Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Space Marine Legion List (30k)

There is only war in the grim darkness of Warhammer...30,000?

Why Play A Space Marine Legion

Do you want to go back to the glory days when the Emperor wasn't bound to the Golden Throne? When even the smallest legion was the size of ten or more chapters? When men were real men, women were real women, and eight-foot warrior monks were real eight-foot warrior monks? Do you want to collect re-built, revamped Rogue Trader models? Do you think the 6th edition Chaos Space Marine codex sucks ass and want to bring back the old glory days of 3rd edition Legion Rules? Do you want these armies to be lead by a force no less than the Primarchs themselves?

Well Forge World have heard your pleas, and have finally delivered thanks to their new Horus Heresy line. Now you can refight the greatest event in the history of the Imperium and wield the might of the Legions of old (at great expense).

A Space Marine Legion force works in a very different way from the chapters which superseded them:

• All the normal units you can take as compulsory troops in a Legion List have minimum unit sizes of 10, so MSU spam is impossible with this list. With the Heresy, you go big or go home.
• Units are pretty expensive initially, but adding more guys is much cheaper than it would be normally. So if the first 10 guys cost you 150 points the next 10 are only 10 points apiece. So you have an incentive to field big units. Additionally, upgrades like melta bombs and jump packs are sometimes bought for a set price for the squad, not per model, so bigger squads effectively get the extra ones for free. If you go for units of 20, you will have a substantial numerical advantage on the field, but also be less tactically flexible, vulnerable to movement and unit arrangement mistakes, unable to get inside most transport vehicles and potentially vulnerable to getting swept up by Angron or other Primarchs.
• The Legion forces do not have "And They Shall Know No Fear", so your forces won't auto-rally once broken. This can lose you a game if you forget about it; these Marines will fall back and keep falling back. This is particularly true in assault, where they will get wiped. However they can still attempt to rally at half strength.
• Heresy Armies can have tanks, lots and lots of tanks. Land Raiders, Predators and artillery tanks come in squadrons of three. Dreadnought talons are 1-3 dreads or Contemptors that deploy together but then wander off separately and aren't a unit. The Spartan Assault Tank is a nasty heavy support choice, and just above that you get into the lords of war, and things get really silly and titan-shaped. You have the option of going for an "armoured spearhead" rite of war, if you think Rhinos are for wimps and want all your guys riding to war in Land Raider dedicated transports. Most of these tanks can have armoured ceramite, so melta weapons won't work against them, leaving Fire Dragons and Melta vets crying.
• Legiones Astartes rules, which are pretty much Chapter Tactics on steroids.

The Legions may be less flexible than their Chapter descendants, but a Legion can soak up more damage than a Chapter and has the numbers to take a beating and still come on top, supported with with all their advanced pre-heresy tech like Volkite weaponry, Graviton weaponry and other esoteric systems allowing them to triumph against any foe, pre or post heresy. Plus ripping apart space pansies, retcrons and Tau with motherfucking Angron. Seriously, Angron vs Tau in close combat is the ultimate in rape.

BREAKING NEWS: legion lists are now legal except for The Lord of War slot but you should still check with a tournament organizer beforehand.

New Escalation expansion to standard 40k that adds in Lords of War to all armies means more incentive to bring a primarch. Oh you brought a Stompa? Say hello to Vulkan. Except that Primarchs are intended for work with Legiones Astartes rather than their Codex Chapter Tactics so your army won't gain the intended benefit of bringing them. Rather, just a very powerful dude.

Of course, unless you have a few thousand to drop on the army, there's little chance you'll play it outside of proxy, and it'll likely never be tournament legal.

But fuck that, the Legion list is Awesome.

STILL MORE BREAKING NEWS: Next book is coming out in spring and will feature Iron Warriors, Alpha Legion, Imperial Fists, and Raven Guard.

EVEN MORE BREAKING NEWS: New units revealed in the form of the Krios Mechanicum Battletank and Falchion Superheavy Tank-Destroyer!!

Unit Analysis

HQ Units

• Legion Praetor: These guys are the Chapter Masters of the pre-Heresy and Heresy eras. They can take Rites of War (the basic ones usable by all Legions are listed below, and many of the Legions have their own unique Rites of War as well) which change how their army functions in a key way. Although all Rites of War give considerable bonuses to your army, they also come with their own restrictions and drawbacks, so think carefully about which Rite of War you want to take (if any). The Praetor’s stats are very strong, and they can be customized with a large list of wargear and weapons, including the nasty Paragon Blade (a sword with +1 S and AP 2, plus Instant Death on a To Wound roll of 6). You’ll want to put him into combat, but he won't fare well against named Special Characters or Primarchs. You’ll want to outfit him and put him into a squad with that in mind.
  • Universal Rites of War:
    • Angel's Wrath: Everything with a jump pack gets Hit & Run, and most of your units can be put in Storm Eagles. However, only flying units (read: Jump Infantry, Skimmers, Jetbikes, and infantry in Flyers) can be taken, you can't take any tanks, and you can't take any fortifications.
    • Armoured Spearhead: You can take Land Raiders as transports and your Tank Shock attacks are slightly more effective. However, everyone must be in a transport.
    • Orbital Assault: Everything can take Drop Pods as transports, even if they can't normally, and Terminators can Deep Strike. However, everyone must Deep Strike, and you can't take any fortifications.
    • Pride of the Legion: Veterans and Terminators become Troops, and Command Squads can take a Land Raider Phobos or Proteus. However, if all Veteran and Terminator squads are destroyed, the enemy counts as having scored an additional secondary objective, and you can't take an allied detachment. This is actually a good one for beginners to 30k, since you can have a relatively small army of veterans with variable weapon load-outs, and can easily proxy in your 40k marines with a variety of options without requiring big squads all with the same equipment.

• Legion Centurion: If Praetors are like Chapter Masters, Centurions are like the Captains of the Heresy era (by the way, these are the guys Centurion Squads are named for). Unlike modern Captains, though, they can use the Consul rule to be upgraded to one of nine different specializations. Unlike the Praetor, they aren't particularly grand or sweeping jack-of-all-trade command units, but rather, surgical knives chosen to do a particular job.
  • Consul Specializations:
    • Chaplain: Very similar to "modern" Chaplains, these Chaplains don't get a Rosarius, so no invulnerable save. Use them like normal Chaplains; in other words, inspire you big killy squad to greater glory!
    • Master of Signals: These guys can really beef up a gunline. They grant Night Vision to any unit they join, a once-per-game d3 large blasts orbital bombardment, and, most importantly, +1 BS to a single friendly unit within 6" if he doesn't shoot (which he won't, as his weapons options are limited). They also carry a Nuncio-vox, allowing friendly deep striking units to arrive 6" with no scatter and barrage weapons can use line of sight from a model equipped with this, allowing for much more accurate artillery fire. Unfortunately if you were planning to deep strike all over the enemies face and cover him in pie-plates the Orbital Assault RoW doesn't allow any vehicles besides Dreadnaughts (as they can Deepstrike via Drop pods). Assault marines and the like are still a viable choice.
    • Legion Champion: As their name implies, these guys are the champions of the Legions. As such, he has a master-crafted CCW, WS 6, and must reroll failed Glorious Intervention attempts. If you want someone to go around curb-stomping all the (ubiquitous) veteran sergeants out there, he's your expensive resin guy - just keep him away from the named characters. Also with mastercrafting, the best way to make Charnabal sabre useful... but surely you would rather just take a power axe or similar weapon?
    • Vigilator: Vigilators are awesome, Captain-sized spy-scouts. They grant Scout and Infiltrate to attached units, and get pre-game demo charges to mess around with an enemy unit.
    • Librarian: Again, Librarians are similar to today's. They're pricey, but you can purchase up to level three mastery and choose any psychic discipline from the rule book (read: you get Divination). Also, they can be placed on jet bikes to enjoy mobility only Eldar Warlocks and Tzeentch Disk-riding Sorcerers normally get.
    • Forge Lord: These guys are the 30k equivalent to Masters of the Forge. They get some decent weapon and servitor options from being a Centurion, as well as getting Techmarine options. Usually, you'll want to give them conversion beamers or graviton guns for ranged support. You'll probably also want to give them Cataphractii-pattern Terminator armor and a cyber-familiar. They're surprisingly excellent duelists (with four power fist attacks base) and complement regular Cataphractii very well.
      • Who forgot that they can take Cortex Controllers?! If you take one of these, you can take a single unit of Castellax Automata or un-augmented Thallaxoi as a Heavy Support option. An Angel's Wrath, Orbital Assault, or Armored Spearhead list can take Thallax since Deep Strike. Black Reaving, Berserker Assault, and Reaping lists can totally use Castellax to their advantage. Seriously, how awesome would it be for World Eaters supported by Castellax? And they totally fit the Death Guard's tough dakka.
    • Primus Medicae: These guys are just super-sized Apothecaries, granting both Feel No Pain to attached units and the ability to recover lost victory points from friendly infantry units killed nearby. Unlike some consuls, these do not have limitations in regards to other equipment; Cataphractii terminator apothecary?
    • Siege Breaker: Here's the guy for Imperial Fists and Iron Warriors players. They grant Tank Hunters and the new Wrecker ability to attached units. Wrecker lets you reroll failed penetrations and gain +1 on the damage chart when attacking fortifications and other buildings. Much like the Master of Signals, barrage weapons can draw line of sight from them. Finally, they can take up to three Phosphex bombs and upgrade Medusas to the dreaded Phosphex bio-chem shells for extra rape. If it’s a building and it absolutely needed to come down yesterday, use these guys.
    • Moritat: Considered somewhat broken, Moritats are dual-pistol-wielding, cold-blooded killers, which can only join Destroyer squads (so, for the most part, he'll go it alone). They have BS 5, rad grenades, and a special Chain Fire ability, which grants each successful pistol hit an additional shot, continually, until both pistols have missed. And we mean both pistols; a recent FAQ has clarified that if one pistol misses, they still fire with the other one until that one misses as well. They can't assault or fire the next turn after doing so, but that shouldn't be a problem. And that's without mentioned that they can dual wield Plasma Pistols or Volkite Serpentas for extra rage. Unfortunately, on the other hand, current errata states Moritats can't benefit from blessings anymore.
  • It’s best to think of the Centurion as a support HQ choice. They work best when linked with another unit or when working in conjunction with a Praetor. That being said, a Centurion is a good choice he will a.) help focus the tactics of the overall army and b.) perform whichever vital function you need him to. If your army is going for a stand-offish approach of just shooting, take the Siege Breaker or Master of Signals to boost your firepower; if your army is more close combat oriented, take a Legion Champion or Moritat to improve your close-in ability.

Elites

• Veteran Tactical Squad - Not as good as their 40k Sternguard equivalents. Up to ten strong only, organised the same as post heresy tactical squads with two weapons, special or heavy. The squad can add one of a list of special rules: fearless, sniper, furious charge, outflank or tank hunters. This is a tooled up Tactical Squad, and the Veteran Tactics special rule makes them a bit better at a single particular job. It is best to keep these guys cheap and simple. They will survive and kill in close combat, but it is best to have these guys shooting. Increasing the squad to a 10 man squad is a must since you will then be able to have 2 special weapons. It will then be best to choose a special veteran rule and weapons that will aid them in killing infantry and Troop choice units.
• Legion Destroyer Squad - the bastards who give the middle finger to the Geneva Convention. They use the nasty proscribed weapons like Rad missiles and Rad Grenades (which can screw with the enemies toughness), as well as the deadly phosphex bombs (which linger and continue to kill enemies and taint the ground they land on). In short, the Legion Destroyer squad is a more expensive assault squad with a little bit better shooting ability and some unique weapons like Missile Launcher with Suspensor web & Rad missiles, and Phospex bombs. However they are very expensive for what they do, and there are other units in the army list that can do the job just as well or sometimes better than the Destroyer Squad and cost half as much.
• Legion Terminator Squad - It's Terminators, what's not to like about them? Expensive, but good. Note they can't Deep Strike in 30k (without the correct Rite of War), nor can they be built into the god unit of 6th edition, thunder hammer/storm shield terminators (as the Storm Shield hasn't been invented yet). But they do count as scoring units, so they can footslog onto points and hold them. They can be outfitted with Cataphractii type terminator armour for a 4++ save and Slow and Purposeful. Terminators are like tactical squads, don’t over complicate them, or they will struggle to earn back their points. They’re a good solid unit that will get the job done.
• Techmarine Covenant - 1-3 Techmarines as a single elite choice, each can have up to 4 servitors with them and may carry weapons like the Conversion Beamer. The Techmarine Covenant is not one of the better units available. Most vehicles are strong enough to survive on their own, so taking a Techmarine is just for insurance. It takes up a valuable Elite choice slot that could be used for Terminators, Dreadnoughts, or other better choices.
  • VERY important note, 30k techmarines are not Independent characters nor can they take bikes, therefore they really should be accompanied with some servitor meat shields. Unfortunately these servitors are much more expensive than their 40k counterparts,and to give them power-fists (closest servo-arm equivalent, but not) will cost you even more. Flamers might be the the best option since they're cheap, don't require a BS to work and are nasty in larger numbers. They only have 5+ armour, which is essentially nothing in an all-bolter environment. They also do not boost the repair roll either, so your techmarine will only ever pass on a 5+ (4+ with servo-arm). The one boost is you at least get to boost the average toughness of the unit to five and protect your techmarine that way.
• Apothecarion Detatchment 1-3 Apothecaries, as a single elites choice, each MUST be attached to a troop squad and can’t voluntarily leave it. Ultimately, it comes down to what squad you want to have the Feel No Pain special rule and then kitting him out to better work with the squad. Though FNP has been nerfed in 6e, it can still come in handy. A good and cheap choice.
• Legion Dreadnought Talon - Squads of Dreads, rejoice. Up to 3 for a single Elites choice.
• Contemptor Dreadnought Talon - Squads of Contemptors. Up to 3 for a single Elites choice. With 13 12 10 armour, a weapon skill of 5, 'fleet', and atomantic shielding (5+ inv. against shooting, 6+ inv. against close combat, and +1" to explosion if it suffers a 'vehicle explodes' result) the Contemptor is a powerful dreadnought that every legion army should probably have at lest one of. Like the regular dreadnought it has the capability to fill a number of roles, but unlike the regular dreadnought, players should see better results with its better armour and weapons.
• Legion Rapier Battery - 1-3 Rapier's with Quad(!) Heavy Bolters, which can be upgraded to Thudd Guns, Laser Destroyers or Graviton Cannons. The nice things about these little fellows are that you can bring a fire amount of firepower without using a heavy support choice and at a cheaper cost. The draw back to this is that they don’t have the mobility that a tank or Heavy Support Squad would give you. It’s probably best to think of the Rapier is a kin to the Thunderfire cannon. You’ll want to set them up in terrain somewhere in the backfield and not move them after they are deployed. The roles are self-explanatory based on what gun you take: Heavy bolters or a Quad mortar for anti-infantry and a Laser destroyer or Graviton cannon for anti-armor. The draw back is that it’s an Elite choice, still it’s another option to bring yet more heavy weapons onto the field to be used to either support or in conjunction with Heavy Support choices. Points for points the Rapier will be cheaper than many of the Heavy Support choices and will probably be just as lethal.
• Legion Mortis Dreadnought - A dreadnought that always has two of the same weapon. Starting off with dual twin-linked heavy bolters that can be upgraded to multi-meltas (for free) or anything up to lascannons. Being a Mortis pattern also grants it the ability to use skyfire and interceptor if it didn't move that turn.
• Legion Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought - Same as the mortis dreadnought but when it stays still it gains the skyfire rule! So this entombed veteran is a nice piece of AA with something like double kheres assault cannon or 2 twin autocannon.

