Forge World Releases Acastus Knight Porphyrion

A new Knight hits the battlefield and it is big!

The Master of Mankind from The Black Library

The long awaited book on the Emperor is here!

The Gaming Books of the Horus Heresy

What books do you need for your Horus Heresy Gaming?

Mechanicum Macrocarid Explorator Arrives!

 

There is a  new tank in town and it is awesome!

Custodes Contemptor and What's Coming!

The Custodes get a custom Contemptor!

Caladius Grav Tank is Here!

The Caladius Grav Tank makes its debut at Warhammer World Open Day!

Prospero Comes to Warhammer World

Warhammer World builds Prospero!

Forge World Teases The Macrocarid Explorator

The Mechanicum gets a new transport!

Custodes Hover Tank Inbound!

Custodes get a ride!

Custodes and Sisters of Silence Rules Released!

Rules are out for Custodes and Sisters of Silence on the official GW web page.

A REAL Chainsword!

Man at Arms makes a real-life chainsword!

Prospero Custodes and Sisters of SIlence Stat Rumors

 

Custodes and SIsters of Silence rumored stats.

The Burning of Prospero is Coming!

Prospero Burns!

Magnus the Red Daemon Primarch Spotted

Magnus the Red is coming!

40K Lore: Stormbird – On Wings of Glory

The coming of the Stormbird!

Forge World Releases Thousand Sons Transfers

Forge World takes on the sons!

Custom Mastodon!

What you really want is a custom Mastodon!

The Horus Heresy Reading Order

The Black Library has released a web page with the reading order for The Horus Heresy Books.

November White Dwarf has Custodes and Prospero!

The NOVEMBER cover of White Dwarf has Custodes and "The Burning of Prospero" game.

Horus Heresy Review: Deredeo Dreanought

A guest blog by Rob Hill of 30Kplus40K

Raglan's Mastodon

Raglan from the Heresy30K forums posted these photos of his amazing Mastadon!

Thousand Sons Canon

A guest blog by Stephan from the Heresy30K forum

So, while I was rereading A Thousand Sons, I decided to take some notes to use when fleshing out my Sons 30K force.  I've copied those notes below and will continue to updated as I re-read Prospero Burns if any new info is in there.  If you have info that I'm missing, please let me know and I'll continue to add to this post.

Thousand Sons use the term Fellowship instead of Chapter.  They also only have 9 of these Fellowships instead of the usual 10.  They started with 10, but after suffering severe losses to one Fellowship, Magnus consolidated them into 9.  In Egyptian, a grouping of 9 gods is called a pesedjet, which is a term seen over and over again with the Sons.  9, also a grouping of 3x3, is seen as an auspicious number in historical numerology, and is also the number of the Chaos god Tzeench (which I'm guessing the Sons didn't realize back in the day).  Each Fellowship is composed of a mix of psykers from the different Temples.

Fellowships:
1st - The Scarab Occult
 - Captain:  Ahriman, Chief Librarian, Corvidae Temple Master
 - Symbol:  Scarab
 - Notes:  This is Magnus' elite psyker unit and also composed of terminators

2nd -
 - Captain:  Phosis T'Kar, Raptora Temple Master
 - Symbol:  Pheonix
 - Notes:  Phosis T'Kar went through Flesh Change during invasion of Prospero and was killed by the Custodes Valdor.

3rd -
 - Captain:  Hathor Maat, Pavoni Temple Master
 - Symbol:  Unknown
 - Notes:  Hathor Maat survived invasion of Prospero

4th -
 - Captain:  Ankhu Anen, Guardian of the Great Library, Corvidae Temple
 - Symbol:  Unknown
 - Notes:  Ankhu Anen died defending the Great Library during the invasion of Prospero

5th -
 - Captain:  Uthizzar, Athanaean Temple Master
 - Symbol:  Unknown
 - Notes:  Uthizzar was killed by Magus to prevent Uthizzar from alerting the rest of the Legion that the Space Wolves were about to invade.

