Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Horus Heresy Review: Deathwing Companion Detachment

Background.
Sworn to ensure the lives of the senior command staff, the Deathwing are portrayed as the elite personal guards of the Dark Angels' commanders. The best of them have taken death blows intended for their commanders and are entitled to wear the bone white armour that would later become synonymous with the Death Wing in general. Of course, this is a little bit of a ret con compared to the tale in old-hammer of how the Death Wing saved one of their recruitment worlds from genestealers and to commemorate that event painted their terminator armour bone white since then. Modern Death Wing feels like a blend of these guys plus the Inner Circle Knights Cenobium. But I fear I've already digressed. 

Strengths.
There are many ways to build out this unit, from power armour to terminators, and with close combat to ranged possible. 

More than this, as an HQ unit attached to a warlord, I would suggest that they are a superior choice to regular command squads for a 30k army and probably a "must" for many Dark Angels builds. Doubly so given their affordable points cost. The ability to automatically pass "look out sir" tests coupled with denying precision shots and similar for the Praetor that is with them is amazing and will give opponents a more significant headache to achieve "slay the warlord". Further, with 2 wounds on the Oathbearer, this unit is going to see a lot of play in my opinion. 

Weaknesses.
Scions of the Death Wing is not a great Hexagrammaton rule, but I guess you can't have everything. Also the HQ cannot leave the squad, but that's exactly to be expected. 

Builds.
Frankly, there are many ways to kit out this unit. I'm not going to be able to be exhaustive here, but I will give a sampling instead. 

9 Death Wing, 1 Cytheron pattern aegis, 5 combi-plasma (330 points).
Keeping the number to 9 so that the Praetor (or similar) makes 10 and hence the unit can grab a dedicated transport. The combi-plasma is for offence, whilst the aegis is for lowering the initiative of the enemy if charged or in a fortuitous position. Take Terranic great swords or Calibanite warblades to taste.

10 Death Wing, all with jump packs, melta bombs, 3 power fists, 2 plasma pistols (520 points).
Not quite worth it points wise here (arguably), but this is now a table defining unit able to swoop on select targets with a jump pack equipped Praetor. The down side is the lack of invulnerable save and fearless. 

5 Death Wing, terminator armour, 1 grenade launcher, 1 thunder hammer (237 points).
Pleasantly affordable. The grenade launcher is for a well timed stasis shell, and the thunder hammer is to back up the Terranic Greatswords or Calibanite Warblades (to taste). Consider taking a Proteus land raider. 

10 Death Wing, terminator armour, 5 grenade launchers, 5 combi-meltas, grenade harness, 2 thunder hammers (555 points).
A bit of a death star unit, but honestly, other legions do this better. Still, this is one that will happily take on most comers. 

Thursday, September 24, 2020

Horus Heresy Review: Inner Circle Knights Cenobium

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 presented as part of the secret Legion orders and masters of what they can do. I would contend the rules are reflective of this!

Strengths.
This is truly one of the excellent units in 30k. Not only from the point of view of what they can do (I can see Alpha Legion players probably wanting to have them with Coils of the Hydra! Actually, the Dark Angels have the feel of the Alpha Legion in some respects; just an opinion), but also from the point of view of the points value of this unit -- very finely balanced. 

Fundamentally they are terminators in cataphractii armour, with Terranic greatswords, and backed up with plasma-casters (that can overwatch too). Plonk them in a land raider, and go hammer opponents (literally). Coupled with Stubborn (at Ld=10), adamantium will, and your pick of special rules, these marines really are very good at what they do, and arguably among the better terminators that any legion has to offer. 

Weaknesses.
The plasma-caster has a range of "only" 12 inches. The terminators therefore need transport to have maximum effect. 

Builds.
I have a pair of builds for readers to consider with this unit.

5 Knights: Preceptor with digital lasers and grenade harness; Hunters of Beasts (295 points).
This unit is for hunting the big enemies. Although the AP is only 3 for the Terranic Greatswords, the plasma-casters will whittle down the wounds before a charge takes place. Swap out one or two Greatswords for Thunder Hammers if you prefer. Consider purchasing Scion of the Firewing if your opponent's characters are also monstrous. Take land raider phobos to taste.

Swap out Hunters of Beasts for Breakers of Witches if your gaming friends play Daemons, Thousand Sons, or Word Bearers and apologize to them in advance for the sake of your friendship.

