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| First game using orbital assault. It felt good killing this knight on turn two after dropping in |
I have been playing my Horus Heresy (30K) Emperor’s Children Army for many years now and have struggled with an army build that worked well for me and the group of people I usually play against. My win to loss ratio has been lackluster with this army. If I do win, it was definitely hard fought against armies that can outshoot me or tar pit me. I can certainly make a generic marine list and spam templates and basic marines, but that doesn’t seem to fit my style, nor does it match the finesse that I feel should be consistent with the 3rd legion play style.
Playing most at 3,000 points the Maru-skara rite of war was
my go to. Having the ability to outflank with three contemptor dreds could
cause a lot of pain. I would also run Fulgrim in a spartan alongside a unit of phoenix
guard that would act as his body guard, not to mention my required legion champion
in terminator armor. One unit of 10 volkite culverin wielding marines would
give cover to Lord Commander Eidolon who would join a unit of 15 assault marines.
I would also have a unit of 5 Tactical Support marines with Plasma Guns inside
a multi-melta Rhino looking for juicy targets. My foot sloggers included my
outflanking unit of 3 contemptors and two squads of 10 basic marines with a
sergeant wearing artificer armor and phoenix spear. Occasionally I would swap
out a non-compulsory unit for a xiphon interceptor, but I found that the xiphon
wouldn’t often cover its point cost in units destroyed.
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| Orbital assault tip: Using nuncio voxes can help keep your other deep striking units on target if you need them close by |
The armies that I generally played against were Ultramarines
using orbital assault, Thousand Sons (without Magnus) running lots of psychic termies,
Custodes, and a vehicle heavy Iron Hands army. Rarely I would play against
Salamanders, Death Guard, Space Wolves, and Solar Auxilia. The usual situation
was that these armies all would beat me in a fire fight so I had to try and
close in for assault, which I was better at (the exception being the Custodes).
Often times I could make it in assault, but would not have enough strength left
in the unit to make an impact. If things worked out just right I would get my
contemptors close enough to assault the following turn after outflanking on
turn two. Even if they were destroyed I would hope that they soaked up enough
fire power to allow the rest of my army to advance unscathed; this almost never
worked out however.
One of my gaming friends suggested that I might want to go
orbital assault since I was often vocal about my lack of competiveness. I gave
it some thought because I would have to overhaul my army and likely shelve a
lot of the units I had already built. Not to mention I had bought and built way
more for this army than I originally intended to. I ended going for it making
the following changes. Fulgim, ditched the Spartan for a anvillus dreadclaw,
which allows him to assault out of the following turn after deep striking, he
also has a unit of palatine blades (3 with phoenix spears) to assist in the assault.
My two basic tactical squads have drop pods. I kept the plasma tactical support
and included a melta gun tactical support since I tend to struggle against
vehicles. I have a 10 man tartaros terminator unit, which halve are armed with
chain fists (also to mitigate vehicles), and I bumped up my phoenix guard up to
7 strong. I have an primus medicae in terminator armor to help keep one of my
terminator units around and two basic apothecaries to go along with the support
units. I am using the xiphon again, but I might swap it out if I pick up a dreadnought
drop pod for one of my contemptors. There is an advantage now to going second
by running an orbital assault army because my opponent will lose one full round
of shooting since there will be no targets. I can also deploy units where they
are needed (barring bad rolling). Fulgrim also can make it into melee easier
since the dreadclaw is an assault skimmer after in lands. As I play this new
list more I expect it to evolve slightly and I hope to have a good showing at
the 2020 Golden Boys tournament in June.
