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Legions Imperialis Delayed

The initial plan was that Legions Imperialis would be released in August. However the most recent post on the Warhammer Community site on the new Solar Auxilia Support models there is (hidden away at the bottom) a statement on the release date.

While we had initially hoped to release Legions Imperialis in August, the release date will now be a little later in the year. Don’t worry – you’ll be commanding a tiny legion of troops to victory very soon.

Well that is disappointing, after all the exciting previews we’ve seen over the last few weeks.

The phrase later in the year means that we may not even see this release until December, though I suspect it might be November.

Epic Size Comparisons

Over on the Warhammer Community site is an interesting article comparing the new Legions Imperialis miniatures with Epic miniatures of old.

The new Legions Imperialis models are much bigger than the Epic versions. This probably means that it will be challenging to use any Epic models alongside the new ones. Many of the models were pretty much underscale anyway.

One mistake in the article is that they mention plastic Leman Russ tanks

On the left is an adorable family photo, depicting three generations of the Leman Russ. At the front in green is an old metal version from the Space Marine-era in the mid 90s, joined by a plastic model (we think) from Epic Armageddon. The new Legions Imperialis Leman Russ kit also builds Leman Russ Vanquishers, pictured on the right with a smaller plastic version below it.

These plastic models were in fact resin models from Forge World. Here they are advertised in the Forge World catalogue.

I had a few, but as they didn’t match the metal Epic 40000 models I had, so I sold them on eBay.

New models for Legions Imperialis revealed

So after the accidental reveal, yesterday we saw the official reveal of some new models for Legion Imperialis.

As well as the Rhino and Baneblade we saw yesterday, we also have the Kratos.

The Kratos is a staple of Space Marine armoured companies, and one of the heaviest tanks available to the Legions Astartes.

We also have the Solar Auxilia Banelade.

….the iconic superheavy tank hits the battlefield in detachments of up to six, with a kit that can be used to create Baneblades or Hellhammers, alongside a huge range of hull, sponson, and cupola options.

We also have the Deimos pattern Rhino.

These are nice models that have potential for conversions. In the day I did a fair few Epic 40K conversions.

Also in the photos are a couple of Arvus flyers.

We’ve seen these before in Aeronautica Imperialis.

Hidden miniatures in plain view

Over on the Warhammer Community site they have previewed some exciting new terrain for Legions Imperialis.

They have also inadvertently shown us some new models for Legions Imperialis.

In the video we can see Deimos Pattern Rhino armoured vehicles.

These look like really detailed miniature models.

There’s a super heavy Solar Auxilia Baneblade tank.

Wondering what other miniatures will be released.

New Terrain for Legions Imperialis

Over on the Warhammer Community site they have previewed some exciting new terrain for Legions Imperialis.

The new Civitas Imperialis City Road Tiles look excellent and was the kind of thing that Forge World use to sell in resin.

These are (smaller and in) plastic. I really like these. You get six in a pack allowing you to have a 3’ x 2’ gaming area. So you would need four packs for the standard 6’ x 4’ gaming table.

In the past we may have seen Forge World produce extra specialist tiles to add to the standard tiles. This time, I don’t think we will, which will be a pity.

We also have some new ruins, which look great.

These Civitas Imperialis Ruins remind me of the Epic 40000 ruins that came with that game.

We are also going to have the Manufactorum Imperialis and Civitas Imperialis terrain sets re-released as well.

Really like the level of support that Legions Imperialis is getting. Wondering what other stuff we might see. Will we see more terrain? Will we see some supporting terrain from Forge World? We will have to wait and see.

First look at the sprues

Over on the Warhammer Community site they are discussing the design of the new models for Legions Imperialis. It also means we get a first look at the sprues.

The sprues show that the model tanks have a fair few parts (along the same lines as the Aeronautica Imperialis aircraft models).

When asked about the challenges of designing the models, Daren from The Design Studio said:

There is a little compromise between accurately representing the details of the larger kit, and making something that people will enjoy putting together, painting, and playing with. By necessity certain aspects have to change, for technical and aesthetic reasons. You can’t expect people to make a six-part Tactical Space Marine in a game that can require hundreds to play, so simple infantry are the way forward.

Despite the number of parts I am still looking forward to the release of Legions Imperialis.

Legiones Astartes Support

We are now starting to see some of the other models that will be released for Legion Imperialis.

Over on Warhammer Community they are showing off the contents of the Legiones Astartes Support box.

In the box you get four Leviathan Dreadnoughts, four Deredeo Dreadnoughts, four Rapier batteries with crew, and four Tarantula Batteries.

This box is packed with heavy firepower. Leviathan Dreadnoughts are some of the toughest units to crack below Knight-scale, and are more than capable of messing up heavy tanks with their mix of weaponry. They’re joined by Deredeo Dreadnoughts, which are absolutely stacked with devastating long-range armaments.

