This is the “other stuff” in the Libers Astartes and Hereticus. I’m not going to pretend that there’s much logic to an article looking at Dreadnoughts along with aircraft and reconnaissance squads, but this is what’s left after we’ve looked at the other force organisation options that made sense together. You can find all those, along with all our other Horus Heresy edition launch content, on our third edition landing page.
Unit Types
This article is going to be dominated by units belonging to three unusual types: Walkers, Flyers and Cavalry. These all need a bit of explanation as they work quite differently to the Infantry and tanks we’re used to.
Walkers (aka Dreadnoughts)
Dreadnoughts dominated second edition Heresy and have been toned down in the new edition, possibly a bit too much. They haven’t got any more wounds than before and will feel a lot less tough now there are multi-damage weapons to hit them with. They’ve also had their WS and BS dropped from 5 to 4, making them less dangerous and easier to hit in melee. Enemies you hit in melee will have a better chance to survive now the Brutal and Instant Death rules are gone.
It won’t be nearly so effective to have Dreadnoughts march across the board as line breakers in the new edition. They’ll be shot more easily than before and units like elite Terminators will beat them up. However, unlike vehicles, they can react with all their weapons. Shooting at a Dreadnought will often mean taking return fire from some very big guns.
Dreadnoughts also benefit from your Legion’s special rules, unlike vehicles. Imperial Fist ones get accurate Autocannons, Emperor’s Children ones get better Initiative and Raven Guard ones are difficult to shoot. They’ll also usually be able to use your Legion’s advanced reaction, though their load-out will determine if it makes sense to do it.
In a game where it’s very difficult to shoot AV14 vehicles dead it may turn out that melee Dreadnoughts still have a role, smashing tanks in melee, if you can find a way to get them there. Dreadnoughts have high Toughness, 2+ saves and Krak and Melta can’t be used against them any more, so they also have a role blocking the progress of enemy Infantry, most of whom won’t be able to damage them.
You can move some Dreadnoughts about the battlefield with things like Dreadclaws and Drop pods. You might even have a Mastodon full of Contemptors. Saturnines are too big for this though and Leviathans only fit in Pods.
Nothing is Fearless in third edition but Dreadnoughts have very resilient mental stats, with LD 12 and CL 10. They only have an average WP7 and a low IN of 5. They can hold objectives and will be tricky to remove for lots of units. So overall it looks like our ancient heroes will still have a role on third edition battlefields, even if they no longer dominate them.
Flyers
Flyers have had a significant shake-up in third edition. They now only spend small amounts of time on the board to do set missions, before returning to reserves. You can start rolling for your planes to show up from Turn 1, looking for a 3+. If they don’t you can roll again but if you’re successful you’ll need a 4+ till you succeed a second time, 5+ till the third and a 6+ the fourth. This means you can probably expect to see your planes a couple of times in a game but it’ll be unusual to get three appearances and incredibly rare to get four.
These reserve rolls are only affected by rules that explicitly affect Aerial Reserves. Masters of Signal don’t affect them and so far I’ve only found one model who does: Lotara Sarrin of the World Eaters, who can give you +1 to Aerial reserves rolls. That might mean planes make three visits instead of two.
Every time they show up your opponent can try to intercept them. To be fair that’s the only chance to kill Flyers, as they are safely back in reserve during your opponent’s shooting or combat phases. It also causes your opponent to burn through reactions faster than they’d probably like. Flyers never gain Tactical Statuses and lose a Hull Point instead of rolling on the Vehicle Damage Table, so they won’t ever be stopped or prevented from firing if they survive.
Units embark onto Flyers during the Start Phase of a turn, not at the start of the game, though once embarked they aren’t allowed to get out again. This means you can have your Flyer bring additional units to the board if you want.
There are four “Combat Assignments” you can send your Flyers on and only one reaction they can do. For all of these, if it’s Turn 1 you have to start your Flyer touching the edge of the battlefield in your Deployment Zone at the start of its mission, at which point your opponent can choose to Intercept. From Turn 2 onwards they can start from any edge. The options are:
Combat Air Patrol (CAP) is actually a reaction, rather than a Combat Assignment. It uses one of your reaction points and lets you bring a Flyer with the Interceptor rule, like a Xiphon, onto the battlefield during the enemy turn. Once an enemy Flyer has moved you can deploy your interceptor anywhere on the board edge, then you can move up to its full move straight forward – so make sure you’ve pointed your plane at its target. Then you fire at the plane you’re intercepting and remove your interceptor again.
