Well folks, this one is a strong contender for my favourite Horus Heresy novel to date! Horus Rising is probably still my all-time favourite to date, don’t get me wrong, but this was just a truly amazing read!

The plot is far too complicated for me to do it justice here, so let’s just ramble inanely for a bit instead! First off, rather than truly following one of the twenty Astartes Legions, as other novels in the series have done, this one primarily focuses on the little people of the army, with only minimal interaction with the actual space marines for the most part of the book. We follow a few regiments of the army, prominently the Geno Five-Two Chiliad, during the Compliance of Nurth.

I found the opening chapters of the book to be particularly impressive, as Dan Abnett sets up the scene of a prolonged siege, giving the various regiments a real sense of individuality, amid the desert warfare setting. The native Nurthene were an interesting bunch, resisting the Emperor’s Peace with their Oriental-style weapons. I was a bit disappointed we didn’t get to see more of them, and learn about their culture more, but that isn’t really the focus of the story, I guess.

The principal plot thread follows the psyker John Grammaticus on a mission for the Cabal, a group of xenos who have seen the future and need to warn humanity that it is about to tear the galaxy apart and let Chaos (referred to as the Primordial Annihilator) rampant. John’s mission is to bring the Alpha Legion, widely known as the most pragmatic of the Emperor’s sons, into the Cabal’s confidence as to how they can save the galaxy.

(Beware, there are spoilers inbound from here on in!)

After several twists and turns, one of which sees the Nurthene essentially destroy their world rather than let the Imperials get hold of it, the Alpha Legion arrive at the meeting point designated by the Cabal, 42Hydra Tertius. The Cabal meet with the twin Primarchs, Alpharius and Omegon, and warn them that Horus is about to tear the galaxy apart in Chaos – if he wins, Chaos will eventually extinguish itself; however if the Emperor wins, the galaxy will slowly decline over thousands of years and wipe itself out. The Cabal gives the Legion the choice: either side with Horus, and prevent Chaos from triumphing, or wipe the galaxy out. Reasoning that the Emperor’s sole intent is to stem the tide of Chaos, both Alpharius and Omegon decide to “turn traitor” our of loyalty to their father…

This book is amazing. I’d decided to paint my Betrayal at Calth marines as Alpha Legion, which has perhaps given me something of an affinity for them before coming to this book, and so I had been looking forward to it even before I’d read Horus Rising. Despite the foregrounding of the army troopers, you quickly get the sense of the Alpha Legion working behind the scenes, and the subtitle of the novel, Secrets and Lies, becomes abundantly clear as the action moves forward.

This isn’t a novel about spies, as much as it deals with espionage and intrigue. There are still plenty of battle scenes, and I have to say, I really liked the change of pace that we get from the focus on the army. We don’t learn about the XX Legion here in the manner we learn about the Death Guard in Flight of the Eisenstein, or the Emperor’s Children in Fulgrim, but that’s partly the point. The Alpha Legion is a secretive legion that uses any means open to them, primarily infiltration operatives like Hurtado Bronzi and Peto Soneka. That said, we do get some bits, and I love the fact the legion has the twin Primarch thing going on, that was really cool!

Something I think I mentioned in the Descent of Angels blog was how dismayed I was to go backwards in the timeline from the end of Fulgrim, and read a story that had next to no relation to the story that had been established up to that point. Legion also takes place well before (and also around) the time of Horus Rising, which does annoy me a little bit, but rather than spending so long on a story that has no real sense of the Warhammer universe, Legion is a story set during a Compliance action of the Great Crusade, so it doesn’t feel as annoying to me somehow.

My copy of Battle for the Abyss still hasn’t arrived yet, so I’m probably going to get back to reading some comics for the time being. I have no idea what to expect from book eight in the series, and have so far managed to avoid all sense of spoilers from it. I’m curious to see what I think of it, going in completely blind. As always, stay tuned for more!

I seem to have been writing a lot of rambling posts lately, so why buck the trend when I can just continue in this vein and waffle on about stuff that has been happening and all the rest of it – you know you love it!

First of all, this happened today. Lots and lots of Age of Sigmar goodness, centred around the new campaign book, Godbeasts. This is a really amazing-looking book, full of battle plans and amazing artwork, and all manner of painting guides – including guides for the realmgates and a realm of battle board! I also picked up the new painting book, as it was fairly cheap and, flicking through it in store, it looked so much better than I thought it was!

I’m really excited to add some Lizardmen/Seraphon to my collection at last. I’ve talked about this previously, but my very first interaction with the Warhammer universe was with this piece of amazing artwork:

It just captivated me, and once I had started buying models, I did actually purchase a sizable number of Lizardmen kits, only to then sell them on ebay because I wasn’t doing anything with them. However, I’ve never really stopped wanting to get some models painted, and when the Seraphon were released for Age of Sigmar, the only reason I didn’t drop hundreds on an army of these guys was that I was still in the middle of painting up my Stormcast Eternals. But I’ve finally picked up a couple of boxes, and I feel wonderful for having these guys in my life!

The best part of all of this, however, is that I’d returned some kits that I honestly didn’t know why I’d bought them – such as the Blood Angels Chaplain, a second Illuminor Szeras, and the Beastmen Minotaurs. In retrospect, I don’t know why I bought any of these things, though it clearly felt like a good idea at the time! If I’d have thought it through, I might have worked out exactly how much all of this was worth and really try to maximise my return, but I just took a bunch of stuff back, and bought all that stuff in the linked instagram picture for just £2.40. Awesome! So that was an extremely good day.

I’m particularly pleased to just downsize the amount of stuff I’ve collected about me recently, and turn it into things that I want. Not that I didn’t want the other stuff at the time, of course, but anyway! Very exciting to have some Lizardmen, that I hope to get round to soon!

Moving away from Warhammer, this announcement went up yesterday for the next small-box expansion to Eldritch Horror. We’re finally getting Hastur, you guys!! We’re also in for some of the Arkham Horror base game investigators, which is another exciting point. I try not to spoil myself for these things, and just discover the game when I get it, but it’s going to be hard this time around, as Hastur has got to be one of the more interesting Ancient Ones. Stay tuned for awesome!

I’m actually quite surprised to note that I haven’t really been keeping abreast of a lot of the new game releases lately, though in checking through the recent news archive from FFG, there doesn’t really seem to be a lot coming up that is particularly exciting. It’s good to see the upcoming LCG stuff, but there haven’t really been any exciting board games coming out of late (still not sure what to think about Rebellion). At least it means I won’t be filling my flat with any more stuff for the time being!

So folks, I finished reading the third book in the Age of Sigmar novel series!

Ghal Maraz continues the story from War Storm in two short stories, a slightly odd move that I suppose makes sense given the fact these are the first books from the new Age of Sigmar, but which otherwise would have made better sense to have been published in separate books. But anyway. The first tale follows the Hallowed Knights in Ghyran, still struggling against the hordes of Nurgle. Like the last story in War Storm, it’s a pretty gross story with a lot of repetitive descriptions of horrible stuff that makes it something of a chore to get through. The Stormcasts find Alarielle, but she gets mad when they lead the Glottkin and other disgusting stuff directly to her. The story ends with Alarielle kinda in alliance, but it’s a little weird. It’s good to see some of the folks from the world-that-was, of course, but well, I’m just not a fan of Nurgle!

The second story is a bit more interesting, as it returns to Chamon and the whole Tzeentch storyline. The Celestial Vindicators realise they have found Ghal Maraz in the Eldritch Fortress back in the last story, so Sigmar sends a fairly huge mustering of Stormcasts to reclaim his hammer, including the Lions of Sigmar! I was very excited by that, but unfortunately this is still very much a Hammers of Sigmar/Celestial Vindicators story. There is a lot of weird stuff that goes on in this one, which I suppose can only be expected from a Tzeentch-centric story.

