Sunday, March 17, 2024

Battle Report: Blood Angels vs Death Guard

 Background:

TBD


Scenario: Onslaught

Game Length: 6 turns

Primary Objective
Onslaught Objective: Control the objective you place in the opponent's deployment zone: 5 VP 
Onslaught Attack: Each unit destroyed in the first turn: 1 VP

Secondary Objectives
Slay the Warlord: 1 VP
Attrition: 1 VP for whoever destroyed the most units


Belligerents:

Death Guard: Phil
Primary Detachment: Death Guard  The Reaping
  • Praetor Wolfgang: Catphractii terminator armor, volike charger, thunder hammer
  • Deathshroud retinue: 5 terminators with hand alchem-flamers, power scythes and rad grenades
  • Tactical Support Squad Folterer: 8 marines with flamers, sergeant with artificer armor. 
    • Transport: Rhino with pintle-mounted heavy alchem-flamer.
  • [Line] Tactical Squad A: 12 marines with chainswords, sergeant with power fist and artificer armor and Apothecary Gerhard
  • [Line] Tactical Squad B Toddestraffe: 12 marines with chainswords, sergeant with power fist and artificer armor and Apothecary 
  • Tactical Support Squad Blitz Schock: 7 marines with volkite calivers
  • Heavy Support Squad Feuer Sturm: 7 marines with missile launchers
  • Predator Mittel Panzer 021 with Predator Autocannon and lascannon sponsons 
  • Contemptor Dreadnought Jürgen:  Gravis melta cannon, melta gun, Gravis power fist
  • Deredeo pattern dreadnought with Arachnus heavy lascannon battery, twin-linked heavy bolter, Aiolos missile launcher, and helical targeting array
2062 points

Loyalists: Pete
Primary Detachment: Blood Angels  Day of Sorrows
  • Garo Arteo, Bloody Executioner of the Crimson Gate: Praetor w/ artificer armor, iron halo, digital lasers, jump pack, blade of perdition, bolt pistol, Paragon of Unity
  • Contemptor Dreadnought: gravis lascannon, gravis powerfist, metlagun
  • [Line] The Triarii Guard: 17 tactical marines with chain swords, sergeant with artificer armor, power fist, and plasma pistol. Vexilla and augury scanner. 
    • Transport: Spartan Assault Tank with flare shield
  • [Line] The Sanguine Berzerkers:14 assault marines w/ jump packs, bolt pistols, 2 power axes, sergeant with power fist, plasma pistol, artificer armor
  • [Line] The Golden Shields of Baal: 10 breacher marines, void-hardened armor, 8 bolters, 2 melta guns, breacher shields, sergeant with thunder hammer and artificer armor
  • Kratos Battle Tank: Melta blastgun with coaxial autocannon, lascannon sponnons, hull-mounted heavy bolters. flare shield, reinforced hull
  • Heavy Support Squad: 7 marines with lascannons and augury scanner
2060 points

Army Selection and Pre-Game Plans:

PhilSince they are both his armies, Pete wrote both lists in an attempt to make them balanced and then let me choose which one I wanted to play. I was very excited to try out the Death Guard for the first time. For once, I would be the one dishing out their deadly shooting instead of being on the receiving end of it! 

Looking at the force selected, I had a lot of Troops but only two Line units so I knew how I used those two tactical squads would be essential to winning a game where the majority of potential victory points come from objective control. I decided to put the two apothecaries with the tactical squads to give them the best chance of surviving until the end of the game. I also knew my heavy weaponry on the two dreads and the Predator would be stretched trying to deal with two heavy tanks and a dreadnought. On the plus side, I would have more units than my opponent, which would give me some advantages with this scenario's staged deployment, letting me deploy the last few units. I also knew I had a lot of anti-infantry firepower with the feared volkite calivers, missile launchers, and the flehsbane flamers, which will force the Blood Angels infantry to keep their heads down. Although the strength of this Death Guard force was in its shooting, I also had the satisfaction of going into battle with the toughest infantry unit on the table in the Deathshroud. Their WS5, W3, and Battle-hardened (meaning it would take S10+ to trigger Instant Death) meant they were going to be very, very tough for the Blood Angels to remove. 

