Let's Read the Horus Heresy 22: Angel Exterminatus

A small detail, almost inconsequential, but important nevertheless.

 - The Horus Heresy: Angel Exterminatus, Graham McNeill

Fulgrim and the boys are back in town as they go on an adventure with Perturabo and the Iron Warriors, in a very McNeill book in both the good and the bad.

**

While I've quite liked McNeill's short stories lately, at the beginning of this book he's back to his Fulgrim self. We're treated to a lengthy description of a parasite creature emerging from an insect - only for an Iron Warrior to step on it.

Brutal proof – if proof were needed – that the living world existed with no thoughts of compassion, justice or mercy.

Yes, we get it, your values are showing again.

The action in Angel Exterminatus starts with the Iron Warriors attacking a fortress held by the Imperial Fists.

A commander could have all the planet-killing weapons at his disposal, the most sophisticated fortress, the most advanced countermeasures, but he still needed men of flesh and blood to cross that last scrap of open ground to get to grips with the enemy.

Yeah but why though. Apparently there are several Grand Battalions of Iron Warriors, with massive artillery and Auxilia support, not only besieging but actually storming a fortress held by a single company of Imperial Fists. For no reason. Yes, Perturabo is really pissed about the assault, but still, it's a total mystery why any of this would make any sense.

Luckily, once Fulgrim arrives, we're on firmer ground, and his theatrics and interactions with Perturabo are excellent. Perturabo even gets to be a character: we learn he's from Space Ancient Greece and he and his legionnaires love building things, and even harbor secret passions for archeology. This is the best part of the book by far, so I'd say anyone who's into the Iron Warriors will want to check it out.

For the rest of us, it's a slightly more mixed experience. The other similarity between Angel Exterminatus and Fulgrim is that they're both way too long. While the plot itself is pretty good, there are several side plots, most of which are kinda pointless, and the action starts getting repetitive and the whole thing just drags. A good editor would have cut something like a hundred pages from this.

The story is that Fulgrim recruits Perturabo to help him find some secret eldar super-weapons hidden in the Cygnus X-1 anomaly, or as Perturabo calls it, the Eye of Terror. Even this main plot could have been much more interesting; there's some early drama about using the services of an eldar to guide them, but McNeill never does anything particularly interesting with it. They're also being pursued by an Iron Hands ship and its slightly motley crew, which, again, is at times interesting, but ends up being a kind of an afterthought.

There's several things I like in this: Fulgrim, Lucius and Fabulous Bill all on a manic quest to just absolutely be the worst possible person they can ever be (they all still lose to Erbs), Perturabo and the peacable side of the Iron Warriors, and several scenes. The Emperor's Children are also just comically and suicidally evil at this point, so much so that I can't entirely figure out how they manage to survive as a legion. But on the whole, Angel Exterminatus is too long, too boring, and possibly worst of all, most of the action scenes are very forgettable.

**

So yeah, I'd say this is one for big Iron Warriors fans, and even they're going to snooze through most of the action scenes. I think I may need a bit of a break from all the Horus Heresying at some point, because it's starting to get a bit repetitive. Still, we'll see what's next.

Epic: The Battle of Basilica 953371

We're following up our first game of Legions Imperialis with a 2000-point rematch. As the Horus Heresy rages, the traitor Word Bearers and loyalist Imperial Fists are locked in bloody battle over Administratum Basilica 953371, a key local government node. This report is a bit sketchier than I might have hoped, because the game was a wildly entertaining close-range brawl, and I've forgotten who exactly blew up what.

**

For this rematch, my opponent is bringing all sorts of shiny new things like Vindicators, Mastodons and a Thunderhawk Gunship. On the traitor side, I have a demi-company and an armored company, as well as a Brethren of Iron consisting of two reinforced Thallax cohorts and a Kratos commander.

Last time, the loyalists fielded two Warhound Titans. I think it's high time my Legio Venefica walked a Legions Imperialis battlefield, so I'm bringing a Reaver Titan. Since the Abominatio Desolationis got blown up in its last battle with Legio Crucius, my legion will be represented by the Deos tuos non colimus, et thronum auream, quam erexisti, non adoramus, or the Non Adoramus for short.

That left me with 200 points to spend on allies, which is just enough for a Yat-Kha sub-cohort, the Glorifiers of the White Snow, and, from the 256th bomber wing of the 2773rd (Provisional) Air Group, a Marauder bomber.

**

With our armies picked, it was time to set up the terrain. We'll be fighting over Basilica Administratum 953371, so we placed that building in the center of the table.

I agree with Goonhammer that the pre-painted Gothic Sector terrain is truly excellent, and I appreciate the damaged and destroyed variants of the buildings.

For the mission, we rolled All Out War, meaning we freely place six objectives, and deploy right in each other's face. It promised to be absolutely hilarious. I set up my armor and the Auxilia on my left, the larger Thallax cohort in the center, and the Reaver on my right. My opponent sent his Marine tanks against mine, with the Mastodons and Auxilia armor sweeping left around the Basilica.

**

Turn 1 started with my larger Thallax cohort firing their jump packs and taking control of Basilica 953371 and with it, objective 3.

As they did so, the loyalist Mastodons swung around the basilica and unleashed their cargoes of Terminators and Contemptor Dreadnoughts.

The Terminators charged the Rapier battery, losing a stand to their overwatch fire, while the Contemptors attacked the Brethren of Iron's command Kratos. The loyalist Thunderhawk swooped down to add to the chaos, with assault marines spilling from its exits, and the traitor Xiphons barreled in on an intercept course, but their shots went wide.

On the traitor left, my spanking new Whirlwinds opened fire, blowing apart two loyalist Predators and causing the last one to turn tail and flee.

On the right, the Non Adoramus downed a shield from the nearest Mastodon with its gatling blasters, while the carapace-mounted Apoptygma missile launcher wiped out the Deredeo Dreadnoughts holding objective 2!