It’s surprising to me that, three books in, the setting for Age of Sigmar still feels a little too goofy to me. I have always tried to ignore this criticism for the game, but unfortunately it’s becoming something of an issue for me in reading these things. There’s very little to engage with really – some things are suggested, but are dropped almost as quickly as they come up. While I get the idea of only suggesting a background to add fuel to games, it gets a little awkward when you’re trying to write a story without giving a lot of background detail.

So, I don’t really know if I’d really recommend any of these books as it stands. They’re probably worth looking into if you’re a fan of the new game of course, as you do get some hints for what you’re doing with these little plastic men. In the previous blog, I thought there were the beginnings of a more fleshed-out landscape, but things just don’t seem to be progressing very much at all…

It’s new Sigmar time again!

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m actually getting quite excited about these gentlemen! I’ve not previously been all that into old-style Orcs, and while I have sometimes flirted with the idea of Orks, I never really did anything about it. While previously, you’d tend to pick an army and then focus on that section of the product range with something like tunnel-vision, Age of Sigmar has made things so much more free by allowing you to field an army with anything stuck to it, and I’ve already been attaching Sylvaneth and Seraphon to my Stormcast Eternals…

The biggest draw, for me, is this chap. I’m still undecided if I actually want to get the big dragon for the Stormcast Eternals line, which is part of the reason why I didn’t do any kind of feature-blog here as I tend to do when new models get released for pre-order. There’s just something about this model, however, that I really like somehow. The spoiler pictures have been doing the rounds of the internet for a couple of weeks now, of course, and initially I was wondering if I could adapt it, putting one of my Ogres on top there instead. These spoiler pictures weren’t too great, so I couldn’t really see what the Orruks themselves looked like, but had just assumed I wouldn’t really be all that interested in them.

Well I’m actually intrigued now! Part of the reason, I suppose, is just the fact they’re shiny and new, but I do like variety as well, and often think of the Destruction faction more like mercenaries than anything else, so including some alongside my Stormcasts isn’t entirely out of the realms of possibility. I mean, Sigmar is trying to purge the Realms of the taint of Chaos, and Orruks and Ogors just seem to want to fight, so why not?

One of the reasons why I like these chaps is their fluff. This week’s White Dwarf has got a lot to say about the new Orruks, obviously, and a lot of it uses that Cockney twang that often looks so annoying, but somehow just fits right in here! It’s one of the things that makes the Warhammer setting so uniquely British, and I love it all the more for it!

While I’m not always a fan of the big stuff (it is a miniatures game, after all), I plan to pick one of these up next weekend, along with the Battletome, because why the hell not, and possibly another unit of something. Not quite sure yet. But even if they don’t go alongside my Stormcasts, it might be the excuse I need to get moving with my Ogors and get a true Destruction army under way!

As for colour schemes, I definitely won’t be going for that eye-damaging yellow look. I don’t know if they’re trying to draw a close comparison with the Orks of 40k, whose studio scheme also uses a lot of yellow, but the teaser in this week’s White Dwarf has got me thinking maybe they intend to produce cross-system kits? “Dakka” is more 40k than fantasy, after all, so maybe they’re going to take a route similar to Chaos Demons and have stuff that can be used in both games. But that’s getting off-topic. I’m thinking I might go for some kind of red armour, though I’m not the biggest fan of painting red if I’m honest. There’s at least a week to decide, though – and knowing how fast I paint, I’ll probably have a lot longer than that!

So the news has dropped, folks. Age of Sigmar will have points values, probably around the first anniversary I’m guessing – early July, anyway. Seems like a lot of folks are pretty happy.

In addition, they’re bringing a narrative style that sounds like it could be awesome, though I’m vaguely suspicious as the campaign books that have been published so far already contain a high degree of this style of play. Maybe there’ll be an almost-RPG feel to the game? I don’t know. Should be really cool, anyway, and is by far the most exciting part of this announcement for me.

My local store has always had a high degree of narrative players, however, so I doubt there’ll be a big change here. While I’m slightly dubious about what adding points into the game will mean for what we’ve had so far, I’m nevertheless intrigued by just what’s going to happen in the coming months…

I’ve been continuing the Heresy this week, with book eight in the series from Black Library: Battle for the Abyss! This book was fairly interesting, though also really quite sad. But let’s talk story first – and please beware, I will be talking spoilers!

The book is the first since Fulgrim to actually continue the story of the Heresy, though rather than returning to any of the Legions we have already been introduced to, we’ve moved to two that are new to the series but, arguably, two of the biggest Legions involved in the Heresy. First of all, the Ultramarines finally make it into the story in a big way, and secondly, we have the original heretics, the Word Bearers. I know First Chaplain Erebus plays a significant role in turning Horus traitor in the first three novels, but we finally get to meet his Legion, and they’re all as crazy as he is…

The book begins with the enormous starship Furious Abyss being launched from orbit around Saturn, with the mission to destroy Macragge. Encountering and destroying an Ultramarines ship at the beginning of its maiden voyage leads to a rag-tag coalition of Astartes from four different Legions following the immense ship into the Warp – World Eaters, Space Wolves, a Thousand Son, and a small band of Ultramarines, led by Captain Cestus. The main part of the book is therefore a short battle, then a chase into the Warp, before another short battle during a stopover, before a second chase into the Warp and a concluding pitched battle above Macragge. I actually thought I was going to be annoyed by this structure, as it seemed to be really narrow in focus, but given the large canvas of characters, it makes for a pretty interesting story!

I’ve mentioned it before, but something I enjoy a lot about these novels is discovering how each Legion is different from the others, despite essentially being a collection of Space Marines. While we don’t really get a lot of that with the Ultramarines, enough is sketched in – along with details of the Space Wolves and Thousand Sons – while the Word Bearers are investigated quite closely.

I’m not a huge Space Wolves fan, and the World Eaters are frankly boring, but something I was hugely interested by was the Thousand Sons lore we get along the way here. The XV Legion, the Thousand Sons are essentially a Legion of psykers, censured under the Edict of Nikea that forbade the use of psykers in battle, and so regarded with some suspicion by their brother Astartes. Mhotep, the lone warrior we follow, says he wishes to re-establish a measure of trust with his comrades, but as the story moves along he is forced to use his psychic ability to save his battle brothers time and again, while being regarded with hostility at best. It’s a deeply sad tale, and I find it interesting when we see the wider lore of the Thousand Sons essentially wanting to be a Loyalist Legion, but being shunned by the rest of the Astartes. Mhotep is a new favourite character of mine, not only because he’s like some kind of Jedi badass, but because of the stoic manner in which he accepts his brothers.

The Ultramarines come across a little, well, boring here. Despite having Cestus as something of the central character of the story, we don’t seem to get a lot of information about them, which is a little symptomatic of the Warhammer universe at large – Ultramarines are so often equated with generic Space Marines that it takes a very specific writer to really make them interesting (that writer is, more often than not, Graham McNeill).

At any rate, the book feels a little like a slog at times, but the conclusion is just epic! The loyalist band manage to board the Furious Abyss and, after all manner of horrible things happening, destroy the leviathan by blowing its main reactor. I thought it was quite poignant to see the marines whittled down until we had just the captains of the Ultramarines, Space Wolves and World Eaters left, and seeing the three of them work together to destroy the Word Bearer’s plans – knowing the World Eaters are a Traitor Legion – was really intriguing. I believe we get to see more of these types, such as Nathaniel Garro and Garviel Loken, marines who refuse to turn traitor along with the rest of their Legion, so that should be good!

