Imperium is a weekly hobby magazine from Hachette Partworks. In this 90-week series, our intrepid magazine-receiver will be reviewing each individual issue, its included models, and gaming materials. A Premium subscription was provided to Goonhammer for review purposes.

When I turned 25, my dad called me and said “You’ve hit the quarter century mark!” and that was likely the first time in my life I felt old. I think about this conversation often. When this article drops I’ll have recently turned 33; the impossible to properly divide third century mark that, god willing, no family relation will remind me of.

This is an article about a magazine aimed at teenagers.

The Magazine

As we’re getting a terrain piece we’ve already acquired this week, the bulk of the narrative section is on something new – the Leagues of Votann. I feel they would have been an easier-to-root-for protagonist for this magazine series to follow, but they don’t have the breadth or depth of the Imperial ranges to really flesh out 80-90 magazines, nor the name brand recognition of Space Marines. They are introduced in-universe by our old Ordo Xenos pal Inquisitor Gallius Shaarn. Despite saying they don’t know much about the Votann, Shaarn really goes off on how Votann tray wintsociety is structured, what their culture is like, and how they do battle. That’s humblebragging, Inquisitor, and I do not stand for it.

Inquisitor Rodrigo Pyke gives the next report, this time on Nurgle Daemons. Like the Khorne overview from last issue, this spells out Nurgle’s whole steez and what a variety of their units do. Seeing the name “Sloppity Bilepiper” written in the Inquisitorial report is very funny to me, as I picture some po-faced Inquisitor saying “Sloppity Bilepiper” in the gravelliest, most Ray Winstone-iest British accent imaginable.

We get to learn about another warzone in the next section, the system of Dharrovar. This is a crucial shipping lane between the Imperiums Sanctus and Nihilus, and is home to the Chaos Knights of House Mandrakor. This grinding stalemate was eventually broken when Haarken Worldclaimer decided to Claim World, and the remaining Imperial defenders were forced to retreat from the system. The stakes and scale of 40k are so hard to quantify, but by simply writing that this system is a shipping lane, it suddenly makes sense why people would be fighting over it. This isn’t much of a story on its own, but it adds to the texture of 40k, introducing factions we might not have heard of (raise your hand if you have a Castellans of the Rift army) and coloring in another piece of the galaxy.

Lastly, we have a short story – An Obstacle To Acquisition (emphasis theirs) which also happens to be the first story I’ve ever read from the perspective of the Leagues of Votann. Kin from the Greater Thurian League are enforcing their claim on a planet besieged by the Black Legion, and there’s no negotiating with them. Theyn Firefist’s squad piles out of their Hekaton Land Fortress and rushes to an embankment to reinforce their kindred, and they repel wave after wave of Chaos assaults. This is all pretty standard bolter porn fare so far. There’s some interesting looks into their culture which are efficiently peppered throughout, and give away more about the faction than I was expecting. For one, they don’t do epic speeches or complex orders – they join battle on a single word, pound their fists once against their chests, and pile out into combat. They don’t refer to the Black Legion with much of the scorn most factions would – they just call them Cthonians and get right to killing em. Even Votann death rites are touched on, mourning the lost opportunity to pass stories along to the Ancestors, and hopefully living to tell their tales. It’s written fairly well and it’s cool to finally read about their style of warfare like this.

There is also a character named Kâhl Skyrr, which I can only assume is because he’s a big fan of Icelandic yogurt. Personally, I like plain skyr with blueberries, some honey, and a smattering of homemade granola on top. Maybe this should be in the next Votann Crusade section; I’ll get GW on the horn and see what I can do.

The Hobby Materials

By gum they did it again, they sent us another Haemotrope Reactor. We got one of these about a year ago in issue 27. I started painting mine but made the mistake of using Leadbelcher spray, which proved to be hydrophobic and all my paint slid right off it. It is, to this day, sitting in my closet, forever in progress.

The assembly process for this model couldn’t be much simpler, but the painting tutorial here has some cool techniques at play. Beyond our usual washing and drybrushing, Astrogranite texture paint is applied to various locations, then painted brown to simulate industrial grime. Normally Typhus Corrosion would do this sort of thing, but we’re working with what we’ve got. Beyond that, orange is applied to build up a nice rust effect, and the end result looks fantastic. It’s cool that they’re introducing some offbeat paint effects like this, and really shows the breadth of all these tools and supplies. Funnily enough, there is also a tutorial for a cleaner Haemotrope Reactor, likely updating the one we got way back when. This is the first time they’ve really offered multiple options in their tutorials, and I really dig it.

The Gaming Materials

This week’s mission, The Battle Above, takes us to the stars above Kjalma’s Skull, where Necron boarders have teleported aboard the Imperial vessels. It’s up to the human defenders to keep the Necron invaders from sabotaging the ammo stores and engines of their ship, and this is represented in a wonderfully asymmetrical mission. The Necrons deploy in a tight corner representing maybe 1/8th of the board. The Imperials deploy in a long L opposite, stretched thin across a broad expanse. 5 objectives scatter from the center towards the Necron player, and if they can sabotage 3 by the end of turn 5, they win the game. There are no other objectives – it’s just sabotage or die. I love this. While the terrain supplied thus far might need to be finagled to get a real boarding action vibe, it’s a thematic and fun mission that sounds like an absolute blast to play.

Final Verdict 75/90:

My napkin math on Reactors, Haemotrope is $30 each, so $13.95 is a great price for the one included in this issue. They’re also still impossible to get through regular means, so if you want these thematic line of sight blockers this is currently your option. Beyond this, the absolute bushel of narrative material here about a heretofore unseen army should be a treat for readers at home, and the mission and painting tutorial own. I don’t usually come off this glowing from these terrain issues, but this one’s a banger.

See you next issue, warhams.

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