Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Horus Heresy Review: Imperialis Militia Fire Support Squad

Background.
The fire support squad are the Imperial Army equivalent of the Space Marine Legions heavy support squad. As such, they're able to take a variety of heavy weapons.

Strengths.
As they're operating as a team, each team has two wounds. This means a trifle more survivability, but don't forget that a S=6 hit will mean an instant death. They are mere mortals, after all.

The variety of weapons available is comparable to the Space Marine Legion heavy support squad: lascannons, heavy bolters, heavy flamers, and so forth. In addition, they get access to twin-linked heavy stubbers as well as mortars.

Weaknesses.
They're pricier than normal mortals - presumably because the weapons they tote are more valuable than the entire earnings of their whole career put together. And they still die like mortals, have a poor Leadership value and a poor save. As such, they need to be placed in a good position from the start of the game and get off at least two turns of significant firepower to ensure that they're worth their points.

Builds.
Some suggestions on builds. Some are more appealing than others.

10 Fire Teams, all with Lascannons (300 points)
A pricey investment, but the sheer number of shots is needed here to counteract the poor BS and cause serious damage on enemy vehicles. There are probably better ways to kill vehicles than this in 30k Imperial Armies though.

5 Fire Team, all with Heavy Flamers (125 points)
Hunker down on an objective and flame anything that comes close. Alternatively, go on the run and try to flame enemies hunkered down in shelter of their own. Since they're templates, you're not too worried about the BS of the wielders.

6 Fire Teams, all with missile launchers, Flak missiles (180 points)
Anti-air, combined with punching power with krak missiles, and anti-infantry power with the frag shells. All round well worth it.

6 Fire Teams, all with Mortars (120 points)
I like mortars in the Imperial Army. They're cheap and cheerful and provide strong suppression that can be important in many situations.

Whilst other weapons are available, I personally like the above a lot. Certainly, multi-lasers are a great idea here, as are heavy bolters. I'm not sold on the basic heavy stubbers in this environment though. They're just a touch too expensive and just a little too ineffective. Autocannons are certainly viable though, and should be taken in number if you're going down that route.

4 comments:

smokeynyc said...

Merchant Princeling= -1 AP on a squad. Put that on autocannons and you have 20 S7 AP3 shots at 48"

jabberjabber said...

Certainly powerful!
Especially in a power armour dominated environment.

My intent is to look at Provenances across full armies when I look at army list building a little later on. For now, this is just a review of individual components of an army list. But I do agree, there's plenty of synergies to exploit in the Imperial Army / Cults list.

Knight of Infinite Resignation said...

I'd use my Merchant Princeling skillz to make a big squad of AP3 heavy flamers... put them in a bastion with an escape hatch and let hilarity ensue!

BTW thanks for these reviews, I love this army list, lets me play in 30K with my IA13 Renegades and Heretics army.

jabberjabber said...

Thanks for the support -- much appreciated!
Yeah -- those AP3 flamers can be awesome in the right situation.

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