Tag: Chaos Space Marines

Heretic Astartes in 9th edition

Hey everybody,
Yes, I realise I must seem like quite the hobby butterfly right now! Just a couple of days after my Sisters of Battle appreciation post, I’m here talking about another army and my plans for it – I just can’t help it, I’m addicted to the plastic! I wanted to talk a bit about my Chaos forces though, after having spent some time during last week with the codex and having a look at things in terms of what I currently have for the army, etc.

Chaos Space Marines is a wonderful army, and one that I really like the look of. It seems like they can be quite difficult to make work, though I think a lot of that noise comes from the tournament folks who are continually complaining about issues with the book in comparison to the Space Marines codex. For their 9th edition book, though, there do seem to be some concerns, particularly around how terminators have rules that don’t reflect their plastic kit, or something – I’m not an expert, and I don’t even have Chaos Terminators (yet!) so can’t really comment on that.

To me, though, as something of a newcomer to Chaos (even though I’ve talked about the army for years now, and have had the models for longer!) the book does seem to be quite nice. The unit entries have been tidied up a little bit, and on the whole it does seem like an improvement – though to be honest, anything has got to be an improvement on how I would go about army-building in 8th edition, when I needed the codex, the Daemonkin codex, the second Vigilus book, and the Psychic Awakening book. Everything is wrapped up quite well, and presented fairly nicely, too.

There are a lot of new models coming out to accompany the new book, which is very exciting, so there are new entries that are reflective of that. Due to having a lot of new cultists coming, I have left out my own chaps from the current list that I have drawn up, as I think I’m going to stick to marines for the time being while I attempt to make sense of the army as a whole.

Let’s take a look at what I’m working with, anyway.

So there we are! I’m on the cusp of 1500 points, but this is what I have built and (reasonably) ready to go so far – some of it is even painted! It isn’t a legal force yet, as there are too many HQs for a patrol and too few troops for a battalion, but I do have another box of Traitor Marines that I could at least build up to make it work out. I think I would probably ditch the Master of Possession to keep the HQ slots in check for now, as I have no real targets for his Daemonkin abilities in the army – certainly not enough targets to make it worthwhile taking him. I still don’t 100% know how I would like to build the third unit of Legionaries, but I could always throw in some of my Cultist models to make the numbers up – a mob of ten models is 50 points, so there are some easy options there.

Marks of Chaos cost 15 points per unit when you upgrade a unit to have one, which feels a bit too much of an investment at the minute! That said, each of the four Marks grants an effect and has a second effect for units equipped with an icon, so I could potentially see myself giving one of the Legionary squads a Mark just for that, really. Of course, it’s not just these effects that you get, as the psykers and priests will know additional powers and prayers when they have pledged themselves to one of the Four. For now, I’m shying away from the investment, as I say, but I think it might be interesting to give, for instance, the Legionary squad a Mark of Tzeentch, which would improve the AP by 1 on each ranged attack in the squad, as well as allowing them to escape some damage when they fail a saving throw. Something to think about in the future, anyway.

At any rate, let’s take a look at some of these chaps in turn. To start with, I’m playing Black Legion, so I get to ignore all modifiers to combat attrition tests, and I get +1 attack if I’m shooting at the closest enemy, or if I made a charge move that turn. Nice! All models in the army have the Let the Galaxy Burn special rule, which is a bit like the combat doctrines for the Imperial Marines – in round one, they get exploding 6s to hit on Heavy, Rapid Fire or Grenade weapons; in round two, that is changed to Rapid Fire, Assault or Pistol weapons; round three changes it to Assault, Pistol or melee weapons. There are rules to change this a bit, including giving a unit all three of these effects whenever you might need it, but it seems to demand a certain staged level of play, which (to my mind) goes against what Chaos Marines are all about. They also get their own version of Bolter Discipline, called Malicious Volleys, which applies to the Legionaries and Havocs.

I might be talking about ditching the Master of Possession, but let’s start with him, anyway. He can cast two powers per turn, and I’ve given him Warp Marked and Possession, the former lets him mark an enemy unit within 18” and any Daemonkin or Daemon Engine units get +1 to wound against that unit; the latter lets him roll against the toughness of a unit within 9”, destroying a model from the unit if he succeeds, and dealing D3 mortal wounds if the unit is not destroyed by doing so. Some fairly decent shenanigans there, then, though I must remember that Possession will be no good against anything T7 or better! He can also add 2 to any psychic test he makes by dealing D3 mortal wounds to a nearby friendly infantry unit, as he makes a sacrifice to the Dark Gods, and any enemy psyker within 12” who suffers perils is dealt an additional wound as a result. This is quite useful if the Master of Possession goes into close combat against an enemy psyker, because after he has bashed them over the head with his staff of possession, that psyker suffers perils anyway.

My Sorcerer knows Prescience and Infernal Gaze, which are two psychic powers loaded with memory for me – I’ve talked about this before, but painting up my first ever army while listening to 40k battle reports, I can remember hearing all these terms from back in the day, and it brings all those memories back! Prescience gives +1 to hit for a friendly unit within 18”, and Infernal Gaze is a witchfire power that lets you do mortal wounds for every 4+ on 3D6 (or 6D6 if you rolled 10 or more for the psychic test). Very nice stuff, particularly as I don’t see him otherwise being a very useful model – he won’t likely be leading from the front, at least!! The force stave always makes me smile as a weapon though – something akin to the badge of office for a psyker, it just makes me smile to think of the guy beating people around the head with it!

My Dark Apostle is the beefed-up Warlord of the team, though. This may change in time, as I am considering getting myself into the whole Chaos Lord scene – I do have the model, of course, from Blackstone Fortress, but I do think I might make my own, in the fulness of time. For now, though, my warlord is chanting prayers to the dark gods from a book dripping with Warpfire! I love the model, it’s just a stunning centrepiece, and I’m really looking forward to getting him painted up in the fulness of time. Natively, he knows Dark Zealotry and one other prayer, and he can chant one of those prayers that he knows. I’ve given him Warp-Sight Plea for this purpose, so he can either let core or characters within 6” re-roll hits in melee, or he can let them re-roll shooting hits of 1 and deny cover to the targets of that attack. However, I have given him the relic Inferno Tome, which allows him to know one further prayer, and whenever he chants a prayer that is heard, the closest enemy unit within 18” suffers D3 mortal wounds! Wonderful! His second prayer, then, is Omen of Potency, which gives him +3 attacks and improves the AP of his melee weapons by 2. Very nice, he’s now making 8 attacks with his accursed crozius, which is S6 AP-2 and D2. Not bad, eh? There isn’t much in the way of stratagems to make this worse, just Death to the False Emperor to re-roll hits and Veterans of the Long War to get +1 to wound roll. There is also the stratagem to chant an additional prayer, so he can potentially buff himself up and then get to re-roll hits in melee.

