Welcome back! We’ll be continuing our look at the 30K Death Guard army.
In Horus Heresy, your HQ choices mostly consist of a Praetor (aka Chapter Master, Lord Commander) and Centurions (aka Detachment commanders, Lt Commanders). What makes things interesting, is that Centurions can be upgraded to Consuls, warriors with specialized roles within the legion. There are, at least, 12 different kinds, plus some Legion specific ones. Some Consuls will be familiar to any 40K player (e.g. Librarian, Chaplain, Legion Champion - aka Emperor’s Champion, Forge Lord - similar to a Tech Marine). Others, such as a Praevian, Master of Signals, Siege Breaker, Herald, Delagutus, Moritat or Vigilator have fallen out of use by the 41st millennium. But in Horus Heresy, they add a host of new abilities to your army.
The Legion Champion is chosen from the finest fighters in the legion, has access to the best weaponry and is normally tasked with slaying the mightiest warriors of the enemy.
I’ve included the original GW model for comparison.
I gave him the Anvilus Class backpack (also kinda liked that of all the legions, the Death Guard wouldn’t care about their increased radiation)
I swapped the head with Callus Typon’s helmeted head (as I’d using the bare head for Typhon himself)
I replaced the Power Sword with a more fitting Power Scythe - getting the arms and hands into a position that mimicked the pose of the original model was no easy feat!
Most difficult, was replacing the left leg to match the right - oddly, the original model has a MKIII leg and a MKIV leg (and as mentioned in previous posts, I wanted the army to be entirely MKIII)
I also added a Master of Signals and a Siege Breaker.
The Master of Signals links the front-line marines with their support elements and is capable of calling in orbital bombardments and improving marines targeting capabilities.
I again had to try and make a MKIII version as the Forgeworld model is in MKIV armor. Similar to the Apothecary, I carefully cut off as many bits from the original model (head, pouches, antennae) and glued them onto a MKIII body.
Finally the Siege Breaker. They lay waste to large strategic targets, lay siege to fortifications and lead armored spearheads. They give units an extra punch against vehicles and buildings and grant access to certain forbidden weaponry.
Forgeworld only makes a Siege Breaker in Terminator Armour (and then it was a special Events Day fig) so needed to make one in MKIII. Again, I dipped into my Iron Hands bits to find a suitably imposing head and backpack, converted up a combi-bolter/grenade launcher, and gave him the customary badge of honour, a Thunderhammer.
Hope you enjoyed this look at the HQ units and will continue next post with even heavier hitters.