The Aksha'i Cruentes - A World Eater Crusade Log

[Cheex]

The Aksha'i Cruentes

The Aksha'i Cruentes (from Nagrakali aksha: 'battle axe, army'; High Gothic cruentes: 'bloodthirsty') is a warband of Heretic Astartes, originally formed by a zealous conclave of warriors from the World Eaters Legion during the Heresy. They have dedicated every moment of their existence to spreading war throughout the galaxy. Even if they are repelled, the sector they were repelled from is invariably drowned in violence and civil strife for decades to come.

Led by the warlord Bardûl, the self-styled 'Hand of Khorne', the Cruentes were once a large confederation of World Eater warbands. At the time of the 13th Black Crusade, they had lanced deep into Imperial territory; when the Great Rift tore the galaxy in half, the cataclysmic storms swept directly through their battlefleet and scattered their constituent warbands across the stars.

Far from angered by this development, Bardûl believed this to be a gift from the Bloodfather. With his armies spread all over the galaxy, they would ravage worlds across its entire breadth. Setting out with his flagship, the Eternal Warrior, and its skeleton crew, he has begun gathering the forces of Khorne once more.

---

With the release of the new Codex: Chaos Space Marines, I've restarted my Crusade force. Our group is engaging in a loose narrative campaign, where the first few battles will be at 25PL and escalating from there. The campaign actually started a couple of weeks ago, so the next few posts will backdating to get up to the current date.

[Cheex]

Spoiler

Notable Members

Bardûl, the Hand of Khorne

 

Formerly a member of the World Eaters' elite Terminator squads, Bardûl rose to prominence when the former master of the Cruentes, Achaeus, descended irrevocably into madness. Leading his most trusted Terminators against the blood-maddened tyrant, Bardûl attacked Achaeus on his command deck. Despite grievous injuries, Bardûl pushed past his adversary's defences and rammed his chainfist into the Astartes's innards.

He was not automatically granted leadership of the Cruentes, however. Seven more challengers claimed the position, and Bardûl dispatched every one of them even in his battle-weary state. He earned the right to command the Cruentes.

Claiming his title as the Hand of Khorne, Bardûl claimed to be the mortal who would wield the Blood God's armies as a weapon, to spread bloodshed and violence across the galaxy. In battle, Bardûl is indomitable in his heavy Terminator plate, and actively seeks out the most powerful of the enemy champions to slay them himself.

He has the Disciple of Khorne Warlord Trait, but currently has no Relics.

Kratus, Terminator Champion

Amongst Bardûl's most veteran warriors, Kratus leads his master's elite bodyguard. Kratus and his squad were dispatched to assist another Cruentes warband, led by Xarian Doomgore, where they quickly earned a reputation for brutality and bloody efficiency. When Xarian proved to be an inept commander and warrior, Kratus and his Terminators deposed the failing champion.

Since re-integrating with Bardûl's warband, several of Kratus's warriors have been dispatched on missions - ostensibly to track down other Cruentes warbands, though in reality Bardûl is aware that the Terminators together pose a threat to his leadership.

Kratus and his four Terminators have the Red Butchers stratagem applied to them, via the Specialist Reinforcements requisition.

Validon, Berzerker Champion

Validon is one of Bardûl's longest-serving Berzerker Champions, and has been instrumental to the cohesion of the Cruentes as a fighting force. He instituted a gradual change to the Eternal Warrior's fighting pits: instead of individual combat, the pits would focus more on squad-based combat. Through repeated training in this manner over hundreds of years, the instinct to fight in a squad of brothers became so ingrained that even in the deepest frenzy, Berzerkers would know to fight together.

Validon leads nine Berzerkers, collectively known as the Bloodthunderers.

Dreior, Berzerker Champion

A newer member of the Cruentes, Dreior is a vat-grown gift from Fabius Bile's gene clinics. Implanted with false memories, he believes himself to be a veteran of the Long War, and despite his relative youth, he is a consummate fighter. He and his squad are often seen breaking through enemy lines and hunting down specific targets.

