New Outpost Terrain

 I finally broke down and bought my first terrain in years while visiting the Citadel in Dallas with my brother on vacation. For ~ $100 you get a very impressive box of terrain that is functional, quite cool looking and can help fill out a game board. I found a video online from Guerrilla Miniature Games that gives step-by-step instructions on how to paint the Nachmund box of terrain in just a few hours, which I tried to follow pretty closely. I'm happy with the results I achieved, and it only took me ~4-5 hours spread over a weekend. Take a look!

Ebon Keshig Contemptor

I decide to paint my first White Scars Contemptor Dreadnought in the colors of the Ebon Keshig. I figured it would fit the lore that says that White Scars see being entombed in a dreadnought as a curse. Fitting for a dishonored warrior seeking to redeem himself. 

I added some studs to one leg and a lightning bolt to the other. I added the large dragon shields as shoulder pads. In the end, I think they look a bit large and I probably won't do it again but it adds to the unique look of this guy. And then a samurai back banner to top it off and really help him fit with the Ebon Keshig motif.

I really want to do an Ebon Keshig Contemptor with two close combat weapons but I only had one available in the Age of Darkness box set. The next dreadnought I make from the standalone kit will be the melee specialist. 

Radar Tower

Back in July I painted up this scratch-built terrain piece, the second made from a lampshades as a base structure (the first being the Antenna Tower last year). Nothing too fancy here, just a lampshade, a CD for a base, a toilet paper roll holder for the mast, and a broken sprinkler piece for the radar dish. Add a Lego wire, a few bolts and bits and it is a passable piece of quick and cheap terrain. I dirtied it up with the usual washes and Typhus Corrosion but I also tried some oil paints to get a feel for them before trying them on the White Scars. 

It is my goal to mix in at least two pieces of terrain every year to ensure we have plenty of variety for our battles. 

White Scars MkVI First Five

 

Five tactical marines done, except for weathering and damage. These models work great with decals because of their large flat spaces. I am having fun painting these guys so far, but taking a little break to work on something else before starting the next batch. 

White Scars in MkVI Progress

 Here is the first of my White Scars in MkVI. I used mostly the same painting process as for my other White Scars with a few slight tweaks to try to make it a bit faster. For the brown leather pouches, I am using Wyldwood Contrast instead of Rhinox and Mournfang browns. And for the black lining, I am trying mixing a black wash with oil paints and thinner rather than trying to draw the lines with black paint or Nuln Oil. The oil paints flow into the recesses a lot better so this step goes a little easier. But the main difference is that the MkVI armor is just much simpler than the MkIII or IV. There are fewer creases and raised areas to highlight and less trim to paint different colors. So these guys should go a bit faster than the older marks of armor. 

First MkVI model for the White Scars. Just needs weathering and damage.

More after the break:

Horus Heresy Phase 7 Battle 1: White Scars vs Death Guard - Onslaught

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

The Eaters of the Dead

 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. 

Brother Chaplain Luchinus leads his latest "recruits" into battle

Brother Luchinus' shoulder pads identify him as a Blood Angels' Chaplain 

Flesh eaters advancing forward toward the enemy

Luchinus arms himself with a volkite combi weapon and his crozius arcanum

White Scars Brotherhood of the Wind

Brotherhood of the Wind, Vth Legion

Initial Thoughts on the New Rules: White Scars

I have looked through the new edition of rules and a few trends stand out to me so far (admittedly, my focus so far has been on units and rules that are relevant for my White Scars):

• Entering from Reserves, including outflanking and deep striking, has been made less effective.
• There is a significant reduction in AP2, with an increase in breaching/rending to partially compensate.
• There is an increase in models with 2 wounds to increase durability of terminators and others.
• Bikes and jetbikes have been toned down.

Here is a breakdown for some of the most impacted units and items:

Sons of Horus vs Blood Angels: Battle for Planetoid Provisa

 Background:

After their initial defeat (Battle for Provisa 1: Take and Hold), Praetor Ezman Vyke was forced to regroup his forces. He now knew the outer dwarf planet of the Xhorik System was defended by more than Planetary Defense Forces of the local Imperial Auxilia. Somehow, a mixed force of Loyalist Legions was present on the isolated hunk of rock at the distant edge of the system. With the primary planet of the system now under Traitor control and the majority of the local White Scars Legion forces defeated, he had expected the rest of the system to quickly succumb to their inevitable fate of slavery to the Traitor cause. Now it seems a force of the IXth Legion, supported by elements of the Vth and VIIth Legions, was defending this distant outpost of the system against the advance elements of Horus' fleet. This was very unexpected because all of their intelligence indicated the Blood Angels to be on a campaign in the Signus Cluster, far away in the Eastern Fringe, where Horus hoped to trap them in a hopeless struggle far from the primary theaters of the Heresy.

After orbital bombardments to destroy planetary defense systems, the Sons of Horus 12th company had made a successful landing with infantry forces and established a small zone of control to bring in heavier support. Praetor Vyke personally led these advance infantry forces in several small battles against the PDF to secure his flanks and buy time for his transports. In one of these routine excursions to take control of a communications relay, he unexpectedly encountered Loyalist Legion forces that inflicted a decisive defeat on his forces and drove him back to his landing zones. Even worse, he had been bested in a duel with the leader of the IXth Legion in the process. Now with heavier support elements being transported down to the surface, Vyke was prepared to launch a counterattack with the intent of eliminating the Loyalist Legion forces on Provisa, on his way to bringing this planetoid and the entire system under the control of the Warmaster. And just as importantly, he looked to get personal revenge on the arrogant and angelic Praetor Garo Arteo.

Scenario: Blood Feud

The objective is simple: destroy the enemy.

Primary Objective
Each infantry unit destroyed: 2 VP
Each other unit destroyed: 1 VP

Secondary Objectives
Slay the Warlord: 1 VP

Last Man Standing: 1 VP for the side with the most surviving units

Opposing Forces:

Blood Angels and White Scars: Pete

• Garo Arteo, Bloody Executioner of the Crimson Gate: Praetor w/ artificer armor, iron halo, digital lasers, jump pack, blade of perdition, bolt pistol
• Crimson Paladins with assault cannon
• The Sanguine Berzerkers:14 assault marines w/ jump packs, bolt pistols, 2 power axes, sergeant with power fist, plasma pistol, artificer armor
• 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
• The Angel’s Judgement: Vindicator Tank w/ demolisher cannon, armored ceramite and twin-linked bolter
• White Scars Squadron Tsujen: 5 Outriders with twin-linked plasma guns, sergeant with power glaive

Sons of Horus: Phil

• Praetor Ezman Vyke with Cataphractii terminator armor, chain fist, combi-melta, digilasers
• Tactical Squad (6th Squad, 12th Company, the : 20 marines with additional close combat weapons, vexilla, artificer armor, power fist
• Terminator Squad Hammerfall: 5 marines with Cataphractii armor, 3 power fists, 2 chain fists, 5 combi-meltas
• Transport: Land Raider Phobos The Bladed Hand
• Veteran Tactical Squad Exomis ("The Remnants"): 10 marines with 2 power swords, 1 power axe, 1 power fist, vox, 2 meltaguns, 1 combi-melta, and artificer armor
• Transport: Rhino
• Contemptor Dreadnought Konax Silat with multi-melta and chainfist with inbuilt heavy flamer