Apothecary Overload

And just when we thought that Apothecaries were final and done, a third one joins their ranks!

[Other Apothecaries: Terminator Primus Medicae and Apothecary]

Horus Heresy Review: Blood Angels Legion Rules

Background Material Evaluation.
From the twisted inhabitants of Baal, their Primarch's gene-helix literally re-wrote them to be the perfect warriors on a more fundamental level than even the Space Wolves underwent.

The background material supplied in Retribution points to a painful transformation from mortal to Astartes, more than any other legion. Not only does the physical change take its toll, but the mental change too has a high price tag to be paid. This nicely (and grim-darkly) hints at the thirst and the rage contained within 40k codex rules.

Legion Rules Review.
There are a number of special rules associated with the Blood Angels. I'm going to start with the main "drawback" one. Its called Host of Angels and means that a detachment of this legion may not have more vehicle units than space marine units with the Blood Angels special rules. A direct consequence of this is that certain rites of war will simply not be available to them. Clearly, the Blood Angels are based around infantry from this rule alone.

Without Remorse, Without Relent combines with this to ensure that the Legion marines may never go to ground out of volition. Plus, they must always sweeping advance. This gives some back up for the marine based army that the previous rule encourages.

Lastly is the one that they're getting a lot of renown for: Encarmine Fury. This is a great rule and gives a one "pip" bonus to wound in close combat when using a melee weapon. This is outstanding in a legion vs. legion battle as a S=4 vs. T=4 roll now requires a 3+ to wound and not a 4+. This rule gives the Blood Angels a huge edge over other Legions. Better yet, the Blood Angels player can save points on powerfists and just get power axes instead in a number of cases. Since it is a unique rule, it will combine nicely with other close combat rules from the main rulebook as well.

Wargear.
There's a small host of special war gear available to the Blood Angels.

Replacing a volkite serpent with a hand flamer is a nice touch … but probably won't be taken much unless its on a praetor.

Replacing a plasma pistol with an inferno pistol is attractive as an alternative melta option.

A blade of perdition is fine for a HQ selection that cannot take a paragon blade, but otherwise if you don't want AP2 at initiative, just take a power fist to be honest.

And then there is the assault cannon! Beautiful stuff really with decent strength and shot outputs, even if there is a risk of it jamming since it is a prototype weapon compared to its 40k analogue. Take them with a heavy support squad and watch when your opponent asks to see the rules for themselves when you pick up a large handful of die.

Summing up.
We'll look at rites of war separately. But overall, the Blood Angels are wanting to be an infantry based army with plenty of focus on close combat to take advantage of the Encarmine Fury. Take some drop pods, rhinos, or jump packs to ensure a rapid insertion and you have an army to match the Emperor's Children for sheer speed and punch, let alone a flare for artwork on their vehicles and banners. 

Planetary Empires Campaign - Round 2 Update

Continuing a few reports based on our local campaign, Round 2 has now played itself out and the Planetary Empires map has been updated accordingly. 

So what happened here?

Well, my 30k Alpha Legion forces played against the Space Wolves (40k) in this round. The mission was "harvesting", in which there were 4 objectives and each player gains 1 victory point for controlling any objective and the end of the OTHER player's turn. 

In playing against the Space Wolves, I did something that I've not done much before: chose something other than infiltrate for my mutable tactic. Instead, I selected counter attack as I knew my opponent was running a bucket load of wolves backed up with long fangs and Wolfen. Further, due to the way the games are set up, I was at a 75 pt disadvantage. I didn't think I had much to lose, so I castled up in one corner of the board with a terminator squad hunkered down in a land raider for most of the game. This remarkably paid off, and I scored a victory as I took out the Space Wolf army piecemeal, whilst retaining the bulk of my army in a largish blob. 

In the other game, the Eldar massacred the Chaos / Khorne forces by a very very narrow margin. I was thinking that their game could have gone either way -- and it could have right down to the last moment. A few saving throws here or there gone the other way and it would have been a massacre the other way around. A very tense game.

This means that the updated map shows that the Eldar are winning with 6 tiles in total (they're undefeated!). Both Chaos and my Alpha Legion have 1 win and 1 loss each, but I now have 4 tiles and Chaos has 3. The Space Wolves are yet to score a victory and have been reduced down to 1 tile. In the next round, I will be facing off against the Eldar. I'm not looking forward to those D-Scythes to be honest with you. But we'll see what happens!