The Exalted Champion is a bit like a beefy lieutenant model, as he weirdly has a combi-melta as standard! Something I hadn’t realised, but anyway! He allows core units within 6” to re-roll wound rolls of 1, so he goes hand in hand with the Chaos Lord in that sense. He’s very much a model that I have built and primed, so that’s pretty much why I’ve got him in the list for now!

I have two big blobs of Legionaries, and I was surprised when working out the points for the list at just how expensive these guys are! The first squad is the Shadowspear unit of ten, so is fairly standard, and it comes in at 210 points! The next squad is the upgraded one from the recent Kill Team box, so has some interesting options in there, and the addition of the psyker in the unit is really what has pushed this one up to 240 points. I’ve given this psyker Warptime, the psychic power that allows a unit to move twice – he will most likely be using it on his own squad, I’m thinking, but it might be nice for positioning if he can send other folks out into the wilderness, as well!

Legionaries are, of course, the backbone of the army, and I would really like to get three groups of ten models in the army, at least (can you imagine bigger squads forming a massive gunline?!) Now, a gunline might actually be a red herring here, as they are incredibly punchy in melee – 3 attacks base, and the chainsword giving them +1A. Interestingly, while they have the normal rules for one special or heavy weapon per five models, they can also take 1 plasma pistol instead – which I suppose makes sense if you wanted to make an all-melee unit and felt like the special or heavy weapon would therefore be a waste. The unit now has rules for almost all of the Kill Team options as well; I was particularly pleased that you can make one of these chaps a psyker as it gives so much interesting flavour to the unit as a whole.

Writing this blog has really made me want to get building that third box of guys now!!

The elites section of the codex is quite interesting, especially with the advent in a week’s time of the new Chosen coming to general retail. Still no possessed yet, sadly, but they’ll be here soon, I hope! I’ve got a Helbrute in the list, which is the original model from Dark Vengeance – and, interestingly, that is the model that is used for the codex entry photo, even though the model isn’t available any more. The regular Helbrute is such a boring one in comparison, it really turns the argument about monopose models on its head! I do like the Helbrute for the fact it has a decent threat level – it’s making 5 attacks, each at S12 AP-3 D3, so against power armour he’ll be hitting on 2s, if he’s taken so much as a single wound, he’s re-rolling any 1s in that attack. He can tear Terminators apart with those angry fists, to say nothing of Primaris Marines! But that’s not all, because while he’s getting into battle, he can be firing his multi-melta, which is always fun! The Helbrute also gets his very own stratagem to shoot at a unit that has shot at him that turn, provided the shot hit.

The Venomcrawler is another of these units that is in the list simply because I have it built up, a relic from the Shadowspear box. However, the fact he grants +1 to a psychic test for friendly psykers within 9” is just fascinating, really! Makes him almost some kind of daemonic pet for the Sorcerer, although I’m sure it’s designed more for the Master of Possession. At any rate, he’s making 6 attacks with his soulflayer tendrils, which are delightful at S7 AP-3 D2, and he also has an Assault 3 gun that is only marginally less potent at S6 AP-2 D2. Very handy for harassment, for sure, and I think it could be a useful model to pair with the Sorcerer to help him concentrate on the Warp.

Finally, the heavy support slot begins with my Havocs, built up with two missile launchers primarily because I felt it was the right thing to do at the time, rather than because I wanted them! However, they do offer a kind of flexibility, so I suppose I can’t complain too much! I do love the heavy bolter as a weapon, and if I had the unit over again I would probably have given them another one. The reaper chaincannon is a bit of an auto-include for the unit, of course, and any kind of gun that’s throwing out 8 shots at S5 AP-1 D1 is something to think about. Havocs, of course, have part of the cost of their big guns baked into the unit, and heavy bolters come free for them, but even the chaincannon is just 5 points extra. It seriously makes me think about getting another kit and building it differently. I don’t think they’d take too kindly to being mutilated by having the missile launchers hacked off…

Obliterators are a fun unit, aren’t they? They no longer roll for the fleshmetal guns weapon characteristics, just a random roll to see how many shots it does once you’ve selected one of three profiles to use for the attack. One of those profiles has the potential to do 15 shots, which is quite worrying – especially when you discover the little nugget that they can fire into combat with these bad boys! It’s not enough that they’re doing 4 attacks at S10 AP-3 D2, but they can potentially then fire 15 shots at S5 AP-1 D1 at you in the next shooting phase – that is quite upsetting to be on the receiving end of it, I’m sure. They’re also Daemonkin, so will benefit from the Master of Possession’s shenanigans. 90 points each isn’t too bad either!

Interestingly, Mutilators have now gone from the codex, so my theory of a new plastic kit for Obliterators/Mutilators is out the window (coupled, of course, with the upcoming box of two Obliterators and Venomcrawler, of course!)

There is a decent amount of punch across this army, I think, so it should be really good to try out on the table once I’ve made my adjustments! Taking out the Master of Possession, and adding in a third batch of Traitor Marines at roughly 200 points would bring the total up to 1480, so I’m sure I could kit that third squad out to hit the 1500 mark, which would be nice! With all of that firepower and all of those attacks coming out of the army, it’s a nice image to have, for sure!

Hobby Goals 2022 check-in

Hey everybody,
We’re now over the halfway point of 2022, so what better time than now to look back at those hobby resolutions from way back in January, and see how I’m making progress against them! What better time, indeed…

Let’s just remind ourselves what I had decided to do this year:
1. Paint more terrain
2. Start painting the Adepta Sororitas
3. Finish painting the Ossiarch Bonereapers kits that I have
4. Continue to paint up the Genestealer Cultists
5. Paint up the Tyranid models that are currently primed
6. Try to sort out the AdMech, Drukhari, Necrons and Chaos Marines, and other bits!
7. Start painting the new Tau army

Quite a modest list really, isn’t it?

So let’s take a look.

1. Paint more terrain
Well, I have made some efforts with the Galvanic Magnavent, which is built up in a differing configuration to the norm. Progress was fairly good at the start of the year, but I have barely touched it since. I think I do suffer a little with these big terrain pieces, because I don’t want to make them stand out too much, but equally I want to do a nice job on them, and getting the balance right has not been easy so far!

While I have barely painted any further terrain, I have been building all sorts. I’ve built up the Red Harvest terrain for Warcry; I’ve also built up the Defiled Ruins set. I’ve built up the terrain from Kill Team Nachmund and Kill Team Moroch, so have done nothing but increase the terrain backlog there!

