The Shattered Legions

Warhammer Community has released an article showcasing the rules of the Shattered Legions! It's time to start alloying remnants of devastated companies together to build a mutable army of ragged survivors and determined avengers! You can download the PDF here!

I'm surprised Goonhammer didn't write an article for this again. I assume their Horus Heresy team are busy. Who's currently in it? Jellymuppet? NotThatHenryC? Their last Heresy article was over a month ago (September 20th), a review of Tactica Journal: The Forges of Saturn. I usually look forward to reading their articles on the Heresy, and it's disappointing to see them skip the free PDF armies. While I'm glad they did write on Imperialis Militia (Jellymuppet was the author), they hadn't kept up for Daemons of the Ruinstorm, Inductii, Blackshields, or Shattered Legions. Oh, well.

I can understand Inductii, for the rules for these guys haven't changed much, and you can make a similar argument for Blackshields. But Shattered Legions are considerably different from 2nd edition. They have made the rules friendlier and less cumbersome, and I think that's cause for celebration! Well, if Goonhammer ain't writing an article, then I'll write one myself. Don't expect professional standards from me, though.

So, what are the Shattered Legions? In lore, Shattered Legions refer to those ad-hoc bands of shell-shocked survivors who gathered after the Isstvan atrocities. For example, the Iron Hands, Salamanders and Raven Guard were decimated at the Dropsite Massacre, the survivors were forced to work together and flee, with refugees from one legion seeking safety in the vessels of the others. For example, Salamanders and Raven Guard legionaries boarding an Iron Hands ship to flee the Isstvan system. Instead of returning to their homeworlds and regrouping or rebuilding, like Nocturne or Deliverance or Medusa, they decide to fight on, carrying hit-and-run raids against the Traitors as vegeance for the Dropsite Massacre. Instead of discarding emblems and markings of their Legion, they remain devoted to their Legion colors and heritage. So you can still easily identify a Salamander legionary in a Shattered Legions warband by the color and accessories on his power armor, but for some reason, he chose to fight with his new friends instead of returning to Nocturne to reunite with his legion.

Sort of, a Salamander asking the Iron Hands captain of a strike cruiser, "Hey, bro, can you take us back home to Nocturne?" And he's like, "Nope, my ship goes where I want it to go, and we're taking the fight back to the Traitors. You're part of my crew now!" Or something.

In the spirit of the game, the Shattered Legions are not restricted to Iron Hands, Salamanders and Raven Guard, so as to encourage you to build whatever you want. Lore wise, it's easily justified. For example, survivors of the purge of the Loyalists from the Isstvan III atrocity might have banded together to strike back at their parent Legion for betraying them and the Emperor. So you might have Loyalist Emperor's Children, Loyalist Death Guard and Loyalist World Eaters banding together. Or replace one of them with Loyalist Luna Wolves refusing to don the colors of the Sons of Horus, and instead fighting alongside brothers of other legions.

Okay, I might have said refusing to don the colors of Sons of Horus, but I suppose they haven't had time to repaint their power armor to Luna Wolf Colors...

You may have notice I said "replace." Well, game-wise, you're limited to three legions in one. You get a benefit for each Legion you select, so basically three benefits. You also have the option of picking two, but if you do so, you get a third bonus benefit in addition to the two you get from your chosen legions. Bound in Blood, it gives your dudes +1 to Cool and Leadership in rounds 2 and 3, and +2 for rounds 4 and beyond.

Unlike Heresy 2.0, which had this cumbersome majority or minority rule where you have a mixed squad or unit of guys from different legions and you have to keep track of who makes up the majority to decide which rule is in play for them at any given time, Heresy 3.0 has done away with that nonsense and instead developed a much better version of Mutable Tactics. Instead, Mutable Tactics just gives your whole army the benefits of your selected Legions (and as stated above, if you only choose two Legions, you get Bound in Blood as a third benefit). Now, what are they?

Dark Angels, the Children of Old Night, only get affected by Fear if they're within 6" as opposed to 12".

Emperor's Children always hit on 4+ in melee with their Unparalled Skill, no matter what. Doesn't matter how much lower your WS is than your opponent's.

Iron Warriors are Accustomed to Devastation and always pass Leadership on a 9- for morale checks.

White Scars are Swift of Action and get +1 initiative whenever they charge or rush.

Space Wolves channel the Spirit of Fenris to get +1 to their charge. Before you ask, White Scars is Initiative, Space Wolves are distance covered. They are not the same. Don't worry, I also did a double take when I read them one after the other.

Imperial Fists fire Devastating Volleys (I think someone at the studio is making fun of Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists by giving them both "devastating"), which allows them to make volley attacks with bolters.

Night Lords have a Murderous Reputation of scoring an additional Combat Resolution Point if they kill at least one model during combat.

Blood Angels deliver Vengeful Blows whenever they lose a model to melee, giving them +1 to wound when they fight back.

Iron Hands steel their Iron Resolve to gain Feel No Pain 4+, but only against volley attacks.

World Eaters engage in Frenzied Pursuit, getting +2" to their movement when they pursue an enemy unit that Fall Back.

Ultramarines are Methodical Fighters who force their enemies to make snapshots whenever they shoot as part of a Reaction.

Death Guard are Children of Barbarus, which means they Move Through Cover and automatically pass Dangerous Terrain tests.

Thousand Sons Conjured Illusions to forbid enemy units from pursuing them whenever they Fall Back.

