Machine Cult Pilgrims of Tor Megiddo, part 2

Eight more of the faithful join the procession across the red-orange desert in search of lost gods. I like the idea that some of them are trying to use battered old sensors and scanners to find archeotech relics, while others are just lugging bits of scrap tech they revere as holy relics.

I assembled the Tech-Priest Manipulus with lots of parts removed or left off to give him a more stripped-back and less of a "heavily armed" look. I used a lot of the left-overs for the other pilgrims in this group but there are also parts from Genestealer Cults Neophytes, Freeguild Archers and Militia, Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii and Rust-Stalkers, Poxwalkers, and probably a few other sources!

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I've been invited by the lovely team at JustPlayGames, in Liverpool, to join their affiliate scheme. This means you can support me a little and get your hobby supplies at a discount by using my link:

WarbossKurgan's JustPlay Games Affiliate Link

Grimdark Cards Challenge

The #GrimdarkCards challenge was started on Instagram by Ross (theendsoftheearthart) and there are a few hundred people taking part now!

To take part in the challenge, you have to send Ross a DM and he will draw a random Dark Millenium card for you. You have to try and reproduce the card's John Blanch art, in miniature form.

I got the 10 of Mechanicus:

My attempt is Gamma-Delta-Mu-10, the Datasmith of a lost Tor. I have been thinking of him as an NPC for the next Tor Megiddo campaign, and he has made the cogs start turning (I know, I know! Sorry.) in my head for a story we could use as the basis of the campaign's narrative...

The only thing I bought to make my entry was the Delaque kit (but I wanted some anyway for other projects), the rest of the parts I used were already in my bits box, left over from other things. This build used a Delaque legs and torso, Cawl's arms, Datasmith head, Skitarii backpack, Devastator Servoskull.

Grandfather Kurgan's Genestealer Cult, part 11

Cultists spent their whole lives preparing for the day of the final conquest. Generation after generation lived in secrecy, cycle after cycle bearing nauseating fruit. The infected spread the curse to others, and to their children, who in turn infected more. Like a living virus, they expanded exponentially, their numbers swelling until the rulers of the society's underworld were strong enough to seize the entire host planet. Though the later generations of each cycle had the appearance of common men and women, inside they were xenos through and through. Their allegiance was owed only to the organisms that brought the Genestealer Curse to their world, and the hybrids of their hidden kindred. Their Patriarch, starborne and inhuman, squatted at the centre of a web of influence that expanded until it covered the entire world. Every soul in the cult was mindlessly obedient to that repulsive creature, and would give their lives to save it.

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More Genestealer Cults news from GW means more Genestealer Cults work from me! (I know, I am fickle. But we are playing some casual Kill Team games between campaigns so my Cults are getting used in games!)

Brother Sava

Shotgun

Made from a (slightly butchered) Tempestus Scion with Neophyte arms and head.  I had started making something else with the Scion months ago but I abandoned that whole project and repurposed the minis as GSC.

Brother Jora

Shotgun

Another Tempestus Scion with Neophyte arms and head.

Brother Nikal

Autogun

Make from an Orlock ganger with a Neophyte head. The neck needed trimming to fit on the orlock body.

Brother Miron

Autogun

A GSC Neophyte with a Skitarii arms. I plan on using the Galvanic Rifle as some kind of sniper autogun.

Brother Stas

Autogun

Made from a Skitarii with Neophyte arms and head.

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Next up for my GSC (if I don't include working on stuff that hasn't been released yet!): non-combatant cult members. I'd say "civilians" but I think most (non-PDF anyway) Cultists count as civilian.

Grandfather Kurgan's Genestealer Cult, part 10

Basking in the sheer alien glory of the patron that infected them, Acolyte Hybrids Darsai and Sketan crooned and hissed in the gloom of the underhive. When the time came to throw off the torn robes they used to disguise their foulness, the Acolytes crawled out of the mines into the lamplight of Mancunius Dome, their grotesque faces twisted in subhuman glee. They displayed a bizarre blend of the species from which they hail – the speed of a Purestrain Genestealer twinned with human cunning is a potent combination. The hybrids fired off volleys of pistol fire, before descending on the enemy in a riot of claws, close combat weapons and screamed praise to their masters.

