Alpha Legion: Rules 2 - Units

As I hinted last week, this week is about what units to use. Specifically, I'll be talking about units that strike me as fitting well with the overall infiltration/assassination theme of the army in terms of rules. These will all end up being modeled like Headhunters and other Alpha Legion marines, of course, but may use rules discussed below. 

Alpha Legion: Models 1 - Headhunters

Alpha Legion Headhunters are just the coolest. During the Great Crusade, the Alpha Legion pioneered the use of Seeker Squads, whose role was close-in assassination and that would pop up in the middle of a battle to kill enemy leadership targets. They were equipped with specialist ammunition and were chosen based on their skill as marksmen, not rank. The Alpha Legion took this concept a step further, naturally, and developed Headhunters who used even more extreme infiltration methods and whose targets were not limited to leadership, but included just about any actions that would cause chaotic conditions (or whatever furthered the Alpha Legion's goals), and who attempted all this without the enemy even knowing of their presence (at least not until it was too late). 

Alpha Legion Seeker Marines go to work.

Alpha Legion: Painting 1 - Legion Indigo

Let's talk Alpha Legion armor color. 

This old Index Astartes article shows two different ones: the purple and green scheme and the blue and green scheme. Seems like GW has gone for the blue and green scheme as the official Alpha Legion scheme in the CSM Codex. The old purple one doesn't seem to be very popular in general, but I see the blue and green around all the time.

Index Astartes figure showing pre- and post-Heresy schemes.

Alpha Legion: Background 1 - History

If you've heard of the Alpha Legion, you've no doubt heard they are secretive, duplicitous, and contradictory to the extreme. The Horus Heresy (HH) book series has done much to improve and expand on previous background material that merely stated, not showed, the tactics and methods the Alpha Legion use to achieve their goals. The HH books have also provided some inkling for the basis of the Alpha Legion's goals, while steering clear of stating anything explicitly (as well they should!). And as much as I like having the answers, keeping the Alpha Legion's goals a mystery fulfills the very practical purpose of letting fans of the game and story, like me, make up their own reasons, and therefore decide on the motivations and goals of their own cells of Alpha Legionnaires.

Alpha Legion: Rules 1 - Traits and Tactics

I started seriously planning for this Alpha Legion army during 7th edition, and I wanted an army that represented a group of Alpha Legion Headhunters, not a handful of marines and loads of cultists. I particularly like the rules in the Horus Heresy-era version of the game (commonly called "30k"), and I take my inspiration from one of the special Alpha Legion Rites of War, the "Headhunter Leviathal". This set of rules represents a small group of Alpha Legion elites conducting a false flag operation, and makes Headhunters troops. Headhunters have special ammunition, can infiltrate, and are decent in melee with their Rending power knives. This is the type of army I want to replicate in 40k: elite troops (though not strictly restricted to Headhunter-surrogates) that can deploy wherever they need to be. Their missions, infiltration, false flags, sabotage, and assassination, are conducted deep behind enemy lines.

Forge World Alpha Legion Headhunters models.

New Project

And that new project is: The Alpha Legion! 

When I started playing Warhammer 40k, I was immediately pulled into the story, the "fluff". Even when I started (~ mid 3rd edition), the stories about each faction, and the Adeptus Astartes (Space Marines) especially, were many, mysterious, tragic, grim, and dark. Though I started playing the loyalist Blood Angels, I quickly learned about all of the original legions and their primarchs. One that didn't seem very well fleshed out or interesting, though, was the Alpha Legion. Sure, they were described as stealthy, unorthodox, and secretive, but it always seemed to boil down to "they were upset that all the other legions said they weren't good enough, so they joined Horus to prove they were the best" in the fluff, and "they have some marines and mostly cultists and Imperial Guard that they swayed to their side" in their rules. It seemed so simplistic and petty, and thus they never held much interest for me.

Then the Horus Heresy book series started, and the seventh book, "Legion", changed my opinion.

Copyright belongs to Games-Workshop.

OFCC Wrapup and Looking Ahead

It's been over a month now since I should have put up another post. To start, I have pictures of the completed Corvus Blackstar! I did manage to get this up to my painted and washed (though not highlighted) stage as the rest of the army for OFCC.