Troops

• Legion Tactical Squad: Just like 40k, Tactical Squads are your bread-and-butter scoring units. Unlike "modern" Tacticals, however, they can have 10-20 Marines (similar to Chaos Marines). They also come with the Fury of the Legion special rule, which allows you to forgo moving this turn and shooting next turn to fire bolters twice; this even stacks with Rapid Fire, so you can blast entire units off the board with up to 80 shots (!). However, they can't take special or heavy weapons; that's what Tactical Support Squads are for. It’s best to give them just enough wargear to make them durable, effective, and deadly. You’ll probably get more mileage out of them if you keep all the options and toys down to a minimum so you can get more points for the more exotic options (which, again, is very similar to the use of Tactical Squads in 40k).
• Legion Assault Squad: Yes, you can take up to 20 Assault marines as a Troops choice. One in every five can also take a power weapon, hand flamer, or plasma pistol, but those costs add up quick.
• Legion Siege Breaker Squad: These guys are essentially a defensive version of Assault Marines. Again, you can take between 10 and 20 per unit. They all come with boarding shields which counts as a 6++ save (which becomes a 5++ in close combat) and defensive grenades, although the unit can never claim bonus attacks for having multiple close combat weapons (similar to storm shields). One per five can take a special weapon, like graviton guns, lascutters, breaching charges, etc. They also all have void hardened armour, so they re-roll their saves when hit by template and blast weapons, but suffer from a -1" penalty to sweeping advance, charge, and run moves.
• Legion Tactical Support Squad - 5-10 marines, all marines except the sergeant [UPDATE: as of the minidex that came with the limited edition Extermination, the Sergeant gets one as well], yes all 10, have flamers and can be upgraded to carry different special weapons like Meltas (making them a Fire Dragon Wannabe squad), Plasmas or the deadly Volkite weapons (30k Ray Guns).Note: If the weapon is changed from the flamer, all legionaries must exchange their weapon for the newly picked weapon, and pay the points cost as per marine being equipped; this can quickly escalate the points cost of the unit. Keeping the original unit size is probably the best option for Meltagun toting squads. Otherwise enjoy your plasma/volkite spam.
  • Keep in mind that these guys can not fulfill your minimum troops requirement, you will have to bring the other troops choices to meet that.
• Legion Recon Squad - Power Armoured scouts with the Scout, Outflank and Acute Senses special rules. They can have sniper rifles to really fuck your opponents over. They can also remove their power armour for scout armour and gain Move Through Cover and Infiltrate.
  • Keep in mind that these guys can not fulfill your minimum troops requirement, you will have to bring the other troops choices to meet that.

Dedicated Transports

• Legion Rhino - Similar to their far-future variants; except with a few interesting extra's on the vehicle upgrades (armoured ceramite, auxiliary engines...). Also has access to a wide range of pintle-mounts, such as: Heavy bolter, Heavy flamer, twin bolter, combi-weapons, havoc launcher; In addition to the existing twin-bolter of course.
• Legion Drop Pod - Again, similar to the far future. Has twin bolter and can't change for missiles, though.
• Legion Dreadnought Drop Pod -

Fast Attack

• Legion Seeker Squad - headhunters designed to take out enemy command elements, they are a fusion of Sternguard and Scout squads, 5-10 strong with special issue ammo that is different from 40k, ballistic skill 5 and Preferred Enemy against one enemy unit or Independent Character (their target). While their benefit against the chosen unit is obvious, you can use them against pretty much anything, as the correct choice of specialist ammo and high accuracy can function against virtually anything except mid>heavy vehicles. Can still be equipped with combi-weapons just like Sternguard, though this will inevitably make the unit cost a small fortune in points and Tactical Support squads could do those jobs better.
  • Lots of guys rapid firing tempest bolt will annoy the crap out of your opponent, even if they are only S3, having to sit through your opponent placing 20 small templates with low scatter will drive you nuts. Whilst shred/rend scorpius bolts make them into a mini sniper squad. Both of these traits can make the unit appear to be a greater threat than it actually is.
• Legion Outrider Squad - your bikers with a few buffs. The scout special rule, all bikes marines can swap their bikes twin bolters out for twin linked flamers, melta guns or plasma guns. 1 in 3 can have a power weapon, hand flamer or plasma pistol. The gun upgrades are excellent, but really tear through your points.
• Legion Attack Bike Squadron - 1-5 strong with heavy bolters which can be swapped out for heavy flamers, autocannons or multi-meltas.
• Legion Jetbike Sky-Hunter Squadron - The famed Dickbikes. 3-10 strong, 1 in 3 can replace Dickbike Jetbike mounted heavy bolter with multi-melta, volkite cannon or plasma cannon options, and they have the deep strike special rule. Aim them at the enemies vagina/anus and let them fly.
• Legion Land Speeder Squadron - These little buggers are very fragile, but also very underrated. at 1-5 strong, they can come very cheap with a heavy bolter, and can bring a heavy flamer for infantry hunting or a multi-melta for tank busting. But the real icing is that any speeder can add an additional havoc launcher, heavy bolter, Plasma Cannon or graviton gun as well, and in addition any speeder can also take up to 2 Hunter-Killer Missiles on top of all that for vehicle hunting at range. Deep striking, they are excellent tank or infantry hunters.
• Legion Javelin Attack Speeder Squadron - Up-sized land speeders in squadrons of 1-3, Javelins have an extra point of AV and come by default with TWIN-LINKED cyclone launchers (frag/krak) and heavy bolter. The real beauty of the Javelin is being able to get up to two Hunter-Killer Missiles for half the price a regular speeder would pay. This means a fast, outflanking speeder that can fire 4 S8 shots into side armor when it arrives.
• Legion Storm Eagle Gunship - Your main transport Flyer, as only it can carry your big 20 man squads which make up the bulk of a Legion list. Impressive arsenal of weaponry, with as its standard armament a Hull-mounted twin-linked Heavy Bolter, a Hull-mounted Vengeance Launcher (Range:48"|Str:5|AP:4|Heavy 2, Large Blast) and 4 Tempest Rockets under the wings. Optional armament includes: Switching Heavy bolters for Multi-meltas or a single missile launcher, and replacing the Tempest Rockets with 4 Hellstrike Missiles or 2 Twin-linked Lascannons. Also get ceramite shielding, and the 'Power of the Machine Spirit' special rule, along with 12|12|12 armour. Can also deep strike, and disembarking infantry can assault in the same turn, which with your big squads can be nasty.
• Legion Tarantula Sentry Gun Battery - You would take an immovable object in place of a super fast flyer as a fast attack choice. Why? Because you need firepower, and a lot of it. While BS 3 seems scary, some of the upgrades cheer you up, especially when you take up to three. You can keep the Heavy Bolters, or take the twin-linked heavy flamers/lascannons/dual rotor gun, or a Multi-melta w/searchlight. You can also give the battery concealment which gives them Shrouding until they fire, or forward deployment to move them 12" away from their original position, just like scouting, but you can't put them in reserves. They're tricky to use as they have one of two fire modes for the rest of the game that you must choose between: point defence allows the battery to fire at anything within 36", but within the forward 90 degree arc, while sentry has a shorter range of 18", but you have the default 360. They also have another setback in which your only allowed to fire anti-specific weaponry at said specific units/vehicles, but you knew that already RIGHT? Speaking of anti-specific, and butthurt fast attack fans, upgrading the Battery to a Hyperios, taking one command platform, will give the other player the finger as you fire six, re-rollable to hit against flyers and fast skimmers with the skyfire and interceptor goodies, krak missiles, where each can be fired at a single target!
• Primaris Lightning Strike Fighter - A high speed fighter and cheaper alternative to the Storm Eagle for your Aerial needs.
  • Comes with a free chaff launcher, granting it 4+ invuln against enemy missiles; eat shit Tau!
  • Agile is as is in the rulebook, while Missile barrage allows up to four missiles to be fired in any one shooting phase instead of only two.
  • Supersonic so not only will you go fast, but you gotta.
  • Can be given Ground Tracking Auguries for strafing run; it craps out a lot of dice rolls and/or blast template weapons so this isn't that big of a deal, but it's there if you want it (costs 15 pts).
  • Battle Servitor Control grants Tank hunter; a really good choice and will pretty much guarantee enemy aircraft are completely cleared from the skies; and then the enemies from the ground (you have two-lascannons as standard)
  • Ramjet Diffraction Grid: It's like a flare shield for your plane, reducing the strength of hits on your side and rear arc by 1. For 20 points on an AV11 flyer, its a pretty good deal. Only downside is that you are visible as all fuck, so no night-fighting cover saves. Not much of a downside, really.
  • You can take up to 3 additional "dual weapon sets"; it does not state you cannot take the same one thrice. The descriptions a bitch sketchy as its says "dual weapons sets" and then proceeds to list some things as "twin-linked" and others as "Two X", for now just presume this thing has 3 additional weapon choices.
    • Twin-linked; Multi-lasers, Autocannons and Missile Launchers are strong anti-aircraft choices. The best of which is probably the Autocannons; with BS4 and twinlinkage its highly likely you'll hit your target with both shots and then with tank-hunter you'll probably smack it out of the sky.
    • Sunfury missile; One use 5" template blind with AP3 and S6. On the face of it very good until you see "gets hot"; that on a AV11 2HP aircraft is going to get the unfortunate crew squatted.
    • Kraken Penetrator Missile; S8, AP1 and armourbane make these incredibly nasty anti-armour. They're expensive though at 25pts a pair... but they'll take down monoliths and what not with little trouble. (Don't forget they have 1 use only! So use them sparingly!!!)
    • Phospex Bomb cluster; Sister of Battle approved thousands of years before they even existed. Oh boy these will cause nightmares for infantry of all kinds; Heavy 2 Barrage Bomb Cluster of 3" 3+ Poison AP2 coming right up! Its also a poison with an actual strength value of 5, so you could if you wanted to wound poor poor guardsmen and other T3 critters on a 2+. It also leaves behind moving dangerous terrain against infantry and open-topped vehicles, so that's cool. What's cooler than fiery napalm? Explosions! And should the aircraft suffer any hull damage roll a D6, on a 6, it explodes. Bye bye all those points. So you better zoom and jink like fuck.
    • Electromagnetic storm charges; Ion storm approaching. It's concussive hay-wire in a 5" template. Not all that exciting really.

Heavy Support

• Legion Heavy Support Squad - When Devastators were good. ALL marines in the squad (including the sergeant!) have a heavy bolter as standard, and all may upgrade to carry the same heavy weapon (no no mix-matching within the squad). Heavy flamers, autocannons, missile launchers which may be further upgraded to carry flakk for AA coverage, multi-meltas, plasma cannons, volkite culverins or lascannons may be taken. The entire squad may have hardened armour for added protection. They can lay down an ungodly amount of fire support.
• Legion Predator Strike Squadron Squadrons of 1-3 predators which includes all the Forge World options except twin-linked lascannons (which haven't been invented yet). What's more, the Predator's turret autocannon is now heavy 4. Though you are unable to create Annihilators predators, it can take many other interesting weapons. The heavy conversion beamer can be extremely useful when used at long ranges, when it acquires S10 AP1 with a sizeable blast make it hilariously effective against everything whilst minimizing the Predators relatively weak armor for a battle-tank, at shorter ranges the vehicle may become less effective as it drops to AP4/- and S8/6 (So it will score many wounds, but is likely to suffer from passed armour saves against Marine units.) also the unit must be stationary in order to fire. The Executioner Plasma Cannon allows it to blast MEQ and TEQ from the table, but its shorter range means the Predator is more at risk. The Flamestorm Cannon makes it into a slow version of the Baal Predator, while the Magna-Melta turns the Predator into a wannabe-Vindicator, in both cases exposing itself to counter-fire.
• Legion Land Raider Battle Squadron - 1-3 landraiders in a squadron, any of which may be a Phobos or Proteus pattern, but only one of which may be an Achilles.
• Legion Achilles Alpha Pattern Land Raider -
• 0-1 Legion Artillery Tank Squadron - 1-3 of a Whirlwind, Basilisk or Medusa. Now Marines can throw pie plates around like the Guard. The Whirlwind may be upgraded to have anti-air missiles. Of these, the Medusa is probably the best due to its Strength 10 and AP 2, and its ability to take nasty Phospex Shells if you take a Siege Breaker in your force as well.
• Legion Vindicator Sadly not in squadrons. Can take a pintle mounted heavy bolter, heavy flamer or havoc launcher.
• Legion Spartan Assault Tank - A nasty bastard, made even more so in the pre-Heresy/Heresy environment, where there are more big squads to fit inside its 25 man capacity. Five hull points, two twin-linked two-shot lascannons which can be swapped for rapier destroyers makes it a priority target for the foe. What makes it even more ridiculous is the fact that it can have Armored Ceramite, meaning that melta weapons don't do shit against it. As if it wasn't hard enough to kill, it can also be given a Flare Shield which means that all weapons fired at its front arc get -1 Strength when rolling to penetrate. Blast weapons instead get -2. This means it's more or less invulnerable but then again with these upgrades it will be 340 points. Good thing it will never die! (Note: Use Haywire weapons to kill this beast. The HH Graviton weapons ALL have Haywire)
• Legion Sicaran Battle Tank - A high speed assault tank that is a halfway between a Land Raider and a Predator. For 135 points you get 13/12/12, fast and the Herakles pattern Accelerator Autocannon, which is R48", S7, AP4, Heavy 6, Rending, and Twin-linked....and no jink saves allowed. This tank makes the Eldar cry.
• Legion Sicaran Venator Tank Destroyer - The other Sicaran is much cheaper and effective against everything in the game, thanks to its Neutron Beam Laser (which has the added effect of forcing any vehicle that suffers a penetrating hit from it to fire only Snap Shots for the next turn, even super-heavies), if rather lacking in range. Problem is, it doesn't have any turrets, so it can only shoot in one direction at a time; combined with its "Dangerous Reactor Core" rule that allows re-rolls of 1s to the vehicle damage table any time the tank suffers a penetrating hit (and also adds an additional D3 inches to the explosion radius of a Vehicle Explodes result), this means that it goes down very quickly when something gets behind it. Make sure to keep an escort nearby to stop anyone trying to outmaneuver it.
• Legion Caestus Assault Ram - As before. Ideal for punching a hole in the enemy battle lines and disgorging troops into the heart of the enemy. One should use the Caestus to ram straight through the strongest point in your enemies force, in most battles you'll be there on turn one, thanks to the 36" afterburner. Ram a tank with this (Generally given the colossal afterburner you'll give them a S10 hit) and then deploy the men inside (preferably dedicated H2H troops like Legion Terminators), and charge straight in against the nearest infantry, or if you feel like it, shove a grenade up a nearby tank's tailpipe.
• Legion Fire Raptor Gunship - Experimental Rules for 30K/40K are up. Comes naked with TL Avenger Bolt Cannon, 4 Hellstrike Missiles and two Independent-Turret Quad Heavy Bolters; the latter which aside from firing at their own targets as rumored, don't count towards the number of weapons fired! A Legion or CSM army can swap the quad bolters for a Reaper Battery for 10 pts each, 40K Marines get a TL Autocannon for free. With all the twin-linked goodness, Strafing Run and PotMS/Independent-turrets; this bastard can dump its entire payload in a single turn and hit almost every time and it's only 260 pts altogether for the ceramite armor and reaper battery upgrades.
• Legion Deathstorm Drop Pod -
• Legion Whirlwind Scorpius -normal whirlwind with an S8 AP3 blast which becomes d3+1 blasts if the whirlwind stays still.

