Remus Ventanus is one of the rarest of Space Marine heroes – a legend from the 31st Millennium whose name is still known 10,000 years later. Lauded as the Saviour of Calth, Ventanus led a desperate defence of what was once one of the grandest and most civilised planets in the Imperium against the Word Bearers during the Horus Heresy. Now he’s back with a killer new miniature from Forge World.
Though Calth itself was irreparably irradiated by the savagery of the Word Bearers and their daemonic allies, the forces of Chaos were eventually driven off.
Ventanus became a senior adviser to his Primarch, Roboute Guilliman, and helped to codify the strategies and dogmas of what would become the Codex Astartes. And in the 41st Millennium, his vengeful spirit assisted a certain Uriel Ventris to inflict a true death on the Word Bearers Daemon Prince M’Kar.
In other words, he’s a pretty bad dude.
That’s a noble bearing right there. Ventanus sports a bolt pistol and power sword, and he carries a legion standard – which serves as a symbol of the bravery of those who fought and died on Calth.
The miniature itself is a single-pose resin figure with a choice of two heads – helmed and unhelmed. That skull above his backpack is Ventanus’ Nuncio-vox, an ornate communication device that keeps him in contact with his legionnaires, while he also has an iron halo and a pretty spectacular helmet crest.
Ventanus was immortalised on the cover of Mark of Calth, the 25th book in The Horus Heresy series which chronicles the planet’s demise.
As befits the man who masterminded the defence of a whole world, Ventanus has the Resolute Planning Trait if he’s your Warlord, allowing Ultramarines units to hunker down on an objective and really keep their grip on it.
He’s also such a Cunning Strategist that he can reroll his own Reserves rolls – and hamper his enemies’ rolls at the same time.
Of course, a commander of Ventanus’ status needs an honour guard to match, so why not get him some mates? Forge World recently released two Ultramarines Praetors in lavish power armour and Cataphractii armour, while the Ultramarines Invictus Suzerain Squad should keep him safe from prying Word Bearers.
He’s probably going to need a suitable foe too. Having beaten the Word Bearers at Calth,** Argel Tal and Zardu Layak are great choices for him to fight on the tabletop.
Ventanus is available to pre-order soon. His rules can be found both in Horus Heresy Legiones Astartes: Age of Darkness Legions and The Horus Heresy Book Five – Tempest – plus you can read more of his story in Know No Fear by Dan Abnett and The Chapter’s Due by Graham McNeill.
* For a certain value of ‘beaten’, at any rate…