I wonder if I’ll actually make good on this one…

2. Start painting the Adepta Sororitas
I have struggled with these girls so far. After coming up with a scheme for them, I promptly used it for my Tau army (more in a bit), and have kinda gone off the idea of painting the Sisters in the same way. For a while, I did consider just cutting my losses completely with the army and selling it off, and while I have moved away from thinking so extremely about it, those thoughts haven’t entirely gone away. The new Citadel paints announcement has given me pause on dumping the whole lot on ebay though, because I’m once again thinking about the white scheme that I was playing around with ages ago. I think potentially using some of those new paints could give some nice results, so I don’t want to make a final decision before trying them out, but for now I think I’m not really considering them as a project for 2022, if at all. I guess we’ll see how that changes, though!

3. Finish painting the Ossiarch Bonereapers kits that I have
I don’t think I’ve even taken them out of the wrapping! For a while, I was hoping to try Age of Sigmar with James, but I’m not sure if he still fancies giving it a go, so it’s all quiet on this front once again.

4. Continue to paint up the Genestealer Cultists
I haven’t painted anything for this army since December.

5. Paint up the Tyranid models that are currently primed
I haven’t painted up anything for this army, and much like the Sisters, I did consider offloading them at one point! However, I think I’m going to keep the army that I have, and will paint them up at some point. But again, like the Sisters, I don’t think this is a project for 2022 any longer.

6. Try to sort out the AdMech, Drukhari, Necrons and Chaos Marines, and other bits!
I think this is the one that has some of the best results so far! To start with, I am keeping the AdMech that I currently have. It’s around the 1000 points mark, although that doesn’t reflect the latest balance dataslate, but seems like it might be a fun army to try out and have. I haven’t done anything with my Drukhari beyond looking once more at the Wych Cult models I have (seems to be a ritual for January) and then putting them all away again. Necrons haven’t been touched, but Chaos Marines have had quite a lot of success, as I have finally finished painting the ten man Legionary squad, as well as the Sorcerer – so along with the Master of Possession, I have a nice start here! Furthermore, I have begun work on the two Greater Possessed, and I’m intending to finish off the ten-man Cultist squad that I’d started working on before I moved house three years ago. So that’s quite good progress, I think!

As far as “other bits” go, I have sold off the Blood Angels, so they are no longer a concern. I still have my Deathwatch, which I will likely keep the bulk of, if not all of them, but I’m intentionally not paying any more attention to those guys just now. I also have the Scions that I have flip-flopped over for so long now – earlier this year I did get them all out and had a look at everything, but they’re just such lovely models that I had to put them back again. I’m just not sure what I want to do with them, though…

I have not done anything more with Necromunda models, but I want to get moving with painting up more of them, as I love them so much. I haven’t yet bought into the whole Ash Wastes thing, but my local store still has a copy of the box on the shelves, and I’m being increasingly tempted by it – I think I want to know what this new thing for Kill Team is going to be first, of course! That Necromunda box is not cheap to be throwing a lot of money down for it, after all! Who knows, I might well end up getting it, as I do like the Nomads, and could possibly sell off the Orlocks, but I’m just not sure for now. I am, however, in the Necromunda mood…

There’s a lot more “other bits” to talk about though – more shortly!

7. Start painting the new Tau army
I’ve actually done really well with this one, as well! For the first few months of the year, I was really strictly painting Tau units, and have somehow come up with around 700 points of painted models so far. I’ve even played a game with them! Something seemed to happen around April though, firstly as the wheels seemed to come off a little as I started to paint my Chaos Marines, then I started to play different sorts of games, and my interest in 40k waned quite a bit. To get myself back into painting, I worked on some other projects, and have been slowly trying to get back into the painting groove, so to speak. I have quite a few units to paint, though, so I really ought to try and get back into them!

So, what have I been doing all year?!

Well, after my hiatus following the Tau run of painting, I have finished off ten Khorne Bloodreavers. I started to paint these guys last year, after a bit of an abortive attempt to get a Khorne army played in the summer of 2019. I started work on five of them, it took a long time to get even five done, but then the other five were painted in short order and here we are! Lovely stuff:

I have talked about Khorne before, but I think it’d be cool to have a small collection of these models painted. They take me back to the start of AoS, when I was really living the best hobby life, so even though I wasn’t into Khorne back then, it does bring back some fond memories! They’re also really nice models, with that tremendously Warhammer-y aesthetic of over-the-top spikes and muscles and skulls. It’s all just great, and I’m looking forward to getting more of these guys painted up! It’s not going to be a massive army, by any stretch, but I’m excited about it, so that’s half the battle!

Staying with Chaos, I’ve also finally started to work on the Exalted Seeker Chariot of Slaanesh, the model I fully built before realising I was going to make things ridiculously difficult for myself. It’s been languishing in painting limbo for years, but I’ve finally made some pretty decent headway with it recently, I think! Getting the steeds of Slaanesh colour scheme sorted was a big part of this, of course, but it’s turned out looking pretty nice, I think – painting the whole thing with Celestra Grey, then shading the mane with Drakenhof Nightshade and then using Apothecary White basically as a shade over the body. There’s something a little liquid about them, when you see them in the flesh, which I quite like – it’s like they’re a little weird, which I like. Perfect for Slaanesh of course, too!

Finally, I’ve painted these objective markers! I’ve had them hanging about for a long time now, I think I started to paint them last December or something. Well, here they are, finished! Not exactly the biggest of painting projects, and not exactly Golden Demon-standard, but they’re done, which is the main thing!

I’ve been building a great deal, of course – terrain, and kill teams. I feel a bit like I’m at the point now where I need to spend money on storage, which is never exciting to me! But so many of my miniatures now are just thrown into boxes of some sort, whether they’re painted or not – it’s not a good look, especially as I tend to be the one moving between locations! I think if I were hosting games at my home, then it might be a different matter as things could afford to be a little more precarious. But miniatures storage isn’t cheap, either, so I need to find something that I like and that will work for me.

There’s so much more to this hobby than just chucking dice and moving tiny plastic men around!

May Plans

Somehow, I’m on quite the blog-writing streak here at the minute, I think this is day 16 now, which is quite exciting! Amid all of the rambles, though, I feel like I need to get a bit more focused. I’m very much in a Star Wars mood at the moment, and combined with a return to board gaming, I seem to be moving away from what has been my main hobby for the last eight years now, miniature war games. I did touch on this on Friday, but I think I need to try to strike more of a balance, and see if I can keep up the games while also enjoying a bit more of the plastic hobby. I have the coming week off work (which is just as well, really, because I’m in the middle of some pretty intense training at the moment!) so thought it would perhaps be a good time to recalibrate, and whatnot.

So, to start with, I want to try to press on with the Black Legion bits that I’m in the middle of painting. I may have said this before, but I find it difficult to come back to projects when they’re halfway finished, so I do need to keep on with these guys before it’s another couple of years before they’re fully painted. I’m not going to go any further than this for the time being: I wouldn’t say that I’m in a hobby slump per se, but I’m definitely in that realm of feeling a bit overwhelmed with just how much I’ve got going on, so don’t want to plan ahead beyond the one immediate project for now!!