Sons of Horus preserve their Brutal Tradition by gaining +1 to their hit rolls whenever they fight an enemy unit that outnumbers them. Bulky units count as multiple models, though.

Word Bearers display their Zealous Devotion by rolling three D6 and discarding the two lowest whenever they charge.

Salamanders are Scions of the Flame, which renders them immune to Panic caused by Flame weapons.

Raven Guard are Masters of Obfuscation who gain Shrouded 6+ whenever they move.

Alpha Legion specialize in Assassination Tactics, which give their volley attacks Precision (6+).

The Shattered Legions have their own Gambit, which gives your model +1 to hit and wound during a challenge, but only if he's already wounded. But if you fail to slay your opponent, your dude gets killed instead. Truly a...gamble.

They also get an Avanced Reaction that gives them +1 to their Toughness if they get Charged, but if you spend more Reaction Points (from 1, up to 3), you also get +1 Attack and even +1 Strength.

What do you guys think? Are you ready to start your Shattered Legions army? Hell, you don't even need to "start" assembling one. If you already own multiple Legions, just grab random miniatures from each army and mash them together in a single Shattered Legions warband, and have fun!

MkII Assault Marines

I finally assembled my MKII Assault Marines! The moment they were revealed earlier this year, I knew I wanted a squad of my own MKII Assault Marines. They are awesome looking models, and I really prefer them to the MKVI beakies. They just have this cool, brutal look to them that drives home the grimdark vibe. Or 40K knightly vibe.

The Sergeant and a couple of them are armed with power weapons - 2 power swords and 1 power axe. I originally wanted to arm all 3 with power swords, but I simply don't have enough power swords. Oh, well.

The rest are equipped with chainswords. They all have combat shields for that invulnerable save. I'm going with Dark Angels and the whole "knightly" theme from Caliban (or Arthurian theme), so I prefer swords to axes. I did compromise with that single power axe, but in the end, I still stuck to my choice of swords. I was also stuck between starting a new Imperial Fists army, but in the end, I went with adding them to my existing Dark Angels army.

The rest now hinges on me getting the Saturnine box. Now, I should have enough spare bits to kitbash Destroyers and increase my Dark Angels command squad to 10 men (now you know why I don't have enough power swords). In the pipeline, I also want to slowly add to my Imperial Militia because of all the kitbashing possibilities (volkite culverin heavy weapons squads!).

Oh, and I'll be selling the chainaxes, if anyone is interested. I'll first post on the SG 40K Facebook group and see if any locals want to pick them up, but if nobody in Singapore wants them, then I don't mind shipping overseas (you'll have to pay for shipping, though).

Blackshields

Blackshields are now up on Warhammer Community! Head to the downloads page or just directly go to this URL for the document.

I was half-expecting Goonhammer to write a more detailed analysis of these free PDF army lists, but aside from Imperialis Militia, they skipped Daemons of the Ruinstorm (I'm not touching that, mostly because I don't have anything to say and they're planning to expand them further in future publications devoted to one of the four major Chaos gods) and Inductii. I already wrote Inductii, but I notice it's almost the same as in 2nd edition, so I didn't say much, except for my Dark Angels and Thousand Sons Inductii (I think I'll only be doing Dark Angels Inductii in the near future, to add a 2nd squad to my already existing single squad).

But when they said nothing about Blackshields, I was stunned. Surely, they will write something about Blackshields, right? Is Jellymuppet busy, or did he lose interest in Horus Heresy?

Oh, well. Anyway, I'll just write a brief one. Don't expect in-depth analysis and competitive analysis like in Goonhammer. I lack the skills, tactical nous and intelligence to do all that. Instead, I'll focus on an overview.

So, Blackshields. They are basically all those small warbands of Legiones Astartes who quit their Legion and became Legion-less. They can be either Loyalist or Traitor - entirely up to you! - or neither (if you recall the Blackshield Titan Legions from Adeptus Titanicus), though I don't know how that third allegiance will be reflected in the rules. I guess all non-Loyalist counts as Traitors for gameplay purposes?

What do you get for abandoning the colors of your Legion? Well, your dudes get +1 Strength and Toughness whenever they're Pinned, Suppressed or Stunned...but if they're affected by more than one of these statuses, then they get +2 Strength and Toughness instead.

You also gain Oaths of Moment...no, not the one from 10th edition Space Marines. Nope, you do not reroll hit rolls or add +1 to your wound roll against your Oath of Moment target. It's not the same.

You get Oath of Moment for playing 40K Space Marines. I get Oaths of Moments for playing Horus Heresy Blackshields. We are not the same.

If your Blackshields are your primary army, you get 2 Oaths of Moment, otherwise you only receive a single Oath of Moment if you're bringing them as allies. Obviously, whatever Auxiliary or Apex Detachments attached to your Primary/Allied detachment must use the same as their parent detachment.

Oaths of Moment

We have a bunch, and I'll just summarize them. If you want to read in detail, just head to the PDF. Mine is just an easy-to-read list.

The Eternal Vendetta gives you Hatred (Legiones Astartes), and if your opponent has Legiones Astartes as his primary army, then you also get +1 to hit in melee. But your dudes must always charge an enemy within 12", unless they're a vehicle or a unit that can't charge.

Panoply of Old lets you take wargear from a single Legion of your choice (e.g. aetherfire blasters and achean force swords from Thousand Sons). Nothing else, so no Legion-specific detachments or Advanced Reactions!

Only in Death does Duty End discards the Routed status from your dudes, in exchange for taking 1D3+1 wounds with Damage 1 and AP-.

The Spoils of Victory removes Line and Vanguard from your guys, and they score with Loot the Dead instead, which means you need to destroy an enemy in combat, force them to fall back or they choose to disengage (the enemy doesn't have to be on an Objective), and then you can Loot and Pillage them. But your dudes are Stunned because they're too busily looting and pillaging. By the way, Line (X) is replaced by Loot the Dead (X), and Vanguard (X) is replaced by Loot the Dead (X/2).

An Eternity of War means that whenever your guys Fall Back, they can move in any direction, including moving in base contact to engage an enemy unit in combat. In exchange, whenever your guys aren't in combat, they need to make a Cool check during the End Phase after Battle Turn 1, failing which, they become Routed.

The Flesh is Weak makes your dudes pseudo Iron Hands, turning all infantry into automata. They lose the +1/+2 Strength and Toughness whenever stunned/suppressed/pinned, lose Line because of Linked Cogitator Units, and instead score one less Victory Point when controlling an objective if your unit has 4 or less guys. But, if your unit has 10 or more guys, then they score an extra Victory Point. Nice.

They also get an Augmetic Transport Bay that allows their transports to ferry automata, and get a bonus +3 Transport capacity. Neat.

The Legacy of Nikaea is for Thousand Sons wannabes, or other Astartes Legionaries who are miffed by the Edict of Nikaea that forbade the use of psychic powers, so they break away from the Imperium. This gives your Sergeants, Champions, Specialists and Commanders the Psyker Trait and the Malignant discipline - essentially, a Warp Torrent psychic attack that has Assault and Overload (1) if you use the torrent version (S5 AP4 D1 Deflagrate 5, 4 shots at 12" that increases to 5 with Force) or Overload (2) if you use the Malignant variant (S5 that increases to S6 with Force, AP2 D2 Deflagrate 5, one shot at 12"). The tradeoff is that if you suffer Perils of the Warp, they count their Willpower as 5. Meaning you take 8 wounds. Ouch.

The Broken Helix is the other side of the coin, removing Line, Vanguard and Fury of the Legion. Instead, you have two options.

Clone, which gives you a Damage Mitigation 5+ because of Cloned Resilience while reducing your non-Command, Champion/Specialist/Sergeant guys' Leadership, Willpower, Intelligence and Cool by 1.

Aberrant, which has the same debuffs as above, but instead of Damage Mitigation, you get +1 Strength and Attack. However, just like the Eternal Vendetta, you must always charge an enemy within 12".

In Disgrace All are Equal deprives you of Command and High Command choices, but all slots become Prime Slots (this applies to all attached Auxiliary Detachments as well). Hang on, they only get a single Prime Advantage, though - Petty Warlord, which gives your Sergeant +1 Attack, WS, Leadership and Champion (if your dude is already a Champion, then he simply gains +2 Leadership instead). Also, you can take auxiliary detachments for each prime slot as if they're command.

Pride is our Armor replaces all Troops slots with Elites slots for Primary and Allied detachments, and you're not allowed to take Troops choices in any attached Auxiliary or Apex Detachments. Essentially, your Elites-only army (in 2nd edition, you take Veterans as Troops, this is pretty much it).

The Taint of the Xenos simply gives xenos weapons. Deathlock and Doomlock, which are both 2 shots S6 AP2 D1 with Shred 6+ and Overload (2), but while the former has 18" range, the latter is a pistol with 9" range. You also get a Halo blade that's +2 Strength, AP2, D1 and Shred 5+.

The Weapons of Desperation refer to autoguns, autopistols, lasguns, laspistols being wielded as pistols, while shotguns retain Stun and Heavy Stubber gets Suppressive. Autoguns and autopistols have one more shot than lasguns and laspistols, while the las weapons have better range (6"/3"), but otherwise they're both Strength 3 D1. Las weapons have AP6, though. Oh, and heavy stubbers are 5 shots. Whoa. Can only take one heavy stubber for every 3 models in a unit, though. So no spamming heavy stubbers.

The Blade of the Just replaces Line and Vanguard with Doomed Heroics (Xx2), and those units without Line and Vanguard gain Doomed Heroics (3). This allows you to score Victory Points whenever you win combat, provided you began the fight with your guys outnumbered 2 to 1 or more, or your guys bravely charged a Commander or Paragon, or the enemy has a better WS. Can't take this Oath of Moment if you already selected Reapers of Lives or Spoils of Victory.

Reapers of Lives replaces Line and Vanguard with scoring D3 Victory Points whenever your guys shoot or wipe out an enemy unit. Expendable enemies means you deduct their X from the D3 Victory Points scored (to a minimum of 0). Can't take it with Spoils of Victory.

Alone and Forgotten is an all-Centurion army. Replace all Troops Slots in Primary, Allied and attached Auxiliary Detachments with Command slots, you can't take High Command or Transports, and you can only take Centurions (both power and Terminator armor). In exchange, your Centurions get +1 to your choice of 2 Characteristics - WS, BS, Strength, Toughness, Initiative or Wounds. They can't join any units, but in exchange, they get +4 to their combat resolution, plus +1 for each wound they lose, as long as they survive. If they fall in melee combat, you gain D6+1 Victory Points. So suicide Centurions.

