Talons of the Emperor Showcase

So today I thought I'd show off some of my Talons of the emperor, including those that you didn't see in the post from throne of skulls. I'll take a look what I have, what I think of it in game and where I'd like to take this army going forward a little. But first off what do I own...

So the photo above shows everything that I own for the army, painted to at least a table top standard. On a lot of the models I still need to go back and add transfers etc to the army, plus finish up painting all the crystal style blades on the custode weaponry. So this ～3.3k force orginally started out as an allied detachment (that got out of control....). When they showed off a lot of the models at the Horus Heresy weekender back in February I decided that I had to have the Dread with the spear so went about collecting some bits and pieces so that I could use him alongside my wolves. Then I started aquiring bits and pieces and went and filmed a smaller game with Sam (Emperors Path on youtube/instagram/facebook) and realised I needed a whole bunch more for the army. Since them (the army was about 2k at that point) I've added in the Pallus grave attack craft, the Telemon heavy dreadnought and the 31 sisters of silence,

So since starting to play with the Talons of the Emperor I have found that overall they have yet to let me down as a fighting force. Although I have lost some games and won others, each unit performs very consistently game on game regardless of what they are coming up against. This makes for great playing with as it's an army that I can just sit back and enjoy playing with rather than worrying about massive army spanning tactics.

When playing the biggest thing that I have learnt is not to isolate parts of the army. Although custodes, and to some extent sisters of silence, aren't squishy they don't have numbers on their side at all. So if you have a dread running down one flank make sure he has a screening unit/supporting fire unit to go with him. Same goes with regular units, ganging up on the enemy and completely destroying a unit before moving on works far better than getting bogged down and having to slowly chew through a unit over a couple of turns as your models slowly get whittled down but sheer dice numbers.

Long ranged fire power is also something that you can lack if you don't bring the right units to the table. My Pallas grav attack craft and dreads bring just about the only long range fire power I have. Now this is a personal choice as I don't want loads of bikes and tanks in my army but it is something that I have to deal with, especially if the enemy has a fair amount of it. To help improve my situation I have got the Telemon a second shooty arm, and whilst this brings him just over 350pts, I do get 14 S7 AP3 shots or 4 S9 (maybe 10) AP1 shots, plus his missile battery which will hopefully make a difference, especially in a larger game.

Finally comes my sisters of silence detachment. I have a Jenita Crowl conversion who leads them plus a 10 man raptor guard squad to go with her. Making up the numbers is 2 10 man bolter squads. Now in the 5 games (at time of writing) that I have used these in they have always done me proud. They have some really neat little rules and add the numbers that I would otherwise be lacking in the force. for 550pts in total I am finding really hard to write lists without these ladies at the core. They make a massive difference to the list and help it play in a totally different way allowing for a lot of tactical flexibility.

So where do I want to take the army? Well I want to increase the sisters of silence portion of the army next. I'm thinking (and need) a command squad followed up by at least 1, if not 2 10 man flamer teams as they would be a lot of fun in zone mortalis. I also need to get me some of the sisters transports, probably 2 so that I can transport the raptors and probably the flamers into the heart of the enemy where they can cause as much damage as possible. On the custodes side I'm thinking some aquillion terminators, although I'll wait for the fire pikes to be released so I can do a mix of pikes, fists, and claws as a mix will be best I think.

Anyway that's it for today, hope you guys enjoyed. Let me know where you'd take this army if you where expanding it.

Philip