Long story short:
I added a bunch more infantry to the Alpha Legion force! #LegionsImperialis #HorusHeresy #AlphaLegion #HydraDominatus #PaintingWarhammer #WarhammerCommunity
— countelmdor.bsky.social (@countelmdor.bsky.social) Aug 27, 2024 at 1:28 PM
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I'm not sure what I'll work on yet, for my next project. Could be more Alpha Legion, though.
This weekend was the Echoes of Betrayal pt 2 event at Mindtaker Miniatures in Vancouver, WA. I played two rounds, taking 2 heads and 2 wins with my Alpha Legion Headhunter Leviathal army list. First against Iron Warriors! #30K #HorusHeresy #AlphaLegion #HydraDominatus #WarhammerCommunity
— countelmdor.bsky.social (@countelmdor.bsky.social) Jun 17, 2024 at 1:30 PM
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Game 2 was against the corrupted Word Bearers, in which my Seeker and Headhunter squads worked together to snipe Argel Tal out of the large unit of Gal Vorbak possessed marines he led. For the Emperor… #30K #HorusHeresy #HydraDominatus #AlphaLegion #WarhammerCommunity
— countelmdor.bsky.social (@countelmdor.bsky.social) Jun 17, 2024 at 1:34 PM
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The Bluesky posts there basically say it all, but I am very proud of the showing my Headhunter Leviathal pulled out at the second of these events I brought it to. The first was a bit of a bust because I had to leave after only one game in which we only really played a couple of rounds, and thus didn't get the chance to really prove the list.
In a nutshell, it's designed to kill the enemy's Warlord, the model at the head of their army, for extra victory points to add to the game end tally. Most of those will come from smart primary objective play, but the points of Slay the Warlord are enough to put me over the top in the event of a draw or near draw.
It's also just a real Alpha move, a real PsyOp, and entirely thematically consistent with the lore of my army, the Alpha Legion, who thrive on sneaky, underhanded mind games they use to supplement their already prodigious capabilities as a straight up Space Marine Legion.
Pics from my game vs Dark Mechanicum over the weekend. #HorusHeresy #30K #AlphaLegion #Warhammer #HydraDominatus
— countelmdor.bsky.social (@countelmdor.bsky.social) Apr 30, 2024 at 1:04 PM
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Pics immediately above from Echoes of Betrayal part 1 in which I played against Mechanicum.
The three Marines Malcontent I mentioned last post turned out well. I had some momentum going on my Chaos stuff, so I kept it up by building some cultists, a couple of Obliterators, and a Venomcrawler from my shelf stock. All are now also primed with Zandri Dust spray and awaiting further attention.
More Leginaries join the Marines Malcontent warband! They’re in a huff about the Imperium’s ways and are going to throw a tantrum on the battlefield! Also pictured: Zone Mortalis terrain for my table. #Warhammer40K #Chaos #HereticAstartes #PaintingWarhammer #WarhammerCommunity
— countelmdor.bsky.social (@countelmdor.bsky.social) Jun 8, 2024 at 4:04 PM
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The box of cultists I had was originally released as a part of Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress, so it only included 7 models of the 10 that are needed for a full unit. I happened to have 3 little weird guys on 25mm bases that would make up the difference. These are technically the retinue of Lord Inquisitor Hector Rex, whom I use in my Grey Knights army as Kaldor Draigo. I like to think they are very confused to be running with 7 random Chaos Cultists. The box also included a Cultist Firebrand, who is these days sold separately. I painted that model in a single day to a pretty decent standard, bringing my total of Chaos Space Marines faction models fully painted and playable up to 13.
quick paintjob today on this Cultist Firebrand #Warhammer40K #Chaos #HereticAstartes #PaintingWarhammer #WarhammerCommunity
— countelmdor.bsky.social (@countelmdor.bsky.social) Jun 10, 2024 at 5:14 PM
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My next step would probably have been to paint those 10 cultists for him to lead, but I kind of decided at the last moment (7 days out) that I would bring White Scars to the Horus Heresy mega-battle a local player is hosting at his house this coming Saturday.
I would really like to bring much of what I have suitable and painted, plus another couple of Drop Pods and a third Predator tank. Of those, I built the pods yesterday, and hope to be able to get them primed today, and potentially get that Predator built as well. Or at least started. With a tank I prefer to base coat the hull prior to gluing the already painted tracks on, which adds a little time to the whole process, but is I think worth it in the end.
