#Vanus Temple Assassin

[radwolf76]

My Hero Forge 2.0 Creations — Run GoodBoy.EXE Edition

So this WH40K character has been posted before, she's an Ordo Sicarius Inquisitor embedded as a deep cover operative posing as an Assassin in the Vanus Temple. Also the driving force behind the founding of my homebrew Space Marine chapter, the Storm Wolves.

Hero Forge just added a robotic dog option (available now for pro users, everyone else gets it 30 Jan 2024), so it was time to give the mini an update.

[reddus-art]

The Liber Imperium 1.6

By the manner of our death are we judged.

So! It’s been a while since the last Liber Imperium update (not to mention that GW has made a book named that too, unfortunately...), but I’ve gotten one done!

This update has a number of minor fixes, and a few rebalances, all of which is below the cut.

So here goes:

Void Combat Rebalanced - no more combining macrobattery shots, but ship armours have been lowered across the board. It might seem strange but the arithmetic behind it seems quite reasonable.

New Careers - Officio Assassinorum and The Inquisition. No Elite Advances for the Officio Assassinorum yet, those will have to come later.

THRONES! - There’s currency now, just like in Dark Heresy 1e! It’s honestly been a bit sorely missed, and I think it’s fun to have it back in. Along with money, you now have paychecks based on your Career.

Patron System - The Inquisitor Generator has been reworked into a system for creating a DMPC/Handler type character for the party. It can make more than Inquisitors now, including Administratum heads, Mechanicus Magi, and so on.

Mechanicus Weaponry - A number of pieces of Mechanicus weaponry have been imported into the Liber (mostly as Exotic weapons). All the better to serve the Omnissiah’s will!

Imperial Assassins - I have made profiles for all 7 of the most prominent temple assassins of the Officio Assassinorum (Adamus, Callidus, Culexis, Eversor, Vanus Venenum!). Use them to terrify your players, or maybe even as a Reinforcement Character!

Perseverance and Silence are the Highest Virtues - There are two new Skills: Fortitude and Discipline. These mostly replace pure Willpower and Toughness Tests, which means that it’s easier to level them, but it can put you at a serious disadvantage if you don’t have at least one Rank. Along with this, a lot of mental resilience Talents have been condensed down, and the Hideous Resilience Talent has been replaced by the Endure Reaction (which anyone can do).

[radwolf76]

WH40K Homebrew Space Marine Chapter: Stormwolves

I've posted about them before, but with the April 2024 Field Manual Points List v1.8 recently dropping, I'd gone back to make sure my army list for my Homebrew Chapter was still in compliance, or as close to it as I can get seeing as much of it is from Legends due to the nature of my Chapter's Backstory, and it felt like a good time to consolidate the Lore as well.

(Keep in mind I don't actually play this army, the last time I played 40k was when Clinton was in office, it's just an exercise in seeing how well I can apply the army building rules to my Homebrew's fluff.)

Stormwolves Lore

The story of my Homebrew Marine Chapter, the Stormwolves, starts with an Ordo Sicarius Inquisitor who had been embedded as a deep-cover operative in the Vanus Temple Assassin of the Officio Assassinorum -- Real name undisclosed, known only by her Inquisitorial Authorization Code for her Mission: 𝜮 — Niner . Septagraph \ Halley | ℚ [Rational] • Soul : Zed <𝑖> ∞ = Foxtrot ^ V̿ (This is often shortened to "Sigma Stroke Niner", and in rare cases to just Halley)

The combination of Inquisitorial zeal and the Data Gathering & Manipulation skills of an Unbound Infocyte is a potent mix, and Sigma Stroke Niner was able to deduce the existence of Cawl's Primaris project prior to it's official unveiling, including the initial reports (later proven wrong) that these new marines would be near-immune to the various chapters' gene-seed flaws.

She brought this finding back to her compartmentalized Inquisitorial Conclave, who decided that it warranted further investigation in the utmost secret. They also came to the verdict that if there were going to be a next generation of Marines, it was ill-advised to let them all be under the sole control of a lone member of the Mechanicus, no matter how intelligent and skilled. The Inquisitor Infocyte was authorized for a new assignment, to divert one of Cawl's secret remote caches of Primaris for study by an independent Mechanicus Arch-Genetor. This diverted batch of Primaris would also secretly serve as a fail-safe contingency for the eventuality of Cawl's project posing a threat to the Imperium, giving the Inquisition an independent stock of Primaris from which a counter-force could eventually be raised from.

