Horus Heresy Zone Mortalis Campaign Army List

Towards the end of last year, a friend of mine finished building his own Zone Mortalis board, since then we've been playing small multiplayer games using the Great Crusade lists from Forge World's Horus Heresy book series.

These games have proven to be very entertaining indeed, and have spawned a narrative-driven Horus Heresy campaign. Personally, I've been interested in getting in to 30k-era gaming for a long time, but I've always been put off by the cost. For this campaign each player would be building a 500 point army that would won't grow massively over the course of the campaign, so it's the perfect opportunity to build a force using some tasty Forge World kits without breaking the bank.

Force Limitations

• A 500 point force chosen from the Forge World Horus Heresy Crusade-Era Army List.
• Uses the Zone Mortalis Combatant force organisation chart, with no more than one Elite, Fast Attack or Heavy Support choice (one total, not one of each).
• No more than one HQ choice, which much be a Consul.
• Any Troops choice can be used to fulfill the compulsory Troops choice.

Iron Warriors Campaign List (500pts - Zone Mortalis: Combatant)

HQ (95pts)

• Legion Centurion (95pts)
  Independent Character, Legiones Astartes
  Artificer Armour (15pts), Bolt Pistol, Melta Bombs (5pts), Power Weapon (15pts), Refractor Field (10pts)

Elites (200pts)

• Contemptor Dreadnought Talon (200pts)
  • Contemptor Dreadnought (200pts)
    Atomantic Shielding, Fleet
    Kheres Pattern Assault Cannon (15pts)
    • Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon (10pts)
      Heavy Flamer (10pts)

Troops (205pts)

• Legion Tactical Squad (205pts)
  Fury of the Legion, Legiones Astartes
  Legion Vexilla (10pts)
  • Legion Tactical Sergeant (27pts)
    Artificer Armour (10pts), Bolt Pistol, Combat Blade (2pts), Frag & Krak Grenades, Power Fist (15pts)
  • 9x Legion Tactical Space Marine (108pts)
    9x Bolter and Bolt Pistol, 9x Combat Blade (18pts), 9x Frag & Krak Grenades

In our test games, it became clear that anti-armour weapons are vital for forcing your way through locked doors, so every unit contains something capable of damaging armour.

The Centurion is kitted out to take on the expected blobs of power-armoured marines, though so far he's not made it into combat much. He usually marches around with the Tactical Squad and stands by while they blow things up, though he's proved handy in giving them some extra punch if they ever get charged.

The Tactical Squad are a good all-round unit. Lots of bodies to soak up fire, Fury of the Legion for when you absolutely have to obliterate soft targets, and an extra CCW to give them an extra attack in assaults.

The Contemptor has proved to be a beast of a unit, able to knock things down in both close-combat and at range. The Heavy Flamer has proven to be rather nasty, as in the confines of a Zone Mortalis it gains the Shred special rule.

In Zone Mortalis, when someone elects to charge one of your units, they can take an initiative test. If passed, your unit fires reaction fire at their normal ballistic skill, rather than overwatch fire at BS1. This has made the Contemptor and Tactical Squad very nasty indeed, in one case the Contemptor killed a previously unharmed Centurion as he came charging towards it.

All in all I'm pleased with how the force has performed after the first five games. It has the flexibility to take on practically anything with enough bodies to soak up some fire. The big weakness for the list is that a lot of points are invested in a single model (the Contemptor), so with some unlucky rolling on the vehicle damage chart you can lose a whole 40% of your force in one fell swoop.

The list in this post was created with Battlescribe, a highly recommended list-creation program available for PC, Android and iOS.