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I’ve recently become a fan of the universe and am wanting to get into the books. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions where I could get the most access to audio book and how I should go about the series’s (40k first vs 30k(Horus Heresy)). I’ve looked into audible but wanting to see if anyone has any better recommendations
LA - XVI: Sons of Horus - [3000Pts]
Allegiance: Traitor
XVI: Sons of Horus
Rite of War: The Long March
HQ [349Pts]
Centurion [110Pts]: (Chaplain) Master craft one weapon to represent a Crozius Arcanum, Chaplain, Power Weapon (Power Maul)
Centurion [82Pts]: Herald, Boarding Shield, Chainsword (Chainsword), Legion Standard
Praetor [152Pts]: Warlord, True Son, Boarding Shield, Paragon Blade, Astartes Shotgun
Elites [485Pts]
Contemptor Dreadnought [180Pts]: Gravis Power Fist with in-built ranged weapon, Gravis Melta Cannon, Combi-Bolter
Reaver Attack Squad [305Pts]:
• 1x Reaver Chieftain +Meltabombs, +Artificer Armour
• 1x Reaver +Legion Vexilla
• 2x Reaver + Meltagun
• 6x Reavers
Troops [1321Pts]
Despoiler Squad [275Pts]:
• 1x Legion Despoiler Sergeant: Hand Flamer, Power Axe, Artificer Armour
• 1x Despoiler: Hand Flamer, Power Axe, Legion Vexilla
• 3x Despoiler: Hand Flamer, Power Axe
• 15x Despoilers
Tactical Squad [213Pts]:
• 1x Legion Tactical Sergeant: Power Fist, Artificer Armour
• 13x Legionary: Chain Bayonet
• 1x Legionary: Chain Bayonet, Legion Vexilla
Tactical Squad [213Pts]:
• 1x Legion Tactical Sergeant: Power Fist, Artificer Armour
• 13x Legionary: Chain Bayonet
• 1x Legionary: Chain Bayonet, Legion Vexilla
Tactical Support Squad [165Pts]: Volkite Charger
• 1x Legion Tactical Support Sergeant: Artificer Armour
• 8x Legionary
• 1x Legionary: Augury Scanner
Terminator Cataphractii Squad [460Pts]:
• 1x Cataphractii Sergeant : Chainfist, Magna Combi-Weapon - Meltagun
• 2x Cataphractii: Power Fist, Magna Combi-Weapon - Meltagun
• 3x Cataphractii: Lightning Claw, Combi-Bolter
• 1x Cataphractii w/Heavy Weapon (1 in 5): Plasma Blaster, Chainfist
• 1x Cataphractii w/Heavy Weapon (1 in 5): Heavy Flamer, Lightning Claw
• 2x Cataphractii w/Lightning Claws: Pair of Lightning Claws
Heavy Support [845Pts]
Deredeo Dreadnought Talon [225Pts]: Hellfire Plasma Cannonade, Twin-linked Heavy Bolter, Aiolos Missile Launcher
Land Raider Proteus Carrier [220Pts]
Land Raider Spartan [400Pts]: Flare Shield
Hey everyone, welcome to my third tactica!
It’s been a while since I posted one of these, and this one is going to be a detailed deep dive of the unbreakable Phalanx Warders (specifically in stone gauntlet).
“Knowledge is power.”
The aim of these tacticas is to help both beginners and seasoned veterans through a discussion of the unit’s abilities, rules, strengths and weaknesses and counterplay, to overall reduce frustration and increase gameplay enjoyment. If you are experienced, there are definitely some parts it might seem like I’m stating the obvious, so feel free to skip any of the parts.
Disclaimer: this is not a tactica on The Stone Gauntlet Rite of War, but if you read my other 2 tacticas, I have a tendency to go on tangents, so general tactics might end up slipping in. There is too much variation in list building to talk about the RoW so we will try focusing on the Warders themselves.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of 100 battles.” Sun Tzu, The Art of War.
