Horus Heresy 2e Review: Vigilator Cadre

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

3.5/5 stars. Rounded down - but only just.The rules are reasonably good, but the points cost is slightly high.

Background.

The more senior members of the mainstay of the Sisters of Silence can be found on the battlefield with big swords! They hunt down their targets systematically, up close and personal. 

Strengths.

These Sisters are kitted out for close combat thanks to the Execution Blade and the Oblivion Chamber rules help this through against daemons very nicely. There is some nice flexibility on builds here as well with hand flamers and needle pistols possible. I also really still like the compression tanks here. 

Weaknesses.

As with the other troops, they are expensive (compared to space marine troops) given the T=3 issue. But they wealth of extra rules does make up some ground here. Take a transport to help. 

Builds.

Vigilators x5, 5 hand flamers with compression tanks, Mistress with Neuro Lash (120 points).

I have a thing for the flamers with compression tanks. Can't lie. The Neuro Lash clocks in with S+3, which is the same as Sx2 in the case of the power fist - they are interchangable for S purposes, so it comes down to the AP, or deflagrate. 

Vigilators x10, Mistress with Power Fist (135 points).

The base line build in my opinion. Take a transport and go do your thing. 

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Prosecutor Cadre

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

3/5 stars.The rules are average on balance given the points cost. 

Background.

The mainstay of the Sisters of Silence. Foot soldiers of the black ships and used in open battle wherever and whenever required.

Strengths.

There is some nice customization that is possible here. Although they come as standard with bolt guns, there's a good case to be made for having some snare guns and other special weapons in the squad. I'd also be tempted by the dedicated transport most of the time as well. 

Weaknesses.

For the price tag, I think that this squad is a touch on the expensive side - even for T=3 troops. The price hike is due to all those special rules that they come bound up with. Of these, stubborn stands out along with fleet as being very useful. 

Builds.

Prosecutor x10, 2 Snare Guns, Mistress with Power Weapon (125 points).

I regard this as the baseline build. I really like the snare guns for what they do on the battlefield - they are fluffy and acceptable to all players. A power axe or similar is a good idea here, but given their stat line weaknesses, I'd opt for a power sword most of the time as a threat to space marine standard saves. Take an augury scanner and nuncio vox to taste. 

Prosecutor x15, all with Assault Needlers, nuncio-vox, augury scanner, Mistress with hand flamer and power sword (275 points).

Ouch at the points cost here! The needlers are hilarious with poisoned at 3+ and assault 3. You will be causing wounds here. The hand flamer has some obvious uses too and the power sword is the icing on the cake that you will hopefully not need to make too much use of. 

eBay: Ancient Striking Scorpions

Anyone care for some very old Striking Scorpions? 

If so, you're in luck on eBay this week! And they come with the era-defining goblin green painted slotta bases - what more could you want. 

Still got some stuff up from previous weeks including a Zombie Dragon, a Dornian Heresy Iron Hands test model, and a Great Unclean One from Realms of Chaos era!

Emperor's Children Commander

Painting up this command for the Emperor's Children was a good exploration of how to use (and not use) purple colours. Originally I thought about going for a bit more of a metallic sheen, but in the end the purple that came out was not metallic whatsoever. I'm comfy with that. 

The contrast paint was used more as a shade for the phoenix purple base colour in the end which proved a good move. The gene stealer purple was then freed up to use as an accent. The gold and the white on the marine provides a really good accent colour to the deeper purple and this has come out really well overall. Coupled with a steady hand to get the eyeballs looking right and I'm more than happy with this miniature. It will serve as either a Praetor or consul for the Emperor's Children allied detachment that I have constructed - more on that in a later post. 

Assault Squad and the Rule of Cool

I've been itching to get my hands on the new assault squad for a while now and invested in two boxes worth - one for the Emperor's Children, and one for the World Eaters. This particular build is for the Emperor's Children. 

Before anyone accuses me of not building a super-optimal squad I feel the need to defend myself and say "Rule Of Cool". I trust this will fully and completely explain the presence of the combat shields! Yes, I know they're not points cost efficient and that an extra warm body would be much better for the points. But just look at those shields! They are wickedly awesome! How could I go past them? And yes: I've added some Space Wolves power axes in there for extra chopping. Looking forward to getting these painted up!

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Eradicator Cadre

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4/5 stars.The rules are good.

Background.

From the chamber of vigilance come the literal veterans of the Sisters. These women are the vanguard to take on severe threats from psykers across the galaxy and are readily deployed to face such threats with an array of weapons. 

Strengths.

To me, the real strength here is the flexibility of the builds coupled with the precision shots. Given the special rules, you can readily infiltrate, so the only question is which weapon to tote. This is almost ideal for a "melta-cide" squad format!

Weaknesses.

T=3. Pretty much basic stat line for a Sisters squad all round really. 

Builds.

Eradicators x5, all with combi-meltas (115 points).

A classic melta-cide squad.

Eradicators x5, all with combi-plasma (115 points).

Same but different. The plasma is for other targets than the melta-combi's above. Take a power axe on the Mistress to taste.