BATTLE REPORT: NIGHT LORDS/WORLD EATERS vs EMPERORS CHILDREN/SALAMANDERS

On Saturday the 17th May 2019 at 4TK Gaming in Colchester the Traitor forces of the Night Lords and World Eaters massed at the Warmaster Horus’ behest to face off against Loyalist Salamanders and Emperors Children fragments in a 12,000 point all up War of Lies battle on an Apocalypse table.

The armies were as follows:

Salamanders (Loyalist)

Praetor, Artificer Armour, Bolt Pistol, Digital Lasers, Iron Halo, Mantle of the Elder Drake, Mastercrafted Paragon Blade (200)

Firedrake Terminator Squad 4x Storm Shield, 4x Thunderhammer, 4x Firedrakes, 1x Firedrake Master with Mastercrafted Thunderhammer and Storm shield (355)

Veteran Tactical Squad, 4x Combi Melta, Stalkers tactic, Sergeant with Artificer Armour and Artificer Weapons (175)

Pyroclast Squad, 4x Pyroclast, 1x Warden, Artificer Weapons, Power Fist (180)
Pyroclast Squad, 4x Pyroclast, 1x Warden, Artificer Weapons, Power Fist (180)

Legion Heavy Support Squad, Multi Meltas (230)
Spartan with Aux Drive, Flare Shield, Frag Launchers, Armoured Ceramite (390)

Vulkan (425)
Shadowsword with Space Marine Crew (505)

Emperors Children (Loyalist)

Champion: artificer armour; Phoenix power spear; melta bombs; refractor field; sonic shrieker 135

Chaplain: artificer armour; power fist; refractor field; sonic shrieker 130

Praetor: Rite of War (The Maru Skara); Paragon blade (master-crafted); digital lasers; iron halo; sonic shrieker 185

10 Tactical Space Marines: Tactical Sergeant (artificer armour; power fist); 9 Tactical Space Marines 150
• Rhino: pintle-mounted multi-melta 50

10 Tactical Space Marines: Tactical Sergeant (power fist); 9 Tactical Space Marines 140
• Rhino: pintle-mounted multi-melta 50

Contemptor-Cortus Class Dreadnought Talon
• Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnought: Dreadnought close combat weapon (meltagun); Dreadnought close combat weapon (meltagun) 165
• Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnought: Dreadnought close combat weapon (meltagun); Dreadnought close combat weapon (meltagun) 165

8 Phoenix Terminators: Phoenix Champion (grenade harness); 7 Phoenix Terminators; sonic shriekers 410
• Spartan Assault Tank: auxiliary drive; armoured ceramite; flare shield 380

10 Palatine Warriors: Palatine Prefector (Phoenix power spear; melta bombs); 9 Palatine Warriors; 6 × power sword; 3 × Phoenix power spear; sonic shriekers 330

Apothecarion Detachment
• Apothecary: artificer armour; power sword 65

Javelin Attack Speeder Squadron
• Javelin Attack Speeder: pintle-mounted multi-melta; hull-mounted twin-linked lascannon; 2 × hunter-killer missiles 85
• Javelin Attack Speeder: pintle-mounted multi-melta; hull-mounted twin-linked lascannon; 2 × hunter-killer missiles 85

Storm Eagle Assault Gunship: hull-mounted twin-linked multi-melta; 2 wing-mounted twin-linked lascannon; armoured ceramite 285

3,000 points

Night Lords:

The only list I have is my own: Night Lords 3rd Company
Legiones Astartes

Praetor in Terminator armour: Terminator armour (Cataphractii); volkite charger; Paragon blade (master-crafted); digital lasers; iron halo; Trophies of Judgement 207

10 Terror Squad Executioners: Headsman (artificer armour; power fist; volkite charger); 9 Terror Squad Executioners; 9 × volkite charger 275

9 Terminators: Terminator Sergeant (volkite charger; power fist); 8 Terminators; Terminator armour (Cataphractii); 8 × volkite charger; 8 × power weapon; plasma blaster 378

8 Night Raptors: Huntmaster (artificer armour; volkite serpenta; Nostraman chainglaive; melta bombs); 7 Night Raptors; 4 × power weapon; 3 × Nostraman chainglaive 310

Primaris-Lightning Strike Fighter: 3 × 2 wing-mounted Kraken penetrator heavy missiles; battle servitor control; ground-tracking auguries 265

Storm Eagle Assault Gunship: hull-mounted twin-linked multi-melta; 2 wing-mounted twin-linked lascannon; armoured ceramite; extra armour 290

Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought: Arachnus pattern heavy lascannon battery; carapace-mounted Aiolos missile launcher; armoured ceramite 290