As a result of these battles, I stole one of the Space Wolves tiles right at the top of the map, whilst the Eldar conquered one of Chaos' tiles adjacent to their territory. We both expanded in to the only unclaimed land. Much building of manufactoria proceeded (they give +50 points value for a battle) and we now find ourselves in this situation. We're having a week off, so round 3 won't be until 2 weeks time. Wish me luck! (I'm going to need it against 40k Eldar!). 

More Apothecary

Following on from the Primus Medicae in my last post, today a shot of a completely assembled regular apothecary, reporting for duty.

The base still needs some work performed on it to complete the look (and scene) off, but otherwise this one is on the shelf and ready for painting. In terms of the sculpt itself, I particularly like the extra lenses on the helmet -- I've genuinely no idea what they're for, or the narrative for them (infra-red perhaps?), but they do look very cool. Who wouldn't want to be treated by a person with so many eyes, after all?

Primus Medicae

Today, a blend of parts from Forge World, Chaos Space Marines, Space Marines, and Dark Angels. This is my take on a Horus Heresy era Primus Medicae in terminator armour. Although I thought about equipping them slightly beefed up compared to a baseline terminator, I didn't actually feel there was any particular need to do that. The Primus Medicae is there for his special rules, rather than his special weapons. Hence I thought I'd leave him fairly "plain" in this case. That said, I have green stuffed around some of the additional apothecary parts from the Dark Angels terminators (notably the search light on the top of the armour) and a hole in the resin just above the head. No pinning has been used here either -- its just straight gluing. I have, however, increased the height of the miniature by building in some greenstuff between the torso and the legs so that it matches the scale of the other terminators that I have in tartaros armour (maybe I should have saved the dark angels apothecary arm for some Cataphractii armour! lol!). I like the overall vibe of this piece and will paint him up along with the rest of the other terminators that I'm building. 

Horus Heresy Review: Dark Angels Legion Rules

Background Material Evaluation.

As my long term readers know all too well, I have a soft spot for the Dark Angels and a couple of ancient Death Wing terminators that have not seen action in a very long time on the table top. So when I say that I was pleased to see the rules released for the Dark Angels in 30k, rest assured that I was very pleased indeed!

As the First Legion, the Dark Angels are pictured as being one of the most prominent legions in the early Crusade and the Emperor's personal army. They therefore became a template for the other legions yet to come. But more than that: they had access to all the old weapons from the Old Night that the latter legions did not (and instead relied on the Martian pact for armaments). Thus, the First Legion, have access to a wide array of weapons to use. Although losses in the Crusade would see the Sons of Horus become more important later one, the First Legion were a great threat to Horus in the Heresy: so much so that the Night Lords were sent almost in entirety to keep them at bay. Unsuccessfully. Hopefully we will learn more of their background in future publications when rules for the Lion become available. But for now, I'm pleased to see that the Legion is portrayed as very technologically capable, combined with a ruthless attitude to warfare and some sinister secret keeping. 

Legion Rules Review. 

NB: these rules are superseded by Book 9: Crusade. Please refer to that. 

There are only two rules to discuss here. I'm going to start with the big negative one first. And that is Covenant of Death. The Dark Angels way of warfare is similar to the World Eaters in more ways than many would dare to suggest. Only the complete destruction of an enemy is good enough. Therefore if they fail to have a greater number of units left, then they suffer giving 1d3 victory points to the enemy. This is even steeper than the Alpha Legion negative (Martial Hubris). I cannot underscore what a humongous negative this is. For goodness sake, play to win and play to massacre. This may mean taking lots of small units even, which will make the Dark Angels steep in points cost for 30k. 

Their main rule though is a good one in principle. Mastery of the Blade means that they strike at 3+ to hit in close combat when using something that has a blade. Like a combat blade. Or chainsword. Or power sword. Or anything sword-like. They do like their swords! This is great when one is facing off against another legion (as is common in both 30k and 40k games). But it doesn't apply all the time. Only when the enemy is also at the same WS. Hence its not applicable all the time, but does give the legion a solid edge!

Wargear.

