An indomitable wall of blue stands ready to break through any defense and hold the position for Ultramar and for Guilliman. When crafting my Ultramarines force for Heresy, the narrative I settled on was that of a specialized beachhead strike force: all shields, all the time. Well, lot’s of them anyway.
Shields up in Defense of Ultramar
Of all the games I have models for, the game I want to play the most right now is the Horus Heresy. It’s a great game based on the classic rules that I grew up playing, with modern day quality of life updates. It also helps that the game is based on a 60+ book series of which I have read every one. So, Yeah, While I have always been a fan of Warhammer 40k, My heart (currently) belongs to 30k.
Within the greater game of the Horus Heresy, the sub-game of Zone Mortalis stands out as a fun, fast and brutal take on the game. Representing boarding actions to take over a space ship, infiltrating a hostile military base, or even fighting through the claustrophobic tunnels underneath a city, Zone Mortalis games are more intimate and far more brutal. What’s worse than a super-human soldier in massive armor firing self-propelled mini rockets at full auto at you? That big fucker shooting at you down a hallway with no cover, of course.
When it comes to a good game of Zone Mortalis, my first goal is to get some breaching shields ready to lead the way into danger. Lucky for me, my 30k era Ultramarines have several great options. In fact, the army I crafted is specialized in, well, shields; These Ultramarines don’t rely on stationary defense lines, no, they bring their protection with them in the style of a Roman shield wall.
Legion Breachers
The first of the shield-bearing squads that I will share is the humble Legion Breacher Squad. Occupying a troop slot within a Space Marine army, Legion Breachers are heavy infantry made for holding objectives and leading the way into a fight.
Designed for take and hold operations, as a simple troop choice, Breachers were created to take damage, not dish it out.
I outfitted mine with Volkite Chargers instead of the standard Boltgun to lay down some CHOOM with the 2-shot martian death rays, albeit at shorter range. I love Volkite: an enemy killed by a Volkite shot bursts into flames, literally catching their comrades on fire. Rude. I didn’t give my first ten man meltaguns or lascutters to get through locked doors and dreadnoughts. Their job is to sit on an objective and overwatch with Volkite when they inevitably take a charge.
The Breacher shields are the primary extra defense on top of their normal space marine armor. This is also the defining characteristic of the Legion Breacher Squad; it’s like they were made for each other. Meant to lead the way into oncoming fire, the shields allow them a chance, however slight, to block a literal anti-tank shot.
My Breacher squad here is shown amidst some Zone Mortalis terrain: they are perfect for ZM games. Not only are their shields offering bonus defense above and beyond their armor, the armor was crafted for dangerous environments as well. Also known as Iron Armor, the Mk3 power armor suit was designed for ship to ship combat situations and are sealed against the void of space. Tough as it is, it conveys the heavy rule. This offsets the bonus of template weapons wounding easier in Zone Mortalis games by letting the marines in Heavy armor reroll failed saves. Your Kaboom-boom is tough but my armor is tougher.
I was lucky enough to find way out of print Mk3 Ultramarine helm upgrades on eBay years ago when I started the Ultramarines. With no idea where I would end up using them, I set them aside for years. Eventually I used some for the Locutarus Storm Squad that I kitbashed, and the rest waited. Eventually, I ordered some Mk3 shoulders while they were still available (and should have ordered more than I did) and combined them, the heads and a couple Breacher kits to make the squad. This squad also burned up a Volkite Charger upgrade kit and one of the extra ultramarine power swords that I requisitioned for the Locutarus originally. While costing me far less actual cash and blood expenditure, a lot of kits and upgrades went into crafting this set.
This squad was painted up fairly early in my second phase of painting Ultramarines for Heresy. The first batch was done exactly as my 40k army, and I was looking to make them a little less dull when I came back to the Heresy army. Round two found me experimenting with using contrast as a a philter to brighten the blue while also darkening the recesses all in one go. From there, I layered on some Caledor Sky to brighten them up. I feel that the result is decent but not my best work.
While not my best showing ever, I love Breachers, and I likely couldn’t be happier. Well, maybe if I had more. I would probably add a few meltaguns if I built another ten, but, that would require sourcing out of print heads from eBay again, and I am not sure my wallet can handle that…
Right now, anyway…
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Tyson
Obsessive and neurotic collector of little plastic men, novels about the same little plastic men and paints to make the little plastic men pretty. Married to Kera, who puts up with him and pretends that she doesn’t hear him speaking to the little plastic men in between making pew pew noises in the hobby room. Requires adult supervision. A menace to himself but rarely to others. More beard than man