Unfortunately, I felt incredibly bummed-out after finishing this novel. I warned you about spoilers, so don’t blame me when I tell you this: everybody dies in this book. All of the main characters. Some of them quite awfully, as well. Brynngar, the Space Wolf, jumps into the reactor. Skraal, the World Eater, is stabbed through the eye lens (that happens a few times, actually). Cestus kills the Word Bearer admiral, Zadkiel, only to bleed out from several wounds he received during the final battle. However, the saddest of all, for me, was the death of Mhotep, who gave his life to keep the Word Bearer’s Warp-spawned demon Wsoric on the material plane long enough that it was weakened, enabling him to stuff a grenade inside the demon’s body. He dies saving the Imperium from the predations of the Warp-spawn, but nobody he has encountered during the course of the novel is remotely grateful for his intercession. Just so sad!

You should definitely read this if you’re interested in the Horus Heresy, because it’s a great character-study of the different Legions, and sets up the climactic Battle of Calth between the Word Bearers and Ultramarines, famous – among other things – from the recent Horus Heresy boxed game. It’s a bit of a slog, and definitely something of a downer, but it’s one of those books you read for the small things…

Hey everybody!
I woke up in such a good mood this morning, and so far, the day has not let me down. It’s been rather wonderful, even if I say so myself, so let me share some of this awesome with you fine internet folk!

I went up to Chester this morning, which in itself is nothing really new as I tend to go there most Saturdays – it’s where my nearest Games Workshop store is, after all. I picked up some Ironjawz, after eyeing them up for a long while, so I’m hoping they can lift me out of the painting lapse I’ve been in for a while now.

This week is all about the Flesh-Eater Courts, the new zombies basically being repackaged. However, while there aren’t any new models coming, there is a new Battletome to accompany the release, something I found quite interesting. We’ve seen this with Seraphon/Lizardmen, of course, but still. There is something irresistibly creepy about the lore of these guys, and I find myself marveling at the way Games Workshop manages to seduce me so well – I was actually considering a pre-order!

In case you missed it, there’s something afoot in the Mortal Realms, as it appears the rumours of an Age of Sigmar-themed boxed game appear to be true. Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower has had its teaser trailer up this morning, and it looks filled with Tzeentchy horror and some interesting barbarian-like folk – I’m particularly intrigued by that chap up in the top left corner wielding a warhammer, looks like a warrior priest to me…

While in Chester, I also picked up some books, including the new Bloodlines novel that purports to fill in many of the gaps in the lead-up to The Force Awakens, and another Justice League book, The Grid.

I haven’t mentioned some of the recent comics I’ve been reading, so I think I’ll do a bit of a catch-up here, anyway. Starting with The Grid, this appears to be one of the stories that leads into the Trinity War crossover event, and starts by swelling the ranks of the Justice League with all manner of extras, as seen during the previous arc, Throne of Atlantis. We have Firestorm, Atom, and Element Woman, among others, and if I’m honest, I feel a bit like we’re diluting the awesome team dynamic that hooked me into the Justice League in the first place.

The first part of the book, anyway, deals with the attack on the League by the villain Despero. He is given a Kryptonite ring and attacks the Watchtower, causing it to plummet to the earth and, when Superman flies up to prevent a catastrophic hit into the east coast, he is beaten back by the ring. It’s only by the intervention of Martian Manhunter that Despero is driven back, though he flees before any of the main Justice League show up on the scene, leaving everyone thinking Atom defeated him.

It was a cool story, though there are a lot of pages where nothing really happens – at least, nothing that feels like it interests me somehow. Which was a shame, if I’m honest.

The second part of the book is the Trinity War crossover, something I got really confused by when I tried to read the issues in Justice League of America. The Trinity War crossover arc deals with all three Justice Leagues – that of Superman et al, the JLA that includes Martian Manhunter, Hawkman et al, and Justice League Dark, which features Constantine and Deadman, among others.

JLA started off pretty interestingly, I thought. Amanda Waller and Steve Trevor set up a second Justice League, with the idea that it would stop any possible threat from the main Justice League of Superman etc. They investigate the Secret Society of Super Villains in what was a fairly confusing storyline, for me, though it was cool to see a new group of superheroes interact into a cohesive whole, something I really enjoyed about the first Justice League book. It was also great to read a story with Martian Manhunter, a character who had intrigued me since playing the DC deck-building game.

I’m not really a fan of Constantine, which has been putting me off buying the Trinity War storyline, but given that it seems to be a big part of this world, and I believe it leads into the Forever Evil stuff, I think I may have to invest at some point…

Almost completely off-topic now, I’ve also been reading the first Green Lantern book, Sinestro. I’ve never honestly been all that interested by this guy but, as happened with Aquaman, I was intrigued following the first Justice League book. I actually bought this one months ago and, after the success of Aquaman, I’d feared I might become enamoured of another superhero and throw loads of money at the various Lantern books. Well, it’s with something of a heavy heart that I say, I wasn’t as keen on this solo series as I was with Aquaman. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice to see where this Hal Jordan came from and whatnot, but given the fact that he doesn’t actually have his powers during this book, and is essentially a pawn of Sinestro’s attempt to rescue the natives of his homeworld, I felt it was a bit odd, and I couldn’t really see where this fit with the Green Lantern of the Justice League book.

I’m prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt, however, and have ordered the second volume, which is on its way to me as I type, so my opinions may change soon, but yeah, I was feeling a bit meh about this. Plus, the art changed for the final story in this volume, which I really didn’t like!

At any rate, I’m sure I’ll be getting round to more of the comics on my shelf soon. Having read so much good stuff about it, I’m decided to move onto Star Wars: Bloodlines next, so I’ll be back soon with my thoughts on that!

Hope you’re all having as excellent a Saturday as me!

Looks like a super exciting weekend of Age of Sigmar goodness is coming!

The Everqueen herself, Alarielle, has finally awoken to the abuses of Nurgle, and has brought the forests alive to battle the plaguefather. Something that has kinda been in the background for what feels like an age, but is in fact only a year or so, is now brought to the fore as the Realmgate Wars conclude in explosive style!

Okay, so enough with the hyperbole, this weekend’s pre-orders look ridiculously good. So good, in fact, I may have to start selling organs to fund it all. First of all, it’s Sylvaneth week. We’ve seen releases for these guys back in the day, though it was only a case of re-packing existing kits for sale. Now, we get new kits, with a new Battletome, and all of the usual pomp that comes from these things. I’m really excited by all of this!

The kits themselves, first of all, look amazing. Starting with the woman of the hour, Alarielle looks fabulous. At £80, of course, she should look pretty amazing! Riding into battle atop a wardroth beetle, that part kinda looks goofy, but it’s the kind of goofiness that we’ve come to know from Age of Sigmar and, I feel, it’s the kind that we now love. She’d look distinctly underwhelming just as an elven lady when put among kits like Archaon and the Maw-krusha, so I guess we knew she’d be riding something, but yeah, I think this one is fine!

Next up is “Drycha Hamadreth“, something that looks like a wooden dreadnought, and follows the main theme for this release, namely of spirits trapped inside trees. Drycha has come a long way since her original model, and while I think this looks the silliest of all the releases we’ve gotten this weekend, I may well end up picking up a box at some point over the summer. I very much want to bulk out my existing Dryad forces (and get round to actually painting my Treeman!) so it’ll be nice to have at least one of everything.

The last single model we have in this release is the Branchwych, which looks very much like a Dryad champion, wielding some kind of scythe. Looks okay, though seems a little weird to see trees wielding weapons.

However, the two army kits from this release also follow this trend, so maybe it isn’t so weird, after all! First up are the Tree Revenants, spirit/trees who have a lot in common with Prince Nuada from Hellboy 2. Part tree and part spirit, they seem to be the new style of infantry soldier for the Sylvaneth army, though hopefully the Dryads will continue to form the backbone of such armies for a long while yet. I do like the look of these guys, though I think I prefer the alternate build of Spite Revenants, who are more malevolent-looking, and merely use their claws rather than actual weapons. Might be nice to have a band of five, just to add a bit of spice to the look of them!

