A Tale of Heresy Gamers. Part 1: Gathering the Warlords.

A Tale of Heresy Gamers

It’s the dawn of a new age. Horus Heresy 2.0 is upon us. And as night follows day A TALE OF 30K GAMERS is created. Yes, yes, we all get this madness in us at the start of a new edition, but this time it’s different. We’re actaully going to follow through on our pledges.

STOP LAUGHING.

What is this Tale of Heresy Gamers challenge?

This is the Warlord’s journey. The path of power, or of ruin. We’ll be charting 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. 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.

We’ve decided on collecting toward 2.5K – a good round number for Heresy armies – but this is a loose target. Some of our Warlords may be adding to an existing collection, some will be starting from scratch. There is no wrong way to collect an army, and no right way to approach the TALE OF HERESY GAMERS. We hope that you will find something of yourself reflected in the words of our Champions.

Without further ado, let’s meet our warlords, shall we?

TRAITORS

Myles David – Traitor Sons of Horus.

Lil’Legend Studio

Yo, yo, yo it’s ya boy M-Y-L-E-S – comin’ atcha from the 31st millennium *AIR HORNS*

I’m the owner, lead artist, head of marketing, head of social media, head of security and conquistador of Lil’Legend Studio. It’s been my professional pride to bring the world of 30K to life through commissions taken from the community – but it’s time for me to have some fun. This is my record of triumph and disaster as I create a traitor Sons of Horus 2.5K list.

So what’s the vision of A Tale of Heresy Gamers? Simple really. This hobby is my way of managing some unresolved childhood trauma, and I’m returning back to that well of nostalgia, dredging up the army shot from Codex Chaos Marines 3.5. 

It’s a beautifully balanced army – 2 units of infantry, a lord, a couple of tanks, and a unit of terminators. I’ll be recreating this, charing Horus Aximand with leading 2 units of 20 marines, a unit of veteran breachers and a unit of Luperci. The cheery on top will come in the form of a Dreadnought…or two. This army is being built with the intention of taking it to the Return To Isstvan: Blood on Black Sands event held in Cardiff next year. This event aims to recreate the titanic battles Isstvan V – so I hope to throw a curve ball in at the end. 

ONWARD TO TERRA! LUPERCAL, LUPERCAL, LUPERCAL!

Sumeet – Traitor Night Lords.

The Legiones Astartes

Hi folks my name is Sumeet, a keen hobbyist since the spritely age of 11. I’m a Horus Heresy nut, and one-third of The Legiones Astartes blog on Instagram! 

When Myles invited me the take part in A Tale of Heresy Gamers challenge, I jumped at the chance. It was a great excuse to motivate myself through the new boxed set – but – I had a moment of cold clarity. Sheepishly I looked at my cabinet of unfinished projects. It was here I found my Night Lords, a project I started for a Zone Mortalis campaign that never saw the light of day (PUN MASTER – ed) and one that I had made some significant purchases. I had immense fun painting them, but other events and life got in the way. Now is the time to fix that! 

By heart, I’m a devout son of Russ. They are very much my first, second, and third love, but I’ve decided this series will be a great way to scratch the itch of getting another legion force to use. And who knows? Maybe even learn a hobby skill or two along the way. 

The composition of the Night Lords force is based around fighting in Zones Mortalis actions, with an idea to expand it for main games. To that end, I’ve got a 10-man squad of Breachers, two Terminator squads, and a Forge World Ironclad in various stages of completion. I’ll be adding the new Contekar Terminators,  Night Raptors, and a Terror Squad.  I’ll round off the force with a Leviathan dreadnought: it’ll make a nice centerpiece for the army. It’s a very elite force but it’s made for butchering Imperial lackeys in some emperor-forsaken Underhive.

AVE DOMINUS NOX!! 

Craig V. – Traitor Emperor’s Children

Death and Betrayal Podcast

Craig here, co-host and editor of your fifth favorite 30k podcast The Death and Betrayal Podcast. I am a veteran war gamer, having been involved with the hobby for nearly 25 years. I was introduced to building models at a young age by my Father. With a love for science fiction, as well as the third edition having just dropped, Warhammer 40,000 was the perfect fit – thus beginning an obsession that has stood the test of time.

