Thursday 30 March 2017

Hector Cephas; Throne of Skulls review

Hey all,

I thought it was about time I did a review of the Horus Heresy Throne of Skulls event that took place last weekend. I had an absolutely fantastic time; there's always a really good atmosphere at these events as it's quite relaxed and laid back and it's all about the hobby, the people and the enjoyment of playing games in the Age of Darkness.

As you can see from the images, I managed to get my World Eaters ready for the event - not entirely finished as there is a lack of blood though my first opponent pointed out that they should earn it by getting bloodied here anyway and that works for me!

Game 1: Vlka Fenryka (11-11; draw)


I can tell you, this was a bit of a shock, I couldn't believe I got to play against Vlka Fenryka in my first game! This was a great game to play, my opponent had such a great attitude towards the game and as you would expect, we just threw our legions at each other and there was much carnage - we almost flipped the Night of the Wolf on it's head as due to a bit of luck with cards drawn, I was winning the tactical game and the Vlka Fenryka were beating me on the butchery side of things.


This all changed when Angron died in his challenge with Russ and the game ended in a draw; 11-11 victory points, I'll take that result for a first competitive game with this army!


I saw this army on the Horus Heresy Throne of Skulls: Army Progress page on Facebook. I wish I got a picture of the Leviathan as it was beautiful and he did an excellent job with the Prospero themed basing. This almost won my favourite game vote but didn't in the end purely because of some of the other excellent games I had during the rest of the weekend!

Game 2: Vlka Fenryka (7-7; draw)


Second game, second Vlka Fenryka player - I did end up thinking after finishing this game that I may just end up getting drawn against a third VF player (spoiler alert: I didn't!). This match up, unlike the previous game was pretty one-sided though purely down to my dice rolls - I had two tactical squads entirely wiped out without doing much damage in return and a third swept off the board after losing combat to Russ's wolves.


Despite this, I managed to secure a 7-7 draw by a combination of lucky tactical objective card draws on my part, unfortunate ones for my opponent and the ability to drop pod my troops on top of objectives to pick them up unopposed before moving them onto fight the Vlka Fenryka assuming that they hadn't got to me first. Again, a draw is a draw, I'll take that.

Game 3: Iron Hands (9-6; win)

I must say, I felt bad through out this game. It felt like I picked the Iron Hands apart and due to the tactical objective cards I drew, I had to:
  1. Kill off my opponents troop selections
  2. Wipe out everything on a 2x2 tile
  3. Capture objectives that happened to be in or near my opponents deployment zone
It felt very one-sided in my favour due to the luck of the draw and I can't say it was fun for my opponent to play as I had to take out most of his scoring units which limited his options and his chances of getting back into the fight. 9-6 to me in the end and while it was my first victory of the weekend, it didn't taste sweet.

Game 4: Ultramarines (10-6; win)

Just imagine my amazement that I managed to get Ultramarines as my 4th opponent - when I first started this legion, the idea was to do an Armatura themed army. I loved this game, it was just constant action all the way through - I would put down a unit of tactical marines; the ultramarines would wipe out one of mine; I would take out a tank, the Ultramarines would return the favour by getting a Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought to pistol-whip my Contemptor and put him in his place... it was excellent! We fought all over the board and didn't give up.


The more observant of our readers would notice that this army is all in MkVII armour and that is correct; I do not hold this against my opponent - this was his first Horus Heresy Throne of Skulls and had only started playing Horus Heresy really recently. He is working on a Raven Guard army and if his army is as well painted as his Ultramarines, I am really looking forward to see it!


The final result of this game was a victory to the World Eaters (10-6) - unfortunately, my opponent kept on drawing objectives that were the opposite side of the board to his army so it was a struggle for him to achieve those but he put up a valiant effort, this could have been much closer and could have easily won this if he got better cards. Like the first game - it almost got my favourite game vote but it was beaten to the punch by the final opponent...

Game 5: Legio Custodes (11-13; loss; favourite game)

I know what you are thinking... "Wait, you lost this game, how was this your favourite?!". Simply put, it was very much like my previous game against the Ultramarines but turned up to 11.

Right from the start, I had to push him - if I let the Custodes get momentum, I was going to be toast so I had to play very aggressively right from the start to try and tip the scales in my favour. Unfortunately, the double-threat of a Leviathan and Contemptor dreadnought failed to tie down his troops before the rest of my army could get into position and as a result it put me on the back foot. His elite guard then started to advance up the field but got intercepted by my praetor and his command retinue. His Custodian Tribune had to join this melee to try to free up his men however, as Gahlan Surlak was backing up my Praetor, my command squad eventually won the day slaying both him and a squad of the the most elite of the 10,000 by the end of the game.

Believe it or not, until the 4th turn, I was actually winning on victory points as I got some useful cards at the right time and got some points onto the board very quickly. However, in my opponents 4th turn, he managed to get 7 victory points in a single turn that turned my 4 point lead into a 3 point deficit! All-in-all, this game was a very bloody, roller coaster ride that would have made Khorne very pleased indeed and was a very well deserved favourite game vote for my opponent; we shall have a rematch in the future I am sure!


To conclude, this was an incredibly enjoyable weekend and I would like to thank the Warhammer World events team for running such an excellent event and everyone else in attendance for just being awesome. I am really looking forward to the next Throne of Skulls whenever that takes place!

Until next time!

Hector Cephas

13 comments:

  1. Nice report. Sounds like an amazing event and loved all the pics. The games you had sounded great. Wish we had more things like this in the states.

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    1. Yeah, it's a pity really that you don't have a equivalent of Warhammer World out there :(

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  2. Great job, always love world eaters kicking ultramarines ​in the teeth.

    Personally I don't like my world eaters to be bloody, come over to the clean side ;)

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    1. Hehe, I have to agree, it was satisfying getting the victory in that game but the victory point result really does not show how close that game really was!

      I've got to add a bit of blood to be honest, I think it is the last touch that will make the army look that much better along with sorting out my metallics as they are somewhat flat and require shading and highlighting.

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  3. Looking forward to kicking your butt again in round 2! ;)

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    1. We shall see about that! But just remember, Khorne always wins, he's cares not from whence the blood flows, only that it does ;)

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  4. First game was a pleasure man :) the wolves are eager for a rematch

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    1. Hehe, I'll consider that as a challenge! I suspect I'll havea few people asking for a grudge match at the next Throne of Skulls ;)

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  5. Great report, sounds like you had a good time. I look forward to doing one of these in the future.
    I notice there's a lot of third party buts in those armies, no issues with FW on that part?

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    1. I hadn't noticed personally. Which bits?

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    2. Only thing I could pick out were the wolves jump packs. And maybe those round shields?

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  6. Sounds like a great set of games, I wish I had gone. It would have been a great chance to put my Loyalist XIV to the test, hopefully I'll get to one soon and the blood of World Eater and Death Guard may have the chance to be be shed against each other.

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    1. Hehe, I would definitely enjoy that. Looking forward to it :D

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