Horus Heresy Review: Red Hand Destroyer Assault Squad

Background.
Bit late with this one (and updating the blog more generally) due to real life. But here it is: the Red Hand Destroyer Squad. The so-called "Red Hand" is the Butcher's Mark - awarded to those who displayed excessive violence by the Master of the World Eaters, or to those who simply slay much higher ranked officers in the same legion. Rather than these squads being made up of brothers who share fraternity with each other, they are stand out rivals; competing with each other in the World Eater's vanguard to be worth of the symbol. 

Strengths. 

These units are destroyer squads with some nice extra upgrades and rules. The Bearers of the Blood Hand rule is a kind of negative harkening back to the old days of Khorne Berserkers in 4th Edition 40k -- they have to charge an enemy within 12 inches if possible. The Ravaging Assault rule gives them +1 to combat resolution and sweeping advances. Together, and with upgrades, this makes this squad a frightful opponent in close combat. Counter attack and the usual World Eaters rules is just the icing on the cake. 

Weaknesses.

This is an "ordinary" squad of marines with 1 wound and a 3+ save each. Treat them as such!

The biggest problem is that they take up a very cramped Elites spot in my opinion. 

Builds.

10 Ravagers, 2 with Thunder Hammers, and the Blood Bonded with a 3rd thunder hammer and artificer armour. (260 points). 

Take a rhino. Hammer time.

5 Ravagers, all with jump packs, 1 missile launcher with suspensor, Blood Bonded with power fist. All with jump packs. (175 points).

A bit of a base line unit, but also a distraction carnifex. 

15 Ravagers, all with jump packs, 3 missile launchers, Blood Bonded with power fist. (415 points).

Getting to a larger size here, and a significant threat when used well.

The above builds don't explicitly use twin falax blades and the like, but feel free to experiment in that department. Phosphex bombs would also be useful in certain situations and could well be added to the second squad listed for additional threat. 

Horus Heresy Review: Iron Warriors Dominator Cohort

Background.

I like the background to the Dominator Cohort: long before the Heresy, these warriors were the chosen few of the Iron Warriors and sworn to protect and serve Perturabo in battle. However, the Iron Circle automata came along in the Battle of Phall and effectively displaced them. Their hatred toward the automata subsequently increased and they became the resentful elite of the Iron Warriors machinery, despite their own failings. 

Strengths.

This is a unit of thunder hammer terminators that hate cybernetica and can replace the Iron Circle as their Primarch's bodyguard (in which case they drop their hatred rule and don't occupy a force organization slot, as well as gain feel no pain). They get a limited choice of upgrades (but a really nice multi melta option!), and a nice bonus pip in weapon skill. Implacable Advance and Stubborn round out their rules. 

Weaknesses.

Honestly, they appear on paper to be a bit "bland". On the battlefield this is probably true as well. I suspect the uses for them are against Mechanicum opponents, and can be used well in combination with the Primarch too. But their utility is very situational and they're not that much better than a baseline squad that can otherwise be built from the regular elites choice. 

Builds.

Don't forget the land raider Phobos to taste for the builds below...

5 Dominators, 1 with a multi-melta (300 points).

My baseline unit.

5 Dominators, 1 with a multi-melta, 4 with combi-meltas (328 points).

Melt those robots out of your sight.

10 Dominators, 2 multi-meltas, 8 combi-meltas, 5 chain fists (581 points).

Probably a good version for large battles actually. 

Jaghatai Khan Miniature

Jaghatai Khan! 
Revealed today at the Preview. 

Very excited about this one! But what about the bike? Hmmm.

Horus Heresy Review: Night Lords Atramentar Squad

Background.

The terminator elite of the Night Lords, and all swearing fealty to Sevatar. Armed to the teeth (in some cases literally), they are noted to be shock troops, yet also very prone to the Night Lords' failings of being little more than a disunited rabble who might plausibly turn against their own. 

Strengths. 

Although one might read the stat line and not think much of it, these marines are still terminators, and in Tartaros Armour as standard. Better though, they inherit something that is almost unique in the legions and belongs to the Night Lords -- not the special rules associated with the legion -- but the use of teleporter transponders. This means that they are invariably going to be in the right area most of the time and little thought needs to be applied to how they will be transported around. I honestly wish other legions had more regular access to this technology outside of rites of war, but for the Night Lords, it is a true and powerful boon.

The equipment choices available mean that they can be kitted out in a strong variety of ways -- we will look at some sample builds below. The disordered charges against them, coupled with trophies of judgement make them all the more powerful melee opponents. Implacable advance is also very welcome here. 

Being sword to Sevatar, the Atramentar can be taken as troops, but is Sev is killed, they will no longer be scoring. This leads us naturally into the next section. 

Weaknesses.

One wound terminators won't last too long unless they get where they need to be and stuck into the fray. Even with the transponders, these marines are vulnerable to high volume, and high strength firepower, and this should be taken into consideration. 

Builds.

Remember that the Night Lords really excel when the unit size is large. Hence some of the builds below, whilst expensive in terms of points cost, try to allow for this fact. The Night Lords want to conduct an Alpha Strike and rout enemies through fear. These terminators play that role well. 

5 Atramentar; power axes (270 points).

This is actually the baseline unit. It is viable "as is". That said, it is more of a "distraction carnifex" than anything else.

20 Atramentar; 4 heavy flamers; 6 combi-flamers; 1 thunder hammer (817 points).

I actually wouldn't play this unit, but it is fun on paper at least!

10 Atramentar; 5 with Lightning Claws; 2 thunder hammers; 2 chain fists (545 points).

This is one that I would play. Why? Because Night Lords want to be conducting an Alpha Strike via close combat as soon as possible. This unit can take on most things in the game and look good doing it. Teleport in, and start the murder. Take grenade harness to taste.

10 Atramentar; 2 plasma blasters; 5 combi-plasma; 5 power fists (510 points).

An excellent mid-range unit capable of outputting serious fire power to blast away opponents or light tanks, and following it up with deadly power fists. This is a unit I would also run.  

The Defence of Sotha: Aegida's Lament

This month's Horus Heresy supplementary review is a long awaited welcome to the Night Lords' Atramentar Terminators!

The supplement is available via the Warhammer Community here, and this time we are focused on when the Night Lords invaded the outskirts of the Ultramar Empire to try to capture the Pharos -- the full events of which are told in the Horus Heresy novel by the same name. Key to the Ultramarine's defence of their realm, the artefact is clearly a grand prize for either legion to possess. 

