A Tale of Heresy Gamers. Month 4: Lit like Phosphex.

What is the Tale of Heresy Gamers challenge?

This is the Warlord’s journey. The path of power, or of ruin. The Tale of Heresy Gamers charts army selection, choice of units, painting woes and victories! We’ll be capturing every triumph and misfortune of coming to grips with a new system and a new force. This will be a series about the collecting of a new army for Horus Heresy 2.0. It will focus on the collecting and painting side of things, but we hope to bring you some insight into how the collection plays on the tabletop. Charting the development of an army from conception to finish is one of my fetishes, and I get to indulge in it with all my friends.

Want to join in the Tale of Heresy Gamers? Read how at the bottom!

As we hit the month 4 wall, will the Loyalists or Traitors have more staying power?

LOYALISTS

Alex – Loyalist Blood Angels

Crescent Edge Studio – The Death and Betrayal Podcast

I’m using my joker for this Tale of Heresy Gamers month and taking a do-over. Like the shroud of Sanguinius, I drape my face in the shame of defeat.

James Wright – Loyalist Salamanders

Wright’s Adventure Guild

Some months you get loads done other months it always feels like a battle to finish anything. This is a very real pain for a lot of us hobbyists. The above pictures are my WIP I have at least managed a little progress since the previous article.

I have made a start on my cataphractii terminator praetor I’m pretty happy with him so far.   I did a huge amount of conversion work to get him looking as I wanted unique enough to stand out the same enough to fit in. I decided to try and make a full mantle of the elder drakes to be cloaked around him. I also made him slightly larger which helps create the narrative that be is stronger and more robust than a normal Legion Astartes which is what you want in the leader of your force, a true hero of legend.

I also managed to get an airbrush and get some paint to the Spartan. I had previously tried out a few freehand flames on the side doors. There is still more I wish to add , However, I hope you like what I’ve done with it so far. I want to try and capture the feel of the XVIII and This will be one of the centerpieces to the army, transporting my fire drakes into battle leaving nothing but embers in its wake. I want this to be visible from across the board showing off both my panting techniques and putting the fear of the legion into my opponents.

James

Rob. Dark Angels. Loyal(ish).

Edge of Empire Podcast.

Tale of Heresy Gamers.

This has been quite a quiet month for me, not through lack of progress but through lack of things to progress with. (At least in terms of this specific Project)

I’ve forged ahead early on with the project and left myself with just a Land Raider Proteus left to do. The Problem is, the Proteus isn’t out yet, despite being first shown in the Liber Hereticus and then subsequently on Warcom. So yeah, I need one of those to finish the project.

I’ve not been totally idle, however, and some minor tweaks have been made to Corswain, the Arcus and the Spartan. Probably most importantly, the Army has a case. I don’t have the luxury of cabinets at home so all my Minis live lives of perpetual darkness stored in figure cases. Usually from Tabletop Tyrant nowadays. Go check em out!

It doesn’t look like much for a months work & if I’m honest it isn’t really but I’m focussing on enjoying what I’m doing when I’m doing it, not grinding my way through things if they’re becoming a chore.

With that in mind & some suitable enabling from Fearless leader Myles, I’ve invested in the more theoretical side of the hobby as opposed to the practical (to sound like one of those insufferable Smurfs for a second) and expanded my hobby library with these two tomes, the first of which

certainly falls into there ‘mighty’ category. Thank the gods it’s not hardback, it’d class as a lethal weapon.

Tale of Heresy Gamers September Blog.

Hopefully, I can work through some of the techniques in these books & really push myself but I have to be honest & admit that it probably won’t be. The Proteus!

KEITH – Loyalist Space Wolves

Mournival Podcast – Grim Dark Painting

I’m moving this month so I’m using my joker for this month! I’ve got other sh*t to do – like creating a man cave!

Bryan Hartley – Loyalist Mechanicum

Horus Heresy Painting and Modelling Group – Instagram – Facebook

Soldiering On

Tale of Heresy Gamers

Unfortunately, real life managed to prevent me from getting as much painting done this month as I would have liked. Lots of dull stuff like having to get rid of my car before the Omnissiah-cursed thing falls apart, and then spending loads of time looking for a suitable replacement (although the Tech-Priest/Massive Geek in me very much enjoyed reading through the gadgets & gizmos lists for each car!).

Anyway, on to the reason why I’m here: Heresy!! 

