The Horus Heresy Solar Auxilia

[MoriyaSchism]

58 minutes ago, TheMawr said:

As how my remark relates to the topic of Solar auxilia, I think a choice/decision has been made to bring them in line with the rest, especially space marines. The old SA veletaris where in my opinion better in every way than these new ones... as long as you looked at them in a vacuum. SA where made in the relatively more realistic and detail focused "french boutique resin sculptor" style ( wich is the name of a folder on my pc, so probably not something people immediately realise what I mean.). HH Spacemarines are definitely not.

That doesn't really excuse that the new Veletaris look like they have really strange narrow and upwardly elongated heads because of the new helmets. There seems to be a trend in the new Horus Heresy releases where the designers give helmeted models helmets that are about the same size as the unhelmeted head. The beakies, mk3 and now the Solar Auxilia have helmets that feel like their head could barely fit in there comfortably. Orion posted a comparison image earlier in the thread that demonstrates this issue quite well. I find it hard to believe that the designers doing away with some of the resin detail with their transition to plastic would require these sorts of changes.

[Marshal Rohr]

The sculptor Stephen May gave some behind the scenes insights on his Instagram. The sculpts were completed last year and transferring them from resin to plastic was a pretty difficult task because the OG sculpts were so detailed. He mentioned a single model would’ve needed around 50 individual parts to match the resins. 
 

While they aren’t as detailed as the resin versions, this is still a pretty good adaptation and the most important thing is the affordability. You can now actually run an infantry heavy Solar aux list instead of treating the main units that should be on the field as a tax. It cost around 250 to run thirty resin models but you can now run 60 for slightly more money and have both the axe and volkite option for the intrepid magnetizers out there. The Lasrifle sections can run two 60 man tercios for what one used to cost. 
 

Having cheap regular humans on more tables will bring in some army diversity the game really needs and once plastic Mech arrives you’ll be seeing a far healthier mix of armies at events. 

2 hours ago, jaxom said:

You're right. I was even specifically thinking of the "only after [they] joined voluntarily with the Imperium that the Great Crusade truly began, their fleets, shipyards, and void expertise fundamental to the speed and scale...." I guess the bit about fleets and shipyards made my dumb brain go straight to Jupiter.

It’s not just you, they also mixed it up in the Legiones Imperialis Book 

[SkimaskMohawk]

1 hour ago, Marshal Rohr said:

While they aren’t as detailed as the resin versions, this is still a pretty good adaptation and the most important thing is the affordability. You can now actually run an infantry heavy Solar aux list instead of treating the main units that should be on the field as a tax. It cost around 250 to run thirty resin models but you can now run 60 for slightly more money and have both the axe and volkite option for the intrepid magnetizers out there. The Lasrifle sections can run two 60 man tercios for what one used to cost. 

 

This reminds me of when betrayal at calth came out and there were similar complaints. Yes, the forgeworld originals had higher detail and better poses, undoubtedly. But, the savings is so high going from resin to plastic that it should mitigate things somewhat. Look at the arvuses for epic, and the value of 2 resin for ~$30 compared to 8 for $60.

 

But....the SA infantry are still a tax, at least in their current incarnation. 110 points for 20 guys that can throw str 6 at 18", die in combat, and die to all the blasts left in the game. You need a lot to make them worthwhile as anything other than reborn screens, and even at the much more affordable price they're going to be, it's still a very large amount of money to drop on guys who get scooped by anything. 

[Aarik]

I was really looking forward to this release, but I find myself a bit underwhelmed.  I think the sculptors probably did the best job they could translating these to plastic, but some of the oomph feels like it got lost to me.  I spent a bit of time comparing the new plastics to the resin sculpts, and I'm disproportionately upset about losing the padded/poofy bits on the arms of the undersuit.  That was one of my favorite little details of the resin kits.  Between that and the locking bits on the legs and wrists getting a bit smaller (understandable because of the conversion to plastic), the feeling of a grimdark space suit that I loved isn't there as much.  The models seem a bit more generic now.  I also think that the paint scheme GW chose for them isn't doing them any favors.  I bet they'd look a lot better in the old blue and tan scheme.  Can't wait to see what other people do with them. 

