Horus Heresy 3e Review: Heavy Support Squad

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4.5/5 stars. Rounded Up. Pretty much a mainstay of infantry based firepower.  

Background.

Big guns never tire, and neither do these Astartes! Bringing portable heavy weapons to the battle can be critical as they can get where armoured tanks cannot, and as such every legion maintains a strong cohort of weapons and trained marines ready to take on all kinds of threats. 

Strengths. 

Whole squads of heavy weapons are a mainstay of many legionary forces. Here's some notes on the heavy weapons themselves. 

Heavy Bolters give you three shots on the move, or four shots stationary at S=5 to lay down a strong (generic) layer of fire power. Often overlooked in favour of other weapons, but still viable.

Heavy Flamers are almost always overlooked. But I actually really like them. Not only do you got a lot of hits, but you have panic here as well. The only price to pay is the short template range. You'll probably want to tool up for close combat duty here as well I think. 

Autocannons are great. Seriously. S=7 with breaching and Heavy on FP provides a deadly combination and at a great range.

Missile Launchers are flexible with frag, krak, and flak (i.e., sky fire). Don't forget that frag has heavy on S here as well whilst the other two have heavy on Damage instead. Very attractive overall. 

Multi-Meltas are short range anti-armour options with heavy on RS. You need to be within 8 to get the bonus you are after. These are dreadnought hunters and lighter tank killers. Equip for close combat in all probability as well.

Plasma Cannons sit in a good spot with blasts, breaching, and overload possible. 

Volkite Culverin should be taken in good number to maximise the deflagrate effect. The range is very impressive and heavy on FP can be deadly here. 

Las Cannons are the workhorse of tank killing with armour bane and heavy on Damage. With S=9 and a mighty range, they can happily sit still and ping things every turn. 

Weaknesses. 

Once again, these are just regular marines. You get what you pay for overall (although the points cost for some weapons is slightly high), and the 5 star rating is no accident here. They are that good for what you are getting.

Builds.

10 Heavy Support Marines, 10 Heavy Bolters (200 points).

A very workable squad. 

5 Heavy Support Marines, 5 Heavy Flamers, Sergeant with Power Fist (115 points).

For close up work, and very deadly in zone mortalis. Surprisingly effective and honestly not to be overlooked (I often don't get why people hate on flamers). Take a rhino and go hunting. Take vexilla and nuncio vox to taste. You probably don't need 10 marines here. 

5 Heavy Support Marines, 5 Autocannons (150 points).

Cheap enough to take and sit somewhere dishing out lots of fire power. Upgrade to 10 members if you are playing at higher points values or just want to make sure your target is finished off, but occasionally I've found this is overkill. 

5 Heavy Support Marines, 5 Missile Launchers, Augury Scanner (135 points).

Expand to 10 members to taste (often depends on the points value of the game).

5 Heavy Support Marines, 5 Multi Meltas, Nuncio Vox, Vexilla, Sergeant with Thunder Hammer (210 points).

Kitted out for tank busting and then thinking about destroying the infantry that might be carried on board transports. I don't recommend 10 marines here. 

5 Heavy Support Marines, 5 Plasma Cannons (150 points).

Similar to the autocannons in many respects, but with small pie plates and the possibility to overload. Sit still and fire away. Expansion to 10 marines is subject to taste and points limit of the game. 

10 Heavy Support Marines, 10 Volkite Culverins (250 points).

Volkite has to go big or go home, hence a 10 man squad is recommended. 

5 Heavy Support Marines, 5 Las Cannons, Augury Scanner (185 points).

Anti-Armour. The scanner is there to prevent shrouded issues of course. If you are expecting lots of armour, expand to 10 marines, or consider multiple small units. 

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Tactical Support Squad

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4.5/5 stars. An excellent choice all round for maximal flexibility, hence why I've rounded up. 

Background.

In the Heresy Days before the year 40,000, and before tactical squads routinely took special weapons, there were the legion tactical support squads. They bring to the battlefield bolt gun replacements, with options from flame units to plasma guns, and melta guns to more besides. 

Strengths. 

