Gaming: Cultic (PC, Steam)

Something I enjoy learning about, enjoying playing, but I am not much good at, is first person shooters. While I do better at specific examples or broad types than others, these are quick reaction games that I struggle with. The difference is often if the game is balanced for mouse aiming or not. That is a powerfully precise form of control, but I don't like the keyboard requirements that come with it. It works, but it doesn't feel intuitive. On the other hand, console shooters have spent decades balancing for dual analogue sticks, which also works, but brings it's own issues because it's inherently slower and less accurate. Both approaches are valid, but I will admit to preferring games where I don't have to aim, or I can play things slow and tactical. Cultic is a game that wants you to aim really FUCKING quickly and be tactical. It kicked my arse a lot  to begin with. And throughout. And it wants you to use mouse & keyboard. But I kinda love it.

 

Let me step back a bit. Cultic is a retro style shooter made by one person, plus a few helpers around the edges, and sold for a budget price on Steam. It has a very distinctive art style, a purposefully grainy look with a mix of digitised photos, pre-rendered sprites, and voxels. This is used to depict a sort of 1960's cosmic horror type affair, out in Nowhere, USA, fighting cultists and worse. The levels are large and intricate, aiming for believable locations with secrets to find. The obvious comparison to draw here is 1997’s Blood, with has many of the same themes, but there's lots of survival horror in there too, like Resident Evil 4 or so. The atmosphere is consistently dark and oppressive; the game doesn't really do jokes like those two, your character starting in a mass grave and things not really improving. While purposefully ugly, Cultic"s art style is clearly achieving what it set out to do, and most importantly, it's always intelligible. You will know what's shooting at you, you will know when something is dead, and with a recently added map function, you won't get lost either. Cultic, beneath the grime, is very refined. This refinement  is most obvious in the combat and the weapons you use in it. Your weapons are powerful, but in a 1960's way, and the cultists have them too. Enemies aren't that bright, but they can certainly kill you quickly. The game wants you to headshot things. Several guns are great at it, and the game often triggers bullet time if you do. It's awesome. Do it right, and you can wipe out a mob before you need to reload, taking out problem targets with badass precision. Get it wrong, and they will shred you while you reload.  I love the lever action rifle more than I do the shotguns in this game; its so good. Then come the more dangerous enemies that are smarter and/or headshot resistant, and it's hit & run time. But the levels may not let you though, and the guy whom made this knows how create a combat encounter. How do you put the odds in your favour? Usually fucking dynamite. That's where most of the Blood comparisons come from, that plus some recent dlc, and you can do things with the stuff you may not of thought of. Also, lanterns make for improvised napalm grenades, it's amazing. Mechanically, this is as good as anything I’ve played like it. For a lot of the time however, the game feels punishing.

To go back to that first paragraph, I'd say a lot of Cultic's challenges for me come down to control inputs. Like I said, I'm not very good. I hit a wall with the Chapel level, a significant challenge with respawning foes, a tank that can one-shot you, and quick saving suddenly turned off. I simply could not maintain that pace, and while the previous level had been building up to this, it was a still a major difficulty spike. So, I restarted the campaign, with the controls tweaked, upgraded my weapons differently, came into the situation with more ammo, and hit exactly the same wall. Yes, there's a checkpoint, but it doesn't help. Defeated, I dropped down to "Casual"  difficulty and prayed for forgiveness from Gork & Mork. I haven't had to do something like that since Metal Gear Rising: Revengence. Anyway, this obviously made for a much more relaxed time, so much so I was reminded of the earliest  Doom levels or the hand-holding Half Life likes to do. I had played through the same six levels multiple times by that point, I had the basics down pat, but I was swimming in medkits. Maybe there is a discussion to be had about how important difficulty is to the gameplay experience, but for now, let's just say that Cultic is a game for people whom do this sort of thing a lot. Even then, the reminder of the first episode on casual wasn't without it's deaths. The scale of the game expands significantly, bringing in new foes, with level design being a constant joy. By itself, chapter one is as an extremely worthwhile shooter that I wish I was better at playing. I had however also brought chapter two, and I was committed now. Coming several years after the first installment, with a bonus level in-between, this is not merely more of the same. Its, well, even bigger. It's almost an expand-alone sequel. I'm tempted to describe it as a Doom 2 situation, an already great game has received additional weapons and enemies, but that undersells it. Level design is even more impressive, resulting in frankly huge locations and endless variety of combat encounters. Survival horror elements feel if anything stronger this time around, with ammunition seemingly less common, deeply disturbing atmosphere, and levels simply lasting that much longer. There’s a few things I want to highlight here, like the shopping mall, the slaughterhouse, and the fairground. And its great, its just keeps on surprising you with its ambition and sheer proficiency. My issues with the controls still remain however; I actually sprained my left arm taking on that helicopter mutant! I tried the gamepad again after that one, which helped for that one boss, but the first cultist ambush immediately thereafter killed me in seconds. Back to keyboard & mouse then. Holy shit, Cultic, stop breaking my balls.

