Solar Auxilia First Cohort for new army

 

Sat down over the Christmas break and planned out the first set of forces for Legions Imperialis, with most of the group starting with Space Marines, I decided to go with the Solar Auxilia as my starting point.

The core starter set gives you the basic core of a small detachment and no where near the 3000 points that is recommended by GW for games of Legions Imperialis. So I did some swaps and have double the core starter set for the Auxilia and picked up another box of Infantry and 2 boxes of Bane Blades. Left over from my Aeronautica Imperialis I have some Heresy based flyers to add to the force.

So here goes with my first list:

Starting with a Solar Auxilia Sub-Cohort

HQ: Legate Commander Detachment 16 Points

Sub Total: 16 Points

Auxilia Lasrifles: Auxilia Lasrifle Tercio 30 Points

Auxilia Lasrifles: Auxilia Lasrifle Tercio 30 Points

Auxilia with Flamers 12 Points

Veletarii 12 Points

Auxilia Ogryn Charonite Section 50 Points

Auxilia Veletaris Storm Section 40 Points

Sub Total:174Points

Auxilia Lasrifles: Auxilia Lasrifle Tercio 30 Points

Auxilia Lasrifles: Auxilia Lasrifle Tercio 30 Points

Auxilia with Flamers 12 Points

Veletarii 12 Points

Auxilia Ogryn Charonite Section 50 Points

Auxilia Veletaris Storm Section 40 Points

Sub Total:174Points

Support:

Auxilia Veletaris Storm Section 40 Points

Sub Total 40 Points

Running Total: 404 Points

So this is going to form the Core Block of my starting force. Once I have this painted up I will look at the next section for the army.

Most of the starting force is undercoated and will start the painting of the first set of units in the New Year.

A while posting and looking forward to 2024

 Well it has been a while posting real life has been limiting my hobby time.

But I have been collecting and researching my projects for 2024. In this post I will put a little detail in to what I aim to be focusing on in 2024.

1. Legions Imperialis

This was GW latest release into the Horus Heresy era with the core set bringing us both Space Marines and Solar Auxilia and the new frame for the Warhound. Once again it seems that the manufacturing side and promotion sides of Games Workshop do not communicate with each other fully. As the initial launch has sold through the base core items needed to build your armies. So hopefully this will not allow the release of the game to stall. 

My focus from the starter set will be the Solar Auxilia and I have picked up a couple more box sets of infantry and Baneblades. My planes from Aeronautica will be used to fill out my army to hopefully hit the 3000 point mark. But we are still waiting for some of the core releases from the rulebook to be released. So hoping to see the Leman Russes, Malcadors, and Vanguard units released shortly. Or there are going to be some very very beige and boring army lists without the variation needed.

2. Black Templars

With the release of 10th Edition 40K, I have taken my time deciding what force to start with. Always had a hankering for the crusading forces of the Templars and also going to add in some Sisters of Battle as an allied force.

3. Star Wars

This project takes on many guises:

Role playing Game: I have started to run a Star Wars Campaign set just after the decree of Order 66. The group have a number of Jedi so they are currently focused on escaping the planet and ensuring that they lose the chasing Clone Troopers.

Within this project are a lot of 3d printed models done by my friends at 3D Kingdoms.

Legion: I have a only Ashoka, Clan Wren to finish my rebel army, then I will be working on my Empire force focused on the occupation of Jedha.

Shatterpoint: I have all the releases so far from Atomic Mass Games and will be using these figures to focus and improve my painting techniques. I am not sure if and when the group will play the game. 

Armada: I think that this game may be dead in the eyes of Atomic Mass Games at the current time. So I will use this as time to paint up all the unpainted ships. 

Star Wars Legion: Rebel Commandoes Unit 2 Completed

 

These have been sat on the painting for a while so it was good to finally get them completed. So all left to finish the army is Ashoka, Sabine and Clan Wren. Hope to get some progress shots this week.

Star Wars Armada: Vulture Squadron

 Recently picked up the Separtist Starter set and it comes with 4 unpainted Vulture squadrons. So a quick undercoat of grey and then a coat of Leviadon Blue Contrast paint and drybrush metal and black cockpit.

I have a new neoprene mat on order from DeepCut Studios so looking forward to getting some battle shots and unboxings.

