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17Mar/240

Horus Heresy – Building the Solar Auxilia Battle Group

Here we are, I did the reviews on the contents of the Solar Auxilia Battle Group as you have seen, and now used some of the spare hobby time to assemble the remaining miniatures.

Horus Heresy - Solar Auxilia Horus Heresy - Solar Auxilia Horus Heresy - Solar Auxilia

It is a bit bland, as there are some issues with the assembly instructions and limitation of options. You simply build them as they come, so I finished up the remaining regular rank & file troops, along with a second trio for the command, so I can use them as two sections (and will probably need some spares in case I want to play them as larger units).

7Mar/240

Made-to-Order Classic Bretonnian Characters

With some of the last waves for The Old World Games Workshop offered some models as made-to-order. I used this service in the past, for example with the Skaven characters or the Halfling Blood Bowl Team. Production time in the store is usually stated with 180 days, but they arrived within a few days after ordering, pre-brexit sometimes even the tuesday or wednesday after ordering them on a saturday.

Are they bargains? It depends on what you take as a baseline. They are certainly not cheap, but usually less than buying them on eBay and you don't have the remaining risk of buying an overpriced recast.

What is new about these, is that they actually have clam shell blister packs and not as often in the past, just the white boxes from the Mail Order. This leads me to believe, that at some point, we might see this in store and not just as a made-to-order / mail order exclusive product.

Warhammer Fantasy - Made to Order Bretonnian Characters

But what did I pick up? Under the new names they are Paladin with Hammer and Shield, Paladin with Sword and Shield and a Lord with Sword & Shield on Pegasus. The Paladins were 12 EUR each and the Pegasus 32,50 EUR. Certainly not cheap, the 12 EURs for the characters on foot is above what I would usually pay for these (about 6 Euros, maybe a bit more if unpainted and a pose that I really like), as for the Pegasus Lord, this one is rather uncommon and I have seen him usually above the 50 EUR bracket on eBay, so that was a reasonable offer and complete.

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2Mar/240

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.

Horus Heresy - Solar Auxilia Battle Group Horus Heresy - Solar Auxilia Battle Group

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

Horus Heresy - Solar Auxilia Battle Group

Quite the load-out and a proper competitor for the Legion Astartes Battlegroup, with the Mk 3 Power Armour Marines, Dreadnought and Land Raider.

29Feb/240

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).

Horus Heresy - Cerastus Knight Acheron and Castigator

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.

10Feb/240

Horus Heresy – Novels and Audiobook Order

The Horus Heresy range is supported by an incredibly rich narrative, which grew since the release of the first book in April 2006 by Dan Abnett to an amazing depth. I read the first few books as paperbacks and switched at some point towards the audiobooks, as they are easier for me to consume, for example while I commute or on (business) travel.

Warhammer The Horus Heresy - The End and The Death Volume III

The audio books were released in 2011 ongoing, and are available through a lot of different services. You can buy them directly from Black Library, but other sources like audible or spotify have them as well. As of February 2024 I am currently on book 20, The Primarchs, listening to it in German (quite well read by Tom Jacobs) on Spotify, I have multiple problems, for example the audiobooks are not divided into proper tracks but just 3 minute segments, regardless of chapter etc., and if you switch between your car, the web and mobile app, they often "forget" (or better said don't save) where you left off with the addition of not guiding properly to the next book. For that reason I ended up looking up the order of the Horus Heresy novels / audiobooks multiple times and to save me (and others) time the next few times that happens, this is article is meant as a list to provide a time saving overview. While it may look a bit redundant in English, the added value is the German translation as due to changing publishers some book titles have been changed (and swapped) causing a bit of trouble keeping track.

6Feb/240

Warhammer 40,000 – Dark Angels Grand Master of the Deathwing Belial

Last year Supreme Grand Master Azrael got the Primaris update and Lion El'Jonson returned to the 40th millenium as well. This year with the new Dark Angels codex and a fitting Deathwing themed box, Deathwing Assault, the Grand Master of the Deathwing, Belial returns with an updated model.

The old model was released in 2013 as a finecast (a spin cast resin used by Games Workshop to substitute metal, when the raw material gow more expensive and the updated their process in production) kit and among the taller heroes when it was released. Now it is time for another increase in size, to fit with the new larger Indomitus Terminators.

Warhammer 40,000 - Grand Master of the Deathwing Belial

28Jan/240

Age of Sigmar Stormbringer Magazine

Hachette and Games Workshop teamed up for the fourth time and now it is time for the release of STORMBRINGER in Germany.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar - Stormbringer

For those unfamiliar with the concept, it is a collection series of magazines, that include a set of miniatures which each issue (in some cases paints instead) and Stormbringer is the latest instalment of this format.

11Jan/240

Warhammer The Old World – Kingdom of Bretonnia Battle Standard Bearer on Royal Pegasus

And after covering the two heroes from the plastic sets, let us take a look at only new plastic hero, as the other new additions are made from Forge World resin - the Battle Standard Bearer on Royal Pegasus of the Kingdom of Bretonnia.

Warhammer The Old World - Kingdom of Bretonnia Battle Standard Bearer on Royal Pegasus Warhammer The Old World - Kingdom of Bretonnia Battle Standard Bearer on Royal Pegasus

Initially I thought this would be built from the Duke/Baron kit, as they have the same mount. This is something that Games Workshop did in the past, have dual character sets of mounted and unmounted heroes, usually including banners, for example with the Empire General or High Elf Noble. But that was a misconception, this is just the Banner Bearer.

11Jan/240

Warhammer The Old World – Kingdom of Bretonnia Duke on Royal Pegasus

The second new hero from the core sets of the Warhammer The Old World range is the combined Duke / Baron on Royal Pegasus from the Kingdom of Bretonnia set.

Just like the Necrolith Bone Dragon This model is currently only available as part of the starter set and will be released on January 20th as well.

Warhammer The Old World - Kingdom of Bretonnia Warhammer The Old World - Kingdom of Bretonnia Warhammer The Old World - Kingdom of Bretonnia

There are minimal pictures of the baron variant of this kit. In the beginning I thought that the Battle Standard Bearer and Duke/Baron would be one kit, but they are two different sets. More on that further below. While we do not have a price for this model, it is very likely it will cost the same as the Battle Standard Bearer on Royal Pegasus, which is 55 EUR RRP.

10Jan/240

Warhammer The Old World – Tomb King of Khemri High Priest on Necrolith Bone Dragon

We covered the unboxing of the already out of stock core sets on the day of the pre-order and will look into the new models, which means in case of the Tomb Kings of Khemri the High Priest or Tomb King on Necrolith Bone Dragon.

This model is currently only available as part of the starter set and will be released on January 20th.

Warhammer The Old World - Tomb Kings of Khemri Warhammer The Old World - Tomb Kings of Khemri Warhammer The Old World - Tomb King of Khemri High Priest on Necrolith Bone Dragon

The Necrolith Bone Dragon is spread across two large sprues, including the parts for the monster itself, along with the palanquin for the High Priest and Tomb King. In addition, you will find a large 100 by 150 mm large rectangular base for this model. It doesn't come with decals.