To prepare for this tactica, I convinced my friends to drag through 5x 3k point games (mixture of rulebook core and supplement core missions) with me piloting the Stone Gauntlet. Prior to deciding to write this, I’ve played 2 games vs Stone gauntlet and brought it 3 times, so total experience would be 10 games. (Yes, they are still friends with me :P)
The outcome of the games were interesting to say the least. I will talk more about my thoughts in the conclusion segment at the bottom.
So without further ado.
Phalanx Warders (Fast Attack, Troops in Stone Gauntlet RoW)
Summary: A tanky brick of a unit that sits on an objective and stands stalwart against all traditional forms of firepower.
(Also known as a pain in the ass)
Goal:
How does everything work?
Phalanx Warders base are pretty unimpressive - it’s a breacher stat block with a power axe that lives in fast attack for some reason. 225 points for 10, and they have options to take some different options per 5 models.
They have 2 unique special rules:
Breachers are already probably one of the hardest to use troops out of the big 4 as they are expensive, slow and still die to regular bolt rounds. Phalanx Warders enhanced the invulnerable save and are a little bit chunkier in melee, but lose line, still dying to bolt rounds that will go onto their 3+ armour. 70 points more.
Now a new player might go: “Doesn’t seem that good, does it? The unit seems like a weird bodyguard unit for my Praetor that doesn’t like charging. Why does everyone hate it?”
This is when I speak the dreaded two words.
Stone. Gauntlet.
You won’t see Phalanx Warders much outside of the Stone Gauntlet Rite of War. And here is where the downward spiral begins.
What you are looking at is one of the, if not the, most difficult to get rid of line units in the game. (Medusan Immortals are also really hard to dig out vs shooting, but tend to crumple to longer melee combats).
The issue is, HH (and midhammer) weapons are typically either a large number of weaker shots, or high str/ap. Not both. You need lots of shots to cut through the save, but you need high str to ignore the potential FnP. Melee attacks can have both, but you hit much less reliably, and getting there is a challenge in itself.
From Boltgun Shell to Turbo Laser Destructor, the shield wall will endure.
Or will it? Don’t worry, there will be a maths segment and a counterplay segment, but first, let me go on a detour on psychology.
Why is this unit so controversial/widely hated?
I speak only for myself, but I find great joy when my guns or swords rip into the enemy lines, miniatures falling from both sides as the casualties mount up. Everyone loves a back and forwards close game.
Phalanx Warders are a huge, boring shield wall that stands in front of you, not doing a lot of damage but stopping you from achieving your goals. It feels like shit to have your attacks all bounce off as your opponent rolls 3 sets of saves.
Units that are a big brick of stats are often hated because they have a high skill floor, meaning that it puts all of the responsibility of dealing with it on the opponent, and not the player piloting the unit.
To quote a fellow 30k sub user on a post I made a month back: “Stone Gauntlet is really strong enough that even the dullest player doesn’t need advice on tactics because the strengths of Stone Gauntlet + Warders are so good you can really just take what you want. It’s a flat buff to list building, not tactical flexibility on the game board.”
So I guess we are screwed, let’s pack up our armies and go home.
Unfortunately, I am also a Iron Warriors player, so I am obliged to put down my minis and stick it to those boys in yellow. I’ve yapped on about how strong Warders are for long enough, let’s look at their weaknesses.
Weaknesses
Common Configurations
The Shield bus - 10 Phalanx Warders in a Rhino with dozer blade.
The “Deathstar” - 15-20 phalanx Warders + characters of your choice.
The Counterplay and Maths Segment
When I uploaded my first tactica on Lascannon HSS, someone replied and asked me to do the maths on how many shots it takes to kill a squad of Phalanx Warders.
Well here I am, and the only reason I’m doing this is because it segues into the counterplay. High school maths is where I peaked in mathematical study so I apologise for any mistakes in my calcs ahead of time. (Hopefully there are minimal)
**Counterplay part 1: ”**Raindrops pierce the stone.”
The biggest takeaway here is that if Phalanx Warders are going to always have a 75% or 87.5% chance to block damage, we just need to do a lot of wounds to overload the numbers in our favour.