Pete



Deployment:

The Death Guard won the roll to select their turn order, and elected to go first and deploy the first unit, using the scenario's staged deployment rule. 

The battle was fought across the former front lines on the city borders of Zdojan


Phil:  I wanted to go first so that I had the best chance of destroying an enemy unit on the first turn, which could be a tie-breaking VP in a scenario where there were only a few ways to earn them. 

I placed the Deredeo where it would have good line of sight to where I expected Pete to place his bigger tanks, on the more open left flank. The center of my line was made up of my heavy infantry, the missile launchers, volkite calivers and the Deathshroud. This would allow me to control the center of the table. On the right, I put some firepower in the Predator and Contemptor. On my far left, I placed the two tactical squads. My plan was to concentrate my only two scoring units together and place my objective on that flank. They would have the Deredeo for covering fire and the tactical support squad with flamers in the Rhino to clear them a path. 

However, once I saw that Pete placed his objective on my far right flank, where I had nothing but the Predator to defend it, I quickly realized I would have to adjust my plan. I decided to send the Rhino to support my right flank and attempt to prevent the Blood Angels from easily taking their objective. 

I also knew that target priority was key in Horus Heresy because only certain units have the potential to damage certain enemy units. In many previous games I had been in the hopeless position of not having any weapons that can reliably threaten an enemy heavy unit after the first turn or two. I was concerned to be facing three very tough units (two tanks with AV 14/15 and 5HP and a Contemptor). But I also knew how deadly a large squad of lascannons could be, so I decided to focus my deployment on destroying the Heavy Support squad in the first turn. This would eliminate a major threat before it could attack and earn me a crucial VP. I knew it was a risk to ignore the armor on turn 1 and use my best weapon, the Deredeo, on infantry, but I knew I had a better chance of wiping out that squad in one volley than the tanks or dreadnoughts. So I deployed a concentration of force opposite from the Heavy Support Squad.

With the deployment complete, my plans were set and ready to be put into action.

The Deredeo supports the two Tactical Squads

The Deredeo sports a frightening arsenal of weapons

Wolfgang and his Deathshroud anchor the center of the Traitor line, supported by heavy weapons



Pete: Well this would be a fun challenge – facing off against the intractable Death Guard in an Onslaught Mission 6 turns long. Could I get to my objective in the DG deployment zone and clear away all Phil’s tough shooting units on my way in? Plus, I needed to accomplish something the Blood Angels weren’t known for – defending an objective in my own deployment zone. With an army like this, I’d prefer to mass my forces and strike in unison and power on turn 2, maybe turn 3, to crush the weakest part of the opposing army and be too fast with too many units to have shooting reactions nullify the charge. Instead, in this game I would need to divide my forces and fight almost two separate battles. 

I decided to have the mighty Spartan with my large tactical squad be a tough and nasty barrier to the DG advance, supported by the deadly lascannon heavy support squad and the Contemptor Dreadnought for scrapping with elite units like the Deathshroud or Phil’s opposing Dread. To my left, to go for my objective, that gave me the Blood Angel Praetor with his fierce Assault squad retinue, the brand-new Kratos heavy tank, and the tough-as-nails Breacher squad. Both the Assault squad and Breachers are scoring units, which would be key to gaining the 5 VPs for securing the objective on turn 6. Thankfully there was a lot of terrain to block line of sight on my path to the objective so I should have a bulk of my units alive when I charge in late in the game to secure win. 

Time to get rolling. Death to the traitors. Glory for the one true Emperor!




The Heavy Support Squad takes up position at a supply dump.

The Tactical Squad, The Triarii Guard, are mounted in a Spartan

The mighty Contemptor holds the center of the Loyalist line

Garo Arteo leads the Sanguine Berzerkers.

A massive Kratos anchors the Loyalist left flank.

On the far left, the Golden Shields of Baal prepare to advance on the Blood Angels' objective.



Final Deployment 



Saturday, March 16, 2024

Xhorik 87th: Drop Mech Suits

The Xhorik drop regiments make use of heavy mechanized suits for certain critical missions. The most commonly used is the OGRE Class. Similar to drop sentinels, they are piloted by an individual and deployed by grav chute, but they are smaller, more heavily armored and generally equipped for combat at close quarters.

