Allies Chart
Imperialis Militia basically counts as Imperial Army in the allies chart, so you can refer to that when taking allies (or taking Imperial Militia as allies). However, if you take Kinfolk Helots, Abhuman Muster or Ogryn Conscripts Provenances, then all Space Marine Legions and the Solar Auxilia don't trust (distrust?) you. For some reason, the Legio Custodes will only fight alongside all Militia armies if commanded by the Emperor.
Sub-types
The Militia sub-type means your dudes are likelier to get run off the board. In crunch, this means if you lose over half of your models in a Militia unit, they can't regroup and will keep falling back until they run off the table. Ouch. If they are falling back and get successfully charged by an enemy unit, they automatically die. No Leadership tests needed. Yup. And if you're not Monstrous or a Sentinel and you get charged while already locked in combat, you make a morale check and then fall back if you fail - and the enemy gets to make Sweeping Advances.
In other words, you're screwed if your dudes get charged or if your Militia squads lose more than half of their men. Tough luck, but I suppose this is what it means to be a mortal fighting in a war of demigods.
Militia vehicles are all Third Line, which means all Glancing Hits count as Penetrating Hits, but in return your tanks are a lot cheaper and your opponent never scores victory points for wrecking them. Even your Baneblades, so no need to worry about Price of Failure. Yeah, seriously.
Mechanized units are Sentinels. Basically Dreadnoughts without Fearless and protection from Instant Death.
Warlord Traits
There are 6 Warlord Traits for your Imperial Militia commander, which are as follows:
Ruthless Tyrant: Fear (1), and roll a D6 for friendly units in fear of your Warlord if they are falling back. D6 models die, and they don't Fall Back. Also gives you an extra reaction during the assault phase. Nice.
Beloved of the People: If your Warlord dies, your dudes get +1 to their WS and Strength and 4+ Feel No Pain until the end of your next turn, and you get an extra reaction during the assault phase. If he's still alive, then you get an extra reaction during the shooting phase instead.
Merchant Princeling: All of your Warlord's weapons are Master-crafted, and you choose a single squad (any Militia unit) to be his Lifeguards, which grants them Heavy, and re-roll all hit rolls of 1s during any phase or Reaction. Your Warlord is stuck with his Lifeguard (which is what you want anyway), and you get an additional reaction during the assault phase.
Marcher Lord: Your Warlord is now Battle-hardened (1), and if your entire army is Imperialis Militia (no allies unless you bring Imperialis Militia allies with different Provenances, maybe?), then they are all immune to Fear. Also, as long as your Warlord is alive, you automatically pass the first Pinning test in any game turn, and an additional reaction during the shooting phase.
Connoisseur of Alien Curios: Roll a D6 once per game turn. On a 1, your Warlord dies a horrible death (unless he passes his invulnerable save), on a 2-3, he smacks an enemy unit with D6+1 Strength 8 AP 4 hits with a volkite weapon, on a 4-5, he and the unit he's attached to get Rage (2) and Furious Charge (2) until the end of the turn, and on a 6, he gets Eternal Warrior, 4+ Feel No Pain, and if you are lucky enough to roll a 6 again, he gets +1 to his Strength and Toughness for the rest of the game, which stacks until he reaches a maximum cap of Strength and Toughness 6. Oh, and you get an extra reaction during the movement phase.
Robber Baron: The Warlord and his attached unit gets +1 Strength whenever they successfully charge for that turn, but can't Sweeping Advance. Instead, you roll a D6, and on a 4, 5 and 6, you get D3 victory points...assuming you somehow beat your opponent in combat and force them to Fall Back somehow. You also get an extra reaction during the movement phase.
Units
HQ
Imperialis Militia Force Commander
Obviously, I'm not going to detail every single piece of wargear or characteristics. Go download the PDF for that - I even gave you the link above! No, instead, I'll summarize the essential stuff.
The Force Commander is basically your compulsory HQ and Warlord (if Imperialis Militia is your primary detachment and not allies). He's what you need to take for the Provenances. And by golly, you have a ton of options for your Provenances. You can select two Provenances and it applies to all Militia units - and by Militia units, I mean infantry, cavalry or those with the Militia sub-type. Vehicles and Sentinels (Mechanized) don't get the Provenances, sadly. Unless specified, like Industrial Stronghold, which we'll get into later. So no Tanks and Sentinels with +1 Toughness or 6+ Feel No Pain. We have 16 Provenances to choose from and you can mix and match. So what are they?
