Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; Answering the Call or Miskatonic University Acceptance

“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn”

― H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

In February of 1928 a then obscure magazine that fell into the ‘Pulp’ category would publish a short story from an author who was not greatly renowned in his lifetime.  The story would start a number of story cycles based on the mythos introduced by this one, single, story.  The author would write a number of stories in that milieu and they would also lead to other authors writing in the same setting to a greater or lesser ability.  The magazine is ‘Weird Tales’,  the story is ‘The Call of Cthulhu’, and the author is Howard Phillips Lovecraft.  The Cthulhu stories are still being written and published in books, magazines and online.  RPGs, board games and computer games have been designed and published.  But the first one still haunts me.  Still gives me the creeps.

Lovecraft would influence a number of other writers, both his contemporaries as well as later writers.  One, Robert E. Howard, would work some of the creatures of Lovecraft into his writings of Conan.  Those overlaps of two of the best known of the writers in the magazine show the closeness of their friendship.  They would be watered down in reprints and anthologies but if you look at the ones that are unedited, well, they are there.  August Derleth also published stories in Weird Tales and coined the term ‘Cthulhu Mythos’.  He too was a friend of Lovecraft and after Lovecraft’s death, was the main writer of further stories of the Eldritch beings.  He is probably the one that comes closest to getting the atmosphere right.  There are more but that would cover more than just a blog.  Some, like Derleth, catch the right setting, some do not and it is a shame.  The idea of stories that unsettle or cause a bit of the creeps are far more fun than a movie full of pedantic and predictable blood and gore.  My opinion.

RPG and tabletop miniature game creators, and I have stated this elsewhere, found fertile ground to create games from the mythos.  Chaosium’s ‘Call of Cthulhu’ is, I think, the oldest game of the setting.  Starting in 1981 and pretty much continuously published since then.  It is in its seventh edition and seems to still be going strong.  Games Workshop even published some source books for an adventure based in the UK.  Chaosium also published a cooperative board game ‘Arkham Horror’ in 1987 based on the RPG.  In 2006 Fantasy Flight Games would publish a second edition and follow up with a third in 2018.  I have not played it but it looks like fun.  If there are any criticisms of those games that I have heard from those who play the games it is that the minis are a disappointment.  If you find that the minis in the box don’t work for you there are other sources that you can go to get better minis.

There are a great number of companies that have made, and still make, minis for the Horror games so you will be spoiled for choice.  Considering my large collections I can use some of the minis on the shelf in ‘horror’ stories, particularly in my latest obsession ‘Pulp Alley’.  Vampires, Skeletons, Wraiths and more are on the shelf that I can add to the game to go with investigators, students and adventurers.  The minis from Reaper, Artizan, Iron Wind Metals, Pulp Figures, and more will give you things like Deep Ones or Dagon, to mutants and so on.  Then there are a number of the Eldritch entities like Cthulhu or Soggoth to move across the table to lay waste to the younger people.  If you go look at the local first you’ll find some things there. If not there you can go to many online stores like Noble Knight Games.  New as well as old can be found.  If you can’t find it, at least you can go and look on eBay.  

If you want to play a horror game there are a number of games you could choose from and though I have talked mostly about Cthulhu there are more games based on other stories.  Games like; The Doomed, Dracula’s America, Malifaux and more are out there.  Some have minis, some are mini agnostic and some don’t really need minis.  Take a look around your local, a bookstore or online.  You’ll find them.  Most are pretty good.  Some seem like they will never die, looking at you Ravenloft.  Some have popped up, were popular, and then disappeared leaving only the minis to be seen at garage sales and swap meets.  Like the Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb from the heady days when GW made games other than, well, you know.  Some are canceled, declared dead, like Mantic’s The Walking Dead All Out War and would rise up when you least expect them.

Ultimately the game you want to play, the genre and sub-genre, is up to you.  I say this time and again, Play what you want.  One of the many conversations at the local has been about how this person hates zombie games or how still playing vampires running America is silly.  Meh, they are games, a distraction, a frippery.  Something to do for fun.  It is far more niche than what we would like to think and those who like to play horror are even fewer.  Most of them are pretty good.  Few are bad and fewer still should never have been.  I will say no more about them.  So, go and play a game of Pulp Alley with the Horror Deck.  Play the Walking Dead.  Or go hardcore and seek the Colour out of Space or seek the Dunwich Horror.  

Few will answer the call.  Fewer still will survive.  Most of those will be insane from the experience.  I will leave with a quote from The Call of Cthulhu; 

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”

— H. P. Lovecraft, ‘The Call of Cthulhu‘

Remember though, when you feel that smell of a fetid breath from behind, on a dark night and feel the cold passing of a nameless something that is more ancient than you thought possible.  You have gone too far and they have noticed you.  They. Have.  Noticed. You.  You were warned not to look too deep into the subject…  and now, it is too late to scream…

Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; A Shelf full of Minis…

Jimmy Kring was in fear for his life.  The little roadster convertible he was wedged into was being driven by a maniac and he was there for the ride.  The top was down, it was the only way a man his size could have fit, and the crazed woman beside him seemed in a state of ecstasy with the danger.  Bela Gish was that maniac and though Jimmy was infatuated with the woman he was convinced she was about to kill them both.  She slowed slightly at an intersection, snap shifted and sped through it.  She glanced over to him and she had the smile of insanity on her face.  The wind whipped by them.  Jimmy thanked God more than once that there was no traffic down in the warehouse district, but where were the cops?  Bela braked hard and pulled close to a dark warehouse without squealing the tires.  She hopped out and went to the rear of the small auto.  Jimmy unfolded himself from the passenger seat and stood up stretching.  The small woman pulled a Thompson from the trunk and a sling with six extra magazines.  The big man snatched them and looked at the woman.  ‘What’s the caper?’

I recently had a bad case of painters burnout and was looking for something to refresh the desire to paint.  Looking at the shelves and what not at what I have collected over the years I lighted on the Quick Start rules from Pulp Alley as well as the Rugged Adventures from Pulp Figures.  Both are very good and very pulpy.  Being a skirmish game you only need a few minis with which to play a game with.  Pulp Alley even has solo rules.  This all has caused me to crack open the wallet and buy some minis for the crime/adventure genre (six from Pulp Alley and five U.S. Marines from Pulp Figures).  So this blog will be all about the, and possibly most popular pulp genres, Crime and Adventure pulp settings.  Most of the things I am talking about here are about those sort of  Pulp stories set in the period of the 20’s to the late 30’s.  Those years between the wars when the country was in a bad state and needed the distraction of over the top adventure.  Prohibition, the Depression, and a myriad of other blows to America made it a tumultuous time.