The left shoulder has the icon of the Xhorik mechanized heavy drop infantry painted white on a field of orange, the regimental color.

The XVI marking on the right shoulders indicates the 16th Squad of drop mech suits in the regiment. 



16th Squad of OGRE Class Mech Suits, Xhorik 87th Drop Regiment

Four suits armed with ripper guns. One has the cockpit open and the pilot's helmet is visible.

The remaining suits have melee weapons and boarding shields.

The sergeant (boss) has a thunder hammer


This unit gives the drop troopers their first decent melee unit. This should especially help in games of Zone Mortalis where their fliers and artillery are useless.

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Building a Better Bridge Table Part 3

I am continuing to make some progress on the table. I need to have it complete by April for Bill's visit.

I got all of the foam blocks glued down and the gaps filled with drywall putty and sanded down. I evened out and sanded the edges somewhat as well, although they are nowhere near perfect. 

Then I started applying texture. Currently, I am in the process of giving everything an initial coat of white paint. More texture and painting to come. 

Previous work:

Part 1

Part 2








Saturday, February 3, 2024

Building a Better Bridge Table Part 2

 Since my 8 ft x 5 ft foam tabletop met its untimely demise, I have been wanting to build a new and improved one. I sketched out the idea in Building a Better Bridge Table Part 1. I have made a small bit of progress since then.



I started with two halves of the hexagon and then built up the river banks from there with a mix of 1" and 2" thick insulation foam. I have done more work on the "downriver" side of the board (as I picture it) where the river splits and widens. On the other side, I am thinking of making taller cliffs and a slightly narrower river channel. 

Sunday, January 7, 2024

2023 Hobby Recap

2023 felt like another fairly slow year for the hobby, but I think I squeaked out a bit more content than 2022, mostly due to a switch to painting with Contrast paints in the summer that enabled me to crank out fair number of infantry. 

2020 output:

  • 54 infantry
  • 3 vehicles/artillery
  • 2 terrain pieces
  • 18 blog posts
  • 6 games played
  • 7 battle reports
  • 18 total blog posts

2021 output:

  • 81 infantry
  • 1 vehicle
  • 3 terrain pieces
  • 7 games played
  • 6 battle reports
  • 52 total blog posts

2022 output:

  • 27 infantry
  • 4 vehicles
  • 1 terrain piece
  • 4 games
  • 3 battle reports
  • 22 total blog posts
2023 output:
  • White Scars Contemptor dreadnought
  • 2 White Scars Rhinos
  • 10 Sons of Horus Cataphractii terminators
  • 5 White Scars recon marines with sniper rifles
  • 10 White Scars scouts with sniper rifles
  • 39 Xhorik grenadiers and characters
  • 8 militia representing other fighting forces of the Xhorik Campaign
  • White Scars vs World Eaters and Death Guard with battle report
  • Sons of Horus vs Death Guard vs World Eaters with battle report
  • Xhorik 87th vs Ghoulv's Iron Battalion (Militia v Militia) with battle report
  • White Scars vs Blood Angels vs Salamanders without battle report
  • Sons of Horus vs Blood Angles battle report only (catchup from last year)
Total:
  • 72 infantry
  • 3 vehicles
  • 0 terrain pieces
  • 4 games
  • 4 battle reports
  • 20 total blog posts

Not a bad output, although I regret that we did not get a game in over the Christmas/New Year's break like we normally do. It is getting tougher and tougher to find time for a game night. 

I lost my big 8 ft x 5 ft battlefield to an unfortunate accident this year, so building a new battlefield for large games is on my goal list for 2024.

On the gaming front, I got in a good mix of games and got to use each of my three main Heresy factions at least once. Overall results were not so god, with one win (with my militia, shockingly!) and three losses (two with Scars and one with Sons), including coming in last place in both three-way games. 

