Warhammer Fest 2023 Recap and Comments – Part 2
Picking up after day one of Warhammer Fest 2023, Games Workshop started with Age of Sigmar, we actually received a three part reveal.
The first one, covering a well-deserved update on the Imperial Knights, now known as Cities of Sigmar Freeguild Cavaliers. Quite the tall horses and stunning barding on these. I like the different armour pieces and variants for the helmets. The old kit is 25 years old and did some heavy lifting back in the day, but it is time to send them into their well-deserved retirement. It will be interesting to see if the Demigryph cavalry will be phased out as well, as they don't really fit with the scale and who would ride demigryphs if you can have these horses? Impressive kit and I can imagine an impressive kitbash potential for Astra Militarum rough riders as well.
Horus Heresy – On an epic scale
We're leaving the realms of 28mm and moving on to a more Epic scale of 6 - 8 mm, basically the new one Games Workshop set for some of their side games like Adeptus Titanicus and Aeronautica Imperialis.
Where to start?
Well, I do own some of the old rule books of Epic, yet these are Epic 40,000 books from the 3rd edition, from 1997. The final edition of the "official" Epic was Epic Armageddon, often abbreviated with EA, the fourth edition of the game. Since then the game went a way, that many of the Specialist Games went through, having a living rulebook and being kept alive by the community. Nowadays the fan serviced rules are mostly NetEpic (based upon the 2nd edition of the game) as well as NetEA (using Epic Armageddon and added errate / updates on that). The rules for both systems can be downloaded for free:
Horus Heresy – The next steps
The Horus Heresy is around for about a month. And a lot of people are #HardForHeresy. Games Workshop has published additional content in the four weeks since the official launch, like a very extensive document with Legacies of the Age of Darkness covering a lot more units in addition to the Traitor and Loyalists books, along with a free Horus Heresy mission.
But that's not all, to keep the players interested, we had previews on the full Contemptor Dreadnought kit, because as it seems the Contemptor from the Age of Darkness box is not the final release. As well as teasers on the new plastic Predator based upon the Deimos Rhino (full plastic kit as well) and even a first peak on the Leviathan Dreadnought - coming as a plastic kit as well.
Beyond that, Games Workshop did not draw away the attention that period that much. The releases and novelties were rather supporting, for example adding the rulebook as a stand-alone or giving the Contrast Paints an update. Quite a clever move, especially as you want to have your customers paint loads and loads of Space Marines, so things like the new Imperial Fists yellow comes in handy.
Horus Heresy – Interview with BroncoFish
In addition to the reviews and my personal opinion about the Horus Heresy, I wanted to add some insights to my coverage. A voice from within, if you want to and for that reason, I got in touch with Broncofish, who is a long time Warhammer 30,000 player and asked him for an interview.
If that name rings a bell, there's a reason for it. We did a shout out back in 2019 and you'll probably have seen his work, if you're playing Adeptus Titanicus, because he's the creative brain behind GrimDarkTerrain.
Horus Heresy – Xiphon Interceptor Squadron
The forces in Epic 30k give you the option for air support, and as I already some Aeronautica Imperialis miniatures around, I saw the opion to use the Xiphon Interceptors. Initially, those didn't really fancy for AI, but as you can field them as an attack wing in a of pair two, I thought they might be a good addition.
The kit offered by Games Workshop for the Aeronautica Imperialis range covers six of them, so more than enough. So I picked them up along with some painting material at my go-to store, Radaddel.
Horus Heresy – Liber Hereticus
The second supplement for the new Horus Heresy covers the Traitor Legions and is called Liber Hereticus, and provides the same information as the Liber Astartes does for the loyal legion for those who follow the Warmaster Horus.
Each of the legion books is 55 EURs and more than 300 pages thick. They are produced as full coloured hard cover, with thick paper and even a cloth bookmark. And this review on the Liber Heretics is going to give you a similar deep dive, as we did earlier on the Liber Astartes.
Horus Heresy – Liber Astartes
In addition with the update Horus Heresy rule set (currently not available on its own, just as part of the Age of Darkness set) Games Workshop released two large supplements, covering the army lists for the loyalist and traitor Space Marine Legions.
Each book is 55 EURs and more than 300 pages thick. Manufactured as a hard cover in full colour, with thick paper and even a cloth bookmark. We're going to look into these separately, beginning with the Liber Astartes. The book for the Space Marine Legions loyal to the Emperor.
Horus Heresy – Land Raider Spartan Assault Tank
Last of our Horus Heresy Age of Darkness detail reviews, covers after the regular Infantry and the Contemptor Dreadnought, the mighty Land Raider Spartan. The kit is not yet available on its own and currently only available as part of the Age of Darkness starter set.
This is not the first time a Land Raider Spartan is available in (or at least made from) plastic. Actually the first one, was a conversion based upon the Rogue Trader era Land Raider kit, combined with plastic card and parts from the old Space Marine Rhino. It was introduced as part of the Modelling Workshop section of White Dwarf 119, by no other than Tony Cottrell (former head of Forge World and designer of an incredible amount of kits) back in 1989!
Horus Heresy – Contemptor Dreadnought
We move the size class a bit, covered the infantry already, now it is time for the walking tombs, the Contemptor Dreadnought from the Horus Heresy Age of Darkness boxed set.
The classic dreadnought we know from the 90s is classified as Castraferrum Pattern Mark V Dreadnought, with the variants that were released by Forge World as Mark IV with slightly slender / less bulky proportions. But the Contemptor Dreadnought is actually something picked up from the era of Rogue Trader and reconnected with the lore for the Horus Heresy.
Horus Heresy – Age of Darkness Infantry
After covering the content of the Horus Heresy - Age of Darkness boxed set in our unboxing, I'll cover the plastic kits in three reviews - the Infantry, the Contemptor Dreadnought and the Land Raider Spartan. Beginning today with the Space Marines on foot.
You can find all the pictures of the content in the unboxing, but we're going to build some miniatures from the different sprues of the Legion Space Marines in Mark VI armour, the Praetors and Terminators in Cataphractii armour.
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