Warrior Elite: Your Militia units get +1 Leadership, Levy Squads become support and Grenadiers lose support and can be taken as Compulsory Troops. Yay! Awesome! This is for those who are kitbashing Kasrkins for their Imperialis Militia army (or Arbites or Navy Breachers).
Legacy of the Great Crusade: All Grenadiers, Militia Command Cadres and Discipline Masters get +1 BS to a max of BS4, and your Force Commander has an Initiative of 5 now. Combine with Warrior Elite to get pseudo Militarum Tempestus armies or Stormtroopers.
Clanfolk Levy: Cavalry squads are now Compulsory Troops, and they get +1 to their Leadership. However, you can't choose Cavalry squads for non-Compulsory Troops (huh?). Instead, you get 4 extra Fast Attack slots but these 4 must all be Cavalry squads. No Line, though, so...yeah. Still pretty cool, though. Ever wanted horse-riding Knights or cyberpunk bikers for your Imperial Guard...ahem, Militia army? This is your chance!
Gene-crafted: Roll a D6 for each unit at the beginning of the game and they get a bunch of different effects. On a 1, they start the battle Pinned unless they are in Reserve, then they can pretend nothing happened. On a 2-5, your infantry and cavalry get one of the following for the rest of the game: Fleet (2), Move Through Cover or Night Vision. On a 6, you can choose from Relentless, Stubborn, Adamantium Will (6+), or you can have all three Fleet (2), Move Through Cover and Night Vision, and you get them for the rest of the game. Kind of...dicey, if you ask me.
Cyber-augmetics: Pseudo Skitarii! Not only are you now Sworn Brothers with the Mechanicum, your dudes now have 6+ Feel No Pain and Slow and Purposeful. Cannot be selected with Gene-crafted, though.
Survivors of the Dark Age: Grenadiers and Militia Command Cadres can take Rhinos, Termite Drills and Land Raider Proteus Carriers as Dedicated Transports, but they are Third-line and BS3. It's something, I guess? Considering that we don't actually have Dedicated Transports - not even the Aurox or the Chimera - in this book, so yeah. Oh, and your Reconnaissance squads can take jet packs and two pistols (las or auto) for 20 points per unit. This includes non-Independent Characters like Commissars, ahem, I mean Discipline Masters, Medics and others, who get them for free if they join the recon squad. Cool. They are called Voidjumpers. Elysian Drop Troops?
Alchem-jackers: Your dudes don't suffer penalties to Leadership during the assault phase, and if they fail morale, as long as more than half their squad survive, they become Pinned instead of Falling Back. They also get a Frenzon option where you can upgrade them to get Furious Charge (1) for 25 points per unit. Pretty much an army of...Bane. You know, from Batman. And those Salvar Chem Dogs lovers, here you go.
Armory of Old Night: Your dudes can swap their lasguns out for lasrifles for free (the same ones Solar Auxilia use, with blast chargers). Grenadiers and Command Cadres can also upgrade their lasguns to volkite chargers or assault needlers; pistols to volkite serpentas or needler pistols; sniper rifles to needle vulnus; and heavy stubbers to volkite culverins or needle cannons for 30 points per squad. Awesome! Our very own Veletaris option, but even the Solar Auxilia can't take volkite culverins! Your Force Commander can also upgrade his power weapon to paragon blade for another 10 points, and take an archaeotech pistol for 10 points.
Feral Warriors: Your dudes get +1 to their WS whenever they charge successsfully, but they must charge at least one enemy unit that's within 12" if there any nearby. Your dudes also get chainaxes for 2 points each, or if they already have a chainsword, they can swap it for a chainaxe for 1 point each. This are probably your Khorne guys and World Eaters' auxiliaries.
Kinfolk Helots: Squats in the Imperial Militia! They get +1 Toughness, but -1 Initiative and Movement. Characters all gain 6+ Battlesmith or 5+ if they are Independent Characters. Cannot be chosen with Ogryn Conscripts. Because, y'know, these are dwarves. And I don't think you want Toughness 6 Ogryns Troops, do you? On the bright side, Elites Ogryns still get Tougness 6. I think.