Dreior leads four Berzerkers known as the Hunters.

Gorm, Berzerker Champion

Another long-serving member of the Cruentes, Gorm leads the newest inductees into battle. His strict command gives these initiates their first taste at combat, and puts them on the path to becoming fully-fledged Berzerkers of the Cruentes. Gorm's habit of consuming the flesh of the dead, however, often permeates through the ranks of those under his command. As a result, a significant number of Cruentes share his cannibalistic tendencies.

Xarian the Bloody Idiot

Once the champion of a whole Cruentes warband, Xarian - formerly known also as Doomgore - was deposed of his position after it was apparent that he did not deserve to lead. Originally, he was the lieutenant of a rival World Eaters warband, the control over which he seized through betrayal, before he pledged them to Bardûl. As a reward for bolstering the ranks of the Cruentes, Xarian was gifted with command of his own warband and a rebellious Daemon sword.

The sword resisted Xarian's ownership at first, having not been seized through combat. However, after several battles, Xarian appeased the weapon by stabbing it through his own stomach. Amused by this attempt at sacrifice, the sword appeared to capitulate.

It soon became apparent that the sword still had not deemed Xarian worthy. Even though its power had been unlocked, it still rebelled at some of the worst moments possible, often leading to Xarian's defeat.

Out of frustration, several conspirators - including Kratus and his Terminators - turned on the champion, dismembering his body and burying the Daemon sword deep within the Eternal Warrior. Xarian was kept alive as an amusement, more than anything, and was interred within a dreadnought sarcophagus.

Xarian is a Helbrute, armed with a plasma cannon and hammer.

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by Cheex
Converted post into Blog link

[Cheex]

 

Spoiler

Battle 1: 25PL Skirmish vs Death Guard, Survey and Secure

15 July, 2022

The first battle the Cruentes took part in for this Crusade was 25PL against a mate's Death Guard. This was his first 40k game, so we kept the mission to a simple one from Beyond the Veil. I chose the Agenda that would get me Dark God Glory points for performing an action at the centre of the board.

The story behind this mission is that our forces are jointly invading an Imperial world that has until recently been isolated by Warp storms. As Imperial reinforcements arrive in-system, the World Eaters give in to their bloodlust and start hunting their allies in the heart of an occupied Hive city.

Bardûl led this battle, accompanied by the two small squads of Berzerkers, led by Dreior and Gorm, and Xarian the Helbrute. Opposing them was a Daemon Prince, two small squads of Plague Marines, and a small blob of Poxwalkers.

Being an introductory game, I didn't take any photos and tried to let my opponent have a few hero moments to keep it fun. In the end, I accidentally wiped him anyway, however he won the game on points. Bardûl and Xarian the Helbrute were the only models left on the table; Bardûl had killed the Daemon Prince and several Poxwalkers, while Xarian demolished everything else in melee.

Despite losing the battle, I still gained 3 Chaos Points to put towards my various trackers, plus one Dark God Glory point for achieving the Agenda once. Both Bardûl and Xarian gained 5XP, so were close to levelling up already.

Bardûl's Personal Glory: 4 -> 4

Khorne's Dark God Glory: 4 -> 5

Cruentes' Warfleet Glory: 4 -> 4

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by Cheex
Converted post into Blog link

[Cheex]

 

Spoiler

Battle 2: 25PL Skirmish vs Necrons, Cut Supply Lines

22 July, 2022

While hunting for new prey, the Cruentes discovered a cache of useful technology they could secure for bartering with the Dark Mechanicum. As they were securing the site, a Necron force led by Illuminor Szeras attacked their position.