I have made some progress with my Mechanicum army, and as the saying goes, ‘slow progress is still progress!

First things first: All the big guys are done! That’s the 3 x Domitars and 4 x Castellax. I may go back and add some glow effects to their weapons (what colour glow does a Darkfire Cannon make anyways?), but I’m happy with where they are now and I’m looking forward to seeing how they perform on the tabletop. 

My Vorax are also very near completion, the decals are done and the gloss lacquer is currently curing. Later this week I’ll get their oil washes and final details finished so that they are ready for the tabletop as well! 

After my initial disappointment regarding the state of my army in Heresy 2.0, I have come round to the idea of adapting my army’s tactics to see if I can still make them a daunting challenge. 

Additionally, my gaming group is planning on trying out the excellent Liber Panoptica and Liber Centura rules from the Heresy Discord group. They contain updated and rebalanced rules for all Heresy factions, plus plenty of new units & characters for everyone! I can’t wait to give Iron Hands Revenants a try! (The dead of Istvaan V brought back to life through the dark art of Cybernetic Resurrection!)

I’ll sign off (for now) with a quote from Kryten from Red Dwarf: 

“If you don’t GOSUB a program loop, you’ll never get a subroutine” 

(The human version, ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’ is significantly less punchy!)

Until next time!

001100111011000111100

Dan Palfrey – Blood Angels

Cambrian SynodInstagram

Tale of Heresy Gamers.

The project is really gathering speed now, I have a legal (albeit small) army painted and I have a game on the horizon. Time to start working towards a list and to reinforce the theme. 

My blood angels are neophtyes, freshly-forged inductii sent to the walls of the Imperial Palace to die in their first real engagement. To that end, I’ve deliberately tried to go easy on shiny ornamentations and kept the use of gold to a minimum, instead relying on the classic second edition era flame motifs and bold yellow sections to create interest. 

I knew I wanted to include some Crimson Paladins and work towards a Day of Sorrows list – the theme fits perfectly with a group of battered defenders on the edge of their resolve, but this presented me with a problem. The Crimson Paladin models are gorgeous. Too gorgeous! It didn’t make sense for these proud (and valuable) warriors to be wasted on the dregs of the legion fighting in the mud with the humans. 

So instead I converted a few paladins of my own. I used the regular cataphractii terminator kit as a base (there seem to be loads of these floating about for some reason) and some spare weapons from my bits vault. The shields were taken from the Chaos warrior kit with the naughty runes and spikes shaved off and replaced with trusty armour studs – hasty battlefield bodge jobs made from armour cement and interior doors. 

The rationale behind these guys is that they were regular line terminators given brevet field promotions to the First Sphere by their commanders, safe in the knowledge that they were going to die anyway, perhaps this way they will fight just that bit harder and draw some additional strength from the enemy horde before they fell. I did allow a small bit of tarnished gold on the armour of these doomed souls to mark them out from the others around them.

In terms of the list itself, this is what I am working towards for my first game;

Blood Angels 1491 points

Rite of War: The Day of Sorrows

HQ

  • Delegatus with blade of perdition, stoic defender warlord trait (105pts)
  • Librarian with force sword, telepathy (105pts)

TROOPS

  • Tactical squad (10) with chain bayonets, vexilla, sgt with blade of perdition and artificer armour (153pts)
  • Tactical squad (10) with chain bayonets, vexilla, sgt with blade of perdition and artificer armour (153pts)
  • Crimson Paladins (5) with 2 power swords, 1 power maul, 1 iliastus assault cannon and power fist, sgt with blade of perdition (235pts)

ELITES

  • Rapier laser destroyer (65pts)

FAST ATTACK

  • Contemptor-incaendius dreadnought with gravis power fists and heavy flamers (200pts)

HEAVY SUPPORT

  • Kratos with battlecannon, flashburn shells, volkite calivers, volkite culverins, searchlights (320pts)
  • Heavy support squad (5) with iliastus assault cannon (150pts)

I plan to expand by adding a moritat, a lascannon support squad, another dreadnought and more terminators along with upgrading the kratos to have a flare shield and the delegatus to a praetor to reinforce the defenders of Terra theme. I’m also planning a jump pack wing with land speeders, dawnbreakers and angel’s tears to represent a counter-attack contingent. I also may look into a zone mortalis force with breachers to supplement this list and allow for more varied deployments. 