Femme Fatales

These stories were not just in magazines but on the radio and in films there was a great amount of material for tabletop games and to inspire miniatures.  Noir, of course, is what most people think about when you talk about Crime Pulps.  Bogart’s ‘Maltese Falcon’ for example, is based on a Sam Spade story from one Dashiell Hammet that was originally printed in the Pulp Magazine ‘The Black Mask’.  In film, most, if not all, of them are black and white but I don’t look at that as a detriment but rather as a starting point with painting.  Some do paint their minis black and white, and when done right, they look great.  If you want to know the colours of Pulp, looking at the covers of the magazines and movie posters, are very much primary colours.  Sometimes those raw and simple looks can be difficult to achieve.  At least for me.  This is going to force me to use washes and glazes more often for the shadows and shades.  I was watching a youtube video about Pulp art and artists and they talked about the use of reds and yellows for adventure and crime as well as darker blues and grays for crime and fantasy.  With that in mind, minis primed and an ample supply of paint I sallied forth.  

Country Doctor, Local Lawmen

For Characters I bought three packs from the various character lines from Pulp Alley.  From ‘Phantom Agents’ there is Phantom Ace and Gauge who are very much archetypes of the mysterious flying man of action and his faithful sidekick/mechanic.  I managed to snag an original packet of Capt. Wolf (Wolf’s Crew) and Minerva (Minerva’s mercenaries).  The folks at Pulp Alley reorganized their mini packs to align members of the same league together so in the new packs Wolf would have his 1st Mate Bosun and Minerva would have her right hand guy Rahjeet.  Finally the Red Queen and Jack Spade from the ‘Vice Alley Syndicate’ line.  Most are armed with handguns but little Gauge has only her trusty wrench, though PA does not require that a piece of gear be on the mini.  I will probably arm her with a hidden snub nose .38.  Thinking about how to paint them, well, part of me wanted to paint them like they look on the supplies game card, but in the end, I opted for some different schemes.  (While typing this I was drawn to the old Revell 1/48 P-40B on my CPU, the imagination kicked in and…)  They are all in 1930s-esque stylised clothing and they were fun to paint up.  If there is one thing that I have to consider is that they are on slotta bases that can be problematic with some of the characters.  But if that is the only complaint then…

Minerva, Lavender, and Jack

For support I bought a section of five U.S. Marines in tin hats from Pulp Figures in a very ‘between the Wars’ loadout of rifles, pistols and one shotgun.  The section is led by Corporal Benatz armed with a Winchester Model 1897 Trench Gun, a shotgun that the Germans protested that it was inhumane in WWI, while they were using phosgene gas.  The others are armed with the venerable Springfield M1903 rifle of the period.  Both weapons were powerful firearms that could kill most anything met by the Marines.  The uniforms are the khakis, leggings and webbing of the 30s and they give me a ‘China Marine’ vibe.  I hope to get a second packet of Marines in tin hats that are armed with a Lewis Gun, a BAR and two tommy gunners.  They will make a nice group of Henchmen to… well… Hench….  I gave them a black primer coat and a zenithal highlight and now they are waiting for a good coat of paint.

Gauge, Ace and Wolf

That’s not to say that I don’t have some minis that I can use already painted.  There are a number that I can use for my parties of ‘good guys’ as party members and so on.  Most are for other games and you know that multitasking minis is a good thing.  Also, some are going to be villains or henchmen.  Egyptian cultists or guardians (WarGods of Aegyptus), fighters or thugs (Walking Dead) and summoned denizens from the outer void or angels (Citadel and Reaper) are going to be used in a game.  Considering that most of the rulesets that I am looking at are pretty agnostic when it comes to the minis you use, the only limitations are about what you have on the shelf.  Or you can do what I like to do.  Buy more.  I can’t say enough nice things about Pulp Alley and their customer service.  Same goes with Pulp Figures or Noble Knight Games.  If you can’t find it there, it doesn’t exist.

Finally there is the setting of the game.  A world of two fisted men and beautiful dames who all carry .45 or .38 Autos, tommy guns, BARs and a plethora of revolvers and they all know how to use them and won’t hesitate.  Then there are exotic locales like the Caribbean, South Pacific, Africa to be the backdrop to the stories.   The gritty world of gangsters and molls in New York or Los Angeles and any other city you could think of.  Were they accurate to period, oh no not even close at times, but you get pulled into that world.  A world of The Spider, the Shadow, the Green Lama and Domino Lady.  Larger than life heroes who think some, talk more and, more often than not, let their .45s do their talking.  Now the streets of Gotham are calling like a dame in trouble.  And you know when she steps out of the fog on that cold dark night, well, those troubles will be yours.  

The warehouse sprinklers had come on, rousing Jimmy where he lay among the broken crates and pallets.  He tasted the blood in his mouth and knew from the pain in his chest that he was not going to get up.  He tried to turn his head but couldn’t even do that.  He perceived Bela suddenly on her knees beside him.  She was saying something and pulling her gloves off.   He started to hear a roaring from far off, getting closer.  The petite woman leaned closer and laid her bare hand on his chest.  ‘I’m leavin’ babe,’ he whispered.  ‘Bullshit’, Bela cursed and closed her eyes.  Jimmy felt warmth where her hand lay, then the heat began to build and suddenly it burned and he screamed.  

Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; If you go into the woods today, or Does this look infected?

When Mantic announced last December that The Walking Dead:All Out War (TWD) was coming back I was all excited.  It was up for pre-order until  the 29th of February, but you can order really anytime.  TWD came back online as a separate site to order from.  Considering that it is one of my favorite games of the last 20 years or so and to see it return with all the old stuff and huge amounts of new makes me, well, happy.  So happy in fact I need t0 write about it.  Go look at the site and it is still fairly inexpensive to get into.  Yes, order the special dice and the revised rule book and you’re in the tall cotton.  All you need is there in the book and you can make cards for your survivor characters, I will be making some myself, at will.  It is also something that can be found online if you look.  Course, most everything that you could need for the game can be found online.  

Dale, Rick and Herschel

After collecting the comics for a few years to see that, in 2016, someone developed a tabletop skirmish game which was pretty much what I wanted.  The minis LOOK like the characters in the comic and that is a pretty good start.  You got enough in the original box of minis and support to start playing right off and the rules are laid out in a logical progression to make the players confident in the gameplay.  Now, jump to 2024 and the ‘Collectors edition’ is $120, you get the book, and all the supporting equipment AND a ton of minis.  Just keep in mind that the game is based on the comic.  What?  You’ve only watched the TV show and don’t know anything about the comics?  So?  Get some minis that look like Darryl and Co. and have fun.  This game can be played as a full fledged skirmish game, as a cooperative game, and, gasp, solo.  It is not a huge play area, a normal sized kitchen table is adequate, and it comes with heavy paper maps, heavy card terrain.  