Star Wars Armada: Latest Purchases

 As you will have seen from my recent posts that I have slowly been getting back into Star Wars Armada. I delved deep into this game when it first came out and bought many of the first set of waves. but then as usual with me and our gaming group other distractions came along and I lost track of releases and what was going on in the community.  

But after finding Crabbok's YouTube channel (Check out his channel great videos of what is fresh and new in Star Wars Gaming) when looking up Star Wars Legion I found his love of Armada and this got me to hunt out my crate that I had stored everything in and see what I had in my collection.

Having a mix of Imperials and Rebels but nothing really that would allow any variations in my fleet builds and sorely lacking upgrade cards I made out my shopping list for the Imperials to start off with:

SSD: I mean it is huge but Gor Dam I want that model for my shelf lol

Chimera: This is a Star Destroyer variant that brings Thrawn as a commander and some other useful ship cards

Gorzanti Imperial Assault Carriers

Interdictor

Imperial Light Cruiser

Imperial Star Destroyer: I have one but jeez love a big space triangle and there is no way to replicate that famous scene from Empire without 3 of them 

Imperial Light Carrier

Onager Class Star Destroyer

Imperial Squadron packs 1 and 2: I have both of these already but I reckon that more Squadrons cannot hurt. Plus I do love a Tie Bomber.

 I think one of the issues that I am going to have is how many of each ship variant do I want?

Since the release there has been some price rises and getting hold of some of the items is getting quiet hard. But hunting cap was put on a I started scouring the internet.

I found on good old Amazon these two items well under RRP so even though the Pelta Frigate was not on the list it was to good an opportunity not to pick up, for maybe a future fleet. The Interdictor was also a great price so with these two new ships under my belt the shopping has started

I will be doing an unboxing of my purchases in the near future so you can see the models and what cards etc you get, but now time to pack for a much needed holiday. We are off to Tunisia and hopefully if my leg is feeling a lot better we will be able to go on a planned Star Wars tour as some much of the films and backdrops have locations not far from where we are staying. 

May the Force be with you.

Star Wars: Lego Tie Bomber

 Its been a rough couple of weeks for me, I woke up feeling all feverish and my left leg had swollen, packed off to the Doctors by my loving wife. I was soon in the QMC Nottingham Hospital being treated for an infection caused by an insect bite a couple of years ago. Spent a whole week in hospital on IV drips. I cannot thank the nursing staff of ward C52 enough for all the help and care they gave me over the seven days that I was in hospital. 

Feeling pretty low and mostly bed ridden, I decided to cheer myself up and bought myself a Star Wars Lego set. I was thinking of the Falcon but at £750 it was a bit steep.

Now I had not made any Lego for a very long time, so was pleasantly surprised at the numbered bagging to make the build easier.

I built the model over a couple of days and it is a fairly big kit but easy to build only a couple of areas where I scratched my head a bit.

You get 3 mini figures, Tie Pilot who is inside the bomber, Imperial Officer to drive the bomb trolley, and finally and maybe a bit oddly Darth Vader. However I think my favourite model that comes with the kit is the Gonk Droid. I do love a droid.

Tie Pilot sat casually in the cockpit ready for launch.

I really enjoyed the build on the kit and it certainly took my mind off resting up from my hospital stay. I think next after our holiday will be Luke's Xwing.

Star Wars Legion ATDP part 2

 

Finally with some clear weather and not on husband duties I have got round to base coating the ATDP.

Started with a black undercoat and then Mechanicus Grey over the top.

Will now start on lightening up the base coat before I can start weathering. 

I am following Sorastros painting guides as I find them a very good starting point for a lot of my projects.

Star Wars Armada: Y-Wings and B-Wing Squadrons

 

Finished up this week 2 more squadrons for Armada, its the Y-Wings and B-Wings. Now just have the X-wings and Tie Fighters to get started on. Before I start working on the Elite pilots.

The weather in Nottingham has been on and off and not given me any time to get the second stage of the ATPD started on. But looks like fair skies this weekend. So fingers crossed I get the undercoat on.

Star Wars: legion ATDP Project Part 1

 

Welcome to part 1 of my All Terrain Defense Pod project. This walker has long featured in the graphic novels, books and cartoon series, but as yet AMG have yet to bring it to the table top. So I hunted around the interweb to find some 3D files. Now I have no idea and to be honest no willingness to learn how to 3D print at the current time, but a good friend of mine owns a 3D print business. So I popped him the files and hay presto like green magic I took ownership of my first ATDP.