How will my list fare in the crucible of battle? Check in next month to find out!

 

Anuj Malhotra – Defenders of Sol

The Legiones Astartes

This month I’ve been pondering collections. The Tale of Heresy Gamers has given me a lot to plan.

We all start our armies in different ways, hell, I’ve started with a different motivation with every army I’ve made and they have all evolved in unexpected directions as well. For many of us there’s always one army that is our homeland, our collection of the endless, expanding mass of models as a labour of love. For me it’s the Imperial Fists, though it’s been a bit on again off again over the years and has never felt like a consistent collection. I want to change that and, even though last month’s attempt to nail down a perfect colour scheme was somewhat abortive, I’ve decided to change my approach a little and begin my collection with what I want to theme my army around – what kind of army lists I actually would want to build and paint. When I’ve got all that stuff made and painted (years from now probably) I’ll truly have a vast and varied collection to be proud of.

Army List 1 – Fury of the Ancients (2,500 points)

Dreadnoughts to me are the iconic Warhammer 40,000 unit, and when it comes to the Horus Heresy the Contemptor Dreadnought is the king. So, what better way to celebrate my love of (and massive collection of) Contemptors than an army led by one, and made up of several more. I was well on the way to assembling this list and preparing it for painting when the general grumbling began regarding the Fury Rite of War being overpowered, which has put it on pause a little for me (Imagine the army you were happily making being banned from events before you’ve even finished it!). I think dreadnoughts are pretty much perfect this edition, but the Rite of War making them scoring pushes them a little beyond what’s strictly necessary for the Rite to appeal i.e. a bunch of heroic corpses in giant robots. Anyway, 10 Dreadnoughts!

HQ

Venerable Ancient with twin Kheres Assault Cannons

Troops

2 full Contemptor Talons, one kitted out for full close combat, and one kitted out for a mixed role with a close combat weapon and some strong firepower

Elites

A Legion Dreadnought in the classic mortis pattern with two twinned autocannons

Heavy Support

A Leviathan Dreadnought Talon with 2 dreadnoughts with storm cannons and close combat weapons, each with Illiastus Assault Cannons in place of their Flamers.

Army List 2 – Armoured Spearhead (2,500 points)

I’m a massive fan of warmachines, and I’ve become something of a tread-head over the last few years, visiting the Tank Museum and writing little stories about tanks. The Sicaran and all of the awesomely styled Forge World tanks went a long way towards defining the aesthetic of the time period, and I think having a wall of armour is about as cool as it gets. With the release of plastic tanks I couldn’t help but buy a whole stack of them. My favourite tank right now is the Kratos (I am hugely biased) but the model is just so beautiful, more than I imagined it! I couldn’t do a tank army without a pair of them. Pre-2018 if you asked me, my favourite tank was the Armoured Proteus (the King of Tanks), and I do have a pair of those that I can slot into this list – with the intent that as part of my wider collection they can also be used as Dedicated Transports when needed.

HQ

A classic Sicaran with Lascannon sponsons as my Master of Armour

Troops

A squadron of 2 Predator Tanks with Autocannons and Heavy bolters – the OG configuration and the best looking!

A squadron of 2 Predator Tanks with Illiastus Assault cannons on the turret and sponsons – if you can then you should

Fast Attack

A pair of Sabres with autocannons

Heavy Support

A squadron of 2 Sicaran Punishers – for maximum brrrrrt

Squadron of 2 Kratos Tanks, both with Flashburn shells and as many autocannons or assault cannons as I can fit on them

3 Proteus Carriers bringing the punch of three twin-linked lascannons each – the finest looking tank destroyers around

Army List 3 – Templar Assault (2,500 points)

I’ve never actually played a full-on beatstick combat army. I don’t even think I’ve ever taken a death star let alone any named HQ characters… but if there’s one man in the galaxy who could change how I play, that man would be Sigismund. I’ve been obsessed with his legend ever since reading Chapter Approved and White Dwarf as a kid; those tomes were filled with tantalising snippets about the Siege of Terra and how the Emperor chose a champion to halt the enemy tide by singling out and slaying the champions of chaos. It’s so fantastic that he’s a character I can use in my army, and so this whole list is themed around a massive horde of the Imperial Fists’ first company led by Sigismund himself! I’m leaning into the theme so hard it’s going to be a beautiful train wreck of a force.

