With 2020 now behind us, it’s time to review what we achieved in 2020 and where we are going in 2021!

2020: In Review

2020 wasn’t jam packed full of games as originally intended, but it did have a fair amount of table-time and an extraordinary amount of home-hobby time.

First off, March 2020 saw this blog move from a previous domain and hosting service to this one. All statistics reset in the transfer. Regardless, from 01 Mar 2020 to 01 Jan 2021, the blog saw c.19,700 visitors and a plethora of subscriptions (free – because this blog is a free content blog). So before we go into more detail, I’m going to say a big thank you to you all!

We saw the Night Lords take on James’ Emperors Children on the30kchannel in March; which was both fun and ticked off an achievement for me. We went in with the scenario of an early Solar War period; with the Khthonic gate under assault and the Night Lords chasing down a Loyalist Emperors Children defence force to a secondary moon. The game saw a highly mobile Maru Skara Emperors Children force face off against a drop pod heavy Terror Assault army; complete with Thunderhawk Gunship. As with every game that James and I have played, it was tight from the off and ended close too!

March also saw the first game of the Terminon Conflict take place. This was set out to be a 4 game Apocalypse-scaled campaign; however it unfortunately terminated half way through due to COVID-19. This first game saw the forces of the Dark Mechanicum and Iron Warriors face down the Salamanders, Imperial Fists and Dark Angels. After a brutal battle, the Loyalists took a slim victory of only a single Victory Point! The full Battle Report here.

Following on from this game, August saw the second, and what would be the final game of the campaign. This time, the forces of the Iron Warriors and Death Guard faced off against the the Alpha Legion and Emperors Children. Clearly, this was an all traitor fight and had its own custom scenario based on the original campaign game.

The Death Guard had their first run out for the Blog; and they certainly hit like a train, despite taking losses from the Alpha Legion and their sneaky tactics, along with a Ruinstorm Daemon and Emperors Children Leviathan Alpha strike. Another exceptionally tight game that saw a Traitor victory (of course)! Battle report here.

A year wouldn’t be a year if I wasn’t repainting at least one of the armies; this year saw not only the Titan maniple move from Legio Fureans to Legio Mortis, but stripping the entirety of the Night Lords and Dark Mechanicum in early April in preparation for their new schemes! Unfortunately, the Night Lords and Dark Mechanicum couldn’t be completed due to Operational Deployment (real life), so currently sit in the display cabinet in a semi completed state!

Not only did the Titans get repainted during this time, but two Acastus Knights joined the fray; the Asterius and Porphyrion. These joined the two Moriax Knights and the Cerastus Atrapos in House Ærthegn colours. The Acastus class knights are dismountable from their display bases and have LEDs fitted in the same manner as the Titans, giving a unified look across all of the big models for the Dark Mechanicum.

With the blog reinforcing the fun of creating narratives behind your army and a narratives utility to help you craft an armies future form; 2020 saw the emergence of the narratives behind several of the Companies that make up my Night Lords army.

We saw the emergence of the narrative for the Dark Mechanicum; known as the Necrotacitus. This has since driven the conversion efforts for the Archmagos Dominus Saitama and Magos Dominus Rin. There’s more on that to follow this year!

Alongside the army narratives, a mad idea sprang forth; a realistic losses campaign! Exploring the world of 72.23, the basic rules structure was laid down and presented to not only you, the Legio Traitoris readership, but the local gaming group, who are waiting for the COVID-19 restrictions to lift to get this latest and intriguing campaign structure up off the ground!

The biggest release of the year was covered on the blog in both Pre and Post release army and unit tactica for the Night Lords.

Book 9 gave the Night Lords some good and much needed adjustments to Sevatar, Terror Squads and Night Raptors, as well as a few new thematic Rites of War. Nakrid Thole stole the show when it comes to narrative character rules; but overall, the disappointment of an unmodified Konrad Curze and appalling rules for Contekar left a terrible taste in the mouth. There was no revolution, but minor evolution to specific units which is fine – but the Night Lords are still a Terror Legion without Fear as a core legion trait. Better luck next FAQ I guess.

By comparison the Dark Angels faired significantly better, though not without fault and concerns with their rules. However they are effectively able to tailor and hard counter to almost every army in the game system. It’s safe to say that an FAQ needs to touch both Legions of Book 9.

Two large occurrences in the year have largely slowed the hobby for the blog:

• The birth of my Son, Charlie! An extremely happy event in April and well worth the hit to hobby! Good news is that he’s already smiling and staring at the Forgeworld Greater Bloodthirster in the display cabinet!
• The deployment on Operations as part of my job. This has and will continue to see me away from my armies and airbrush for a total of 7 months – hence the reduced physical and electronic hobby presence!

I also created a Discord Server. It’s designed primarily to supplement the Crusade & Heresy Facebook group; but with a much more immediate and chat-capable environment than can be provided by Facebook posts. It also provides Voice Chat facility and currently has over well over 200 members contributing on a daily basis! It covers every major aspect of the Horus Heresy, from lore, to painting, to army building and even has a skunkworks section for you to air your narrative skills!

2021: The Future of Legio Traitoris

Army Painting

Upon returning to the UK, it’s safe to say the repaint procedure will begin anew! The Night Lords will be painted up in a far darker and bleached colour scheme than they’ve previously been seen in before. This will likely see the first use of Scale 75 paints on the Blog, moving from my more common reliance on Vallejo Game Air. The Dark Mechanicum will continue to be in Malinax colours, but revised to be more grimdark and with oil paints to add grime and weathering, where this was previously lacking.

Expansion

The Night Lords will see the addition of yet another Super Heavy, this time in the form of a Glaive Special Weapons Tank. The 55th Company will be the hosts of this beast and will be added to the narrative as a Volkite and Neutron Specialised Armoured Company. For those long termers amongst you, we see the return of Vorasha Eremon!

As for the Dark Mechanicum, the Ordo Reductor army will slowly be assembled in the form of the Styx Reductor! Narratives will be written and the blog updated with the background of this force in time.

Games

As we have seen, the realistic losses campaign will take place in 2021, no doubt with plenty of other games being scheduled to take place in an ad hoc manner. There has also been murmurs of 9,000pts+ per player in the larger games!

This will clearly all depend on the COVID-19 situation, but we are keeping positive. Safe to say any games that take place will have the normal Battle Report treatment for your reading pleasure!

Blog Content

The blog is going to see a subtle expansion via painting and conversion guides, along with further development of campaigns with the intent to be that readers can pick them up and enjoy them in their groups.

Tacticas will continue to be rolled out, but on a more regular basis. These will mainly be covering Astartes and Mechanicum – focussing on some of the more unseen units as well as the more commonplace units.

Summary

It’s safe to say that 2020 wasn’t the greatest year for the hobby in some respects, however in others – it’s been a great success. We’ve seen armies that have been languishing in to do piles across the country finally get licks of paint! We’ve seen armies sat in their Forgeworld packaging assembled and cleaned! Whatever you’ve achieved this year, be proud.

Despite content taking a hit on the blog due to real life occurrences, 2021 is looking positive, with painting and conversion guides, tactica and games planned! Subscribe to keep a track of the new articles being released!