Reading Tea Leaves: Forge World discontinuations

The other day the hobby side of the internet exploded with the news that Forge World had shifted all their Horus Heresy Legion upgrade sets to Last Chance To Buy. To the look of it they've taking the entire range out of production including the extremely recent Space Wolves upgrades.

Oddly, this happened with not a word from Forge World.

I'm actually quite happy to say I find that odd now. Once upon a time this lack of communication was the norm for Games Workshop but they've got a lot better in recent years. Still, this is not a good look. We don't know what this means.

The most optimistic outlook would be that the main design studio are taking over the project and we're eventually going to get all these sets (or equivalents) in plastic. Its certainly possible but it seems odd to take it all out of production in one go. This is six pages of products all going Last Chance To Buy in one go, they represent almost every legion and effectively an entire game system of product. That's a big release schedule of upgrade sets for what is essentially a very large specialist game system and I'm not sure I see the logic of taking it all out of production in one go instead of staggering it to meet a plastic release schedule.

Then there's the pessimistic outlook: its the end of Horus Heresy as a supported system. Again, it could happen. If Fantasy can go then Horus Heresy can go. I'm not sure that I buy into that scenario, either. By all accounts its Forge World's biggest seller which is certainly supported by how much stuff they've released for it.

Then again, it might be a matter of cost. GW are not exactly unknown for pricing themselves out of the market. Even with the plastic Horus Heresy Space Marines a single unit of ten miniatures fully customised is extremely expensive. An upgrade set of ten torsos and ten shoulder pads comes in at £33 plus the price of the actual marines. Maybe its just that the sets themselves aren't selling.

Maybe its third parties. Forge World products are expensive and suffer from infamously poor quality control. Forge World resin is fragile, it takes ages to clean, and there is absolutely zero chance it won't arrive with at least a few parts distorted possibly even beyond use. Third party stuff, I'm sorry to say, usually has better quality control and that's just a fact.

So, maybe its a problem with Forge World itself losing out to third parties who provide the same parts with better quality control and no greater barrier of inconvenience since both involve ordering online. Maybe Forge World is just reducing its production base as they move more into the Specialist Games line.

Regardless of reason, however, its a shitty move not to communicate what's going on. This is a game system that, almost by necessity, involves a huge financial investment from the player as well as the sheer time-consuming inconvenience of working with FW resin. Making this huge reduction in range and not communicating to what extent the sky is falling is a dick move I thought Games Workshop had developed beyond, I really did.

30 Discs Hath November #29: The Eagle's Talon

Horus Heresy: The Eagle's Talon

written by John French

I'm not sure if its a different editorial direction of if they just both came out after Mortarion's Heart but so far the Heresy audios have been a lot better for knowing what makes a satisfying audio experience. The basic plot of this one is a very simple engagement: at some time during the Battle Of Tallarn an Imperial Fists strike team of three squads has infiltrated an Iron Warriors macro-transport ship (its like a troop transport except its transporting an entire army including armour) that they have to stop reaching the surface.

That's a very simple and direct skirmish engagement, more so even than the battle at the centre of Mortarion's Heart, but John French uses the audio medium to make it both interesting and varied to listen to.

First of all we are once again in a story being related after the fact. In this case we have someone examining a series of archived radio transmissions between the three Fists squads as they infiltrate the ship and making notes on them. This allows French not only to skip a lot of boring bits but to use the listening historian as a source of exposition. During the breaks between vox fragments we have our Iron Warriors historian talk about the specific tactics of the skirmish, the larger tactical situation of Tallarn, and even offer some thoughts on whether or not the concept of honour has any value in the Heresy-era Imperium.

A similar conversation to that last one comes up between the Fists sergeants, one interesting detail of which is that one o their number became a Space Marine during the Heresy and has only known war against other Space Marines.

Of the communications the most interesting, for my money, is when the subject is broached of destroying the ship and letting it crash. The impact and the nuclear fallout would kill indiscriminately the people on the surface both loyal and traitor. What interests me, what gave me more insight into the Imperial Fists psychology than I think I've ever been granted before, is that one of the sergeants insists that Space Marines should not sacrifice human lives for their own victory, that it runs counter to the reasons the Space Marines were created.

