After a few weeks of adulting, I had some time off to focus on hobby and a pair of recent heresy events.I’m taking full opportunity to get the next batch of miniatures painted up for my Word Bearers currently. It’s been a while since I dipped back into the grimdark underbelly of heresy’s most hated legion, but I miss painting them, no, really I do! The palette is such an eye pleasing one in my opinion. Maybe not as big a wow as the World Eaters or Salamanders, but I like their blend of deep red and flat black, even if it is a bit of a pain to paint, being a mix of Tamiya clears and regular acrylics. It does however give me the opportunity to add in a few ruinstorm daemon units guilt free. So that’s what I’m going to be leaning into for the next event.
The ‘not quite Centurion list’
The last time my Word Bearers took to the field (other than a refresher game against Olly’s Night Lords), was a couple of years back now. I had three termite’s loaded with Breachers and Vets, the mighty Falchion and a Dreadnought talon. This was for heresy 1.0, so the Dreadnought’s weren’t quite so out of balance as they were at the launch of 2.0, but still pretty tasty.
This time around, I built the list around an Esoterist so I can (attempt to) summon some of the neverborn. I’ve ditched the Lord of War choice and two of the termites, instead taking just the one with the Breachers, a single Vindicator with the magna laser array and, new to the collection, a heavy weapon support unit of Volkite Culverins. To date I’ve not included any heavy weapon units in either the Ultramarines, Wolves or Word Bearers. So it felt like a good time to make some new friends. Or not.
As well as the Falchion, I’ve also left out of the list the Terminators, Spartan, Veterans and the Contemptor. It is a narrative event after all and I am trying to focus on a list that is inherently unpredictable in their deployment. Or, given my luck whether they even deploy at all.
The unpredictable contingent consists of a unit of lesser daemons and a unit of daemon brutes. Along with the Gal Vorbak, they should at the very least be able to keep enemy units pre-occupied leaving the Breachers and tacticals free to hold objectives.
On the subject of ‘lesser daemons’, I’ve had an idea for a while now to incorporate some of the Warcry Chaotic Beasts as lesser daemons of the ruinstorm. The heresy novels are purposefully non-specific when it comes to describing the gibbering horde, I feel the Warcry Furies in particular would really work aesthetically alongside the seventeenth. I need to experiment though.
Rather ironically I’ve been on the receiving end from the Word Bearers recently, Tom’s epic scaled seventeenth have been making life very difficult for my Blood Angels and Imperial Fists. Whilst it has been nice to play around with a lot of cool detachments, I’ve reached the conclusion that reinforced is best. My standard detachments are just to fragile and rapidly lose efficacy after losing even only a couple of units. So I’ve taken both formations back to the drawing board for a replan and to add some reinforcement upgrades to the demi-company.
The Assault detachment has actually been a solid choice, so it was a no-brainer to add another two bases rounding the detachment out to eight and filling up the Thunderhawk.
I merged the two smaller tactical detachments into a single twelve unit detachment all with dedicated Rhino transports. Then created a completely new second tactical detachment with a transport pool of six Drop Pods. The armoured formation was disbanded into the demi-company as it really isn’t effective as a separate formation in smaller games. I brought Leviathans into the dreadnought talons, and as a final addition a detachment of Deredeo to discourage traitor flyers from getting too friendly.
Splitting the demi-company into two much larger mobile detachments really paid off in the recent legions event. The list felt far more cohesive and the Blood Angels in particular were able to apply pressure on objectives more effectively. The Dreadnought talens didn’t feel wasted and played a role in quickly reinforcing the first wave. Looking forward to seeing how a few Outrider detachments change up the meta.
It was also the first time I had Rapiers, automated sentries and Drop Pods in the list. All played their part and I feel there’s more potential to unlock in those units.
The Imperial Fists had also been re-worked for the event. I increased the size of one of the tactical detachments to twelve, reinforcing with missile squads. Ground forces were provided with Tarantula defence batteries, Rapiers and a heavy tank squadron of Kratos. Enough to create a secondary line in support of the Blood Angels.
Being able to strike deep into enemy lines while the Fists secured ground taken created a fantastically narrative set of games. Choosing ‘when’ to deploy was almost as important as ‘where’.
New additions
On top of what I added for the one day heresy event, there are a couple of new additions to the engine line up. Well, one updated and one entirely new to be precise. ‘Sola Bestia‘ is sporting a new weapon configuration of dual swarm missile pods. A new, yet-to-be-named Dire Wolf has joined the ranks of Legio Gryphonicus. Probably won’t be the last, but was super happy how this one came out. Both can be found in the respective gallery pages alongside new pages for the Drop Pods, Imperial Fists reinforcements and Predators
Ok, that will do for now. More ‘Heresy’ stuff on the workbench for all three games. Next post I’ll talk about the weekends ‘Zone Mortalis’ day and just how truly awful my list was. We are talking the tactical nous of a potato.
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