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Later this month I will hopefully be playing two or three games of Zone Mortalis against an Iron Warriors player in the Zone Mortalis setting, most likely using the Blood in the Void rules. The list below is made with the generic Combatant force organisation chart and a 3' x 3' table setup in mind that allows for more up close and personal engagements with less time wasted on running through empty corridors. Should I we decide on specific roles and if I happen to be the Attacker one of the Veletaris squads would become another Household Retinue squad instead, as I would gladly sacrifice the ability to secure objectives in favour of having another squad with Preferred Enemy (Infantry) in this setting!

Seeing as this opponent also "gets" Horus Heresy, I don't have too worry too much about stupid lists or the like when playing against regular 40k opponents, allowing me to throw together some fun stuff (souped up HQ and a squad of power axes):

Lord Marshal - Archeotech pistol, master-crafted Paragon Blade, digital lasers, displacer matrix, artificer armour, grav-wave generator - 185

Surgeon-Primus + 2x Medicae Orderly - 80

Household Retinue - 10x power axe, Shroud Bombs - 190

Veletaris Storm Section - Shroud Bombs - 140

Veletaris Storm Section - power fist, Shroud Bombs - 155

Total: 750

The Lord Marshal, Surgeon-Primus and the Household retinue form one unit and one half of the force, the two Veletaris squads with an orderly each form the other half and will most likely deploy first. I mostly want to play it up close and personal, making the most of my Volkite chargers (Rending!), amazingly good reinforced void armour (No rending from bolters!) and hope that the Shroud Bombs will deter the enemy from assaulting too much or at the very least missing out on the charge bonuses, while my own joke-deathstar unit is thrown at whatever comes close to do some rip and tear.

As for the warlord trait, my Rogue Trader will of course go with Eternal Warrior, because why not?

I think elites are scoring in Zone Mortalis anyway, if I remember correctly - so there's no downside to swapping Veletaris for Household Guard.

Quick question/warning - can you take two squads of Veletaris? I thought they came in Tercio formations (unless Household Guard) - so unless I missed an exemption (I know Lasrifle sections have their 'split into two squads but I thought that was it) you have to take either three of them or none.

Biggest weakness I can see is a corpse in a tin - whilst a Leviathan ain't gonna fit, a lighter dreadnought is perfectly viable in a boarding force - and even a cheap AV12 Castraferrum pattern is immune to anything you can throw at it from the front or sides - and damn near immune to anything you can throw at it in Melee. A 'proper' Contemptor is even worse.

Not to mention that said dreadnought can usually pack a heavy flamer for a very low outlay of cost - and Firestorm & Shrapnel giving a template weapon Shred is not pretty.

I'd seriously recommend trying to find points for meltabombs on your Primes.

The list is a nice one, and Veletaris-heavy forces are very nasty in Zone Mortalis. Classic Iron Warrior forces, by comparison, aren't amazing - without the ability to fire overwatch, Cataphractii aren't so hot, massed frag missiles are less than devastating against reinforced void armour, and artillery and havocs aren't too useful in close.

locarno24 wrote:
I think elites are scoring in Zone Mortalis anyway, if I remember correctly - so there's no downside to swapping Veletaris for Household Guard.

I've checked the ZM rules and it makes no mention of this, so I am going to assume that the regular Horus Heresy rules for objectives are in play and that only Troops choices and models with Implacable Advance are scoring.

Quick question/warning - can you take two squads of Veletaris? I thought they came in Tercio formations (unless Household Guard) - so unless I missed an exemption (I know Lasrifle sections have their 'split into two squads but I thought that was it) you have to take either three of them or none.

An infantry tercio is 1-3 sections strong and the only real restriction listed is that if you want to field an Auxiliary Flamer Section you MUST field an Auxilia Lasrifle Section first. But other than that, nothing of that sort, otherwise Solar Auxilia players would be in deep gak when they need to spend 400+ points to get their minimum of two troops choices on the table in regular games.

Biggest weakness I can see is a corpse in a tin - whilst a Leviathan ain't gonna fit, a lighter dreadnought is perfectly viable in a boarding force - and even a cheap AV12 Castraferrum pattern is immune to anything you can throw at it from the front or sides - and damn near immune to anything you can throw at it in Melee. A 'proper' Contemptor is even worse.

Not to mention that said dreadnought can usually pack a heavy flamer for a very low outlay of cost - and Firestorm & Shrapnel giving a template weapon Shred is not pretty.

I'd seriously recommend trying to find points for meltabombs on your Primes.

I didn't think to worry about Dreads in all honesty, as I've yet to see one pop up in our Zone Mortalis games. The board is usually set up in such a way that not all double wide corridors are connected, making it quite a chore for larger models to get around the complex. Worst case scenario though I can always drop the power fist in that one squad for three sets of melta bombs.

The list is a nice one, and Veletaris-heavy forces are very nasty in Zone Mortalis. Classic Iron Warrior forces, by comparison, aren't amazing - without the ability to fire overwatch, Cataphractii aren't so hot, massed frag missiles are less than devastating against reinforced void armour, and artillery and havocs aren't too useful in close.

Aside from the medics every model in this army is immune to the extra rules that make certain weapons rending and whatnot.

But we'll see how it goes when it happens.

Thanks for the feedback!

Found out where I remember it from:

The Zone Mortalis Assault Mission

Scoring Units
In the Zone Mortalis assault mission, units drawn from either
the Troops or Elites allowance count as scoring units where this is called for by the mission. A unit may only ever claim one objective at a time.

That's in the Zone Mortalis expansion .PDF on Forgeworld's web page. Whether it made it into the version in Betrayal, I'm not sure.

An infantry tercio is 1-3 sections strong and the only real restriction listed is that if you want to field an Auxiliary Flamer Section you MUST field an Auxilia Lasrifle Section first. But other than that, nothing of that sort, otherwise Solar Auxilia players would be in deep gak when they need to spend 400+ points to get their minimum of two troops choices on the table in regular games.

Fair enough. I'm not sure why I was convinced it was 3, no more, no less, but I was. If it's not, then no problem.

There might be an argument for a small tercio of 1 Lasrifle section and 1 flamer section then - the flamers will be bloody horrific in a close quarter action.

Aside from the medics every model in this army is immune to the extra rules that make certain weapons rending and whatnot.

Only the rending, not the whatnot.

Cold Void & Poisoned Air is the rule which makes you rending if S4 or more, and Void Armour is immune to that (as are terminators, breachers, and squads who've taken Hardened Armour as a Zone Mortalis Stratagem - i.e. most units you're actually likely to see!).

Firestorm & Shrapnel is the one which gives blast & template weapons shred. This still applies - however Hardened Void Armour (which your veletaris get) does give you a reroll on your 4+ save - the rerolled save should more than make up for the rerolls to wound. The 'scatter stops when you hit a wall' does make massed frag missiles scarier against a squad in a choke point, though, so a small squad of siege tyrants could put down enough wounds to kill even veletaris.

Be wary of any AP4 blasts and templates, obviously! One of the scariest things you could see is a Havoc unit armed with heavy flamers.....

The board is usually set up in such a way that not all double wide corridors are connected, making it quite a chore for larger models to get around the complex.

Indeed - that's the normal approach and recommended by the rules, I believe. A dreadnought can't "go a huntin' marines", but if it can park itself on an objective in a room, it can be a serious obstacle to try and get past....