Horus Heresy Review: Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought

Background.

The Deredeo has already featured in Book 5, Tempest, and in Book 9, Crusade, we find the rules have been updated a little bit compared to the earlier book. 

The Deredeo remains a heavy weapons platform that has its history in the Contemptor class and the earlier styles of Terran and Martian designs. It remained in high demand by both sides of the conflict in the Heresy, although there were few forges that could produce them.

Strengths.
With helical targeting, the Deredeo is fantastic at taking out aircraft with its weapons. Given the weapons, its also fantastic at shooting nearly everything in the game to be honest. Monstrous creatures? Yep. Terminator equivalents? Yep. Its got it all.

The entry level Anvilus auto cannon battery is S=8 with plenty of shots and sunder. The reasonable range means it can reach across the board to ensure they reach the desired target.

The Hellfire Plasma Cannonade is AP=2 at just one pip less in strength and has two modes of firing: sustained, which provides a good number of shots, or maximal, which gives a big pie plate. And terminators are fans of pie, so I hear.

Meanwhile the Aiolos missile launcher gives a huge ranged weapon that can do significant damage to space marine equivalents. Hitting side armour is just icing on the cake.

New in Book 9 is the addition of the Volkite falconet battery. I kind of like this for pinning and the combination of the high rate of fire and quality strength. It will shine against Guard equivalent armies. But I might still err on the side of the autocannons instead.

The Arachnus heavy lascannon battery is also very impressive thanks to the exoshock rule: there's a 50 per cent chance of a second penetrating hit if a first one is scored. This is very dangerous stuff.

Boreas air missiles are a nice idea but I suspect many will be put off playing this due to its one use rule. Other than that, a first turn volley at just one less strength than a lascannon with independent tracking is really nice, and probably spells doom against transport tanks and White Scar jetbikes thanks to invalidating Jink saves. 

Weaknesses.
This is fundamentally not a close combat dreadnought. That said, it is still a dreadnought with an invulnerable save and good frontal armour.

My suggestion is to run a Deredeo with ranged terminators -- upgraded with Atomantic Pavaise, it can grant a bonus to the invulnerable save of regular terminators nearby which is very nice, but also costly.

Builds.
Several builds to mull over here, including the ones from Book 5 that I have already noted previously.

Deredeo, Anvilus autocannons, Aiolos missile launcher, armoured ceramite (240 points).
Drop the armoured ceramite if you must, but this is something of a baseline build.

Deredeo, hellfire plasma cannonade, atomantic pavaise (270 points).
I like this one - lots of plasma goodness, teamed up with protective invulnerable saves.

Deredeo, Arachnus heavy lascannon battery, 4 boreas air defence missiles (259 points).

Add extra shielding where required (armoured ceramite). Fire those missiles in turn 1, and blast everything else with the lascannons.

Horus Heresy Review: Legion Arquitor Bombard

Background.

The Arquitor Bombard is what you get when you cross a Vindicator with Ordnance weapons. And also when you add on sponsons. It is competing against a lot of other entries for heavy support choices in a Legion army, but it can find a role when supporting troop advances and tacking stubborn fortifications. 

Strengths. 

There is a choice of three main weapons for the Bombard. The Morbus Heavy Bombard is very similar to a vindicator, but with ordnance. It also gets a special shell called the Carcass shell that can flesh bane troops out of the way. This gives flexibility in my mind.

The Graviton-Charge Cannon is a large-scale graviton weapon combined with haywire. This is always going to be good against vehicle heavy enemies and can perform exceptionally well given the right circumstances.

The Spicula Rocket System is a large payload of rockets in two different modes (5 and 7 inch), but comes with the possibility of running out of rockets if the 7 inch mode rolls a 6. I don't see this as a big problem since you will only be firing this (probably) 3 or 4 times in a game and might not choose the 7 inch mode every time. I like the other additional weapons in combination with this one to really whittle down enemy troops.

Weaknesses.

