Echoes of Eisenstein - upscaling madness with the XIV

[Sagentus]

really loving the weathering on this! great work all round!!

[Wulf Vengis]

Pure love. That's what i think. These are all amazing and incredibly gorgeous. Keep filthing it up, Nurgle is pleased.

[Majkhel]

Fantastic work! I totally understand why you are proud of it, especially the discrete NMM on the gun's barrels  
The tank definitely looks and feels like a real beast

[Sherrypie]

@Sagentus: thanks! The weathering was so much fun, I'll definitely have to keep on experimenting with it.

 

@Wulf Vengis: heh, will do. Augusta per angusta, they say.

 

@Majkhel: cheers, that's my favorite part. Now I don't doubt for a moment that its beastly appearance wouldn't draw every anti-tank gun on it whenever it hits the field, but such is life :D

[Sherrypie]

In other news, bashed heads against a friend's orcs in Epic Armageddon. We didn't have time to finish the game, but it was fun nonetheless. Damn those heresy greenskins are tough, boyz with 5+ saves can be a real pain to remove when there's hundreds of them! Even the final air charge of my Deathshrouds, while reaping through over two dozen stands, barely dented the 'uge mobs while forcing them to break.

Next time, I'm bringing some artillery...   

[Sherrypie]

Did a bit of repainting, brought the older terminators up towards the current level of the rest of the army.

While not too much of a bother, it sure can be frustrating to paint over older works when they have been done with a different philosophy. In this case, painting edge highlights was a bit bothersome as the past me decided on the bright idea of sponging dirt on, which naturally accumulates mostly on the raised edges. Grr.

[Sherrypie]

Yay, painting!

Well, more repainting. This time the work continued on the very originators of the army, the upscaled tacticals (one of whom finally, after five years, received a base!).

 

Opening the picture really helps, for some reason the small thumbnail in B&C looks horrible.



I'll take some better individual photos once the other ten are painted and there's no game night immediately at hand, but for now I quite like how the drum magazine NMM turned out. As always, love to hear your thoughts.


 

Edited August 17, 2021 by Sherrypie

[Shovellovin]

Those look great! I imagine that getting all of your models redone in a similar paint scheme to be very satisfying. Once you've completed going through your older stuff, any plans for additions?

[Sherrypie]

Those look great! I imagine that getting all of your models redone in a similar paint scheme to be very satisfying. Once you've completed going through your older stuff, any plans for additions?

Thanks!

I love the visuals of a properly uniform force. Likewise it feels good when everything is on the same, acceptable level so there's no need to placate the impostor syndrome by trying to explain how "those bad paintjobs are from years ago". Just nicer this way :D

 

As for additions, there certainly are plans afoot for the Echoes. Mortarion's clone (daemon prince), failed librarians (possessed or spawn), destroyer squads (melee oriented plague marines), more terminators (I still need simple combimelta models), more apothecaries (where my 21st men at?), a siege breaker (Lord of Virulence stand-in), artillery (Scorpius / blightcrawler assets), mk III tactical hordes in general...

 

Plenty of ideas to go on, before we even get to the another 400+ models I've got lined up for the Epic side of the army!

 

As a tangent, I also acquired some old Krieg and Steel Legion guard a while ago, which could expand the mortal follower side of the XIV nicely. Their fluff posits the legion remnants as secessionists, with their own forgotten backwater domains, which naturally means there are PDF troops and auxiliaries they can call upon. Or terrorize into submission, if I fancy pitting them against each other for some photography fun :D

Edited August 18, 2021 by Sherrypie

[Sherrypie]

Hello!

Had a game with a friend who doesn't enjoy the basic matched system of 9th, so we whipped up a little narrative blast instead. Glacer's Creek, aka Rorke's Drift from the19th century Zulu wars, is a delightful classic and seemed a good fit for the amount of miniatures we had at hand.

The core of the scenario is simple: 1000 points of defenders sit in a hastily fortified location, in this case a remote bio-research facility, trying to survive 3-5 waves of varying enemies coming to get them. If half of the attacking models die, a wave ends. Defender's casualties are rolled for between the rounds, they can either die, return to the ranks with a band-aid or get put in a makeshift hospital to see if they can be patched up later. Should there be any defenders left at the end of the final wave, they win.

With that in mind, let us set the scene!

The Battle for the Bio-Labs

At the distant backwaters of the galaxy, there exists a diminutive, discreet shadow empire ruled by their post-human Astartes overlords. Calling themselves the Echoes of Eisenstein, these marines consider themselves the true heirs of the XIV Legiones Astartes, the Unbroken Blades who never fell to the fell embrace of the Plaguefather. Though loyal to the cause of humanity, the millenia have not been kind and by the 41st millenium, their lot is that of open secession in all but name as far as the Imperium is concerned. Dour and stoic as ever before, the Death Guard however take this in stride and carry on with their clandestine wars. Bitter is the hate festering in them, seeing how the rotting Imperium they were made to protect slowly crumbles into further insanity and self-destruction as it ever pushes them further away, but for which they must still take up their arms and die if there should ever be a better tomorrow. Their bloated, fallen kin in the darkness of the Eye stand as an unforgivable example of what awaits, should they ever again become so lofty as to think nothing of the little people sheltering behind their might. Even if there is no hope, only slow decay and eventual collapse of it all, there is no despair and struggle, no such humiliation by the words of their erstwhile allies, that they won't endure to keep the unthinkable dream alive. The futility of it all is grimly amusing for their warriors, almost a point of pride even.

