After Day Report: Badab War: Battle for the Old City - Galen IV [Part 2/3]

 Last time on unjust still...

Niijima and her scouts butcher a heavy weapon squad

Last time, I talked about the Badab War Day on 29 November, with photos from my first game. This was the high water mark for my player skill for the day - but I didn't expect to win any games, so I was having a great day.

At the start of the second round, the Secessionists controlled most of the territories of value, including the Governor's Palace -- but would they continue to hold? Alex's Howling Griffons moved into the Palace, trying to take it from... I forget, but I think it was the all-bike Executioners. In orbit, Mantis Warriors were defeated by Howling Griffons, putting the pressure on the ground war below.

GAME TWO: CONTROL THE HAB ZONE: MANTIS WARRIORS VS SALAMANDERS

My own Mantis Warriors were assigned the defence (or assault? I don't remember) of one of the Hab Zones, defending the innocent against the savagery of Imperial 'justice' - a game against Mick's Salamanders. (I think. I'm so bad with names...) I had brought a few of my civilian models (and loaned a Governor to the Governor's Palace), which we used to represent corralling citizens. Holding the Hab Zones increased the VP count for the side holding those tables at the end of the day, reflecting hearts, minds, and labour assets seized.

Early game - I forgot to get a deployment shot

This mission was a little more balanced. Deploy on the short edges; three objectives to take and hold. Mick was a good player, with a good list (2 x Tacticals with two lascannons, assault terminators, a frightening dread, etc), and was also one of those players with very bad luck normally who then has a run of incredible luck in some games. Like against me. Thanks, Mick.

Nijima's bikers did not last long this time

I don't want to take away from Mick, who played a disciplined game. I couldn't roll a dice to save my life, sure, but I also didn't play very well while he punished my mistakes, pushed against my points, and stiffened his own. He was also a very genial fellow, who was fun to hang out with. Also, his son was in the game day as well! How rad is that? (I think his son was the Executioner biker, actually.)

Nimcha gets wrecked

There's not much to say. I tried to push forward on my right with devastators, scouts and other assets. If I had managed to wreck the Salamander Rhino full of combi-flamer veterans, I might have been able to pin down that flank -- but I... did not. Kamacuras charged them at one point. Mick braced himself to lose the squad and I rolled all ones to hit. Incredible. The combat lasted a round or two more, but, welp.

In the middle, the Salamander Terminators with shields and death were unstoppable down the centre, breaking Nimcha on the way and eventually eating my reserve/objective holder marines. I had forgotten how overpowered storm shields were in Heresy 2, oh boy.

duel of the fates. the Dust Prophet surprisingly lasted one round!

On my left flank, I had a little more luck, with Squad II able to get down the flank and take out a Tactical unit -- eventually. Everything took twice as long as it should. Ahazra Redth couldn't manage to pin anyone with his brain and eventually got gutted by the dread, as you can see above.

Kamacuras absolutely gets wrecked

an Administratum adept accepts the Emperor's Mercy

Sometimes you have a bad game. No shame in that!

MANTIS WARRIORS DEFEAT

Here are some other photos from Round Two:

Mechanicus fight for the Armoury

..against the Astral Claws

the Orbital Defence battery is also fought for by Mechanicus assets

love when the basing matches the mat

Howling Griffon Land Raider fighting for the Palace

Howling Griffon Tactical Squad

Some more lovely Astral Claws

Oh, I guess Astral Claws fought for the Palace.
I thought there was only one Astral Claw player. Hm.

hot Mechanicus-on-Mechanicus action.
(this might be from Round 3 actually)

Arthur is due to wake up soon, so let's make this a quick one, and we'll wrap up next time - on my third game and final results! See you then!

After Day Report: Badab War: Battle for the Old City - Galen IV [Part 1/3]

 That's so many subheadings.

Theatre Map: Galen IV 'Old Town'
Modified by Andrew Legio for the Badab War Reenactment Society, 2025

On Saturday 29 November, a small part of Sydney was transformed into a bloody battlefield, re-enacting a gore-soaked conflict of the Badab War.