In the supplement, we learn more of the Night Lords who undertook the invasion to attempt to capture it, along with witnessing their grizzly acts in the process. The Ultramarines who defend against this are well accounted for too, but the stars of the show are the Atramentars.

Clearly the series is going to be selecting units that have been explicitly noted in the novels but never really allowed the chance to shine on their own or given any rules of their own to play with. The Atramentar are such a welcome addition to the Horus Heresy rules set, and their absence has long since been lamented. This is now brought full circle and we witness their full g(l)ory here in this release.

I will review the unit separately in a future post (incoming later this week with a little luck) and will review the mission provided in this publication too as a third post. For this post though, I am continuing my amazement and excitement at seeing these important parts of the Horus Heresy come to light. There are certainly bits in the publication that will pique the interest of veteran Night Lords and Ultramarine fans alike. The writing is high quality, coherent, and in line with expectations of what happened for the battle of the Pharos in the novel, along with new light shone on the combatants that were immediately to hand. Excellent stuff really!

[Aside: I am personally looking forward to seeing future rules for the Effrit Stealth Squads for the Alpha Legion. Please please please Warhammer Team, if you read this blog can you grant my wish? Love from me! xx]

Corax

The Forge World model for Corax is one that I've had in the collection for a little while, but only recently found time to assemble together. The sheer amount of resin involved in the miniature is one of the larger amounts for the Primarch series within the Horus Heresy, and this alone means that would be modellers need to take some time to get everything right.

For me, the nice parts were the long rods that features in the shoulders to provide stability to the arms for Corax. On the same point, but in entirely the opposite sense, I found the side engines on the jump pack to be most fiddly since they can be orientated in a number of ways. The wings are also very delicate and need some care to be fully processed (including cleaning, as well as removal of flashes and the like). I could have spend longer doing the wings, but it won't detract significantly from the subsequent painting that I will end up doing since the mould is now clearly ageing and some of the details, whilst crisp, are arguably not quite what they once were. 

My new rule for buying Forge World miniatures is to purchase them when they come out fresh. That way, one is almost guaranteed to have as optimal a cast of the miniature as possible. 

Regardless of this, the miniature is still totally amazing. The sheer dynamism encapsulated in the way that Corax is landing hard on the rubble and shooting at his foe is impressive to say the least. It is one of my favourite Primarch sculpts (much better than, say, the Ultramarines' Roboute, or the Imperial Fists' Dorn who by comparison are relatively static). This is much more on the level of the World Eater's Angron, or the Emperor's Children's Fulgrim sculpt - and I really appreciate that. 

Horus Heresy Review: Argel Tal

Background.

A captain of the Serrated Suns chapter of the Word Bearers and also one of the first of the Word Bearers to look into the depths of the Eye of Terror -- he discovered that it looked back at him. The daemon, Raum, possessed him (or arguably formed a symbiosis with him) and enabled him to transform into an incredible part daemon entity capable of mass destruction on the battlefield. 

Purely aside from me, he was also best buddies with Kharn, and the two enjoyed a strong friendship until the end. At which point Kharn was rightly angry...

Strengths.

The stat line along for Argel Tal is very attractive with 5's all round apart from 4 wounds and an extra pip in WS. Combine this with a natural 2+ save and the daemon special rule means that this is an HQ choice to be reckoned with. His close combat attacks feature AP3 at S+1 which means he can pump out a huge amount of damage in melee. The rending and shred rules merely add to this deadliness level. 

I find the warlord trait, Master of the Vakrah Jal, to be very interesting indeed. Using this, Argel Tal unlocks Gal Vorbak as troops choices. If the unit that Tal joins are made of models that have the daemon rule, then they all get feel no pain too. This can be really strong overall, and encourages a really interesting army composition. 

Weaknesses.

He is not a scoring unit, nor does Tal have any ranged weaponry (except for the standard grenades). Naturally, he's also only available to the traitor faction. 

Curiously, Tal lacks the Word Bearers Astartes special rule, but this is understandable. This does not affect his ability to be a praetor level character and select a rite of war from the Word Bearers list though. 

Other than that, the player will need to consider how to get Tal where he needs to be. 

Overall.

Argel Tal is a very strong close combat HQ choice for the Word Bearers legion. An army with lots of daemons in and Gal Vorbak is frankly frightening from a number of different angles. But that sort of army requires finesse to make work well. 

Horus Heresy Review: Huscarl Squad

Background.

The Warhammer Community recently released the first in what promises to be an exciting series of publications on exemplary battles. Contained within this first release: The Battle of Pluto, is a new unit for the Horus Heresy game, the Huscarl Squad.

These Imperial Fists marines have risen through the Phalanx Warders and are considered to be very hardy and therefore charged with the shielding of Imperial Fists battle components. They are unsung heroes of the Imperial Fists and have a "singular nature" in the service of Dorn. 

Strengths.

They are Cataphratii terminators that carry storm shields, along with a power weapon of their choosing. This automatically ranks them as high quality and a solid investment. The ability to upgrade with power gauntlets of the Solarite flavour is superb, and the grenade harness rounds them all off nicely. 

In addition to this, the teleporter transponders mean that they match the Night Lords for the ability to get where they need to be. This is uncommon in the Horus Heresy and should not be overlooked. 

Other special rules grant them bonus WS if they are charged and have 3 or more models remaining (this extends to characters joined to the squad) and they can replace a legion command squad as a retinue if required (certainly recommended for consideration from me!). 

Weaknesses.

Fundamentally, these marines are still single wound terminators with a moderate leadership value. Models that are able to pump out enough shots to force saving throws, and those with AP2 or other means (e.g., Fear) are going to cause the squad problems. With this in mind, it is important to remember the price tag attached here which is moderately steep, but very reasonable for what you get. Its just a pity they don't have 2 wounds each really as otherwise they could compete with the Salamanders terminators. 

Finally, without any ranged weapons, it is important that these marines get to where they need to be in the game as soon as possible. Teleport in by all means, but then watch out for faster armies who will run rings around them (White Scars). 

Builds. 

5 Huscarls, all with power axes. (275 points).

This is actually the baseline squad and it will serve very well as a teleport in and make a mess of a backline squad, or hold a critical line against the advancement of enemies -- just as Dorn intended.

10 Huscarls, 5 Solarite Power Gauntlets, 2 Power Axes, 3 Power Swords, 1 Grenade Harness (535 points).

Probably only for legendary battles where a Primarch is involved given the points costs here. Regardless, this squad really will hold a good line against most comers, particularly when paired up with the likes of Dorn himself. Good luck, and don't take and fear tests from Night Lords. 

