Badab War Journal

    I’m recovering from a bad cold today, so I am home with not much to do. So, I’ll collect my thoughts on an army list I’ve been conceptualising. I have two on-going projects that I’m in the painting and test-game stage with.  A 2000 point Space Marine Force, and a 2000 point Sisters of Battle army. Both are relatively new lists, although I’ve played Space Marines lists before, it has mainly been Space Wolves and Dark Angels. About 3 or 4 years ago or so, I had an urge to start an Imperial Guard army and bought a battalion and some box sets. I needed a few more vehicles, and would be good to build a sizable core force. I’ve been going with 2000 points, because I’m ambitious, and I like even numbers! I have built and based the infantry, and started painting the models, but started getting into playing the game itself, and out of the painting as much. And then started a Space Marine army (The Star Phantoms). When Codex:Space Wolf finally came out, I had a lot of painted miniatures, added more squads, and started playing more games. Then I started more projects. The I.G. got shelved. I had ambitious palns of Demon/Witch Hunter allied armies, huge apocalypse battles, an air cavalry (this one may happen in the next year or two) and other ideas kept coming after reading Black Library books, and playing Dawn of War on my PC. Around that time, I happened to get a little money. I bought a Realm of Battle game board, Imperial Sector, some walls and craters, and later a bunch of Planet Strike terrain. So it has been a good couple of years for me, but I have a backlog of projects. I was spread pretty thin, building and painting terrain, playing games of 40K, Planet Strike, even some Battle Missions, adding Space Wolf units, and starting other projects and games. More Codexes/Codices have come out, each one offering tantalizing new armies, such as Tyranids and Blood Angels. To top it off, I got the Space Hulk set, and soon after a Fortress of Redemption! So now I have been formulating a plan to get some of these projects started/completed/finished depending on where they rank on my current priority list. When the BADAB campaign books came out from Forge World, I was happy to find some new army lists. IA 9 has the Tyrants Legion, IA 10 has a Seige list for Space Marines. In between the other two projects I’ve been working on, I thought I’d write up a Tyrants Legion list based solely up what I had on hand, and wouldn’t need to spend any money. I’ll build a core force of 2000 points to start with.

