Greetings one and all,
I’m back after a much-needed break and today, I’m continuing my look into the Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness game. This time, I’m starting to look at the individual unit types and in some cases, individual units.
So what am I looking at today?
Today, I will be covering the HQ choices you can have in a Legion Army, specifically the Legion Praetor, Command Squads and Legion Damocles Command Rhino. So, as there is a lot to cover, let's dive right in.
Legion Praetor - The Legion Praetor is a Close Combat beast, only beaten by named characters and of course, the Primarchs. With a Weapon Skill of 6, he’s hitting most Legionaries on a +3. On top of this, personally, I think his Weapon selection is brilliant. I suggest arming him with a Paragon Blade with its +1 Strength, AP 2 and Murderous Strike(+6) and your Praetor will cut through even Elite units like they’re nothing.
I will also take this chance to mention the Praetor Armour saves, the Praetor gets Artificer Armour as standard giving them and +2 Save, as well as an Iron Halo granting them a +4 Invulnerable Save, so at this point, the Praetor is basically rocking Terminator levels of Armour. And all this for 120 points.
Legion Cataphractii Praetor - At 135 points I’m not sure I can say this is a good choice… Let me explain. Your basic Praetor gets the same level of Armour Protection as Cataphractii Praetor but the Cataphractii Praetor gets 1 extra Wound. Seems like an okay deal, until to count in the fact that they lose a point of Movement and can't Sweeping Advance (this is due to the Cataphractii Armour). To my mind, I want my Close Combat beast of an HQ choice as mobile as possible, winning Combats and using that Initiative 5 to get Sweeping Advances off. Thematically, I really like the idea of a Praetor in Cataphractii Terminator Armour, but it is just not a point efficient or good use of this model's Skill Set.
Legion Tartaros Praetor - I like the idea of the Tartaros Praetor. It deals with my main issues about the Cataphractii Praetor, which is that it gives the Tartaros Praetor 4 wounds and they can still Sweeping Advance. However, it also drops their Invulnerable Save to a +5, which isn't great. On the upside though, Tartaros Praetor is only 110 points, so you can save a few points here. But if you need to save 10 points I’d suggest taking them somewhere else.
In summary, I’d say the basic Praetor is the best of the bunch. They have great Armour as standard, a huge number of Weapons and Upgrades to pick from and are a beast in Close Combat.
Legion Command Squad - The most flexible of the Command Squads, the equipment list for this Squad is vast and they can have some really nice Gear as well. On top of that, they all come with Artificer Armour for a tasty +2 Armour Save. They also have a WS of 5 so they really can hold their own and butcher most Squads they engage in Combat with, if build that way (and this Squad will be with your Praetor, so might as well make them Close Combat focused).
They are also the only Command Squad that can be given Legion Warhawk Jump Packs, Spatha Combat Bikes, or Scimitar Jet Bikes, so if you want to have your Praetor on one of these mounts riding around with his boys, well, this is the Squad for you.
Legion Cataphractii Command Squad - For when you have to kill everything in front of you, you can't go wrong with these guys. Clad in Cataphractii Armour giving them the +2 Armour Save, and a +4 Invulnerable Save they are really hard to kill. As well as being WS 5, they also come armed with Power Weapons. You can sit back and watch as most things they get in close with melt away. That said, they suffer from the same issues as discussed in the Legion Cataphractii Praetor section, only being movement 6 and not being able to Sweeping Advance. But, with this Squad, the lower Movement can be countered by giving them a Land Raider Proteus.
Legion Tartaros Command Squad - Again, kinda hitting the middle spot. The Tartaros Command Squad has a lower Invulnerable Save than the Cataphractii, but is able to Sweeping Advance and like their Cataphractii Armoured brethren, come with WS 5 and Power Weapons as standard. I personally think these are the far better Terminator Command Squads.
These Command Squads are really good. I think the thing that sells them to me is that they don't take up an HQ slot, are all WS 5 and all have a +2 Save as standard. As for which one is the best? It’s a situational thing I think. Furthermore, as was pointed out to me by a member of the community, due to the Legion standard these count as line units and therefore can take and hold objectives. It also gives leadership 10 to all Legion Astartes models within 6 inches when taking morale and pinning tests. These effects last as long as the standard bearer is on the table.
The standard Command Squad is good if you want your Praetor accompanied around the battlefield, or your Praetor is mounted on something. However, I’ve got to say if used smartly, the Legion Tartaros Command Squad is possibly the better out of the two Terminator Armoured options.
Legion Damocles Command Rhino - Erm……..Why? Why would you take this? Why is it 150 points? I understand the Geo Locator Beacon really helps you get those reserves onto the board, but is that worth 150 points? In my opinion, no. I really don't have anything to say about this other than don't bother, unless you really can’t get something better for 150 points.
… Okay, so I lied. After much deliberation I will be writing about the Legion Centurion and its Consularis in the next article. As there’s so much to go over, I think they deserve their own article and a lot more of a detailed look than I would be able to give them here, so stay tuned.
But with that, that's the HQ choices. In the next article, I’m going to go over the Centurion and their Consularis, as well as Special Upgrades that make your Centurion really powerful and incredibly useful on the battlefield.
Until then, take care.
Hi, thank you for reading my article. I hope you enjoyed it and that it was useful to you. Articles like these take a lot of time to research and write, so if you did enjoy it or found it useful maybe you’d be so kind as to drop me a donation. That way I can continue to fund the products and books I need to keep delivering high quality articles like this.
You can donate to me at https://ko-fi.com/graypaints
For updates when I release an article, why not Subscribe and join us on our Social Media pages?
Comments