Unity B4 Heresy Presents: Friends of the Blog a Horus Heresy gaming experience.
*Incoming Transmission * #10100010001 - Evening everyone, Tylar here! Due to random acts of Scrap code invasion and some hefty Vox transmissions we've finally been able to bring you our first 'Friends of the Blog' post.
Now King Fluff and I were lucky enough to meet JohnGG a few years ago at an event by the guys over at Greetingd From the Warp. John and I faced off against each other in true vengeance match style with his Iron Warriors versus my Imperial Fists. Thanks to a lats minute ruling I won out by a single victory point which had seen JohnGG weather my army plus it's attached Warhound Titan!
Suffice to say it was such a good game we hit it off and have remained in contact since. Anyway enough waffling for now let me present what may become the first of a few posts from JohnGG on his gaming experiences from the recent Throne of Skulls event held at Warhammer World in Nottingham. Enjoy. - 0101001110001#
Guest blogger JohnGG here and I'm going to be taking you through my experience of the Horus Heresy Throne of Skulls weekend held at Warhammer World on the 9/10th February. I was very much looking forward to this event as it would be the first outing for my new White Scars army. I was glad to see the start times on both days were put back to 1030. Which meant we could set off from home a little later on the Saturday and enjoy a little lay in on the Sunday.
Both days we had one game before lunch and two after. I personally feel this is a better way of organising the weekend as it makes for less hurried mornings and therefore more relaxed atmosphere. It also meant that we could enjoy a proper Saturday night relaxing and sharing a beer with like-minded nerds.
As always there were painting competitions aplenty; best army nominations and of course the awards ceremony at the end of the day on Sunday. The usual painting categories were for Hero of Legend, Company of Legend and Icon of Legend. Other awards were for Best Army and Most Sporting player. But really, we were all there to see who would be crowned Throne of Skulls Champion.
The GW events team stuck with the usual format of five games over two days, all standard missions from the age of darkness rulebook with armies set at 2500 points; missions and deployments being rolled randomly before the beginning of each round.
A quick note on the army I was taking. My White Scars were led by a Praetor utilising the Chogorian brotherhood rite of war. Usual praetor load out (unit we get Book 8!) Paragon blade, Digital lasers; Iron halo, Cyber-hawk and riding a bike. He was accompanied by a five-man command squad on bikes all with Melta bombs and two armed with power weapons.
For my compulsory troop choices I took two squadrons of outriders. One 8 man Squadron with twin linked plasma guns, the second Squadron of nine Marines had melta-bombs, three power axes and the Sergeant equipped with a power glaive. As a second headquarters choice I took a Moritat with artifice armour, two Volkite serpenta’s; Power glaive, melta-bombs and combat shield. He ran with a unit of five destroyers all with melta-bombs, a missile launcher and a Sgt with donning artificer armour. My last unit of infantry was a squad of 8 seekers with five combi-plasmas, two combi-meltas, the strike leader having artificer armour and a Power glaive. I took Some mobile heavy weapons in the form of two attack bikes both armed with multi-meltas and melta-bombs
Last part of my army consisted of a sub-orbital strike wing of two lightning strike Fighters, the first having two twin-linked autocannons and two Kraken penetrator heavy missiles also equipped with battle servitor control and ground tracking auguries. The second lightning carried a phosphex bomb cluster and to electromagnetic storm charges.
Saturday
Game One - Alpha Legion
A thoroughly enjoyable game, Alpharius himself leading a pride of the legion army, consisted of two units of Lernean terminator squads in Dreadclaws pods, a couple of heavy squads and a land raider with more terminators. A surprisingly manoeuvrable army, I had difficulty taking out the Dreadclaws meaning my enemy could relocate his terminators very efficiently. Alpharius also managed to single-handedly take out the entire infantry division of my army, unsurprisingly. A good game but and narrow loss for me.
Game Two - Imperial Fists
My second game was against the emperors praetorians led by Pollux in a steel gauntlet army of 2 full breacher squads mounted in Land raiders, Pollux and his bodyguard of nine terminators all with power fists and storm Shields, rode in a Spartan. Also in the army were a Whirlwind Scorpius, Leviathan and a Vindicator.
The first turns of this game were punishing for me as the Imperial fist gunline aimed to take out as many of my bikes as possible before my reserves could enter the battlefield. By the end of turn two my bike squadrons has taken a beating. However, my reserves then arrived and the game swung my way. When the dust had settled at the end of tern six I had decimated the Imperial fists and none of my units had been fully destroyed, crushing victory though the game was certainly closer than the scores would show.
Game Three - White Scars
Game three was a mirror match against another White scar player we re-enacted the schism in the Legion not knowing until the end which one of us was the traitor. My opponent's army was mainly jetbikes but also supported by two Sicaran venators and a lightning. This was a bloody game as we rushed to reach each other in the middle of the board. I squeezed out a narrow victory only as I gunned down his praetor in a hail of plasma fire and my own praetor managed to carve a blood swathe through my enemies remaining jetbikes.
