Horus Heresy Review: Legion Thunderhawk Gunship

The most expensive Lords of War entry in Betrayal outside of titans, the Legion Thunderhawk Gunship is a flying, hovering, super-heavy!

There are a combination of items that make this gunship so expensive. Firstly the transport capacity: being able to take 30 marines to where they're needed and have them deploy off of an assault ramp cannot be underscored enough - its very effective on a flyer. But on top of this is the wide array of weaponry. The thunder hawk cannon will probably spell death for a space marine squad every turn (assuming it doesn't scatter too much), the four twin-linked heavy bolters will almost assuredly mop up any remains of the above, the two lascannons will give tanks pause for thought, and the heavy bomb clusters almost feel like an afterthought, but give the gunship a wide array of utility. But remember as a super-heavy, the gunship can fire all (yes: ALL) of its weapons as if stationary, and at independent targets.  Naturally, the gunship is also going to be a prime target for an enemy, but it does have 4 structure points to somewhat compensate for the AV12 armour all around. Hence there is some risk to deploying this monstrosity.

There are five possible upgrades to the Thunderhawk Gunship.

It can potentially take a Turbo-laser destructor (yes - that's the titan weapon of the same name) in place of its cannon. A "D"-class weapon is nothing to say no to, so this comes down to personal taste. I think I'd rather like to have such a laser on board to take care of opposition tanks that might come my way.

It can replace its bombs with six hell strike missiles. The trade-off here is significant. Do you want three turns of apocalyptic sized barrages, or six higher strength missiles that have a smaller blast size? This is down to taste to some extent, and what opponents you gamble you'll be facing.

The Chaff Launcher is very nice for the extra protection -- take it since its very little increase on the points already sank in to the thunder hawk.

The armoured cockpit will keep this guy flying and shooting longer with the ability to ignore shaken and stunned crews half the time. Again, it doesn't cost much compared to the points one has already sunk in to the gunship, so I think its on the list of "take it".

The flare shield is an interesting option, but pricier. In general, it will depend if you can keep your front arc facing the enemy most of the time to take full advantage of it (or at least: keep the front arc facing the enemy whilst the contents of the gunship is deployed). I'm not too sure about this as its use is situational and must be tailored to your army play-style.

Hence, my suggested set up for this super-heavy would be something like:

Legion Thunderhawk Gunship, Turbo-laser Destructor, Chaff Launcher, Armoured Cockpit (945 points)

The real question remains though: is it worth this price tag? Would a warhound class titan, for instance, be better? Or what about several (meaning three or four) Storm Eagle Assault Gunships? It is really a very close call on the face of it and I'm uncertain to be honest.

Horus Heresy Review: Legion Typhon Heavy Siege Tank

As one of the cheapest Lords of War entries in Heresy Era gaming (only the Malcador is cheaper), one has to question from the outset why it is so. A cursory inspection of the stat line reveals part of the reason: only 2 structure points (compared to 4 on the Fellblade!). The other aspect is a general lack of secondary weapons. Hence this is one investment that the controlling player will want to take a care of.

In brief, its best to think of the Typhon as a kind of expensive Land Raider -- this is reinforced by its physical appearance and chassis, which it shares with the Spartan. But: with only the Dreadhammer cannon, it is perhaps more akin to a super-vindicator in some ways.  As the only standard (and the primary) weapon on the tank, the dread hammer cannon is powerful, but severely low range if the tank moved. And rest assured: we would want to be moving the tank.

Why do we want to move the tank? Well, it crushes everything in its path. Its a juggernaut! It laughs at difficult terrain, and eats dangerous terrain for breakfast. They just don't affect it. Moreover, anything it rams gets a full S10 AP2 hit on it at all times. Even if it moved the length of a grot's forearm. It is this aspect that really appeals to me and to a wicked sense of play style I've developed!

Here are a few builds to think about.

Legion Typhon Heavy Siege Tank.
Naked. That's right: no upgrades. Go for it, since you always wanted to field a Lord of War, right?! But bear in mind the above caveats: it is still one of the weaker Lords of War.

