Oath of Moment

 

Chaos Lord with the Mark of Slaanesh

It's been a long while since I've posted anything on here and it will likely be a long time before I do so again. I wanted to signpost to a new blog I've started as I thought I couldn't get on here any more. The plan is to cover lots of my hobby for Age of Sigmar, 40k, and Underworlds plus to get back to useful tutorials and reviews etc in time too.

Winged Daemon Prince with Mark of Slaanesh

Please visit my new Oath of Moment blog to see more of my Creations of Bile and Hedonites of Slaanesh amongst others!

Rilynstra's Doom - The Kabal of the Murderous Refrain

Been a while since there's been any actual hobby on here! At the moment I'm working on a few 40k armies that go in tandem with one another. They are:

A Dark Eldar army - The Kabal of the Murderous Refrain.
A Craftworld Eldar army - The Felbrineth Kindred of Craftworld Rilynstra
An Eldar Cosair army - The Empyreal Reavers

I've got some fluff worked out to link them all together and as the various projects progress I'll share some snippets of that. To start off with though I have a few WIP pictures of my Archon's second in command that I'm working on at the moment. His name is Indolas Kallixian Hierarch of the Kabal of the Murderous Refrain.

Lots of work to go on him obviously!

I've also written some background about the Kabal:

Nim’ileth broods over a nodal point in the webway. The traffic passing through has seen Nim’ileth swell from the palace of a self-aggrandising Eldar Lord before the fall to a multi-levelled sprawl. Numerous docks line the spires and around this hub of Eldar activity a small city has grown.
Nim’ileth was once a chaotic neutral ground for the disparate lines of the Eldar a race, a semblance of order prevails now under the watch of the Kabal of the Murderous Refrain. Theft and murder are rife but little more could be expected of a den of corsairs and raiders, however the Kabal of the Murderous Refrain are swift in putting down any activities that damage their profit or threaten their hold on Nim’ileth. All of the Pleasure Houses and bars, traders and stores provide a cut to the Kabal whether in the form of goods or information. Likewise those ships that travel through and the outcasts and corsairs that are drawn to Nim’ileth all pay the Kabal’s toll and even those of Commorragh that pass through must pay their way.

Such power that is held by the Kabal of the Murderous Refrain is eyed jealously by the smaller Kabals of Commorragh and those that are outcast or exiled whilst the real power players have little interest in Nim’ileth whilst it has no impact on their own scheming, indeed most look upon the nodal port with either disinterest or outright disdain so far is it from the power games of the Dark City. But those that move against them quickly learn that the Kabal of the Murderous Refrain is not lax in enforcing its control and that the riches passing through their hands have been used to ensure they are equipped to defend what is theirs for their Archon - Lady Alithrae Kallixian guards her power jealously against the ambitions of those around her and those who would see her Kabal destroyed.

Lady Alithrae’s rise to power began with the death of her father. A death met upon her own envenomed swords. Her father, Marquis of the noble House Kallixian, had ruled over a small pocket realm slaved to the city of Commorragh when Asdrubael Vect rose to power. Resisting the designs of the self-proclaimed Tyrant of Commorragh the Marquis had become embroiled in a bloody conflict with the Kabals allied to Vect. Thebattle was costly bleeding House Kallixian of the last vestiges of its true power but where her father was stubborn and inflexible, Alithrae was adaptable and utterly ruthless. All she saw was her inheritance being surrendered step by inevitable step. There was no future in resisting Vect, stronger Houses than Kallixian had already fallen victim to his meteoric rise and his power grew with each new subrealm conquered from his enemies.

In a swift and decisive blow Alithrae and her supporters murdered the Marquis and cut down any that stood to oppose her succession. Alithrae herself went to Vect and of her father’s satellite realm she made a gift to the Overlord. From the ashes of House Kallixian rose the Kabal of the Murderous Refrain. Whilst Alithrae held sway over a Kabal of her own her power had been bought at the cost of all her holdings but Alithrae’s ambitions lay further afield than the Dark City. She knew Vect would only allow a Scion of House Kallixian to survive whilst she was an irrelevance. She’s never gain any real power there as to do so would be to invite a score of daggers to her throat. House Kallixian maintained a modest fleet of ships and it was to these that Lady Alithrae took. Taking her leave of Commorragh the Kabal of the Murderous Refrain set out into the sea of stars.
An age of piracy followed, preying on the fledgling races of the galaxy to great profit but Lady Alithrae’s name only next appeared in the whisperings of Commorragh when the story spread of her having seized Nim’ileth. Alithrae herself rarely returns to Commorragh, when she does so her stay is short and often shrouded in secrecy but the vessels of the Kabals move between the Dark City and Nim’ileth regularly; carrying goods, information and tribute.

