Scatter Terrain

In the last games, we realized we needed a bit more small terrain pieces that provide cover. So I decided to work up these quick pieces of scatter terrain before I start painting my sentinel.

Stacks of pipes, barrels and tires. Simple yet effective.

And here they are again with a few models standing behind them for scale.

Drop Troops Grenadiers/Storm Troopers

I painted these guys up to be my Storm Troopers in the 7th Edition Drop Troops list. In Horus Heresy, the closest equivalent is Grenadiers. Either way, these guys are supposed to be more heavily armed and armored than my basic troops. In WH40k, they have hot shot lasguns. In Horus Heresy, they do not have an option for a strong basic gun (boltguns are the strongest option they have) so I will be adding a couple of special weapons troopers to give them some offensive capability. At some point, they will get a Valkyrie.

Horus Heresy Battle Report 4: Hunters and Hunted in the Ruins of Bielyr

ARMY SELECTION: 850 Points

Death Guard Eradication Patrol  -  Pete

• Praetor Wolfgang: Terminator armor, Paragon Blade, volkite charger, digilasers
• Tactical Squad Stärke: 14 marines with close combat weapons, sergeant with power fist and artificer armor
• Tactical Support Squad März: 7 marines with volkite calivers
• Heavy Support Squad Tragen: 3 marines with missile launchers
• Contemptor Dreadnought Friedrich:  multi-melta, meltagun, dreadnought close combat weapon

White Scars and Drop Troops  -  Phil
R.A.P.T.O.R. Team (Rapid Assault, Precision Tactical Operations and Reconnaissance) 

White Scars, Brotherhood of the Wind

• Consul Kuyuk: Power glaive, bolter, cyber-hawk
• Tactical Squad Kheeg: 10 marines
• Tactical Support Squad Khoer: 5 marines with plasma guns
• Legion Outrider Squad Anchin: 3 bikes with twin-linked plasma guns

Xhorik 87th Drop Troops, 3rd Company "The Golden Eagles"

• 2nd Platoon (remnants)
• Platoon command squad with melta gun
• Infantry squad with grenade launcher
• Attached Storm Trooper Squad: 8 storm troopers
• Tauros with grenade launcher

Horus Heresy Battle Report 3: The Raid on Outpost Genden

Mission

We wanted a suitable mission to represent a White Scars force with Drop Troops allies that would be striking deep behind enemy lines to destroy a crucial enemy installation. We started with the Sabotage mission from the Fourth Edition rulebook and modified it to our liking.

The Raid on Outpost Genden

Setup:

1. Place the objective somewhere near the center of the table.
2. The defender's deployment zone is a 10" radius around the center of the objective. Any units not deployed to start the battle may be held in reserves and will arrive from a random board edge.
3. The attacker may then deploy infiltrators on the table following the normal rules.
4. The attacker takes the first turn, moving as much of the army as he chooses onto the board and leaving the rest to come on as reserves. Whether arriving on the first turn or from reserves, each unit arrives from a random board edge determined by a roll as shown on the map below. Units with Outflank may re-roll.

Game length would be 4 turns with a 3+ chance of turn 5 and then a 4+ chance of turn 6, which would be the last possible turn.

Objective:

For this raid, all the attacking forces have been issued with demo charges to destroy the objective and complete their mission. The objective cannot be destroyed by firing at it, only by non-vehicle models placing demo charges. To place a demo charge successfully the model must assault the objective in its assault phase and remain in contact until the end of its next assault phase. At this point, the charge is set and the objective is destroyed. Boom!

The attacker wins if he destroys the objective before the end of the game. Otherwise the defender wins.

Outpost Genden: A command bunker, communication tower and fuel processing plant are functional, while the fortified administrative building on the hill has been destroyed by a previous bombardment. 

Proposed Modified Rules for Horus Heresy / WH40k 7th Edition

I thought it would be fun to play with the Horus Hersey/WH40k 7th Edition rules to combine some of the better ideas from Shadow War Armageddon/WH40k 2nd Edition and 8th Edition. I particularly like the idea of using more modifiers and fewer "all or nothing" rules. But I would also like any changes to work with the current unit/weapon profiles and points costs (it won't be perfect, but at least be close enough for friendly games). So here are some draft thoughts:

Platoon Command Squad

A quick shot of the platoon command squad for my Xhorik 87th Drop Troops regiment. They were the only unit in the last game that did anything useful (destroyed a dreadnought) and also the only ones to survive the fourth turn. So in honor of that performance, I figured they should at least get a quick photo up on the blog.

