AAR: Against the Odds

 After Action Report - Mission 1

Old Morgg squinted against the low dawning sun and looked into the horizon from his vantage point on the rocks of the small mount in what had once been an Imperial settlement near the banks of the Skull River. He couldn't see a gork-damn thing. From underneath his perch a grot emerged, winded and puffing in the hot Armageddon air. "Boss! Boss!," the excited little runt yelled at the top of his lungs, "da humies, dey are 'ere! Da shiny ones wiv da blue marks, boss, loads of 'em!". It was his adjutant, Scumbo, and leader of one of the grot mobs he was minding before the big assault on the bridge.

Morgg knew from experience that "loads of 'em" could mean anything from three to a thousand when it came to the calculation skills of Scumbo, and so with a patient blink of his eyes and a hard kick, he asked Scumbo to elaborate. "Did yer count 'em?"

When the dimnituve greenskin had picked himself up and righted his boos-hat, he started counting on his fingers. "Three, five, eleven...err...at least five boss!" Scumbo squaled, perplexed either by his own failure to take proper stock of the enemy or by the menacing look on Moggs face and the giant grappa' stick he wielded in his left hand.

"Al'ight," the ork veteran grumbled, "gavver da ladz, dis is going to be a fight den" and plodded down the small hill towards the ruins where his charges were camped.

At the outskirt of the ruined town, Pride Leader Okore of the Celestial Lions closed the auspex and glanced back at his squad. Esrah was adjusting his flamer, while the rest of the squad were checking their bolt guns. It had been a long trek over the rocky wasteland to the ruins, but they had made good time, and now there were in the designated position for the assault to begin. He touched the talismans hanging from the straps of his armour one by one, saying a small prayer to the Emperor as his gauntlet made contact with the bones and rocks of his native Elysium, noting that his squad was observing their own rituals before battle commenced. "We are ready," he intoned. "For the Emperor, may he hear us roar."

The Forces

Squad Okore

Morgg's Grots

The Battlefield and Deployment

I set up the battlefield as close to the map in the booklet as I was able. The table is a bit smaller, and my collection has fewer small ruins, but the general overview show a close layout to the original plan.

The grots deployed first as per instructions in the briefing, with old Morgg choosing to lead the main force, while a single unit of grots were placed on the flank. We figured that old Morgg would have learned a trick or two in his career, and having a mob of grots hidden on the side was ded sneaky.

Scumbo the Grot adjutant waving his gun around and shouting orders, while old Morgg makes sure that everyone remains enthusiastic about the prospect of battle against post-human super-soldiers...

Sneaky grots taking the flank

Next we deployed Squad Okore to the center and slightly left of the ruins there. The plan was to move up and fry as many greenskins as possible with Esrahs' flamer before the grots piled in, with supporting bolt gun-fire taking out as many of the vile little things as possible. We knew that the grots were cowardly little things, and piling on casualties early on would prevent them from swarming the Lions in close combat. So far so good.

The final deployment of the two forces

Turn 1 - Space Marines

The grots were still quite far away, and a lot of them were hidden from the deadly gaze of the Lions. Pride Leader Okore opted to stick with the plan and moved forwards to get within eyesight of the closest mob, which the astartes could just spot between the buildings and the low pile of rocks to their left. 

Squad Okore readies themselves for battle, spotting the grots a distance away to the left

The squad opened fire, killing two of the little greenskins before the rest fell out of sight, cowering behind the rocks and the ruins between them and the astartes. While the grots yapped and yelped, the threat of Morgg's lash was enough to keep them in line, and not a single grot fled.

Squad Okore opens fire, killing two grots from afar, causing the rest of them mob to drop into cover

Grots Turn 1

With a string of curses that would have withered a small tree, Morgg lashed at his charges, ordering the runts forward in an unorderly mass towards the shining figures in the ruins ahead. The advance was quite succesful (by grot-standards...) and all the mobs bounded forwards as fast as their little legs could carry them.

Morgg orders the grots forward, every grot running as fast as it can towards the hated human foe

As all the grots had run, there wasn't any shooting or charging this turn. The grots felt horribly exposed, but there were a lot of them, so they took some comfort in that at least...

Space Marine Turn 2

Squad Okore continued their advance, making sure that Brother Esrah got within firing range with his flamer. With plenty of targets, Pride Leader Okore ordered the squad to concentrate fire on the closest mob, a plan forming in his mind as fast as the battle developed.

