Mutant Snake Eyes

Stu’s Decks

Behold my Decks! I enjoy building decks almost as much as playing commander. I’m bad for always working on a new deck idea rather than necessarily refining my existing ones! I will update this page over time to add all my decks in more detail! For now my Wilhelt deck is the most in depth but I will add to the others over time! As you can see my favourite colours are black and blue but I’ve tried to play around with all the colours to an extent.

Braaiinnsss!

When I first got into magic it was during the Innistrad Midnight Hunt Set. The Wilhelt precon was a perfect starting place for me. The commander combined two of my favourite things – Zombies and drawing cards!

Slowly over time I’ve added and tweaked this deck. I’ve enjoyed finding lots of different cool zombies with different effects to stuff in here. It’s now a very synergistic tribal deck that makes the most of lots of zombie lord effects as well as some fun ETB and death triggers on my zombies. It’s lots of fun to play and will always be one of my favourites as my original deck.

This deck is pretty powerful and can win by going wide with lots of zombies and pumping them up but can also win by sacrifice triggers and drain effects. It can draw a surprising number of cards and has lots of creature-based interaction to keep opponents in check. Some of the more powerful effects do come at the cost of life and I’ve almost killed myself a few times with this deck!

Decklist – Braaaiins – Wilhelt – Zombie tribal

Dungeoneering

This deck vies with my zombie deck as my favourite. As a big D&D fan I loved the idea of exploring dungeons in magic. This deck is packed full of etb effects and recursion. It’s got maybe a few too many big ticket cards that are great to discard and try and cheat out early. The dungeon exploring mechanic adds a lot of flexibility and added power to the deck as well as helping to make each game feel very different from the previous one. This deck likes milling cards and especially creatures so this deck has very few non-creature cards.

This deck has been through a lot of iterations and used to be a very spinning-plates deck. But it now has some fun wincons/powerful cards built in to help close the game out. It’s very much a high-roll deck and can be a nit inconsistent but I’ve tightened the list up over many games. Interestingly this commander was a precon but I opened a borderless version of her in a pack and built the deck from scratch instead.

Decklist – Dungeoneering – Sefris – Venture/Reanimator/ETB

Drawpocalypse!

I some how opened not one but two Sheoldred the Apocalyspes when cracking boosters and one happened to be a beautiful full art phyrexian version. So it was clearly a sign to build this deck. I love drawing cards and having a glutton of options on any given turn. Plus I get to be the nice guy and help everyone out by drawing them cards too (at a small cost of course…) This deck is probably my strongest deck with a refined game plan, an insane amount of draw, some tutors and a decent amount of powerful interaction.

Tom and I had a bit of an arms war trying to power up a deck each and this deck was my choice and has some spicy additions for sure. It’s fun to play but is for more competitive games and can win quick if opponents don’t stop key parts of it. My commander is almost always kill on sight and I very quickly become the arch-enemy at the table! Even though I’m just being nice and drawing everyone cards…

Decklist – Drawpocalypse – Sheoldred – Draw/Burn

Burn with Me!

I mostly play black or blue decks and so wanted to try out some red cards for a change! Thought I’d throw together a mono red deck and Torbran seemed like a fun candidate. This deck definitely runs out of steam but can have some really explosive turns! It all hinges around Torbran’s ability to add 2 damage to any red source of damage, so need to be careful when to play him out as he’s no good dead in the command zone!

Decklist – Burn with Me – Torbran – Burn/ping damage

Gandalf The Mono-White

I opened this stunning full art alternative Gandalf the White and decided I had to build a deck around it. I leant into the artifact side of this card as I didn’t really have an artifact themed deck and wanted to try out some of the cool artifact combos.

It’s a challenging deck to play as there’s so many triggers and sequencing is really important. It’s a slower deck to play for sure but when it gets going it really gets going! It’s a combo deck and can feel a bit like playing solitaire sometimes but is a lot of fun and now I’m more familiar with it my turns don’t take as long!

Decklist – Gandalf the Mono-White – Artifact/ETB/combo

Prepare for Trouble! And Make it Double!

I bought this as a pre-con to strip out and use for other decks but played a couple test games with it and found it could do some big stupid turns and was a lot of fun. Being simic just makes it powerful anyway but this deck can get pretty out of control with lots of token copying effects. It’s not that refined a deck list as I don’t play it that often and needs updated with some new cards. I’ve added some more clone effects and tokens pay off cards alongside cards that you want to copy to do some broken and fun things!

