Horus Heresy Winter Event in Hamburg: Report

As I mentioned in my previous post, I went to Hamburg for a unique Horus Heresy event.

The event itself was not really a tournament but rather a gathering of like-minded people that just wanted to have a weekend of playing Horus Heresy games against cool looking painted armies and possibly different opponents. 

It was my very first event in Germany for 40K and I have say that I came back really happy and looking forward for next year!

The venue

The venue was a Karate gym located in Hamburg, very easy to reach from the highway, public transit access nearby and also some restaurants and coffee places.

There was more than enough space for all the gaming tables and an extra row of tables to display the armies, there is really no complaint at all about the space. What would have been nice is some additional extra stuff that some other tournaments/events provide, to make it nicer, such as access to cold/warm drinks and something to eat.

The tables

As I have mentioned, there was more than enough space, all tables were using very nice terrain and each setup was different so you had the chance to fight amongst the ruins of some bunkers or in the plains of Mars or in the cold surface of some Imperial planet. Pretty cool. Perhaps it could be even better if each table had some special rules attached to it.

My games

In total I played four  games and I just won (barely) one. More or less what I was expecting as I play very few games per year and my gaming skills are far from being honed. I forget half of the rules, or mix them with older versions and I know almost nothing of my opponents so I end up assaulting what I should not, and stuff like this.

There were no fix pairings for each round, so it was basically self-organized. My requirement was very simple, I just wanted to play against armies I did not know so I could see them in action.

Game #1

I only made a single picture of this game...

My first game was against Space Wolves, we played with 1500 points Zone Mortalis style, all Infantry and maximum one Contemptor.

The mission setup was a bit complicated for me, the Space Wolves started fully deployed all over the table and my whole Army got Deep Strike so I would be receiving an unknown amount of units per turn.

The game started well for me as I managed to place my seven meltaguns within 12" of his mega unit of Praetor with Terminators, but my opponent managed to save most of his cover saves so that only one died.

From that moment onward all went downhill, including a Plasma gun unit that decided to sit the whole game in reserves until turn 6 where there was nothing to do.

I paid dearly my ignorance about the Space Wolves and the rule that they can move, run and assault, so basically I was assaulted right after each unit deployed as Deep Strike.

Summary: I was totally wiped out of the battlefield. The mission did not help me at all, but I am not sure how I would have faced him in a different setup.

Game #2

For this game we played with 1500 points each, and I asked to play against Custodes because I don't know them and they simply look very cool.

My opponent had just wiped out one of my colleagues from Berlin playing Iron Warriors so I was expected to be wiped out as well since he plays way better than me. Spoiler: I was not disappointed.

The Mission we got was more or less a standard one in which we deployed separately in each side of the board and just had to tackle some objectives.

The game was really fun and up until turn 2 I really thought I had a chance of winning or at least making it hard for him to win as I had managed to wipe out two of his units (he had only five) and my Praetor and Terminator unit were holding the center of the battle. This did not last, he charged with his characters and another unit and wow the Custodes do really pack a punch. Roughly ~500 points of my Army were wiped out in a single Assault phase.

My opponent was really nice and took the time to explain all of the special rules and how to fight with and against Custodes, so I hope to be better prepared next time.

Summary: Total wipe out against an Army with almost no tank-hunting weapons and all on foot!

Game #3

This game was the last one of the Saturday and we agreed to play a big one, we settled on 3000 points, and since I did not have a list ready, I just took my 2500 and added a bunch of extra stuff.

My list included Horus, which I have never played on a game, but, as my opponent did not include any Primarch I asked him twice if he was really sure about it. I really had not tested Horus but looking at the rules you can see that he is a real beast and probably would make it almost impossible for him to win. In fact he seemed interested in seeing what Horus could do, so we tried it out.

The Mission was such that all Iron Warriors started on the table, in the center of a fortification, almost all of them with a 4+ cover, and I would enter from all borders of the table. Horus would Deep Strike with his Justaerin Guard.

The game started well for me as I managed to wipe out some of his troops but his two Iron-Circle Domitar automatas were breaking havoc on my army. They destroyed the Sparta Land Raider in a single blow and were now heading towards Horus. But it became clear the moment we engaged in assault that Horus would simply wipe them out, it is just too much, I think he could also easily kill a few Knights.