So you’re getting a free shot at the enemy after it’s moved but before it has fired or any passengers have disembarked. Those passengers will have to do an emergency disembarkation if their plane goes down. They may become pinned and some may be destroyed, though any un-pinned survivors will be able to act as normal. There’s no reserve roll to do a CAP reaction but it counts as one of your plane’s “appearances,” making it need to roll higher to appear in subsequent turns.
CAP is completely safe for your fighter because it happens during your opponent’s turn, meaning they cannot react to it. It’s gone again before their shooting phase comes around. To be honest you barely need to bother getting your plane out of its box for this as you basically just put it down, roll its shooting and put it away again. You may choose to wave your plane around while shouting “Neeeeoow!”
Drop Mission is how you deliver people to the battlefield. You deploy, then your opponent Intercepts, Snap Firing unless they have Skyfire. You then move your Flyer up to its speed straight forward without turning, then enemy Combat Air Patrols can be declared and Tarantulas may fire at it. If you make it through all that your passengers can disembark as normal, treating the Flyer’s base as one big Access Point.
If your Flyer gets taken out by the Intercept Advanced Reaction then, in addition to doing an Emergency Disembarkation, you have to roll a D6 for every model in the unit. For every 1 you roll, the unit takes an AP2 D2 wound. You can use Invulnerable saves against these but not Cover or Damage Mitigation. Technically this doesn’t apply to getting taken out by the Combat Air Patrol or Tarantula reactions but it obviously should.
The penalty for getting shot down isn’t all that bad I think. It’d be a problem to have an assault unit get dropped in your own Deployment zone but much less bad if it’s a Combat Air Patrol or Tarantula after the Flyer has moved. You might lose a couple of models and there’s a risk of getting Pinned but otherwise your unit can continue as normal. It’s obviously a shame to lose a Storm Eagle in that situation but it’ll have done most of its job by then. You won’t care at all about a Dreadclaw.
Extraction Mission is going to be seen only rarely I think. Your plane turns up and removes one of your units, also removing any tactical statuses it might have. In theory it can bring them back again later but in practice it’ll probably be at least the plane’s second trip to the board when this happens so it’s not very likely that it’ll return. All the models in the unit you’re rescuing have to be within 2” of the Flyer after it moves, though they may be able to arrange themselves in the right formation for this if they aren’t Routed or Pinned. You do get to fire any defensive weapons you might have in the shooting phase. I don’t think you’ll often want to do this with a Storm Eagle but a Dreadclaw won’t have anything else to do, so maybe.
Strike Mission lets you shoot stuff, but only with Centreline-mounted weapons and only as Snap Fire, while forcing any Intercept reactions also to Snap Fire at you. You deploy, Intercept happens, then you move straight forward up to you speed, then CAP and Tarantulas go off, then you shoot. I don’t think this will happen all that often as you really want to do as much damage as possible with your Flyers’ few visits to the board. It might have value for things like bombers, which drop big enough templates not to care much about accuracy.
Strafing Run is a bit different in that Intercept fire coming at you is at full BS, not Snap Fire. That’s weird as normally all Intercept fire is Snap Fire, even at things like Infantry and tanks. However you get to fire all your flyer’s guns at full BS too. The interesting thing here is that you can move up to half your speed in any direction in the movement phase. This may well let you deploy your plane somewhere on the board edge that scary enemies can’t see it, then move to where you have a shot before letting rip. The problem is that, as the enemy won’t be Snap-firing, you have to avoid all their big guns, not just things like Deredeos. Mind out for Rapiers.
Cavalry
Legion bikes and speeders get classed as Cavalry. Their rules are pretty simple, but impactful. They Fall Back 2D6 plus their Initiative, they can’t ever get Cover Saves from Terrain (though other stuff may potentially work) and they can’t hold or contest objectives.
Cavalry can use the Evade Advanced Reaction after the Volley step if they get charged – meaning it doesn’t work if someone reaches them with their Set-up move. Each model gets to move equal to its Initiative and the charge then proceeds if they are still in range. With Initiative 4, Legion Cavalry are pretty good at escaping charges this way.
War Engines
You only get one War Engine slot in a detachment, so we usually won’t see more than two or three per army. They might get picked a lot in the Logistical Support slot though. It’ll be difficult to bring many Dreadnoughts even if you want to, though it’s possible to bring slightly more Contemptors.
Contemptor Dreadnought
Contemptors went to WS4 but A4, so they actually average about the same number of hits against WS4 opponents. If a Contemptor can reach an enemy vehicle it’ll do a ton of damage. Getting there is going to be far more difficult now though.
