So this will be regularly irregular blog about my games and painting&modelling the Horus Heresy games. Don't expect too much updates especially battle reports before I get some terrain that isn't ashamingly simple! However to kick it off here's quick battle report from 2000 point tournament I went yesterday. First tournament in 30k for me. Plenty tournaments in Fantasy Battle(RIP) and 40k but first time for 30k I had painted army(30k tournaments here are rather strict about painted only) ready and no real world issues came into the way.
I'm not particularly competive player but luckily 30k tournaments in Finland aren't most cut throat events to begin with so that's good. I had very little idea beforehand of what kind of forces Finland has running around. I knew there's dark angel force that's very well painted and I had seen nice looking world eaters but that's about it.
For me I just had to take Horus as he's the model that made me pick Sons of Horus in the first place! Not maybe that optimal for 2k games but what the heck. Paragon blade, plasma pistol etc. Then 2 squads of tacticals, one full squad with reroll banner and fist on sergeant plus apotecharion, other with just 15 guys and claw on sergeant. 5 justicaerins with multi-melta, 2 combi-meltas, 2 lightning claws, chainfist and double claws. 2 vindicator laser destroyers and sicaran with lascannon sponsons rounded up force.
Tanks are going to be trouble and I'm somewhat weird in that apart from tanks and bolters I have very little shooting but not comfortable with close combat either due to tacticals tossing just bolters but let's see.
Lined up ready for first game. I got paired up with Iron warriors with Perturabo, 3 squads of veterans with missile launchers, terminators, 2 dreadnoughts(one double kheres, one heavy bolter+fist), 2 vindicators. Scenario was bloodfeud with dawn of war scenario and I picked up vehicles as feud target as I figured with 3 tanks and Horus&co maybe I could get some of those.
I would deploy first and go first.
Ready, set and go! And then opponent rolled 6 and seized! I was also taught just how awesome vindicators with machine spirit are. They can use spirit to fire with full BS? Whaaat? Last time I played with army that had those it fired at BS2! Seems I have missed the buff as 7th ed I was playing with orks&IG only. Got to get some machine spirits where possible in future! Anyway Perturabo and outflanking squad failed to show up. Vindicators shook up mine on left so this was not good. Infantry moved forward.
On my turn seems I cheated as I had misunderstood Horus rules. He
just picks will he come or not. Can't come on turn 1. Ooops! Well
luckily I don't think game result would have changed anyway as best help
I got from turn 1 turn failed and it might have been even better for
him in the end(I'll explain that later).
Anyway I came behind enemy
vindicators hoping that lance+melta's would take one and maybe other or
at least stop it from shooting. However here I made first major blunder
as I went behind to get to the soft rear armour. I should instead have
risked frontal armour for future turns. Melta's took out vindicator no
problem but lance scattered and I forgot it was linked. Here was the
turn 1 arrival bonus for me as vindicators were bunched up.
Turn
2 Perturabo shows up on my right and either vindicator there had been
destroyed last turn or it went down this turn. On left iron warriors
moved full speed toward me showing why Horus deep strike position was so bad. They would struggle to do anything rest of the game! I suddenly had iron warriors in my face!
I tried to save my smaller squad by breaking out through some veterans. Slim shots but with another veteran squad and fist contemptor approaching from other direction they would be dead anyway. Maybe I should have tried to escape but low difficult terrain put an end to that and low charge left them hanging dead anyway.
Turn 3. Iron warriors on left closed in for the kill. This did not look too good of a situation! All the shooting killed several and the squad then promptly failed morale test! To add insult to injury they ran just 3" giving him good chance to charge which dreadnought did and then I failed yet ANOTHER morale test wiping out unit. Not that with lone melta bomb I had much of a chance anyway against the dreadnought...
Perturabo called in orbital strike against Horus&go whom I had forgot to spread around. Wel l had missed vox veterans closeby had allowing Perturabo to "see" them. 3 spot on hits, 18 S9 AP2 shots, 2 justicaerin as a survivors with wound or two to Horus. Whoops.
