Epic Horus Heresy Space Marines

[Doghouse]

Although I started off with Rogue Trader quite literally from day one of it's release it was always a cumbersome beast for my twelve year old brain to handle way back in 1986. Countless random equipment charts, no force organisation or army lists and some completely mad rules made it difficult to grasp with no understanding or prior experience of war gaming.

The models were cool though and got me and my brother hooked and we and our mates spent many a weekend playing games with little regard to the finer points of the game.

 

Two years later GW released what has always been one of my all time favourite games Adeptus Titanicus. Three plastic multipart titans per side and scenery included in the box was amazing to me and we were soon engrossed in the Heresy as my loyalist Fire Wasp titans battled against my brothers Death Head legion.

This was followed up by a supplement in WD that allowed you to use squads of marines using paper counters and eventually evolved into Space Marine and was later supported by the equally amazing Codex Titanicus which expanded the rules further to include the reaver, warhound, along with Eldar and Ork titans.

This lead to my Fire Wasps being supported by the Space Wolves and my brother turning fully to the dark side with his Sons of Horus.

Over the years it has been revamped and rewritten but for me it has always been about the Heresy.

 

The beauty of the game is that it's easy and cheap to collect an army and despite their small size they are pretty easy to convert and there are loads of modelling options in the form of scenery and objective markers. Terrain pieces can be built to a grand scale in a fraction of the time it takes to start a 40k equivalent.

The marines are organised into detachments which are basically an entire forty kay force in miniature and organised by squad type. So in the case of the tactical detachment you start off with six marine unitss and rhinos then can add upgrades like a couple of dreads, a character, the odd vindicator, etc.

 

It's an absolute gem of a game that has unfortunately fallen from the lime light.

 

Digging through the attic looking for various bits and pieces I came across a box marked epic and have salvaged a fairly large number of models from most races that have peaked my interest in the game in a moment of sentimentality.

 

Rather than return to the Space Wolves that have long since gone all viking I'm going to have a bash at making one of the other Heresy era Legions as a long term project so that I can get some painting done rather than mucking about with green stuff all the time.

 

I don't have access to the new book but luckily enough the epic rules can be downloaded from the specialist games section of the the games workshop site so have everything I need to hand.

I have probably somewhere in the region of a couple of companies worth of marines to hand along with scores of plastic landraiders, rhinos, dreadnoughts, land speeders and other pre-heresy style goodies along with a couple of old school Warlord titans along with two Reavers and one or two warhounds.

 

Fortunately they are quite cheap to source new minis for the army as long as you go the ebay route, you could quite easily get an entire army for under fifty quid with some hunting around.

Downside is the current official rules only seem to support Marines, Imperial Guard and Orks but as I'm concentrating on the marines this won't be a problem. As I understand it there are fan made army lists and rules knocking about to be honest it wouldn't be that hard to convert the old rules to the modern to allow me to field my Chaos or Eldar forces.

 

Getting started.

 

As I have yet to decide on which Legion I want to use I'm going to plough on with the Warlord titan. In a three thousand point army these are a large points sink at 850pts but more than make up for it with durability and fire power. Supported by the faster moving marines this should make a mess of the enemy and in my mind it wouldn't be epic without at least one in my force.

At the moment I'm planning on doing it as one of the traitor legions the Deaths Heads but may well do it as the Fire Wasps if I decide to go loyalist. I've made few updates to the model in the form of cabling hanging from the underside of the carapace and will have loads of banners added. Weapon load out is fixed to two turbo lasers on the carapace, a gatling cannon on the arm and a big shooty defence laser on the other, basically the load out of the newer model. As I'm using what bits I have this will just be a counts as case as there can be no confusion to what they are actually armed with.

 

http://i56.tinypic.com/2vv6zpx.jpg

 

The first tactical detachment is pretty straight forward, six marine units with a captain leading them that will be the supreme commander for the force. I wanted to add pre-heresy dreadnoughts but it'll slow them down considerably so I may just add a couple of vidicators or proxy some sabres to use as vindies.

I may make a storm bird for the unit in which case the dreads will be included.

The captain him self is a conversion I did years ago, you can either have a captain, chaplain or librarian and each has a minor special ability.

 

http://i52.tinypic.com/24o4t1z.jpg

 

On top of this there are things like strike cruisers and battle barges that you can use to provide support which eat up points and save you having to make a model or two. They also allow you to access drop pods which sounds like fun.

