Inspecting The Troops - Jake Jackson
Make it stand out
"Alright you Great Unwashed.
We've had a run of bad eggs of late, heresy appears to be running rampart within the upper bulwarks of our fair forces. I am sure that this time, we can learn from a true Lord of Order!"
"Name yourself General, how long have you been a leader of men and monsters?"
I'm Jake, occasionally known throughout the GW spheres as Max Dakka. I first picked up 40k through the first Dawn of War game, played avidly until about 2008, and picked things back up shortly before 8th edition was released. I'm really only sticking my toes into fantasy now, thanks to the Fluffenhammer.
“What sort of name is Max Dakka? Sounds Kislev to me. Excellent.... Carrying on, What forces do you command?”
I have a few small chunks of various 40k armies - I like to use soup when I can so most of my Imperial forces are built to cooperate, particularly my Guardsmen and Deathwatch. However my Salamanders, being my first army, are large enough to stand alone, and probably represent about half of my collection overall. I also have a good-sized force of Orks and a recently acquired Alpha Legion force.
“What are the backstories to such majestic forces of Orde......wait, did you say Orks?”
I'll do my best to summarize the assorted back stories without writing a novel: The Salamanders represent the Chapter's 5th Company. They were caught in the Eastern Fringe at the outbreak of the Noctis Aeterna - as they fought their way back to Nocturne, the churning warp turned a journey of a few months into a constant battle that would, from their perspective, take centuries - to the fifth company it was a 405 year journey during which they became convinced that the Imperium had utterly collapsed. They have reintegrated into the chapter but their relationship with authority is still... Complex. Notably when the Ultimaris Decree went into effect and a Deathwatch Fortress was established to support the Kasterlaan Crusade, the Fifth volunteered the entirety of their Primaris reinforcements for the long watch, a controversial move in a chapter which largely welcomed the new marines.
My Deathwatch forces represent the aforementioned Watch Fortress Kasterlaan, and while there are individual characters their overall background is tied in with my Orks, known as...
'Ardgob's Deff Wotchas are a freebooter Warband run by 'Ardgob Gitkrumpa. 'Ardgob takes special pride in seeking out and zoggin' any gits with a reputation as Ork killers, and as a result he has become adept at goading the Deathwatch into attacking him. This has also had the unintended consequence of convincing the Ordo Xenos that he is far smarter than he might seem - the Inquisition believes that the Deff Wotchas are carrying out a vast and complicated plan when their boss really just knows how to act to draw their attention.
My Alpha Legion Warband, known as The Final Question, are one of the elements of their Legion who consider themselves loyalists- they serve the Emperor by ensuring the vigilance of his servants and culling those too weak to be worthy. The World Eaters they control through stasis collars might have different ideas, thoughts.
“Orks...and....Chaos..... Guard! We have another one! Whilst we await your incoming re-education, What is the centrepiece of your army?”
Right now my centerpiece and MVP are both probably my warboss, 'Ardgob - he's one of my better painting efforts and has a frankly improbable tally of kills including an Imperial Knight and Keeper of Secrets among a couple of dozen enemy characters. His armor is augmented with trophies from his first warlord kill, when he single-handedly killed Watch Captain Tyren of the Deathwatch.
“Yes yes, now if you could just put this blindfold on... thank you, What's your dream army?”
My dream army has been the same for a while now- I'd love to convert a Guard Army to represent a force of Grots who are either doing a poor job of infiltration or genuinely think that they are Imperial Guardsmen. Maybe some day I'll have the money and skills to pull that off.