The Battle of Pluto: Hydra’s Devastation

Fresh out of the Warhammer Community today is the first in what promises to be a high quality series of releases for the Horus Heresy: Exemplary Battles in the Age of Darkness. In this case, it is The Battle of Pluto: Hydra’s Devastation. This particular release centres around the battle of Hydra and is one of those very notable battles in the Heresy that hasn't received as much attention as it might otherwise deserve -- and hence the release.

Here, we get to grips with the Alpha Legion tearing into the outer solar system defences around Terra. Arranged against them are the forces of the Imperial Fists. These events are covered in the Black Library release Praetorian of Dorn. The release is a solid 12 pages long (10 not counting the covers) and gives us a new campaign to fight that consists of 3 individual battles, along with a new unit: the Huscurl Squad. All this set with a good amount of background material and lore that would make some of the earlier writers of the black book series proud, I would like to believe.

The so-called "legendary battles" themselves are entertaining. The first one (A Spear in the Void) represents the Alpha Legion making a surgical strike on Hydra with the Imperial Fists defending. The second (Maelstrom of Carnage) deals with the aftermath of the first game and is effectively a Zone Mortalis game. Whoever won the previous game is the attacker here and must push on into enemy territory to either damage things further, or to kill off the remaining forces (also depends on your point of view I guess!).

The final game is "Nucleus of Destruction" and represents the clash between Dorn and Alpharius at the culmination of the Battle for Hydra. The outcome is decided by who kills the opposing Primarch. All told, this is an interesting series of connected games that can feature in a connected campaign for the dominion of Hydra. 

We will review the new Imperial Fists unit in a distinct post. 

About the only thing that I can say I'm slightly down on is that fact that this publication might not end up in physical publication format. But that's life. And I'm very pleased to see the Horus Heresy line get some quality attention like this. It certainly bodes well for the future. Bring on the second edition of the game!

Reaver Progress at the resolution of September 2021

A short update on the Reaver today. The picture below shows the rough state of play for the titan. Everything is dry-fitted together (and a big shout out to my daughter who helped with the dry fit and holding the weapon on to the carapace for the image; but ignore the shoulder pads being the wrong way around! Maybe this will start an unlikely trend? Maybe not...). 

Regardless, significant progress has now been made with the painting of this beast. All the basics are in place and awaiting the first oily wash over before progressing to some detail and edge highlighting. 

For the curious, the Warhound weapon on the top has one of the spare Warhound leg guards wrapped around the top, but I intend to make this fully exchangeable for the missile launcher. As for the rest of the titan, the legs guards, the knees, the weapons, and the shoulders all need to be glued into place yet. I will keep the torso unglued from the legs to ensure portability. 

Much more work yet to be accomplished here, but good progress is being made!

 

Praetor Painting Progress

A pictorial progress report on the Alpha Legion Praetor painting today. 

Clearly there is still work to be undertaken and completed on the miniature, but the painting scheme is really taking shape nicely at this point -- hence the update. Some shading is needed on the silver edging, eyes need to be done, and other fine details attended to. The subtle blues and greens of the miniature are all in place nicely and the claw is starting to look suitably wicked as well. 

Nurglings Interrupting

We interrupt the regular proceedings with Nurglings. 

This batch of Nurglings have been causing gremlin like problems in the bits box and demanded to be assembled and at least base coated. Who am I to disobey Grandfather Nurgle?

Clearly and self-evidently, this is a works in progress. With that said, I wanted to veer away from the usual approach of having everything in the same colour and try to give each and every one of these daemons their own unique feeling. Therefore, I have opted to use a different base colour for each and every one of them. It has been rather taxing to achieve this without spilling too much of the paint over on to adjacent Nurglings in the stack, but overall, not a bad first attempt at a base coat. Note in particular that some of the daemons have been picked out using contrast paints which has helped immensely with this approach and provided the necessary shading without really trying. 

What is left to do is tidy up the details. Teeth, tongues, horns, mutations, infections, internal organs, pus, gore, and general grubbiness await. 

Titanic Weapon Addition: Apocalypse Missile Launcher

Reinforcement weaponry is here for my Reaver Titan: an apocalypse missile launcher.

This heavyweight resin product from Forge World only comes in a small number of parts. The main body of the missile launcher is one solid, large blob of resin that is hard to miss. On the rear of the launcher is a small vent system that has to be glued on. Beneath is the connector that plugs it into the carapace of the Reaver Titan itself. 

And at the front are the missiles themselves. Each and every one of the missiles comes on a small resin sprue and must be added on its own. This is tricky due to the curvature of the missiles (it makes them tough to get in place, even with tweezers). Significantly, it is also easy to get one slightly misaligned and pointing in ever so slightly the wrong direction compared to its neighbours. This can be seen in the image where I've taken it at a certain angle to exaggerate this effect. Look closely and its possible to see a few missiles whose tips appear to not face forward. In real life when looking at the model straight on, this is hardly possible to detect though. I am reasonable confident that once I've applied a paint scheme to the missiles that any slight deviation from full frontal facing will be easily disguised. 

I know some people like to remove some of the missiles to suggest mid-battle action. But for me, I've decided to keep all of the missiles in their place since I wanted to present a fully loaded and ready weapon system. I should post more Reaver pictures as there's been a hell of a lot of progress since the last time!

Night Lords Tyberos Painting

Mid-week painting is a very welcome change of pace for me at the moment, and a happy respite from what is going on in the wider world. I have finally tackled my Tyberos model that I bought from Forge World a while ago. The plan that I had all along was to paint this particular model up in the colours of the Night Lords.

The reason behind this (seemingly peculiar) choice was to see how he looked in these colours due to the fact that the Carcharodons might be descended from this traitorous chapter. For a more in-depth crawl through the possible successor chapters of traitor legions, I wrote a popular article on the topic in April. The Carcharodons are noted as having possible Night Lords elements within them, or even inside their gene seed in a chimeric fashion. Hence this was a strong motivator for the choice of colour scheme for Tyberos, coupled with a potentially new opponent for some of my smaller games. To be clear, I won't be collecting Night Lords as they simply don't appeal to me greatly beyond their paint scheme (I'm not a fan of their background, although I can readily appreciate the work gone into this legion over many decades of background fluff. Nor do I relish playing against this legion and their fear inducing ways of fighting!). 

