Patrol Drake Mention in Dispatches

Just a quick update on Patrol Drake's Necronet profile following the bank hiest game recently played (battle report soon!). This is game 11 for Drake's section, so they're getting pretty experienced, but I haven't kitted them out too much as I hope to buy a vehicle or two for them in the future, using the rules for vehicles given in the Ash Wastes expansion.

Patrol Drake

New characters - Balthasar Brass & Guards

Jeriko reachs' Mines Guilder with a negotiable conscience and a habit of developing a lack of optical perception and memory in the presence of large ammounts of money.

Corrupt.. nah....

Balthasar Brass is nearly always seen in the company of his bodyguards Nando and Hal who, while not the brightest boys on 'The Reach', are deceptively deadly and have almost certainly seen Imperial military service in the past.

Bloodbath at Henrie Gulch

Retrieval mission log –DF/99-

Techpriests Qaurak and Alronsen dispatched to sector KVX-111 to retrieve archeo device coded +Object Omega+.
Mission coincided with conflict between xenos raiders (susp. Eldar) and Imperial Mining Concern security forces. High probability of Object Omega falling into xenos hands. Mission escalated to Level T-9.

Remote sensing probes determined IMC force occupying refinery, while Eldar raiders closed in from the south. Initial exchange of fire resulted in high probability of defeat of IMC forces.

Additional IMC forces appeared from east, applying pressure to raiders. Further IMC forces arrived from south, outflanking raiders. Tactical prognostication revised.

Techpriests Qaurak and Alronsen arrived from west, and determined that IMC troopers had already located Object Omega and were in the act of removing it. Techpriests closed on IMC troopers and ordered them to cease. IMC troopers refused, and were engaged. One IMC trooper terminated by Techpriest Qaurak (terminal application of pneumatic rock drill to pre-frontal lobe) and second IMC trooper fled.

As more IMC forces arrived xenos raid became untenable and survivors conducted a fighting withdrawal.

IMC casualties moderate. Eldar casualties high. Object Omega retrieved.

Eldar Pirates close on the Mining Concern facility.

The Henri Boys counter-attack

More miners appear in the pirates' rear!

Henri juves discover Object Omega and make a run for it.

The Adeptus Mechanicus arrive.

Todd Henri has run-in with the local fauna

Having dealt with the Henrie Juves, the Adeptus Mechanicus retire with Object Omega.

The Henrie Boys

Details of the Henrie Boys' gang can be found here: http://www.lastsummer.com/necronet/gangc.asp?id=174 .

I'm aiming for the gang to be proficient at shooting, and less so at close combat, as you'll see the characters have a dirty 'old west' feel to them. This is to represent them not coming into contact with the regular towns folk, or even the garrison on a regular basis. I'm hoping this will keep the eyes of the various factions turned away, however there has already been a meeting with some pirates and there is a report to follow soon.

The Henrie Boys are the latest group to be uncovered in the happenings of Jeriko Reach. They consist of a family based mining concern, who are just looking to survive the crisis. All going well, there may be some room for them to expand their territory.

To go with the gang I'm starting to build up a fleet of vehicles, the majority of which will be different from the regular 40k set. To start with I have made good progress with the Henrie's skip truck, and there are more in line to follow. I'm planning 2 half tracks and another 2 8 wheelers, and also adding some speeder sized four wheel drives to use as scenery or in game as necessary.

As you can see the basic structure is finished and I'm about to start on the detail stage. The skip is modular so I may produce different trailer options later possibly a fuel tanker, though suggestions are welcome.

Pirate hijack

Patrol Drake was mobilised as a quick reaction force yesterday, as one of our Argus flyers was stolen, the unknown thief making for the hills to the north. Yet, before the flyer could reach the hills, it was intercepted and downed, by the same band of Eldar pirates we have encountered in the past.

Patrol Drake arrived at the crash site at the same moment as the enemy that had downed the shuttle, finding the area strewn with cargo pods. Drake was ordered to repel the attackers and recover the cargo, for it was not known what the pods contained.

Drake stationed a fire support group consisting of his missile and grenade lanucher specialists to cover the shuttle, while he led an assault team to the left to engage two enemies and secure a number of cargo pods in that area. Two more of the patrol, accompanied by the psykana operative Gramatrix Apphia worked their way to the right, towards the shuttle, led by Lance Corporal Kash.