In the close combat phase, the Imperial Fist assault marines knocked out two Vindicators, and the Contemptors tore the Kratos apart. As the loyalist Vindicators lined up to blast the Basilica Administratum, the Thallax cohort turned its multi-meltas on the enemy tanks and destroyed all four.

At this point I have to say that the dice were outrageously in my favor: I was rolling hot and my opponent was missing shots and failing saves everywhere. I commend him for his exemplary sportsmanship in tolerating a frankly ridiculous run of bad luck.

Victory points:

Loyalists: 3 VP

Traitors: 16 VP

**

As Turn 2 opened, the Imperial Fists Mastodons swept forward, trying to bring their siege melta arrays to bear on the Reaver. However, I had given the Non Adoramus very simple orders: charge!

Meanwhile, the loyalist Kratoses took possession of objective 2, and destroyed my Land Raiders.

My Marauder bomber came in for its first proper bombing run, managing to kill some Imperial Fists assault marines.

The assault marines unsuccesfully stormed the Basilica Administratum, while the Terminators finally wiped out the traitor Rapier battery. The remaining loyalist Contemptors charged into close combat with the Reaver, which stomped them and damaged one of the Mastodons. However, the Titan exposed its rear armor to the guns of the loyalist Thunderhawk. Dodging fire from traitor Xiphons, it battered down the last remaining void shields and blew smoking holes in the Reaver with its turbo-laser destructor. With a terrifying groan, the Non Adoramus collapsed.

Loyalist tanks added to the carnage by knocking out an enemy Kratos and bringing the building by objective 5 crashing down, destroying the Veletarii inside. Return fire from the Kratoses blew up a loyalist Mastodon.

Victory points:

Loyalists: 12 VP

Traitors: 25 VP

**

The traitors may have had a victory point lead, but the tide was beginning to turn.

The traitor Marauder bombed the Imperial Fists Terminators, sending them falling back. Its twin Skystrike missiles homed in on the loyalist Thunderhawk but missed; however, the front turret gunner drew a bead on the massive Astartes flyer, and a lucky shot brought the Thunderhawk down!

Meanwhile, the surviving Mastodon knocked the enemy Xiphons out of the sky with its anti-aircraft weapons, and a lascannon shot from a Leman Russ brought down the Marauder. At some point I lost the Storm Eagle, and the sole loyalist Xiphon was also shot down.

The loyalist super-heavies opened fire on the basilica, damaging it severely while staying out of the range of the Thallax multi-meltas.

Victory points:

Loyalists: 28 VP

Traitors: 31 VP

**

As Turn 4 started, I knew I needed to grab several objectives or I'd lose the game. My ineptly executed assault on objective 6 had failed, and the last remaining loyalist Kratos and the Baneblade were sitting on objective 2. I'd have to dislodge them to stand any chance of victory.

Heroically, my last surviving Predator did its part by knocking out the Baneblade.

My Whirlwinds finally cleared the loyalist infantry from objective 6.

But in the center, the Basilica Administratum finally collapsed under the concentrated fire of the loyalist armor, burying most of the Thallaxes in the rubble.

As the surviving Thallaxes ran away, the battle finally came to an end. There was no way I could have caught the loyalists in victory points on the last turn, so I conceded.

Victory points:

Loyalists: 44 VP

Traitors: 37 VP

Secondary objectives:

Loyalists: +10 VP, total 54 VP

Traitors: +10 VP, total 47 VP

Game ends: loyalist victory.

**

It had become necessary to destroy the basilica to save it. With the loyalists standing victorious over the smoking ruins, the traitors beat a hasty retreat.

I have to say, I feel I made up for my extraordinary run of luck with the dice by playing quite badly. I misdeployed my Whirlwinds, didn't quite know how to use my bomber or the second Thallax cohort, and threw way too many resources at objective 6. My opponent, on the other hand, massed his forces effectively, and once he'd weathered the wrath of the dice gods, just plain beat me up.

Like our previous Legions outing, I thoroughly enjoyed the game. I think we're kind of mostly getting the hang of it, and only forgetting some of the more niche rules any more. I swear that one day I'll actually remember to use Master Tactician!

This game strengthened my opinion that Legions is, first and foremost, a game of firepower. Mobility and protection certainly play their part, but I have to say that the game is so entertainingly lethal that blowing up your opponent seems to be the key to victory. On that front, the Thallaxes were excellent, and when my artillery finally got where they needed to be, they did great work. My Kratoses were solid once again, and I really hope we get a heavy armor formation for the marines at some point.

I don't quite know how I feel about Titans just yet. I couldn't make up my mind whether to take a chain fist or a second gatling blaster on my Reaver, and with the scenario we rolled, I so wish I'd have gone for the chain fist. On the other hand, with a more conventional deployment, maybe the Titan would have lived longer, too. More experiments are in order.

To conclude, I need more artillery.

**

So that was an excellent game of Legions Imperialis! To repeat myself, I love this game, and not just because of Space Marine nostalgia. And luckily, there's more to come soon!

P.S. I'm delighted to add a link to Shaun's blog post on our games!

Let's Read the Horus Heresy 21: Shadows of Treachery

My scream woke me from the dream.

 - The Crimson Fist, John French; in The Horus Heresy: Shadows of Treachery

Next up it's yet another anthology. This one's good, though.

**

John French gets us started with a whole novella about the Imperial Fists fighting the Iron Warriors. It's quite decently written, and I like an epic space battle, but the Fists are just kinda boring. Once again, Rogal Dorn is a complete buffoon, and he's clearly trained his legion to obey his orders stupidly literally to the point of suicide, but the more I read about him, the more sense that makes.

