The Age of Darkness box set was released last year, and what a box set it was! As I mentioned in a previous post, we shall be doing some Horus Heresy stuff. Well, this is the beginning of the Age of Darkness stuff! I purchased this set and within it you will get : 40 marines, ten terminators, one spartan, one contemptor dreadnought and two praetors!! In addition to these miniatures, I got the rules, dice, templates and most importantly, the whippy-sticks! It’s enough to potentially split into two separate armies for a small game with a friend. Using the contents, I will bring up a small army list shortly.
Starting with the leadership, we get two praetors, one wielding a sword whilst the other wields a meaty double handed axe. Between these two miniatures, I prefer the double-handed axe praetor and I think it would be great for some conversions! These are available separately from Games Workshop or similarly somewhere like Element Games or another 3rd party store!
You will get 40 of the new MK VI marines ( slightly divisive, it depends how much you like beaky marines!). You will note that on the sprue, the riveted shoulder pads come in two pieces! I had just been painting up some Ultramarines who had the single piece riveted shoulder pads, where the rivets on the side had a complete lack of definition. These new shoulder pads, although they require more work, do have a lot more detail Thankfully, they have also finally released chapter specific moulded shoulder pads, so if you aren’t keen on them, those are an option!
The cataphractii terminators are the ones which have already been out, however we do get 10 in this box set. That’s a nice number of resilient miniatures that will conveniently fit into the new plastic spartan!
Age of Darkness army list
I have put together a sample list from the one single Age of Darkness box set that I purchased, I will be building Imperial Fists, so that is the legion I chose! As you can see, I have NOT picked a Rite of War – I did attempt it, but it didn’t seem possible to get to 1500 using everything.
The sword praetor will be my warlord in addition to turning the other one into a consul centurion. I don’t really know if this is going to be the greatest thing, but it all works and comes up to 1500 points on the nose. It should be mentioned at this point, that “standard” games of Horus Heresy run at around 3000 points in comparison to 40k’s 2000 point lists.
Next up, I have 40 marines to figure out what to do with, if we are *just* using this box for this post, then I’ll be doing two squads of 20 marines only! For this, I shall model them with nuncio-vox & vexilla, although for points, I’ll be saying they are just basic lads. This is because when I want to move up to 3000 points, I’ll want to have those in my squads. I really like the idea of large squads of marines, however, we’ll be going with something slightly different for my own list.
Next up, we have the terminators to loadout. I want to get this list to 1500 points as a result, so they are basic. I plan to get more of them and fit them with hammers & shields, but that we will talk about that in another post! Of course, you can build these however you wish and I suspect I shall be changing it up for my Imperial Fists list!
The list
-
Crusade Force Organisation Chart (LA – VII: Imperial Fists) [1,500Pts]
-
Expanded Army Lists
-
Expanded Army List Profiles:
Selections: Exemplary Units On, Legacy Units Off
-
-
Allegiance:
-
VII: Imperial Fists
-
Allegiance
Selections: Loyalist
-
-
Rite of War:
-
Rite of War
-
-
HQ:
-
Centurion [75Pts]
Selections: Bloody-handed, Centurion, Warlord
-
Legion Centurion
Selections: Artificer Armour, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Refractor Field
-
Bolt Pistol
-
Power Weapon
Selections: Power Sword
-
-
-
Praetor [135Pts]
-
Legion Praetor
Selections: Artificer Armour, Frag Grenades, Iron Halo, Krak Grenades, Master of the Legion
-
Bolt Pistol
-
Power Weapon
Selections: Power Axe
-
-
-
-
Elites:
-
Contemptor Dreadnought Talon [175Pts]
-
Contemptor Dreadnought
Selections: Atomantic Deflector, Combi-Bolter, Gravis Bolt Cannon, Gravis Power Fist with in-built ranged weapon
-
-
Terminator Cataphractii Squad [690Pts]
Selections: Cataphractii Terminator Armour
-
Cataphractii Sergeant
Selections: Combi-Bolter, Solarite Power Gauntlet
-
Cataphractii
Selections: Combi-Bolter
-
Power Weapon
Selections: Power Sword
-
-
Cataphractii
Selections: Combi-Bolter
-
Power Weapon
Selections: Power Sword
-
-
Cataphractii
Selections: Combi-Bolter
-
Power Weapon
Selections: Power Sword
-
-
Cataphractii
Selections: Combi-Bolter
-
Power Weapon
Selections: Power Sword
-
-
Cataphractii
Selections: Combi-Bolter
-
Power Weapon
Selections: Power Sword
-
-
Cataphractii
Selections: Combi-Bolter
-
Power Weapon
Selections: Power Sword
-
-
Cataphractii
Selections: Combi-Bolter
-
Power Weapon
Selections: Power Sword
-
-
Cataphractii
Selections: Combi-Bolter
-
Power Weapon
Selections: Power Sword
-
-
Cataphractii
Selections: Combi-Bolter
-
Power Weapon
Selections: Power Sword
-
-
Land Raider Spartan
-
Land Raider Spartan
Selections: 2x Lascannon Array, Hull (Front) Mounted Twin-linked Heavy Bolter, Legiones Astartes (X), Smoke Launchers
-
-
-
-
Troops:
-
Tactical Squad [215Pts]
Selections: Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Power Armour
-
Legion Tactical Sergeant
Selections: Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Meltabombs, Power Armour
-
Chainsword
Selections: Chainsword
-
-
19x Legionaries (collective)
Selections: 19x Bolt Pistol, 19x Bolter
-
-
Tactical Squad [210Pts]
Selections: Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Power Armour
-
Legion Tactical Sergeant
Selections: Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Meltabombs, Power Armour
-
19x Legionaries (collective)
Selections: 19x Bolt Pistol, 19x Bolter
-
-
-
Total: [1,500Pts]
Created with BattleScribe
You are saving around 50% if you were to buy this box separately, furthermore if you buy during a sale for even more of a discount! I based my first list off the miniatures contained within this box set however it’s definitely different! This Horus Heresy Age of Darkness represents excellent value for money, at least within the realm of Games Workshop. It is certainly cheaper to get into Horus Heresy than in previous years.
If you want to see how my first army list comes together, you shan’t have to wait too long for it to appear. As a matter of fact, you could signup to the newsletter below to get a monthly roundup of the posts! I intend that the newsletter be my monthly posts, in addition to any IMPORTANT news that can’t wait. I certainly have no intention of spamming people, as I know how irritating it can be!