[Octavulg]

I will watch this space with interest. I've been meaning to write a Heresy-era list for current Epic for a while, but simply haven't gotten to it. I should do that sometime.

 

In regard to rules: The current official rules have been turned over to the NetEA. They do their discussions at the Tactical Command forums - here. They update the rules and amend things and generally keep the game alive - indeed, the versions on GW's website have been at least partially amended in accordance with NetEA improvements (GW vetos some changes).

 

EpicUK oversees most Epic tournaments in the UK. They use different rules from the NetEA, and their site can be found here. I don't like their lists nearly as much, but they're the big game in town for UK tourneys.

[Doghouse]

Nice one thanks mate, bit out of touch as to what everyone is using these days. For the time being I'm just going to use the GW one as a guideline to get back up to speed but will definitely check out NetEA. B)

[Octavulg]

The GW rules are what people use, don't worry. B) The NetEA does have a lot of other lists to choose from, though.

[Doghouse]

Nice one. B)

 

Last time I played was when 3rd edition so any pointers as to what is in and what's not are welcome as I'm going to be seriously rusty. :)

[Octavulg]

Yeah...Epic Armageddon ain't Epic 40,000, that's for sure. It's good, it's just not Epic 40,000.

 

However, there's pretty much an army list for everything, so almost anything you have will be useful in something.

 

Stick with a Battle Company, a Thunderhawk or two, and some vehicles as support and you should be alright.

[apologist]

Fantastic news – I've been very sidelined from 40k recently, owing to the general awesomeness of Epic. P'raps we should play that Iron Warriors vs Ultramarines game at a teeny-tiny scale? ;)

 

Yeah...Epic Armageddon ain't Epic 40,000, that's for sure. It's good, it's just not Epic 40,000.

I'd have to respectfully disagree on that – Epic: Armageddon is hands-down the best tabletop wargame, in my opinion. I like Epic: 40,000 a lot, but Armageddon's the one for me. It's got all the best bits of Epic 40k along with a much 'cleaner' feel, which adds to the epic sweep.

[Dosjetka]

Maybe do Imperial Fists? or Iron Warriors, as Apologist suggested?

Btw, what's that pink stuff on the Titan? :huh:

 

Ludovic

[Doghouse]

Octavulg: Nice one cheers mate. :)

 

Apologist: Yeah definitely mate. Been a bit cash strapped of late which is why there is a lack of progress on my Iron Warriors which is a complete shame really. I will get there though. :huh:

I'm going with the Emperor's Children with these guys so it still might be possible to still have a loyalist vs traitor showdown yet. :P

You got any pictures of your stuff floating about, I've seen your truescale guys but never seen any of your epic stuff.

 

On a slightly different note does any know if the Sabre is a pre-heresy or heresy era vehicle? I can't seem to find an official source for it at the moment and have found a rather nifty way of making them as Vindicator stand ins. I'll put some pictures up later.

 

Battle-Brother Ludovic: Sorry mate you ninja'd me. :D

Actually Iron Warriors isn't a bad idea and I'd completely forgot about them. Easy to paint as well.

 

The pink stuff is the red plastic that the model is made out of as apart from a little bit I started on the legs years ago it's mostly bare plastic.

[Doghouse]

Here you go one epic Sabre.

 

 

http://i56.tinypic.com/350toxy.jpg

 

The original 40k version was basically a tank made from left over bits from the Spartan land raider conversion and a pen, that is kind of what I did here. It was a simple matter of cutting the tracks off the old Mk I land raider and remove the hull from a rhino. You then just stick the tracks on the raider hull and add a cannon. Dead easy and would look good for plastic vindicators as well.

I've still got some cleaning up and detailing to do but other than that it was a really simple conversion. With the left over bits I've made some spartans but not really fans of the design.

[Octavulg]

Apologist's Epic stuff is, IIRC, awesome. Like, really awesome.

 

Apologist:

 

I'd have to respectfully disagree on that – Epic: Armageddon is hands-down the best tabletop wargame, in my opinion. I like Epic: 40,000 a lot, but Armageddon's the one for me. It's got all the best bits of Epic 40k along with a much 'cleaner' feel, which adds to the epic sweep.

 

I didn't mean it was worse. :tu: I just meant it, well, wasn't Epic 40,000. The two are very different beasts.

