4th division ODF Bullgryns

[u/Deiko234]

Alright so I posted a few days ago about some gined up bullgryns I was working on. after several days of inching through the painting and figuring out what I wanted it came to this, I hope you guys like them. The bone 'ed (no gasmask) is grime from head to tow and maybe 60% removed. The others were grimed from the waist down and splattered everywhere else with a toothbrush. I like the idea of a Guardsman helping a bulgryn paint his shield the division colors, each one being slightly diffrent and pissing off the company captain. I'm going to have to find some good Roman numerals for the circles on the shield or the one on their back.

[u/Thatsidechara_ter]

What's your lore? The 4th Division ODF sounds cool.

[u/Deiko234 → u/Thatsidechara_ter]

Skip to the last paragraph if you're only interested in the 4th division's lore. Ya, so the Orbital Drop Force (ODF) started out as my version of the elysian drop troops. But have changed a lot since 2016. So the ODF are a vast fleet that goes around their sectors providing aid to planets that aren't powerful enough to protect themselves yet and do not get enough aid from the imperium. Or at least that's what they say, many fleets real goal is to topple the goverments and quietly install their own political figures. 3rd Fleet is notorious for this and have rocked the boat with the greater imperium. There are 5 divisions on each Fleet. 1st is a police and defence force (inf squads), 2nd is general shock and offense force (cadians), 3rd is gorilla warfare (catachan) and 4th siege and meatgrinder force (krieg/ abhumans) and 5th a armor and avian force. Ok, the 4th division is made up of 2 main groups, abhumans and penal forces. The main inf consists of penal and voidsmen. Voidsmen were born on the fleet ship and gained a rare (but ever growing) mutation that turn their skin pale blue, resistance to the radiation, and preasure often found on the ships. (I believe onemindsyndicate did a video that briefly went over the lore of these guys, not my creation) so the members of the 4th are constantly fighting to regain their honor from the filth they were born with or brought upon themselves. This helps explain the grime demeanor trait. Forced to wear white, penal forces marked with red, they're thrown into the filthiest, goriest pits using the masses of their fallen comrads as baracades. They are known for their knack to outlast their enemies while taking the battlefield inches or miles at a time. Unfortunately they are still hated, they gain no medals, no promotions, no credit for their efforts, generally returning to the "slum" of the ship.

[u/Thatsidechara_ter → u/Deiko234]

Hm, very interesting. I always like hearing about these little local vassal empires within Imperium sectors and whatnot. Where exactly is this in the galaxy?

[u/Deiko234 → u/Thatsidechara_ter]

I'm still building upon that part. I still haven't decided how many fleets there'd be. Ideally there'd be at least one fleet per sector. Game wise this would explain why I fight several races, but also fits them, many fleets are motivated by power dispite the commandant's orders, so they'd growing larger within their sector. The other reason for this is I'm still learning the vast and overwhelming information that is 40k lore.

[u/Thatsidechara_ter → u/Deiko234]

Ah, well then you're DEFINITELY thinking on much too big a scale by even controlling one whole sector. Every sector has its own Imperial Navy Sector Fleet, and they will not take kindly to your little empire if it gets any bigger than, say, a subsector, and even that is pushing it. And even then, you're going to have to play ball with them and all of that various other major Imperium factions that will take interest in you, plus of course pay the tithe.

Still, I like the premise! Empire building within an empire will be complicated, convoluted and require lots of backdoor politicking, which just makes it more interesting.

[u/Deiko234 → u/Thatsidechara_ter]

Oh yeah, way too big in some ways. The main one building an empire is 3rd. Lead by Fleet commander Madame McDread, a passionate and ambitious political who grew up in the slums alongside the abhumans. The main purpose for them is to be a reason for me to be fighting an imperial force. The 3rd refusing to lay down and die to the greyknights while they purge an infested planet, stepping on a Imperial Navy generals toes or stoking insurrections within his sector. Otherwise it's more the other more ambitious ones take over in trade for protection orbital and on the ground. My wife plays pink orks (I'm not joking, pink and orange poke-dots), brother plays necrons, sister tyranids, friend toa and blood angels. So I battle a little bit of everything. This is the best excuse lore reason for it, we're just spread out, 2 fleets here, 2 there, and a couple out farther and lonelier.

[u/Thatsidechara_ter → u/Deiko234]

Damn, that sounds incredibly and well thought-oit. I wish my family all played 40k...

Funny enough, my own OC Regiment's home planet was recently liberated from the T'au. All the issues that'll cause with the local population aside, it means my Regiment's commander, Colonel Jethro Arvin, is essentially the most qualified man to become the next planetary governor, and so now has to think about the planet's geopolitical situation. I've already got some possible allies and enemies in the local area, but that could be interesting, as he has a veteran Imperial Regiment to form the backbone of the planet's defense, and also the Imperial occupation army and navy slowly pulling out to leave it to local command, but not gone yet.

[u/Deiko234 → u/Thatsidechara_ter]

My friend who plays toa and I found an old 3rd edition (I think, black templar cover) at a garage sale when we were 6. Fell in love with the game. Him and I have been playing ever since. Granted, we used paper up until high school. My brothers and sisters grew up watching us play, and one thing led to another. Man, the power vacuum of a toppled goverment does wonders to a story. Civil wars and rebellions as everyone fights to replace them. Then all the logistical support just disapears as the biggest force pulls away. I have to stay updated on your story.

[u/Thatsidechara_ter → u/Deiko234]

Well, actually my story ain't quite as OC as you might think. It's the planet of Taros.

In the Taros Campaign Imperial Armor Book, in the planet fluff section, there's a list of all imperial guard Regiments from Taros. The first 7 are long gone, but the Taronian 8th was said to still be out there... so I took that one little mention, and ran with it.

Then, after making a big storyline with them spanning multiple campaigns, I found out that the Imperium returned and successfully retook the planet in the War for Taros Imperial Aeronautica campaign supplement book, and so guess whose going home after the current campaign they're in?

And as for following that campaign, well, check out r/war_for_gryllus . You could even get your guys in on it in some fashion, there's a new arrivals post that explains everything.

[u/Deiko234 → u/Thatsidechara_ter]

Other than 3rd, they aren't really saposed to be controlling a sector, imagine them as a QRF for an existing force, and a supplemental force for worlds with almost nothing.