From the Skys........

Happy 4th of July to all my American Readers.

It seems todays update is only appropriate to be about things falling from the sky. In this instance my own Phantine of my Detachment D-44 and a part of the 44th Phantine Skyborne.


Update for the Phantine Side of things:


Early out of date pic. This picture was of Captain Remaus before his promotion during the Distilleri campaign.

Forge world Elysian models in the resin. I’m planning on eventually running enough of these guys for a small task for of Phantine Skyborne Troopers. Originally I wanted to replace the helmets to look

Prototype of concept.

And I could do it too by using the pilot heads from the Valkyries, except for the fact that i would need to buy:

A. More Valkyries for my skyborne and the helmets.

B. Replace said helmets with cadian heads to give the pilots heads.

C. I would only get enough pilot heads for 1 squad at most or 2 if i used the gunner’s heads too. I tried this concept with these guys and I kept them but I think I'll use them as inquisitional storm troopers assigned to my detachment.

original concept

So I emailed Dan Abnett and asked for how to get them right for a true Phantine Skyborne trooper. It’s true, Mr. Abnett does respond to his own mail and VERY fast. I got this within 24 hours.



Hello

I think they look very much like WW2 aircrew crossed with paratroopers, with the jump-packs being "jet pack" type units about the size and shape (and appearance) of an un-deployed parachute.

Any help?

Dan



This has leaded me to rethink the whole modern design. I start looking back into new ideas. I decided the Elysian’s would be the way to go in the end. Not only to distant themselves from the Tanith but to stand out on the table as one of my FAVORITE regiments in 40k.

A D-44 Phantine Trooper

My personal favorite and "Me" in 40k so to speak is Captain Jonus "SwampyTurtle" Remaus (sometimes misspelled Remanus) which is a title I earned from the 40kOnline IG board Chain of Command.

The Captain himself Jonus Remaus with "Liberus"

The Remaus Family is of Phantine. The brother Litilus is my Tech priest model and my character from Dark Heresy. Most of the family was killed during the conquest of Phantine by the Blood Pact but currently only Jonus and Litilus are the known survivors of the family. Mother Ophilia and Father Byrus have both been found dead at the hands of the enemy. The misfortune and stories of the Remaus family are some I hope to tell both through fan fiction and my own battles. Litilus is unaware his brother is alive having only heard that a man from Phantine named Jonus is working for an inquisitor =I= as his personal retinue.....

A Phantine Valkyrie. This one is the "Glory Hound" as seen earlier in the blog.




Fluff and story of Captain Jonus Remaus during the Ventra Majoris Campaign

A tall man in a tan uniform of a drop trooper regiment enters the building and heads towards the Tactical Operations center. Remaus stood out with his Mohawk shaved brown hair and his drop trooper gear hanging on his belt. His features had been used in the recent Phantine recruitment billets for the Skyborne.

Tall, Brown haired, Striking brown eyes, and with the inspiring words "From the skies!" on the poster had seen recruitment training for the unit tripled. With such small numbers in only around 200 troops and no land to speak of, the planet didn't have many ground forces to raise for the Imperial Guard. Instead, most units came in the form of aviators in squadrons.

Jonus decided to stop by the cafeteria and pick up some caf for himself. No use going into a jump tired he told himself as he poured a glass and looked around for a table to sit at. Finally spotting a open table, he headed over and sat down before opening his data slat to look over his squads gear and load out.

His back hurt and his muscles twitched as he remember his last jump on the brewery world of Distilleri. Then he had been under the command of a Major Tuesday. After the jump, his grav chute had failed to fully function and he had had to use what power he could draw to land. It hadn't been a pretty landing but he had survived...If you could call blacking out from the pain survival. He had woken up days later in a field hospital with a medicae nurse looking after him. By then the news of the invasion on Distilleri was but a distance memory. His officer promotion had come through later that year. In retrospect, Lt's bars looked good on him, it beat the hell out of being enlisted.

His reassignment had seen him pulled from the 40th corp to the Detachment under his old boss Inq Umarus. D-44 had been formed shortly there after and with his squad had seen the Detachment shifted across the galaxy to a new war zone. Umarus kept Jonus up to date on his brother Litilus but otherwise Umarus's promise of Jonus seeing his brother again were still that....just promises...