In one of their many secret holdings, Captain-Commander Erasmus and his terminator guard have come to meet the apothecary doctor running an important gene-engineering project. Situation around the planet has become increasingly dire with alien lifeforms making planetfall, requiring immediate bolstering of existing facilities. Abruptly, the radars start screaming. There is no time, the xenos are already here.




Barrels and crates are thrown to makeshift barricades as men scramble to firing positions.








"Prepare the labs! I will stop them here!" Erasmus growls.



Meanwhile, in the falling dusk, the alien monsters creep closer...



The first, exploratory wave is quickly cut down in a storm of bolter fire. Though the xenos are pushed back, a rampaging carnifex manages to down one of the terminators and couple of lesser men.




The second wave takes a suicidal charge from one of the terminator teams sallying out of the facility to break, but is likewise thrown back in tatters in short order.






While the Doc manages to patch some of the terminator brethren back on their feet, the approaching third wave thunders closer with much more force. Hulking monsters and massed smaller nightmares scitter on the dunes and charge forwards from the darkness.





As fighting heats up on the trash heap side, at the other side the second terminator squad sallies forwards under covering fire from the rooftops to take the fight to the enemy, crushing raveners, rippers, gants and the heavier fire support beasts as they charge over.






 

[Sherrypie]

Blargh, forum limits... here's the ending:

 

While that side gets taken care of, the central square is overran. The few terminators there cannot hold against the psionic might of the leader beasts and get mopped up by 'stealers in rapid succession. The auxiliaries don't fare much better and are unceremoniously cut down.





The situation looks bad for a moment, but Erasmus strikes the scene like a thunderbolt. His scythe blazing and sizzling with burning alien ichor, the captain of the Death Guard reaps a terrible tally through the assailants.




Seeing how blunted their attack is, the more intelligent among the xenos decide to scurry off, shielded by the remaining swarm of unimportant monsters. Though their back is broken and no further attacks will come, there is a momentary shock as Doc gets trampled into the dust by another carnifex before being blasted in the face by the captain's meltagun. By a whim of the fates, he does however survive the encounter with mere broken bones, cushioned as he was by the soft sand and thus no knowledge is lost.

****

Victory for the defending Death Guard, with plenty of marines still left standing at the end! Three auxiliaries managed to make it out alive as well, beyond anyone's expectations :D

The scenario is a blast to play and I encourage everyone to give it a shot, though this matchup might not have been the best if mounting casualties and desperation is sought. The Death Guard are hard as nails and an absolute nightmare to remove from entrenched positions, while Tyranids have plenty of weak bodies and their shooting is somewhat lackluster, meaning they have a hard time closing in for the kill before the waves end. The final wave had 88 'nid bodies on the field! Broodlords are quite devastating in this setup, though.

Thanks for reading, happy wargaming.



 

[Naryn]

Great writeup, I'll have to try this with some gaming buddies! Out of curiosity, you described this scenario as a wargaming classic--are there any other interesting setups like this you'd recommend? My classic wargaming knowledge is sadly lacking, but tbis was a fascinating read and looks like it made for really engaging gameplay.

[Sherrypie]

Great writeup, I'll have to try this with some gaming buddies! Out of curiosity, you described this scenario as a wargaming classic--are there any other interesting setups like this you'd recommend? My classic wargaming knowledge is sadly lacking, but tbis was a fascinating read and looks like it made for really engaging gameplay.

Glad you liked it!

 

I would consider the scenario a classic, both within 40k and in larger context. In general, the historical battle of Rorke's Drift is as close as you get to a platonic last stand that isn't simply a massacre: a small group of soldiers with nowhere to run take on a way larger opponent, fighting to their last, making the assailant pay for every feet of ground lost, wounded shooting from the windows of their makeshift hospice and through some utterly unlikely stint of luck and desperation actually manage to survive. The game version is of course based more on the Zulu!-movie, which is amazing in its own right, but hey ho. Within 40k circles, it's both old (first appearing before the last millenium closed) and beloved (enough to warrant a rerun for 8th edition a couple of years back), but most importantly it shows that YOU, as a person playing the game, can take it out of the "2k, matched only" corner some people have locked themselves in and do something COOL, something DIFFERENT, with it. Whole notions like equal armies, turn structures, comparable victory conditions and such are thrown out of the window in a drastic change that still results in a very fun game. For that reason alone, I would urge everyone to try things like it out every now and then. Rules for the 8th edition version are easily googled, the pdf is on the first page.