I will freely confess that I love the support squad and have done across all editions of Horus Heresy. The ability to take a squad of melta guns, or plasma guns, and so on and so forth is insanely good. 

When 30k was first released, I mentally compared this squad to the likes of Eldar aspect warriors (e.g., fire dragons). Indeed, this is probably the best analogy I still have. These squads are specialized, but will find use on almost any battlefield depending on what your target is exactly. They bring solutions to your perceived problems. 

Flamers are great for short range fights against enemies in cover, and causing panic is great of course.

Plasma Guns have high strength and double tap with breaching which you can overload for better breaching and strength if you wish (which no doubt you will). They lack the low AP of previous editions, so you are causing wounds with breaching here instead. 

Melta Guns are your standard anti-armour weapon. Get within 6 inches to gain armour bane and double your damage for penetrating hits. 

Volkite Chargers are assault weapons and you should take them in bulk to get the best of the volkite rule. 

Volkite Calivers have better strength and longer ranges than the chargers, but again take them in numbers. 

Rotor Cannons have poorer strength than you would like, but they look very cool and inflict suppressed which is psychologically enough for your opponent to think twice if you react with them. 

Weaknesses. 

They're just regular marines. You get what you pay for, but the points cost is more than entirely reasonable, hence the star rating at the top of this article. 

Builds.

10 Tactical Support Marines, 10 Flamers, Sergeant with Power Fist (145 points).

Never underestimate a large blob of flamers. Take a rhino and demonstrate to your opponent how powerful they actually are. Or use them in Zone Mortalis where even a 5 man squad will be deadly. Death Guard love them. Salamanders too (and they also don't panic). Take a vexilla and nuncio vox to taste. 

5 Tactical Support Marines, 5 Plasma Guns (90 points).

Cheap and cheerful plasma death. Take a transport to taste and nuncio vox and augury scanner.

5 Tactical Support Marines, 5 Melta Guns, Sergeant with Thunder Hammer, Nuncio Vox, Vexilla (150 points).

An anti-armour build with close combat capability for what may be an inevitable counter charge if you go exploding transports. 

10 Tactical Support Marines, 10 Volkite Chargers, Sergeant with Power Weapon, Nuncio Vox, Vexilla (160 points).

Get close, shoot, and probably follow up with a melee. Take a transport or figure out how to give them infiltrate for maximal effect. 

10 Tactical Support Marines, 10 Volkite Calivers, Augury Scanner, Nuncio Vox (200 points).

Longer range so you can sit back and ping your enemy. 

5 Tactical Support Marines, 5 Rotor Cannons, Augury Scanner, Nuncio Vox (110 points).

Great to support a command character, and can be expanded to 10 members if you feel the need. Imperial Fists love these. 

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Word Bearers Procurators

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

3/5 stars. I'm a bit torn on this unit overall.

Background.

The Procurators are a little bit like apothecaries in other legions. Except that they also harvest organs and parts from the nearly dead in order to advance the dark rituals of the legion. And that they have a squad of wannabies around them. In other words: desecration of the fallen to summon chaos daemons of the warp.

Strengths. 

For every 5 models, you can upgrade one of the wannabies to a Procurator which gets you the Narthecium and Medic rule. This is a must. 

In turn, this also gives you the flesh harvester rule. With this, you get one harvest point for every consolidation move you make (or 2 for a paragon). Should you survive the battle, these get converted into victory points at the end. This makes for a great strategem which I've seen pulled off once. Basically, you pick a weak looking opponent and eliminate them, then go hide hoping that the extra point will see you gain victory! Or try to repeat this on a series of weaker targets where you are assured of victory. 

I'd take the power weapon on the procurator every time, and I'd also consider the upgrades for the 1 in 5 in the rest of the squad. Probably power fists. Possibly a warp fire pistol even. 

Weaknesses. 

The procurators will categorically be a high value target for your opponent. The chances of you harvesting and then surviving the rest of the battle are very slim. Rest assured if I were the opponent, I would be targeting this unit. But therein is also a strength, it allows you to move the rest of your army into position. So you can almost thing of this unit in two different ways: a unit that is capable of winning the tide of a battle with extra victory points, and one that is a complete distraction to your opponent once it harvests for the first time. The 3+ save is also a weakness for a squad costing this much. 