I also continued the lens technique and continued using blue for it for two reasons. First, blue was a shade not used prominently on other parts of the model, so I feel like it makes the lenses stand out. Second, it's a (very) subtle tie-in to the Adeptus Mechanicus parts of the army, which also have blue lenses.

Another visual tie-in to the Mechanicus part of the army is the same deep Khorne Red used for the stripes on the Blackstar tail and missile pods as well as the base color for the Robots and the Dunecrawlers. 

Basing

Good news: I met my goal for the month! The second unit of Vanguard has been completed. This squad has three plasma calivers for taking down armored infantry targets. An example of a caliver-toting model is shown here:

Like the arc rifles and radium carbines, the coils of the plasma calivers were done in Caledor Sky, Lothern Blue, and White Scar. When I first started this hobby, I did not appreciate how good it looks when your army's paint scheme is uniform over the whole army (with some small exceptions, of course). But this one looks like it is an army that belongs together.

Vanguard and Bases

Due to starting a new job and moving, I have once again not accomplished as much as I'd like to have this month. I did finish the first squad of Vanguard, but the second squad has really only been started. If I finish them by the end of the month, then I have June to paint up my last unit, the Corvus Blackstar for the Deathwatch, and then I can get everything else ready (including the display board) in July before the tournament at the end of that month.

For the Vanguard, I used Mephiston Red and then Evil Sunz Scarlet on the main part of the robes, and Ushabti bone on the inside. In keeping with the color palette of the rest of the Mechanicum forces, I used Leadbelcher and Brass Scorpion on the metallic bits. The eyes and weapons have details in Caledor Sky, Lothern Blue, and White Scar.

    

More Decals

This month, less got done than I planned for. I wanted to have 10 of my Skitarii Vanguard painted and washed. They're well on their way, with just their weapons and washes left to do, but they are not quite there. Therefore, I won't show them yet. Instead, I will show some decals that I applied to the robots and the dunecrawlers. Enjoy! Next month, I will at least have one squad of the Vanguard done, and the second should be well on their way, if not also done. July is coming faster than I thought!

    

    

Decals and Dunecrawlers

This month, I have been furiously working on completing two Onager Dunecrawlers. I only managed to finish one, but the other is about 2/3 of the way there. The one that has been completed is designation Epsilon-Fermi-alpha (and the other is the beta).

Like the robots, I decided to leave these mostly Khorne Red with Ushabti Bone as the other main color. The metal highlights are done in Brass Scorpion and Leadbelcher.

Tech-Priest Dominus Nu-Bohr

Short painting post this month as just one model was finished, though I did start assembling the Skitarii Vanguard, and the second Cybernatica Datasmith is almost done. The model that did get painted is a big, detailed one, too: the Tech-Priest Dominus. His designation is Nu-Bohr (named after Neils Bohr). The model was painted un-assembled so I could get at all the details.

Tech-Priest Dominus 

Battle Report: The Disciples of Entropy vs Chaos Marines

After playing the Tyranids and Genestealer Cult allies (see battle report from 01/28/2017), I played another game with my Disciples of Entropy Skitarii/Cult Mechanicus/Deathwatch/Inquisition army against some Chaos Space Marines. These were specifically the Crimson Slaughter rules.

The Armies:

The Crimson Slaughter army main detachment was a Combined Arms Detachment with a Daemon Prince HQ, one unit of Possessed, and two units of Chaos Space Marines in Rhinos. It also featured a Predator and two Helbrutes. The army also had an allied Heldrake Terror Pack formation with two Heldrakes, and an allied Cult of Destruction formation with a total of five Obliterators and one Warpsmith.

My list is described in more detail elsewhere, but basically consists of the Cult Mechanicus Cybernatica Cohort formation, a Skitarii Battle Maniple with two units of Vanguard, one unit of Rangers, two Onager Dunecrawlers, and one unit of Infiltrators, a Deathwatch Dominatus Kill-Team with Corvus Blackstar dedicated transport, and an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor.

