Imperial Fists Praetor

With the pending release of HH2.0 there is a bit of a stir the 'A Galaxy in Flames' camp. For me its a review and revamp of my HQ at the moment, magnetising arms and adding a little extra flair.

Even though i feel the VIIth legion is not one to embellish themselves in pomp and finery like the Emperors Children or the Blood Angels, I did decide to add  a cloak to my praetor but kept it demure and simple.

I'm hoping that the Imperial fists still have thier character and bonus for fighting in challenges in the new edition, as this captain with his re-rollable invulnerable save due to his shield and Stone Gauntlet Rite of War will be a potent threat to enemy heros.

 

Macca on Tactica: Characters and Challenges 101

Hello, and welcome to the first true Macca on Tactica in a little while. Today I wanted to take the time to look at the assault phase in 30k, specifically where our Legion Praetors and the like, as well as where a few special characters fit in. This is a cut-down and basic look at the HQ's a rock-paper-scissors look at what each is best used for.

Auxillia/Militia, Archmagos, Praetors & Centurions

There are a LOT of HQ options in the Horus Heresy, but a few really stick out. Lets look at them now.

For the Solar Auxillia, your HQ's are really more of an arm-wide buffing unit. You cannot expect to go toe-to-toe with an Astartes, unless you are willing to pay through the teeth for the wargear. Whilst it is possible to equip a Paragon Blade, Artificer Armour and a 3++ invul save, it's still not in your best interests to fight this fight, especially against the more martial of Legions.

With the Imperial Militia, your commander fights like a sponge, but unlike a sponge, he won't absorb much. It's probably best to stay away from combat with this guy and to instead drown your enemies in the corpses of your own men. Yes, this even applies to a cultist HQ with a tainted weapon, yes, you'll kill on a 6 to wound, but you'll probably be turned to a smear or pink mist long before this happens.

Ah, the Mechanicum Archmagos. Now here is a fish out of water. The Archmagos is a force multiplier like the previous HQ's, however, he is also quite a tough combatant, with good armour, higher than average toughness, and access to excellent wargear. Whilst unlikely to be instantly killed in a combat, save to a deadly strike of some kind, I wouldn't feel confident pitting this guy against anything more solid than a Legion Centurion, even with Liquifiers or other crazy weapons.

Legion Praetors. These guys are badass. Paragon Blade, Digital Lasers, maybe even a relic from their Legion, the Praetor fears nothing less than a Special Character or a Lord of War, AND even then, a well equipped Praetor can give a special character a run for their money. If you are using these guys, feel confident when throwing them into most enemies, as you are more than likely to win.

Legion Centurions. Ok, a stock Centurion is no good for challenges, so if that's the route you want to take, go for the Champion Consul option, Forge Lord with Servo Arm, Cataphractii plate, Rad Grenades and a Cyber Familiar (for sheer badassery) or, a Librarian Consul (force axe being a must-take). Pretty much any other kind of Centurion is simply too brittle to be trusted in challenges against most enemies. As a rule of thumb, use your Consuls to buff your troops or even a better HQ, a well placed Primus Medicae can buff a Praetor into the stratosphere with Feel No Pain.

Special Characters.

If you see any of these guys set up opposite you, and you have nothing better than a Centurion, AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS. Seriously, they will light a fire under your ass so fast, it's not funny. These characters are strong, but many only get stronger in challenges. Especially Sigismund. Seriously, even if you have a Primarch, avoid Sigismund, he will actually cause a lot of damage to the weaker Primarchs, with Kurze, Corax, Lorgar (minus powers), Dorn and Alpharius all likely to win but only walk away with a wound or two left.

Kharn is a human hand grenade, if he is thrown into a unit which outnumbers him, he can get up to 9 attacks. On his own. He is a one-man army, and he will wreck most units he touches. Bonus points if you can tell me what the fuck happened to his Artificer armour and Iron Halo in 40k.

Sevetar, on the other hand, is a surprisingly weak fighter, who ONLY excels once he is in a challenge and fighting dirty. In a regular assault, his chainglaive is not as strong as many weapons, and any clown with a power fist will end him. Keep the Master of the Atramentar away from Terminators at all costs.

Eidolon is a funny character. He is quite strong on the assault with his Thunder Hammer, however, if he isn't on the assault, you won't be striking with his superior initiative, and just like with Sevetar, any clown with a Power Fist will end him. Bonus Points here if you can tell me how Skrillex's cloak isn't burned by his jump pack.