Prepare for Trouble! And Make it Double! – Adrix & Nev – Tokens

Prosper from Chaos

Prosper can be quite the competitive commander from what I’ve seen from some other peoples versions of the deck. This version is not so competitive but arguable way more fun. The aim of this deck is really just to exile lots of cards both from my deck and opponents deck and see what the luck of the cards brings. There’s also a few cards that are in it just for the pure chaos of it. Definitely not a deck that can be played over spelltable! No two games are the same and it really spices up a game night.

Definitely a deck for some laid back causal play rather than anything more competitive but it’s not always about winning. Why win when you can create chaos and have fun doing it!?

Decklist – Prosper from Chaos – Prosper – Exile/Chaos/Jank

My other decks!!

I have far too many decks! Here are some of my other decks which have been kept just as pre-cons (for now!).

All images are taken from the Magic the Gathering card database – can be accessed at https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Default.aspx

Tom’s Decks

So here we go! Diving into the decks that currently grace my MTG shelf of the man cave. I have slowly begun to write up a blog post for each of the decks highlighting how I run them and also key cards that I feel make the deck tick.

Enjoy!

My first deck was Vrondiss Rage of Ancients from the Adventures of the Forgotten Realms release. I have tuned the deck somewhat and replaced many of the original cards. The main aim of the deck is to make Vrondiss indestructible and then churn out infinite tokens and infinite direct damage to my opponents.

It has worked well so far and I am still looking to improve it further.The deck is a fairly simple deck that can either go wide with tokens and swing for combat damage or combo off with Vrondiss’ enrage trigger.

Click here to read about how the deck works.

Click here to view the deck list on Moxfield.

My newest deck is a dragon tribal deck. It features Miirym Sentinel Wyrm as its commander and its main aim is to ramp out and put big dragons on the board. It’s a fairly new deck for me so it is still being tuned, however it packs a huge punch. The look on Jamie and Stu’s faces when I create 10 dragons in one turn and make 100 treasure tokens is hilarious.

Click here to read about how I have built the deck.

Click here to view the decklist on Moxfield.

Another of my decks that I absolutely love is my life link/counters deck. It was my first go at making a deck from scratch and origionally ran Trelessara the Moon Dancer as its commander. However after a couple of years of playing the deck I swapped out the commander for Lathiel The Bounteous Dawn! The decks theme is similar however I found that I gained so much life, Trelessara’s scry trigger just slowed the game down to much.

The deck now focuses on putting counters on my creatures and swinging for combat damage!

Click here to read about how the deck works.

Click here to view the decklist on Moxfield

I also have a knight tribal deck that is a slightly upgraded version of the Master of machines knight precon. This deck features Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir as it’s commander and is aimed towards putting knights into my graveyard and then bringing them to the battlefield using Sidar’s ability.

Sidar is a fantastic commander because he brings back the powerful eminence ability which triggers whether he is on the battlefield or in the command zone.

Click here to view the decklist on Moxfield

A more recent deck of mine came in the form of Aragorn King of Gondor! As a lover of Lord of the Rings, I felt it was my duty to pick up one of the commander precons and I could not help myself my to run the King as my decks commander. It has an interesting mix of combat damage triggers, pillow forting and drawing cards that can become an unstoppable powerhouse if left unchecked.

The King has reclaimed his throne!

Click here to view the decklist on Moxfield.

Click here to read how the deck works.

As if I did not already have enough decks, WOTC decides to release the Fallout precons and Dog Meat is a commander!

Here take my money!!!!

This deck is really interesting because it I see it as a go wide equipment deck to make as many junk tokens as possible. I have not played with this deck an awful lot so it is still a work in progress.

Click here to view the decklist on Moxfield.

Re-Muster the Militia – Part 3

A mixed week progress wise! Guess which one of us has now got the fear before the event (yes it’s the one who has nine tanks to paint still)!! This week we’ve all been discussing our envoy models and how we’re going to convert them up too.

Tom

So now that I have built all of my infantry and picked up the correct spray for them, I can crack on with the painting. Painting is probably the part of the hobby I least enjoy, but having fully painted armies on the table is just so rewarding.

Going to hopefully have all of my grenadiers painted by the weekend and then I just need to paint my envoy and my last leman russ (which I haven’t even built yet).

This is the envoy that I will be building, not sure how I am going to convert him up yet but let’s see what I can find in my bits box. Feel free to let me know if you have any suggestions!

Stu

So the fear has sunk in! Lots to paint and even a couple of squads to build and convert! Got the paint laid down on my first infantry squad (two more to go after this). Still need to weather the bases a bit but happy with the colour scheme so far. Gonna add some decals to their chest plates too but trying to decide which ones to go with.