Shooty contemptors are probably still fine for what they cost. They have Implacable advance like Terminators, so can volley fire any weapons they have that aren’t Heavy, though awkwardly their big guns are all Heavy, so it’s only relevant for the smaller guns in their fists.
There are a lot of options for Contemptors. The classic four lascannon build is still fine, particularly as it’ll be able to return fire with D2 shots. Gravis Autocannons and Heavy Bolters both provide a decent number of D2 shots, which will do ok damage. The conversion beamer only gets up to S8 at maximum range so it’s unlikely to take out tanks, but it does AP3 3” blasts at ranges beyond 15”, so will do major damage to marines.
My favourite gun for a Contemptor is the Gravis Plasma cannon. It fires a 5” blast at S7 AP4 D2, with Breaching (5+) and Overload (1). This is basically as good as the Saturnine dread’s Heavy plasma bombard for about half the price.
I think there may well be a case for melee Contemptors and maybe even Dual-fist ones. This might be a bit counter-intuitive as the game is so dangerous for them now but Paired Gravis chainfists are extremely horrible, striking at S11 with Armourbane for 4 damage. If a Contemptor with a pair of them connects with a heavy tank like a Spartan it’s pretty likely to take it out. One chainfist and a Gravis plasma cannon would be versatile and dangerous in lots of situations.
You can stick a Havok launcher on a Contemptor and, at just 5 points, it’s pretty much a no-brainer. It might occasionally hurt something and even has stun (1). A Heavy flamer or Graviton gun in a fist provide more cheap ways to try and apply Tactical Statuses to enemy units.
The Legacies document that just landed allows for a Talon of three Contemptors to be taken as an Auxiliary detachment, via the Mortifactor Consul. As such they’re now the easiest Dreadnoughts to field – though of course you could always take a Centurion instead and have any two Dreadnoughts. Contemptors might not be as powerful as they were in second edition but they’re a solid choice.
Deredeo Dreadnought
The Deredeo is pretty similar to how it worked in second edition. It’s going to be shooting stuff with very large guns and hoping nobody comes too close. It’s actually quite mobile with a 7” move and several weapons that aren’t Heavy. You definitely don’t want it to end up too close to the enemy and absolutely not in melee but you can set it up out of sight if you’re going second, then have it come out and fire very effectively.
The Anvillus Autocannon array is a good all-rounder gun with 48” range, 6 shots at S8, D2, with Skyfire (fires normally at flyers instead of snap firing), Rapid Tracking (can fire as a reaction… which it could do anyway on a Dreadnought) and Breaching 5+.
The Volkite Falconet is exclusively for shooting infantry, with 45” range, 10 shots at S7 but only AP5 and D1. It has Volkite 7 and crucially Pinning (2), so any survivors are likely to be stuck where they are and not scoring objectives.
For blowing up heavy targets you have the Arachnus heavy lascannon battery. It has 48” range, 2 shots, S9 (+1 with Heavy), AP2 and D4, with Armourbane and Skyfire. It can potentially kill a Land Raider or a Saturnine Dreadnought in one volley, though against a lot of targets you’d be better off with more shots. None of the Deredeo’s other weapons threaten AV14 so this can look like a bit of a wasteful set-up. However, paired with Boreas missiles your Deredeo would be a major threat to things like Automata units and Saturnine terminators, while any aircraft would be extremely unhappy to see it.
The Hellfire plasma Cannonade has two modes, both with 36” range and Heavy (RS). Sustained fire has 6 shots, S6, AP4, D1 and Breaching 5+ while Maximal fire has just one shot but it’s a 5” blast with S7, AP4, D2, Breaching 4+ and Overload (1). Neither mode is much use against vehicles. Sustained fire only has the power of about three plasma guns and is much less good than autocannons. Maximal fire is good against pretty much any infantry and that’s the mode you’ll usually use, though it’s probably outclassed by a Contemptor with a Gravis Plasma cannon and either a melee weapon or a second Gravis Plasma cannon. As such I think this is the least good option, unless you particularly enjoy painting plasma glow.
In the Deredeo’s hull you have a twin heavy bolter that you can replace with heavy flamers. You’ll usually be far away so I prefer bolters, except perhaps if you’ve got Lascannon arms. Bolters won’t do anything to your lascannon targets and it might be useful to be able to cook nearby infantry once in a while.