 

Conclusion 
When you hit your grove, Cultic is an intoxicating experience. Those moments when the level design and combat mechanics come together to create an intense experience. It's also something of a creative marvel, taking what is an outdated style of game and perfecting it. The game is simply so very good at what it's choosing to do. And I enjoy it despite the fact the mouse & keyboard setup annoys me more than a manual gearbox, and I had to turn down the difficulty because I suck at it. Try the demo, see how it feels, if good, buy both chapters without fear. Then maybe die a lot, but I think you'll enjoy it.

Plamo/Kitbash: Ork Oddments

 

 

Now, I'm playing 40k with less regularity than I used to, as I am trying to do new things. When I have played however, my Orks have over-performed. I've done so well, that I'm worried about getting cocky. Taking a bunch of Boyz in trukks was a pragmatic choice given what was table-ready. I kinda thought that this was a basic bitch set-up that I got lucky with. But with subsequent additions I seem to have unconsciously gravitated to some of the more efficient units. Maybe playing guard so much taught me about objective play, I dunno. However, I didn't have a solid 2000 point list ready to go, I needed a project, and so here we are. A bunch of things that don't really justify an article by themselves.

I rummaged through the bitz box, and bodged together another mob of ten Boyz. Boyz seem to be good Battleline units, although compared to your average tourney list I seem to be taking a lot more than most. Maybe it's a holdover from earlier editions, but it feels somehow uncomfortable not to have as many Boyz as I can. I wanted another 10 so I might more easily scale up to 2000 points. There's few things to briefly mention, like I was trying a few new paints. The presence of stikkboms is a vestige from the 7th codex IIRC, where tankbusta boms where a distinct upgrade, foreshadowing 10th ed box locking. Speaking of Tankbustas, I'd initially planned to reuse one for this squad, but it broke, so I had to kitbash another lad with a rokkit launcha. I think I could easily make another squad of ten if I wished, but beyond that it's either paint stripper or new plastic... Anyway, these are fine. I always find that starting these is more difficult than finishing, but this was an OK thing to dip in and out of. I did however have issues with the gun barrels though.

 

Speaking of new plastic and paint stripper, I also sourced some "new" Black Reach era Nobz. I’ve used these a lot for conversions over the years, as their moulded weapons have never been viewed as optimal. I wanted a few more to replace some troublesome metal ones, while taking the opportunity to give them Power Klaws. While Nobz with big choppas is both effective and funny, Klaws hit an important breakpoint. These Klaws were mainly salvaged parts that had been Dettol-ed, although one was recut, and the biggest was a Ramshackle Games piece. This required pinning the joins, and concealing them with green stuff. There was also some modest head swapping and personalisation. You don't get much variety with these, but I wanted to get what I could. I did however have the same issues with the gun barrels though. Maybe I need a new drill bit. These were painted in the same optimised manner as the boys, but only after I decided to do something else for a bit. 

Said thing was a Trukk. This was a more thorough salvage job, as it was an old kitbash that had not endured storage well. The wheelbase and flatbed was intact, but the frontend and weapons were a total loss. Rebuilding it as a closed cab style vehicle was the path of least resistance, requiring the hot glue gun and other scratchbuilding techniques. While paint brings it all together, I do acknowledge the slight mismatch between the scratch components and the GW ones.  People seem to like it though.

Hmm, while a worthwhile distraction, I find myself at little introspective about all this. The most satisfying aspect of this was undoubtedly the trukk. Not only did I have the most fun making it, social media feedback suggests it was the better of the three, not that the other two are bad. None of these three mini-projects are especially clever, see the first paragraph, but the vehicle kitbashing seems to play to my strengths. So either need to find a way to make the actual orks in my orks more interesting, or I need to go heavy on the hulls. Something to think about.

 

Transformers: Gobots are Something that Exists

Righty, lets try another doubleheader review. Featuring two repainted toys on a common theme. Well, two common themes. Let’s start with Crasher.

 

OK, let's pull on the obvious thread: Crasher is a Gobot. You may not have heard of the Gobots, but the short version is that they had a console war thing with Transformers back in the day, and lost. Think of them as the Digimon to Transformers’ Pokemon, if Digimon had died a few years into it. I'm long since past caring about that rivalry; I didn't see much of Gobots as a kid, some of the toys were nice, but people can be really effing weird about it. Good robots is good robots, you know? Hasbro, again, short version, it's messy, owns most of the Gobots I.P and thus Gobots turn up occasionally in Transformers media. Often these can be mean-spirited Hi-&-Die cameos, loving tributes, prolonged fanwank by FunPub, or whatever the hell Tom Scoli was trying to do. This has also meant a non-zero amount of toys, mostly in the realm of exclusives. These aren’t super common, the legal aspects and relative obscurity kept it that way, but they are definitely more common of late. Much like Diaclone and G2, Gobots has become another vector for repaints of G1-inspired moulds. This is how Crasher comes to us today, as a former exclusive repackaged for Age of the Primes.