I started my Horus Heresy journey in 2012 with the release of book one “Betrayer”. You would think that I would have started with one of the four legions in the book, but I said to myself “hell no, I am doing Dark Angels”. This began the long wait for my first legion’s set of rules to be released. Over the course of the last 10 years, I have started and finished several armies. Some I have sold off, while others I stopped collecting and reused their models for other armies. I currently have three main armies in my collection: I earlier mentioned Dark Angels, my beloved Son of Horus, and my World Eaters.

With the release of Heresy 2.0 I, like many others, thought that it was a good time to start a new legion and sign p for A Tale of Heresy Gamers. I had considered doing an Emperor’s Children force for quite some time and decided that the timing was right to start this army.  While there are always many factors to consider when choosing your first legion or a new legion (everyone’s reasons are vastly different), I chose the Emperor’s Children due to the color scheme, the lore behind them, the play style, and Saul Tarvitz – he’s so badass!

When I started planning this army I needed it to do a few things. It needed to be thematic, it needed to be balanced, it needed to include some of my favorite models from the 30k range, and most of all, I wanted to incorporate the new starter box set as the base for the army. The core box set makes up a good portion of my Emperor’s Children force; it includes a flyer, some predators, and a Leviathan dread sprinkled in for flavour. My goal is to take this army to AdeptiCon next year for the #pushforbetagarmon event.

I look forward to you guys taking this journey with me. Death to the False Emperor!

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

David – Traitor Death Guard

BANE OF CHAOS

Hello, welcome to my 1st installment of Lil Legends Tale of 30K gamers!


I discovered Horus Heresy around the time that GW brought the End Times to Fantasy. After seeing the Primarch models and reading Horus Rising I was hooked. I’ve had a lot of fun over the last 7 years collecting, painting, and attending events. I couldn’t be more stoked for the new edition.


When Myles reached out to ask if I’d be interested in contributing to the series my first thought was oh hell yeah, instantly followed by: “oh, no, not another project”. But after some thought, it went back to: Oh hell yeah! I just can’t seem to say no to Myles (I’ll make sure to take advantage of this at our next event – ed).


I’ve had a thing for Blood Angels recently and they were going to be my 2.0 army, but after seeing the other legions in the series I was disturbed by the lack of Traitors. So the question became which Traitor Legion should I do? Then it came to me: Deathguard! Oh yes, my original Legion. My fetid first fling. I had a lot of fun collecting, and gaming with them so it made sense for the legion to be reborn for 2.0.


Terminators, Flamers, and Dreadnoughts will be the order of business, and I want to incorporate the taint of Nurgle taking seed in the Legion. This gives me some fun modeling opportunities and opens up some 40K models to cross-pollinate with Heresy stuff.

FOR THE DEATH LORD!

Chris Schou – Traitor Sons of Horus

DORNS ARROW

Hello everyone and welcome to A Tale of Heresy Gamers!

My name is Christoffer, but some of you might know me better under the moniker DornsArrow. I hail from the small Scandinavian country of Denmark, and I’ve spent the last 6 years collecting and painting a fairly sizeable Sons of Horus army.

I’ve been asked by Myles if I wanted to participate in this little Tale of Heresy Gamers project, where I hope to take you with me on my journey of incorporating all the new shiny Horus Heresy v2 miniatures into my current collection.


I’ve spent quite a lot of time thinking about what the hell I’m going to use 40 new Tactical marines for, but I’ve come to the conclusion that this is going to be the opportune moment to replace all my old Tactical Marines and make some more Support squads. My old tactical marines were painted many years ago when I was just starting out and I think it’s quite visible when you compare them to my newer stuff.

I think the new MKVI Marines look absolutely fantastic and I honestly can’t wait to actually paint some up. However, my plan is to modify a lot of them slightly, mix the armour marks and basically make myself some MKV marines. 