Deployment:

My deployment ended up being much the same as the previous game, and for much the same reasons. The Kastelans were set up in the center to be able to move to either side of the board in time to do some damage. The Vanguard were placed in flanking positions, one unit on the right side of the board and one on the left, and the Rangers in their same building on the right. My Infiltrators joined the Vanguard and Rangers on the right. The difference this time was that I set up one Dunecrawler on the left and one on the right. This meant their invulnerable saves were not as good as they could be, but I was gunshy after the last game. I chose my warlord as one of the Skitarii Vanguard, and rolled the master-crafted warlord trait.

On the Chaos Marines side, the daemon prince was placed on my left side in the tall building, ready to fly first turn. The Predator, Possessed, and one Helbrute were set up in the center. The two squads of Chaos Marines were set up in their Rhinos also on my left side. The three Obliterator units and the Warpsmith were set up on my right along with the other Helbrute.

The mission was Big Guns never tire, with three objectives. My Heavy Support choices were the Dunecrawlers and the Kastelans. The Kastelan formation dictates, however, that the entire unit must be destroyed for it to count, in which case it would be two victory points for the two HS choices. The Chaos HS choices were the Obliterators and Predator.

Setup for game 2 vs Crimson Slaughter Chaos Space Marines.

The Battle:

I managed to steal the initiative, so I went first. The combination of the  Vanguard with Arc Rifles and the Rangers with their arquebuses were able to take down the Helbrute on the right. The Dunecrawler on the right was able to instant-death a couple of the Obliterators, the one on the left immobilized a Rhino, and everything else just moved around a little. On the Chaos turn, the Daemon Prince took off into swooping mode and flew forward, the mobile Rhino re-positioned, and the remaining Helbrute, Predator, and Possessed moved up. Little damage was done in the shooting phase.

The Rangers take off the last hull point off the Helbrute.

In turn two, I was able to wound and down the Daemon Prince, and then assault him with my Kastelans. One of the Datasmiths promptly declined the Prince's challenge, and the Robots were able to kill the Prince. Nothing else of note happened in my turn. In the Chaos turn, only one Heldrake showed up, and it zoomed over and killed all but one of my Infiltrators. The Possessed and Helbrute moved up, and the Possessed managed a charge, but I ended up killing them (also thanks to shooting in my phase). 

  

The Kastelans kill the Daemon Prince, but the Infiltrators get all but wiped by the Heldrake's Baleflamer.

The Kastelans draw lots of firepower and combat their way as they move into the middle of the board.

In my third turn, the Corvus Blackstar showed up, but the squad inside stayed up as it zoomed. It shot all its missiles at the Predator but didn't manage to take it down. The Kastelans moved up more and shot at the Chaos Marines who had disembarked from their immobilized Rhino. The Vanguard on the left also moved up to try to grab the objective. The Chaos Marines shot back at the Kastelans to little effect, while the other squad of Chaos Marines disembarked and also shot at the Kastelans, also to little effect. The Helbrute then charged in, killing one of the Kastelans, but getting destroyed by by the rest of the Robots. 

    

The Robots move up and shoot at the Chaos Marines, who shoot back, too. They then destroy the Helbrute that charges them.

In my fourth turn, the Blackstar disgorged its cargo at the foot of the trench where the Obliterators and Warpsmith were holed up, and turned to take the last hull points off of the Predator. The Kastelans moved up and decimated the Chaos Marines along with the Dunecrawlers and the Vanguard on the left with their plasma calivers. The Deathwatch performed a disordered charge on the Obliterators to tie them up after killing one in the shooting phase. In the Chaos turn, the other Heldrake showed up (we used our Tyranid friend's Hive Crone models), but did not manage to take down the Blackstar. It did, however, manage to kill a lot of Vanguard on the right side. More attempts to kill the Robots failed.

  

The Deathwatch and Inquisitor charge the Obliterators, and the Heldrakes zoom around, killing Vanguard.

In my fifth turn, the Robots killed the rest of the Chaos Marines and their Rhinos with the help of the Dunecrawlers and the Vanguard. The game was called at this point since I was likely going to have more VPs than Chaos even if I wasn't holding objectives.