Bardûl personally led this force, and was once more accompanied by Dreior and Gorm's two small Berzerker squads, as well as Xarian the Helbrute. The mission forced me to split my army in two parts, and forced me to deploy my whole army first, but gave me two objectives to defend. For my Agenda, I took the one that would give me Warfleet Glory, which gave me three extra objectives to grab and bring back to my deployment zone.

On my left, Xarian achieved nothing: he downed three Warriors, one of which promptly stood up, and the other two got back up over the game. In return, Xarian was one-shotted by a lucky blast from Szeras:

Bardûl and a squad of Berzerkers, meanwhile, made short work of a unit of Praetorians: on my right

However, this left the Berzerkers in my centre open to attack from Skorpekh Destroyers...who, in turn, were counterattacked by the Berzerkers on my right:

These Berzerkers then proceeded to claim one of my Agenda objectives and return it to my deployment zone.

While this was happening, Bardûl started his action on one of my Agenda objectives, but was rudely interrupted by Szeras. Szeras bounded around the outside of this storage tank, catching the veteran warrior by surprise and carving deep into his armour. In return, Bardûl severed a leg of his opponent before gripping Szeras's mechanical neck with his chainfist.

Szeras fought back, once more puncturing Bardûl's plate but not quite laying him low. Refusing to release his grip, Bardûl ripped his enemy's head clean from its shoulders. Armour broken and bleeding from several wounds, Bardûl faced down the Necron Warriors, who could not seem to hit his flesh with their Gauss rifles. In desperation, they charged the Chaos Lord, but just could not penetrate his defences. In return, Bardûl slew a total of five Warriors before the rest fell back.

Result: 55-5 victory for Khorne!

With the Necrons retreating, the Cruentes discovered what the xenos were after: under the battlefield was a vault of abhuman genetic experiments, which must've been of interest to the inquisitive Szeras. While the genetic material itself was useless to the World Eaters, the equipment within the vault was invaluable, and Bardûl dispatched it to the Eternal Warrior.

Bardûl's Personal Glory: 4 -> 3
Khorne's Dark God Glory: 5 -> 4
Cruentes' Warfleet Glory: 4 -> 8

But now comes the real fun part. After this battle, Bardûl levelled up; in addition, the mission Victor Bonus allowed me to grant one unit a Battle Honour. Did I decide to throw in my lot with the Chaos Gods and make a grab for immortality with two Chaos Boons? You bet your heretical rear I did!

It went a little like this:

Quote

Following their skirmish with the bloodless xenos, the World Eaters discovered the gene vault and laboratory under the battlefield, a bounty coveted by Illuminor Szeras. While the gene stocks there were horribly mutated and disfigured, the equipment was extremely valuable. With this equipment dispatched to his flagship, the Eternal Warrior, Bardûl beseeched his daemonic patron for reward, for he had now defeated two enemy champions in single combat and had secured a mighty prize for the forces of Khorne.

Pain wracked his body, and he began to swell in size. He felt his skin begin to meld to his Terminator war plate, and damage to the armour began to heal as if organic. 

“More,” he muttered. He was the Hand of Khorne, he had once led a mighty war host in the War God’s name. He had armies spread all over the galaxy, shedding blood and spreading violence - all sworn to him.

“More!” he yelled. He needed more. He deserved more. 

“MORE!”

His armour split and mutated flesh erupted from the rents. He dropped his bolter as horns and tentacles sprouted from his tortured corpus. He shed his Terminator plate as a Zoat might shed its skin, and soon his monstrous transformation was complete.

“Bleorgh fur th’ bleorgh goooooorrrr!”

The first roll was a 12 for +1 Wound, which was very suitable given that he refused to die in both of the games so far. Perfect!

Then the second roll...also a 12. Bardûl, in his arrogance, believed he was entitled to a greater reward than what was given to him and drank too greedily from the cup of immortality.

Time for me to start making a new Chaos Lord...

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by Cheex
Converted post into Blog link

[Kythnos]

Poor Bardûl. Instantly reminded me of one of the possible futures in the new story where the WE lord is consulting the oracle in the current codex. Classic chaos.

