Forgeworld Ultramarine Invictus Suzerain Squad Unboxing.

Forgeworld have just released the Invictarus Suzerain squad for the Ultramarines legion in Horus Heresy and they are flipping gorgeous! So I thought I'd take this opportunity to take a look at the rules, lore, and the models as they've just arrived through my letterbox.

So the rules first, and at 200 points for five they're not cheap, but for another five its only 125 so there is a pay off. They come with Legatine axes and boarding shields as standard, along with a bolt pistol each, and donning some artificer armour.
They can take Phobos and Proteus variants of Land Raider as their transport, and are basically a fancy Breacher squad.
If you wanted to you could exchange the bolt pistols for plasma, and the axes for thunder hammers. You're not limited on how many, so if you fancy it these boys can get very expensive!

There's a few special rules attached to these guys too. The Chosen Warrior rule means that any of them can issue and accept challenges, and the Lords of Ultramar rule gives them a leadership boosting bubble for surrounding units.
Perhaps the most interesting rule is the Honour Bearers upgrade, where one Suzerain can exchange his Boarding shield for a Legion Standard and become an Invictarus Ancient when accompanying a Praetor or other Master of the Legion as a command squad. This is what I think I'll be doing with mine, as I've got a nifty idea for the standard, more on that in a jiffy.

In the fluff, the Invictus are marines that have been selected from the ranks due to being truly exceptional. They serve our Primarch and the Tetrarchs, with the aim of becoming future leaders and officers. They embody the Legions traits, with shining armour, shields to hold disorder at bay, and Legatine axes as symbols to remember the old Battle-Kings of Macragge. That's some serious weight on their shoulders!
As I mentioned at the start of this post, forgeworld have absolutely knocked it out of the park with this unit. The level of detail is staggering, they are so ornate and intricate, they'll be a real treat to put together and paint. The bodies come as one piece with the legs so there is limited posing, but they've been sculpted so well that you'd hardly notice the duplication when taking them up to a full ten man squad. At £60 they are a bit pricey in one go, but comparable to having to buy a mkIV squad and an upgrade pack, so no complaints here at all.
With the standard bearer I'm thinking of using one of the banner poles from Roboute Guilliman's base, since I'm not using the big marble slab. I'll have to do a dry fit and see how it works out.

I've done a quick unboxing video of the Suzerains as well which you can find here!