Sons Of Horus Legion Imperialis

   Having been given the starter box for Legion Imperialis for Christmas (2023) and then having planned to get some test games in as early in the year as I could manage, here I am towards the end of 2024 without having played any games*.

*its been a bit of a year

   I had been planning something Horus Heresy in this scale for ages - I've had a mate print some epic scale marines in the past but could never do something I was happy with. After reading the novels and playing a lot of 30k, the scale of the 32mm game just never felt right. The heresy is about companies of marines, with big support vehicles bashing it out, while the average pick up game of 30k tends to be a Primarch or Preatorian with an elite bodyguard and a squad or two in support, I've seen 3000 point games (about as big as you can do on a 6/4 table) with less than 30 figures a side. LI means you can have 100+ figures a side and still be playing a small game**

**plus multiple titans without needing to re-mortgage

  I've been painting these on and off all year without getting very far, so with Christmas coming up fast, I thought I had better get moving. It turns out they are really hard to photograph, but the green is a touch brighter in real life and matches my 28mm Sons of Horus. I'm compromised on the colour scheme slightly - I am never going to manage a brass trim on the shoulder pads with my eyesight but the big block colours are in place and I think they look about right when viewed from my 3 foot standpoint. 

   I have based to match my Adeptas Titanicus stuff as they will be used in this game as well.

Command base and Terminators

9 bases of Tactical Marines - using a spare command to bulk up

The specialists - Plasma squad, Missile squad and Assault Marines

Contemptor Dreadnoughts

Squadrons of Predators and Sicarans

   What I have painted is just the Space Marine side of the starter box and by all accounts online I need at least double the amount of infantry just to keep stuff on the board in a regular game - although the advice seems to be 3 or 4 times this really. My aim at this point is just to have two matched sides to actually play a game before I start bulking up - far better to have an achievable aim to play than unachievable and never try.

While I was at it I did a test base of trees just to fill a board quickly. While the trees are probably out of scale - possibly better suited to a 15mm figure size - I don't hate the idea and I will mass produce a few more bases of these as well as really start the buildings.

This stuff does not photograph well. . .

Thanks for reading

Baby Rhino - Legions Imperialis

   Before anyone says anything, yes this is a new project but it should be one hell of a project. I have been trying to start a Heresy project in Epic scale for a few years now* as I think it would justify the battles mentioned in the book far better but my attempts so far haven't been good enough to make it onto the blog as test pieces. So when I was told by a mate earlier this year that GW was about to announce their new version of Epic set in the Heresy** I went nuts and bought some bits early***.

*I was chatting to Mike Hobbs a lot about his project at one point as I was fascinated

**His club mate was one of the community play testers

***As you'll see in a future post

   I've been told I'm not allowed to buy anything at all wargames related until after Christmas, so while I am mostly keeping to that**** I have been doing stuff around the edges. In this case I got the free Legions Imperialis Rhino from the store to test how easy they were to paint and if I was happy with my scheme.

   I copied my 32mm Sons Of Horus scheme exactly to start with. I know my colour scheme for the legion is probably a tad too green as it should be a slightly more off green - tinged with a pale blue, but I thought for the sake of consistency it was worth trying to match.

****ish

   I thought about which legion to pick for the project for a long time - for ages I had this listed as an Ultramarine project, then it swapped to Thousand Sons as I have a mate who is thinking about doing his Wolves in the scale, but ultimately, I don't want to rely on needing an opponent who matches*****, so I went to my favourite legion the Sons of Horus, with my first legion of Ravenguard who will be a small 2rnd army in the fullness of time. If I pick up Solar Aux, they can be loyalist too.

*****I've been burnt that way before

Thanks for reading - hopefully more next year.