Levelling the nozzle of his flamer, Brother Esrah shot a ball of fire at the nearest grots, incinerating four of the little creatures. The rest of the squad followed suit and killed another three, leaving a single grot pushing himself into the ground, his mates either running around with their clothes on fire or reduced to pulpy matter in the dust.

Brother Esrah incinderate the closest grot mob while the rest of Squad Okore picks of the survivors

Having brought the Emperors wrath to the leftmost mob, Okore ordered a charge into the other grots, charging into the gap of the closest ruin, effectively stemming the tide of grots. The astartes warriors waded into the mob led by Scumbo, the adjutant pushing his fellow grots infront of him towards the marines. The fight was fierce, by one-sided, with the astartes accounting for four of the grots, stomping the runts into the ground and despatching them with their bolt pistols, fists and combat knives.

The marines charge the grots in the ruins, spilling dark blood into the dust of Armageddon

The follow-up from the greenskins was ineffective, the grots being unable to get enough bodies into the combat. Scumbo was pushing the mob forwards from behind, trying to get as many grots into the fight as possible, but to little avail. Things looked grim for the grots, but miraculously they stood their ground, possibly too shocked to flee.

The survivor of the unit on the astartes left took the opportunity to leg it, and was not seen again...

Scombos mob holds against all odds...

While Fergit decides that it might be wiser to fight another day. Possibly while the marines' backs are turned.

Grot Turn 2

Things looked grim for Morgg's boyz, and the veteran ork could see that he would not be able to get his prodder near the golden astartes slaughtering Scumbos mob in the ruins. However, old Morgg was not put off so easily, and he stumbled around the ruin, seeing a chance to take out the marines while they were occupied with killing the grots. The last mob of grots, Grit's mob, copied their leaders move, and went around the other side. A pincher was forming!

Both Morgg and Grit got into combat, Morgg taking Esrah and Zaniba by surprise, the two marines barely escaping his grabba' stick while desperatly fighting off the grots who had now regained their wits and were crawling out of every hole in the ruin to get at the astartes.

Morgg charges the flank of Squad Okore, hoping to take out the flamer

Grit was equally eager to get into combat, but the small grots also failed to do any harm to the astartes. As they descended on Squad Okore, H'ka and Mwfande turned about and laid into them, killing several of the grots in just a few seconds. The nerve of the little runts held, driven by bloodlust and thoughts of revenge.

Grit's mob charges Squad Okore on their right flank, only to be met by the bolter and blade of Mwfande and H'ka

Space Marine Turn 3

Squad Okore was now hard pressed, despite still being full strength. Okore himself was holding back the mob in the ruins while his brothers were protecting his flanks from the rest of the horde and their foul leader. This was the crunch. This was where the battle would be decided, and Okore knew it as the sprayed the inside of the ruins with the blood of the grots milling around his legs, stabbing at his joints with their rusty knives and firing their junk-guns at him point blank. Outside the ork with the grabba' stick was forcing his two opponents onto the defence, neither being able to land a blow on him. The grot reinforcements were threatening to overwhelm Mwfande and H'ka, both astartes almost drowning in little green bodies. 

Squad Okore is hard pressed by the sheer numbers of the greenskins

A cry of pain came over the squad vox as Zaniba was caught in a thrust of the grabba' and driven to the ground, the metal teeth closing slowly around his torso, pinning him like a giant, golden insect. Before Esrah could intervene, the ork had released the mangled form of his brother and turned his focus on him.

Old Morgg takes down Zaniba and turns his full attention to Brother Esrah

Grot Turn 3

With one of the Space Marines down, the greenskins shouted and roared, the grots taking heart from the example of their tyrant-leader. The astartes closed ranks, H'ka slashing wildly about him with his combatknife, freeing Mwfande from the swarm of grots covering him. The two brothers stood back-to-back in the press, more and more grots throwing themselves at them, landing blow after blow. Okore killed again and again, but the grots kept coming, shoved forwards by a bow-legged champion in the back of the mob. He pressed forward, leaving his men to hold the breach behind him. The runt would die by his hand.

It seemed like the grot felt his burning gaze upon it, and as it shoved the last two grots between itself and the vengeful Pride Leader it turned and ran towards the hills from were it had come.

