It’s Wednesday, which means Warhammer+ is once again opening its digital floodgates to another wave of awesome new content.
Coming this week, we’ve got the perfect episode of Loremasters for the spooky season, which is all about the (very) long life and death of a certain Supreme Lord of the Undead – Nagash. Of course, his eventual death was just another beginning, and that wasn’t the only one, either. It may seem complicated, but don’t worry – our host Wade explains it all in this week’s episode.
The Warhammer Vault yawns open once more, this time unveiling four classic issues of White Dwarf (September to December 2017) and the lore section of the climactic third Realmgate Wars book, Godbeasts.
In other news this week, the highly popular Warhammer 40,000 animation, Astartes, is being added to Warhammer TV and now includes subtitles, so you can watch it to your heart’s content, even if you haven’t yet subscribed to Warhammer+.
We’ve also got a special Angels of Death sizzle reel, which offers you highlights of the first five episodes (spoiler alert!) as well as a preview of episode six, which is coming next week.
That neatly coincides with the theme of this week’s episode of Battle Report, which brings the heroes and villains of Angels of Death to life on the battlefield in the form of a Kill Team mission, complete with custom miniatures painted in the show’s red and greyscale colour scheme! To find out more about it, we spoke to the Battle Report team’s Nick Bayton and James Littler, who were both involved in preparing the show.
Warhammer Community: Angels of Death has a very distinctive tone. How did you try to capture that in the Battle Report scenario?
Nick: We really wanted to make sure the Battle Report matched the action seen in the show as closely as possible, but we also wanted to use a specific Kill Team mission from the Core Book. Mission 2.1 – Escalating Hostilities – was perfect, with the drop zones exactly in the right place, allowing both sides to fight at a distance to begin with and close in later.
We made choices all the way through the game to try and match the action in the show too. For example, I use the Underground Tactical Ploy to have one of my Acolyte Hybrids sneak forwards to ambush the Space Marines, just like we saw in the show! The board set-up and the way we deployed the models also reflected this, with the Genestealer Cultists setting up in cover, and deploying on vantage points, while the Blood Angels stormed forwards to destroy them.
WarCom: What can you tell us about the mission we'll see you playing?
Nick: Escalating Hostilities sees six objective tokens placed around the killzone – two each near our drop zones and then another two in the centre of the board. The players are trying to control the objective markers to score victory points – each is worth 1 victory point in the first and second turning points, then a massive 2 victory points each in the third and fourth.
The twist is that, in the second and third turning points, the objectives near our drop zones start to disappear, forcing us into the centre of the killzone to score points. It means the Genestealer Cultists would have to come out from the shadows later in the game in order to have a chance of winning. No spoilers, of course, but suffice to say, we played the game to match the action in the show as closely as possible. If you've seen the Angels of Death episode in question, then you might know how it plays out in the end – but there are definitely a few twists and turns along the way.
WarCom: Angels of Death has a very distinctive look. How did you go about bringing that aesthetic to the tabletop?
James: The animation leans heavily on strong artistic aesthetics, with its greyscales and vivid reds, so I decided to use that as my inspiration for the colour scheme. I rewatched the show to get a feel for the setting and the Space Marines themselves – well over twenty times in the case of the scene we were planning to recreate! I also collaborated with the creators of Angels of Death to get detailed pictures of the characters for modelling and painting reference.
Above all else, they had to feel like they held the same presence on the board as they do in the show – bold, intimidating, and gracefully brutal. The details that make each Space Marine unique were important to replicate, ensuring they had the same armour, weapons and heraldry.
WarCom: Which member of the squad is your personal favourite?
James: Tiro – anyone whose choice of weapon is a heavy bolter gets my vote!
WarCom: Do you have any tips for anyone that might want to try to paint up their own Angels of Death-inspired squad?James: It’s simple, really – just paint the red of their power armour to whatever standard you're comfortable with, then apply various shades of grey to the rest of the details, using the same painting principles. The trick is to make sure you match the details for each Space Marine – check through your collection of transfer sheets for symbols you can use or alter to match them. Alternatively, they’d make an excellent painting project on which to practice your freehand skills.
WarCom: What can you tell us about the board that the Blood Angels will be battling over?
James: I wanted to recreate that towering building from the battle scene that would also be a great backdrop for the Space Marines to stand on. The other major detail was the statue, as I wanted to recreate the image of the imposing and noble Sister of Battle which had been defaced. By using slight hints of colour within the greys, I could very subtly separate the distinct elements – a blue-grey here and bone-grey there really helps to bring a bit of life to an otherwise monotone battlefield.
WarCom: How long did the entire project take you?
James: About three weeks, all told. We wanted to push the boat out a bit and make this one really special!
Thanks for your insights, gents. If you want to catch this Angels of Death crossover episode of Battle Report – not to mention all the other animations and shows such as Hammer and Bolter and Citadel Colour Masterclass – subscribe to Warhammer+ today and get in on all the action!
