= ] Call to Arms 2026 - FINAL SUMMARY [=

[Dr_Ruminahui]

   

 

  ASTARTES  | IMPERIUM  |  CHAOS  |  XENOS  |  HERESY

 

Call to Arms 2026 Final Summary

 

First of all, thankyou to the newcomers and returning members who participated in the 2026 Call to Arms, whether or not you completed your Vows, you have all made the event the success it has been. While participation is down somewhat  (not surprising, given the general reduction in board traffic), completion percentages were up and the five Strongholds completed 2,542 pts. of painted models which is an OUTSTANDING result by any metric.

 

 

 Stronghold Artificers

 

POLLS:  ASTARTES  |  IMPERIUM  |  CHAOS  |  XENOS  |  HERESY

 

Across the five Strongholds, the Mods and Admins faced the difficult task of voting for their favourite entries from within each Stronghold. These entries then faced off against one another in a Frater Poll to claim the title, and badge of Stronghold Artificer.

 

Below you will find the five Stronghold Artificers, please join me in congratulating them on their oustanding entries,

Spoiler

Astartes - @Brother Christopher's Black Templar successor Hellblasters

 

 

Imperium - @drakheart's Knight Destrier

 

 

 

Chaos - @WBRBloom's classic Ahriman

 

 

 

Xenos - @andes' Ork Big Boss

 

 

 

Heresy - @richmarine's Salamander Praetor in Saturnine Armour

 

This is a continuation of richmarine's success Call to Arms success with his Salamanders - he won the Heresy vote last year with his excellent Salamander Assault Squad.

 

 

 

 

Master Artificer

 

POLL:  MASTER ARTIFICER POLL

 

Once the five Stronghold Artificers had been selected by the Frater, they faced a new poll against one another, this time to claim the title and badge of Master Artificer.  While each of the contestants is a veritable work of art, ultimately there could only be one winner.

 

 

Surviving three rounds of voting, from a sea of outstanding entries, please join me in congratulating 2026's Call to Arms Master Artificer...

Spoiler

@richmarine

 

 

richmarines's AMAZING heresy era Salamander Praetor in Saturnine Armour was as standout model from the beginning, and is a most deserving recipient of the Master Artificer title.

 

 

Princepts

 

 @TPS

 

 

This year we only had 1 titan sized model this year... which is still more than last year, where there were no titan sized entries.  That said, I'm sure everyone will agree that TPS's Tau Tigershark is more than worth the recognition in its own right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favourite Young Blood

 

@Rowland

 

 

Despite not having any competitors, check out his work (and here) - it is truly excellent and deserving of the recognition, especially given his inexperience in the hobby and his very respectable 51 completed points.  With such an excellent start to his hobby journey, I can't wait to see what he does in the future.
 

Master of the Forge

 

POLL:  MASTER OF THE FORGE

 

This year's Master of the Forge featured 14 entries, each a masterpiece in their own right.

Please join me in congratulating 2026's Master of the Forge...

Spoiler

@Dr_Ruminahui

 

 

A fairly simple conversion of the Necromunda Malstrain Coalescence, its incredible creepiness may be what endeared it to B+C voters.  Thank you everyone.

 

 

Grand Marshal

 

This year we had 6 frater (up from 4 last year) who completed 100 points or more of models, a truly monumental achievement.  In ascending order of completed points, these were:

@TPS in the Xenos Stronghold, with 100 pnts.

@Khulu in the Chaos and Imperium Strongholds, with 105 pnts.

@Halandaar in the Astartes and Xenos Strongholds, with 128.5 pnts.

@lokkorex in the Heresy Stronghold with 167 pnts.

@Antarius in the Chaos and Imperium Strongholds with 220.5 pnts.

However, even these very impressive point totals were not enough to secure the title of Grand Marshal, which went to....

Spoiler

@SgtSharp

 

 

who completed an immense 256.5 pnts worth of models for the Imperium, Xenos and Strongholds, earning her the title for the third year in the row.