Painting followed a home brew approach to the Night Lords colours. A black undercoat was applied to give the model depth, before using a base colour of Caledor Sky for most of the model's bluer parts. This was washed down with contrast paints plus a touch of Nightshade to give the model some depth. Edge highlights were applied to the bluer parts in Teclis Blue followed by Lothern Blue. Some of these edges could have been neater, but I've not managed to purchase new paint brushes in a while (will be getting out more soon, hopefully! And yes: I like to purchase my brushes in person rather than online, before anyone says that). I attempted a lightning effect on the model's left leg which I am pleased with overall. It is almost impressionistic in nature, but seems to work a treat on this model. 

I decided to use reds on the fists and helmet, inspired by Sevatar. This battle brother's life is therefore held in the balance by the Primarch (or potentially was, until he was assassinated). Two tones of red were used here, including a wash of contrast paints and darker tones to blend in. Eye lenses were picked out in white before getting a sampling of green to offset the red helmet, and a careful pin prick of reflection inserted at the back edge of the lens. 

Cables, recessed metal, and other metallic parts were picked out in lead belcher before receiving a cost of Guilliman Flesh (yep: really). On the upper parts and edging of the shoulder pads, I was quite liberal with this and it has created almost a semi-bronze trim which I am very happy with the blend of. More edging in whiter colours picks out the edge highlights for the uppermost parts of the pads.

Finally, like many people, I only have the older Night Lords transfers that used to come with the older chaos space marine boxed sets. They're aged and don't look terrific these days. So I decided to live a little dangerously and do a free hand icon on the right shoulder pad. The basic shape is done in Mephiston red, with a fanged skull placed in the middle, over the top of this. Black then gives the outer edge of the freehand a good outline that is more than sufficient to round of the basic shapes required here.

Overall, this has been a very interesting experiment to undertake, and one that I hope will be appreciated by readers -- changing the status of a miniature and its in-game loyalty purely by its paint scheme is an adventure, and one that I would fully encourage anyone to try out! 

Alpha Legion Praetor

Here is the assembled Alpha Legion Praetor, based on Sevatar's scenic resin base from Forge World. 

I am very happy with the result here. To my mind it looks like the Praetor (or his men) have made a quick kill and are storming along the ruins of some kind of forge world to take their due of equipment or to ransack an important component of the works. I think to be controversial, I will paint both the Praetor and the victim in Alpha Legion colours to emphasize the internecine war within the Alpha Legion and be representative of some of the fiction found within the Black Library (e.g., the Seventh Serpent, and the Serpent Beneath). 

Praetors Deserve Quality Bases

Every praetor deserves a good base. The one that I'm planning for my new Alpha Legion acquisition is not different in this regard. Luckily for me, I picked up this beauty recently that I will be using with the praetor miniature (as opposed to constructing one from scratch). 

Of course, this base belongs to Sevatar of the Night Lords legion. It also happens to be one of my favourite ones from Forge World. I like the way that the actual base itself slots into the side of the display base. Many Forge World bases are fully encircled by the display base (cf., various other praetor level marines, and some Primarchs). The ones that slot into the side are without doubt my favourite type due to their simplicity and low level of messing around to get the playing base out from the display base. And of this type, I really dig Sevatars. In fact, I was toying with using this one with Alpharius himself at one point, but decided against it. 

The base comes in three parts (four if you count the black circular citadel base as well). The smallest part is the arm of the marine who lies dead near the foot of the shallow staircase. This part is simple to glue in place though, but I would advise dry fitting your miniature of choice to ensure that this arm works with the rest of the miniature before gluing everything in (doubly so for a kitbash like what I'm up to here). 

Kit Bashing Alpha Legion Praetor

Following a small amount of kit bashing, I created this Alpha Legion praetor from the recent Forge World acquisition. 

The left arm is a lightning claw from the Mark III power armour range and gives the miniature a very unsubtle pose and message of intent. The right arm features a plasma pistol, once again from the Mark III range. All the other bits for the main part of the miniature are via the Alpha Legion praetor blister pack noted above.

I like the pose of this one - commanding from the front and mid-stride to take on the enemy forces in close combat. A harrowing awaiting to happen. Looking forward to getting it painted up. 

Horus Heresy Review: Carnodon Strike Squadron

Background.
The final entry in Book 9 is the Carnodon Strike Squadron. This comes in two different guises: one for the Solar Auxilia, and one for the more regular Imperial Army. Fundamentally, this is a middle of the road battle tank, with statistics to match. 

Strengths.

The twin-linked autocannon is very nice here, although I suspect that most players will want to swap out the heavy flamer sponsons for something else. 

The Saturnyne version for the Solar Auxilia comes with the option of also swapping out the main turret which in some cases  might be desirable to create (e.g.) a lascannon based tank.

Weaknesses.

Arguably the armour isn't that great, but as stated above, the price about matches what you might expect.

Builds.

Carnodon with Twin Linked Autocannon, and autocannon sponsons (65 points).

A reasonably good amount of bullets coming out of this tank for the points cost here. Take a squad of 3 if you have the points.

Saturnyne Pattern Carnodon with Twin Linked Lascannon, and lascannon sponsons (105 points).

Not quite a predator tank, but still very nice.

Saturnyne Pattern Carnodan with Twin Linked Multi-laser, multi-laser sponsons, and a multi-laser pintle (85 points).

Purely for those of you who can't get enough multi-lasers. 

Unit Coherency in Age of Sigmar 3.0

I've been wanting to make a few notes about the upcoming new rules for Age of Sigmar (i.e., 3rd edition). I don't play Age of Sigmar very frequently, but given that my children seem more interested in the game compared to 40k, staying on top of a few of these things does literally find its way to my desk. [And before anyone says: yes, my children like 40k, 30k as well, but just not quite as much as Age of Sigmar which they have really taken to in tandem with RPGs].

The main change -- among a good number of changes -- for Age of Sigmar 3.0 is the changes in unit coherency. I regard this as a pretty fundamental alteration to how the game is played at a game level, strategic level, and tactical level. 

In previous editions, we saw a large number of single rank units stretching far and wide (cf., gratuitous bloodcrushers image!). This clearly was good for screening and other uses. Yet its basis in reality is not too strong. [And again: you will have to forgive me for using the term "Rank" here -- I'm very much an old timer now and remember those heady days of early Warhammer Fantasy Battle very well]. 

So what has changed?

