M31 Heresy Campaign Phase 5: Operation Downfall Climax - The Battle for the Bridge Over the River Lodi

"A bridge has no allegiance to either side."

- Qiu Tongmi, Spirit Immortal, Stormseer of the V Legion 

Background:

Operation Downfall was the Loyalist codename for an attempt to establish a secure landing zone on Xhorik Prime using a planetary drop force from Xhorik Secundus with an attempt to rendezvous with the remnants of the White Scars garrison on the capital planet of the system. 

The operation started with a successful night strike on the Traitor planetary communications positions, disrupting the Traitor response to the planetary assault. 

Battle 5 - 1: Night Drop

An attempt to hold the critical Alteron Bridge to prevent Traitor forces from encircling the invaders ended in a draw, with neither side taking decisive control. 

Battle 5 - 2: The Battle for Alteron Bridge

At the same time, Loyalist drop troops made an unsuccessful raid on the war trains supplying the Traitor lines. 

Battle 5 - 3: War Train Raid

With the campaign at a stalemate, the Drop Troops made an assault to capture a key planetary shield generator, opening the way for much larger Loyalist landings.

Battle 5 - 4: The Last Bastion

In the chaotic fighting, some regiments of Traitor auxilia took the opportunity to break away from their masters and do their own pillaging. The chaotic fighting that ensued saw a draw between the Traitors and Loyalists with the Renegade Guard being driven off. 

Battle 5 - 5: Maelstrom of War

At this point, the Loyalists have the advantage with two wins, a loss and two draws (2-1-2). 

In the final battle, both sides would mount a powerful offensive to take the critical bridge over the south branch of the River Lodi. Even though the riverbed was seasonally dry, control of the bridge would provide the only reliable means to move armies into or out of the Loyalist drop zone and beachhead on the planet. Everything had been building up to this climactic battle that would determine the winner of this Phase. 

Scenario: 

Take and Hold (The Siege of Cthonia campaign book)

Game Length: 4 turn (we modified it to 5 turns since the table was so large)

Primary Objective

Place an objective in your opponent's deployment zone. Gain 1 VP at the end of each turn if you control an objective. Gain 3 VP if you control both objectives.

Secondary Objectives
Slay the Warlord: 1 VP

Giant Killer: 2 VP (Super-heavy, Knight, Titan, or Lumbering)

Last Man Standing: 1 VP if more units remaining at end (+1 VP if double the enemy units)

Break Their Ranks: 1VP if destroy an enemy unit first turn (+1 VP if Elite or HQ) 

Belligerents:

2 x 1800 points armies per side. 

Traitors:

World Eaters - The Crimson Path (Primary)

Played by Pete

• Praetor: Jump pack, iron halo, thunder hammer. The Butcher's Claws.
• Rampager Squad: 10 marines with jump packs, 3 x falax blades, 3 x meteor hammers, 4 x excorciator chain axes. Sergeant with artificer armor. [Line]
• Apothecarion with jump pack and chain axe.
• Legion Tactical Squad: 17 marines with chain axes. Sergeant with artificer, power fist, plasma pistol. [Line]
• Legion Reconnaissance Squad: 5 marines with nemesis bolters and augary scanner. [Line]
• Contemptor Dreadnought: gravis lascannon, chainfist and melta gun.
• Legion Predator Squadron: 1 with Predator cannon and 2 x lascannon sponsons. 1 with Magna-melta and 2 x heavy bolter sponsons. 
• Land Raider Proteus:
• The Red Butchers: 5 terminators with 2 x power axes each. Sergeant with 2 x chainfists. 

Sons of Horus - Pride of the Legion (allied)

Played by Pete

• Cataphractii Praetor: combi-melta, chain fist. 
• Cataphractii Terminators: 5 terminators with combi-meltas, 3 x power fists, 2 x chain fists. [Line]
• Transport: Land Raider Proteus. 
• Cataphractii Terminators: 10 terminators with combi-bolters, 5 x power axes, 3 x power fists, 1 x chain fist, 1 x thunder hammer. [Line]
• Legion Tactical Squad: 20 marines with bayonets, vexilla. Sergeant with artificer armor and power fist. [Line]
• Master of Signals
• Heavy Support Squad: 5 marines with lascannons
• Contemptor Dreadnought: gravis melta, chain fist, grav gun.

