Legiones Astates Melee Weapons: Out of the Pack Review

[@leakycheese]

I hope you enjoy this first look at the Legiones Astartes Melee Weapon set. Apologies if my voice sounds off at any points, I had a dose of the COVID-19 last month and it's still not quite fully cleared.

[@KaeEbonrai]

i'm sorry to hear that my friend!

[@leakycheese]

Thanks :) It wasn't too bad for me (and nothing compared to how it hits a lot of folks) and I'm much better now. Just a bit wheezy at times and that 90-day cough is a thing.

[@e.nordstrom3892]

Gonna pick this up for some 40k stuff. Would have liked a bit more dynamic poses, but I get that HH tend to be sculpted to field more marines, so poses get a bit more generic. Only real miss here for me is the spear, it just looks a bit off being held like that. Probably not to hard changing up with some cutting and pinning though. I like it, great kit! Love to see more like this in the future.

[@adamfox1669]

I’m waiting for my package to arrive today in the mail(tracking‘suggests’ I’ll have it before 6pm!) the new magos and an eldar vyper jet bike…. That’s for doing a review. Love the channel as always

[@leakycheese]

You're welcome as always Adam, hope that package arrives on time!

[@paulh3475]

There's a charnabal weapon for the Solar Auxilia on their command squad, so it's not quite the first, but I think it is the first for the Astartes.

[@leakycheese]

Astartes beaten to it by the Auxilia! Thanks for sharing this.

[@MrLynchInRealLife]

I really enjoyed the breakdown, thank you

[@leakycheese]

You're mist welcome Mr Lynch, thank you :)

The power maul bears a visual relationship to the plastic maul in the first plastic chaos terminator kit. Just not two handed

[@dylan9025]

great visual callback!

[@midnightclad888]

Genuinely helpful looking set. Like you've said they really should have prioritised getting this kit out a year or two ago.

[@Wijkert]

6:08 head 56 gives of strong Raven Guard vibes. I agree about the heads in general though; great to see more variation.

[@leakycheese]

Good observation, when I was editing I had the same thought. Good to see the Raven Guard get their unique plastic head before their resin Praetors (come on GW, you're behind on so much stuff!)

[@frontroomgaming2311]

Very cool I've been humming and harrring about getting this but now I know I need it.

[@Dreamzkape]

Sadly, mine won't be arriving until Monday. I do like how they kept the FW design for the new plastic chainswords and heavy chainsword. I'd only just noticed that the power sword design is completely new in regards to the guard and pommel, which are now squared off, and the the hilt is more straighter. The power axe is actually different than the FW version and resembles Fafnir's (Imperial Fists) own power axes without the special etching along the edge, which is a particular style you can see on the Charnabal Sabre. It's a shame we didn't get a Charnabal Tabar and Glaive. Here's hoping soon, VERY soon, for a Ranged Weapons kit for shotguns, Nemesis, combi weapons. For my Salamanders Sanctifiers, which can potentially take 3 thunder hammers for a full 10 squad, I'm thinking to remove the thunder hammer hammerhead and replacing it with the power axe/maul head, so it's one-handed. lol

[@MrGunpocket]

I really hope they make an 'armory' for the other legions. and a ranged kit with shotguns and combi weapons and things would be incredible.

[@Dreamzkape]

@@MrGunpocket, yeah, I'm surprised more Armoury sets haven't popped out yet. I can understand some being strange to do, mind, like Salamanders only have stronger flamer weapons and a shield and a mantle. Same with Raven Guard.

[@robertjensen1438]

I designed a dungeons and dragons weapon for wizards. It's a magical melee weapon shaped like a tome that uses intellect for damage instead of strength. I call it "Book Club"

[@leakycheese]

Telling my daughter this one for ideas in her DnD campaigns 😆

[@duncanmacgregor6384]

I have a couple of boxes I’ve picked up to do a bunch of MkIIIs and probably some parts of command squads. I do wish they had done stuff for recon marines, but equally I’ve enjoyed doing those conversions and I like the fact HH encourages conversions by including things that are not explicitly modelled. Just don’t ask me how long I’ve been procrastinating on finishing some corrupted knight household stuff.

[@cthuludreams1]

I wish they left the heads off in exchange for 2 more Heavy Chainswords. We have an abundance of heads

[@leakycheese]

This is the problem with the all things to all people concept of this kit. Looking at the sprue just now they would only have got one more heavy chainsword on in exchange for 4 fewer heads, so that's quite a trade. I also suspect GW might look to withdraw the resin heads once there are enough options out in plastic.

[@tinyfishhobby3138]

Looks solid. I'd certainly find it useful for my army. Do agree with you on the soap box; something like this should have been out of the gate and in people's hands in early 2023 at the latest. Tanks and vehicles make sense as plastic releases and I'm not judging GW for doing that. I AM judging a little bit because they seem to have completely missed that possibly, just maybe, their customers would have also wanted to build Despoilers, assault marines, a variety of veterans, and so on. That is to say, without waiting almost two full years to do so in plastic.

