1k Sons of Horus for a newcomer!

[E_50_Panzer]

​Hey, I'm probably going to get a friend into gaming in the Horus Heresy, and he wants to start with Betrayal at Calth, so now I'm thinking of a list for him to start out with. This is just a rough thing I've thrown together, and we plan on doing games in the 1,000-1250 points range, so I may be wrong on a few minutae... As follows:

 

HQ: Legion Praetor with Terminator Armor

       - Legion Chaplain or master of signal?

 

Troops: 2x 15 man tactical legionary squads, all marines with chainswords/combat blades upgrades.

 

Elites: 5 Juestaerin Terminators with chainfists, 4 combi meltas, one with a heavy flamer or multi melta.

           1 Contemptor Dreadnought, multi melta or Kheres assault cannon.

 

It roughly comes into the 1000-1250 range, give or take a few upgrades.

 

Now, the idea here is that the marines will fury of the legion with their bolt pistols and then charge, whatever survives 30 boltgun shots will then have to survive the marines in CC, and on top of that, the tac squads will outnumber their target and attack again at initiative 1. Good? Bad?

 

The Terminators are going to provide some anti-vehicle support with their chainfists and meltas, one-shot, but better than nothing? right? Same for the dreadnought, unless an assault cannon is better. In any case, he and I don't plan on having too many heavy vehicles running around at this level. Advice and corrections would be appreciated.

[Caillum]

Don't take a multi-melta on the Justaerin - it's way too expensive. Plus, 'Death Dealers' means combi-meltas are fired at +1BS, so you're getting top bang-for-your-buck by taking 5 of them. I'd personally go for combi-plasmas, even if you want more anti-Tank.

 

Kheres is a beautiful weapon on a Contemptor. Probably better than the multi-melta.

 

Most BaC armies are going to be some variant of of what you've posted. If he wants to make a really good force, get him to convert a Maloghurst and take 3 units of Veterans as Troops. He could put them in Rhinos and take a Land Raider or Dreadclaw for the Justaerin, giving him a 2k force pretty quick! :)

[E_50_Panzer]

Don't take a multi-melta on the Justaerin - it's way too expensive. Plus, 'Death Dealers' means combi-meltas are fired at +1BS, so you're getting top bang-for-your-buck by taking 5 of them. I'd personally go for combi-plasmas, even if you want more anti-Tank.

Kheres is a beautiful weapon on a Contemptor. Probably better than the multi-melta.

Most BaC armies are going to be some variant of of what you've posted. If he wants to make a really good force, get him to convert a Maloghurst and take 3 units of Veterans as Troops. He could put them in Rhinos and take a Land Raider or Dreadclaw for the Justaerin, giving him a 2k force pretty quick! :)

Thanks for the input, I'll get this to him next time we speak.

 

I actually forgot about death dealers for sons of Horus while making this, so best to drop any heavy weapons from the justaerin to max out that bonus. I agree with the assault cannon on the dreadnought, 1 multi melta shot isn't all that great, in my experience, the dread does way more damage in cc with any vehicles.

 

Maloghurst is a good hq, so that's a possibility for him if he wants to take veterans. The veteran force is actually just like another army I'm cooking up, with the rhinos flanking in and all that.

[Varyn]

100% agree with Caillum on the combi-plasma on the justaerin, the synergy with death dealers is great. I also recommend Maloghurst; having 3 10 man veteran squads is preferable to 2 15 man tactical squads.

 

Beyond that, Reavers are a fun unit and you can add the chaplain to the unit, all with jump packs ideally.