Horus Heresy 2e Review: Magistus Amon

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
3/5 stars. The rules are average overall with some parts being good and some not so great.

Background.

The one time tutor to the Thousand Sons' Primarch, Amon served as both equerry and emissary during the Great Crusade. He was really the lead in the legions intelligence gathering unit though. Post Prospero, he became an embittered individual and felt very cut off from his brothers. 

Strengths.

The warlord trait here is an army wide boost that provides shrouded to those units who have infiltrating and scouting special rules during the first two turns. Obviously this calls for specific builds when using Amon as the HQ, but it remains a fluffy choice. The bonus movement reaction is solid.

The armour is good and can give shrouded as well. His weapon relies on poison which I find is strictly worse than having force on board.

Weaknesses.

Looking at his weapon, it really needs to be better for the points cost. At least make it the same as a paragon blade for starters. Lacking any minor arcana is a weakness on the surface. But what it allows Amon to do is join any unit. This is excellent! Having telepathy and divination are sound, if not outstanding.

Overall.

He is a force multiplier who needs to have an army built around him. He is slightly over priced for the equipment that he comes with as standard though. If you're liking the idea of lots of recon squads, this will play well for you. Otherwise, probably not quite worth it. 

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Ahzek Ahriman

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4/5 stars. The rules are great for a close combat character.

Background.

He he would eventually curse the Thousand Sons legion is the first and final chief librarian during the Heresy. He is a superlatively talented and strong psyker and the arch-magister of the Corvidae cult within the legion. Let alone Magnus' pupil. 

Strengths.

Ahriman has a number of interesting strengths and simultaneous drawbacks. I find it odd that his major strength is close combat here, but it is what it is. 

Given his points value, Ahriman is strictly superior to a praetor in almost every way. He gets lots of psychic powers, a force weapon that is much better than a paragon blade (S=9 at I+1, master crafted!) along with a warlord trait that redeploys three units. The additional reaction in a choice of phase is superlative here. 

Weaknesses.

I find it odd that his psychic dakka is weak here. He is by definition corvidae and his psychic powers are remarkably limited in many ways. Plus he really doesn't want to be corvidae given you want him in close combat. 

Overall.

Treat him as a close combat monster and don't stress about him not being such an army wide buffer, or psychic shooting master. He is more than worth the points which is why he gets 4 stars from me. 

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Khenetai Occult Cabal

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4/5 stars. The rules are good. 

Background.

One of the smaller cults within the Thousand Sons legion, the Khenetai fused their psychic powers with their blades and accomplished incredible martial feats therein. 

Strengths.

Baseline of WS=5 and 2 wounds each mark them out of veteran analogues. 

They do not get access to the minor arcana, but instead get a power to yield +1 to all of WS, A, and movement. This is terrific and for the points cost that you are paying here, this is such a strong and tempting deal! The force weapons only add to this amazing deal.

Weaknesses.

For what you are paying, there really aren't any downsides here. 

Difference to First Edition.

Improved! Okay, you can argue with me that they used to be WS=6 as baseline, but here in second edition it is entirely understandable that their baseline WS would be reduced. This matters not a jot though given their psychic powers. 

To be honest, the main problem here is that they are an elites slot. This slot is already mightily crowded!

Builds.

5 Khenetai, Blademaster with Artificer Armour (160 points).

You don't really need the artificer armour, but it is nice to have. Multiple units of this kind of build are powerful. 

Beyond this, I wouldn't advocate much. Maybe a hand flamer is nice for one of them, but I wouldn't expand the unit to 10 to take two of them. Melta bombs are cute, but possibly not needed either - you should have other melta solutions. 

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Castellax-Achea Automata

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️
2/5 stars. If you played first edition, you will be upset with the nerf that this unit has received. 

Background.

Secret research by the Thousand Sons legion resulted in automata that were expendable in full frontal assaults. As with a lot about the legion, these constructs were pretty much in the realm of heresy even before the Council. The Space Wolves would find out about them soon enough at the Fall of Prospero though. 

Strengths.

Psychic robots! I mean: this unit does have the rule of cool about it. 

