Age of Sigmar – Kruleboyz Man-Skewer Boltboyz
From our last shipment of Stormbringer (4th package, with issues 14 to 19), we received another batch of Stormcast Eternals and Kruleboyz miniatures, and among these are the Man-Skewer Boltboyz, that I would like to add to my Warcry Kruleboyz warband. But I didn't just want to build them, so I thought, why not share these in a review of them own.
They were part of Stormbringer issue #14, in this case the German run by Hachette.
Please note, these are the multipart Kruleboyz Man-Skewer Boltboyz, regularly available through Games Workshop at a RRP of 34 GBP or 44 EUR, which gives us a saving of 75% if we get them through Stormbringer. And further note - these are not the push-fit models from the older Age of Sigmar Dominion starter set, giving you much more details and bits to work with, but more on that further below.
Legions Imperialis – Dire Wolf Heavy Scout Titans
A novelty for the Legions Imperialis, and not just a repack of a former Adeptus Titanicus or Aeronautica Imperialis boxed set, is the double pack of Dire Wolf Heavy Scout Titans. These are formerly only available as single resin kits by Forge World (we've covered them here as well - Dire Wolf Heavy Scout Titan with Neutron-Laser and Volcano Cannon), and with them moving over into plastic, we even got new weapon options.
This new plastic kit, is available as a double pack from Games Workshop at 62,50 EUR, which makes them a bit cheaper than the resin variant which were 44 EURs each. On top of that, the weapons not only cover the Neutron-Laser and Volcano Cannon, but received a third option, the Conversion Beam Dissipator.
Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team – Termination
The latest addition to the Kill Team boxed sets is Termination, and the third one for 2024 after Salvation (Space Marines vs Aeldari) and Nightmare (Drukhari vs. Chaos Space Marines). This time it is the Genestealer Cult vs. League of Votann, the Brood Brothers against the Hernkyn Yaegir to be more precisely.
None of the boxes are stand-alones, you will still need the Core Rulebook to play. The lite rules are free to download on Warhammer Community.
Age of Sigmar – Stormcast Eternals Annihilators
I grabbed these Annihilators as a reinforcement for the Warcry Stormcast Eternals Warband, that I built from the Stormbringer subscription. While I was looking, if I could get the push-fit ones from Dominion, the price of the proper multi-part kit was so close, that I went for the "real deal".
These are like I said, the multi-part not push-fit from Dominion (picture on the left), and you get a box with three sprues, options for having them either wield a two-handed hammer or hammer and shield, along with three round bases and an instruction leaflet including the warscroll. The price of these is 45 EUR RRP, but I managed to pick them up at a sale for 27 EURs.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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
Quite the load-out and a proper competitor for the Legion Astartes Battlegroup, with the Mk 3 Power Armour Marines, Dreadnought and Land Raider.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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