Horus Heresy Battle: Angels of death!

So yesterday, I met with Joe once again to play Horus Heresy once more! Last time i faced his Alpha Legion, this time my Dark Angels would meet his Blood Angels, it was the first time Joe had used his new Blood Angels force and it gave him the opportunity to try out a couple of varied lists against what I think is a fairly balanced Dark Angels list, it's well rounded and can be tough at times if the scenario suits them, without ever being a "that guy" list! I think it's a relatively friendly list. With brand new armies things can take a few games before its strengths and weakness start to show, a nice army on paper doesnt always translate fully to the table top.

Hobby Workshop in Barnsley hosted us this time. I have a lot of love for this store, its very well stocked with very friendly and welcoming staff which is high on the list of what i look for, ive managed my own hobby store in the past and take a dim view on rudeness and lack of customer sercice. I'll happily take my custom where its wanted and i feel very at home here! They are head and shoulders above their competitors (Two very friendly canine members of staff usually work in the office here too, and who doesnt love to fuss doggos at every opportunity given) the tables are all awesome, some great 6x4 set ups and the best terrain I've encountered so far, beautifully painted. A wide assortment of well priced refreshments are available to us all day from a tea/ coffee machine,  a well stocked fridge with all the various fizzy cold drinks and snack bar with enough chocolate and crisps to feed a small army! I can't find a single fault with this store, it scores full marks in every department customer toilets are also spotless. I feel lucky that we have this store on the doorstep. They stock a wide range of game systems, with lets be honest a more well stocked Warhammer range than I've seen yet, even compared to some of the official Games Workshop stores and a wall of paints from just about every manufacturer you can think of, competitive prices too! Well worth a visit and we're already talking about gaming there again ASAP most likely it will be well into next year though sadly BUT we have a TITANIC idea for a game day to look forwards to!

Rhinos deployed on the table with Tactical squads embarked. 

Always happy to see the army out of the cabinets and seeing regular enough gaming use, I started Dark Angels to learn to play this game, rather than just being soley a display army. I'm proud of them enough without being too precious over them. They are built to game first and foremost, dings to the paint and repairs to the models I can easily live with to see them fulfill their destiny in the Age Of Darkness not that anything got broke but I'm happy to take that risk for a good game!

Everything starting safely in their dedicated transports, my Dark Angels are ready to go to work doing whatever shady, secretive work they do, set within an agenda no one knows but them. Joe gets first turn and I'm ready to feel the wrath of the Blood Angels for the first time for us both!

One very filthy Land Raider Proteus of the First Legion! This is the dedicated Transport for my Inner Knights Cenobium.

The Spartan braced for massive incoming fire from a Predator Support Sqn

As feared the fire power proved too much and the Spartan was reduced to molten slag in the first volley of fire in turn one! My HQ and Cataphractii Terminators mostly jumped out okay but there was casualties and they had some long slogging it out on foot to look forwards to!! Even more lucky for them Joe's units had the speed and mobility to ensure my Cataphractii wasn't about to get bored and was in contact very quickly which was highly considerate of them!!!

The fearsome Dawnbreakers entering into a brutal combat with my HQ and Cataphractii. Had a lot of love for Joe's Dawnbreakers in both games one of the big stand out units of the day for me, they were going to remind the First Legion that they weren't the only Angels in town this day and the blood red sons of Sanguinius could smash face with the best.

Mk6 Tacticals jump out of their Rhino and they might know a bit of fear actually as there was pinned units all over the place!!

Mk6 Tactical Space Marines out of their Rhino Transport ready to claim another objective way out back of the battle field, this was going to go one of two ways for these guys, a lonely morning away from all the action or a possibility of being straight up murdered if Joe would be determined enough to split his resources to have to maneuver all the way over to move them from this location.  There was a lot of table still to play for and Joe had some decisions to make early on over which way to go which units to ignore. It was ultimately a quiet day for this unit. Who saw no action at all in this game but heard plenty coming over the vox!!! Things was kicking off!!!

Some brutal combats going on all over this battle grid!

Joe was surprisingly happy to see the Inner Knights Cenobium putting boots on the ground and heading round the corner to bully their way to a near by objective to steal it. No night fighting which meant this was daylight robbery!! They reduced a unit blob to a single man who legged it from combat! Who could blame him! A second unit was round the corner to snatch the objective back should the Knights fall but didn't fancy facing those murderous swords! 

Probably the only real punchier unit in my list, one of the stand out units for us Dark Angels, the swords they wield are straight up murdering their way through most things (If you roll for them right!!!) But they are swingy enough to not be a feel bad unit and are still a little bit squishy against some death star units or sheer weight of shooting. I play this game for fun and wouldnt want to force a feel bad 'gotcha' moment onto another player! I think if I put 10 of these guys down I'd feel down right dirty!!! 5 on their own can be enough to have to deal with IF they get where they really want to be.