Finally, we have the Kurnoth Hunters, who look to be the elite choice for the army. These guys can be built with swords, bows or with sickle-scythes, but they’re nonetheless trees wielding weapons. As silly as that sounds, I still really like the idea, and have pre-ordered a box as I think it might be nice to get some archers – I’m looking to do an alliance of trees and Stormcast, so I think it could look great to have these guys supporting my Judicators! That said, the sword-wielding option also looks good, so might be worth getting some more for those. We’ll see.

In addition to all of this wooden goodness, we have the Battletome, which features a whole host of army customization options – something I’m particularly excited for is the relics and the “historical battalion”, special rules for a Stormcast/Sylvaneth army. Should be really exciting, that one!

I’m surprised that All-Gates is published as the final tome in the Realmgate Wars series, as I thought they would be just going on forever like this. However, it makes me think Games Workshop is planning to launch a new campaign for the second year of the hobby, which should be really exciting to see!

We also have a new Sylvaneth collection of short stories, and a painting guide, but perhaps the most eagerly-anticipated release of the entire Age of Sigmar line is also up for pre-order this week, the General’s Handbook! Yes, points are coming to the game, which I really don’t find that interesting at all, but it seems that’s going to be the only way that you’ll be able to get a fair game in at your local store. I’m a bit sad, because I really liked the social contract of arranging a game, but obviously most people either can’t or won’t play fairly, so need a framework to constrain themselves. But I do see its value for fair tournaments, so I guess there is that. I’ve volunteered to take part in a local tournament, actually, so I’ll hopefully get some battle reports or whatever written up here in the coming weeks and months…

That looks to be it for the new releases for Age of Sigmar this week, though I think you’ll agree, it’s a pretty bonkers weekend of stuff! I’m really excited for pretty much the whole lot, anyway!

Before I close up this blog, though, I just want to point out that the new Gorechosen boxed game is also up for pre-order this weekend, not due for release until September. I find this really interesting, as they did a similar thing with Lost Patrol. Makes me wonder if the releases of previous games have made them a bit more wary, and they’re testing the waters rather than going for big-splash releases. Execution Force seemed to do extremely poorly, while Betrayal at Calth and Deathwatch Overkill seemed to fare much better overall. Rather than risk holding excess stock, maybe they want to see how popular it would be beforehand? At any rate, I’ll probably get it, though at least this way I can plan ahead somewhat!

It feels like an age since I finished reading a book! According to the above instagram photo, however, it’s been almost a month, and more than two since I last read a Horus Heresy novel. At any rate, I’ve finally finished reading the ninth novel in the Horus Heresy series, Mechanicum, so thought I’d come here and share my thoughts, as per usual!

In short, I didn’t like this book. This has nothing to do with the writing (Graham McNeill is one of my favourite genre authors, as I’ve mentioned previously on this blog), but rather the subject matter. I know the Adeptus Mechanicus is a popular thing for lots of Warhammer fans, shown especially when they launched as a distinct faction for the tabletop miniatures game, but despite trying to be interested, I’m just not all that interested in them. The story of this novel deals with the Schism of Mars, and I feel it sets up a very important element of the overall Heresy storyline, but I found it far too uninteresting, and sometimes went almost a week between chapters.

The book has three story strands that coalesce towards the end, though I do feel that one point is left hanging somewhat awkwardly. First of all, we have the story of Dalia Cythera, a latent psyker brought to Mars to help build a machine called the Akashic Reader, which is supposed to be able to harness the power of the Warp enough for a more capable psyker to delve into its secrets. She does so, but the initial run with it involves draining power from the Astronomican, and causes a massive catastrophe yet it is strongly suggested that some of the knowledge from the Warp was collected, but we never find out what. Touched by the psychic power unleashed, Dalia begins to dream of a dragon locked beneath the Noctis Labyrinthus, and travels across the red planet to free it. What she finds there, however, is not what she expected.

The sponsor for this work is Mechanicum Adept Koriel Zeth, who is something of an anomaly in the Adeptus Mechanicus in that she believes more in the supremacy of science than the power of the Omnissiah, something that causes a rift among her colleagues. Her forge at the Magma City becomes a centre of attention as the story progresses, as one of the few forges that escape the conversion to the Dark Mechanicum.

This is something that I’d heard bandied around by 40k enthusiasts for a long time now, in terms of modelling an army and the like, so I thought it intriguing to read about it all. Basically, Regulus, the Mechanicum adjunct to the Sons of Horus from back in the original opening trilogy, returns to Mars with the offer of an alliance with the Warmaster and Mars – if the Fabricator-General agrees to supply the Warmaster and his allies over the rest of the Astartes, Horus would not only give full control to all of the galaxy’s Forge Worlds over to the Mechanicum, but also provide the original Standard Template Construct database recovered from the Auretian Technocracy (detailed in the second novel, False Gods), and would provide the key to unlocking the fabled Vaults of Moravec and all the technology held there. The Fabricator-General, Kelbor-Hal, agrees, and the Vaults are opened, revealing a host of Warp-enhanced servitors and Skitarii, as well as a virus-like “scrap code” that proceeds to infest the majority of the forges of Mars. Kelbor-Hal then begins production of a titanic new ship for the Word Bearers Legion, Furious Abyss.

Something of a power-play takes up the central portion of the novel, as the Titan Legions posture before finally declaring all-out war. Legio Mortis strikes the forge of Koriel Zeth, who is defended by Legio Tempestus. The novel ends in something of a bloodbath, with only one machine of the Legio Mortis left standing – that is, until Koriel Zeth releases the safety protocols on her Magma City, basically wiping out her entire forge in a sea of magma.

Despite what I said at the beginning there, parts of this book really interested me, and I found a lot of it really enjoyable. I think the politics of Regulus and Kelbor-Hal were the outstanding parts for me, as they had the strongest tie to the overall Horus Heresy storyline, which is what I’m really keen to learn more about. The rise of the Dark Mechanicum, while a little weird, is nevertheless an important part of the lore, so I was glad to discover more about that.

Dalia’s storyline started out really intriguing, especially as they managed to make the Akashic Reader a reality. However, I was left feeling a little cheated when the suggestion that it had, in fact, worked went unexplored. The storyline lost most of its interest for me as she traveled the planet to the Dragon of Mars, which was a little too crazy at times – though I have since read that the Dragon might be one of the C’tan, which is exciting for a Necron player such as myself! Dalia’s storyline ends fairly abruptly, too, which I was surprised by, though perhaps this is going to be picked up in a future novel?

The third storyline in the book is that of the Titan legions, and while I’m sure it was meant to be as interesting as the others, just confused me from the start, and I found most of it just boring. There are a lot of characters in this book, which is nothing really new for the Heresy series, but having almost every warmachine rider as a named character, across the whole Titan Legion, led to me losing interest as I couldn’t keep up. As the story progresses, this strand becomes increasingly foregrounded, which didn’t help in the slightest, and I think led in part to my disinterest in the novel.

Overall, I’m glad I read it, but I think I was expecting a lot more than what we received. The parts that disinterested me unfortunately outweighed the parts that I found to be interesting, which has led to me feeling less than positive about it. At any rate, if you like the Adeptus Mechanicus faction, you’ve either read this already, or else should definitely pick it up. Otherwise, while it has some important impacts on the overall Horus Heresy, I feel it could be summed up as “Regulus starts a civil war on Mars, leading to the Mechanicum largely following Horus”.

It’s Deathwatch time at Games Workshop, with a third week of releases for the elite xenos-hunting Space Marines – and what a week it is, too! Following on from the boxed game Death Masque, which featured the Emperor’s elites pitted against the Harlequins in Shield of Baal style, and last week’s re-packs of existing Space Marine kits with the Deathwatch upgrade sprue, this week sees pre-orders for some new kits alongside more re-packaged boxes.