Because French writes pretty well, I have to say that the Iron Warriors were a bit of a disappointment here as they were just a pile of generic villain tropes with some hazard stripes painted on. My only impression of Perturabo at this point is that he's an uninteresting video game end boss.

Graham McNeill follows up with the Dark King, a short story on how the Primarch of the Night Lords, Conrad Kurze, starts his rebellion against the Imperium. It features Rogal Dorn being a buffoon, and I am a fan of Kurze kicking his ass.

Dan Abnett is next, and we're back on Terra in The Lightning Tower, with... Rogal Dorn. I didn't know this was an Imperial Fists anthology. This is kind of a follow-up story to the previous one, I guess, but it really doesn't add much and isn't very interesting. I can think of so many things I'd rather read than Dorn's internal monologue.

Graham McNeill then surprises us by heading back to Mars, without a suit of yellow power armor in sight. It's a good story, though: a prequel to Mechanicum, which I liked. There's a Gav Thorpe story, and I tried reading it for a bit, and then moved on. At least I think Rogal Dorn wasn't in it.

Next up is a third McNeill story, Death of a Silversmith. I'm slightly surprised that of all the Horus Heresy authors, he's quite good at these little vignettes far from the main action. Last but certainly not least is Aaron Dembski-Bowden's novella, the Prince of Crows, starring First Captain Sevatar of the Night Lords. This is Dembski-Bowden on top form: excellent entertainment that had me stay up too late because I didn't want to stop reading.

**

So here we have a rare thing: a really good Horus Heresy short story anthology. I think Prince of Crows alone is worth the price of the whole thing, and Dark King's pretty good too, which I think makes this an almost compulsory volume for Night Lords fans.

Which I'm afraid I'm slightly becoming. I really liked Sevatar and the whole gang, and I think that if these books were my introduction to the Horus Heresy, I'd be seriously considering a Night Lords army. After all, the Punisher was my favorite Marvel character. I'm going to try to limit myself to maybe building a character model.

Epic: Iron Lion Zion

"Faith and steel must now be joined."

 - the daemon Ingethel, in The Horus Heresy: Aurelian, Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Now that I've played Legions Imperialis, I've got lots of ideas on how to expand my Word Bearers army. When I read The First Heretic, I thought the Legio Cybernetica robots in Word Bearers colors were very cool, so I definitely want a Brethren of Iron formation.

**

After the Mechanicum supplement for Legions came out, Games Workshop published PDF rules for what they call Bonded Cybernetica Formations. These are a way to take Mechanicum troops - mostly robots - in other armies, without using up the ally allowance. The marine formation is called a Brethren of Iron; it's a marine HQ and two Core slots, which must be either marines or Thallax automata. All the marine units in the formation gain the Cortex Controller rule, so they can give orders to robots.

So at some point, I'll want at least one marine tactical detachment to do some cortex controlling. This gave me several conversion ideas, so I grabbed a Mechanicum infantry box and got to work. I gave the sergeant an axe from a Tech-Priest Auxilia and a servo-arm from an Archmagos, and added a Rapier crewmember to the stand.

I gave the Tech-Priest who lost his axe a hammer from one of the Terminators on the marine sprue, so I guess I also have a Mechanicum unit.

Since I was chopping up an Archmagos, I stuck his axe on a marine commander, and added another Rapier crewmember, to make a start on an HQ unit.

I'm coming back to these guys when I field them! For now I just want to say that I'm quite surprised I find myself actually enjoying 8mm conversions.

**

Another support formation in the same PDF is the Collegia Titanica Support Cohort. It lets you bring robots as part of the Collegia Titanica list, and even better, regular Mechanicum infantry as optional choices. So I painted the tech-thralls in the Mechanicum infantry box in the colors of Legio Venefica.

I think they look pretty good! When I get some robots, I'll be able to field these guys with my Titans.

**

I also got myself a second Predator squadron. I wasn't too impressed with the Sicarans, but I liked my las-preds.

Building tanks gave me a very silly idea for my Brethren of Iron. They need an HQ choice. I could just include a command stand, but what do I do with it? It's not fast enough to keep up with the Thallax automata and it doesn't have jump packs, so it would slow them down. But attaching it to a tactical detachment is just a waste of a cortex controller.

You know what could keep up with the robots or go off and do things on its own? A Kratos. And just like that, a stupid conversion idea was born.

Since I already used one Archmagos for conversion bits, I took the tentacles from their Abeyant and stuck them to a Kratos hull.

I stuck the front of the Abeyant, with the speaker and antenna, to the back of the Kratos turret, and the servo-arm to the side, and added another antenna-like thing to the left side of the turret.

I like it!

Meanwhile, I built the Thallax Cohorts from the Mechanicum box and painted them. I quite like the models!

As I was putting my next army list together, I ended up with a spare 20 points and couldn't think of anything else to use it on except even more Thallaxes. Since I don't have any more of the models, I painted two bases of Ursarax automata to proxy them with.

So for my next game, I'll be fielding a Brethren of Iron formation consisting of a Kratos Commander and two four-stand detachments of Thallax battle-automata.

**

I like the robots and will almost certainly pick up the Battle-Automata box, but in general, I'm not really sold on the Mechanicum aesthetic in Legions. It's also weird to me that they have no flyers; there are Machine Cult ornithopters in the Horus Heresy novels and 40k, so hopefully we'll see them at some point. And, of course, some more artillery.

Let's Read the Horus Heresy 20: Fear to Tread

The war that came to Melchior was fought by gods and angels; it cracked sky and earth, burned mountains and turned oceans to ash, but in the end it was all about a single objective.

 - The Horus Heresy: Fear to Tread, James Swallow

It's time for a full-length Horus Heresy novel again. This is a James Swallow joint - he of Nemesis and the Eisenstein - so I have some expectations. Fear to Tread stars Emps' super special vampire boys, the Blood Angels, who we last met waaay back in Horus Rising. Back when I got into Warhammer in the early nineties, I feel like the Blood Angels were one of the most prominent chapters, so it'll be nice to hear from them.

