April 2025 review
In April happened a bit more than I anticipated. So let us do a recap.
I got lucky on one of my shopping trips and managed to get my hands on the 500E, which is quite sought after. This is not a treasure hunt and as I intend to repaint it for Gaslands, I don't mind the heavy glitter on this kit. I am just happy to have a more recent oldtimer for my German Gang in the game.
Right in the beginning of the month, we managed to squeeze in another event, that was not on our schedule at the start of the year. We did a family trip and went for Intermodellbau, the largest model building tradeshow. Our event coverage is split across two articles as we took a lot of pictures. Enjoy!
Legions Imperialis – Mechanicum Units
The youngest addition to Legions Imperialis are the Mechanicum, including their traitor forces of the Dark Mechanicum. This brings a third major force into the civil war and we will see if some of the other, smaller factions will follow.
I checked the available units from the Liber Mechanicum and Martian Civil War, and we have a really high coverage, even new additions like the Stalker Constructs, we're waiting to be released for Horus Heresy in the larger scale.
Legions Imperialis – Solar Auxilia Units
The same question as with the Legiones Astartes. Which units does the Solar Auxilia have (based upon the Liber Imperium and Battle for Beta Garmon) and which of these made it into the Epic scale of Legions Imperialis. In some cases, we even have units in Legions that are currently not part of the Horus Heresy army lists, like the baneblades.
The Solar Auxilia have - compared to the Astartes - a rather compact army list with the following units and options.
Legions Imperialis – Legiones Astartes Units
A lot of questions were around, what is coming next for Legions Imperialis? Where is the game going and what is missing? And therefore I tought it would be useful to provide an overview of what we currently have and what is missing. I am using for reference the Horus Heresy books and cross-reference them with the supplements we have for Legions Imperialis so far and will provide the list below. Starting with the Space Marines / Legiones Astartes, but will cover the Solar Auxilia and Mechanicum as well.
As we currently have no legiones specific units in Legions Imperialis, only formations that we saw in The Devastation of Tallarn, I'll skip them for the purpose of clarity.
Legions Imperialis – Fast Attack Troops
I know, Legions were huge and the Fists were about 100k Astartes strong, so enough for some assault troops and obviously vehicles like Bikes, Speeders and such. But I didn't feel like having fast attack troops with the Imperial Fists felt "fluffy". And with the way Legions Imperialis forces are built, a formation of an allied Space Marine legion would be an interesting addition and create some variation for Painting.
The fitting formation would be the Legion Sky-Hunter Phalanx from the The Great Slaughter supplement.
It covers four compulsory Vanguard detachments, that are limited to Scimitar Jetbikes, Land Speeders or Javelin Squadrons. Outriders may only be taken from the optional detachment. The Light Armour is currently limited to the Sabre tanks in Legions Imperialis.
Deth Wizards – The Town Part 2
The buildings are dry and I started painting them, from the inside out. I wanted something, that looked a bit like the old Warhammer buildings from the battle reports.
On Facebook I came across this Mordheim City Board by MSTerrainLab and it captures pretty much, in a grimmer way, where I want to go with this. Yellow-beige walls, blue-ish roofs and a gray-ish highlight.
Legions Imperialis – Mechanicum Acastus Knights Asterius
Among the three Mechanicum knights new in plastic, the Acastus Knights Asterius are the only ones we didn't cover before as their resin counter part and as such are very happy to introduce them on here.
And just like the other items, this boxed set will go on pre-order on April 19th and will be released on May 3rd for a RRP of 37 GBP or 47,50 EUR.
The Acastus-Class Knights Porphyrion are already a rare sight, being perhaps the most heavily armed and armoured of all the Knight chassis in service, which rivals the Scout Class Warhounds Titans in size and might. The Asterius is even more scarce, replacing the Twin Magna Lascannons of the regular Acastus for Conversion Beam Cannons that can turn enemy fortresses and titans into ashes. The other weapon systems are replaced as well, the Las- or Autocannons are up armoured to Volkite Culverins and even the missile system is replaced by a Karacnos mortar battery.
Legions Imperialis – Mechanicum Krios Squadron
Just in march of this year we had the "big brother" of this vehicle for Horus Heresy and just two months later we see the Krios as a Squadron kit of six for Legions Imperialis.
The Krios was the main battle tank of the Mechanicum, similar to role of the Predator for the Legiones Astartes, during the Horus Heresy. There were multiple variants of the Krios produced and this kit covers the two Krios Battle Tanks with Lightning Cannon or Irad Scourers, as well as the Krios Venator variant with Pulsar-Fusil.
This kit will go on pre-order on April 19th and will be released on May 3rd for a RRP of 31,50 GBP or 41 EUR.
Legions Imperialis – Mechanicum Cerastus Knights Atrapos
We get to see three former Forge World resin kits from the Adeptus Titanicus range re-released as plastic kits today, and in this review we will cover the Cerastus Knights Atrapos.
This set of four Cerastus Knights Atrapos will go on pre-order on April 19th and will be released on May 3rd for a RRP of 47,50 GBP/62,50 EUR. Their rules are covered in the Core Rulebook for Legions Imperialis.
The Atrapos pattern of the Cerastus Knights is a rather "recent" addition to the lore of Warhammer 40,000, with them being introduced as 28mm model kit in 2015. Similar to the Mechanicum Questoris knights, the Cerastus Knight Atrapos is a unique and rare variant among the Knight Households. They were originally developed to take on heretek engines and xenos warmachines, as those were considered a blasphemy to the Omnissiah, but their rare and potent weaponry made them a devastating threat against not only Knights but Titans well, on both sides of the Horus Heresy. Armed with Atrapos Lascutters and Graviton Singularity Cannons, mounted on the swift Cerastus chassis the Atrapos is a rather destructive choice, especially further upgraded with the Macro-Extinction Protocols, Blessed Autosimulacra and Ionic Flare Shield, which were partially transfered into their unit profile in Legions Imperialis.
Legions Imperialis – Mechanicum Knights Magaera/Styrix
The Questoris Knights got multiple updates over the time since their initial release for Adeptus Titanicus in 2018. The initial box set was a set of 3 Imperial Knights, and those got an upgrade with the rocket pods and thunderstrike gauntlets (either as a blister pack or full set) to Questoris Knights, and parallel a release by Forge World for the Mechanicum Knight variants of the Magaera and Styrix in resin. And now these resin models have been remade in plastic, which we are going to take a closer look upon today!
This set of four Questoris Knights will go on pre-order on April 19th and will be released on May 3rd for a RRP of 31,50 GBP/41 EUR.
The Questoris Knights Styrix and Mageara were introduced to the Lore of Warhammer (30,000) with the Horus Heresy Book IV - Conquest in 2014. Both patterns have a Hekaton Siege Claw as a melee weapon, but in different designs, and for ranged attacks either a Lightning Cannon in case of the Magaera or Volkite Chieorovile in case of the Styrix.