Conclusions:

• Let's be honest, Chaos Marines aren't the most competitive army, and this list was more fluffy than competitive beyond that. So this isn't any kind of major win.
• I think I did make the right choice in leaving the Deathwatch inside their transport for a turn. In the last game, I was so worried about them getting shot down that I entered the Blackstar in hover mode and disembarked the squad immediately, even though they were poorly positioned. 
• I definitely knew this game that the Robots were tough to take down and plowed them straight up the center of the board to take on as many things as they could. It worked pretty well, and it took a lot of firepower to take down even the one they did lose.
• If lists I end up facing in the tournament have two or more fliers, it will be difficult to take them down. The Blackstar, while not exactly a slouch, isn't the best tool for taking out fliers, and has the additional duty of getting the Deathwatch into battle safely, so it has to jink when it gets shot at. The Robots might be able to help a little since two of them have twin-linked weapons, but that means they're not focusing on harder targets. I'll probably just have to focus on ground units and hope I can hold off infantry-killers like Heldrakes long enough.

Again, any comments and thoughts are welcome! What kinds of units do you think I will have the most trouble with (aside from Death Leapers...)?

EDIT: I have since come to realize that due to me thinking the Kastelan Robot maniples were 190 points each, when in reality they are 290 points each, my army was overpowered for this game! Sorry Chaos Marines!

Battle Report: The Disciples of Entropy vs Tyranids

Bonus post! I got to play a couple games recently with the radiation army that I am building. I have taken to calling my army the "Disciples of Entropy" as an analog to the "Children of Atom" from the Fallout series of video games, which is also the inspiration for my army's backstory. I am a little fuzzy on the details of the battles since I did not take good notes, but the overall story is essentially there.

The Armies:

The first battle was against Tyranids and Genestealer Cult allies. The Genestealer Cult allies consisted of two of the "The First Curse" formations, so lots of Genestealers and two Partiarchs. The main Tyranid detachment featured some Zoanthropes, two minimal squads of Genestealers, a Mawloc, a Trygon, an Exocrine, a Tyrannofex, a Lictor, and a Hive Crone. The Warlord was the Death Leaper.

The Disciples of Entropy main detachment is a Skitarii Maniple containing two squads of Vanguard, one with three plasma calivers, one with three arc rifles, one squad of Rangers with three transuranic arquebuses, two Onager Dunecrawlers both with neutron lasers, and one squad of Infiltraitors with the Pater Radium relic. I also took an allied Cult Mechanicus formation: the Cohort Cybernetica, which consists of two units of Kastelan Robots and one Tech-Priest Dominus. I also included an allied formation of Deathwatch: a Dominatus Kill-Team, with Corvus Blackstar dedicated transport. Finally, I took an allied Inquisitorial detachment of just one Ordo Xenos Inquisitor to ride with the Deathwatch in their transport. My warlord for this game was the Tech-Priest Dominus, who rolled the objective-identification trait from the Cult Mechanicus list. I had to substitute my Anvil Industries models that I use as Militarum Tempestus for the Vanguard.

Deployment:

Tyranids set up and went first, with both of our battle lines fairly spread out. The cult ambush deployment didn't result in any first-turn charge potential (thankfully for me), but did allow the 'Stealers to get very close. The mission was The Scouring: six objectives with random VP values.

    

Initial setup before Cult Ambush deployment, then two after Cult Ambush deployment.

The Battle:

Turn one, the Tyranids moved in. doing little shooting and thus little damage to my lines. On my turn, my Skitarii and Kastelan group moved up and laid waste to the center mass of Genestealers. After realizing that the Patriarch has no invulnerable save, it was taken out, too. The Vanguard to my battlefield right took shots at the Tyrannofex, but did little, and the Onager Dunecrawlers did a wound to the Exocrine.

  

The center Genestealers (and upon later realizing it had no invulnerable save, the Patriach) get wiped.

Unfortunately for me, it was at this point that the Tyranids started to lock in a lead. The Death Leaper showed up right behind the Vanguard and Rangers in one of the buildings on my side and managed to kill the Vanguard Alpha with its flesh hooks. The Trygon also arrived on the right flank near my Infiltrators, and a Lictor popped up near the center of the board as well. The First Curse formation on my left flank made a disordered charge on my two Dunecrawlers. One of them did explode and take a bunch of 'Stealers with it, though.

