It’s approximately two months into the Third Edition of the Horus Heresy and as September 2025 comes to an end we’ve received the second Journal Tactica: The Forges of Saturn. Like its predecessor, this is not large, and while the idea of these being a form of “DLC” is often debated online, I’m enjoying them. Again like its predecessor, this Journal presents around 25 pages of lore and then another 20 pages of new missions, detachments, and units rounding out the just under 50 page product. It’s a quick read, but if we continue to get these on a monthly basis, I’m really excited for the variety and changes steadily added to the game and a wide range of deep dives into new and old parts of the Heresy setting. I hope we see more options added to the Mechanicum and Solar Auxilia ranges in future Journals but I’ll open up this article by being clear, this Journal is exclusively useful for Astartes players.
Thanks to Games Workshop for sending the Journal over for review.
Lore – The Phoebian Accord
The Journal opens up describing The Phoebian Accord, a treaty between the Emperor of Mankind and the Tech Adepts of Phoebe – a moon of Saturn. These Adepts were outside of the Martian Hierarchy and instead operated under their own guidelines and principals. In exchange for the Imperium’s protection, they would create the Saturnine Armors.
The following sections cover both how Saturnine Armor functions and its general difficulty to maintain, with Vulkan remaining its strongest proponent by the end of the Great Crusade despite it largely losing favor and general usage by his peers. His efforts alone would lead to the warplate becoming updated and modified enough to be maintained by the Martian tech adepts, allowing it to be scaled up and both distributed and repaired with the resources readily available to the various Legions.
The Journal then provides a summary of how Saturnine Armor was adopted across the legions. There are a bunch of great tie-ins, such as the Dark Angel Naufragia, Blood Angels who use the plate and reawaken dark memories of Signus, and the Deliverers of the Raven Guard. The traitors equally have some great integrations of the armor into their formations. Augmented Emperors Children, World Eater’s “Indurate” that magnified their Nail’s pain, and the Sons of Horus utilizing them amongst the Justaerian. Many of these tie-ins, especially the traitor’s, occur after the Massacre on Isstvan and it is noted that there is a lack of Saturnine on the Traitor’s side at that point in time.
From here we get further insight into the Betrayal of Isstvan. The narrative behind the Legendary mission covered later in this article is explored and how Vulkan prepared a contingency leveraging the strength of massed Saturnine plate. It’s good coverage into parts of a well-known event that we have not seen before (and frankly, given that Isstvan hasn’t been covered in over a decade by new material before third edition launched, I’m glad we are getting it). I won’t dissect every part of it but I recommend any fan of the Heresy Narrative to check it out.
Following the events on Isstvan, the Journal includes several pages covering The Kolarne-Distal Incident and the Sundering of Milhand during the War of Bitter Iron. Kolarne-Distal sheds light to the Thousand Sons’ involvement in the development of Saturnine Armor in tandem with the White Scars, hidden away on a remote space station. The War of Bitter Iron shines a spotlight on the horrors applied to the armor by the Word Bearers as they try to delay the Iron Hands invading the Colchisian Satrapy. These pages provide narrative parallels to the new rules provided later in the Journal in a way that is reminiscent of the Exemplary Battle content of 1st and 2nd edition.
Finally, the lore section concludes with a short timeline of events featuring Saturnine Armor with a notable callout to the Siege of Baal (future Journal perhaps?). Additionally, it is worth calling out the numerous color plates of Saturnine Armor (and Dreadnoughts), diagrams of unit formations, and maps of the Ignis Sector included in these pages. The map is of similar style to what we see in Istvaan Part 1 and a highlight for me as someone that gets a lot more perspective out of these three dimensional maps.
Credit – meltabombed
Legendary and Onslaught Missions
The Forges of Saturn provide four new missions for players to take advantage of. One is a “Legendary” mission, Ignis Sector Assault, that like the campaign books and Journal before, lets players replay the lore found in the first part of the book. Focussed around Vulkan’s assault on heavily defended Iron Warrior lines on Istvaan, this mission does not require any specific army lists, but two sections of the Attacker deployment are reserved for Saturnine units. With further rules for Preliminary Bombardments, Second Wave defensive reserves, and the Saturnine filled Spearhead Sectors, there is a lot going on here but without any set restrictions to legions or “required units,” all players can use their armies in this mission. Naturally though, the Attacker will want to use Saturnine Terminators to get the most out of it.
The other three are “Onslaught” Missions, designed around the concept of a dug-in defending force that is being assaulted by the attacker. A nuance here is that Defenders ignore the effects of Line, with all of their Line(X) keywords getting replaced with Vanguard. Additionally, Defenders also score points for any objectives not actively held by the Attacker. I dig it, and well timed for someone running a narrative league, looking for missions that help tell the story of the Heresy.