From a painting standpoint, I did not meet my goal of making the Scars competitive. I built and painted two more Rhinos because they are thematic, but I should have added two Land Raiders instead. I started on two Sicaran variants, but they are sitting 20% painted on my desk because working on them has not sounded like fun. I did manage to add a lot of sniper rifles so I will be able to try out a Recon Company Rite of War in 2024 if I want, which sounds compelling for the White Scars as they were the original scouts and forerunners of the Great Crusade. 

Goals for 2024 are: 
  • Get the Scars to a point where they are competitive in games (maybe!)
  • Add the next tranche to the Sons of Horus
  • Dig into my backlog of Drop Troopers, using Contrast recipes to speed things up
  • Build a new battlefield
  • Finish a piece of terrain (I have several half built on my desk)
  • Come up with some interesting ideas for the campaign and progress the story with a few games
It will be a challenge to get to all of these with my limited hobby time but it is reasonable. 

Monday, January 1, 2024

Other Militia and Auxiliary of the Xhorik Campaign

In addition to the Major Factions of the Xhorik Campaign of the Horus Heresy, there were numerous other fighting forces, including dozens of regiments of militia, auxilia, mercenaries, and planetary defense forces. Here are a few of note:

Trooper of the 317th PDF Regiment; Xhorik Prime Planetary Defense Force

Trooper of the 317th PDF Regiment; Xhorik Prime Planetary Defense Force

The 317th PDF was one of the many planetary defense force regiments raised by the governor of Xhorik Prime when the traitor forces started approaching the Xhorik System. Hastily assembled with meager training, the 317th was decimated in their first two engagements with the Death Guard 14th Great Company as the Traitors approached Bielyr. The regiment suffered over 60% casualties in the first few days of intense and chaotic combat. The remnants were disbanded and quickly integrated into other PDF regiments that had also suffered heavy losses. Despite the casaulties, the PDF regiments were able to slow the Traitor advance and provide time for reinforcements to arrive to the front.



Meltagunner of the 3rd Xhorik Polar Regiment, The Snow Devils




The Xhorik Polar Regiments were tasked with defending the far northern extremes of the planet. A network of orbital shield generators that covered the northern latitudes was the primary strategic value of the region. However, the Traitor Legions were able to easily land on the planet due to treachery as the entire Federation of Unimund, the most populous region, sided with Horus. Thus, the polar regions were of limited strategic value to the Traitors as the shields only protected Kozar and the northern deserts from orbital bombardment or direct deployment from orbit, but the much larger Traitor armies were free to land in friendly territory and then advance by land against the Loyalist strongholds. Praetor Wolfgang never had sufficient Legion marines to send them to the theater, so he relied on auxilia troops to neutralize the shields. The Snow Devils were able to hold out throughout the campaign by fighting a protracted series of small battles and ambushes, relying on a series of hidden bunkers and their being better equipped for the environment than the Traitors.




Rifleman of the 4th Urgfurt Foot Guard, The Grave Diggers

Rifleman of the 4th Urgfurt Foot Guard, The Grave Diggers

Urgfurt is one of the heavily-industrialized states that make up the Federation of Unimund. During war, they could repurpose their chemical plants to manufacture a variety of specialty weapons, including toxic gases. The Urgfurt Foot Guard regiments typically advanced under a cloud of chemical munitions and wielded advanced models of las weaponry. During the Heresy, the Federation sided with the Traitors against their old rival Kozar, and formed the industrial heart of the Traitor position on the planet. The Grave Diggers saw heavy action during the battle for Bielyr, shelling the city and surrounding area for weeks with their artillery before it was finally cleared street by street by Death Guard infantry.  



Desert tribesman of the Stone River Sept

Desert tribesman of the Stone River Sept


Even after the various independent nations, federations and city states of the western region of Xhorik Prime were brought into the Imperium, vast swathes of the eastern wastes were still populated by nomadic desert tribes and roaming ork warbands. When the Great Crusade moved on, a small garrison of White Scars was left on Xhorik Prime to recruit from the Stratocracy of Kozar and to subjugate the wild east. After years of fighting with the elusive and skilled desert-dwellers, the two sides had built a mutual respect for each other and started to work together to eradicate the techno-savage ork populations of the desert. Thus, when the Heresy came to Xhorik Prime, several of the nomadic Septs sided informally with the White Scars. They never allowed themselves to be marshalled into any sort of Imperial or even Planetary army, but they fought the Traitors in their own way with ambushes and raids on any who ventured too near their desert homes, forcing the Traitors to protect their eastern flank instead of being able to throw everything at the Loyalist positions in the north.


