Blood Drinkers Fandex : The Legacy of Sanguinius

Coming to the end of the Fandex installments detailing the background of the Blood Drinkers; here I look at the defining feature of any Chapter born of the Sanguinius bloodline, the Flaw and the duality it weaves into all aspects of Chapter life and in some cases, death!

It's been a tricky one to lay out coherently because when you sit down and really examine the Flaw you realise it's not a single entity, but rather a conglomeration of fluff, much of it contradictory. Anyway, here is my attempt at papering over the cracks.

New Life into Old Lead

Work is still playing havoc with my hobby life at the moment, clearly evidenced in the distinct lack of posts over the past few months. Still I did manage to grab a few hours at the painting table over the last couple of days and with my Griffon project on hold whilst I await a specific jump pack that I'm scrounging off one of the Gents; I fixed my sights on a task that might be achievable in the limited time available to me.

Books in Brief : Mechanicum by Graham McNeill

McNeill has done a fantastic job with Mechanicum, although again it’s not a return to the hellish surface of Istvaan III and the ‘hopeful’ possibility of some loose ends left by the original Heresy trilogy. As such it may be taken as another side story from the main arc, but to label it as such is to do the book an injustice.

It may not be about the warring Astartes (it’s a refreshing break from the super soldiers and their constant belly aching over loyalty and honour) but the Mechanicum are an integral part of the 40k verse and the war on Mars is pivotal to the whole Heresy campaign.

McNeill has done an Abnett like job (no offence Mr McN) in conjuring a truly awe inspiring vision of the far future, making it at once both dark and alien, but with touches of the familiar to anchor it to our past. It’s these little touches which are finally bringing the sprawling and at times contradictory 40k verse into some semblance of order.

40k Veterans will find a wealth of old favourites, now sadly missing from the game, within the pages of this tale; Knight Orders, Robots and the Scutarii. The Titan battles are suitably earth shattering, with a wealth of illumination as to their workings and the crew’s mindsets. McNeill shows the God Machines to have a lethal grace and fashions Titan combat into an art form akin to a hybrid of submarine and tank warfare.

My one quibble with the book is that the main story line again is an unfinished tale; it leads us through the early explosion of the Heresy on Mars but leaves us with the war raging and many unanswered questions. So now I’m left wanting a follow up to the main Heresy books and also this grand off shoot; crafty BL sales devils!

An exciting read, with enough depth to place it firmly up there with my favourites of the series; its lack of Space Marines (there is a guest appearance) does not detract from the action and there’s plenty of it.

The Eagle Griffon Has Landed : Pt I

I've finally got my hands on the plastic High Elf Griffon kit from GW's Warhammer Fantasy Battle Island of Blood boxed set, picking it up for a very reasonable price on Ebay and have set about my 'admittedly slightly bonkers' conversion project for the Captain of my 8th Company 'The Talons' of the Blood Drinkers Chapter.

Books in Brief : Battle for the Abyss by Ben Counter

Good to be back in the Heresy timeline again (Descent of Angels doesn't count, for reasons made apperent in my review); although this is another side show piece dealing with the initial moves by the Word Bearers against the Ultramarines.

The action is good, gripping and almost without pause throughout the book, there is a good range of characters within a small group of Marines, drawn from several legions, that make for surprising and interesting allies.

Counter is still learning his craft as a writer and there are moments in this book where it shows, I lost count of the amount of times someone in close combat 'used his momentum' to do something; I know that’s how it’s done but some more imagination would be nice. And descriptions of craft 'Thunking' down on decks along with other strange noise descriptions grated a little.

There are some very obvious nods from iconic films within the books dialogue, I spotted both Predator and Lord of the Rings; but these weren't unwelcome and never strayed towards the realms of plagiarism.

Also the writer seems to suffer from the same affliction of most of the Black Libraries staff, they can't keep track of numbers; killing off limited amounts of Marines with careless abandon (so much for being super soldiers who know no fear) but just when you think they should all be dead there seems to be another bunch waiting in the wings to be incinerated or eviscerated or vaporised and so on.

That said I did enjoy this book and despite it being surplus to requirments with regards the main thread of the series, it’s a steady and welcome return to form.

Blood Drinkers Fandex : Chapter Organisation

A return to posting today, with another installment of my Fandex work.This is mainly bread and butter stuff, along the lines of the organisation pages in the official Marine codex's; but with my usual generous helping of fluff.

I am particularly proud of the Chapter composition diagram, I produced it last year but have been tweaking it along with the rest of the Fandex ever since; those that have seen the original post over on Bolter & Chainsword will note I've done away with a bit of the perhaps overly excessive nods to the Imperial Roman army.

We interrupt this Broadcast

Whilst Games Workshop continue their efforts to stir up former colonies (no offence guys) and the rest of the world in general, like some modern day East India Company; I have commandeered the Emergency Broadcast System to bring you important breaking news!

Postcards from the Edge

April turned out to be a mixed bag both personally and blogwise, which was reflected in both quality and quantity of posts. The good spell of weather played it's welcome part in keeping me from the cogitator, as did my not so welcome return to work, where I was tasked with a rather odious assignment (due to my lame duck status) that took a whole lot out of me, leaving me feeling rather creatively bereft.

Still most of the projects for the month got a tick in the box and despite hits being slightly down on March's epic showing, there were still some new followers dropping out of warp along the Veil's Edge; greetings one and all.

Books in Brief : Descent of Angels by Mitchel Scanlon

Having been disappointed with my choices during the short break from the Heresy, I sought a return to form with the resumption of the series; but was again to be left wanting. I lost track of the amount of times I tried to start this book only to be bored senseless by the prologue and cast it aside. But I finally steeled my resolve and finished it; now I ask myself was it worth the effort? This book is almost a complete waste of time.

It has absolutely nothing to do with the Heresy, being for the most part set way back before the arrival of the Emperor on Caliban. You will lose nothing from the series if you bypass this book. But I thought being the completest that I am, I would press on.

Once I accepted that this tale would have little to do with space marines I settled into it; it appeared as if Scanlon was going to take his time to iron out the fractured background of the DA's and give us a detailed look at their past and for a while he did just that.

But after some illumination it very soon becomes apparent that he has little to add and so begins the repetition that was very noticeable in the prologue. Ok so Zahariel and Nemiel are cousins who are like brothers and have like that love/hate thing going on (lot of that in the 40k universe) and then there’s The Lion and Luther who aren't related but are like brothers and have that love/hate thing going on (see what I mean) . So far so fething annoying.

Then the Emperor arrives and things look up; if the author has taken this long to bring the characters to the verge of being space marines (fully 3 quarters of the book) maybe we'll get an in depth look at the whole process of becoming one of the Emperors finest. No such luck, Scanlon for some unfathomable reason skips this completely and heads straight into some insignificant compliance mission with the required bloodthirsty engagements with, yes a cult of chaos loving deviants.

And this leads... well nowhere actually the book just ends. Pah!

In the Company of Wolves : A New Army for One of the Gents

It's my Birthday today, we'll not discuss years, lets just say I'm another year closer to immortality! So whilst I'm away eating copious amounts of jelly and cake; I thought I'd post up a copy of an amusing passage from one of my gaming group.  Bish is an Ultramarine player, but having suffered quite a mauling during our last, slightly curtailed, campaign; it would appear he will be changing his spots and will be doing a lot of 'wet leopard growling' (whatever the hell that is) from now on.

Growl away Bish...