Horus Heresy – Solar Auxilia Leman Russ Strike Tank
One of the work horses of the Imperial forces receives an upgrade and proper variant, to distinguish themself from the other departments of the army - the Solar Auxilia Leman Russ Strike Tank!
This is not update or partial sprue swap of the regular Leman Russ Battle Tank but a complete overhaul with the known trim of the Solar Auxilia vehicles and a proper Mars Alpha pattern hull and new vehicle accessories.
Similar to the Malcador chassis, the Leman Russ chassis is used within the Imperium for a lot of different vehicles. You have the Leman Russ himself, as a battle tank, with different weapon systems in turret and hull to provide effective service in certain scenarios, split into the Strike Tank and Assault Tank, but further alterations for example as an Artillery vehicle with the Medusa or Basilisk, prior that these were built upon the chimera chassis. Post heresy further variants were added and many sub-classes of the Leman Russ saw service all across the regiments.
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 – Preview on the Solar Auxilia
During the Las Vegas Open Air Games Workshop previewed the release of the Solar Auxilia in plastic - in full scale! We had the chance to toy around with them in the Legions Imperialis scale, and I wrote an introduction on mustering the Solar Auxilia.
The new plastics are up against some pretty well done older models, as the resin models are dynamic and you have a lot of different poses (with no doubles, from my understanding), so it is going to be interesting to see, which options the new plastics will cover. But certainly, they will make it more accessible, as the price for an army that uses (or at least can use) such a huge number of infantry will come down. Regarding the Veletari, I am not sure how big the impact will be there, as the previewed set, does not show the axes and they might be a Forge World upgrade, as we saw with the Astartes in some cases and that stacked up the price quite a bit.
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.
Legions Imperialis – Adding a Legio, Knight House or Auxilia to your Traitor Legion
And of course, we have to complete the list of all 18 Legiones Astartes by adding those who pledged their allegiance with the Warmaster Horus. And they wouldn't fight alone, not only with other traitor Astartes, but other parts of the former Imperial warmachine.
The listing is a point to begin with, based upon my research in the wikis and Horus Heresy community. The list of allies will probably grow over the product schedule and campaign supplements for Legions Imperialis. While in case of the Collegia Titanica, the Legio Mortis fought along side every Traitor legion of the Astartes, and the only known titan legions who fought alongside the Night Lords, other flexible options are the Legio Fureans and Legio Krytos, who fought with every traitor legion with the exception of Konrad Curzes troops. Further more the support of Traitor Solar Auxilia, Renegade Militias and the Dark Mechanicum was not infrequently.
The 3rd Legion, Emperors Children, first to bear the Emperor's personal standard.
Legions Imperialis – Adding a Legio, Knight House or Auxilia to your Loyalist Legion
In Legion Imperialis you have the opportunity to use combined forces, so not just Astartes but field them with support of Knight Households, Titan Legios and Imperial Militias or Auxilia regiments. But which Legiones Astartes fought alongside which of those and what would create a proper alliance according to the lore?
Of course, you can do what you want, it is your hobby, but with the Horus Heresy community known for being fluff bunnies, this is something I wanted to share with you, based upon lists from the fan wikis and combined work by people like David from Cat Hair in the Paint Pot.
I merged the lists and linked the according information from the wikis, so you have it at hand by looking up your Legiones Astartes. Beginning with the Loyalists. With the exception of the Raven Guard, every loyalist legion fought at one point along side the Legio Gryphonicus (War Griffons) and each of them can use the Solar Auxilia without any doubt.
The 1st Legion, the Dark Angels from Caliban, already have the opportunity to bring their troops in Black, Green or White, but are able to field an even broader variety with the following affiliated factions.
Legions Imperialis – Let us build a city
After providing an overview on the Civitas Imperialis range by Games Workshop we want to take a look into how terrain works in Legions Imperialis, what we need and what might have changed in comparison to for example Adeptus Titanicus.
The most obvious difference is, that the eye-level of the units has changed. While in Titanicus you have maniples of Titans, and you need buildings tall enough to provide cover for these huge machines, this gets much closer to ground with Legions Imperialis.
Legions Imperialis – Civitas Imperialis Capitol
On Warhammer Community they showed a new diorama in Legions Imperialis scale that is exhibited at Warhammer World. And one of the center pieces is this capitol building, that caught the eye of many.
Legions Imperialis – Vanguard Miniatures
Back in 2020 we did a review on the Vanguard Miniatures and their range of metal (!) miniatures for Epic. The range is called Defeat in Detail, is available in 3, 6 and 15mm and covers the Novan Commonwealth (Imperium), Cybershadow (Mechanicum) and even some Xenos races.
But as we now have access to the Legions Imperialis range, we want to compare the metal models with the plastic, beginning with their Novan Elites vs. the Legiones Astartes. Pretty close in size, would work at regular games distance.
Legions Imperialis – Building an Army
We have talked a lot about Legions Imperialis in the last days, did reviews, articles analyzing the new and old content, but now it is time to muster an army. Beginning with the Legiones Astartes.
How does this work in Legions Imperialis? This is a four step process for Army Selection and we're going to this as for my upcoming army project.
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