Fortifications

• Castellum Stronghold -

Lords of War

• Legion Fellblade Super Heavy Tank - This is your THIRTEEN BARRELS OF HELL, + 1BS (with a points upgrade).The Fellblade mounts a turret mounted twin 'accelerator cannon' which can fire either high explosive rounds (100" range, S8 AP3 ord1 7" blast) or armour piercing shells (100" range, heavy 1, S9 AP2, Armourbane, 3" blast). Add to that 2 quad lascannons, a twin heavy bolter and a hull demolisher cannon and you have an absolutely rapetastic monster. Plus it's only 25 points more than a Baneblade. Don't forget to add a Combi-weapon, a Havoc Launcher, and a Hunter-Killer missile just in case you need more dakka. (And who doesn't?)
• Legion Typhon Heavy Siege Tank - basically a fuckhuge vindicator on steroids (much like the Spartan is a Land Raider on steroids), with a dreadhammer siege cannon. Range of 24" if moving or 48" if stationary, S10 AP1, ord 1, 7" blast and no cover saves. Has the crushing weight special rule which auto passes difficult or dangerous terrain tests for rubble, barricades, walls, ruined buildings or wreckage. And it auto inflicts strength 10 ap 2 ram damage on any enemy tank NO MATTER HOW FAR IT HAS MOVED!
• Legion Thunderhawk Gunship - you know it, you love it. The best way to use this vehicle is to get Terminators or your Primarch right into the middle of the enemies most dangerous shooting formation, then use the fearsome weapons on the gunship to destroy enemy vehicles that can insta-kill your guys, allowing your Terminators to destroy the shooty infantry and keep your grunts alive.
• Legion Thunderhawk Transporter - the Gunship's weaker and derpier brother. Useful for carrying Rhinos or Landraiders around, and not much else.
• Legion Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer - A Destroyer Tank hunter on crack armed with a twin linked neutron destroyer laser battery.
• Legion Malcador Assault Tank - Stolen from the Imperial Army, may only take the battlecannon and twin linked lascannon turret options, but can take a hull demolisher cannon and act as a wannabe vindicator which can throw TWO pieplates out. Also, often missed... this is a FAST vehicle, unlike its 40k counterpart. They knew how to oil an engine back in the 31st millennium!
• Legion Fellglaive Super Heavy Tank - take the Fellblade, and replace its accelerator cannons with a Volkite Carronade, and you have the Fellglaive. Though its range is only 48", it has the Heavy Beam rule which means that instead of placing a template, it hits every single target (friend and foe) in the path of the beam (the way the Railgun was theorized to work)! Strength 8 and AP2 plus the Deflagrate rule means most marine units evaporate before it, while the Haywire rule means Tanks don't fare much better. However, its short range does make it more exposed to enemy fire, so using it as a deterrent is more useful. And whatever you do, make sure you don't hit your own units by mistake.
• Legion Kharybdis Assault Claw -
• Legion Falchion Super Heavy Tank Destroyer - If the Fellblade is the equivalent of the Baneblade, then the Falchion is the equivalent of the Shadowsword right down to its TWIN-LINKED Volcano Cannon. No turret means that it can only shoot what's in front of it, but it's all but guaranteed to punch a hole through any Titan that gets near.

Legion Heroes and Special Units

III Legion: Emperor's Children

• Legion Special Rules
  • All Emperor's Children Squads have the Crusader Special Rule.
  • Martial Pride:must issue/accept challenges. If they fail, their unit suffers -1 to their Ld if they have to take a morale test for losing combat this turn.

• New Rite of War: Killing Cut
  • Open Blade: In the first player turn EC gain +1 to movement, run and charge distance.
  • Hidden Blade: Select 1-3 Elite/Fast Attack units and any attached IC's to place into reserve(they don't count towards the number of reserved units you can have?) write down the turn number you wish then to arrive in on a piece of paper after the first, they automatically arrive on that turn and gain Outflank.
  • Cannot take fortifications or allies.
  • Must take a Legion Champion.
  • In battles with the Slay the Warlord objective; failing to slay the warlord nets your opponent 1 VP.
  • Cannot take any unit with that's Immobile, Heavy, or Slow & Purposeful.

• Unique Wargear
  • Sonic Shriekers: for 5pts Independent characters can take this. Gives them +1 Initiative in first round of assault.
  • Charnabal Sabres: AP-, Rending and +1 initiative in a challenge. Technically any Legion can take these but you'll only ever see them in this Legion(see below) so yeah, you should replace these with a better weapon as soon as possible.
  • Phoenix Power Spears: Default weapons for the Phoenix Terminators. Instead of a power fist any model with the Legiones Astartes (Emperors Children) special rule can take this instead. It's a two handed power weapon with +1 Str and AP2 on the charge and afterwards it reverts into a basic power sword with basic AP3. Make of it what you will, bung it on some Assault based units and see how well it handles.

• Palatine Blades - Elite swordsmen who operated outside the Legion's command structure, serving as an example of the Emperor's Children's perfection. Sadly their base Charnabal sabres have a 'sucktastic' AP-, rending, +1I in challenges, but they can be replaced with beefier Power Swords and Lances. They come in squads of 5 with no option for more, making them useless since nothing can make 5 power armored, one wound CC-orientated elite choice marines good.
• Kakaphonie - The remnants of the 3rd Company under Captain Marius Vairosean and the first Noise Marines. Opposed to their 40K counterparts with +1 I and Fearless the Heresy-Era versions get Stubborn and Sonic Shriekers. The instruments they wield are S6 Ap5 Heavy 1 Gets Hot, Pinning; if they cause an unsaved wound the targeted unit takes a leadership test with a -1 for every unsaved wound and if they fail suffer D6 AP2 Instant Death wounds. doesn't work on Fearless. With all that and the lack of blastmasters, one shot each and no Ignore Cover; it's hard to justify taking a small unit or using them against cover campers/Fearless armies i.e. most every non-Marine army in the game.
• Phoenix Guard - Fulgrim's bodyguard of Terminators. +1 Initiative on the charge, drawn combats within 6 inches count as a win for all EC units. They can all purchase Sonic Shriekers and the Champion is WS5. You get 5 of them for the cheap price of 265 points. They also don't have any range weapons.
• Ancient Rylanor - A Contemptor-Pattern Dreadnought responsible for overseeing the progression of the Legion's new recruits; as a loyalist, he was sent to Istvaan III in the hopes that he and the other loyalists would be killed in the virus bombings. He disappeared right before Horus got bored and blew the loyalists off Isstvan III. He can inspire his fellow Emperor's Children giving them +1 to combat resolution and re-rolls to morale, and as a Venerable Dread can re-roll results on the damage table.
• Saul Tarvitz -Captain of the 10th Company and de facto leader of the loyalist Emperor's Children who survived the virus bombings on Istvaan III- until Lucius screwed him over. His rules are a bit peculiar: He's got a sniper rifle so you might think he's a shooty character, but has BS4. He also has a two-handed +1 strength rending sword but with only 3 attacks he's not really a melee character either. But he's cheap enough, which is a nice touch for a special character, and with Preferred Enemy (Emperor's Children) if you're playing a loyalist force or even Loyalist allies he's a decent middle of the road HQ choice.
• Eidolon - One of the Lord Commanders of the Legion and an arrogant bastard. For the most part he's a fairly basic Praetor with 2+/4++ saves, MC Thunder Hammer, Archeotech Pistol and Sonic Shriekers with the option to use a Jump Pack that goes well with his Coordinated Assault Warlord Trait. His two unique tricks are a one use S2 AP- template with Rending and Pinning, which is meh, and his Thunder Hammer loses Unwieldy in the turn he charges, which is awesome, especially in challenges, where he strikes at I6 due to shriekers, meaning he have like 95% chance to one-shot enemy Praetor the turn he charges, finally braking Pargon-on-Paragon nonsense.

IV Legion: Iron Warriors

• Legion Special Rules
  • The Bitter End: Can force a game to go 6 full turns instead of rolling for game length.
  • Wrack and Ruin: Iron Warriors do not suffer morale tests from shooting attacks and may re-roll failed pinning tests. All grenades and melta bombs gain Wrecker.

• New Rite of War: The Hammer of Olympia
  • Hail Of Fire: After firing a Rapid Fire weapon, a unit with the Legiones Astartes (Iron Warriors) rule may declare an assault as long as they haven't used Fury of the Legion. This counts as a disorganized charge.
  • Sheathed in Steel: All tanks and walkers gain Extra Armor for free.
  • Siege Engineers: Can take an additional HS choice.
  • Warsmith or Siege Breaker must be used as compulsory HQ choice.
  • Must take more Heavy Support units than Fast Attack units.
  • Must take an additional compulsory Troops choice.
  • Cannot take an allied detachment.

• Unique Wargear
  • Warsmith: A Praetor upgrade that forces the unit to be the Warlord if Perturabo isn't around and gives an extra VP if slain. In exchange, it gains Stubborn and passes up a Warlord trait for Shatter Defenses (lower a chosen terrain piece's cover save by 1). Can't use a jump pack, bike, or jetbike, but can use a servo-arm and can be upgraded with Battlesmith for 35 points.
  • Shrapnel Bolts: All Heavy Bolters (including twin-linked and quad) gain Pinning and change their AP to 5.
  • Cortex Controller: Can be used by Warsmiths, Techmarines, and Forge Lords.

• Tyrant Siege Terminators - These Terminators have Wrecker as an inherent rule, and all of them have Cyclone Missile Launchers by default (yes, every single model has them). They can also switch out their default Power Fists for Chainfists. In addition, they get an omni-scope which grants them Night Vision and Split Fire.
• Iron Havocs - The first Havocs. They have Tank Hunters by default, so give them Lascannons or Missile Launchers (although their default Heavy Bolters do come with Shrapnel Bolts for free). They can also lower cover saves by -1 for whoever they're shooting at, which stacks with Shatter Defenses.
• Erasmus Golg - Warsmith of the 11th Grand Company and member of the Trident who co-led the attack on the Imperial Fists at Phall. Which lasted right up until Alexis Polux disintegrated his head.
• Kyr Vhalen - Badass who learned of Peturabo's treason on Paramar. He said fuck it and remained loyal to the Great Crusade and E-Money. So yeah, Loyalist character for all you Loyalist Iron Warriors out there. Show those heretics the true nature of the Iron Within! On the tabletop, Vhalen is basically an iron father, with servo arm and cortex controller. He's also really good on the defensive, what with his ability to buff fortifications and disrupt charges. And he's cheaper than the generic would be but he gets his special rules and a 6+FNP. Makes you wish you'd stayed loyal.

VII Legion: Imperial Fists

• Legion Special Rules
  • Disciplined Fire: Add +1 BS when firing Boltguns, Bolt Pistols, Heavy Bolters and Quad-Boltguns. Heavy Support Squads with this rule gain Tank Hunters.
  • Blood And Honour: Must issue challenges, and get rerolls to hit while in challenges.
  • Unshakable Defence: Gain Stubborn when in cover or in fortifications/barricades.
  • The Bitter End: May force full 6 game turns rather than rolling for random length.
• New Rite of War: The Stone Gauntlet
  • Phalanx Warder Squads can be used as troops choices.
  • Resolve of Stone: Anyone with either a Boarding Shield or Storm Shield in coherency with two other models which also have shields gains +1 Toughness. This bonus can't be used if the unit the model is part of runs, charges, or makes a Sweeping Advance.
  • Shield Charge: A model which fits the criteria for Resolve of Stone also gains Hammer of Wrath.
  • Breacher Squads are the only permitted compulsory troops.
  • No Deep Striking.
  • Cannot take more Elites and Fast Attack choices (total) than Troops choices. (e.g. if you have 3 troops choices, you can take 1 elites and 2 FA or vice versa, but their total number can't exceed 3.)
  • Can only take one Consul (except for Champions).
• Unique Wargear
  • Vigil-pattern Storm Shield: 3+ invulnerable save, but may never claim an attack for two CC weapons. Any legion terminator or terminator armour equipped character may exchange their combi-bolter for this.
  • Solarite Power Gauntlet: Anyone who uses a TH can replace it with this big boy. It's essentially a Master-Crafted Power Fist with AP1.
  • Teleportation Transponder: Lets Terminators Deep Strike.
  • Prototype Iliastus-pattern Assault Cannon: An Assault Cannon with S6, AP4, Heavy, and Rending sounds good on paper, but there's a catch- rolling a to hit of 1 3 times in a game causes it to jam and stop working for the rest of the game.
• Templar Brethren - The guardians of the Phalanx's Temple of Oaths (hence "Templar") and First Company of the Imperial Fists. Also the precursors to the Black Templars. Equivalent to Honour Guard of Space Marines with power swords.
• Phalanx Warder Squad - Supped Breacher squads with a fun rule that if they get charged they increase their Int +1 if they have at least 5 models remaining, and are one of the cheaper special units starting at 10 and adding up to 10 more with 15 pts a pop.
• Sigismund - Before he was the first High Marshal of the Black Templars, Sigismund was the First Captain of the Imperial Fists Legion and one of the greatest warriors of the Legiones Astartes. He's got Eternal Warrior, the Chapter tactics style dueling rule, but cause instant death instead of rending, while also forcing rerolls of successful invulnerable saves. 4 attacks at WS7 and Initiative 5 (6 on the Charge). The black sword is two handed +2 strength AP 2 and causes instant death in challenges. He also makes Templar Brethren Troops, and gets +1 VP for killing the enemy warlord, after which all units in his army get +1 CR. Barring Salamander praetors and the primarchs, very few characters can survive a challenge with him.
• Alexis Polux - Before he was the first Chapter Master of the Crimson Fists, Alexis Polux was the Captain of the 405th Company and master of the Retribution Fleet at Phall. He's an average-joe captain, but with S5 and a master crafted power fist and a Vigil pattern Storm Shield. Also, as a master of void combat he lets you teleport in a unit of your choice via deep strike. A nifty special rule he has lets you drop the Unwieldy rule from his mighty fist in exchange for dropping his attacks stat down to 1. Not bad.