 

For other interesting setups, there are plenty of scenario seeds that can be utilized. Siegelines, breakthroughs, desperate city defences, infiltrating outposts, breaking out of encirclements, rescuing important individuals... Funnily enough, while most of the matched community ignored the CA narrative missions during 8th, I found them pretty great as generic templates for interesting situations. Especially the Cities of Death parts, with things like a wholly defended deep city line with objectives that the attacker must take to win and cannot be reclaimed by the defender, or the one where the attacker tries to destroy an important building but doesn't exactly know which one of the six possible objectives it is and the clock is ticking. Or then there's the age old classic, Meat Grinder, where the attacker has twice the numbers and recycling troops to try and eradicate the defender to the last man within the time limit :D

 

Adapting ideas from other systems is also great for firing up one's imagination. I've thoroughly enjoyed the narratives and the glut of ideas presented in the Adeptus Titanicus books, for example. Environmental effects, staggered reinforcements, mid-game twists like a blinding sorcerous nova that turn the victory conditions different... heck, give me bunch of properly invested players and insert a games master system to the game like it had in Rogue Trader and I'd be a happy camper. Trying out what can be done and what styles work for different people is part of the fun.

[Sherrypie]

Hiyo!

Finally, had the opportunity to take a proper family portrait of my legions both titanic and astartes! I present you, (almost) all of the currently painted Ashen Gods and the Death Guard in their 6 mm glory!












Hope you enjoy!

Now there's only about as much again, waiting on the shelves for their time to get processed as well...  :P

 

[Sherrypie]

Back on the truescale XIV train, finally the 20 OG tacticals get the portraits they deserve taken!















 

[Sherrypie]

...grumble grumble only 20 pictures at a time, grumble grumble...

 

[Majkhel]

Loving the various crazy poses you did :D
They came out excellent!

[Sherrypie]

Thanks Majkhel.

 

I'm not entirely happy with some of the joints on the older works, but that's the nature of advancing in one's craft. Fortunately that's easily fixed, just gotta do better with the next batch :D

[Sherrypie]

Had a bash against a great Mad Max inspired counts-as Orks project of Diggaz.

The thin line of ceramite held, bent but unbroken, as the XIV reaped a grim tally and threw the gangers back to the desert. Honorable mention goes to the tactical sergeant, who stood against the boyz mob and the biker crew alone far longer than anyone expected before the surgeon and the captain destroyed everything :D





















 

[Sherrypie]

Finally started to put some pictures on my Instagram, if someone's interested:

https://www.instagram.com/sherrypiexiv/

More to follow.

[Sherrypie]

Felt like building something for a change.

Keeping with the tradition, our chemical warfare unit needed a siegebreaker to coordinate some good old bombardments from the front (Lord of Virulence). The overtly long nozzle of the thrower likely contains an aerosolization chamber and a pressure driver for the corrosive concoction that is mixed through the various tubes of the contraption. All utterly necessary without any compensation factor built in, of course :D  




Added another wretch to the failed Librarius as well, bringing their number to ten:

[Sherrypie]

Yay, paint!

Inspired by the sudden desire to play with some of my older models without dying of internal embarrasment over their mediocre paintjob, the great updating effort continued with some dreads and the old medicae captain. Especially the green parts, some of the weathering and added powders were dealt with to tie the army together.

Clicking shows the deetz ;)

The melee Contemptor:






The original generalist Contemptor from 2016. Originally I had put some widening bits to the shoulders, but over the years got convinced that they looked a bit silly. Off with them, then!






The original leader from 2016 as well, now finally with some bloody highlights in his armour. Urgh!





Hey, something new as well! Another witch joins the ranks, so I can now finally play two Plaguecasters without proxying them with my tactical vexilla marines.





Hope you like 'em.

 

[Majkhel]

Very good job updating the Contemptors and medicae!

I also relly like the fact you used that fantastic helmet on the Plaguecaster and that he's firing-without-looking :D
The axe head seems a bit on the small side for an astartes, although it obviously makes up for it in it's enormous ceremonial and mystical importance ;)

[Sherrypie]

Very good job updating the Contemptors and medicae!

I also relly like the fact you used that fantastic helmet on the Plaguecaster and that he's firing-without-looking

The axe head seems a bit on the small side for an astartes, although it obviously makes up for it in it's enormous ceremonial and mystical importance

Cheers Majkhel!

He's clearly got something better to do than bother with aiming, the poor wretch getting shot was probably going to die either way with the way my witches keep blasting mortals to their graves with random fallout damage from their actual rituals!

 

I do generally like my weapons sized more sensibly for their purpose, like that battle axe over there would be pretty apt for a warrior of his size with the presupposition that the axe-head needs to incorporate the power field generators as well. Similarily, when I get around to making melee marines for the line squads, they'll have pickaxes, hammers and all sorts of trench weapons that look oddly small in Astartes hands when our eyes have gotten used to the humongous Berserk-level spades most models seem to be lugging around ;)

[Majkhel]

A fair point by all means

I fully agree that considering the actual man's dimensions, an axe's head of this size is more than adequate to cause serious harm to anything it hits.