A Vogelist Arch-Genetor, Kristiana Rozza, was chosen and allowed to review the collected research intercepted from Cawl. She hypothesized that the supposed flaw resistance may be possible to be backported to Firstborn Marines, especially if aspirants were screened for favorable genomes. A Rogue Trader, Jareth Keldon XXIV, was secretly commissioned to locate an obscure world to conduct experiments with this new "Marine Chapter", his payment being a full company's worth of these new marines being seconded to his flagship to assist with his explorations.

The planet that the Rogue Trader was able to locate for the project, Etherion IV, was a pre-Imperium Dark Age of Technology -Remnant human colony Industrial-Hive not on standard navigational charts due to surrounding warp-storms (these warp-storms would result in several temporal anomalies and the planetary system having an asteroid belt littered with Space Hulk wreckage from the past and even future).

Etherion IV's planetary culture consists of a Capitalist Corporate Oligarchy with proxy wars of genegineered Abhuman Hive-Gangs, called "Splicer Gangs". The wide variety of genegineering among segments of the native population gave Arch-Genetor Rozza a broad canvas of potential aspirants for her various experiments in Astartes creation.

In addition to the stasis Primaris extracted from Cawl's secret cache, a small amount of Astartes genetic tithings were diverted so that Firstborn Marines could also be made. The primary source was the Space Wolves, but some Blood Angels Progenoids were also in the mix of what could be illicitly redirected. While carrying the Geneseed mutations of these parent Chapters, the Marines created from this supply were entirely divorced from the homeworlds of Fenris and Baal, carrying no cultural context for any Chapter-specific flaws that develop.

The Stormwolves are not a full strength Chapter, and lack much of the heavier hardware. What vehicles and aircraft they do have are often archived museum pieces whose storage records were "misfiled" or unused prototype schematic designs pulled from mothballs at various Forge Worlds to then be manufactured locally on Etherion IV.

Due to their covert "founding", the Stormwolves are also at risk of being misidentified as a Renegade Chapter or even surviving Heresy-era Blackshields. Or they would be, if they hadn't been trapped by a severe time-distorting Warp Storm keeping them isolated while time ran at widely disparate rates inside and outside of the storm. This Storm lasted several centuries and did not fully dissipate until the middle of the Indomitus Crusade.

Due to the research-based charter that was their unofficial founding, the Stormwolves have a non-Codex structure.

Chapter Leadership is referred to as "Control" and consists of Firstborn Marines that have not been experimented on. They assist the Arch-Genetor with her experiments, and also lean hard into the monastic side of being an Astartes. Their unique power armor color scheme is often not fully visible due to cloaks, robes, tabards, capes, and hoods in black, red, and royal purple. Control also almost exclusively carries high-powered relic combi-weapons.

Then come the Bloodstorm Squadrons which are batches of Firstborn who have had their Geneseed experimented on. Their armor scheme is a variation of Control's colors, with more red. Conscripts from the Abhuman Splicer Gangs are also assigned to Bloodstorm as they wait to see if they get chosen for Marine implants.

Both these Firstborn sections are outnumbered by the Primaris Marines of the Stygian Wolves Division. Sporting a much darker paint scheme, the Stygian Wolves are a mostly Phobos-armored Vanguard Force and are typically grouped into 5 Marine squads, one of which is always a Helix Adept. These squads are either designated as Obscuratus Pack if they are equipped with Omni-Scramblers and Comms Arrays, or as Phantom Pack if they eschew this extra equipment in favor of mobility. The Helix Adepts in both types of Pack are charged with monitoring the genetic health of the rest of their squad in addition to all their other normal Helix Adept duties. Both Obscuratus and Phantom Packs wield the locally produced Etherion-Pattern Marksman Bolt Carbine, a design that takes cues from both the Instigator Bolt Carbine and the Stalker Pattern Bolter. Occasionaly, smaller fire teams armed with either Bolt Sniper Rifles or Las-Fusils are also employed.

