WarCry – Gloomspite Gitz Part 4
It's been a while since I've painted Squigs, and since I got Zarbag's Gitz from Dennis' Hachette subscription, I had the opportunity to paint the new incarnation of red bouncy ones for the first time.
Play-wise, they make the most sense when there's a horder in the warband that can give them a movement bonus. Otherwise, Squigs play exactly as I expected, they are real glass cannons. They can make a difference in attack, but one cough is enough and they're off the table too.
Legions Imperialis – Solar Auxilia Medusa and Basilisk Batteries
We are doing a double feature for the Solar Auxilia today, covering a kit in both Legions Imperialis and Horus Heresy scale. We're building the Medusa and Basilisk, once as a battery and one time as a single miniature.
For Legions Imperialis it is a set of 8 models, covering both Medusas and Basilisks in a single box.
You might be irritated to see a Basilisk on a Leman Russ chassis. The variants we know from Warhammer 40k are much younger, based upon the chimera chassis that wasn't around during the civil war. The Leman Russ was the work horse of the Imperial warmachine and thus provided for vehicles in its weight class the base for example the self-propelled-gun variants, we talk about today. And in addition to the the many, many different alterations of the Leman Russ himself, there were further derivations for example tank hunter variants, with hull mounted weaponry as well and even recovery vehicles like the Atlas.
Horus Heresy – Solar Auxilia Medusa and Basilisk
While we're waiting for the release of the Malcador Variants of Infernus and Valdor in Horus Heresy scale, we fill the gap with the Basilik / Medusa kit for the Solar Auxilia today - in a double feature. Because not only do we cover this one in Horus Heresy scale of 32mm, we do also have you covered for Legions Imperialis today in this review of the Medusa and Basilisk Battery.
During the civil war of the Horus Heresy, the Leman Russ was the work horse of the Imperial warmachine and used as a chassis to build various variants and derivations, for different purposes, like the self-propelled-gun variants, we talk about today. The chimera chassis, which was developed later would take over some of the variants, therefore the Basilisk in 40k looks different than 30k. And with the Solar Auxilia Leman Russ plastic kit we have the chance to see these as new full plastic sets and not resin or hybrid set.
Games Workshop repurposes some of the sprues to cover these variants, we see this today with the Medusa and Basilisk, where the track sections and parts of the hull are re-used, and we will see this with the Malcador later this week. But let us open up the box and see, what is inside.
Age of Sigmar Stormbringer Magazine 44 to 49
The ninth shipment of the german Stormbringer issues by Hachette was split into two waves. One half arrived before the holidays and the second half early last week, due to the warehouse being closed inbetween the years. This shipment has both Gloomspite Gitz and Sylvaneth in them, along with paints and even terrain.
You can find an overview on the issues so far over here, along with the detailed unboxings of older shipments as well:
SzenarioCon 2025
After a long break, I came back to the Palatinate, and as already described in the kick-off, the new wargaming year starts early, right on the second weekend, with the Szenario Con in Hackenheim, near Bad Kreuznach.
The event was fully booked, around 200 guests and 25 hosted Games / presentations along with several traders. Many thanks at this point to Jürgen and Frank for the great organisation.
The venue is a courtyard restaurant in the foothills of the Rheinhessen wine-growing region. You can go for a walk nearby or take a look upon the animals in the petting zoo nearby. And as veteran readers know, there is no event coverage without a proper parking lot picture.
Legions Imperialis – Solar Auxilia Stormhammers
In case you are looking for something heavier than a Baneblade, there is an option for the Solar Auxilia in Legions Imperialis - the Stormhammers.
Like the other super-heavy squadrons, this boxed set covers two vehicles as well, both are build as Stormhammers. This set of two sprues is available at a RRP of 41 EURs / 31,50 GBP.
Initially this tank was build as a massive anti-infantry tank during the Great Crusade and fulfilled this task reliably against the Orks and later during the civil war. And even 10.000 years later, this tank pattern is still in service, just not with the Solar Auxilia but Astra Militarum. While there are different variants and armaments for the vehicle, within Legions Imperialis it has only the option between multi-laser or lascannon sponsons.
Warmaster – Small Settlements to fight over
We are talking about Warmaster again and after printing a whole week of tiny skeletons, I wanted to add some terrain to the table. While I have generic terrain like hills and trees, I thought about a small town or settlement, that could be used as a point of interest or scenario objective.
Not everything, but a lot of terrain can be scaled down to 40% to fit Warmaster, and as I wanted to have a small settlement, that could be used with Bretonnians as well as Undeads, I searched for some more rugged, run-down buildings, that could house either rather poor peasants or corrupted minions of the undead. And the Slum huts by Infinite Dimenions Games would be perfect for that!
Initially I intended to print the shacks A, B, C and the Slum Tenement A, but the last one would take 5 (!) print plates on my printer, so I decided to just go for the three shacks, and as you can see above, these already provide a bit of a foot print.
Kick Off 2025
We gave you a summary of the last year already in our recap article on 2024, so it is time to look ahead on 2025.
It was surely a good year wargaming wise, lots of travelling and meeting up with people, and the plan is surely to keep on doing that for the new year.
Shows, Conventions and real-life gaming meetups
I talked with Dino and the others, to see what we can fit in our schedule for this year and try to fix as much as possible. So far these are booked or at least written down in bold letters in my calendar. And we're starting with an event in the next week already.
Deth Wizards – 1: The Book
Givana carefully turned the pages of the book. Although the pages looked thin and tatty, they felt extremely sturdy, almost like leather. The words and pictures were written in a dark brown ink that was pleasing to the eye.
“Oh, thank you grandfather! A real book! I've always wanted one of these since you taught me how to read!”
Givana's grandfather smiled warmly.
“I thought you might like a book of your own instead of having to read the ones from the public library all the time in it's reading hall. But before we read it together, there are still a few things to learn,” Karl continued.
“As it is no ordinary book and its contents have to be read step by step. When I was your age and celebrated my own 14th birthday, I received this book from my grandfather, your great-great-grandfather Anselmus. Through him I learned that life is a great balance whose equilibrium must be maintained and honored.
We must be careful. Some will envy our knowledge, Givana. Others, those less knowledgeable and wise, may fear us. Treasure this book and its teachings. For the next four years it shall remain a secret to both of us.”
And with that, I welcome you to a new mini-project of mine. While our elderly circle of hobbyists were chatting and making plans for the upcoming CONflict presentation, the idea of presenting Deth Wizards from Snarling Badger Studios came up. The reason for this was simple - it was a project with a manageable timeframe until the event and pretty much every hobbyist has a model or two of undead stuff lying around at home.
Yes, I too have a small pile of shame at home, albeit smaller than most other hobbyists, and I'm taking this opportunity to paint some minis and tell a little story in the process. I've been meaning to do this with one of my Oathmark characters for a long time anyway - the master necromancer Givana!
But as the saying goes, “No master fell from the sky” and I guess that also applies to necromancers. At some point and somehow they must have started out, stuck their noses into books of forbidden knowledge, carried out their first experiments and experienced their first missteps and triumphs.
Event Schedule for 2025
The event schedule for 2025 with potential events for the Chaosbunker.
List will be updated accordingly and focus around DACH and BeNeLux countries, with minor exceptions for special occasions: