Horus Heresy 3e Review: Inner Circle Knights Cenobium

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4.5/5 stars. Rounded down. The rules are great.

Background.

Fighting at the forefront of their legion and bringing their specialist skills to bear, the Cenobites represent the hidden orders within the Dark Angels Legion that specialize in one certain type of warfare. They are the wheels within wheels: the hidden orders militant within the Dark Angels that make the Alpha Legion blush at the audacity. 

Strengths. 

They come with terranic greatswords as baseline (S+2 breaching 5+, AP3, but at I-1) with the ability to upgrade to thunder hammers thanks to Legacies. Along with this, they also have plasma casters. These are essentially flamers with breaching which can be improved by overloading. The squad is fundamentally close range and melee orientated (note also the grenade harness on the Preceptor). 

What makes then flexible is the choice of Orders of the Hekatonystika. 

Augurs of Weakness (⭐️⭐️⭐️) gives you armourbane. So take some thunder hammers. But equally you probably have better tank hunting tools in your armoury. 

Icons of Resolve (⭐️⭐️) gives you Ld=10 when you are charged. Not really worth it. 

Slayers of Kings (⭐️⭐️) gives critical hits on 6+ in exchange for A=1 when against WS=6 or better. Very risky. 

Hunters of Beasts (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) increases damage by 1 against T>=6. Really nice. 

Reapers of Hosts (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) receives A+1 when outnumbered. This is great. 

Breakers of Witches (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) is situational depending if you are facing psykers or malefic units. If you are, have a +1 to hit and to wound. Nice! 

Legacies: Order of Broken Claws (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) gives T+1 and no modifiers to advanced characteristics when against walkers (dreadnoughts), automata, and also (curiously) malefic. 

Weaknesses. 

No real build decisions except numbers, thunder hammers, and which order to select. 
Also the points value is really getting high. And you need a transport solution. 

Builds.

5 Knights (275 points).

Works with most Orders. 

5 Knights, 2 Thunder Hammers (295 points).

Balanced for most threats, and appropriate for all orders. 

5 Knights, 5 Thunder Hammers (325 points).

Augurs of Weakness certainly, and the other highly rated Orders too. 

10 Knights, 5 Thunder Hammers (575 points).

Expensive. Not much use for Reapers of Hosts arguably. Good for most others. 

 

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Dreadwing Interemptors

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

3.5/5 stars. Rounded up. The rules are reasonably good.

Background.

When you want a job done, and that job is no less than the complete and utter annihilation of the problem, these are your men. They leave no trace of anything behind, and won't probably even remember themselves. The Lion's ultimate sanction all told. And if the radiation burns get to them, then a dreadnought awaits. 

Strengths. 

For the fans of plasma burners! And plasma incinerators! And Missile Launchers with rad and stasis missiles on offer! And lobbing rad grenades!

It is easy to see how these men succumb to radiation poisoning over a long time period or otherwise are rendered non-combat-effective. However, they are good at what they do, but need to be up close and personal. Tightly packed enemies are their favourite food group too. Rounding this out is Bitter Duty and being a Support Unit. 

Weaknesses. 

The lack of torrent compared to second edition is an issue and makes the squad much shorter range than it could otherwise be. The lethality of these weapons is slightly increased to make up for that though. 

Builds.

5 Dreadwing Interemptors, 1 Plasma Incincerator (140 points).

I feel that a low body count is valid for this unit. For a slightly longer range threat swap out the incinerator for a missile launcher (which is the same points value). The former is closer range, the latter provides the range and the option of the stasis missile which is rather nice (but you'll always be tempted by the rad missile regardless). 

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Deathwing Companion Detachment (inc. Terminators)

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4/5 stars. The rules are good.

Background.

Devoted to their legion and sworn to protect their leaders even unto taking the death blow for their praetors. The companions are the longest serving veterans of the Deathwing and come with a variety of upgrades, including terminator armour [via Legacies]. 

Strengths. 

WS=5, 2 wounds, and 3 attacks as base (with T=5 for the terminators) makes this a close combat unit. 

All members of the unit have Eternal Warrior which improves their survival rates even more - and is appropriately fluffy here. The also have the Companion special rule. This means that the hero that they are accompanying cannot be the target of precision wounds in any shooting attack. This is reasonable, fluffy, and will keep their escort alive a long time against certain legions and opponents who like decapitation strikes. 

For the power armour options, the Cytheron Pattern Aegis gives an invulnerable save and the Shieldwall advanced reaction. Certainly worth considering. The calibanite warblade is good, and the option for a terranic greatsword tempting. Powerfists are similarly workable. Melta bombs might not be so recommended, as other units can do it better. Plasma pistols are likely not worth the points sink. 