The Dark Angels are known to have stock piles of weapons from the Old Night. They therefore have access to the Terran Greatsword (not that great to be honest, unless you're fighting mechanicum monstrous creatures). The Calibanite Warblade is nice in the sense you get it for the same cost as a power sword, but it gets S+1 which is a very nice bonus. Take it if you were going to take a power sword, simply put!

The Plasma Repeater should be an awesome weapon. But unless its on a Support Squad mounted in a rhino, its really short range means that you're going to be taking a plasma gun most of the time in preference to a plasma repeater. 

Stasis Shells are actually really good as they can downgrade an enemies abilities through merely hitting them (-1I and -1WS). Aim for something with WS=5 and then charge them with combat blades (or a Calibanite Warblade) for some good effects. 

Molecular Acid Shells are totally worth it for heavy bolter upgrades as well. The variable AP alone means it can be absolutely devastating. Literally. Poisoned attacks are awesome. You won't look back after taking these once, I assure you. Totally worth it!

Summing Up.

We'll look at the rites of war separately at a later date since there's now a proliferation of new rites available to all legions. 

Overall, the Dark Angels are looking like a really solid legion with some nicely specific close combat bonuses augmented with acidic shells, stasis shells and upgraded power swords on characters which is all very nice. I'm a bit concerned with the Covenant of Death rule, but it can be played around with some forward thinking and army building. 

Plasma Blast Gun

My Warlord Titan is getting very close to final assembly now. I've painted up every part of it that I intend to put together to at least a base colour standard. And today, here's the progress on the Plasma Blast Gun component. It is not finished though. Its just at a base colour standard right now. I need to perform shading, highlighting, weathering and everything else yet. But to do that, I want it attached and on the model so I can decide in a collective, whole-model approach, how to achieve these aims. 

Regardless of that, I wanted the plasma blast gun to look like it was pulsating with power along its coils. And for that reason, I decided to have several colours of blue along its length with a periodic white-blue highlight colour along the length. I think this suggests that the power is pulsating along and about to erupt from its tip. It still needs work in the blending department, but otherwise I think these base colours look neat.

Wargames Gallery: Spinning a Web

Eldar warp spider aspect warriors creep up on Chaos Space Marine raptors to finish them off. Sadly, they lost one of their brethren along the way as they shunted through the warp (the first time I've seen this happen on the tabletop in a long while!). 

Heresy-Era Assault Squad

Behold: a fully assembled, kit-bashed, converted and undercoated Heresy-era assault squad!

This has been a project long in the making, with a gathering of components from a large variety of sources including (but by no means limited to):

Mk II, III, IV, V and VI space marines (both forge world and plastics, including command sets and other veteran sets);

Grey Knights;

Dark Angels;

Space Wolves;

Chaos Space Marines;

Chaos Raptors;

Khorne Berzerkers;

Eldar (mostly the bladed weapons);

Maxmini (the "iron pattern" jump packs).

The goal here was to create a 10-man strong squad where the leader has a plasma pistol and thunder hammer and is accompanied by 9 others, two of whom also sport plasma pistols. Each of them has been extensively kit-bashed and some have minor to strong conversion work applied to make everything fit together and pose well. 

They have each been individually based with a variety of urban-style rubble and mechanised junk. And they've all been undercoated in black spray paint (citadel) for preparation for the next layer. I'm torn on whether to paint them up as Alpha Legion or whether to go for some Black Shields now! The original idea was to go for just a plain assault squad. This idea then morphed in to having a unit of Ultramarine Locutarus Storm Squad stolen by the Alpha Legion under the Coils of the Hydra rite of war. Although the sergeant cannot take a thunder hammer there, I could use it as a counts-as standard weapon perhaps. And now I'm thinking of using them as Black Shields or similar. So many choices. I better get painting them up!

Given that I invested so much time in to them, I thought it appropriate to also take individual pictures of each of them (see below). This way, its easier to gain an appreciation of the level of kit bashing and posing each of them has undergone. 

Horus Heresy Review: White Scars Legion Review

Background Material Evaluation.

The first legion that I'm reviewing from Retribution is the White Scars Legion. Now, the key thing to realise is that Retribution does not give a full overview of the three legions it presents like the other volumes in the Horus Heresy. Hence, we're lacking the key battles that they've fought in, how their Primarch was found, and all that juicy kind of detail that I sincerely hope gets published right after the Space Wolves and Thousand Sons in the next volume.

