I was thinking of writing a battle report of the last two horus heresy games I played. But the lack of pictures taken from the battles are keeping me from actually doing it in a proper way. So I thought I would go over the list I took in both games, talk about how the list evolved from game one to game two. And overall impression of it all.
First off a big thank you to my opponent and his alpha legion. Awesome guy and nice looking start of his army. It is going to look awesome when it is finished. His force is brutal right now and I can imagen the massacre it will inflict in the future.
The list I did put together was something of an odd one. I had a lot of things I wanted to battle test but had not got around to do so yet. So I took more or less it all and slammed it into a big list of 2000p.
Iron warriors 2000p (2002p)
Lord of war
- Perturabo with forgebreaker
HQ
- Siege breaker
o cataphractii terminator armor
o Combi-melta
o Chain fist
Troops
- 14x Tactical marines
o Vexilla
o sergeant with artificer armor
o sergeant with power fist
- 14x Tactical marines
o Vexilla
o sergeant with artificer armor
o sergeant with power fist
Elites
- Rapier quad mortar
o Phosphex canisters
Heavy support
- 6x Tyrant siege terminators
- 2x Castallax with mauler pattern bolt canons
o 2x flamers each
- Iron havocs
o 5x las canons
o Sargent with artificer armor
General idea was pretty simple. Perturabo and the siege breaker went with the tyrants. Slowly advancing up the middle of the board and put pressure on the opponent. Tactical squads, moving up the board in a slow but steady advance on each flank. Castellax stayed close to Perturabos cortex controller and give fire support were it is needed. Rapier with Phosphex do what it does best, target power armor dudes. And iron havocs would take out anything with a AV value.
Now I will not go over everything my opponent had in his army. Mainly because I can’t remember it all but a quick over view of what I was facing was.
Alpha legion (everything infiltrated)
One Praetor
Two big tactical squads
One breacher squad with two melta guns.
Veteran squad
Headhunters
Terminator squad
Two contemptors with kheress assault canons
And a saboteur.
I was out numbered in a big way. When my opponent started to put down unit after unit I kind of thought that I never had a chance. I did not bring the fire power to stop all the units from advancing. If his bolters were not going to rip me apart the assault phase surely would. But I was not going to give up. Iron warriors is no pushovers. Even if things looked bitter there was still hope, I got first turn and my opponent failed to seize the initiative after all. I had the chance to even out the odds before his legion could react.
My first turn went great. Advancing up. Killing off the breacher squad more or less, only one melta dude remained from the squad. I also took out some tactical marines and put a hull point on one of the Contemptors. I was off to a good start.
Alpha legion turn one became a brutal one indeed. The squad I was relying on was my tyrants. 12 missiles shoots with S8 AP 3 every turn was super important to swing the battle in my favor with so many power armored boots on the ground. So when the two Contemptors annihilated the tyrant squad I knew I was in trouble. The unit that was supposed to put pressure on the alpha legion got to feel the pressure them self’s.
I only had one thing to do. Now this might seem very odd for some people. I have always played my tactical marines very carefully in previous games. Keeping them back, taking shoots here and there, but never relied on them to lift any heavy weight. Now when a big part of my army was gone I did not have any choice but to send them in and start making their bolters count.
I played them as aggressively that I could, sending them up the board. Not thinking too much on charge range more on how many bolter shoots I could accumulate. And behold I started to get back some ground. The tactical marines started to shine. Killing alpha legionnaires in the masses. Supported from Perturabo, the rapier and the Castellaxs I started to push back my foe. After five turns of blood battling the game ended and I did win by one victory point. Now this was not a clear victory. One more turn and I would be blown of the board. What I had remaining was: One tactical marine squad, Siege breaker and Perturabo. Alpha legion had: The head hunters, Contemptors, saboteur and one tactical marine squad left. Everything in a super position to kill off the last iron warriors.
Looking back on the game and my units a couple of things did stand out and those things would help evolving this list to my second game.
