TheChirurgeon’s Road Through 2025, Part 8: Back in the (Heavily Free-handed) Saddle

Welcome back, Dear Reader, to my ongoing blog of competitive and hobby progress for 2025. Last Time Around I went up against Andrew’s Orks – a Dread Mob list running a Stompa – and came out on top despite being under the weather and failing some early charges. I wasn’t really able to get in a game this past weekend, but I had some extra time during the week, and my buddy Max was happy to oblige. I’m also happy to report that after two weeks of being sick as hell I’m finally back to normalcy, and man did I miss feeling regular.

The Game: vs. Max’s Astra Militarum (Recon Element)

Max has also been prepping for the upcoming Clutch GT at the end of February, and after much hemming and hawing decided to go with Astra Militarum after finding out they’d be legal for the event. Max’s list is a Recon Element list, running heavy on regular guardsmen wearing t-shirts that effectively give them a 3+ save when they have anything resembling cover.

Max's List - Click to Expand

Recon baby (2000 Points)

Astra Militarum
Recon Element
Strike Force (2000 Points)

CHARACTERS

Cadian Castellan (60 Points)
• 1x Plasma pistol
• 1x Power weapon
• Enhancements: Survival Gear

Cadian Command Squad (70 Points)
• 1x Cadian Commander
◦ 1x Plasma pistol
◦ 1x Power fist
◦ Enhancements: Scare Gas Grenades
• 1x Cadian Veteran Guardsman
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Grenade launcher
◦ 1x Laspistol
• 1x Cadian Veteran Guardsman
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Lasgun
◦ 1x Master Vox
• 1x Cadian Veteran Guardsman
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Lasgun
◦ 1x Medi-pack
• 1x Cadian Veteran Guardsman
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Grenade launcher

Cadian Command Squad (65 Points)
• 1x Cadian Commander
◦ 1x Plasma pistol
◦ 1x Power fist
• 1x Cadian Veteran Guardsman
◦ 1x Plasma pistol
◦ 1x Power fist
• 1x Cadian Veteran Guardsman
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Lasgun
◦ 1x Master Vox
• 1x Cadian Veteran Guardsman
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Lasgun
◦ 1x Medi-pack
• 1x Cadian Veteran Guardsman
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Meltagun

Gaunt’s Ghosts (110 Points)
• 1x Ibram Gaunt
◦ 1x Bolt Pistol
◦ 1x Gaunt’s chainsword
• 1x Colm Corbec
◦ 1x Corbec’s hot-shot lascarbine
◦ 1x Straight silver knife
• 1x Elim Rawne
◦ 1x Rawne’s lascarbine
◦ 1x Straight silver knife
• 1x Hlaine Larkin
◦ 1x Larkin’s long-las
◦ 1x Straight silver knife
• 1x ’Try Again’ Bragg
◦ 1x Bragg’s autocannon
◦ 1x Straight silver knife
• 1x Oan Mkoll
◦ 1x Lascarbine
◦ 1x Mkoll’s straight silver knife

Lord Solar Leontus (150 Points)
• Warlord
• 1x Conquest
• 1x Konstantin’s hooves
• 1x Sol’s Righteous Gaze

Ursula Creed (65 Points)
• 1x Duty and Vengeance
• 1x Power weapon

BATTLELINE

Cadian Shock Troops (120 Points)
• 2x Shock Trooper Sergeant
◦ 2x Chainsword
◦ 2x Laspistol
• 18x Shock Trooper
◦ 18x Close combat weapon
◦ 2x Grenade launcher
◦ 14x Lasgun
◦ 2x Plasma gun
◦ 1x Vox-caster

Cadian Shock Troops (65 Points)
• 1x Shock Trooper Sergeant
◦ 1x Chainsword
◦ 1x Laspistol
• 9x Shock Trooper
◦ 9x Close combat weapon
◦ 9x Lasgun

DEDICATED TRANSPORTS

Taurox (65 Points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
• 1x Twin autocannon

OTHER DATASHEETS

Artillery Team (95 Points)
• 1x Crew close combat weapons
• 1x Lasgun
• 1x Siege cannon

Attilan Rough Riders (60 Points)
• 1x Rough Rider Sergeant
◦ 1x Hunting lance
◦ 1x Lasgun
◦ 1x Laspistol
◦ 1x Steed’s hooves
• 4x Rough Rider
◦ 4x Hunting lance
◦ 4x Lasgun
◦ 4x Laspistol
◦ 4x Steed’s hooves

Cadian Heavy Weapons Squad (50 Points)
• 3x Heavy Weapon Team
◦ 3x Laspistol
◦ 3x Mortar
◦ 3x Weapons team close combat weapons

Hydra (95 Points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
• 1x Heavy bolter
• 1x Hydra autocannon