The cost is steep, and one has to weigh up a vindicator against this slot. The Bombard probably wins in many circumstances, but the trusty vindicator is likely more durable. 

Builds.

Bombard with Morbus. (140 points).

I like the basic version with no upgrades. Take 3 of them if you have the points and the will to use them.

Bombard with Graviton-Charge Cannon. (140 points).

Tempting to take some extra armour and armoured ceramite here to be honest. 

Bombard with Spicula Rocket System, Autocannon Sponsons, Havoc Launcher (165 points).

For sheer fire power that might just rival a predator combined with a large pie plate, this is a built that should not be overlooked at all. Take 3 of them to give your opponent a fright. Take 3 units of 3 but beware of not making any friends and your ability to deal with very heavy armour. 

Horus Heresy Review: Terrax Pattern Termite Assault Drill

Background.

I keenly remember having some Termites when I played Epic scale back in its hey day. The Termite method of assaulting from beneath the surface has stayed with me, and always struck me as a great alternative, and even complement, to deep striking. 

In the background, the Termite these days is stated to travel at speeds similar to surface transport craft. That's really good!

Strengths.

Subterranean assault is an amazing rule. It functions very much like deep strike does, except it comes up from beneath the ground. Importantly, it does NOT interact with the deep strike rule for determining how many units come on to the board: it uses its own pool. Hence for smaller points games, a player could take 1 Termite and 1 regular deep strike and have BOTH come in to play on the same turn. This is really good and will no doubt appeal to legions such as Raven Guard and Alpha Legion to name but two. Heck, most legions could make good use out of such pairings. 

The Death From Below rule combines with this to describe how the Termite arrives on the board. It is very similar to deep striking in the sense of the distance it might move if there's an impassable feature it winds up on top of, but as an added extra it can displace units, cause wounds, and a S10 hit to vehicles on their side armour. Using this rule aggressively is highly encouraged. 

Ignoring difficult and dangerous terrain is just icing on the cake.

Weaknesses.

Candidly, the Termite is not so great once it has emerged. It is more expensive than a rhino, but is fairly exposed once on the surface. Therefore there is a small calculation to be made by the potential controlling player: is the extra price compared to other transport vehicles worth it (along with chewing up a fast attack slot)?

Builds.

There are several builds, each with their own prices according to whether they are taken in the legions, mechanicum, solar auxilia, or Imperial militia. 

To my mind, I think keeping the points cost at its raw level is probably a good idea as the extra armour and armoured ceramite are not quite worth it once the termite has done its job. Pay 80 points for the Legion version and be happy with it; and don't stress if it gets blown up on the next turn. Its job is to deliver a squad, and hopefully that squad will supply the firepower to make the transport cost worth it. 

Legacy of the Soul Flame

We have a new RPG on Kickstarter that we wanted to let you all know about!

Legacy of the Soul Flame is a noble-dark roleplaying game campaign setting of undead, snow & ice, exploration, and blood-ties. 

This is a 420-page full-colour deluxe roleplaying game of exploration and survival that takes place on a frozen-over continent filled with undead. It fuses concepts found in traditional fantasy settings with modern and technological twists, a touch of horror, a dash of genealogy, and a small pinch of archaeology for taste. 

Explore a vast continent of stark beauty filled with detail and lore. Use the magic of your birth right – your soul flame – to combat the undead that riddle the lands and that humanity barely holds in check. Dig beneath the snow and ice to find remnants of a lost technological age, and determine what happened to the elves and the fey.

The product has already been featured on Geek Native, and over this weekend there will be a Q&A open session with Randomworlds (To join: www.tinyurl.com/randomworlds-discord) (Saturday 1/May at 3pm Central // 9pm UK time), and a recorded interview for Mildra's YouTube Channel on Sunday. 

Hope that you like this one and will consider backing it: much of what you see here on Warpstone Flux is supported through our hobby business and we would gratefully appreciate any and all pledges that our readers can make. 

Happy for additional reviews (feel free to get in contact) and would appreciate amplification of this one too if you are able.