Tyrant's Legion objective marker and army update

There's not been much hobby activity at all from me over the last month.

I won't bore anyone with the mundanities save to say more pressing concerns have kept me from any hobby time.

However I have spent a little time cobbling together an objective marker for my tyrants legion.

Wine bottle foil, cocktail sticks, greenstuff and a few broken bits and bobs later and I have a rather battle scarred standard of the IV Demi legion.

The Latin reads 'invictus ferociter' roughly translating as 'invincible defiance' 

At the base is an eviscerated Fire Hawks space marine, waiting for my Corpse taker to plunder his Gene seed!

Although rather crude it was a fun little thing to knock up and will look cool as an objective marker for my army to defend or recover... 'The relic' anyone?

I also acquired and painted the final two rogue trader guardsmen necessary to complete my mandatory 20 strong Auxillia unit, this gives me a FOC legal skirmish force at an approximately 750pt level.

The HQ choices consist of a pair of centurions, one with power axe and meltabombs (warlord) the other with a power fist and storm Bolter.

Elites are a five strong squad of Retaliators including melta gunner and power axe, and a corpse taker apothecary with two Servitors.

Taking up a fast attack slot is a single deep striking sentry gun with a multimelta.

Troops are taken care of by the compulsory twenty strong unit of auxilia, up gunned with a pair of heavy stubbers, and a fifteen strong cohort of space marines with missile launcher, heavy bolter, meltagun and combi melta.

I have about 280pts to spend to get the army up to a 1000pt level and I'm thinking of a single tank as a centrepiece, possibly a thunderer or medusa, plus some more 'human' infantry, as the army's a bit space marine heavy to fit with the background at this point in my opinion.

Any ideas?

Thanks for looking....hopefully not so long till my next update!

Badab war - Tyrant's Legion Corpse Taker.

Adding to the ranks of the Tyrant's legion is this Corpse taker unit consisting of apothecary vivisector and two dissection Servitors... First up is the apothecary,

When it came down to painting him, I decided against the full white armour of the traditional apothecary and gave him a 'standard' claws paint scheme with a few relevant bits picked out in white....I wanted something darker and more in keeping with his role as gene-snatcher, I didn't see my corpse taker as being part of the astral claws chapter apothecaron; but instead as perhaps a particularly fanatical Follower of Huron promoted to the role. The oversized chainsword is from a sentinel walker and I reckon the rebuilt cyber-face adds to the whole mad doctor/butcher vibe.

I had originally intended to get some of GW's servitor minis, but spurred on by building the sentry gun recently and as at the moment, hobby funds are hard to justify (plus Servitors are quite pricy whether new or on ebay) I decided to try and knock a couple together out of the contents of my bits box.

Sifting through parts I was initially sceptical about being able to make anything remotely convincing from the limited parts at hard but often find that the best method is just to start cutting things up and sticking them together, and see what you end up with.

Both started off with a pair of space marine legs with sentinel parts for the torsos and then a whole bunch of random stuff thrown on top. Lascannon power feeds were used for thick bundles of 'mechandrites', imperial vehicle and space marine accessories, a chaos terminator chain fist, the barrel and pipe from a meltagun, several flamer tanks and a fanatic Van saar gangers head also found their way into the mix. Admittedly neither are going to win me any awards but I think they're both recognisable as Servitors with chain blades and it's always quite satisfying to make something individual for nowt' 

Elites choice no2... 'Corpse Taker' - Apothecary Vivisector & x2 Dissection Servitors - 50pts

Badab war - Astral Claws Tyrant's Legion Sentry Gun.

Inspired by a recent post about building weapon emplacements from leftover bits on a blog whose name sadly escapes me, I set about knocking together a sentry gun for my Seperatist forces.

Built from a sentinel's leg with an old metal multimelta (Servitors arm?) and some bits and pieces from various imperial guard vehicle accessories to represent the searchlight and sensor suite, all mounted on yet another 40mm ruined wall base I had knocking around; it's nothing special but was fun to build and paint and gives me a usefull little addition to the army.

'The forces of the Tyrant were known to make great use of a wide variety of automated weapon systems, the mindless obedience of a Servitors lobotomised cranium often deemed more reliable than the half trained human cattle of the Auxillia units. 