Kasrkin (110 Points)
• 1x Kasrkin Sergeant
◦ 1x Plasma pistol
◦ 1x Power weapon
• 9x Kasrkin
◦ 9x Close combat weapon
◦ 3x Hot-shot lasgun
◦ 1x Hot-shot laspistol
◦ 1x Hot-shot marksman rifle
◦ 1x Melta Mine
◦ 2x Meltagun
◦ 2x Plasma gun
◦ 1x Vox-caster

Krieg Combat Engineers (70 Points)
• 1x Krieg Engineer Watchmaster
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Combat shotgun
• 4x Krieg Combat Engineer
◦ 1x Autopistol
◦ 4x Close combat weapon
◦ 3x Combat shotgun
◦ 1x Remote Mine

Rogal Dorn Battle Tank (240 Points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
• 1x Coaxial autocannon
• 1x Heavy stubber
• 2x Heavy stubber
• 2x Multi-melta
• 1x Oppressor cannon
• 1x Pulveriser cannon

Scout Sentinels (55 Points)
• 1x Close combat weapon
• 1x Hunter-killer missile
• 1x Lascannon
• 1x Sentinel chainsaw

Tempestus Aquilons (110 Points)
• 1x Tempestor Aquilon
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Hot-shot lascarbine
◦ 1x Sentry flamer
• 8x Tempestus Aquilon
◦ 8x Close combat weapon
◦ 6x Hot-shot lascarbine
◦ 1x Hot‐shot long‐las
◦ 1x Plasma carbine
• 1x Gunfighter
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Hot-shot lascarbine

Exported with App Version: v1.28.0 (1), Data Version: v574

Here’s the thing: I’m not much of a shooting army. I definitely have shooting with the Plague Marines, tanks, and Obliterators, but it’s not really a focus here. My list is all pressure and melee, and that makes it a nightmare for Max’s list. I’ve got more than a few units here which are perfectly capable of tearing through guardsmen, and the Rhinos are likewise able to put out an absurd number of small arms shots to handle a regular unit of guard. Max’s biggest threat is a lone Rogal Dorn, but I’m not particularly worried about that when there’s only one and it doesn’t have the benefit of Lethal Hits against vehicles – it’s much less scary in Overwatch when it still has to roll to wound.

The Mission: A – Take and Hold / Raise the Banners / Tipping Point

We’re on layout 2 and this mission is otherwise fine. I put both units of Obliterators on the table and opt to only keep my Warp Talons in reserves, on the chance that Max can use the Recon Element Stratagem to screen me out at 12″ with some huge 20+ model unit.

Take and Hold is interesting. You score for holding one, two, and three+ markers, so the name of the game is mostly holding two and keeping your opponent off a third most of the game. I’m going second, which is ldeal here – it means scoring 15 on turn 5 is basically guaranteed, and also forces Max to come out and fight me if he wants to be aggressive. He shouldn’t be aggressive with this army, but he takes that tack.

Bile Effects: I rolled a 5 (+1 Strength) and a 6 (+1 BS) and opted to re-roll, ending up with double 6s on the re-roll, giving me only +1 BS. That’s the worst situation here but I can deal with it. At the very least the Obliterators will be better.

On turn 1 Max decides to try and crack my Vindicator with his Kasrkin. He advances his Taurox across the table (3″ after a re-roll), then gets out with a pair of Meltaguns in range to shoot. I pop smoke, and while Max scores two hits and wounds, I roll double 5s on the save to shrug them off. I still take 3 mortal wounds from the melta mine, though. Max drew Cleanse and Sabotage turn 1 but ends up only scoring Sabotage and discarding Cleanse.

On my turn I fire back, killing the Kasrkin and the Taurox with Obliterators. I score baby Area Denial after Max consolidates into my Rhino and manages to get within 6″ of the middle of the table, but I’m in a good place the following turn. The big travesty here is my Chosen with Bile rolling a 1 to Advance and then whiffing the 5″ charge into the Scout Sentinel twice after I try and re-roll the 4 and get snake eyes. Just rancid shit.

Max spends turn two pouring his mortars into my Obliterators to little effect, but does kill a squad using his Rogal Dorn. After that it’s go turn for me and I drop all of my units out of their Rhinos and start charging. The Chaos Lord pops his once per game to make short work of the Dorn while the Plague Marines kill Gaunt’s Ghosts and bracket the Wyvern.

At midtable the Master of Executions kills Leontus using his precision ability, while the Nemesis Claw make short work of the 20-model squad he’s joined. The Plague Marines pick up the remnants of the other 20-man squad with attached characters (the small guns on the tanks took out about 15 guys before they came in), and in the following turn the Obliterators finish off the Wyvern in melee. I tend to play pretty aggressively with Obliterators in these games, pushing them forward and using them as a melee threat to finish things off. It works better when they’re getting +1A or +1S but I find having S9 power fist attacks can really help with some bigger targets, and the charge movement can slingshot them into bigger threats.

