X V I · V S · I
I didn’t really need an excuse to organise a game with Nico but a rematch from our game last year felt like a valid one. I still have this headcanon floating around of my Sons of Horus army being a splinteredelement of a greater one, a shard of the speartip that was landed on Tallarn in 010.M31. Perturabo’s forces would have had representation from Horus’ armies for sure as the XVI were so invidious in the conflicts over the galaxy at that time. His Dark Angels are beautiful and terrifying to behold so I had been looking forward to getting some models on the table again with him :)
This post arguably starts late in mid 2023 when I built the Leviathan Dreadnought. I’d put together my Mad-Cat-legged Deredeo at that time too but had focussed on getting that painted as I loved the model so much. At the end of October we’d found our new house however and Real Life™ got in the way for the next year. In the two weeks before our game I managed to (print, in some cases) build and paint the following:
- One Land Raider Proteus
- 5 Tortuga Bay Justaerin to ride in the above
- The SoH Cataphractii Praetor to lead them
- 5 BolterJugend MKIV Reaver Aggressors - mainly to arm them with Carsoran Power Tabars and have a deepstrike Meltagun
- 5 Tortuga Bay MKVI Recon Legionaries with Nemesis bolters (Scheme inspired by the incredible @Crysos_Mortug)
- 10 MKVI Assault Legionaries
Phew. Seems like a lot? It was a lot. I ended up painting them while at work (and occasionally during semi-dull meetings) during breaks, and had a little palette and paint setup at my desk.
I gathered my armour assets from storage in the cellar too. So cool to get the Kratos out again! Love that tank so much. I have another couple I want to paint up for the XII and V Legions someday.
I managed to get everything done to a relatively OK standard in time. I cut some corners that I may or may not sort out another day, we’ll see. ‘Battle ready’ is a nebulous enough concept for people these days but I’m happy so that’s good enough - as it should be.
Deployment followed another failed start roll from me, so I had to place my models second but got shot at first 😂 One day I’ll sieze the initiative I swear! In hindsight I should have placed my Contemptor centrally as he did very little in the whole game. Again I underestimated the sight lines and managed to see a Rhino get exploded almost immediately as well. Left my Reaver Aggressors in orbit ready to drop.
The Deredeo was brilliant generally but could have been more destructive for sure. He was well placed though and could shoot at tons of stuff. The Kratos roared up the left flank to meet the 1 Legion HQ in their Proteus battle bus.
The Recon squad felt like they could have been more effective but they were in a dumb little bolthole in the middle of the battlefield and were under constant ‘spare’ fire. Despite good cover and good saves they were whittled down without really managing to achieve much (other than look cool with their non-standard camo). Nico’s Interemptors with their scary plasma guns were a lot harder to take down than I would have liked.
I’d take a big Tactical blob again. They were sat on an objective the whole game and despite really not managing to do anything other than keep it they felt like they were doing a good job. Love the Emissary too and he survived some good Vindicare snipes.
This wall was an MVP for my opponent as it delivered 4 cover saves against 3 penetrating and 1 glancing hit from the Kratos’ Melta-blast gun on his HQ Proteus. It might have been reduced to steam after doing so but it was INCREDIBLY frustrating (if hilarious) for the XVI.
The long and the short of it though is that I lost. My deep strike was very successful and managed to free up the objective in my opponent’s half but I didn’t have anything left with line to take it anyway. I hope Reaver Aggressors can still take meltaguns as it’s a great thread to suddenly appear in the backline and looks super cool too. There were some pretty epic scraps and the Justaerin are a lot tougher than I expected - I thought it was going to be on a knife edge with the Companions and their silly Terranic swords but they didn’t break a sweat in the end. Nico’s Box-dread was a real hit with it’s double plasma cannons and was a bargain for the points it cost. Boom boom boom boom big blasts everything it looked at just exploded!
Can’t wait to get a big force like this on the table again in 3.0. Bring on the 27th of July!