**

It's lovely that I just complained about how banal some authors make the primarchs, and then Fear to Tread starts with excellent scenes between Horus and Sanguinius. This is how primarchs should be written. In other well-written scenes, you really have to hand it to Erbs, because he manages to show up in Fabulous Bill's lab, of all the places in the galaxy, and be by far the creepiest, most unpleasant person there.

The plot kicks off when Horus contacts Sanguinius via the services of a weird naked astropath, and sends the entire Blood Angels legion to the Signus cluster. Earlier, Horus and Sanguinius led their legions against a xenos species called the Nephilim, who sound an awful lot like Enslavers, and Horus tells Sanguinius that the Nephilim have taken over the Signus cluster.

This, we learn, is actually a cunning plan by Erbs to make Sanguinius and his legion fall to Chaos, but Horus's even more cunning plan is to have Sanguinius killed so he doesn't become a rival to Horus. So instead of Nephilim, the Signus cluster is actually the site of a massive warp incursion by daemons of Slaanesh and Khorne.

As with his previous novels, Swallow writes well, and what he does particularly well here is play on the fact that the Blood Angels don't understand what they're facing, but a reader even somewhat familiar with Warhammer immediately does, and he makes it work.

If I have a criticism, it's that the Blood Angel characters aren't particularly great, and the couple of Word Bearers and Space Wolves along for the ride are all fairly unoriginal stereotypes of their legions. We've had so many sneering Word Bearers doing the Dr. Evil pinky finger, and so many Space Woofs drinking mead and telling us about how they took an arrow to the knee. I know I'm biased, but it's especially galling with the Word Bearers, who got such a great treatment in First Heretic, only to regress to cartoon villainy since.

**

That said, Fear to Tread is an excellent Horus Heresy story, and I very much enjoyed it. It's also an annoying story, because I now want to build some traitor Blood Angels, but maybe I'll make that into a 28mm project.

Epic: Legions Imperialis Artillery

I've now played Legions Imperialis for the first time, and the main lesson I took from it is that I need more artillery. To be perfectly honest, I've thought that in every wargame I've ever played since my very first one, KOEI's L'Empereur (1991) on the PC. In L'Empereur, artillery fire would cause casualties to enemy formations and even break them, leaving them almost defenceless. It taught me to never fight a battle where I don't have artillery superiority, and I intend to take that lesson with me to Legions Imperialis.

So I painted the rest of my Rapiers.

With the release of Liber Strategia, we finally got Whirlwinds, and obviously I pre-ordered a box of them immediately.

They were quite quick to build, and I think I'm already developing a routine for building a Rhino chassis.

**

So that's the artillery I've got. But what kind of artillery should I have?

When The Great Slaughter came out, Goonhammer ran the numbers on the Basilisk, and they're impressive. I quote:

a 12 model Basilisk company (430 points of models) can kill a mint Warhound Titan (330 points) with slightly better than average dice, or a Warhound without Voids on below average dice, or a Reaver or Warbringer without Voids on average dice. They can wipe out a 4 model Predator or Sicaran detachment on average dice, or 1 ½ Kratos.

And that's with the old points values: Basilisks actually got cheaper in Liber Strategia!

Now that we've got more artillery units, we can do a little comparison. Not counting Titans, the Mechanicum's only Barrage weapon is on the Karacnos Assault Tank, which is a self-propelled artillery system despite that name. The Legions Astartes can now field Rapiers with quad-launchers as well as the Scorpius and Whirlwind, while the Solar Auxilia have the same Rapiers, and the Medusa and Basilisk.

Surely, by the way, the mole mortar should have Barrage?

The Rapier quad-launcher, Whirlwind and Karacnos fire two shots out to 30", while the Scorpius gets two to 18"; the Medusa fires a single shot to 12" and the Basilisk has a massive range of 90" for its single shot. Everything hits on a 4+. Taking minimum ranges into account, firing at a target 8-12" away that they can see produces one hit per Rapier or Scorpius, 1.2 hits per Whirlwind because it has Rapid Fire, and 0.5 hits per Basilisk or Medusa.

When you convert that into points per hit with the Liber Strategia points values, here's what you get:

Basilisk • 65 points per hit • -2 save modifier

Medusa • 60 pph • -3 • Heavy Barrage

Legion Scorpius • 50 pph • -2 • Light AT

Karacnos • 40 pph • -1 • Ignores Cover

Whirlwind • 37.5 pph • 0 • Ignores Cover

Legion Rapier • 20 pph • -1 • Light

Auxilia Rapier • 15 pph • -1 • Light

So the Basilisk costs the most points per hit, but has superlative range and a pretty hefty -2 save modifier, which does make it excellent for deleting armored targets. On the Marine side, you can get two Whirlwind hits for the same points, while Legion Rapiers are almost half the price again and Auxilia Rapiers are less than half. Of course, the Whirlwind doesn't have the save modifier, but does ignore cover, while the Rapier shots are Light.

With its Light AT shots, the Scorpius is a bit of a special case, as it's going to be good against armored infantry, cavalry and walkers, especially in the open. So a dedicated anti-marine weapon system, which does make sense for something the fluff says was created for the Space Wolves. Similarly, the short range and Heavy Barrage rule on the Medusa also make it a more specialist weapon to use against troops in buildings at short range.

The Karacnos is the strangest artillery system so far. It's called a tank, and in addition to the mortar battery, it has two dice of Point Defence lightning locks and a shock ram with Wrecker (2) - and a CAF of +0. So a self-propelled gun that can ram buildings. It's actually slightly cheaper than a Whirlwind, can defend itself better, and has a -1 save modifier into the bargain. Bizarrely, it's a Battle Tank in the Mechanicum organization chart, so you could bring an Autokratorii Regiment with three of them for 120 points as an allied formation.