Commando of the Xhorik 87th Drop Regiment, The Firebirds

Commando of the Xhorik 87th Drop Regiment, The Firebirds


The Xhorik 87th was formed from the Kozar 87th Drop Troopers after that nation was brought into the Imperium and integrated into the planetary governorship of Xhorik Prime. Kozar already had a long history of using airborne drop troops to defend their small mountainous territory from orks in the east and their ancient rivals in Unimund to the south, so they were able to provide some relatively elite regiments to the Imperial armies. During the Heresy, the Loyalist Kozar army made heavy use of drop troops deployed by grav chutes to strike at vulnerable enemy positions. And even after the planet was lost to the Traitors, remnants of multiple regiments regrouped on Xhorik Secundus to lend their unique talents to Operation Downfall, a desperate attempt to re-establish a Loyalist foothold on Xhorik Prime.



Gunner of the Pulsar Chyron mercenary company

Gunner of the Pulsar Chyron mercenary company 

The Pulsar Chyron mercenary company was formed during the chaos of the early years of the Horus Heresy. What had been previously been a logistics and interstellar shipping company gradually transformed into a mercenary outfit as they had to militarize to remain in business during the turbulence spawned by the civil war. As trade dried up and conflict spread, they soon found themselves being hired more for their armed guards and newly-fortified ships than for their logistical efficiencies. By the middle of the Heresy, their success and size had attracted the eye of Horus himself. His war machine had siphoned off millions of tons of Imperial war materiel prior to the start of the conflict and this fortune was used to hire numerous mercenary companies such as Pulsar Chyron. A large portion of their forces were committed to the Xhorik Campaign where they fought numerous orbital battles and ferried Traitor troops between planets and warzones. They also deployed troops to multiple land engagements, including the heavy fighting for the Valbaara Plateau and the bloody road to Berat.


Lance Corporal of the Peacekeepers civil defense force, 22nd brigade

Lance Corporal of the Peacekeepers civil defense force, 22nd brigade


The most elite level of planetary internal security, the Peacekeepers were tasked to maintain Imperial control over the Xhorik system. Although they took day-to-day direction from the planetary governor, they reported directly to the Archidux of the subsector, with a duty to assassinate the governor if he proved disloyal. Deployed primarily to crush any riots, rebellions or social unrest when local police were overwhlemed, the Peacekeepers also fought numerous engagements with pirates, smugglers, and occasionally even marauding xenos such as orks. During the Xhorik Campaign, they fought bravely against the Traitors, utilizing their Valkyries and armored transports to great effect against the lumbering armies of the Traitor auxilia. They made a name for themselves during their final stand at the Governor's Palace where they held out against an overwhelming Traitor attack for three days and nights before being butchered to the last man by World Eaters Berzerkers. After the Heresey, their duties within the Xhorik system would be taken up by the Adeptus Arbites.

Synther of the Umbra Blades mercenary company


Synther of the Umbra Blades mercenary company


The Umbra Blades organization predates the formation of the Imperium. Their origins are unknown to outsiders, but there are records of early encounters near the Xhorik System by the White Scars (then known as the Star Hunters) recon companies at the forefront of the Great Crusade. Later Imperial armies would do their best to eradicate the organization due to their rampant mutations (some even suggested that xenos genetics had somehow been crossed with humans) and the prevalence of psyker abilities within the group. However, the group was was able to evade capture for years, causing some to speculate that they were able to make use of some limited degree of Warp travel. This persecution by the Imperium caused the Umbra Blades to side with Horus during the Heresy, for a promise of a home in the Xhorik System under Horus' Dark Empire. Heavily armed by the Sons of Horus, they fought continually throughout the Xhorik Campaign, making use of skills honed by years of skirmishes with Imperial forces prior to the Heresy, as well as their unique gene-craft and cyber-augmentation.


A sample of the many fighting forces of the Xhorik Campaign during the Horus Heresy.