The other thread is that, and I realise certain people may have a reaction to me even raising this matter, is that Crasher is a girl. Yes, a female coded character. Not in the awkward Smurfette sense, but more in the "this character is a girl, so are several others, why are you asking?"  sort of way. This is something that Gobots just did much, much, MUCH better than Transformers. It wasn't until Beast Wars that we got female character toys in Transformers, and truthfully a mere handful since. Gobots did that from day one. Crasher is probably the best known girl, having a highly placed antagonist role like Evil Lynn or the Baroness. As her name implies though, she's a bit more brutish than those examples. This toy is based off the Kingdom Mirage mould, itself a retool of the Siege version I've talked about previously. As such, the figure is basically competent, but not spectacular, robot with a F1 Racer mode and a lot of faux kibble bits. It's a mould that seeks to ape the cartoon model, but does not transform like it. All the modern conveniences are are there, with a more refined altmode than the Siege toy, but loosing the shoulder mounts in the process. The toy uses the Diaclone style head and a buttload of paint to create something that looks great in both modes, approximating the best known Crasher toy as best it can. With three accessory weapons, too. It is not admittedly the best possible Crasher. That would have a new head, a fairly obscure car mode, and possibly require a court ruling. But it is definitely on the realms of good enough, and I'm struggling to think of a modern deluxe that would fit Crasher more, and there is precedent here. The entire reason Hasbro is using a Mirage here is because it worked so well before, way-back in 2008. I just wish mine clipped together better in altmode. I don’t like that longitudinal seam on it, and I found this toy tricky to photograph. Its the white and glossy black.

Pathfinder meanwhile is what prompted me to finish this article as a double feature, as another female Gobot executed as a repaint. This was an impulse purchase at TFN, this being an orphaned member of a multipack, as I hadn't played with this mould before. As I’ve already mentioned femme coding and legal matters, I'm gonna talk more about the toys here, because frankly I have far less knowledge of the character. And, I didn't actually know this going in, it's not actually a good representation of Pathfinder. A friend of mine pointed out, and I made a point of checking, that these blue & yellow colours are derived from a Cosmos prototype, whereas Pathfinder is more grey & black. This originates from a trendsetting eHobby set, which did a lot of stuff like that, skirting around potential legal issues, not using names on the box, but the basic logic here is Pathfinder = UFO. See also: Scrounge. But, we're arguably starting from a worse position than Crasher above.  In 2004, Gobot fans were so desperate for anything that a Japanese-exclusive based off G1 prototypes, with a hint of being Tonka, was the best thing ever. You would not believe how far Fun Publications ran with this idea. But maybe it wasn’t the best thing ever. Because, and this is perhaps a subtle distinction, while Crasher had compromises, it was an earnest attempt. This feels more like Player 2 Colours Cosmos. A new head would have made all the difference. Pathfinder instead makes do with the Guardian logo on a flag/gun.

That said, a new head may not have been practical. This mould is noted on the wiki for it's usually low number of parts and sprues. Originally the Speedia 500 Cosmos was intended to be a Bumblebee retool, but clever design allowed for a completely new toy with the same budget. Reuse possibilities may have been cut out. The base toy is therefore something of a minor marvel, a triumph of necessity driving invention. In so far as basic functions and appearance goes it's got a lot going for it. But it's not without compromises, the hollow forearms being the most obvious. There's also  elements of faux kibble in both modes, the joint and 3mm port count is a touch low and the UFO mode needed some wee castors. You might also find the proportions to be a bit of a marmite; it's very round in robot mode, and feels somehow exaggerated in UFO mode, like a pug. The yellow paint doesn't look brilliant on the blue plastic, but it rarely does, does it? She's pretty good, but one suspects exclusivity may be giving the mould undue hype. Also: a tricky toy for me to photograph. That yellow just eats the sculpted detail.

So which is better, Crasher or Pathfinder? The answer is nuanced. Both are exclusive repaints of exclusive toys, and are subject to a degree of hype or confirmation bias. Crasher is definitely the most thorough and earnest of the pair. The base toy however isn't my favourite, and there's signs of mould degradation. Pathfinder is much, much, much lazier as a repaint, but the Cosmos mould is far less common and more interesting as a concept. Both suffer with faux kibble issues, but Crasher has arguably better fundamentals and more accessories. Both are nice, but not the Ironfist & Carnivac nice. I would probably give it to Crasher, but it's a close run thing. Crasher is kinda mid deluxe with a spectacular paint job, whereas Pathfinder is a good/interesting deluxe with a mid paintjob. In any case, Crasher and Pathfinder are something that exists.

Plamo: Transformers Action Edition G1 Megatron by Blokees

 

Something I've dabbled in a bit, but not felt like writing about, are Blokees model kits. Transformers is one of the many brands they do. And mostly these are blind box releases, with a high level of modularity and articulation for their size. Such models are not transformable as such, but they tend to absolutely nail their character.  These have become an ever larger feature of the UK fandom, and have started to show up Hasbro proper with their charms. I have not written about them however for two reasons, in that area very simple by my standards, and I don't like blind boxes as a business model. This wasn't something I could spin out into an article, more an occasional indulgence. They do however larger, conventional releases of specific characters, the most impressive being Action Editions. l was not prepared.

