The Thetus Crusade (Indomitus - a Space Hulk Expansion)

[Honda]

BT: Also, you should reach out to Krikey. There are a lot of nicely painted terminators on this forum, but I consider his among the best.

[tvih]

Eberious, Reinhard and Krikey, the holy trinity of BT painting :P

[Firepower]

Eberious, Reinhard and Krikey, the holy trinity of BT painting

...ahem :P

[Honda]

tvih, on 18 Aug 2013 - 18:24, said:

Eberious, Reinhard and Krikey, the holy trinity of BT painting

...ahem

You're a "broken" arrow, remember?

[Firepower]

Tell it to the paddle

[teblin]

By "paddle", do you mean cricket bat?

[Brother Virngrath]

Eberious, Reinhard and Krikey, the holy trinity of BT painting

...ahem :P

As the great paddler you're the guy behind the scenes of the holy trinity who gets the real gritty stuff done. Someone has to. Would that make you feel better? ;)

[Firepower]

Damned disrespectful neophytes with their rap music and their acid wash jeans and their pogs.....

[Brother Tyler]

Ironically, pogs were the awards that the Black Templars gave out in the Thetus Crusade.

 

(Getting back on topic ... sort of ...)

[Brother Tyler]

Okay, now I'm having second thoughts about using the Thetus Crusade for our setting. I'm not dead set against it, but I want to run my thoughts by you guys.

 

If I understand the presentation of the Thetus Crusade correctly, it was basically someone's army with background tacked on for the official presentation. So my concern is that fleshing the Thetus Crusade out for our purposes might contradict some of the development that the original player put into the army/background. For instance, our usage limits the Marshal to a storm bolter and power sword, whereas the original player may have had a Marshal in artificer armour with twin lightning claws (just an example - I have no idea how the Marshal was kitted out).

 

Imagine how Reinhard might feel if I took the Camdorea Crusade and, knowing little or nothing about it, developed characters and the outcome of the crusade in a way that didn't correspond with his own vision. Some players might not have a problem with this, but others might view it as disrespectful.

 

So at this point I'm considering creating a crusade from whole cloth, enabling us to develop characters, background, and outcomes that don't interfere with anyone else's work. I'm not dead set on the idea, but I'm giving it serious consideration. I suppose I might want to wait to see what kind of new background GW provides us in the new codex before any final decision is made.

[Honda]

I agree with your reasoning and would support a start from scratch approach.

[Marshal Reinhard]

I might be a bad example because I probably wouldn't mind being used for a base, though as the fluff of both crusades would start to diverge I would probably start to get annoyed with it. All of my own thoughts on this are not really important as the blessing is not mine to give, but rather the creator of Thetus crusade. If said blessing hasn't been given, I definately think we shouldn't use this crusade but rather newly created one.

[Brother Tyler]

Okay, the first mission is up for playtesting (link in my signature).

Since none of the responses have pushed for retaining the Thetus Crusade as our setting, I'll begin working on an alternative homegrown crusade. Some development will wait until this weekend when I get the new codex and, hopefully, some additional background material. Regardless, the overarching concept will be a crusade that faces a genestealer menace either in space (space hulk or a "regular" boarding action) or in some hive, with both options allowing for a Zone Mortalis application for the broader power armoured crusade. The marshal leads the sword brethren in tactical dreadnought armour, and I'll be using my Draco model somewhere in the zone mortalis portion (as a Castellan, even if we no longer have such an entry).

So I present the Segewold Crusade (named for one of the fortresses of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword/Livonian Order of the Teutonic Knights).

Following the precedent established in Codex: Black Templars, this shield is incorporated into the crusade banner and a modified version (sans cross) is worn as a campaign badge upon the right pauldron of the battle-brothers. I'll probably also make it the personal honours of the marshal, worn as a tilt shield and incorporated elsewhere upon the mini. For the marshal, silver will be used in place of white (heraldic equivalent).

The context of "Segewold" will be determined later, either becoming the name of the marshal or the name of the world/hive in which the crusade takes place.

[Brother Tyler]

Well, the new codex hasn't given me anything world-shattering (other than adoring psykers and worshipping the Emperor ). Other than those issues, no real changes have been imposed on the essence of the Black Templars and no background limitations are imposed. The only real tangible "change" is that the campaign badge above appears to go on the left pauldron vice the right. Whatever.

So my crusade will actually be developed on two fronts. First and foremost, it has to be a viable army for standard WH40K. The limiting factor is that the terminator models must work for the Indomitus Project.

So my marshal will be represented by a Chapter Master in the standard army (I like orbital bombardment ). In addition, the army will have to consist of at least one Terminator squad and at least one Terminator Assault squad. The Terminator squad would consist of ten models in order to get the assault cannon and heavy flamer, with one of the storm bolter models upgrading to a chainfist. The Terminator Assault squad is a bit more freeform, with the Sergeant having a thunder hammer and storm shield (everyone else can take lightning claws); and the Terminator Assault squad only needs to consist of five models (though I can exceed that if I want). That fills two of my Elites slots and uses up a considerable amount of points, limiting my other options. I'll carry the army list development out in a separate topic in the Black Templars army list sub-forum and focus this discussion on the background of the crusade.

Just to ensure that this crusade fits, though, I'm going to push it to an earlier period in time. All I'll need to do is identify when the Genestealers were first encountered and make it some time after that date. It can even be before the rest of the Tyranids were encountered, giving us a longer timespan in which to play.

At this point, I'm more inclined to make this a space-bound campaign rather than within a hive world. Perhaps a space hulk has materialized from the Warp on a path towards a Black Templars Chapter Keep world and the crusade is dispatched to destroy the hulk. Segewold might, then, be the name of the Chapter Keep world.

I can definitely see the final confrontation with the Broodlord being interesting.

[Brother Tyler]

For those Black Templars battle-brothers that would like to help playtest, I've updated Mission I. There are five different variants (very minor variations on the maps). You can see them all here, including links to versions you can download and print.