For this, I’ll most likely use a lot of 3d printed parts as that is simply the easiest way to approach something like this nowadays. Taking a stroll onto Cults3D it’s very easy to find loads of usable files very cheaply and luckily I have a few mates with resin printers so shouldn’t be much trouble getting a metric shitton of shoulder pads, heads, and backpacks made for my 40 new marines.

At least..that is the plan, so tune in next month to see if I manage to get that done!

Keith Hixson – Traitor Night Lords

Loyalists are Boring

Hi everyone! My name is Keith aka @loyalistsareboring on Instagram. I’m a 32yo chemical plant worker in the PNW United States. I’ve been married to my wonderful wife Shelby for the last 6 years and we have a 15mo old son; James who is the love of our lives.

Now that you have a cute rosy picture of me and my life; I like to collect the legion of disgusting murders and criminals: The Night Lords. I started my Heresy journey 8 years ago with Thousand Sons until I read ABD’s Night Lords trilogy. Their nihilism and sense of self-preservation didn’t fit into the standard archetype of loyalist or traitor and I was instantly hooked.

For the past several years my group and I have played exclusively Zone Mortalis; which is super fun. But with the release of the new edition, we’d like to make a change and start playing higher point games on a full-sized table. This probably means building and painting several big mean full-sized units, building and painting several big armored vehicles, going back and doing some repaints on old models to get them up to my current standard, and of course, kitbash a few new characters. This A Tale of Heresy Gamers was perfect to get that started!

I already have many thousands of points of Night Lords with numerous ways to build good Zone Mortalis lists. However, I want the same tool kit for full-sized games. Tanks, pods, big squads of infantry, flyers, bikes, dreads, the whole lot. Join me in my journey to fill out my Night Lord force and brutally table my friends over and over.

The Full Masterclass including PDF tutorial. Available now.

A Tale of Heresy Gamers

LOYALISTS

Alex – Loyalist Blood Angels

Crescent Edge Studio – The Death and Betrayal Podcast

Welcome to Heresy 2.0! I’m Alex – lead artist at the newly formed Crescent Edge Studio for bespoke character commissions and Co-host of The Death and Betrayal Podcast! On this journey, I’ll be bringing you along with the development of my Blood Angels for a new edition and the #PushForBetaGarmon Campaign through the podcast with my co-host Craig. 

I’ve developed a predilection for visual storytelling through my miniatures, and the scenarios they enact on the tabletop. That little scar on my sgt’s helmet. You bet I have a 4-page word document explaining that in grotesque detail! This passion saw me run events all across North America, from Adepticon to the Las Vegas Open!

I’ve helped others form their stories, it’s time to tell my own. I’m over the moon to start a new chapter of my own on the tabletop with the IXth: the Angels of Baal. The Blood Angels have always had my admiration from the side of my eye. The last stand and sacrifice of Sanguinius echos the themes of the Heresy, and the bare-faced savagery of Warhammer in general.

So what do I develop for this tale?

Well, while sifting through the last stands and famous commanders in Europe and Greece, one might think the obvious choice is Leonidas from the Battle of Thermopylae. But it wasn’t the type of aesthetic I was looking for (having impulse-purchased Crimson Paladins after having one-too-many sodas at LVO 2019). I wanted something more refined, to better mirror Craig’s Emperor’s Children and their elegance. Enter Chris: a mutual friend of Craig and I who just happened to have a brilliant idea in mind that he was happy to gift. Caspar Röist and the Sack of Rome in 1527.

So how do we bring this allegorically to the #futurefakehistory of the Horus Heresy within 2500 points? Well, for that, you’ll have to read on in the next article.

James Wright – Loyalist Salamanders

Wright’s Adventure Guild

I’m James! I run Wright’s Adventurers Guild, a commission painting service. I’ve been playing and painting Horus Heresy since the very beginning of the game over a decade ago and in that time, I’ve pretty much painted every legion there is.

