Legions Imperialis – Legiones Astartes Sicaran Arcus and Punisher Squadron
The only release for the Legiones Astartes among this weeks pre-orders for Legions Imperialis are the Sicaran Arcus and Punisher tanks.
With the starter set, we already have the regular Sicaran and Omega variant of the tank, now adding the missile launcher of the Arcus and rotary cannon of the Punisher to the Astartes battle tank. Thus covering all known variants, beside the Venator, who replaced the turret mounted weapon systems for a hull-mounted neutron-laser.
Horus Heresy – Mechanicum Battle Group
After the Solar Auxilia Battle Group and Legiones Astartes Battle Group, we now have a third Battle Group covering the core of the next faction in plastic - the Mechanicum!
This is a huge step for this army, while Solar Auxilia could re-purpose plastic kits for tanks, the Mechanicum only had the Scitarii as a plastic kit, the entire remaining range was resin. And they did not just add a kit or two, but a whole bunch and put them together right for the start of this impressive Battle Group.
Legions Imperialis – Solar Auxilia Shadowswords, Stormblades and Stormswords Squadron
On this day three new plastic kits are going for pre-order for Legions Imperialis, for Astartes the Sicaran Arcus and Punisher, for Solar Auxilia a new Leman Russ kit with the Executioner and Demolisher and a Shadowsswords, Stormblades and Stormswords kit. The last one is the one, which we are going to cover today.
The Shadowsword multi-kit is the third super heavy set for the Solar Auxilia in Legions Imperialis, after the Baneblade/Hellhammer and Stormhammer kits.
With the last price raise, these kits went up from 40 to 41 EUR, or 31,50 GBP from 30 GBP, covering two identical sprues, an instruction leaflet and a black and white decal sheet.
These vehicles are tank destroyers build upon the Baneblade chassis, where as "tank" destroyer isn't the proper name for those, as they are clearly can be used against them but are uparmoured to fight against knights, titans and fortifications. The chassis is very versatile and depending on what they are intended to fight, there are different variants using different weapon systems, some of which are even mounted on titans.
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.
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 – Solar Auxilia Lasrifle Section Infantry
A completely new release and new design is the Solar Auxilia Infantry from plastic. They are part of the Solar Auxilia Battle Group with a Lasrifle Section (either a single big one of 20, or two of 10 each) and Tactical Command Section covering 5 soldiers.
We covered a bit of introduction on the Solar Auxilia in our article about them in Legions Imperialis. Among the endless regiments and battalions of the Imperial Forces, mostly known as the Imperial Army (that's how the Guard was called during the Horus Heresy), the Solar Auxilia were among the most elite and well-equipped fighting forces of mankind, second only to the Legiones Astartes.
The lore on these is a bit light yet, as even in the first edition of the Horus Heresy, they are covered in only two books and in the new edition they share a complete book with the Sisters of Silence and Adeptus Custodes, without going deeper or providing information on the lore beyond Manachean Commonwealth, with minor side notes on the Cthonian Headhunters and Agathon Cohort.
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.
Legions Imperialis – Solar Auxilia Support
The Solar Auxilia Support adds various Bastion detachments to the army, and is the second non-vehicle box after the Solar Auxilia Infantry kit.
This is your typical side-game boxed set, with two identical sprues and a price band of 40 EURs / 30 GBP RRP. In case of the Solar Auxilia Support you receive 40 miniatures / 28 bases (as Games Workshop counts the crew member individually) for your army.
Legions Imperialis – Legiones Astartes Support
One of the four boxes that goes on pre-order today is the Legiones Astartes Support, covering Dreadnoughts and guns for the Legiones Astartes to support your Astartes Infantry from the initial release.
As usual these kits comes with two identical sprues and have a price band of 40 EURs / 30 GBP RRP, giving you a total of 16 bases with miniatures split into various units / detachments (the statement of 24 miniatures in this box counts the crew men as individual miniatures adding 8 more models to the 16 bases).
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.
Like us on Facebook
Follow me on Instagram
Categories
- events (186)
- fantasy (500)
- General (155)
- historical (585)
- Little Big Adventures (4)
- offtopic (5)
- reviews (449)
- science fiction (554)
- showroom (96)
- work-in-progress (368)
