Aeronautica Imperialis: How will you paint yours?

So there are millions of camouflage designs out there on the internet. I personally like the old WW2 British Schemes (and some of the American ones). Here is a selection that I have shortlisted for myself. Please feel free to comment on your choices or what you are doing.

 Edging towards the Old Meteor scheme above as my favourite.

Maybe the old Vulcan camo for the Marauders though :)

Aeronautica Imperialis: unboxing

Hi all

We are have been fortunate enough to have early access to the newest Specialist Game which is coming out shortly; Aeronautica imperialis. I have heard fantastic things about this game, with some considering it the second best game to ever come out of Games Workshop following Adeptus Titanicus.

Since I was a kid I have been crazy about World War 2 and early nineties fighter jets, Star Wars and Warhammer, so as you can imagine this is right up my street. The Thunderbolt fighter is also one of my favourite designs (to me it is the Hurricane of the 41st millennium).
This game gives me the opportunity to make a Squadron of the same fighter class, and paint them in my favourite camouflage design from history.

The box art is beautiful and gets you right into the mood for some dog fighting!

Unlike many boxes, this one is not filled to the brim with content and it even has a bit of room for further purchases (which is great for storage). 

2 Thunderbolts. There are 2 different sets of armaments, and there are enough parts to have the same loadout for both.

2 Marauder Bombers

3 Dakka Jets!

2 Fighta Bommers

Marauder sprue 2

The Rule book is nice and compact. I will be having a look at it over the next few weeks and getting some games in hopefully.

Really looking forward to seeing what comes out of GW where it comes to famous squadron transfers and the like.

Thousand Sons Update

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, just been trying to get things sorted out but life happened which meant I didn't have much free time to post here. However, all the free time I had was spent planning what's next for my Thousand Sons - though it may be better if I rename the project as it's turning into something a bit bigger!

I've been busy sourcing the last bits of my legion roster and I can now tell you exactly what I've added since the Horus Heresy Doubles ToS:

• 3x Castellax-Achea (not built yet)
• 10x Ammitara Occult Cabal (partially built - needs some green stuff work and bases)
• 6x Bolter Marines (built - so my veterans can be fielded as 10 man tacticals)
• 4x Heavy Bolter Marines (built - inc. sergeant, so my heavy bolters from my veteran squads can form a heavy support squad)
• 10x Scarab Occult in Tartaros (built but needs bases)
• 1x Legion Command Rhino (built, awaiting spray day)
• 2x Legion Omega Tank Destroyer (1 featured at the event, 2nd unbuilt, both still have work outstanding)
• 1x Fire Raptor (built, awaiting spray day)
• 1x Vigilator (built but needs base)
• 1x Champion (built but needs base)
• 1x Master of the Signal (built but needs base)
• 2x Xiphon Pattern Interceptor (not built)
• 1x Osiron Dreadnought (not built)
• 1x Magister Amon (not built)
• 1x Magnus the Red (not built)

As you can see, that's quite a bit to do and I've managed to progress some of it too so you can look forward to more progress on these over the next few months.

Also, as I mentioned before, this is turning into a bigger project - the doubles event has inspired me and I've decided to scrap my Mechanicum project entirely however I will be using the Skitarii torsos and robes as the base of a huge conversion project instead. I'm planning on making a small Prospero Spireguard army that can be used as an allied detachment or a small scale army in its own right so we can do Prospero themed scenarios in the future.

I'll have a lot to show going forwards and hopefully won't be incommunicado for as long. I still have my Adeptus Titanicus things to do on top of all this after all so certainly got a lot of things in my backlog!

Until next time!

Hector Cephas

Weekly Progress Report: 02-06-2019

Another week down, and we are heading to the middle of the year already, can you believe it. . .

Drake has been working on a few Titan Owners Club things, and is gagging to get back onto some 32mm Hero scale models. He has been working on some banners (see below Legio Ignatum) among others.

No pictures from Hector this week but he is preparing the next phase of his Thousand Sons hobby project - formulating lists and working out which units he should prioritise next. The current thinking is getting some of his terminators done and possibly looking towards his air support next. His Adeptus Titanicus project is on the back burner at the moment in favour of doing more Thousand Sons stuff.

What have you been up to?

Thousand Sons - Throne of Skulls Review

Hi all,

Our team up of Thousand Sons and Solar Auxilia ("Athanean Rhapsody") unfortunately ended up not winning a single game at the Throne of Skulls event last weekend.