[lionofjudah]

I had 5k points of resin S.A… 30% of the dudes las barrels busted off at some point of another… out of 120 las rifles that was 36 rifle tips busted off. Some never got fixed as they were lost in the warp or on the table.

the detailing was exquisite and so time consuming to paint - GW dropped AT at the same time as I was finishing up with the las sections and I cried when I painted all the trim on a warlord.

im happy to see S.A. in plastic as some of the best games I’ve ever played on the tabletop were with my S.A. 

they are a lot of fun, extremely dynamic, I found them to be nigh unstoppable and the aesthetic was impeccable.

i sold the majority of mine off to make room for my pdf project and kept an infernus, the arvus, medicae and a few random dudes for inq.

I’m looking forward to seeing what else GW brings in and my fingers are crossed for more super heavy love.

[Beta galactosidase]

6 hours ago, Marshal Rohr said:

you can now run 60 for slightly more money and have both the axe and volkite option for the intrepid magnetizers out there. The Lasrifle sections can run two 60 man tercios for what one used to cost. 
 

Having cheap regular humans on more tables will bring in some army diversity the game really needs

 

for a good game with 30mm models on even a 4x6 table, it gets worse to

have  more than 100 models total. So it’s nice that the price is lower but it really helps you reach a not-that-good game

 

4 hours ago, SkimaskMohawk said:

 

 

 

But....the SA infantry are still a tax, at least in their current incarnation. 110 points for 20 guys that can throw str 6 at 18", die in combat, and die to all the blasts left in the game. You need a lot to make them worthwhile as anything other than reborn screens, and even at the much more affordable price they're going to be, it's still a very large amount of money to drop on guys who get scooped by anything. 

Like Lion of Judah says there are a lot of good qualities in a mass of infantry. It’s just 1. tax units have always been peripheral ones that you mainly take because you have to and 2. It’s a p high monetary price for a tax unit

 

y cant there be an explicit benefit for units being screened, eg a 14 inch March move - they do it in Fantasy.  Y would cheap units like lasrifle sections trigger a crossfire bonus for other elite units

 

The selling point for these less detailed models is getting 60 of them on the table plus tanks and HQ, but to me it’s not a selling point because I don’t   want to play with or against 70+ models on a side.  Plastic Auxilia and a game that uses plastic Auxilia to get more affordable just make me less interested in buy models from any faction.

[Taliesin]

On 1/20/2024 at 12:33 AM, Lord Marshal said:

 

There probably will be, since they need to stick the rules for the Aethon and the weapon-platform-thingy somewhere. The bottom of the WarCom article is possibly implying that an announcement for one is coming.

 

 

 

So that sounds more like it would be added to a campaign book. Unless they just do a PDF. But we do know that there will be a new campaign book coming this year, but of course we dont know what part of the year.

Edited January 20 by Taliesin

[Marshal Mittens]

I like the models. They don't look as good as the Resin, but are far cheaper, quicker to paint, and won't irreparably break if dropped 12 inches my accident. 

 

I want like 3 of the boxes, and a malcador or 2, but my backlog is insane, so I will have to see what happens amd how GW prices these. 

[roryokane]

Other than the fact that it doesn't look like the Russes have side sponsons, I think these are all GREAT. Very surprised by the Malcador - gotta wonder if it has a bottom plate though! :P I also like they're doing a similar split to the Deimos predator so people can get the full range of variants for the Russ. I particularly like the Volkite russ, that is COOL - wonder if you could just have volkites on the hull and ?sponsons too for maximum CHOOM?

[Loquille]

@roryokane Solar Russes don't have access to sponsons. So sadly not.  I believe the Carnodon is the Volkite everywhere tank 

[Xirix]

If you wanted to use the Leman Russ for 40K I imagine their sponsons would fit, might look slightly mismatched though.

[Marshal Rohr]

2 hours ago, Taliesin said:

 

So that sounds more like it would be added to a campaign book. Unless they just do a PDF. But we do know that there will be a new campaign book coming this year, but of course we dont know what part of the year.

The Blood Angels upgrade might signal there is going to be a Beta-Garmon supplement instead of the theorized Lorin Alpha Supplement featuring Scars vs Emperor’s Children.  
 

