Epic: Ten thousand of us will hand you the wrath of Heaven

This noble king was cleped Cambinskan,

Which in his tyme was of so greet renoun

That ther nas no-wher in no regioun

So excellent a lord in alle thing;

Him lakked noght that longeth to a king.

 - Geoffrey Chaucer, the Squire's Tale

Earlier, the new Dune movie made me meditate on the relationship between Dune and Warhammer. Which I suppose can be most concisely described as Warhammer stealing everything from Dune that wasn't nailed down, and then some. Now, though, with the return of Epic, I have cause to revisit the subject, because the Legions Imperialis box comes with a whole pile of Solar Auxilia. I painted the tanks earlier, and now it's time to get to the infantry.

**

Once I started thinking about Dune-themed Horus Heresy things, it struck me as fairly obvious that the Solar Auxilia in their void armor were a perfect match for the Sardaukar. I wasn't really interested in trying to collect any in 28mm, but now that I have a pile of Epic Solar Auxilia, I'm definitely turning them into the Padishah Emperor's fanatical shock troops. Canonically, Sardaukar armor was grey with black details, but the movie armor looks more white than grey and I prefer painting off-white anyway, so that's what I'll go with.

One of the innovations of the 2021 Dune movie was Sardaukar throat singing. I've been exposed to a fusion of throat singing and popular music at a sensitive age, when my girlfriend at the time played me some Yat-Kha.

So based on that, my Sardaukar are going to be the 337th Yat-Kha Shock Cohort of the Solar Auxilia. 

**

Clearly, the most Sardaukar auxilia unit is the Veletarii Storm Section, so that's where I'll start. The uniforms are Ivory, the axe handles Black Brown, and they have Luftwaffe Camo Green shoulder insignia.

I like the models, but I defy anyone to explain why the presumably far more numerous Solar Auxilia troops get power axes as standard equipment while space marines have to make do with chainswords.

The Auxilia infantry sprue also comes with some Charonite Ogryns. Sadly, I misplaced one of the torsos somehow, so I took the tactical command guy and had them take charge of the Ogryns.

I kinda struggled to figure out a good color scheme for the Ogryns. I ended up painting the harness thing they're wearing Gunmetal Grey, as well as the weapons, with Ivory for the uniform. I don't know if I like the result.

I also painted the flamer infantry.

For the lasrifle squads, I did a very simple paint scheme: Ivory uniform, Luftwaffe Green shoulder pads and a Black rifle. The HQ stands aren't much more complicated.

Here they all are.

I think I'll be trying them out in a future game of Legions!

Let's Read Warhammer: the Dark Coil Series

A friend recommended Peter Fehervari's Dark Coil series of Warhammer novels, so after the sheer disappointment of Deliverance Lost, I gave it a shot.

**

‘Don’t go out tonight, father,’ Mina said.

 - Requiem Infernal, Peter Fehervari

The first Dark Coil novel I read was Requiem Infernal, and it's just really good. It's a supernatural horror story set on a very unusual Imperial shrine world, starring some fairly strange characters. There's grisly murders, demonic possessions, and whole thing just drips atmosphere. Fehervari very much knows what he's doing, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of it.

There are objections online that Requiem isn't really a Sisters of Battle book, in that the Order of the Last Candle and their homeworld is so unusual. I get where that comes from, but the Imperium is huge, and I love that Fehervari has been let loose to carve out his own little niche of it. I liked Requiem Infernal enough that I decided to read the rest of the series.

**

‘We have to go,’ the ghost boy whispered into the darkness.

 - The Reverie, Peter Fehervari

The fourth Dark Coil novel stars the Angels Resplendent, a Blood Angels successor chapter who appeared in Requiem. They're a bunch of crusading artists, who collect interesting people they call Muses on their homeworld. It's quite similar to the Remembrancers on the expeditionary fleets in the Horus Heresy novels. However, all is not well on Malpertuis, the Painted World, with some of the Muses and even some of the space marines becoming corrupted.

It's all rather Fulgrim, in other words, if much less boring. But for whatever reason it didn't grip me nearly as well as Requiem, although it gets better toward the end. I think that part of it is that frankly, loyalist marines are kinda boring, and the parallels to Fulgrim were quite strong as well. But I was entertained.

**

No matter how often Voyle relives it, the end always begins the same way.

 - The Greater Evil, Peter Fehervari

The first two Dark Coil novels are collected in an omnibus called Dark Coil: Damnation with a bunch of related short stories. The first novel is Fire Caste, and it's basically Apocalypse: Now 40,000, with the Imperial Guard protagonists going upriver in search of a Tau leader who might as well be called K'urtz. It's very Fehervari with its haunted characters, very properly grimdark, and very good.

