Horus Heresy 3e Review: Tech-Thrall Covenant

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️ 1.5/5 stars, rounded down. The rules are poor and points cost not worth it. 

Background. 

Not servitors so much as cyborgs, this is the fate that awaits the regular population of a Forge World should they offend their masters. Or, your know, when the need arises possibly as well. Simply put, these are expendable troops. 

Strengths.

Human cyborgs of the grim Lacrymaetra. They have a 5 in toughness and 12 in cool, but that's about the only thing I have to write home about. 

They are expendable, and don't suffer leadership tests in the same way as others except in terms of panic. Feel no pain is handy, but hardly an advance on the 6+ native save. 

For armaments they have a las lock with throws out S=4 ranged hits. It is okay. 

At best, this is a tar pit unit and a distraction. 

Weaknesses.

Lots of weaknesses here realistically. The 2's in both WS and BS are massively problematic. S=3 and I=2 means they don't stand up in combat. The 6+ save is pathetic. They need boosted to even get a basic job done. And they move only at a rate a 5. They just can't do things other than serve as a screening unit. Even a non-augmented unit of mortal humans could probably do better. I question the Mechanicum's vision here. 

The real problem here is the points cost. A unit of 10 costs the same as a space marine squad and they are nowhere near as effective. The poinst cost needs to be halved for me to roughly change my rating for this squad. 

Unfortunately therefore, my view is that this unit is simply not worth the points cost unless you want a really fluffy army. 

Builds.

20 Tech-Thralls (200 points). 

A large screening unit that you need a magos or arch magos with to get to function at an acceptable level. Honestly not worth it. 

Dreadtober 2026: Iron Hands Saturnine Dreadnought - The End Is In Sight!

Appreciable progress this week with getting the Saturnine Dreadnought close to completion. And as can be seen, the legion of choice here is the Iron Hands!

The Eshin Grey base coat has been slapped with layers of Nuln Oil and a black wash to give the dreadnought the legion's characteristc look. I have gone around the edges of the larger plates with an equally large highlight brush of eshin grey once more. This is intentionally not meant to be perfect. The idea is to illustrate age and irregularities on the armour that have built up over time. The decals, of course, give the entire game away about which legion this is. I did consider for a long time having stripes of white across the shoulders, but in the end decided that the white decals themselves were prefectly sufficient here. 

I have also applied white in to the recesses of the plasma. These will be better made into a feature in the final step. Indeed, my brave and probably a bit stupid plan is to have the plasma light up parts of the black armour in an irregular fashion to highlight the left hand side of the model where the light would catch it. I am also planning on trying out some large scale battle damage through painting and some wear and tear in general, but the black colours of the Iron Hands makes this tough to stand out - I will give it some thought this weekend. I might also apply some white to the helmet to help it pop and stand out a bit. Perhaps the eyebrow ridge. Not made my mind up. 

Once done, I will combine it with the base from earlier on. I am planning on adding a couple of small green shrubs to the base, but otherwise will keep it minimal.

In short then: the end is in sight! I am very confident of meeting the deadline on this and having the dreadnought to a good tabletop standard next week, even with the risks I am planning on taking around the plasma highlighting and lighting that I am putting in scope!

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Tech-Priest

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.5/5 stars, rounded up. The rules are solid. 

Background. 

Adepts of the Cult Mechanicus. These are the lower ranking priests of the orders and arcana. Their jobs are much more mundane than the magos or arch magos that they might ultimately serve. Perhaps one day they might even upgrade themselves sufficiently in rank and cybernetics to get there themselves. Until then, they herd the robots and the thralls, and otherwise labour away in the forges until war comes for them. 

Strengths.

With 5's in S and T, and 4's i nWS and BS, the humble tech priest is able to achieve a multitude of roles for the Mechanicum player. 

They have a bunch of special rules like feel no pain, comptroller, battle smith, and master of machines - all of which you might have guessed at. They also have firing protocols as well which means you can use two ranged weapons. This is easy to overlook but can potentially be exploited.

Otherwise their major strength is customisation. Take what you like from the Mechanicum wargear section. Stand outs include the cortex controller, cognis-signum, cyber familiar, servo arm, and nuncio vox (although rad grenades are very tempting too). They can have one item from the Rites list hence they gain access to some of the old tech magics. Overcharged reactors will probably remain a favourite. One pistol can be taken (bolt, volkite, or plasma are all fine here in my opinion) and one ranged weapon (again, all are nicely viable). One melee weapon can be taken as well and here the thunder hammer or power fist both look like reasonable options, but a power weapon is also nice.  

