The Forge Fires Burn Bright - Imperial Knight Incoming - hobby update

Hey Gang,

So I finally admitted to myself that I won't be playing Magic the Gathering again, or at least I won't ever buy more cards as I just can't keep up with the releases... at least whilst keeping up with 40k anyway!!! So I rummaged through my several thousand cards which date back to my first starter set I bought when I was 7 back in 1996 and took them to a local shop to trade in for store credit.

I managed to get myself one half of the renegade box set so I have an Imperial Knight to build! I'm planning to do some serious conversion work on this knight, and have bought some additional parts to make it as unique as I can. This includes some extra legs to lengthen the existing ones as well as two thunderstrike gauntlets! I'm going to be swapping the thumb round on one to have dual hands... 

I also managed to get a squad of the legion of the damned! I ended up with these two choices as it means I can add them in to any of my existing imperial armies. The Knight should add some much needed punch and terror to my Dark Angels army in particular which with it primarily infantry based set up struggles to face against some beefier armies that are out there. 

Anyway I just wanted to give you a little update on what I've got coming up on the blog. I'm hoping to do a very detailed series of posts on my Knight conversion and also hoping to get the legion of the damned ready for painting pretty quickly. 

Hope your looking forward to it!

Peace out,

Rob

Blog Recommendations - The Burning Eye

Good day,

I've been very conscious recently of over selling myself and bombarding people with my hobby and review posts. I'd like to apologise if you are a bit sick of seeing me pop up all the time. I'm planning to curtail my posting a little bit as I feel i am getting under peoples skin. So with that in mind I thought what better way to fill your slightly freer time than by recommending you another blog!

Today I am going to run through why you should be reading The Burning Eye. This is a blog by my hobby comrade Nick Thrower who has been an excellent pillar of support in my painting and blog endeavours for several years now. I met blog whilst I was an active member of The Dark City, the premier Dark Eldar forum on the net. I don't post there anymore since I lost my Dark Eldar army and the blog takes up most of my online time these days. 

Nick was and is an excellent member of the forum, with great advice and always a good one liner to make you chuckle, his quotes populate many a members signature bar! But he as also been putting great effort into his blog for about 4 years now and is a steady hand at the helm. We also chat on social media and whatsapp and have traded magic cards and figure. This year I will be attending an event run by Nick (see last segment below) and I am looking forward to buying him a pint and a pie (as he lives near the heartland of great pies - Melton Mowbray). 

Enough waffle! Here are 5 reasons to visit Nick's blog :)

Terrain Tuesday

Nick has an excellent amount of terrain work on his blog. Something I am sorely lacking myself as I have little to no space to keep built terrain without it cluttering up my room further! The highlight of this aspect of The Burning Eye is Nick's ongoing modular terrain project. Below are a few pictures from his blog of individual pieces as well as pictures from his battle reports which show it in use! If you want to see more of Terrain Tuesday then click the link :)

How to Build an Army

This isn't about gluing things together, but a series of excellent articles written by Nick that really help in setting out a structure to find what you want from an army. Now this might seem obvious, but as many will know, the army you first jump because its pretty isn't what you actually enjoy playing OR the units you jump at for an army aren't what you enjoy playing. Similarly Nick gives excellent direction in how to build a cohesive force with a theme or background, something that can really boost your enjoyment of playing that army. 

Finally Nick touches on the tricky subject of actually building and painting your army. I would personally have found this section invaluable when I first got back into 40k 3-4 years ago as it really helps delineate all the aspects of this incredibly huge and ultimately important part of the hobby. If you are struggling for some structure or inspiration to your painting of a fresh (or even your first) army then this will help a lot. Linky link for all you curios ones :)

The Miniatures

Nick is more than a dab hand at painting, though I would hazard he is going to be humble about any praise. Nick has some beautiful beautiful miniatures in his collection. The pinnacle of these (thus far) are his Dark Eldar, there is some quite delicate and beautiful "scroll work" on the panels of his Dark Eldar raiders that just boggle my mind. I really couldn't fathom doing that on a single one let alone multiples! I will let the pictures do the talking here. Below are some Dark Eldar, Tau and his most recent addition the Dusk Knights, which will look stunning with their striking scheme once they are completed. No link, just head over to the blog and take a walk :)

Reviews

Nick has an excellent writing manner which confers a lot of information without being either bare bones (such as mine are) or laborious like others I have read. There is always a hint of the cheeky (and the cheesy) in his review, plus an excellent ability to view things within a wider context. I would thoroughly suggest you check out his Tau Unit Reviews as well as his ongoing review of the new Angels of Death Supplement. Though there are other dotted around his gaming realm and you should expect many more to come :)

Hero for a Day

Its difficult to overstate how pleasant a chap Nick is, he is a terribly nice and engaging member of any community he is part of and he has even been know to wear chicken hats... Not quite a patch on the fancy dress shenanigans of Mike from St Andrews Wargaming (Batman and Ghostbusters to name a couple), but it is the picture of Nick that jumps to my mind first! 