Endyrd Haar looks cool. An ex-World Eater (or War Hound), his warband are pissed at Angron for betraying the Emperor, so he casts off all World Eaters insignia and Legion Tactica to become a Blackshield with his own special rules. He gives his Primary detachment Infiltrate (12) and sports a special power fist.

Have fun creating your Blackshields!

The Forges of Saturn

I have in my hands the Journal Tactica: The Forges of Saturn. Unlike most people, who will probably focus on the rules, my interest lies primarily in the lore. I'll run through the rules briefly, but honestly, there's not much to say. You can take a Saturnine Centurion for 150 points, and he comes stock with a teleporter, plasma bombard and a single disruption fist. He cannot double up on fists, nor can he take an axe or hammer. Instead, you're free to double up on plasma bombards or twin heavy disintegrators, or mix and match ranged weapons. Or take one fist with either. Up to you.

The lore is because Saturnine Centurions are drawn chiefly from support companies or armistos consularis, coveted for their marksmanship and aptitude with advanced weapon systems. So you want them staying back and firing from a distance with that pinpoint accuracy.

Saturnine Terminator command squad starts with 2 (I think I can actually assemble one!), with the option to go all melee with their WS5. In other words, double disruption fists for twice the fun, or a fist with a ranged weapon, or you can take a fist and a war axe/concussion hammer. No axe/hammer with ranged weapon, though. Boo. Oh, they can take a plasma blaster on one of their fists, which is nice. No doubling up on particle shredders or plasma blasters, rules as written, though...is that intentional? Anyway, these guys are your bodyguards who can wield the monstrous melee weaponry of Saturnine plate with a blademaster's skill.

Then you have the daemon-possessed Saturnine Terminators, named the Phraetus Anointed Conclave. No, you still have the legionary clad in Saturnine armor plate, but they just replace advanced components of their armor with containment systems to house a bound daemon. Stats wise, this does nothing, aside from giving them WS5 and the options to take the same melee options as the Saturnine command squad (see above). Only exception is that they don't get access to plasma blasters.

Why take them, then? Well, they have Warpfire Mantle, which is a cool "daemonic" ability that allows the wearer to retaliate against shooting enemies - but you must first pass at least one armor or invulnerable save - by forcing them to make a Toughness check. Fail it, and you take D3 automatic wounds with Damage 1 and AP2. No saves allowed. Mortal wounds, basically. Cool?

My Thousand Sons get a new Osiraean Prosperine Arcana, which costs 10 points and gives us Psychometry and Machine Empathy. Only for Saturnine units and Walkers, with Psychometry, we can reduce our Overload by -1, even to 0 if it's just Overload (1)! Nice. Machine Empathy heals a single wound, but obviously can't bring dead models back to life. Neat.

Anyway, lore time!

We begin with the Phoebian Accord, which is an agreement between the Emperor and the secretive Tech-Enclaves of Phoebe to keep them independent from Mars and placing them under His direct protection. In exchange, the Phoebian Tech-Enclaves pay a tithe directly to the Imperial Household, delivering and maintaining the functionality of armaments and armor specified by the Emperor. Specifically...you guess it, the Saturnine armor,

Issued to the Space Marine Legions shortly after Terra's Unification Wars ended, Saturnine armor design was derived from the Dark Age of Technology, for protective suits intended for working inside plasma reactors. Unlike Martian tech-canon, the Tech-Enclaves were the only ones able to create new technological marvels based on such ancient data, and they set about crafting Saturnine Terminator armor.

Characterized by immense domed pauldrons that house shield generators, Saturnine Terminator armor is nearly impervious to shell and shot, innately resistant to energy weapons because of exotic rare materials, and has hermetic sealing that shields its wearer from radiation. It also boasts a highly efficient yet compact reactor that generates surplus energy that can be stored to power sophisticated weapons supplied by the Phoebians as party of the Saturnine panoply. So that's where all those disintegrator weapons came from...

Wait, nope. Instead, the Phoebian arsenal, which was helped by the Emperor, consists of plasma bombardment weapons, particle shredders and power-wreathed melee weapons of gigantic proportion. No mention of disintegrator weapons? Huh?

Anyway, Saturnine Terminator armor placed far greater cognitive demand on the wearer, owing to the intricate neural uplink that connected to the black carapace, so Space Marines required some degree of cybertheurgic resonance like latent/suppressed psychic potential to unlock its full potential. Saturnine Terminator armor had nothing in common with standard equipment supplied to the Legions, so Martian Tech-Priests can't maintain and repair them. Instead, these duties fall to Phoebian attaches of each Legion force.

The poor Phoebian Tech-Enclaves were also obligated to completely disclose all their future technological discoveries to the Emperor.

To sum it all up, basically, Saturnine Terminator armor is awesome, and I'm not going to repeat how the Journal Tactica pretty much brags about how valuable an asset it is, resilient to heavy firepower and...uh, you can just buy the book if you're interested in what kind of xenos weaponry fails against it, or how commanders make use of Saturnine-clad warriors. I'm sure you can guess.

The limited numbers of Phoebian Tech-Wrights - the only ones capable of repairing and refitting Saturnine Terminator armor - meant the Legions were increasingly unable to maintain their growing stocks of damaged or inoperable armor as the Great Crusade wore on. Yikes. The attrition sees the reduction of once vast numbers of Saturnine armors to very few. For example, unlike Horus Lupercal who was able to oversee the deployment of a considerable number of operable Saturnine Terminator armor, by the time Corvus Corax was found, the Raven Guard had few, if any, remaining operable Saturnine Terminator armors. Oh, well.

