To sum it up, Tallarn was once a verdant, abundant and beautiful world with fertile biomes, and was regarded as a jewel in the Trailing Tempest region in the Segmentum Tempestus. It was designated as a supply hub, then as the Great Crusade expanded further, it served as a harbor for damaged, recovering or recuperating assets. Not wanting to destroy the beautiful biosphere, they instead built a lot of subterranean caverns to store Imperial Army assets such as vehicles, tanks, munitions, supplies, etc., many of which were brought along by these resting and recuperating units who needed a break after serving in lethal campaigns of the Great Crusade.
Then everything changed when the Iron Warriors attacked.
The IV Legion fleet translated deep into the Tallarn system, led by Perturabo's flagship Iron Blood, and unleashed a planetwide barrage of virus bombs. These differed from the life-eater virus that consumed Isstvan III, this virus was re-engineered into a more complex strain that caused necrotic decay and mutated to corrosive compounds that permeate and linger for centuries.
Though billions on Tallarn died, many made it to the underground shelters, which were militaris-grade rad/chem sealed, and this was where they staged their retaliation and vengeance. As for the Iron Warriors, after virus-bombing the surface of Talalrn, they landed armored battalions, comprised of Predators, Vindicators, Sicarans and Kratos tanks from Stormbirds, Thunderhawks and other heavy drop ships. Their objective was singular: to locate the Cursus, which is some MacGuffin thingy that you'll read about in John French's Tallarn novels and novellas and short stories. Check out Tallarn: Executioner, Tallarn:Ironclad, Tallarn: Siren and Tallarn: Witness for more details. And Black Oculus and Iron Corpses for more. Epsecially Ironclad. Oh, and the 2nd edition Imperial Guard codex would talk about this Cursus turned out to be a gateway for Slaanesh Daemons to invade Tallarn, and how the Tallarn Desert Raiders - with the assistance of the Eldar - were able to drive them off and seal the Cursus. You know what, I'm gonna write a separate article on this.
The Cursus is also known as the Black Oculus, by the way. Yeah, I know it's confusing, but the Cursus and Black Oculus are the same thing.
For eight weeks, the Iron Warriors combed Tallarn for the Cursus. There were bitter rivalry and intense competition between them, and nothing happened, so they got complacent, especially since they saw no signs of life, and nothing but wrecks.
However, the Tallarn Reborn retaliated, seeking revenge. Under the command of Cohort-Marshal Jasira Sannoval, the 71st Cinder Born Cohort of the Solar Auxilia took charge and distributed their veterans among crews made up of civilian volunteers, to deploy their squadrons of tanks into the now toxic surface of Tallarn. Other cohorts include Sapphirine Ghosts, Ithak-Nur and these fall under the Crescent Province Command.
There's also mention of Astartes Legions joining them piecemeal, with forces from the White Scars, Space Wolves, Imperial Fists, Blood Angels, Iron Hands and Ultramarines present, as well as other Legions who had cast off their old colors in the wake of Horus's betrayal and pledged to fight for the Imperium. Loyalist Thousand Sons armored companies, anyone?
The Iron Warriors comprised of what were the core of the 125th Expeditionary Fleet. Mostly armored battalions, they fell under the command of Tetrarch Forrix and were made up of a lot of Inductii crew, led by various veterans who survived the attritional campaigns of the IVth Legion. Apparently, they were reorganized into Grand Battalions, with Armor companies built from Armor Centuries leading Patrol Sections. They were accompanied by their Selucid Thorakite Legiones Auxilia and even the Mechanicum Taghmata of Incaladion. The Iron Warriors deployed in Legion strength, apparently, with the bulk of their Legion arriving in Tallarn.
No wonder they were in pretty bad shape by the time they reached Terra. They lost a lot of tanks in Tallarn before the Siege.
Anyway, there is only one battle in this particular Journal Tactica, and it tells of how Iron Warriors patrol section Scorn Two-six, under the command of Armor-Commander Vanko Graxxis aboard a Spartan Command Tank, fell into an ambush from the Tallarn Reborn. As mentioned above, the Iron Warriors grew complacent after seeing wrecks for eight weeks, so when they drove straight into a convoy littered with Imperial Army wrecks, they thought nothing of them...until the Leman Russ tanks came to life and blew them up. There was also clever use of mines to trap the entire armored command in the canyon, and though the Solar Auxilia crews in those damaged tanks lying in weight were succumbing to prolonged exposure to the environmental toxins, they were more than happy to make that sacrifice.
More advanced tanks, such as Thunderers and Destroyers and Malcadors emerged from nearby subterranean shelters and hangars to join them. Graxxis called for reinforements, with a reactionary force of Sabres and Sicarans arriving to surprise one side of the Tallarn Reborn tanks from behind and wipe them out. While trading fire with the other side of the Tallarn tanks, several super-heavy tanks arrived - the Falchion, Crucible, accompanied by a Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer, and a Typhon Siege tank.