Something that really underscores this aspect of Nick is the event he is running this year that I shall be attending. It is called Hero for a Day and its a 24 hour 40k gaming marathon, but not just any simple "play 40k for a day" but a full on constructed Narrative campaign that pits two teams against each other. The work going into this is sublime, as for each battle either team could win which presents multiple different routes of narrative progression, for which Nick has written all possible endings despite known most won't be used!

The real key aspect of this event though is Nick's motivation for putting it on, The whole event is to raise awareness for the Childhood Cancer and Leukemia Group (CCLG) which does incredible work both in the care for children with cancer, but also care and information for the parents of children that are unlucky enough to suffer from cancer. Additionally the CCLG is also an active partner of academic research, providing data and funding to academia such that we can better treat the multiple types and sub-types of cancer that are out there. 

This event doesn't arise from nothing but a touching personal story regarding a friend of Nick and his young son George who is bravely battling cancer. I won't elaborate here as Nick has done so very well on his blog. Pleas follow this link to find out more about the event and the inspiration for it. 

You can also follow this link to the Virgin Just Giving Page if you wish to donate. It is for an excellent cause :)

That's all from myself and the Burning Eye today, as I said I will probably cool my posting for a while to allow people to find me interesting again ;). Remember, as always,

Peace out,

Rob

Krios Venator WIP

Howdy all,

Super quick update today with a picture of my Krios Venator at a more advanced stage of painting and partly dry built to see how it coming along :)

You can also see the Domitar legs drying from a wash of seraphim sepia in the background! And in the far far background you can see a couple of Deathwatch Marines that I have been building in my spare time when I just fancy building a single model for fun. What you can't see is the pile of redbull cans at my feet...

Peace out,

Rob

Horus Heresy Review: Sons of Horus - Special Rules and Rite of War

Hey Gang,

As requested by a reader (Rory I think), I'm going to start reviewing the Sons of Horus. This is a Legion that I have never really looked at the rules for, so its all come as a bit of a bundle in to my brain! As always please feel free to point out inaccuracies as you see them :). So lets start the show with the Sons of Horus special rules and ONE of their unique Rites of War. I only have the first one in print and I am looking to borrow the second so hold with me :)

Legion Specific Rules

These are basically the chapter tactics of the Horus heresy, but whizzing around the room pumped full of cocaine and caffeine. These rules really do give you a great feel for how the legions operate in distinct and different styles. This is the flavour which is really drawing people into to 30k I think when coupled with the beautiful models and relatively balanced and communicative design teams.

Legiones Astartes - This is the basic space marines rule in 30k much like ATSKNF except they do now fear! But they can always regroup as normal regardless of casualties, so no waiting for that double 1 to show up.

The Edge of the Spear - Any units with this rule (including if embarked on a transport), may re-roll any 1's when rolling for reserves. Holy cow that great! Its going to let you re-roll 50% of your failed reserve rolls and anything which decreases randomness increases your ability to make solid battle plans around units coming in when needed.

Merciless Fighters - If the Sons outnumber their opponents in a combat once I1 has been reached, then all models may make an additional attack. Bulky models count for 2 (go jump pack assault!) and very bulky count for 3. HOWEVER this rule does not effect units that are going at I1 so no extra attacks with fists or hammers. This is a great rule that enforces an aggressive play style and making sure you pick your fights tactically, sort of the reverse of Rampage really. As indicated above, jump pack units will benefit from this very well as you count double numbers.

Bitter Pride - The Sons follow their Primarch and his kin, no other. You don't benefit from any allied warlord's leadership or warlord trait. This is not really a problem unless you are running the Sons as a small force in which case it shouldn't be much of a problem anyway! If they are your main force your allies will benefit from your warlord so eh, not much of a downside for me personally.

Rite of War: 

As before I'll just quickly run over what a Rite of War is for those that don't know. A Rite of War is basically akin to codex specific detachments in 40k such as the real space raiders detachment, the champions of fenris and the Baal Strike Force etc. Its NOT like a formation. You can only take a rite of war if you have a Master of the Legion in your army. This will either be a Praetor (read chapter master), a Delegatus (a special type of captain) or a named special character including the Primarchs.

