Legions Imperialis – Legiones Astartes

After the unboxing of the core set we go into detail on the two factions of the first wave of Legions Imperialis. The Legiones Astartes and Solar Auxilia are part of the core set, and their infantry boxes are available right from the start with the initial wave, along with some heavier equipment for the motor pool.

This article covers the Legiones Astartes Infantry (incl. Contemptor Dreadnought) boxed set, and Predator and Sicaran tanks from the core set.

Each of these boxes come with two identical sprues and an instruction leaflet, at a RRP of 40 EUR / 30 GBP. We begin with the infantry of the Legiones Astartes, which is included with two sprues in the core set as well.

As you can see, two sprues, a ziplock bag of flat 25mm round bases and an instruction leaflet but no decals (those are included with the vehicle sets and in a reduced variant within the coreset). The total of 106 miniatures is spread across both sprues and in some cases you need the content of at least two sprues to build a unit (for example Terminators or Assault Marines).

Each sprue covers

• 20x Marines with Boltguns (4 base)
• 2x Sgt Marines
• 6x Terminators (incl. 1 Sgt, 1 base)
• 6x Assault Marines (incl. 1 Sgt, 1 base)
• 6x Support Legionaries with Missile Launchers (incl. 1 Sgt, 1 base)
• 5x Support Legionaries with Plasma Gun (1 base)
• 1x Command Squad of 5 (with Praetor, Banner bearer and 3 Veterans, 1 base)
• 1x Marine with Vexilla
• 2x Contemptor Dreadnoughts (1x Kheres Assault Cannon, 1x Twin-linked Lascannon, 2x CC, 2 bases)

This means per box and in the core set, you receive twice the amount listed above, and adds up to the 106 miniatures stated on the box. The reason why there are 6 Assault Marines or Terminators, is to give you the option to build them either as a regular additional squad or with an officer included. Same goes for the Tactical Legionaries. The support Legionaries currently only have options for Missile Launchers and Plasma Guns, this is not only llimited by the models, but the rules don't cover any other options for example like Heavy Bolters, Lascannons or Meltaguns either.

For comparison, from the late 90s Epic 40,000, the plastic Space Marine Battle Group (RRP of 20 DM per single sprue) covered 29 Space Marines with Bolt Guns, 8 Devastator Marines, 10 Assault Marines, 5 Terminators, 5 Scouts, 4 Bikes, a Space Marine Captain, a Company Banner, a Chaplain, a Librarian, an Apothecary and a Techmarine. 67 in total, just slightly more than 53 per sprue today.

Beside the Support Legionaries with Missile Launcher, all of the infantry models are single cast models. And due to the limitations of injection moulding (undercuts) the infantry models aren't as plastic, but due to their size and the way they are angled, most of this is aligned towards the base and won't be seen during game play.

The major difference towards the predecessors of the game, is that the models are placed ontop of the bases and aren't glued into insert. We had square bases of 5 in the initial game, later in Epic 40k it was long strips with inserts. To give you an idea of scale, here are the older miniatures, who are about 6mm in size.

And as I was lucky enough to have the 1991s and 1997s Space Marines in my miniature archive, I want to give you some comparison shots of the regular Legionaries, the Assault Marines, Support Legionaries / Devastators and Terminators.

The question about scale has been asked multiple times. It is difficult to put a proper scale to it, regarding of 1 to X scale or  X mm, as it is not 6mm, 1:300 or what ever. It is simply 25% of the current 40k scale. They don't mix well with old Epic scale, (especially as these changed scale quite often and weren't consistent regarding the size of infantry and vehicles towards eachother) and if you want to scratchbuild something, take the 40k measurements (which are somewhere between 28 to 32mm) and part them by four.

This means it is in scale with the Adeptus Titanicus or Aeronautica Imperialis range as well, as they are currently repacked with the new iconography.