This surprised us quite a lot as I think overall the list we took worked alright - a couple games there were clear cut winners whilst others it went right down to the wire and I'm pleased to say that we enjoyed every one. There were some really fantastic lists - such as the World Eaters and Iron Warriors pure infantry list we played in our first game which highlighted how terrifying the World Eaters can be when they have long range back-up and the Talons of the Emperor and Alpha Legion list in our final gamd which I quite liked as that was the first time I've seen Sisters of Silence on the field combined with Alpha Legion forcing us onto the backfoot with some clever infiltrations.

If you've considered going to a Horus Heresy event at Warhammer World but have been put off by the idea that people will bring win at all costs style armies, don't be too worried about that and come and play! These aren't like grand tournaments so you don't see many armies like that, the community is fantastic and do it for the love of the hobby and the setting. We lost every game this time but we still very much enjoyed it and we will definitely be back for the next Throne of Skulls whenever that will be!

Now, despite this, I'm going on a bit of a gamer focused tangent as this was the first time I really played Thousand Sons (my first game with them was on Friday afternoon to refamiliarise myself with the psychic phase!), I'm going to do a critique of the units and how I played them and what I'd do differently now that I've got a better feel of the army rules - its one thing to know the effects of things but actually experiencing in a game is quite another (failing self-inflicted pinning tests in the psychic phase really hurts!!!). Before I dive in proper, here is a reminder of the army list:

HQ:

Legion Centurion (Delegatus) - "Galileo" (the Lord Marshell in the Solar Aux force is called "Figaro")
 - Artificer Armour
 - Refractor Shield
 - Psychic Mastery Lvl 1
 - Arcane Litanies
 - Force Axe
 - Cult Arcana: Athanean
 - Master of the Legion (Chosen Duty)

Troops:

Legion Veteran Tactical Squad
 - 10 men
 - 2 heavy bolters with suspensor webs
 - Sergeant (Artificer Armour, Power Sword)
 - Vexilla
 - Melta-bombs
 - Psychic Mastery Lvl 1
 - Cult Arcana: Athanean - Rhino

Legion Veteran Tactical Squad
 - 10 men
 - 2 heavy bolters with suspensor webs
 - Sergeant (Artificer Armour, Power Sword)
 - Vexilla
 - Melta-bombs
 - Psychic Mastery Lvl 1
 - Cult Arcana: Athanean - Rhino

Legion Tactical Support Squad
 - 10 men
 - Volkite calivers
 - Additional close combat weapons
 - Cult Arcana: Athanean - Sergeant (Artificer Armour, Power Sword)

Heavy Support:

Sicaran Omega Tank Destroyer (no upgrades)

I'll start with my Sicaran Omega Tank Destroyer - I got this tank because it looked really cool but I think I gave it way less credit than it really deserved. Don't get me wrong, I think there are definitely better tank destroyers than this one but this wasn't a slouch when it came to making an impact early game. My main problem is that I brought it as a "distraction carnifex" but really it was just a "carnifex" - whenever I lost it (turn 1 normally, otherwise definitely gone by the end of turn 2) I really missed it as my army lacked that punch. Given my experience with this tank, the changes introduced in book 8 (aka, making it cheaper and also able to squadron up) make so much sense and I think you really need to make use of squadrons to get the best out of them.

My volkite squad was effective but not in the way I was expecting it to be - it took out a World Eater Assault Squad in close combat! In terms of their actual purpose though they were ok - I think a more complimentary Cult Arcana would have really helped them out here (a.k.a. Corvidae) as they were a very static, sit and hold an objective unit. Overall, they were useful and effective but more often than not i needed them to be filling another role instead - I may have been better taking something else instead such as a squad of terminators and have my Delegatus join that unit instead.

My Delegatus was pretty good whenever I needed him to step up to swing a combat in our favour but ultimately was anchored to the volkite squad due to my army composition - in hindsight, I would have made room for him to join one of the veteran tactical squads and maybe give them apothecaries too or otherwise as mentioned before put the Delegatus in with a terminator squad and advance them up the table with the rhinos.

My veteran tacticals were great - I would change their loadout a bit though. I found that I seldom needed the meltabombs (I simply wasn't getting up the field quick enough to be decisive with them and we had other more options to cover that role) and probably would have been better off with extra armour on the rhino and asphyx shells on them to improve the quality of their shooting. Corvidae would also help here (as they have access to Divination rather than the cult rule itself) but I didn't really regret choosing Athanean as them having access to Psychic Scream helped them punch above their weight against high toughness units.