VIII Legion: Night Lords

• Legion Special Rules
  • A Talent For Murder: If there are more Night Lords in an assault than enemies, all Night Lords gain +1 To Wound.
  • Scurry Away Nostraman Blood: All Models with this rule fall back 1" more than normal. They may choose to fall back instead of being pinned.
  • Night Vision: All Night Lords have the Night Vision Special Rule.
  • From the Shadows: All models have a 6+ cover save on the first turn of a game.
  • Seeds of Dissent: If the army Warlord is slain, all units containing another independent character must take an immediate morale check.

• New Rite of War: Terror Assault
  • Cover of Darkness: May impose Night Fighting for the duration of the first turn of any mission on a d6 roll of 4+, 2nd turn on a roll of a 5+, 3rd turn on a roll of a 6.
  • Claw Assault: Tacticals, Vets, and Terror Squads may take Dreadclaws or drop pods.
  • Terror Tactics: Terror Squads must be taken as the compulsory troops, and may be taken as additional troops (note that this does not replace them being taken as elites, therefore in this context up to nine Terror Squads can be taken per detachment).
  • Must take an additional compulsory Troops choice.
  • Only one Heavy Support slot permitted.
  • Only one Consul is allowed as part of an HQ choice.
  • Fortifications and Space Marine Legion allied detachments may not be used (so in theory, you're cool to use Mechanicus).

• Unique Wargear
  • Chainglaive: +1 Str, AP3, two handed, rending, at the same cost as a power weapon. There is no reason not to take these.
  • Trophies of judgement: grant independent character Fear, +5 points.
  • Teleportation Transponder: Terminators or command squads equipped with Terminator armor may be upgraded to have Deep Strike for +15 points. ICs in Terminator armor can be upgraded for +10 points.

• Atramentar Terminators - The First Company of the Night Lords.
• Night Raptors - The predecessors of the Chaos Raptors we all know and love. That still doesn't make the Night Lords the Raptor Legion, damn it! They can all take the Nostraman Chainglaives for AP3 goodness, and they have the rule Onslaught: +D3 attacks when they charge instead of +1.
• Terror Squads - They are even more axe crazy than the rest of the Legion, which is saying something. Cause Fear and have Preferred Enemy (Infantry) rule, all can take Bolters, Heavy Chainblade, or a Volkite Charger. One can take a Rotor Cannon or Flamer, and the Sergeant can take a lightning claw, power fist, power weapon or chainglaive.
• Jago 'Sevatar' Sevatarion - First Captain, badass motherfucker, and the first person to utter the battlecry of "Death to the False Emperor!". Snark is sadly not included. Forge World had him live up to the reputation Aaron Dembski-Bowden gave him, as he is a literal murder-beast in close combat: causes Fear, inflicts Instant Death when fighting in a challenge and has 4x I6 S5 AP3 Rending Master-crafted attacks from his chainglaive. Plus he's a level 1 psyker with the Precognition power, although he only tests on Ld. 7 due to his 'Repressed Psyker' rule. And to round it off, he is a teleporter beacon for Deep Striking Terminators.
• Flaymaster Mawdrym Llansahai - Psychopathic Primus Medicae who's so crazed he can never be the Warlord. He's a Centurion with -1 to Ballistic Skill and Attack and only 3+/5+ and a CCW that makes him S3 with Murderous Strike, he also re-rolls LoS and FNP but he's so weak even with that hes still mediocre; his main selling point is being one of the few Fearless things in the thirty-first millennium.

IX Legion: Blood Angels

Not released yet, however rules for other legions have mentioned them sharing access to wargear

• Unique Wargear
  • Prototype Iliastus-pattern Assault Cannon: Terminators may replace their heavy flamer with the Assault Cannon; with S6, AP4, Heavy, and Rending sounds good on paper, but there's a catch- rolling a to hit of 1 3 times in a game causes it to jam and stop working for the rest of the game.

X Legion: Iron Hands

• Legion Special Rules
  • Inviolate Armour: All shooting attacks made against them have their strength reduced by 1.
  • Stand and Fight: All Iron Hands units must pass a Leadership Test in order to make sweeping advances or run.
  • Rigid Tactics: An Iron Hands army may not contain more Jump Infantry, Bikes or Jetbikes than it does Infantry Units.
  • Iron-Father: 40 pt. upgrade to any Praetor; gains a Servo-Arm, 6+FNP, Battlesmith rule and may not use a bike, jump pack or jetbike.
  • Iron hands support squads may take graviton guns for the same price as plasma guns! Say bye bye to the enemies big tanks!!!

• Unique Wargear
  • Blessed Autosimulacrum: For 10 points, rolling a 6 will restore a Hull Point to an equipped vehicle. Ironically, 40k's Iron Hands get It Will Not Die, which is better, for FREE. Guess some things have advanced since the Heresy.
  • Cyber-Familiar: 15 points.

• New Rite of War: The Head of the Gorgon
  • Chosen Ground: Infantry in this force gain Stubborn within their own deployment zone.
  • War Relics: Any unit equipped with a flamer may upgrade this to a graviton gun for +10 points, and all vehicles gain blessed autosimulacra for free.
  • Iron Scions: Battle-automata Maniples may be included as elite choices within the army and any unit of 10 models or less eligible to take a Rhino may take a Land Raider Proteus or Phobos instead.
  • Armored Encirclement: Vehicles with tank type placed in reserve gain the outflank rule.
  • Only one Fast Attack slot allowed.
  • Only a single Consul allowed other than Forge Lord Consuls.
  • Cannot take allied detachments.

• Gorgon Terminators - The Terminator elite of the X Legion, which include the Morlocks, Ferrus Manus's bodyguard. The Sergeant has a thunder hammer as standard and can take a Cyber Familiar to up his Invulnerable save, everyone else gets power axes. They all have Feel No Pain (5+), are scoring units and they also have the unique Gorgon Pattern Armour that on a D6 roll of 4+ causes blindness after a successful armour/invun save. Finally, they can take graviton guns as their special weapons option, and being relentless terminators might be a neat idea. Also for 30k they seem like a very cost appropriate unit, not costing much more than a normal 30k terminator squad for nearly equivalent equipment, not forgetting that you get to worry less about the impact of ranged weapons, this squad is a nice investment.

• Medusan Immortals - Cyborg Breacher Assault marines. Up to 20 in a squad with FNP 6+, and instead of carrying out a Sweeping Advance if they pass a LD test they can gun down (only snapshots) the fleeing enemy unit. On the face of it, it does not seem like these guys have much going for them that normal Troops Breacher squads can't already do, costing 2 points more to gain Feel No Pain and lose scoring, but they have a pretty decent option in that the whole unit can take Volkite Chargers, doing more damage at closer ranges and with the potential of additional hits with all that snap firing you'll be doing. While it might cost you a bit more than you were expecting, a unit like this can be a rock that will absorb shooting (-1 for Iron Hands remember?) and be a frightening proposition for your opponent to charge

• Castrmen Orth - Spearhead Centurion of the X Legion, the 30k version of Antario Chronus.
• Autek Mor - Iron Father with cataphractii terminator armor, +1 to S/T, Servo-Arm, Paragon Blade and Volkite Charger for gear. Fearless, Iron Father upgrades and Preferred Enemy(Infantry) Mor is a complete and utter goddamn beast with base 4 attack at either S6 w/ 6's to-wound causing ID or S10 w/ unwieldy. Oh, and with the Inviolate Armour and T5 he can't be ID'ed by double toughness from shooting.

XII Legion: World Eaters

• Legion Special Rules
  • Incarnate Violence: WE's that destroy an enemy in assault or make them flee gain Furious Charge.
  • Bloodlust: must consolidate after assault towards something they can hurt. If they fail a morale check in assault, roll a d6. On a 1 they count as passing and gain Rage. Introduced in Massacre, World Eaters may replace Bloodlust with Blood Madness. (see below)
  • Blood Madness: (Traitor units only) Units with this rule have the Rage special rule standard. They must always attempt to Sweeping Advance and cannot voluntarily Go to Ground or fail a Morale check. In addition, after they win an assault, they must consolidate towards the nearest enemy unit that they can hurt.
  • Any model with access to a chainsword can exchange it for a chainaxe for free, provided the model actually has one. This results in WE being very powerful against non-Marine armies since basically all of their attacks in close combat will ignore armor saves. Useless in 30k hence why it's free.
  • Caedere Weapons:
    • Any World Eater Independent Character can exchange their chainsword or combat blade for a Caedere weapon for 15pts:
    • Meteor Hammer (+2S, AP5, Melee, Specialist, Two-handed, Concussion, +1 Initiative)
    • Excoriator Chainaxe (+1S, AP3, 2-handed, Specialist, Shred, Unwieldy)
    • Twin Falax Blades (S as user, AP5, Melee, Specialist, +1 Attack, Rending)
    • Barb-Hook Lash (S as user, AP5, Melee, Specialist, Fleshbane)

• New Rite of War: Berserker Assault
  • Berserk Charge: All World Eaters units outside of their deployment zone (and if you play World Eaters this will be a given) gain the Hatred special rule and must attempt to Sweeping Advance if able.
  • Unstoppable Wave: World Eaters must reroll failed Pinning tests and re-roll Run rolls of "1".
  • Must take an additional compulsory Troops choice in this Detachment
  • May not take more Tanks or Flyers than you have Infantry units in this Detachment
  • May only take a single Consul and it may not be a Librarian
  • Cannot take a Fortification, nor may they take any Space Marine Legion as allies.

• Rampager Squads - Berserkers before they cool, Rampagers are elite Assault Squads who were violent and bloodthirsty before they fell to Khorne. The most destructive were known as Butchers, and had to be physically restrained in between battles. They're not a very good unit but do have some use as a harassing unit. They have scout so give them Jump Packs and if you went second, you can even launch a first turn assault. They have FNP 6+ so are marginally more survivable, but much more expensive. They really come into their own against non-Marine armies.
• Red Butchers - 5-10 Cataphractii Armour wearing beatsticks with Power Axes and Combi-Bolters, but can swap the bolter for another Power Axe. Any model can take Lightning Claws. While the sergeant can instead take Fists, Chainfists or Hammers. They may re-roll charge distances and also get around five WS5 rerollable attacks each on the charge to boot. The only drawbacks are they can never score and they are always struck in CC on a 3+, which only ONE better than what it normally would be, so what?? they can soak most damage they receive with 2 Wounds, 2+/4++ saves and FnP 6+. Just don't be so stupid as to charge something that will bog them down, as you want them charging again and again and again.
• Shabran Darr - Badass officer of the World Eaters who rose quickly through the ranks to become a Centurion but was slated to die in the Isstvan Massacre. Managed to kill hundreds of his former battle-brothers before he was cornered and killed, but not before taking several of them with him. Game-wise, he's 15 points more than a Praetor and has less wounds, less attacks, and a worse armor save. Not too bad if you're playing against Traitors but otherwise no point in taking him.

Kharn

• Kharn - Before he was setting his battle-brothers on fire Kharn was Captain of the 8th Assault Company. With 2+/4++ saves is more survivable than his 40k incarnation, but is slightly less killy with base 4 attacks and no bonus to hit beyond WS7 (still 3+ against most things). Though he does have Rampage USR meaning he gets more attacks each turn when outnumbered. If you don't have Angron in the same force Kharn may change 'the Cutter' (His AP3 rending chainaxe), for 'Gorechild', which has S+1 AP2 Armourbane, Murderous Strike. Kharn's warlord trait grants him +1 to rolls to determine first turn AND Seize the Initiative. He's one of the cheapest Praetor level characters (see Loken, Eidolon, Typhon, Abaddon, Autek Mor, Rhy'tan, see where I'm going with this?) and is only 15 points more than a Praetor with the same gear but a lot more special rules and even without paying for Gorechild he WILL get stuck in to squads, yet with Gorechild he will comfortably mince most other characters.

XIV Legion: Death Guard

• Legion Special Rules
  • Remorseless: immune to Fear, automatically pass pinning tests.
  • Sons of Barbarus: re-roll Dangerous Terrain tests in swamps, mud, and toxic sludge
  • Intractable: -1 to Sweeping Advance Rolls
  • Chem-Munitions: any unit/vehicle w/ a flame-weapon can take this for free. All flame weapons in the unit/vehicle now have Shred and Gets Hot!
  • Any character or Independent Character that can take a power weapon can take a Power Scythe instead. (+1 S, AP2, Melee, Unwieldy, Two-handed, Sweep Attacks [exchange Attacks profile w/ number of enemies in base to base])
• New Rite of Battle: - The Reaping
  • Veteran Tactical Squads & Heavy Weapon Squads become non-compulsory Troops - They brought more guns than you did
  • Every unit gets Move Through Cover
  • Any unit in the detachment can take Rad Grenades for 10pts
  • No model may make Run or Flat Out moves - not so much a problem if you've stocked up on heavy teams
  • Nothing may Deep Strike
  • May only take one Fast Attack choice
• Deathshroud - Mortarion's bodyguard of Terminators, who were personally selected by the Primarch and later listed as killed in action. They carried Manreapers, the only others inside the Legion who could use them beside First Captain Calas Typhon and Mortarion himself. They were never further from Mortarion than 49 paces (the square root of which is 7, the sacred number of Nurgle). Rules wise they are two-wound Terminators with Manreapers and hand flamers. And they're only 10 points more than a normal Terminator in 30k. Because that's totally balanced right?
• Grave Warden Terminators - Heavy support choice termies wielding assault grenade launchers loaded with krak and toxin grenades the latter which are small AP4 blasts that; in lieu of rolling to-wound normally make the targeted unit take toughness tests. 'Death Cloud' gives the Wardens a template using the toxin rule as before and any charging unit counts as going through dangerous terrain and is always disorganized.