Weaknesses.

I=3 and 2 wounds with only a 3+ save (6+ invulnerable). They might not last long. But at least they are cheap enough to field a lot of! And in third edition, I think having several of them as troops is a really good prospect for a player. 

Builds.

Tech Priest, Thunder Hammer, Cortex Controller, Rad Grenades, Overcharged Reactors (80 points). 

An arcana-agnostic close combat variant with a cortex controller to plug and play with! This also illustrated the issue with the Tech Priest: the points cost can rapidly add up, so you will be thinking about stripping back the points (potentially the rad grenades?) in oder to make them more points efficient.

Tech Priest, Plasma Pistol, Melta Gun (55 points). 

Mid ranged with no further upgrades is still enough to cause a headache when embedded in a larger squad. 

Of course, building with specific arcana in mind is also certainly encouraged!

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Ursarax Cohort

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.5/5 stars, narrowly rounded down. The rules are reasonable. 

Background. 

Thralls, rather than servitors, these beings are purposed as a close combat unit in service of the magos. Formed from human remains of selected people, they retain just enough ability to make good tactical decisions, but need regular grim-dark neural anesthetics to cope which they periodically get. Grim. 

Strengths.

The stat line is mostly 4's with T=5 and 2 wounds. 

They come with a pair of Ursarax Claws with give A+3 and breaching. This is very reasonable overall. However, it is certainly tempting to get the Ursarax Fists for S+2 and a native AP=2 with 2 damage and the expense of I-2. A mixture of the two options might be even more attractive. 

The volkite incinerators are very close range S=5 shots which are nice, but you need to get there. Helping that is the movement rate of 10. And related further: deep strike is a native option too here which can be taken advantage of. 

The real stand out in the special rules is Vanguard (3) which argues strongly for a up front approach and risky plays. Do it! Also: don't forget the arcana boost!

Weaknesses.

I=3 is a mild issue, but offset if you take the power fists upgrade in which case you're going last regardless, so might as well.

Builds.

6 Ursarax, 2 Power Fists, 1 Alpha (160 points). 

Swift and broad ranged enough to takle most enemy infantry.

9 Ursarax, 9 Power Fists, 1 Alpha (235 points).

Cheap enough to take, and potent enough to do damage when positioned well. 

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Castellax Destructor Maniple

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 stars. The rules are great. 

Background. 

Thought of by some as a potential internal threat should Mars ever go against its agreement with the Emperor, the Castellax were a mainstay of both siege warfare and shock troops for the Mechanicum. This worry never arose thanks to the Heresy and they were never made in sufficient numbers ever again to pose an internal threat, but their potency was never much doubted thanks to the sheer aggression of the internal machine spirit.

Strengths.

With 6's in S and T coupled with 4 wounds and 3+/6++ these robots are going to be tough to dislodge - but not impossible. They have a stand out cool value of 12, but have the usual weaknesses elsewhere. Interestingly the WS and BS are 3's.

Customisation means you can optimise your unit for both ranged weaponry and close combat. The shock chargers are good as a baseline entry since they generate S=8 hits. The power blades upgrades give breaching and shred instead which might actually be more useful overall.

The mauler bolt cannon is useful on its own with S=6 hits and pinning. Upgrades here include the dark fire cannon which is always welcome with AP=2 and S=8 with suppressive despite the lower firing rate. The multi-melta pushes this further into anti-tank territory but is obviously shorter range. 

Weaknesses.

The WS and BS being 3 are mild issues. But the points cost remains attractive. At worst you can use them as distraction carnifexes. 

Builds.

6 Castellax (300 points).

Yes, no upgrades. Also yes: viable. 

3 Castellax, 3 dark fire cannons (195 points).

Long range options. 

3 Castellax, 3 Multi Meltas, 3 power blades, 3 flamers (225 points).

A close combat variation for taking out transports and dealing with the contents. Of course, mixing the builds up is also viable. 

Wargames Gallery: Purification

The Word Bearers close with flame units on the Iron Hands positions. Both praetors are weighing each other up. Meanwhile the planet itself looks like it is about to emerge against both sides in the conflict! Will the Word Bearers flames be enough to undertake a thorough purification of either?