I went all-in into Warhammer

In 2025, the same year I achieved so much around Neuroshima Hex, I also dived deep into Warhammer and went through a few different settings in the span of twelve months: from Age of Sigmar, Warhammer 40 000, to The Old World, Kill Team, and even Necromunda.

It all started because of Michał, who introduced us to Age of Sigmar - I was more into Warhammer 40k lore-wise, but had zero actual experience, so decided to tag along.

Age of Sigmar

If you don’t know, Age of Sigmar is more like medieval fantasy compared to the dark science fiction of the 40k world. I was looking for a suitable faction when I found out there’s actually some advanced (given the setting) technology in the form of sky dwarves called Kharadron Overlords.

They do have steampunk style flying ships, plus LOTS of shooting weapons, so I went with it, since this was the only faction at least remotely close to Warhammer 40k. On December 17th 2024 I’ve ordered an Age of Sigmar Kharadron Overlords Spearhead box.

The bigger, “classic” format consists of units that are usually up to 2000 points, while Spearhead is a smaller system with its own simpler rules.

Cool thing is you can collect Spearheads or buy models separately as those units inside the box can add up to your “normal” 1000, 1500, or 2000 points army, they are just cheaper overall in such packages.

I assembled all the models eventually, which took me ages, but somehow I managed. I mean, almost all the models, as the Frigate, the flying ship, had huge ballons (with the Aether gas inside) which had two issues: fully assembled would be difficult to transport, and even more difficult to paint afterwards. I’ve decided to focus on playing with the chasis, leaving gluing and painting for later.

A few weeks after buying the Spearhead box I also went ahead and bought Aether-Khemist and Grundstok Thunderers to start building an army. After a couple of months, in August, the second, new Spearhead came out, so I decided to buy it along with a new terrain (Endrin Dock), a book, and the cards as well.

I got the Ironclad (the biggest ship) from Michał as a gift a couple of months later as well. This is the current list of KO units I have:

• Kharadron Overlords: Spearhead (2024)
  • Arkanaut Admiral
  • Arkanaut Frigate
  • Arkanaut Company (x10)
  • Skywardens/Endrinriggers (x3)
• Aether-Khemist
• Grundstok Thunderers (x5)
• Kharadron Overlords: Spearhead - Grundstok Trailblazers (2025)
  • Endrinmaster with Dirigible Suit
  • Grundstok Gunhauler
  • Grundstok Thunderers (x5)
  • Skywardens/Endrinriggers (x3)
• Zontari Endrin Dock
• Kharadron Overlords Battletome
• Kharadron Overlords Warscroll cards
• Arkanaut Ironclad

All those models should add up to a nice 2000 points army. I still have the Dock unopened, second Spearhead just started, the Battletome and cards in mint condition, and the Ironclad box sealed though - one of the things I learned about myself is that I assemble the models veeery slooowly, and it takes A LOT of time to finish.

I did start my painting journey with the Arkanaut Company - I’ve painted all 10 dwarves (took me even longer than cutting out and gluing), but the first 5 models were my experiments to see which shade of green would fit the most. Why green, while their usual color scheme is different?

I had a sentiment for Salamanders (40k Space Marines chapter) from my youth when I first encountered Warhammer, but had noone to play with, so I didn’t even buy any miniatures back then. Now, with our whole party going into Warhammer I decided to paint Kharadron Overlords in Salamander green.

We’ve played a bunch of games, starting from the Spearhead format, going through 500, 750, 1000 points armies, and up to 1500 and even 2000 (with some proxy models) eventually.

I was even able to receive cool objective markers from Playmats where I bought us a terrain mat. They also work as fancy coasters, tested by yours truly.

Warcry

We did use our Age of Sigmar models to play a few Warcry games, which is a format even smaller than Spearhead, since you have a small party and control your models individually. Something like the Kill Team from 40k, but with much simpler rules.

I did use my dwarves for this, but they were really slow, so grabbing objectives on the map was quite difficult. Still, I enjoyed Warcry the few times we played it.

Warhammer 40 000

Since we’ve been exploring Warhammer Age of Sigmar for a couple of months, we ended up looking into 40k eventually as well. When I was doing a research about all the available factions, I decided to look for the similar playstyle (heavy shooting) to Kharadron Overlords. Three factions popped up: Adeptus Mechanicus, T’au Empire, and Leagues of Votann.

Looking at the lore and models themselves I realized Votann are also dwarves. Space ones called Kin, but still. Given the strong similarities in models, their abilities, and the overall look and feel I went for Votann.

Around May I bought myself their Combat Patrol, which is a box with a few units and its own simple rules similar to the Spearhead one for Age of Sigmar.

It originally came out in 2022, so when Games Workshop was releasing second Spearhead for Kharadron Overlords in August, they also released a second Combat Patrol for Leagues of Votann a couple of weeks later, which I obviously bought as well.

