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Carmine Blades Crusade

Started by Cammerz, June 07, 2022, 04:36:33 PM

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Cammerz

Some friends and I are planning to start a Narrative Campaign for 9th edition and this involves constructing a Crusade Roster. Several of my fellow generals will simply use models that are already in their collections but I decided to start something else completely from scratch.

The concept behind this force began with the Forge World Blood Angels legion helmets, I took one look at them and thought 'if they were painted white with gold then they wouldn't look too dissimilar from the jedi temple guard helmets'. A quick glance through a list of Blood Angels successor chapters for one with white helmets and I settled upon the Carmine Blades.

As an army to be used in Narrative games, I decided to settle upon a theme and (mostly) stick to it rather than going for a purely competitive list, this isn't a force that I'd bring to tournaments. The theme I have chosen is 10th company, notably Primaris Marines in Phobos armour (like many BA successors they got pretty badly mauled by the Tyranids on Baal so there aren't too many firstborn left).

The Crusade force is still a work in progress, I'll keep this topic updated as I paint more models, but I'm hoping to keep the momentum going and get the first 500pts finished fairly soon so I can start playing games and shortly after that I want the full 1000pt Crusade Roster.

The first unit I completed (initially for Kill Team, hopefully some of them will get a few more games with the new Phobos Strike Team rules) is Squad Tamiar (3rd squad based on their knee designs). I have five completed Infiltrators so far with two more in line to be painted so I have options to run with: Infiltrator Comms Array, Helix Gauntlet or a generic Infiltrator. My thanks to White Dwarf for providing the fancy background.




Next up is my Lieutenant, Masolino Arto (thank you random online name generators), he's a Lieutenant in Phobos Armour who will be the Force Commander for my early Crusade battles, I have already spent requisition points to give him a Warlord Trait and a Relic, he shall be the Master of the Vanguard and has a Blood Angels relic, Icon of the Angel. Combined they give nearby Phobos units +1 to charge (on top of the +1 to charge I get for being a Blood Angels successor) and re-roll charges. Deep striking in to a re-rollable 7" charge is pretty reliable so hopefully I'll get the melee kills in.

He's a fully converted model, the torso, legs and grav chute are from the Primaris Reivers, his head is one of the Forge World Blood Angels helmets, his arms are from Incursors, backpack and Purity Seal Tabard are from a Bladeguard Ancient and his shoulder pad, Icon and sheathed combat blade all come from a firstborn Blood Angels upgrade kit. All of the bases in my Crusade force are Necromunda ones.


Narric

Awesome looking work dude! :3
Looking forward to what comes next!

Cammerz

Fortunately Narric, you don't need to wait long. I was batch-painting another dozen models alongside the Lieutenant and they're ready to display now.

The bulk of that effort is Squad Haniar, the saltires on their knees marking them out as 10th company's 6th squad. Reivers aren't seen as being fantastic on the tabletop these days but Narrative gaming isn't about bringing the best units. I have constructed a full 10-man squad but my Crusade Roster currently only contains a Combat Squad's worth, the others will be added at a later date as our campaign starts to escalate. The last man was finished just last night as I spent a couple of hours finishing off the head I took from the Lieutenant in Reiver Armour (more on that kit at a later date).




I then have some additional characters and we shall start with the most heavily-converted of all the Crusade force (so far), Brother Lysandiel Castandro, Sanguinary Priest.

Now, technically he's not a Primaris unit, Sanguinary Priests don't get the Primaris keyword and Primaris Apothecaries get neither jump packs or fancy goblets full of Primarch blood, but Firstborn marines look too small and I stole this idea from several other people who had already done it on Google Images. The model is primarily the Bladeguard Ancient with an old Assault Marine jump pack, his Blood Chalice hand is from the Blood Angels upgrade sprue and I used green stuff to mould a wrist so he could be carrying it upright, his left arm (from shoulder to wrist) and the items attached to his tasset plates are from the old Command Squad Apothecary, his left hand is from a Reiver (as is his shoulder pad) and the massive chainsword held in its grip is from the new Gravis Captain, the tilting plate is from the Intercessor kit and finally the head (which I think looks suspiciously like Kirk Douglas) is a Forge World Stormcast Eternals offering.

