Sanctum Alborum Militum Templi

My OTHER current Space Marine army

2011-01-12T11:45:00.001-06:00

As you may recall, I have another Space Marine army aside from my White Templars. It used to be a Salamander army, but that is probably coming to an end for a variety of reasons including the fact that it bothers me a lot to have this army not match the official Salamander paint scheme and the fact that my White Templars fit the bill of being a "Vanilla" Space Marine army. For the purposes of this post, I'm going to call these ex-Salamanders the "Emerald Griffons" which is just one of a ton of names I have considered for them. The Emerald Griffons look like the this:

You might note that this paint scheme looks a lot like the Disciples of Caliban, a Dark Angel spin-off; at least I did. I don't have a Dark Angel chapter and I have other designs for the Blood Angel successor I want to do someday, so it seemed a possibility. The Disciples of Caliban look like this:

Note the shoulder pads and trim reverse, the aquilla changes colors, and the lower arms and abdomen are all different. Still not too far off. I would also might have to remove the gold shoulder trim from the command squad. However, unless one is playing Deathwing or Ravenwing, there is not a lot of difference between Dark Angels and Vanilla Marines. The Dark Angels are somewhat more restricted in that they often seem to have a base squad size or an added group of people. You cannot add individual marines.

The big thing that Dark Angels bring to the table is that they can make Ravenwing or Deathwing armies. Being former Sallies, the Griffons have a lot of Terminators so I can almost make a Deathwind army right now which would be markedly different from my White Templar force. However, a Ravenwing force would NOT be much different from the White Templar bike army I am building except that the Ravenwing cannot have scout bikes though it can mix a land speeder into the biker units. Thus, one of the two things you get in exchange for having a more restricted general army build is not really of much interest to me.

(You may recall that I previously was going to use the Dark Angels as the gene-seed for the White Templars, however someone on BolternandChainsword convinced me that this meant I would have to use the DA Codex since "all" DA successors are Unforgiven. Having now reviewed that codex in detail, I am not convinced. In several places it says that the term Unforgiven is limited to the DA and their Second Founding successors. I think a better reading of the codex is that only the Second Founding (and maybe the Disciples of Caliban) are Unforgiven.)

I am still probably going in the direction of the Disciples, at least for now. The fit is too good to ignore the possibility and I do LIKE the Dark Angel's fluff. I'm just not a huge fan of their codex.

So, for all you Dark Angel fans who avidly follow my blog, what do you think of a general or even tank heavy Dark Angel Army with no bikes or land speeders? Viable? How should I play it? Do you think I need to repaint the shoulders and aquilla of my Griffons or is there room in the Dark Angels for company color variations?

Army type - a possible change in direction

2011-01-07T16:09:00.000-06:00

I should probably start this post by explaining some things about how I select what army and what style within that army that I want to play . So about me:

I am affected by the aesthetics of the models. If it looks cool, I will want to fit it in, and if it looks dreadful then no matter how good the mechanics are, I won't want to include it. Examples of this are Obliterators (which I hate) and Thunderfire Cannons (which I think look neat if somewhat like Johnny-5).
I am contrarian which means if everyone is playing Army A, I will look to play anything other than Army A. The best example of this is probably my Sisters of Battle Army. Likewise, within any army, if there is a style that is currently out of fashion, that's what I will want to play.
I am affected by the genre, fluff, or whatever else you want to call it. If an army is supposed to be and act largely like X, then I will want to include that.
I am inclined to variety; I don't like homogenic lists. An example of such a list would be three identical ironclad dreadnoughts with pods, 4 identical landspeeders, 4 identical tactical squads with pods, and a librarian. Effective, yes. Monotonous, yes. Beardy, often. I prefer to have two or three different types of units from each category, for variety sake if nothing else. So for the elites, by way of example, I'd rather field 1 Sternguard, 1 Terminators, and 1 Dreadnought then 3 of any of these units.
I'd prefer to have my various armies feel different. If I did X, Y, & Z with my last army, I'll try to do A, B, & C with the next. The idea is to use things I previously avoided be it units, tactics, or whatnot.
If there is an official paint scheme, livery, etc. then i will want to follow it as exactly as I can and I get frustrated when not all variations are explained. For example, on a Novamarine, what denotes the company? How are sergeants marked? Etc. I get very frustrated when GW comes up with elaborate marking rules and then does not explain how their pre-created chapters conform. But I digress.

With that in mind, you may begin to understand where I got my idea for how I wanted my original White Templars to play. Actually, you won't without some more background. My first army was Blood Angels but I quickly put them aside - they were wonderfully effective (termie squads with a priest and lightning claws) but at the time, seemed one dimensional and slightly beardy (an opinion I no longer hold). So I began converting the red stuff into half red/half white stuff - Storm Lords based solely on the picture from the then Space Marine Codex. GW came out with Armageddon though and suddenly the Storm Lords had yellow heads which I hated. Good bye Storm Lords. Next, I tried a Salamander force a la Armageddon. My Sallies were tank, dreadnought, and terminator heavy and light on fast attack. Slow and solid to the man. I also began branching into a mechanized Dark Eldar force and a Sisters of Battle force (mostly because both armies were under played). With the advent of Tau, I began a Tau force, again because no one local to me played them. Then I took a decade long break from miniature gaming. Which brings me to my White Templars.

When I came back from my break, I decided to start a new Space Marine army. Like every army i start, this was going to be "the one." Like that ever lasts. Anyway, I did not want to go back to my Salamanders because they differ in significant ways from the way GW paints them. (My Sallies have black thighs and face masks and look sort of like White Panthers or Mortifcators in green instead of white.) So I looked hard at all the chapters in the How to Paint Space Marines book and finally decided to do White Templars. Partly this is because I thought white would look good on the predominately green tables and partly because I thought I could handle free-handing the emblem. I also knew I wanted no half or quartered designs - I'd had enough with that from my brief stint with my Storm Lords. Wanting to be different from my old Salamanders, I decided to go with drop pods (no tanks) and shooting (as opposed to assault). The core of a Space Marine force should be tactical squads and bolters after all. I also wanted to use the Sternguard and Thunderfire units because I liked the models and both drop podded.

So here is what I wanted to build - A drop pod force based on infantry squads. The idea was to use the pods to essentially pick deployment positions that mutually supported each other and which allowed me to use cover (including the pods) to shield me from one part of the opposing force while I concentrated on the other part of the opposing force. Further, I wanted to use the Thunderfire(s) to try to limit the mobility of the other side. I also wanted to try to keep my units as general and multi-purpose as possible. Previously, I was very good at killing MEQs and armor - I had a lot of plasma cannons, multi-meltas, and lascannons. I wanted to try to be better prepared for horde armies, so I wanted more missile launchers, assault cannons (love the look), etc. For this reason (and also because of what comes in the Assault on Black Reach box, I opted for normal, not assault terminators. I thought I'd back it up with a squadron of multi-melta land speeders for serious anti-tank work. Maybe put a unit of scouts in so I can have a teleport homer.

After studying other drop pod lists on various web forums and talking to a few people, I have become quite doubtful that the idea would work. Apparently in the switch to 5th Ed. all the 4th Ed stuff that worked well (transports, assault terminators, dreadnoughts, etc). all got better while the rest of the army got suckier. further, you take tactical squads not because they are good, but because you have to and then you try to figure out how to get by with as few as possible. At least that's the only conclusion I can come to when I see what is being played. "First tier" (I hate that kind of thinking) Space Marine armies are not gunline and not drop pod. I may still try this list, but it does not seem to be the future. I was also told flat out that the Librarian is the only and obvious choice for a HQ. I should scrap any idea I had of fielding a Captain unless I wanted to go bike.

So I first tried to find ways to improve the drop pod gunline list and one of the appealing ideas was to try to incorporate scout bikes to carry locater beacons. This led me to work around to taking my Captain and mounting him on a bike. A few evolutions later and I realize I am now contemplating a bike army complimented by a few drop pods to do things like get my dread and Sternguard into the backfield. I have some bikes from when I was contemplating Storm Lords and I haven't ever done an army based around the fast attack units.. This is probably where this army is now headed.

I have to admit, I like the idea of these guys, whom I have always thought of as being "knightly" mounting up on bikes, drawing swords, and racing off with their emblems blazoned on their shining storm shields. It just seems to fit. It also means I may try to find a way to make the tacticals a bit more man-at-arms-ish - not sure how though.

I also should mention that I am toying with using a Master of the Forge. On a bike. with a servo-harness. I know a lot of people want to mount him on a bike to get a relentless conversion beamer, and maybe that's a good idea. I want him on a bike because I'm a bike army and because I think a bike with all the servo arms would look awesome. I also like the idea of combining the Master's ability to count dreadnoughts as heavy choices with the Captain's ability to make bike squads troop choices. This is not so much because I want to field nine bike squads and six dreadnoughts, but rather because it allows me more flexibility in my selections. I could, for example, field the Sternguard, a tactical terminator unit, and two dreadnoughts. I could also, by way of another example, field two bike squads and still have room for an attack bike squad and two squadrons of land speeders. However, I'm not sure if this is feasible at 1850 points or less.

Still, if it isn't, the Master may come in handy in drop pod lists too because it lets you use dreads as tanks. I'm not thinking here of dropping in extra dreads as close attack. I'm thinking of equipping some as "rifleman" or other long range support and putting them in my backfield while other "close support" dreads drop in on top of the baddies. And the Master is not so bad himself having like 2 attacks and 3 power claw attacks and an armor save of 2+. Put him in a pod and let him lend his help to a tactical squad. Or I could put him on a bike and let him relentlessly beam around the board.

The interest in the Master of the Forge led me to the solution to another, minor problem I had been having. If you read my fluff piece about who the White Templars are, you will note that among its many problems I had decided to be a Dark Angels successor. Except that GW has apparently now said that ALL DA successors are after Cipher, not just the DA and their First Founding crowd. Since the White Templars are a Codex Chapter and I don't want to play Dark Angels, this gave me a problem. However, with my interest peeked in the Adeptus Mechanicus in the form of the Master and given that I have Techmarines and Thunderfires, it makes sense to consider being the child of the Praetors of Orpheus and thus Ultramarine successors. As you know, I always rejected the idea that because Templar is in the name, they must be Dorn's get. Being Ultra isn't ideal (no particularly "knightly" trappings, not like the Dark Angels or the Black Templars anyway), it works and it give them a reason to 1) have a lot of techmarinish stuff and 2) have white armor. It also lends some personality, especially since the Praetors were a chapter I considered hard when I was re-entering 40K. (They lost because I deemed GW more likely to monkey with them.)

So aside form that I still have my Steampunk Chaos Space Marines to work up and I'd love to do some Emperor's Spears or Blood Angels or maybe some Emperor's Spears that play as Blood Angels though that would seem to stretch things a bit since the former are supposed to be codex adherent. And then there are my Sallies, my Tau, my Dark Eldar, etc...... *sigh*

Testing e-posting

2011-01-07T12:59:00.001-06:00

Hi,

I'm testing the new e-posting feature I turned on. However, just so I can say I have 40K topics in the post, I finished my second ten-man tactical squad last night and began cutting the first drop pod off its sprue. I'm not going to type anymore in case this test post fails.

Finally, painted figures

2010-12-30T15:25:00.000-06:00

I finally have some pictures of the painted models that I have been posting that I am painting for over a year now. Actually, I had finished stuff about a month ago, I just didn't get around to photographing it... and I still haven't. The first unit I finished was a tactical squad, but I haven't photographed them. Ihe second unit I finished was half a terminator squad (meaning 5 models) and I haven't photographed them either. The next unit I finished was half a second tactical squad... which I also haven't photographed.

But then I finished a Thunderfire Cannon, a Dreadnought, and a Librarian in Tactical Dreadnought Armor. And I took pictures of all of them. On my iPhone which is why they are kind of blurry in some places. Sorry.

So without further ado...

With the dread, I added a mossy log that I am rather proud of. What I might change would be making the entire side of the sarcophagus gold. The shoulders conform to my veteran patterns. Finally, I gave him some personal heraldry on his knee. This guy basically came from the Assault on Black Reach box, and, aside from adding the mossy log, I also added the smoke launcher on top.

The base of the Thunderfire is a plastic card. It took a long, long time to get a smooth white on the plates, but overall I am very happy with it. I especially liked the bronze on the end of the gun barrel and the radar screens on both the rear of the cannon and the one the Techmarine is holding. I wish I had been able to do better with the striping on the shells. Putting this thing together was horrible - like unto the infamous Empire Steam Tank where nothing fit together well. I have a second one, but I'm not going to get any more.

