Horus Heresy – Legiones Astartes Battle Group

This new Legiones Astartes Battle Group brings not only the new Mk III power armoured Space Marines into battles of the Horus Heresy, but a new Dreadnought pattern, the Deredeo released as a plastic kit.

A bit smaller than the Age of Darkness boxed set, this Battle Group makes a great starting point for a Horus Heresy project, if the Beakies / Mk VI Marines weren't your cup of tea. And if you ask me, some Legions just have to wear Mark III armour, like the Death Guard or Imperial Fists.

This Battle Group is a worthy successor of the Battleforces of older times, giving you 30 (!) Space Marines, a Dreadnought of Deredeo pattern and even a Land Raider Proteus. All of these are multi-part plastic kits, with quite a lot of options, no easy-to-build kits.

The sides of the box cover 7 different paint schemes, Dark Angels, Iron Warriors, Space Wolves, Word Bearers, Death Guard, Ultramarines and World Eaters.

The Mark III Power Armour sprue is included six times and covers 5 soldiers each. Along with three sets of the Horus Heresy Accessories Sprue, which is the same that was provided with the Mark VI Power Armour models. The models are fully compatible with existing MKVI plastic upgrade parts. We will cover these along with the Special Weapon Upgrades in an article of its own.

There is one sprue from the Special Weapons Upgrade Set included, compatible with the new Mark III poses.

The Deredeo Dreadnought in Anvilus Configuration is spread across four sprues in total, covering two different sets of weapons, the Anvilus autocannon battery or an armour-rending hellfire plasma cannonade. Along with the optional Aiolos Missile Launcher. The Dreadnought is available on its own or as part of the Battle Group. We will cover it in a review for himself.

With the Age of Darkness, Games Workshop released the bigger brother of the Land Raider, the Spartan, and in this boxed set, you find the Land Raider Proteus, that was built on here as well. I am currently sourcing the parts, to convert this tank into the armoured variant of the Proteus. Sprue 1 and 2 are shared with the Spartan, as are the accessories and sponson weapons, the difference comes from sprue 3, which covers the middle side sections.

And the Battlegroup covers two sets of decals, for Infantry as well as for the vehicles. These are recut from the Age of Darkness box and cover only the two poster-boy factions of the new Horus Heresy, the Imperial Fists and Sons of Horus. There is no generic iconography on those two designs.

Conclusion

The Legiones Astartes Battlegroup provides proper saving. To give you the breakdown:

Half a Special Weapons Upgrade Set (full set 37 EUR RRP - 18,5 EUR for the sprue), the Land Raider Proteus at 70 EUR, 30 Mk III  Armoured Marines (that's 1,5x the Tactical Squad at 60 EUR RRP) with 90 EUR and the Deredeo Dreadnought at 65 EUR, adds up to a sum of 243,50 EUR RRP, with a bundle price of 160 EUR that is quite the bargain.

And in my opinion, this is a very solid starting point for a 30k army project. Detailed reviews of the items will be provided shortly.

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

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.