Down Badab

There is a point in many wargamers' lives where they do something that they never thought they'd do. Oftentimes this thing is trying a different genre like historical, or getting really into model trains and versimilitude at HO scale, but there's a surprise present where something you've judged or written off turns out to be fascinating, and THE THING you didn't know you needed in your life.

I don't know that I've found that in Space Marines, but this year I caught the bug, and have since been Down Badab (she said the thing, gahhhhhhhh, she said the name of the episode, graahhahhhh!)

So, for the uninitiated (what are you doing here?) what is a Space Marine, what is a Badab, why did I not care, and what changed?

In Warhammer 40k, Space Marines are the transhuman supersoldiers of the Imperium, an empire that united much of the human race after a bloody crusade. It was then fractured by civil war, and has since struggled to maintain its borders and project power on the other civilizations and entities that inhabit the galaxy. The space marines, arranged into chapters, are the physical embodiment of that projected power, and are the greatest weapon that the xenophobic imperium can muster against alien and daemonic threats.

The Badab war is perhaps the second most important civil war in the history of the Imperium, where a handful of Space Marine chapters were tasked with guarding a rift in space called the Maelstrom, but also had to pay oppressive tithes that impacted their ability to protect their sector safely or efficiently. Essentially, the Maelstrom Wardens withheld their taxes and attempted to secede from the Imperium, a move which was met with legions of Space Marines being deployed to bring the secessionists back in line. Eventually the secessionists lost, and while many of them had penitent crusades, some of them fled to the Maelstrom, only to return centuries later, corrupted by the power of Chaos.

That is not the whole story, nor is it an accurate retelling. One of the beautiful things about how Games Workshop, the company who makes Warhammer 40k tells their stories is that all of it is apocryphal, heavily weighted by the belief and the perspective of those telling the tale, and so there is no definitive version of events. All of the lore for this universe is more or less conjecture by fans mentally compiling heaps of retellings and reimagining to make a "completed" picture, which when used as a tool is super successful in making the participating fans feel like they're part of the game and it's world. It's interactive storytelling at it's finest, and when that realization hits you, I have found that it grows your appreciation of the thing.

Another stereotype, or maybe more of a truism about wargamers of a certain ilk, is that sooner or later, you'll wind up with Space Marines in your bits box. It's almost inevitable, as their poster boy status within Warhammer 40k keeps them present in every starter set, and so they're produced at a scale that should lead to saturation, but somehow never has. I think what turned me off initially was the ubiquity of them: everyone has them, so how do you feel special or unique when you play with them? They're generic, and you're not that, so why entertain the idea?

But then a few things happened. Horus Heresy 2nd edition had an amazing trailer drop, and then I read the first book in the Horus Heresy novel series and between the two, I unlocked memories of appreciation, and grew a greater understanding of what Space Marines could mean. What they could be.

Space Marines had been super soldiers made to protect mankind from their greatest enemies. Space Marines were children, who had their humanity taken from them for a greater good. Space Marines could be othered from the people they were made to protect, and could feel inner turmoil just as much as the humans that no longer considered them kin. There's an intense whiff of trans loneliness and duty brain when you crack into the ceramite armor of a Space Marine, and while there are other depths and complexities to the super soldiers, this is the one that I related to the most. 

Understanding things is cool though, and once I had my in, the rest of my current fixation fell into place. While doing research for OWAC, I found videos about the Badab War from Arbiter Ian that I thought were pretty keen, that talked about the way that story has grown and changed and developed complexities over the course of 40 years. I remembered a White Dwarf magazine campaign about the Huron Blackheart and the Astral Claws, the secessionist protagonists of the Badab War as they were in the 41st Millennium, hopping in and out of the warp as Chaos corrupted space pirates. On top of that, I found out that some locals had been playing 2nd edition Horus Heresy with fan made Badab rules slapped on top, and that was the other in; I had found something to care about, and then I had found something to do with it. That's how you get in deep kiddos. Head over heels over head over heels.

So there is actually a project under all of this. As per the  stereotype, I have actually amassed a great deal of Space Marines of firstborn, Heresy, and Primaris varieties, and have even cobbled together a small Death Guard army from them without making a sizable dent. That could very well change this year, since I think I'd like to play some Badab, or at least a little 3rd/4th edition 40k. Inspired by the Gary Chalk camo as seen in the art from earlier in the post, I'm planning to make 1-2 small forces following those schemes for the Space Marines chapters of the Minotaurs, and the Lamenters, who were bitter does during the Badab War. I'm still very shaky on the HH2 rules, so the forces will be built for earlier editions with forwards compatibility in mind. If I have time and inclination, I might also make some Legion of the Damned models with the spares I've collected/been gifted, so long as there isn't another hobbyist in need who would make better use of the bits. I'm actually quite excited to make use of some of these older discarded models, since I'm a firm believer that these little toys deserve to be played with. It's not quite upcycling, but it is a bit of a "local enby adopts 20 shelter cats so they know what love is," kind of a situation.

That said, some of these models were still on sprue, or were models I couldn't find secondhand to rescue, and so there are a few fresh faces among my first batch of recruits. It has been quite some time since I cracked open a kit and had myself a build night, and sometimes it's ok to enjoy the simple pleasures and the easy work. I did so twice over the month of December, and as a palette cleanser, it's been tremendous for lightening the mood.

I think I've been quite windy enough, so this next bit will be brief. Here's a picture of my work bench, with all the Marines I've built/rehabilitated. I'm not sure how many of them will wind up on one side or the other, or how many will remain built in this way, but today this is where the project stands.

A rhino

A dreadnought 

5 scouts

5 scouts with sniper rifles

10 tac Marines 

10 tac Marines with chainswords and bolt pistols

I won't include points because I don't know what they are yet. At risk of being too windy, I will say that as per usual, I've enjoyed making these little units, sorting like with like. It's the little joy of completing a set, and even though these are far from done, there's still a sense of satisfaction that comes from knowing they're all together with their kin. 

Community is important, even at 28m scale. 

And on that note, resonant or not, thanks for reading. I hope you're still discovering new perspectives, that you're finding fresh joy, and that you feel like part of the story. After all, you're here, and we're happier for it.

Happy New Year.