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.