Slowly Slowy - Do the Belisarius Crawl!!

Good morrow!

Another minor update! This guy has really been sucking the life out of me I must say. It doesn't help that I realised I don't have any plasticard left so I couldn't make hay while the sun shines on his base, I had to settle for just gluing the grilled section down. I won't be adding to much to his base as there simply isn't that much damn room (go on a diet Bellysarius). 

But the glow was pop colours were the final big hurdle anyway so I was pleased to get them done on this cranky old bugger. He's nearly ready to receive his true mantle of Anacharis Scoria and go and break games and primarchs over his knee. 

On a side note, I am hoping with the advent of 8th edition and Forge World converting over to 8th that they will take the time to re-balance Scoria to a more palatable version for playing with. There a good few other things that I think need poking with 30k and 8th but that is a post for another time my friends. 

Peace out,

Rob

Anacharis Scoria - Built From a Method of Madness

Much is said and less still known,

Today is something of a guest post in many ways, though I a writing it all the same. But instead of seeing my offerings of hobby productivity, we have a marvellous mind bending malady of malediction and Machiavellian design from the other side of the world!

The winner of the third placed prize in my 1 year blog birthday giveaway was one D Power of New Zealand Origin! D Power is a very regular feature in comments on the google+ side of my blog and is often pushing for a much darker tone to some of my projects. The battle worn nature of my current Alpha Legion project took a great deal of inspiration from D Power's own style, if not nearly as bleak and grim dark!

If you want to see some of the masterful things that have been concocted on the Altar of the scalpel and the brush then head over to I'm alone with a dream. The absolute highlight for me is the masterful Fallen Imperial Knight. But there are many excellent projects to look over. 

Anyway as already stated D Power was the third placed pick in my give away, and in an extreme show of gratitude I was blessed with a reciprocal gift in the form of a fully kitbashed and even painted Anacharis Scoria. This chap will be used in all my casual games as the master of the Dark Mechanicum. He won't make it to tournaments for the reason of not matching the rest of my army and not being painted by me but he's been a blast in games so far!

If you want to see how he was built here is the link. Other than that enjoy the pictures :)

Peace out,

Rob 

Horus Heresy Review: Anacharis Scoria - The Xanophane Tyrant

Good afternoon true believers and purgers of heretics,

Today I will delve into the rules of Anacharis Scoria, one of the founding fathers of the Dark Mechanicum, whose descent into techno-heresy began long before the Age of Darkness. At its outbreak he was already imprisoned away on his home forgeworld of Xana, and his release during the tumult of the Horus Heresy allowed him to set up the very first hell-forge and begin the long round to damnation that saw sentient metal beings of great predatory skill and saturated in evil take form. His darkness permeated all around him, each construct moving further from the holiness of the sacred machine spirit, guided over by the Omnissiah.

Anacharis Scoria, the Xanophane Tyrant, The Fallen Master, Lord of the Nine Cohorts, The Apostate Magister. His titles precede him and forewarn those that stand against him to beware. And so they should as his rules are utterly ruthless and dare I say he is the Dark Mechanicum's equivalent of a Primarch such is his power! Lets get on with discussing it shall we...

Unit Stats

Anacharis is pretty much a beast in all regards. His base stats are pretty damn good, but when you couple them to his equipment and special rules, all sanity books a long holiday, flips you the v and doesn't come back for a long long long time.

WS  BS  S  T  W  I  A  LD  Sv

  5      5    5  5   4  5  3   10    2+

So 5's across the board for WS, BS and S and T. So he will be hitting on 2's for shooting and he will be hitting the average schmuck on a 3+ in combat and all other foes of his caliber a 4+. He doesn't have many attacks but this is somewhat (i.e. completely) off set by some of his special rules. If you think his stats look good now, wait till you hear what his equipment can do.

Overall - TI will point out now that he is in excess of 250 points and below 300 (just split the difference), so you are paying a heavy amount, so you should be expecting something good... Read on to see how good!

Special Rules

What rules doesn't this guy have!? Lets see here:

Eternal Warrior
Adamantium Will
Stubborn
Battlesmith
Cybertheurgy
Patris Cybernetica
Feel no Pain (5+)
Independent Character
Relentless

What a list! But we aren't done... In addition Anacharis also has rules called The Rite of the beast, Homonculex and he has a fixed warlord trait (and if you take him he has to be your warlord).

