The Red Corsairs

o/

As I mentioned briefly in my last post, last weekend I fielded a veritable menagerie of CSM forces at the FLGS. Leading this mess of inconsistency was my Red Corsair Centurion (taking the name from FW's Tyrant's Legion list) who was being used as a Chaos Lord. Nothing too fancy really, Aura of Dark Glory, VotLW, bolt pistol and (for a little bit of flair) the Murder Sword. Facing me were the so-called honorable Ultramarines lead by the infamous Tigurius.

Thus at the beginning of the game my Centurion proclaimed that his Murder Sword had Tigurius' name written all over it, and he made a bee line for his target. Tigurius for his part would use craven cowardice to save his skin...an odd trait for Mac's Ultrasmurfs. Indeed, after just one round of the psychic slinging of his powers, he promptly left his command squad (can he do that?) and fled into the safety of a nearby landraider. My Centurion had no way of cracking that beast open (nor apparently did my all-lascannon predator), so denied his prey my lord went on instead to rampage thru the 'veteran ranks' of the Smurfs! Over the course of the game, he personally took down the following in hand-to-hand combat:

a Termie Sgt. (the gods found this an unworthy offering)

The entirety of Tigurius' Command squad.

a Sternguard Sgt. (the gods offered him a boon of redundancy for that one...) along with the rest of the 5-man Sternguard squad.

...and he was on his way for more when the game ended. Not too shabby! Despite the games' loss, I was rather pleased with it overall. Indeed Mac, my opponent commented: 'That didn't feel like a win...'

Pleased as I was with my lone Red Corsairs' performance (the rest of the lot were at best mediocre), it got me to thinking about the Red Corsair army from which he came. This model was broken on arrival when the army was amazingly given to me free of charge. Thus he was removed from his fancy resin base, and replaced with the 1-off Corsair that I had originally painted.

For those who don't recall, the army was beautifully converted and given to me by a reader who had determined that we was never going to paint it. Honestly it felt kinda like winning the lottery, and that gift still amazes me to this day! I presume the prior owner felt that it did the army no justice after all to remain in a permanently primered state. Sadly, 2ish years on, I find myself in a similar state. I'm not entirely thrilled with the CSM codex, and thus my CSM forces have for the most part languished. Indeed of that army, only the Centurion above and one other have been painted.

That's pretty sad on my part.

Suffer not the Blood Angel to live...

The only other change has been the short lived addition of Harold of Nurgle. However the CSM codex's loss of daemons (and with it, the Corsairs' deamonette and plague bearer contingent which were given to Rob). Harold was rebranded as a sorcerer who seemed incapable of anything other than to give my opponents a cover save via clouds of flies (WTF, really???). Thus he too has been removed from his fancy resin base, and has now been relegated to a mere Tyrant's Legion Marauder Brute, though he may occasionally moonlight as a CSM champion-turned-spawn after a successful challenge and disastrous roll on the boons table.

Thus the the Red Corsairs army is now lighter by about 20 or so models from when I got them. The loss of the daemons to Rob, and another 5 who have been put on standard bases to match my Centurion above. So where does that leave the remainder of them? Why yes, still primered black and in their case, rarely seeing the table top.

Well, not for much longer...

Many times there has been discussion over the fight for the army in the case of my untimely death (I'm sure I can expect some nerd raging after what's next coming...). Especially as I've said I'd never get rid of them. Let me rephrase that, I'll never sell them. (I'll let that sink in for  a few...)

Recently a new guy has entered our gaming group, the aforementioned Mac and his cowardly Ultramarines. Last week he showed me a Red Corsair test mini he did, as he was pondering starting an army of them (yes, you probably now know where this is going...). Mac is something of a painting machine, and quite a good one at that. Damn good actually! Also, unlike the rest of us who often sell an army once painted. Generally because we're bored with the army by then as its taken us years to paint! Whereas Mac won't even field an army till its painted! Quite a rare mind set around here.

I'd much rather see the army painted and shooting at me, as opposed to all black and hidden in their case. So I asked him the other day if he'd be interested in them and...his reaction sounded much like mine when I received them. Felt kinda good actually. He'll be the 4th owner of the army, and my hope is that the 'bad things coming in 3s' has come to an end, and he'll actually paint them all up!

Time will tell I suppose, but the prospects look good. Regardless I still feel that I am forever in the debt of the reader who originally sent the army to me. I was given the stipulation that I do with it as I pleased, up to and including passing it on as I am now doing. My thanks to you again kind sir, but like you, I think its finally time this army was given the colors it so deserves! Hopefully in a few months I'll have pics of it all painted up to post on here.