Drop pods, Spartans, and Jetbikes, oh my! The Great Slaughter provides plenty of new stuff for Legions Imperalis players to sink their teeth into, and we’re here to talk about the new additions to the Legiones Astartes.
Thanks as ever to Games Workshop for providing us with a review copy of The Great Slaughter.
Table of Contents
Legions Astartes Formations
We get a couple of new Formations for the Astartes. Both are highly specialised so won’t be seen in every force. Actually both require models that aren’t yet on sale, so I suppose we won’t be seeing these at all for a bit.Â
Legion Sky-hunter Phalanx
This is a very simple Formation, comprising four compulsory Vanguard Detachments, all of which have to be filled with Scimitar Jet Bikes, Land Speeders or Javelins – but conspicuously not Outriders. In exchange for that limitation, each Detachment of Scimitars, Land Speeders, and Javelins in this Formation gains the Outflank rule, which is very cool. Your optional detachments are yet another Vanguard Detachment (and this one can be your Outriders), an Air Support, and two Light Armour, which are still Not Yet Appearing In This Game. Basically, this is a Formation that can be made from the new Vanguard box.
Legion Drop Pod Assault
This follows the same pattern as the Demi-Company, with a compulsory HQ, two Core Detachments and one Support. You can have two more Core, two Support and one Air Support Detachments as options. All the infantry and walkers have to be in drop pods unless they can Deep Strike. Other than that there are no special rules.
That said, this formation leaves us a bit puzzled: in addition to the drop pods and heavy drop pods for your infantry and dreadnoughts, this book introduces an entirely new drop pod unit: the Palisade Drop Pod. We’ll talk more about the Palisade later (spoilers: we’re fans), but the only way you can get drop pods in this formation is as Dedicated Transports, and you can’t take Palisades in Dedicated Transport detachments as the rules are currently written. In other words, if you decide to field the cool new Drop Pod Assault formation, you won’t be allowed to bring any of the cool new Palisade Drop Pods as part of it. Weird.
New Options for the Legion Demi-Company
This isn’t a new detachment at all but it’s currently the only way to use some of the new Astartes Detachments in this book. The Demi-Company includes two optional Transport Detachment slots, which let you field Spartans or Land Raiders. They also let you buy Drop Pods for your Demi-Company’s infantry and Dreadnoughts.Â
This is a big change for a detachment that could previously only put Rhinos in those slots. Your infantry now have access to assault transports in the form of Spartans and Forward Deploying Land Raiders. It’s also really nice to have the option to buy drop pods for something like a Leviathan detachment without having to go for an entire Drop Pod Assault Formation. And your drop-podding infantry can now benefit from a fortified jumping-off point thanks to the Palisade Drop Pod’s Shield Generator (5+) rule.
Legions Astartes Vanguard Detachments
Let’s look at the new stuff marines are getting, starting (somewhat appropriately) with Vanguard detachments. The box containing these models was previewed back in October but so far we don’t know when they’ll be released. You get a box of 4 stands of Outriders, 6 stands of Jetbikes, and 4 stands each of Land Speeders and Javelins. Between them, they’ll comfortably fill out a Sky Hunter Phalanx.
They’re all quite similar with 10” movement, 4+ saves, and the Jink (6+) rule. Bikes get CAF+2 and 5+ saves while speeders get CAF+1 and 4+. They’re all Cavalry with Scale 1, so they’ll only be able to pin infantry in melee.
I’m a bit disappointed right away with their speed, which is barely more than a lot of tanks have. The rules for embarking and disembarking from transports means that marines advancing out of a rhino that has also moved can get quite a bit further up the board and still fire. And a 6+ jink save isn’t as useful as you might hope since, as Cavalry, these things ignore the AP of Anti-tank weapons. That means you’ll get your armour save most of the time except against really big guns or the dedicated anti-infantry firepower of something like a Stormhammer. Honourable mention here to White Scars: while their +1 to Jink saves won’t be much help into many things, it can be somewhat useful against the bigger guns in this game.
Legion Outrider Squadron
These are your “normal” bikes and come in detachments of 2-6. They have both twin bolters and twin plasma guns because the models come with a mixture. The bolters are Point Defence so they can split fire, while the plasma’s Light AT trait means every base has at least a chance of dealing damage to any target.