Abhuman Muster: Beastmen in space. They get +1 Strength but -1 BS, are Bulky 2, and Characters get Hammer of Wrath (1) while Independent Characters and Monsters (like Ogryns) get Hammer of Wrath (2) instead. Again, can't take Ogryn Conscripts because no Strength 6 Ogryns Troops, but your Elites Ogryns still get Strength 6 and Hammer of Wrath (2). Yay.
Debased Rabble: Traitors only, and your dudes get Crusader and Hatred (Everything). Must always charge an enemy unit if able, though, and you cannot take Grenadiers. Hah! Also cannot take Survivors of the Dark Age with this.
Tainted Flesh: Traitors only. Your dudes get Fear (1) and Furious Charge (1). Levy squads must be Compulsory Troops, and you cannot have more Infantry units except HQ than Levy squads in total. Then again, the only HQ you can take are Force Commander and Rogue Psyker, which don't count toward the infantry units limited by the number of Levy squads. Can't take Survivors of the Dark Age, Gene-crafted, Ogryn Conscripts or Alchem-jackers with this. For some reason, you can still take Cyber-augmentics with Tainted Flesh for...Dark Mechanicum armies, I guess?
Ogryn Conscripts: You can take Ogryns as Troops, and those selected as Compulsory Troops get Line too! Discipline Masters, Medicae and Force Commanders can now join Ogryn Brute squads even though the latter are Monstrous.
Industrial Stronghold: Armored companies! You can have two extra Heavy Support choices, but they must be Leman Russ tanks. Best of all, your tanks can now include up to 5 extra Leman Russ tanks for 120 points each, which you can then further swap out turret weapons with. This is important because you can only normally take one Leman Russ per unit without this Provenance, which sucks if you're a treadhead. They're Third-line, though. But spamming Leman Russ tanks is the way to go! Also, you can't take Industrial Stronghold with Unending Horde, Debased Rabble, Tainted Flesh or Ogryn Conscripts. But if you're taking hordes of infantry in an army meant to be spamming Leman Russ tanks, then you're doing it wrong.
Unending Horde: Basically all your infantry squads and levy squads respawn in Reserves whenever you roll a 4+ whenever they are completely destroyed. Support Characters stay dead, so no cheating with that slain Medicae, though. Oh, Grenadiers can only be taken as Elites, but you probably want to fill out your Troops choice with infantry squads and levy squads anyway. This is your ENDLESS HORDE!
Discipline Master Cadre
Your Commissar. Enough said. Cheap at 20 points, but he's...a Commissar.
Rogue Psyker
Traitor only, for obvious reasons. He has the Anathema psychic discipline, which means he can either summon Ruinstorm Daemons or shoot 12 Void Darts, though with his BS2, he'll probably miss most of the time. He can also shoot Lightning if you don't want to summon Ruinstorm Daemons for some reason.
Command Cadre
Your command squad with a Lieutenant. You start off with 5 guys, including the Lieutenant, and can take up to 20 dudes if you want, can take carapace armor to be pseudo storm troopers and can be a retinue for your Force Commander.
Troops
Infantry Squad
Your standard infantry squad. You start off with 20 guys, can take up to 3 squads of 20 in a single Troops slot, and swap your lasguns or autorifles with shotguns, pistols and close combat weapons, lascarbines or stubcarbines for points cost (the pistols and close combat weapons are free), they can all take krak grenades for 10 points, and 1 dude may take a special weapon. You know, the usual flamer, plasma gun, meltagun, sniper rifle/longlas, heavy stubber and grenade launcher. Oh...heavy stubber is new. No heavy weapons, though. They have Line, so you need them to score.
Levy Squad
Half the points cost of your standard infantry squad, but aside from the Sergeant, your 19 other dudes are only BS2. So Orks shooting. Your Conscripts, essentially. Yeah, Conscripts are back. You can take up to 50 guys per squad for 2 points per dude, you can swap their lasguns or autorifles for pistols and close combat weapons for free, give them frag grenades for 10 points, and take 3 squads per each Troops slot. That's potentially 150 dudes in a single Troops slot, my guys. Take note, these guys do not have Line, so they can't score. They can swamp an objective with bodies and deny opponents, though.
Oh, they are Expendable, though...which means the moment they fail their morale - and with Leadership 6, they will - they don't Fall Back. They just...die. Like, literally - the whole squad just goes poof. The bright side is that your opponent never scores any Victory Points for killing a Levy squad in this manner. You can mitigate this somewhat by attaching a Discipline Master to re-roll failed Morale checks while taking D3 AP- wounds.