It’s no secret that I have a lot of armies on my plate, but in the last week I’ve started to take some action here, and have listed my Blood Angels on eBay to try and trim down. As it stands, I’m hoping to get around £100 for the lot, which would be nice, and traditionally I would almost immediately plough that back into Games Workshop’s coffers, but I’m hoping that I can be more circumspect this time around, and resist the allure of new shiny stuff. I still want to off-load more models, including my Nighthaunt, so hopefully I’ll be feeling a bit better about the hobby and stuff once I’ve cleared away some of the chaff. It’s amazing how much noise is in my head from the variety of projects that I have at the moment.

I’m very keen to give the new Kill Team a try – well, especially seeing as how it isn’t really “new” any more. This would kinda play into the Black Legion that I’ve been painting up as well, as I could start painting those models that were built up from the Nachmund set, though at this point I have quite a few sets of miniatures from which to draw – including AdMech and Genestealer Cults from the White Dwarf rules.

Unfortunately, nobody around here appears to be that into Kill Team right now, I think in part as a result of a general downer on 9th Edition 40k that seems to be led by the main group from my local GW. So it may be a bit of an uphill struggle on that one!

I do need to finish building the terrain from Nachmund though, at which point I may just try it out with me taking on both sides, just to see how the ruleset works. I may have a better chance of convincing people if I’ve got a better grasp of the rules!

So far, then, I don’t think my plans for the month are particularly onerous! Finish painting five/six models, build up some terrain, and maybe read over some campaign books!

Of course, I’m still really keen to play lots of other games that I own, and have been enjoying quite a variety of them in recent weeks. I’m still trying to convince Jemma that the Star Wars LCG is worth playing, and I’m still in the middle of the jungle in the Forgotten Age campaign, but I’ve recently also been thinking a lot about Lord of the Rings LCG. It’s widely been referred to on my blog here as my favourite game, and I think that holds true for the first couple of cycles of the game. But somewhere around the Voice of Isengard, I just lost interest due to the game becoming so incredibly difficult to play solo.

There are about six full cycles that I have not yet played, and last year I made an effort to change that, playing my way through The Lost Realm before once again getting distracted. Now, I have a vague memory of playing through the first three scenarios in the Angmar Awakened cycle as well, and even mentioned it here on the blog, but I didn’t record it on my BGG stats, and I don’t actually remember the scenarios themselves, either, so in confusion I’ve somewhat given up for the time being.

I still want to play this game, though, so I’m thinking that I’m going to go straight in for the final cycle of the game, the Vengeance of Mordor! This should be interesting, as from what I remember of it from promotional stuff at the time, we get to explore some fairly interesting aspects of Middle Earth, and we get something of a unique look at the world. So that’s pretty exciting! Although I may not be saying that when I’ve been beaten into submission by the scenario!

I’m hoping to get started with it while I’m off, anyway, so stay tuned for more updates there!!

The Black Legion update 2

Hey everybody,
It’s been a long, long road with the Black Legion, as I’ve been doing little bits and then leaving them for ages, but I have finally finished the first group of five marines, and the Sorcerer!

Maybe I’m just a masochist, but I eventually really got into painting these guys, even with all the trim! They are incredibly detailed miniatures, of course, regardless of the fact that the trim takes forever to paint. But I did get into it, by the end! I think it helps being in a more relaxed mindset when tackling them – I’m not trying to rush things to get them finished for the sake of having finished models, I’m just painting each model and enjoying the ride, you know? While I’m not going to win any awards of course, it is great to see them finished, as well, which is spurring me on to do more! I think I am definitely over my hobby slump of recent weeks, then!

Currently, then, my painted Chaos forces consist of seven models – the Sorcerer, the Master of Possession, and these five marines. I’ve got some Cultists that are kinda sorta on the way, too, but for the time being I’ve started work on the next batch of five marines so that I have the full squad painted. I think I’ll then turn my attention to finishing the Cultists to get a 10-man squad of those, too, before doing anything further.

Of course, I have also been building a second marine squad, using the fancy models from the Nachmund box, but currently I don’t know how that squad is going to turn out, rules-wise, because there are three “odd” models who currently don’t have rules. However, with all of the codex talk now starting to take place, it seems like they will become an option for the squad, which I’m quite excited for.

It’s quite nice in general to have the new book to look forward to, with of course the promise of new kits coming at some point. The live stream from the WarhammerFest event the other day has shown some very exciting things, and of course we already have the new Chosen and Warpsmith out in the wild after that box set that came out recently. Seems like they’re really leaning heavily into the Cultist side of things this time, with a new 10-man set, plus the Cultist Command Squad (for want of a better term), plus the possessed Cultists and the abominable possessed Cultists – disgusting yet beautiful, all of them! New Possessed models, as well – wonderful stuff! Part of me wonders where the separate Greater Possessed and the separate Obliterators are, to say nothing of the plastic Mutilators, but I suppose we can’t have it all just yet.

But we are getting a new Daemon Prince…

I did talk about this when I last mentioned the heretics here on the blog, and at the time I wasn’t sure whether I was going to keep going with the army. Well, I am now sure, having enjoyed my time with the models that I’ve painted up to now, so I’m looking forward to seeing where things will be going from here! That said, of course, I’m not going to go mad with this project, because I’m actually trying to thin down the various models that I have once more, but I realise that I always say this, and follow it shortly after with “look what army I’m going to start next!”

I enjoy the Master of Possession though, and the daemonic side of the army, so I think I will likely be getting myself some of the new Possessed when they’re out. I’ve talked about having a Cultist-centric army in the past as well, of course, though I think I’m somewhat shying away from that for the moment. Maybe I’ll reconsider in due course. The new Cultists do look good, and I’ll be interested to see whether the older Cultist models remain viable with these new guys coming along as well (I think I have about 35 of these guys, after all!)

I’ve been trying to organise my miniatures into some kind of cohesive army, and have come up with a 1000-point list (well, it’s actually 999 points) to use next week against my buddy JP, who has played exclusively Word Bearers since I’ve known him, so it’ll be interesting to throw my guys against whatever he decides to bring to the table, as he has been starting an Imperial Fists army, as well.

At any rate, I’ll be keeping my stuff confined to just marines, with the legionaries and Havocs, plus two Greater Possessed and an Obliterator. Nothing too fancy. Without having the second edition of the codex, though, it’s going to be a hilarious game where I will have the old codex, one of the Vigilus books, the Daemonkin mini-codex, and one of the Psychic Awakening books on hand!

That new book can’t come out quickly enough!

