"In Perturabo's Name!"

Well, I've really and truly been bitten by the 2nd Edition bug. I paint-stripped and re-organised my faithful 1990s vintage, Perry-sculpted, Cadian Shock Troops, and wrote a 1,500 point list for them:

Force Steiner, White Battalion, Rigellian LIX Infantry Regiment

Red Company HQ:
Captain Steiner with boltgun and power sword,
4 Guardsmen with comm-link, grenade launcher and mortar.
Grizzled
Primaris Psyker Champion Lo Teng with Force Rod and laspistol.

Commissar DaShae with boltgun and power sword.

Black Platoon Command:
Lieutenant Brandt with laspistol and sword,
4 Guardsmen with comm-link, plasma gun and lascannon.
Grizzled

Squad 1:
Sergeant Moritz with shotgun,
9 Guardsmen with flamer and rocket launcher.

Squad 2:
Corporal Huygens with lasrifle,
9 Guardsmen with plasma gun and autocannon.

Squad 3:
Corporal Lehr with lasrifle,
9 Guardsmen with meltagun and heavy bolter.

Attached: Borithan CCXXII Mechanised Infantry:
Stormtrooper Squad:
Sergeant Rojer with hellpistol and power sword
9 Stormtroopers with plasma gun and autocannon
Chimera AIFV with multi-laser, heavy bolter, and storm bolter

Attached: Homo Minimus Auxilia 1293, Squad Pettigrew:
Ratling Sniper Squad:
Sergeant Pettigrew,
9 Ratlings

Attached: Valachian MXI Armoured Regiment:
White Battalion, Red Company, Charlie Troop:
Leman Russ with battle cannon, lascannon and sponson heavy bolters

Total Points Value: 1,500 points

Then, as a matter of curiosity, I transposed that identical army into the current Codex - the only alteration being to rebrand the Borithans as a Veteran Squad. Total cost? 884 points. It's over six hundred points cheaper! It's not even a thousand point army! Madness!

Anyway, enough babble, on with the pictures:

My son, after having demanded a wash to coat a Terminator he'd painted earlier with. Then he started playing with a mix of my Warlord Games Germans and some various 40K figures. The Techpriest got surrounded by angry plastic Nazi stormtroopers! Good job he had a power axe, eh?

 "Let's play war, Daddy!" So I got to make the good guys (knights) and he made the baddies (supervillains, skeletons and assorted alien monsters).

 Deploying his troops in lines. On the front right is his leader, a red-cloaked skeleton with a magic chain that, if it hits a lego person, "strips all their skin off!" and replaces them with a skeleton figure. Eek! My poor peasants and men-at-arms have no answer to that! Perhaps the wizard with his summoned Genie can help?

 Aaaand fight! Note the dynamite that he placed in front of my battle-line. Apparently the ray guns and robots and magic skeleton-creator weren't enough to ensure victory!

 "And this one's dead too!" My poor knights and peasants gave a reasonable account of themselves but as you can see by this stage I was down to my crossbowmen (and he'd singled out the lone crossbowwoman for special death: "I've killed your girl one, Dad."

 Well that's pretty convincing. My surviving bowmen and lone man-at-arms surrendered...

...but despite their cheerful faces the baddies were not merciful and killed them all!

"Is that war horrible Dad?"
"Well, it does look pretty bloody, yes, son, but they aren't real so they can stand back up again."
"Oh good - let's stand them all back up again!"

A happy afternoon was passed thus.

And, because I've been meaning to post these for a while now, Iron Warriors!

 Qorl Vayne of the Nine Tongues, Iron Warrior Sorceror, adept of Tzeentch, wielder of the Daemon-sword Krless.

 Barabas, the Equerry to the Siege-Captain, bearer of the Warp Banner, veteran of the Long War.

 The Skin-Taker, Aspiring Champion, on the slippery slope towards dedicating himself to Slaanesh. His coat of skins is made only from the finest and worthiest opponents.

The Cohort so far! I have started painting Siege-Captain Leng himself and both the Terminator Squad and Noise Marines are being undercoated. Hopefully I'll have Leng and his Terminators done by this time next week - Iron Warriors are, after all, reasonably easy to paint!

Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack!

I started wargaming when I was three, with my Dad, on the floor of our bungalow in Scotland, with Lego ironclads and a simple ruleset - the details are lost in the mists of time, but it involved the little 1x1 round cylinders as hit markers I think. Great fun was had, and I fondly remember the Monitor he made for the game.

Fast forward some 24 years and my friend CH brought my attention to a slightly more sophisticated Lego wargame: Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack.

In essence, you build your own army of between 4-8 'frames' with three 'stations' (objectives) then you go up against other players in a fast-paced game in which the objectives are the main thing and you can lose with a completely intact army.

So here's my offering - Force A, of the New Byzant Militia:

 L-R: 'Kataphrakt' class mobile combat frame, 'Varangian' Type 21 ground-effect tank, 'Hoplite' Type 13 APC. Foreground: 12 man squad carried by the Hoplite with a crew-served support weapon.

 Yellow Platoon, 'Jane's Janissaries' mercenary unit, contracted to the NBM. L: 'Hetman-C' command frame, R'Janissary-E1' recon frame. Infantryman for scale.

 Two 'Mameluk-A' mobile combat frames of the Janissaries, with an NBM infantryman for scale purposes.

The NBM infantry with their three 'stations' - a communications bunker, a civilian satellite uplink station, and a camouflaged pillbox with emplaced weapon. The flags on the right and left are those of the NBM, while the uplink station flies the flag of New Byzant itself.

Oh, I've done some painting too, but I've not got photos of those yet. So hopefully the Lego stuff will suffice for now!