Once again GW strikes with a new Supplement-Codex. This time is the Legion of the Damned. The book gives the opportunity to play the Legionaries as your Primary Detachment.
“The Legion of the Damned are a mysterious band of Space Marines who appear unbidden when all hope seems lost, striding forth from their hidden netherworld to bring retribution to the Imperium's foes. Once their bloody work is complete they vanish into myth once more. They are a legend, whispered in secret by a suspicious few, that the Emperor has the loyalty of a force from beyond reality. The Legion is an army of vengeance and of flame, a brotherhood of warriors who appear at first glance to be Space Marines but quickly prove to be more lethal than even those most formidable of transhuman warriors. These warriors are variously said to dwell in the spaces between this world and the realm of the Warp, in the hopes and dreams of desperate men, and in a pocket of reality eternally lit by the fires of hatred. Rare is the man that has witnessed the sudden violence of their attack, rarer still those with the strength of will to keep their sanity intact afterwards.” (sic) [Lexicanum]
The Codex gives the following benefits:
- You can use a Legion of the Damned sergeant as your Warlord (if you take them as a PrimaryDetachment)
- 1-3 Squads of Legion of the Damned
- They can have as Battle Brothers all Imperial Forces; as Allies of Convenience the Eldar; and as Desperate Allies the Dark Eldar and Tau.
- One Legionnaire Sergeant can take the artifact The Animus Malorum(35): The bearer and his squad have the FNP (5+) SR. Furthermore, whenever an enemy unit fails any Fear, Pinning or Morale check within 12” of the Bearer, one random model from that unit immediately is removed from play (Look Out, Sir rolls can be taken normally). For every model removed this way, the Bearer unit receives a +1 to its FNP until the end of the player's turn.
- Warlord traits: it provides its own Warlord trait table
D6 | Warlord traits |
1 | The Warlord and his unit have Soul Blaze SR |
2 | When an enemy unit has base contact with the Warlord, it suffers a -1 LD in his Fear test, for every Legionnaire in base contact |
3 | The Warlord and his unit's Boltgun type weapon have the Armourbane SR |
4 | The Warlord and his unit have the FNP(5+) SR |
5 | The Warlord and his unit can choose on which turn they'll come, until turn four |
6 | The Warlord and his unit have Preferred Enemy SR |
The Unit starts with 5 models at 125P with the Standard Space Marine Equipment. The Unit has Fear, Fearless, Slow and Purposeful, Aid Unlooked For (the unit can’t be joined by a IC, they have to start in reserve and always arrive by Deep Strike and when they arrive via Deep Strike they may re-roll the scatter dice), Flaming Projectiles (All shooting attacks have the Ignore Cover SR) and Unyielding Specter (3+ inv). You can include up to five additional Legionnaires for 25P/ml. Each unit can have one Special weapon (5-15) and One Heavy Weapon (10-20). The Sergeant can take a Melee Special weapon (15-25), Special pistol or Combi weapon (10-15) and The Animus Malorum.
[Wolf tip: The Codex doesn’t allow you to take Grav-gun]
So the squad can reach up to 325 (without the artifact). For 4 units we have 1300. That means you MUST take allies; since they can’t reach 1750P and they can’t start in the table, which would mean an automatic win for your enemy.
Do Wolves need the assistance of the Legionnaire? Truth is we can’t Deep Strike any unit (except the Land Speeder). The only solution we have is the Drop pod. The Legion is a shooting oriented unit and thus I shall compare them to a Space Wolves Shooting squad. A Melta Legion unit at 160P has a melta, Multi-Melta and a Combi-melta. For 160P we can have a Drop pod with 5 Combi-Melta Wolf Guards. The Wolf Guards can come in the first turn and have 5 shots in their full ballistic. On the other hand, the Legion will come in turn 2-4 and have a 3+ inv, so they have a higher survival rate, but only get 3 shots, all with ignore cover; one of which is snapshot.
Let see a little Mathhammer round up at full ballistic (all vehicles have +5 cover and the Serpent has Holofield): Wolf Guard | Rhino | Land Raider | Wave Serpent |
To Hit 5 | 3.333passed(66.667%) | 3.333passed(66.667%) | 3.333passed(66.667%) |
To Penetrate 3 | 2.75 passed (91.667%) | 1.75 passed (58.333%) | 2.5 passed (83.333%) |
Cover 3 | 1 saved (33.333%) | 1 saved (33.333%) | 1.5 saved (50%) |
Result 2 | 1 pass (50%) | 1 pass (50%) | 1 pass (50%) |
Legion of the Damned | Rhino | Land Raider | Wave Serpent |
To Hit 3 | 2passed (66.667%) | 2passed (66.667%) | 2passed (66.667%) |
To Penetrate 2 | 1.833passeded (91.667%) | 1.167passed (58.333%) | 1.667passed (83.333%)Cover 0 |
Ignore Cover | Ignore Cover | Ignore Cover | |
Result 2 | 1 pass (50%) | 1 pass (50%) | 1 pass (50%) |
From the table above we can see that they make almost the same damage to a vehicle. Of course I didn’t count the snap shoot Multi-Melta. Ignore Cover made the biggest different. The legion is also scoring, the Wolf Guards to be able to score need to be accompanied by Logan. If you have points to spend and you want a squad that can survive in the enemy’s lines and create havoc surely they can do it a lot better than our Wolf Guards. So perhaps we can fit them in our list, but only for Melta and Flamer squads, since the Wolf Guards can bring more Plasmas than the Legion.
As always I would like to hear your opinion on this one and all my previous posts, as well as suggestions for what you would like me to write about.
Until next time remember Prospero and…
VLKA FENRIKA