Thursday, December 10, 2015

Horus Heresy Review: Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought

Background.
What happens when you stuff a dying possessed chaos space marine (ahem) Word Bearer Gal Vorbak in to a contemptor dreadnought chassis? This does. A meld of metal, daemon, space marine and raw warp power that not even its creators fully anticipated or understood perhaps.

Strengths.
Starting with the obvious, this thing (if that is the right noun) is a daemon with "It Will Not Die", adamantium will and takes all incoming heat and energy based weapon hits at -1 S. This provides the dreadnought with an incredible degree of survivability, in addition to its solid AV, and 4 hull points.

In assault, if anything is less than S7 or even AV13 suffers a -1 to hit as this creation has a shroud of dark fate on it.

Being an accursed thing, it causes fear tests to be at a significant penalty (as if the Night Lords had a monopoly on this - move over guys!). As well, being accursed gives a lot of pain to nearby psykers and daemons -- a huge reason to keep many components of a Word Bearers force away from it (since they're probably going to be just behind the Thousand Sons in terms of number of psykers / sorcerers on the table).

The next rule is one that I really like. The Earth Recoils means that the Mhara Gal can literally walk through walls as if they are not there. Forget dangerous and difficult terrain. It just goes THROUGH it (so long as its not too thick). This suggests we should be setting this guy not only apart from the main force, but also in cover and ready to walk right through it ready to assault and shoot enemies.

With the available weapons except for the lascannon, they're very notable for forcing an enemy to take morale tests every single time a model dies (per shooting phase). This is great! I must admit to liking the warp fire plasma cannon myself for the S8 AP2 blast it can provide. The tainted power claw is also amazing for forcing re-rolls of invulnerable saves -- very few other units can do this in the game.

Weaknesses.
This contemptor dreadnought has lost its atomantic shielding in comparison to regular contemptor dreadnoughts. This is not a huge loss considering the boons above to be honest.

When this creation explodes, it does not explode as per a regular vehicle. It creates a massive blast with soul blaze associated with it - ouch! Keep it away from your friends -- even if you're not running psykers or daemons or Gal Vorbak.

The only other drawback is trying to get this thing to where it needs to be. Without a drop pod, its tough. Even so, this is an amazing model and set of rules. And worthy of being stolen by the Alpha Legion to boot.

Builds.
Mhara Gal, Warpfire plasma cannon, tainted claw (305 points)
Costing more than a land raider, and needing to be kept away from the rest of the force, this is a pricey unit, but one that is very powerful. Treat it well and it should do well.

Mhara Gal, 2 x tainted power claws (305 points)
A dedicated close combat build that needs something like a drop pod to get where it needs to be.

Mhara Gal, 2 x warpfire plasma cannon (320 points)
A long range build for taking out terminators and the like. This one also poses a threat to other characters at range.

Other builds are possible, but I think a multi melta is a bit of a waste here. The auto cannons and lascannons options are more viable, but perhaps a Mortis might be a better (cheaper?!) option. Stick with the warp fire plasma cannons I think.

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