THE XHORIK WARS: July 2022

Welcome to our first battle report of the second edition of Horus Heresy. To draw attention to certain aspects, I've used a few notations:
That's New! to highlight significant changes from the last edition.
Reaction! to highlight interesting uses of the new Reaction mechanic, the key difference in this edition.
Oops! to point out areas where we later realized we got the rules wrong or forgot about special rules.

Background:

The Traitors have taken control of Xhorik Prime after a grinding, vicious campaign against the White Scars and the Kozar army. The remnants of the Brotherhood of the Wind are now in hiding in the Eastern Wastes and mountains to the north and east of Kozar, terrain too remote and hostile for the large, mechanized Traitor armies to ever search thoroughly. However, just as the victory parades were wrapping up, Loyalist forces from Xhorik Secundus launched their counterattack with an interplanetary invasion, beginning with Operation Downfall, a series of attacks by Xhorik Drop Troopers, in order to clear the way for the major landings to follow. (See The Xhorik Campaign for a list of the previous battle reports.)

Although cut off from all communications with these Loyalist allies, Turan Jorma, Khan of the Brotherhood of the Wind, decided to take advantage of the disorder to launch a series of raids to assist the Loyalist attack. He led a highly mobile band of his remaining marines deep behind enemy lines to strike at critical infrastructure and planetary defense systems. After a number of successful attacks against weakly-defended installations, a Traitor force had been sent to eliminate this disruption and to reinforce the armies under attack at the landing sites. Khan Jorma found himself becoming slowly enveloped by heavier forces. He decided he needed to breakout of the trap before it could fully encircle and trap his raiding party.

At the same time, Praetor Wolfgang decided to bring his own Death Guard Great Company to bear against the Loyalist forces attempting to land on his newly conquered planet. When his intelligence reported that his longtime foe, Khan Jorma, was raiding near the enemy landing zones, he realized this was a unique opportunity to crush the White Scars, breaking their remaining strength while pushing his men through them to the front lines.

Thus, the stage was set for both armies to try to break through the enemy lines and attempt to inflict a shattering loss to their hated enemies while doing so.

Scenario: Onslaught

Game Length: 6 turns

Primary Objective

Control the objective you place in the opponent's deployment zone: 5 VP

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

That's New!

The new edition brings a major change to the way objectives are claimed and denied. Only units designated as "Line" can hold an objective. Unless you are employing a special rule or Rite of War, the only Line units are Tactical, Despoiler, Breacher, Assault and Recon squads. Most units qualify as Denial, enabling you to contest an objective, except vehicles have lost the ability to even deny objectives.

I really like the change to prevent vehicles from denying objectives. It is never fun when an opponent parks a nearly un-killable heavy tank over an objective marker. The big reduction in scoring units is interesting and I will have to see how it plays out. It seems to reduce the value of the troops choices designated as Support, as well as units like Veterans and Terminators that used to benefit from being scoring. Of course it greatly increases the incentive to take the core Troops units as they are the only scoring units, so I think it will be a good thing overall, once we adjust our armies to it. In the short term it means that Scoring units will be at a premium as we each have only a few.

Strategy and Army Selection:

White Scars: Phil

I am excited to try out the new rules and to get out my old White Scars, who have only seen one battle in the last 18 months, ever since their ignominious defeat in the four-part campaign for Xhorik Prime. We decided to play a 2000-point game on a 6' x 4' table using one of the basic missions from the rulebook as a good, "standard" test of the new rules. Since we just played Blood Feud in our last game, we went with the second mission, Onslaught. This worked well because we wanted to test how the new Line rules would impact a game with objectives.

Reading the new rules for the White Scars Rite of War, Chogorian Brotherhood, I sadly realized they removed the option to take a single Heavy Support choice that was present in the old edition. Since I did not have enough core troops choices to use the standard Force Organization Chart, it meant I could not try out the new rules for my Sicaran Omega. The good news was that my Skyhunters and Outriders would be considered Line troops so they could calim an objective.