It isn't a new insight into Space Marine psychology (it forms the basis of one of the earliest Black Library novels) but it gives the “vox archive” sections a bit of meat they might otherwise have lacked alongside the more contemplative exposition of the archivist. 

30 Discs Hath November #28: Hunter's Moon

Horus Heresy: Hunter's Moon

written by Guy Haley

I think I made a mistake yesterday. I chose an audio from the Space Marine Battles line which tends to be very action oriented (and not terribly well-suited to audio) from an author I didn't know about an army that doesn't much interest me. Today its a Horus Heresy story, which tend to do better on audio, by one of my favourite Black Library authors and featuring two of my favourite Space Marine factions ever: the Space Wolves and the Alpha Legion. Certainly a better recipe for success. Also its only half an hour long so wouldn't try my patience it if didn't live up to its pedigree.

Haley certainly knows how to make a story like this work on audio. He crafts a small incident in the greater sweep of the Heresy rather than trying to write an entire battle into a short script. He also employs a more intimate narration style as an old fisherman on the planet Pelago tells his young pupil of the day the “star giants” came to their world. As well as providing us with characters from grimmest, darkest Mummerset this allows us an unusual glimpse into the Horus Heresy setting. Several, actually.

First, the Heresy is normally either presented as the present day or as ancient legends, not the recent past. This is someone narrating the lived experience of seeing the dream of Unity end before his eyes, having the illusion that the Space Marines are perfect defenders of mankind shattered. We also get to hear something of how this more liberal and forward looking Imperium affects the worlds under its banner. Pelago is clearly a primitive world where flashlights are an imported miracle but one of the characters mentions attending a collegium where he's learnt some science and knowledge of other worlds, spaceships and the existence of the Legions. Its clear that the presence of the Imperium is actually doing something for the population rather than the grinding exploitation more commonly shown in the forty first millennium setting.

Its actually a little disappointing when the Alpha Legion ship crashes in the sea and the fishermen go to investigate. Now, obviously, there has to be some point to the story rather than just some fishermen telling tales and filling us in on random worldbuilding and I don't begrudge it that. Rather, its that there's a limited number of places the story can go after that. I enjoyed the interactions of Torbjorn with the fishermen once he loosens up enough to tell them things (he's all “do not speak to me of it” for a little too long given the brevity of the story, to be frank) but a lot of the exposition is just to reinforce that his squad was one of those dispatched by Leman Russ to look in on the Primarchs to see if anyone was thinking a bit too much about rebellion in the wake of Prospero.

As with any good Warhammer short there's a twist of the knife ending. Not a terribly surprising one but one that has a lot more punch than you'd expect thanks to the narration style. 

The Lion as written by Chris Wraight

(SPOILERS for The Horus Heresy: Primarchs: Leman Russ: The Great Wolf by Chris Wraight)

I picked up Chris Wraight's Primarch's novella The Great Wolf on a whim. I don't follow the Horus Heresy series as closely as I used to, just checking in when a particularly attractive pairing of author and legion comes up. Usually, Chris Wraight writing Space Wolves would be a easy sell: I like Chris Wraight, I like how he writes Space Wolves. The only sticking point was the subject of the novella.

Its the duel with Lion El'Jonson.

Now, I get it. Its a hugely iconic moment in 40k history, its a big personal moment for both primarchs and there really isn't a place to slot it into the regular Heresy novels quite aside from the fact it isn't something that could really fill out a full-length novel. The Leman Russ novella was a natural home for it, especially as I'd bet the Lion novella will be about his relationship with Luther.

Still... Chris Wraight, Space Wolves, give it a try, I though. It started off great with the Thirteenth Company of all people being one of the main focuses of the story. Hell, Wraight even remembered the existence of Bulveye, now that's what I call fan service! Indeed, it took a while for the Dark Angels to turn up and I basically convinced myself that, okay, this was going well and was interesting and I could take the hit if the Lion bit wasn't as fun.

