Cursed Citizens

The Cursed City and its stormy release attracted a lot of attention some time ago and it sure is an impressive set - would be hard to find a board game with better miniatures. It's great to get games that have a strong thematic content, as this usually also translates to strong miniature designs. For example these minis could have been painted with many very different palettes all fitting to the atmosphere of a cold climate, northern fantasy town with a few issues with undead uprisings! 

I kind of wish Age of Sigmar universe had a bit more uniform feel to it when it comes to design and the recent releases have actually been following this principle a lot better. If only the Age of Sigmar universe would have been introduced with aesthetics such as the new Flesh-eater Courts, the modern Stormcast Eternals, Kruleboyz and Vampires... Could have captured a few old hearts right from the beginning! 

These fantasy figures were painted for a customer as a part of a bigger commission and we got to tackle the Cursed City for the first time. Great project to work on and the individual nature of the heroes in particular made them a very pleasant subject. We went for quite a fresh look with some stained off-white clothing and brighter colours, still retaining the gritty details in rusted metals and vivid verdigris features. The bases were toned down to create an earthy milieu.

Xmas Friendly Fire!

Time to wrap up the War Head gaming season! This year we made our way back into the tournament scene after the pandemic break, reassembling our terrain reserve and inviting players back to the battlefields of the 41st and 31st Millennia! The focus was firmly on casual, narrative gaming with the Echoes of Thracia campaign expanding on the story started by ourselves in the in-house Thracian Insurgency games. It's been incredibly rewarding to arrange events for such enthusiastic players - the best reward for the organizer is the great interest in the form of rapid sign-ups whenever a new event is announced. Our thanks go to all of our great and skilled event participants throughout the hobby year of 2023!

Heresy Trivia Champion: Juperebus Heikkinen, Word Bearers

The Dice Raffle King: Riku Saressalo, Imperial Fists

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Christmas Consolidation

To finish the great hobby year of 2023 we've put our heads down and charged through a spree of commission painting - several previously completed detachments have now received freshly-painted reinforcements in the form of elite infantry and monstrous war machines! We've got a lot to document from our personal schemes as well and hope to update some of the workshop results here before the Christmas vacations. It's been a great year!

Before the season draws to a close, we'll be having one more event in a Horus Heresy Xmas Bash between a few valiant participants. The "Friendly Fire" type event includes a couple of relaxed games with full-size army lists as well as a technique demo for using oil colours as a part of army painting process. Stay tuned to the coverage late next week!

War Head XMAS Friendy Fire: Horus Heresy 9.12.2023

These Chaos Knight War Dogs and Death Korps of Krieg are some of the recently finished reinforcements. Always nice to expand on a previous commission, meaning the client has been happy with the earlier projects!

Quest for the Man-Meat Pie

Watch out for the Skeletons!

The Great Pumpking, the acting mayor of the cursed city of Saint Thracius, has had his favourite recipe of Man-Meat Pie stolen. The spy witnesses on the streets report the treasure has been taken outside the city walls and into the darkness of the surrounding forests. These primeval wilds are a home for many strange folk and wicked creatures of the night - who might be behind the vulgar crime? 

For this year's Halloween scenario three brave warbands of able adventurers strided into the woods but not before searching for useful artifacts in the cursed city itself - it wouldn't be an All Hallows' Eve in the Mortal Realms without the classic board game adventure! After the skirmish on the streets dodging Guard Skeletons and answering riddles asked by the Prison Sphinx, all parties recovered some artifacts and ventured to the woods. They were in for a giant surprise...

Providing modelling inspiration and eye candy to all participants has been in the limelight of our social hobby gatherings for years - this time we asked players to prepare a band of fantasy adventurers (a leader, two troopers and a rookie) with some kind of a light source to take on the Halloween quest. It was cool to see the players paint up some classics and come up with brilliant lore for their teams - each one was a distinctively personal team of fighters fitting to the spooky scene. More on the miniatures and the adventure later!

Echoes of Thracia, Act III Results and Coverage

This time in the Echoes of Thracia campaign the front line formations had lost contact with the High Command. Therefore the active battle groups had to re-establish the chain of command via an acting Superior elevated from their ranks. They were given the authority to deploy their fellow warriors in the different theatres of the campaign and trusted to display tactical acumen to make the best of their allegiance’s capabilities. Here are the results from the gaming day played with 2500 and 1000 point lists!

First Round Pairings and Results

6 Jussi Nurro vs Willy Lindberg 14
4 Tuomas Salmi vs Roni Landgren 16
4 Jesse Laanti vs Juho Törmä 16
10 Henri Vesanen vs Jupe Heikkinen 10
9 Aito vs Mika Ketola 11
12 J-P Kivistö vs Juhana Rytkönen 8
13 Jussi Lindeberg vs Ilkka Hyötyläinen 7
9 Lauri Suominen vs Antti Halonen 11

Second Round Pairings and Results 
9 Aito vs Jupe Heikkinen 11

5 Roni Landgren vs Jussi Nurro 15

10 Antti Halonen vs Mika Ketola 10

16 Willy Lindberg vs Juhana Rytkönen 4

13 Juho Törmä vs Lauri Suominen 7

11 Jussi Lindeberg vs Tuomas Salmi 9

6 Ilkka Hyötyläinen vs J-P Kivistö 14
11 Jesse Laanti vs Henri Vesanen 9

Third Round Pairings and Results 
17 Roni Landgren vs Jesse Laanti 3

16 Antti Halonen vs Juhana Rytkönen 4
11 J-P Kivistö vs Lauri Suominen 9
7 Henri Vesanen vs Mika Ketola 13
10 Willy Lindberg vs Ilkka Hyötyläinen 10
3 Aito vs Jussi Nurro 17