Part of the infantry sprue are two Contemptor Dreadnoughts, of all the options they have, only the Kheres Assault Cannon and Twin-Linked Lascannon with a Dreadnought Close Combat weapon for the off-hand. This is not only limited in the sprue, but in the rules as well. As the Gravis Autocannon, Bolt Cannon, Melta Cannon, Plasma Cannon and Volkite dual-culverin are not included / covered.

This limitation is actually something, that will not only go across the army list entries (we will cover this further below) but on the models as well.

The Predator tank is not part of the first wave releases, but the core set. You get half a box, a single sprue, with three Predator tanks in there. A later release will cover a box of 6 for 40 EURs.

The unit size starts at 3 models and can be upgraded to a total of 9. You can either build them with a Predator Cannon or Lascanon in the turret and sponsons with either las cannon or heavy bolters. Note that in Legions Imperialis you can have mixed equiped units, so of the three Predators, you can vary their options to your liking.

From the sprue you build three Rhino Chassis with holders for the sponsons. There are no options so far, the front plates are identical.

You can't magnetise the sponsons, but I guess you can keep the WYSIWYG to a moderate level. As for the turrets, this is interesting, they included 6 for the 3 chassis per sprue, so you can build some with predator cannons and lascannons.

As for the optional parts, you can build the command hatches either closed and they even included tank commanders wearing Mk II armour with pintle mounted weapons, and a hedge row cutter.

This means the volkite macro-saker and graviton cannon are missing as options for the turrets, as are the heavy flamers or volkite culverins from the sponson weapons and that is just talking about the Battle Tank. All the options for the support tank are missing.

But let's move on towards the next tank, the Sicaran. Similar to the Predator it is not part of the first wave releases, and currently only available through the core set. Just like the the Predator, it includes a a single sprue, of two tanks. A later release will cover a box of 4 for 40 EURs. The unit size starts at 2 models and can be upgraded to a total of 6.

This sprue is awefully light. There was room for more options, and even if it just another tank commander. The options are limited to either a twin linked accelerator autocannon or Omega plasma array (with a new design) for the turret, and sponson with the same options as the Predator, heavy bolters and las cannons. This means for the sponsons we are missing the heavy flamers and volkite culverins, and for the turrets the Arcus missile launcher, Punisher rotary cannon or Venator variant. Again, both in the sprue and in the rules.

Just like with the Predators, you get two sets of turrets, so you can build both the autocannon and plasma arrays. The later are re-arranged, as the old design has the weapons upwards and now in epic scale sidewards. Again there are options for the cupolas, where you can add tank commanders if you want to.

And a scale comparison of the tanks included in the core set. Along with showcase pictures of the tanks.

Regarding army building, the core rules give you for the Legiones Astartes four formations as an option, Legion Demi-Company, Legion Garrison Force, Legion Armoured Company and Legion Aerial Assault. Of these only one can be properly built with the provided miniatures. You can build a Legion Demi-Company:

HQ - Legion Command - 25 Points
Support - Dreadnought Talon (4) - 70 Points
Core - Legion Tactical Detachment (4) - 35 Points
- Legion Terminator (2) - 15 Points
- Missile Hvy Launcher (2) - 15 Points
Core - Legion Tactical Detachment (4) - 35 Points
- Assault Marines (2) - 12 Points
- Plasma Tactical Support (2) - 15 Points

The problem is with this, that you can only add one Battle Tank selection, and both the Predator Squadron (3) at 115 Points and the Sicaran (2) at 105 Points count against those. For a lot of the detachments like Vanguard, Light Armour or Artillery are currently no rules included. If you put a blind eye towards the Battle Tank bottleneck, you end up with a total points value of 442 Points. That's a lot less than the Solar Auxilia is provided with. As Allied Contingents are limited to 30% of the total value, the Warhound at 330 Points each are to expensive to be used alongside the Demi-Company.

Update: Games Workshop provided a special formation from within the Quick Starter (which is not part of the Core set but a free download from Warhammer Community) which is called Legion Astranii Class Augmented Spearhead and gives you the option to field the Astartes Content of the core set "legally". Beyond that, you could grab a box of Kratos and go for a Demi-Company and Armoured Company.

