The Red Angel

When Forgeworld's Horus Heresy books were announced I was quite elated.  To my great pleasure the first primarch model released was Angron and I had him painted by my good friend, Brad Newman as soon as I could.  The model is shown in this blog post.

Compared to other primarchs Angron seems fairly mediocre.  He is quite the combat monster, but with so many other primarchs having a 3 plus invulnerable save an Angron himself only having a 4 plus invulnerable save I don't think he is going to get very far versus other primarchs.

My preferred delivery method for our beloved primarch is through some sort of drop pod.  I have had a great deal of fun with the Orbital Assault rite of war. I can put Angron right where I want and if he survives the shooting phase whatever he touches next dies.

During the narrative campaign of Texas Wargamescon of 2013 in Austin I delivered the Red Angel in a regular drop pod with his accompanying Praetor, command squad, and an apothecary.  They won the day defeating a squad of Space Wolves and reducing Bjorn the Fell Handed to smoldering junk (It really was quite spectacular, after poor rolling on my part and invul saves I was able to roll two 6's in a row thanks to the venerable roll and exploded Bjorn).  I think he then died to an invisible scimitar jet bike squad which anyone else would have as well.

Another tactic I am working on is delivering Angron with 8 Red Butchers and a Primus Medicae in a Kharybdis assault claw.  I have 5 of the butches and need to get the assault claw and the medicae, they are quite expensive.  But when I have them together a unit will be assembled that will handily survive almost any shooting phase.

One issue that developed was when Angron landed with his command squad the subsequent round of mass melta fire I landed into wiped the squad, including Angron.  Mass 4+ invulnerable saves, feel no pain, and two wounds per model will really help withstand a lot of terrible stuff.

Other folks recommend delivering a primarch in a spartan assault tank and I just don't like that option.  It seems there are too many things that can go wrong: immobilize on terrain, that extra lucky laser destroyer shot, your ally in an apoc game moving into your lane before you move the tank and more things I am sure I am forgetting.  With a pod of some type a great deal higher probability exists that I will get that turn two charge. The pod being destroyed is of little use; a lot less points are wasted.

In the end Angron is a great model with decent rules and is effective if he is delivered where he can best be utilized.  He is an extremely expensive beat stick and that is about it. Other primarchs boost their army in some way and all he does is give a 12" fearless bubble.  That is pretty nice, but not as good as other primarchs.