I really like the way the librarian turned out. His pose is dynamic and I was able to incorporate the added storm shield into it perfectly. As noted, the shield is supposed to be a Storm Shield and since GW is not inclined to bitz any longer, I'll use other things like this. Originally, I had the storm bolter glued on the end of his arm like he was whipping around shooting, but then I realized that I wanted a Storm Shield and that the SS and the SB were mutually exclusive. So I pried off the storm bolter and glued on the open hand. I added what looks like the epistolary symbol in gold across the top of a chaos shield from fantasy (which was more terminator sized anyway). This guy is designed to ride around with the terminators using Gate to keep them moving. His other power will either be null zone or Vortex. I should also note that this is the model in which I have had to use the most pins. Ever.

Chaos Space Marine Colors

2010-11-25T11:15:00.001-06:00

So I was playing with Bolter and Chainsword's Space Marines Painter after having read an analysis of what colors were common and what colors were not common among Space Marines Chapters... at least among the original 20 legions. I was specifically playing with the least common colors, orange and brown. I hit on a brown marine with orange shoulders and black emblems. I immediately thought "Huntsman" and the idea was born. I already had several loyalist armies and I considered maybe a renegade army. Further playing with the painters showed that this scheme looked even better on a CSM. Moreover, if I made the armor trim shining gold, it took on a fairly strong steampunk look. This would only be enhanced by the Defiler or the typical Chaos heavy weapon gun maws. The idea was born.

As part of the thinking about the fluff, it seemed to make more sense for these guys to have been the Emperor's Huntsmen originally and then renamed themselves the Wicked Company after going renegade. Bought a single Havoc figure and painted it up and it looks good. BUT, it occurred to me that it might look better if I replaced the orange with blue. I played with the painter some more. which do you like?

IA White Templar WIP take 2

2010-11-25T11:13:00.000-06:00

INDEX ASTARTES: WHITE TEMPLARS

ORIGINS:

In the Millenium following the Third Founding, the High Lords of Terra set a frenetic pace of additional foundings to meet the growing threats on all sides of the Imperium. Space Marines were spread thin repelling invaders, retaking worlds that Horus had overrun, squashing despots who thought to make the Imperium on their own private planets, and meeting the Emperor's foes on all battlefields. The Angels of Absolution contributed gene-seed, the Apothecary Val Stonecipher of their First Company, and twenty-four of their marines to the 7th Founding. They also contributed the battle barge Sword of Damocles.

Apothecary Stonecipher knowing the peril in which the Empire stood and its need for trained Space Marines, wasted no time in building the new chapter along the lines prescribed in the Codex Astartes as interpreted by the Imperial Paladins. Yet, Stonecipher, himself a deeply pious and intellectual man, could not help but to put his own stamp upon the fledgling chapter. He envisioned a Space Marine as a holy warrior taking up the god-emperor's fight against the xenos, the rebels, and the mutants. He taught that the core of any Marine rested on a tripod of discipline, duty, and faith. As the direct children of a living god who carried divine blood in their veins, Space Marines shouldered an awesome responsibility to carry on the Emperor's legacy by protecting the empire He built. Like all men though, Stonecipher had his faults and they crept into the new chapter as well. In instilling his "tripod" into the Chapter, Stonecipher also instilled a prideful elitism. As Space Marines only they carried the Emperor's genes and he convinced his recruits that they were the best Space Marines ever trained. Consequently, anyone else was a lesser being who stood but a step away from damnation in the eyes of many of the original recruits. This gave the Space Marines a divine right over such lesser beings. Only two things checked this overweening pride from ballooning into eventual rebellion and fall, Stonecipher's emphasis on spirituality and the people of Sanctum.

When the chapter had two full strength companies, the High Lords decreed it operational and Grand Master Stonecipher christened his chapter the White Templars. "White" stood for the purity of the chapter and "Templars" reminded them of their divine origin. For the armor, Stonecipher chose white as well, again to reflect the spiritual purity of the chapter, but also because white was the Apocathary's color. The chapter emblem, a stylized cross crosslet, would always be drawn in white and, to provide contrast, it would usually be drawn on black, and emblem again showing the purity of the chapter against the darkness of damnation.

The White Templars quickly received their first mission. Apparently a distress call regarding an invasion of Chaos cultists had come into Terra over a century ago and somehow the dispatch had fallen behind a heater in an office in the Adminsitratum and not been found again until just recently during remodeling. While it was assumed that the original colonists had long since been destroyed by the cultists, the situation needed investigation and probably military action to recover the planet. The White Templars were assigned this task and the Sword of Damocles set out for the planet Sanctum, a short jump from Holy Terra.

HOMEWORLD: SANCTUM

GEOGRAPHY AND EARLY HISTORY

Sanctum is a sharply tilted planet which rotates so that the northern thirty degrees of the planet always face the star and the southernmost thirty degrees never see daylight. The north polar region is a vast desert. The south polar region is quite cold. The middle latitudes are heavily forested ranging from jungle in the north to temperate forest in the south. Sandy beaches the color of newly-minted copper line Sanctum's oceans which themselves run from sapphire blue to emerald green. Sharp variations in topography makes particularly picturesque settings. The whole planet, except the northern desert, is quite humid and covered in heavy fog and mist about 65% of the time. Periods of heavy rainfall come commonly enough that the rivers have carved steep gorges and thundering waterfalls. Again excepting the northern desert, near zero visibility is not uncommon much of the time. For all the odd aspects of the planet, most of the surface is temperate, even tropical, with light breezes, pleasantly warm temperatures. Sunrises and sunsets when they can be seen are vividly deep purple, blue, pink, and orange.

Local legend has it that Sanctum was created as a holy refuge for the original settlers, a deeply spiritual people who left behind a corrupt, materialistic, mechanized world orbiting some distant star and came in search of a new home. They planned to build a world reminiscent of a simpler, purer age; clean of the sloth and corruption of their previous home. Circling a large yellow-orange star, those pilgrims found a gleaming jewel of a planet, teeming with life and natural beauty, yet without a single human inhabitant. Realizing a divine gift then they saw it, the pilgrims knew this world was a holy place, given to them as their refuge. They landed and named their first settlement Sanctuary and the planet Sanctum. Shortly after landing, they deliberately cut off communication with everything they had left behind, destroyed their ships, and allowed their society and tech to drift into Utopian life of agriculture and spirituality by growing the only the crops they needed to survive and spending the rest of their time in study and mediation. At least that was their plan.

    Sanctum possessed hidden dangers which manifested only after the settlers had burned their ships. The sheer abundance of life meant that predators, both land-based and aquatic, were common which was expected. However, the sheer number of them who boasted extremely toxic venom defied all probability. Vicious creatures were not the only problem however, Sanctum also contained an unexpectedly vast array of microscopic threats such as parasites and and diseases of a type new to medical science. Likewise, the beautiful blues and purples so common to Sanctum came from toxicly high concentrations of copper throughout the planet, and many of the salts formed by the copper alloys caused various sicknesses. As the population began to wane towards being unsustainable, the colonists turned desperately to medicine even as they scrambled to build a radio from the wreckage of their colony ship. The radio was eventually finished, but by then the doctors among the colonists had solved most of the problems, leading eventually to the study of medicine becoming a prerequisite to civic leadership. The people of Sanctum believed that the Doctor's succeeded by healing a malady on the soul of Sanctum's people. To an astonishing extent they were correct. One of the primary ways the physicians came up with to heal the people of Sanctum was by regulating their body chemistry, and while outside agents and medications could be employed for this, keeping the person in a proper state of mind worked far better. That state of mind coincidentally included, in the words of a doctor of that time, a "sense of spiritual well-being and contentment."
    In the 32nd millennium, several renegade units of the Imperial army made a stealthy planetfall on Sanctum. These units, led by General abu-Wazir, had fallen to the worship of Chaos. Soon they were swooping down upon the villages and cities to rape, conquer, and kill the people of Sanctum. Many were taken prisoner back to work building the cultists' dark city, either directly building it or to provide "entertainment" in the cultists bloody orgies. At first, the people of Sanctum sent a distress call to Terra with their now ancient radio, but it went unheeded. They offered prayer after prayer to the Emperor for deliverance as more and more of their world came under the cultists control. Finally, when despair had began to set in, Doctor Feodor McAvey appeared on the scene. The cultists were like any of the other threats they had faced, said Dr. McAvey. They had not prayed to the Emperor to solve any of the other threats; they had worked hard to solve them themselves. Sanctum, was not just the Emperor's gift to the people of this world, it was their charge as well. To be worthy of this world, they must be prepared to battle to protect it. Dr. McAvey molded the people of Sanctum into his great army and fed it a holy purpose, the jyhad. Soon he was called Doctor General McAvey.
    Under McAvey's leadership the citizens of Sanctum began to fight back. As they once had against the forces of sickness and disease, they took all their energy and put it towards learning how to fight with the weapons they had: knives, swords, and bows. They learned the art of the silent, stealthy kill using the native toxins and poisons engineered by the best medical minds on Sanctum. They learned the art of gorilla warfare, infiltrating their enemy's citadels and do maximum damage before fading away. They learned to make painless poisons to give themselves if captured so they could not be forced to betray their compatriots. Abu-Wazir's cultists learned to fear these ghosts in the mist. Decades passed and McAvey's forces regained control of all the parts of the planet except the great northern desert. In this they had the assistance of Sanctum itself as all the obstacles the original residents had overcome took a heavy toll on the invaders. The cultists still had the only tanks and heavy guns and the open desert provided no cover for the freedom fighters to hide in or fog to fade back into. The situation quickly reached bloody stalemate with the cultists in the north and the rest of the planet in the hands of its original settlers and a constant medium intensity warfare between the two. Over the next few decades, little changed except it became a right of passage for Dr. General McAvey's warriors to make a pilgrimage to the northern desert and return with the head of a cultist. Likewise, the cultists made occasional fair weather raids into the more temperate zones of the planet.
    When General Doctor McAvey passed away, his son took up the mantle of general, and his son after him, eventually leading to the hereditary title Doctor General, the guardian of the spiritual well-being of Sanctum's people. Over the centuries, the people of Sanctum developed a warrior caste to compliment its medical caste. The great houses of Santcum often focused on one profession or the other, though any house worthy of the name contained members of both castes. Soon each house developed its own identification symbols and cryptology used for both battlefield communication and to convey medical secrets. These symbols became a source of great pride for the great houses and it was not long before they blossomed into heraldry which identified the proud members of the great houses. Also, the governance of the planet had evolved so that the Doctor General, advised by the Council of Doctors, ruled Sanctum. Over the years, the Doctor General's position had become a figurehead one of spiritual leadership, with the true power in the hands of the Council. The head of each Great House was a Doctor with a seat on the Council, and depending on the power of the House at that time, one or more of its other members might be granted seats. Still the stalemate continued until the council despaired of ever completely ridding Sanctum of its oppressors.
    No thunderbolt could have caused greater surprise than scrambled message on the long silent emergency frequency used centuries before to transmit a planetary distress call, "Planet Sanctum, this is Battle Barge Sword of Damocles responding to your distress beacon. What is your status?" After, a brief consultation between Sanctum's Council of Doctors and the Space Marines above, a massed drop pod assault began in the north polar region as the entire White Templar Chapter made planetfall. Quickly establishing a beachhead, in the ruins of one of the cultist's former cities, the Space Marines landed their heavy equipment and began moving in on the remaining cultist bases. In a few weeks, the campaign to liberate Sanctum ended, General al-Wazir falling in a personal duel with the Grand Master himself. Victory had not come cheaply; the fledgling chapter had proven how green it was and mistakes against tanks and emplaced artillery were expensive mistakes indeed. Overall the chapter lost over 60% of its number in the Battle for Sanctum, a number which would have been much higher had it not been for the medical skill of the people of Sanctum. So it was with mixed emotion that Grand Master Stonecipher signalled the High Lords that his mission was accomplished but his chapter non-operational again.
    Stonecipher knew that he needed bodies to replace his fallen marines and he also perceived that it was the very qualities of discipline, duty, and faith that had led the inhabitants of this world to drive back an armored company of Chaos Cultists with little more than blowguns and poisoned blades. He knew that he could find warriors on hundreds of worlds or even in the gangs of hive worlds, but the "grit" and deep seeded faith he saw in the people of Sanctum was a rare treasure indeed. Even as all of Sanctum celebrated its liberation, Stonecipher told the Council of Doctors about his intent to build his fortress monastery on their world. He was surprised when the Council exploded into debate. Many, it seemed, felt that Sanctum had had enough "foreign devils" polluting its air and wanted the Marines to leave as soon as they could be politely ushered out. Others argued that to do so would be ingratitude and that since the Marines had fought and bled for Sanctum, they had a right to live there.
    The Doctor General realized that given the priority the High Lords placed on Space Marines, Sanctum had but little choice in this matter. Further, he had a different perception of the events which he relayed to the Council. As they knew, Sanctum was a holy place prepared for its children by the divine will of the Emperor. It had appeared when needed as if by magic and been perfect for their needs. It had tested the mettle of those people and in so doing had forged them into the steel that was able to resist invasion for over a century before armed help arrived. And when that help arrived it was because the Administratum had found a lost message; found it at precisely the time when a new chapter of Marines became available; Space Marines who carried the genes of the divine Emperor in their very blood and bones, Space Marines who just coincidentally needed a homeworld. Did no one else see the divine hand of the Emperor in this? Everything from the original settlement to the invasion to the arrival of the White Templars was part of the Plan. To reject it was to reject the Emperor. Deus valt. Silence followed these remarks and then the Council voted unanimously to grant Sanctum to the White Templars.

