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.

The cover of this issue promises coverage of the Third Tyrannic War, hence my use of a Blood Angel Terminator captain down there. It’s also just a great paintjob by a great dude. Pendulin is good people; we had some solid hangs in Tacoma. If you enjoy my writing, go read my coverage of that event once you’re done with this article. Or go there first and come back, I’ll wait.

The Magazine

This issue starts with a tour of Kjalma’s Skull, the planet we’ve been fighting over these past few issues. It’s no Derek’s Mom’s Dining Table IV, that’s for sure. The world was once ruled by an unnamed minor Necron dynasty, who were destroyed by some geological mishap or another. Their structures remain, and the Szarekhan Dynasty is here to squat in the abandoned space pyramids. The Imperials barely noticed this happening as they were fighting over the nearby moons of Gliantha, until they started to notice said space pyramids. Since then, Imperial forces have withdrawn to Kjalma’s Skull to squash this Necron insurgency. A Battle Record with a paltry single table to roll on lets players name the sector they’re fighting over in this week’s mission. Players are also encouraged to make it a best 2 out of 3 situation to see who controls what I rolled up as Emperor’s Light. I wish I rolled up Dreadskull Plateau instead though, that sounds badass.

The Third Tyrannic War gets focus next, featuring Hive Fleet Leviathan, the classic white and purple scheme you’re used to seeing on studio paintjobs. This invasion saw everyone’s favorite dinobugs finding their way to Baal, the homeworld of the Blood Angels. You can play out at least part of this greater conflict in Battle Sector, and I recommend you do so. It’s a pretty good video game. Baal was set upon by entirely too many Tyranids, and the Blood Angels and all their successor chapters attempted to defend it. The Khorne Daemon Prince Ka’Bandha saw the opportunity to end the Blood Angels once and for all, so he joined the fight to – wait, is that the Ultramarines’ entrance music? Bah Gawd, it’s Roboute Guilliman with the folding chair!

Anyway, the Blood Angels are fine now.

Trazyn the Infinite gets the next page, and man is he a fun character. He’s an archivist, a collector, and has more ill-gotten treasures than the British Museum. Even if he has your typical Necron disdain for most other creatures, he understands that other races can create beautiful and important things, and he wants to preserve those things for all eternity in his hypermuseum on Solemnace. The following page really should be about Orikan the Diviner (seriously go read Infinite and the Divine) but is instead about Imotekh the Stormlord, the archetypical Necron Overlord. Aside from an A+ groaner of a pun name, Imotekh is a great uniter of the Necron race – albeit through force. When he woke up, he saw a bunch of petty Necron lords squabbling for power, kicked their metallic asses, and folded their armies into his own. Now the phaeron of the Sautekh Dynasty, he goes around shooting dark lightning and stunning his opponents with his tactical acumen and power.

Lastly in our narrative section, we have a short story – Supreme Command (emphasis theirs). This story has Nerekhar, a Necron Overlord, absolutely clowning on some Eldar. His hyperlogical superbrain is running the battle flawlessly, while the Eldar charge a Necron gunline in an open field; kind of a layup for the Necrons, honestly. Nerekhar does the sneering imperialist thing, challenges the Eldar Autarch to a duel, and wins, being smug as hell the entire time. It’s not a terribly interesting story, and as much as I like seeing Eldar take the L (L-dar? whatever) it would have been a lot more interesting if the Overlord’s hubris actually had consequence.

The Hobby Materials

We finally finish our fearsome triumvirate of vertebrates, as we attain our third and final Canoptek Wraith. We started this skeletal spider soiree in Issue 45, and continued it in Issue 58, and I’m happy to see it concluded. The building instructions have remained identical throughout. However, the painting instructions have been brought up to speed with our newer paint acquisitions, and the final results look pretty dang nice, if I do say so myself.

The Gaming Materials

Necron Warlord Traits are it for rules content this week; a set of 4 rules and abilities you can grant your android overlords. These range from damage reduction to handing out charge rerolls to units around them, and would spice up any would-be 9th edition player’s Necron army.

This week’s mission takes us to The Front Lines. The war for Kjalma’s Skull has turned an already inhospitable planet into an irradiated moonscape, and the Imperials and Necrons will clash in the no-man’s land between their battle lines. The Necrons are hoping to eradicate the human invaders, and the Imperials want to break through to the Necron fortifications beyond. This plays out in a 75PL battle over 6 objectives. While the primary mission is your typical hold 1, hold 2, hold more mission, there is also a Raze Objective action where you can burn the objectives in your opponent’s deployment zone. This scores you more points at the end of the game, and encourages some risky play. I’ve played missions like this and I think it’s a fun scenario without being an instant win for the would-be objective arsonist.

Final Verdict 68/90:

Wraiths are $60 for 3, and this is $12.95 for 1. You’re saving north of 33% there, which is great if you’re in the market for spooky robugs. The rest of the written content this week is on the weaker side, but the painting instructions are good. My recommendation would be to pick this one up for the model and paint guide, then read Infinite and the Divine. That book owns.

See you next issue, warhams.

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