The Liberators

[Doghouse]

Foreword.

 

This is something that I have been toying around with for a long, long time now and am in the process of getting a few ideas together. For anyone that knows anything about the heresy and the great crusade the second and eleventh Legions are something that people generally don't touch with a twenty foot barge pole.

The reasoning behind this is a little odd as they seem to have taken on a mysterious taboo that people are not really willing to tangle with for what ever reason, whether it's reverence for the background material or out of fear for being called a heretic. The weird bit is that is why the second and eleventh were originally left blank, to allow people to create their own legions for inclusion in games.

 

So that is what I'm doing here, but with a twist. Rather than go into the complex reasoning behind their Primarch and why they were lost/rebelled/destroyed, etc, I'm setting the army at the time of the Unification Wars. Other than the thing with the Primarch this gives me a massive amount of freedom because details are so few and far between. It also means that I have room to play around with the name because there have been examples of regiments changing their names when united with their Primarchs, such as the Dusk Raiders becoming Death Guard and the War Hounds becoming the World Eaters, I should be fairly safe by not giving them a legion name and letting history do the rest.

 

Just for the record before I get cracking this isn't in any way, shape or form intended to be official. It's just a bit of speculative fun based loosely on what we know of the time from the Heresy books and meant in the spirit of what was originally intended for the 2nd and 11th Legions. <_<

 

The Liberators

 

With the creation of the first regiment of his proto-astartes the Emperor had finally assembled a force of the finest warriors that the people of earth had ever seen. His thunder warriors swept all that stood before them, tyrant after tyrant was toppled restoring freedom and liberty to those that had suffered under the yoke of oppression and for the first time in millenia humanity began to glimpse the first rays of hope as the ranks of the Emperor's followers slowly began to grow in size.

 

With the success of the first regiment the Emperor turned his attention to the creation of a second regiment of super human warriors that would eventually lead to the creation of many more regiments that he would eventually lead to the very stars themselves to unite the scattered lost children of humanity.

It was in this rare time of hope that the Liberators were created. Their name was an intentional symbolisation of the feeling captured at the moment of their founding. With the forces of the Emperor steadily gaining ground it looked as though none could stand in their way, blinded by the success of their victories the long road ahead seemed to to be a clear and easy path to victory.

But the Emperor with his great foresight knew otherwise, many years of hardship lay ahead and as he looked around at the faces of his followers he also knew that many of them would fall in battle along the way. Many more regiments would be needed for his great task.

 

Whilst the Liberators first fought alongside their brothers the First the time soon came for them to strike out on their own to claim their own victories and bring the emperor's light of truth to the masses of humanity.

 

 

The Army

 

This is going to be a long term project rather than a quick and easy whack together kind of army as I want to try and do this properly and do some research on what would be a credible addition to the army.

Obviously there is even less known of this time than the great crusade but I will try my best to be respectful to the material.

 

For the models themselves I'm going truescale, mainly because I don't need to rely on vehicles quite so much and I also hope to include human warriors.

 

For the time being this is the first guy that I'm working on. Still early days but it will get there as I begin to bulk out the model a little more.

 

http://i37.tinypic.com/2rmxu8h.jpg

[HandOfDorn]

I'm thinking this post should be in the conversions section? I might be wrong though so don't do anything until you get word from an Admin

[Pacific81]

The Mods shouldn't move this for a couple of reasons ! :)

- It's not solely a conversion log, it's got background relating to the Unification wars in it.

- No doubt he's going to be open for comment on it, from those interested and experienced in HH material (something it won't get in the painting section).

- This is something unique, I have never, ever seen a project on a unification-era regiment. I'm sure a hell of a lot of people are going to be interested in reading it, but specifically HH fans are going to be interested in seeing how it turns out.

- who knows, this could be the start of a new fad? I know a number of people who have had the wind knocked out their sails with the new FW PH armour marks, this gives the opportunity for more conversions once more and to make something different.

- If it goes into the painting section it will get comments from people with 11 posts, who nothing of PH, and ask 'who are the liberators why is his armour funny lol' before fading into obscurity.

 

I've been waiting for you to have a crack at this ever since you mentioned it some time ago Doghouse, I will be really interested to see what you come up with! :)

[HandOfDorn]

As I said I was probably wrong :)

 

I'm quite interested to see how this will turn out, the only problem I can foresee is the heads being too small due to the extended bodies, but i think it will turn out great :)

[Kurgan the Lurker]

Liberators are a current timeline GW Chapter Doghouse so you may want to go for a different naming convention with these. 2nd Founding, or later depending on which bit of fluff you are reading, of the Ultramarines.