The real reason I have Inner Knights Cenobium regardless of how well they perform in the game is those beautiful sculpts from Forge World, they dropped before i had any interest in playing Heresy at all, and before I had any real motive to even collect Dark Angels. The day I saw them released, I fancied painting some up just to have as i loved the models so much, i just needed one excuse to pull the trigger and order them!! 

The back end of a Dreadnought rumble captured on camera, two Blood Angels Contemptor Dreadnoughts in a blur of red came crashing down, deep striking into my Dreadnoughts holding center table, this was always going to be a turning point in the game for sure. I feared I was about to loose my Leviathan at the very least, easily the one dependable unit I have that really puts hurt on enemy infantry (and even some vehicles at a push) I feared the worse case scenario, i'd loose the Contemptor as well, should the Leviathan fall and both the Blood Angel Contemptors consolidate against my one, it wasn't looking good for the First Legions treasured Dreadnoughts. Bizarrely a twist of fate and undoutably even the outcome of the game was decided right here I think. Joe's Contemptors somehow didn't get the job done and whiffed against the Leviathan and both his Contemptors fell in that Dreadnought mosh pit. My Dreadnoughts was standing firm next to a highly sort after objective, I was close to taking it with a Tactical Squad. With both my Dreadnoughts gone those Blood Angel Dreadnoughts would have made easy work of my Space Marines and Joe had his own unit ready to sweep in and claim that objective himself thats how the game SHOULD have gone. Alas it swung in my favour very much against the odds. Joe's Blood Angels rushed that objective in a nothing to loose act of bravery and did inflict heavily casualties on my Tactical Squad to be fair but ultimately paid the price with a Rhino and two Dreadnoughts right infront of them. The Inner Knights also managed to bully their way onto the other objective at the far end of the table too. Slowly getting whittled down by shear volume of Choom fire coming at them, they were holding that objective for the rest of the game though, heroically the Cataphractii Terminator armour is hard enough to shift easily, at the very least the herald was still on it by the end of the game.

It was a victory for the Dark Angels but wasn't as straight forwards as the games scoring might have suggested, there was some massive luck on our side at a few key moments of the game. No one would have put money on Joe's Contemptors not getting their job done and down the far end of the battle field a Blood Angel Rhino had its multi melta disabled with an unlucky 50/50 dice role that allowed my Proteus to casually roll right up to ignore it and unleash the Inner Knights Cenobium to get choppy. It would have given me a lot more to think about with that sitting intact guarding the objective! Pitty the fool that gets in spicy Melta range for it will ruin your day!!!

Its debatable at this point whether the Spartan is really worth its points, its a very expensive big model that hardly ever manages to earn close to its points back, and it does leave the heavy Terminators it transports very exposed if they have to do the long slow slog on foot. If I get first turn the Spartan has proved worthy at times but its still a fragile basket to keep all your eggs in even with a flare shield. Something for me to have a good think about going forwards IF I do make changes to this 3k list! 

Regardless of whether a Spartan is worth it or not, boy its pretty right? I love the model so much!

Joe sings the praises of the humble Land Raider Proteus, I definitely have been highly unlucky with mine, 5 games into the Horus Heresy now it whiffs for me way more often than not!! I always see those dreaded double ones roll when something isn't twin linked LOL this model is cursed but as a taxi with a horrible unit inside it does draw a lot of attention from else where in my army as that threat arguably needs dealing with that and that leaves my Leviathan free to murder rampage!

Some might say a full shooty Leviathan isn't the 'Correct' way to go in this version of Horus Heresy. Especially if a dreadnought with a close combat weapon or two of its own gets close to it, more often than not the Leviathan would loose, I modelled this Leviathan on rule of cool alone though before reading any rules, the Storm Cannon Array just looks so damn aweome to me! It can, it will and it has consistently earned its points back in the majority of my games and has done the Lions share of damage. Another model from Forgeworld that dropped along with my jaw when I saw it! I didn't have a reason to buy it so it sat in my very interested list for a couple of years until I needed an excuse to invest in it. Glad it came back into stock after a long absence for me to acquire it, because I love that gorgeous honking slab of resin! He's also standing on Dorns base out of interest! 

Plastic Contemptor Dreadnought came out okay but is it a patch on the old Forge World version HELL NO!

Sadly the now Out Of Production fully resin Legion specific Forge World Dreadnought. I managed to get one before FW sadly decided to OOP its full range of Legion specific Dreadnoughts as we knew them in favour of a frankly dissapointing small resin upgrade version. I once again went with rule of cool over what would work actually in my list so if you squint hard enough at it, its currently running plasma and a claw okay 👍 haha it will be getting modelled more appropriately when I find the chance to revisit and update my Dark Angels. I'd prefer WYSIWYG where ever possible despite never wanting to play anyone other than friends. They are more relaxed compared to the Tournament scene.

Rhinos although a bit squishy do offer some nice mobility. I'd be lying if I said I'm not interested in the new plastic Assault Mk6 kits though with jump packs. I have thinking to do across all 3 of my 30k Astartes forces. 

