The new Epic has been released and I managed to get a starter set from my friendly local gaming store (SCN Hobby World). My first large scale wargame was Epic (Space Marine as it was called then) and I love the scenes that you can make with Epic scale troops – I love Warmaster for the same reasons!
The Solar Auxilia are half the box set (with one Warhound Titan each) and I am also working my way through the Space Marine section as well before starting the Warhound Titan
Pictures
Legate Commander, Command Detachment, Lasrifle Tercio
Sentinels and Ogryns
Leman Russ
Malcador Battle Tanks
How do they play?
I’ll be sure to tell you when I get a game in! They are a horde army so I imagine they will die in droves but I’m hopeful the Malcador tanks, Leman Russ and Ogryns can do some heavy lifting.
Paints Used
This is a much simpler scheme than I have used at 28mm, but they are small toys and I am using a simple rule – What do they look like at 3 feet?
I am very happy with how they have come out, but I won’t be buying anymore until I complete the Space Marines and the Warhounds, so I likely won’t be playing a large game for some time.
Buying a Box
Now that’s not an easy question – once again Games Workshop have misjudged demand and the models are not available from them – and with The Old World on the horizon I don’t fancy the chances of the moulding machines being set to Epic in the near future – here’s hoping I’m wrong!
The new Epic box has been released with 2 forces (Space Marines and Solar Auxilia) and 2 Warhound Titans as well as the full rulebook. Unfortunately there was no scenery included, but this is also available separately.
Epic (then Space Marine) was my first mass-battle game after playing Heroquest and Blood Bowl and I was hooked. With it being released in a new format this weekend I jumped on the pre-order and picked mine up from SCN hobbies this weekend (Saturday).
I have learnt from other ‘Epic’ style games (including Warmaster) I need to use a simple colour scheme that is quick to do, otherwise I fall into delays like I have with Napoleonic Epic from Warlord Games (soooo much detail!!)
So, I am starting with the Solar Auxilia and my intention is to make them quick to do… but first assemble!
4 Leman Russ Battle Tanks
These tanks come with a range of options for hull mounted weapon and for the turret, but I went with Battlecannon and 1 Vanquisher Battlecannon and Heavy Bolters to protect them from close assault. The turrets are meant to be painted and kept separate, so I’ll try that initially.
These come on one sprue with 4 tanks; although there is a lot of detail and small bits – be careful about losing any pieces in the carpet. Some of the bits are very close to the sprue (the tracks/sides for example)… it is starting to get difficult to remove pieces now!
2 Malcador Battle Tanks
These were great and easy to put together, again coming on one sprue., although the engines exhausts at the back are a little fiddly with 3 small connections. The turret isn’t glued so has some movement (although I’m doubtful this will last once undercoated). Once again I’ve gone simple here with Vanquisher Battlecannons and 3 Heavy Bolters (front and both sponsors).
4 Armoured Sentinels
There are 2 each of these on the ‘main’ sprue for Auxilia (also with the troops and Ogryns). The bodies and legs went together really well, but the missile launcher pods are ‘left/right’ versions, which of course I missed and I am sure I got some wrong!
4 Charonite Ogryn
There are two poses here, but with such small models it’s not really a problem. There are definitely some Ogryns in here under all the mechanicals bits and gizmos; so I’m not certain how I’ll paint these but we’ll see how it goes.
Solar Auxilia Infantry
The rest of the troops look good on sprue with no connections on the main models (except the standard bearer, who I will clip before spraying).
Undercoating
I undercoated the models with a black primer to help me cover any gaps… I was tempted to use contrast paints, but I recently used them on some Warlord Games Bolt Action Soviets so I fancy a change.
First colour – Leadbelcher (Drybrush)
My first step was to Drybrush all the models in Leadbelcher to pick out the weapons and some of the detail.
Next Steps
My Solar Auxilia are linked with my Blood Angels (so no guessing what I’ll be painting the other half of the set-in) so I’ll be picking out some of the detail in red tomorrow when I can get in some good lighting and actually see the detail (I’m getting too old for his scale !!)