With S=6 and T=6 plus 4 wounds, they are akin to a monstrous creature in all but name. They also have the psyker rule.

Friendly models with a psychic weapon can make shooting attacks using the automata as the origin of the attack which is very nice. Their weapons are nice, but not outstanding. 

Weaknesses.

Lack of reliable AP=2 weapons is a problem here. 

You are also probably not going to shoot psychically via them. You are probably going to want that juicy S+1 and T+1 from biomancy instead which means this nice rule is going to go to waste.

Difference to First Edition.

Nerfed in almost every department. Could still work nicely with a Praevian I guess. 

Builds.

Keep to the original build. There aether-fire cannon is honestly not really worth it, and there's no other choices available here. 

The Lion Returns

Interrupting the regular pace of things to just take a moment to gush about the new Warhammer 40,000 model for Lion El'Johnson. 

Of course, the rumours about his release have been swirling around for a very long time now. I am highly impressed there haven't been leaks in the same way that Angron was leaked out. 

What I really like about this model is that the Lion is not "over the top" compared to (say) the Heresy era interpretation, arguably as Roboute has shifted in a quite extreme manner. The Lion is both resplendent, dynamic, and retains the grim dark tone without appearing cartoon like. I think part of this impression is the visible aging that has been done to his face. Naturally, being asleep for millennia or ten is bound to do that to a man. Many have already made note of the looks being similar to a certain Lannister of Game of Thrones fame. I get that completely. Yet, he is also demonstrably still the Lion. He has aged gracefully and lacks nothing of his more youthful determination, aggression, and finesse. The watchers in the dark are similarly interesting on his base and I'm looking forward to seeing how his friendly chat with Cypher turns out (please do this Black Library, okay? We really want it!). 

Even I am slightly tempted to buy this model to be completely honest, and its been a long time since I built a Dark Angels force! Congrats GW on such a fantastic sculpt. 

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Contemptor-Osiron Dreadnought Talon

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
3/5 stars. Really good and interesting, but gets expensive.

Background.

The result of Magnus The Red's magnificent mind to solve the problem of interring a psychic warrior inside a dreadnought to serve still. The Thousand Sons legion was the first to field them and freely gave the tech away to the other legions who appear to have spurned the gift. Maybe not the Alpha Legion though? 

Strengths.

Psykers in a dreadnought! Yes! How cool is that?!

Okay, in all seriousness though, we can upgrade these with the minor arcana. This is certainly recommended as there are a variety of options here that will be of benefit including the extra movement, the long range sniping, and the bonus invulnerable.

If its a unit of one, then it can be upgraded to a Magnus version which gets a core psychic discipline. This is much less worth it. Even if you are tempted by biomancy for the juicy S+1 and T+1 it has got to the points cost level where a leviathan is superior. So this upgrade isn't worth it in my opinion. 

The force blade as standard is nasty here, but equally regular dreadnoughts do better in the brutal department. Adamantium will is nice, but not worth the extra points compared to a base dreadnought.

Weaknesses.

This dreadnought cannot swap out its force weapon which is understandable, but a bit sad. Hence a close combat build might be good here - and a small terror to lighter tanks. But in keeping with an emergent theme with the Thousand Sons, its all just a bit over-costed for the points.

Builds.

Osiron with 2 Force Blades with built in graviton guns, Minor Arcana (235 points).

Deadly close combat monster and the bane of lighter tanks.

Osiron with Aether Fire Magna Cannon, Force Blade with built in Aether Fire Blaster, Minor Arcana (235 points).

I rather like this mid-range build! Of course, more standard long range weapons are possible here like the Kheres and the Lascannon, but I think I prefer this one for a psychic dreadnought. 

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Sekhmet Terminator Cabal

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️
2/5 stars. Over costed. Under-performing.

Background.

Scarab Occult Terminators to those outside the Thousand Sons legion, and standing apart from those even within the legion. These are a band of psykers who hold their minds in the highest enumerations and in battle appear to be so precise as to be automata ... perhaps foreshadowing the fate of some of their members. 

Strengths.

They're psykers and 2 wound terminators with the valuable WS=5, and they can buy a single psychic discipline for an added cost. The achea pattern force weapons are very welcome here as well.