6th -
 - Captain:  Khalophis, Pyrae Temple Master
 - Symbol:  Unknown
 - Notes:  Khalophis was betrayed by his Tutelary and destroyed with the Titan Canis Vertex during the invasion of Prospero.

7th -
 - Captain:  Phael Toron, Raptora Temple
 - Symbol:  Unknown
 - Notes:  The 7th were the Fellowship which remained on Prospero during the Great Crusade to train new recruits and protect the homeworld.  Phael Toron was betrayed by his Tutelary who fed so much power through him that Phael Toron detonated in a warp explosion 1km across, which is also what ultimately brought down the Canis Vertex.

8th -
 - Captain:  Auramagma, Pyrae Temple
 - Symbol:  Unknown
 - Notes:  Killed by Space Wolves during the invasion of Prospero.

9th - The Hidden Ones
 - Captain:  Amon, Corvidae Temple
 - Symbol:  Unknown
 - Notes:  This Fellowship provides Scouts and Amon serves as Magnus' spy master.

Temples:
 - Corvidae:  Scrying/Divination, Symbol is a raven's head
 - Athanaean:  Telepathy, Symbol is an eye or owl (??)
 - Pavoni:  Biomancy, Symbol is a colorful feather
 - Raptora:  Telekenesis, Symbol is a raptor's talon (??)
 - Pyrae:  Pyrokenesis, Symbol is a pheonix



As a huge Thousand Sons fan myself, I appreciate Stephan putting this together!

Loken

Forge World: New Releases Warlord Titan Parts!

Forge World released new Warlord TItan parts and a new Web App for customizing the Warlord Titan!

Forge World releases Solar Auxilia Surgeon-Primus Aevos Jovan & Medicae Orderlies

A new model in the Character Series has been released.

First Primarch Book Released!

Black Library has released the first of the amazing limited editions on the Primarchs.

Black Library Releases The Silent War

A new Horus Heresy novel is coming from The Black Library.

Space Wolves Upgrades are here.

Forge World has released Space Wolves upgrades for 30K.

Horus Heresy Review: Legion Mastodon Heavy Assault Transport

A guest blog by Rob Hill of 30K Plus 40K.

Today I'm going to delve into one of the newer offerings from forge world for the Legiones Astartes, the giant delivery truck of death that is the Mastodon Heavy Assault Transport. This is a delivery truck of death in both the sense that its occupants are likely to be a bundle of death but also the vehicle itself has serious offensive capabilities. And for the princely base price of 700 points you would bloody hope so!

Unit Stats

Ok so the Mastodon comes with the following profile:

BS  Front   Side   Rear   HP

 4      14        14      14    10

This is, in and of itself, impressive! Especially as it is a super-heavy transport so it cannot be one shot exploded by a lucky gunner. It needs to have all of those HP's ground down to zero. It has no fire points, but it can carry up to 40 regular models, though as part of this complement it can also carry up to 2 contemptor dreadnoughts with each counting as 10 models for the purpose of carrying capacity.

Additionally the Mastodon has two access points which are at the front and the rear of the vehicle.

Overview - even before you delve into the equipment and special rules of the Mastodon it has a fearsome presence on the table and this only improves the more you look at it.

Special Rules

The Mastodon, as one might expect, has a plethora of special rules to compliment its hulking exterior. These are Assault Vehicle, Enhanced Defensive Fire, Reinforced Shell and Void Shields (2).

Assault Vehicle - lets start with the simple one first, this vehicle is obviously designed to deliver a deadly payload and there wouldn't be much point to the bloody thing if you had to stand around scratching your arse (or ass for our West Atlantic cousins) for a turn!

Void Shields (2) - That is right! This AV14, 10HP monstrosity also has TWO AV12 void shields. Collapsed by glancing, penetrating and D hits, these can be returned on a roll of a 5+ at the end of each of your turns. Dear Throne this thing is surviviable.