Loyalists:

White Scars (Primary)

Played by Phil

• Praetor: jetbike, master crafted Paragon blade, cyber hawk. Stoic Defender.
• Skyhunter Squadron: 6 jetbikes with 2 x volkite culverin and 4 x heavy bolters. Sergeant with artificer armor. 
• Legion Tactical Squad: 10 marines with bayonets. Sergeant with artificer armor and power fist [Line]
• Legion Scout Squad: 10 marines with nemesis bolters.
• Legion Recon Squad: 5 marines with nemeis bolters, augary scanner. [Line]
• Contemptor Dreadnought: gravis lascannon, gravis power fist, heavy flamer. 
• Ebon Keshig: 10 terminators with 7 x power glaives, 3 x power fists, 2 x combi-meltas, 1 x combi-bolter.
• Xiphon Interceptor
• Sicaran Omega: 2 x lascannon sponsons

Blood Angels (Allied)

Played by Bill

• Praetor: Jump pack, iron halo, master crafted Paragon blade
• Legion Tactical Squad: 17 marines with chain swords. vexilla. Sergeant with artificer armor, plasma pistol and power fist. [Line]
• Legion Breacher Squad: 10 marines 2 x melta guns. Sergeant with thunder hammer and artificer armor. [Line]
• Legion Assault Squad: 14 marines with 2 x power axes. Sergeant with artificer armor, plasma pistol and power fist. [Line]
• Legion Heavy Support Squad: 8 marines with lascannons.
• Contemptor Dreadnought: gravis lascannon, gravis powerfist, combi-bolter.
• Land Raider Spartan: flare shield

Sons of Horus Contemptor Dreadnought

I had so much fun building and painting this model. My first-ever dreadnought! And after getting stomped by Pete's Contemptors so many times, I am excited to have one of my own now. 

The loadout is a chainfist with in-built heavy flamer (permanently attached) and a magnetized multi-melta on the gun arm so I can swap it out once I get some other weapon options. 

Hunting enemies through the dark corridors of a boarded ship.

Last Model of 2021 - Veterans Get a Ride

 After a very slow stretch of painting, I buckled down over Christmas and painted this Rhino for my veteran tactical squad. It could use a bit more weathering on the metal areas, but I wanted to get it posted and inlcued in my 2021 model count since my output in the second half of the year was so low. 

Sons of Horus vs Blood Angels and Allies: Take and Hold

I will just do a quick recap of this battle since there is not much to write about.  

Background:
The Warmaster Horus and his legion have finally arrived in the Xhorik System as part of their long march to Terra. Thanks to Praetor Wolfgang's armu of Deathguard and World Eaters, the main planet, Xhorik Prime, is firmly in the hands of the Traitors. Meanwhile, Xhorik Secundus remains loyal and is launching a planetary invasion of Xhorik Prime. Horus orders his advance forces to take the moon bases surrounding Xhorik Secundus to enable the capture of the last major Loyalist planet in the system while they are preoccupied with the war for Xhorik Prime. As part of the invasion of the first moon, a small band of Sons of Horus plan to take a comms relay station vita to the defender's communication network. Forward recon units have reported the relay to be only lightly guarded by a small detachment of Planetary Defense Forces (PDF). However, when the Traitor strike force arrives, they unexpectedly find the area reinforced by Loyalist marines of the Imperial Fists and Blood Angels legions, the latter having not been seen in the system previously. Although surprised by the stronger enemy arrayed against them, the Sons of Horus leader, Praetor Ezmen Vyke, has little choice but to press ahead with the attack. 

Scenario: Take and Hold
Primary Objective
Control the comms relay at the end of the game: 3 VP

Secondary Objectives

Slay the Warlord: 1 VP
Attrition (destroy the most enemy units): 1 VP

Battle:

Deployment

Veteran Sergeant

Next up is the sergeant with artificer armor and a power fist. I had to paint him next so I could field him in the upcoming game Pete and I plan to play. He has a bionic leg to reiterate his veteran status, much like my White Scars veteran sergeant. Unfortunately, I realized when building the squad that I was short one MKIII power pack due to using one on the sergeant for my tactical squad, so I had to improvise with something from the bits box. It is a bit primitive and clunky looking so I have to assume it was either leftover from some primitive early suit of power armor or it is a custom repair job from a distant forge world supporting Horus. Either way, it adds to his unique look within the squad. He also has a taller head crest from the command squad sprue instead of the added crests that I stuck on the regular MKIII heads for the rest of the squad. I went for a pose of a charging punch. I wanted something dynamic, which can be difficult with the Heresy models. It is not perfect, but he certainly looks like he is about to knock your block off, which is what I was going for.

Power Weapon Veterans

I decided to paint the veterans with close combat weapons next. A power axe and power sword will give this unit some versatility in melee. 

These two make seven in total. Just the sergeant and two more to go for the full squad. 

Melta Gun Veterans

 Finished the next two veterans. That makes five - halfway there!

These dudes bring the heat.

I love mixing in the kneeling legs for some variety. I like to imagine power armor allows a reasonable level of flexibility - more than terminator armor.

MKIII has a lot of highlighting and shading.