One of the more fleshed-out parts of the Warhammer 40,000 background, the Badab War was expanded from a two-page spread in Rogue Trader's Warhammer 40,000 Compendium supplement into a two-book series during Forge World's short-lived Imperial Armour series. These books were the precursors to what became the sprawling Horus Heresy series. They included detailed examinations of the factions involved, maps, art, supplements for then-current game (6th edition), and since have become a firm fan favourite.

a handful of Warriors, painted for a 1st-edition Kill Team

When I came crawling back into the hobby at the tail-end of 7th edition and decided to paint my very first Space Marine, this was the space I joined. I vacillated between a few choices, settled on a Mantis Warrior, and haven't looked back. (I've looked sideways a lot - I have so many projects - but not back.)

III Squad - I think he's one of the guys in the back.

That first Space Marine is still in the army, although he didn't make it to Saturday's game.

The Badab War Reenactment Society has been intending to run game days, campaigns, and other events for years. For once, this community is actually based in Australia and, while I do not live in Sydney, this means that I am more able to attend. (Well, depending on child care responsibilities!) So when an event was announced for November, I jumped at the chance.

1500 points of Mantis Warriors

The rules were simple enough, as mentioned last time. Either bring a Battlefleet Gothic fleet or 1500 points of 28-mm scale warriors. The rules are Heresy 2.0, using custom-built lists - which is great, as it meant that I didn't waste too much money on the Heresy 2.0 rules, given that I played very few games of it. While I do have a BFG fleet, it's not-yet-painted, so ground soldiers it was. I brought together a list of 'neat stuff that everyone in the Facebook group liked' rather than 'good' or 'strong', and away I went.

One of the first Battlefleet engagements; Howling Griffons engage Mantis Warriors 

We weren't told of the day's missions ahead of time, to help reflect the confused state of affairs on the ground, although we did know a) that the space conflict could affect the ground; b) that there would be some kind of map system; c) that it wasn't intended to be competitive, but narrative (although we could bring special characters).

As the final week approached, we were told that each map would have some special features and would start under the control of each faction. These were the Governor's Palace, Industrial Zone, Alpha & Beta Hab Zones, Space Port, Orbital Defense Battery, and Armoury. Controlling a given territory would give advantages - for instance, controlling the Industrial Zone could give one player (in the whole day, not just on that board) It Will Not Die 5+ to any non-AV-14 vehicle to represent improved repair facilities; that entire faction would also gain +1 to Reserves die. A faction had to control the Governor's Palace in order to win the campaign day, otherwise the best to hope for would be a (bloody) draw.

In the end, my Mantis Warriors didn't wind up using any of the map-based advantages, although I heard from the shouts and chaos of other tables that my allies certainly did.

After Action Report: Badab War - Preliminary Action

 The Badab War Reenactment Society is hosting a gaming day in Sydney next weekend. I managed to organise exactly one (1) test game...

typical Imperial settlement on the fringes, with a mix of architectures

Well, actually I organised two, but my car literally died (RIP Tilda) on the way to the first game. I think Musterkrux and I are cursed. We talk a lot of talk about fighting men, but have only ever had one game. Such is life.

The game that did manage to go off, thanks in part to a loaner car, was against regular visitor to this blog, Jimmy. He brought his horrible pre-Angel Blood Angels (so just the Blood) as counts-as Space Sharks. Their stripped-back pale grey, blood spattered wargear makes them very effective as the fan favourite mass murderers, as does their combat doctrine emphasising melee - so very little counts-as in his army, and a good test for the Badab game.

why yes, my keyboard is very dusty

My own 1500-point list is about bringing some of the cooler things I've painted, rather than being a 'good' or 'effective' list - further hampered by my army design focused on fluffiness rather than effectiveness. The Mantis Warriors are poorly supplied, after all, so they have antique gear and not a lot of it.

This is Ahazra Redth, a counts-as Casatferrum dread, 5 Tranquility snipers, 2 x tactical squads, a camo Rhino, Predator, scout bikers, devastators, and a Land Speeder Proteus. (Really, what is the point of a Land Speeder Proteus? - a single multi-melta is not a very effective use of 85 points. It looks sick though.)

Jimmy took Tyberos the Red Wake, 5 x Red Brethren, an apothecary, 10 Tac marines, 10 Siege assault marines (ie despoilers), 6 x siege assault marines, deredeo dread with aiolos launcher and tummy heavy flamer and a Land Raider.

