Zone Mortalis 1000pt Sons of Horus

[Grim Dog Studios]

I'm not 100% happy with the work I have done thus far on my Ultramarines and my mind has been wandering lately to starting a small warband of Loyalist Sons of Horus for Zone Mortalis games, which may eventually be expanded upon. I have set myself some fluff limitations on the force such as no "Heavy Armour" which isn't an issue for the ZM games, but I'm also trying to avoid using Dreadnoughts and large amounts of Infantry, wanting it to reflect on a force which is essentially undermanned with poor supply lines. With limitations like these I know it's going to be a struggle for me to be competitive in the long run which isn't something that bothers me that much, but I'd at least like to not be tabled regularly.

 

The list is made up of mostly things I have lying around, although I did buy the Praevian and Castellax especially for this force as I've never used them before, and I feel like it fits into the fluff of my force, where they don't generally have Heavier options otherwise.

 

I should say beforehand, I've never actually played a game of 30K even after collecting various armies for years, however I have recently discovered a Heresy gaming group on FB not far from me that I'm hoping to introduce myself to once Covid calms down, and actually start to play rather than just build and paint. Therefore, I don't have a great deal of "gaming" knowledge and try to base my lists on recommendations etc I see online.

 

HQ

 

Legion Champion [125pts]

Selections: Artificer Armour, Bolt Pistol, On Foot, Paragon Blade, Refractor Field, Warlord

 

Praevian [385pts]

Boarding Shield, Bolt Pistol, Combi-Flamer

Enhanced Targeting Arrays

 

Castellax class Battle-automata

Selections: 2x Bolter, Darkfire Cannon, Stock Chargers

 

Castellax class Battle-automata

Selections: 2x Bolter, Darkfire Cannon, Stock Chargers

 

Elites

Veteran Tactical Squad, Legion [220pts]

Weapon Masters

Selections: 9x Bolt Pistol, 9x Bolter, 5x Chainswords/Combat Blades, 4x Power Sword, 9x Veteran Space Marines

Veteran Sergeant, Legion

Selections: Artificer Armour, Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Power Sword

 

 

Troops

Tactical Squad, Legion (Compulsory) [155pts]

Selections: Bolters, 9x Tactical Space Marines, Legion

Tactical Sergeant, Legion

Selections: Artificer Armour, Melta Bombs, Power Fist

 

Tactical Support Squad, Legion Flamer [115pts]

Selections: Flamer, Support Squad

Sergeant, Legion

Selections: Artificer Armour, Bolt Pistol, Flamer, Melta Bombs

4x Space Marines, Legion

 

 

I feel like I lack the ability to take on Terminators, with the Castellax more than likely Dread hunting, and the rest is more suited for removing Power Armour than it is for fighting Termis head-on.  I have the Veterans already built, and I feel like they would be good at bullying/deleting weaker units after a charge. 

With the Vets and Praevian/Castellax combined I'm not really left with a great deal of points. I don't know if the Champion is worth it, or if I'd just be better off taking a barebones Centurion as my Warlord to free up some points to get other things into the list, rather than trying to stuff a single Tactical Squad, and a 5 man Support squad in with my leftover points.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm not great at writing lists and generally go for things I think look cool.

 

Cheers

James

[Eternal Despair]

Always good to see more people dipping their toes into 30k, as for your list I think its a good starting point but it can definatly use some tweaks. 

 

The biggest change I would make is to drop a castellax, while they are a good unit they cost a lot of points at 1000 points, to put it into perspective over half your list is just in units to be able to run the unit as is,(champion+Praevian+the castellax themselves), so dropping just one would free enough points to tweak the rest of your list to help it out vs terminators, artificer seargents and surprise dreadnoughts.

 

So starting from the HQ slots I would sub out the champion for a cheap standard centurion with a power fist, artificer armour and a refractor field. It keeps him cheep and cheerful while being competent in CC. As for the praevian it’s just 2 small changes, 1 is to swap the boarding shield to a combat shield, as per the FAQ more than half the unit needs boarding shields to benefit from the defensive grenades and since its 50/50 your basically paying 5 extra points over a combat shield for nothing. 2 swap the combi flamer for a volkite charger, more range means it is easier to get of the praevians targeting rule while still being an assault weapon.

 

In the elite slot I gave the vets melta bombs so a Contemptor charging into them doesn’t tie them up for ever due to them not being able to hurt it back. I also swapped the seargent’s sword to a fist so he can punch through enemy artificer seargents in challenges. 

 

For troops I gave the tacticals extra close combat weapons for the extra attack in CC which happens a lot in ZM and that extra attack literally doubles their offensive output for like 20 points. 

 

lastly I dropped the flamer support squad for seekers, while I always love the idea of flamers in ZM your main issue right now is terminators not chaff. The seekers come with 5 combi plasma guns for relatively cheap, and to make sure you kill them seekers come with a rule where you can mark 1 enemy infantry unit or character for death and then the seekers get preferred enemy against them which is amazing with plasma. The unit also has implacable advance which means like the vets they are still a scoring unit so you don’t miss out on any of that. Plus they have different kinds of really cool ammo similar to pre 8th ed sternguard which is a ton of fun.