HQ

Sigismund

Champion Consul with Paragon Blade and Storm Shield

Champion Consul with Paragon Blade and Storm Shield

Troops

A full 10-man Templar Brethren squad with an Apothecary in a Proteus Carrier

Another full 10-man Templar Brethren squad with an Apothecary in a Proteus Carrier

A 20-man Tactical Despoiler unit with an Apothecary in a Spartan

Heavy Support

A Sicaran tank – because I don’t have enough points for another squad in a land raider!

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TRAITORS

Myles David – Traitor Sons of Horus.

Lil’Legend Studio

DREADNOUGHT: Tale of Heresy Gamers.

I’ve got a dreadnought done. Complete. An actually painted piece to display for the challenge. But I’m starting to wobble.

The initial rush of the challenge has ebbed, and I’m left with a bunch of plastic sprues and wandering eyes.

The Silver Tower set was really good, wasn’t it? I mean, for a painter….

Month 4 is tough. All the Warlords are feeling it. I’m not sure if it’s boredom or that frantic need to fulfil whatever childhood trauma it is that keeps me locked in this hobby by making one more purchase – but this has been a tough month to get through.

I’m restless, I want to paint something that isn’t a marine, or green – but I’m still clipping marines off the sprue. But, I’m still blocking in metallics. Despite the ennui, I’m chipping away. Even though the project has lost the new shiny syndrome, I’m persisting. And I think that is the difference between hobbyists who paint armies and those that don’t. It’s not about inspiration, it’s about habit.

It’s not talent, it’s persistence.

That Stormcast Eternal Champion from Silver Tower would be the perfect piece to practice NMM on…

And god have I needed to develop that discipline. Assembling 40 mk VI Marines has not been a breeze. The miniatures seem to be taking forever to put together (my own fault for customizing them so much). I’m climbing the hill, putting in the hard yards, and adding one metaphor at a time until I can start the painting process.

And you came here to be inspired didn’t you?

Perhaps I could convince my wife to play a game of Cursed City for Halloween?

Sumeet – Traitor Night Lords.

The Legiones Astartes

night lords tutorials

Another month and another Unit finished! The force is starting to take shape and I must say, now that I’ve got 4 fully painted units, it’s very satisfying to see this army come together.

This month I decided to paint a HQ unit. Overall I’m happy, but I will be going back and adding some texture to the model with some blood and gore (thanks for the tip Myles!)

The model itself has a lot of detail, so it was a great opportunity to push myself by painting decayed, necrotic flesh and no small amount of skulls! Thankfully I had loads of Lil Legend tutorials to fall back on to help me with this and happy with the result.

I’ve gained a small measure of confidence from this model and I feel ready for another detailed unit. Whether that’s the deadly Contekar or a mighty Contemptor dreadnought, I’m not sure. We’ll have to wait until next month!

Sumeet

Craig V. – Traitor Emperor’s Children

Death and Betrayal Podcast

Tale of Heresy Gamers. Hello Traitors and Loyalists, it’s your boy, Craig. Co-host of your 5th favorite Heresy Podcast The Death and Betrayal podcast. I got another update on my Emperor’s Children army. I have been Busy since my last article, painting, list building and getting my first game with Emperor’s Children.

Let’s start with painting, and boy have I been busy, hammering out a Contemptor dreadnought, 10-man tactical Squad, and repainting my Praetor Joseph Noir. Once I had the color scheme down, I went all in, getting the base coat on 10 Palatine Blades, 20 tactical marines, 5 terminators, Contemptor dreadnought, and my Praetor. Giving myself a nice 1000 points almost fully completed. With that in mind, a started to seek out people to play with and was able to get a game in with an old friend.

We decided to have a smaller game, just 1000 points, as we were both getting used to the new rules system and to our new armies. With the game set up, it was time for my Perfect boys to clash with the loyalist bastard of the White Scars. What a blast of a game, with 2 fast armies pitted against each other the mayhem was quick and blood. With the White Scars move very quickly, but the Emperor’s Children Show them that true speed lies in close combat. With my EC excelling at close combat, most of the melee engagements went in my favor and the Emperor’s Children came out with the win. I learned a lot for this game, and it got my mind rolling when it came to list building and tactics I can employ with my EC.

