Plasma Support Squad Gunner - Iron Warriors

A brief painting follow up to the weekend - and another Iron Warriors support squad member toting a deadly plasma gun.

For the squad, I've opted for an unusually uniform painting scheme approach with the right leg done in the yellow hazard stripes, an icon on the left leg and right shoulder, coupled with a single yellow stripe down the helmet to denote membership of the squad. The plasma itself has white in the recesses, and darker highlights - which is the exact opposite of the ordinary painting approach that has dark colours in the recesses. It takes a bit of a mind-flip to get accustomed to doing things this way!

 

Plasma for Breakfast?

What do Iron Warriors eat for breakfast? No, I don't know either, but I'm going to guess plasma might be one of the things they do eat. 

This particular Iron Warrior is part of a support squad armed with plasma guns. I've followed the white-in-recesses approach to plasma here and stuck with the blue colour as the accent for the Iron Warriors rather than divert to reds or greens on the plasma coils for consistency. I like the eyes on this marine, although I think I might need to go over the decal on the shin again to soften it up further perhaps. Another nice battlefield ready miniature!

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Infernus Abomination

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4/5 stars. A solid traitor assassin to rival the traditional clades. 

Background.

Something a bit fearsome and clandestine that stalks the battlefield. Something that likes to ignore physical reality when it is convenient. Something that takes on the fears of those that it preys upon and uses it to maximal effect.

Strengths.

I'm going to start here by mentioned Fear (2) - ouch! This is quite impressive within the game.

The abomination is able to regenerate, which although is very nice indeed, is probably something that you're not going to use since he will either be killed outright very quickly, or survive intact.

He possesses a fleshbane pistol with an exceptionally short range, and a random 2d6 shots. Its ... okay.

The real action is down the the armaments which can mutate between three difference forms. Of these three, the outright best is a hammerblade that swings at initiative with S=8 and AP=2. Let's also mention brutal (2) here as well. Its plain nasty. You won't need any of the other mutations his weapon can form realistically. 

The abomination comes with infiltrate and scout, and don't forget the special rules as well. The armor save and invulnerable save is nice.

Weaknesses.

Traitors only! The pistol probably isn't a highlight and given the assassin nature of the unit, I had hoped for something a bit better in this department, or at least a second unit that was more shooty than this one is.

Overall.

A great points cost for an assassin and a good investment for the traitor player. 

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Cults Abominatio Rules

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

3/5 stars. Interesting rules, and not over-powered. 

Cult Operatives.

They're on the traitor's side normally (unless there's something that doesn't force picking of a side, in which case: go for it), but always distrusted. Seems fair!

Advanced Reaction: Empyreal Shift.
When close to, or charged at, or shot at by an enemy, this reaction allows a modest range re-positioning. This is nice and on par with what we might expect of assassins. If the leadership test is failed, then the unit and the one that caused the reaction surprisingly drop 1d6 wounds. This is nasty and sometimes you might just want to fail that leadership test given that no saves of any kind are permitted.

Abomination Unit Type.

The abominations of the Cults don't care about your terrain and will happily ignore all penalties and dangerous terrain. On the negative side, they can't join different sub-type units, use transports, or be a warlord. These are all very reasonable. 

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Imperial Fists Decurion Sagittar

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4.5/5 stars. Rounded down. A truly excellent upgrade for the Imperial Fists. 

Background.

This battle brother likes his autocannon. On top of a vehicle. Shooting lots and all around. A little too much. 

Strengths.

For a modest points cost, gain not only an augury scanner, but also an Illiastus assault cannon on a pintle for your Saggitar to use. 

He can shoot one defensive weapon or his pintle weapon and choose to gain skyfire or precision shots against a different target to the rest of the tank. This is extremely nice and provides strong options. And of course, he is an Imperial Fist and really likes the assault cannon.

Weaknesses.
Not many realistically.

Overall.

Well worth the points cost for the equipment price alone. The special rules make this truly impressive.

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Sons of Horus Decurion Lanius

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

3.5/5 stars. Rounded up. A very reasonable vehicular upgrade.

Background.

Somewhat like a commissar for the Sons of Horus. This guy will shoot at friendly Sons of Horus in whom the unacceptable seed of fear blossoms. 

Strengths.

As a tank upgrade, it is cool to see he comes with a banestrike bolt cannon as standard. The range, rate of fire, strength and possible breaching is significant here.

There are 2 special rules to take note of. Firstly he comes with an impressive banner that grants Ld=9 to all who gaze upon it for morale and pinning purposes. Secondly, he will shoot any Sons of Horus unit within a reasonable range that fail a morale check for d3 wounds and thus amend that failure!

Weaknesses.
I mean - yes. He will kill your own men. But this does have a place in some circumstances.

Overall.

A solid, if double edged upgrade to ensure morale remains high!

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Legiones Decurion Locus

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4/5 stars. A strong vehicular upgrade.

Background.

Some marines are experts at optimisation of the biggest guns. When you place one of these men on board a tank with a big gun, you have a recipe for an explosive result.

Strengths.

This upgrade grants an advanced reaction that provides the tank with the option of firing back against a shooting attack. 

The player can elect one of two forms. Either all defensive weapons plus one battle weapon with the normal rules. Or: just the one battle weapon with +1 to hit. This might be a tough choice depending on the nature of the defensive weapons, but I can certainly see that this choice depends on the vehicle itself. It is a strong reaction indeed and can be game changing with some fortuitous die rolls!

