Welcome back to the Raid on Lachesis, a 5-part campaign series in which the Word Bearers attempt to do Evil Stuff™. In today’s post we’ll meet the players, and their tiny plastic children.
What’s in the series?
Part 1: rules, maps, artwork, lore.
This post: The players that fought in the campaign, and their armies.
Part 3: The beginning, in which there are Imperial heroics.
Part 4: The middle, in which Bad Things occur.
Part 5: The end, in which things end up being closer than expected.
Team Chaos
Jeff, Graven Star Chapter of the Word Bearers
This huge army boasts a classic Word Bearers spread of units, with a solid core of legionaries, multiple squads of possessed, along with daemon engines and a horde of 80+ cultists. There may come a day when we have a photo of the whole thing, and on that day the courage of men will fail. But it is not this day, so we’ll have to make do with a sampling of units instead.
How and when did you get into the hobby?
1989, when I was 10. A mate of mine handed me a copy of white dwarf and a genestealer hybrid.
Which aspects of the hobby do you most enjoy?
Army building. Painting a force and putting together the story of it is my favourite thing of all. Gaming’s great and all, but I’m bad at it.
Why Chaos Marines?
Variety. The sheer joy of putting together Chaos soup really appeals to me on a fundamental level. Serried ranks of unified dudes are fine, but I enjoy eclectic bands of nutters.
Why Word Bearers?
When you wanna be a bad guy, why not be the original bad guy: the wonderfully smug twats who started it all.
How long have you been working on this army, and how many points is it?
It was a pandemic project over lockdown. It’s around 6k… I WAS PAINTING MY FEELINGS, OK?
Who are they, lore wise?
The Graven Star are what happens when a sorcerer gets a bright idea and decides to burn half a sector to achieve it. Their Lord, Khoura, is about to achieve either daemonhood or spawndom, so there’s a lot of jockeying for position among the force’s various leaders. It’s like a Tory Party conference with guns.
Which other armies do you play?
Yes.
If you’d like to check out the lore and the other units in this army, Jeff’s posted all of those over at the Beard Bunker.
Dan, Red Corsairs
This balanced all-rounder force belies Dan’s absolute love of charging towards the enemy at full tilt, until you remember their faction bonus allows them to advance and charge. FRESH.
How and when did you get into the hobby?
About 18 years ago now, a friend bought a Dark Elf and Space Marine into show and tell. I went to my local GW shortly after and I was hooked!
Which aspects of the hobby do you most enjoy?
I am a painter, I love painting and pushing my skills with it. I have more been getting into the gaming side recently though.
Why Red Corsairs?
Chaos are my baby, I’ve collected them since I was a teen. I’m also big into pirates so it’s a match made in heaven.
How long have you been working on this army, and how many points is it?
I started the Corsairs slightly before the lockdown. Roughly around 2000pts now.
Who are they, lore wise?
Lord Krow of the Red Corsairs was pretty much killed by a bunch of Eldar, and his sorcerer friend from the Astral Claw days made some dodgy dealings with some daemons and heavily indebted this splinter of pirates to Abaddon himself for the resources to fix him up. Since then, Krow’s warband goes where Abaddon wills it.
This is a large and pretty army. Are you a Red Corsairs man all the way, or do you dabble in other armies? Would you describe yourself as a man of focus, commitment, and sheer f—ing will? Or more of a hobby butterfly?
I’ll have you know I am a man of extreme focus!! I can focus on…. one…army…well a leg of someone in that army until I put ALL MY FOCUS on the arm of some dude in another army.
Harvey, Night Lords
Most of this small band of bitter veterans eschew using the corrupting tools of Chaos. They’ve above all that sort of thing. Except the Warp Talons who, it has to be said, are not OK.
How and when did you get into the hobby?
About 2003ish, when my friend got a Chaos mega force and I thought they were cool. So I got the same as him, obviously!
Which aspects of the hobby do you most enjoy?
The shared storytelling of narrative wargaming is the best bit for me – especially the feuds that develop between rival generals.
Why Night Lords?