Unfortunately, they’re strictly worse than Land Speeders, which cost the same but have better versions of the same guns, a better armour save, and the Skimmer keyword.
Legion Scimitar Jetbike Squadron
Jetbikes come in detachments of 3-9. They’re only armed with Heavy Bolters, but thanks to their Point Defence trait, they can provide a useful first-strike capability into enemy infantry. Add in their 10″ move, Skimmer rule, and CAF of +2, and they’re a respectable unit for moving out and taking or threatening objectives.
Legion Land Speeder Squadron
A Detachment of 2-6 Speeders with plasma cannons and heavy bolters. You can give half of them multi-meltas and heavy flamers instead, but you may not want to: you’d wind up with a unit with a weird mixture of Light, Light AT and Anti-tank guns, making it difficult to find an ideal target: the melta/flamer option combines a weapon that’s bad against infantry with a gun that literally cannot damage tanks.
That said, multi-meltas are a solid anti-tank weapon, and these speeders are one of the best delivery platforms for them. They won’t be as “point-and-shoot” as many other anti-tank options, but 30 points for a fast-moving AP-3 anti-tank option isn’t the worst bargain you could make. Just be careful that you don’t leave them in the open before they can trade up.
Legion Javelin Squadron
Another detachment of 2-6 models, Javelins come with heavy flamers (no heavy bolter option this time) and your choice of sponson-mounted lascannons or cyclone missile launchers, the latter at an extra 2 points per model. In effect, you’re choosing one of the two profiles available to missile support squads, but you’re stuck with that choice for the game, albeit on a more maneuverable chassis.
Of the two, we’re more impressed by the cyclones: while they only fire the equivalent of frag missiles, their 2 shots at 20” range with Ignore Cover are a solid choice when you need to get some extra anti-infantry firepower across the board to clear out a garrisoned unit or two. And as a bonus, if you can get within 6″, your heavy flamer will give you a third shot with the same profile.
Not to say that the lascannon is bad: it’s fine, but there are plenty of other ways to get them, while shots that can kill infantry in structures from a nice long way away are far more interesting.Â
Spartans and Land Raiders
New to the Legiones Astartes roster, Spartans and Land Raiders give marines access to Assault Transports that aren’t fliers, opening up some new tactical space to play in. They combine solid durability with reasonable firepower and impressive transport capacity to let you move key units across the board to where you need them, while still offering reasonable fire support.
Legion Spartan Detachment
Spartans are a Transport Detachment, and since you can’t bring them as Dedicated Transports, you’ll instead bring them in units of 1-8 in your Demi-Company. That said, with a transport capacity of 5 bases and at 80 points each you’ll likely never use that many. The sponson lascannons can be exchanged for laser destroyers, exchaning 7″ of range for an additional point of AP, while the hull heavy bolters can be swapped for another lascannon shot for 2 points, though this one won’t have the Accurate trait. 5 points buys you a pintle multi-melta and that might be worthwhile given the Spartan’s high cost and the fact it’ll probably be going close to the enemy. Spartans with laser destroyers and multi-meltas will be pretty scary once they get in range. After all, if your assault transport isn’t within 15” of the enemy, what are you doing?
The problem here is that a tank that does everything can’t really do any of those things efficiently. You’re paying 80 points to transport a 40 point infantry detachment with a 25-point Legion Command base, or 160 points for the privilege of dragging 4 Bulky Terminator bases up the board. This seems like something you’d only want to do sparingly, but can be very useful for the Terminators: Deep Striking units can’t charge on the turn the arrive, but they can charge out of a Spartan.
Legion Land Raider Detachment
This unit entry feels like a sort of mixture of the Land Raider Proteus Explorator and the carrier, but uses the Explorator model. Unlike in “full size” 30k, they are Assault Transports, but they also have Forward Deployment and a relatively quick 9” move, meaning they allow some pretty aggressive early-game assaults.
You only have that one Accurate lascannon shot and no hull-mounted weapon so these units’ time is better spent on March order (or possibly Charge orders), and not bothering with the shooting. A few Land Raiders somewhere in midfield on Charge orders represent quite a threat, as they can pin an enemy detachment before unleashing a few terminators (or possibly just twice that many tactical marines) to smash them up in melee. This kind of positional control can be worth paying quite a bit for, which you’ll notice because you can buy four Rhinos for the price of a single Land Raider.