Uncommonly, the Stygian Wolves also use Tacticus Configuration of Mk. X Power Armor, frequently in combination with Plasma Incinerators in a Hellblaster-style loadout, in squad formations lead by an Apothecary and known as Sterilization Detail. Very rarely will the Intercessor-syle loadout with the Cawl Pattern Bolt Rifle be used; this equipment profile is typically reserved for in boarding actions. Rarest of all are the Gravis-armored Multi-Melta wielders of the Extermination Crew.

The devotion to monitoring their own genetics in the pursuit of constant improvement is not just limited to the Stygian Wolves Division, as Control is also very Apothecary heavy, with many Apothecaries assigned to a leadership role by the title of Helix Keeper. Helix Keepers also frequently assume the command position over Bloodstorm Squads. The Helix Keepers, Apothecaries, and Helix Adepts of the Chapter take the place of Chaplins, as the Stormwolves have no Chapter Cult of their own, their worship is directed solely towards genetic experimentation. The quest for purity also has weeded out most all forms of random mutation, including the Psyker genes, so the Chapter also lacks Librarians. (The deliberate genengineering of potential aspirants is an exception to the purity mandate.)

The Stormwolves often fight alongside Auxiliaries draw from the troops assigned to Rogue trader Keldon's fleet. Keldon's Elite Personal Guard, the 1st Selene Contingent, is the most powerful of these. They provide an additional avenue for Arch-Genetor Rozza to experiment on enhancements that fall outside of the Inquisitorial charter to research Space Marine genetics and the Primaris Project. The true nature of these side experiments by the Arch-Genetor are shrouded in secrecy for unknown reasons. While there is always the possibility that the sub-project could be something considered to be Heretical by either the Mechanicus or the Imperium, Sigma Stroke Niner is aware of the details, and permits the work to continue. It is of note that the 1st Selene Contingent is an all-female unit.

[radwolf76]

My Hero Forge 2.0 Creations — Inspired by Warhammer 40,000 10th Edition ... Edition

So, I'm only on the edges of Warhammer 40,000 as a hobby. The last time I actually played, was an era when you might have to break out a foot-shaped cardboard template to see who got stepped on. I have a small collection of the minis, nearly all of them unpainted (and the ones that aren't haven't gotten past the primer stage). Still, I'm a fan of the lore, and have been refining details on my own homebrew Space Marine Chapter since, oh say, the Clinton Administration.

One detail about the Chapter I've created, the Stormwolves, is that they're often deployed alongside various other Imperial Agents, and WH40K's newest edition's relaxed rules for Army Building make this a lot easier than it has been in the past. This prompted me to turn to Hero Forge to see if I couldn't make some custom miniatures that'd really fit the backstory I've come up with over the decades.

So I started with a unit of Imperial Navy Breachers, lead by a Sergeant-at-Arms with a Bolt Pistol and Power Sword:

The rest is going under a "Keep Reading", because this'll be a long post.

The bulk of the squad are armed with Shotguns:

This one will probably get her Shotgun swapped out for a Meltagun as a post-printing conversion, as Hero Forge doesn't have anything that comes close:

One Breacher has been upgraded with a Demolition Charge and Grenade Belt (I also put extra armor on the shoulders and reinforced her helmet):

This one gets to wield an Auto-Pistol and Power Axe (there's also an option for Auto-Pistol & Chainfist, but that would have to be another conversion opportunity):

And finishing out the Unit is a Breacher with a Heavy Shotgun and Shield:

These Breachers are actually the Bodyguard unit for some characters who figure prominently in the backstory I've made for my Space Marines, a Rogue Trader, and a Mechanicus Tech Priest Genator. I've posted an earlier iteration of my Rogue Trader mini in the past, but I've been able to make improvements as Hero Forge adds new options and I learn new tricks:

In past editions, there's been rules for taking a Rogue Trader and Rejuvent Adept together as a single slot on the Force Organization Chart, so I would just have the Rejuvent Adept "count as" the Tech Priest, who instead of doing in Hero Forge, I had decided to use a mini of Kristiana from the Warforge Miniatures line (mine isn't painted yet, but she looks like this):