Blokees generally give the impression of being something Gunpla adjacent, but modern and simple-ish. Maybe 30MM, Entry Grade, or that Haro business. This kit retains that simplicity, but honestly feels like they are gunning for Bandai's Master Grades or RE: 100s in both size and quality. It's a big box to make a big robot, with an awful lot of plastic in it. There's what amounts to an internal skeleton, basically great colour accuracy, no stickers, no requirements for glue or even nippers. It's all friction-based joints, and the fingers come pre-built on the sprue. The sprue! With multiple joints and everything. There's even a magnet triggered light up gimmick too. That's not something I would have sought out, but it works so well I don't mind it. There's even internal detail too, with Megs storing bullets in his legs, accessible via opening leg armour. Not even  two hours into the build, I was starting to wonder if this was the best kit I'd built all year. The only flaws I find are the very minor imperfections that come from separating the parts from the runners. Later on some minor complaints did manifest, like a production imperfection on the stand plate, and the translucent plastic scars easily, but honestly? The kit went together as well as any gunpla you care to name. Another question started to form in my head...

There’s an awful lot here. It comes with both a throne and the aforementioned flight stand, the former offering accessory storage. Laserbeak and Kremzeek are present as little buddies. So is Reflector. Those three need maybe a touch of paint to make them shine, picking out eye details, these are quite simple affairs, but they are entirely fine as is. The fusion cannon can open up via a pullback mechanism, and use that back kibble as a barrel extension. There's also the usual one scene accessories too, a well-executed mace, that pistol and that light sabre. Oh, and swappable faces too. Its also posable in ways I just didn’t expect. Megatron is not a ninja and has fairly chunky proportions, but this works in an ab-crunch, toe joints, butterfly shoulders, and the aforementioned fingers.  This articulation seems to be common across this size class, which may make these samey in the long-term, but I’m not seeing an obvious area for improvement. Maybe in the fingers? They can be a bit fiddly and have an effect on the size of the hands, but other than doing fixed pose hands too, I dunno. This is very much the complete package, both in articulation and accessories. There's bits around the edges that I'm not fond of, like how Laserbeak needs some parts swapped to rest on Meg's arm, but none of that gets close to being an actual negative. The question solidified in my head...

 

So, let's ask that question, how does this compare to the recent Studio Series 86 Megs? But that's ridiculous. Isn't it? You can't compare a non-transforming model kit and a transforming toy. It's a totally different experience, both valid. The kit is about 15 quid less, and I've yet to actually handle that Megatron. It's a totally unfair comparison for me to make. But... is it really? G1 Megatron's gun altmode is totally unworkable from a legal perspective, and it's not super-easy to engineer that any way. So that's why the SS86 version has a tank mode. The tank mode I'm pretty sure you've never really liked, or kept him in for any real length of time. You just wanted him for the robot form. And if that's all that you want? Well, I think you have a solid Plan B here.

Chalk and cheese comparisons aside, I did really like this. It was the best kit I picked up in 2025, and certainly the most impressive Transformers-adjacent thing I got that year too. I dunno if I’d go all in and collect these, but that Tarn looks tempting. 9/10, why aren’t we talking about these absolutely all the time?

New Years Special: The 10th Edition Astra Militarum Codex Review

OK, last year, I did a tactics article on the assorted units of my Astra Militarum army. This year, I’m zooming out a bit, to talk about how the army feels now. I’ve got a good few games in, less so recently, but I keep my eye on the discourse. Its been a bumpy year for the Imperial Guard.  We got a new codex, and it was immediately patched. And then patched again.  They took away the basic Infantry Squad. They added a bunch of Kriegers, concepts making the jump from Forgeworld resin to plastic. Tournament win-rates fell, if that’s your thing. So, here’s my big picture thoughts on Codex Astra Militarum. What worked? What didn’t? Was it Kodex Krieg? How did the Balance Dataslates treat the book? For the answers to these and similar questions, read on. This will be a ramble, as I touch on topics as I pass them, and a new detachment was published only weeks ago, so its a bit unfocused.

OK, I’m not gonna beat about the bush. I’m gonna come straight to my key opinion, touch on detachments, especially the new one, before talking about Krieg, and then tanks. With the 10th ed codex, Astra Militarum infantry looks less like one force and more like four in a trench-coat, as dictated by the model range. Something like the four chaos marine factions compiled into one, but omitting the concept of Chaos Undivided. We have Cadian, Catachan, Krieg, and Tempestus forces. Each has its own grunt unit, at least one HQ, and at least one specialist infantry type, Cadians being the Ultramarines of the army. Catachan are currently the least supported, followed by Tempestus, but even then, it's entirely possible run a theme army using the vehicle pool to smooth any rough edges. You know, like marine factions all use Rhinos and that? This is broadly speaking a good thing. Guard players end up with a lot of choices, although I continue the dislike the loss of generic infantry options. The four regiments are very much reactions to the classic Infantry Squad, and now that's gone, so we are obliged to pick the closest regiment that fits. If we had a few more options I'd mind it less, or if one hit the same notes, but right now it feels like a vibes issue, only highlighted by what little background material there is the codex, which still mentions other regiments. From a more mechanical perspective though, these 4 regiments present a lot of redundancy. Guard in general tends to have a lot of good-enough, B Tier units, with those less desirable units mostly being niche vehicles or using unpopular weapons like missile launchers. There's not many bad choices if you know what you are doing. But, because key roles are covered multiple times, two phenomena tend to happen. The first is that people just gravitate towards whichever variant is "best", creating what might be called a mixed regiment or less charitably a Frankenstein's Monster. I find myself doing this a lot, especially in larger battles. The differences between the Battleline units for example are slight but very meaningful in this army, and as there is no generic option, I end up taking a combo-platter of Catachans/Krieg with some Cadians as a side. If I'm taking Heavy Weapons squads though, I'm likely taking Catachans though, as that's the best one for lascannons most of the time and Scout is always handy. Catachans in general are something of a sleeper hit TBH. Similarly, while I don’t field these myself, Kasrkin are the go-to infantry for so many tournament lists that its not even funny. While you can theme your force around a specific regiment as described above, you likely won’t, due to internal balance being what it is.