Iron havocs did not do more than two hull points on one Contemptor before the head hunters outflanked and made short work of them. For 270p I must say I was very disappointed. Now this squad normally is one of the most awesome things I know of to take out anything with a AV value. But sadly BS5 and tank hunter have no effect on 5+ invulnerable saves. Couple that together with the fact that my tyrants only had one turn of shooting I realized that some of the “don’t go from home without them” units I had in my army was something I actually did not always need to bring. Tactical squads when used in the right way is one of the more awesome units in the game. Mass bolter fire is king. The ability to force the opponent to make pinning tests and sometimes pinning units is a super ability to have from the Castallaxs. It changes the momentum of the game and makes it possible to shut down areas of the board for a turn. Giving the rest of the army time to get better position and focus on other units. Perturabo is a power house with a lot of tactical flexibility. To simply put him in a Spartan and send him forward seems like a waste of potential. He can support units in the shooting phase, bring down high strength barrages, fire support, tank shoots and be a fearsome opponent in close combat. As well bringing some great board present to the army.
All and all I really liked the list. It was a lot of fun. I needed to think more of position and were I needed to be next turn then with my older lists. My other and older lists is more about stand back and open fire.
So for the next game I decided to go with more or less the same list. Take what I learned from the previously game and evolve the list from that. Now I did want to make some changes and remove some of the units to open up points for the changes.
The units I removed was the Iron havocs and the rapier quad mortar. The mortar had preformed ok last game. It did what It did without any mistakes, but I think that if I want to bring mortars I need more than one to make a significant impact on the game.
The changes I made after removing the units was basically enhancing the units that performed well and add units of the same philosophy.
First off the tactical marines. Now when I understand how to use them I need to make them better. So I added two apothecary, one in each unit to help the squads to survive so I can get more turns of bolter fire in. The Castallax got enhanced targeting arrays. I know most players always brings this upgrade. Giving 1+ to the Castallax BS is crazy good. The Castellax ability to force pinning tests are the reason I take the unit, making sure most shoots hit is important to get the opportunity to pin something. I added two chain fists to the tyrant squad. Idea was to put the tyrants in reserve and deep strike them with the Siege breaker behind the enemy armor and hopefully do a better job at destroying AV then the havocs. If the missiles did not do the job the chain fist would probably do it instead.
And lastly I added two predator tanks with predator cannons, heavy bolter side sponsons and pintel mounted heavy bolters and of course shrapnel bolts added to that to make the heavy bolters pinning. That is 18 pinning heavy bolter shots and 8 predator cannon shoots for only 220p. I don’t think you can find a better dakka unit in the game.
I took the predators for four reasons. Great front armor, range, massive amount of shoots, Pinning.
The new list is as followed.
Iron warriors 2000p (2002p)
Lord of war
- Perturabo with forgebreaker
HQ
- Siege breaker
o cataphractii terminator armor
o Comi-melta
o Chain fist
Troops
- 14x Tactical marines
o Vexilla
o sergeant with artificer armor
o sergeant with power fist
- 14x Tactical marines
o Vexilla
o sergeant with artificer armor
o sergeant with power fist
Elites
- 2x apothecary
Heavy support
- 6x Tyrant siege terminators
o 2x chain fists
- 2x Castallax with mauler bolt canons
o 2x flamers each
o Enhanced targeting arrays
- 2x Predators tanks
o Heavy bolter side sponsons
o Pintel mounted heavy bolter
o Shrapnel bolts
Game two was against more or less the same list as before. With a few changes. My opponent had added:
Alpharius and the special terminator squad for alpha legion.
Units that was removed was the breacher squad and the veteran squad.
I had first thought that I would deep strike the tyrants. But with Alpharius in the alpha legion force I did not feel to give my opponent the upper hand. Alpharius have one ability that will mess with your reserves. If you rolled for reserves and make the roll. On a 4+ Alpha legion can put a unit on the table from reserves instead of your unit. Basically he can deny my reserves from coming on the board and push his own reserves on to the board earlier. I did not want him to do that so I placed my tyrants on the table. Setup up wise I did it more or less as last game. Perturabo, Siege breaker and tyrants in the middle. supported with the Castallax. Tactical squads on the flanks and predators on the left flank with a nice view across the board.
