Full House

It’s very unusual for me to consider a project “finished”, but this one is.  At least for now.  Whilst some Bearded Bunker dwellers are capable of starting a project, building a modest collection, and then calling it complete, I’ve never been able to do that.  I collect a lot of armies, and after the initial sprint to get them to minimum usable size, they continue on, being added to in fits and starts as inspiration strikes and new models get released.  They vary between 'boxed up and ignored' to 'current burning passion,' depending on the vagaries of the hobby butterfly.  Currently the winds of obsession are blowing the hobby butterfly distinctly Guard-wards, but that is largely due to my most recent success: completing my Knight Lance.

Clan Vestrfjall of House Ulfir
Armigers L-R: Vapnburtha - Vei Danr, Sverthsegg - Vei Bjartr, Glymja - Vei Asta
Questoris L-R: Breithux - Gar Touki, Striiguth - Jafnather Yarl Rúna

I previously shared the start of this army, and to be fair it’s not changed a lot since then, I have added exactly one model.  And that brings me up to the five I always intended to have.  Right when I first started all this, before I even put together my first test Armiger, I decided I wanted them to have feet more like a Warhound titan than the classic cruciform feet of most Imperial walkers.  I found some ready made but had to order them from the US, so I decided for postage efficiency to order everything I was going to need in one go.  That was three sets of Armiger feet, and two sets of Questoris.

I explained in my original post about how I prefer my big robots to fight alongside regular soldiers to really show off how big they are, so I had limited use for a lot of Knights.  One big Knight, or three Armigers, fit nicely into other Imperial armies. Once I'd magnetised the arms of my first Questoris and (thanks to eBay) had the options to field an Errant, Paladin, Crusader or Warden, the incentive to get the second body finished was low.  But I wanted another because I had a dream of fighting a really big Apocalypse scale co-op game and bringing a full lance of Knights that would still be just a small part of a larger force.

Over Easter weekend, some of us played a jumbo co-op campaign of Fury of da Beast, and I knew this might be my chance. For a few weeks ahead of it I worked on finishing my second Questoris, which had been sitting built but ignored for actual years at this point.  

If you read the first article you’ll know my first Questoris, Striiguth, was highly converted, with a mix of parts from a few different third parties, and a lot of work on my part to insert an extra joint to maximise the canine style of the legs and feet.  It was, frankly, a stupid amount of effort.  GW then brought out the Chaos Knight, which already had that extra joint moulded right into the plastic.  I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to de-chaosify it, certainly no more effort than it was to build the legs. 

The building of Striiguth

I had the advantage of some spare parts from my first Knight, I hadn’t used the shoulder plates and I had a bunch of spare faceplates.  I also found a cheap shin plates, top-plate and chimneys on eBay, so I got those too.  Mostly I was interested in the top plate, since the big craters where the spikes grow form would have been a real faff to repair.  That really just left cleaning up some trim spikes on the thigh plates and cleaning up the face under the faceplate, the underlying skeleton is mostly uncorrupted.

During the time since building it and painting it I had completely lost my transfer sheet, so searching for replacements on eBay I actually found the Canis Rex tilt shield was cheaper than the transfers, so I swapped it for the plain plate I’d been intending to use with a wolf transfer.  Also GW had dropped paying points for weapons (which I guess means I built this in more than 3 years ago, and have left it sitting around since then…), so I got myself another missile pod.  I’d already magnetised the top plate so I could move the one I have freely, but I figured I’d want to have one on each knight.

Breithux in all it's glory

All this came together just in time.  Over the four day weekend I played a mix of Imperial Knights and Imperial Guard against the Ork hoard, but the climax of the campaign was when all five of us lined up together with 1,000pts each to push back a swarm of 7,500pts of Orks.  We randomised deployments and I landed right in the centre.  We then randomised the Orks and I ended up facing the dread mob, lead by a Stompa.  Perfect.

Honestly it wasn’t on purpose but this ended up being the Knight Fight I’d always wanted.  A large mixed force of Guard and Marines (with a few filthy Xenos allies) with an entire lance of Knights right in the middle.  With a bit of support from the heavy anti-tank weapons on either side popping the Stompa in turn one, in exchange for me proving covering fire to Orks coming for them, the Knights of House Ulfir ran rampage, smashing through the remains of the Dread Mob and then pealing off to roll down the flanks in both directions.  

Alas the game was too exciting, and this is the only photo I can find, noticeably post-stompa.

Jafnather Yarl Rúna Vestrfjall in her Knight Errant Striiguth accounted for seven enemy vehicles, including two Mega Dreads, on her own.  Gar Touki Vestrfjall in his Paladin Breithux accounted for a more modest but tactically vital tally of Killa Kans, Nobs (Mega and non-Mega) and Deffkoptas.  Hands down the best fun I’ve ever had with Knights on the table, and everything I’d imagined when starting to collect Knights.  And because we were playing Fury of da Beast, no hurt feelings on the Ork side.

And that’s it.  I’m done expanding House Ulfir, certainly for now and maybe forever.  I am very fond of them, and I certainly will keep playing with them, but I don’t want more of them.  I have a nice selection of options, and a bit over 1,000pts, which is really all I need as I have no intention of playing them on their own.  It’s a novel, pleasant, and pretty unusual feeling for me.  I won't spam you all with lore about my homebrew house, but obviously I've written a bunch of it and you can read that over on our wiki if you're interested.  

For now, back to the biggest damn heroes in the setting, the Imperial Guard!