I did something that I rarely have done in the past and that is to pre-order the new rulebook along with more dice along with all of the supply, equipment, and event cards.  The dice in particular will be a nice thing as there just didn’t seem enough of them when the game was first released.  One of the few criticisms I had.  When will my order arrive?  Sometime between now and June.  Do I think that is too long?  Yeah, but then I think that the book needs to be printed, as do the cards, and there are minis (though I have most of them up to Alexandria) to be molded and packaging to be done.  Not sure about what they may have had in the warehouse from the original issue of the game but it seems like they are starting almost from scratch.

I have already pulled all the stuff I have out of storage for the game.  Die cast cars and trucks, some loot markers to replace the pog like markers from the original game.  Some fences and barriers that had not made it to the table top yet.  Of course, those minis that I hadn’t gotten around to painting.  I have gone on about how easy it is to get ‘modern’ minis painted.  So that is on the painting schedule.  There were other games that are in the Walking Dead Universe, like ‘Here’s Negan!’ and they are going to put that out again.  Yes they are reprinting that game also.  ‘Negan’ is a sort of dungeon crawl with the Main Man himself ‘motivating’ his minions to clear out what would become the ‘Sanctuary’ for the saviors.  He is carrying Lucille, and she is a dirty girl.  

So, a game thought to be gone has returned.  You can be Rick & Co. struggling to keep family and friends together while fighting the good fight against the Hunter’s, the Saviors, or the Whisperers.  You can put your own group of survivors to battle across the country, and anywhere else in the world, and perhaps live another day.  This isn’t the Fallout Universe or some other game set a hundred or so years after the END but one that is in our era.  There is no relent from the Walkers, the others out there trying to survive, just you and your mates trying to keep it all together.  There were no bombs that fell, no invading armies, but one creeping horror of being bit and then dying only to come back as a mindless eating machine. It’s not always a happy story but it is one that can be quite fun.

Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; A bit of a rant or is this just whinging?

So here we are.  ‘Return to the Old World’ is out and was so hyped that it sold out quickly.  On the Website.  From GW.  In my local game shop you can still find the box set as well as rule books.  That said, there has been a lot of interest in OW and I am wondering if that is mainly from the aforementioned hype or has the game filled a niche that opened with the failure, my words, of Age of Sigmar to pull in an audience of fantasy players?  AoS has disappeared from the game tables at the store though it is well stocked on the shelves.  It’s equally rare to see some of the other games, like Shadespire, on the tables.  It could be something unique but I doubt it.

Now, I have been in the shop and watched a few games of OW and looked through the rulebook and army lists and it is the 9th edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles that should have been in 2015.  The lists are very much the same.  The armies that were in the old WHFB are there for the most part.  Those that are missing would be address in a set of free downloads from GW.  The game mechanics are the same and if you played WHFB you can play almost from the start.  The biggest change is the magic system and to be honest, the magic needed to be revised but this is rather nice to see.  Yes, there is also the base size changes and I will blather on about that later in this but overall it is a slick production and looks good.  It is laid out much like the old rulebooks and has a good table of contents.

The box set, if you can find it, is a good starter but the armies they chose perplex me.  The Tomb Kings were quite popular but the Bretonnians were not, from my memories, a ‘main’ army.  The minis were, and still are nice, but a bit bland to me.  The big box editions would be High Elves/Goblins for 4th Ed., Bretonnian/Lizardmen in 5th, Empire/Orks in 6th, Dwarf/Goblins in 7th and High Elves/Skaven in 8th.  The Brets were due and upgrade in the 5th ed as were the Lizards but they were never seemed to be that popular.  Certainly the Elves, all flavors, the Empire and the OnGs were on the most frequent played list.  Oddly the Chaos forces were played often in the shop but only the human worshippers are in the main lists.  Skaven are not, the Dark Elves, Lizards, Vampire Counts, Ogres, Demon armies and Chaos Dwarfs are left out of the main lists too.  I think that it is a good thing to add but why not all the army lists?  No fluff or anything, but would the loss of $30 for each army book, $50 for the Forces of Fantasy/Ravening Hordes, I guess.  Add on to that the $70 for the rulebook, it adds up fast.  

The fact that you can’t buy any of the factions except for the Bretts and TKs  from the GW website (if they even have it, most are sold out) is another mystery to me.  It supports my point that this is a way to pull the more avid gamers of the old game back in.  I mean I have armies for the Empire, Dwarfs and High Elves along with a good amount of OnGs and some odd and ends of other factions.  Makes me also wonder that on the AoS page the only army there that works for OW are the Dark Elves and they are a ‘legend’ army!  It looks like the planning was sketchy for making the OW an important adjunct game.  So, with that you know that GW does not allow .stl files nor can you use 3D printed models if it is a GW sponsored event.  So, where the hell are you gonna get minis if you don’t want to play Bretts or desiccated skellies you are SOL.  

The last thing I want to talk about are the basic conventions of the game.  You Infantry is now on a 25mm base rather than the original 20mm.  It wouldn’t be an issue if you are starting a new army to play.  After all that is what is in the box.  No, it is that the old bases are no longer valid.  So what do you do with your dwarf army that you’ve had for years?  Rebase?  That’s not gonna happen.  Special movement trays that space the minis out to ‘regulation’ width.  Could be costly but really isn’t what I want to do either.  BTW, if you order 25mm square bases from GW you’ll drop $50 for 100 and that is without shipping costs, or taxes.  Go to Amazon and order them as they will be a quarter of the costs and they are on Prime so no shipping.   

Now I know that this has come across as a pretty negative commentary and it has it’s bitter points but it is nice to see a low fantasy army back on the table and the rule set seems tight and fun.  Most commentators on the interwebs have said that and who am I to argue.  The folks that are playing it in the shop say the same thing.  I have softened somewhat on my feelings about the game.  I will say that I like it better than say Kings of War (it is a good game also) and some of the other rank and flank games that have come out.  That attitude probably speaks to the sense of nostalgia I hold for WHFB.  Does this mean I am gonna dabble in Return?  No, I don’t really think so.  The cost puts me off but who knows?  Maybe if it actually gets a second edition I may take another look.

There’s my two cents.  As always, don’t just take my commentary as gospel!  Go and look at the game and see if it is appealing to you.  This is a hobby not a life and death decision.  For myself the only thing I want from the TKs is Settra the Imperishable, Supreme Ruler of Khemri.  The only Tomb King to flip Nagash off with the immortal quote; ‘Settra does not serve!  SETTRA RULES!’ 

Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; The Whispers in the Dark, or What the Hell am I talking about?

The whispers in the dark or what the hell are you talking about…

Last year, 2023, was full of surprises for me.  This may be something of a rant at times.  I want to make some observations on THE HOBBY.  These are my opinions only and if you’re easily offended by an honest commentary, well, move along.