Alpha legion got first turn but gave it to me. He had a reason for doing it but I can’t remember what it was. First turn came and boom. My gun lines erupted. I killed a lot of marines, pinned the survivors down. Annihilated the terminator squad. Destroyed one Contemptor and I was in a very good position for turn two.
Alpha legion turn one was over very quickly. Most of his force was pinned, dead or too far away. I did hold my breath when the Contemptor took aim at the tyrants but this time the tyrant took it all without a scratch. After turn one the brutal display of fire power continued from the iron warriors. Killing, pinning and pushing back the enemy. Now I won’t say that all of the success was because of my awesome tactical genius because that is absolutely not true. First turns I had the luck on my side. And my opponent dice rolls were at times against him. Were you normally see an artificer armored sergeant tanking twenty or so shoots, my opponents only took about three before going down. After that it was just 3+ saves and even if that is a nice armor save it can’t hold forever.
Alpharius came on the board when the head hunters made the appearance on the left flank turn two. Him and his headhunters targeted the tactical squad on my left flank and this was also the only unit I lost during the game. But it took four turns of consistent shooting and a final charge from Alpharius himself to bring them down. In turn five Perturabo and the tyrants took aim on the master of deception and the plan was to charge and if possible keep Alpharius in place for the rest of the game. Turned out that not even Alpharius can take five blows to the face by Perturabos hammer among other nasty hits from power fists and chain fists. And the primarch fell alongside his unit of headhunter (or did he? Maybe the master of deception played a grand trick on the lord of iron and lived to fight another day?).
When the final shoots had been fired only the saboteur was left standing from the alpha legion army and most of the iron warriors could view a battel field covered of blue/green bodies. A couple of tyrants had died during the fearsome fight between the primarchs and one tactical squad had given their life’s in a heroic attempt to push back the enemy from the left flank. Iron warriors won with 4 victory points.
All in all, it was a really fun game. It was bloody and brutal. Now to be fair thanks to a good start from the iron warriors the alpha legion had an uphill battle from the beginning. But this happens from time to time. I know because I faced the same hopples odds in the first game we had. I manage to pull myself back in to the game thanks to some great units and taking chances were I could. Some times that pays off. And sometimes nonmatter what you do, you are just taking one step closer to defeat.
I am super happy with the list to be honest. I like the flexibility the list gives me. I can adapt to my opponent to a certain degree and that is very nice. Pinning units in place is really power full. And I don’t think I will want to have a list in the future without that ability. Perturabo is a lot of fun to have in the force. Sure at 2000p he takes up 25% of the list. But he gives back so much tactical advantage so I do think he is worth it.
To the future I don’t think I would change much with this list. Down sides to the list is that it is a little slow and the question is how good I could handle flyers or a heavy armored list. But overall I think it is somewhat strong. Not top tier and probably not a tournament list. But fun, flexible and capable. It does have all the ingredients in it to win and take on most units.
I also really loved the predators in the force. So many shoots every turn. Every time that unit opened fire something died and it is a super cheap unit on top of that as well. Makes me think, should I buy one more predator to add to that unit? We will let the future decide. I think I will keep the list as it is to the next game. I would like to see how it would work against a different opponent and against different units. Maybe it will fall flat the next game. Time will tell.
Now you might not be super impressed by the list I have presented here or some of the loadouts for the units. And that is ok. Maybe the list will give you some inspiration in some way. Even if it is in the form of what you never will take in your own lists. Sometimes it is just fun to take something weird and crazy and try your best to make it work. You will always learn something from it. In the end I don’t really care for winning and/or losing that much. I love to see my models on the table, I love see my opponent’s models on the table. And I absolutely love the story that unfolds in front of us one dice rolls at the time.
I will try to be better at taking pictures at the next game. And maybe someday give a proper battle report.
