Never skip a leg day...

 

Blogomancy !

 Having published a post about the sad demise of 40K blogging, I received a number of comments which I chose to perceive as evidence that there is an audience for Devos IV, even if it does not producce weekly updates on the Devos IV campaign as there once were.  

There are a couple of pulls, IMHO: the pictures of lovely toys (like the warp runners re-shown here).  The background discussions about the Imperial war machine and the Imperial Guard.  I flatter myself that the occasional line up of my Imperial Guard (needs a fine weekend and a friend or two who are familiar with the Organisation and Disposition [force organisation chart] of the Imperial Guard).  And of course, perhaps that things which have had the kindest feedback, the ongoing story of the campaign to re-claim a low population, mostly agrarian wannabe shrine world.  

 

So my heartfelt thanks to those who responded.  The kindness of fellow bloggers has always amazed and encouraged me.   I have even had an open invitation to the other side of the Altantic, which is pretty kool.  I might start squirreling the odd shekel in anticipation.  

I will move the advance the story a bit - there will an airborne assualt on a necropolis in the south of Xyphonica as the Imperial Guard seek to breakthough into the ancient basilica district.  And the helter skelter pursuit of 'leakers' across the prarie by rough riders as the systematic artillery and infantry assaults continue to squeeze the defenders into an ever increasingly tight couldron. 

And of course as the death toll rises, so the Khornate Blood Mages trapped within are able to place ever more pressure on the thin veil which separates reality from the warp and whatever horrors they can conjour from within.  

Death of the 40K bloggosphere

 

Ah, that would have been an ok picture without the washing line in it.  Oh well. 

This blog started over a decade ago.  I was embarking on my 40K project - Devos IV to provide a backdrop for my games which had a touch of realism to it, even if it was a Forge World realism, rather than a real realism. 

My internet searches showed me blogs by other hobbyists.  Encouraged by feedback from Karitas and Admiral Drax, upon whose blogs I commented, I began the creation of the armies and scenary for Devos IV and the story of the rebellion or insurrection, depending on your point of view. 

The next few years put me touch with hobbyists from elsewhere in the world, notably the USA and Austrailia.  I've been helped and encouraged by others and hopefully have managed a bit of helping and encouraging myself along the way.  I won a Liebster once for Devos IV, so that's a highlight.  

I suppose the height of 40K blogging was the From The Warp blogging circle.   But the guy running that burned out or found something else which sucked up more of his time.  Gradually other bloggers stopped blogging, overtaken by Real Life or other games systems which were not as cartoonish and awkward as later editions of 40K seemed to be.  Like most the FW books, Devos IV is rooted in 5ed.   

I think a lot of people transistioned to Instagram and so on.  

It's been over a year since I posted on here.  I'm still modelling and painting and obviously had an idea of where the Devos IV was going.  If you've been a long time follower, hopefully the sense of  'impending acheivement of imperial war aims' will have come through the writing.  Not as expensive in blood and treasure as Vraks, but nowhere near as long, either. 

Why am I writing this ?  If there's anyone out there who was interested in this blog, perhaps you might be interested to know that the hordes of little men grow every bigger and that the cadres of giant killer robots are still getting inadequate but homogenous paint jobs.  Or they will, once I get around to it. 

I may end up posting again.  And do hope that anyone who ever read this found it interesting or amusing or it gave some small spark of pleasure or inspiration.  

And of course, an annual post keeps it where I can find it, in case I win the lottery and can afford to turn it into a book.   

 

 

Pre-Codex RT era Space Elves

 

I'm one of those kids all of whose Player Characters were elves.  No matter what gaming system.

So these were my first 40K figures.  Not an "army", not in those days.  Army lists wouldn't appear until the first codices came out. 

These guys were RT BRB space pirates.  So, in keeping with the rules, here's a Space Elf pirate leader with a power fist and bolter.

There wouldn't be Dark Eldar for years.  So I suppose in a way these are proto Ynnari.

This is musician, twin linked keyboards.

This is the woodwind/brass section/choir guy.  WIth a view of the pipework on his back.

And a hand flamer and a sword. 

And this is the string fella, 

Twang

And there's a harliquinn dummer too !  We're getting the band back together.

And Space Elf banner bearers. 

Shuriken catapult with space marine style combat accessory.

An actual plasma gun.  Not a star cannon, you'll note, an actual plasma gun.

And a melta gun with a combat accessory.

It's almost as if the pirates nicked the armouries of the victims of their ravages.

Two weapon combos were very popular with the Space Elves.

No, the one on the left does not have a space marine backpack and shoulder blades and is totally not toting an MG42.

Mostly orginial with the exception of the one with a bolter.  You'll note the one in the centre has a power fist and hand flamer.  This is orginal.

Group shot.  These were probably bought and painted (in humbrol enamels) in 1989(ish).  So around 35 years old. 

Troops Choice Thought Excersize 3

 So if was throwing it all down, what would I do ?  What could it look like ?  Up there in this pict are the Valhallans and some of the others who routinely share the same large figure case.  You'll recognise Capt Chenkov front and centre.  Immediately behind him are three platoons, two entirely of Valhallan types and one which is two squads of Valhallan type and then the three squads of Macrons.  So we'll call three platoons even though the Macrons bring with them two super numary officers.  

Here are twenty convicts from the Penal Legion.  In anger, I'd probably put the twenty from the Cadian 24th with them for a blob of 40 of them.  Because it would be funnier.

