Sunday, July 31, 2016

Horus Heresy Review: Legion Mastodon Heavy Assault Transport

Background.
Employed only sparingly during the Great Crusade to breach enemy positions, the Mastodon saw increased use in the days of the Heresy as a fully armed and armoured transport capable of protecting its transported marines even against titans to a reasonable degree.

Strengths.
This is both a Lords of War entry in the force organisation chart, and possesses an incredible 40 spaces for transport up for grabs. Importantly, it can also take up to 2 dreadnoughts (taking 10 spaces each) in this capacity, making it very formidable for enemy armies.

It carries out its transport role very well with not just crazy Land Raider style armour, armoured ceramite, a whole slew of hull points, but dual void shields to boot. (Recall: even a war hound titan has only 2 void shields itself!).

Even without carrying anything, its presence in a game is very significant and entire armies and strategies could well be built around its use. Its weapons are formidable enough to be a headache for almost anything (granted, they're not destroyer strength though). Flamers, lascannons, meltas, they're all here!

As if that's not enough, if a unit occupies it, there are houses to snap shots when being charged at, catastrophic damage table rolls get a whopping -2 modifier, and if it survives it becomes a proper ruins with 2 entry points! This is very cool in my opinion and represents such a big structure turning in to a battlefield obstacle that can then be used tactically in subsequent firefights.

In terms of upgrades, the vox relay is a cool way to manipulate reserves for the army and punish the enemy for deep strike mishaps. Take if you want fliers on the board on turn 2. Otherwise, probably don't bother.

Weaknesses.
Destroyer weapons.

Builds.
Mastodon, super heavy command tank (720 points).
Look, you don't have to take any upgrades at all. But hey, you've invested a lot of points already, so why not a few more? I like both the relay vox and the sky reaper battery, but hesitate to sacrifice the sky reaper battery for the relay on accounts of the sky fire rule there (without knowing if the rest of the army includes fliers or not).

This could be just downright dirty with the right army. Consider the Iron Hands with Head of the Gorgon rite of war for instance. Or how about Ferrus Manus himself in an unbound list? Ferrus Manus *inside* the Mastodon? With air support? Good luck.

Saturday, July 30, 2016

Horus Heresy Review: Legion Vindicator Siege Tank Squadron

Background.
In the original Betrayal publication, the Legion Vindicator was a singular selection for the Heavy Support slot in the army list. Here, in Retribution, it appears that this decision has been reversed to a more standard 1 to 3 tanks in a squadron. Nice! I'll therefore simply update my review for the original Vindicator entry here.

Strengths.
Genuinely, I'm quite fond of the vindicator as a tank. The Betrayal book explicitly notes that the vindicator finds a lot of use in both Iron Hands Legion and Sons of Horus Legion forces. But for my own part, I regularly use vindicators with my 40,000 Death Guard armies and have won some solid victories through the holes they've manage to punch in enemy lines.

My earlier reviews of Chaos Vindicators and Dark Angels Vindicators still applies in the Heresy era (modulo the daemonic possession stuff in the chaos variant, of course!). I think they make great tanks for many legion armies, but they are competing for a heavy support slot against other viable options here (assuming we're not playing with unbound armies). One interesting option available in the Heresy era is to replace the demolisher cannon with a laser destroyer array. I like this option as it provides a very nice tactical flexibility (especially coupled with the overload option).

Weaknesses.
As with rhino's, the rear armour is something to watch out for. Otherwise, its a very sound and robust tank with very little worries beyond positioning and range.

Builds.
A few sample builds to think about.

Legion Vindicator, dozer blade, armoured ceramite (145 points)
I think this is probably the baseline vindicator for the Heresy / Great Crusade era. The use of the armoured ceramite is almost a given to protect against lance and melta a little better and the dozer blade to help the tank get where it needs to be.  Add a machine spirit and/or auxiliary drive to taste. Of course, naked works well as well here.

Legion Vindicator, Laser Destroyer Array, armoured ceramite (150 points)
With a slightly larger range than the destroyer cannon, the need to move around is lessened and I've removed the dozer blade. This is probably the baseline build for the laser destroyer variant.