Before I get started though, I did finish four more minis after I published the 2023 recap.  That’s what I get for wanting to get a blog out early.  I finished the Inner Sphere Heavy Lance and added the Grasshopper and Centurion Mechs to the collection.  Along with the Original Human Torch for Marvel Crisis Protocol and a printed mini from Atlantis Miniatures; the Dwarf Troll Hunter.  So, 90 minis painted in 2023.

This started out as a comment on the games that were bought this year.  New games, new rulebooks, new expansions.  Some I have already talked about in other places and some new.  There were a lot of things that angered me this year in gaming and some that amused me.  Perhaps there are things that I missed, probably really, but it is a hobby and I am not interested in all the games, just some.  

I bought a box of the new edition of the 40K starter set after swearing I would not buy anything ‘Primaris’.  Mainly, I would rationalize, for the transfer sheet but I wanted the new Terminators and Terminator Captain.  Considering that the new edition boasted that you can use the cards published for free along with the rules… Okay that ended quickly with a publishing of rules and new codices.  I was also happy to see the boxed set of the Primarch of the Dark Angels that I could not resist, the addition of a trio of Bladeguard Veterans that comes with it let me rationalize the expense.  My interest was also piqued with the recent release of a new version of ‘Epic Space Marines’; it seems that there is still a level of creativity in the company.   Many of the ‘pundits’ of 40K on youtube will tell you that GW is done for and is ready to fall apart and then there are those who equally claim that GW is making all the right moves that show that they are still the greatest game company ever.  Believe who you want, GW is not going anywhere, anytime soon.  

I ordered a mystery box from Warlord Games and was a little under-enthused with it at first.  Odds and ends from games that are a bit of a taster, as it were, to expose you to their games, but it is odds and ends so no complete game.  Then I looked again with ideas about what to do with them.  So started with the Bersaglieri recently introduced for Bolt Action and saw they could be used in other games like Xenos Rampant or Pulp games as the henchmen of some mastermind.  I also realized that the Inca and Seneca warriors are perfect for Oathmark or Dragon Rampant (even some pulp games) as small units, as well could be NPCs in Frostgrave or Ghost Archipelago.  On the other hand, the resin ship from ‘Victory at Sea’ will be a one off project as I don’t particularly like naval games. There is also a Judge Dredd booster (the Judge himself on foot and on cycle) here some time soon.  Later in the year they put single sprues on sale.  Yeah $50 later I have enough to make a ten man military unit as well as 20 odd civilians.  Not a bad haul if you add in the rule books from the Mystery Box.  In many ways Warlord is overlooked by fantasy gamers but you should take a look.

I did two orders from Reaper in 2023.  One in August and a second in December.  Of the 26 minis ordered, none have been painted, which is odd for me.  I tend to paint them as soon as I get them but have gotten bogged down in some other projects.  They will all be used in different games, some for dungeon crawls and some for more modern skirmish games.  Reaper’s Mail Order is top notch and they keep you informed down the line of shipping.  Also, you still get some free things when you order.  $40+ will get you a free mini, each month has one that is also added and you can get other things at times.  I got a lump of coal for Christmas this year in the box.  $50+ order makes shipping in the US free.  I don’t hide my liking for this company, their minis and their customer service.  They are one of the few that still make affordable PC minis as well as NPCs.  

Mantic has been a surprise for me as I have not really ordered anything from them in a long while.  I still have a number of minis for ‘The Walking Dead:All Out War’ to paint.  The announcement a few weeks ago that the contract has been renewed with Skybound and that the game will return is a very nice thing to see.  Now I just want to see if there will be a ‘Second Edition’ rule set or a revised starter set.  The original was $50 and quite playable out of the box.  I did get more excited about that than the ‘Return to the Old World’ from GW.  During the year Mantic has released a free set of rules for the Kings of War game.  It reads, to an extent, a bit like an older edition of Warhammer Fantasy.  I doubt that I will start an army from KoW but it’s a good ruleset.

I have an addiction to Amazon and I look there for games that I can’t find anywhere else.  Well, that’s my excuse.  I ordered a couple rulebooks that come from Osprey Games; Xenos Rampant and Pulp!  XR is an excellent ruleset in the Rampant Series with some revision of the rules that makes the game better.  It is a multi genre SciFi/Horror set of rules and has kept me fiddling with units and forces.  Pulp! on the other hand is kind of a clunker.  There is a game in there but you will have to work at it.  I think what fails is the layout of the rule book and a need for a good proofread prior to publishing.  It is a typical ‘bluebook’ game; 64 pages, well illustrated with both mini pics and art, and charts but that is the best thing I can say about it.  Was it worth $10?  Yeah but I am going to take it on vacation with me to try and get the rules in order.  Kinda becoming a project.  

So a final musing on the year that was.  I can’t really say it was a bad year with 96 minis painted, some terrain projects, finally, getting started and a few games played.  Some even won.

Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; 2023 in review or do we need to do this?

What a year!  I have painted 86 minis so far this year.  I noticed that, over the course of the year, there were a number of changes going on with the hobby and I have seen some trends forming.  Fewer companies make minis from different forms of white metal and more multipart styrene or thermoplastic.  Then there is the growing number of 3D printed minis out there that are available online as .stl’s or fully printed minis out there.  Most are comparable with the more traditional methods of miniature creation.  It is also reflected in the number that I have painted this year and are waiting for their turn on the table.  I bought new games and a ton of minis that you’ll see in later missives.  It was also a year that the ‘Magic Bin’ was gotten into quite a bit.  

Catalyst Game Labs.  The most minis I painted this year came from Catalyst Game Labs for BattleTech.  Only a few were from force box sets.  Mostly were from Salvage Boxes of individual Mechs but I did buy the Wolf’s Dragoon Assault Star twice and got them all painted.  Love the Timber Wolf from that box.  They are organized into, depending on the faction, into Lances or Stars.  I also bought the ‘Alpha Strike’ game and the Counters Pack expansion.  I have written a couple blogs about the BT games and the minis.  Love them and want more.  The total is 33.

