Time of the Heresy: Attack on Base 716

"Do you hear their cries? Can you taste their fear, their agony? Know this mortal: we are coming for you!"

— Salvaged Vox transmission from the dead colony of Nux Haven, Travonth VI

Iron Warrior supply base 716

Baltar did not get to his level within the legion by being stupid. The meeting was worth his time, he thought. But it would not be him who would be checking the information. Those duties would fall to his lesser captains. Night Lords were never ones who felt they had to lead from the front. That type of behavior was better left to those fools in the Blood Angels or Space Wolves.

Captain Sark would do nicely, Baltar didn't particularly like him. So if this was some kind of trap or game by the Iron Warriors, no loss. But if the information from the turncoat was good? Sark was competent, he would see the situation to a positive conclusion for the 8th legion.

Captain Sark assembled his force. Iron Warriors were not the easiest of legions to catch unaware. Assaulting one of their bases would require some skill. Sark rolled over the possibilities in his head. Iron Warriors, much like the Alpha legion, relied too much on human infantry. Sark was sure there would be mortal soldiers and tanks. Two rapier teams should do the trick. And a sicaran venator for the tanks. Captain Sark never went anywhere without his consul, the master of signal, and a full squad of twenty marines, plus a terror squad, a vet. squad, and a tac. support would form his base. Last he needed a hammer, what better to smash enemy defenses then a couple contemptors and a leviathan?

Sark, his terror squad, and the leviathan.

Iron Warrior leadership.

The attack would come at night, of course. Night Lords silently moved into position, even the dreadnaughts moved with little sound.

Supply base 716 was lightly defended by Iron Warrior standards. It was garrisoned by a few blocks of Imperial troops with a few tanks. What worried Sark was that also in attendance was a full squad of marines and two contemptors, a tech priest, and praetor. The commander suspected that before his eyes, the base was being alerted to the turncoat and information leaked. It was time. All Iron Warrior communication was blocked as the Night Lords attacked from two different sides.

On the west side Night Lords break in the base.

Two contemptors clash on the east side.

The battle erupted on two flanks. On the west end of the base Iron Warrior guardsmen fell quickly to the master of signal and his 20 marine troop squad.

In the east, the venator quickly eliminated one tank threat. But the advance across open ground proved difficult for the Night Lords. The rapier batteries proved their worth as did the leviathan, resistance in the east from the Iron Warriors dwindled.

Sark believed that the tech priest had some sort of night vision he passed along to the squad in the base as they proved difficult to kill. Losses on both sides were high, but in the end, the Night lord would not be denied his victory.

The last of the Iron Warriors fight valiantly.

Delegatus Sark Dillinger mused at the scene before him. The base was theirs, at least the surface of it anyway. A door that lead below ground had been discovered by the terror squad on the east side. Sark had ordered the remains of the squad to investigate. That was over an hour ago. It didn't matter, he didn't like that squad anyway. "Lord Baltar, the surface of the base is secured but it has a lower level. I'm afraid I don't have the forces left to properly face unknown enemies." said Sark over the vox.

Ave Dominus Nox

Time of the Heresy: The Meeting

"Because the Wolves kill cleanly, and we do not. They also kill quickly, and we have never done that, either. They fight, they win, and they stalk back to their ships with their tails held high. If they were ever ordered to destroy another Legion, they would do it by hurling warrior against warrior, seeking to grind their enemies down with the admirable delusions of the 'noble savage'.

If we were ever ordered to assault another Legion, we would virus bomb their recruitment worlds; slaughter their serfs and slaves; poison their gene-seed repositories and spend the next dozen decades watching them die slow, humiliating deaths. Night after night, raid after raid, we'd overwhelm stragglers from their fleets and bleach their skulls to hang from our armor, until none remained. But that isn't the quick execution the Emperor needs, is it? The Wolves go for the throat. We go for the eyes. Then the tongue. Then the hands. Then the feet. Then we skin the crippled remains, and offer it up as an example to any still bearing witness. The Wolves were warriors before they became soldiers. We were murderers first, last, and always!" - Sevatar

Baltar decides this meeting is worth his time.