Weaknesses.

The biggest negative here is the points cost. In plain language, they're just not worth it. By upgrading to a psychic discipline, they're over 300 points for 5 models. Honestly, a generic legion terminator squad would be better value at this level. Doubly so given that they would have access to at least the minor powers of the Arcana. By all means take Biomancy for the S+1 and T+1, but realize that you're better off with some basic terminators in all probability. 

Difference to First Edition.

Nerfed.

Builds.

5 Sekhmet, Inceptor with Biomancy, Grenade Harness (305 points).

Look. At. The. Points. Cost. Though.

5 Sekhmet, 5 combi-melta, Inceptor with 1 Discipline, (350 points).

Look. Again. At. The. Points. Cost.

Exodus -- Assembled

Behold: the assembled Exodus model!

Hopefully from this angle it can easily be seen that the right hand is feeding The Instrument. The level of detail on this miniature is absolutely insane though. Really looking forward to getting some time to paint Exodus now that he's here. 

Exodus -- Unboxing

Exodus -- the one who is many -- has arrived!

And to whet everyone's appetite, here are the parts fresh out of the box!

Let me offer two bits of advice to anyone else who has bought and received Exodus. 

(1) Dry fit the parts before committing to gluing. 

(2) The left arm - the one that is holding The Instrument - is especially painful. Take extra care with this. It really is one of the more fiddly arrangements that I've come across and why the middle of the left arm could not be attached to the instrument or the shoulder is a bit baffling. 

Regardless of the above, I'm really pleased with the level of detail of this miniature. What might not be apparent from the box art is that Exodus' right hand is inserting a bullet into the Instrument, rather than switching the modes on the end of the weapon. This is a really nice touch indeed. 

Although I was sorely tempted to paint and then assemble, I have decided that I am going to do it the other way around. It will mean the inside of the cape remains solid black, but I can live with that!

Hobby: Lernaean Volkite Culverin

Today, a second Lernaean conversion armed with a Volite Culverin, and a chain fist. 

This one follows the same basic approach as the first Lernaean Volkite Culverin. The right arm is in a different pose to the first one and the basic issue with the conversion is getting the wrist of the weapon to sit flush with the terminus of the right arm. In this case, I have pinned the joint to supply more strength. I might yet add a touch of liquid green stuff to ensure that the joint is sufficient hidden for the painting stage, as well as more stones on the base. The handle of the Culverin has had the left hand removed for obvious reasons. It has been shortened, but I have retained the end of the handle which now looks a bit like a sight or a scope light? Meanwhile the left arm is simple a plastic chain fist and the head from the same terminator range. The idea behind this squad is to have them all chain fist armed and ready for close combat or tearing apart vehicles and dreadnoughts at close range whilst retaining anti-infantry fire power.

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Magnus the Red

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
2.5/5 stars, rounded up to 3 just about. The Thousand Sons' Crimson King is very expensive and you will struggle to optimize which psychic powers to attempt every single turn. Candidly: he is not quite worth the points cost. 

Background.

Unique among his brothers for his unrivaled psychic potency and potential, it has long been held as truth that Magnus met his Father long before their physical encounter. Driven by a desire to not merely liberate humans from oppressors, but to literally bring light of reason to his conquests, it is this flaw and thirst for knowledge that would ultimately be his downfall. Of all his brothers, I feel that Magnus got the second most raw deal (behind Angron) and unlike almost all the traitors, his fall could well have been averted but he left the Emperor with little choice to make an example in an analogous way to the Word Bearers. Did he do wrong? Yeah. He did. But with the best of intentions. And thus the path was laid.

Strengths.

The warlord trait here grants adamantium will to the army which is a healthy boost. He also reduces wounds from perils of the warp by 1 (minimum of 1). The additional reaction in the assault phase is okay. 

As the Arch Sorcerer, Magnus knows all the disciplines in the core book and can also use the minor arcana in the same turn too and automatically passes tests for these. His baleful eyes also grants line of sight for psychic powers for anything in range which is solid.