The Badab War guys are using the Heresy 2.0 rules, with custom-build lists (with which I have some issues but it's mostly very good). This was a little weird for Jimmy and I, playing 40k using Heresy rules, but also the last edition of Heresy, which we barely were able to touch -- and our last game was the new Heresy. Real Oldhammer confusion, mostly just meaning that we almost entirely forgot about Reactions, except for a couple Overwatches and one movement from me.

Mantis Warriors Tactical squad #2

morten tyrannis: finis (2)

 No, no -- really. Honest.

Lord of Poxes

I know I said that I was finished, but even then I acknowledged that Games Workshop had just announced a new model.

I really like this guy, actually. A lot of the 'new' (it's seven years old...) range is way too over the top with the tentacles and the gloop and the smoke. This fellow is a lot more industrial and grounded, while still having a giant silly backpack and a sword the length of two men. Good times.

Project: Folk Horrors

 I think I could turn and live with animals. They are so placid and self-contained. They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins. They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God. Not one of them kneels to another or to his own kind that lived thousands of years ago. Not one of them is respectable or unhappy, all over the earth.
  - Lord Summerisle, in The Wicker Man

sylvan warband

folk horror warband

If there is no longer a fan of Ana Polanšćak on this earth, light a candle for me because I am dead. I kickerstart almost every single line of hers since I first stumbled over her work a few years ago. I've commissioned a few big ghouls from her for my accidental Flesh Eaters Court project. I love her work so so much. Watching her go from strength to strength, a tremendous pillar of the miniature community - it rules. I can't wait to see what she does next.

Of course, actually painting any of her cool miniatures is another thing entirely. I have decision paralysis, combined with 'how do I use these in a game'. A few months ago, I decided that I was sick of leaving these wonderful sculpts in a drawer, so I sat down and assembled two rough warbands that could work in Mordheim just to structure the decision-making process. And now here we are!

After Action Report: The Softness of Gold

..their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord.

   - Ezekiel 7:19

ruins of some now-nameless place

Only a few months after being butchered by Camille's gold-clad enforcers of a soon-to-be-dead king, we have a new edition of Horus Heresy and a new opportunity for the sons of Mortarion to show their mettle. Of course, keeping up with the tradition of me not updating the fucking blog, this battle was back in late August and I have forgotten nearly all of it. Oops.

Death Guard tactical marines deploy

This was the first game of the new edition, hot on the heels of playing exactly two games of the old edition this year. Very excellent timing. That said, Camille and I are het* up about the new edition and both immediately bought a lot of new miniatures for it. I even started painting up a new Centurion, who didn't get finished in time for the game but was polished off that night. That's pretty good.

*ironically

After Action Report: Blade and Rifle

 I'm not sorry. We had it coming.
   - 'Tech Noir', GUNSHIP

look at this insane detail on one of Mangs's survivors

My regular opponent and now game designer Little Mangs of War has been working on a miniatures- and setting-agnostic ruleset, currently dubbed 'Blade and Rifle' while in development. Originally intended as survivors vs AI zombies, he's started playing around with matched play rules. I offered to help him playtest a match a few weeks ago (Sunday 3 August, for those of you tracking how long it takes me to write up after action reports). I only had to bring my own pudgy body; he provided miniatures, terrain, dice (although I did bring my dice and tape measure) and the ALPHA_1 set of the rules.

The rules themselves are a little more complex than, say, Mordheim, but less complex than, say, Infinity. They are incredibly lethal, though, which makes cover essential - Mangs completely coated the board in bushes, abandoned cars, trees, and fences and I think the game would utterly fail to work with any less terrain.

Models roll to climb or shoot/fight, with number of successes counted. Certain actions need certain numbers of successes to work, but failures don't cancel them out. Sometimes fail means increased fatigue or other resources on the sheet are spent; sometimes they mean that the action is 'wasted'. Running or sprinting has other costs as well, such as limiting turning; overwatching holds your action but if nothing then crosses your line of fire, the effect is wasted.

I enjoyed the rules once we got into them, with a few suggestions added (if you run, you should be able to attempt to leap fences or cross small gaps, but with a test - parkour! - or additional penalties ensue). Once we got into it, the rules became smooth and easy to understand.

