| Name: | Purple Hearts |
|---|---|
| Chapter Master: | unknown |
| Base: | Westwood Proving Grounds |
| Operational Strength | xx men, 4 vehicles |
| Battlesigh: | We're too old for this... |
Purple Hearts is among the so called lost chapters, sent to support Rogue Trader Igor Bogg
in exploration of uncharted space. Thus lost momentarily from imperial records due to a
clerical error, the chapter was forced to make do without supply lines and resort to extreme
jury-rigging, salvage and use of captured parts and equipment.
There are even rumors that a shortage of purple paint led to creation of a sub-subchapter called Bleeding Hearts, but no further evidence has been found.
Lately, the chapter has returned to Imperial space and has been refitted with current equipment. However, the old Bogg tour era personnel still form the very core of the chapter.
Even more than most, the Purple Hearts is chapter whose equipment is composed of various bits and pieces scrounged piecemeal from here and there. While the original Rogue Trader era marines in their trusty MkVI armor form the elite core of the chapter, necessity has dictated recruitment from various sources along the way.
The original Rogue Trader era plastics painted way back then. Even though my painting
skills were sorely lacking, every single piece was lovingly assembled (I had a lot more
spare time then, and a lot less cash to buy more figures) and most are converted.
The last few bits of original plastics assembled much much later. For some reason I was
short on bolters and had to scrounge a few new ones to arm these fellows. Hmmmm... looking
at the sprues, I see that you're supposed to be short on bolters...
Curiously enough, the Purple Hearts terminators are not from the original
Space Hulk I bought way back then.
They are from another set I bought used soon after finally painting the originals in another
color scheme... duh!
More recruits from the polystyrene archive. I bought the Space Crusade box set as soon as it
hit the after Christmas sales, but didn't get around to painting any of it until much much later.
The one pose wonders leave a lot to be desired, but they fill the ranks. These were the first MkVII
armors accepted into Purple Hearts.
After playing a few games of Rogue Trader to freshen my memory, I realized the fond memories
were just that - memories. The original game is horribly broken ruleswise in a number of places. It has
wonderful air of enthusiasm and excitement about it, but ruleswise it's broken. About this time
the new boxed 4th edition Battle for Macragge was released. As the box set was good value just for
the figures included, I bought it figuring I basically got the new rules for free. I was amazed by
how much the new rules were cleaned up. Clearly being subjected to thousands of highly competetive
tournament players for years had had a positive impact on the rules writing.
But as to the figures themselves, they were better than the Crusade ones, but not by much. The clip-together design requirement meant they were basically all in two stiff poses. To add insult to injury, the two poses are basically just a mirror image of each other. Still, that's a full 10-man tactical squad.
I bought a selection of 3rd edition marine figures from a variety of sources: second hand partly painted, second hand new-in-box and obsolete 3rd edition starter boxes going for cheap.
Purple Hearts motor pool contains a variety of models, old and new. Unlike the infantry though, they are all recently built.
I got two unassembled old style Rhinos for cheap. Unfortunately, the set was missing a few
pieces so I had to improvise a bit to get the second one finished.
This Land Raider was obtained in a total writeoff condition. However, I still managed to
save it. The full story of the restoration project is also
available.
When I bought this Predator, I mistakenly thought it was the original model, until a friend
of mine pointed out the error of my ways. The original Predator was an all-plastic model with a "T-55 -style"
turret. This is the second generation kit, still based on the original Rhino MkI chassis but
augmented with metal parts and a generic Imperial vehicle accessory sprue. "Copyright 1995" is
carved on some of the metal parts.
Purple Hearts is alive and well and likely and constantly recruiting. While the emphasis of the recruitment drive is on classic or classic style troops, good opportunities to bolster the forces are rarely passed. Unlike more tournament oriented players, I don't paint to an army list -- I paint the figures I like and try to make a list out of them.
The following special rules apply to Purple Hearts:
Purple Heart is a real medal, issued to combat wounded veterans.
A long, long time ago, before even really starting miniature gaming, I was playing a helicopter simulation called Gunship on my trusty Commodore 64. The game was about flying an AH-64 Apache helicopter and it was among the best of C64 flight sims at the time. The game would award medals for various deeds, including the Purple Heart for getting shot to pieces but still making it back to the base.
Now, the thing is that when returning to the base, the game would ask you a passcode. If you didn't provide one promptly, the base would assume you're an enemy and shoot at you. It was still possible to land and successfully end the mission, though, just very hard. As I had, ahem, misplaced my game manual with the passcodes, I got a lot of practice dodging friendly flak. Eventually I got rather good at approaching the base behind a hill, popping up and landing the chopper before the ground crew knew what hit them. But a lot of time I landed a flaming wreck, making it through alive only because I was already at the base.
This tendency to get wounded in the last moments of the mission earned me something like 17 Purple Hearts before I grew bored with the game. These were the medals I valued most. Incidentally, you can't get a real Purple Heart this way - don't try this at home.
Fast forward a bit to 1987 and the first Rogue Trader plastic Space Marines. I painted them in various colors to facilitate very small skirmish games (the only kind I could afford the figures for), but the main thrust was a chapter of my own invention, the Purple Hearts. They were the ones that got the most models and all the interesting conversions. The name was intended to be ironic from the beginning - while other chapter names tended to be testosterone-laden macho things like Flesh Tearers, Blood Angels or Space Wolves, I made a chapter that was basically named after their tendency to get their butts kicked. On a more positive spin, they're the guys who take a licking but keep on ticking.
One final thing: While the name is intended as a light hearted pun, there is absolutely no intent to denigrate the real Purple Heart or the people who wear it. It is still among the decorations I hold in the highest regard.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
Copyright 2003-2021 Mikko Kurki-Suonio
Sucks!