Scumbo decides that discretion is the better part of valor and legs it...

Outside the ruin Esrah fought a lone battle against Morgg, grappling with the large ork. Just as he thought he had the upper hand, he felt a sharp pain in the right leg, as an unseen grot placed a dagger in between the armour-joints of his knee. He kicked the little runt in the face, desintergrating its grinning features, but the distraction had been enough. Morgg's grabba' came down fast and closed around his helmet. He felt the crushing weight of the pincher and then, nothing.

Space Marine Turn 4

As the mob of grots thinned out, so did their courage, and more and more grots turned and ran. A trickled turned into a flow, and the remaning grots were fleeing the field, leaving their dead at the feet of the remaning Lions. In a last bid for revenge, Morgg thre himself at Okore, trying to catch him off-guard with his grabba', but the Pride Leader dodged the blow and retaliated with a thrust of his combat knife, wounding the huge ork. Morgg cast one grudging glance at Okore and followed the grots into the rising dust-storms, leaving the Lions to tend their wounded...

Morgg tries to lay low Okore, but is twarted by the lightning reflexes of the Pride Leader

Result: Space Marine Victory

After-Action Thoughts

Phew, that was intense. The game was only four turns, but what four turns! Although the forces and the objectives were limited, it still felt like a real battle, with the flow going back and forth. I'm glad I decided to include an Ork Runtherd, otherwise the game would have been over much sooner. His aura ability to keep the grots in line and his mini-hero stats helped a lot and made the combat a lot more interesting than just marines pounding grots into the dust for two turns. 

Setting up the terrain and then playing it out, I learned that it's good to have a clear plan, even for small games such as this, and then follow through with them. Space Marine tacticals are not close combat fighters, and the combat against the Runtherd and his grots became a bit of a slug, with neither side landing clear blows, simply because the astartes does not have a lot of attacks after their initial charge. Using cover I managed to keep the grots bottled up and force the orks to go around for a turn, but having an additional round of shooting might have been a lot better in terms of wearing down the horde of greenskins. The grots choose to run in their first turn, but would maybe have done better if they had banded up instead of attacking me piecemeal. All in all a good game, with loads of inspiring moments and some nice grudges already building between the two armies. Looking forward to the next scenario!

Squad Okore voxing in objective secured after seeing off the last of the greenskins

Mission 1 - Against the Odds

First battle

As I've finished painting the first 5 space marines and quite a few grots over the summer, I though I'd get started on the campaign proper before investing in the next models required for the battle. I've spent some time with the 9th edition rulebook, and I think I've got most of it down to memory now. Enough to get me by a skirmish between a demi-squad and 30 grots at least!

I've rewritten the scenario a bit and added a single ork minder to get the grots going, as they would otherwise melt away faster than an icecream at the beach in july. I didn't really make any changes to the marines, since they seem quite alright with their new doctrine of shifting buffs for fire and close combat. The map is built for the old 4x4 and 4x6 tables I suppose, but I've built a suitable patrol-sized board to game on, so I'll be using that instead. The old mission briefing looks like this:

...which is fine by itself, and I guess I could play it right out of the box and still have a fun and engaging game, but I've amended the text a bit to fit with my changes to the setting and forces. See below:

 

As the Celestial Lions deployed into the forward positions around the bridgehead scouts reported a large group of greenskins amassing on the left flank around a cluster of ruins. Scanners revealed a large number of grots and their minder skulking about, spying on the astartes positions, sending runners back to the main ork force approaching from the wasteland, coming to the aid of the now cut-off ork warlord. As long as the grots held the ruins they could potentially circle around and seize the bridge itself when the larger horde arrived, sniping away at astartes positions and being a general nuisance to operations in the coming battle. Only a single squad could be spared from the defence of the main target and premiter defence to dislodge the foe. Pride Leader Okore was a veteran of the battles in Elaras Veil and knew the ork tactics of using their slave-creature well, shielding their main forces from fire and distracting their enemies for long enough to allow the larger aliens to get within range for their primitive weapons to have effect on even astartes warplate. Squad Okore was despatched and, by using a culvert to work their way forward, emerged near the ruins just before dawn.

