Monday, May 20, 2024

Designing an Emperor's Children Allied Detachment

My priority for this year was to construct and paint an Allied Detachment of Emperor's Children for Horus Heresy. In order to do this, obviously I had to write down my army list. Here it is, along with my thoughts. 

Conditions. I like my allied detachments to clock in at under 750 points. This is because I tend to play smaller points cost games than most. I still favour way less than 3000 points for a game - 2000, or even 1750 or 1500 is more than enough for an interesting game that can be concluded rapidly which is a key driving factor and a "must" most of the time for me personally - I know there's plenty of people out there who have the same limitations. I save 3000 points for when there's hours to spare. 

Secondly, I want my allied detachments to do something that perhaps the primary cannot -- and to generally be fluffy. This usually means taking advantage of the Legion rules in question or its special units. For the Emperor's Children, I interpret this to mean quickly moving units, taking advantage of the quick melee weapons, and for this one: a Sun Killers squad. I also wanted to show off something very Emperor's Children by taking at least one Phoenix Power Spear! 

Army List.
HQ:
Phoenix Warden, Iron Halo and Phoenix Pattern Power Spear, Artificer Armour, Jump Pack (110 points). This HQ is to show off the power spear and to be a strong threat in game. I might add a melta bomb here too.

Elites:
Apothecary, Jump Pack, Artificer Armour (70 points). The purpose of the Apothecary is obvious, and is probably a bit rude in this allied detachment, but it fits so well. That, and the Emperor's Children do like their Apothecaries, so it maintains my fluffy direction.

Troops:
Assault Squad x11; Combat Shields, 2 Power Axes, Sergeant with Two Lightning Claws and Artificer Armour (214 points). I have to take troops, and an assault squad is the obvious selection here. Again, melta bombs to taste.

Heavy Support:
Sun Killer Squad x5, Lascannons, Novaetor with Augury Scanner (205 points). This is the unit that I could not get otherwise. Yes, I could have chosen Palatine Blades, or Terminators, but this is such a unique and strong unit that really fits with the theme of what I'm going for here: long range cover coupled with up close and personal elements. 

Total points cost = 599 points.

Analysis.
This allied detachment combines two very interesting elements. First we have a "standard" Sun Killer squad which is arguably one of the best in the game for lascannon slaughter that provides the long range cover. Then we have a blob of jump pack troops backed up by an Apothecary and the HQ selection. In principle, I could turn the HQ into a Praetor to add extra flexibility, but there's not much benefit to that arguably. All three warlord traits are valid for this set up, and I can see myself using any depending on loyalty. The main blob is to tear through enemy troops formations. Whether they'd want to tackle terminators is a different decision - their primary purpose is anti-troops and potentially a HQ killing element. 

Set up is typically with the Sun Killers taking a back line position of defence to fire from, whilst the rest of the detachment flies or deep strikes (or even flanks) into play as quickly as possible. 

Given that  I have some 150 points "spare" compared to my goal, I would consider adding a Sky Hunter squadron or Xihphon Interceptor to round the list out by incorporating another fast attack element, or making the assault squad larger still (it has 11 members largely because I had a spare resin body that I glued a jump pack to in order to model the sergeant - no real reason beyond that!). There's also room to add in a second assault squad if needed to create a primary detachment too, but that's not currently a priority for me. Perhaps a defence line for the Sun killers instead?



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