Hit and run

 

The Mordheim campaign ended last saturday with a cinematic game: the witch hunters had just stolen a valuable gold tablet from a temple and had to escape the natives' vengeance

The game began well for the imperials, with a dog taking out my priestess in the first turn

My girls were too hardened to let such an early setback give them pause, and soon a lethal storm of amazonian arrows began to fall on the reckless adventurers

The jungle began to stir, and puffs of hallucinogen spores enveloped some fighters

Taking out one of the warhounds

By now the Lustry Girls had reached combat, and their claws and skills soon began to tell

The witch hunter captain managed to fell one of the natives

But the tide of battle was turning in favour of the daughters of Rigg

I tried to take out a marksman with an adversity, but he just got his boots muddied by a quicksand

Luckily for me, in the next turn he was felled by several arrows

More quicksands kept popping up to no effect

One by one the imperials were hunted down by the natives

As always  Lustria took its own victims: a cloud of spores felled an amazon

While a lethal vine shot from the jungle and enveloped the hunter captain in its lethal embrace

The witch hunters were wiped out soon and at last the amazons recovered the artifact from the cold hands of the last invader

Grimaldus

 

To the darkness I bring fire

To the ignorant faith

Those who welcome these gifts may live

But I will visit naught but death 

and eternal damnation on those

who refuse them

-Merek Grimaldus

Naturally the last model of the first templar batch was no other than the big man himself. The awesome chaplain from Helsreach has got an upscaled upgrade with the new codex and now is finally ready to take to the field with his fellow knights of the Emperor.

I wanted something evocative for the base, so I threw in a dead goblin gretchin plus some templar remains as a reference to the terrible losses of the Armageddon crusade, where he lost all the members of his command squad in valiant defence of hive Helsreach. You will see the white shield with red band motive of the crusade repeated in all models of the squad. 

The memento mori motive of the backpack is a reference to the excellent video about the novel 

I decided to go with a black, green and red scheme for Grimaldus and his servitor bros

The chaplain doesn't come alone, but followed by three relics of the temple of the Emperor Ascendant. First there is the Banner of Fallen Crusaders, an ancient standard brought to Armageddon by the first settlers of that ancient world of mankind. I like to think that the skeleton mounted on top is a martyr of the crusade like general Kurov or even some member of his old command squad.

Then we have the last column of the Major Altar, a marble aquila that inspires the bretheren to greater feats of zeal so they ingnore wounds at 6+

The last member of the quarter is the carrier of the blessed water once kept in the Stoup of Elucidation, a most holy relic that buffs the prayers of  Grimaldus to a 2+ pass

Tankred endures!

 

I Liked the Black Templars since reading an old comic that told the tale of a warrior that went from neophite to initiate and then became a dreadnought after being grievously injuried while slaughtering a ton of chaos marines. I needed that dread in my army and instead of going for a venerable I picked a massive redemptor kitted out for maximum antihorde.

After seeing how easily cold normal marines turned into primaris the techmarines turned their bionic eyes to the ancients of the Crusade, interring Tankred into one of the new redemptor dreads

The kit comes with an optional plasma cannon and an extra front shield 

Duel on the high seas

 

After the last string of defeats the lizardmen have packed up and left for home, leaving the amazons in charge of defending the Amaxon delta. The scrappy girls then take to the seas to stop the invaders before they even set foot on Lustria

A band of witch hunters has come to the new World intent on plundering the sacred temples, and battle opens with a broadside from their ship that passes over the amazons

Then te Lustry Girls close in

And shower the fanatical humans with a rain of lead

That ravages their gundeck

The fiery women shot arrow after arrow into the foe, helped by the bounty hunter they rescued from the Island of Sacrifices last week

With most of her crew dead the SMS Überrasctung drifts crippled

The bounty hunter boards the striken vessel to finish off the last dregs of her crew

But then a sea serpent emerges from the depts and sinks the ship with a mighty bite of her jaws

Balian, Emperor's Champion of the Heimdel Crusade

 

Like most of the spanish wargamers I have got the first imperium fascicle with a bladeguard liutenant and a necron royal guard in it. Thinking of what could I turn him into it hit me how alike he looked to the Emperor's Champion, so after a greenstuff laurel and some conversions champion Balian was born.

The bolt pistol was made by cutting a bolt rifle in pieces

The champion keeps the black sword sheated until he reaches combat, where he strikes left and right with this mighty weapon of the dawn of the Imperium

All my templars have little votive inscriptions on their armour, a nice oldschool touch

I took the chance to give a redemptionist brazier to this ancient Lysander conversion, making him into marshal Gheidon, the leader of the Heimdel crusade