Advanced Infiltration: Heralds of Extinction

[Slips]

Yeah a color that contrasts the blue you're going for would be best.

[Chaeron]

I love green normally on Heresy models, but those oranges do pop! You could go for a more fluorescent green or yellow if you wanted to stick with that colouring so it still provides a contrast with the armour colour?

And Micro Set/Sol are like magic - it makes it so much easier to make transfers work!

[Pearson73]

I also vote for the orange variant. Very nice work on the painting so far, the weathering looks great. Chequerboard bases are my favourite, always make a force look so striking!

 

[Xenith]

Thanks folks! I went with orange in the end, for this unit at least - they do stand out quite nicely.

I've just about got the unit to table top ready, however they need both basing and weathering, so that's a job for this week.

Plume guy. I really need to dust my paint space, I'm seeing loads of fluff on him! 

Nuncio vox guy?

 

Sergeant

Squad shot

 

I was also at Warhammer World last weekend, and managed to have a go wit hthe new contrasts. My base hope was that Kroxigor scales was roughly the equivalent of thinned Akhelian green, and I wasnt disappointed - if you look at the test model below, the right leg is pure kroxigor, while the left is 50/50 akhelian to medium - both applied in medium coats to allow both tinting and shading - you can see however that the akhelian is a little blotchy still. These are both over leadbelcher, so a little darker, but they'll look great over ironbreaker. I think I'll be converting to kroxigor to save time messing round with mixing paint. 

Looking at those super close ups has exposed the secret shoddiness of my work! I have to go back and get the green that's splashed onto the chest cables on those guys/ 

[General Zodd]

What colour did you use on the top of the backpack? That’s probably not ideal for Alpha Legion, but that’s a lovely effect.

[Xenith]

That was already on there when I picked up the [communal] test model, however I believe it's the new Aeldari Emerald colour - I tried that on a different model, and I think it came out like that. It'd be really good for a little green hint to [metallic] alphas. 

[Chaeron]

10 hours ago, Xenith said:

Looking at those super close ups has exposed the secret shoddiness of my work! I have to go back and get the green that's splashed onto the chest cables on those guys/ 

Hardly, they look brilliant!

Appreciate looking at the 'contrast' Contrast! Interesting, I'm planning on starting on Akhelian in batches, but that's given me a moment of pause... Hmm, I feel like I'd need to see two next to each other - I might need to run some tests!

[Xenith]

On 7/18/2022 at 8:35 PM, Chaeron said:

I'd need to see two next to each other - I might need to run some tests!

On the tabletop, I doubt you'd notice the different between thinned Akhelian and Kroxigor, however the thinned akhelian goes on a bit blotchier and needs a glaze, while kroxigor can be used as-is. Definitely try both out. 

[Chaeron]

7 hours ago, Xenith said:

On the tabletop, I doubt you'd notice the different between thinned Akhelian and Kroxigor, however the thinned akhelian goes on a bit blotchier and needs a glaze, while kroxigor can be used as-is. Definitely try both out. 

Will certainly explore - appreciate it!

What’s next on the painting table?

[Xenith]

Next is my vows for the Bug's Life painting challenge, but in terms of Alphas, I'd like to get my volkite support squad done, but I also really need to get another troop and a HQ done. I've converted up a Vigilator, which you'll see below, who'll be good for small games, however I'm thinking of converting up a Delegatus also, or trying to get my hands on Skorr to give me Pride of the Legion, and use my other veteran squad.

I managed to get my first taster game of HH2.0 in yestrday, which was good fun. 4 players and 500pts each. Neither me or the BA player could field a legal army, but whatever. We just played the grudge match mission (forget the name) where you get VP for killing unit types, no objectives, and just had at. Alphas and Dark Angels, the undecided alliance, vs SoH and BA.

My list:

100 - Vigilator - nemesis, power dagger RoW - Hydran Excursor <Sons of Horus>
125 - 10 Tacticals - Arty, power fist
135 - Support squad - 5 Calivers
140 - Destroyer Squad - rad missile, arty.  

500pts

Myself and the DA player were the more experienced so maybe shouldn't have been on the same side, but we just teamed up based on where we were standing. 

Not going to bother reporting as this was just a knock around, but

1. Rad missiles are brutal if your opponent bunches up
2. Vigilator with rend 2+ makes sniper weapons actually deadly. 
3. Dreads are tough as hell. The DA dread kept shooting the SoH dread, which returned fire with lascannons as an action, so the SoH dread essentilly got 2 shooting phases. The Atomantic explosion is then on a 'by model' basis, so suicide melee distraction dreads are probably a decent option. 
4. Everyone agreed that the mental load, even for people that had never played before, was lower then 9th ed 40k. No strats, no rerolls. Rolling a 1 to wound or save was actually a meaningful, fun event now. 
5. Stuff feels durable. The old yes/no save, while I think should have been in 9th ed, and modifiers in HH, makes 2+ troops feel really tough. Those termies took a round of fury of the legion, volkites, then bolt pistols before melee and only lost 1 guy. Vigilator double tapped the unit serge on the way in though. 