10 Knights: Preceptor with digital lasers, grenade launcher; Reapers of Hosts; take 4 Cenobites with Thunder Hammers instead of Terranic Greatswords (515 points).
A bit of a deathstar unit here. Take a land raider spartan and you're good to go. Scion of the Stormwing might be nice to have as well. 


Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Iron Hands Legion Breacher 5/5

The final member of the breacher squad is this un-helmeted battle brother. 

The bit that I am most proud of here was the experimental stubble on both the top of the head and beard. I've not used this particular formulation before, so this was in many ways a new trial piece for me. To create the stubble, I've mixed grey with the same skin pigment I've used for the flesh to create a subtle off-tone that is suggestive of "five o'clock shadow" for the marine. This has been accentuated through the use of painting male pattern balding. Do space marines go bald and suffer from recessive hair lines? I really don't know and don't much care for the answer -- this guy does, and he looks more authentic because of it. 

Beyond this, the marine follows the patterns laid down in the previous Iron Hands painting scheme replete with sand and mud splattered up the legs. Hope that you've like this series; I have more Iron Hands incoming in the weeks ahead.


Monday, September 21, 2020

Iron Hands Legion Breacher 4/5

This brother features a simple skull on his shield, potentially marking him out as being part of the overall command structure for a given encounter. 


What I am pleased with about this paint scheme is the eye lenses and red scope on the upper part of the shield (adjacent to the bolt gun barrel). They took a bit of a steady hand to get the upper dot in the correct place. Double so considering the nature of these recessed eye pieces -- this mark of armour is much harder than Corvus or other marks to get looking half right with the lenses. Part of me wants to just airbrush the eyes and be done with it, but I think a more muted approach is befitting for the Istvaan survivors to be honest.

I'm also pleased with how the base and weathering on the lower part of the miniature came out in the end. I was a bit concerned that I'd applied too much and it detracted from the other weathering applied, but it looks fine overall considering the balance. I may well add some further small details such as letting on to the shield at a later point, but for now am calling this one done. 


Sunday, September 20, 2020

Horus Heresy Review: Dark Angels Legion Rules

Background Material Evaluation.
As my long term readers know all too well, I have a soft spot for the Dark Angels, as well as owning a couple of ancient Death Wing terminators that have not seen action in a very long time on the table top. Overall, I am somewhat pleased with the revised rules for the Dark Angels compared to the older version

As the First Legion, the Dark Angels are pictured as being one of the most prominent legions in the early Crusade and the Emperor's personal army. They therefore became a template for the other legions yet to come. But more than that: they had access to all the old weapons from the Old Night that the latter legions did not (and instead relied on the Martian pact for armaments). Thus, the First Legion, have access to a wide array of weapons to use. Although losses in the Crusade would see the Sons of Horus become more important later one, the First Legion were a great threat to Horus in the Heresy: so much so that the Night Lords were sent almost in entirety to keep them at bay. Unsuccessfully. Overall, the Legion is portrayed as very technologically capable, combined with a ruthless attitude to warfare and some sinister secret keeping.

Legion Rules Review.
The rules presented in Crusade over-write the older rules presented in Retribution.

The first thing to note is that one of the main rules -- Covenant of Death -- has been eliminated. The dropping of the older "Covenant of Death" rule is a shame as I rather liked it, but otherwise, the newer rules are okay. 

Their main rule though is a good one in principle. Mastery of the Blade means that they strike at 3+ to hit in close combat when using something that has a blade. Like a combat blade. Or chainsword. Or power sword. Or anything sword-like. They do like their swords! This is great when one is facing off against another legion (as is common in both 30k and 40k games). But it doesn't apply all the time. Only when the enemy is also at the same WS. Hence its not applicable all the time, but does give the legion a solid edge! Doubly so in a mirror match against other legions. 

Inviolate and Alone is the new semi-negative rule that is replacing Covenant of Death from Retribution. It means that the Dark Angels never gain any Leadership bonuses from sources other than Dark Angels characters and units. Strictly, this is a less severe drawback compared to the old Covenant of Death one. 

I think its also a missed opportunity. I would have liked to have seen some of the Scion rules points cost reduced in favour of retaining the old rule. Can't have everything though. 

Scions of the Hexagrammaton is the final new rules here which allows characters to select some bonuses. We will have a look at these in a moment. 


Wargear. 
The Dark Angels are known to have stock piles of weapons from the Old Night. They therefore have access to the Terran Greatsword (not that great to be honest, unless you're fighting mechanicum monstrous creatures). The Calibanite Warblade is nice in the sense you get it for the same cost as a power sword, but it gets S+1 which is a very nice bonus. Take it if you were going to take a power sword, simply put! 