Outmatched, the Tallarn Reborn tanks were forced to retreat, losing lots of tanks to the Iron Warriors super-heavies...but Iron Hands Thunderhawk - the Medusan Sun - and two Xiphon fighters showed up to join the party, and they blew up the Falchion, which resulted in a catastrophic explosion that annihilated not just a lot of Iron Warriors tanks, but also the Cerberus and Typhon. Take that, Iron Warriors scum!
With the Iron Warriors armored squadrons mortally wounded and in disarray, the Tallarn Reborn retreated under the cover of the Iron Hands. Though merely mortal and outmatched in firepower by transhuman Astartes, the Tallarn Reborn learned how to retaliate through guerilla tactics and warfare, ambushing their superior foe from subterranean shelters and disappearing before the IVth Legion could muster enough strength to destroy their foes. In this way, Tallarn was clawed back from the iron grip of Perturabo's invaders, and the Imperium eventually won...but that is a tale to be told in another expansion, for this is merely "Part One" of The Battle of Tallarn.
If you want more Tallarn lore, the fall of the Sapphire City is detailed in The Devastation of Tallarn, the Legions Imperialis expansion. I also recommend you get this book!
Oh, right. The Solar Auxilia get a new Dracosan Command Tank, yay! Just rules, though. Oh, well. However, there are a few confusing points about the rules. There's no Transport Capacity, but there's a Command Transport rule that says he can only transport units that have at least one model with the Command Sub-Type. HUH?! But how, when there's no transport capacity?!
That second rule opens up even more confusion for me because the only units that have the Command sub-type are the Legatine Command Section and Tactical Command Section. All the other command sections are Sergeant sub-type only! Maybe the Veletaris has Champion sub-type too, but basically it means I can't embark my Veletaris Command Section in a Dracosan Command Tank because they lack the Command sub-type. Lame.
A third point of confusion is that the Dracosan Command Tank is a High Command Choice. Basically your equivalent of a Legate Marshal or Praetor. You can use him to unlock Apex Detachments - and I'll be talking about one in a bit - but it also means that the only unit you can transport with this guy, assuming that the - transport capacity is a typo/error, is the Tactical Command Section. Unless you decide, for some inane reason, that you absolutely have to take both of Legatine Command Section and a Dracosan Command Tank, and you use the Special Assignment Prime Trait for one of them (likely the Legatine, since you would prefer unlocking 2 armored detachments with the Dracosan Command Tank, and the Legatine Command Section has no special rules aside from Line 2).
But you're wasting a Command slot when you might as well take Tactical Command Section to unlock 2 more auxiliary detachments, as well as a Prime slot. And if you're taking an allied Solar Auxilia detachment, then the Dracosan Command Tank is pretty much...useless, since if you try to take him via Special Assignment, you lose the Command Tank (2) ability that unlocks 2 armored detachments.
...yeah, this is just weird.
However, if you choose to take Solar Auxilia as your primary detachment and bring a Dracosan Command Tank, then you can unlock two auxiliary detachments, but they must be either the Armored Support detachment or the Armor Tercio detachment. But I'd take the opportunity to unlock the Apex Detachment, Armored Command Squadron, which gives you 3 Armor slots with 2 Prime Traits to choose from - Hardened Systems, which lets you make Repair tests in both Start and End phases, and Suspensor Web Stabilizers, which grants you benefit from Heavy even though you moved.
But another point of confusion arises here. Rules as written, if you take an Apex detachment with the High Command slot of a Dracosan Command Tank, you can't take auxiliary detachments anymore. So you either choose one Apex or two auxiliary detachments, but not one Apex and one Auxiliary. Is that intended? So if I choose an Apex detachment of Armored Command Squadron, I can't take an Auxiliary even though Tank Commander (2) normally allows me to take 2 Auxiliary detachments?
I guess I have to assume that's the case, in which case, it...sucks. But it does make sense somewhat. I would go with a single Dracosan Command Tank, maybe the Apex Armored Command Squadron of 3 Valdor Tank Destroyers, all with Hardened Systems (since I don't really need the Heavy as the Mechanized Cohort gives me that with 4", and their weapons are Ordnance, not Heavy, anyway). Then I'll take an Armored Command Section and 2 Armored Tercios, plus one Super-heavy. That's like 11 tanks, plus one super-heavy. If I really want to, I can throw in a Tactical Command Section, and bring two squadrons of Aethon Heavy Sentinels with the rest of the points.
Realistically speaking, I don't have that many tanks (nor am I planning to buy that many tanks), but you see where I'm going with this. That is a lot of tanks! Also, you can only use this Apex Detachment in Armored Spearhead missions. From what I understand, this dilemma will not arise for normal missions or standard Horus Heresy campaigns, unless you are specifically running Armored Sperhead missions during a campaign. That sort of sucks, but...whatever.
We do have a new Cohorts Vagus: Itinerant Cohorts where automata show up out of nowhere and either help you or fight both you and your opponent. Very cool. Though I think it's a cool concept, I won't be using this as the rules don't really appeal to me and I prefer to just run Legio Cybernetica. However, I like the narrative fluff and the idea of having robots show up on your side all of a sudden. It'll be fun.
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