Showing posts with label Thracia Rex. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thracia Rex. Show all posts

April 22, 2025

The Final Echo

Our "Echoes of Thracia" campaign recently came to an end in the grand finale, fought out between sixteen brave generals in two alliances. This was all-out miniature warfare for the fate of the feudal city of Thracia Rex, held by the bitter Iron Warrior Traitors and besieged by an armoured Loyalist onslaught of the Iron Hands. 

The campaign day was divided into three separate "theatres" interacting between each other. The grand siege was at the heart of it all, and all eyes were following the battle prowess of the fighting 6000 point forces of Iron Hands and Iron Warriors, earning the clash the moniker "Crucible of Iron". Imperial attackers were attempting to storm the city walls from their trench positions, crossing the deadly minefield and other traps set by the Iron Warriors.

Specific "Pioneer" troops on both sides had the opportunity to physically affect the battlefield - Loyalist forces were early on hard at work to extend their trench network as well as constructing the Legendary Thracian Siege Engine "Ombro" to help bring the walls down. Traitors on the other hand were constructing additional traps - rebuilding their fear-inducing frontline bunkers and installing Thracian relics of their own - the menacing Antimatter Mines.

Supporting them were the eight generals in the Battleline missions, tasked with finding every ounce of resources still left in the Thracian system they could help their siege brethren with. They went after every objective token marked as either Ammunition, Fuel, Medical Supplies or Construction Materiel, supplying siege fighters with vital assets whenever a point was scored. The siege efforts were very much dependent on these successes, as no reserves could be brought in without Fuel Tokens, and all heavy weapons had the Limited Ammunition rule only removed with spare Ammo Tokens at the players' disposal.

Far from the despair that was the siege operated the special forces, hand-picked elite units sent to perform surgical missions with diminishing numbers. They went to conquer long-range Scorpius missile systems, to sabotage Thracia Rex's Void Shield power generators and to investigate a massive threat to both sides - a weaponized fusion reactor strapped to an automated bullet train on an infinite loop across Thracia's vast railway networks. Having simultaneously intercepted the same intel describing the fast-moving payload, the SpecOps units hurried to catch the bomb train and to do battle for its route control - two possible end terminals being the Traitor-controlled city of Thracia Rex, and the main Loyalist landing zone, coordinating all of their war efforts on the planet.

In the gloomy caverns and tunnels underneath Thracia Rex, heavy Iron Warrior infantry made way to gain control of the subterranean realm. Making short work of Iron Hand infiltrators, the IV Legion was able to open many secret passages to the no man's land above. As the Traitor Battleline performed with amazing effect, supplying the Iron Warrior reserves with a multitude of Fuel Resources, a daring company of trench raiders was formed out of Cataphractii Terminators as well as Tyrant Siege Terminators and the infamous Dominators. Storming from the hidden tunnel hatches the Terminators caught Loyalist besiegers off-guard, wiping out many units at instant in their surprise attack. It was only the challenging, ordnance-ridden ground that just crucially slowed the Terminator shock assault down, enabling Iron Hands to regroup and ultimately defeat the onslaught. This left them behind their siege schedule however, as due to the defensive maneuvers taken very little work had been managed in extending the Imperial trench network or defusing His Excellence's Mine Garden.

The overwhelming numbers of the Iron Hand invaders were finally able to claw their way over the no-man's-land through sheer willpower, and they were also reinforced by a contingent of Thracian Feudal Militia, sparking an insurrection in the city under the Iron Warriors' stern grip. With the completion of the legendary Thracian Siege Engine Ombro, endless salvoes begun to hammer the Wall of Barbadus, joined by a choir of siege tanks and other long range artillery.

Meanwhile the Special Forces had made an alarming discovery in remote catacombs - the sinister forces of High Chaplain Erebus had been discovered on Thracia Rex and the Word Bearers supported by newly-summoned daemon entities had waged war against both sides. It became apparent that the bomb train was actually a scheme put into play by power-hungry Erebus himself. As the surviving units emerged from the catacombs and hurried to join their battle-brothers in order to share the recent developments with them, the train reached the fateful intersection - it was the Loyalists who had the upper hand. Despite learning of the heretic treacheries, the stern Imperial Fists were characteristically unable to act against their original orders, and sent the train along with its deadly cargo to Thracia Rex.

Doom and death shattered the feudal city and thousands of lives were lost in an eyeblink. Hence Erebus's powers grew - the daemonic entities feasted on the lost souls and a massive tear in reality appeared in Thracia Rex's suburbs. Iron Warrior defenses on the Wall of Barbadus suffered massive damage from the bomb tremors, and as the final fire missions by the Iron Hand tanks were enacted, the colossal fortification came crashing down. The Loyalists had made the breach.

