I played the first mission of the new “Betrayal at Calth” at my local Games Workshop a couple of days ago. Now Flattervieh tested the board game for the first time aswell. We decided to place our own take of the included campaign at Isstvan III thus giving our World Eaters and Sons of Horus a fitting place to cross their chainswords. In fact there are several parallels to be found. The virus bombing of Isstvan III and the collapsing star of Calth both had a pretty severe effect on the planets’ surface thus making underground fighting likely. Another very appealing sidenote is that we will always play the missions on both sides. When the Sons of Horus will go as Ultramarines they are the loyalists around Loken on Isstvan III and vice versa. So we can both enjoy playing as traitors and as loyalists.
Of course we needed to assemble and paint our models first. Now that we both have one Legion Veteran Squad ready we started with Scenario I – “The Wrath of the Warmaster”. Two squads of Space Marines need to reach three blast doors before they will close or the wrath of the Warmaster comes striking down on all of them.
Flattervieh’s World Eaters Legion Veteran Squad: Equipped with a Missile Launcher, a Plasma Gun, a Legion Vexilla and the Sergeant is carrying a Bolt Pistol and a Lightning Claw.
My Sons of Horus Legion Veteran Squad: Equipped with a Missile Launcher, a Plasma Gun, a Legion Vexilla and the Sergeant is carrying a Plasma Pistol and a Power Sword.
The start of the match: The traitorous World Eaters and the loyal Sons of Horus both have to hurry up to reach the closing blast doors at the other end of the board.
The first advance by two World Eaters was stopped by a Missile from the Sons of Horus.
Now it were the Sons of Horus who moved forward.
And again a Missile showed its deadly potential in the narrowness beneath the ruins of Isstvan III.
The Sons of Horus were under heavy fire now.
Both squads slowly moved forward.
The World Eaters’ accurate shooting took its toll.
Nothing was decided yet though. No Marine had yet reached the already closing blast doors. Two Sons of Horus tried to stop the first World Eaters who tried to reach Blast Door Primus.
And so the first close combat of the match started which is pretty weird if you keep in mind what Legions were involved here.
The loyalists won the fight and pushed the last remaining traitor back.
Now the pressure of the closing doors could be felt.
Blast Door Primus closed and the first Marine went to safety.
The loyal Son of Horus started his last stand behind Blast Door Tertius in the middle of the board. He even placed a banner there. Unfortunately he had no chance in close combat against the attacking World Eaters who wanted the safe spot for themselves.
Now that Blast Door Secundus was also closed (and three loyal Sons of Horus safe) the match was pretty much over. As one hex field can only host three marines the last remaining World Eaters on the board were doomed. But as 4 of them went to safety and only three Sons of Horus it was a tight victory for the traitors.
We switched sides on the second match of Scenario one. The game already went much faster and we had much more close combats from the start on.
The traitors were now wearing green armour!
The match went in a complete different direction than the last one.
The Vexilla is a must have and quite important in close combat.
While in the first match the missile launchers were the most deadly weapons it were the plasma guns this time. This picture was taken just seconds before the loyal World Eater Sergeant got a lethal plasma shot right between his ears.
At the end three World Eaters tried to defend the last opened Blast Door Tertius.
As they had no chance against the Plasma Fire the last remaining loyalist charged into the traitor Marines.
At the end of the match there was plenty of time left for the Sons of Horus to enter the last safe spot. An awkward situation though as there was only place left for three of them. Yet they achieved a solid victory with three against zero saved Marines.
That was great fun! Thanks Flattervieh for the nice matches mate. I read a couple of times on the net that people are only buying that box to get the models. I would really like to recommend to give the actual game a try! If you are into huge point matches only then this might be not for you but if you are into Kill Team and the likes you should really risk a try. If you would like to get a closer look at the game mechanics I can only recommend the Play-through video by GW. The rich ever-growing background of the Horus Heresy certainly delivers cool scenario ideas for a lot of other Legions aswell.
Two times the traitors won…hhhhmmmmm. Not looking good for the loyalists. Pretty accurate if we look at the course of the start of the Horus Heresy though. We will definitely keep on painting and play the rest of the campaign soon.