I love the Palatine Enforcers models and used them as the basis for my infantry. I feel they fit the mechanised, elite infantry vibe I’m going for. The gas masks work well given they are from a dusty, inhospitable forge world. The red is a nod to the Adpetus Mechanicus colour scheme as they have close ties to them – how else did they get so many shiny new tanks! I’ve gone for a quick and dirty paint scheme using washes to minimise painting time and get the tabletop ready quickly!

I’m very grateful this week for Jamie helping me out and knocking me up some transports for my infantry. Check out the sweet rides below!

Jamie

I’ve got lots to be working on for my militia list but I’ve taken pity on Stu this week and built him up some Damocles rhinos for his list. He’s a notoriously slow painter and so he needs all the help he can get to be ready in time! I’ve added on some massive dozer blades from the Leman Russ kit to help add to the unique look. They have a strong heresy vibe and will help the rhinos look less like classic Space Marine rhinos.

Anyways! Back to my more important things – my list. My main focus this week is on my consul – representing the White Scars. He’s based off the Space Marine Legion Vigilator. I still need to add some arms and weapons to him but the model is proving to be a bit awkward to modify. He’s got an awesome pose and will be worth all the filing, re-positioning and swearing in the end!

Cheers for checking out our progress and look forward to showing you some more progress next week!

Re-Muster the Militia – Part 2

Having rushed out the gate last week, this week was slower in terms of our hobby. Even so, progress is progress – here is what we did last week!

Tom

I had a busy couple of days at work this week so unfortunately I haven’t got as much hobby done as I would have liked. Luckily I have got some free time over the next couple of weeks to really crack down on my painting to get things ready for the event.

On the to-do list are 24 grenadiers and a Leman Russ. I love painting the tanks for my militia army as they are really quick to do but look ace on the table.

Stu

So this week has been a busy week with work and other life commitments, which means the hobby progress has been a bit slower. But I’ve been looking at what I still need to do before the event and getting the fear a bit now! I can already see myself frantically drybrushing tanks at 3am the night before the event!

I have made some progress though. My Carnodon tanks are almost done. All 3 have a basic paint job and transfers on them. I played around with pigment powers with fixer as a heavy mud/sand effect on the tracks. It was way too orange and I’ve tried to tone it down a bit. Not sure I want to use that effect on all my tanks. Might just stick to my previous drybrushing technique I used on my Sentinels‘ feet instead as I feel it gives a better overall look. I’ve also sprayed up my other tanks with basecoats so there’s plenty more armour to come!

The weathered *Carnodon* – what do you think of the pigment powders?

I may come back later and add some chips and recess washes to weather them more, but for now I need to focus on getting my whole army to a table top standard before I go spending ages refining things!

The other two *Cardnodons* awaiting weathering.

Also a little packaged arrived! He’s going to be the basis for my Night Lords envoy. Can you tell what’s in the box!? Check back next week to see if you were right (and/or whether I managed to get round to actually building him amongst all the tank painting)!

Jamie

Infantryman of Byzant Janizars testing out the front ramp of the *Dunerider*

I managed to build my first Chimera/Dunerider conversion this week. My goal was to make it look more like an Imperial Army vehicle than a Mechanicum one whilst ensuring the equipment was still accurate. The first step in this was to replace some of the more obvious mechy details with imperial equivalents (in general the Mechanicum range is more rounded visually whilst the wider Imperium loves a more blocky aesthetic). I also loaded up the vehicle with gear, fuel and weapons to make it look like it is used on long patrols.

After a rummage through my bits box I found a couple of spare turrets from the Baneblade sponsons that I thought would fit well onto the vehicle. They were big enough to look like it could house an autocannon, without being too big that it would dominate the model and look clunky.

The vehicle entry has a hull mounted Heavy Bolter, but I couldn’t find a way to fit one on the model without it being weirdly placed given the front ramp. It was then the idea of a side sponson came to me. I think it works as the asymmetrical look is a key visual for Imperial vehicles. I had a go at removing the side detail with a saw which wasn’t too tricky, but did require some plasticard inside to cover up the gap. The sponson itself is taken from the Leman Russ Battle Tank kit and fits on quite nicely. I’m really happy with the result, mainly because it puts the vehicle alongside the Valdor Tank Hunter with having one side-sponson and the Valdor is my favourite vehicle!

Overall I am happy with the look – I think it fits within the style of my force nicely and is different enough to the original kit. What do you think? Any suggestions or improvements?

