Horus Heresy Battle - Imperial Fists vs... Imperial Fists

3000 Point Imperial Fist Civil War

It has been a while since I have been able to play a game of Horus Heresy V2 but I have really wanted to get back into it. This last week I was able to get a game in at the local gaming club and play a 3000 point Warhammer Horus Heresy game!

This was my first 3000 point game, typically we have played at 2000-2500 points. My list was a toned-down version of my 3000 point Stone Gauntlet list (since this was friendly game), so I did not use a Rite of War at all and dropped a unit of Phalanx Warders for a vanilla Despoiler squad. It was still, what I consider, a good list but not as overpowered and finetuned as it could be. I did not realize my opponent wanted to play 3000 points in order to use all his favorite Heresy era characters! But what it did mean, is that our armies were polar opposites, and not in a good way.

What we ended up with was my list with three really cheap characters and tons of great infantry and dreadnoughts, and his list that had Rogal Dorn, Sigismund and Rafnir Rann! Even with a Primarch, things went really badly for my opponent. 

My force of disgruntled Imperial Fists.

My opponent's army of super characters!

The board.

My deployment, short edge deployment helped me.

It made his force have to cover more ground to get into assault range.

But even when his force got to mine, I had a tough fighting force.

The Casteferrum Dreads are my favorite HH unit!

My warlord and his autocannon retinue.

Recon Marines ready to take out his lascannon squad.

Sigismund and his Templars are in the landraider.

A tactical squad and his lascannon squad.

Rann and his Phalanx Warders to the right of Sigismund.

I got first turn and advanced all my front line.

Then the shooting started!

The Landraider is glanced to death and the Templars get out.

The dangerous front line advances.

Rogal Dorn and the Huscarls deepstrike.

But scatter off the board and I move them far from me!

The Lord of the Seventh will have to walk for a while!

My left flank does not love the idea of fighting their gene father in close combat.

His Dreadnoughts begin to drop from concentrated fire.

My Autocannons suffered some for their good position, as eventually everything was out of range.

Rann at the last. The Rhino's multi melta did him in.

His Contemptor charged my Casteferrum, but was destroyed in the stand and shoot.

Eventually Dorn and the Huscarls got into the Leviathan.

But it survived the first turn of combat with the Primarch and his bodyguard!

Eventually a Casteferrum Dread made it to combat.

The Leviathan goes down, but the Casteferrum killed all the Huscarls!

My Champion challenges Sigismund!

With the expect results.

But my Templars got the better of his Templars.

The Chaplain and Phalanx Warders were waiting to assist.

Excuse me sir.

In the end it was Sigismund and Dorn, alone.

Sigismund fought his brothers to the last, when there was no one left to challenge.

The Casteferrum Dread did not have a good feeling about this.

We ended the game when it was just Dorn left remaining.

As I had planned when making my list, the shooting was brutal, and my assaults on the survivor's was also brutal. My Scouts and Recon Marines wiped out the opposing Tactical Squads and the Heavy Support Squad. What was crazy is that my Leviathan dread took out one of my opponents Contemptor Dreads in a single turn of shooting. The Leviathan had a storm cannon and two Illiastus Assault cannons, and I rolled a lot of rends! 

I didn't need to advance but I wanted there to be some close combat. I sent my Centurion Champion forward to take on Sigismund to add some drama, hoping he would somehow survive a turn... he did not! My Leviathan went into combat with Dorn and his Huscarls, and somehow only lost a single wound! But then it failed to hit a single time! Then when the Castaferrum charged the Huscarls the next turn, it killed them all! There were some fun moments in the game, but it was pretty one sided.