That said, we already know from "Scars" (Black Library) that the White Scars Legion were the path finders of the Great Crusade. They harried the bigger targets whilst destroying the easy ones. This left a great vacuum in their wake that subsequent follow-up by other fleets and components of the Great Crusade then exploited as the White Scars moved rapidly on to their next target. 

We also know of this Legion's predilection for riding bikes and moving very quickly in general. This, I feel, is very well encapsulated in the rules presented within Retribution. 

Legion Rules Review.

The first of their special rules is Swift Action. By moving their full range in the movement phase (6 inches for infantry, 12 inches for vehicles) the White Scars can re-roll to wound rolls of 1 and gain a +1 to their cover save for the entire game turn. This is very powerful in its own right, but merits strong planning. One has to remember that units like jet bikes for instance must move in a straight line, hence a little bit of planning at deployment can pay dividends on turn one. Of course, the inference of this special rule is that heavy weapons that can't be moved and fired at full ballistic skill in the same turn should probably be avoided. Leave such weapons to other legions and play to the strength of your fast moving White Scars!

Eye of the Storm provides a pip bonus to seizing initiative, going first, reserve rolls (only the first per turn) which is a very nice boost that can compete with Alpha Legion rites of war when combined with other methods of doing this (cf. Land Raider Proteus). 

As might be expected, the White Scars are all skilled riders thanks to Born in the Saddle. 

Finally, To Laugh in Death's Face means that a fast attack choice must be taken before a heavy support one. Fair enough really considering how one might typically build a White Scars army list any way. 

Strikingly, there are no negatives for this legion which makes them incredible and unique in so many ways. 

Wargear.

There are two items here to discuss. 

The prime one is the Power Glaive. For the same option as a power sword, a White Scars characters can get a versatile weapon that can be AP3 or AP2 (with +1S) depending if you use it one or two handed. This is a great boon and should almost always be taken by a character if they're not going to go down the power fist route. And indeed, with a bonus to re-rolling wounds, the AP2 with bonus strength is going to be wounding most of the time!

The second is really interesting, and in the form of a Cyber Hawk. This is for a Praetor level character only though. What it does is to place a marker (the Hawk) anywhere on the battle field. White Scars then get a bonus to hit against any unit with 6 inches of this marker. Plus it can provide a re-roll to charge distances. This is incredibly powerful (particularly in combination with the Swift Action rule) and should almost always be taken by a praetor. It is also incredible strategic and should be thought about clearly. Place it next to the first target for shooting on turn 1 and the Swift Action toward that target and shoot at it. This is almost better than comparable shooty legions to be honest. 

Summing Up.

I will look at Legion Rites of War later in a different article as Retribution provides a new proliferation of these above and beyond what previously existed within the other tomes.

Overall though, the White Scars are an excellent and swift moving legion that begs to be used on bikes, jet bikes, and with cyber hawks from a praetor to take out a target unit every single turn whenever possible. I can see them being a huge pain for slower moving legions and armies that just can't keep up. They will even give certain Eldar builds a good run for their money despite being the top 40k codex (at the time of writing). I'll write up example army lists at a later date. This army is incredibly powerful, make no mistake, and I believe one of the top tier Horus Heresy armies when built well and played well.

Champion of the Alpha Legion

This is a miniature that I created from Forge World parts from the Legion Champion kit. A few of the bits have been switched around. Obviously the head is citadel plastic -- this comes from the Betrayal at Calth set. I though it was very fitting for an Alpha Legion champion to have a shaved head. Although they're probably not so stupid as their 40k cousins to go around without a helmet in to battle, at least there's a painting challenge in there for me with facial "electoos". The head is also positioned to be looking directly down the blade, as if thinking whether to execute some poor soul or not.

The shoulder pads are different ones than what comes in the box as well. I think their addition creates a feeling of organisation and seriousness compared to the base legion champion.

Finally, I made the mistake of mounting the miniature on a regular circular base. I then glued it on top of a larger 32mm circular base. I will disguise this in due course with some scenic basing. The upshot (of course) is that the miniature will stand tall on the battlefield!

Retribution (Horus Heresy) and Editorial

`Thought begets heresy.