Sunday, December 17, 2023

Xhorik Commander

 After a long hiatus, I finally painted a few models: a Xhorik 87th commander with power fist, another grenadier, and another recon marine with shotgun (I figure he can be a cheap body to add to the sniper squad and be the first one to bite the bullet). Again, painted 90% with Contrast. 



Sunday, September 10, 2023

Blood Angels Tactical Squad: The Triarii Guard

 

The venerable Triarii Guard are a highly experienced and decorated Blood Angel's Tactical Squad with an illustrious history of securing vital objectives during numerous campaigns. Known for never breaking in the face of overwhelming alien, cultist or demonic hoards, the Triarii Guard are the pride of the 2nd company of the 9th Legion. The Triarii Guard are now for the first time meeting their brother marines in battle, but are more than eager to defend the honor of their great god-emperor. 










Sunday, August 13, 2023

Operation Downfall Battle Report 4: The Last Bastion

 "Today, we don't fight for an objective, or for a general, or for some distant Emperor. Today, we fight for our home planet and everyone we ever knew, plain and simple."

-Captain Skander Xhaer. 3rd Company, Xhorik 87th


Background:

It is the middle of the Horus Heresy and civil war rages across the galaxy on a thousand worlds. Everywhere, former brothers and sworn allies have turned against each other in a fury of betrayal and hatred. The Warmaster Horus has begun his long march to Terra, crushing all resistance before him. In his direct path is the Xhorik System, located at a strategic crossroads of Warp currents in a sector of space known for smooth transitions between realspace and the Warp. This prosperous system has become a focal point for the Traitor war effort as they attempt to seize control of the key spaceport facilities to enable a rapid refuel and resupply of the main Traitor war host as they make their way to the throne world. 

On Xhorik Prime, the key trading and transport hub of the system, Traitor forces are newly victorious over those loyal to the Emperor in a massive planetary civil war that erupted along old, pre-Imperial factional rivalries. A combined force of Death Guard and World Eaters has crushed the stratocracy of Kozar and their small garrison of the White Scars Legion. The major space ports are now securely in the hands of the Traitors, although small bands of Loyalist survivors continue to wage a shadow war along the fringes of the high desert wilderness. 

On Xhorik Secundus, the planetary governor has remained loyal to the Emperor and maintained control of most of the planet. As war raged on Xhorik Prime, armies began mobilizing for an invasion of the heart of Traitor territory, in the Federation of Unimund. The first phase of the invasion was codenamed Operation Downfall and called for a massive nighttime drop assault on key enemy installations in order to clear the way for the massive, lumbering landing craft that would be bringing the bulk of the invasion the next day.

Although suffering significant casualties in the war for Kozar, the Xhorik 87th Drop Troops Regiment, the Firebirds, were called upon to support Operation Downfall from Xhorik Prime, along with several dozen drop regiments from Xhorik Secundus attacking from orbit. They would be making simultaneous night drops to secure key landing zones, disable defense and communication capabilities, and clear roads and bridges to allow the Loyalist forces to move quickly out of the vulnerable landing zones, establishing a beach head. 




At this point, the campaign is at a stalemate with each side claiming a win, loss and draw. With the drop troopers making some gains and being repulsed elsewhere, the success of Operation Downfall was balanced upon a knife's edge. Would the fourth battle be the tipping point?


Scenario: The Last Bastion


For something different and thematic, we decided to try a mission from one of the old Horus Heresy Black Books. The goal was to hold the bastion at all costs, and only if it becomes clear that you cannot win by holding it, to destroy it rather that let it fall into the hands of the enemy. 

For our campaign, the bastion would represent a planetary shield generator that would control access from low orbit to the surface at the nearby space ports. This would be crucial to allow or prevent the Loyalist invasion force to arrive in earnest, with heavy planetary landers bringing in tanks, titans and other massive war machines.


