Legions Imperialis – Legiones Astartes Support

One of the four boxes that goes on pre-order today is the Legiones Astartes Support, covering Dreadnoughts and guns for the Legiones Astartes to support your Astartes Infantry from the initial release.

As usual these kits comes with two identical sprues and have a price band of 40 EURs / 30 GBP RRP, giving you a total of 16 bases with miniatures split into various units / detachments (the statement of 24 miniatures in this box counts the crew men as individual miniatures adding 8 more models to the 16 bases).

Beside the sprues, we have a ziplock with the Legions Imperialis round bases in 25mm and the black-and-white instructions. No decals for this kit.

The sprue is properly filled with little unused space. Yet, casting isn't as crisp as we know it from the vehicle kits. Some round shapes are a bit off and mould lines were an issue with this set, which is due to the small scale a bit of a bigger problem than usual.

Each sprue covers

• 2x Leviathan Dreadnoughts (one with Cyclone Melta Lance and one with Leviathan Storm Cannon)
• 2x Deredeo Dreadnoughts (Anvilus Autocannon Battery and one Hellfire Plasma Cannonade)
• 2x Legion Rapiers (one with Laser Destroyer and one with Quad Launcher)
• 2x Legion Tarantula (one Lascannon and one Hyperios Air-Defence Missile Launcher)

You receive twice the amount of this per box, yet you're limited to the options. There are no spare parts. You can swap the close combat options on the Leviathan Dreadnoughts but beyond that, you have to build them, like they come. All rules for these units are included in the core rulebook of Legions Imperialis and you don't need the new supplement The Great Slaughter to put them to use.

Let us start building the content. This is the Leviathan Siege Dreadnought, you get four in total in this box, with two sets of different weapons, Melta Lance and Storm Cannon for ranged attacks and Siege Drill and Siege Claw for close combat.

The Leviathan has a high number of parts for a kit this size. Each leg for example consists out of 3 individual pieces and removing the mould lines without damaging detail was an issue. One of the barrles of the Storm Cannon was slightly broken in the sprue already. And Aligning the feet flat on the floor takes a bit, as the hip joints are a bit "blurry".

The model is 21mm high, which should be 25% of the full scale model. We will look into this, once we cover the Leviathan Siege Dreadnought from the Horus Heresy range.

The next Dreadnought is the Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought, which marks the third options for Dreadnoughts in Legions Imperialis after the Contemptor from the Astartes Infantry kit, and Leviathan from above.

You get four of these per box as well, and with two different sets of weapons, the Anvilus Autocannon Battery twice, as well as the Hellfire Plasma Cannonade twice. All of them have the Aiolos Missile launcher, which is not optional, but can be turned. This is pretty much the layout you get in the Horus Heresy full scale model. Maybe we will see the Heavy Lascannons and Volkite Falconet Battery later. Due to the way this model is cut, we would have options to replace the Aiolos Missile Launcher, as a shoulder mounted weapon system with the Boreas Air Defence Missiles or the Atomantic Pavaise, if those would be available later.

Assembly was better and quicker than with the Leviathan. Yet, putting the feet properly on the floor wasn't the case right from the start.

Without the shoulder mounted weapon the Deredo is 17,5mm high, including it reaches 22mm.

A quick size comparison along the three Dreadnoughts, from Contemptor over Deredeo to Leviathan.

Among the siege guns, you get two options for the Rapier Batteries, Laser Destroyer Array and Quad Launcher. Four bases in total, two of each. The guns come for themself and have two crew each. These single marines suffer from the same undercut problems of the regular infantry. So depending on the angle the models don't look their best. The two layouts are all the options you have rule-wise in Legions Imperialis. In Horus Heresy you have two further weapon systems, a Quad Heavy Bolter and a Graviton Cannon.

The rapier battery is 10mm wide. The crew is the same size as the infantry, just the back packs for the sensors are higher.

And the last option from this kit are the Tarantula Batteries. Just like the Rapiers, four bases in total, with two different weapons - Tarantula lascannon battery and Hyperios air-defence missile launcher, two of each. These come without crew and are just sitting on a weapon platform. Quickly build. Unfortunately a bit of bent weaponry, the lascannons were a bit off, due to the way these were placed in the sprue.

These are all the options currently available for Legions Imperialis (rule wise), but in full scale you have more options, for example twin heavy bolters, Hyperios Air Defense Command or multimelta. The weapon platform has a width of roughly 24mm.

And this is the yield from a single sprue, you get twice that from a box.

But how much points do you get from this:

Support - 4x Leviathan Siege Dreadnought - 75 pts
Support - 4x Rapier - 70 pts
Bastion - 4x Deredeo Dreadnought - 85 pts
Bastion - 4x Tarantula - 36 pts

A total of 266 points, with four legal detachments. You can add these just as they come to your Legiones Astartes army / formations. For comparison the Legiones Astartes Infantry boxed set provides you with 222 points.

Conclusion

At 40 EUR RRP you're at 2,50 EUR per base / miniature. That's not cheap and much more than the ~1,80 EUR per base from the Infantry set. With "just" 266 points it might not feel as that much bang for your buck, but it is among the best value you can get for the 40 EUR boxes for Space Marines.

I have to say, the assembly of the Leviathan wasn't that pleasant. Far too many little pieces for a model, the legs themself being made from three pieces is quite fiddly work. I have to say, I was a bit disappointed, as the vehicle kits from from Titanicus, Aeronautica and Imperialis have been stellar so far and building the walkers on this wasn't the same building experience nor joy. I am not sure if it was the casting quality, as the mould lines were much more present than with other sprues I've build from Citadel in the last time, but that didn't add to a better result.

While you get a broad variety from this set, I think it is a bit sad, that there are no options or spare pieces. You can't build all four Dreadnought of each pattern in the same weapon load out and that would have been nice. And having a small decal sheet, to add something to the walkers and sides of the rapiers would have been nice as well.

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

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.