There’s a slightly tougher decision for the roof, where you can have either four Boreas air defence missiles or an Aiolos missile launcher, depending on whether you want to kill tanks and planes or infantry. Boreas missiles can each only be fired once – all at the same time if you like, doing S8 AP2 D3. The Aiolos fires a S6 AP4 D1 small blast 60”, with Heavy (FP) giving it a second shot if you don’t move. It has Barrage (1) letting it fire at stuff you can’t see. That would waste all the other guns but it might be worth it now and then.
You can make a Deredeo into a highly effective infantry killer with autocannons, volkite or plasma and the Aiolos on the roof. Boreas missiles and Autocannons are good against lighter vehicles (like flyers), heavy infantry and other Dreadnoughts. The Lascannon are great against the heaviest targets but in that case most of the Deredeo’s other firepower would be wasted.
Leviathan Dreadnought
The Leviathan is going to be less tough in third edition and much less able to destroy heavy vehicles at range. It only has a 6” move and can’t Rush, so getting it across the board will be difficult without help. It isn’t especially expensive now at 220 points, though there are lots of upgrades that can push it close to 300 points all in. It’s a really tough model with T8, 7 wounds and 2+/5++.
Rending Stormcannon used to tear vehicles up with but now their 4 (5 stationary) S7 shots do nothing to AV14 and can only inconvenience AV13 with statuses. However, with Breaching 5+ and D2 the Stormcannon is a real threat to elite infantry, walkers, automata and so on.
The Grav-flux bombard has one 5” blast at 18” range. It’s S7, AP4 and D1 with Heavy D, Breaching 6+, Shock (pinned) and Pinning (2). This is a pretty disappointing profile I think, especially compared to the Graviton cannon that a much cheaper Rapier or Predator can take. That has a 36” range AP3 3” blast, also doing Pinning (2). Shame as it looks really cool.
The Cyclonic melta lance has 12” range, 3 shots, S8, AP2 and D3, with Heavy RS and Melta 8. This is a great gun for a Leviathan coming out of a Drop pod behind an enemy vehicle. It has enough firepower to also be a big problem for things like Saturnine Terminators.
You can use a Leviathan in one of two ways I think. There’s a defensive midfield brawler with a combination of Stormcannon or maybe a Grav flux bombard, probably with a siege drill and definitely with volkites and a phosphex discharger, to shoot enemy infantry off objectives.
Alternatively, Leviathans are the nastiest units you can put in Drop pods. A Leviathan in the back line, with pretty much any armament, is going to cause your opponent a bit of a headache. Naturally there are the usual risks and delays to having units arrive from reserve but it can actually be a good thing sometimes to arrive in your opponent’s deployment zone after some of the biggest threats have left.
In any case, Leviathans should always chuck phosphex about with reckless abandon. It’ll be very awkward for your opponent to have to keep taking those Panic 3 checks and they’ll kill quite a bit of stuff too.
Saturnine Dreadnought
This whopping great Dreadnought is the centrepiece of the Saturnine box, so you might well already have the version with a Heavy plasma bombard and Disintegrator cannon. The Inversion beamer and Graviton pulveriser are available on a separate sprue, which comes boxed with the Chiron version. We don’t have rules for any kind of melee weapon so far, but the kit is designed to be magnetised so you have some freedom for all the options.
The Saturnine Dreadnought only moves 6”, has only A2 and is Heavy, so it can’t rush. Other stats are WS4, BS4, S8, T8, W8 and I3. It has a 2+/4++ save and a Thermal diffraction field, reducing the strength of incoming las, plasma, melta and flamer weapons by 1. This also means its weapons will only ever get Breaching against it on a 6, if they should overload. It’s a very tough model.
The Thermal diffraction field offers no protection from its disintegrator cannon overloading, however. This 24” 2 shot S9 AP2 D3 gun overloads on a 1 or 2 to hit. This will happen a lot and a Saturnine Dreadnought with two of these can potentially disintegrate itself on turn 1. Like a lot of disintegrator weapons, this gun is somehow perfect for killing the unit carrying it more than anything else.
The Heavy Plasma Bombard has 36” range and fires a 5” blast. It’s S7, AP4, D2 and breaching 6+. Maximal fire mode is S8, breaching 5+ and Overload (2). This is pretty safe to fire on maximal mode as it only wounds the Thermal-fielded Saturnine on a 5+. You should be fine. It’s not a lot better than the Contemptor’s Gravis plasma cannon though, so you can get basically the same weapon for half the price overall. There may be a niche firing indirect blasts at things like Rapiers for a Saturnine with two of these, especially if you’ve got a Siege Breaker to assist with targeting.
