Heralds of Ruin, much like a warband of Bezerkers, is all about the community. Without the playing, photographing, arguing and enthusiasm this game would be nowhere. I wanted to give some of the members their chance in the spotlight (a risky prospect in wartime, I'll grant you) and plenty of volunteers stepped up.

First in the line of fire is Marco Andrä, better known to most of you as "Marco with the amazing Arbites"! Go crazy! Raise the roof! Now calm down, citizen, or I'll let this cybermastiff loose on you.

A combination of a love for Necromunda in the early days and a strong 40k gaming group in the area led Marco pretty directly to a Heralds career in the Arbites. I sense a soft spot for the "little guy" armies that don't see much love from the corporation. In the ever-increasing grimdark, the space police force might seem less and less relevant, but they're unsung heroes in the finest Heralds of Ruin tradition. They quash planetary rebellions, daemon incursions and cult cells before anyone ever gets to hear about them. I think they even managed to get Ghazghkull on a tax avoidance charge. And even if they are utterly corrupt, who isn't in the 41st millenium?

With fingers in many Imperial pies, Marco's also building Inquisition and Rogue Trader teams, and plans a Sororitas team in future. This sounds like nothing short of a takeover bid to me, and I for one can't wait to see them. Just as I'm ready to accuse him of being a total Faction Hipster, he lets slip that he's got a neat 5000 points of Imperial Fists too, an entire battle company! No shying away from the poster boys either, then.

His firm favourites, these Arbites are another product of the hobby's mostly-wonderful community. Trading groups online and mates with spares made it easy to expand the Necromunda squad into a fully fledged kill team. But are they good at their job?

Long story short, we'll have to wait and see! The Legacy list and the Ready To Test edition of the Arbites in HoR will both be getting put through their paces in a campaign starting soon against a whole bunch of Tau, a whole mob of orks and some mechanicum robots, below, who you might recognise from the group.

The boys in blue and white are going to have their hands full... In the campaign runner's words:

First of all, I don't thin my paints! My white is usually just white primer with a wash, in case of the Arbites a warm brown, (GW) agrax earthshade. Then the gw white comes really thin out of the pod, so you need maybe three layers to build up to pure white. I don't like a clean look on my minis so the white is always a shade of some grey or brown, just some small areas are really pure white.

[Levelling up your painting] is not so easy for me. I painted 5000 points of imperial fists and did not improve my skill like I did with 10 different models for my killteams. Try something different. Don't always use the same way to start a mini. Batch painting does not improve anything, that's my tip. If you want to paint a big army you have to, sure, but if you want to improve try different techniques, colours, and tools. and of course: listen to Duncan and thin your paints!! 

Big thanks to Marco for taking the time to talk to us, and especially for being the first Markerlight victim. Cheers and good luck keeping the peace!

The trading groups that supplied the Arbites are this one and this one.