So, looking over the new Legion stuff, not at all sure what
Legion I will end up fielding, but suspect it will be my ancient Wolves… Though they really did not have much to do
with the Terra portion of the Heresy…
The rules for the Iron Hands are REALLY good, and should our local IH
player (Ted) ever get back to playing, I think he will be pretty happy with how
they play. Looking like I just play a
generic Legion for the time being. So,
what HQ do I lead them out with?
1.
Legion Praetor:
Essentially a Chapter Master, albeit without some of the current things
that say, Pedro gets like the Orbital Bombardment and Honor Guard. Though they do have the “Master of the Legion”
rule which allows you to customize your Legion build through one of several
optional “Rites of War”. One is Armored
Spearhead, opening up Land Raiders as Transports for every squad that could
take a Rhino. Another is Pride of the
Legion making Terminators and Vet Squads Troops… There ARE disadvantages to each, for example
the Spearhead requires your hole army to be Mechanized, nothing NOT
transported. And additional Secondary VC’s
for each if you lose all of what the bonus gives you. Still, an excellent way I think to build out
a force if you start with a vision for it firmly in mind from the
beginning. My test list of one has 3 Land
Raiders and a Spartan. Numerically
small, but AV 14, immune to Melta and with 10 TL LC shots each turn to attempt
to bring down bigger targets on a mobile platform seems a pretty decent
start. A LOT of armies simply cannot
deal with so much AV 14, especially if you take the easy answer of “Melta for
the Win” off the table for the most part.
The other Rites I could use to build a “Proto” BA or DA force with
ease. So, an interesting and varied
choice which would allow me to tailor my force to whatever I feel like playing…
2.
Centurion upgraded to Consul: There are a LOT more choices here. This slot is the one where the Chaplain,
Librarian, Master of the Forge, etc. all come from. And others not seen since the RT era… The Librarian is a safe choice for players
familiar with the old standard Marine Librarian as an Army Leader… Choosing your own Discipline means that ANY
of them are open, I suspect Divination will be the most popular choice for most
folks. Not horribly expensive, but no
particular advantages either I think.
Safe and steady. I am leaning
toward the Vigilator or the Siege Breaker myself as I think they fit my personal
play style a lot more, and the Consul will essentially be my Avatar on the
field based on my own Army experience…
Vigilator gives you a free “Sabotage” to hit an Enemy unit at the start
of the game and is a Stealth guy with Sniper and the Sternguard type ammo for
his Bolter. I see him leading out a Tactical
or Breacher Squad setting up in Cover and being just that damn stubborn to pull
off of an objective. The Siege Breaker
gives/has Tank Hunter… The obvious
choice is to put him with a Tactical Support Squad with Volkite Caliver on each
Trooper for the re-rolls against Vehicles.
Should be pretty rough against Light Tanks, etc… Or with a Heavy Support section with Missile
Launchers and Flak Missiles to pull Sky Marshall Duty. Not seeing THAT many fliers and lacking
Scoring status for the most part, hard to justify the cost…
So, those are the basic HQ choices… I can either take the Land Raider overload or
a more basic one to lead out the lads…
For Troops, I am liking the
Breacher Siege Squads more and more.
Expensive, yes, but they all have an Invulnerable save and get to
re-roll saves against Templates and Blasts.
Looking at the Iron Hands rules from the Massacre book, these would be
my line Squads without question. Inv
save and a 6+ FnP roll on basic Troops, and LR or LR Spartan for
Transports? The Spartan has a carry
capacity of 25, so Medics and other IC have room to join the Squad for a stupid
huge Squad… Even without the IH rules,
the Breachers with an attached Medic will I think be an annoyingly difficult to
remove Squad for shorter games like in a Tournament. And given that they are a basic Troop choice
for one of my 2 minimum required ones…
The Basic Tactical Squad is
interesting, but I am not 100% sure I like fielding just a mass of Marines
armed only with Bolters. The lack of the
Special/Heavy weapons in the Squad are a major concern for me. In an Armored Spearhead, they are just Panzer
Grenadiers riding in the Proteus Class Raider jumping out at the end of the assault
to claim objectives or keep the Tanks from being swarmed I guess… They are in my initial test armies, but I
think my concerns about their viability are valid… Though, arming them like my old Grey Hunters
with the rifle, pistol, and sword means they are at least “kind of” Assault
Squads if I need them to be. A unit of
20 with Apothecary and maybe the Sniper leader would be interesting I
think. Stubborn defense if they
start/end up in a Ruin or other Area terrain camping on an Objective.
