One of the reasons I enjoy it Warhammer 40,000 is because it allows for some time to relax away from the screen. It's just me, a few little guys and a paintbrush to pass the time. But I also enjoy how the little ironies add up to thick layers of sarcasm, an atmosphere that has accompanied the game since its launch. Ultimately, much of the 40K universe is just plain silly, and no faction is sillier to me than Krieg's Death Corps.
The Death Korps of Krieg hail from a world where a long-standing military stalemate has been ended by global thermonuclear war. And by neatly I mean almost everyone died.
Using the same logic that creates entire desert planets in Star Wars, this means that Krieg's Death Corps is particularly good at waging siege warfare in extremely dangerous conditions. Their penchant for grueling warfare results in a great many of them being killed, but this is heralded in the lore as a feature of their military tactics rather than a flaw. On the table, it also helps that they look like a mix of World War I German soldiers, World War II German Nazis, and sad, futuristic conscripts with woefully inadequate equipment. Because when you send poorly equipped troops to certain death in large numbers, they might as well remind you of the worst people who ever lived.
The awkward looks you get at the checkout when you buy your little space fascists are at least somewhat offset by the quality of these models. The field gun in particular is a delight, offering multiple weapon choices and multiple articulation points – including a neat little opening bubble for those interested in building action-packed dioramas. The infantry are also excellent and a huge improvement over the now aging resin sculptures that used to form the core of the corps.
If you want to pick up the new army set, which became available for pre-order on January 11th, it costs $230 Death Corps of War – Astra Militarum Army Set is a pretty good deal. It even comes with the complete Codex: Astra Militarum Rule book in a stylish collection envelope. However, as with most things Warhammer, you'll need two or three crates of them for a full size army.
You also have to paint them, which brings us to another irony of the set – its proximity to the release of a new paint set by none other than John Blanche. For nearly 50 years, Blanche set the tone for the entire 40K universe with a wild, gestural art style and a uniquely warm color palette. This palette was captured and celebrated not by his employer, with whom he has worked for some 46 years, but by one of his biggest competitors, New Zealand-based company The Army Painter. On January 10th, the day before the Krieg pre-order went live, Army Painter's Masterclass John Blanche Volume One and Volume Two has been pre-ordered, complete with a print of Blanche's artwork and a selection of colors you can't find anywhere else.