 

Imperium: Vow 1: 123.5 pnts - Complete

 

1x Rogal Dorn tank (6)

3x Taurox Primes (15)

2x Taurox (10)

5x Vertis Preators (10)

6x Custodes (6)

1x Shield Captain (5)

13x Scions (13)

1x Hypogryph (4)

1x Centaur (5)

1x Commissar (5)

1x Ursula Creed (5)

1x Commissar Yarrik (5)

10x Cadian shock troopers (10)

1x Castellan (5)

1x Inquisitor Ostromandeus with servitor and servoskull (6.5)

1x Veteran (1)

1x Ogrynn (2)

1x Psycher (5)

1x Zealot/Priest (5)

Xenos:  Vow 1: 117 pnts - Complete

 

40x Gretchin (40)
4x Runt herds (4)
1x Warboss (5)
10x Termagaunts (10)
11x Neuroguants (11)
1x Patriarch (5)
1x Neurotyrant (5)
1x Saboteur (5)
1x Primus (5)
1x Screamer Killer (5)
10x Neophyte hybrids (10)
5x GSC bikers (10)
4x assorted tokens (2)

Chaos - Vow 1: 16 pnts - Complete

 

10x Traitor guardsmen (10)
6x Pox walkers (6)

 

 

Now we come to the answer we've all been waiting for;

Which Stronghold has claimed victory, and bragging rights over the others?

 

 

Masters of the Horde

 

This badge is awarded to the participants of the Stronghold that completed the highest overall points worth of models.

Please join me in congratulating the....

Spoiler

Astartes Stronghold

 

 

Out of 788.5 points worth of models pledged, the various Astartes subfactions manged to complete 715.5 points worth of models, securing the title from the Xenos who had it last year.   This amounts to a 90.74% Completion Rate, which is very impressive, and a huge improvement over its 3rd place finish last year.

Unlike last year, where the gap between Xenos and Heresy was only 2 (!) points, this year Astartes was over 100 points ahead of its runner up, the Xenos Stronghold.

If you completed your Vows in the Astartes Stronghold, you may add the Masters of the Horde badge to your signature.

 

Coming in 2nd, the Xenos Stronghold completed 602.5 pts worth of models,

Coming in 3rd, the Chaos Stronghold completed 424.5 pts worth of models,

Coming in 4th, the Heresy Stronghold completed 386 pts worth of models,

Coming in 5th, the Imperium Stronghold completed 382.5 pts worth of models.

As a note, although the Imperium Stronghold came in last this year, this is still a big improvement (almost double) over last year, when it completed only 198.5 pnts.

 

 

Masters of the Call

 

This badge is awarded to  the Participants of the Stronghold that has the Highest Participation vs. Completion Percentage.

Please join me in congratulating the...

Spoiler

Heresy Stronghold

 

 

Despite having a very respectable 13 participants (generally, the more participants the harder it is to have a high completion rate), it completed 386 pnts of its 404 pnts vowed, only dropping 2 vows worth a collective 18 pnts.

This secured a 95.54% Completion Rate - 3% higher than last year's completion rate, and 1% higher than the year before that.  It worth noting that, while very impressive, it won by extremely narrow margins with Chaos just 1.31 % behind.

If you completed your Vows in the Heresy Stronghold, you may add the Masters of the Call badge to your signature.

 

Coming in 2nd, the Chaos Stronghold achieved an 94.23 % Completion rate,

Coming in 3rd, the Astartes Stronghold achieved an 90.74 % Completion rate,

Coming in 4th, the Imperial Stronghold achieved 85.96 % Completion rate.

Coming in 5th, the Heresy Stronghold achieved 63.42 % Completion rate.

 

 

and with that, we are at the end. Thank you all, once again. Without your participation and support, this event would not be the success it was,

so pat yourselves on the back, maybe even a high-five, you all deserve it.

 

Hoping to see you all at the next Forge Event.....

 

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Previously there have been some issues with sizing/formatting to add these Badges into you Signatures, the *best and most reliable* way we've found to reduce these issues is to;

- Right click on the badge

- Select "Copy Image Link"

- Paste the link into your signature, and the forum software will automatically turn it into the image.