Here’s the first transport vehicle for the army, let me know what you think!

Dicing with Death – The Bruniskov Offensive

The Siege of Vraks – 433813.M41 – 06h00-18h21

After a two week preliminary bombardment that saw a number of renegade defences destroyed, 2nd Company launched the first wave assault. Supported by a squadron of Leman Russ from the 11th Assault Korps their objective was to seize the trenches at Sector 33-12 and force a breakthrough of the outer defence lines.

Members of 1st Platoon advance through the *Vraksian* barricades.

The progress was initially slow, with the company’s right flank collapsing under heavy mortar fire, but the pressure of the Krieg Leman Russ forced the renegades to call up reserve units to blunt the attack.

Renegade mortar fire proved deadly in the opening stages of the assualt.

Lieutenant Harbrov’s 3rd Platoon had made good progress on the right flank thanks to mortar fire pinning the renegades in their trenches. After a brutal hand to hand combat, he had secured the front trenches. However this success was fleeting as a hulking pack of Ogryns charged through the fog. They barreled through the whole of the 3rd Platoon, butchering everything in their sight. Despite Lieutenant Harbrov’s heroics in slaying one of the beasts, he was pulverised by an improvised weapon built from a power drill.

*Vraksian* reinforcements counter-attack and reclaim the front lines for the heretics.

Eventually 10th Platoon’s autocannon squads were able to slay the monstrosities thanks to sheer weight of fire.

Renegade armoured support proved ineffective against the Leman Russ of 11th Assault Korps. Despite landing several hits, the traitor Vanquisher was unable to knock out a single tank and was forced to withdraw after counter-fire destroyed the tank’s turret.

11th Assault Korps support of 2nd Company proved key to the assault.

The second and third waves were sent in, sensing that a breakthrough was possible. However, 2nd Company was ultimately unable to clear the trenches of all enemy forces and as such was forced to pull back to the Krieg lines.

Korpsmen of the third wave engage in hand to hand combat with *Vraksian* renegades in no man’s land.

Objective: Not secured
Krieg casualties: 75% [level acceptable]

Report compiled by Munitorum adept Fyget, assigned to the 88th Siege Army Staff Headquarters, Thracian Primaris

Renegade command stands defiant following the failure of 2nd Company’s assault

Tom and I had great fun playing a Siege of Vraks game – we’ve been meaning to do it for ages and finally finished up painting enough terrain to do it justice. We each built a 1,250 point list using the Siege of Vraks second edition for this game.

We played a mission from the 4th edition rulebook (which was the edition that the first Siege of Vraks book was written for). The attacker had to wipe out the defender completely to win the game, all the defender had to do was survive (which I did with one man left!)

It was an interesting game, with Tom having a preliminary bombardment that cleared some key defences and his destroyed troop choices coming back via ongoing reserves.

Still, it felt like a bit of an uphill struggle for the attacker, so we may tweak the mission a bit. Then again, trying to storm a trench isn’t an easy task – just ask the 88th Siege Army!

Re-Muster the Militia!

Next month the three of us are attending the Horus Heresy event “A Mortal’s Duty”. This is round two of a Cults & Militia and Solar Auxilia only event. Tom and Jamie attended the first one last year and we are excited that the three of us will be there this time!

The core of your army is 2k taken from either army list. Then, each player brings a single astartes – an envoy from a legion that also doubles up as your allegience for the day. This time round the available legions are:

Dark Angels (Loyalist)
Night Lords (Traitor)
White Scars (Neutral/undeclared)

This was a really fun mechanic as it lets you build a lot of character into one model. Here’s our envoys from the first event:

To help keep us motivated we thought we would document our hobbying this month before the event – showing our painting progress each week (and the inevitable hotel room painting the night before!)

Tom

Army name: The Bal’Marbh, 9th Battalion of the Saoghal Seige Regiment.

Herald: Dark Angels

Army style: Bods and cannons.

I have always loved the 40k Krieg models and 30k militia gave me the opportunity to create an army of infantry and artillery like no other. I enjoy the idea of waves of infantry charging towards the enemy whilst artillery rains down around them.

After the previous militia event that Jamie and I went to, I have tweaked my army list and decided to add an additional Leman Russ and two grenadier squads. The plastic GW kits made it really easy for me to add some bodies to the army and the range of weapons they came with made for some really interesting combinations.

The general theme for the army is infantry, artillery or a Leman Russ. Which suits the kriegish style of my army fluff and the models themselves.