Cleanse and Purify: Astartes Briefing

"A force of grot infiltrators in Sector 306 poses a threat to the security of the bridgehead. Your squad must kill or drive off the foe and secure the perimiter. Though you will be heavily outnumbered, such is the meat and drink of the Emperors Chosen. The strength of righteousness is with you brothers."

Forces

You have one combat squad of Space Marines under your command. All Space marines are equipped with power armour, bolt pistols, frag and krak grenades. In addition the Space marines are armed with the following:

Sergeant Okore - Bolt gun

Brother H'ka - Bolt gun

Brother Mwfande - Bolt gun

Brother Zaniba - Bolt gun

Brother Esrah - Flamer

Deployment and Game Lenght

Deploy second anywhere within 12" of your own table edge but no closer than 12" to either side. You have first turn. The game lasts four turns turns, after which you roll a dice. On a 4+ you take an additional turn.

Objective

You must destroy the aliens wherever you find them and minimize your own casualties. We cannot spare any brother in the defence of the bridge, so move carefully and use the might entrusted to you in the name of the Emperor. If all grots are destroyed or have fled the field at the end of the opponents turn, you win a complete victory. otherwise award points by the following:

0-5 grots destroyed: 0 points

Unit Wiped Out: 1 victory points

Infiltrate and destroy - Grot Briefing

"Dis is a great place to shoot up and spy on da humies from. Dey fink dey is comin' to boot us out but dey don't know dere is loadsa us Grotz up 'ere and we iz gonna kick deres butts coz we is da meanest, tuffest an shootiest Grotz around. Let's 'ope dey don't shoot back much..."

Forces

All gretchin are armed with the junk-weapons described in codex orks. In addition old Morgg is armed with a grabba' and a grot-lash.

Grit's Mob - ten grots armed with grot blastas

Scumbo's Mob - ten grots armed with grot blastas

Fergit's Mob - ten grots armed with grot blastas

Deployment and Game Length

Set up first anywhere within 12" of your own table adge but no closer than 12" to the sides. You move second. The game lasts four turns after which you roll a dice. On a 4+ you take a final turn.

Objective

"Don't let da humies get yer. Get 'em first!"

The Grot player recieves the following victory points for destroying Space Marine squads:

3+ casualties: 1 victory point

Wiped Out: 2 Victory points

The Second War for Armageddon - Origins

 Origins of the Campaign 

From "The First Great War Against the Beast" by Imperial scribes King and Chambers

"On the day of the Feast of the Emperor in the year 40,941, a massive assault on the hive world of Armageddon began. System ships from the space hulk Alveus Alpha Alpha Sextus smashed through the orbital cordon of the planet, annihilating the obsolete orbital monitors. A massive space drop swiftly overwhlemed the western continent of Armageddon Prime. Lightning assaults by the highly mobile Ork forces encircled hive after hive. Tens of thousands of Ork Boyz blasted through the hives' outer defences and massacred or enslaved the populations within.

Across the continet the forces of humanity were driven into retreat. Du to criminal negligence on the part of Overlord von Strab (cross reference Administratum file: Armageddon 40004, Prosecutions for war-crimes), the ill-prepared human forces were nearly swept away under the green tide. Divisions of PDF were sent out piecemeal by von Strab only to be outflanked and destryed by the enemy..."

There was little to no warning before the assault, although the astute tactician could have forseen that someting was amiss in the clusters of xenos-held planets to the galactic north of the system, had the information been available to the military intelligence, and not withheld by von Strab, who feared that control of the situation would be taken from him by the higher echelons of the Imperial warmachine and the office of the Ordo Prefectus. And so the Second War for Armageddon started with the advantage clearly in the favour of the Orks.

Forward Ork units scouting the remains of a PDF transport, Armageddon Prime ash-wastes.

Two days later the orks invaded Armageddon Secundus and the battle began in earnest. Although some notable rear-guard actions had been fought with distinction by Imperial stragglers, such as The Battle of Kuzmiu Gorge and Last Stand at Orun, these could not delay the Orks' advance with any significance. It is hard to designate this part of the campaign as anything other than a total rout, the ignominy of the situation something that would stain the pride and honour the the Armageddon officer-class for the years to come. The southern part of Armageddon contained 80% of the industrial capacity, and it was recognized by all Imperial commanders, civilian and Militarum alike, that the heartland of the planet must be held if the hope of pushing the Orks off the world again was ever to be entertained. 

