Thursday 2 June 2016

Melee Weapons of the Legions


Hello everyone,

I'm back from my holiday and have hit a hobby brick wall with various life commitments getting in the way of any painting! So with that in mind and with not much progress to speak of, I have decided to do a post looking at the iconic melee weapons of the legions.

I decided to look into this as recently we've seen melee weapon upgrades being worked on at Forgeworld, but only for a few of the legions. So lets have a quick recap on what Drake and Kaelo found out for us at this years Warhammer Fest :).































Power scythes for the Death Guard are very iconic for the legion, so I think its a great step by
Forgeworld to give us even more options for upgrading our legions.


 


Power Spears are also awesome for the Emperors Children. Perfect for a Veteran bodyguard for a commander or a despoiler squad!





Like the Power Scythes I did expect these to be coming for the Night Lords, since we first saw them in the Night Raptors kit. They look pretty awesome, especially with the alternate arms for holding the weapon, this should give us a far better ability to create even more unique poses.





Now I didn't expect to see these from Forgeworld, but they look excellent and really fit the roman theme for the Ultramarines especially the ones holding a gladius!


So that is four legions down and I can see them creating something for every legion. I have however been thinking about my legions and in particular the Iron Hands to see what unique weapons they may get...



   
The above sword is a Zweihander, i'm by no means a weapons expert but from a little bit of research it is basically a two-handed long sword with a large reach. It was only used for a very short period in European history and was best used in wide arching strokes by swordsman to make use of its reach and weight. However, it soon became seen as a hybrid of a sword and a polearm, allowing them to impale men and horses like a spear or it could be used against pikeman.


   


If you have read the Meduson book from Warhammer World this sword is mentioned quite a few times as a traditional sword that is used by the legion. So also with some input from Drake we think this could be an upgrade the Iron Hands may receive in the future, its pretty iconic and mentioned in the black library series of books so I would be surprised if it wasn't picked up by Forgeworld. It also fits with the legion and looks as though it would be pretty devastating as a power sword, although it would obviously be a slower weapon to use. I personally like the idea of Aveinus having a perfectly forged gladius, however I do also like the idea of having the Zweihander too!

Rules for the sword could also be interesting, Drake suggested it could have a special rule based on the rule for defensive grenades, because of it being quite a defensive sword and it would have an advantage against charging units. Let us know what you think a good rule for it would be in the comments :).

So with me having not read through all of the Forgeworld and Black Library books or me just simply forgetting about what weapons the other legions are supposed to prefer using, I was wanting to ask you all what melee weapon upgrade you think the other legions will get from Forgeworld? Or even what other armour pieces or equipment the legions may receive from Forgeworld?

Just drop a comment below with your thoughts on the melee weapons and other equipment you could see each of the legions having and I'll edit the post with a list showing a weapon/piece of equipment assigned to each legion!


Thanks for reading,

Aveinus Kaane




 

21 comments:

  1. That would be an awesome weapon to see! However I'm not sure that they will do melee weapons for each legion or do something not already in the red book at the moment. The stuff shown of so far is all things that have rules for their legions already. So I could see things like storm shields for Salamanders and Imperial Fists. The gladiatorial weapons for World Eaters. Power daggers and the venom grenades for Alpha legion.

    I hope we do see that sword though as it would look really cool!!

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    1. Ahh okay I didn't know that! I guess we'll see them first then!

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  2. Storm Shields and hammers for Salamanders I hope!!

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  3. Servo arms as upgrade kits, or just eventually bring out a war smith for the iron warriors, but I agree that not all legions had a specific weapon or wargear that they used.
    Although currently I can't think of a single legion that didn't have one barring the iron warriors and iron hands, although iron hands have access to easy graviton guns...
    Maybe SoH? But they used a lot of chain axes...
    It's too early to tell if The Vlka and thousand sons will get their own weapons...

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    1. Yes the servo harness would be a great upgrade kit, good thinking!

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  4. I guess my world eaters probably won't get a weapon like this since we have the hold over chain axes from 40k

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    1. They have access to the gladiator weapons :)

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  5. We will probably get the power glaives from the White Scars at one point or another, but one I would really like to see is the Thousand Sons with a set of khophep blades, the Egyptian hooked sword. Always loved how it looked.

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    1. Yes two really good suggestions there. Khophep blades would make the thousand sons look very unique.

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  6. Tulwar is the iconic weapon for the white scars. I was actually surprised about the power glaive mentioned in book 6 as it is not mentioned in the scars bl book.

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    1. Ah yes the Tulwar! thanks for reminding me

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  7. This might be a dumb question, but if FW were to do specific weapons for each Legion, what would they be? Particularly the Sons of Horus.

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    1. Maybe some form of mace or blunt force trauma weapon?
      Or hooked poweraxes, or pick axes?

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    2. I'll do a list of the weapons everyone has suggested when I get the chance :)

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  8. Also what type of weapon/ legion specific upgrade type pack would the word bearers get? Some sort or mutations set with some arms, demonically mutated weapons and bodies?

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    1. I personally would love for a pack of athames for Word Bearers. Some to go at the belt, some in-hand.

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    2. Yeah that's a great suggestion, they would be a perfect weapon for the word bearers to have.

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  9. I had realized that as soon as I wrote it. Smaller Justarian style melee weapons.

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  10. Something tells me Iron Hands are going to get something boring like those Mechanicum power axes all the techmarines have, or something like Thunder Hammers.

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  11. I do love the sound of the Meduson Zweihander.
    Dark Angels: Plasma assortment and those special swords.
    EC: as above
    IW: Some sort of Hammer.
    WS: Tulwars
    VF: Assortment of Axes hopefully!!!!!!!! But I also imagine a Ultramarine style upgrade as above.
    IF: ?
    NL: Chainglaives
    BA: some pretty Charnable Sabres
    IH: Zweihander!!!
    WE: Chainaxes and pit Cadare Weapons.
    UM: As above
    DG: As above (considering it shows the favour of Mortarion I'm not sure how a squad of them fits in. Would have preferred something less). For Sergeant upgrades they are awesome!!!!!
    TS: Wizard staffs and hooked swords
    SoH: Justaerin weapons and some bespoke blades.
    WB: Athames and Maces (brazier tipped?)
    S: Hammers and Shields
    RG: Raven Talons
    AL: Power Daggers (and awesome posed arms)!

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  12. Thank you Drake! This list is really fun to look over.

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