Some units commonly we might see:
Let's run some numbers.
The issue with this form of counterplay is that the apothecary really throws a wrench in the works by providing a third 4+ roll to ignore damage. However, there are definitely options to help with that.
This leads to the next step which is,
Counterplay part 2 - “Ork Snipers”
You know that part of the War of Armageddon where the Celestial Lions Chapter (IF Successor btw) lost all their apothecaries from ”Ork Snipers”? It almost killed off the whole chapter.
Yeah we are going to do the same thing here. That pesky apothecary is an absolute pain with his 4+ fnp protecting those Warders left and right.
Except, apothecaries can’t take shields themselves. At most, you are looking at 2+ armour and the fnp.
I once again find myself at the place where I glaze sniper units, but we cannot ignore how important they are as a check for so many things people hate. Artificer armour tanking? Gone. Augury scanners ruining your deep strike army? Shoot them out.
You don’t have to only use recon marine snipers either, seekers are a fun alternative, as are things like sniper veterans with relentless. Easily splashable in every army, even if you aren’t playing vs stone gauntlet. You only need one rend to get lucky and suddenly that phalanx warder squad is a lot more vulnerable.
Occasionally, you can also break the base to base formations using snipers, but this is very rare and should not be relied on when playing.
Moving on to the next point of counterplay. You know how I said in HH, weapons either have more shots or more str/ap? Turns out, there is a particular family of weapons that vs Phalanx Warders tend to do both.
Counterplay part 3 - Big Guns Never Tire.
One of the biggest losses in modern 40k is the loss of templates. Yes, there is always the risk of that guy at the LGS that always argues one less marine under the template, but templates provide so much flavour and visual flair to the game.
When HH2 was released, people very quickly found out that GW quietly took good AP blast template units behind a shed and broke their legs, with the Scorpius being the only one lucky enough to be on holiday. The biggest nerf came in the AP department, with the second being in the points cost, and third being heavy unit subtype. The one saving grace these blast weapons have is that they continue to have good strength.
But wait! Didn’t we say the biggest strength of Warders is the fact they completely ignore good ap weapons? And in order to maximise their defences, they have to clump together?
Bingo.
Now Warders are heavy, so against blast templates they get to reroll their armour save. This comes to 88.9% damage mitigation. Wtf, this is higher than 4+ x3? Sugardust, you raised my hopes just to tell me this?
Let’s talk about the Demolisher Cannon.
Vindicators are in a weird spot currently. For every single midhammer edition, they’ve been a short ranged source of s10 ap1 large blast, mostly hampered by short range and limited mobility (5e Blood Angels cracked engines aside).
HH2 made the unique choice of making them small blast, s12, ap3, brutal 3 and rending 6+. Everyone seems to think this is a horrendous nerf because they now bounce off terminators, don’t hit as many enemies and can’t explode vehicles.
However, this makes the unit uniquely good at ruining the day of a clump of Phalanx Warders. Ap3 ignores armour save. S12 ignores fnp. Brutal 3 per wound means that you have a ¾ chance of slipping a wound through and sending that Warder back to the box. Because of base to base contact, you can get a good amount of hits (around 6) per cannon.
There is a chance that a player will start tanking on artificer armour sergeant, so my recommendation would be to combine running this unit with sniper options to pressure the sergeant. Even if they do tank on the Sergeant, a single roll of 1 sends them home.
So we have a good start here, but the Demolisher Cannon is small fry compared to the power of the Typhon’s Dreadhammer Siege Cannon, which is available in plastic and can be used at even 2000 points!
The mathhammer is a bit hard to crunch. Assuming 10 hits under the template in a direct hit vs squad of 10. Average 8.33 wounds.
At the end of the day, it’s much less reliable than 50 volkite shots, but has the significant potential of spiking big, which can turn a game around for you.