Enhanced Defensive Fire - As long as one unit still occupies the Mastodon it can use its sponsons to fire overwatch, thus removing the negative of having zero fire ports. This overwatch is fired at BS2 for the standard weapons, whereas template weapons inflict D3+1 automatic hits. So its overwatch fire is better than normal! The most effective way to deal with this machine, close combat, just became a less friendly prospect... These can fire only once but at separate units as long as the unit is in their arc of fire.

Reinforced Shell - A lovely rule in a game where often bigger and badder is better. The armoured shell of the Mastodon is so secure that it contain and blast that occurs. Therefore you apply a -2 modifier to the catastrophic damage table when rolling for the Mastodon's destruction. Should a 0 or -1 occur then the Mastodon remains in play but functions as a ruined building, with both doors acting as free access points. Very fluffy and cool.

Equipment

As you would expect this beast is loaded with weapons and other equipment, lets just start with the standard equipped offensive battery shall we:

Two Sponson Mounted Lascannons - The standard lascannon that can fire overwatch (only its arc of fire) at BS2.

Two Sponson Mounted Heavy Flamers - Standard Heavy flamers with D3+1 overwatch

One Fixed Forward Siege Melta Array - 12", S9, AP1, Heavy 4, Small Blast, Melta, Stone Burner

Stone Burner - if this weapon inflicts a penetrating hit against a fortification or building then it instead causes D3 penetrating hits.

One Turret-mounted Skyreaper Battery - 48", S7, AP4, Heavy 5, Twin-linked, Skyfire, Interceptor

OK so the Mastodon has pretty much everything covered here! Flamers for hordes, lascannons for armour, skyfire and interceptor for flyers and then magma death cannon for anything stupid enough to sit within 12 inches in front of its face! Blimey oh riley!

In addition to its offensive arsenal the Mastodon also has a searchlight, smoke launchers AND armoured ceramite to boot. So you not only have 10 AV14 hull points nestled behind two AV12 void shield, but it also isn't vulnerable to ranged melta!!

Options

Optional extras with this beast include the following: 4 hunter killer missiles, an upgrade to be a super heavy command vehicle, an upgrade to have command vox relay.

Command Vox Relay - While the Mastodon is in play this allows you to add or subtract 1 to your reserve rolls. In addition any deep striking enemy units that suffer a mishap will have -1 applied to the deep strike mishap table as long as the Mastodon is in play.

Super Heavy Command Vehicle - As far as I am aware this allows re-roll of morale within 24 inches. Any one care to correct me if that is wrong?

Utilization

This will be a short section as this is a pretty self explanatory! You pack it full of death and drive it at the heart of the enemy. There is no room for being timid with this UNLESS you are facing something packing  shit tonne of destroyer weaponry. D weapons are pretty much the only serious threat to this other than a Primarch in close combat with retinue. But you shouldn't be letting yourself get charged really, but dictating the charges.

I would recommend the command vox relay if you have any reserve support coming in like flyers, but otherwise give it a miss. In terms of the command vehicle, that could be very very useful in 30k given that Astartes are not fearless, but again that really depends on what you have put inside of it!

So much of how you use this depends on the rest of your force that I will leave that up to you :)

Peace out,

Rob

Check our Rob's blog at 30K Plus 40K Equals Infinity.

Black Library Releases "The Path of Heaven" Novel

A new White Scars novel is coming from The Black Library

The Primarchs Novels Sneak Peek

 

Details are being leaked on the new Primarchs editions from The Black Library

Forge World Releases Cataphracti Shoulder Pads

Forge World has released legion-specific shoulder pads for Cataphracti Terminators.

Thousand Sons Contemptor and Armour Released

Forge World has released a Contemptor for the Thousand Sons and new armor upgrades.

Forge World Releases the Ordinatus Sagittar

The Ordinatus Sagittar is here!

