Horus Heresy Project: Second Contemptor

I'm back with some more heresy action! I have my second contemptor dreadnought ready to go. One of the best ways to field a contemptor is in a talon of 3 and a can check off #2 at this point and I will soon have #3 ready after having purchased a Betrayal at Calth set. I personally would not want to be on the receiving end of 3 contemptors!

My hope is that I will stop getting stomped on by Firedrakes when running a complete talon. Firedrakes are tough to deal with and I didn't really have a good counter in my army since most of my units can only deal with basic marines.With any luck I will get more Horus Heresy games in since the price of entry has just been lowered with the introduction of Betrayal at Calth. That set is perfect for those people who wanted to play, but didn't want to sell a kidney.

Ancient Rylanor and friend

What is Forumware?

Something that I have been delving into more in relation to my hobby projects is forumware. This term defines any small scale independent production of miniatures that are typically used for an existing game system such as Epic Armageddon or Warhammer 40K. If you look hard enough on certain fan forums like Tactical Command (hence the term “forumware”) or individual hobby blogs you will encounter this product. If you can find someone producing their own you can sometimes purchase it for a modest price or alternatively if it’s no longer being produced (like Otterware) then you can sometimes spot it on Ebay going for a hefty price.

 

Forumware Grey Knights for Epic

 

I wanted to show off some of the forumware that I am working on for my Epic Necrons. I recently acquired a Ghost Ark that is being used as a Warbarque in Epic. I have also included a pic of a rare Otterware Obelisk for Necrons. As of the timing of this article you can still purchase the Ghost Arks off of Ebay at a reasonable price.

 

Trolls Ghost Ark

OOP Otterware Obelisk sans corners

 

 

Forumware is the gaming communities’ answer to filling the gap that Games Workshop left after dropping specialist games. Just because specialist games are no longer supported doesn’t mean that you have to resort to the secondary market to build your army. So far the people that I have dealt with when purchasing this product have been reputable and the quality of the miniatures are top notch. If you are looking to purchase some for yourself be patient because the process takes a bit longer than your normal web purchase and be sure to use a paypal account for your transactions just in case the deal turns sour.

The Merits of Kings of War

 

 

After reality has set in that Warhammer as I knew it was no more I considered my options. One was to stick with 8^th edition and find like minded people who were ok playing with a “dead” set of rules or I could branch out and try other systems like Mantic’s Kings of War Game. One thing that was appealing about Kings of War is that it was developed by some ex-GW designers that worked on my favorite edition of Warhammer (6^th ed). Another appealing factor is that eventually all of the old Warhammer armies will have a playable list within Kings of War. Having made up my mind I decided to try it out.

 

Turn 2 demo game

 

 

It was easy finding some people at my LFGS to teach my how to play KoW. My first game was more of a demo-style match where I brought my Chaos Dwarves… er, I mean Abyssal Dwarves. It was low points so I can grasp some of the basics. One thing that I had to get used to is that I no longer needed to remove individual models. In KoW your whole unit suffers wounds that stack and you roll a “nerve” test whenever wounds are taken. Sometimes this may cause your unit to route because the more wounds you suffer the harder it is to keep your nerve and stay in the fight. My demo was a win (of course!) as I was able to route the elves off the battlefield mainly due to my most powerful Obsidian Golems (used K’daii models).

 

Turm 4 demo game. Finishing off the elves

 

 

My luck didn’t quite hold up in my second follow up game where I played a larger 900 point game. My opponent was the same, but this time I brought more toys to the battlefield like a Great Mortar (used a Hellcannon) and Slave Orcs (Hobgoblins). I made an early error when positioning my army and paid dearly for it as my slave orcs were overextended and couldn’t quite hold my flank. The elves had superior magic and shooting. I lost my entire army by the end of the match and inflicted little damage in return.

 

After having played two games of KoW I ended up liking it as an alternative to Age of Sigmar. The game is more simplified than 8^th ed which allows for faster games, but still retains some of the tactical elements that I liked from the Warhammer style of game play like unit facing, point costs, terrain inhibitors, and regiments. On top of that the rules are also free! I would suggest giving Kings of War a try if you are seeking an alternative to Age of Sigmar.

If you would like to see some more battle reports for Kings of War check out Jason Zmuda's YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCESR150chkbfxXSaWfcl_KQ

 

 

Horus Heresy Project: Fulgrim the Illuminator Complete

I feel like a mini celebration is in order. I have completed the Emperor's Children Primarch after hours of meticulous detail work. After many months of waiting until I had painted up some other legion marines I thought the time was right to tackle Fulgrim. He will definitely be the centerpiece of my growing army.

 

 

At first I had completely assembled Fulgrim before painting. After making some progress I decided it would be better to partially disassemble in order to catch the details easier. 

 

I am a big fan of Vallejo paints and used the copper metallic as a basecoat for my gold. The purples are done using old Citadel Liche Purple which has just the right hue that I was looking for. Everything else on the paint conversion charts doesn't quite match exactly. I also applied a lot of washes on most of the model, the exception being the pteruges, the hair, and the feathers.

The Forge World Primarch's out of the character series are some of the most impressive models I have seen. I look forward to finally using one of these legendary characters in my army after years of wishing Games Workshop would make them playable.

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar first battle and initial reaction

Age of Sigmar has been a contentious topic as of late since this has been one of the most drastic rules reboots since Warhammer 40K 3rd edition. I thought that I would withhold my judgment until I at least had a chance to play a game to see what it was like. I can remember not liking 3rd edition 40K when I first saw the rules, but in time I grew to like it and couldn't quite justify sticking with 2nd edition 40K. The only thing to do now is play a game.

