Horus Heresy Exemplary Battles - The Death of Canopus (+Daemon/Cultist Tease)

[Lord Marshal]

Alas, all good things must come to an end.

 

Featuring the Iron Hands Morlocks (shocker) and Blood Angels Ofanim Court.

 

 

Also some good news for Ruinstorm and Militia players. Kind of.

 

Quote

With the Battle of Canopus, we conclude the first wave of the Exemplary Battles series, having covered every one of the Legions – and a massive sweep of alternative future history! In a few months we’ll be starting a second wave of articles, so fans of this format can rest assured more content is on the way.

 

In terms of theme, we’re moving away from the Legiones Astartes for the second wave, and looking instead at their mortal and daemonic allies. We’ll be presenting history, scenarios, and rules for a range of allied units from Daemons of the Ruinstorm to Cultists of the Primordial Annihilator, making use of existing miniatures and encouraging the ever-inventive Horus Heresy community.

 

Edited January 17, 2023 by Lord Marshal

[Petitioner's City]

The Ofanim featured in a key role in the Sanguinius novella - really lovely to see them in rules form.

[Noserenda]

Rules seem alright, the Morlocks minis are gorgeous even if the Blood angels are a bit badly done. Good to see two more existing units get crunch rather than stuff out of nowhere too.

Awful news for Daemons and militia though, not coming for months and looking at being dribbled out as ally units rather than full lists? That outright sucks.

Edited January 17, 2023 by Noserenda

[Jings]

16 minutes ago, Noserenda said:

Awful news for Daemons and militia though, not coming for months and looking at being dribbled out as ally units rather than full lists? That outright sucks.

 

Yeah but not unexpected, as far as Militia goes. No real model range for it from GW outwith expensive conversion projects, so most people (myself included) opt for historical proxies - something GW don't particularly support. I've got about 100 Napoleonics with Skitarii rifles I use to represent mortal warriors that absolutely look the part, but won't get much in the way of rules support simply because GW don't make them themselves. 

 

Unless they release a range, or can get their conversion team to slap together some units, the mortals of the Heresy are always going to be an afterthought. Even the Solar Auxilia, who do receive model support, have only gotten a little support. 

[Dagoth Ur]

Oh man, finally some Morlocks! 

[lansalt]

33 minutes ago, Jings said:

 

Yeah but not unexpected, as far as Militia goes. No real model range for it from GW outwith expensive conversion projects, so most people (myself included) opt for historical proxies - something GW don't particularly support. I've got about 100 Napoleonics with Skitarii rifles I use to represent mortal warriors that absolutely look the part, but won't get much in the way of rules support simply because GW don't make them themselves. 

 

Unless they release a range, or can get their conversion team to slap together some units, the mortals of the Heresy are always going to be an afterthought. Even the Solar Auxilia, who do receive model support, have only gotten a little support. 

Militia is understandable, even if a single upgrade sprue for the new Cadians could create perfectly serviceable Imperial Army troopers like the ones featured in the Siege Of Terra illustrations. But daemons have a perfecty fine range with unique FW units.

I would have expected a "Legacies of The Age of Darkness - Liber Imperium" PDF with the army units and rules, and a proper Liber Daemonica/Chaotica book for daemons

Edited January 17, 2023 by lansalt

[SkimaskMohawk]

They really screwed people who invested in daemons and c&m. The two factions that were basically "use what you want" and were great for count asing swathes of 40k and aos armies; they would have been a great opportunity to draw larger audiences into trying heresy and maybe expanding into a legion. Like, the daemons list from malevolence straight up said the point was to use a variety of models and be stuck to the official daemon sculpts. 

 

So to recap: the new edition still has critical balance issues between factions and the generic lists, the new edition still has many rules in need of FAQs, the new edition has lost units (not like the rules make them unplayable; they were cut completely), and the new edition is now cutting factions. 

 

Not a great feeling. 

 

 

[bushman101]

The Ofanim have a lot going on.

Neat rules but ~40pts per model? Ouch

[grailkeeper]

This is cool. Friendly fire, confusion and misunderstandings were inevitable in big conflicts like this. We were told early on that members of every legion were both loyalists and traitors. This was the kind of thing I thought we might see more of- the secret history of the heresy.

[MARK0SIAN]

7 minutes ago, bushman101 said:

The Ofanim have a lot going on.

Neat rules but ~40pts per model? Ouch

Yeah that was my reaction too. Especially with Jump packs you’re looking at 50 per model. They’ll butcher regular marines but their performance against more elite stuff doesn’t seem like it justifies that cost. 
 

Still, they’re a cool modelling opportunity!

[Ripper.McGuirl]

I must be reading the article differently. I didnt take it to mean there wouldnt be a liber/index pdf for the Demons or Militia, just that they will be getting exemplary articles.

[SkimaskMohawk]

5 minutes ago, Ripper.McGuirl said:

I must be reading the article differently. I didnt take it to mean there wouldnt be a liber/index pdf for the Demons or Militia, just that they will be getting exemplary articles.

 

This is contrasting to their road map in June where they said the daemons and militia would have army lists. We're now frustrated that they're pivoting to allied supplements from exemplary battles.

[Cactus]

It could be that the articles will accompany/follow release of daemon and militia/cult army lists.

 

I really ought to read all these exemplary battles at some point instead of just downloading and saving them.

[Ripper.McGuirl]

5 minutes ago, Cactus said:

It could be that the articles will accompany/follow release of daemon and militia/cult army lists.

This was my point, yeah.

Granted, as usual, they could clear it all up by saying “this is when that pdf is coming”, and then following up with “hey that pdf was supposed to be out but we hit delays and now it’ll be…”.