Looking at the models I had available and adding up their costs in the new rules, I realized I had a bit more than I could afford to take, even with leaving out the Sicaran Omega, and I had a few choices to make on how I configured my units. With the changes to the Primaris-Lightning (reduced effectiveness and increased cost), the changes to Reserves rules, and the presence of Pete's Deredeo dreadnought and missile launcher squads with Skyfire, I decided the tank-hunting flier would be the other unit to leave out in order to stay within my points limit.

The next decision was how to use the transports I had available: the Rhino and the Dreadclaw. Initially, I was thinking a 5-man squad of Ebon Keshig charging out of the Dreadclaw would be great for disrupting Pete's back line of heavy guns (his Deredeo and heavy weapons squads) but then I realized that the Dreadclaw lost the Assault vehicle status, making it unsuited for delivering a melee unit. So, after re-reading the mission rules, I decided to use the Dreadclaw to transport my vulnerable 10-man tactical squad to the objective with a bit more protection. This would leave the Rhino free to ferry the plasma support squad to where they could try to inflict some damage on Pete's hard targets like dreadnoughts or terminators. (Only later did I realize they removed the ability for an embarked unit to shoot from fire points.)

The plan was to use the plasma units (Outriders and Tactical Support) and Sabre Strike Tanks against his heavier units while my Skyhunters and tactical squad headed for my objective. The Ebon Keshig would launch a flanking attack to try to stop his units from reaching his objective. Finally, the scouts would try to disrupt his gun line a bit to help give my other units a chance to survive. That was the plan anyway. Let's see how it works out!

Opposing Forces:

White Scars: Phil

Khan Turan Jorma: jetbike, paragon blade, cyber hawk
Centurion Champion Subotei: paragon blade, refractor field, bolter, combat shield, artificer armor
[Line] Skyhunter Squadron Khujaa: 6 jetbikes, 2 x volkite culverin, sergeant with power weapon
[Line] Outrider Squad Tsujen: 5 Outriders with twin-linked plasma, sergeant with power glaive
[Line] Tactical Squad Temgar:10 marines with bayonets, sergeant with power glaive and artificer armor
Tactical Support Squad Khoer: 9 marines with plasma guns, sergeant with power sword

Rhino with pintle-mounted multimelta

Recon Squad Chono: 10 marines with recon armor, chainswords and bolt pistols, nuncio vox, sergeant with power fist
Anvilus Dreadclaw Drop Pod
Sabre Strike Tank Squadron Ikhruud with snub autocannons, heavy bolters, and sabre missiles
Ebon Keshig: 10 terminators, 7 power glaives, 3 power fists, 1 combi-melta, 2 combi-bolters

Total: 1995 points

Death Guard: Pete

Praetor Wolfgang: Catphractii terminator armor, volike charger, paragon blade, rad grenades
Deathshroud retinue: 4 terminators with hand alchem-flamers, power scythes and rad grenades
Tactical Support Squad Folterer: 8 marines with flamers and melta bombs, sergeant with artificer armor.

Rhino with pintle-mounted heavy alchem-flamer.

[Line] Tactical Squad A: 14 marines with chainswords, sergeant with power fist and artificer armor and Apothecary Gerhard
[Line] Tactical Squad B Toddestraffe: 10 marines with chainswords, sergeant with power fist and artificer armor.
Tactical Support Squad Blitz Schock: 7 marines with volkite calivers and apothecary
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

Total: 1990 points

Before the Blood Angels were reborn, redeemed and enlightened with the discovery of their Primarch Sanguinius, they were a ravenous hord of savagery that literally ate the flesh of their enemies. Over the decades since their legion rose like a phoenix to embody the nobility and wisdom of their great leader, the few unfortunate souls who could not purge their bloodlust were isolated into squads of shock troops and their armour painted black, branding them as unworthy of the glories of the legion.

Commonly these degenerate "eaters of the dead" were led by a Blood Angels Chaplain into combat to focus their rage and bloodlust into a razor sharp tool of the Emperor's will. And in their dying moments on the battlefield, it was the Chaplain's duty to speak the sacred rights over them and then land the killing blow, relieving them of their cursed condition.