Alpha Legion Contemptor #2

Following hot on the heels of another converted Alpha Legion contemptor, comes this second addition to the talon. This particular beast has a true claw with integrated heavy flamer, plus an eldar wraith sword in the right hand that he's decided to make use of (because if xenos weapons are good enough for Alpharius, then he wouldn't mind him using such a sword either, right?). 

The base is from Scibor and offsets the resin contemptor very nicely. The overall pose is one of a running dreadnought, where only one the the feet (the right one, nearest the camera in the image) is attached to the base. The left arm is outstretched as if flaming the area in front of him, whilst the sword arm is being brought up, in readiness to strike out at the enemies of the Emperor. Or enemies of the Warmaster. Or both. Or neither. Hey, its the Alpha Legion, we're all confused.

Contemptor fist with Sword

A small conversion project that will ultimately go alongside the true claw conversion for the other contemptor fist. This time, its a contemptor arm coupled with a wraithsword.

The main issue with making this conversion was the desire to have the blade almost in line with the arm. This resulted in a steep angle between the fist and the chassis of the arm. To accommodate this and fix it in to position, one of the skull embossed "knuckles" of the fist was removed and the fist pinned at the wrist such that the pin angles upward in to the chassis of the arm. The overall effect is not a bad one as the blade is well proportioned to the contemptor model. I'll post a full contemptor picture in due course.

Horus Heresy Review: Auxilia Artillery Tank Battery

Background
For when the Solar Auxilia need a bit more in the way of long range and sustained fire power with high yield shells, they rely on a battery of Artillery to rain down on their enemies. This tank battery encompasses three different tanks that are well-able to perform this role: the Basilisk, the Medusa, and the Bombard. The first two will be familiar to 40k players at the very minimum.

Strengths
These tanks rely on their firepower to get the job done. So we need to think about what jobs each might be good at.

For the Basilisk, the Earthshaker cannon is going to be employed for huge range, high strength barrage purposes. It'll be sat at the back raining down death on anything in power armour, or most tanks in the game.

The medusa is much shorter range (36"), but provides a critical S=10 option at AP2. It'll be needing to get in to a good position reliably.

Meanwhile the Bombard has much weaker strength (S=6) but critically ignores cover. Its prime job is therefore to target marines like support or sniper squads that are deep inside ruins and the like. The only question is whether to upgrade the shells fired of the Bombard with Seismic Shock shells which add the sunder and concussive rules. I think most players would toy with this concept at least!

Weaknesses
This is a squad that cannot be mixed and matched. You can only get up to 3 tanks of the same type. So choose wisely.

Builds
One build per tank, as follows:

Auxilia Basilisk, armoured ceramite (180 points)
A good price for an effective long range artillery tank.

Auxilia Medusa, armoured ceramite, hunter-killer missile, dozer blade (190 points)
The dozer blade is to help with movement, whilst the missile will help finish off any tanks left alive by its primary weapon. That said, it could be worth investing in some (or all!) of the other options here such as the auxiliary drive and extra armour. A pintle mounted heavy flamer may not be out of the question either.

Auxilia Bombard, armoured ceramite, seismic shock shells (225 points)
Able to take on most power armour in the game and give some other things pause for thought as well. Tempting to take a pintle mounted heavy flamer too in case of closer range threats. 

Horus Heresy Review: Auxilia Leman Russ Assault Squadron

Background
The first heavy support slot in the Solar Auxilia is the Leman Russ Assault Squadron. Much like the Leman Russ Strike Squadron, multiple instances of these tanks can be taken and deployed on the board to provide an intimidating array of fire power on behalf of the Solar Auxilia.

Strengths
Fundamentally, these are Leman Russ tanks and therefore nothing to sneeze at. The price tags are reasonable and there are THREE variants to select between, and a similar number for the maximum number of tanks.

As well as having the explorator adaption, these tanks are also able to use the coordinated fire protocols to gain a bonus to BS when the tanks in the squadron are firing at the same squadron.

Weaknesses
There are no real weaknesses here. Hence its mostly about how you want to play these tank (shooting, back line or mid-field) and about how many you want to take (or whether to take none at all and use a heavy support slot in a different manner).

Builds
Rather than list multiples of each tanks, I will supply one build for each type. Clearly multiple tanks of the same type should be beneficial, but perhaps not always required.

Leman Russ Demolisher, armoured ceramite (215 points)
Unsubtle, and effective.

Leman Russ Incinerator, armoured ceramite (205 points)
Equally unsubtle. Effective too.

Leman Russ Executioner, armoured ceramite, heavy flamer (220 points)
With the volkite weaponry, this is probably the only variant of the tank that could usefully employ the heavy bolter replacement. Although the volkite is much longer range, the heavy flamer can be useful for a close, personal touch. Or defence. I could toy with a lascannon too here.

Horus Heresy Review: Auxilia Thunderbolt Heavy Fighter

Background
The Thunderbolt is supposed to be a heavy fighter that wind over its opponents in dog fights due to superior weapons and firepower. And it can do this to a certain extent. But whether one classifies it as a heavy fighter is another matter entirely. That said, it certain is a "workhorse" as described in the background and I can see it being played by Solar Auxilia players quite readily.

Strengths
The fighter can be kitted out as anti-infantry as well as anti-aircraft, and anti-tank. In this regard it is highly flexible and can take on most things in the game short of Lords of War and certain monstrous creatures.

It has an interesting rule called "Combat Interdiction" which requires it to re-roll failed reserve rolls if there's an enemy flyer on the board already. This is very cute and will mean that the fighter will come on when required most of the time.

Add on top of this a flare shield, chaff launcher and the supersonic rule, and we have the makings of an excellent aircraft here.

Weaknesses
Sadly, despite the name, the Thunderbolt is rather flimsy with AV values comparable to a rhino. The chaff launchers and flare shield upgrade can help with this clearly, as can the armoured cockpit. Even more than this, it can ignore glances on a 6+ which will help once in a while, possibly. But it remains the case that this is a vulnerable fighter than needs some expert positioning and deadly quick flight runs to operate correctly.

Builds
A few builds here to cater to the roles it could be put to.

Thunderbolt, Ground-Tracking Auguries, Flare Shield, Sunfury Missiles (250 points)
This is an anti-infantry (mainly anti-space marine) build.

Thunderbolt, Ground-Tracking Auguries, Flare Shield (230 points)
This is an anti-tank build. Swap the weapons to taste depending on the opponent.

Thunderbolt, Flare Shield (220 points)
This is the anti-aircraft build - and the cheapest of the lot. Drop the flare shield to save points if needed. 

Scibor 60mm Base

I recently bought a 60mm resin base from Scibor Miniatures -- a European company that makes many, and fine resin miniatures (as well as bases) that are suitable for many types of war game settings.

I've bought from them before in the form of some bodies to be used as Grey Knight characters and was very pleased with them (they're available through their website, but also in a number of specialist stores that I've visited in the past - both in Australia and the UK). So I thought that I would purchase some more parts, but this time with a view to making a base - or rather saving me some time in base making - for a new dreadnought that I have in mind.

This particular base is the 60mm version of their ruins range. It features a number of interesting details that include the patterned gothic church interior style, a cracked tombstone (bottom right), a circular cracked base that might otherwise be used for a 25mm base (upper left), as well as other details such as a skeleton with a complete head of hair (left), leaves (lower left) and dirt (right) covering the rest of the ground.

I'm very pleased with this base since there's zero cleanup work to do and its pretty much good to go right out of the box!