Games Workshop did release a whole bunch of new Votann models at that time, but I skipped buying them as I already had plenty of unpacked models. I did buy the Codex rulebook and their datacards along with the second box in August though. The current collection looks like this:

• Leagues of Votann: Combat Patrol (2022)
  • Kahl
  • Hernkyn Pioneers (x3)
  • Cthonian Beserks (x5)
  • Hearthkyn Warriors (x10)
• Leagues of Votann: Combat Patrol (2025)
  • Einhyr Champion
  • Brokhyr Thunderkyn (x3)
  • Einhyr Hearthguard (x5)
  • Hearthkyn Warriors (x10)
• Leagues of Votann Codex
• Leagues of Votann Datasheet cards

Interestingly enough, during that time in August a new Combat Patrol was announced and eventually released: Salamanders! I immediately bought it, and after playing a few Combat Patrol matches (and a league) I switched to Salamanders entirely.

I also decided to paint them before anything else, after the initial experiments with Arkanaut Company in May of course, since those exact Salamanders were suppose to be my painting scheme models for every other army.

• Salamanders: Combat Patrol (2025)
  • Adrax Agatone
  • Invader ATV
  • Eradicators (x3)
  • Assault Intercessors (x5)
  • Infernus Marines (x10)

Because of the Salamanders Combat Patrol, the second one for Votann still sits untouched, but I do plan to collect a full 2000 points Leagues of Votann army eventually. It’s going to be a marathon rather than a sprint though as I’m focusing on smaller formats right now.

Kill Team

This format is different as you control about 5-10 models individually (like in Warcry) instead of leading whole units with multiple models into a full scale battle. Our friend, Paweł, introduced us to Kill Team and I fell in love with it immediately.

After a quick research on the available teams I ended up with… yes, dwarves! Turns out there are two Votann teams: Hearthkyn Salvagers and Hernkyn Yaegirs.

The models of the first one are based on Hearthkyn Warriors, so after buying a dedicated Hearthkyn Salvagers Kill Team box (in July) I could use the remaining Warriors to assemble all the possible weapon options.

Since Michał wasn’t a big fan of Kill Team to say the least, I started looking for options and realized you can play with other folks in dedicated shops which were doing two things at once: selling Games Workshop miniatures and offering gaming space with terrain and everything else needed to play.

I did join two Kill Team leagues with Salvagers at once, played ten matches total, and lost all of them. Barrier of entry was high, opponents were skilled, other teams were better, Salvagers themselves were complicated to play on their own, but I enjoyed every single match and wanted to learn as much as possible.

Around September the new Kill Team came out, Deathwatch, which was suppose to be an elite team, better and tougher than Salvagers, and overall easier to handle, and they did.

Given I already had experience with Kill Team in general, and Deathwatch lore-wise are veterans from various Space Marines chapters, including one Salamander guy, I decided I’m going in and painting them ALL as Salamanders!

Fast forward and after 30-40 matches, multiple leagues and a tournament I’m still losing a lot, but getting the hang of them, playing better with every match, learning their quirks, and still enjoying the process. I found myself the perfect Warhammer system.

The Old World

Michał and Staś were big fans of Warhammer Fantasy, so they ended up focusing on The Old World. Yes, there are dwarves called Dwarfen Mountain Holds, they do have flying machines and lots of guns, are tough and slow, so exactly what you’d expect.

Yes, I did buy a bunch of models around September:

• Dwarfen Mountain Holds: Battalion (2024)
  • Gyrocopters/Gyrobombers (x2)
  • Dwarf Warriors (x32)
  • Dwarf Thunderers/Quarrellers (x32)
• Cannon and Organ Gun
• King with Oathstone
• Dwarfen Mountain Holds Arcane Journal

This system seems the furthest from my preference as it does try to recreate grand scale battles with pivoting your units, or artillery scatter, but it’s the only one Michał and Staś are playing right now, so I don’t mind. Plus there’s this newly released Battle March format offering specific rules for 500 point battles, which is a nice entry point.

I’ve played a few of those games, mostly using Kharadron Overlords proxies, as I only assembled a handful of Dwarfen models so far.

It’s still quite difficult for me to grasp all the concepts and remember all the rules, or at least know where to look for their explanations, as it’s all fairly different from Age of Sigmar or 40k, but I enjoyed those few games I had nonetheless.

Necromunda

While exploring Kill Team I learned about Necromunda, which feels like a casual version of that system. You have your gang, just like you have a team, but the extra layer is between battles when you grow their skills from gained experience points, tend to the wounded, try to rescue your folks if any were kidnapped, do side missions, and overall manage the gang to survive as they CAN permanently die if you’re unlucky enough. Seems quite interesting, so I decided to try it…

…using dwarves, obviously. In Necromunda they are called Ironhead Squat Prospectors, or Squats in short. Story-wise they are the distant relatives of Kin from Leagues of Votann. The choice was obvious, since there are no Space Marines like Salamanders available, and Squats are exactly what you’d expect from Warhammer’s dwarves yet again: slow but durable with loads of shooting.