I also love the addition that the event pack has changed Survivors of the Dark Age (instead of giving +1 armour save as standard it give +1 weapon strength with the option to by the armour upgrade). This means I can have my long awaited gun line without having to justify 3+ trench coats.

Managed to put together two grenadier squads for my force, only to realise I was two guys short – looks like a trip to GW is on the cards this week!

Stu

Army name: Hephaiston Armoured Corps

Herald: Night Lords

Army style: Mechanised infantry with lots of armour

I toyed with a couple of ideas for my army. I wanted to run a traitor list, saying as I always use my loyalist Salamanders when playing Horus Heresy. I went back and forth between a feral beastman list and an armoured list (very much two ends of the spectrum!). I love the look of the palatine enforcers from Necromunda and decided to convert them up to be my mechanised infantry. I also love the look of some of the Forge World tanks, in particular the Carnodon Battle Tanks and Deimos Pattern Rhinos. So a mechanised army was the perfect excuse to go stick a load of them in.

I’m still working on the background fluff for my army. But loosely speaking they come from a forgeworld with vast factories stretching far across the harsh desert planet surface. (so my bases are going to be a mix of mechanicus floors and desert sands). During the Horus Heresy the Night Lords targeted this important world and sowed the seeds of insurrection. There was bitter in-fighting amongst the regiments (hence the heavy weathering effects). Those that turned traitor took up the lightning symbology of the Night Lords to mark themselves out.

I’m notoriously the slow painter of the three of us so this will be a fun challenge to see if I can get my army done in time!

This week I’ve finished off my first unit – some support sentinels to add some anti-tank punch to the list. I’ve got a whole heap of tanks on my painting bench and a load of enforcers to convert up. Gonna be a busy month!

Here’s some shots of the first finished *Sentinel* unit for my militia. It was also a chance for me to practice some weathering techniques.

Jamie

Army name: Byzant Janizars

Herald: White Scars

Army style: Mobile infantry backed up by speeders

Having gone to the previous event, I at least had 1.5k of militia already painted. The struggle was deciding what to include to round the force up to 2k! My Byzant Janizars are all about speed and mobility – hopefully this gives me an edge in objective games. This should doubly be the case against militia and solar lists as they to be a bit more of a gunline.

Having taken a look through the event pack, there are a couple of cool new units that players can use, including a Chimera equivalent. I thought this would be perfect for my grenadier squads to make sure they can turn up exactly where they need to and more importantly keep them safe from all the Medusa fire!

However, as all the vehicles in my army are skimmers, it wasn’t going to be as simple as picking up a couple of chimeras. Instead I’ve decided to use the Skorpius Dunerider as a basis – it is a hovercraft (and has dune in the name) so should fit right in. The main challenge is in making sure they don’t end up being too mech-y. So far I have built the main chassis of one. Now I need to decide on how to build the turret autocannon and the hull heavy bolter into the model – guess that’s next week’s problem!

What I picked up to finish my list off – Kor’sarro is to be salvaged for bits to make my envoy.

Let us know what you think of our projects so far and, if you’re also heading to the event, we look forward to seeing you there!

463rd Orta, Byzant Janizars – Part 4

A picture containing outdoor, old, farm machine

Description automatically generated

Throughout the madness of the Unification Wars, the techno-barbarian states on Terra used all manner of vehicles to wage war in ever more horrific ways. Most of these were deemed too unstable or dangerous to enter service in the Imperium and so things like the Ursh nightmare-crawlers, the panther heavy tank of the Yndonesic Bloc or the mebra-jets of Hy Brasil were confined to annals of history.

Several vehicles were kept on, either because of the reliability of their chassis, or because of the unit’s traditions. The most famous examples belonged to the Old One Hundred and included such notable vehicles as the scarab transports of the Geno 52 Chilead, the Angkorian Dragoons’ hydro-fanes and the skuttle-speeders of the Byzant Janizars.

As chronicled earlier in these accounts, the Byzant Dominate incorporated a large chunk of the Mediterranean Dust Bowl. Patrolling these rad-dunes and sand-mires proved difficult with conventional vehicles as they would frequently sink or get lost amongst the treacherous terrain. Instead, the Byzant Dominate developed a doctrine of flexible, fast moving forces and relied on light aircraft and skimmers to cover large swathes of territory quickly and safely. As a result, the Byzant Dominate lacked the heavy firepower of battle tanks when faced with an armoured opponent.

