In 2022, Games Workshop began the annual “Grand Narrative”, where six narrative games would be played out over a three day period. This was beyond that of a mere Grand Tournament – the idea is that it is is *also* supposed to be an immersive experience and live action LARP while also playing toy soldiers.
In 2022, I went to the Szabyrne (New Mexico) Grand Narrative not to play six narrative games, but because they were offering a Titan painting class. We spent 48 hours painting our Titans to parade-ready standard, then had them walk in a big battle. I have it on good authority that GW will never, ever do this sort of thing again, unfortunately.
In 2023, I went to the first Atlanta Grand Narrative. After an unfortunate experience playing Ninth Edition Warhammer 40K, I was not super-enthused about playing 40K for three days. I did one day of the Grand Narrative and had an absolute blast with fun games, exciting moments, and great opponents! I was very enthused! However, my knees were displeased by the experience and so I stopped playing after the first day. I spent Saturday and Sunday wandering around downtown Atlanta with Caroline Jones playing Pokemon Go’s fashion week event, where we were shiny hunting various limited-time Pokemon. Caroline successfully obtained the shiny Dragonite wearing a tie, of which I remain extremely jealous. (1)
My preparations for the 2024 Grand Narrative thus began while still in Atlanta in 2023, and now almost a year later these preparations are coming to fruition.
PHASE 1: Lessons Learned from 2023
Where I think I lost out in 2023 was in participation. Not just by not-playing-games, but in truly immersing myself in the story. Now, for those of you who have not been to one of these events, the “story” is not just told on the gaming table or in the dinner theater set-pieces during the day. The story is also told and lived in the event Discord.
GW sets up a new Discord servers every year for the participants to meet and interact about two months prior to the Grand Narrative. GW also takes the opportunity (through the character “Scrapcode”) to add in story beats. These Discords remain relatively active even after the event, as people want to keep in contact with the friends they make along the lane. These Discords have channels for the Faction and Battlegroups to coordinate preparations to the event. There are also channels to show off the models that participants are either 1) working on or 2) have completed.
There is also a “Lore” channel, for people to tell stories. People use this channel to tell the story of their Warlord and their Army in the time prior to the event. Last year, the Lore channel was used by the Enlightenment faction players to coordinate a mutiny against the Inquisitor Lord of War (in favor of a Valhallan Commissar).
To truly get the full effect of the 2024 Narrative, I am going to have to participate in those lore channels and create a character to role play in those channels.
PHASE 2: A New Army and Contemptor Kevin’s 2024 LVO Recap
The army I brought with me to the 2023 Grand Narrative was my Ultramarines. And because it was the Grand Narrative with all the big since-Legendsed Forge World and Horus Heresy models, I had those models in the blue of Ultramar. However, I had been collecting Ultramarines for several years and my painting styles had changed from 2017 (when I began painting models) to 2023 (when I got an airbrush setup), and so my Ultramarines army did not have a coherent appearance. As a result, while I went to the 2023 Narrative with a well painted army, that army was not coherently painted – the blue of the models that I had airbrushed in the months before the event looked very different than the blue of the models I had painted in 2020 and 2021.
The army I had decided upon was Dark Angels, with the release of The Lion. In 2023, I had built and painted The Lion, the Dark Angels specific Lieutenant, the (first) Dark Angels Combat Patrol, a Deathwing Land Raider, and a Deathwing Contemptor Dreadnought. I had put that project on hold in the summer of 2023, however, in order to paint up Leviathan and my Thunderhawk for my Ultras. With 2024, it was time for my Dark Angels. The First Legion was going to be getting new models, new decals, and a new upgrade kit in early 2024, so now was the time to get started on a Dark Angels army. This would allow me to build a 3000 point list with a unified paint scheme and basing scheme, so that older units would not look out-of-place with newer units.