I think at this point I'll be mothballing the Dark Angels and taking some time out of gaming. I'm working on my Imperial Fists army so funds and all my attention is going 100% into getting them ready to see the gaming table at some point next year. The Dark Angels could maybe do with a slight revision here and there, talking to Joe yesterday we could potentially free up 700 odd points out of my Dark Angels 3k list and maybe then I'm not over relying on one or two models or units to carry my full army. Its certainly something I'll think about.  I don't want a broken army or something so oppressive I'd just instantly feel bad shoving it at a friend to be on the recieving end of, but a bit better use of my points could be tempting going forwards, as I know I've regularly got a lot of units that for whatever reason seem to underperform frequently in my list.

The table did look glorious, those ruins are stunning and beautifully painted! We actually met the chap that did all the scenary for Hobby Workshop and he was a nice guy too!! Barnsley is the place to be around here!!!

I'd be so very happy if that was my own gaming table!!! So nice to see a place like this not be so over reliant on cheap and often very basic looking MDF plain sheet terrain we see in a lot of gaming store tables! This is the next level!!!! Beautifully painted and detailed. 

2nd game isn't going to have much of a write up because my brain was absolutely fried by this point, Joe stepped up to do a large part of the thinking on my behalf. Time was running out in the late afternoon and Hobby Workshop closes at 5pm. As luck would favour our Blood Angel brothers we rolled for a mission with a single objective in the middle of the table and a total blood bath was on the cards, Joe is a Space Wolf player at heart and this method of warfare of getting stuck in really suited him best. I luckily got first turn and to be honest, it was the OKAYEST first turn I could have possibly done Hahaha!! Managed to tickle a few units trickling wounds off a few units here and there, put a dent in the Predator Sqn but really underperformed where I needed to and didnt manage to do enough to reduce the firepower that was coming straight back at me, some great reactions from Joe meant I almost lost my Leviathan in my own shooting phase thanks to return fire, and undoutably the Blood Angels came in and made me pay for that first turn. Rightfully so. They are much more choppy and the mission allowed Joe to really showcase what his units could do and man they laid down the hurt! First time seeing the new plastic Deredeo Dreadnought along with a now OOP Forge World version was a treat they pack some serious fire power, I joked that Joe brought Tau to a heresy game hahaha they used to be my least favourite of all the Forge World dreadnoughts, I think the short stumpy legs and often very static poses didn't really sell them to me but seeing Joe's really changed me opinion on the model!

We didn't need much time for this game and Joe had pretty much wrapped up the second game in just a couple of turns inflicting devastating losses. I lost pretty much everything of value and all he had to do was eat his way through the chaff exactly what the Blood Angels are known to do! A very very fun day. Both games shared in victory and I wouldn't have changed a single thing if I could have rerun the day all over again. We was enjoying the gaming so much we abandoned the idea of having a pub lunch (and we both enjoy our burgers!) It said a lot about the days gaming I think! Having both games being fun and close enough for both players to enjoy without being overly oppressive one way or the other, 30k still sings to me. I have no time for unfriendly lists, meta chasing or power gaming. I've happily left that behind with 40k. The draw to Heresy was the narrative angle and having a story to tell at the end of the day and regardless of scores, wins or losses that means a great deal more to me and I'll remember the stories of yesterday for some time going forwards. We had some pretty epic moments going on all accross the battle grid throughout the day. 

Massive thanks to Joe for a fun and fair day. I have to apologise for not taking as many pics of Joe's army as I should have, for two reasons, its still very much a work in progress, i was mindful of not wanting to show some half done unit's, I don't like to share WIPs of my own work until its far enough along that I'm happy enough to have people see it or it its kind of a tutorial piece that might be of help to someone. I didn't want to steal his big reveal as I know when this army is fully painted it will be all over his socials! The other reason is a good one too, man, the day was action packed and very fast paced, those 6 hours of solid gaming felt like it flew and neither of us stopped long enough to take the scenic insta phase pics we intended, im shocked there are any pics at all! 

We did manage to take a few but these are all we got, here's Joe's snaps from the day too!

Ooooof those Contemptors are stunning tho!!!!

The other thing Joe does is commission based model building and army painting. So I wanted to very quickly do a shout out to: Esoteric Path Commisions

https://instagram.com/esoteric_path_commissions?igshid=NGVhN2U2NjQ0Yg==

Joe has kindly done my HQ for my Imperial Fists. A Cataphractii Praetor!

He also did an alternative HQ for my Dark Angels! 

I also read a brutal review of the new plastic Deredeo Dreadnought that filled me with literal dread. Small fiddly parts don't mix well with numb fingers and Joe stepped up and built my Deredeo for me, amazing work as always and he even went above and beyond and Magnetised it so I can swap out the arm options  

love the model and love the pose, the Unreal Wargaming Base gives him some real presence! I'm a sucker for nice bases and great poses on centerpiece models!  Thanks again Joe! I have to not ruin them with my paint jobs now, no pressure!!!!!

Onto the Imperial Fists next!