Vatarian XII: Meet Warrant Officer Victor Traakas

Warrant Officer Traakas has always been a navy man. His father was a navy man, and his father's father was a navy man. He comes from a whole line of navy men. So when he was stationed as a liaison with the Vatarian XII's command squad, he was sour about it. He made every argument to his superiors but was ultimately sent planet side. On his first day he went to Knight-Commander Zaros and demanded a transfer. The Commander promptly acknowledged his request and stationed him with a frontline combat unit for a week. At the end of that week, he was given the option to remain with the frontline unit or to return to the command headquarters. To this day he refuses to leave the command centre without an armed escort. While he despises everything about his current assignment, he understands this is just one step on the road to admiralty.

History: Vatarian Plate

Someone asked me this weekend why my commanders are in space marine armour. I replied their not, it's just really fancy carapace armour. But that person asking the question sparked off a question. Why do my commander wear plate?

Long ago before gunpowder and cannon, warriors were led into battle directly by their leaders. These kings and generals needed protection from the hazards of being the spearhead in a charge, so they would be clad in full plate armour and given the weapons of their choice. Their armour was treated with as much respect as the officer that wears it, and each suit is fitted specifically to that officer.  After the Great Crusade brought Vatar into compliance, commanders and generals who proved themselves loyal to the imperium were awarded very primitive forms of power armour. Over time Vatarian armoursmiths were able to replicate and reverse engineer the armour, and soon began to produce a more modern form of Vatarian Plate Armour. This was dubbed VP.M35 and quickly spread throughout the Vatarian commanders. Once a commander has his plate, it belongs to him and he is expected to maintain it to the highest standards. It is not unheard of for the son of a high ranking officer to don his fathers armour, earning it and himself more renown with each battle fought. Currently, the VP.M41 is being tested by a select few high commanders, and is known as "Vatarian Heavy Plate"

1st Company Parade

So after defeating my friend Alex in his living room (we have scenery and whatnot) he had an idea of a sort of "Victory Parade"

It sounded like a good idea, so here are the results. Enjoy!

Inspiration

I've been thing about doing another kitbash commander, but I don't know what I should go for. I'm thinking terminator armour but I'm not 100% on it. Any ideas or suggestions? I mean, I like my current one. Love him actually, I just like to have some variety

My current CO:

I also have a battle report to do, I just haven't had time to write it out yet. And I'm also working on Sgt. Fontaine's squad. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll have something done. 

Rasleigh's Raiders

Wen the 1st Vatarian Royal Marine Regiment was decoyed to the Marachan conflict to assist the regular army, there were debates on which units to send first. Segmentum command reviewed the first regiment squad by squad and unit by unit to find the most qualified unit. First Lieutenant Conrad Rasleigh was selected to spearhead the Vatarian Marine forces onto the planet. He and his unit have had over a dozen successful raids on hostile ships, and have made over two dozen combat missions on various planet sides.

Conrad Rasleigh:

Conrad began his career as a student in the famous Vatarian Military Academy. He excelled in all of his classes and the Master of the Academy took note. Not long into his schooling, Conrad was sent to advanced classes for potential officers. After graduating 12 out of 60 in his class he was given the choice of his stationing. He chose the First Vatarian Royale Marine Regiment. 

He carries into battle a Hellpistol, along with a combat blade the size of a forearm. He also carries a hellgun but rarely uses it do to the nature of his missions.

The Raiders:

The Raiders are actually known as 3rd Squad of 1st Company, 1st Royal Marine Regiment.

They've earned their nickname from the lighting fast assaults that they conduct, a speed that has been compared to imperial storm troopers. This fact, combined with the excellent leadership, has led to the unit being deployed to Maracha. They will be assigned to Knight-Commander Zaros of the XII Vatarian Legion. 