[Hathor42]

I can imagine the damaged form of Xarian laughing in the background.

[Cheex]

2 hours ago, Kythnos said:

Poor Bardûl. Instantly reminded me of one of the possible futures in the new story where the WE lord is consulting the oracle in the current codex. Classic chaos.

Hell yeah, I love that short story. It also reminds me of a story in the Slaves to Darkness rulebook of two brothers in their quests for Daemonhood, where one rises to the top and the other falls to Spawndom.

46 minutes ago, Hathor42 said:

I can imagine the damaged form of Xarian laughing in the background.

Oh I like that. Xarian starts cackling, and in his madness he never stops...

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Love your army and your story telling - the painting and photography is beautiful, and the story telling is concise and evocative.  You've managed to get it galaxy spanning in scope without falling to the common background failing of describing the army as the best thing ever.

Only bit that was a little off putting was describing Dreior as the newest Cruentes - if he is literally the newest person in the warband, it begs more explanation on how is a squad leader.  Maybe describe him as the newest squad leader, or give some explanation as to why the newest of newbie was given command of a bunch of more senior marines.

It was convenient that you had that spawn all ready to go - you should make your next commander have a "bunny ears" khornate helmet so that you can use the spawn head with the khorne symbol for your next spawn.

[Cheex]

On 7/28/2022 at 9:38 AM, Dr_Ruminahui said:

Love your army and your story telling - the painting and photography is beautiful, and the story telling is concise and evocative.  You've managed to get it galaxy spanning in scope without falling to the common background failing of describing the army as the best thing ever.

Thanks for the kind words!

On 7/28/2022 at 9:38 AM, Dr_Ruminahui said:

Only bit that was a little off putting was describing Dreior as the newest Cruentes - if he is literally the newest person in the warband, it begs more explanation on how is a squad leader.  Maybe describe him as the newest squad leader, or give some explanation as to why the newest of newbie was given command of a bunch of more senior marines.

That's why he's just a newer member of the warband, as opposed to the newest. I probably should have specified that the whole squad is similarly new to the warband.

Sidenote: I plan to give all three of those Berzerker Champions new models as they level up. Dreior is a few years old at this point, and both Validon and Gorm are well over a decade old, so they're all due for a glow-up.

On 7/28/2022 at 9:38 AM, Dr_Ruminahui said:

It was convenient that you had that spawn all ready to go - you should make your next commander have a "bunny ears" khornate helmet so that you can use the spawn head with the khorne symbol for your next spawn.

Ha, I have one of those Spawn already assembled and painted and was going to use him, but he was broken off his base and I got lazy.

Edited July 29, 2022 by Cheex

[Cheex]

 

 

Spoiler

Small Updates

Aside from the obvious change in leadership, there have been some updates since the last battle.

In our campaign, for the first two weeks we had a special rule in place:

Quote

Patrol Escalation
Each time a player completes a Combat Patrol battle, they may immediately use the INCREASE SUPPLY LIMIT [1RP] Requisition once to increase their Supply Limit by 10 Power (instead of the usual 5). 

This was essentially a 2-for-the-price-of-1 deal on increasing supplies after fighting a Combat Patrol game. I found that in previous Crusades, our group would just play 50PL/1000pt games but not bother spending resources to expand their supplies, to the point where Crusade became almost synonymous with small games, so this rule was to counteract that.

So, having fought two Combat Patrol battles, I had an extra 20PL of Supplies to play with. On top of that, I also reached the maximum level of Warfleet Glory, so opted to use the same Requisition one more time. I now have a total of 75PL worth of supplies to play with.

Starting this week, we'll be escalating our games to 50PL. With that in mind, we now have a few new additions to the Aksha'i Cruentes.