Sunday
Game Four – Questoris Knights
As they're using the Swiss system, my two victories yesterday propelled me further up the field I now face a knight household consisting of five knights and a squadron of two warglaives. My army completely ill-equipped to take on god engines of Mars who took less than 20 minutes to stomp me into submission. I didn't even get a second turn having been wiped out in my opponents second assault phase.
Game Five – Mechanicum (Ordo Reductor)
It was a joy to see who I'd be up against for my last game as I knew this game would not only be challenging but very fun. My opponent has a beautifully painted Mechanicum army of the ordo reductor. Three units of six Thallax, a Magos, with some sneaky tricks and three squadrons of tanks. My opponent seeing the swiftness of my own army castled in the corner of the board guarding is flanks with his tanks. My Praetor lead the charge as I closed the distance between us as quickly as possible as his firepower was overwhelming. I managed to get into assault on turn two and began the laborious task of chewing through his toughness 5, 3 wound robots. When my lightnings got onto the board they spent most of the gaming jinking and moving as slowly as possible towards the enemy tanks trying to inflict any kind of damage. I was unlucky not to be able to do more damage than I did and lost the game narrowly by two points
As is becoming standard with the Horus heresy scene, the paint jobs of most armies (90% I would say) was very high. Most armies were built around solid narrative themes but still strong game wise too. I believe all legions were represented as where Solar Auxillia, Talons of the Emperor (which included units both Custodians AND Sisters of Silence) and four mechanicum armies rounded out the showing.
It was a good event, the changes to the schedule were great as this made for a more relaxed atmosphere I feel. We were also not penned into one corner of the games hall as has been the case in previous years, so had more room to manoeuvre.
It’s my opinion that the events team could do more to innovate these events as in essence all we are doing is playing five random games against five random people. I’d like to see either more variation in the games themselves or some more links between the games. This event didn’t feel like a tournament and that fits better with how Heresy players tend to play, therefore I feel the GW events team need to have a think about how to provide a quality experience for our brand of gaming.
So there you have it folks. I really enjoyed reading about the event from JohnGG's point of view. I haven't been able to attend any gaming events for the past year because of weekend commitments but I'm looking forwards to helping staff some of the up-coming King Fluff events. I know JohnGG is keen to follow this on as he's attending Cataclysm of Iron this weekend coming. Hopefully he'll be kind enough to grace our page again.
We hope you've enjoyed it too feel free to comment below and don't forget to follow the log for the most up-to-date news from us here at Unity B4 Heresy.
As always.
Only In Death Does Duty End
- Tylar, JohnGG
Now King Fluff and I were lucky enough to meet JohnGG a few years ago at an event by the guys over at Greetingd From the Warp. John and I faced off against each other in true vengeance match style with his Iron Warriors versus my Imperial Fists. Thanks to a lats minute ruling I won out by a single victory point which had seen JohnGG weather my army plus it's attached Warhound Titan!
Suffice to say it was such a good game we hit it off and have remained in contact since. Anyway enough waffling for now let me present what may become the first of a few posts from JohnGG on his gaming experiences from the recent Throne of Skulls event held at Warhammer World in Nottingham. Enjoy. - 0101001110001#
Guest blogger JohnGG here and I'm going to be taking you through my experience of the Horus Heresy Throne of Skulls weekend held at Warhammer World on the 9/10th February. I was very much looking forward to this event as it would be the first outing for my new White Scars army. I was glad to see the start times on both days were put back to 1030. Which meant we could set off from home a little later on the Saturday and enjoy a little lay in on the Sunday.
Both days we had one game before lunch and two after. I personally feel this is a better way of organising the weekend as it makes for less hurried mornings and therefore more relaxed atmosphere. It also meant that we could enjoy a proper Saturday night relaxing and sharing a beer with like-minded nerds.
As always there were painting competitions aplenty; best army nominations and of course the awards ceremony at the end of the day on Sunday. The usual painting categories were for Hero of Legend, Company of Legend and Icon of Legend. Other awards were for Best Army and Most Sporting player. But really, we were all there to see who would be crowned Throne of Skulls Champion.
The GW events team stuck with the usual format of five games over two days, all standard missions from the age of darkness rulebook with armies set at 2500 points; missions and deployments being rolled randomly before the beginning of each round.
A quick note on the army I was taking. My White Scars were led by a Praetor utilising the Chogorian brotherhood rite of war. Usual praetor load out (unit we get Book 8!) Paragon blade, Digital lasers; Iron halo, Cyber-hawk and riding a bike. He was accompanied by a five-man command squad on bikes all with Melta bombs and two armed with power weapons.