The Graviton charge Cannon has only 18” range, which is a problem on a slow model like this. It’s S9, AP3 and D3 with Heavy D, 3” blast, 6+ breaching, shock (pinned,), so it pins vehicles on a 5+ to hit, and pinning 3. It’s a lot better than the Leviathan’s grav weapon at least, thanks to having AP3, though the 3” blast is disappointing.
The Inversion beamer is more effective against nearby targets, unlike other beamers, and seems by far the best of the Saturnine’s main weapons. It’s got a 30” range 5” blast at S7 AP3 D2, which is already great. Within 15” that 5” blast instead does S8 A2 D3 hits. It’s not a lot of use against tanks but if you want a gun or two for killing lots of any kind of infantry up to Saturnine terminators, this will do the job for you.
The Saturnine Dreadnought is pricey, coming in at 340 points armed with plasma, disintegrator and two photonic incinerators. You can pay 10 points to swap the plasma gun for any of the other weapons, or swap out the disintegrator for any of them for free.
As well as the really big guns you get a couple of fairly big guns, all of which fire templates and have Assault, to let you fire as a Volley. There’s nothing wrong with the default photonic Incinerators, which are S6 AP4 D1 panic 2. These can be upgraded to either Concussive resonators or Heavy particle shredders for 10 points.
Concussive resonators have two shots each, so you’d be firing four templates. They are only S6, AP5, D1 with Overload 1 (harmless to this thing) and Stun 2. Heavy particle shredders, which come with the alternate weapon sprue, are very scary: S6, AP3, D2, Breaching 6+ and Overload on 1s – which is again mostly harmless to the Saturnine.
I’ve got to say, I’m not all that impressed by Saturnine Dreadnoughts. The guns they can carry are good but not great. If the plasma/disintegrator version didn’t come in the Saturnine box I think I’d recommend buying the Chiron pattern. The beamer and grav combine reasonably well for shooting up infantry and the shredders are horrific. They really are very tough though.
Recon
The Recon slot has a surprising variety of different unit types including infantry, cavalry and vehicles. The very fast Outriders sit alongside totally static Tarantulas. What unifies them is that all this stuff can infiltrate or outflank.
You get two Recon slots in a Combat Pioneer Auxiliary Detachment. The Vigilator unlocks a Recon Demi-company with three Recon slots (one of which is a valuable Prime slot) and one Fast Attack, but all those Recon slots have to be used for Reconnaissance squads. They occasionally turn up in Legion-specific detachments too – notably the Alpha Legion Headhunter Leviathal, which has two unrestricted Prime slots.
Reconnaissance Squad
Five standard Legionaries who can infiltrate 9” or more from the enemy for 110 points, which is too expensive. They come with shotguns but can be given Nemesis bolters for 5 points each, which totally changes the character of the unit.
Shotgun squads are nuisance skirmishes. Their guns are basically 12” range bolters with AP”-“ and stun 0. You can give the sergeant a pistol and/or melee weapon, though they’re not impressive in melee and can’t charge on turn one anyway if they infiltrate. You can infiltrate onto objectives but your scoring is capped at 2VPs by the Support unit 2 rule.
Alternatively you can have snipers, quadrupling their range and turning them into into a back line unit. Nemesis bolters have 48” range, 1 shot, S4, AP5, D1 with Heavy RS, breaching 5+, precision 4+ and pinning 1. I recommend sniping a unit’s nuncio vox so they can’t easily recover if you pin them. It’s nice that you can move and shoot with snipers now. This version is a pretty good option in a game where statuses will be very important.
It’s a bit mad that reconnaissance squads cost more than seekers, which are much better. Seekers have better BS, incredibly good guns and are not support squads. Reconnaissance sniper squads are useful but the shotgun squads are probably rule of cool only, unfortunately.
Sabre
A small vehicle* with a very speedy 16 move and the outflank ability. The Sabre is great for getting behind enemy vehicles and shooting the back end right off them. It costs 80 points but you’ll probably want to upgrade it significantly, potentially adding a lot more cost. AV 12/11/10 and 4 hull points.
Default armament is an Anvillus snub autocannon: 24”, FP3, S7, AP4, D2 with breaching 5+ and a heavy bolter. Both are front-mounted. You can add the usual pintle weapons and up to four sabre missiles for 5 points each. These are one-shot S7 AP4 D2 with Breaching 6+. They’re much worse than hunter killer missiles but you might be able to fire them at soft rear armour.
You can swap the autocannon for a Neutron blaster for 10 points or Volkite Saker for free. The Neutron blaster has 24”, 1 shot, S9, AP2 and D3. It has Armourbane, Shock (suppressed) and unfortunately Overload 1. The Volkite Saker has 25” (far better than 24”!), 6 shots, S6, AP5 and D1, with deflagrate 6. It’s pretty weak but defensive if you want to split fire.