As I mentioned in the last post, and in the manner specified, I polished off the first Tactical Squad for the White Scars Sagyar Mazan list. I also painted up the second one, to the same point minus transfers. That gives me two full units nearly done for the list. What's left will be to finish transfers on them, since I'm not sure I am happy with the amount I put on the first squad so far, then do an oil wash for weathering, and finally the bases.
I had for nearly two years had a Leman Russ battle tank mostly assembled and primed, and one day last week when I felt like airbrushing something, I got it out and pretty quickly decided on a color and got it sprayed in a nice hunter green that is only mostly opaque over the model's white primer coat, giving it a nice mottled look consistent with some wintry camo schemes I have either seen or am Mandela-effecting myself into thinking are real. From there I just did the metals and a couple of other small details and glued the tracks on, and the model is now battle-ready. It joins my Icthyos Rho VIII PDF "Tundra Bastion" army of Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum, which now boasts no fewer than five Leman Russ tanks! I should get that out and play it sometime, whether under the new 40K Index rules or as a Militia force in Heresy.
back during Covid I went crazy buying tons of models online for random army ideas I had. I see now I was just bored at home a lot. Anyway here’s a vintage Leman Russ Battle Tank. As it happens my Imperial Guard are mostly old metal infantry, even though I never was into this stuff until about 2016.
— countelmdor.bsky.social (@countelmdor.bsky.social) May 27, 2024 at 8:44 AM
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Speaking of getting out and playing, I suppose I should recount that I did just that with my Grey Knights army this weekend, for a full-size 2000 point game, no less. It worked out that I had a few hours free on Sunday, and my spur-of-the-moment idea to get a pickup game of 40K worked out. Alex also came up to the store with a game in mind, and happened to have his Adeptus Custodes army with him, so we spent the day playing a game which probably should not have taken quite so long, in retrospect. We did go the full 5 rounds, though. He ended up taking it 55-64, mostly due to playing the Primary better than I did, though it didn't help my case that I forgot to do secondaries a couple of times. The way the game was trending I would have tabled his army eventually, but alas that is not what decides who wins! It was fun and reassuring in a sense to get out and play a full Strike Force sized game again. Nice to use the Grey Knights rules again at least one good time before they eventually are replaced by a new Codex, which could happen before too much longer.
After finishing up that Leman Russ and second squad of Tactical Marines, I wasn't sure if I wanted to jump into another batch of White Scars right away. Add to this the fact that Chaos Space Marines have been tickling the back of my mind for a few weeks now, and I took a look at what I have currently painted for my original CSM warband, the Marines Malcontent (they're just not happy!), and found that with the addition of just 3 Legionaries models I could field a whole extra unit of them, by repurposing the 7 older Chosen models I have as one unit of 5 and 2 leftover. Adding 3 more would bring the total to 10, or two 5-man squads, which I would be able to field with the Chaos Lord and Master of Executions (formerly Exalted Champion) I also have painted currently. So, the plan at the moment is to go home today, dig out my CSM, and get started on building 3 of them to paint this week.
I could also stand to get back to hobby-related reading, as well. I've been in the middle of the Mortarion novel from the Primarchs series for entirely too long without continuing it. That's not to mention the backlog of White Dwarf issues and campaign books I have yet to really dig into.
Over the last several years as I have gotten into various flavors of Warhammer, I have brought down upon myself a mountain of miniatures. I've gone through many iterations of my approach to painting them all, and one I've found myself taking on at present is the assembly and painting all-at-once of a fairly massive 3000-point White Scars legion force for The Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness.
I've decided that I wanted a fresh start to White Scars for the Heresy era, specifically. Elsewhere, for the 40K era, I have a large collection of models and units painted as White Scars. Many of these work just fine across rule systems, but the particulars of the marks of armor they wear and insignia and such make them identifiably 40K models, and I want a force that I can look at and say, 'there's a V Legion force from the Horus Heresy.'
I had, years ago now, found a good deal on 30 Mk III infantry that I am using for this project. Ironically, in the intervening time, that armor mark has been re-issued in a newer infantry kit upscaled some. A lot of hobbyists get real into replacing models so they're only using the newest ones, but I'm not bothered by having the older ones. I continue to use a lot of Mk IV troops for my Alpha Legion force as well. The slight difference in height and bulkiness next to the newer Mk VI and III bodies out there doesn't matter to me. So, the old Mk III guys that came with the Burning of Prospero game several years ago are currently being made into Tactical marines for the army I'm building.