Ballad of the First Platoon

Banners waving across the sky

The Men of the first are ready

Unmoving and unafraid

They keep their wits strong and their nerves steady

From somewhere in the rear a call cries out

"First platoon on your feet"

The men shamble up and begin their advance

They have another foe go forward and meet

First sergeant is leading at the front

The officer giving orders in the rear

The men of the line in between them both

Thirty five souls who march forward without fear

The advance slows to a steady stop

"First rank prepare to fire"

Ahead of them a green tide approaches

"Second rank prepare to fire"

The officer gives the order

Streaks of red split the air

The Orks scream as they are struck

They can only advance if they so dare

The order is given to fix bayonets

The horde of Orks is still to large

The men understand what is happening

First Platoon is going to charge

A loud crash as they forces meet

Orks and men scream their mighty cries

First sergeant has realised

First Platoon is going to die

He rallies his men

And holds the banner high

He raises his voice for all to hear

"To me first platoon, these foul xenos must die!"

Their spirit is lifted, their blows are strong

The Orks cry and run

Guardsmen fire collies into their retreat

All the Orks are dead and the day is won

The commander is dead and few survive

Not one man fallen back

They fearlessly held on

First platoon lived through Ork attack

Out of thirty five men

Only ten remain

Uniforms are tattered rags

They struggle to stay sane

First sergeant calls to his men

"Men we've won the day"

The fearless first were going home

First Platoon all the way

WiP: Rasleigh's Raiders

So, I was sitting in my room eating mushroom and cheese Stromboli and watching Reign of Fire when an idea came into my head. I need storm troopers, I said to myself. So I looked them up and decided: wow that model looks stupid. I need an alternative. I need the Death Korps of Krieg. But how would I use them? Would I deploy as regular storm troopers, or give them a title? After brainstorming for about half an hour, Rasleigh's Raiders were born. They will be a squad of the Vatarian Marine Corps. I'll deliver full fluff for them once I finish the entire squad, I've got it written down, I just want to finish what I've got.

Not long after, my Krieg gentlemen came in the post, finally. Fun little fact about Krieg: the resin on the sprues is thicker than that on the actual model. This had led to many a broken foot, rifle, rifle stock, grenades, etc. nothing horrible, all was reglued with some effort on my part. It was quite irksome though. Painting the Krieg troopers wasn't so bad and except for a few nooks and crannies an even still a decent paint job was administered without much effort.

I only have a few pictures and they weren't taken with the best quality. I will try to get better quality pictures soon, hopefully tonight since it will be another warhammer thursday match.

While painting I wondered what would I expect a Vatarian marine to wear. Originally, it was going to be a grey coat with black trim and whatnot but then I realised: I'd be making a WWII German SS squad. So I went into brainstorming mode and doodled a few paint schemes. I thought maybe red with a white trim, but I thought it looked too much like English regulars from the 1700's. I did decide I liked the white on the model because it projected the opposite of a death Korps trooper. (The further it resembles the better) and I decided that since marines would traditionally be attached to a naval vessel , I gave them a blue overcoat with black boots and helmet. I made the mask nothing special, just a fray mask with a white hose. The overall effect, in my eyes, presented a professional, military shock force. I can't wait to see what that look like once they're all painted.

Tyranid Invasion: Part 1

In the hills and valleys of the planer Maracha, a small imperial outpost has been targeted by a massize Tyranid swarm. In response, segmentum command has deployed an entire army group. Two Space Marine chapters, the Fifth Founding and the Stalkers, along with the XII Vatarian Legion with elements of the VII Legion were all marching into battle side by side. A small force of Necrons had also awoken due to do the activity of the swarm, and were reanimating to do battle against this alien threat.

Not long after Necron reanimating, a warband of renegade space marines made planetfall soon after to do battle with the worthy Tyranid foe. This would be a battle of epic proportions.

This was a massive 3500 v 3500 point game. The foe would be a swarm that had an 'old one-eye' as an HQ unit. On the allied side, I had my Knight-Commander Zaros, The VII Vatarian had Knight-Commander Antoch, the Fifth Founding had a librarian, and the Stalkers had a Captain. The Chaos with Necron allies had a chaos lord as their HQ. Allied deployment looked something like this: 

Enemy deployment: 

Turn One -Enemy

Our opponent began his turn by burrowing the thing that can burrow. (little note here: I'm horrible with Tyranid units so I'm very sorry if I offend any Tyranid players with my lack of knowledge) he ran all of his units forward and took flight with a gargoyle (I think). This turn he focused on nothing but closing the distance between our forces.

