The Gray Death Legion

The Gray Death Legion - c.a. 3030

- August 07, 2022

The foundation of the early Battletech novels, the Gray Death Legion (abbreviated to the GDL) is perhaps one of the most famous of the mercenary units in the Inner Sphere, despite being rather small in comparison to other major commands like the Eridani Light Horse or Wolf's Dragoons. Despite their small size the unit has routinely hit above its weight and generally comes very near total annihilation in the process. It has remained a fan favorite, and somehow always works its way into the most critical of world events.

Another interesting feature of the GDL is its incorporation of infantry forces in a time of the BT universe before elementals and powered armor infantry made ground pounders and Poor Bloody Infantry (PBIs) popular. Perhaps owing as much to the need for dramatic prose in the fiction works they were featured in as to infantry’s actual game utility; the use of anti-mech and inferno armed infantry was always a feature of the GDL stories. This was in contrast to most portrayals of infantry in the BT universe as little more than red smears on the soles of mechs stompy feet.

In addition to the infantry there was always the ubiquitous; and totally unidentified; hover jeep armed with medium lasers and machine guns which would scoot around the ‘Mechs feet causing havoc and generally acting as fast target practice. In all the novels these featured and were never described in terms of game play - I had assumed they were the unpictured ‘Hover Scout’ with an infantry compartment in exchange of the sensor suit… and indeed the early descriptions match this description minus the fusion engine bit. So an ICE 10 ton hover craft with a turreted small laser or machine gun seems appropriate… perhaps I will do a record sheet for one of these later. I am sure I can find a model proxy for it… but I digress.

One interesting thing about the Turning Points: Helm scenario pack writeups is the inclusion of the weapon carrier/troop carrier model which is described as a heavy hover APC with an LRM10 strapped to the top of it. While not quite in keeping with the early descriptions of the hover sleds used I did think it was an apt adaptation of the hover infantry transport described. Here I used a proxy model from Death Ray Designs and added a small missile turret from Iron Wind Metals after slicing the gun turret from the top of the model. I never liked the heavy hover miniature - the air cushion skirt looks out of place in my opinion… and given its ‘generic’ class of vehicle I figured I had some creative license… and the plastic DRD Hover APC model with its exposed turbine fans and obvious rear boarding ramp look pretty cool. So there you go - two W/T Carriers for the GDL.

The Infantry are from a 6mm STL file for scifi infantry. I think I prefer metal miniatures for most instances, but these worked out well enough.

The mech company is the one from the original GDL scenario pack, not the one presented in the
Turning Points: Helm scenario pack. I have intentions of doing all the original company scenario pack units in cannon layouts, and the GDL was the first one I tried. Classic in its 3025 unit makeup of Marauder, Warhammer, Stingers, and the obvious Rifleman - this unit is not optimized perhaps for table top play, but that's part of its charm. Sometimes it's just as much fun to use a non-optimized unit to force new and innovative situations. You can’t always run optimized; range synchronized, units in the classic catch as catch can era of the succession wars.

In terms of actual paint scheme - Vallejo Somber Gray and Dark Gray make up the camo scheme, my SOP of baranthian blue, tassarat glow and gun metal gray for the highlights. I used battlefield brown for the basing with a smattering of army painter snow basing for a bit of the frozen over Helm feel.

This was a fun one to paint up, and I enjoyed digging into the lore. I will be doing some more early succession wars deep cuts from the house books next before I pick up another company level project (spoiler alert - I got distracted with some combined arms companies of Kurita which I will feature soon…).

The GDL Order Of Battle in Miniature

Shadowhawk