In the main 30k rulebook you are presented with several rites of war that your Master of the Legioon can take. An example of this is Pride of the Legion. Pride of the Legion allows you to take terminators and veterans as troop choice and you HAVE to use them to fulfil your compulsory slots. However this comes with restrictions, you are not allowed an allied detachment and if all your veterans and terminators die you grant the enemy an additional victory point. 

The rites are supposed to allow you to play your legion with awesome fluffy rules but also represent the flaws that a legions particular style of engagement exposes, either physically or mentally.

The Black Reaving

Other than having a super cool name, I really like this Rite of war. It forces a bullying and fast paced form of war, it requires a good tactical mind to use it efficiently (which I think we will find is a common theme with the Sons) but it has the potential to be brilliant. Here are the special rules and limitations:

Encirclement - Any unit arriving my reserves gains fleet for that turn. OK you can't assault but you can run with more assuredness of getting a decent roll! This has some excellent applications (especially for outflanking units), but you will need to think hard about where you want those units. And where you want them is likely to be dictated by the next rule...

Cut them Down - Sons of Horus units that charge a unit already engaged in an on-going assault with a Sons unit gain rage for that turn. So no charging two units at once for rage, the assault has to be on-going, so you can imagine that a unit comes on from reserve and runs into position with encirclement. A unit that was on the board can charge the enemy and tie them up till the reserve unit can charge next turn and get Rage. Bazinga.

Reaver Onslaught - Reaver units can be taken as troops - I will cover these in the Unique Units section.

The Eye of The Warmaster - Justaerin Terminators gain the ability to deep strike. I'll cover the termies along with the Reavers, but deep striking terminators in 30k is BIG! Remember unlike 40k that isn't a standard thing and therefore you get a level of tactical flexibility that is rare for such bulky units (without investing in a Spartan).


Before I go on to the limitations I will say I really like this Rite of War benefits. It requires you to bend your head a little bit, but you have to imagine that you have 30-50% of your force in reserve and the rest on the table. Turn one you charge up the board ready for a turn 2 assault. In turn 2 you can tie up key units as your reserves come in and then in tun 3 they can charge and gain the rage special rule to wipe them out. But tricky to pull off!


Limitations

- Master of Signals must be taken in addition to your Master of the Legion. In lower points games any low level special characters with Master of the Legion or a Delegatus Consul would be the best way to ensure you aren't overspending because of this.

- Must take more fast attack units than heavy support. Essentially limiting you to 2 Heavy support if you have 3 fast attack. Again this is pushing you to take fast units to get up close with the enemy ASAP.

- Must take an additional troops choice. Given that reavers are troop you can take on of those in addition to your standard troops and job is good 'un.

- No fortification BUT allies is as normal.


The most significant limitation here is the Master of Signal as its an annoying point sink you might not really fancy. But the rest of the limitations I think you would probably fulfill for this Rite anyway as you build your force, its designed for fast paced hard hitting armies with plenty of bodies. This immediately means that fortifications and heavy units are less likely to be picked up and you have flexibility with your additional choice in the troop slot now.



Overview

The Sons of Horus seem as you might expect, aggressive, hard hitting and incredibly tactically cunning. They seem like the Legiones Astartes with the training wheels off and require lots of brains to make work really well, but I can see them being competitive for sure.

I'm not sure when you should expect part two so hang tight fans :)


Peace out,

Rob

Horus Heresy Review: Krios Battle Tank Squadron

Good weekend friends,

So today I am going to run through Krios Battle Tank Squadrons for Taghmata Omnissiah armies (as well as Ordo Reductor and Legio Cybernetica armies). These are some very cool looking tanks that come in two flavours; the regular Krios Battle Tank and the Krios Venator.

Unit Stats

Both Krios flavours come with exactly the same base stats with the following profile:

BS  Front   Side   Rear   HP

 4      13        12      10    13

So marine standard BS with a predator tank level of front and side armour. However that AV10 does leave you very vulnerable to both assault and rear shots. This tank is also a fast vehicle so you have a bit of extended range on your weapon giving you more viable targets essentially. 

Overview - A decent stat line to be sure, but for 125 points base cost you'll want something nice to go with it!

Special Rules

The Krios Chassis comes with one special rule as standard, The Galvanic Traction Engine.

The Galvanic Traction Engine - This lets the Krios chassis to re-roll failed dangerous terrain tests. This is a mandatory re-roll so no strategic immobilising of one tank in a squadron to allow the other tank to leave and shoot at separate targets.

Equipment

The Krios Battle Tank is the standard load out, with the Venator option an upgrade. As standard you come with the following:

Lightning Cannon - 48", S7, AP3, Rending, Shred, Large Blast, Heavy 1.