High in the spires of the palace of Nim’ileth lies the jewel in the Kabal of the Murderous Refrain’s crown. The Choir, more than anything else the Kabal of the Murderous Refrain possesses, inspires jealous whisperings in Commorragh. Created by the rogue genius Milengeth at the behest of Lady Alithrae. The Choir is a thing of terrible splendour. Concentric circles of cribs restrain row upon row of slaves beneath an array of torture equipment. Each of the slaves has been honoured by the touch of Milengeth’s scalpels, having been the subject of the rogue haemonculus’ surgeries. Their vocal chords are all modified so that they can produce only one perfect note and nothing more. Different slave stock are selected for the natural timbre and tone that their forms provide and then modified to fit the Choir’s needs.

At the touch of a button the subject is wracked with torturous energy from the array above their heads and an amplifier activated to magnify their screams, now at the perfect pitch following the Haemonculus’ ‘tuning’ surgeries. Like a maniacal pianist the Haemonculus moves from button to button blending the screams of his victims into a symphony of pain. When a ‘note’ in the choirc is burnt out another slave will undergo the necessary surgeries to replace them.
Whilst Milengeth is the genius behind the creation of this vile device it was Lady Alithrae that commissioned the Haemonculus’ magnum opus and it is she who basks in the symphony of music and pain that it produces – enervating her and those she honours by inviting them to enjoy a recital.

Recently accepted delivery of the first wave of the Craftworld army too:

Lots to be getting on with! Expect further updates soon!

The Return of the Wrecked Vehicle Markers

I sold some of these in the past and I've started making these again if anybody is interested.

The ebay listing can be found here

These are hand made so each individual marker can vary slightly in appearance.

A New Blog - WH30K

We've recently launched a new hobby blog focussing on the Great Crusade / Horus Heresy era. With the release of 'Horus Heresy Book 1: Betrayal' and the continued brilliance of the Horus Heresy series from Black Library its been quite easy to lose ourselves to the background, imagery and scale of war portrayed within. So, we decided to launch a new blog to track our exploits and we have some new contributors with Heresy Era armies of their own.

Check out our progress at WH30K 

We're also up on Facebook

and Twitter @WH30K

40k Is Dead! Long Live 30k!

The Horus Heresy, it's pretty much always been there in the background. It quickly became the anchor of a lot of the background and has since given rise to card games, board games, art books, novels and now at last a Warhammer 40k Expansion.

Games Day UK 2012 saw the limited release of the new Forge World Horus Heresy expansion. Book One: Betrayal. The book and some of the new miniatures will get their full release in the next few weeks. Myself and James were both fortunate to get our hands on a copy of the book on the day.

The first thing that has to be discussed is the book itself. There are some on the forums becrying the cost of this book. Now, whilst I understand that it's quite a hit on the wallet it's worth absolutely every penny of that amount. You'll never own a more beautifully produced and well thought out book as this one (unless you buy the future books in the series). It has the look of one of those old fashioned leather bound encyclopedia series (before Wikipedia etc meant that all you needed was internet access!) which feels very fitting for the subject material. This is a majestic tome talking about the mythical past of the 40k universe, detailing the beginning of a galaxy spanning war between gods and demi-gods, it would have been a crime to make it any less splendid a physical product. The other thing you have to consider is we're talking about a game within the game where a basic Legion Tactical Squad will cost you about £60.00! This is boutique hobby gear, there's no avoiding the fact that this is not for the faint-hearted. But it all depends on just how into this you want to get. There's nothing to stop you buying this book and using your existing minis with the odd differences in equipment loadouts etc but that's only half of this particular strand of the hobby.