Legion Typhon Heavy Siege Tank, heavy bolter sponsons, pintle-mounted heavy bolter, armoured ceramite (405 points)
This is a kind of "dakka" set up to ensure that the tank has a good complement of secondary weapons to bring to bear on the enemy.

Legion Typhon Heavy Siege Tank, lascannon sponsons, armoured ceramite, pintle-mounted multi-melta (430 points)
This set-up is an anti-tank one. If you're not killing things with weaponry, you're steam rolling them to death with your ramming. Take a hunter-killer missile to taste, or even replace the multi-melta with a havoc launcher for longer range pressure (particularly if everything else has havoc launchers -- they're beastly in great numbers!). 

Horus Heresy Review: Legion Fellblade Super-Heavy Tank

The first entry in the Lords of War section of Betrayal is the humble (or humbling) Fellblade. Costing more than Horus himself, this super-heavy tank better be worth the points. But is it?

The primary weapon of the Fellblade is the Accelerator Cannon that can be shot in two modes: a high strength piercing round, or a slightly lower strength massive blast round. The former can pick off almost any opposing tank or structure, the latter will wipe entire squads of space marines off the table. On top of this, it has two quad-las cannons on sponsons. Fire these off at your enemy tank and follow up with the accelerator cannon and you will be posing a threat to even titans with the Fellblade. Additionally, there's the hull mounted heavy bolter (don't forget about it - its quite easy to get carried away with the bigger guns!), as well as the hull mounted demolisher cannon for extra bang if things get up close and personal and you just need to take care of the titan's knee joint at such ranges.

But to be honest, with AV12 on the rear of the tank, this is one that you will probably be wanting to keep near the back lines (assuming you're looking out for any infiltrating / outflanking units coming in trying to take advantage of the AV12 -- keep your eyes open!). With 4 structure points, it is going to hang around a while, but the rear armour (and indeed the side armour to a different degree) is always going to be an on-going concern.

There are a number of upgrades that are worth-while, but top of my list has to be the space marine crew. Obtaining BS=4 on the Fellblade is terrific for the work it needs to do - particularly the sponsons - and can make all the difference. With that in mind, here are a few builds to consider.

Legion Fellblade, space marine crew (540 points)
Pretty much the "naked" or vanilla flavour Fellblade that I think should be fielded. This version will sit near the back lines and do its duty.

Legion Fellblade, laser destroyer sponsons, armoured ceramite, space marine crew, hull-mounted heavy flamer, pintle mounted havoc launcher, command tank (605 points)
Well, the laser destroyers are great and worth thinking about if you're going to go up close and personal (all out style!). The heavy flamers are to counter chargers. and the havoc launcher is for mild sniping. Arrange units around the tank so they gain the morale re-roll from the command tank designation and you've got a hell of a spear tip to drive across the board. Pricey, though!

Mark of War

My long term readers will know that I'm more of a "Mystery Shopper" style reviewer, rather than someone who endorses any old product on a regular basis. That said, I recently got a letter through about a new wargaming video game: Mark of War, by Warpforged Games.

Mark of War is currently on kick-starter and I was asked by the developers if I could spread the word. So I headed over to the page and wondered if I would like what I saw, and if I did, I resolves to give it a plug here on Warpstone Flux. As you can tell by the link at the start of this paragraph, I did like what I see!

In a nut shell, Mark of War is seeking to emulate the feel of a tabletop battle game, but without losing sight of the fun or physical aspects of the tabletop experience. The backstory is high fantasy, but differentiable from others. But what really stands out for me are the modes of gameplay that it offers. Ranging from collecting models, to customisation, through to "mercenary" battles (where, perhaps like opening a new deck in Magic the Gathering, one has to create a functional army from random-ish sub-parts). I like the challenge that is inherent in this style of game. Moreover, Gav Thorpe -- the same one as of Games Workshop fame -- is involved and supporting the project. I'm keen to see the impact that Gav will ultimately make here.

I feel these components are going to make a unique game for the market and I'm excited by what I've seen so far. The studio, Warpforged Games, is a new one, but is clearly being run by gamers with significant experience in the field who are combining their passion of tabletop battles with video games to create something new.