The Ork assault started in the Season of Shadows when the volcanic mountains of Armageddon erupt and cause clouds of smoke and dust to swirl across the turbulent blood-coloured skies. Massive armoured columns smashed their way through thinly held Imperial border positions beyond the equatorial jungles that seperates the two continents. As before, the horde of warbands that made up the Ork army had free range of operations throught the theater, while von Strab on his part released information and surveillance reports only piecemeal, each Imperial officer being granted only small sectors to operate within. The frustrated commanders pleaded and cursed over the vox as their units were flanked in turn and overrun by green-faced devils. By the flickering light of the Palidus Mountains, as Mount Eschatus itself erupted and lava bubbled and hissed down the slope, man and Ork fought and dies. Bolters thundered relentlessly, The heavy scrap-walkers of the Orks lumbered forward, dwarfing fleeing human warriors and civilians, myriad turrets spitting death. With great gaps in the human lines the Orks drove onwards south, two entire Warbands sweeping east of the mountain range heading south towards Hades. The remaining Orks striking out west towards the port-hive of Helsreach. 

Remnants of Imperial forces prepare to sell their lives dearly at a barricaded strongpoint at the outskirts of Infernus.

As soon as the Season of Storms following the Season of Shadows broke, blowing the clouds from the sky, it became clear to the Imperials that their hives were surrounded and besieged. The hastily built defences, dug out by the survivors of the North, were demolished. The demoralized defenders, left to their own devices by a steady stream of bad news of defeats and with no faith in the promises of the planetary overlord, began surrendering. Perhaps hoping that this would in turn grant them a measure of clemency, the governor of Infernus Hive was the first to give up an entire hive and its population to the invading greenskins. The citizens that fled were soon rounded up and herded back into the hive for slave labour in the factories, which soon began churning out crude weapons and munitions for their new masters. Given the fact that Orks measure senior citizens and children against their own inhuman standards of toughness, hundreds of thousands were to die under these conditions. Famine and sickness soon followed, diminishing the workforce of the hive manufactorums.

At Hades the Orks halted. Here a fierce resistance was put up by a ragtag army of conscripts professional soldiers and hive gangs under the indomtable leadership of Commissar Sebastian Yarrick. Much has been written about the heoric exploits of Yarrick, and dark were the days when every living human within the hive had to give his and her all in the defence of their homes. Who really knows what feats of heroism and horror took place here, at that time? Those who survived do not talk much about it, save to praise the bravery of Yarrick. Once the Orks got into the hive proper, the battle here devolved into streetfighting of the worst kind, seeing the invaders pay for every inch of ground in blood. More importantly for this account, Yarrick was the first commander to break his orders from von Strab and send an astropathic cry for help to anyone who would listen. And as the hive fell at last to the Orks, help arrived in the form of a large fleet of Adeptus Astrates vessels. The mighties warriors of the Imperium had come to Armageddon in their hundreds. From scores of Chapters they flew from the skies and set upon the Orks, taking the creatures by surprise in turn.

PDF tank-hunters targeting Ork armour in the ruins of Hades Hive.

As the situation stabilized somewhat, and with the last human bastion of Acheron hive saved, the Imperial army reorganized and overall leadership of the campaign changed hands from local commanders to Astartes officers. While the records speak of a seamless merger between the two, the serious accounts paint a different picture. The Imperium works slowly, and the combination of arms is not something taken lightly in any theater of war. PDF commanders, now veterans in their own right, was not always quick to hand the reins to their Astartes saviours, and not all Astartes commanders were generous in their relief, some believeing that the Armageddon forces had given up ground to easily. They disdained the non-augmented humans for their early losses and willingness to withdraw rather than stand and fight. Indeed, many of the Astartes senior leadership entertained thoughts of relieving the entirety of Armageddon High Command of their duties overall and purge the PDF of any officer, commissioned or otherwise, who had not lived up to their standards of duty and honour. It was only the tempered wisdom of the Chapter Master Tu'Shan of the Salamanders that stopped the resentment from spreading into the overall strategy of the assembled Astartes. Justice and retribution would come, but first the Orks had to be dealt with.