Clan Mechs; Marauder IIc, Linebacker, Timberwolf, Howler

IS Mechs; Banshee, Grasshopper, Wolfhound, Axman

Games Workshop. Few of the 22 GW minis that got painted this year were ‘new’ as 21 came from the bin.  I got a fever for finishing my dwarf army and painted all the crossbow dwarfs I had.  The rest of the GW minis were, well, impulse painting.  Two are really from Marauder but that goes without saying.  So there was a hornsman for the old Bugman’s Rangers Regiment, the original one from 1984.  Then eight pewter dwarf crossbows.  Three for the WHFB Empire army, an ancient Man at Arms, a Fighter Command Champion and Citizen (from Marauder) and a fully armoured Captain.  An old Goblin music that was sitting in the bin for decades.  A WHQ Elf Ranger and a mounted Dark Elf with a crossbow. Six for 40K, two old Chaos Raptors (for the Night Lords) Two Veteran Sgts (Raven Guard and Scythes of the Emperor), One original Plastic Genestealer (First edition Space Hulk), and One Librarian in Phobos Armour for the Dark Angels army.  Total of 22

Dwarf Crossbows and Hornsman

Musician, Man at Arms, Captain, Champion

Scythes of the Emperor, Raven Guard

Original Genestealer, Primaris Librarian

Reaper Miniatures.  Reaper is always on my list of minis.  It is one of those ‘go to’ companies that still make a number of fantasy archetypes that you need in RPG and dungeon crawls.  I know that I tend to go on about the casting, the customer service and the sculptors but this is a great company to work with.  Eight of them were pewter castings (7 from the Dark Heaven line and one from WarLord) and the other eight are plastics from the numerous ‘Bones’ lines.  Not all are fantasy, most are, but there are a couple that are not.  I had the most fun with Tianalise the Bog Witch as I made a nice little diorama base.  The ‘Dungeoneer Sophie’ was a close second.  The Punkin’ Headed Bugbear was the longest on the table.  Not keen on the figure once I started it.   I was probably the most disappointed in Nasithe mini, well not the mini itself but rather the effort I put into painting her didn’t really satisfy.  For fun though I painted the Rocky Dragon brush holder.  Nothing like a little red dragon sitting on your paint table.  Total Reaper 16

Nadia of the Blade (1st and 2nd Sculpt), Tristan Loremistress, Eli Quicknight

Dungeoneer Sophie, Terezinya, Jolie, Tianalise the Bog Witch

Casiatta Anti-Paladin, Nasithe, Punkin’ Head Bugbear

Theris Vinson, Femme Fatale

3D Printed minis.  Well, this was a hard one to really quantify.  I painted a ‘Black Widow’ but in the white costume.  Just liked something different for her.  I also played with some resin to fill the 50mm lipped base.  Wanted it to look like she was in an office building of some sort.  Two Captain Americas with the original shield.  And three fantasy ‘office workers’.  They were fun and a nice diversion from the norm.  Total of 6.

Original Capt A’s and Widow

Trixli Goblin Business Woman, Ogrra Orc CEO, Stacy Succubus Office Worker

Warlord Games.  So, I bought a mystery box and a number of sprues this year from Warlord.  Took me awhile to get any painted.  I had a number of mini boxes from ‘Mystic Americas’ that I was sure what to do with.  I bit the bullet and painted five Seneca archers and got them up to a table top level of paint.  Just kept reminding myself of using them in a game of ‘Pulp!’ or Oathmark.  I could probably use them in other games.  They are nice minis but I have more that I have gotten excited to paint that will appear in next years review.  Total of 5

Atomic Mass Games.  I painted two.  One, Captain America as he looked in the comics for almost 60 years for Marvel Crisis Protocol.  One from Star Wars:Legions the NightSister Asajj Ventress.  Now I understand that I used to love Marvel and Star Wars but I have some sort of mental block on painting the minis from both games.  No Idea why.  Maybe next year I’ll have more done.  I was very frustrated while painting Ventress.  Couldn’t get the face marking right.  So I just finished her, based her and sealed her.  

Foundry.  There are those companies that you want to have in your collection and Foundry is one of them.  I painted one of the last Valkyries in the bin; Rota, She Who Causes Turmoil.   She painted herself as most Foundry minis seem to do.  I need to find a place in the US that sells Foundry and get some of their minis.  Total of 1.

Mantic Games.  One, yep only one.  From the Lilly Booster pack for The Walking Dead: All Out War comes Smitty.  He is a denizen of the Woodbury group and killed Billy Greene during the Prison battle.  He will also be appearing in any other game I can fit him into.

Smitty

SO there you go.  86 minis done and on the shelf.  A few more than last year but who’s counting?  It was a decent year with minis that ran from fantasy to post-apoc and back again.  I have been over long in writing this but I will probably break some of these into more detail in the future.  

Happy New Year!

Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; The Big Bang Boom or How Long is Six Inches?

The wagon moved along the road that passed through the open town lands.  The sun shining on the green fields that were at the start of the growing season.  Family steadings and villages passed.  Guthlaf was riding in the back listening to Gisha chat with the girl, Bemia.  He shook his head in amazement.  Gisha never seemed to want to talk to the ‘lesser races’ about anything but there she sat next to the girl chuckling at Bemia’s jokes and sharing stories.  ‘Almost there, about another hour or so’ Bemia looked over her shoulder and said and then returned to her conversation.  The idea that her mother was a respectable owner of a large Inn rather than the thief that he knew years ago was a surprise.  What she described was really a small village as there was a blacksmith, farriers, a brewery and more.  The caravans stopped there within a long day’s march to the city they had just left.  Guthlaf dozed in the sun and let the time slip by.

I have very few ‘Special’ units for the Empire and less ‘Rare’ ones, more on that later in this.  I have proxied the Reiksguard Foot in as Greatswords for years but I am now painting up some proper Zwiehanders for whatever game I want to use them in.  They are probably the most ‘Germanic’ looking miniature soldiers in the Empire Army as they are sculpted to look exactly like those veteran Landesknechts and considering they were from the hands of the Perry Brothers it should not come as a surprise to anyone.  But then I don’t have any that are painted to show off so I will move on.

Plastic Cannon

For the special units that I do have painted that I always take to the table are the Great Cannon and Mortar.  First the Great Cannon is really a large direct fire weapon that you can, if you’re good with guessing ranges, break whole units and kill monsters with one shot.  In some editions you can also make them into large shotguns.  They are quite scary to march on and if you can bounce your cannon balls properly.  The same goes for the mortar but instead of putting a large metal or stone ball through a unit but rather putting a bomb in the middle of a formation.  They are truly weapons of mass destruction.  There is an entry in the main rules for a smaller cannon, the cannon used by the Dwarfs actually, but I use an old cannon from the old Battle Masters game (1992) from Milton Bradley and GW.  It fits quite nicely with the army.  I tend to look at that if I am in a smaller game and can use the point saving somewhere else.

Metal Cannon

I have two Great Cannons in the army.  One is lead and the other is plastic.  With another metal and two more plastic ones waiting in the bin to assemble and paint.  They are fairly straight forward minis and can be assembled without a lot of thought.  The metal cannon ‘Nuln’s Judgement’ was the first part of what I hoped would be the Grand Battery of my army.  The plastic is from the 6th edition box and named ‘Wrath of Sigmar’ was more of a good thing.  It destroyed a Wood Elf dragon and Mage in one shot.  Heady day indeed.  Together they work as a team that will give you ranges from the first shot and allow you to hammer those Chaos Warriors to pieces.  Put them on elevations that allow you to fire over your battle line or on a flank with some protection.  Enemy fliers will be all over them if you don’t.  NEVER put them in your battle line unless you have to.  In a battle line they could be charged directly or have their field of fire obscured by friendly units.

