The Warhammer-community team shows off some awesome looking new 30k vehicles in the Road to Thramas preview!
Unfortunately, the global lockdown meant that the Road to Thramas had to take a brief hiatus, but now we’re back! Today, we’re taking another look inside The Horus Heresy Book Nine – Crusade, focusing on the fighting vehicles of the Dark Angels and the Night Lords.
A Brief Recap
The Horus Heresy Book Nine – Crusade centres around the vicious battles between the Dark Angels and the Night Lords in and around the Thramas system. These conflicts were some of the bloodiest seen in the entire heresy, with no quarter given on either side.
As well as detailed background of the fighting and the sides who took part, this book includes interlinked missions that let you replay the Thramas campaign. There is also a brand-new army list for the Dark Angels Legion and an updated one for the Night Lords Legion. We’ve already taken a look at some of the units in these lists, including the Contekar Terminator Elite and Lion El’Jonson himself.
The battles for Thramas weren’t just fought by infantry though – both sides unleashed their largest and deadliest vehicles upon their foes…
Dark Angels Vehicles
The Dark Angels used the speed of the Sabre Strike Tank to launch furious flank attacks against the Night Lords. These swift hunter-killers perfectly complemented the tactics of the Ravenwing, using their speed to bring their volkite sakers and sabre missiles to bear on the enemy.
When the Dark Angels needed to deploy their Terminators quickly, they would unleash their Spartan Assault Tanks. The one below is a standard-pattern, but the grim reaper emblem shows that design dates back to the very earliest days of the Legion.
The sons of the Lion would also bring death from above in their Sokar pattern Stormbirds. These aircraft would often be the first units used in an assault, even after the Legion started to get its hands on the more modern Thunderhawks.
Night Lords Vehicles
In reply, the Night Lords turned to their own motor pool. Despite not usually relying on the static nature of warfare required by massed artillery deployment, they still found uses for the Bombard. Assigned to rear echelons, they would rain down fire on enemy positions that had already been bypassed by the Night Lords’ frontlines, who were sowing terror beyond those fortifications.
As well as transporting troops, the Night Lords would use the lascannons of their Land Raiders to demolish hab-blocks and fortifications, entombing the civilians and enemy warriors trapped within. They would then take grisly trophies to adorn the outside of their tanks.
The Night Lords 17th Chapter was fully mechanised and they would often use Fellblades, especially when fighting against the tanks of the Ironwing. Even the expert crews of the Dark Angels would suffer severe losses at the hands (or rather turrets) of these super-heavy tanks.
This is just a glimpse into the forthcoming Horus Heresy campaign book – which is packed with even more awesome artwork.
The Horus Heresy Book Nine – Crusade is out later this year. In the meantime, discover the full range of Horus Heresy-era vehicles on the Forge World website so that you are ready to wage war and claim Thramas for yourself.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