You can also use stuff like volcano cannon, accelerator cannon, turbo lasers and melta cannons, which tend to kill around 2 ish models (assuming you hit 10) which really isn’t very efficient. Lot of times those are mounted on fairly more expensive superheavies. The scorpius is a cheap option, but can be swingy rolling 4+ to rend.
Counterplay option 4 - “Drive me closer, I want to hit them with my sword.”
So there is one thing that HH (and midhammer) has over modern 40k is how easy a melee combat can delete a non inexorable/stubborn/fearless squad.
You just need to win combat … which is a bit hard vs Phalanx Warders.
If there is a case where you do not have any of the tools above, you are left with my final trick.
Counterplay part 5 - “Gorilla Tactics”
The Goal of Horus Heresy is to achieve the mission victory conditions while simultaneously preventing your opponent from doing the same.
The most common way this is done is by killing your opponent’s units so they cannot achieve the victory condition. The “War” in warhammer decrees this.
But what do you do if nothing you have can reasonably kill your opponent? In my contemptor dreadnought guide, I talked about killing the line units instead, but Phalanx Warders are the line themselves.
“Detect the intent, and move to stop the action before it happens.”
What you need to try is preventing them from reaching objectives and fight every step of the way to make achieving their game goal difficult.
How do we do that?
I’m of the opinion that a victory won by positioning and strategy can be just as rewarding as a dominating victory on the table.
In conclusion
Phalanx Warders in Stone Gauntlet are no doubt an extremely powerful, playstyle defining unit choice that can be used in an effective manner fairly easily.
They take the role of a sturdy backbone or foundation for an army, providing simple reassurance that you will be very good at holding onto an objective and start winning the game from there.
They are resistant to most forms of shooting and aren’t very appetising to charge. Their weaknesses are low damage output and relatively low mobility.
As the most defensively capable unit in the game, it has found itself reasonably hated and maligned as a “broken” unit choice, with some people automatically having the impression a game against Stone Gauntlet will turn into a grindy snooze fest. I fully acknowledge the unit is very frustrating to deal with, and the negative reputation Stone Gauntlet has is somewhat deserved.
It is reassuring to see that direct unit based counterplay options do exist, though they tend to involve multiple units working in tandem. It is extremely hard to kill Phalanx Warders without the optimal weapons. Fortunately, there are a few commonly used counterplay choices that will not cripple your army against regular matchups, so putting them into your army shouldn’t be too hard.
An important note is that Phalanx Warders will not be operating at their optimal capacity every single game. In my run of games, many games did not have objectives, meaning the Warders were operating at 4+/4+/5+. Snipers shooting out apothecaries is a common issue, and the Warders have had moments of completely being neutered by failing Ld at the wrong time. Quite a few times they were outmatched in melee by WS5 deathstars that took advantage of the Warders’ miniscule damage output. In one game they died to a large block of reavers, the other they got knocked out by Firedrakes.
In at least ⅗ games in the recent batch of games I played, I can confidently say that the 2x10 Warders in rhinos I ran could have been replaced by 40 tactical marines and the outcome of the game would not have been different. They would have still made it onto the objective and be able to hold it. Most of the weight of those games was pulled by the supporting cast who did all the killing.
When we do mathhammer, the numbers can seem very demoralising. Despite what average numbers suggest, the actual games you play will have you seeing all kinds of dice swings and variations. This is where theory-hammer in its core falls apart, because it always assumes optimal play and average dice. Real Warhammer games are fun because of the lack of optimisation/innate randomness, and you’ll always remember that game where your Primarch died to a bolter (or something similar)
The Wall can be broken, and even without, you can still achieve victory.
Personal thoughts
To finish up, a controversial opinion of mine is that Phalanx Warders provide a very important role in the game, which is to challenge people to appreciate the often overlooked tactical aspect of the game - mobility and denying movement, positioning, when to engage and when to avoid engagement etc.
