Horus Heresy Review: Emperor's Children Sun Killer Squad

Editorial Note. With the announcement of the new rules for the Horus Heresy, I am completing the reviews of all units from the previous edition for completeness sake. Enjoy!

Background.

The Sun Killers were a peerless and boastful group of heavy support warriors within the Emperor's Children. They went ahead of the main force to deliberately target the massive armour or bio-beasts of the enemy and slay them; or provide covering fire for when the legion needed a tactical retreat (ahem: repositioning). They eschew physical ammunition and prefer energy weapons as their armament.

Strengths.

Fundamentally, this is a las cannon squad with an extra pip in Ballistic Skill, able to ignore cover thanks to Precision Fire, and potentially can take a defence line instead of transport (this seems like a good idea, depending on what mission is being fought). 

They can swap out the las cannons for plasma cannons, multi-meltas, or volkite culverins which in some situations can be advantageous (I am salivating over the sheer saturation possibilities of the plasma cannons! Multi-Meltas clearly have use for tank hunting, and Volkites do well against massed troops and others). 

Weaknesses.

Apart from the 1 wound issue that permeates all such squads, the biggest thought here is that the price tag is for las cannons and swapping out to other weapons makes this fractionally squad less attractive in terms of points cost. 

Builds.

5 Sun Killers (250 points).

Honestly, I really like the "naked" option here! Take a transport to taste. 

10 Sun Killers, 1 augury scanner (455 points).

Lots of firepower here and for a reasonable cost. Take the defence line to taste. 

Leagues of Votann: Squats Return!

Here's a post that I never thought I would be making: the Squats are returning to Warhammer!

The video produced by the Warhammer Community on April Fool's Day turned out to be entirely true and a solid double bluff. Not only are the Squats returning, but they have a new name and will be given the status of an entirely new faction within the game. 

Although I am assuming that there will be some ret-conning going on, I'm looking forward to seeing how the narrative plays out with regard to the tension between the (a) being part of humanity, but a long distant cousin in the same way Ogryns were originally thought to be; and (b) not being nom nom'ed by the Tyranids. 

The miniature posted by the Warhammer Community team is excellent. The sculpt is pretty much spot on and in line with how I personally perceived they might return in my head, albeit a bit more "miner" and less surf-board, cigar-smoking, plasma toting Forge World analogues. Gone are the obvious flak jackets, and in is a more power armour miner look. I hope that the new faction manages to make themselves distinguished from the other loyalist branches out there and I'm personally looking forward to hearing more about how they retained the armoury through the darkness compared to Terra. 

Would be wonderful to see them in 30k as well, but I guess that's just as much a dream as Eldar, Orks, and the like. 

Horus Heresy Review: Ultramarines Nemesis Destroyer Squad

Editorial Interlude. With the announcement of the new rules for the Horus Heresy, I was a little undecided as to whether to review the final few units published on Warhammer Community for the current rules set. I decided I'd do it for the sake of completeness as it would otherwise hang over me as being utterly incomplete otherwise and that would not sit easy with me. Rest assured that once the new rules come out, I will commence a new set of reviews under the new rules set - this will be a future grand endeavor though. 

Background.

As with other "chapters", there exists within the Ultramarines entirely dedicated squads who train for one purpose. The Nemesis chapter is once such sub-division and features primarily bolt guns rather than regular armaments for destroyer squads. Happily, these bolt guns come with experimental ammunition.

Strengths.

The "standard" ammo here is a Nemesis round. although S=4, they come with the Harrower rule which means that they inflict a leadership test as if they suffered 25% casualties. Moreover, wound rolls of 6 are resolved at AP=2. With assault 2, it is therefore likely that massed firepower could win the day here against many opponents. Rad grenades are the icing on the proverbial cake here and make a good unit into one of rather high quality to say the least.

Weaknesses. 

Very little other than being regular marines with a 3+ save and 1 wound!

Builds.

20 Nemesis Destroyers, 4 Rad Missile Launchers. Sergeant with Thunder Hammer. (460 points).

There's just something about massed firepower that I can't move past here!

10 Nemesis Destroyer, 2 Melta Guns, Melta Bombs, Sergeant with Power Fist and Artificer Armour. (270 points)

Take phosphex bombs to taste, and a rhino to get places. 

Horus Heresy New Edition Announcement

I am beyond thrilled to see the formal announcement and reveal of the new edition of the Horus Heresy. The theatrical trailer has just blown me away. I've watched it so many times that other members of the household are concerned for my on-going sanity. 

And then there's the miniatures. 

Superb levels of detail abound in the new "Beakie" power armour. Even putting to one side the sheer gorgeous sculpt, the dynamism is impressive and the little touched such as the trigger discipline is a pleasure to see. 

I'm very excited to see what the future holds for the Horus Heresy line! 

Dark Master Progress

It has been very slow progress to get to this point, but happy with the Dark Master Be'Lakor thus far. 

There are some fiddlesome bits to the build, to be clear. The most obvious being which left arm to select for the build. There are two left arms, and each requires a different chest. It is therefore vital to figure out which chest is required for which left arm -- this might not be totally obvious from the instructions, so always dry fit these two components in combination with each other before gluing into place. 

I personally like the details on the blade and around the face. This one is going to be great to paint up once I reach that stage. That said, I'm not looking forward to the chain mail armour parts or the chains in general - they always feel awkward to get looking right. Regardless, the miniature is a gorgeous build and it is easy to see why this particular kit has proven so popular. 

Horus Heresy Review: Fafnir Rann

Background.
There are a number of characters in the Horus Heresy who at first glance don't feel like they belong in their allocated legion and probably should have been recruited to a different one. I have a bit of a soft spot for these kind of flavorful characters who otherwise break the generic mold: Fafnir is one of them and in this case it is the Space Wolves rather than the Imperial Fists that he should probably have been allocated to. 

Fafnir earned the moniker of Dorn's executioner and was a superlative commander for the loyalist forces during the Siege. His tally was high and he was as effective on the offensive as the defensive, and known for his sheer mastery of using twinned axes and being able to swap to axe and shield when the situations called for it.

Strengths.

Not messing around here: Fafnir is a great close combat character. He has different attack profiles for using his twinned axes versus one axe and a shield (replacing the rampage rule with the shield master rule which give -1S to opponents as well as acting as a regular boarding shield - a really nice combination). The AP2 means Fafnir is deadly to almost any opponent short of Primarch and other notable commanders. 

The executioner's tax deserves a mention here as well for its uniqueness. Any unit charging against him suffers multiple S5 hits for doing so at I=10. Few in the game is able to replicate this kind of action realistically. 

The warlord trait of +1WS is just the icing on the cake for accompanying Breacher and Phalanx Warder squads, let along taking one as troops. As if that wasn't enough, he even gets hammer of wrath combined with a good stat line.

Weaknesses. 

I guess he hasn't got more than S=4 or T=4? 

Other than that, it is important to consider how you want to use him. He has the unusual option (outside of Night Lords) of taking a teleport transponder for 10 points -- this is a nice way of making use of him short of a land raider.

Overall.

Well worth the points: he can wreck squads with the right timing. But beware of massed incoming fire.