To make up this shortfall, the Byzant Dominate forged an alliance with neighbouring Boeotia. The Dominate would provide Boeotia with slaves for its vast manufactoria and the Boeotians would design and build skimming battle tanks for the Byzants. Thus the skuttle-speeder was born. A heavy set design, the skuttle-speeder required additional engines and power to hover off the ground.

The extra power meant that the skuttle-speeder could mount three heavy weapons: one on its turret, one mounted on its forward hull and one underslung. Shown below is the Annihilator variant, equipped entirely with lascannons, whose tank-hunting role supported the infantry cemaati. Another popular variant was the Delator, whose twin-volkite culverins decimated infantry with ease.

Each speeder had two crew, a pilot and gunner. The gunner sat in the turret with the three weapons linked via a rudimentary MIU system that removed the need for a third crewman. Space was a premium in the skuttle-speeder and as such energy weapons were the preferred loadout instead of using up space with ammunition.

Entering active use before the Unification Wars, the skuttle-speeder proved incredibly effective and demand soon outstripped supply. Able to keep up with the rest of the fast-paced forces and unleash the firepower of tanks twice its size, the skuttle helped protect the Byzant Dominate from empires much bigger and more powerful than it.

When the Byzant Dominate was brought into Imperial Terra, the Emperor sanctioned the continued production of the skuttle-speeder and spread their use to other Imperial Army units. Despite this, skuttle-speeders never saw wide-spread use in the Imperial Army owing to the difficulties of their production and historic oaths between the Boeotians and the Byzants.

Despite its relative rarity, the Byzant Janizars used them extensively throughout the Great Crusade. It was a common tactic to use the infantry cemaati as the anvil, pinning the enemy in place long enough to allow the skuttle-speeders to strike at the enemy’s flank.

When the Horus Heresy plunged the galaxy into civil war, the Janizars’ skills were put to the test as they faced the super-human astartes for the first time. Quickly realising that they were outmatched in conventional warfare, the Janizars resorted to the hit and run tactics they perfected during the Unification Wars, only engaging the traitor legions on their own terms.

I hope you enjoyed this fluff piece expanding the backstory for the Byzant Janizars. This model represents a medium speeder from the Mournival Events Imperial Army list. A fan made codex, it is incredibly sandbox and allows for all sorts of awesome lists. When I realised I could do platoons entirely mounted in skimmers I knew I had to create such a force for my Byzant Janizars.

This model was a fairly simple conversion, being based on the Dark Angel Land Speeder Vengeance with the turret from the Repulsor tank. As with the rest of my army’s speeders, I ladened it down with extra equipment for their long-range patrols.

This vehicle was an opportunity for me to practice my weathering more and I am happy with the result. I am planning on going back over my other vehicles in the force and applying the same weathering to make sure it is consistent.

Thanks for reading!

Jamie

Dicing with Death – Sethurisia

Emperor’s Children 3rd Company ‘Cavalcade of Pain‘ vs Raven Guard 8th Talon

Antigonus unleashed his 3^rd Company on the sub-sector, ordering them to cause havoc and misery wherever they went. In truth he had little control over the Cavalcade of Pain at the best of time, and it was better to factor their chaos and carnage into his wider strategy than try to leash the madmen.

Plunging into the sub-sector’s south, Phoceon, captain of the 3rd, razed every planet and orbital station he came across, and his force grew with each victory as more of the XXII Millennial fell to the excess.

Witnessing Phoceon’s trail of carnage, Kraai vowed to stop their rampage. Gathering his battalion’s destroyers, he knew that his best chance to kill the Emperor’s Children murderers was with his own genocidal madmen.

On Sethurisia the two sides met, with Kraai having sworn to remove the head of the snake and kill Phoceon by his own hand…

Hi everyone! With lockdown starting to ease Tom and I were able to meet for some Garden Hammer and scratch the warhammer itch again. It was also an opportunity to play test our online campaign system’s rules which was good fun (though we need to tweak the rules a bit).

Mission, lists and terrain

We played the Challenge mission from book 6 in a 2.5k centurion game. The primary objective of this mission is for each player’s warlord to kill the other either by shooting or close combat. This meant that, regardless of everything else that went on in the game, everything would come down to Phoceon and Kraai.

Tom ran the following force using the Destroyer Company rite of war from the Mournival Events rulebook. Of interest is the fact that all his dreadnoughts can take Phosphex Dischargers and his characters Rad Grenades. This makes them even nastier on the charge (thanks to Raven Guard jump units having furious charge they were wounding on 2s!!!).

