Jaghatai Khan Miniature

Jaghatai Khan! 
Revealed today at the Preview. 

Very excited about this one! But what about the bike? Hmmm.

Horus Heresy Review: Night Lords Atramentar Squad

Background.

The terminator elite of the Night Lords, and all swearing fealty to Sevatar. Armed to the teeth (in some cases literally), they are noted to be shock troops, yet also very prone to the Night Lords' failings of being little more than a disunited rabble who might plausibly turn against their own. 

Strengths. 

Although one might read the stat line and not think much of it, these marines are still terminators, and in Tartaros Armour as standard. Better though, they inherit something that is almost unique in the legions and belongs to the Night Lords -- not the special rules associated with the legion -- but the use of teleporter transponders. This means that they are invariably going to be in the right area most of the time and little thought needs to be applied to how they will be transported around. I honestly wish other legions had more regular access to this technology outside of rites of war, but for the Night Lords, it is a true and powerful boon.

The equipment choices available mean that they can be kitted out in a strong variety of ways -- we will look at some sample builds below. The disordered charges against them, coupled with trophies of judgement make them all the more powerful melee opponents. Implacable advance is also very welcome here. 

Being sword to Sevatar, the Atramentar can be taken as troops, but is Sev is killed, they will no longer be scoring. This leads us naturally into the next section. 

Weaknesses.

One wound terminators won't last too long unless they get where they need to be and stuck into the fray. Even with the transponders, these marines are vulnerable to high volume, and high strength firepower, and this should be taken into consideration. 

Builds.

Remember that the Night Lords really excel when the unit size is large. Hence some of the builds below, whilst expensive in terms of points cost, try to allow for this fact. The Night Lords want to conduct an Alpha Strike and rout enemies through fear. These terminators play that role well. 

5 Atramentar; power axes (270 points).

This is actually the baseline unit. It is viable "as is". That said, it is more of a "distraction carnifex" than anything else.

20 Atramentar; 4 heavy flamers; 6 combi-flamers; 1 thunder hammer (817 points).

I actually wouldn't play this unit, but it is fun on paper at least!

10 Atramentar; 5 with Lightning Claws; 2 thunder hammers; 2 chain fists (545 points).

This is one that I would play. Why? Because Night Lords want to be conducting an Alpha Strike via close combat as soon as possible. This unit can take on most things in the game and look good doing it. Teleport in, and start the murder. Take grenade harness to taste.

10 Atramentar; 2 plasma blasters; 5 combi-plasma; 5 power fists (510 points).

An excellent mid-range unit capable of outputting serious fire power to blast away opponents or light tanks, and following it up with deadly power fists. This is a unit I would also run.  

The Defence of Sotha: Aegida's Lament

This month's Horus Heresy supplementary review is a long awaited welcome to the Night Lords' Atramentar Terminators!

The supplement is available via the Warhammer Community here, and this time we are focused on when the Night Lords invaded the outskirts of the Ultramar Empire to try to capture the Pharos -- the full events of which are told in the Horus Heresy novel by the same name. Key to the Ultramarine's defence of their realm, the artefact is clearly a grand prize for either legion to possess. 

In the supplement, we learn more of the Night Lords who undertook the invasion to attempt to capture it, along with witnessing their grizzly acts in the process. The Ultramarines who defend against this are well accounted for too, but the stars of the show are the Atramentars.

Clearly the series is going to be selecting units that have been explicitly noted in the novels but never really allowed the chance to shine on their own or given any rules of their own to play with. The Atramentar are such a welcome addition to the Horus Heresy rules set, and their absence has long since been lamented. This is now brought full circle and we witness their full g(l)ory here in this release.

I will review the unit separately in a future post (incoming later this week with a little luck) and will review the mission provided in this publication too as a third post. For this post though, I am continuing my amazement and excitement at seeing these important parts of the Horus Heresy come to light. There are certainly bits in the publication that will pique the interest of veteran Night Lords and Ultramarine fans alike. The writing is high quality, coherent, and in line with expectations of what happened for the battle of the Pharos in the novel, along with new light shone on the combatants that were immediately to hand. Excellent stuff really!

[Aside: I am personally looking forward to seeing future rules for the Effrit Stealth Squads for the Alpha Legion. Please please please Warhammer Team, if you read this blog can you grant my wish? Love from me! xx]

Corax

The Forge World model for Corax is one that I've had in the collection for a little while, but only recently found time to assemble together. The sheer amount of resin involved in the miniature is one of the larger amounts for the Primarch series within the Horus Heresy, and this alone means that would be modellers need to take some time to get everything right.

For me, the nice parts were the long rods that features in the shoulders to provide stability to the arms for Corax. On the same point, but in entirely the opposite sense, I found the side engines on the jump pack to be most fiddly since they can be orientated in a number of ways. The wings are also very delicate and need some care to be fully processed (including cleaning, as well as removal of flashes and the like). I could have spend longer doing the wings, but it won't detract significantly from the subsequent painting that I will end up doing since the mould is now clearly ageing and some of the details, whilst crisp, are arguably not quite what they once were. 

