Advanced Infiltration: Heralds of Extinction

[StratoKhan]

The green shimmer on the scales looks great!

The army colour scheme in general is excellent, you've got a great teal/blue colour going on. It's also cool to see the progress in your force, with units being played in games, then being painted, the bases getting finalised, etc. I really struggle with that.

 

As for the Predator Squadron - I feel you, as sometimes I really want to purchase units, but haven't really got a clue how to fit them into an army.

But sometimes you just want that model in your collection, and you can't let your brain make all the decisions.

[Xenith]

18 hours ago, StratoKhan said:

I really struggle with that

 

I get that - for most of my hobby life I was the same, but I've got in with a good fun group that have largely only done fully painted, but also starting a new army has been really fun and has injected some more excitement into my usual attitude to the hobby. It also helps that the scheme is super fast to do! 

[Dont-Be-Haten]

Having a quick and easy paint scheme really does help get a good feeling about how your army looks. I've been assembly lining the crap out of my RG. I guess I need to post pics in my blog that I've just now remembered I started back in August. I have almost 2,000 of my 3,000 points painted.

[Xenith]

Sneaky sneaky.

 

[Xenith]

Another model update, I've gotten my hands on a support pred and have got that melta right on there! My last pred was done quick;y for BCK's comp, however I spent a little more time on this one to trick it out and make it look a bit more like a command/support tank - it'f fully magged of course so I can swap armaments with the other pred to give it something longer ranged. 

 

Enhanced comms using bits box spares, the leman russ comms kit, spare links from the LR kit also, but haves down to make them smooth and appear like the predator links superficially. I also finally used some old landspeeder bits I had and made runningboards and handles for legionnaires to get a ride into battle. 

 

 

Also pondering on my RoT options, I had a go at making a Sekhmet from the Cataphractii - not my first RoT choice, but I'm looking at adding another 5 Scarab Occult to my 40K Thousand Sons army, and these will fit the bill also. 

 

[Xenith]

Seems I forgot to add a photo of this guy - I've been converting more characters for my legion, so here's a Moritat!

 

 

I've also finished a Sabateur/stand in Praetor which I snap some pics of and share soon. 

[Xenith]

Work on the Alphas continues apace! 

 

I've managed to get some paint on the Moritat after my last game v the Dark Angels, not that he deserves it, and also on my AoD Praetor conversion. You might be able to guess who he's supposed to be. 

 

Moritat

Praetor/Dynat

 

Game v Dark Angels:

 

My regular DA opponent organised a game, 3k heresy - we rolled randomly and got almost the same mission we played last time. At some point I'd mentioned trying the exemplary battles sometime, so they suggested trying it now, so we did the recent Alpha legion battle - The Dark Angels would be fighting through an AL Ambush to get to the safety of a tunnel n the opposite short board edge. This mission is stacked heavily in favour of the attacker anyway, but not building your army for it is even harder. 

 

My list

Vigilator, dagger, warlord - Mobius configuration

Moritat, 2x plasmas dagger

5x terms, axes, 1 thunder hammer

Contemptor

10 tacticals, fist, vexilla

10 tacticals, dagger, vexilla

5 Tac support calivers

8 heavy support squad, lascannons, augury, vex. 

Sicaran Omega

2x Predators, magna melts+lascannons

 

Allied Blood Angels - Day of Sorrows

Praetor, blade of perdition, jump pack

10 assault marines, 2 axes, fist

2x Leviathans, 1 with 2x storm cannons and assault cannon nips, 1 with melta, claw, volkites, both with phosphex. 

 

DA List

Marduk + 5 Cenobites

Primus Apothecary, with tartaros terms. 

Corswain + 5 Deathwing

Assault squad

Breacher Squad

Tactical Squad

Nemesis recon squad 5 man

8 Tartaros Terms with dual claws

Punisher

Vindicator Laser Destroyer

3x jetbikes

 

Deployment with the escape tunnel to the south.

 

DA Army

 

Heavy Support

 

Terms

 

The BA tried to charge the Claw terminators before losing combat - I thought my axes would help/they wanted to die anyway, they fell back, regrouped, then charged and wiped a tac squad before getting shot off the board. 

