Re-Muster the Militia!

Next month the three of us are attending the Horus Heresy event “A Mortal’s Duty”. This is round two of a Cults & Militia and Solar Auxilia only event. Tom and Jamie attended the first one last year and we are excited that the three of us will be there this time!

The core of your army is 2k taken from either army list. Then, each player brings a single astartes – an envoy from a legion that also doubles up as your allegience for the day. This time round the available legions are:

• Dark Angels (Loyalist)
• Night Lords (Traitor)
• White Scars (Neutral/undeclared)

This was a really fun mechanic as it lets you build a lot of character into one model. Here’s our envoys from the first event:

To help keep us motivated we thought we would document our hobbying this month before the event – showing our painting progress each week (and the inevitable hotel room painting the night before!)

Tom

I have always loved the 40k Krieg models and 30k militia gave me the opportunity to create an army of infantry and artillery like no other. I enjoy the idea of waves of infantry charging towards the enemy whilst artillery rains down around them.

After the previous militia event that Jamie and I went to, I have tweaked my army list and decided to add an additional Leman Russ and two grenadier squads. The plastic GW kits made it really easy for me to add some bodies to the army and the range of weapons they came with made for some really interesting combinations.

The general theme for the army is infantry, artillery or a Leman Russ. Which suits the kriegish style of my army fluff and the models themselves.

I also love the addition that the event pack has changed Survivors of the Dark Age (instead of giving +1 armour save as standard it give +1 weapon strength with the option to by the armour upgrade). This means I can have my long awaited gun line without having to justify 3+ trench coats.

Stu

I toyed with a couple of ideas for my army. I wanted to run a traitor list, saying as I always use my loyalist Salamanders when playing Horus Heresy. I went back and forth between a feral beastman list and an armoured list (very much two ends of the spectrum!). I love the look of the palatine enforcers from Necromunda and decided to convert them up to be my mechanised infantry. I also love the look of some of the Forge World tanks, in particular the Carnodon Battle Tanks and Deimos Pattern Rhinos. So a mechanised army was the perfect excuse to go stick a load of them in. 

I’m still working on the background fluff for my army. But loosely speaking they come from a forgeworld with vast factories stretching far across the harsh desert planet surface. (so my bases are going to be a mix of mechanicus floors and desert sands). During the Horus Heresy the Night Lords targeted this important world and sowed the seeds of insurrection. There was bitter in-fighting amongst the regiments (hence the heavy weathering effects). Those that turned traitor took up the lightning symbology of the Night Lords to mark themselves out. 

I’m notoriously the slow painter of the three of us so this will be a fun challenge to see if I can get my army done in time!

This week I’ve finished off my first unit – some support sentinels to add some anti-tank punch to the list. I’ve got a whole heap of tanks on my painting bench and a load of enforcers to convert up. Gonna be a busy month!

Jamie

Having gone to the previous event, I at least had 1.5k of militia already painted. The struggle was deciding what to include to round the force up to 2k! My Byzant Janizars are all about speed and mobility – hopefully this gives me an edge in objective games. This should doubly be the case against militia and solar lists as they to be a bit more of a gunline.

Having taken a look through the event pack, there are a couple of cool new units that players can use, including a Chimera equivalent. I thought this would be perfect for my grenadier squads to make sure they can turn up exactly where they need to and more importantly keep them safe from all the Medusa fire!

However, as all the vehicles in my army are skimmers, it wasn’t going to be as simple as picking up a couple of chimeras. Instead I’ve decided to use the Skorpius Dunerider as a basis – it is a hovercraft (and has dune in the name) so should fit right in. The main challenge is in making sure they don’t end up being too mech-y. So far I have built the main chassis of one. Now I need to decide on how to build the turret autocannon and the hull heavy bolter into the model – guess that’s next week’s problem!

Let us know what you think of our projects so far and, if you’re also heading to the event, we look forward to seeing you there!