More Requisition Points spent here to make him 'The Imperium's Sword' and a chainsword that big and fancy could only be the mighty relic 'The Teeth of Terra'. On the charge he has 8 attacks (or 9 in the Assault Doctrine which he could put himself in on any turn if he wanted), hitting on 2s, at strength 6 with a bonus +1 to wound. As the current (joint)-highest Leadership model in my force, he's the de facto Warlord.





And now for something completely different. Ladies and Gentlemen might I present to you Persephyka Shayde, Culexus Assassin.

I think Assassins are fun, you can add one to any Patrol, Battalion or Brigade detachment without messing up Chapter Tactics and Combat Doctrines etc. She can jump in behind my opponent's forces and scare the living daylights out of any psykers they might consider bringing (or the mere presence of her in my Roster could discourage them from bringing those mortal-wound slinging mages altogether).

The model was an ebay purchase with a fair amount of damage (I have a feeling that someone might have stepped on her in the past) so I rolled with it and broke out the Nihilakh Oxide, perhaps she has been abandoned on this planet for a while and has finally found a force of loyal Space Marines that might be able to get her back home. Also as Dan Abnett's novel, Penitent suggests, it might be a good idea for the Sons of Sanguinius to keep a pariah nearby. I won't spoil the book but I'd strongly recommend giving his Eisenhorn, Ravenor and Bequin series' a read.


Cammerz

Update time:

I have been working on thirteen additional Carmine Blades but as the official start to our Crusade approaches I decided to switch my efforts to just four of those models so I can put 500pts from my roster onto the tabletop, they aren't the full 500 I'd want to start with so I will do my best to finish the next three models during this next week.

Firstly, Games Workshop recently updated the points again which made a couple of my units cheaper, I actually gained 35pts from my 1000pt Crusade Roster but due to most Primaris units not having too many options I was only actually able to spend 10 of them, those ten were well spent however as I shall be swapping a member of Squad Tamiar out for this Helix Adept. I haven't named him yet but if he starts performing well on the battlefield then he may earn one. I also expect him to perform quite well in Kill Team but that's another matter entirely...




And now to introduce a new unit to the Crusade, Squad Kanatis. Phobos Marines don't have a huge amount of anti-armour so I decided the best course of action (until I eventually pick up an Invictor or two) would be to equip some Eliminators with long-range Thunder Hammers (more commonly known as Las Fusils). This isn't my first 40k unit with camo cloaks but it is the first time I have attempted transforming cloaks, the design was shamelessly borrowed and altered from a Lamenter I saw on Google Images and I'm very pleased with how they've turned out.




Mabbz

Looks great, I especially love those cloaks.

Narric


Cammerz

And just in time for the opening battles of our Crusade Campaign tomorrow, presenting Squad Jorio.

I wasn't overly fond of the official Suppressor models, I have three of them for my Alpha Legion but wanted something a bit different for the Carmine Blades. To start with, I wanted them in Phobos armour like most of the rest of the force so they've been based on a pair of Reivers and the Lieutenant in Reiver armour. The jump packs are standard Firstborn ones, the heads are from the FW Blood Angels Mk IV helmets and the autocannons are the now-OoP FW Horus Heresy ones. The scenery that the two Marines are jumping about on are from the Eliminators kit.



Narric


Cammerz

Some time later...

I have moved house, which was a pain. I was without internet for about three weeks, also a pain but it gave me some motivation to paint my next unit.

Presenting Squad Sychal, five Incursors with their pet Haywire Mine. Sergeant Jophis Sychal is the closest 10th company have to a veteran, his backstory being that he was a Greyshield who went along to Baal with Guilliman and demonstrated his abilities with Cawl's new Incursor gear, the Deathwatch were very interested and 'borrowed' him for a few decades, on his return to the Carmine Blades they basically told him "the Deathwatch may have made you a sergeant but you still need to prove yourself to us, back to 10th company with you".



