Horus Heresy 3e Review: Anathema Cadre

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️ 2/5 stars. The only troops choice. Over-costed compared to space marines and otherwise lacking in custom units compared to previous editions.

Background. 

These sisters of silence are organised in to a paramilitary force and able to take down anything ranging from enemy psykers through to armies of animated corpses controlled by corrupted so-called sorcerers. These are the core units of the sisterhood in short. 

Strengths. 

A 10 in willpower with 4's in WS, BS, and I, but otherwise looking very mortal on the stat line. The 3+ save is the same as a space marine, of course.

They have bolt guns as standard, and come with Fear (useful) and hatred against psykers and malefic (situationally useful).

The upgrades are mixed. Two bolt pistols is fine overall for close up work. Flamers are useful for your purification obsessed units. And Execution Blades are good enough, but you are giving up the bolt gun for these. Equally, rending and breaching at S=5 and AP=3 will quickly deal with enemy space marine squads so long as they survive the strikes coming back at them. 

Weaknesses. 

I am more than disappointed that there is only a singular unit of Sisters troops available. Seriously - all the glorious divisions and even beast handlers of previous editions have been lost. Not cool. 

Worse than this, I would contend that they are over-costed in comparison to core space marines. A tactical squad with 10 Astartes at T=4 is 100 points. Here we have 10 women mortals with T=3 (not an issue - NB), but costed at 115 points. For this, all you get is fear and hatred as extra, but they will go down to massed fire power much more easily. 

Builds.

10 Sisters with bolt guns (115 points).

Basic and reasonable. Swapping out for 2 bolt pistols each is also entirely viable and might actually be better in Zone Mortalis or similar.  

5 Sisters, All with Flamers (90 points).

Up close and personal with flame units. 

10 Sisters with Executioner Blades (215 points).

Somewhat expensive, to be sure. But if they get the charge in, then things will start falling apart in all likelihood. And I like the miniatures. They a bit like power swords, but better!

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Knight-Centura

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5 stars. The only command choice, but lacks build flexibility.

Background. 

Battlefield commanders from within the Chamber of Oblivion. These commanders field their own mission forces and can be responsible for many Sisters. 

Strengths. 

Strictly inferior to Jenetia Krole, but that is to be expected. The Knight-Centura is the command choice for the Sisters of Silence. 

They come equipped with a paragon blade which is the best part of it. With WS=5 they will be hitting, but only at S=4 with critical on a 6+. 

They do cause fear though which is great, and have native precision at 6+ along with the usual hatred against malefic and psykers. 

They are also light infantry which has uses of its own.

Weaknesses. 

What really stands out to me here is the sheer lack of customization! There are literally no choices to make and no build variants. This is poor form to say the least. 

Builds.

As noted above, there are no builds to discuss. Boo. 

Mid-Heresy World Eaters Assault Squad - Angry Marines Looking Angry

In the years after the Drop Site Massacre, the World Eaters slowly began changing their colours. This was, according to lore, done in two steps or two different manners, depending what you believe (and I would note that the canon is always ambiguous in the grim dark future, so don't flame me!). The first is that they chose to replace the blue of their armour with red paint. The second was the sheer accumulation of blood that turned the armour disgusting red anyway. Seriously: why don't these marines undertake basic hygiene? They must smell really bad by thus point. My guess is that they destroyed the servitors that would have done the spring cleaning by this point for fun. 

Here are five of those marines all armed with bolt pistols and chain axes, as befits a World Eaters assault squad. The painting follows my usual grime laden prescription. This includes white spray paint undercoat and base coat. Using Guilliman contrast paint in most of the recesses to show wear and accumulation. Mephiston red as the base coat and red contrast to fill it in. I have added Nuln Oil to the approach on top of the contrast - most especially on the painted red parts (shoulders and jump packs). Then comes the fun part. Sponge applied black for explosive wear and tear, selected scratching. The flicking red contrast paint on to the miniature. This is especially effective on the white parts of course. Following that, blood for the blood god applied where it needs to be: in the largest accumulation of the red splatter, and around the chain axe heads. 

Some of the marines are more restrained and allow just a few spatters to do the talking. Others are much more grim and covered in the stuff. They look well on their way to total red berserkers. Which to me, is the point. 