Legion Vindicator, dozer blade, armoured ceramite, havoc launcher, machine spirit (185 points)
For when you have to get somewhere and you want to pressure the enemy significantly. Half tempted to replace the havoc launcher with a heavy flamer for counter charge purposes. At this price tag, it starts to get expensive though.

Legion Vindicator, Laser Destroyer Array, Heavy Bolter (145 points)
At first glance, this seems kind of odd. But then factor in that the weapons both have the same range and realise that this combination could be a character killer.

Legion Vindicator, dozer blade, hunter-killer missile (135 points)
Cheaper and highly expendable. This one - particularly if taken a couple of times and filling out the heavy support slot - can be a painful experience for an opponent.


Friday, July 29, 2016

Wargames Gallery: Overlooking Wraiths

Surprised that some Xenos Eldar even managed to scratch their land raider, let alone wreck it, the Tartaros armoured terminators of the Alpha Legion plot their next move carefully overlooking some Eldar wraiths!


[I lost today's game very narrowly, but it was a good one! If nothing else, its taught me that 30k legions can be competitive against even the might of 40k Eldar when played right. In the image, you can see my updated paint scheme on my terminators and a selection of Alpha Legion decals applied to the shoulders of the terminators.].


Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Heldrake Base Colours

I am currently in the process of painting up a Heldrake for a friend. The colour scheme for this one is green, with lighter edging. Not too dissimilar to the efforts that I put in to the Warhound Titan that I am currently finishing off to be honest.

The image shows where I'm up to. The base colours are now all in place. Following a black undercoat, a silver airbrush layer was applied to ensure a certain shine on the model, followed by a couple of thinned down layers of green. Reikland Flesh edging was then applied to offset this green colour nicely, and is slightly Nurgle suggestive in parts.

The model is not yet finished. It is simply to a "table top standard" at this stage (which is to say more than the usual 3 colours minimum that is specified by some tournaments). I'd like to do some shading next, but the model is needed for play soon, so I'm pausing at this point and will continue with this one later in the year. 

One of the problems faced here though was the sheer spikeyness of the model! I like to hold the model in my offhand whilst painting. Yes: I know I could do other wise and use the stand, but its just the way I like to undertake things. But oh my! - my offhand feels very prickled right now! I'm going to bed to heal up and hope that I don't get a Nurgly infection!

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Sgt. Alpharius Accepts

Sgt. Alpharius accepts your challenge, Eldar!
(which were almost my exact words to the local Eldar player for this week's round…).

And, as everyone knows, a more completely painted miniature has a much better probability of surviving a battle. Which is why I've spend some time on this marine (and others) painting on some battle damage (partially complete - please note!), eyeballs, and a small heap of other detail such as the decals. Enjoy!


Monday, July 25, 2016

Perennia Knight Basecoat

Proceeding today with the base colours for my Imperial Knight (an interesting allied option for my Alpha Legion forces, I thought!), I wanted a colour scheme that would somehow resonate with them. Then I recalled that I had started a green colour scheme for my Warhound Titan. Everything clicked in to place and I decided that the Knight would be from the same Forge World as the Titan -- Perennia. 

The undercoat here is black, airbrushed on. This was followed by two silvers (gunmetal and rune fang) airbrushed in to position. On top of this, I have applied three coats of (very) watered down zinc green from Vallejo airbrush range. The idea is to build up the colour in a layer of glaze, not unlike the shiny colours one often sees associated with Alpha Legion or Thousand Sons (or even a beast like a Scorpion of Khorne). 

I'm pleased with the metallic green effect and will proceed on to the edging soon enough!


Friday, July 22, 2016

More Decals

I'm really getting in to the swing of using both the Forge World decals and micro-sol to use them. The image below shows some advances on the previous decal post with Alpha Legion hydras shown on the left shoulder pad of a squad sergeant. This is neat in and of itself: the decal sheet contains both orientations of the common shoulder pad decals, so it can readily be applied to the left or right shoulder pads, as desired. For the Alpha Legion, this is doubly good -- why should they follow pseudo-codex regulations when all they want to do is deceive and confuse their opponents!


Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Horus Heresy Review: Legiones Astartes Quad Launcher Support Battery

Background.
As the Horus Heresy wore on, the once proud and unified space marine legions became more fractured and less well resourced over time. This lead to necessity being the mother of invention. Disposable weapons that were effective such as the rapiers became more common in the fractured forces and their effect on the battle field commensurate with their implementation.

Strengths.
The ability to take a variety of ammunition types is the real strength here. However, note that ammunition types are strictly upgrades. Hence you pay more for anything other than the basic frag shells.

Frag shells themselves are nice and can apply long range pressure at a modest strength. Beyond them, the shatter shells are nicely high strength with sunder; the incendiary shells deal with cover nicely; but the real reason to take them is for the phosphex if you have a siege master along for the ride. These can cause real damage.

Weaknesses.
The splinter shells are expensive and have poor rules. I don't know why one would take them over frag shells, even if you get rending.

More than that, the rapiers are also taking up an elites slot here. And that slot is highly competitive. Even for smaller raiding builds that are meant to be fluffy.

Builds.
3 rapiers with phosphex (240 points).
Some serious damage is possible here and it has a much wider area of effect than other phosphex launchers in the game. Deadly in the right situation.

3 rapiers with shatter shells (210 points).
I just like the high strength here to be honest!

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Eleventh Legion Tease?

In preparing some Horus Heresy Reviews, I was flicking through my copy of Retribution and found something that may merit wider discussion. I want to draw your attention to pages 94 and 95 of Retribution today. The reason for this is that I feel we're being teased about the origins (or fate) of the Eleventh Legion. 

Here's the two pictures in question.



The first image shows a Storm Eagle belonging to the Dark Brotherhood. I want you to look closely at the iconography on the door. Just below the icon in Roman Numerals is "XI". i.e. 11. To the right of that is an Omega. A possible interpretation is that the Dark Brotherhood (or their leader: Nemean -- a Blackshield, and agent of Malcador) is (are) the last survivor(s) of the 11th.

The text of the second image reads:
"Legion Storm Eagle of the Dark Brotherhood. This vessel was used by the Blackshield leader called the Nemean at the Conclave of Optera, and bears heraldry and adornment unique to him and which hint at his origins. The text on the vessel's flanks appear to reference several battles of the Third Rangdan Xenocide, a campaign of apocalyptic proportions prosecuted by the 1st Legion and its allies across vast swathes of the galactic north-west."

So, are we being teased here? Is the Nemean some kind of remnant of the 11th legion? Or was he once part of the Dark Angels as his entry later in Retribution hints at?


[A link back to this blog would be appreciated if you discuss this elsewhere please folks. I'd certainly like to see what others think, regardless of whether its here or elsewhere.]

Monday, July 18, 2016

Assembled Knight

Just a small update today -- a completely assembled Knight (finally!). Yay!


Sunday, July 17, 2016

Alpha Legion Decals Applied

Today, just a brief example of the application of Alpha Legion decals to a miniature. In this case, the miniature is one of the assault marines that I assembled and displayed a few weeks ago. I've done the standard Alpha Legion colours, muted by a good coating of Nuln oil that will be touched up in a subsequent step. Before that happens, I wanted to put the decals on to ensure that any weathering that happens also affects the decals and iconography too.


There are two decals on this particular assault marine. The first is probably obvious: on the shoulder pad is the older Alpha and Omega style icon of the Legion. However, if you look closely, you will see a roman numeral "XX" on the kneepad as well. The level of detail of these decals is simply superb. I'm very impressed, even if the cost of the decal sheet is somewhat high.

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Caveats on Horus Heresy Reviews

I thought it was worth issuing a couple of caveats today. This has come about due to the (many) changes in points values that the new red books from Forge World have produced in units for the Horus Heresy. A summary of some of these changes can be found on Terminus Est and other places, for the curious. I'm not going to go over them here.