This is your standard marine killer, land this on a blob of 20 marines and you should take out most of the ones that you hit. It also has the option of taking on 2+ saves with rending though not something I would really rely on.

Flare Shield - Minus 1 strength to incoming ranged attacks giving you effectively AV14 on the front. This is -2 to blast and template weapon strength as well. Though remember this doesn't effect attacks in close combat.

Blessed Autosimulcra - On a roll of a 6 you can restore a HP at the end of your turn, IWND light basically.

You also come with a searchlight as standard.

Overview - the standard loadout of the Krios is a pretty strong frame with a gun to end marines. You've got very strong forward facing armour but a weak rear to protect.

Options

So the major option with the Krios is to upgrade it to a Venator by replacing the Lightning Gun with a Pulsar Phusil.

Pulsar-Phusil - 36", S9, AP2, Pinning, Ordnance 4.

FOUR shots at S9, AP2. This should rinse through any tanks apart from AV14 beasts like the Spartan, but even then you stand a good chance of ruining its day unless it comes with a Flare shield. But even then any 2+ save models should beware, especially if they have multiple wounds as you will insta-gibb them.

As far as other options go you have a mixture of offensive and defensive:

Volkite Sentinels: You can take up to two of these and they are independently targeting, pintle mounted Volkite Chargers (15", S5, AP5, Assault 2 Deflagrate). DO NOT take these on the Venator, its ordnance weapon will force these to be snapshots.

Anarbic Claw: Can be activated any time you are assaulted or rammed, but only once per turn. This then automatically strikes all units within 1". This includes friendly units! D6 hits are inflicted per unit at S5, AP4, RENDING. This is a 15 point upgrade that gives you a pretty excellent defence potentially against assaulting units. I recommend.

Hunter Killer Missiles: As standard.

Extra Armour: As standard.

Smoke Launchers: As standard.

Utilisation

Obviously the Krios Battle Tank Standard with its Lightning cannon is set to take on any unit of 3+ save models. Additionally it'll do a pretty good job against any lightly armoured vehicles. However I wouldn't bother too much with any jinking units. You'd be better served with the Barrage weapons of the Thanatar as it forces re-rolls on successful cover saves.

The Venator is just a brute that costs a fair few extra points (25) but adds much needed anti-tank at range if that is something you are lacking. It also doubles well at taking out 2+ save units. On average you will hit 2-3 times and unless you are hot on rolling 1's they should kill barring invulnerable saves.

In terms of additional equipment I really rate the Anarbic Claw for some form of defence against assault. It may be enough to stop your destruction but hopefully you can take at least some of that unit with you, especially if they blow you up as well!

The Volkite sentinels are cool, but they only work on the Lightning Cannon build and that has a range of 48". So you're only going to be challenged by units that are deep in your lines. I would be wary of taking them as they add a lot to the price over the basic. If you are taking the Lightning Cannon variety then I would add the Anarbic claw for a 140 point model of awesome.

The Venator will cost you 165 with the Claw and I would again leave it at that.

Peace out,

Rob

Vorax Conversion and Painting begins on the Domitar and Venators

How do all,

So today I've got a little showcase of the Mechanicum that I am working on. I'm aiming to batch paint these much like the previous Thallax/Castellax/Thanatar I have painted. I also have my converted Vorax to show you. I'm pretty pleased with this conversion to be honest, its cobbled together out of sooo many different parts that its really felt like a conversion than just modding bits and bobs here or there. I don't like the original Vorax because they are just a bit too bug looking for me, the head really throws me off sadly.

I'm not the greatest converter so please be gentle ;) here's the Vorax! 

And here we have the rest of my undercoated models that are ready for layers of seraphim sepia as well as areas that have little to know yellow on them, so I have just jumped in with base coating the metallics and giving the black areas a dry brush of dark reaper.

Later today I hope to get the first couple of layers of yellow on them and by the end of the weekend I hope to have the yellow finished and start layering the metallics on the Domitars, having hopefully finished layering the Krios Tanks.

Tomorrow I will be doing a review of the Krios Battle Tanks and on Sunday I will be doing the first in a series about the Sons of Horus, unless time becomes limited.

Peace out,

Rob

Legio Cybernetica - 3000 point army list

Good afternoon true heretics!

Today I'm just going to run through my projected army list for my Legio Cybernetica when I get them fully built and painted. I currently have two Domitars and two Krios Venators on the painting slab, undercoated in black and just awaiting their white before I start layering seraphim sepia on them for the yellow.