Well, I was wrong. The Lion bit is great because unlike most other authors, Chris Wraight has something more to say about the Lion than to wiggle his fingers and go “ooooh, untrustworthy and mysterious”. One of the first scene Russ and the Lion share has them basically comparing their ways of war. Russ, as long established, takes his wars very personally. He's the Emperor's appointed executioner, after all:

“Ever world we burn is for vengeance. They are condemned, he is condemned, and we are the sanction.”

The Lion, meanwhile, has a far more impersonal take on the whole affair:

“For me, the order was simple – go out, harvest worlds for Terra. I carry no hatred for those who resist. I barely see them. They are numbers, objects, obstacles to overcome. In the end the Great Crusade is all, and it stands or falls by our actions.”

As prosaic as it sounds, this is probably the deepest insight we've ever been granted into Jonson's mind. Most of the Legions gain their character from the personality of their primarch but Jonson has always been a mystery so Wraight works backwards: he takes the mindset of the Unforgiven and applies it to the Lion. He takes the cold singlemindedness with which the Dark Angels and their successor hunt the Fallen and asks what that would mean for a Jonson who has nothing to hide yet. Actually, the fact that Jonson has nothing to hide at this point, is a central theme of the novella and his conflict with Russ (hint: it has something to do with the Thirteenth Company).

Its certainly a more interesting approach than just having the Dark Angels always being untrustworthy dicks since day one which has tended to be how other authors treat them. And I'm not ust beating down on the “lower tier” Heresy writers here: Dan Abnett is just as bad for it in Unremembered Empire with Jonson forgetting to mention to anyone that he has bloody Night Haunter on his battlebarge because that's not the sort of thing that's going to come back and bite him on his knightly arse.

So, yes, for the first time ever I find myself interested in the Lion and it makes me want to dust off my Angels of Redemption. I've always liked the colours and the mechanics but now I have an insight into their psychology: the mission is everything without consideration of personal glory. Now, this gets a lot less heroic in the “present day” where that purity of purpose gets twisted into an endless quest of vengeance against the Fallen that has them regularly abandoning, selling out or massacring allies left and right but that psychology still holds true to a large extent.

Wraight's angle on the Lion also has the virtue of, just for once, not painting the Dark Angels as being entirely in the wrong. As much fun as I have tweaking our resident Dark Angels player's nose with the phrase “heretics in skirts”, a problem that comes up an awful lot is this:

“How does anyone trust these guys?”

So having a novella that shows them on a good day when there's no reason to (intentionally) betray anyone is a breath of fresh air. It genuinely is the first time I've seen them portrayed with the efficiency for war that gives them value as a fighting force and not just a bunch of shifty guys who swoop in, mysteriously abduct a mysterious person for mysterious reason and then massacre a hundred thousand Guardsmen for having seen too much. Or, to put it another way, as an army that works outside of their one USP storyline. 

Which Legion do I want to paint?

I've decided to try something I've never done before: paint some models purely for display. I've honestly never done that before, everything I've ever painted has been with the intention of using them in a game.

Now, though, I have this Mark IV Tactical Squad that I have no use for and I can just use it to paint something cooland different, something to challenge myself. I feel it should be a Heresy-era Legion, not just for the look of the thing but because I don't play Horus Heresy so it would be a nice change of scene.

So, which one?

A couple of Legions don't attract me at all for reasons of being a bit plain (Blood Angels, Iron Warriors) or because I'm painting them in other projects (Alpha Legion, Dark Angels) or because I'd really want to buy expensive extra parts to make them look “right” (Iron Hands, Thousand Sons).

So here's the short list and why...

Salamanders

The flame designs would be a good opportunity to practice my freehand and its not a shade of green I've had reason to paint before. Plus, I've always had a soft spot for the Salamanders and it would be nice to paint some of them at last. This is really the only one on the list that might lead to an army someday simply because they've been on my personal to do list since forever.

World Eaters

Dirty white armour is a challenge, not as challenging as pure white and therefore probably a good chance to ease myself into that colour palette. Plus it would be an opportunity to practice some blood effects. Only downside is I'm not too sold on doing a display unit for the XII Legion holding bolters.