You can also see my initial forays into AL in the army, namely the halved scheme on the destroyers. I'm loathe to repaint while there's other units to paint for the first time, so I'll probably finish them off then save them for another day. I think I've pulled the trigger fully on the metlaiic teal alphas, so I'll stop dallying with other schemes and go with that. 

Edited July 25, 2022 by Xenith

[Xenith]

Been doing a bit more work on my Vigilator - I've exended the barrel with brass rod and moved the suppressor a bit further down, but kept the length because of some funny comments elsewhere. I might call it the overcompensator. I also thought he might do with a crest - thoughts? 

 

[Chaeron]

Looks great! I’m not personally a huge fan of crests, but it really suits the model and pose in that position - kudos!

[Xenith]

Trying to decide how to army my Cataphractii

Thoughts are welcome here:

 

15 hours ago, Chaeron said:

Looks great! I’m not personally a huge fan of crests, but it really suits the model and pose in that position - kudos!

Thanks! Not normall a fan either...but randomly thought it might work on this guy, and it seems ok! 

[Xenith]

I now have terminators! The Legion grows another head. After a lot of fiddling, I magnetised the arms on these and then got the double shoulder pads to sit right by attaching them to the main torso directly. I've also magged up a couple of extra fists, another power sword and 5 pairs of claws for some flexibility. If any legion can adapt to the opponent, it's the Alphas. 

[Pearson73]

Nice mix of poses for the Cataphractii. 

[Xenith]

Thanks! These are the first I've assembled and I was worried about the limited rotation at the waist, but they seem to be ok, and poses work with the claws also! 

[Xenith]

So pulling together stuff that's either mostly painted or undercoated, I think I can get to about 1k points for small games.

105 Delegatus - Power Sword, Nemesis bolter
115 - 10 tacticals, power fist
125 - 5 veterans, heavy bolter
205 - 5 Cataphractii, combi bolters, 2 fists, 2 claws, 1 power weapon 
180 - Contemptor, Gravis melta, fist
130 - Destroyer squad, rad missile
135 - Support squad, 5 Calivers

995. Reasonable? Or Is stuff like arty armour critical?
 

[Noserenda]

Should be alright for 1k points but by 2k you are almost certainly going to want to kill a Spartan in one turn, minimum. Depending on play group meta ofc! 

[Xenith]

Yea, I'm waiting for the shoulder las/plasma cannon kits to utilise the rest of my beakies! I think 10 man lascannon support/Sunkillers might be fun. Otherwise I'm thinking of making up my next 5 catas as Siege Tyrants, if I can summon the cyclone bits...

[Dont-Be-Haten]

On 8/1/2022 at 3:53 AM, Xenith said:

Been doing a bit more work on my Vigilator - I've exended the barrel with brass rod and moved the suppressor a bit further down, but kept the length because of some funny comments elsewhere. I might call it the overcompensator. I also thought he might do with a crest - thoughts? 

 

I have 2 thoughts on the crest. Rule of cool yes looks good. Rule of logic, we the most sneaky of sneaky boys. We don't need plumes to give us away in sniper battles. 

 

[Xenith]

There's the double edged arrogance of the Alphas also - they won't see me even with this crest! I think I might keep it for now - it adds some height to what became quite a broad model, especially on that 40mm base - I might add some antennae to the backpack also to make the apex of the triangle silhouette. 

In other new, this arrived on Tuesday:

Spoiler

I've already started making it up - no choice paralysis with this guy as he's 100% alpha legion, unlike the kratos and AoD contemptor, I have to say weird resurgence of mould lines aside, it's a great kit to make. The knee joints are amazing and it's going to be super posable, and will probably hold poses well while being glued. There's also secret magnet holes for the nipple guns, which I'm super pleased with. I just need to now magnetise the assault cannon nips on my BA Leviathan so I can swap them out with the volkites from this one if needed. 

[Chaeron]

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the Leviathan! 

I like the list too - it'd be fun for that sort of points value, lots of different units with varied roles. Someone taking a similar approach would make for some great games too!

[Xenith]

I managed to get another game in yesterday, really enjoying the heresy, maybe more than 40k - less thinking about stratagems, more thinking about tactics. 