For the other systems, I think this isn't a bad balance of costs. Whirlwinds strike me as the best general artillery, while Basilisks are better against armor and Rapiers generate a lot more shots against Light targets.

The picture gets more complicated if you factor in that Rapiers also have a direct fire mode with Light AT and Demolisher, and as infantry they can use buildings for cover. Legion Rapiers have a better armor save and morale, and if they're Word Bearers, they can stay on First Fire even if their formation breaks.

The numbers here are calculated for directly visible targets, frankly because it was that much easier, and firing indirectly affects all the units the same way. The only real exception is Basilisks in artillery companies, or if you bring a Marauder Pathfinder. I think there should be more fire control options, so let's hope something gets introduced in the future.

In general, I think that for an Astartes army, a mix of Rapiers and Whirlwinds seems best, and the Solar Auxilia pioneer company is starting to sound like a really good allied formation to pick.

Speaking of the future, there's still plenty of artillery systems I hope make it into Legions. If I remember correctly, Imperial Guard artillery in Space Marine included the Bombard siege gun and Manticore rocket launcher, and 28mm Horus Heresy has the Arquitor Bombard for the Marines.

For myself, I think I'll be picking up some Mechanicum artillery next!

Let's Read the Horus Heresy 19: The Primarchs

He did not dream, he never dreamed, yet this was, inescapably, a dream.

 - The Reflection Crack'd, Graham McNeill, in The Horus Heresy: The Primarchs

Due to Black Library charging 1€ more for the whole volume than for just the Alpha Legion short story I wanted to read, I got the entire twentieth Horus Heresy book.

**

The volume starts with Graham McNeill at the Emperor's Children again. Even though Fulgrim was almost unbearably turgid, McNeill's improved since, and I found I quite liked being with Fulgrim and his captains again. There's some good bits here, but the ending is a massively disappointing cop-out and Fulgrim's fulminations are just plain boring.

One thing McNeill definitely deserves credit for, and it's Lucius. He is unbearably arrogant, and I think so far the absolute best villain of the Horus Heresy. He was a bright spot all through Fulgrim, and I especially enjoyed his antics in Galaxy In Flames. He's great here as well, and genuinely turning into one of my favorite characters.

The next story is about the Iron Hands, who are boring, and it's by Nick Kyme. I've read one short story of his earlier and it wasn't very good. Neither is this one. The Iron Hands are waging war by marching around on foot and in formation in a desert, as if this was Napoléon in Egypt or something, and Ferrus Manus is a complete buffoon. I didn't finish the story. Gav Thorpe's The Lion is another one of his Dark Angels stories, just as soulless and forgettable as the others.

The greatest sin of the mediocre-to-bad Horus Heresy stories is that they make the primarchs boring. The first novels, from Horus Rising on, had a simple formula: we saw the space marines through the eyes of the human remembrancers, which let us properly appreciate how superhuman the Astartes are. The primarchs were one step above space marines and inscrutable, transcendent characters compared to them.

This all just absolutely falls apart when authors like Thorpe and Kyme make us listen to the primarchs' boring and mundane internal monologues. After Deliverance Lost, I can't think of Corvus Corax as anything other than incredibly boring. The same goes for Guilliman, El'Jonson and Ferrus Manus, to name just a few. They've gone from demigods to just, like, bigger space marines with funnier names. It's a great loss to the series.

Finally, then, The Serpent Beneath, by Rob Sanders. I love that so far, an Alpha Legion story means that the writers seem to get permission to do the silliest spy thriller and video game stories, because as with Legion, this also feels like the author is having fun with it. The story also stars a Primarch, but because it's an Alpha Legion story, any statement of fact about it can always be followed by "or does it". I enjoyed it, and I'm developing a real love for XX Legion.

**

I think that was my third short story anthology, and they're still very hit-and-miss. For every good short story, there's at least one distinctly mediocre one, and usually one that's just plain not worth reading. Again, I might still pick some up for pricing reasons if there's a story I think I want to read, but if I'm honest, on their own merits these aren't worth it.

Let's Read the Horus Heresy 18: Know No Fear

 Who are the first to die?

 - The Horus Heresy: Know No Fear, Dan Abnett

We're back to the Horus Heresy with Dan Abnett and the battle of Calth, between the Word Bearers and the Ultramarines, and after the disappointment of Deliverance Lost, this should be so much better.

**

I begin reading the book. The book is by Dan Abnett. Dan Abnett is good at writing books. But this book is different. The sentences are short. The sentences are simple. It is like the books I read as a child, when I was learning English. I did not speak it yet then. I do not know why the book is like this. It is strange, because Dan Abnett is good at writing books, but this book is not good.

I apologize for this, but honestly, starting Know No Fear is a truly bizarre experience. As the Battle of Calth starts and the action gets underway, the language loosens up a little, but it's still startlingly clunky for Abnett. Shockingly, it almost feels like reading Gav Thorpe again.

What the story reminds me of most is Battle for the Abyss. Once again, the Ultramarines are incredibly boring. I can't tell them apart, and since everyone's names seem to have come out of the Knights of the Old Republic name generator, they don't help, either. Guilliman is there and is also tremendously boring. It's appropriate that the quotations from his writings that start each section are such mind-numbing blather that I couldn't finish reading them.

Less than an hour after finishing the book, the only Smurf I can remember is the sergeant who was due to be disciplined, and therefore had his helmet painted red. Since he distinguished himself in battle, Rowrowrowyourboat ordered all the sergeants to mark their helmets red, and that's a nice backstory to why Smurf sergeants still wear red helmets in 40k.