Sons Of Horus

They're a gorgeous colour. Sea green isn't shade that comes up much in these systems and there's a cool Duncan Rhodes tutorial for them on the WarhammerTV YouTube channel.

Emperor's Children

Okay, okay, so I don't have chestplates with aquilas on them and that sort of means compromising the “aesthetic”, which is an odd thing to do with a display unit. I admit, that means I probably won't paint them as the glorious III Legion but the pull of painting a rich, deep purple armour is a strong one.

*****

This week I'll be building the unit (along with the rest of my Betrayal At Calth models), so hopefully by the time they're together I'll have made a decision.

What to do with my Betrayal At Calth models?

I bought the set in a moment of enthusiasm. I have pretty much zero interest in Horus Heresy as a game system. It had Maximus armour in, though, plastic Maximus armour! My issues with Forge World resin are well-documented (another reason the game doesn't appeal to me, too much FW resin) and Maximus armour is my favourite Space Marine armour mark. Hell, I committed to a Black Templars army back in the day just because the upgrade sprue came with a Maximus chest plate.

Aesthetic reasons are the best reasons to do things, shut up!

So, yeah, I didn't have anything to do with those models once I had them. The only reason I painted the Contemptor Dreadnought for my Flesh Tearers was because it was the first opportunity that presented itself. And, of course, the other dsay a sudden craze made me decide to paint the Legion Praetor as an Angel Of Redemption.

So what else have we got to work with?

Cataphractii Terminators

For a start, the Cataphractii Terminators are getting painted as Angels Of Redemption. I really like the way the Praetor came out and I want to have a whole squad like that. This also has a double benefit of giving me something to do with the Dark Angels from my Dark Vengeance set some time down the line (I bought it for the Chaos stuff).

Dark Apostle

He's getting a head swap. Loathe as I am to damage a perfectly good set of Maximus, he needs either a skull helm or a bare head to become a Flesh Tearers Chaplain. I love the plastic Death Company Chaplain but he has a jet pack and the Death Company I'm painting right now are on foot so this will make a good addition to the squad.

Tactical Squad #1

I have been hoarding pistols and melee weapons ever since I started my Flesh Tearers army and here is where I get to use them: a ten man Vanguard Squad with all sorts of cool poses. I have a bunch of pistols, chainswords and various power weapons from different kits so no two models should look the same. Plus, being armed for close combat they won't have boltguns obscuring their lovely armour.

Tactical Squad #2

Right, so this squad of ten models is going to contribute to twenty figures. Here's how its going to work...

For a start, the ten torsos and heads will be used to augment a Blood Angels Tactical Squad. This will leave me with ten spare Blood Angels torsos and plenty of heads to augment vanilla Space Marine kits later on.

Of the remaining parts, five sets of legs, backpacks and weapon arms will be used to build a unit of Alpha Legion Headhunter Kill Team for my Chaos forces.

The other five sets of legs and such will be hybridised with some MkIII torsos and heads I have left over from making some Forge World Plague Marines (never... again... I don't care how much I spent on those kits, they are tantamount to unbuildable and I will just wait for the plastics) and a Dark Angel Veterans box set to make a squad of ten Fallen.

Tactical Squad #3

And here I run out of ideas. There's not really anything else I want to do for my Flesh Tearers and I absolutely do not want to paint Maximus armour with its basically bare chestplate in the Angels Of Redemption's halved colour scheme. So, with nothing functional to do with them, I have a few possibilities for more decorative, challenge myself sort of projects.

I could build them as Black Templars. I have plenty of the upgrade parts sitting around. I could paint them as Alpha Legion if the Headhunters come out well. I've also always loved the Sons Of Horus colour scheme so I might try my hand at that, there being an excellent WarhammerTV tutorial on YouTube. 

In Defense of Tartaros armour

I'm in two minds about the two Horus Heresy Terminator armour designs. On the one hand I like the designs but on the other the background purist in me insists there was only ever one mark of Terminator armour developed during the great crusade and used right up to the “present”.