If you have ever listened to Alex and my podcast, you will know that list building is one of our favorite things to do. So, I sat down with the rule book and the traitor book and really went off the deep end. Building list for my Sons of Horus, World Eaters, Word Bearers and Emperor’s Children. List building is one of the best things I use to learn rule systems. Checking and double-checking rules, making sure the list I am building is legal, thematic, and that it all works well together. That’s when I came across a small hiccup in my EC. My original plans were to take the Rite of War Mara Skara, with the plan to have a Leviathan dreadnought in a drop pod. After reading over the rules for the Mara Skara I have found that I am unable to do this, as units with 0 movement characteristics cannot be taken with this rite of war. Drop pods do not have a movement characteristic, So that plan is out the window. Leaving a 415 point hole in my 3000 point list. I now need to find a way to use up those points and keep with the theme of my army. Looks like more list-building for me, and I am ok with that. 

SUBSCRIBE TO Lil’LEGEND YOUTUBE. LIVE STREAMS. GIVEAWAYS. TUTORIALS.

David Taylor – Traitor Death Guard

BANE OF CHAOS

Oh no. 2 in a row. Well, the Deathguard are slow and hopefully inexorable…

Chris Schou – Traitor Sons of Horus

DORNS ARROW

I can’t believe it has already been a month, as I feel I’ve basically not gotten any hobby done. I did manage to get the first of my new tactical marines done, but that was at the start of September. I have been quite busy at work, running the local club, remodelling my hobby room at home and to be fair I have played a fair bit of Total War: Warhammer III, I guess I needed a little break.

But that doesn’t mean I haven’t done anything as work on the second squad is progressing slowly, I’m currently working on the decals. I can already feel that I will need a little pause from painting marines after these, so I have prepared a few MESBG models that I will probably start getting some paint on soon. I can only batch-paint so much power armour before I get the need to blow my brains out.

Next month I most likely won’t have much hobby to report on as the submission deadline is just around the time I will be going to Malmö for the event I mentioned in last month’s issue. I do plan on having the second squad done by then, so maybe you’ll get to see that. Nevertheless, I’ll probably have some pictures from the event in the November issue (if there is one, god I can’t remember how many of these we are doing).


Until next time
Chris

*Oh yeah! I totally forgot, I did spend some time making another free tutorial on how I paint my bases for my Sons of Horus, so if you think that sounds interesting you can find it on my blog.
So even though I didn’t paint a lot for Tale of Heresy Gamers this month, I still think that counts to some degree :-D*

Keith Hixson – Traitor Night Lords

Loyalists are Boring

This month I painted a squad of rapier laser destroyers. These fit nicely with my goal of creating a big mean army for full sized games. In the past, I only ever played Zone Mortalis and I never would have built these!

Rapiers are particularly nasty for Night Lords. They easily turn on the legion rule “A Talent For Murder” and get +1 bonus to wounding and penetration. The bonus to wounds rarely does much since lascanons wound most things on 2’s anyways. But the penetration is really nice. Also, point for point there are few more efficient units for stripping wounds off Contemptors; which are totally busted and everyone takes now.

I magnetized these so the drivers can be taken off. It’s kind of a silly rule but the drivers and spotters all count for wounds so it’s not uncommon to be pulling them off. I also did small amounts of trimming and light kitbashing on these to make each infantry model in the squad unique.

Painting Mk3 with the roman crests was a fun throwback. It seems everyone (myself included) has been going crazy painting super customized legion units with the newest armor marks. One of the things that initially drew me to the Horus Heresy years ago was the uniform militarized look of the legions. This just felt right. Keeping with this theme I left off my usual sculpted flesh and kept the skulls to a minimum.

Overall it was a fun unit to paint and I look forward to the withering lascanon fire they’ll contribute to my Night Lord force.

MYLES: This is a call back from last month but it’s an excellent tutorial, so I wanted to share it again:

I also put a free tutorial together for painting my NLs using this squad. This can be found at http://www.loyalistsareboring.com/.

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If you would like to join the journey please write an introduction to your project and post it up on your social media with #taleofheresygamers. Every month keep apace with the warlords in creating your own collection.

For the Warmaster.

For the Emperor.

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Miniature Painting Course Library.
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One Response

  1. Stratos Tsiavis says:

    “I think dreadnoughts are pretty much perfect this edition”

    Anuj, whatever you are smoking, please get rid of it and seek help.

    Honestly whoever balanced Dreadnoughts in this shitshow needs to be fired out of a cannon into the sun.

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