Blood Priest Baruda, Dark Apostle

 

An early convert to the Cult of the Blood God, Baruda was instrumental in the formation of the Cruentes. He wears the charcoal black armour of Loyalist chaplains in dark mockery of his misguided counterparts.

Baruda is an extremely - and some might say excessively - zealous individual, to the point that those around him view him with slight unease. However, there is no denying that his entreaties to the Dark Powers are an effective tool.

He has the Dark Zealotry, Wrathful Entreaty and Soultearer Portent prayers (I wanted to avoid the meta choices!). As yet, he does not have any Relics or Warlord Traits.

Thrax Gorechosen, Exalted Champion

Thrax is a wandering traveller, claiming to be an original member of the War Hounds Legion and claiming to be the bearer of the coveted relic, Gorefather. Regardless of the truth to his words, the Berzerkers who follow Thrax into battle are invariably inspired to great deeds of bloodshed as Thrax himself frequently seeks out the strongest enemies he can find.

Thrax is armed with the Gorefather relic and has the Flames of Spite Warlord Trait.

A New Leader Arises
Following the damnation of their former warlord, a brief conflict arose amongst the various champions of the Cruentes. Ultimately, such questions of leadership are always answered by personal strength in the fighting pits. Emerging victorious was Kratus, former bodyguard of Bardûl.

Owing to his new position, a new model is in order. Here's a little sneak peek of his new look:

Don't worry, once he's on a raised base, he'll be a touch talled than his old model!

Other Updates

• Old mate Xarian the Helbrute has become a Hate-fuelled Butcher, improving his Weapon Skill by 1.
• A Cultist Mob has been added. 
• Two Rhinos have been added. (One was actually already in the list, but I never mentioned it.)

Edited August 16, 2022 by Cheex
Converted post into Blog link

[Urauloth]

These models are great. Really characterful, and you've got some very nice use of parts going on there. Really liking the lore for these guys. Look forward to seeing more as your crusade develops!

[Cheex]

Played two more games last Friday, both against Custodes. Damn those guys hit hard - I might as well not have had 2 wounds!

Spoiler

Battle 3: 50PL Incursion vs Custodes, Entrapment
29 July, 2022

This was the inaugural battle under Kratus's leadership. He led five Red Butcher terminators, two squads of five Berzerkers in a Rhino, one squad of eight Berzerkers on foot. He was accompanied by Baruda the Dark Apostle and a small mob of Cultists.

My Agendas for this mission were to kill enemy characters for XP and Personal Glory, and sabotage terrain in the enemy deployment zone.

The Cruentes were "ambushing" the Custodes as the latter attempted to link up with other Imperial forces on the world of Janus, following a disasterous encounter with the T'au.

Unfortunately, Berzerkers are not known for their subtlety, so the Custodes were able to quickly react to the newcomers. The Blade Champion and Dreadnought charged my Rhino full of Berzerkers, who attempted to counterassault. Their berserk fury was enough to overcome the skill of the Blade Champion, who was barely left standing with several visible wounds. In return, however, the Berzerkers and Baruda were all scattered.

Meanwhile, the Custodes defending the rear of the column brought a withering hail of fire upon my eight Berzerkers on foot. Half the number were incapacitated by shooting, and another two were taken down by either Overwatch or Counter Assault (can't remember) but the remainder charged and cut down two of the Custodes. The last two Berzerkers eventually succumbed.

In hindsight, I probably should've popped a couple more strats on them (exploding 6s would've been nice!), as that lone Custodian would go off to score a ton of VPs by holding an objective I couldn't do much about.

The cultists were, predictably, demolished by enemy fire. Six died from a flamer from a Sister of Silence character, two more died from bolter fire, and the remaining two were later set ablaze by the same character.

Seeing things not proceeding to plan, Kratus and his Terminators slice through the Warp in a neat spearhead. In a spark of utter brilliance, Kratus places himself at the tip of the spear...and then everyone fails to charge, leaving him exposed to enemy fire.

