Sons of Horus Contemptor

Well, as promised I'll be posting about the first miniature that I've finished of the Betrayal at Calth box and also the first of my brand new Sons of Horus army. This means that I've tested some new things in him, tried out my planned color scheme and made the paint mixtures I needed (I took as a base the FW scheme which is a free download from their web and includes four mixes of four paints and is a pain in the ass). 

This is the finished thing, though there are lots of details you can't appreciate because of the bad light (sorry, but my best camera is my iPad, I'm no good photographer and in January in Madrid it's almost impossible to get daylight).

This is the contemptor just mounted. I decided the multi-melta because I'm reserving the Kheres Assault Cannon for another contemptor I got from FW and didn't convert the fist to have a melta instead of a combi-bolter because I used all my meltas in a support squad. If you are wondering why I put a green stuff cable in the base its because I had leftovers from the one I used to fill a hole in the fist arm (this model isn't designed for being dynamic).

 This is the fella backwards before painting. You can also see that the base was done with the "astrogranite" technical paint of GW, which worked out much better than I thought. I also used some stones and blister bits to represent larger rocks and some ruined foundations. 

This photo was made to show that I put some putty in the places it didn't fit well (this time from Tamiya, I'm not a 100% GW) though you can also see a space marine helm that I put there to be painted as an Imperial Fist, as a friend is starting a heresy army of them. 

I even drilled the weapons of my army, which is something I always say that I'm going to do when I finish but actually don't. 

I'm pretty happy with the final result, though I should have done a clearer mix. The actual composition is made of a mix that I'll call Mix 1 that is 50% Castellan Green and 50% Nurgling Green and a Mix 2 of 50% Dawnstone and 50% Sotek Green (all GW colors as, even though I don't buy them the 100% of my things, I do buy them a 95%). After this you do a mix of 50% Mix 1 and 50% Mix 2, which is Mix 3 and turns out to be the base color. Then you wash it with Nuln Oil and then layer it with Mix 3 again. After that you make apply Mix 4, which is like Mix 3 but with 20%  more of Mix 2 (you can see why it's a pain in the ass). Then you wash with Nuln Oil again the darkest parts and finally you edge with pure Nurgling Green and the most exposed borders with Scar White. 

This is his multi-melta arm side, which has the first Eye of Horus I've ever painted (this figure has a lot of firsts). It would drag a lot of the attention of the guy because of the oranges in the cannon, but is compensated with the elevation of the fist, which has also some extra Nurgling Green to be even more impressive. 

The back of the miniature has a lot of metallic, which was too shiny, so I decided to wash all of the metals of my Soms of Horus with a lot of Nuln Oil and then just edge them with Runefang Steel.  

As I said before the fist side is more highlighted than the other, but also has an arrow with XVI on it (the number of the SoH). 

The base was done with Eshin Grey highlighted with Dawnstone and Scar White, then washed with Nuln Oil and again highlighted with the same. The helm has a couple of yellows and then some sponge-weathering. 

The front is intentionally the most outstanding part of the model, with the shiny eyes and the scrolls, in where the only complete word is Lupercal (war cry of the SoH and one of the names of Horus, their primarch). 

The multi-melta has a second wash of Nuln Oil so that the orange, which is made with a gradation from red to white passing through orange but not through yellow, will outstand more.

The fist is the first place in where I tried sponge-weathering, and I liked it so much that it quickly spread to the rest of the figure. I've sponged Abbadon Black, Eshin Grey, Dawnstone and Runefang Steel on the edges.

Well, at the end it has been a great model to paint and I'm quite happy with the results. I've already started a melta support squad and hope to finish my army as soon as possible!

Tactical Support Squads review

Hi there everyone, I'm sorry I haven't written much lately, but I've been very occupied working on my latest Christmas acquisitions (I'll be posting pics soon), but I decided to talk about a unit that has impressed me: the Tactical Support Squad of the Legion Crusade army list. I've builder two five man squads out of the Betrayal at Calth box, and I'm pretty happy of the work they're doing.

