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Updates
13-07-2009: Set up this log with the basics. Images to follow later today or early tomorrow.
30-05-2010: New army list.

Background
I swear to whatever you hold dear, I am sick and tired of being reminded of Apocalypse Now and the Ride of the Valkyries. With that out of the way, welcome to my work log that's going to properly attempt to archive my serious attempts at building up a small veteran Elysian combat wing that has full airborne capabilities. Inspiration for this came in no small part from Imperial Armour 4 - the Anphelion Project and Imperial Armour 3 - the Taros Campaign. While the third book contains the tragic telling of a daring airborne raid behind enemy lines gone horribly wrong, the fourth book was the one that got me to buy Elysians. Anphelion contains the rules for Detachment 99, or D-99 for short, which is a specialized formation of Elysian Tyrannic War veterans put under permanent auspice of the Ordo Xenos. They are the special forces of the Inquisition so to say. While the story is again a tragic one of gross betrayal as we've come to know and love in 40k, it was the picture painted in the "story" section of the book that got me interested. Here we have an elite, highly motivated airborne assault force that ropes or chutes into their missions far behind enemy lines. With a pile of Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket it wasn't hard to make a choice.

At first I wanted a small 500 points raiding force, just a command squad, two veteran squads, some snipers and a Drop Sentinel. They did okay-ish, but would need more men and equipment to persevere! Over time I added in some extra Drop Sentinels and a Vulture. Things didn't start getting off the ground properly until the arrival of the plastic Valkyrie kit. Due to my own impulses and someone breaking my laptop I know have four Valkyries in various states of paint along with a fifth in the process of construction. Also on my desk is a second Vulture along with a pile of spare bits that are awaiting a third squad of veterans, all thanks to a silly little conversion a friend did for me.

It's been a while since I last wrote up a list but a rough guess is that the force should now be somewhere around the 1.500 pts at the very least with plenty of room for future growth.

Organization
This force is mostly a fun thing for me to tinker on, gaming with it coming in second. That's why I've been adding on "pointless" but fun things here and there, such as the changing of a perfectly good Valkyrie into an unarmed medicae version with a medic inside. In gaming terms it's still a Valkyrie with multi-laser and rocket pods though, but visually it is an unarmed medevac response unit with fuel tanks instead of weapon pods under the wings. Plus it can double as a nice objective marker of sorts.

Army List
HQ.
Command squad - commander with lasgun with auxiliary grenade launcher, medic, plasma gun, meltagun, vox
Valkyrie - rocket pods & multi-laser

Elites.
Drop Sentinels (3) - heavy bolters

Drop Sentinel - multi-melta

Troops.
Veterans - sniper rifles (3), vox, Forward Observers (Squad has camo cloaks and a homing beacon)
Valkyrie - rocket pods & multi-laser

Veterans - shotguns, vox, meltagun
Valkyrie - lascannon & hellstrike missiles

Veterans - sergeant with auxiliary grenade launcher, grenade launcher, vox, Demolitions (squad has melta bombs and a single demo charge)
Valkyrie - rocket pods & multi-laser

Veterans - sergeant with auxiliary grenade launcher, meltagun, vox, Demolitions (squad has melta bombs and a single demo charge)
Valkyrie - lascannon & hellstrike missiles

Fast Attack.
Tauros (2) - grenade launchers

Tauros Venator - hunter-killer missiles (2)

Tauros Venator - lascannons

Heavy Support.
Vulture - twin-linked Punisher cannons

Vulture - Hunter-Killer missile racks (6 missiles total) and twin-linked lascannons

Valkyrie Sky Talon - fuel tanks (count as Hellstrike missiles, but fuel tanks look more at home underneath a transport)

Total: 1994

Work log July
- Finish Vulture
- Start painting a Valkyrie
- Order last parts for Valkyrie 5 and finish construction of it

Numbers quite thin for a guard army...
I usually field more marines than this army gets models...
But seems great fun @ grabbing objectives, I must admit.

An update of sorts now that I've finally found a proper spray for the task at hand.

I've got no idea just how many points I've got as of right now, I'm just tacking on things as I go. I'm also not so sure of whether I should stick to the D-99 list or adapt to the upcoming IA8 list instead. The latter would mean buying more squads of fiddly Elysians. :'(

HQ - Veteran officer with power fist, medic, vox caster, plasma gun, meltagun
HQ Valkyrie - Multi-laser and rocket pods
First Squad - Veteran sergeant with aux. grenade launcher, vox, grenade launcher and demo charge
First Squad Valkyrie - Lascannon and Hellstrike missiles
Second Squad - Veteran sergeant, meltagun, vox, demo charge and the whole squad has shotguns
Second Squad Valkyrie - Multi-laser and rocket pods
Third Squad - Veteran sergeant with aux. grenade launcher, vox, grenade launcher and demo charge
Third Squad Valkyrie - Multi-laser and rocket pods
Medicae Valkyrie - Unarmed, wing hard points instead hold fuel tanks
Drop Sentinel - Multi-melta
Drop Sentinels (3) - Heavy bolters
Vulture - Lascannons and rocket pods
Vulture - either Punisher cannons or rocket pods and hunter-killer missile racks

I also have four dropzone beacons and a drop crate that are used as objective and dropzone markers.

Some old pictures to appease the curious razz

A regular old boring Valk and the hybrid kit. The hybrid will either get a nice pair of Punisher cannons or rocket pods and HK missile racks.


Not really a conversion, just the clever use of one of those absurd running legs. However, I'm really fond of this guy.

This isn't exactly new stuff Mel.. cry

Have you tried putting your Venator under it and mount the whole thing on a flying stand?

Pity, looks like another case of a cool idea that can't really be executed as planned.

Meaning actual updates? surprised