You can replace the hull Heavy bolter with a Heavy flamer for free, which might be good as you can get to great positions to flame things. A multimelta costs 25 points and a Volkite Culverin is 15, which both feel a bit pricey. Your Sabre can potentially have quite a lot of dakka if you give it a pintle weapon too.
To be honest I’m not sold on these. Outflank is unreliable and there are lots of units that do it better I think. If I’m sending a unit into the enemy deployment zone I think I’d want it to be able to score objectives and/or fight in melee, neither of which Sabres can do.
*Though not usually as small as this one from LI.
Outrider Squadron
This is a much improved unit in third edition thanks to now having 2 wounds each and the new Firestorm rule, which essentially allows outriders to fire twice per turn if they can get within 12” of something.
You pay 85 points for your first three Outriders, plus 20 each for up to seven more. They have a 14” move, can outflank and have Vanguard 1. Only 1 attack in melee though so their chainswords aren’t worth much. It might be worth swapping one or two of these per unit for shotguns, for a chance to stun their targets. You’ll mostly fire the bolters instead though.
Twin bolters are just bolters with 4 shots, so a full Outrider squadron can potentially fire 40 shots, twice in a turn. You can replace these with twin plasma guns for 15 points. These have 24” range, 2 shots, S6, AP4, D1 and Breaching 5+. Maximal fire gives them S7, Breaching 4+ and Overload 1. Essentially they’re a normal plasma gun with one better Breaching.
The combination of Firestorm and Implacable advance lets outriders within 12” declare a charge, fire their twin bolters or plasma guns at full BS, then decide whether they want to charge or not. It also means that charging a unit of them will involve walking through a hail of incoming fire, only for them to potentially use the Evade reaction to move out of range.
I like the idea of a squad or two of these, probably with between five or ten models in them. They’d be able to shoot up enemy infantry and earn me some Vanguard points. I’d have a few shotguns but rarely fire more than one of them.
Land Raider Explorator
This is now just a slightly cheaper, mostly worse, version of the Land Raider. It has a dozer blade so terrain doesn’t slow it, but doesn’t have the Assault Vehicle rule and only has room inside for 10 models. It can outflank so it gives you a way to get its own nasty guns and whoever it’s carrying behind the enemy if you want. Previous versions of the Explorator have had comms devices and things that help with reserves but this doesn’t.
Outflanking an AV14 vehicle near the enemy deployment zone might cause some problems for your opponent, especially if you’ve got things like a Twin Heavy flamer, pintle Multimelta and/or HK missile on it. If you had some troops inside they could of course threaten objectives and Interceptor fire shouldn’t be much of an issue. Things like Drop pods offer an easier route into the enemy Deployment zone but a Land Raider is a lot more of a problem for your opponent when it’s there.
Tarantula Battery
I’m pleased to say that Tarantulas seem pretty cool. You get two for 45 points, which act as two totally independent units, though the unit can’t be expanded beyond that. They have BS4 and are armed with two heavy bolters each, which can be exchanged for various other guns and missiles. They have AV10, 2 hull points, can’t move but can infiltrate outside of 9 from the enemy.
Tarantulas don’t fire in your turn. Instead they can do the Intercept and Overwatch reactions as normal or their own Automated fire reaction, which doesn’t use up a reaction point. This lets them shoot an enemy unit when it ends a move within 48”. Each Tarantula still only react once per turn.
Tarantulas can use Automated fire to shoot a transport before its passengers disembark, or shoot the passengers when they do. It can be used to shoot units that come on from reserve but only if they move, not as they are set up in the reserves sub-phase, which would require the Intercept reaction. If there are Tarantulas in the midfield it’ll be very difficult to advance without getting shot by them, as they fire before your shooting or assault phases.
On the other hand, Tarantulas can’t shoot enemies that deep strike or that remain stationary, even if they pivot. They also can’t return fire. A Tarantula will never shoot another Tarantula, which is kind of nice.
There are a load of weapon options for Tarantulas. Note that the FAQ now allows them to actually fire any of the as reactions.
Twin Heavy bolters, Lascannons and volkite calivers all do what you’d expect. Just 22.5 points is pretty great for 6 heavy bolter shots. Tarantulas are a good platform for Lascannons, which are an expensive 20 point upgrade per tarantula, due to their very long range and always being stationary. The volkites are a 15 point upgrade over bolters, which feels like too much to me as they’re pretty similar in effect.