Abaddon. Powerful, but overall, not much stronger than a Centurion. Best used as a buffing unit. I thought it would be interesting to note that the most powerful character in 40k is really a mid-level special character in 30k.

Primarchs.

I will say it once, and once alone. Primarchs will kill anything less than a Primarch. They won't however kill Primarchs, at least not without half a dozen player turns elapsing. If you play a game of 30k, and you and your adversary send your Primarchs into each other at a hundred miles an hour, you've effectively removed both Primarchs from contributing to the game.

Primarchs are best used for two roles: to either buff their army into the stratosphere (Dorn, Alpharius, Guilliman), or to kill enemy heroes and Death Star units, especially if said Primarch is named Angron.

Conclusion.

In the end, everyone will use their characters however they feel, but it is good to know that you have limitations. None of the characters listed should be thrown into Terminators of any kind, nor should they be thrown into specialist units like Templars, Invictus etc. because you'll likely lose 150-200 points of character for probably 70-100 points of slain enemies (which is bad on any planet).

Try to keep your characters set on the path they were designed for, buff your army if that's your job, hunt weaker heroes if that's your job. But don't try and take on Sigismund. EVER.

~Macca

Iron Warriors Army: Complete

G'day folks, Macca here with my now very playable Iron Warriors army. Not just that, but I took the photos on my new Imperial Sector realm of battle board. Overall, the army was a really fun project, and whilst nothing too crazy happened with the conversions, the little bits I did I feel add something unique to the force.

First up, I have Narik Dreygur leading his unit of Vorax Automata. This is a nasty unit, but nowhere near as scary as Castellax...

There's also my Iron Warrior Contemptors, complete with chainfists and grav gun hands.

Of course, there's the command squad, led by Kyr Vhalen for +5 to their badassery rolls.

Tyrant Siege Terminators. Why? Because my enemies' tears are the sweetest of nectar.

My custom Deredeo. How custom? Well, not very, this was a pretty subtle conversion, with some Thallax chain-bayonets attacked to his main guns, an Iron Warriors icon on his left knee and physical hazard stripes added to the right of his torso and his right shin. The only reason I made them physical instead of just painting them (which is like 10 times easier) is that I wanted to make him match my existing Dreadnoughts.

Graviton Rapiers. Why? Well, not many people have them, so it's something different. I also made the guns removable so I can use quad mortars or quad lasers in the future.

The weathering is pretty restrained I feel, with a tiny smidge of rust and some chips and scratches.

Iron Havocs with Autocannons...

...Iron Havocs with Heavy Bolters

The Tormentor.

I love this tank so friggen' much, just for the rule of cool.

Iron Within, Iron Without

I hope you enjoy the army, if all goes well, I will also be doing a video battle report on this table and with this army come this weekend! Btw, if you're in Ballarat, hit me up and if I'm around, you can come over for a game of 30k.

~Macca

Narik Dreygur, Praevian Consul of the Iron Warriors: Part 1

G'day folks, Macca here with a quick one. On Wednesday, my Praevian Consul arrived. Needless to say, I'm a very happy chappy (not to be confused with the mediocre movie that has just left the cinemas). The rules for this guy can be found here.

Anyway, I opened him up first thing when I got home, (I have spent 5 of the last 6 weeks away working) and got to work building him straight away. Then, after finishing the basic build, I had a brain storm.

Is that a servo harness? Why yes, it is. I love this model so much, it screams Iron Warriors to me, so I want to use it even when I'm not using this Consul's rules. Thus, I decided to give him an attachment that could work for a Praetor as well. After all, a Power Fist isn't the worst equipment going, is it?

I also decided to swap his original left shoulder pad for one embossed with the Legion emblem. This makes sense as most of the miniatures so far have these pads. I also made some very subtle additions, just for the rule of cool and proper WYSIWYG. Can you pick them?

That's right. Melta bomb, frag and krak grenades on his left hip. I did this because you never know when you're going to need them.

Anyway, by some point tomorrow, maybe Sunday, I should have this guy painted up. If you like my idea, feel free to let me know, if you think I ruined the miniature, let me know too!

