Hey everyone, Reecius back with part 2 of our review of Legacies! This time, the Traitors are up. Check out the Tactics Section for more great reviews!
The rules for these Chaos vehicle upgrades are located in IA Vol 13. As with loyalists, Legacies of Ruin can only be taken on 1 vehicle per full 1,000pts. You can have more than one on a single vehicle, but only one of each in any army. Vehicles with Daemonic Possession or that are Daemon Engines cannot take the Legacies of Ruin. Points costs are listed in a X/Y format with the first cost being for normal vehicles, the second being for super heavies.
Lastly, as always, feel free to disagree with my opinions as to the value of these upgrades. If you see a cool use for any of them that I may have missed, let us know in the comments section!
The Good
Maelstrom Rider: Fear and Outflank for 25/50pts. Wow! Now we’re talking! A Land Raider or Super Heavy coming in on a flank full of nasty assault units is pretty brutal. Fear is whatever, may come in handy, so hey, why not? This is a really powerful upgrade on the right vehicle. It also boosts some of the very cool Chaos walkers as getting them across the table can be a real challenge.
Death of Kasyr Lutien: Possibly the best of the bunch, this is an extremely powerful upgrade at a ridiculously low points cost: 15/25pts. The vehicle bearing it gains Fear (yawn), but also gains the ability to allow friendly psykers within 12″ of the vehicle to reroll failed Malefic Daemonology psychic dice! Wowzers! One D6 per remaining hull point may be rerolled (but as always, no reroll rerolls). If the test is still failed, the vehicle suffers a penetrating hit. This is bananas for Daemon Summoning armies that can stick a number of psykers near the vehicle with this legacy and just pump out new units. Obviously if you are facing this combo, consider destroying this vehicle ASAP if at all possible.
Fourth Quadrant Rebellion: 15/30pts, Chaos Cultists within 12″ gain Fearless. Nice! If the vehicle goes down to a single HP, gains a 4++. This is a really solid upgrade for a vehicle that will be hanging out near Cultists (obviously) as their morale is one of their greatest weaknesses. The 4++ towards the end of its lifespan is a nice little bonus and should keep it going for at least a little longer.
Scourge of the Greenskin: 25pts for a non-super heavy vehicle, the vehicle moves an extra D6″ when tank shocking, and gains preferred enemy (Orks). This is way too expensive for a marginal improvement to tank shocking and an occasional bonus vs. Orks.
Screams of Lugganath: 25/30pts, if the vehicle is attacked by Eldar, it gains Fear(wee!), but the real money is it increases the range of a Dirge Caster to 12″! That is baller. It’s pricey but the Dirge Caster is incredible (stops over watch) and increasing the radius to 12″ makes a huge difference. A vehicle equipped with this upgrade in the right position can shut down any defense against assault, allowing your army to get in there and mix it up. Against an army like Tau particularly, this is great.
Perdus Rift Anomaly: This is an absolutely unbelievably good upgrade for a mere 20/40pts. Holy smokes, so long as the vehicle is deployed at the beginning of the game, it allows the army with it to reroll the seize attempt or force the opponent to reroll their seize attempt. WOW. Anyone that has played with or against Coteaz knows how good this is. And for extra gravy, it gives the vehicle with it, preferred enemy (Tau). Absolutely amazing.
1st War of Amrageddon: 20/40pts, ifDaemons of Khorne within6″ of the vehicle gain +1 to their invul save to a maximum of 2+. Damn, son. In conjunction with invul save buffing psychic powers or the Grimpoire, this is just incredibly good. It’s only shortcoming is its short range, but still, for th epoints, this is fantastic. Oh, and the vehicle gains Fear when attacked by Astra Militarum.
The Bad
War within the Eye: Vehicle gains Adamantium Will and Preferred Enemy (Chaos Space marines) for 20/40pts. A walker gains the same as above but Hatred instead of Preferred Enemy, also for CSMs at the same cost. Not nearly good enough for the points investment, IMO.
Siege of Vraks: 15/20pts, ignores dangerous terrain damage on a 4+, reroll misses against targets in defense lines. Not terrible to avoid getting immobilized, decent against specific targets but in generla over-priced for general use and hyper specialized.
Boiling Brass: 15/20pts, Daemonic Possession, the vehicle with it gains Fear, and Friendly units within 12″ with the icon of Wrath count as having inflicted an additional +D3 wounds for determining the winner of an assault. No thanks.
Shyak the Seeker: 15/20pts, Daemonic Possession, the vehicle gains Fear, enemy units within 12″ that also have an Icon of Excess roll an additional D6 and discard the lowest result when taking tests that use their leadership characteristic. Terrible unless you play against Slaneesh players with Icons a lot…
The Ugly
Veteran of the Scouring: This relic grants a vehicle IWND and Preferred Enemy (Space Marines) at a hefty price point: 45/90. For a Walker it is ITWND and Hatred (Space Marines) at 40/80pts. It’s not bad, those are some solid upgrades, it’s just very expensive. Too expensive to be in the good category, IMO.
Blood of Mackan: 30/40pts, the vehicle gains Preferred Enemy (Blood Angels), does not take dangerous terrain due to Barricades and Defense Lines, and it’s Destroyer Blades (if it has them) gains an AP value equal to its remaining hull points. Meh, it’s OK, not great, not bad, and it can do some work by running fools over, but certainly nothing to get too excited about.
Badab Uprising: 20/30pts, vehicle gains Preferred Enemy (Space Marines). That is pretty meh for general use, but, if you play in a local meta with lots of Marines, it obviously becomes pretty awesome. Still, quite pricey. Conversely, you could give it to a non-super heavy walker, and it gains Rage and Hatred (Chaos Space Marines) which is not bad, but again, not great.
Last of the Forge: 20pts for any vehicle with a transport capacity: ignores the effects of crew stunned or shaken on a 4+., gains preferred enemy (Tyranids), and any unit it transports gains hatred (Tyranids). Again, not bad at all, but, not great, either. The bonuses to ignoring damage effects can be fantastic when it works, and if you play Nids a lot, this is solid. Otherwise it is probably a pass.
Dhornurgh the Reborn: 10/15, Daemonic Possession, vehicle gets Fear, friendly units within 6″ with an Icon of Despair gain Rending and gets Hot! in melee. Meh, can be good on occasion and the upgrade is cheap, but, it is really narrow in application. However, when a unit of CSMs take down a Wraithknight, it’ll be pretty cool. Still, very limited in application.
Tzenahk the Occluder: 10/20pts, Daemonic Possession, vehicle gains Fear, and at the beginning of the game a vehicle on a D6 roll of a 1, the vehicle gives up an additional VP if destroyed, on a 2+ the controlling player gains an additional D3 VP if the vehicle survives. This is a weird one. It can win you the game (depending on the missions you play) or lose you the game. For a low points investment and if you play in missions where this can be a big swing in points, it’s amazing, but comes with a risk. I would say this is certainly one to take a look at, but largely will depend on how you score missions.
Primordial Iterator: 40/80pts, Daemonic Possession, vehicle gains Fear, Pinning, all friendly units with an Icon of Wrath within 12″ gain Fear and Feel no Pain. Not bad upgrades if you have units that can take advantage of it as FnP can be awesome to buff some units, and Pinning shooting is solid. However, the upgrade is quite expensive and situational in use for that large investment.
So there we are! Which Legacy of Ruin do you use in your force?