I found that with my army, I had quite a low risk of getting a Perils of the Warp and it only happened three times over the weekend:

1. Galileo had a perils once when manifesting Psychic Scream and negated it with his arcane litanies
2. Galileo's unit was shot with psyke-out grenades causing two Perils, one negated, one not but as he was fearless that game and my veterans were in their rhinos it had no effect as they autopassed their pinning tests
3. Veteran Tactial squad caused a Perils - this then caused the other veteran tactical squad and Galileo to be pinned; the original squad was fine as it was in a rhino at the time but that got blown up and then they failed a pinning check for that so they ended up being pinned too which was hilarious and deserved :P

Very much feels like a low chance but high impact rule, I was expecting it to happen more frequently than it did but not be as impactful; getting pinned in your own psychic phase is utterly devastating as the effects last until the end of your following turn!

All in all, I really enjoyed the army and I want to do more with it. I feel I made my list like it was one of my Imperial Fists infantry lists and expected it to do as well as them. Its not how they roll and I'm looking forward to the hobby challenges I have and the weird and wonderful things I can do with the Sons of Prospero which I haven't really been able to do with my Fists or World Eaters!

Until next time!

Hector Cephas

33 Days until Titan Owners Club Walk 2019 UK begins!

Hi all

Titan Owners Club UK's Walk will be kicking off on the 29th of June 2019! only 34 days away. I will be bringing the Bloodmire Battle Maniple (Warlord, Warbringer, Reaver and two Warhounds) and hoping to get a plethora of Engine Kills.

Last year was incredible and it saw around 40 Units take to the field:

Death Knell breaks through the wall and begins to melt his foes!

Canticum Malitae speeds ahead to run through the commercial district.

This year the club will have a backdrop too to enable our event photographer to take photos of our Engines against a 5m long horizon landscape.

Terrain is good and suitably large. This year there are some fantastic additions that we will be bringing (which we are keeping as a surprise for now).

Death Knell and Bone Garland target the foes over the wall.

 Bone Garland, the lead engine of the Bloodmire Battle Maniple.

Seeking Engines to kill.

The Loyalists march!

This year the Battle mat is 50% longer! 

 Legio Fureans represented and racked up a significant tally of kills.

Legio Crucius Walks for Ryza!

Knight banners (fear the Armiger).

 Legio Tempestus Walks!

House Terryn made great account of themselves against the Scout Engines.

The Warp Runners formed one point of the Pincer through the Siege Wall breach to envelop the Engines of the Tiger Eyes, whilst Knight Banners raced in close.

The terrain helped the swifter Warhounds outflank and get close to the bigger Engines.

Chaos Engines went to war, claws twitching they closed for the kill, scrapcode blaring.

 Terrain was used as a respite when larger Engines drew a bead on a damaged Titan or when the foe was too great a threat.

Engines looked fantastic too. All were painted!

Knights advancing through the Container yard whilst the Engines of the Legio Fureans tried to keep them at an arms length by making use of the terrain to funnel them into choke points.

If you have one or more 32mm Scale Titans produced by Forge World, and you want to pitch them against other Engines on the field of battle, there are still 10 Loyalist and 9 Traitor spaces still available. Since getting my Engines they have only seen use 3 times, but it is only when fielded against other Engines do I feel like I am getting the most enjoyment out of them. If you are interested in attending you can see the event announcement page HERE.

Currently the Club has 77 units in attendance (66 Titans and 11 Knight banners), you can see the break down below:

• 11 Knight Banners
• 27 Warhound Titans
• 19 Reaver Titans
• 6 Warbringer Nemesis Titans
• 14 Warlord Titans

Tickets:
This is a 2 day event.

Prices per Engine (price covers Saturday and Sunday gaming):

• 1x Knight Banner (3-6 Questoris Knights or 2-4 Cerastus Knights) £10
• 1x Warhound £10
• 1x Reaver £15
• 1x Warbringer £15
• 1x Warlord £15
• Unlimited coffee, Tea and Biscuits £5

   10 Loyalist & 9 Traitor spaces available   

So if you want to bring your official Imperial/Chaos Forge World Titan and/or Knight banner to battle on the biggest gaming mat in the world (54ft x 16ft) using 32mm scaled up Adeptus Titanicus rules, then this event is perfect for you!

Don't forget to Join Titan Owners Club