Hogtown Heresy

[ohgodsnakes]

This past weekend I participated in the Hogtown Heresy Event. Played 5 amazing games against some great opponents while delving deep into some crazy missions and lore.

The whole event was like based around the interrogation of a warp-fused entity by an inquisitor, learning about the events of the great crusade up to the siege of Terra. A full EIGHT pages of fluff were written prior to the event and then read out before every match, one set to the traitors, one set to the loyalist. Then we paired off into tables, each themed directly to the mission. Not every table was playing for the same objectives, or the same rewards, but we were all building the story together.

You can read the fluff here:

docs.google.com/document/d/1I5di6Ih6t0fcZ4ynIbamrf3GFITRjZNjfmUCvDtroOQ/edit?usp=sharing

Setup and event space:


The event took place at the Beverly Polish Combatants hall. The hall is spacious, well lit, and relatively well ventilated. Most importantly, it is licensed and has a bartender from 11am to midnight! Setup took a couple hours and concluded with pizza. The event ran alongside the Hogtowner 40k Event, a 40 person swiss pairing event with tempest of war like missions and surprise twists for each round.

Hall filling up the next day. Breakfast and coffee provided.

Some of the 40k armies:

[ohgodsnakes]

And the 30k offerings:

[ohgodsnakes]

Game #1
The event called for bringing one 2k army list for the first game, and up to two 3k lists (one for day one, the other for day two, optional switch)

The participants had assumed that this was to warm us up for the games to come, but we could not have been more wrong. I was paired up with Jeff, the Ravenguard player, bringing a bunch of delivers, Mor Deythan, and dark furies. When we rolled up to the table, we read the mission briefing and saw that we would be ALLIES for the mission. That's when Raff rocked up to the table with 4k worth of Orks and a fan codex for us to act out a battle at Ullanor! We thought he had just come to hang out at the event for a bit, but the organizers roped in 5 "NPCs" to play the opposition in the first round!

Deployment. Yup, that's a stompa!






Raven guard are no joke in this edition. Mor Deythan 1 shotted a contemptor equivilent Mecha dread with shots to spare, and the Deliverer terminators and dark furies cleaned up so many orks.


On my side of the table, the contemptors and Sicaran took care of the stompa pretty easily (they've always been bad, haven't they?) 

The game ended with a crushing victory for the Crusaders - as is proper for the Battle of Ullanor

What was great about this match was getting to cooperate with another player you knew you would have to fight against later in the campaign. So fluffy!

Other tables also faced off against Xenos threats. One table played against 4k of Eldar









Another table was also fighting Orks:

[ohgodsnakes]

Game 2:

For the remaining 4 games, the tables were split into two groups. Three tables would be the "primary" mission, and the remaining two would be "secondary" missions. The side that won the majority of the primary mission tables would get to choose their opponents next round, while the losers would choose the table and mission they would like to play. For this round, I was a on a secondary table. I went against Connor's Imperial Fists. They were defending a fortification (The FLUUUUFFFF) and I was performing an encircling assault attempting to gain control of the ramparts and gun controls. As the defender, Connor was all set to go first until I Seized the Initiative and put the fists on the back foot.

The table setup after my first turn moving up. What a fortress!


Charging the walls


"Hoist me, Bruthah!"




Abaddon and his Justaerin strike deep into the fortress's heart.



Terminator deep strike counter assault



Those tartoros died, but not before a no-name praetor cut Abbadon's head of in a single swipe!



In the end, the Son's of Horus took the day.
Some special rules for this mission.
-The player who controlled the central objective could fire with the fortress's automated messages.
-Being on the battlements of the fortress gave a 4+ cover save, a rarity in Horus Heresy (normal save is 5+ from ruins.)
-The attacker (me) could bring back fully destroyed units from the board edge the next turn. Didn't come into play too much, as it was a race to the heart of the fortress and the game ended before most of the re-spawned units got back into the fight.

[ohgodsnakes]

Other tables were fighting at Istvaan, with NPC legions acting as obstacles and terrain, while making the battlefiled completely chocked with Astartes. Here are some shots.






Recreation of one of the most infamous moments of the whole Istvaan Drop site Massacre.