The Legiones Astartes Support box also adds Rapier Batteries to this selection of Dreadnought death-dealers. These semi-automated carriages are used when Legions need to rapidly deploy ordnance that is too heavy for even Legionaries to carry unaided, trundling into terrain unfriendly to tanks. Tarantula Sentry Batteries armed with lascannons or Hyperios air-defence launchers are generally deployed as point-defence weapons, but are often dropped in ahead of the main Legion battleline as disposable assets, where they exact a heavy toll on advancing opponents.

These are all plastic models and all look very nice. I do wonder how fiddly they will be to put together.

The Epic History of Small-Scale Warhammer

There is a nice article over on the Warhammer Community on the history of Epic that leads into the future release of Legions Imperialis.

The miniatures might be small, but the upcoming Legions Imperialis is a huge deal. It’s the first Warhammer game of combined arms at epic scale released in two decades – and the first set at the time of the Horus Heresy for more than 30 years. And as you’ll see while we take a lot of (tiny) steps down memory lane, it’s drawing on a proud and petite pedigree.

It’s interesting to read this about the 1991 edition of Space Marine.

This edition is one of the major influences for the Legions Imperialis rules – but it’s important to note that they are not the same game.

Personally my favourite edition of Epic was the 1997 Epic 40000 set of rules. As it says in the article:

…this game was all-change for epic-scale. The miniatures stayed the same size, but the entire scope of the game changed around them. Armies were no longer confined to set companies or detachments, making force selection more flexible, but the trade-off meant that the complexities of different weapon types were much reduced to make the game faster.

I am looking forward to Legions Imperialis and I do wonder what models will be on the horizon for the new game.

It’s the end of Aeronautica Imperialis as we know it…

An FAQ about the new Legion Imperialis has been published.

As you might expect there is a lot of commentary about Legion Imperialis, including some interesting stuff about the scale of the new game.

Has the scale changed since Epic 40,000?

Sort of. Your classic Epic games of yesteryear had a fairly inconsistent scale: tanks, infantry and Titans were only roughly proportionally in line with each other. Legions Imperialis, on the other hand, is far more consistent. Infantry is the same size in relation to vehicles as their larger Warhammer: The Horus Heresy – Age of Darkness equivalent miniatures would be. Generally speaking, the new models are much more detailed, and a little bigger.

It will be interesting to do some comparisons when the new models become available. It’s true that over the years models did change in size, but were pretty consistent across a single game, with models only really changing when there was a new release.

I think the sad news is the announcement of the retirement of Warhammer 40000 era Aeronautica Imperialis.

Support for Adeptus Titanicus and Aeronautica Imperialis (in the Horus Heresy setting only) will continue, so you can continue to play these games alongside this exciting new epic scale game.

So there will continue to be support the Horus Heresy era for Aeronautica Imperialis, but we will lose support for xenos and Astra Militarum aircraft.

This being a Horus Heresy-era game, xenos craft from the Aeronautica Imperialis range will be sitting this one out. Additionally, as the Astra Militarum of the 41st Millennium wasn’t an entity during the Horus Heresy, Vulture Gunships, Valkyrie Assault Carriers, and Vendetta Assault Carriers will not be part of the game. These will be leaving the range soon, so if you want a fleet of tiny Xenos and Astra Militarum aircraft to call your own, pick them up now.

Yes you don’t need support to play the game, we get that.

You will still be able to enjoy the game with your existing collections, but support for models specific to the Warhammer 40,000 setting will be ceasing soon, and the relevant miniatures will be coming off sale.

However without new releases to inspire and engage, less and less people will play the game.

So no more Aeronautica Imperialis, well no more Aeronautica Imperialis for the Warhammer 40000 setting.

I am also, as I blogged previously, a little disappointed that there won’t be any xenos races, or even 40k era Imperial forces.

Legions Imperialis is a new game which is set firmly in the era of the Horus Heresy, letting you recreate the biggest and bloodiest battles fought in the civil war that set the galaxy aflame. There are no plans to expand this game into Warhammer 40,000 at the moment.

I guess at the moment doesn’t mean never, but if it was going to happen, it’s years away.

What about the Xenos for Legions Imperialis?

Following the announcement of the new Legions Imperialis, there was an air of disappointment across social media in regard to the Horus Heresy setting for Legions Imperialis and as a result we wouldn’t be seeing Xenos forces.

I mentioned in my post that this was likely.

Of course this is Warhammer: The Horus Heresy, so we’re not going to see any Xenos armies I would have thought. I would like to have seen new Ork models in this scale, a Great Gargant would have been nice. Ah well one can dream.

Some have said that if the game is successful, we might see a Warhammer 40K version which would mean Xenos forces being released.

Without sounding a little negative, I do wonder if this would happen. Adeptus Titanicus was released in 2018 and we’ve not seen any Xenos Titans.

Though we have seen alien races in Aeronautica Imperialis, so maybe we might for a future version of Legion Imperialis (but it might need a different name).