Because this army was built with the Grand Narrative in mind, I wanted an impressive Forge World model to be the centerpiece of this army. There was only one real choice to be that model: the Astraeus. I also wanted to unleash the might of the Deathwing, and so along with an Astraeus I was going to want a Land Raider Redeemer. However, the army was going to use the wonderful Land Raider Proteus models in-place of the classic 2000 Land Raider hull, so I was going to have to convert the Proteus into a Redeemer.
I used the Twin Onslaught Cannons from a Gladiator to serve as the Twin Assault Cannons for the Redeemer, and then the Flamestorm Cannons from a Land Raider Crusader I had built at the 2023 Grand Narrative.
With these two units as my big centerpiece vehicles, I knew I was going to be playing a Dark Angels Ironstorm in January 2024. That meant building and painting a lot of tanks in 2024.
During the planning phases for this army, I went to the 2024 Las Vegas Open with Alice Lirette and Andrew Brennan. While they hammered through the Age of Sigmar, I did other things. The most memorable thing I did was try The Rio’s new Chicken Tender Restaurant, Tender Crush which opened during the event. These chicken tenders were thick, flavorful, and cooked well. I was in love and they were the best chicken tenders I have had at a Warhammer event.
But also one of the hobby classes I took was a three-person modeling class with Israel Sanchez. This class lasted six hours and went through the assembly of building a T’au Crisis suit. Now, some of you all probably wonder “How is a class spending six hours building a Crisis suit a good use of time?” Well, this was a high skilled modeler and painter explaining how he built his models and *modeled* them well. He explained how he used sandpaper to hide seams as well as other marks on the model; various ways to cut into models cleanly, and other tricks to drill holes. This class was a massive amount of fun, and it lit a fire in me to build, build, build! I spent the rest of the LVO building the plastic models I had purchased at the event.
I spent January through April on a tear building models. During this period, I built two Techmarines (one Primaris Techmarine, one Heresy Techmarine on a 40 mm base to serve as an alternate sculpt Techmarine), a Gladiator Lancer, Land Raider Proteus Redeemer, an Astraeus, six Aggressors, a Repulsor Executioner, an Apothecary Biologis, Azrael, a Ballistus Dreadnought, and seven Space Marine Heroes Series 1 Tactical Marines. These models were all built and (except for the Executioner and the Apothecary) were painted during this flurry of activity. However, while these models had a lot of character and a theme (the Dark Angels Ironwing), none of these models would serve as an adequate Warlord for a Heresy-themed Armored army.
PHASE 3: Creating a Character, Creating a Story, Creating a Narrative
Knowing that I was going to play a tank-heavy Dark Angels army, I wanted to have a character on the tabletop to represent me. However, the main characters that benefit a Dark Angels Ironstorm army are 1) Azrael and 2) Techmarines. While I am quite proud of my two Techmarines, I did not think any of them would truly represent me, Contemptor Kevin.
However, I then remembered who I was: Contemptor Kevin.
The character I would play and have represent me on the battlefield would be the Contemptor Dreadnought I bought and built at WarhammerFest 2023. While it is one of my earlier Dark Angels models, I am still quite proud of the paintjob and pose I have for it. Thus was born my character: Knight-Companion Menachim, entombed within a Contemptor Dreadnought. While a fierce warrior, this venerable hero of the Chapter and Legion would also have a sideline in trying to have disparate factions work together. I had my protagonist. But now I needed a story and a narrative.
Storywise, my characters and theme all came together at NoVa 2024. During the Saturday night of the event, I played with my Dark Angels for the first time in a four-way battle against Condit’s Drukhari, Craig’s Rainbow Warriors, and BigAristotle’s Imperial Fists. Craig and Condit are both attending the Narrative – and Craig is in my Battle Group! Condit, playing the fiendish Drukhari, would be in a Chaos battlegroup. The events of the Boarding Actions Game thus provided an excellent skeleton to draft my story: It gave me a rival (Condit)(2), an uneasy allies (Craig), and motivation for my force.
