Why Should You Use Allies In The Horus Heresy?

By Steve Turner | February 16th, 2017 | Categories: Adeptus Custodes, Blood Angels, Forge World, Horus Heresy

It’s Black Blow Fly and today I’ll be talking about building an allied detachment for your Horus Heresy army. Come check it out, you might learn something new.

It’s Black Blow Fly swinging through your neighborhood again to spread some mischief and discontent… heh ! The new Horus Heresy book Inferno will be out soon with rules for the Emperor’s Talon, Space Wolves and Thousand Sons – yes we live in exciting times. Today I talk about building an allied detachment for your Horus Heresy army and provide a simple example. The example given is a Legion but it could be Mechanicum or some other non Legion faction. This can be a fun little project if you need a break from working on your primary detachment.

Adding an allied detachment to your main force is a good method to spice up your army and shore up some new abilities. I’ve always been a big fan of Blood Angels and love what they’ve got so far for the Horus Heresy. While Blood Angels as a Legion do not have a full set of rules yet with special characters and special units they do have their own Legion rules and some special wargear, both of which are full on win ! I have built the following allied detachment to fight along side my main force.

Consul – Chaplain (Hatred, Fearless & Fear)
Jump Pack – Artificer Armor – Inferno Pistol – Melta Bombs – Blade of Perdition

Apothecary
Jump Pack – Power Sword

9x Assault Marine – Jump Packs – Power Axe – Power Sword
Sergeant – Jump Pack – Artificer Armor – Inferno Pistol – Melta Bombs – Power Fist

Leviathan Dreadnaught
Ceramite Armor – Extra Armor – Phosphex Discharger – Grav Flux Bombard – Siege Claw w. Built-In Meltagun – 2x Assault Cannon
Dreadnaught Drop Pod

Note that I run a Knights-Errant from Horus Heresy Book VI as an HQ for my main Heresy army with a jump pack and narcethium who joins the combined BA squad (Chaplain, Apothecary and Assault Marines). They can deep strike together if you want a solid unit encroaching in your opponent’s backfield. The Knight-Errant is also a level 2 psyker whom I use to cast blessings on my army. The Blood Angels combined infantry unit are actually designed to hunt armor primarily rather than melee versus enemy combat units. Of course being jump infantry they are very fast which combines well with my main army. They can pick off weaker enemy units such as tactical Marines or support squads if need be.

We all know just how great is the Leviathan now – he comes down turn one and is a dakka monster the first turn… more so with the pair of assault cannons. It’s a great distraction and can draw the heat off from other units. The next turn the Leviathan goes into Hulk mode and smashes face… which is what he does best.

The combination of these two units lets you put a lot of pressure on the enemy early in the game and forces them to make some tough decisions. My primary detachment is Templars which features terminators in a pimped out Spartan for the good old hammer and anvil. The theme I went for is a Siege of Terror force designed to take on traitors during the final battle at Terra. Blood Angels and Templars were both present so it’s got a nice theme for that period of the Horus Heresy.

I’ll next be adding a fast attack unit – a pair of Javelins which got a really nice boost with the release of the latest rules for Legions. The main thing is to have fun and it can be a rewarding feeling to complete a relatively small project.

The new book Inferno will be available to order soon and I expect to see lots of Custodes and some Sisters of Silence flooding the battle fields of the Horus Heresy. You can build a solid allied detachment at the 1000 point level and they will get some work done. I reckon they will be sorely needed with Magnus and his cabal of Thousand Sons menacing the galaxy with their amazing psychic abilities.

~Black Blow Fly out!