• Crysos Morturg - Former Death Guard Lieutenant and Librarian in a Legion which utterly loathed Psykers, it was no surprise why he was selected to be killed. During the Isstvan campaign he proved to be a true son of Mortarion as he. Would. Not. Fucking. Die. He even survived the Orbital Bombardment after Horus got bored, and along with Garviel Loken, became the only survivors of the massacre. He has the Endurance Psychic power to boost your squads in combat, gives a squad infiltrate to get a first turn charge with Mortarion and the 10 man deathshroud unit you brought along, and is best used to support your main squad. He is also the "narrator" of Betrayal.
• Durak Rask - Death Guard Master of Ordnance, who fanatically supported Mortarion and volunteered to lead a vanguard assault on the Loyalists. Ironically, he was killed in that attempt by Morturg. He's a Siege Breaker/Forge Lord with a Thunder Hammer and Iron Halo.
• Calas Typhon - Before he was Typhus the Traveler, Calas Typhon was First Captain of the Death Guard Legion. Has the stats of a Praetor; wears cataphractii armor, power scythe, hand flamer w/ chem-munitions and rad grenades. Has an orbital bombardment thats chem based. No unit within 3" can claim an objective(just enemy units) and when Mortarion isn't around he counts as a Lvl. 1 Telepath and has to be the Warlord.

XVI Legion: Sons of Horus

• Legion Special Rules
  • The Edge of the Spear: units in reserve can reroll 1's on reserve rolls.
  • Merciless Fighters: If there are more SoH in an assault than enemies, all SoH get an extra attack at Initiative step 1, provided they have already fought. (bulky count at 2, very bulky count as 3)
  • Bitter Pride: cannot benefit from an ally's Warlord trait, or use an ally's Ld.
• New Rite of Battle - The Black Reaving - arguably not worth it, despite what it offers.
  • Any unit in reserve that comes on from a board edge gets Fleet
  • Units that charge into already engaged enemy units get Rage - Be careful of disorganised assaults though
  • Reaver Squads become troops - Maloghurst could do this anyway
  • Justaerin may deep strike - bear in mind that Horus/Abaddon + Justaerin/Terminators can deep strike anyway, and if you've got more than one unit of Justaerin to play with, you've sunk way too many points unless you're playing big games
  • Must take a Master of Signals as an HQ choice - Leaves you only one HQ slot left to work with after your Praetor (who you need to have a Rite of War)
  • Must take more Fast Attack units than Heavy Support - might be difficult if you moved lots of Reaver squads to troops, but not unworkable
  • Must take three compulsory Troops choices - as mentioned above, could be difficult - especially in smaller games
  • No fortifications - unlikely to harm most players
• Justaerin Terminators - The black clad shock troopers of the Sons of Horus Legion, the Justaerin were the pride of the XVI Legion Astartes. Tasked with forming the ‘point of the spear’, their attacks were directed at the heart of an opposing target or a decapitation strike against an enemy force. In game terms, they are Terminators with the Furious Charge Rule, scoring and an enhanced WS. They can also be chosen as an HQ Bodyguard for Abaddon or Horus. Last but not least, they can take a MOTHERFUCKING multi-melta as a heavy weapon. However they are hideously over costed, at 205 points for the starting squad size of THREE ONLY THREE Terminators. I don't know if they were supposed to be 2 wounds or cheaper but dang these guys need to be dropped at least 50 points.
• Reavers - Unique formation of the Sons of Horus, with the most infamous being the Catulan Reavers of the First Company. They are standard marines (statline wise) with 2 attacks (3 for the chief) they come as 5 man units with options for another 10, they have outflank and have a special rule called Assassin's Eye which gives them precision shots/strikes. Can take Bolters/Combi-Weapons w/ Banestrike shells. Treat them like some weird combination of Sternguard/Vanguard veterans.
• Dreadclaw Drop Pods - Now has a new model. Pricey for what they do - a drop pod that can fly after landing - but versatile and heavily thematic.

• Ezekyle Abaddon - Before he was Failbaddon the Armless, he was First Captain of the Sons of Horus Legion. Unfortunately, he is not the rape machine that he will become in 10,000 years. Armed with a power fist and a Combi-bolter that can be swapped out for a paragon blade. His buffs are ok but compared to a kitted out Praetor he is over costed (like so much of the SoH unique units).
• Garviel Loken - Captain of the 10th Company and later the leader of the loyalist Sons of Horus forces on Istvaan III, which he renamed the Luna Wolves. He was thought to have been killed by Abaddon there, but he survived and was later brought to Terra at the orders of Malcador the Sigillite, presumably so he could become one of the founding members of the Grey Knights. On the tabletop he is a decent Praetor equivalent with a Paragon Blade who can come back from the dead - but only once.Plus the model [with Abaddon] costs £55.
• Maloghurst the Twisted - Horus' equerry. He is not a great fighter (only 2 attacks) but is more of a booster, as he carries a Legion standard and makes Reavers and veteran tactical squads troops.

XVII Legion: Word Bearers

• Legion Special Rules
  • True Believers: Roll 3d6 for all morale checks and must pick the lowest two dice.
  • Cut Them Down: Must always make sweeping advances and must re-roll sweeping advance rolls of 1.
  • Charismatic Leadership: WB Primary Detachments must take a 2nd Compulsory HQ choice, this must always be a Centurion or a Chaplain Consul.
• Unique Wargear
  • Burning Lore - any Word Bearers Praetor, Diabolist, Centurion or Chaplain has access to the burning lore wargear upgrade. It turns them into a level 1 psyker with access to the biomancy or telepathy disciplines.
  • Tainted Weapon - Any Word Bearers character that has the option to take a power weapon may instead take a tainted weapon. It has the same basic stats as a Charnabal Sabre, but instant death instead of all the other rules. (In other words, it's still garbage.)

• New Rite of Battle: The Dark Brethren
  • All Independent Characters get Preferred Enemy (Loyalists)
  • One unit in the army has a 50/50 chance of having Preferred Enemy (Everyone) or Everyone having Preferred Enemy against them.
  • Codex: Daemons become battle brothers - Erebus/Kor Phaeron could already to this
  • Enemy Psykers taking Perils of the Warp suffer Instant Death - Would be great if Psykers were more common in 30k armies
  • Must take one Diabolist - this means all three HQ slots are taken: since Praetor for the Rite and compulsory Chaplain
  • Only one Heavy Support choice may be taken
  • No fortifications, and any space marine allies are desperate allies with this detachment.

• Diabolist - A new consul type unique to the Word Bearers. He gains the Daemon special rule and preferred enemy: loyalist special rule. He may not be equipped with a bike, jetbike, Terminator armour, a power fist or a thunder hammer. If a Diabolist is present, the force has access to the dark channeling option.

• Dark Channeling - an upgrade for Word Bearer Squads. Roll a d6 for every squad this is given to at the beginning of the game. On a 1-3 unit gains zealot special rule, 4-5 gains +1 strength for the duration of the battle, and on a 6 the unit gains the Daemon special rule for the duration of the battle, but no longer counts as scoring (if it did before) and counts as being destroyed at the end of the game for the purposes of calculating victory points.

• The Ashen Circle - 'Where one burns books, eventually one burns men'. The Circle of Ashes are the Legion's book burners, Iconoclasts designed to burn civilisations and destroy cultures. They have unique Axe-Rake weapons which have +1S AP6 and -1 to enemy's fall back distance. Like all Destroyers they cannot be joined by friendly ICs. They may always use Hammer of Wrath at S5 classed as Flamer type attacks. And if Deep Striking all models within D6" take a S3 AP5 hit from their flamers. They may replace their axe-rakes with Power axes; exclusively power axes at a dirt cheap 5pts per model. The squad leader may take phosphex bombs for additional AP2 goodness.

• Gal Vorbak - Colchisian for "Blessed Sons", the original Possessed Marines: These are the Possessed that 40k Chaos players wished they had access to. 2 Wounds & WS5/S5/T5/I5, they all have bolt pistols (for actual shooting!) They have the Daemon special rule, Stubborn, Bulky, Rage, Rending in Close Combat and Deep Strike. They may take one Special Weapons per 5 guys, so a maximum of 2. They cannot be a scoring unit, but that wasn't really going to matter since they are Elites.

• Erebus - First Chaplain and corrupter of Horus Lupercal. Though long an established fluff character, Erebus is only now making his debut on the tabletop, and he's clearly making up for lost time: Has Zealot, Adamantium Will, Master of the Legion and Harbinger of Chaos which allows all Word Bearers to use Dark Channeling. Furthermore, he lets you take an allied force of Chaos Daemons. He ALSO is a Level 1 Psyker due to his Burning Lore, drawing from Biomancy or Telepathy, but this also means his deny the witch psychic defenses are actually pretty good. Also upon further analysis he fills a lot of the army's requirements as he is a Chaplain he frees up that HQ slot you have to sacrifice, and he arguably is a diabolist too so would fill both requirements when using the Word Bearers Rite of War.

• Kor Phaeron - First Captain and foster-father/corrupter of Lorgar. Like Erebus, Kor Phaeron is a long established fluff figure making his tabletop debut. He gives all Word Bearers +1 leadership as long as he is the warlord, and he must be the warlord unless Lorgar is around. He has Feel No Pain 6+, a 1-use hand flamer and like Erebus he lets you take an allied force of Chaos Daemon and is a Lv1 psyker. Unfortunately his statline is not much to write home about... WS4, Toughness/Initiative 3 and 2 attacks (actually 3 with lightning claws) his major saving grace is his cheapness when compared to other 30k era special characters,

• Argel Tal - Captain of the 7th Company and Crimson Lord of the Gal Vorbak. Also canonically BFFs with Kharn.

XVIII Legion: Salamanders

• Legion Special Rules
  • Strength of Will: Auto pass fear tests, must reroll 1d6 on failed morale and pinning checks .
  • Promethean Gift: All Flamer Weapons get +1S, and all enemy Flamer Weapons count as -1S when used against Salamanders.
  • Nocturne Born: Do not add their Initiative to sweeping advance score reduce Run and Charge distances by -1" to a minimum of 1".
  • Disdain of the Dark Age: Moritat Consuls and Destroyer Squads may not be taken in a Salamanders detachment. Additionally, no phosphex weapons of any type may be taken as an option by any model in a Salamanders detachment. This means no master-crafted Moritat pistol shenanigans.
• New Rite of War: The Covenant of Fire
  • All vehicles get a 5+ Inv against Melta, Flamer, Plasma & Volkites
  • All Melta weapons become Master-Crafted, Also Pyroclasts become non-compulsory Troops
  • Everyone gets Move Through Cover
  • No Deep Striking
  • Cannot have more Heavy Support + Fast Attack than Troops
  • No Fortifications
  • Can only take one Consul type other than Legion Champion

• Unique Wargear
  • Artificer Weapons: Characters may upgrade a single weapon to Master-Crafted albeit for a cost unlike their 40K counterparts
  • Mantle of the Elder Drake: grants Eternal Warrior
  • Purging Flame: any Heavy Bolter/TL Heavy Bolter may be exchanged for Heavy Flamer/TL Heavy Flamer for free. Plasma Pistols can also be exchanged for Infernus Pistols for free.

• Firedrake Terminators - The Salamanders Terminator elite. They are the only unit in 30k to get Storm Shields for that 3++ Save, they also have 2-wounds and WS5 and are still scoring units. They are cheaper than Sons of Horus Justaerin too, though kitting them all out with shields and hammers can become very expensive, best to have a think about what you're facing first.
  • If you really want to be a dick, you can use these to great effect with one, expensive, but simple way. 1st kit them all out with the shields and whatever weapons you want to. Then add a centurion with a shield and cataphracti armour. Then the dick move. Make the Centurion a Primus Medicae. Congratulations, you have made a unit harder to crack than grey knight paladins, everyone everwhere will hate you.
• Pyroclasts - Pyromaniac Marines, they have special weapons that can either be fired as either S5 Flamers or S6 Meltas. They also come standard with artificer armor and a special rule giving them 5++ against flamer, melta, plasma, Volkite, and photon weapons.
• Cassian Dracos - First Legion Master of the Salamanders and the first occupant of the Iron Dragon Venerable Dreadnought, though is better than the 40k version: It has armour 14 to the front, and is immune to all special rules that adjust armour or add dice rolls to armour penetration. Cassian has It Will Not Die so can regenerate lost Hull Points on his own (of which he has four) and his heavy flamers are at S6 because of the Legiones Astartes rules. Also, if he is the warlord he does not grant a VP to the opponent if he dies, and he also grants FnP to Salamanders within 3" of him. The cherry on the cake is he has a Nuncio Vox, so is pretty much a teleport homer too! A worthy choice, especially if you already have the Iron Dragon model left over from the Badab War IAs.
• Lord Chaplain Nomus Rhy'tan - A Praetor-level Chaplain- what's not to like? He comes with nice kit like Artificer armour, an Iron Halo and Eternal Warrior. His weapon of choice is a S6 armourbane thunder hammer that is NOT unwieldy. He also lets you take a Dreadnought Talon as a HQ slot, which I suppose is fine if you've already filled up all your Elite slots and you want MORE dreadnoughts.

XIX Legion: Raven Guard

• Legion Special Rules
  • Wing and Talon: Infantry get Infiltrate and Fleet (except terminators), and Jump Packs, Bikes, and Terminators get Furious Assault.
  • Must take more infantry units than tanks.
• New Rite of War: Decapitation Strike
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls: All infantry gain Preferred Enemy (Independent Characters).
  • Predatory Strike: Can re-roll dice for determining turn order.
  • Fury From Above: Deathstorm Drop Pods become Elites choices, and Tactical Squads, Veteran Tactical Squads, Seeker Squads, and Heavy Support Squads can all use drop pods (as long as they fit inside).
  • Only one Heavy Support choice allowed.
  • Only one Consul allowed.
  • No fortifications or allied Space Marine Legion detachments allowed.
• Unique Wargear:
  • Raven's Talons: Anyone with Lightning Claws can upgrade them to add Master-Crafted and Rending.
  • Infravisor: Gain Night Vision, but blind tests are taken at I1.
  • Cameleoline: Gain Stealth. Not compatible with Jump Infantry, Terminators, Bikes, or Jetbikes.
• Mor Deythan Strike Squad - Better Recon squads. For the same price they come with stealth, infiltrate due to being Raven Guard, and have a one-use super-shooting attack that TLs their weapons and causes rending that also improves sniper rifles rending by one. Can take sniper rifles, combi-weapons and a Darkwing as a DT.
• Dark Fury Assault Squad - A powered-up assault squad armed with Lightning Claws that gains a 5+ cover save when arriving via Deep Striking and gain +1I on the charge.
• Darkwing Gunship - Stealthy Storm Eagle with blinding concussive missiles, outflank and stealth. Slightly lower capacity.
• Strike Captain Alvarex Maun - Captain with the ability to either give a re-roll on Seize or make his Deep-Striking vehicle do so the moment he rolls reserves. He also gives any Ravens in a Deep-Striking vehicle Counter-Attack the moment they get in. His LOS can also be used to help out Barrage weapons. As Warlord, he also gives a re-roll on reserves.
• Moritat-Prime Kaedus Nex - Compared to other Moritat marines, this guy is king. Gets to set-up within 18" of a chosen enemy HQ or Elite unit so long as he's out of sight and gets Shrouded for that first turn (also has Chameleoline for +1 cover save). He then gains Zealot against them and, once he kills them, scores a bonus VP. His guns are essentially beefed up Bolt Pistols with rending & concussive, that he can wield in close combat and with BS6 his chain-fire ability can be the gift that keeps on giving. His downsides are he ALWAYS goes solo, can never be Warlord, and cannot even join Destroyer Squads like other Moritats can, but he has Shroud Bombs to protect himself somewhat.