Grenadier squad
Originally a support squad, which means you need Warrior Elite Provenance to make them Compulsory and non-support Troops, they are your stormtroopers, your elite soldiers. Only BS3, though, unless you took Legacy of the Great Crusade as well. More importantly, they have Line, so they are your only other Scoring units in the army, along with the standard infantry squad. You start with 10 guys in carapace armor (4+ save), and can take up to 20. They have similar options to the infantry squad in that they can swap their lasguns for shotguns, stubcarnines, lascarbines for free, but they can also take boltguns for 2 points per guy. They come stock with krak and frag grenades, so yay (well, they are Grenadiers, after all). Unlike the Infantry squad, though, you can swap 2 guys' weapons for 2 special weapons. Just like the modern 40K Cadians or Krieg guys, but the carapace armor means they are more akin to Kasrkins.
Fire Support Squad
Heavy weapon squads. Enough said.
Reconnaissance Squad
5 Scouts, going up to 10. Armed with shotguns that you can swap out for lascarbines or stubcarbines for 10 points, can Infiltrate and Scout and Move Through Cover. Can also give them all sniper rifles or longlas instead for 10 points per model, but that will make them super expensive, close to 175 points for 10 snipers and doubling their points cost for a minimum sized 5-men squad.
Elites
Medicae
Your medics that give the attached unit 6+ Feel No Pain.
Ogryn Brute Squad
What can I say? Your Ogryns. No power mauls or shock mauls, though, other than the Boss who gets a power weapon. So no Bullgryns. They can still take boarding shields and ripper guns, but their basic close combat weapons make them seem a little...lackluster in melee. Lots of attacks and high Strength and Toughness make up for it.
Field Gun Battery
This is an Elites choice, yes. It's also the new Field Ordnance Batteries you get from the Cadia Stands! box. Pretty much the same weapons mapped over to Horus Heresy 2.0 rules.
Fast Attack
Arvus Lighter
Uh...your little shuttle with front and side AV 11 and rear AV 10, and 2 Hull Points. Probably get shot down super quickly even if arriving from Deep Strike. Make sure your 12 guys riding inside bring their grav-chutes along.
Cargo-8 Hauler Squadron
Apparently, someone in the rules design team had the bright idea to sell the Necromunda stuff to Horus Heresy players. So this Ash Wastes truck is fairly cheap at 50 points, and you can have up to 3 of them per squadron to cart your infantry, levy and grenadier squads around. Any infantry unit, really. Yes, you heard that right. These trucks have a 22 transport capacity, so your infantry squads and levy squads can hop inside them with a Discipline Master and Medicae in tow. For your Grenadiers, you probably want to grab an Armored Container, which will reduce the Transport Capacity to 12, but increase its Side Armor to 12 and Rear Armor to 11. Front Armor is already 12, so no worries.
Cavalry Squad
5 Horsemen who can take Militia Lances. I say horsemen because most people will be using the Attilan Rough Riders for this, but bikers count - so you can use motorcycles and light vehicles to represent your Cavalry. I'm looking at you, Atalan Jackals. They can take carapace armor too, and one can take a special weapon as usual. The Militia Lances are Ungainly, meaning they can only be attacked with on the turn your bikers/horsemen successfully Charged, and no bonus additional attack for making the charge. They are also Brutal (2), but with only AP3 and WS3, don't charge them into a Contemptor Dreadnought expecting them to kill him. The melta lance, a special weapon, is One Use and only AP3. At least they have Sudden Strike (2), which means they hit on Initiative 5 on the charge unless they are Disordered.
Beastmasters
Um...this is a strange one. Basically 3 dudes get together to herd their pet War Beasts, which can either be a Mastiff (dog), Felidae (really big cat), Caiman (alligator), or a Raptor (I'm guessing a bird and not a dinosaur). Each has their own interesting set of rules, but...quite frankly, they don't seem very impressive in combat. No AP, nothing, so they'll get shredded by Space Marines in melee.
Sentinel Squadron
Sentinels. Doesn't seem to matter if they are Scout or Armored Sentinels...and you can't take plasma cannons, for some reason, but otherwise you have the usual wealth of options. No chainsaw too. The only new option is a multimelta, but why not just give us the damned plasma cannon? As the flavor text says, don't throw them at Space Marine Dreadnoughts or Mechanicum automata expecting them to win a fight. With only 3 wounds and no protection from Instant Death, despite their Toughness 6 and 3+ armor save, they aren't likely to survive in close combat...especially since they don't have Fearless. Funnily enough, they are more survivable against meltas and lascannons than vehicles are (and also their modern 40K counterparts). The most effective weapons against them are Instant Death ones. Brutal as well, though that will be...overkill.