The Tale of Task Force Ironwing
As chronicled by Interrogator-Chaplain Malachi
Task Force Ironwing is a combined arms spearhead created by The Lion and Azrael, following the former’s return to the Legion. This task force, led by two Techmarines, is tasked with locating, salvaging, and repairing lost technological treasures from human history and restore them to the arsenal of the Dark Angels.
One such exploration took Task Force Ironwing to a neutral starbase, Nu-Omicron (Vector Aleph). There were rumors of ancient Astartes technology aboard the station, and Chapter Master Azrael himself led a delegation to acquire these weapons.
But it was a trap! In the confusion, the Warriors of the First were beset by the Drukhari of Archon Khatryx Venas-Thryn…and other Astartes aboard the station!
During the confusion, the bulk of the Dark Angels were locked in deadly combat with the Gravis-armored might of the Rainbow Warriors and their Captain Iris Tenebris. Azrael, however, knew the real fight was against the Drukhari. Leading three Bladeguard Veterans, he challenged the fiendish Archon in close combat. Two of the Bladeguard were slain, having earlier taken wounds from bolter fire from other Astartes. Azrael and one Bladeguard survived, as the weapons of the Archon could not strike a final blow. Before either could land the final blow, the Station began to collapse. The remaining Dark Angels and Rainbow Warriors were evacuated by a noble Captain of the Blood Angels, while the perfidious Drukhari escaped by their own means!
Following their escape from Starbase Nu-Omicron (Vector Aleph), the Task Force is desparate to save that one last Bladeguard, and believe that there is a way to sustain him lost within the junkyards and armories of the Kessandaras System. But they remained harried by the Venas-Thryn and her Drukhari. Her tactics have changed. Become more sly. A mystery, but one that at this time is secondary in the minds of the Techmarines. In their desire to save their honored brother (as well as their longstanding orders and desire to acquire ancient technology), they have awakened the last known member of the Chapter to walk upon Kessandaras to lead them: Knight Companion Menachim. Late of the Ravenwing before his promotion into the Deathwing, he awakens for war and to restore his mortally wounded brother to duty. The Drukhari will fall, and the technologies of Kessandras will continue to restore the First Legion’s technological and marital supremacy…in The Emperor’s Name.
The 2024 Grand Narrative was announced as taking place in the Kessandras System, Chalnoth Sub-Sector, Ultima Segmentium. The overarching narrative story features a titanic, mysterious gun (the “Masif Ballistus”), and a planet filled with technological artifacts from throughout the Imperium’s history. The Imperium’s “Lord of War”, the character actor who leads the 40K Dinner Theater Briefings, is a Rogue Trader who wants to steal ancient technology to unlock some macguffin.(3) This fits in easily with my Dark Angels Task Force Ironwing, who want to seek ancient Imperium technology and restore it to glory. Specifically, my force is attempting to recover a Leviathan Dreadnought and use it to save the life of the one Bladeguard Veteran who Condit was unable to finish off back at NoVa.
So now I have have a character, story, and narrative line for Atlanta. With this established, it’s time to breathe life into Contemptor-Companion Menachim, and the place to do that before the event is the Event Discord.
Stay tuned for Part 2, which will discuss costume acquisitions, the storylines rising in the Imperium Discord, and how I am further customizing my army to fit in for the Grand Narrative.
- After I confirmed everything for the 2024, Niantic announced a new global event this same weekend, called “Go Wild!” area. While I am less concerned with the return of Origin Palkia and Dialga – I have Hundos of both with their respective Special Move at level 50 and 15 attack shinies of both with their special move – they *also* announced a new Punk Rock Snorlax and the return or Pop Star and Rock Star Pikachu with shiny forms. And I LOVE shiny costume Pokemon. Fuck me.
- Just for the Grand Narrative 2024. Condit is a great person and you should buy him a drink if you see him at the Grand Narrative or any other event.
- The other Lords of War are a) A Word Bearer Dark Apostle who seeks to obtain his own MacGuffin of Evil, and b) A Blood Axe Ork BigMek. Ergo, the ostensible goal of everyone at the Narrative is to steal everything that isn’t nailed down.
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