XX Legion: Alpha Legion

• Legion Special Rules
  • Your choice of Scout, Infiltrate, Tank Hunters, Counter Attack, Move Through Cover, or Adamantium Will. Choose it when you pick warlord traits.
  • Martial Hubris: If alpha legion suffers more units destroyed than the foe, the enemy gains +1 VP.
• New Rite of War: The Coils of the Hydra
  • Subterfuge: +1 to going first, and can reroll Seize the Initiative.
  • Signal Corruption: -1 to enemy reserves
  • The Rewards of Treason: Gain the ability to use any other Legion's special units (except for ICs) as an Elites choice. They keep all equipment and special rules, but switch out their parent Legion's special rules for the Alpha Legion's rules.
  • Must take an additional compulsory Troops choice.
  • All infantry must possess either Deep Strike, Infiltrate, or a Dedicated Transport.
  • Only one Consul permitted (save for Vigilator).
  • No fortifications or allied Space Marine Legion detachments.
• Unique Wargear
  • Banestrike Bolter Rounds- Bolters, Combi-Bolters, and Heavy Bolters with this ammo treat to-wound rolls of 6 as AP3, but have shorter range.
  • Power Dagger- S(User-1) AP3, Specialist Weapon, and Rending, all for half the price of a power sword. A cheap way to give someone with a power fist, a lightning claw, or a paragon blade an extra attack.
  • Venom Sphere- Assault Grenades that grant Hammer of Wrath.
  • Venom Sphere Harness- As above, but for Terminators and one use only.

• Headhunter Kill Team - Seeker squads that have traded in 'Marked for Death' for 'Preferred Enemy (Infantry)', lost special ammo in exchange for Banestrike only bolters, but gained Infiltrate. One can trade his bolt gun for a Banestrike heavy bolter with suspensor web.
• Lernaean Terminators - Terminators with Cataphractii armor, power axes, Volkite Chargers, and act as scoring units at any time Troops are counted as scoring units. What's not to like?
• Saboteur - Consul for you. D6 S6 AP4 shots against things with a toughness, else an auto pen. It also ignores cover saves.

• Armillus Dynat -
• Exodus - The Tactical Operator. He has a sniper rifle called 'The Instrument' that can be fired in two modes- Rapid Shot makes it S5 AP4 with Salvo 2/4 and Rending, while Execution Shot makes it S6 AP3 with Heavy 1, Rending, Ignores Cover, and Lethal (unsaved wounding hits inflict two wounds instead of one). To make him more effective at picking off special snowflakes, he can choose which model in a unit he hits on a to hit roll of 4+ (ignoring Look out, Sir!). However, he can never be the Warlord and can only join Legion Reconnaissance Squads and Headhunter Kill Teams.

The Primarchs

Yes, they have rules now. Your opponent is now shitting bricks. Seriously, Primarchs are powerful - VERY powerful, but also very killable if you make mistakes. Properly supported, they can rape anything they come up against. Even the Swarmlord, even Skarbrand, even Abaddon, hell if you somehow max out Angron's attacks with the Butcher's Nails attacks he can take on An'ggrath and win. All Primarchs have the Primarch rule, which acts as a combination of Independent Character, Eternal Warrior, Fear, Adamantium Will, Fearless, Fleet, and It Will Not Die. Each one also has the Master of the Legion rule.

Fulgrim

• Fulgrim - A fairly cheap Primarch at "only" 380 points, Fulgrim specializes in speed and grace. Although his 5+ invulnerable save from the Gilded Panoply may seem laughable, his Sublime Swordman rule upgrades it to 3+ when in combat while also giving the Phoenician bonus attacks equal to the difference between his Initiative (a whopping 8) and the opponent's Initiative. His Sire of the Emperor's Children rule gives all Emperor's Children units with the Legiones Astartes rule an extra +2 to combat res and the ability to reroll reserves while allowing Fulgrim to use the Crusader rule, but also forces Fulgrim to issue and accept challenges if anyone in combat has a WS greater than 5. His main draw is the ability to choose any of the Warlord Traits for the duration of the battle, making him fairly adaptable (albeit not on the same level as Horus).
  Fulgrim can use the following Wargear:
  • The Blade of Laer- The daemonic blade that caused Fulgrim's fall to Chaos uses his Strength score and combines it with an AP of 2. It also has the Rending, Two-Handed, and Specialist Weapon rules. It may not be as good as the other Primarchs' melee weapons, but it gets the job done pretty well anyhow.
  • Fireblade-For games taking place before the Horus Heresy (or at least the war on Laer), Fulgrim can swap The Blade of Laer for Fireblade, a Paragon Blade with Decapitating Blow on a 5+.
  • Fire Brand- A Master Crafted Volkite Charger with the Shred rule, for your shooting needs.
  • Krak and Plasma Grenades- When you need to deal with vehicles and the like.
  • Gilded Panoply- This armor grants Fulgrim a 2+ Armor save and a 5+ invulnerable save (which becomes a 3+ per his Sublime Swordsman rule). It is also quite flashy- so flashy that if Fulgrim passes his Armor or Invulnerable save on a 6, the unit that tried to wound him must pass an Initiative test or be blinded.
• Perturabo - 455 points is rather costly, but worth it- The Lord of Iron grants all Iron Warriors Stubborn and can roll for reserves right off the bat, and once per game he can call down a bombardment (S9, AP2, Ordnance, D3, Barrage, Twin-Linked, and doesn't count as firing a weapon that turn) to blow shit up (which is assisted further by the fact that all of his attacks have Wrecker and Tank Hunters). Take him and a bunch of Tyrant Siege Terminators, have them all arrive from reserves on Turn 1, send out a bombardment, then mop up any survivors on the next turn.
  Perturabo can use the following Wargear:
  • The Logos: Perturabo's custom Terminator armor is a veritable Swiss Army knife- not only is it 2+/3++, it also makes him immune to Concussive and Blind, acts as a nuncio vox, cognis signum, teleport homer, and cortex controller, gives him a S(user) AP2 melee attack, lets him and Terminators deep-strike, AND has a built in wrist-cannon (S6, AP3, Assault 3, Twin-Linked, and Rending). The guy really did enjoy tinkering, it seems.
  • Frag Grenades: Yup, it's a grenade.
  • Forgebreaker: See Ferrus Manus' section. Perturabo can use it for 35 points extra but is unwieldy. (Horus gave it to him after Ferrus Manus became shorter by a head.)
  • The Tormentor: In 3000+ point games, Perturabo can take this special "transport" for 500 points, although calling a Shadowsword with a void shield, a transport capacity of 15, the Command Tank upgrade, and a rear access point a transport is kind of pushing it. Oh, and it doesn't take up a Lord of War slot.
• Rogal Dorn- 385 points. The Emperor's Praetorian allows all Imperial Fists to use his Ld for leadership and pinning tests, while also granting a +d3 bonus to the outcome of assault results for himself and his Legion as long as he's in play. In addition to that, he also makes Phalanx Breacher Squads Troop choices. Sundering Blow acts like a powered-up Smash, halving Dorn's attacks to boost his strength by 2 and giving Instant Death, while Unshakable defense allows you to pick three fortifications to enhance; these fortifications will allow units hiding in them to reroll pinning tests and cover saves of 1. Dorn gets the following wargear:
  • Auric Armor: 2+/4++, and no attack that rolls better than a 3+ can wound Rogal Dorn, regardless of any special rules it has. (This doesn't apply to Strength D weapons.) Unless you consistently fuck up your saves you'll be damn hard to kill.
  • Storm's Teeth: An AP2 melee weapon with Unwieldy, Shred, and Rampage.
  • The Voice of Terra: A S5 AP4 gun with Salvo 3/5 and Rending.
  • Dedicated Transport: In games of 3000+ points, Dorn can take a modified Thunderhawk as a dedicated transport. This Thunderhawk is armed with a Turbolaser and also has a single void shield, IWND, and a 4+ invulnerable save against all missile attacks. Like Perturabo's Tormentor, it doesn't take up a Lord of War slot.
• Konrad Curze - The Night Haunter's abilities revolve around Fear - both inflicting it and amplifying it; although the number of Legions with Fearless makes this difficult to use in 30k, it can easily cause other armies with low Leadership (read: Tau and Imperial Guard) to turn tail and run in an instant. At 435 Points he is relatively expensive, but like all the Primarchs he can easily earn that back. With Sire of the Night Lords, a Night Lords force containing Konrad Curze gains the Fear special rule for any unit with the Legiones Astartes (Night Lords) special rule, and any units that already have the Fear special rule now impose a -1 penalty on the leadership of any enemy unit testing for fear against them. Curze's own ability to inflict Fear is supercharged by his King of Terrors rule- all Fear tests taken against him are subject to a - 3 penalty, and if he should he be part of an assault where any enemy unit is destroyed outright, all enemy units subject to fear within 12" and with line of sight to the combat must take an immediate morale check or fall back. Statwise, he's fairly good in all respects, although his WS8 and I7 are his main selling points (along with the Shrouded and Stealth rules). But the best part is that if it is night fight Curze's player may ELECT, to go first meaning he cannot be seized on and if you win the roll off you can pick to deploy second and then elect to go first.
  Curze can use the following Wargear:
  • The Nightmare Mantle - provides 2+ armour save and 4+ invulnerable save (like most Primarch Armour), plus it grants him hit and run and hammer of wrath special rules (inflicting d3 HoW hits instead of the usual one)
  • Mercy and Forgiveness - the most misnamed weapons in all of 30k (and knowing Curze, deliberately), Mercy and Forgiveness are the Night Haunter's twin lightning claws. They have all the usual Lightning claw rules plus AP2 and murderous strike.
  • The Widowmakers - Instead of a gun, Curze has himself a set of throwing knives as his ranged weapon. 12" Range, S4 AP5 assault 3 menas they're not as good as the other ranged weapons, until you see their special rule lethal precision: precision strike on 4+, to wound rolls of 6 ignore armour AND invulnerable saves.

Ferrus Manus

• Ferrus Manus - This badass is 455 points. The Gorgon works best as part of a mechanized army - his Master of Mechanisms rule acts like an improved version of Battlesmith which passes repair rolls on a 3+. In addition, any vehicle with at least one armour facing of 13 in a primary detachment containing Ferrus Manus gain IWND (similar to the Iron Hands' Chapter Tactic in 40k). Sire of the Iron Hands boosts his wargear with access to Relentless and Smash (the latter of which can be used with any of his CC attacks). and shooting attacks against him suffer a -1 penalty to their strength, meaning bolters could eat shit and die. As an added bonus, all models with the special rule Legiones Astartes (Iron Hands) in an army containing Ferrus Manus gain FnP (6+).
  As an interesting aside, the model can connect with the base of the Fulgrim model to allow Ferrus Manus and Fulgrim to reenact their duel on Isstvan V. Yes, the head also comes off, in case you were wondering.
  Ferrus can use the following Wargear:
  • Forgebreaker - Made for Ferrus by Fulgrim (and later stolen off him to be given to Perturabo, and then still later stolen by the Blood Ravens) it's an AP1 Thunder Hammer with concussive and strikedown. You could field Ferrus without his hammer (to represent the short period after it was stolen and he was still alive) for marginal point discount, which is OK, since his BARE FUCKING HANDS are AP2 with Smash, and strike on initiative. Oh, and the hammer also strike at normal initiative as Ferrus is so bad ass.
  • Medusan Carapace - Gives Ferrus a 2+ armour save 3+ invulnerable save. The backpack part of it incorporates a nuncio vox and servo arm, and he may choose to fire any two of the following in shooting phase - plasma blaster, graviton gun, grenade harness (unlimited usage), heavy flamer. With this toy, Ferrus is by far the most effective of the Primarchs when it comes to ranged combat.

Angron

• Angron - 400 points is a middle of the road, but fair price for the Primarch who was nicknamed the Red Angel. Hatred (Everything) is both appropriate and useful, while his Red Sands rule lets him call and fight as many Challenges as there are ICs and enemy units in combat with him up to the number of his attacks, dedicating at least one to each of the Challenges. His Sire of the World Eaters rule gives him the benefits of FnP (6+) and Furious Charge, and also gives all World Eaters unit with the Legio Astartes rule Fearless as long as they remain 12' of him. It also forces Angron to move towards the nearest enemy when making consolidation moves, which can be risky if the nearest enemy is too far away for him to engage but otherwise lets him kill things even faster. He only has 5 Wounds, so try not to go too far in over your head and if you're facing a shooty army, make sure there's a transport he can ride in so he doesn't get shot up charging at someone on the other side of the battlefield. On an interesting note, his Weapons Gorefather and Gorechild are listed as a single close combat weapon, combine this with the fact he carries a plasma pistol and by Khorne you have 8 attacks on the charge. (6 Base with the 1 attack for the special rules for Gorefather and Gorechild included in his profile, 1 extra for having two close combat weapons because of the pistol and lastly your attack for charging. This gets even better with every time you kill a unit or independent character. So to recap, he has EIGHT WS9 Strength 9 attacks on the charge (and an additional ten when he's fully buffed by the Butcher's Nails for a grand total of EIGHTEEN ATTACKS ON THE CHARGE).
  Statistically (and appropriately), when fighting one-on-one in assault, Angron should beat any Primarch released so far with the exception of (obviously) Horus, though, surprisingly enough, Lorgar can cheat his way to the victory through some neat psychic buffs and debuffs. Be careful, though, because while everyone else is a force-multiplier for their army, Angron is pretty much just a beat-stick, and one that's quite capable of being shot to death to boot.
  Angron is equipped with the following Wargear:
  • Armour of Mars: Grants a 3+ Armor save and a 4+ Invulnerable save. Could be better. Defense may not be an issue when you can annihilate everything in melee range, but if you never get there then there's a problem.
  • Gorefather and Gorechild: Angron's signature chainaxes grant an extra +1 to his already outrageous Attack and Strength and also possess the Armorbane and Murderous Strike rule (a roll of 6 to wound is instant death, with no saves). Good luck trying to survive against that.
  • The Spite Furnace-A Master Crafted Plasma Pistol. If you are using this instead of rushing into the enemy's face and tearing them limb from limb, you're doing it wrong, but it serves the important purpose of giving him an extra attack on the charge, since in the RAW Gorefather and Gorechild are a single one-handed weapon.
  • The Butcher's Nails-A souvenir from his foster-homeworld: metal probes in the RAGE-centers of his brain. This is what makes Angron go from being just plain deadly into an unstoppable force on the battlefield. For each IC or Infantry (of any type) Angron kills in close combat (or at least makes the killing blow/removes the last model), he gets a +1 to attack for the rest of the game. And it stacks up to 10 times.

