Legions Imperialis – Solar Auxilia Support

The Solar Auxilia Support adds various Bastion detachments to the army, and is the second non-vehicle box after the Solar Auxilia Infantry kit.

This is your typical side-game boxed set, with two identical sprues and a price band of 40 EURs / 30 GBP RRP. In case of the Solar Auxilia Support you receive 40 miniatures / 28 bases (as Games Workshop counts the crew member individually) for your army.

Each set comes with the mid-size sprues, a ziplock with the Legions Imperialis round bases in 25mm and the black-and-white instructions. We don't get decals with the infantry, only with the vehicles.

In addition to the assembly instruction the leaflet covers the rules for the Cyclops Battery, which are also included in the supplement The Great Slaughter.

The sprue is a bit less packed than the Astartes support kit, yet holds a lot of miniatures and detail. Casting is crisp, mould lines are less of an issue here.

Each sprue covers

• 6x Auxilia Rapier Batteries (two with Quad Launcher, two with Laser Destroyer Array and two with Mole Mortar)
• 6x Auxilia Tarantula (three with Lascannon Battery, three with Hyperios Air-Defence Missile Launcher)
• 2x Auxilia Cyclops

You receive twice the amount of this per box, but you are limited to these options. There are no spare parts on this kit. All rules for these units, with the exception of the Cyclops which are covered in the supplement as well as in the instructions, are included in the core rulebook of Legions Imperialis.

Let us begin with the Auxilia Rapier Batteries, you get a total of 12 of these in the box, split into three different weapon systems of four each. One crew member is sitting on the battery, and there are two different sculpts for the second crew men of each gun, which adds a bit of variety to this set. Nice little detail.

These were quickly build and easy to assemble. These options cover all the rules currently available for Solar Auxilia Rapier batteries in Legions Imperialis, in Horus Heresy they have Heavy Bolter, Multi-Laser and Graviton Cannons as well.

The Rapier Batteries have a width of about 11,5 mm.

Next up the Tarantulas. While other weapon variants do exist in full scale, the Solar Auxilia only has access to the Lascannon Battery or Hyperios Air-Defence Missile Launcher both in regular Horus Heresy and Legions Imperialis. These are quickly build, you have the plattform and multi-part turrets. Better fit than for the Legiones Astartes without bent barrels.

The design is a bit different and they are more compact, being "only" 21,6 mm, compared to their Astartes counter part.

And the tiniest addition to the army is the Cyclops, a remote control demolition charge. Three pieces, quickly build and you get a total of four identical models. These are quite small with a width of just under 8mm.

These different models can be build from this kit and are included multiple times. The picture shows less than what's in a single sprue, so don't let that fool you.

But how many points does this boxed set provide?

Bastion - 4x Auxilia Rapier with Quad Launcher - ~60 pts*
Bastion - 4x Auxilia Rapier with Laser Destroyer Array - ~60 pts*
Bastion - 4x Auxilia Rapier with Mole Mortar - ~60 pts*
Support - 4x Auxilia Cyclops - 80 pts
Bastion - 6x Auxilia Tarantula Lascannon - 51 pts
Bastion - 6x Auxilia Tarantula Hyperios Air-Defence Missile Launcher - 51 pts

That's 362 points in total. Quite the load, yet, we had to middle some point values, in this case because of the rapier batteries, which are units of 3, 6 or 9 (as such we took 66% of the point value of the detachment of 6 to break down the points).

Conclusion

In direkt comparison with the Astartes Support box, this is better value. Not only do you get more points, about 35% more, but you pay less per base (1,42 EUR compared to 2,50 EUR with the Astartes). And on top of that, the casting quality was better. We had less mould lines and the assembly was a much more pleasant experience. In total, I would say this set is a decent offer, you get a proper base for your Solar Auxilia Pioneer Company and I really liked that you have different designed crew members for the Rapier Batteries.

In direct comparison with the full scale range, we have covered already a majority of what the Solar Auxilia has do offer and are noly missing a few vehicles, and those novelties that will be released with the new Solar Auxilia in plastic for Horus Heresy (like the Sentinel variants).

This being said, we're just missing the individual releases of the Malcadors and Leman Russ to really start this game for the Solar Auxilia.

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

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.