Horus Heresy 2.0: 2500pts Iron Warriors Vs Night Lords

This past weekend I played my first game of Horus Heresy 2.0.  I have been saving money for Gen Con so I haven't bought a whole lot of HH 2.0 things.  I bought the rulebook from a friend of mine who bought two box sets and was kind enough to sell me one of his rule books for a good price.  I also pre-ordered the Iron Warriors dice and the White Dwarf with the Zone Mortalis rules for 2.0.  Seti brought over a box of Cataphracti Terminators which he also gave me a good deal on.  I intend to buy the Liber Hereticus at some point, possibly at Gen Con.

In this post I want to go over the army that I used, I want to comment on the two PDFs that GW recently released, and the PDF that the Eye Of Horus Podcast guys released.  

I will also have a battle report about the game we played and I want to point out some interesting things we both noticed during the game.

At the end of this post I want to talk about my thoughts on Horus Heresy 2.0.  There's a lot to talk about so let's get started.

I used the YouTube video reviewing the Liber Hereticus put out by Sprues and Brews to build my army list.  If you watch the video on a large enough screen you can read each page of the book.  This is how I made my army list before the day of the game.

I decided not to use any of the units from any of the PDFs because I just wanted to see what I could do with the rules printed in the actual hard cover books.

Here is my 2500 point list:

HQ –

Warsmith (Artificer Armoured Praetor) Martok – Servo Arm, Master-crafted Paragon Blade, Plasma Pistol, Meltabombs, Tyrant of the Dodekathon Warlord Trait, Hammer of Olympia Rite of War

200 points

Legion Cataphracti Herald – Combi-melta, Powerfist, Grenade Harness

130 points

Some notes on the HQ Choices: 

The Warsmith upgrade for Iron Warriors is a special Preator upgrade available only to the Iron Warriors legion.  This upgrade existed in HH 1.0 but it cost 35pts, its now only 20pts.  The upgrade gives the character a Servo Arm, a cortex controller, Master of Automata and Battlesmith (3+).  He is restricted to only being on foot, though so no bike jetbike or jump pack for him.

The Tyrant of the Dodekathon Warlord trait is one of three Iron Warrior-specific warlords traits. I picked it for a few reasons.  One reason is that it is similar to the old Shatter Defences Warlord trait in that it removes cover from a piece of terrain which then also becomes difficult and dangerous for the game.  The second reason I picked this warlord trait is I get a second reaction during my opponent's shooting phase.  The third reason is that while the other two Iron Warrior-specific warlord traits are good they also have big drawbacks that force the unit to do specific things like move towards an enemy.  I prefer to have full control over where my units move and what they shoot at.

I took the Hammer of Olympia Rite of War because it offers many many benefits and the drawbacks are minimal especially if you build your army to take advantage of the benefits it offers.  First all vehicles in the army ignore the effects of Crew Shaken or Stunned. Next, all units with shrapnel weapons can re-roll 1's to hit.  Fury of Olympia: If the unit firing shrapnel rounds didn't move it can fire an extra shot (replacing Fury of the Legion).  I am pretty sure I messed up Fury of Olympia several times.  There are a lot of rules to remember in this new addition.  The limitations are minor, basically I have to take a Warsmith HQ or Perturabo as my HQ and I can't take any units that deep strike, flank or arrive via subterranean means.

The Legion Herald I messed up on, luckily I never shot his weapon but apparently you have to replace his Bolt weapon with a Legion Banner.  So I couldn't have bought him a combi-melta.  What the Herald does is way too good to pass up.  He will be a staple in my armies going forward.  The Legion Banner allows anyone within 6" of it to use his leader ship (10) and any unit he joins gains Line.  Also the Herald himself causes Fear (1) and makes any unit he joins Fearless!  He will always accompany my Tyrant Siege Terminators.

ELITES –

Legion Apothecarion Detachment

Apothecary A – Combi-Flamer, Artificer Armour

Apothecary B – Power Sword, Artificer Armour

130 points

Legion Contemptor Dreadnought – Kheres Assault Cannon

190 points

Legion Contemptor Dreadnought – Conversion Beam Cannon

195 points

Notes on  Elites:

The Apothecaries can no longer take Augury Scanners, not a big deal but I thought it was worth mentioning.  The Conversion Beam Cannon is much better than the previous Conversion Beam weapon the Contemptor could take in 1.0.  This cannon can be moved and fired.  It really helps make this weapon worth taking.  It's an interesting weapon that can Blind the enemy which lowers their WS and BS to 1 if they fail an initiative check if they are hit by it.  During Night Fight (if playing against Night Lords) you just have to move the Contemptor towards the enemy to hopefully charge them because the extremely long range of the Conversion Beam Cannon won't come into play at all.

