Legions Imperialis – Mustering the Solar Auxilia

We showed you how the army building in Legions Imperialis works with the example of an Astartes army. And we want to pick up the idea and build and extend the other half of the starter kit, the Solar Auxilia.

The four steps are the same:

• Declare Allegiance
• Choose Primary Army List
• Assemble Compulsory Formations
• Complete the Army

With just one exemption, there are no Legion specific rules for Solar Auxilia (yet?). The first thing we have to decide, do we want a traitor or loyalist Solar Auxilia? It is a bit of pity, that the amount of lore that is accessible on the Solar Auxilia is rather thin, and partially not very deep. I would recommend looking into these two books:

The Liber Imperium from the 2nd edition of Horus Heresy, covering the various Imperial Armies during the conflict (incl. Custodes, Sisters of Silence) and Book 4 - Conquest from the first edition of Horus Heresy, covering Horus' campaign in the northern Imperium after his victory at the Isstvan System, and giving you insights on the Solar Auxilia and Knight Households. I have prepared a few pictures from the various sources in this article.

Beyond that for further inspiration on painting the vehicles, the two Imperial Armour Model Masterclass books, Volume One and Volume Two, are a great ressource.

On the back of the boxes are some painted samples of Solar Auxilia. As there are currently only two boxes outside of the starter set available (this limits our option during the list building a bit, but that's a topic for further below), we got the army schemes of the Bormanite Devils and Cthonian Headhunters. The first in dark green create a whopping 8 (!) search results on Google, the others are known traitors and supporters of the Warmaster and fought along a few different Traitor Astartes Legions.

The decal sheet however, provides a bit more variation. There are currently two different availabe, the one from the vehicle kit (first picture) and a combined one from the core set (second picture). They cover eight different Cohorts of the Solar Auxilia:

• Arkadian Janissaries
• Cthonian Headhunters
• Manachean Bulls
• Saturnyne Rams
• Lord Marshal's Own
• Ash Scorpions
• Bormanite Devils
• The Deathless

It is pretty neat, that the core set decal sheet even covers full infantry banners. How ever far to few and there are non in the regular Infantry boxes.

A few of the cohorts mentioned above have a bit of lore from the Conquest Book and Liber Imperium, providing you with information on the vehicle markings, the banners and how to paint the uniforms of your Solar Auxilia. Please note, as you can see, these are not just limited to the solar system and there are a few, directly connected to the Legions Astartes. For example the Calth High Guard, was a Solar Auxilia cohort fighting with the Ultramarines, or just noted without any pictures the 789th "Ice Bears" Solar Auxilia Cohort from the Imperial Fists homeplanet of Inwit.

You find a bit on the Agathon Cohort, Lord Marshal's Own, who are covered with decals of a spartan helmet. And a picture of the full scale models, showing them with a Malcador tank. These look very similar to the Bormanite Devils. They are loyalists.

Another loyalist cohort, and with a bit more lore, due them being part of the Conquest book, is the Manachean Commonwealth / Manachean Bulls, covered by the decals of a Bulls head.

The 905th Solar Auxilia Cohort, the Ash Scorpions. Another loyalist cohort and basically everything we know about them, is what is written beneath the feet of the regular soldier. They have vehicle decals, and I could see them as a very heavily weathered army.

And then there are the Cthonian Headhunters, a Traitor Solar Auxilia from Cthonia (there are however loyalist forces of the Solar Auxilia from Cthonia), but this is one of the most covered cohorts and probably the poster boys for the Legions Imperialis release. As written further above, they fought in support of the Warmaster, but not only alongside the Sons of Horus, but with the Word Bearers (as pictured in the second image), World Eaters, Iron Wariors and Thousand Sons as well.

So let us answer the first question - Allegiance. As we went Loyalist with the Astartes, the Imperial Fists, we want to go Traitors with our antagonists. As mentioned in one of my project logs, I initially wanted to do Imperial Fists vs. Sons of Horus, but I think with the availability of the Solar Auxilia and the lore on the Cthonian Headhunters, this provides me with the option to not have a mirror match and still have the Sons of Horus, among others Astartes, as an allied contingent.

I already have the problem now that a lot of people will have that combination (and I decided on that quite a while ago, prior to the release, this happened a few times to myself, for example with the Black Templars in the 3rd edition). Now, if I want to have a Traitor Auxilia and didn't want to do Cthonians, what would be my options? Well, there are a few, they are just light on the lore. You could for example choose the Prosperine Spireguard (from the Thousand Sons Homeworld Prospero, defended the planet against the Space Wolves attack) to be a Solar Auxilia, instead of "just" an Imperial Army regiment. Or build an Lycaen Solar Auxilia, as traitor forces rebelling against the Raven Guard on Deliverance. Or the Geno-Five Two Chiliad from Legion in support of the Alpha Legion, the Archite Palatines in support of the Emperors Children in the Isstvan System, but beyond that going for the home worlds or neighboring planets of traitors and using them as a starting point, is a good idea. I'll give it a try in an article of its own.