However, when Lil Legend Studio’s suggested I get involved with The Tale of Heresy Gamers, coinciding with the monumental new rules release I thought I was going to have to pull something pretty damn epic out of the bag. Now I love an unloved Legion, and frankly, I don’t think that Salamanders get anywhere near the hype they deserve, having dedicated most of the last few years to Custodes which are on the shelf, for now, I’m really looking for a challenge and where better to start than to create a force that literally lights up the battlefield with rich green hues and flaming accents.

There is something really inspiring about the imagery of rising from the ashes and being forged in flames, so I hope to capture the unyielding yet creative nature of the XVIII by going for a super heavy terminator force with Landraiders. I really want to keep the number of models down to make sure I’m giving each one the VIP treatment, this also has the added bonus of providing me with a slightly larger surface area to help further develop those super tricky freehand skills. I’m very much looking forward to showcasing this army and seeing it on the table at ‘Return to Istvan V’ next year.   

Rob. Dark Angels. Loyal(ish).

Edge of Empire Podcast.

I’m Rob, Co-host of the Edge of Empire Podcast, afflicted with this hobby for over 30 years now & Myles has kindly asked us if we’d like to jump on board his particular carriage on the Heresy Train. The Tale of Heresy Gamers TRAIN!

So the teases of the new Mk6 beaky marines have got me, along with pretty much every hobbyist out there, super hyped for the new edition. And since the release of Black Book number 9 “Crusade” I’ve found myself drawn more & more toward the First Legion. Which, as a natural Fenrisian has come somewhat as a shock. 

The Firewing has really grabbed my attention, like Feudal Alpha Legion (you never know!) and Book 9 has rules for what I think is a great little fluffy unit, the “Enigmatus Cabal”. These are little 3-man jump pack teams with stasis grenades & funky swords designed to sneak about & assassinate characters. 

Much to the annoyance of Chris on the show I’ve fallen HARD for these guys. Like, fallen Frank Spencer hard (Ask your parents). However, it remains to be seen (In 2 days’ time) if these guys have made it into the new edition. If so, my plan is simple, to use the Serpent’s Bane Rite of War which allows these guys to be troops, and allows Seekers to be compulsory troops to make a Firewing-themed force.

Highly mobile, potentially quite infantry heavy, and, no doubt an utter liability.

I don’t tend to write armies with the express purpose of winning, (ignore anything James Wright says about this…. I like to create ‘snapshot armies’ based around a singular theme & story & go from there. Sure this means there’s a good chance of mismatches but if I wanted to be competitive (*spit*) I’d play a different system.  

KEITH – Loyalist Space Wolves

Mournival Podcast – Grim Dark Painting

I’m Keith, part of The Mournival Podcast and the man behind running the #returntoisttvan events based on the early Black Book Campaigns.

I’ve been around the Heresy scene in the UK for probably 8 years, going to events, running my own, and getting to know all the wonderful people who post online. This Tale of 30k Gamers is a little different for me, as I have picked a Legion that I already have. Since starting my original Wolves project I have developed my skills as a painter and as a modelist, and this is an opportunity to build a new force with these new skills. I want to test myself sculpting fur, painting grey, and various skin tones.

So what’s the big idea with A Tale of Heresy Gamers?

As with all my armies I like to have a plan, whether that’s an army list or attaching myself to a piece of writing. For this army, I went straight to Forge Worlds Book 7. There is a great piece of writing about the forces that went to Propero and I’m primarily focussing on 2 Great Companies.

The 9th Great Company is not your typical pack of berserkers. No, they are defensive and more reliant on heavy weapons to carry the day. I’d like to not only reflect on this break from the norm with army selection but on how I paint them as well. What decals can I use to differentiate them, and how can I tint the armour to reflect the pollutants expelled by their munitions? All that stuff I have swirling around my head I want to include on the models.

The other is The 4th Great Company, this one I feel can offer me a more mixed army. I can go for the big guns or the Assault units. It feels a bit more balanced than the other, and it’s different from my old Space Wolves army. I think this is the direction I will be heading.

Now it’s time to get that perfect Grey.