Unfortunately, the very first shot to be fired resulted in a misfire for the missile launcher, though luckily Specialist Falk was not badly wounded. Specialist Kiri however kept up a steady fire of frag grenades, aiming to stall the enemy advance towards the shuttle.

On the left, Drake's group gained a ridge, to fire down upon the advancing Eldar, wounding one and forcing the other to withdraw. However, an alien armed with some form of launcher spotted Drake as he crested the rise and fired a high yield missile at him. The projectile struck, but truly the Emperor was watching, for Drake was unwounded, the missile having rebounded from his shoulded armour before detonating some distance behind him. Fire from the second Eldar though wounded Drake, who had to be extracted by his men.

Meanwhile, on the right flank, Lance Corporal Kash and Trooper Kleve engaged a group of pirates advancing on the shuttle, wounding one of them in the initial exchange of fire. But at the very moment Kash lined up a perfect shot a local saurian creature wandered across his arc and spoiled the shot. This allowed another pirate to gain the shuttle's entrance ramp and take control of it. Less than a minute later, the shuttle was in the air, yet the pirate apparantly had no experience of its controls, and not long after it crashed once more, the Eldar being ejected through the canopy.

At this point, Kash saw that the situation was slipping and ordered a withdrawal. The patrol carried the wounded, including Drake to their rendesvous point, and were extracted by Chimera six hours later. The patrol recovered three of the cargo pods from the shuttle, though these appear to have been empty. We have no clue as the identity of the thief, or why he was heading towards the region controlled by the hill tribes. Investigations into the issue are now underway, and Patrol Drake is back on QRF cover duty.

The Emperor Protects.

Colonel Kane
Jeriko Reach Garrison

Out of character - we played a Scavengers mission, with the downed shuttle counting as one of the loot counters, and having some ad hoc rules for controlling it. Possession of a cargo pod allowed a free roll on the Outlaw Trading Post Rare Trade Chart, which for Drakes men resulted in a number of narcotic substances such as Icrotic Slime and Stinger Mould being recovered (these were not declared during mission debrief...)

Halloween Special

Arise Cult Ilithnid!

Here's a conversion I made last week. It's an updating on the old Genestealer hybrid/Magus idea. I've gone for a creepier look which I'm pretty pleased with. He'll probably count as a Magus in the campaign, possibly from a new cult drawn from a nearby world?

The body is a Forge World Rogue Psyker and the head is from a Genestealer. The flesh is a 50/50 mix of Citadel Asurmen Blue and Leviathon Purple wash, over a Dheneb Stone basecoat. The hybrid harem behind him consists of Heresy Miniatures Succubus miniatures.

WIP adventurer

Here's a WIP shot of a character I've been meaning to create in 28mm ever since I first read about him in Rogue Trader - the scoundrel, crook and general lowlife Abdul Goldberg.

The miniature is one of Mark Copplestone's Foundry Darkest Africa, Zanzibari characters, and I've always thought it was one of his finest. I'll be adding more 40k accoutrements but I'm pretty pleased with the grenade monkey!

WIP A new Sgt Grey

The original Sgt Grey model i did is fine but a little too static, as his advances have made him fearsome in close combat I decided to equip him with the powersword we found while searching the armoury (read rare trade roll!)

Patrol Drake – the story so far.

Patrol Drake currently holds the status of an independent, long-range patrol group operating under the direct command of Colonel Kane of the Jeriko Reach Imperial Guard garrison. The group has its origins in the earliest skirmishes of what is fast becoming a major uprising.

These first few battles were fought against renegade members of the Betheljinn hill tribes, generally in defence of an isolated condenser unit or similar low-value target. In many cases it was battle sisters from at the Abbey of the Desert Rose that responded first, their small forces bolstered by garrison troops billeted nearby. Drake fought in several of these early battles, soon coming to the attention of his superiors.

It was in response to the insurgents becoming bolder, attacking into the Mining Enclaves, that Drake was given command of his own section. This unit was still part of the garrison chain of command, forming part of A Company under Major Pholin, but within weeks was detached and given independent patrol status.