The flying thing:

The burrowing thing:

Turn one -Allies

Our deployment plan was simple: Move up behind the armour and use it as mobile cover/fire support. My tanks and chimeras were to roll up in front of the main line with the Space Marine infantry and VII guard not far behind. The right flank was to be dominated by first and second platoon supported by bikes and land speeders from the Fifth Founding. A sniper team from the Stalkers chapter was holding the imperial bunker on our side of the field, and would use its superior line of sight to spot and eliminate targets in the valley below. The Necrons and Chaos marines were to move up on the centre and provide support to which ever flank needed it. 

Shooting Phase: Allies

To begin, the sniper team from the Stalkers fired a single Krak missle at the flying thing that was flying over the centre building. As if the emperor himself had willed it, the great beast fell and took another point of damage. With only one point remaining, I fired my demolisher's Lascannon along with the order Bring it Down at it and killed it with the second shot. The humour in it was that because it was flying, the rocket that took it down should've missed. The Tyranid player had intended to use it as a bullet sponge, and now he was forced to change his strategy. I fired my other tank's (at the time it was unnamed) Lascannon at Old one-eye and managed to score a wound. So far, the hammer of the emperor was doing its fair bit.

The flying thing being removed from play:

Allied forces advancing: 

From his position in the rocks, Zaros caught glimpse of a monstrous beast flailing toward the ground. On the Vox, he heard that a Marine scout team had scored an incredibly lucky hit against the monster, and that it was crippled on the ground. "Knight-Commander to Armour, do you have a firing solution on that grounded beast?" There was a short delay followed by an incredibly hoarse voice. "Commander this is Sergeant Zale of the Tora. We only have a solution with the hull mounted Lascannon. Orders to fire?" Zaros assessed the situation quickly. "Affirmative Zale, Bring. It. Down." A bright light filled the air followed quickly by another one. Zaros couldn't see the shooter or what it was shooting at, but he could tell by the great screeching roar that it had scored a hit. His Vox rang with an incoming message. "Zale here sir, the beast is dead."

Turn Two -Enemy

Our enemy was not very happy with the turn of events, he ran most of his units again, trying to get closer and closer. The unpleasantness started when he tried to deep strike gene stealers. However, they went off the board in a deep strike mishap. He then deep struck a doom of m-something. For people who do not know, it has a 3+ save, along with the ability to gain wounds by how many enemies it kills. So when it killed ten men from first platoon, it gained ten wounds. To make matters much much worse, he unleashed the borrowing thing right under the front of my armoured column. One of the tanks was damaged along with one of the chimeras. A third chimera was outright destroyed. The veterans inside of it escaped with only five of their ten man squad plus a priest. He tried firing a biovare thingy (the biological artillery for the bugs) at my tanks, but managed to hit his own burrowing thingy. That was very convenient for me. Although, truth be told I felt incredibly singled out because he was only firing on my men. (In hindsight, I did bring the most to the field...) 

The doom of m-thing beside the speeder:

The burrowing thing attacking me: 

Sergeant Zale was moving the Demolisher at cruising speed when everything began to shake violently. The Tora was thrown forward several feet and came to a grinding halt. "By the throne what was that?" From the rear view hatch, Zale could only see a plume of smoke and dust. The Vox crackled to life not long after. "We've taken rear damage, but otherwise okay." "Does anyone see the other chimera?" Zale peered hard through the huge cloud of debris and could only see one thing. A massive Tyranid borrower had come up right on top of the rear chimera. 

Turn Two -Allied

This point in the game things were hectic. The allied SM chapters were rushing to try and move up to the forward battle, and the chaos/Necron forces were a too far ahead to properly cover the Tyranids that had attacked from the rear. Fontaine and his men disembarked their chimera and were preparing to melta the burrowing beast. First platoon regrouped and got closer to the doom of m-thing. 