Bryan Hartley – Loyalist Mechanicum

Horus Heresy Painting and Modelling GroupInstagramFacebook


Hi there, my name is Bryan. I’m one of the Admins of the Horus Heresy Painting & Modelling Group, and also run my own blog called The Anvilarium, on Facebook & Instagram.

I’ve been a huge fan of the Horus Heresy ever since I bought the original Epic Space Marine and Adeptus Titanicus back around 1989. Back then I used to scour White Dwarf for excerpts about the Horus Heresy, even the smallest excerpt would get my imagination going! I was overjoyed when Black Library started the Heresy novel series in 2006.

I’ve been collecting Heresy-era Iron Hands since 2012, and I have managed to accumulate somewhere in the region of 25,000pts (!!) The one thing my Iron Hands have always struggled against is assault-focussed armies such as Emperor’s Children and Space Wolves. To that end, I have decided to use the Tale of Gamers as an opportunity to put together a fluffy, allied assault force to help my Iron Hands with this deficit.

To that end, I have decided on a Loyalist Legio Cybernetica Mechanicum force! Large, soulless murder-bots are a perfect thematic force to go alongside the tech-obsessed Iron Hands Legion.

As I start painting the force, I can perform a ‘test-run’ of some of the initial units by integrating them directly into my Iron Hands army through the use of the Head of the Gorgon and Brethren of Iron Rites of War, and through the use of Legion HQs such as the Forge-Lord and Praevian Consuls. I also have a pair of Mechanicum Questoris Knights if I want to add some Lords of War to the mix.

I already have a group of Cybernetica minis assembled, comprising of my favourite choppy, stompy, radiation-saturated killing machines, and their Omnissiah-worshipping owners. My next task is to decide on a paint scheme, stock up on the appropriate paints and get stuck in!

Joe Bushen – Loyalsit Ultramarines.

The Emperor’s Brush

I don’t know if you’ve heard but I LOVE BLUE!

Ever since I was a child, the colour blue has been my hyper fixation (we can thank Thomas the Tank Engine for that) so when it came to choosing my legion for Heresy 2.0 the choice was obvious.

Imperial Fists!

No, of course, it had to be the Ultramarines.

I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to painting. I’m certainly not a legendary painter like the Golden Daemon winners, but I will absolutely hyperfocus on making sure they look as perfect to my eye as possible (why on earth don’t you collect the IIIrd – ed), and that includes ensuring that all the models are colour matched and up to the same standard as one another. I want to make a legion worthy of Guillimans command with a beautiful sea of cobalt blue. I want someone to look at the models from a distance and say “wow that’s a nice colour!” but then upon closer inspection, see new details previously unseen.

Recently I finished a tester unit using one of the new mk6 marines, so the next step for me is assembly. 80 Marines will make up the bulk of my force, 40 tacs, 30 heavies, and 10 assaults, all using the fantastic Tortuga Bay Studios models! This is gonna take me a while…  

Anuj Malhotra – Defenders of Sol

The Legiones Astartes

Who am I and what am I doing in your brainspace? Well, the story of the Horus Heresy is long and it is a beautiful tragedy. At one point in the not-too-distant past, I had the pleasure of being part of the team writing and designing that story, but now I’m just some dude who designs videogames and runs Horus Heresy events in London as part of The Legiones Astartes. 

Now that the new edition is finally out there for one and all, I want to start fresh as a hobbyist and realise a grand vision of my beloved Imperial Fists for which I’ve long carried a torch in the depths of my being. My ambitions of a vast legion strength force on the tabletop naturally outstrip both my hobby time and motivation, but I’ve got to start somewhere. So then, that place is here and the time is now. I begin with a twinned late Heresy force; a noble Imperial Fists contingent of steadfast dreadnoughts and venerable tanks forming a mighty anvil, while alongside them the savage dregs of the Blood Angels Legion, a force of irrepressible eaters of the dead, lope into bloody melee as my brutal hammer. 

For Him on Terra. Unto the last man. Death to traitors.  

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And so out the cast of characters are formed.

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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