I want to state the obvious though. All of the Horus Heresy Reviews that are on Warpstone Flux were reasonably correct at the time of posting. This means that 6th edition was in force when I began with Betrayal for a start. Clearly the "meta game" has evolved since then.

In almost every review for the Horus Heresy, I include sample builds for units that I think are either competitive, interesting or worth noting. Given the recent points value changes, some of these are no longer accurate. I receive a number of messages (actually, you might not believe the number of messages I get!) about these. The fact of the matter is that I simply do not have the time at this precise moment to trawl back through all of the reviews to update the points values. When I get a holiday at Christmas, I might undertake that, but its of questionable value overall.

When FAQs come along, I do at least try to update any pertinent review. But these tend to be on an ad-hoc basis.

TL;DR: I do try to update things, but I'm time limited.

PS: Thanks for everyone's encouragement in 30k and beyond. Its always appreciated to know that I have such an impact on you good folks!

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Horus Heresy Review: Contemptor-Cortus Class Dreadnought Talon

Background.
These machines were born out of necessity during the Ullanor campaign. Salvaged from the remains of the Contemptor "Prime" and the Mortis pattern, these machines were field-constructed and unstable. Plus inferior to the regular contemptors. They were accordingly phased out of existence. But then the Heresy happened, and that changed, because needs must and all that.

Strengths.
These contemptors are cheaper than the regular variants and offer the self-same array of weapons choices -- even the heavy conversion beamer if desired. As such, they should be looked on as a way to save some points, whilst retaining the same amount of fire power and accuracy.

Fleet is nice, as is move through cover as special rules. Plus the ability to deliberately overcharge the reactor to provide an additional rule (+1 Initiative is particularly attractive to me in this regard!) is a small price to pay for a 1 in 6 chance to lose a hull point at the end of the turn. I actually like this rule a lot and it provides for a good amount of tactical flexibility.

Weaknesses.
These guys have a lower Strength characteristic. But you won't care about that if you're running chain fists, or similar to be honest.

Their invulnerable save is only in a frontal arc. So they can be vulnerable to outflanking marines with specialist weapons if the controlling player is not situationally aware enough. But then again, considering the points reduction, perhaps the best way to think of the Corus class is a replacement for the regular (boxy) dreadnoughts, and play accordingly. Sure, they cannot have things like missile launchers, but I doubt such weapons will be missed if one is taking twin Kheres.

Other than that, always having to sweeping advance is not a huge drawback, but potentially not scoring might sometimes be an issue depending on the nature of the game being played.

Overall, look at these guys are cheap contemptors that are cost-efficient with some draw backs that can be played around. I personally like them!

Builds.
I thought here that I would show the exact same builds as I have put on the contemptor reviews. If nothing else, it'll highlight the points savings.

Contemptor dreadnought, 2 multi-meltas, extra armour (145 points)
A vehicle killer. Plonk inside a drop pod if possible and deep strike near its selected target. The extra armour is to help survive vehicle explosion blasts and other incoming firepower should the need arise.

Contemptor dreadnought, 2 twin linked las cannons (185 points)
Another vehicle killer. Or monstrous creature. Blast away from the back lines.  Good luck!

Contemptor dreadnought, 2 twin linked auto cannons (145 points)
A good deal of withering firepower to build an anti-infantry dreadnought out of.  Probably nicer to take the Kheres cannons (below) instead though.

Contemptor dreadnought, 2 Kheres Pattern assault cannons (165 points)
I regard this one as the de-facto standard build for firepower. Regular dreadnoughts cannot take this option, so one might as well use the advantage of this contemptor option and put it to good use. Heavy 6 rending is really, really significant. Two of them can be devastating. Well worth the points, even on a contemptor with no other upgrades.

Contemptor dreadnought with 2 close combat weapons, each with an inbuilt heavy flamer (155 points)
A classic close combat dreadnought. Replace the heavy flamers for other weapons (plasma blaster, melta gun, graviton gun) to taste. Add on a havoc launcher if you have the points, and place inside a drop pod.