I had a friend over and we had to establish some ground rules since AoS is a really loose set of rules. We based our forces off of a leaked set of tourney rules used by a Games Workshop store. We were allowed to take up to 5 Battlescrolls, max of 2 characters, no duplicate named characters, and only one monster per army. Each unit could have no more than 15 wounds. Seemed fair enough!

I decided to field a purely Tzeentchian daemon army while my friend brought his Skaven Plague Monk army.

My army consisted of:

Lord of Change
Tzeentch Herald on Disk
Pink Horrors (10)
Flamers (7)
Screamers (5)

 

My opponents army consisted of:

Lord Skrolk
Plague Furnace
Plague Monks (15)
Plague Monks (15)
Plague Monks (15)








We set up per the normal instruction and deployed along the short table edges. The Skaven finished setting up first so they got the first turn. It was a sudden death mission because the Skaven outnumbered me by over 1/3. I wanted to utilize the mobility of my army and made the sudden death choice of having my Herald on disk survive 6 turns. Knowing this after set-up didn't give the Skaven many options so they all moved forth knowing that the target was within my deployment zone.

My 1st turn was more eventful. Most daemons have the ability to allow chaos wizards to summon that unit being fielded. I decided to summon another Lord of Change since I had a spare in my collection. My roll was successful and much to the chagrin of my opponent I got a free greater daemon. To add insult to injury I was also able to summon a unit of 3 flamers. I moved the rest of my army into position to delay the Skaven horde and kept my Herald back on the arcane graveyard that helped with spellcasting.

On the next turn we had to roll off. I was hoping to get the high roll thus getting back to back turns, which would be quite devastating for my opponent. I ended up losing the roll and waiting for the Skaven to position for my impending charge.

The Tzeentch daemons set forth on turn two and I was going for a strong right hook with most of my army while my horrors bought me time on the other side of the battlefield. I had no successful summoning on turn two, but the flames caused 6 wounds to a nearby plaque monk unit before the screamers charged in to cause another 6 wounds. The Skaven didn't cause any casualties to my screamers so my battleshock roll was an auto success. The plague monks weren't so fortunate. They auto failed due to the high amount of wounds taken and lost the remainder of their unit.

Turn 3 saw the Skaven counter attack. Again, they won the roll off and got to start the round. The next nearest unit of plague monks charged my screamers and managed to cause a fair amount of wounds. I had two screamers left to counter attack causing three wounds. After battleshock I had one screamer left and the Skaven lost 3 more plague monks. On my 3rd turn I disengaged my last screamer to do a fly by attack and positioned to wither the plague monks with another round of shooting attacks.

It was by the end of turn 3 that my opponent wanted to concede the game. With having taken so many losses and not able to keep up with my summoning he didn't want to continue the uphill battle. I was in agreement. My army was cheesy mainly because of the summoning. It was too easy to pull off.

Unfortunately without points this system lends itself to some easy abuse. It may work out well right out of the box, but for established players of Warhammer more fine tuning will definitely need to take place. I don't feel completely negative about the game however. It does have some merit. I like how it's fast paced and the rules are free.

Here's a quick summary of the pros and cons:

PRO

Free rules
Fast paced
Easy to comprehend

CON

No structure for army building
Over simplified all phases of the game
Too much randomness

After the game I had a conversation with my friend and we both felt that Age of Sigmar would have been a good addition to the GW lineup of games, but it is not a suitable replacement for the Warhammer Fantasy we have played all these years. I won't be playing any more AoS for now. I hope to see more structure added to the game and then I will reconsider. If no changes are made I foresee a lot of veteran players dropping off in favor of other systems.

Horus Heresy Project: Lord Commander Eidolon Complete

Moving forward with adding traitors to my Emperor’s Children Legion I have finally completed Lord Commander Eidolon! This project started months ago (original post here) and put on the back burner in order to finish some of my loyalist units first. Right now Eidolon does not have a miniature, but there are lots of great bits out there to convert him. I wasn’t too keen on some of the old artwork on him and preferred to base my conversion off of the descriptions listed in the novels (the few that exist). He is described as wearing ornate power-armour decked out in gilded decorations and is taller than most astartes. He also favours wielding a thunder hammer and has the patrician features of his Primarch Fulgrim. In addition to the descriptions I also wanted to give him a jump pack upgrade so he can join my assault marine squad and give them added value. He also employs the bio-modification bestowed by Fabius Bile, the death-scream. It is only fitting that I have him without a helmet so he can effectively use his sonic attack.

 

 

 

This conversion is an amalgamation of various bitz. The body is from a palatine blade, the hammer arm is from one of the chapter masters set, and the pointing arm and head is from the space marine command squad box. I used some of the Emperor’s Children brass etch from Forge World on the jump pack and left pauldron. The only part that I had to sculpt was the hair. I used green stuff for my sculpting.

 

I decided to do a fair amount of freehand painting because this is one of my HQ options and wanted it to stand out apart from the other marines. I attempted a marbling effect on one of the pauldrons because I thought that plain white would be too bland for someone like a lord commander. The opposite pauldron has the eye of Horus to show the bond between the two legions and the knee pad has an eagle’s head profile. I also added some line designs to the loin cloth.

 

 

Horus Heresy Project: The Kakophoni

The Emperor's Children Kakophoni are the newest addition to my growing army and the first exclusive traitor element so far. My intent was to start off with a core of loyalist units led by Rylanor and Saul Tarvitz and then finish the army off with all of the traitorous elements. I liked the idea of having some flexibility to play in support of either faction if I were to take part in any future campaigns.

 

 


I really enjoyed painting this unit up because it was nice change from painting basic legion marines. My army lacked long range anti-infantry firepower and the Kakophoni are designed to wreak havoc on infantry.

 

I have a 40k Chaos Marine army with some Slaanesh elements and wanted to show a progression from Proto Noise-marine to current Chaos Noise-marine.