But as the army is not only Horus, on the other side of the table things were not looking so good for me, and he managed to damage most of my units, although not reaching a 50% casualty rate. It was not clear who had won at the end of the match so we counted points and we ended up with a very close 9 to 7 for me.

Summary: it is fun to play with Primarchs for a change, but they are totally not balanced, as exactly they should be!

Game #4

For the last game of the event I played a 1500 list against Death Guard. In order not to repeat the same list from the day before I changed it to include an Assault squad with Jump Packs as I thought it would be nice to try to assault the static Death Guard (I was wrong). I also asked my opponent to try some tank of his extensive collection that I did not know about, and after a short chat I suggested using the Malcador, which he agreed to.

The Mission was about getting an objective on the opposite side of the table so I thought that my Long March Rite of War would help me with this. It did help me get there, but it did not make my troops invulnerable :)

The start of the game was not very good as my opponent used his special rules to switch the location of his Malcador as far as possible from my Meltagun unit on Rhino, and as a result they ended up running through the battlefield for three turns and doing basically nothing.

On top of that, he seized the initiative and had a lucky shot from his Demolisher cannon that managed to wipe out my Sicaran that was hiding behind a building out of sight and severely damaged my Mortis Dreadnought that was also hiding... From there it was totally downhill. The Malcador completely destroyed my Army by killing another Dreadnought and a full unit.

There was a funny moment at the end of the match, when he had already a clear victory as I only had a remaining Rhino and Contemptor, in which he decided to ram my Dreadnought. Luckily for me, he did not roll enough so the ram was unsuccessful and I managed to destroy the tank in the next assault phase to avenge my fallen comrades.

It was a very fun game to play, in which I learnt a lot about the nasty things the Death Guard can do.

Summary: I was totally wiped out of the battlefield, again. I just added the Malcador to my wishlist of tanks, until then I only had the Venator and the Falchion.

Some pictures

The armies

These Custodes were painted to a very high level

  

The Warhound of this Army was really really impresive!

Venator and Leviathan with Drop-pod... I want!

This Word Bearers army was by far my favourite of the whole event. The level of detail was simply in another level, there were lots of conversions and all superbly painted. On the bottom right there is the start of his next project, an Emperor's Children Army with a converted Fulgrim.

Auxilia! I would have liked to play against him, I have not seem this army in action ever.

I played against this Death Guard

This was the Custodes army I played against 

This was my Iron Warriors opponent

This was my first opponent with Space Wolves

Unsorted

There was even time for a demo of Adeptus Titanicus!

Superb detail on this Warlord

Things that could be improved

It is probably just me, because nobody else mentioned it, and it is mainly because I am used to the way things work in Spain, but I think it would have been nice if all the attendees would have joined together in an organized lunch/dinner or after games beers. In fact, in all of the tournaments I have been in Spain, it is one of the highlights of the day. But now that I think of it, I have also not seen this in the Blood Bowl tournaments I have been to in Germany, perhaps it is just not common. For example, one of the tournaments organized by my old club in Spain, costs 25€ and includes a full three-course meal with all the attendees which is one of the big moments of the day or other famous Blood Bowl tournaments cost between 15€ and 20€ but they give a free exclusive miniature. It's not that I am complaining, I think that what we paid, 20€, was not too much, but the difference between what I am used to and what we have here is striking.

As for the rules, there was really not much need of referees or judges as everybody was just playing it cool and not worrying too much about the rules, in fact, nobody did check any army list, we just trusted that people were not cheating, and I honestly believe that was the case.

There is just one thing that I truly believe would help, and it is easy to achieve, to provide the Mission rules that we should use for each table / game and link them somehow so that what you do on your games influences the next ones. Perhaps someone decides to play with Abaddon on the first round and he gets killed so you can not use him anymore, or you can use him with W-1 or perhaps all the games of the Loyalists were lost on the first round so you apply some custom attrition rule for the next ones. I don't know, something to make the games more colorful.

I have suggested some of these things as comments on the T3 rating page and the organizer mentioned that the rules for the different missions will be considered. Although, to be clear, in the spirit of the event, which is just a gathering to play games, it is not really needed, but probably would help to create a bit more narrative.

If you live in Germany, I hope to see you there next year!

Even more pictures