Last week, we had bikers and tanks, with some captains and the minis from Overkill. This week, we’ve got terminators and vanguard veterans, a venerable dreadnought, and a librarian and a chaplain. These are all just packaged along with the upgrade sprue (the terminators, hilariously, have three such sprues because of how the terminator shoulder pads are distributed), and while it’s nice to have these options, I’m not exactly going to rush to buy any of them. More importantly, however, this week sees the actual Kill Team box go up for pre-order, with a new Watch Master mini and the new Corvus Blackstar flyer.

The new ship looks really nice, though I don’t know that I’d rush to get it first. I’ve not built a lot of these kinds of big kits, mainly as I prefer troops and the like, but I’ll no doubt get one in due course. I mean, the iconography on the thing is enough to get me interested! The main thing, for me, is the new Kill Team box. Well, not exactly new, as it’s the five-man squad from Death Masque, but still…

I built the Death Masque minis in a pretty random fashion, trying to pay some attention to the way I was loading the weapons, but mainly aiming for some cool minis. I still don’t actually have the Codex, so I was going of some of the spoilers that stated these guys can be built in any configuration, rather than the usual one heavy weapon per five models, and all that stuff. I still believe that’s the way it goes, but I’ll be getting at least one other box of these chaps, so I can always make up another group to bulk out the squad properly.

And speaking of building miniatures, we get to why I really wanted to write this blog today – Warhammer TV have put up another video, this time showing how you can build the models from the Kill Team box:

I have to say, I’m incredibly impressed with Games Workshop lately. I know I regularly sound like a fan boy here on this blog, but I don’t really care – GW are putting out some amazing stuff, and I love it! While videos with Duncan are hardly a novelty, videos where he just builds miniatures definitely are – until now, I think we’ve only seen this sort of thing with the Dark Vengeance and Age of Sigmar starter boxes, which are meant for new entrants into the hobby anyway. Seeing this, with the glut of weapons options available and the awesome way you can pose these guys, it really speaks to me of what the hobby is all about!

(Oh yeah, and if you watch to the end, it looks like they’re going to put out a video on painting the Corvus Blackstar too – it’s currently private, but that’s definitely a ship!)

The minis look incredible, I have to say – Mark VIII armour didn’t appeal to me in artwork, but having not only seen actual minis kitted out this way but built my own as well, I really like the look overall! I’ve started to paint mine following the GW scheme, anyway, and tomorrow’s hobby progress blog will feature them in no small dosage – look out for that one, it’s gonna be huge!

Overall, this Deathwatch stuff has gotten me really excited. I’m guessing that three weeks will be the extent of the release window, as I don’t know what else we could have for these guys, so I’m excited to see what the Bank Holiday weekend will bring for us…

At the weekend, I read the first book in the Eisenhorn trilogy by Dan Abnett, Xenos. It was a pretty good book, though I have to admit right off, I don’t think it was as great as the Horus Heresy stuff I’ve read from him so far. That’s a difficult judgement to make, so I’ll try to expound upon it…

The book is told in first-person from the Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn’s perspective, and many times feels a bit like a memoir as he breaks the fourth wall (if such a concept can exist in books) to address the reader directly. Overall, I think I liked the style of this narrative, though there were times when I thought it was a bit weird – I think there were a couple of instances where plot twists were described that Eisenhorn clearly knew of the twist, but the first-person narrative came across like he didn’t. I’ve not read that many novels with unreliable narrators, but still, it somehow didn’t really do it for me, if I’m honest.

The plot of the book is fairly wide-ranging, its breadth being fairly shocking if I’m honest! It starts with Eisenhorn hunting a Chaos cult-leader as he engineers some nefarious scheme, but the subsequent investigation takes him on a planet-hopping journey on the tail of more cultists of Slaanesh, and even a couple of Emperor’s Children marines!

There were odd moments where the plot felt a bit, not rushed per se, but it certainly flew by in a manner I wasn’t quite expecting. Along the way, we get to see some of the inner workings of the Inquisition, but in the main this is more of an action novel as we see Eisenhorn on the trail of the Chaos cultists, who are trying to recover a powerful artifact called the Necroteuch, a book serves more as a plot device than anything else. The cultists are carrying out some archaeological research, recovering artifacts of the saruthi xenos race, in order for them to trade for the book. When Eisenhorn thwarts their attempts, the Inquisition believes the matter is over, but Eisenhorn soon discovers that the cultists are attempting to recover a copy, so the Ordo Xenos unites to prevent them, along with a full kill team of Deathwatch marines. They eventually do so, uncovering a traitor in their midst and finally eliminating the last of the cultists.

It’s a good book, don’t get me wrong, it’s just no Horus Rising, which I think I expect almost every Warhammer 40k novel to be these days! The story of an Imperial person going after Chaos cultists who are somehow involved with xenos artifacts is something of an old one, I feel, but it’s still worth a read. The fact that it’s first-person meant I got through it fairly quickly, too, which is a bonus!

As I stated in the last novel review blog I did, I’m reading this trilogy and the Powder Mage trilogy interspersed, so it’s on to The Crimson Campaign next, then I’ll return to Malleus soon!

In a change to my original intentions of getting back to the Powder Mage trilogy, I decided to read the first book in The Beast Arises series at the weekend, as I’d heard it was a quick read, so thought it’d be good to see what it was all about before I then went in for the larger tome. I have to say, I thought it was pretty great!

The story is relatively straightforward, dealing with the Imperial Fists prosecuting a war against the xenos race labelled “Chromes”, after their shiny exoskeleton, on the planet of Ardamantua. It is the 32nd millennium, and while the Horus Heresy is in the past, its echoes continue to be felt. This is something I really liked about the book, actually – despite having only read nine of the books in the chronologically earlier series so far (though, obviously, knowing how it all ends!), I thought it was really nice to see all the little nods to that era. Something I particularly liked was how it feels almost-mythical, when Primarchs led their Legions into battle, and the like.

The plot on Ardamantua has a lot of general battle scenes, and while I’m not generally a fan of the Imperial Fists, I still thought they were generally quite interesting. For the first half of the novel, though, I found the situation on Terra much more interesting, as we see the political manoeuvrings of the High Council and the like. I’m a sucker for political stuff though, so it was kinda expected!

There’s a weird kind of disconnect roughly in the middle, where the Council agrees to dispatch a relief force of Imperial Fists to the planet, emptying the Imperial Palace of the honoured sons of Dorn, and they arrive six weeks later, where the planet is massively changed. Completely by chance, I put it down at this point, so it wasn’t exactly an issue, but I thought it a bit odd. Anyway, the relief force eventually meets up with the entrenched marines down there amid a massive gravitic storm which, it turns out, is being caused by the arrival in-system of a huge Death Star Ork battle station. The planet is overrun with the greenskinz, and they pretty much wipe out all of the Imperial forces both on the planet and in orbit. Luckily, however, word is sent to Terra before they are entirely overrun – sent to the High Council, though intercepted by the Inquisition. So I’m looking forward to the further power-play between these two factions, I have to say!

This book was pretty good, anyway – it’s less than 250pp, so a real quick read, which perhaps makes the price of £12.99 a bit steep. However, I enjoyed it, so I can’t complain too much or too loudly! I’m not an Imperial Fists fan, but it was nevertheless interesting to see the big yellow guys – as the historical defenders of Terra, they are a huge part of the lore, after all.

Something that I have to commend it for, however, is the incredible sense of expectancy that is created by the fact that the series was publicised as being the story of a huge Ork invasion, but we don’t see them until almost the end. Knowing this somehow creates a huge tension as you read as, because you’re just waiting for them to show up and stuff, but the marines are still fighting weird metal-insects (which seem to be a favourite Dan Abnett enemy!)