The other main similarity to Battle for the Abyss is that the Word Bearers are, once again, just ridiculous mooks. Ultramarines always take them by surprise and slaughter them with ridiculous ease as if they were Star Wars storm troopers, not Space Marines. This makes the battle scenes quite boring toward the end of the book, as it's always the same story of the Ultramarine video game protagonist butchering a dozen Word Bearers without suffering so much as a scratch. The trouble with this is that it makes the Word Bearers not seem like space marines at all, so the general vibe of the book is much more 40k rather than Horus Heresy.

As for the plot, the scale of the destruction wrought by a single cargo ship ramming the Calth docks is frankly unbelievable. Or to put it another way, if you can do all this by accelerating a single fleet tender, why bother with battleships at all?

Also, if the Word Bearers' objective was to capture the Ultramarines' most powerful ships intact, why did they do such a terrible job of it? The plan to take over the flagship seems to have inexplicably failed, as the boarding troops apparently spent ages trying to cut through the hull. Did they forget their boarding torpedoes, teleporters and assault craft at home?

Also, if the planet's surface was going to be destroyed by whatever Erbs supposedly did to the star (we're going to ignore the idea that firing planetary defence systems at a star can make it go nova and decide that it was the ritual that did it), why did the Word Bearers fleet bother to bombard the southern hemisphere? Surely it would have been much more important to finish off the Smurf fleet. In fact, I'm not sure I understand why the Word Bearers bothered to fight on the surface of Calth at all.

So to be honest, most of the plot makes no sense. I did enjoy Kor Phaeron blasting Guilliman with force lightning like he was the Sith Emperor, but the scene actually ended up being far too Star Wars for comfort. Erbs again shows up to make some ritual gestures and sneer, and it's not clear if Lorgar was even really there.

I know I'm biased as a Word Bearers player, but it's such a disappointment to have them go back to being totally disposable, incompetent moustache-twirling bad guys again after how brilliant First Heretic was.

**

To sum up, after Abnett's previous efforts, Know No Fear is a huge disappointment. Once the action picks up, it's a smooth enough read, but the writing is hopelessly clunky throughout, the plot makes no real sense, and the characters are very forgettable. I can't really recommend it to anyone.

Epic: Ten thousand of us will hand you the wrath of Heaven

This noble king was cleped Cambinskan,

Which in his tyme was of so greet renoun

That ther nas no-wher in no regioun

So excellent a lord in alle thing;

Him lakked noght that longeth to a king.

 - Geoffrey Chaucer, the Squire's Tale

Earlier, the new Dune movie made me meditate on the relationship between Dune and Warhammer. Which I suppose can be most concisely described as Warhammer stealing everything from Dune that wasn't nailed down, and then some. Now, though, with the return of Epic, I have cause to revisit the subject, because the Legions Imperialis box comes with a whole pile of Solar Auxilia. I painted the tanks earlier, and now it's time to get to the infantry.

**

Once I started thinking about Dune-themed Horus Heresy things, it struck me as fairly obvious that the Solar Auxilia in their void armor were a perfect match for the Sardaukar. I wasn't really interested in trying to collect any in 28mm, but now that I have a pile of Epic Solar Auxilia, I'm definitely turning them into the Padishah Emperor's fanatical shock troops. Canonically, Sardaukar armor was grey with black details, but the movie armor looks more white than grey and I prefer painting off-white anyway, so that's what I'll go with.

One of the innovations of the 2021 Dune movie was Sardaukar throat singing. I've been exposed to a fusion of throat singing and popular music at a sensitive age, when my girlfriend at the time played me some Yat-Kha.

So based on that, my Sardaukar are going to be the 337th Yat-Kha Shock Cohort of the Solar Auxilia. 

**

Clearly, the most Sardaukar auxilia unit is the Veletarii Storm Section, so that's where I'll start. The uniforms are Ivory, the axe handles Black Brown, and they have Luftwaffe Camo Green shoulder insignia.

I like the models, but I defy anyone to explain why the presumably far more numerous Solar Auxilia troops get power axes as standard equipment while space marines have to make do with chainswords.

The Auxilia infantry sprue also comes with some Charonite Ogryns. Sadly, I misplaced one of the torsos somehow, so I took the tactical command guy and had them take charge of the Ogryns.

I kinda struggled to figure out a good color scheme for the Ogryns. I ended up painting the harness thing they're wearing Gunmetal Grey, as well as the weapons, with Ivory for the uniform. I don't know if I like the result.

I also painted the flamer infantry.

For the lasrifle squads, I did a very simple paint scheme: Ivory uniform, Luftwaffe Green shoulder pads and a Black rifle. The HQ stands aren't much more complicated.

Here they all are.

I think I'll be trying them out in a future game of Legions!

Let's Read Warhammer: the Dark Coil Series

A friend recommended Peter Fehervari's Dark Coil series of Warhammer novels, so after the sheer disappointment of Deliverance Lost, I gave it a shot.

**

‘Don’t go out tonight, father,’ Mina said.

 - Requiem Infernal, Peter Fehervari

The first Dark Coil novel I read was Requiem Infernal, and it's just really good. It's a supernatural horror story set on a very unusual Imperial shrine world, starring some fairly strange characters. There's grisly murders, demonic possessions, and whole thing just drips atmosphere. Fehervari very much knows what he's doing, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of it.

There are objections online that Requiem isn't really a Sisters of Battle book, in that the Order of the Last Candle and their homeworld is so unusual. I get where that comes from, but the Imperium is huge, and I love that Fehervari has been let loose to carve out his own little niche of it. I liked Requiem Infernal enough that I decided to read the rest of the series.

**

‘We have to go,’ the ghost boy whispered into the darkness.

