I'm excited to be back from Greece and more excited to continue our guest writer, Codicier Ignatius' Badab Characters 101 section. This time it's the turn of the Sons of Medusa, fresh from his excellent blog 'Fourth Company Librarium (be sure to check it out and follow).
"The Sons of Medusa are an Iron Hands successor, and share the reliance on technology and stubborn, methodical way for making war with their founding Chapter. They have a unique history among Chapters, having been exiled from the Iron Hands due to a doctrinal schism in Mechanicus teachings. The exiles became a crusading fleet-based Chapter, and were joined by the exiles from other Iron Hands successors sharing their divergent beliefs. Eventually, the exiles were found to be free of heresy and incorporated as an independent Chapter.
The Chapter is composed of three War Clans, each consisting of a Battle Company, a Tactical Company, and a Support Company (containing additional Devastator, Assault, and Veteran Squads), as well as an independent Scout Company. Each War Clan is led by an Iron Thane, and the three Iron Thanes lead the Chapter as a council. They have an extremely capable corps of Techmarines, known as the Chamber Ferrum, who maintain the Chapter’s weaponry at an exceptional level of technology. This includes the ability to construct new Dreadnoughts and the rarer variants of Land Raiders.
They entered the Badab War as Loyalists when the Inquisition officially declared the Separatist movement heretical. They were primarily used to raid and subjugate Separatist worlds, including Cygnax, Decabalus, Eshunna, and Galen. The bear a special hatred of the Excutioners, who destroyed the Sons of Medusa strike cruiser Warspite along with all hands. This hatred nearly led them open fire on the Salamanders when they allowed the Executioners to stand down from the war. The Sons of Medusa’s final engagement was during the assault on Badab Primaris, where the star fortress protecting the planet from orbital attack.
The Sons of Medusa are stubborn, uncompromising warriors. They maintain a flexible organization capable of confronting any opponent, but appear to prefer overwhelming firepower and heavily armored assaults. As such, a Sons of Medusa army should contain a mixture of heavy tanks, Dreadnoughts, Terminators, and Devastators. They aren’t about subtlety or speed, but raw power.
Vaylund Cal
Vaylund Cal is the Iron Thane of the Atropos War Clan. Cal an emotionless and uncompromising leader, and is heavily cybernetically augmented. He also prefers to augment his Devastators, greatly enhancing their durability. He has heavily modified Captain’s statline, with less weapon skill and attacks but extra points of strength and toughness. With artificer armor and an iron halo, he’s extremely durable. He also carries a thunder hammer; even with a limited number of attacks, he’ll still inflict a few kills.
Cal replaces his armies Combat Tactics with Fearless, making any shooty infantry very reliable (in assault, ATSKNF is actually better). He brings along some standard Techmarine rules, including Blessing of the Omnissiah and allowing Dreadnoughts, Venerable Dreadnoughts, and Ironclad Dreadnoughts to be taken either as Heavy Support or Elite choices. Finally, any Devastators in his army that are suitably modeled gain Feel No Pain at not cost, though they can’t run or sweeping advance. This is a huge perk, and makes Devastators a real option for Space Marines.
Vaylund Cal creates a very reliable and durable Space Marine army, and should appeal to any player that likes overwhelming firepower. In addition, this army requires some cool conversions to produce the required bionic Devastators and the pseudo-dreadnought form of Vayland Cal (at least, that’s how I envision him)."
Thanks Codicier Ignatius. Wonder which chapter will be next? Personally I like the Sons of Medusa fluff and how they split from the Iron Hands, over a doctrinal schism. Whilst the Character could really make you discover your modelling skills as you attempt to make him and his heavy bionic devastator squads. Anyone seen any collectors of this army in the blogsphere? If you have drop me a comment.