It was a really good start to the series, anyway – not as strong as Horus Rising for the Horus Heresy of course, but that book is pretty much the gold-standard for any kind of sci-fi multi-book series for me. Definitely worth checking out, anyway!

But now, I really am going to start reading The Crimson Campaign…

Malleus is the second book in the Eisenhorn trilogy, and I have to say, I really enjoyed this book a lot more than the first! The book picks up a century after the first, with Inquisitor Eisenhorn still hunting out the enemies of the Imperium. At first I felt a bit cheated by this huge change, as I’m sure there could have been plenty of story to tell in the intervening years, but anyway. His team has changed, inevitably, with Bequin now heading up a ‘Distaff’ of psychic blanks, and the young Interrogator, Gideon Ravenor, who will later go on to have his own trilogy.

The story is really good, and follows the trail of the demonhost Cherubael, who we met briefly in the first book. During a triumph celebration, a massive attack is launched in order to free a group of 33 psyker prisoners – or more accurately, one alpha-plus psyker known as Esarhaddon. The plot thickens due to the fact Eisenhorn is implicated as a heretic following a transmission from a fellow inquisitor where Cherubael suggests he and Eisenhorn are working together. The trail for Esarhaddon leads Eisenhorn to Cadia where, just as it seems things might be going to plan, the Inquisition catches up with them and places him under arrest. He escapes and begins to implement his plan against the demonhost, resulting in a climactic battle. The epilogue is absolutely incredible!

I wasn’t entirely sure about Xenos, but Malleus is such a great book, I’m now completely sold on this series! One of the most enjoyable sections of this novel was that spent with Eisenhorn at home in Thracian Primaris, where we see something of the more ordinary life of the Inquisitor. The whole sequence with the triumph was nicely done, and I have to say, I felt a little thrill at getting to visit Cadia!

Indeed, something I’ve found myself appreciating about this series more than any other so far is seeing the little bits and pieces that I’m familiar with from the 40k universe realised in an actual narrative form – and a grown-up narrative, at that. I mean, we know about Nurgle and Slaanesh, and Cadia and the Ordo Malleus from the game, you know? But seeing how someone with Dan Abnett’s flair for storytelling puts all of these pieces together into a brilliantly cohesive story is really quite magnificent!

I had been reading these novels interspersed with the Powder Mage trilogy, but I’ve decided to move directly on to Hereticus now, so I’ll be back with my review soon!

Hey everybody!
I’ve got a week off work, so I’m looking forward to doing a whole lot of nothing for a week! Today has been a great start in that respect, and despite feeling like I’m coming down with a cold, I’m happy to report that I’ve had a really productive day for painting! Full details will be revealed on Sunday’s painting progress blog, of course, but hopefully I can continue in this vein and get a lot more progress with my ongoing projects!

I also had a chance to catch up with the latest issue of White Dwarf, the first in the new monthly iteration of the magazine. Relaxing this morning with a coffee, I perused the pages and was pretty blown away by a lot of what’s going on in here! I mean, the Eldar Biel-Tan army of the month is just stupendous!! I really enjoyed the idea of the Tale of Four Warlords, and kinda wish I could do something similar, but I know I just don’t have the dedication for that. The blue Nurgle stuff was really interesting, though! There is a lot in this magazine, and I can highly recommend it to anyone looking for some hobby goodness – but it’s more than likely you’ll have gotten a hold of this already if you’re looking for that!

Lots of painting has been happening, which is really exciting as I’ve actually finished painting some guys. Aside from this, I’ve also been checking out the latest news coming from over in Nottingham, and the leaks around the Genestealer Cult stuff coming from this weekend!

I’m surprised to say that I’m kinda looking forward to this! Having a lot of the miniatures anyway from the Overkill boxed game, I think I might pick up the Codex anyway, but I’m not so sure yet. I’m also not sure if I’d want to pick up any of the additional kits, I suppose we’ll have to wait and see on that score. I think more than anything, I’m just excited to see some of the more side-event things happen for the main game, anyway!

I’m also excited to see the next Horus Heresy boxed game coming, from the leaked cover of the November WD. Not really a fan of Mark-III armour, but I do like the Thousand Sons, so I suppose I’m looking forward to it for that. I wasn’t entirely sure about Betrayal at Calth until I actually saw the unboxing, and eventually got two boxes, so I’m expecting that I’ll be buying this one when it comes out. Though if Blood Bowl is also coming out for Christmas, this may be a fairly tall order…

In other news, I’ve started to work on a new deck for Lord of the Rings LCG, which I haven’t played for a long while now. I haven’t really used a lot of the new cards – heck, I’ve not bought any of the new cycle yet! – so I want to really investigate what’s going on there. I’m hoping, as the week goes on, that I’ll get some games in with this thing, then who knows, maybe a future game day blog or something might feature a look at it!

So, a really productive start to the week, and yet also really quite restful, which is always a good thing. I hope this sets the tone for the week!

I’ve made it to the end of the Eisenhorn trilogy! I finished Hereticus at the weekend and, while I’m going to try to avoid major spoilers here, some might be inevitable as I discuss just how insane this book gets! I mean “insane” in a good way, of course! Let me explain…

The book takes place about fifty years after the second, but has significant ties to both of the earlier books that really helps to tie everything into the overall storyline, which I kinda wasn’t expecting, but was a nice touch. Eisenhorn is officiating at a heresy trial when he learns the man who killed his old friend Midas Betancore is on the same world. He sets off with his team in pursuit, but discovers an Imperial Titan waiting for him, and is forced to use some of his more dangerous skills to vanquish the war machine.

During the battle, several of his colleagues are injured, so the team retires to Gudrun and Messina in order to recuperate. Unfortunately, a co-ordinated strike against Eisenhorn’s entire organisation is then launched, leading to a massive chase across the planet. Eisenhorn realises that Pontius Glaw, the disembodied cultist from Xenos, is bankrolling the mercenaries who are hunting him down, and teams up with his erstwhile protege Gideon Ravenor to finally put an end to the Chaos worshipper.

I have to say, I wasn’t as much of a fan of this book as I was of its predecessor. I think the protracted chase sequence that forms the core of the book, while it has a lot to commend it, felt a bit weird for a Warhammer novel. I mean, it reads a lot more like Murder on the Orient Express, somehow, but I do appreciate how Dan Abnett really fleshes out Gudrun as a planet, with distinct locations and geography. I’ve read so much science fiction where planets are largely one-dimensional entities, whereas here we have a planet that feels like a planet, which was really novel!

I can’t write any kind of review of this book without mentioning the body count here. As I said, Pontius Glaw sends mercenaries after Eisenhorn’s entire retinue and, while I thought that Malleus had enlarged the group around him almost unnecessarily, it was still absolutely shocking to see how so many of these people are stripped away from him. However, it doesn’t end with the attack on his estate, and I found myself genuinely distraught when certain folks kicked the bucket! Again, I’m really trying to avoid spoilers, but there are two deaths in particular at the end that I was really upset by! A testament to the writing, right there.

Final thoughts on the trilogy

I’m really glad I’ve read these books, as they seem to be seminal works from the 40k universe. My enjoyment of them was somewhat uneven, though at their best, these books really are amazing. I love the way Abnett weaves so many elements that we’re used to primarily from a gaming perspective into a genuine cohesive narrative that transcends mere game tie-in material. I think I still prefer the Ultramarines novels as the best of 40k novels, but these weren’t half bad overall, either!