 

The second phenomena is that while 10th ed has rather loose army composition as it is, with this redundancy, the Astra Militarum can easily overpower such limitations. If you want a more elite army you can have upwards of 120 special forces dudes without even using the Bridgehead Assault detachment. That was a thing for a hot minute, wasn’t it? Funny they forgot Deep Strike for Scions too, bloody hell. And I'm sorry to make the space marine comparison again, it's gets a bit weird when special forces get outnumbered 3 to 1 by other, but lesser, special forces, ya know? If you just want to Zap Branigan the enemy with endless men, you can have 180 just in the battleline units for 1200ish points. Plus 27 heavy weapon teams for 600ish. Move things around a bit, add Officers, round it up to 2K, and you put them all in the Recon Element detachment for a cover save. Because 200 odd guys is something that's hard to see, OK. Maybe I'm mixing up thematic complaints with mechanical ones here, but I feel that GW's just-what's-inna-box philosophy is generating a few issues, and we might be better off reverting to something like the old doctrine system or what the Militia uses in Horus Heresy.  Would it not make more sense to just to treat basic Cadian, Catachan, and Krieg squads as minor variants of the same unit? That bit about Recon Element there ties into a wider complaint with the detachments in the codex; its not that they are necessarily bad, they are very much specialist things, with maybe one good trick or skew build, but these struggle to match Combined Arms in day-to-day play. Lethal Hits is just that good for an army based on shooting. The exception is the new Grizzled Regiment, which increases the availability of Orders and adds a lot of rerolls, plus also a Lethal Hits stratagem for good measure. Grizzled Regiment is probably the best detachment, full stop. This has properly borked the internal balance between detachments, to the point where I suspect nerfs are likely, and I'll be referring to that more later on. Right now? I wonder if its some form of apology, and/or over-correction.


With all that having been said, let's pivot to the main selling point of the codex: the Krieg units and the related Siege Regiment detachment. The amount of patching, release drama and anti-hype around this stuff is a big part of the reason I held off on deep analysis of the codex so long.  This was also something I'll admit to being very invested in, to the point of doing a long term project to make these new units. As the big new thing, you'd expect them to push it. You might expect this be the Kodex Krieg in all but name. Did it work out like that? No, not really. But if it had? I probably would not have mourned the loss of the old Infantry Squad as much. Krieg has a very distinctive look, are peak Imperial cannon fodder, and if the mechanics had backed that up I could have lived with it. My gut feeling is that is that Krieg is here and mostly good enough, and doesn’t overshadow existing units. But that’s not the same thing as saying their units are exciting, or that the other regiments are exciting.  Once you compensate for retired units… I don’t think anyone’s infantry tactics will have changed that much. Except maybe to put everything in Grizzled Regiment now, but even then old faves like Bullgrin and Rough Riders seem to be back in fashion. Because, with but a single Order, you can make them 2+ to hit with a reroll. Are we sure this was playtested? 

Siege Regiment, the de-facto Krieg detachment: I was gonna say this one was OK by the standards of the codex, but then the new Grizzled Regiment dropped and kinda broke the scale. Siege Regiment sets a trend here in that it was patched, probably should have been more properly playtested before hand, and now just gets overlooked. The Creeping Barrage thing was very characterful and desirable at first, but it was modified so much that you'd rarely take it. A penalty to enemy movement is nice, but it only triggers on a 5+, and the number of affected units is capped. An unreliable effect with a small payoff is not great. This relegated the detachment ability to effectively being either ignore cover for three targets or stealth for three units of your choice. That ain't nothing, and it helps with the artillery whom need the buff these days, but it ain't great. The stratagems are a lot more appealing, especially if you like infantry, but perhaps not good enough to replace Lethal Hits. At time of writing, in addition to its own unique strengths like Order economy and rerolls, Grizzled Regiment can do a lot of what Siege Regiment can, its buffs currently affecting artillery, and is the only real alternative to Combined Arms. So Siege Regiment is a thematic pick, but not necessarily a pragmatic one. 