Their leash is an officer from the Vostroyan 158th, rolled for the duration of the campaign as Provost troops. Being a Vostroyan officer, he has a stooges to make him look important and shine his boots.  So that, to certain POV, sort of makes them a command squad for the penal unit detachment.  Perhaps.

 There is enough for two squads of Psykers.  Which could be a fun random sort of element.

  Enough Commissars to spoil everyone's weekend. But useful to share out amongst the Guard. 

 And there are bucket loads of Priests as well, handy for an assault. 

 Medics for a spot of FNP.  Because if it makes the command squads last a bit longer, that can only be a good thing. 

There are thirty VV Special Police, who perhaps will make a reasonable conscript blob, both RAW/RAI and flufftastically. 

The Knovians (Mordian7th's Geno 5-2) make another detachment of two platoons. 

Photo

And a platoon of the Hulin Rifles.

Photo

And the Daredevil Combat Engineers

All under the command of Capt Chenkov.  So they could all be recycled as long as Chenkov is alive and still on the table.  Hurrah ! 

Troops Choice thought exercise 2

 Do take a look at this picture, count the iggies...

I have blogged about this before, but there is room in the game, IMHO, for alternate configurations for Iggies.  The obvious one of these is based on what you can wring out of the system in DoW.  So there is no limit on the number of infantry squads; in your troops choice you go nuts on the number of infantry units here, but bear in mind that you'll have two troops choices and have to cram in everything else so the defining limit, rather than 2 to 5 squads, is the number of points you're going to splurge.

Out with the boring ol' officer and four redshirts.  Your new command squad is an officer (obviously in 5Ed he's there to dish out orders), two Kasarkin/Stormtroopers, a priest, a commissar and a psyker.  To replicate the DoW feel, the officer should also have an auspex and the Master of Ordanance's ability to call for fire.   Keeping it DoW, this would be your HQ choice and you wouldn't need a PCS for the platoon of rifle squads - you could rationalise this in-universe by holding up the generous helping of advisors for the squads.  Of course you could be a bit more Tactica Imperialis and pick a PCS for the platoon, but your opponent might then require you to forgo the advisors.  Because broken. 

The squad has fourteen bodies: three of which can be armed with special weapons.  And of course there's a sergeant.  These fourteen man squads cannot take Hvy Wpns, but can take one 'advisor' who will actually take command of the squad, with the sergeant only taking charge if the advisor is killed.  It's possibly worth upgrading the sergeant with a power weapon (again, a late game DoW upgrade is 'power bayonets' for the whole army) if you're expecting heavily armoured opponents.

So we have a squad with a Stormtrooper

And this one has a Preist.

And this squad has a Pskyer (He already knows what you want).

This one has another commissar ("Follow me and obey !"). 

Addionally there are three elite choices, all 0 to 1.   A vindicare assassin, a mob of Ogryn and a squad of stormtroopers.  I'd pick a priest for the Ogryn for that extra punch on the charge and a commissar for the stormtroopers for a power fist.  

Heavy Wpns teams would individually also be troops choices, but that's a single team as a choice.  So with six troops choices you could have a platoon and five HW teams.  They're all separate choices so there's no need for unit coherence there, they can be scattered where you like.  

DoW has chimera that can take three squads. But let's not go there.  One might apply the DoW limits for the numbers of vehicles (max of two Leman Russ, one Baneblade), but the normal points cost of vehicles is probably control enough for game balance (although I'd love to take a nine hellhound list, te he). 

So no conscript blobs, no penal troops, no veterans and a paucity of officers issuing orders.  IDK how this would actually play.  but interesting to consider vs the other thought exercise.

Troops Choice thought excersize 1

So take a look at the table there.  163 wounds, all up.  I thought to myself, I'll do a single maximum sized platoon with the Camo Guard and see where I get.  Let's see: There's a Commissar, part of the Troops choice entry from the army list. One. 

Platoon Command Squad.  The Platoon Commander and his fourman team.  I went for medic, vox, standard and redshirt because this is the Imperial Guard and who wouldn't ?   It's not important, we're just seeing how many bodies we can get in here. Five. Total of six so far.

Five HW squads of three teams. Thirty.  Total of Thirty Six so far.

Five rifle squads.  Fifty.  Total of Eighty Six so far.

Two SWS.  Twelve. Total of Ninty Eight so far.

Conscripts (this is where I ran out of suitable Camo Guard, welcome to the line troops of the Cadian 24th to help out).  Fifty.  So a total of 148 from the single entry.  They could be joined by another commissar and priest from elsewhere in the army list to give a single troops choice with 150 wounds. 

So there would be two of these, obviously.  Three hundred wounds in two troops choices, assuming that points weren't important.  There's something to cogitate on.  All las guns and mortars could make it a low points cost option and rely on Mathammer to overcome an opponent based on critical mass. 

Alternatively, this is also a troops choice; ten veterans: Harker, three sniper rifles and an autocannon for a more effective (than a normal IG squad) long range firebase.  

Of course a real army list needs a little more synergy.  But it is something I like to mull over on occasion. 

 Obviously when I say 'Imperial Guard Codex', I mean Imperial Guard Codex.  As pictured below.  If you're thinking of something which says anything other than Imperial Guard on the cover, then you to stetp outside and flog yourself with stinging nettles until you come to your senses.