I'm a little disappointed that GW's barely done anything with the Gue'vesa, that is, the humans who've gone over to the Greater Good. One of the only recent games with rules for them was Aeronautica Imperialis, before it switched over to 30k, and I enjoyed painting a bunch of Imperial flyers in Tau colors. I've kind of lost interest in 28mm lately, but Fire Caste almost makes me want to build some Gue'vesa.

Fire Caste is followed by Cult of the Spiral Dawn and its associated short stories, all of which are quite good. Again, this is dangerous stuff, because I've still got the Genestealer Cult half of a Deathwatch: Overkill box hanging around, and now I want to actually paint a cult.

I like Fehervari's characters, his writing is good and effortless to read, and I think he really nails the dystopia of the Imperium without descending into grimdark for the sake of grimdark.

**

So yeah, I'd say that if you want to read Warhammer 40,000 fiction, I don't think you can do much better than the Dark Coil series. Highly recommended.

Epic: Let's Play Legions Imperialis

I'm very happy to say I got a chance to play Legions Imperialis! We had a fun and lethal day of 8mm wargaming that I thoroughly enjoyed.

**

Our first game is going to be a 1685 point battle, because that's the amount of models my opponent has. To face them, I'm bringing my Word Bearers, and an allied Auxilia tank company, because I like tanks.

I've got four formations. From left to right, the 1st (Air Assault) Demi-Company of the 4th Company; 2nd Tank Company, 3rd (Armored) Company; 2nd (Signals) Demi-Company, 5th (Combat Support) Company, all from II Battalion, Morbid Fane Chapter, and at the back, the Lords of the Old World from the 337th Yat-Kha Shock Cohort. And here's the official army list:

1st (Air Assault) Demi-Company

HQ: Legion Command Squad (25 pts)

Core: Legion Tactical Squad (30 pts)

Core: Legion Tactical Squad (30 pts)

Support: Legion Terminator Detachment (50 pts)

Support: Legion Assault Detachment (30 pts)

Vanguard: Legion Scimitar Jetbike Detachment (35 pts)

Air Support: Legion Storm Eagle Squadron (100 pts)

4th (Signals) Demi-Company

HQ: Legion Command Squad (25 pts)

Core: Legion Tactical Squad (30 pts)

Core: Legion Tactical Squad (30 pts)

Support: Legion Rapier Battery Detachment (quad-launchers) (40 pts)

Support: Legion Missile Launcher Support Detachment (40 pts)

Transport: Legion Land Raider Detachment (2) (80 pts)

3rd Tank Company

Battle Tank: Legion Predator Squadron (all lascannons) (115 pts)

Battle Tank: Legion Sicaran Squadron (accelerator autocannon, lascannon) (105 pts)

Heavy Armor: Legion Kratos Squadron (Kratos battlecannon, lascannons) (150 pts)

Heavy Armor: Legion Kratos Commander (Kratos battlecannon, lascannons) (100 pts)

Air Support: Legion Xiphon Interceptor Squadron (2) (180 pts)

Lords of the Old World

HQ: Tank Commander (10 pts)

Battle Tank: Leman Russ Strike Squadron (Vanquisher battlecannon, lascannon) (175 pts)

Battle Tank: Malcador Tank Squadron (twin lascannon, demolisher cannon, heavy bolters) (165 pts)

Heavy Armor: Auxilia Stormblade Squadron (120 pts)

**

My gracious host had an excellent gaming table and mat for us, as well as some buildings to fight over. It looked pretty darn good!

We marked out a 4'×4' surface, and rolled for a mission and got Conquest. This meant we would deploy in opposite corners and fight over six objective markers.

Here's our deployment from my point of view.

I deployed the signals company on my left, one detachment on foot to storm the central building, and one in the Land Raiders to grab objective 3. The Auxilia tanks would also go on the left flank, while the Sicarans and Kratoses (?) would advance on the right. One detachment of the air assault company would grab objective 5, with the HQ and other detachment in reserve in the Storm Eagle. The Predators and assault marines would go where they were needed, the Rapiers would sit on objective 4, and the jetbikes were my reserve.

It got a bit crowded in my deployment zone!

The battle started with our Forward Deployment moves: my Land Raiders sped toward objective 3, and the loyalist Aethon Heavy Sentinels secured objective 6. In the movement phase, both our armies surged out of their deployment zones.