Heresy begets retribution.'

Having now completed reviewing Books 1 though 5 of the Horus Heresy series, the time is almost upon Warpstone Flux to begin reviewing Book 6: Retribution in some detail. As I have done for the previous 5 tomes, each and every new unit will get its own review eventually. Please be patient, I don't have infinite time available to me for this blog or my hobby, but I will certainly get around to each and every new unit eventually, alongside the new rules for each of the new legions presents, new rites of war and everything else that goes alongside it.

In my reviews of the Horus Heresy to date, I've not delved much in to the different missions available in each tome, but I might change that in the future as we're locally enjoying playing a few of the custom missions. I guess there's other things that I might throw in to the mix, but I do want to concentrate on the units available and how they shape up to others. All told, I'm still very excited about the Horus Heresy series as it is such a well-balanced, well thought out game system (or codex, arguably). 

How does Book 6 stack up against the others for me though? Well, with Betrayal (Book 1) I was uber-excited. Having never seen anything like Betrayal come out of Games Workshop before, it was an absolute revelation. And for me, it certainly ranked up there with the old Realms of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness in terms of its sheer scope an audacity. Plus, Betrayal was nicely self-contained. It focussed on the initial betrayal of the loyalist elements of the Sons of Horus, Death Guard, Emperor's Children and World Eaters. Sure, one could play it with other elements, but in and of itself, it is an awesome tome. Massacre (Book 2) continued in the same tone, but shifted focus to what followed. For me, the only let down was not having the full rules for all of the legions that participated in the Isstvan V campaign. That came later in Extermination (Book 3) alongside some really neat rules for small points value games that I really liked. Conquest (Book 4) was a bit of a lower point for me personally -- I know folks will disagree with me. It felt more "filler" than "killer". Costing more in sheer pounds or dollars than the other tomes, Conquest has been the low point of the series for me. That's not to say its rubbish -- its just to say that I found to previous 3 volumes superior -- they're all really good and high quality after all. Don't get me wrong, I like the conquest system for game playing, the Questoris Knights, and the other armies, its just I felt the previous 3 were offering me (personally) more. Tempest (Book 5) was okay as well. For me, some of it felt like filler (particularly repeating the Word Bearers entries) although I can see it is necessary for folks who just want to play out Calth. Which is fair for repetition at some level. However, I'm actually not a big fan of the Calth campaign personally but I can understand its importance in the grand scheme of things.

For me, Retribution (Book 6) is a true return to form. Lots of new ideas (Black Shields, other factions, etc.) all vying for my attention. Plus new rules for 3 new legions never seen before in the series. Its everything that I want and like about the Horus Heresy series. I'm also very much looking forward to Book 7 (with promises of Thousand Sons, Space Wolves, sisters of silence and the rest). 

Hence in the coming months, expect to see more reviews of the Horus Heresy series coming fresh out of the Retribution book from me!

Hope you're still enjoying the Horus Heresy series by the way -- I certainly am! And in the coming months I'm aiming to complete my Warlord Titan (its almost there now to be honest), play more games against the local group with my Alpha Legion (battle reports to follow I hope), think about more army list builds for Horus Heresy armies in general, and get on with building and painting some Questoris Knights of my own for fielding alongside my Alpha Legion forces. All this whilst writing my blog in my spare time and holding down everything else. Hence, don't expect everything at once. Its the journey that's important folks. -K.

Turbo Laser-Destructor

In painting up one of the weapons for my titan, I wanted to communicate two things:

(1) a paint scheme that continued the main colours of the titan that I've already commenced;

(2) the sheer power of a great and monolithic weapon mounted on a titanic (literally) weapon of war.

Hence, the outer shell for the turbo laser-destructor follows the silvered green colour scheme that I applied for the main torso of my titan. Additionally, there is the gold edging as per the rest of the beast. 

For the sheer power communication, I've opted to try a bit of wet blending on the interior of the tubes that form the main part of the weapon. Using a base coat of mechrite red with a shade of reikland flesh, I then applied some curvy brighter red streaks, followed by orange and yellow. Now, in real life, lasers can have any colour -- one simply tunes them to a particular wavelength. Hence any colour is appropriate for lasers. This one is red, with flecks of "something happening" inside the tubes as the power is attempted to be contained. Or at least that was the vibe that I was "gunning" for (pun not intended).