I have also spent a good while the last two days covering myself in super glue as I convert a much more Dark Mechanicum style (because I get away with more mistakes that way!) Vorax as I don't like the bug heads on the official models and don't want to pay forge world prices for one just to cut it apart! Additionally I also have an Arlatax Automata to convert out of my remaining Domitar models.

Anyway the list:

HQ

Anacharis Scoria - I have so little reason to not include this guy. The Legio Cybernetica only have a few special characters and this guy is so ridiculously cool and lethal that I just have to have him. This is him at full cost with his Xanathite Abeyant. He will accompany the Domitar unit as a beefy aggressive unit.

Magos Prime - A tricked out second HQ to ensure a large controller cortex coverage. Cortica Primus for cybertheurgy on whole squads of automata, Macrotek Techno Arcana for a re-roll on resoting wounds to the Thanatars that he will accompany. Abeyant, Machinator array and cyber familiar for added durability. Also has an Augury scanner to give interceptor to the unit if any deep striking units appear.

Elite

2 x Domitar Battle Automata - A unit of two tricked out with frag grenades and flakk missiles. Essentially designed to accompany Ancharis Scoria into combat and kill everything! Doubles with a tiny bit of anti-air but only because I had the spare points!

Troops

2 x Castellax Battle Automata - enhanced targeting array with bolters on each arm, Aggressive unit with good Dakka and AP3, run them at marines!

2 x Castellax Battle Automata - enhanced targeting array with flamers on each arm and Darkfire Weapons. Designed to sit back and use their range to pop light tanks and knock models off 2+ save units. The flamers should give them some additional defence against charging units that make it to the backfield.

3 x Thallax - standard unit with Ferrox upgrade. This means both their shooting and close combat attacks are rending so they can challenge most things with luck! Mobile and can claim objectives, so harass and stay safe as much as possible. Also have melta bombs so can threaten pretty much anything really.

3 x Thallax - As above

3 x Thallax - As above

Fast Attack

1 x Homonculex - This is an Arlatax bought at regular cost that comes with Paragon of metal for free. It represents Ancharis' test bed for experimental modification. Comes with an arc scourge for additional attacks. Super aggressive and expendable as long as it takes out a big chunk of points with it.

Heavy Support

1 x Krios Venator - Anarbic claw and smoke launchers on this beast for a bit more cover save and an I10 attack when assaulted! I've not reviewed this guy yet so watch out for that one, but it comes with a Ordnance 4, S9, AP2 weapon so its beefy!

1 x Krios Venator - Anarbic claw and smoke launchers again for the same job.

2 x Thanatar Class Siege Automata - Enhanced targeting array on these guys, The Magos Prime can repair them on a 3+ with his machinator array and either give BOTH of them a wound back with his cortica primus or they can BOTH fire 2 large blast, S8, AP2 barrage shots in a turn. Sweet.

Overview

This list is designed to make the most of the Legio Cybernetica reputation and rules for battle automata. All these Automata have +1 initiative and also the cortex controller range is extended to 24". This is important in relation to Anacharis Scoria and his warlord trait. So if you aren't massively up on him then check out the review tab to read on my main page :). 

There is a mixture of ranged and close combat units in there with the Heavy support section sending down a minimum of 8 x S9 AP2 ordnance shots AND 2 x Large blast S8 AP2 templates down. Additionally the Darkfire Cannon Castellax will add 4 S7 AP2 shots to this mix.

Whilst the Domitar and Homonculex along with Anacharis will provide a supreme amount of kick in the teeth. They can really do a number on some super hot units, the main problem is footslogging, though with move through cover this becomes a bit easier to stick to cover for the most part and Anacharis should be able to keep any wounded Domitar in the fight.

The three thallax units and the Mauler Bolt Pattern Castellax are mid range units used carefully to secure or deny objectives. but they have considerable assets to aid in both ranged and close combat engagements. 

I have hopes of acquiring an Atrapos Knight before the year is out and that will either put me up to 3500 points or I will form an alternative list with the Atrapos as the big old hammer!

Thought welcome if polite as always :)

Peace out,

Rob

Horus Heresy Review: Legion Mastodon Heavy Assault Transport

Goooooooood afternoon,

Today I'm going to delve into one of the newer offerings from forge world for the Legiones Astartes, the giant delivery truck of death that is the Mastodon Heavy Assault Transport. This is a delivery truck of death in both the sense that its occupants are likely to be a bundle of death but also the vehicle itself has serious offensive capabilities. And for the princely base price of 700 points you would bloody hope so!