Dan Abnett returns for the Epic conclusion to the Horus Heresy and the Siege of Terra… well sort of, this is volume 1 of that epic ending…!
Black Library
From the book:
The arch-traitor Horus Lupercal’s forces have bombarded Terra and the Imperial Palace lies in ruins. With the Emperor’s dream in tatters, he seeks only to rob Chaos of its ultimate victory… It’s the beginning of the ultimate conclusion to the Horus Heresy, and hope still remains for the Loyalists! The Emperor plans a gambit that could snatch victory from the jaws of defeat – but at what cost?
There is no way out. The walls have fallen, the gates are breached, and the defenders are slain. It is the end and the death. After seven brutal years of civil war, the Warmaster stands on the verge of victory. Horus Lupercal, once beloved son, has come to murder his father. The Emperor, a shining beacon of hope to many, an unscrupulous tyrant to others, must die. The lives of uncountable numbers have been extinguished and even primarchs, once thought immortal, have been laid low. The Emperor’s dream lies in tatters, but there remains a sliver of hope. Now, at the final hour of the final day, the Emperor rises. With him come his Angel, his Praetorian, and his Captain, all determined to enact terrible vengeance. Yet the hope is slim, for the Warmaster sees all and knows all, and the ultimate victory of Chaos is at hand.
Review
The book starts much as the rest of the Siege with vignettes from the fighting on Terra which is a great way to demonstrate the global nature of the conflict. Abnett interspersed these stories with discussions from Horus on his father and brothers a Malcador talking about the Emperor. Both include great further snippets from the past and how the Emperor got to where he finds himself. Sure, it doesn’t all make sense especially when they discuss pre 21st century history, but its fun watching Malcador and Horus separately talk of the weaving of the fates!
As the battle on the surface continues Ol and John Gramiticus work their own plans with the mysterious help of Alpharius and the Sons of Horus eventually call on their father to lead them in the final battle… but he’s not the man he was… he has fallen! Meanwhile the White Scars have control of the ground batteries and are targeting the fleet and a force from the 1st Legion – The Dark Angels – have taken over the Astronomican – but with the edict of Nikaea in place can they do anything to bring it back?
The Primarchs are starting to prepare for the final battle as well. Sanguinius and Dorn approach the Emperor whilst the Khan is at death’s door and Vulkan makes his way back through the webway after dealing with Magnus.
It’s fair to say there is a lot going on, and this wouldn’t be the book you would start with, but it’s got some great things to recommend it. I really like the way that Malcador is in the first person – and Horus Lupercal in the second… with all other stories being in the third person. It takes a bit of time to get used to, but its a great way of telling the reader which protagonist is currently centre stage.
As mentioned above the vignettes or ‘fragments’ also aid the reader in understanding the scale of the war with some fragments being returned to and others ending in death or defeat. Many of them are outside the eternity gate where Sanguinius has locked out loyalist and traitor alike and there are individual battles and heroism and evil!
The End and the Death also continues the Horus Heresy series in not have too much action from the point of view of the Primarchs or the Emperor. It is not possible to have nothing from them, but the reader is firmly given the impression that the Siege of Terra is being won (and lost) by the unnumbered masses; and not by the Primarchs. It’s a great way to make the book easier to ‘get into’ and emphasise with the protagonists.
Conclusion
It is difficult to recommend this book to anyone who hasn’t read the rest of the Siege of Terra but it is a great start to the final series in the Horus Heresy / Siege of Terra series and – whilst we don’t know how many volumes it is – I eagerly look forward to the next installment.
The Iron Warriors are the unequaled masters of siege warfare. Their pragmatic and bitter approach to combat led them to capture and garrison strategic worlds throughout the galaxy, before descending on Terra with Horus and their Primarch, Perturabo. Perturabo was at the helm of the IVth Legion, and led the spearhead into the solar system, obliterating the Imperial defenses and opening the way for Horus to make his way to the Emperor.
Wrack and Ruin
This approach to siege warfare is present in the Iron Warriors legion trait: Wrack and Ruin. Wrack and Ruin allows for any Iron Warriors model to increase the strength of any ranged or melee attacks by 1 if that attack targets a Dreadnought, Automata, Vehicle, or Building.
