020 - 40k into 30k?

With all the excitement about Betrayal At Calth I'm expecting that there will be an explosion of interest and participation in Horus Heresy gaming. Now this has got me thinking. Can I use my 40k force in a 30k game? There are two ways to do this. The first is simply using a straight up 40k force. 30k forces and 40k forces use the same game system so are technically compatible. However it has been recommended by the Forge World team that you should use the Horus Heresy Force Organisation Chart with any 40k force that is being used against a 30k force. Quite a easy solution which works out well for Xenos armies.
However this might not be for some people because 30k and 40k are slightly differently balanced which is not a problem but in my mind it's not utilising the setting as well as it should.
So my second solution is to use a 40k models with a 30k army list. To keep things simple I'm sticking with marines.
You can take a Space Marine army and use the Legion Crusade Army List. Alot of the fancier toys like Centurions and Razorbacks aren't in the list so it will cut down on units you have available. A problem is the fact that Tactical Squads can only take bolters but if you take the rite of war "Pride Of The Legion" you can have Veteran Tactical Squads as troops which luckily have the similar loadouts to the current Tactical Squads. Pretty easy and quite nice if they are already painting in a first founding colour scheme already.
But I have an Iron Warriors army which I wanted to shoehorn in. The Chaos Space Marine list has some similar entries to the Legion Crusade Army List such as 20 man squads. Again the fruitier units are not in the list so the Heldrakes stay at home but I felt I had enough models to get a half decent force together.
So here is my painted 40k Iron Warriors army in all it's glory:

The collection is as follows:
Chaos Lord in Power Armour
Chaos Sorcerer in Terminator Armour
8 Chosen
3 Helbrutes
10 Cultists
10 Cultists
20 Chaos Space Marines
10 Chaos Space Marines
10 Havocs
10 Havocs
1 Rhino
1 Heldrake

So what can I use? Technically the two HQs can be used. I'd rather not use them as they are very Chaos looking but I'll se what options I have at the end before I discount them. The Chosen can used in one form or another. Two of the Helbrutes have compatible load outs so they are potentially in. The majority of the Chaos Space Marine squads can be used apart from the special weapons.This is a problem I have with the Havocs because all heavy and special weapons in the support quads have to be the same so they are out but I can use the non heavy weapon troopers as basic marines. The cultists are out unfortunately as is the Heldrake but the Rhino is in!
So here is the list I have come up with:
Centurion with a power sword and plasma pistol
5 Vets with a power fist for the sergeant and a meltagun
Rhino
5 Terminators with lightning claws
13 Tactical marines with a powerfist for the sergeant
10 Tactical Marines
Dreadnought with an autocannon and a powerfist

The list doesn't have a massive amount of heavy support. I could have scraped together a few support squads if I had spammed a few more heavy and special weapons in my Iron Warriors. There is also a lack of heavy transports especially in the form of something for the Terminators as  they cannot deep strike. However there is alot of boots on the ground and a couple of powerfists floating about. this would work well with an allied detachment with some heavy hitting stuff. This army could work quite fairly against the Betrayl At Calth army as they end up with rouglhy similar points totals. Swapping the Rhino out for a couple of Chaos Space Marines would make this army compatible for a Zone Mortalis force.
So there you go. A fully painted WYSIWYG Iron Warriors army. Maybe not completely Heresy looking but legal all the same. Bear in mind this is a solution to getting models to play and to get the full experience nothing beats an army of authentic Horus Heresy models. This is mainly an academic exercise in how to get a force to play with but hopefully this will give you a little inspiration to start playing Horus Heresy games. Until next time!

019 - Chosen Of Tzeench

I wanted to start a new Chaos army for the Age Of Sigmar. I started a Tzeench Army as I have always like Tzeench because he is a scheming git of a god. It has a little more depth than the other gods whose motivation consists of killing, rotting or sex respectively. I had a box of Chaos Warriors that I was going to use as Space Wolves conversions that never panned out and a Tzeench Sorcerer Lord that was going to be another conversion but was sitting in my bits box. This gave me a great basis for my warband.

The Warriors of Chaos have blue capes which will be a running theme throughout the army. I shaved off the horns of the helmets to make them look a little different to the normal warriors. I have given the hero horns sprouting out of the side to make him stand out.