Patrol Drake now operates as a fast reaction and long-range reconnaissance force, providing intelligence and first-strike capability to the garrison HQ. Its members are provided with specialised equipment as a priority, having direct access to garrison quartermaster stores and external merchant channels.

While the fight against the insurgents is being fought by all garrison units across a dozen settlements, it is Patrol Drake that is at the sharp end of the action.

Attack on Silo D-12/zz

(Hit and Run scenario, using Necromunda Event Cards deck.)

Sergeant Grey's Iridian Rangers, led by the mysterious xenos psyker.

Patrol Drake, accompanied by psykana operative Aeon Gayle.

Following psykana reports detecting an abhorrent presence in Zone D-12, I dispatched Patrol Drake, accompanied by psykana operative Aeon Gayle to investigate. Upon arrival in the zone, Gayle immediately reported a psychic spore closing in on Defence Silo D-12/zz, and Drake ordered those troopers in the immediate vicinity to take up a defensive posture at the silo’s control station while the remainder of his patrol were recalled. Strangely, three of the patrol did not return until long after the coming battle, and appear unable to account for their actions during that time. Commissariat and psykana interrogation pending.

After an hour, the enemy arrived. It was the same traitors of the Iridian 9th, the Swamp Tigers, led once more by the mysterious individual with prodigious psychic powers. Though they had prepared well, taking commanding positions atop the control station, Drake’s men were initially taken by surprise as the enemy worked around the left flank. The opening salvo felled Trooper Zain, who later proved to have died from his injuries, and wounded Specialist Falk.

The enemy pressed the left flank, the NCO believed to be called Sergeant Grey leading them. As Grey and another his men paused in the lee of an outhouse, Aeon Gayle unleashed a psychic attack on them. Grey was temporarily sent mad, spinning around and shouting, and actually shooting the man next to him. As more Swamp Tigers arrived on the scene to press the attack, chaos broke out. A native life form referred to by the garrison as a ‘mousehound’ burst from the stinking outhouse and attacked Sergeant Grey before disappearing once more. One of the Iridians closed on the control station, only to find Drake himself waiting for him. Drake cut the man down with ease and slammed the traitor’s body in to the power feed to the outhouse, which erupted in sparks, killing the Swamp Tiger dead. Unfortunately, Drake’s prised power sword was destroyed in the brief fight.

Meanwhile, the Iridians’ grenade launcher was walking krak grenade shells towards the silo’s master control panel, the destruction of which would have rendered the silo unusable. Worse still, more enemy, including the psyker-leader had appeared on the scene, and were barely held at bay by Lance Corporal Kash and Specialist Kiri, who kept up a steady barrage of smoke grenades. Kash gunned down an enemy trooper at close range, moments before he would have been assaulted.

Back at the control silo, Aeon Gayle unleashed another mental assault on Grey, sending him into a mad rage. He then engaged Drake in all-in combat, knocking him out before moving on to assault the master control panel, which he wrecked in a furious attack. At the last, the remainder of Patrol Drake arrived and opened fire on Grey. Realising he was surrounded, the traitor dove for Aeon Gayle, grabbing her from her hiding place. He then used her body as a human shield, backing away from the approaching troops. The Aeon’s powers deserted her, and Grey escaped, throwing the Aeon to the ground as he made good his escape.

It appears the enemy were guided in their flanking move by turncoat Betheljinn tribesmen, and that a more general uprising is imminent. All garrison units standing by for widespread uprising.

The Emperor Protects.

Colonel Kane, Jeriko Reach garrison battle group.

The Iridian attackers close in.

Trooper Zain and Specialist Falk atop the silo command building.

Grey and Drake clash, again!

Grey withdraws having destroyed the master control, using the Aeon as a human shield!

Iridian Rangers - Unit History

9^th Regiment Iridian Rangers – ‘Swamp Tigers’

A garrison regiment securing Jeriko Reachs lowland provinces.

The Iridian Rangers 9^th were posted to Jeriko Reach a few years back as a ‘quiet’ posting and a reward for their long and hard fought service on the deathworld of Hang Sung during the Shikani Uprising.

The regiment, natives of a lush& verdant feral jungle world, had been originally sent to Hang Sung to put down a genestealer uprising.

Suffering initial heavy losses the regiment soon learnt to excel in jungle and night fighting and successfully destroyed the outbreak.