His stat line is very reasonable and he comes with deep strike as standard and his armour reduces destroyer hits by 1 wound to a minimum of 1 which is a nice surprise. His blade is a force weapon, of course, but so is the psyfire serpenta which is an amazing assault 3 AP=2 weapon through which he channels his raw power. 

Weaknesses.

He is a psychic superstar. Play him as such and have fun. Just beware of match-ups against his brothers. He is likely to lose to most, if not all of them. Even Alpharius will have a sporting chance against Magnus. Sorry guys. Knowing which psychic powers to activate every turn is also a nightmare writ large. Get ready with lots of die though, and don't forget the pistol. 

His biggest negative is the points cost. Its simply too much for what he can do. 

Overall.

An army booster, a psychic terror, and a deep striking terror. Choose your targets and psychically blast them apart and force weapon them otherwise. But with candor, he is not worth the points cost. 

Difference to First Edition.

Not as good. Like most of the Thousand Sons army, he feels a bit nerfed.

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Thousand Sons Armoury

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4/5 stars. Although only a small selection, the rules are good overall!

For the Thousand Sons, there is a small collection of upgrades available to specific weapons. Two of them come with the Achean Force rule which yields S+2 on a successful psychic test which can be quite nice on the surface.

Aether-Fire Cannon. Swap out plasma weapons for the Achean Force special rule, a reduction in base strength and range. It also drops breaching and gets hot, but gains rending. So many small changes here. Fundamentally these are worth it if (a) you are prepared to get closer than others do; (b) you like taking Ld tests. In combination with Pavoni, the very short range ones probably make a lot of sense, while the heavy variants will benefit from the more shooting related options. For no points cost, these are almost a no brainer. Take a support squad of ather-fire blasters and have some fun!

Asphyx Shells. Adds shred to your bolters at the price of a shorter range and a very small points cost. Probably not quite worth it unless you have a cunning plan. You have a cunning plan, right? Just as planned.  

Achea Pattern Force Weapons. A pure upgrade for no costs for characters that grants the achean force rule to power weapons. There's literally no draw backs here. Very nice! 

Difference to First Edition.

I quite like what I'm seeing here. Sure, there's not many options, but all of them are quite viable. 

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Thousand Sons Traits and Rites

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4/5 stars. Everything is viable here at a reasonable to good level! But it remains a legion that is not beginner friendly. 

Warlord Traits.

The Thousand Sons legion comes with 3 warlord traits, with only 1 of them being restricted to traitors only.

Evoker of Pain. For the traitors, this trait allows the Thousand Sons player to transfer failed perils of the warp checks on to nearby enemy units with interest. This is a great trait, but does require an aggressive play style. The bonus reaction is for assault.

Magister of Prospero. The all round fluffy option. Roll an extra dice for psychic checks and discard the highest. You will want this one most of the time. The added movement reaction is great.  

Eidolon of Suffering. This one sits oddly with me, but it does describe the less than able members of the legion very appropriately. Instead of psychic powers, the warlord has adamantium will, and in some circumstances (nearby psychics being activated) gains rage which can increase during the battle. So by all means wind him up by putting him near another psyker of your own and you have your wind up rage machine. Bonus reaction is shooting.

Rites of War.

The Achaean Configuration. New for second edition, this rite of war allows you to bring castellax-achea automata - psychic robots - as non compulsory troops. Why would you want to do this? Because you can divert your perils of the warp right over to them with this rite of war. In effect then, they are peril capacitors! There are some restrictions such as having more than one model, a techmarine, and a praevian, but this rite opens up a very interesting play style wherein you cast as many spells per turn as you can muster and put anything negative onto the robots. 

The Guard of the Crimson King. The carry over from First Edition is going to be the default choice for most players I would expect. Six units can gain deep strike and fear when they come into play for the first turn whilst giving you Sekhmet cabals as troops. But you have to go with Magnus, Ahriman, or praetor with psychic abilities. But you were going to do that anyway, which is why it is the default choice. The lack of allies is a minor issue in comparison to this. 

 

Difference to First Edition.