Mortar

Mortars work very differently from cannon but they are quite useful especially against horde armies.  Put them near enough to the cannons to assist you in range estimation but not so close to get caught in a misfire incident.  I have one painted and four more in the bin.  All are from the fourth edition era and are very basic.  They were, like their historical counterparts, in a simple base/cradle to hold the ‘pot’ and emplaced directly on ground.  A later game mortar would be wheeled but I didn’t like the way it looked.  Keep in mind that it has a Minimum range of 12 inches and a maximum of 48 inches.  That 12in dead zone is important to remember when the enemy is in danger close.  That’s why you load your nearby cannon with grape.  As they are far more in need of a good range guess it is better to fire the cannons and increase the chance of a hit.  To be blunt, there is a historical precedent for using the fire of nearby engines to gain the range on a given target.  

Hellblaster 1

Now I’d like to talk about the only Rare unit I have on the table and the only war engine I put in the battle line:  The incredible Von MienKopt’s Whirling Cavalcade of Death, or as the laymen put it, the Hellblaster Volley Gun.  I remember taking one to battle, watching it destroy every enemy unit I fired at until it misfired on the last turn of the game.  I immediately went and bought a second one to increase that firepower.  Do I really need two?  No.  I wanted them.  Bet your tuckus, putting one of those on a flank will have your enemy shying away but two, well that is what a tactician would call a ‘denied flank’.  It is the only engine that I put into a battle line side by side with a small regiment for security. 

Hellblaster 2

I also look at magic as a support weapon along the lines of war engines in the game.  The ‘magic system’ changed quite a bit over the 5 or six editions, main editions that is, but the human mages were more restricted than some other factions.  The wizards in the army come from various editions.  Most from the 3rd edition but there are a couple from 4th.  I try to take a Lord and a couple battle mages.  The lord is a heavy hitter with numerous spells and the ability to reach out and touch the enemy.  The lesser mages are there to protect and dispel.  Anything beyond that is gravy.  I don’t mount them on horses but I have some unpainted ones and probably will see how they would work in a game.  The later editions of the game would almost do away with half of the Colleges of Magic, from my observations, so my old minis came back to the table as I could just name them to this faction or that.  

3rd Edition Wizards

After re-reading this I realized that this is all about the artillery of my army.  Empire Armies are about firepower to whittle down opponents in the idea that the weakened units will not push an attack and will be vulnerable to counter attack.  In conjunction with the detachment rules that make the infantry deadly in the defense, well, the Empire army (if played well) is a handful on the tabletop.  IF the ideas introduced in 4th to 6th editions remain in the new game I would probably look closer at the rules.  

Later Wizards

Guthlaf sat in a well appointed office in the Inn’s large main building.  ‘The Bard’s Repose’ was as Bemia described.  It was a small village that was close to the Royal Road and was close enough to a navigable water course to have a small landing for river commerce.  It was quite the operation.  Elswyth was no longer the waspish thief he’d adventured with almost two decades ago.  Now she was stocky with graying hair but he had no doubt that she could still be deadly with the short sword that hung from her left hip.  She sat at a large desk looking at the pair.  Gisha stood next to the small window that looked out onto the front yard of the inn.  She too was impressed with the size of the place.  ‘So,’ Guthlaf said, ‘What do you need from us?’

Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; The Empire or Should a Game Return?

The tavern was much like every tavern he had been in.  Smells of roasted foods, tobacco, humanity (and demi-humans) but more than anything else, stale beer.  Guthlaf was getting depressed from the whole thing.  He’d wondered, and not for the first time, why he and Gisha Beloth were doomed to go from one dangerous event to the next.  Gisha who sat on the other side of the table sipped the sour wine in front of her and saw the creeping melancholy on his face.  It will end in violence she mused.  Not that she was averse to a fight but he would be murderous if roused in this mood.  ‘You thinking of your old home, ‘Laf?’ she asked in her accented common tongue.  ‘I am not thinking of ‘home’ but of them.’ he growled.  She shook her head.  When in this mood he was unfathomable and dangerous.  Not her, but in general.  She took another sip and looked to where some bard was ‘entertaining’ with a song.  A chill came when she heard Guthlaf grunt.  She looked where he pointed with his chin.  ‘Trouble’, was all he said.

Greetings players of old miniature games that may reappear on the market soon as a ‘New’ game.  I am here to talk to you about yet another of the armies/warbands that I put together for Warhammer Fantasy Battles, played for years, and has been collecting dust since the End Times of 2015.  In this case; the Empire.  11 major Provinces, and numerous minor provinces and independent city states.  Fluff for the Empire is based on the Holy Roman Empire of our history making it more of a confederation of provinces that share a similar language, culture and religions.  They are very Germanic in flavor, very much 30 Years War in appearance, and they are the most powerful single polity in the setting.  The army reflects this sort of diversity in their uniform colours, weapons, and how they work together. Originally I intended to write a single, overarching, blog for the army and I realized quickly that there was just too much there so I decided to break it down according to the troop types.  I am also going to talk about some of those types that were phased out as the game evolved.  I will also have examples of those units that I never saw the point of that stayed in the army to the End Times.  So let’s start.

Halberdiers, Spearmen and Swordsmen will form the very core of your battleline.  These are the guys that you need to work as hard as possible.  I have a huge number of them in the collection.  I have about 30 or so of the metal halberdiers that appeared in 4th edition.  They were either one piece castings or two pieces with ‘plug in’ weapons.  I decided that I would paint them in a quartered green/orange livery.  They come with a full command group, a must for any infantry unit to make those important moral rolls.  The Command Groups also came in the 4th edition.  I have most of the commanders with musics and standard bearers, and I have enough to break the large Regiment into two smaller ones.  When 5th edition hit I bought the plastic Imperial Soldiers and made a third regiment of 20, after stealing five from the plastic handgunner box, halberdiers, the command came in the box, and they too entered the battle line.  I have a few of the swordsmen or spears from the 80s & 90s that form my Free Company, and I also have a bunch of unpainted Spearmen and Handgunners from the 6th edition box laying idle in the Magic Bin.  

