Melcavuk's Faction Expansions - Revitalising the Lore

Nice, you could use Armiger Knights as the base of the conversion.

1 hour ago, S133arcanite said:

Nice, you could use Armiger Knights as the base of the conversion.

Yeah they are the best base model, trying to work out a small malign portents narrative to describe the Templars but finding the right voice is challenging.

The vibe for the Templars is important to the lore, to the uneducated masses they are inspiring heroes, towering testaments to the might of the weld wielding flaming swords to slay monsters. But to the Engineers the thought of being interred in the Templar armour is horrific, it is a life of constant agony that burns through the wearer in short order, a last chance at glory for a maimed heir to a noble house. The cost alone is so exorbitant that the sight of a Templar harness being hosed down for reallocation after its wearer has expired is a tragically common thing in the factory cities. 

Its important that the lore establishes these arent Stormcast, no shining knights who get infinite tries, it is a tragic final act of a wounded soul.

Edited January 12, 2019 by Melcavuk

how are you going to model the swords? and how many templars in a unit?

6 hours ago, TheR00zle said:

how are you going to model the swords? and how many templars in a unit?

Still working on the concept for I’m not entirely sure on how the final model will look, I have the idea of how they look in lore but as I can’t sketch it’s hard to convey. Aiming for four max in a unit, points per single model, logic here is I imagine it to be a two model kit that either makes two Templar’s or one and a paladin

Rather than a new blog post I figured i would share what i have so far of the lexicology for the Ironweld here:

Weld - Overarching term to cover all of the factory cities and their resources. commoner reference to the Ironweld Arsenal as an empire.

Ironsworn - Nobility who have taken to battle, carrying with them the best that the industrial empire of the Weld can produce, though service is compulsary for all heirs to the noble houses to be inducted into the Ironsworn is still a great honour

Labourer - Commoners who serve the interests of the Weld, whilst the majority of their number might well never see the field of battle all are trained in the use and maintenance of the artillery they produce, should the factory cities come under attack each and every labourer is trained in their defense.

Weld Guard - Labourers who have been tasked with accompanying the Arsenal to battle, for many this is a brief endevour however the Weld know the value of human life and have found themselves to have excess. The Weld Guard exist purely to defend the Arsenal.

The Arsenal - War is industry to the forces of the Ironweld, the Arsenal is as much a reflection of commerce as it is of military might. When the Weld march to war it is to advertise their mastery of it, and to sell arms to those who wish to purchase. The Arsenal as a term of reference is used to signify unmanned artillery, but is also a unit of measurement for the wealth of the Noble Houses.

(Note: it is said that the name Ironweld Arsenal comes from the three pillars of their society. The Ironsworn Nobles, The Weld Guard and the Arsenal that gives them wealth)

The Noble Houses - At one time there were only four of the noble houses, one Duardin made up of the first pupils of Grimnir, three from the engineering schools of the largest Freecities. Each represents a particular aspect of the craft of war, with the Duardin mastery of runecrafting beyond compare, the house of Oran are master armourers, others perfect explosives, riflings etc. Each house takes a turn leading the interests of the Weld with the passing seasons though there is often fierce debate as to who should ascend next. In recent days a fifth noble house has risen up, new technologies have elevated commoners to the houses of nobles yet there is clear disdain from all but the Duardin house in their presence.

Anyone else wanting to throw out some terms of cultural tidbits feel free!

are we talking ironweld arsenal or age of waagmar edition of Adeptus mechanicus with a dash of Astartes thrown in as side flavoring as most of your army generally contains skitari troops converted to the age of Sigmar with occasional space marine thrown in as a heavy hitter with devastator marines and imperial knights acting as siege/ behemoth units.

1 minute ago, khadgar567 said:

are we talking ironweld arsenal or age of waagmar edition of Adeptus mechanicus with a dash of Astartes thrown in as side flavoring as most of your army generally contains skitari troops converted to the age of Sigmar with occasional space marine thrown in as a heavy hitter with devastator marines and imperial knights acting as siege/ behemoth units.

Thats an interesting point of view, not entirely unfounded but what we have seen so far of Ironweld Arsenal, beyond the limited range of models imported from Warhammer Fantasy is in the malign portents stories. I have built on brief descriptions and then extropolated outwards.

"The Master of Shot met him at the top of the stairs. Henraus Malliver was a stocky, barrel-chested man of middling years, his skin permanently marred by soot and valchemite burn" Clearly indicating a life of hard labour, wounds where practicality matters more than vanity.

"Loerson frowned, and turned to look at the towering tangle of steam-pipes and roaring bellows that was the pumphouse, built into the iron hide of the cog-fort’s larboard wall. Great copper tubes descended a dozen meters into the swamp, greedily devouring the silt and slime underneath the surface. Below, surveyors in hook-nosed masks strode through the murk upon mechanical striders, directing the labourers in their work." Labourers, mechanical striders, massive industrial pipes and steam belching machinery. Not shocking to the man indicating common place in the Weld

"Greycaps were lined along the walls of the cog-fort, their rifles placed in firing channels set along the ramparts of Saint Sverova. At their officers’ command, they cracked off a storm of lead and spun behind the parapet. The second rank stepped up to fire, while the first reloaded their wheel-lock muskets."  Riflemen, commonplace

As for your space marine/devastator comments? Where exactly are we seeing that? You've labelled the clockwork harness as imperial knight so I'm struggling to see what you mean as space marines/devastators? Or is that any model with a rifle like say... empire had in fantasy.