Speaking of the Apothecaries, I am
thinking that every Squad that is on foot or mounted in a LR Spartan will have
one… Points/slots permitting of
course. NOT ICs like the BA ones, but
assigned out like Wolf Guard. So,
planning is required, but it just means I have to be more careful during the
list building stage of the game. An
additional Character with potentially Artificer Armor and maybe a Power Weapon
or Augury Scanner who also grants the 5+ FnP roll? Yes, please.
Otherwise, I am looking at the
second book (“Horus Heresy Book 2 – Massacre”), and finding that if I were to
go into the Iron Hands I would be pretty well set… I think they pretty much work the way I’d
like the Legion Marines to work. Shoot
like you are voting in Chicago, early and often. But I think I will stay with my ancient Space
Wolves at least until I see what this iteration of the history is… As I was familiar with the old Wolves, I am
hoping that at the least they do not vary TOO much from the regular
Legions. So far it is just a different
unit or two, the Primarch with a few characters and maybe a different Rite of
War… So basically as I start building
now, perhaps I will be OK moving it over to Wolves when they finally appear in
the books. Looking at 3-4 new
Legions/year it might well be some time before they DO show up. But the Mortis DN and the Contemptor Mortis are
both there for all Legions to use. 135
points for the TL AC version, so 15 points more than a new standard DN with the
same armament. 15 points for the Targeting
Array giving Intercept and Skyfire during your turn and the opponent’s turn if
you do not move. Um, YES PLEASE! A reliable AA weapon that can actually do a
lot more than AA I think. AP 4 is kind
of annoying, but reliably putting 3-4 Str 7 hits on a target is a solid
ability. ALMOST at the point of putting
on 2 x TL Las Cannon just for the ability to put 2 Str 9 AP 2 hits out
there. ROF is a bit low for the 155
points, but the better chance of splashing fliers might well be worth it. But for now I HAVE several DNs with the TL
AC, including one of the Dust walkers that I am repainting for my Crimson Fists… I could realistically put together another
3-4 DNs with the TL AC if I really felt the need, but not really sure it is
worth it… So, the Mortis comes with my
Legion forces like my DA forces…
There IS a Flier in the book in the
Fast Attack section. A Lightning variant. Not sure, base model is cheap(ish), and there
are 4 hard points to add custom weapon loadouts… Still, a 2 HP AV 11 flier starting at 135
points? 20 points buys you TL AC or TL
Multi Laser to supplement the TL Las Cannon, so fully outfitted for Air
Superiority missions I’d snag 2-3 (probably 3) more weapons bringing it to 195
points for a very fragile Flier… The
Storm Raven is 200, has Split Fire and some pretty good weapons to go along
with its Transport and Assault Vehicle roles…
Depends a lot on who hits the field first, but overall I’d say the Raven
will win a lot more dogfights as its weapons have to roll well below average to
Glance/Penetrate… So, certainly NOT
something I’ll be rushing out to field I think.
Neat, but…
The other units in the book are all
fairly neat, but things like the Drop Pod variants seem very specifically
focused. They DID fix the stupid “Deathwind”
one though. It is expensive, but it is 5
Missile Launchers each with its own Machine Spirit so it can fire at different
targets and in addition to other weapons firing, etc… Expensive, but potentially a problem that
cannot be lightly ignored on the other side of the table… And the new version of the Lucius Class Pod… Again, “Neat”, but unless I do a Drop Army,
not of much use… Oh, but you CAN go
directly into Assault from Deep Strike with it, so potentially something to
surprise and scare a lot of armies, especially if you go first…
But options abound… Got a game scheduled against the Joe next
week assuming I make it through the nuclear stress testing Monday morning… Getting old apparently, and all the damage
from all the stupid things I have done seems to be catching up J… But, one of the reasons I took the lower pay
but stable job here at the University was the excellent Health Insurance, so
now that looks like a good choice on my part…