A side note. When Legions Imperialis finally came out after a long, unexplained delay, it was roundly criticized for how rubbish the order counters were. I can attest that the criticism was well-deserved: they're printed on thin cardboard and are difficult to even punch out easily. What I didn't realize until my first orders phase was that there are also comically few of them, even for a 2000 point army. I'd brought along my own set, minus some damaged in trying to detach them, but was reduced to writing orders on scraps of paper.

Dashing out at a quick march, a detachment of my signals company occupied the central building in the face of the advancing loyalists.

Two Xiphon interceptors swooped down directly amid the enemy formations, sanguine that the loyalists' lack of anti-aircraft weapons meant they were invulnerable.

As the opposing forces came into range of each other, the firing started. First blood was drawn by one of the loyalist Warhounds: it fired at a Xiphon and missed, but its shudder missiles exploded around the traitor jetbikes, destroying a stand and leaving the detachment shaken.

One of the Land Raiders by objective 3 took an enemy round and exploded, and the Aethon Sentinels unleashed a barrage of missiles at the central building, completely wiping out the tactical detachment garrisoning it!

The other Warhound damaged a traitor Kratos and slowed the squadron down with its shudder missiles, and a Malcador took a hit and damage. Traitor return fire was ineffective, with only the Xiphons managing to damage a loyalist Malcador tank.

As the first turn came to a close, both sides controlled three objectives, but all the casualties were on the traitor side.

Victory points:

Loyalists: 17 VP

Traitors: 17 VP

**

Putting their faith in the Ruinous Powers, the Word Bearers continued their advance. Turn 2 opened with the traitor Malcadors gunning their engines and speeding at the advancing loyalist infantry, their heavy bolters spitting death and nearly wiping out the Veletari. The few survivors were blown apart by the traitor missile launcher detachment.

The second turn is the earliest when units with deep strike rules can show up. A bright flash and loud bang announced the arrival of the Cataphractii Terminators of the House of Justice, threatening to wrest objective 1 from the loyalists. A squad fell to overwatch fire from the Imperial Fists.

Meanwhile, the Word Bearers flyers swooped down on the battlefield. Covered by the Xiphon Interceptors, the lone Word Bearer Storm Eagle deposited a detachment of the 1st/4th (Air Assault) demi-company in the ruins overlooking Objective 6.

Undaunted, the loyalist advance continued. The Ogryns stubbornly marched for objective 3, only to be cut down by the concentrated bolter fire of the surviving signals company detachment.

Bloodied but unbowed, with shells from the traitor Rapier quad-launchers falling among them, the Imperial Fists advanced, while a Solar Auxilia tercio rushed to secure the central building. Denied a charge against the hated Aethon Heavy Sentinels, the Word Bearers assault marines fired their jump packs and descended on the Auxilia instead. In the ensuing mêlée, the traitors took heavy casualties and nearly wiped out the tercio.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, the firefight continued. The Xiphons unleashed their lascannons and missiles on the Sentinels, destroying three of them. Loyalist return fire blew up a Sicaran and a Kratos on the traitor right flank, and a salvo from one of the Warhounds destroyed two Predator tanks.

Having deployed its cargo of tactical marines, the hovering Storm Eagle turned on the Imperial Fists Dreadnoughts and scythed them down.

On the traitor left, the Yat-Kha Malcadors paid for their impetuous advance as the Imperial Fists destroyed one and damaged another.

The Yat-Kha Stormblade and Leman Russes accounted for a loyalist Malcador and Sicaran.

Finally, the Word Bearers air assault detachment avenged their signals brethren by bringing down the last Aethon.

The carnage was terrible, with dead bodies and burning tanks littering the battlefield. The traitor tank company and the loyalist Auxilia both broke, with the loyalist Leman Russes and the surviving Sicarans on both sides running away!

Although the tide of the battle was turning, with the loyalist side taking heavy losses, no objectives changed hands this turn.

Victory points:

Loyalists: 34 VP

Traitors: 34 VP

**

The battle was bloody, but with both sides fully engaged, the loyalists mounted a counter-attack. The last surviving Ogryns charged objective 3, but fell to the fire of the Word Bearer signal detachment.

The Imperial Fists secured the central building, mopping up the last of the traitor assault marines.

Behind them, the Warhound Titans strode forth to challenge the traitor armor, while the Word Bearer aircraft screamed down on them. The traitor Terminators charged the Imperial Fists defending objective 1, but were unceremoniously wiped out in close combat.

The Word Bearer jetbikes swooped in on the surviving loyalist Malcador and destroyed it, and the traitor tanks concentrated their fire on the Warhound contesting objective 2. As its void shields collapsed in a shower of sparks, the Storm Eagle and Xiphon Interceptors opened fire on the Titan's rear armor. With a terrible metallic groan, the Titan collapsed.

