Into the Breach
‘Unarmed hand-to-hand fighting does not change through the ages; only the name changes, and it has only one rule: do it fast, do it first, do it dirtiest.’
– Robert Heinlein
And that fellow readers is the absolute truth with Despoilers. These cats are virtually identical to Tactical Marines, but lack one important factor: ranged combat. While they may lack striking distance they more than make up for it in the press of melee. Trading their bolters for chainswords gives them that extra punch needed in close combat. That’s especially true when it comes to Zone Mortalis games, where getting up in your opponent’s grill can mean the difference between getting objective points or not. And while securing points is important for any Heresy game, it becomes even more so in ZM engagements.
My original 1K list centers around a fifteen man Tactical Squad, but after a couple of games I knew I had to build and paint a couple of ten man Despoiler Squads. Being able to close quickly in a cramped game board is crucial, and these guys excel at it. To that end I built and painted a pair of ten man squads, with each squad being identical: the Sergeant is rocking a power sword and one Legionary brings a vexilla for rallying and adding an additional wound when determining combat results. With those two rules alone, I can see where the vexilla becomes a critical piece of kit for any squad but especially these cats.
As for the future of these guys I’ve made a couple of decisions. First is that I’m not planning on painting anymore in the foreseeable future. My thought is that for ZM games I can take a max unit of fifteen, so with two units of ten I’m fully covered if I want to take a bigger squad. I also decided to cap each unit at ten in case I wanted to run them in regular games of Heresy. In those cases I’d most likely put them in a Rhino to zip around the battlefield and take the odd objective. Plus, if I really wanted to, I could bump them up to fifteen and put them in a Spartan or something larger and attach a character to the squad if I have the transport capacity. That said, I can definitely see them fighting alongside a Chaplain or Apothecary for even more punch and staying power. But first things first: they need to hit the table in a few ZM games to see how they perform. I’m definitely looking forward to that.
Until next time: Hydra Dominatus.
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Ryan
A New England transplant that originated from parts westward, Ryan is a bit of a nerd that knows a little bit about a lot of things, all while claiming to know nothing about anything. Seemingly part Khajit a logistician by trade, he’s the kind of guy that can get you virtually anything if there’s coin to be had a problem to solve. Ryan began to learn the scrounging arts while serving time in parts east as a Loggie and has been perfecting them steadily over several decades. He has a problem with continually purchasing models, paints, and terrain that he doesn’t really need but his wife doesn’t seem to mind.
