Heresy & Heroes

Is it really that time of year again? As we hurtle into 2018, (more by luck than design, one feels these days), it’s time again for me to reflect on another year of Heresy & Heroes. This blog will be entering its 6th year (!!) in 2018, and over the course of 2017, this blog has had well over 40,000 visits, which is a rather auspicious number if ever there was one. Well, that happened a while back, so it’s more by now, but this was the first time that this blog crossed that line in a year. Huzzah!

But what have you all been reading? In what has now become a Heresy & Heroes tradition, I’m taking a bit of time here to tell you what were the top five most popular posts published here in 2017. What’s more, I’ll throw in my personal favourite, and something from the first year (2013) too that will hopefully give you an idea of how far this site has come. So without any further ado, in reverse order, here are the Top 5 most popular H&H posts from this year…

5 – New Necromunda – What’s In The Box

Well, it’s certainly had a lot of us very excited, and we spent several months salivating over the prospect of descending into the Underhive once again, and as soon as images of the contents were released, Heresy & Heroes was there to bring you the shiny images, and talk you through the gubbins within. And what gubbins they turned out to be! Even with the shots in this article, we were all even happier when we finally cracked open the box itself. Less happy when half of us immediately lost the tiniest cigar ever, but happier again when we saw that this game has immediately been taken to heart by the community.

This game promises to bring us all a lot of enjoyment in 2018 with all the original gangs and more all turning up in the coming months – and yes, all will be reviewed here. Still though, it has to be said that the boxed set is a fantastic collection of rules, minis and more, and one we’ve rightly all been very happy to ogle.

Read the post here.

4 – Know Your Necromunda – The Gangs Of The Underhive

Don’t worry – not everything on this list is Necromunda-related, but this one (and its sister article about the other denizens of the Underhive) was a pleasure to write. I got to dive into a bit of nostalgia, look at some classic minis and illustrations, and try to get some jokes in too. Of course, the gangs have all received slightly updated fluff in the new showing, but this is a hopefully funny take on what I remember from the original incarnation of the game.

It’s always nice to do these sorts of articles, but I’m particularly happy with this one, so if you didn’t check it out the first time, I hope you get a chance to now.

Read the post here.

3 – Chaos Space Marine Warband Name Generators

It’s our third most popular post here, and I’m only surprised that it has taken this long to see the words ‘name generator’ appear in this list. There have been more than a few this year, but the boys from the Warp were, by a long margin, the most popular in this category of posts. If you’re looking for a new name for a Tzeentch, Slaanesh or Khorne warband, you can use the charts in this post to inspire you.

What was really fun though, was working with Dan from Ritual Miniatures (which looks like it’s going through a little bit of a rebuild at the time of writing this – not looking its best but I’m sure it will again soon) on some more randomly generated names from these spreadsheets. These aren’t up right now, but you’ll have to go beg Dan to recreate them if you want to see them again.

Read the post here.

2 – Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition: New War Band/Chapter Name Generators

Shocking. Another name generator post makes this list? I am shocked. 😉 To coincide with one of the biggest events of the year – the release of 8th Edition 40K, I dusted off the ol’ spreadsheet and thesaurus again to come up with name generators for both Nurgle Marine and Primaris Marine armies. As ever, this was a lot of fun for me, and plenty of you seemed to really enjoy it too.

I remember being at Salute on the day 8th edition was announced and the excitement there was palpable. A few GW/FW personnel were there and they all stayed dutifully tight-lipped as they were probed by all around them. And I’m so glad they did keep schtum. The launch went fantastically, and with each reveal, things got even more exciting. So, caught up in all of that, these name generators were born, and I enjoyed creating them as ever.

Read the post here.

1 – Pickle Rick in the 41st Millennium!

It had to be, right? Well, it’s always nice to see some of my actual painting/modelling make it into this list each year, and what was undoubtedly one of the silliest miniatures created in 2017 (and by anyone, ever) and complete with equally silly rules,  has done just that. You all really enjoyed this, and the threads on Reddit, Facebook, Google+ and other social sites definitely showed that it was worth me spending a 3 day weekend swearing at two staples and a tiny lump of green stuff.

And how will I top that? We’ll have to see if I managed to do that in a year’s time. I doubt there’ll be another series of Rick & Morty between now and then, so my inspiration will have to come from somewhere else. Oh, and just so you know, despite this post being wildly popular, and easily the most popular post published in 2017, it wasn’t the most popular post on the site this year – that honour belongs to 2016’s Space Marine Chapter Name Generator, which just goes to show how popular that sort of post can be!

Read the post here.

My Favourite – Our Desks: A Photo Essay

Oh, maybe I could have come up with a better layout for this, but I still love it. What was really nice, was working with and talking to painters around the world about their sacred spaces – their hobby desks. Seeing the range, the preferences and hearing about all of the stories behind them was an honour and a thrill for me. Gamers get to meet other gamers all the time, but aside from rare competitions and social media, us painters rarely get a chance to chinwag (as we prefer to sit, troll-like in our caves, licking paint, drinking brush water and swearing quietly under our breath) so that was fantastic.

It was a joy to do then, and it’s great to be able to flick through it all now. Next year, I’ll try and turn it into a coffee table book! No, actually, I doubt I will. But I would like to do another project like this where I bring a few more artists to the attention of you readers. We’ll have to wait to see what 2018 brings!

Read the post here.

2013 Flash Back – Grey Knights

It’s a little sad that my Grey Knights have spent the last three years living in carry cases, seeing the light of day on only the rarest of occasions. I was well proud of this lot all those years ago, and they were the first army that I painted and thought – yeah, they’re good.

By my own standards these days, perhaps they’re a little old school now, but they still look ok next to more recent projects. These guys were used on the table top during what must have been 6th Edition and my Purifier-focussed force never really benefited too much from the infamous Ward-codex. They were a huge amount of fun to play with, and maybe I’ll crack them out for a game of 8th at some point next year. Will be interesting to see if my build can still deal some damage.

Read the post here.

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So, there you have it. I’ll try and do a proper “Year in review” type of post soon too, though we’re fast running out of 2017 and as ever, things are insanely busy. Presents to buy, trips to plan, work to do, etc. Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this brief look backwards – it’s been a great year. And now, as ever; Onwards!