Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Horus Heresy Review: The Ashen Circle


Burning enemy books, libraries and entire cultures and faiths where necessary, the Ashen Circle served alongside Word Bearers Legion Destroyer Squads with the simple purpose of eradicating false doctrine. Clearly at first, this meant opponents to the Imperial Truth. But later, their tearing down was only so that the Primordial Annihilator could gain a footing.

In game, they're jump infantry equipped with hand flamers and grappling axes (aka Axe Rakes). The main question faced by the Word Bearers player is whether to use the Axe Rakes, or replace them with Power Axes (at a small cost). The benefits of the power axes are well known so I won't comment much there. But the Axe Rakes are interesting for two facets: the bonus to Strength, and the penalty to the fall back distance on enemies after losing an assault. I'm a little torn to be honest. And ultimately, I think some thought needs to be injected as to the purpose of this squad to solve that riddle.

Amongst the other special rules, if the Ashen Circle deep strikes in to play, they can cause a S3 hit on nearby models. This might not seem like much, but just one extra wound caused (improbable as it might be) could be valuable to them in a subsequent assault phase. In addition, always being able to Hammer of Wrath is excellent for them (as is the improved WS). The price of all this is not being able to be joined by an independent character. Oh well.

Here are a few builds to toy around with. I'm not quite convinced by them, but see what you think.

5 Ashen Circle, 5 Power Axes, Iconoclast with Artificer Armour (210 points).
These are flying power axes. Their targets are anything requiring a low AP to be taken down. Fundamentally, they're still 3+ power armour marines so some care with placement will be needed.

10 Ashen Circle, 5 with Power Axes, 5 with Axe Rakes, Iconoclast with Artificer Armour and melta bombs (315 points).
A mixed purpose squad, and one which might also benefit from phosphex bombs as well. This is meant for enemy infantry squads - preferably troops!

7 Ashen Circle, Iconoclast with Artificer Armour, Inferno Pistol and 2 Phosphex Bombs (255 points).
More of a mid-range option. This is one that has a few extra bodies for more survivability and the Iconoclast relying on the Phosphex to do some nice and interesting damage. Its targets are back line heavy support squads, and then troops.

4 comments:

Jt said...

Great write up as usual, keep them up

jabberjabber said...

Cheers! Thanks for the encouragement - its appreciated!

Anonymous said...

I don't say it like I should, but I check this blog everyday for new content! Love the Heresy reviews, the Rogue Trader engineering thoughts, army updates, etc. Point is, keep it coming! You're awesome and this blog is intertwining!

jabberjabber said...

Thanks Rufus! Really appreciate you taking the time to comment so positively!

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