Civs 40k Narrative Collection

I took a group photo of my army. This will likely be it for now, I’ve got the force I want, next up is learning to use it.

There are some bits to tidy up and finish off but ill get to those as and when.

It’s been nice doing another cadian army and learning a bunch of stuff along the way.

During this project ive:

• Printed my own decals
• Used an airbrush
• Used oils to weather
• Used sponging to weather
• Painted a vehicle

Ive also tried to focus on the important stuff like faces and bases, spending a lot less time on the rest of the model.

Their next outing is against Abaddon and a host of terminators so we shall see how that goes…

So i wanted to start capturing the funny bits in our 40k games, you know where that one in a million thing goes off and you have a good laugh over it. This is going to tie in with the narrative way im approaching these games now and i want to try and write something similar to those little extracts you see in the 40k codex’s, something a few paragraphs long but which gives you a little window into the 40k world and the ongoing battles.

Below is my first attempt, the background being an Ork mob making it across the battlefield to charge into a terminator squad. All the orks bar the rokkit launcher attacked and failed to do a thing to the marines. The rokkit launcher ork then preceded to show them all up by killing off a terminator (in combat no less). The return attacks from the marines didnt kill a single ork and i like to think they were all so surprised that they lost one of their number to a lowly ork boy that they failed to even swing their weapons.

Zogrot came charging across the blasted battlefield, rokkit launcher held tight and a wild grin stretched across his ugly green face. Around him thundered his mob of Ork boyz, roaring their way through smoke, craters, and the shriek of incoming fire. Ahead they could make out five hulking Ultramarine Terminators standing their ground, their ancient power armour gleaming through the smoke and storm bolters blazing.

“GET ’EM, BOYZ!” the Nob bellowed as he hurled himself towards them. Several boyz followed him in and crashed into the Terminators, hacking and stabbing with choppas, oblivious to their blows simply clanging uselessly off the Terminators’ armour. The Space Marines barely seemed to notice.

Zogrot, however, had a better idea. With a roar, he swung his rocket launcher around and jammed it under the helmet of the nearest Terminator. “OI, BLUE HUMIE! CATCH DIS!” He pulled the trigger. The rocket detonated at point-blank range, blasting the Terminator’s head clean from its shoulders.

For a moment, everyone stood frozen—including the Orks. Then Zogrot threw back his head and laughed. The surviving Terminators, temporarily dumbstruck that one of these Orks had managed to slay one of their number, snapped into action and unleashed their counterattack, power fists crashing down among the Boyz. Yet somehow, impossibly, not a single Ork fell. Whether the Terminators were genuinely stunned by what they had just witnessed, or whether Zogrot’s sheer stupidity had momentarily broken their concentration, nobody could say. Zogrot simply grinned, loaded another rokkit, and shouted, “WHO’S NEXT?”

Airbrush and first time using a sponge to paint with was surprisingly effective.

I even used some decals i had printed that were too big for the infantry but perfect for the vehicles.

So turns out the guard force i had in my head was a rapid attack force, which came as a surprise as I was reading the codex and recognise nearly all the units in my army.

Now I’ve done the sentinels but had been sitting on Chimera and hellhound for some time. The main reason for this is I’ve never been comfortable painting armour. Starting out in fantasy I could paint troops for days but big flat blank panels I just didn’t know how to even approach.

Finally getting in some airbrush practice in recently I decided to do a bit of research on how to tackle these vehicles. I found a great YouTube video (link below) that did a winter chimera variant which was perfect for my white themed army.

Now being a bit silly I didnt take any progress pics, I just followed the video and to my surprise the tanks turned out okay.

So I’ve got these to a tabletop ready standard.

They even got a game in and managed to get the nob all the way across the board to destroy a tank with one boy left.

That game did make me realise I needed a break from the Orks. Ive painted up a fair bit and made a sizeable dent in my grey pile o shame but taking several turns of marching across the board was a bit boring.

Next up ill be back to my guard army who are in need of some light armour. Now who knows how to paint tanks?

So next step is another 250 points to the army, i have a load of Stormboyz already so time to get the green paint out again. I undercoated brown to do the bulk of the painting and undersprayed the flesh parts purple to do some quick shading and to be honest try something new. Ive then sprayed from above a dark green which i can use traditional brush painting from there.

Ive noted my list in the previous posts but my opponent took:

Marine Captain

10 Tactical marines incl. 1 sergeant, 1 flamer and 1 missile launcher

5 Terminators all with storm bolter and power fist

1 Dreadnought with melta and power fist

The tactical marines were deployed in a single unit of 10 but given you can only shoot at one target per squad i think next time they would get deployed in 2 units of 5.

The orks set up with the boyz covering the left and middle section of the board, the nobz and warboss also in the center ready to get stuck in and the Koptas on the right in some cover.

The marines bunched up on the right, tactical marines in the center and terminators and dreadnought flanking them.

The first turn saw the orks start, the nobz and the boyz rushing up the field as fast as possible.

The Koptas went forward staying in cover and took some shots at the tactical marine squad, being Str 8 AP3 it meant they would probably kill a marine if they hit them.

The marines fought back and shot at the koptas beringing one down, the cover and T5 saving them from being completely wiped.

The next turn the boyz and nobz all charge in, the nobz making short work of the tactical marines.

The boyz charging into the dreadnought were  not having such a good time though as it turned out they couldnt actually hurt it, even with the 40 odd attacks they got.

The dreadnought did manage to shoot one of the koptaz down though so it didnt go all the orks way.

The next turn the terminators counter charged and took out the nobz and my warboss but not before he took out 3 of the terminators in turn.

The dreadnought continued killing orks but due to their numbers they held firm for now.

The Kopta having no targets started to fly around the flank of the dreadnought.

I completely forgot to take a picture of the last turns but the boyz charged into the terminators and managed to take down one but just couldn’t break through the armour of the second and after another turn they broke and ran.

The Boyz attacking the dreadnought quickly followed suit and with only a single Kopta left on the field i conceded.

I had a great game and i think we learned a lot from playing.

Tactically things i learnt were:

• Try and attack the dreadnought with powerklaws or the rockits, once they were gone i had nothing to hurt it.
• The marines would have been better split into smaller units so they could use their flamer and not end up so restricted.

Rules things i learnt or need to look up:

• Learn how close combat and walkers work
• Learn how wound allocation works in combat, i.e can my powerklaw wielding nobz be targeted before they get to swing.
• Remember about morale checks and when to take them
• Look up the ork special rules, mainly furious charge and Waaaagh!

Tainted windmill do a fantastic set of statues which I think look right at home in a grimdark imperial city. Ive printed the guardian one out and cant wait to do the others and get them painted.

I think im going to go bronze as its easiest but am toying with a more white stone, a bit like the roman/greet statues .