Unit Stats

Ok so the Mastodon comes with the following profile:

BS  Front   Side   Rear   HP

 4      14        14      14    10

This is, in and of itself, impressive! Especially as it is a super-heavy transport so it cannot be one shot exploded by a lucky gunner. It needs to have all of those HP's ground down to zero. It has no fire points, but it can carry up to 40 regular models, though as part of this complement it can also carry up to 2 contemptor dreadnoughts with each counting as 10 models for the purpose of carrying capacity.

Additionally the Mastodon has two access points which are at the front and the rear of the vehicle.

Overview - even before you delve into the equipment and special rules of the Mastodon it has a fearsome presence on the table and this only improves the more you look at it.

Special Rules

The Mastodon, as one might expect, has a plethora of special rules to compliment its hulking exterior. These are Assault Vehicle, Enhanced Defensive Fire, Reinforced Shell and Void Shields (2).

Assault Vehicle - lets start with the simple one first, this vehicle is obviously designed to deliver a deadly payload and there wouldn't be much point to the bloody thing if you had to stand around scratching your arse (or ass for our West Atlantic cousins) for a turn!

Void Shields (2) - That is right! This AV14, 10HP monstrosity also has TWO AV12 void shields. Collapsed by glancing, penetrating and D hits, these can be returned on a roll of a 5+ at the end of each of your turns. Dear Throne this thing is surviviable.

Enhanced Defensive Fire - As long as one unit still occupies the Mastodon it can use its sponsons to fire overwatch, thus removing the negative of having zero fire ports. This overwatch is fired at BS2 for the standard weapons, whereas template weapons inflict D3+1 automatic hits. So its overwatch fire is better than normal! The most effective way to deal with this machine, close combat, just became a less friendly prospect... These can fire only once but at separate units as long as the unit is in their arc of fire.

Reinforced Shell - A lovely rule in a game where often bigger and badder is better. The armoured shell of the Mastodon is so secure that it contain and blast that occurs. Therefore you apply a -2 modifier to the catastrophic damage table when rolling for the Mastodon's destruction. Should a 0 or -1 occur then the Mastodon remains in play but functions as a ruined building, with both doors acting as free access points. Very fluffy and cool.

Equipment

As you would expect this beast is loaded with weapons and other equipment, lets just start with the standard equipped offensive battery shall we:

Two Sponson Mounted Lascannons - The standard lascannon that can fire overwatch (only its arc of fire) at BS2.

Two Sponson Mounted Heavy Flamers - Standard Heavy flamers with D3+1 overwatch

One Fixed Forward Siege Melta Array - 12", S9, AP1, Heavy 4, Small Blast, Melta, Stone Burner

Stone Burner - if this weapon inflicts a penetrating hit against a fortification or building then it instead causes D3 penetrating hits.

One Turret-mounted Skyreaper Battery - 48", S7, AP4, Heavy 5, Twin-linked, Skyfire, Interceptor

OK so the Mastodon has pretty much everything covered here! Flamers for hordes, lascannons for armour, skyfire and interceptor for flyers and then magma death cannon for anything stupid enough to sit within 12 inches in front of its face! Blimey oh riley!

In addition to its offensive arsenal the Mastodon also has a searchlight, smoke launchers AND armoured ceramite to boot. So you not only have 10 AV14 hull points nestled behind two AV12 void shield, but it also isn't vulnerable to ranged melta!!

Options

Optional extras with this beast include the following: 4 hunter killer missiles, an upgrade to be a super heavy command vehicle, an upgrade to have command vox relay.

Command Vox Relay - While the Mastodon is in play this allows you to add or subtract 1 to your reserve rolls. In addition any deep striking enemy units that suffer a mishap will have -1 applied to the deep strike mishap table as long as the Mastodon is in play.

Super Heavy Command Vehicle - As far as I am aware this allows re-roll of morale within 24 inches. Any one care to correct me if that is wrong?

Utilisation

This will be a short section as this is a pretty self explanatory! You pack it full of death and drive it at the heart of the enemy. There is no room for being timid with this UNLESS you are facing something packing  shit tonne of destroyer weaponry. D weapons are pretty much the only serious threat to this other than a Primarch in close combat with retinue. But you shouldn't be letting yourself get charged really, but dictating the charges. 

I would recommend the command vox relay if you have any reserve support coming in like flyers, but otherwise give it a miss. In terms of the command vehicle, that could be very very useful in 30k given that Astartes are not fearless, but again that really depends on what you have put inside of it!

So much of how you use this depends on the rest of your force that I will leave that up to you :)

Peace out,

Rob

Horus Heresy Review: Arlatax Battle Automata

Hey fine folks,

A review of the Arlatax Battle-Automata. This monster is built on the same frame as the Domitar but comes equipped with a jump pack for a fast predatory creature. I intend to convert one of these from the extra Domitar forgeworld accidentally supplied me with and I'm currently working on how to do that at the moment.

