Age of Sigmar Stormbringer Magazine 04 to 07
The next shipment of the German Issues of Stormbringer by Hachette arrived, issues #04 to 07.
We showed you the initial shipment with the first three issues over here, and continue today with the next four issues, covering the first paints and further miniatures.
Marvel Crisis Protocol – Earth’s Mightiest Core Set Terrain
We showed you in the unboxing the content of Earth's Mightiest core set, and a second article covering for the characters for Marvel Crisis Protocol. In todays third and final part of the reviews on the core set, we will take a closer look upon the terrain.
As you can see from the overview on the box, there is quite a bit of terrain in there. And the stack of sprues, is satisfying to look at as well.
Horus Heresy – Solar Auxilia Battle Group
Games Workshop is moving the Horus Heresy past the strong focus on only the Astartes. We already have plastic Solar Auxilia in Legions Imperialis, but now they are available in the full scale of the Age of Darkness as well. And similar with the updated Astartes range, we start with a Solar Auxilia Battlegroup covering various elements from the army list, including infantry and multiple (!) vehicles.
For 130 GBP / 170 EUR RRP the Solar Auxilia Battle Group covers all new plastic kits for:
- 25x Solar Auxilia Infantry (1x Line Command Section and up to 2 Rifle Sections)
- 1x Aethon Pattern Heavy Sentinel
- 1x Leman Russ Battle Tank
- 1x Dracosan Armoured Transport
Quite the load-out and a proper competitor for the Legion Astartes Battlegroup, with the Mk 3 Power Armour Marines, Dreadnought and Land Raider.
Horus Heresy – Solar Auxilia Aethon Heavy Sentinel
With the Aethon Heavy Sentinel an entire new unit comes to the army list of the Solar Auxilia with the release of the new Solar Auxilia Battlegroup. We've seen this unit already with Legions Imperialis, where it is part of both, the starter set as well as the Solar Auxilia Infantry boxed set.
The Aethon is a heavy variant of the regular sentinel class bi-pod walkers and will later be accompanied by further lighters variants, like the Hermes Light Sentinel, including the up-armoured Veletarii variant.
Horus Heresy – Solar Auxilia Dracosan Armoured Transporter
While we had Leman Russ chassis for quite some time and even in the prior edition of Horus Heresy hybrid kits using the plastics with resin parts, the full resin kits based upon the Malcador chassis are getting replaced by complete plastic kit and various variants right from the start. One of these Malcador based vehicles is the Dracosan Armoured Transporter, which we will covered in today's review as part of the Solar Auxilia Battle Group.
The bulky transport can carry up to 22 models, depending on the weapon configuration, and drops down to 10 when you choose the demolisher cannon. There is a smaller alternative for the Solar Auxilia for transport, roughly Rhino sized, the Aurox, but that one has lighter armour and wasn't announced so far to be moved from resin to plastic.
Horus Heresy – Solar Auxilia Lasrifle Section Infantry
A completely new release and new design is the Solar Auxilia Infantry from plastic. They are part of the Solar Auxilia Battle Group with a Lasrifle Section (either a single big one of 20, or two of 10 each) and Tactical Command Section covering 5 soldiers.
We covered a bit of introduction on the Solar Auxilia in our article about them in Legions Imperialis. Among the endless regiments and battalions of the Imperial Forces, mostly known as the Imperial Army (that's how the Guard was called during the Horus Heresy), the Solar Auxilia were among the most elite and well-equipped fighting forces of mankind, second only to the Legiones Astartes.
The lore on these is a bit light yet, as even in the first edition of the Horus Heresy, they are covered in only two books and in the new edition they share a complete book with the Sisters of Silence and Adeptus Custodes, without going deeper or providing information on the lore beyond Manachean Commonwealth, with minor side notes on the Cthonian Headhunters and Agathon Cohort.
Horus Heresy – Solar Auxilia Leman Russ Strike Tank
One of the work horses of the Imperial forces receives an upgrade and proper variant, to distinguish themself from the other departments of the army - the Solar Auxilia Leman Russ Strike Tank!
This is not update or partial sprue swap of the regular Leman Russ Battle Tank but a complete overhaul with the known trim of the Solar Auxilia vehicles and a proper Mars Alpha pattern hull and new vehicle accessories.
Similar to the Malcador chassis, the Leman Russ chassis is used within the Imperium for a lot of different vehicles. You have the Leman Russ himself, as a battle tank, with different weapon systems in turret and hull to provide effective service in certain scenarios, split into the Strike Tank and Assault Tank, but further alterations for example as an Artillery vehicle with the Medusa or Basilisk, prior that these were built upon the chimera chassis. Post heresy further variants were added and many sub-classes of the Leman Russ saw service all across the regiments.
Marvel Crisis Protocol – Earth’s Mightiest Core Set Heroes and Villains
We gave a first introduction on Earth's Mightiest for Marvel Crisis Protocol and now we want to take a closer look on the miniatures that come with the Core Set.
Within the 149 EUR set, that covers rules, terrain and miniatures, you get two large sprues for the heroes and villains, along with 16 bases (4 large ones, 12 small ones).
The models have only minor mould lines and proper crisp casting of the details. The space within the sprue was used in a clever way. Really interesting is the aspect, that parts of the mould were slid-moulds, to reduce the undercuts and make them even more detailed.
Horus Heresy – Cerastus Knight Acheron and Castigator
For this review, we do a double feature! I did something similar a long, long time ago when the Baneblade kits were released, and I build a Baneblade and a Shadowsword simultaneously. Today we once again have that chance, to such a twin-build with the Cerastus Knight Castigator and Cerastus Knights Acheron.
The Cerastus Knights can be used in Warhammer 40,000 and The Horus Heresy alike. For 30k they can be used by traitors and loyal forces, via the Lord of War slot and you can find their rules in the Liber Mechanicum (pg. 80 to 82). In 40k, they can be used again either as Imperial or Chaos forces, and the rules can be downloaded for free from Warhammer Community (Chaos Knights and Imperial Knights).
If you are not familiar with this kind of unit. Knights are smaller and less powerful versions of Imperial Titans, piloted by a single Knight commander, called Scion, and not by a crew of Princeps and Moderati. With the knights being much smaller than Warhound Scout Titans, they can only to a limited amount carry titan weapon systems into battle. The Knights were introduced to Epic / Space Marine in UK White Dwarf #126 in June 1990, and a few years later in December of 1994 updated as part of the new editions of this game, Epic Titan Legions. Some of the new classes even derivate from the old names and types. There were Paladins, Lancers and Wardens, and those came back in the current variant as well. In addition, knights had tiers, Squire, Knight and Lord, along with Senechal. Something that was picked up in the latest rules for Warhammer 40,000 to a degree.
Marvel Crisis Protocol – Earth’s Mightiest Core Set
We talked about Super Heroes on the tabletop last year, and now it is time to take a closer look on one of the largest Super Hero miniature games there is - Marvel Crisis Protocol. Asmodee picked up the Marvel license, and within their group Atomic Mass Games is in charge of the super hero skirmish.
While there were several attempts to bring fighting super heroes to the tabletop, this is one is probably the most professional approach and the one most speaking to classic tabletop wargamers, who at least enjoy multiple pillars of the hobby, as it is not some kind blind bags with pre-painted miniatures.