• Mortarion - At 425 points, Mortarion is about average for a Primarch. If you want a motherfucker who can survive absolutely ANYTHING, the Death Lord is the one you should pick. Although his Ballistic Skill, Initiative, and Attack are only 5 each, his Toughness and wounds are a whopping 7 apiece. His Preternatural Resistance rule not only allows him to reroll failed Toughness tests and IWND rolls, it also lets him pass dangerous terrain automatically and lets him ignore any weapon that wounds on a flat dice roll if it rolls less than 6, essentially making him all but immune to poison. (Speaking of poison, his Sire of the Death Guard rule grants all Death Guard units with the Legiones Astartes rule Poison (4+) to Frag Grenades, Frag Missiles, and Havoc Launchers while also granting them the Stubborn rule.) Psykers will be hard-pressed to do anything to him thanks to his Witch Spite rule (Deny the Witch on a 4+), and his Shadow of the Reaper rule allows him to redeploy whenever he isn't in combat as long as he passes a Leadership test and ends up no further than 10" from his starting position (but no closer than 3" to the nearest enemy), while also granting a -1 penalty to all enemies attempting to make a Leadership test against his Fear rating.
  Mortarion can take the following wargear:
  • Silence-A big scythe with +1 strength and AP2. It suffers from the Two-Handed and Unwieldy rules, but makes up for it with Sunder (reroll armor pen rolls), Instant Death, and Sweep Attack (exchanges all attacks to hit every model in base contact). Great when you're surrounded by MEQs and the like.
  • The Lantern- Mortarion's custom energy pistol. With S8, AP2, and the Assault (1) and Sunder rules, it's one of the better ranged weapons the Primarchs get.
  • The Barberean Plate- A +2 Armor save and a +4 Invulnerable save. Just in case you need him to be even more indestructible.
  • Frag Grenades- Same as any other frags.
  • Phosphex Bombs- Mortarion's Phosphex Bombs have a range of 12", and he carries an infinite number of them.

Horus Lupercal

• Horus Lupercal - The Warmaster. The Arch-Traitor. The one responsible for the grimdarkness of 40k, and the guy that the Horus Heresy is named after. At 500 points, he's the most expensive of the Primarchs, but he can easily earn all of it back and more. His stats may appear surprisingly low at first, but his real value comes from his powerful wargear and assortment of buffs that he can provide. Weapon Mastery allows him to distribute attacks between his two weapons at will. Sire of the Sons of Horus grants him d3 extra attacks against enemies of WS4 or lower and also allows him (along with any Terminator unit he has joined) to join at any time after the second turn if he is placed in reserves. God of War allows all of Horus's reserves to use the Outflank rule, grants Sons of Horus units with the Legiones Astartes rule +1 leadership if Horus is in the same force, and allows his forces to seize Initiative on a roll of 4+. The buffs are topped off with The Point of The Spear, which allows Horus to use Veteran Tactical Squads and Justaerin Terminator squads as troops and lets him call down an orbital bombardment once per game when in the shooting phase and not in close combat or reserve. The orbital strike has infinite range, a strength of 10, an AP of 2, and has the types Ordnance 1, Large Blast (5'), Lance, and Twin-Linked. Save it for Titans or other extremely dangerous threats.
  Horus can use the following Wargear:
  • The Serpent's Scale- A specially enhanced set of Terminator armor with a +2 Armor save and a +3 Invulnerable save, and it nullifies psychic powers on a 3+, which is not a DtW, so you can back it up with 5+. It also ignores effects that would adversely modify his characteristic profile on a 3+ (and since losing wounds counts as an adverse modification, it essentially gives him another saving roll). Use against psykers for best results.
  • Worldbreaker- A Master Crafted power maul said to have been made by the Emperor himself, and it shows. Although it has the Unwieldy quality, the Concussive rule can easily nullify its effects if hitting a foe at S10 and AP1 doesn't just kill them outright.
  • The Warmaster's Talon- The custom-made lightning claws wielded by Horus (and later Failbaddon) lack the sheer force of the Worldbreaker, but they compensate with the twin-linked bolter built into them for use at long range as well as the Shred rule. But their most dangerous quality is the special rule Disabling Strike. Any unit who is wounded but not killed by the Talon in an Assault phase suffers a -1 to WS and Strength for the rest of the game. And it stacks.
  • Teleportation Matrix- Horus and any attached Terminator units can Deep Strike, and will not scatter when doing so. Since Legion Terminators don't get to Deep Strike like their post-Heresy counterparts, this is a big help for them.
  • Frag Grenades- Do we really need to explain what a frag grenade does?
  • Cognis Signum- Gives him the night vision special rule, prevents infiltrators from dropping near him and gives him +1 BS (which he can pass on to another unit within 6" if he doesn't shoot).

Lorgar Aurelian

• Lorgar Aurelian - At 375 pts, Lorgar is the cheapest of the Primarchs, and his stats tell, being the lowest of the Primarchs. However the Urizen's abilities lie in buffing his sons. While he is in the table all Word Bearers may use his leadership, and all Units that can draw line of sight to him get +1 charge distance, immunity to fear and +1 to their combat resolution. Also once per game you can force a single enemy model attacking Lorgar to reroll 5s and 6s to hit and to wound him. He can also reroll all failed Deny the Witch rolls. He is also a Lvl 2 Psyker and may roll on Telepathy or Telekinesis, but he takes psychic tests on 3d6, picking the highest two. Alternately, he can upgrade to Lorgar Transfigured, representing his newfound favor from the Chaos Gods, which, while 75 points, is well worth the cost; if this is the case, he may select any three powers in any combination from the Telepathy and Telekinesis disciplines at the start of the game and upgrade his mastery level to 3. Both Telepathy and Telekinesis have crazy good powers, like Objurgation, Infinity Gate, Puppet Master or Invisibility but are rarely taken due to shitty primarises and some of the regular powers being flat out useless - being able to pick whatever is the most useful in current battle makes Lorgar Transfigured one of the most versatile and adaptive primarchs. Due to being a high level psyker with Adamantium Will, he also gets a DtW 3+ against psychic powers cast by level 2 or less psykers, and 4+ against anyone of equal or greater power, which, paired with his ability to re-roll failed DtWs, makes him almost invulnerable to any psychic shit.
  Lorgar can use the following Wargear:
  • The Armour of the Word - gives Lorgar a 2+ armour save, 4+ invulnerable save which increases to 3+ against witchfire and blows from force weapons (in case he somehow fails his DtW).
  • Illuminarium - An AP2 Power Maul with master crafted and smash. Actually, one of the best Primarch weapons, striking at S8, ignoring any armor, concussing anything that survives it (mostly other primarchs) to I1, and able to supercharge into penetration re-rolling S10 by halving attack number, in case you really need to kill that Land Raider. Also no two-handed or specialist weapon bullshit, so enjoy your +1A from the pistol.
  • Archaotech Pistol - For your shooting needs, in case you don't roll/pick decent witchfire powers or are about to charge something with decent DtW.
  • Frag Grenades- As before.
  • Before the release of Magnus, Lorgar is your primary and only spellslinging primarch, so lets talk about his spells psychic powers. First off, you SHOULD upgrade him to his Transfigured state, because +1 ML, Psychic tests on 3D6 with discarding the highest and ability to pick powers is a steal for 75 pts. Sadly, you have no access to Biomancy (mostly because he would out-rape Angron, out-endure Mortarion and out-dance Fulgrim with all its buffs on him), but Telepathy and Telekinesis are fine too. Before we continue, do note that most Primarchs have DtW 5+, Morty's 4+ does not benefit from Adamantium Will according to the wording, Vulcan has a rerollable 5+ (which is better), and Horus has the regular 5+ backed by his "3+ versus anything" save.
    • Assail, the Telekinesis primaris looks weak as shit at first glance, until you scroll back to USR section and read Strikedown description. It's a linemaker with S6 and no AP, and everyone it wounds (even if they pass their saves) get their initiative halved, and threat all terrain as difficult. This is of questionable use against other Primarchs as they have T6-7 and can deny it, but a solid gold against hordes, as they are forced to move at the speed of Struck Down models, and you can even snipe few unlucky sergeants or special weapon guys with it.
    • Crush is another random power, which autohits it's target with S2D6 and APD6, autowounding/penning on 11+ and sniping models out of squad if you roll 5 or below on psy test. As it hits automatically and there is no restrictions against air targets, Lorgar could snipe Storm Eagles and shit out of the sky, just like he does in the books.
    • Gate of Infininy is a good old 24" teleport. Might be worth it if you have teleport homers, but there are better options.
    • Objuration Mechanicum voodoos enemy squad into rerolling 6s to hit and to wound, which is great for raping hordes that need 5+ to hit and 6 to wound Lorgar anyways. It also deals single haywire hits per model if fired on vehicles, and could be used against flyers too. It also all but cancels any effect that rely on 6 to hit or to wound (Rending, Precision shot/strike, Gauss, Tesla, Bladestorm, Monofilament, Distort, various forms of "ID on 6 to wound", etc.), rendering many units useless or at least making them much less dangerous.
    • Telekine Dome shields one friendly unit with 5++ which works like Necron Lichguard shields (i.e. bouncing shots back to the assholes who fired them). Not the best thing to take, but may have some use. Casting it on the unit in front of plasma/melta armed enemy squad may discourage them from firing, as they could just kill themselves with bounced shots.
    • Shockwave and Vortex of Doom are pieces of shit you should never take. Ever.
    • Psychic Shriek is a solid witchfire when it comes to murdering TEQs and heavy cover campers, and could be very useful if your opponent has plenty of them, but there are generally more powerful spells.
    • Dominate and Fortitude are not bad, per se, but the first one is too unreliable in an all-Ld9-10 environment and your Word Bearers with Ld 10 from Lorgar and extra dice on morale checks would rarely need fearless, unless they face Curze in CC (in which case they are dead anyway).
    • Puppet Master would allow you to voodoo your enemy tanks/dreads into shooting their own troops. Don't forget to thank your opponent for his generous offer of Leman Russ demolisher with which you just... well... demolished entire tank squadron.
    • Terrify strips your opponent of Fearless, makes him threat everything like it have Fear, and furthermore immediately forces him to make morale check or shit himself and run to the hills. If you manage to cast this on enemy Primarch, a LOT of hilarity would follow, as he can just run from the table outright or could be swiped by the Lorgar himself in CC, because you know, Lorgar have +D3 for his sweeping advance due to Crusader, and can win his first round of CC against pretty fucking anything with Invisibility cast on him. Speaking of which...
    • Invisibility is your "I win" button for fighting Primarchs and other monstrous characters. First off, it is a blessing, so no Deny the Witch for your poor opponent. Second, it confers stealth and shrouded: just in case you need to bounce off that lascannon fire with 2+ cover in any terrain. Third, anyone stupid enough to charge you doesn't get charge bonuses. So sorry, Angron, no extra attacks and strength for you. And finally, and most importantly, anything that tries to hit you or is hit by you in melee counts as WS1. Which means it needs a 5+ to hit. Which you then may force him to re-roll per Lorgar's Dark Fortune special rule. Yeah. Meanwhile you're macing him with Illuminarium on 3+. And then he loses assault, fails his morale check with -2..3 penalty and get swiped by you if you managed to successfully cast terrify on him. So who's the weakest of the Primarchs now, motherfuckers?
    • And when you thought your troll-meter is about to explode, look at Hallucination. Yes, it's random, but each result is awesome. Autoppinning things is cool, as it ensures they would not do shit for entire turn, "Ermmm?" result is even better, as it works on unpinnable units and force them to just stand there and do nothing while you're butchering them in melee, and the last result force them to autohit each other with their own CC weapon, which could just outright kill an entire squad of terminators or other super-elite units, and would be hilarious when used on Swarmlord or Skarbrand, whose weapons have instant death and lack Eternal Warrior to protect themselves from it.

• Vulkan - Vulkan costs about as much as Lorgar Transfigured, 425, and, like Lorgar, Vulkan has a relatively low statline compensated by a variety of buffs and useful wargear. Sire of the Salamanders enables all Salamanders with the Legiones Astartes rule to use the Adamantium Will USR and a bonus +1Ld, while Blood of Fire enables the Lord of Drakes to reroll any failed Deny the Witch and IWND rolls. (No, he doesn't get to keep his immortality- that would fuck up game balance to no end.)
  Vulkan can use the following Wargear:
  • The Draken Scale - The 2+ armor save and +3 invulnerability save are par for the course for Primarch armor, but the main perk is that all flamer, fusion, Volkite, melta, or plasma weaponry used against Vulkan has its strength halved. Laugh as your enemy's Fellglaive barely leaves a scratch on him, and wade through the battlefield completely immune to plasma.
  • Heavy Flamer - What, did you think that Vulkan wasn't as much of a pyromaniac as the rest of his legion? It has S6, but apart from that it's a perfectly ordinary heavy flamer that is more likely to wound. Doesn't even get a special name like the rest of the Primarch gear.
  • Dawnbringer - This giant hammer looks like your average S10 AP1 weapon with Two-handed, Concussive, Armourbane, and Instant Death, but its real usefulness lies in its Earthshatter rule. Instead of attacking normally, Vulkan can place a blast template (3") anywhere in base to base contact with him that does not cover any friendly models; all models under the template suffer a single automatic S8 AP3 hit with the Strikedown special rule. Helps when clearing out tarpits.
  • The Furnace's Heart - On the one hand, 18" is a lousy range, but S6 AP2 with Assault 1 and Rending balances that out. It also possesses a unique Line of Effect rule- draw a line from the Primarch 1 mm wide and 18" long to determine the weapon's area of effect. All units crossed by the line suffer a number of hits equal to the number of models in the unit the line crosses. (The line can't cross allied units, so don't worry about friendly fire.)

