I was an Iron Hands player inWarhammer 40Kbefore it was cool. Sure, I may have dabbled in Blood Angels and built aDark Angelscompany (fifth, if you’re asking) before that, but when my Mechanicus needed allies, the Iron Hands were the natural Space Marine chapter to call. I converted mechanical limbs and understood the weakness of flesh long before win-at-all-costs players figured out that Smash Captain was better with Feel No Pain.
I converted old school Terminators to go in a Land Raider, I made characters, I built a Techmarine on a Forgeworld bike (he still holds up a decade later), but my main love was Dreadnoughts. The hulking behemoths are what remains of veterans fallen in battle, forced into honourable servitude in an eternal war. Their sarcophagus acts as their weapon, and their quaking footsteps lead the Emperor’s finest into battle. Dreadnoughts played a big part in my love of mechs in general, to the extent that I converted my own Techmarine Dreadnoughts, too.
I always dreamed of building an army made up entirely of Dreadnoughts, but it was an unachievable goal. The big kits are expensive, and as a teenager with a part-time job, there was no way I was collecting ten of them.
Now that I’m an adult, I have the opposite problem. I have disposable income, but no time to build, convert, and paint such a formidable legion. Luckily, that’s where Legions Imperialis comes in. I enjoyed building the starter set (especially the Warhound Titan), but the general infantry were just too small and fiddly. But the tiny Dreadnoughts released in the new Legiones Astartes Support box are perfect for the job.
The specific support models in the box are the Deredeo and Leviathan pattern Dreadnoughts, neither of which I’ve built in 32mm scale. But at 10mm, they’re just right. The Legions Imperialis Dreadnoughts are big enough to feel like an imposing force, and it’s not impossible to paint details on them, but small enough that they’re reasonably priced and fit in a small tupperware for transportation. They make the perfect Dreadnought army, ready and waiting to drop down to Isstvan V, where I’m sure the battle will go exactly as planned.
I’d like to be able to swap the loadouts of Legions Imperialis models, but beggars can’t be choosers. Maybe I coulduse magnets.
I don’t know the rules ofWarhammer’snew iteration of Epic. I don’t know if you can legally field a force completely made up of Dreads. I don’t really care. I’m never going to play this game, the closest I’ll come is using 40K rules on a miniature scale – centimetres instead of inches or something – but even that’s unlikely. The best part of Legions Imperialis, for me, is being able to field a force of monstrous walkers without breaking the bank. You want Titans? They’re cheap. Want a battalion of super heavies? Easy.
Considering Warhammer is supposedly a miniatures game, the models get pretty big. Think of Baneblades, Stompas, Imperial Knights, and Primarchs. These kits are behemoths, towering over your Astra Militarum troops or Genestealer Cultists. They’re also expensive, as the epic centrepieces of your army will be a big moneymaker forGames Workshop. Legions Imperialis gives you a more affordable way to get that kind of spectacle.
I like to think Ferrus Manus would be proud of my tiny Dreadnought army. I certainly am. And with the speed you’re able to build and paint such small models, I got this tabletop ready in a couple of evenings – what’s not to love? It just goes to show that, even with Warhammer, size doesn’t matter.
The models for this article were provided by Games Workshop.
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