Zone Secundus: The Church of the Red Athenæum - Gunfighter

A Genestealer Cultist next to a member of the Church of the Red Athenæum.

 

We recently had the pleasure of chatting with the prolific miniature artist K0rdhal about his community event/setting Zone Secundus. Building on Necromunda lore, it takes place in the radioactive waste of Hive Secundus, after the nuclear bombardment to rid the city of the Cult of the Second Son Genestealer Cult. The setting takes influence from books like Roadside Picnic and Metro 2033, as well as post apocalyptic video games like Stalker and Fallout. It is a claustrophobic, desolate setting, defined by radiation sickness and failing equipment. With such an evocative narrative setting, we could not help but get involved, and after some brainstorming, we realized it would be a great opportunity to revisit one of our favorite creations, the Church of the Red Athenæum. Designed for Iron Sleet’s Pilgrym event, the Church is a radical splinter of the Imperial Cult that believes suffering is the highest form of veneration of the God-Emperor. Wanting to share their enlightenment with the wider Imperium, they sent missionaries out to populated hive worlds, where their ideology took root. Being so close to Terra, Necromunda was one of the first worlds to be reached by the Red Church, where they built a bastion to their faith in the ill-fated Hive Secundus, which is now an irradiated sump of twisted metal. But their faith is strong. Vivere est Pati.

Dragged into Turbolasers episode 81: Zone Secundus with K0rdhal!

Enter Zone Secundus!

In this episode we are joined by the talented K0rdhal to talk about his community event/setting Zone Secundus. It takes place in the radioactive waste of Hive Secundus, after the nuclear bombardment to rid the city of Cult of the Second Son Genestealer Cult. Taking influence from books like Roadside Picnic and Metro 2033, as well as post apocalyptic video games like Stalker and Fallout, it is a claustrophobic, desolate setting, defined by radiation sickness and failing equipment. We talk about his vision for the setting, and what models he and others have created so far. We also discuss what we plan to make for the setting and how others can get involved in Zone Secundus too!

F28 War Always Changes: Impressions

F28 War Always Changes, core rulebook and Player’s Guide.

We at Between the Bolter and Me do not often get the opportunity to play miniature wargames, and tend to focus our energies on creating unique miniatures and defining our own niche of the Warhammer 40,000 setting. When we do get to play, however, our focus is not on careful rules analysis and list-building. Afterall, since we sometimes go years between games, the particulars of a rules system fade away. Instead, we focus on conveying narratives and creating interesting gameplay choices. When we participated in Iron Sleet’s Pilgrym event, no one was particularly concerned with the ruleset being used, with all of us using an amalgamation of different editions of Warhammer 40k and Necromunda, falling back on the foundation that a 4+ roll on a die is a good starting place for anything. Because of this, we are always excited to find new, intuitive rule systems that facilitate this style of gameplay, and ones that do not get in the way of narrative immersion. After reading a great article about incorporating a Games Master into Inq28 games in volume 3 of the digital magazine 28, we learned about a rule system developed by Karl Bergstrӧm that facilitates this sort of gameplay called F28. To our surprise, he contacted us asking if we would be interested in reading over the ruleset and sharing our thoughts. We jumped at this opportunity, and having had the chance to go over the rules a few times, wanted to give our thoughts.

Tutorial: Autopistol

A standard Sister of Battle bolt pistol (top) and a converted autopistol (bottom).

Last year I started a series of tutorials for creating smaller firearms for Warhammer 40k models, including a Sister of Battle Boltgun, a Space Marine plasma rifle, and a laspistol. This month, I wanted to create another human-scaled firearm to complement the laspistol, this time the ubiquitous autopistol! This tutorial is a little more advanced than some of the previous weapon conversion tutorials posted on this blog. Unlike previous tutorials, this one uses very few of the original weapon designs and contours to guide the initial cuts and to inform the final design.