I find them deeply charming – both for how cartoonishly eeeevil they are, and for how they’ve been rehabilitated into something vaguely more compelling by the likes of the Night Lords trilogy.
How long have you been working on this army, and how many points is it?
Not long, though again I’ve had the models for a while. They’re 1000 points.
Who are they, lore wise?
They represent the 13th Talon, warriors once of the 13th company. These Night Lords are down on their luck following a disastrous naval battle and are looking to regain some lost strength.
Do you only collect armies with the word ‘night’ in the title?
In fairness, I also collect two black-and-slightly-off-white armies. Got to maintain a brand.
Honourable mention: Andy, Alpha Legion
Hi Andy! Did you really catch Covid two days before the campaign began, or was that a ruse to cover some clandestine Alpha Legion bullshit?
Hydra domin….*cough, wheeze*
Team Imperium
Charlie, Cobalt Scions
This all-Primaris force favours ranged combat, and gets most of the job done with bolt rifles and synergistic management solutions. And if that doesn’t work, there’s blades and slappy fists.
How and when did you get into the hobby?
A mate introduced me to 2nd edition 40k back in the late 90s with an enticing whiff of semi-painted floorhammer. He even gave me a space marine, and I remember thinking “one day, I will have more of these.”
Which aspects of the hobby do you most enjoy?
Converting, painting, and writing lore. Cleaning mould lines, however, can get in the sea.
Why Ultramarines Successors?
I love Roman history, I love figuring out a whole chapter’s deal from scratch, and I love blue and gold.
How long have you been working on this army, and how many points is it?
Since 2019, and over 2.5k. It’s a slow grow as I got a tad overexcited about edge highlighting.
Who are they, lore wise?
These Ultramarines successors think of themselves as terribly noble defenders of rationality and justice. Note, however, that they’re Imperial, so… yeah.
Which method(s) are you using to paint this army, and roughly how long does one regular dude take to paint in this scheme?
Primarily edge highlighting. The blue armour is a six stage process; each marine takes 5-6 hours from priming to basing. It’s… not an efficient way to paint an army.
Did you paint anything specifically for this campaign?
Yes, I converted and painted Lexicanium Tolemias specially for this campaign, and you can read about that conversion in this Hobby Heresy article.
Further reading on the Cobalt Scions
You can check out the overall army showcase here on Goonhammer. If you want all the Scions content, you can find that over at the Beard Bunker.
Harvey, Nightfall 31st Light Infantry (Imperial Guard)
It might be known in Imperial records as Keres Prime, but the men and women who live on this heavily forested death world refer to it as Nightfall, since that’s when the worst predators come out to play. Harvey’s regiment are light infantry supported by light tanks and sentinels. Luckily we played our campaign before the new codex arrived to remove sniper squads from the list of official units…
Wait, are you the same Harvey as above? How can you possibly be on both sides?
Forge that narrative. FORGE IT.
Why the Imperial Guard?
Mortal women and men standing up to the most horrendous abominations the galaxy has to offer with grit and bayonets (and sniper rifles) – where do I sign up?
How long have you been working on this army, and how many points is it?
It’s currently 845 points, and I’ve been working on it on and off for 6 months. They may have sat in a box for a year or two beforehand…
Who are they, lore wise?
The Nightfall 31st are a light infantry regiment from a Death World. They’ve got a lot of snipers (careful of those 6s to wound) and have a love of modifying their guns. Illegally.
Why do you only collect armies with the word ‘night’ in the title?
Look, right.
Drew, The Lachesian PDF
Normally an Eldar player, Drew nonetheless got in on the Imperium vs Chaos action by borrowing an assortment of Imperial Guard. And then doing an appropriate amount of standing fast and dying in large numbers. Good on her.
How and when did you get into the hobby?
About four years ago now, give or take some ambitious roleplaying sessions. I went for the Eldar because they’re equally smug and tragic. What’s not to love?
Which aspects of the hobby do you most enjoy?
The narrative elements of it. Bouncing off each other, and in-game smack talk.
Wait… Eldar? Why Imperial Guard for this campaign then?
I mean… possibly exactly the same reasons? I mean, tragic in that they’re T3 nobodies, and then if you win it’s total bragging rights. Clearly I just love an underdog.
