Loyal sons of warring fathers

[Black Cohort]

The die had been cast.  It had happened weeks ago, on a world far from the one that Captain Martos of the Death Guard stood upon.  Only notionally part of the 3rd great company, his force of a little more than a thousand marines had been the core of a secondary fleet.  For years they had screened the flanks of larger fleets, and taken compliance of many lesser worlds unworthy of the attentions of the primary fleets.  Officially a position of much prestige, the senior Astartes of such a fleet felt like an exile from the core of the legion.  Raised from purely Barbarus marines, they had access to the full range of the astartes war machine.

 

Word had come from the Primarch, and any of questionable loyalty had been purged.  While only a handful of marines were removed, entire brigades of the Imperial army disappeared from the rosters of the fleet, as portions of ships vented atmosphere, ships never came out of the warp and forces were left unsupported in their current fight with the numberless orks.

 

Now they had abandoned that nameless world to the orks for now and had come for worlds of the Imperium.  There was much for which the realms of the Emperor had to account.

 

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Legate Marshal Starvos surveyed the trench lines laid out in front of him.  Against nearly any other foe, the layered defenses, kill zones, obstacles and counter attack lanes would doom the enemy.  Against Astartes, backed by a million warriors formerly of the Imperial army, it might slow down the first wave.  Fortunately, he commanded merely the first line of defense, and the might of an entire Solar Cohort was able to be brought to bear across this world if the Emperor required it.

 

 

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While the release of LI is still a few weeks away, I have begun planning on the initial forces for both sides of my LI forces.  Unlike my 28mm warhammer projects, I feel like it will be a good idea to have two forces so I can host games using entirely my stuff if required.

 

The marine side will be Death Guard, loyal sons of Mortarion.  If Imperial army/militia become available later, they will end up providing cannon fodder support bullet sponges for the Death guard.

 

Opposing the sons of Mortarion will be Solar Auxillia likely to be augmented by a small force of Custodes if they become available.

 

to start each side will get 1 Titan painted in yet to be determined legion colours.

Edited July 31, 2023 by Black Cohort

[Black Cohort]

Update 1

 

with the revised release date of LI on the horizon I have completed a test model for the Death Guard in 28mm.

 

And with starting to figure out the forces I actually "need" rather than want I looks like my initial order from is going to be something like:

 

Starter Box

Legion Astartes Infantry Box
2x Rhino Box

Solar Auxillia Infantry Box

Baneblade Box

 

Depending on the pricing I may get a 2nd starter box instead of the infantry boxes.

 

Now I should be clear that I don't intend to use the actual Legion Imperialis Rules, my gaming group has another "6mm" ruleset that we use that can cover WWII through sci-fi.  So really I need a mechanized Infantry Company plus a bunch of support assets and reinforcement platoons.  The lack of transports for Solar Auxillia is annoying.

 

What this does mean, is that I am going to try to build a few veteran squads hopefully 2 each of plasma and missile launchers, and squeeze out a terminator command squad.

 

I am frustrated the way some of the boxes are constructed, as I don't need the some amounts of 4+ unit types, and at least in the infantry boxes the ratio of basic infantry to specialist squads.  And while I don't plan to do it, how would someone build a terminator or assault company with the way the infantry boxes are built?  You would need 4+ boxes of infantry and have no terminators or assault squads left over to support your other companies, and then you have 16 contemptors which seems like a crazy number.  This problem will repeat itself when stuff like the support and recon boxes start dropping.

 

Also hopefully we eventually get other weapons for various support squads, where are my meltas, heavy bolters and volkites.  Even Solar Auxillia need Veterans with Volkites.

[Pacific81]

With the way that the sprues are comprised we are actually going back to the (perhaps unavoidable) issue that we used to have 30 years ago when playing Epic Space Marine! Not so much for marines, but for forces like Eldar it was a nightmare collecting aspect warriors or Exarchs, as you only got a few miniatues of each type on a sprue, meaning you sometimes had to buy multiple boxes for one unit type, and got left with loads of 'chaff'!

 

In those days people had some creative ways around it, mini diorama bases so you only had to use a couple of minis for a base - a heavy weapon soldier on top of a ruin for example. You could try that, or now 30 years later social media will help, perhaps join a few of the FB Epic groups and ask for certain unit types once the game is released? I still do this when trying to round out collections or when I just need a few tanks or infantry. There is also Etsy or Vanguard miniatues if you don't mind using proxies, as away from plastic sprues you can just buy however many of the unit type you need.

[Black Cohort]

sourcing models from other places isn't a problem, but are they actually in scale?  a lot of the not-epic stuff is 6mm, while this is 8 or even 9mm.

[Noserenda]

Im pretty sure 3d printing is going to fill in any hole GW leaves these days :D 

[LameBeard]

I think in the internet age, splitting boxes or reselling your surplus is easier. The problem is the massive mismatch in demand: I feel there are many more people in my boat, who want more terminators and fewer auxilia infantry.