Death Riders and Lord Marshall Dreir: I'm not gonna mince my words here, reactive moves are awesome. In an IgoUgo turn sequence this is immensely useful for high level play. The problem is, of course, the inevitable comparison to Attilan Rough Riders. Death Riders move two inches slower and lack the melta lance option, making them far less versatile as a counter charge unit. Rough Riders might plausibly take out a marine unit or damage a vehicle; Death Riders are gonna have a much harder time doing that. The gasmask cavalry do however have decent melee AP via power sabers and their nightmarish mares, so it's not all bad, but definitely a unit that needs finesse to use. The Lord Marshall can further compensate on the charge as he grants Devastating Wounds, and he's not bad in a scrum either. I do wonder why exactly he has three orders though. Mounted units are tricky to position as it is, due to their base size plus movement rules, and he's only got a 6 inch order range, with no way to improve that like the Lord Solar can. The points cost is pretty high too. Overall, unless you really want reactive movement or were working to a Charge of the Light Brigade theme, I don't see why you'd take these. An obvious miss, why hasn't this been addressed in a dataslate?

Krieg Command Squad: You will and should be noticing a pattern of comparison to other, per-existing units or concepts. These guys suffer from that too, and are disliked as they replace a Forgeworld HQ that gave their unit Feel No Pain 5+. Having FNP is far less common in this codex however, and in context the Krieg Command is pretty decent. Basic Krieg squads are about slugging matches on objectives and attrition, and the Command helps that in several ways. They aren't especially adaptable, and the “medic” is forgettable, but they make Krieg blobs a high OC anvil with a lot of power and plasma weaponry. Which then hits and wounds at +1, plus whatever Orders and Stratagems because battleshock is not a factor for them and casualties only make them angrier. The main criticism I would make however is one of omission. Krieg currently lack a second Officer option, and while the Servo Scribe helps with that, Krieg Commands don't have as good an Order economy as Cadians. Which, oddly, makes Cadian Officers better at babysitting artillery and heavy weapons, something you'd expect Krieg to have a talent for. See also: Grizzled Company, where that limitation suddenly vanishes, and you're looking at a critical mass of +1s and rerolls, but that's more a reflection of the detachment than this unit shining.

Krieg Battleline: OK, these aren’t new, but I’m mentioning them anyway. They are still good, see above, but that unit entry was a crime against the English language. And speaking of questionable quality control...

Krieg Combat Engineers: I would dearly love to know what happened with this unit's price. Was this a simple typo, one among a disconcerting number of gaffes? Or did someone honestly think 35 points was reasonable for something that could peak at 12 mortal wounds worth of output? These have been up and down in price since, with the Remote Mine rule nerfed, and honestly I think they are in weird place. They look like they should be the Krieg answer to Kasrkin or Scions, but the most direct comparison is actually the Catachan Jungle Fighters. Think disposable skirmishers. Combat Engineers are currently inexpensive, agile, and potentially very destructive to objective-sitters or careless vehicles, and have a melee option. Jungle Fighters are also those things, just with more bodies, and much more OC. They are much less good with respects to Mortal Wounds, but they have access to the Grenades Stratagem too, and a Vox Unit to potentially refund it. Combat Engineers do have use cases, and if you going full Krieg you will have a good time, but be aware of diminishing returns due to how their Grenadiers rule works.

Krieg Heavy Weapon Squads: These are basically a gimmick. A deeply fun gimmick, especially with the flamer option, but still a gimmick. Most of the discourse around these is about how to ensure those flamers get to fire, possibly via Taurox. That feels a bit more gamey than trench warfare, but OK. Meanwhile, the lascannon option is the undercut by the alternatives, and unless 11th edition mixes things up, there's no pressing need for heavy stubbers. Which is a damn shame.

Artillery Teams: By far the most unique of the Krieg units, Artillery Teams have a rather different footprint and execution than their obvious rival, the Field Ordnance Battery. These present as one model on a single huge 130mm base, as opposed to two on two fairly-huge 100mm bases, which has implications for both positioning and their attacks. Off the bat, the FOB can target two different units and benefit from Blast twice, while Artillery Teams are but one model, but are more durable and actually easier to conceal. The FOB has the best special rule, but Artillery are not as dependent on Orders. Both have some undesirable weapon options, but the FOB has the fewest and the lightest to choose from, while the AT is all indirect and/or heavier. With the Artillery Team currently cheapest of the two, I feel that choosing between is much more like a choice than a foregone conclusion. Which is good. Just pick the one that slides into your army most easily. Either the Heavy Mortar or the Bombast Field Gun, depending on points. Other weapon choices for these units remain a frequent trap however.

So, were the new Krieg units a success? Kinda; nothing leaps out as a must-have, most have a use case, but only the horses seem naff.  I just don’t love them. On balance, these are functional, and the internal balance of the faction seems steady. But the amount of rules patching and price changes it took to get here doesn't reflect well in the product as a whole. That said: these are probably more accessible than the Forgeworld versions, at least.


OK, enough about the meat; let’s talk metal. Perhaps paradoxically, the vehicle pool received far less attention for this ruleset, and ended up with a net positive for the treadheads. There is now a tank -centric detachment, Combined Arms loves tanks too, and there is now an Officer version of the Rogal Dorn. That last one now brings the possible number of Dorns in a list to six, which probably would be another balance issue if you could actually fit that on a standard table and terrain layout. There's also an APC detachment, which seems fine, although it's hop-on-hop-off approach isn't my cup of tea. I don't have Kasrkin or any Tauroxes. With the exception of that command tank, the actual datasheets are mostly unchanged, so almost all the work was done at the Detachment level. That new Grizzled Regiment detachment also works great with tanks. Imagine boosted AP and/or ignore cover on every gun a tank has, plus reroll ones, plus an Order. You can do that on a Baneblade too, so I’m totally sure all of that that won’t get nerfed.  Anyway, those mostly unchanged datasheets of tanks. This means that what was good before (usually) still is, guard armour always being a strength. Its not like they did something dumb like retire the Infantry Squad. 

