Warhammer 40K Painted Assassinorum: Execution Force Minis

After over a month of being slack I seem to have finally got the painting bug back again and I have painted all the interesting minis from the Assassinorum: Execution Force game.  By 'interesting' minis I mean everything except the cultists, not that I think there's anything wrong with them, just that I've painted the same minis before when they came in the Dark Vengeance set.

Lets start with the stars of the show the Assassins; and in particular my long-time favourite temple the Vindicare.

Eversor

Callidus

Culexus

The Assassins weren't the easiest minis to paint and I spent a good while considering the best approach before starting painting.  This is a very unusual approach for me, in the end I painted them solid grey to start with and then washed them with 'Nuln Oil' five times to give the depth to the synsuits.

I've also painted the Big Bads from the game.  As my Chaos Space Marine army is painted as Alpha Legion I have naturally painted these to match.

Chaos Sorcerer

Chaos Space Marines

Review - 40K Assassinorum: Execution Force

Games Workshop are doing something right at the moment, first they released the first part of their new Adeptus Mechanicus range, which although I haven't bought any yet, it is only a matter of time.  Then as I was drooling over the Skitarri they go and drop an unexpected bombshell and release a stand-a-lone new boardgame featuring brand new Assassin minis.  Well I couldn't resist, so lets see what you get for your £75.

The first thing is you notice when you pick up the box is the weight, it was much heavier than I was expecting.  The box has great artwork on as would be expected, but the box itself is a step up for GW, a proper thick board game box, not the flimsy thin card boxes that starter sets come in.

Lets get straight to why you've bought or are considering this game and that is the miniatures.  The game contains 34 hard plastic minis, 15 chaos cultists, 3 chaos space marines, a sorcerer & familiar and of course one each of the four new Assassins.

The new Assassins (a Vindicare, a Callidus, an Eversor and a Culexus) are masterpieces of the miniature makers art.  It's amazing what GW can do with plastic these days, the dynamism that they manage to capture, that would be impossible in old style metal minis, is just outstanding.  I can't gush enough over how great these are.  Quite a bit of assembly is required, these are no 'push-fit' board game pieces, but the end result is well worth the effort.

The Assassins are of course trying to assassinate someone, in this case a Chaos Sorcerer lord who comes with some mates.  All the chaos forces minis are already in the range so no real surprises here.  They are also all generic so can be painted up to match any existing chaos collection that you might have, mine will all be painted up to join my Alpha Legion army.

For the sorcerer they give you the complete terminator lord/sorcerer lord sprue, so you have plenty of options on how to build the guy, and will end up with a load of spares at the end.  I've built this kit up before as a lord, but decided to go the proper sorcerer way this time, staff and all.

The 15 cultists are the same ones that came in the Dark Vengeance boxed set, I liked them then, and I like them now, I'm actually glad they're the same minis as they'll fit right into my units that I got from Dark Vengeance, which have always needed a size bump really.

Finally we have the three Chaos Space Marines, the most disappointing minis by a long way.  There's nothing actually wrong with them, they're just a bit flat a dull compared to all the others.  On another note this is my first experience with the new 32mm bases.  Overall I like them, maybe they're slightly too big and 30mm would have been better, but the marines do fill the space well.  I'm not going to go rebasing all the marines that I already have, but now I've seen them they don't upset either.

The game of course includes a rulebook, it's in full colour and is the same size and format as one of the current White Dwarf weeklies.  As well as clearly written rules the last few pages provide some interesting background on the Assassin temples.

The reason the box was much heavier than I was expecting is the board sections, the game contains 4 large and every thick board sections that join together to create the playing space.  Three of them create the main space where the Assassins have to locate the teleporter and turn it on and the final piece is the inner sanctum of the Chaos Sorcerer where the Assassins mission objective is.  These were much bigger and thicker than I expected, the artwork is of course top notch too.  Very impressive.

You also get a bunch of cards, counters and dice.  All high quality, for all that Games Workshop wind me up at times, they have put out an incredibly high quality product here.

So after all my gushing about the contents how does it play? and is it actually any good as a game?

The game is a co-operative game where the players take the role of the Assassins as they make their way through the Astropathic Sanctum trying to find the teleporter which will take them to the temple of shades where they will attempt to assassinate the Chaos Sorcerer.  The Assassins get two actions each per turn, which include basic stuff such as moving, shooting and attacking.  They all have different stats and different special rules which nicely make the four Assassins play differently, using the different abilities in tandem is one of the keys to victory.