Missile troops:  Handgunners, Archers and Crossbowmen.  For missile troops I have a number of handgunners, a couple archers and NO crossbowmen.  The first handgunner unit was from the plastic 5th ed. Handgunners box.  It comes like the plastic Halberdiers with its own command.  I did find a number of metal gunners dating back to 1992 languishing in the bin and painted them up and added a command group from the same period.  There are still metal gunners from 4th ed. and a number of plastic from the 6th ed. Box in the bin.  They will get painted one day.  They make the best detachments for the larger regiments.  I do have a few more archers to paint as well as a small number of crossbows.  Perhaps they will make good detachments as well.  

Free Company, well this is a catchall formation of non-uniform soldiers from all around the Empire.  In truth it is where I put all those minis that don’t fit in any post 4th ed regiment.  It is a mass of men armed with a plethora of weapons, in various levels of armour and clothing.  Some of the oldest minis in my collection are there, along with some of the very few non-Citadel figures there.  They are either from Marauder and even one from the old Talisman game from 1986. The hero running the unit is from the Marauder MM61 Command Group (FC5 Two Handed Sword).  I have two other minis from the command group, drummer and standard, waiting for paint.  It is soooo Renaissance and 30 years war.  I like that I can still put this great minis on the table. 

I have to mention here that there are two units that disappeared between the different editions of WHFB that I want to have on the table because they are great units and I don’t like seeing them left on the shelf.  I have used them as proxies for the greatswords that are in the bin waiting for some paint.  I am talking about the Footknights from 1987 and the Reiksguard Foot from 1992.  It’s really a shame too, they are both great units on the table as well as a way to use a knightly character both mounted and afoot.

And that brings us to Knightly Orders.  When 4th Edition dropped, the Orders were more formalized and were given a more lengthy background.  The Knights Panther were the first ones to get my attention.  The animal skins and their secular nature resonated with me.  Followed on with the Reiksguard as I began to see them as a nice second regiment of Cavalry.  The Knights of the White Wolf never really caught on with me.  I do have a single Knight of the Blazing Sun that rides with the Knights Panther.  It also makes the unit 15 strong.  Number of Ranks means something in Fantasy Battles.   There were little differences between the Orders at first but that would change in subsequent editions.  I also have a number of OLD lead knights from the third edition.  They form my knights of the Inner Circle, a more powerful and harder hitting unit of knights.  This gives me three units of heavy cavalry and a hammer to use with my infantry acting as the anvil.  

So there is a look at the first part of the army.  Mostly the minis but I want to talk about the rules that go with the Empire.  Uniquely the Empire has a detachment system that allows the player to attach smaller (half the size of the main unit) units to the flanks of the main unit and coordinate with the main unit.  Considering the relative weakness of the individual human to have this setting giving them rules to work better overall then I think that is a good thing.  Course you can, and should, give the major units a magic banner, give them a character to buff their morale or what not but it’s the cohesiveness of the army that makes it work.

The young woman that crossed the great room of the tavern was clearly afraid but she had her shoulders squared and controlled herself.  Her companion was a young Man-at-Arms in the livery of the town watch.  He was equally uncomfortable with his surroundings.  Guthlaf found it amusing but his real attention was on the girl.  ‘She resembles someone we’ve met.’ Gisha said.  The girl came to a halt within a stride of the table and announced, ‘I am Bemia and my  mother Elswyth Eastaughffe sends her greeting and prays that you remember her and the party that you adventured with long ago.  She also sends this.’ she held out a sealed letter.  ‘Who’s your father, lass?’he asked, taking the letter and opening it.  ‘Kenric, my lord.’ she said.  ‘I’m not your lord.’ Guthlaf growled.  Gisha chuckled ‘So, old Kenric and Elswyth.’  She looked over at Guthlaf.  He was not smiling.  ‘Apparently we owe them a debt and that bill is due.’ he said flatly.

Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; The Mercenaries are Coming…

Feliks Baran was strapping into his Centurion Mech while the tech fiddled with last minute checks.  Settling the neurohelmet over his head and making sure it was secure he looked for a situation report.  The SitRep appeared on his screen as soon as the helmet connected with the Mech.  Information appeared on the HUD and the screen of the console in front of him.  The countdown to deployment of minus 30 minutes and that there was no sign they had been detected.  The COMSTAR tech used to spoof their presence from the Clan defense systems appeared to be working.  So far so good.  The Union class DropShip was in the atmosphere of the planet and the Clan garrison was not alerted.  The two Lances of the Brona Pancerne Mercenary Company were here to raid the Clans and see if the defense was capable of repelling an assault to liberate the planet.    

I haven’t written much about BattleTech of late.  Over the last couple years I have collected a rather large pile of unpainted stuff.  With ‘Mercenaries’ in the offing I thought I would sit down and talk a bit about what I have painted and what I still need to get done to go with the coming new expansion box.  The expansion promises to have a full lance of Inner Sphere Mechs, vehicles and infantry for the Merc Units you want to build.    The idea of making ‘combined arms units’ for the BT universe has always been fun and I like the idea of killing an opponent’s Mech with just poor bloody infantry.  Since the game is about Mechs, well, battling, there is a trend away from Combined Arms.  Keep in mind though that at its heart BT is a wargame with tanks, aircraft, helicopters and TANKS.  That’s at the heart of my excitement for the expansion.

Mercenary units have been in the BT Universe since the beginning.  I have a copy of Second Edition (yes, I’m that old) that talks more about Merc forces than the Great Houses.  All the Houses have relied on Mercs at one time or another in their history after the devastation of the First Succession War.  With that in mind, I have started to put together an IS Mercenary unit other than those that will be supported by CGL like Wolf’s Dragoons or Kell Hounds.  I have one Lance complete with a couple extra and some on the paint table.  They are going to be of Polish origin and I am going to try to give them that sort of influence.   They are called ‘Brona Pancerne’ (Armoured Forces in Polish) for now.  I am trying to think up a better name for them but so far I feel a bit uninspired.  Still, though, I think I have a good start with the types of Mechs I have to go into an Inner Sphere mech force.  For example; the Commander will pilot a Flashman and the unit includes a Bushwhacker, Crab, Blackjack, Crusader, Trebuchet and a Grasshopper.  Recently I added a Wasp (light Mech) and Crockett on the paint table that will give me two solid Lances; one Heavy and the other Medium.  Should work out fine on the table.  I painted them in what I have read as ‘SDLF Colours’ of olive drab then gave them a dark green wash and some highlights of red and white from the Polish National Colours.  