Meanwhile I took the following 3^rd Company Elite list. Built around a core of Kakophony, I was hoping to cause enough wounds to trigger their guns’ effect and explode the Raven Guard’s heads. The five man plasma cannon jetbike team were there to wipe units off the map, though they would have to work hard to earn their points back.

We decided to fight on Sethurisia, a death world in the Xyphos sub-sector home to all manner of exotic flora and fauna. This allowed us to use the jungle terrain I had built over lockdown and maximise the line of sight blocking terrain.

Battle report

The Emperor’s Children had the first turn but were unable to push the advantage thanks to the cover offered by Sethurisia’s jungle. Although they successfully managed to not kill themselves with Gets Hot rolls, the plasma jetbikes only took out one Dark Fury. Meanwhile the rest of the force advanced cautiously, aware that the Raven Guard were incredibly mobile thanks to their jump packs.

On their turn the Raven Guard opened fire with their entire arsenal of close-range weaponry with deadly effect. The contemptor-cortus’ phosphex dischargers were incredibly effective at thinning the Palatine Blade unit and managed to wipe out the entire jetbike squad with one shot. It was impressive to see a 30 point upgrade eradicate a 330 point unit!

From there it only went downhill for the Emperor’s Children, as they whiffed their shooting attacks and failed some key charges in their second turn. Kraai managed to manoeuvre himself for a charge in turn 2 and slammed into Phoceon and his Palatine Blades. He realised too late that Phoceon was equipped with divining claws manufactured by the finest artisans in the 3^rd legion. Before Kraai could swing with his iconic executioner’s axe, Phoceon gutted his opponent and left him for dead.

With that the game was over as the Emperor’s Children warlord butchered the Raven Guard warlord by his own hand (well claws really). This outcome belied the absolute pounding the rest of the Emperor’s Children force suffered; in any other game the day would have been carried by the Raven Guard for sure!

Lessons learnt

The Destroyer Company rite of war is really good, being able to give characters Rad Grenades is tasty and helps break the marine vs marine deadlock that often happens.

Dreadnoughts being able to take Phosphex Dischargers is very nice. Although they cost 30 points each and are one use, the ability to drop 3 mini blasts with poisoned 3+ and AP2 is not to be sniffed at. Tom said they were the MVP in this battle for him.

When building his list Tom accidentally bought Rad Grenades for characters that already had them (mainly his Moritat and Destroyer Sergeants). Make sure to double check when building lists that you are not spending points where you do not need to.

Divining Blades are really good. Arguably too good. I was losing the game big time until my praetor stepped up and butchered Kraai. Instant death on every wound is very strong, particularly when the weapon is +2 strength as well. I do not think I will take them again in a friendly game as there just is not a downside to them (unlike the rest of the Psyarkana relics).

Phoceon laughed as he was showered with Kraai’s blood. Around him the Emperor’s Children lay broken and beaten yet he tasted the sweet nectar of victory. Kraai had challenged him with so much arrogance and it had been divine to crush that in short order.

The Raven Guard had driven a wedge through his force with a brutality that had surprised even Phoceon. Utilising all manner of exotic and toxic weaponry they had cut through his men like wheat.

Despite their best efforts to stop his rampage, Phoceon couldn’t help but smile at the knowledge that the rad weaponry used by the so-called ‘loyalists’ would cause more damage to this planet that anything he could have done.

“I think your master needs some help” Phoceon gurgled through cracked lips at the surrounding Dark Furies before activating his teleport transponder and returning to his ship in orbit.

Let the planet belong to the Raven Guard, the moment belonged to him.

Thanks for reading!

Jamie

463rd Orta, Byzant Janizars – Part 3

With the first week of my project to finish the Byzant Janizars over, I have re-based a number of units and updated the paint scheme on my lascannon support squad. If you want to catch up on what I have written previously about my 30k cults & militia army based on the Byzant Janizars, see part 1 and part 2.

In celebration of completing week one, I have written more fluff on the Byzant Janizar’s actions in the early years of the Horus Heresy, culminating in the war for the Xyphos sub-sector (a campaign we are planning to run once we are allowed to game again).

At the end of the Great Crusade, Byzant Janizar units were scattered throughout the galaxy. Whilst a number of units were actively deployed in expeditionary fleets (most notably in the 63rd and 216th), the majority were garrisoned on newly compliant worlds. The Janizar’s status as one of the Old One Hundred afforded them governship of these worlds and the promise of a life of luxury. This all changed when news spread of Horus’ betrayal. Remembering their final oath to the Emperor, the Ortas gathered once more under the command of Creze Hakan-Sje with the goal of making the traitors pay.