In the latter stages of the Badab conflict, loyalist forces were to encounter increasing numbers of an unusual and unsanctioned pattern of sentry gun, commonly known to the separatists as a 'Krandiil' the backstabbing stiletto tridents favoured by the hive gangs of badab primus.

Deployed solely as ambush and distraction units and armed with thermal weapons that could melt a marines armoured plate or the hull of a battle tank with equal ease, these weapons were seeded ahead of advancing loyalist forces, hidden amidst wreckage or buried under rubble and masked by auspex jamming electronics, ready to rise up in ambush behind the loyalists as soon the telltale signatures of their armour had passed by....'

Sentry guns are a fast attack choice for the Tyrants legion and can be taken in batteries of up to three in a slot. Each gun has to be declared in one of two firing modes before the game, either a 360 degree field of fire with 18" range or 90 degree field of fire with a 36" range, this is important to remember when it comes down to choosing any upgrades.

They are BS3, which is usefull compared with the usual BS2 of automated weapons, toughness 6, 2 wounds and have a power armour esque 3+ save making them reasonably survivable.

The most interesting thing about this list entry is the fact that sentry guns can be given deep strike for 10pts per gun, transforming them from static gun emplacements to potentially devastating ambush/distraction units.

Costing a mere 15pts with the standard load out of twin linked heavy bolters, sentry guns can be upgraded to either a twin linked Lascannon for 10pts, or multimelta with searchlight for 5pts; personally I feel the Lascannon option isn't great due to the limited range of both firing modes, I'd either go for the standard fit with no options to add some firepower to a defensive Auxillia/Armsman squad or go for my choice, multimelta, searchlight and deep strike for a total of 30pts a gun.

At 30pts each they are cheap enough to be classed as expendable and when you deep strike in behind an enemy tanks rear armour, or next to a vulnerable support unit, even if you don't kill them, your enemy should be forced to react to this threat in his rear (ffnarr) rather than your main elements.

Badab war. Astral Claws Tyrant's Legion 6th edition PDF update musings.

6th Edition update for The Tyrant's Legion...

Forgeworld recently released the 6th edition update for the Tyrants legion list as a free pdf, which is great as I could hardly afford to buy the book again just for the army list..... Cheers FW.

6th has brought in some changes not least the inclusion of chapter tactics for the space marine contingent and two different warlord trait tables depending on whether your warlord is an Astral Claw or an auxillary officer. It also includes a list of lord of war selections so you can bring your super heavies to the battlefield.

As far as the chapter tactics goes, the first gives skimmers scout, which is nice but irrelevant in this list, and bikes the skilled rider USR. I'm not planning on having any bikers but I could see this being very usefull in a bike-centric claws army from codex space marines.

The second chapter tactic is far more relevant for my own little force, gifting your space marines the stubborn special rule whilst losing the ability to fail morale tests. I can see this making my fifteen strong legion cohort quite a formidable block of infantry at the 1000pt level and cements their position as the backbone of my Demi-legion

The list itself has been tidied up with air units split into more focused entries in the list, for example VTOL vultures may still squadron but supersonic lightning interceptors etc cannot squadron anymore.

Old entries with special rules no longer applicable in 6th like the corpse taker apothcaries have been reworked to make them relevant.

 In addition, new units have been added such as the avenger strike fighter but best of all Tyrants legion can now select the Hydra AA tank! 

There are several  changes to wargear as well including a new weapon, the breaching charge, which replaces the traditional demo charge.

As far as I can tell the only entry completely culled from the original book is the option to buy (off table) artillery strikes and bombardments as heavy support, which isn't too much of a hardship really.

Overall I think the update is a good effort, especially as it's free rather than a data slate or somesuch. obviously some thought has been put into tweaking the list and making some minor improvements rather than a simply copy/pasted update, which is something I for one appreciate.

When the book was first out there was a lot of the usual internet whinging about it being a weak list only suitable for fluffy encounters but I don't think this is quite the case, sure you don't get all the imperial guard's or marine's special rules or options but there's plenty in here to give your opponents pause for thought.

There might not be any obviously overpowered, under costed death stars staring you in the face but it's a much more flexible list than is immediately apparent on first reading.

Obviously space marines allied with imperial guard or vice versa will give you a lot of the same (and better) tricks and combos but there are a few cool combos unique to the Tyrant's legion.

In this post I'll look at the troops and heavy support choices... As these are usually are the backbone of your firepower horde archetype army.

