In The Name Of The Emperor...

Can't believe it's been a whole week already.  Last week, me and Coldsteel Dan clashed in a rather epic game of 40K which I scraped by the skin of my teeth - at the cost of about 25 men and all my company officers.  Argh!

Killed in Action, Captain Lucius Nero, H.I.

After a battle between Headologist and myself last year, I did a little post called 'Death by Fluff' where I took a little look at the practice of running a campaign with 'Dead-is-Dead' officers.  That is, when my officers die in battle, that's it and I replace them (model and all).

But Nero's death really tested me.  I was so tempted to write it off as a 'flesh wound' and bring him back - but in the end I decided it was better to end the story and give someone else a chance to write their own.  To summarise all the promotions and demotions, medals etc:

• Captain Nero was killed in action, in a duel with Sgt Daxos of the Blades of Fire chapter.  "... for his impeccable valour, faultless heroism and continued exemplification of Imperial virtue, Capt Nero was posthumously awarded the Honorifica Imperialis, bar to the Allarum Cranius, and his fifth bar to the P.p.I."  The HI is the highest award for gallantry - I think it was fitting that he should get that.  The AC is given for inspirational leadership.
• First Lieutenant Rhyn ran away and was executed by the commissar, so I had him down as Apsum intra Officium Imperatora* and hanged.  This burns me up more than Nero in some ways.  Although he didn't really have a story, he was part of a great exchange project I did with Lord Gordon a while back.  Since he's painted up in Delhian Army colours, we'll probably get a new liaison officer.
• Third Lieutenant Galbrio was cut down by bolter fire.  Also a bit gutted here, since he'd come right from the start of the campaign as a probationary officer and was just on the cusp of getting his commission confirmed.  Ah well.  He got the P.p.I. and the commission was posthumously confirmed.  Which will be of great comfort to his family.  (Sarcasm aside, that's very generous since as a dead officer his family will get far more in the way of a pension.  As a probationary officer, he would have got even less than a soldier).

The last page in Nero's service record...

There we have it.  I have to dig out new officers for both platoons and the company now.  I have plenty of chaps backed up (including models), but for the new company commander I may dig out Lt Creticus' old model, since I love that and he didn't get a long enough outing in the last battle.

So, that's three new officers for whom I'll have to write up service records.  And I'll have to update the pictures page with new commanders.  *Sigh*.  War is such a waste.

Anyway, in other news I have a rather exciting conversion stood by for the Penal Legion, so look out for that in the next few days.

One final word - you may be wondering what's happened to Dan's chapter, the Blades of Fire.  Well, you may know that this whole scrap between me and him is just a case of mistaken identity in the chaos of the Edethorian War.  I'd strongly recommend reading a little of Dan's fluff, which I've put into a PDF here.  Dan's not got a blog but the story is just as good as the conversions on his army and is well worth a read.

Blades of Fire short story - the campaign so far...

Anyway, thanks all for reading again!  Let me know your reactions to the death of the famous Capt Nero...

The Colonel

*Apologies to any real Latin speakers - all this is courtesy of a tattered Collins dictionary, not conjugated/declined at all