The board was now set and all pieces were in motion for the final push. All Special Forces directed their march routes to Erebus's location, joining forces to stop the heretical ritual and save Thracia from becoming a daemon world. The Iron Hands attempted to storm the demolished wall and to conquer the city streets, with their warlord personally assaulting the 18th Keep on top of the massive Siege Engine. The remaining Battleline forces formed hasty alliances and charged to activate final assets - booby-trapped resource tokens and two great weapons - a continental Atomantic Missile Silo and the hibernating Warhound Titan, The Sentinel of Hell Sinai. 

Ultimately the forces of the Warmaster were able to take control of both the Atomantic Missile and the Titan, further reinforcing the spirit of their Iron Warrior siege specialists. The determined IV Legion was able to thwart the Iron Hands advance, as their armoured reserves, newly-installed Thracian Antimatter Mines and dominant control over the subterranean pathways proved too much for the Loyalists to take on. The final X Legion charge spearheaded by Contemptor Dreadnoughts and Legion Automata came short, halting just outside the breached walls of Thracia Rex.

Over at the ritual site the uneasy alliance between Loyal and Traitor Special Forces was honoured (more or less) and the combined arms were able to take control of all of Erebus's six warp portals, crucially sealing them shut. In the dying moments of the battle it was a Sons of Horus Assault Marine sergeant who delivered the final blow against the High Chaplain himself, forcing Erebus's retreat from the Thracian system for good. 

Thracia Rex laid in ruins. The Loyalists had been unsuccessful in driving the Traitor presence back and the icons of the Warmaster still flew over the remains of the feudal city, vexatiously binding remaining Loyalists to the sector for a prolonged time. With their domain brought low, Traitors could only regroup and cower in wait for new orders. What would later develop into months and years of guerilla operations and splintered positional war was now hard to be seen as a sound victory for either allegiance. Erebus and his daemonic allies had however been banished - a triumph for the denizens of the feudal world, although quite possibly unrecognized by themselves.

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The collective hobby spirit of our great Horus Heresy scene is what drives these projects and we're privileged to be able to share these experiences with you all. We hope this adventure created together has sparked new projects in character and unit additions, and possibly in completely new army concepts - there's nothing like events that make things happen on the painting desk! The campaign finale was a significant push from our event team in story writing, scenario planning and the terrain & accessories workshop, filling the calendar of the first annual quarter completely - a brief respite is now in order. Massive thanks to all of our players and participants of all five Echoes of Thracia campaign acts!



April 2, 2025

Special Ops Intel - The Final Echoes of Thracia

+ INCOMING TRANSMISSION +
+ Establishing connection...
+ Comm-Link activated...
+ Recon element authorized...
+ Picture feed buffering...


02.04: Ammunition, Fuel, Supplies and Medical resources waiting for an airlift. Coordinates encrypted and transmitted.
04.04: Possible identification of an enemy explosive ordnance laboratory. Civilian hub proximity - air strikes ruled out.








06.04: Thracian southern rail network, Jarran's intersection - potential interception site for the primary target.



































07.04: The last intel picture sent in by a remote recon element - accompanying message described undeciphered whispers echoing in the empty ruins.
08.04: Continental missile silo identified - Legion technicians deployed for takeover.
10.04: Clandestine meeting between Thracian underground cells documented by local spies.

11.04: +++ CLASSIFIED +++

March 23, 2025

The Theatre of Tragedies

Feudal world terrain in a way you've never seen before - Thracia Rex explored in videographic form! We've finally been able to combine our passion in wargaming hobby and cinematography via our YouTube presence and this battlefield feature is a sign of things to come. Be sure to subscribe for more cinematic showcases of miniatures, model terrain and wargaming in general!

Thracia Rex is a feudal world terrain project we produced for the use of our Horus Heresy games, aiming to create a deeply personalized and thematically coherent gaming setting. From the multi-leveled battlefield to the underground catacomb features, each core element has a narrative that has also put a thematic spin to the played scenarios as objectives or special rules. 

We wanted the board to have a bit of a mysterious aura; was the town originally a medieval settlement that was later upgraded with science fiction technology, or the other way around - an advanced society that forgot its ways and deteriorated into primitiveness over centuries? We combined scratchbuilt elements and 3D printed details with plastic and resin parts from Warhammer 40,000, The Horus Heresy, Age of Sigmar, Warhammer Fantasy and more.