In a nutshell: for units that have 6 or more members, they need to be near 2 other members, instead of just one. 

On the surface, this feels fine. Small units can still stretch out conga line style, but larger squads must now think about having ranks on surface inspection. In that light, I actually like the new ruling since it starts to feel much more realistic and gives a flavour of what the old WFB rules might have once been like. 

But there are plenty of configurations of large units that we can now consider for use with this rule. 

Of course, a player could arrange blobs of three models close to each other and have other blobs of 3 a little further apart. But who is going to play that other than "win at all costs" types? Well, I suspect some will in all honesty. And it will be popular. 

I'm also going to go one step further: we are not going to see ranks either, despite my initial enthusiasm! The obvious reason is that the back rows will not contribute to combats as effectively. 

Instead, I think we are going to see a lot of zig-zag arranged units such that the rear row can still reach over the top and strike in combat. I also think that some amount of adaptation to the zigzag will be seen so that attackers tessellate will be seen. Of course, the Khorne player won't think too much about this, and will hopefully just charge in recklessly anyway - as befits such an army. Or at least, I hope that is what will still happen. 

Tyberos Part 2

And here is Tyberos, the Red Wake, all glued together and awaiting the primer. I like the pose and sculpt of the miniature overall. Although I was sorely tempted to do some conversion work on this miniature, I am glad that I haven't. In particular, I was sorely tempted to do something with the lightning claws and replace the blades with something a touch longer and more menacing. However, the hooked nature of the claws is nice and I'm sticking with them. Onward with the painting, as time allows!

Tyberos

I have a number of projects going on all at once on the worktop. This particular one may be a little surprising to my long term readers, but non the less, here is Tyberos. Also known as The Red Wake. 

The image shows how Tyberos arrives, fresh out of the blister pack. This is clearly a mould that is now aging. With that said, the lines and details are crisp enough and I'm glad to have got hold of the model now, rather than allow it to go out of sale or availability. 

As for the plans: this miniature will be used in 30k, rather than 40k. And the legion might just be a novel one. More later on these dubious plans. 

New Horus Heresy Boxed Set?

Over this weekend, there have been rumours flying around about a new boxed set for the Horus Heresy game. Usually these rumour crop up every couple of months with people claiming to have some kind of inside knowledge or scoop, which, although they might be accurate, always strike me as assertions of some kind. This time it is much better. There are actual photographs of the miniatures being used in play, likely from the box itself. I won't link to them or display them here as I'm not the copyright holder.

However, they look great!

Ranging from what appears to be new Mark 6 armour (yes please: love some new Alpha Legion alpha mark 6 marines please!), a new contemptor (already got several, but surely one more won't hurt, right?), a plastic spartan (hell yes!), coupled with cataphractii (could be good if they're new sculpts?) and characters maybe (not sure at all), this set appears very legitimate and exciting.

For a long time, I have felt that Horus Heresy once again needs to be brought into line with the existing edition of 40k. Without that connection, there is less impetus for gamers to play each other from 30k to 40k (certainly I've enjoyed those battles very much indeed!) and I'm optimistic that the new release might be done alongside a "version 2" of Horus Heresy to update all of the rules. 

In terms of the Black Books, we have been hearing for a while that there might not be any more. Certainly with all of the legions being published, I only see room for Xenos armies (Orks, Eldar, etc.) for crusade purposes, and perhaps support for the Siege of Terra (come on, give the Emperor some rules?). Or maybe something about the scouring? (Although Book 9 does a bit of that I guess). So the release of a new version is a good way to re-invigorate the Horus Heresy scene to my mind. Despite repeated rumours of the death of the sub-game, I have always felt Horus Heresy is the premium version of the game for the veterans and collectors that is (arguably) better than 40k in a number of ways. Therefore I'm hopeful that this represents a good way forward to forge new links between 30k and 40k and simultaneously promote both. 

Equally, I've ever been the raging optimist!

Spoiler-Free Reading Order for Horus Heresy Books

Today, I wanted to link and amplify a flow chart produced by the fine people over at Black Librarium. 

This is the link to follow: https://imgbb.com/5Mr7rDV and a low resolution preview can be seen in the image below. 

At its core, the basic idea of the flowchart is that the published order of the Horus Heresy books does not necessarily follow the chronological order in which the action or events happen within the epic series. The reasons for this are obvious enough: many writers contributed collaboratives over many years to a wide variety of aspects of the series to make it the amazing achievement that it is today. 

This particular flowchart caught my attention since there are a number of ways of following the action: this might be chronological, or based on a faction that you are most interested in, or a zone of the conflict that piques your attention. 

For me, the obvious appeal is the comprehensive nature of the flowchart, with the very minor caveat that some of the more minor and tenuous links are not noted. It really does a nice job at illustrating the complexity inherent with the writing project over many (actual) years and provides a good way of looking at what to read beyond what Black Library itself recommend. It therefore scores a huge two thumbs up from me. 

Horus Heresy Review: Saturnyne Pattern Aurox Armoured Transport

Background.

The Aurox is to the Imperial Army what the Rhino is to the Space Marines. The design philosophy of both are incredibly similar: they needed to be able to be mass produced, and to be able to be repaired and allow for additional load outs in the field. 

Beyond that, this is the standard transport solution for the troops of the Imperial Army, Solar Auxilia, as well as the Cultist armies in 30k.

Strengths. 

I regard the points cost of the Aurox as cheap and cheerful and therefore an asset not to be over-looked.

Weaknesses.

In a case of "you get what you pay for", the Aurox is not well armed or armoured in the grand scheme of things. These transport boxes will blow up regularly, and that's just to be expected.

Builds.

The Aurox comes in two baseline flavours: one for the Solar Auxilia and one for everyone else. The only difference is that the Solar Auxilia get the Explorator Adaption upgrade included, and have slightly more options. 

Aurox (Solar Auxilia) with multi-laser (35 points).

I kind of like the multi-laser, but by all means keep the heavy stubber instead, or take the heavy flamer. The extra armour is a nice optional upgrade here. 

Aurox (Everyone Else) with heavy stubber (25 points). 

Not much to say here. The heavy flamer is tempting against some armies, but otherwise stick with the heavy stubber.

 

Alpha Legion Praetor Bits

A new month brings some new miniatures to assemble and paint. The first of which is this fine looking fellow that I've been wanting to get hold of for quite a number of months. 

This is the Alpha Legion praetor in regular power armour, fresh on the sprue. The bits are very nicely sculpted indeed, and I'm more than pleased with the clear level of detail inherent in them. What is slightly less pleasing to me is the sheer number of bits involved. 

