Horus Heresy Review: Erasmus Golg

A grim character that's a bit hard to warm to, not unlike some of the Iron Hands to be fair. Golg is a brutal bully of an HQ choice for the Iron Warriors to be fair, and this is reflected in his rules. Not only does he share his Ld value with other Iron Warriors (which is standard fare these days it seems), but he also does a number of other things.

Firstly, he "unlocks" terminators as troops. Hence if you want a pride of the legion style army, then Golg is an excellent way in which to achieve it. The fact that the wording of the rule includes "may" means that both the troops and elites slots can be dedicated to terminators. This is fantastic for this kind of army, and Golg begs to be used in this way, in my opinion.

To doubly back up that opinion, Golg and any terminator squad he joins gains the hammer of wrath rule -- this is a strong encouragement to have Golg as a front line combatant along with a bunch of his terminator underlings.

In and of himself, he's a reasonably standard stat-line, with good WS and BS. He comes with terminator armour (as one might expect) with chain fist and combi-melta, but also a nuncio vox for extra interest!  This combination of arms makes him flexible, but clearly is dedicated to taking out tanks. I therefore think he wants to be in a similarly armed squad (meltas, chainfists, powerfists or thunder hammers at minimum) and possibly be given a land raider to ride in with said squad. Equally, if deep strike is in play, a pure terminator army is entirely plausible (cf. Death Wing).

Horus Heresy Review: Iron Havoc Support Squad

What do you get when you blend together the best marksmen with heavy weaponry? Iron Havocs would be the answer. These Iron Warriors are clearly the forerunners to the latter day Havocs of the Chaos Space Marines in name, but only in name. The Iron Havocs are far superior to their 40k namesakes though.

Not only do they automatically have tank hunters, but they also have deadly aim to reduce cover saves of their targets by 1 notch. Their armour is hardened and they come with shrapnel bolts in their heavy bolters as standard (see Iron Warriors Legion Rules).

Overall, the baseline unit is one which is going to pin down many enemy units within cover. But their upgrades are also very interesting. For a cheap amount of points we can gain missile launchers that have not only krak and frag, but flak as well. Lascannons also make for an entertaining option. The squad sergeant can take some of the more standard upgrades alongside this. Therefore, for me, the squad comes down to what primary heavy weapon it is going to select. Here are a few ideas.

10 Iron Havocs, all with heavy bolters and shrapnel rounds (310 points)
A little bit pricey, but pretty much assured of doing damage and pinning down a squad you don't want firing back at you. Take out the 5 extra members to go just for annoyance pinning tactics. Replace with auto cannons to taste?

6 Iron Havocs, 5 with missile launchers, sergeant with augury scanner, nuncio-vox and power fist, artificer armour (260 points)
The sergeant is there to help out with the nuncio-box and augury scanner and the power fist is a deterrent to nearby out flankers and the like, whilst the 5 missile launchers do their main job. Add in a few more havocs for fun and extra tank killing if you feel you need it.

5 Iron Havocs, each with lascannons (260 points)
Same price as above (curiously!), but lascannons this time. Although not an anti-air option, they will certainly pose a threat to a dreadnought or tank that happens to show the wrong facing to them.

Horus Heresy Review: Tyrant Siege Terminator Squad

I must admit that I like the sound of these guys when I first read Extermination. In brief, they are standard cataphractii terminators that are each armed with a cyclone missile launcher, a power fist and combi-bolter. On top of this, the squad sergeant carries a special device that permits the individual with split fire and night vision. This can be such a huge boon!

But it gets better than that: each and every attack is a wrecker one, regardless of the source (melee, weapons, whatever - its all a wrecker attack!). 

The main drawback however is the price tag. They cost 150% of a baseline terminator squad. But for that, we are gaining a lot more, I would think. The sheer attraction of the cyclone missile launchers simply cannot be overlooked. From turn 1, they should be pumping out much needed firepower support whilst slogging up toward enemy positions. But they still have only one wound each. So perhaps augment the unit with the addition of legion Primus Medicae in terminator armour to help out. This starts to get really expensive though, so beware. 

Here are a few example builds.

5 Tyrant Siege Terminators (295 points).

The naked version will serve very nicely in my opinion. Add in a character to taste. And or a land raider!

8 Tyrant Siege Terminators, 4 combi-plasmas, 2 chainfists (475 points).

This is a flexible squad for taking out light tanks, enemy 2+ save models, as well as being a close combat danger to terrain and vehicles alike. And the price tag seems to be relatively okay overall as well. Arguably.

Horus Heresy Review: Warsmith

This is a new type of praetor for the Iron Warriors, and therefore has access to all the regular bonuses such as rites of war and so forth. On the negative side, they're worth an additional victory point if an enemy takes them out. But their bonuses are neat: stubborn, Shatter Defences, and the potential to take a servo arm as well. The Shatter Defences special rule is kind of neat, but feels like it should have been just a touch more powerful - it reduces a cover save of a single terrain feature by one. I wish it was either more than one terrain feature, or the cover save was reduced by more than one. Either way would have made the Warsmith much, much more attractive. That said, the Warsmith is an attractive choice for the Iron Warriors and one that is also really very fluffy!