But there is one thing about the Tartaros pattern, which I initially disliked, that really appeals to me. You see, the technical name of Terminator plate is Tactical Dreadnought Armour and, alone of the Terminator armour marks, Tartaros armour actually looks like a Dreadnought. The Contemptor Dreadnought, to be specific, which I am also rather a fan of.

For one thing it has legs that look like they actually work and it does resemble the Space Marine the occupant once was.

I have one of the plastic ones from the Calth box set which I intend to use for my Flesh Tearers army. It may seem a little ornate for them, a little antique, but I like the idea of them having their own version of Bjorn the Fell-Handed: one of Chapter-Master Amit's chief confidantes dating back to when he was Captain of the Blood Angels Legion 8^th Company. With the Flesh Tearers dying, falling to the Black Rage in ever greater numbers, it makes a delightful sense to have one of the first generation around to witness the end.

Yes, its bleak but this is Warhammer 40,00 we're talking about.

Regardles of my little aside there, one of the other things I like about Tartaros pattern is that the anatomy actually works. I cannot for the life of me see how an actual person, even one with the enhanced physique of a Space Marine, can actually fit in traditional Terminator armour.

I just wish they'd get along and release them as a separate kit as they did with the Calth kits. I want Tartaros Terminators, maybe some Custodes and Sisters of Silence but I really don't care for the MkIII Iron armour Space Marines, at least not in any army I'm currently collecting. 

The Triumphant Debut of Arkhan Land

(mild, nigh-inconsequential spoilers for Horus Heresy: Master of Mankind, just background details, really)

Arkhan Land is one of those little details of Warhammer background that just fired my imagination when I first got into this hobby. He's the Mechanicus Tech-Priest who discovered the STC templates of the Land Raider and the Land Speeder (hence the names). The little background that existed for him before now portrayed him as an eccentric techno-archeologist who owned a cybernetic monkey and a collection of extravagant wigs.

Now, with Aaron Demski-Bowden's novel Master of Mankind, Land has made his first appearance in prose and it is glorious. He's a ball of arrogant self-assurance fully aware of how brilliant he is and how much he's contributed to the Imperium. He is, as I always imagined, very much unlike other tech-priests and this is all brilliantly represented in his monkey Sapien.

So, like most Earth wildlife, monkeys are extinct by the 31^st millennium and Sapien is a clone engineered to resemble what people believe a monkey was. Now, some researchers believe that a monkey could hang from branches using its tail. This idea, Land believes, is idiotic as, obviously, the monkey's tail was a lashing weapon meant to break the skin of other creatures and deliver venom.

Yes, this tech-priest has pet monkey with a scorpion tail because he thinks this is historically accurate. This is why I always trust ADB to deliver the goods, stuff like this.

Countdown to Heresy

I will be perfectly honest. Horus Heresy as a game? Couldn't care less, I really couldn't. It's Space Marines fighting Space Marines forever and ever, amen. I was there for the fourth edition, thank you very much, had enough of that.

But aren't I being positive this month? Yeah, about that: I do like Space Marines and the Space Marines I like best are ones in Mark IV Maximus armour. I love the scorpion-esque helms, they're so delightfully inhuman that they make the armour a weapon of terror in and of itself. So you can imagine my glee at the idea of a box set with thirty sets of Mark IV in it. That's practically enough for an entire army.

Add to that the best Chaplain model ever, a decent enough Terminator Captain, a Contemptor-pattern Dreadnought and... well, I said I was keeping things positive so let's just count the five Cataphractii Terminators and be done with it.

Ah, but what to do with it? As I say, Horus Heresy itself doesn't appeal (and no one I know plays it, either) so this'll be the basis for a 40k army. Given the amount of ancient armour on display it'll either have to be a chapter from one of the earlier foundings or one that has a decent excuse to be so well supplied like the Exorcists or Minotaurs.

Plus there's the issue of boredom. Space Marines have many, many fine qualities but... good grief they're so samey. It's a coin toss between finding a colour scheme I can do quickly and power through the whole lot (like, of, Flesh Tearers or almost any other Sanguinary chapter) or one that will challenge me and look amazing in the end (Novamarines spring to mind).

Something to mull as I spent a rare idle week getting my Empire army in order...