WIP: Chaos Space Marine Heldrake and mini battle report

This model is detailed. I’m painstakingly painting the detail by hand. I’m enjoying it, however, it is taking a while. The above picture shows the main body, neck and head complete. I now need to paint the base and the wings separately to complete the model. After the jump I have some thoughts on a game of 7th edition I played with my Heldrake and Daemon Prince.

I played another Maelstrom of War mission using the most excellent Tactical Objectives and Mysterious Objectives. It was against 1200pts of Necrons and an allied contingent of Iron Hands.  This time I dropped Abaddon and took my Daemon Prince and Heldrake.These are just my highlights, it’s not a whole battle report.

Newly painted model, dead before I got a chance to summon a daemonic legion.

After deployment, my opponents Annihilation Barge opened fire and knocked three wounds of the Daemon Prince. It didn’t take much for the rest of the Necrons to knock the last wound off. That kill awarded three victory points (Tactical Objective: Kingslayer, first blood, and slay the warlord). That’s a 290pt model dead. I’d given him three mastery levels and was all ready to summon a horde of Daemons. Lesson learnt; if you do put all your eggs in one basket, don’t leave the basket out in the open.

Herpus Derpius my Chaos Sorceror did manage to conjure up 10 Bloodletters. It’s only taken him two games to figure it out. He did suffer Perils of the Warp though. The Bloodletters did a great job of holding up the Wraiths for most of the game.

The Heldrake arrived on turn two and targeted the Iron Hands tactical squad which managed to fell four of their number
in a fiery death. Even with the FAQ’d arc of fire (45º) it was easy to
position the Heldrake and it’s template to ensure kills. It just took a
bit of forward planning. The torrent rule really helped with placing the
flamer template to ensure maximum carnage. 

Baleflamer  makes a mess of Necrons behind cover.

On turn three, the Heldrake pivoted to the right and lined up a shot against 12 Necron Warriors and the Lord. Because of the desperate allies rule the Iron Hands and Necrons were keeping their distance which was perfect for the Heldrake’s minimum zooming speed of 18″. The awesome Baleflamer took down 10 Necron Warriors. My Forgefiend’s Hades Autocannons finished off the last two denying them the ability to stand back up.

A wounded Herpus Derpius thought it would be the perfect opportunity to summon a Greater Daemon. Rolling 7 warp charge dice he failed to meet the three 4+ rolls to cast it. That’s why he’s called Herpus Derpius. He suffered Perils of Warp, rolled a five and passed his leadership test. No wound. He lives!

 Late arrival on Turn 4, this beautiful Doomscythe #workofart

With my Chosen having finished off the Wraiths in turn three, turn four saw their demise as a Doomscythe arrived and destroyed the unit. My Forgefiend was having a good game so far. It had dealt with the Annihilation Barge over a couple of turns knocking off points. By turn four it turned it’s attention to the Doomscythe. I was sat on a Mysterious Objective which granted any unit within 3″ the Skyfire rule! The Forgefiend eyed up the silent Necron flyer, it’s Hades Autocannons whirring into life it effortlessly knocked off the Hull Points without the need to engage it’s Daemonforge engine.

The Heldrake zoomed over to the Immortals and killed all five of those in one gout of balefire. Turn five it zoomed off the board to return on turn six.

Not much left by turn 5.

The closing turns of the game saw my cultist’s autoguns continue to wound scarab bases sat on an objective in the centre of the board. It took the Helbrute’s melta cannon to remove the final base of Scarabs which was enjoying a 3+ cover save from the Scatterfield from the Mysterious Objective. 

By turn seven, I had my Heldrake, Forgefiend, Helbrute and 10 Cultists left and my opponent had a Necron Lord and an Iron Hand Librarian left. Necron/Iron Hand Alliance: 9VP. Black Legion: 7VP.

A game that started off terribly for me losing my Daemon Prince, started to turn round as the Heldrake and Forgefiend took on the enemy army nearly single handedly.

So ignore negative comments about 7th edition on the forums, it’s loads of fun. In two games, I’ve only managed to summon a total of 10 Bloodletters and both games all my psykers have died.

If you think you’re a better general than me (not difficult) and think you can beat the Necrons why don’t you contact Cat at Games Workshop Barnet and challenge her. Or just pop in to look at Cat’s gorgeous models.