THE GREAT WALK

    Shortly after construction of the Fortress Monastery trouble began between the White Templars and the original inhabitants of Sanctum. In all arguments, the Space Marines expected to prevail and when resisted, frequently took what the wanted from the "lesser beings" around them. Grand Master Stonecipher noticed this trend early on and, after witnessing one particularly brutal incident, he simply left the Monastery on foot and without a word to anyone. His exact movements are not known, however during this period people reported sitings of him all over Sanctum. He is reported to have paid a call upon the Doctor General and talked long into the night. And then he is reported to have left to wander in the desert for a time.
    A few years after the Grand Master departed, a tall, fur-clad stranger appeared from the early morning mist near the Monastery's gate. He silently punched in a number code and the great gate swung open for him. The Grand Master had returned. He shaved, showered, donned his best ceremonial armor, and summoned the chapter to the main parade ground. They were, he advised them, standing on the precipice of damnation. The sin that brought them to this place was pride. He admitted it was his fault because he had taught them how they were descended from a god, yet not what spiritual duty that entailed. A spiritual man, he reminded them, was a humble man, no matter how great he was. With pride however came contempt and contempt was a spiritual failing. If they needed an example in their lives, they had no further to look than the people of Sanctum. They were holy people, devout and dutiful in their worship, but not prideful about it. when the test came, the people of Sanctum had defended their world with the same three virtues that were the cornerstone of the White Templar's teachings: Discipline, Duty, and Faith. As the children of a god, they had an even higher obligation to their spirituality than most men, a higher duty. As the children of the Emperor, they had a duty to defend the Imperium, but what was the Imperium? It certainly included the people of the Imperium. They had a duty to protect the people of the Empire even against themselves. Any other conclusion tread down the path that Horus blazed and led to the same result. Let no one forget that Horus was also of divine blood before he fell. This pride that had developed in the White Templars stopped immediately and every warrior monk present had to go, meditate, and purge himself of his pride and his arrogance by whatever means necessary. It was the only way to avoid damnation.
    Starting right at that moment, things were changing. No matter how badly they needed new Marines, from that day henceforth, all new recruits would spend a minimum of five years serving among the people of the Empire. The Grand Master cited the example of the Salamanders who lived their entire lives amongst the people of Nocturne. They would also study the people of Sanctum, a people who without the blood of a god had still managed to defend their world with little more than their bare hands. There was much to be admired here and the Grand Master challenged his Marines to find it and emulate it. These new orders were implemented and after another decade, the Grand Master retired from active duty to finish his life writing and teaching his holy principles. The people of Sanctum and the White Templars came to see him as a holy man. After his death, he was entombed in a white gold coffin and laid to rest in a place of honor in the White Templars' Chapel.

TO THE 41ST MILLENIUM

    As the millenia progressed and more and more of the chapter's stock came from Sanctum, the beliefs of the two cultures fused. Now, 7000 years later the two are largely the same. Sanctum's reverence for physicians has become ingrained in the White Templars every bit as much as it is in the people of Sanctum. All White Templars now have some degree of medical training and are competent in most areas of medicine. On Sanctum, even the Space Marines honor the planet's physicians who are renown across the Empire. This reverence extends to the Marine's own Apothecaries who are among the chapter's most admired members. This reverence has led the chapter to its own unique areas of service, medical care. Every human-controlled planet that the White Templars have ever fought on on has at least one White Templar built and run Hospital. When hospital ships, medical facilities, or caravans of wounded need protection, the White Templars answer the call. In addition to a normal battle fleet, the chapter maintains scores of hospital ships, some of which are dispatched on every engagement. Stonecipher's holy walk has become a thing of legend and his teachings and policy have practically become holy writ for the chapter.
    For the most part, the people of Sanctum have returned to their simple life now that the cultists are gone. However they have not forgotten the invasion and maintain the martial skills which they were forced to learn, incorporating them into their holistic view of a healthy mind and a healthy spirit. Thus, every citizen of Sanctum learns martial arts from a young age just as they are given basic schooling and routine inoculations. Sanctum remains a planet of warrior-medics. The people of Sanctum have also never forgotten the invasion and everyone (except those studying to be Doctors) serves a six year conscription in the Planetary Defense Force. However, the majority of those interested in seriously pursuing a military career hope to be chosen early in life to join the White Templars, the guardians of Sanctum. Included in those inducted into the White Templars after the battle of Sanctum was the son of the current Doctor General, Roland McAvey. Roland proved a military savant and quickly rose through the ranks of the White Templars, themselves rapidly expanding as they reconstituted their strength, eventually becoming captain of the 5th Company. When the Chapter Master perished in battle, Roland was selected to replace him, officially fusing the positions of Chapter Master and Doctor General.    The White Templar Fortress Monestary, Sanctuary Temple towers atop a steep hill in the temperate forest regions of the planet. The walls are painted gleaming white and black flags bearing the chapter's device flutter from study looking artillery towers all around the complex. The military nature of the monastery is obvious as it bristles with weapons. A large artificial cavern is built into the hillside below the monastery and serves as both a garage for the chapter's motor pool and the spaceport for the chapter's shuttles as they wisk between the Sanctuary Temple and the orbiting fortress docks above.
    Sanctuary remain the planetary seat of government and the ruling body is still the Council of Doctors, led by the Doctor General/Grand Master. However, not just anyone can become a Doctor anymore; the process is strictly regulated by the existing Doctors. Being a Doctor has become more than just a vocation, it has become the nobility of the society. Sanctum has its noble houses, each descended from one of the great Doctors of the past which now comprise hereditary medical dynasties, all of whom make sure that their families provide the doctors of the future. This has the effect of making it almost impossible for anyone not born to one of the dynasties to become a Doctor. Each house is led its Doctors, yet not all members of these noble houses become Doctors; there simply are not enough Doctor positions for that. Instead, many of the surplus nobles become captains of industry, join the clergy, or study military science. It is from this last group that the White Templars draw most of their recruits.
   Aside from supplying itself with the supplies it needs to survive, Sanctum's primary industries are medicinal. The surface is dotted with clinics, medical schools, and medical research facilities along with the occasional facility to manufacture medical supplies. Further, the biological diversity of Sanctum has provided its people with the basis for many revolutionary medicines, which are in demand throughout the Imperium. This has provided a great deal of wealth for Sanctum and its masters. The people of Sanctum have never lost their desire for a similar life and much of the planet continues to have a garden-like feeling of serenity. The only highly industrialized part of the society are the parts which support the White Templar operations and the parts relating to medicine. All else is done by hand and muscle power.

CHAPTER ORGANIZATION:

The White Templars are primarily a Codex Astartes chapter in organization although there are some minor variances. The chapter is led by a Grand Master, not a Chapter Master. Otherwise, the chapter numbers the standard ten companies and the Codex Astartes is memorized by every Marine. However, the medical skill of the chapter has meant that, over the centuries, a greater number of its famous veterans have survived grievous wounds than normal. This has led the White Templars to have a higher number of Dreadnoughts and veterans in their chapter than most chapters their age can boast. It has also meant that the First Company is substantially larger than any other Company in the Chapter, numbering fifteen squads. Another difference is the fact that the Tenth Company is not a scout company. Rather, the scouts are distributed between the Second through the Eight Companies as the Tenth (and sometimes also the Ninth) Squad(s) of each company. This is done so that the scouts can learn better from the more experienced Space Marines in each company. The Ninth and Tenth Companies are the reserve tactical and assault companies respectively.

Chapter Command (includes Chaplains, Librarians, Masters of the Forge, etc.).

1st Company: 15 Veteran squads, 50 suits of terminator armor.

2nd - 3rd Companies: 1 command group, 5 tactical squads, 1 scout squad, 1 Land Speeder squadron, 3 assault squads.

4th - 5th Companies: 1 command group, 4 tactical squads, 2 scout squad, 1 Land Speeder squadron, 1 assault squads, and 1 devastator squad.

6th - 7th Companies: 1 command group, 5 tactical squads, 1 scout squad, 1 assault squads, and 3 devastator squads.

8th Company: 1 command group, 2 tactical squads, 3 bike squads, 2 scout bike squad, 2 Land Speeder squadrons, 1 assault squad.

9th Company: 1 command group, 10 reserve tactical squads.

10th Company: 1 command group, 10 reserve assault squads.

The chapter also keeps a central motor pool from which vehicles are assigned to Formations based upon the tasks set for those formations. No company keeps its own store of vehicles. Accordingly, while all vehicles have a unique identifier, that identifier is not one of a "Company" that owns the vehicle. Each vehicle has a crew that travels with the vehicle and which is assigned to no company other than the general motor pool. This applies to all tanks and transports, but not to bikes or Land Speeders which are property of the various companies because they are organized by squad(ron).

The White Templars have also developed a unique deployment system because of their often unique medical support role, the "Formation." Rarely do the White Templars deploy in full and complete battle companies. Rather the Grand Master usually makes a determination of what forces will be required for a task and then pulls detachments from various companies to meet the needs of that task. However, no detachment is ever smaller than a squad. The Formation is then named based on its job, its commander, or its place of deployment, such as the "Armageddon Formation." Over time, the chapter has developed several standard patterns of Formation for various common tasks such as a "Planetary Assault Formation" or "Medical Relief Formation". While it is uncommon for a single Formation to be composed of units entirely from a single Company, it is normal for the Formations to be composed of units mostly from the same company. This is because experience has proven that the marines of any company have slightly better battlefield synergy with each other than with marines of any other company. On the rare occasions when a battle company is deployed it still called a Formation to denote its operational status such as "Second Company Formation."

The First Company is always split into detachments and never made into the First Company Formation. Partially, this is to prevent putting all the eggs in one basket, but, like the dispersion of the scout squads, it also reflects a deep-seeded belief among the White Templars that the experienced marines have a duty to pass on their hard-won knowledge to the rookie marines.

In all other ways, the organization of the Chapter is per the Codex Astartes.

BATTLEFIELD DOCTRINE:

The White Templars' adherence to the Codex makes them versatile in their battlefield doctrine as expected. The do have a slight training focus on assaulting and relieving besieged planets. This frequently means drop pod assaults. Because of the high casualties caused by enemy armor in that first drop pod landing, White Templars prefer to augment their drop pod assaults with a heavy contingent of anti-armor equipped air support. However, this is only a training emphasis and the chapter's teachings encourage original applications of the Codex.

Because of the White Templars' frequent medical support role, they have had the chance to observe many other chapters in battle and they have recorded archives noting particularly effective maneuvers they observed, especially when performed by chapters thought to be specialists in those areas. Thus, White Scar tactics for mobile hit-and-run raiding, Raven Guard drop pod tactics, and Aurora Chapter's armored assault tactics have all been studied and, where possible, incorporated into the White Templars' War College. The Black Templars and the Red Templars have been a particular fascination if for no other reason than the fact that their name so closely resembles the White Templars. However, Black and Red Templar tactics have been deemed too deviant from the Codex to be included in the White Templar's teachings. Relations between the White Templars and the other two well-known Templar chapters has simply been coolly polite. The White Templars have also paid particular attention to the Angels of Absolution because of the genetic link to their parent, indeed, there has been persistent discussion of modifying the organization of the chapter into a more Dark Angel like structure for the First and Second Companies. Because of this, the White Templars have been quietly stockpiling suits of terminator armor.

Emphasis on planetary assaults not withstanding, White Templars also have a lot of institutional experience in defensive roles and defending static points such as hospitals, medical supply depots, landing fields, and the like. Often their combat TOE reflects that focus. White Templar tactics frequently involve an intense, quick assault to secure an objective followed by digging in for the inevitable counter attack, smashing that counter attack, and then moving on to the next objective. When possible they prefer to see their enemies break themselves on a strong defensive position as a set-up to being counter-assaulted

CHAPTER CULT & BELIEFS:

The White Templars believe that as genetic descendants of the Emperor, they are capable of, and must therefore hold themselves to a higher standard than normal men, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Part of that duty is to develop all three aspects of their being. Their physical duty is to train and defend mankind from physical threats. Their mental duty is fulfilled by contemplation, study, and writing. Their spiritual duty is fulfilled both in their direct worship but also by acting as humble, spiritual beings in all aspects of their lives. The famed humility of the Salamanders is accordingly admired within the White Templars.