It's a force designed to use the Sagyar Mazan Rite of War themed to the White Scars legion split early on in the Heresy. A portion of the legion wanted to follow Horus into rebellion, but this was pretty quickly nipped in the bud for a number of reasons as told in Chris Wraight's excellent novel Scars. After the fact, repentant legionaries were allowed a chance at redemption by being sent out on what amounted to suicide missions. They were known as the Sagyar Mazan. The rules for playing a force of them make them into a primarily infantry-focused group of fearless and uncompromising fighters heedless of their own safety. It makes them broadly above concerns of morale, and able to shrug off wounds that would otherwise kill them to get the job done. Furthermore, since they are all already written off to the legion anyhow, the opposition gain no victory points from killing them for any reason. The Sagyar Mazan are, however, precluded from bringing along any vehicles in the Heavy Support role, or Jaghatai Khan himself (or a fortification for that matter, as they are always attacking and never castled up anywhere).
Rounding out the list I have planned, in addition to the three squads of 10-man tactical marines I mentioned above, are 5 Ebon Keshig Terminators which will be in black armor, 5 Tartaros Terminators with power fists and guns which I intend to paint mostly red, 10 more Tartaros armed with dual lightning claws, 10 Cataphractii Terminators with a mix of power swords and chainswords and with combi-bolters, 10 Heavy Support marines with lascannons, 10 Reconnaissance marines, a legion Champion consul, and as wardlord, Hibou Khan, with a small command quad retinue for him. Three Rhinos and one Spartan will be dedicated transports for the force.
The first thing I did was build the 30 marines I had to begin with, and get those primed. I already have two of the three Rhinos I'll need painted. They're Mars-pattern, and not the more emblematic Deimos-pattern ones of the Heresy period, but they'll work. I had to acquire a third one, which I did get in Deimos-pattern, and got that built and primed as well, then base-coated everything I had so far in Ulthuan Grey Air using my airbrush. While doing some brush work on the first 10 Tactical marines and the new Rhino, I also have now built and primed the 5 Tartaros that will be in red (which are on loan from my Burning of Prospero box which I intend to keep as such) so that they can ideally pull double-duty as Thousand Sons here and there. Additionally, over the last week I built and primed the 10 Cataphractii I'll need.
Filling out this list meant buying several new things, including the Rhino and Cataphractii I mentioned, the resin Ebon Keshig, 10 additional Tartaros and a Spartan, as well as the heavy weapons kit for the lascannons I'm going to be using. Their bodies and those of the Recon marines are what I have leftover from the Age of Darkness launch box; what I didn't use for my Alpha Legion. For Hibou Khan, his retinue, and the Champion consul, I'll temporarily be using some of the models I painted for 40K, including the old Kor'sarro Khan and a Company Champion from the old Company Command squad. The retinue are in fact Mk IV marines, and painted black in the Ebon Keshig style, only expressly for 40K at the time.
Hibou Khan has his own model coming in resin at some point, which I may pick up, and at which point I might switch the old Kor'sarro model over to the role of the Champion consul, and potentially rebase him to match the scheme of this new force. It would then make sense to rebase the retinue as well, but we'll see about that when the time comes. I've thought many times before about rebasing my 40K White Scars from what I now consider the ill-conceived gray gravel/earth and snow scheme I used on most of them. But that's another post.
Another aspect of collecting a Warhammer army that I constantly think about is storage, and to a lesser extent, transportation. I favor boxes meant for fishing tackle, lures especially, because the individual compartments they feature are just about the perfect size for many miniatures. They keep the models safely ensconsed and also save space over something like a display case or magnetized larger plastic box, for general storage. For the appx 85 infantry I have planned for this force, 3 of the Flambeau Zerust 3700 (I think) model boxes will work. The vehicles will have to travel in something else, but I have a hard case with foam interior that is meant for a handgun that will work. It's what I usually bring my vehicles in for other forces.
So, as of the current date, I have everything I need model-wise to realize this force. It's just a matter of getting everything assembled and painted. I am to the point of being able to weather my first Tactical Squad, which I am planning to do with an oil wash. I'll need to put a gloss varnish on them first, I think. I never varnish anything I paint, though I probably should. The Deimos Rhino needs some red and black on it in various places, as well as transfers. The Terminators I've primed need colors as well, and then there's everything that's yet to be assembled, as well. Most shouldn't be too arduous, but working with super glue (for the resin Ebon Keshig) is always an ordeal. I much prefer plastic so I can use the far superior plastic glue to create the bonds between pieces of a model. For assembly, then, will be 5 Ebon Keshig plus a repair on my resin Land Raider while I'm at it, 10 Tartaros with claws, 10 Recon marines, 10 Lascannon heavy support marines, and the Spartan carrier. As well as final assembly of the 30 Tactical marines I have left their weapons off of, to this point.