However, I’m trying to keep myself under control, which isn’t easy with the amount of Chaotic good stuff coming out soon! I absolutely don’t want this army to get out of control, though, so I will be trying, as much as possible, to stay focused on just the models that I have, for the time being.

But then they go and announce this, and I’m all “oooooooh! Traitor Guard!” 🫠

Planning! part one

Hey everybody,
It’s time for more rambling thoughts to start your week! After thinking about it a couple of weeks ago, I have now started in earnest on my 9th Edition Black Legion army – and yes, it’s turning out to be quite the army, at that! What has initially started life as a 500-point (ish) Combat Patrol force has now become something far bigger than I’d been expecting!!

To start with, though, let’s talk briefly about how army building works in 9th edition. Rather than receiving a number of command points based on the number of detachments that you’re bringing, instead you get the CP based on the game size, somewhat balancing things in comparison with 8th edition, where one army could be starting the game with something like 17, and another might only have 4. For games of up to 500 points-a-side, such as we’ll be discussing today, you each get 3CP to start the game with. After that, at the start of each round, you get an extra one in your Command Phase, a new phase of the game that seems to have been borrowed from AoS.

Now. Each detachment that you bring costs command points, but if your warlord is in that detachment, you get those points refunded. So the humble patrol detachment costs 2CP, but you then gain 2CP if your warlord is in there. Interestingly, this only counts for the patrol, battalion and brigade detachments – the vanguard, spearhead and outrider detachments cost 3CP each, and don’t refund you even if your warlord is in that detachment instead. So no elite-only armies, for you! Even more interestingly, the Supreme Command detachment doesn’t cost anything, but you get additional command points if your army also includes a patrol (+2), battalion (+3) or brigade (+4), but that Supreme Command must include either a Primarch, Daemon Primarch, or Supreme Commander unit. Interesting to see how they’re sort of pushing those big commander type of units – and even more interesting, considering there is only one Primarch currently in the game. I’m guessing that characters like Abbadon and the Silent King will be getting Supreme Commander keywords in time?

Anyway, I digress.

I’m talking about my Combat Patrol plans for the Black Legion!

I’ve literally only just planned out my starting force for these guys, and then the points changed quite dramatically and I couldn’t fit everything into the same force! Marines in particular were hard-hit, meaning that I’ve had to take out the Exalted Champion and a second Greater Possessed! But anyway.

For this list, then, I get 3 CP to start the game, which isn’t so bad I guess! The Master of Possession is literally only there as the headliner because of the fact that I’ve finished painting him; I think in the fullness of time I’ll be swapping him out for a Sorcerer or maybe even simply a Lord, although I have just today primed the Dark Apostle ready for action!

The Master of Possession is heavily geared towards daemon-support, so the Greater Possessed has stayed in the list simply to give him targets for his abilities! I do want to ally in some daemons, though, and I’m thinking the whole Dark Ritual stuff could be quite fun as well, so it’ll be interesting to see what he gets up to in due course! For the marines, I’ve got the 10-man unit from Shadowspear, and I’m currently working my way through all that trim on those guys… what a detailed task that is!

I’m enjoying my foray into these guys though, even if I haven’t yet been able to come up with an easier way of painting the basic troops! Of course, I’ll be using Cultists when the army grows, so that may prove to be an easier task, although I still haven’t finished painting that batch of Cultists from back in the day…

The Havocs are hopefully going to be great. Again, when I get the army fully off the ground, I’m hoping to get at least one more squad of them, kitted out slightly differently so that I have more heavy bolters for volume of shots. Given that they’re almost as expensive as double the number of regular marines, though, I’m curious to see what else could possibly fit into the list!

I think this is really indicative of how 9th edition is changing things, with fairly big points increases, which in turn are seeing smaller armies. In looking at how I could increase this force to 1000 points, I was looking at some Terminators, though kitted out as I’d like (combi weapons and power fists, with a reaper autocannon in there just because) brings a five man unit to almost 200 points! Added in a second marines squad at 175 and a second Havocs squad at 150, and I basically have no room to manoeuvre! It surprises me, I think, because during 8th edition I was almost always pleasantly surprised as just how many models I could fit into a list. Now, however, I’m finding that my lists are becoming almost elitist given how few bodies I can squeeze in!

In addition, though, I’m also intending to ally in some Chaos Daemons, principally of Slaanesh, given that I have those models already, although I can’t deny that I’d like to get a few more interesting gribblies in as time goes on! I think I might start with a small patrol detachment of these things, rather than relying on Summoning them on, as I feel that tactic might be vulnerable to having the characters removed before they can attempt the Ritual. But who knows? Maybe I’ll try to get my Dark Apostle to summon a Keeper of Secrets, and see what havoc can be caused!

So far, then, I’ve got a small force underway. I’ve recently picked up a couple of Rhinos and a Forgefiend, as I’d like to go bigger with this army as time goes on, but I’m trying my hardest not to go picking up tons of kits and finding myself drowning in plastic! In addition to the Marines, I’d like to get a nice selection of Cultists painted up, and who knows? Maybe 9th edition will answer my dreams, and we’ll get that Renegades & Heretics Codex that I’ve been after since Blackstone Fortress first showed what could be possible with such wonderful miniatures!

Getting ready for 9th

Hey everybody!
We’re inching ever closer to 9th edition Warhammer 40k now, and somewhat in spite of myself I’m getting a bit excited for it all. While in some ways we’re almost there already, with the rules and FAQs having been published already and the points leaked this last week, I still thought I’d share these plans now as a sort of preface to playing in the new edition.

While I’m planning for Genestealer Cults to become my main new project for the new edition, I’ve got a couple of other projects that I want to get some headway with, which is quite exciting! My aim was to get around 500 points of miniatures painted up, to go alongside this new Crusade idea that we’ve been seeing a lot of this week.

Let’s start with the Heretic Astartes!

I’ve put together this small force based around the Shadowspear box that came out last year, having wanted to get these models painted up initially as Word Bearers.

Since reading ADB’s Black Legion series this year, however, I’ve changed my mind completely, and have gone instead for the Black Legion as my heretics of choice. Of course, I haven’t really gotten all that far, having started with the Helbrute earlier this year (though I still haven’t finished him off yet!)

My aim with this was predominantly just to get started with the Legion, and get a decent force that may well be able to be used with this Crusade format. I’ve got another box of Chaos Marines that I’m planning to move on to following this, using them to fill out the Shadowspear stuff so that I have a full squad of chainsword guys and another with boltguns, and then I’m considering painting up the Cultists that I’ve had on the go for far too long!

I’m not 100% sure anymore how the Blackstone Fortress minis work with the regular stuff, so I’m thinking I might wait for the full 9th reveal before trying to incorporate things like the Rogue Psyker in the above picture. Hopefully there will be a way of getting these interesting bits into the army – although I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for now that we might well get a Renegades and Heretics Codex out of the new edition, so we’ll see what happens there!

