Horus Heresy 2.0 6000pts game
Biggest (none Titan) Warhammer game I've done in points and it was BRUTAL as 2.0 always was. Scoring came down to 23 points to 22 in the favour of Joe so incredibly close and probably the best game I've ever played in any system. Very swingy, both had to adapt to twists and turns and it will be a game I won't forget. Thanks as always to Joe for being a real gentleman, letting my reserves come in when my back was against the wall, it allowed me a chance at the end to come back into it and for bringing two beautifully painted armies all the way up north. Also to HW for hosting us.
Joe seized the initiative and got first turn. I've faced a few of Joes spectacularly painted armies before but never his Space Wolves, I'm aware how brutal they can be, with speed and aggression built into their Legion. I went into the game against them feeling pretty nervous. The only game plan i could muster was stay away from them as much as possible. Don't move towards them, or feed them units they can chew through and consolidate more quickly across the table. I didn't have much that could go toe to toe in combat with them so my plan was hold the line for as long as possible. Joe was on objectives turn one and I wasn't about to attempt to wrestle them off of them My initial plan was he can just have that table.
My fight was with the Ultramarines. (I thought I'd actually stand a chance with as we had a prior with them and i knew kinda what to expect)
As it turned out Joe managed to whiff every charge with the Wolves, which gave me hope to survive for a little longer than I thought. I had even wondered about retreating, I mean tactically repositioning to just support the battle against the Ultras but the Wolves would have ran me down too fast. The only thing I could do was lean into my Legion traights and shoot at them and hope for the best. Mostly trying to whittle down units enough to make them either less combat effective or just finally break and run! Which actually did work to an extent, very little was left alive on both sides of that table in the end.
The Ultramarines was the table I was struggling on the most and had to think more outside the box and definitely think a bit more like Joe, I took heavy loses turn one and lost a lot of mobility. Land Raider gone, vehicles immobilised and Skyhunter Squadron gone which I had hoped to do some tank hunting with as Joe was rocking more tanks. My MVP Leviathan with Stormcannons did remove a squad of Recon Snipers and Joe absolutely killed it next turn before it removed anymore units! If you ignore that Dread he will chew through units, usually deleting one a turn. It was really down to Sigismund and two units of Templar Brethren to do a lot of the work. I'd given up hope of sitting on objectives or trying to take them off the wolves. I wasn't gonna win an objective game so I had one option left. Kill more.
It was a different game for me, I don't think I've ever done so many charges in a game before. Really had to push offensively at times which isn't really what I do. I usually try and hold the line more. Caught Joe off guard a couple of times and gave him something to think about which was fun. After 3 years of playing each other now we know each other pretty well. I've learned to sacrifice units to get an objective done. I am still learning Heresy and he's a great teacher. I'm not overly bothered about scoring. I'm a narrative player and a lore bunny and it's the stories that unfold on the table on the day that I always remember the most. Epic moments, swinging luck, unexpected combat resolutions. The brutality of Heresy 2.0 is something I really love, especially if we are both having the chances. There's a gentlemans agreement that both sides have fun, and Joe brought that yesterday in abundance.
Thanks again to Joe for an amazing day!
I took the full IF collection with me but we didn't have time to set up and get pics this time sadly. I try to make use of their twin 6x4s as we don't have space at home on our table to get the full army out now days. The legion has grown so much! #horusheresy #horusheresy30k #warhammer30k #warhammer30khorusheresy