I'm not a huge fan of having these individual sculpts with the hands detached from the arms; doubly so for this double handed weapon pose. I acknowledge that this is nothing new though, and all of the plastic range does the division between arm and hand these days. But getting two arms joined to the weapon in the correct pose is challenging for hobbyists who are newer to the game when using resin. 

Regardless of this, my plan is actually to use these bits as a conversion. I'm going to do away with the arms slowly unsheathing the power sword. Instead, I'm wanting something a bit different. More on this plan at a later point, but for now, enjoy seeing the bits for those who have not seen them before!

 

Horus Heresy Review: Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought

Background.

The Deredeo has already featured in Book 5, Tempest, and in Book 9, Crusade, we find the rules have been updated a little bit compared to the earlier book. 

The Deredeo remains a heavy weapons platform that has its history in the Contemptor class and the earlier styles of Terran and Martian designs. It remained in high demand by both sides of the conflict in the Heresy, although there were few forges that could produce them.

Strengths.
With helical targeting, the Deredeo is fantastic at taking out aircraft with its weapons. Given the weapons, its also fantastic at shooting nearly everything in the game to be honest. Monstrous creatures? Yep. Terminator equivalents? Yep. Its got it all.

The entry level Anvilus auto cannon battery is S=8 with plenty of shots and sunder. The reasonable range means it can reach across the board to ensure they reach the desired target.

The Hellfire Plasma Cannonade is AP=2 at just one pip less in strength and has two modes of firing: sustained, which provides a good number of shots, or maximal, which gives a big pie plate. And terminators are fans of pie, so I hear.

Meanwhile the Aiolos missile launcher gives a huge ranged weapon that can do significant damage to space marine equivalents. Hitting side armour is just icing on the cake.

New in Book 9 is the addition of the Volkite falconet battery. I kind of like this for pinning and the combination of the high rate of fire and quality strength. It will shine against Guard equivalent armies. But I might still err on the side of the autocannons instead.

The Arachnus heavy lascannon battery is also very impressive thanks to the exoshock rule: there's a 50 per cent chance of a second penetrating hit if a first one is scored. This is very dangerous stuff.

Boreas air missiles are a nice idea but I suspect many will be put off playing this due to its one use rule. Other than that, a first turn volley at just one less strength than a lascannon with independent tracking is really nice, and probably spells doom against transport tanks and White Scar jetbikes thanks to invalidating Jink saves. 

Weaknesses.
This is fundamentally not a close combat dreadnought. That said, it is still a dreadnought with an invulnerable save and good frontal armour.

My suggestion is to run a Deredeo with ranged terminators -- upgraded with Atomantic Pavaise, it can grant a bonus to the invulnerable save of regular terminators nearby which is very nice, but also costly.

Builds.
Several builds to mull over here, including the ones from Book 5 that I have already noted previously.

Deredeo, Anvilus autocannons, Aiolos missile launcher, armoured ceramite (240 points).
Drop the armoured ceramite if you must, but this is something of a baseline build.

Deredeo, hellfire plasma cannonade, atomantic pavaise (270 points).
I like this one - lots of plasma goodness, teamed up with protective invulnerable saves.

Deredeo, Arachnus heavy lascannon battery, 4 boreas air defence missiles (259 points).

Add extra shielding where required (armoured ceramite). Fire those missiles in turn 1, and blast everything else with the lascannons.

Horus Heresy Review: Legion Arquitor Bombard

Background.

The Arquitor Bombard is what you get when you cross a Vindicator with Ordnance weapons. And also when you add on sponsons. It is competing against a lot of other entries for heavy support choices in a Legion army, but it can find a role when supporting troop advances and tacking stubborn fortifications. 

Strengths. 

There is a choice of three main weapons for the Bombard. The Morbus Heavy Bombard is very similar to a vindicator, but with ordnance. It also gets a special shell called the Carcass shell that can flesh bane troops out of the way. This gives flexibility in my mind.

The Graviton-Charge Cannon is a large-scale graviton weapon combined with haywire. This is always going to be good against vehicle heavy enemies and can perform exceptionally well given the right circumstances.

The Spicula Rocket System is a large payload of rockets in two different modes (5 and 7 inch), but comes with the possibility of running out of rockets if the 7 inch mode rolls a 6. I don't see this as a big problem since you will only be firing this (probably) 3 or 4 times in a game and might not choose the 7 inch mode every time. I like the other additional weapons in combination with this one to really whittle down enemy troops.

Weaknesses.

The cost is steep, and one has to weigh up a vindicator against this slot. The Bombard probably wins in many circumstances, but the trusty vindicator is likely more durable. 

Builds.

Bombard with Morbus. (140 points).

I like the basic version with no upgrades. Take 3 of them if you have the points and the will to use them.

Bombard with Graviton-Charge Cannon. (140 points).

Tempting to take some extra armour and armoured ceramite here to be honest. 

Bombard with Spicula Rocket System, Autocannon Sponsons, Havoc Launcher (165 points).

For sheer fire power that might just rival a predator combined with a large pie plate, this is a built that should not be overlooked at all. Take 3 of them to give your opponent a fright. Take 3 units of 3 but beware of not making any friends and your ability to deal with very heavy armour. 

Horus Heresy Review: Terrax Pattern Termite Assault Drill

Background.

I keenly remember having some Termites when I played Epic scale back in its hey day. The Termite method of assaulting from beneath the surface has stayed with me, and always struck me as a great alternative, and even complement, to deep striking. 

In the background, the Termite these days is stated to travel at speeds similar to surface transport craft. That's really good!

Strengths.

Subterranean assault is an amazing rule. It functions very much like deep strike does, except it comes up from beneath the ground. Importantly, it does NOT interact with the deep strike rule for determining how many units come on to the board: it uses its own pool. Hence for smaller points games, a player could take 1 Termite and 1 regular deep strike and have BOTH come in to play on the same turn. This is really good and will no doubt appeal to legions such as Raven Guard and Alpha Legion to name but two. Heck, most legions could make good use out of such pairings. 

The Death From Below rule combines with this to describe how the Termite arrives on the board. It is very similar to deep striking in the sense of the distance it might move if there's an impassable feature it winds up on top of, but as an added extra it can displace units, cause wounds, and a S10 hit to vehicles on their side armour. Using this rule aggressively is highly encouraged. 

Ignoring difficult and dangerous terrain is just icing on the cake.