For a start you have three solid troops choices.... The first of which is the legion Auxillia, the cannon fodder of the legion and a mandatory selection, a very old school way of doing things but one that makes sense from a background perspective and stops you playing a cheesy list of all space marine infantry backed up by squadrons of cheap leman russes.

Great! you might say... BS 2 LD 5 sub-flak armour and a lasgun, man for man worse than a chaos cultist. Prepare to die - not! 

But hold on, at minimum size (x20) a unit only costs 70pts giving you a cheap 'tar-pit' or backfield objective holding unit that any army will find usefull...many chaos marine forces include a small squad of cultists for the same reason.

Going up to 30 strong will only set you back 100pts and make it quite a lot more survivable. 

Take a big unit and throw in a cheap space marine Centurion to stop them running away with his Angel of death special rule and the Auxillia become quite a problematic unit.

Armsman Cadres are pitched somewhere in between Regular IG infantry minus the platoon structure and veteran squads.

Starting at a mere fifty points, available ten to twenty strong and able to take a wide variety of equipment (although not as wide as IG) these guys are the all rounders of you list.

Whether a gun line squad twenty strong with two Autocannon and a heavy Stubber or a fast objective grabbing strike team wearing carapace armour and mechanised in a chimera this is a really flexible unit entry providing you with many options for a good scoring unit. Note that tyrants legion chimera can take an Autocannon turret as an upgrade - cool.

Lastly is the Legion cohort which has several distinct differences from a tactical squad. Prehaps most importantly is the ability to go twenty strong 30k style (as mentioned earlier, a large squad combined with stubborn could be rather nasty on the tabletop) and also to choose one special, heavy or power weapon per five marines (from a limited selection) a block of twenty marine with four plasma guns, grav guns or missile launchers can engage all but the toughest units and take a lot of punishment in return.

Again flexibility in build is their strong point allowing you to tailor a squad for almost any requirement.

Another point worth mentioning is the 'chapter' support special rule... Allowing you to pick one heavy support slot from the marine codex for every legion cohort in your army.

Again this really opens up your options with everything from land raiders and devastator centurions to thunderfire cannon and stormravens becoming available. To my mind the basic Annihilator pattern predator looks like a bit of an overlooked bargain, sure it doesn't have the fancy-pants special rules but offers reliable bs4 anti tank/MC for a reasonable cost.

When it comes to their own heavy support choices, the legion are spoilt for choice, it really just depends how big your budget is in both points and cash. 

Air power is very well represented with Thunderbolts, lightnings and avengers as single heavy support choices and vultures as a squadron entry....that's a huge choice of air units available.

Ground attack - avenger or vulture...air supremacy - lightning....dual purpose - thunderbolt. And with the vulture available in squadrons you can take up to nine of them! You really can go flyer crazy in this army. The only downside being the first three no longer being allowed to squadron.

For the sadists amoungst you the Arvus lighter is also an option in fast attack, meaning you could field twelve flyers if you were crazy enough, rich enough or had an opponent willing for you to proxy shoeboxes for spaceships!

On the ground you have battle tank squadrons with the regular battle tank, exterminator and the long discontinued Annihilator (Twin linked Las) available, all standard fare but usefull especially the exterminator.

The siege defence squadron is much like the IG ordnance battery allowing you to pick mixed squadrons of basilisks, medusas and thunderers. I would very much like a thunderer or a basilisk converted to an assault gun for my own army.

Earthshaker and medusa platforms are also available as squadrons, possibly not the best option for competitive play but there's no doubting the rule of cool when it comes to a grimdark '88'

The biggie for me is the new entry, the hydra aa platform. Only 75points and ignoring flat-out and jink cover saves. With every man and his dog having flyers in 6th these are a great choice and will mow down infantry, bikes, jet bikes and trucks with ease when bought in a squadron. You can even have a go at rapid fire glancing heavier vehicles to death plasma style. Many people will prefer an aegis line and quad gun which is fine but personally I'm sick of seeing every army take one and as it's available to everyone and not part of the list as such I'm not going to discuss it as an aa option.

The other choices are rapier batteries which I can't really comment about as I'm not sure about the rules for the laser destroyer array but certainly have the rogue trader cool factor, and Auxillia heavy weapon squads which for me aren't great, three BS2 weapon teams and an NCO, personally I'd spend my points elsewhere.

