Horus Heresy March army update.

750 points of Emperor's Children

As previously advertised this month we are both expanding our forces to 750 points. I am thrilled that Helen has decided to make a post on her blog (find it in the sidebar) showing off her Salamanders in more detail. In this post I am going to talk about the stuff I have added to grow my force to 750 points.

++  Zone Mortalis - Combatant (Legiones Astartes: Age of Darkness Army List) [750pts] ++

+ Elites [455pts] +

Contemptor-Cortus Class Dreadnought Talon [180pts]

. Cortus Dreadnought [180pts]: Extra Armour [5pts]

. . Dreadnought Chainfist [25pts]: Meltagun [15pts]

. . Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon [15pts]: Meltagun [15pts]

Palatine Blade Squad [275pts]: Artificer Armour [40pts], Jump packs [50pts], 4x Palatine Warriors [80pts], 4x Phoenix Spear [40pts]

. Palatine Prefector [10pts]: Pheonix Spear [10pts]

+ HQ [130pts] +

Delegatus [130pts]: Artificer Armour [10pts], Bolt Pistol, Jump Pack [20pts], Melta Bombs [5pts], Phoenix Spear [20pts], Refractor Field [10pts]

. Consul [15pts]: Delegatus [15pts]

+ Troops [165pts] +

The Kakophani of the Emperor's Children , Compulsory [165pts]: 5x Chora [100pts]

+ Allegiance +

Legion and Allegiance:    III: Emperor's Children, Traitor

Rite of War: 3rd Company Elite

++ Total: [750pts] ++

 First a small note. Since we started the campaign, the Horus Heresy FAQ and Errata has been published, which includes some beta rules for Palatine Blades adjusting their equipment points costs slightly, and giving them the option to purchase artificer armour. So this accounts for some of the points for this month. I also stopped paying for sonic shriekers on various models, as they are pointless against salamanders who are immune to fear. Finally in terms of wargear adjustments I decided to beef up my delegatus to give him a better armour save, and an invulnerable save.

Dreadnaught

The main thing I added to my force this month was a dreadnaught. This was actually a new purchase, despite the fact that I own quite a lot of unpainted Emperors Children, I had somehow never gotten around to buying the chapter specific dreadnaught body. I decided to go for twin chainfists. A lot of people don't care for the way the contemptor chainfist is modeled but I think it works quite well for this model. I almost imagine him fencing with those chainsword fingers as he attacks.

In terms of painting this was essentially an exercise in doing the same things I do for a marine but scaled up. I was slightly wrong footed by the amount of silver I needed to paint on the model (most of which is only visible from behind). Essentially the dreadnaught has plates of purple cremite armour on top of a metal framework which shows though between the gaps. Had I planned ahead properly I might even have primed the model silver, and then painted the plates afterwards. This would have prevented running the purple when trying to get my paintbrush into the narrow gaps. What was even more confounding is that my first three steps on this model were basecoat purple, recess shade with nuln oil and then edge highlight all the purple. Such a brainfart, I actually ended up painting over some elements I had painfully edge highlighted with metallic silver. 

In terms of the rules, I really feel like the chainfists with melta guns will be an asset (as well as making good narrative sense) in the confines of a Zone Mortalis game. He is the cheaper and more unstable 'cortus' mark of dreadnaught. This means he has a ws of only 4, and his shield is less useful. However he can overcharge to gain rage, +1 move and charge, +2 Run and +1 initiative.  I seriously think giving a dreadnaught initiative 5 is really cool and thematic. I love the idea of a lightning quick death machine. I mean. yes. He can hurt himself by overcharging. But what could be more thematic?

Extra Kakophani

I also had the points spare to add a single extra member to the Kakophani squad. As before this is one of the models I had previously painted, but I went back an applied an edge highlight to the armour, repainted and edge highlighted all the black and rebased the miniature. Still counts.

Well, this may be it for Horus Heresy this month. But It may not be all I manage to paint. I have pulled out my four assassins, inspired by the fun new rules in this months White Dwarf. I may finish painting them (It would be a repaint/update for two of them, and painting from scratch for the other two). I also decided to buy another set of evil Harry Potter guys, because a) I love collecting and b) when you order models off Darksphere (who I use for all my Games Workshop pre orders) you get cheaper shipping if you have even one Harry Potter item in your shopping card. I don't understand why that's the offer they decided to run - but probably Helen and I will slowly acquire the stuff that wasn't in our initial massive pre order this way.

Finally, those of you who look at my instagram (yes both of you) will know from my instagram story (look at me being all modern) that I managed to pick up this years Black Library Celebration model, Severina Raine, who is apparently rather hard to get hold of. I aim to paint her up soon as well, so as to avoid her just sitting on my desk forever unpainted like last years model still is.