Horus Heresy – Legiones Astartes MKIII Tactical Squad

Part of the Legiones Astartes Battle Group are the Space Marines in the new Mark III Power Armour. Available as a tactical squad as well, and compatible with the various weapon options already released. We will cover the Special Weapons Upgrades in this review along with the new models.

The Space Marines in Mk III are currently available as a Tactical Squad of 20 with a retail of 60 EUR or as part of the Battle Group, for 160 EUR with 30 Marines, a Dreadnought and Land Raider. These are no repacks of the Burning of Prospero release from 2016, but entirely new miniatures.

As mentioned in the unboxing, the sides of the Battle Group box cover 7 different paint schemes, Dark Angels, Iron Warriors, Space Wolves, Word Bearers, Death Guard, Ultramarines and World Eaters in the new Mark III plastic kit. Just to give you an idea, how the different legions looked like using this armour.

The Mark III, also known as Iron Armour or Armorum Ferrum, has been around for some time. Even back in the late Rogue Trader, it was shown as an option for the Space Marines. It dates back to the Great Crusade and was an adapted variant of the Power Armour to be used for example in boarding actions, tunnel assaults and void warfare. It was never intended to replace the previous Mark, but more an optional armour variant for certain operations. Yet, it became quite popular with some Legions, like the Death Guard or Imperial Fists. It is more clumsy and considerably heavier than other Marks, mostly because it was a heavy modified variant of the Mark II, the first mass-produced Power Armour for Legiones Astartes.

Due to its bulky, brutal design, the Mark III is sometimes worn by ceremonial guards and can still be found in close-quarter combat situation, like breachers. As of current lore, due to the weight of the armour, the Mark III does not support Jump Packs.

Forge World covered the Mark III in different variants for the first edition of Horus Heresy. We got breacher with the shields, close combat troops and some command options. As mentioned above, the Mark III was popular with certain Legions, so it is no wonder, that we see the Praetors of Legions like the Imperial Fists, Death Guard, Space Wolves or Dark Angels wearing (artificer) variants of these Iron Armour. And as of today, we even have plastic characters wearing the Mk III, like Fafnir Rann.

The layout of the sprue is pretty similar to the Mk VI infantry. A densely packed sprue of 5 soldiers, holding Bolters with two hands. All the variants for special weapons, sergeants etc. need the additional sprues. The sprues included bracers, which will be needed for some special and heavy weaponry, more on that further below. Casting is well done and as said, the space is used in the sprue in a proper way.

The upgrade sprue is the same with the Mk VI. You get a couple of grenades, pistol holsters, the parts for the sergeant, who has options for a plasma pistol and either a power claw, power fist or power sword. The helmet crest is the same and there is a special helmet variant for it to stick to in the Mk III sprue.

The special weapon upgrade sprue is a boxed set of its own, but one sprue is part of the Battle Group boxed set. While 60 weapons for 37 EURs is not that bad, I think the way they used this sprue is incredibly flawed. For example, the Tactical Squad incl. the upgrade sprue is missing some options for the Sergeants, as well as some dynamic poses for the regular soldier (all of them carry the bolters with both hands, no reloading, no pointing, just regular grunts). With the space unused in this sprue, they could have added the minor or magna combi weapon for the sergeants, the hand flamer or Volkite serpenta. There was room for that. They are not even part of the other heavy weapon sets.

But let's start with building some Iron Armour Space Marines.

Just like with the Mk VI marines, we will build two Mk III marines, directly from the sprue. The shoulder pads are single casts and not two pieces, as with the studded Mk VI ones, as you don't need that in this case / design. Please note, the arms have tongue and groove connections, so they align properly with the weapons and it is important to keep an eye on the numbering, as you have to use the pair (not necessarily on the listed body). But these will be important with the special and heavy weapons later.

I build a regular Tactical Marine and a Sergeant, using the Helmet crest, and a plasma pistol due to lack of other options, but went with a power fist this time, as I thought this suits the brutal look of the Mk III.

The Mark III power packs (right) have a different design compared to the Mark VI (left). This not entirely a design decision, but affected due to the lore, as the Iron Armour is more power hungry. You have the option for some accessories for the belt, I went with grenades and holsters. In case of the bayonet, I swapped the regular dagger with a bit from the Mk VI kit, as I thought the small chainsaw would fit the breacher Mk III, and they can be used without modifications.

A comparison side by side of the Sergeant and Tactical Marine in both newer upscaled power armour.

As mentioned, the Battle Group covers a single sprue of the special weapons, giving you access to flamers, meltaguns, plasma guns, rotor cannons, volkite calivers, and volkite chargers - 5 of each. These are meant to replace the bolters, so there is a chart which weapon goes with which body. You don't need other arm pairs, they just replace the bolt guns.

The Mark III sprue covers bracers, which are meant to be used with the heavy weapon upgrade, to tie in the generic arms with the Iron Armour. Games Workshop even provided an article on Warhammer Community explaining this step (For the special weapons as well).

A bit of mix of different Space Marine armour over the time. With the simple push-fit Space Marine (now called first borns) - in this case from the 4th edition Battle of Macragge kit - the Mark III Space Marine we just built, and old metal Space Marine (yes, that's a Mark II, I couldn't find the Mark III metal sculpt in time for this review), a Primaris Space Marine and the Mark VI Space Marine. The older Heresy armours in plastic (from Betrayal at Calth and Burning of Prospero) are in scale with the First Borns, these new ones are taller and somewhere in the middle between First Born and Primaris.

Conclusion

The Mark III are for some reason 5 EURs cheaper than the Mark VI, at 60 EUR for the boxed set of 20. A huge saving compared to the former Forge World resin kits. Yet, special gear and legion specific upgrades will add significantly to that price. The weapon sets already got a price raise from 34 to 37,50 since their release. They will carry you a long way, as they give you 60 special weapons or 20 heavy weapons. As for the upgrade on helmets and shoulder pads, I don't see them as a must have, as you have the option to get your hands on a really filled to the rim decal sheet at 25 EURs. Those are reprinted from the old Forge World releases and incredibly well made, with a far more artistic approach compared to regular Warhammer 40k decals. I think it is just a bit sad, that you don't get generic icons on the decal sheet, with this set, as they only cover Sons of Horus and Imperial Fists.

While 20 Marines for 60 EUR is reasonable, especially compared to where the Horus Heresy comes from. Making them legion specific is quite hefty. Two sets of Shoulder Pads and two sets of helmets at 19,50 EUR each, move them to 140 EUR for a squad of 20, and that is still without special weapon options. If you want to convert those into Despoilers / an Assault squad, you will need 4 of the upgrade kits, adding another 100 EUR to the price of that squad. I don't understand why there isn't a plastic sprue, like with the special weapons or Primaris Intercessors for this. For many Legions that won't be an issue, but as World Eaters, Space Wolves or Night Lords, this would be a big bummer for me. For the Mk III having breachers would be a very interesting upgrade, I hope we see this in plastic and not just as resin parts, as this will very likely be the same price range.

Beyond that, no issue with the casts or the builds. Easily and rapidly assembled, even for beginners. I am aware that Horus Heresy is more of a mass combat system, compared to regular Warhammer 40,000, yet I would have appreciated a bit more dynamic options, like having a Space Marine swap a bolter magazine, having some pointing arms and items like the scanners not just as something you add to the belt, but actually held in hand. Maybe that would be something for a command sprue, along with a banner, artificer armour etc.

Warhammer 40,000 and The Horus Heresy are brands by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.