Once More the 291st has ventured forth to the Maelstrom Zone.  XII Company along with elements of the 501st Elysian Drop Troops became embroiled in the Astartes Civil War which became known as the Badab War.  This Last weekend I attended a campaign weekend run by the Tempus Fugitives hosted at Maelstrom Games.  The focus of the campaign was the End-game of the Badab War, an Imperial civil war, which embroiled several sectors of imperial space at the end of M41.  Effectively it became a Space Marine civil war with many chapters pulled into the conflict taking one side or the other for reasons of their own.

I was again in attendance with the Bromley GCN.  Having had no time to paint in and around arranging builders and my own job,  I pretty much had to take the same army as last time.  When I got there, and unpacked for the first game I realised I had forgotten 10 Krieg infantry and a Vendetta. This disaster meant a quick substitution for models I did have in my case.  Out came a tooled up Vulture to cover the missing Vendetta.  I had to loose the Lord Commissar to make it fit, and then add every option the Vulture had to make the points work. even then I was a little short.  I couldn't fix the infantry thing and had to operate without a Squad of infantry in more than one game.

Overall Result for me was 3 Loss and 2 Wins.  Every Game was against a Space Marine army, which i suppose was to be expected in a campaign focused on a Space Marine Civil War, and a bit of a novelty for me as I usually play xenos.  They did make for a tough opposition.

Two of My losses were Capture and Control, inherently difficult for my army to achieve and one of my losses was an Annihilation game that ran to time.  I had 50 Terminators with storm shields to eliminate in 5 turns! where half of them are  deep striking in my face in the first turn.  The number of terminators on the board meant even wildly scattering plasma cannon fire hit something.  I seriously culled the Deathwing that day, but with over half of them using storm shields and thunder hammers it was very difficult to wipe out a whole squads.

Flush Vat 3041, we need five more Kriegsmen

Highlight of the weekend was the space wolves game, My opponent, Stephen, deployed his his Wolf Riders in view of the Executioner Spam.  Fearing them a lot, I glassed the area with Plasma fire.  I caused enough damage to force a Morale check, which they failed, then ran off the board!  It was a fun game for both sides and Stephens Space Wolves came out with a win despite having lost more than three quarters of his army.  One more turn and I would have annihilated what was left, but we ran out of time and he was on an objective.




Once a gain a brilliant weekend put on by the Fugitives.

I traveled up to the Tempus Fugitives campaign 'Into the Maelstrom' at Maelstrom Games this weekend. This is the opening phase of the much larger Badab War.  In these early phases the Astral Claws lead by Lufgt Huron are still loyal to the Imperium .
I attended with the Bromley GCN (aka Bromley Redcaps) with a mixed army of 1500pts 291st Death Korps Armoured Company and 1000pts Spearhead of 501st Elysian Drop veterans.  We played a cycle of 5 games in which I achieved: one loss; one draw; and three wins.  For me, that is a legendary score!  To top of this run, The Redcaps strike force won the campaign for the Imperium, and I got nominated for the 'Best painted army' award.  I didn't win it, in the end the vote went to  heavily converted Tyranid army.

Overall I had a ball, the weekend was well run and kept to time.  The whole thing has re-energised my painting/modelling mojo, and with the majority of the phase one house renovations nearing completion, I may actually get the chance to finish some of the draft blog posts (and models) in my queue.

Just played a doubles tournament with 'The Good the Bad the Bromley' My second was Death Jester with his Eldar, me with my Death Korps of Krieg.  1000Points Each.  We played three very friendly games:
 - Game 1: Imperial Guard - Imperial Guard
 - Game 2: Space Marines - Space Marines
 - Game 3: Space Marines -  Imperial Guard

We won one drew one and lost one.  To my great surprise we were first equal with three other teams! When the  tie breaker was taken into consideration we were third.  To top it all off, we were both voted best painted armies.

The Hardest game and the game we lost was the Guard - Guard Game.  They had over two hundred infantry models on the board with three blocks of 45 infantry each. My army was almost entirely anti-tank with 3 Vendettas and Veteran Grenadiers with Melta Spam.

I'm gonna make me a me a Valdor Heavy tank.  I've never played one on the board so I don't know whether they are effective or not.  However , my regular opponent has started to field a Cobra, so I am looking for a cheap heavy tank to counter it.  I've had the kit kicking around for a while, so perhaps its time to build it a s a counter to the Cobra.
As with the post on the Banewolf Squadron, I'm going to look for some context for the model in order to try and give some direction to the build and add some flavour to the model.  I do this by asking three questions: What is a Valdor; Why Does the Regiment have one?; When is this Valdor depicted.

So...