The thing about them is that they're all equipped with an special weapon of your choice which basically is a cheaper unit of chosen! I've been taking lately one with meltas for tank destruction and one with plasmas for dealing with terminators, but I'm sure they'll be great with Volkite Calivers or flamers. They benefit much from a Rhino or Drop Pod (specially the ones with meltas or flamers) and I recommend taking groups of five for flexibility.

All this is great, but they obviously have some flaws that you should be aware of. First they're from Heresy, so you will need permission from your opponent to use it in usual 40k games, which shouldn't be a problem when playing friendly, but you have to be aware that this is not for tournaments. Also they end up being quite expensive if equipped with plasma or melta and given a vehicle, reaching the 200 if also given a vehicle so, as the chosen, you should be very careful because they still have power armor and die as easily as usual marines (giving them an apothecary is a good idea, but will get them even more expensive). At last they cannot be taken as compulsory troops, so no all-special weapons armies.

In conclusion, Tactical Support Squads are a great option for giving what they are supposed to give, support for your Tactical Squads, and fill the rolls that they cannot. If given flamers though and positioned near a Promethium Pipe, they can work pretty well individually.

Inquisition review

When you ask people about the actual codex of the Inquisition they will generally agree that it's one of the worst armies in the game. It's a lie. All of it. Inquisition is the hardest of armies, capable of utterly destroying even the hardest eldar. The thing is that not everyone can play them. It took me months to really get out everything that this army could do, and I'm still improving my techniques with them. So I'll do a unit by unit review:

Inquisitor Coteaz: One of the most used units of the Inquisition in other armies, Coteaz is quite nice, as you get an inquisitor with 2+ armor save, a daemon hammer, that allows you and your enemy to repeat the seize initiatives roll and a level two psyker that intercepts with his unit at 12" for just 100 points! Nice in large inquisition armies for the initiative thing and great if you know your enemy will deep strike if fitted in a heavy armed squad.