Unit Stats

The Domitar is the bigger brother of the Castellax and shares much with it. It is a monstrous creature that can be taken in units of 1-5 and with a stat line to match as you an see below!

WS  BS  S  T  W  I  A  LD  Sv

  4     3    7  6   4   4  3   8     3+

Compared to its Domitar brethren the Arlatax loses a point in toughness but gains a point in both initiative and leadership. The leadership is less important than initiative but it does help combat any leadership based psychic attacks such as psychic shriek. The extra point in initiative is AMAZING however. As a close combat orientated automata this means it will at base stats hit simultaneously with standard troops. However if you stick it in a Legio Cybernetica Cohort then it will gain +1 initiative putting at at 5 AND if you take Anacharis Scoria then you have option of using cybertheurgy to boost this to 6!!!! Which is fantastic.

Additionally it also comes with Atomantic Shielding granting a 5++ versus ranged attacks and a 6++ against attacks in close combat. The Domitar also has an extra pip in strength bringing it to S7 though given its fist based armaments I'm not sure it matters all that much!

As with all battle automata poisoned fire and fleshbane will be ignoring its high toughness, BUT it has the Cybernetica Resilience special rule which forces successful poisoned or fleshbane wounds to be re-rolled. This is nice against fleshbane but HUGE against poisoned weapons with 4+ being the most common form of poison, so reducing those wound by half again on average!

Overall - The Arlatax lacks some of the resilience of the Domitar as well as the Castellax but it makes up with this by being speedier, both in a movement sense as we will see but also in the initiative sense which makes it a match for the Astartes even in a normal taghmata army.

Special Rules

The Arlatax comes relatively light on special rules, with just the above mentioned cybernetica resilience rules which are incorporated in the cybernetica cortex rules. It also has the reactor blast special rule which means it explodes on a 6 when it loses its last wound. HOWEVER it does come as standard with FNP (6+) which you can't ever complain about really!

Equipment

The Arlatax has two close combat weapon (the additional attack is already figured for in the profile above) so you will generate 4 attacks on the charge. Like the Domitar this is not all that impressive given you will be hitting at WS4, but you will have a single hammer of wrath on top of this and the weapons themselves help mitigate this somewhat. The Rite of the Beast cybertheurgy power which Anacharis Scoria comes with can also help them as it allows them to re-roll all to hit rolls in combat whilst the power is in effect.

Arlatax Power Claw - +2S, AP2, Shred

At +2S the Arlatax will be hitting at S9, so wounding on 2+ mostly but with a re-roll for shred. With this profile any hits you do make are all but guaranteed to wound I would say. So as long as your to hit rolls don't stink you should put out some damage!

Additionally each power claw also comes with a built in assault cannon! This has the following profile:

Power Claw inbuilt cannon - 24", S6, AP4, Assault 3

That's two of these total so you are pumping out 6 shots before the charge which hit on 4's and wound on 2's against the T4 majority that is out there. The lower BS and the fact you have fleet means you should be unlikely to put yourself out of charge range with these guns. The Arlatax is a jump monstrous creature so don't forget that this gives you fleet! EDIT: Just gives you the straight re-roll on charge if you didn't use it in the movement phase!

As well as this ranged weapon you also come equipped with a Plasma Blaster as standard:

Plasma Blaster - 18", S7, AP2, Assault 2, Get Hot

I would fire the assault cannons first, as if you do enough damage with them then it would be best to avoid the potential of a gets hot roll in my opinion and not fire the Plasma Blaster at all.

Bizarrely you have the option of replacing ONE of the power claws with an Arc Scourge. This doesn't decrease your number of attacks but you do need to decide which of these weapons you are fighting with in any given combat.

Arc Scourge - S-user, AP2, Rampage, armourbane, concussion

I would highly recommend this weapon as it grants you the Rampage rule thus upping your attack count. This also makes the Arlatax a prime candidate for Paragon of metal (which you get for free if Anacharis Scoria is in the army) as this will also grant you IWND and RAGE, further increasing your attacks. Since you have to be on your own for Paragon of Metal you will nearly always activate Rampage.

The Arlatax also comes with frag grenades as standard unlike the Domitar.

Utilisation

I really like the Domitar for a bodyguard unit due to their toughness and HoW impact on the charge. However with the Arc Scourge option and the added mobility I think the Arlatax is an out and out better lose combat machine which is actually potentiated much better when they are on their own utilising the Paragon of metal special rule. This both increases their durability with IWND but also increase their overall damage output. 