The painting may take quite a long time, as well. I wonder whether I should get everything painted before starting the oil weathering. That may make a certain amount of sense. I could probably even get it all based, at least partially, then use the oils to finish that off at the same time. That actually sounds like the way forward, for now.
So then, my next step might be to go ahead and partially base and glue the bolters on to this first Tactical Squad, and them call them done for the time being, then continue from there. More later...
First 10 Tactical Marines are “battle ready” until whenever I come back much later to do oil washes on everything in this force. Or at least that’s the plan. #HorusHeresy #30K #WhiteScars #SagyarMazan #PaintingWarhammer #WarhammerCommunity
— countelmdor.bsky.social (@countelmdor.bsky.social) May 17, 2024 at 8:20 PM
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This weekend I attended a small tournament for the new edition of Horus Heresy, also known as 30K. It was held at 2,500 points for the maximum army size, with lists limited to a single Primary Detachment from the Crusade Force Organisation Chart. No Primarchs, Lords of War, or Allied Detachments of any sort were allowed. This kept the lists within the realm of approximiately balanced and simple enough to comprehend. Most of the attendees seemed to know the rules well enough, but none of us were dyed in the wool experts, so the simpler the lists and rules interactions, the better.
As it happened, in three games I never had one go into the fourth battle round (game turn, if you prefer) in the 2.5 hours set aside for them. Had the lists been set to 1500 points I think we may have finished more games. All of mine had to be settled by less than optimal haphazard points allocating, once even after my opponent had gotten two turns and I had had only one.
I brought a 2,500 point list of White Scars to the event comprising:
Praetor on Legion Spatha bike
Stormseer Consul
Champion Consul
2 Tactical squads of 10 models, one with dedicated Rhino transport
1 Scout squad of 5 models
2 Indomitus Terminator squads of 5 models
1 Indomitus Terminator squad of 10 models
1 Veteran squad with dedicated Rhino transport (Champion joined)
1 White Scars Dark Sons of Death squad of 5 models (Stormseer joined)
1 Outrider squad of 10 models (Praetor joined)
I ran this list using the Sagyar Mazan Rite of War, which gave me some respectable buffs while only placing limits on me that were all too easy to abide by, given what I had available and painted to choose from during list construction.
I played against Word Bearers, Emperor's Children, and Iron Hands. Also present were second armies of the Word Bearers and Emperor's Children, and an Imperial Fists army. There was another person who registered who probably would have had Space Wolves, but who was a no-show.
My record, as such, was 1-2 on the day, with the win against Iron Hands. Both losses, I will say, were decided by a single point of Attrition (I had lost one more unit than my opponent had when the game was called). I think this was a respectable showing for the list above.
I came to this list by a process of testing and rebuilding my prospective tournament list over a week and a half leading up to the tournament, playing out solo games against a cobbled together Opposing Force of Word Bearers from my other various collections of painted sci-fi soldiers.
Originally I had thought not to run any Rite of War, and had included a Predator, Vindicator, and Land Raider Explorator in the list. Running it with a couple of Tactical squads required me to paint up a couple of guys holding bolters (as this is a 40K army, my Tactical squads for that system include heavy and special weapons not permitted in this one). I also decided to knock out another guy with bolt pistol, chainsword, and jump pack, so that all of my Dark Sons of Death could be WYSIWYG. That unit didn't end up being used to much benefit, but I'll get to that.
Testing against my hard-as-nails Word Bearers OpFor list, which for brevity's sake I'll suffice it to say had two Contemptors and a unit of Gal Vorbak led by Argel Tal, revealed both of those to be major weakness of the army. But, I had noticed that my unit of Veterans (which I did not mix in among the Tacticals due to their black Ebon Keshig-style armor) were much better in game than I had expected, having a better WS, more wounds, and more attacks than the Tactical squads.