Since 2022 once this edition came out, I’ve played with a decent number of beginners, many who have continued to grow in their own hobby adventure. A close friend recently told me they only started figuring out their own game plans around 6 or 7 games in, while previously they were only reacting to what I was doing on the board, which often didn’t go well. Many beginners hear that Lascannon heavies/dreadnoughts are good and think purely by running them they will win the game, without appreciating the unspoken aspects of the game like deployment, setting up lines of fire, target prioritisation etc.
Against an unprepared player, the Stone Gauntlet Phalanx Warders are an unscalable wall. But just like climbing Everest, it is doable with preparation, knowledge and a game plan, as well as some adaptations on the fly.
We are really fortunate to have a game where the majority of the units we have available are viable and have some form of niche, not just being flat out outclassed numbers wise by others.
So, I hope you enjoyed this discussion, learnt something and enjoy your games in the future.
The link to my Google drive with the other two tacticas can be found here: My tactica tidbits
If you like these, I’m very open to suggestions of new topics in the comments below. Topics I’ve considered are:
Haha im not even done this is just its good angle 🫠 (gap fill/fixing and then time to NL it up)
How do chapters work in 30k I can’t find a decent explanation online on how they work within the legions? And how I can do painting schemes. I have ultramarine for the heresy.
Was debating this with some friends. They all think that the drop site massacre was much more tragic and impactful than the Istvaan III atrocity. I completely disagree. The fact that the last thing that most planet side astartes would see is their own ships raining death on them is heartbreaking. They came to crush an insurrection, not die for their loyalty to the imperium.
He swears he’s not walking the eightfold path
First official 3k army list! I wanted to dive into the chemical warfare aspect but try to make sure I have enough anti-tank, which I have no idea if it's enough for typical HH. Otherwise it's a walk forward, shoot, get into template range army!
Traitor w/ Creeping Rite
HQ
Centurion w/ Siege Breaker, Power Fist, Jump Pack (YOLOs around giving Sunder until he charges a tank to die)- 150
Cataphrat Praetor w/ Paragon Blade (Warlord, goes w/ Grave Wardens)- 150
Elites
2 x 10 Destroyer Assault w/ 20 x Hand Flamer, 2 x Power Maul, Power Scythe - 280
10 x Destroyer Assault w/ Melta Bombs - 230
Troops
3 x 14 Tac Squads w/ Hand Flamer Sarge - 426
2 x 10 Tac Squad w/ Hand Flamer Sarge - 204
10 x Grave Wardens with 5 Chain Fists - 500
Heavy
10 x Heavy Support w/ Lascannons, Aug Scan - 285
10 x Heavy Support w/ Autocannons, Aug Scan - 235
10 x Heavy Support w/ Autocannons, Aug Scan - 235
I am working on a legions imperialis army and want to ally my troops with crimson fists. Can I do this and be sort of lore accurate?
How easy would it be to convert mkVI marines into mkIV? I think I could sand the legs a little and sculpt the knee protection but the torso may be the most challenging part, due to the slight overhang of armor on the back side of the marine. I'm thinking of making a Thousand Sons, Emperor's Children or a Death Guard army and all of them use mkIV power armor a lot, DG not as much but as the other two. but some artwork do depict them using mkIV but mkIII predominantly. Also how common was mkIII armor in the TS and EC?
Finally got round to adding an apothecary to my (slolwy) painted Dark Angels Legion, he'll be joining a 20 strong squad of breachers eventually but I needed a break from painting black
So I was wondering if I could paint my veteran SGT in the dusk Raider color scheme.not the whole army just a lone veteran SGT. I figure some in the leigins would be proud and keep Thier pre heresy vokors
I sent across my list for tomorrows game and the feedback is I got back was I’m paying for two Power Daggers on the principle.
The main issue - I can’t find the original rules but I’ve always paid for the daggers for the Unit and again for the principle (it’s 5 points so really not the end of the world) as I always took it as the 25 points for daggers covered the squad members and any upgrades for the Leader were separate.
The argument I was given by another player - covered HHS squads - but they are costed individually but you do get one cost Melta Bombs for a squad.
I’m taking the power dagger regardless, but we can’t get a consensus within the group and it will come up again at some point.