Thursday 14 February 2019

30k Emperor's Children

500 points of perfection

In which a passion is reborn.


A few weeks ago my wife and I attended the Horus Heresy weekender 2019. Horus heresy is an odd duck. In years gone by when 40k was very stale and stagnant 30k was a runaway success story. It took the 6th/7th edition Warhammer 40,000 ruleset and expertly massaged it into something far more approaching balance and reasonableness.  Along with a far superior range of resin miniatures and lavishly detailed background books. It really was the game to be playing and collecting. To cap it off, at that time the forge world studio was far more open, friendly, approachable and... well... cool then the Games Workshop studio and the designers seemed genuinely open and passionate about the things that they were working on. It was the place to be.

And then at almost the same time Games Workshop launched Warhammer 40,000 8th edition; and the lead rules writer for the Horus Heresy, nerds nerd and all round top bloke Alan Bligh sadly passed away.

Total paralysis. 

Up until this point 30k had always been an offshoot, of 40k. Like a mod fora video game. It had a distinct visual style and feel - and in many ways was a vast improvement but the core engine - the nuts and bolts were borrowed.

This changed. Forge World didn't move into 8th Edition. How could they possibly, to do so would invalidated Alan's life's work 7 massive black leatherbound rules and background books that had been the work of years and years. Suddenly everyone wanted to play the new hotness of 8th edition, and no one wanted to play Heresy.

The main Games Workshop studio also massively improved. 8th Edition 40k is a superb rulest. It's simpler and quicker while retaining the essence of the game. The plastic models are bigger and more impressive then ever - and games workshop actually started to engage in a meaningful way with it's community. At the same time the forge world guys became slightly more tight lipped and slightly more restrained, as a company wide policy came into force.

This has, I hope, all changed as of this year. This years Horus Heresy weekender event was inspiring. The Primarch Sanguinius was released, and a new book, the first under the new lead writer, Anuj Malhotra, was available at least to pre order. This has totally rekindled our love for the Horus Heresy.

So Helen and I have decided to embark on a Horus Heresy escalation campaign.  Starting with 500 points and then expanding by 250 points each month.

The aim is to paint all the models, and play two games every month. The first four games will be using the Zone Mortalis ruleset. Here is my list for month one:


++  Zone Mortalis - Combatant (Legiones Astartes: Age of Darkness Army List) [500pts] ++

+ Elites [245pts] +
Palatine Blade Squad [245pts]: Jump packs [50pts], 4x Palatine Warriors [80pts], 4x Phoenix Spear [40pts], Sonic Shriekers [10pts]
. Palatine Prefector [10pts]: Pheonix Spear [10pts]

+ HQ [110pts] +
Delegatus [110pts]: Bolt Pistol, Jump Pack [20pts], Phoenix Spear [20pts], Power Armour (Centurion/Consul), Sonic Shrieker [5pts]
. Consul [15pts]: Delegatus [15pts]

+ Troops [145pts] +
The Kakophani of the Emperor's Children , Compulsory [145pts]: 4x Chora [80pts]
+ Allegiance +
Legion and Allegiance:    III: Emperor's Children, Traitor
Rite of War: 3rd Company Elite
++ Total: [500pts] ++




Legion Delegatus
The Delegatus is a lesser seen HQ who's basic purpose is to unlock 'Rites of War' in armies under 1000 points in size who cannot normally take a character with the 'master of the legion' rule. This rule basically allows me to modify the rules of army selection and take Kakophoni as troops choices.

No official Delegatus model exists, aside from an event exclusive alpha legion guy, and so this guy was cobbled together from parts in my 30k Bitz box. Mostly comprised of spare sargent parts from the various emperors children exclusive units, but some notable bits are the plastic jump pack which is actually from the blood angels sanguinary guard and the spear which is actually from the Games Workshop Vulkan model. Helen had a spare that she had looted some parts from so I stole it's spear. I have filed down the salamander heads and put on some brass etched third legion icons.

Palatine Blades
Painted up five of the really cool and ornate Palatine blades. These guys were a pain to get hold of as the models come stock with the frankly substandard sword options and you have to buy the spears separately. You are also left to sort out the jump packs for yourself, fortunately the sanguinary guard box once again provides a supply of plastic mark four jump packs.

Kakophani
Now, those of you who have been paying attention will notice that I already painted these chaps way back when (here) however I took the opportunity to go through them and apply some washes and edge highlights on top of what was there already. I also popped off their bases and rebased them using Games Workshops new snow effect paint which as you can see is far superior to the one I initially used.

Few - this turned out to be really wordy but I hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures. Until next time.



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