 

Wait.

Sorry, I mean the Leman Russ. But there’s a butt-load of stuff left to wither on the vine. GW seems to want to wind back a lot of the more "Apocalypse scale" vehicles game wide, and in the Guard this manifests by superheavies frequently being discouraged in some rules-exclusion-sorta-way, and self-propelled guns still suffering the Indirect Fire nerfs we’ve had since 2024. There's at least a dozen vehicles currently languishing in mediocrity. I don't think many of these were super popular in of themselves, except when fashionably unbalanced, Indirect was nerfed for good reason, so perhaps no harm done. But it was a missed opportunity. I mean, they attempted to make the Leman Russ Eradicator relevant again. They failed, but an effort was there. They didn't fix the Vanquisher though. Or the Punisher. And they broke the demolisher cannon. <sigh>  They could have done some point tweaks in December, but they didn't. Instead, Grizzled Company happened, which has the effect of making superheavies and self-propelled guns threatening again, as well as making everything that was already good even better. 



Conclusion 
As the general tone of this article might imply, I’ve been a bit back and forth on this codex and the current state of the Astra Militarum as a faction. One thread is obvious lack of quality control evident by the amount of rules patching. I’m not gonna begrudge them for fixing mistakes, because once the fix is made, that’s OK. Something is only late until the point it arrives, then it is here. But with the Grizzled Company, I fear such mistakes are being repeated. Remember what happened with Bridgehead Assault? The initial tournament popularity, then nerfs, and subsequent price hikes? If GW does any noteworthy rules patches before 11th edition, I suspect that this detachment will be a focus. Its not Ork Dakka detachment bad, but its early days. Another thread is one of vibes. There is a functional army here, but the connective tissue is kinda absent. Its a bunch of combos and key units, rather than something that looks like a regiment. And given the appeal of guard is military-space-soldier-WWII-fantasy, that’s a bit of a problem. Related to that is how anti-climatic the Krieg units proved to be, although I did set myself up for a fall on that one. Overall though? A good enough codex?  A conservative codex. A codex that, like so many in 10th ed, drops a lot of units. Perhaps a codex better for tanks than infantry or artillery, compromised in places, but still very playable. I’m just bitter about the Infantry Squad, I think.

Transformers: Age of the Primes Micronus Prime

We are a few waves into Age of the Primes now, and it very much seems to have been business as usual. Aside from the Primes themselves, we've been getting a lot of G1 characters, Menasor style combiners, a splattering of other continuities, and a few more repaints than you might like. Yeah, it's basically Legacy again, but not that glorious first wave of Legacy United. The Primes themselves are doing alright, but they were definitely playing things safe. I mean, it's hard to look interesting or cool when you are in the same line as The Fallen, but being an alien carformer with an understated colour scheme wasn't, ahem, gonna set the world alight. Not when The Fallen did that just by standing still too long. Guess which two toys I might be referring to. Anyway. With Onyx Prime that started to change, he's a centaur BTW, and with today's subject we have possibly the most interesting deluxe of recent times. Unfortunately, Micronus gave me a wee case of Buyer’s Remorse, because he simply does not live up to that potential.

Now, Micronus Prime is the god of little guys, and a little guy himself, approximately core class in dimensions and complexity. As the name suggests, his domain is Mini-Cons and any small transformer that partners with another larger one. He's actually the third supernatural entity to have ties to Mini-Cons as a creator, the original being Unicron, although he's the one that's stuck. Micronus appeared in the 2015 Robots in Disguise series, which is now old enough to count as nostalgia, and this toy is very close to that depiction. He's got that very distinctive Prime-era face design, lacking a nose, and his translucent build evoking his look on the show. As a toy, he's somewhat basic, turning into what resembles an Armada style Mini-Con Storage Panel, an Arc Reactor, or less romantically, a hockey puck. The fact the the god of little guys and murder pets transforms into an abstract shape isn’t a shocker. RID2015's Mini-Cons often transformed as such so they could be launched from larger toys, see also cassetteformers, and especially those data disks from Fall of Cybertron. What brings it down is a design/production flaw on my copy that prevents his legs from lining up exactly right in disk mode, but there’s enough give in the plastic to make you think can get there. I would discover during the photoshoot that my attempts to do this seems to have caused stress marks in the knees; I should have known better. Then again, maybe it wasn't me, I've seen a report since that a toy came with that damage.

Anyways, Micronus is otherwise nicely articulated for his size, nicely presented, and has this little Chimera Stone artefact in lieu of a weapon. It plugs in via a 5mm peg, and I honestly kinda forget about it. He’s a lot like that Eject toy from a few years ago, and in isolation, you might wonder where the money is going if he just turns into a shape. The answer is, an exosuit.

