World Eaters Tactical Support Troops

World Eaters Space Marines with "tactical support" weapons; I will add some groundwork once I finish painting the whole group

Well, it's been a while, but I am finally putting paint on some more Horus Heresy figures for Warhammer 40k (or "30k").  These are figures from Forge World, Space Marines wearing Mark IV power armour from the "World Eaters" Legion, one of the Legions that would turn against the Emperor and join with Horus' rebellion.

The officer has a "vexilla" - I thought they were stupid at first, but I really like how Byron's turned out so I thought I would do at least one officer with one

The "Tactical Support Squad" is a creature of the Legion army list, a troop choice of a supporting nature (although I haven't seen the latest cash grab-dex, so perhaps they changed this?).  Keeping with the grand style of the Space Marine legions, the squad is all armed with the same support weapon. This essentially creates an Imperial version of the Eldar Aspect Warriors, and this is a good thing for the Legion player.  Concentrating the weapons in this way manages to simultaneously match well with the fluff of the setting and what I imagine the "tactical approach" of a Space Marine Legion to be (overwhelming, singular application of brute firepower) while also allowing the Legion to fight on the table in a way that lines up perfectly with the min/max channelling effect created by the 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th edition of the 40k rules.

The embossed shoulder pads are a dangerous addiction - once you do one squad with them, you will want to do all squads with them...

The weapon options for these Tactical Support squads range from the classics - flamers, melta guns, plasma guns - to some specific Crusade-era/Heresy-era choices like "Volkite" weapons.  To catch some of the flavour from the period, I opted for the latter choice for this squad.

The armour is quite mucky (pigment powders) but I still needed to weather the shoulder plate markings a bit more

The good weapon smiths of Mars made Volkite weapons available from pistol-size all the way to super-heavy-tank size.  Other than the officer, the Marines are carrying Volkite Calivers, sort of on par with a plasma gun.  According to the fluff, Volkite weapons are a type of thermal ray weapon, once common among the early Legions but, as the Emperor's Crusade started to really take off and the ranks of the Space Marine Legions grew and grew, was replaced by the more available and easier-to-make bolt gun.

Volkite Calivers - a sort of plasma gun without the downside

The weapon has a special rule - "deflegrate". I was less taken by its game effect (which seems kind of scary yet redundant and therefore somewhat pointless) than by the word itself. Apparently "deflagration" is an actual thing - subsonic combustion through heat transfer, or something like that. So this is a horrifying weapon that I can totally imagine the Space Marine Legions rolling out to use on those who resist the Imperial Truth.

Plus the Forge World sculptors/designers did a great job on these guns - as they have with so much of their Horus Heresy stuff.  The weapon looks f**king cool and dangerous.  I love it for the looks-cool-factor.

I am doing a 10-man squad with these things, and I hope to finish the whole group by Friday.