This small bonus may seem minor at first glance, but the ability to more easily punch holes in Dreadnoughts slightly reduces the intimidation factor of those units. Dreadnoughts are by far the most powerful units in the game, and allowing your basic infantry to wound them in melee (even if only on 6’s) can be a huge boon. The other item to keep in mind is that the Land Raider Spartan that comes in the Age of Darkness box (meaning that a huge portion of the game’s player base will come sporting one) can only be threatened by weapons with S8 or greater. The ability to punch holes in armor with S7 guns gives the Iron Warriors access to mass-fire weapons that can threaten enemy heavy armor. Weapons with higher strength values, such as Lascannons or Melta weapons, will absolutely melt Rhinos and Predators, leaving your opponents exposed.
The Iron Warriors advanced reactions, Bitter Fury, is essentially a boosted Return Fire. Once per battle in the opposing player’s shooting phase you can fire at an enemy unit that just shot one of your units. When making this reaction you double the number of shots that the unit would normally make. This will make your opponent think about range and target very carefully while you hold this card in your back pocket. No one will want to be on the receiving end of 10 plasmaguns double-firing for 40 shots.
Warlord Traits
There are three Warlord Traits available to Iron Warriors Praetors. The first, Tyrant of the Apolokron, provides your warlord with the Fearless special rule, but enforces a requirement that your warlord and any unit he joins shoot or charge the closest enemy unit in each phase, if possible. Fearless is a strong ability, but the restriction on this rule seems to outweigh the benefit, since you generally want your warlord to be more flexible than what this allows.
The second trait, Tyrant of the Dodekathon, allows your warlord to pre-bomb an area of the battlefield, nominating one area terrain or building. This terrain either becomes difficult and dangerous terrain, or it becomes weakened (in the case of buildings and fortifications), forcing higher rolls on the damage table.
Tyrant of the Lyssatra provides your Warlord and any infantry unit he joins to add extra dice to ranged attacks, but the guns used for the attack gain Gets Hot, potentially backfiring on your squad. Gets Hot is an interesting rule, and generally is worth the risk of taking the hit, but it adds a layer of complexity to the army, forcing you to choose to potentially sacrifice members of your squad to ensure the enemy dies.
Rites of War
There are only two Rites of War for the Iron Warriors. Both of these provide army-wide buffs affecting both tanks and infantry. The first, The Hammer of Olympia, allows your infantry to fire an additional shot with shrapnel weapons (discussed below) following the same restriction as Fury of the Legion. This rite also allows some of your tanks to ignore the effects of Crew Shaken and Crew Stunned. The final item is an accuracy boost in the form of re-rolling 1s to hit for all shrapnel weapons (which you absolutely should be taking as many as possible).
The Ironfire also provides some buffs to all units in your army and adds some spicy army-build options. The first point is that this allows you to run Arquitors as non-compulsory Troops (although they don’t get Line). There are some general improvements to scatter when using Barrage (which your Arquitors rely on). This also allows some boosts to infantry to protect them from the inevitable moment that your Arquitor barrages go awry and land on top of your own units.
Either Rite provides some overall positive improvements to standard list building, with The Hammer of Olympia being what I expect to see more often. The pure joy of placing up to 21 Arquitor Bombards on the table would be worth seeing, however (almost 4000pts, all told, so you would have to play some truly massive games to hit that level). If you can afford that many Forgeworld models you should absolutely do this, take pictures, and share on our discord so I can tell you how wonderful you are.
Unique Units and Equipment
Legion-specific Enhancements
The Iron Warriors have limited Legion enhancements. There is only one character upgrade, allowing a foot Praetor to gain a bunch of enhancements allowing him to repair vehicles and gain some extra utility equipment for whatever unit he joins. Depending on how many vehicles, dreadnoughts, and automata you run this upgrade will be well worth the 20pts.
