Path of the Tyrant Pt 1, Inspiration

Last year, I had a moment of inspiration. I decided that I needed to either build a pre-heresy army, a new CSM force to use as my undivided army, or an additional powered armor army in addition to my CSM and Dark Angels. The reason I was only considering powered armour was that I had a few dozen marines worth of bits, so I had the core of the army already.


I was most interested in a pre-heresy army, because I love the aesthetic, but after pricing out Forge World and attempting some conversions, I got somewhat discouraged. I simply couldn't do the army I wanted without spending astronomical amounts of money. Add in the fact that I couldn't decide on a pre-heresy legion (and still can't, but that's a different post for a different day), and it was pretty clear I wasn't ready to make that plunge. I was largely building this army to distract me from not wanting to paint my other CSM, so I put the thought of doing a CSM army aside. This would come up later, but I digress.


When looking for my Space Marine army, I found myself scouring the internet for information. I considered Blood Angels, looked into most of the original legions that remained loyal, but I wasn't really finding a theme and scheme that inspired. Then, ooking up background on the White Scars, I noticed that an old favourite army, the Mantis Warriors were a successor chapter. Clicking through to the Mantis Warriors, I started reading their Badab War fluff. I was very aware of the Badab War Imperial Armor books, though I hadn't read them, I just heard a lot of coverage of the content on various podcasts. This led me to the conclusion that I would build a Badab War era force, allowing me to build units of Astral Claws, Lamenters, Mantis Warriors, Executioners, and Imperial Guard. I got my mitts on IA 8 and IA 9 and dove in.


Oddly, I never wound up building any Mantis Warriors or Executioners, mostly because 6th edition came out right around when this project escalated, so Lamenters, Tyrant's Legion, and Astral Claws gave me 3 armies that could all ally with each other.


One thing that really interested me about the Malestrom Wardens was the fact that they were in near constant conflict with myriad foes, and that after he took control of the Badab System, Lugft Huron produced mass quantities of lower cost STC items. They also expanded the size of the Chapter substantially, resulting in a peak number of Astral Claws in the area of 3,000, with 2,000 organized in traditional chapters, and another 1,000 distributed throughout his Planetary Defense Forces, leading and using the Imperial Guard as needed. This means a much higher level of collaboration with Imperial Guard units and less regimented standards for marines.


I tried to represent the odd state of the warders, well equipped with basics but limited in access to the most advanced patterns of armor. Specifically, I bought a bunch of older rhinos on Ebay, distributing them between the Astral Claws and Lamenters. I also bought a bunch of Puppetswar Turrets, as their model has a gunner in a seat, something that was dropped from the older razorback's design. Deviation from the codex is represented in the army with some models made from Space Wolves bits and other random things I had lying around, including two Iron Warriors that I adjusted a bit to fit the look. I like the idea of techno-modified units in my army because the Master of the Forge for the Claws was particularly known for his skills in augmentation. This would come in handy down the road when Huron was near-fatally wounded and needed some upgrades.

With the advent of 6th edition and flyers, I picked up two Stormtalons, and I'm planning to get a Vendetta and a Stormraven to go with. I also picked up some Astral Claws shoulder pads and the Valthex and Lugft Huron models from Forge World. Since I was planning to primarily use the Master of the Forge as my HQ (only because Chapter Masters aren't particularly points efficient), I also picked up three pairs of autocannon Dreadnought arms. One of the things I look for first when starting an army is Forge World support, because their models are amazing and it makes an army just pop.



Other than this, the only other FW in the army is in my Sternguard squad, which I haven't finished assembling yet (having some dilemas in terms of how to equip them and whether to magnetize), I built five of them from the Mk V kit, and then used the Mk II-IV models from armour through the ages as my next four, finally building a tenth model from my bits box. I did also purchase one of the Forge Father minis from Mantic, the one that looks like a thunderfire cannon, I'm planning to get a second one to go with my other Techmarine.


My Lamenters started as two squads of Dark Vengeance Tacticals with their shoulder pads cleaned of iconography. I added to them 20 Assault Marines, some Sanguinary Priests, a Chaplain, and a few other units, including four Death Company. I haven't ordered their Stormraven yet, but the rumor of a SR coming to the Space Marine 'dex has me wondering which army will get the bugger. I am planning on expanding that kit using the Chapterhouse True-scale kit.