"Sir"

Jonus looked up to see one of his troopers coming over holding a sword

"It just came in sir"

Jonus smiled and nodded his thanks taking the power sword and attaching it to his belt "Liberus?" he said to his attendant

"Aye sir, she's sharpened and ready for action just as the Inquisitor swore it would be"

"Good work, return to the squad and see them ready"

"Aye sir" said his attendant before saluting and hurrying off

Feeling tired, Jonus got up and headed out into the hallway before walking over to one of the empty bunks laying about. he laid his drop trooper gear on the floor and laid down on the bed , closing his eyes and remembering that final time he had seen his older brother back on Phantine, back before his world had been turned upside down....

There was fire and there was smoke and God-Emperor....oh God-Emperor the smell! Looking to his right , he saw his buddy Rowland screaming as the enemy fire tore into his jetpack and then his body tearing off limbs before the body fell towards the ground below. Using his training Jonus hit the grav chute and prayed, hoping that those las shots coming towards him wouldn't hit him as Lightings and Valkyries around him blew up from the traitors fire. He remember his family, His mother Ophelia, His Father whom had died serving the Phantine Liberation and most of all his brother Litilus, These thoughts kept him sane as he dropped towards the enemy and the hell awaiting him below, the wind shaking him harder and harder......

It was only a dream, It was only a dream he kept telling himself as he got up shaking but he knew it wasn't and that that last drop on Distilleri has been one of the worst of his career......

Read more »

Heavy Gear Blitz: A review

Or How I learned to love war gaming for what it truly is: A good time.....

A week or two ago now, my buddy Renegade09 invited me to go to the local game store with him to try out a new game. Having lost my last Warhammer 40k game I wasn't too anxious to get my tail handed to me again in miniature combat.

This time the battlefield took us away from the grim dark future of the 41st millennium and into the world of "Heavy Gear", a game by the Canadian company Dream Pod 9. So you ask, What did I think of the game? Well my buddy Renegade09 had bought two factions of this fantastic science fiction world: Peace River and The North.

After a quick run through on the rules the night before we got to go the store and test it out. The activation system and the flow of the game was very fast. I enjoyed the pace and the way cover actually mattered in this game compared to others I had played. I also found the models to be of excellent quality that Renegade had painted to a well done table top quality. After having painted with him for weeks, it was nice to get a chance to try out the game.

Our set up after only about 20 minutes saw  the table ready for our deployment and mission objectives. Renegade had home built and printed off the templates for the terrain (I really need to ask him for some of that) and a well done carrying board.  After rolling off, we determine who went first and started the game.

By turn 2 not much had happened and the number of potshots being bounced off our armor was becoming annoying. Somebody needed to get a kill. We had a few people interested but many dismissed us. Still, we did get a few 40k players to try it out. Progress!

The game didn't end at 4 with anybody dead so we continued onto the next round. By turn 6 our board looked like below. Finally after some daring maneuvers and listing lazily to the left our units engage into close quarters battle. His HQ unit "Honcho" was killed by a blast to the face at close range and my unit made up of brothers "Tweedle Dee" and "Tweedle Dum" fell to his Gears from gun fire.  In the end, the game was a clear victory for me by number of kills and him having one model on the board. However, having had a epic night full of combat, I told him we should call it a tie instead.

So what did I think of the game? Honestly, the pace and the activation system are probably some of the cleanest and nicest rules out there right now. I liked the unit count and the amount of models needed to get started was low. I also enjoyed the background and the fluff behind all the factions. The Science Fiction part of the story also was very well done and nice. Since this system was D6, it made it easier to learn for me as well as new players who would like to learn more about war gaming in general. I watched a 40k veteran pick up the game and understand it in nearly ten minutes, a impossibility in other games such as 40k and Warmachine.

What didn't I like? To be honest, not much. After having come from 28mm models, the game felt familiar enough to not be off putting but new enough to be entertaining. I imagine with infantry at the 15mm scale things would get annoying but I have yet to see them in play yet. Some rules mechanics I found funky but none too rule breaking. The counter system of movement while ingenious does seem to slow down the pace since I very rarely wanted to switch modes to go faster, instead focusing on my firepower to see me through.

Overall my Rating would be a solid 9.8 out of 10. Very easily one of my favorite games I've ever played. Having war gamed since 2006 I felt that with time this game could be a serious contender to the big 3 should DP9 continue to run the game right as they seem to be doing now.

Till next time. Game on.....

Read more »