With the Astartes reinforcements having made planetfall at Acheron, and a large portion of the Salamanders, Ultramarines and Blood Angels Chapters having pushed off towards Hades in an attempt to relieve the beleaguered defenders there, it was up to the remaining Imperial Army and the smaller contingents of the relief force to make safe the remaining hives on Armageddon Secondus. As the battle around Hades intesified new Ork warbands emerged in the west and the Ork commander, now known as Warlord Ghazghkull Thraka, Overboss of all the Goffs, Prophet of the Waaagh, took the main Ork force on Armageddon south, towards Tartarus hive in a massive push. Faced with defeat at Hades, this Thraka saw Tartarus as his last opportunity to break the spirit of the human forces and win the war. This final attempt would effectively break the back of Imperial production, devastating the industrial base of the south to a point where the war itself would become unwinnable to the Imperial forces gathered on Armageddon. It looked for a while as if the cunning ploy of the Warlord might succeed as headlong assaults swept over the city. However, in a desperate gamble a mixed contingent of Astartes redeployed to their ships in orbit and descended by drop pod and Thunderhawk gunships behind the main body of the Ork spearhead. It is known today that this action caused an uproar in both army and Astartes command, the different Chapters accusing each other for glory-hunting and breaking of oaths, with the human generals taking different sides in the conflict, either out of opportunistic ambition or conviction. None the less, the action was done, and a thin line of armoured warriors held the few intact bridges across the viscid flow of corrosive sludge known as the Skeletus river. On one side they had the main Ork army thundering towards them, and on the other they had the elite of the Orks under the personal leadership of Thraka himself. If they could hold the birdges they would deal the Orks a severe blow and stop their advance on Tartarus in its tracks. on the Ork side of things, Thraka and his closes warchiefs realized that unless they recaptured the bridges over the Skeletus the Orks could not retreat from the trap that Tartarus had become and would soon run low on food and ammunition. If the attack stalled, it would give the victorious Imperials at Hades time to regroup and return to crush the Orks once and for all, saving the industry of Tartarus and winning the war. The only way the Orks could escape and turn things around would be to overrun the bridgeheads and fight their way across the Skeletus...

Introductions

 Battle for Armageddon - reviltalizing an old scenario-booklet

Welcome to my small project based off the Battle for Armageddon scenarios, as found in the 2nd edition of Warhammer 40,000 starter set.

You know which one I'm talking about. If not, let me remind you:

Yeah, that's the one

When I initially acuired the box-set in my early teens (I'm an old man of 37 years now...so we're talking ancient history here!), I was fascinated by the many books that came with it, but having very little understanding of the english language it was written in, I had no idea what to do with it all. The box-set itself contained enough stuff to keep me occupied for ages, and the miniatures were quickly (and badly) painted up to stand on display on the windowsill in front of my desk. I would spend hours coming up with my own rules based on the instructions in the quick-start guide, and then proceed to play out battles between orks and space marines using the cardboard terrain provided in the box, but I never got around to reading the little black-and-white booklet at the bottom of the box. 

Years later I found the booklet again and read through it, again captivated by the mixture of artwork and writing. I never got around to playing it, but it stuck with me for years, where so much of the other stuff in the box was replaced by newer publications and shinier miniatures. I am sure this story is quite typical in the community, where we all have our own similar stories of how we got hooked on the game and all the little marvels that come with it in miniature form.

A while ago I took stock of my hobby inventory, digging out old boxes and abandoned projects, and decided to sell off a lot of it, while falling in love with old armies all over again. Amidst this pile of old plastic and card, there it was again. "The Battle for Armageddon" written my Andy Chambers and Jervis Johnson:

Wonderful stuff, isn't it?

I decided that this would be a good place to do start anew, while building on existing projects in my collection. I haven't really gotten into 9th edition yet, having played only a few times. I'm what I guess you could call a veteran by now, although I've alway enjoyed the story-telling and modelling parts more than the actual game. With two kids and a full-time job, hobby-time is scarce and anything I do have to be somewhat limited in scope if I am to succeed in anything.

So I sat down and had a good think about how to go about it. Luckily, there are plenty of people who have theorized on how to start new projects, how to go about collecting and modelling on a time-limit and how to get the most out of your abandoned projects and see them in a new light. 

Premise:

In this project my goals are:

1) Develop two armies along the lines of those presented in "Battle for Armageddon", but updated to fit the newer range of GW miniatures, with a glance towards the past.