 - The Reverie, Peter Fehervari

The fourth Dark Coil novel stars the Angels Resplendent, a Blood Angels successor chapter who appeared in Requiem. They're a bunch of crusading artists, who collect interesting people they call Muses on their homeworld. It's quite similar to the Remembrancers on the expeditionary fleets in the Horus Heresy novels. However, all is not well on Malpertuis, the Painted World, with some of the Muses and even some of the space marines becoming corrupted.

It's all rather Fulgrim, in other words, if much less boring. But for whatever reason it didn't grip me nearly as well as Requiem, although it gets better toward the end. I think that part of it is that frankly, loyalist marines are kinda boring, and the parallels to Fulgrim were quite strong as well. But I was entertained.

**

No matter how often Voyle relives it, the end always begins the same way.

 - The Greater Evil, Peter Fehervari

The first two Dark Coil novels are collected in an omnibus called Dark Coil: Damnation with a bunch of related short stories. The first novel is Fire Caste, and it's basically Apocalypse: Now 40,000, with the Imperial Guard protagonists going upriver in search of a Tau leader who might as well be called K'urtz. It's very Fehervari with its haunted characters, very properly grimdark, and very good.

I'm a little disappointed that GW's barely done anything with the Gue'vesa, that is, the humans who've gone over to the Greater Good. One of the only recent games with rules for them was Aeronautica Imperialis, before it switched over to 30k, and I enjoyed painting a bunch of Imperial flyers in Tau colors. I've kind of lost interest in 28mm lately, but Fire Caste almost makes me want to build some Gue'vesa.

Fire Caste is followed by Cult of the Spiral Dawn and its associated short stories, all of which are quite good. Again, this is dangerous stuff, because I've still got the Genestealer Cult half of a Deathwatch: Overkill box hanging around, and now I want to actually paint a cult.

I like Fehervari's characters, his writing is good and effortless to read, and I think he really nails the dystopia of the Imperium without descending into grimdark for the sake of grimdark.

**

So yeah, I'd say that if you want to read Warhammer 40,000 fiction, I don't think you can do much better than the Dark Coil series. Highly recommended.

Epic: Let's Play Legions Imperialis

I'm very happy to say I got a chance to play Legions Imperialis! We had a fun and lethal day of 8mm wargaming that I thoroughly enjoyed.

**

Our first game is going to be a 1685 point battle, because that's the amount of models my opponent has. To face them, I'm bringing my Word Bearers, and an allied Auxilia tank company, because I like tanks.

I've got four formations. From left to right, the 1st (Air Assault) Demi-Company of the 4th Company; 2nd Tank Company, 3rd (Armored) Company; 2nd (Signals) Demi-Company, 5th (Combat Support) Company, all from II Battalion, Morbid Fane Chapter, and at the back, the Lords of the Old World from the 337th Yat-Kha Shock Cohort. And here's the official army list:

1st (Air Assault) Demi-Company

HQ: Legion Command Squad (25 pts)

Core: Legion Tactical Squad (30 pts)

Core: Legion Tactical Squad (30 pts)

Support: Legion Terminator Detachment (50 pts)

Support: Legion Assault Detachment (30 pts)

Vanguard: Legion Scimitar Jetbike Detachment (35 pts)

Air Support: Legion Storm Eagle Squadron (100 pts)

4th (Signals) Demi-Company

HQ: Legion Command Squad (25 pts)

Core: Legion Tactical Squad (30 pts)

Core: Legion Tactical Squad (30 pts)

Support: Legion Rapier Battery Detachment (quad-launchers) (40 pts)

Support: Legion Missile Launcher Support Detachment (40 pts)

Transport: Legion Land Raider Detachment (2) (80 pts)

3rd Tank Company

Battle Tank: Legion Predator Squadron (all lascannons) (115 pts)

Battle Tank: Legion Sicaran Squadron (accelerator autocannon, lascannon) (105 pts)

Heavy Armor: Legion Kratos Squadron (Kratos battlecannon, lascannons) (150 pts)

Heavy Armor: Legion Kratos Commander (Kratos battlecannon, lascannons) (100 pts)

Air Support: Legion Xiphon Interceptor Squadron (2) (180 pts)

Lords of the Old World

HQ: Tank Commander (10 pts)

Battle Tank: Leman Russ Strike Squadron (Vanquisher battlecannon, lascannon) (175 pts)

Battle Tank: Malcador Tank Squadron (twin lascannon, demolisher cannon, heavy bolters) (165 pts)

Heavy Armor: Auxilia Stormblade Squadron (120 pts)

**

My gracious host had an excellent gaming table and mat for us, as well as some buildings to fight over. It looked pretty darn good!

We marked out a 4'×4' surface, and rolled for a mission and got Conquest. This meant we would deploy in opposite corners and fight over six objective markers.

Here's our deployment from my point of view.

I deployed the signals company on my left, one detachment on foot to storm the central building, and one in the Land Raiders to grab objective 3. The Auxilia tanks would also go on the left flank, while the Sicarans and Kratoses (?) would advance on the right. One detachment of the air assault company would grab objective 5, with the HQ and other detachment in reserve in the Storm Eagle. The Predators and assault marines would go where they were needed, the Rapiers would sit on objective 4, and the jetbikes were my reserve.

It got a bit crowded in my deployment zone!

The battle started with our Forward Deployment moves: my Land Raiders sped toward objective 3, and the loyalist Aethon Heavy Sentinels secured objective 6. In the movement phase, both our armies surged out of their deployment zones.

A side note. When Legions Imperialis finally came out after a long, unexplained delay, it was roundly criticized for how rubbish the order counters were. I can attest that the criticism was well-deserved: they're printed on thin cardboard and are difficult to even punch out easily. What I didn't realize until my first orders phase was that there are also comically few of them, even for a 2000 point army. I'd brought along my own set, minus some damaged in trying to detach them, but was reduced to writing orders on scraps of paper.

Dashing out at a quick march, a detachment of my signals company occupied the central building in the face of the advancing loyalists.