The 216th Expeditionary Fleet was desperate for manpower after the 77th Ultramarine company were summond back to their Chapter. Lord Marshall Horatio Octavian II, commander of the expeditionary fleet, welcomed the influx of Byzant Janizars and immediately took the force on a harrassing campaign against the traitor supply lines.

Recognising that his forces were drastically outmatched on a man to man basis compared to astartes, Horatio and Hakan-Sje agreed that heavy firepower was their only way to even the odds. To that end they re-organised the Byzant Janizars so each infantry Cemaat was supported by a heavy weapon Cemaat. These two squads were expected to work seemlessly, with the infantry Cemaat suppressing the enemy long enough for the support Cemaat to maneuvre to a position where they could bring their heavy weapons to bear. This re-organisation effectively doubled the size of the Orta and taxed their supply chain, but it was remarkably successful in practice.

Lascannon support Cemaati became increasingly popular in the face of the massed astartes armour that was common during the Horus Heresy. The weapon crews usually chose to overcharge their weapons, unleashing a blistering las-beam that was more powerful than the standard shot. Thanks to the deadly nature of warfare during this time these crews would often only get one shot off before the enemy was on them and they figured it was better to make that shot count and ignore the stress overcharging took on the guns.

Exemplary Byzant Janizar campaigns during the Shadow Crusade

007.M31 – On the world of Phendamar, the 463rd Orta co-operated with a Raven Guard execution force in eliminating the traitor Imperial Army high command based there. Janizar recon teams led a masterful hit-and-run campaign on various outposts to draw the enemy into carefully laid Raven Guard ambushes. Few mortal forces could have matched the XIX Legion’s speed and maneuverability, but the Janizar’s abundance of skimmers and experience fighting in the Mediterranean Dust Bowl during the Unification Wars worked in their favour and the two forces formed an exceptional team.

007.M31 – Drogar IV had an abundance of promethium and as such was a vital link in the traitor’s supply chain. Facing a garrisoned Iron Warriors company, the Byzant Janizars underwent a four month campaign to dismantle their defences and destroy the promethium fields. The destruction of the planet’s capital refinery was so massive it could be seen from space and the debris could upset the planet’s climate for a generation. Although several companies of Byzant Janizars died in this action, it was one of countless battles that ultimately tipped the scales in the loyalists’ favour by bleeding the traitors’ supplies and slowing their advance on Terra.

008.M31 – Vicious fighting on Mernt tested the 463rd when they encountered a re-suppling Emperor’s Children armoured spearhead. For seven days the city of Merntagra burned as the two forces traded blows. Leman russes and skuttle-pattern skimmers duelled against predators and land raiders in the cramped manufactora whilst infantry forces slaughtered each other in fierce building-to-building firefights. Despite suffering extremely heavy casualties, the Byzant Janizars used the terrain to their advantage and destroyed the traitor forces, freeing Mernt from its dark compliance and ensuring all its resources were re-directed to the loyalists.

009.M31 – Badly mauled from three years of fighting behind traitor lines, the 463rd and the rest of the 216th Expeditionary Fleet regroup in the Xyphos sub-sector to re-supply and re-build. This proves fortuitous for the loyalists when a massive traitor fleet arrives to the north-west of the sub-sector intent on laying waste to the whole sub-sector. War had come to Xyphos, and the Byzant Janizars were ready to stand in its defence.

I had fun photographing my units with more scenic backgrounds and expanding on their fluff. By next Sunday I am hoping to finish off the army’s skimmers – come back then for more fluff and pictures of the Janizars!

Jamie

Project February: Finishing the Byzant Janizars

I recently decided that 2021 would be the year of finishing projects and working through the unbuilt and unpainted resin and plastic on my hobby desk.

First up is the Byzant Janizars, an Old One Hundred force that is mentioned in the early black library Horus Heresy books. There is very little fluff to go on for them so I have taken the liberty of creating my own.

It is a fairly long to-do list for a month but with a strict painting routine it should all be doable. With most of the vehicles I have already painted, I am going back over them to add more detail and weathering. Here is what is left to do:

10 Grenadiers,
An Arvus lighter,
A recon squad and their land speeder cutter,
Three land speeders, magnatised with a variety of loadouts,
A leman russ exterminator,
An Imperial Army medium skimmer and
New bases for some of the army’s units.

I will be posting fluff alongside completed projects so by the end of the month they should be a fully fleshed out force both on and off the tabletop.

I hope you look forward to following along with this project!

Jamie