Not pictured: my opponent also brought down some jump pack pistol guys (the name escapes me), which made my deep strike just that little bit harder. 

On the plus side, a well-placed meltagun shot badly damages the dreadnought. 

Thankfully, the Bloodfather rewards courage (or forgetfulness, not sure) and a series of excellent saves means that Kratus himself is left on a couple of wounds.

The following battle round was a little exciting, so I forgot to take photos. The Sword Champion and Dreadnought charge, with the Dread merely managing to incapacitate one Terminator. Kratus interrupts, finishing off the Sword Champion while the Terminators cut apart the Dreadnought.

In the following turn, Kratus charges and kills the Shield Captain very handily (I cannot recommend a chainfist enough, especially when you get rerolls to hit), while the Terminators chased down the Sisters character. One cheeky double-pile-in-and-consolidation later, and the Terminators had also tied up a unit of Sisters and shooty Custodes. (I like to call this move a "Khornesolidation".)

Unfortunately, Kratus's luck couldn't keep up with the firepower levelled at him.

The Terminators butchered the Sisters (they were very silent about dying, sadly) and the last shooty Custodian fell back to let everyone else shoot the Terminators. One Terminator was left at the bottom of the last turn, so he marched off to blow up a building as an Action. With three CPs left, I decided to spend two to be able shoot, and one more to shoot more accurately - which was just enough to also finish off the last shooty Custodian. 

Despite this Hail Mary charge, however, the Custodes had held on to the objectives long enough to claim victory.

This battle really demonstrated what I love the most about Crusade (other than being able to expand on my characters' narratives): you can lose the battle on objectives, but still achieve your Agendas to create moral victories.

Result: 65-35 Loss

Following their defeat against the perfidious xenos, the Custodes fell back through an industrial sector to attempt contact with the remaining Imperial forces. They knew they weren't alone, however, as the unmistakable sound of roaring chainaxes filled the air. Leading a heroic charge, the Custodian Blade Champion Ganorth Tychor suffered a horrific chest wound, however his sacrifice bought the force enough time to establish communications with their allies. The forces of the World Eaters had blooded themselves on the Emperor's chosen, but their ferocity was not enough.

Kratus's Personal Glory: 3 -> 4
Khorne's Dark God Glory: 4 -> 4
Cruentes' Warfleet Glory: 8 -> 7

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by Cheex
Converted post into Blog link

[Torbenos]

Loving what I am seeing here, both the narrative and the miniatures. This to me is how the game really shines, and it's always awesome to see people who've a community willing to play into the narrative side of things. Blood for the blood god!

[Cheex]

Thank you everyone for the kind words! I've been looking forward to finally having my own Crusade rules for years now, so I'm really enjoying this project.

Today is just a quick update to bring this log up to speed before I play another game tonight.

 

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by Cheex
Converted post into Blog link

[Cheex]

So with the B&C's Blog feature (re)activated, I've decided to start cataloguing my Crusade over there instead. I've finished moving all my previous posts over to the new blog, and have finally uploaded my battle from the 5th:

Enjoy!

Edited August 16, 2022 by Cheex

[Cheex]

Up to date again with the battles! Here's a 50PL battle against Orks from the 12th:

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Really enjoying the continuing saga of your red armoured nutters.

A couple of humourous (to me, anyway) observations:

-  Your notable members post needs updating, as Bardul's picture is out of date and while it is correct in saying he has no relics, he doesn't currently have a warlord trait either.

-  I understand the narrative constraint of having character driven stories in a game where everyone dies, all the time, but at times your posts read like the 1980s GI Joe Saturday morning cartoon version of 40K, where no one dies and they all jump out of the vehicles at the last moment as they explode.  Not that I think there is anyway around that, but it does make me smile and imagine whoever your current warlord happens to be giving some piece of wisdom at the end and then saying "And knowing is half the battle".