However while 40K 10E has done away with the Force Organization Chart entirely, they also made it that if you want to field a Rogue Trader in your Army List, you're stuck with the full entourage of specialists that were boxed with the Rogue Trader in the Kill Team release, you could no longer pick and choose which ones you wanted. So I turned to Hero Forge to round out the retinue. I took an existing mini I had and modified it to fit the role of Lectro-Maester armed with Voltaic Pistol. As for her Close Combat Weapon, I may have gone a little fancy, giving her a knife made from what I'm calling "Nebula Obsidian":

… But it's not nearly as much Obsidian as on the other character I had to make, a Death Cult Assassin. Starting with a pose resource for a Macuahuitl that was made by redditor /u/Obvious-Gate9046 aka Windthin to represent the Death Cult Power Blade, I then came up with my own interpretation of this character's other weapon from their statline, a Dartmask. And because the backstory of my Marine Chapter already included gene-engineered abhumans as a plot element, this Death Cultist is also an anthro bunny:

Some day I might get around to having all these designs printed (although 3D Printing might just be more expensive than WH40K itself). One that I've already had printed was my Chapter's other associated character, a Ordo Sicarius Inquisitor embedded in the Officio Assassinorum's Vanus Temple as a Deep Cover Operative. For Army List building purposes, I just use the vanilla Inquisitor unit with bolt pistol and Inquisitorial Melee Weapon. I don't have any good photos of the printed mini, so here's the Hero Forge Render:

[radwolf76]

WH40K Homebrew Space Marine Chapter: Stormwolves — October 2024 Update

So, the October 2024 Points Update dropped from GW today, along with some Errata and FAQ updates. You can no longer stuff other vehicles into an Imperial Agents Rhino. Alas, they still did not make the Corvus Blackstar a Dedicated Transport like it should be.

One side effect of building Army Lists off of Lore Vibes instead of for Competitive Tourney Play™, is that I often have to change very little when new points come out. On my 3K list, the "Extermination Crew" went up in points but this was slightly offset by a cost drop for the Phobos Captain. And since the Lieutenants got errata-ed to be able to join Units already lead by Captains, I stuck them in the same squad so I could drop the Enhancement that lets the Captain rip off the Lieutenant's move-after-shoot trick, and ended up with 5 points to spare.

Similarly, my Boarding Action Patrol dropped to 490 from 500, with no change in Units. None of my Units in my 1K proxy for Rogue Trader fleet's shipboard Void Troopers Astra Militarum List changed in points, but I found a math error where I had used the native cost for an Imperial Agents Unit instead of the allied cost, which put me over budget by 20. However, swapping the second Kasrkin unit for the new badass Tempestus Aquilons balanced things right out.

Because nothing substantially changed in my three lists, I'm not going to go to the trouble of posting them again. Instead, I'll share more of my recent Hero Forge work imagining the characters associated with my Homebrew Chapter and their supporting Rogue Trader Fleet.

First, a Phobos Armored Stormwolf from the Stygian Wolves Division of the Stormwolves chapter, with Bolter & Single Lightning Claw (Back in the day this used to be a valid option when they were more flexible with the rules, which is why so much of my example art features it)

Next is my Ordo Sicarus Inquisitor / Vanus Temple Unbound Infocyte Assassin, Sigma Stroke Niner, updated with the new kitbashing feature.

An "Officers" Group shot with the Voidmaster previously shared, my "Fleet Security Marshall" (uses Tempestor Prime rules), my "Deck Officer" (Cadian Castellan), and the Sergeant of my Navy Breachers (updated with new kitbash insignia and also cat ears on the helmet... for reasons.)

Void trooper with Rotor Cannon (GW's mini for this had a hat, so I gave her one too)

A Void Trooper who's not from the 1st Selene Contingent so he doesn't get the all red w/black accents color scheme on his armor plating, just the cloth bits.

Navy Breacher Hatchcutter w/Chainfist and Autogun

Splicer Gang Conscript (uses Wulfen rules), improved with dual rocket boost on his sledgehammer now, and a better shoulder mounted Stormfrag Auto Launcher

Updated Lectro-Maester from the Rogue Trader Entourage

Also from the Retinue My Death Cult Executioner, who happens to be a Splicer Gang Bunny Girl (again ... for reasons). Kitbashing allowed me to show of the Dartmask in action

The latest version of the Imperial Navy Breachers rules say you need a token to represent their "Cyber Altered Task Drone" and the published lore for the C.A.T. Drone is that unlike servitors and servo-skulls, this drone is of entirely inorganic construction. To which I say screw that, this is the franchise that coined the term GrimDark, and I'm making mine an actual cyborg cat.