By the time of the Horus Heresy, the usage of Saturnine Terminator armor and the role of their Phoebian attendants within Legion battle forces have declined, overshadowed by easier to produce and maintain Cataphractii and Tartaros Terminator armor. Fortunately for our beloved heavy shoulder pauldron armors, Vulkan, Primarch of the Salamanders, has a personal interest in restoring, constructing and maintaining them without relying on the Phoebian Forges.

Needless to say, he succeeded.

With the assistance of the Pyre Wardens, a unique sub-sect of the Salamanders' Legion Forge tasked with the ongoing trial and development of experimental wargear, he produces prototypes. The Pyre Wardens are also outfitted with the prototypes, and Vulkan commanded them to flee during the Dropsite Massacre - the Hearthfire crew is mentioned here, a nod to Gav Thorpe's Deeds Endure, the short story with the illustration that led to Saturnine Terminator armor being popularized in the fandom.

Before Horus revealed his betrayal during his voyage to the Isstvan system, Vulkan announced to everyone his Legion's success. Through subtle alterations and substitutions to its construction, the Salamanders have rendered Saturnine Terminator armor into a form that can be repaired and fabricated anew by the Martian Mechanicum and their Forge Worlds, and Legion Techmarines. The Legions are now able to retrofit their archived stocks of Saturnine plate for battle, supplement them with freshly fashioned armors, and even deploy a revived form of the towering Saturnine Dreadnought, a prototype of the early Great Crusade that was never mass produced. Vulkan generously distributed the schema, bestowing it to every Legion except the Thousand Sons (ouch!).

We have a cool list of what each and every Legion did with their Saturnine armor.

Dark Angels apparently have an unsurpassed cache of original Phoebian issued Saturnine plate, thanks to them being the 1st Legion and having access to all sorts of relics, and even during the Horus Heresy, they are still capable of fielding Saturnine armor. Most of which are wielded by the Dreadwing's Naufragia Terminators during the Thramas Crusade against the Night Lords.

The White Scars support the Librarius project, and alongside the Thousand Sons, help with the early prototyping of Vulkan's Saturnine endeavor, and this gives them access to a reasonable stock of Saturnine Terminator armor during the early years of the Horus Heresy. However, the Chondax Engagement and warpstorms delay their usage until after the Second Battle of Prospero.

The Space Wolves are reluctant to use Saturnine armor because the technology is associated with psychic practice, albeit suppressed. However, after the Thousand Sons mauled them at Prospero, they have no choice but to grab every advantage they can, including Saturnine Terminators and Dreadnoughts. These are accompanied by Speakers of the Dead and shadowed by the term "Draugr," which implies the poor Space Wolves wearing those armors do not have their minds shielded from warp horrors of the Great Crusade.

The Imperial Fists store most of their Saturnine armors in the Temple of Oaths on the Phalanx and almost all are seconded to the Retribution Fleet by Rogal Dorn, who wants to reexamine their combat capabilities when a full fabrication batch of Vulkan's renewed schema was ordered from the Legion's Forge to reinforce the defenses of the Sol System.

Blood Angel garrisons upon Baal and Canopus, unable to contact the bulk of their Legion because of the Signus tragedy, initiate a trial of new Saturnine wargear, the Saturnine "Colossi" of Baal enacting a stalwart defense of their home world during the Horus Heresy. Sanguinius and the majority of his Legion end up in Ultramar during the whole Imperium Secundus debacle, and they are outfitted with fresh Saturnine armors from the forges of Roboute Guilliman's realm. However, the survivors of Signus, upon interfacing with Saturnine plate, reawaken the darkness of that baleful conflict.

The Iron Hands viewed Saturnine plate as an erratic relic rendered obsolete by the myriad patterns of Dreadnought and automata in their arsenal. But apparently, they have been conducting research and experiments of their own?

Among the Ultramarines, the veterans of the Evocatii Chapters have the most experience wielding Saturnine plate, and they wore freshly forged Saturnine armor enabled by Vulkan's schema to fight the Shadow Crusade descending upon Ultramar. Roboute Guilliman also orders the surviving Phoebian-issued Saturnine armor refitted and used for the anticipated Ghaslakh Crusade, though they would instead be deployed in revenge for the Calth atrocity.

Obviously, the Salamanders - the poster boys for Horus Heresy 3rd edition - possess the most new pattern Saturnine wargear among the Legions at the start of the conflict, most dispatched with Vulkan to Isstvan V. Unfortunately, the entire complement would be lost during the Dropsite Massacre. Fortunately, the Pyre Warden artificer  cohorts retain early prototypes and the Legion's Forge on Prometheus have already begun fabricating successive batches of Saturnine wargear, first employed by the Unscarred garrison in Nocturne's defense before being used to spearhead the Scouring of the Pale Stars.

Unsurprisingly, the Raven Guard eschewed Saturnine plate because they favor mobility and subtlety over lumbering power, with the exception of the Deliverers. They have amassed a significant complement of Saturnine Terminators by the time Corvus Corax is discovered, but much was lost at Gate Forty-Two or dispatched in nomad predation fleets into the outer darkness. Fortunately, those that remained see their suits restored in the aftermath of the Dropsite Massacre, and the Deliverers also take pride in liberating caches of newly produced Saturnine plate from their Traitor foes.

