Who doesn’t remember the spectacular duel(s) between Loken and Lucius in the Horus Heresy novels? Or maybe the partner duels of Argel Tal and Kharn against two Champions of other Legions? It should be pretty obvious that the Space Marines are eager to prove themselves in front of their brethren. That’s what happens when you have a bunch of these guys who are full of themselves meeting up I guess.
That was the start of an idea Flattervieh and me had, when we thought how we could get the Terminators and named characters of our traitor Legions on the table as soon as possible. Imagine Abaddon (who was never known to be a calm and non provoking character) challenging the Champions of two other Legions who would later join the Sons of Horus in the betrayal of the Emperor to get straight “who is the toughest guy” once and for all. Calas Typhon of the Death Guard and Tarokh of the World Eaters answered his call. As there is no fitting World Eaters character in a tactical dreadnought armour Flattervieh came up with his own very nice version.
We agreed to spend 500 points on a Champion leading anything that wears a terminator armour. Also it would have been rather pointless to use the regular rules. Therefore we chose to use the Kill Team rule set (with each model acting on its own f.e.) and the narrow setting of the Zone Mortalis as a perfect playground for battle in a tactical dreadnought armour. Let’s just hope the World Eaters won’t go sanguis extremis…
The three initiators of the raw contest: Calas Typhon of the Death Guard, Ezekyle Abaddon of the Sons of Horus and Tarokh of the World Eaters.
Ezekyle Abaddon is of course accompanied by his brethren of the first company, the Justaerin. Each and every one of them a Champion on his own.
Calas Typhon’s two body guards are members of the Deathshroud, each of them being designated by their Primarch Mortarion. They are accompanied by a group of Death Guard Catapractii terminators who are led by a Champion wielding a power scythe aswell.
Tarokh of the eight Company leads the Red Butchers into the feud. The Butcher’s Nails in his skull might prove as a problem for him to differ between a competition and a deadly combat.
The first match was the battle between the Sons of Horus and the World Eaters.
The Justaerin are forming a line to welcome the World Eaters with Bolter fire.
The blood-crazed Red Butchers’ armour is to strong for the Bolter ammunition.
Most of them enter close combat. It is no surprise that this match has to be decided in the heat of hand to hand combat.
The combat’s first results are remarkable already. The orderly line is gone and the disorder of battle has begun. One of the Red Butchers got a hit on his head and decided to attack in the opposite direction now. Another World Eater went to the ground because of Abaddon but not before wounding the Captain of the Sons of Horus. Two Justaerin could not hold their ground against the berserks and went to the ground aswell.
The man of the match: The Red Butchers’ Sergeant strikes down two Justaerin at the same time.
Now it is only a heavily wounded Abaddon and a Justaerin on the side of the Sons of Horus. The World Eaters still have two wounded Red Butchers, their Sergeant and Tarokh on their side. The other wounded Red Butcher who decided to run in his frenzy in another direction could be seen nowhere.
Tarokh bellows a challenge and Abaddon answers.
The heavily wounded Abaddon can last longer than his Justaerin, but in the end he has to surrender to the brutal strength of Tarokh. The World Eaters are victorious!
The next match is upon the Sons of Horus and the Death Guard.
Here there is actually a fire fight going on with the Death Guard using some Plasma Weapons and their Bolters.
The Justaerin’s armour is way to sturdy for the plasma fire. Yet Abaddon gets wounded by a Bolter shot. That’s what you get for not wearing a helmet…
Again, this fight can only be won in hand to hand combat.
Abaddon seems to be unstoppable, heading towards Typhon.
He is eager to face the Captain of the Death Guard.
The first Captain of the Sons of Horus is acting like a son of Angron at this moment. After being defeated by the World Eaters and getting a Bolter round right in the face he lost his temper quite a bit. Bad luck for Typhon as he is no match for Abaddon’s wrath.
The Deathshroud Terminators are trying to defeat Abaddon together.
There is one Cataphractii Terminator who is still resisting the brutal storm of the Sons of Horus into the line of the Death Guard.
Abaddon’s fury hasn’t stopped yet. Meanwhile he is taking down each Death Guard Terminator one by one.
One would assume that the man of the match was Abaddon as he overwhelmed most of the Death Guard Team alone in a storm of rage and fury. Yet there was this regular Cataphractii Terminator who portrayed what his Legion stands for oh so very well. On the left flank two Justaerin wanted to break through at the start of the match, taking down one Terminator together. Yet this guy was resistant till the last turn and it took three Justaerin in the end to put him down. The Sons of Horus were finally victorious this time.
Well, first of all my regards go out to comrade Flattervieh for the neat matches. It’s always great to have a partner in crime when it comes to finding a new excuse to spend money and geek out on cool hobby related stuff. If you, the reader, like what you just saw be assured that we have more ideas like that already in mind. Just saying “Loken”, “Kharn”, “Isstvan III”, “cough-cough”.
Today’s matches were big fun. The obvious thought of today is “two Power Axes are better than one”. That’s no big news actually but when the Red Butchers slashed their way through the Justaerin this was a painfully reminder. Also there is one thing I don’t get: Why do the Justaerin only have one wound? Both the Red Butchers and the Deathshroud have two wounds yet the Justaerin are more expansive and are said to be the most badass warrior Champions of their Legion. I don’t get it…
Abaddon’s performance was quite satisfying. He handled some of the Red Butchers pretty good, but even he had to give up at one point. The Butchers are able to unleash a really huge amount of Power Axe attacks. Things went better for Abaddon during the second match against the Death Guard. He was indeed unstoppable and took down most of Mortarion’s Marines alone. That’s how I’ve always pictured him to perform.
Oh, and of course Merry Christmas to all our followers! I hope you’ll find plenty of hobby related presents under your trees!