Contemptor dreadnought with 1 heavy conversion beamer, havoc launcher and close combat weapon (185 points)
The conversion beamer and havoc launcher have overlapping ranges (unlike many of the other weapon combinations) and can provide a nice synergy. This guy sits at the back and blasts away - assuming a good line of sight. The close combat weapon is to deal with pesky infiltrators and the like, making for a fully flexible dreadnought role.


Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Horus Heresy Review: Leviathan Pattern Siege Dreadnought Talon

Background.
The Leviathan is a Terra-developed alternative to the Contemptor dreadnought. As if the contemptor could get any cooler, the designers just had to add an extra degree of fascination and mystery to this beast! The Mechanicum came to see these as a weapon for a future civil war that could handle even their constructs. And they probably were not wrong. But then the Heresy got in the way before any such rift could develop within the Imperium.

Strengths.
The invulnerable save is a wickedly good 4+ on this machine and it has a very good strength coupled with decent baseline attacks. The armour is sound, but for the price a land raider might prove a better idea.

The weapons are what makes this variant dreadnought stand out though. The melee weapons are formidable with either the armour bane (siege drill) or severing cut (siege claw) options that both have inbuilt melta guns. The graviton flux bombard is in a league of its own for many special rules and the rolling death it has. I really like the cyclonic melta lance as well, even if its not a lance weapon. It is superb at close range.

Speaking of close range, you're probably going to want to purchase a dreadnought drop pod for the purposes of getting close.

Oh and don't forget its a talon. We can take up to three!

Weaknesses.
The blast is stronger and bigger than what might ordinarily be expected for a vehicle explodes result, but hey, that's fine I guess.

The main issue I see with the leviathan is the points cost. It is actually rather expensive as the builds below start to illustrate. Most of the time, a land raider might be a superior choice due to a better AV all around and the capacity to carry troops. That said, I do think a leviathan has its niche. Particularly in cities of death, and zone mortalis games. I think those two scenarios it would be devastating in. But in regular games, or ones with sparse scenery, I'd opt for something else probably.

Builds.
Leviathan, siege claw, graviton flux bombard (290 points).
A mixed purpose dreadnought that can bring pain at mixed levels. I kind of like it for the graviton effects myself.

Leviathan, siege drill, melta lance (295 points).
Good enough to bring down an Imperial Knight at close range.

Leviathan, 2 siege claws, armoured ceramite, phosphex discharger (305 points).
More of a close combat version. 

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Knightly Legs

The Imperial Knight is taking a bit more shape today with the completion of the legs of the build. At first I was not too sure about the groin-banner - at least in the sense I was worried it wouldn't hold or survive transportation to battle. Yet it seems reasonably solid to me, so I'm no longer than worried now. 

The legs don't have too great a degree of possibility sadly. I was thinking I'd have it crushing some unfortunate victim much like I've got my titan stomping down on a building. But it just seemed like too much of a task and I couldn't be all that bothered. Hence I went down the standard pose route. I'll just make the base a bit fancy to offset this I think.

Onward with the torso next. It shouldn't be too long now till this particular build is complete. I'm hoping that it will be a nice accompaniment to my Alpha Legion 30k forces eventually - at least in larger points value games. 

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Imperial Knight Armaments

Progress is being made with the Imperial Knights from Imperial Knight: Renegade. Two arms worth! This is going to be a slow build, it seems. I'm aiming for a Knight Errant here with a Thermal Cannon and Thunderstrike Gauntlet. Or at least I was originally. I clearly have two more arms to build and one of them is going to be a Reaper Chainsword and the other will likely be Battlecannon. Therefore there's some flexibility in build with these as a consequence. 

In building them, they were moderately simple, but a few of the smaller bits (the pipework) proved to be fiddle some for my sticky fingers. Otherwise, they're all good. 