Iron Warriors characters also have the ability to replace select power weapons with Graviton weapons. These weapons aren’t an improvement over their default version unless you expect to be in melee with Vehicles, where the Haywire rule will come into play. As interesting as these weapons are, why would you want to rely on punching a tank when you’re the Iron Warriors and can bring your own tanks to the field?
The final upgrade is stand-out great, and you should absolutely spend the points any time you have the opportunity. For two points per gun, any bolter, bolt pistol, or heavy bolter can be replaced with a Shrapnel weapon. Shrapnel weapons lose some range and AP from their standard versions but gain the Pinning keyword. Any time you are given the opportunity to pin your opponent’s units you should take it, and with so many weapons on the field that can take this you should be forcing multiple pinning tests on your opponents every turn. This bonus also gives the opportunity to shut off a charge with some lucky overwatch rolls, as a Charge is cancelled if the charging unit becomes pinned.
Legion Specific Units
Perturabo, the Primarch of the Iron Warriors is an odd unit. His Battlesmith (2+) makes him one of the best options in the game at keeping tanks alive but requires him to hang out in the back of an army with your predators or sicarans. Master of Automata is only present to allow him to take his Iron Circle retinue. His damage output is nothing to write home about, and without line his inability to be killed (T7 with a 3+ invulnerable save is incredible) makes him better at keeping other units alive by absorbing shots, rather than really dealing any damage himself. Even his cortex controller, which makes an excellent buff for your Tyrant Siege Terminators, can be obtained cheaper from a Forgelord Centurion.
Ultimately, for the points, you’re better off with a few Centurions and a Lord of War. Perturabo can make a great centerpiece, but you could argue that he isn’t completely worth his points. At the end of the day, if your opponent brings a Primarch, Perturabo is going to get tied up for the whole fight, and if your opponent doesn’t bring a primarch they will just play keep-away with their tanks and infantry for the whole fight.
The Iron Circle Maniple is an equally disappointing unit for the points cost. For slightly less than a Contemptor Dreadnought you get an automaton with several 7s in its stat line, a graviton maul, and a shrapnel cannon. What hurts the unit is the low WS and BS, hitting with that cannon on 4s, and with WS4 it can’t fight any better than a basic tacital. These units really shine when attacking tanks in melee with the Haywire rule on their maul, but with only 3 attacks (4 on the charge) you could get pretty similar output from a lascannon-equipped predator. The big draw for this unit is the ability for Perturabo to take them as a retinue, so long as you commit to taking three of them (bringing the cost of Perturabo + the maniple to around 900pts, around 33% of you points in a standard 3000pt game).
The final unique unit for the Iron Warriors are the Tyrant Siege Terminators, a group of 5-10 Cataphractii Terminators with cyclone missile launchers strapped to their backs. These boys are possibly one of the best flexible ranged threats in the game, with the ability o punch holes in tanks, infantry, or aircraft from 48” away. The addition on an Omni-scope on the Siege Master means that they do not suffer from the negative effects of Night Fighting and allows a free use of the Interceptor advanced reaction. While they are expensive (300 pts for the first 5, and 55pts for each additional) they make up that cost by being durable infantry with great damage output. For some additional reliability, you can support them with a Master of Signals to get the additional hit bonus from the cognis-signum.
Final Thoughts
While the unique units and some of the wargear options fall a little flat, the Iron Warriors have some very strong Rites of War to make up for them. Wrack and Ruin makes them one of the best tank-killer legions in the game and the addition of shrapnel bolters forcing pinning checks constantly will help keep your opponent’s infantry in check as well.
What’s Next
As this article is part of a series, I will spend the next few months going into more detail about the rules of the game and the specifics of each legion. I would like to know if there is specific content our readers would like to see, so leave a comment or join us in the Woehammer discord to let us know what points you would like to see discussed.
A Novella for The Siege of Terra by Graham McNeill
With The Siege of Terra in full swing, Graham McNeill takes us down a little cul-de-sac to close off the story-arc of the ‘Sons of Selenar’… or the Shattered Legions. This is an interesting departure from the other Siege of Terra books, in that it has characters from the Horus Heresy series who have been with each other for some time and gone through a number of adventures together.