The weapon is not yet finalised though. I need to go over the silvered areas a bit to touch them up from where the green from the air compressor went too close to them. Some weathering (etc) is also yet to be done, but that will take place at the same time that I weather the rest of the titan -- especially on the green bits. I will also aim to show some heat discolouring toward the tip of the weapon as well. But these are steps for another day. At least the basis is now in place!

A Late Birthday Present

A late birthday present got delivered recently: Imperial Knights Renegade!

I'm very much looking forward to the construction challenge and painting of this set to say the least. That said, remember how long its taken me to make my Storm Eagle and the Warhound Titan. Progress might be slow -- but its the journey that matters. Equally, given this is plastic, it might be a whole load quicker. Painting will be at a normal pace though. I'm thinking of matching the colours of my Warhound with these guys to some extent. But I'm not 100% certain on that at this stage. Choices, choices!

I'm also thrilled at the saving present on this boxed set. Ignoring the die and the rules / game included, there's a pair of Imperial Knights inside plus the scenery. To be explicit (and I know other people have already pointed it out -- but its such a huge saving, its worth restating):

Imperial Knight Gallant / Crusader / Warden: GBP 95

Imperial Knight Errant / Paladin: GBP 85

Sanctum Imperialis: GBP 20

Total: GBP 200.

Bought through an outlet such as Wayland Games, this is basically 50% of the price. In all the years since I've been playing games (which is from the start basically -- well Rogue Trader at any rate), I have never seen Games Workshop do such a heavy discount. Hence even if Imperial Knights are going to be re-done (I don't think they are), the Knights in this box will still be valid for 30k and that's the way that I'm probably going to build them.

Storm Eagle Cockpit

Cockpit complete on the Storm Eagle. Just the final detailing to go now.

Very pleased!

Planetary Empires Campaign - Round 1 Update

As readers may be aware, we're currently engaged in a small scale Planetary Empires Campaign. For this, we are using the modified "Blended Empires" rules that have been posted here a long time ago. (See: here and here). 

Earlier this week, I posted a video battle report of my own battle against the vile forces of chaos… which I lost miserably due to my daft deployment and not handling the Heldrake very well at all. Meanwhile, the Eldar scored a massacre victory over the Space Wolves. 

These results gave 8 Empire Points to the Eldar, 7 to Chaos, and 3 each to us "loyalists". 

And now, Round 1 is over with, and Empire Points have been earned and spent by the players. The only rule we impose for Round 1 spending is that players may not conquer other player's tiles. Therefore everyone expanded in to unclaimed tiles, did various upgrades, and bought veterans and reinforcements.

The updated map is below.

In the next round I will be facing off against the Space Wolves (on 1425 points-- 1300 points base, plus 1 manufactorum, plus 1 reinforcements) whilst I will face them with 1350 points (1300 base plus 1 manufactorum), plus one unit to be upgraded with a veteran rule thanks to my Bastion. I'm thinking some +1 initiative for my marine squad to be able to strike first against I=4 wolves. 

Battle Report: Chaos vs. Alpha Legion (1300 pts)

Background.

"Whether it was due to warpstorms, mutiny in the ranks, bad luck, or poor judgement, your strike team has found itself marooned on an icy world whose name is simply recorded as Fahrenheit’s Landing in the cartographic surveys of the segmentum. Little is known about the planet other than it has low temperatures all across it and that a long time ago, the Imperium used to have a presence here. But no longer. Whatever disaster afflicted Fahrenheit’s Landing happened a long time ago and only relics remain. There is no life here other than yourselves and whoever else got flung here in the warp storms."

Video Battle Report.

The video below is a battle report for combined chaos space marines and chaos daemons versus my Alpha Legion force. It is played out at 1300 points.

Now, I know that that points value seems like a strange one. We are actually engaged in a Planetary Empires campaign wherein the points value will vary from week to week. The first few frames of the video includes a map overview of the planet we are playing for. There are 4 players: Alpha Legion (me!), Space Wolves, Chaos, and Eldar. Nominally, we're going to have 5 rounds, but we'll see how it goes ultimately. 

We had a good time in this game -- particularly the late turns which proved hilarious for reasons you'll see if you watch the video!