Because of its belief in the importance of spiritual development, the chapter holds a great reverence for physicians and even its own apothecaries. The profession of apothecary ranks up with chaplains in the hierarchy of the White Templars and all who practice medical arts are revered for it. Some of the best doctors in the Imperium are White Templars or White Templar trained. Further, all brothers of the chapter strive to practice a bit of the medical arts because doing so is believed to have positive spiritual benefits. This belief influences both how the White Templars fight and what they choose to fight in relation too. Because of the value they place on humility, the White Templars are not driven to glory assignments, rather they protect battlefield hospitals, medical convoys, evacuation sites, and the like. As a consequence, often the participation of the chapter in some of the major campaigns is overlooked by all but the chapter's own historians.

That said, the chapter acknowledges that many men can be physicians, but only a handful can be Space Marines. Thus, while they study medicine, as Space Marines their first calling is to war. Much of the White Templars' study and contemplation is therefore spent studying matters relating to war. The chapter has long had a War College where the tactics of others, both friend and foe are studied exhaustively. Often the tactics are compared with obscure passages from the Codex Astartes or specific action by White Templar marines.

White Templars also have a strong belief that the universe moves according to a divine plan of the Emperor. This stems from Sanctum's colonists belief that the Emperor provided Sanctum for them and that they have a special place in his plan. That belief has extended to the White Templars who believe they were led to Sanctum by the will of the Emperor and that he has a special design for them. This is partly why they seek not glory; they are confident that their moment is still coming. Further, they must always strive to be worthy of the Emperor's gifts to them.

The most peculiar belief of the White Templars came from the ancestral beliefs and culture of the original inhabitant of Sanctum. The White Templars believe that souls reincarnate. Those souls that do well and serve the Emperor's will reincarnate closer to that divine being, while those who do poorly reincarnate further from his divine grace. The pinnacle for a human soul is to be a Space Marine who is infused with the genetic material of the Divine Emperor. However, the White Templars acknowledge that at the moment of birth no soul knows for sure that it will be selected for being a Space Marine thus selection is more of an honor or a lucky boost towards the positive, not a result of a well-lived previous life. They also, believe however, that a good soul is one of the primary things that should qualify someone to be a Space Marines and that it is the inner beauty of the soul which draws forth the excellence that attracts the Chaplain's attention. Ultimate salvation of course, results in finally living a pure enough life that one can be combined with the divine soul of the Emperor.

One consequence of the White Templar's belief in reincarnation is that they regard anything of Chaos, especially a Chaos Space Marine, as being a polluted cage for the soul which defiles the soul the longer the soul is imprisoned within the cage. They believe that souls, which instinctively long for the light of the Emperor, are in anguish in Chaos or xeno corrupted shells. This is especially true when that shell also taunts them with a twisted spark of the Emperor's Divine light. Thus, their divine duty is to bring mercy to these souls by releasing them from their tortures so they may reincarnate in a cleaner environment. They strive not to feel anger or hatred towards the souls they free; anger and hatred are reserved for the true demons of Chaos and the Chaos gods. Rather the White Templars strive to feel pity for those who are imprisoned and joy at freeing of those souls.

CHAPTER TRADITIONS:

All new recruits still undergo a five year "devotional" period of service, but now serve almost exclusively in the Templar's hospital ships and hospitals. During this period, the chapter indoctrinates them with a ethic of service and care, giving every chapter member a grounding in the practice of medicine.

Part of the discipline of ingrained in White Templars is the need to keep their armor polished and clean at all times and in all but the most dire of circumstance. They believe the exterior is a reflection of the soul within and thus, cleanliness IS next to godliness.

Chapter tradition is to leave behind a medical clinic or hospital on every world where the White Templars have fought. Indeed, these hospitals are well thought of due to the Sanctum based training of most of their employees. Doing this is one of the things the White Templars regard as a spiritual duty.

MAJOR ACTIONS:

Sanctum. Relieved the planet from the forces of a renegade Imperial Guard general.

Third War for Armageddon. The White Templars played a support role by setting up and defending shelters and medical facilities in several of the beleaguered hives.

Zeist Campaign

Eye of Chaos.

BATTLE CRY & ANTHEM:

"Death is the ultimate mercy!" or just "Mercy!"

GENE-SEED:

White Templars gene-seed is uncorrupted from that of their grandparent, the Dark Angels.

LIVERY & PAINTING:

White Templars wear white power armor with black paudrons, trimmed in white, over black under armor. Standard Codex squad markings go on the right pauldron while the Chapter Badge goes on the left pauldron. Squad number is denoted on the right pauldron. Pauldron trim denotes rank with scarlet for sergeants, black for veterans, copper for veteran sergeants, silver for captains, and gold for the Grand Master. The company is denoted by a company badge worn on the backpack or, less commonly, on the left pauldron. Personal heraldry, if any, is worn on the knee plates. Armor for Techmarines, Librarians, and Chaplains is by Codex, but any vestments are white. Apothecaries are armored in white with sky blue vestments. Cloaks and robes are scarlet for sergeants, Dark Angel Green for veterans and veteran sergeants, black for captains, and Dark Angel Green trimmed with gold for Grand Masters. Scout fatigues are black or camouflage.

Scouts: White Armor with black pauldrons, trimmed in white. Black fatigues.

Marines: White armor with black pauldrons, trimmed in white. Usually no vestments.

Sergeants: White armor with black pauldrons trimmed in scarlet. Scarlet vestments.

Veterans: White armor with black pauldrons trimmed in black. Dark Angel Green vestments.

Veteran Sergeants: White armor with black pauldrons, trimmed in bright copper. Dark Angel Green Vestments.

Techmarines: Scarlet armor with black pauldrons, trimmed in white. White vestments.

Librarians: Deep blue armor with black pauldrons, trimmed in white. White vestments.

Chaplains: Black armor with black pauldrons, trimmed in white. White vestments.

Apothecaries: White with black pauldrons, trimmed in white. Sky blue vestments.

Masters of the Forge: Scarlet armor with black pauldrons, trimmed in white. White vestments.

Captains: White with black pauldrons, trimmed in silver. Black vestments (can be lined in scarlet).

Grand Master: White with black pauldrons, trimmed in gold. Dark Angel Green vestments trimmed in gold.

Terminators are white with black pauldrons and any vestments are Dark Angel Green, just like the veterans they are. Weapons are black with gunmetal metalic muzzles and clips.. Skulls are black, bone or gold. Most emblems are gold. Vehicles and drop pods are predominantly white but patterns vary.

KEY PERSONNEL:

Chapter Master Oliver McAvey

Captain DeBracy, 1st Company

Captain Falk Oversteegan

Librarian Balduinus

Chaplain Callistus

Sgt. Feodor Carolus

IA White Templars WIP

2010-11-25T11:07:00.002-06:00

I'm putting the fluff in as a comment (and hoping that will work) because it is so long a post. I am also aware of a few typos, one glaring chronological issue, and the fact that GW has now stated that ALL Dark Angel followers are looking for Cypher, not just the Dark Angels and the Second Founding bunch. Not sure how to solve that, other than to say that I am also looking for Cypher without adopting the Dark Angel force organization.

Thanksgiving update

2010-11-25T09:59:00.002-06:00

This will probably be the first of like 3 posts this morning - I've been saving up.

I've been painting my White Templars up and, as any 40K hobbiest will tell you, it's slow going. Right now I have one HQ painted. I also have one tactical squad almost painted. In this case, "almost" means half of them still need their bases flocked for which I need some more PVC glue. Then I have to seal and then I need to go in with my gloss to make their armor and only their armor shiny. Once I have them completely done, I will try to take a squad pic and post it. While they are curing, I have begun painting up five terminators and one librarian in terminator armor.

However, being the person I am, I have come up with a new idea. More accurately, I came up with a color scheme and wanted to put it on something. It looked best on Chaos Space Marines, so on Chaos Space Marines it will go. Which means I am going to start another army. These guy will be the subject of another post, because having been inspired by a color scheme, I might have improvements on it. And while I was sort of plotting out that Army, I came up with another idea for a different army.... and it would be cool to give Blood Angels a try again as well. At which point, I began to regret my decision to dedicate a blog to each of my existing armies.

So, here is my plan, I am going to phase out my other 40K blogs (not like I made many entries), probably by the close of 2010, and make Sanctum Alborum Militum Templi my primary 40K blog that talks about all my various ideas, armies, etc. If you are following me, please take note.

As far as my "Salamanders", I just can't seem to get by the fact that they do not have a regulation GW Salamander paint scheme. They almost look more like Disciples of Caliban (but I don't want to adopt the Dark Angel army organization and they have all those heavy flamers and meltas). So instead, I think they will be a Salamander or Storm Giant successor named the Storm Dragons.

My Space Marine Armies are going to have to be themed. I think my White Templars will be drop pod based and/or fast attack (but not White Scars). They won't have much by the way of terminators or tanks, at least to start with. They will need some scouts though. They may expand to be more balanced later.

The Storm Dragons will be all about meltas, flamers, terminators, and tanks, both heavy hitting and close ranged. They won't be having many bikes or land speeders (which per Salamander fluff in a White Dwarf back at the beginning of Armageddon, is Salamandery). They are and will remain for a long time, my largest force.

Then I have some extra guys who might go back to being Blood Angels but I also might make them Emperor's Spears. If I do that I have two Baal Predators that I need to do something with though.

On the Chaos side, I'll have the Wicked Company who used to be the Emperor's Huntsmen chapter before they went renegade. At this point, they are going to be kind of steampunky looking and accordingly concentrating more on the steampunk looking Space Marine side of things and less on the mutations and daemons. They are the current apple of my eye because they are the newest project and they sort of came to me almost fully formed. They will probably be slightly assault oriented, but I don't want to go whole hog, largely because so many of the steampunk looking guys are shooty (Havocs anyone?). That probably means they will be a balanced force as much as possible.

I also have a Sisters of Battle Army that isn't going anywhere, and old Dark Eldar army that isn't going anywhere, and a Tau army I may pick up again because I love the Tau sans the Kroot (which I refuse to field).

I suspect I'm going to be spending a lot of Thanksgiving weekend painting because I promised myself I was not going to start in on the Chaos Marines until I can field a legal force of fully painted White Templars. At this point, I am roughly a tactical squad short of that, and I would like to at least be able to field some terminators, a dreadnought, a thunderfire cannon, and something assaulty. I also need like three drop pods.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving!

Color schemes

2010-11-17T11:17:00.004-06:00

Obviously White Templars are white and, equally obviously, their shoulders and most other markings are black. But as with all armies, there is usually an accent color and I am debating what to do about this. Originally, I had though red was a good choice, because predominantly white with a moderate amount of black and just a dash of red looks awesome. However, as I have become more and more a fan of the idea that the White Templars are a later founding descendant of the Dark Angels (meaning they still follow the standard codex), I have been strongly leaning towards throwing just a touch of Dark Angel Green (on white primer) into the army as an homage to their founding chapter.

I have also been wondering if I should paint my terminators differently. It makes sense because the Dark Angels do so and it could be another homage to the founding chapter. Previously, I had been planning to deck out the terminators in white and make a lot of their cloaks and gear Dark Angel Green, and I may still do that. It would harmonize with the rest of the army well. However, other options present as well. I could follow the Dark Angel's lead and invert my color scheme, making the Terminators all black with white (or gold) markings; I could keep the Dark Angel Green gear too. Or I could make them primarily Dark Angel Green with white cloaks and such. Or I could go for something totally different to make them stand out from the rest of the army - something like electric blue or electric blue and black; and then have white cloaks etc.

What do you all think?

May the Emperor be with you....

2010-11-17T09:25:00.003-06:00

My wife commented that the boyz in white looked a lot like stormtroopers. She hoped she wasn't going to offend me, and she didn't. They do have a very stormtrooperesque quality.

But then we got to getting silly. How about painting up a bunch of White Templars, make the captains all in grey and the chapter master a guy in black armor with a red power sword. You might even use some green stuff to mold his helmet to a bit more of a samurai (aka Vaderesque) shape.

"Only Imperial Space Marines are so precise."

On the more serious side, closing in on a fully painted tactical squad. Still not happy with the white and the only solution seems to be more and more coats of white, but each coat has a chance of accidentally touching something else. I'm not sure I have the patience to do white correctly, but I am committed now. I also need a good small flat brush.