 

Just a reminder to everyone, please keep it power armor related. :P

[Doghouse]

HandofDorn: Don't worry this is going to be a mix of both modelling and background discussion but mostly the latter of the two so as this isn't really going to be a modelling log I can get the feedback and ideas that I need from people who frequent the HH Forum. :)

The head is roughly about the right size for the torso, but it looks small because 32mm heroic proportions are completely out of whack. I don't think the bulked out torso armour does much to help the situation either. :P

 

Pacific81: Thanks mate. :)

Yeah I think that it's something different and with any luck may inspire people to have a crack at their own pre-pre-heresy regiments. :D

The reason I'm putting the log in here like I say is to get feed back from those that are most passionate about the period and that will be able to help me out with the finer details. If it encourages others to do the same then that is a bonus. :)

 

Kurgan: Yeah this will definitely only be related to power armoured astartes/proto-astartes and their vehicles. :)

I wasn't aware that the Liberators were a current chapter, thanks for the heads up. As it's just a bit of fun I'm not too worried about the name currently being in use though. :)

 

 

One of the first questions that I'd like some opinions on is going to be vehicles. So what vehicles do you think were available to the Emperor's forces during the unification wars?

 

I've been doing a little research into this and am guessing they had rhinos (I'm guessing their enemies did as well). I can't find any mention of when the dreadnought first saw action but there is a snippet about the landraider that says that:

 

"Some claim it was during the Siege of Delebrion that a Land Raider first fired its lascannons in anger, others point towards the massed tank battles of Calysto Platinum and say that the Land Raider drew first blood during the mighty conflict that raged over that world at the start of the Emperor's Great Crusade."

 

So does this make the land raider a great crusade vehicle rather than something that they had access to in the unification wars and what vehicles do you think they would have access to?

 

Also what colours do you think I should use for the Liberators?

[HandOfDorn]

The paint scheme depends on the characteristics of your regiment, what are their traits?

[Zekk_Sirius]

Liberators are a current timeline GW Chapter Doghouse so you may want to go for a different naming convention with these. 2nd Founding, or later depending on which bit of fluff you are reading, of the Ultramarines.

 

Just a reminder to everyone, please keep it power armor related. :lol:

 

Actually Kurgan I believe they were the "Libators"? Just going off memory, they might have had a different name in another edition.

 

So does this make the land raider a great crusade vehicle rather than something that they had access to in the unification wars and what vehicles do you think they would have access to?

 

According to the lore I can recall, both the Raider and Speeder take the "Land" in their names' from their discoverer, who found the designs on Mars, so its entirely possible the Land Raider was there almost from the start. Is your force representing the unification of Terra, or the entire solar system? Both Terra and Mars had earth-like atmospheres (Mars had been terraformed at some point) so "Thunder Warriors" fought in the reconquest of both.

[Doghouse]

Handofdorn: I'm not entirely sure about the traits of the regiment at the moment but am looking to the colours of the regiments for ideas. What I might have to do is create a rough outline for an unnamed Primarch and then work from there.

At the moment they're not that different from the First, maybe the title of Liberators goes a bit to their heads at times so they could be a bit full of themselves.

 

Zekk_Sirius: You're both right mate, the Libators and Liberators are both chapters. ^_^

The army is going to set in a small part of the unification wars so any thoughts of travelling to Mars are going to be some way off. Going by what little is known I'm assuming that the war took at least a few decades to resolve from the creation of the proto-astartes till the beginning of the great crusade judging by the way that the old man in The Last Church recalled events.

 

What I'm planning is having the force part of a small part of a much larger campaign, probably against the Ursh or the forces of Hy Brasil.

[Paradigm]

This is a great idea. And a time period that I wish was more covered. As far as the tech available, it probably wouldn't be that different than now if you think about it. Tech has declined quite a bit. I would for sure include auto-cannons and their variants. Bolters might be scarce though(speculation), so it might be better to arm them with lasguns or autoguns. Rhino's have to be in. All manner of missile is in. Conversion beamers would be common(based on rogue trader era minis) We know that everything that they didn't have during the crusade is out, we also know that much of what they had during the crusade is also out. I'd use rogue trader era weaponry as a basis. The real benefit of this time period is that they could have just about whatever you wanted that isn't really often spoken of because so much could have been lost.

 

If you want the name to be related to their nature, you need to decide what sort of liberators they are going to be. Are they desperate freedom fighters, or are they forces that have ample supply. If they are the former, I'd go with a hard military color, black and bronze, or army green and bronze. The latter I'd go with a rich deep color that only the wealthy can afford. Deep red and white maybe in that case. Maybe the liberators were the first to use a topknot on their helmets?