All three missions include “Advancing Objectives”, meaning that when scored they ultimately move closer and closer to the Defender’s deployment while also increasing in points earned from capture after each move. This adds incentive to both sides having transports and other mobile units and I foresee a lot of combat happening in the areas ahead of where the objectives will ultimately move into.
Line Advance, the first mission, has a classic long edge deployment with objectives that can move twice, ultimately finally residing in the Defender’s zone. Breakthrough has a “U” shape objective deployment with two of the four objectives starting in the Defender’s half of the board and two in the Attackers. Attackers also have an additional rule to allow for reinforcements from either of the short ends of the table. Finally, Dawn Raid utilizes corner deployments with one of the objectives fully inside of the Defender’s zone. The Defender must deploy first with the attacker having a 50% chance to seize.
One thing that I’m particularly pleased to see is that Battlefield Assets are included in the mission special rules, bringing further relevance to one of my favorite parts of the Istvaan Part 1. I’m working on making up a few minefields as we speak!
JellyMuppet: I really enjoyed reading these missions. Having objectives move or increase in value as you play the game opens up a ton of different vectors for mission design (if that’s symmetrical or more narrative ones) that weren’t as easily available to us in second edition.
New Astartes Detachments
Alongside the new missions two new Detachments are now available to all Legion Astartes players which provide some much desired flexibility to list building. The Linebreaker Echelon is an Apex Detachment that captures the meaning of a Terminator Vanguard, letting players choose “Saturnine”, “Tartaros”, or “Cataphractii” and then fill two Heavy Assault (one prime) and a Retinue with units that share that word. Even better, it also includes a War-Engine slot making it very easy to throw in some Dreadnought support to your force. I think this will be a popular pick, but primarily because of how it adds detachment efficiency to anyone who wants to bring a Dreadnought onto the table but will also push players to make sure they have enough AP2 to not drown under a horde of Terminator bodies.
Next up, we have the Maelstrom Sentry Battery which after running four Tarantulas at The Nova Open this year, might turn into Third Editions “Stone Gauntlet” or “Lascannon Heavy Support Squad + Techmarine” army pick. The one that as soon as you see it in your opponents list, you feel inclined to take a deep breath, preparing yourself for a tough game.
The Maelstrom Sentry Battery is an Auxiliary Detachment that requires a Master of Signals to utilize (which are already great, and I love that we continue to see force org options unlocked through Command choices), but once selected, this five slot detachment lets a player bring three units of Tarantulas and two Araknae Quad Accelerators. Narratively, this detachment is a lot of fun and I love the idea of my nerd, my hackerman, my esports pro just sitting in a ruin staring at his computer screen and blasting away. Like a scene out of Ender’s Game, I find joy in an option that leans into the Defense-inclined player or the Night Lord Praetor who deploys automated weapons to catch unsuspecting victims.
Now while this is a great narrative pick, I have concerns of what this will do to the tabletop. Simply put, Tarantulas are awesome. Volkite loadouts in particular are nasty for the price and the ability to use this detachment and get SIX free reactions during your opponents movement phase is not only strong but demoralizing as you spend more time than the opponent player shooting in their own turn. While Tarantulas may not win any games from capturing points, they are an annoying, BS4 platform that can just delete those critical Troop choices that are expected to score objective points. I have yet to test the Lascannon and Multimelta options and even those may have some potential play but end up quite expensive for an AV 10, 2 HP vehicle. Finally, it would be very possible to take 6 and effectively box your opponent into their own deployment zone (depending on terrain). Especially boxing in vehicles that will not find the full space to move past the Tarantulas for at least the first turn. If you do this, you are not a fun person, and we are not playing the same game.
New Astartes Units (and a Prosperine Arcana)
The Forges of Saturn lives up to its name by expanding the variety of Saturnine options available to players. First off, the Saturnine Terminator Command Squad is here. It’s not cheap at 160 points for two models (with the option to expand the unit to six models in total for 400 points) but I know anecdotally that many in the Heresy community have wanted a melee-focussed Saturnine option. The WS5 unit includes a Champion Chosen (with the Champion and Sergeant Subtypes) and the option to equip each member of the squad with the entire panoply of Saturnine weaponry. Additionally a new weapon option is available to the unit, the Paired Saturnine Disruption Fists with a +1 AM letting you create an entire unit of pugilists. A single model may take a Legion Standard and the entire unit has a Saturnine Teleport Synchronizer letting them join up with a Deepstriking Saturnine Praetor (edit: except Praetor’s won’t have or get Malefic so that’s awkward. You can however buy the Saturnine Teleportation Transponder for 60 points letting the new unit deep strike by themselves. While you can make a Centurion Malefic, he won’t provide deep strike himself making the purpose of the Synchronizer being included at all unclear.), appearing in your opponents backline or wherever else you feel they need to be.
