Legions Imperialis – Building an Army

We have talked a lot about Legions Imperialis in the last days, did reviews, articles analyzing the new and old content, but now it is time to muster an army. Beginning with the Legiones Astartes.

How does this work in Legions Imperialis? This is a four step process for Army Selection and we're going to this as for my upcoming army project.

Declare Allegiance
A lot of people go for traitors in the Horus Heresy. I have two forces in mind, Imperial Fists and Sons of Horus, but I moved the Sons of Horus towards an allied contingent for a Traitor Solar Auxilia of the Cthonian Headhunders, so we're going with the Imperial Fists, who are well known loyalists, Fidelitas Totalis, to be precisely. This means we are Loyalists.

Artwork by Adrian Smith (1990) and again Adrian Smith (2004)

Choose Primary Army List
Currently you can only pick from Legiones Astartes and Solar Auxilia. In the future further forces will be available, for example the Mechanicum or Custodes. These will be part of other supplements.

A player must spend at least 70% of the points available on the primary army list. In our case that will be Legiones Astartes, Space Marines.

Assemble Compulsory Formations
Each army muss include a minimum of one formation per full 1.500 points. As we chose Legiones Astartes in the last step we have as of now the choice between these four:

• Legion Demi-Company
• Legion Garrison Force
• Legion Armoured Company
• Legion Aerial Assault

For Legiones Astartes there is another, additional step, the Legiones Astartes Special Rules. You don't choose these for the entire army but for every Legiones Astartes formation individually. You are not exclusive to only go for either loyalists or traitors, you could for example go with Ultramarines and add a formation of (loyalist) Iron Warriors, who would represent the forces of Barabas Dantioch. The Imperial Fists have Disciplined Fire, where various models when issued with the First Fire Order, gain the Accurate trait. Ultramarines have their Interlocking Tactics, where they may re-roll 1s when firing under certain circumstances, or Thousand Sons' Kine Shield, where every commander receives the Shield Generator special rule. And while there are many, quite potent army rules, I always go for rule of cool instead of effectiveness on the table.

With the content of two core sets and items from the first wave I am going for around 2,000 points. A bit less than the 3k points that were communicated as regular game size. But as we're still missing a lot of options, I don't think it is a good idea to fill up the 3k with the limited current options. Therefore we go for a smaller size and add options from the upcoming releases for further growth. In our case we want to play a Demi-Company and an Armoured Company. The formation consist out of detachments (units) of which some are compulsory, and others are optional, partially limited to one of multiple options. With most detachments the points are fixed, never the less the weapons you give the, only the upgrades for additional bases / units change the point costs. Tactical Detachments of the Space Marines for example can be upgraded with special or heavy weapon squads, and even assault squads or terminators. I'll try to build a list around the two core sets and first wave items I have, along with the things that I have access to from the Aeronautica and Titanicus range.

For a Demi-Company we have the compulsory elements of one HQ, one Support and two Core Detachments. The Armoured Company needs two Battle Tank detachments and one Heavy Armour detachment.

Demi-Company - 767 Pts
Compulsory:
HQ - Legion Command (1) incl. Rhino Transport - 35 Pts
Support - Terminator Detachment (6) - 65 Pts
Core - Tactical Detachment (8) incl. Rhino Transport - 99 Pts
- Assault Marines (4) - 24 Pts
Core - Tactical Detachment (8) incl. Rhino Transport - 99 Pts

Optional:
Core - Tactical Detachment (4) - 35 Pts
Plasma Tactical Support Legionaries (8) - 60 Pts
Support - Dreadnought Talon (8) - 130 Pts
Support - Missile Launcher Heavy Support Detachment (8) - 70 Pts
Air Support - Thunderhawk Gunship (1) - 150 Pts

Armoured Company - 845 Pts
Compulsory:
Battle Tank - Predator (6) - 210 Pts
Battle Tank - Sicaran (4) - 175 Pts
Heavy Armour - Kratos (4) - 260 Pts

Optional:
Air Support - Fire Raptor (2) - 200 Pts

This would provide me with 1.612 points and would integrate a few things from my Aeronautica collection. But there is more, and that is something we take care of in step 4.

Complete the Army

Now it would be time to complete the army and make use of Allies and Strategic Assets. I don't have to go for either, with ~1.600 points I could add almost 700 points for allies, which could provide a cheap infantry formation of the Solar Auxilia and a smaller to mid-tier Titan. As my goal was around 2.000 points, I would look into the strategic assets of the Collegio Titanica. I do have quite a bit as an option from my Legio Astraman.

Legion Support - 415 Pts
Compulsory:
Titan - Reaver Battle Titan (1) 415 Pts

With 1.612 for the main army, I would have 690 points left for allies, of which I already spent 415 points on a titan. This would leave me with 275 points for a Solar Auxilia detachment, where I even could setup a Pioneer Company

This would bring me in total to 2.027 pts. Not bad for the beginning, especially as we're pretty close to the content of the first wave and I am pretty hyped about the release. As the core rulebook is a bit light on armies and the overall look and feel of the heresy, I strongly recommend looking into the old and new books of the Horus Heresy. I for example re-visted the Loyalist book Liber Astartes for some ideas on the Imperial Fists.

In the long run, I want to have a few larger tactical detachments, ideally breachers and are beyond waiting for the release of the Support units, giving me access to more Dreadnoughts (Leviathan and Deredeo). And I'm really looking forward to any siege kind of units, like the Vindicators and of course Spartans and Land Raiders. But as everything will be added, new formations, new detachments etc. I don't want to fill up too much on points yet. But I'd love to have a proper army list around the Defense of Terra, picking up some of the Rites of War themes, like Stone Gauntlet or Hammerfall Strike Force, including Phalanx Wardens, Breachers etc.

But there is still some time until that, which means the focus is on building and painting the initial 2.000 points.