After suffering a defeat at the hands of the Iron Warriors the Night Lords Praetor Baltar needed an edge. He found it in a turn coat Iron Warrior guardsman of some ranking. The human offered information on Iron Warrior troop deployments, medical facilities and armories. It was worth the risk to at least to see where this could go.

Baltar decided to bring the Flaymaster along, his reputation among the legions would make for a good reminder to this Iron Warrior traitor that the 8th legion's time was not to be wasted.

It turns out the Praetor's time was not wasted.

The information was solid, but the meeting would be cut short. The wailing sound of jump packs accompanied the deep vibration of treads. Quickly the three units deployed to keep sentry all reported in on vox, "the 4th legion is here".

Iron Warrior Destroyers enter the fray.

The Iron Warrior attempt to plug this leak was lead by Erasmus Golg, Captain of the 11th Grand Company. A Medusa and Vindicator rained shells down on the Night Lords while Destroyers and Rhinos advanced on the ill fated meeting. Several Night Lords squads reported losses. Never ones who would allow their honor to get in the way of self preservation, Baltar called for his personal Land Raider to pick him up and some air cover to ensure his escape.

Fighting raged all around the area now. Terror Squads met Iron Warrior Terminators while Veteran Tactical squads on both sides opened fire and exchanged chainswords.

A Night Lord Xiphon swooped in and took out the Medusa. It then set it's sights on the Vindicator. While some damage was sustained, the veteran siege crew mustered on.

Hand to hand is the preferred type of killing among the majority of the 8th. Especially when you outnumber your enemy. 

Many of the attacking force fell to the blade or the chainsword. This little intrusion by the 4th was not going to work. Though Baltar will need a new command squad, he, the Flaymaster, and the Iron Warrior traitor escaped into their Land Raider while Erasmus Golg and his own squad of Terminators were hit by a phosphex bomb cluster.

Target spotted.

Golg lives with one wound.

Right now we are playing game to game. Boroth and I will keep this little campaign going. It's just some small scrapes between two Traitor Legions. Boroth reported on game one here http://apostlesofcontagion.blogspot.com The Night Lords tied the score at 1 game each.  And to what effect the Iron Warrior traitor being in lord Baltar's hands remains to be seen....

Ave Dominus Nox.

Night Lords vs World Eaters with Beta Deepstrike

Berzerkers vs. Atramentar

Things get dull in the Eye of Terror and when there are no Imperial heads to bash in, the traitors must make war against each other. A few Saturdays ago I took the trip to Mike's place to tussle with his World Eaters lead by Kharn himself.

Never to shy away from new rules we agreed to try out the beta rules on Deep strike. These rules can be found in GW's latest FAQ. Basically, any unit wishing to enter the game via reserves (deep strike, teleportarium ect) on turn 1, may only do so in their own deployment zone. Or wait till turn 2 to arrive in their opponent's zone.

Of course this was only one game. I used the same Night Lords type list I usually play. This included 2 Raptor squads, Terminators, and Obliterators all entering the game via (Deep strike). Mike had some units enter the game in this fashion as well, including a large amount of Bloodletters. Spoiler: neither of us found the rule to be that big of a deal. Now, did it alter the trend I have seen in 8th edition that most of the game happens in the first few turns? Not so much but maybe it helped a bit.

The World Eater deployment.

The Decimator and Maulerfiend face a Leviathan.

The match itself was pretty much a solid victory for the Night Lords. We ended the game after 5 turns as there were only a few of Kharn's followers remaining. I held off my Raptors, Terminators and Oblits till turn 2. Mike did the same with his units.

Ultimately the combined firepower in my list, which included a 10 man unit of Noise Marines, proved deadly. Endless Cacophony!! A 30 Deamon unit of Bloodletters showed up in the Night Lords backfield, but they were soundly hit by Sonic weapons before Vigo the Carpathian himself finished the Daemons.

Well, hello there!

While it was an enjoyable game, I'm not sure how much the beta rule changed things. I suppose to some degree it did help make the 1st turn at least, less deadly. I'm happy to say it didn't hinder anything I was trying to do with my tactics as a Night Lord player. Just one game, but I figure, why not share my early findings?

Ave Dominus Nox.

Heresy!

