Astartes Chapter Fleet - Battlefleet Gothic - Part 1 (and some Epic)

To The Stars

A fellow up here recently started a project (or informal club or what-have-you) for Battlefleet Gothic. The project/club has been an instant success and is very well subscribed, and having had my first game, I can attest to the quality of this particular miniature wargame.

The best place to get started with Battlefleet Gothic is this Specialist Arms web page: https://www.specialist-arms.com/forum/index.php?topic=5203.0

There is even a fan-created regular online magazine for the game with a wealth of information about fleets, miniatures, battles and campaigns etc.

Battlefleet Gothic should work well together with Epic 40,000 (which I have been meaning to pick up again), and Aeronautica Imperialis (which I have also started playing), by providing the large-scale space battle aspect to combined campaigns. With teleport raids and boarding actions a significant feature of Battlefleet Gothic, why not even pick up Killteam and build a squad while we're at it?

While the original Games Workshop miniatures are of course out of print, there are still plenty of alternative non-GW suppliers, and heaps of free 3D print files out there (really amazing technology, when you have mates with the right skills).

The 'Prototype' Astartes (that's the Space Marines) Flotilla

I wanted the fleet to look as good as I could make it, so I did not just go straight. Rather, I painted a few 'prototypes' - one of each of the major ship types - to get used to spaceships and see if the chosen colour scheme worked. After three ships and several Thunderhawks and torpedoes, I am comfortable with the colours.

An overly washed-out photo taken with the phone flash, showing, from top to bottom: a Gladius Class Frigate, standard fitout Strike Cruiser, Hunter Class Destroyer, torpedo marker, and Thunderhawk gunship squadrons (all 3D printed).

A better shot of the ships, without the flash. The Turquoise colour is a bit lighter than it seems here. The death angel on the rear of the cruiser and the winged sword icon all point to the chapter's claimed descent from the 1st Legion, the Dark Angels. 

These custom 3D printed bases are neat, and deserving to receive the ship names of honour. I made the labels in MS Publisher and printed them off.

The first Thunderhawk squadrons, with two different marking types in case this is needed.

The Space Marine Chapter

Descendants of the Lion, tutored by the sons of Ultramar, and bearers of the Legacy of the Hawk

Because there are "1,000(!) chapters,"* I created one of my own. The name of the chapter at the time of writing is still TBC, as are many of their details of their history (in fact, the history and lore will need to be written as I game). Actually this chapter is not new to me. I got 2nd Edition Epic 40,000 back in the old days and a few of the Space Marines and Rhinos received Ultramarines colours because blue was the best of the four or five colours we had. Much later, I bought a cool new colour called Hawk Turquoise to apply to all the Epic Marines. The force became the 'Turquoise Hawks' as a provisional title. The Hawks participated in some small skirmishes against Orks on an unknown desert planet before entering stasis (storage).

The Turquoise Hawks Chapter and supporting units, assembled on parade prior to their second period in storage. The two things at the bottom left of the box are unpainted Thunderhawks gunships I scratch-built when I was a kid from balsa wood, plastic sprue and Weet-Bix boxes.

Millennia (Decades) later, the Marines were reanimated. Again they were sent to battle the Orks on a desert world, as some local gamers became quickly and briefly interested in getting back into a new version of Epic 40,000 called NetEpic Armageddon. After an unexceptional showing in their 1990s Turquoise, they were again returned to stasis, and an Administratum order for their disbandment and liquidation (Ebay sale or just given away) lost in the administrative chaos of the vast Imperium of Man.

The only known pic-capture of the Turquoise Hawks defending against an Ork assault on the unknown desert world.

It is only now, centuries (years) later that the remaining Turquoise Hawks were again re-awoken to serve Humanity, though their orders and instructions are vague and apparently incomplete. Attempting to obey their orders to the best of their knowledge, they have returned to fight again: terrestrially, in the atmospheres, and now in the infinite void of space above and beyond.

May the Hawks learn their true name and achieve worth, honour and redemption through service and sacrifice (and may their liquidation order continue to be lost indefinitely in the paperwork of the Administratum, the archives of Terra, or the depths of the Warp, at least for now).

Astartes of the 5th Company. A miniature I picked up badly painted for $1 at a games convention, later restored to honour as the Exemplar of the Chapter (Citadel miniatures).

*40K notoriously does not understand scale in a realistic fashion various reasons. I believe '1,000 chapters' here is a stand-in for 'more than we will list comprehensively.' Of course, as the fellow Baldermort said on Youtube, the 'countlessness' of number of chapters is to give the 40K gamer the opportunity to create their own personalised chapter of Space Marines. I have some thoughts about 40K and scale that I'll write on the blog one day.