Black Library releases Horus Heresy Pop Up Book!

The Black Library releases the Horus Heresy Pop-Up Book.  Check it out!

Black Library Releases The Seveth Serpent

 

THE STORY

Since the near-destruction of the Iron Hands, Raven Guard and Salamanders on Isstvan V, scattered warbands from these ‘shattered Legions’ have waged a guerrilla war on Horus’ forces across the galaxy. Now, the crew of the Sisypheum are drawn into a covert assault on a hidden Alpha Legion outpost – an assault orchestrated by none other than the infamous warleader Shadrak Meduson himself. But what does Meduson really hope to make from such a bold move against the sons of Alpharius, arguably the undisputed masters of deception…?

Written by Graham McNeill

You can order it on the Black Library website.

Loken

 

 

Horus Heresy Review - Thallax

A blog by guest author Rob Hill of From the Horus Heresy to Infinity and Beyond.

I am going to review them as a unit that fulfills an excellent troop slot in any 30k Mechanicum army. These are some absolutely fantastic troops that have toughness, mobility and a good swiss army knife of options to tailor them for specific goals.  

Stats

Thallax are mini monstrous creatures with an excellent strength and toughness coupled with 3 whole wounds! As a basic troop! They are pricey at 40 points each with only a 4+ save, but they also have a 6+ FNP to mitigate that somewhat as well as their base toughness making them harder to wound and multiple wounds requiring some seriously dedicated fire power to take them out. Bear in mind they will also only be insta-killed by S10 weaponry or instant death/remove from play special rules. 

WS  BS  S  T  W  I  A  LD  Sv

  3     4    5  5   3   2  2   8     4+

Thallax also come with the stubborn special rule, so with a marine competent level of leadership 8 they will not often be breaking. As jet pack infantry they are also bulky, which has little pertinence unless you are considering taking them in a Triaros armoured conveyor, however I will cover this build in a separate post for the Triaros.

Finally its worth noting that with some of the special rules and equipment upgrades available to this unit, they can be pretty decent in close combat with 2 attacks base. A base squad of 3 will put out 9 strength 5 hits on the charge which is nothing to sniff at in a pinch, even before you upgrade them. If you just add additional bodies, of which 6 can be taken, then they will do a fair number!

Equipment

Baseline equipment for the Thallax are the Lightning Gun and Djinn-sight. Djinn-sight represents their enhanced sensory system which is boosted through their augmetic helm. This beautiful piece of equipment causes -2 (2!!!!) to your opponents cover save when you shoot at them. This is absolutely fantastic and is key to how you utilise the Thallax. In terms of their basic guns, they have the following profile

Lighting Gun - S7, AP5, Heavy 1, Shred, Rending, 18" range.

At strength 7 you will be wounding most things on a 2 with a re-roll. Albeit this is a low rate of fire, but on a 6 you will ignore any armour. These guns don't excel at a great deal to be honest and so you will invariably want to give them some upgrades. Available to the Thallax are melta bombs (whole squad), a Photon Thruster, Phased plasma-fusil, multi-melta, multi-laser and an Irad-cleanser (1 per 3). The multi-melta and multi-laser are as standard but the other profiles are as follows:

Phased Plasma-fusil - S6, AP3, Salvo 2/3, 24" range.

Photon Thruster - S6, AP2, Heavy 2, Lance, Blind, Gets hot, 48" range. 

Irad-cleanser - S2, AP5, Assault 1, fleshbane, Rad Phage, Template.

The phased plasma-fusil is essentially 24" assault 3 due to jet pack infantry being relentless and so is an excellent troop killer with that AP3 and relatively high rate of fire. Its range is short but better than your standard guns which plus your mobility shouldn't be an issue. The Photon thruster has excellent range and a brilliant AP2 but you can ignore lance as you shouldn't be shooting at anything above AV12 and gets hot makes it a no-no for me. You can bleed wounds on a heavy 2 with only a 4+ save. Unlike battle-automata such as the Castellax with a Darkfire cannon you can't regain wounds. 