For the terminators, you will want the grenade harness. Again the greatswords are good as are the power fists. I do recommend some thunder hammers here though. Combi-weapons maybe not since this is a close combat unit, but lightning claws may be attractive. 

Weaknesses. 

Take a land raider for transport and you are probably sorted. I'd also recommend maximum size squads where possible, but this may not always be possible depending on your movement solution. 

Builds.

Deathwing Companion Detachment, 10 members, 3 Greatswords, 2 Powerfists, 3 Cytherons (380 points).  

The power armour variant has a mix of threats and the Shieldwall possibility. Melta bombs are possible here too, but I suspect you want other units for that purpose.

Deathwing Cataphractii Terminators, 5 members, 5 Thunder Hammers, grenade harness (295 points).

Smaller squad for escort duty and killing stuff.

Deathwing Tartaros Terminators, 5 members, 3 Greatswords, 2 Lightning Claw Pairs, grenade harness (285 points).

Take more members to taste. 

Warhammer World: Legions Imperialis Dioramas (Battle for Ceres City; Doom of Magma City)

Although I don't collect Legions Imperialis, I really rather admired the dioramas set up for the game at Warhammer World. The first is the Battle for Ceres City. This is the Delta-Garmon battle and features the Blood Angles descend upon the city to take it back to Loyalist control.

Full board, above.

And a close up.

The second set of images is the Doom of Magma City. This one is a battle on Mars for one of the final Loyalist hold out cities. Rather than surrender, the city was flooded with magma to prevent the traitors from holding it. 

Wide angle above (with a bit of reflection). 

And a bit of a close up. I like the mechanicum at the wall in particular. The spider like shapes are especially creepy and apt. 

Hope you enjoyed this glance at the exhibits as much as I did!

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Marduk Sedras

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

3.5/5 stars. Rounded down. Mildly over-costed.

Background.

A very old space marine by any standard. He's seen it all - every battlefield and configuration imaginable. He has even fought alongside the Emperor himself, and many of the other legions to boot, and also during the Unification. Upon offered promotion to join the council of masters, he asked to remain a regular master rather than join the central core of the legion as Eskaton of the Dreadwing. 

Strengths. 

Sedras has a praetor like stat line with T=5, W=5 but a movement rate of 6. 

In terms of equipment, he has a plasma burner (nice), phosphex bombs (also nice), and The Death of Worlds (which exchanges initiative for S+5 at AP=2 and 3 damage which is incredible - for S=9 attacks!). But with WS=6, he may lose out of other opponents. 

He is slow and purposeful, and also has Ancient of War which gives hatred to traitors to his unit which is a quality additio. 

Weaknesses. 

To be clear, those S=9 attacks in close combat are truly amazing. But you have to get him there. And his movement hampers this. He will slaughter things in challenges short of Corswain (who costs less) and Primarchs. And therein is the issue: he is over costed. Unless you are putting him up against monstrous opponents in which case you have found his niche! I wish he had Officer of the Line or similar or just one more perk to make the points cost super attractive. But that T=5 is excellent, admittedly. 

Overall.

If he costed the same as Corswain or slightly less he'd be very attractive. As it is, he is a true monster hunter and will do well if you don't have another named character. He is also very fluffy if you bring along the rest of dread wing!

Horus Heresy 3e Review: Corswain

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4.5/5 stars. Rounded up. A superlative close combat beat stick. 

Background.

All of the legions have recognized "names" that their brothers and cousins will instantly know. For the Dark Angels, Corswain's name is one that echos still some ten millennia later such was his skill. Caliban born, but not an ingrained scion of The Order, he was able to bridge the gaps in his legion and was the commensurate paladin. 

Strengths. 

Starting with the stat line, WS=7 is superlative for a mere mortal! Corswain combines this with his weapon, called simply The Blade, to have an effective S=6, AP=2, and 2 damage with duellist's edge. This makes him an excellent challenge monster. 

The Armour of the Forest serves even better in a duel. The damage of incoming attacks are reduced by one (to a minimum of 1). Outside of Primarchs, this is very notable. 

Weaknesses. 

Corswain is a close combat paragon. He doesn't do much else (although he has BS=5 and Ld=10). So you need to get him into combat as soon as possible. He is also a loyalist through and through. 

Overall.

Outside of the Primarchs, he is one of the most notable close combat characters in the Heresy. And he probably has a shot at some of the weaker primarchs too, if we are being honest. He may well lose, but what I'm saying is that he has a better chance than many depending on your die rolls. He kills stuff in combat whilst his armour tends to keep him alive. A true beat stick if ever we saw one.