 

The Moritat was a useless distraction - he managed 2 rounds of shooting, the first he immediately got a 1 on one pistol, then rolled, 2, 1 on the next causing more wounds on himself than on the assault squad. The next turn he fired at the cenobites, the red dice pistol got another one...while the other managed to get a whole 6 hits...followed by 111223 to wound. Not a single breaching shot, and being dreadwing he again caused as many wounds on himself as his targets. He then died ingloriously to marduks revenge - needless to say, the overwatch didnt do anything either. 

 

First rounds of shooting's to hit rolls with the moritat

 

Turn 2 moritat to wound rolls. 

 

The 'BA' Leviathan engages Corswain who kills it. 

 

 

 

The magna meltas were brutal, accounting for a lot of terminators, before Marduk and the VLD killed them. 

 

Fun game but tipped toward the Alphas - the DA player only managed to get the assault squad to escape, while everything else was trapped, it was something like 6-1 in the end. 

[Xenith]

8 minutes ago, Xenith said:

With some questions on progress on thr Sekhmet from my local group, and desperately wanting more terms for both my Heresy Alpha Legion and 40k Thousand Sons, I got on and built the rest of the Sekhmet/SoT's, with an Aspiring Sorcerer.

 

Overall, I don't think there's much, if anything I'd change about this build. They're not as...ornate...as the official SoT's however I think their bulk will make up for it. SoT's only have one weapon option also, so the fists should never be questioned. 

 

 

Scarab Occult Sorcerer/Sekhmet Preceptor/Alpha Legion Librarian Consul, head of the Hydra. He needs a good name. I'm thinking Shamaat Something. 

 

Cross post from my Chaos log, my multiple role performing terms are complete - they'll also stand in as Legion Cataphractii or Hydran Excursor Lerneans as needed - all arms are magged, as well as the wrists on the combi bolters - combi weapons are magged from the normal cata combi bolter and the special weapons from the tank accessory sprue, which oddly fit nicely onto the combi bolters...

[Xenith]

So I did a quick tot-up of my painted Alpha Legion that I managed in 2022, and it's...reasonable...

 

Test marine x2

Dynat

Vigilator

Contemptor dread

5 Lerneans

5 Catas

10 tacs

5 volkite support

5 Recons

Leviathan

Predator Sisyphean

 

34 Models, 2 dreads and a tank. Not bad!

[Xenith]

I'm pushing on through my second Tac squad all in Mk4, I've got the blues down finally, backpacks are done, they just need their eye lenses bringing up to orange, then decals and weathering.

 

[Pearson73]

Digging the chap with the grenade! MKIV really suits the Alpha Legion.

[Xenith]

Thanks! I'm trying to give them a little bit of character and variation within the unit - these are all Mk4 so needed, the next units will be mixed marks. 

[Xenith]

For the start of the new year, my local club organised a Heresy Apocalypse game, and with sufficient notice everyone came out of the woodwork to throw down with their favouite toys.

 

Not everyone had fully painted or legal armies, so we went with 4k points each with no FoC/superheavy restrictions, however I think most of us brought a reasonable amount of infantry. 

 

We've had a map campaign running for the last few months, which was largely at a stalemate with the Loyalists holding 4 hives to the traitors 3 - this usually only swung back and forth a bit through the campaign, however as we went into the apoc game the loyalists had the advantage so were allowed to choose to attack or defend in the final Apoc battle - they chose to attack in a slightly modified attack on Barbarus mission from the recent WD. We managed to get 5 players per side, for a whopping 20k/side or 40,000 points total. Quite fitting. 

 

Here's some pics:

 

My Alpha Legion. I went a bit overboard on HS, but this will change when GW finally decides to make some damn plastic FA options. 