Sons of Selenar from Black Library
From the book:
The Shattered Legions crew of the Sisypheum, broken and at the end of their endurance, find themselves divided – torn between following their resurrected captain on a suicidal mission or obeying orders to return to Terra and rejoin their Legion brothers.
Following a series of garbled messages intercepted by the Kryptos, the divided warriors descend to the shattered surface of Luna. Here, their bonds of loyalty, duty, and their devotion to one another will be tested as ancient horrors of the earliest days of gene-manipulation are unleashed, and a long-buried secret is revealed.
A secret that will have far-reaching consequences for the future course of the galaxy, no matter who eventually claims Terra.
The Shattered Legions – a group of loyalists separated from their own legions, find themselves hiding in the solar system following a void battle, when they receive a call for help from the surface of Luna. Ancient technology is under threat from the Sons of Horus and they are being called to help.
This is a strange – but I imagine essential – addition to the Siege of Terra, and I can understand why it is a novella and not part of the main story arc. The characters have all been introduced in some depth in the Horus Heresy series and – as I note above – have already have adventures, battles and close-calls within that series. This then left the writers of the Siege of Terra books in a quandary – the need to close this particular story-arc, but not confuse people who are just reading the Siege of Terra – like me!
And they have succeeded – sort of. This story has what you need in a Horus Heresy novella, but it should probably have been released under that series and not the Siege of Terra series. There is only a minimal link to the Siege of Terra proper – they are on Luna – and Black Library could easily have released it alongside.
The writing is of course good as we’ve come to expect from Graham McNeill but the characters are already developed, and I would have liked to have a little more description of them, even if it would have been superfluous for those who’ve read all the Horus Heresy novels. They fly, fight, kill and die whilst struggling to save the secrets of Gene-manipulation… and there’s some more history about the Emperor thrown in for good measure.
Overall a good book, but you really need to have read the Shattered Legion novels from Horus Heresy first.
The Emperor’s Children were the only legion to bear the Palatine Aquila, the Emperor’s standard. The Emperor’s Children embodied all aspects of what the Emperor expected from the legiones astartes. They were noble, loyal, strong, and civilized. These expectations drove the third legion to seek absolute perfection. This desire for perfection led to their twisting of pride into a desire for excess and hedonism. Once the legion began to follow the Warmaster their martial prowess saw massacres and brutality against the Imperium performed by the hands of a once-loyal legion.
The IIIrd Legion’s Primarch – Fulgrim
Flawless Execution
The martial prowess of the Emperor’s Children is represented through a tremendously powerful legion tactic. When an Emperor’s Children unit performs a charge make their melee attacks one initiative step higher than normal. Note that this expressly works after any initiative modifiers are taken into account. Any Vehicle units gain +1 to hit when firing with defensive weapons during a reaction.
At first glance this seems very minor, but the execution of this rule is extremely powerful. Because wounds and casualties are determined at the end of each initiative step, if a model is removed as a casualty before it has the chance to fight in a combat, that model’s attacks are lost. If two opposing models have the same initiative, all the wounds and casualties are considered to happen simultaneously, so a model removed as a casualty still has the opportunity to deal damage on the way down. This rule gives the Emperor’s Children the ability to severely reduce the amount of incoming damage following a charge, by removing a threat before it has the chance to strike.
This also greatly improves the use of Unwieldy weapons, since this increase happens after initiative modifiers are calculated. A powerfist hitting at Initiative 2 allows an Emperor’s Chosen Cataphractii squad the chance to hit opposing terminators with valuable Instant Death attacks before they are allowed the chance to die in kind. This also increases the ability for the Emperor’s Children to build expert duelists through Centurions and Praetors, who already strike at higher Initiative than most units. A high-value character issuing a challenge can potentially kill the enemy warlord before they have the chance to strike back.
At the end of the day this trait will make the third legion a dangerous melee threat. Not because they hit harder, but because they can reduce the risk of incoming damage. Overall, this cements the Emperor’s Children as a powerful melee faction.