TROOPS –

Legion Tactical Squad A

19 Legionaries – Legion Vexilla, Shrapnel Bolter Rounds

1 Legion Tactical Sergeant- Power Fist, Artificer Armour

255 points

Legion Tactical Squad B

19 Legionaries – Legion Vexilla, Shrapnel Bolter Rounds

1 Legion Tactical Sergeant – Power Sword, Artificer Armour, Melta bombs

260 points

Legion Tactical Squad C

9 Legionaries – Shrapnel Bolter Rounds

1 Legion Tactical Sergeant – power sword

In Deimos Rhino Transport, dozer blade

175 points

Legion Tactical Squad D

9 Legionaries – Shrapnel Bolter Rounds

1 Legion Tactical Sergeant – Power Fist

In Deimos Rhino Transport

170 points

Notes on the Troops:

10 man marine squads are cheaper!  I used to take 10 with extra cc weapons in rhinos and they used to cost 195 points.  I am saving 20 points-ish and they can have Shrapnel Rounds!  The Shrapnel weapons lower the range (for bolters the range goes to 18") and lowers the AP but causes pinning.   I don't think I pinned the Night Lords at all in the game I just played but I think in some games the pinning will be huge.  The way Rapid Fire works now is that when you shoot twice you half the range so Shrapnel Bolters shoot twice at 9" not 12".  I messed that up the first few times I used it.

The Legion Vexilla is a completely different item now than it used to be.  It now adds +1 to combat resolution, the unit can roll 1d6 for fall back if desired instead of 2d6 and the unit will stop 1" away from a board edge if it would have otherwise fallen back off the table.

HEAVY SUPPORT –

Tyrant Siege Terminator Squad

6 Tyrants – 2 Chainfists

1 Siege Master

420 points

Legion Predator Squadron

2 Legion Predators – Sponson Lascannons, dozer blade

255 points

Legion Scorpius

120 points

2500 points total

Notes on Heavy Support:

The Tyrant Siege Terminators are a bit cheaper now but not by much.  They ignore Night Fight which is huge in HH 2.0.  They can now fire Flak missiles in addition to Frag and Krak.  Their Frag missiles are also Heavy 4, AP 6, Pinning instead of a small blast template.

The Predator Cannons and the Lascannons are much improved from HH 1.0.  The Predator Cannons gain Rending (6+) and are Strength 8 and Lascannons now have Sunder, which allows you to reroll armor penetration rolls.

The Legion Scorpius I thought would be underwhelming but I was wrong; it's actually a really good unit and my opponent said he is finally going to build and paint the one he has because he was so impressed with mine.  Basically the gun is 48" indirect fire so you don't need to see what you are shooting at which actually still works just fine during night fight!  It is Strength 8 AP 4 large blast (5") with Rending 4+ and Pinning if it doesn't move.  Well I am probably never going to move it once its deployed unless absolutely necessary so Rending 4+ and Pinning is basically always in effect.  For only 120 points It's a pretty good bargain.

Notes on additional Iron Warrior Army Rules:

Another thing to note on the Iron Warriors special rules is that they also get +1 Strength on their guns when firing at Vehicles. I listed weapon strengths above without this +1 Strength.  

Also the special reaction for Iron Warriors is a Shooting Phase reaction.  It is called Bitter Fury which is resolved just like the shooting reaction where you get to shoot back at the enemy when they shoot you except that if you use Bitter Fury and the unit has Shrapnel Bolters then they double the shots.  There is the potential that if the enemy is within 9" and the unit using Bitter Fury hasn't moved they can then also use Fury of Olympia and each model will fire 5 shots, rerolling 1's to hit!  Its a lot of shots that cause pinning.

Onto the Battle Report: 

We used the Hammer And Anvil deployment and played the mission Tide of Carnage.

This deployment in theory benefited my army because I could deploy farther away and use my long range firepower to destroy the Night Lords before they get close to me.  The Night Lords don't have much in the way of long range firepower so again this benefits my army.  The deployment map had us deploying 24" off the short board edges.  I forgot to take a picture of our deployment but I have a picture of the first turn below.  

The large buildings in the center of board do block line of sight which is an advantage for the Night Lords and the Night Lords decided to use their special night fighting rules making it Night Fight for at least the first two turns which would allow them to close the gap.  Night fighting would end up going for three turns.

The Tide of Carnage scenario requires us to take areas of the map, the two deployment zones and the no man's land in the middle: 3 Points for own deployment Zone, 5 points for no mans land, and 7 for opponent's deployment zone.  1 point for slay the warlord and 1 point for having most units alive at the end and vehicles count as scoring.