~Macca

So, it's been a little while, but I wanted to share the newest Praetor joins the ranks of the Iron Warriors. There are big things in the works from all the crew here, and unfortunately we've all been too focused on getting things done. This will change soon, so expect quite a few updates in the coming month. ~Macca

Expect a different helmet on this guy, I'm just waiting on the parts I have ordered to arrive.

Kyr Vhalen, the Siege Breaker and the Moriat

 So, here we are, a while without posting actually minis up, (about a month and a half by my reckoning), but we're back with a bang. Today, I have 3 HQ's to show off.

Kyr Vhalen

The master of the 77th Grand Battalion, Warsmith Kyr Vhalen is just the sorta guy I like, brutal, quick to reprisal, and a survivor. Even as the dust settled and the Alpha Legion conquered Paramar, his Apothecaries dragged him from the rubble of his shattered bunker, but he was kicking, screaming, spitting blood and curses at the XXth Legion. You just know that one day he will be back for more.

 A fun detail to do was creating the ruins of his face. If you look at the guy in HH Book III, he looks like Hicks at the end of James Cameron's Aliens. His face is half melted off, and an empty eye socket stares out from the sneering leader. The actual head is a plastic Space Marine 40k one, which I cut and drilled. I used a Sons of Horus commander and cut and drilled his head off, as I felt I couldn't get the detail I wanted. I then proceeded to combine a few bits together to create his MK IV servo harness. In the end, I got a tidy, if simple commander.

The Siegemaster.

This guy can act as one of 4 or 5 different HQ options (see if you can name them), but for now, he is the siege master, ready to load the thudd guns of his battalion. Having the heavier armour, his servo harness is big and bulky, unlike the warsmith.

The Moriat.

MK III power armour is sexy as hell. I just love it. So, I built an ENTIRE unit of destroyers in it (pics soon), and then I made this guy to lead them. The colour palette for this features a lot of black, because most Legion Moriats and Destroyers wore black. I kept the legs and arms silver, but the torso, helm and part of the back were painted in black. I used yellow on the shoulders as I saw a scheme I really liked at the start of the Iron Warrior pics showing a lot of yellow in the destroyer markings. His shoulder marking is an Alpha, as he is a Moriat, the Alpha, or pack leader of the destroyers. Just works in my mind.

Kyr Vhalen leads his command squad into battle.

So there it is, 3 commanders, 3 different approaches. I have painted them for my table top gaming, so unlike my Primarchs, the colours are a bit more basic, and the glare of my lighting doesn't help the photos too much, but I hope you enjoy them anyway. As always, I kept the Hazard Stripes to a minimum, in only one place on the armour.

If you haven't seen it yet, check out Keepy's list from earlier today, he would love any feedback about how he is a cheesy jerk. Thanks for looking,

~Macca

Raven Guard Commanders

G'day all, Macca here with a "by request" post.

I recently showed the full Legion assembled together and was asked if I could show the individual commanders. So, as I aim to please (everyone except Keepy, the jerk), here they are:

Alvarex Maun, you can find out how I did this guy here.

Terran-born Commander, with a home-made shield. I built it as I didn't like the existing ones and wanted something more slab sided and breacher siege shield like.It's also worth noting he was the first true model painted for the army, so a lot more technique was developed just from working on him. Side note, the shield is magnetised at the wrist joint, I can put any ranged weapon or CC weapon I like on that left hand.

Strike Captain Aggapito,one of the Dropsite Survivors, I use him as a Praetor for most games.

A Praetor OR Consul, with twin Ravens Talons. The claws are converted from 40k Warp Talon ones, as when I built him, the 'finger nails' type claws weren't for sale.

Legion Champion, possibly the famous Sharrowkyn.... we'll never know....

Legion Chaplain, an early attempt at a chaplain, this guy isn't used post-Istvaan, because all of the chaplains were killed...

Legion Librarian, Pre-Nikea, or a while into the Heresy, I have him in the list, but I am not likely to use him very often. At first, he was THE go-to guy, but since Alvarex Maun has been so insanely good, I think I'd like to add either a Master of Signals or a Deep-Strike capable Praetor/Consul to give some more edge to the list. Side note, his pack is magnetic and I can give him a jump pack instead.

So there they are, I have a Master of Signals, Vigilator and a very special Moriat on the way, as well as some more RG infantry, so I guess my next post will feature the infantry, at a guess.

Hope to see you all next time, Macca