On right terminators and primarch caught up with my tactical squad and praetorian who had tried to perform an retreat through ruins. To no avail. Praetorian killed terminator or two, Primarch wiped out apotechary in challenge. I lost combat by big margin, ran and legged off the table as THESE guys then rolled high flee result. Uh oh.
Rest of the game basically was Horus running like madman trying to catch up anybody while Iron Warriors ran and shot at him. My last turn I had 3 wounds left and 8" charge to do at Perturabo and his termies. Or 9"(or was it 10") charge toward veteran squad. Smart money says no charge or try to take out the veterans thus short of gigantic streak of bad luck ensures I survive and get some points at least(tournament point system seems to make it hard to get bigger than about 15-5 wins). The "let's go out for the exciting chance" side of me was calling for charge against fellow Primarch and try for lucky kill.
I went for charge and botched it. Here if I had come on turn 2 with Horus don't think I would have had time to get to Perturabo unless I deep strike next to them(giving them charge btw) which would have saved vehicles(that were worth 2 pts each for me) and giving perturabo and co realistic chance of killing ME. My Justicaerin squad is not equipped for terminator busting so Horus would actually have to do that one first.
With turn 1 over and after person came to pick up tyranids I had sold I got myself another box of Battle of Calth. These will be used to build me bp&ccw&bolter squad for Sons of Horus and support squad with magnetized weapons for blood angels plus some HQ's for SoH and terminators spread between the two. Next opponent was World Eaters I had seen before! Interesting take and similar to what I would be going with them. Angron, big squad of chainaxe wielding lunatics, smaller squad with just bolters, assault squad, the WE unique power armour squad, contemptator with double fists, 5 lascannon marines and plasma predator.
I like that. It's not as one dimensional as many world eater lists I ave seen and has tons of marines. On last round I saw awesome sight of that SWARM running over hill. That was awesome sight.
Scenario was onslaught with ambush deployment. I got to pick up to go first or second. I tried sneaky and went for second hoping for 4+ seize. Staged deployment this is however probably less effective than usual though and risky. I was also taught Horus can NOT come on turn 1. Oops. Nasty scenario for me as first turn charges are hard to stop.
As he deployed assault marines near my vindicator that had been aiming at predator hoping for seize I panicked and put up my big squad(and HQ) there. This was BAD idea. That tank is not THAT good, troop squad is better and I could have deployed so that "if you take out vindicator I charge you instead". World eaters not charging are notably less scary so if I have to take them on charge one of their squads instead rather than let two charge you!
Angron came from other side so unsurprisingly I put up objective around the assault marines. How to keep them from taking THEIR objective I had no bloody idea.
And I failed to seize which was not good.
Turn 1 charge by world eaters. This is going to hurt! And it did. My poor guys didn't stand a chance, fled and were caught with only few casualties to world eaters.
On center Angron came forward and I executed fighting withdrawal. Vindicator and sicaran poured fire at the tacticals around and think I got wound to Angron as well. Maybe should have knocked predator with vindicator rather than risk giving more rear shots.
World eater 2 Angron failed to come along(I had made damned sure he needs at least 9" charge) but terrain had kept other side of squad from retreating as much so the bolter tactical squad got in. Good rolling on my part gave me win but against fearless world eaters not much of comfort with Angron coming in to claim extra attack...
After world eaters had claimed vindicator Horus came in. I had debated going man-to-man with Angron but wanted to play for scenario and go for objective with last scoring unit. I unleashed lance remembering linked this time resulting in hit to bunched up rampagers(?). 8 hits, 4 1's...Ouch. At least terminators joined in leaving just 3 alive but I had hoped to wipe out that unit at least. Not that they really did anything rest of game not feeling like taking on Horus&co alone. Remaining vindicator after having suffered 2 turns of shooting from predator to rear showed predator how it's done and blew it before it could go hunt Justacaerin with it's plasma goodyness.
