Well, another year comes to a close, and another good year for heresy all in all! We’ve seen a fair bit this year, so let’s start the article with a little recap.

Releases Recap

To keep things straightforward, lets break the year down into a few key themes:

Solar Auxilia

One force that have had an amazing year, is the Solar Auxilia. Starting with the LVO announcements of the range redevelop, over the course of the year we have seen all the following find their way onto the tabletop in brand new plastics:

• Lasrifles
• Veletaris
• Command Sections/Marshal
• Leman Russ
• Malcador
• Dracosan
• Heavy and Light Sentinels (brand new too!)
• Basilisk/Medusa
• Valdor
• Malcador Infernus
• Arvus Lighter!

That’’’s a pretty damn impressive amount brought into available plastics! Theres a few bits that are definitely still absent, specific Veletaris loadouts, and a proper solo Marshal model (yes I still hold out hope), but otherwise over 75% of the armour can now be made and converted from plastic, which is impressive!

My biggest wish now is that their rules get a proper overhaul, and some actual warlord traits!

Mechanicum

Just like the Solars, plastic Mech have also been a major shaker of this year’s releases. Again, to summarise, we have seen:

• Thallax
• Castellax
• Archmagos
• Techthralls
• Triaros
• Thanatar Cavas

And the distinct hint there is more on the way, such as the Krios tanks (which saw updated versions in the new Mars Book). Again this is a major range overhaul, and whilst there are some notable absentees (techpriests/magos, Myrmidons) a major amount of the core army range is now plastic and more available.

Books and rules.

We’ve also had not one, but two expansion books this year.

The Battle for Beta Garmon (January 2024) contained the awesome Blackshield rules, the controversial Shattered Legions rules, as well as Legiones aligned Auxilia, and two new consuls (the Optae, and the Overseer). It also brought new and updated rules for Endryd Harr, Hibou Khan, Tybalt Marr, Shadrak Meduson and Horus Aximand (all of whom gained new models to boot!) The Martian Civil war book followed in July. Containing new campaign rules, new Mechanicum options (some of which had already been PDFs), and updated/new character rules for Camba Diaz, Aster Crohne, and Kaedes Nex (though no models here to date). This was definitely a less exciting and dramatic release than Beta-Garmon, something possibly not helped by the lack of models by comparison to its earlier brethren.

On top of this, we were festooned with a singular exemplary battle, containing the rules for Sanguinary Guard.

Legion Units and Consuls

Despite having plenty of plastic production flying around, we have not been short of Legion units too:

• Legion Command Squad
• Melee Weapons
• Siege Breaker
• Hibou Khan
• Endyrd Harr
• Tybalt Marr
• Shadrak Meduson
• Horus Aximand
• Deredeo Weapons Sprues
• Caster of Runes
• Warsmith
• Overseer
• Iron Father

This is by no means a terrible collection to have gained! Especially in a year where we already had a huge focus on revitalising other plastic ranges.

Summary

There are some mixed views of these various models I know. Some such as Tybalt have immediately gone down as fantastic conversion fodder. Whilst others such as the Warsmith and Shadrak, were a little more controversial on release. Nevertheless, its still been a great smattering of new models and options.

In all, if you were counting, that’s a total of:

• 9 Infantry Squad kits (Counting the command squad twice)
• 1 Big Automata
• 11 Single Model kits
• 2 Upgrade kits
• 9 New vehicle kits

Not bad!

Stock and Supply

I do feel a discussion of the year cannot be without one of its biggest talking points. GW’s supply bottleneck has really hit hard this year, especially in the resin world. At time of posting, nearly 90% of the resin heresy kits are out of stock online, with no way of knowing when/if they’ll return.

This issue has absolutely been made worse by GW’s persistent lack of transparency surrounding the issue. Whilst it was quick to assure shareholders that a new factory is opening, which will help to increase overall production, it has done little to talk to its customers about possible long-term availability of product. Which inevitably has led to a bleed within heresy of members either transitioning to systems where models are available, or losing Geedubs out on purchasing as buyers head to 3d printers and Chinacast models. Now whilst there’s no way of saying that every recast purchase was a 100% lost sale for GW, its pretty certain that when none of your legion specific units are on sale, and no-one know if they’ll ever be back again, people will look elsewhere. The supply issues like this really do hurt the hobby, especially when their new online store directs people to buy products that don’t exist, and that can’t be bought in the brick-and-mortar stores.