And on the question side, are Citadel foundation paints really worth anything? Primer and paint worked for years and it seems like the foundation would only add one more layer of paint obscuring fine detail. Thoughts?

Still Alive

2010-11-15T09:38:00.002-06:00

If my blogs are right, I put up my paint stuff right before Thanksgiving 2008 because we needed the table space. This last weekend, with Thanksgiving at my Mother-in-Law's house, I got them out and began painting again. White Templars, 1st Squad, 3rd Company, are nearing completion.

I realized and am having to relearn some things. First, I am realizing that I am two years older. The details are harder to see and my back starts hurting sooner. I'm re-realizing that white is hard to paint with: hard to highlight, hard to make look smooth, and hard to cover with when I "oops" with another color.

My paints had two years of drying in them. The black was plugged and when it let loose it spattered a lot EVERYWHERE. I spent about two hours painting as much stuff black as I could before the spill dried out.

I re-read the fluff I wrote for the white Templars and re-visited my markings and insignia decisions. Part of this was refreshing my memory. Part was, having decided they are descended from the Angels of Absolution, I wanted to start using a bit more dark green in my cloaks and robes and things. I know the Angels are basically a bone colored army, but bone on white looks dumb. I also am a big fan of consistency. My Space Marines are an Army and should look like and reflect the regimented troops they are. What I mean is this: If I am trimming the pauldrons of my veterans in black, then the Terminators and Dreadnoughts also should have solid black shoulders.

Being myself, I spent over a day thinking, planning, and sorting before I even lifted a brush. I have started numerous 40K armies and never finished painting a single one. When I first started, I played Blood Angels, mostly because no one else at my store did and they had red paint in a can. Consequently, I have two Baal Predators I never use. I began wanting to field a more "normal" Space Marine army because the BA started to feel kind of one-dimensional i.e. you assaulted. I opted to start a Storm Lord army and learned in the process just how hard it is to paint red and white side by side. Then GW published their version of Storm Lords who suddenly had yellow helmets. Mine had black faces, thighs and upper arms kind of like the White Panthers. I thought about going forward with mine and saying it was company tradition, but then they became part of the White Scar geneseed and I'm not a big fan of bikes - you pay almost twice as much for a model that dies just as easily. About then Armageddon came out and I discovered the Salamanders. My Salamanders are green and black (black face masks, thighs, and upper shoulders. They probably represent my largest single contingent of Space Marines - six tackle trays, about half of which are painted and the rest are primered black. With the latest Edition of 40K, I decided to start a new Space Marine Army, probably more drop pod based, eventually coming to call it the White Templars. I liked the "Stormtrooper" look and the insignia of the White Templars. The are my current babies. And I also have small forces of Tau and Dark Elder.

The point of the previous paragraph is simply that my stock of Space Marines stuff while extensive, is also very mismatched. For example, I have 4 dreadnoughts. 1 is green and black and finished. One is half red and half white and mostly finished. One is primered black. One is primered white. I have three Land Speeders. The Typhoon is half red and half white and finished. One is green and black and un-assembled. One is black primered and un-assembled. I have two assembled rhinos, one black and green and one that is half red and half white. The same is true for bikes, Predators, and the Marines themselves. It makes things very difficult when organizing. I've scavanged 80% or so of the old Blood Angels but the things that are left mostly cannot be scavanged like the Baal Predators or assault marines who are cast with BA markings. Red and white also took a heavy hit. Mostly now I've got White Templars and Salamanders (Or Salamander successors). I plan to keep both. Sallies tend to be solid and oriented towards heavy firepower. I'm thinking the Templars will be either a drop pod army, an assaulty army, or a shooty army. Lack of focus is my Achilles heel.

Also after much discussion on sites like Bolter and Chain Sword, I decided my White Templars are not descended from the Black Templars or Dorn. Nor are they Ultramarine stock. They are from the Angels of Absolution and thus descended from the Dark Angels. However, as a later founding, they are, at least at this point, a Codex Chapter. I hope GW doesn't decide to write them up now.

My Sallies (or Salamander descendants of an unknown name) are going to continue to keep the majority of the heavy stock. They will be mechanized, tank heavy, and melta happy. Hammers and salamander skin cloaks.

So isn't it odd that at this point, the stuff that would not require drastic alterations in order to become part of the White Templars are three rhinos, two thundercannon, two dreadnoughts, and maybe ten bikes? What a world.

Challenge me

2009-04-14T13:43:00.002-05:00

I found a new web distraction. You can make you own champion and do battle with other champions. Challenge me at http://white-templar.mybrute.com/

What I'm doing these days.

2009-03-31T09:20:00.000-05:00

For the last month I've spent most of my free time car shopping, either researching on the computer or test driving everything from a Buick Lucerne to a Toyota RAV4 to a Honda Civic Hybrid. It would be easier if I knew what *kind of car* I wanted. Oh well.

Anyway, it occurred to me while looking at MINI Coopers, which seem to encourage you to personalize them with paint jobs, that it already comes in a color similar to Dark Angel Green. You could put the winged sword on one door, a squad number on the other door, a tactical arrow on the roof, maybe a purity seal painted on the back, and presto it would look an awful lot like a Space Marine transport.

I'd prefer to make it a Salamander transport, of course, but it just doesn't come in the right green. The Salamander chapter symbol would look great on it and you could certainly incorporate the flames which are common enough in other tricked out cars.

They don't have a pure white or you could do White Templars, but they do have Blood Red. No good Ultramarine Blue though. I had a good chuckle over this.

I really need to dig out the basement table and get back to painting....

Christmas

2009-01-23T08:44:00.000-06:00

We will, hopefully, get the last of the Christmas stuff back in the closet this weekend, at which point my wife allows me to "get out my toys" again. (We use the same table to painting as we do for wrapping and sorting Christmas things.) So, if I remember how to hold a paint brush again, I can get back to it.

Holiday

2008-11-20T14:00:00.001-06:00

I've had to put my 40K stuff away at least through Thanksgiving if not through the holidays. My wife seems to think we need the table.

Painting times and painting white

2008-10-29T09:48:00.000-05:00

I have discovered it takes almost twice as long to paint a White Templar than to paint a Salamander. I don't know why unless its the fact that it takes 2 or three coats of white. I'm trying to be a bit more careful with my pre-washing and we'll see if that helps.

I'm also getting tired of painting. Less motivated = longer to paint. This is odd because I enjoy it while I'm at it.

Currently, I'm primering white and then using GW's black wash to fill in cracks and edge. Then I'm painting white over that. I seem to be basing in green, not snow, largely because a white guy on a white base on a white board would not really stand out. Then I have to paint my reds in two different layers, scab as the base followed by blood red. Do golds and boltgun. Oh and pain my blacks in the soft armor bits and the pauldrons. Then paint white on most of the figure. Then touch up all the places I put white i wasn't supposed to. Oh and do the brown leathers. then pain the chapter badge. Then touch up the whites. Then touch up the blacks. Then paint the base. Then flock the base. Then seal. Then paint the gloss. I'm trying to gloss the white because I think it covers up more errors and makes the whites look "stormtrooper shiney."

Bikes

2008-10-29T09:27:00.000-05:00

I've got some bikes I'm trying to allocate. They began life as Storm Lord bikes so they are half red and half white. They either need to become White Templar bikes or bikes for my Salamander successors, the Emerald Lancers or whatever their name is this week.

It's easiest to paint them black and then green; not to worried about red bleeding through that. But Sallies aren't supposed to use bikes much.

:-/

Depressing....

2008-10-20T12:31:00.002-05:00

so today, since I was on yahoogroups, i decided to search for a White Templars group. big mistake. The first hit I got was for a 185 member strong "Aryan Christian" group of wackos. And most of the rest of my 13 hits seemed in the same vein. Blah, it kind of leaves a sour taste in my mouth. There were a couple White Wolf related hits, but not what I'm looking for.

Thoughts?

2008-10-17T15:23:00.001-05:00

It’s been a bit of no posting anywhere and I probably don’t have the time to post now. Oh well.

My thoughts on fluff are progressing, faster than my painting. I’ve got closing on five models painted and most of an initial fluff IA done. Of course, I’m second guessing myself on what I want to do and where I want to go. I’ve considered gene-seed from every loyal chapter except the Blood Angels and the Space Wolves. I liked Scars for their cavalry like qualities, Salamanders for their interactions, Ultras because they are supposed to be the most numerous, and Imperial Fists because so many of the knightly chapters came from them (Black Templars, Iron Knights, etc.).

Then one guy made a suggestion that I look at the Dark Angels and pointed out that after the first few foundings, a Dark Angels successor would not necessarily be all about chasing the fallen. They would probably be a very Codex chapter. So I looked at the Dark Angels.

Now a friend of mine, back in Washington, had a Dark Angel’s army. In that environment we had an Ork player, a Chaos Marine player, a Black Templar, and two Dark Angels players. I tended to think of the Dark Angels as common. I also knew I wanted to be a Codex army and I thought of the DA as a special army.

So anyway, I looked at the DA and realized they were also constructed along knightly lines, more so IMO than the Imperial Fists. Suddenly, it made much more sense for a Dark Angel successor to call itself White Templar. Moreso because I already was going to use the term Grand Master and knee heraldry. So I’m probably going in that direction but not using the Codex: Dark Angel.

And that brings me to my other problems. Dark angels do their markings a bit different from Codex. They don’t seem to use company color directly; they use company emblems on the knee. How to Paint Space Marines shows the White Templars with a tactical arrow, white pauldron trim, and no knee badges. This could be read that shoulder trim is not used since no marine with white trim would have a tactical arrow on it. However, the White Scars show no trim color in their line drawing, but do show it painted on a model. Thus, you could also assume that the line drawings are drawn devoid of any company markings which opens the door for either way of doing things.

So I can keep my red shoulder trim if I want. I have to say though that in painting, the red does not do a great job of contrasting with the black. I could make the red shoulder trim a mark of a sergeant, but then I’m at a loss as to how to denote a veteran sergeant. If I could give vet sergeants red helmets, but that fits neither the Dark Angels or a Codex scheme. Worse, many sergeant models aren’t wearing helmets.

It also occurred to me that I could do all the marking on one pauldron as follows: Black base with the squad type in white. On the squad type, you paint the squad number in the company color. (This has problems with the First Company, but they can have their squad number in black since the veteran squad type emblem would already tell you they were First Company.) We then have the boarder trim to denote rank. I would use white for troopers (veteran or otherwise), red for sergeants, copper for veteran sergeants, silver for captains, and gold for the Grand Master. Probably trim Chaplains, Librarians, and Techmarines in white. However, as I said, this fits neither Chapter’s scheme and I would be relying on the bit that says chapters frequently change up their markings to confuse the enemy.

At this point, I’d have to repaint 4 sets of shoulder trims that are red to being white. That’s never easy. But better 4 than 14 which is why painting stopped until I figure this out.

I also need to figure out my themes in terms of army composition. Right now, the armies look relatively identical. Each has 2-3 tacs, 1 scout, 1 devistator, 2 dreads, 2 speeders. The Emerald Lancers have tanks though, a Land Raider, an Annilator, 2 Razorbacks, a Whirlwind, and a Vindicator. The Templars have no tanks.

I like the idea of the Templars using flamers from a burn the heretic point of view, and since my Templar tac squads are from Black Reach, I have three flamer-missile launcher squads. However, the Emerald Lancers are supposed to be my Sallie style army, not the white Templars. Honestly though, since they are both Codex armies, I’m not sure how much real difference there is. I could use the Dark Angel Codex for the Templars, but I’m loath to do so, and not just because How to Paint Space Marines says they are a Codex chapter. I could move my flamers to the Emerald Storm and move the meltas to the Templars. Not sure that helps. I also don’t like flamers. They don’t kill enough guys and you get assaulted next turn. They are good on assaulting units who burn then charge, but, of course, the Black Reach dudes have a tactical arrow CARVED on their shoulders. In theory the Sallie style is meltas, flamers, and as of this last codex, lascannons. That means they are heavy foot. Should my Templars be light foot? Load up on speeders and bikes? Should I make them assaulty since my Sallies aren’t. I wanted to do drop pods, but I’m not sure drop pod assault is a good plan since you can’t assault from landing. Drop pod shooty seems like a better bet. So then I’d have a shooty Tau army, a shooty Sisters army, a shooty Dark Eldar Army, a shooty Sallie army, and a shooty Templar army. Do I really want to go this way?

I could also make the Templars assault based and load up on Vanguard. But if I wanted to do that kind of thing, why wouldn’t I do Blood angels?

Thoughts?