Shooting phase -Allied

I used FRFSRF on the first platoon. Fourty two Lasguns, three las pistols, two bolt pistols, a Krak missle, and two auto cannons were unleashed on the doom of M-thing. Only two hits managed to hit because of its blasted 3+ save. Fontaine and his vets fired their Lasguns and meltas at the borrower. Managed to score two hits as well. It was not going well. My allies fired their weapons in an attempt to stop the Tyranid monstrous creatures, but to no avail. My Demolisher tank fired at old one eye and managed to score a hit. My battle tank (earns the name 'stomper' after this battle) fires its main gun and kills thirteen bugs out of fourteen.

Fontaine and his squad preparing to fire:

First platoon firing on the doom of M-ting:

The unfortunate part

It was about midnight at this point, and we had to leave our local gaming store. (We got kicks out)

We rolled die to see who would win. The opponent rolled a six, we rolled a four. Even though we had more kill points, he won.

We are hopefully going to have a rematch this Thursday so be looking for a continuation of what was going on. I'm sad because it was such a short game, but with so many units each turn took a while. My lesson learned this time around was this: Work closely with your allies.

3500 point madness!

Hey ya'll. Had a 3500 point game last night, will post updates soon. All I can say is: Bugs vs SM, SM, IG, & Chaos/Necrons

Heck of a game and I can't wait to post about it

Battle Highlight: 9/May/13

Okay, so get this. Last night I played warhammer against some Black Templars/Space Wolves. Their Rune Priest ( SW librarian, I think) challenged my vet squad's leader to a duel. I accepted.

Fontaine managed to score not one but TWO hits against the librarian before being taken out of the fight. I just think that's outstanding! If I could've gotten one more roll in I could've killed his warlord with a sergeant!!

On a side note, my opponent did deep strike terminators behind my lines. Luckily I used FRFSRF and popped off about 50 Lasgun shots. Give or take some. The terminators were less than 12 inches away and oh man did they suffer for it. My lesson learned last night: Lasguns, in numbers, can destroy tactical dreadnaughts.

Vatarian XII: Meet Sergeant Fontaine

    Gunnery Sergeant Fontaine is veteran of both previous crusades and a no-nonsense squad leader. He has walked away from brutal ambushes and deadly firefights, often as the sole survivor of his unit. This has given him a reputation of being unlucky to be around and as a result most units who serve under him tend to be extremely cautious of their surroundings. He and his unit often act as forward sentries; moving ahead of the main force and equipped with snare mines and camo cloaks.
This combined with Fonraine's knowledge of guerrilla warfare makes the squad a lethal and hard to kill force.

Before he joined the Vatarian Guard, Fontaine was a professional fighter on Vatar. Never losing a single fight made him into a symbol of imperial might and once he answered the call of the guard, it was like a hero joining the ranks. The younger guardsmen looked up to him as an idol and symbol of what an imperial soldier should be.

A small note

I am gonna have to apologise if I deliver my battle reports in parts. The blog spot mobile is very finickity with the iPad, and doesn't let me go past a certain point. I hope doing it in parts isn't too much for people and if so I'm very sorry, I'm trying to find a solution to the problem :(

Blood Angels vs Vatarian Guard: Round 1 Part 5 (Finale)

Turn Five
It was crunch time. My ally moved up her terminators and tore the infantry squad with the objective apart. My vets used their meltas and fried the chimera that had delivered the enemy squad. I got into range to use my psyker's lightening arc against the assault marines and the one time I finally use it and it suffers a Perils of the Warp attack, Killing it outright. The Tora fired its Demolisher cannon and killed off the rest of the assault marines. My remaining chimera opens fire on a scout squad and kills one.

The poor squad that were torn apart by terminator Bolter fire

From his position, Knight-Commander Zaros could see the allied terminators moving up against the Blood Angel's guardsmen that had secured the disc. When they opened fire, the men around the disc disappeared into a red mist. On the left flank about thirty metres out, the chimera that had dropped the enemy off was illuminated briefly as it turned into a pile of molten metal. He scanned his perimeter and noticed a new shell crater with assault marines scattered around it. A hush fell over the battlefield as the Blood Angels began pulling back.