The next question, about the Primary Army List is quickly answered. We're going for Solar Auxilia, which means we have to use at least 70% of our points on them, and upto 30% on allies / strategic assets.

Now for the Assembly of Compulsory Formations

Each army muss include a minimum of one formation per full 1.500 points. As we chose Solar Auxilia we now have the choice between these from the core rulebook. Further formations are likely to be added in upcoming supplements:

• Solar Auxilia Sub-Cohort
• Solar Auxilia Armoured Company
• Solar Auxilia Pioneer Company

As you might notice, the Solar Auxilia doesn't have an aerial assault formation, like the Astartes do. But we have access to at least one air support slot per formation. As we're going for roughly 2.000 points, similar to the Legiones Astartes, we will set up two formations. Why 2k points? Well there is no reason to go the recommended 3.000 points at this point. A lot of options haven't been released, we are still missing some profiles and I want to avoid filling up on units that I won't be using down the road. We will certain extend this collection over the upcoming, but for now with two core sets, an infantry boxed set and the baneblade squadron, along with some Aeronautica and Titanicus units, we're going for roughly 2.000 points to begin with.

I want to put the majority of the infantry with a Solar Auxilia Sub-Cohort to use, where we have to place the compulsory elements of one HQ, one Support and two Lasrifle Detachments (the last one is a bit surprising, as I was expecting the generic phrasing of "core"). The Armoured Company needs two Battle Tank detachments and one Heavy Armour detachment, just like with the Astartes.

Solar Auxilia Sub-Cohort, 575 Pts
Compulsory:
HQ - Legate Commander Detachment (1) - 16 Pts
Support - Auxilia Ogryn Charonite Section (8) - 80 Pts
Core - Auxilia Lasrifle Tercio (8) - 54 Pts
- Additional Auxiliaries (4) with Flamers - 24 Pts
Core - Auxilia Lasrifle Tercio (8) - 54 Pts
- Additional Auxiliaries (4) with Flamers - 24 Pts

Optional:
Core - Auxilia Lasrifle Tercio (8) - 54 Pts
- Additional Auxiliaries (4) with Flamers - 24 Pts
Support - Auxilia Veletaris Storm Section (8) - 60 Pts
Vanguard - Auxilia Aethon Heavy Sentinel Patrol (8) - 100 Pts
Air Support - Auxilia Marauder Bomber Squadron (1) - 85 Pts

Solar Auxilia Armoured Company, 990 Pts
Compulsory:
Battle Tank - Leman Russ Strike Squadron (8) - 335 Pts
Battle Tank - Malcador Tank Squadron (4) - 295 Pts
Heavy Armour - Auxilia Super-Heavy Tank Squadron (2) - 190 Pts

Optional:
HQ - Tank Commander (1) - 10 Pts
Air Support - Auxilia Thunderbolt Squadron (2) - 160 Pts

Both formations would add up to 1.565 points and make use of a few things from my Aeronautica collection. I am waiting for the release of the support boxed set, as that would provide me with the units for a Pioneer section. But other than that, we will now add the final additions to this list.

Complete the Army

This means, we can make use of Allies and Strategic Assets. You don't need to do this. the ~1.500 points would be fine for first games, and I could add either Astartes, Knights or Titans at this point. The point limit is around 2.000 points, which means I could use up to around ~450 points for this segment, still leaving me comfortably within the 30% Allies budget. As I already have strategic assets of the Collegio Titanica with my Astartes, it would be interesting use the (Dark) Mechanicum, and go for some Knights.

Knight Household Lance, 455 Points
Compulsory:
Knight: Ceratsus Knight Banner (2), 415 Pts
- Atropos Upgrade - 40 Pts

We have 1.565 points for the main army of the Solar Auxilia, spent 455 Points on Knights, which is less than the 30% treshhold (I could legally spend another 215 points on allies - for example add a third regular Cerastus knight. a second Knight Household or simply an Armiger Talon). Yet the combination brings me to 2.020, just above what I was aiming for and only 7 points shy of my Astartes list.

I am looking forward to further options for this, as I want to make this rather tank heavy, so variants of the Malcadors, tank hunters, and of course armoured transports as the Arvus isn't a proper option, is going to be interesting. Beyond that, I intend to add a Garrison Force of Sons of Horus, around the Siege of Cthonia, adding Justaerin Terminators, Dreadnoughts and other heavy equipment to it. And depending on what the upcoming supplements provide, I can see adding other Astartes, like Word Bearers or World Eaters to the mix (a formation at max), to provide some variation in painting.