Dark Angels: suitable Sons of Malice Counts-As?

Like many other folks, I've been readily with a strong appetite the rumours and rules discussions that are now coming out thick and fast about the new Dark Angels codex.  My long term readers will certainly know that I have a thing for Dark Angels - of all the loyalist chapters (including the Alpha Legion?!!? hehe!) the Dark Angels are the one that I like the most. 

Thing is, they've always appealed to me as a potential count-as chaos army. Particularly with their connection to the Fallen which is written in to their background story.

But I'm reading a few new rules that might be hard to explain for a counts-as army.  In particular, that there will be hatred (or possibly preferred enemy) for anything from codex: chaos space marines.  Granted, certain elements of Khorne would have a self-loathing, certain elements of Tzeentch plot against each other, certain parts of Nurgle want each other to decay more rapidly, and certain parts of Slaanesh ... well, best not to speak too much about that beyond reminding myself of Ron's awesome LustWing army he converted and painted a long time ago. 

So which chaos faction would best be represented by hatred or preferred enemy toward codex: chaos space marines.  A simple answer here folks.  The Sons of Malice.  They embody chaos' self destructive motivations supremely well.  Perhaps even the Fallen fell to Malal (ahem) Malice at some point.  Yep.  That's my narrative if I'm going to think about a possible Death Wing or Dark Angels counts-as for the forthcoming new codex! 

 

What Should be in a Sons of Malice Themed Army?

I would like some help to attempt to answer the question of what units from Codex: Chaos Space Marines would be suitable for use in a Sons of Malice themed army in today's post.

As with many other people in the hobby, I recognise the Sons of Malice as Malal's own chapter. In brief, Malal is the renegade chaos entity who opposes the other big four. Hence immediately, to build a Sons of Malal themed army, I reckon it is safe to rule out all those models who possess the mark of the big four. Explicitly: that immediately rules out plague marines, rubric marines, bezerkers, and noise marines. But what of the other entries in Codex: Chaos Space Marines?

Although we wouldn't be able to take any named characters as is, there may be the potential to use some of them in a different guise based on effects.  For instance, Abaddon could be a cool one to use with his daemon blade (i.e. a trapped daemon of a different god) and his combat ability.  Indeed, I plan to use my earlier conversion as a Sons of Malice character.  But would any other be good?  Fabius Bile could potentially be used as as I'm fairly certain that he didn't fall to Slaanesh like the rest of the Emperor's Children.

In terms of other units, dreadnoughts seem okay, as do the vehicle entries in general, alongside the usual marines, terminators and havocs. 

What do other people think should be in a Sons of Malice themed army?

Sons of Malice: Combat Squad

It's been a while since I wrote an update concerning my developing Sons of Malice miniatures.  To be fair, I've only built up and painted a few of them, having concentrated most of my time on daemons of late. That not withstanding, I've got a small combat squad of Sons of Malice marines now -- enough to form the core of killteam squad at any rate.  

The five of them are converted with a variety of close combat weapons (spear, axe and mace), one has a flamer special weapon, and there are some chaos warrior bits thrown in to the mix as well. All are painted with red accents on their head pieces, similar to the initial test model that I painted up. 

I am yet to figure out the insignia for them and how to paint it.  In the Games Workshop background, it is typically depicted as a skull: one half in white, the other in black, and sometimes with an arrow down the middle of it.  I not too sold on that insignia though.  Other ideas would be welcome!

Battle Report: Chaos Space Marines vs. Tyranids (200 points / Kill Zone)

To help promote the Kill Zone rules, this post is a mini battle report on a small band of chaos space marines against a bunch of genestealers. My list cheated slightly: I had (unknowingly) one too many 2+ save models (doh). (Sorry Jim, I clearly didn't read the rules closely enough!).

My Chaos Space Marine team consisted of:
3 Chaos Terminators, 1 combi-melta (95 points) (team leader has the combi melta)
5 Khorne Berzerkers (105 points)

Meanwhile, the opposing tyranids were:
10 genestealers, with 1 broodlord (200 points) (team leader is the broodlord)

We stopped short of having any of the optional upgrades, but the genestealers could have done swift as the wind.