Plenty of change here (pun not entirely intended). Some new things, and some re-jigged old things. Overall the Thousand Sons are looking healthy in second edition and I like most of what I am seeing here. Not only are the rules fluffy, but all of them are playable. As stated previously for this legion though, it is not a beginner friendly one, and this same theme continues here. Players need to inject a lot of thought into their list building to maximize the benefits. 

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Thousand Sons Legion Rules

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
3.5/5 stars, rounded down to 3 stars. The rules have the potential to be strong, but you need to build carefully and optimize. This is not a beginner friendly army, but in the right hands is strong so long as you spend those points carefully. 

Background.

Before the Heresy formally took place, the Thousand Sons were attacked by the Space Wolves and their homeworld of Prospero destroyed. Later analysis would prove this to be the first likely act of Horus under the subtle influence of chaos who subtly changed the wording of the Wolves' orders from that of capture and return, to wholesale slaughter. Of course, even before this, they had been censured at Nikaea for arcane practices and stood apart from their brothers. They took part on both sides of the civil war, but were ever few in number thanks to preceding events. Magnus would take his time to throw his lot in with the traitors though, and didn't particular re-surface until the Siege of Terra itself. 

Legion Rules Review.

Cult Arcana. Granting pskyer to all members of the legion doesn't give them automatic access to powers. But the characters within any given unit do. They must take one of the minor arcana (below), but can be upgraded to a formal core psychic discipline from the rule book for a small points cost. All of the minor arcana require a psychic test. 

Raptora. When you move close to an enemy, you get an extra pip of invulnerable save. Maxes out at 4+. This is going to be nice for your Tartaros terminators and units such as Breachers. 

Pyrae. Hammer of wrath 2 (flame) attacks are very nice when charging. Great for those units with loads of attacks that you want to maximize the damage output from.

Pavoni. +3 distance and ignoring terrain is highly situational. However, it does really change the dynamic of (parts of) the army. And it can certainly give the White Scars quite the scare. 

Corvidae. Allocate the first wound from a shooting attack. I guess this is nice for long range or high strength sniping. Especially if you don't have snipers. There are better choices in the more general sense though.

Athanaen. Ld-1 for pinning and morale tests due to shooting is amazing. Take this on your snipers, or pinning causing units. This is great. Take on a vigilator especially - you can thank me later. 

Proserpine Aresenal provides the unique wargear options, but there are no other special rules here.

Advanced Reaction.

Fortress of the Mind. Gaining 3+ invulnerable under shooting can be game defining for a given unit. Even if the psychic test is failed, the unit still gets a 5+ invulnerable save, but suffers the perils of the warp. So not too bad. 

Difference to First Edition.

The largest change here are the dramatic changes to how psychic powers are used. Gone is the old psychic phase (and I will not shed a single tear about that). Replacing it are abilities that you have to roll to activate. Truly a better system. But of course, this does mean that some powers are not flat out granted (looking at you, Raptora). I like these changes, but others' tastes will vary. Naturally. 

Overall, I feel that second edition Thousand Sons have been nerfed downward, but they still sit in a better place than the likes of the White Scars. With careful list building, this can be a very strong army. I mean, have you seen a scout based Thousand Sons army? They're pretty scary with Pavoni, Athanaean coupled up with close range assault Pyrae. As stated right at the top, this army is not one that is beginner friendly. I've seen many new player try to get a good build out of it and flailing to defeat other armies that have a simpler and less complex play style. Watch out for the veterans or old timers like me playing this army though. We have a cunning plan. 

Hobby: Painted Alpha Legion Xiphon Interceptor

Behold! The might of a fully painted and operational Xiphon Interceptor that belongs to the Alpha Legion!

I wanted to aim for something that looks a bit more battle damaged than the usual affair. The reason for this is that the Xiphon is supposed to be an ancient construct and those that are in existence may have been pressed back into the civil war due to sheer need. I think this particular example shows this well. I have also taken some inspiration from the image of "survivorship bias" that you can see on wikipedia here and that I reproduce below under the appropriate CC-BY-SA-4 license. 