In one action the much decorated Cpt. Coppola led the regiments 3^rd company in a viscous guerrilla action in the Chaing Hai methane swamps of the Tsai Chi province and earned the third company the nickname ‘Swamp Tigers’ due to their savagery in the fetid waters of the delta.

Coppola earned himself an Amethyst Aquila when he led the company’s ‘green men’ (so called because of their camouflage painted bodies) into the heart of a stealer tunnel complex to assassinate its Patriarch. Coppola is believed to have been the only survivor.

On return from the campaign all members of the regiment were screened and tested for genetic abnormalities (resulting in a 12 per cent cull of infected personnel) and declared fit for further active service.

One can only wonder if screening processes and summary cull were not stringent enough, did some of Coppola's men bring in an infection? Furthermore Imperial scholars question Coppola's hazy recollection of his return to Imperial lines, he was found delirious with mara-fly fever some distance from the tunnel complex which he had destroyed with melta bombs.

see file: HC5029b/Shikani/Methdelta/Coppola


Hero of the Chaing Hai pacification Cpt Jarl. Coppola

Betrayal!

Having regrouped at Garrison HQ, Corporal Drake’s patrol was sent out into the Alkatine Groves to conduct a sweep of the many small settlements skirting the death zones. What he encountered has far reaching and disturbing consequences for the garrison, and potentially for Imperial rule on the Reach.

Whilst approaching a tumbledown shack known to be occupied by an unstable old squat engineer, Patrol Drake encountered another garrison unit, a patrol under Sergeant Grey of the 9th Iridian Rangers (The Swamp Tigers), another unit of the Jeriko Reach Garrison, that had been billeted in a number of settlements thereabouts.

Before he could approach Grey, Drake’s patrol was fired upon. Clearly, we have lost Grey and his men. The traitors were led by the same leader we have observed in the past, an individual of prodigious psychic potential. It was fortunate then that Drake was accompanied by an Adept of the Telepathica, Gramatrix Apphia, to provide some psionic punch.

Upon contact a firefight soon developed. Drake positioned his missile and grenade launcher along with a sniper and the Gramatrix to his left flank in order to fix the bulk of the enemy, and led a flanking party in a wide sweep to the right. This took him right past the old shack, and the party found itself fired upon by the irascible occupant. Trooper Kleve was winged but not wounded by the shot, and the troopers did very well to restrain themselves and not fire back.

A moment later Swamp Tiger fire set off a pocket of previously undetected Nauka gas, enveloping three of the the traitor troopers in an explosion, though none were injured.

Meanwhile, Trooper Falk’s missile launcher misfired and the sniper, Trooper Zain was wounded, and out of the fight. The Gramatrix inflicted a psionic attack upon a traitor before she herself was put down. Falk later reported that Apphia displayed very poor fieldcraft, and it has been noted that future battlefield attachments from the Psykana must be better trained and prepared.

On the right flank, the flanking party found themselves under sustained psionic attack by the enemy leader, who appeared to be attempting to take control of the minds of Drake’s men. Fortunately he was not successful, though his attacks were a constant drain. Trooper Kleve was once more winged, this time by a poorly, even negligently aimed shot from Trooper Serik, who is on report as we speak. Trooper Tyrik was wounded by Swamp Tiger fire, but was attended by Medic Reko and was soon back in the fight. At the last, Drake’s party assaulted the enemy position from the lee of the shack. The attack descended into a hand-to-hand affair in which Drake was wounded in combat with Sergeant Grey.

After Drake went down, Trooper Kash took control, leading the troopers in a final push which saw off the traitors. Kash has received a field brevet of Lance Corporal for his efforts. After the action, Jawar Rajiv, a native defence volunteer attached to the patrol was found incapacitated. Though he recovered, he appears mentally scarred by some experience he will not, or cannot relate.

It appears an uprising is beginning on Jeriko Reach, and units of the Garrison have turned coat. All units are now on full alert.

Terrain WIP

Just spent a few hours working on a second native dwelling. This one's larger than the first and includes elements of the Cities of Death kits, to give it a more 40k look. The panels are used inside-out to give them a different feel to the 'stock' kits. I plan to render the flat areas of the plastic panels in the same plaster effect as the main part of the building, in order to pull it all together.

