Horus Heresy Review: Kyr Vhalen

Here is an Iron Warrior HQ character who found himself separated from the main force of Perturabo, and did not know about the betrayal at Isstvan. Hence he's a loyalist. And one that took great pride in his loyalty when the Alpha Legion attacked Paramar following the betrayal.

His abilities to boost his force are amazing, in my opinion, and totally worth his points, so long as the controlling player builds their army around them. Firstly, he can boost a fortification. This might be to re roll "1"s for saves from it, or increase AV to a maximum of 15. Yes - you read that right AV15. Further, a single unit in the deployment zone can benefit from re-rolling misses to hit with shooting. Hence the only way to play Vhalen is to purchase a fortification along with the force. And one that is already significantly good! The Castellum Stronghold might constitute such an example, but certainly there are others!

Within this terrain feature, I'd suggest placing some of the strongest long range (heavy support style) squads to help out. Iron Havocs are one example that would certainly benefit from this.

His final feature is to be able to have a shatter assault ability - this prevents enemies from hammer of wrath'ing him and must make disordered charges. But its only once per game. His presence and the combination of these abilities is certainly what makes a re-enactment of the Paramar battle between the loyal Iron Warriors and traitor (?!) Alpha Legion a highly interesting contrast. Take an appropriate rite of war in addition and its truly an amazing contest. Perhaps even in the Iron Warriors favour?

On top of this, Vhalen is also a Warsmith and master of the legion. He probably therefore wants to stay back and join a large squad of Iron Warriors. Take some robots to boot, plenty of dakka, a fortification, and some big tanks, and its game on realistically. I will freely admit I like both this character and his abilities!