The Tauros is nearing completion, but still needs the headlights, some decals and maybe a few stripes or other designations.

Horus Hersey Battle 2: Death Guard vs. White Scars and Drop Troops

ARMY SELECTION: 830 Points

Death Guard - Pete

• Praetor: Terminator armor, Paragon Blade, volkite
• Tactical Squad: 14 marines with close combat weapons, sergeant with power fist and artificer armor
• Support Squad: 7 marines with volkite calivers
• Heavy Support Squad: 3 marines with missile launchers
• Dreadnought:  multi-melta, storm bolter, and power fist

The Death Guard army has the advantage in durability and firepower.

White Scars and Drop Troops - Phil

• Praetor: Power glaive, Iron Halo (represented by shield), bolter
• Veteran Squad Kheeg (+1 WS): 10 marines, 2 plasma guns, sergeant with power glaive and artificer armor 
• Veteran Squad Khoer (+1 armor penetration): 5 marines, 1 plasma gun, 2 combi-plasma guns 
• Legion Outrider Squad: 3 bikes with twin-linked plasma, sergeant with power glaive
• Drop Troop Platoon (partial)
• Platoon command squad with krak grenades and melta gun
• Veteran squad with grenade launcher, sergeant with melta bombs

The White Scars and their Drop Trooper allies have superior mobility.

Industrial Terrain: Pumping Station Painted

I finally finished painting the pumping station. The goal was to have something that could be set down on either a desert or an urban table and not look out of place so I made the base a stamped steel grating that could be a suitable foundation in either environment.

The pumping station transfers the unrefined liquids produced from wells on Xhorik Prime and does some preliminary processing.

The elevated platform is the same height as the Shadow War:Armageddon terrain and I used a few extra bits from that set to help tie this in with that terrain if I ever get around to painting it.

I think it looks sufficiently dirty and worn!

The height should be sufficient to give even large vehicles and walkers some cover.

I was trying to tie my scratch-built stuff in with the GW terrain by mixing in a few official bits. It is mostly for blocking line of sight and providing a suitable objective, but the upper platform provides a vantage point for shooting with good cover.

Models for my kids: eBay Salvage

I bought a collection of used and abused miniatures so my kids could have a bunch of models to paint and play with, without me spending hundreds of dollars. Here are some shots of what I got. They will all soon be soaking in the cleansing bath of the Emperor's light (aka Purple Power), ready to be reborn.

Everything came in a big bag. I dumped it out and this is what I had.

The main reason I bought this lot was for the space marines for my kids to paint.

It looks like mostly metal miniatures from Second Edition. There is an Assault Squad (metal jump packs!), Devastators (metal heavy weapons!) and a few random tactical marines, scout sergeant and characters. Those metal jump packs and heavy weapons make for some really unstable models, which is not so great for kids, unfortunately.

Bonus: four metal and one plastic space orks from Second Edition. Great memories here!

Some interesting chaos marines. Two terminators, four Deathguard, and three and a half Berserkers (a couple are missing their heads, unfortunately). 

The old Deathguard are actually really cool models. In some ways, better than the over-the-top new ones.

And a one-armed assassin. Another great model that is unfortunately missing pieces.

The Space Marines and Orks have obviously improved immeasurably in the last 25 years. But I really like the old Chaos and Assassin models and I think they have stood the test of time. Assuming the paint stripping works, I will definitely use that assassin as some sort of conversion. And I think I could use quite a few of the chaos bits for Horus Heresy conversions. My kids will enjoy painting the space marines. The only useless models will be the orks, although I may paint one just out of nostalgia.

WIP Pumping Station

I bought Shadow War: Armageddon to play with my son because I thought the smaller games would be better: fewer miniatures to collect and paint to start an army and quicker games. It's been quite fun and I am really impressed by the utility of the modular terrain so I have been busy cutting, scraping and gluing it together. I want to add to it until I have a truly multi-level table for small games instead of just a few platforms connected by a catwalk. So I am taking the opportunity to do some of the scratch-build projects that have been on my mind for a long time. But now I am making sure they have raised platforms that match the height of the Shadow War terrain so that it will all fit together.

This piece is a pumping/processing station. I have had the electrical box with the Legos on top and the tin cans rolling around together in a box for over a year, waiting to start building this until I had more bits for pipes and valves. This is a WIP shot and I still have more details to add, but you get the general idea of the piece: lots of pipes, hoses and ladders. I think this piece will work well as part of an industrial board with the other Shadow War terrain and could even standalone with the dessert terrain as a gathering station for the produced liquids and gasses from the extraction industries in the wastelands of Xhorik Prime.