I had the pleasure of joining Lord Boroth http://apostlesofcontagion.blogspot.com
in a game of Horus Heresy last Saturday. 3000 pts. per side, Night Lords vs. Iron Warriors.

Horus Heresy is an elegant game to me. Space Marines vs. Space Marines. The rites of war are interesting but still restrictive enough that they don't resemble the formations that ultimately broke 7th edition. With some minor tweaks added in like multiple grenades are allowed and
Invisibility is removed, the revised rule set for 7th is balanced and fun. We played the mission that involved kill points and choosing an enemy unit to acquire additional victory points if those were destroyed by the end of the game. The game was 6 turns. Break out the Scatter dice and Templates!

The Xiphon scouts the enemy position.

Night Lords rolled to secure first turn. Using the Terror Assault rite of war they deep struck 2 Drop pods of 10 man Terror Squads with an Apothecary included. One of my placements seemed a mistake as I dropped them near a couple Iron Warrior Medusa, intending on destroying one and completely forgetting that st. 5 Volkite Chargers would have no effect on front armor 12. This somehow worked out for me though as the unit did distract several of the Iron Warrior units who had to deal with an enemy in their back field.

10 Terror Squad fought 20 Iron Warriors for 4 turns.

The game seemed to be going the way of the Iron Warriors until the Night Lords Leviathan broke the large squad of Iron Warrior Terminators and ran them down. Then the game seemed to shift into the favor of the 8th legion.

One of the highlights included an endless combat between a Terror Squad and Iron Warrior tacticals that went on for about 4 turns. I had forgotten how effective Artificer armor could be with the help of an Apothecary. Ultimately, the Night Lords lost that fight but won the battle. I chose units with the "tank" keyword as my target unit.
Boroth chose infantry. Both choices seemed wise with the army makeups. I screwed up my counting of kill points which made the final score much closer then we had originally thought. I believe the final score was Night Lords 22 pts. Iron Warriors 16.

The game was really a lot of fun to play. As I said earlier, Horus Heresy is a beautiful system. Lots of troops (which I love) and a nice balance as both players have access to largely the same unit types. I did have to brush up on my 7th edition keywords the night before as well as some of the rules that are now different in 8th edition. But it was worth it because it was a very fun game. I hope I can continue to sprinkle in some Heresy in the near future as I love it.

Ave Dominus Nox

New Recruits

I promised some of the new stuff I painted up for this years Big Game. Plus a piece of terrain I picked up from my team mate in the Urban Sprawl game. Events like the Big Game always motivate me to paint up some new units. This year was no exception.

Always useful, but pricey.

I've had this model since I first received the starter box for Chaos several years ago. I had build it with a basic paint job for a Big Game past. This year I finally got off my lazy butt and finished it.

I'm happy with how it turned out. I discovered that the best way to paint lightning on a vehicle is to pick points of origin on the model. This makes the effect less chaotic.

Points of origin really improve the lightning effect.

My second addition is Be'lakor. Said to be the first Daemon Prince. I have generally avoided any Daemon influence in my Night Lords army but Chaos is insidious... Be'lakor is nasty on the battle field. The Fly keyword allows him to attack flyers which I think is pretty cinematic. He also fits the Night Lords due to their Terror Tactics and Be'lakor's own -1 to Leadership within 12 inches of him. Finally I just like the model. I plan to write a little fluff piece to introduce my warband's new ally.

Daemons are fun to paint, I enjoyed it.

Also added to the warband are Obliterators. These guys got a nice buff when the Chaos codex came out, going from 2 shots to 4. Now they are a no-brainer take for any Chaos army. Mine preformed very well in their first game.

Of course I had to "Night Lord" them up a bit.

He adds little bits of poster and what not for great detail.

Finally my purchase from slovak.
http://guardsman-a-day.blogspot.com
A lovely new centerpiece for my home table. The only problem is now I need more! He does beautiful terrain, much better then I could do.

So I had to acquire this, plus a little cash for slovak, who makes a long trek to get to the Big Game, means a win-win. I really like it, it's very model friendly and looks awesome.

Very functional for models.

