War of Arrakia pt. 1

      In the grim darkness of the future, there is only war! Abbadon the Despoiler leads a chaos warband with Daemons in tow to a planet that has known nothing but peace. Arrakia. To make matters worse, using some twisted warp-spawn magics, he has managed to lure orks into fighting for his cause. Only a localized company of imperial guardsmen and a handful of space marines stood between the Planet and a horrid chaos infestation.





Abbadon and his Justaerian terminators

 

      It was a chilly evening on the planey Arrakis, the sun was just setting on the horizon and the PDF had just finished their training for the day. All was calm in the night until a violent explosion consumed the city centre. From the fiery inferno charged forth the Warbands of the Black Legion; Hell bent on killing all who stood in their path. Planetary alarms sounded as men, women, and children were mercilessly slaughtered by the rampaging traitors. The few guardsmen that could escape from the Slaughter rallied near the Spaceport. Not long after the rally, Colonel Brinkman assumed command of the Imperial forces. Fearing his life, Baelstrom ordered half his company to stay in reserved near his temporary HQ, while the rest of the company sallied forth undermanned. Unknowingly to all of the warriors, a civilian distress beacon had been picked up by a passing Imperial fleet. Luckily enough for the Imperials on the planet, a small contingent of Space Marines was deployed to help maintain the Hopeless Defence.

 

Imperial Commander and Advisors

Half of the Imperial Comapny

Forward Space Marine Scouts

 

 

      The Space Marines were a hundred strong, Fifty marines were the Thunder Dragons, and Fifty were a Renegade "Chapter." Between the hundred the two half companies sported ten suits of the Honoured Terminator Armour. Two predator tanks, a razorback, the Ironclad Dreadnaughts, and a Experimental Land Raider.

Thunder Dragon Biker Squad

 

 

      The Space marines charged out of their landing zones and into defensive positions. They did not have to wait long. The ground began to shake uncontrollably. Suddenly from far ahead a single shout was heard. "Orks!!!!" Cries of "WAAAAAAAGH" echoed down the streets from the city centre. Mobs upon mobs of greenskins were charging down the road toward the Marine Positions. Then the Marines saw them. The wartrucks of the greenskin horde barreling down a nearby road. Then the unthinkable happened. Daemons. Great monstrous beasts were in the air flying above the ruined buildings and began assaulting the Renegades' Scouting positions. On the right flank a lucky lascannon shot had destroyed an ork dreadnaught and the surrounding boys. A feirce firefight was erupting up and down all the streets on the left flank.

 

 

 

 

      The orks charged against the Marine positions all across the front. Casualties were horrid. The green tide was smashing against the space marine positions over and over again, chipping away at their defense little by little. The Imperial guard commander saw the eventual collapse of the line and ordered all his men to form a defensive position around his headquarters. Seeing the Guard falling back, the Black Legion warband entered the fray and quickly overwhelmed the already overtaxed loyalist marines. The Traitors combined with the brutish forces of the orks completely overwhelmed the Marine lines, forcing them to fall back.



 

 

 

 

      Chapter Master Varlen of the Thunder dragons was trying to fend off chaos terminators when he realized just exactly who he was fighting. The Justaerian guard of the Black Legion. Abbadon's person guard. Then he saw him in his black terminator armour. Abbadon the Despoiler. Varlen was struck with a very real feeling of danger as Abbadon's black eyes looked him over. The fanged mouth of the traitor turned to a grin as he struck a challenge. "Fight me, Dog of the Emperor." The Justaerian guard backed off, as did Varlen's honour guard. So began a duel of epic proportions. Varlen's armour was rended to a point of needing major repair. However, before Abbadon could strike a killing blow, Varlen struck out with his relic blade. The blade went clear through Abbadon's armour and wounded him. Sensing that victory was no longer certain, Abbadon ordered his forces to full back.

 

       Varlen looked around at what little was left of his forces. Fifty eight Battle brothers had deployed. There were only seven left. Of his allied chapter, only a Razorback, their Chapter master, and Four battle-brothers were left. Of the Imperial Guard, Baelstrom brought up his reserves and they had fended off the ork assaults. Of their seventy man company, fifty were left. Of their three chimeras, two were left. Both Leman Russ's were still active, and there were little wounded amongst the ranks of the guard. The First battle of Arrakia had taken an extremely heavy toll on Imperial Forces and the Traitors had taken most of the capital City. So with a butchers bill of nearly a thousand total, Civilians, Marines, Guardsmen, Orks, and Traitors, The war of Arrakia had begun.

 

"In no situation should the body count of Space Marines ever be Higher than that of the Imperial Guard." -Field Marshall Peach, After the first battle of Arrakia.

 

(Post note: This is the extremely shortened version. Of the hundred or so pictures I took with an Iphone, only about thirty were actually delivered to me. So I had to leave much out. Will add more parts as I get more pictures.)

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.