At the end of Turn 3, five of the objectives were in traitor hands, and the battle was effectively over.

Victory points:

Loyalists: 38 VP

Traitors: 59 VP

**

We decided to play turn 4, mostly so that the remaining Warhound would get a proper chance to shoot at my tanks.

It did so, and the tanks and Storm Eagle knocked down its void shields, and the Xiphons scored their second Titan kill of the game.

Game ends: traitor victory.

**

Tanks blew up, Titans fell over and infantry died in droves. It was also excellent fun and I want to do more of it.

I've read a number of complaints about Legions online, and I have to say that I don't understand some of them. Keeping track of formation break points, for example, is a simple matter of some tally marks on a piece of paper, or just putting the casualties in one pile and keeping count of them. Overall I found the system quite fluid and easy to understand, although I will admit we forgot about some special rules.

Since we were both new to the game, neither of us really knew what we were doing. I'm happy I had a plan of sorts and more or less stuck to it. I could have manoeuvered my Auxilia tanks a lot better, though. Having air superiority certainly helped, but it's a luxury I'm pretty sure I won't be able to enjoy too often in the future.

Legions appears to be very lethal, as our piles of casualties attest. I was especially shocked by the Aethon Sentinels just casually wiping out my Tactical Marines, and also quite disappointed at how badly the assault marines and especially the Terminators did.

**

As a final note, in recognition of my Xiphons' titan-killing prowess, I added little Warhound kill markings to them in memory of this first game.

So to sum up, Legions Imperialis is a great game, and I hope I get to play it again soon.

Let's Read the Horus Heresy 17: Deliverance Lost

The last time he had been in the Isstvan system, his departure had been very different.

 - The Horus Heresy: Deliverance Lost, Gav Thorpe

I'm skipping Graham McNeill's The Outcast Dead, but I picked up the next ebook with some slight trepidation. I remember Gav Thorpe as a controversial character back in the old 40k days, to put it mildly. I've read a couple of his short stories over the course of this project, as well as Lorgar, and they haven't been very good. I'm a bit curious about the Raven Guard, though, and Deliverance Lost does also feature the Alpha Legion. So let's see what it's like.

**

Deliverance Lost starts where Thorpe's short story The Face of Treachery left off, with a Raven Guard ship rescuing Corax and the last survivors of the drop site massacre.

Both Face of Treachery and Deliverance Lost prominently feature a Thorpe invention called reflex shields, which make Raven Guard starships stealthy by redirecting their emissions into the warp. Coincidentally, during our Rogue Trader campaign, I had suggested that maybe the reason there are no kind of radiators on Warhammer ships is that they dump their excess heat into the warp. I mean basically the warp means magic exists, and as technology can interact with it, you can and indeed do have magical technology in Warhammer. So from that perspective, sure.

I have two questions, though. First of all, given that we've learned over the course of this book series that Imperial sensors are incredibly bad, I'm not sure what you need something like this for. Nobody seems to be able to see entire fleets of warships coming at them, cloaking device or no cloaking device.

But more to the point, the Raven Guard have this technology, and it's not even apparently particularly secret. Why doesn't anyone else? If you can do this, and the Raven Guard are known to be able to do it, surely other people can do it as well. If reflex shields really let entire space marine battle-barges sneak around a system packed with enemy ships, surely you'd think someone would be interested in them. So to me, this makes no sense from a wider point of view, but feels very Gav Thorpe.

As they're escaping the Isstvan system, the Raven Guard ship goes to "blacklight" protocols, where they power down all systems and divert everything to the engines - while still staying cloaked. As if the enemy sensors are detecting overall power output and not the plasma drives propelling the ship. If you can figure out the physics of that, more power to you.

**

The biggest problem with Deliverance Lost is that it's just boring. Thorpe's prose is plodding at the best of times. We get exhaustive descriptions of all the places the characters go to, and of the entirely humdrum things they're thinking, but neither places nor people develop any particular personality in the process.

The plot has Corax arrive at Terra, where the Emperor tells him where he can find some ancient gene-tech that he can use to rebuild his legion. It's hidden in a subterranean labyrinth that he has to puzzle out. Meanwhile, the Alpha Legion is fomenting an insurrection in the Raven Guard's home system. The trouble is that none of this is particularly interesting, not least because the writing is so leaden, so I gave up.

This is the first Horus Heresy novel where I simply cannot be bothered to keep reading. The characters and plot just are not one bit interesting, the story doesn't really tie in meaningfully with any of the broader narratives. As the Raven Guard started figuring out the Emperor's puzzle-labyrinth, I realized I just do not care what happens next.

Avoid.