Right now, I'm working on some Cultists. I'll post pictures when I'm done. Long term, I had a funny thought that doesn't come up often in a 40K player's life, I think I'm about done with purchases for my 40K Night Lords. I'd like a Knight. A Night Lord knight needs to be.. but I don't see myself buying anything else. I've still got plenty to work on. I have primed and assembled; 20 Bezerkers, a Vindicator, and a unprimed Defiler. Plus the 30K Kharn, I always planned to do something with that..

Does that mean GW won't get anymore of my money? Ha... no, I'd like to fill out my 30K Night Lords with troops in MK4 armor. but that's a longer term goal.

Ave Dominus Nox.

Big Game 2018

D-Company's 2018 Big Game has come and gone. As usual, I had a blast! My first game was a 225 power level per player, 2 v 2 between the Marines Errant and the Imperial Guard vs. Night Lords and the Emperor's Children. This was the Vraburgh Urban Sprawl game.  Placed on the board were 50+ civilians worth 1vp each. In addition, 2 of the civilians were hidden 10vp relics. When a civilian was captured, the model was turned over and if the bottom of the base was marked it was revealed to be the relic. Unlike other civilians these stayed on the board and had to be controlled all game. Finally we added 3vp for killing an enemy warlord.

The opening deployment.

The hope was that these 10vp relics and 3vp per warlord would balance out one side getting first turn and claiming a large lead in civilians captured.

It turned out both relics ended up being deployed very close to each other and Chaos grabbed them both early in the game. We also were much more aggressive then the Imperials in our tactics. The 10vp relics did not balance out the early lead that Chaos acquired from going first and deep striking several units on to civilians. I believe the civilian count was 28 poor souls captured by the Night Lords and Emperor's children.

18 saved by the Imperial forces by the time the game ended. It was a rather one sided victory as Chaos held control over 3/4 of the game board and held 1 relic and several units close to the second. Chaos also scored 1 warlord kill when Be'lakor removed Marneus Calgar's head.

The guard face pressure from a squad of Raptors.

In retrospect, after talking with Mark (the Marines Errant player) to counter the advantage of first turn, the civilians should have been counted at the end of each turn instead of each player turn. I think that little tweak would have allowed the players who went second a chance to remove the first turn player units before they captured civilians. Still though, I felt the game was pretty balanced, it just ended up from secret deployment that the two 10 point relics were deployed near each other and Chaos happened to secure both.

The guard roll down a street as an enemy Xiphon flies overhead.

This was a beautiful game, 4 well painted armies and a board filled with Peter's wonderful terrain. http://guardsman-a-day.blogspot.com

I can ask for nothing more then well painted armies on a beautiful board, with good people to enjoy the game. A wonderful start to my 2018 Big Game experience. I have found that after my many years playing 40K that I really enjoy custom games with more real world scenarios. Capture civilians, fight over a bridge....

The kind of things you would see in a movie. I don't mind a book based game, but custom is much more fun to me at this stage of my gaming life.

Night Lords press the attack.

My first game on Saturday and second of the event was 100pl of Night Lords combined with 100pl of Chaos played by Jake against AJ and his 200pl of Marines. In a game on the "Coconut" board. The terrain was made of huts that looked like coconuts. And once Jake began praying to the Coconut gods for dice success it cemented the name.

Vigo the Carpathian meets some Terminators.

AJ is a very strong player who I don't think I have beaten is several attempts. It was a very close game that Jake and I managed to pull out.

This was one of those games that had a huge death count on both sides. A highlight for me was my Xiphon killing AJ's warlord. Again great game with great players.

All praise to the Coconut gods!!



The final of the event was Ethmongul's return. Each army who played in a game this weekend deployed a force. The Imperial goal was to kill the Khorne lord while the Chaos forces protected him. This was an excellent new addition to our Big Game, it brought all the players together for a fun end of the event scenario. Each player brought a 35pl force. Imperials deployed several assassins who shot Ethmongul fairly quickly. But everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Be'lakor lead 3 Raptor  squads in the final game.

D-Company's Big Game is always the highlight of my gaming year and 2018 was no exception. I had a blast and hope my team mates and opponents did as well. Next post I'll show some of the units I painted up for the event as well as a wonderful piece of terrain I bought from Peter.

Ave Dominus Nox.

Twas the night before the Big Game...

225 Power Level of Night Lords.. and friends.