They are being very quiet about what is upcoming. Maybe they have to wait until the Arks series has had it’s moment before they are allowed to start talking about what’s coming.

[Petitioner's City]

Yeah we really don't know, and I think it's a leap to jump to cults and daemons becoming single units rather than full lists - rather I imagine this will allow them to give things like Samus or particular representations of units/regiments from the lore (be it Visions or the novels) special spotlights. However I wouldn't imagine this works without a full daemons list and/or cult list. What id read this to mean is that we'll see both lists before the new Exemplary Battles series.

[Xenith]

Where are you all getting that cultists and daemons are going to be exemplary only? There's nothing saying that they'll only be that, just that they're 

 

"presenting history, scenarios, and rules for a range of allied units from Daemons of the Ruinstorm to Cultists of the Primordial Annihilator, making use of existing miniatures and encouraging the ever-inventive Horus Heresy community. "

 

In other words, the full daemon list will still be coming, but in the exemplary battles they'll be giving some rules for weird stuff that legions can use right away, that wont be in the full daemon/militia list. 

 

I'd expect alpha legion operatives? 

 

As an AL player, I'm glad to get 2 new units! The Morlocks seem pretty...basic? Like WS5 and line is great, but they're basically a retinue that can be taken alone (with battle hardened). Ofanim look ace, though expensive. I5 & rending 4+ in a challenge and murderous 6+ with rerolls seems decent. At that point they're each basically a legion champion with a paragon blade for 40pts. Looks like my Alphas, already marine killing specialists, will have a new unit to play with! 

 

What would be better, 3 of them with packs, or 5 dawnbreakers though? These guys are better assassins. 

[Noserenda]

Sure they didnt explicitly commit PR suicide by saying they shelved the PDF factions, but the previous roadmap ran to October and strongly implied they would be done in that approximate timescale, only to see nothing but silence which really starts to look bad, especially when its a digital only product, and a get-you-by to boot, which this team have shown they arent afraid to make definitively crap to discourage use of already, but not even a token effort has seen the light of day. 

I was thinking we were probably going to get a book and that bumped the free content, which was a bit crap but at least there was an army book, but im sure they would have announced that by now if it was a Q1 release surely?

But yeah, given their track record so far there really isnt any reason to give the benefit of the doubt.

(And yeah, wheres the Talons pdf of stuff!) 

[OttoVonAwesome]

Probably beacuase the army is called Warp Cults and not Cultists of the Primordial Annihilator wich really sounds like a unit name and not a full list and also the major delay and total lack of communication about the PDF army lists as well as GW insane policies and corporate mentality stifling crossover and then there's the fact we all know that unless there's a major overhaul of tons of units a full Warp Cults/Militia list would be bottom tier so making them into pluggable allied units sadly makes sense.

 

Might be why we think they are gonna be Exemplary only. At least for a really long time and a few campaign books down the road.

[Stitch5000]

8 minutes ago, Noserenda said:

(And yeah, wheres the Talons pdf of stuff!) 

WHat Talons PDF of stuff?

 

[Ripper.McGuirl]

I try to keep in mind how long it took between black books, but at least between those there were open days where the teams showed what they were up to and talked freely about the process.

[Noserenda]

9 minutes ago, Stitch5000 said:

WHat Talons PDF of stuff?

 

Exactly, there are units for both Talons which could be supported that way, things from 40k that existed in the era or in the case of Sisters, units invalidated in the new list that it would be nice to use again, much like the marines got.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Do you know how ridiculous it is have a very delayed PDF list, but to take more dev time to make and release new unique units for separate PDFs. 

 

The entire thing is actually ridiculous. All the paid rules got prompt releases and were clearly already written and just release cycled, so we know it shouldn't be a lack of time/ability to write rules. If it is a delay in rules writing, then they clearly don't care about any player that isn't buying rules, and splitting up resources will only delay it more. If it is just more release cycle shuffle and they're all good to go whenever, then they're literally just cutting out content and relabeling it. 

[tinpact]

Ophanim look like they might be good for absorbing challenges for non-fighty HQ, but I don't think they beat out Dawnbreakers, or even a command squad for other purposes.

 

Are there any common units with Chosen Warriors aside from command squads? I think that's probably the only way you can get enough challenges to make Ophanim useful.

[OttoVonAwesome]

12 minutes ago, Noserenda said:

Exactly, there are units for both Talons which could be supported that way, things from 40k that existed in the era or in the case of Sisters, units invalidated in the new list that it would be nice to use again, much like the marines got.

Dawneagle jetbikes and Allarus Terminators yeah... I also find it absolutely insane Skitarrii weren't included in the Admech book, almost like GW has a fear of crossover sales skewing thier precious sales metrics. What I do know is if we don't make a stink about it we'll never get an answer.

[Lord Marshal]

To me the article is just pointing towards non-Marine units via Exemplary Battles. It says nothing about Ruinstorm or Militia being cancelled. They've just been so radio silent on those PDFs coming that rather than "cool, new units via Exemplary Battles!" people are reading into the worst case scenario of, "they've been made into Exemplary Battle units exclusively!" It seems more likely to me they'd just cancel their planned army list for Ruinstorm and Militia outright than throw in a couple of units.

 

Cultists of the Primordial Annihilator sounds far more like a unit than an army list. Also remember the cultists were just a way you could theme your Militia.

 

I'm still holding to my tinfoil hat theory they'll announce a Liber Chaotica at or around LVO which includes the Ruinstorm, Militia and Agents of the Warmaster lists. We only got Solar Auxilia, Custodes and Sisters just over a month ago. The timetable is painfully slow, yeah, but I don't think it points to them being squatted just yet. Six months ago people were saying the same thing about Solar Auxilia.

 

 

Edited January 17, 2023 by Lord Marshal