The Humble Tactical Marine

Let's see what we have here...

...oh look! More tactical marines.

You might need to get used to this.

I've finished off my first squad by adding five more marines, including a sergeant and a nucio-vox operator (radio guy).

All done in exactly the same way as in the last post.

The sergeant is armed with a plasma pistol and a power fist for close up action.

I don't think he's actually destined to stay with this squad as I think they are more likely to end up as objective holders and he needs to be punching people as much as possible.

The nuncio-vox operator is basically able to call in barrages and drop troops more accurately and so works a bit like an observer in Bolt Action.

However, I don't currently have anything in my army that benefits from him, so he's more future-proofing my force rather than being necessary right now.

This is one of the models I painted last week but I've added a vexilla (banner) to him to help with combat resolution.

I think my next sergeant is going to have a crest that matches this banner and the next vexilla will be green to match the power fist sergeant.

Here's the whole squad together.

I've also played my first 1000 point of Horus Heresy game against Pete's Alpha Legion. I didn't take loads of pictures due to the fact that Pete is starting from scratch with his army and so much of it is unpainted. However, here's a taste of what he's working on.

My army was as follows:

Cataphractii Praetor

Chaplain Consul

10 Tactical Marines

10 Tactical Marines (40k proxies)

5 Indomitus Terminators

Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

Baal Predator

Pete is working from the Age of Darkness box so his army was:

Praetor

10 Tactical Marines 

10 Tactical Marines 

7 Cataphractii Terminators

Contemptor Dreadnought

His army was smaller than mine but he had quality over quantity.

We played the Shatter Strike mission, which requires getting units into your opponent's deployment zone and had the vanguard strike (diagonal) deployment.

Pete immediately pulled Alpha Legion shenanigans and redeployed with a refused flank. However, my plan was to hold him up in the centre whilst my tactical squads (which were scoring units) tried to get round the flanks.

Things went badly in the centre, as first my dreadnought, then my predator and my terminators fell to Pete's massed combined fire.

I wasn't helped by failing several charges and I was significantly outgunned by his contemptor.

However, despite heavy losses, my plan almost worked. I succeeded in preventing all but Pete's terminators crossing the board, got one tactical squad through his lines and almost snuck another in.

If I'd realised that 'stay the warlord' wasn't a thing in this scenario I might have actually made it.

The score was 2-2, with me getting a scoring unit through (2 points) and Pete getting a denial unit (1 point) and the attrition bonus (1 point) for killing more units.

We both enjoyed the game and I learned a few things that will help in future.

So I've closed the gap a little but gaining another two miniatures made progress even slower.

I've found painting marines more time consuming than I'd thought, even though I'm enjoying the process.

Acquired: 121

Painted: 104