In squads of 2 or more I think they will be horrific damage machines, but due to the lack of resilient jump pack HQ's to go with them they will be very vulnerable to AP3 fire. This is not because the HQ can tank the wounds as the patric cybernetica rule explicitly states you can ignore the HQ for the purposes of closes model wound allocation; but the HQ does have the ability to repair 2 wounds a turn with his battlesmith roll and cybetheurgy powers. Indeed if he has the Cortica Primus he could repair a wound each on all Arlatax with cybertheurgy and then an additional wound on one with battle smith.

Because you lack this I would suggest take them as a unit of 1 and go full paragon of metal arc scourge with them. If you plan on taking Anacharis Scoria then the paragon of metal upgrade will be FREE so that helps keep the cost down, as otherwise with an arc scourge and paragon of metal you will be looking at 220 points for the single automata. Overpriced for its effectiveness, but when costing 185, a well costed close combat machine.

Peace out,

Rob

Death Company - The End has Come

Hi all,

A fairly busy day social wise, ended up having a gigantic roast and sleeping the food baby off! But after rising from my greed induced coma I sat down and finished off the end of my final 6 Death Company. Today I just have pictures of these 6 guys, but I intend to take pictures of each 10 man squad and the other units in the light box so you can see them in all their glory. This is part of my slow plan to update the picture quality of all my existing miniatures for the pages at the top of my blog. 

So for today, I hope you enjoy these pictures, and I will have more coming soon!

Peace out,

Rob

Win a Titan from Forge World - My Entry - Hygrometus The Storm Bringer

Hey People,

So recently Forgeworld ran a competition that only people who had spent over £150 in the month of March could enter. The idea was to write up to 400 words describing how your Titian acquired there famous or infamous name. The entries will be judged on originality, creativity and how well they fit the spirit of the universe of 30k/40k. 

I only realised this was a competition after I spent £272 with Forgeworld, so I decided to enter it and make the most of the big spend! Below is my entrance to the competition, I don't expect to win but thought I would share it with you anyway :)

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The defenders stood atop the battlements. Its crude granite walls sat in a row of three, the ground between each was a singularly designed killing field. The hot red flash of laser weaponry would become indistinguishable from the bright red spurt of blood as the enemy threw themselves upon its walls and into its breaches. The stench of the dead that rose from the foot of the first wall, Exitium Exoptat – Hopes Bane, choked the air with sickly sweet fumes of necrotic flesh.

Yet stood here at the summit of this world, fear lay rank between the defenders. Their traitorous heart had fallen from the light of resolution that the Emperors beneficence provided. The courage of their conviction had wavered. Death was coming, and it came with the storm. So short sighted are these men that cannot see beyond their choices. Each choice a branch of life he follows, unaware of the fire he has stoked.

The Ruinous Powers promise much and deliver little to these fools, whereas the Emperors wrath like an unstoppable wave, will always cleanse the heretic from its lands. Beyond Exitium Exoptat lay the great wastes of Disthandor Prime, normally an arid plane where the curvature of the planet is all that is to be seen. But at the normally empty horizon of this vast Hive world, on this day, clouds gathered. Dark and brooding with nought but a promise of death... They came closer.

As the Mars Pattern Titans feet inexorably drew it towards the granite citadel, its reactor core, exposed from the prior conflicts of Disthandor Prime, cast arc lightening up and over its gigantic bulk. A blue incandescent ball of electric phosphor fury, emitted with a pained scream of the tortured machine spirit. The crackling arcing energy of the core sparked upwards into the atmosphere, its energy dissipated to fuse the hydrogen and oxygen of the planets skies. Clouds formed like a dense smoke plume above the behemoth, a storm of terror that precipitated its arrival.

Before the day was done the killing fields lay red with the defenders blood, beneath a black cloud of righteous might. They could not run from the fury and the fire, he said. I smote them down with the weapons I was given, he said.

I did my duty, he said.

I am Hygrometus. I am the Storm.

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Peace out,

Rob

The Forge World fires burn Bright - Domitar and Venator Builds

Hey hey heresy fans,

Just another quick modelling update today with suitably bit rate photographs for such an occasion. I've tried to model the Domitars as very aggressive, sort of hulking heavy breathing mechanical monsters. Each will have PDF corpses on their bases, with a corpse being impaled by the long iron bar on the Domitar with the hole in his base.

The Venator is a lovely kit but due to its nature of assemble I will have to pretty much paint each bit individually before assembly! Great for ensuring a good paint job but sometimes a bit of a pain!

Thoughts always welcome :)

Peace out,

Rob