1000pts

100 - Vigilator - nemesis, Dagger - Hydran Excursor <Imperial Fists>
115 - 10 Tacticals - power fist
105 - 10 Tacticals - dagger, bp+chainsword on serge
145 - Support squad - 5 Calivers, arty armour
210 - 5 Cataphractii - 2x power swords, 1x claw, 2x chainfists (one on serge)
180 - Contemptor - Multimelta
145 - Destroyer Squad - rad missile, arty, power sword

Fists

155? - Praetor - Paragon + charger - +1WS to the unit trait
100 - 10 Tacticals
200 - 20 tacticals
~275 - 5x Cataphractii - 5 fist+shield
~195? Contemptor - Lascannon+fist

Mission: Onslaught, Dawn of War. I deployed fairly centrally and far forwards, opponent put tac  squads in the middle, then termies and dread on the flanks - I think this was their main big mistake. I put my objective in their DZ to the right flank, they put theirs in the middle of my DZ. 

Deployment

Deployment reverse angle. The plan was to push to the right with the black and white tacs, and drive the termies and dread down the centre. 

Fist tacticals with bolters get a scary amount of hits, but my TDA proves inviolate. 

Termies get up close in my turn 2 for a charg, however he does the fist offence reaction and charges them first! WS5 on the tacs from the praetor was a curse and the termies killed 1-2 marines, with the dread killing another 2 for no losses in return. My opponent was in 40k mode and had hidden the praetor at the back, so he couldn't get into B2B even with the pile in move. This maybe cost him the game.  Winning combat 4-0 and with ight fight, my opponent needs to pass Ld on a 5+ and fails, running 10". My dread fails to sweep as the fists rolled a 6, plus I5 from the praetor. The dread follows up 

Turn 3 and dawn breaks, no more night fight. The tacticals rally, despite the proximity of the dread (There's no longer a rule preventing rallying due to enemy proximilty? It used to be 6"), however now they can move 4" and snap shot only. The fist terms move up to finally get into the fight. The rallied tacticals decide to snap shot into my destroyers, failing to kill any, however I react and return fire. The now densely packed tacticals in the centre are prime targets for a rad missile - it's missed in t1 and t2, but gets a hit this time 7 hit, 7 dead. Pow. The bolt pistols also open up, 4 wounds...4 failed saves. This is huge, the destroyers alone have just wiped 11 tacs in my opponent's shooting phase. The fist terms charged my destroyers, who between counterattack, rad grenades and shred chainswords + pistol (4A each) caused 4 unsaved wounds, killing 2 (unlucky).

After the destroyer's reaction. In my turn the terms and dread moved up to finish off the praetor and tacs - termie shooting killed the tacs, dread double 1'd the multimelta at the praetor (!), then both charged. Praetor challenged and I refused with my serge. Praetor killed a wounded termie, and wounded another with sword. Dread whiffed against WS6, the power weapons did nowt , however the last chainfist got a wound through, and a failed save meant a dead praetor. Calivers and all my tacs shot at the terms, felling another. 

]My TDA then consolidated towards the remaining tacs, and my dread went dread hunting.

At that point we called it, my opponent had the dread, 10 tacs and 2 terms left, and I had to go. I'd have wiped the tacs and taken the onslaught objective, dreads killed one another, might have lost my second tac unit and vigilator to the terms, however as we left it the score was 3-1 to the Alpha Legion (2 units killed + warlord).

 

Thoughts:

Vigilator - 2 games and not dont much. In this one he headshotted the 20 man tac serge turn 1, then fluffed all other rolls, so very unlucky. Maybe a more melee oriented character at smaller game sizes? Exemplar maybe wasted on the tacticals,  should have gone with the terms. 

Terms - hard to kill power houses. They really need +1 to hit or something, they struggled against WS5+

Dread - hard to kill, did good in combat. WS/BS 5 is awesome. Maybe a solution to other dreads?

Destroyers - showstoppers. Both games now, if that rad missile hits, it kills. Also did well in melee with rending swords etc. Now they can take power weapons also, might have to make an assault squad up. 

Calivers - crippled by night fighting, these need the nuncio/whatever helps them shoot at full range, and maybe a signum.

Tacticals - not the best place for my hydran examplar, held ground and advanced well - they're called Taxticals for a reason, right? A rhino would have helped get them up table fast. 

Edited August 8, 2022 by Xenith

[Cactus]

A nuncio vox will also allow you to re-roll scatter if the vox unit has line of sight to the target. It could be useful for the rad missiles.

[Xenith]

Definitely a good call there, more useful than the 10pts for arty on the destroyers for sure - I've played 2 games/6 turns now and the rad has only hit twice... the perils of rolling high I guess. 

I also forgot the Marked for Death rule, which would have allowed my vigilator to reroll 1's to wound the big tac squad, which would have got another wound through at least.