Weaknesses.

Candidly, the Termite is not so great once it has emerged. It is more expensive than a rhino, but is fairly exposed once on the surface. Therefore there is a small calculation to be made by the potential controlling player: is the extra price compared to other transport vehicles worth it (along with chewing up a fast attack slot)?

Builds.

There are several builds, each with their own prices according to whether they are taken in the legions, mechanicum, solar auxilia, or Imperial militia. 

To my mind, I think keeping the points cost at its raw level is probably a good idea as the extra armour and armoured ceramite are not quite worth it once the termite has done its job. Pay 80 points for the Legion version and be happy with it; and don't stress if it gets blown up on the next turn. Its job is to deliver a squad, and hopefully that squad will supply the firepower to make the transport cost worth it. 

Legacy of the Soul Flame

We have a new RPG on Kickstarter that we wanted to let you all know about!

Legacy of the Soul Flame is a noble-dark roleplaying game campaign setting of undead, snow & ice, exploration, and blood-ties. 

This is a 420-page full-colour deluxe roleplaying game of exploration and survival that takes place on a frozen-over continent filled with undead. It fuses concepts found in traditional fantasy settings with modern and technological twists, a touch of horror, a dash of genealogy, and a small pinch of archaeology for taste. 

Explore a vast continent of stark beauty filled with detail and lore. Use the magic of your birth right – your soul flame – to combat the undead that riddle the lands and that humanity barely holds in check. Dig beneath the snow and ice to find remnants of a lost technological age, and determine what happened to the elves and the fey.

The product has already been featured on Geek Native, and over this weekend there will be a Q&A open session with Randomworlds (To join: www.tinyurl.com/randomworlds-discord) (Saturday 1/May at 3pm Central // 9pm UK time), and a recorded interview for Mildra's YouTube Channel on Sunday. 

Hope that you like this one and will consider backing it: much of what you see here on Warpstone Flux is supported through our hobby business and we would gratefully appreciate any and all pledges that our readers can make. 

Happy for additional reviews (feel free to get in contact) and would appreciate amplification of this one too if you are able. 

Horus Heresy Review: Legion Sabre Strike Tank

Background.

The Sabre is portrayed as a strike tank. Rather than being a gun line tank of the early great crusade, these tanks represent a new form of warfare seen later on: strike, keep the enemy big guns suppressed, fade, and form up again elsewhere very quickly. 

This mode of operation will clearly suit some of the faster legions, and those who favour flexible deployment and rapid repositioning when required. I think they should see a reasonable amount of play (and potentially more had they been released at the same time as the Sicaran). 

Strengths.

I think we are getting what we are paying for here. A mobile big weapon on a moderate quality tank. It can have multiple battlefield roles depending on its load out, ranging from anti-tank, to anti-infantry, without competing against predators and vindicators for the same force organization slot. 

Weaknesses.

For the faster legions (e.g., White Scars), the fast attack slot is probably already spent before you get thinking about these tanks. As such, it may favour other legions whose builds might not be so pressured on this slot in the force organization chart, but still like flexibility and more tanks (e.g., Alpha Legion, Iron Hands).

Fundamentally, they are also 12 armour on the front, and 10 at the back. This isn't a tough tank, but it should do a good job for the points cost.

Builds.

Sabre with Neutron Blaster and multi-melta (110 points).

Does the anti-tank job very nicely. Add a pintle combi-melta if you're feeling lucky?

Sabre with Volkite Saker and havoc launcher (80 points).

The anti-infantry option. Take a Volkite Culverin to taste.

Sabre with Anvilus Snub Cannon and 4x Sabre Missiles (85 points).

Monster hunter tank.

All of the above can also select extra armour and armoured ceramite to taste as well. 

Why did the Primarchs favour a Second Founding?

Why did the Primarchs favour a second founding?

The simple and honest answer is that it would prevent a mass civil war like the Horus Heresy from ever coming to fruition again. No one should command that many troops. And no primarch could then corrupt that many again. In that regard at least, the subsequent foundings have worked out rather well with only a few chapters turning traitor over the centuries. 

But let's have a quick look at some other motives.

Obviously Guilliman set the proverbial wheels in motion on this, and so was in favour of it. 

Corax is stated to have agreed with him and consented whole heartedly, despite rebuilding his legion in earnest in a certain, more dubious, manner. Perhaps he didn't want the limelight shone on the monstrous horde that he had built up and consented to prevent this coming to light.

Vulkan reportedly didn't like the Codex, but nonetheless, the low numbers of marines he had at the time meant that the Salamanders would not get a Second Founding chapter regardless. So it didn't matter presumably. 

Sanguinius was no longer around, so what else would the Blood Angels actually do anyway? Besides, they had to cope with all that Black Rage going around, so were hardly in a position to decline the order.

Ferrus Manus was similarly gone. The Iron Hands were shattered. They had presumably already had their own "Tempering" event wherein they independently agreed no one should command all the Iron Hands ever again. Thus setting them in lock step with Guilliman. 

Dorn was outraged. He really did not want to see the legions sundered. He was also in grief about the Emperor and blamed himself. Thus he set the stage for the Iron Cage incident. The survivors of that cleansing were rendered then in to chapters, having earned their forgiveness. 

Russ sided with Dorn and hated the idea. But then again, the Space Wolves are hardly the most codex-compliant chapter in existence in the first place anyway. Probably wouldn't make any difference!

Not much is known or written about what the Khan thought of it all. But it seems he agreed regardless. 

And as for The Lion. Well. Obviously he agreed. Better that than questions about you-know-who on you-know-where and searching for Fallen. 

Successor Chapters of Traitor Legions

This will be a controversial post, and contain mere opinions backed up by little more than knee-jerk reactions in some parts. The topic: which space marine Chapters are plausibly successor chapters from the traitor legions?

The gem of a topic is one that I've been wanting to tackle on the blog for a little while now, and today is about as opportune a moment as I've had for a time. At the heart of the question is whether any loyalist element of traitor legions survived the Horus Heresy and still exist in more "modern" times in Warhammer 40,000. 

I will start with some non-controversial statements. There are at least 2 main elements of traitor forces that are plausibly still around. 

Grey Knights.

The first the the Grey Knights. It is not controversial in the slightest that the original nucleus of the Grey Knights contained traitor legion elements. Take for example, Revuel Arvida, former member of the Thousand Sons, who became Janus. It is probable that the likes of Night Lord, Fel Zharost, also became part of the original core of the Grey Knights. There is no controversy here, other than they are probably no longer living in 40k. 