I think giving the Champion an Axe or Hammer is a good choice but being able to have six models Deepstriking and dropping Particle Shredder templates is the real spice of this squad, don’t leave home (or your Teleport Pad) without them!
JellyMuppet: The double fist option is less of a disadvantage than you think it is. You might lose out on the “Big Gun” but the Particle Shredder is the real Big Gun of any Saturnine unit.
NotThatHenryC: I’m a bit worried about this unit. Usually when we take a retinue we’re trading better WS and A for the loss of Vanguard, which the normal Terminators and assault veterans have. But Saturnines don’t have Vanguard so you lose nothing by taking the retinue. Where a normal Saturnine has A2 at WS4 these guys with dual fists have A4 at WS5, which is way more than twice as scary. Three of them in a Land Raider could make a mess of things, though having only S6 does limit them somewhat. These are just much better Saturnines with no downsides, for only a few more points than the normal guys.
In addition to the Command Squad, the Centurion in Saturnine Armor is also ready to hit the table, with a statline that you’d expect of a Centurion (and Officer of the Line (2)) but oddly lacking the melee weapon options that you’d think a Command Choice could take. Not only that, but the paired fists are also not an option, meaning that your Centurion has the load out options for a standard Saturnine Terminator. The model also includes the previously-mentioned Teleport Synchronizer but lacks the ability to provide Deepstrike to itself (despite it being mentioned in the earlier lore section that Centurions equally led Deepstrike Assaults on Isstvan). Overall this is a major miss of a unit for me and while I think the Command Squad will see a lot of action on tabletops, the Centurion will be a very rare option unless you want an army made up entirely of Saturnine Terminators (more power to you if you do).
The coolest addition to his Journal is exclusively for Word Bearer players, the Phraetus Anointed Conclave. If you ever wondered what would happen if you bound a daemon inside of Saturnine warplate, I can answer that question for you: Literal – Chaos. The Elite unit is great at 240 points for three WS5 models, Aflame (2), Eternal Warrior (1), and the option to choose the entire range of Saturnine Weaponry (just like the Command Squad). This unit can purchase a Teleport Transponder for itself to deepstrike except Praetor’s can’t be Malefic so that’s awkward. You can however buy the Saturnine Teleportation Transponder for 60 points letting the new unit deep strike by themselves. You also can make a Saturnine Centurion Malefic to provide even more punch and tag along. Deepstriking combined with its unique wargear, the Warpfire Mantle (which causes ANY unit within 8” to take a Toughness Check, upon failure, the unit suffers D3, AP2, Damage 1 wounds that cannot be saved in any way) creates a terrifying brick of death that punishes your opponent for trying to kill it. A unit that only Lorgar or Kor Pheron could truly love. Actually, I lied, and even though I have no desire to play Word Bearers, this unit is super cool and it gives me a lot of optimism for what is coming down the pipe with future Journals.
NotThatHenryC: Okay everything I said about the retinue applies here, plus Eternal Warrior 1 and some nonsense with exploding when shot (and on a 5+ when they die, incidentally). Oh and they get a gun that causes panic checks too if you want. This is an absolute terror of a unit. They will crush elites and to be honest I’m not sure what you can do about them, except perhaps to be somewhere else.
Finally, the Thousand Sons also get some magical presents from the Forges of Saturn through the new Osiraean Prosperine Arcana. Available to any unit in Saturnine armor as well as any Walker, the Arcana provides two new Psychic Powers. Psychometry works during the shooting phase and reduces the Overload Modifier of shooting attacks by 1 (even to 0, negating the rule entirely). Machine Empathy works during the Status subphase and lets you heal a wound up to the model’s starting wounds value (this will not bring a model back from the dead, but targets a wounded model). These combine to really bolster the effectiveness of a Saturnine Terminator Squad and Saturnine Dreadnought, greatly reducing the risk to firing its potent weaponry while also keeping them on the field longer.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this Journal is rock solid. But I say this not in just what it brings to the game (which is great if you enjoy Saturnine-anything and fixed gun emplacements) but it makes me extremely optimistic for the future of the product line and Heresy third edition as a whole. No, this Journal is not for everyone but the lore is neat, the new Detachments and Units are valuable (ignoring that Centurion), and if this is the most viable way for Games Workshop to continue to add new, regular content to our game system while diving in and exploring lesser known narrative elements of the setting, I’m all for it. There is an argument to be made that some of this material could have come out in Liber’s to begin with but it’s minor in my opinion and better handled in the Journal format than what we saw in the Campaign Books of second edition. Perfect is the enemy of good and to me, these Journals are just that, good.
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