay the foes of the Emperor. Once the Master of the Order is satisfied, he presents the squire with his sword, steed, and a coat of arms. These things the Knight owns until the day he dies in battle.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Entombed X Part 1.

 School started this week, so I've been short on writing time. Also, I'm still in a rut with Entombed. More next week - hopefully, it'll be more Entombed. I think I might try more Aleksos stuff. That, or I'll keep trying to figure out how to make the Scout segments work...

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Better Know a Chapter - Steel Revenants: Lord Revenant Vercingetorix (Part 1)

     Lord Revenant Vercingetorix is one of the oldest living members of the Imperium. He was a Captain in the Iron Hands in the days of the Emperor's great crusade. Months before the Istvaan massacre, Vercingetorix was swallowed whole by a giant Squiggoth. Assuming he was doomed to death, Vercingetorix began igniting and placing all his explosives, filling the creature's mouth and gullet with primed meltabombs. He killed the creature, and the Legion's apothecaries rescued his shatterd, mutilated body, intending to inter him in the Legion's crypt - only to find, to their astonishment, that he was still alive. The Primarch decided to honour his sacrifice with the greatest reward of all - Vercingetorix was placed in a sarcophagus and interred in a Contemptor-pattern dreadnought. The Captain's remains were taken back to an Iron Hands monastery in the Kokytus system deep in the Segmentum Pacificus to be prepared.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Better Know a Chapter - Knights of Glory: Fiends and Foes

Late post today; got caught up in some Vassaling. Today's entry is another little fluff bite from the ever-expanding Better Know a Chapter series.

Some of the enemies the Knights of Glory have faced who still lurk somewhere within the depths of the galaxy.