Path of the Tyrant Pt 3: Legion Tactics

When I set out to build my Astral Claws, one of the most compelling aspects of the chapter's story was their arc, starting as crusading chapter with a standard codex organization, their assignment as one of the Maelstrom Wardens chapters, transition to a primarily defensive role, and the eventual massive reorganization that the Tyrant himself oversaw upon ascension to Chapter Master.

For those who are uninitiated, Lugft Huron, the last Chapter Master of the Astral Claws, committed what was regarded as a great heresy, completely reorganizing his chapter and expanding it far beyond the normal bounds of the Codex Astartes (See my previous post for more information). What I like about this is the fact that his deviations were massively and wildly successful, so much so that he achieved the nearly impossible task of passifying the Maelstrom region so effectively that the Black Templars were able to launch a crusade directly into warpspace.

Choosing to play the Astral Claws, you only have a few bits of guidance on what exactly their forces would look like on the field. The Imperial Armour book does a great job of covering roughly 1/3 of the Astral Claws' forces, the mixed Imperial Guard/Space Marine forces known as the Tyrant's Legion. The structure of the "legion" is based around embedded Space Marines leading guardsmen. The equivalent of a Captain is a Legion Centurion, they serve the role of both a company captain and a commisar, punishing any Guardsmen that fail or flee. There is also a command detachment that serves a similar role to the Company Command Squad, but they don't get orders and are more limited in their weapons selection. Plus, the Tyrant's Legion doesn't have Vendettas, not really sure why, so you can't do the 4 x flamer drop move so popular in the I.G book.

Rather than a Command Squad, the army's Apothecaries are known as Corpse Takers and are deployed with a unit of Servitors. They still have the narthecium, but they also count units killed within 12" of them for double killpoints. There are many different Guard units available, ranging from conscripts and prisoners to mercenaries, and something closer to a regular Guard unit. There are then the following specialist Space Marine units:
Legion Retaliators: Essentially basic assault marines sporting combat shields, these are an elite assault unit that wants to get stuck into assault as soon as possible.

Legion Iron Hunters: a unit of Space Marine Bikes, basically. Apparently the Claws had a lot of them.

Sentry Gun Batteries: basically gun turrets. You get 3 t/l heavy bolters for 45 points, but they're immobile and taking a lascannon or assault cannon gets expensive. Even still, putting 3 t/l lascannons in your backfield makes for decent anti tank and air...until you realize they're BS 2, so they shoot like orks. *shrug*

Arvus Lighters: you can take up to 3 per force org, but they deploy as separate units. They only cost 75 points and have a capacity of 12 models, plus can transport Terminators. BUT, they don't have any guns by default and aren't an assault vehicle. Oh, and when you do spend the 20-25 points on a gun (multi laser, 2 missiles, t/l autocannon, 2 t/l heavy stubbers are your options) according to the rules, they can only fly in hover mode. Not really sure these work in 6th edition. Need to look into a FAQ for this book...

Anyhow, the organization of the book is interesting, but generally I don't play with the FW rules, both because they're very 5th edition focused, and because I don't want to have to deal with getting permission before games. Additionally, there is more to the claws than the Tyrant's Legion, fully 2/3 of their forces were more or less codex compliant.

Stay tuned for the next article in this series for my take on the Codex Space Marines aspect of the Astral Claws.