[@nicolastousignant9160]

These are really cool, will definitely look into picking 1 or 2 up For me this should have been part of the initial release, a strategic reshuffle of the heavy weapons kits and substituting one of those for this would have been ideal. Aaaand, probably helped to alleviate criticisms over the (nearly) all tanks initial wave. Pretty much half the legions have a strong close combat component, not having acces to cc weapons for so long was definitely a hindrance

[@widowpeak6142]

Man, I wish other armies got this sort of sprues...

[@leakycheese]

Given the time it took to get this out we should have a Solar Auxilia melee weapons set by..... 2027? (Sad Auxilia noises)

[@widowpeak6142]

@@leakycheese I'm thinking more of Xenos. Loyalist space marine chapters have (very limited) cutomization sprues, but there is nothing similar for other armies. I don't think it will happen any time soon, now that GW seems to be allergic to conversions...

[@LordCrate-du8zm]

40k design team and Horus Heresy design team are different

[@StephenLeaSheppard]

You mentioned that the Phobos pattern bolter is on a MkVI marine arm, but that's not quite accurate. The Mark VI marine arms have scalloped elbow pads that elongate towards the upper arm and no bulbs on the sides of the elbow; the Mark III marine arms have vambraces and elbow pads with trim. These upgrade kit arms, which have showed up here, in the heavy weapon kits, in the command squad kit, and also in the resin despoiler upgrade kit, have a unique arm that doesn't match either of the new plastic MkIII or MkVI designs, with no vambrace and an elbow pad with bulbs to the side and neither the MkVI scalloped elongation towards the upper arm nor the MkIII trim. It feels like a deliberate choice to create upgrade arms that, while they won't quite match any of the individual armor marks, won't seem out of place on any of them either -- even if you add the modular vambraces that come with the MkIII kit to make them fit better with MkIII, they're still missing the trim on the elbow pad, so, again, not a perfect match, but close enough. Seems like yet more future-proofing. When we get all the plastic armor mark refreshes, I bet they all have slight variations on the arm design, too, none of which quite match the upgrade arms either. (Though it would be funny for them to do MkV in plastic and give them these arms exactly.)

[@leakycheese]

That's an interesting observation! During my commentary I was very much thinking of this arm design in the context of its first appearance as the resin Despoiler kit which was released prior to the arrival of the new MKIII on the scene. The MKIII did change this though as while they do have unique arm-armour design in Tactical and some legion armoury sets, the cross compatibility with heavy weapon arms and Despoilers mixes this up somewhat. Agreed 100% that with hindsight these arms are something akin to a "universal pattern" that was used across multiple marks.

[@StephenLeaSheppard]

I remember first noticing the arms didn't match when they released the heavy weapon kits alongside Age of Darkness box, and they had those elbow bulbs, but at the time I thought maybe they were playing with the idea of using reinforced arms for lifting heavier equipment, like how some 40k tactical marine designs have devastators and heavy weapon members of tactical squads wearing crenelated reinforcements on the legs. Then when the resin despoiler kit came out and had the same design I went "Oh, those must be Generic Arms so they can be used across future armor mark kits!"

[@ignitedxblaze]

First plastic charnabel sabre might be the solar aux range (not count generic swords of course)

[@cromwellthesynth]

my only dislike with this box overall is that I wish they'd flipped half the box to be using the opposing hands So 5 left handed chainswords and 5 right, or maybe just the ranged weapons so you could make some fancy duel-wielding options just for style points and such without the hassle of trying to greenstuff it into a right hand

[@jamesfirth-haydon7381]

Am I right in thinking this sprue would work with the Marines that came with the first Heresy box set?

[@leakycheese]

Good question. I've done a few size comparisons to the gen-1 weapons from Calth etc. and the sizing is comparable. Some of the power weapons are a bit chunkier but overall I think they'll work well.

[@BurnInFerNos1]

I am hoping that Australia gets access to this soon.

[@leakycheese]

Yeah, I forgot to mention that the release had been delayed for Kiwiland and Emutopia. Hoping these arrive for you soon 👍

[@judgecohen1373]

So what are the chances of a World Eaters specific melee set as the need for chainaxes etc… in plastic is dire?

[@leakycheese]

The chance is non-zero. In August's Nova Open Preview interview, Andy Hoare stated that longer term they'll move into legion specific plastics. The near-term will be focused on core legion units... which I interpret as plastic infantry units (Destroyers, Recon and Seekers) and other elites and fast attack. They are in the heresy for the long run for sure, which is great, but as I said in the video the release rate on core infantry kits has been slow outside of the original AoD boxed set and ranged weapon kits.

[@gafrers]

Quality OPR

[@leakycheese]

Thanks gafrers :)

[@piotrjeske4599]

They could have skiped on the power swords and put in more pistols or other power weapons

[@leakycheese]

*Ultramarine conspiracy noises*

[@BKSD26]

When is this out?, I’ve checked the store and still nothing.