Looking back, the entire build between 2020-21 was a pretty mad project, but it's been totally worth it already with all the games and army photoshoots it has provided a setting for! Its value is most importantly in the vibe we still get when we enter our studio space hosting the table - it's the centerpiece for the showroom. Thracia Rex has already set the stage for games of Horus Heresy, Age of Sigmar and Trench Crusade to name a few - who knows what adventures lie ahead!



March 21, 2023

Latest from Thracia Rex



We've been playing our Feudal World Horus Heresy campaign "The Thracian Insurgency" since 2021 and finally celebrated the finale some time ago! This was by no means the end of the narrative, but the conclusion of the Insurgency story arc which saw the Legion comrades turn against each other and ultimately burn in the fires of Heresy. We had many story hooks to explore in the various campaign episodes and we were able to wrap most of them up in the final battles. Many corners of Thracia Rex were left unexplored however, so there are still secrets to unfold!

Our in-house campaign finale happened simultaneously on four separate tables - the Renegade Governor was trying to escape the town on a separate "Outer Walls" tile, whereas the grand battle was fought on the main Feudal City table. On the countryside board the Loyalists were trying to protect their automated Artillery providing fire support to the cityfighting forces. In the underground tunnels the defenders tried to hold off invaders from reaching their combat-controlling HQ bunker. I really enjoyed putting the Loyalists under pressure and seeing them divide their strength between the different tasks - which part was deemed more important than the other and which units were trusted with which task. Our Traitor forces were almost like NPC adversaries, playing their part in the narrative with Dark Angels and Salamanders in the center of it. This made for good drama and memorable moments, especially when newly-finished surprise reinforcements kept rolling in.

Albeit having their resources stretched thin and suffering losses on all fronts, the Loyalist forces were able to hold their own and keep the emergency beacons transmitting - their only hope was to get the word of Thracia Rex's tragedies off-world and hope for distant reinforcements to arrive. Noa's Salamanders led by Praetor Barbados Khes were the unshakeable anvil all Loyalist efforts leant on, and Eric's Dark Angel elites performed surgical strikes with pinpoint efficiency.

I've been calculating some new World Eater rosters and have a couple of unit builds on the way - the game is in such a good state that it's exciting to add to the playable force. New tournaments are popping up monthly in Finland and the scene is growing, I think a lot of it is due to Horus Heresy hitting that sweet spot of balance between ("historical") gaming and universal hobby appreciation. Cool models don't hurt either!

Noa's Salamanders were always standing where the fighting was fiercest. Glory to Vulkan!



September 14, 2022

Forward march!


Our Horus Heresy campaign is set in a medieval world that has been influenced by some of humanity's technological developments - a peculiar mix of old and new, superstition and science. Although most battles are fought between the Loyalist and Traitor Legions, their campaign quest originally began as brothers-in-arms, collectively aiming to liberate Thracia Rex from a rebelling Governor and his insurgent forces. However, the timing of the galactic civil war was unfortunate, and the insurgency soon turned into an all-out civil war between humanity's finest.

For the first stages of the campaign all of our participants worked in co-operation against "non-player character" forces, more precisely the Thracian feudal guard as well as their alien and mercenary allies. To represent these detachments we've made dedicated models and vehicles, painted in the same palette and basing theme as our campaign board. We've had a really inspiring and relaxed approach with the militia forces with @wrhd_ollie, as we've just been crafting a unit here and there and completing the paintjob and basing in one sitting. Suddenly we've ended up with a small feudal guard army in our hands!

In the next posts we'll be showing some of the Feudal Guard units on our Instagram - hop on the Heresy train!

+++ Thracia Rex Feudal Guard Facebook Gallery +++



April 19, 2022

Unearth the Betrayal



It was once again our collective hobby inspiration that sparked the idea for our latest gaming day - Ollie had created the insane Night Lords Apothecary some time ago and we knew the model deserved a proper story arch. Unfortunately the Chief Medicae Consul is quite a rare unit choice and Ollie's scratchbuild is a bit too epic to be run as a regular Apothecary - sadly he hadn't seen any gameplay. Therefore we wrote him a secret narrative of his own, incorporating the villain into Thracian Insurgency as a non-player character.

Since the early days of our gaming table build we'd been toying with the idea of creating some underground features for the terrain. These ambitions were boosted as the final construction took shape and we decided to use Ikea Kallax grid shelves as the legs for the table. These have been holding some of our studio armies and literature, but the shelves would also be perfect for some terrain integration - this way the underground terrain pieces would actually be stored underneath the streets and could be used in gameplay as a separate, modular scenery setup.