• Corvus Corax - At 450 points, Corax is like a Lictor but LOTS better, the Raven-Lord deserves to go solo like the Primarch of an independent legion should be. Unless the unit is a psyker/daemon OR Corax is in a unit OR he is the closest unit to them, they can only snap-fire at him. (note: this makes him IMMUNE to Blast & Template weapons, unless they hit him by accident!) He may also remove himself from play and return to reserves, even while in close combat. Furthermore, his Sire of the Legion gives him old-school Furious Charge and his entire legion get acute senses for outflanking and always roll 6s on run moves. He also has two profiles, representing him before Istvaan and during/after the battle. After the battle he loses quite a few of his toys and has a lower statline to represent the injuries he sustained, although he also costs 100 points less while also gaining Infiltrate and Scout.
  Corax can use the following wargear.
  • Sable Armour - 2+/5+ (3+/5+ after Istvaan) making him one of the more fragile Primarchs, however he does cause Deep Strike mishaps on doubles to units within 12" and teleport homers just don't work around him. Coupled with his speed and his snapfire defense means the enemy is unlikely to get close to him.
  • Panopoly of the Raven Lord - AP2, shredding, blinding weapon set that takes up two hands. Can choose each turn to add D3 attacks / gain +3 to vehicle pen and auto-wound on a 5+ / impose -1 to enemy To Hit rolls.
  • Korvidine Pinions - (Loses this at Istvaan) makes him jump infantry of course and may reroll deeps strike scatter, Vector Strike and gains D3 hammer of wrath hits at S5 AP3. If a mishap occurs, it will always cause the "delayed" result.
  • 2 x Archeotech pistols - same as Praetors, though these get exchanged for an assault 3 Heavy Bolter which also grants him Hatred (All Traitor Legions which participated in the Drop Site Massacre) after Istvaan.
  • Shroud Bombs

• Alpharius: His stats aren't too good for a unit costing 415 points, but you won't take the Last Primarch for that- you'll take him for how badly he can fuck with your opponent. Sire of the Alpha Legion grants all Alpha Legion units Preferred Enemy (Everything) and gives Alpharius Counter attack, Move through Cover, Scout, and Crusader- but not right away. You see, after both sides deploy he can opt out of deploying normally or via deep striking and choose to hide in any of your units disguised as a generic model, but can reveal himself starting at turn 2 (and does so automatically at turn 5) for all of the above buffs. If the unit he's hiding in is falling back when he reveals himself, it auto-rallies, and if it's destroyed while he's still hiding, he just goes into reserves. He can seize initiative on a 4+, give units arriving via Outflank a +d3 movement bonus, and best of all if an enemy unit is successfully brought in from reserves and your army has an identical version of that same type also in reserve, roll a d6- on a 4+, the opponent brings in your unit instead.
  Alpharius can use the following wargear:
  • The Pythian Scales: 2+/4++, ignores the effects of Poison and Fleshbane. Not bad.
  • The Pale Spear: No boost to Strength, but it does have AP1, Armourbane, and Instant Death along with Two-Handed. Also, it's a Necron weapon. Don't ask how he got it.
  • Venom Spheres
  • Master-Crafted Plasma Blaster
  • Cognis Signum
  • Nuncio Vox
  • Camelioline

Allies

Mechanicum Detatchment

Yes, not only do the Primarchs have rules, but now the Adeptus Mechanicus can finally take to the field with an official (but minimal) list, plus Titans.

See also Warhammer_40,000/6th_Edition_Tactics/_30k/Mechanicum

HQ

• Magos Caleb Decima - Tough motherfucker, he is most useful for one-shotting any non-superheavy vehicle with his haywire-spamming one-use gun. But he's a badass who hijacked a Fellblade to shoot at the traitors and survived, so there shouldn't be problems with taking him.

• Magos Dominus -

• Enginseer Auxillia -

Elites

• Legion Techmarine Covenant - Same as above, though they swap the Legiones Astartes special rule for the Stubborn USR.

• Mymirdon Secutors - Basically Paladins of Omnissiah - warrior tech-priests, who reforged themselves into rape machines to kill shit in the name of SCIENCE. T5 W2 3+ 5++.

Troops

• Thralls -Just no, they're worse than guardsmen, even with better guns and 6+ fnp, their squad size is too small. If you want more bodies, just take more tacs.

• Mechanicum Thallax Cohort - Shock Troops of the Ordo Reductor, Thallax are Ogryn sized Jet Troops. You can only have a special weapon for every 3 thallax, so keep the units in multiples of 3. Their standard lightning gun (18" S7 AP5, heavy 1, shred, rending) is best used at short range against light vehicles, so a good option is a simple multi-melta and destructor augments. The photon thruster is really the best weapon option - sadly you have to take 2 expensive ablative thallax for each one. Overall pretty damn good but start to cost a lot of points quickly. This isn't a fantastic way of picking up a tonne of high strength weaponry; Legion heavy support is far cheaper, and carries more vanilla weaponry for this purpose. However Legion Heavy support doesn't have Relentless and meltabombs.
  • Phased-Plasma Fusils are an interesting weapon choice, though listed as Salvo 2/3 it needs to be remembered that Thallax possess relentless, thus turning this into a Assault 3, 24" S6 AP3, which is amazing against marines. Of course you may be wondering if this subverts the point of using the Thallax cohort as tank hunters and you would be right it does. However if you're running an all Ordo-Reductor these weapons are extremely potent as they provide a cheap way of taking out chunks of marines without taking out chunks of your self.
  • Irrad-cleansers are also a very interesting weapon; 2+ Fleshbane (not poison!) template pretty much guarantees a large portion of the target will get wounded, at AP5 however it could vary widely as to how effective it is afterwards; Ork, Nids, IG and even Nurgle demons blobs; not a problem. Khorne Berserkers and Space Wolves; better use that 2D6. Tau with their 4+? You're S/T5, A2 striking at the same intiative, you can charge them and crush them like the blue berries they are.
  • Multi-lasers are also an option, unless you really want to throw some really cheap S6 hits at 36" (5pts) don't bother... it is really cheap though.
  • The other augments are also neat, though if you're taking this as an allied choice they are really diminished.
  • Icarian: Would be good if all your weapons weren't in the category of being short ranged or too long in strength to reliably at least glance AV12 (Most fliers tend to be around 10-12)
  • Ferrox: Rage is nice adding 2 attacks on the charge, so is rending. In a legion list you already have quite a lot of pretty good melee units, many with power weapons and a pretty good strength value. This particular anon is still wondering if its worth also taking heavy chain blades with this upgrade; it would allow you to instant death a huge blob of T3 units and give you the opportunity to score quite a a lot wounds on units with T5-6, which previously would of been difficulty... but you already have rending so this upgrade could be somewhat irrelevant in that respect, as a roll of 6 with S5 is as a effect as a S7 now that you have rending.
  • Empyrite: This is a Jetpack unit. It already has deep strike along with all sorts of other gubbins. In "zone mortalis" (in door fighters) a unit can only deepstrike via teleportation. So in the rare event you and your cocaine dealing compadres are playing some 30k together, this might be useful, but otherwise this is terrible.
  • It's somewhat shocking too see that Djinn-sight has been overlooked completely. Djinn-sight prevents units from being infiltrated within 24" of a Thallax model (so you could really abuse some cohesion if you wished.). But most importantly is there ability to reduce covers save by 2! This combined with their access to pretty high strength weaponry means they can take on horrors such as Nob bikers at range! Go to ground in open terrain is ignored completely as that provides a 6+ save.
• Mechanicum Land Raider - "Build Your Land Raider" construction kit. As dedicated transport. Starting from 195 points you can make any and all type of pre- and post-heresy LR's, except Terminus Ultra and Ares, and even some homebrew beast that does not exist on any sacred blueprints (disregard the fact, that this is techno-heresy) - like mixing melta-imunity with heavy flamers all around to burn shit and does not afraid anything (cause railguns won't be invented for a few millenia)
• Mechanicum Castallax Battle Automata - T7 4W 3+ monstrosities, these bad boys also can make their CC attacks concussive. In addition to their built in bolters, they come standard with bolt cannons-- 3 shots of S6 Ap3 pinning hatred. They apparently get rage in cc too, but that may be an augment. They cost about 85pts, but can be taken in squads of up to five. Yes. Five. (A very good choice for your Magos to hide in! These beasties are a great unit that can really buff and protect a gunline)

Fast Attack

• Imperial Avenger Strike Fighter - Ground Attack support plane which looks like the results of a one night stand between an A-10 and a Stuka. It has a tasty Strafing Run rule, an absolutely useless defensive rear-mounted Heavy Stubber, two Lascannons for armour busting, and the AVENGER BOLT CANNON, which is basically half of a VULCAN MEGABOLTER. This means it packs SEVEN Megabolter and two Lascannon shots at BS3/4(+1 with strafing run)for only 150 pts, to ruin the day of anything with less than AV14 or a 2+ armour save (which in the all Marine environment of 30k, is almost everything). Plus it can be upgraded with Battle Servitor Control, giving it the Tank Hunter rule to better kill enemy armour.

Heavy Support

• Legion Artillery Tank Squadron - See above.
• Myrmidon - Heavy weapon Myrmidons
• Krios Battle Tank -

Lords of War

• Warhound Scout Titan - Do you remember this is 30K, where Imperium tech was not a tale of slow degradation? Well, pre-heresy Warhound comes with one extra void shield and night vision for the same price as post-heresy one. Even though 6-th edition nerfed D-strength a lot (no more +1 on damage chart), pair of DB TLD's is still a go-to load-out, but due to all-marine environment choosing megabolter or inferno cannon actually start to make some sense, especially with huge blobs of said marines.
• Reaver Battle Titan - Bigger, tougher, meaner and slower titan. As with Warhound, destroyer blast spam is still preferable weapon loadout, but nothing wrong with choosing gatling blaster or melta cannon. Vortex missile for carapace weapon is an interesting choice, capable of one-shoting any other lord of war with removing D3 SP from super-heavies or just instakilling any other model (yes, even primarch) with no saves of any kind allowed, but it is one use only, so use it wisely.

Pre-Heresy Technology

The Legions had a lot of toys which were lost after the Heresy, which are subsequently not available for 40k games.

• Volkite Weapons Ancient ray guns that date back to the Age of Strife, they were in the process of being replaced by the bolter as the preferred weapon of the Space Marines due to difficulties in production and maintenance. Volkite weapons have the 'Deflagrate' special rule, which means each unsaved wound caused inflicts another automatic hit. They come in five flavours, Serpenta (pistol), Charger (Assault 2), Caliver (Heavy 2), Culverin (Heavy 4) and the monster Carronade (S8 with Haywire and a beam effect that lets it hit everything in a straight line in front of it). However, they suffer from a short range and only have AP5.
• Conversion Beam Weapons Could be seen as inverse Melta; Longer range, Greater damage. The only two difference between the heavy and regular version is the former has a large blast radius but requires the unit to remain stationary in order to fire.
• Graviton Weapons These possess no strength, but possess both concussion and haywire effects. They also have a curious way of causing wounds by forcing the enemy to roll D6; if the result is above their unit strength they take a wound - a result of 6 always causes a wound. Annoyingly this makes it large ineffective against infantry blobs (seriously guardsmen have a 1 in 2 chance to survive this arcane weapon). However it also creates difficult and dangerous terrain in its blast radius, so it can at least severely impede their movement.
• Phospex Weapons Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore's preferred fragrance. As if S5/AP2 wasn't going to ruin some Jungle space weeaboos day quite horribly enough it also possess poison 3+ and acts like napalm; Lingering fire causes the blast radius to become dangerous terrain and each turn the marker can be moved 2" in any direction the firer wishes, making it incredibly effective against units that are going to charge you; and with a lowly 6" range for the bomb version that's all it may be useful for. Fortunately the Legion Medusa is capable of firing Phosphex shells at a much greater range.
• Paragon Blade +1S AP2 Specialist melee weapon without unwieldy that inflicts Instant Death on a wound roll of 6. There is nothing to say besides "take it".
• Charnabal Sabre Absolute and complete garbage. Don't even look at it. Except, you know, if you want to finally break that Paragon Blade Praetor mirror match deadlock. +1 Initiative in a challenge. Look it up. However with no actual AP value outside of rending, using it will get your ass killed as most of your attacks bounce off the foes 2+ save.
• Suspensor Web turns your heavy weapons into assault weapons, but halves their range.
• Banestrike Shells 18" S4 AP5 Rapid Fire and on a to-wound of 6 count as AP3. Only SoH and Alpha Legion get these; IC's can upgrade any bolter to only fire these and Seeker Squads can exchange scorpio shells for these at no cost.

Building Your Army

Hoo Boy. This is literally the most expensive army to collect in all of 40k (or should we call it 30k?) Yessir. Every model is Forge World, so you'd have to be a drug dealer to afford to make even a moderately sized army.

Unless you come from Australia/New Zealand, where a FW army is CHEAPER than a plastic GW army [and FW isn't any less expensive there]. Fuck you GW. (And if the prices keep raising like they do now, FW WILL BECOME CHEAPER THEN GAMES WORKSHOP!!!)

However there are guides out there on how to convert plastic Space Marines into Pre-Heresy marines, so if you're serious about making a pre-heresy army, that is where you should start. Note you need a LOT of bodies to make a pre-heresy army, so plan accordingly.

Army Tactics

Legion forces might have a kit of cool stuff but most of the units are far more restrictive in what they can do and what you can take. Your units are highly specialized: tactical squads with bolters only, heavy support squads squad with heavy weapons only, tactical support squads with special weapons only. Each model in the heavy or special weapons squad has to take the SAME gun. In many ways the Legions list is like a Craftworld Space Marine army, just on a much larger scale, and like the Eldar you need a good mix of units to be effective.

Some good combinations include large tactical blobs with attached apothecaries. Sergeants with artificer armor and power axe/meltabomb or powerfist. Contemptor-Mortis brings a tough vehicle for an okay number of points with good weapon options and anti-air when/if you need it. Meltabombs on things, you can't rely on meltaguns, but meltabombs are cheap and still work. Master of Signal plus a heavy weapons squad with missile launchers, autocannons, or volkite culverins for heavy, accurate fire support. Terminators with an attached Primus Medicae in a Spartan is the hammer unit in a lot of assault lists. Forge Lord consul is one of the most versatile HQs (he can be anything from a pretty strong combat character to ranged fire support to a cheap HQ tax that you park in a spartan/storm eagle to keep it alive).

Also, your units lack And They Shall Know No Fear, making Morale issues VERY important. Instead they have a rule that lets them regroup regardless of casualties (nice, but not NEARLY as good), plus additional rules depending on your legion. Because of the lack of ATSKNF Leadership matters more, but don't overspend on HQ's either. With 3 HQ slots it's entirely possible to, and it can be a big mistake. You can pile a lot of wargear on a Praetor, but unless you're Salamanders you can't give him EW - and there is a LOT of S8+ shooting and melee in the HH. There will be games where he is turned into a fine, red mist floating over ruined and melted chunks of armor before he ever does anything useful. Do not spend 250 points trying to make him into a combat monster, because it will not work. One unlucky invul save and he is gone. Bring him for the right reasons and don't spend too much. He's the only way to get AP2 at initiative without special, legion or character specific wargear and the only way to get RoW (without resorting to special characters, who are themselves Praetor-equivalents). Likewise, consuls are great for their force multiplication, but spend too much on them/take too many and there isn't enough of a force left for them to multiply.