2) Build canon around the two forces off what's presented in the booklet, adapting it to newer stories and the general wobbly timeline of the 40k universe as it stands today.

3) Improve my modelling skills, mainly sculpting and free-hand painting.

4) Learn the rules of the game is successive games linked by the campaign-system found at the back of the booklet, before moving on to the new Crusade system of 9th edition Warhammer 40k.

To achieve this I plan to grow the project from bits and pieces I already have (I'm looking at you, untouched primaris-sprues...) while reading up on the material I have on the different Armageddon wars over time. 

Inspiration:

I'm just going to come out and say it - I bloody love Apologists blog on the Praetors of Calth and everything in between that. Check it out: Death of a Rubricist

I can't stress enough how much this and the running project of the Alien Wars have inspired me over time, and I was lucky enough to play a small part in the ongoing War of the False Primarch (see: War of the False Primarch ). Edd's stuff is both well thought through and interesting from a nostalgic point of view, which is something I hope to emulate here on this project.

Osprey Campaign books have been part of my chosen reading-list for over a century at this point, and I enjoy the format a lot. I hope to include a few maps here and there, and hopefully do plate-like articles as well. We'll see. 

Apart from this I use Instagram a lot and follow different accounts there, although only a few of them deal with the Armageddon War as such. You can find me under the handle DuckcalledSue and explore the different accounts I follow there if interested.

The Armies:

Orks

I already have a large collection of Orks, a lot of them painted up a various times, using various techniques. It's quite a common feature for most hobbyists, as interest in a certain faction or force wax and wane from time to time, year to year. My current collection features an absurd amount of standard boyz with shooters, painted in various hues of green, and a sprinkling of different vehicles and a few characters. The models range from the old 2nd edition "goofy" sculpts to the newer Beastsnagga boyz. So a lot of variety! Again, I guess this is quite normal for most armies. You pick up something in the current edition and before you have the time to paint it all up, there's a new release. Standard, is the best word for it, I guess. 

What I would like for the Orks with this project is to streamline the force a bit more and update the army a bit. While the old boyz are charming in their gorilla-like physiology, and their tremendous amount of dakka, I feel that the models are a bit outdated. Especially since the now only reach their opponents to around chest-height, making them less fearsome.

Following the army-lists provided in the booklet, the Orks and their grot minions total out to 40 grots and 20 orks, plus a single cardboard dreadnought. This is exciting, as I already have about 40 grots in various stages of the paint-process, and the remaining orks leave me with an excuse to have a look at the new box set for ork boyz, released this year.

For painting I want to go with muted schemes and try to uniform the basing a bit more. At this point it's all over the place, with some sandy desert bases and some red-earth martian bases intermingled. I hope to remedy this and create a unified look that ties the different units together.

Space Marines

Space Marines are probably the most popular faction and figure-line in the entire warhammer franchise, and I doubt you'll be able to find any person who hasn't owned at least one and painted it at some point. My own collection of marines is eclectic and random, with several chapters spread out over hundreds of miniatures. I own very few finished armies, but I suppose my Space Marines are the ones that comes the closest to a cohesive 40k force. 

I've always enjoyed building new, small forces for the Space Marines, thus the large number of marines in various shades and colours in my boxes and drawers. For this project I'm going to do the same thing and just start with some basic troops and build from there. The army-lists provided in the booklet detail the total of 20 Space Marines spread over four squads used in the different scenarios. 

I plan to use the newer Primaris Marines as the basis for these tacticals, but keep them in line with the mk.VII armour with some minor conversion-work. While the old tactical marines are still nice models, there's just something about the dimensions of the Primaris' models that makes them seem everything they're made out to be in the lore.

For colurs I want to go with something that stands out and challenges me a bit, without becoming bogged down in techniques and a crazy amount of detailing. I have several chapters on my list that I would like to do, but not all of them would fit into the Armageddon-setting. As I'm pretty tired of painting red, and seeing as I already own enough Blood Angels, this is one of the places I will be departing from the beaten road as laid out by the booklet, and I will likely come up with new names and designations for the Space Marine forces detailed in the scenarios.

Signing off for now...

So this is the premise and the beginning. I'm excited to get started on this new project and all the different little challenges involved - I've already begun arrangeing an absurd amount of grots on my desk in anticipation of the coming paint-sessions!

Untill next time!