30k and the Horus Heresy Pt. 1

I want to give my money to Forgeworld

I´ve fallen in love. The new Horus Heresy book from Forgeworld along side the awesome pre heresy minis has blown me away.
So I decided to hold all my other army projects to make a 30K army to use in narrative, fluffy and campaign games.
Well not entirely true. Im still gonna build on my CSM and allied forces for them. But my Grey Knights, Space marines, Tau and Daemons have been put on indefinate hold.

So do I have a deadline?


Not really. Im aiming at having the first 1500 points bought and painted no later than early summer 2013.
This post contains the ideas and thoughts behind my choices in regards to planning the 30K army I did. 

Loyalist og rebel scum?

World Eaters loyalists. Which side is not really important though, since I can use them either way.

Theres several reasons for me choosing World Eaters. Some a grounded in fluff, others in paintschemes and finally the combat doctrine of the army.

Paintschemes
I have a CSM Black Legion army (Sons of Horus), I also have a Crimson fists army and a pre heresy Thousand Sons count as Grey Knights army. So I want something different from the black of the legion, the blue of the fists and the golden red of the 1K Sons.

That leaves only a few armies that are not too similar to what I already got. As paintschemes go I went for the white, metal and blue of the world eaters. Its an entirely different paintscheme to my other armies.
So the paintschemes of the Thousand Sons, Ravenguard, Luna wolves, Dark angels, Ultramarines, Iron hands, Crimson fists, Nightlords, Blood angels, Alpha legion, Emperors children are either to similar or so not to my liking (/cough Alpha legion).

That leaves the Iron warriors, World Eaters, White scars, Space wolves, Deathguards, Salamanders and Word bearers.

Fluff
I really do´nt like the Deathguards. Magnus and the 1K sons have always been my one true love and Mortarion speaking out against Magnus at the council of Nikaea. So the Deathguard is out.

The Space wolves sacked, pillaged and burned Prospero and therefor I will never play them as either a primary or allied force. I hate them bastards for what they did to the Thousand Sons.

The Wordbearers are religious and fanatics. Awesome adversaries in the fluff for the empire but my personal dislike for fanaticism and extemists, makes me not want to play a so fanatical legion.

The leaves the Iron warriors, World Eaters, White Scars and Salamanders.

Combat doctrine
White scars play too much like my CSM bikers, the Salamanders are heavy on flame. Again much like my CSM. Iron warriors and their siege doctrine which is good and interesting never did appeal to me. That leaves the World Eaters and their "in you face" tactics.

Centerpieces

I plan on having three centerpieces for my army. These are both what holds the army together on the battlefield, but also what centers it on display.

Spartan Assault Tank

This badass will bring my angry angry marines to the enemy. While it does that it will also supply anti tank firepower with its quad lascannon sponsons.
Twenty angry marines being brought into the face of the enemy is awesome.

Storm Eagle Assault Gunship

Transport and gunship all in one. This flying gunship will bring another complement of PMS´ing marines forward to the enemy, It will also be able to lay down some serious anti infantry firepower.

Fellblade Super Heavy Tank

The Fellblade will be my tank killer.
With its accelerator cannon, demolisher cannon and quad lascannon sponsons combined with machine spirit, it will outright kill one, maybe two enemy hulls every turn.

 

Chaos showdown, Daemons vs. Marines

So now im two for two. My final opponent in the preliminary round is a daemon player. He won against the Grey knights (?) and has still to play the imperial guard.
Since I won my two first games I do´nt need to win this one. But I need it to secure first place in my group and ensure that im not matched up against group winner, but a group runner up.
If my opponent Magnus need to win this one or his last match against the guard. Then he moves on too.

Deployment: dawn of war
Mission: 5 objectives which you scored 1 point from, for every turn you held them.

The Initial rounds

I deployed in cover behind a couple of ruins, but still spread out enough to deny his flamers any good targets. I set my sights on three objectives that were pretty close together in a triangle and decided to hunker down on them.

My first round brought me into possession of two of them and close enough to the third to ensure it would be mine or no ones in the third round.

My bikers moved up as they were also scoring in the mission.
The daemons chose to drop down alot of troops on the two far away objectives. Securing those for the forces from the warp, but also leaving several of the big critters in the second wave. Which should prove to be a problem.

A firefight of epic porpotions broke out as both the Lord of change and a daemon prince of Tzeentch dropped down almost ontop of the chaos forces.
It got so hectic I even forgot to take pictures so you will just have to imagine the entire chaos marine force unleashing everything on them. They were brought down to ground one after the other with bolter fire. Then the overwhelming plasma and autocannon firepower finished them off. The forces of the warp was severely crippled.

The middle rounds

 The one thing that could have turned the battle for the daemons decided that coffee break in the warp was more interesting. The bloodthirster didnt come in until turn four.

A long a protracted fight broke out between the fiends and the chaos lord with his biker buddies. Both side were grinding away at each other until the Forgefiend decided to join the fray which tipped the battle in the marines favor.

Flamers nearly wiped a chaos marine squad, but good placement ensured that three of them survived. Afterwards the flamers were gunned down by everything not stuck in combat with the fiends.

The final turns

The bloodthirster finally decided to enter the battle in turn four and killed a group of chosen in turn five. It was too little too late though. He was gunned down shortly after like a rabid dog.

The chaos marines swept out across the battlefield and started contesting the objectives held by the plaguebearers or pushing them of them.

We called the game in turn five when the Chaos marines had 11 victory points against the daemons 10. In turn 6 the chaos marine score would increase by three at least and deny any more for the daemons.

Final thoughts:
The game went as I hoped for the most part. The lord and his bikers had more trouble than i expected with the fiends. I calculated the gaining and denial of VP prefectly, so I would be ahead on turn five (not counting linebreak and slay the general which I had and first blood which went to the daemons).

Had the Bloodthirster entered on turn 2 or 3 the game could have been marginally different, but I believe that my firepower would have been enough to put him down too. It would have left some plaguebearers alive, but the objectives they had were still contested or not in contention till turn five  anyways.

A good and brutal game.

With this victory i take the first place in the initial group and im on to the quater finals.

/Jens

HelBURNBABYBURNdrakes

Heldrakes yay!

Although in my first game with them both of those lazy gits didnt come in till turn 4.

The wings are magnetized for easier transportation.

/Jens