Warlord Traits
There are three warlord traits to choose from for the Emperor’s Children, and they highlight an interesting dynamic for the game as a whole. The game does not dictate loyalty to the Emperor simply from the choice of legion. Yes, the Emperor’s Children are considered a traitor legion, but they can be played as loyalists. The warlord traits reflect this by providing one trait that can only be taken by traitors, one that can only be taken by loyalists, and one that is alliance agnostic. Each trait is solid, and they provide huge benefits with some key restrictions.
The first trait, The Broken Mirror, is restricted to warlords with the Traitor allegiance. It allows some morale mitigation for multi-model units within 12” of the warlord. If a unit that meets the conditions fails a morale check, instead of falling back, it takes a single wound that can’t be negated in any way and is then considered to have passed the morale check.
The second trait requires you to play a loyalist warlord. A warlord with the Martyrs of Isstvan trait makes any unit locked in combat with a legiones astartes unit with the traitor allegiance gain a bonus to hit. Consider this in context with the legion tactic and you’ll see that this can force your opponent to be careful about how they choose to engage a key unit with your warlord attached. The only issue is the target restriction, especially since the release of the latest books may see more games played where this warlord trait would not come into use.
The final warlord trait, Paragon of Excellence, can be played by either allegiance. This trait combines some function of the previous two by improving units’ combat abilities through morale. Every unit that passes a morale check within 12” of the warlord gains a bonus to their Weapon Skill until the end of the Emperor’s Children’s player’s next turn. Given the relatively high leadership values of marine armies, and the ability to improve that morale by attaching independent characters to key units, you will regularly trigger this ability.
Rites of War
The Emperor’s Children have two Rites of War. Both rites focus on generally improving the function of your infantry, either by adding a bonus to movement and positioning or by providing access to unique enhancements.
The first rite, The Maru Skara, will provide you with movement buffs that place you on par with the White Scars. By taking this rite, you have the option to place four of your Elite, Troop, or Fast Attack units into reserves. The units that remain on the battlefield gain a +1 to their Move characteristic until the turn that the reserve units are brought in. This is important to note, since your standard marine gaining a +1 to Move also means that they gain +1 to Charge rolls.
The second Rite, IIIrd Company Elite, allows you to take Kakophoni squads as troops. It also allows you to give all models in any given Infantry unit a surgical augmentation. The bonuses from these augmentations do a lot to offset the points cost of the equipment. You also need to have a good system of tracking which unit has which enhancement. Variety is nice, but your game can move at a snail’s pace if you increase your bookkeeping load too much.
Legion-specific Enhancements
Speaking of surgical augmentations: there are three to choose from. All of them require the Traitor allegiance and can only be placed on Character models. Sonic Shriekers provides a to-hit penalty to your opponents any time they are charged or charge your unit, so long as that enemy unit isn’t immune to Fear(X). Sub-sonic Pulsers remove the penalties to Leadership and Ballistic Skill imposed by Night Fighting. The final augmentation, a Sonic Lance, provides your model with a Template weapon with Breaching and Pinning, although the low strength value will limit its effectiveness against many opponents. The Lance can be effective on a large unit of Tactical Marines or Despoilers in a IIIrd Company Elite force, providing as many as 20 template weapons in a squad for a mere 30 points.
Outside of these augmentations, there are two power weapon upgrades: a sword and a lance. The lance is usually a better upgrade on the units that can take it, since the combination of Murderous Strike, Breaching, and a strength bonus will see more utility. There is something to be said about the benefits of a power sword with Rending and Murderous Strike, since your 6s to wound are going to be devastating when they happen. The upgrade on the sword will also make your Word Bearers friends jealous, since they pay 10 points for the same upgrade.
The Emperor’s Children also gain access to the Phoenix Warden, a unique consul upgrades for your centurions. Think of the Phoenix Warden as a modified champion, with rules focused on improving melee efficiency for himself and other units around him. The issue is that any bonus he gains from the Skill Unmatched special rule always reduces his attacks or Weapon Skill, and his Living Icons ability can more easily be attained through Legion Vexillas. Overall not a bad option, and decently flavorful, but the rules could use a tweak, given the points cost for the upgrade.
