Horus Heresy 3e Review: Cerastus Knight Castigator

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5 stars. Great against massed lesser foes. 

Background. 

The Castigator is typically piloted by those venerable scions of a Household who can be relied upon to hold the line and to conserve ammunition when required. The machine spirits of these machines are stoic but no less able than the more impetuous ones in other knights. These knights are favoured by households who face multiple and lesser foes.

Strengths.

The Cerastus class knight comes with the auto repair, explode, and vanguard you might expect and layers this with an ion shield 13 armour on the front, 12 hull points, and a rapid movement of 14 which is one of the stronger points for this class overall in my opinion. 

The Castigator itself comes with the castigator bolt cannon which shoots out 10 shots every turn at S=6 and has AP=3. Ordnance on damage and suppressing fire is good here. Overall a great weapon for regular marines, or mechanicum or mortals. The tempest warblade has reaping blow and is aflame. With AP=2, it is deadly in close combat and will see off terminators quite nicely. 

Weaknesses. 

Explodes!

Honestly, I should like it more, but I actually prefer other Cerastus knights. The number of shots here has also decreased compared to second edition which is sad. 

Builds.

There are no build here to speak of or analyse. 

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Questoris Knight Styrix

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 stars. The rules are good and a glow up from previous editions!

Background. 

The Styrix apparently did some really nasty and bad stuff during the Age of Strife. Accordingly, their machine spirits are perfectly capable of reducing even the iron will of the typical noble householder to madness that forces them to conduct massacres. They are therefore held in low regard and a bit of a stain of dishonour.

Strengths.

As with the Magaera, this is like a regular questoris knight in the rules department ... except better auto-repair and a flare shield instead of an ion shield.

The graviton gun and the irad scourer are very handy for short range work. But the real attraction is the Hekaton Siege Claw. Doubling strength (which means S=16 - wow!), armour breaking and breaching at even odds each, and pinning via shock is amazing! The AP=3 is good as is the 3 damage. 

Rounding this off is the Volkite Chieorovile. This gives 5 lots of S=7 shots at a great range along with shred and deflagrate of course. Ordnance is on FP which is okay. The 2 damage per hit is strong. Arguably one of the best Volkite weapons on the market, and it satisfies the "go big" rule for Volkite without needs more of the same. 

I actually like this knight a lot more in third edition than any of the previous editions, and that's saying something. It has had a glow up, certainly. 

Weaknesses. 

Explodes!

And the points made about the Questoris Knight apply here as well. 

Builds.

There are no build here to speak of or analyse. 

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Questoris Knight Magaera

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

Background. 

A rare knight chassis combined with weapons of ancient provenance make for the Magaera to be a top shock knight in the Questoris Knights army list.

Strengths.

Much like a regular questoris knight in the rules department ... except better auto-repair and a flare shield instead of an ion shield.

The weapons consist of a lightning cannon which is nice for anti space marine duty, a phase plasma fusil which is also nice for breaching, and an irad scourer for your toughness phage antics. 

Weaknesses. 

Explodes!

And the points made about the Questoris Knight apply here as well. 

Builds.

There are no build here to speak of or analyse. 

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Knight Questoris

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 stars. A unit with a lot of customization and good rules. 

Background. 

The Questoris Knight is the most common form of knight in the Imperium. It saw vast use during the Heresy and comes in a variety of different configurations.

Strengths.

With 10 hull points and 13 armour value on the front this is a great basis to build a specific and dedicated knight out of. 

They can be configured in every manner you would want (paladin, errant and everything else) which gives them excellent battlefield possibilities. 

The base movement of 12 is also good here and an improvement over second edition. I like that they also have Vanguard (2) here as well. 

Weaknesses. 

Rear armour value of 11 is a mild issue and represents a mild debuff compared to second edition - but you also have to factor in the increase in hull points overall. Massed firepower against such knights can represent an issue. Explodes is also a mild risk. 

Builds.

There are many builds available here. I'll go through some of the more common ones. 

Knight Paladin, Reaper Chainsword, Battle Cannon, Stormspear Rocket Pod (415 points).

A classic set up which is mid range and a bit of a swiss army knife able to take on many roles. I added the storm spear because why not. 

Knight Errant, Reaper Chainsword, Thermal Cannon (420 points).
Up close and personal. Tanks and heavy infantry are your targets here. Take the front mounted melta gun for added fun.

Knight Crusader, Battle Cannon, Gatling Cannon, Twin-Linked Icarus Autocannon (415 points).
Long range fire support, and anti-air to boot. 

Knight Gallant, Reaper Chainsword, Thunderstrike Gauntlet, Ironstorm Missile Pod (425 points). 
Melee knight.

Knight Warden, Thunderstrike Gauntlet, Gatling Cannon, Ironstorm Missile Pod (435 points).
A mixed bag. Good against lighter vehicles and infantry. 

Word Bearers Flamer Squad Painted

Built as a tactical support squad with standard flamers, this is a Word Bearers unit that means business. Well suited to close up work in the tight confines of capital ships, I see this unit as a zone mortalis asset overall. I'm looking forward to getting a copy of the new zone mortalis book when it comes out as the 1500 points limit is very appealing to a player like me who actively enjoys the list building trade offs that have to happen at these points levels - they're much more interesting than the take a primarch or not choice in higher points value games to be very honest!

The painting follows my standard approach for Word Bearers, but also has a bit of a bits bash in here. The sergeant has an old school chaos space marines range helmet for instance that I have chosen to pick out in silver. Because why not. 

The bases also work to pick out the industrial close combat nature of this squad. Decals round out a very uniform approach for the models and overall I am quite pleased with how this unit has turned out overall. 

Warhammer World: 1995 Golden Demon

In 1995, this diorama won the Golden Demon open competition. 

The plaque reads:

Imperial Thunderbolt by Dave Andrews - 1995.

Dave's workshop diorama, with his scratch built Thunderbolt, won the Open Competition in the 1995 Golden Demon. 

And honestly, I love it!