Luckily for me it was around 22:30 and my opponent had to leave. He submitted and we shook hands and agreed to have a rematch. It was a fun game, not too demanding and it kept me on my toes. The lesson I learned from this game is defiantly don't underestimate the cover saves an aegis defence line can give you. A would also like to thank my ally, without her it would've been a bad time with those hostile speeders.

Blood Angels vs Vatarian Guard: Round 1 Part 4

Giants clad in shining red armour decended upon first platoon in an instant. Spouts if flame covered most of first platoon. Men screamed as the assault marines fired their bolt pistols into the survivors. Zaros could only watch as his own squad was being cut down from the distant fire of assault cannons. A bright beam of light cut through the air and the only piece of armour in the company was struck on its hull plating. Luckily the beam lacked the power to penetrate the thick frontal armour of the leman russ. From less than a kilometre away, Zaros heard reports of an infiltrator wreaking havoc on the allied scout snipers.

Turn Three
With my remaining first platoon, I ordered a first rank fire, second rank fire into the squad of assault marines. The platoon managed to score two kills and the rest were armour saved. My ally was able to disable two of the three hostile land speeders, this was a very large relief as they had been giving my infantry a hard time most of the match. With the Tora I decided to rotate the turret and fire into the assault marines. Four of them were killed. With Sergeant Fontaine, his squad, and the remaining chimera I also opened fire on the assault marine squad. Unfortunatly none of them were taken out. The allied space marines were able to eliminate Marbo (after scaring the daylights out of my ally. She thought Marbo would destroy her terminators and her scouts) and managed to force a hostile sniper team to retreat off the board.

The one remaining speeder to the left. Centre is destroyed
One on the right exploded with a penning shot

 Turn Three - Hostiles

My opponent quickly choose to manoeuvre a chimera close and deploy infantry to secure the relic. With his assault marines, he multi-assaulted my Tora and the remaining first platoon. He immobilised my tank with a melts bomb, and cut down my infantry in close combat. (Go figure). Unfortunately, he was now in possession of the relic. This was very very bad for my team because we only had two turns to stop him and get it away from him. He decided to try and eliminate Fontaine and his squad, but thanks to my 3+ cover save, no one was hurt. 

Screams of men filled the air as chainswords swept through the entirety of first platoon. The Blood Angels had retaliated with lethal force. A bright explosion and terrific heat filled the air around the Tora. The tank commander checked all of his monitors and found that the right tread and sponson were completely melted to glowing slag. The tank was immobilised. Through his Vox, the commander heard reports of enemy infantry setting up a defensive perimeter around the mysterious floating disc that caused all this bloodshed.

Blood Angels vs Vatarian Guard: Round 1 Part 3

"Out of the machine men! Move!" First squad of second platoon rushed out of the rear access hatch of their chimera. The sergeant was rushing his men forward in an attempt to relieve Fontaine and his men. The sergeant looked to his rear after hearing a commanding voice. The voice was calling for the chimera to fire on his target, but it was too muffled by the sounds of war to get through to the APC commander. To his left, he heard a massive boom and saw a flume of flame and smoke. One of his troopers was heard screaming "The tank got a kill!" He squinted through the haze of the rising sun and saw a large plume of smoke rising from a hostile chimera.

Turn Two -Hostiles (AKA Hurt Time)
      My opponent was not very happy about the loss of one of his vehicles. He fired a las cannon at my Tank, scoring a glancing hit. Sniper fire from behind his lines cut my second platoon's forst squad to nothing, and then he proceeded to fire his land speeder's assault cannons at my command squad effectively eliminating all but my Primaris Psyker and my commander. If that wasn't enough, he deepstriked with his assault marines with a priest and a librarian. My first platoon got roasted by his flamers and bolt pistols, effectivly cutting down the entire unit to less than half it's twenty five man strength. He also deployed a Marbo Unit to my ally's scout/sniper position and threw a demolition charge. No scouts were harmed.