So, moving on from what it actually looks like and the cost we can get to the rest thrust of this post. The content of this book and what it means to the hobby. Now the Horus Heresy is the crux of the beautiful creation myth of the grim darkness that becomes the galaxy in Warhammer 40,000. It's not the sort of background that can be glossed over and there's no danger of that. The background to the Heresy itself and then the events of Istvaan III is explored in great detail with lots of background material, quotes, images and maps. There's not a sniff of a rule in this book until page 143 where we're presented with the rules for playing through The Death of Istvaan III Campaign. The background section is amazing. I've only had a chance to skim through and enjoy the artwork so far but it's very evident that a lot of work has gone into collating the background that had already been fleshed out and meshing it together with greater detail to fit the design ethos of this particular book.

The Death of Istvaan III Campaign looks like it'll be very popular amongst the already large following that the Horus Heresy era has amongst wargamers. Split into four phases each with their own rules the campaign follows the unfolding battle on Istvaan III and even if you're playing with two World Eaters forces for example it creates enough distinction as you go along between the Traitors and Heretics in what they're fighting for and how this is represented on the tabletop that by the middle of the campaign they do appear to be very separate forces and the traitors aren't just a soon-to-be-spikier mirror image of their loyalist counterparts. The aim of the campaign is to earn Campaign Points to win each phase, the side that wins a phase benefits from The Rewards of Victory going into the next phase and the ultimate result is determined by the whichever side wins the final phase of the campaign. At the end of the first phase if the Traitors win they have reached The Point of No Return and so baptised in the blood of their brothers all Traitor units with the Legiones Astartes rule gain +1 Leadership for the remainder of the campaign. Whereas if the Loyalists win their Reward is Tenacity and they may take an additional fortification and grant an infantry unit from their primary detachment with the Infiltrate special rule to represent them digging themselves into the fortifications that kept them safe from the Warmaster's Life-Eater Virus attack.

Following on from the campaign are the new Missions and Legendary Battles for Istvaan III. There are 6 deployment types and 6 missions. Then there's a further four Legendary Battles for each phase of the Death of Istvaan III campaign. The 6 missions are similar to what we've seen before but each has a few twists to make them different enough to be well worth a look. The Legendary Battles are a bit more of a break from the norm with special deployment rules and very different victory conditions in some cases. My personal favourite is The Flight Of Truth where the Loyalists have to protect three 'Messengers of Truth' - Remembrancers, iterators, astropaths or other individuals who carry evidence of Horus' treachery - and get them to the Shuttle objectives so they can escape Istvaan III and take word to Terra of the Heresy.

After the missions we move on to the rules for the Legiones Astartes Army List which also includes a new Warlord Traits table and a new Allies matrix. The Allies Matrix is very nice actually with some lovely nods to the fluff and allows for you to play out you own variation of the Heresy too as it allows for any of the legions to fall on the side of the Emperor or the Warmaster. Lots of potential for alternative history gaming such as the Dornian Heresy and the likes.

My concern over the initial rumours of this book containing one Legion army list and the various legions having their own appendix to it was that this would lead to a slightly bland generic representation of the various legions with very little variation between them beyond one extra unit. However, in this respect Forge World have gone above and beyond. The list is highly customisable and that's without factoring in the Legion Appendix that eventually each of the 18 legions will have.

One of your HQ options is a Legion Praetor, this is your Chapter Master, Wolf Lord, Khan etc. He gets to make two rolls on the new Warlord Traits table and choose which of the results to keep but more importantly he has access to the optional Rites of War. These allow you to customise the nature of your force, they give you certain benefits in exchange for enforcing certain limitations. For example, for those Legions such as Space Wolves and World Eaters who favoured a Drop Pod assault moreso than their brother legions there's the Rite Of War: Orbital Assault. This allows any unit in the army that could normally take a Rhino as a transport to instead select a Drop Pod. Legion Dreadnoughts can have Drop Pods and Legion Contemptors can have Dreadclaw Drop Pods etc, However only units that can Deep Strike or have access to a transport that Deep Strikes can be chosen and you're not allowed any Fortifications. Another is Pride of the Legion which makes Terminators and Veterans troops that have to be selected for your compulsory choices but you risk giving up an extra VP if they're all dead at the end of the battle and you can't take any allies. There's 4 Rites of War at the moment with the promise of more to come and the option of not using a Rite of War also. So that's 5 different builds for the 'generic' Legion list.