New 40K Blog

2008-10-07T22:32:00.000-05:00

I made a new 40K Space Marine Blog for my other SM army. If you'd like to peruse, click here. Currently, I'm asking for opinions on painting there too.

Red helmets w/ white stripe? (ignore emblem on left shoulder)

2008-10-07T22:22:00.002-05:00

Red shoulder trim or not?

2008-10-07T22:20:00.001-05:00

More Terminators

2008-10-07T22:19:00.000-05:00

Terminators

2008-10-07T22:18:00.000-05:00

The First Verdict

2008-10-07T22:12:00.003-05:00

Well, the general opinion seems to be that the White Templars with the red accents look the best. (Although Clarisse liked the blue because it popped more.) So it may look a LOT like White Scars, but as Cinda pointed out, the White Templars have black shoulders and the White Scars don't. Below, she of course prefers the termies with white on black shoulders and black grills.

With that in mind I have some more pictures to share. Question in these are:

1) Do you think I want to make the terminix on the termies black on white, white on black, or copper on either.

2) Do you like the red helmets with the white stripes better than the straight red helmets?

3) Do you like the termies' grills and pipes in black or copper?

Which combo do you like best? I have about a week maybe two until I paint terminators. Right now it looks like this army is going to be very white with black as the main contrast and every now and then a little red. What ya think?

Oh and should I put gloss vanish on them to make them shiny polished parade-ground white or should i go for battle field mud and dirt?

And finally...

2008-10-06T17:20:00.002-05:00

Here is one in the same colors as my Siamese cat. Call it desert camo.

And More

2008-10-06T17:19:00.002-05:00

Images of Possible White Templars

2008-10-06T17:13:00.003-05:00

Included here are some images I made at Bolter & Chainsword of various White Templars. the difference as you will see is one of coloring. Coloring, you say, but these are WHITE Templars. Well, assuming they follow Index Astartes, their company color becomes their shoulder trim color and they need some color for their sergeants helmets. Without further ado....

Welcome, Templar

2008-10-06T10:25:00.000-05:00

Having decided to start a White Templar army in response to the new Space Marine Codex in Warhammer 40K, I decided to also start this blog to talk about my White Templar army. I also have a green and black Space Marine army, a Tau army, a Dark Eldar army, and a Sisters of Battle army. I may mention those in passing. So if you are a fan of the White Templars, welcome. If you are coming to muse about them with me, welcome. If you PLAY them, I'd love to hear back from you.

So here's what I know about the White Templars after extensive research:

Games Workshop listed them as an official Space Marine Chapter.

Their armor is white with black pauldrons and chest emblems.

Their badge is a Maltese cross with elongated arms and then barred like a cross crosslet.

Their homeworld, as of October 4, 2008, is Sanctum.

Since they are not listed as being anyone's particular successor chapter, they can, in fact be almost anyone's within reason (for example, not Space Wolves). The temptation to say they are Black Templar successors is, of course, particularly strong both because of the word "Templars" and the white/black dichotomy. Who, more than a successor, to simply reverse the parent's color scheme? Yet, to me that provides an equally strong incentive to AVOID being a BT successor; because everyone expects it.

GW can always pick them up and change everything about them on me.

Fluff-wise, I'm debating what the word Sanctum invokes. It means both holy place and inviolable private retreat. I'm wanting to invoke the essence of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta (Knights of Malta and/or Knights Hospitaller). To this end I'm thinking that unlike many chapters, the White Templars have a service ethic or hospital function in addition to their battle function.

Tactically, I don't know where I want to go with this. I kind of like the image of a bunch of flamers and meltas, but I already have a Salamander based army (the aforesaid black and green guys). I am thinking of being a drop pod army except that some of the stuff I have for this army would not be drop podable (like bikes). 'Course, I could paint my bikes green and black. But if I went w/ a White Scar theme (which is another option based on the name White), I'd want all my bikes and speeders in the White Templar Army. Or I could be boring and do a Index Astartes army flat out. Gives me the most versatility.

Dunno. What do you think?

Two other ways to do the Termies

2008-09-29T22:14:00.000-05:00

More paint schemes for you all to comment on.

Veteran Terminator - Orange Power Fist

Veteran Terminator - Orange on Shoulder

Or I could do both.

Or, what about an orange head? If I redid the mouth grill in black, that might look kind of neat.

I think I like that last one best. Maybe still give the sgt an orange shoulder also.

Thoughts?

Chapter markings

2008-09-29T15:27:00.000-05:00

This is a work in progress and if you see any glaring contradictions, let me know.

****

Chapter symbol: TBD after a name is chosen. Generally the left shoulder denotes chapter and function. The right shoulder denotes company and rank The right knee denotes squad..

Armor pattern: The standard pattern is feet, thighs, joints, and face plates with green in all other locations.

Company markings:
Company symbol is on the right pauldron.

Squad markings: Squad type determined by the trim on the left pauldron. Gold for HQ, Green for Tactical, Blue for Fast Attack, & Yellow for Heavy Support.
Scouts are designated by their armor style as are Terminators. Sternguard veterans in standard power armor from veteran squads have orange armor where the rest of the chapter's is green and the pauldrons have green trim. I don't know if I will keep this for the Vanguard veterans or not. I may simply paint them as normal assault marines and reverse the helmet and face plate colors. I may give all sergents orange or silver trim on their right pauldrons depending if they are veterans. I may throw a blaze of orange on the Terminators as well.

Rank markings:
Margrave - Denoted by a surcoat, banner, and gold pauldrons w/ green trim.
Captains - Denoted by surcoat, banner, and silver pauldrons w/ gold trim.
Veteran Sergents -- Orange right paudron trim
Sergeants -- Silver right pauldron trim
Privates -- Green right pauldron trim

Banner markings: Each Company has a symbol which is denoted on it's company banner. All squad banners are patterned to designate the squad type and are in the color codes for that type of unit. All squad banners have the squad number as an Arabic number on them as well. Squad banners may have other squad specific deisgns. Independent characters may have their own personal standards with a design that is up to them.

Specialist markings:
Apocatharies have white armor where the rest of the chapter is black except the face plate.
Librarians have blue
Techmarines have dark red, but this may change because it looks Christmas-like with the green.
Chaplains have all black armor, skull face plates.
Champions -- Black armor with green pauldrons with gold trim, green surcoat, and a gold head laurel

Pictures

2008-09-27T15:52:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Bolter and Chainsword, I have some pictures of my paint scheme for people to look at. Without further ado:

Tactical Marine

Terminator

Assault Marine

Veteran

What's in a Name?

2008-09-25T09:55:00.000-05:00

So I'm back to thinking about not being "real" Salamanders but rather being a chapter of my own invention. Partially this is because I like doing creative things like that. Partially, this is because my paint scheme is not really a Salamanders one (Think of a White Panther or Mortifactor but make it black and snot green). Partially it is because I found a neat article on Bolter and Chainsword about Do It Yourself Chapters. And partially it is because I have an idea.

So you have a Founding, let's say 23rd (because 23 is large enough to be interesting and also prime). A proto-Chapter is created and a group of about 20 Marines from another chapter sent to train up these boys and make the chapter operational. They settle on a homeworld and begin, but the homeworld is attacked before they get the Chapter operational. Chapter is involved in a desperate and losing struggle to repel the invaders during which the 20 trainers are all killed. When all seems lost, a company or two of Salamanders drop pods in and drives off the attackers, saving the planet and the proto-Chapter. The Salamanders leave 20 of their guys to finish off the proto-Chapter's training. This would be a very formative event for the Chapter and would lead them to take a lot of Salamander doctrine, similar colors, and perhaps even part of their Chapter name as they emulate their saviors. They might even consider the Salamanders as their spiritual parent chapter regardless of the actual gene-seed. I think that's an interesting backstory that explains the similar, but not identical uniforms and doctrine I tend to use.

One of my issues is gene-seed though. I can either say my seed is from the Ultramarines/White Scars/Imperial Fists and I know it. (Or, if the invaders destroyed the original Fortress Monastery I might not know who my gene-seed came from.) Thus, the original training cadre would be from that Chapter. That's not too tough.

The other option would be to have actually been seeded from Salamander stock. all we know is that the Salamanders seeded no SECOND Founding Chapters. Their seed is pure and there is NO reason not to have used it. However, we also know that NO known daughter chapters exist. We know that Salamanders have black skin and red eyes, but it is intimated that this might be environmental and thus limited to Nocturne. Certainly if any later founding Chapters exhibited these obvious physical traits then you'd KNOW they were Salamander daughters. The obvious conclusion is that the Salamander gene-seed does not AUTOMATICALLY convey the black skin and red eyes. So it is POSSIBLE to have been formed from Salamander geneseed.

Next problem: Since no one knows of any Salamander daughters, obviously if my new Chapter was a daughter, the records would have to have been lost. From our point of view, that is easy if out Fortress Monastery was destroyed, but why doesn't the Imperium have a record? More to the point, wouldn't Salamanders have been sent to train us then and wouldn't the Salamanders know? Could the politics between the Marine Chapters mean that the Ultramarines might have politicked to have have themselves train this new chapter so, unlike the Salamanders it is organized properly? If that is the case, does it stretch coincidence that the Salamanders happened to be the ones to drop pod in and save them?

None of this even touches what KIND of world the homeworld is (I like ice and snow because I think it looks good on vehicles. What kind of people live there? what has the Chapter done post being made operational. Etc.

Thoughts anyone?

Model Painting

2008-09-24T10:04:00.000-05:00

When you first see some of the really well painted minis in White Dwarf or other magazines, it's kind of inspiring. Then you go home and do some painting and you think you're really doing well because you can stay within the lines, you use highlighting, you use shading, you use washing and inks, and you even paint your flock and put in grass. All on stock GW figures.

Then you see some of the armies that people have put together on the web with Eldar crossing lakes of lava, Necrons climbing small hills, or a Space Marine with his foot atop a fallen foe; where the lowliest trooper is painted far better than your best character model, and you just get depressed. How do you even posed a Space Marine's leg anyway? When I try it looks unnatural or I ruin the model.

Speed, the lifeblood of any army

2008-09-22T12:46:00.000-05:00

Prior to the invention of the battleship in the late 19th century, naval combat was decided at short ranges by boarding. A British visionary, Adm. Jackie Fisher, changed that by building H.M.S. Dreadnought, one of the few ships that could be said to have changed everything in an instant. She was an "all big gun" ship, meaning she had pretty much only large guns to fight other ships with and they could all lob a shell quite a long way. Her invention led to a drastic change in naval tactics. Where before gun crews trained for ranges of about 2000 yards, they now had to train for 15,000 yards and be able to hit the target. Dreadnought was also armored to be able to duel with another ship throwing shells as big as she herself carried.

For all of the above obvious features of Dreadnought, one thing that is usually a second mention in discussing H.M.S. Dreadnought is the fact that she was driven by a steam turbine. Why? Because that was the only way to make her fast enough in Fisher's eyes. Why did this floating citadel need speed? Therein lies the point of this post.

Speed, as Fisher pointed out, allowed a ship to set the range of the engagement, by which he meant, absent an objective that needed to be defended tying the ships in place, the faster ship would always be the one to choose the range at which a naval battle was to be fought. If the faster ship wanted a long range duel, then it could successfully sail away when the enemy closed, thus keeping open the range. If it wanted to fight a close action, it could close and the enemy could not escape. For Dreadnought, this meant that she could stand off an enemy ship and fight at the ranges she was trained at rather than allow the enemy to close to the ranges the enemy was trained at. Likewise, it also meant that enemies could not simply avoid Dreadnought by sailing away from her.

In Warhammer 40K, we play on a table, usually 4' x 6' or 4' x 8', which means we don't have the unlimited free movement provided by an expanse of open sea. However, some of Fisher's principles still apply; the faster army can do a lot to choose the engagement range. If the faster army is shooty, it can do a lot to stay away from the enemy and allow the maximum amount of shooting for as long as possible. Tau do this. If the army is built around the assault, then it benefits from being able to close on the enemy and catch up as fast as possible. Blood Angels do this (or at least used to with their vehicle turbo boosts). Because the board is finite, you cannot employ speed completely -- Imagine what it would be like if your shooty army could keep retreating and firing as it goes for oh, say, 24 feet before the assault elements could finally come to grips with it. (Likewise a bigger board would reward a faster army because you would have room to really develop a flanking maneuver and string out a slower enemy which just can't happen on a normal sized board.) Still, even with the limits of the board in mind, it seems to me that speed is one of the most decisive factors in an army, every bit as important as armor or weapons.

All of the above said, because of the limitations imposed by the board, VOLUME of fire becomes a huge issue as well. Since you can't move as much, you need to make it hurt more that you can move.