As mentioned above, the army list from the initial hardcover rulebook is somewhat limited compared to what we got with the full scale 30k books. Included in the first wave rules are:
Legion Command, Rhinos as an Transport option, Tactical Squads, Support Squads with either Plasma or Missile Launcher, Terminators with Stormbolter + Power Fists, Assault Marines, Rapier Batteries, Leviathan Siege Dreadnoughts,
Contemptor Dreadnoughts, Tarantula Batteries, Deredeo Dreadnoughts, Predator Tanks (Cannon, Lascannon), Sicaran (Omega, Punisher) and Kratos Heavy Tanks. In some cases the full known weapons options are missing. Most of the Aeronautica options are included, which means Xiphon Interceptor, Fire Raptor, Storm Eagle and Thunderhawk, have rules.

This means that quite a long list of army options for the Astartes are missing, and some of them, like the Land Raiders or Drop Pods feel rather basic and are very noticeably excluded. We are still waiting for:
Close Combat Terminators, Destroyer Squads, Breacher Squad, Recon Squad, Scout Squad, Drop Pods, Dreadnought Drop Pods, Termite, Seeker, Outrider, Sabre Tanks, Sky-Hunter, Javelins, Land Speeder, Dreadclaw Drop Pod, Predator (Flamestorm Cannon, Plasma, Hvy Conversion, Magna-Melta, Graviton, Volkie, Neutron Blaster), Sicaran Arcus, Sicaran Venator, Land Raider, Vindicator, Land Raider Spartan, Scorpius, Arquitors, Deathstorm Drop Pod, Kharybdis Assault Claw, Cerberus, Typhon, Glaive, Fellblade, Falchion, Sokar Stormbird and Mastodon.

Conclusion
Tough one. The limited army list options are quite a bummer and the points per EUR could become an issue for this game. The about 450 Points of the Astartes in this box have a retail of 80 EURs. With 3,000 Points set for standard game, you would need at least 6 times the Astartes part of this boxed set to reach that. If we take the Blood Angels and Death Guard from last months White Dwarf battle report for orientation, due to the limited access to Terminators, that veteran unit itself would require me to buy the Infantry box 6x (!) times, to field a the two units of 12 bases in total. The armies shown ended up in regions of 800 to 900 EURs each - and that's full plastic, no Forge Resin upgrades. This feels quite expensive.

But to put that into perspective. The Legiones Astartes Infantry with two sprues is 40 EUR RRP, the single sprue box Space Marine Battle Group in 1997 was 20 DM, which would translate into 15,84 EUR of todays money (so roughly 32 EUR for the complete box). And with a lot of the options only available in metal, three predators were 23 DM in 1997 - 18,22 EUR for the sprue. That is not far off the 20 EUR RRP we talk about today. To sum it up, it didn't become expensive, it was from the first place. It is just a lot bigger invest compared to Adeptus Titanicus, where the starter sets already give you better starting point.

It is going to be interesting to see how this range develops. Especially as the Mk VI infantry armour won't be everybodies cup of tea, and of course to see how legion specific upgrades will be included in the game down the line, as well as the lots and lots of options for the Astartes that are still missing and even with those announced to be part of the next wave (mostly assault units), I imagine that we will have the army lists split across multiple books. I can live with that for campaigns, missions etc., but find it rather annoying to have my army list spread across multiple books.

There are basic rules for the various Astartes Legions included in the core rulebook and after choosing your allegiance (Traitor/Loyal) you can choose freely for your individual detachments. So having a Sons of Horus Demi-Company with an Iron Warrior Garrison Force and Death Guard Armoured Company wouldn't be a problem. Or recreating the Siege of Terra allies of Imperial Fists, White Scars and Blood Angels.

The miniature design itself is magnificient. Well fitting models, with lots of detail. Cleaning up some of the smaller parts can be tricky. So this is not something you want to do as a first contact with wargaming and maybe get a jewelry apron when handling the Legions Imperialis kits.

The Horus Heresy and Legions Imperialis are brands by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.