 

Edited January 21 by Marshal Rohr

[01RTB01]

In which books would I find decent auxilia background please? I'm pondering the box to enable Fulgrim transfigured's second rite of war. Just would like some more background on them as it'll be a first foray outside the Legion for me and it feels odd.

[Dark Legionnare]

37 minutes ago, 01RTB01 said:

In which books would I find decent auxilia background please? I'm pondering the box to enable Fulgrim transfigured's second rite of war. Just would like some more background on them as it'll be a first foray outside the Legion for me and it feels odd.

The OG Black books #4 & 5. Especially #4, Conquest.

[roryokane]

14 hours ago, Loquille said:

@roryokane Solar Russes don't have access to sponsons. So sadly not.  I believe the Carnodon is the Volkite everywhere tank 

well that's a damn shame! I wonder why not?

[Zoatibix]

18 minutes ago, roryokane said:

well that's a damn shame! I wonder why not?

A lack of sponsonship? 
 

I’ll get my coat…
 

 

[Lord Marshal]

29 minutes ago, roryokane said:

well that's a damn shame! I wonder why not?

 

In 1.0 and in the lore, they primarily used the Mars-pattern Leman Russes (AKA the Krieg/Forge World ones), which are pretty much never depicted with sponsons. 

 

Notably in 1.0 the Militia could take Sponsons on their Leman Russes (though not in 2.0), presumably to depict them having more diverse sources of tanks.

 

Edited January 21 by Lord Marshal

[No Foes Remain]

I think it was also either stated or hinted at that they didn't have them for increased enviromental protection, either in book 4 or 5.

[Nova-V]

What an announcement, first time I've been this excited by a stream for a while.  After the absolute pigs ear of the Rogal Dorn it's nice to be looking forward to some Imperial Armour.  Well done to the team on the translation from resin to plastic.  I was expecting the Russ but Dracosan was a wonderful suprise and the Malcador more then I'd hoped for. Only lackluster design is the Heavy Sentinel which looks awful but it's easy to ignore so it's of no consequence. 

 

Interesting to hear about the proces of converting to plastic and how much need to be changed just to get the part count down.  People complain about SoB being 8-12ish parts per sister for troops, imagine more than double that!

 

Whilst the immediate future is using the armour to swell my 40K guard ranks, this release is the first time I've been interested in 30K.  More like this and I could easily be swayed to 30K.

Edited January 21 by Nova-V

[Shovellovin]

Do Loremaster videos have anything to do with release dates? This week has a Solar Auxilia video. Perhaps the release will be somewhat soon?

[Matcap86]

10 minutes ago, Shovellovin said:

Do Loremaster videos have anything to do with release dates? This week has a Solar Auxilia video. Perhaps the release will be somewhat soon?

 

It's usually kind of related to the hype cycle. I'd expect them in February.

[Orion]

6 hours ago, roryokane said:

well that's a damn shame! I wonder why not?

 

Even prior to the Horus Heresy, the Imperial Armour Russes in general aren't depicted with them. (even vanilla Phaeton tanks)

I'd say it's a stylistic choice. FW guys don't like the look of Russes with sponsons. 
 

[Taliesin]

17 hours ago, 01RTB01 said:

In which books would I find decent auxilia background please? I'm pondering the box to enable Fulgrim transfigured's second rite of war. Just would like some more background on them as it'll be a first foray outside the Legion for me and it feels odd.

 

I have the Horus Heresy book 4 Conquest Black Book, it has the main lore background in it for Solar Auxilia, several pages plus a lot of artwork.

Thats what you would like to track down.

[01RTB01]

11 minutes ago, Taliesin said:

 

I have the Horus Heresy book 4 Conquest Black Book, it has the main lore background in it for Solar Auxilia, several pages plus a lot of artwork.

Thats what you would like to track down.

Thank you to you and dark legionnaire.

 

I've got facsimiles so that'll do for now, thank you kindly.

[Orion]

Interesting quote by the sculptor

 

Quote

It's a shame they have assembled the sergeant parts, not on the intended body, so the pose looks a bit odd.

 

 

Still not a fan of the outcome of the storm section, but that must be pretty frustrating for Steve.

No wonder he looks particularly awkward. I wonder what he's supposed to look like.