Comments?

Thunderfire Cannon

2008-09-21T18:47:00.000-05:00

Sat around the hobby shop with the new Codex and figured out the new Thunderfire Cannon. My question had been that the SM Codex says that the techmarine becomes an independent character if the cannon is destroyed, but no stats were given for the cannon. Per the guys hanging around the shop, the Thuderfire is artillery and that has a special rule in the main book. It is a ten armor and any glancing or penetrating hit destroys it. I'm gonna have to go look that up.

I have to confess, this is one of the items I'm really excited about because it seems to Salamandarish. It's not fast and can be easily incorporated into an infantry army.

The other thing I'm excited about is the Land Raider Redeemer. Lots of flamers. Woot!

Assault Cannons

2008-09-19T11:16:00.003-05:00

Anyone know why the 5th Ed. Book has Space Marines Assault Cannons as Heavy 4 Rending weapons, but Assault Cannons under the Sisters of Battle are Heavy 3 weapons?

Drop Pods

2008-09-19T11:16:00.002-05:00

There is going to be a new drop pod model for the Space Marines and I see a lot of talk on the forums about drop pod based armies. I played with those back in 3rd Ed. and honestly, I don't see the point. Here's my take:

Defender deploys all of his army. Attacker's Army comes in piecemeal depending on the roll of the dice. This means that ALL of the defender's fire can concentrate on a smaller portion of the attacker's army. This allows the defender to defeat the attacker in detail. The only reason to use drop pods would be if you were playing an assaulty army and even then you usually get too shot up before you can get your assault on.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

NO BITZ???!!!

2008-09-19T11:16:00.001-05:00

So I went into my local fine hobby shop and requested to look at the bitz catalog. I was thinking I'd need to do some converting for my 'Manders. I am told that GW has discontinued bitz. WTH? "No Bitz?" says I. "It will be harder to do custom work." I'm told that you just need to buy the entire model now. Screw that. Now I'm mad at GW all over again. I wonder if there are any bitz traders out there peddling other people's cast offs.

Assault Cannons vs. Missile Launchers on Terminators

2008-09-19T11:16:00.000-05:00

Was debating last night on the relative merits of the assault cannon or the missile launcher for terminators. Both are heavy weapons.

ML 48" range and can be S8, AP3 but has only 1 shot.

AC has 24" range and is S6, AP4 but has 4 shots. What makes this interesting is that the AC is a "rending" weapon which means that if I roll a 6 to wound or penetrate, cool stuff happens. Against people, it becomes and AP2 shot. Against a vehicle it gets another d3 to add to its penetration.

This means that, regardless, the ML can engage at twice the range. The maximum penetration value of the ML is 14 which will only glance a Land Raider. The maximum penetration of an AC is 15 which will penetrate a Land Raider. The average penetration of a a ML is 11.5 which will penetrate most side and back armors, but not most fronts. The average penetration of an AC is 9.8 which won't penetrate anything. However, the ML gets 1 shot at that 11.5, while the AC gets, on average, around 3 (slightly less actually). Now the chance of NOT rolling a 6 is right around 83%. But the chance of not rolling a 6 on any of three dice is only about 57%. So figure 43% of the time the AC will get penetration values of 7 or above for a total hit of 13 or above. That DOES punch almost anything except a Land Raider. Further, 2/3 of that time you will glance or penetrate a Land Raider. That means about 37% of the times you shoot, you'll have at least 1 hit that will glance a Land Raider and 14% of the time, you'll penetrate it. The ML can only glance the Land Raider 17% of the time. The AC will penetrate it almost as often as the ML will glance it and the AC will at least glance it almost twice as much.

(Compare a melta weapon which at S8 + 2d6 will have an average penetration value of 15 and thus will penetrate about 50% of the time at least glance it almost 2/3 of the time. A melta though is not as much good for fighting a mob army.)

It seems like the AC is a better choice, but the lack of range still bothers me. Of course, the rest of the terminator squad is only going to have a 24" range and having the same range for your squads is important.

Tactical thoughts

2008-09-17T10:05:00.000-05:00

I’ve been looking at/for Salamander tactica on-line and not having a whole lot of results. One of the best sites was apparently www.thefireofnocturne.com but it seems to have lost its registration. I have managed to salvage some bits from it by using cached Google results and I may post those here someday after I clean them up. I also tried www.archive.org, but had little luck there.

I remain concerned about being short range shooty because that sounds a lot like shoot once and be assaulted to me. People on the Salamander boards often refer to “our short range firepower” like we somehow have more than most other Marines or are better with it. the truth is that, as of 4 October, any other marine outfit can takes exactly the same range of weaponry that we can. Their bolters, standing and shooting at 12” are every bit as good as ours. We can, for fluff reasons, optimize for fluff by doing something like only taking flamers and meltaguns, but that would mean that when marching at another Space Marine player, we’d be taking a lot of plasma and lascannon fire before getting into range.

I’ve also pondered GW’s decision to limit tactical squad’s ability to get special weapons to only ten man squads. Obviously, they want to encourage the players to take more troops and full ten man squads. They then allow us to break up our tens into two five man squads. I can see this having a few effects. 1) People may elect to take the two cheapest five man squads they can and then fill out their list with three elites, three fast attack, and three heavies; exactly the opposite of what GW wants. 2) They may break up their squads so they have two assault halves with say meltaguns and 2 heavy halves with lascannons. The assaults then move together assaulting and the heavies stand on the same hill and shoot. It’s like having a light devastator squad. 3) I think you can put two meltaguns or flamers in a tac squad now and if you can conceiviably when you split them, you could end up with a five man squad with two meltaguns. If you matched up two halves like that you could have a ten person group with two sgts geared to assault, four meltaguns/flamers, and four damage sponge vanilla space marines. This group of course is actually two units so it would take casualties a bit more easily. On the other hand it can divide and go after two targets at the same time (useful when assaulting tanks with meltaguns). 4) Do as GW intends and take a ten man squad.

I remain kind of honked off by the fact that if I want terminators with thunder hammers, they can only go in an all assault squad where the base weapon is a lightning claw. As a general rule, I prefer a LC to a TH for carving up bad guys so I’d be grinding my teeth every time I had to pay to upgrade. If I want flamers, a quintessential assault weapon though, I have to go to a “shooty” terminator squad. I can still make an assault oriented squad from that by putting in two heavy flamers and eight other storm bolter/power fist guys, but then I can’t have my hammers, damn it! Besides, if I’m a shooty terminator, I want my assault cannon and missiles. Oh and did I mention that all these terminators are expensive?

I forgot to mention the problem now with veterans. Only assault veterans can have thunder hammers. Only Sternguard veterans can have heavy flamers (and no figure is made for a space marine carrying a heavy flamer by the way). So, whereas previously and in fluff a Salamander veteran squad should have both heavy flamers and thunder hammers, I have to choose. I think you could make an interesting assault squad of Sternguard veterans with the heavy flamers and whatever I can give them to make them better assaulters. Probably mount 'em in a Razorback. At least that's what I'm going to TRY doing. Problem is that I need another 4 terminators with just a storm bolter and power fist. I could get the "terminator" box which would give a me a second assault cannon and a second chainfist. But that is $50. I already have 12(!) termies with t-hammers of course.

I feel as if I am being forced to trade effectiveness for fluffiness. I can be fluffy or good or do neither well.

The only good short-range shooty battle I can remember was actually with my Sisters of Battle running out of a Chapter Approved book. Like the Salamanders, Sisters have a lot of flamers and meltas. I was fighting a Chaos Marine enemy, Tzeneech (or however it’s spelled) and it turns out that while he was good in the assault, he could not initiate an assault. He had to be assaulted which I was not about to do. So we stood eight inches apart and shot at each other. He had a higher toughness. I had numbers and meltas. I won. Otherwise, the best battlefield for the Salamanders would be an impassible hedgerow running the length of the table, 23” from the opponent’s edge in a scenario which had no deep strike, jump packs, etc. Even then, it’s probably just a break even fight.

The Dark Side

2008-09-16T11:41:00.000-05:00

More and more, I find my interest going to the Dark Eldar. I don't know if that is simple procrastination or the fact that I am always drawn to the least played army because it is the least played army. I'm also in the minority that thinks the DE models look cool.

Captain Kirk imitation: MUST.... FINISH.... SALAMANDERS.... .... FIRST!

This is why I have so many unpainted figs...

2008-09-15T10:32:00.000-05:00

I came into this last weekend with Saturday afternoon and all of Sunday to paint some of my Salamanders. By the time I went to bed Sunday night, I had touched up 5 figs and added boltgun metal, metalic gold, black, and done their purity seals. I found myself wondering what happened?

Well, let's see:

1) I spent a lot of time noodling around with my boxes, rearranging which sergeant was with which squad or rearranging my special weapons for the squads.

1.5) Went to the local hobby store to re-examine the advance copy of the new codex.

2) I read through my Witch Hunter Codex again and wondered if I should maybe paint up my Sisters (who are even more unpainted than the Salamanders and have to compete with them for my store of Rhinos).

3) I read through my Dark Eldar Codex and wondered if it was really still the most recent printing like everyone says. Got on-line and tried to look it up. Got excited about my Dark Elder and wondered if I should play them.

3.5) Posted my findings on the new Salamander terminators.

4) I looked up the weapon strength of some of my Salamander's weapons and readjusted what is where agin. Made labels for the squads so I could remember what I was thinking later.

5) Got out my paints.

6) Primered some of the Space Marines for later painting.

7) Looked through my Dark Elder figs.

8) Looked through my Witch Hunter figs.

9) Cleaned off the table and got out the paints.

10) Got on-line to look up some aspects of Salamander painting. (Are the belts green?) Couldn't find it so I dug out the Armageddon Codex and used a magnifying glass. (Answer: Yes.)

11) Thought about squad markings and my inability to freehand the Salamander symbol, or any other markings. Wondered if I should go piant something that required less artistic talent.

12) By now it is after 10 PM on Sunday, so I pulled out 5 mostly painted Salamanders (meaning they have got their green on) and began gluing their backpacks on. Then painted until 11:30.

13) Went and primered the other side of the figures I primered previously.

At some point I relaized I was procrastinating, but I'm not sure where. Painting is, after all is said and done, something that happens with a brush. I need to remember that.

More thoughts on 5.0 Salamanders

2008-09-14T03:38:00.000-05:00

It's 3:30 AM and I'm writing this so I don't forget it before morning, but I hope it's coherent.

Noticed today that the old Salamander Assault Terminators with thunder hammers and 2 heavy flamers is DOA. The only terminators that get heavy flamers are the ones that are shooty (storm bolters, missiles, assault cannons). So if you want heavy flamers, you need to be assaulting with the power fists not the thunder hammers. Crap.

While we're on the subject of heavy flamers, the only space marine squads that get heavy flamers is the Sternguard veterans. That's right, the "shooty" veterans can get TWO heavy flamers and the assault veterans get ZERO. Makes a lot of sense doesn't it, cuz when I want to stand back and shoot from range, I always want my flamer. So if you want heavy flamers in your assault, you have to go with Sternguard and then equip the sgt. as assaulty as you can. Of course GW doesn't even MAKE a Space Marine with a heavy flamer so I guess we aren't supposed to use them.

On the subject of assaults, the regular assault squad can field a flamer but a veteran assault squad cannot. The veterans can field power weapons and all kinds of things like that, including I think, thunder hammers and lightning shields, but not a simple flamer.

Oh and while I think the number of ICs that can get thunder hammers is dismal, like I said the veteran assault squad can get them. Anyone want to bet on whether you can buy a bitz order of just t-hammers and storm shields?

Cover

2008-09-12T10:31:00.000-05:00

I have been slogging through the new 5.0 40K book and I got to the bit about cover. (BTW, if you are riding on a light rail or subway, don't try to read; all the speed up slow down can make you ill.) When they allowed a unit to shoot through an enemy unit to the unit behind, they apparently decided that they would call the rear unit in cover from the front unit. This gives the rear unit a 4+ cover save (which is unaffected by AP value). Some things stuck me about this:

1) It would seem to me that if I fielded two units with say an armor value of 6, then by putting one behind the other I would be dropping its armor value to 4+ vs shooting attacks for FREE. Whereas if I have a 3+ Space Marine, it only matters against AP3 weapons or better. Seems like the guy with weak armor gets a bigger boost and more bang for his free buck.

2) Whereas previously one tended to screen good units with throw away units, that my be reversed somewhat now. If I have a unit with a 3+ save (A) and a unit with a 6 save (B) and I put A in front, then A has a 3+ and B has a 4+. If I put A in back and B in front, I still use my 3+ save for A because it's better, but B drops from 4+ to 6. Of course if you are facing a lot of AP3 weapons, you will out that unit in the rear to give it a save. Otherwise though it seems like there is some logic in screening with your better (usually) unit or at least the better protected unit.