Drop Pods
The ability to drop any non-Bulky Astartes infantry or dreadnoughts pretty much anywhere on the board on turn 1 is going to be quite a game-changer. Those Detachments won’t be able to charge the enemy that turn though, so they’ll be pretty vulnerable and need a bit of coordination. Get that right, though and you’ll open up a lot of options for taking objectives and threatening the enemy backfield.
Legion Drop Pod Detachment
These are wonderful. For only 6 points you get a thing a bit like a Rhino that can deep strike but can’t move after it arrives. It carries the same kind of troops as a Rhino, has the same 4+ save and surprisingly effective twin bolter, which can immediately fire when they land using Point Defence, or else Overwatch to defend its cargo against any nearby infantry units.
A downside of these is that you can’t charge after disembarking from them. You’ll have to be a bit careful when dropping in that your troops aren’t immediately charged by something scary from the enemy army. This might well be where the drop pods’ bolters come in especially handy, firing overwatch to gun down enemy assault marines or Veletarii who try to beat up your infantry.
That said, these look very fiddly to build. I’m curious to see how they manage this and it’s unfortunate that you only get four per box. Constructing a whole Formation in pods will be expensive and time-consuming.
Dreadnought Drop Pod Detachment
The same as a normal Drop Pod, except they’re 7 points, have no guns at all and can carry Dreadnoughts. These are the perfect way to deliver a detachment of Leviathans to roughly where they are required and I expect we’ll see that combination used a lot. Even on Advance orders, Leviathans can do great work demolishing buildings and they’re not at all concerned by being charged by the enemy, as they’re horrible little monsters themselves.
You can also drop Deredeos or Contemptors, of course, but don’t. Drop Leviathans.
Legion Palisade Drop Pod
These can be added to detachments of normal or Dreadnought Drop Pods, at 35 points each. Technically you are not allowed to take one in a Dedicated Transport Detachment, as those have such strict rules on having to buy exactly the right number of transports. That said, you can take them in non-dedicated Transport Detachments, like the ones in Demi-Companies, and you’ll probably want to do that.
These project a 5++ invulnerable save to everything within 6” – friend or foe. You could potentially fit an awful lot of models within that bubble. At first glance, it may not seem all that useful for the troops coming out of Drop Pods, but keep in mind that any Light AT weapons with AP-1 will be at an effective AP0 against any non-Terminator marine infantry in the bubble. That said, don’t go too crazy with these: you might be better off spending the points on another detachment of infantry to drop down instead.
Legion Deathstorm Drop Pod Battery
These are bought separately as a Support Detachment, meaning they’re widely available and can even be used to fill compulsory slots in Formations. As Drop Pods, they are still ignored for calculating break points, despite not actually being transports.
These will fire in the Advance Fire step as they’ll have to be on Advance orders to Deep Strike. This means the enemy has a chance to kill them with First Fire or melee (where their CAF of -8 will not do well) before they go off. They only get to fire once before running out of ammunition.
Assuming they do get to fire though, Deathstorms are great fun. They fire D3+2 Light AT shots with ap-1, hitting only on 6s, at everything visible within 10”. And I really do mean they shoot everything; saturation fire is worked out for individual models so Deathstorms in the same Detachment will shoot at each other – and they come in pairs, or units of up to 6!
We’re not sure if these are actually good, though. Creating a 20” bubble in which everything gets shot is pretty mad, and it might do loads of damage, sometimes. They’re absolutely hilarious though and will certainly add to the madness of games of LI. All that said, there’s a good chance they’ll take a long time to resolve without really achieving much.
Conclusion
As you’ll have seen, the Great Slaughter mostly provides Astartes players with great new ways to move their existing forces around the board, rather than new units to kill the enemy with. New units will come eventually, though we don’t know when, or what these units might be. New releases of more melee units might make things like Land Raiders more useful.Â
For now, though, the Astartes and Solar Auxilia armies now both feel a bit more fleshed out and distinctive to each other, thanks to the new units in The Great Slaughter.