If you are looking to have anything 3D printed look up:

3D KINGDOMS

If its your first order you get 10% off

So here is the ATDP assembled and ready for priming

As you can see she's big

With a clone trooper for scale.

If the rain holds off this weekend I will get it primed and hopefully the first layers of paint.

Star Wars Armada: A-Wing Squadron

 Fresh of the paint pallet today is a squadron of A-Wings for Armada. I am slowly working my way through the squadrons and getting a feel for the scale. Even though the larger ships come pre-painted I am going to look at a new repaint or see what I can do to personalise them for my fleet.

Star Wars Legion: Rebel Commandos Unit 2 Update

 

Its been a while since I hit up some paints on the final unit of Rebel Commandos so this week I am aiming to get them completed. As you will see from the front row of troops I have 5 different alien races to work on.

Looking forward to using some different colour skin tones and a variant on the pallet. Next set of photos should be the unit complete meaning I can move onto Clan Wren and Sabrine.

Star Wars: Armada YT-1300 Transport

 Despite the unseasonable heat we have in the UK at the moment, completed another Squadron for Armada, this time from the Rogues and Villains pack. The dial is dual sided the other allowing you to take the famous Millenium Falcon. That will be up next to going to work on the well known and loved scheme.

Star Wars Armada: Phantoms and Destroyers

 Tonight I got the final four bases from my Imperial Fighter Squadron II bringing 2 stands of Destroyers and Phantoms. Will start exploring how I will look to use them in a game and what role they will play in a fleet.

Games Expo Haul

 

Spent the weekend working at Games Expo this weekend and this was my haul from the show. I had planned on picking up Shatterpoint at some point but the deals at the show were to good to pass up on. I also got hold of the Padawam Ahsoka Tano as part of their promo release. 

Then whilst chatting with an old work friend on the GW stand I noticed a last copy of Rogue Trader. Seeing that is where I started my hobby journey I thought I would pick up and have a pristine copy in my collection.

Work continues on my rebel troopers and Armada squadrons and follows will be following soon,

Was anyone else at Expo if so what was your haul?

Star Wars Armada: Lambada Shuttles and Decimators

 

Some more Armada squadrons completed tonight. Each of the squadrons has the standard version and an elite pilot version of the card. This is half the box set completed I have some Tie Phantoms and Defenders to paint up next and the box is complete. 

Star Wars Armada: Lambada Shuttle

 

A break from the legion painting tonight. Spent some time tidying up the garage and came across my box of Star Wars Armada. Not played this game in a while but I knew I still had my squadrons to paint up. So nice quick and easy paint job on one of the shuttles. 

Star Wars Legion: Rebel Commandos Additional Upgrades Stage 1

 Work is progressing nicely on the next batch of 12 rebel commandos. Most of the base layers are now down, just some undershirts to do and then onto the cammo and washes. As you may have noticed there are some additional alien races to add some nice variants to the units. So are the following a Mon Calamari sniper, Ithorian gunners, Gran solider, Ishi Tib officer and a Chiss gunner. I am going to enjoy the paint work on these so that they really stand out on the battlefield. 

Star Wars Legion: Imperial Officer

 Bit of break today from my Rebels, and completed an Imperial Officer for a future roleplaying game or a future Galactic Empire list. I went with a German Dark Green from Vallejo. So it now back to the rebel commandos.

Star Wars Legion: Rebel Commandos Gallery

Today completed the first 14 of my rebel commandos, this almost completes my 4 squads that I have in my army. Just need to paint the snipers and some more troopers to give some more variation.

I took inspiration from Sorastros You Tube painting videos which can be found if you on the link.

Really happy with the progress that I am making with this rebel force. Getting the bulk of the troops done before I hit up Sabine and Ashoka.

 

Star Wars Legion: Rebel Commandoes Part 3

 

Not much progress tonight just the gloves and back packs, but with the weekend ahead of me looking to get some major progress on the models. 

Star Wars Legion: Rebel Commandoes Part 2

 

Some more work completed on the Rebel Commandoes tonight, laid down paint on the guns, trousers, helmets, belts and pouches. Its been a long time since I have done such a large batch painting run and forgot how little seems to be done. But I think another couple of painting sessions and I will have them completed and I can reward myself with Sabine Wren.