Max drops in his Aquilons behind my home objective and uses them to finish off my Cultists and brings in his Rough Riders but they fail their 9″ charge, leaving them open to being shot to death by the Predator. At this point it’s basically game – I’m sitting on a big lead and I’ve taken out most of Max’s army. Next turn the Warp Talons will pick up the Aquilons, the Predator and other tanks will kill his Rough Riders, and I’ll be in his deployment zone, fighting mortars.

Result: 88-46, Win

After the game, Max asked me what he could have done differently, and that was a really interesting question – generally, I think this was just a bad matchup for Recon Element overall, but there were a few things to think about. Here’s the feedback I gave him:

Listbuilding challenges: Too many big units. I think taking 20-model squads was largely a mistake. Recon Element units are surprisingly tough as ranged targets, but they don’t hit any harder than a standard guard squad. As a result, going heavy on them doesn’t give you any damage output, and it’s trivially easy to pick up a bunch of T3 1-wound bodies and even easier if you hit them in melee and they’re back to 5+ t-shirts. Taking 20-model squads also made it harder for Max to do actions – no guard list should ever find itself unable to score Cleanse, but Max didn’t have the unit counts. Recon Element units seem like they work best as cheap, durable screens and scoring pieces, where you can further buff their durability with the Courageous Diversion Stratagem and move away with Draw Them Out. I’d drop the 20-man squads for more 10-mans and Kasrkin. I think Scott called this Detachment MSU: The Game in our write-up and he wasn’t wrong – as soon as I looked at the board and saw a single Dorn I knew my tanks were going to be unchallenged. One Dorn is free; three are a problem.
Strategy: Not Enough Screening and Objective Play. Max’s daring early play with the Kasrkin was a really high-risk, low reward play that ended up costing him his Kasrkin, the attached character, and the Taurox, while helping me slingshot Obliterators to the middle objective on the table. The point of having MSUs is that you can throw out sacrfificial units to do things like score Cleanse while holding an opponent in place as they stop to kill every 65-point unit you put in their path. He needed to use his cheaper t-shirt guys as screens to give his mortars, tanks, and bigger units (sporting FRFSRF and/or Take Aim! to throw out high volumes of firepower at my MSU marine units), slowing me down while scoring secondary VP and focusing on holding only two objectives.

Ultimately, I’m not sure if this Detachment supports the play style Max wants for Guard – my initial feedback was “you need more than one Dorn” but after looking at the Detachment you probably want zero dorns/tanks at all, save maybe a transport or two, and want to go hard on having a ton of small units which can score secondary VP and focus fire down targets. List submission for Clutch is this Saturday and while I’m pretty comfortable with my list, Max has some time to figure it out. I know he doesn’t want to paint another 50 guys and two more units of Rough Riders in the next two weeks, so he’ll probably audible back to a Combined Arms list with three Dorns. Which I think is probably the right call.

Hobby Progress

I don’t have a ton for this update, but I did manage to finish that pink Rhino I started last week. My Emperor’s Children army are going to be my entry for Best Painted competitions this year and part of that means doing a lot more freehand. It’ll both look impressive and also help hide shading transitions where I don’t use an airbrush (I do not own one; they are for cowards). With every Rhino, the doors on top represent an opportunity to do some great freehand work, and so for this one I wanted a gold Emperor’s Children logo, recreating something I saw in a rulebook. I found the perfect icon and went to work.

As always with freehand, the key to starting is to block out the shapes you’re working with. when you start. I wanted a more painterly look for this one, so I opted to not use hard outlines and laid down the base color with Dryad Bark.

From there I filled in the shape using multiple thin coats of Averland Sunset, leaving some brown but working my way up on the raised parts of the feathers. This is the closest I’ll get to Non-Metal Metallics (NMM) working on this, as I’m going for a “painter trying to paint gold” aesthetic.

Next comes the highlights. This is more Averland but eventually I’ll start mixing in Dorn Yellow. With gold and metallics your highlights are more severe; by that I mean that you have very short transition spots where they go from duller to brighter colors rather than a long, smooth gradient like you might see on a power sword.

I also add the gems at this stage, painting them just like you’d paint gems normally. You can find more on this process in the How to Paint Everything We did on the topic. I also go back and shade the dark spots a bit, adding some more Dryad Bark and Cygor Brown contrast paint. I want to avoid making it look like there’s a dark outline around the design.

Finally I add the filigree/freehand around the door and some weathering. I’m pretty happy with how this turned out. It definitely has a very “Horus Heresy transfers” look to it, and that’s exactly what I want to go for, without actually using one of those.

Of course, then there’s the matter of the rest of the Rhino. It took about a full week to get the rest of this thing done but I’m very, very happy with the result. It’s probably the best Rhino I’ve painted. The pinks turned out great, and the extra armor really helps keep the thing from feeling overwhelmingly pink. I’m glad I picked those kits up.