Edited 13 hours ago by Dr_Ruminahui

[kabaakaba]

What a great call to arms. I hope next year will be just as interesting.

[Dr. Clock]

This was an intense year. I had a few plans that didn't turn out, but I reacted in time. Pretty chuffed to have achieved my goal of equally supporting and undermining every Stronghold by completing a vow in each. Double chuffed with the Artificer Badge; big thanks for the votes on my Imperial Laser Arachna-Gallii.

 

Ta till next time, and all proper respects to @Dr_Ruminahui for deft administration of this Call to Arms!

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Back before I ran CtA, when I was the head Chaos Stronghold cheerleader, I used to do wrap up "joke" awards recognizing various members for "achievements" not captured by the official Call to Arms awards (and badge) structure.  Anyway, I thought it would be fun to do something like that for the broader Call to Arms this year.

 

These are just things that I noticed while compiling my scores that I felt were interesting, funny, heart wrenching or otherwise caught my attention and fancy.  This is why some many of them are rather self-referential.

 

Note, some of these call attention to members missing their vows (or otherwise might be viewed as negative) -  these "call outs" are not meant to be taken as criticism.  The intent is give rise to empathy and comraderie, and maybe a rueful chuckle.  That said, if you feel uncomfortable having your name listed here, send me a message and I'll remove it and your "award".

 

In no particular order:

 

Got to Catch Them All - for completing vows in all 5 Strongholds: @Brother Argent, @Dr. Clock & @Lord_Ikka.

Da' Biggest - for the largest completed model: @TPS for his Tigershark.

Da' Creepiest - for the most disturbing model: @Dr_Ruminahui for whatever this thing is.

The Bare Minimum - for the smallest vow: @Heraclite, who had one vow of 0.5 points.

An Ork Too Far - for having a failed vow invalidate a successful one: @Focslain (ouch - and despite a very valiant attempt).

(Imperial) Double Agent - for successfully completing a vow in one stronghold, while failing in others: @Focslain, @kabaakaba & @_Saracen.

Anything you can do, I can do better - for painting the same model I did, but better: @crimsondave for his vindicator.

Speed Demon - for shortest gap between vow and completion: @Heraclite, who completed this model under 24 hours. @Halandaar also qualifies, as although he was slightly slower (I think - I don't have time stamps), he painted these two models in about about the same time.

These Aren't the Orks you are Looking For - for subfaction vow(s) least representative of subfaction: @Halandaar, whose vow for the Aeldari subfaction was entirely orks.

Most Based - Best base: @Lautrec the Embraced for this base.

Retro - Most/best classic mini: @WBRBloom for his Ahriman

Hottest New Thing - for most represented model(s): Definitely the Space Marine half of the Armegeddon box, though I haven't checked to see which model out of it appeared the most (probably the Librarian, but I haven't actually counted).  Runner up would be the ork side of that box.

Out of the Woodworks - for the subfaction that had the biggest increase in participation: Genestealer Cults, from going from no participants to most Xenos painted.

Zero to Hero - for biggest increase in subfaction performance: to Deathguard, going from 0% completion last year, to 94% this year and most Chaos painted.

Codex Noncompliant - for worst performing Astartes subfaction: Ultramarines, which had the Stronghold's only 2 dropped votes and worst completed points (total and %).

Let there be Knights- for most drastic appearance of subfaction iconic models: Imperial Knights, for actually featuring knights this year.

 

... and last (and definitely least):

Conflict of Interest - for the subfaction featuring the highest percentage of event organizers: Emperor's Children (100%).

 

 

Anyway, hope you found these as amusing as I did.

 

Thanks again to everyone for their participation and making this such a great event.

 

Edited 9 hours ago by Dr_Ruminahui

[kabaakaba]

13 minutes ago, Dr_Ruminahui said:

(Imperial) Double Agent - for successfully completing a vow in one stronghold, while failing in others: @Focslain, @kabaakaba &

and now I wanna proper badge for this

[richmarine]

Awesome. Thanks for the votes and running the competition @Dr_Ruminahui always gets me to finish my armies (but this one took a year to finish 1500)

but my badge says 25! 

Edited 2 hours ago by richmarine