The set-up was a small area, littered with craters and small rubble piles (difficult terrain). I think the set-up will favour my marines since it'll leave the genestealers with precious little cover. The mission is 1.4 (extreme prejudice).

Turn 1.
I bunch my terminators up together and head toward the nearest crater. The shoot and kill two genestealers straight away, despite a cover save. Those twin linked bolters are good, even if they're not storm bolters. The khorne berzerkers, I keep a bit looser and allow them to prowl as lone wolves. They move up on the genestealers but fail to kill any. In return, the genestealers oblige by moving closer and then running even closer.

Turn 2.
Another dead genestealer to my terminators reduces their number to 7, plus the broodlord. One berzerker manages to get in combat with a genestealer but is promptly slain on their sharp claws. Three genestealers charge two more berzerkers. One berzerker dies, but two genestealers also perish.

Turn 3.
Two berzerkers charge the broodlord and kill it. One more berzerker dies in exchange though. The terminators take down a further genestealer, but can't manage a "kill zone" since the unengaged genestealers are spread too far apart. A further berzerker perishes to a genestealer.

Turn 4.
This is the genestealers turn of glory. Taking the initiative and using the reactive assault rule, they wipe out the remaining berzerkers and move toward the terminators in their crater.

Turn 5.
My terminators reduce the genestealers down to four in number (pictured). The genestealers then charge. One dead terminator and two dead genestealers.

Turn 6.
The remaining pair of terminators finally manage to break the genestealers and they rout. As they run, they viciously gun them down. ++ Victory to the forces of chaos. But only just. It was a narrow match!

Finally.
Next time, we're going to look more closely at some of the flavour options! Swift as the wind and armoured might look cool. I'm also going to work toward having a sons of malice kill team that can double up as chaos chosen & terminators in a standard game.

Old Terminator, New Base and Paint Scheme

The image is of an old Chaos Terminator, half painted up in the colours of the Sons of Malice (following some paint stripping from many years ago). Although I'm yet to complete this miniature (i.e. highlighting and blending the lighter colours), today I wanted to illustrate how a new base can easily transform an old miniature.

The base is a 40mm construct from back 2 basix. It features an urban setting with an old fuel (petrol?) canister on the rear. As you may be aware, the old style terminators were designed to fit in to a regular slottbase rather than a 40mm circular base. Hence, with this miniature, I have removed the slotta tab and pinned it to the resin base. The result still looks like a regular terminator, but he now has the correct base size for the modern 40k era. The only way that a casual observer would be able to tell that this fellow is not a modern chaos terminator is to look closely at the size of him in contrast to the modern plastic ones. He is slightly shorter in height and less bulky (or "heroic", if I can use that word). However, the new base gives him a height boost and a solid foundation to hold his own amongst his newer cousins.

Terminator of Malice

To expand the range of miniatures that I've got for the Sons of Malice, I've added a few terminators. This particular chap has the standard chaos terminator armaments: a power weapons coupled with a twin linked bolter. On his back, I've attached the upper portions of a force weapon from the terminator lord boxed set (since the miniature I've assembled from the terminator lord won't be a sorcerer). This will double up as an icon of chaos glory when required. But otherwise is simply a cool looking accessory.

The painting follows the usual scheme for the Sons of Malice: quartered black and white. The accent colour is red, the same as for my power armoured marines. There's not too many problems with the painting, but the halving of the black and white caused me headaches near the skull icon in the centre of his forehead. Otherwise this one was smooth and by the numbers.

For the base, I've added a couple of bits and pieces from the warhammer 40,000 basing kit (e.g. a purple marine's beaked helmet can be seen at the right foot of the terminator). The look I was going for on the base was an urban wasteland / battlefield which I think complements the miniature well.

Axeman of Malice

Just a quick post and a picture today to show some further progress on a growing contingent of Sons of Malice space marines. This conversion is a chap with an axe from the chaos warriors boxed set of Warhammer Fantasy. Other than that, a pretty standard chaos marine miniature.

The paint scheme follows the one that I've been working to perfect over the last few Sons of Malice models. The highlighting of the white still needs some thought, but I'm happy with the black quadrants now. The choice of reds and oranges for the accent colour also seems to be working out rather well too. There's a bit more mud on this chap's boots than my previous miniatures in this range, but I think it looks fine as it makes the miniature look more natural (i.e. not pristine white painted armour ... its a bit more worn!)