 

Come on GW, give us a full sprue of Tartaros in 8mm. It could even be a little sprue. It could even be given away in White Dwarf the next time you want to hide a price rise?

[Pacific81]

1 hour ago, Black Cohort said:

sourcing models from other places isn't a problem, but are they actually in scale?  a lot of the not-epic stuff is 6mm, while this is 8 or even 9mm.

3D prints are whatever scale you set them to. Most of the 'orbital Knights' you get on Etsy seem to be about 9-10mm which by many estimates is close to Legions, although we won't know for sure until is released.

 

Vanguard miniatues 'novan elite' are about 8.5mm - they are metal rather than plastic so a bit finer. Can you notice a mm in height on a tabletop several feet away? I would say no, but it's a bit subjective. I would say classic GW epic infantry will be a noticeable scale difference to the new stuff as they are a really tiny 6mm - you might get away with having them in different units but certainly wouldn't mount them on the same bases.

[Black Cohort]

Working on getting some more terrain done before I get busy with the actual LI miniatures.  Currently testing out some techniques to get some compounds built.

[Black Cohort]

Got another chunk of terrain painted and based.  This one is more of an industrial set up for a small mine, oil rig or forestry operation.

[Pacific81]

Fantastic! Love the little cars, I think details like that really set the terrain off and make it feel alive.

[Black Cohort]

So I stopped by the local game store and picked up the second box of rhinos I need, which given that my pre-order stuff is so far no where to be found, means that is all I have right now.  Also in case anyone is wondering each rhino sprue (each box has 2 identical sprues) has 2x multi-melta, 1x Havoc launcher, 3x twin-linked bolter and 10x bolter.

 

I have figured out the base Astartes company I am building around (the rules I am using you start with a core company and then add and subtract stuff for a specific scenario).

 

Death Guard Mechanized Line Company

Company Command

- Command Section

- Heavy Support Squad with Missile Launchers

- 2x rhino (one with multi-melta)

 

1st Platoon

- Command Section

- 2x Tactical Section

- Support Squad with Plasma Guns

- 4x rhinos (one with multi-melta, one with Havoc Launcher)

 

2nd Platoon

- Command Section

- 2x Tactical Section

- Support Squad with Plasma Guns

- 4x rhinos (one with multi-melta, one with Havoc Launcher)

 

3rd Platoon

- Command Section

- 2x Tactical Section

- Support Squad with Plasma Guns

- 4x rhinos (one with multi-melta, one with Havoc Launcher)

 

so the basic force needs 14 rhinos including 4x multi-meltas and 3x Havoc Launchers, currently the plan is to build the remainder as 1x Havoc Launchers (using all of them), 2x multi-meltas and 3x basic.

[Black Cohort]

So time for an update.  As you can see by the attached images I have been busy building all the stuff I got.  (Don't worry the first wave of Solar Auxillia is going to be primed today).

 

So far I have gotten 1 rhino fully painted and the other 9 from the first box primed, all the metal done and got started on the green.  Then all my other stuff arrived.

 

All my Astartes infantry and dreadnoughts are cleaned, on bases and primed.  I ended up with:

 

Command Squads x6

Terminator command squad x1 (4 terminators)

Assault marine command squad x1 (4 assault marines)

Tactical squads x10

plasma support squads x4

missile support squads x4

assault marines x4

terminators x4

Veteran Squad with plasma x4

Veteran Squad with missile launcher x3

Contemptors x8

 

I have also got a predator with both turret options and a Sicaran with the main gun ready to paint.

 

for the next few days I will continue focusing on building tanks and Solar Auxillia, I am at my parents place for a few weeks over the holidays and would rather only have to transport paints, rather than paints, glue, primer and other supplies.

 

I remain confused and frustrated by some of the choices GW made when designing these kits to go on sprue, some of the infantry models have a lot of extra plastic to trim and some of the pieces of armoured vehicles are really small and finicky (looking at you rhino side stacks).  Where are my terminator heavy weapons or flamers of any kind for astartes?  Also I feel like the infantry would have benefited from 30mm bases, several unit types barely fit on their bases and feel very busy on the current size.

[Black Cohort]

I bring you news of the Solar Auxillia.  Having used every LI base I currently have, nearly all my Solar Auxillia models have now been based and primed.

 

At this time the force ready for painting consists of:
2x Legate Commanders
17 lasrifle sections (including 4 stands that can be used as Auxillia tactical command detachments)
7 flamer support squads
6 veterans with power axes
1 veterans with volkites
2 Navy fire coordination teams (which could also be used as Auxillia tactical command detachments)
6 Ogryn squads
8 Heavy Sentinels
4 Leman Russ
2 Macaldors
1 Baneblade

 

I should be able to start painting at some point in the next few days, but probably won't be able to post pictures until the New Years weekend, travelling a bunch over the next couple of weeks.