To cut a long story short, there are certain shots on target that won't matter, and others that will. The picture shows the shots that returning planes in real life came back with. The point is not to reinforce where these shots are, but where they are NOT (i.e. on the pilot, engines, and so forth). Admittedly, I have a few shots on one of the engines here, but they're not mega serious otherwise the craft would already be out of action. Instead, I have tried to put most of the damage shots on areas where the craft would be likely to tolerate, survive, and return to base. I think this works overall, and the decals for the Alpha Legion really ties everything together very nicely.

The final confession is that I haven't actually modeled the base yet! Suggestions are very welcome as to what should be on that grand sized oval based!

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Legion Kharybdis Assault Claw

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

3.5/5 stars, rounded down. Who doesn't love large drop pods?! 

Background.

The mother and father of drop pods. The Kharybdis is a mighty large drop pod that has an impressive carrying capacity. The background explicitly notes that it is well used as a surface-to-orbit assault vehicle to exact vengeance against enemy space craft crew. It is also useful for scouring the battlefield by using its short range weapons and undertaking a scorched earth style policy.

Strengths.

Get 22 marines to where they are needed. This is the main strength and don't overlook it.

The turret mounted deathstorm missile launchers are actually very nice here at BS=4 as well. The heat blast rule only adds to this and makes the craft an excellent short range vehicle.

Of course, the assault vehicle rule goes without saying it is awesome. But there are steep negatives, as below. The rating I've given here reflects a bit of discretionary use of the "rule of cool". 

Weaknesses.

With armour of 12 all round, this drop pod is very vulnerable and likely to be shot out of the sky rapidly (and that's before we say: sky fire). Accordingly, the price tag is somewhat steep for such a vehicle that is unlikely to stick around all game long. 

Oh. And here's the biggest negative that needed a fix upon release. It didn't have deep strike! LOL! These problems made things hilariously poor. So use a backline hiding place on deployment, and then race somewhere to unload! It might still work. Post FAQ, we happily have deep strike back! And thank you to my reader for reminding me of this :)

Builds.

There are no builds of which to speak as there are no upgrades to take, and you cannot even take multiple Claws in a single unit. Therefore this vehicle is taking up a very crammed heavy support slot that might be wanted for other things by various legions. But don't let me stop you. If you have a World Eaters drop pod army, you will still want this!

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Legion Deathstorm Drop Pod Squadron

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4.5/5 stars, rounded down. Singularly the most under-rated core unit in the entire game. 

[Insert maniacal laughter!] 

[Its okay - I'm still vaguely sane!]

[Increasingly vaguely.]

Background.

Its a drop pod.

Instead of transport capacity, it has a missile launcher system integrated inside it and had its prototype in place by the Raven Guard legion before the rediscovered of Corax.

Strengths.

Hear me out on this. 

The missile launcher system is distinctly average. I accept that completely. But Heavy 9 and pinning is great at any strength, and the pinning is why it is good to take. 

But that's not fundamentally why its awesome.

No.

The reason it is awesome is that it completely messes up your opponent's plans. Bring a full squadron of 3 and make your opponent deeply unhappy by blocking every line of sight that they have, and blocking every line of advance that they have. Hem them in. Put them where you want them. Seal away some of their army in a corner of the board (my favourite!) and let the figure out how to use those krak grenades whilst being shot at 9 lots of 3 times every single turn. Pin 3 units per turn if it takes your fancy. Even if they run out of ammunition, they're still a steal. Excellent play style for your sneakier legions or teleport legions. 

Weaknesses.

BS=2, and running out of ammunition is rather bad to say the least.

Builds.

3 Deathstorm Drop Pods (270 points).

Block your opponent in and pin 3 units per turn. A plan with no draw backs that can ultimately win you the game in combination with a smart play style. Highly recommended, but you must plan to maximize what you are going to do with them. Having played this style of warfare with the Alpha Legion, I can confirm just how wickedly awesome they actually are. Sure, you could take a land raider instead at this points cost. But this is a bundle of bigger laughs and a master stroke when played well. You're welcome. 

Hobby: Iron Warriors Heavy Support Squad

A squad of five Iron Warriors heavy support squad, all armed with las cannons. One of the great benefits in game that the Iron Warriors get is an extra strength point when shooting against vehicles and similar. This is a very strong boon and one that really cannot be overlooked for this legion. Indeed, its almost worth taking an allied detachment of Iron Warriors just for the heavy support squad to help out with shooting against vehicles. Might just do that with my Alpha Legion?