Once again, I wasn't pleased with the heads that came with the kit so I acquired some Devastator MkVI helmets on ebay, Sgt Sychal's head came from one of the Space Marine Heroes (the one with the Missile Launcher) that a friend bought me for Christmas a few years ago.

Narric

Fantastic work as usual Cammerz! :3

Cammerz

The initial 1000pt Crusade force is complete, may I introduce to you The Risen Stars, my Sanguinary Guard who will hopefully end my losing streak (although obviously not in their first game, as is tradition).

Not content with the standard Firstborn Sanguinary Guard, especially next to an army of Primaris Marines, I turned to the internet for some conversion ideas and came across someone who constructed a unit with the heads, arms, jump packs and wings from the existing kit but the torso and leg assemblies from the main troops of the Adeptus Custodes.

The torsos required some sculpting and sandpapering to fit their new jump packs but the effort is well worth it.





And so now I can display the full 1000pt Crusade roster, although my photography skills may need some work, you can at least see each unit properly further up in this topic.

I'll be moving onto something else for a bit before eventually returning to the Crusade as we increase the points limit.


Narric

Excellent take one Primaris Sanguinary Guard! I'll planning on using the Stormcast for a 40k unit as well in future :3

Have the golden boys actually received a Primaris upgrade yet, or are they mechanically still just Firstborn?

Cammerz

Mechanically still Firstborn, as is the Sanguinary Priest, although since Firstborn gained a wound it doesn't quite matter as much, I just can't give them Transhuman Physiology or other Primaris-only stratagems.

Cammerz

I'm back, for we have completed the first round of our Crusade campaign.

5x players, we faced each other player twice for a total of 8 games each.
I opted to use two different army lists and give each one an outing against each enemy faction,

The first patrol consisted of; Lieutenant Arto, 5x Reivers, 5x Infiltrators, 3x Suppressors and 3x Eliminators. This list did not perform well, some matches were close, others went very poorly and I was down 0-4 at the end of the first half.
The second patrol consisted of: Brother Castandro the Sanguinary Priest, 5x Sanguinary Guard, 5x Incursors and Persephyka Shayde the Culexus Assassin. This list either did very well or very badly, mostly dependant on whether the Sanguinary Guard survived. In their first game they rolled very poorly (new model syndrome is real), in another they received a turn 1 charge from some very angry Sisters Repentia (that game was probably decided by the roll to see who went first), whereas this list performed very well against Ad Mech and Necrons. At the end of the second half, the score was 2-6.

This particular Campaign has fixed points at which our Crusade Rosters and Army Lists each increase by 250pts. So I shall be playing 750pt games from a Roster of 1250. The lastest Munitorum Field Manual saw numerous points drops (to make up for the loss of Armour of Contempt) and I have been hard at work preparing for the next round.

Firstly, I have increased the size of my Reiver squad to 10 (they haven't performed very well so far, maybe returning to my ancient Orkish ways (rolling buckets of dice) will succeed where they have been failing so far). I also already had 10 Reivers (as shown above), so that was easy.

Now we move on to the first new model. Clearly displeased by the poor performance of his Lieutenant, the Captain of the Carmine Blades 10th Company is taking to the field himself...

Presenting the Master of Recruits and Recconnaisance, Taharius Turah







More to follow as I finish painting it.

Cammerz

Presenting Squad Moria, named for their Sergeant Rafah Moria whose name came from a random Blood Angels name generator I found online.

My second unit of Primaris Eliminators (third if you want to include the Alpha Legion ones, which can now be found in my other post since I have fixed the image problem). My Carmine Blades already have Squad Kanatis (with the las fusils), Squad Moria are equipped with the Bolt Sniper Rifles so maybe I'll be able to take out that damnable Death Guard Foul Blightspawn.

Once more a lot of work went into the camo cloaks but unfortunately the sergeant's cloak didn't turn out right. I painted the triangles too large which was immediately obvious to anyone when he was sat near my other five Eliminators or Captain Turah. This left me with two options: 1) Start again, 2) Fully paint his camo cloak in the camouflaged pattern instead of mid-transformation. I almost immediately settled on the latter.