Belligerents:

Traitor Militia: Pete

General Titus Ghoulv’s Iron Battalion:
“The Marauders of Meddeon VII”
“The Pirates of the Northern Fringe”
“The Chem Hounds”

Provenances of War: Warrior Elite, Industrial Stronghold
  • Force Commander General Titus Gholv: Robber Baron, power armor, power fist, iron halo, bolt pistol, frag and krak grenades
  • Discipline Master: carapace armor, refractor field, laspistol, ccw
  • Discipline Master: carapace armor, refractor field, plasma pistol, power sword
  • [Line] Grenadier Squad A (15)- The Tongue Collectors: bayonets, plasma gun, flamer
  • [Line] Grenadier Squad B (15) - The Psycho Slaves: bayonets, melta gun, flamer
  • [Line] Grenadier Squad C - Harkhathe Hammers: bayonets, 2 x plasma guns
  • Fire Support A (5 teams): 3 x lascannons, 2 x missile launchers
  • Fire Support B (5 teams) - Black Bombardiers: 2 x lascannons, 3 x missile launchers
  • Auxilia Medicae (3): Dr. Cut and Dr. Cauterize and Nurse Hatchet
  • Ogryn Brutes (5) - Dregg Nukem’s Shrapnel Eaters: boss w/ power axe, carapace armor, 2 x ccw
  • Leman Russ Battle Tank
  • Leman Russ Demolisher
  • Leman Russ Vanquisher
  • Malcador Battle Tank Chimaera  
1855 points

General Titus Ghoulv leads his Marauders, in service to his Death Guard masters.



Pete: Leading up to the battle, I spent a couple weeks re-painting my entire traitor militia force. The first time I painted them I utilized a speed painting video I found online to complete the entire army in 30 days… and the results admittedly looked like a speed painted army. I chose Death Guard green as their new secondary color and changed their backstory to be recently corrupted by the blight lord. In addition, I converted a smaller Forge World model space marine into the notorious General Titus Ghoulv himself – someone I saw as well-equipped and armed after having plundered an imperial garrison. Phil had given me a non-GW helmet with two respirators which fit the new army theme quite nicely. Then I added some spikes, wires and the skull of a planetary governor and came out with a nice force commander.

For tonight’s battle, I was relying on my 4 tanks to punish Phil’s militia army, as they’ve done in the past. Using the tanks for cover, the orkish ogryn brutes could be shielded from small arms fire and pesky bikers and sentinels while they push toward the objective. The grenadier squads would pile in and attempt to hold the objective in the rear, while the ogryns chopped up Phil’s infantry loitering around the center of the battlefield. 

I placed the Leman Russ with the vanquisher cannon across from the Phil’s ordnance battery, incorrectly thinking that it could pop it open with one well-placed BS 3 shot. That dumb assumption would come back to bite me later. 

The heavy weapons fire teams I tried to place in areas with some decent firing lanes. They could at least shoot at the Thunderbolt when it made its appearance. 

With the mighty Malcador I hoped to drive around Phil’s flank and end up behind his army, devastating his infantry huddled up behind the bunker objective.


Loyalist Militia: Phil

Xhorik 87th Drop Troopers, 3rd Company:
"The Firebirds"
Motto: Into Hell We Go

Provenances of War: Warrior Elite, Legacy of the Great Crusade
  • Force Commander Captain Skander Xhaer: Marcher Lord, power sword, cyber familiar, iron halo, blast pistol
  • Discipline Master: Refractor field, power sword, bolt pistol
  • Command Cadre (8) - The Sokhët: Lieutenant with refractor field and power fist; carapace armor, melta gun, militia standard, laspistols, lasguns, frag and krak
  • [Line] Infantry Squad (20) - First Platoon: sergeant with laspistol and ccw; lasguns, frag grendades, flak armor, melta gun
  • [Line] Grenadier Squad A (10) - The Survivors: sergeant with melta bombs; lascarbines, carapace, plasma gun
  • [Line] Grenadier Squad B (10) - Stormtroopers of the 501st Company: sergeant with power sword and plasma pistol; lascarbines, carapace, frag and krak, plasma gun, melta gun
  • [Line] Grenadier Squad C (10) - Stormtroopers of the 501st Company: sergeant with power sword; lascarbines, carapace, frag and krak, 2 x flamers
  • Fire Support Squad (6 teams) - Stone Rain: 6 x missile launchers
  • Recon Squad (5) - The Sand Snakes: 5 x sniper rifles
  • Sentinel Squadron (3) - Rojets: 2 x lascannon, missile launcher
  • Militia Cavalry (10) - The Hunters: laspistols, ccw, lascarbines, carpace armor
  • Militia Thunderbolt Fighter - The Avenger: 4 x krak rockets, 4 x autocannon, 2 x lascannon
  • Rapier Battery A: 3 x gravis heavy bolters
  • Rapier Battery B: 3 x laser destroyers
  • Ordnance Battery - The Spear of Heaven: Earthshaker, 4 additional gunners
1855 points