 

Cataphracii praetor - chainfist, dagger, combi melta, hydran excursor [Imperial Fists]

Shamaat Fakir - Cataphractii librarian with telepathy () force axe

Arestor Mycene, the Panopticon - Legion Vigilator with MC nemesis bolter &power dagger

 

10 Lerneans, Harrower with chainfist and dagger, culverin, beamer, 2 chainfsts, 3 power fists, 3 axes in Land Raider spartan with all the lascannons [Exemplar - Fists]

Contemptor Dread melta+grav

 

Tactical squad in rhino

Tactical squad on foot

Recon with 5 nemesis

Charger support squad. 

 

Predator squadron, all with las sponsons, 2x magna melta, 1x neutron blaster for superheavies.

Kratos - all las, pintle MM

Sicaran Omega

Leviathan - melta, phosphex, claw. 

9 Sunkillers - lascannons (Chosen target = the baneblade)

 

Loyalists were Fists, Fists, Dark Angels, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, commanded by Dorn

Traitors were Sons, Alpha Legion (who were really in charge), Dark Angels, Dark Angels, Thousand Sons (+knights) led by Horus.

 

 

The Loyalists on the left had way more superheavies than we did, namely 3 knights, a warhound, baneblade, stormhammer and fellblade, plus Stormbird, while the traitors took a whooole lot of armour, and had a fellblade, glaive and Mastodon with a THawk in reserve. We laid out the scenery to represent landing pads to the centre and east, with an industrial section to the west, fortress to the south and ruined city to the north. Defenders would get the fortress while Attackers sally forth from the ruined city. The Loyalists chose to attack. 

 

 

6 Spartans, which were endlessly complained about by the Loyalists...

 

Pre-game photos

 

Blurry Pict capture of the final battle of Kesserglen

 

After turn 1.

The loyalists opened with some aggressive movement, but couldnt get onto any central objectives due to all the jump pack stuff being in DS reserve. The fist recon marines infiltrated onto the east objective, however they shot the TS lascannon squad, who reaction fired to wipe them out, costing the loyalists 2VP which they would no longer get at the end of the turn. Something killed a sunkiller or two who were saving their reaction for something big. The baneblade then shot my sunkillers, who reacted to strip 6HP from it. Suprisingly little died, with most of the heavy guns being blast, and thus not so effective against flare shielded tanks...Dorn only secures 1VP for holding home objective.

 

Traitor turn. We had enough tactical squads to keep drip feeding them onto both home and central landing pad objectives, so the alphas sped up to take it, supported by the dark angels. That '1' on the warhounds base is the number of HP remaining, and was all the Kratos's doing in one round of shooting. The dead knight on the landing pad was the magna melta predatr finished of with the spartan las array. Note that the Alpha legion take the central objective and hold it in T1 and T2. Horus has secure 2 central objectives and the home one for 5VP. 

 

The stormbird arrives to challenge the mastadon.

 

The fists scale the walls to form a firing line however their bolters fail them and fail to do any real damage to the alphas. The dawnbreakers DS in and get intercepted killing 2-3. They then charge, taking the alpha tac squad down to 5 men, they break from combat, but only fall back 2" due to the vexilla, so remain on the objective. The Fist huscarls get out of their spartan, my lernean spartan gets blown up (having used my reaction to get the magna pred out of range of the warhoud), the huscarls attempt to charge the lerneans, however get  hallicinationed to hell, and get pinned so no charge. 

 

 

The fist assault cannon unit jums up, but shoots the punisher, doing little while the punisher reacts and kills half the unit...

 

The Lerneans entire job was to take that objective by the end of the turn, but their 6" Move just couldnt do it. They forewent shooting and declared a 11" charge on the fist tac squad on the other side of the objective, which failed by a 4" surge move brought them onto the objective. Another 5 VP to the traitors. 

 

The central objective was contested at the end, but the lerneans held onto the east one, pinning another templar unit that tried to assault them. In traitor T3, we managed to charge a cata command squad onto the opposing home objective, scoring 5VP, with the end result being a huge 21-5 victory for the traitors! 

[Xenith]

As much as I love the halved omega marine scheme, I love destroyers more and feel bad for not getting to use them in heresy, so I'm thinking of repainting mine into the melattic blue scheme I've settled on for the rest of the army. 