The mind flip here is the question of "what if they are loyalist after all". I like that tension a lot. 

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Jenetia Krole

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 stars. The witch bane is well worth the points as a high commander. 

Background. 

The "Soulless Queen" herself -- Knight commander of the silent sisterhood and a sinister figure to say the least. The background fluff suggests she was legend prior to the Battle of Prospero with the Thousand Sons and that she stalked many battlefields like some deathly spectre hunting down psykers galore for the Emperor (or even at the Emperor's behest). 

Strengths. 

With WS=6 and BS=5, Krole presents a severe proposition for opponents to deal with along with 4 wounds and 2+/4++ saves. The advanced characteristics are all 10s except willpower which is a 12. 

She is armed with an archaeotech pistol which is nice, and the Sword of Oblivion. The sword gives S+2 which is needed here for S=5 and also have AP=2 and 2 damage. Critical hitting and duellist's edge round out a rather unique weapon. 

As the Souless Queen, she has a gambit named for that which gives a focus bonus equal to the difference in willpower. Ouch on the whole! She also has a bunch of extra rules like hatred against psykers and malefic which will help her out, along with causing fear and precision all the time. Don't forget Ex Oblivio as well. 

Finally, I think its worth noting that she is also light infantry. 

Weaknesses. 

T=3 is the real issue with Krole. This is terribly mortal. Eternal warrior will help keep her alive, but you will also need to either transport her, or screen her effectively (preferably within a unit as well). Opposing players would be well advised to gun her down before she reaches their lines. Especially Thousand Sons. 

Builds.

There are no builds to discuss.

Horus Heresy 3e Review: The Silent Sisterhood Rules

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5 stars. Situational and average rules.

The Anathema Psykana Army List is very limited to say the least. There are only a few units - we will review these distinctly - which does not give a lot of flexibility. As they are also Talons of the Emperor, they can be allied to a main Custodes force, which is reasonable, or any other Loyalist force. 

The Silent Sisterhood can also be the primary detachment. In which case the army gets one bonus reaction point so long as you have someone with the Investigatus Militant trait (which is essentially either Jenetia Krole, or a Knight-Centura -- undoubtedly a player will have one of these in a primary force!). 

As for the main perk, their Divisio Tactica is Anathema. This means that they are immune to psychic damage and warp damage. They cannot be targeted by friend or foe for blessings or curses. All damage from things like psychic powers and perils of the warp is simply ignored. End of. Further, if someone tries to wound them with a psychic weapon or immaterium weapon, then they only do so on a 5+. 

The command choices also have Ex Oblivio which forces perils of the warp tests on enemies who are psychic or malefic at the end of a combat round which is extra tasty. But also extra situational. 

Overall, this is - as you would expect - an anti-psyker, anti-daemon, and anti-sorcerer army. They could do well against certain builds (notably daemons, Thousand Sons, certain Word Bearers, and others). But against more regular armies like traitor Death Guard who might shun psykers, their only boon is realistically the additional reaction point. Hence I would give them a much higher star rating against certain armies, and a much lower one most of the time. Which is why I've given 3/5 stars overall as a bit of a compromise position. 

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Ares Gunship

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 stars. Lots of firepower.

Background. 

This is a flyer that has been in use since the Unity wars on old Terra. The firepower alone was enough to make the Chancellor of the Antipodean Penninsula (wonder where that is?) capitulate and surrender to the Emperor. 

Strengths. 

Armour of 13 all round with a terrific movement rate of 18 and 12 hull points.

The main attraction here is the armaments:

Twin Arachnus Storm Carronade (anti armour option at S=10 with 2 shots; or six lots of S=7) at long range;

Neutronium Magna-Caster Cannon (S=10 template with hellstorm, breaching, phage on T and cascade) at much closer range;

Two Infernus Fire bomb Clusters (limited shot with large pie plates at S=6 to cause panic).

On top of this there is also the Eclipse Shield. 

There is a bit of a dichotomy between the long and short range weapons, but players will honestly get used to it. 

Weaknesses. 

The Ares is mildly over-costed to my mind. 

I would actually almost prefer the Orion Drop Ship if you had to choose between these super heavies. 

Builds.

There are no builds to discuss.