I’m determined not to go crazy with Chaos (ha ha), but I’m looking forward to having a proper army painted up here!

Let’s turn our gaze from the empyrean now, however, and focus on the light of the Emperor – it’s time for the Adepta Sororitas!

I was very excited to get my hands on the battle box at Christmas last year, and set about building them all up – though that was pretty much where it ended, really. I think around the same time as the multi-part kits were being released, I’d hit my hobby slump, and 40k took something of a step back for me, as I thought staying away from the hobby for a while might help to reignite the passion! Well, I got there in the end, I suppose!

The core of this list, then, is the battle box stuff, supplemented with a box of Retributors, and five Dominions (built from the same box as the multi-part Sisters themselves). I had originally picked a colour scheme that harkened back to the Deathwing, as Sisters and Dark Angels have something of a similar iconography with all the faux-Catholic stuff going on, and I had begun to move away from wanting a Dark Angel army but still love the colour scheme of bone with greens and pinks.

I was excited for this scheme, but the execution did leave something to be desired! Sisters went firmly on the back burner for me, and it wasn’t until I started to consider selling off chunks of my collection, that I began to re-think keeping them, after all!

I’ve gone for the Order of the Sacred Rose, which is a white-and-black scheme, so that should be difficult! However, I thought I’d try it with the Contrast paints, and so far have been quite unimpressed. As such, I’ve been trying to paint them the more traditional method, so far with minimal results as I haven’t found much time, of course!

Similarly with the Black Legion, I’m not planning to go all that wide with the Sisters, although I have found myself with quite a bundle of plastic since the new year, so maybe that will be inevitable?! As it stands, I don’t think I need to buy anything more for the army for the rest of the year!

With both of these army lists, my intent has been to get a decent start on each of the forces, getting some characters and some troops painted up, along with a few more interesting bits. Basically, I suppose I’m trying to put together an interesting line up that will be fun to paint as time moves on. The armies are never going to be competitive, I’m fairly sure of that, but I’m looking forward to seeing how far I get. Interestingly, both the Chaos and Sisters forces have a squad of troops, a squad of heavy weapons, and at least one hero-character to lead them… though they don’t feel in any way balanced against each other!

I’m always keen to see how far I’ve gone, so I think over the weekend I’ll try to get some photos taken of the models as they stand right now. Then it might be fun to see how far I’ve come at the end of the year, when I get them together once more and see whether, in fact, I’ve made any progress at all! There’s always the risk of something distracting me, after all – especially with the new Necrons on the horizon!!

I’m really quite excited for these two projects, as they should sit quite nicely alongside my Genestealer Cults force. Of course, I’ve found myself with three of the most detailed model ranges out there, so I’m not entirely sure how much progress I’m going to make, but I’m hoping that, by the end of the year, progress will nevertheless have been made!

All of this sort of supersedes the Hobby Resolutions, then, I suppose, though it’ll be interesting to see at my New Year check-in just how far I’ve managed to get with, well, all of this, really! Stay tuned, as ever, for more exciting updates!

Looking back at the Games Workshop reveals

Hey everybody!
So it’s time to play a little catch-up here, as I take a look at some of the stuff being previewed by Games Workshop in recent weeks. There is a lot of exciting stuff coming over the horizon and, while I’ve managed to catch snippets of stuff here and there, I’ve not really had much time to take a look in any great detail at this stuff. Until now!

At the recent Blood & Glory event, we got to see a lot of stuff that was really quite exciting when I first glanced through, but on reflection felt a bit like it fell flat. I suppose we’ve been seeing such a wide variety of stuff previewed like this lately, that it’s hard to keep things at the same level? Anyway, to start with we’ve seen some new monsters for Warcry, which seem to function like mercenary characters that your warband can hire.

These things look pretty huge, and would likely make really nice centrepiece models for a collection in their own right. Being released for Warcry seems a little bit strange to me, as I’d have thought they would do well as main-line Age of Sigmar, but then what do I know? I do like the Sphiranx model though, and it’s nice to see another breed of Ogroid after the magical beastie from Silver Tower way back when.

These aren’t the only two coming though, as we’ve already seen a third big beast at the end of September, so I guess there might be quite an extensive second-wave of releases for the game coming up soon, when we get those final two warbands and all this additional stuff?

Back during the Spiel reveals, we got to see one of those new bands, the Spire Tyrants, which do tend to look a lot like the more generic Chaos marauders type of kits. Here’s hoping that the final warband of the eight will be as fancy and as individual as the others…

I still haven’t played Warcry, but all the reports I’ve heard have been mainly positive, with just a few niggles, so it’s definitely something that I’d like to get round to at some point!

The big news from Blood & Glory seemed to be the newly remade Slaves to Darkness for Age of Sigmar, though – at least, that was my big take-away! Warriors of Chaos Undivided, these guys are definitely a welcome sight on the horizon, and I find it quite interesting to see just how much of a focus is being put on the Ruinous Powers these days, between this and Warcry. We’re definitely at an interesting time for Chaos, and it’s really exciting to see GW updating these, some of the oldest sculpts still doing the rounds.

Am I going to start a Slaves to Darkness army? Possibly. Well, I do have Slaanesh daemons on the cards, still. I would love to get my hands on this chap though, as I think he looks magnificent! I can definitely see that lizard beastie in a pale lilac colour…

It’s interesting though, isn’t it, that these new Warriors, Knights and Lord kits are effectively being launched via a Start Collecting box, rather than the SC coming out months after the initial release. I guess it’s partly due to the fact this is an updated range, and not a new one? Just thought it worth mentioning, anyway…

Speaking of Chaos…

The next book in the Psychic Awakening campaign, Faith and Fury, has also been shown, with the promise of updated rules for all of the non-Codex Traitor Legions – “supplement-tier” rules, apparently! That’s certainly interesting, don’t get me wrong, but… why does this always happen to the Heretic Astartes? Remember when they had a massive update via Vigilus Ablaze? Feels very much like we’re once again playing second fiddle to the loyalists…

That said…

This new Chaos Sorcerer is just glorious!! I mean, when you look at the current sculpt, there’s really no comparison, is there?

I’m really loving the revamped Chaos Space Marines range, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the new Sorcerer, even though my actual force is nowhere near battle-ready!

I wonder if we’ll be getting a plastic Warpsmith anytime soon…

I think this is where I felt deflated the most, though. I was really hoping that we’d get some surprise previews for the Sisters, some stuff we didn’t know was coming, or something not previously mentioned. Instead, while the tanks look amazing and everything I was hoping they would be, I can’t help but feel a little bit let down. It’s definitely my own fault for expecting something like that, of course, but there we are.

The tanks themselves both look phenomenal, with so much incredible gothic detail that I was hoping to see. I’m struggling against the desire to not start yet another new army, and a need to get at least one of each of these superb vehicles!