Inquisitor Karamazov: Inquisitor Karamazov is badass, he has lots of great things like orbital bombardment every turn, rad grenades, even a multi melta! But you won't be taking him a lot, as he is 200 points and as you'll be seeing through this review, inquisitors were made to be cheap. Even though Karamazov can be fun to play and has some nasty rules, also is a good option for a hard warlord, so for friendly games (in which inquisition exceed as they have lots of weird and fun configurations) it can be considered taking.
Ordo Malleus Inquisitor: At a first glance we have a pretty bad character in here, almost all of its profile is 3, except WS, BS and I that are 4. The thing is that it's only 25 points, and you get three wounds and attacks (be careful though because at toughness three its very easy to instat kill him). Inquisition is the only army who can spam HQ. Power Armour and maybe even power swords could be considered for that, but Ordo Malleus isn't the one made for mobs, it's the one made for your warlord, as you can get him terminator armour for durability. Also he has the psy cannon with psybolt ammunition for extra attack and can be turned into a psyker. You can also give him the Grimoire of True Names to face demons, as it's great for that ridiculous price. All this said be careful, as you don't want him to get to pricey, this is the Inquisition and the most expensive thing we have are Jokaeros!
Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor: You may still be wondering if you can really beat eldars with inquisition or if it was a joke, but it isn't. This fellas are mini-cullexus that you can mob to wreck eldars, demons or other psychic heavy armies. For 25 points you get a Null Rod, which stops your unit from being targeted by psychic powers. This can save you from an eldar storm or a Tzeentch thingie. Also a psyocculum and a condemnor boltgun can cause some problems. All this said for me this is the worst type of inquisitor, and usually I just take a couple or none at all (a couple? Isn't that a lot for a HQ? No, it isn't, I usually take between ten and twenty five).
Ordo Xenos Inquisitor: Now we are talking! This is the best inquisitor, with access to Needle Pistol and Scythian venom talons, this guys can be very strong, being able to kill a carnifex if taken in groups (at least three for this, though two could also do in the charge). But the thing that makes them so good, the thing that makes inquisition so good, are rad grenades. In their codex entry it says that it lowers toughness by one each time that an inquisitor charges or is charged. BUT IT DOES NOT SPECIFY TO A MINIMUM OF ONE!!!!!! This means that if four inquisitors charge as different units a mob of 30 guardsmen, even if one dies because of defensive fire, all of the guardsmen will be vaporized. An inquisitor with rad grenades is 40 points. You can field 25 at 1000 points. And THIS is probably the most broken unit in all the game. Not eldar bikes, not tau firepower, but ordo xenos inquisitors with rad grenades. Also note that you can get them into a land raider or a drop pod to get them to the enemy, really into any armies of the imperium vehicle, so it's actually easy to charge with them and, because they're different units, you can only kill one at defensive fire! Don't abuse of this though, people don't usually like it and will try to show you every rule that exists to tell you that you can't do that (I once spent fifteen minutes telling one guy that I had just vaporized his wolfstar with ten ridiculous inquisitors and that there wasn't a rule that could save him).
Inquisitorial henchmen warband: The other (optional) part of our army will be composed by a picturesque combination of three to twelve figures, which I'll analyze one by one:
• Acolytes: At four points, acolytes are great mobs and cannon fodder, but have some available options that make them interesting: The carapace armour could be considered for elite acolytes, but doubles the price of them, and another guy is better than a better save; the power armor is unaffordable, as it makes your acolyte more expensive than a normal marine, though it can be turned to a 2+ with some jokaeros, a option you should take into consideration. From the Acolyte Weapons take the boltgun for shooty mobs or the hot-shot lasgun for marine slayers (seriously, with this they're nine points, so four teams of five are just 180 points. And you can take teams of three with melta guns, which is a great vehicle killer combined with some transports (also good with plasma guns).
At last every one of them can take melta bombs, so you can have twelve in a unit, which will even vaporize a land raider.
• Arco-flagellants: Though they pack some decent punch they are too fragile for 15 points, so either cover them with e acolyte mob or crusader barrier or don't waste points in them.
• Crusaders: For 15 points you get a power sword and a storm shield, which usually cost 15 points EACH (without a guy), so good option for close combat anti-marine or anti-anti-marine. Also probably the best option to accompany your warlord.
• Daemonhost: For 10 points you get a fella with radom powers that have some good abilities. The cool thing is that you can get a unit of false deamons that can end up doing more damage than a real one, having a similar cost, a 5++ and instead of mark they have cool powers!
• Death Cult Assasin: Two power swords with initiative 6, two attacks and WS 5, assassins are great combined with crusaders for durability.
• Jokaero Weaponsmith: At 35 points they are the most expensive henchmen available, even more expensive than an inquisitor, but they have some improvements that are great for you units (get at least two so you don't get stuck with the first option). Also they are the little brothers of obliterators, as they can choose between lascannons, multi-meltas and heavy flamers each turn. To have five firing from the top of a chimera or two with three servitors usually works well.
• Ministorum Priest: This guy is the other way to improve your units, and works great with basically every close combat configuration, though you'll end using always the first or third hymn.
• Mystic: A good way to get your deep striking units where you want if placed in a chimera and run forward, but useless otherwise.
• Psyker: At 18 points you have a psyker and two acolytes, which are a unit in their own and thus a level one psyker. Easy to hide, you can get ten of this groups at just 180 points, with the corresponding warp charges, so great for psyker spamming and invoking.
•Servitors: At last but not least, we have the servitors, which should always be taken in groups of three to take 10 points multi-meltas or heavy bolters! Though mindlock sucks, the great number of them you can have compensates.
You can also take dedicated transports for your Inquisitorial henchmen warbands (rhino, razorback, chimera, valkyrie and the three GW variants of land raider) but I won't talk about them in here as they have nothing special with the exception that the chimera doesn't have the lasgun array but has five fire points and that a land raider crusader with psybolt ammunition is great.


At last, don't worry to take inquisitorial detachments, as the warlord traits from the rulebook are better in general.