                                          

 

Blood Angels vs Vatarian Guard: Round 1 Part 2

      "Knight-commander Zaros, this is the Tora, we believe we may see something up ahead. Requesting orders, sir." Zaros motioned for his routine to halt at a small wall, and brought up his binoculars to scan the horizon. Against the rising sun, he observed slight movement amongst boxy shapes. "Tora, this is Zaros. Put a round into those shadows, see if there's any movement after that." There was no reply, only a large fireball that consumed the front of one of the boxes. With the illumination, Zaros saw men scattering around the explosion. Immediately he got on the Vox. "First company to arms! To arms! We have hostiles ahead!" There was various responses from commanders and sergeants as the company slowed to a halt. There was a brief silence followed by the chattering of second Platoon's heavy bolters being fired in the direction of the enemy. From far on the right flank, Zaros saw more bolters being fired at the area ahead. The allied Space Marine Chapter had caught on with what was happening.

Turn One -Hostiles

      The enemy player returned this fire with his own. His one leman russ fired a highly damaging battle cannon shot that knocked out one of my Chimeras. Well, I say knocked out. It got a pin and a six was rolled. The squad that climbed out only had six men remaining, including Sargeant Fontaine. 

Sergeant Fontaine and his Vets. We had no craters so we used Dragon's Teeth

      My opponents own snipers and chimeras began opening fire on the survivors, but luckily they had the forward sentries doctrine, plus barkers stealth, plus night fighting at long range. This gave them a 2+ cover save, so no one was harmed and my opponent had wasted his valuable shooting phase. 

"Get down!" There was a loud crack of a distant battle cannon as the chimera closest to the command squad enveloped in flames. Zaros feared that all was lost until he saw Sergeant Fontaine hefting the door to the troop compartment off it's hinges for the survivors to evacuate. As they escape the burning vehicle the flames ignited the fuel and ammunition compartment. Again he feared the veterans were lost but when the smoke cleared they were in the crater of the once-was chimera. Bolts were screaming over their heads as they kept low to the ground. Amazingly, no one was hit by the torrent of fire being put on their position.

                                                                         Turn Two

      I quickly seized the advantage of not having lost any more of my men by pushing forward more with my First platoon and the tank. The remaining squad of second platoon disembarked their chimera and began to push forward as I approached the hostile Aegis line from the left flank with my infantry/Armour combo. Once again noted that again I was in range with the Demolisher cannon and now the infantry heavy weapons had a clear line of fire on the fortifications. I opened fire.

First platoon moves toward the enemy

Blood Angels vs Vatarian Guard: Round 1 Part 1

Knight-Commander and his routine

      It was mid afternoon in one of the many oasis' on the desert world of Maracha. Knight-Commander Zaros was personally leading the Legion's 1st Company on a patrol to secure the flank against aggressors. The patrol came across a mysterious hover disc and chaos ensued as the blood angels arrived to contest the ground.

                                                                        The Game
      The game was a simple Capture the relic game. The relic, or "Mysterious Hover Disc" was an old poker chip I had in my back pocket at the time. It was a 1400 v 1400 point game, on team 1 was myself and my Space Marine Allies. On team 2 was Blood angels with Catachan allies. Deployment was quick and we took the initiative.

Turn One

      

 First platoon moved up on the left flank with the Tora. Second platoon (mounted) rolled up in Chimeras down the centre area. Down range, the enemy Aegis line was visible with the objective inches away. The upside to this deployment was that though they were closer to the objective, there was no way they could take it without exposing themselves to my firepower, and if they got past that, my allies' terminators and land speeder. It wasn't long after our advance that the front of the enemy's line was in range of my longer-range weaponry. Since it was night fighting, they would have 2+ saves at the range I was at. Caution was thrown to the wind and I let fire with my weaponry. As I did, my ally also decided to unleash her assault cannons, missiles, and sniper rifles. Total, we scored three kills against a well dug in enemy formation.

Weekly Update 1

Had an amazing weekend with my warhammer games. I have plenty of photos to post battle reports, so pretty soon I'll get on writing those down and updating everything. I do have to say, blood angels suck to fight with IG.