I’m just starting the campaign, so can’t say much, but I’m quite excited. Especially that Kill Team is the system I enjoyed the most so far and Necromunda seems pretty close. It resembles computer games from my childhood I liked playing a lot like Jagged Alliance and Fallout Tactics, and later Wasteland.

JoyToy

As a bonus that is not made by Games Workshop I bought myself a JoyToy figurine: Captain Adrax Agatone. I was looking for Kharadron Overlords models, Leagues of Votann ones, or any other Warhammer dwarves, but couldn’t find any. They did have Salamanders though, so I’ve realized I could’ve started with that in the first place.

Adrax Agatone was re-released around September promoting the Salamanders Combat Patrol which do have a plastic version of him in the box. The toy now sits proudly on my desk between my laptop and the painting station and looks awesome.

Miniature of the month

Official Warhammer stores have miniatures of the month throughout the year: each month you can get a free model, but you have to be quick as they run out of stock literally within minutes. We do have one store in Warsaw, and in September the miniature of the month was a model from Vongrim Harpoon Crew, one of the Kharadron Overlords new boxes. I waited outside in line for about half an hour before the store’s opening on a cold Saturday, but managed to get one myself.

There’s a competition to paint those models, and so I did, but didn’t submit due to the fact that it was unfinished: my paints and materials to make a base arrived after the deadline, and I didn’t want to submit an incomplete project. I did finish the model eventually, though entirely for myself.

The year of Dwarves (and Salamanders)

I was lucky enough to see so many new Games Workshop releases in 2025: new Kharadron Overlords Spearhead, terrain, multiple units, Battletome, and cards, plus a miniature of the month, new Leagues of Votann Combat Patrol, multiple units, Codex, and cards, brand new Salamanders Combat Patrol, and JoyToy figurines.

It was a unique transition when old Spearhead or Combat Patrol was still available for me to buy, but within a couple of months new ones were out already while the old ones were discontinued, so I could have both. I don’t expect any new stuff of any of those armies anytime soon, but that’s totally fine, since I have plenty of boxes stacked up for the coming months.

Matches, leagues, and tournaments

After the first couple of months playing Age of Sigmar with friends, when I got my hands on Votann’s Combat Patrol, I decided to go out of my comfort zone and joined a local Combat Patrol league. The shop, 2d6, is fairly close to my house. Later on I also joined a few Kill Team leagues around Warsaw: in 2d6, but also Xjoy, and Matisoft.

I got confident enough to join a Kill Team tournament where instead of casually playing a match for 3-4 hours, every match had a strict 1,5 hour time limit. We’ve played three matches one after another, and although I was really tired by the end of it, I won one game and enjoyed all three SO MUCH. Plus I learned a lot as well, all the knowledge condensed into one day instead of six weeks, which is the usual time for playing three matches in a league once every two weeks.

What’s more, I liked the concept of playing three games a day to a point that I immediately joined THREE tournaments planned for March, and already reserved my spot in Polish Championship 2026 (luckily it’s open to anyone) in April. I expect nothing more than enjoying Kill Team for full two days and learning even more than during a regular tournament, from the smartest players in the country. If I lose all matches that’s fine, I’m a slow learner, but that is going to be an invaluable experience for the future.

Summary

It was a wild ride from Kharadron Overlords Spearhead, through bigger games, a bit of Warcry, then Warhammer 40k with Leagues of Votann, their Combat Patrol, Salvagers Kill Team, Salamanders Combat Patrol, a bunch of Kharadron Overlords models and another Spearhead, the second Votann Combat Patrol, Deathwatch Kill Team, and now the Squats Necromunda gang. All packed in the twelve months of 2025.

I’m going to focus a lot on Kill Team in the next few months, try Necromunda, and later on slowly work on assembling and painting my remaining models (as Salamanders, obviously). Then I might grow The Old World dwarves army (since I don’t expect we’re going to go back to Age of Sigmar), and build a proper Votann army for bigger games later on. That’s yet to be seen though, and most probably closer to the end of this year the soonest.

As you can see I went really DEEP. Fifteen years of Neuroshima Hex was summarized with a big bang, while Warhammer sneaked in and is going to stay for a bit. I was joking that assembling all the models I have will take me months, but those months passed by and I still have so many boxes left untouched that I won’t run out of things to do for a long time.

It’s not a “pile of shame” if you do plan on working with what you have, so there’s that. Assembling and painting takes me a lot of time, but then again: I don’t expect to be out of Warhammer anytime soon - I could imagine doing that for the next fifteen years. If not though, then I can safely say the time so far was a blast already.