I could go into lots of detail about the various units and a breakdown of what they do etc but that'd spoil the fun and it's really not what this blog is about. Instead I'll give a quick rundown of the units in the generic list and then I'll give an example list using the Sons of Horus appendix afterwards so you can get an idea of what is possible with this book.

HQ
Legion Praetor
Legion Centurion (further customiseable into one of another 8 options including Chaplain, Forge Lord and Librarian but plenty more!)
Legion Command Squad (takes up the same slot as a Legion Praetor who they can be bought for)

ELITES
Legion Veteran Tactical Squad
Legion Destroyer Squad (chemical weapons and other shunned technology)
Legion Terminator Squad (either Terminator Armour or Cataphractii Armour)
Techmarine Covenant
Apothecarion Detachment
Legion Dreadnought Talon
Contemptor Dreadnought Talon
Legion Rapier Weapon Battery

TROOPS
Legion Tactical Squad
Legion Assault Squad
Legion Breacher Siege Squad (specialised Boarding troops)
Legion Tactical Support Squad (this is where your special weapons go now, and lots of them too!)
Legion Reconnaissance Squad

FAST ATTACK
Legion Seeker Squad (a sort of Sternguard crack-team with special rules)
Legion Outrider Squa
Legion Attack Bike Squadron
Legion Jetbike Sky Hunter Squadron
Legion Land Speeder Squadron
Legion Storm Eagle Assault Gunship

HEAVY SUPPORT
Legion Heavy Support Squad
Legion Predator Strike Armour Squadron
Legion Land Raider Battle Squadron
Legion Artillery Tank Squadron (Basilisk, Medusa or Whirlwind)
Legion Vindicator
Legion Spartan Assault Tank
Legion Caestus Assault Ram

There's also the Lords of War section and this works slightly differently but it's from this section that you pick Super-Heavies and Primarchs etc from in games of 2000pts or more.

So, a sample Sons of Horus army to give you an idea of how these go together and then I'll give an idea of how the Legion Appendix rules work.

Horus The Warmaster

Ezekyle Abaddon

8 Justaerin Terminators - Reaper Autocannon, Chain Fist, Combi-Melta and Combi-Flamer

9 Legion Tactical Support Marines - 1 Sergeant w/ Artificer Armour, 8 x Plasma Guns

10 Legion Tactical Marines - 1 Sergeant w/ Artificer Armour, 9 x Bolters

Contemptor Dreadnought Talon - 3 x Contemptors  each w/ 2 x Kheres Pattern Assault Cannons

3 Legion Jetbike Sky Hunters - Melta Bombs, 1 Sergeant, 1 Multi-Melta

That's just a random thrown-together list of 2500pts. The Justaerin Terminators are a troops choice with Horus leading the army and with him and Abaddon attached they can Deep Strike on a turn of my choosing (after the first) and won't scatter. There's no rhyme or reason to the list there but certainly the Jetbikes and Terminators can deep strike in to take down specific threats whilst the Contemptor Dreadnoughts, Tactical Marines and Tactical Support Marines cross the battlefield putting down enemy infantry and the support squad can pick on tougher targets if neccessary.

So the specific Legion rules - Now, marines don't have ATSKNF in this set of rules. The Legiones Astartes special rule means they can always attempt to regroup regardless of casualties. Depending on which Legion you're using there are then further rules. So to continue with the Sons of Horus example: Units with the rules Legiones Astartes (Sons of Horus) gain the following additional rules: Re-rolling results of a '1' when making Reserve rolls; A bonus attack at Initiative Step 1 from models that have already fought earlier in the combat if the Sons of Horus outnumber their enemy; and Sons of Horus models cannot benefit from the Warlord Trait of an allied character or use an allied Independent Character's Leadership. They also get access to unique units and characters. For the Sons of Horus these are the Justaerin Terminator Squads, Dreadclaw Drop Pods and the characters Ezekyle Abaddon and Garviel Loken.

Obviously each legion also gets their Primarch. There's no denying that these guys are one of the main draws of the entire concept of the Horus Heresy. there are four Primarchs in the book, one for each legion. Horus Lupercal, Mortarian, Fulgrim and obviously Angron who we've even seen the mini for! I'm really quite impressed with how they've done the Primarchs. They're lethal. There's no getting around the fact that they will make a mess of most things they hit. But they're also not invincible. They'll also be a focal point of any game that includes them but they don't look like they'd completely break the game either. The rules really capture the visceral power of the primarchs and also they key facets of each of their characters and methods of warfare.