Captain Xhaer leads the Xhorik 87th in a desperate attempt to help reconquer their homeworld.


Phil: Pete and I had been looking forward to trying the new militia army list for Horus Heresy Second Edition since we first saw the PDF. The army is full of fun and flavor, although it seems designed to be uncompetitive with Legion armies. Most infantry options, other than Levy Squads, seem to be exorbitantly over-priced compared to tactical marines, transports such as the Arvus and Cargo Hauler have no effective weapons, and the few more capable vehicles are saddled with Third Line. So we decided the only fair way to use a militia list would be to put it up against another militia list!

I tried to fit my collection to the new rules, often having to use a model as the closest available alternative, although that seems very much in line with the intent of the militia list as it is meant to represent the spectrum of irregular fighting forces from across the galaxy. To that end, I used the Avenger as a Thunderbolt, the Tarantula sentry guns as Rapier batteries, the bikes as cavalry, and the Tauros as a Sentinel, all fairly good matches. The only model that did not really have an equivalent in the militia list was the Valkyrie, so I had to leave that out for now. I suppose I could have used it as an Arvus and just ignored all of its weapons, but in an edition that is not kind to fliers, I cannot imagine what the purpose of using a weak, defenseless transport that must come in from Reserves and face Interceptor fire while carrying a unit of fragile infantry. More fittingly, I could have used it as a gun ship using the Thunderbolt rules. But in any case, I did not have the points or the fast attack slots to bring it after I already included everything that more clearly fit with the militia rules.

Another issue I ran into was that all of the artillery (Ordnance Battery and Rapiers) required quite a few models for crew, unlike the old unmanned Tarantula Sentry guns. Thankfully I have a pile of Steel Legion troopers that I could use as crew to man the guns. They actually worked quite well for this since they are on the small side and therefore make the big guns look appropriately large!

Looking at the assembled force, I decided my advantages were in numbers, with over 120 models on the table, and ranged firepower, with the three units of big guns. As I was making the list, I was surprised to see the effective gun options for the Rapiers. Their gravis heavy bolters would be extremely damaging to militia infantry with 4+ saves and with their laser destroyers it looked like I finally had something that could reliably destroy tanks, even with AV 14 like the Leman Russ.  In previous games, even with more air support, I really struggled to deal with the quantity of tanks that the Chem Dogs bring so I was definitely concerned about anti-armor. Another worry was how I would handle the beastly Ogryns who could easily crush anything I had in melee. Therefore, my strategy was to keep feeding Line units into the objective area to always have someone to contest or control it, even as they suffered heavy casualties. My back line would lay down a withering hail of covering fire, while my cavalry would zoom forward and try to disrupt my enemy's supporting fire.

With the army list written, the army photo taken, and the general strategy thought-out, it was time to head to Pete's for the game. When I arrived, he had an awesome thematic table setup for the clash. He had also done some great work to improve the painting of his army by adding more color and more details and giving them their proper commander. We both knew this game would be an experiment, being the first use of the new rules for militia and their first time playing with second edition rules. We were most excited to see these fantastic painted armies lined up on table full of painted terrain and to throw some dice and just have fun with the humble militia. 



Deployment:

The Xhorik 87th won the roll and elected to deploy first and take the first turn. Phil selected the southern deployment zone as the artillery bunker in the southeast corner offered an elevated position for the fire support squad. He elected to go first because with the objective being a building, it seemed critically important to get there first and occupy the building, making that unit extremely hard to shift away from the objective.



The Loyalists deployed first in the south, then the Traitors in the north.