Sons of Malice Flamer Marine

Against a background of imperial ruins, a lone Sons of Malice marine armed with a flamer cautiously scouts.I'll confess that this is my first attempt at an artistically posed shot in a long while. I'm pleased how it turned out! The ruins blend in nicely with the playing board, without detracting from the black, white and red of the chaos marine.

Sons of Malice Hunter

The Sons of Malice horde grows! A while ago, I explored a few conversions to try to get some more dynamism in to otherwise semi-static looking chaos space marines. One of the results was the "hunter" model - a marine with a long hunting spear taken from the warhammer fantasy battle zombie boxed set (and a bionic thigh).

The marine has been painted in the colours of the sons of malice. There are two hard parts about this: firstly remembering which quarter should be black and which should be white; and secondly, actually painting in black and white - both of which are non-trivial colours to work with. My previous sons of malice test model helped me think through the complexities of these colours somewhat and I've tried to replicate the process here.

To solve the first issue, I always start a Sons of Malice model on the left leg. I know that has to be white in colour. The problem with painting black and white basically boils down to how to shade and highlight the colours. Grey is your friend with black, and white can also be toned down a few shades with (yet again) grey (although a pale, pastel blue may also work).
The silver trim on the model has been highlighted with white (using a steady hand and a 000 paint brush) and the eyes of the marine painted in a menacing red colour. The final steps included adding some brown dirt and grime on to the lower legs of the model to suggest recent action.

You'll notice that I've also used some boltgun silver to drybrush around the metallic joints of the marine and complete his weaponry. Overall, I'm pleased with the model and will be painting up more sons of Malice as time permits.

Sons of Malice: A Test Model

The Sons of Malice are an unusual space marine chapter with very little cannon history associated with them. They're rumoured to be the followers of the Chaos god Malal -- the Chaos power who wants to destroy the others. From time to time in various White Dwarf magazine articles and Chaos Marine codex, they've been pictured and spoken about in light terms; presumably so as not to tread on the feet of the people who own the intellectual property rights to Malal (which is not Games Workshop from what I hear). But I digress.

The paint scheme for the Sons of Malice (I almost wrote Sons of Malal there) is always depicted as black and white. Although I've sometimes seen in halved, the most common form is a quartered black and white painting scheme -- very heraldic and obvious to those that know who the Sons of Malice actually are. I decided that I wanted to paint a few of these up, primarily as I got very bored with the Night Lords colour scheme that I was planning to use on my chaos chosen load-out. Moreover, I'm also wanting to create a kill team for the new Battle Missions and wanted a unique colour scheme: I think the Sons of Malice fit the bill very well.

Hence, I decided to try out painting a single chaos space marine in the quartered black and white colour scheme. Now let me tell you, black and white are two of the top three colours (along with yellow) in the category of "hardest to paint and get looking right", as can be seen from the From the Warp archive. There are a number of good tutorials out there for painting both black and white. I tried to digest them before I set about painting this model. Sadly for me, I'd already undercoated the model in black. In hind sight, grey would have been a superior colour to use.
I first decided to work on the white portions of the armour. To begin with, I basecoated these regions in dheneb stone. I was careful with this layer to leave a little bit of the black undercoat showing through around the edges. I then gave it a wash of diluted black and allowed it to dry off. The next stage was to apply a thin (i.e. diluted) wolf grey. I then blended this colour with skull white and progressively added diluted layers over smaller and smaller portions of the white armour-work. A couple of pure skull white highlights were added as a final step. The black portions meanwhile got a small coat of grey (=black plus white) in selected areas (the back pack, portions of the legs and arms). This was washed as above and then highlighted to a lighter grey colour around the edges of the armour.

Only with that all done did I start on the trim. The trim is picked out carefully in boltgun metal and highlighted in off-white. The eyes and horns were painted with a wet blending of reds and oranges. Whilst the feet were given a dusting of brown colours to simulate them having trodden through mud and general debris. The bolter on the other hand was basecoated in bolt gun metal, washed in black, highlighted and given gold accents on the arrows.

Overall, I'm very happy with the outcome of this model and am now thinking about making a kill team of Sons of Malice.