Well, I’m more excited for this than I first thought I would be, I have to admit! When I first got my hands on the Deathwatch: Overkill game, my attention was mainly drawn to the space marines, and while I did build up a couple of the genestealer cult models, I haven’t done anything with them yet. The Deathwatch were formally launched into 40k in August, and I kinda threw myself behind that release, and while a lot of the internet has been excited for these cult minis, I can’t really say I feel the same way. I think a lot of that excitement is based in the nostalgia for the genestealer cult from back in 2nd edition (early 1990s), replete with cult limousine…

Obviously, I can’t speak for this nostalgia myself, having only become interested in Warhammer 40k in the last couple of years, but I have to say, I really like the mining aesthetic that the models have from the Overkill game, even though I don’t tend to go for that kind of grungy look for my miniatures. I’ve started to assemble a lot of the minis from Overkill, at any rate, partly after being inspired by a post from a Facebook group earlier in the week.

Genestealers are linked to some of my own nostalgia for 40k of course, as one of my first experiences with the setting was the 4th edition Space Hulk boardgame released in the autumn of 2014. Blood Angels vs Genestealers in the narrow confines of a derelict space hulk, the game features a horde of the tyranid vanguard, and if I hadn’t already become so enamoured with my Necrons, I would very likely have bought into the new tyranid bugs that were released around the same time…

So I’m not going to go all-in on genestealer cults, but I am thinking about getting some more models to build up and paint. All of this interest, however, has got me thinking about these cultists, and what the story is all about. So sit back, while I educate myself about all this stuff!

The genestealers are the vanguard for the invading tyranid forces, sent forth in advance of the massive hive ships to subvert a planet to make it ready for conquest. The genestealer infects hosts with its DNA, causing hybrids to be born when that host reproduces. For a generation or two, the offspring will appear vaguely like its parent, though further generations will reveal more of the genestealer look – more arms, tails, bulbous heads and blue/purple skin.

I find this kinda fascinating, possibly due to having enjoyed the Shield of Baal series so much. Genestealers are fairly intelligent for a tyranid lifeform, able to operate away from the hive mind or synapse creatures for extended periods thanks to its own form of brood mind, directed mainly by the Broodlord. With enough genestealers operating under this brood mind, the tyranid hive fleet can sense the planet ready for conquest through the warp. Which brings us to Genestealer Cults!

These cults are formed from the first offspring of infected hosts, and band together into a vague sort of family that has a vague sort of worship of some kind of figurehead – sometimes referred to as the four-armed emperor, I’ve heard? Anyway, by banding together like this, the psychic resonance they create attracts the hive fleet, and the cult attempts to sow dissent against the Imperium to ease the way for the tyranids to then invade and digest the planet.

While a Broodlord is the military leader of a genestealer force, a distinct entity referred to as the Patriarch is the head of a genestealer cult, and provides the psychic link for the rest of the cult members. The Patriarch itself is a powerful psyker that can last for hundreds of years, readying the way for the approaching hive fleet. It sounds like a wonderfully creepy way of leading the little bugs, with more, well, cultish overtones than the Broodlord itself.

The Patriarch is served by the Magus, another psyker though almost human in appearance. Its primary role is to serve as the public face of the cult, and relays the orders of the Patriarch to the members. By the time of the Magus’ birth, the cult will have grown significantly, allowing a more widespread control of the planet. This is achieved by the powers of hypnosis and mind-control possessed by the Magus. The Magus is a fourth-generation hybrid, but any children it has will first be purestrain genestealers once more. A pretty horrendous thought, giving birth to six limbs and chitinous exoskeleton…

Something that I’ve found interesting, in the run-up to the Genestealer Cults release from GW, is how/why they can ally with Imperial Guard, never really seeing the link between the two. Well, as it happens, there is a further element of the cult referred to as Brood Brothers – the original infected hosts that started the spawn cycle. When these folks have their hybrid babies, that hybrid psychically dominates its parents, enslaving it to the cult and the whims of the Patriarch. Being normal humans in any other respect, they are able to operate the machinery of the Guard or any Planetary Defense Force, and so open the door for all these types of ally shenanigans that I find really interesting.

So there you have it, the results of my research into these subterranean cults and why I think they’re so cool! I’m definitely going to be picking up the Codex next week, along with a box of ten more neophyte hybrids!

It’s wave two of the Genestealer Cult release, and we’re not seeing as much after the initial splurge last weekend, but there are still some really cool kits coming out way, so it’s definitely an exciting time for those of us who have decided to build a new army!

First of all, we’re getting the new Goliath truck, which can be built as above, or with a massive dozer blade and rock grinders on the sides. I think I’m going for the latter, because it looks hilarious and over-the-top, but I may eventually (or sooner) get a second to have as the basic truck. At any rate, I think it looks really great, and a nice change from the tanks that we normally get for troop transports in the 41st millennium.

In addition to a new standard bearer character and a re-release for the Overkill characters, there’s a box set of Neophyte Hybrids coming out that have infiltrated the Astra Militarum! I have previously entertained the idea of getting a box of Cadians to use alongside my Space Marine army (whenever that will get off the ground), but seeing these Neophyte chaps here has really made my mind up for what I want to do with these folks! I’ll definitely be picking this box up soon, also!

It was my store anniversary this weekend, so the stars have clearly combined for awesome, and I dropped a fair bit of cash on picking up all the Genestealer Cult goodness, as well as a second Death Watch Kill Team box (more later), and a few other bits. I got a bunch of badges for my trouble, and will be getting a free messenger bag when their stock appears, so that’s nice! People were spending a lot more than me, though – the guy in front of me actually spent over £300, which kinda shocks me, if only for the fact he didn’t have as much stuff as I had! Of course, we all know we could easily drop hundreds in a GW in any one purchase, but while part of me was in palpitations, it’s also good to see folks support the store and all the rest of it.

I’ve been leafing through the How to Paint book this morning, and I’ve found my colour scheme now:

I love these How to Paint books, because I find them so damn inspirational! I’ve bought quite a few now, and always manage to get my hobby motivation back when I pore over the pages there. So I’m going with the Cult of the Bladed Cog, because I find the contrast between the blue-green fatigues and the red armour to be really quite striking – and I usually dislike painting red, so in the interests of levelling-up my painting skills, this will be a great project!

I also got a second Kill Team box because last month’s White Dwarf had rules for using the Strike Team Excis (the original kill team that Cassius was sent to extract) in Deathwatch: Overkill, so I thought it would be great to have those actual models built to act as an expansion for the boardgame, but also to use in my Deathwatch army, should that ever become a thing, as well! So keep an eye on my Hobby Progress blogs for more of those chaps soon!

So all in all, this Genestealer Cult release is shaping up to be really fantastic! I don’t actually remember the last time I was as excited for a release of models, possibly because I really wasn’t expecting to be that into the Genestealers! But then, as I’ve always said, if I hadn’t gone with Necrons as my 40k army, I would have picked Tyranids, so there has always been that interest there… GW has really been excelling themselves with this release, however, and I really hope they continue to go with this route in the future, from the facebook marketing of the previous week, the designer notes video, to these kind of retrospectives on their blog. It’s all just really, really great!

Will we be running into a third week for the cultists? The only unit not yet separately released from the Codex is the Aberrants, though whereas the other models photographed include the new guys, these models are just those from Overkill, so I’m wondering whether GW will actually release them at all. I’m kinda intrigued as to what will happen there…

Very exciting times right now, anyway!

The Beast continues to Arise!

I’ve finished the second book in the twelve-part The Beast Arises series from Black Library, and I have to say, if I were reading these with no real context, I would probably have given up on the series at this point.

Let me explain.

The first book sets up the world of the 32nd millennium really well – the Horus Heresy is in the past but still looms large, as the Imperium begins to move closer towards the 41st millennium that we all know and love. Following the Imperial Fists fighting a xenos race referred to as Chromes, we also see the inner workings of the Council of Terra and the intrigue that results there. At the end of the novel, we see that the Imperium is threatened not by these Chromes, but by a massive Ork incursion, the likes of which have never before been seen.

