Palm Spring Open 2025
Sup guys,
Well, its about time I resurrect this blog of mine, its been lets say a long time and I am not going to bore you with the details. Suffice to say my last post was during an older edition of both 40K and Horus Heresy so yeah, pretty terrible. Anyways, this last weekend was Palm Springs Open in which I took part in the Horus Heresy event. This event is rather new for me with last year being the first time I went to it, the event has been around for several years now but starting last year, a 30K event has been added to it. The 30K event, ran by my buddy from our club was super fun last year and since the location is relatively close to where I live, I had to make it this year as well.
This year it was no different, the event was super fun, with playing games with amazing folks, chucking dice on beautiful tables and the models where in short incredible to look at. This was also our send off for HH 2.0 as 3rd edition actually released the same weekend as the event. This was my last chance to run my full drop pod Nightlords army so I made sure that I got everything done and painted in time for the event. The event also gave me an excuse to finally build my Atramenar terminator squad using custom bits and the GW Tartaros kit. I wanted to bring a fluffy list, looking for themed army for this final farewell to 2.0 and I think I achieved it or at least got close to it. So here is the list I took -
LA - VIII: Night Lords - Nightlords PSO 3K
## Allegiance
Allegiance: Traitor
VIII: Night Lords
## Rite of War
Rite of War: Drop Pod Assault^
## HQ [305 Pts]
Centurion [85 Pts]: Centurion
• 1x Legion Centurion [85 Pts]: Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Refractor Field, Bolt Pistol, Artificer Armour, Power Weapon (Chainglaive)
Sevatar [220 Pts]: Artificer Armour, Bolt Pistol, Frag Grenades, Iron Halo, Krak Grenades, Night's Whisper, Psychic Powers, Master of the Legion, Sworn Loyalty, Warlord
## Elites [815 Pts]
Contekar Terminator Squad [255 Pts]: Chainblade, Tartaros Terminator Armour, 5x Volkite Cavitor, Preysight, Escaton Power Claw
• 4x Contekars [40 Pts]
• 1x Dissident [65 Pts]
Contemptor Dreadnought Talon [305 Pts]:
• 1x Contemptor Dreadnought [190 Pts]: Atomantic Deflector, Gravis Power Fist with in-built ranged weapon, Volkite Dual-Culverin, Combi-Bolter
• 1x Dreadclaw Drop Pod [115 Pts]: Dreadclaw Drop Pod
Terror Squad [255 Pts]: Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Power Armour, 8x Volkite Charger, Preysight
• 1x Headsman [38 Pts]: Chainglaive, Artificer Armour
Drop Pod (Pintle Mounted Twin-linked Bolter)
• 7x Executioner w/Chainsword [18 Pts]: Bolt Pistol, Chainsword
## Troops [940 Pts]
Atramentar Squad [266 Pts]: Tartaros Terminator Armour, Preysight
• 1x Atramentar Trucidor [47 Pts]: Volkite Charger, Thunder Hammer
• 1x Atramentar [40 Pts]: Minor Combi-Weapon - Flamer, Chainglaive
• 1x Atramentar [37 Pts]: Volkite Charger, Chainglaive
• 1x Atramentar [37 Pts]: Volkite Charger, Lightning Claw
• 1x Atramentar w/Heavy Weapon [45 Pts]: Heavy Flamer, Chainglaive
Atramentar Squad [269 Pts]: Tartaros Terminator Armour, Preysight
• 1x Atramentar Trucidor [47 Pts]: Volkite Charger, Thunder Hammer
• 1x Atramentar [37 Pts]: Volkite Charger, Lightning Claw
• 2x Atramentar [40 Pts]: Minor Combi-Weapon - Flamer, Chainglaive
• 1x Atramentar w/Heavy Weapon [45 Pts]: Heavy Flamer, Chainglaive
Tactical Squad [135 Pts]: Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Power Armour
• 1x Legion Tactical Sergeant: Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Power Armour
• 9x Legionary [10 Pts]: Bolt Pistol, Bolter
Drop Pod (Pintle Mounted Twin-linked Bolter)
Tactical Squad [135 Pts]: Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Power Armour
• 1x Legion Tactical Sergeant: Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Power Armour
• 9x Legionary [10 Pts]: Bolt Pistol, Bolter
Drop Pod (Pintle Mounted Twin-linked Bolter)
Tactical Squad [135 Pts]: Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Power Armour
• 1x Legion Tactical Sergeant: Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Power Armour
• 9x Legionary [10 Pts]: Bolt Pistol, Bolter
Drop Pod (Pintle Mounted Twin-linked Bolter)
## Fast Attack [255 Pts]
Storm Eagle Gunship [255 Pts]: Legiones Astartes (X), Multi-Melta, Hull (Front) Mounted Vengeance launcher (Vengeance Launcher), Two Hull (Front) Mounted twin-linked lascannon (2x Twin-linked Lascannon)
## Heavy Support [685 Pts]
Fire Raptor Gunship [295 Pts]: Hull (Front) Mounted Twin-linked Avenger Bolt Cannon, Four Hull (Front) Mounted Tempest Rockets, Two Sponson Mounted Gravis Autocannon Batteries
• 1x Legion Fire Raptor Gunship
Leviathan Dreadnought Talon [390 Pts]:
• 1x Leviathan [290 Pts]: Atomantic Deflector, 2x Leviathan Siege Claw, Phosphex Discharger, 2x Heavy Flamers (2x Heavy Flamer)
• 1x Dreadnought Drop Pod [100 Pts]:
• 1x Dreadnought Drop Pod
So here it is, full drop pod army so no deploying on the board until my opponent does but of course at the cost of having to deal with disordered rolls or master of signals but luckily for this weekend, all I had to deal with was bad disordered rolls as none of my opponents took a master of signals. Bad rolls? yup, rolled a 1 in two of my games on Saturday which really determined my games and if it wasnt for my opponents being cool about it, would have been a one sided affair. The list is based around my first drop neutralizing any threats to both of my planes or my 15 terminators that would come in via deep strike to take advantage of Sevatar's warlord trait. I could just imagine Sevatar being with his personal guard of Atramentar Terminators as well as a squad of Contekar to keep folks "eye on the prize" so to speak back up by a fast moving Fire Raptor and Storm Eagle. The real meat of the list of course is the 2 dreads who need to do the heavy lifting on the first turn allowing my tactical squads to either support them or setup to get on objectives as soon as they could.
The Atramentar are really just a fluffy choice but with Fear 1 and deep strike built in, could do some damage if I have them go after my softer targets. No way would they have a chance to go after more elite units but like the Contekar, are really just big bullies and I would use them to bully tactical squads or anything with a 3+ armor save. The list was just fun to play and with the rumors of version 3 not allowing more than 1 unit to deepstrike a turn is really a bummer as I would love to play this army in this new edition. We will see if GW gives me some sort of DLC to run something similar or if the community will allow it but I will have to wait I guess. Pics are of my army and I plan on getting in a little detail on my 3 games.
Until then