[ohgodsnakes]

Game 3:

For this game, we were forced to pair up against our allies from Round 1. That meant I got to face Jeff's beautiful Raven Guard, led by Corax himself. Our scenario took place on a world on the brink of destruction, being wracked by gravitational distortion. This played out by rolling a scatter die at the top of each players turn and moving every model D6 inches. If they collided with anything(which they almost always did) they took some significant damage. If they were blown off the board, they would go into ongoing reserves to walk on at our board edge.

Jeff was all set to go first, buuuuut there was no was I was going to let that happen, so I decided to just roll a 6 and Seize for the second time that day.

After my first turn. It may not look like there are many Raven Guard on the field, but that's because 2.5k-ish are in Deep Strike. The hammer was going to fall, and most of my tanks had already lost a hull point to graviton flux.


I don't have too many photos of this game because there was so much going on. Highlights were Jeff coming in with his first unit of deepstrikers and promptly rolling a 1, forcing the rest of his units to be disordered. This allowed me to place them, really messing up his battle plan.

Corax was placed in front of Abbadon and his Boyfriend Squad, deliverers and Dark Furies off in a corner. I just had to hope that Abby and Pals could handle the Raven Lord, or at least tie him up for a bit, before he tore through my army.



So that's what we did. With some good rolling on my part, clever use of challenges, and the help of a Dreadnought, the Corax fell in two rounds of combat. The rest of the game I went around trying to score points and maintain my lead. 

Victory to the Warmaster!

That was day 1. That evening we hung out at the venue until nearly 12, talking about our games and having some lovely polish beers. I'll get to posting day 2 in a bit. 

[Hi I'm Derek]

Boy that's a lot of beautifully painted space marines. I'm in awe. I gotta get painting lol

An unbelievable amount of work went into prepping this thing I'm glad it turned out so well. The ork fandex Ullanor NPC faction sounds especially badass.

[artonas]

Man I had a blast the one year I went, which I now realized is like 3 years ago. The Horus Heresy event looked insane and sounds like an amazing time, looking forward to reading up on day 2 when you get a chance.

I think we need to bring some of the narrative aspects into our events, we gotta roll up our socks and step up our game.

This has me hyped to get some hobbying in! Have to plan out a full 3k list and order in some more minis!

[Jack Shrapnel]

wow, those are some really nice armies!

sounds like you had a great time!

[Hi I'm Derek]

Dec 2, 2022 7:44:07 GMT -5 Jack Shrapnel said:

wow, those are some really nice armies!

Does it... make you want to play Space Marines???

[ohgodsnakes]

Don't let shannon fool you. He already has a 1st founding marine army! He just needs to add some cool 1st born elements to it.

[Jack Shrapnel]

Dec 2, 2022 12:18:53 GMT -5 ohgodsnakes said:

Don't let shannon fool you. He already has a 1st founding marine army! He just needs to add some cool 1st born elements to it.

I technically have two space marine armies... one of which will be at secret santa... the other I occasionally dust on my shelf  

[chrisallen]

The tables and armies are inspiring.

[ohgodsnakes]

Day Two, game 4:
In my scenario, Traitors were charged with slaughtering civilians to fuel a demonic pact. There were 5 squads of guardsman set up around the table I needed to kill. Most were hidden behind cover of some sort. To help me with my wanton slaughter, I was given two squads of three Gal Vorbak. Traitors got 2 VP for killing civilians in close combat, with a bonus point if the Gal Vorbak helped out. On the loyalist side, VP were awarded for keeping the squads alive. To help with this, the loyalist side got a squad of Salamanders Fire Drakes (arguably the best terminators in Horus Heresy).

I was facing up against a Pride of the Legion Imperial Fists list with over 35 Terminators, two land raiders, and a spartan. Very chunky. I myself was bringing 10 Justearin, and the Fire Drakes were in play as well. There were a TON of terminators on the field!

The Firedrakes hold down the center field


5 Terminators VS 20 Assault marines + Friends. Some civilians hiding in the ruins


Those terminators didn't make it


The Justearin teleport in with Abaddon to slaughter some civilians


The Firedrakes held down the middle for the entire game. Neither of these dreads survived.


Thematic and appropriate basing for this matchup on my Chaplain.


One of my favourite shots from the event. About 28 terminator armoured madmen about to throw down. There is a Tartaros command squad hidden behind the ruins on the right, carrying the standard.


The Justaerin are heavily outnumbered.


It takes pretty much the rest of the game, but the Justaerin are eventually defeated. Not without a fight though! Abbadon took a good couple heads before being cut down.


I managed to kill all the civies, so a convincing win for the Traitors.