It’s’ time for the Enemies of the Imperium, reporting their achievements in this first month.
Enemies of the Imperium Checkpoint 1
Let’s check in order of points completed so far:
Mariano/Gryndal – Orks
The new Golden Boys (or Warmasters) are Mariano and Gryndal. Separately they already finished A Tale of 12 + 1 Warlords, but together they are unstoppable. One more proof that true love can achieve anything!
True love… for all things Old School, of course!
They have set themselves the task of painting 2000 points between the two and currently they are at the top of the list. They are even managing to improve the looks of some very questionable models that are just too old for times like these!
And they have a story to tell and all. Here we go!
The prince remained absorbed while his tutor was looking for one of the oldest books they had. That book had passed from generation to generation, keeping alive the great deeds of Ghazghkull, feats that one day the young prince hoped to repeat. And while he was still daydreaming, his tutor began to read:
No one ever knew where Ghazghkull came from. All clans claimed him as their own. However, none could present proof of it. There is no record about our hero before his ‘accident’ in the world known as URK. It was an unfortunate time for our town. The so-called sons of the human Emperor invaded our planet with their bright and colorful armor, killing as many as they could, and with their great ships, they bombed us tirelessly, seized the earth, and razed the planet, provoking what would later be known as ‘The Great Sandstorm’.
For months this infamous storm lasted, and during that time, the Orks suffered hunger and despair. Separated by war, and being impossible to regroup by the sand that prevented to see beyond their noses, they wandered and wandered until they disappeared.
However, the story of our hero begins on one of those nights. Seven valiant orks wandered among the dunes, hungry, desperate. They had survived the humans in scarlet armor, they had killed hundreds of them by cutting their bodies while riding on their infallible motorcycles, now abandoned to their fate by fuel shortages. Many had fought together, and many respected each other, but the lack of food made them look more tasty to their companions.
On that fateful night, when the forces were already weakening, a shepherd appeared among the sand, carrying with him seven magnificent boars. Crazy with joy, they welcomed the pastor with open arms, and celebrated their arrival with the leftover drinks and eating the tasty and fatty boars; while they told the stranger many of his past battles.
The next morning, nothing was left of the spirit of the previous night, no hint of leftovers, no sign of the strange pastor. During the day they sobbed and cursed, because now that they had tasted the joys of happiness, they did not want to go back to hunger and wandering. They prayed to Gorko and Morko (names of the ork gods) to send them help again, and that same night, the shepherd returned with the same boars of the previous night. They celebrated their arrival with renewed strength, and after satisfying the warmth of their hearts with those soft and docile boars, sacrificed them in the name of Gorko. Meanwhile, convinced that their fate was changing, that night they told the stranger of his dreams of triumph, conquest and reconstruction of the Ork lands.
The next morning, upon awakening, they returned to the harsh reality. They were still trapped in the middle of the storm, the pastor was again absent and his respect for Morko, who had provided them with food and warmth the past few nights, prevented them from eating the sacrificed meat. And one more day they walked through the arid dunes, praying once more to survive. And that night, the first of the rest of their lives, the pastor reappeared with seven other wild boars, and before beginning any kind of celebration, he spoke for the first time:
“My name is Ghazghkull. The great Morko spoke to me 3 nights ago, and told me to save you. I have provided you with food, I have provided you with company and peace, I have provided you with salvation. It is time for you to give me what you have fought so hard for. It’s time for you to give me your lives. Kneel before me and you will be anointed as heroes, as my best warriors in the cruel times that are to come. The universe will be ours and the great bards will remember our deeds.”
Slowly, and ecstatic at the great honor they had just received, they all kneeled before Ghazghkull, seeing now the unstoppable force that brimmed in the eyes of what they believed to be a shepherd. Slowly he approached them and hit them on the forehead as a father ork would hit a son who had stolen his combiweapon. Then they rode on the boars, and they advanced through the night and the storm, with Ghazghkull at the head initiating a path that would take him farther than any ork has ever led him.
Mitico – Nurgle Death Guard
Trying to make up for that disappointing end of his Kharadron Overlords last year, Mitico has decided to speak little and paint a lot. For the time being he is performing fine and proudly shows us his pestilent work.
Wait, pestilent was not meant to be a bad thing! You know, in the eyes of Grandfather Nurgle…
Troncho – Chaos Space Marines
We enter the bottom of the list of the Enemies of the Imperium. First we have one of the new guys, Troncho, who has also joined the custom of not reporting any progress. A very weak way to debut as Warmaster!
The gods of Chaos will not be favorable to him!
Berek – Tau
Berek returns to the old ways and does not report progressed points nor have we been aware that he has shown anything of what he is doing.
Everything points to Berek repeating his ‘modus operandi’ of last year…
Piti – Eldar
Piti is a very organized Warmaster. He knows that he has great work ahead and he is very serious not to get lost in the task. See for yourselves, look at the impressively detailed plan has has come up with to monitor his progress until the dreaded Checkpoint 3:
Brutal, so much microplanning! Its management contrasts with that of others, such as Nor, who take pride in their own ways of planning:
Every Warmaster has their own way…
Meanwhile, and given that Piti does not report completed points, let’s see what he has to tell us:
Well, a month has passed and the progress is not what I expected. Better said, it is not what I desired or planned because I know that my colleagues did expect very little of me (although I’m already ahead of what some thought I would be). I considered the Crusade as a project of sorts: I have a list of tasks, estimation of times per task, availability of resources and incompatibilities, project plan… And I started achieving, more or less. But the days have gone by and I have lacked constancy. By this time I should have the bikes almost finished and they are not even primed.
Let’s see what I’ve done, what I haven’t, and why.
At first I thought about changing the bodies of the pilots for normal guardians because I do not like too much the aesthetics of the ‘speaker heads’ with leather jackets of these eldar. Looks like an easy conversion, changing one torso for another. Well, no. First problem: the pilots have the union of the legs to the body as a plane, and the guardians have it spherical. Simple problem to solve by putting a little hole on the legs of the pilots to make room for the sphere of the torsos of the guardians. Second problem: the arms of the pilots are too long to fit well with the torsos of the guardians. This point is pending solution (cut and paste? redo?). At this point, since time is going by and my painting is not, I decided to start other minis (which are not the immediate ones I have to paint, according to the plan) and I saw that the Vyper gunner is also a ‘speaker head’ (although somewhat cooler than the pilots’). Perfect. Since the Vyper has a ‘speaker head’ (and I do not intend to touch them), some bikes can be assembled without conversion, with the original pilots still in the same style.
Since I worked on assembling, I went on and assembled everything. But still I’m late. I want to think that this delay will be recoverable but I have to find a way to be constant. It is essential to re-plan tasks, dedicate more time and above all to fulfill the plan. I will have to take at least one hour every day to avoid accumulating more delay. Previously I had to paint Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and on “spare and not computable moments” during the week. If I want to pass the cut it will have to focus. I can still pass it but now it’s going to cost me much.
Go Piti, go! You can still do it, there are not that many miniatures ahead even if the prospect is daunting!
Mr. X
The Necrons have just renewed their army book and maybe Mr. X is thinking about how to adapt his plan to the new lists that appear with the Necron releases.
At the moment this secretive Warmaster begins the campaign with sepulchral silence.
And that’s all in this first Checkpoint 1, which we could call a ‘warm up’ month.
Before another month goes by and we continue checking the work (or lack of it) of the Warmasters, we want to take a look at what Crusade allies all over the world are doing . Very soon, stay tuned!
[…] much Excel planning… for […]