Lord Commander Eidolon
Legion Specific Units
As Primarchs go, Fulgrim is relatively straightforward. He’s a melee beatstick, with a collection of tools and rules to exceed in that role. Ost standard units are going to have a hard time dealing with him once the combat begins, but, as with most Primarchs, he can be played around simply by keeping him out of combat. He doesn’t have any real movement buffs and his increased Bulky value when compared to other Primarchs (Fulgrim demands more legroom) means that he will need something akin to a Land Raider Spartan to carry him and a retinue.
Past Fulgrim, the third legion brings along a pair of melee units, Phoenix Terminators and Palatine Blade Squads which are melee-oriented, buffed versions of Tartaros squads and Veteran squads, respectively. The final infantry squad available is the Kakophoni Squad. These are a sort of Heavy Support Squad with special weapons and surgical augmentations unique to the Emperor’s Children. Overall, an Emperor’s Children player should feel pleased with the units here. None of them will blow you away, but all three have solid rules and equipment.
In addition to the above units, there are three unique characters: Lord Commander Eidolon, Captain Saul Tarvitz, and Captain Lucius. Eidolon is a mildly upgrades jump-pack Praetor with some flavorful wargear. His warlord trait provides bonuses to fight a selected “Rival” at the cost of limiting his ability to declare reacitons. Saul Tarvitz is another upgrades Praetor, but significantly cheaper than the other two. He has a bevy of rules that ultimately break down to make him very good at fighting other Emperor’s Children. If your local meta has a bunch of other third legion players he may see some use, otherwise you’re probably better off with a Phoenix Warden Centurion.
The final character, Captain Lucius, is designed to be an excellent duelist. You want him in melee immediately, and you want him issuing and responding to challenges as often as he can. His warlord trait allows any unit to which he is attached to benefit from the Fearless special rule so long as he is engaged in a challenge.
All three of the characters are interesting, but I don’t see Eidolon or Tarvitz fitting into every list. Model collectors and painters can’t go wrong here, though, as all three models are stunning. The detail present on each model does a fantastic job of displaying exactly how obsessed with decorum the third legion was.
Final Thoughts
Given the above, the Emperor’s Children make a mean melee legion. Gaining combat advantages on the charge can be played around, however, and a savvy opponent will know to focus down the right targets at the right time. Positioning and timing are important, but the Emperor’s Children demand perfection, and they are certainly capable of attaining it.
What’s Next
As this article is part of a series, I will spend the next few months going into more detail about the rules of the game and the specifics of each legion. I would like to know if there is specific content our readers would like to see, so leave a comment or join us in the Woehammer discord to let us know what points you would like to see discussed.
With 40 Space Marines completed I now need to move onto the remaining four models. As one of them is quite big (very, very big), I realised I needed to get started on the Spartan.
As I’ve been playing mostly Fantasy and Age of Sigmar in the last decade I haven’t painted many tanks, so I needed to go back to basics and remind myself how to do it!
Assembly was a long process, but very straight forward apart from a small error with one of the top hatches. Once I’d worked that out it was completed and ready for undercoat.
Undercoat / Step 1
All my models have a black undercoat as I like the slightly darker affect it has on Mephiston Red. It also means there are no grey / white spots left even if I miss a bit! So I can always pretend it’s deliberate shadow.
I decided I would mask off the tracks and some of the weapons to ensure that these remained black as building back over red is a little pointless when it’s already there. If you’ve not done this before just make sure you take a little of the ‘stickiness’ off so that it doesn’t remove the paint when you take them off!
Step 2 – Red Undercoat
With the Mephiston Red undercoat on, and the masking tape removed it’s starting to look a lot like a Blood Angel tank. Next up is some pin washing (which I’ve never done before) with Nuln Oil and a little tidying up of the tracks where the red undercoat has snuck through!
I also need to finish the Lascannon Sponsors of course but they fit on very nicely to allow some movement of the model.
What’s Next
I need to finish the tank, and complete the remainder of the Age of Darkness Box Set. It’s great to be getting close to finishing a starter set!
