As some of our readers might remember, there was this report some time ago. 500 points were the last limit, today it’s 750. Constant dripping wears away the stone. The Isstvan III setting is a great place for our Horus Heresy armies to get into battle. The World Eaters and the Sons of Horus are the right fit. As I am today bringing a new HQ unit to the field (the Champion of the Legion) one could imagine that the Sons of Horus are loyal followers of the Emperor and Loken and Flattervieh’s World Eaters are the bad guys again.
We played Mission 5: Dominion from “Betrayal”. The 5 heaps of earth are the rather lame mission objectives. I have to admit that I am still lacking a striking idea for individual mission objective markers for my SoH.
The Sons of Horus on Isstvan III.
The World Eaters and Flattervieh’s magnificent new piece of terrain. One can easily imagine the loyalist forces shooting down some of the traitors’ landing shuttles.
The Sons of Horus were deployed first and also had the first turn.
Seconds before the battle’s first shot was fired.
The jump pack infantry of the 12. Legion was not able to get in close combat.
Therefore the Sons of Horus could fire their weapons at them.
And the Dreadnought could bind them in close combat.
The huge tactical squad was slower than the assault squad, firing their Bolters at the other Marines.
Even though the tactical Squads of the Sons of Horus were divided in two they were equally strong together.
The Contemptor took down one single Marine after another. The sons of Angron could just hope that their leader would be able to attach a Melta Bomb to the Dreadnought’s hull.
With a heroic jump the Primus Medicae was indeed able to place the Melta Bomb at the right spot. The following explosion of the atomic power core killed two Veterans of the Sons of Horus standing nearby.
Some real spectacular close combats and challenges between the involved characters took place, too fast to take pictures. First of the jump infantry’s Sergeant with the lightning claws defeated one of the Sergeants of the Sons of Horus Tactical Squads. After that he was in return sent to the ground by the might of the Legion’s Champion. The next challenge between the two leaders of the army was due now.
The “not so really effective” Bolter duel on the other side went into grim close combat. Of course both Sergeants involved were in a deadly challenge aswell.
The battle’s peak ended with a draw as both the Primus Medicae and the Legion Champion went to the ground, both heavily injured.
The Tactical Marines took revenge for their fallen Sergeant and annihilated the last two Assault Marines in Bolter fire.
The battle slowly came to an end. Only the Tactical Marines were left and it was up to them (just as it should be) to decide which side would win. The Sons of Hours were a bit ahead as their squad’s Sergeant cut down the Sergeant of the World Eaters that turn.
The last World Eaters are dead and the few remaining Sons of Horus are celebrating victory.
The next match saw the rise of 750 points of the Mechanicum by club mate Elrond de Gravenesse. We played Mission:4 Onslaught from “Betayal”. As they are supposed to be loyal followers of the machine god my Sons of Horus were pleased to be the bad guys again.
Elrond’s Mechanicum on Isstvan III.
The dawn of battle.
Since there was no place to hide from the ranged weapons of the Mechanicum and Horus’ Sons are disgusted by such coward ideas anyway there was just one way: straight to battle!
The machines of the Mechanicum took some damage from the Bolter fire but non of them was destroyed. In return they amassed their firepower.
The result was horrifying for the Sons of Horus. One of the Thallaxi squads were designed to be tank hunters. Their Multi Melta’s firepower left only a smoking crater where a Contemptor Dreadnought stood before. Leaving wounded Marines along due to the explosion of the atomic core. The other Thallaxi’s Photon Thrusters took a heavy toll from the tactical Marines, also blinding them. After the Mechanicum’s first turn the enemy was almost broken.
One last brave assault against the might of the Mechanicum, even while being blinded (WS and BS reduced to 1).
The end was nigh!
Last hand to hand combats…
…of the match.
The Mechanicum: We eat Space Marines for breakfast.
Personal Review:
Thanks and cheers to both of my club mates Flattervieh and Elrond! It’s always a great pleasure to meet you and your fine miniatures on the battle ground. After weeks of reading the novels and painting up each and every model I am always eager to see them in action. The joy of meeting other neatly painted Heresy Models and fitting terrain is just great!
The first match has to be the best one of my whole Heresy games so far. It was painfully enthralling till the last roll of a dice. There were so many ups and downs, like when Flattervieh’s Assault Marines could not enter close combat I was all “teeeheee, bad luck buddy” and already in ecstasy to beat them up with my Contemptor. Unfortunately the Contemptor did a bad job, toasting zero of the Marines with his heavy flamer (power armour was quite good this match on both sides) and only taking down two or three Marines in close combat before the Melta Bomb struck. The bomb did not only ruin the whole Contemptor but also devastated my Veteran Squad and their Plasma Gun. Everything was open from then on again. The challenges were the actual highlight of the match. Two victories for the Sons Of Horus, one for the World Eaters and a draw as both Warlords cut each other down in the very same moment. Just epic! And the grim battle between the tactical Squads was great, too! I wasn’t really able to concentrate on the mission objectives as Flattervieh was forcing his game play on me with his dangerous and fast Assault Squad. But a frenzy battle is something the Sons of Horus are able to handle aswell!
Well, the second game was quite fast and very different. Learned a lot about the Mechanicum – fear them! It was a pleasure to see them in action though. Yet I have to admit that I have no idea how I could handle them in future battles to come. I hope that their strength mostly comes from the low points we’re playing with at this moment and that in a let’s say 2000 points match one would not recognise it that much anymore. Seems like a long and painful way is ahead for the Space Marines of the Aleator Club, hehe.