There really is a lot to see in Horus Heresy Book One: Betrayal. It also gives a great insight into what's to come. There's so much potential with the Legiones Arstates rules and the Rites of War for them to give each of the Legions the individual character that they deserve. There's also plenty of other bits in here such as Mechanicum allies and the Allies Matrix makes mention of Agents of the Emperor and Agents of the Warmaster that can only be used depending on which side the force has fallen on in the galactic civil war.

It's very clear that a lot of work has gone into this book at every stage of its production. The scale of the task put before Alan Bligh and the Forge World studio is monumental but they've so far met it exceedingly well and produced a stunning book that's as pleasing aesthetically as it is in its rich depiction of the background and the clever working of its rules. It's worth every penny to my mind.

Certainly for me, the Horus Heresy is the new hobby. 40k is dead! Long live 30k!

All comments and questions are welcome. What are your thoughts on the new book?

Since the earliest days of the Great Crusade, Sanguinius – angelic primarch of the IXth Legion – was ever among the closest and most loyal of Horus’s brothers. But the Blood Angels have long kept their true nature hidden from the rest of the Imperium, and when the Warmaster hints that the key to their salvation may lie in the ruins of a conquered world, the sons of Sanguinius race to claim it. Now, as the revelation of their betrayal dawns and the traitors’ hand is revealed, the Blood Angels must face all the warp-spawned armies of Chaos, as well their own personal daemons, upon the blasted plains of Signus Prime...

Long time since I've posted! I've been working on some heresy era Blood Angels, and after visiting UK games day yesterday and picking up the new HH book from Forge World, I've realised I probably "have" to get some Emperors Children in there too. Loyal Tarvitz led ones!

I'd Expect we can all hear from Elazar himself soon with his plans, I don't want to give anything away, but it's going to be epic!

James.

6th Edition Tournament This Weekend

This weekend will see my Space Wolves taking part in their first tournament since the release of 6th edition.

I've gone through about twelve different drafts of army lists before settling on one I wanted to play.

My Wolf Guard Terminators haven't been as in favour so far as my Grey Hunters (with the odd Terminator leading them) have been enjoying their time in the sun but when it came to writing my list I've eventually gone back to a list similar to the one which got me to 2nd place in the NAG 'Ard Boys tournament back in March.

The list I'm using this weekend is:

Logan Grimnar

Lone Wolf - Terminator Armour, Chainfist, Storm Shield, 2 x Fenrisian Wolves
Lone Wolf - Terminator Armour, Chainfist, Storm Shield, 2 x Fenrisian Wolves
Lone Wolf - Terminator Armour, Chainfist, Storm Shield, 2 x Fenrisian Wolves

7 Wolf Guard Terminators - 1 x Assault Cannon & Power Fist, 1 x Combi-Melta & Power Weapon, 1 x Combi-Flamer & Power Weapon, 4 x Storm Bolter & Power Weapon

7 Wolf Guard Terminators - 1 x Assault Cannon & Power Fist, 1 x Combi-Melta & Power Weapon, 1 x Combi-Flamer & Power Weapon, 4 x Storm Bolter & Power Weapon

7 Wolf Guard Terminators - 1 x Assault Cannon & Power Fist, 2 x Combi-Melta & Power Weapon, 1 x Combi-Flamer & Power Weapon, 3 x Storm Bolter & Power Weapon

6 Long Fangs - 5 x Missile Launcher, 1 x Lascannon
6 Long Fangs - 5 x Missile Launcher, 1 x Lascannon

The plan is the Long Fangs can hopefully focus on anti-tank duties leaving my Wolf Guard free to close the distance nice and quick and then unload all of the anti-infantry firepower they have into anything that vaguely resembles a threat or a scoring unit! The Lone Wolves will hopefully do their job of scaring the living daylights out of any armour lurking in my opponents deployment zone and drawing an inordinate amount of enemy firepower and sparing the other units all of that suffering! In a push the Wolf Guard can chip in with some light anti-tank from their Assault Cannons and Combi-Meltas (backed up by the Tank Hunters rule from Logan) but their primary aim is to capture objectives and slaughter the enemy in the short range warfare they favour!