The Rite of the Beast - An additional cybertheurgy power that has a -2 modifier to pass. This is cast on the whole unit instead of 1 battle automata and it grants re-roll to hit in assault as well as +1 to intiative, move and charge distances for the powers duration. Ouch! So in a legio cybernetica army you can pump a monstrous creature up to I5!!!!

The Homonculex - An odd one this, it represents a test bed automata for Scoria's newest ideas. It allows you to take an Artalax battle automata at normal cost that then also gains paragon of metal and rage for FREE. However if Scoria dies then this also dies and counts as destroyed. Shouldn't be a problem really...

Warlord Trait - Forbidden Protocols - Allows all battle automata in the same army to run and make sweeping advances (usually they are unable except within certain criteria) but if outside cortex controller range they MUST move towards and attack the closest enemy. Normally that rule only applies if an enemy is within 12" and they are outside cortex controller range. Now it just kicks in if they are out of cortex controller range. Paragon of metal model still unaffected.

Equipment

Oh boy, this is where things get serious... So what do we have, we have a mechanicum protectiva, a cyber familiar, a machinator array, a cortex controller and 2 x Archaeotech pistols. Plus the Vodian Sceptre.

So in terms of survivability, the machinator array gives Anacharis +1 toughness so he is T6! It also grant 2 additional strength +1 AP2, armourbane, shred unwieldy attacks in close combat. And has a built in flamer and meltagun that can be fired instead of his pistols if he wants.

The mechanicum protectiva grants him a 4++ that is boosted to a 3++ with his cyber familiar. So we are a T6 2+/3++ monster right now with 4 wounds AND eternal warrior...

Archaeotech pistols have the following profile: 12" S6 AP3, Master crafted - not bad at all!


But the real deal is the Vodian Scepter, this thing CAN kill primarchs, I shit you not. The Vodian Scepter is two-handed so limits the attacks on the charge or defensive, melee (duh), AP2 and the special rule Entropic Destroyer.

Entropic Destroyer: You see the Vodian Scepter doesn't have a strength value, simply whenever Anacharis HITS then EACH hit automatically causes D3 wounds to the target model or unit. Or if its a vehicle a single hull point is dealt out. BUT the real juice about these attacks that actually make this metal monster capable of taking a Primarch down is the fact that IWND and FnP rolls CANNOT be taken against these attacks. Only invulnerable saves are allowed and these wounds won't be coming back...


The only option for Anacharis which will take him up to 315 points is the Xanthanite Abeyant. This grants Anacharis +1 wound, +1 attack, IWND, move through cover, very bulky, hardened armour, AND an additional photon thruster (48" S6 AP2 heavy 2, lance blind gets hot) which can be fired in addition to his other weapons.

You are already pumping a lot of points into this guy. TAKE IT!

Utilisation

Honestly for the points you are going to spend on this chap, considering his rules as a leader of a cybernetica cohort, you need to take him with lots of battle automata. And because of the cost of that (points wise), he's going to be hard to fit into a sensible army at anything lower than 1850. Which is good! This guy IS like a Primarch, he is designed for the big battle of the Age of Darkness 2500-3000 points is great for him!

He wants to be in combat with that Vodian Scepter, mulching through units like nobodies business. To that end I would put him in a dedicated close combat unit such as Domitars or Artalaxi. If you stick him with 2 x Domitar, then not only do you have them as a wound soak but then in a Legio Cybernetica Cohort AND using Rite of the Beast these guys will put out 8 attacks on the charge at INITIATIVE 5! Which are S10 AP2 attacks that they are re-rolling to hit on 4's mostly. AND then he himself has 5 attacks on the charge which with the best rolling will give you 15 AP2 wounds that ignore FnP and IWND. At initiative 5. But then he also gets a further 2 x S6 AP2 shred/armourbane attacks at I1!

You can see how this guy can wreck everybodies day. He can also restore wounds on that unit with both cybertheurgy and also a 3+ battlesmith roll. With Anacharis, you should go big and bold, take the Abeyant option and run him full tilt at the most upsettingly expensive unit your opponent has and take it out. His attacks can even deal with hordes on a good roll, there is little he cannot destroy and as I said, even Primarchs will get a run for their money out of him!

Peace out,

Rob