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.
Warhammer The Old World – Kingdom of Bretonnia Battle Standard Bearer on Royal Pegasus
And after covering the two heroes from the plastic sets, let us take a look at only new plastic hero, as the other new additions are made from Forge World resin - the Battle Standard Bearer on Royal Pegasus of the Kingdom of Bretonnia.
Initially I thought this would be built from the Duke/Baron kit, as they have the same mount. This is something that Games Workshop did in the past, have dual character sets of mounted and unmounted heroes, usually including banners, for example with the Empire General or High Elf Noble. But that was a misconception, this is just the Banner Bearer.
Warhammer The Old World – Kingdom of Bretonnia Duke on Royal Pegasus
The second new hero from the core sets of the Warhammer The Old World range is the combined Duke / Baron on Royal Pegasus from the Kingdom of Bretonnia set.
Just like the Necrolith Bone Dragon This model is currently only available as part of the starter set and will be released on January 20th as well.
There are minimal pictures of the baron variant of this kit. In the beginning I thought that the Battle Standard Bearer and Duke/Baron would be one kit, but they are two different sets. More on that further below. While we do not have a price for this model, it is very likely it will cost the same as the Battle Standard Bearer on Royal Pegasus, which is 55 EUR RRP.
Warhammer The Old World – Tomb King of Khemri High Priest on Necrolith Bone Dragon
We covered the unboxing of the already out of stock core sets on the day of the pre-order and will look into the new models, which means in case of the Tomb Kings of Khemri the High Priest or Tomb King on Necrolith Bone Dragon.
This model is currently only available as part of the starter set and will be released on January 20th.
The Necrolith Bone Dragon is spread across two large sprues, including the parts for the monster itself, along with the palanquin for the High Priest and Tomb King. In addition, you will find a large 100 by 150 mm large rectangular base for this model. It doesn't come with decals.
Bolt Action French Army Infantry
Regarding infantry kits, the latest addition to the vast range for Bolt Action are the French Army Infantry boxed set, with a lot of options for different units. Let us take a closer look!
While this boxed set is meant to be used for the early years of war, you can assemble them for a lot of different lists, with the regular French Army infantry, fortress troops, chasseurs à pied, engineers or colonial troops (Algerian, Moroccan or Tunisian). While sharing the same uniform, the differentiation is made by the use of helmet / head gear, of which this box covers quite a lot.
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