Friday, July 8, 2016

Horus Heresy Review: Herald

Background.
The Herald is a new Consul type introduced in Book 6: Retribution. In short, this marine is a standard bearer who brings a big banner to the army that the loyalists, traitors (or blackshields) consider to be almost sacred. It causes the marines to whip themselves up in to a fervour. And they get bonuses accordingly.

Overall, its a very nice touch, and a viable choice for a low points limit game.

Strengths.
The obvious strength comes from having this HQ alive and raising the banner high. Depending on the faction, this can do several things. For the loyalist, the boon is not so hot, giving an extra pip to WS. I feel this would work well for certain legions more than others. Dark Angels and Blood Angels spring to mind.

For the traitors, it encourages a more aggressive play style thanks to the bonus to the charge range, run distance and re-rolling of 1's in assault on the charge turn. This clearly favours almost any melee orientated build and combines well with any legion that is armed for close combat.

And for the Blackshields faction, there's a bonus to Leadership. This is very nice as one must always remember that "And They Shall Know No Fear" special rule is not in effect in 30k.

The access to the Rite of Command is very nice for low points values, and a 1000 points army list could readily be build around this guy.

Weaknesses.
The obvious weakness here is giving away a victory point for slaying this guy.

I'm also a little bewildered by the combination of having this guy be the warlord, whilst also having him as a none compulsory HQ selection. You're going to need another support officer basically! Equally, that's not so bad at low points levels.

Builds.
A couple of ideas here.

Legion Herald, Thunder Hammer, Faction Banner (115 points).
An aggressive build to place inside a close combat squad. Very nice for any faction really.

Legion Herald, Combi-Plasma, Refractor Field, Melta Bombs, Charnabal Sabre, Faction Banner (125 points).
A very upgraded version of the herald, and possible a bit over the top. This one provides flexibility and is a nice accompaniment to almost any troops or elites squad. Replace the sabre with a power fist to taste.

Thursday, July 7, 2016

Alpha Legion Decals

I recently gave in to a bit of temptation and purchased a set of Alpha Legion decals / transfer slides from Forge World. These decals are very similar in nature to the ones that ordinarily come with space marine boxed sets (and so forth). They require water to be soaked in to them to slide them off the sheet and then application to a suitable surface.

As can be seen in the picture, there's a range of decals for all kinds of things. Ranging from shoulder pads, to legion banners, vehicle markings and all manner of indiscernible markings that the Alpha Legion are not willing to explain, and even lengths of chain at the very bottom!

I will need to acquire some microsol and microset very soon I feel. But then again: are people still using these products? Are they still some of the best available on the market … forgive my ignorance, but its been a little while. Opinions and options welcome.


Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Dreadnought Picture in Retribution

So, I was flicking through Horus Heresy book 6: Retribution this evening, thinking about which review to write up next, when I came across this image on pages 202 and 203. 

Okay, the page is in the typically lush and glorious style that we've come to expect of Forge World's take on the Heresy series just under the Shattered Legion rules. But what really took my notice in this image is the dreadnought. Nope, not the Deredeo that can be seen on the left hand side that probably grabbed your attention. Look instead to the right hand side of the image. Therein is a "normal" dreadnought. 

Looks like the old style Raven Guard dreadnought chassis to my eyes. Regardless, its really awesome to see a "normal" dreadnought finally getting some photoshop editing done in these books. Almost every dreadnought that I see is a contemptor otherwise in these books! Not that there's anything wrong with contemptors, they're great. I just like seeing regular dreadnoughts as well :)


Monday, July 4, 2016

Legion Popularity on Warpstone Flux

I was asked a question a little while ago: which of the 30k legions is the most popular on your blog? Which has had the most hits?

This is actually a tough question to answer in some ways, as each legion has had a different number of posts dedicated to them (as my whim goes), and the Alpha Legion has had plenty more as its certainly known that I've got a 30k Alpha Legion army. 

So to be able to identify this, I thought I would simply look at the number of hits each of the Legion Rules Review pages has had. I then divided through by the number of months each of these posts has been active for on the blog. And then normalised to the Alpha Legion. Because the Alpha Legion wins hands down.

