Horus Heresy - Horus Ascended leads the First Company to war

Hello Bunnies!

Following my posts yesterday that showed off the new Horus Ascended, including an unboxing video and a battle report that can be found on our YouTube channel. Today we get to see him at the front of his First Company! After that are my thoughts on using his Ascended version in actual games. 

I just love this model and how it looks at the front of my army! He looks fantastic on the tabletop and he really stands out as a great centre piece! 

Horus Ascended in games

I have managed to get 2 games in with the new Ascended model and I have had 2 more using ‘little’ Horus with the Ascended rule set. Quite simply he lives up to his 1000 points! I have found the claw to be particularly amazing, at least against the toughness 4 opponents, being strength 8 in his Ascended form means instant death at initiative 6. Top that off with deflagrate and suddenly your cutting your way through whole units of terminators or other elite units. 

Rage (3) and Feel No Pain (+4) really make him a killing machine on one hand and a tank on the other. Every wound that manages to get through your armour has a 50/50 Chance of being ignored and then It Will Not Die adds another layer of protection. Toughness 8 also means small arms fire is of little concern to him. 

If you have watched our battle report I posted in yesterday’s posts then you will see how he quite easily smashes his way through a Contemptor, Preator, Deathshroud, tactical squad and finally a breacher squad all while only taking 1 wound (though I think I forgot to role Perils of the warp after using The Power of  Chaos eternal). In another game he killed 10 Dawnbreakers with no issue. 

He is great fun to use, but much like other characters in this edition there are a few potential issues to watch out for. The first thing is a bodyguard, as soon as they are dead he can become exposed to some serious fire power. In yesterday’s game he ended up taking 16-18 lascannon shots to the face! Fortunately he only took 2 wounds from this but you can begin to see that large amounts of fire power and some bad luck on dice could lead to him dying. Again, once the bodyguard is down, a simple challenge from any character would mean all that pent up killing power will be locked down for a whole round or even longer if its a multi character or chosen warrior unit. 

My feeling is that at 4k he is probably borderline too powerful and I am not sure how you would go dealing with him at that level. Going to higher points levels he becomes more balanced but also has a higher potential to meet his end as the firepower that can be directed his way is substantially increased. 

My last thought, and to quote another great titan, is that he is inevitably. You can try to slow him and shot him down but ultimately he will kill whatever he fights and he will most likely make his points back as a minimum, if things really go your way I think he could take down an army on his own! 

Happy gaming!

Andy

Horus Heresy - Horus Ascended painted

Hello Bunnies! 

Welcome to post 2 on Horus Ascended! If you missed the first please take a look at my previous post, it included an unboxing video, a battle report with the Sons of Horus lead by Horus Ascended facing off against the Death Guard. It also had a review of the model itself. 

I throughly enjoyed painting this model, though to get it ready for the battle report it meant several very late nights and a couple of long 8 hour days at the painting table. Thankfully at no point did it feel like a chore! 

I wanted him to match the rest of my first company and basically followed my painting guide that I did for my Justaerin many years ago. You can find that very guide on this blog. I painted his face in the same way that I did for my original ‘little’ Horus, which again you can find on this blog. 

Here he is compared to ‘little’ Horus. 

And then next to his most trusted advisors. 

Overall I am really please with how he has come out! He is a great match for the rest of the army at looks right at home leading my First Company into battle! 

Check back tomorrow for some photographs of him at the head of my army and my written thoughts on how Ascended Horus plays on the tabletop. You can hear my initial thoughts following our battle report with him on our YouTube channel. 

Happy gaming! 

Andy

Horus Heresy - Horus Ascended Review, unboxing, and battle report

Hello Bunnies! 

We have been lucky enough to be sent the new Horus Ascended model as a preview! Ever since his unveiling I have been very excited to get my hands on this model. For long time followers of the blog you will most likely be aware of my Sons of Horus First company, which was my army of choice for the 1st edition of the Horus Heresy. It nearly always included Horus, so a new much more awesome looking model got me very excited!! 

I will say he is a spectacular model and he was a joy to build and paint! Upon receipt I did an unboxing video which can be found on our YouTube channel and by following this https://youtu.be/D5FSJmiHe-U. 

Drake and myself also got together to have a 4K game to test out Horus Ascended. His 1000 points didn’t disappoint! You can watch the game on YouTube and by following this https://youtu.be/4yj8qDu3uo0

The model itself is just fantastic! He comes with a colour instruction manual, which for the most part is good. Each part fits together near perfectly, likely a result of 3D design as opposed to manual sculpting. Very little clean up was required and the detail is sharp. 

The only thing that I don’t really like is his scenic base, which is much better than I thought it would be from the previews on the community site, but still not to my liking. So I mounted him on his 50mm base and added some rocks so that he matched the bases on the rest of my army. 

The wolf pelt was slightly fiddly to put together and I would recommend leaving the front leg of the wolf off and adding this once you have the main wolf in place as it sits quite specifically and attaches in a certain way that I think may be difficult to get perfect if you build it separate as the instruction suggest. 

The other difficult part was the claw. Each claw is separate and they are all numbered in the instructions but usefully they are not numbered on the resin sprue so it was a little bit of a guessing game to get them to look right on the model. The top and bottom are straight forward but the middle 2 less so. They were also the only bits that I found didn’t slot together like the rest of the model. 

I went for fully assembling him before painting and I didn’t find any part particular difficult to reach during painting. I suspect it will be much easier in sub assemblies but that has never been my style! 

Lastly he is a BIG model! Here he is next to ‘little’ Horus. Ascended is a lot chunkier but the models actually stand at a fairly similar height, mainly due to Ascended being in a more dynamic pose and running forward, rather than standing upright. 

My last thought is that I am glad Worldbreaker grew in size and thickness! I had broken the previous one off too many times! 

If you are a Sons of Horus player this model is a must! If you’re a painter and collector then this is perhaps the best Character series model that Forge World have done! I highly recommend picking this kit up! I will be using him for both Ascended and regular Horus as the model is far to awesome to leave in the cabinet for games of 4k and bigger! 

Check back in 2 hours to see the fully painted version or watch our battle report to see him in all his glory! Come back tomorrow to see him at the head of my First Company. 

Happy gaming! 

Andy