Ah yes, noted underdogs the Eldar.
How dare you besmirch my noble race.
How long have you been working on this Imperial Guard army, and how many points is it?
Exactly no days, and a mighty no points. I just covet from afar.
Has playing the Imperial Guard fundamentally altered your brain chemistry in a way that has prompted the urge to collect something other than space pixies?
Powerfully. I now desperately want my own rank and file nobodies to dustpan and brush off the table.
Tom, Battle Group 86 (Cadians & Imperial Knights)
How and when did you get into the hobby?
I think I was about 10. A school friend introduced me. He played Blood Angels as he thought they were the coolest, so he told me to collect them too (not his brightest idea). The box he told me to buy had Ultramarines on the front, and I didn’t understand that I could paint them however I liked so I started out collecting Ultramarines for many years.
Which aspects of the hobby do you most enjoy?
For me it’s the “make them your own” part. I enjoy creating my own forces and the lore behind them, and spend a lot of time carefully selecting the right models, or more likely converting them, then writing lots of crap about them that nobody else reads. There’s a reason I own and maintain our group’s extremely comprehensive lore wiki.
Why Knights plus Guard?
Two reasons. Firstly within our group the emphasis is strongly on making sure your opponent has fun, and regardless of game balance most of us feel that having half your units be completely impotent can cause Bad Feels™. A pure Knight army is highly likely to do that for many units, so having a mixed army gives something for everyone to get their teeth into.
Secondly, and it’s also the reason I haven’t gone into Adeptus Titanicus in a big way, I really like big stompy robots when they are contrasted against not big stompy robots. A Knight looks coolest when towering over the basic Guardsmen in my army.
Why Cadians?
I have flirted with Guard for decades, but never quite committed to the painting effort required to do a full army until now. It has always been Cadians from the old metals through the current plastics and into the newly revealed update. Initially I just liked their look the best, but since the fall of Cadia I’ve really got into their lore a lot more too.
Is that an extremely customised knight? It looks like an extremely customised knight.
That is an extremely customised Knight. I much prefer a more animalistic foot shape to the cruciform shape, and love me some backwards knees (yes, it’s an ankle, I know the word “digitigrade” too, shh). Also the only thing cooler than a giant robot punching you with a huge fist is one smashing you with a fucknormous axe.
Why is painting huge numbers of guard infantry your absolute favourite thing?
Charlie is just asking this to get back at me for whinging at him about painting Guard. A lot. Painting is definitely my least favourite part of the hobby for me, I don’t hate it, but I prefer literally every other aspect. I have reasonably high standards but not exactly tons of talent and I’m very slow. It hurts my soul to put more time into painting a 60 point Guard squad than my 250 point Storm Eagle. But the Emperor demands it of me.
What is this battlegroup, lore wise?
When Gondor Cadia called for aid, House Ulfir answered. They sent their entire Exalted Court and much of their strength to Cadia, and most of it was lost there. Only the High Justice and a few Armigers managed to escape the planet alive, alongside the Cadian 177th Infantry and 53rd Armoured. When they emerged from the warp storms they were consolidated into Battlegroup 86 by the Departmento Munitorum and sent to support the ongoing war in Samalut IX (Charlie: that’s a place in our group’s unofficial sandbox).
Whilst the Knights of Ulfir could leave, they are somewhat unwilling to abandon the gallant Cadians they have fought alongside for so long.
What is your favourite unit, and why does that unit shout ‘Bonk’ a lot?
Abhumans are 100% the coolest thing in a Guard army, and Ogryns (well, Bullgryns) have been the fulcrum around which the battle has turned nearly every time they turn up. Sergeant Drokk and the Bonk Squad are legends amongst legends.
BUT I’ve just got some Ratlings, so look out, low toughness characters with poor saves and not many wounds!
Next time…
…The Word Bearers make planetfall as we cover the battles of the opening weekend. If you have thoughts or questions about any of the players or armies in today’s post, leave a comment below or email contact@goonhammer.com and we’ll forward your query to the appropriate Warham.