Our idea was to write a classic "mad scientist" story for the Night Lords Chief Medicae (now called Dr. Norman Bramm) and have this renegade character lead a clandestine operation from his makeshift underground laboratory. His hideous creations (inspired by both Horus Heresy Raven Guard tragedies as well as Fabius Bile's Enhanced Warriors project) would be too imposing for the Loyalist alliance to ignore and this would result in a subterranean manhunt. At first we discussed with Scott that it would be cool to build a simple dungeon corridor to surprise the other players with, but as per usual, we couldn't stop there...

Check out the entire subterranean terrain build and story arch via War Head Instagram or Facebook Gallery below!



February 23, 2022

Chronicles of Thracia Rex




Starting to get hyped for our next Horus Heresy campaign day, the third episode in the Thracian Insurgency! A month from now we'll witness some fresh troops march in to experience completely new narrative in the feudal world of Thracia Rex!

In our previous story-driven scenarios we've left several plot devices open and provided many clues to the future events - it's soon time to start tying the strings together. All-out war seems inevitable and the campaign experience points the players have accumulated will be put to the test...

To recap the story so far we'll be posting "Chronicles of Thracia Rex" updates on Instagram and Facebook as we head towards the next campaign adventures in March. Check out what has happened on the feudal world so far!

October 3, 2021

The Spectres of Nex-Murnau



To continue with the Thracian Insurgency campaign footage, we've just received an image transmission from a foolhardy remembrancer attached to a battlegroup of another traitor legion - the Night Lords!

Ollie's take has been to build a suitably frightening VIII Legion army, steering towards darker themes instead of the mainstream "halloween horror" vibe. This is already evident in the colour scheme with the usual blue replaced with a cold-tinted black, a proper midnight clad.

The Night Lords have been based to match the colours and textures of our Thracia Rex table and their style fits the gloomy surroundings as well! We've been joking that it was fun to spend 15 months creating a 6x4' display board just for Ollie's traitors...



August 29, 2021

The Phoenix Nest

 
Betrayal. Trenches. Vanity. Thematic trinity for our new Horus Heresy Emperor's Children!

The army was created as an undercover lockdown project last year as we started planning our Thracian Insurgency 30K campaign - our crew has long traditions of secret army builds (usually associated with grand reveals in our Civil War tournaments) and here the new force played a narrative part in the story as well. It's a project that I was very inspired to do, a bit smaller "cabinet" force with emphasis on scenic storytelling instead of gameplay practicalities.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about 3D printing making its way to the hobby scene, even without really going into the IP issue. On the other hand it is a wonderful enabler of conversions and gives so much possibilities into creating imaginative concepts, playing with the scale of things and makes some of the crazy ideas more affordable. It's not hard to see that some of the cool concepts that people have produced would not get done without the help of some bits printing.

The other side is what kind of effect printing has on the creative process. I feel that an essential part of making conversions is that one looks at the parts they have available and then combines them in an inspired way or turns those parts into something else. Combining kits or creating alternative builds is awesome and that "forced creativity" having to go with what you have at hand might be spoiled by the endless catalogue of printable conversion bits. This is of course partly (mostly) sentimental nonsense, we're just of the generation that looks at household items to turn into terrain and likes to write their army lists on paper with a pencil... But still, an imaginative conversion of an established model is often much more interesting to see than an alternative third party miniature.

This army was pretty much a personal experiment in the printing realm and my next army project will go with the opposite (and more traditional) kitbashing route.




July 14, 2021

War Head Feudal World: Thracia Rex




Thracia Rex, Imperial Feudal World, Ultima Segmentum, Rebelling, 005.M31.

With our first campaign games played in June our gaming table project of 15 months has finally reached a stage that we can call it finished! This doesn't mean we don't have additions in the works, but these are smaller projects of their own that can be used to modify the existing scenery or to provide narrative details, such as pieces of scatter terrain. I look forward to these more "relaxing" mini projects now that the pressure to finish the terrain for summer gaming has been lifted off our shoulders!

Although I and Ollie have done the heavy lifting, we've had a lot of help and support from our hobby pals crafting and painting details, participating in planning, gifting us parts or just encouraging us to keep ploughing through the tasks. Now we get to enjoy a (hopefully long-lived) narrative gaming spree together!

We've been sharing detail pictures in War Head Instagram and in the Facebook Album, and will continue to do so as we get more gaming footage during our Horus Heresy: Thracian Insurgency campaign.