9 Tuomas Salmi vs Juho Törmä 11
5 Jupe Heikkinen vs Jussi Lindeberg 15

Final Standings

1. Juho Törmä, Dark Angels 40

2. Willy Lindberg, Dark Angels 40

3. Jussi Lindeberg, Mechanicum 39

4. Jussi Nurro, Iron Warriors 38

5. Roni Landgren, Iron Hands 38
6. Antti Halonen, Space Wolves 37
7. J-P Kivistö, Raven Guard 37
8. Mika Ketola, Sons of Horus 34
9. Henri Vesanen, Blood Angels 27
10. Jupe Heikkinen, World Eaters 26
11. Lauri Suominen, Alpha Legion 25
12. Ilkka Hyötyläinen, Iron Warriors 23
13. Tuomas Salmi, Solar Auxilia 22
14. Aito, Ultramarines 21
15. Jesse Laanti, Sons of Horus 18
16. Juhana Rytkönen, Dark Mechanicum 16

Results: Loyalists 4 - 2 Traitors, recovered Artifacts 7 vs 5
Best Army Award: Juhana Rytkönen, Dark Mechanicum

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'Tis The Season

Halloween and our traditional spooky Age of Sigmar gaming eve approach and dark forces are on the move! Another adventure in the Realm of Shadow awaits and the gloomy streets of Saint Thracius once again thirst for blood - whatever perils await our heroes this time, and what kind of peculiar characters arrive to throw their hat into the ring? We've made the Halloween games one of our dearest annual events and have had wicked time with spooky custom scenarios, combining ultralight roleplaying, self-made boardgame features and Age of Sigmar skirmishing into a narrative entirety. This year Teemu and Ollie are teaming up to further the story started in the previous years, which naturally calls for new miniatures! 

All Hallows' eve in the Mortal Realms awaits!

Knights of the Sound Table

This time on the War Head commission front we take a look at a Slaaneshi Renegade Knight host, produced in the immortal example of the Emperor's Children (and the heretic Noise Marines in particular). The usual pink armour colour is complemented by royal gold, stylish black and sumptuous marble surfaces, combined with customer-specified Martian basing. The full Chaos Knight force is already an imposing sight fully assembled, and we look forward to providing their ranks with fresh, violent reinforcements!

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Manic! at the Disco

The Sons of Chemos make yet another appearance in War Head picture feed, as Ollie revisited his pet project for the third time for this year's Civil War games. The result is a comprehensive Emperor's Children ensemble with all the elegant flair, arrogance and depravity that is their Legion culture! The army was done according to the modern style for most of our projects - a combination of scratchbuilt Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40,000 kits with a few 3D-printed accessories and details. Some of the decorative armour trimming has also been sculpted out of green stuff. Everything is tied together by a cold-toned, limited palette with some contrasting rust hues in the basing.

The characters are always the best models to work on and Ollie made sure he had the opportunity to make plenty by creating some of the iconic Emperor's Children heroes as "counts as" leaders for his force. A regular Apothecary was portrayed by his interpretation of Fabius Bile, a Despoiler Sergeant was modelled as Lucius and the Legion Armistos was stylized to depict Marius Vairosean, the captain of the Third Company. The list was probably one of the favourite opponents in the Civil War as everyone was trying to take out the wicked villains - and proved to be a fun detachment to direct as well!

Marius Vairosean, the first Noise Marine.

Ollie's scratchbuilt third company elites.

Love your job!

A Sonic Artillery piece, with slight body horror vibes.

Counts as a Rapier Graviton Cannon.

Third company elites display their colours in high ground.

Look good, do good.

Despoiler Squad champion.

Emperor's Childrens' noble line troops.

Captain Lucius with twin blades.

Green washes were used to tone down the saturation in the gold details.

The cloak is sculpted out of green stuff.

Fabius Bile, "The Spider".

The doctor with his tools.

Apothecarion symbol as well as all the legion iconography on the army's shoulder pads were done in freehand.

Third Company elites assembled for War Head Civil War V.

Let's make some noise!

Scar Dealership

The acting commander

The War Head Civil War is always a proving ground for some entirely new detachments, like these White Scars Noa has secretly built for over a year! He already has a tournament-sized force assembled and this Recon-spirited patrol was the first batch honoured with a coat of paint. Noa's force has a balanced variety of aggression and surgical precision, spearheaded by unique shotgunners and a Despoiler squad armed to the teeth. The patrol is symbolically led by a hardened Apothecary in his signature red battle plate.

What catches the eye in the models are the arid basing and the great execution of the white armour - the subtle chipping and dirt effects achieved with Winter Streaking Grime fit the Horus Heresy setting exceptionally in their bleak realism. The blue lenses, crimson heraldry and black weapons contrast the main colour brilliantly. The army is based in the same way as Noa's Salamanders, so the two forces fighting side by side would form a cohesive entirety. It pays to plan ahead!

Recon Marines make their way to firing positions.

Mark II Power Armour and Nemesis Boltguns.

Shotgun-armed Astartes in tight cityfight conditions.

A mere flesh wound.

Recon Marines pinned down. We need backup!

Despoilers are on their way to aid their comrades.

Subtle cultural details pointing to legion's heritage and origins.

Helmetless veterans.

The ol' reliable.

500 points of White Scars ready for their first Civil War assignment.

Noa did well with his loyalists and gathered an impressive points tally.

White Scars project is truly on, we're looking forward to their reinforcements!