Dark Eldar

2008-09-11T14:08:00.000-05:00

The more I get back into this hobby, the more I realize that I have one of the scarcest armies out there -- Dark Eldar. You can't even find the figures, although they are in the 5.0 rulebook. For me, playing something scare is a draw and I am sorely tempted. But I have a grave fear that Games Workshop will not continue the army much longer due to lack of interest. That means I'd have sunk substantial time and money into a defunct army. That's a big minus. That's why I'll probably continue with my plan to first revive my Space Marines -- they have a new book coming out and I KNOW they'll be around for a good long while.

How can I still need more figs?

2008-09-10T10:30:00.000-05:00

I started arranging my Salamanders last night into squads based on the notes I took from the local store's advanced copy of the new Space Marine Codex. Actually, first I pulled all the models I might use as Salamanders from the tackle trays of Blood Angels and Storm Lords, setting aside all special Blood Angel stuff. Then I began organizing them into squads for Salamanders.

I have about 18 Terminators. I can field a ten man squad with all thunder hammers and storm shields except for the two with heavy flamers. Of course these guys can't shoot for a damn, but I don't generaly think of terminators as shooters, which may be a mistake. Besides hammers and flamers are so very Salamanderish. I do have one with a missile launcher and some with storm bolters. I also have like 4 with lightning claws. I am contemplating making a shooty terminator unit and making an assaulty unit. Obviously the T-hammers, lightning claws, storm shields, etc. would be the assaulty side of the house. I actually have to buy a couple more termies for a full ten on the shooty side.

Scouts are in a similar mixed bag. I have about six or seven with sniper rifles, about as many with shotguns, and about as many with pistol and sword. I have 1 with a heavy bolter, 1 with a missile launcher, and 1 with an autocannon. *sigh* The scout with the autocannon is no longer allowed which sucks; it was a conversion. As a Salamander, I usually used scouts as shooters who could move into good positions to shoot a tank in the butt. As a Blood Angel, I assaulted with them. I'll probably stick to the shooting bit, especially now that there will be a landspeeder that can carry scouts. Of course, Salamanders are supposed to be real light on fast attack stuff like speeders, bikes, and assault troopers, so I'll have to be careful on this score. Again though, I don't have quite enough scouts to field a full ten of anything. I may break them into two units, the snipers with the heavy bolter making a group of ten. Then have a smaller group be set to board the landspeeder. Give them a missile launcher for up the kilt shots. Maybe I'll swap the heavy bolter and the missile launcher.

HQ is a real mess. It used to be that you had a command squad of up to ten people which could include techmarines, apocatharies, standard bearers, etc. Essentially it was a veteran squad with special guys. No longer. Now there are two types of these squads, honor guards for chapter masters and command squads for company captains. Honor gurads are up to ten figs, but command squads are five and only five figs. Both can have apocatharies and standard bearers (or chapter banner bearers or whatever). The other HQ's, Librarians, Techmarines, and Chaplins have no command squads. Techmarines, by the by, now come in three flavors, masters of the forge, techmarines, and slaves. Techmarines are independant characters now as well. Masters are HQs and normal Techmarinnes are elites. Masters let you field six dreadnoughts instead of three (three as elites and three as heavies). GAH! I currently have two Librarian figs, three Techmarine figs, two Chaplain figs, two commander figs, and an Imperial Champion. The Champion is one of my best paint jobs back from when they introduced the Imperial Champion and let any chapter have one. But of course now only Black Templars can have one. Maybe it can be a Chaplain or a Commander. Actually, the rules allow the command squad to have a company champion, maybe it could be that. I also have generic command squad marines with power fists, flamers, etc. that I will now have to see it they can still be fielded in the modern command squads. Tactically, the HQ was one of my few assault units because I could load it down with power weapons. time will tell if that still holds true. The other problem will be choosing which HQs to use. I like my Librarians and the Techmarines are very Salamanderish, not least because they can be armed with thunder hammers. And some of my best figs are the Chaplains. (I have the special Xavier figure x2.) Do I put my best painted army on the field or my most effective? Do I care more about fluff or performance on the field?

And now I move to discuss my devestator squads. Slow moving and carrying heavy weapons, I've always felt that devistators are very Salamanderish, especially when tricked out with 4 multi-meltas. That said, I discovered I used to have two D squads. One carried four multi-meltas. The other carried my favorite heavy weapon, four plasma cannons. Plasma cannons are a small template weapon that pierces most armor and will kill most things and, unlike the smaller plasma guns and pistols, can't blow up the user. A plasma cannon hits hard enough to have a chance of destroying most light tanks, skimmers, etc. but it is also a great anti infantry weapon. It's not usually considered a Salamanderish weapon though. Moreover, because the new rules allow tac squads to field multi-meltas for free, I split up the D squad based around multi-meltas for use in tac squads. In the place of the multi-melta D squad, I now have the beginnings of an anti-personnel D squad consisting of a heavy bolter, a plasma cannon, and two missile launchers. I may eventually set up an all heavy bolter squad, we'll see. The rub is that I don't have enough figs to make this second D squad a ten man squad. I either need to get more figs or I need to mount these guys in a Razorback.

Next, let's talk tac squads. I currently will have five of them. Partially, this is because I broke up the multi-melta D squad which gave me 4 multi-meltas. I already had one tac squad that was a multi-melta and a flamer. Now the rub. I don't have enough flamers because, in my experience anyway, flamers sucked; short range and almost everyone got a save. It was better to have another guy with a bolter who could shoot all the way across the field. Now though flamers are free and people are telling me they got "way better" because there is no cover save anymore. Perhaps. Still, they are a Salamnder weapon. What did I have though? Well I had meltaguns (big hit, pierces armor, short range) or plasma guns (almost as big a hit, same range as the bolter, pierces most armor, can blow the gunner up). My recollection is that it is far better to have a squad with similar engagement ranges than one with different ranges. I went with the plasma guns though the meltas are probably more Salamanderish.

I have 1 assault squad and I need to find out if the flamer guy in it can stay. I also have a lot of extra assault marines so I may be cobbling togehter a veteran assault squad. It will give me a place to put all the guys from the old command squad with power fists, etc. I noticed that all of my old composition (power fists and thunder hammers) was based on the fact that, against most enemies, I was going slower anyway so I took the "always-go-last" weapons. I don't know if I will keep that mold now that I no longer have an init penalty.

None of the above includes vehicles. I have a Vindicator, a Land Raider, a Land Raider Crusader, a Whirlwind (I never use it), 2 Razorbacks, 5 Rhinos, a Typhoon Landspeeder, a normal Landspeeder, and two dreadnoughts. Oh and a bike squad with an attack bike, something else I never use.

I also have four guys with Lascannons. They could be slotted into a D squad or I could put them into a veteran shooty squad. A shooty veteran squad in a Razorback looks mean. I have them, even though they are not very Salamanderish, b/c a lascannon is about the only weapon we have that will shoot a heavy tank like a Land Raider at range with any hope of penatrating. Land Raiders laugh at missile launchers, plasma weapons, or anything like that.

I also have some converted Dark Angels in robes (including one with a LasCannon) that I used as the Storm Lord command squad. I may retain them as the Honor Guard should I ever field a Chapter Master. Which brings me to the fact that I don't know if I ever will. My army, big as it is, is only company sized, not chapter sized. It would seem inappropriate to field a Chapter Master.

I also wonder if you can, under the new rules, make a D squad that has four heavy flamers and is geared for assault.

Just my thoughts for today.

New Codex

2008-09-09T21:38:00.000-05:00

Went to the local hobby store and spent some time looking over the new codex due out next month. Many changes, especially for an old third edition player like me.

Getting back into 40K

2008-09-09T12:02:00.000-05:00

Obviously, I am thinking about getting back into 40K. It's been 4 or 5 years at least; the last time I played, they had just redone the Rhino and Necrons were new. I decided that keeping up with this hobby was too expensive, met a girl, and moved. Moved all the damn 40K stuff too... twice. Now I have a house, have a basement, have a family, and they just popped out Warhammer 40K v. 5. People I know from LARPing play 40K and I was talking to one of them last Saturday evening and it kinda got me in the mood again as it were. So Sunday, I dusted off and unpacked my Warhammer stuff and started going through it. Picked up the new rulebook ($OUCH!).

So, as you may realize depending on how much you know about 40K, I am considering "reactivating" my Salamanders army. Partially this is because I tend to rgard my Blood Angels as being a bit cheesy. The brand new Space Marine Codex comes out next month making it a better choice over the Tau (which would have been my other option). I'd choose these over my Sisters because the Sisters are the least painted of my armies). The Dark Eldar have been a long time since the last update. If I continue to get more enthused, I'll probably pick up the Tau and the Dark Eldar. Still, I'm going to actually try to gte one army painted before I get the next army started. For a change.

The Salamanders, per their fluff, ("fluff" is the non-rules stuff written about the various armies like the army history, philosophy, etc.) are one of the nice guy Space Marine Chapters. Many SM's are arrogant, mutuated, etc. The Salamanders believe in self-reliance, loyalty, and they live with the population of the planet where they are based. They are solid, uncomplaining, and a good, reliable ally. That's why I like them.

In terms of combat doctrine, they are fans of "close range shooting." This is where I don't like them. I'll be the first to admit that my understanding of 40K is a bit out of date, so maybe what I'm about to say is out-of-date. Still, it seems to me that if you are a shooty army, it behooves you to have as much range as you can, especailly against assaulty armies. Open up the range and keep open the range as long as possilbe to maximize your strength. If you are an assaulty army, you close range as fast as possilbe to stop yourself from being shot up. In those terms, close range shooty is kind of an oxymoron. The ONLY reason I can see to do it, is if you were facing a long range guess-range template weapon and you wanted to give them a chance of hitting their own guys. I tried that, it did not work well.

The bigger problem is that the close range shooty weapons like meltas and flamers require you to close to 12" or less which is assault range. You'll get one good round of shooting and then next round they will assault you and, in assault, the attackers have all the advantages. Even if they are a shooty opponant, they will assault you because they don't want to BE assaulted. Against an assaulty enemy like the Blood Angels, well, they'll carve through me in an assault. So, one turn of shooting (if I'm lucky) and then it;s hand-to-hand. Old School (Armageddon) Sallies were even -1 initiative so they always went last. With such bad HTH troops, I would have preferred to have shot from long range, with Lascannons. Of course those are not fluffy weapons for Sallies nd if I use to many of them, I will get mocked or called a generic Space Marine Army in Salamander Colors.

The other thing is whether I want to play a true Salamander army. Space Marine chapters often have daughter chapters called foundings. The biggest founding was the second, but their have been others. Because the Sallies were one of the smallest chapters, they had no second founding daughters, but the fluff implies they may have had other, later, foundings. I could play a later founding daughter chapter... call them Storm Dragons or Storm Hammers. OR I could keep my good old Salamanders.

Things to ponder.

Starting Thoughts

2008-09-09T11:41:00.000-05:00

This is the second blog I've started and, as before, I am not quite sure what this blog will be about. As I create it, I have in mind to discuss Warhammer 40,000, specifically Salamanders Space Marines. Hence, the name.

However, I also have Tau, Dark Eldar, Sisters of Battle aka Witch Hunters, and Blood Angels Space Marines, and that's just in the 40,000 world. If they ever re-introduce the Praetorian Imperial Guard, I'll be sorely tempted. I have Warhammer Fantasy Battles High Elves and have long considered Chaos Beasts (under the theory that you need to have at least one "bad" army and one "good" army). Beyond that I play all kinds of RPGs from D&D to Serenity to Space 1889, and one CCG, L5R. In the CCG, I play several clans, Phoenix, Scorpion, Lion, etc.; always have. I also play in several VtM LARPs, mostl in OWBN. I know - lots of letters. If they mean something to you, great, if not you should probably ignore them. I also know from experience that my interests wander around; I'll be really into L5R for 6 months or a year and then get distracted by something else like 40K. I'll do that for a few months and then move into LARP or back into L5R. It's the way I am, but it means I'll be gung-ho or dormant on subjects like this one.

The point is, I called this blog one thing, but may find myself covering a lot more topics than just the one I named the blog after. I may eventually make a new blog called Dan's Geeky Hobbies and put all this in there, or I may break out into several sub-blogs. Or I may not stick with it. Time will tell.

I do have another blog, Misanthropic-Codswallop, which is where I tend to talk about stupid things I hear, the folly of the human race, general stupidity of this I see, politics, religion, or other things like that.

Anyway, that's what this is and sort of what you can expect from it.