A Crusade begins

[Hephast0]

Brothers,

 

Thank you for accepting me onto this Battle Barge (well.... forum). I am a long-lapsed player, perhaps 20 years. My blooding was in the classic days of Heroquest and Space Crusade in the early nineties before moving onto 40k and Man O War. Luckily, the interest in the hobby never left me and I'm lucky to now live in a town with enough interested friends to pick up an army of my own.... it was always going to be Black Templars :D

 

We are a non-competitive group who enjoy the narrative and story more than the winning and losing. For now we are playing power level games (between 25 and 40 power a time). We have armies of all sorts.... 1k sons (...spit...) tyranids (...spit...) Eldar (...spit...) Astra Militarium (...spit...) and a couple of Dark Angels and Ultramarines players (poor deluded fools.....). 

 

I've been buying bits and bobs from Ebay and modifying and repairing them to my needs... I'm pretty good with a magnet and glue.

 

My army so far - The Brimstone Crusade:

 

4 stabby crusader squads (Power Sergeant, Power Marine and 3 chainsword/bolt pistol marines) of 5 men each

4 shooty crusader squads (Combi Sergeant, Heavy Marine, Special Marine, 2 boltgun marines) of 5 men each

Land Raider Crusader

Whirlwind

Razorback

Predator

Primaris from Dark Imperium + 5 extra Hellblasters and 5 Reivers

2 Emperors Champions (extra one came in a joblot)

1 High Marshall Helbrecht

1 Grimaldus +3 Retinue

 

It terms of flavour, it is there in spades. I can play stabby or shooty as the situation wants and I've got a good mix of weapon types I can put in each squad. We've already had some great moments... shout out to the grav cannon heavy crusader marine who, as the last member of his squad, survived a full shooting round from a Leman Russ before taking its last 3 wounds himself.... well worth a purity seal!

 

I'm interested in getting some more 'story style' units in my army. What do people generally use for Neophytes? Is it easy to make them 'blend in' properly out of the box?

 

Blood. Fire. Helbrecht Brothers.

 

Hep

[Sword Brother Adelard]

All my Neos are still old school metal scouts. So I only have 10 with knives. I would like some bolter ones, but although they were made in metal, they sell for silly money on ebay when they show up. (Two last week went for over £21!)

 

The reason for this situation is because I hate plastic scouts. They all look like they suffer from gigantism! I'm on the hunt for suitable helmets, but they're far from a priority at the moment. (My painting queue alone is 18 infantry models, and that's before we even start the Elite and vehicle building categories in Blood and Zeal!)

[Firepower]

Welcome to the BnC, and the Eternal Crusade, brother.  If you'll please head down this hallway, we can begin your initiation paddlin' 

 

The main issue with Neophyte models is their hideously sculpted heads.  Replace those and they're fine.  As for blending in with Initiates, generally yes, but it depends on how much you've customized the latter.  So far as theme/fluff units are concerned, nothing says "Templar" like a Dreadnought Chaplain (or the more financially friendly option of a Venerable Dreadnought with a skull helmet).  However, their rules are in the Forgeworld index, and I dunno if you have that.

Edited March 5, 2018 by Firepower

[Hephast0]

Thank you for the welcome, Brothers.

 

A dreadnought feels like it should be a given (even if my memory of them is the big badguys in the Space Crusade expansion :D ). I'd like to think a good backstory won't be too much of a challenge. Sounds like Neophytes are a problem..... at least I'm not in a hurry - can find a solution that works. Might see if anyone in the local area has some head bits going cheap :D

 

*Takes ticket and heads down hallway*  

[arigatous]

I'm interested in getting some more 'story style' units in my army. What do people generally use for Neophytes? Is it easy to make them 'blend in' properly out of the box?

 

I use standard tactical marines with no pauldrons and no helmets (various "naked" heads from different plastic boxes) to represent AS 4+. Since I mostly use them with bolters and sometimes knives (never use shotguns), hands are not a problem. A lot of people tend to use IG legs for Neos as well.