Sentry melta arrays are unique to the Tarantula, as a 25 point upgrade. 18” range, 2 shots at S8 (but really 9 as it has Heavy RS), AP2 and D2 with Melta 8. Going second you could stick a couple of these in front of a land raider or even a Spartan and have a chance of stopping it.
Both missile options are 15 point upgrades. The Orias version has two one-shot frag missiles, each doing a 5” blast at S6 AP5 and D1. This has Barrage 3, so it could end up pretty much anywhere, though rarely on the target. A Siege Master can’t help due to firing as a reaction. The Hyperios has 3 S7 shots at AP3 D2 with Skyfire. It’s not likely to stop the AV12 flyers but it’ll be a threat to fighters… except if they’re doing the CAP reaction, of course, which the Tarantula can’t help with.
The downside of Tarantulas is using up a whole Recon slot for just two of them. It’s a bit weird that the unit can’t be enlarged. You effectively pay quite a high character tax to bring these.
Fast Attack
This is a fairly rare slot. There are two available through the First Strike Auxiliary detachment and one if you take a Vigilator’s Recon Demi-company. This is where you get most of your planes, jetbikes and speeders and actually all these units fly, either as true Flyers or Antigrav Cavalry.
Xiphon Interceptor
The Xiphon is an armour 11 flyer with 5 hull points for 120 points. It’s armed with two twin-lascannon, which will always be capped at 1 damage as they’ll never be stationary, and a rotary missile launcher: 48”, 3 shots, S8 AP2 D2. It has a 20” move that it won’t usually need as all its weapons have such long ranges. It should use that range to keep away from enemies with skyfire, who are a major threat to it.
The Xiphon is well equipped to take out enemy heavy infantry, walkers and lighter vehicles. It’s also the only Legion flyer with the Interceptor rule, which lets it react to shoot down enemy aircraft.
Xiphons are kind of good. Enemy AV12 planes are probably going to take some damage while dropping off their cargo, risk possibly getting killed and won’t get through a second time.
Storm Eagle
An armour 12, 6 hull point flyer for 200 points, the Storm Eagle has a transport capacity of 16 and is an Assault vehicle with an 18” move stat. It can potentially deliver a turn 1 charge from a scary melee unit and then return a couple of times to shoot things up with its impressive array of weaponry.
Storm Eagles are Stable, which is excellent as it means they always fire as if stationary and can split fire without snap-firing. All the Storm Eagle’s weapons are centreline-mounted though, so it won’t be able to split all that much. Additionally, like all flyers, it can only fire with defensive weapons when it drops off passengers, meaning it won’t be able to shoot the lascannons or missiles on its wings.
As standard the Storm Eagle comes with a Twin Heavy bolter, Vengeance launcher (48”, S7, AP4, D1, 5” blast) and four Tempest rockets (48”, S7, AP3, D3, Armourbane). The Heavy bolter can be upgraded to a cyclone missile launcher or twin multi-melta. I slightly prefer the Cyclone as it has a frag mode that you can use as a defensive weapon when dropping off troops.
The Tempest rockets can be replaced with either four Hunter-killer missiles (48”, S9, AP3, D3, Armourbane) or two Twin-lascannon. Either Lascannons or Hellstrikes look like a good option. The Hellstrikes are gone after one shot but that’s not such an issue, given you can’t fire them anyway when you drop off troops. You won’t be firing them till at least your Storm Eagle’s second visit and you can’t expect to see a plane show up from reserve three times, given that the number you need for them to appear keeps getting higher.
Fire Raptor
The shooty cousin of the Storm Eagle has the same armour 12, 6 hull point profile for 220 points. It doesn’t carry any passengers but brings a monstrous amount of firepower instead, and is also Stable.
The Twin avenger bolt-cannon is centreline-mounted with 36”, 10 shots, S6, AP3, D1, Suppressive 2. It’ll ruin a unit of Legionaries and likely leave the survivors snap-firing and unable to score. Each sponson mounts a Gravis heavy bolter battery: 36”, 8 shots, S5, AP4, D1 and also Suppressive 2. You can replace those with Gravis autocannon batteries, which are like having two Predator cannons on each side of your plane: 48”, 5 shots (but really 6 because it has Heavy FP), S8, AP4, D2, Breaching 6+. Either option is great for killing infantry, so you’re choosing between the option of Suppressive vs being better against harder targets.