Konrad Curze 435

Force Organisation Chart: Crusade

Legiones Astartes: Night Lords; Traitor

3,000 points

World Eaters (Summary list):
Berzerker Assault RoW:
Captain Kharn
Angron
10x Red Butchers with twin axes
20x Man Inductii Squad
20x Man Tactical Squad x2
Spartan w/Flare Shield/Armoured Ceramite x2
Leviathan Dreadnought with Grav Bombard and Snippy Claw
Contemptor Dreadnought with twin claws and meltaguns

Text Batrep:

T1: Night Fighting in effect on a 2+ due to Terror Assault and Curze

Loyalists managed to ping the Leviathan and immobilise it – really unfortunate but hey. The Shadowsword was majorly ineffective and a solid amount of screening during traitor deployment meant that the loyalists had to move to engage.

I infiltrated my Terror Squads and annihilated a sizeable selection of Salamanders infantry with volkite (WOOOOOOMMP) , Deredeo destroyed an errant Rhino and the World Eaters advanced.

T2: Daylight Breaks….

Loyalists focussed fire on the World Eaters Spartans advancing forwards and attempted to destroy the Night Lords Terror Squads. One Terror Squad was lost to a Sallies praetor. One of the Loyalist EC Javelin Speeders fired into the rear of the World Eaters Night Lords Lend Lease Spartan to no effect! Ones rolled all round! Traitors spent much of the turn returning fire on to Rhinos and popping them. Night Lords Primaris-Lightning popped the Salamanders Spartan, debussing vulkan and the firedrakes.

T3: Reinforcements arrive, but the Traitors are ready for them…

Loyalists brought in their Storm Eagle loaded with Palatine Blades, a Praetor and Apothecary. Deredeo took a few hits, dropping it to 1 HP. I declared Interceptor – promptly dropped the Storm eagle. World Eaters debussed the Red Butchers and caused absolute carnage, with Angron and Vulkan duking it out. Curze landed down with Night Raptors and started to clear the left flank of Salamanders infantry. Deredeo promptly deleted the Storm Eagle and killed all inside but the Praetor and Apothecary due to crash and burn.

T4: The battle rages on….

Loyalists killed Angron and went right flanking hard with the EC Spartan and Phoenix Terminators. Hail Mary Shadowsword shot destroyed the Deredeo. Traitors blew up another rhino and killed a few more squads of infantry. Night Lords Storm eagle came on and began its run down the right flank, laden with Atramentar.

T5: Devastating firepower exchanged to the last….

Night Raptors took a massive hit – killing all of them and leaving Curze alive. Traitors returned fire with a volley from the Primaris at the Shadowsword and bringing the Storm Eagle to bear with Atramentar. Curze did clear up the left, but i messed up combat rules so he wasn’t as potent as he should have been. Ended up in combat with a praetor for 2 turns….

Game ended on T5 with the result of War of Lies being:

Loyalists: 18VP
Traitors: 18VP

Summary:
Overall the game took about 6hrs. This is taking the game in a fairly laid back manner and drinking copious tea and coffee. Not bad for having 12,000 points on the table! I’m getting more comfortable with the Night Lords as an army and really starting to find my feet with them now – hopefully a bit more experimentation will see me find out the best way of using Curze and Night Raptors as im still struggling with both! Volkite is definitely my favourite weapon and i’m half tempted to get a Glaive!

Despite the unluckiness of the Leviathan suffering an immobilisation T1, it still was useful in clearing out the Phoenix terminators on the right flank. Model of the match for myself was definitely the Deredeo that more than doubled it’s points in a single round of shooting, whilst doing significant damage to other targets in other rounds. The Emperors Children certainly showed solid force and were genuinely unlucky to have their Storm Eagle downed by the Night Lords Deredeo before they could disembark.. The Night Lords Storm Eagle did well enough to get the Atramentar down on the right flank, where they secured an all important objective, but it too suffered immense damage to perform this drop. The Salamanders took an initial scything blow from the Terror Squads, losing an entire squad to the Volkite chargers, but their Praetor took revenge! At the end, Vulkan was still chuntering around on the table with the firedrakes after being embattled with Angron and the Red Butchers for a ridiculous period of time!

This game really captured why Horus Heresy games are so good. The rules are just right to balance the ridiculous amounts of firepower on hand and it plays so much more tactically than 8th Edition 40K does right now. The amount of fun had by all was massive and has certainly cemented big Heresy games as a staple for us in the near future.

I’d like to thank James for arranging (@wrights_adventurers_guild), Dave and Matt for attending and being part of a great game!