More Grimdark Future

We played another game of Grimdark Future, Marines (Dextra Manus) vs Chaos Marines (Red Corsairs). We rolled up a random setup and mission, which gave us only one objective- to be the last man standing in the centre! Clearly vital intelligence was on the body in the crater.

Red Corsairs approach the objective, but there are
lurking loyalists...

Both sides hastened to the objective, abandoning some degree of caution in the rush. I knew that the Dextra Manus Invictor Warsuit would be a tough nut to crack, and had craftily added a lascannon to my traitor squad with a clear view over the battlefield.

Mutual exchange of fire between marines...

Lascannon keeps trying to blast the Invictor Warsuit

What I hadn't expected was... cyberwolves!

No-one expects cyberwolves.

After they tore up one mob of cultists, the lascannon accurately blasted a hole in one. My Sorcerer flamed a second, and the third gloriously charged my daemonically possessed marines. After a tough fight, they took the wolf down.

Lascannon kills one wolf.

Sorcerer kills another

The last wolf has a glorious charge into the Possessed.

I then kept missing with the lascannon, and my possessed were gunned down by the Warsuit. Victory to the loyalists.

Deja vu as the Invictor guns down the Possessed.

I will need to build up a reliable anti-armour capability for this campaign, and maybe look into some mobility.

The wolves have to be shot; fighting them in hand-to-hand is a losing proposition.

40K Red Corsairs: Greater Possessed

As I said last year, the Greater Possessed are Chaos Space Marines who have made a pact with a daemon to possess them, in exchange for unholy power. This will certainly not backfire in any way. They are unnaturally large and daemonically mutated, their armour and backpacks fusing with their flesh and sprouting ectopic teeth, eyes and horns.

Greater Possessed

So I've finally painted up the remaining five of these Greater Possessed. They had been sitting around, mostly done, for about six months. The sheer festoonery of detail on each very individual model was a bit overwhelming, but I knuckled down and am happy to be finished with the painting. The impetus to get them done was their impressive performance against Space Marines in my recent OPR Grimdark Future game.

I've put pictures of the front and back of each model because they're worth a look IMNSHO.

This first chap could be the leader, poised on a tactical rock. Are his thighs armour or flesh? He's got a spike erupting from his left hand and I love his techno-skeletal backpack.

The next chap stand triumphantly over a defeated loyalist- who of course is a Lamenter. This Possessed has big eye stalks on his fleshy backpack.

I really like the power pose of this next guy, as well as the flames on his backpack. His left arm has become some sort of edged weapon, but I wasn't sure if I should paint any of it metallic. The struggle is real trying to parse which bits are bone, teeth, claws, etc.

The next chap's got a daemon sword which I've painted in a cool tone. You can't really see in the picture, but he's got an abdominal tentacle- mirrored by his tongue- which is reaching across his waist to draw a knife from its scabbard. Stabby!

The last bloke's really sprinting with his unnaturally long legs. I wasn't sure if I should pick out the veins on his limbs more, and am glad I left them alone.

So here's the five of them with the two I painted last year, and the Master of Possession.

Skull-o-meter™: 26 (plus 18 from the earlier trio)

Grimdark Future: Chaos vs Marines

I've started to dabble with Grimdark Future. This is a ruleset by One Page Rules, and is available for free here*. GF is a very light alternative for 40K (or other similar games of around platoon- company size). It achieves this by removing nearly all the strategems, rerolls, auras, exceptions, shenanigans, errata, updates, and other special rules that really bog 40K down and prevent it being a casual game. GF remains tense with competition for objectives, and interesting with alternating activations. There are buckets of dice, and units getting destroyed/ routed frequently makes for a quick game! Not to forget it isn't spread across multiple books, and is free.

I lined up my Red Corsairs against my opponent's Space Marines, the Right Hands. The Right Hands all had hand-painted markings on them- respect! We played on a 6'x4' table with three objectives. We chose 1000 points as a smaller game as it was our first with these rules.

Red Corsairs:

• 2x squads of Chaos Marines
• 2x mobs of Cultists
• 1x pack of Possessed Marines

Right Hands:

• 1x Assault Squad
• 1x Infernus (flamethrower) Squad
• 1x Tactical Squad
• 1x Invictor Warsuit

Right Hands Invictor Warsuit

The Right Hands advance on the refinery facilities.
Chaos taint is suspected.

The Warsuit and Assault Squad cover the Marine right.

Here's an overview of what happened. I advanced over a broad front, and my Possessed Marines went loping around from my right. The Right Hands tried to stop them, and did a similar sweep with their Assault Marines on my left.

The Battle. Objectives are numbered.

Right Hands Tactical Squad holds Objective 3

My traitors try to gun them down.

My terrifyingly fast Possessed rip the Right Hands apart.

On my left, cultists face off against Assault Marines...

...and the melee unsurprisingly goes the way of the Astartes.

The Possessed leap onto the Warsuit, and
damage it but cannot take it entirely out.

Final result was a 2:1 win to the Red Corsairs. The cultists were weak and the Warsuit was strong, but the number of bodies gave me an edge. I am going to need to up my anti-armour capabilities...

We're going to try this as a light campaign**, with experience, wounds, and a slow trickle of reinforcements.

The objective markers are Wargames Atlantic Zombies with the bases cut off and limbs reposed. I can see myself making more with era-specific weapons and accoutrements as required. They're on 40mm MDF bases.

*An expanded and still free version of the rules can be found here, and the excellent army builder is here.

** Campaign rules here. They're free as well...

40K Red Corsairs Legionaries Kill Team

These Chaos Space Marines are Red Corsairs. The Red Corsairs are composed of smaller roving warbands of renegades and the lost and the damned, who come under the ultimate control of warlord Huron Blackheart. They all hate each other and plot their own backstabbing ascendancy- a fun change from the pious do-gooders of the loyalist Space Marines.

Red Corsairs Kill Team

I couldn't help myself; if anyone gets extra resin skullz on their bases it is these guys.

The Chosen has a trophy spike with an unlucky Lamenter on it.

Chosen with plasma pistol and daemonblade

For their plasma weapons, I tried a red-hot effect which looks OK in pictures.

Gunner with plasmagun

Butcher

I spent a lot of time on the rune transfers on the Balefire Acolyte's back-tome. I'm really happy with how they turned out. I had considered a mystic green flame, but went for a more conservative flame that matches the overall warm tones of this team. I really like his head- there are some pretty characterful sculpts in this team.

Balefire Acolyte

Shrivetalon

I love the aesthetic of the belt-fed bolters.

Warrior

Icon bearer

Gunner with meltagun

The Anointed is touched by the warp and is becoming bestial and daemonform.

Anointed

Heavy Gunner with heavy bolter.

Skull-o-meter™: 52

40K Kill Team: The Blooded

The Blooded are a Kill Team of elite traitor guardsmen. They were a factor in deciding to repaint my 'Pinkstone Fortress' forces, as I can use some of my existing troops to round out and fill some roles. I lightly kitbashed some of these.

The Blooded Kill Team

Enforcer

His bodyguard ogryn

Chieftain with bolt pistol and chainsword

Chieftain with plasma pistol and improvised blade

Traitor gunners.

Traitor gunner with plasma gun.

Traitor gunner with flamer

Traitor gunner with grenade launcher.

Traitor gunner with meltagun.

Trench Sweeper

Thug

Butcher. This sculpt has a lot of menace.

Flenser. He will kill, skin and eat you- if you're lucky, in that order.

Corpseman.

Commsman.

Marksman.

Detail on camo cape

Brimstone grenadier

Traitor guard with lasguns