On the wings you get some Tempest rockets like the Storm Eagle’s, but these can be replaced with Hellstrike missiles. These are essentially Hunter-killer missiles with the Guided Missile rule, which means they don’t need to snap fire when you do a Strike mission. But you probably won’t want to do a Strike mission anyway, as you won’t be able to fire your amazingly powerful sponsons if you do and your Avenger will be Snap Firing. A Fire Raptor wants to do Strafing Missions to fire all its guns at full BS, trying to manoeuvre to avoid interceptor fire.
The Fire Raptor’s shooting is fantastic and it may well earn its points in just one or two visits to the board. It’s a bit awkward that its Avenger and missiles are all centreline-mounted, as the Avenger is for killing 3+ save infantry and the missiles are for 2+ saves or vehicles. Try to line up an Infantry target and a vehicle or something, so they can both be targeted.
Scimitar Jetbike Squadron
You get three Jetbikes for 95 points and can add more for 30 each. Each is essentially a Legionary with a 16” Antigrav move and 2 wounds. They come with Heavy bolters, which can be swapped for Volkite culverins for 5, Plasma cannons for 10 or Multimeltas for 15 points.
It’s a little odd to attach some of these guns to a fast-moving platform like a jetbike. Most of them have long ranges and benefit a lot from staying still, so they’re probably more efficient on infantry. Having said that, jetbikes are only around 10 points more expensive than Heavy weapon squad Legionaries with the same weapons, so maybe they aren’t a bad deal. As Cavalry, jetbikes can’t get cover saves and they have a pretty big footprint on the board, making them impractical as stationary gun platforms.
Multimeltas are the weapon that benefits most from the Scimitar’s speed, as getting to within Melta range (8” in this case) makes a huge difference. A single penetrating hit from one of these is enough to destroy most vehicles and Jetbikes offer a way to do that by getting both within range and potentially in position to hit vulnerable side armour.
Scimitar Jetbikes can Deep Strike, perhaps offering an even better way to get melta shots off, though they will be a bit vulnerable to Intercept fire. Add in the risk of a delayed arrival and I think they’re probably better off on the ground, but Deep Strike is a nice option to have available.
Javelin Squadron
Javelins cost 75 points and you get 1-3 in a Squadron. They’re quick at 14” and relatively tough with T6 and W4. They come with a Cyclone missile launcher which can be exchanged for two Heavy bolters or flamers for free, or two Lascannon or Volkite Culverin for 5 points, plus a Heavy bolter that can’t be changed.
So, as with the Scimitar, you have all these Heavy weapons on a platform that can move fast, but doesn’t really want or need to. There’s no melta option to make use of the Javelin’s speed, just even longer-ranged Heavy guns. And of course anyone who has a Javelin already will have stuck a multimelta on it as that was clearly the best option in 2.0. Now we’ll have to try and find the heavy bolter. Really annoying.
Javelins aren’t bad as Lascannon platforms but there are better options for that role I think. Heavy Flamer sponsons might be interesting as a way to inflict Panic checks but there are lots of ways to do that, including…
Land Speeder Squadron
A unit of 1-5 speeders costing 50 points each. They have 16” move, T5, W3, A2, LD and CL8. They can Deep strike and have Firing protocols 2. Default armament is a Heavy bolter and Augury scanner.
There are lots of weapon options for Land speeders. The Heavy bolter can be replaced by a Heavy flamer (0), Havoc launcher (5), Multimelta (20). Volkite Culverin, Plasma cannon (10) or graviton gun (10). You can replace the Augury scanner with any of the above too, for the same price, or with a free Heavy bolter or Havoc launcher.
You can also add a Hunter-killer missile or two, at 5 points each. These are interesting as they’re powerful and fire at full effect while moving. You can hide your Land speeders, or keep them in Reserve/Deep strike, then appear and deliver a heavy alpha strike with the missiles. After that you could potentially remain still and fire whatever big guns you have. Speeders with 2 Hunter-killer missiles and 2 Heavy-bolters (except for one per unit that keeps its Augury scanner) are only 60 points each. They can deliver a hammer blow on turn 1 and then switch to shooting whoever survived.
Final Thoughts
Given that this is a fairly random collection of units there isn’t a great deal to conclude with here. I think that Flyers and Dreadnoughts will be some of the most interesting units to see in play. They bring unique abilities but also have some fairly significant weaknesses compared to more conventional units. Dreadnoughts now feel quite vulnerable and Flyers are very unreliable.
I’m a bit less impressed by some of the Cavalry units. The rules for Heavy weapons tend to make them want to remain stationary, which kind of defeats the point of them. It may turn out that they are useful on boards with dense terrain, where their speed could potentially let them get shots off while avoiding too much return fire.
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