The Plasma Repeater should be an awesome weapon. But unless its on a Support Squad mounted in a rhino, its really short range means that you're going to be taking a plasma gun most of the time in preference to a plasma repeater. 

Stasis Shells are actually really good as they can downgrade an enemies abilities through merely hitting them (was -1I and -1WS, but now just the -1I penalty). 

Molecular Acid Shells were totally worth it and almost a must-have in the previous iteration of the rules for this legion. Now they have fleshbane only, and its a bit more of a question as to whether they are worthwhile. I'm on the fence a little bit. 


Scions of the Hexagrammaton.
Any Dark Angels Characters or Independent Characters can take one of the following options. As stated above, I think some of these are wasted opportunities, and further: some of the rules are simply not worth the points cost. Let's have a look at them.

Scion of the Stormwing: Snap shots with BS=2 is, on paper, alright, but also very situational. I'm not sure how many snap shots people make every game, but for me it might be a couple of times per game. Can you predict which unit might take advantage of it? Possibly heavy support squads would get a benefit from it, as might truly front line terminators. Ones with Volkites are also probably going to do well here. My overall thought is that this is somewhat worth it, but only for select units. 

Scion of the Deathwing: I'm sorry, this is bad. Re-rolling the first failed to-hit roll of a challenge in any phase is just terrible. It is very situational, and simply not worth the cost. For the price, I'd expect at least +1 attack. Don't take it. Save the points.

Scion of the Dreadwing: This is okay, but probably over-priced. The ability to always move 4" through terrain is nice -- and above average. Re-rolling dangerous terrain checks is also nice, but dependent on the battlefield. Just about okay, but still marginally over-priced in my mind. 

Scion of the Ironwing: Crew shaken becoming crew stunned is nice on paper. That is, until one considers the extent of, and price of, extra armour for vehicles. Not worth it at all. 

Scion of the Firewing: Hatred of characters is actually okay -- doubly so given it spreads through the unit.

Scion of the Ravenwing:  Re-rolls of run, fall back, or thrust distances sounds okay to me. But then again, you would probably be running a dedicated Raven Wing army if you were thinking of this, so maybe better to take other option / rites of war unless you have a dedicated Raven Wing rite of war in play?


Scions of the Hekatonystika.
As well as being members of the Hexagrammaton, characters can also belong to different cults within the legion. Little wonder then that Horus' attempts to have the lodges imposed within the Dark Angels failed. That said, these options are also expensive and generally not quite worth it in the same way that the above options are poor. 

Augurs of Weakness: adding +1S to weapons when facing AV>10 is actually very nice. Pity is doesn't spread to other members of the unit though. Could be nice on a heavy support character. 

Icons of Resolve: +1A when charged at is fine, but not worth the points cost. 

Guardians of Sanctity: Better deny the witch rolls is nice. This will be worth it on your legion librarians, but few others. Are you obeying the Emperor though with taking librarians?

Slayers of Kings: Re-rolling 1's to hit in challenges. But only against WS>4. Meh. 

Hunters of Beasts: Re-rolling 1's to wound vs. T=5 or re-rolling every failed wounding roll against T>5 is actually nice. Best to put this on a close combat character for full effect. Slightly expensive, but could be totally amazing given the opportunity.

Reapers of Hosts: +1A when in base-to-base with more than one enemy is fine, but over-costed. 

Breakers of Witches: Re-rolling all hit and wounds against those pesky psykers is actually really good. That is, if you are facing off against them. Perhaps you have a daemons player in your gaming group? Or Thousand Sons? If so, this will be great. 

 
Summing up.
There are lots of options here, many are not quite worth the points. The Dark Angels are the basis for many space marine legions that would follow, and they can emulate (with rites of wars) what many others are capable of (e.g., can certainly give White Scars a run for their money on speed, and can have their own death star units with some nice bonuses), but other legions are much more specialised. They have many positive aspects, but some can come across as being vanilla. Players will need to carefully select and build their Dark Angels armies with a specific type of outcome in mind (e.g., build a fast, speeding list like the White Scars, or take a lot of bolts, rad, and plasma to lay waste to a battle field like Death Guard, etc.). Caveat Emptor. 

Friday, September 18, 2020

Iron Hands Legion Breacher 3/5

The third member of the Breacher squad is this battle brother, caught in mid-stride looking ahead of him and getting in to a new position.