Two Xiphon interceptors swooped down directly amid the enemy formations, sanguine that the loyalists' lack of anti-aircraft weapons meant they were invulnerable.

As the opposing forces came into range of each other, the firing started. First blood was drawn by one of the loyalist Warhounds: it fired at a Xiphon and missed, but its shudder missiles exploded around the traitor jetbikes, destroying a stand and leaving the detachment shaken.

One of the Land Raiders by objective 3 took an enemy round and exploded, and the Aethon Sentinels unleashed a barrage of missiles at the central building, completely wiping out the tactical detachment garrisoning it!

The other Warhound damaged a traitor Kratos and slowed the squadron down with its shudder missiles, and a Malcador took a hit and damage. Traitor return fire was ineffective, with only the Xiphons managing to damage a loyalist Malcador tank.

As the first turn came to a close, both sides controlled three objectives, but all the casualties were on the traitor side.

Victory points:

Loyalists: 17 VP

Traitors: 17 VP

**

Putting their faith in the Ruinous Powers, the Word Bearers continued their advance. Turn 2 opened with the traitor Malcadors gunning their engines and speeding at the advancing loyalist infantry, their heavy bolters spitting death and nearly wiping out the Veletari. The few survivors were blown apart by the traitor missile launcher detachment.

The second turn is the earliest when units with deep strike rules can show up. A bright flash and loud bang announced the arrival of the Cataphractii Terminators of the House of Justice, threatening to wrest objective 1 from the loyalists. A squad fell to overwatch fire from the Imperial Fists.

Meanwhile, the Word Bearers flyers swooped down on the battlefield. Covered by the Xiphon Interceptors, the lone Word Bearer Storm Eagle deposited a detachment of the 1st/4th (Air Assault) demi-company in the ruins overlooking Objective 6.

Undaunted, the loyalist advance continued. The Ogryns stubbornly marched for objective 3, only to be cut down by the concentrated bolter fire of the surviving signals company detachment.

Bloodied but unbowed, with shells from the traitor Rapier quad-launchers falling among them, the Imperial Fists advanced, while a Solar Auxilia tercio rushed to secure the central building. Denied a charge against the hated Aethon Heavy Sentinels, the Word Bearers assault marines fired their jump packs and descended on the Auxilia instead. In the ensuing mêlée, the traitors took heavy casualties and nearly wiped out the tercio.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, the firefight continued. The Xiphons unleashed their lascannons and missiles on the Sentinels, destroying three of them. Loyalist return fire blew up a Sicaran and a Kratos on the traitor right flank, and a salvo from one of the Warhounds destroyed two Predator tanks.

Having deployed its cargo of tactical marines, the hovering Storm Eagle turned on the Imperial Fists Dreadnoughts and scythed them down.

On the traitor left, the Yat-Kha Malcadors paid for their impetuous advance as the Imperial Fists destroyed one and damaged another.

The Yat-Kha Stormblade and Leman Russes accounted for a loyalist Malcador and Sicaran.

Finally, the Word Bearers air assault detachment avenged their signals brethren by bringing down the last Aethon.

The carnage was terrible, with dead bodies and burning tanks littering the battlefield. The traitor tank company and the loyalist Auxilia both broke, with the loyalist Leman Russes and the surviving Sicarans on both sides running away!

Although the tide of the battle was turning, with the loyalist side taking heavy losses, no objectives changed hands this turn.

Victory points:

Loyalists: 34 VP

Traitors: 34 VP

**

The battle was bloody, but with both sides fully engaged, the loyalists mounted a counter-attack. The last surviving Ogryns charged objective 3, but fell to the fire of the Word Bearer signal detachment.

The Imperial Fists secured the central building, mopping up the last of the traitor assault marines.

Behind them, the Warhound Titans strode forth to challenge the traitor armor, while the Word Bearer aircraft screamed down on them. The traitor Terminators charged the Imperial Fists defending objective 1, but were unceremoniously wiped out in close combat.

The Word Bearer jetbikes swooped in on the surviving loyalist Malcador and destroyed it, and the traitor tanks concentrated their fire on the Warhound contesting objective 2. As its void shields collapsed in a shower of sparks, the Storm Eagle and Xiphon Interceptors opened fire on the Titan's rear armor. With a terrible metallic groan, the Titan collapsed.

At the end of Turn 3, five of the objectives were in traitor hands, and the battle was effectively over.

Victory points:

Loyalists: 38 VP

Traitors: 59 VP

**

We decided to play turn 4, mostly so that the remaining Warhound would get a proper chance to shoot at my tanks.

It did so, and the tanks and Storm Eagle knocked down its void shields, and the Xiphons scored their second Titan kill of the game.

Game ends: traitor victory.

**

Tanks blew up, Titans fell over and infantry died in droves. It was also excellent fun and I want to do more of it.

I've read a number of complaints about Legions online, and I have to say that I don't understand some of them. Keeping track of formation break points, for example, is a simple matter of some tally marks on a piece of paper, or just putting the casualties in one pile and keeping count of them. Overall I found the system quite fluid and easy to understand, although I will admit we forgot about some special rules.

Since we were both new to the game, neither of us really knew what we were doing. I'm happy I had a plan of sorts and more or less stuck to it. I could have manoeuvered my Auxilia tanks a lot better, though. Having air superiority certainly helped, but it's a luxury I'm pretty sure I won't be able to enjoy too often in the future.

Legions appears to be very lethal, as our piles of casualties attest. I was especially shocked by the Aethon Sentinels just casually wiping out my Tactical Marines, and also quite disappointed at how badly the assault marines and especially the Terminators did.

**

As a final note, in recognition of my Xiphons' titan-killing prowess, I added little Warhound kill markings to them in memory of this first game.

So to sum up, Legions Imperialis is a great game, and I hope I get to play it again soon.