WH40K Homebrew Space Marine Chapter: Stormwolves — September 2024 Update

(Yes, I know it's the First of October)

It's been about a month since the Agents of the Imperium Codex was published by Games Workshop. In late September, they issued their PDF of FAQs and Errata for the book. That means time for me to update the army list for my Homebrew Chapter (last posted about here). I will detail these updates under the cut.

I've also been working in Hero Forge on creating some more supporting characters, taking advantage of their new kitbashing feature.

For example, here's my take on a Voidmaster to lead a Voidsmen-At-Arms unit, as viewed through the lens of the "1st Selene Contingent" Rogue Trader's elite guard concept I'd come up with for my homebrew. I particularly like how the artificer-built mastercrafted shotgun turned out on this.

I feel the shotgun looks the part better than the one carried by the official GW mini for the equivalent character:

And here's a better look at the Hero Forge Kitbash-built Laspistol at her hip.

As for the new Errata document, unfortunately, it did not make the Corvus Blackstar a dedicated transport as it should have been. Also, it didn't even fix the obvious error that lets the Imperial Rhino transport any other model from the Imperial Agent Army Roster, not just the intended infantry, letting you stick other vehicles inside like a Russian Nesting Doll.

What the errata did change involves the limited number of units you can take when using Imperial Agents in other armies. There are different categories of units: Character/Retinue/Requisition, and you're very limited in how many of each that you can ally in to another force.

However, there were two Retinue Units that under the rules as originally published, didn't count against the limit if they were attached as Bodyguard to certain Character Units. This got changed so that you don't have to attach them any more.

This was nice, because I preferred to have my Rogue Trader attached to an Imperial Navy Breachers Bodyguard instead of just the free Voidsmen-At-Arms. But my previous Army List was already maxed out on Retinue Units, even with the Freebie.

So, Instead of using Deathwatch Kill Team (formerly Deathwatch Veterans pre-codex) to represent my "Control" command squad, I switched to using Sternguard to free up a Retinue Unit slot. This was an idea I'd considered before, but rejected since the current statblock is supposed to be for Primaris Sternguard and Control is supposed to be Firstborn.

However, Sternguard Marines existed years before GW introduced the Primaris, and they say if you have the older models just use the best statblock that fits, so I decided to just roll with it as is.

Sure, the current Sternguard statblock has a keyword that prevents them from riding in Rhinos and Razorbacks, but I'd taken their Rhino away in a previous army list revision anyway. Gave them a Repulsor Executioner instead. And switching to Sternguard let me give them as many Combi-Weapons as I wanted again, bringing them back to my original vision.

I also finally got a chance to look over the new update to the Boarding Actions Rules. While the Space Marines got three different Boarding Patrol options, I was disappointed that Phobos Armor was restricted to just one Patrol, and you couldn't just mix it with the other types.

But I found a loophole. The Boarding Strike Patrol list didn't prevent you from taking Phobos Armored characters. So I snuck one in.

I was also a bit disappointed to find that unlike the seemingly more freeform Boarding Actions rules from the beginning of 10E last year, the new rules expect you to stick to all Chapter specific restrictions if you include marines from any particular Chapter. This meant I could no longer put Apothecaries into a Space Wolves Boarding Patrol. But it wasn't worth it to even try anyways, as they took all the useful bits off the Apothecary when you use them in a Boarding Actions game.

Even with the changes, it's a fun way to get a more Space Wolf flavored version of my Stormwolves homebrew chapter, to contrast with the Imperial Agent Allies version.

I've also been exploring another facet of my Stormwolves, the fact that a company of them is supposed to be assigned as support for a Rogue Trader's fleet.

While I could have represented this with one of the Detachments from the Imperial Agents Codex (and still might), I realized that there were a lot of suitable units from the Imperial Guard Index and Legends Sheets, that would make good rules proxies for an army of Void Troopers serving under my Rogue Trader character.