I do love the cherubs that adorn the tanks, being a big fan of these macabre things anyway, so the latest Battle Sister Bulletin was a real treat for me, I have to say! Looking forward to seeing what some of those kits contain, as I’m not sure we know the full range yet…

Let’s end with some more Imperium stuff though, and a look at a couple of recent Rumour Engine photos. I don’t normally talk about these, because they can be far too obtuse, but there does appear to be some kind of AdMech vibe coming from a few that makes me wonder what on earth could be on the way…

The above came on 22 October, followed by the below image, out today:

It all looks a bit curious, especially if we remember this one from 8 October:

Some kind of Skitarii flying machine? Who the hell knows!

Exciting stuff coming, for sure, but I am definitely feeling a bit overwhelmed now by the amount of stuff coming at us from Nottingham. To say nothing of how much it’s all going to cost us…

Falling to Chaos, part three

…it was inevitable, really!

While I’ve always been a xenos player at heart, I’ve nevertheless enjoyed building and painting the odd space marine in my time, and often have thought about wanting an Ultramarines or successor company to play on the tabletop. I never really thought I’d sell my soul to Chaos, but now that Shadowspear is out in the wild, and there is so much more Chaotic goodness coming out way, I thought it might be time to look again at my thoughts on the heretic astartes and all of their diabolical instruments of war…

First of all, I just want to say that I really do still want to get that army of Chaos cultists off the ground sometime soon. I’m not entirely sure when, because this year is shaping up to be pretty seismic with another house move hopefully on the cards, but I would like to get a few more of these fanatics painted up before we see another Sanguinalia.

A little over a month ago, I was rambling about my plans for a Chaos army, and was pretty determined to fit in a lot of the Blackstone Fortress stuff, as that had been the catalyst for my desire for this army. Now that we have at least some decent Chaos stuff out here courtesy of Shadowspear, I think it’s time to start looking at how to fit all of this stuff into my army!

And so…

I’m intending to add more to this as we see the full range of New Chaos unfold. I’m very likely going to get more Marines, and I do really want some Havocs for heavy fire support. Furthermore, I want to get the new Dark Apostle miniature, which I’m feeling fairly certain will have a points increase when we can add in his two mates as well, so this 1009 points list is very likely going to be changing in the coming weeks!

I’m still trying to go with the Cultist vibe, but I really want to add to that the idea of cultists who have gone a bit too far, and have managed to actually take things to the next level by summoning daemons and the unholy powers of the Warp. I’m not entirely sure how I want to play this just yet, but I’m thinking of getting some Daemonettes into the fray, and possibly some Bloodletters, though the important thing here is that I’m going Word Bearers for my Heretic Astartes forces, so I don’t want too much red on the table!

Vigilus Ablaze looks like it’s going to be a must-buy for playing Chaos Space Marines, as it has all of the specialist detachments for the Ruinous Powers that really let you go deep on the army theme. It’s definitely sounding quite exciting, and really plays into the whole Daemonkin thing we’ve had from Shadowspear, so I’m looking forward to getting hold of my copy at the weekend and really delving into this whole thing!

I’ve been quite the fan of the Word Bearers since reading the closing pages of Horus Rising, and seeing just how diabolical the machinations of Erebus truly were. The First Heretic was another high point on that journey of course, but I think it might be time to read the Word Bearers Omnibus soon, and see what they’re up to in the 41st millennium, as well!

We’ve seen a few more new models for Chaos coming, such as the Master of Execution pictured above, and that weird Lord Discordant riding atop his scuttling helstalker:

I’m not really that keen on either, though I did entertain some ideas of buying the latter simply because he looks so silly! There’s a bit of an Age of Sigmar vibe coming from the naming conventions of these chaps, which is kinda putting me off if I’m honest, so I don’t think I’ll be rushing to get either of them when they’re released.

Amid all of the fanfare and pageantry of the new releases so far, we’ve not heard anything about the forces from Blackstone Fortress coming in their own packages, and I’m feeling a bit like they’ve been forgotten now. Sure, they are part of that game and, I suppose, there is an argument there to keep them as their own thing. But I would so like a 10-man unit of Traitor Guard to add to this list, especially since we’ve seen the heretic Commissar previewed for an expansion further down the line! I hope we can get these guys in their own release, as I’ve said before, but in the meantime I’ll probably just add yet more Cultists to the force when I look to round it out to 1500 points…

So far, then, I’ve managed to produce this test mini for my Word Bearers force, and I’m really pleased with the result. I’d started the armour by going along with Pete the Wargamer’s tutorial for it, but then just started doing my own thing – all of the weapon casings are Mechanicus Standard Grey and shaded with Nuln Oil, and the eye glow is Straken Green shaded with Biel-Tan Green. All of the cloth is Zandri Dust, and the leather is Gorthor Brown, both of which are then shaded with Agrax Earthshade. I think it works quite well, though, and I’m looking forward to getting the whole army painted up like this!

I think having an element of the Astartes is going to be quite important for the overall army here – I want the Cultists to look like a rag-tag mob, so they’re not in any kind of uniform. Having a bunch of models who are in uniform will then help to make it feel more like a fighting force, and I suppose I can always add in some links such as red robes for the Cultists, or whatever.

It’s a really exciting project, for me, at any rate, so I’m looking forward to getting ahead with it! Quite how far I’m going to get with this one, I have no idea, as I’m likely moving house at some point, but even so, it’ll be good to maybe get a Kill Team out of them!

Shadowspear and more!

Well folks, it’s taken me a few days to digest all of the amazing stuff that we’ve currently got coming our way from GW with the second phase of the Vigilus campaign – and just when I thought I was over it, we get the preview for the big man himself! I mean, what a time to be alive!

First of all, the Shadowspear box itself looks really good. I was initially a huge fan, but my enthusiasm had waned a little bit, but now that we’ve seen these new miniatures in all of their glory, I feel very much like I need them in my life. Most of them. Well, probably all of them. I’m currently planning to split a set, and get myself the Chaos half as a decent start to a Heretic Astartes army and beef up my Cultist force idea from back in December, but then I also want that Primaris Vanguard Librarian. And possibly the ten man squad, whatever they’re called. Infiltrators? They look like beefier Reivers, somehow, and I like them!

I was listening to the latest episode of Vox Cast last night, with the legend that is Jes Goodwin talking about the contents of the box as a whole, and now I feel like I want to seriously make a Primaris Space Marines army! Gah!

So the new box looks amazing, and I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on some of these models and getting them painted up. I’ve not really had any kind of thoughts as to a specific legion just yet, though I had entertained the idea of going “generic Renegade” and coming up with my own fluff, maybe, so I think that might be an interesting way to do it. We’ll see. I can’t wait to get that Master of Possession, at any rate!