[@leakycheese]

It was released in the UK where I live on November 16th. According to the Warhammer website re-release article it's delayed for Australia and New Zealand - no indication given on exactly when this will be, so not sure if this affects you. www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/zwm6kw8r/sunday-preview-the-new-edition-of-warhammer-underworlds-is-nearly-here/

[@ChaseDaOrk3767]

Are these compatible with 40k Space Marines/Chaos Space Marines

[@leakycheese]

Should be, they are all similarly sized models.

[@ChaseDaOrk3767]

@leakycheese Good to hear

[@lazysponge]

I am a Fan of Plastic Sprues

[@leakycheese]

You have come to the right place my place friend :)

[@Capt.DanInJapan]

I feel that GW missed a trick in not making the haft and head of each weapon separate. It would have been nice to have made a one-handed Thunder Hammer or two-handed axes. Sure, converting then wont be very hard but it would have been nice. Edit: Also, I can see the plastic Chanarbal Swords being in high demand for Emperor's Children players. I seem to remember that their Inductii were one of the better units.

[@leakycheese]

That's an interesting idea for sure. If they'd gone with that there would have been a lot less sprue estate for bits so the kit would have contained less components overall. I suppose it would be easy enough to take your idea and reverse-Uno card it - cut and swap heads. Looking at the sprue again and I might do that with a Thunderhammer and Power Axe to make a Carsoran Tabar. Also agreed 100% for the Emperor's Children!

[@andrewanderson1988]

I am currently wondering how easy it would be to swap hands and head position on the spear and hammer to make it so there are two different poses for those. Looks possible the the hands might look weird.

[@dylan9025]

Are despoiler squads just 30k assault squads?

[@leakycheese]

Despoilers are Tacticals kitted out for melee without the jump packs. Assault Squads are their own thing (I did an unboxing of the MKVI kit late last year). They have a special rule called "Spite of the Legion" which gives them melee bonuses against leaderless units (snipe those Sergeants then charge) and can also be transported. About half the legions have a unique version called Inductii which have their own unique rules. These represent rapidly accelerated Astartes created during the heresy to build armies quickly and keep up with attrition (the remaining legions have standard Tactical Squad Inductii).

[@bobthehippy]

See yours arrived before mine 😢

[@leakycheese]

I did an operative on-the-ground insertion to get mine*. Hope yours arrives soon. *Hydra Dominatus

[@bobthehippy]

@leakycheese royal mail says Monday. Looking forward to getting some options into my assault marines and Sanguinary guard. Those spears will be great in there

[@ZaZi-Zeta01]

Man do I wish people in my areas played Heresy. I'd drop 40k in a heartbeat for 30k

[@leakycheese]

This comment is 100% Leakycheese endorsed.

[@andrewanderson1988]

I haven't done a very serious inquiry where I am at yet, but most of the local stores carry everything except for HH in abundance, so I am guessing there isn't a group here either.

[@HugeGeronimo]

Not worth it, you cannot make a proper squad without buying two sets (at a premium GW cost). One trip to Etsy, and you can get any setup you want for a quarter of the cost...

[@leakycheese]

That's the downside with the all things to all people approach of this kit. Lots of "proper squads" can be made with this kit (e.g. Despoilers, Assaults, Veterans etc.) but it doesn't cover all the bases the army list allows in one hit. GW would be probably be looking at 4-5 sprues to achieve that end, and that's not a product I think they'd see the commercial opportunity in. Still, what a time to be alive where unlicensed copies of these products are so easily obtained!

[@HugeGeronimo]

@@leakycheese Making things good these days seems to be the no brainer to success, with greedy morons inputting queer ideas (pun intended).

[@Vaw.]

Where chainaxe…?

[@leakycheese]

You need to ask GW marketing that question :) Here's a tip: look up the Nova 2024 interview with Andy Hoare on WarComOff website, there's a indicator there.

[@theylivewesleep.5139]

Can’t equip a whole squad Unacceptable

[@paladinpariah325]

No right handed pistols or left handed melee weapons makes this so much more limiting than it should be. Really disappointing and it's keeping me from buying this.

[@leakycheese]

As I said in the review, my opinion is off handed pistols will come in a future Destroyer upgrade set. Have a watch of the Nova Open '24 Horus Heresy interview with Andy Hoare, he alludes to more kits coming to cover core marine infantry options.

[@paladinpariah325]

@leakycheese Sadly, more waiting for what we should already have gotten isn't good news.

[@leakycheese]

@paladinpariah325 No point telling me this - go message Warhammer Community on one of their many social media accounts 🙂

[@vortex594]

Frankly, I find this box terrible. It's as if it were specifically designed to need multiple boxes to fully arm a squad of Veterans with the same weapon, god forbid you want the same one on any accompanying HQs, and that's not even mentioning how screwed you are if you want spears.

[@leakycheese]

As I said, my belief is this set had to be all things to all people so the compromise was limited numbers of certain weapon types.

[@andrewanderson1988]

@@leakycheese I am surprised they didn't do it like the heavy/special weapons. Multiple boxes with different melee load outs so it would be easier to fit the 20 man tac squads.