Here's a quick list I put together of the top of my head... Prob not a very competitive list for all you screamerstar / taudar people but it does have one or two good points... I think?

Example 1500pt Tyrants legion list.

HQ.

Centurion with power weapon and meltabombs

(75)

Centurion with combimelta (warlord)

(65)

ELITES.

Retaliators x9 with power weapon and meltagun in rhino 

(215)

TROOPS.

Armsman Cadre x12 with carapace armour, meltagun and chimera with Autocannon (155pts)

Armsman Cadre x20 with carapace armour, heavy Stubber and x2 Autocannon 

(155pts)

Legion Auxillia x30 

(100pts)

Legion Auxillia x30

(100pts)

FAST ATTACK

Legion sentry gun battery.

x2 sentry guns with multimeltas, searchlights and deepstrike 

(60pts)

Legion sentry gun battery.

x2 sentry guns with multimeltas, searchlights and deepstrike 

(60pts)

HEAVY SUPPORT

Leman russ.

x1 Annihilator w/ hull Lascannon 

(145pts)

Leman russ.

x1 Annihilator w/ hull Lascannon 

(145pts)

Auxillia air defence squadron.

x3 Hydras

(225pts)

TOTAL 1500 points dead!

One of the big points of this list is that you have 92 scoring models. The large Armsman cadre provides a solid fire base of infantry With the smaller mechanised unit giving you a mobile objective grabber.

One Auxillia squad can be used as a speed bump, tar pit, or expendable distraction whilst the other Auxillia squad with the warlord attached can move upfield and hold objectives, though I'd leave the taking of said objectives to other units such as the rhino mounted Retaliators with attached centurion providing your only real melee squad

The Annihilator pattern Russes are your tank/MC hunters. And if your opponent hasn't brought any flyers the multiple auto cannons and heavy bolters brought by the three Hydra AA tanks will make a right mess of his infantry, jetbikes and light vehicles.

Lastly are the deep striking multimelta sentry guns, dropped in the backfield behind your enemies vulnerable rear armour as a cheap and nasty distraction/ambush, they won't win you any games but your opponent won't be able to afford to ignore four multimeltas up his backside, hopefully leaving your other units to do their thing unmolested.

Key figures

92 scoring models across four troops choices

Six armoured vehicles

Six twin linked hydra Autocannon (3 hydras) three Autocannon and four heavy bolters.

Two twin linked Lascannon and two Lascannon

Four multimeltas 

This is by no means an optimised list at all just an idea of an army that fits the background and give you lots of dice to throw (I always found it's easier to get a six throwing a bucket full of dice) you know the old saying if you throw enough s*** some of it will stick!

I'll hope to look at the HQ, Elite and fast attack portion of the army list in a later post, this one is probably enough of a formless stream of consciousness as it is, if anyone bothers to read this far thanks very much, I appriciate it and I'd love any comments, criticism or feedback....especially from any other tyrant's legion players out there it'd be nice to get some badab war discussion going on the blog!

Badab war - Astral Claws Tyrants Legion Arch Centurion

Although ive already painted a centurion as the HQ choice for my tyrants legion forces, I fancied making a second, more ornate mini to act as my warlord. Regular reader might remember seeing the body for this on one of my WIP posts a while back.



He's a simple kitbash utilising a metal master of the watch body, with a backpack and auspex hand from the plastic devestator kit and a forgeworld mk4 maximus command head. I mounted him on a 40mm base to give him a bit of height and presence over his minions.



Unlike my first centurion, whos a 'get stuck in and split some wigs' kind of guy, I imagine this centurion as an aloof commander, watching from a vantage point and coordinating/directing the auxillia forces and artillery from afar.

Badab war, Tyrants Legion Auxilia Update.

Its been a fair while since my last post, personal circumstances have left me with very little hobby time of late, but ive been plugging away at my legion auxillia as and when ive had the chance.

Here are the first thirteen of twenty total, including the squads prefect and both heavy stubbers.
They're a proper quick and dirty job and well below my usual (low) standard of painting, but im fairly satisfied with the end result for a tabletop unit of cannon fodder.



Ive really run out of steam as far as painting mass infantry goes, when painting becomes more of a chore than a pleasure its time to swap projects. Lucky ive got pleanty of unfinised projects then!

