Horus Heresy Escalation League - Vol 5

Warhammer Horus Heresy V.2

My 5th game in our local escalation league game was 2500 points. This has been my first escalation league and I have enjoyed this format immensely. It has motivated me to build and paint all my piles of plastics! Over two months I have built and painted this entire Imperial Fists army, something I wouldn't have done if I had not been playing this much. 

This was the last game in our league, and I was matched up against the Iron Warriors! My opponent had Perturabo, three Leviathan Dreadnoughts, two Predator Tanks, a full Melta Support Squad in a Rhino, a Terminator Command Squad and two Tactical Squads.

I was running a pretty brutal list for the Imperial Fists. I had a Delegatus Centurion, a Armistos Centurion, two Apothecaries, two squads of Phalanx Warders, a Recon Squad, a Scout Squad and a six-man Autocannon Heavy Support Squad. But the main pain in the list were four Castraferrum Dreadnoughts and a Leviathan Dreadnought! Three of the Castraferrum had Lascannons and fists and one had two fists and two assault cannons. I was also running the Iron Gauntlet Rite of War.

I was using two of my new Furibundus dreadnoughts in place of Castraferrums.

We played Blood Feud with the Clash of the Line deployment.

Some really heavy armor on the the way.

Dreads in the center with Warders on the wings and snipers holding the flanks.

A almost mirrored deployment for me.

Besides the Predators, everything was short range for the Iron Warriors.

You do not want to come down mainstreet.

I chose to fight at night, since I had lots of Augery Scanners and Searchlights.

The Imperial Fist wedge advanced slowly and steadily.

The loyalist fire is too much and the Leviathans are losing wounds and an alarming rate.

My own Leviathan moved into range with its Storm Cannon and twin Assault Cannons.

Snipers, as always, doing incredible work.

The last view of the Iron Warriors line before it evaporated.

The next turn saw all the tanks go down and the Leviathans as well.

The game ended with just Perturabo and the two tactical squads hiding at the far end of the table.

I did feel pretty guilty in this game. I killed his entire army except for Perturabo and the two Tactical Squads for the loss of a single Phalanx Warder... The shear amount of firepower this army is able to put down is brutal.  Several things really helped me out. It being nightime, which I was prepared for, and his army being short range and slow, meant I dealt critical damage before any of his troops could return fire. The other big benefit was the deployment being short edge to short edge, meaning he had a long way to run.