Picked a lot of 4+ Armor Save Units comparable to the void armored troops from Imperial Agents (and a handful of 5+ to round out the list). Since I was shooting for a 1K list for this, I could only ally in one Unit of Marines, but overall, I'm happy with the list.

[radwolf76]

My Hero Forge 2.0 Creations — Unbound Infocyte Edition

I've posted this Warhammer 40K OC before a few times, but I've made some updates as Hero Forge adds new options, the latest being new eyewear, and the ability to layer clothing.

She's a Ordo Sicarius Inquisitor embedded in the Officio Assassinorum's Vanus Temple as a Deep Cover Operative (because if you're going to get into obscure 40K lore that Games Workshop hasn't made minis for, why not double dip?).

Real name undisclosed, known by the Inquisitorial Authorization Code for her Mission:

𝜮 — Niner . Septagraph \ Halley | ℚ [Rational] • Soul : Zed <𝑖> ∞ = Foxtrot ^ V̿

(This is often shortened to "Sigma Stroke Niner", and in rare cases to just Halley)

[radwolf76]

Some more poking around in HeroForge's mini creator. Specifically, doing up some potential lore-rich special characters associated with the homebrew Warhammer 40K Space Marine chapter that I've been putting off painting since the mid 90s. (Or even seriously collecting for that matter.)

As they were originally conceived, my Stormwolves chapter were going to be a secret, Inquisition-backed Adeptus Mechanicus attempt at making a Space Wolves successor chapter, but with the flaws in that geneseed line engineered out.

Adjusting the back story to fit more recent lore, they're a covert offshoot of the Primaris Project. Ostensibly, the purpose was to see if Primaris Marines' resistance to geenseed corruption could be implemented in Firstborn Marines. Secretly, they were also intended as a contingency, a set of Primaris Marines developed away from Cawl's labs on Mars, and answerable directly to the Inquisition.

The idea for such a fail-safe Marine chapter had been the consenus of a cabal of Inquisitors who had discovered the nature of Cawl's work. The task of spearheading the project fell upon an Ordo Sicarius Inquisitor whom had previously been embedded as an Imperial Assassin Infocyte in the Vanus Temple.

Of course, a Space Marine chapter needs a source of aspirants, and a Rogue Trader was commissioned to pick a planet to be the Stormwolves' new homeworld. As compensation, when not needed for Imperial missions, a full company of the new chapter would be seconeded to his fleet.

The world chosen was a pre-Imperium human colony industrial hive that had some remnants of Dark-Age-of-Technology level tech, and was not on any Imperial navigation charts.

Of particular relevance to the project was the fact that this hive world, like many, has heavy gang activity, except this planet's gangs, called splicer tribes, use genetic engineering to give themselves abhuman mutations.

This fit in with the Vogelist notions of the Tech Priest Genator whom the Inquisition had arranged to handle the experimentation. (OK, this one isn't from Hero Forge, it's Kristiana from the Warforge Miniatures line.)

Among her theories was speculation that irregularities in geneseed could be “smoothed out” by using genegineered aspirants, and this planet provided a large population of test subjects.

Unfortunately for the Stormwolves and their founders, the reason their homeworld had not appeared on any navigational charts was that it was in a region of the galaxy prone to sporadic but severe Warp Storms. Shortly after arrival the planetary system was cut off from the rest of the galaxy by those storms for a couple hundred years, at least on the inside of the storm — the passage of time on the outside was closer to several thousand.

Due to the nature of their founding, they are not a full strength chapter, lacking much of the heavier hardware. The bulk of the chapter are Primaris Marines, mainly arranged into five heads strong Infiltrator squads, each with their own Helix Adept. The Primaris companies are also referred to as the Stygian Wolves Division and have the following paint scheme (developed in the Impcat app w/Photoshop finishing).

The command division are all Firstborn style Marines, with no geneseed experimentations, and are referred to as “Control”. (Paint scheme developed in the Bolter & Chainsword painter, again with touchup after.)

Firstborn-type Marines with experimental Geneseed are assigned to the Bloodstorm Squadrons.

(While neither the Control or Bloodstorm divisions wear Mk. X armor, here are some samples of their color schemes from Impcat using Mk. X to approximate Mk. 8.)