Badab War. Astral Claws Tyrants Legion Update... Legion Auxillaries

Ive mentioned in earlier posts my quandary over what models to use for my legion auxilla squad, GW's Cadians and catachans were out as ive allready painted a horde of each, plus scale is a slight issue, Id mulled over several options, from a box of 28mm ww2 minis converted up with gw bits and pieces to spatans games FSA infantry.
However cost (as always) was a bit of an issue, so when I managed to pick up sixteen plastic rogue trader imperial guardsmen on eBay for less than a fiver posted, I felt pretty pleased. I already have a old metal commander body for the squads Prefect, so for the minimum unit size of 20 I only need to pick up another three dudes.

Also on the plus side, they keep things 'OE' albeit with a nice old school flavour that I thinks somehow appropriate for the background of the legion auxiliary units. As a bonus theyre also pretty diminutive compared to a plastic Cadian guardsmen. So the Astral claws tower over them in a manner befitting their genetically modified demi-god status.

On the downside, they appeared to have been painted with those (humbrol?) Airfix kit paints that come in a little metal tin, and I wasnt sure how my usual 'dettol bath' stripping method would work.



A long soak and a hell of alot of scrubbing later, this was what the they looked like, and I was forced to accept that some of the multiple layers of paint just wasnt coming off!



Here are my two test models, they were made with the two that were In the worst condition after stripping, so hopefully the follwing eighteen wont look this bad paintjob wise! I went for a very basic, almost two colour paintscheme, light grey uniform and dark grey armour with lenses in green and any decoration in blue or gold. The heavy stubber gunner is on a 40mm base I had left over, I also need to buy some more black cat bases for this squad to match the space marines.

Badab war - Astral Claws Tyrants Legion - Space Marine Cohort.

Finally complete is the first troops choice for my tyrants legion. A fifteen strong legion Cohort well armed with a missile launcher, heavy bolter, meltagun and combi melta.
Its a solid, jack of all trades unit that can throw out a fair amount of anti infantry firepower and have a chance against more heavily armoured foes.
Even a small unit of elite close combat troops might think twice before charging the overwatch fire of fifteen marines. The cohort forms the core and provides the backbone for the demi-legion. At 270 points its also a fair chunk of the total force.

Most of the individual models have been seen in my earlier posts so I'll leave it at the group shot above and a couple of snaps of the final five squad members I finished.



First three 'veteran' astral claws who haven't yet reached the point of daubing all their aquilia's crimson in a prelude to becoming red corsairs, the two on the right are a pair of push fit marines (black reach?) I picked up on-sprue for three quid as cheap reinforcements from ebay.



Lastly a pair of more recent 'badab war babies' including the cohort's meltagunner. After I had taken the photo's I had a quick look and realised not only had I forgotten to paint the magazine chamber of his meltagun; I had painted the eye lense blue, rather than the green of all the others. Feeling slightly annoyed at myself I had to go and correct it, so thats why the last photos in crap artificial light ( it hides my very average painting a bit though!)

Anyone who has read my earlier posts about this army being themed on a boarding assault force might be wondering what the brick wall and rubble bases are about.

So ive done a bit of a background u-turn! Now were gonna have a vicious last-ditch city defence force

Buiding a army based on the boarding assault mission means no vehicles, excepting walkers, of which there are none in the Tyrants legion army list (unless you take huron who unlocks an elites slot from the Space Marines codex - ie: a dreadnought)

That meant id end up with just a horde of infantry, and every army needs some sort of larger model or centerpiece.
Imperial armour's background describing the spitefull last stands of the capricious Astral claws amid the ruins of their pocket empire drew alot of parallels with the late period of ww2 in europe and the fall of berlin.

Huron's legion has a philosophy of 'big guns' and faced with the massed land raiders and predators of his loyalist foe, the desperate use of artillery and assault guns as makeshift tank destroyers.
Much in the same way as the germans were forced to rely more and more on assault guns like the stug and direct fire artillery as their panzer divisions were lost to attrition.

Now im thinking ill end up adding a basilisk or maybe a thunderer as a centerpiece for the army. Im still working out a 'final' list, now revised up to an end goal of 1000pts (these things always seem to spiral up!)

Tyrants legion Astral Claws Legion Cohort update, two thirds complete!