With this I hope that you consider taking Inquisition as it's a more versatile army than you could think and has lots of surprises for your enemies!

Betrayal at Calth review

I finally got BaC, and I'm pretty happy with it so I decided to do an article.


The first great thing about it is the price, so lets make some maths: The Cataphractii terminators from Forge World are 35£, and their weapons 13£ (and this option gives you just fists, bolters and a power sword, while the box gives you a lot more options). We've already got 48£, which is almost half the price of BaC. A space marine MKIII tactical squad is 35£, without any heavy weapons or equipment for the sergeant (which BaC has) and in Betrayal at Calth we have three, that are, in total 105£, which summed with our terminators are 153£. Then we have our beloved contemptor, which costs 33£ and 9.50£ each arm, which are 52£ and added to the rest we've already got 205£, which is more than the double of this box price. But we shouldn't forget the characters! Two legion praetors, one in terminator armour and another without are 33£ what is more or less what BaC has, so added to the rest this sums up to 238£! So you get a final discount of a 138£ buying BaC rather than buying the figures separately from Forge World. I've heard people say that the problem is that they're less detailed, which is true, but the difference is so small that it doesn't matter. Also remember that this also comes with a board and instructions to play a game that is halfway between 40k and Space Hulk (it seems to be fun) and that this is plastic, so its easier to use and convert.


The second great thing is the combination of figures it brings. At first I thought that thirty marines was too much and that it should bring instead just twenty and something like a recon squad, but as I explained in my last post 30k is made for large units, so it turns out 30 was a good number (even though they're plastic, so customization is very easy). The contemptor is awesome, even though it could have a more dynamic pose, and the cataphractii are also great, with ten lightning claws, five power fists, five chain fists, five combi bolters and a heavy flamer. Both characters of the box are cool, even though they aren't the best, they have a couple of nice details (I like the power maul/crozius). Also remember that all the miniatures in the box are usable at regular 40k (I fear I will end up playing them more this way), as even the contemptor has rules at Imperial Armour.


At last I think that one thing that you should think about if you buy the box is what it means for all of us hobbyists. If GW sees that this is a success, maybe they'll start making heresy in plastic, maybe really blend with FW, and that will be the BEST. I think GW is testing us with this, do people really want plastic heresy? Are hobbyists interested in the Horus Heresy? I think the answer is yes, and I hope they start releasing other heresy kits (I hope for the dreadclaw, but I know that would be low in the list), passing to plastic but keeping quality resin in kits like the character series, for example.


All this said, I'm very happy with Betrayal at Calth and with GW in general (after AoS I had started to loose hope) and I recommend it for you all, being both a good option to make a competitive army and to have some good minis to paint.

30k vs 40k

I'm starting a Horus Heresy army this Christmas and it brings me a new problem, as I'm the first of my group to do so, so could I play my new Sons of Horus against the usual 40k battles?

The internet isn't much help in here, as there are as many people that say yes than no, an after some time searching I'm even more troubled, so I read the rules, compared them to existing armies and made some studies and even though the heresy legions can seem in advantage because all the D weapons, super heavies and primarchs (oh my god the primarchs), they have a great flaw in the actual 40k game, they need to have big units so they aren't flexible at all. For example, ten tactical marines cost 150 points, which is overpriced, while taking more costs just 10 points per miniature, wich means that taking ten more costs just a 100 points, which is really cheap, meaning that to have balanced units they should be as big as possible which totally destroys the usual flexibility of actual space marines and thus, the legions work in a totally different way, with few powerful units, a system that doesn't work to well in seventh edition with the tactical objectives.

So, in conclusion, even though the usual 40k armies will have some problems at getting down some units from the legions, they will easily out-maneuver them, so I think they are pretty balanced, being the legions more powerful but less flexible than other armies.
I will be testing my Sons of Horus soon to confirm all of this, and I will post my new ideas about them, as well as some pics.
 I hope this article was useful for you readers and I'll be posting something soon!