So, I decided to lean into them and re-tooled the list into one using the Pride of the Legion Rite of War, which then limited me to only a single Fast Attack choice and Heavy Support choice. This meant first combining my two units of 5 Outrider bikers into one unit of 10, then dropping my Attack Bikes and Land Speeder, as well as the Predator and Vindicator. I kept the Land Raider Explorator in this version.
That list still could not effectively deal with the Contemptor problem. They would get to the Land Raider before it could kill them with its Lascannons. My solution to that was to not give any opposing Dreadnoughts any juicy targets--I would remove the Land Raider which wasn't getting the job done, and instead bring in a squad of Terminators with Thunder hammers as my anti-vehicle and anti-dreadnought tool. I have 6 models with hammers and shields, so I added to them 4 with dual lightning claws, mostly as ablative wounds, and redid the list again.
By now I had finished painting the models I needed to run two 10-man Tactical Squads. This new list, above, seemed to really lend itself to the Sagyar Mazan Rite, which grants all infantry a 5+ Feel No Pain, and Fearless on the turn they charge. Couple that with the Heroes Never Die warlord trait that is exclusive to the White Scars, and you may have an entire army that is flat out Fearless (and thus auto-passes all Morale and Pinning tests) for most of the game, should the warlord be killed early and in line of sight of the rest of your models on the table. This exact thing happened to me up against the Emperor's Children. Which brings me to my next topic--the utility of certain units.
Even in a big 10-model block (11 with the Praetor), Outriders just melt under any amount of pressure. Coming to this game from 40K, I'm used to my bikers being tougher than infantry, with triple the amount of wounds, to boot. No, these guys have the same 4 Toughness as anyone else, and only a single wound. They also shoot half the shots, but that's another subject. This is how my Warlord died in the first round one game, granting the entire army Fearless for the rest of that game. I have learned that they can put out a decent amount of bolter fire, but that they shouldn't really commit to combat with anything more numerous than them and definitely not anything with a higher weapon skill, like say a unit of Veterans. When and if I get around to painting a unit of actual Heresy-era units for White Scars, I don't know if I'll use these guys much, when there will be jetbikes to choose over them.
I was also kind of let down by the Stormseer and the Dark Sons of Death I had accompanying him, though that's probably mostly due to the former's Psychic Weapon. See, it's both Heavy and Barrage, which effectively means he has to stand still in order to fire it. I kept trying to get it to do any good, and so kept leaving the whole unit just sat where they deployed all game. The idea is that the Stormseer is calling down lightning to zap entire areas of the battlefield. It's a 5" large blast, so it scatters, of course. That I can live with. It starts out as S4, though, which is really not great. You can buff it to S8, which is a lot better, but even if you do so, it's still AP 4, which I have to say, sucks. It's also got the Force and Shock Pulse special rules, which can be pretty good against Corrupted (Gal Vorbak et al) and Dreadnoughts, but good luck getting your single hit on a Dreadnought through it's 2+ armor save! The possibility to Instant Death daemonic units aside, I can only imagine the power would be at all dependable against massed Imperial Army-level mortal opposition. Against single-wound marines it could maybe get a couple of kills, but you couldn't rely on it. Anyway, you could fairly say my Stormseer and Dark Sons were both wasted on trying to get any utility out of this power that I had give me Perils I think three times over three games. At least the Dark Sons saw use as ablative wounds for that, I suppose.
Now for the bright spots. The Legion Champion consul is awesome. You can use him to call out and kill pretty much any character on the other side, including enemy Praetors. Veterans are really good, as I mentioned above. Terminators, also good. Thunder Hammers are your only hope as far as melee weapons for infantry trying to take down a Dreadnought. Aside from Melta bombs, maybe. The humble Tactical Squad, very very good! Fury of the Legion combined with the Return Fire or Overwatch reactions. Very enjoyable. The scouts were able to Concuss enemy units (with Astartes Shotguns), and thus make them fight at -1 WS during the next Assault phase. This is immensely good, if you can pull it off.
The event was a ton of fun. All the guys I met were just happy to be there playing this cool new game.
Going forward, I'm hoping to hobby up my Alpha Legion to the point where I can take them as my main Horus Heresy force. I'll keep the Scars on the back burner as far as 30K goes. I've got more Word Bearers already painted for this system than anything, but already seeing two guys playing them at an 8-person event? I'll focus on my Alpha Legion, which I've been wanting to do for a long while, awaiting the release of this game. I have Headhunters on the painting desk right this moment, and Tactical Squads and Contemptors and Terminators and tanks galore to do later, too.
