Wednesday 17 December 2014

The Emperor's Reeves

"And there we were, just me and the big armoured bastard in the middle of 'ese ruins. The rest of the gang had scarpered off or been killed and it was me and 'im left."

The sump bar was silent, the patrons gathered close around Constantine as he spun his tale. The Reeves had gone outside to smoke some hivegrass, they'd heard it all a thousand times before anyway.

The grizzled gang leader took another long swig of wildsnake. "So I looked him right in the eyes, stared him down I did. I wasn't scared lads 'cos this was what He put me 'ere for. Killing the heretics in 'is name. Praise be to the Emperor." 

Another swig. He climbed up onto the table and unholstered his autopistol. "And I drew my gun on him and he raised his Boltgun at me. We both fired. BLAM!" He emptied a few rounds from his pistol into the ceiling for emphasis and the crowd jumped back. "My bullets caught 'im dead between the eyes and his bolt smashed up my face something proper."

"That's why I wear this mask now, 'cos the scars are too terrible to see. None of you'd ever sleep again if you saw. You'd be too busy pissing yer'selves and crying for your mamas." He pulled back his cowl, revealing a thick leather mask that covered most of his face. "I took 'is bolter as my rightful reward and it does the Emperor's work now. Good thing none of you is heretics is all I can say."

He took his seat again, revelling in the rapt attention of the assembled drinkers. "Now, someone buy us another round and I'll tell you about the time with the Wyrd Spiders in the ruins of Scraptown."

Constantine - Reeves' Gang Leader

I've been invited by Geoff to join in with a Necromunda campaign at the end of the year called 'The Sanity Clause', which means I've got to get my arse into gear and finally get a gang painted. Fortunately I picked up a decent amount of Cawdor models from Gumtree at a reasonable price not long ago, so I have plenty to work with.

The idea is that they should all look like they are wearing rags - lots of browns, greens and dirty yellows - and over the top they have nice bright heraldric tabards granted to them by House Cawdor. It's probably the most important thing they are given when joining the gang and they see them as symbols of piousness and righteousness. But in the end, they are basically just thugs in uniforms.

I've never tried doing a quartered colour scheme before, but have always wanted to, so this has been a bit of an experiment and I'm happy with the results so far.

My equipment choices are being decided purely on the basis of model availability. I figure the gangs have to work with what they have and so do I. We'll be using the Necromunda Community Edition rules, which unfortunately means that Constantine can't start with a Chainsword - so I'll just have to assume he's run out of fuel for it and treat it as a normal sword instead.

EDIT: Whoops, apparently it's listed as a Leader Only weapon. Derp!

Apart from that the gang is likely to be two each of shotguns, autoguns and lasguns, a heavy stubber and a couple of Juves. Maybe a hired gun for a bit of punch until I can get a few advances. If I've got points left over then I might take a hand flamer or two.

The basing scheme is still to be decided, I might use some plasti-card and wires to make some interesting shapes on the bases or I might just go for the old sand-and-flock approach. What do you guys think?

Harker and Ted

Much later in the night, Constantine wandered out to the privies and, taking off his mask, he stared at the reflection of his face in the broken shard of what was left of the mirror. He looked completely unblemished, even handsome by Underhive standards. 

A raucous and drunken juve crashed through the privy door and stopped frozen in his tracks when he saw Constantine. "B... boss, is that you? Your face, it's all... normal? Does that mean... " He gulped, worried about calling out the veteran fighter, "...that it's not all true? About the bolter?"

Constantine gave a wry smile and waved dismissively at the juve. "What's more important lad? That the story is true, or that people believe it?"  He pulled his mask back on and strode into the crowded bar again, leaving the young ganger dumbstruck.

"Now, who's buying the next round?"

4 comments:

  1. Very nice! I like the pseudo-feudal feel from the tabards; the blue really sets off the dull browns.

    Personally I prefer sand and flock, even on my hivers, mainly as it stops them looking to incongruous in other settings (and I figure detritus and dust can be found in the hives).

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    1. Thank you very much, I'm aiming to have two contrasting looks on the same model and I quite like the idea of them falling back on these archaic medieval traditions.

      I think I'm going to do as you suggest and just base them up with sand for now. It's a good point about being able to use them along side other models. :)

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  2. Looking good... and those bases are going to work nicely in our setting. :)

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    1. Cheers, the gang is half way done now. Looking forward to getting hold of some sweet loot during the campaign!

      Are we going to be using the full campaign rules for territories/income etc?

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