On a side note, I've picked up a Harker model as well as another model I'm using as a Primaris Psyker, so I'll be doing character sheets for those soon (It'd be boring if I kept them as Harker and some random Psyker). I've also ordered some Krieg troopers I'm going to run as a Vet Squad. Very very excited about those :). Almost forgot: Also having a Yarrick coming in the post, so he'll defiantly bolster my forces substantially.

Expect battle reports, character profiles, and painting updates in the next few days. Looking forward to comments! :)

Warhammer Thursdays Tonight

       My local games store holds warhammer Thursdays on Thursday, and that's today :) Wish me luck guys, hopefully I'll have a battle report for tomorrow! For the crusade!

Vatarian XII: Meet Knight-Commander Zaros

Knight-Commander Zaros

     Knight-Commander Zaros is the the third Commander of the XII legion. He has been in the Imperial guard since he was 17 years old and served honourably in the infantry, and later on, the Vatarian Special Forces. He was awarded the Valoris Imperatora for his lengthy service throughout his life. He retired at the age of 50, as required by the Vatarian command for all frontline personnel, and was given a position at the Vatarian military Academy. He taught a majority of the officers who currently serve in the Vatarian Guard and is considered a highly professional leader and strategist. 

      Throughout his career, Zaros has earned many awards and medals for his lengthy service in the Vatarian Guard. He earned the Vatarian Ferro Cornu. The Steel Wing. This was earned for his unit's combat jump with the Cadian 76th Light Infantry against an Ork encroachment in a nearby system. He has earned numerous citations for Bravery and courage in combat. He has four Aquilla Mundanis medals and even a Knight of Vatar medal. It is a medal that exlemprifies an officer for high standards and extreme service. No other man is suited to lead the Legion like him.

Maracha: A Brief History

      Maracha is a desert world that is spotted with various sizes of oasis'. The only city on the planet has completely fallen under chaos influence and the valuable promethium refineries that dot the surface have come under the control of various chaos cults. These cults have converted most of the population to the dark gods and killed all those who opposed them.

      The desert that covers the world is incredibly harsh, and the few bits of life that exist are incredibly vicious predators. Things like giant sand spiders, Burrowing worms, and Leark hawks constantly stalk anything that moves in hopes that they will get another meal. Luckily, these beasts are repelled by liquid water, and once a creature nears an oasis it may rest easy from the perils of the
desert.

History: Vatarian XII

      The XII Vatarian Legion is from a medium sized hive world called Vatar. Vatar is in a system only a few light years away from Cadia, so chaos is a major threat that is faced. (More so now thanks to the 13th Black Crusade) The Legion is under the command of Knight-Commander Zaros (equivalent of a colonel), who used to be an instructor at the Vatarian military academy until the call to arms came from the Planetary Governor. He is the third Knight-Commander of the Legion, and has trained most of his officers personally.
      The Legion's number one method of filling its ranks is drafting all Vatarian males by the solar age of 17. Officers are taken from Vatar's high class officials, and are often well connected with the local political families in the city in which they are recruited. The training for the legion is a one year period in which troopers familiarise themselves with the equipment of the guard. Las guns, las pistols, chainswords, grenades, and basic heavy weapon maintenance are part of the training, as well as close combat drills and assault training. Each trooper is expected to find a field in which he excels and perfect himself in it. This leads to professional unit organisation within each platoon and company. 
      The XII legion has fought in two major crusades since its formation. The Demovolan Crusade against the Orks on the death world of Demovola and the Thyros crusade rooting out chaos in the hives of Thyro. The Legion briefly fought against the blood angels on Vatar itself due to a confusion from segmentum command. This led to the first Knight-Commander, Relio, to be forcefully retired after being shot with a heavy Bolter round in the back. They are currently engaged in a Crusage against Chaos and Orks on the desert world of Maracha alongside the VII and III Vatarian Legions. They have entered the Marachan Crusade.

Finally Starting

      Well, here it is. My blog is finally moving forward. This will be a primarily Warhammer 40k blog, so it'll be full of images, battle reports, fluff, etc. I ask that whoever follows it In the future to be patient because I've got to figure all this stuff out.