Fundamentally, this marine is not anything special, although I have added a number of details such as pouches around the waist, a bolt pistol holster on the front, and so forth. I'm happy with how the Iron Hand turned out (i.e. the one holding the bolt gun!) as it is very nicely offset from the neighbouring paint scheme. The chipping on the edge of the shield has worked well here as too. Overall, another fine addition and one that looks authentically weathered for the storms yet to come in the Urgall Depression.  

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Iron Hands Legion Breacher 2/5

The second member of the breacher squad is this marine, featuring a standard load-out with a bolt gun and bolt pistol alongside the requisite shield, and various grenades and pouches for his armaments. 


What makes the painting of this marine a bit different is the bloodied hand mark and the very bottom edge of the shield (look closely!). Other than that, this follows the standard matt black formulation I've used for the other Iron Hands I've been painting with some variant silver on the lower part of the helmet (lower visor, mouth covering). Naturally, the right hand is picked out in a brighter silver colour to represent the bionic nature of the marine's hand. 

Monday, September 14, 2020

Horus Heresy Book 9: Crusade. Some Initial Impressions

I have my copy of Horus Heresy Book 9: Crusade safely delivered! Happy Days!

In the weeks ahead, I will be undertaking the regular reviews of the units and rules contained inside this book as I have done so for the past 8 books. This will add to the growing, and possibly the most complete and comprehensive set of reviews available on the blogosphere for this series. Stay tuned for that.

My initial impressions of the book are positive. To be clear, Alan Bligh didn't write this, and whilst I'm drawn to make comparisons to the ones that he did scribe, this one stands up better than some others. The writing is excellent.

The Night Lords are, of course, repeated from earlier entries in this series, but have additions, much in the same way that the Word Bearers were added to when they faced off against the Ultramarines earlier in the series. But this book adds to their tales, not only in terms of units, but also background. 

The stars of the show are the Dark Angels, naturally. I haven't yet wrapped my mind around their rules, but I will do so soon -- they look suitably complex and complete from my early skim reads. The background contains some tasty treats such as the Rangdan Xenocides, but some readers will find the detail that is there paltry and incomplete though. I do like the sound of their actions in the early Thramas crusade though -- they pop back in to play at the Triplex, and unleash dread Silica Anima. Gulp.

I'd be happy to address any early questions if folks have any -- jot a comment or send me a message. I won't be reproducing the book or violating copyright though. Caveat Emptor. 

Saturday, September 12, 2020

Iron Hands Legion Breacher 1/5

Whilst I await delivery of Book 9: Crusade, I've finished up my painting and gluing together of the first of my Shattered Legions Breacher squad. This is an Iron Hands marine in full Breacher armour, and (unusually) featuring a flamer. 




I will be the first to admit that the graviton gun would be a stronger choice for a Breacher squad as it is one of the only squad choices that can reliably have access to such arcane technology.

There are a few reasons for selecting the flamer though. The narrative reason is that this squad is an Isstvan 5 survivor group, and they're using whatever they could scavenge from the battlefield. That, and they might, afterall, be under the temporary command of a Salamanders survivor. The second is that I wanted an anvil style unit that would simply sit on an objective and give pause for thought for any enemy wanting to capture it. The flamer does that very nicely. Then, for Zone Mortalis, I just like the idea of lighting up corridors with flames, rather than crumpling them with graviton weaponry and endangering the structural integrity of the hulk.

The painting here has been accomplished using my matt black formulation of Eshin Grey base layer followed by Nuln Oil and Black washes, Dawn Stone highlighting and lead belcher for the metallic parts greased up with yet more Nuln Oil. I intend to add a touch more final details here and there, but otherwise this one is done. 

The base and weathering is accomplished with my airbrush using two tones of earthy colours combined with some subtle darker lowlighting and smatterings of mud around the feet, shield, and legs. This is a marine that has been in the thick of it, got some damage, picked himself back up, re-armed himself, and carried on. 

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Breacher Painting

Finally finished off the first example of a Breacher Squad marine for 30k from the Iron Hands legion. The marine, and his fellows, are to represent a Shattered Legions force from Isstvan 5 that are being hunted down by the traitor legions. As such, the marine is meant to be in a bit of a state of desperation, and as such I will be adding further battle damage detailing to the armour in due course. 



