Mhara Gal – the Tainted. A towering war machine twisted by the dark powers into a rampaging monster of flesh and iron with the corrupt soul of a daemon… how cool is that! Take that hell brutes! Here is the first of your kind… all 300+ points of him – but how does he fair on the table…
Background
First encountered during the battle of Ithraca amidst the catastrophe on Calth, the Shadow Crusade which ravaged Ultramar confirmed the existence of this twisted monster and its kin, an enemy unlike anything the loyalists had faced. In form it was undeniably a Contemptor Dreadnought in origin, its fire-blackened armour running like molten wax as its plates cracked open to pour out blood and choking black fumes. The bounds of reality bent and buckled around the machine-creature, the ground itself seeming to shudder, flesh blistering and metal burning with black empyreal fire at its passing.
Cultic writings record it as the ‘Mhara Gal’ – a complex Colchosian allegorical phrase translated as “…that which was blessed, but now stands beyond the sight of gods” and claims this first travesty to have been one of the original Gal Vorbak dismembered and shattered but clinging to life after the apocalyptic battle on Isstvan V. These writings describe this fallen killer as having “failed its oath to the eightfold path” and being “punished with life beyond death”, and interred in a Dreadnought Chassis also recovered from that field of massacre. What followed was a nightmarish transformation unexpected by its creators as the power of the warp fused tainted flesh and corrupted metal, embodying and giving strength to a terrible curse and unholy purpose.
(From The Horus Heresy Book 5 – Tempest, page 244, Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2015.)
On the Table
Mhara Gal is an Elite choice for the Word Bearers legion and is perhaps the single most expensive dreadnought in the 30k or 40k universe rocking in at 305 points minimum!
Hi statline is very comparable to a contemptor class dreadnought – WS6 is very good but BS3 means you can’t rely on his accuracy. A base S7 means even if he does not have (or loses) a close combat weapon he is still dangerous and combined with 3 base attacks and initiative 5 means he will generally get a punch (or 3!) in before his enemies. Defensively he has 4 hull points which is ace as well as armour 13 on his front, 12 on his sides and 11 at the rear. He is a Vehicle (walker) with all the usual attributes that brings.
Comparing that to a standard contemptor we see him gain 1 in WS, I and A but lose 2 in BS but more importantly he gains 1hp and 1 extra point of armour on the rear. While those changes are positive, they are not worth the 100+ point discrepancy… good thing his list of special rules rivals the Gal Vorbak!
Mhara Gal has Fleet, Daemon, It will not Die, The Earth recoils, Shroud of Dark Fire, Accursed and Adamantium Will .
Fleet will obviously get him into the fray quicker and make his charges more reliable while Daemon is great for Mhara Gal, essentially replacing the shielding of a standard contemptor with a consistent 5+ invulnerable save as well as giving it the Fear special rule to make it that little bit tougher to fight up close on the 31st millenniums battle fields. Adamatium Will should help keep some of the witch fire and maledictions at bay that will surely end up pointed his way while It will not Die means he can keep going even into the late game with his hull points slowly returning.
The Earth Recoils is the first unique rule Mhara Gal possesses. The rule means he completely ignores the effects of difficult and or dangerous terrain and passes through obstacles up to 1″ across without penalty or need for an aperture to move through. It can not end its turn inside an obstacle however and there needs to be space to place him at the end of his move. This means he can attack from potentially unexpected angles as well as not caring about what might be in his way while he closes on the prey of choice.
Shroud of Dark Fire is what happens when the Atomantic reactor is fused with the power of the warp! Any heat, fire, or plasma weapons (mostly these will be fire, volkite, fusion, slamer, plasma, melta in their descriptions) reduce their strength by -1. Along side this – enemy model assaulting him with a toughness less than 7 or an AV on any facing less than 13 suffers a -1 to hit in close combat! Lastly, if he explodes, place the 7″ blast marker and all models touched suffer a S6, Ap5 hit with the soulblaze special rule with damage allocated as per a barrage attack. This combination effects really highlights that Mhara Gal is intended to be in the thick of things and he will do very well there!
Accursed is another multi effect rule. Firstly, enemy take their fear tests at -2 against him. It can not be understated how good this is – should you fail the test you only hit him on 6’s in most cases! Secondly, he may only be an objective denial unit – never a scoring unit. While not good, its not all bad – it just focuses him on killing stuff. Lastly, all models with the daemon and or psyker special rule as well as members of units which are subject to a blessing psychic power who are within 6″ of the Mhara Gal at the end of its movement phase each suffer a S5, Ap2 ignore cover hit. This occurs regarless of line of sight, cover, if the victim can be seen or targeted or which side the model belongs to. This rule will destroy any psychic heavy force if allowed to close – I imagine the thousand sons won’t like being near him one bit!
On to wargear – he starts with 2 weapons. The Tainted power claw with inbuilt curs’d boltspitter as well as the Warpfire Plasma Cannon.
He can trade the cannon for a second power claw for an extra attack if you wish. He can also trade his first power claw for a Multi melta (free), twin linked auto cannon (free), twin linked las cannon (+10) or a warpfire plasma cannon (+15). It should be noted that the Multi Melta and Auto Cannon gain a special rule called Howling Death (which is built into the warpfire plasma cannon) if you choose to make this switch.
The Tainted Power Claw is a nasty piece of work – simply being S10, Ap2 melee with a special rule called Ghost Razor. This rule means successful invulnerable saves must be rerolled. Nice stuff here! The Boltspitter which is inbuilt is a 24″ S4, Ap5 rapid fire weapon (sound familiar?!) but gains the Blind special rule. While nothing especially fancy, its a great little weapon to throw off enemy units with as a single failed test will mess with them – especially if you are poised to charge them!
The Warpfire Plasma Cannon is a unique version of the imperial plasma cannon commonly found on dreadnought chassis. its 36″ range is identical as is its Ap2 and single shot small blast marker. What it does have over the imperial version is S8 (making it a threat to medium armour) as well as the special rule Howling Death. This rule means any unit suffering at least 1 casualty must take a morale test at -1 exactly as if they lost 25% of their number. This is huge in the heresy setting where stubborn, fearless and the like are few and far between!
How do you use him?
Despite his massive cost, regardless of load out, Mhara Gal can be a considerable asset to Word Bearers forces. He can take hit after hit and keep coming and take on most enemy units and heroes and win. Running him with 2 power claws in a dreadclaw could be a whole lot of fun as could a dual Warpfire cannon set up advancing with the infantry and providing area denial and LD debuffs. What ever you choose to do, Mhara Gal needs to be in the thick of it, laying waste to his foes and drawing fire for your other units. When he does finally fall, his explosion is another knife in the gut of the enemy.
Did I mention he is big? You can find pictures of mine HERE but I wanted to grab a second comparison pic – this time with a standard contemptor – to show off just how huge he is! I found this one online…
HUGE! I just can’t believe the difference! I must grab some pics with the primarch models I have…
Have you faced down the one and only Mhara Gal? Did you fall to his taloned claws or burn with warpfire? Do you agree with my thoughts on him? Let me know in the comments!