I will likely pick up some Vanguard Primaris as well, maybe getting the Librarian off ebay and then seeing what else I can get in the fullness of time.

As if the new stuff in this box wasn’t enough, we also have the delights of the Warmaster himself coming in glorious plastic very soon, as well!

The model is insanely good, and I really like how they have clearly taken the original model as a jumping-off point. The amount of detail is just right, I think – so many of the new minis coming from Nottingham have been a little too busy, and it can make it difficult to really know where to begin with such things. But Abbadon looks just right, in my view – the baroque armour is definitely there, but it has enough breathing room that it can be interesting to look at, but not overwhelming. It should look fantastic as a centrepiece for my Chaos army idea, anyway, and definitely will form a nice counterpart to the Space Marine army idea I had way back in December, with Marneus Calgar forming a lynchpin of Ultramarines successors.

It looks like Abbadon will come at the head of the second wave of Vigilus storyline, as the second book in the campaign has also been previewed, and it doesn’t sound like it’s going to end well! I was very impressed with the first book, so I hope we see a similar sort of tome in the second one, with a lot of interesting rules and stuff to enjoy. We’re promised new rules, detachments and data sheets, alongside more new models, including what looks like a possible new Dark Apostle (just when I’ve gone and bought the finecast one!) and a new Havocs kit, which should be good if this chap is anything to go by:

I can’t really say I’ve always wanted a Chaos army, though whenever I’ve played Warhammer card games, I have invariably gravitated towards the Ruinous Powers, so I suppose it was inevitable! It should be good to get a small force of these guys, at any rate, so I’m looking forward to seeing what else we’ll be getting in this release window (Traitor Guard, please!)

All in all, there are some extremely exciting times ahead!

LVO Previews 2019

Okay, so I’m a bit late to this party, as the LVO previews slid online in the early hours of Friday morning for me here in the UK, but my goodness, it’s taken some time to digest these things!

Starting with what I’m looking forward to the most, the new boxed set Shadowspear. Full to the brim with new sculpts of Primaris and Chaos Space Marines, this has got to be the thing that is top of my list! I mean, we’ve got new Black Legion models for the first time since the showdown between Horus and the Emperor, including some very sexy beasts and horrifically mutated dudes. What’s not to like?!

If that wasn’t enough, we’re also getting sniper-Primaris, alongside perhaps the best Primaris sculpt that has been released for the range:

I don’t know what it is about this boy, but this is the first time I have been actually excited for the Primaris as a range. Sure, PriMarneus Calgar was a nice surprise, and those Hellblasters sure look good, but there’s something about this Librarian with his camo cloak and leather gloves that speaks to me. Not sure about the actual snipers- they look like they’re trying too hard to replicate the original sniper scout marines, but in power armour they look a bit silly. Still, there are more, as-yet-to-be-revealed minis in this box, which I’m guessing will be coming out to coincide with the end of this 80-day countdown we’re still on. Exciting times ahead!

As an aside, a lot of people seem to be assuming that this box is going to be push-fit models like Dark Imperium, but the article does actually compare it with the line of battle boxes from Forgebane, which I think everybody is forgetting came with the actual multi-part kits. So I’m assuming instead that we’ll be getting the actual new CSM kits, etc, and that is an exciting assumption, indeed!

While the Black Legionaries are indeed very exciting minis, I’m particularly looking forward to the new Abaddon that has now been teased:

This could be along the lines of Roboute Guilliman big, which I suppose just further tips the balance towards Chaos (still only one loyalist Primarch out here in the wilds of 8th edition?) but it’s still a very exciting prospect. Of course, Abaddon can’t be expected to have Primarch-like stats, but given that he has the favour of all four Chaos gods, and is basically the rallying point for the majority of the Chaos Space Marine warbands in the galaxy, I’d hope he would be better than, say, new Calgar.

We’ll have to see! At any rate, all of this is making me want to get a CSM force off the ground like there’s no tomorrow!

We’ve seen more CGI-renders of the new Sisters of Battle, which is all very exciting and good and whatnot, but I feel a bit like this is just being drawn out a bit too much now, and I think I’d prefer to just have the models already! It has been very much a drip-feed that I’ve found a bit more irritating than interesting, but I suppose that’s just me being a grumpy old git! Hopefully the announcement of a more regular bulletin means that they’re closer to the release of these models than we knew.

The next warband for Shadespire is Sylvaneth, and definitely makes me wish I hadn’t sold off those models that I’d been building up – take note, kids: it’s not always a good idea to get rid of stuff you may later want!

Not quite sure about this one – a distillation of the best bits of 40k Kill Team and Shadespire? Sounds like it could be good, for sure! Details are a bit too sketchy for me to actually have much more of an opinion, though, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens with this one…

More vague promises of stuff that could be interesting: Forbidden Power is an expansion for AoS that continues the story of the Soul Wars, as something ancient and terrible awakens. What on earth is this about, then? Is Slaanesh the ancient and terrible force? This could be interesting, at any rate…

Staying with Age of Sigmar – new armies are coming, as well as new battletomes for existing armies, so that’s all quite interesting! After Skaven and Flesh-Eater Courts get their books, we’ve got a new book for Khorne, which I can’t decide if I want to get or not. I am, however, interested in the new Skulltaker model (even if it does look remarkably like the old one)

There are also “Khornate phenomena” – because the Lord of Skulls cares not for your magic, peasant!

I mean, they’re just what we’d expect, aren’t they? Delightful pieces of death and destruction from the Blood God.

I feel like this year has been on a par with the last LVO reveals, at any rate!

Coming so soon after my recent post about the Allure of the New, I probably sound a little hypocritical talking about how much I like the new stuff coming in that Shadowspear box. I suppose I’m just Games Workshop’s target market – always wanting the next new thing, never really halting to do anything with the stuff that I already have. I definitely want to start getting better with my purchasing strategy, and I’m trying to not get carried away by all of this stuff. I’ve found it interesting to think about my responses to the way that GW have been revealing stuff on the community site, with previews of next week’s preorders coming pretty much two weeks prior to their actual availability, and how this has made me almost too wary of committing myself to anything new because I want to see what’s coming the week after. If that makes sense.

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks, as the whole Gloomspite Gitz preorder window got me really enthused for starting up with those guys, but because I knew that the Genestealer Cults would be coming out at some point around the end of January – an army that I already own a considerable number of models for already – I have been wary of over-spending anymore. Knowing that there was something else coming over the horizon has kept me from going too deep into any of the very new stuff, and it makes me wonder if there are any others out there who have been the same. I definitely don’t get caught up in the release excitement in the same way that I used to, that’s for sure! And now that I know I have Shadowspear that will likely cost £95, I’m going to be very cautious with anything that comes out between now and then. Interesting times, that’s for sure…