The base coat here was done in Eshin Grey and washed with Nuln Oil and a relatively watery black wash to give a matt black appearance over the wider areas of plate on the model. This was followed up with Dawn stone to highlight the black areas, and an application of lead belcher as the accent colour. The lead belcher was washed with Nuln oil as well and highlighted subtly in selected areas. The pouches were done using Guilliman flesh. 

Overall, it gives the marine the matt black (or off black) colour that I was after which readily distinguishes them from the Raven Guard component of the Shattered Legions whose black is much shinier. I will be painting the arms as distinct modules, and then gluing them all together for the final step. I also intend to airbrush the base with weathered brown colours similar to way I did with the Salamanders and Raven Guard to complete the look. 

Sunday, September 6, 2020

Breacher squad assembled and basecoated

As per the title, the Breacher Squad for 30k is now fully assembled (sub-parts not withstanding), with a black undercoat and Eshin Grey basecoat.


The grey is a bit of a different approach to painting black that I'm trying out. Rather than have a glossy black finish that might be seen on Raven Guard, I wanted something a bit more matt, grime laden, and muted for the Iron Hands. Following this layer, I'm going to apply Nuln oil washes, with some additional black washes for the deep recesses, and build up some highlighting in progressively lighter grey colours. This is just one of the first step -- more on this later!

Friday, September 4, 2020

Pre-orders for Book 9: Crusade, and The Lion

I'm sure it is common knowledge that the Forge World pre-orders are available as of right now for the Horus Heresy Book 9: Crusade, and the new miniature for The Lion. 

Like many other people, I was hitting refresh fairly constantly close to 10:00am BST this morning to get in with the pre-orders. I'm delighted to have secured a copy of the Crusade book that will be shipping in a week's time. Hopefully I will have my hands on it the week after next.

For the Lion, I decided against ordering the miniature. Although I have long since had a soft spot for the First Legion and their story, I simply don't have the urge to purchase this one just yet. Maybe in future years I will collect the Primarchs all together, but for now, I'll pass. I did want to briefly comment on the prices of the Primarchs though, as there has been strong price increases for some of them -- including the Lion -- at least in comparison to each other. Here's a run down of the costs as of the time of writing.

GBP 63: Vulkan, Angron, Kurze, Lorgar, Fulgrim, Mortarion, Ferrus Manus

GBP 68: Horus, Guilliman 

GBP 74: Russ, Corax, Perturabo

GBP 79: Alpharius, Dorn

GBP 84: The Lion, Sanguinius, Magnus

[Not yet available: The Khan].

From this list, I think the following are over-priced: Alpharius, Dorn, The Lion. I also think the following are under-priced: Horus, Kurze. This is simply a reflection of the amount of resin coupled with the pose. I acknowledge that Sanguinius for instance is a huge miniature with the wings and all, Magnus has things flying everywhere around him. Whilst the Lion has a hugely detailed base and looks truly amazing, I think his price point should have been somewhere nearer Alpharius, but I do acknowledge the height of his base which adds to the extra resin required compared to Alpharius, so maybe not too bad, plus the options for the head and blade, but equally Alpharius should be about the same level as Russ maybe. Then again, Horus is placed on those crumbling stairs, but on the flip side lacks the bodies at his feet seen with Alpharius and The Lion. I really think Horus is under-priced still for the quality. So interesting price points here for the Primarchs at present. It is tempting to grab miniatures like Horus before the price goes up. Maybe I'll do that later in the year.

In the mean time, I look forward to reviewing the ninth book in the series: Crusade. You can expect the same treatment that I've given to all the other legions to be repeated for the Dark Angels and this will be incoming later in the month -- look out for it! 

From one of the biggest HH fans on the blogosphere :)

Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Test Shield for Breachers

I wanted to conduct a brief painting test using a new formulation that I've had in my mind for a rather long time for black. The subject material was a breacher shield for my Iron Hands shattered legion squad.


The formula that I'm using here explicitly avoids using pure black except for the base coat. Instead, I opt to use Eshin Grey as the base coat and follow this up by two washes: one with Nuln oil, and a second with watered down brown/black to generate a grimy feeling. 

As for the silvers, this is a straight forward application of lead belcher, followed by Nuln oil and some highlighting with Rune fang. 

Overall, I'm happy with the outcome here. The "black" is the desired matt colour that I was after in the first place, and it certainly offsets the Iron Hands grime black from the more obviously black and arguably glossy finish that I've opted for with my Raven Guard contingent of the Shattered Legions. I will be painting up the rest of the Iron Hands using this formulation. More on this in the coming days and weeks ahead. 
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