For my compulsory troop choices I took two squadrons of outriders. One 8 man Squadron with twin linked plasma guns, the second Squadron of nine Marines had melta-bombs, three power axes and the Sergeant equipped with a power glaive. As a second headquarters choice I took a Moritat with artifice armour, two Volkite serpenta’s; Power glaive, melta-bombs and combat shield. He ran with a unit of five destroyers all with melta-bombs, a missile launcher and a Sgt with donning artificer armour. My last unit of infantry was a squad of 8 seekers with five combi-plasmas, two combi-meltas, the strike leader having artificer armour and a Power glaive. I took Some mobile heavy weapons in the form of two attack bikes both armed with multi-meltas and melta-bombs
Last part of my army consisted of a sub-orbital strike wing of two lightning strike Fighters, the first having two twin-linked autocannons and two Kraken penetrator heavy missiles also equipped with battle servitor control and ground tracking auguries. The second lightning carried a phosphex bomb cluster and to electromagnetic storm charges.
Saturday
Game One - Alpha Legion
A thoroughly enjoyable game, Alpharius himself leading a pride of the legion army, consisted of two units of Lernean terminator squads in Dreadclaws pods, a couple of heavy squads and a land raider with more terminators. A surprisingly manoeuvrable army, I had difficulty taking out the Dreadclaws meaning my enemy could relocate his terminators very efficiently. Alpharius also managed to single-handedly take out the entire infantry division of my army, unsurprisingly. A good game but and narrow loss for me.
Game Two - Imperial Fists
My second game was against the emperors praetorians led by Pollux in a steel gauntlet army of 2 full breacher squads mounted in Land raiders, Pollux and his bodyguard of nine terminators all with power fists and storm Shields, rode in a Spartan. Also in the army were a Whirlwind Scorpius, Leviathan and a Vindicator.
The first turns of this game were punishing for me as the Imperial fist gunline aimed to take out as many of my bikes as possible before my reserves could enter the battlefield. By the end of turn two my bike squadrons has taken a beating. However, my reserves then arrived and the game swung my way. When the dust had settled at the end of tern six I had decimated the Imperial fists and none of my units had been fully destroyed, crushing victory though the game was certainly closer than the scores would show.
Game Three - White Scars
Game three was a mirror match against another White scar player we re-enacted the schism in the Legion not knowing until the end which one of us was the traitor. My opponent's army was mainly jetbikes but also supported by two Sicaran venators and a lightning. This was a bloody game as we rushed to reach each other in the middle of the board. I squeezed out a narrow victory only as I gunned down his praetor in a hail of plasma fire and my own praetor managed to carve a blood swathe through my enemies remaining jetbikes.
Sunday
Game Four – Questoris Knights
As they're using the Swiss system, my two victories yesterday propelled me further up the field I now face a knight household consisting of five knights and a squadron of two warglaives. My army completely ill-equipped to take on god engines of Mars who took less than 20 minutes to stomp me into submission. I didn't even get a second turn having been wiped out in my opponents second assault phase.
Game Five – Mechanicum (Ordo Reductor)
It was a joy to see who I'd be up against for my last game as I knew this game would not only be challenging but very fun. My opponent has a beautifully painted Mechanicum army of the ordo reductor. Three units of six Thallax, a Magos, with some sneaky tricks and three squadrons of tanks. My opponent seeing the swiftness of my own army castled in the corner of the board guarding is flanks with his tanks. My Praetor lead the charge as I closed the distance between us as quickly as possible as his firepower was overwhelming. I managed to get into assault on turn two and began the laborious task of chewing through his toughness 5, 3 wound robots. When my lightnings got onto the board they spent most of the gaming jinking and moving as slowly as possible towards the enemy tanks trying to inflict any kind of damage. I was unlucky not to be able to do more damage than I did and lost the game narrowly by two points
As is becoming standard with the Horus heresy scene, the paint jobs of most armies (90% I would say) was very high. Most armies were built around solid narrative themes but still strong game wise too. I believe all legions were represented as where Solar Auxillia, Talons of the Emperor (which included units both Custodians AND Sisters of Silence) and four mechanicum armies rounded out the showing.
It was a good event, the changes to the schedule were great as this made for a more relaxed atmosphere I feel. We were also not penned into one corner of the games hall as has been the case in previous years, so had more room to manoeuvre.
It’s my opinion that the events team could do more to innovate these events as in essence all we are doing is playing five random games against five random people. I’d like to see either more variation in the games themselves or some more links between the games. This event didn’t feel like a tournament and that fits better with how Heresy players tend to play, therefore I feel the GW events team need to have a think about how to provide a quality experience for our brand of gaming.
So there you have it folks. I really enjoyed reading about the event from JohnGG's point of view. I haven't been able to attend any gaming events for the past year because of weekend commitments but I'm looking forwards to helping staff some of the up-coming King Fluff events. I know JohnGG is keen to follow this on as he's attending Cataclysm of Iron this weekend coming. Hopefully he'll be kind enough to grace our page again.
We hope you've enjoyed it too feel free to comment below and don't forget to follow the log for the most up-to-date news from us here at Unity B4 Heresy.
As always.
Only In Death Does Duty End
- Tylar, JohnGG
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