My new rule for buying Forge World miniatures is to purchase them when they come out fresh. That way, one is almost guaranteed to have as optimal a cast of the miniature as possible. 

Regardless of this, the miniature is still totally amazing. The sheer dynamism encapsulated in the way that Corax is landing hard on the rubble and shooting at his foe is impressive to say the least. It is one of my favourite Primarch sculpts (much better than, say, the Ultramarines' Roboute, or the Imperial Fists' Dorn who by comparison are relatively static). This is much more on the level of the World Eater's Angron, or the Emperor's Children's Fulgrim sculpt - and I really appreciate that. 

Horus Heresy Review: Argel Tal

Background.

A captain of the Serrated Suns chapter of the Word Bearers and also one of the first of the Word Bearers to look into the depths of the Eye of Terror -- he discovered that it looked back at him. The daemon, Raum, possessed him (or arguably formed a symbiosis with him) and enabled him to transform into an incredible part daemon entity capable of mass destruction on the battlefield. 

Purely aside from me, he was also best buddies with Kharn, and the two enjoyed a strong friendship until the end. At which point Kharn was rightly angry...

Strengths.

The stat line along for Argel Tal is very attractive with 5's all round apart from 4 wounds and an extra pip in WS. Combine this with a natural 2+ save and the daemon special rule means that this is an HQ choice to be reckoned with. His close combat attacks feature AP3 at S+1 which means he can pump out a huge amount of damage in melee. The rending and shred rules merely add to this deadliness level. 

I find the warlord trait, Master of the Vakrah Jal, to be very interesting indeed. Using this, Argel Tal unlocks Gal Vorbak as troops choices. If the unit that Tal joins are made of models that have the daemon rule, then they all get feel no pain too. This can be really strong overall, and encourages a really interesting army composition. 

Weaknesses.

He is not a scoring unit, nor does Tal have any ranged weaponry (except for the standard grenades). Naturally, he's also only available to the traitor faction. 

Curiously, Tal lacks the Word Bearers Astartes special rule, but this is understandable. This does not affect his ability to be a praetor level character and select a rite of war from the Word Bearers list though. 

Other than that, the player will need to consider how to get Tal where he needs to be. 

Overall.

Argel Tal is a very strong close combat HQ choice for the Word Bearers legion. An army with lots of daemons in and Gal Vorbak is frankly frightening from a number of different angles. But that sort of army requires finesse to make work well. 

Horus Heresy Review: Huscarl Squad

Background.

The Warhammer Community recently released the first in what promises to be an exciting series of publications on exemplary battles. Contained within this first release: The Battle of Pluto, is a new unit for the Horus Heresy game, the Huscarl Squad.

These Imperial Fists marines have risen through the Phalanx Warders and are considered to be very hardy and therefore charged with the shielding of Imperial Fists battle components. They are unsung heroes of the Imperial Fists and have a "singular nature" in the service of Dorn. 

Strengths.

They are Cataphratii terminators that carry storm shields, along with a power weapon of their choosing. This automatically ranks them as high quality and a solid investment. The ability to upgrade with power gauntlets of the Solarite flavour is superb, and the grenade harness rounds them all off nicely. 

In addition to this, the teleporter transponders mean that they match the Night Lords for the ability to get where they need to be. This is uncommon in the Horus Heresy and should not be overlooked. 

Other special rules grant them bonus WS if they are charged and have 3 or more models remaining (this extends to characters joined to the squad) and they can replace a legion command squad as a retinue if required (certainly recommended for consideration from me!). 

Weaknesses.

Fundamentally, these marines are still single wound terminators with a moderate leadership value. Models that are able to pump out enough shots to force saving throws, and those with AP2 or other means (e.g., Fear) are going to cause the squad problems. With this in mind, it is important to remember the price tag attached here which is moderately steep, but very reasonable for what you get. Its just a pity they don't have 2 wounds each really as otherwise they could compete with the Salamanders terminators. 

Finally, without any ranged weapons, it is important that these marines get to where they need to be in the game as soon as possible. Teleport in by all means, but then watch out for faster armies who will run rings around them (White Scars). 

Builds. 

5 Huscarls, all with power axes. (275 points).

This is actually the baseline squad and it will serve very well as a teleport in and make a mess of a backline squad, or hold a critical line against the advancement of enemies -- just as Dorn intended.

10 Huscarls, 5 Solarite Power Gauntlets, 2 Power Axes, 3 Power Swords, 1 Grenade Harness (535 points).

Probably only for legendary battles where a Primarch is involved given the points costs here. Regardless, this squad really will hold a good line against most comers, particularly when paired up with the likes of Dorn himself. Good luck, and don't take and fear tests from Night Lords.