Star Wars Legion: WIP Rebel Commandoes Part 1

 

This weekend I have started on the major block of my Ashoka Army with the Rebel Commandos. This are the models from the core set, I do have some other models to fill out the units and to offer some model variation. But the major work on the bases is complete and rest of the week will start blocking in the colours.

Star Wars Legion: Refurbished Gonk Droid

 

Carrying on from my last droid the next completed model for Star Wars Legion is a refurbished Gonk droid.

This little beauty is an upgrade card for the Rebels and Shadow Alliance Speeder truck or the rebel only landspeeder. This gives 2 shield tokens to the model giving extra durability and with the added bonus in the end phase of recharging any spent shields. 18 points is a doozy of an upgrade.

Star Wars Legion: 2-1B Medical Droid

 

Next model completed is the 2-1B Medical Droid that is an upgrade for one of my Rebel Commando units. This unit upgrade will all you to take a wound or poison token from a friendly model or unit within range 1 and is in line of sight. 

Really pleased how Aethermatic contrast has worked over metal to give the slight metallic dull blue scheme.

Next up on the table is the core of the army the Rebel Commando Units. So far they are undercoated and the basing material has been added. Hopefully see some progress shots this week.

Star Wars Legion: Rebel Officer

 Last night I completed my first model for my Ashoka led Rebel list. Really enjoyed painting the skin and jacket on this so far nameless commander. Feels good to get the first model out of the way. This was painted up watching the second season of Bad Batch. Which is leading me to really looking forward to the release of those models. 

Also started work on the medical droid that will be supporting one of the rebel units.

I am going for the metallic looking blue that is seen in Empire Strikes Back when Luke is in the Bacta Tank after his encounter with the Whompa Monsters and Ben telling him to go to Dagoba to train under Yoda.

Star Wars: May the month of Star Wars be with you

 I am a self confessed lover of Star Wars, ever since I sat in the Oden Cinema in Ramsgate in the summer of 1977. George Lucas gave the world his vision of Galaxy filled with aliens, starships, the force, and the battle between the Light and Dark side.

Since then as my mum and dad would agree on my thoughts at times live in a galaxy far far away. 

With May the 4th the unofficial Star Wars day rapidly approaching I am going to dedicate the month of May to Star Wars in terms of painting, modelling, reading and watching.

So the painting desk is cleared, my last audio book finished, my watch list is book marked with Stars Wars related programs and films. My next set of novels has been ordered from Amazon.

Join me in celebrating Star Wars and share your posts

Star Wars Legion: Ashoka Tano

 Todays post sees my look at the upcoming release for Ahsoka Tano aka the 'Fulcrum' . Ahsoka has long been a fan favourite and Legion players have been calling for her to be in the game for a long time now. I think most expected Ahsoka to come in her younger 'Snips' days and add a much needed Operative choice to the Galactic Republic list. But AMG have given us the older and wiser 'Fulcrum' Ahsoka who acts the mentor to the young rebel cell and working with Senator Bail Organa

Ahsoka comes in at 165 points and as she was trained by the Jedi comes with two training slots and two force slots. As you will have noticed most of Ashoka's keywords are defensive and combined with Jump and Charge, will allow her to safely reach her desired target. 

Jar'Kai Mastery is a new keyword and will allow Ashoka to spend as many dodge as she would like to spend on improving her attack dice roll. With her lightsabers being two red, two black and two white Ashoka will cause a fair bit of damage when she arrives in combat. 

But that is not all that is coming with this release, Ashoka will also bring four new command cards.

I think my favourite is Family Reunion, if when taking a list with Sabrine Wren you get teamwork which when Ashoka activates Wren gets a Speed 2 move and when Wren activates Ashoka gets a Speed 2  move. It will be interesting to get these both on the table and see if they will use this ability to work together to achieve their goal or spread over the table to widened out their damage out put. The other cards are a 1 pip I am no Jedi gives Ashoka extra white dice for each dodge token she has so giving a little more of an edge to finish off that unit or opponent. The second two pip card is Swift Protection which gives Ashoka Guardian 2 and a unit in range 1 a dodge token. The final card is the three pip A New Beginning at the start of Ashoka activation she is allowed to recover, and when she orders a small base unit they will gain either an aim or dodge token. Ashoka also gains Inspire 2.

So a real nice balance of Command cards for Ashoka to bring to the table.  

In terms of list building I am still fairly new to Legion and I am still mulling over how to get the best out of her. But I popped over to Fifth Trooper to see what they had on offer. So I stole this list below and will be giving this ago.