World eaters turn 3. Angron went and swallowed my squad and tacticals went and took out my vindicator though funnily enough one of them tripped over to dangerous terrain left by contemptator's grav weapon. Assault marines knobled out sicaran leaving just Horus&his bodyguard left.
So with this I backed away from incoming World eaters hoping to survive. However good run rolls(6's) for run made them come faster than I thought. Angron also ensured he got into combat by joining assault marines who had moved VERY close on turn 4. And tacticals also made. 4 combat phase to survive...Tall order!
First round wasn't too bad exceot for death of Justacaerin. 2 wounds and cataphracti armour is good, bazillion attacks rerolling hits and 1's to wound with S5 even better.
However Horus was still at 3 wounds, Angron was 3 wounds but now at I1 as I had smashed him with world breaker. Alas claw failed to get through invulnerable save.
So next combat round I went for full attack with Talon of Horus. I hoped to at least get 1-2 wounds making him hit me on 4+ and wound on 3+(I get 1 wound to him) or 4+(I get 2 wounds to him). Maybe even kill. 6 attacks, 4+ to hit...
And this was result I got. Bloody hell. Even if I had had WS10 I had missed with them all! Then Angron got 4 wounds to me and with 3++ invulnerable save...I failed 3 and Horus died. I was laughing too hard here so my ribs were hurting oh so bad.
Ah well. Wipeout so 0-20.
Turn 3 was shatter strike with vanguard advance. And I got alpha strike. CRAP! All infiltrate/deep strike except for Alpharius in scenario you need to get to opponents deployment zone? Rock? Meet paper. Haha. Okay wasn't hopeful in any scenario but this was about worst possible.
He made mistake and took first turn deploying Alpharius. I castled up but I should have spread even more to give more buffer to vehicles. Not used to play all infiltrate force. Then alpha legions came all around and I tried to seize. Funny thing is if he had went second he would have had better chance to go first. 4+ rerollable seize vs my 4+ seize. 75% vs 50%. Haha. But I failed to seize anyway.
Oh there they are! Moving around for the kill already. I'm boxed up. Melta squad on right got 2 guys into range with vindicator(more buffer zone needed!) and shook it up. Nightfight so my shooting vs his shrouded guys was pretty inefficient.
On my turn 1 I made major brainfart. I was still hoping to play for scenario so didn't want to slow down big tac squad by charging melta squad that would lead me away from his deployment zone. Figured my praetorian is more than enough to do that. Forgot entirely melta gun can insta kill him...Well plasma pistol blew one but 1 DID hit and I failed yet another 4+ roll so I traded HQ for one melta gunner...Not a good trade.
Turn 2 saw my big tactical squad, now bereft of standard due to snipers, overrun by assault marines. Ouchie. It's really weird playing marines that actually have to worry about losing combat! I was also pretty much out of tanks by now and lightning claw sergeant was also dead by snipers.
My turn 2. Horus came close to Alpharius. I lance striked sniper squad there and fired bolters and left just sergeant despite their 3+ cover save. Not surprisingly Alpharius fled and under bombardment from alpha legion flier justicaerin's were losing guys but did survive with 2 members in the end when I went to where others couldn't see and plane had to overfly twice. Horus went hunting his brother meanwhile. First attempt failed due to difficult terrain but wasn't denied forever.
Final duel for the game! Alpharius wasn't match for Horus, not surprising, and died without much of an effort. Only thing Horus archieved...
Last turn tons of Alpha Legions went to my deployment zone scoring crapload. I just had Horus&Justicaerin there plus killed the warlord who was also lords of war so my second 5-15 loss.
Fun tournament. Made tons of tactical errors, some by being unaware of enemy rules, some by not thinking things through. List wasn't that optimal either being rather unsure what to do. And Rite of War was pretty much useless for this list. Only time I would have had something to help with would have been overwatch on turn 1 of 2nd game. Ah well.
But whole bunch of nice looking armies to look at and good learning experience.
Full army lists and results can be seen on tournament's page: http://www.gowarhead.com/2017/11/scars-of-betrayal-results-and-coverage.html
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