If you have constructive critisism I'm more than open to it, however from the lore we have had I have simply extropolated what I could

what I mean from space marine was dudes in bigger armor then most skitari/ ironweld units like veterans of battles to injured to work with regular prosthetics or guys specializing much heavier combat frame and use heavier weapons than regular ironweld utilize as the comment for how you can have sword-wielding ironweld skitari basically have their own swords thus only new paint scheme needed to add them. and I am sorry for the previous post I just extrapolated from what you wrote this. I just mention the similarities between the ironweld and skitari in the text and I do believe skitari models can be a substitute as ironweld arsenal troops with a bit of background excuse by changing forge world to forge cities.

I tried to avoid using Skitarii specifically as the base models (I do really want their rifles though) as they are entirely too metal for my tastes. The crude prosethetics on the Cawdor, the bandaged and patched clothing, the occasional shoe missing etc to means far more of a labourers life than a smooth coated Skitarii Vanguard. For the officers weirdly Eisenhorn makes the best base model (turn that coat mustard, change the head to something more Sigmaresque) and I have forgeworld heads from the Nuln Ironsider kit to replace his head with.

For the confusion around the marines the harness (thrice the height of a man), and the prosthetics (literally a more industrial version of the modern equivalent) are the two enhancements I had angled for, the first is literally a mechanical version of a monster with a butchered noble piloting it (Here I can see comparisons to the Knights but smaller, less armoured, less advanced, exposed pilot and a big ass sword) and the second is... a replacement limb. No steroid induced, indoctrinated, 8 foot marines walking around (unless you count stormcast and thats a whole other debate)

The reasoning behind using 40k kits is simple, they have human kits that were made this century. Unless you're looking for barrel chested chaos dudes Sigmar is currently light on base models for a human conversion, as much as the Empire troopers were good in their day they really havent ages well (to my mind) and whislt I do love the forgeworld variant even I cant afford to run full forgeworld on every conversion project (yet, one day...)

I understand how Factory Cities might lend to the concept of Forge World Equivalents, but since their outposts are Cog Fort, I tried to scale upwards and simply changed the name from "Factory Complex" in the lore to "Factory City" to make it self governing as a faction. On the plus side rereading the malignportents story has informed me they have "Cog Haulers" about the same size as alarilles beetle, whether this is a new name for the old steam tanks or something entirely new any lore tidbit that can lend ideas is always a most welcome concept.

13 hours ago, Melcavuk said:

I tried to avoid using Skitarii specifically as the base models (I do really want their rifles though) as they are entirely too metal for my tastes. The crude prosethetics on the Cawdor, the bandaged and patched clothing, the occasional shoe missing etc to means far more of a labourers life than a smooth coated Skitarii Vanguard. For the officers weirdly Eisenhorn makes the best base model (turn that coat mustard, change the head to something more Sigmaresque) and I have forgeworld heads from the Nuln Ironsider kit to replace his head with.

For the confusion around the marines the harness (thrice the height of a man), and the prosthetics (literally a more industrial version of the modern equivalent) are the two enhancements I had angled for, the first is literally a mechanical version of a monster with a butchered noble piloting it (Here I can see comparisons to the Knights but smaller, less armoured, less advanced, exposed pilot and a big ass sword) and the second is... a replacement limb. No steroid induced, indoctrinated, 8 foot marines walking around (unless you count stormcast and thats a whole other debate)

The reasoning behind using 40k kits is simple, they have human kits that were made this century. Unless you're looking for barrel chested chaos dudes Sigmar is currently light on base models for a human conversion, as much as the Empire troopers were good in their day they really havent ages well (to my mind) and whislt I do love the forgeworld variant even I cant afford to run full forgeworld on every conversion project (yet, one day...)

I understand how Factory Cities might lend to the concept of Forge World Equivalents, but since their outposts are Cog Fort, I tried to scale upwards and simply changed the name from "Factory Complex" in the lore to "Factory City" to make it self governing as a faction. On the plus side rereading the malignportents story has informed me they have "Cog Haulers" about the same size as alarilles beetle, whether this is a new name for the old steam tanks or something entirely new any lore tidbit that can lend ideas is always a most welcome concept.

so we have no problem then I like to read and maybe help the ironweld battle tome if you want by the way nice work in explaining to me the fluff you are looking as I am a bit of noob in army building thus any think I said to offend you I am sorry.

 @khadgar567 @S133arcanite if you guys want to help out writing an Ironweld Battletome I'd be more than grateful for the help, mixed viewpoints will do well to ensure the theme is conveyed through rather than my own personal perceptions filtering how things are viewed. Would be nice to get some collaboration going as the Suneaters on my own was a fair amount of work and still fell short of where i feel it could have reached.

1 hour ago, Melcavuk said:

 @khadgar567 @S133arcanite if you guys want to help out writing an Ironweld Battletome I'd be more than grateful for the help, mixed viewpoints will do well to ensure the theme is conveyed through rather than my own personal perceptions filtering how things are viewed. Would be nice to get some collaboration going as the Suneaters on my own was a fair amount of work and still fell short of where i feel it could have reached.

@Melcavuk, can I help as well? 

Just now, TheR00zle said:

@Melcavuk, can I help as well? 

Ofcourse, the others were only targetted because they'd specifically offered, always happy for more help!

Just now, Melcavuk said:

Ofcourse, the others were only targetted because they'd specifically offered, always happy for more help!

thanks, so where do we put all this stuff down, here or the Ironweld topic page you started?

The Ironweld thread in the Order subforum is the best home, as this is my personal blog it'd be hard for multiple posters to get equal headroom without lingering in my comments sections  Atleast using the Ironweld Thread it's in the right subforum and anyone can post to it without it being retired to comments.

1 hour ago, Melcavuk said:

The Ironweld thread in the Order subforum is the best home, as this is my personal blog it'd be hard for multiple posters to get equal headroom without lingering in my comments sections  Atleast using the Ironweld Thread it's in the right subforum and anyone can post to it without it being retired to comments.

understood