Wait this isn’t Blood Bowl, what kind of HERESY is this?

The fact is that I’ve kinda grown tired of Blood Bowl for the time being, instead, I’m drinking in gallons of nostalgia for Warhammer 40k 5th edition and painting far too much green by spending the majority of 2024 building and painting 3000 points worth of Sons of Horus for The Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness. I had been playing it previously anyway, but when Tabletop Republic started hosting 30k events, particularly the 2-day event over the 12th-13th of October, I really started to delve deep into both the hobby and gaming side of it. Between February and October, I painted up nearly 2500 points of Tanks, Dreadnoughts and quite a few Terminators, all in the glorious green of the Warmaster’s own, The Sons of Horus.

The event I’ll be going through now was a 2 day, 5-game matched play event. Unlike 40k, 30k has significantly less focus on the competitive or “meta” scene, so matched play, for the most part, means you’ll have Traitor vs Traitor and Loyalist vs Loyalist matchups, however, that’s not to say you won’t see some rather tuned lists…. and my mind was certainly opened to some powerful combinations that’s for sure. It was still a tournament after all, even if I was bringing a list that entirely consisted of “things that I like”, it doesn’t mean everyone thinks the same way! That being said, almost every single army I saw and played against was gorgeous to look at (you’ll see some incredible examples in the photos below) and all 5 of my opponents were a treat to play against.

I ended up coming 9th out of 20 players, which honestly I was thrilled with and ended up 3-0-2 which again… very happy with. I also ended up as the Top Traitor, which was a very nice bonus indeed, although it’s certainly a sad state of affairs for the bad guys when the best they can do is scrape the top 10!!!

So without further ado, let’s get into the games themselves. If you’d like to see the list I used, it’s here.

There were some changes after this photo was taken but this represents pretty much everyone bar some of the Veterans going and different guns on the Contemptor.

Mission: Take and Hold
Deployment: Dawn of War

Have you ever had one of those games, where at the start you feel like you know what you’re doing only to have someone who actually does, completely school you? This was THAT game!

Of all the people to get in my very first event game of 30k, it had to be Rob from Heresy Hammer, who hilariously enough had been my background noise while painting the Spartan during September in preparation for this event. What stood in front of me was an incredible looking Ultramarines force, with an array of heavy ranged weaponry in the form of Lascannons, Volkite Culverins, Predators, Rapier Batteries, with some Loctarus and Assault Marines to follow up the carnage and get stuck into melee.

For the most part, it was a game where I spent most of it picking up my miniatures and placing them in the dead pile, the two Heavy Support squads, taking cover behind the surprisingly good 35pt Defence Line, just ripped into anything they could spot and my mostly melee focused army really struggled to do much. The main plan was to Deep Strike Abaddon and his Justaerin retinue on their flank and then rip into them with glorious melee. However, for far too long a single Predator blocked the way and by the time they got there, it was too late. The Javelins too knocked out the Spartan with the 10-man Tartaros squad, forcing them to footslog into a barrage of Volkite fire that left only the Chaplain remaining, who wasn’t angry enough to live much longer.

In my own deployment, the small Veteran and Tactical squad did their best to hold out onto the objective, but the never-ending wave of Ultramarine bodies overwhelmed them in the end, even with the Leviathan taking out the Loctarus squad by himself, although exploding in the process.

Despite it being a one-sided affair, it was honestly an incredibly enjoyable game! One of those you come out of with a better understanding of the system as a whole. Rob was a fantastic opponent too and really made what could have been a slog thoroughly enjoyable instead.

Mission: Sudden Strike
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil

If you’re at all familiar with the 30k scene, you’ll know that Imperial Fists, especially Sigismund and Phalanx Warders are considered to be pretty darn good, so I was a little worried when I saw this list included that… as well as a Thunderhawk! However, my worries about another thrashing were unfounded and what occurred was probably my favourite game of the weekend, it was a cinematic and very close game that came down to just a couple of failed saves right at the death. The mission really played into this, with both of us taking 2 home(ish) objectives each as well as stealing one for 3-3 on purely the mission. However, Abby got himself too isolated and despite the Justaerin taking an absolute pounding on his behalf (seriously they tanked a ridiculous amount of firepower), he failed his last two saves thanks to a bunch of Solarite Gauntlets surviving his own attacks.

The game initially started quite cagey, with a few shots traded between the dual Conversion Beam Cannon Contemptor and the Fists long-range weaponry, but not much happened in turn 1. Turn 2 however, the Warders strolling up the middle nicked what should have been an easy objective for me to take and forcing my Seekers to retreat from their cosy fortification. Abaddon managed to pull off a very good deepstrike however, charging into some camping Warders and bullying them off an objective before the late arrival of the Thunderhawk delivered Sigismund and his Gauntlet-wielding Terminators into the rear, killing both the Retinue and Abbadon in an absolute slugfest of an assault phase.

My biggest issue, one entirely of my own doing, was I held the Spartan too far back, meaning it did very little outside of popping a couple of Predators from long range, meaning the Tartaros inside only managed to get into combat on turn 4, killing some Warders themselves but otherwise doing little else. It really should have been far further up and able to assist Abbadon earlier, potentially saving him and at least tying up the game.

Overall and absolute cracker of a game, there was stuff happening all over the table (including my poor Leviathan being blocked by a Rhino!) and it felt incredible dynamic and thematic. It was truly a Siege of Cthonia game with the two big names of the campaign duelling it out. Ross was my personal pick for the Player’s Player award as well, just due to being such a fun opponent and really getting into the theming and fun of the game itself. He also had a Thunderhawk… so bonus points there!

Mission: Strike and Fade
Deployment: Search and Destroy

The first win of the weekend and it was a cheeky one at that! I’ve been fortunate to play Lloyd before during our local campaign games and so had previously experienced the ranged threat of the Iron Warriors, however this time… it was a mass of Terminators and The Hammer of Olympia himself, Pertuabo.

The mission is also one that, I think if I were hosting an event I’d skip. Strike and Fade is a very fun mission and can result in some enjoyable chaos, but it can be quite unfair if the scatter gods decide the objective scatters in a very favourable direction for one player. This time that player was me. For the entirety of the game, the objective never left my quarter of the board, forcing the Iron Warriors to meet the Sons of Horus head-on (something we quite like!) and allowing me to score it twice, whereas the IW didn’t manage it a single time.

It started off pretty well for me too, by doing enough damage to the rather threatening Rapier Batteries turn one, rendering them useless for the rest of the game (although not enough to earn me a victory point) followed by my Leviathan reducing both Domitar Automata to paste thanks to its superior weaponry and y’know, being a dreadnought! The rest of the game became a scramble for the objective, with a speedy Contemptor contesting it for a turn, however, he was quickly dealt with by some backline Justaerin, nabbing me 3 points by claiming it on turn 3.

Turn 4 saw Pertuabo and what seemed like a horde of Terminators pile into the objective, including my own Tartaros squad who’d just finished dealing with a Cataphractii Command Squad, the lighter unit jumping into the point to deny the Iron Warriors. After a very one-sided fight thanks to Pertuabo joining the fray, only the Chaplain remained who, unlike Abaddon in game 2, vitally saved his 5+ invulnerable to survive, stubbornly made his leadership check to deny the Iron Warriors 4 points which would have won them the game.

Great fun and another slog of a brawl in the dying moments, this time with the Sons of Horus coming out on top!