So, in order, here are the most popular legions.
1. Alpha Legion (rating: 1.00)
2. Blood Angels (rating 0.95)
3. Iron Warriors (rating 0.69)
4. Imperial Fists (rating 0.63)
5. Night Lords (rating 0.58)
6. Dark Angels (rating 0.56)
7. White Scars (rating 0.43)
8. Ultramarines (rating 0.41)
9. Word Bearers (rating 0.38)
10. Raven Guard (rating 0.34)
11. Iron Hands (rating 0.29)
12. Salamanders (rating 0.27)
13. World Eaters (rating 0.22)
14. Death Guard (rating 0.21)
15. Sons of Horus (rating 0.19)
16. Emperor's Children (rating 0.17)

Four legions are not in the list, Space Wolves, Thousand Sons and the two lost legions (for obvious reasons). 

I'm a little surprised that the World Eaters (and, indeed, everyone from Betrayal) has scored so poorly. Clearly I might have just been getting underway with these reviews, and arguably they're not as in depth as the more recent articles. I suppose that's fair. But on raw hits, the World Eaters and company are actually not so shabby. 

Speaking of raw hits, only time will tell if the latest three additions (Blood Angels, White Scars and Dark Angels) have any staying power in this list. I'm particularly impressed with the Imperial Fists and Night Lords though. Their scores surprised me in this normalised list -- I wouldn't have picked them so high up personally.

And there we have it. The Alpha Legion are the "most popular" in terms of both normalised hits and raw hits to this blog. The Emperor's Children have the lowest number of hits per month -- some seventeen per cent of what the Alpha Legion gets every month. Caveat Emptor -- Make of this what you will!

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Games Workshop Nottingham

I have the good fortune to visit Nottingham every once in a while … meaning about once every couple of years. Usually I make a dive for Warhammer World in said city. But on this visit, I took a slight detour and went to Games Workshop Nottingham retail store instead. It is distinct from Warhammer World by several kilometres (miles).


Whereas Warhammer World is located on an industrial estate to the South-West of the city centre, Games Workshop Nottingham is located in the city centre itself. It is barely a 5 minute walk from the railway station in the city and about the same from the main bus terminus and the Broadmarsh shopping centre. The store itself is on Friar Lane, a somewhat busy road that runs to the north of these major transit and shopping locations. As such, it is a very accessible location. (Equally, I'm always personally surprised how hilly Nottingham is … I always have it in my mind that its a flat area of the UK -- it is not!).

Physically, the store is not too large, but certainly adequate, with a number of gaming tables laid out. It is one of those long and narrow type stores (slightly L-shaped at the rear by the looks of it) that I suspect at peak times might be tough to squeeze around the edges of the tables. That said, I must emphasise that when I visited, the store had not quite fully opened yet. This can be seen in the picture where the rollers are partially up.

Inside, the store had a number of displays, but do you see the shoulder pad of the marine in the store's window -- very cool!

Overall, it's kind of an average store. At first, I thought this was a surprise given that this is Nottingham -- the home of many games companies in the UK. But then again, I guess that many people are like me and would prefer to wander the halls of Warhammer World instead given the option. Hence I think this store is one for locals with ready access to the city centre but who may find it tougher to get to the industrial estate that Warhammer World is situated on. Therefore, they're probably catering to different communities, at a guess.


Friday, July 1, 2016

Omegon's Man

Deep within a splinter of a Harrowing, Omegon's Man stands ready to lead the Loyalists (or Traitors? We're not entirely sure) of the Alpha Legion to victory.

Featuring a blend of Forge World parts (body of Master of Signals); Chaos Space Marines (head), Space Marines (Arms, Shoulders, weapons) and a shield from Scibor, this guy is effectively going to function as a Praetor (or similar) for Omegon within my Alpha Legion faction. Or perhaps just a squad sergeant for some breachers, or similar. 

The base features a base topper from Anvil Industry, and will eventually get some more attention around the edges with some extra pebbles (etc) to fill in the gap right to the edge of the 32mm base. 



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