[Xenith]

I forgot to post up here that 'id been working on both my Dynat conversion and a unit of Effrit, who look absolutely awesome rules wise - here's my efforts:

 

Dynat in these photos is in need of a final tidy up, which has since been done. The facial tattoo was something of a test, and might have just ruined the model, however  thought I had to have a go as it's a key feature of Instar-9. I messed up the lower head on his right cheek, so there's a little tidy up there which makes things a bit ugly, but from arms length it looks ok.

 

 

The Effrit are a mix of models, mostly using the Mk6 marine bases with some printed and AL accessories from across ranged. I've made a few more models since these 5 to bring the unit up to 8, and I'll add 2 more once I dig out my wake the dead boxed set to loot it for parts. 

 

[Brother Sutek]

On paper the effrit look like a lot of fun. I have a lot on my plate before I can convert some up but they are on the list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Xenith]

Yea, the shotguns look awesome, and semi reliable for breaching, but they're also 2W infantry that can get daggers, definitely a jack of all trades type of unit, that will synergise with the rest of the alpha army. 

[Xenith]

Following up the Apocalypse game with another game against the Blood Angels - this time a 1500pt learning exercise to work with the BA player to get more familiar with the rules. We'd agreed max one dreadnought each, and I'd said to 

 

I fielded:

Librarian, Biomancy, force axe, Hydran Excursor

Vigilator, nemesis, dagger

5 Lerneans, chain and dagger on Harrower, beamer, Dedicated Proteus Carrier w/Hull las. 

Contemptor - MM, Fist

5 recons - Nemesis

10 tacticals - aa, fist on serge

10 tacticals - aa dagger

5 Seekers, krakens, Rhino, vigilator ran with them.

Melta cannon pred volk sponsons

 

My opponent brought

Tarty Praetor

5 catas, 4 fists+chainfist, flamer, Dedicated Spartan (<- I know, I know)

5 Dawnbreakers w/spears

2x 10 tacs, nothing

5 seekers, nemesis

Sabre neutron

Vindi Laser Destroyer

 

Deployment/after my T1 move - I lost the roll and the BA player elected me to deploy and go first, then failed to seize. Magna meltas and lascannons from the raider failed to take down what I thought was a proteus, however my opponent checked their battlescribe and had selected a spartan... this friendly 1500pt game just got more serious. I'm unsure how they selected that, unless they had more termies initially, then didn't deselect it. No flare shield, thankfully. I stripped 2-3 HP from it. 

 

Their T1 the spartan then laser destroyered my predator. Sad times. 

 

 

That tac squads about to be a whole lot more dead.

 

The Raider backs away from the spartan and works it's way toward my onslaught ojective. 

 

Breaking Dawn. 

 

The tacs spent the whole game running and made it totheir onslaught objective. 

 

The spartan kills the Lerneans ride, and they are not near enough to their onslaught objective, so they go after the BA Warlord...who hides in his spartan. The Terms went simultaneously and my lerneans were squashed to a man by the power fists. 

 

This was a major loss overall, I failed to kill a unit in T1, and failed to get the onslaught objective or kill the warlord, while my opponent got their objective and killed a unit, so it was a big 6-0 win for the BA (despite a spartan at 1500...)

Edited January 20, 2023 by Xenith

[Xenith]

So. destroyers being maybe the coolest unit available to the legions, I decided to make a unit for my Alphas - despite my army build goals being something like:

Alpha Legion - Room to room Breaching Force, breachers, dreads

Blood Angels - Phosphex party, last stand of the defenders so bring out the destroyers.

 

This hasn't really happened though so I'm just building whatever I like, really, though I'm trying to avoid things like duplicating Angels Tears units across both armies. I'll eventually need a unit of standard BA destroyers to act as Zephon's retinue, but I figure they'll always be useful anyway and can probably be used as a normal assault squad if needed. 