 

and here’s all the changes done up as a list 

 

SOH ZM 1000

Legiones Astartes

 

Praevian: bolt pistol; chainsword; volkite charger; combat shield 100

• Castellax Class Battle-automata: Darkfire cannon; enhanced targeting array 140

 

Centurion: artificer armour; power fist; refractor field 90

 

10 Tactical Space Marines: Tactical Sergeant (artificer armour; power fist); 9 Tactical Space Marines; chainswords 170

 

10 Veteran Space Marines: Veteran Sergeant (artificer armour; power fist); Weaponmasters; 9 Veteran Space Marines; 4 × power weapon; melta bombs 250

 

8 Seekers: Strike Leader (combi-weapon; melta bombs); 7 Seekers; 5 × combi-weapon 250

 

1,000 points

[Grim Dog Studios]

Thank you for the highly detailed input, its a great help! It definitely gives me something to work with, and seems like a wholly more balanced list than what I had. I always forget Seekers exist, and I did not realize they are also a scoring unit. Luckily I also have a fair few combi-plasmas lying about in my bits box from my Ultramarines that haven't been used yet!

 

As I have already ordered two castellax, do you think at larger point games, say at 1250 ZM which seems quite common, it would be worth adding the second the one in?

[Eternal Despair]

At 1250 I think it’s definitely worth a shot running the 2nd one but it’ll come down to if you feel like you need one at 1250 or more boots on the ground in the larger games. 

[Lautrec the Embraced]

 I think you got some solid advice from Eternal Despair but I'd like to put in my two cents.  

 

- both Champion with Paragon Blade and Centurion with Fist are viable, of course Centurion is cheaper and I'd likely take him but Champ is pretty fun in smaller games where he really shines at challenging sergeants and centurions while being quite durable (by virtue of slaying duelist on I5 and being safe due to challenges rules, Centurion with his I1 fist will likely perish when pitted against sarge with a fist).

 

- not sure about that castellax hunting dreadnoughts... As I understand, ZM are usually short distanced games with lots of cover (haven't played one yet). Darkfire cannon won’t be shooting at dreads at its incredible range but rather will be pitted against them at close range. At such range DfCannon is basically an overpriced plasma gun – even with lance it can hurt a contemptor only a bit (and it has a chance of exploding it but so has a random guy with a meltagun that doesn’t cost 120 pts) but this is not exactly heavy firepower even if you take Tank Hunters. What next? Castellax is strength 6 with few attacks so good luck against AV13 or even 12 of a boxnought. 

So, if you really want to hunt dreadnoughts I feel like some things must change. Darkfire is pretty universal weapon so its an ok from me though i usually pick others. Maybe invest into siege wreckers – a charging castellax with 4 S10, especially with Tank Hunters, starts to get scary. 

 

-volkite on praevian doesn’t really mean more shoots to trigger cortex designator as you get, in comparison to bolter, 0 shots at 15”+, twice as many on 12-15”, and same at lower range. So, bolter or combi-weapon seems reasonable

 

-speaking about praevian, i have some remarks. First of all, he should have at least a power weapon. You want his unit to hunt dreadnoughts, maybe consider fist or at least a melta bomb. And he must be very sad that every other scrub... I mean honoured sergeant gets artificer armour and he runs only in power armour. *sad praevian noises*

 

-if you want to spend less points on HQ and still use Castellax, there is a way – pick Forge Lord with cortex controller and then take automata as optional heavy support. They don’t get cortex designator but can run separately and take paragon of metal. And forge lord is very dangerous on his own with optional rad nades and up to 4++. 

 

-I know you get extra attacks from non-unwieldy weapons but axes are useful. I advice mixing swords and axes in veterans. 

 

- As an alternative to seekers one could use veterans with combi-plasmas. For same points you get 10 veterans with 9 combis. Yeah, they don’t get Marked for Death but you have Death Dealers so they will outperform seekers anyway. I believe both units are viable depending on your strategy, they both deliver a deadly salvo but then their tactics change – whereas veterans can be WS5 with 3 attacks each and power weapons, seekers better pray they don’t get caught in a combat.

Edited December 29, 2020 by Lautrec the Embraced

[Grim Dog Studios]

Thank you both for the in-depth response, it's giving me a lot to think about regarding the Praevian/Castellax. In your opinion, am I holding on to something that just isn't going to work regarding them, at least in smaller ZM games. It seems I got how the Castellax work wrong and I'm start to regret my decision to go ahead and buy them, although I can still get a refund as they haven't been dispatched yet. 

I would really like to work in a Praevian and some Battle-Automata into my list somehow but I'm just not sure how to go about it. Are the Vorax worth it at all or am I just clutching at straws?

 

To reply to your other points Lautrec, the swords to axes in the Vet Squad is an easy change I can make, I have some axes lying about. They were only equipped with swords originally because I prefer the look of them but its not a big deal.

 

In regards to swapping out the Seekers for a second veteran squad, that seems reasonable, it also gives me more boots on the ground and they are likely to survive a bit longer in combat against other PA units. If I was to do this, would it be worth finding an extra 15 points and promoting the Centurion to a Delegatus to use Chosen Duty and try and gain the extra Victory Point by keeping him alive during the game?

 

Thank you for the replies so far, it's greatly appreciated!

[Lautrec the Embraced]

Don't be too harsh on your Castellax, I think they are a great unit for their points, especially considering their durability in smaller games. I'd say siege wreckers and darkfire is perfectly viable build for all-rounder approach as you can tackle both dreads and infantry with it, and Blind is always a very useful tool.

 

Swords are pretty good for SoH if you can outnumber but I always advise taking a few axes.

 

Delegatus comes with a master-crafted weapon. This alone costs 15 pts on praetor and is normally not even available on centurions so it's a pretty good upgrade already. Mind you, for such a small game you spent quite a lot on HQ, which is not really where you get most mileage from. That's why I thought about Forge Lord as he can be a warlord unlike praevian. But hey, you do you Centurion, nothing wrong with delegatus/centurion and a praevian together. You can always easily make amends to HQs after first games if you won't like it.

Edited December 30, 2020 by Lautrec the Embraced