So that concludes my look at Ashoka Tano, I have her on pre-order with my local store and just eagerly awaiting the release date. That will give me time to get the rest of the list 

D&D MacGregor Buckfast Dwarven Fighter

 

This week I completed my character for a friends D&D campaign. 

Welcome to MacGregor Buckfast Artisan Brewer and Fighter.

Star Wars Legion: Clone Captain Rex

 Clone Captain Rex

With Clone Captain Rex complete its time to look in the box

What in the Box?

Clone Captain Rex is a Commander Expansion for you Galactic Republic lists, allowing you a differing

option from the usual Jedi lead force. Captain Rex comes with 3 varieties of heads, Clone Series 1,

Clone Series 2 and bare head. I went with a Clone Series 2 helmeted option, as I have some plans

with the bare heads that I will show in a future project.

Captain Rex comes in at 90 points without upgrades and Rex has the following Keywords:

Gunslinger: After you perform a ranged attack option you may perform an additional ranged

attached against a different unit.

Scout 1: This allows Rex once he has been deployed to perform a standard move up to speed 1.

Scouting Party 2: Once Rex has used his Scout Keyword, he can choose up to 2 friendly trooper units

with range 1-2 to move equal of Scout 1.

Sharpshooter 1: When Rex is determining the enemy over, he can subtract one from the defender’s

cover.

Tactical 1: This keyword allows Rex to gain an aim token each time he performs a standard move as

part of an action or free action.

Rex’s Keywords allow him to move up or make better use of the cover around him in the set-up

stage with the Scout and Scouting Party Keywords. His honed use of his duel wielded pistols makes

him a great at adding suppression tokens to key enemy units using his Gunslinger, Tactical and

Sharpshooter Keywords.

With Rex being a Commander, he also gains 3 Command Cards that can only be used with Rex in

your Army:

One Pip -Call me Captain:

Rex gains Fire Support and when he uses Fire Support , he does not flip his order token facedown.

While a friendly unit performs a melee attack, Clone Captain Rex can use Fire Support to add a

ranged weapon to the attack pool.

Two Pip- Take That Clankers!

Can give orders to 2 Troopers.

While a friendly troop unit with a faceup order token and aim token performs a ranged attack this

command card will allow you to increase the range of the weapons by 1 to a maximum of 4.

Three Pip – We’re Not Programmed

Can give orders to 4 Clone troopers.

Rex also gains Inspire 2 and 2 surge tokens. When Captain Rex activates, he recovers.

Inspire 2 allows Captain Rex to remove up to 2 total suppression tokens from other friendly units at

range 1-2.

I really like the 2 and 3 pip options, I think this gives the players some real tactical advantages and

swing a turn in their favour by careful use of these cards. Playing the Take that Clankers! Early on

will hopefully allow the Galactic player to add on those much-needed suppression tokens and make

a dent in some of the opposing players lead units. This card was updated that the units would be

required to have an Aim token. We’re Not Programmed combined with Rex’s other keywords

should make him a powerful unit in that turn either putting the final blows into an enemy unit or

piling on those suppression tokens and hopefully causing the enemy to retreat.

With Captain Rex you also get the standard card sheet of tokens that are appropriate for him and his

Keywords along with the following upgrade cards: Esteemed Leader, Emergency Stims, Recon Intel,

Smoke Grenades, and Endurance.

Heresy Thursday: Plastic Vindicator

 

In this weeks Heresy Thursday we have another tank converted from Forge World Resin into glorious plastic. 

We get the Vindicator with both variant weapon loadouts in the box. Until we get to see the sprues unsure if the weapons will be an easy swap with the use of magnets.

The kit is also supplied with a dozer blade so can see this being used across other kits. 

Really like the look of the mega laser and this was one of the most painful kits that I had the joy of building from Forge World. So looking forward to bringing this into my ever growing Sons of Horus army. 

Heresy Thursday : Despoilers

 

Well they have finally landed we have some variants for the MKVI plastic infantry

GW have shown it in a nice Blood Angel scheme, sadly its not a new plastic frame but will be available through Forge World. 

The pack contains 5 set of arms with chainsword and bolt pistol also a nice power axe and double handed chainsword. So a minimum of 2 packs are going to be needed to make a legal squad. So a pricey unit with the resin upgrades.

However there is light at the end of the article where GW says there are new plastic infantry kits in production.