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With all the Genestealer Cults news over the weekend I was inspired to finish off these three models - they have been sat on my desk for three months as I lost interest in working on them when the grey zenithal-spray basecoat went weird and gritty on them. I did my best to clean it off the Goliath Neophyte (with an old toothbrush), but it took a long time and by the time I got to the Acolytes the paint had cured pretty hard and it was too late.

But coming back to them I found I wasn't nearly as bothered by it so I think I have made my peace with it.

I have a Kill Team game arranged for Friday this week - I think it's time the Order of the Guardian rose up!

Oil and Blood, Tor Megiddo - part 22 - Gang Moot

The campaign finale!

It's been so long,
And we've been putting out fire,
With promethium,
Feel our blood enraged,
It's just the fear of losing all.

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Dust-clouds gathered on the horizon and a storm of a different sort was brewing in the shanty town at the edge of Windgrip.

In a last-ditch attempt to broker peace between the Yaike Yaike tribes the elders arranged a Moot. The leaders of the Slipgibbets, the Stash Riders, the Ashtown Wasters and the Purebred met in a corner of The Notever and eyed each other warily.

Their henchmen and followers milled around the ruins, trying not to look too conspicuous or aggressive but also trying to be as intimidating as they could. None of them really wanted this peace, but they didn't want to get the blame for the negotiations failing.

Any hopes of a truce soon went out of the window though as Beetle, the leader of the Stash Riders, revved his chainaxe and charged straight at Great Father Arun!

Commander Blitzer read the ley of the land and charged Katorax! The Slipgibbet's leader was wounded twice and failed to hit back. Luckily for Kastorax, Blitzer's plasma pistol fizzled out of ammo as the last charge missed him. Then the Commander's stimms overloaded his system and the hulking brute seized-up!

Kastorax looked around to see if anyone saw, then fried the Ashtown Waster's leader with his shock stave and laughed to himself.

Beetle and Arun dueled on. Two Wasters ran passed them and ignored both!

Absent and Cable mucked about and did nothing useful.

Duggee stalked his prey...

Kastorax tried to raise the alarm as Beetle took down Great father Arun, but only Hijack noticed! The other gangs' fighters all paid much more attention!

Warfather jax gunned down the Slipgibbets' Tech Witch with his heavy stubber!

The Wasters pinned down a couple of the Stash Riders, wounding one of them badly.

Echelon the Rider and Warfather Dez were both injured by a grenade Cable fired (when the lunk finally realised something bad was going on!)

The Rustmen looked on. Who knows what they made of the unfolding scenes of mayhem before them?

Duggee chomped on Jax's leg and breathed flames over the Rider!

Hijack tried to have a go at one of the injured Stash Riders.

Successfully for once! He pulverised the fallen ganger with his power pick.

Cable blasted Beetle off his feet with a krak grenade and Smilin' Merc ran up and finished him off - claiming the kill. much to Cable's annoyance! But even though he was out of action he had been the last leader standing and gained some reputation for that!

The Hound jumped up and shot at Hijack and pinned him. Atlas also took fire and ducked...

... As the Red Wind returned!

The Notever, and probably the rest of the continent, was once more engulfed in choking dust clouds and the gangs scattered to their boltholes and hideouts.

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And so the Oil and Blood: Tor Megiddo campaign draws to a close. 

The final Reputation table looks like this:

19 - The Stash Riders
16 - The Slipgibbets
12 - The Purebred
8 - The Ashtown Wasters
7 - The Disciples of the Black

The Gang Rating table is as follows:

1920 - The Slipgibbets
1520 - The Ashtown Wasters
1470 - The Stash Riders
1415 - The Disciples of the Black
1390 - The Purebred

The Powerbroker and Creditor Triumphs go to the Stash Riders. The Slaughterer Triumph clearly goes to Duggee, as that good boy took out more enemy fighters than any whole gang managed!

We will be returning to Tor Megiddo next year: We will begin a new Turf War with some gangs returning and some new gangs joining the fight. The story will move on as well as new plot-threads will be added and we will continue to explore new facets of the Tor Megiddo setting.

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The land shakes beneath the fury of the storm.
The sand is drenched in blood and oil.
Most holy Promethium, it fills our veins with wrath.
Ride forth warlord! Blessed by the Cog and the Bolt!
Wage war in the sun!