I thought I had better put in a quick update as I don't think I'm going to get much painting done in the run up to Christmas. I have thirteen of the fifteen squad assembled. And have run out of bits! I'm not going to buy another tac/combat squad box for two marines so I'll have to see what washes up on eBay I can salvage. Here are the ten astral claws I have painted so far. Apologies for the photo quality, I'm at work during weekday daylight. After reading the advice from readers comments making myself a better setup is definitely on the cards in the new year.First up then. Five veteran Astral claws including the sergeant with combi melta, and battle brother with heavy bolter.

Next five neophytes, including missile launcher.

A few closer shots...

I've been thinking about the twenty auxillia I need to take as a compulsory troops choice. The default option would be to use twenty of my imperial guardsmen. But I'd quite like to do a proper tyrants legion unit. I really don't want to use the plastic cadian or catachans, I've already painted a shedload of these for my imperial guard armies. And also there's a question of scale, stood next to a cadian plastic your average space marine doesn't really look imposing. I've looked at a few options. Including the dystopian legions fsa infantry (again probably too large and quite pricy as metal) another option are the pig iron kolony militia, with are nice miniatures. However, warlord sell a box of 25 multipart plastic Germans in true 28mm for 25 quid. With is a bit of a bargain compared to a box of ten cadians. Having read up on it it seems the general consensus is that the bolt action range is too diminutive to work with 40k, but then I saw this photo on t'web.

Now to my eyes, that doesn't look half bad, the space marine is about a head taller, which seems fine considering he's supposed to be a genetically modified power armoured angel of death. The best bit is... looking at the sprue, the arms are all separate from the weapons, I've got loads of plastic Lasrifles and metal necromunda autoguns/lasguns so I reckon I could give them a 40k flavour. It's just a case of taking the plunge, any comments and suggestions much appreciated!

Astral Claws tyrants legion minor update.

Just a quick update on the slow progress of my astral claws. Following comments I decided to repaint the tabard on my retaliator sergeant in brown.I'm not too sure. I might rip it off and replace it with a blue loincloth

And a couple more members of the legion cohort. I've finished eight including the sarge and two heavy weapons. Only another seven to go!

Badab War, Astral Claws Tyrants Legion Centurion.

Here is my completed tyrants legion Centurion. He's a simple kitbash with a regular body. Company champion shoulderpads, apothecary head and veterans powerfist from the plastic command squad sprue. The stormbolter and backpack decoration are from the commander sprue (I have to say i stole the idea for the backpack decoration from john at 'johns toy soldiers' excellent tyrants legion - i seriously recommend his blog. Theres a link to it in the bloglist on this site).

Overall I'm pretty pleased with how he came out. Especially his posing, I can just see him stalking the corridors of a loyalist starship. I wanted to give him a slightly sinister look and I think the segmented company champion shoulderpads really make him and give him a hunched, malevolent feel

And a rear view, every Centurion worth his salt needs an auspex in a boarding assault. I will try and add a better picture (as i have done with the retaliator squad) when there is some daylight when I'm not at work!

Now I just need to hurry up and finish the legion cohort and I'll actually getting somewhere with this mini project.

Badab war. Astral Claws Tyrants Legion Retaliator Squad.

I have finally finished my first tyrants legion unit, an elite squad of Retaliators. Huron's discipline masters and shock troops. First up the sergeant...

He's a pretty simple kitbash, the head is a maxmini steampunk knight head with the laurels from the small commander sprue, as is the loincloth thingy. the axe shaft and arm are the company standard bearers arm from the command squad sprue, the axe head is an old Chaos space marines bit. The part I'm most pleased with is his combat shield, with its cool feline heads. This is from the plastic warhammer fantasy knightly orders box (knights panther I assume)

Next is the squads weapons specialist with a melta gun. A basic conversion of a tac marine with an empire fantasy shield.

Next is a gnarled old veteran, brother Tanin. He has another maxmini steam knight head, the combat shield from the plastic company champion, and a bionic arm.

Next another really basic conversion of a marine with another empire shield

Lastly a marine with a black Templars chainsword arm (I scraped the iron crosses off) and the combat shield from the plastic assault squad box. This combat shield arm (unlike the company champions) doesn't hold a bolt pistol. So I made sure to put a holster on this model.

I'm really pleased with this squad and looking forward to getting the legion cohort and characters painted, and then thinking about the twenty auxillia that are a old school style 'mandatory' troops choice for a tyrants legion army. I think at some point I'll bite my tongue and pay ten quid for a sheet of forgeworld transfers to finish them off properly, if you've looked at the photos you will understand painting them is beyond my skills!