Each model got a little sheet. Feedback from me and a few others in our small group has suggested further improvements there - A5 is easier to manage than A4, for instance. Each model is assigned a card from a deck, which is drawn for initiative. This is fun and easy, but meaning that you can't control who necessarily acts in a given moment (like in Bolt Action or Infinity). This gives a feeling of random folks thrown together rather than militaristic discipline, which I like for this game.

Some of my survivors enter the suburbs here. On a 6x4' board, there will be a lot of walking (4") to get to where we're going, but we need to hug cover - weapons have no range limits, just bonuses at closer ranges.

In the Graveyard of Terrain

 The 'paint undercoated shit' project continues...

Garden of Morr

This set has a pretty bad reputation. The Goonhammer article describes several mistakes one can make when painting it - and that guy has an airbrush. Ana has several criticisms in her old series where she modifies the hell out of hers, criticising the tacky skulls everywhere. Neither of these guys really go hard enough on the damn thing.

I've had mine for a few years now. I got it through that monthly magazine for Age of Sigmar (in which I think it's called a Sigmarite Mausoleum or something) and was initially keen. It's a big kit, it's plastic, and it works really well for Mordheim. Ana had also done a tutorial on buildings which I wanted to use (and I did, along with referencing her graveyard series and her tutorial on verdigris).

You can even see where I'd undercoated it in 2021 and played a game of Mordheim around it. Very suitable for my Undead warband.

Unfortunately, while 'yeah, paint all the stonework, then pick out the metal railings, the skulls, and the vines' sounds pretty easy in theory, in practice it fucking sucks. There is a LOT of stonework, and it's incredibly boring and tedious to grind through, even using washes, sponges, and stippling. And there are so many fucking skulls holy fucking shit.

I only really enjoyed the buildings, where I followed Ana's tutorials pretty closely (including a first experiment with her trademark white-and-black splatter effect) to give the grounds a pop of colour. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if the initial colouring on the stones hadn't gone so grey.

Anyway, the damn thing is done. It'll make good terrain for Sun Rot, Hag28, Mordheim, or any other horror skirmish game - or even some historicals, if you don't look at it too closely. All the individual buildings are removable from their bases and the whole thing can be split apart to cover more ground.

I have had a little good weather lately, and managed to undercoat a bunch of guys (and some more plastic Age of Sigmar terrain for Mordheim uses), although I have still failed to undercoat my Praetor...

Project: Imjin War

Those who seek death shall live. Those who seek life shall die.
   - Admiral Yi Sun-sin

Korean 'bushi' for Ronin

Little project, done over I think three evenings. Which is very funny, because I think I bought these like five years ago. Jimmy and I were talking one day about how cool it would be to play Ronin, an Osprey Games blue book for Samurai skirmishes. My interest in samurai-era wargaming is generally muted (although I did watch a bunch of Kurosawa movies last year...) but I've always been interested in the Imjin War - and Ronin includes Koreans!

Most Samurai rulesets don't, by the way, even including Warlord Games recent supplement for Pike & Shotte, Wars of the Samurai. Which is good, in a way, because it means I don't wind up buying an entire Perry Miniatures Korean army only to have nobody to fight.

Anyway, these guys have languished in a box since then, but we were talking about it recently, so I decided to dig them out. I had forgotten that I'd based them on hexes - must have been in an old-school mood.

A brief sunshiney day a few days ago let met get them undercoated, and so these were a nice little bit of 'finishing something off' juice for the brain.

Project: Hag28

 For a witch stands on the very edge of everything, between the light and the dark, between life and death, making choices, making decisions so that others may pretend no decisions have even been needed. Sometimes they need to help some poor soul through the final hours, help them to find the door, not to get lost in the dark.

    - Terry Pratchett, The Shepherd's Crown

The Hunt of the Death Hag Mother Skaïth

My friend Jimmy is the artist on one of the latest games to come out of the 28 Movement - Hag 28, written by TM Cibelius and currently on Kickstarter. Each player takes on the role of a Hag, be she of the Wode, Death, Desert, Brine. The Hag collects a Hunt of various creatures, and they battle over the soul of local villages, treasures, ancient arcane whatevers. The tone is a mixture of Terry Pratchett, classic folklore, the folk horror trend, and the 'kitbash whatever the hell you like' ethos of the 28 crowd. 