The second book falls tremendously flat after all of this, and I can’t quite believe that I managed to make it to the end. I am Slaughter took me literally a couple of days to read, while I had to force myself to read this one over the course of a week.

The main issue, for me, is the plot. This book is essentially a filler chapter or two, stretched out to 250ish pages, often in the most blatant and literal of ways – paragraphs can consist of the same sentiment immediately rephrased two or three times to pad them out. I thought this might have been a stylistic choice at first, providing something of an archaic construction to emphasise the remove from the 41st millennium, but it began to grate on me very quickly, and I found I was focusing more on the writing than the plot.

We see the Orks invade a couple of worlds, and two successor chapters to the Imperial Fists – the Fists Exemplar and the Black Templars – band together to turn back the green tide. We also see some of the fallout from Ardamantua as the Mechanicum attempt to sort out what happened there. And we see some infantile machinations on Terra between the Officio Assassinorum and the Inquisition, which don’t always make sense. There’s also a “little people” plot that involves virus bombs…

I just can’t get over how much of a filler novel this felt like. The only reason I kept reading was due to the feeling it might prove to be important later, and unfortunately, there are a couple of elements – such as the Ardamantua discoveries – that will prove to be so. I think I was most disappointed with the fact the Terran intrigue was handled just so weirdly in comparison to the first book. There were a couple of chapters where Drakan Vangorich, the grand master of the Assassinorum, just turns up for the sake of it. It continually reminded me of the “secret Asians” joke in American Dad – was there any reason to fly to Mars to have that conversation, only to then next reappear needing the toilet during the proceedings of the High Council? Bah.

All in all, I wasn’t really impressed by this book. I’m intending to move directly onto the third book, The Emperor Expects, in the hope that this series isn’t entirely written off already. I’ll keep you all posted!

Hey everybody!
It’s a couple of days old now, but I’ve been mulling over the very exciting short video put out by Games Workshop earlier in the week, and thought I’d share my speculations/over-excited screechings with you all in a short blog on the subject of everything plastic!

The video looked a bit like a rush-job on Monday evening, in response to the photo doing the rounds of a slightly mashed-up box of the daemon primarch, Magnus the Red. As had happened back when they released the new Kharn preview in August, GW have raised the stakes with internet leaks in the best way possible, and I absolutely love them for it!

This time, they’ve seen the bent packaging doing the rounds, and raised us the actual model! More than that, however, there’s also the mention of plastic Thousand Sons marines coming – Rubric Marines! Hurrah!

I’m not particularly excited about the primarch himself, but I do like the look of these chaps. There is currently an upgrade pack available for them, which is mainly heads and shoulder pads, along with a Chaos Marine Sorcerer, but it sounds like this will be going by the wayside soon enough, if we’re getting the plastic marines sprue – and the Ahriman sorcerer from that sprue leaked back in August would be a decent enough replacement for the sorcerer in that pack.

I do like the idea of having more individualised kits for the Chaos Space Marines, and I think it’d be cool to see a different look for these guys beyond the usual spikey people. It’s got me wondering what’s next for Chaos in general in 40k… I mean, is each god getting specific marines? Are they finally about to get that long-awaited Codex update for 7th edition? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…

I am kinda excited to see what a daemon prince Fulgrim will look like!

But what about that final little tidbit…

Ah, plastic Sisters of Battle! Hopefully GW aren’t playing fast and loose with the fans here – it would be a bit too much, after all! So let’s hope that comes to pass. Since I really got into 40k, the Adepta Sororitas have been a bit like some kind of golden goose, with a lot of vocal fans expressing a desire for the range to be updated.

While it’s been looking really sparse for years, the recent releases of Deathwatch and Genestealer Cults have shown the company looking to populate the universe in all the more unique and interesting ways, so it is looking entirely possible once more… Hopefully! These latest releases have been pretty amazing, and I’m sure I’d end up picking up a few kits!

Let’s see what the future brings…

Book Three of the Beast Arises series has been out for a while now, though I’ve only just started to read the series – you can check out my thoughts on the previous novels here and here. Written by Gav Thorpe, I was hoping that the book would somehow vindicate the series for me, after the extremely disappointing second installment, and I have to say, I think it has!

I’d like to say “we pick off where the second book left off”, but that second book was such a weird muddle that I’m not entirely sure where the story ended there. As we’ve seen previously, the Orks have made a significant push into Imperium territory, and a number of systems are now beset by the greenskin menace and their “battle moon” space stations. During the course of this novel, we see the Imperium strike a decisive victory at Port Sanctus, along with the continuing machinations of the High Lords of Terra, focusing on Inquisitor Wienand and the head of the assassins, Drakan Vangorich, whose grim visage adorns the cover. Furthermore, we continue the story of Captain Koorland, apparently the last Imperial Fist, as he invokes the failsafe from Rogal Dorn and invokes something called “the last wall”, calling back together the various Chapters that once made up the Imperial Fists Legion.

I have to say, I really liked this book a lot. For starters, it compares really well with its predecessor for me, in that I felt like I knew what I was reading about – the language is quite straightforward, which is what I expect from Warhammer now, and also the action was quite well-described and, basically, interesting. There is also a good amount of intrigue and politics, which I always enjoy in these stories!

Taking the points in turn, I thought it was really interesting to see the Imperial Fists essentially re-join as a Legion – or, at least, see the Black Templars, Fists Exemplar, Excoriators, Crimson Fists and I think a couple of other successor chapters join together. It’s exactly something that I can imagine Rogal Dorn putting into place – following a huge falling-out with Guilliman, then suddenly capitulating and implementing the Codex Astartes following the Heresy, you just knew he would have done something like this! It doesn’t really feel like it has been explored enough yet, of course, but I suppose there’s plenty of chance for that!

The whole business with the Imperial Navy at Port Sanctus takes up a good deal of the novel, and involves the politicking of the High Lords, notably Vangorich manoeuvering High Lord Admiral Lansung into leaving Terra in the hope that his absence will halt any reconciliation of the Navy and Army into one fighting force – a force that worries anybody in the post-Heresy world. Again, this angle is only slightly touched on, with the main thrust being the action at Port Sanctus itself. I actually found this quite interesting, however, as we get a few decent Navy types who proved to be interesting to read.

I really liked the subterfuge with the Inquisition and the Assassinorum here. It felt a little silly in the last book, but here it went back to something approaching sensible politics once again. My only real gripe about all of this, however, is that we haven’t quite gone as deep as I would like. The Imperium doesn’t really feel very different to the period of the Heresy or the 41st millennium – I suppose I’m comparing this to my other beloved franchise, Star Wars, and how authors often take pains to emphasize the time-differences between the various eras of SW publishing. We had some glimmers of a really interesting new world in I Am Slaughter, but nothing more has been made of it yet. Hopefully some of the later books will come to address this, however!

While The Emperor Expects is a good book, and has served to really put me back on track with the series, I do have a bit of an issue with it, which holds about as true for Predator, Prey, also. Basically, we don’t know why the Orks are invading Imperium territory all of a sudden. There’s a bit of a mystery built up in the third book especially – all these Orks, suddenly all tech-savvy rather than not having a clue and all the rest of it – but we get no point of view from the Orks, and it’s becoming a bit tedious for me. There seems to be no motivation – I know the greenskins love a fight, but this isn’t really good enough to sustain a twelve-book series. I hope we begin to get somewhere soon, but I don’t get that feeling somehow. For me, this could be forgivable if we got to learn a little more of the history of the era, but it’s all getting a little flat, in my opinion. Maybe if GW had kept this storyline until the Heresy had actually finished, they’d be discussing more stuff and it could become a fully-fledged, well fleshed-out part of the landscape. As it stands, we’re getting novels that are a little over 200pp that are painting in broad strokes a series of vignettes of varying degrees of interest.

The only bright spot to all of this is, at least there are only twelve novels…