Emperor's Children revere Saturnine plate, relegating their dwindling stock to a predominantly ceremonial role. With Vulkan's gift, the apothecaries modify their Saturnine plates to increasingly debased extremes to further the Legionary-armor interface when fielding them.

Perturabo, bitter as always, is initially reluctant to field Vulkan's Saturnine armors because he is jealous at his brother's success. And also, because the bastard believes it is a waste to arm "line warriors" with such valuable assets. However, having prized Saturnine plate's capabilities, he tasks his sons with devising new forms while fabricating a host of new Saturnine armors that he modifies into brutal new forms.

Fractured, the Night Lords have various responses, with several warlords requesting the Legion's Forge fabricate the new armor, others only wanting to steal Terminator and Dreadnought armors from other Legions as trophies, while a few spurn them entirely. One Night Lords commander enlists the Dark Mechanicum Forge World of Ulan Huda to fabricate a company's worth of fresh Saturnine plate.

The World Eaters originally avoided Saturnine plate because of deleterious interactions between its unique interface systems and the Butcher's Nails' cranial implants, and so they had no intention of fabricating Vulkan's revised schema. But a twisted cult emerged, its members exulting in the resilience demonstrated by those who don Saturnine plate despite it amplifying the Nails' effect. These morons...ahem, dudes are called Indurate, often taking pride in claiming their armors from slain foes, though fresh-wrought Saturnine plate is assigned to specialist Inductii cadres who have yet to succumb to the Nails' bite.

The Death Guard highly value their dwindling Phoebian-issue Saturnine plate during the Great Crusade, and they happily fabricate Vulkan's renewed pattern...only for most of it to go to Calas Typhon's company. Typhon is canny enough to conceal the armor's association with psyarkana from Mortarion so he can facilitate their wider distribution across the Legion without the filthy hypocrite throwing a fit.

Unfortunately for us Thousand Sons, when Vulkan circulates his reworked Saturnine schema, Prospero had already been razed and our forge-holdings stricken from the directory by which fabrication imprints are allocated to the Legions. Fortunately, the Thousand Sons had participated in the earliest development stages of Vulkan's project, and Legion elements shielded from the Burning of Prospero will later deliver an array of prototype Saturnine wargear to our scattered brothers, having mastered new psychic disciplines attuned to Saturnine use.

The Sons of Horus do not have Saturnine wargear at Isstvan because they do not have access to early reproductions of the design. Nevertheless, Horus Lupercal appropriates resources to furnish his Legion ensure various Traitor Mechanicum elements and an expanded Legion Forge are able to provide his Legion with several companies' worth of Saturnine suits by the early stages of the Horus Heresy. The majority is mustered under Justaerin captain Falkus Kibre.

At first, the Word Bearers don't really care much about Vulkan's renewed Saturnine designs because they prefer daemonology, warp-craft and more profane methods of augmenting their warriors. This changes when the Phraetus and their corrupted Saturnine panoply emerge, and they become more widespread.

Apparently, the Alpha Legion might have been fielding Saturnine armor long before the other Legions because...they're the Alpha Legion. No, I don't get it either...

The Dawn of the Age of Darkness

By this point, I'm exhausted, so I'll just summarize everything...

Vulkan restores Saturnine armor, being the genius he is, and distributes the schema to everyone. Then he's sent along with the Retribution Fleet to take the head of Horus Lupercal when the latter reveals his betrayal at Isstvan III. Vulkan is hoping that only his sons are replete with the might of Saturnine Terminator plate and Saturnine Dreadnought chassis, and that the Traitors don't have time to mass produce them...yet. He plans to deploy them into the Urgall Depression.

The Saturnine Provision is a contingency he formulates because he is skeptical about Ferrus Manus's reckless assault on Isstvan V, his newly forged Saturnine assets showing up in the Urgall Depression to outmatch Horus's assembled armies. Instead of deploying them initially, Vulkan holds his Saturnine assets back in orbital reserve, within teleportarium chambers aboard the Salamanders' fleet's vessels, such as the Fire Ark and Laecertii, ready to teleport.

The battle goes as you might as expect, and then the Saturnine Terminators teleport onto the battlefield after so many of their brothers have been slain in the Urgall Depression (this is making me depressed). Joined by Saturnine Dreadnoughts, who lumber from the landing site and require a longer period of preparation once planetside, they are reinforced further by the conveyor-arks of Legio Atarus and House Col'khak. Awesome. We're gonna smash the Traitors!

The Death Guard basically died.

Unfortunately, Dies Irae of Legio Mortis, shows up and the tide turns against the Loyalists. Long story short, while scores of Loyalist troops are erased - along with Traitors because Chaos don't care about friendly fire - a company of Saturnine Terminators move into close range to poke at Dies Irae in an attempt to collapse its void shields. They are countered by Eschatae, a Warhound Titan, and not even Saturnine Terminators and Dreadnoughts can stand up to a Titan. So they get obliterated. Mostly.

Raven Guard Storm Eagle, Herros, to the rescue! A bunch of Assault Marines jump on the Warhound Titan and bring Eschatae down, at the costs fo their lives and the poor gunship (which crashed). The surviving Salamanders Saturnine Terminators then focus their firepower on Dies Irae to drive its void shields to critical levels, and when pummeled by the Salamanders super-heavy tanks from a distance, the Imperator Titan is forced to retreat. Bye, Legio Mortis!

The Salamanders attempt to fall back and regroup around Vukan, but they are annihilated by atomic fire, launched from Iron Warriors. Night Lords and Alpha Legion then swept through the area in the wake of the bombardment. Damn Traitors. DAMN IT!