What is a Valdor
What do we know about the Valdor Tank: The Valdor is an Imperial Guard tank weighing in at 96 Ton 11.6 meter long variant of the Malcador tank.  It has a crew of 5, with a Commander; Driver; an Enginseer and 2 gunners.  Its size makes it a Heavy Tank in the Imperial guard.  It is believed to have been developed in the years immediately afHter Horus Heresy, at time known as the Scouring of the Imperium.  There are references in ancient texts to the Valdor being used to counter the Enemies superior numbers of Land Raiders.
Its main gun is a Neutron Laser.  This horrific weapon breaks down the material it touches at the molecular level, releasing a massive Elector Magnetic shock as a consequence.


Very few forge worlds now have the level of sophistication to construct the Valdor in any numbers, or even maintain so they are more often seen in the hands of Adeptus Mechanicus forces.
There are three listed forge worlds still producing these tanks:
- Lathe-Het
- Cyraxus II; and
- Mars.
There is no record of these world producing different patterns but given their vastly separated location it seems entirely feasable these machines designs may have shifted over the millennia of separation.

Only a precious few ever make it into the hands of Imperial Guard regiments, and even then they are usually very Venerable and honoured regiments or they hail from worlds with close ties to the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Why? and When
Why, why would the 291st Panzer Grenadiers have one? While the regiment may have picked up a wreck from its time as a foot regiment on Vraks, however the campaign on that world is nearly 200 years after the period the 291st is depicted in.  'Now' for the regiment is the Praxedes VI Campaign 747.M41, where the regiment participated in the Imperial attempt to resist Tau annexation of the world. The war ground to a bloody stalemate as neither side was willing to commit the strategic assets to bring the campaign to it conclusion.  Two years into the war the Eldar intervened after Necron artefacts were discovered.  Eldar had no qualms about deploying strategic reserves to destroy the the ancient foe and anything that stood in their way. Scorpion superheavy tanks  were soon roaming the shattered trench works of the Tau and Imperial forces.
This Valdor was readied from the divisional stores and deployed on loan to the 291st Death Korps.  The regiment was singled out for the honour after destroying the first of Scorpion with meltas and demolition charges in a sustained close assault, waves of Eldar were thrown at the wreck site in a vain effort to recover ruined hulk. The 291st repulsed all of the attempts and eventually handed over the hulk of the tank to a grateful Adeptus Mechanicus. The Valdor was was re-consecrated to the machine-god in the Desert colours of Praxedes VI in order to combat the Eldar Super heavy tank.
Whilst it has only just been moved out of deep storage, fresh from showers of sacred unguents, the Tank has not been left untouched by the planet.  Praxedes VI has a sulphur rich crust. Dust from this world quickly invades any cracks or scratches in the in the protective coatings of a vehicle and begins insidious corrosion of the metal underneath.
This vehicle is a fine example of the rapid surface corrosion that occurs anywhere that the dust can get at bare metal.
The honour of receiving the tank granted the regiment limited rights to place their own recognition decals on the doctrinally approved sections of it holy hull.

Overall painting plan and method
Undercoat: Halfords Grey Primer
Basecoat: Citadael Chaos Black
Top coat: Vallejo Air:
Mapping: Vallejo Air:
Camo Pattern: Vallejo Air:
Decals
Matt Varnish
Chipping:
Filters: Burnt Umber; Black
Spot Filters:
General Rusting
Fuel and oil staining
Detailing

And now the confession: I really Really should have written this first.  I haven't, Ive gone straight in and jumped from 'Top coat' to 'Filters'  I have just reallised this as I have looked back at the Banewolf Squadron, log and seen what order i did that in.

I'm hoping I can still recover this tank and I haven't just wrecked it like I did the first Desert coloured Vendetta. in that case, i rushed and sprayed the matt varnish before applying the decals.  Decals don't stick to spray on matt varnish.  I hope they stick to Windsor Newton oil washes.

Dispatch From the Front!
217.747.M41: Praxedes IV: Battle of Shield station 6.  I Battalion , XV Company, smashed the Eldar defences around the derilict shield station 6.  By now the xenos lines were thoughly in dissaray and retreating wholesale back towards the Webway gate they had arrived in.  Celebrated veteran Watchmaster Bastonikov, as always at the forefront of the fight, was cut down by howling banshees as he rushed to seize the derilict bunker complex overlooking the valley where the void shield station lay.  Batonikov Stood his ground as the Eldar witches cut his squad to peices around him.  Like the True son of the Emperor he turned at bay and slew 4 of the Xenos scum before they overwhelmed him and the last of his comrades.  The Eldar crones stormed into the bunker complex, where they were met by Colonel von Krieg.  He revenged his fallen comrade by cutting down the remaining banshees in a hail of Laz-fire.

The actions of Watchmaster Bastonikov and his brothers In arms have brought the war on  Praxedes IV within measurable distance of its end.

Prayers will be sent to the Emperor for Bastonikov and his brothers in the great Chantry of 'The Emperors Hammer' at the 3rd quater all this week.

1st Battalion; 15th Company; 1st Platoon; 1st Grenadiers (Air Mobile)