I forgot to take a picture of the deployment but here is a picture of the bottom of the first turn.  I won the roll off to go first so this is the Night Lords' turn.

End of Turn 1.  Not a lot of shooting because of night fight.

The Night Lords have advanced on the Iron Warriors' left flank by the end of turn 1.

The Herald Consul is trying to stay in between both tactical squads to keep their leadership up.

The Legion Herald with the Tyrant Siege Terminators, making them fearless.

The Tryant Siege Terminators glance the rhino to death and the Night Lords' Terror Squad 

disembarks into the ruins.

The Iron Warrior's line withdraws to avoid an early assault by the Night Lords.

The large IW Squad continues to advance towards the Night Lords' deployment zone.  

The Predator Squadron opened fire on the Night Lords' Leviathan Dreadnought, which then fires back using a reaction and blowing up a Predator.

The large Iron Warrior Tactical squad on the left flank continues to lose marines to Night Lords' fire while anothe tactical squad disembarks form a rhino to fire at a Night Lords' Terror Squad, only to have that squad Withdraw and then be out of line of sight of the Tyrant Siege Terminators.

The Raptors deepstrike in and scatter three inches.  Then Seti rolls a 1 which means a disordered deepstrike happens with the remaining units in reserve.  He has a Cataphracti Commnad squad which I get to place within 24" of the Raptors instead of him placing it within 12" of the Raptors.  I place them way in the back of his deployment zone, which would come back to bite me.

The Raptors then charged the large Iron Warrior Tactical Squad, win the combat and the Iron Warriors then run away with the Raptors in hot pursuit.

The Terror Squad charges the Iron Warriors' Tactical Squad, the Tactical Squad holds thanks to the Herald's leadership boost.  The Contemptor then moves in to assist in the combat.

The Raptors then get shot by the Contemptor's Conversion Beamer, they fail their Initiative check and become WS and BS 1.  The Comtemptor then charges in and wins combat.

As the game comes to end, the Tyrant Siege Terminators and Warsmith Martok's Rhino attempt to move to the center of the board to claim or contest.

End of the game.  Center of board is contested.

Night Lords hold their Deployment Zone.

Iron Warriors' Deployment Zone is contested.

At the end of the game the Night Lords have 3 Victory Points and the Iron Warriors have 1 for having killed more units than the Night Lords.

It was a game that I thought I had in the bag when we were on turn 4 and then I realized because of how the scenario scored points that I actually wouldn't be able to win.

Final thoughts on the game and HH 2.0:

It was a really fun game and intro to the second edition of the Horus Heresy Age of Darkness ruleset.  I was doing very well avoiding combats I didn't want and I did well shooting and killing things for the most part.  I think the terrain and the Night Fighting conspired against me to slow down how many shots I did get.  Limiting range to 24" is tough when my army is built around the idea to use long range firepower to weaker or kill most units until they get into range of my bolters, tactical squads and counter attack units which in theory then take care of the rest.

Night Fighting is a huge thing.  When a player wants Night Fight it happens at least on turn one on a 2+.  There simply needs to be a single player who wants Night Fight to trigger that roll so every game could be at night if you want.  

Limiting the range of guns to 24" is probably the biggest issue when I have to play at night.  BS is also at -1 and LD is also down 1 at night but I don't see those as the biggest problems for my play style.  The range limitation prevented me from pumping the Leviathan Dreadnought full of shots from turn one, something I would have done in any other game.  I had enough firepower to direct at it to probably kill it in one or two shooting phases but it survived long enough to redirect my large 20 man tactical squad and get them out of position.

Reactions are very good.  We probably played some of them incorrectly but I think we did a number of things wrong in our first game.  Having two shooting phase reactions was very impactful.  I think shooting phase reactions are better than moving or assault phase reactions.  Don't underestimate the Evade reaction.  It gives a damage mitigation roll of 5+ AFTER you make a normal save or invulnerable save or cover save.  It like a free Feel No Pain.

At one point the Night Lords Withdrew in my movement phase which put them out of range of my rapid firing bolters.  

When to use Reactions, which Reactions to use and how to limit the possible situations where your opponent could use Reactions will be very important and whomever figures these situations out first and most frequently will win a lot of games.

Special Rules and Weapons aren't the same as HH 1.0.  The Special Rules and the weapons rules and wargear rules have changed for a vast majority of things in this edition.  Vexillas are drastically different, Lascannons now have Sunder, Chainswords have Shred.  Knowing what these items do and how they have changed from 1.0 to 2.0 will be very important for list building and for threat assessment when looking at our opponent's army on the battlefield.  Don't assume a special rule or a piece of wargear is the same as 1.0 or you could be in for a very unpleasant surprise!