Thunderbolt Fighter
Good old reliable Thunderbolt Fighter. Third-line means he's gonna crash after taking a couple of always Penetrating hits, but 120 points is a steal. Except that flyers are pretty bad in Horus Heresy 2.0 with the Interceptor Reaction, so...
Heavy Support
Rapier Battery
Rapiers with the usual flavor of heavy weapons. I don't think I need to elaborate.
Malcador Heavy Tank
The old, reliable Malcador Heavy Tank with AV 13 on the front and sides, and AV 12 in the rear, plus 5 Hull Points. Third-line makes him still relatively fragile, but Reinforced mitigates that somewhat. Comes with a choice of a battle cannon, vanquisher cannon or gravis lascannon, plus an array of heavy weapons. I assume this is the tank meant for any generic tank that you want to kitbash.
Leman Russ
Ah, the old workhorse of the Imperial Guard and Imperial Army. At 120 points, he's ridiculously cheap even with Third-line. Comes stock with the standard battle cannon, but you can swap it out for gravis lascannon, gravis autocannon, vanquisher cannon and co-axial autocannon (assuming this is a Forge World variant), a demolisher cannon, or an Executioner plasma cannon (yay!). No Eradicator nova cannon or Punisher gatling cannon, though...I suppose these variants haven't existed during the Horus Heresy. Glad we now have the plasma turret, though. The demolisher cannon and vanquisher cannon are one of your few sources of Brutal (the other surprisingly being your cavalry with milita lances and maybe an Ogryn boss with thunder hammer), though you need to pray for that Rending 6+ if you're throwing demolisher pie plates around. As usual, hull weapons range from lascannon to heavy bolter, heavy flamer and now a multi-laser. Plus the usual Solar Auxilia pintle mounted weapons.
HOWEVER, you can NO LONGER take sponsons. Yes, you read that right. Are sponsons not a thing in the Horus Heresy? What? Are you serious? You're joking, right? What happened to the sponsons for our Leman Russ tanks? Are we pretending they never existed?
Heavy Ordnance Battery
Your Earthshaker cannons with gunners or artillery crew. Again, Forge World models with fixed artillery emplacements. You can swap the earthshakers for Medusa mortars, which gives you Rending 6+. Whoopee. Oh, and you need to have at least 2 human gunners per each cannon or your artillery will only be shooting at BS1 and must re-roll the Hit rolls for Scatter dice. Also, if they are forced to Fall Back (because they lose half of their crew or lost combat), then the whole unit is immediately removed. Yikes.
Gorgon Heavy Transporter
A Super-heavy transport in the Heavy Support slot! Whoa! With a whooping Transport Capacity of 40, and front AV 15 and side AV 14, this thing ain't going anywhere unless someone shoots him in the rear. But even so, he's super-heavy with 8 Hull Points! The Third-line sucks, but just keep your front toward the enemy and you'll be fine. I hope. You can stock him with lots of heavy weapons - lascannons being the most expensive, but the Gorgon mortar batteries with their AP5 will only do good work against other Militia armies. Well, you're taking him for an awesome transport for 40 guys, not to shoot your opponent's army off the board.
Baneblade
This is the BANEBLADE!!
Enough said. Well, he's Third-line, but with front AV 14 and side AV 13 and rear AV 12, plus a whooping 9 Hull Points - and he's only 400 points, doesn't cost you Victory Points in the Price of Failure, I'd say he's totally worth it. Also...
...BANEBLADE!!
Anyway, that's all for the Imperialis Militia PDF. What will I do? That's a good question. Maybe I'll build an army of Grenadiers using Warrior Elite and equip them with volkite chargers and volkite culverins from the Armory of Old Night. Hopefully we get a Legacies PDF giving us Aurox and Carnodon tanks, but otherwise it just seems...a bit limiting. I'm not sure I want to cart my Draconian Grenadiers around in Cargo-8 Haulers. Anyway, we'll see. Till then!
Well, Cargo-8 haulers could be just be like some sort transport tanks, either scratch build or kitbashed...
ReplyDeleteYeah! The sky is the limit!
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