Painting for this squad follows the standard pattern for the Iron Warriors Legion. The lead belcher undercoat is supplemented with more of the same and a dip with Nuln Oil to create a worn look. Both shoulder pads and parts of the back pack are picked out in matte black. Of course, the inevitable hazard stripes are included on some shins and shoulders too. A selection of chipping has been added around the edges of the armour to suggest a used look. 

The sergeant is a bit of a unique case in terms of the helm - the others are a brighter silver as might be expected. Instead, the sergeant has a black helmet with a strip of yellow and black down the centreline. This follows the official artwork in the books for the Iron Warriors and I'm happy with this. Completing the look are some decals scattered around the shoulders where I could sneak them in beneath the cannons and on some shins as well. To tie them to the rest of the detachment, the base is done with the usual technical citadel provisions and highlighted with Eldar Flesh. 

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Legion Fire Raptor Gunship

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

3.5/5 stars, rounded down. The rules are okay, but I find the points cost too high for what it can achieve and its vulnerability. 

Background.

A storm eagle, but sacrificing carrying capacity for more guns! The background fluff here notes that they were great against the Ork hordes that plagued a variety of worlds, and the same would be true in 30k if the Orks had a codex or army book equivalent here.

Strengths.

With a movement rate of 18 (and flyer and hover) this is a zippy gunship able to deliver firepower where it is needed.

The firepower itself would be average if it were not for the AP=3. This pushes it into the range of being very worthy to be considered and it is ideal in some ways to mop up lonely power armoured space marines on the field of battle. I like the gravis autocannons over the heavy bolter batteries for the rending.

Weaknesses.

This suffers from the same weaknesses many fliers do: they are prime targets to be knocked out of the skies in the early turns. Armour values of 12 all round are okay and all, but any ground unit able to accurately fire at such gunships will find it simple enough to destroy them. Then there is the price tag. Its just too expensive to be thinking about over other choices in the already crammed heavy support slot. It does have the "rule of cool" going for it though, which is why it gets the number of stars it has from me. 

Builds.

Fire Raptor, Autocannon Sponsons, Hellstrike Missiles (315 points).

Great fire power and threats - just be sure to fire everything on turn 1. Remove the missiles to gain some points back. Likelihood is that it won't survive the battle though. 

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Legion Arquitor Squadron

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️

1.5/5 stars, rounded down. The rules are sub-par and you won't see this tank in competitive lists. 

Background.

An infantry support platform designed to keep up with the foot slogging members of your army and provide powerful fire power. Enough to down blobs of enemy infantry and crack hard sieges, this engine in the fluff has it all at the expense of it not being a well armoured vehicle. 

Strengths.

There is a core choice here about what centre line weapon to take. The Morbus Bombard is S=10, but only AP=4 and although it has pinning, it won't be featuring as your anti-infantry weapon of choice so much as a light to medium tank killer, or maybe Mechanicum troops killer. 

The graviton charge cannon is a haywire and graviton weapon combined. This makes it ideal for anti tank duty and the truly large pie plate makes this rather attractive. But it is very short range. 

Finally the Spicula Rocket System is a massive range anti-infantry weapon, but again at AP=4 and lower strength than the Morbus. It comes with a massive pie plate, but limited ammo. Not good.

Weaknesses.

Every option here has a truly poor element which adds up to a unit that is not worth taking when you factor in the low armour values and the risk you have to take. Coupled with the LARGE points cost, this is a unit that just isn't worth taking. Even if you add on a Siege Breaker consul for the phosphex, it still sucks. Take the vindicator instead - every time. 

Builds.

Arquitor with Morbus Bombard, Pintle Mounted Havoc Launcher (215 points)

Not worth the points.

Arquitor with Graviton Charge Cannon, Sponson Lascannons, 1 hunter killer missile (235 points).

Also not worth the points. 

Arquitor with Spicula Rocket System, 1 hunter killer missile (220 points).

Still not worth the points cost.