The Kolarne-Distal Incident

I won't lie, this is what interested me the most. Along with the new Prosperine Arcana. I mean, Thousand Sons, man. This is what I am. Anyway, I was wondering why the Thousand Sons would get into a conflict with the White Scars, their closest allies. Magnus and Jaghatai Khan have always been bros, there's no way the Thousand Sons would attack the White Scars. Right?

Right. Turns out, it was the other way around.

Despite being a genius, Vulkan still needs help in restoring the Saturnine technology, and he seeks it from the Thousand Sons because we're the preeminent experts in psy-tech. The unique interface systems designed by Phoebian technology are similar to psy-resonance devices discovered by the Imperium and understanding them is crucial to maintaining and fabricating Saturnine wargear beyond the tech-enclaves of Phoebe. Vulkan thus reaches out to the Thousand Sons, known experts in psyarkana, despite the Edict of Nikaea forbidding us from employing psychic powers. Ouch. So Vulkan has to be discrete, because he doesn't want our Legion to be scrutinized further due to our association with sorcery.

The outermost star system of the Kolarne Circle, Kolarne-Distal is located near the Maelstrom in the Ultima Segmentum, a pocket of calm in the raging realm of the warp. During the height of the Libarius project, the White Scars and Thousand Sons establish a joint research outpost at the system's border to analyze the Maelstrom's currents and serve as a repository and locus of study for psyarkana, including the relics of Kolarne-Distal.

This Spiracle Station retains its mission of study in the aftermath of the Edict of Nikaea, unaffiliated with the Librarius project and now a hermitage fo sorcerer-wrights who no longer have any place in the Imperium they once served. Fortunately, Vulkan gives us a place and sends a Pyre Warden artificer order's vessel to provide the garrison of Spiracle Station the initial prototypes of his attempt to redevelop Saturnine Terminator armor.

For two years, the Thousand Sons and White Scars work on restoring Saturnine wargear, maintaining contact with the Salamanders on their progress, but they are cut off from the Imperium when Magnus accidentally broke the Webway in Holy Terra, and a warpstorm swallows Kolarne-Distal whole. Fortunately, the system remains untouched despite the surrounding systems being devastated.

Unable to communicate with the wider Imperium and discovering that any attempts to leave the system will prove fatal, the Thousand Sons and White Scars have nothing better to do but continue restoring Saturnine armor, and they succeed. The Ruinstorm then blows away the Maelstrom, connecting Spiracle Station to the rest of the galaxy again. Yay! However, their first contact is with a strike cruiser, Endless Path, and its White Scar crew going insane and accusing the Thousand Sons of treachery. Even though we harbor them and allow them to dock, they immediately draw their weapons and try to kill the confused Thousand Sons.

Okay, he did tell the Stormseer Nikudaar and the Numerologist Okhafor an account of the Horus Heresy, the burning of Propsero and the condemnation fo Magnus and the Thousand Sons before he decides to go all psychotic murder on us. Nikudaar and the White Scars in Spiracle Station remain on our side and end up killing the crazed captain. The rest of the White Scars crew from the Endless Path end up going berserk and try killing both Thousand Sons and their White Scars brethren on Spiracle Station alike.

36 White Scars and 21 Thousand Sons versus three times that number of White Scars legionaries. Guess who won? Well, the guys with Saturnine armor, of course. Needless to say, the White Scars-Thousand Sons allied Saturnine force annihilates the insane White Scars attempting to murder them, and the White Scars garrison pretty much takes the Endless Path and leaves the system in search of their Primarch, Jaghatai Khan. Meanwhile, the Thousand Sons board Paroxysm, which is a XVth Legion vessel, and go their separate ways, in search of surviving Thousand Sons.

Being bros, they split the Saturnine armor and psyarkana stored in the vaults of Spiracle Station among themselves, abandoning the outpost, and sharing the fruits of their labor. And that's how the Thousand Sons get our Saturnine armor. Yay?

Oh, by the way, the crazed captain and his crazy crew? Before arriving at Spiracle Station, they came from the Prospero system, right after civil strife in the Vth Legion instigated by none other than the Brotherhood of the Dawn Sky, which they belong to.

The War of Bitter Iron

Iron Hands versus Word Bearers, basically. For some reason, the Iron Hands outnumber the Word Bearers (huh?) as the former launches a vengeful crusade toward the latter's home world of Colchis. Anyway, this specific account is the Sundering of Milhand, a diminished Forge World who has lost much of its military prowess after its small Titan Legio - Legio Ablutum (Cleansing Flame) - became Blackshields, and they were pretty much raided by Word Bearers and the Legio Mordaxis.

Interestingly, the Iron Hands fleet also has a super "kingship" of their own to rival the Word Bearers' Abyssal-class ships - a shard of Medusa's shattered orbital ring granted locomotion named Memorius. It's slow, though...so pretty much the whole story takes place before it arrives in orbit of Milhand and ends the poor Forge World with its colossal firepower.

Despite its diminished stature, Milhand is still vital in the Word Bearers' efforts and their defense of Colchis system due to the armor, munitions, equipment and weaponry they manufacture and supply. By the time the Iron Hands arrive, the Word Bearers are pretty much scrambling to get as much munitions, armor, equipment and supplies as they can off-world, for the larger war-effort. Obviously, the Iron Hands intend to stop them, and perhaps requisition a good chunk of those war materiel for themselves.