  

The Death Leaper arrives, killing the Vanguard Alpha with its flesh hooks.

The Genestealers and Patriarch assault the Dunecrawlers. One of them explodes, killing a fair number of the buggers.

On my turn, my robots moved up to deal with the Endocrine (which failed a charge the previous turn), Lictor, and the Zoanthropes. My Vanguard tried shooting at the Death Leaper to no avail since they were only allowed snap shots. They then tried charging, which was a complete disaster. The Rangers and other unit of Vanguard ended up taking down the Tyrannofex and the Robots dealt with the Exocrine and Lictor, while the second Dunecrawler succumbed to the Genestealers.

The Death Leaper disaster.

This is where both my documentation and recollection of events becomes a bit hazy, but somewhere in the course of the battle, there was a disastrous charge by the Infiltrators to the Trygon, and the Rangers were taken down by the Death Leaper. My Deathwatch reserves did eventually arrive, intending to deal with the Death Leaper or the Zoanthropes. The Mawloc, however, took care of them instead. The Kastelans killed the Mawloc, but by that point they were all I had left, so I ceded victory.

The Deathwatch arrive, and just as swiftly depart thanks to the Mawloc and Death Leaper.

Conclusions: 

• I should have known better than to spread out so much, especially against the Genestealer Cult and their Cult Ambush deployment. I probably should have placed the Dunecrawlers in the center with the Kastelan Robots. 
• The Kastelan Robots are a far tougher model than I am used to, and they were absolute tanks. The only trouble is that they still only move 6", so to avoid having them just wander around the board the whole game, they need to be in the center as well, especially with so many reserves coming in from my opponent. I would like to use them as a flank guard, but at 515 points for the unit, that would mean a large part of my army could be avoided. I think they will simply need to be moved up straight into enemy lines to provide an irresistible and frightening primary target while the rest of the army moves around them. 
• I think I misused my Deathwatch here, and they should have stayed inside their transport to get a more optimal charge. They came in a little late to make much difference, but still.
• Not exactly sure how to deal with units like the Death Leaper that can arrive in the midst of my battle lines and almost necessitate close combat to deal with since getting shooting hits on them is very difficult. We did a final fight between it and the Kastelan unit, and the robots were able to take care of  the super-lictor just fine. However, I can't keep the Kastelans in my back lines to guard against such things since they don't have great shooting and I would thus not be using a quarter of my army's points very effectively.

I played another game that same day, and that will go up as another battle report very soon!

What is the best way to deal with infiltrating/deep-striking/pop-up backline units? What do you think I could have done differently? Leave a comment!

EDIT: I have since come to realize that due to me thinking the Kastelan Robot maniples were 190 points each, when in reality they are 290 points each, my army was overpowered for this game! Sorry Tyranids!

Heldrakes and Dunecrawlers

This past month, I managed to paint up a couple more Kastelan robots. However, since I've already shown photos of the first two and the new ones are essentially the same, I won't post pictures of them. Aside from that, I finally finished up the Heldrake painted as a gift. Since I need to transport it across the country and since it has many fragile pieces and not a lot of attachment points, I have not assembled it yet. But I took a couple photos of a couple interesting pieces. Highlighting the patterns on the body and wings was a long process, but I think the final product looks good!

Heldrake head... might look good on a Chapter Master's wall, too.

Heldrake body, highlights and all.

Another point of progress has been assembly. I have begun assembling the Skitarii Vanguard, and finished the assembly of two Onager Dunecrawlers. They are both outfitted with Neutron Lasers, both because a S10, AP1 blast sounds pretty good, and because it's a radiation-based weapon! 

One unpainted Onager Dunecrawler.

Closeup of the neutron laser.

Closeup of the cool triple-lens thing.

Finally, I have enabled comments on this blog! I welcome all discussions about painting, army lists, and the 40k universe, as well as questions for me. I also know that the internet can be a horrible place. I have seen comment section arguments on YouTube, Facebook, etc. Don't make me regret it.