The irad cleanser is beautiful, yes it has a low AP5 but fleshbane you will wound on 2+ and rad phage will PERMANENTLY lower S and T by -1 for the rest of the game!

The multi laser adds a nice rate of fire to the squad but the multi melta should be skipped as melta bombs are better, with 3 attacks and circumventing armoured ceramite. You also have the option to take heavy chainblades for each thallax to increase their attacks to S7 and AP4. 

Thallax also have the option of an augment upgrade which gives them additional rules to help specialise their role, these range from 10-25 points:

Icarian: If stationary the Thallax gain skyfire and move to heavy support instead of troops. This doesn't sound amazing to begin with on basic troops, but even with the lightning guns you have to remember that you are putting -2 to there cover save so jinking on a 5+ at best! that will be 3 to glance the weakest vehicles and so they make a great little anti-air threat in a list low on flyers.

Ferrox: Grants rage and rending to close combat attacks. This gives them 4 S5 rending attacks on the charge. Though they now can't upgrade their lightning guns.

Destructor: Grants Tank Hunter special rule, brilliant when you give them melta bombs to ensure a big bang.

Empyrite: Gains a teleportation deep strike, which plays a role in Zone Mortalis but can be ignored here really. 

Overview - Thallax have a whole host of options and permutations open to them that allow you to really customise them as a unit. This is great but also can lead to the trap of investing to many points on a unit that only has a 4+ save.

Utilising

Personally I like to keep these squads small with 3-5 members and relatively low on upgrades. Melta bombs and Ferrox put a 3 man squad at 175 points. But they can literally threaten everything now, even charging a blob will put out 12 attacks, they can take pot shots at high toughness units and can melta bomb any vehicle into non-existence. If you have the points however, 6 man squad with plasma-fusils is a nice build. The 4 Thallax with lightning guns can still rend and take out 2+ saves and you have 6 S6 Ap3 shots pumping out of this unit. Icarian as an upgrade really does add some much needed skyfire ability to this list and any of the high rate of fire guns like the phased plasma-fusil/multilaser will help saturate flyers with their reduced jink saves. Though icarian plus melta bombs does allow you to tickle flyers as well as take out tanks. 

Overview - Much more so than Castellax, Thallax are a pick and mix unit and I couldn't possibly cover the whole scope of builds possible with them, but I would always suggest that you keep them focused on one priority with contingency for another, melta bombs are I think the best contingency as they will always present a threat to tanks on such a mobile unit, beyond that you can choose as you like. 

Peace out,

Rob Hill

Forge World Bundles for Shattered Legions

Forge World has releases bundle deals for the Shattered Legions.

Horus Heresy Book 6 Notes

All the info on what is in The Horus Heresy Book 6!

Horus Heresy Weekender Photos Part VII - The Batte of Prospero

The Horus Heresy Book VII: Inferno is coming!

Horus Heresy Weekender Photos Part VI - Forge World

The Forge World New Model Seminar.

Horus Heresy Weekender Photos Part V - Retribution

 

The Horus Heresy Book 6 - Retribution

Horus Heresy Weekender Photos Part IV - Heavy Weapons

Hours Heresy Heavy Weapons

Horus Heresy Weekender Photos Part III - Stormbird!

The Stormbird is coming!

Horus Heresy Weekender Photos Part II

It has begun!

Horus Heresy Weekender First Photos

And the Black Shields are coming!

Horus Heresy Weekender Schedule

 

The schedule is out for the seminars for the Horus Heresy Weekender.

Space Wolves Coming From GW

Space Wolves are coming!

Alpha Legion Headhunter Kill Team Released

Forge World has released an Alpha Legion Headhunter Kill Team Upgrade Set.

Graham McNeil Drops "War Without End" Image

War Without End is here!