I have painted a number of Lances, using the various packs, to be part of the different regiments of Wolf’s Dragoons.  I have a habit of painting all of the Mechs in the same pack as the same unit.  Predictable?  Yes.  limiting?  Maybe.  Fun to do?  Yea verily!  So I have the two Lances in the Basic Box painted from the WD’s Beta Regiment and Zeta Regiment.  Then I just went through all the other Regiments to make sure I got most of them.  Are the colours absolutely accurate?  Who bloody cares?  They are as close to the colours as I could find looking at ‘official’ sites out there.  I did paint a HQ Lance blue with gold trim along with a WD Assault Star (the Dragoons are a clandestine recon unit from the Clans to report on the state of the Inner Sphere.  See www.sarna.net for more details.) of five Mechs in the Black and Red livery of the Black Widow Company of one Natasha Kerensky, possibly the most dangerous MechWarrior of the era depending on who you talk to.  I have no doubt that she was as deadly at 90 as she was at 30.  

Some of the Mech box sets are ‘exclusive’ to Barnes and Nobles but I have seen them in a couple online stores.  Planning to make a mixed force of Mercs, I have the Eridani Light Horse, Hanson’s Roughriders, Snords Irregulars, Northwind Highlanders and Grey Death Legion boxes setting in the Pile of Opportunity awaiting their turn.  I am going to get the Kell Hounds box when I can find it.    It will collect almost a full Regiment of Mechs.  Adding in the Alpha Strike box has the two Lances painted as Northwind Highlanders, they would be a full Company of Mechs by themselves.  Making them the second largest Merc unit after the Dragoons in my collection.    The ELH being probably third.  

I am sure that I am quite excited about this expansion and am looking forward to picking one up.  Perhaps because it is one of those expansions that will really encourage the player to paint up their own units and put them on the table.  You should paint your stuff the way you want.  If pink mechs with large blue dots are your thing, go and do it.  The leader of Rhonda’s (Snords) Irregulars drove a hot pink Highlander and it is in the Snord’s Irregular’s box.  So, get into Mercenaries and paint them the way you want.  After all, the only thing you have to fear is, well, the Clans.  Oh, and ‘Death to Mercenaries’ from the Draconis Combine, until they need help from you. 

Feliks was breathing heavy as the adrenaline was dumped into his system.  The bright green and yellow Mech of unknown design came out of the forest and seemingly out of nowhere.  It was fast, damned fast and the PPC had already slammed Bechwith’s Wasp off its feet and caused him to eject.  The other Mech that appeared was familiar but the IFF was out from a lucky laser hit.  There were at least three more Clanners out there.  He was going to have a bad day.  He could feel in his bones.

Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; Successors or Roboute Gets Pushy

The story goes that at the end of the Horus Heresy the reins of the Imperium’s Military were put in the hands of the Primarch of the Ultramarines, Roboute Guilliman, with the title of ‘Lord Commander’.  The great tome was started by Guilliman sometime during the Great Crusade and finished after the Heresy and it describes everything from basic organization to combat doctrine to logistic minutiae.  It also broke the then remaining Loyal Legions into smaller chapters so one person could not control the power of a Legion and therefore fend off another civil war within the Imperium.  Some of Bobby G’s brothers agreed with the breaking of the Legions but some, like Rogal Dorn of the Imperial fists and Leman Russ of the Space Wolves, were opposed to it all.  In the end though, they would all agree with the division of the Legions into smaller units.  That would mean that the ‘main’ chapter would keep the traditions of the Legion alive by taking its name and heraldry while other ‘spin offs’ would take on new names and colours.  It made for interesting fluff as well as the idea that you could, as the gamer, create a chapter all your own.  

Silver Skulls, Ultramarine and Scythes of the Emperor

In the 35 odd years that the game has been published the designers have created a number of Chapters considered ‘Official’ while there are a multitude of homegrown ones.  The fluff (to reflect this) says that over the ten millennia there have been a number of ‘Official Foundings’ of new Chapters. 27 Foundings at last count.  The Ultramarines and their  descendants are favored in these Foundings as they are considered the most loyal of the Legions.  That said, there are also Chapters who were founded without that formality and created as one offs for specific needs of the Imperium (to be honest also for parent Chapter).  There are also some chapters out there that have no idea who they are descendants of.  There is a lot of teasing that these Chapters could trace their heritage to members of the traitor legions that stayed loyal,  but there is little concrete evidence within any of those sort of Chapters as they would not want to be seen as the descendants of Heresy.  In the early fluff for 40K, Rick Priestly (beloved by all) created two ‘Lost Legions’ (who were removed from history by order of the Emperor) as a way for players to create Chapters that have little to do with the Loyal Legions.  For those that can claim descent from a given Chapter, that Chapter is just a template.  There are those who have strayed from that organization of their primogenitors.  The Mortifactors Chapter for example are little like their Ultramarine forbearers except for their loyalty to the Imperium and adherence to the Codex.  

Angels Redeemed, Brotherhood of a Thousand, Hawk Lords

Why all the Chapters and all the successors?  Well, as mentioned, the fabulous Bobby Gorillaman ordained it.  Still the logic is that the old legions were to big to fall into the absolute control of one being, Primarch or no.  There is a lot to be said about commanding a couple hundred thousand post human super soldiers.  Perhaps, in the terms of the game, it would be easier for a person wanting to collect a company or two than the idea of getting thousands of them to make the army work.  In the fluff, most of the other remaining Primarchs signed off on the plan.  Though Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists almost rebelled against the Codex.  Though he would finally acquiesce and allow the Fists to be divided.

Crimson Fists, Imperial Fists, Celestial Lions

Leman Russ, the Old Wolf himself, just thumbed his nose at it and told his brother to ‘Piss off’.  Though the Space Wolves paid lip service to the Codex, the Sons of Russ would not be split up into smaller Chapters.  Not until the advent of Primaris Marines anyway.  To be honest, to call the Mooneaters or Icefangs successors is bit of a reach.  Afterall NONE of them are of Fenris.  They have the Canis Helix of the Wolves in them but they are created separate from the homeworld.  Considering that the Wolves have accepted, and created, Primaris and it is only a matter of time before the Wolves start ‘Crossing the Rubicon’ (Firstborn SMs can be updated to Primaris in the fluff) as well as the aforementioned creation of the Primaris on the Homeworld.  I could go on for hours on this subject, but I will stop here.  The current Great Wolf, Logan Grimnir, is not a fan of the Lord Commander and calls him ‘Legion Breaker’.  

Then there are the Dark Angels and successors.  The DAs broke into at least three successors in the second Founding, four if you count the original.  At last count there are 17 ‘official’ Chapters that carry the Lions genes.  Six (probably more) of them prior to the Ultima Founding.  One was lost to time and the enemy.  Still, with the new ‘Risen’ perhaps there will be new Chapters or the Legion remade.  

I wanted to write this as the 10th Edition of 40K is out and it is a good time to start painting and collecting an army.  My preference is Space Marines and I wanted to show you that, no, you don’t have to paint yours like the folk at GW or anyone else for that matter.  This is your army.  Want to paint them all a bright safety orange and say they are White Scars descendants.  Go ahead.  This is a game not anything more than that.