One of the really liberating things with Age Of Sigmar is the way you can build an army. It seems pretty mind blowing after years of percentages of Core, Special and Rare choices that you can just pick what you want. I could have an army full of Warshrines if I really want or ten Bloodthristers. The only real restrictions is making it fun and fair for your opponent so that you will get a second game!
I have limited myself to Tzeench choices over the Mortal, Daemon and Beast categories and will grab the models that catch my eye rather than the ones that are super effective. I have always loved the Chaos Wastes (which I suppose now is conveniently the Realm of Chaos) and the Warbands that are constantly being tested there. Some of them will fight for years and never see the lands of men due to them trying to get the attention of the Chaos Gods.

I had some of the Famous Familiars which I had for another project (see a theme with models being from another uncompleted project) which I dropped into the army as backup for the Sorcerer Lord. There is some concern from the community that they wont support their current range of models with rules but these models came out in 1988 and have new rules. I think if a model is popular and fits in with the design ethos the studio is going for then I believe they will have some kind of support for them.

With an addition of  a Chaos Spawn that I did in the same kind of colour scheme as the Sorcerer Lord I think I have the start of a really characterful warband.
Now I have a few mortal units I think it's time to add some Beastmen!

018 - Daemons In A Day

I've said it before and I'll say it again I am a really slow painter. I've been getting better and have been cracking though my Space Wolves at a decent pace. However I needed a little pallet cleanser.
I have quite a few metal Nurgle Daemons from the late 80s and early 90s. This was due to a combination of Ebay purchases and old models that I found in a box that I didn't open for a good 15 years. These guys were sitting on a shelf in the hobby room waiting to be painted as a Nurgle allies contingent for my Iron Warriors.
However I kind of knew that I would never get them painted. There was far too much power armour in the painting queue. I needed an easy method to get them done, Luckily I spoke to the manager of the local Games Workshop and he showed me a method of how he painted his Spirit Hosts for his Undead Warhammer army using Nilhiakh Oxide. Thus the idea for my Nurgle Daemons was born!

The method to painting these guys was very simple. Firstly I undercoated them white.

Then gave it a liberal wash of Nilhiakh Oxide.

Then a drybrush of white and based them to match the rest of my armies.

And they are done! 

These models are very different to the look of my other models but the basing is the same as my Iron Warriors and my Age of Sigmar Chaos army so they can slot into either. I like the idea of ghostly Daemons materialising from the warp in the middle of the battlefield.
I was very happy with how they turned out and I was very chuffed with completing a unit of twelve within a day. Normally it takes me a week to do five models!
Now I have had an easy win it's back to painting Space Wolves!

017 - Wolfacary

In the Legion Astartes Crusade Army List the Apothecarion Detachment consist of up to three Apothecaries as a single elites slot. However each Apothecary has to join a squad. The Apothecaries confer the Feel No Pain rule on units that they accompany. This addition to a large infantry squad makes them very durable.This is why I want some for my Space Wolves army. 

However the Apothecaries from Forge World only come with helmets which none of my Space Wolves are going to wear helmets and I am loath to chop up an expensive resin model for a conversion I am not really confident about. Also the Space Wolves Legion may not have Apothecaries in the army list when it comes out so I don't want to spend too much on possibly obsolete models.
So off to Ebay I trotted. After a little digging and alot of patience I got a suitable Apothecary figure for £2.50 including P&P. This is where it's really good to buy off Ebay when a model is slightly older and from a popular range such as Space Marines you can have alot of choice and get some real bargains.
To make this model suitable for my needs I needed to do a little conversion work. I clipped off the head and then ground the area down with an engraving tool. A little green stuff made the addition of one of the heads from the Space Wolves kit fit seamlessly. It had a long beard to cover some of the chest details as the Apothecary is wearing mk7 armour. I can explain this away as the armour looks non standard enough to fit in with the rest of the force.
I painted him up in the standard grey colour scheme and gave him grey hair to make him look old and wisened.
Here is a photo of the finished model next to the original piece.

Hopefully the Space Wolves list in the Prospero book will not get rid of the apothecaries as I am very pleased with this model and it fits in to the army brilliantly. 

