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Casual Heresy

A Horus Heresy focussed blog from a group that includes a Casual, some of the Damned and our mandatory Tryhard. We don't roll 6's, We roll 1's

The Prince

6-Minute Read

Building your Legion

As mentioned in my intro post I, amongst a wider variety of projects, am setting up a Sons of Horus force for a 1,350pt Zone Mortalis themed event in July. Furthermore my intention is to bake that list into a larger 3,000pt force for GW’s event at Warhammer World in July. But before any glue put to resin, I needed a list, and a theme. The aim of this article is a bit of insight into how I personally go about list development, for both a narrative event, and for a more competetive scene.

The Context

Whilst in the case of some armies (i.e. my 3rd Legion) a force may just stem from randomly collecting fun units as and when, in this scenario my aim is to collect build and paint a force that can be taken to two set events.

  1. A 1,350pt Zone Mortalis narrative event (run by the wonderful King Fluff)1
  2. A 3,000pt semi-competetive force for a Warhammer World event.

So with the ZM event being earlier and smaller, it makes sense to plan around that first, then add up into the 3k list. So we’ll begin there!


Enter the Zone Mortalis

Building a Zone Mortalis list, there are two key limitations I have to consider. Number one is the lack of vehicles, and large walkers (those will have to be saved for the bigger games). Number 2 is the low points cap. The second point in particular is critical, as it means every unit is going to need to be capable at the role it needs to play - no chaff in this list!

Theming

Before picking any units in a list, I always try to have a theme in mind. Whilst this does nothing for in game effect, it does affect the units, upgrades, and overall force design (as well as looking much cooler on the tabletop). With the event being all about the boarding of a Mechanicus vessel, and set in a set of worlds removed from the main push of the Warmaster’s march on Terra, there really is one easy choice that nicely fits into the wider heresy narrative. Drawing heavily from the Audio Dramas ‘Grey Talon’ and ‘The Either’, my force will be a hunter-killer cadre of reavers. Tasked by the warmaster himself to disrupt and hunt down seditious loyal elements in the Belt of Iron, they will be small in number, but varied in equipment, with a focus on boarding and ship to ship action. This will nicely justify some really cool unit choices, fits nicely into the why elite units such as Justaerin are fidning themselves so far from the First Company.

Here come the Reavers
(All Credit to HammerTheTank on Deviantart)2

Units

With the theme nicely set. Its time to think of the list itself. At 1,350pts if I want to run a Rite of War I’ll need a cheap Master of the Legion - so Delegatus it is!

Why do I want a Rite? Because the Black Reaving would make Reavers troops, and thus really nail my theme. And I love fluffy, but a bit naff, Rites.

So Delegatus, in Justaerin plate, with a Power Axe (got to keep it cheap), and a volkite charger (because I honestly just love volkite) - 107pts.

Now for the Reaving I also need a Master of Signal. Not the worst option, and he can be a useful asset, especially with those blast templates. We’ll give him Artificer Armour and a refractor field to keep him alive, and a power axe (because theming) - 130pts.

HQs down - time for troops! The core of the army ought to be reavers really. They fit the theme, and are rather the point of taking the ROW. So two squads minimum (as the Black Reaving demands 3 compulsory troops). To save on points and prevent putting all the eggs in one basket, I’ll bump keep each squad to 6 men total. Both squads will be outflanking too, so arming them for shooting output is probably a solid plan, to reduce the chance of a counter charge.

With that in mind we’ll have one squad with 2 combi-meltas, a melta bomb and AA on the chieftain, some banestrike bolters and a load of chainaxes. - 220pts

Then the other squad we’ll go for more anti-infantry. With 2 combi flamers, and banestrike bolters. For combat they can be the punchier squad; with chainaxes, 2 powerswords, and the Chieftain in AA with an axe (this may be partly because I modelled the axe wielding chieftain before I’d written the list) - 228pts

Finally bringing up the 3rd troops slot will be a 10 man squad of breachers (its a Zone Mortalis game, I couldn’t not bring breachers!). With 2 volkite chargers, they will be a great anchorpoint in any corridor, and a good bodyguard for the Master of Signal, who in turn can keep their BS at a 5+ even at a longer range than the 16th normally get their buffs - 210pts

For elites, there is one clear first choice. A 5 man squad of Justaerin. Armed with Power Axes, and a multimelta (because it looks cool as heck) they can deepstrike into the rear of the enemy lines, and along with the delegatus can really mess with the enemy units. - 280pts

And finally, with the battle being so close quarters, and with hunter-killer units being typically very loose on ‘morals’ we’ll include a destroyer squad. Whilst my doubles partner (and points costs) did talk me out of taking them all with jump packs, we will have 5 equipped with a rad missile launcher, and an artificer sergeant with phosphex and a power fist. Because who said we had to always play nice? - 175pts

Total: 1,350pts and 34 models


So what have we ended up with? A roving hunter killer force, with several elite, small units, led by a warmongering Justaerin Officer, and a more Tactical Master of Signal (likely the real commander of the force). Whilst they’ll start small in number on the table, one good reserve roll later and the opponent will find themselves with wolves in their midst…

I love them, but ooh boy that points cost!

So I’ve now got my starting point… I should probably get assembling and painting!

Next time I’ll talk about themeing, and expanding this list into a full 3k army. Hopefully with an update with some assembled models!


  1. [I honestly reccommend checking out his events] (https://www.facebook.com/therealkingfluff↩︎

  2. [HammerTheTank DeviantArt] (https://www.deviantart.com/hammerthetank↩︎

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Just a group of Collectors, Painters and Players from the North(-ish) of England that want to share our hobby and thoughts on all things Heresy.