He deserves a name, like all Dreadnoughts. At Bolter and Chainsword, under the Ultramarines segment, there is a Librarium Project to track / disclose the names of very named Ultramarine in the GW IP. That resource is pretty cool, as it gives me a location from where to identify my 3rd Company (and 1st Company) characters.
We have a minor problem. There are no named Ultramarine Contemptor Dreadnoughts. So, going deep in the archives at B&C, I decided for now to use the name Titus (in honor of the MIA 3rd co. Veteran Devastator Sergeant Titus).
It also came to me in my video battle with the venerable Spectre Senence that I really need to set aside my own copy of my 3rd and 1st Company characters essentially as a data dictionary for future use. I'll look to create that linkage of character names in a future blog post.
Anyway - back to Contemptor Mortis Titus...
After using the Dreadnought in a few games, and looking at the model, it seemed apparent that the basic Contemptor Chassis is pretty plain looking. No real details, nothing that sets aside the fact that the Contemptor pattern has been around for a long time (back to the Heresy), and needed some spicing up.
So, off to the bits box I went. I've added some components from a Venerable dread sprue, and a few more purity seals. Just these small changes are starting to break up the plain look, and gives it a bit more style. I was thinking about adding some gun banners (a-la Epic Titan style), but that will wait - maybe after Titus brings down a HellDrake or a Eldar bomber.
I also found some small shell piles on a Terminator Sprue to add to the base. Overall, though, I'm
thinking that for a Dreadnought like this Mortis, with the amoubnt of firepower it pumps out, the shell piles need to be much, much, much bigger! So now I'm looking to add to the base more shell casings, and I need to find a way to make them.
Also considering the nature of the game and the amount of shooting Titus couls be expected to use, I'm going to look for some ammo storage boxes to pile around him as well.
I played two games since the last post; the first game was 1500 pts vs. Eldar...Titus was not involved...I lost badly. Around turn 2 everything was going well, and then the Eldar reserves arrived, and between cold dice and Eldar rending dice, it was over. Dreadnought Titus was not involved in that game.
The next game was a week later, 1950 points vs a fairly new player. It was more of a game to give him an opponent than anything. When he asked me to play, it is not the sort of opponent you could refuse.
I did not use the Calth Reaction Force list, but as I was thinking it might be my last game for my August 15-August15 gaming year calendar (coinciding with the old Ard' Boyz event), and potentially the last before the arrival of the new codex, I went back to my old roots:
3rd Company led by Captain Ardias (aka Pedro Kantor), with two full squads of Sternguard with pods, a tactical squad with pod, razorback combat squad, three landspeeders, 5 assault terminators, stormtalon, etc.
My opponent had a captain and command squad w razorback, 2 podded tactical squads, a tactical squad on foot, 8 bikers, 2 attack bikes, whirlwind, dreadnought, 2 dev squads.
The only things I deployed was a razorback with 5 marines, a MM/HF landspeeder, and Titus. My Warlord trait was the ability to reroll reserves....
It was a bloodbath. Dreadnought Titus had stomped his way to the table center by Turn 4, had supported eliminating the devs and 2 of the tactical squads, and had wrecked the opponent's Dreadnought . At that point my opponent threw in the towel and we talked and packed. I held the Relic, first blood, and linebreaker. My oppoenent had 6 infantry models and a drop pods left on the table and they were all ready to be eliminated on Turn 5 if we'd gone that far. Overall, I tried to intone that he had held the tools to take me down, but it was a combination of his deployment, lack of power weapons, and poor use of the Captain and his retinue that needed improvement for the next time. This next picture sums up the beginning of turn 2...my sternguard squads had podded with Ardias right into his lines...they combat squaded and had already eliminated a dev squad, razorback, some of his command squad, and a few bikers....Thinking back on it, the only unit I lost in its entirety was a drop pod...
So, I'll try to get some final pix of Titus up after the basing is all done and decals or free had work is applied. I painted everything up so far including some gloss ard'coat where the Ultramarine decals and such (including a Devastator chevron to tie him back to his roots as the Veteran Sergeant) will go. In the mean time, Dreadnought Titus will remain a steady component of my army lists into September.
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