Black Shields.

Also of zero controversy at all is the existence of the Black Shields. These marines date from the Horus Heresy and contain elements of most legions who decided to forge different paths to their parent legions. Whether they are still around in 40k is another question entirely. 

Let's turn to the more controversial chapters then.

World Eaters.

Almost the only chapter that I could scour that bears hints of lineage from the World Eaters are the Minotaurs Chapter. It is supposed that the original Minotaurs (the red and yellow heraldry ones) were formed from World Eaters. The later lineage would be from elsewhere (Iron Warriors), or be at least described as chimeric. There are descriptions of this 21st founding cursed chapter as being basically berserkers.  I'd give this a plausible rating overall. 

Iron Warriors.

Carrying on from the above, the newer iteration of the Minotaurs chapter might plausibly contain some element of the Iron Warriors geneseed. Or be a hybrid with World Eaters. Regardless, the change in livery is suspect at best. I'd give this a plausible rating again. 

Secondly, there are historic rumours that old timers like me heard that the Silver Skulls chapter were from the Iron Warriors. This is almost entirely based on their emblem. In Universe, the Silver Skulls are no longer thought to be of Iron Warriors descent -- they are Ultramarines, but there was a time when they might have been. This therefore gets a rating of nope. 

Thousand Sons.

Who doesn't suspect that the Blood Ravens might be descended from the Thousand Sons? Knowledge is Power! This one has to get a rating of plausible simply from the sheer level of interest in the subject! Don't flame me. 

Death Guard.

The Sons of Antaeus seem to be a great fit for a Death Guard descended chapter thanks to their sheer resilience. Officially they are Ultramarines, but they are also part of the cursed 21st founding. I'd give this rumour a rating of possible. 

Night Lords.

The Carcharodons might or might not be descended from the Raven Guard. They might also have an element of Night Lords in them too. We're not sure on this one, but there are hints in the canon books that they might have at least some Night Lords descendants amongst their number, or are chimeric. This gets a plausible rating from me. 

Emperor's Children.

The Red Scorpions have a focus on purity and pride in their livery that is very similar to the Emperor's Children legion. Whilst I'm unclear where this rumour came from, I don't think it is entirely true and thus this one only gets a rating of possible from me. On a bad day, I'd just say nope. 

The Death Eagles have purposefully obscured their background and colours from Imperial records, and it might be with due reason. It might be the case that they are indeed descended from the traitors. I'd give this a rating of possible to plausible -- seems more likely than the Red Scorpions at least. 

Sons of the Phoenix. Officially they are Imperial Fist successors. But that name. And the colour scheme. Plus the iconography. I mean. Seriously. Rating of nope due to the official word on the matter. Rating of plausible due to everything else. I hope Cawl created these ones behind Guilliman's back. 

Sons of Horus / Luna Wolves, and Word Bearers.

I could not locate any loyalist successor rumour for these two traitor chapters. Let me know in the comments if you are aware of any. 

Dark Angels.

Yes, I know the Dark Angels are not traitors to most. Sorry. But wait. What about the Fallen? I couldn't find any loyalist Fallen. But there's Cypher. So I include them here for sake of completeness only. 

Alpha Legion.

Returning to my own favourites now, and again as a long timer in the hobby, there are two chapters that stand out to me. The first is the Sons of Orar. They have an Omega for their symbol and date back to the Heresy with an unclear background. Officially they are Ultramarines. So this gets a rating of nope from me sadly.

Then there are the Iron Snakes. I have no idea where this rumour started up to be honest with you (maybe similar modes of operation?), but I've heard it from multiple sources. However, the official canon is that the Iron Snakes are Ultramarine successors from the second founding. Hence this is also a nope rating. 

However. 

Aren't the Alpha Legion loyal anyway? For the Emperor!

Convergence of Dominion, Element 3

The final component in this series is the piece that has had most of its stonework fall away from its surface, revealing the strange alien metal beneath. 

In some ways, this is the one that I feel least comfortable with. The main reason for this is the sheer extent of the hard metal surface on display here. Lots of plank and smooth surface makes for a tough painting challenge regardless of what miniature it is placed upon. I've taken a dry brush and weathering approach to the large black areas here, and tried to suggest worn metal that has been scraped over years of exposure, likely due to the stonework chipping away.

The green power nodes have been picked out with the air brush to create a glowing effect over the top of the flat areas. This provides contrast and takes the eye away from the extensive black areas. Otherwise, the remaining stonework has been picked out in the same manner as the other elements. 

This finishes the trio of necron terrain for the collection and although it has had its challenges, I'm happy with the painting approach taken overall and how it fits on to the battlefield. 

Convergence of Dominion, Element 2

The second element in the Convergence of Dominion is the half-worn away stone variation.

The painting for this piece follows the same basic approach as the first element. The stonework is contrast paint with Guilliman Flesh and the marbling effects have been achieved using a watered down black applies to the recesses and the grooves. 

Perhaps the main difference here is the increased use of the airbrush to go over the "shining" green spheres located in the centre, top, and sides of the top of the monument. More of the black and silver underneath parts are also exposed here and they have seen some weathering using metallic silver paints (e.g., lead belcher and so forth) to create a slightly worn effect, and some of the raised surface has had their bits highlighted and picked out.

I'm really liking the Convergence of Dominion -- it is a great addition to my (far too extensive) terrain collection!

Convergence of Dominion, Element 1

This is the first of the three elements of the Convergence of Dominion that I've finally managed to get painted up. 

After undercoating in black, the surface of the stonework was painted in a light grey colour to give it enough of a base and texture to hold some contrast paint. Here, the contrast paint that was used is Guilliman Flesh. This gives a nice overall effect, and whilst there is some pooling of the ink evident (notable at the ridge line three quarters of the way down, as well as some splodges elsewhere), from a certain distance this works very well for the miniature. 

The cracks in the stone work were inked by using watered down black and carefully painting them along the cracks, as required. This step has accentuated the worn stone effect by yielding a rather nice marbling effect to the miniature that I might carry over to other paint jobs I have in mind. 

For the recesses, I have left them mostly black and given them a drybrushing of lead belcher and a few highlights. Some of the edges of the stonework are similarly highlighted along the edges.

The final step here was to use the trusty old airbrush to give the green glow effect to the central orb and other orbs along the length of the body. These other orbs are more obvious in the other pieces in the dominion set which I will post soon enough.