After the Assassins have had their go the game takes it's go, the turn tracker moves on, random events happen and Chaos renegades move around the board in a semi random way until they see an Assassin, upon which they start attacking.  In a nice twist the more renegades that go on alert triggers more events (which are often more renegades) and the game can quickly escalate to impossible once you let one or two alert renegades live.  This provides an interesting challenge, it would be quite easy to slowly walk around taking out one renegade at a time, but there's a 16 turn limit and you don't have the time, but push too quick and you will be overwhelmed.

The board layout will be the same for each game, but cleverly the game comes with a random room mechanic, so you never quite know where the teleporter and the power switch will be.  Once you have found the teleporter you then have access to the final board section, the Sorcerer is always guarded by three Chaos Space Marines who are much tougher than the cultists that you mainly meet in the main board section.  We found our games to last around 45mins to an hour, which is a good length for a game like this.

My only real concern with this is the replayability.  We managed to assassinate the Sorcerer on our first attempt and out of three games in total we only failed once.  However GW have clearly realised this might be a weakness and have added a list of X-box style achievements, all of which will make the game harder to beat, and hence adding to it's longevity.

In conclusion, I reckon it's worth it for minis alone if you already have Imperial and Chaos forces for 40K, it works especially well if you have dark vengeance.  The games not a bad little filler game either, it's not massively in depth, but it is fun.  I think this is a good format for a release like this and I hope they do more like it.

One last thing to be aware of is that whilst all the minis are compatible with Warhammer 40K, none of the rules are included.  The Chaos figures rules are in all their codex, but to get the Assassin rules you'll either need to download the (expensive) dataslate or get your hands on White Dwarf 65 which also features the rules and points for all four Assassins.

As a nice surprise GW threw in a free Adeptus Mechanicus pin with my order!  I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with it, but free stuff is always welcome.

From The Painting Table #18

Another mix of recently painted minis for me to showcase today.  I've not had a greatly productive year so far on the painting front if I'm honest, I'm getting a few bits and bobs done, like those shown below, but no projects getting completed or even that many actual units (although there is one of those below), on the plus side I'm still getting a lot of games in, I suppose you can't have everything.......

Starting today with these Masai villagers from wargames foundry.  These were an xmas present from my sister (along with some Masai warriors) and are a welcome addition to my growing 'Darkest Africa' collection.

This is an interesting mini, from the dawn of Warhammer 40K, a 'Sensei'.  These are the immortal sons or descendents of the Emperor and are invisible to physic powers, the Inquisition naturally see them as a threat.  

An actual unit with gaming purposes now, 10 Nurgle Plaguebearers, which will see use in Warhammer fantasy, Warhammer Quest and potentially KIngs of War.  I'm always apprehensive of painting daemons, especially the skin ones, but I think these came out OK in the end, they still look a little to clean though and not disgusting enough.

 Below are a couple more plague spreaders, but this time for the Skaven.

 

Finally we have this 'Lizard Sorcerer' from the old Darkworld boardgame.  He's not the greatest mini but is being added to my Warhammer Quest collection to act as a stand in for a Liche.

From The Painting Table #15

A few more random bits and pieces have been finished, which I present below;

 

First this rogue trader era Imperial Army standard bearer for use with my Imperial Guard Astra Militarum army.  This guy came without his right arm, I searched fruitlessly for an appropriate spare Cadian arm, that would have worked better, but had to settle for this Catachan one in the end.

 

 These are Ver-Mym from Mantic's warpath universe, although these ones came with the project Pandora game.  They're clearly space skaven, and are at the higher end of Mantic's variable sculpting range.  These have been painted to match the plague marines in my warhammer 40k chaos space marine army as they have a dual role as a squad of chaos cultists as well.

 

 

A few askaris from foundry's darkest Africa range to go with my as yet uncompleted explorers project.

 

 

This was an odd elf that got sent to me with an order of historical stiff from wargames foundry.  I like the general style of the fig, but can't say that I really approve of the gratuitous exposed breasts.  It just seems silly and pointless.

 

 

And finally these three Eldar jetbikes for 40K.  These are very old minis, and frankly not very good, but they will see action as a vital tactical part of the Eldar forces.