Events

The heresy event scene has definitely continued to stay strong and positive currently. There seems to be a pretty strong number of events taking place across the year now, and all over the UK (I’m afraid I’m less versed in the wider world). There is definitely a distinct event meta beginning to settle now, with less and less tinkering with the formula in favour of keeping the rules simple for attendees. I do have some deeper opinions on the matter of events, but that’s an article for another day.

As for my personal attendance. I’ve managed to attend 3 events, and run 3 more! Early in the year I attended the Greeting’s Weekender, and then a narrative weekend event in Hull (reports on which you can find elsewhere on the site!). I also attending the Greeting’s Winter doubles this December, although as that was more a fun bash I refrained from any write-up. All 3 events were excellent fun to attend, alongside many big hobby heroes and fantastic characters.

The biggest thing this year was hosting! Putting together two 1-Day events, and a full weekender! And people actually attended! Honestly, I’m still blown away by this, and all the wonderful people I have met and had the time to chat with in the progress of making these events happen. CATD events are certainly got going away, and look forward to next year’s trio being announced soon. Whilst there is again plenty more I could say on this, one thing I will lay down now is that the two ‘1-dayers and one weekender’ is absolutely going to be our standard going forwards, mostly for my sanity, but also to help build the story of the Therion System and its many point of conflict.

Hobby

On top of event hosting, my hobby-work has been pretty focussed too, with two key points of focus for the year.

Blood Angels

The Blood Angels were the stars of the early year, growing to 1750pts for the Greetings Weekender, and then to 3,000pts by April. Honestly the army has continued to astound me in how much I could push the ‘dirty’ Blood Angel’s vibes, and add a bit of gritty realism to the pretty legion. With weathering, shading, and lighting techniques all being practised and developed on them over the course of the year. As well as some genuinely impressive freehand skulls! Honestly, I love them, I’m so proud of them, and the fact they won awards just adds the cherry on the cake. And I’m not done yet…

Emperor’s Children

My boys in purple. My loyalist sons of a traitor legion, finally being realised in stunning new schemes. These guys were always going to be a passion project for me, and they continue to be even as I’m building them into event lists. Currently at around 2,000pts, and growing fast, they are by far one of my favourite armies to paint, and certainly contain miniatures that make me so proud. I’m really looking forward to seeing how they continue, as I bring the list up to and past 3,000 pts ready for Throne of Skulls – starting with Rylanor!

Other painting.

Theres been a few other bits and pieces that I’ve worked on over the year too! A new Praetor for my Sons of Horus (upgrading Captain Karradon to a new and exciting Tybalt Marr conversion), some 40k Red Scorpions (a personal project using all old 4th and 5th edition minis), a rogue Blackshield, some one-off pilot objectives, and a host of terrain! Its certainly not been a slow year for hobby for me, and those are just the minis I finished!

Next Year?

So, what about the future? A very good question.

For Me

My personal next year is a little less heresy heavy (I know, shock!). But that’s because I’m pivoting to some other side projects. My major heresy forces will still get their reinforcements and one-offs (as I say, there’s a few Blood Angel units in particular that need doing). But my biggest pushes will be into two armies that I have wanted for a long time – my Old World Empire force (originally painted for 8th edition fantasy), and a Legions Imperialis Solar Auxilia Tank Brigade (to satisfy my craving for Epic and Regimental level combats). Look forward to bits about both of them in the future! This is not to say I’m stopping writing, or hosting, or running the plethora of heresy activities that I do, just that I might not paint quite as much.

The Wider Hobby

Honestly, I have a few hopes for another year of heresy. And one of them is not a new bloody edition. Whilst I do agree there are some point changes, and the odd rules tweak, that are needed. I don’t agree that the way to solve this is with a 3-year release cycle. A new starter set sure, new baseline plastics absolutely, and maybe a 2.5 style FAQ/reprint. But I genuinely fear that a 40k style 3-year cycle is not only bad for the hobby, but genuinely cannot be sustained by GW in any meaningful sense, especially if their heresy focus is selling big solid expansion books.

I do hope though that 2025 sees a few more generic plastic releases. Mk V and IV infantry would be nice to see (and my beloved MKII if they’re nice), as well as a Breacher kit (an upgrade sprue maybe?) and some recons/seekers would be the best angle. I imagine we’ll see at least one new expansion book, although hopefully like Beta-Garmon this one actually comes with its characters, and the release of more Legion consuls and praetors.

On top of that, who knows? If we’re really lucky, maybe we’ll get some solid idea of what the hell is happening to the old FW stocks, and a clear picture of just what the management at GW want our slice of the hobby to be!

Or maybe not, who am I to know?

Have a good New Years Folks.

• Prince