I love the idea, and I love even more the idea of supporting my friends... plus, I have all these horror miniatures I've bought over the years burning a hole in my backlog. So I bashed up a gang and got very lucky a few days ago with some weather clear enough for priming and here we go.

    Hunt of Mother Skaïth

    Mother Skaïth
    Death Hag
    Hex: Death is No Excuse
    Hex: Evil Eye
    Weapon: Basher (wand)

    Terror/Spawn
    Weapon: Basher (or maybe a Poker) (staff)
    Damn Spooky; Make your Entrails your Extrails
    Pretties: 9

    OR if Spawn
    Hex: Nightmare
    Mutation: Where There's a Whip, There's a Way

    Mercenary (x2)
    Heavy armour; Scarred veteran
    Weapon: Chopper (sword & knives or axe)
    Pretties: 4 (each)

    Goblins (x4)
    Ramshackle weapon: Choppers (scratchy claws and rocks)
    My Handiwork
    Mutation: Vicious OR Where There's a Whip, There's a Way
    Pretties: 2 (each)

The above is a 25 Pretty warband based on the 2.0 playtest rules. I think some of the models can be flexible, depending on what's more fun to play with. The Hex Death is No Excuse is a little redundant with the Whip mutation, and similarly with the My Handiwork trait, so we'll see how they interact in a game.

On to the miniatures!

Old World Army Challenge: VI: Necromunda: Failure Redeemed

 How many subtitles can I fit into a blog post?

ladies doing it for themselves

2023 was the last time I attempted the Old World Army Challenge. I was excited - the first year we were doing Specialist Games, I had all this old Necromunda and Gorkamorka metal to paint up; it was going to be good. Alas, I succumbed to the way of all flesh and only managed to get two gangs painted up - my Skavvies, Smilin' Jack and the Bitter Dregs, and my beloved Pit Slaves, Helreach United Miners, Fabricators, Haulers Local Θ-26/20.

All I managed to get done of the third gang, the March gang, was the four juves. Alas, alack, and other a-words that mean: dangit.

Still, this year is seeing me finishing a couple projects up, and then I was out of undercoated things for those projects, just as winter bit in and it got too cold and wet for spraypainting. I scavenged for some undercoated things to paint - with some success so far - and remembered the Escher gang. Let's fucking go.

The Gleaming Falls Ghasts  

 

Leader: bolter, laspistol, twin knives (170 creds)

Heavy: heavy stubber, stub gun,* sword (200 creds)

Juve: autopistol (40 creds)

Juve: stub gun, sword (45 creds)

Juve: autopistol, club (50 creds)

Juve: stub gun, pick (45 creds)

Ganger: autogun, stub gun (80 creds)

Ganger: shotgun, autopistol (85 creds)

Ganger: bolt pistol, sword, frag grenades (110 creds)

Ganger: plasma pistol, pick (85 creds)

Ganger: twin swords, stub gun* (80 creds)

Ganger: autopistol, sword (75 creds)

Ganger: autogun, stub gun* (80 creds)

Ganger: autogun, stub gun* (80 creds)

Ganger: lasgun, laspistol* (90 creds)

Ganger: laspistol, flail (75 creds)

Ganger: shotgun, sword (80 creds)

Ganger: autogun, sword (80 creds)

 

TOTAL: 1,550 credits 

*or some other kind of pistol; it's in a holster. 

This is enough for a starting gang and a half! I'm only missing three of the original sculpts (the other leader, heavy with a plasma cannon, and the chainsword and autopistol ganger). If I see the other three on eBay or something, I'll have to pick them up.

I went with a relatively classic look, because the original style of the Escher --- well, first of all it, it can't be beat anyway, but it's also one of reasons I got into Necromunda in the first place. Punk glamour in all the right ways, black leathers and bright yellows, with a variety of hair colour that never goes away.

To give myself some guidelines, I decided to follow the original colour scheme a little - if a sculpt was painted with blue hair originally, she got blue hair - but all the hair had to be different. I also tried to keep roughly on theme with the loincloths, but wanted everyone to be unique, so those got played with more.

Also: pink gun casing. Because hell yeah, but also because I want to use pink more often. Shoutout to Stahly at Tale of Painters for doing it first and better.