The last of the normal marines… having painted 10 Terminators and 30 Space Marines I am now on the final stretch (before characters, Dreadnought and tank).
And what a final stretch… for these I cheated a little bit and bought a second box set.
Missile Launchers and Heavy Bolters
I selected these, because the Missile Launcher is iconic from the RTB01 box set and my first foray into Warhammer 40k, so long ago.
The iconic RTB01 box for the original plastic Space Marines
Missile Launchers
Missile Launchers with Sergeant
Heavy Bolters
Space Marines with Heavy Bolters (including Sergeant)
It was great to have a bit of a change following the 30 Tactical Marines and the weapons themselves are easy to paint – especially given the simple scheme for the Blood Angels. Fortunately Black and Red go together!
What’s Next
I am halfway through the Praetors and Dreadnought and they will hopefully be finished before an October trip to Warhammer World. Meanwhile I have also started my Land Raider Spartan – more on that later!
To say that the Age of Darkness box set is bursting with value, is doing it a disservice. With 40 Mark VIs, 10 Terminators, 2 Praetors, Dreadnought and Spartan Tank; it has got everything you need to have a fun game.
I’ve previously finished my Terminators, and have now completed the Sergeants for the Tactical Marines.
As there are 40 Tactical Marines the obvious answer is to build them as 4 units of 10 to give a good backbone of any army, but I picked up a box of missile launchers and heavy bolters… so I have 3 units of 10 Tactical Marines.
Unit 1
Tactical Squad, including Sergeant with Power Fist
Unit 2
Tactical Squad with Chain-Bayonets and Sergeant with Power Sword
Unit 3
Tactical Squad with Sergeant with Lightning Claw
I really enjoyed painting these models. They have enough detail to be Space Marines, whilst not having too much to paint… no trim! Of course they do have the studded shoulder pads which took a while to get right, but I batch-painted them so got used to it by the 40th Space Marine!
What’s Next
I have finished the Missile Launchers and Heavy Bolters, so the next article will show some pictures of those!
Book 7 in the Siege of Terra Series – by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
The Siege of Terra is reaching it’s climax, having been promised 8 books in the series although it does appear that book 8 will be in a number of parts! Such is the difficulty of writing an ending.
Echoes of Eternity from Black Library
From the book:
The walls have fallen. The defenders’ unity is broken. The Inner Palace lies in ruins. The Warmaster’s horde advances through the fire and ash of Terra’s dying breaths, forcing the loyalists back to the Delphic Battlement, the very walls of the Sanctum Imperialis. Angron, Herald of Horus, has achieved immortality through annihilation – now he leads the armies of the damned in a wrathful tide, destroying all before them as the warp begins its poisonous corruption of Terra. For the Emperor’s beleaguered forces, the end has come. The Khan lies on the edge of death. Rogal Dorn is encircled, fighting his own war at Bhab Bastion. Guilliman will not reach Terra in time. Without his brothers, Sanguinius – the Angel of the Ninth Legion – waits on the final battlements, hoping to rally a desperate band of defenders and refugees for one last stand.
Wow… how do you fit all that in? There are so many Primarchs still left on Terra or interacting with Terra, and there must have been a strong temptation to tell these stories, but Dembski-Bowden doesn’t – or rather he does, but through the eyes of others.
The book starts with a setting of the scene of war – which is essentially a series of short stories of those fighting. The author gives a superb view of the war, with pockets of soldiers fighting, tanks under attack, titan deaths and attacks on the Eternity Gate. These short stories bring the war to the gates, as the defenders (mostly Blood Angels) prepare and await their fate.
The second part is the attack itself, interspersed by the story of Vulkan and Magnus, and has the fight between the Blood Angels and Ka’Banda; and between Sanguinius and Angron. Meanwhile the Eternity gate is still under threat and the Emperor’s shield against the forces of the warp (The Neverborn) starts to weaken under constant assault.
It’s a great addition to the series – and my favourite one so far. We are approaching the end, and it’s great to have the iconic fights included but still see the battle and fighting from the view of more normal people — if ‘normal’ includes the Space Marines!