Here are some builds that might appeal:

Warsmith, terminator armour, servo arm, thunder hammer, iron halo (200 points)

An extra attack from the servo arm at S8 is very attractive to say the least for this build. The idea here is to place with other terminators in a land raider and go forth and conquer.

Warsmith, servo arm (135 points)

This is one to team up with other techmarines to ensure a vital piece of equipment is kept in place during the game. He's a bit naked, so keep him safe at the back of the board, but will provide access to whatever rite of war you like. Cheap and cheerful!

Warsmith, Cortex Controller, thunder hammer, melta bombs, iron halo (170 points)

This is one to keep near a block of allied robots (Castellax and so forth) whilst being embedded in some kind of larger troops or heavy support infantry unit. 

Horus Heresy Review: Iron Warriors Legion Rules

Grim, brutal, calculating, and the real masters of taking down defensive sieges, as well as sieging up locations themselves, the Iron Warriors seem to be a popular choice of army in 30k. And I can see why people like them: their background combines together elements of sheer brutality when Perturabo was rediscovered and took command, with I-almost-feel-sorry-for-them because Olympia rebelled against their rule, and what-choice-did-Perturabo-have-but-to-join-Horus. This, plus the fact that they're one of the most spread out forces (due to defending certain locations) means that there are many, many loyalist Iron Warriors knocking around the Galaxy at the time that Perturabo sided with Horus. This makes things highly interesting to say the least, as much with the Alpha Legion, one can never quite tell if an Iron Warrior detachment is going to be loyal or traitor -- at least at the outset of the Heresy.

The rules for the legion reflect well their ability to take on overwhelming firepower and take down enemy positions of all kinds. The first rule they have is Wrack & Ruin. This is a great boon which means that they will never take tests for running away if they suffer lots of casualties as a result of incoming fire. Plus they get to re-roll pinning tests. These two facets are amazing in and of themselves - recall that in 30k, ATSKNF does not exist, hence the chances of units fleeing off the board are a serious concern. Not so for the Iron Warriors when they take incoming fire (but yes: they certainly can flee due to close combat). Immediately, this probably means that the Iron Warriors should be thinking about a focus on ranged superior fire power. On top of this, the same rule gives Wrecker to the legion's melta bombs and grenade attacks - perfect for this legion really!

The second (and final) special rule is called The Bitter End. In brief, it allows the Iron Warriors player to go to the full game length rather than stop early (should they desire). This can be a boon under certain conditions, but may never come in to play.

Overall then, the Iron Warriors are a very solid force with very little negatives. In many ways, they kind of archetypes for Legion forces - a baseline for others to compare with. Sure, the Iron Hands have arguably better boons, but they also have significant draw backs by comparison. The Iron Warriors are all positive and are capable of most things in the game, even if they're going to be mostly a shooting force.

Other rules include being able to field Warsmiths (see later), having access to Shrapnel Bolts (heacy bolters gain pinning, but also AP5), and Cortex Controllers (for controlling Castellax and the like). The latter is particularly interesting for the Iron Warriors, and fluffy as well.

Their unique rite of war, The Hammer of Olympia, allows them to make disordered charges even after rapid firing their bolters, all their vehicles gain more armour and they can even field more heavy support! This is amazing and should seriously be considered by any shooting mixed-arms Iron Warriors force. 

Overall, I consider the Iron Warriors to be an excellent example of what a legion could be, and a force to be reckoned with. Played to their advantages (shooting, mixed arms, and not falling back under shooting), they are a force to be reckoned with. I can certainly see their popularity both from the rules and the background.

Posing Marines for Gun-Kata

I've written a number of articles now on "gun-kata" for space marines (see, e.g.: here) . In brief, this is inspired by Hollywood movies such as Equilibrium and a number of others. Boiled down to its essence, it involves the individual assuming certain poses with guns in each hand so that they maximise their kill zones, whilst minimising potential incoming fire in return. Or at least that's what the background is supposed to be - clearly its science fiction.

But when the idea of gun-kata is applied to space marines, it creates some very dynamic conversion opportunities for the budding modeller. The example below is my latest addition to my range for my growing Alpha Legion 30k force. 

What we have here is a combination of parts sources from space marines (back pack, bolter, bolt pistol, shoulder pad), chaos space marines (torso, head), and conversion parts from Anvil Industry (arms, bolter conversion).

Of these, the arms from Anvil Industry permit an excellent variation in poses for space marines - at least in comparison to regular space marine arms (and they certainly rival, or are arguably better than, even assault marine posed arms). Indeed, it is these arms that ensure such a rich variety of poses in a number of my models I'm building for this force. 

In this particular example, I have the right arm with the standard bolter pointing outward from the body at a reasonably steep angle. The bolt pistol arm is straight, and pointed upward in the air. The idea here is that the marine has just taken a shot with the bolt pistol and has raised his arm, whilst the bolter has just come in to play and he's firing with that now. No doubt, the next pose will be to bring the bolt pistol in to a new position for firing…! I think this combination speaks volume about the dynamism of these space marines, and brings them to life in a way that is not often seen on the table top.