 

So here's the sergeant of my Alpha Legion Destroyer unit. Mk6 with bulky ramjet jump packs. I much prefer this brutal, unwieldy design for the heresy over the sleek Mk4/Sanguinary guard pack look. I think they they would need the extra thrust to get off the ground in the hardened armour anyway. I modded the Mk6 a little to reflect the Mk4 destroyer unit, being a little bulkier with reinforced plating and groin shield. I didnt want to decide on pistols, so he got two in holsters, and a megnetised power fist, and left arm hopefully looking like he's about to draw and choom a fool - that hand may or may not be from the sanguard kit. The head is from the recut landspeeder kit, I thought this was a nice, angry looking head. 

 

Thanks for looking!

 

[Brother Sutek]

Love destroyers, my only wish was that we could get grav pistols from the Iron Hands. 

 

 

[Dont-Be-Haten]

Looking Good Xen! 

 

Some Destroyer Squads are next on my list after the LVO. 

 

I think I may go Thunder Hammer and Meltabombs. Although some Rad Missiles do sound really good.

[Xenith]

Rad missile have been star performers in games for me - AP3 fleshbane really punishes people if they forget and bunch up, mine's frequently caught 7 or so folks clumped in a ruin. The melta bombs are a given, for a 10 man unit at least. I also have a maul for this guy, which could be used as a hammer also! 

[Dont-Be-Haten]

Maybe I need to start a conquest log like you have. I've played so many games where I forget to take pictures.

[Xenith]

Doooo eeeet! Apparently the site blog features are really good also, I'll be starting one up soon, maybe give it a go?

[Xenith]

I've been looking at troops choices other than tacticals, and need more mobility so I've been kitbashing an assault squad:

 

 

I also got another game in against the blood angels player again, a resounding 13-2 victory to avenge the last 7-0 defeat. 

I struggled a bit with the army list, not wanting to go OTT against a newer player, but also congniscant of the fact they gave me a beating last time. I played around and wanted to test out a leviathal, so I went with that:

 

Ozymandias Kadesh - Praetor - twin claws, pack, excursor

Arestor Mycene - Vigilator, dagger

 

Contemptor

5 assault destroyers, flamer, phosphex, axe, maul. 

 

10 tacs, dagger

10 asm, axe, sword, twin claws+aa on serge

5 recons, nemesis, augury

 

Land speeder - 2x culverins (awesome unit for the points?)

8 seekers, augury, dagger

5 headhunters, 4 combimeltas, 1 mm

 

8 heavy support squad, lascannons, augury

Hyppokaston - Leviathan, lance, phosphex, claw

 

Blood Angels

Vigilator

Forge lord, cyber familiar

 

10 catas, 10 chainfists, spartan

5 Crimson Paladins, power lances

 

10 tacs

10 tacs

 

10 seekers, nemesis

 

Leviathan

 

 

Mission was #4/dominion - 5 objectives, scored at that start of each turn and quarters. 

 

Opponent won the roll and got to place 3 objectives to my 2. they won the roll for turn 1 and let me choose deployment, so I took the one with more, closer objectives, then infiltrated onto them all, or deployed within range as they were only just in NML. 

 

 

My seekers win the sniper battle and the red seekers fall back off the top of the building, my vigilator, Arestor, claiming the other vigilators scalp, netting me 4 vp (D3 from STW and 2 from Leviathal.

 

) 

 

View of the lascannon unit. They didnt doo too much this game, but really blocked my opponent's movement through fear. 

 

The glorious mk 4 seekers, led by Vigilator Arestor Mycene, 'The Panopticon'. 

 

The destroyers drop in at the back to spray the hiding tacs, but scatter onto them. My opponent then puts the back where I placed them so he can hose them down with intercept bolt fire. 3 die, but my destroyers get the charge. The maul does ok, but the axe man is a stone cold killer, and the seekers and tacs are wiped and whittled down respectively over turn 2 and 3. 

 

Crimson paladins DS in turn 2 and get 1" away, but my asm fall back - with the pipe between them, and the AL rule, they now need a 9 to get in and they fail the charge. In my turn stuff shoots the crimsons, but they ignore it, then the asm and praetor charge in, forgetting about power lances, serge and praetor tank the ap3 but praetor is reduced to 1w. Between the 2+ and 4+++ from being outnumbered, there's little I can do and lose combat, running away, but by then the game was won.