 

If Micronus himself looks like a hockey puck, the exosuit he is packaged within looks like the goalie. This seems to have been created from whole cloth to justify the pricepoint, and my initial thought that this was a new take on the Apex Armour from Transformers: Prime, and while that is a stated influence by the designer, it's not actually named as such. There's apparently a bit of Pretender in there too, but I am reminded of a Prime-era exosuit playset in the chest. Visually, it makes for an interesting contrast between it and Micronus, or indeed Transformers in general. It's got a faintly anonymous head, gun fingers, and perhaps more a piloted mech look than Cybertronians in general. It's got a similar build to Micronus, so it's short for a deluxe, but it's stocky. It's also a lot more functional than Micronus is, because this is not only a deluxe-ish robot mode, it's also a bike for him to ride, and a weaponizer mode for use with other toys. It's the meat of the set. What I did notice though as I came to write this post, is that each mode has a  disappointing near-miss quality to it. The robot lacks a waist joint, which I'm inclined to forgive under the circumstances, but the back kibble I'm less fond of. In a stroke of absolute genius, the legs compress into a single big wheel, but the resulting monobike lacks a kickstand and absolutely does not balance by itself. You have to bend the arms down at the elbow for balance, and that's about as involved as the arms get in the transformation. So, while having Micronus ride this is rather adorable, it's flawed. The weaponizer mode meanwhile is simply four chunks, which goes completely unmentioned on the box, and I'm not surprised. I can't be arsed to photograph it. And I can't be arsed to take better photos.

I want to like Micronus Prime more than I do. He's tied to one of my favourite Transformers concepts, and after dozens of routinely competent deluxes, he's actually interesting in concept. He is not, however, that great. Or good at anything in particular. Or interesting in execution. He's passable in lot of things, some of those things being notably unusual, but he doesn't excel at any of them. And its not even failing in any interesting way; I've written about some uneven toys in the past, but at least they sucked in memorable ways or charmed me beyond that. Micronus Prime falls instead into the pit of apathy. There is not some fundamental misunderstanding, a glaring fault, or a lack of creativity. Its a matter of mediocre execution, being neither good enough or bad enough to hold my attention. Mostly alright overall, but wait for a sale, and be careful of the translucent plastic.

Plamo: The Astra Militarum Hydra

 

While I now have a non-trivial number of armydudesmen, I don't have that much experience with the official vehicle models. Aside from the occasional indulgence or bargain, everything I have like that, is some form of kitbash/salvage job. While I have  previously dabbled with the Chimera type vehicles, today's subject is my first new build example, a Hydra.

As a unit, a Hydra sits in a awkward place. Its an anti-air flak tank, designed to inexpensively defend against aircraft. 10th ed, as you may observe, has not been kind to aircraft. They were always an odd fit for 40k anyway, something best saved for the biggest possible games or Epic, so it's perhaps not a shocker that GW is seemingly phasing planes out. It's 28mm scale after all. Perhaps they should take the Knights too, but I digress. So why might you want a Hydra then? Well, in addition to being a relatively cheap tank-shaped object for doing tank things, it gets bonuses against Fly keyword targets. That list includes a great many nuisances that deep strike into your lines and any number of advanced xenos vehicles that think floating is cool. Under ideal circumstances, those autocannons reroll to hit, possibly with Lethal Hits, and then wound on a 2+, with a reroll. Said autocannons do not get as many shots as it looks like they should, which is sad. But these do have a 72 inch range, so it can cover an entire board. I've been thinking of acquiring one for a while, and then I saw one cheap at Brum Toyfair, and here we are.

As a kit, the Hydra is a revised, call it second generation, style of Guard vehicle. The base hull and tracks are visually very similar to the plastics we got in the late 90's, but refined and rationalised. There's no faffing with individual track wheels, which is nice. That's all on its own sprue, with the version specific stuff on its own separate sprue, which in this case involves the Wyvern as an alternative build. This does look like a simple thing to magnetise, but I couldn't be arsed. The Wyvern is currently a solution in search of a problem, and while hoards may well come back into fashion soon, I'm not short on blast weapons. While a largely straightforward build, two odd flaws presented themselves. The first was that while the Hydra sprue had numbered parts, the track/hull sprue did not. Odd, if harmless. The second is more involved and takes a moment to explain. The Hydra features crewmen models and an open structure, with the ability rotate the business end as a big turret. Now, the sensible thing to do in such a build is to paint the crew separately, you don't have the space to do otherwise, but here comes the problem. The gunner is holding on to the controls and acting as a linchpin for the rotation. Odd, and annoying to work around. As a kit its fine, inoffensive, but maybe 10% more involved than it needed to be. But then again, I’ve never been a fan of exposed crewmen on vehicles anyway, so maybe I’m being unfair?

I made a dumbass mistake with this one, I assembled the guns in the wrong order, which is why the barrels are a bit shorter than usual. I kitbashed a crude hunter killer missile, but only built one crew model, which received a headswap and green stuff rags. You only really need one for this tank, and the other looks good for use in a command squad or similar.  Painting was then achieved via spraycan, drybrush and wash techniques. I’ve got nothing especially interesting to say here, these methods work well-enough, despite my mistakes. Which unfortunately include the crew controls, as that big screen was a problem.

I’m not especially happy with this model as a project. But I suppose its good enough for the gaming table.