To Introduce Myself

I am Alpharius.

There we go, got it out of my system.

Hello, my turn for an introduction. A little younger than most of the damned, my wargaming experience started back about 2009. After a brief initial foray into Fantasy with Lizardmen, my full Warhammer start with 40k began in mid-to-late 5th edition with Eldar, I loved the variety both in models and gameplay that came with the Aspect Warriors, though at the time most of these were still in metal. My group of friends often spent Thursday afternoons at the club that started up in my last year of middle school, and then later at my house playing games on an unpainted/grassed Realm of Battle table. While I was into the painting far more than my friends, I still shudder to look at my older work, and not living near a GW meant infrequent access to paints. I later started a Chaos Marine force after splitting the Dark Vengeance box at the start of 6th edition, painting a non-specific red and gold warband, as at the time I wasn’t that knowledgable about the history of the Legions and the Horus Heresy. That would change, but not for several years as I dropped out of the hobby when 7th edition came rolling around.

As you might be able to tell, I’m a little bit of an Alpha Legion fan. You can blame Dan Abnett’s Legion for that. In the run up to 8th Edition and the hope of meeting more wargamers at Uni than where I was, my interest in the hobby grew again, and as well as digging my models out, I started reading the Horus Heresy novels. As soon as I’d finished Legion I grabbed my Chaos Marines and a pot of Kantor Blue and started repainting. By the Spring of 2018, some of my new pals at the Uni’s wargaming society had talked me into picking up a box of Betrayal at Calth and start playing the Heresy system, and to my delight, Primarch Alpharius’ model was announced not too long after.

Since then I’ve expanded my Alpha Legion further, as well as starting a number of other forces.

A quick glimpse at each of my Heresy armies

I’ll get around to full showcases of my armies and breakdowns of my lists in later articles (though Heresy 2.0 will likely make some revision neccessary), but until then heres a pick of a single model from each of my forces:

Alpha Legion

This marine most ofter takes the role of a veteran or tactical squad member, and is a good example of my Alpha’s colour scheme and iconography, but he particularly holds a special place in my heart for his actions in a game against fellow ‘Damned’ Billy’s World Eaters. This marine made 23 successful saves in a row (rolled one at a time for drama as he was the last squad member left protecting a Navigator) against a horde of chainaxe attacks. Real impressive stuff. The 24th wound did kill him though, but I felt he deserved some battle honours added, so gave him that silver faceplate unique to him in the army.

White Scars

This command squad standard bearer was not the first kitbashed model I’ve made, but it contains a little bit of everything. GW scout bike, MkIV parts, FW head, a greenstuffed banner, and his legs and combat shield (on other side) were my first inclusion of 3rd party bitz to an army. I’ve kept 3rd party inclusion to a minimum (just to this army I believe), as I don’t like the idea of locking out armies from being playable at places like Warhammer World. Painting-wise, members command squad have an inverted colour scheme to the standard Scars one to stand them out from the other bikes. Ultimately though, my Scars haven’t grown much from their initial first push (the core of a Recon Company + some bikes and land speeders) as I decided to make a half and half army, with the second half (Mechanicum) in time becoming the larger.

Mechanicum

Continuing with the kitbashing, here is one of my 4 converted Castellaxes (Castellaxs? Castellaxi?), made mostly from the legs of 40k Kastelan robots, and the head, torso, and arms of a Necromunda Ambot. The reason for this conversion was both a flash of inspiration, and a DEEP desire not to pay almost £200 for 4 of the FW ones. Made during the pandemic times, I still haven’t had a chance to use this guy and his friends, but I hope to see them shooting and slicing in the future. My mechanicum outgrew their role as allies to the White Scars and I plan to add a few more vehicles in to bump the points up to a 3000pt level.

Blood Angels

The rumours and leaks surrounding the new edition of Heresy and the models coming our way prompted a question. Would I start a new Legion for the new Edition? I mean… you can see I’m at 3 Heresy armies already at this point, the answer wasn’t going to be no. With the increased focus on the Siege of Terra, and my desire to finally include some jump packs in one of my armies, I chose the Angels of Baal to be my new force. While my core of it won’t be coming till I have the new launch box in my hands, I started anyway on some of the models I know won’t be getting shiny new plastic versions. Hence the Sabre, one of a pair. I can’t lie, the Sabre model is just adorable and I will hear no bad word said against it. Save for adding in a Blood Angels allowed assault cannon for the top gun, this model is as it comes standard. The paint job however set the tone for the rest of my Angels, with the battle-damage paint-chipping affect I’ve wanted to do since deciding to do a Siege-era army.

That’s the end of my introduction and whirlwind showcase of bits from each army. Stay tuned for more articles on my armies, Legion lore, and [REDACTED].