Thursday, March 9, 2017

Horus Heresy Review: Varagyr Wolf Guard Terminator Squad


Background.
Forsaking their own sagas and their own chance to command and lead their brothers in to battle, the Varagyr have been chosen by Leman Russ from the Space Wolves to be his own hand-selected body guard and council in war and around the hearth having demonstrated their prowess time and again on the battlefield.

Strengths.
They're terminators fundamentally. Their leader has an extra wound and that all have a bonus pip in WS. They come equipped with some of the frost weapons (your choice, but not the great frost blade) as standard, which is a very nice touch.

Their real bonus is a hammer of wrath attack when charging over a minimum distance. They can all take part in challenges and they gain a bonus to combat resolution when they kill characters. This is a strong bonus in my opinion.

Beyond this, they are customisable to a good degree.

Weaknesses.
Their cost is somewhat high, but not prohibitively so. I think a future errata may well bring their cost down just as we have previously see with Sons of Horus Justaerin.

Builds.
The key thing to remember here is that these terminators are excellent in close combat. They are distinctly average at shooting and therefore waste their points. I'll provide a shooty squad to begin with, but I think that this should be avoided due to the costs and their inherent rules that are all melee orientated.

5 Varagyr, 5 reaper autocannons (345 points).
Yes, they are a kind of unique long ranged threat that few other legions can match in terms of the build. Yes its a nice build. But no, it is not a good use of points value really. Unless you're playing 5000+ points or somewhere thereabouts.

5 Varagyr, 4 with a second frost weapon (take claw or axe), thegn with thunder hammer, heavy flamer and grenade launcher (315 points).
Built to charge out of a land raider and optimised for near pure close combat. I like this one a lot.

8 Varagyr, 2 with a heavy flamer, 2 with thunder hammers, 2 with chain fists, 4 with combi-weapons, thegn with double axes, grenade harness and 2 cyberwolves (501 points).
A really expensive unit consisting of 8 terminators and 2 wolves that are to be deployed from a land raider. Seriously expensive though and very tooled up. 

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