Hence, I'd encourage you to check it out on Kickstarter and see if you like it for yourselves!

Horus Heresy Review: Legion Caestus Assault Ram

At first glance, it may not be too obvious that this craft is a bit of a beast, given its poor rear armour value. But this is simply not true. The best way to think about the Caestus Assault Ram is as a flying land raider. The sheer amount of shielding (which includes armoured ceramite, extra armour and an invulnerable save) on the front of the ram is impressive and means that you won't be worrying very much about opposing auto cannons, and the occasional lascannon or Tau railgun.

The broad battle plan is going to be simple: fly to where you need to be and do one of two things: unload your contents, or ram something! Or preferably, do both on sequential turns (unloading first probably…!).

The weaponry of the tank is solid, if not outstanding. The twin-linked magna-melta means that the ram is perfectly capable of scouring a landing zone for the transported marines. The pair of  twin-linked havoc launchers are solid, if not great on the ram. The fact that the ram is an assault vehicle is good for the transported marines. Speaking of which, the ram can transport 10 of any marine type, including 10 terminators (because it ignores the bulky rule!), makes it something of a good choice for an assault orientated command squad or terminator squad.

The ability to successfully ram most things with AV12 or lower cannot be ignored here either, as this was the original design purpose of the ram. The ram will undoubtably be able to take out some rhinos and the like if it positions itself well and has room for a good run up (18"!). One thing I'm a little unclear on is in the event of tank-shocking a squad (another very viable tactic here!) whether they can use a death or glory attack in response -- can you hit a zooming flyer with such an attack? I need to re-re-re-read the rules on this once more, but opinions welcome.

The major (and I mean: MAJOR) negative feature about the ram is the price tag. Costing more than a base-line land raider really makes me hesitate about including it in a Legion (or indeed: 40k) list at all. Sure, its a great flyer, but the weapons, price and limited role (e.g., not particularly firing well at opposing flyers!) is a big negative. I think I prefer land raiders to be honest.

I only have one build beyond the "naked" version, as follows:
Legion Caestus Assault Ram, with frag assault launchers (315 points)
This is what you will probably take if you want to fly in and deposit a melee squad in to position. Otherwise, use it as a mobile last turn objective grabber if necessary for the troops inside.

Warhammer Dungeon Floor Plans

A bit of a blast from the past today. The images below are of the old Dungeon Floor Plans that sold along side Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer Roleplay for use in games.

As can be seen from the back cover (below), the main idea is to use these printed tiles to figure out where your miniatures are and what distance they are to critical (or otherwise) points of interest.

Essentially, they are printed card stock of dungeon corridors and rooms (e.g., a Wizard's Lair, a Spiral Staircase, A room with Beds, etc.). Indeed, this set is a combination of earlier sets that were sold separately (Dungeon Floor Plans 1, Dungeon Lairs, Caverns & Dungeon Rooms). Is is printed to a (at the time) high quality standard and an array of possible layouts is easily achieved in next to no time.

Many of the corridor sections contain squares that are the same size as the regular Warhammer miniatures, enabling distance to be accurately measured quickly and ranges to be computed easily. Moreover, in games of Fantasy Roleplay, the squares can be used as "steps" to move the miniatures along with (e.g., the Elves get to move 6 spaces per turn, but Humans only go 4 …. or at least that's how we played these kind of things when using them in conjunction with rules such as Dungeons and Dragons).

When the corridor sections are appropriately cut out (with scissors!) they can readily connect up the disparate rooms and bring a dungeon to life. That said, the contents of the pack is more aligned with Fantasy Roleplay than it is with battles. Not that battles cannot be had in the dungeons. Dwarves against Goblinoids can occur very nicely. But the narrow width of the corridors can make for intense games, perhaps akin to 40k's newer Zone Mortalis sets, or the older Space Hulk rooms. Hence I mostly have fond memories of using these card sets for games of Dungeons and Dragons rather than skirmish battles using Warhammer rules. But even today, the set remains viable and usable. I'd certainly be happy to return to using them in Roleplaying games!