 

Space Hulk - My Thoughts, My Minis

Space Hulk is a truly great game and I love my copy of the (limited) 3rd edition.  It was the rerelease of Space hulk 5 years ago that led me to collect my current Space Marine army and start playing warhammer 40K again after a gap of 8 years or so.  Throughout this post are pictures of the minis from my set that I painted when it came out last time round, I was immensely proud of them at the time, and they still hold up well 5 years down the line

My initial reaction when I saw the leaked pics of the new 'limited' edition Space Hulk was to feel a tad gutted and slightly cheated, after all the guy at my local Games Workshop when I bought my copy was making a big deal about the fact that these minis would never be available again.  And here we are, my 'never available again' set available, but in a slightly better format with an extra 4 missions.

I think its obvious to us all the GW aren't doing as well as they used too, and this is an attempt to boost revenues and please the city and shareholders.  I'm sure it will work, its a great product and the ebay prices for the last edition stuff is insane.  Ultimately GW doing well and making money is only good for our hobby in the end, but it still feels slightly cheating and underhand.

If you didn't get it last time round it's a total win for you, go buy it before they run out.  But even for someone like me that did get last time, there are some compelling reasons to get it.  Those 4 new missions for a start, what OCD completionist wouldn't want them?  And I've always regretted not buying two copies last time round so I could add the excellent termie models to my Space Marine army, now I have that chance.

Well I've ordered it sucker that I am, I'm looking forward to the new missions and will be converting the terminators for use in my Vengeance Templars army.  The genestealers will probably end up on ebay to recoup some of the costs.  GW must be doing something rigt as this will be the only big purchase from them so far this year (and we're more than two-thirds into said year).

That's how this post was going to end, but I changed my mind at the last minute and didn't order it.

Oddly the extra three expansions (for Dark Angels, Ultramarines and Space Wolves) have out me off buying the game as the extra version still wouldn't now be complete. Also I don't get to play Space Hulk anywhere near as much I woiuld like anyway, and I realised last minute it would be a waste of money and that I have too much to paint and too much stuff coming from kickstarters anyway.  I wonder if in a year or two I'll end up regretting this decision.

From The Painting Table #14 - This Month I have Been Painting.......

All sorts of random things really, none of the stuff belongs to specific projects or armies/warbands that needed work, I just fancied pulling a few models I liked the look of out of the pile and painting them up.

 

First up is this pack of 'Hollywood heroes' made my warlord games for the anglo-zulu war of 1879.  Of course based on the main characters from the awesome film 'Zulu', now I don't normally hold with minis of bona fide historical personalities being given a Hollywood makeover, but Zulu is such a fantastic movie I'm willing to make an exception in this case.  In case you needed telling from left to right we have; Private Henry Hook, Lt John Chard, Lt Gonville Bromhead & Colour-Sergeant Bourne.

 

 

I've also painted a selection of what would have been termed 'Imperial agents' back in the day (like 20 years ago I know) for warhammer 40K, after painting them I did think they would make a nice little inquisitorial warband, I might have to dig out the old rouge trader inquisitor I have in my collection and give him a lick of paint too.

 

 

This is a classic Adeptus Arbite armed with a bolt gun, rather than their characteristic shotguns.  I've been trying to get hold of a full squad of these at a reasonable price for ages, but have failed miserably, seems I'm not the only one who likes them.  I'm not sure what it is about them either, they are old and very flat posed, and technically not very good models, but something about them still screams cool to me.

 

I'm rather proud of how this callidus assassin came out, I think one of my better paint jobs.  Vindicare and callidus are my two favourite assassin temples, who doesn't love polymorphine.

 

An Imperial Guard colonel here, painted to match the rest of my Imperial Guard detatchment.  Although it started as an allied contingent I've managed to acquire enough Imperial Guard for them to form a small army on their own now, if only I could face up to painting another 50 or so guardsmen.

 

And finally for the Imperials this Inquisitorial scribe.

 

Some more classic citadel now, this time for warhammer fantasy in the shape of these 3 classic Norse miniatures.  These were spares I had when I picked up a whole lot of classic Norse minis for a Mordheim warband, these didn't find a place in that warband, but again I just really like the models and they've found their place on the shelf.

 

 

 

And finally another random Airfix kit that I bought, this time a British Bofors 40mm gun and tractor from WW2 in 1:76 scale.  I like these little airfix kits with more than one element too them, it makes for an interesting build and looks good on the shelf.  The tractor was a slightly more challenging build than I was expecting as well.  I've painted this one for action in northern Europe after D-Day, not for north Africa as it is on the box, just because I prefer it in green!