Builds.

8 Procurants with 2 Procurators; 2 Power Fists and 2 Power swords on the Procurators. 

(265 points on foot / 320 points with jump packs).

This is the basic layout. Sure, pistols like the warp fire pistol are viable instead of power fists here, but I still like this build. 

Warhammer Glasgow

I was in Glasgow this week due to travels. As per usual when I visit a location, I do try to make an effort to find and navigate to the local Warhammer / Games Workshop store. 

Sadly, my travels were also immediately after the very large fire that affected Glasgow Central Railway Station. The image captures what I saw on the day along Union Street where both Warhammer Glasgow and the train station are located. 

Union street (visible in the image) was physically roped off by the emergency services. In the background of the image is the aftermath of the fire with one of the buildings adjacent to the railway station destroyed and the fire services still spraying the scene with water. The Warhammer store (and the railway station itself) is on the left obscured by the van with the red and yellow chevrons. 

Hence this post is a shout out to Warhammer Glasgow. I hope you manage to regain access to the store soon (I know from Facebook you still haven't regained access), and I hope to visit again at some future point in time. Best wishes from Warpstone Flux and your would-have-been mystery shopper. 

Tyranid Infestation Part 2/2: Smaller Pieces

The second and final part of the duology of painting the Killzone expansion: Tyranid Infestation is today looking at the smaller pieces of terrain. These are markedly different from the towers that I showed yesterday in the basic sense of the vertical nature of the towers is wholly missing, and there's a bit more red flesh showing through on many of the parts.  

That said, I followed the same approach here overall. My goal was to give the lower parts a darker colour with the uppermost surfaces being lighter and drybrushed with eldar flesh. This has worked throughout, except for the tree-like vine (middle left) which retains the "notch" approach used on the towers, but obviously going much more horizontal here. 

The reds are taken up with the surfaces of the lower two elements in good quantity, and also the brain-like structure at the top left. Blood for the blood god has again been applied selectively to give a slick and immediate look to some parts of these elements. 

I wasn't a fan of the spike tower at the top right - glueing that together and painting it was an exercise in trying to not stab myself. But now that's its done, I can at least appreciate the look of it.

These pieces really complement the towers in a good way and provide items that some models can just about see over the top of, but will provide cover for almost every infantry sized model standing behind them. Best not to poke them too hard if you ask me though, I think they might retaliate, or there's probably something living inside them still!

 

Tyranid Infestation Part 1/2: Towers

I bought the killzone expansion for the Tyranid Infestation terrain. And I am very pleased with this purchase indeed. These pieces are really rather fabulous. Not only are they nicely detailed, but they glue together superbly well and can be arranged on the gaming table to excellent effect. 

The first batch of terrain that I painted up was the towers. These only have a few parts to them each (and the tallest twin towers sits on another piece of the terrain on its own). 

The painting here is straight forward in some regards. The undercoat is corax white. I've then applied two base coats, both using contrast paints in red and stone coloured. 

The the stony colouring, I've gone back into the recesses with a much darker contrast paint set to give them a gradient. Every notch starts out dark and works its way brighter as the eye takes you upward. This creates a very organic look to the terrain and makes it look evolved over centuries rather than quickly during a tyranid invasion. I've also applied some dry brushing in eldar flesh to the upper most surfaces and upper notches to really make the contrast as strong as possible.

The reds are supposed to be a bit fleshier in places. As well as the contrast paint, I've worked darker reds and blacks into the recesses, some dry brushing of lighter reds, and selective application of blood for the blood god to give it a subtle slick look. 

Overall this produces the desired result: terrain that doesn't look overtly "tyranid" in some regards and would look entirely in place on a desert planet for instance. Or maybe Murder. With the Megarachnids that proved to almost doom the Blood Angels, Emperor's Children, and Sons of Horus. At least that's where I'm going with this particular terrain in the back of my mind.