Long story short, the Iron Hands deploy in force, their superior numbers overwhelming Word Bearers defenses and overrunning them. Cataphractii and Gorgon Terminators are dispatched into the forge complex and fight their way through automata, servitors and even the machinery of the forge-complex itself. While the surface battle go well for the Iron Hands, their Contemptor Dreadnoughts and a single Saturnine Dreadnought pretty much making mincemeat out of the poor Word Bearers left behind to defend a shrinking cordon - and despite this cool scene where they merge the void shields of their Stormbirds together to make a last stand - the Saturnine Dreadnought pretty much obliterates their protection with his graviton pulverizer and inversion beamer. Nice.

The Cataphractii and Gorgon Terminators, on the other hand, don't fare as well. They stumble upon the cursed platform where daemon-infused Saturnine plate is being manufactured and anointed, and a bunch of Phraetus Anointed Conclave teleport in and begin slaughtering them. Despite outnumbering them two against one, the Iron Hands Terminators are wiped out, in exchange for only a single fallen Phraetus Anointed.

Similarly, twelve Phraetus Anointed teleport into the Word Bearers' defense to save them from the Iron Hands Breachers, tanks and walkers, but they got absolutely butchered. The Iron Hands Saturnine Dreadnought destroyed four of them while the Contemptor Dreadnoughts crushed two. With half their number slain, the remaining Phraetus Anointed basically beat it out of there via daemonic teleportation or whatever. The rest of the Word Bearers attempt to flee, but most are cut down by the sheer firepower the Iron Hands bring to bear, including anti-air fire from Deredeo Dreadnoughts.

Memorius proceeds to wreck whatever Word Bearer ships that remain in orbit, and Milhand now falls into the hands of the Iron Hands. Yes, that is on purpose. Ahem, anyway, the Iron Hands claim bloody salvage from the fallen Phraetus and Word Bearers, and they end up creating their own distorted Saturnine armor, known as Helwrought. Huh, okay.

The Bloody Toll of the Saturnine Renewal

The Solemn March sees the Ultramarines Saturnine Terminator squad Alepho march to the aid of Highborn Wardens and Evocatii battalions in the Decalian District in the world of Armatura, braving all sorts of firepower from Fire Raptors or ambushes, only to find them all massacred. Sad, grimdark.

The Siege of Baal is about the Saturnine Terminators of the Colossi standing guard over Baal, the 3,000 strong garrison supplemented by many times their number of bonded Solar Auxilia Cohort troops, such as Saiphan Elevatii, Gilded Sentinels and the Fusiliers of Canopus. Oh, and alongside sheltered Shattered Legions. They protect Baal from Traitor attacks after the perceived tragedy of Signus, saving hundreds of Legionaries and thousands of Solar Auxilia. Chads, every one of them.

During the Crucible of Nuceria, the Indurate Terminators employ Saturnine plate in mass against the elite cadres of Invictus Suzerains as Guilliman engages Angron. After the Ulramarines withdraw, they are suddenly attacked by fellow World Eaters, keen to claim the Saturnine suits as their own.

When the Inwit Cluster is attacked by Traitors, the world of Terros IV resist Emperor's Children raiders, with Bilatt Svenor of the Inwit Empire's Void Salvage Guild organizing a stalwart resistance from the world's hardy hive gangers and rig-hands. Fortunately, just when supplies and morale are running low, Imperial Fists Saturnine Terminators teleport into Terros IV and kick the Emperor's Children off the planet in style, allowing them to resume supply of promethium to the Loyalists.

As previously mentioned, Perturabo is initially reluctant to fabricate Saturnine armor because he thinks it's a waste for his line warriors, but he changes his bitter mind when he witnesses the endurance of Saturnine Terminators and Dreadnought chassis in Isstvan V. Mass manufacturing them, he deploys them during the Siege of Inwit, now having access to company-strength formations of Saturnine Terminators supported by many Dreadnoughts. These are known as Tekathikos, the Mountain Breakers.

This leads to the Imperial Fists in the Inwit Cluster specially designing hunter-killers with specialist weaponry to prioritize the destruction of Tekathikos before all others.

Sekhmet Terminators

I assembled a small squad of Sekhmet Terminators for my Thousand Sons!

You will notice that they are all armed with volkite chargers. Yup! Kitbashed them with the remaining resin volkite chargers I had, snared some bits from Tartaros Terminators for the single plastic volkite charger and plasma blaster, and voila! Sekhmet Terminators armed with volkite chargers and a plasma blaster! Pleased with how they turned out.

It's a fun little project, but I don't intend to add more. Just wanted a squad to be thematic with my Thousand Sons Praetor in Cataphractii Terminator armor (Ignatius). So they look really cool. Will still keep my 10-men Cataphractii Terminator squad with volkite, and eventually add the Saturnine Terminators. They look really thematic and flavorful now. Ignatius in his customized Thousand Sons Cataphractii Terminator armor standing next to these Sekhmet Terminators, the two Osiron Contemptor Dreadnoughts, and then the soon-to-come Saturnine Terminators and Saturnine Dreadnought. Hopefully, I'll have time to assemble 2 plasma tactical support squads with MKII armor and achaean heads. That will be cool! They'll be backed by a Numerologist Cabal and Castellax-Achea battle automata.

I removed the armor because I'll use my Solar Auxilia for armor support instead. Since I have a bunch of Leman Russ tanks and everything. This will be fun!