[Gubbins]

wow, I havn't seen those plastic titans in years!!!....makes me feel old....

 

just had a quick rummage through the archives and

in answer to the comment on the sabre,they made their first appearance "during" the heresy.

 

hope that helps!

[doomicon]

Watching with interest. I stopped playing epic when they switched the bases... Still have about 20k pts (yea freakin LOT!) of orks all on the old square bases :-(

Slashers, Greats, Mekboys, gutbusterz, weirdboy towers, battle wagons galore, every clan.. ahhh.. the time when a Gargant cost like $14. Stompers came in a box set with a ton of SM/Eldar Stuff for like $20.

 

Still have 2 old "Mega" Gargants, freakin big on an epic table, and absolutely waste of pts gamewise... but they looked cool :-)

[Doghouse]

Here's the first squad and captain as they stand now.

 

I've still got to go back and add the legion symbol and squad markings on most of them along with painting the bases but for forty five minutes work I'm quite happy with the way they are progressing.

I know basing the vehicles probably isn't going to be too popular but I feel it ties the models together better and will allow me to build mini dioramas from some of them.

 

http://i51.tinypic.com/rlzzx1.jpg

 

http://i55.tinypic.com/2d2cg0y.jpg

 

http://i55.tinypic.com/24p9wnb.jpg

[Dosjetka]

Woo! Mini Marines :)

[Octavulg]

Give you a nickel to truescale one. :)

 

Looking very nice.

[Retrograde]

Really nice.

 

I'm glad you based the rhino. It makes a lot of sense considering the troops and titans are.

 

I hope you do include those oldskool dreads ;)

[Doghouse]

Cheers guys. :)

 

octovulg: I'll see what I can do mate. ;) I am making some MkIII guys as an experiment but want to get the bulk of the army in place before getting too side tracked. Might add a primarch.

 

Rstoner: Yeah definitely, I've got about six of the pre-heresy ones and five of the original rogue trader ones.

[Hemal]

Watching with interest. I stopped playing epic when they switched the bases... Still have about 20k pts (yea freakin LOT!) of orks all on the old square bases :-(

Slashers, Greats, Mekboys, gutbusterz, weirdboy towers, battle wagons galore, every clan.. ahhh.. the time when a Gargant cost like $14. Stompers came in a box set with a ton of SM/Eldar Stuff for like $20.

 

Still have 2 old "Mega" Gargants, freakin big on an epic table, and absolutely waste of pts gamewise... but they looked cool :-)

 

Good stuff - I have an old Imperator and approx 15 Battle Titans of various marques (mainly Reavers and Beetlebacks).

 

I REALLY need to paint my Marines though - pretty much a full Chapter still sitting on sprues, a terminator company on square bases and a coupe of battle companies on square bases awaiting painting.

[Doghouse]

Hemal: Yeah it's well worth digging them out, they're so simple to paint and the game itself is really good.

 

Here are the marines so far.

 

The first two are a little blurry because I got a little too close with the camera.

 

http://i54.tinypic.com/2nbhdz6.jpg

 

http://i55.tinypic.com/ej5s8y.jpg

 

These are some old school dreads that may make it into the force. The one on the left will be used as the powerfst/assault cannon version whilst the one on the right will be the heavy weapons version. I could convert them but they are seriously old models so will just use them as proxies if they make the grade.

 

http://i54.tinypic.com/r76c7s.jpg

 

These guys will be Mk IIIs eventually, just added the mouth grill for now and will later add the plate between the legs. I did try adding the ribbing on the back of the legs but to be honest it's not really worth the effort at this scale.

 

http://i51.tinypic.com/35240wm.jpg

 

Last off as a bit of fun a truescale marine as requested by Octavulg. :)

 

http://i54.tinypic.com/vmpqfd.jpg

[Octavulg]

Damn. That works. Like, really well...

 

Now to press-mould dozens of miniature Space Marine legs and hips! :)

 

EDIT: Seriously, how long did that take?

[Doghouse]

I think I'm going to stick to regular sized ones for the sake of my sanity though once the iron warriors are out of the way. :)

 

Might make an army of them at a later point though as he was quite fun, might need to be a bit more dynamic though.

 

Edit: Took about five minutes to work out the best way to do it, cut the legs off, removed the thighs and added a small plastic extension to each leg in it's place then sculpted over it. Pretty easy but did have to add a groin to the model to make the legs look right.