Rescue attempt

Rescue Attempt

++CONTACT REPORT++

Corporal Drake’s long-range patrol has been stood down following a failed attempt to rescue a trooper captured by Eldar pirates north of the mining enclave ‘Augustine’s Regret’.

Following the firefight in the enclave and the Eldars’ capture of Trooper Noll, Drake’s section tracked the xenos to an abandoned settlement some forty kilometres north. They located the prisoner, who was being held on the upper story of a native building. A number of Eldar were seen to be patrolling the area, with two attending to their prisoner.

Drake positioned his missile launcher and grenade launcher as a fire support group with a good field of fire on the building, and formed the remainder of his section into an assault group, led by himself. This group infiltrated right up to the building, before the aliens’ leader rounded the corner and spotted Drake’s party. Drake and several of his men opened fire on the pirate, while two more of the assault party climbed the building’s ladder to affect a rescue of their compatriot.

Drake’s fire caused the alien leader to withdraw, so the corporal joined the assault up the ladder.

What happened next appears uncertain. Upon reaching the roof, a brief and very close ranged firefight ensued, and one Eldar, armed with some manner of projectile launcher discharged its weapon at extreme close range, either deliberately, or negligently. The blast, some form plasma effect, caught both the firer, and the captive, and blew Corporal Drake from the roof.



Believing the captured Trooper Noll dead in the plasma blast, and seeing that more Eldar were closing around the building, Drake had little choice but to affect a fighting withdrawal. Drake and two of his men fell back to the cover of an apparently abandoned crawler, only to find the vehicle overrun with some form of toxic growth, the fumes from which all but incapacitated Drake and Trooper Kleve. Fortunately however, the assault party was able to disengage and rendezvous with the fire support group, before escaping.

Drake’s patrol section sustained a number of light wounds, but, apart from Trooper Noll, suffered no fatalities in the assault.

Drake’s section has been exfiltrated back to head quarters for debriefing and recuperation. Initial reports suggest their sweep of the area north of the Asakhim Valley and around the Augustine’s Regret mining enclave was not in vain. Apart from the Eldar contact, the patrol reported a number of suspicious activities amongst the locals, including a large amount of seditious, anti-Imperium graffiti daubed on outlying buildings, including the one in which the Eldar housed their captive.

Aggressive patrolling of native settlements is to commence as soon as practicable. The Eldar pirates are merely a hindrance, and I will not allow my forces to be diverted chasing after them any more. I aim to flush out the real enemy, whoever, wherever, and whatever they are.

The Emperor Proects

Colonel Kane
OC, Jeriko Reach Imperial Guard Garrison

Native Dwelling terrain

Here's a building I made last week, and we used it in a game a couple of days ago (battle report to be submitted as soon as).

It's my first go at a native dwelling, made in a vaguely middle-eastern style but 40k'd up with bits from GW's Cities of Death building kits. The basic structure is just foam card, and the next one I do will be a more complicated shape. I plan to make a load more so we can set some games out in the native areas, as most of our games so far have been set in the mining enclaves of the Imperial Mining Concern.

Front

Rear (note suspicious graffiti as noted on recent patrols and reported to garrison HQ).

Characters of the Reach

Here're a few of the odd characters that populate Jeriko Reach and will be making an appearance in the campaign at some point. We have a bunch more to come, including some civilians from West Wind Productions 'Chaos in Cairo' range to populate the native settlements, and more Rogue Trader era bits and bobs for the games in the Mining Enclaves etc.






A team of inspectors from the Imperial Mining Concern. (Heresy Miniatures 'Sci-fi Tax Inspectors').



An Officio Munitorum Field Notary attached to the Imperial Guard garrison. He'll be keeping a close eye on the garrison's ammo expenditure, and may even demand to accompany Corporal Drake and his section on a mission in the near future...


A Psykana Operative, attached to the garrison. She may be taking to the field soon too, as the garrison will be needing all the psychic support it can get against the uprising's mysterious leaders. (in-game we may count her as a Wyrd for hire). (Aberrant Games Dravani Human Form).


A freelance chirogeon.



A freelance Squat engineer and his bodyguard, no doubt come to Jeriko Reach in search of valuable scrap left over from the last war.