Two More Veterans

 After not getting much hobby time recently, I finally got a little chance to paint today and finished up these two veteran tactical marines. Because the MkIII is so time-consiming to paint, I am taking these guys on in smaller batches rather than all ten at once. All decals will be added at the end. 

The three members of the squad so far. 

Veteran Test Model

 Test model for the Sons of Horus Veteran Tactical Squad in MKIII armor:

The crest was originally pure red, which looked too bright, so I went with a red-black blend. I think that gives the right amount of color without being overpowering. 

I started with the shoulder pads black and brass, just like the tactical squad.

But then I painted in the eye red to make them stand out and pop a bit more. 

Next on to the other nine members of the squad.

Ezmen Vyke: The Dagger of Horus

 
Before his recruitment, Ezmen Vyke was a native of Cthonia, a ferocious and nearly-feral ganger eking out an existence of constant warfare in the ruined remnants of the shattered hive cities. Charismatic and ferocious, he excelled at the XVIth Legion's favored style of warfare: the sudden and brutal application of overwhelming force against an opponent, preferably before they even knew they were fighting. To him, war was a matter of identifying the strength and leadership of the enemy, isolating it and then obliterating it. Throughout the Great Crusade, he fought as a member of the elite Justaerian, striking the first, and often last, blow of every campaign. He worshipped Horus and was unflinchingly loyal in every action. When the Heresy began, there was no consideration in his mind on where his allegiance lay. He had always been a tool of war. His purpose was to fight, destroy and win, at the direction of Horus. He never gave a thought to peace, or civilization, or humantiy or any greater purpose beyond the next conflict, and after that, the next campaign. To him, the legions were weapons and the purpose of a weapon is to destroy whomever its weilder directs it toward. He is a weapon and Horus weilds him well. 

This was a simple conversion of the Calth terminator captain. It is not my favorite model and so I put off painting it for a few years. After looking at it, I realized the head was the main thing I didn't care for. I just don't like the look of a guy in super heavy armor with the most vulnerable part of his body totally exposed for no reason, not to mention his view being blocked by his own shoulder. But in order to swap the bare head for a helmet, I also had to cut away the gorget, which was not too bad and I think I smoothed it down enough that you cannot really tell. I felt the MKIII helmet really matched the style of the Cataphractii armor and adding a top knot helps to make it fit a bit more with the Justaerian. The only other change was that I broke the cable to his chain fist and could not get it to glue straight so I made a new one out of guitar wire. It does not line up perfectly but it isn't too noticeable. 

Look at that ugly head...

I had so much fun painting this guy. After doing quite a few batches of infantry lately, it was really nice to sit down with just a single character model to paint. I felt like I could really take my time and enjoy the steps, after the assembly line grind of painting 19 nearly-identical Steel Legion troopers. And the black and red color scheme is one of my all-time favorites, going all the way back to starting my ork army decades ago. Black and red is simply one of the most powerful and bold color combinations (along with white and red, which I also love). Not to mention, a black model feels 25% done immediately after priming it so you get a nice psychological boost. For the cloak, I kept it a more muted grey/green, rather than the richer green of my armor. I did not want it to clash with the red, black and gold of the armor. And I don't think a fabric cape would need to be the same exact shade as painted metal armor.

This guy was so much fun, I might need to put some Justaerian terminators higher on my priority list!

Sons of Horus Veteran Tactical Squad (unpainted)

 I don't normally bother with photos of unpainted models but this squad took some time to build and it may be a bit before I get them painted since I just realized I am out of black primer. Since I have not had many new posts lately, I may as well show what else I have been working on. 

The Scarab and his Heavy Support Squad

After what feels like a long hiatus with no new models to post, I finally completed a small unit: a Heavy Support Squad for my Sons of Horus. 

Sons of Horus Bases

Hobby progress has been slow lately, but at least I whipped up some bases for my next batch of Sons of Horus. These 16 bases should be enough for my heavy support squad and veteran tactical squad. For the Sons, I have been going with a theme that could be the inside of a ship, base or industrial facility. The materials are mostly stuff from Home Depot, along with a little plasticard, a Lego piece here and there (the vent), dome-shaped nail beads for rivets, and a few pipes I had for terrain. I like to build and paint the bases separately for speed since it allows quick and dirty drybrushing and weathering. I have put the base coat of green on the heavy support squad so next I will glue them on to make painting the rest of the model easier. 

Sons of Horus Army Update

The Sons of Horus so far:

• 20-man tactical squad with additional close combat weapons, vexilla and sergeant with artificer armor and power fist
• 5-man Cataphractii terminator squad with combi-meltas, 3 power fists, 2 chain fists
• Land Raider Phobos with two twin-linked lascannons and twin-linked heavy bolters