The 15th part of the Warhammer 40,000 Imperium Battle Report Series.
In this episode, the deranged Flayed Ones of the Necrons make their debut as they try to get between a Canoptek Plasmacyte and the Assault Intercessors of the Blood Ravens!
Who will prevail in this battle between the sinister Necrons and the noble warriors of the Imperium of Mankind.
I have been playing The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening on my Switch, it a lot different than the last time I played the game on the original Game Boy.
I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Marvel Untold book Witches Unleashed by Carrie Harris published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.
So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.
I am going to try my best to not let these things cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.
Also I won’t lie, I have looked at other reviews to see what others think, so there may be some influences from them in this book review. If I am going to quote them, I will attribute them. But if I forget to, or something is highly influenced by them, and you think I ought to attribute someone, let me know so that I can.
What is Marvel
Look at this point I would bore you with a bit of background to the game/universe, but lets not, you all know the Marvel Universe, if you don’t have you been living under a rock!
The Witches were a trio of magical users who were supporting characters in some fairly older titles. The team is Jennifer Kale, Topaz and Satana who were put together by Dr Strange to counter the Hellphyr and get it back into the Tome of Zhered-Na. They had a series back in 2004 I think.
They are joined by Johnny Blaze, the Ghost Rider and Jennifer’s cousin.
The Story
Johnny Blaze managed to get himself stuck in Hell, and in his escape he let Lucifer, the Prince of Lies out, but shattered into 666 pieces.
Now its the duty of the Ghost Rider to hunt down the fragments and send them right back to Hell.
Finding his way to Salem, Florida, Blaze detects something different about this fragment, and he decides to seek the help of a local coven of witches, who just happen to consist of his cousin Jennifer Hale, guardian of the Tome of Zhered-Na, Topaz, an empath, and Santana Hellstorm, a half demon of hell.
Realising that the fragment of Lucifer is in the body of a Kale family member, the sister Lefay and Johnny Blaze, turn to some extreme means to try and find the fragment and send it back to the underworld.
Conclusion
When I started this, I was a bit concerned that it would require quite a bit of background knowledge about the magical world of Marvel, but Harris does an amazing job of spoon feeding what we need at the exact time we need it.
There is lots of exposition, but it feels just right, its never too much or too little and I think the judgement was just right.
Now if I am honest the pacing isn’t something I am a fan of, the story takes a long time to get started, but then the finale does feel a little rushed.
I don’t know the confrontation with Lucifer just felt like it needed more build up, but the writing of that battle was absolutely incredible it felt very fluid and dynamic and with Lucifer using his powers to push the group of heroes to their limit.
It really was a very well written and descriptive climax with the most unexpected of endings.
The Witches get only the smallest time in the main Marvel comics and its great to see them getting the attention they deserve here, and this is the amazing thing about the Aconyte books, they take characters who only get bit parts and expand them out into amazing novels.
This book I am going to give a score of 4 out of 5.
The eBook is out now, and the paperback will be published on the 17th February.
I have been trying to write this for a couple of weeks now and I haven’t been entirely sure how to get the right tone.
But I wanted to summarise my thoughts on the now competed Warhammer Adventures series, Warped Galaxies and Realm Quest.
I have purchased all of the volumes as ePubs and some for my nephews physically, as well as purchasing them as audio books from Audible.
To be honest I was sceptical, I thought they might be Warhammer adjacent, and perhaps a bit daft.
But to my surprise, they were very much within the universes with little compromise, for example in Attack of the Necrons, we see a character utterly disintegrated by a Necron Gauss weapon.
We see Nurglings tear apart a Forge World and spread disease and pestilence, the despair caused by an army of Nighthaunt, the warpstone crazed behaviour of Skaven.
All the things that make Warhammer, well Warhammer are right here, including the grimdark.
In fact the only area I would really criticise as being out of step with the franchises, so that in the AoS books, they refer to Sigmar as simply a King, rather than as the God-King, but I suppose this was done to appease American parents, who will ban books at the drop of a hat.
The characters are all interesting, the 40K ones are ok, although I found Zelia a little too naive for the universe, but her companions are much closer to their archetypes.
The AoS characters are also good, but it does feel like there are perhaps a few too many and some of them get lost and ignored quite a lot.
The audio books are excellently narrated, David Tennent fits the books so well and does a great Grot voice.
Billie Piper is also a great narrator for the AoS books and her Skaven voice is wonderful, her replacement Helen McAlpine is also good, but doesn’t seem as approachable I guess is the right word as Billie Piper.
In conclusion I really would recommend this book for your kids, and you know what, if you want to paint and have something on in the background, these are perfect and easy to follow along with.
I hope more will come in time.
What I Am Modelling
I spent the bulk of the week working on the Chaos Space Marines that came with Imperium Premium Pack 1.
So that’s a squad of 10 Chaos Space Marines, 2 Greater Possessed and a Sorcerer to lead them.
So the first month has been slow, but we have made a start!
So far I have painted 118 models!
Paint my Sisters of Battle to 2000 Points – 0%
So far I have got painted the following
Cannoness
Battle Sister Squad x 10
Arco-Flagellants x 3
Repentia Superior
Sisters Repentia x 4
Seraphim Squad x 5
Penitent Engine x 2
Which gives me a total of 495 points right now.
So I am looking to put together another 1500 points roughly.
In the pile of potential, I have currently got:-
Battle Sisters x 10
Taddeus the Purifier
Rettibutors x 5
Palatine
Dialogus
Imagifier
Celestine the Living Saint
Gemaine Superia x 2
So that’s a good start on expanding them.
Imperium will be at some ping be giving me another 10 Battle Sisters, 5 Seraphim, a Canoness, 3 Argo-Flagellants, a Repentia Superior, 4 Sister Repentia, and a Penitent Engine.
So mostly what I already have, whether that comes all this year, we have to see.
Paint Both Silver Tower and Shadows over Hammerhall – 0%
I intend to start in this in March.
Paint 2000 points worth of Orruk Warclans for Age of Sigmar – 7%
I have painted up the armies general, a Megaboss, who will head up the Ironjawz element of the army.
The much delayed 10th part of the Warhammer 40,000 Imperium Battle Report Series.
In this episode, we a trio of Assault Intercessors attempt to prevent two squads of Necron Warriors reaching their objective! Who will prevail in this battle between the sinister Necrons and the noble warriors of the Imperium of Mankind.