Horus Heresy: Expanding Your Combat Forces The Games Workshop Way

Games Workshop has some suggestions on how to grow your army from the upcoming Combat Forces Boxes. Are they good though?

There’s a trio of new Combat Force Boxes coming to Pre-Order this weekend from Games Workshop. These are essentially Combat Patrol/Spearhead boxes for The Horus Heresy. What’s great about them is that each of them covers three core armies and can be used by Loyalists and Traitors alike. That said, GW has some recommendations on how to grow your collection into a full army using these Combat Forces as the core.

Today, I want to touch on each box and their recommendations to see if these are viable or not. Should you follow the GW way or just go find your own path? Let’s check them out and get into the details.

Note: I’m assuming that the first real step past these Combat Forces is to get their respective Liber book. You’ll need that so you can actually build these armies out with points and rules. Anyhow, let’s get into it.

Legiones Astartes Combat Force

One of the nice things about this box is that it’s absolutely loaded with Marines. You also get a Rhino transport and a Leviathan Dread for some fire support. So what are GW’s next steps?

1 – Centurion

2 – Predator Battle Tank

3 – Assault Squad

On the first point of adding a Centurion (or two) I agree. These are effectively your Command options and they unlock extra Detachments. There’s loads of cool options out there for them and they add that extra umph to your army.

What about adding a Predator as the second point? Eh, I think YMMV on this one. Between the Leviathan and the Heavy Weapon Squad, I’m kind of wondering what the Predator is going to do. GW says that they can “soak a blistering amount of small arms fire” but really, who’s using small arms vs a tank like a Predator? That said, they are a versatile fire support base — and mobile, too. I don’t know if I fully agree with a Predator but this kind of depends on where you want to go with your army next.

As for the last suggestion of an Assault Squad …I can kind of see this as a good move. Why? Because, like GW says, they don’t need a Transport to get around. Plus they provide some much needed aggression in this set of miniatures. This is the squad that moves in for the final blow. Ideally, they are charging into an enemy line that’s already been softened up by all that fire support from the Heavy Weapons and Leviathan. They drop in on them in Close Combat, and finish off the squad. Hopefully they capitalize on their Vanguard (2) rule as well to score you some more points. I think this is a good addition to the Combat Force.

Mechanicum Combat Force

The Mechanicum Combat Force is full of robotic beef. And I mean that in the “heavy infantry” sort of way. They are tough and will take some punishment while dishing it right back out. So what does GW see as their next steps?

1 – Krios Battle Tank

2 – Tech-thralls Convenant

3 – Ursarax Cohort

Okay, right off the bat I’m just going to interject here: Where’s the Archmagos Prime? Or really, any other HQ option. Maybe I’m just old school, but personally, I’d want to start with that. With that /rant out of the way, let’s get into the other options.

So first up we have the Krios Battle Tank. GW’s reasoning is that “more long range = more better” for the Mechanicum. Which…yeah, I get that. Plus these are relatively fast and you could move them to go for flank shots. I don’t know if they’ be my #1 next step, but I’d certainly look at adding them later on down the line. Maybe wait on these is my point.

The Tech-thrall Covenant is the second suggestion. I would support this one as a second option to look at because they really have one job: sit on objectives. And yeah, they aren’t exactly the most killy unit you can field. But there’s loads of them and they can be kind of hard to dislodge. So they do the job of babysitting backline stuff well.

Finally, we get to the Ursarax Cohort as their third suggestion. I have to be honest here, I do like these bots almost as much as the Thanatar Cavas Seige-automata. So I’m baised here.

Thallax Cohort actually slot in quite nicely with the theme of the Combat Force here (tough robots) and fill a deadly shock trooper or counter-charge role. They come with Jump Packs and Close Combat weapons. Which the rest of the suggestions are lacking. They are also the most aggressive option on this list so far in terms of moving towards the enemy objectives. You’ll likely need something to lock-up the enemy down range or take objectives and the Thallax Cohort are perfect for that.

For the Mechanicum, I probably would shuffle these options around and drop the tanks for some more HQ options. But you do you.

Solar Auxilia Combat Force

Loaded up with some key units I think this is a solid starting point. You’ve got the Line Command section and a 20-man Lasrifle Section which is really the bread and butter of the Solar Auxilia. Then you’ve got a Leman Russ as well as a pair of Hermes Sentinels, too. This is really a no-frills starting point — it’s just ready to get down to business. So what’s next from GW’s point of view?

1 – Veletaris Storm Section

2 – Leman Russ Assault Tank

3 – Malcador Infernus

Well, since the box has the HQ slot covered, you really have to ask yourself what direction you want to push it. All three of these suggestions are kind of “playing it safe” to me. So let’s tackle each of them.

The Veletaris Storm Section is an interesting one because of this note from GW:

“…if you’re feeling really saucy, you can do away with their guns to give them all storm axes instead – though you might want to pop them in a Dracosan Armoured Transport so they survive the trip to the front.”

I think this is GW hedging their bets and sneaking in another suggestion with the Dracosan Armoured Transport. I don’t disagree but I would have just pitched that instead of the Veletaris Storm Section with the Volkite Chargers instead.

As for a Leman Russ Assault Tank at #2? Look, adding another Leman Russ to the Solar Auxilia is like adding another one to an Astra Militarum list. It’s a “No Duh” kind of move. It’s almost like suggesting “how about another Lasrifle Section?” Every Solar Auxilia player asks themselves if they’ve got the points for just one more Leman Russ or Lasrifle Section. If you’ve got left over points you’ve always got an option to toss more bodies or a Leman Russ into that list!

As for the big hitter, they are suggesting a Malcador Infernus at the #3 slot. Their reasoning does go beyond “flame tanks are cool” although they do lean on that logic pretty hard. One thing I will agree with is that this is an infantry killer and can even make Space Marines take a step back. But if I’m being honest, I don’t know if the Malcador Inferus is where I would have gone next. It really depends on what you’re aiming for in your army overall. Personally, I think I would have gone with the Valdor Tank Destroyer instead. Having something that’s a dedicated Anti-Tank option seems very useful in this list. Crack the shells of the enemy transports and let the Infantry and Leman Russes unload.

Do you agree with the GW expansion options or would you do something else?

Writer, Editor, Texas Native, and now Tex-Pat, Adam covers all things Tabletop Gaming. Which includes Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, D&D, Board Games and everything else that involves dice, boards, cards and a table.
A hobbyist, player, and collector of miniatures and games, Adam’s current obsession are his Death and Chaos Armies for Age of Sigmar, his Blood Angels and Tyranids for 40k, an expanding collection of Marvel: Crisis Protocol minis, and his ever growing Arkham Horror: The Card Game Collection.

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