[Cheex]

5 hours ago, Dr_Ruminahui said:

Really enjoying the continuing saga of your red armoured nutters.

Thanks!

5 hours ago, Dr_Ruminahui said:

A couple of humourous (to me, anyway) observations:

-  Your notable members post needs updating, as Bardul's picture is out of date and while it is correct in saying he has no relics, he doesn't currently have a warlord trait either.

I'm tossing up exactly how to present changes to that list. My current line of thinking is that since threads are shown in date sequence, it makes more sense to announce changes in separate posts rather than updating the original list, otherwise it could interrupt the flow of the narrative as it were.

My other plan is to make a post in this thread that is a full list of units in my Order of Battle, with photos and brief backstory, and mark that post as a "solution". That will bump the post to the top of the thread, and I'll be able to keep that updated as things change.

There will also be an OOB update post soon, since a few big things have changed (most notably, Kratus being fully painted and gaining a new limb).

5 hours ago, Dr_Ruminahui said:

-  I understand the narrative constraint of having character driven stories in a game where everyone dies, all the time, but at times your posts read like the 1980s GI Joe Saturday morning cartoon version of 40K, where no one dies and they all jump out of the vehicles at the last moment as they explode.  Not that I think there is anyway around that, but it does make me smile and imagine whoever your current warlord happens to be giving some piece of wisdom at the end and then saying "And knowing is half the battle".

"I'll get you next time, [insert enemy here]!"

Unfortunately, with 40k games being the way they are, there's not really much that can be done about it, not without going through new characters every other game. Even if I went out of my way to avoid casualties at all costs, the game is simply too bloody to really represent the story.

It probably doesn't help that I keep losing battles 

Edited August 17, 2022 by Cheex

[Cheex]

Quick update on a couple of units in the Order of Battle, plus a little bit of background for Kratus:

[Cheex]

No games this week, but I did get a whole bunch of painting in! I painted up some new Berzerkers for Gorm's squad, who were previously all old Berzerkers. I also got started on some new Champion models to lead my squads, since they are definitely showing their age now.

Sidenote: yes, I know Berzerker Champions no longer get access to power fists, so these are purely aesthetic.

Also, a quick bonus tutorial: I discovered a quick and easy way to create Chaos-style damaged power cables, and thought I should share the method!

 

[Cheex]

Two quick updates today: Blood Priest Baruda gets a minor model revision, and the Cruentes have embarked on the Path of the Righteous:

 

[firestorm40k]

I really like the use of Corpse Grinder Ganger parts on the Dark Apostle - makes for a distinctive and characterful conversion! 

[Cheex]

On 8/25/2022 at 3:08 AM, firestorm40k said:

I really like the use of Corpse Grinder Ganger parts on the Dark Apostle - makes for a distinctive and characterful conversion! 

Thanks! It was a very easy kitbash, too - just took a little bit of carving part of the hood to make it fit into the neck socket.

Quick update: I played another game on the weekend, this time against Imperial Knights.

[Cheex]

I finished painting the new iterations of my three Berzerker Champions last night. This was a long time coming, and I'm very happy with how they turned out!

And yes, I know power fists aren't legal on Berzerker Champions now. I guess they'll just have to count as Berzerker Chain Weapons for now.

I'm a big fan of the Chosen kit, it's so full of characterful bits to make unit champions. I only used two of the bodies here, but I've got the other three stashed away for future conversions.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Love the new models - the are great updates of the old ones - better poses, better parts used (particulary in terms of heads and helmets) better paint jobs, all while retaining much of their original character.

In particular, I really like the orange-gold gold of the lenses and plasma pistol, and the bloody chin of the chainglaive model.  While I understand the desire to keep the original's skin tone, the pale skin of the new one serves as a better contrast to the gold trim of his armour and the blood on this face.

Yeah, right hand power fists are as pretty hard to find - if you ever need another, though, there is one in the raptors box, which can prove a source if you old supply of bits runs out of them.