From what I've seen of 6th Edition so far it seems to have heralded the return of Plasma weapons to the fore so I'm not so sure my Wolf Guard will be able to revel in their relative invulnerability so much on this outing and will perhaps have to play a slightly more patient game than the more risky tactics I was able to get away with last edition at times. Should be an interesting test for them though!

I'll write up how it goes after the event so there will be another blog post after the weekend I'm sure.

Comments welcome of course!

A Few WIP Pictures Of Some Wolf Guard

All in varying states of not quite ready to be paintedness.

Jarl Vandrad Gorebeard - The Getting There

 I initially posted this bit with yesterdays pictures and then took it down for a separate post so apologies if you've already seen it.

Things got very hectic. They reached such a level of hecticity that there was no time for blogging or anything else. And, it was all my fault. With one week to go before the painting competition I planned on entering Vandrad into I had a complete change of heart - no, I haven't given up on the army already, for all those who've followed my many other blogs!

I was looking at the Arjac mini I had purchased and suddenly realised that he had to be Vandrad. Now in a loyal Great Company perhaps the smartest wolf would lead the pack. But this is a Great Company that has been led to break all of their oaths. Only the biggest and baddest of wolves could lead a pack like that. Plus, there's also the fact that I wanted the biggest Wolf Lord I could have!
*WARNING AWFUL PICTURE ALERT*
So, just so you can see where I was coming from in regards to the scales here



You'll have to excuse the awful picture as the camera chose to focus on the WIP Wulfen in the background rather than either of the potential Vandrad Gorebead minis! But out of focus or not I think it illustrates my point that the Arjac mini is considerably more imposing, especially when you take into account that the FW mini is a good distance above its base as I'd already put pins into its feet!

So with a week to go I suddenly found myself having to build, prepare and paint a character mini. Now I'm a slow painter at the best of times. Glacially slow. I subscribe to some blogs where I am in genuine awe of how quickly people can produce amazing miniatures. In the time so guys paint an army I've base-coated a character! A week was going to be a real challenge and I'm especially proud of myself because I actually managed to get it done!

So, a quick before painting pic of Jarl Vandrad Gorebead just to show a bit of repair work I had to do.



The runestone on his necklace was missing on the sculpt so he main thing I had to do was put an extra stud on his terminator armour as the runestone must have presumably been sculpted to cover up the extra stud there.

As for the original FW mini I was going to use for Vandrad, he'll still be getting used but instead to make my counts as Arjac (confused yet?) - Halvor Ulf Halvorssen. Then there's a lot of Wolf Guard and Grey Hunters to be sorting out!

Jarl Vandrad Gorebeard

Vandrad Alfgeir Kollsvein
Jarl of For-Twa, Gorebeard, Wulfen King

Thoughts, feedback, questions, etc. all gratefully received!

Jarl Vandrad Gorebeard - Early WIP

I've started working on Jarl Vandrad Gorebeard, leader of my Renegade Great Company and counts as Logan Grimnar.

Still very early days for this one yet. I've done a bit more work since the pic above, which I'll get to in a moment but first I'll show some unpainted pics in full so you can see how he's been put together.

The torso is one of the Forge World Terminators conversion kit torsos (the head is part of the same sculpt). The legs are from the plastic Chaos Terminator Lord and the weapon arms are from the plastic Wolf Guard kit. The axe was originally a Thunder Hammer but I cut the hammer head off and swapped it for an axe head to get a nice open pose and a lengthy axe haft to imply that it can be used one or two handed as per the rules for Logan's Axe Morkai. The cloak is also from the Wolf Guard kit but I've trimmed it down as I thought it was too long, regal and generally unbarbarian like so I shortened it and cut parts out so it's more like the cloaks used on the fantasy chaos warriors etc.

These last two pics show roughly where I am with the painting at the moment. Still a long way to go, tidying some bits up as I go as well so it's all a little messy for now. Finished blocking in the main armour colour and have done about 3 layers of shading so will move on to the highlights once I've started blocking in some of the other colours (had a go at the red on the shoulder pad just to get a feel for the contrast between the colours there). Lots and lots and lots still to do but I'll try and keep the updates coming!

In between that my Space Wolves have received some reinforcements and this time only one of them is wearing Terminator armour! Got lots to be getting on with once Vandrad is painted. There's a painting competition on July 1st that he needs to be ready for!