016 - The Great Horus Heresy Land Raider Debate

Having really got into the Horus Heresy and started collecting my Space Wolves army I had a good look at what I could and couldn't fit into my army. As the  Horus Heresy is set in the 31st millennium, 10,000 years before the "current" setting of Warhammer 40,000 many of the vehicles and armour marks are very different from the ones we are used to. That said alot of them are in use in both time periods due to the stagnation of technology.
This begs the question what marks are useable in 30k? If you want to use authentic marks of vehicles a good  guide from the Twenty First Legion is here.
During my research online I found alot of conflicting opinions of what should and shouldn't be used. The general consensus is that you shouldn't use the plastic  Land Raider MKIII and you can only use the ForgeWorld MKIIB but I can always point them at page 147 of the Horus Heresy Book One: Betrayal where there is a  MKIII Land Raider and a Mars pattern Rhino being used.

The main reason I want to use the MKIII Phobos Pattern Land Raider is because I really like the model and the way it looks more technologically advanced than the 30k ones. I think this should be the golden rule, if you want to use any model. It might not fly all the time in certain events or tournaments but if you are not seeking to gain an advantage through modelling you should be fine.

Until next time!

015 - The Rout

So after deciding that I wanted to do a 30k force I had a real good think about what army I wanted to do. I am terrible at reading a novel or seeing a cool army and wanting t start that army so I felt with the added cost of Forgeworld models I wanted to be sure of what I wanted to do.
In the end it was a novel that inspired me but it definitely kept my interest for quite a long time. I read Prospero Burns by Dan Abnett which is one of my favourite Horus Heresy novels. It had a different take o the Space Wolves that really appealed to me. The novel showed that the Space Wolves aren't just jokey vikings in space and are one of the most ruthlessly loyal legions in the Great Crusade.
There was one piece of art that really made me go "that's the style for me" which is the cover to Prospero Burns.

.

Its fantastic. From the drop assault in the back ground to massive sea of men on the ground. The Space Wolves are all there with the noble savage Norse stylings we all know and love. I'm a big fan of the juxapation of wooden shields and hyper advanced power armour.

It's also got Russ.

And Wulfen!

I listened to the "Joining The Horus Heresy" episode of the Independent Characters podcast (which is here) and was really inspired with Jason Mullins' description of how he built his Space Wolves 30k force. He described the various kit bashing methods he used and I thought "I could do that".

So I was in a position to buy some Forge World armour and a Space Wolves kit and I was ready to go! I have a a small force at the moment with a good mix of Forgeworld and regular 40k kits.

As you can see from the photo of my army I have made a start. I have used the old Njal Stormcaller model as a librarian and converted an old Apothecary into a Space Wolves style Legion Apothecary. The infantry are a seeker squad on the left all in mk6 armour and tactical squad in a mix of types of armour. Vehicle wise I have gone for a Land Raider which is the start of a squadron and a Dreadnought Talon.

I feel I have a made a good start to the force and I'll keep you updated on my wolfy antics in the future.

014 - I'm excited about Betrayal at Calth

So this Saturday (7th November) the new boxed game from Games Workshop called Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth is up for pre-order before being released proper on the 14th. To put it mildly I am excited. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Horus Heresy in Games Workshop stores!

Games Workshop looks like they are finally starting to get behind the Horus Heresy after the phenomenal success that is had with Forgeworld. Now I hope Forgeworld continue to be the main force behind the Horus Hersey but it will be great to see support from the company at large.

2. Plastic models!

Finally I don't have to buy a truckload of resin! The Forgeworld models are fantastic but it will be nice not to have to spend over £60 on a tactical squad! I also like the fact that the models in the box are an actual kit, not snap fit models like most of the starter boxes.

3. It's a board game.

It's a game I can actually get some of my non-gamer friends to potentially play. A miniatures games has a certain amount of baggage but a board game is a little easier for people to pick up and play and may well bring new people into the hobby.

4. The setting at Calth.

Know No Fear is one of my favourite Horus Heresy novels and I find the whole Calth story in the Heresy to be absolutely fascinating. Its' a great setting and definitely has  room for expansions.

So a few reasons why I am dead excited about Betrayal At Calth. I'll see you in the pre-order queue on the 7th!