    Before I post the list itself,  I’ll explain a little about how I got some of the models, and the theme of the list itself and why. In the preceding paragraph, I explained how I’d started to gather Imperial Guard models, and how that got derailed. The Tyrants Legion, utilizes models from the Imperial Guard, and Space Marines model range. So I envision a huge blob of meat-shields providing cover for my Space Marine squads. The Space Hulk limited edition Version 3, contains some amazing sculpts. I was blown away by the quality of this set, one of favorite games of all time. A lot of players, were buying multiple sets, and/or converting the awesome Terminator models for 40K use, by basing them. At first I was resistant to that idea, and thought they should remain exclusively for the Space Hulk scenarios, for my purposes. The Codex:Blood Angels, made me want to think seriously about collecting a Lamenters army. This would give me an army for my Star Phantoms to fight, and I could build campaigns and missions playable at my home, on my table. The idea being that my friends could come over and play, not needing to bring anything, having lists, missions, a table of terrain, and all rules will be here.  Bring your dice, and accessories, and play! Ultimately, I’d like to have all of the models, armies and games I have now, painted, playable, and some with at least two forces, to square off against friends. It’s the ‘Frugal Gamer’ in me, determined to utilise and maximize my investments. For the Badab Themed battles, I considered an amazing Lamenters army, using only really great hand-picked models from the modern Space Marine lines from GW/FW. I considered a mech force with a some Razorbacks, Baal Predators, Predators. I’ve also seen fun list ideas of all jumpack or mostly jumpack Blood Angels(Lamenters). I’d definitely want all of the old armour mks by Forge World.  Heck I could even utilise my Space Hulk Terminators, and some Land Raiders, I had in the boxes still.  Of course this is a bit of fancy, a fantasy you could say. I’ve got three Rhinos, a Razorback, Predator, Land Raider Crusader, a great company with two Sky claw packs (mostly old school metal dudes, with nice paint jobs by yours truly), plus other things like Dreads and Land Speeders, My Dark Angels Has a LRC as well. My newest armies have another 13 vehicles using the Rhino chasis. I need to stop the MADNESS! How many Rhinos do I need to buy, build and paint. Let me tell you it is cool to pull out some specialy built, Forge World enhanced, specially painted vehicle for your games, I’ve got my prized Angels of Absolution Land Raider Crusader. But I might be done buying Rhinos/related Space Marine tanks for a long time. I can’t buy more Rhinos/Razorbacks for another Space Marine army! I have at least come up with the dual use Sisters of Battle/Space Marine Rhinos. And I’ll paint some of my grey vehicles, really cool, and detailed, with weathering, but usable for the Space Wolves and the Star Phantoms. I have  4 Drop Pods, and the LRC that could done with. By swapping out the Pintle mounted/manned Storm bolter, I change the army being used. I leave off obvious markings for some dual purpose vehicles, that don’t already have decals, etc. I still want theme and character, but practicality. I want to save money, time, energy, and devote that to other things, and get the most enjoyment from playing games. It is always fun to collect, new games, systems, models, armies, factions. We are driven by impulses, new releses, trends, and what others are recommending. I need to put all that I have to use, and resist any new projects. The buying ,gives the instant gratification, but it is difficult to maintain that level of enthusiasm for weeks and months, to properly collect, build and paint a good sized army in 40K. I have enough stuff to keep busy for years, I know many others that do as well! Several years ago I was spending more time at the local gamestore(GW, Tukwila….R.I.P). I’d enter into an occasional contest, and sometimes win, sometimes, not. One day I won a Land Raider for Apocalypse, a LoTR box and a drawing for the new Baneblade. I still have this things as well as a Land Raider, that I bought as a Crusader. It was missing some metal parts, so Ray at that store gave me a new one and let me keep the original one as well. So all of these items and some cheap Ebay scores of some 2nd edition box set 40K Space Marines. These real cheap models will serve as my Legion Space Marine Cohort. Finally I converted an old Chaplain model into a Legion Centurion, to lead my Legion Auxilia. So using my Space Hulk, IG, some free Land Raiders, and some dirt cheap Ebay scores from a while back, I can satisfy several goals, and achieve some dual purpose use to maximize my time, money and energy for some great games in the coming years using my Badab War Campaign books. First and foremost I’ll have another project to keep myself busy with, that can serve as adversaries for my Star Phantoms. I’ll use my Terminators for dual prposes in 40K and Space Hulk. And will have a good chunk of them painted, to encourage finishing the whole set. I’ll utilise some models that are sitting around, and can incorporate the free Baneblade in for some Apocalyptic Badab fun! Finally I’ll have some of my Imperial Guard models painted, encouraging the use of that Codex in the future.

Here is the List: Tyrants Legion 2000 points(1997)

HQ, Huron-235

HQ, Legion Centurion, power weapon, meltabombs, storm bolter-80

Elites, 7 Space Marine Terminators, assault cannon, chainfist, Land Raider Crusader,  extra armor, multi-melta-590

Troops, Legion Space Marine Cohort, missile launcher, plasmsa gun, power weapon, melta-bombs-200

Legion Auxilia, 40 guys, frags, 4 flamers, power weapon, kraks-172

Auxilia Armsmen Cadre, kraks, carapace armour, power fist, missile launcher, meltagun, Chimera, dozer blade, extra armour, heavy stubber-215

Heavy Support, Leman Russ Battle Tank, dozer blade, extra armour, lascannon, heavy bolter sponsons, pintle-mounted storm bolter, hunter-killer missile-230

Heavy Support, Land Raider, multi-melta, extra-armor-275

    The Legion list allows me to take 1 elites choice from Codex:Space Marines. So How about using my Space Hulk termies and a free Land Raider! BOOOOOOOOOOYAAH! Maybe a little gray area on taking the dedicated transport choice, but it seems legitamite. The Centurian is madatory at 1500, I believe. And one Legion Auxilia is mandatory. The Space Marine Cohorts allow me to take a Heavy Support choice from Codex:Space Marine, hence the second Land Raider in the list. The Armsmen, are my Storm Trooper models. And I used some extra points on the vehicles. The Leman Russ can move six inches and fire all of its’ weapons so I loaded up on some extras. That’s all for now!

This entry was posted on April 20, 2011 at 1:32 pm and is filed under Armies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.