Weaknesses.
No reaction against charges here - unlike the Defensor. 

Overall.

An excellent upgrade that honestly should be considered as almost standard if you have the points cost available to pay for it. 

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Legiones Decurion Defensor

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

3/5 stars. Nice enough, and a welcome addition to vehicles for second edition.

Background.

Some space marines have talents for long range fire power. Others like things up close and personal. This marine likes shooting things with pintle mounted weapons from the top of tanks and is an expert at it.

Strengths.

For a low points cost, you gain the point defence advanced reaction. This allows you to shoot back at a target that targets you for a charge or shooting attack. There are limitations. Only defensive weapons can fire, and pintle weapons. But you man gets double shots with the pintle weapon.

It is hard to choose what weapon load outs to give for the point defence. I'd suggest a multi melta in most cases, and probably defensive volkites? That said, the heavy bolter is exceptionally tempting given the sheer amount of shots that you get coupled with the range. My preference though is for the multi melta since the things shooting at you are probably going to be other vehicles. 

Weaknesses.
You can only choose to upgrade very specific units. I find this very odd ineed. Select between predators, sicaran squads (including punishers), and Kratos. 

Overall.

A reasonable upgrade and cheap enough to afford in most lists running these units. 

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Vheren Ashurhaddon

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4/5 stars. While he has some peculiar rules, he is very good at what he does.

Background.

Vheren really didn't like it when the Sons of Horus were falling to the ruinous powers. He just wanted his legion back to being simple humble reavers and traitors - and to hell with warp spawn. So he chose to invade Cthonia and take it back for the greater glory! Aside from that, he perfected the reaving warfare technique that many would later aspire to and generally held the terrans of his legion in disdain.

Strengths.

The warlord trait is very interesting, but also kind of strange. When he allocates a wound to himself (not by the choice of the opponent) he gets to re-roll his invulnerable save. This makes him great as an ablative wound character (perhaps there's another character in the squad you want taking over from him?!) and potentially as a good soak for heavy incoming fire. But really. You don't want him doing this. With T=4 he might die outright. He also grants stubborn which is valuable.

His axe is basically an AP=2 weapon that swings at his initiative (I=5) which is amazing. His sidearm pistol has breaching on a 6+ which is nice and entertaining. His armour is 2+/4++ and seems to have an almost Alpha Legion effect of making him further away than you think he is when his unit is relatively small. 

As the first reaver, he unlocks a reaver squad as a retinue squad - take it. He can readily slay enemy characters in combat (and much else that he selects thanks to his precision strikes and all). 

Weaknesses.
Traitors only here. The really strange warlord trait is something that you probably don't want to activate too much to be honest. Perhaps against plasma guns where you won't die to instant death? But the real issue here is how to get him into position. He has a bunch of nice melee rules like precision shots and strikes, let alone counter attack. You're going to need transport. 

Overall.

A great character for the Sons of Horus, and very fluffy for the re-taking of Cthonia. I can see he might get played outside of the Cthonia campaign, but there are other choices available - the Sons of Horus aren't short of character choices!

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Sons of Horus Additional Rules (Siege of Cthonia)

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4/5 stars. Nice, strong boons for the Sons of Horus. 

Carsoran Power Weapons.
There are two variants of these which can replace power weapons at no cost. The axe version is excellent for making short work of space marines thanks to AP3. With being a specialist weapon its also a good choice to pair up with other things (e.g., hammers!). The tabar version comes at S+1 and is unfortunately two handed. But given breaching at 4+, a unit armed with these could potentially be quite deadly if a charge is pulled off at the right moment in a game.

Warlord Trait: True Son.
Available to only traitor forces, this trait is for those who want to fight with traditional honour, rather than go down the route of chaos inspired corruption. The warlord gains a leadership boost for morale and pinning, as do units who can see him. This bonus alone is fantastic and makes the trait worthwhile. There's an added armour save boost against psychics, which is nice but situational. The bonus assualt reaction is sound. Overall a great trait.

Warlord Trait: Cast in Gold.
Gain A+1 and S+1 when in a combat challenge where the opponent has equal or greater WS. This is a nice boost, but the real gain here is the additional victory point if you win. The bonus movement is great. Rooted in Cthonian tradition, this trait is available to all Sons factions - traitor or loyalist. Its a really nice trait, but obviously suited to an aggressive build. 

New Year Iron Warriors Plasma Pistol Experiment

Happy New Year!

In the first post of this year, I wanted to share a painting experiment that I've been messing around with for plasma weaponry in the 30th to 40th millenium. 

This is an Iron Warriors squad sergeant armed with a power fist and plasma pistol. Although some of the hazard stripes need a bit of a tidy up (they do look better from different angles - I promise!) I wanted to highlight the plasma pistol work here.

What is unusual here is the inside-out technique used. Rather than opting for a dark colour in the recesses and going for lighter highlights, I've inverted the process. I've used a watered down white to ink into the recesses of the plasma suggesting a super charged core heat. The coils are - comparatively - cooler with the darker blue highlights. Now before anyone shouts "physics" at me, I already know blue optical colours are hotter than white due to thermodynamics. But in colour theory - shrug! This idea can readily be applied with green or red plasma guns and pistols as you please. I've chosen blue here as the plasma accent colour as it works nicely with the rest of the "serious" look of the marine. A nice start to the year!