Movement has changed for almost all units.  Space Marines move 7", Rhinos move 14".  Most units move differently than before.  Running is done in the movement phase.  When you want to run a unit you look at their Initiative Characteristic and add that number to their Movement Characteristic then most the unit that many inches.  No longer can units run in the shooting phase.  

Vehicles have a higher transport capacity and can naturally split fire.  In addition to moving faster, having more Hull Points generally and having a higher transport capacity, they can also split fire if a sponson can't see what the other sponson sees.  The higher transport capacity means I can put an apothecary in a 10 man marine squad into a Rhino!  I could also attach an independent character to that squad.

No more Psychic Phase!  I alost never dealt with the Psychic Phase in HH 1.0 unless I was playing against a 40k army using 7th ed rules like Eldar or Chaos but I always hated the idea of a Psychic Phase.  Its like a game within a game that really doesn't need to be there and certain armies would dominate that phase while the other player watched helplessly and didn't know what was going on and wanted the game to just move along.  Very rarely would both players engage in that phase.  I always thought it was a bad idea to introduce it in the first place.  I am glad Psychic Powers are back to their 3rd edition days of just rolling a leadership check when the power tells you to and if you pass then the power goes off, much easier.

I think that the new edition of the Horus Heresy ruleset is really good.  I think its better than possibly any edition of 40k we have ever had.  Its less cumbersome, detailed and dense than 1st ed, its not HeroHammer like 2nd ed, and shooting and close combat are more balanced than anything from 3rd ed through 7th ed and it retains the core mechanics of 3rd ed while expanding on them with things like strengths above 10, reactions, WS chart that has 2+ and 6+ on it, super heavys, destroyer weapons (best version of D weapons by the way), flyers, and hull points.

It's the best version the evolved 3rd ed ruleset I think we have ever had and I really can't wait to play more games and explore this ruleset even more.  

The future.

GW put out a roadmap going to October of this year so we know what books will be released form now until then and a lot of people have been speculating on what GW will do after that.  I think a lot of people have gotten it wrong and here is what I think GW will do beyond October as far as books and rules are concerned.

I believe GW will release a new book every quarter.  This new book will be a setting book.  It will be based around a specific theatre of war that happened during the Horus Heresy.  They may release them in chronological order.  If they are smart, IMHO, they will release them starting at Ullanor and going to the Siege of Terra.  

By releasing Setting Books they will be able to release new models for that warzone or setting at the same time.  They can have a huge background section of the books detailing what happened and then have a Campaign section to recreate that event of the tabletop with new missions, units etc.  

The books will be the same size as the current 3 books.  In this way they can introduce new unit rules, new scenarios to play and create a unique feel for the Game System.  It can allow people to replay the Horus Heresy from its very beginnings at Ullanor where Horus is dubbed the Warmaster and the Emperor goes to Terra all the way through when Horus returns to Terra to kill the emperor.  They would be nice bookends to the game.  

By starting at Ullanor they could come out with Ork rules.  They could have Xenos faction rules in a number of these books and introduce armies into 30k that 40k players are familiar with and there could be crossover between the two communities like there used to be when 6th and 7th edition of 40 were the current rules sets.

They also could expand each Legion with new units along the way through these books and not need to ever release a "Codex Dark Angels" for example.  

Setting books would be the ideal way forward for GW if you ask me.  They should also intersperse downloadable PDFs with erratas and rule updates with these main settings books.  

Having Quarterly Settings Books would be a nice way that they could plan on future releases.  The reason Forgeworld was so inconsistant with support for different factions was that their process was based on what sculptors wanted to do.  A sculptor would want to make a new version of a dreadnought so they would sculpt one and then release a pdf of rules to go with it.  The rules writers then had to figure out rules to go with it and then eventually put those rules into a future book.  The rules writers would write rules for units and then if the sculptors never wanted to make the models then there would be rules with no models.  This is why there is the Legacies PDF that GW released because the sculptors just didn't get around to making models for those units.  In the future everyone could be on the same page with the Settings Book idea.

I recommend checking out the Eye of Horus Podcast's PDF Liber Panopticon and then as a gaming group decide which rules to use either GW's Legacies PDF or the Liber Panopticons.  r mix and match units from the two PDFs, which I think is the route I will go with these two PDFs.

Whether GW does what I am suggesting is anyone's guess but I sure hope that this is their plan and I think it would be a really great way to update the lore, the rules and the models on a regular basis.

Anyways, the future of Heresy is bright, and I can't wait for my next game.  Until then......